286 | Wellbeing Tips for Founders Raising Capital with Paul Zelizer
This week on the pod is our montly solo episode with Paul Zelizer. Paul is the Founder & CEO of Awarepreneurs and the host of the popular Awarepreneurs podcast. He's also been a coach for social entrepreneurs and conscious business owners for more than 16 years.
This episode is sponsored by the coaching company of our host, Zelizer Consulting Services.
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
Wellbeing Tips for Founders Raising Capital: Episode with Paul Zelizer
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
SPEAKERS
Paul Zelizer
Paul Zelizer 00:01
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer. Welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive deep into wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help you increase your positive impact your profitability, and your quality of life. Before we get into today's topic, I have one request. If you could hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app, that helps more people learn how to have positive impact through a values based business. Thank you so much. Today, I'm your guest, it's time for our monthly solo episode. And our topic is Well Being Tips for Founders Raising Capital. I'm Paul Zelizer, the founder of this podcast, and it is one of the longest social entrepreneur podcasts on the planet. I'm excited to be here with you. Now, I just want to say it is not easy to raise capital for your business. It's easier for some than others, depending on your class background, your race or ethnicities, it's easier for male founders and female founders in general. But raising capital is not easy for anyone. And one of the things I'm seeing, especially in this economy in 2023, is that while it's never easy to raise capital, it's even a little more challenging and 2023. And as I'm recording this, there's a lot of talk in the news about the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, and challenges in the banking industry, Silicon Valley Bank is well known for being one of the more important infrastructure for the startup ecosystem. So it's already been challenging in 2023. And I'm just hearing a lot of founders saying they're having to work even harder to raise the capital they need to grow their business. I do want to say you can do it, you got this. And it can be a lot of wear and tear on a founders well being our nervous system, and our relationships. So today, I'm gonna give you five tips that can help you some ideas and some places to think about your well being. And the understanding that there's a lot going out. And one of the things we're going to need to think about is we can't be all things to all people, we can't pay attention to everything a mentor of mine has, when everything is urgent, nothing is important. So these are some places you can think about concentrating your attention to get the most return on your well being and your sense of happiness as you're going into a time of a lot of output. So let's talk about what these five areas are, then we'll get into each one with some tips and strategies. And we'll wind it down at the end with a couple of more general tips and strategies. So the first one is prioritize your relationships and your social support. Number two, movement, how do you keep moving when you're really really doing a sprint at work, but you might not have a time to run or do whatever it is for exercise quite as much as he would in more normal times. Getting help when we need it? And what kind of help can be useful in a time when there's a lot going into work because they're in a fundraising period? How to Plan breaks? And how can they fit in a time when you know, you're really in a very significant push to raise funds? And lastly, how can you lean into social capital and social support in this time when there's a lot of output. So the first strategy is to really prioritize your relationships and social support. One of the pieces of research that really breaks my heart is that a lot of business leaders and especially a lot of entrepreneurs, is that we have, you know, more challenging times in our relationship. Relationships aren't easy for anyone, but particularly for entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs are trying to pay attention to, you know, like the triple bottom line, right. And sometimes we can lose sight on relationships with partners, with kids, with friends, with community groups, etc. So, when you're going into array is one of the suggestions I have is to let the important people in your life know, hey, look, I'm going into raising money for my business. It's going to be a sprint here. And you might notice that I want to let you know beforehand that I care about you. I care about our relationship. If we're spending less time doesn't mean I love you any less or care about you any less. And too, especially with the folks that are most important. Try to make sure you get some time on the schedule, even if it's a little less often that he makes sure during this time you're touching in with the people you'd like have the most. Now for, you know, people who are further out in the concentric circles of who's most important to you may not be able to do this, but the people who are most important partners, spouses, children, family members, closest friends, right close community, people and mentors, right. So maybe there's a circle of five or seven or 10 people that you let know. And you really try to prioritize what time you do have or make time, because the research is so robust about how important spending time with quality people with the people that we love the most how much it has a positive impact on our well being, and can reduce stress everything from getting a hug, to having a deep conversation, to going