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Resilience Insights with Rob Nelson, Grow Founder and CEO
4 Plays5 years ago
If there's ever a setting where resilience is imperative, it's a startup. But the combination of uncertainty, lack of control, and the intense pace of a startup can also often have a direct correlation to increased stress, which can in turn negatively impact resilience. It's tempting to think the solution is to just to work harder. But is that really the best way to develop resilience? Today, we'll talk with Founder Rob Nelson and investor Gavin Christensen to bring you both sides of a perfect pitch. This episode will explore:
- Signs that an investor looks for to recognize a scrappy founder
- Questions to ask yourself when making difficult decisions as a leader
- The importance of resilience and vulnerability, and why you need both to run a company
- The steps you can take to live intentionally, within your business and personal life
Recommended
Transcript
The Role of Resilience in Startups
00:00:00
Speaker
If there's ever a setting where resilience is imperative, it's in a startup.
00:00:04
Speaker
But the combination of uncertainty, lack of control, and the intense pace of a startup can also have a direct correlation on increased stress, which will then impact your resilience.
00:00:12
Speaker
It's tempting to think the solution is to just work harder.
00:00:15
Speaker
But is that really the best way to develop resilience?
Meet the Guests: Rob Nelson and Gavin Christensen
00:00:18
Speaker
Today, we talk with founder Rob Nelson and investor Gavin Christensen to bring you both sides of A Perfect Pitch.
The 'Perfect Pitch' Podcast Overview
00:00:34
Speaker
What is Perfect Pitch?
00:00:35
Speaker
It's a podcast from Kickstart that reveals the minds of both investors and entrepreneurs throughout a startup's journey.
00:00:42
Speaker
So whether that's uncovering what everyone's really thinking during a startup pitch or learning how entrepreneurs like you have managed their first major roadblock, Perfect Pitch offers an honest, quick, and tactical guide to help you on your startup journey.
00:00:57
Speaker
I'm your host, Karen Zelnick, and I'm excited to introduce you to today's guests.
Rob Nelson's Entrepreneurial Journey
00:01:02
Speaker
First, our founder, Rob Nelson.
00:01:04
Speaker
Rob, welcome to the show.
00:01:06
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:06
Speaker
Great to be here.
00:01:07
Speaker
So Rob, you founded Grow.com in 2014 with the mission of making business intelligence accessible and affordable for growing businesses.
00:01:15
Speaker
And you're an entrepreneur at heart and a technology enthusiast.
00:01:18
Speaker
You sold your previous company, Logica, in 2012, correct?
00:01:22
Speaker
That's right.
00:01:23
Speaker
You're married, have five kids.
00:01:24
Speaker
You love mountain biking, hiking, and fly fishing.
00:01:27
Speaker
Anything else you'd like our entrepreneurs to know?
00:01:29
Speaker
That's a good overview.
00:01:31
Speaker
All things mountain.
00:01:33
Speaker
Love being up in the mountains and spending time on the beach.
Gavin Christensen's Impact on the Startup Scene
00:01:36
Speaker
And our investor today is Gavin Christensen.
00:01:38
Speaker
And Gavin, I'm just going to tell our entrepreneurs a little bit about you.
00:01:41
Speaker
You're the founder and managing partner of Kickstart.
00:01:43
Speaker
So just really the vision behind it.
00:01:46
Speaker
And before that, you were an analyst, associate and principal at V Spring Capital.
00:01:50
Speaker
And you received your MBA from Kellogg.
00:01:52
Speaker
And I know personally, I don't even want to think about what the startup scene in the Mountain West would be like without you because you really paved the way for seed funding in the region.
00:02:00
Speaker
And I just think that's awesome.
00:02:01
Speaker
So I'm excited
00:02:02
Speaker
Excited to have you and get your insights today.
00:02:04
Speaker
Anything else you'd like listeners to know?
00:02:06
Speaker
What do you like to do with your free time?
00:02:09
Speaker
In addition to what you named, I love to just be at home.
00:02:14
Speaker
Not really.
00:02:14
Speaker
In the COVID era, my family, we've developed a hobby of going around in our travel trailer, our little Airstream into various lakes around Utah.
00:02:24
Speaker
We're having fun with that.
00:02:25
Speaker
We're just making the most of the situation like many of you out there.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:02:29
Speaker
And you're an avid one-wheeler and tennis player, right?
