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The Founder’s Journey With Steven Blohm
“I kept writing the fact that something good will come out of this, even though it was an incredibly difficult decision.”
In this episode, Nick speaks with Steven Blohm, who worked hard on passionately building his own business in 2020. Running into challenge after challenge, placing strain on his marriage, and working his life away, the business wasn’t coming together, and it wasn’t moving forward. It was really hard for Steven to make the decision to shut the business down, especially when he had been investing so much of his time and passion into it. Like anything else in life, when one door closes, another door opens.
About Steven Blohm
Steven is a husband and father of 2. He’s the founder of Moali and is the Office Operations & Business Development Leader at Cyncly.
Steven learned a lot, both applicable to business and life, and about himself along his journey of starting up his own business, which failed. With failure comes great success, though.
Resources:
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Click Here To View The Episode Transcript
00:00:08:08 – 00:00:27:17
Nick McGowan
Hello and welcome to The Mindset and Self-mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. And on this show, my guests and I unpack the stories that shape us, the lives that we lead on our path to self-mastery. So let’s not wait any longer. Let the games begin.
00:00:32:01 – 00:00:34:17
Nick McGowan
Hey, Steven. Welcome to the show, man. How you doing? Good.
00:00:34:20 – 00:00:35:20
Steven Blohm
Good, good. Thanks for having me.
00:00:36:02 – 00:00:56:16
Nick McGowan
Yeah, absolutely, man. I’m excited that you’re here. It’s funny because when I first started the show, I had a lot of close friends, you know, like warm contacts that were on the show. And now, over the course of the past eight, nine months or so, I’ve had a lot of people that were unknowns. So I get to have these initial conversations with them basically right here live on the spot going through this.
00:00:57:12 – 00:01:17:11
Nick McGowan
And you’re kind of one of my first friends that I’ve actually had on in a little while. So it’s sort of familiar because you’re a buddy and we get to talk shit, you know? And then it’s also us being able to actually talk about some of the shit that we talk about in some of our offline conversations. And I’m really excited to be able to get into this and dude, I’m stoked that you’re here.
00:01:17:11 – 00:01:24:21
Nick McGowan
So, Steven, why don’t you. Why don’t you kick us off? Tell us what you do for a living. And what’s one thing that most people don’t know about you that’s maybe odd or bizarre?
00:01:25:15 – 00:01:55:01
Steven Blohm
So, yeah. Yeah, I appreciate you having me. So I am an enterprise and account business development manager for a software company and the Office Furniture industry. It’s kind of a blend of my passions of office furniture and technology. So it’s a it’s a beautiful thing, and I absolutely love it. So one thing that I would say when I talk with people that don’t know me and I’m introducing myself is I love to paint.
00:01:55:02 – 00:02:13:15
Steven Blohm
I love all things art. I can sit in a dark room and just score, really just all things art. I mean, I am pretty passionate about about the creative process and what you can do with your mind and get something on canvas.
00:02:14:02 – 00:02:38:03
Nick McGowan
Yeah, I know we both we grew up kind of as art kids and that’s an interesting perspective to then bring into the business world because that’s how we met was through business and partnership with companies and all that stuff. And yeah, it’s funny because I think of the meetings that we have, like when we’re out at tradeshows or meeting with prospects or even clients like wouldn’t just normally come up like, oh, by the way, he’s a painter.
00:02:38:11 – 00:02:43:10
Nick McGowan
Did you guys know that? Like, it wouldn’t just even randomly come up, but most of the meetings, you know.
00:02:43:19 – 00:03:02:12
Steven Blohm
Yeah. Doesn’t. So that’s why I sometimes have a hard time kind of articulating that just because it always surprises people. So I’m like, What else do I need to say while they’re looking at me with this crazy face? So this kind of, like, somewhat athletic dude likes to paint, you know, it kind of just goes against what people think when they look at me.
00:03:02:12 – 00:03:26:03
Steven Blohm
And what would I do for a profession. But I’ve always found, ever since I started painting when really I started taking a serious in high school, it was an amazing just way for me to take all the craziness that was going on in life anxiety, you know, girlfriends breaking up with me or whatever the case is and put that to some good use, right?
00:03:26:03 – 00:03:31:14
Steven Blohm
And make something beautiful out of something that had might have been dark. Right. So I love doing it.
00:03:32:03 – 00:03:35:23
Nick McGowan
Were you one of those kids in high school that would steal off to the art room as often as you could?
00:03:37:05 – 00:03:50:03
Steven Blohm
So funny that you ask that. I went to a high school that was a college prep and I was an art major, so I never had to sneak off to the art room. I was in the art room 6 hours a day.
00:03:50:19 – 00:04:05:20
Nick McGowan
Man. Wow. I, I wanted to be in the art room 6 hours a day, but didn’t go to a college prep school. I think I was in college prep classes, but, you know, junior year they were like, we get, you know, art school or music school where you won’t make any money. I was like, Well, I guess college ain’t for me.
00:04:06:06 – 00:04:24:19
Steven Blohm
Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was pretty it was a great experience because it was a it was a public school. So it’s not like you had to pay to go, but you had to test to get in. And I tested into that school kind of district system when I was in middle school. So I was lucky enough to to be able to get into that high school.
00:04:25:08 – 00:04:49:18
Nick McGowan
That’s pretty cool. Isn’t it interesting how when we talk to people that don’t really have that creative kind of mindset, the way that they build their process through creating a piece. Yeah, it can be hard sometimes to explain to them, like what we do when you think of what we do, you know, 3D wise and technology wise, it’s sometimes I think pretty easy for us to be able to tie the two to it.
00:04:49:23 – 00:04:53:23
Nick McGowan
But how do you how do you think of that with the creative and with what you talk about.
00:04:55:12 – 00:05:20:07
Steven Blohm
When when it comes to creative and just business and how I just look at approaching situations and everything like that. Yeah. Yeah. So I would, I would say it’s kind of an individual individualized process to like you as a person. But I think if I look at this as I can, kind of across the board, I would say creatives like to be alone while they try to process that information.
00:05:20:19 – 00:05:44:02
Steven Blohm
Instead of trying to have a ton of meetings. Right. So if let’s say I have a problem that’s coming my way, I am one person that really likes to listen, get all the information that I possibly can, instead of just start diving in and attacking questions. I want to really understand what the issue is before I start kind of trying to throw paint at the wall.
00:05:44:16 – 00:06:03:01
Steven Blohm
Right. There’s a lot of pieces kind of going back to the art side of things that I’ve done and I haven’t really thought about what this piece might mean to me. And it comes out horrible. But if I sit with this piece, sit with this blank canvas, maybe for an hour, and I’m like, okay, I’m going to start the brushstroke there, and now it’s going to change, right?
00:06:03:01 – 00:06:24:14
Steven Blohm
Like just like with any solution in business, it’s never going to be exactly what you started and how you end. But if I don’t really think about how I want that next brushstroke to go or how I want to spray with my spray paint, like it’s sloppy. And that’s the same thing with when it comes to business and solutions, you really want to attack it, you know, really methodically.
00:06:25:01 – 00:06:32:00
Steven Blohm
And I think that’s kind of how my creative process is. And a lot of creatives that I know really like to like sit by themselves and think about how they’re going to tack it.
00:06:32:16 – 00:06:55:01
Nick McGowan
Yeah, it’s interesting. As you say, as you say that I kind of picture you sitting there and just staring at this blank canvas and being like, where do I start with this thing? But understanding that you want to figure out what your intention is. I think there are some people that stop that thought from letting them do anything like it doesn’t allow them to act because they’re too busy thinking about things.
00:06:56:01 – 00:06:57:15
Nick McGowan
Do you ever find that you’re kind of in this?
00:06:58:12 – 00:07:18:11
Steven Blohm
Yeah, a lot of times I would get overwhelmed and then you just and then you just shut down. So if that’s the case, sometimes I will just start creating. I will just start, you know, if it becomes if kind of go in between art and business, I’ll start just throwing stuff at the canvas or I will just start writing ideas.
