don't reinvent the...croissant.
Today’s founder is launching a women’s clothing brand. Her toes are curling around the edge of the “entrepreneurial diving board” and she’s debating whether or not to dive in the deep-end.
M,
There’s so much I want to tell you, but I’m gonna do my best to limit my ramblings to the most concise advice possible for your immediate “next steps.”
There’s two parts of you, involved in a building a startup. And you have to nurture BOTH of them.
First, let’s start with the obvious part. The first part of you is the one who needs to figure what the hell to actually do. (Spoiler alert: This is a mirage. Nobody really knows).
This part of you is lazer-focused on TACTICS.
It is obsessed with answering this question:
WHAT DO I ACTUALLY DO? WHICH ACTIONS SHOULD I TAKE? ETC.
This part of you is watching other brands verrrrry closely.
It studies their ad copy, it “saves for later” on instagram and tries to help reverse engineer their manufacturing processes so you can figure out who their suppliers are. Btw this tool will do that for you ➡️ https://www.importyeti.com.
This part of you is on high-alert whenever a slightly inebriated entrepreneur humblebrags about their Instagram, YouTube or TikTok ads working.
This part of you nags you to study other Successfully Funded Kickstarter Projects so you can “remix their campaigns” into your own successful version.
So, for THAT part of you…here’s my greatest advice.
“DON’T REINVENT THE CROISSANT 🥐”
One time a real estate buddy of mine who literally built his real estate portfolio up so much where where they were literally planning to buy an entire city block in Downtown San Diego, said, “Do you guys know what R&D stands for?”
A couple buddies weakly mumbled, “Research & Development?”
To which he replied, “No! It means Ripoff & Duplicate!”
It’s a crass oversimplification BUT there’s a throughline of truth to it.
There’s no reason to make things harder than they need to be.
The STRATEGIES you need all already exist, you just have to get good at finding the right people to ask for these answers and be willing to put yourself out there.
To hammer this metaphor home, if you wanted to open up bustling patisserie with “Paris-quality” croissants, you don’t start off by screwing around with your French grandmother’s recipe that’s been handed down for 200 years. You learn it, you copy it, until you’ve mastered it fully…. and THEN LATER, AFTER YOU’VE MASTERED IT, you tweak it into something new. You add the Earl Grey & Candied orange AFTER you can make the shit out of a plain croissant.
So copy, copy, copy and copy until you find a unique twist you can put on it, so all the GenZers with oversized pants and cropped tees finally nod their heads subtly and agree that YOUR CROISSANT “HITS DIFFERENT.”
There’s a recipe for MANUFACTURING products like yours.
There’s a recipe for SOCIAL MEDIA marketing for products like yours.
There’s a recipe for BRANDING products like yours.
You’re not stealing.
You’re not doing anything wrong, even if your 3rd Grade teacher would gasp and clutch her lanyard at my advice.
You’re learning.
You’ll do a great job of this.
Just keep asking other entrepreneurs for their “recipes.”
Most feel morally obligated to share them with you because they know how hard your journey is and they can’t help but to root for you just because they admire you for walking the same path they once traveled.
Plus it gives them a sense of purpose, connection, or significance they may struggle with finding otherwise.
And I’m not gonna life…entrepreneurs love stroking their egos and calling it “mentorship.” (Me included!) *sigh* (considers booking therapy session).
Ok, got it?
The next strategy I’ll give you is to build up your own Board of Mentors.
You already have these people in your life, you just may not realize they’re right under your nose because you haven’t been looking for them intentionally, yet….Just hold the belief that they do exist and they’ll start popping into your daily life. Just keep doing social activities. If you still can’t find them, you can pay for these connections, too. ➡️ https://intro.co
So, once you have a roster of mentors, literally, just ask those successful entrepreneurs if you can ask them questions every once in awhile.
Then go back to building your business.
And whenever you hit a roadblock or simply don’t know what to do, just go down the list and text them, “Hey - we hit a snag and I was wondering if you’ve overcome this problem too. Do you have 10ish mins for a call?”
Then listen to their advice.
And MOST IMPORTANTLY, actually DO WHATEVER THEY TELL YOU TO DO.
*I can’t stand when people ask me for advice but don’t do anything. (It’s ok, if I was wrong and they choose to take action opposite to my recommendation. I just stop helping people that ask and then do NOTHING and think I’ll gift them advice, again.)
Then later, after you take more action, circle back with, “Hey! Wanted to update you since we last spoke. Thanks so much for sharing your advice last time we spoke - we made some solid progress - however, there’s another thing I wanted to ask you about. Do you have any time in the next couple days? No pressure if you’re unavailable.”
NEVER MAKE THEM LOOK RUDE FOR NOT RESPONDING. You have to ask in a way where they feel elegant, important, classy and generous. Never try to manipulate or guilt-trip them into helping you. This is when you get ghosted.
QUICK RECAP:
Build out your BOARD OF MENTORS and “DON’T REINVENT THE CROISSANT 🥐.”
Now, the second part of you.
This part of you activates when you ALREADY KNOW WHAT TO DO, but can’t do it, won’t do it, feels weird about doing it or procrastinates (so you don’t end up doing it).
When this happens, You are triggered.
Don’t worry, it’s fixable.
There’s two main reasons we get triggered.
“X” threatens your BONDS with others.
“X” threatens your INNER CHILD..
Let’s say you get triggered when you try to build up that “Board of Mentors” I mentioned previously…
Here are 2 magic questions for you (which took me $5K & 4 years to learn)…which will help you deactivate/reduce the trigger. Ask yourself:
If someone like me, but not me specifically, succeeded at “X”, how might it negatively affect others in their life?
What good things happen for people like me, but not me specifically, when they don’t do “X”?”
To illustrate, here’s that example:
If someone like me, but not me specifically, succeeded at BUILDING MY BOARD OF MENTORS, how might it negatively affect others?
Your brain will autorespond, “It wouldn’t hurt anyone! They’d all love it!” Stick with it. Go one layer deeper. And you might finds something like, “Well, it might alienate some friends. They might feel like I don’t care about them unless they’re running a company. They might feel like I don’t care about them unless they can offer me business advice.”
To overcome this, you need someone to convince you that by doing the THING YOU WANT TO DO, you’ll actually become MORE CARING of your friends than you were before.
For example, if you have a group of mentors teaching you about business you’ll get to share those secrets with them, too thus CARING FOR THEM ON AN EVEN DEEPER MORE INTIMATE LEVEL than just hanging out with them and cranking that Soulja Boy.
This is where therapy or coaches (like yours truly), can really help.
2. What good things happen for people like me, but not me specifically, when they never end up doing “X”?”
Again, your brain will auto-respond, “Nothing good happens! That’s why I want to do ‘X’.” Again, go deeper. You might hear something like, “Well, they damn sure don’t feel the pressure to actually follow-through on advice they get. Their Netflix binge remains uninterrupted. They don’t have face their fears of asking ‘stupid questions’ and appearing like they don’t have it all together.”
To overcome this, you need to reprocess the trauma that created the fear. You need to realize that you’re not still in the 3rd Grade and your teacher’s snarky comments were really about her fledgling marriage and she was anxious about what her mother would say. Additionally, she got hit with a notice that her car insurance bill was going up, unexpectedly and it was just a momentary lapse in judgement and she wishes she never said that and would actually be appalled if she knew you were still carrying that. Again, this is where a coach can help. Just get one that does NLP.