for a run somebody that you care about. So prioritize these relationships. And again, let them know before you go into this period, and try to see how you can spend time even if it's less than you might in a less intensive, you know, putting out so much energy kind of period, even if it's grabbing lunch, or going for a walk, or doing something you'd like to do, whether that's going to movie or an art project, really try to bake those into this time period, as a way to take care of yourself as well as these important relationships. The second strategy is movement. So many founders I talked to say, you know, in a period when they're raising capital, it can be really all encompassing, and they fall off the horse in terms of exercise. So one of the things you might want to do is how can you scale back, you know, I'm an ultra marathoner, but, you know, if you're going into a fundraising period, you might need to scale back, you know, I can't do the kinds of training that I do. When I'm getting ready for a big race. They're just not time to be, you know, 10 hours a week of training, or 15. Or even more, if you count all the recovery things I do, right. So if you're have a fairly robust exercise movement, and just taking care of your physical body, you may need to scale that back. But that can look like taking in micro workouts, I've heard him call, you know, doing bodyweight stuff throughout the day, get a pull up bar, do push ups and making some extra effort to park your car a little further away from the grocery store. It sounds like Oh, Paul, you got to be kidding me. But the research is that it can be very effective to use this kind of micro movements micro workout approach. And to be intentional about not just standing in front of the screen, or sitting at the coffee shop, doing your pitches all day long. But making sure you know, sometimes I go and walk out to my mailbox, right? I'll work for an hour and a half, two hours, and then go walk to my mailbox and then come back in and then go out to my garden. And even though the mailbox and the garden are fairly close to each other, I intentionally come back in, but the mail in the house and then go back out to the garden just to get a few more steps. So it doesn't take that long. But that extra three or five minutes of movement, happening occurring over a number of times adds up to more movement and more well being. So be thinking about, okay, maybe you can only get into more formal workouts like you normally would. And on a more typical time, you could get in four or five workouts at the kind of duration that you really like. And during the race, you have to scale that back. But you can do some things when you first wake up when you go to bed, and maybe two or three times throughout the day. And when you add that all up, you're moving a lot more, you're keeping your body limber, and you're not getting that sort of really tired, collapsed feeling that can really happen from the staring on a screen or being in a seated position all day long. Or even if you're standing desk, you know, just the idea of being in that work posture all day long, as opposed to breaking it up with these micro workouts micro movements throughout the day. The third suggestion I have for you is to be thinking about how you can get some help. So if you're giving more in the work part of life, maybe there's some ways where you could get some help with some other aspects of your life that maybe you normally wouldn't. A simple example would be like with food and nutrition. Some folks like to lean into a meal plan maybe there's a way you know one of the box meal companies were doing a little more healthy but prepared foods so that you're cooking a little bit less or just changing the way you shop. During a really busy time of my life. I
Paul Zelizer 09:59
got a nice blender because I was doing more smoothies blender I had beforehand was suboptimal, right, so I got a nice blender. And suddenly I found myself eating more smoothies as a way to take in healthy, nutritious food in a quick way, can think about getting some help with cleaning, maybe have somebody come in twice a month so that again, you're like you're giving more in one area, but you're getting help in other areas that maybe you wouldn't, and an ongoing way getting help cleaning your house, or something like that. Maybe you even get a va a virtual assistant or some kind of personal assistant during this period of let's say it's a six month real intensive focus on raising funds, right during those six months, how can you make a little more wiggle room, as opposed to expecting yourself to keep doing all the things that you do in the normal phases of life, here's a place where you can lean and get some support and create just a little bit of wiggle room in terms of things that you would otherwise do in terms of chores, laundry, etc, etc. Is there a way that you can get some help. So I want to give you two more tips in just a second. But before we do that, I just want to take a quick break in here word from our sponsor. Are you facing one or more important decisions in your impact business, and you'd like an experienced thought partner to develop a plan about how to proceed in the complex times we're living. But you don't feel the need for an extended coaching or consulting contract that's going to cost you many 1000s of dollars. You're looking for an affordable, targeted and time efficient type of support. Through Paul zelizer.com, I offer a strategy session package. These packages are ideal for entrepreneurs who are facing 123 immediate decisions, like how to increase your positive impact, fine tune your marketing strategies to get more results for less effort, launch a new product or service successfully, or refine your pricing structure. So it's both inclusive, and