00:07:18:11 – 00:07:39:04
Steven Blohm
Even though they might be horrible. You know, some of the greatest founders will say they’ve, you know, have a notebook and they write down 10,000 ideas and that one idea sticks. So it’s it’s not always just that perfect of me sitting there looking at the solution or canvas, and then there’s something beautiful comes that’s just like an ideal state that I would like to be in.
00:07:39:15 – 00:07:52:04
Steven Blohm
But there are thousands of times I get overwhelmed with anxiety of I want it to be beautiful, and then I am just kind of crumbling. So you have to figure out how you come out of that crumble, though.
00:07:52:14 – 00:08:06:12
Nick McGowan
Yeah, yeah. Well, let’s talk pre crumble and then we’ll get post crumble. So what do you what do you do in those moments when you feel like I’m getting overwhelmed or I can start to feel it welling up? What do you do to to to divert that?
00:08:07:08 – 00:08:35:20
Steven Blohm
A lot of times I’ll go to music, I’ll go to podcast, I’ll go to readings that I have kind of seeked comfort in, you know, like Ryan Holladay is an author who writes about stoic principles. And a lot of time I’ll just pick up and read a chapter, his book or I will watch one of my favorite YouTube creators or listen to a podcast.
00:08:36:19 – 00:08:57:17
Steven Blohm
That’s it brings me comfort because I’ve read it, I’ve listened to it, I’ve watched it a few times and it helps me take my mind off of it. So it’s nothing that’s mind breaking, but it’s very simple that just kind of takes away that anxiety of, I need to create or solve this problem right away. It’s like, okay, me, just let me just take a little break, take a breather, write it.
00:08:57:18 – 00:09:02:04
Steven Blohm
Because it’s as simple as meditating. It’s kind of like meditating.
00:09:03:01 – 00:09:12:08
Nick McGowan
Yeah, it’s it’s just like what they teach us in art to, like, if you’re just beating on a product or a project, rather, you’ve got to step away and come back with fresh eyes.
00:09:13:08 – 00:09:14:04
Steven Blohm
Yeah, exactly.
00:09:14:15 – 00:09:31:19
Nick McGowan
So when you go to those things, do you start to feel yourself, get to the point where you’re like, all right, I got to do something really right now? Or Do you feel it kind of setting earlier in the process instead of just kind of being like, Oh shit, I’m completely and fuck, what am I going to do?
00:09:31:19 – 00:09:47:07
Nick McGowan
Mode. Like, How do you feel that welling up to make that shift? Because if, if you’re in a tight spot in a meeting or having a conversation or you have to do all these things, it’s probably not the easiest to just deal off for a couple of minutes and listen to a podcast or watch a YouTube video or something.
00:09:47:19 – 00:10:21:13
Steven Blohm
Yeah, it’s not. So again, that’s kind of situational. You know, if you’re sitting in a in a boardroom, which I’ve been in many times or you’re sitting in a meeting and you have people that are counting on you, what I have found truth is the only thing that’ll set you free. Right? I know that’s kind of an old saying and it’s kind of cliche, but if you’re feeling overwhelmed and you don’t understand or you can’t present the solution or answer that might be needed of you at that time, just reach out to the group and say, We need to circle back to this.
00:10:21:13 – 00:10:38:23
Steven Blohm
We need to come back to this at a later time. So that isn’t maybe always going to work. But I have found that when I try to bullshit my way through an answer, when I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed, it it takes me into a deeper hole. So I am normally just honest with the people that I’m around.
00:10:39:14 – 00:11:03:09
Nick McGowan
That’s a that’s a huge lesson. I know. That’s something that we don’t really you and I probably didn’t really learn that until our thirties, you know, being like, I’m going to fuck and keep doing this. I’m going to keep going and I’ll maybe try to figure something out. But you’re totally right, man. That’s a that’s a super power to be able to say, you know what, I’m not entirely sure, but I’ll go find out or, you know, take that next step.
00:11:04:16 – 00:11:29:13
Steven Blohm
Yeah, there was one time in particular, I would say I learned this lesson the hardest way possible. Yeah, I, I was presenting to some investors of mine from my previous life when I was building a company, I was giving them an update and we were not anywhere close to where we should have been at that particular time, to where I promise we should, where we should have been.
00:11:30:09 – 00:11:49:18
Steven Blohm
I got on the call open the PowerPoint, started presenting this bullshit of where we were. I got to slide, I believe it was slide three and I put my head down and I couldn’t I physically could not talk because I know that I wasn’t I knew that I was still not telling truth and they could see through me.
00:11:50:16 – 00:12:05:18
Steven Blohm
And at that moment, I kind of said I would never do that again. Right. So like, if I’m feeling overwhelmed or if we’re not there, just you have to tell the truth. You like people will see through your bullshit all the time, no matter what.
00:12:06:09 – 00:12:13:04
Nick McGowan
Yeah. Did you feel in that moment like you let yourself down, or was it more of a letting down to them or what was going through your head?
00:12:14:17 – 00:12:37:03
Steven Blohm
So at that moment, I definitely felt obviously that I felt like I put I’m very competitive and I put a lot of pressure on myself. So I did feel that I let you know I failed myself. But when you have other people’s money and you have investors that are counting on you, yes, they know the risk. But that doesn’t make it any easier when you’re not achieving milestones that need to be met.
00:12:37:16 – 00:12:50:16
Steven Blohm
And when we were really, you know, racing to get a product to market, it all boiled up at that one time and yeah, I just really felt like everybody I was letting everybody down at that moment, to be honest.
00:12:51:06 – 00:13:19:02
Nick McGowan
Yeah, man, that can be one of those breaking moments. You know, they’re stories of entrepreneurs that don’t recover from something like that, you know that. I know that was basically maybe not the start, but that was part of the the thing closing the door closing on that. And some people don’t know how to come back from that, be it a relationship that ends a business venture that ends or, you know, losing a job or something like that.
00:13:19:02 – 00:13:26:08
Nick McGowan
So let’s actually dig into that a little bit. You want to give us some background with the company and kind of a bit of an overview so we can dig in.
00:13:27:21 – 00:14:02:01
Steven Blohm
Yeah, yeah. So pre-COVID, I had this idea of trying to bring affordable On-Demand child care to the market. I brought on a co-founder who is a really good friend of mine, incredible marketing genius, when he was he was a director at Amazon. That’s beside the point. Sorry. So we had this idea. So we worked on this idea for a little while but realized there were a lot of holes in this particular idea about affordable child care just because there were a lot of security issues and that sort of thing.
00:14:02:01 – 00:14:33:08
Steven Blohm
So we sort we switched focus and we started this on demand learning platform. We wanted to be able to connect anybody in the world if that had something to share. And we started that. We made that change in January of 2020. As we know, March 2020 hit everything shut down. So from January to March, nothing substantial happened during that time.
00:14:33:08 – 00:14:56:20
Steven Blohm
It was us really trying to refocus as co-founders and how were we going to get additional investment and move forward with this. But when this happened, we were like, oh, great. Like this could really this could really help are, you know, idea at the time it wasn’t necessarily a company really really excel. So at that point we really doubled down.
00:14:56:22 – 00:15:22:07
Steven Blohm
We went out and we raised a pretty substantial amount of money. I was I was pretty proud. We didn’t raise a ton of friends and family. I did have a few close friends that ended up, you know, trusting us and investing with us. But at first, my goal was to never accept any friends and family one, because my parents are parents that would say, hey, go fuck yourself.
00:15:22:07 – 00:15:35:15
Steven Blohm
It’s my money very lovingly, but it’s yeah, we’re not going to give you any money. So we went down that road and we brought on another technical co-founder after that time and just and continue down the startup path.
00:15:35:23 – 00:15:37:08
Nick McGowan
So as you continue down that.
