Feelings Of A Founder - SaaStock | Noah Kagan

Key Takeaways

[Music] [Music] thank you how's everyone doing this morning still just kind of getting going how is everyone doing let's try it one more time y'all I need a little energy like where it's like a level 40 like a seven how's everyone doing I was like okay that is what I'm talking about all right we'll do some trivia just to see if uh see who's here how many men are here just simple trivia man we can do this okay ladies it's always interesting different crowds would be like the men will make noises and the women are polite sometimes or men are playing anyways uh how many people here working sass everyone are you in the right place SAS stock everybody here uh how many people here are uh running SAS or working at SAS business so half gone I'm just gonna try to see who's here you are totally looking at you yeah SAS business SAS business all right SAS business people how many people are like providers Partners VCS who who's the rest I don't know okay how many other people here are bootstrapped some people bootstrapped nice Kyle and then how many people here uh are stress how many people here get stressed about their job seriously I need to change jobs with y'all yeah how many people here working out sumo yeah hell yeah hey what's up dude so I had a speech with frogged frog.com they're better than intercom or similar to intercom Better Price been on appsumo I don't speak about marketing tactics of what you can do in your business about how to grow it we've been able fortunately to grow up sumo to a pretty sizable company promoting grid products and as I was making that speech I realized like there's a bigger problem about our feelings I know it's kind of like a weird thing to bring up feelings but I wanted to just go over today what are the feelings of a Founder whether you're a founder or if you're an employee or a teammate or you're a venture capitalist or you're or the SAS stock team running this we all get stressed and so how do we deal with the stress so this is a question audience I need you this is two ways it's not just me talking up here what is success what do you guys imagine success is this is where you shout out what is success what do you guys when you think when you see on Twitter when you look at another company another person what do you think getting [ __ ] done yeah what else yeah enjoying what you do ing something that matters a success hey what's up Freedom who said that freedom what else what else what success someone who's like tweeting a bunch and they have like a really great bio about how rich they are some [ __ ] YouTube video where they're super rich too but also success sir for yourself or what do you imagine yeah why not that success is going home feeling like you had a good day yeah Fu money yeah having enough money and then what does that mean to you exactly exactly you have enough money to do whatever it is you want to do and how much is Fu money I'm always curious what's your number five and ten we can do this that's the next speech SAS stock Dublin later that's what the speech is going to be about all right so there's different what's success for you what do you imagine is freedom to do whatever you want so we have these ideas about you see someone tweeting all the time you see this company they must be doing so well you hear about them all the time open AI talking about that and people are thinking we're doing great but what I'm really curious about is for yourself this is where we kind of have an interesting conversation how are you feeling about your success and your job and your business nervous gonna make a mistake yeah thank you for being honest about that what are you nervous about damn that's like that's pretty scary how does that feel like on a Monday or in like a on a daily basis can you guys hear him over there here let me here I'm just gonna give you the mic just to say it again no just stepping away from uh the corporate world and uh paying job and trying to bootstrap and follow your passion and did you you know if you don't turn the corner have you made a mistake how to build a little bit how many people can relate to that everyone here this is where everyone just raise your hand even if you're lying just raise your hand yes everyone can relate who else how else are people feeling about their jobs I I love that thank you for sharing that who else I'll come give you the mic how are you guys feeling yeah how do you feel about your business your job it's true that you know and every at every step I go forward it's also that I have to assume more uncertainties and so you know that's like kind of you know it was exciting and at the same time is yeah of course so a lot of times in these presentations we can talk about churn we can talk about our growth team at appsumo the sales team we can talk about working on Facebook getting to the fu money number next presentation you can buy my course uh I'll teach how to do that and but the reality is a lot of the things it's not actually tactical it's more this mental stuff right it's it's like oh man I'm [ __ ] I'm scared so for for me I even said does anybody else have I want to share a feeling about how they're how it's going in your business or in your job even how's it going for you yeah he's a month into his job so he's excited but do people here besides me so I feel scared even though we have a company we have we have profits we have you know we've been doing this 13 years I still have anxiety I still have stress so this is me feels like I'm [ __ ] it up all the time that's me right I feel like I'm in a I'm inconsistent I can be erratic with my behavior I can be anxious that can that can impact the team and this doesn't matter whether you're a VC this doesn't matter whether you're an employee or teammate whether you're just getting started or whether established so what do we do because no tax is going to help us if you're anxious or if you're nervous about your business what do we do does anyone know do you do you guys know minted what do we do meditate so there's two things that I've found to help one is is mental it's like the mental tactics like how do we get our head right because it's the anxiety is going to be there I was I was up at like two yeah I'm anxious about this presentation it's like but it happens and how do we approach it and then two is the Tactical how do we actually so one how do we get our head right and then how do we actually get our our business right whether your employee whether you're a Founder whether a VC whether you're a partner doesn't matter so let's get into the mental game what are all the things if you're anxious about your business if you're feeling nervous if things are going well what can you do this is where I need your help you tell me what you do someone said who said meditate meditate go for a run you guys have all the answers shopping tapping