You don’t have to choose just one.

Building in public, part 3.

I’ve doubled down hard on what building my own business looks like for me.

No employers, no VCs, no co-founder. Just ::gulp:: me.

What do I want to say?

How do I want to show up?

Can I take Thursday off to watch the Taylor Swift movie? (Yes, I can and I did so twice.)

I spent a couple weeks INUNDATED with information.

There are so many voices out there about the way things should be done.

The best practices. The frameworks. The hot tips.

It was exhausting. And so noisy.

I felt like a piece of rope in tug-of-war, listening to conflicting opinions each and every day.

And you know what?

The most fulfilling, “right” way to do things was trusting my own gut.

And being real. Vulnerable. And quirky.

As soon as I did that, magic started to happen.

I connected with 4 incredible people the following week and started working with them.

I rejected the idea of “pick one” and started following my curiosity and interests.

This resulted in:

• Hey, How Was Your Day? 30 min chats where extraordinary people describe a day from their past, present, & future. Stay tuned for more in January and sign up here if you want to chat!

• 10 Friends Challenge. Over 30 people signed up to experiment with me on making 10 friends for a week! We'll be kicking off in mid January.

• I also started coaching at Zinc , getting back into the rhythm of working with founders and startups. I'm excited to help underrepresented founders build for social impact.

Some things I found helpful & surprising:

• You don’t have to pick just one. Who says you have to pick one thing to be interested in?
• Get to the authentic. Block out the noise.
• Ask “who wants to go with me?” I've been surprised at how many people want to go together when working through new ideas. Let people raise their hands.
• Did you know engagement rings are the ones “with the jewel?” And that the wedding one is just a band? Without divulging too much (although okay, you've probably deduced!), I learned this lesson on Monday. The jeweller told me I'm one of the most ignorant clients he's had ??