The Entrepreneurial Road Trip: Lessons Learned in Year Three

“Don’t you know I’m still standing better than I ever did. Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid”— Elton John

Today we celebrate three years in business. Three years…

Each year I take a pause on this day to reflect on my learning as an entrepreneur. It’s a bittersweet reflection, or should I say it was once bitter and now is quite sweet.

Beethoven: Piano Sonata №14 in C Sharp Minor is playing on our new Alexa Echo Look at the office and the melancholy in the song reminds me not to just write about the breakthroughs… but also the days where it was a double espresso at Starbucks or a Reduced Fat Turkey Bacon breakfast sandwich. Not both, I could not afford both unless I skipped lunch. Things had taken longer than I expected to launch my new company and 5th Startup. The one without the safety net.

I savored the days when my mother would come to the office and take me to True Foods down the street for Gluten Free Pizza or an Ancient Grains Bowl. Always fully supportive of my dream, always happy to hear the buds beginning to blossom for me and the ones that got frozen in another DC winter before their prime.

I came to the realization that hope + strategic action would carry me through and I had so many ‘signs’ weekly that this was going to work if I could just pull off a few more months. “So be cash poor but opportunity-rich! ” I’d tell myself. I continued to invest in myself and my company, avoided the recruiter calls or flipped them to others. I worked hard to override my own insecurities as they would be the true killers of my business. I knew that.

“Julie, it takes three to five years to build a company and the fact that you haven’t been losing money is a big deal,” said my friend Andreas a leader from Korn Ferry. “It’s about how much psychological trauma you can take before you are successful… before you get over the hump. These are tough times,” said Connectpreneur Founder and dear friend (brother from another mother) Tien Wong.

Today, I glance out at the swaying palm tree in my window pane at our new corporate headquarters office in Boca Raton, Florida. I revel in my new life here with the big open skies, cloud formations that are almost spiritual, and my first time living near the ocean. The money started steadily coming in. It was there to pay for the moving truck. To sign a lease. To pay consultants. To buy in cash a used blue BMW (okay, it has 85,000 miles on it but it drives like a champ). To invest in marketing materials, Nespresso capsules, reduce debt and an upgrade to Linkedin Premium.

I was flying to my 14th out of town speaking/training engagement (We called it The Mentor Road Trip?) in three months and had an epiphany. My husband Marc, who is in commercial real estate, and I are both traveling a fair amount nationally. Why not relocate and be closer to my in-laws and the ocean with major airports within 30 miles. Skip winter 2019, put our daughter into the ROTC program she has been requesting... heck yeah! Change can be very healthy.

So how do I help you and others who are on this journey? Here are three lessons learned from year three and others can be found HERE:

1] DON’T QUIT: You will need more runway that you think. Don’t be ashamed that it is harder than you expected as you might be just be “three feet from the gold.” My friend and advisor Marissa sent me this book and boy was she right! Sometimes the ‘closing of contracts’ timing is off and you have to double down and persevere if you really want to win. I realized that if I can make my business work, I could potentially have it for my working years ahead. A crucial investment in my future and our family. As Dory says in Finding Nemo “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” we entrepreneurs might say “Just keep selling, just keep selling.” A lot of it is business development and then outstanding delivery of goods or services. Exceed expectations. Give 160%. Use a whiteboard as you will need to circle back and meticulously track your contacts and outreach efforts. Do they have 75% probability (of becoming a client), 50% or 25%? Sell to what they need, what they are solving for, not how great you are.

2] GET A MENTOR & DON’T ISOLATE: Find someone who is a few years ahead of you and has built an impressive business with high integrity. They will understand the rocky roads that come before the superhighway. They will understand your bravery, sacrifice and that you are likely a tad bit certifiable. They won’t make light of your dark days because they have been there. While I am in the field of mentoring and helping others build organizational mentoring initiatives, I found myself isolating at times and wanting to say “everything’s fine.” I was riding on fumes of hope and belief in a very quiet way. Talking to others like Tien, Marissa, Andreas and my corporate advisors helped me with a much better understanding of my path and that it was par for course. I stopped isolating and my spirits were lifted. Many people who gave me advice also opened doors for me. Several became valued clients and in many ways, investors and learning partners in our company.

3] DEFINITELY CELEBRATE!: When you have breakthroughs big or small, celebrate them! Be proud! You did it. You rock, you are awesome. Most importantly you believed in you. Go ahead and take that in. It will fuel you for all that’s ahead on the next leg of your journey. For anyone willing to do to do this entrepreneurial road trip, your ego will take a beating. It’s a bitter pill sometimes so savor the sweet that has taken place with your company. You are probably not the same person that stepped onto this path. Something has changed inside, in your core, and you are much stronger for it. I wish you great learning, success and that you U-turn occasionally or pull over to mentor others.

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Julie Kantor is CEO of Twomentor LLC. She builds with clients organizational mentoring strategies and initiatives to drive employee engagement, retention, diversity and more. She can be reached at [email protected]. Her second book comes out Spring 2019.

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