tap dancing what were you saying tapping really does that work all right presentation over tell me about this EFT thing no what do we do oh man I want to find out about this dude that sounds cool EFT all right tapping what else you guys do to get your mind right Jillian wow done a lot of times anxiety well that was good A lot of times the anxiety is because we don't we lack a plan and a lot of times it's the anxiety is because we don't feel control what are the things that you can do mentally any other ones yeah totally my my therapist likes to say don't live in the what if world the what if World takes you away from today's world and I think that's a great call out doing okay you're not alone do you have a pier we gotta get you one today can someone be his peer no I'm serious are you starting a business where are you at who else is doing an MVP here or getting their business kind of going do you guys can someone come sit by him can you like move seats seriously oh Kyle can you guys so you three can you guys peer it out yeah no seriously anybody else need a peer or not want to feel alone as they're getting going anybody it's okay nah all right so here's a few things that I found you guys have called a lot of them out so first off give yourself kindness I think entrepreneurs we are the meanest people in the world to ourselves like our standards are high and that's because we didn't like certain things we wanted it better and then that wanting of better never ends and that's exhausting so just and this one I've worked on for about two years now just try to be nice to yourself just like even in the smallest of ways like hey I showed up today hey I'm sitting here hey I like I I'm try you took a big risk leaving a corporate job to go follow a dream that's amazing you should also be proud of that as much as there's anxiety be proud like I'm living my life the life you want to live next up someone called it out go for a walk I can't tell you so I came up the speech because I was really frustrated at work and I went for a bike ride and I was like man this is pretty good stuff and that's every time I I change from the seat how many of us sit in seats all day like this and then back at our houses or offices go for a walk it's not so bad we're okay we get to plan our computer and make money it's pretty good get a good night's sleep you all know what I'm talking about every time I'm mad not at you guys obviously at the other people at appsumo or at myself I get a good night's sleep next day fresh this is this is what we're saying find your buddy who's going to give you honest feedback who can you count on who do people count on here oh man who do you count on Elona BJ your wife your your wife is super honest that's good that's a great wife this guy is it that's great do you guys in back down with the nice hair this the ladies alive yeah great yeah yeah who do you count on for honest feedback business partner best friend beautiful world if you guys are struggling in relationships or specifically in your business go find your feedback friend and text them right now like hey I'm struggling with this specific thing I have Adam Gilbert I have people in the business I have my friend Dan who I worked on the speech with one other thing as you go to your feedback friend as you have made mistakes in your business as you're feeling anxious make sure you apologize there's some head nods here you guys know the apologizing part I think we skip out on that in recognizing some of our own you know we'll make mistakes here next up is find the person that just believes in you who's the person that when you're struggling you call them and they're like yo you're doing great you're the smile who is it yeah can you say it I think friend of mine is that he has nothing to do with this business and so you know his feedback is always great and you know he believes very much in whatever I'm doing so it like gives you the reflex you need in order to you know so for these things maybe create your own checklist take a photo of it for yourself if you're feeling a little anxious that day if you're feeling stressed out and then I would say lastly the 40 rule this is where I encourage you to complain but you can only complain 40 percent and then you have to stop so if you're talking with a friend you get 40 minutes or whatever it depends if it's 100 minute session 40 is how much you get a complaint and then you stop then you got to do something about it but yeah 40 that's a lot of complaining and I encourage it all right next up is tactical we only have four minutes so I kind of got to jump into it so I want to give a shout out to frog.com so if you guys are looking for a customer experience platform that was the original speech about growth marketing and hacking their business check it out f-r-o-g-e-d.com um but this is something that as we're going through founders we get stressed about ourselves the customers don't give two shits about you you know who they who do they care most about themselves so when you're stressed the easiest thing you can go do is take care of a customer like go call a sponsor go call someone who's bought a course go hit up One customer today right now on your phone if you're feeling anxious about things they don't care about you they care about themselves so go help them and check out frog.com if you guys have not write it down fruit.com uh so some tactical things I have three minutes so come back and be clear on your goal and the why so for you it's probably going to be helpful to say my goal is to make for me with appsumo is three thousand dollars a month and I just didn't want to have a boss I was very clear in that goal since I graduated college and I basically worked on that goal until I got it 10 years later so this will help you remember why you're on this journey on frog why you're doing cxl.com why you're doing your different business write it down and see it if you're feeling stressed about it write down a review your plan as Dylan was talking about if you don't have a plan you don't have control you don't you feel like you don't know what to do if you don't have a plan for your business it's going to be very hard to succeed if you don't have a if you have a plan review it to see if you're on track for what you need to change again go help one person I think sometimes we like overthink a lot of this business stuff at the end of the day I give them something they give me money that's it I know we're doing all this other kind of like expansion revenue and churn optimization is basically you help them they like it they pay you back uh double down this is an appsumo thing in your business I challenge every single one of you every single one of you is here on your phones wherever you're at in the world there is one thing that's worked for your business that you can do more of that you've stopped doing or you're not doing enough what is it can