00:02:32
Speaker
Indeed.
00:02:32
Speaker
All things electrical.
00:02:34
Speaker
That's amazing.
Challenges in Growing Grow.com
00:02:35
Speaker
Rob, why don't you tell us a little bit about your founder story?
00:02:38
Speaker
What was the process of starting GrowLike?
00:02:41
Speaker
When I started my first company, I was in college.
00:02:45
Speaker
And you go through this experience as a first-time founder of really not knowing, or at least I went through this, not knowing what I was doing.
00:02:52
Speaker
And the only thing I knew how to
00:02:55
Speaker
do is just work harder.
00:02:57
Speaker
And that became my strategy.
00:02:58
Speaker
But I'd sit around and get frustrated with everybody around me that wasn't working as hard as I was.
00:03:04
Speaker
And I knew I needed to change and needed to be a better leader.
00:03:08
Speaker
And so I brought in a management consultant.
00:03:10
Speaker
The first thing that she did was help us establish our KPIs and really the levers that drove the company forward.
00:03:17
Speaker
And so I went through that process, had this really incredible transformation in the company.
00:03:23
Speaker
And it felt like
00:03:25
Speaker
I had control for the first time.
00:03:27
Speaker
I could see the results and I stopped worrying about other things that were outside of our scope on the KPIs and the measurements of what we define success as.
00:03:38
Speaker
And so it was this really incredible process.
00:03:40
Speaker
But in order to do that, we had our managers logging into all these different systems and pulling data and reports and crunching numbers and updating spreadsheets.
00:03:49
Speaker
And it was such a painful process.
00:03:51
Speaker
And so we only did it once a month.
00:03:52
Speaker
So I'm staring at spreadsheets that were like a month old.
00:03:56
Speaker
They were out of date.
00:03:57
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And I'm trying to engage my team around them.
00:03:59
Speaker
And I just knew there was a better way.
00:04:00
Speaker
So I reached out to other companies and said, Hey, this is my problem.
00:04:04
Speaker
This is what you guys do to solve our problem.
00:04:06
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We were a small bootstrap team.
00:04:08
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It was like 30, 35 people.
00:04:11
Speaker
And bids came back.
00:04:12
Speaker
It was like over 100,000 a year.
00:04:14
Speaker
It was like four to six months of implementation time.
00:04:17
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And I thought, this is crazy.
00:04:18
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I mean, everything that we use has open APIs.
00:04:20
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I should be able to connect this in bed over the weekend with my laptop.
00:04:25
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And so I never solved the problem.
00:04:26
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Stuck to spreadsheets.
00:04:27
Speaker
And a larger company came in and made a couple of offers.
00:04:29
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And we sold the company.
00:04:31
Speaker
And so as I looked at what am I passionate about, this had this incredible transformation in the results for our company.
00:04:37
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That's when all the growth happened.
00:04:38
Speaker
And I felt empowered as a leader and as an entrepreneur and CEO.
00:04:43
Speaker
And so as I looked at some things that I wanted to do next, this was one of them.
00:04:48
Speaker
And I made a
00:04:51
Speaker
five things, then I would go and do it.
00:04:53
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And so as different ideas came up, I'd bump it up against my list of five and it met like three of the five.
00:04:59
Speaker
I'd throw it out until I came up with the concept of Grow.
Comparing Grow and Logica
00:05:03
Speaker
So what did you learn from the get-go that you want to do differently with Grow than you did with Logica?
00:05:09
Speaker
The main difference, I think, between Grow and Logica, I think, are expectations.
00:05:15
Speaker
Logica was bootstrapped and maintained control.
00:05:17
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We just kind of went at my own pace, which is what I was comfortable with and was kind of learning as I started it in college.
00:05:25
Speaker
This time around, we wanted to go bigger and have a much bigger outcome and we raised venture capital money.
00:05:31
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And so my own expectations and expectations of investors are just a lot higher.
00:05:36
Speaker
And Gavin, what was your perspective as the investor when Rob came to pitch?
00:05:40
Speaker
What was your perspective on him as a founder and on the company?
Backing Rob Nelson: Gavin's Perspective
00:05:44
Speaker
So, yeah, no, it's fun to reminisce.
00:05:46
Speaker
I was just looking at the, I think it's been maybe six and a half years or so since we had that first, I think it was a breakfast meeting, Rob, that we sat down and met for the first time.
