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Who Will I Have To Be Next?

Every once in a while, I’m prone to share a more vulnerable, personal story – a struggle, if you will. This post is one of those. It’s about evolving – the need to. More specifically, it’s about the important parts of me that have fallen and the struggles to continue to evolve.
It’s a pain in the neck – literally. Last year, I injured my neck, and I haven’t been able to recover. I might’ve pulled a muscle or so while working out, but the following Saturday, I got hit pretty hard from the back – the other player flying straight into the back of my neck. My right arm went numb for a few minutes. I rested up after that, but you know what happened? Nothing. Almost two months went by, and I didn’t feel better. My neck was in all sorts of pain. I couldn’t turn to my right to look at my girlfriend in the passenger seat of my car without feeling pain in my neck.
I went to the doctor who prescribed physical therapy. I blew past the 8 sessions, and my PT was able to get more sessions from my insurance provider. However, I had plateaued. I wasn’t getting better.
All this time, I changed everything about my workouts – lowering all the weights, changing the exercises, etc. In soccer, I moved myself towards the backline. I favored the middle of the park, but it required me to be more mobile. The back and forth and sideways movement was too much. Playing in my favored role required quick changes in direction. Apparently, changing directions on a sprint heavily involves one’s neck. That was no good. I started slotting into the backline. This, at least, kept most of the play in front of me. I could put a little distance so I could also prepare if I needed to break out into a sprint. That’s how much my pain was.
I didn’t get more sessions from insurance for PT. I had “failed out”. I went back to the doctor and was told to get an MRI. The results… was a herniated disc.
The troubling part about a herniated disc is that there is little that can be done. Like many injuries, you lean on your body to repair itself. However, it’s been so long with the herniated disc that it was clear my body had not repaired itself… and grimly, might not. We opted for a couple epidural injections over the next couple months to ease the pain while perhaps giving my body some “space” to heal.
Sadly, that hasn’t proven the case.
The next treatment? There’s really only one option – vertebrae fusion. It’s, “eff your disc, it’s not getting better. We’re just going to fuse the two vertebrae that is separated by the disc together.” Except 80% of folks I talk to say not to do it. They say most people don’t get better, and the complications that can arise from this surgery is “worth it”. Awesome.
I sit here today getting ready to play soccer in a few minutes. My neck is sore. It’s not in a lot of pain at the moment unless I articulate my neck within 15-degrees of my prior-limits (looking left, right, up, and down. That’s a lot of restriction. Tomorrow, I hope to work out. Except, I’ll approach it as a very strict “de-de-load” session.
To be honest, I’m scared. I’m scared because I’m feeling aches in my body now, and I don’t know what else can be done. Or rather, I don’t like the next options. I’ve already limited so much of what I do – weight, range of motion, exercises, etc. I’ve lowered my expectations. I apply a heat pack daily to my neck and upper traps. I stretch as much as I can. I’m scared I’m losing a big part of me – the physical me.
For years, soccer was my passion. It was who I was. In high school French class, I always volunteered at the beginning of class [for participation points] to say what I did the day prior in French. “J’ai joue au foot!” (I played soccer!) I was like a parrot I said it so often. I played soccer every day. I played soccer throughout college. Then, I kept playing after college. Then, something happened. Friends couldn’t play anymore. They were moved out-of-town. They were having kids. Organizing soccer with friends became harder.
At that point, working out had started to be THE thing for me. If soccer was hard to come by because of a lack of friends (team sport), then working out was a sport I didn’t have to rely on anyone else. It was me against myself. Weights didn’t care if I had a bad day. It was perfect.
Working out became such a big part of my life. It even became a part of my entrepreneurial life with Body Boss.
Now, it’s possibly being taken away from me. Now, I think I’m losing that, too. I’m no longer the competitive soccer player. Now, I may not be the strongest guy in the room. I may not be the guy everyone looks up to for being able to lift and do impressive feats of exercise.
I admit that when I think about how I can’t challenge myself because of the pain, it hurts real fricken deep. When I feel the pain coming when I work out, I wonder if I should just pack it up and go home. Don’t know how many people around me know this feeling. I wouldn’t wish anyone to face this. In some ways, it’s an existential crisis. If I have stern look these days, chances are, the back of my mind is trying to rush into the front of my mind – reminding me of the pain and the possibility of everything going away. I didn’t think this would happen to me, let alone so soon.
Last week, I remember rolling up from the bench press into a sitting position. I was able to lift a good heavy weight, but I knew that I used to be able to lift so much more. I knew that I used to know I could push myself. Now? Now, I’m scared to. I’m afraid of the pain. Again, I think about going home. I looked down at my watch, though, and realized my 2-minute rest was about over. Well, while I still can, “eff it”. I rolled back down on the bench and go to my next set. Might as well…
It sucks. I’m scared. I don’t want to be anyone else, yet. But looks like I might have to. Who will I have be next?
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Execution Is What Makes an Entrepreneur

