In this special episode of the Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, we mark a significant milestone: the 10th anniversary of my first startup exit.

Join me as I share the emotional rollercoaster of that momentous day and reflect on the journey of exiting a business.

Exits can be life-changing, but they are rarely "you changing"
- Understand that while a successful exit can bring financial transformation, it may not necessarily change who you are as a person.
- The Work is actually the Thing
- Embrace the journey and the daily grind, as the process of building and growing your business is where true fulfillment lies.
- Everything is a Series of Offers
- Learn to see every opportunity, negotiation, and decision as part of a series of offers, helping you navigate the entrepreneurial landscape with more clarity and purpose.

Episode Highlights

A personal recount of May 31, 2014, the day of the exit.
Emotional insights and the mix of feelings experienced during the exit.
The reality of post-exit life and the lessons learned over the past decade.

This 13-minute episode offers a unique perspective from the other side of an exit. Tune in to gain valuable insights and lessons that can help you on your entrepreneurial journey.

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In this episode of the Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, we delve into one of the most common and frustrating challenges for businesses: the revenue plateau. Every business encounters these moments where growth seems to stall, and getting to the next level becomes an uphill battle. But often, the key to breaking through a plateau isn't doing more of the same—it's about doing something different.

Understanding Revenue Plateaus:
- Definition and common levels where businesses hit plateaus (0->$350k, $350k->$1M, $1M->$2M, $2M->$3M, $3M->$5M).
- The natural inclination to continue with the same strategies that initially brought success.
- Challenging Your Business Model:
- The importance of reevaluating and potentially changing your approach.
- Example from my first startup: stagnation at $250k, the pivot to offering support services, and how that change drove us to $1M in revenue.
- Fundamentals for Breaking Through:
- Focusing on refining the essentials: knowing your 10X customer, simplifying your offers, maintaining a daily lead generation system, and perfecting your conversion process.
- Practical Strategies to Overcome Plateaus:
- 2 Sure Signs You've Hit a Plateau: Recognizing when your business has hit a growth ceiling.
- The Toughest Plateau: Navigating the complex $1M->$3M revenue jump.
- 3 Proven Strategies to Break Through: Actionable tips to overcome any revenue plateau.

As Allan Watts said, "Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked the wrong way." This episode encourages you to rethink your business questions and strategies to find new pathways to growth.

Join the 2X Accelerator Community: If you’re a B2B Founder ready to break through your current plateau and achieve the next $500k-$1M in revenue within the next 90 days, there's one spot available for June. Reply "2X" to get more details.

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Episode Summary:

Steve shares his thoughts inspired by the Amazon series "Fallout" and an interview with actor Walton Goggins.
Goggins' journey and advice resonate with the founder's journey, emphasizing persistence and the cumulative effect of consistent effort.

Key Points:

The Struggle of Success:
- Walton Goggins' career journey and his breakthrough role in "Fallout."
- His agent's life-changing advice: Success is the sum total of all efforts, not a single silver bullet.
- Parallel to Founders' Journey:
- Founders, like actors, often face numerous rejections before achieving success.
- The expectation vs. reality of how fast products or services should take off.
- The Myth of the Silver Bullet:
- Founders often look for one big move to ensure success, but it's the accumulation of all efforts that build the path to success.
- Importance of persistence and learning from failures.
- Real-Life Example:
- A member of Steve’s 2X Accelerator Community closed a huge deal by putting offers out and persevering through rejections.
- The process of building momentum through continuous effort.
- Motivational Message:
- Encouragement to keep going even when things feel hard.
- Assurance that you are exactly where you are supposed to be on your journey.

Conclusion:

This episode serves as a quick motivational reminder for founders.
Save Episode #85 for whenever you need to hear this message.

PS:

Steve has one spot open in his 2X Accelerator Community.
Ideal for B2B Founders aiming for $500k-$1M in revenue growth in the next 90 days.
Interested? email steve@steveaugustcoaching.com with "2X" to get the details.

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Episode Summary:In this episode of the Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, Steve addresses a common frustration among Founders: knowing what to do but struggling to take action. During a recent Office Hours session with the 2X Accelerator Community, one member voiced this sentiment, echoing a challenge many entrepreneurs face. Steve delves into the reasons behind this inaction and offers practical strategies to overcome it.

Key Topics:

Understanding the Inaction Dilemma
- Explore why Founders often know what needs to be done but fail to do it.
- Common misconceptions and self-judgments that hinder progress.
- Identifying the Blocks
- Responding to Day-to-Day Fires: How getting caught up in urgent tasks derails important long-term goals.
- Seeking Comfort Over Necessity: Recognizing when you're retreating to familiar activities instead of tackling necessary tasks.
- Misalignment with Goals: Understanding when your actions aren't aligned with your true objectives.
- Lack of Ruthlessness: The importance of being relentless and focused on your priorities.
- Strategies to Overcome Inaction
- 3 Keys to Getting Unstuck: Actionable steps to help you break free from inertia and make progress.
- Being Ruthless with Your Calendar: Techniques to prioritize effectively and protect your time.
- Leveraging Peer Accountability: How the right support group can enhance your commitment and follow-through.

Why You Should Listen:This episode provides valuable insights and practical advice for Founders who feel stuck despite knowing what they need to do. Steve's strategies will help you identify your specific blocks and offer solutions to overcome them, empowering you to take consistent action towards your goals.

Special Offer:Steve's 2X Accelerator Community is currently open for just 3 new B2B Founders. If you're ready to scale your revenue and need a supportive environment to hold you accountable, email steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

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Episode Summary:In this episode of the Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, Steve dives into the unique challenges and strengths that ADHD Founders experience on their entrepreneurial journey. Drawing from personal experience and recent conversations with other ADHD entrepreneurs, Steve shares three essential techniques that can help not only ADHD Founders but also anyone looking to optimize their productivity and well-being.

Key Topics:

Understanding Time Blindness
- Explore how ADHD brains struggle with tracking and estimating time.
- Learn strategies to better manage and allocate your time to prevent overwhelm.
- Navigating Executive Function Deficits
- Discover how to enhance your prioritization, planning, and decision-making skills.
- Tips on maintaining executive function energy throughout the day and week.
- Managing Emotional Dysregulation
- Identify the signs of emotional overload and learn how to handle them.
- Techniques to maintain emotional balance and resilience under pressure.

Why You Should Listen:Whether you're an ADHD Founder or not, this 11-minute episode is packed with valuable insights and practical strategies to help you overcome common entrepreneurial challenges. Steve's tips on time management, executive function, and emotional regulation are designed to boost your productivity and keep you on the path to success.

Special Offer:Steve is opening up his 2X Accelerator Community to three Founders who are ready to scale their revenue by $500k-$1M in the next 90 days. Neurodiverse Founders are especially welcome. If you're interested, email steve@steveaugustcoaching.com with "2X" to get all the details.

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To be a Founder is to be constantly (and often frantically), up-skilling yourself.

If you are a Technical, Expert or Visionary Founder, you’ve been spending most of your working life creating amazing things - tech, services, methods solutions.

But you likely never took a formal marketing class. Or worked in a sales or marketing role.

Yet, here you are playing that CMO role because you need to get people to buy your amazing product/service.

If you’re playing the CMO role on TV and/or in real life, this week’s episode of the Rocket Ship Founder Podcast is here to help. I’ll cover:

How to simplify the CMO role down into 3 key things
What the real role of marketing is
Why most marketing doesn’t deliver (and how to ensure yours does)
Why Email is your most critical channel

This 13-minute listen will help you CMO like a boss.

To your success,

Steve

PS One of the essential CMO skills is mastering email marketing. But I see a lot of people struggle with it far more than they need to. If this resonates with you, then I’d like to invite you to a workshop I'm giving next Wednesday, May 15 called "The Email Code: Mastering Email for Non-Marketer Founders."

in 90-minutes you'll get the mindset, frameworks, templates and strategies to enable you to become prolific and effective with email marketing.

We'll cover:

How to write emails that help people trust and buy from you
How to send more without being spammy or too sales-y
What to write (even when you don't know what to write)
How to fuel conversions
How to master the mindset of an effective and prolific email marketer

It's $100 to attend. You get ready-to-use templates and proven frameworks for emails and subject lines. Lifetime access to the recording. And a 100% money back if you aren't satisfied.

It's happening Wednesday, May 15 from 9-10:30am Pacific/12-1:30pm Eastern. If you can't make it live, you still have lifetime access to the recording and templates.

Here’s the link to register if you’d like to attend.

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This week I was having a session with one of my private clients. I've been working with this Founder for a couple of years since their original Seed funding.

It's been a long journey to product market fit, with many a twist and turn. But in this session, this Founder reported that the signals were finally turning green:

- Customers signing deals
- Partners eager to integrate their offering to keep their own customers
- A pipeline that is starting to fill nicely

But the clincher was when he said, "my Oura ring alerted me that my heart rate variability (a stress indicator) has go way down over the past couple of months."

There is was. Quantified proof that he'd cracked it.

There's something that happens when you start getting "when can we start?" yeses.

There's a confidence that emerges when you start feeling like it's not luck and you can replicate it. Stress goes way down and things start getting fun.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about:

- Why it can be a long and winding journey to product market fit and reliable growth.
- 2 keys to to shorten the journey.
- 3 signs to know when you've cracked it (for now).

This 13-minute episode is short, but impactful.

To your success!

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Recently of the Founders in my 2X community reported a great win.

We had supported her on refining her offer around helping CEO's stand up a weekly podcast that can help drive business. She committed to sending out an email to her list to see who in her world might be interested.

Me and the 2X group helped her tune the email, which essentially described the offer, who it was for and simply asked those interested to reply.

The result? "We've never had a response like that!" She's now working through those inbound requests

There's a couple of takeaways from this win:

Focusing on making your offer as easy to say yes to can be the biggest leverage in your business.
Despite all the shiny bells and whistles of CRM software providers, it turns out you don't need to spin up complicated funnels or build elaborate sales pages to start testing your offer.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about:

- Why focusing on your offer vs your product can be the most impactful thing you can do
- A simple format to test your offer via an email

This 7-minute episode is short, but impactful.

To your success!

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This week I've been digging in deep with with private clients and the members of my 2X Accelerator community on the biggest leverage point in their businesses.

It's not their product or service, though a brilliant product/service is essential.

It's not their team, though great teams will move mountains.

It's not their brand, marketing or funnels.

So if not any of the above, what's the biggest point of leverage for your business?

It's your offer.

This might sound controversial, but customers don't buy your product/service, your team, or your brand and marketing.

They buy your offer. Everything else supports either building trust in your offer (brand/marketing) or delivering the promise of your offer (product/team).

The more compelling your offer, the easier it is for customers to to say yes to it.

The highest level of yes is, 'when can we get started?!' yes.

When you have this kind of energy coming from customers, EVERYTHING in your business gets easier. That energy creates momentum that consistently drives exciting, fun growth.

That's what makes it the biggest point of leverage in your business.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about creating the 'when can we get started?!" yes:

- What conditions need to be present to get this type of yes
- Why to focus on making your offer 'Stupid'
- The two key components of creating a Stupid Offer

This 11-minute episode is short, yet chock-full of wisdom.

To your success!

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One of the Holy Grail's of business life is a SaaS business where customers sign up and you get high margin revenue every month like clockwork, with a minimum of customer support.

Investors love this model. Founders crave it. But I find that getting too attached to a business model can get in the way of bigger growth.

Why is that?

Because customers don't really care about your business model. They care about their pain being solved

Let's make this tangible.

When I was leading my first startup, I was fully on board with the SaaS model, and was very disciplined about not letting too much service and support creep in and diminish our margins.

But we ran into a problem. We discovered our customers actually needed that service and support. Without it, they wouldn't buy and we couldn't grow very fast.

Once we added in support and services, we went from $200k to $1M in less than a year.

Recently I've worked with two Founder clients who started out thinking they would make a data oriented product for a niche industry and build a SaaS business around it.

But as they got into it, both of these Founders collided head on with a stubborn reality: the data/SaaS issues did not on their own solve an important enough pain.

Because of this, they got a lot of "that's interesting's." But not the kind of traction they needed.

It turned out, the SaaS component of what they offered, only addressed a small part of the customers' pain. And not enough to make it a "Stupid Offer"

So they zoomed out, focused on the biggest, most important pain they could saw, and saw that the SaaS they were building was really the underpinnings of a market place model that customers got REALLY excited about.

While Marketplaces are a bigger lift to create, that was the big exciting opportunity.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about taking a closer look at your business model. I cover:

- Why Offer-Market fit trumps Product-Market fit in understanding your model
- How to use Offer-Market fit to sanity test your business model
- How to know when your business model might be getting in the way

This 14-minute episode will change how you look at one of the most fundamental aspects of your business.

To your success!

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After nearly 3 weeks fighting Covid, my voice is good enough to scratch through a new episode of the Rocket Ship Founder Podcast.

What's on my mind this week? Navigating pivots.

Pivots enter the picture when your business isn't getting the traction you'd like in spite of great effort over time from you and your team.

There are two main questions to answer when contemplating pivots:

What's at the heart of the lack of traction?
Where to pivot to?

Getting clarity on #1 is crucial to figuring out #2. You have to discern if you are not getting traction because of some fundamental issue in your offer, market, delivery, model - or if you simply aren't selling and marketing well.

That clarity is crucial because pivots came in different shapes and sizes: you can pivot audiences, business models, product/service or application of product/service.

So how do you know know if it's time to Pivot? And if it is time to pivot, how do you figure out where to pivot to?