00:05:56
Speaker
You know, Kickstart, our philosophy is often we're betting on an entrepreneur.
00:06:01
Speaker
I think in the case of Grow, it was one of those situations where certainly after meeting Rob the first time, I'm like, hey, this is the kind of entrepreneur we love to back.
00:06:10
Speaker
He's a bootstrapper, which we love.
00:06:12
Speaker
We also happen to be really passionate about the same issue that Rob was seeing, which is, hey, all these great rising small businesses, how do you give them the tools so they can behave like larger businesses?
00:06:24
Speaker
And it's been inspiring to see Rob rise to each new challenge that's presented by Grow and the team and the market space as they've come.
00:06:32
Speaker
And there've been plenty.
Creating Momentum in Entrepreneurship
00:06:34
Speaker
And with that, I think the passion is easy to identify in a person when you're talking with them and meeting for the first time.
00:06:39
Speaker
But as far as showing that they're scrappy and that they're really going to be the type of founder you want to back, what type of info or data do you look for from people pitching you?
00:06:47
Speaker
Well, great entrepreneurs have a way of creating momentum out of relationships with others, out of small amounts of money.
00:06:56
Speaker
And we saw that certainly with Rob's previous company, but also already with Grow.
00:07:01
Speaker
The way he was describing the problem, the way he was telling the story of what he was going to do was attracting people.
00:07:07
Speaker
talented people, capital.
00:07:09
Speaker
People were doing things to try to help Rob.
00:07:11
Speaker
So the entrepreneur takes the factors of production, which are these resources that people have access to, and they make something happen pretty quickly.
00:07:21
Speaker
And they start to create urgency for someone like a venture capitalist to get involved because they can see, oh, wow, this person is going to be able to solve this problem, even though the probability is always low that they'll be successful.
00:07:32
Speaker
But they believe it.
00:07:33
Speaker
And they're able to convince others to believe it as well.
00:07:37
Speaker
Yes, you're really backing a person.
00:07:38
Speaker
And Rob, I want to go back to you because I had a question.
00:07:40
Speaker
What did you assume would be the same with your second company, but actually turned out to be different?
00:07:45
Speaker
And there were some lessons that you had to take away from that.
00:07:49
Speaker
The biggest difference is just the challenge of it.
Building a Versatile SaaS Product
00:07:53
Speaker
This is probably 10 times harder than I anticipated.
00:07:58
Speaker
And a couple of reasons for that.
00:07:59
Speaker
One is
00:08:00
Speaker
We were more tech-enabled services, and building a pure SaaS product in the analytics space is really, really challenging.
00:08:09
Speaker
The number one complaint of customers across any SaaS platform, anytime you double-click into that, the use cases are all over the board.
00:08:18
Speaker
And so the only way to solve that is some BI business intelligence platform that can handle lots of different variability and use cases and do it in a really simple and elegant way.
00:08:30
Speaker
If I had to jump in and say, Rob, because we've had this conversation together many times, okay, what has made this journey more difficult?
Leadership and Decision-Making
00:08:40
Speaker
Certainly from what I've seen and experienced with you is Grow is creating this amazing product.
00:08:46
Speaker
But part of the journey, part of the challenge is you have to rely on so many other partners to deliver that great product.
00:08:51
Speaker
And anytime a partner's API...
00:08:54
Speaker
or let's say just the generalizable aspect within the organization isn't clear, people blame Grow for that.
00:09:01
Speaker
And so there's a lot to control to deliver that great experience that you didn't necessarily have that challenge at Logica.
00:09:08
Speaker
So it's because of its actual importance to the customer that there's a really high bar on delivering it.
00:09:19
Speaker
And so it's got to be accurate.
00:09:21
Speaker
It's got to work.
00:09:21
Speaker
It's got to be trusted.
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:24
Speaker
And you've both alluded to the fact of how hard the journey can be.
00:09:28
Speaker
So I want to do a deep dive into that.
00:09:30
Speaker
Let's get into the nitty gritty of what that looks like.
00:09:33
Speaker
Rob, you've had to make some tough calls.
00:09:35
Speaker
How do you approach making hard decisions as a founder?
00:09:38
Speaker
So the last...
00:09:40
Speaker
really hard call I had to make.
00:09:43
Speaker
I went through this laddering approach, right?
00:09:46
Speaker
Where I said, okay, the first thing I need to ask is, do I really believe in what we're doing?