I was speaking with a friend about what he’d seen in venture capital on what makes an entrepreneur. We talked about how entrepreneurship is about execution – “ideas are nothing if they remain as ideas”, except, there’s a wrinkle here.
Thinking about several others who have “started” an idea or launched an app, I don’t qualify them as entrepreneurs yet. Heck, I started Dee Duper in Dec 2014, but did nothing to sell it once it launched.
Many have grand technology ideas and can hire others to build them. Once built and launched, are these owners also entrepreneurs? Not immediately, no. They’ve launched somethingand they’ve funded it, but I wouldn’t qualify them as entrepreneurs yet. 
So what makes a true entrepreneur? There’s a myriad of actions and decisions that may qualify them, but I’m going simple to say, “Sustained execution”.
Just because I golf a few times a year doesn’t make me a golfer. If someone runs twice in a month, I wouldn’t qualify him as a runner. He goes on runs, but he’s not a runner. Entrepreneurship is similar. It’s about sustained execution. It’s about meeting the needs of the market, developing and delivering some solution, and iterating the idea to serve the market… continuously.
During the tribulations of Body Boss, my cofounders and I were entrepreneurs. We were activelyiterating our product months after launching. I met with prospects and helped customers daily. We attended tradeshows and sold our product to the masses. And of course, we struggled, too. Entrepreneurship is about the ups and the downs. It’s about persistence and sustained execution.

What are your thoughts on entrepreneurship and sustained execution? What about execution in general?
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The Next Act for an Entrepreneur With Breadth, Not Depth – Am I A Product Manager?

I know — my PowerPoint skills are amazing…
Right after making the decision to zombify Body Boss, I met with a local entrepreneur about my Next Act. Except, I didn’t have one, yet. Instead, I talked to him about what was learned, what I may do next, and I asked him what he thought the best role for me would be in a startup.
Not sure if I was so big-headed (figuratively, in addition “physical” – I know I have one… takes a while to find a helmet or hat that fits well), but I was envisioning the scene in my head going, “Daryl, you should continue building. Your best role would be CEO of a startup… your own, preferably.” (I’m now shaking my head muttering, “stupid titles… who cares?!”) Well, those weren’t the words he used. Instead, he said, “I think you’d be a great Product Manager.”
Admittedly, I didn’t know anything about Product Management, at least, not from a formal sense, so I was a bit… (naively) disappointed. I had to think about it this.
I was in this mode of “there were two roles in startups – Builders or Sellers,” and “Product Manager” seemed a bit “back-office” to where the action was. Except in an early-stage startup, especially, Product Management is deep in the action as the company strives to reach product-market fit.
For Body Boss, I played a role largely on the Sell side leading the sales, marketing, biz dev efforts, but I was also heavy in Product Management along with our developers and designer.
As I look back at my Body Boss experience, other startups like Beachscape and 1Q, and even my prior life as a consultant, Product Management perhaps is, indeed, my bread and butter. I never really had the corporate sales role which many startups seem to like, but I’ve had a lot of experience in the other initialism of “PM”, Project Management. In many ways, effective Product Managers and Project Managers share many qualities.
TheNextWeb.com (TNW) featured an article “Product Managers: Who are these ‘mini-CEOs’ and what do they do?” by Ken Yeung back in October of 2013, and more recently, David Cummings (DC) wrote a piece “The Product Manager”. I found both articles to be insightful, and wanted to share some great sound bites and commonalities.
  • In a way, it’s almost like they’re the mini-CEO, complete with the influence, but no authority — they aren’t the direct supervisors of the engineer or designer and can’t fire anyone for not following through, and focused on the success of the product’s mission. [TNW] This couldn’t ring more true for Body Boss where the four of us co-founders had no “hierarchy” and equal equity. We formed a four-headed Product Manager. This can be incredibly challenging when everyone has a different vision, though, as wheels spin and development halts.
  • [Josh] Elman wrote a post entitled A Product Manager’s Job and in it, he says that a core part of it involves having a good feel “for what seems right or wrong, and are also good at listening to early feedback from testers and others who try it.” [TNW] It’s rare there’s a dedicated Product Manager in a startup. In reality the CEO and the lead engineer (and designer) take on the role together. However, the take-away here is the importance of involving feedback from testers and partners early and often in the development of the product. This mitigates risk of building an unwanted product or non-essential/ useful features.
  • True empathy for the customer is a must-have (we’ve all used products that didn’t feel like they had the customer in mind). [DC] Going hand-in-hand with the preceding point, building a product with the customer in mind is critical. Like at Body Boss, none of us were professional strength coaches, and yet, we were selling to them. We didn’t have true empathy, though, and thus, we missed some of the big pain-points early. This was hard moving forward from the start. Note the little nugget in what I just said, too: none of us were professional strength coaches. Having experience in your market/ industry can go a long way in developing empathy and leveraging your network for traction growth.
  •  […] PMs need to have an appreciation for leading while also understanding that it’s about solving the holistic problem. Being a PM can teach you a lot about leadership and also about yourself […] it’s not about using your power to accomplish something — he sees this action as a sign of weakness. It’s all about inspiration, vision, and analysis while keeping in mind that it’s a team sport so you’re not going at things alone. [TNW] and Attention to detail and planning skills are crucial due to all the moving parts. [DC] Product Managers are connectors. They have great communication skills and enough know-how of the business, sales and marketing, design, and technical know-how to empathize with the right touch points of the product. Just as you move higher up the ladder in a corporate setting, a leader’s duties shift to more strategic initiatives and people influences… much of what a Product Manager does.
  • [Joanna] Wright says that managers need to be aware of three things: knowing the product and its users, having tenacity by picking up ideas and following through even though no one may believe in it, and being able to collaborate and working with others to have a strong vibe together. [TNW] Joanna’s points here highlight every critical aspect of an effective Product Manager… they are multi-faceted and view the product holistically… they are leaders – inspiring, team-oriented, collaborative… they persevere with the vision believing in the long-run benefits than short-term challenges… they are internally and externally people-focused as people are what drive the product either consumption or creation… they don’t just drive execution, but they motivate execution.
Hmm, it’s a no wonder TNW’s Yeung and Cummings view effective Product Managers as difficult roles to fill.