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I’ll talk about making your way through pivots. I'll cover:

The 3 things to look for in assessing if it's time to pivot
How looking at everything as on Offer is the key to navigating pivots
How to quickly test hypothesis when contemplating a pivot

This 14-minute episode is pretty much fire!

To your success!

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One of the hardest challenges I have experienced and seen in business is not being able to count on sales month to month or quarter to quarter. Up months and quarters followed by down quarters and months make it nearly impossible to plan and execute well.

Do you hire for the surge in business only to have to reduce staff when things get thin again? How often do you adjust your budget? What can you

Some of this is just part of the cycles of business. But for Founders working with just a handful of team members, it’s often more to do with being pulled in too many directions. We hit these sell/do cycles - sell a lot, then do a lot, then have to scramble to re-fill the pipeline since selling has been neglected while doing.

If you look at businesses that break through, they’ve figured out a way to keep the sales machine firing at all times.

But it’s hard with a smaller team and especially if the Founder is the main revenue driver. How do you always be firing on sales when there’s so many other fires to handle in your business.

That’s where an Always On High Converting Pitch (AOHCP) comes in handy. Imagine if you had a pitch happening 24/7 that consistently took the right people from prospects to customers? It’s actually essential to getting off the revenue roller coaster and on to consistent growth.

Making something Always On is pretty easy these days. There are so many platforms and channels you can use.

But High Converting is actually the most important aspect. After all, if your pitch doesn’t convert, then it doesn’t matter if it’s always on.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I’ll talk about the 3 Keys to an AOHCP. (The ironic thing is that two of the keys aren’t the pitch itself):

Key #1: A Stupid Offer

Start at the end. High Conversion is more important than Always On. The offer you convert them to must be stupidly good. So good that the right person would be almost stupid to say no.

Key #2: A Magnetic Hook

The hook to get people to the pitch must strongly attract the right prospects, and repel people who aren’t going to be a fit. This means it’s got to speak to an urgent pain that the customer needs to solve, with the promise of a solution and a better future.

Key #3: An Indoctrinating Pitch

Finally we get to the pitch. Before they buy, they have to buy in. A great pitch starts by showing prospects exactly why they are experiencing their pain, then indoctrinates them into your unique system for solving their pain. That leads to your Stupid Offer which shows how they can start using your unique system and get to their better future.

This 13-minute episode may be transformational to your business!

To your success,

PS If you’d like to create your own Always On High Converting Pitch, I’ve got a workshop coming up next Wednesday, March 20 9-10:30am PT. Inside this workshop you will:

Learn the 9 essential elements to build a high converting pitch. Template included so you can build your own.
Learn how to build a magnetic hook to get the right people to your pitch.
Get an automated system that consistently gets people to your pitch, so you are turning leads into customers every day like clockwork.
See how to implement it without building a new landing page or complicated funnel.
Get templates and language you can plug and play.

All for $100. Get full details and register here.

Why they say no (and the path to yes)

Before they buy, they have to buy in.

Breaking the sell/do cycle

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What do you do when your new offering isn't taking off like you hoped?

Many of the stories you read about a business taking off will spin a nice, tidy yarn about how someone saw a pain, started a waitlist, got huge signups, therefore validated their market and went on to glory, wealth and fame. Easy, peasy, right?

But the reality is that it's usually way more messy. Usually it goes this way:

You create something or the MVP of something you know will help the people you serve.

You eagerly bring it to them, with the expectation that the brilliance of your “amazing thing” will have them signing contracts and swiping cards.

But then....it doesn’t quite go that way. Maybe a few excited people buy into you or your vision and take you up on your pilot program. You think you’ve got it! But then, you get a few “that's cool” or “interesting!" Some people kick the tires, but they don't stick. You can sense that people just aren’t bowled over about your amazing thing. Sometimes it’s just plain crickets. It's super frustrating.

To be totally transparent, I'm actually working through this myself right now.

I've been developing and test launching a new program (2X Accelerator) that fuses everything I've learned about go to market (GTM) and scalable sales into a systematic program for B2B Founders to build a customer flywheel.

Honestly, it feels kind of embarrassing given this is what I spend a lot of time teaching and talking about. :}

But it’s actually become a valuable teachable moment about what to do when your new offering isn’t taking off. Inside the 2X Community I’ve been sharing in real time the steps I’ve been taking to troubleshoot my offering.

The good news is that we have a specific and simple framework that we can use to systematically work the problem.

We don’t have to pull our hair out.
We don’t have to hire an agency.
We don’t bring on more marketing tech.

We just look at each level of the 3 levels of our “Stupid Offer Stack” and step-by-step troubleshoot.

This week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast episode is all about what to do when your offering isn’t taking off like you’d hoped. Key things I’ll cover:

- Embracing the mess and turning it into a science project
- How your Founder type can lead you to focus on the wrong things
- The 3 key components you need to troubleshoot (and in what order to do it)
- Understanding how the timing of your offers can make or break

This 17-minute listen will give you some food for thought for your business.

To your success!

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"It's the mental game of being a Founder that's really surprised me."

This week I had a call with a Founder who took advantage of my offer of a free Breakthrough Session for anyone who takes my Founder Type Quiz.

Like many Founders, this person has tremendous knowledge and experience in their category.

But this is their first go at sitting in the Founder seat. And it's different.

Yes. Yes it is.

While the Founder life has been painted with a sort of glamour, anybody who's been in the job knows the inside truth is far different.

The Founder journey always functions at two levels. There's the brass tacks of just learning how to start, grow and lead a business. This is all about skills, experience, tools and what good looks like at each stage. This is about frantically scrambling to up-level your skills.

The second level is the mental game. This is about learning to live with uncertainty and pressure, while feeling ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the business. No matter how senior your role in your previous position, there's nothing that really prepares you for "sitting in the seat."

The highs are high and the lows are super low. Navigating the uncertainty and responsibility for success that comes along with the Founder title inevitably trigger our doubts, insecurities, imposter complexes and general anxiety.

To succeed you have to always be working at both levels. Because every milestone tends to put in a place where you have to learn more and uplevel.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about:

Why the Founder seat is so different
3 keys to upleveling skills
3 keys for winning the mental game

This 14-minute listen will give you some food for thought for your business.

To your success!

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This may sound strange. In my conversations with prospective coaching clients, my goal is to not to sell. It's to diagnose.

On one level the conversation is about understanding WHERE they are in their business, where they want to go and what's in the way of them getting there.

But there's almost always another level. I call it the Bigger Game level. That is more about HOW they are currently experiencing their Founder journey - and how they want to be experiencing it.

The phrase that often comes up is "I want to be more centered."

It makes sense. The Founder journey is filled with uncertainty, twists and turns and more often than everyone cares to admit - feeling like you don't really know what you are doing.

In my experience, there are two keys to being a centered Founder:

Have your GTM in a good place. Know exactly what important pain you solve, who you solve it for, a Stupid Offer and a system to get it in front of them consistently.
Understand you are playing your Bigger Game, and apply yourself to building your skills in the arena of your interior world.

If I had to pick one, #2 would actually be the more important one. #1 means your business is well positioned to weather the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

2 enables YOU are well positioned to weather the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune both in business and the rest of your life.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about the path to being a centered Founder:

- Why being centered is so hard, especially for first time Founders
- How your Founder Type plays in
- Two keys to finding your center

This 12-minute listen will give you some food for thought for your business.

To your success!

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Over the past week I've been on-boarding the first group of Founders into my 2X Accelerator Community.

It's an amazing group of who are bought into creating a ruthlessly simple business that can consistently accelerate - without sacrificing their sanity.

For every new member of 2X, I do a personal Gameplan session to understand where they are - and set their plan for going through the key steps in our sprints.

The first key step is to identify their Core Offer. This is the one offer that they can consistently sell and deliver. This is the foundation of their business. We need to be clear on it so we can create a clear path for customers to it.

I've seen a pattern in this conversation.

Without exception, they are all experts in their fields. They all have strong visions of how to create transformational results for their customers.

It's not that they don't have an offering. They have a bunch of them. And our first order of business is to figure out which one will be the one we are going to focus on.

It's a super important question, because you can't grow consistently and sanely if the offer at the center of your business isn't clear, simple and delivers for you.

So we'll go through the different things they are selling. Inevitably there will be some things aren't quite ideal. Maybe one thing is lower cost and easier to sell - but doesn't create enough revenue for the amount service. Maybe the customer type isn't great to work with. Maybe you can get the customer but they don't stick around.

Usually, there is something that is more ideal. Or at least elements of what would be ideal. But they haven't totally leaned in. Sometimes they are in resistance to it.

To which I suggest...

"Maybe sell the thing you most want to sell."

It tends to be one of those insights that hits home. And we dial in the offer for them that they will take through the process to validate and quickly launch.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about:

- How to discern what you most want to sell
- Why this question is the heart of your business
- Overcoming the surprising mental barriers to this

This 13-minute listen will give you some serious food for thought for your business.

To your success!

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This week I had a breakthrough session with a Founder who is in the very early stages of launching his business. The big challenge is finding product market fit.

This Founder is a classic Type E - Expert Craftsperson.

Huge domain expertise in his field garnered from years of experience working inside some of the biggest companies in the space. This founder literally knows the game from the inside out.

For any Founder, this domain knowledge and behind the scenes insight is a huge strength.

But it can also work against us - and actually be a major challenge when it comes to product market fit and go to market.

Here's why:

When we are expert at something, we forget what it was like to not know what we know.

So our starting point is the amazing solutions we create. We're ready to give people the answers.

The problem with this is that the starting point for our customers is the pain they are dealing with.

Sometimes we are so enamored with our elegant solutions, that we get surprised when potential customers don't get it.

We need to start with their pain. Not just any pain. We need to find the PAIN.

For your business to grow easily, the pain you solve needs to be super urgent to your customers. What Perry Marshall calls their "bleeding neck pain."

The product-market fit quest, is really a quest to find the PAIN.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about how to find the PAIN. I cover:

- 3 Different kinds of pain, and the ways to find them
- 2 Questions to help uncover pain "without leading the witness"
- 1 question that tell you if you've found an urgent PAIN

This 13-minute listen will transform how you see your business.

To your success,

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I only got diagnosed with adult ADHD last year at 55 years old, but I’ve been living with it for a long time.

The good news is now that I know what I’m dealing with, I can work with it. I recognize my mind's little quirks. Time blindness. Emotional dysregulation. Rejection sensitivity dysphoria. Limited reserves of executive function.

Last year, I identified my ADHD as both the biggest catalyst (visionary ideas every minute!) and biggest barrier (easily overwhelming myself with visionary ideas!) to get my business to the next level.

Once you start recognizing patterns of ADHD in your life, you really start seeing it in your business:

- Accumulation of brilliant things created but not optimized
- Inconsistent execution, leading to less than desired results
- Chasing new silver bullet of the month/quarter/year to fix things
- Constant overwhelm, and battle with stress

So I’m trying an experiment this year. I’m re-shaping my business to work with my ADHD. The goal is to not just grow, but scale the right things. Yes, more revenue. But also more calm. More space. More fun.

So I thought I’d share my plan for scaling my business without losing my sanity.

Now you might think of ADHD as something that makes business harder. And there’s truth to that. But there’s a hidden judo move available.

Once you recognize the patterns, these challenges actually give you a map of what you need to address to make growing your business easier and more sane.

The amazing thing is that this map works not just for ADHD businesses, but any business.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I'm talking about my plan to work with my ADHD to scale my business smartly. I cover:

The imperative for Ruthless Simplicity
Using structured sequencing to prevent overwhelm
The necessity of finding Dopamine in old places

Even if you are not ADHD, This 14-minute listen will transform how you see your business.

To your success!

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We weren't even half way through yesterday's live workshop, called "Your Secret System" when one of the participants remarked,

"Wow! I've just created three social posts based on what we've just learned! This makes so much sense."

'Time to wow!' for this workshop: ~30 minutes.

Let's talk about "time to wow!"

The pendulum has swung on the current business environment. We've gone from a time of cheap money to a time of (comparatively) expensive money.

The impact is less spending. Less or more expensive funding. Non-essential vitamins, nice-to-haves, and "let's give this a try's" are off the table.

At the same time, there's more noise than ever. More people competing for fewer dollars.

Having lived through a few of these cycles now, the formula to thrive in this environment is simple: laser focus on fundamentals.

Have a customer for whom you can solve an urgent, important pain.
Make it obvious why they should pay attention to you.
Make it as easy as possible to choose you.

'Time to wow!' is a helpful construct. How long does it take you to give a customer a 'wow!'?

Because words like "interesting" and "cool" aren't going to get it done in this environment.

Whether it's a social post, email, workshop or an engagement, 'time to wow' is the currency of businesses that will not only survive, but thrive in this cycle.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about how "Time to wow." I'll cover:

What 'wow!' is. And what it isn't
The 3-step formula to create 'wow!'
What 'wow!' means at different steps of the customer journey

This 10-minute listen will give help you transform how you see your business.

To your success!

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A good moat is one of the most desirable things to create for your business. It's also one of the most challenging things to do.

Some classic moats are:

- Network effects, e.g. social media sites like Facebook or marketplaces like eBay
- Hardware ecosystems like Apple
- Long term contracts
- Steep switching costs/hassle (Salesforce, payroll companies)
- Patent protection (assuming you have resources to enforce)

These moats are super effective, but also take time to create.

But what if you are a long ways from creating any of these moats?

The good news is that there's actually a moat already lurking in your business

You see, deep at center of your products and services, there's a mental model of your whole business. It's how you break down your customers' pain. And the methods you use to solve that pain.