00:09:52
Speaker
If that's the case, then you've got to get over uncomfortable conversations and make hard decisions with people.
00:09:59
Speaker
And most of the time, the hardest decisions are all around people.
00:10:04
Speaker
The next question is, am I the best person to lead the change toward this vision?
00:10:10
Speaker
Then the next question I had asked myself is, if I believe that, do I even want to do this?
00:10:15
Speaker
The last question is like, do others want me to do this?
00:10:17
Speaker
And I remember calling Gavin.
00:10:18
Speaker
Gavin, do you still want me to do this?
00:10:21
Speaker
Yeah, I've got this really difficult thing.
00:10:23
Speaker
And I've had to go through this process myself.
00:10:25
Speaker
And this is the conclusion.
00:10:27
Speaker
And yeah, I believe I'm the best person to lead this right now.
00:10:31
Speaker
But I need to know, do you think
00:10:33
Speaker
That's the case.
00:10:34
Speaker
Because I don't want to get surprised in a board meeting.
00:10:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:37
Speaker
Gavin, so you
Investor-Founders Communication
00:10:38
Speaker
get that call.
00:10:38
Speaker
What are you thinking, Gavin, when you get that call?
00:10:41
Speaker
The reality is we take bets on people and this is a people business.
00:10:46
Speaker
And if that relationship is working well and you're communicating, you're problem solving together, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
00:10:53
Speaker
That's just how it goes.
00:10:54
Speaker
This is a business that's defined by the outlier successes and sometimes it doesn't work.
00:11:00
Speaker
And grow is definitely one that we feel like will work.
00:11:02
Speaker
But there's these moments and a lot of it is Rob's strengths is just self-awareness.
00:11:07
Speaker
he's always leading that conversation of like, hey, should I still be doing this?
00:11:11
Speaker
What do
Evolution of Company Ownership
00:11:12
Speaker
you think?
00:11:12
Speaker
So Rob is attuned to that and he's going, you know what, we might need to pivot.
00:11:15
Speaker
We might need to reduce headcount.
00:11:17
Speaker
We might need to, you know, whatever it is.
00:11:20
Speaker
And in leading that conversation before it's being pushed on him by, you know, investors recognizing, oh, we have to do this or else.
00:11:28
Speaker
And so that creates a great relationship.
00:11:32
Speaker
And I think from a founder's perspective, once you raise money, it's no longer your company.
00:11:39
Speaker
So you always have to ask yourself, am I the best person to do this and to lead the charge and be self-aware?
00:11:46
Speaker
That's got to be a hard question to ask yourself.
00:11:48
Speaker
How do you do that sort of introspective look?
00:11:52
Speaker
And I would say what Rob just said, I think is very wise.
00:11:56
Speaker
I think it would shock a lot of founders.
00:11:58
Speaker
But what Rob is saying is as soon as you have someone else's hopes and dreams on that cap table, someone else's money, it's not just you.
00:12:06
Speaker
So, and I think that's what Rob is saying.
00:12:08
Speaker
It's less about, hey, you might be able to control every vote.
00:12:11
Speaker
You might be, you know, it's not that.
00:12:13
Speaker
It's somebody else's emotion, somebody else's money is involved now.
00:12:17
Speaker
And so you have to take that into consideration.
00:12:21
Speaker
In other words, if there's somebody that can grow the equity faster, right?
00:12:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:26
Speaker
And do a larger outcome than I can.
00:12:28
Speaker
By all means,
Resilience in the Startup Journey
00:12:29
Speaker
bring them in.
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:32
Speaker
Gavin, is that a rare quality for even like a founder to have?
00:12:35
Speaker
It seems like that's a very amazing rare quality that Rob has.
00:12:39
Speaker
I think the best entrepreneurs that I work with, they tend to have that quality, which is, it's the passion and the commitment to be committed like a founder, but also the ability to take a step back and think like an investor.
00:12:51
Speaker
Because fundamentally, you are the largest shareholder in your business.
00:12:54
Speaker
So yes, I think the best leaders I work with have that perspective of always saying, hey, one, I'm going to recruit people that are better than me to my team.
00:13:03
Speaker
And I'm not going to be threatened by that.
00:13:05
Speaker
I'm Steph Curry.
00:13:06
Speaker
I'll bring in Kevin Durant.
00:13:08
Speaker
He's MVP and I'm winning championships.
