The Knowledge Shop

Not sure how many people read the show notes, and they take a me a long time, so here is a summary of what was discussed and useful links…

a) Clay - personal CRM

https://www.clay.com/

Live list of people eg scrapes and enriches from Linkedin, HubSpot,  twitter google etc.

b) Adding a “voicemail” feature to the website, so you can talk to me and give me feedback, like I do with the podcast. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Pipe - Listener voicemails / Questions

Free 30 messages a month. Shall I do it?

Episode 30 - from snowy, yet bright NYC.

A lot of random thoughts this episode, you have been forewarned!

Challenges of vacation and doing your own thing….do you ever have a break really? Or if you do just feel guilty? Guess its the same in any work situation.

We went on a cruise - but didn’t tell many people because I think there is still a fair stigma about them, in terms of both the type of people who cruise, and also cruising and covid - but fed up with that now. And it was AMAZING. Check out Virgin Voyages - yes of Richard Branson fame. If anyone can make you cruise, he will!

Bad thing about cruises though - even when it is the most amazing food you’ve ever eaten, is just how much of it there is.

Also found incredible music, check out Morf, the one man band musician. So talented. I really hope he makes it to NYC some time.

Very much noticed how what I eat really affects mindset and productivity, so back to lower carb / higher protein - and my new found favourite IQbars. (Themselves a startup - congrats to Will Nitze for bringing them to life)

Definitely not giving people medical advice here, just sharing my observations about my body and what impacts performance.

Massive thank you to all the founders who took part in my Alpha programme, most finish in the next 7 days. I hope you found it beneficial. Keep an eye put for a survey asking for some thoughts, so you can share anonymously.

So important to customise support for early founders, very differently than for more established startups. Can’t shift comparing them to new born babies and teenagers, and how much different the type of care each needs is. We need to sort that out, in order to make sure more make it to later stages.

With that have a fab week everyone, stay warm if its cold where you are, and go do something that makes you feel good. You all deserve it!

Free Tuesday 1st Feb?

If you are, and in NYC - come join the next Coworking event we have. Its in Nomadworks 30th & Broadway.

Ahoy! We are on a cruise ship. Massive shout out to Virgin Voyages, for this highly anticipated trip.

Since the launch party in ~2017, to today in 2022. It's been a long time coming, and am beyond excited to be here, to shake my phone for champagne (IYKYK), and just have some fun!

The name of this episode says it all! I finally realised how much imposter syndrome was undermining how i felt, and undervaluing my skillsets, to an average of 25%.

It took a mini eureka moment around my MBA to realise how much it was impacting me. Specifically, I realised that every assignment i submitted, I  got a much better grade than i thought i would. On average 25% better. Now this isn't me being coy - i didn't tell anybody what i thought i would get, so it was literally my head telling me what it though - how wrong is that!

So now when i feel unconfident, i am going to try and remember that whatever i feel, at least 25% more than i think, to not let it undermine my capabilities.

Next up is power!

Owning my own. Other people can ask, but so can i. Other people can say no, and so can i. As i build my businesses, really important to remember that, and own my skills and take, don't give away opportunities.

Finally - massive congrats to Rita Kakati-Shah for her incredible lifetime achievement award by President Biden. For all of her fantastic work supporting women and minorities achieve their full potential and help make the world a better place. If only we could all be 10% of Rita, the world would look very different!

Talking today about:

Community and reaching target audiences.

If you remember nothing else - start small, and grow from there.

Looking for GenZ-ers?

Stumbled on a fab event that Lerrer Hippeau and GenZ VC put on. To reach that younger demographic (for all things VC, marketing, audience building etc) All sessions were recorded. So go listen. 

To make you stronger / Own your Power

In moments of doubt, you need a visual reminder of how amazing you are. That is now my brand new Unstoppable Lipstick from Cindy Gallop and Bossy Cosmetics,

To help others feel stronger

Share how you are feeling, and your challenges. By vocalising them i guarantee it will help reduce their impact, and will very quickly make you realise that you are not alone in feeling anxious, overwhelmed etc. So share away, and help others - I bet there are more people around you struggling than you know, and by sharing, they will feel able to do the same.

In Person Events

Free Tuesday Jan 18th? Come to the next NYC Entrepreneurs' coworking session. Very kindly supported by Nomadworks.

Book here, and see you soon!

Happy 2022 😁, and hello from a very snowy New York.

Today we talk about community building and focus and motivation.

I hadn't realised how much energy i had lost from not having conversations with Knowledge Shop founders over the Christmas break, until they started again. It was like night and day. I am so greatful to be working with these founders, and helping them build their companies.

Luckily, even though i was lower energy, and pretty lost with dissertation stuff too, I just kept showing up. I didn't have answers, but i stayed to my routine of getting up each day and going to wework to work, and or the communal room in our apartment. Trying to work from the flat itself is a complete no no. And if i try, it will never happen (unless its night and the husband is already in bed).

So as promised, here are some tools / resources i have found about community and motivation, but i would love to hear yours too. What do you use? Where do you go?

Community Building

1. The handily named, community building framework, and related tools

2. Listen to recordings from the GenZ marketing event, that Lerrer Hippeau and GenZ VC put on last year. Some great panels and tips shared.

3.  A community of community managers (found via the GenZ event). Check out Commonroom.io and their Slack group too.

Motivation

1. Talk to someone - a friend / fellow founder. Just get out of your head.

2. Talk to yourself. Vocalising it can make it sound so much simpler. Pretend you are giving a friend advice.

3. Pomodoro technique. Work in 25 minute chunks. The deadline and breaks helps with energy conservation and motivation.

4. Throw a snowball and smile. It will make you feel better.

I think the randomness of this episode's title, sums it up entirely. You have been warned! But before we get in..... public health warning. This is not the best-sounding episode, clearly my airpods were playing up - so i hope you can forgive the tinniness.

