3 lessons after a short trip on a 🚀

This post was originally published on LinkedIn on July 16th, 2018.

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Recently I had the unique opportunity to join ProfitWell as a Senior Growth Manager.

Even though it wasn't the long term opportunity I hoped it would be, I took these 3 key lessons away from my 5-month experience and wanted to share them with others working in and aspiring to work in the startup/SaaS/tech space.

1. Be careful how much you sacrifice. 

I sacrificed a ton of time and focus, from my family, my friends, and other interests to try and make as big an impact as possible in my 5 months at PW. Why? Because I believed in the mission and wanted to be a part of it long term.

Now that it’s over, however, I realize that the friendships I let fade a bit because I was grinding so hard toward that mission are the ones I’ll need to lean on as I figure out what’s next and rebuild my storytelling consulting practice I set aside. Reaching back out now that I would love and need their help kind of sucks.

Similarly, after building a solid audience around #P3LearnsPricing on LinkedIn earlier this Spring by combining my personal brand with my role at PW (which drove some solid traffic and leads for us), I let my posting drop off when I took on new responsibilities in the role which I thought would be more of a temporary thing (a few weeks). 

I sit here today 2.5 months later with only a few recent posts and very little active engagement on my LinkedIn friend’s and fam’s posts, and I know I’d be in a better place today if that wasn’t the case.

2. Find a mission and team that compels you to make that large of a sacrifice.

Why did I make such a big sacrifice?

Because I believed 110% in the mission and the team that Patrick, Facundo, and Peter have built up. 

My opportunity felt very much like getting a call up from the minors to play on a major league team chocked full of all-stars. 

If I decide to join another team in the future, it will have to look a lot like ProfitWell with a founder that will settle for nothing less than finishing someday as the 🐐, alongside a team that will sacrifice for each other and for the mission to capture the immense opportunity in front of them.

Side-note: I started tagging my PW teammates here to give them a shout out and found myself tagging the whole damn company. Seriously, every *single* person I worked with I would want on another team of mine in the future.

3. Play to your strengths

I don’t walk away from my experience at PW with many regrets, perhaps the only one will be not doing more in terms of carving out and protecting clear opportunities to leverage my unique strengths to create a bigger impact during my time there. 

As the role evolved (by the week!) and I put my head down to focus more and more and grind on things that weren’t in my wheel house but needed to be done, it became more and more clear it wasn’t a good talent-job fit. Could I have protected against that? Perhaps and to be clear I won't waste time wondering, but it will be something I will keep in mind moving forward. 

Bottom line: Always find a way to play to your strengths.

There are certainly many more lessons (and I’ll probably share them as posts on LinkedIn in the future) but these are the big 3 that stand out. 

For now I’ll be working with founders that I can help tell a more clear and compelling story that converts their customers with my Story Sprints workshops. 

The only thing that will change that would be to find another rocket ship like PW that needs some more fuel in the form of my strengths and skills.

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Have questions about these lessons, my experience at a fast-growing rocket ship of a startup, or about how to think about how some of these things relate to your own journey? Grab some time with me here and let's chat. I'm here to help.