00:13:09
Speaker
That's okay.
00:13:11
Speaker
And if there's a time that it's, hey, someone else should take the lead role, great.
00:13:15
Speaker
Anyway, so yes, it's a rare quality, but it's almost necessary, I think, to really scale.
00:13:21
Speaker
So Rob, you've asked yourself more than once if you should still be the CEO of this company.
00:13:26
Speaker
As you mentioned, you kind of asked, do I even want to do this?
00:13:29
Speaker
I'm sure there were times where you didn't want to keep doing this, but your love for the company and knowing that you were still the right person kind of created this resilience in you to keep going.
00:13:37
Speaker
So I want to dive into resilience.
Supporting Founders Beyond Investment
00:13:39
Speaker
After you've made 550,000 tough calls with this company, what does resilience mean to you?
00:13:46
Speaker
There's never been an easier time to do a startup.
00:13:50
Speaker
Somebody...
00:13:51
Speaker
said this, that startups are easy, stay-ups are hard.
00:13:55
Speaker
And staying in it, that's the hard part.
00:13:57
Speaker
I really think that outlasting everybody is like 50% of the battle.
00:14:01
Speaker
And a key part of the startups is just surviving long enough to get good.
00:14:07
Speaker
And it just takes time to get good.
00:14:09
Speaker
I mean, strategy is nourished with patience.
00:14:11
Speaker
And you see examples of this all the time.
00:14:14
Speaker
I mean, local examples would be like MX and Brainstorm.
00:14:18
Speaker
I mean, they just have been around for a long time.
00:14:20
Speaker
And now they seem like, oh, they came out of nowhere.
00:14:23
Speaker
And these guys are crushing it.
00:14:25
Speaker
And you look at like the ultimate Netflix.
00:14:27
Speaker
I mean, it's taken two decades for them to like realize their vision.
00:14:31
Speaker
And I think if you want to change the world, patience and endless endurance are key.
00:14:37
Speaker
I would just add to that.
00:14:39
Speaker
I wrote a post a little while ago that I was pretty passionate about, both in my own experience and in a lot of the entrepreneurs that I've backed.
00:14:45
Speaker
It was called Finishers Wanted.
00:14:47
Speaker
And it's what Rob's saying, which is, if you want the economics, if you want the credit, if you want to define industries, you have to finish.
00:14:56
Speaker
And it doesn't mean you have to finish in a certain role, but you have to finish the journey.
00:15:01
Speaker
All the impact, the economics, the credit, all of it comes at the end.
00:15:05
Speaker
And so, yes, I think there's so much to what Rob's saying, which is there's very few startup journeys that are a straight line.
00:15:11
Speaker
Most of it is struggle.
00:15:13
Speaker
Something that I think Rob has done a great job is being transparent and vulnerable about the points of struggle that's really inspiring for other entrepreneurs.
00:15:22
Speaker
Look at a person like Rob saying, hey, he's made it.
00:15:25
Speaker
And to say, hey, actually, this part's challenging and I doubted myself here.
00:15:30
Speaker
And some of the Kickstart Collective conversations we've had with Rob, where he shared that with our entrepreneurs, have been some of the most profound from the feedback that we heard from CEOs and founders.
00:15:41
Speaker
Gavin, I loved that post.
00:15:42
Speaker
I remember reading that post.
00:15:43
Speaker
And we're going to put a link to that in our show notes because I would love for everyone listening to be able to read that.
00:15:48
Speaker
And I do have another question.
00:15:49
Speaker
I want to know as the investor, because there can often be this myth of the founder needing to be this really strong visionary who just carries everybody and the company along with them through all the hard times.
00:16:00
Speaker
How do you view Rob's vulnerability?
00:16:03
Speaker
Is that a strength?
00:16:04
Speaker
What's your perspective on that?
00:16:06
Speaker
I think it's a great question.
00:16:07
Speaker
And I think I personally have fallen victim to that myth about my own self, feeling like I had to be that.
00:16:13
Speaker
And I think the reality is sometimes a leader, you do need to inspire, you do need to have optimism, and you do need to get people through the rough patch.
00:16:21
Speaker
However, at Kickstart, we believe we invest in the whole person.
00:16:25
Speaker
And we want founders to win with their teams, with their families, with their mental health intact, and recognizing that there are peaks and valleys along the way.
00:16:36
Speaker
And that's just normal.