Now that's out of the way, let's dive in.....

I took a week off from recording over Christmas. It just didnt feel right, and frankly i was feeling pretty unmotivated. But then i felt like i was giving up and failed! Why? The cadence of recording is completely on my schedule, it's my story, and the world does not end as a result - but despite that i felt bad. It also felt rebellish and now in hindsight the right thing to do. But I definitely need to use this as a learning opportunity to be kinder to myself, and not do things just for the sake of it. I can and should say no - including to myself!

Now, some really important information....Yorkshire Puddings. 

For me, one of the most Christmassy foods you can have is the Roast for lunch, and that has to include Yorkshire puddings....

Fluffy and battery, perfect with lots of gravy. In the US the closest thing is a popover, but that really is very different.

So head to the Churchill Tavern in NYC, for one of their roasts (only on Sundays) if you want to try, or else here's a recipe to make your own.  You will not be disappointed.

Now that you are open to trying new things, let's connect this to entrepreneurship....

I want to help as many people on their startup journey as possible, so here are some useful tools and techniques to help you ideate and stay motivated, being open-minded to Yorkshire puddings, definitely also helps.

Ikigai - use this framework to brainstorm new ideas. It looks to find your sweetspot, by considering things that you love, that the world needs, your strengths and importantly what you can be paid for. Where they overlap, is where you are supposed to be.

Unfollow people who don't serve you! I know that subconsciously or not, i look for certain people's names on Linkedin. To see what they are doing, and still to try to please them, hope that they respect what i am doing. But i know, that is a futile and thankless task. They make me feel bad, and impact my ability to be my best self. I therefore unfollowed them, and gave myself permission to let go. It already feels really liberating, I'd encourage you to try that too.

Chasing Dopamine highs

Chasing dopamine highs. We all need dopamine, to help us strive and keep going. But too much, makes it harder to achieve the goals. Think alcohol - the more you drink, the more you need to reach the same highs.

Listen to this great episode by Stanford professor Andrew Huberman. 

To maximise your focus and to best stay on track, you need to regulate the tasks you perform, and what you consume (randomly), so that there is a more regular process of “searching” for it, like we used to as cave people.

Need more innovation ideas? Check out the Board of Innovation.

I particularly like the "Opposites approach" or Flip the narrative.

No private life, as a business owner.

When you are sick, you still have a duty of care. That's hard to get your head around, but you do it becauase its important and the right thing to do.

No new tech insights this week, but i did have a fab sell out event on Monday for the coworking meetup, including a super mini consultancy session with a guy who uses Lego to facilitate sessions.

Go check him out, if you want some tips to help improve team building / problem solving.

https://www.in8create.com/

Thanks again, to Cityspire for hosting our coworking meetup. It really is a very special venue.

Let's try to get next week's episode in on the day it's due now, shall we?

Happy nearly Christmas :) Hello from Bloomingdales (well opposite it, looking at beautiful festive windows).

Busy time of year, work and social wise - but its definitely feeling productive, which is great!

1. Monday's coworking meetup is a sell out! 15 people have tickets, to come and work together in person. Should be another great event, and another big big thank you to Studio by Tishman Speyer for hosting us.

2. The Alpha Programme for The Knowledge Shop is up and running. It's been great working with people, and sharing resources etc. To be as efficient as possible, i am trying to automate lots of the "busy" work, but very much in the "doing things that don't scale" mode right now.

Very tempted with a Google Script once i know a bit more!

This episode is festively short so you can go join one of your holiday parties.

Exciting times everyone - have a great week, and speak soon. 

Busy Busy Busy….

Dissertation melt downs - enough said!

Focus today on TKS and Coworking Group, but first a few quick soundbites:

1. Hi to our first listener from Belarus.

2. It's a Christmas Cracker! A busy / social time of year, but had a fun event Thursday. Meeting new founders and other Brits abroad - thanks to Dan and Rich for organising.

3. Productivity Hacks galore, curtesy of the latest founder’s group session via Startups.com:

Web Scraping (via Day One too)

Lead Gen - 

Project management:

App Integration

Deepdives:

Coworking Group: another great session, this time with more people and in a beautiful space. Yes sponsored by Studio by Tishman Speyer - but WOW, it is gorgeous! Go check out some of their locations.

Def not making millions off these, but nice to just meet new people.

Next event Dec 13th, buy a ticket here....

TKS:

More next week

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It's been a week and a half, but so excited to see the momentum and progress happening with both The Knowledge shop and the Meetup group.

The Knowledge Shop:

Applications for the alpha programme closed on Sunday. I wanted to get 5 people, and ended up with 9. Can not believe that at all, and very happy.

Now going through them and thinking about who i can most help, and will give updates to everyone this week.

To help keep me honest / manage everything once we launch, i am likely using Hubspot and Zapier. Hope is that i can better organise all the info, and automate a lot of the operational activities that way. Watch this space, i think it is going to be a learning curve!

For the NYC Entrepreneurs Coworking meetup group (mouthful i know), we now have nearly 80 members!! Can not believe that at all. Our next event is Tuesday next week (30th November) AND.... we have a sponsor for it!

Big thank you to the Studio by Tishman Speyer team, who are helping us for the next two events. This means so much.

Excited to see their space, and meet even more super founders next week. Now only two spots left, so if you haven't RSVP's yet, make sure you do it ASAP! Only $10.

That's it for another week. Have a great Thanksgiving, and go eat some Turkey (or meal of choice) xx