I can’t say whether or not being a Product Manager explicitly is “my thing”, though. Product management is definitely a part of what I do and what I want to continue to do. In fact, it perhaps fits me best as an explicit role as it embraces my interest in breadth rather than depth. However, I love early-stage startups because of its necessity for product management in addition to the external-facing role of business development.

So if my Next Act is to join an existing team, perhaps Product Manager is a great role for me. If I’m going to start another startup, then playing Product Manager will likely just be part of my greater role anyways.

How does a Product Manager role sound for you? What are your thoughts about being a Product Manager or Product Management vs. a role in one of the other “specialties” where perhaps you’d be the responsible party a PM would work with?
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Goodbye 2014! Reflections (Part 2 of 3) : Hits and Misses

Image source: http://www.partyswizzle.com/assets/images/S-DinnerChecklist.jpg
Ah, New Year’s Eve… how fitting to share reflections of 2014 today. Read: what a nice coincidence NYE falls on the day I normally post! So I’m sharing my accomplishments of 2014 as part of the 3-part series of reflections – today’s part 2. You can read Part 1 for the six reasons why I blog here. Today’s post starts with the question:

What was accomplished in 2014?

I learned how to code!

The beginning of 2014 started with a bit of a lull for me, and I took a weekend to learn Ruby on Rails through One Month. However, no way do I see that as where I checked off “Learn How To Code” mostly because I didn’t progress beyond a couple months with it. I didn’t find it sustaining. Nor am I counting my earlier knowledge in Visual Basic or SQL. None of those were actually harnessed into sustainable, marketable skills for mass consumption. I have a post about this, too – These 3 Questions Led Me to Stop Waiting and Start Programming.
Instead, it was the recent August-November months where I feel I truly learned how to code. That’s when I embarked on building Dee Duper in Apple’s Swift. The experience was up and down with a LOT of trial and error including YouTubing “How To” videos, figuring out how to properly Google help forums, etc. However, in December, I was able to get Dee Duper in App Store and released for the general public. Since it was so late in the year, I’m delaying marketing till the new year rolls around.
Till then, I’ve started working on another idea on iOS. I’ve made huge progress, and hope to wrap it up by the second week of January. Then, I’ll get it into testing before another App Store submission.

Body Boss was “zombified”.

In April, the Body Boss team decided it was best to let Body Boss continue to operate, but to not sink anymore resources into Marketing and Product Development. Well, kind of. We still do a little product development including moving and testing our skills with different services.
Body Boss today is a revenue-generating business, but is largely hands-off with some notable college and high school programs using it happily.
If traction continues to grow or my programming skills continue to develop (especially on Ruby on Rails and JavaScript), maybe I’ll revive the business beyond zombie-mode. For me, it’s still very much an idea I’m passionate about, and I see some amazing potential in it beyond the academic institutions but into the commercial and retail channels, healthcare, and yes, the consumer market.

Developed stronger business development skills.

This is really a more on-going thing, and probably not specific enough. However, along with Body Boss, I continued to refine my business development skills. After Body Boss’s announcement, I spent the summer consulting with a local startup with a new innovative marketing product.
I performed a lot of the day-to-day cold calls and performed demos, put together some marketing collateral including content for the site, and even helped put together some fund-raising materials including Pro Formas and pitch decks, etc.
Essentially, I did a lot of different things outside of programming. I’m still finding myself building on breadth rather than focusing on depth. Next year, I’ll probably need to work on the latter if I’m to find traction in or with a startup.
Outside of that, I’ve also connected with many great local startups and corporate executives from straight cold-emailing or tweeting, or random meets at Starbucks or conferences. I’ve definitely improved on my people skills and confidence in just walking up to others and finding ways to help which has led to other consulting arrangements.
Heck, I was introduced to the Jon Birdsong of Rivalry who allowed me to spend a few minutes in SalesForce – “3 Hours in SalesForce and I’m (Finally) an Expert”. I suppose that can be a check right there – “Get Working Knowledge of SalesForce/ some CRM”.

What was NOT accomplished?

Building a successful venture

Body Boss’s zombification pretty much marked one in the “failure” category. Then, I spent a few months doing various consulting projects and learning how to program. So nope, didn’t quite build a venture that would sustain a living for myself and one that I would want to grow into a business to provide job opportunities for others.