We are so close to this mental model that it's sometimes hard to see. It's almost if it's hiding in plain sight. But it's there.

And if you know how to surface and deploy it, you'll see there's a moat in your methods. Or as I like to call it, your Secret System.

The beauty of it is that when you surface this “Secret System” for your customers, you will make it obvious why they should choose you. And you will win more business.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about how to find the moat in your method aka Your Secret System. I'll cover:

Why you need to think about your moat
How to use the rule of 3's to surface your Secret System
How to deploy your Secret System to make it obvious why customers should choose you.

This 10-minute listen will give help you transform how you see your business.

To your success!

Here's the link for the Your Secret System Training

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Happy New Year! Coming back from the holiday break this week, I was eager to come roaring out of the gate and start crushing 2024.

Then something interesting happened. Instead going super fast, I've slowed it way down. Which is, y'know, the opposite of going fast.
The reason for this is that like many businesses I coach, my own business is at an inflection point.

It's been a super intense few years. The business climate has changed significantly as money has gone from being cheap to much closer to it's typical level historically speaking. This has definitely impacted a number of my clients. The funding environment is much tighter.

Consequently, sessions have been more intense and the support more crucial. It's extremely gratifying work, and I'm honored to do it. It also requires presence and emotional energy.

To be completely transparent, the business cycle has taken it's toll on my private client roster. My usual response, is to push through, crank up my ads launch an offer, get revenue rolling back in.

But as I launch into this new year, I feel a like a sprinter who showed up to the starting line already a bit gassed. I thought I'd given myself enough of a break over the past two weeks - but my mind and body are saying "nope."

It's taken many years to learn this, but when my mind and body feel this way, they are telling me to slow down. It's contrary the the hustle and grind culture we live in. But I know it's telling me I need to stop and listen to what's going on. So instead of pushing and grinding through, I've slowed it way down.

And started asking questions:

What do I want my business to look like in 12 months?
How do I want my life to be?
Who do I most want to help?
What parts of my business are lighting me up?
What parts of my business am I just going through the motions?
What are useful constraints I want to embrace?

My time blind ADHD brain thinks I can figure this all out in a two hour journaling session. Not so much. I know that illusion now.
These are deeper, long haul questions. It's a Rubick's cube that I need to slow down and work through and solve.

When to go slow and when to hustle is a question we often face as Founders.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about slowing down and going fast when it comes to business. I cover:

How to know when to slow down and when to go fast
Momentum vs speed, and why it's important to know the difference
Using offers to learn

This 14 minute listen will give you some deeper things to think about as we get started in the new year.

To your success!

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As we hit the midway point in December, we experience a dual mentality. We want to get the most out of what remains in Q4. But we also want to lay the groundwork for the coming new year.

As this is my last new Podcast episode for 2023 (I will be off the final two weeks of December), I thought it only appropriate to walk through steps in preloading the new year so you come out of the gate running.

Here are my top tips for pre-loading the new year:

Take time to review and reflect. Celebrate your biggest wins, of course. But also honor your biggest challenges. They pointed out where the weaknesses in your business are.
Revisit your Business Foundations: Mission, vision, values and Boss/Northstar Metric. Is the business still aligned with your mission and vision. Have you drifted from some of your values? How have you been tracking on your boss metric? I find this part of the process humbling, inspiring and hugely focusing.
Pre-load the first 4 weeks of 2024. What's the most important thing that needs to happen coming out of the gate
Take downtime and turn off. We've spent a lot of energy this year navigating the twists and turns of our businesses. To be effective, we must get down time to sharpen our saw.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk in more depth about these steps.

This 10 minute listen will set you up for a great start to the new year.

To your success!

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Yesterday, I was leading my Quiz Daily Lead Machine Workshop. I walked a great group of Founders through my own quiz lead funnel. I showed my LinkedIn setup, how my quiz software creates personalized PDF reports and how it's all integrated into my CRM.

Then I walked everyone through a 5-step quiz design process. As we worked through the 5-steps, one of the participants asked,

"Out of everything you've done in your quiz funnel, what's the 20% of the 80/20 that had the most impact?"

It was a great question. I had to think a moment. But the answer came in my mind loud and clear.

"Figuring out my hook."

My coaching business changed when I figured out my Founder Type Quiz and ads. It was at that point that I could give LinkedIn $50 and LinkedIn would reliably give me 10-20 leads.

In this age of ever increasing noise (thanks ChatGPT!), having a hook that gets your audience to stop and pay attention is an essential unlock.

Can you get them to stop their scroll? If you can you've got a hook. If you can't you don't.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about finding the hook for your business. I cover:

How hooks happen
The 3 essential things you need to know to build your hook
The two places to to look to find your hook

To your success!

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You have a secret system in your business. You probably don't even realize it's there.

But it's driving your product design and your unique way of solving your customers' problems.

You might be thinking:

"But, Steve! I've founded and created my whole business. I am the expert on my product and/or service I know everything about it! How can I possibly have a secret system that I don't even realize is there? Maybe you are not such a wise coach after all?"

I get it. But I stand by my assertion that we often don't realize what's really driving everything.

Often it's because as Founders we are too close to it. But it's there. Our secret system underpins everything we do in solving a particular pain for our ideal customers.

It goes like this:

Customer has pain
Your offer is to solve the pain
Your product/service is how you deliver it
Your secret system is how you thought about the problem and solution path

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I'll cover:

Where to look for your secret system
3 ways leverage your Secret System to drive your GTM efforts
The power of 3's in secret systems

To your success!

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With this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode falling on the US Thanksgiving holiday, it's only natural that I dedicate it to gratitude and giving thanks.

According to Harvard Health, "positive psychology research has shown gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness.

Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships."

This is all well and good, but as any Founder knows it can sometimes be challenging to find gratitude when you are beset by challenge after challenge.

There's really no shortage of ways leading a business can challenge you.

It is hard. We feel bad when things are challenging. We fall back on our trusted coping mechanisms. And if/when they stop working, we can't get relief and go into some version of fight, flight or freeze.

The judo flip on this is to see your challenges as a service to you, in a tough love kind of a way.

The opportunity is to face and work with the hardships and accompanying emotions.

It's not easy work, especially when your preferred coping mechanisms aren't working.

Most importantly, this work invites you to find a more solid center within yourself, less attached to outcomes, ego and pride. To be able to feel whatever you feel and move forward anyway.

Gratitude is definitely a ticket to that. So here are some things that you might be thankful for in your journey:

Your health and abilities that have gotten you this far
The opportunity to create something of your own in the world
Team and investors who have put faith in you
Family and friends who support you
Everything that your challenges teach you

As for me, it's been an amazing year full of challenge and heartache watching our kiddo enduring serious health issues, amazing opportunities that fell out of the sky (Leading a founder retreat in Portugal!), uplifting moments (seeing clients succeed).

But the thing that has kept me ground through it all is my gratitude for the Founders I've been honored to touch in some way, whether I've worked with you this year or you've just listened to a podcast episode.

On this Thanksgiving, I'm giving thanks for you sharing your journey with me.

With that all said, tune into this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, where I delved a bit further into the power of gratitude and giving thanks on your Founder journey.

To your success!

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According to a review by Venture Intelligence in 2022, only 29% of seed-funded startups raise Series A capital.

I have a speciality in coaching Seed to Series A Founders.

That means that by Venture Intelligence's estimates, the odds are 71% of my clients's businesses may fail to get to the next round of funding.

To be clear, not getting to Series A is not equivalent failure.

But the Founder game is a tough one. No matter had good your idea, no matter how driven you are, success is not guaranteed.

To misquote the Hunger Games, the odds are ever not in your favor.

And whether your business takes off or fizzles or somewhere in between, you get kicked in the teeth a lot.

My game as a coach is to do everything I can to improve your odds. For Founders, this breaks down into three core ares:

Accelerate PMF and scalable sales
Build a high performing organization
Becoming the leader your business needs

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I talk about the most impactful things you can do to beat the odds. I cover:

The 3 lever points of PMF and scalable sales
The 2 most important elements of a high performing org
The 1 thing you need to focus on the become the leader your business needs

This 13-minute listen offers some helpful wisdom for both business and life.

To your success!

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Over the past week, I helped my Founder Clients to:

Navigate challenging Co-Founder issues
Nail sales processes and proposals
Develop core messaging and positioning
Strategize next steps in fundraising
Identify and rank options for extending runway
Deal with team communication and performance
Build out an company OS for Seed Stage
Manage their board and investors effectively

On one level, these challenges are very different areas of leading a business from idea to exit. They are all part of the entrepreneurial level game.

This level has its rules and fundamentals that seem straightforward from a distance. But when you are “in the seat,” it’s chaotic and super challenging as trying to turn your ambitious vision into reality.

But there’s another game always in play: the Bigger Game of you.

The Bigger Game is all about your growth as a person, on the path to being the best version of yourself.

In my experience, entrepreneurship is one of the greatest personal development platforms ever devised (second only to parenting).

That’s because the challenges of the entrepreneurial game surfaces our triggers, traumas, insecurities and fears.

It’s actually a tremendous service to us. It brings them out of the dark and into the light, where we can face them.

While the entrepreneurial level game can be won or lost, the beauty of The Bigger Game is that you can never lose.

No matter what happens - good, bad or ugly - it’s all moving you forward in The Bigger Game.

As I helped Founders through all of those issues listed above, we worked at both levels. In fact, it’s the only way to truly master them.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, it’s all about the Bigger Game for Foudners. I'm going to talk about:

How the Bigger Game impacts everything
Why it’s the game that really matters
3 Things to Keep in mind when playing the bigger game

This 9-minute listen offers some helpful wisdom for both business and life.

To your success!

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This week I launched a campaign for my "How To Create Stupid Offers" workshop.

Every time I launch an offer like this, I have two feelings:

I'm super excited by the content, to teach it and see Founders get those light bulb moments - where they suddenly get unstuck and excited for moving their business forward.
I've got a pit in my stomach as I'm about to hit send on an email to several thousand people to let them know I'm offer this workshop.

You'd think after all these years in business - first as Founder who took his startup to successful exit, then as a wise Coach - I'd be over that pit in the stomach feeling when first launching something.

But nope, those questions and doubts still come up:

What if people don't want it and nobody registers?
What if my entire lists unsubscribes because I'm annoying them with a bunch of emails?
What if people think my "Stupid Offer" Workshop is, um, stupid?
There's lots of coaches and info resources out there, will they really want mine?

There's probably others depending on the thing I'm offering. But that feeling is always there.

However, the feeling soon passes after the emails start going out. Because here's what happens:

Some people unsubscribe.
Some people read the email, get a useful insight and get on with their day.
Some people register.
No matter what happens, I learn.

One of the essential things for a business to succeed is to have ways to quickly learn who is a lead and who is actually a customer ready to buy.

For my past few workshops, some registrants are people who've been on my list for years and I've never interacted with. Some are people who've been clients in the past.

The reality is the only way to do this is to make offers.

Making offers require a level of vulnerability. Because whether it's your product or you as a service, you're offering a piece of you. And the reality is your offers will be rejected by most of the people you make them to.

My Stupid Offer Workshop will give you the tools to create stupidly compelling offers. You can check it here

But for this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, I'm going to talk about the Bigger Game issues when it comes to making offers.

In this episode, I cover:

Why you are always making offers, even if you don't think of it that way
Why making offers can make us feel so vulnerable (especially us ADHD and neurodiverse folks)
3 things to anchor you in those "pit of your stomach" moments

This 12-minute listen offers some helpful wisdom for both business and life.

To your success!

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"I’m usually pretty good at being optimistic, driven, and focused. Then the really big issues seem like a giant monster when you stop, turn around, and face them. At that point I wonder if what I'm doing really means anything?"

Over the past week I had both a client and a fellow coach share how much the heavy news coming out of Israel and Gaza this past week was weighing on them.

The images of suffering on both sides is horrifying. The madness of humanity is on full display, beamed to our screens by news organizations who know that tragedy and war grabs our attention like nothing else (last year the Ukraine conflict hit with similar impact).

In face of this carnage and suffering, it can sometimes seem like our day-to-day struggles of building our businesses pale in comparison.

Of what importance is our product-market fit problems in the face of the scale of tragedy and horror we are witnessing?

One of my clients asked me if I had any "coaching magic" to deal with this.

Spoiler alert: I don't have any special coaching magic that makes this better.

I can just share how I approach these times when events like this darken our lives.

This week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcastis about working through dark times, and remember you make ripples.

In this episode, I cover:

Where to look for light in dark times
The importance of self care when the news gets dark
How you are making ripples

P.S. The Slingshot - Launching October 31st
I'm looking for 5 Founders to help launch my intimate and affordable Founder community. The Slingshot is dedicated to helping earlier stage Founders accelerate your PMF and GTM in six weeks. You get access to all my trainings, weekly coaching office hours and a group Slack Channel. Get started for as little as $200. Write me at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com.

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"Sometimes if feels like things are moving too slowly."

Many of the people who have been in my Founder Family know, that over the past four years, my now 21-year old has been suffering through a serious, debilitating health crisis.

After two years of searching for the right diagnosis, we got the diagnosis of a Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) Leak. In 2021, We had two temporarily successful procedures here in Portland. Then in April 2022, we went to Cedars Sinai in LA and had a successful procedure (called an epidural blood patch) that held but then failed in November of 2022.

This week will mark nine months since our kiddo had their procedure at Cedars Sinai Hospital back in January. This is the longest stretch that they (their preferred pronoun) has been patched since they started leaking in 2019.

