Dig your well before you're thirsty 💦

Hey, founder fam!

Towards the end of April, my exhaustion seemed to have finally caught up with me. I feel like I’ve been firing on all cylinders for the last 12 months (at least). For those who don’t know, I work full-time at a really big company but I’ve been working on transitioning into a full-time role in the VC industry because I want to be an investor.

It’s a MASSIVE undertaking as someone who doesn’t have a traditional finance or business background and I’ve made some great progress but have really been tripling down this year. As a result, most of my energy goes toward VC after I log off my day job. And I haven’t even mentioned my money podcast, which is just quietly hobbling along trying to keep up 🥲 

It’s tiring work—something I know y’all are familiar with as entrepreneurs. A lot of it was really starting to get to me and discourage me. I got rejected from three firms after the first round of interviews, spent hours applying to jobs, and what I thought would be a life-changing meeting with a firm I admire kind of fell flat.

Sometimes I ask myself if I should just give up on this goal of working in VC.

I’ll spare you the gory details but the end of April started to feel like some things were spinning out of control and I really needed to rein them in. I was already doing everything my busy schedule would allow for, save for depriving myself of sleep (again). So I decided to do the one thing I previously thought wasn’t even an option: I took a step back and took a break from everything.

Well, most things. I worked my day job and cooked meals then took the rest of the day to relax and actually do some things for fun (I read a little and baked one of those heart-shaped cakes from TikTok).

I’m around a week and a half into my hiatus and it’s been great to momentarily live without the heavy expectations I put on myself. I started feeling motivated to exercise again and actually feel more well-rested.

Interestingly, I even gained some clarity on how I can just enjoy my career journey a bit more instead of stressing out about it all the time—plus, what moves I should make next. Taking a much-needed break has helped me reopen my mind instead of being stubborn about my idea of how things are “supposed” to pan out. But that’s a newsletter story for another day.

I’m feeling up to slowly reintroducing some of my recruitment efforts back into my day-to-day. I hope to be back up to speed (with newfound clarity) around the middle of the month!

I know everyone’s experience with exhaustion and burnout is different. But I do want to emphasize the importance of being aware of your mental needs. Sure, there are definitely times when you just have to momentarily power through for a week to reach a goal. But there are also times when pulling yourself up by the bootstraps will only do more harm than good—and it’s important to recognize those times.

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Dig your well before you’re thirsty

Getting yourself or your startup featured in the press can potentially bolster your sales and get some additional eyes on your company. Now suddenly, people who may not have previously heard of your company are checking out your Instagram and following and maybeeee even placing an order or bookmarking your platform. That’s the power of the media (and the power of having a kick-ass product, of course!)

Of course, it doesn’t always end up that way and sometimes you need repeat coverage in the media to really drive traction. Still, positive press can’t hurt, which is why it’s an asset to so many startup founders.

But one big mistake founders make is waiting until sales or signups are really low before reaching out to reporters for a jumpstart. Think of it like being an employee at a company and not networking because life is good at your job and you aren’t looking for a switch; but then the unthinkable happens and you wait until you need a new job to start connecting with new people.

Again, getting featured in the media doesn’t ALWAYS result in a massive boom in conversions for your startup (I mean, we’d LOVE that. That’s the ideal scenario but it doesn’t always pan out that way for reasons beyond anyone’s control).

Sometimes, consumers need to be repeatedly exposed to your startup before they make a decision to download or purchase. I once read in a newsletter that people need to see your content on social media an average of seven (7!!!!!!) times before they decide to follow you and purchase from you.

That sounds like A LOT of work reaching out to reporters and pitching yourself and such. And you don’t want to use too much time and energy going after press coverage instead of building and improving your product. You want to set yourself up to organically gain press opportunities without having to do a ton of work when it could really matter.

Remember, it’s possible for reporters to be the ones reaching out to YOU to ask for your ~expert~ opinion on the ecosystem, business tips for an article, etc. But they have to know you exist and know what your strengths are. This takes building relationships with them right from the jump.

In other words, you want to dig your well before you’re thirsty.

You can’t drink from a well that hasn’t been built yet. Likewise, you can’t expect reporters who don’t know you exist to give you coverage! That’s why cultivating those relationships before you really need to capitalize on them is extremely important.

I know, it’s yet another thing you have to do as a founder. But I promise, you’ll thank yourself later. Stay tuned for future issues of this newsletter for more specific tips on building these kinds of relationships!

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Overworking can distract you from working on the things that truly matter.

Commit to setting in motion the things that are most meaningful to you.

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Catch you in the next one!

—Jasmin, Founder & EIC of Startup Media Girl