Benching 315

Okay, so this is less entrepreneurial, but it’s still a goal that was NOT met. Even though I’ve developed a lot of Strength & Conditioning acumen over the years, I’ve really lacked a good grasp of the science behind S&C. As such my strength for the barbell bench press has stalled a bit. I started adding more sets at high intensities to my workouts, and in effect, I’ve done nothing but increased injuries. I’ve tried to push myself too much, and actually decreased my strength.
During the latter part of 2014, I’ve decided to do more research and stick to the basic such as Prilepin’s table. With a smarter regimen, 315 can be an attainable goal next year.
Till then, I did accomplish bringing in a Leg Day (okay, 1.5 Leg Days actually) to the program. I’ve long held out adding a workout just for legs because I used to play soccer up to 4 days a week and mountain bike 1 day. The frequency I play at has slowed down considerably, so I’ve added this lower body day. I also added Squat Cleans into my regimen which was something I was mostly untrained and scared to do. Now, it’s one of my favorite exercises.
Oh, and I also got three plates on the dips.
3 plates? That’s nothin’. Let’s see 4 soon.

12AM on January 1st

Some of the above is a little hard to track and close (such as the Business Development Goal). Next year, I’m going to be more specific and discuss how I’m going to track the goals – I’ll detail this on part 3 of Reflections next week. Stay tuned and keep in touch!
What is just ONE goal you met and ONE goal you didn’t meet this year? Anything stick out to you like these did for me? Any thoughts on how you might ensure success next year? I’m thinking about mine…
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3rd Thanksgiving into My Entrepreneurial Journey: Giving Thanks

Thankful for a lot this Thanksgiving
Welp, it’s Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. No frills, pills, or chills with this post, but listing a few things I give thanks for this year.
  • Friends– I put friends first because I’ve had a couple really close friends who have been great supporters and motivators over the last year especially with Body Boss and Dee Duper. Everyone always seems highly engaged in what I’m working on, and offering some tremendous support including helping me learn how to program.
  • Family– Always able to be counted on, my family has largely been a great support system. Though, I do have family members who believe I’m bat-shit crazy for continuing on my low-income-pursuit-of-my-dreams. I know that in the end, they just want me to be happy and comfortable. We haven’t seen eye-to-eye in some other cases, but overall, they’ve been exemplary to lean on especially when I’m dying from food poisoning and bed-ridden. Yeah.
  • The Body Boss Fitness Team – Okay, so these guys are already pretty much captured in the above with Friends and Family (yes, they’re in both because that’s just how close we are). They’ve been a great team and are highly skilled at what they do. Everyone’s largely moved onto new paths, and it’s apparent the high quality these guys are with each joining some incredible startups even spearheaded by two of (who I call) the Atlanta Entrepreneurial All-Stars.  
  • Brookhaven Police Department – Shout out to the newly incorporated city of Brookhaven’s police department for responding to my 9-1-1 call back in May when I had a break-in at 4AM and woke with a stranger standing in front of me as I woke up — read “When a Break-In at 4AM Inspires 5 Entrepreneurial Lessons Learned“. The other night, I woke up thinking I heard something. False alarm, but it was enough for me to relive that night. Needless to say, I didn’t go back to sleep the rest of the night. Not going to lie – that night was scary, but glad the officers responded quickly and professionally.
Scene from “The Walking Dead”… the only picture I could really find of a legit guy hiding under the bed. This might’ve happened when I woke up to a break-in at 4AM…
  • Atlanta’s Startup Community – I once read, “only entrepreneurs understand entrepreneurs.” True story. Not many people really understand the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, so it’s great to have a growing, vibrant startup community here in Atlanta that is tight-knit. I’ve met some great people ranging from startup employees, founders of all levels (early, growth, failed, successful sales), lawyers, etc. Most everyone has been happy to meet or introduce me to others. Very thankful for the connections.
  • Great Tools and Resources to Learn How to Code – I’ve only started programming in Apple’s Swift since August, and I feel I’ve been able to get up and running pretty… swiftly (get it?!). I’ve been able to pick up these new skills thanks to free YouTube channels, One Month [Rails], Stack Overflow, Parse, Facebook, etc. Especially for the platforms like Parse and Facebook, they’ve been very easy to integrate into.
  • Fantastic Professional Network From a Life Before (and kinda still) – Every once in a while, I need to fill up the coffers to keep my entrepreneurial journey going. Though to an even greater degree, I’ve wanted/ needed to know I’m still capable of doing great work, even if the startups haven’t quite reflected that. So, it’s been great to be able to pick up the phone and tell prior colleagues that I’m up for some consulting work, and every one of them has been eager to bring me on asking, “How many hours do you want? When can you start?” I’ve been fortunate through my prior life as a consultant to have formed some stellar relationships and built up good, adaptable skills.
There’s a number of others who I’m leaving out, and for that, apologies, but know you’ve been helpful on my journey. The ones I put above are those I’ve been thinking about for a while now, and many are likely to be staples to my Thanksgiving posts year in and year out. However, it’s good to call them out anyways, and thank them. Hopefully, this won’t be news to others if I’ve shown my appreciation throughout the last year.
And finally, THANK YOU! for reading my blog posts. If you have any questions or comments, I’m always up for hearing or connecting. Just give me a shout either via Twitter @TheDLuor email me at the.daryl.lu@gmail.com.
Who/ what are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? How are you showing appreciation not just on this holiday, but in your interactions?
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Eating your own dogfood and imitating the late Steve Irwin — Why would you do that?