I'd love to tell you that they are all back together and bounding into their next phase of life. But the truth is their recovery has been a road of slow and incremental steps, with occasional leaps forward. Four and half years of enduring a Cerebral Spinal Fluid Leak has done extensive damage both physically and neurologically .

Honestly, some days it feels like we are playing a game of whack-a-mole as different health issues pop up with their physical pain, digestive unrest and neurological challenges.

There have been some days over the past few months, that I felt like we haven't been making much progress at all.

But then I was looking through my iPhone photos to find a particular picture and I stumbled on some photos I took of our kiddo in August of 2022. This was the period during their first successful patch, before that patch failed in November of 2022.

The thing that jumped out at me from the picture from last year was their posture. They seemed like a lump. Like gravity was too strong and they couldn't hold themselves up. It was striking.

If you saw them now, you wouldn't recognize them. Their posture is upright and they appear so much stronger then a year ago. I can't quite convey in words how amazing it was to see.

I shared those pictures with my kiddo and my wife and we realized that we have been making progress.

It's been a little bit every day (and some days feel like we go backwards). But it's adding up to a lot over time.

I think we often experience our businesses in a similar way. There are occasional big wins. But most of the time is making small, incremental progress each day.

And sometimes feeling like progress is non existent.

So when you are feeling like things are moving too slowly, remember this:

A little bit every day. A lot over time.

This week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast is about staying the course when progress seems slow.

In this episode, I cover:

Why things feel slow
The one essential thing to ensure you are moving forward
How to measure progress

This 12-minute listen is offers some helpful wisdom for both business and life.

To your success!

Steve

P.S. When you are ready, here are 3 ways I can support you:
FREE Breakthrough Session This is geared to Founders with at least $500k in Funding or Revenue to give you a legit breakthrough. In 30 minutes, we'll identify what's at the heart of your biggest issue and give you a plan to solve it. Book your session here.

Private Founder Coaching Sprint (only 1 slot available)
My 4-month program specifically for Seed to Series A Founders with $1M+ of revenue or funding. In a four month sprint, we work hand-in-hand on accelerating your biggest issue. Beat overwhelm. Nail a thorny PMF/Sales problem. Level up as an operator. This is a space dedicated entirely to you. The only agenda is your success. Book a time to to connect.

The Sling Shot
This is my intimate and affordable Founder community, dedicated to helping earlier stage Founders win in business and in life. You get access to all my trainings, weekly coaching office hours and a group Slack Channel. Reply with "Sling Shot" to learn more.

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"Everything feels like it's a mess."

This was the first words out of one of my Founder client session this week. He described how he felt like they were trying to do too much, and serve too many different customer types. Even the team was mentioning that things felt messy.

Those who have had sessions with me, know that as my backdrop I have a bookshelf with a few books that I intentionally put there. One of them is "Brutal Simplicity of Thought" by Maurice Saatchi. This is a book dedicated to ruthlessly distilling things down so you can break through and move fast.

This Founder said, I see "Brutal Simplicity of Thought" behind you and I feel like we are very far away from that.

"Yes," I replied, "things do sound messy right now."

I then pointed him to another book I have my bookshelf backdrop: "The Messy Middle" by Scott Belsky.

This is a book that describes the Seed Stage journey - and how it's never a clean, straight line.

The reality is that as Founders a big part of our job is to create ruthlessly simplicity in our business. Because you can't scale a complex business.

But the other part of this reality is that simplicity does not come instantly, cheaply and easily. It's fucking hard.

But I can tell you where to start:

Ultimately, simplicity comes from knowing exactly who your business serves.

When you know who your 10X Customer is, when you know what urgent pain solve for them better than anyone else - things start getting simple very fast.

If you don't have this nailed, everything in your business will be messy.

A big part of why my client's business feels messy is because they have an amazing technology stack, but they haven't quite gotten it in enough people's hands to figure out who their 10X customer.

That's why Seed Stage is so messy. We have to go from an early idea to a scalable business.

Ultimately, it's a search for your 10X Customer.

This week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast I'm going to talk about finding your 10X customer.

In this episode, I cover:

Why finding your 10X customer is hard
The 3 qualities to look for with 10X customers
Understanding

To your success!

Steve

P.S. This topic of finding your 10X Customers is so important, I've decided to doing a live training on it: Find Your 10X Customers in 90 Minutes

This is the first thing I teach in my super successful $2,500 2X Accelerator Program.

I've decided to break out the 10X Customer training and offer it as a 90-minute live workshop.
You get:

90 minute live training - with time for questions and coaching as many people as I can.
Forever access to the recording
The four step-by-step Notion Templates I use to identify 10X Customers,

The workshop is October 11 at 12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern

Get in a the early bird rate of $500 $100.

The details are here! Questions? Reply back and I will respond.

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Hi {{contact.first_name}},

My path to being a wise Founder Coach has been paved with mistakes. Let me list just a few with just my first startup:

Hired an expensive VP of Sales way too early and ended up laying them off within months
Didn't understand that I was building my business on customers that bought intermittently and required highly customized solutions
Waited too long to fire a a poisonous team member until they had poisoned many other team members
Pursued the shiny object savior silver bullet of the month/week/quarter instead of focusing on execution
Thought next product feature would magically cure sales problems (they didn't)
Didn't realize I needed a strong Type O - Organizational Maestro to balance out my strong Type V - Visionary Evangelist (and ADHD)
Didn't realize my service team was farming out work to contractors even when they weren't fully utilized, causing a huge operating loss.

Those are just the one's that are top of mind. And don't even get me started on the rest of my life, lol. Just this past week, I sent some USDC to crypto.com on a a chain they don't support for USDC. UGH. (Fortunately they were kind of enough to reverse the transaction - for a small fee).

The truth of Founder life is you end up fucking up a lot. You can accumulate a lot of evidence about how clueless you are about a lot of things.

It's enough to make you lose faith and trust in yourself.

But this is exactly why being a Founder is such an amazing platform for playing the Bigger Game: the game of you.

Because the Bigger Game in this Founder Journey is to fully trust yourself.

So how do you trust yourself deeply, fully even when there's evidence piling up that you are in over your head?

The first and most important thing is understand that it starts with giving yourself permission to trust yourself no matter what happens externally.

This week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast is all about this idea of fully trusting yourself

In this episode, I cover:

Why giving yourself permission is hard
Where deep self trust really comes from
How to find it even in the midst of intense challenges

This 11-minute listen is offers some helpful wisdom for both business and life.

By the way the SlingShot

To your success!

Steve

P.S. When you are ready, here are 3 ways I can support you:
FREE Breakthrough Session Because you’ve made the time to take my quiz and tell me a little about you, I'm offering a free 30-minute Breakthrough Session. This is geared to Founders with at least $500k in Funding or Revenue to give you a legit breakthrough. In 30 minutes, we'll identify what's at the heart of your biggest issue and give you a plan to solve it. Book your session here.

Private Founder Coaching Sprint
My 4-month program specifically for Seed to Series A Founders with $2M+ of revenue or funding. In a four month sprint, we work hand-in-hand on accelerating your biggest issue. Beat overwhelm. Nail a thorny PMF/Sales problem. Level up as an operator. This is a space dedicated entirely to you. The only agenda is your success. Book a time to to connect.

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I'm back with this week's podcast episode after a little bout of COVID last week. All better now, so let's get to it!

One of the toughest things about the Founder journey is the overwhelm. There's so much coming at you all the time.

I was talking with a Founder this week who has been notified that their biggest customer is undergoing a serious re-organization. Their champion is leaving and it's likely revenue from this customer is going to dial down or even stop altogether.

There's no other single current customer or in the pipeline that's going to replace that revenue.

This Founder is starting at a big dent in revenue. It's likely they will have to make some gut wrenching team cuts if they don't patch this hole in revenue.

There appears to be a million things to figure out in trying to find that revenue. Plus figuring out the timing of the financial impacts and the hard decisions that may be coming.

This Founder understandably felt the overwhelm.

They antidote to overwhelm is focus. And focus comes down to two things:

Knowing which actions you can take that will MOST move you forward.
Knowing what NOT to focus on.

In my experience, knowing what NOT to focus is even more important than figuring out what to focus on.

Because it lets you block out all the noise and creates the necessary internal quiet to do your best work.

By the end of our session, we had boiled down this Founder's next right actions, relieved the overwhelm.

This week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast is all about figuring out what NOT to focus on.

In this episode, I cover how to:

The 2 critical things you need to know get focused and beat overwhelm
Why all the available advice works against you
How to block out the noise and get quiet inside to do your best work

This 11-minute listen is offers some helpful wisdom for both business and life.

To your success!

Steve

PS When you are ready, I have one open spot to work one-on-one with me. If you're a Founder navigating the Seed to Series A journey who wants to:

Accelerate PMF and scalable sales
Build a high performing team
Step into a new level of confidence as a leader

Set up a time for a breakthrough session here.

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Last week, I talked about the Founder journey being one of navigating crises, setbacks and fiascos, with some good wins thrown in to keep you going.

This week I want to address the inevitable companions to the journey: doubt and exhaustion.

These two words popped up a few times this week during my sessions with Founders.

I empathized in this moment as, despite a lot of effort and expense, our mysterious house air quality issues I spoke about last week continue without a clear resolution.

But the feelings of doubt and exhaustion also took me back to many different events when I was leading my first startup. We had a great sales quarter and I thought we had figured it out. The next quarter was downright crappy. We thought we had some good sales people, then they flamed out.

I knew my business could catch fire. But despite killing myself to make it happen, I couldn't see when and sometimes how it was going to happen.
The reality is this: there will be stretches in time when you're working full out and you're pouring your heart and soul into it - and yet your business isn't giving you the signal yet that you've nailed it.

During Seed Stage, you might have some early wins but they don't feel consistent. You don't know if they're the beginning of figuring it out or just you know some random positive noise that is positive noise.

And the thing is, you don't know in advance when you will figure it out.

Stay in this state for enough time, and that's when the doubt kicks in, aided and abetted by the exhaustion of the effort.

Yet during these stretches, you will have to keep working the problem.

So how do you stay centered and stable and energized without actually knowing if you've got it right?

This is one of the key aspects of The Bigger Game. Leveling up your ability to be solid in the discomfort of not knowing, while managing your self care.

This week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast is dedicated to sharing the wisdom I've learned over the years to be good when the outcome is in doubt.

In this episode, I cover how to:

Manage your energy when you are working full out
Interpret early signals and move
To use curiosity to gain perspective and transform doubt

This 14-minute listen is offers some helpful wisdom for both business and life.

To your success!

Steve

PS When you are ready, I have one open spot to work one-on-one with me. If you're a Founder navigating the Seed to Series A journey who wants to:

Accelerate PMF and scalable sales
Build a high performing team
Step into a new level of confidence as a leader

Hit me up at steve@steveaugustcoaching and we'll set up a time for a breakthrough session.

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Over the past few weeks, I've reconnected with that emotional roller coaster that I experienced when I was leading my first startup through Seed Stage.

Only this time it's more personal. I live in Portland, Oregon with my wonderful wife and awesome kid, and the two cats that they love, and I..um...tolerate.

We have a nice little house. It's been great for sixteen years. Until this year. This year has been a cascade of crises, fiascos, grinding effort and soul crushing defeats.

It started with a main water line leak that was spiking our water bills. Ok, get a plumber over to fix. Oops, plumber accidentally drills through our sewer line and we get sewer water backing up into our basement. Fiasco.

After that got fixed. Shingles came off the roof in a wind storm. Time for a new roof. Ugh.

Then last month, our kiddo, who has had really intense medical issues over the past four years, started feeling unwell any time the air conditioning came on. And it's 100 degrees outside. My wife and kid move to a hotel.

We get the air conditioning guy over to the house, and he looks at the AC coil and it's filled yucky gunk. Ok, clean that out and reinstall. Things seem good for three weeks.

Then our kiddo starts feeling unwell in the house again. AC coil is getting gunked up again, so we replace it. All's well for two days. Then kid starts feeling unwell again.

Let me just confess that at this point, I am no longer handling this as gracefully as the wise coach I present to the world. :}

Back to the hotel. This past week, got the air ducts cleaned and sanitized. Got mold air testing and indoor air quality testing done. Both tests come back clean.

But now, it's not just my kid, my wife and I are feeling unwell when we are in the house. We deep clean the carpets in case it's that. Nope no difference. Feeling worse in the house.

We are having a succession of mold and air quality experts over to try to figure it out. We've ruled out some stuff but have not identified the problem. Current theory is it's in the walls somewhere. Having people come out with moisture meters and infrared cameras. And to potentially drill holes in the wall and take a look.

Our family is now relocated to a local Residence Inn, in a little two bedroom suite. even the two cats. One of which is now hiding under a weird impossible to reach nook in the hotel room kitchen.

You would think by now, I'd be pulling my hair out and extraordinarily stressed out.

But at some point, I surrendered to the fact that this is happening. Not that I'm not doing everything I can fix the situation. But I've let go of emotional baggage of it all.

Yes the money is adding up and it's painful. But that's why we have an emergency fund. And this is a legit use of it.

Yes, I'm frustrated with the upheaval we enduring as a family - especially a family who has been through a hellish gauntlet with our kiddo's health for the past four years.

But, emotionally I'm doing fine. There's a value to a certain kind of surrender. Not the giving up kind of surrender.

But the letting go of the "this can't possibly be happening to me/us" thoughts has freed me up to just deal with shit and get on with it.

It's all a good analogy for the Founder Journey.

Surrendering is not giving up. Detachment doesn't mean not caring.