00:16:37
Speaker
And actually, it's better to work through that than pretend like it's not happening.
00:16:42
Speaker
I have one of my funds that it's been long enough that I have some investors in that fund that I'm having to deal with their heirs.
00:16:49
Speaker
They've unfortunately passed on.
00:16:51
Speaker
So it takes a long time sometimes to get to the end of these companies.
00:16:55
Speaker
And it's a deep relationship.
00:16:57
Speaker
It's not a transaction.
00:16:58
Speaker
This takes everything that someone can offer.
00:17:01
Speaker
And so we need to understand that and embrace that and try to get to that finish line intact.
Pivoting with Consistent Vision
00:17:08
Speaker
And I think from a founder's perspective, we talk
00:17:12
Speaker
help people play the long game.
00:17:15
Speaker
And to talk through, hey, the success is never linear of just straight up and to the right.
00:17:22
Speaker
There's challenges along the way.
00:17:24
Speaker
And that's
00:17:29
Speaker
grow.
00:17:29
Speaker
And when you look at growth's path, I mean, we've made several pivots, but the vision has always remained consistent and the same.
00:17:38
Speaker
It's just how we execute on that and how we solve the problem has required lots of little pivots along the way.
00:17:45
Speaker
And I would add, this is one of the differences between founders who have the entrepreneurial spirit and employees and great, smart people, is that founders just care more.
00:17:56
Speaker
And ultimately, if the motivation is money, fame, whatever other thing that's totally a great motivation, but not solving that problem, you look at Rob, he stayed with this original insight of like, let's help
00:18:09
Speaker
companies reclaim their focus through understanding their KPIs and their dashboard and what's important.
00:18:15
Speaker
It's just too hard if your motivation is something other than solving this deep problem.
00:18:23
Speaker
How do each of you cope so that you can keep going and you can get through the struggle?
00:18:28
Speaker
I kind of have a lens on my life as an evolving story.
00:18:31
Speaker
And it's a coping strategy maybe, but I tend to see setbacks or a challenge with an entrepreneur or whatever as like an interesting chapter in an evolving story.
Life as an Evolving Story
00:18:44
Speaker
So I think we all find these things that give us renewal and that keep us in the fight and we play the long game.
00:18:50
Speaker
I love that.
00:18:51
Speaker
I view my life as a painting.
00:18:52
Speaker
So I love the correlation of the story.
00:18:54
Speaker
Instead of a ladder, it's a painting.
00:18:55
Speaker
And it's like, oh, we can cover that up.
00:18:57
Speaker
That's fine.
00:18:58
Speaker
Keep moving or that'll be a tree now.
00:19:00
Speaker
There you go.
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's right.
00:19:02
Speaker
Oil paint.
00:19:02
Speaker
It's never done.
00:19:04
Speaker
Rob, how about you?
00:19:05
Speaker
I guess I certainly don't mean to sound like
00:19:09
Speaker
startups are all like grit your teeth and melt your face off in the flame of adversity,
Navigating the Messy Middle
00:19:14
Speaker
right?
00:19:14
Speaker
Oh, that's not the takeaway we should walk away with?
00:19:17
Speaker
That's not the takeaway.
00:19:18
Speaker
It's no more than 90%.
00:19:19
Speaker
Yeah, no more than 90%.
00:19:21
Speaker
Yeah, but there is this concept of the messy middle and that we all love starts and finishes.
00:19:27
Speaker
And it's like really romantic, this startup story and then this big exit or this big ending.
00:19:32
Speaker
And that's kind of that whole model of venture capital and how it works.
00:19:36
Speaker
And so we just kind of are enthralled
00:19:43
Speaker
so rewarding and it's so great.
00:19:45
Speaker
And as an entrepreneur, what you get to do is artwork.
00:19:49
Speaker
I mean, and you get to build the experience and the feelings and the emotions that a customer has and how you support them.
00:19:58
Speaker
I mean, there's just nothing better.
00:20:00
Speaker
And so when you can do it and someone says, Hey, this really, really helps me and just makes my life so much better.
00:20:06
Speaker
This has such a tremendous impact on our company.
00:20:10
Speaker
And then they write a check for it.
00:20:11
Speaker
It's just like, man, this is the best thing in the world.
00:20:14
Speaker
Rob, that concept of nourishing your strategy with patience really resonates with me.