Woo! Another article brought to me by a connection on LinkedIn. Or, maybe it was LinkedIn’s own algorithm. Either way, the source is on point! This article is written by Sahar Hashemi (a LinkedIn Influencer, entrepreneur and author) – “Are They Customers or Aliens?”
Hashemi writes how she started her companies Coffee Republic and Skinny Candy out of her own “selfish” needs. She took the approach to work backwards from a customer’s perspective and needs, and growing up to building a business. Indeed, this is a pretty common approach of many entrepreneurs – personal headaches. However, what she really hones in on in her article is the need for her own team to consistently put themselves in the shoes of the customers. Market research, focus groups, mystery shoppers, and other means can be expensive propositions. Only getting in the face, in a positive way, of customers did they learn. However, putting themselves in their customers’ positions was a key ingredient to Hashemi’s success.
Hashemi noted how once upon a time, her customers were viewed more as “market segments” rather than living, breathing people. Customers were “behavioural patterns” versus humans. This is where she realized the bridge to her customers had been lost.
Putting yourself in your customers’ shoes is not a novel idea, but sometimes, it’s a concept startups (okay, general companies) fail to employ. I’ve noticed this to great effect in many ways, and I believe some of the below can be good advice as you’re building your startup…
(Source: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/business/2013/02/8512907643_3573889703_b1.jpg)
  • “Eating your own dogfood”. This is a term endeared to many where company employees from the top down (CEO to… everyone below) use the company’s product or service as means for testing. You can see this all the time like Google’s Sergey Brin wearing Google Glass everywhere prior to launch (yes, partly as marketing, too).
(Source: http://images.usatoday.com/life/_photos/2006/09/05/irwin-topper.jpg)
  • Observe like you’re on an episode of National Geographic. The late Steve Irwin and this crazy guy hugging lionstaught us to really understand the focus of our attention, we have to get out there in our subjects’ elements. Hashemi also noted that the key to understanding customer insight is to be out in the field observing customers, not behind a desk.
(Source: http://customerlensconsulting.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/j0431794.jpg)
  • Step into your Customers’ shoes. Hashemi’s article and the notion of a customer as an alien is funnily familiar to me. With Body Boss, none of us are Strength Coaches. We’ve had light experience training others, but that’s about it. Sadly, that was a big problem. When we started out, we originally built the app how we saw would be best. Watching our customers interact with it, though, we quickly learned we failed in building an app that engaged them appropriately – everything from look and feel, down to the how to track.
(Source: http://www.optimizebusinessgrowth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/devlopmentpartners.jpg)
  • The importance of communicative customer-partners. I think I’ve said this before where I truly look at our customers at Body Boss as partners. This is because for our success, they must be successful, too. And to do that, you need that feedback loop from your partners on what they like and don’t like to make iterations. Not all customers will be the partners you’re looking for, but if you’re going to really reach a mass audience, you need to get buy-in from your customers to help you with iterations (be okay with some hiccups), and you should be able to reach out at some frequency that doesn’t make you a stalker.
I just want to hammer this home – even pretending to be your customers and using your product or service is a huge step towards building the right product/ service. In my prior life in consulting, putting myself as an audience member to a presentation made me think about how to perfect my slides. In Body Boss, it’s critical to pretend I’m a coach who may not be as tech savvy and with limited time to work with athletes. As such, design is so critical to get buy-in and engagement. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes, and eat your own dogfood. Your customers (and your company) will thank you for it.

What are your thoughts on the concept of dogfooding and looking at your product/ service through the lens of your customers? How else could you observe and get valuable feedback from customers? 
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Neo Moments: Seeing the world in a new way… not necessarily in green numbers

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned my Neo Moment with you, my blog readers, but I wanted to talk about it and perhaps you’ll have your own. The Neo Moment, to me, is this enlightenment and awakening of Neo, the protagonist in The Matrix. In the Matrix, there was a time when he was resurrected in the first movie, and he woke seeing the world for what it really was. At that moment, he stopped hoping and thinking he was The One, and just firmly knew he was The One. As he awakened to the world around him, he saw the Matrix in all its green numeric beauty.

My Neo Moment lasted a bit longer than a few seconds, but it was a moment where I started seeing the world much differently. It was when I started living life how I wanted to while also looking for ways to improve the world. To me, it was a moment where I started questioning normal, old-school conventions in favor of more… shall we say, “disruptive” ways of doing things. In many ways, it was my moment where I started coming up with ideas (potentially for different startups) in everyday things. I started just asking random people questions including flight attendants on Southwest on how to improve their provisioning, call center interactions with customers, etc.

I’m not the only one with a Neo Moment, of course. In fact, I’ve heard of a few Neo Moments recently that have and will continue to have a significant change in my friends’ lives.