In this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode, I talk about the value of surrender when navigating the inevitable challenges of Founder life.

I cover:

What it means to surrender without giving up
How to get yourself to a healthy (or healthy as possible) place during setbacks
How to get perspective in the midst of the grind

This 14-minute listen is offers some helpful wisdom for both business and life.

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Hi {{contact.first_name}},

"When people tell you something's wrong, they're usually right. When they tell you how to fix it, they're usually wrong."
-- Bill Hader

One of the constants of Founder life is negative feedback. It's going to happen all along the way. And it will be inbound from any number of sources:

Family and friends (even when well intentioned)
Investors
Prospects
Customers
Team members
Co-Founders
Yourself

As humans, we are wired to prioritize negative information over positive information. It's baked into our survival instincts.

In my experience, one of the traits of great Founders is the ability take in negative and catalyze it into positive action.

But it isn't always so easy. Our businesses are our babies, so it's very easy to take negative feedback personally.

Negative feedback is often fuel for action, via the "Just wait, I'll show them!" response.

But that path, while providing lots of fire, still hands a disproportionate amount of power to things outside of you.

The key is to be able to take in the feedback, stay grounded and centered, and move forward.

This week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode, all about taking in feedback in positive and healthy ways.

I cover:

The Larry David Story - how we are wired to dwell on the negative.
How negative feedback triggers deep stories about ourselves (and how to rise above them)
3 steps to staying centered and positive when receiving negative feedback.

This 15-minute listen is offers some helpful wisdom for both business and life.

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Sometimes, we say the quiet part out loud.

Recently, I had a client express the Founder version of this perfectly. During a session, they paused and said,

The thing about this gig is, you can’t openly say “I don’t know what I’m doing."

You have to present with confidence to all of your stakeholders - team, customers and investors.

Even when you've never done this before. And the business isn't really figured out yet - market, product, team and business model are usually in flux.
I've been mapping out the different sets of skills Seed and Series A Founders need to come up to speed on.

There are 3 big buckets:

Accelerating product-market fit and scalable sales
Building a high performing org
Growing yourself into a confident growth CEO

Founders usually have strengths in one of those buckets - and scramble madly to learn the rest.
But the list is long, and the runway is short. You need accelerators. That means taking advantage of:

Coaches who have been through it
Mentors who know the terrain
Books, courses, communities

The challenge of course, is knowing which of these accelerators will actually serve you

In this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode, I provide guidance on how to choose the right accelerators for your growth and development.

I cover:

Why its critical to locate yourself on the Find It, Nail It, Scale it map.
How to filter information from books, podcasts, etc so you can
How to pick the right coach for you
Bill Hader's insightful advice for taking feedback

This 15-minute listen is a great one in learning to communicate and lead confidently, even in challenging circumstances.

To your success!

Steve

PS When you are ready, I have one open spot to work one-on-one with me. If you're a Founder navigating the Seed to Series A journey who wants to:

Accelerate PMF and scalable sales
Build a high performing team
Step into a new level of confidence as a leader

Email me at steve at steveaugustcoaching.com and we'll set up a time to connect.

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"How do I keep up team morale and faith as we are trying to get to product market fit - especially when it's taking a lot longer than any of us expected?"

This week, I had no less than three Founder coaching sessions where we dealt with different takes on this question.

In each case, I asked the Founders, "how are you navigating this stretch?"

Answers were along the lines:

"we understand it's a process"
"we wish we were further along, but staying positive and breaking things down into steps"
"we'd like it to move faster but we also are learning the market"
"we're staying focused on what we need to do"

My response back was, "that sounds great, do you want your team to approach it the same way?"

Of course.
"How can you make it be THE WAY your company approaches these situations?"
You see, stretches like these are an opportunity to build the behaviors, values and culture you want your team to exhibit.

But it only happens if you coach and communicate those expectations to your team.

In this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode, I cover:

Why its critical to work this at the behaviors/values/culture level
The 3 key things to communicate in these situations
How to avoid toxic positivity
The ONE phrase that will save you and your team a ton of stress in challenging situations

This is a good lesson in communicating and leading confidently, even in challenging circumstances.

PS I have two open spots to work one-on-one with me. If you're a Founder navigating the Seed to Series A journey who wants to:

accelerate PMF and scalable sales
build a high performing team
become a confident authentic leader

Reply back and we'll set up a time to connect.

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This week several of my Founder clients were in "kicking myself mode."

"Kicking myself mode" happens when you've encounter a painful challenge. Then through trial, tribulation and some very hard decisions, figured it out and gotten past it.

The funny thing about "kicking myself mode" is that it usually kicks in after you've actually gotten to the other side of the challenge.

There's good reason for that, of course. In the midst of dealing with the challenge, you are too engrossed and consumed by the challenge itself.

This phenomenon isn't limited to business, it's part of regular life as well. The themes are classically:

Why didn't I know better?
Why didn't I act sooner?
Why didn't I trust myself more?

In the aftermath of a challenge, variations these three questions echo in our minds, consuming energy and ensuring that the challenge gets in a few more shots at us.

In this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode, I talk about how to get out of "kicking yourself mode" and move forward with a positive and productive mindset.

Key takeaways:

What to do with your emotions when they are so intense.
What to hold on to and what to let go of in the aftermath of any challenge.
How to move forward and not be dragged back down.

This 15-minute listen is definitely a great life lesson for any Founder.

PS I have two open spots to work one-on-one with me. If you're a Founder navigating the Seed to Series A journey who wants to:

Accelerate PMF & scalable sales
Build a high performing team
Become a confident authentic leader

Send to steve@steveaugustcoaching.com to set up a time to connect.

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QUICK ASK: Before I leap into to this week's podcast episode intro, I have a favor to ask. If you have gotten value from my Rocket Ship Founder podcast, I would really appreciate it if you could give it a 5 star rating and post a review wherever you listen to it (Apple Podcasts, Spotify) Really appreciate it! Ok, let's get to this week's episode.

One thing you should know about me is that I'm a serious NBA fan. I was not built physically for the game of basketball, but I really love it.

There's a phrase in basketball: "do your work early."

What does this mean?

It means that the flashy dunk, the smooth turnaround, the defensive block that brings the crowd to their feet isn't really where the important action is.

They are just the end product of the work that was done earlier.

They don't happen unless the player has gotten to their preferred spot on the floor to initiate the action. Or defensively, if the player has prevented his opponent from getting to their preferred spot.

They don't happen unless the player has studied the tendencies and defensive sets of the other team.

They don't happen unless the player has prepared themselves physically to have the stamina to do it at the end of the game when it most counts.

This is the early work. It isn't flashy. It's often tedious and repetitive. It's done away from the spotlight.

But it's where success is actually born.

Mixing my sports up here, I think Muhammed Ali said it best:

“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

This is an important lesson for Founders.

In this week's Rocket Ship Founder podcast episode I talk about doing your work early. Key takeaways:

What is the early work?
How you are going to pick your hard, it's just about the timing.
How the early work changes as you scale.

This 11-minute listen is one of the most important lessons of Founder life.

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Your business is trying to tell you something.

This week I was working with a Founder who has an amazing product but has been struggling with an extremely long sales cycle and underperforming sales people.

The pattern was they'd get a client on board for a proof of concept phase for their software. It would initially go very well but then the last five yards would stretch out forever to achieve the final pieces of integration. Their support folks would work wonders over a few months to get everything working.

They'd think that got everything worked out with their product and it would be smooth sailing from there.

But then the pattern would then repeat with the next client.

This brought back memories of my first startup. And the lesson I wished I'd learned faster.

A repeating pattern of a great product requiring a huge amount of people work to product the result the customer wants is a huge red flag on your business model.

Your business is trying to tell you, "You don't have a pure product business model. You have blended product-service business model."

While this sounds like a setback in a world focused on scalable SaaS, it's actually a huge opportunity, if you know how to play it.

In this week's Rocket Ship Founder podcast episode I talk about how to navigate the turbulence of Seed Stage. I cover:

Identifying the Need for Change: Learn how to recognize the signs that your current model isn't serving your startup.
Navigating the Pivot: We explore practical strategies to reframe and adjust your business model, including real-life examples of successful pivots.
Seizing the Opportunity: Discover how to leverage the inherent opportunities that come with business model changes.

This 11-minute listen is one of the most important lessons I wished I'd learned sooner!

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Seed Stage is one of the toughest phases of your business journey. After the early wins of first customers and funding, things get really hard.

Your product isn't nearly as ready as you thought it was.
Your sales and marketing isn't punching through.
Team members who you thought were great turn out to be disastrous.
The market shifts and you have to adapt.
There are a dozen other disasters and crises that you never saw coming.

Any and all of these happen during Seed Stage.
And you are doing it all with a limited runway.

Maybe the toughest thing is that as you navigate all this, you may feel like you are not making progress. Your sales aren't happening the way you thought. Your product is full of bugs. Some part of your team feels like it's about to implode.

It's super stressful. It can cause you to question your abilities, your vision and whether you are really up for it.

So how do you stay positive and focused through all the mess?

It comes down to the wolf you feed.

There's an old parable:
An old grandfather was teaching his grandson about life:“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil–he is frear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”He continued, “The other is good – he is abundance, joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you–and inside every other person, too.”The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf will win?”The grandfather simply replied, “The one you feed.”

In this week's Rocket Ship Founder podcast episode I talk about how to navigate the turbulence of Seed Stage. I cover:

Understanding the Seed Stage wolves
One killer exercise for feeding the right wolf
2 habits to keep you positive and resilient

This 12-minute listen is one of the most important lessons I've learned in Founder life.
To your success!
Steve
PS I coach an amazing group of Seed Stage founders. If you'd like to join our tribe, reply back and we'll set up at time to talk.

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Last week was my birthday. I gave myself what turned out to be one of the greatest gifts I've ever received - a four-day retreat in Southern California.
What made it such a great gift?

It wasn't the location, though it was very nice.
It wasn't the food, though there was plenty of good food to be had.
It wasn't the amenities and activities, though I got some great yoga and a cold water immersion.

It was the people I was with. You see, this retreat was specifically for men who are caring for kids with rare diseases (or caring for themselves having a rare disease).

Some of you may know that our 21-year old has been suffering from a Spinal Cerebral Spinal Fluid Leak over the past four years. This is an extremely painful and challenging condition. The headaches are intense. There's severe sound and light sensitivity. There's brain fog. And as the condition progressed, our kid suffered from non-epileptic seizures.

I am happy to say that earlier this year they had a procedure that fixed the leak and the leak symptoms have abated. But there's lots of therapy and reconditioning to work through to get them to a good place after four years of suffering.

The intensity of the challenge for our family and for me was unlike anything I've ever experienced. It is so far outside the norm, that most people can't quite imagine it.

So what made the retreat I attended such an amazing gift, was that I was with six other men who knew exactly what it was like to be in this kind of situation. We were able to share openly about our experiences, our grief, where we felt like we showed up, and where we felt like we fell short.
It was one of the most powerful experiences I've had in my entire life.

I went into the retreat feeling like I've been in a deep trough. I was honestly pretty spent.

I came out of it feeling renewed and like I had not just regained my own strength, but could draw on the collective strength of my guys.

For the first time in my life, I really felt the power of finding your tribe.

While the stakes aren't quite as high, being a startup Founder is definitely outside the norm of most people's experiences - and definitely super challenging.
There's not many situations where you can talk about what's truly going on with you. The temptation is to isolate and soldier on. But eventually that will grind you down.

In this week's Rocket Ship Founder podcast episode I talk about the power of finding your tribe. I cover:

The ease and danger of isolation as a Founder
Why it's so important to have a Founder tribe
How to find your Founder tribe

This 12-minute listen is one of the most important lessons I've learned in Founder life.
PS I coach an amazing group of Seed Stage founders. If you'd like to join our tribe, write me at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and we'll set up at time to talk.

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This Sunday is my birthday and I've given myself a great present. As you read this, I am at a retreat in Southern California to step back and recharge. I'm not taking my computer. I'm going to be offline as much as humanly possible. I'm going to do a lot of nothing.
This is actually a hard thing for me to do. But time has shown, it's one of the biggest enablers of progress.
As Founders, our inclination is to drive ever harder. To keep grinding to the next milestone.
I'd like underscore the importance of taking some time off. This principle is often illustrated through the metaphor of "sharpening the saw."The analogy refers to an old parable where a woodcutter, driven by the need to cut more wood, works incessantly without ever stopping to sharpen his saw. Consequently, as the saw dulls, his productivity decreases. Eventually the saw breaks and he gets injured.

If he had paused to sharpen his saw, he would have maintained his productivity and even increased it in the long run.Much like the saw, our minds and bodies are tools we use to create, innovate, and lead. However, the rigors of leading a startup can often lead to burnout, decreased productivity, and impaired decision-making, akin to the woodcutter's dull saw. This is why it's crucial to take time to "sharpen the saw," or in other words, to rest, rejuvenate, and recharge.