someone share one I got two minutes and we got a quick one what has helped you sell for the conference what's helped you do well in the conference what's something you could do more that you guys maybe stop doing or aren't doing enough of putting out more content for SAS stock on your Instagram on the podcast over in every one of your businesses think about what can you double down on find something to get excited by we were having an appsumo meeting planning our H2 and it was like hey what are you guys inspired by and everyone's like I don't know I was like well that's a [ __ ] problem find something to be excited about you should be you guys started your own businesses you got jobs at cool companies to do something exciting and if you're not change it take the power back that's one of my favorite phrases to say to myself am I taking my power so go find something excited so you can work towards something and lastly review yourself weekly I'll show you exactly how I do it but as your feelings are changing which happens as humans unfortunately because we're not robots review what is impacting your feelings so that you can then improve them let me show you exactly how I do it so I talked about uh helping one person this is like my one of my favorite YouTube channels small town Spanish speakers She's Got 2 000 subscribers 441 views I just leave comments when I'm not feeling good I go leave comments go find someone else and go help them this is her a great podcast whether you're trying to learn Spanish so just go the comments of the smallest things or go email your customer text your customer call your customer call a partner call someone that you work with the other thing is if you want to take a photo of it this is something I have an automatic every single Friday at 11AM I get a slack notification and I review my week how is my week what happened in this week so like SAS stock was good I'm gonna write that later today was I consistent write that down any comments on what made you consistent or not consistent and then what are your top three for next week I've done this every week now for almost two years it's definitely I'm still working as a leader I know I'm working we're still improving but this has helped me improve every single week so as the great Steve Jobs said patience and Longevity are underrated he actually didn't say it I did um so be patient try to see if you can sustain the best people I've seen as entrepreneurs as teammates as employees as Founders whatever have lasted so don't be so hard to be immediately successful and Rich all these Fu money right now if you can do it in 10 years you're going to be happier and you're more likely to get it that's time so thank you very much if you want to message me and have if you're feeling anxious if you're feeling stressed about marketing or something like that join okdork.com it's my newsletter and you can hit reply to the welcome email and I'll message you back as well the appsumo team is here if you're a SAS Creator there's nick uh the whole appsumo team is right you guys want to raise your hand the guy's right here what up uh go holler at them number one distribution channel for SAS products I don't know what this wrestling thing was that's it thank y'all very much okay awesome good all right oh we're gonna do some q a oh you guys want q a you want q a sure okay we're due we got like two minutes uh of q a uh I'll ask one question yeah yeah okay great shirt by the way give it up for your shirt yeah that's my wife yeah um yeah so if you were to start all over again um what would you do differently knowing what you know now I think the I don't know I wouldn't start over I think first time I would just stay rich and like keep I think what I've observed two two key pieces is number one just find the work you love to do and you'll generally get rich doing that and whenever I've chased money which I've done a lot of in my career I've flamed out or it didn't work out for different reasons uh the second thing I would try to aim for is try to try to be around really interesting or rich people right like I think a lot of my successes because I was in Silicon Valley working for Mark Zuckerberg uh and I've and now I have a podcast and I have a YouTube channel like it literally puts me in places where I'm hanging out with people I admire and then I can if I ever need to start again I'd be like why have all these people I've met that are pretty wealthy or pretty interesting or successful I can go uh yeah I've helped them I've known them yeah I can go interact with them if you had to choose between interesting or Rich which one would you go for interesting interesting okay all right all right good um you talked a little bit about are we bringing the chairs up too for the fireside chat I think we're working on those um yeah you talk about like sharing content as well and I think this is something that probably is relevant for the room it's relevant for everybody over sharing right because you talked about nobody cares your customers don't care what you're going through but at the same time living an air of personal Brands and stuff you know so like yeah what how like do you feel at times like second guessing yourself should I share this or should I not yeah I I would I would I would share and figure out what uh your threshold is I think I've been mindful to share things that I think the people I work with I'd feel sensitive to them I you know I've shared a lot of things I'm like dude they're gonna go crazy when I share this about me and then like no one cares no one cares what people care the most about this is crazy in the past year the number one thing that I've shared that people went crazy for is my facial skin routine that was the thing everyone's like whoa I can't believe I'm like I've shared Revenue numbers I've shared dating things business stuff they don't care two shits except my face screen they're like oh tell us that sign up for okdork.com you find out let's be really good face cream I mean you got a nice complexion pretty good you know a lot of it's genetics but yeah point being is I think it's also you don't have to be in your business if you're trying to grow it and you think you have to make content that's not true do the thing you like to do I make content whether anyone reads it whether we make money on appsumo or not I've done it for 20 years and I'll do it for the next 20 because I enjoy it and so I think in your businesses come back and find just the thing you enjoy and share like I like when I share something they respond so I I want to push that that edge personally yeah well hey me on behalf everybody in the room we enjoy watching you enjoy doing what you do best keep producing content keep sharing because it's uh it's helping a lot of people and it's inspiring man so it's fun thanks for bringing us on your journey thank you guys thank you very much yeah thank you