00:15:37:23 – 00:16:09:15
Steven Blohm
Path, so yeah, so we, we, we knew that the idea based off of how many investors that we, that we had was, was valid. And once we started doing market research testing, we were getting some kind of beta users and a very, very rough version of what we were going to bring to market. It was gaining some traction and at that time we had people asking us to invest their money without us asking have to invest.
00:16:09:16 – 00:16:39:17
Steven Blohm
So all these kind of things were kind of coming, coming into play which, which was great towards the end of 2020 is when everything kind of started to turn our technical co-founder left at left. At the end of 2020, we scrambled to find new development partners, which we were able to do so. But that was kind of the turning point where we were really pushing a boulder uphill at that time.
00:16:40:23 – 00:17:02:16
Nick McGowan
Yeah, and that’s that’s tough. That’s kind of it’s a tough hill to climb. No, I’m trying to get away from the pun there. But like it is, no matter what you’re doing, no matter what business it is, and there are a lot of people who listen to this show that have either currently have a side hustle or they’re full time in their business or they want to do something.
00:17:03:04 – 00:17:10:14
Nick McGowan
There’s always that fear, no matter what that fuck. What if it just doesn’t work? How do I come back from that? You know.
00:17:11:15 – 00:17:31:18
Steven Blohm
I didn’t I didn’t have that in my head for the longest time. And, well, let me back up. One reason I didn’t want friends and family is because I had maybe a nugget of that. Yeah, but I knew what we were building. Could be used by hundreds of thousands. I was helping millions of people, so I didn’t really let that enter my mind.
00:17:31:18 – 00:18:02:19
Steven Blohm
Even when our technical co-founder left, I knew we had such a good relationship with our investors. We were able to find another development team that was able to help us. That was absolutely amazing. I might have been not kind of looking at the writing on the wall at the time, but I was determined that we were going to continue to make this work because we we saw what the market was asking for and it wasn’t quite fulfilled and we knew what we were bringing could fulfill that gap.
00:18:03:09 – 00:18:16:20
Steven Blohm
So I really tried to not let that kind of negativity enter, even though it was very hard. You know, it was incredibly hard when we fell on our face at the end of 2020 and we had to eat that.
00:18:17:15 – 00:18:35:20
Nick McGowan
Yeah, it’s it’s a thing that’s there no matter what, as you pointed out, like that nugget, you know, I wouldn’t ever suggest that anybody start the business thinking like, well, fuck, this thing ain’t gonna work. There’s no reason to do anything like that. In fact, if you have no belief, then nothing’s going to happen with it. At least positive.
00:18:35:20 – 00:19:01:00
Nick McGowan
Nothing’s positive going to happen with it. But in that case, of being able to keep fighting that good fight, that’s kind of one of those balanced areas where you’ve got to know at some point when you let the damn thing die and you got to be okay with that. And that’s a difficult pill for anybody to swallow because for the most part, a lot of people put everything they can into what they’re doing, especially as an entrepreneur.
00:19:01:07 – 00:19:17:17
Nick McGowan
That’s part of what’s in our genes to just give it everything we’ve got. So how did you not set your character within all of that and still be able to separate yourself from it without saying, you know, this was who I was and now I have nothing left?
00:19:19:18 – 00:19:45:20
Steven Blohm
Oh, well, that’s a very loaded question because I think when you put your entire self into something, it’s very hard to separate that when it comes to that time and to make sure while you’re still in the moment, to remember that there’s other things that are going outside of this entrepreneurship startup, right? I am a most first and foremost.
00:19:45:20 – 00:20:10:08
Steven Blohm
I am a husband and a father of two. And I can tell you that building a company put the most strain on my relationships and marriage that I have ever experienced and definitely brought to the lowest point. But I was so wrapped up that that company was it was going to it was going to make me a better person.
00:20:10:08 – 00:20:33:16
Steven Blohm
If we were successful, it was going to make me a better father and a better husband. So I can I can relate to. And that that I was not able to separate it very well, especially during the time of while I was building. And I would say as we were making the decision to come to an end, it was very hard to separate that.
00:20:33:16 – 00:20:54:18
Nick McGowan
How did I want to be able to have a take away from the audience that goes through this? You know, I know there are certain people that I can think of that actively listen to the show that I know that they’ve gone through it. And if they think back through the process of what they’ve done, it may look similar to how you and I have done those things by me getting out of my own company, divorce, all that.
00:20:54:23 – 00:21:12:06
Nick McGowan
And same with you getting out of yours. But if somebody is walking down that path or that’s in the back of their mind, how do I get out of this thing that I built? What sort of steps would you, you know, lovingly walk them through, but at the same time hold them accountable with it?
00:21:12:06 – 00:21:38:11
Steven Blohm
Yeah. You have to rely on the people that are around you and you have to trust that you like it. They’re not going to let you completely fall like you have to hold yourself self accountable that whatever you built might not have worked. And it’s you have to make that tough decision. But like life will not end. And that’s really what I had to keep telling myself is, you know, I have two beautiful kids.
00:21:38:11 – 00:21:59:06
Steven Blohm
I have a beautiful wife that has supported me this whole time. I need to make sure that I’m doing the best for the people around me and maybe shutting this down is that decision. So I know it’s if if you know, somebody is going through that and they’re listening and they’re really struggling with that, is that is now the time?
00:21:59:11 – 00:22:22:12
Steven Blohm
I mean, maybe next month I might get there if you’re having to really, you know, hope that the next move is going to get you there, then you need to have a realistic conversation with yourself and say, maybe now’s the time because we’ve all been there. And that next move never got us there. And I really had to make sure that I was checking myself and checking my ego.
00:22:22:12 – 00:22:34:01
Steven Blohm
So at the end of the day, it was it was definitely the best move. But I you know, bringing this back to your question, I had to trust the people around me and I had to actually listen to them and their needs.
00:22:35:12 – 00:22:51:12
Nick McGowan
And it’s like looking through different glasses at that point instead of the ones that you’re staring through the entire day. As you look at your business, it’s looking at something different, but with their specific questions that you started to ask internally, as those things were kind of becoming aware to you.
00:22:54:19 – 00:23:21:14
Steven Blohm
In relation to just the company itself, you’re like, How can I come to this? Yeah. So I did ask myself, first and foremost, am I being the best father that I possibly could be during this process? And I was trying to tell myself, yes, but I was not not being not that I was being neglectful or anything like that.
00:23:21:14 – 00:23:43:18
Steven Blohm
It was just I wasn’t present. So I was when I was playing with my kids or I was helping them with homework, I was thinking about, you know, my start up and that was the first. That was the first and probably last question I asked. But there are so many more questions I could have asked, right? Am I doing the best by my investors?
00:23:43:18 – 00:24:05:08
Steven Blohm
Am I holding up the fiduciary, you know, responsibility right now? Am I promising the market something that’s actually never going to come? So there’s a lot of other questions that, you know, they were surface levels that I was running through. But when it came down to what really sealed the deal for me is knowing that I was not being a present father.
00:24:05:16 – 00:24:09:11
Steven Blohm
And how was that having a negative impact on my kids?
00:24:10:11 – 00:24:33:09
Nick McGowan
Yeah, it’s it’s cool that you said that it was basically the one question and that your intuition brought up that question to be able to ask the most important fucking question, because I’m sure when you ask that and you say it out loud or at least in your head, and you, you ingest what you had just said and that answer comes to you, it probably came to you like a punch to the gut, like, duh, no.
00:24:34:08 – 00:24:57:16
Steven Blohm
Yeah, there’s a there was a few more waterworks when I was answering that question to myself and when I was, you know, talking with my talking with my wife about it because, you know, she I’m I’m luckily married to an incredibly strong woman who is not scared to say what’s on her mind, which I absolutely love, and said, you need to check yourself.