  • GiveLiveExplore.com – Matt Trinetti is a friend from Georgia Tech who up and decided that he needed to take a break from the consulting life. He kept hearing this little voice in his head to quit — you can read a recent article he wrote about this in the Huffington Post. In fact, he ended up taking a 7-month sabbatical (spearheaded with a one-way ticket) from a cushy consulting gig to travel to Iceland. The things he learned and experienced taught him so much that he quit his job immediately after his sabbatical, and is now a traveler and writer. 
  • TheWhole-Hearted.com – My new friend from Starbucks Ayan ventured to Brazil as part of her MBA program. Exploring the favellas and watching how technology has proliferated even into these neighborhoods has brought incredible life and opportunity to its people. She’s also been hearing more about how companies need to find purpose and impact the world in a positive way to really thrive — lessons she’s learning in her MBA program. When I met her in December last year, she was confused and unsure of her direction. But since then with all these new experiences, she’s been more and more sure of her direction, and she’s thrilled to be paving the way to finding that intersection of business and purposeful spirituality. She aims to travel the world, and bring that intersection vis-a-vis corporate social responsibility and social enterprise.
  • TitinTech.com – Unsure if I can really say Patrick Whaley’s (CEO) Neo Moment was what really inspired him to push Titin Tech further, but I think it’s definitely lit a particular fire. Patrick had an idea to having weight compression clothing that would fit more naturally on athletes rather than bulky weighted vests. He had this idea early in his life and started working on it in 2006, I believe. In May of 2009, Patrick was mugged and shot and left for dead. He, luckily, survived, and utilized the very-near-death experience to work on his Titin Tech product that much harder, while also using his story to reach audiences as he used his product as part of his recovery. Today, the company is thriving, and he even posted a picture of Titin Tech at the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals practice facility yesterday. The World’s Only Weight Compression Gear. Patented. Boom.
  • My Neo Moment came during my time at Emory getting my MBA. After Georgia Tech, I was always traveling doing consulting. It wasn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, I absolutely loved it. However, I also knew that I wanted to build my own company. I just didn’t think it’d be so soon with Body Boss. I entered the MBA program to be better prepared for business obstacles in the future (a lesson taken from Scouting — “Be Prepared”). What I didn’t realize was the greatest take-away from the MBA program was the time I would get to focus on myself, focus on building Body Boss, workout and play soccer more consistently because I wasn’t traveling. 
Neo Moments happen all the time to people. They’re watershed events that spur sometimes drastic changes in approaches in life. Many people will have several Neo Moments in their lives. What’s common, I think, is some underlying voice as Matt Trinetti puts it in his article that starts creeping in and whispering to you that something else is calling. That voice eggs you on, and oftentimes, taking a leap into some foreign territory be it traveling, educational experiences, or some near-death experience, that’s where Neo Moments seem to crystallize for people. It’s where people get out of their comfort zones (sometimes unintentionally), and push themselves into places where that little inner voice encourages them.

For me, I’m thrilled to have found my calling and where I’m heading. It’s incredibly frustrating at times, and forces me to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. However, I’m happy where it’s putting me, and the steps I’m taking.

What’s a Neo Moment you’ve had? Where/ how do you think your own Neo Moment is taking you?

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Lessons from a Blog: I’m Picking Up What You’re Putting Down

I read this article from Stephanie St. Claire, a self-described “unfunded entrepreneur” – “11 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My Business”.  I think I read this middle of 2013, and just kept it in my list of sites to remember, and articles I want to blog about because I enjoyed it.  Obviously, right?

St. Claire writes about many aspects of starting her business and the journey to wherever it is she is today – still fighting the good fight.  She traverses the messiness of divorce, selling her home, a meager $14 left on her bank account, and so much more.  She says she’s a good writer, and her creativity truly comes out in her writing making her article more fun to read.

So, while reading her article, I wanted to touch on a few of her 11 points, whether or not I agree or disagreed.  Armed with my own experience with Body Boss and others from the past, my thoughts:

  • Her first point: One. Running the business is your first priority.  I quickly learned from Body Boss that it’s not about Working Out, meeting Coaches and Trainers, watching Players crush it in the gym that will occupy a great deal of my time.  Instead, it’s about the little things like taking care of business.  I don’t think it’s as much as 15% of my time.  However, it includes all the little things like paying the bills and ensuring the insurance for the company is in line, the LLC exists year to year, answering emails quickly on the weekend, or staying on the phone to trouble-shoot issues after my afternoon game of soccer pick-up.
    Like the Sharks on Shark Tank tell so many inventors, inventions are great, but inventions alone aren’t businesses. 
  • Two – Ready to meet your soul mate?  It’s you.  While really working more and more on Body Boss during my MBA program at Emory May 2012 through May 2013, I became so much more in tune with myself.  My time during the MBA program actually was one of my greatest – not necessarily for the program itself, but the time I was able to “work on myself”.  That’s actually what I tell everyone about the greatest takeaway from MY time at Emory.
    Be comfortable in your own skin, and be comfortable being yourself.  Not everyone will buy your idea and buy into what you’re trying to accomplish.  You’ve gotta stay true to yourself.  Like business like personality, St. Claire’s point from Ten – Email will be your new best frenemy – “Not everyone is your customer”.
  • Four – Running out of money is a common part of the journey.  St. Claire writes about how dreams of flying high hit rough air with the gas gauge near zero forcing her to land into the “wild, abandoned air strip called Bank Balance: Fourteen Dollars”.
    I kinda like the idea of having less options when you’re starting something out.  Understanding everyone has his/ her own life, but with a more “complex” situation comes more excuses.  By having options or working part-time, you may not feel the pressure to really make your startup work.  When you’re staring at no income but still bills to pay, you start to really push yourself to make it work… else, you crash land and watch as your startup go up in smoke.  Back anyone up into a corner, and you give her no choice but to fight. 
  • Now that I’ve pointed my thoughts around going full-bore on your startup, here’s St. Claire at point Five – Build a hybrid stream of income.  Okay, so obviously hitting some meager amount in your bank where you can’t even pay bills is a bit of a problem.  Something’s gotta give.  St. Claire talks about how picking up some other part-time gig to supplement income could be beneficial – adding financial stress to an already immensely stressful situation can be even more taxing.  She says that if you believe part-time income would serve to put your mind at ease, then do it.
    I think this is sage advice if only you take on legitimately part-time work.  If you’ve just gone ahead and taken full-time work or pulled in part-time work that demands more time than your business, I think that’s a mistake.  Your business should be priority #1 as it requires dedication and care to succeed.  Splitting time, again like said above, may not give you the right motivation to truly push yourself. 
    What else I’ve found is that most people (your customers or even co-workers included) only have so much daylight to work with you.  If you don’t have a majority of your time to work on your business, you may miss prime time where customers need you, or simply, you may be missing prime time for selling.  You’re likely not selling to entrepreneurs like you who are working non-stop.
  • Six – Read Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work. Simply put from St. Claire (and Pressfield’s book) is something I’ve found to be true: “[The biggest] challenge you will deal with in running a business is your own resistance”.  You will no doubt harbor doubts and excuses, and those around you may tell you you won’t succeed or you should go back to a cushy, safe job, but ultimately, it’s your choice.
  • Eleven – Number eleven is a hodge-podge.  From St. Claire: “Work out perplexing issues in your business and it will resolve problems in other areas of your life. Breathe, play, laugh.”  I think the key message here is that if you fix some major areas of your business (you know the problems, probably), you could benefit in alleviating other areas of your life.
    And yet, like the point above about taking on a part-time job if you need to to mitigate financial stress, you should maintain your life still.  That is, still make time to enjoy the little things of life.  That may include exercise, friends, and especially family. 
    What are your thoughts about St. Claire’s 11 lessons?  Any of them resonate more so with you than others?
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    A little bit of Psychology in Business? No. A LOT.

