Origami

I’m in a pickle.

This isn’t going to be a public chest pounding of how I made some new process. I’m just going to pull the curtain back of how challenging it is to cold start a business, alone.

It feels like I’m trying to fold all four corners of a box right now, as if I’m learning Origami for the first time.

I’m trying to get a new product off the ground (and even see if it works). But right now I have to balance doing a a handful of things at once, such as:

1. Getting customers.

2. Improving the product/experience for customers

3. Delegating work to contractors (i.e. video editing), engineering.

4. Making money to pay the contractors (and myself).

Among many more…

I’m finding myself frequently paralyzed trying to choose which one to do. Next thing you know it’s 2pm, I’ve answered a handful of emails, some text messages, and I’ve found myself becoming avoidant of the work I really should be doing. Then I proceed to get stressed out when I realized I haven’t gotten any work done at all for the day. (I wake up at 5:45am for the record)

I lean back in my chair, run my hands through my hair and go “shit, I haven’t done shit today”

How do I get through something like this? I call up my friends ahead of me and ask how they handle “ staying focused.”

I called up my friend Liz, who is also running her own business, alone. She told me this is a huge challenge in the beginning when working without business partners.

Her first piece of advice: try not to be working on more than two big things at a time.

Ok, for me, my two things are: Content and Coaching

But it needs to be clearer. We spent 20 minutes getting real specific:

3 months from now - what are my content + coaching ($$) goals? I wrote them on the white board and I broke these big goals into mini steps. Then I broke each goal into mini milestones. Down to the weekly actions (or outputs) that needed to be taken to get there.

That’s where things started to push me out of paralysis and into action taking mode. I knew exactly what I needed to do that day.

BONUS!!

She hit me with a tangent. We talked about how living in San Francisco and being around all these hustle-founder-bro’s is a wee bit toxic and I admittedly fall into that trap. So she gave me a tip I’m going to also try to start doing. Every night before I go to bed (on a school night), write down the two main things I need to get done the next day. JUST TWO! And if I get that done, the day is a win. When you stack up those small wins it provides the sense of momentum and action taking.

@jesseitzler

It's not just the distance that matters, or the sheer scale of your goal. It’s the strategy, the pacing, the self-belief. It’s about recog... See more

This cold start problem solving phase is really tricky for me and I wanted to just put it out there that this paralysis issue is something a lot of people face.

The way to I’m working to get out if it is building a support system and stacking up these small wins to build that momentum. This can be for anything, finding a new job, hitting a big fitness goal, saving up money.

It’s not always going to be about business and meeting incredible people in this newsletter.

It’s about all the hard shit I deal with too while figuring it all out.

You’re not alone here, it happens to everyone.

Keep going. I believe in you 🎢 

You’re Awesome,

Jared

P.S. - I have an Ask: I want to hear from you. I’m going to do a reader mailbag section where I answer in-depth some of the questions from this smart crew. Please reply to this email and share any questions or items you’d like me to dig into, and I’ll answer in a future newsletter!

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Things Worth Clicking

A few gems I found on the internet this week - no digging required

• Neville Medora breaking down how a great sales page is made

• Two of my favorite creators just did a banger podcast on how to communicate like a pro

• Oz Pearlman does some insane magic and here’s one I stumbled upon he did with the Notre Dame football team

I Dig So You Don’t Have To

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