00:24:57:16 – 00:25:25:08
Steven Blohm
Right. You are. You’re not there. Something has to change. Right. And having a partner that can hold you accountable while being there every step of the way to believe in you is it was was an incredible blessing. So it was it was awesome. And kind of what I was saying about listening to your people, right? Like if I if I rejected that statement and said, I believe in myself, I feel like I’ve been at this for two years and it’s still in the same place.
00:25:25:20 – 00:25:34:03
Steven Blohm
And I like what does that saying to me as a person and not respecting somebody around me, you know, so that that that was a huge impact to me.
00:25:34:13 – 00:25:39:20
Nick McGowan
Yeah. At that point you’re basically just like, no, no, no, fuck you, woman. I and my ego.
00:25:39:20 – 00:25:53:00
Steven Blohm
We’re going to do all things. Yeah, which we, you know, we all have ego problems. And again, like, like those old sayings or old sayings for a reason, you know, check your ego at the door, and it’s it’s so true.
00:25:53:08 – 00:26:14:23
Nick McGowan
Yeah, yeah. But so difficult to do. Like you’re you’re building this so that you and your family can have a brighter future. You can have all these wonderful things that you’ve dreamt of and you pictured in your mind, and then they’re not coming to fruition and you have to shift and do something different. I know that can fuck with your head.
00:26:15:08 – 00:26:31:14
Nick McGowan
So let’s talk about when you got you’re like, all right, I’m closing this down and now I have to shift back into what’s next, you know, be it starting another company or jumping into a project with some company. But that’s a different shift that you go through. So walk us through how how you did that.
00:26:32:21 – 00:26:56:14
Steven Blohm
Yeah, the shift was the shift was pretty difficult. I got really lucky and I hate to sound cliche, but stars kind of aligned as as I was closing down my company to land me to where I am now. And I do want to say that it sounds really difficult and I know there’s been a lot of like, man, I was in a low spot.
00:26:56:14 – 00:27:20:17
Steven Blohm
I was in a low spot, but I wouldn’t trade anything about my past or my startup for anything like I would not be where I am at the moment with the organization that I am if it wasn’t for my startup. And I don’t come from, you know, a family of entrepreneurs or really a family that believes in entrepreneurship.
00:27:21:05 – 00:27:43:04
Steven Blohm
So being able to have a napkin sketch, take that to somebody and say, Hey, this is never going to work. And then being able to actually raise funding, build a team, have amazing people around me, co-founders, meet all these amazing people, have the experiences. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. So with that said, I did ride those positives as all this negative was happening.
00:27:43:15 – 00:28:07:19
Steven Blohm
I was, you know, telling myself all this was for something like, I didn’t just go through these two and a half years of at the end, you know, it was hell to not end up in a better spot because, yes, I did want to I did want to build something. And I didn’t really have a plan, this grand gesture of wanting to give my family this, you know, crazy, extravagant life.
00:28:07:19 – 00:28:33:09
Steven Blohm
Yes, I wanted to build a comfortable life, but I did want to have an impact in my communities. So that’s one thing that was really hard on me, is not being able to achieve that goal. But I really wrote those positives because if you go down that rabbit hole, it’s really hard to get out. And there were a lot of low points for me when we decided to shut down this December of 2021.
00:28:34:04 – 00:28:42:14
Steven Blohm
But I kept writing the fact that something good will come out of this, even though it was an incredibly difficult, difficult decision.
00:28:43:19 – 00:29:04:10
Nick McGowan
I love that you you kind of wrapped that up a bit. Like that’s a huge takeaway for anybody that goes through at a very simple bit, any sort of pain or any sort of length of time of some project that you’re working through that’s going to end. Sometimes things just fucking end. Sometimes things end because something else has to begin.
00:29:05:02 – 00:29:24:03
Nick McGowan
And we don’t know that until you actually do the damn thing. That sometimes takes a lot out of us to be able to get to that point. So I appreciate that you were writing that positive, at least looking at that and being aware that, you know the fuck. I don’t know exactly how this thing’s going to end or what’s going to happen next, but at least I know that there’s a purpose to it.
00:29:24:11 – 00:29:55:07
Nick McGowan
That’s huge. That’s even like resting on hope. So for everybody, it’s listening. Whatever you’re going through, whatever craziness, the job, the relationships, whatever the fuck it is, there is hope. But you got to believe that there’s hope. Like Steve, I know you believe that there was hope. You were like, there’s got to be something to it. Now, do you feel like that was something that came from how you were raised, or is that just like a deep inner feeling or you just felt like, I just know no matter what happens, I’m going to be all right?
00:29:55:07 – 00:30:20:22
Steven Blohm
I don’t think it was because how I was raised, I would say maybe, maybe the latter. The the the deep inner feeling. But going back to being a father and husband, I just couldn’t I couldn’t roll over and give up even though I wanted to. So having hope that something better will come after this, something will come from this.
00:30:21:01 – 00:30:41:06
Steven Blohm
I will be in a better spot. And six months I had to ride that because if you give up, you give up on some people around you, even though there’s sometimes you just might want to. I mean, there’s still there’s still days. I’ll be walking in the grocery store and it’ll hit me in my gut that I was starting a company and I failed.
00:30:41:09 – 00:30:59:03
Steven Blohm
My investors and some of my investors were incredibly close friends and even though that water is under the bridge and everything is fine, it still haunts me. So you have you have to have hope that the next day will be better.
00:31:00:04 – 00:31:18:02
Nick McGowan
Absolutely. Man, I. I always loved to ask the question as we get closer to the end of an episode, what’s that one piece of advice you’d give to somebody on their path towards self-mastery? And I think some of the best episodes answer that question before I even ask it. And I think that’s kind of what you just did.
00:31:18:10 – 00:31:21:05
Nick McGowan
But if you’d like to add to it, please, sir, go for it.
00:31:22:16 – 00:31:52:12
Steven Blohm
Well, I don’t want to really repeat anything that I’ve already said, even though I think having I think having hope is key and just pushing forward. But one of the things that I would suggest and that I continue to work on is to meet people where they are. Right? So meeting people where they are and every aspect of life is probably one of the one of the traits that I that I try to do every single day, no matter who that I’m talking to.
00:31:54:09 – 00:32:01:15
Nick McGowan
Awesome men. What, again, it’s been awesome to have you on the show. I appreciate your time. Tell us, where can people find you and where can they connect with you?
00:32:03:04 – 00:32:26:01
Steven Blohm
Yeah, so I’m not an incredibly active social media user to be, to be quite honest. But if you want to connect with me on Instagram, it’s at Boom Stephen and you can find me on LinkedIn. But other than that, I am not on the other social platform. So sorry to disappoint, but I am a very heavily LinkedIn user.
00:32:26:17 – 00:32:31:11
Nick McGowan
Yeah, I get that. Well, man, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being here. Always a pleasure. Did.
00:32:32:01 – 00:32:33:20
Steven Blohm
Yeah. Thanks so much, man. Thanks for having me.
00:32:35:04 – 00:32:57:19
Nick McGowan
Another great conversation on today’s episode of The Mindset and Self-mastery show. So what did you think of the show today? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Check out the Instagram or Facebook page to join the conversation. If you enjoyed the episode, please jump over to iTunes and subscribe rate and leave a five star review. It helps us be found and helps others be healed.
00:32:58:08 – 00:33:19:00
Nick McGowan
If this episode opened your eyes, made you think or smile at all, then I’m sure it’ll do the same for your friends. Check out the show notes for more info from today’s episode and check out other episodes on The Mindset and Self-mastery show dot com as well as our YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube and look up the mindset and self-mastery show.
00:33:19:15 – 00:33:38:00
Nick McGowan
Thanks again to our incredible guests for being real, honest and vulnerable with us today. I’d like to thank our sponsors and most importantly, I’d like to thank you, thank you for hanging out with us today. Your support means the world to us. And with that, remember, your mindset matters and so do you.
https://youtu.be/JIcM50lWsc0
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By Nick McGowan“I kept writing the fact that something good will come out of this, even though it was an incredibly difficult decision.”
