Being a founder is stressful, especially as a solo founder. Here's how to cope.
⚡️ A QUICK NOTE ABOUT OUR FEATURED SPONSOR ⚡️
Thanks to this week’s featured sponsor: Build In Public Fellowship :)
The cat was out of the bag last week when I announced that after designing and running Fellowship programs at On Deck and Day One, I’m now building my very own Fellowship — to serve founders who aspire to build in public.
The first cohort will be prestigious and exclusive tight-knit group of doers (not talkers) who will learn how to share their startup story better, expand their luck surface area on the Internet and grow their business faster organically.
Apply to be a founding member.
In case, you’re curious but undecided yet, you can get a taste of the kind of actionable content we’ll discuss in the program in our upcoming FREE live Masterclass I’m hosting. It’ll be 30 min of BIP tactics followed by an audience Q/A at the end. The event is on March 1, 2023 12pm EST, will be live and open to anyone.
Many of you know that since Nov 30, 2022, I’ve been on the solo founder journey. After 3 years in high-growth startups like On Deck and Day One, I finally felt ready to take the plunge into entrepreneurship.
Except I had a problem.
That I didn’t really have a problem.
So I figured I’ll explore the open marketplace freely and play to my strengths and natural gifts within my ‘Zone of Genius’.
Zone of Genius: Activities that you are uniquely good at in the world, and that you love to do, so much so, that time and space likely disappear to you when you do them.
For me that meant the following:
Consulting (helping startups with growth, marketing and community)
Consulting (for Product Hunt launches and promotions)
Sponsored Content (via ads on this newsletter)
and now the Fellowship
Since Nov 30, I’ve made close to $22,000 in revenue across all of these areas. By all accounts, this seems great which it is.
But the path hasn’t been without its share of panic attacks and stressful hours.
There were many times I would second guess my actions or would overthink a decision I made. Sometimes I feel like I am wasting my time not working on a high TAM problem (which can be a billion dollar startup) like my peers and friends.
Other times I feel like I’m top of the world (when I get an accidental customer pay an invoice in full).
Overall, being a solo founder has been a uniquely stressful path. [This is partly why I am building a Fellowship so I can surround myself with others on the same path]
I recently randomly shared this observation on Twitter and it went viral with 40k views. Thousands of people resonated and hundreds of them chimed in with their own suggestions.
Here are the 8 interesting and useful answers I curated that might help you:
“Find another founder to meet with weekly” - David
“I take a short nap or break, then get back to work. I repeatedly remind myself that the world wants me to tow the line as a W-2 employee somewhere, it is what our society expects. So it is my job to make sure that does not happen by coping with the downsides of entrepreneurship“ - Gary
“Community, community community - connecting with like minded people who get it. Weekly.” - Jay
“Meditation - emotional regulation & perspective” - Rob
“Mentally, I give myself permission to do things messy knowing it will improve with more reps-- Not that I do this perfectly, but I am much better than even 6 months ago (its a process) Physically, I run and try not to sit for extended periods of time without moving around” - Eric
“Do Bachata & Kizomba. Literally hack the chemistry in your body, perfect coping mechanism” - Crypto Momo
“Gratitude journaling. I sit down and jot down things I am grateful for quietly.“
“Talk to my sister who’s been a solo freelancer for almost a year on how she handles things.“
The last 2 are things I do to deal with the stress. What about you? How do you cope?Hit reply and let me know what works.
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And that’s a wrap for now!
Thank you for giving your attention and checking this edition out.
Would really appreciate it if you can take 5 seconds and pay it forward to help someone else leverage these tips by sharing this article on Twitter/Linkedin and tag me (@thisiskp_). Feel free to DM me for cross-promotions or ad sponsorships.
Originally published on KP's Column · Feb 22, 2023