I feel like a startup founder again (for better or worse)

This past week had everything. Travel, clients, anxiety, resolved-anxiety, and beach volleyball with Fatboy Slim.

I forgot how exciting start ups were.

If my last few months had been retirement-esque, then last week was a real jolt back to life.

I mentioned last week that I have 3 main projects that I'm working on now. I actually started the week with a feeling I remember well from my early Molzi days. A frustration and anxiety that things weren't progressing fast enough. For me it was actually one of the most exhausting things about running a business and I wanted to nip it in the bud before it starts spoiling this new journey for me.

Like most problems I face in business, I took to the whiteboard to help me find inner peace. I listed out all of the things I need to do for each of the projects. The list was enormous and definitely didn't help with the anxiety in the short term. But I referred back to my financial plans for each project and removed any items from the giant to do list that weren't needed in the next month. I ended up with a very clear list of priorities that helped me stop pacing back and forth and start to actually get some work done.

A real life example. On 1st November I am launching a business that works with ambitious founders that are looking to scale and sell their business. Our goal with this business is to work with a small handful of founders at a time to give the best possible service and give us a lifestyle that we enjoy. Are we're really fortunate that already, 6 weeks ahead of the launch we have been contacted by many exciting businesses that want our support. All of the opportunities have been inbound, mainly driven by Linkedin posts or the FounderON blog. But for some reason I was getting frustrated that we didn't have more clients lining up at our door ready to start 1st Nov. I tried sending a handful of outbound messages on Linkedin and guess what. No response. If I was a client of mine I would be telling myself to trust the process, focus on the content and the inbound opportunities will follow. But instead, while spending time and energy worrying about the progress I was making, I stopped writing new blogs and the inbound enquiries slowed down.

So, I'm afraid, thanks to my little whiteboard session, your Linkedin feeds will be getting spammed with new blogs in no time. But don't worry, my short lived Linkedin outbound campaign is put to bed, so your inboxes are safe.

Once I got over that little start of the week wobble I was all go. Meetings in Poland, Sheffield, Manchester. It felt really good to be travelling again and meeting people. And feedback from the initial consulting sessions have been a real confidence boost that I can add value to other peoples journeys.

We also had some exciting progress on our big, expensive new project. We've arranged a trip up to Scotland to view the property that will kick it all off. It's a huge investment for us, but all I feel is excitement. I'm so confident in the project that even though it's sure to make life more stressful in the short term, it's something that I don't want to regret not trying. I'll be sure to share details of the viewing trip in a couple of weeks time.

And the week ended with a surreal day on Brighton beach with the BLUE14 team. A day of beach volleyball with the brilliant agency teams that they've invested in. I'd never played beach volleyball before, which was clear to the other attendees straight away when I turned up in grey jeans on a 25 degree day. I'm 6ft 6, so built to spike and block. But whatever advantage I gain with height, I more than give back in technical ability. I think you could count the number of shots I hit over the net on one hand, for the entire day. As if the day on the beach couldn't have got any better, special guest Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) was on hand to endure some of my painful small talk about business growth and volleyball strategy.

A great reminder of what a rollercoaster the world of entrepreneurship is, whether it's your first business or your fifth. There are always unexpected highs, lows and celebrities to keep you going.

If you enjoy reading my newsletter, you might also enjoy my blog FounderON , where I cover the MANY highs and lows of starting, scaling and selling my first business. Click the image below to check it out!