The Founder — The First 100 Days
What I’ve learned as an Entrepreneur in my first 100 days
Today officially marks my first 100 days as the Founder and CEO of Eminent Shepherds — Leadership Coaches. What a journey it has been so far; from contracts to courses, logos too (accidental) golden badges; starting my own company has been fun but filled with many challenges and successes. So for the entrepreneurs who have already started or even looking to begin their own organisations, or even for myself when I look back on this in 50 years, here are 5 key things that I’ve learned in my first 100 days.
Lesson #1 — Prioritise the service.
I literally danced when I received that confirmation letter in May stating that, Eminent Shepherds had been accepted and registered as a Limited company! It was official, I was a Founder, a CEO, an Entrepreneur. Not because a piece of paper had validated me, but because the pain of losing my Dad in November had sparked 5 months of concepts, clients, feedback, and research which resulted in a course, that served to support people in achieving their hopes by leading them, with an explicit and intrinsically defined purpose.
The registration served not as a symbol that the service was good enough to begin officially serving others, but much like the athlete when they first get into a sports team, as a reminder that the hard work and development to achieve my potential begins. Following Gary Vaynerchuk’s advice, I had decided that the ‘Alpha’ phase of the service would be used to develop and refine the service by providing it to 30 people for free.
The point is that without a service, whether as an entrepreneur or general profession, if you can’t provide value to the lives of others, nobody will care about what you’ve done, your logo or your title.
Okay, being a founding CEO is fun, but the testimonies we’ve collected are what makes me credible. Supporting people in finding and starting their dream careers, practically reaffirming the belief in their ability to achieve the idea that was sitting dormant within them, or when parents have personally thanked me for inspiring their adult-daughter; it’s the impact and these moments that remind me that the pain, hard-work and sacrifices are worth it if I’m creating a service that provides value to others. A service that has been so well developed and refined, that I can now teach others coaches so that Eminent Shepherds can improve the quality and scale of its impact.
Lesson #2 — Psychology & History
Maybe I’m biased as a student of Social Sciences, but the two most important skills that I’ve learned in creating my company have come from understanding psychology and history. I began in a field that I had not exactly studied (Business) but knew I had to learn fast.
Businesses, organisations and companies have one thing in common: people. If you understand people, then you understand everything that impacts them; from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to Kolb’s cycle of learning, positioning you to positively influence and serve others.
History is where wisdom lies. Whether in the principles from Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think & Grow Rich’, Alex Ferguson’s ‘Leading’, Gary Vaynerchuk’s ‘#AskGaryVee’ or the ‘Dreams in Drive’ podcast by Rana Campbell, seeking wisdom based on history is a good way to improve the speed and efficiency of your development, personally and professionally. It will also free you of any potential anxiety about whether or not your idea is possible, finding role-models who have excelled you’ll soon realise that looking backwards for wisdom exposes the truth which is, that the future you dream of for yourself is possible because somebody has already practiced and mastered the same principles.
Lesson #3 — Campaign
This has become more evident as we reach the end of the first 120 days. A concept that you should spend 120 days on ideas, the next 120 days on execution and the following 120 days on networking; not exclusively, just as a focus. Having just read ‘Mission: How the best in business break through’, it helped me understand my role not only as a CEO but as what they term, the ‘Communicator-in-Chief’.
Campaigning is about communicating the mission, the vision and the cause of your company. What are you trying to achieve? What’s the future you’re seeking to create and how does it improve the lives of others? Although it’s taken me 8 months to refine it, Eminent Shepherd’s version of these is as follows:
The Mission — To develop leaders who serve with a purpose, with integrity that inspires and with hopes that serve to strengthen and unite others.
The Vision — For everyone to have access to a leader they can believe in. Leaders they can trust, who are accountable to their purpose and those they serve. Leaders with the freedom to positively impact the lives of others. An impact that creates a legacy of leaders who serve, Eminent Shepherds, for generations to come.
The Cause — Leadership coaching in three areas: Personal Leadership, Organisational leadership development & academic leadership development.
If there’s one other thing I’ve learned about campaigning, it is that the vision will only be built by the purpose behind it. Vulnerability is not many people’s forte, especially mine, but exploring my own ‘why’ has helped me to communicate not only my role but the company’s, in improving the lives of others.
Momentum is the Campaigners friend. Speaking and interacting regularly with people on social networks is a great way to provide value that accumulates attention and leads to impact. Blogging (tweeting), vlogging and podcasts are great ways to document and inspire others. A strong believer in quality over quantity, with enough belief and faith in your service and convictions, your quantity will only improve because of the quality of your service and campaign.
Lesson #4 — Support
Venturing into what was ‘the unknown’ was hard at first. I love learning, but I love it when what I have learned becomes second nature to me. It didn’t help that I had a strong apathy and disdain for business before I became an entrepreneur. Believing it was all about profits and not about the people, it wasn’t until I realised that being an entrepreneur is about providing a service to others that you believe the world needs, to answer a problem it doesn’t know it has yet, in a way that improves people’s value of life.
Support was going to be needed and with a network of 6 mentors, a mastermind group of 5 entrepreneurs, my close friends and family and a fantastic Director of Marketing — to name a few, Eminent Shepherd’s exists. Rome wasn’t built in a day or by one person. Personally and professionally, my support network has been vital for holding me accountable, providing me with advice and perspective and in my Director of Marketing’s case, a team that believes and contributes; with excellence; to the mission, vision and cause in their own way.
Lesson #5 — Hard work
I’m a firm believer that hope is practical. Hopes without work are merely ideas, dreams and wishes that I’ve seen far too many people subdue for short-term gains, a lack of patience, fear or who are waiting for someone else to do it. The truth is that ‘better is a book than a well-built house’; buying a house isn’t as valuable as documenting and learning the skills it takes to either accumulate the wealth of knowledge and finances, required to build a home. A key difference between those who achieve greatness and personal fulfilment is their ability to be patient, J.K Rowling, Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, Viola Davis, Oprah, Sir Alex Ferguson, even Jesus Christ all had to utilise patience. Regarding fear, it is something that motivates me because I see it as my enemy. Fear provides me with focus and fuel for courage. I realised that once I’ve overcome that loud enemy from within, you see that it really was False Evidence Appearing Real (F.E.A.R). The last problem of ‘waiting for somebody else to do it’, is that NOBODY else will. Your hopes are YOUR responsibility and nobody can execute on them in the same way that you envision, it will only create more pessimism and resentment; when it comes to your hopes, live by the phrase “if you want something done well, do it yourself”.
I’m amazed when people abdicate their hopes and their hearts because it’s “hard”, so? Walking used to be hard for us too. The struggle is real and so is the phrase, that ‘if success was easy, everybody would be doing it’. It’s not that, many people can’t achieve fulfilment, they just don’t want it to be difficult or to require so much effort. We all have access to the dreams we aspire to achieve, but only the fulfilled utilise hope. One question I have asked myself every day about my biggest concern for humanity, which is their inability to hope due to fear is, ‘what am I doing about it?’ Ask yourself the same question about your biggest concern for the world and you’ll quickly discover the power and will to tackle it.
Conclusion:
So there we have it, my first 100 days as the Founder and CEO of Eminent Shepherds — Leadership Coaches. My hope for you is that you have found something useful to utilise or share, in achieving a purposefully fulfilling life by leading it.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading this in 50 years time :-)
