Paul is sale marketing specialist. He builds chat bots. He's starting a business in Southern California that offers discounted travel, tourist tickets, and activities, and incentivizes people who do good in the world, whether it be recycling, mindfulness, or other do-good challenges. He's celebrating a move, and streamlining his budget. He's 14 days sober from caffeine.

02:24 Challenge: Making money while continuing to refine my business, make it more profitable, and get some seed investment. I need to expand; that feels good. It's not currently paying the bills; that doesn't feel good. How do I pitch myself as a valuable asset and not somebody who will just jump ship after I get seed funding or if I get a better job?

03:26 Question: So you don't want to be read as somebody who would jump ship, but is that what would happen?

03:39 So with the personal assistant thing, that is not my desire. I wouldn't want to do that for too long. There are other jobs, though, if it's in alignment with sales, I could see myself doing that even with 100K seed investment to grow my business. But if I get 3 million, then yeah, I'll jump ship.

04:15 Question: Is it any of your employer's business what you do with your time when you're not there? Do they care about results and outcomes?

04:38 I have a stacked resume. I think maybe I should tone it down?

04:49 Question: How many months runway do you have? Could you use the seed funding as a loan that you repay yourself?

05:18 I have 55% growth, but it's still not paying the bills. I'm not far enough in seed stages to ask for a loan. I have interested parties, and good mentors, but I'm not quite there yet.

05:48 Question: How many interviews have you been on, and how much more do you need to grow to pay your bills?

06:00 I need maybe 3X or 4X. If I'm riskier with my advertising, then my income is even further diminished.

06:19 Question: What's the leapfrog? What gets you the most exposure possible in the least amount of time? What's an exponential strategy?

06:27 Influencer. But I wanted more activities to offer, and higher profit margins.

06:50 Question: Why not reach out to your influencer friends now?

06:59 Some parts of the platform aren't there yet. It's still very beta.

07:13 Question: You introduced yourself as a chatbot person, marketing. But you have this business that you're getting seed funding for, the travel business. But you also want another job as a personal assistant or something just for income.

07:41 Probably more like ad management or marketing/sales for a side hustle. I'm stuck now because I focused on getting a good run-rate, rather than seed-funding.

08:00 What's a good run rate?

08:03 Sales.

08:10 Question: Out of all the outcomes, which one gives you the most fuel, the most passion, energy, that you really believe is possible?

08:27 Getting seed funding in the next 60 days will be challenging.

08:36 Question: Is that really true?

08:39 Maybe not.

08:42 So how does it serve you to make it challenging when you know it's possible? What are you afraid of, if you were ultimately really successful?

08:52 Probably that I'd have to show up.

08:59 Suggestion: You like the freedom that you have right now. Maybe look at that. The only thing keeping you from getting funding is your fear of success. Can't you delegate?

09:26 Yes.

09:31 Question: So that story about you having to show up, is that really true?

09:32 No. It's encouraging and exciting to up my level. I already tapped into my 401K, the now-money is blinding.

09:51 Question: So what's keeping you from getting the seed-funding tomorrow?

09:55 My belief.

10:00 Question: So when are you willing to trade the belief that it's not working for the belief that it will work? They take the same amount of effort and focus. You're probably actually afraid of more freedom that you'll actually have in the end. Be deliberate with asking. Be ready for the no. A no isn't a failure.

Three Key Points:

The only thing keeping you from getting funding is your fear of success.
Go to work; be deliberate with your asking, but also prepare yourself for the no.
A no is not a failure.