Peer Effect

After all that we’ve been through in 2022… and are still carrying from previous years — right now, you just want to make it to the end of the year.

But how can this be transformed into a strong mindset? One that’s calm and ready?

Let’s discuss in this week’s podcast.

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Today I wanted to do a quick session on something that has come up for a few of my clients recently. It's about the danger of rushing. 

There's so much chat around hustle culture and it feels like we're getting sucked into the short term immediate timeframe, which actually becomes quite dangerous. I'll address the antidote in this episode. 

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How do you deal with waking up each morning not knowing if it’s going to be the best week of your life or the worst? When you’re raising money this uncertainty can stretch out for months and it takes a toll. Especially in the current macro conditions!

In this episode, you’ll meet Varun Bhanot, the founder of MAGIC, as we revisit April when he was in the middle of a raise and not knowing if the company he had spent 10 years getting ready to build was going to cross the chasm.

MAGIC is an intelligent home gym that helps users to get fit with an AI personal trainer. Their first product is being launched right now backed by VCs and celebrity trainers.

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Why would you need a business coach when everything is going great and you’re totally happy with where you are?

In this episode you’ll meet an entrepreneur who is ten years into what she thought would be a scrappy little business. But it’s not so little anymore and she’s found herself in a place where dealing with all the growth is becoming a worry!

How do you grow and stay true to your mission? These are the ideas we’ll explore in this session.

Sybil Ackerman-Munson is the founder of Do Your Good, which offers online courses, podcasts, and resources to help you make a difference with your donations to charities and to worthy causes.

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Today we’re peering into the interpersonal side of running a company and managing a team. My guest today found herself in a moment where she and a key contributor left an interaction both feeling attacked, undermined, and shaken.

That ONE interaction had longtail consequences which included alienating the team, creating a toxic work culture and feelings of perceived spite.

My guest today is Jessica Ko and she has been agonizing over this since it happened five years ago. Listen on to find out how she turned this “liability” into a an advantage and is becoming a better manager and person as a result.

Jessica is the founder of Playbook.com, which is building the next-gen creative cloud storage.

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Imagine being under so much pressure that you burst into tears in front of a stranger. I think for most people, that would qualify as one of the most memorable moments in their life. But for founders, that level of pressure can be sustained for months at a time—and even years.

So how does one cope? In this episode I’m talking to a founder who is searching for inner peace while she navigates supply chain crises, finding a lead investor, raising three children and remaining present in the moment.

Shea Gerhardt is the founder of Buderflys, earbuds that use form-flexing material that responds to your body heat, so it actually gets more comfortable the longer you wear them. And getting rave reviews from customers (and investors!)

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Last week we talked to a founder who had sold his company and was looking into the abyss of the next phase of his life and career. Today, we’re talking to a founder who is at an even earlier inflection point, one where he faces this question: To sell or not to sell?

Indus Khaitan built an enterprise product that had big name customers and healthy revenue. It seems like a time in a company’s lifecycle that the founder should be sleeping well at night. But that wasn’t the case for Indus. The possible paths included taking on more funding, moving down market and hire a sales team, or taking a $50,000,000 payday from Oracle and walking away.

In this episode, we revisit the days and weeks Indus weighed his options and the ultimate outcome of his decision.

Indus Khaitan is currently the founder of Quolum, the best way to pay, manage and optimize your SaaS spend.

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Selling your company. It’s an outcome that can be considered the closest thing to the finish line for an entrepreneur. So why is it memoirs aren’t written about the amazing vacations founders take post-exit? Or movies made about a mid-life retirement and endless days on a beach in Thailand?

Because to a founder, that sounds awful. In this episode, I talk to Joe Keeley about the emotional and practical inventory taking a founder goes through after making the decision to sell his or her company. And the battery of questions that all point to figuring out this: What’s next? And even who am I?

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When Joe Burns and his co-founder attended a Growth Accelerator Program, they were asked one question by their coach which changed the course of their business and their partnership.

"What revenue number do you want in three years?"

If you haven't asked yourself or your co-founder that question, you will want to after you hear Joe's story. In this episode, we go back to that moment Joe and his partner realized they were on two very different paths and the steps they took to find alignment. 

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Today I'm talking about imposter syndrome and Idiots Mountain--a topic which came up at dinner with friends this week.

In 1999,  David Dunning and Justin Kruger came up with a Dunning Kruger Effect based on the realization that high competence individuals often underestimated their ability. In this episode, I'll teach you how to use this phenomenon to get the most out of where you are in your journey. 

More from James:

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