In this episode, Nick speaks with Steven Blohm, who worked hard on passionately building his own business in 2020. Running into challenge after challenge, placing strain on his marriage, and working his life away, the business wasn’t coming together, and it wasn’t moving forward. It was really hard for Steven to make the decision to shut the business down, especially when he had been investing so much of his time and passion into it. Like anything else in life, when one door closes, another door opens.
About Steven Blohm
Steven is a husband and father of 2. He’s the founder of Moali and is the Office Operations & Business Development Leader at Cyncly.
Steven learned a lot, both applicable to business and life, and about himself along his journey of starting up his own business, which failed. With failure comes great success, though.
Resources:
Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? Send Nick an email or schedule a time to discuss your podcast today!
Thank you for listening!
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Click Here To View The Episode Transcript
00:00:08:08 – 00:00:27:17
Nick McGowan
Hello and welcome to The Mindset and Self-mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. And on this show, my guests and I unpack the stories that shape us, the lives that we lead on our path to self-mastery. So let’s not wait any longer. Let the games begin.
00:00:32:01 – 00:00:34:17
Nick McGowan
Hey, Steven. Welcome to the show, man. How you doing? Good.
00:00:34:20 – 00:00:35:20
Steven Blohm
Good, good. Thanks for having me.
00:00:36:02 – 00:00:56:16
Nick McGowan
Yeah, absolutely, man. I’m excited that you’re here. It’s funny because when I first started the show, I had a lot of close friends, you know, like warm contacts that were on the show. And now, over the course of the past eight, nine months or so, I’ve had a lot of people that were unknowns. So I get to have these initial conversations with them basically right here live on the spot going through this.
00:00:57:12 – 00:01:17:11
Nick McGowan
And you’re kind of one of my first friends that I’ve actually had on in a little while. So it’s sort of familiar because you’re a buddy and we get to talk shit, you know? And then it’s also us being able to actually talk about some of the shit that we talk about in some of our offline conversations. And I’m really excited to be able to get into this and dude, I’m stoked that you’re here.
00:01:17:11 – 00:01:24:21
Nick McGowan
So, Steven, why don’t you. Why don’t you kick us off? Tell us what you do for a living. And what’s one thing that most people don’t know about you that’s maybe odd or bizarre?
00:01:25:15 – 00:01:55:01
Steven Blohm
So, yeah. Yeah, I appreciate you having me. So I am an enterprise and account business development manager for a software company and the Office Furniture industry. It’s kind of a blend of my passions of office furniture and technology. So it’s a it’s a beautiful thing, and I absolutely love it. So one thing that I would say when I talk with people that don’t know me and I’m introducing myself is I love to paint.
00:01:55:02 – 00:02:13:15
Steven Blohm
I love all things art. I can sit in a dark room and just score, really just all things art. I mean, I am pretty passionate about about the creative process and what you can do with your mind and get something on canvas.
00:02:14:02 – 00:02:38:03
Nick McGowan
Yeah, I know we both we grew up kind of as art kids and that’s an interesting perspective to then bring into the business world because that’s how we met was through business and partnership with companies and all that stuff. And yeah, it’s funny because I think of the meetings that we have, like when we’re out at tradeshows or meeting with prospects or even clients like wouldn’t just normally come up like, oh, by the way, he’s a painter.
00:02:38:11 – 00:02:43:10
Nick McGowan
Did you guys know that? Like, it wouldn’t just even randomly come up, but most of the meetings, you know.
00:02:43:19 – 00:03:02:12
Steven Blohm
Yeah. Doesn’t. So that’s why I sometimes have a hard time kind of articulating that just because it always surprises people. So I’m like, What else do I need to say while they’re looking at me with this crazy face? So this kind of, like, somewhat athletic dude likes to paint, you know, it kind of just goes against what people think when they look at me.
00:03:02:12 – 00:03:26:03
Steven Blohm
And what would I do for a profession. But I’ve always found, ever since I started painting when really I started taking a serious in high school, it was an amazing just way for me to take all the craziness that was going on in life anxiety, you know, girlfriends breaking up with me or whatever the case is and put that to some good use, right?
00:03:26:03 – 00:03:31:14
Steven Blohm
And make something beautiful out of something that had might have been dark. Right. So I love doing it.
00:03:32:03 – 00:03:35:23
Nick McGowan
Were you one of those kids in high school that would steal off to the art room as often as you could?
00:03:37:05 – 00:03:50:03
Steven Blohm
So funny that you ask that. I went to a high school that was a college prep and I was an art major, so I never had to sneak off to the art room. I was in the art room 6 hours a day.
00:03:50:19 – 00:04:05:20
Nick McGowan
Man. Wow. I, I wanted to be in the art room 6 hours a day, but didn’t go to a college prep school. I think I was in college prep classes, but, you know, junior year they were like, we get, you know, art school or music school where you won’t make any money. I was like, Well, I guess college ain’t for me.
00:04:06:06 – 00:04:24:19
Steven Blohm
Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was pretty it was a great experience because it was a it was a public school. So it’s not like you had to pay to go, but you had to test to get in. And I tested into that school kind of district system when I was in middle school. So I was lucky enough to to be able to get into that high school.
00:04:25:08 – 00:04:49:18
Nick McGowan
That’s pretty cool. Isn’t it interesting how when we talk to people that don’t really have that creative kind of mindset, the way that they build their process through creating a piece. Yeah, it can be hard sometimes to explain to them, like what we do when you think of what we do, you know, 3D wise and technology wise, it’s sometimes I think pretty easy for us to be able to tie the two to it.
00:04:49:23 – 00:04:53:23
Nick McGowan
But how do you how do you think of that with the creative and with what you talk about.
00:04:55:12 – 00:05:20:07
Steven Blohm
When when it comes to creative and just business and how I just look at approaching situations and everything like that. Yeah. Yeah. So I would, I would say it’s kind of an individual individualized process to like you as a person. But I think if I look at this as I can, kind of across the board, I would say creatives like to be alone while they try to process that information.
00:05:20:19 – 00:05:44:02
Steven Blohm
Instead of trying to have a ton of meetings. Right. So if let’s say I have a problem that’s coming my way, I am one person that really likes to listen, get all the information that I possibly can, instead of just start diving in and attacking questions. I want to really understand what the issue is before I start kind of trying to throw paint at the wall.
00:05:44:16 – 00:06:03:01
Steven Blohm
Right. There’s a lot of pieces kind of going back to the art side of things that I’ve done and I haven’t really thought about what this piece might mean to me. And it comes out horrible. But if I sit with this piece, sit with this blank canvas, maybe for an hour, and I’m like, okay, I’m going to start the brushstroke there, and now it’s going to change, right?
00:06:03:01 – 00:06:24:14
Steven Blohm
Like just like with any solution in business, it’s never going to be exactly what you started and how you end. But if I don’t really think about how I want that next brushstroke to go or how I want to spray with my spray paint, like it’s sloppy. And that’s the same thing with when it comes to business and solutions, you really want to attack it, you know, really methodically.
00:06:25:01 – 00:06:32:00
Steven Blohm
And I think that’s kind of how my creative process is. And a lot of creatives that I know really like to like sit by themselves and think about how they’re going to tack it.
00:06:32:16 – 00:06:55:01
Nick McGowan
Yeah, it’s interesting. As you say, as you say that I kind of picture you sitting there and just staring at this blank canvas and being like, where do I start with this thing? But understanding that you want to figure out what your intention is. I think there are some people that stop that thought from letting them do anything like it doesn’t allow them to act because they’re too busy thinking about things.
00:06:56:01 – 00:06:57:15
Nick McGowan
Do you ever find that you’re kind of in this?
00:06:58:12 – 00:07:18:11
Steven Blohm
Yeah, a lot of times I would get overwhelmed and then you just and then you just shut down. So if that’s the case, sometimes I will just start creating. I will just start, you know, if it becomes if kind of go in between art and business, I’ll start just throwing stuff at the canvas or I will just start writing ideas.
