Written By: Janine Kick
I was recently reminded of an episode from one of my go-to podcasts, The Ed Mylett Show. Specifically, his episode on the ‘Separation Season’ (take a listen here if you’d like). As we approach the holidays with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years all right around the corner, this is the time of year most people take their foot off the gas. We relax, we take time off, and we indulge a little. While I certainly agree that the holidays are worth celebrating, they’re also a time to create separation.
When I say separate, I don’t mean to break up and I’m not talking about setting boundaries per se. However, I do mean ‘leave behind’. Whether it’s your old self or your competitors, this is the time of year I see the most successful founders create distance between where they are and where they’re going. Instead of slowing down, they double down. They take advantage of others’ down time, they take action.
To be clear, before we go any further, I am NOT saying you don’t need to recharge your batteries or take a break. There can be enormous value in doing that too. In the words of Ed Mylett, “we’re talking about holiDAYS not holiMONTHS”.
I’ve been hearing from a lot of founders recently that they’re aiming to raise in Q1 to which I say, “Great! Let’s get started. Now is the time to get organized, don’t wait until January”. It’s no secret that things tend to quiet down a bit in December when it comes to the venture capital world. So, how do you capitalize on this? How do you take advantage of the separation season when everyone else is easing up?
It looks a little different for everyone. For me, it’s waking up early enough to get a workout in (you have to have some work-life balance, right?) and at least an hour of ‘heads down’ work. For you, it might look like carving out 30 minutes at the end of each night to catch up on the emails you couldn’t get to during the day. Maybe it’s staying in on Saturday nights and dedicating them to your pitch deck. Friday afternoons are notorious for being the least productive days of the week, maybe you decide that’s not going to be you anymore and you’re going to push through from 1-5pm each week. Or maybe it’s that you’ve decided you won’t be letting the holidays slow down sales growth and you’ll double down on your efforts.
Creating separation can look very different for each of us. When it comes down to it, it’s doing whatever is going to give you an edge over your competition. You can make time to perfect your pitch deck and your pitch, thoroughly analyze your target investor list, build relationships, crush sales, roll out a new product feature – you get it.
You decide what it looks like and don’t let it go to waste! What will your separation season look like?
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