← The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
620: (Solo) The Secret to Making Bold Business Moves With Confidence
00:11:04
One of the biggest challenges founders face — especially at the end of the year — is knowing what to do next and feeling confident that the move you're about to make is the right one. Certainty feels elusive, but the truth is: certainty is something you can manufacture.
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Hey, founder fam. I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omnisend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e commerce founders. We've been recommending Omnisend to founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling to seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results. Did you know, on average, OMNISEND customers make $68 for every one. $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment. And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code. Founder50. Just head to omnisend.com founder without the e to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. Hey, guys, Nathan here. Today, I want to talk about something I think every founder wrestles with, especially this time of year. You've got promotions going on, you're starting to plan out the year, and how do you know what the right moves are? It's the question of certainty. It's a really interesting one. And it's this question of, like, how do some people just know their product will work? How do they know their brand will grow, their launch is going to crash, and how do you know what to go after and what not to? Because I think oftentimes what holds us back when it comes to making that phone call, you know, know, reaching out to that person, you know, working on that marketing activity, even if you don't want to do it, is it's a level of fear and it's a lack of certainty that is holding you back. And I want to get into how you can actually manufacture your certainty, hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the founder podcast with Nathan Chan. Here's the thing, right? I've been thinking and reflecting on some of the best, best business moves I've made in my career in the history of building founder. And some of the best moves I've made and the best execution have been when I'm operating from a true place of certainty and strength. As an example, I remember when I was trying to get an interview with Richard Branson. It was already done in my mind, and I just knew I was going to get it. I just. I just knew. And I just kept chipping away because somebody else had done it. And, like, you know, I never forget there was a time when founder was having some challenges with Facebook ads and all these different things. And I reinvented the business model and we launched our one on one coaching program. And I knew it was going to work. I just knew. And it did. And it ended up becoming, you know, a massive, massive arm of our business. And it's got me really reflecting as I'm thinking on the year, like, what are we planning to go after I look at like our strategic blocks and the things that I've been thinking about and we're planning out for the past, you know, 12, 24 months, where do I feel like, yep, this is going to move the needle to get us to that next level of growth with the business. And I used to think certainty was something you just had to wait for. One day I'd magically feel confident or one day I'd know this is going to work. And what I learned actually was certainty isn't something you wait for. It's something you decide for yourself when you remove the fears, when you remove the anxiety. But then you also just work out what the exact building blocks are to get that particular outcome that it is you're looking for. So, like, as another example, like, you know, whether it was launching Founder plus or securing partnerships, I found that as soon as I decided and knew it was going to work and just went all in and had just had that maniacal focus. And I didn't just stray away if something didn't work out. I just kept going. It just is what allowed me to push things forward. And so first and foremost, I think the number one thing that you can do when it comes to if you're looking for more certainty, it's finding people that have already done it. And more than ever, I'm looking at how can I invest in myself. Like, don't get me wrong, guys, I've spent over a million dollars in coaching, consulting and my own personal growth. And some of you guys will be thinking this, you are crazy, Nathan. But every time I've done that, it is paid its weight in absolute gold. Like one of my mentors and coaches, Mitch, I used to pay him $5,000 a month for literally three years straight. That's $150,000. And I would have made back millions in everything I've learned from Mitch, right? And he gave me certainty around Founder plus and the moves we were making and effectively turning Founder plus into a SaaS product, right? So the more that I reflect on my journey, the more that I could just give you this gift of like, if you want to make the right business moves, you want that step change growth in your business. You need to find certainty. But how do you find certainty with the moves you're making? The first thing is find somebody that's already done it and get them to show you how they're doing it. Or even just seeing what they're doing and looking at the ways that they're doing it. And then you see you can do it. It is so incredibly powerful. And you just move different. It's just like this crazy thing. Because, like, don't get me wrong, guys, like, it might look like I've got it all worked out. Oftentimes I don't. Oftentimes, most founders are just winging it, flying by the seat of their pants, working out the business, how to grow it, how to make moves. This thing happened. This thing