    On any given day, there’s about a 60% chance you’ll find me at Starbucks working.  It’s a great, free working space complete with vibrant energy, wake-up aromas, and, especially this time of year, snowman sugar cookies.  Ah, and there’s usually a fascinating collection of people hanging out/ working.  This past Friday night, I was writing some Holiday/ Thank You cards to our customer-partners and other prospects when I was complimented on our cards by a fellow Starbucker (yes, handwriting them – crazy in this day of keyboard and touchscreen typing, I know). 
    My new friend is an MBA student at Georgia State, and was a previous Psychology major in undergrad.  She was worried a bit about having a non-business background and post-graduate opportunities.  This was a great conversation for me because I’ve long appreciated how psychology intertwines with business.  It’s not readily apparent, but it really is.  Talk to any good salesperson, and he’ll know exactly how to talk to you and potentially what makes you tick and tock. 
    Some quick thoughts on how psychology is engrained in entrepreneurship and business overall…
    • Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses.  Assessments like the Myers-Briggs, DISC Profile, Berkman, etc. can be simple ways of finding out more about yourself.  These assessments may help you realize more about yourself to capitalize on your strengths and limit your weaknesses while building your career around your personal interests.  I’d recommend, however, that as much as you limit your weaknesses, to also work on those weakness or what stresses you — this can help you be a stronger performer – “be comfortable being uncomfortable”.
    • Building a Balanced Team.  As a continuation of the Strengths and Weaknesses above, building a team for a startup or small business with balanced strengths and weaknesses allow for a stronger company in addition to its product/ service offering.  For Body Boss, we do actually have differing personalities, and it challenges each of us to think more about why one another feels the way we do when we consider marketing campaigns, licensing and selling opportunities, or even just philosophies that shape our startup’s culture.

    • Put Yourself in Your Customers’ Shoes.  Marketing has psychology all over it.  You have your target audience in mind.  Do you know what language they speak?  What style of communication they perceive?  How about what really resonates with them so that you can grab their attention right away?  Marketing is all about diving into the psyche of your customers and compelling them to engage with you.
    • Sales is All About Your Customer.  Many people will tell you that an effective sales strategy is to have the customer speak.  I think this can be somewhat true in terms of getting engagement.  However, why I like this rule of thumb is so that it gives me a break and a chance to listen to the customer and analyze him/ her.  Customers are all different, and chances are, your product/ service has many value propositions.  By sitting back and listening to your prospects, you can hone in on what matters to them and cater your value message accordingly.
    • Threshold of Pain.  My new friend asked me what signs a successful entrepreneur exhibits/ has.  I have many thoughts to this, not necessarily from my own perspective, but witnessing others.  One of the standout factors?  Mental and emotional fortitude.  Beyond the physical demands of being an entrepreneur (like lack of sleep), it’s the mental and emotional toll of going through the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship including feeling INCREDIBLE when new customers finding out about you to incredibly FRUSTRATED due to low user engagement, then back to a HIGH after a great exhibition at a conference, then dipping back down LOW from unsuccessful trial conversions.  Because much of entrepreneurship is about passions and the creation of your own product, it takes a toll both mentally and emotionally.  I recommend you watch Angela Lee Duckworth’s TED talk about this in “The Key to Success?  Grit”.

    A company, a product… in the end, behind the curtains are people.  Perhaps this is also why psychology actually plays a significant role in business.  For my fellow Starbucker, I think having a background in psychology will give her a different perspective, and with an MBA to help round out her business abilities, she’ll have a strong platform to build on.

