🎙 Inventive Journey | Real Stories From the Startup Survival Club

Take a deep breath, sit back, and think about your brand. Think about your product. Are you communicating the way you think you are communicating? You may be thinking you are doing everything a hundred percent. Or even if you are a start-up, and you are trying to figure things out. Take that same deep breath, think about your business. Think about your brand. Are you communicating or, have you created a message that resonates? If you are not sure or, even if you are sure. Or maybe it's a refreshing opportunity, sit back and say how do I get that brand to resonate? Am I doing the right job? If you think on those lines, then contact your great marketing person you work with whatever that might be the case and go through a branding exercise to recheck and reformulate.

Try to get something out as quickly as possible, even if you don't focus on getting the right pricing right out of the race; that's fine. What you want with an idea is you want to understand. are people going to pay for it? And are you solving a real problem? It's very hard for people to project themselves with something that you say. Try to give them something tangible. I would say get it out as quickly as possible.

Really research your market and craft because a lot of times I think we see someone that is successful and, we want that success. But we don't do our due diligence to research. Can I really do this? One of the things I really love to ask people is, would you do it if you had to do it for free? A lot of times people don't realize when you're an entrepreneur the money does not immediately come. Then it's feast or famine a lot of times. Sometimes you are really making money, and sometimes your not.

Follow the structure of things because you do need the systems and processes and everything else. But don't be afraid to go in your own direction with things. I actually saw someone who posted on an entrepreneur board of I am just too nice; how do I learn to be that bolder, stronger, meaner type of boss or employee? The first thing and, no one ever responded when I commented this but, I said you don't have to. You can be super nice. When I have somebody who screws up, I might be upset, and I step back and let that happen. But then, the next day, I am going to make sure that that employee is ok because they are probably beating themselves up. You don't have to be that corporate mindset, I guess.

It's finding a balance between confidence and humility. You need supreme confidence in your idea and your unique ability to make this idea a reality whether is a product or service or whatever. At the same time, you need humility to know not only what you don't know. I knew I am not good at marketing and sales. I need to also recognize there is other stuff I don't even know I don't know having the humility to bring that on but balancing when I bring in a third party to get advice balancing that with confidence that I have this great idea and I am moving it forward. So I think there is that apparent tension between confidence and humility, but, striking that balance seems really important to be able to move things forward and keeping in the direction that you envisioned.

Don't be a control freak and give up control earlier. Not give up control as in I have seen people who go: oh, I am going to employ somebody who is an expert and just let them do it, no, that is not what I mean. I mean, any entrepreneur starting a business does everything. We stand at the front of the copier and make the copies. We make the coffee, etc. We tend to do all of that. The key to being successful is doing what you do best which generally is entrepreneurs generating business.

What the research shows is that diversity of start-up teams is super important. Start-up teams with a single member with hyperactive-impulsive ADHD outperform. Start-up teams with two members with hyperactive-impulsive ADHD tend to suffer, and they don't perform so well. You probably have examples in your own experience where you see that dynamic play out. So if you are on a team like that, it's really important to realize that yes, even though I am the founder and CEO, you are very influential super important. If you are working with teammates who also have ADHD that you are going to need to address that and come to some sort of place where you can navigate it and manage it effectively. Because it could cause serious problems or it could prevent you from reaching all of your goals.

Being open to wearing many hats and being creative and not thinking of it. It's a very different mindset. Working for a larger company, even coming from GM, honestly moved too slow for me. I loved what we were doing but, it probably would have taken five years to do what we're going to accomplish in one year. I think you have to be ready for that coming to a start-up. Even if you have come from a big company or even smaller companies, just be open to change. Chaos happens; it's normal but, be pragmatic too. You don't feel so much pain. It's not intentional pain being in a start-up but, I think you also have to be comfortable with things changing week by week. You have to overcome that concern.

Make sure you are scratching an itch that you are actually interested in and not just chasing something. It's really competitive out there. It's hard enough to start a business, so try and find a place where you are going to provide some sort of unique value.

Obsess over your customers in ways that you really understand their job to be done. And here I reference the Clayton Christensen model of; what are people actually looking to hire somebody or something for?