00:07:18:11 – 00:07:39:04
Steven Blohm
Even though they might be horrible. You know, some of the greatest founders will say they’ve, you know, have a notebook and they write down 10,000 ideas and that one idea sticks. So it’s it’s not always just that perfect of me sitting there looking at the solution or canvas, and then there’s something beautiful comes that’s just like an ideal state that I would like to be in.
00:07:39:15 – 00:07:52:04
Steven Blohm
But there are thousands of times I get overwhelmed with anxiety of I want it to be beautiful, and then I am just kind of crumbling. So you have to figure out how you come out of that crumble, though.
00:07:52:14 – 00:08:06:12
Nick McGowan
Yeah, yeah. Well, let’s talk pre crumble and then we’ll get post crumble. So what do you what do you do in those moments when you feel like I’m getting overwhelmed or I can start to feel it welling up? What do you do to to to divert that?
00:08:07:08 – 00:08:35:20
Steven Blohm
A lot of times I’ll go to music, I’ll go to podcast, I’ll go to readings that I have kind of seeked comfort in, you know, like Ryan Holladay is an author who writes about stoic principles. And a lot of time I’ll just pick up and read a chapter, his book or I will watch one of my favorite YouTube creators or listen to a podcast.
00:08:36:19 – 00:08:57:17
Steven Blohm
That’s it brings me comfort because I’ve read it, I’ve listened to it, I’ve watched it a few times and it helps me take my mind off of it. So it’s nothing that’s mind breaking, but it’s very simple that just kind of takes away that anxiety of, I need to create or solve this problem right away. It’s like, okay, me, just let me just take a little break, take a breather, write it.
00:08:57:18 – 00:09:02:04
Steven Blohm
Because it’s as simple as meditating. It’s kind of like meditating.
00:09:03:01 – 00:09:12:08
Nick McGowan
Yeah, it’s it’s just like what they teach us in art to, like, if you’re just beating on a product or a project, rather, you’ve got to step away and come back with fresh eyes.
00:09:13:08 – 00:09:14:04
Steven Blohm
Yeah, exactly.
00:09:14:15 – 00:09:31:19
Nick McGowan
So when you go to those things, do you start to feel yourself, get to the point where you’re like, all right, I got to do something really right now? Or Do you feel it kind of setting earlier in the process instead of just kind of being like, Oh shit, I’m completely and fuck, what am I going to do?
00:09:31:19 – 00:09:47:07
Nick McGowan
Mode. Like, How do you feel that welling up to make that shift? Because if, if you’re in a tight spot in a meeting or having a conversation or you have to do all these things, it’s probably not the easiest to just deal off for a couple of minutes and listen to a podcast or watch a YouTube video or something.
00:09:47:19 – 00:10:21:13
Steven Blohm
Yeah, it’s not. So again, that’s kind of situational. You know, if you’re sitting in a in a boardroom, which I’ve been in many times or you’re sitting in a meeting and you have people that are counting on you, what I have found truth is the only thing that’ll set you free. Right? I know that’s kind of an old saying and it’s kind of cliche, but if you’re feeling overwhelmed and you don’t understand or you can’t present the solution or answer that might be needed of you at that time, just reach out to the group and say, We need to circle back to this.
00:10:21:13 – 00:10:38:23
Steven Blohm
We need to come back to this at a later time. So that isn’t maybe always going to work. But I have found that when I try to bullshit my way through an answer, when I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed, it it takes me into a deeper hole. So I am normally just honest with the people that I’m around.
00:10:39:14 – 00:11:03:09
Nick McGowan
That’s a that’s a huge lesson. I know. That’s something that we don’t really you and I probably didn’t really learn that until our thirties, you know, being like, I’m going to fuck and keep doing this. I’m going to keep going and I’ll maybe try to figure something out. But you’re totally right, man. That’s a that’s a super power to be able to say, you know what, I’m not entirely sure, but I’ll go find out or, you know, take that next step.
00:11:04:16 – 00:11:29:13
Steven Blohm
Yeah, there was one time in particular, I would say I learned this lesson the hardest way possible. Yeah, I, I was presenting to some investors of mine from my previous life when I was building a company, I was giving them an update and we were not anywhere close to where we should have been at that particular time, to where I promise we should, where we should have been.
00:11:30:09 – 00:11:49:18
Steven Blohm
I got on the call open the PowerPoint, started presenting this bullshit of where we were. I got to slide, I believe it was slide three and I put my head down and I couldn’t I physically could not talk because I know that I wasn’t I knew that I was still not telling truth and they could see through me.
00:11:50:16 – 00:12:05:18
Steven Blohm
And at that moment, I kind of said I would never do that again. Right. So like, if I’m feeling overwhelmed or if we’re not there, just you have to tell the truth. You like people will see through your bullshit all the time, no matter what.
00:12:06:09 – 00:12:13:04
Nick McGowan
Yeah. Did you feel in that moment like you let yourself down, or was it more of a letting down to them or what was going through your head?
00:12:14:17 – 00:12:37:03
Steven Blohm
So at that moment, I definitely felt obviously that I felt like I put I’m very competitive and I put a lot of pressure on myself. So I did feel that I let you know I failed myself. But when you have other people’s money and you have investors that are counting on you, yes, they know the risk. But that doesn’t make it any easier when you’re not achieving milestones that need to be met.
00:12:37:16 – 00:12:50:16
Steven Blohm
And when we were really, you know, racing to get a product to market, it all boiled up at that one time and yeah, I just really felt like everybody I was letting everybody down at that moment, to be honest.
00:12:51:06 – 00:13:19:02
Nick McGowan
Yeah, man, that can be one of those breaking moments. You know, they’re stories of entrepreneurs that don’t recover from something like that, you know that. I know that was basically maybe not the start, but that was part of the the thing closing the door closing on that. And some people don’t know how to come back from that, be it a relationship that ends a business venture that ends or, you know, losing a job or something like that.
00:13:19:02 – 00:13:26:08
Nick McGowan
So let’s actually dig into that a little bit. You want to give us some background with the company and kind of a bit of an overview so we can dig in.
00:13:27:21 – 00:14:02:01
Steven Blohm
Yeah, yeah. So pre-COVID, I had this idea of trying to bring affordable On-Demand child care to the market. I brought on a co-founder who is a really good friend of mine, incredible marketing genius, when he was he was a director at Amazon. That’s beside the point. Sorry. So we had this idea. So we worked on this idea for a little while but realized there were a lot of holes in this particular idea about affordable child care just because there were a lot of security issues and that sort of thing.
00:14:02:01 – 00:14:33:08
Steven Blohm
So we sort we switched focus and we started this on demand learning platform. We wanted to be able to connect anybody in the world if that had something to share. And we started that. We made that change in January of 2020. As we know, March 2020 hit everything shut down. So from January to March, nothing substantial happened during that time.
00:14:33:08 – 00:14:56:20
Steven Blohm
It was us really trying to refocus as co-founders and how were we going to get additional investment and move forward with this. But when this happened, we were like, oh, great. Like this could really this could really help are, you know, idea at the time it wasn’t necessarily a company really really excel. So at that point we really doubled down.
00:14:56:22 – 00:15:22:07
Steven Blohm
We went out and we raised a pretty substantial amount of money. I was I was pretty proud. We didn’t raise a ton of friends and family. I did have a few close friends that ended up, you know, trusting us and investing with us. But at first, my goal was to never accept any friends and family one, because my parents are parents that would say, hey, go fuck yourself.
00:15:22:07 – 00:15:35:15
Steven Blohm
It’s my money very lovingly, but it’s yeah, we’re not going to give you any money. So we went down that road and we brought on another technical co-founder after that time and just and continue down the startup path.
00:15:35:23 – 00:15:37:08
Nick McGowan
So as you continue down that.