    What are your thoughts on how psychology plays a role in business and entrepreneurship?  Where else do you feel psychology plays a critical role in business?

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    Your Personal Brand: You’re a Walking, Talking Billboard

    How often are you walking around when you notice someone wearing a Jawbone Up or Nike Fuel band?  They’re really starting to blow up and be everywhere, aren’t they?  The movement for wearable technology is just a growing wave, poised to be a tidal wave that consumes the world along with Google Glass, smart watches, and of course, those wearable devices for fitness.

    I have a Jawbone Up — received as a gift from my brother and sister-in-law for graduation earlier this year.  It’s always intrigued me being a guy who loves to quantify myself because I’m always looking to be smarter, faster, stronger, whatever.  I’ve always been a terrible sleeper, and the Up band’s ability to track my sleep patterns was a pretty cool function (how accurately is another question).  I did have a couple issues with my band, but I found myself wanting to get it remedied with Jawbone quickly not necessarily because I wanted to track my sleep or count my steps.  I missed having it on my wrist not just because I felt lighter without it on my wrist.  Instead, I missed having it to showcase to the world that I care about exercising and I’m kinda nerdy so I want to quantify it.  Odd thing it’s become.

    Ryan Hoover, a blogger, wrote an article about how he has a Jawbone Up, but admittedly, doesn’t track anything anymore (see the article here).  The original novelty had worn off for him.  However, he continues to wear it simply because of the “branding” it provides.  When I go out and see someone with an Up band, there’s almost this subtle head nod to the other person.  Or if I see someone with one or one of the other wearables, I automatically have a notion that this person is an exerciser, and I immediately shift that person in my head to a different category of person.  (Because I value fitness and health.)

    The underlying notion I’ve appreciated more as I tote this wristband is the idea of personal branding.  It’s this notion that we’re all marketers kind of like how we’re all salespeople (see Daniel Pink’s To Sell is Human) — we sell who we are to get a date, we sell a suggestion for dinner, we sell our athletic prowess to get a spot on the team, or just outright, we sell for our job.  And with this thinking, here’s what I’ve kind of learned in general and as an entrepreneur…

    • You do care.  Everyone says they don’t stereotype, but what you wear, how you present yourself in an email, everything is being scrutinized.  Why?  Because you care about who you interact with.  Plain and simple.  What someone wears, what someone says, it all paints some story for you.  I think we all like psychology to an extent because we like to hypothesize that person’s story. So mind how you communicate…
    • You’re a walking, talking billboard.  You might actually have a company’s logo plastered on your chest, or you may have a partially eaten fruit icon lit up all nice and bright on your computer.  Other than that, little details are sometimes amplified depending on what others value.  Something like a small wristband can convey a big message.  As an entrepreneur, you should realize that what you wear, say, and do can represent your company, too.
    human billboard
    • Market to the audience.  I think one of the challenges some entrepreneurs… actually, everyone has is that sometimes we get hurt if our idea or who we are doesn’t resonate with certain people.  I did a pitch of Body Boss to a room full of investors, entrepreneurs, students, and teachers in business school.  It resonated with half, while the other half felt otherwise.  At the end of the day, you should understand that not everyone is going to have the same value for what you do or who you are.  You have to understand that you’re marketing to a TARGETED audience, not everyone.  Side note: respect everyone even if that “value” is not the same.
    • Be one with your audience. Speaking of marketing to your audience, know what your target audience values and who they are — talk the talk, walk the walk.  I once was pitching Body Boss to some potential coaches, and I was using some silly b-school lingo.  The coaches called me out, and I realized we weren’t even speaking the same language.
    • Be ready.  You never really know who you’re going to run into.  Be respectful, courteous, and potentially, your eccentric self.  I got a flat on my bike while mountain biking once, and while walking my bike back to my car, a fellow mountain biker stopped and gave me one of his bike tubes and helped me fix my flat.  I later learned he was an Senior Vice President of a large bank.
    • Love yourself.  That sounds cheesy and kinda “hippie”, but I’m sticking to it.  I think that we’re all at this interesting point in the world where things are getting generic.  People are trying to fit into some trend (Crossfit, certain phones, maybe even this trend of “entrepreneurship”) or trying to fit in to get a job, for example.  However, I also see this other half of the world where personalization and people are trying to be different with loud-colored shoes, more free-spirited communication.  Technology ubiquity has led to a broader range of products and services to reach audiences everywhere.  Be yourself, and people who matter (audience, remember?), will value you, too.
    • Be careful of stereotyping or being stereotyped.  It’s a tough balancing act to temper our original scrutiny with what is real.  No good answers for that here.  Instead, I can only say that you have to be ready to pivot that original idea.  Build your personal brand to market to the right people so you get that introduction to validate/ change perceptions.
    • You represent more than yourself.  Like it or not, you represent more than you.  I represent my family, my friends, Atlanta, Georgia Tech, Emory, etc.  Different situations, different audiences… they will put you in some category(-ies).  This can be controversial because people oftentimes don’t want to be “pegged” as something.  However, you will be; it’s human nature.  In this case, use this as an opportunity to either shift those notions or as a way to adjust how to change your personal brand.  You’ll have to decide how you want to represent yourself and those you may be affiliated with.
    What do you think about personal branding either through what you wear, how you interact with others, what you wear, etc.?  How have you changed public perception through your own personal brand?
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