happened. And what you're looking for is how do you make the right moves and how do you have that certainty with that execution? Knowing it'll work, Wouldn't it be cool, like, knowing, if I come to you right now, you're listening to me saying, hey, if you do this thing, you'll make an extra million dollars a year. If you do this thing, you'll make an extra $250,000 a year. And I gave you exactly what to do, and you absorbed it and you were certain it would work, and it did. Like, if you are certain it will work, that's most of the battle won. And that's what I'm trying to get through to you guys is so incredibly powerful from a mindset perspective. So when it comes to certainty, the first thing is find somebody that's already done it. Invest in yourself. Pay the person to teach their framework, the consulting, the mentorship, the coaching, whatever it is, don't be afraid to invest in yourself and do the due diligence. Right the way that you can do the due diligence. I talked about this in another episode. The best way to find great suppliers and people that are going to help you, good agencies, all that kind of stuff. Find somebody that you can see, wants to see you win, that they're invested in seeing you win. Look for somebody in that space. And then the next thing is, are they doing what you want to do? Do they have results? Have they shown many other people how to do it? Do they have a proven roadmap, system, framework, blueprint? Do they have it documented? Can they show it all to you? Can they give it to you in some way, shape or form? Can you install it? Can you copy and paste it? That's the level of certainty we're looking for. So that's the first thing, find people that have already done it, even if you've seen it recently. It was really crazy. I met somebody that had a big business in a similar space to us. They're bigger than us. And, you know, they told me some of the things that they were doing, and I was just like, oh, my God, I get it now. And it gave me the certainty to go, you know what? I'm going all in here. I get it. Like, this is an area in our business which we need to grow. We haven't grown it to the level that it should have. And I know exactly what to do because I've seen they're doing it right, and I know we can do it too. And I'm just going for it. And I can just see the results have already happened in my mind. That's the level of mindset and certainty you need to succeed. And taking the next level of your business growth, the next thing you need is data. One thing I'm always looking for when I think about strategy and execution is where is the evidence in the data? You know, one of my mentors once said to me, nathan, do you know what I say to my staff now when they tell me about something? Like, you know, or they're trying to argue with me about something and tell me I'm, I'm wrong or whatever I. I say to them, I don't care about the story. Show me the data. Don't tell me the story, show me the data. And when it comes to making critical business decisions, strategic moves, a big part of it is data, and then another part of it is gut intuition. But you've got to back that gut intuition with data. It's. It's kind of a mixture. And, you know, it could be a small test for, you know, a launch of a product or an angle or a positioning or an ad angle or a hook, and you just get that little bit of data and insight, and then you go again, you're looking for evidence in the data. And how can you test in a small level, like, to build that certainty? I think that's so, so, so, so critical. And then the other thing I'd say is when it comes to certainty and manufacturing it, you've got to find people doing it. You got to learn, you've got to see it, you got to see other people doing it, you got to learn from them. And then you look at the data. But then the other thing is you've just got to go from this internal bias, right, this internal bias of waiting for external Validation and just going for it. Right? When you've got all these things, you've got to make that decision that this is happening. So I interviewed Alison Ellsworth. She's the founder of a company called Poppy. It's perfect example. She sold this company for almost $2 billion to Pepsi and co and she only started it in 2019. It took her five, six years to build a multi billion dollar business and get an exit of close to $2 billion. Crazy, right? So before Poppy went viral, it was a prebiotic soda brand trending all over TikTok. Before that it was just homemade apple cider vinegar drinks brewed in the founder's kitchen. And these drinks already existed. Sodas already existed. So why did Poppy take off? And it's because the founder, Allison, she knew she had a belief in her vision. She didn't wait for someone to give her the green light. She created that certainty through testing, iterating. But most importantly, she didn't wait for approval of others. She just went for it. So certainty is a muscle that you build, guys. And it's not about having all the answers sometimes. Remember I said it's a big part data, but then a decent part of it is just having that gut and that faith and just going for it and not letting the fear override. But guys, if you're building something right now, heading into the end of the year, year you're planning on next year, what are the moves you're going to make? I can't stress this enough. Look at the things on how you can manufacture certainty in exactly what you're going to do and I promise you, you're gonna have an incredible year. I hope you enjoyed this episode. It was a little bit of a different one around mindset I was thinking about and it dawned on me. I hope this helps you. If you enjoyed this episode, shoot me a dm. I'd love to hear from you Nathan Chan on Instagram or Nathan H. Chan on Twitter. I'd love to hear from you and I'll speak to you soon.