Rocket Ship Founder

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.

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.

"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.

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:

1. Why didn't I know better?
2. Why didn't I act sooner?
3. 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.

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.

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!

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.

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. 

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

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. ​

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:

1. The single most important question to ask yourself when you are facing tough challenges
2. Why you need to focus on the pain, and what you need to let go of
3. 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!

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!

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. 

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:

1. What thought leadership gets you…
2. …and what it doesn’t.
3. Customer flywheels and what you need to build them
4. 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

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.

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.

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.

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...

4. ...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

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:

1.  Breaking down sales into three core components: traffic, conversion and economics.
2. What sales looks like at 0-1, 1-100, 100-1000 stages of your business
3. Which component to focus on in product-market fit
4. How your Founder Type impacts how you sell
5. Key gotchas with early stage sales
6. 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

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:

1. An offer that reliably converts for your ideal customers
2. A way to consistently bring those ideal customers to you
3. 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

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

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

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:

1. P&L versus Balance Sheet thinking, and how knowing this can radically transform your approach to your business
2. How your personal brand as a Founder can be a huge asset to your business…and how it can work against you.
3. How to separate nice “pat on  the back” personal brand opportunities from ones that will actually help your business
4. 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!

”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

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

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!

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:

1. How to reduce overwhelm by working on the right problems for your stage.

2. Why Handcart to Locomotive stage is the hardest transition to make

3. When Type V and Type E founder really need Type O's and Type B's

4. How to know if your early team will scale to the next stage

5. The one thing you need to focus on at each stage

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. 

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!