This week's Rocket Ship Founder podcast episode is dedicated to sharpening your saw. I talk about:

The 3 key benefits of stepping away
2 critical steps to set yourself up to sharpen your saw
Breaking through the stigma of time off

This 13-minute listen is one of the most important lessons I've learned in Founder life.
To your success!
Steve

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Recently, I was diagnosed with adult ADHD. Looking back over my entrepreneurial career with this Neurodiverse lens, I see my strengths and my challenges in a new light.
It turns out that Founders tend to have a greater Neurodiversity, whether ADHD, dyslexia, being on the autism spectrum. In one estimate, people with ADHD were estimated to be 500% more likely to start a business.
In the business press, some have painted neurodiverse conditions as a superpower, especially in the context of famously successful Founders like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and Peter Thiel.
However, like all things in life in business, our greatest strengths also create our greatest challenges.
In this personal and thought provoking episode, I talk about:

Some striking stats about Founders and Neurodiversity
My Founder journey and grappling with ADHD
Neurodiversity: something to harness or to manage?
3 strategies to maximize neurodiverse strengths and mitigate challenges

This 14-minute listen is an important listen for Neurodiverse Founders and the people who work with them.
PS Cohort 3 of 2X Accelerator: Essentials of Easier Sales starts June 12th. I'm looking for B2B Founders who want to make their sales 2x easier in the next 45 days. Details here!

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This week's Rocket Ship Founder podcast episode features my first ever interview episode - and I think it's a great one to start with!

I speak with Natalie Ledbetter, People Ops Exec, Startup Advisor, TedX Speaker and Former Operating Partner & Head of People at Boldstart in NYC.
In our wide ranging conversation, we discuss:

Natalie's fascinating international personal journey to and through the startup world
The most common pitfalls for startup Founders
What you'd be surprised to know about how VC's operate
Her philosophy on how to nail People Ops

We also talk about The Seed Stage MBA 3-Day bootcamp we are partnering on. It's coming June 13-15th! Get the essential skills knowledge to avoid costly pitfalls, extend your runway, and accelerate to Series A or a sustainable business.
This 40-minute listen is chock full of knowledge and wisdom for Founders.
To your success,
Steve

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I'm not sure I'm the best person for this job.
I've heard this sentiment in a bunch of conversations I had with Founders over the past two weeks. So let's go right at this.
Leading a startup is hard. Seed Stage is especially hard because it's the stage where you have to go from being an awesome "something" - designer, product person, developer, visionary - to being a true business leader.
You are learning so much about the all of the jobs in the business: the stuff you know how to do plus all the stuff you don't know. How to hire, how to get people aligned, how to drive product-market fit, go to market strategies and tactics, how to manage a board, and a bunch of other stuff you never knew you were going to need to learn.
So it's only natural when things are challenging to sometimes ask yourself, "Am I the best person for this?"
The answer is: At Seed Stage, there's no one better for this than you.
In this week's Rocket Ship Founder episode, I break down:

Why you are not only the best person, but the only person for this job at Seed Stage
What to do when you start comparing yourself to other Fouronders
How to show up with confidence, even when you don't know why you are doing
Steve
*PS Want to get the confidence to know you are the right person for the job? The Seed Stage MBA 3-Day bootcamp is coming June 13-15th! Get the essential skills knowledge to avoid costly pitfalls, extend your runway, and accelerate to Series A. Limited to 5 founders and their teams.

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On the surface, getting from Seed Stage to your Series A should be a pretty straightforward proposition. You basically need to demonstrate three things: Great traction, a high performing team and leadership that everyone can be confident in.

Well, that sounds pretty straight forward, right? But as we know, life isn't so simple. The Seed Stage is often anything but smooth. It's a nine to 24 month journey of endurance and resilience.

Traction is slower than your early wins suggested they would be.

Some part of your team is not performing the way you hoped.
And as a Founder you and your founding team find yourself routinely overwhelmed putting out fire after fire, while learning how to lead a growing organization, which likely you've never actually done before. It's a lot.
And the thing is, there's not a lot of training for this phase. There's plenty of accelerators and support systems for the pre-seed/idea stage. And there's a lot of stuff for established companies that need to grow.
But there's not much support for Seed Stage Founders, when almost everything is being figured out - all while the clock is ticking to get to a Series A or a sustainable business.*
In this week's Rocket Ship Founder episode, I break down:

The 3 things you need to do to navigate Seed Stage journey
Why Seed Stage is especially challenging (and how to attack it)
The single biggest shift you can make to out of overwhelm and into confidence (even when things are crazy)

This 14-minute listen is the advice I wish someone had given me as a Seed Stage Founder.
*PS The Seed Stage MBA 3-Day bootcamp is coming June 13-15th! Get the essential skills knowledge to avoid costly pitfalls, extend your runway, and accelerate to Series A. Limited to 5 founders and their teams.

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Getting your Seed funding is a huge win. But as soon as your funds hit your account, you and your team on the clock.
You have only so much runway to either get to demonstrate the traction you need for your Series A or a sustainable business run rate.
Every month of runway in Seed Stage is precious. Even more so in the current environment where money is tighter and VC's are being MUCH more selective with funding and valuations.
Business is always challenging. But for a Seed Stage Founding team, the need to extend runway has never been greater.
What really hurts is avoidable mistakes that dent your runway and blunt your momentum.
A single mis-hire can easily cost $150k in shortened runway and lost momentum. Ouch.
As a Founder, I made a lot of costly mistakes. As a Founder coach, I see a lot of Seed Stage Founding teams make similar mistakes.
Sometimes in life and business, our best chance of success is just about avoiding as many of the most avoidable mistakes as we can. (While giving ourselves grace knowing that mistakes are inevitable when doing something new).
In this week's Rocket Ship Founder episode, I talk about how to save at least $150k of runway simply by avoiding common Seed Stage pitfalls. I cover:

Framing Seed Seed Stage in a way that will help you make better decisions
The #1 biggest way to save $150k of runway
What you definitely should not spend on during Seed Stage

This 14-minute listen is the advice I wish someone had given me as a Seed Stage Founder.
To your success,Steve
PS COMING SOOON: The Seed Stage MBA program. The only program of Essential Skills and Coaching specifically for Seed Stage Founding Teams.

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Last week I had the absolute privilege to facilitate 26 Seed Stage Founders at a 3-day retreat in Portugal.

The Founders at this retreat are whip smart, ambitious and working on huge game changing ideas in biotech, food tech, robotics, crypto/Web 3.0 B2B software as well as consumer goods.
It was a brilliant few days of sharing, learning and camaraderie in the Founder journey.
My job was to teach my most valuable lessons, and give participants as many opportunities to learn from each other as I could create.
As the facilitator and the person presenting content, I shared the most important key lessons and skills from my Founder journey and life. And I think everything landed well.
But the little secret of these events is that the facilitator learns as much or more from the participants. And this was no exception.
In this week's Rocket Ship Founder episode, I talk about the biggest lessons I learned from leading, coaching and talking with 26 Seed Stage Founders. Things I'll cover:

The 3 universal issues that every Founder faces no matter what category
The 2 biggest issues Founders navigate in Seed Stage
The single most disorienting thing once you get to your Series A
And a bonus - one phrase that can help save your relationship with your significant other

This 13-minute listen will give you a real sense of perspective on your Founder journey.

PS I have one open spot to for a Seed Stage Founder to work with me one-on-one. If you're a Seed Stage Founder facing challenges on your progress towards your Series A, let's talk.

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This past week marked an interesting event for me. After 54 years of living, I got officially diagnosed with ADHD. It's clicked together some long standing puzzle pieces for me.
It helps explain why...
...writing an email that should take 2 minutes takes me 10 minutes
...even though I do get stuff done, it always feels like I'm grinding vs being in flow
...once I solve the hardest problems of a challenge, I lose interest in the easy finishing stuff
...I have a habit of cutting across another person sentence before they've finished it
...it takes me forever to start something that requires deep thinking
I suspect this has been a constant in my life. But I grew up in the 70's and 80's so it wasn't really diagnosed so much back then. And when I was younger, I had the youthful energy and drive to push through it.
As I've gotten older, I've found it's harder and harder for me to focus on anything for nearly any length of time. It goes beyond the typical resistance and procrastination.
The net result has been I have to work far more hours than I need to.
I've found hacks over the years. For example, having to prepare for a specific event definitely gets me moving and through the resistance.
But the reality is ADHD has been a huge net drag on my ability to achieve the things I'd like to in my business and life.
While I have all the other challenges of business building, they are ALL impacted by this root problem of ADHD.
It's been there the entire time, hiding in plain site.
This is my first week on Adderall, and I'm noticing a different. I'm able to jump in to deep thinking projects easier. I'm more able to stay on task and get into flow. Stuff is a little easier.
This is as great parable for our businesses. Sometimes there's a root problem that we've become so acclimated to, we don't even see it. But it's making everything we do harder.
But if we address it, everything gets easier.
Here's the analogy. Imagine you have a rocket. To get it to go higher, you can build a bigger engine. You will go higher, but you'll have to carry and burn more fuel (which means your engine needs to be bigger).
But you can also think about ways reduce gravity. If you can go faster than if you just built a bigger engine. (And when you do build the bigger engine, you will get more out of it).
In this week's Rocket Ship Founder episode, I cover:

3 ways to recognize a root problem hiding in plain site
What to do once you find it (ie. reducing gravity)
How to make sure you nip these problems in the bud in the future

This 16-minute listen is will get you thinking about your business from important different angles.
PS I have one open spot to for a Seed Stage Founder to work with me one-on-one. If you're a Seed Stage Founder needing to accelerate your progress towards your Series A, let's talk.

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While things seemed to be resolving, the past week have been incredibly stressful for any Founders who had their funds with SVB.

Several of my clients and Founder Friends have been caught up in what is known is a WFIO moment. If you're not familiar with the term WFIO, it's one Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz uses.

WFIO stands for, "We're Fucked It's Over."

Having run my startup during the 2008 financial crisis (in fact we launched the week the first week of October 2008), having a banking crisis is one of the most WFIO type of moments.

The challenges of a Seed Startup are supposed to be finding product market fit, building your team, and learning how to operate a business that hasn't figured out most of what makes a business successful.

Having your bank go under with your funds is generally not on the startup Founders Bingo card.

Fortunately, the FDIC stepped in and saved the game, but that was a close call. And a lot of Founders spent the week stressing out over whether they had funds to make their next payroll vs pushing their business forward.

So what can we do in these extreme circumstances? This week I talk about:

When staring at a huge problem (i.e. all of our cash is out of reach), how to break it down into the smaller problems and sequence them.
How to get clarity by separating what's objectively true from fear and projection
Finding hidden blessings and opportunities even (sometimes especially) in the darkest crisis

Every time I hit a crisis in my business, it forced to me to get real about what was performing and essential, and what was not performing and a luxury.

Founders and companies that weather this storm will come through stronger.

This 11-minute listen is chock full of hard-earned wisdom and will serve you well through big or small times of crisis.

To your success,

Steve

STEVEAUGUSTCOACHING
Helping Founders Build Rocket Ships

PS I have one open spot to for a Seed Stage Founder to work with me one-on-one. If you're a Seed Stage Founder needing to accelerate your progress towards your Series A, let's talk.

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Every Founder I've ever known has hit this same scenario:

Have a new hire they need to make
Push out job description to network and hiring sites
Get a decent amount of resumes
Pare down resumes to identify candidates to interivews
Conduct many rounds of interviews
A candidate crushes the interviews
Candidate is hired, yay!
Things start off OK, but then quickly go downhill
Wonder what happened to the candidate who interviewed so well
Part ways and start over

While no one bats .1000 when it comes to hiring, this scenario is way too common.

So what do you do to prevent this scenario from repeating?

There's one simple thing you can do to dramatically up your odds. It's all about auditioning vs interviewing.

In this week's episode I talk about:

Why this happens - and what to do about it
The two things you are really hiring for - and why we often focus on the wrong one
Auditioning for behaviors vs interviewing for skills
Real world examples

This 10-minute listen will uplevel your hiring game!

To your success,

Steve

PS I have one open spot to for a Seed Stage Founder to work with me one-on-one. If you're a Seed Stage Founder needing to accelerate your progress towards your Series A, let's talk.

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This month, The Rocket Ship Founder podcast is all about building and leading your team.

One of the most important skills Founders need to learn is how to build and effectively lead their teams. Ironically, this is the area people get the least training on.

In the early days of your business when it's just a few close-knit people, things are pretty straightforward. I call it the "think out loud stage." People can just sort of think out loud and everyone it's pretty easy to have people aligned.

But when you get your first real money, and your team starts to grow beyond the original founding group, leading complex and diverse humans gets exponentially harder.

In this week's episode, I go over the three things I wish I'd known as a first-time Founder about building teams and leading humans, especially in Seed Stage.

I talk about:

How knowing your Founder Type is critical for understanding your strengths and challenges in leading people
The 4 levels of team skills and how to identify them
How to hire for a role you don't have any experience with

PS I have one open spot to for a Seed Stage Founder to work with me one-on-one. If you're a Seed Stage Founder needing to accelerate your progress towards your Series A, let's talk.

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When it comes to leading a team, there's a dilemma I see for every Seed Stage Founder I've worked with. (And one I certainly experienced myself!)

Here's the scenario:

A Founder gives a team member an initiative to work on.
The Founder sits back and trusts team member to complete the initiative exactly they way expect
Team member completes initiative and presents the work
Work is not what the Founder expected, and doesn't measure up to what they had in mind
Founder starts doubting team member, next initiative Founder micromanages
Founder gets result they want, but now are in the weeds and team member is disempowered

The dilemma for a Founder is, "do I sit back and trust my team and hope things turn out the way, or do I micromanage and get what I want, but end up having to be in everything?"

Every Founder I've worked with has experienced this at some point.

How do you solve this dilemma? How to you find a sweet spot between trusting and not getting what you want and micromanaging.

This week's episode breaks down how to solve this dilemma and find your sweet spot as a manager and leader.

This is the episode I wish I had been able to hear when I was building my first team. It has lessons I wish I had known, specifically...