00:15:37:23 – 00:16:09:15
Steven Blohm
Path, so yeah, so we, we, we knew that the idea based off of how many investors that we, that we had was, was valid. And once we started doing market research testing, we were getting some kind of beta users and a very, very rough version of what we were going to bring to market. It was gaining some traction and at that time we had people asking us to invest their money without us asking have to invest.
00:16:09:16 – 00:16:39:17
Steven Blohm
So all these kind of things were kind of coming, coming into play which, which was great towards the end of 2020 is when everything kind of started to turn our technical co-founder left at left. At the end of 2020, we scrambled to find new development partners, which we were able to do so. But that was kind of the turning point where we were really pushing a boulder uphill at that time.
00:16:40:23 – 00:17:02:16
Nick McGowan
Yeah, and that’s that’s tough. That’s kind of it’s a tough hill to climb. No, I’m trying to get away from the pun there. But like it is, no matter what you’re doing, no matter what business it is, and there are a lot of people who listen to this show that have either currently have a side hustle or they’re full time in their business or they want to do something.
00:17:03:04 – 00:17:10:14
Nick McGowan
There’s always that fear, no matter what that fuck. What if it just doesn’t work? How do I come back from that? You know.
00:17:11:15 – 00:17:31:18
Steven Blohm
I didn’t I didn’t have that in my head for the longest time. And, well, let me back up. One reason I didn’t want friends and family is because I had maybe a nugget of that. Yeah, but I knew what we were building. Could be used by hundreds of thousands. I was helping millions of people, so I didn’t really let that enter my mind.
00:17:31:18 – 00:18:02:19
Steven Blohm
Even when our technical co-founder left, I knew we had such a good relationship with our investors. We were able to find another development team that was able to help us. That was absolutely amazing. I might have been not kind of looking at the writing on the wall at the time, but I was determined that we were going to continue to make this work because we we saw what the market was asking for and it wasn’t quite fulfilled and we knew what we were bringing could fulfill that gap.
00:18:03:09 – 00:18:16:20
Steven Blohm
So I really tried to not let that kind of negativity enter, even though it was very hard. You know, it was incredibly hard when we fell on our face at the end of 2020 and we had to eat that.
00:18:17:15 – 00:18:35:20
Nick McGowan
Yeah, it’s it’s a thing that’s there no matter what, as you pointed out, like that nugget, you know, I wouldn’t ever suggest that anybody start the business thinking like, well, fuck, this thing ain’t gonna work. There’s no reason to do anything like that. In fact, if you have no belief, then nothing’s going to happen with it. At least positive.
00:18:35:20 – 00:19:01:00
Nick McGowan
Nothing’s positive going to happen with it. But in that case, of being able to keep fighting that good fight, that’s kind of one of those balanced areas where you’ve got to know at some point when you let the damn thing die and you got to be okay with that. And that’s a difficult pill for anybody to swallow because for the most part, a lot of people put everything they can into what they’re doing, especially as an entrepreneur.
00:19:01:07 – 00:19:17:17
Nick McGowan
That’s part of what’s in our genes to just give it everything we’ve got. So how did you not set your character within all of that and still be able to separate yourself from it without saying, you know, this was who I was and now I have nothing left?
00:19:19:18 – 00:19:45:20
Steven Blohm
Oh, well, that’s a very loaded question because I think when you put your entire self into something, it’s very hard to separate that when it comes to that time and to make sure while you’re still in the moment, to remember that there’s other things that are going outside of this entrepreneurship startup, right? I am a most first and foremost.
00:19:45:20 – 00:20:10:08
Steven Blohm
I am a husband and a father of two. And I can tell you that building a company put the most strain on my relationships and marriage that I have ever experienced and definitely brought to the lowest point. But I was so wrapped up that that company was it was going to it was going to make me a better person.
00:20:10:08 – 00:20:33:16
Steven Blohm
If we were successful, it was going to make me a better father and a better husband. So I can I can relate to. And that that I was not able to separate it very well, especially during the time of while I was building. And I would say as we were making the decision to come to an end, it was very hard to separate that.
00:20:33:16 – 00:20:54:18
Nick McGowan
How did I want to be able to have a take away from the audience that goes through this? You know, I know there are certain people that I can think of that actively listen to the show that I know that they’ve gone through it. And if they think back through the process of what they’ve done, it may look similar to how you and I have done those things by me getting out of my own company, divorce, all that.
00:20:54:23 – 00:21:12:06
Nick McGowan
And same with you getting out of yours. But if somebody is walking down that path or that’s in the back of their mind, how do I get out of this thing that I built? What sort of steps would you, you know, lovingly walk them through, but at the same time hold them accountable with it?
00:21:12:06 – 00:21:38:11
Steven Blohm
Yeah. You have to rely on the people that are around you and you have to trust that you like it. They’re not going to let you completely fall like you have to hold yourself self accountable that whatever you built might not have worked. And it’s you have to make that tough decision. But like life will not end. And that’s really what I had to keep telling myself is, you know, I have two beautiful kids.
00:21:38:11 – 00:21:59:06
Steven Blohm
I have a beautiful wife that has supported me this whole time. I need to make sure that I’m doing the best for the people around me and maybe shutting this down is that decision. So I know it’s if if you know, somebody is going through that and they’re listening and they’re really struggling with that, is that is now the time?
00:21:59:11 – 00:22:22:12
Steven Blohm
I mean, maybe next month I might get there if you’re having to really, you know, hope that the next move is going to get you there, then you need to have a realistic conversation with yourself and say, maybe now’s the time because we’ve all been there. And that next move never got us there. And I really had to make sure that I was checking myself and checking my ego.
00:22:22:12 – 00:22:34:01
Steven Blohm
So at the end of the day, it was it was definitely the best move. But I you know, bringing this back to your question, I had to trust the people around me and I had to actually listen to them and their needs.
00:22:35:12 – 00:22:51:12
Nick McGowan
And it’s like looking through different glasses at that point instead of the ones that you’re staring through the entire day. As you look at your business, it’s looking at something different, but with their specific questions that you started to ask internally, as those things were kind of becoming aware to you.
00:22:54:19 – 00:23:21:14
Steven Blohm
In relation to just the company itself, you’re like, How can I come to this? Yeah. So I did ask myself, first and foremost, am I being the best father that I possibly could be during this process? And I was trying to tell myself, yes, but I was not not being not that I was being neglectful or anything like that.
00:23:21:14 – 00:23:43:18
Steven Blohm
It was just I wasn’t present. So I was when I was playing with my kids or I was helping them with homework, I was thinking about, you know, my start up and that was the first. That was the first and probably last question I asked. But there are so many more questions I could have asked, right? Am I doing the best by my investors?
00:23:43:18 – 00:24:05:08
Steven Blohm
Am I holding up the fiduciary, you know, responsibility right now? Am I promising the market something that’s actually never going to come? So there’s a lot of other questions that, you know, they were surface levels that I was running through. But when it came down to what really sealed the deal for me is knowing that I was not being a present father.
00:24:05:16 – 00:24:09:11
Steven Blohm
And how was that having a negative impact on my kids?
00:24:10:11 – 00:24:33:09
Nick McGowan
Yeah, it’s it’s cool that you said that it was basically the one question and that your intuition brought up that question to be able to ask the most important fucking question, because I’m sure when you ask that and you say it out loud or at least in your head, and you, you ingest what you had just said and that answer comes to you, it probably came to you like a punch to the gut, like, duh, no.
00:24:34:08 – 00:24:57:16
Steven Blohm
Yeah, there’s a there was a few more waterworks when I was answering that question to myself and when I was, you know, talking with my talking with my wife about it because, you know, she I’m I’m luckily married to an incredibly strong woman who is not scared to say what’s on her mind, which I absolutely love, and said, you need to check yourself.
