137: Jeff Shinabarger on Lessons Learned After Working with 100+ Startups

Summary:

This week, Executive Minds returns to the archive to replay a must-listen episode with Jeff Shinabarger. Back in 2017, David Farmer and Kevin Jennings sat down with Jeff to talk about the common thread and hurdles all entrepreneurs face.

Jeff is a social entrepreneur, leader, and author at Plywood People. Plywood is a non-profit in Atlanta that leads a community of over 200 startups doing good. In this episode, Jeff shares his wisdom on how to launch startups. We hope this conversation inspires you, challenges, you, and brings you closer to building your ideas.

Welcome to episode 137 of the Executive Minds Podcast.

Links + Resources:

• Plywood People
• Plywood s Annual Conference, July 31-August 2, 2019, in Atlanta, GA: ATL Ideas (formerly Plywood Presents)
• Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky
• More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity by Jeff Shinabarger
• Plywood People on Instagram
• Plywood People on Twitter
• Plywood People on Facebook

Three Takeaways:

1. Take time to celebrate your wins. The Launch phase is tricky. On one hand, your so happy to have launched. And on the other, you feel like your workload in maintaining your launch just increased. It s not healthy for your season of launch to move into a season of never ending busyness. After you have a big launch, take a vacation or take a few days off. Allow yourself to celebrate and take a mental breather. You ll come back with a fresh perspective.
2. Having passion doesn t mean you have a business. You need a plan. It s important to understand the difference between a hobby, a project and a business. Hobbies bring you happiness, but may not always be something you can quit your day job for. A project is something that makes you happy and may make you money, but it has an end date. A business or organization is when you can afford to pay yourself with your product revenue.
3. Being an entrepreneur can be an interesting and lonely place. Jeff talks about the idea of the conference room table. Next time you re by yourself near a conference table, take a seat at the head of the table. Now, imagine you re the President of the United States and you re in the situation room during a high-tense moment. Who are the people you want filling those chairs at your table? These are people who believe in you enough to tell you no, but also want the most success for you. Start inviting those people to speak into your life.

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