The 3 critical keys to building and leading growing a great team
The most important thing people don't realize about hiring the right people
How to ACTUALLY create a culture of accountability

This may be the best 12 minutes you spend this week.

PS I'm looking for on Seed Stage Founder to work with personally starting March 1st. If you're a Seed Stage Founder with a product and a growing team, let's talk.

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This week's episode comes in response to a question I got from one of my subscribers. I love getting questions from Founders, so if you have any, reply back and with yours and I'll respond in an upcoming episode.

This subscriber wanted to the lowdown on Boards. As a seed stage founder, you know that building and managing a board of directors is a critical step in the growth of your business. But, if you're new to the game, it can be a daunting to navigate.

I remember when I was leading my first startup, I had NO prior experience with reporting to a board. With our first funding round, suddenly I had to work with and answer to my board.

There were a lot of things that had I known, it would have made everything less stressful and maximized the value of my board members.

I wish I had known...

The #1 thing to keep in mind when working with a board
The one thing NEVER to do with your board
How to get the most out of every board meeting

I answer all this and more in this week'sepisode. Check it out!

PS I'm looking for on Seed Stage Founder to work with personally. If you're a Seed Stage Founder with a product and a growing team, I can help. Set up a simplicity session here.

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After a two week hiatus, I am back with another Rocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode. My hiatus was due to taking my 21-year old to LA for treatment for a recurring debilitating condition.

During the trip down to LA from our home in Portland, the days leading up to the procedure, and the procedure itself, the universe threw us a bunch of curveballs.

Our train was canceled
There was a med van ride from hell
There was an actual 4.2 earthquake,
A broken MRI machine
And a scary twist in the procedure itself

We are home now safe and sound and our kiddo is recovering. I'm getting back in the swing coaching my Founder clients.

But I keep thinking about that trip. It felt we would swing from surviving to thriving from day-to-day. Even moment-to-moment.
We got thrown really big challenges and threw all our ingenuity and resources at it. And got through it.

And while the stakes are very different, it reminded me of my Seed Stage Founder journey - and what my clients experience as well.

The challenges sometimes come fast and furious. One minute you are thriving with a big win. The next you are surviving a sudden a existential challenge.
And then back again.

It comes so fast you might as well smash "survive" and "thrive" together. You are "Surthriving."

In this week'sepisode I share:

Update on my recent Odyssey to LA and back
Why "Surthrival" is the perfect way to describe the Seed Stage journey
Three keys to Surthriving

PS If you are a Founder who is is ready for a new level of support "surthriving" Seed Stage, let's talk. I've got space for one more client. Set up a time here.

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I had an entirely different topic slated for this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode, but felt moved to dig into something deeper: the dichotomy of vulnerability and power.

Part of the ironic nature of the Founder's journey is that we are constantly called to outwardly project confidence and strength - all the while knowing/feeling all of the weaknesses and shortcomings in ourselves and in our business.

The common thinking is that vulnerability is weakness. And in geo-political matters, that's probably true, given the arc of human history.

But in the "Bigger Game" of our own personal development, I've come to believe that where we feel most vulnerable is where we are most powerful.

Because I see this funny thing happen when we surrender to a challenging moment: we let go of what we thought we should be and accept into what actually is and who we truly are.

And I am convinced there is nothing more powerful than true and total self acceptance.

Fair warning: this episode will be especially personal and vulnerable.

In this week'sRocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode, I share:

What's been going on with me in my business and life, and why I'll be on a train to LA next week
My experience with therapeutic psilocybin
How I broke down and came out the other side
Two powerful techniques to navigate big challenges and rollercoaster emotions

If you are a Founder who needs support in becoming the CEO your business needs, reach out to me at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and we'll do a Simplicity Session.

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In this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode, I talk about why facing the biggest uncomfortable things in your business is one of the essential skills Founders need to cultivate.

Because if you don't face the big uncomfortable things in your business, you'll still end up dealing with their effects on your business every day. And eventually it catches up to you anyway.

The good news is that your next breakthrough is on the other side of the uncomfortable stuff.

In this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast episode, I cover:

Why facing the uncomfortable creates breakthroughs
The single most important question to ask yourself and your team
How to make friends with the uncomfortable.
The question that helps you move forward when things are challenging

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Welcome to 2023! Ready to get back in the groove? This year, I start by renaming my Podcast - and tackling a hugely problematic pattern that can eventually kill your business.

First the name change.

After tackling saying the mouthful of Rocket Ship Business Academy for 27 Episodes, I've changed the title the much simpler and on point Rocket Ship Founder.Less is more. Simpler is better. Onwards!

Now about the problematic pattern that can eventually kill your business. It will also burn you out if you let it persist.

It's one I experienced with my first startup, and a pattern I been helping a number of clients to break out of.

I call this pattern the "tent pole" pattern. It goes like this:

Good to great month/quarter/year of sales
Tepid to awful month/quarter/year of sales
Frantic effort to revive sales

Repeat until exhaustion, burn out, end of runway. Not a fun place. To be.

In this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast episode, I cover:

Why the tent pole pattern happens
How it will eventually kill your business - and burn you out
How to get break out of the pattern and consistently accelerate growth

PS Here's how to work with me in 2023:

2X Accelerator - Double your product-market fit and scalable sales velocity in six weeks. Next cohort starts February 13, 2023! If this episode resonated with you, set up a time for a clarity session pronto! (link below)

Founders Mastermind - my group program to help Visionary B2B Founders accelerate their transformation into growth CEO's.

Private Coaching - I have two new spots open to work with me one-on-one. For Founders with at least $2M in revenue or funding.

Book a Clarity Session to take the next step!

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Wow, hard to believe we are at the end of 2022! All this week, I've been working with my clients to take stock of progress in 2022 and set up to crush the first six weeks of 2023.

In this week's Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast episode, I share the sequence of exercises I take my Founder clients through to set them up to come out of the gate roaring in the new year.

I cover how to:

Recognize the progress you've made in 2022
Frame your 2023 goals
Identify the most important problem to solve
Build out your first six weeks of the year

And as a special holiday gift, I am sharing the exact Notion template with the exercises I use with my private clients to jump start 2023!

The template is free and can be duplicated into your Notion account. Don't have Notion account? No worries, it's free to sign up!

To get it, just send me an email at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com with the subject "Jumpstart 2023!"

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This week's Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast episode is one of my most personal. I hope you will find valuable to you as a Founder, but even more importantly, as a person.

This week was a challenging week for several of my Founders. There was dev team drama, co-founder dysfunction, product milestones slipping, big clients wins falling through at the 11th hour, dealing with crazy board members and the usual day-to-day fires.

For me, it was a challenging week as well. Our now 20-year old kiddo has been fighting a debilitating and painful medical condition called a CSF Leak over the past three years. In April this year, we finally found a doctor who could patch them. We've had a good seven month run and life was slowly getting back to something resembling normal. Until last Sunday, when their patch failed and the leak symptoms returned.

In business and in life, it can sometimes feel like the hits just keep coming. You think you've got everything buttoned down and under control. And then you get kicked in the teeth.

Yet, here we are. Still in the fight. Pushing for the things and people we care deeply about.

In this week's Rocket Ship Business Academy podcast episode, I share 3 hugely important things I draw on when I hit these waves of challenges. I'll cover:

The single most important question to ask yourself when you are facing tough challenges
Why you need to focus on the pain, and what you need to let go of
How to find the hidden blessings in every crisis

If you are facing a tough challenge, I hope this episode gives you some comfort and some tools to help you through.

Got questions on leading your business? Email me at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and I'll answer it on an upcoming podcast episode!

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When I was running my startup I loved solving complex problems and creating elegant solutions. As a Type V - Visionary Evangelist Founder Type. And I had a good talent for it.But like a lot of things that helped me in the early stages of my business, my love of creating elegant solutions for complex problems ended up working against us.How could that be?Here’s how. One of the biggest killers of growth is complexity. When you start out with your business, things are naturally simple. You have one product. You have a co-founder or a small team. You (hopefully) have a pretty clear handle on the pain you solve for people.But as the company grows, complexity starts creeping in. Different customer types, different product decisions, staffing decisions, sales channels, pricing models, etc.One of the hardest lessons I learned about being a Founder/CEO is that your real job is to create Ruthless Simplicity

Why I call it Ruthless Simplicity
How you know you need it, and what it gives you
3 steps to creating Ruthless Simplicity

If you are struggling with stubborn challenges, this episode will give you a powerful lens to see your way through.

Got questions on leading your business? Email me at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and I'll answer it on an upcoming podcast episode!

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For the past few months, I’ve been almost exclusively focused on accelerating product market fit and sales. That’s because when it comes to accelerating your business, there’s nothing bigger than accelerating product-market fit and scaling sales.

But this week, I’d like to shift gears and talk about something that for Founders, is even bigger than sales, bigger than building and growing your team and bigger than mastering operational brilliance. It’s bigger than building a rocket ship business.

It’s the game of you. I call it the bigger game, because it’s the biggest game of all. And your playing it whether you realize or not.

You may think that once you achieve your desired goal, that you will be different. That the things about yourself will change.

But the reality is that the baggage you brought with at the beginning of this journey will still be there at the end, no matter what outcome - unless you unpack it and deal with it along the way.

As a Founder you will face all kinds of stresses. Uncertainty with everything. You will be triggered and your buttons pushed.

In this episode, I talk about playing the Bigger Game and give you two powerful questions that will give you the power to change how you experience everything in life.

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I’ve had a few conversations with First-Time founders over the past week that have gone like this:

“So, what’s your strategy for build your pipeline and sales?”

“Mainly thought leadership and content marketing. “

You may ask yourself, “wait, what could possibly be wrong about thought leadership as a sales strategy?”

Well, that’s the thing. Thought leadership isn’t actually strategy.

It can be an important ingredient or an element of your customer flywheel.

But it’s not a sales strategy on its own.

In this week’s episode of the Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast, I cover:

What thought leadership gets you…
…and what it doesn’t.
Customer flywheels and what you need to build them
The absolutely critical step to maximize the impact of your thought leadership

Need to accelerate your B2B sales and scalable product market fit? Reach out at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

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I see a pattern over and over again with both my businesses and the Founders I work with.

There’s three times we kinda get kicked in the teeth.

The first is when we just launch and test our vision with the market.

The second is when we get initial traction and think we’ve cracked it.

The third is when we’ve cracked it and then we’ve got to scale it.

I think of these phases as: Find it, Nail it, Scale it.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast, I talk through the gotchas of each of these phases - and what to do to break through.

PS If you need to break through these urgently, the first 2x Accelerator for scalable market fit and sales is kicking off on October 31. The outcome is simple: To increase your product-market fit and sales velocity by 2x in six weeks. Write me at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com with the word “2x” to learn more.

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If I could only solve one single challenge for Founders, what would it be?

Answer: Accelerate scalable product-market fit and sales.

Because if you figure out this challenge, you have the fuel to figure out all the other challenges.

But it’s a big challenge for any B2B business. And there are so many variables and angles on it that it can be overwhelming for First-Time Founders to figure out how to crack it.

So broke it down into 3 key things that keep you from product-market fit and scaling sales.

Too much Sales Friction
Not Enough Customer Conversations
Everything At Once Overwhelm

In this week’s episode of the Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast, I walk through these 3 blocks and what you need to do to clear them.

Steve

PS If you need to break through these urgently, the first 2x Accelerator for scalable market fit and sales is kicking off on October 31. The outcome is simple: To increase your product-market fit and sales velocity by 2x in six weeks. Write me at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com with the word “2x” to learn more.

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As Founders, we dream of building a rocket ship business that takes off, makes a huge impact and creates tremendous financial abundance.

It’s a wonderful dream.

The reality, of course, is it’s really hard to do.

We can’t flip a magic switch and suddenly have our business 10x.

But what if we can find places in our business where we can accelerate 2x?

Because before there’s a sale, there’s an offer, a prospect, a pitch, a proposal and a close.

What if you could systematically identify and create 2x acceleration opportunities in your business. How much knows how much you could increase your business’s velocity?

2x Acceleration is the topic of this week’s episode of the Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast

Topics I cover:

What 2x Acceleration means at different stages
Where to look for 2x opportunities
What happens if you accelerate the wrong things (at the wrong time)

2x Accelerator is also the name of a new program I am piloting in November. I’m really excited by the potential for this program to create wins and build momentum for your business. It’s specifically targeted for B2B Founders with a product in market who want to rapidly create product-market fit and sales breakthroughs.

Hit me up at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and I’ll give you the details.

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Founders who work with me know hear something over and over. They hear it so much, they probably get annoyed with me.

But it’s the essence of my work. And it’s critical to their success.

Here’s how it goes. Client or prospect comes with a laundry list of updates and challenges.

Then I dig in with questions and together we figure out “THE problem to solve.”

Because usually there’s one underlying problem to solve - and everything else is just a symptom of that problem.

You have ONE job: identify and solve that problem.

I talk about:

1. How to find THE Problem to solve

2. How to differentiate between THE Problem and symptoms

3. The core problems to solve at each phase of your business...

...the key question to ask that will help you start solving them

Have a question you want covered on the podcast? Reach out to me at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

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This month is all about troubleshooting sales, the most common pressing challenge selected by the 2000+ founders who have taken my Founder Type Quiz.

One of the biggest challenges for any Founder or business is Product-Market fit. Often product-market fit is seen as a distinct challenge than sales. But in my experience, looking at product-market fit as a specific type of sales challenge is really helpful.