00:20:18
Speaker
And it's something I may be thinking about for a long time and really appreciate you sharing that.
00:20:22
Speaker
Also, the idea of thinking about your life as plot points in a novel or a piece of artwork are really wise words to live by, whether or not you're an entrepreneur.
00:20:30
Speaker
So thank you both for sharing all of that.
00:20:32
Speaker
And the final question I have as we wrap this up is, Rob, what is one thing you've implemented that you feel has had the greatest impact on your work and life?
Intentional Planning for Clarity and Focus
00:20:40
Speaker
I would say being intentional.
00:20:46
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I'll give you a couple of examples of what I do in order to create that intention and clarity for me.
00:20:52
Speaker
One is Sunday night weekly planning.
00:20:55
Speaker
Otherwise, I step into the office on Monday or step into work and step into the whirlwind and it's just crazy.
00:21:01
Speaker
I do a solo trip once a year where I go somewhere and just work on a vision board for myself and a vision board for the company.
00:21:11
Speaker
And what I want to create that clarity is
00:21:14
Speaker
And another one is quarterly and annual planning.
00:21:18
Speaker
And then the last that's part of this whole concept is just a peer group of other CEOs that I meet with once a month.
00:21:24
Speaker
And we talk and reflect on how I'm doing and or I talk and reflect on how I'm doing and the changes I need to make.
00:21:31
Speaker
Rob, I love all of that.
00:21:32
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I'm taking notes.
00:21:33
Speaker
I'm going to implement that in my life.
00:21:35
Speaker
And Gavin, I would just love to know what are your thoughts on that?
00:21:38
Speaker
One, that's very impressive and very intentional.
Finding Renewal and Motivation
00:21:42
Speaker
For me, it's finding renewal through certain activities and certain relationships and continuing going back to that core motivation of why I do what I do.
00:21:52
Speaker
The motivation isn't money.
00:21:54
Speaker
It's not these other ancillary things.
00:21:56
Speaker
There's something I'm trying to get done and I need to make sure that my day-to-day things that I spend my time on these days, Zoom meetings, those are driving towards that.
00:22:08
Speaker
And we get lost in the hand-to-hand combat of day-to-day schedules and we lose track of the big...
00:22:15
Speaker
Things that often aren't urgent, but they're important that we're trying to get done.
00:22:19
Speaker
So one of the small things I did is say, hey, I'm not doing meetings before 930.
00:22:24
Speaker
Dang it.
00:22:24
Speaker
I'm going to have time to work on stuff that's actually important and let the drama and the fires.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:31
Speaker
Let the fires start at 930.
00:22:32
Speaker
Send in the hounds at 930.
00:22:34
Speaker
But before that, I'm going to exercise.
00:22:37
Speaker
I'm going to take time to actually think and plan.
00:22:41
Speaker
Thank you.
00:22:41
Speaker
Thank you both so much.
00:22:43
Speaker
I think my biggest takeaway from this was it's very important to talk about the messy middle.
Conclusion: Embracing the Startup Journey
00:22:49
Speaker
I think it's important to talk about that.
00:22:50
Speaker
It's important to be vulnerable.
00:22:51
Speaker
But I love your point of not losing sight of the magic that really is the land of startups and why we're here and why we're all doing what we're doing.
00:23:00
Speaker
So thanks again to both of you for being part of this.
00:23:02
Speaker
I've loved having you on the episode today.
00:23:04
Speaker
Happy to be here.
00:23:05
Speaker
Thanks, Karen.
00:23:06
Speaker
Thanks, Kevin.
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's been a great conversation.
00:23:08
Speaker
Thanks, everybody.
00:23:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:09
Speaker
And of course, thank you for listening as we dive deep into what it takes to create the perfect pitch.
00:23:14
Speaker
If you want to learn more about our investor, Gavin Christensen from Kickstart or our CEO, Rob Nelson, and what he and his resilient team are doing at Grow, we'll have a link to the company and a longer bio for both of them and our show notes at kickstartfunds.com slash perfect pitch.
00:23:29
Speaker
We'll be back next time with more insights from entrepreneurs and the investors who fund them.
00:23:33
Speaker
So be sure to subscribe so that you don't miss a thing.
00:23:36
Speaker
You can listen to more episodes of Perfect Pitch wherever you listen to your podcast, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher.
00:23:41
Speaker
If you like what you're learning, leave us a review or a rating and we'll catch you next time.