00:24:57:16 – 00:25:25:08
Steven Blohm
Right. You are. You’re not there. Something has to change. Right. And having a partner that can hold you accountable while being there every step of the way to believe in you is it was was an incredible blessing. So it was it was awesome. And kind of what I was saying about listening to your people, right? Like if I if I rejected that statement and said, I believe in myself, I feel like I’ve been at this for two years and it’s still in the same place.
00:25:25:20 – 00:25:34:03
Steven Blohm
And I like what does that saying to me as a person and not respecting somebody around me, you know, so that that that was a huge impact to me.
00:25:34:13 – 00:25:39:20
Nick McGowan
Yeah. At that point you’re basically just like, no, no, no, fuck you, woman. I and my ego.
00:25:39:20 – 00:25:53:00
Steven Blohm
We’re going to do all things. Yeah, which we, you know, we all have ego problems. And again, like, like those old sayings or old sayings for a reason, you know, check your ego at the door, and it’s it’s so true.
00:25:53:08 – 00:26:14:23
Nick McGowan
Yeah, yeah. But so difficult to do. Like you’re you’re building this so that you and your family can have a brighter future. You can have all these wonderful things that you’ve dreamt of and you pictured in your mind, and then they’re not coming to fruition and you have to shift and do something different. I know that can fuck with your head.
00:26:15:08 – 00:26:31:14
Nick McGowan
So let’s talk about when you got you’re like, all right, I’m closing this down and now I have to shift back into what’s next, you know, be it starting another company or jumping into a project with some company. But that’s a different shift that you go through. So walk us through how how you did that.
00:26:32:21 – 00:26:56:14
Steven Blohm
Yeah, the shift was the shift was pretty difficult. I got really lucky and I hate to sound cliche, but stars kind of aligned as as I was closing down my company to land me to where I am now. And I do want to say that it sounds really difficult and I know there’s been a lot of like, man, I was in a low spot.
00:26:56:14 – 00:27:20:17
Steven Blohm
I was in a low spot, but I wouldn’t trade anything about my past or my startup for anything like I would not be where I am at the moment with the organization that I am if it wasn’t for my startup. And I don’t come from, you know, a family of entrepreneurs or really a family that believes in entrepreneurship.
00:27:21:05 – 00:27:43:04
Steven Blohm
So being able to have a napkin sketch, take that to somebody and say, Hey, this is never going to work. And then being able to actually raise funding, build a team, have amazing people around me, co-founders, meet all these amazing people, have the experiences. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. So with that said, I did ride those positives as all this negative was happening.
00:27:43:15 – 00:28:07:19
Steven Blohm
I was, you know, telling myself all this was for something like, I didn’t just go through these two and a half years of at the end, you know, it was hell to not end up in a better spot because, yes, I did want to I did want to build something. And I didn’t really have a plan, this grand gesture of wanting to give my family this, you know, crazy, extravagant life.
00:28:07:19 – 00:28:33:09
Steven Blohm
Yes, I wanted to build a comfortable life, but I did want to have an impact in my communities. So that’s one thing that was really hard on me, is not being able to achieve that goal. But I really wrote those positives because if you go down that rabbit hole, it’s really hard to get out. And there were a lot of low points for me when we decided to shut down this December of 2021.
00:28:34:04 – 00:28:42:14
Steven Blohm
But I kept writing the fact that something good will come out of this, even though it was an incredibly difficult, difficult decision.
00:28:43:19 – 00:29:04:10
Nick McGowan
I love that you you kind of wrapped that up a bit. Like that’s a huge takeaway for anybody that goes through at a very simple bit, any sort of pain or any sort of length of time of some project that you’re working through that’s going to end. Sometimes things just fucking end. Sometimes things end because something else has to begin.
00:29:05:02 – 00:29:24:03
Nick McGowan
And we don’t know that until you actually do the damn thing. That sometimes takes a lot out of us to be able to get to that point. So I appreciate that you were writing that positive, at least looking at that and being aware that, you know the fuck. I don’t know exactly how this thing’s going to end or what’s going to happen next, but at least I know that there’s a purpose to it.
00:29:24:11 – 00:29:55:07
Nick McGowan
That’s huge. That’s even like resting on hope. So for everybody, it’s listening. Whatever you’re going through, whatever craziness, the job, the relationships, whatever the fuck it is, there is hope. But you got to believe that there’s hope. Like Steve, I know you believe that there was hope. You were like, there’s got to be something to it. Now, do you feel like that was something that came from how you were raised, or is that just like a deep inner feeling or you just felt like, I just know no matter what happens, I’m going to be all right?
00:29:55:07 – 00:30:20:22
Steven Blohm
I don’t think it was because how I was raised, I would say maybe, maybe the latter. The the the deep inner feeling. But going back to being a father and husband, I just couldn’t I couldn’t roll over and give up even though I wanted to. So having hope that something better will come after this, something will come from this.
00:30:21:01 – 00:30:41:06
Steven Blohm
I will be in a better spot. And six months I had to ride that because if you give up, you give up on some people around you, even though there’s sometimes you just might want to. I mean, there’s still there’s still days. I’ll be walking in the grocery store and it’ll hit me in my gut that I was starting a company and I failed.
00:30:41:09 – 00:30:59:03
Steven Blohm
My investors and some of my investors were incredibly close friends and even though that water is under the bridge and everything is fine, it still haunts me. So you have you have to have hope that the next day will be better.
00:31:00:04 – 00:31:18:02
Nick McGowan
Absolutely. Man, I. I always loved to ask the question as we get closer to the end of an episode, what’s that one piece of advice you’d give to somebody on their path towards self-mastery? And I think some of the best episodes answer that question before I even ask it. And I think that’s kind of what you just did.
00:31:18:10 – 00:31:21:05
Nick McGowan
But if you’d like to add to it, please, sir, go for it.
00:31:22:16 – 00:31:52:12
Steven Blohm
Well, I don’t want to really repeat anything that I’ve already said, even though I think having I think having hope is key and just pushing forward. But one of the things that I would suggest and that I continue to work on is to meet people where they are. Right? So meeting people where they are and every aspect of life is probably one of the one of the traits that I that I try to do every single day, no matter who that I’m talking to.
00:31:54:09 – 00:32:01:15
Nick McGowan
Awesome men. What, again, it’s been awesome to have you on the show. I appreciate your time. Tell us, where can people find you and where can they connect with you?
00:32:03:04 – 00:32:26:01
Steven Blohm
Yeah, so I’m not an incredibly active social media user to be, to be quite honest. But if you want to connect with me on Instagram, it’s at Boom Stephen and you can find me on LinkedIn. But other than that, I am not on the other social platform. So sorry to disappoint, but I am a very heavily LinkedIn user.
00:32:26:17 – 00:32:31:11
Nick McGowan
Yeah, I get that. Well, man, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being here. Always a pleasure. Did.
00:32:32:01 – 00:32:33:20
Steven Blohm
Yeah. Thanks so much, man. Thanks for having me.
00:32:35:04 – 00:32:57:19
Nick McGowan
Another great conversation on today’s episode of The Mindset and Self-mastery show. So what did you think of the show today? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Check out the Instagram or Facebook page to join the conversation. If you enjoyed the episode, please jump over to iTunes and subscribe rate and leave a five star review. It helps us be found and helps others be healed.
00:32:58:08 – 00:33:19:00
Nick McGowan
If this episode opened your eyes, made you think or smile at all, then I’m sure it’ll do the same for your friends. Check out the show notes for more info from today’s episode and check out other episodes on The Mindset and Self-mastery show dot com as well as our YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube and look up the mindset and self-mastery show.
00:33:19:15 – 00:33:38:00
Nick McGowan
Thanks again to our incredible guests for being real, honest and vulnerable with us today. I’d like to thank our sponsors and most importantly, I’d like to thank you, thank you for hanging out with us today. Your support means the world to us. And with that, remember, your mindset matters and so do you.
https://youtu.be/JIcM50lWsc0