In this episode, I talk through:

Breaking down sales into three core components: traffic, conversion and economics.
What sales looks like at 0-1, 1-100, 100-1000 stages of your business
Which component to focus on in product-market fit
How your Founder Type impacts how you sell
Key gotchas with early stage sales
What absolutely not to do when working product-market fit

And remember: you can’t scale the hard sale!

Have a question you want covered on the podcast? Reach out to me at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

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This month is all about troubleshooting sales, the most common pressing challenge selected by the 2000+ founders who have taken my Founder Type Quiz.

Today I was talking with one of my clients and he mentioned that they decided not to renew their social media agency, since they weren’t getting any ROI (something that’s all too common). He was going to turn his attention to their website and update it.

I told him that’s fine, but it won’t fix your sales.

It’s not that they don’t need a web site.

It’s not that social media can’t be an effective channel.

In fact it’s not any one thing - web site, social, ads, etc - that will crack the sales challenge and give you the fast growth you are looking for.

But here’s what will.

There are 3 things that need to be in place:

An offer that reliably converts for your ideal customers
A way to consistently bring those ideal customers to you
And a cost of acquisition and delivery that makes it all worth it

Another way to think of it is what Perry Marshall calls the Tactical Triangle: Traffic-Conversion-Economics

Of course this sounds simple in theory, but is much more challenging in practice.

In this week’s Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast episode, I talk about how to put these in place and what’s required to make it happen:

Key topics I’ll hit:

The very first step you need to take to make sales go
The difference between your offer and your product/service
How to create a compelling customer journey

Are you a Founder who feels alone in your journey? I've been there! Reach out to steve@steveaugustcoaching.com

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This month is all about troubleshooting sales, the most common pressing challenge selected by the 2000+ founders who have taken my Founder Type Quiz. Recently, when I asked the question, when it comes to sales, what’s your single biggest challenge, one subscribers responded:

“Our sales is complex AND is highly affected by timing.”

I have personal experience with this as my first startup, the market research software company Revelation had a complex sale that was very highly affected by timing. This made it extremely hard to scale the business!

I can’t tell you all the frustrating ways I tried to solve that issue. I tried different marketing systems, different sales methodologies, different team members. I looked for a lot of silver bullets (spoiler alert: there are no silver bullets!).

I have to confess I never truly cracked it - until my company achieved its exit and I saw how the people who bought us operated.

It was all about making the complex sale simple. In this week’s Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast episode, I talk about how to think through your complex sale and make it simple and less dependent on timing.

Key topics I’ll hit:

How to simplify a complex sale
How your Founder Type works against you (and what to do about it!)
How to craft a selling proposition that breaks through the clutter
How to identify ways to reduce timing dependencies

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As typical of many Founders, I was always looking for the silver bullet: that one thing that would enable us to bust through and get that rocket ship momentum.

We need a killer new product or feature, I’d think.
Or we'll get on Hubspot and when the content happens it’s all gonna take off.
Or now that we’ve spent a fortunate on Salesforce, it’s gonna happen.
Or I know, we’ll adopt ABM (account based management) or some other sales methodology.

But those plateaus were stubborn. All of the above promised breakthrough sales but the reality was that nothing delivered them for us.

Maybe this is you. Maybe you are in an early stage and trying to get product-market fit. Or may your business had been growing, but sales are increasingly harder.

After finally getting an exit on my first startup, and then after starting two other businesses, I started to see the blindspots I had that were keeping me from getting sales were I wanted them.

In this week's Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast, I give you the 4 deadliest sales blindspots. Knowing these blindspots will help you unlock your next level sales. I discuss:

The essential element that makes all sales go
How your Founder type is sabotaging your sales
Why sales plateaus happen
And….the secret to scaling sales

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This week’s podcast episode comes in response to yet another question from my list - and it’s one that’s sure to resonate with many Founders. When asked what their single biggest challenge is, this founder answered:

”Scaling to increase revenue and expand services.”

Scaling sales is a big topic. There’s a ton of information out there on positioning, building funnels, doing cold email outreach, content marketing, consultative selling. In other words, lots of specific tactics.

But just jumping into tactics skips perhaps the MOST important step: defining your ideal customer.

Without this step, all of your strategies and tactics may go to waste.

In this episode, I give you a simple, yet incredibly powerful framework for identifying your ideal customer. I cover:

Walking you through a powerful ideal customer framework
How to avoid trying to scale with the wrong customers
2 things you probably haven’t considered in defining your ideal customer
Why narrow and specific is crucial to scaling
And…an even more powerful way of thinking that breaks through mental blocks on scaling

There is a surprise twist to this exercise, that takes it to an even more powerful place. I’m not going to give away in the podcast episode. However, anybody who listens to the episode and does the exercise can write me at steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and I’ll give you the twist that will create a next level unlock for you!

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This week’s episode of Rocket Ship Academy Podcast comes directly from a question from my list:

Should Founders be equally going about building up a personal brand at the same time we are building up our non-personal companies? For instance, my company is a software and digital publishing company. Should I be actively promoting myself (e.g. puff pieces about me in magazines, 40 under 40 list etc), or can I quietly build massive success with no media attention focused on me? So far, I have spoken at tech conferences and I have a speech therapist. But I wonder, should I be doing more to build a personal image as a founder, or does that not matter? Thanks.

This is a great question!

And one that actually brings up one of the most important concepts in building a Rocket Ship business: P&L thinking versus balance sheet thinking.

In this episode, I cover:

P&L versus Balance Sheet thinking, and how knowing this can radically transform your approach to your business
How your personal brand as a Founder can be a huge asset to your business…and how it can work against you.
How to separate nice “pat on the back” personal brand opportunities from ones that will actually help your business
Why there is no non-personal business

Have a question or challenge you'd like support on? Send to steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and I will do an episode for you!

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”I don't know if it's covid related but prospects that expressed interest are very slow or don't get back to me. How can I get them to respond to my follow ups without feeling like I'm pestering them?”

This week’s Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast episode comes from a question I got in response to my recent question to my list, “What’s your biggest current challenge?”

When prospects show initial interest but then don’t get back to you, or ghost you, it’s really frustrating. But it’s always giving you some important feedback about something that isn’t working in your sales process.

If you are experiencing this, you are not alone. Growing sales is the single biggest challenge selected by Founders in my Founder Type Quiz.

In this episode, I break down why your prospects are closing - and what you can do to improve your win rate. I’ll cover:

The number #1 most critical thing to get your prospects to take the next step
How your Founder type impacts your challenges in selling
The 3 areas your sales process could be breaking down
How to follow up without feeling like you are pestering your prospects
How to feel empowered when selling no matter what the outcome

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I was in the process of writing my weekly Sunday Steve email for my coaching clients, when I saw an email from one of my clients pop into my inbox, "Are you available today for a quick call today? I need some support in planning our next moves before Monday kicks in."This Founder is facing some very hard decisions. Decisions that need to be made quickly and involve dramatically shrinking the team. And in this new configuration there didn't appear to be a place for his co-founder. There were a few scenarios on what actions to take but it's pretty clear what needs to be done.

At one point the conversation turned to "bad decisions" made in the past. It's a natural part of the process when you are facing tough decisions to look back and judge the decision path that got you to this point as "bad."

In this episode, I cover:

How to separate the decisions we make from the outcomes we get
How to deal with the "should have's" that show up.
The most important question to ask when evaluating past decisions
How to win no matter what the outcome

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Steve"But they looked great on paper...."

One of the most common challenges I hear Founders facing is a recent hire that didn’t pan out. It’s one of the most frustrating aspects of Founder life. It feels like you spend a ton of energy, time and money only to end up back where you were, having to start over to fill that position.

In this week's episode of the Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast, I reveal the 3 biggest reasons hires don’t pan out - and what to do to give yourself the best chance of making your next hire a great one.

Topics covered:How to rethink job descriptions to set hires up for success

Why great interviews can be misleading and what to do instead
Key warning signs that a hire is not a fit
3 simple tests to ensure you are making the best hire possible

Do you have a question you'd like support on? Send your questions to steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and I will answer in an upcoming episode!

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In this week's episode I describe the 3 stages of your business: Handcart, Locomotive and Rocket Ship.

Clocking in at insight-packed 12 minutes, I talk about how your business needs to evolve and how you as a Founder need to evolve with it. Just a few of the learnings I discuss:

How to reduce overwhelm by working on the right problems for your stage.
Why Handcart to Locomotive stage is the hardest transition to make
When Type V and Type E founder really need Type O's and Type B's
How to know if your early team will scale to the next stage
The one thing you need to focus on at each stage

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In this episode of the rocket ship business academy. No matter what’s going on in our business, the real action is inside of us.

In this episode, I am reading from my book 33 Meditations for Seed Stage Founders. This is a book I wrote in 2020 when I gave myself a challenge to write a daily meditation on entrepreneurship - based on quotes from philosophers and thinkers who I admired.

This is Meditation #23, and the quote is from Terrance Mckenna. Terence McKenna was an American ethnobotanist and mystic who advocated the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants.

This quote caught my attention because it spoke to something that has struck over and over again in life and business. No matter what’s going on in our external circumstances, the real action is inside of us.

If you feel like your business is stuck, this episode will give you a surprising path to getting it unstuck.

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As a Founder, you’ve likely learned the important of metrics for your business. The thing is, there are so many metrics to choose from.

There are financial metrics like revenue, gross margin and profit.

There are marketing metrics like CAC and churn.

There are product metrics like Net promoter score and month-over-month growth.

All of these metrics tell you really important things about your business.

But how do you know which to focus on?

What if you could have one metric that everyone could point to and understand instantly how it all fits together?

What if there was one metric that made it simple for everyone in your company to how to focus their thinking and efforts?

Finding this one metric can transform your business.

It exists. I call it the Boss Metric.

And in this week’s episode of the Rocket Ship Business Academy Podcast, I show you how to find it.

This might be the single most impactful episode to date!

PS Do you have a question you'd like support on? Send your questions to steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and I will answer in an upcoming episode!

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When I started out as a Founder, I believed that product innovation and brilliance was THE key to creating Rocket Ship success.

However, business is a merciless teacher. As my first startup grew in fits and starts (and was outgrown by competitors with less innovative products), I learned the hard lesson that product/service brilliance only gets you so far.

It's the ability to execute, to effectively guide a team and consistently create customers that compounds over time and ultimately creates the Rocket Ship effect.

As a first time Founder I wish somebody had broken down exactly what I needed to master to make my company take off.

In this Rocket Ship Business Academy episode, I do just that. In 12-minutes, I break down the 5 disciplines Rocket Ship Founders must master.

In this episode, you'll learn:

How we had a near fatal Q4
The 4 places to look to find more resources inside your company
How not facing hard decisions will always catch up with

There's important wisdom packed into these 12 minutes - you'll come away from this episode with a clear understanding of what you need to master to level up as a Founder.

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There was a point during my first startup where I thought the whole thing was going to slide off the cliff. This wasn't in the early days - it was later on after we had momentum. We had a stupendously bad quarter and lost over $250k, which was catastrophic for us. It felt to me like we were really strapped and extremely thin on resources. I brought in a contract COO who help me right the ship and one of the biggest lessons I learned from him was that we had so many more resources than I thought - they were just on the other side of some very hard decisions.

In this episode, I recount this story, and more importantly I tell you the 4 places to look to uncover the most likely areas to find more resources for your company.

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In every Founder journey there is a moment (sometimes more than one) where you find yourself at the bottom of the well. Frustrated, burnt out, feeling defeated, isolated, knowing you have to keep going, but having a hard time seeing how.

In this 9-minute episode:

I share my own experience at the bottom of the well

Why I call them "Swimming pool moments"'

Why these moments are crucial for you

3 things you need to do when you are at the bottom of the well to get yourself moving and turn these painful moments into catalysts for your success.

How to climb out!

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Hiring. It's easily one of the biggest challenges Founders experience as they scale their business. In this episode, I respond to a subscriber's question about their challenges in hiring the right people - and reveal 3 secrets to help you hire better.

While nobody bats .1000 in hiring, I've learned some very hard won lessons over the years. I cover the 3 most important things I've learned to to help you hire better - even in this tough hiring environment. In this packed 12 minutes I cover:

The key step that everyone skips in their rush to hire
Why job descriptions aren't the best way to think about a role (and the 3 key elements you need to get absolutely clear)
Why interviews can be a poor predictor of how a candidate will perform - and what to do instead
How to figure out who will be the better team member between two equally qualified candidates
How to know within 30 days whether you've hired the right person

You'll come away from this episode looking at your hiring process in a whole new light!

Are you Founder who has a question you'd like support on? Send your questions to steve@steveaugustcoaching.com and I will answer in an upcoming episode!

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It's often seen as a badge of honor for a Founder to work insane hours. Of course, long hours and intense effort is an inevitable part of the Founder journey. However, there is a point where throwing more hours at your business starts to work against you. In this episode I describe the ways grinding tons of hours starts costing Founders - and how to recognize when your efforts are work for you or against you.

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You get the Founder title by starting something amazing. You also get the CEO title, but the reality is you have to keep re-earning that title until you've made at every stage of the company. Founder to CEO is one of the most challenging transitions for Founders to navigate successfully, as it demands shedding old models of working and embracing behaviors that sometimes feel counter to what got you this far. But often it's a Founders' ability to make this transition that makes the difference between a promising company breaking out or languishing.

Going from Seed Stage Founder to confident Growth Stage CEO requires Founders make 3 key transformations. In this episode I describe these 3 transformations and how to navigate them.

Rocket Ship Founder: Recent Episodes

Steve August

2 enables YOU are well positioned to weather the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune both in business and the rest of your life.