Hitting Pause: Looking Back at Six Months

We have the incredible privilege of working with a lot of entrepreneurs to make The Hum happen. Working with incredibly determined, intelligent, and insightful people each day has its perks. Each Wednesday, we share another piece of what we’ve learned from our journey working with some of the most inspiring people around.

We officially started The Hum by sending our first email on April 1. Six months, 132 emails, 185 days, and 4,440 hours later, we have learned a lot. And we have grown a lot.

We set out to tell stories of young entrepreneurs, creators, and artists in the hopes of inspiring more young people to take on the adventure of building something for themselves.

Unfortunately, we could not tell those stories very often early on. We didn’t have many connections in the space outside of our immediate friends, so, despite the fact that we were pumping out content 5 days a week, we were only able to put out one entrepreneurship story each week.

Starting August 1, after months of slowly building up connections and improving our writing process, we were able to begin putting out two stories a week.

Now, two months later, we are ready to bump that up again to three stories a week. And we could not be more excited.

That means that starting next week, these weekly Wednesday updates will cease to exist and instead be replaced by another entrepreneur interview or article.

To compensate and keep you all updated, we are seeking to make better use of our social media and put out the occasional surprise weekend piece.

As we hit this milestone, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to hit pause and take a look back at some of the biggest lessons we have learned along the way.

Building a digital audience is hand-to-hand combat

We learned early on that just because your content is on the internet doesn’t mean everyone, or anyone for that matter, can find it. You need to go after each reader, or customer, or client with everything you have, no matter what it takes.

“Discoverability and getting an audience base is difficult…To create a big audience in the digital space, because there are no restrictions, everybody assumes that is easy. But the converse is true. There is so much out there that you have to find a way to distinguish, to cut through…Building a digital audience is hand-to-hand combat.” — Mark Henderson, Co-Founder of the Worcester Sun

“Most people would say they would do anything to get their company to take off, and I think most people believe they would…until they actually have to do it. But, you have to do it.”

Celebrate the hell out of your small wins

We learned that celebrating the small wins is incredibly important for the sustainability of your company. If you don’t, you will drive yourself crazy.

“I want to invite you to celebrate the hell out of your small wins because we just don’t know how many big wins we are going to get. A lot of times our small wins that may seem trivial to others are actually critically important to us. If we don’t make an effort to celebrate them, we are no longer enjoying the journey. No longer loving the process.

Take the time to enjoy the hell out of your small wins. It will make you that much better at celebrating the big wins. And it will help you enjoy the journey and fall in love with the process instead of always focusing on the destination and barely stopping to take notice when you get there. We should strive to be as passionate about the path as we are about the results.”

What Separates $100M Companies from Everyone Else

We learned what it takes to be a $100M company from working with Will Dean, CEO of Tough Mudder, and his team.

“$100M companies are at their best no matter the situation. They know you do not get to choose when you are good and when you are not based on how much the situation benefits you. Being good is something you either do all of the time or you don’t.

The difference between the most successful people on the planet and everyone else is that they are at their best every single day no matter the circumstances.”

Yes You Can

We learned that there is no need to be intimidated or deflated by other people’s capabilities or success.

“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” — Steve Jobs

“At first, we were worried working with extremely successful people may be deflating. We all have those people in our lives to whom we constantly compare ourselves. We belittle ourselves because we have not accomplished as much as them at their age, or we do not feel as intelligent or capable as they seem to be.

But after interviewing these incredibly successful entrepreneurs, we’ve realized something. They are all everyday people like you and me. They are intelligent, driven, operate with certain efficiencies and systems in place, and are highly motivated, yes. But they are still everyday people.”

Moving forward

These are only a few lessons we have learned along the way and ones we feel are relevant for every entrepreneur out there.

We’re always going to be pushing the envelope, trying new things, experimenting, and growing — all with the goal of telling real stories of young entrepreneurs in order to inspire more and more people to take up the craft.

Just last night, we had our first #humtakeover on our Instagram and Snapchat by Ian Munsick. We will use this and other media to give you more of an inside look into entrepreneurship.

The possibilities are endless and we only partially know where this is going to go. Thank you for all of the love, support, and hype along the way.

Every time you share an article on Facebook, retweet us, reply to an email, send us a direct message, or refer a friend, it keeps us going.

Please continue to support us as we look forward to the next six months and way, way beyond.