provides you with a great quality of life. You can find out more by clicking below. And thank you so much for listening to this podcast. So welcome back, everybody. And two more tips to go on today's topic of well being tips for founders raising capital. The fourth suggestion or tip you might consider is to plan breaks. And this can be something as simple as maybe you're up late, you're out till nine o'clock or 11 o'clock or even midnight, you know, at a networking event trying to connect with somebody who you think could be a really good investor or you meet with somebody and you have like four meetings in a evening. And suddenly, it's like you're not, you know, done with work activities until 10 or 11 or midnight, right. So maybe you can block in the morning, if you know you're going to be working late in an evening or going to an event or having a series of meetings. So some more smaller micro breaks, okay, you know, I worked late, so I'm going to get myself till 10 o'clock and go for a run or go for a walk or get a massage Right? in the morning. As well as maybe you can take a weekend, right? Maybe you and your partner. So that first strategy is spending time with people you love. And even though you're in arrays, you take a two day weekend, you take you know, three, three day to night weekend, and you do get away right in the middle of that big raise and and it's something you and your partner can look forward to and you put it on the map and you say, Look, honey, I know I've been working hard, but I can't wait till we go do that weekend. You know, my girlfriend and I are going away to Santa Fe for the weekend. And we both had a lot going on, you know, doing my taxes and she's had things and we haven't seen each other as much as we would over the past month. Not from not liking spending time we'd love spending time but we have this weekend in Santa Fe a three day weekend. We're super excited about it. And it helped us get through that time of like more just adulting right. In our case, it's not a fundraiser. But it's an adulting push due to just various life circumstances. But we knew we planned for this three day weekend in Santa Fe and we could tell each other we're really looking forward to that time together. While we're acknowledging that, you know, we're spending less time on a more typical weekend over this past month. It's just a little simple example but it makes a big difference when you're naming it acknowledging it and whether it's that you know getting a massage or going for a run for just you know, an hour and a half in the morning before you start work when maybe you normally wouldn't do that or something like planning weekend were with somebody you love your child, your partner, your whole family is going away. It's a way to like have a pause, you're sprinting, and the human, neither our physical bodies nor our emotional or spiritual bodies, we're not meant to sprint, a long durations. So when you're running an ultra marathon, for example, you have to learn how to pace yourself or the wheels come off. It's one of the most common reasons people do not finish DNF ultra marathon, they don't learn how to pace themselves and pacing yourself for let's say, up 50k race, right 50k is somewhere around 3637 miles, right? You can't run like you're running five miles when you have to run 37. And if you try to run at a pace that you would normally run five miles, the wheels are going to come off the bus, we need to pause we need to pace ourselves, right. So having these breaks is like a deep breath, it's a chance to kind of recover, regroup, reconnect with people we love, maybe put a little more attention to things like movement, and sleep and workouts and nutrition things we do to recover. And then we go back into it. So a good example might be if you have a six month sprint to raise a million dollars, or, you know, depending on where you are, in which phase of fundraising, whether it's you know, pre seed or seed or series A or Series B, however much you're trying to raise on whatever time frame you're trying to raise it in. Maybe you think about these pauses of every 60 or 90 days. And even if it's just a whole day, knowing it's coming certainly two or three days, maybe if it's a long reason, you know, you're a year into it, because you're trying to raise $30 million, and it's going to take you a year, then, you know, can you take a week, and really clear the decks during that period, whether it's an hour and a half or a massage, or a week, because you're into a longer bigger raise, during that time. Really prioritize recovery, connecting with people, movement, nutrition, and the other things we're talking about in today's episode. Lastly, and I probably should have put this first, but isn't just where it wound up in the list, as I really want you to lean into your social capital. So recently, I had the honor and blessing of a social entrepreneur who I really respect is doing an incredible project, I was able to introduce him to somebody who's a leader of an impact network, investing network, and the two of them hit him off and looks like some good things are gonna come out of that in terms of this social entrepreneurs goals of raising capital. And it wouldn't necessarily have been as easy for this social entrepreneur to get hold of this investment leader in the ecosystem that this entrepreneur was working in. But because I have a relationship with this leader, it was easy for me to make that connection. So that's an example when I see a lot of founders kind of get into a little bit of that lone wolf mentality, or sometimes a lot of it. Not all, but the founders who have the hardest time and it takes the most wear and tear, they oftentimes go into a bit of a lone wolf, it's just me and my like immediate team and whoever is like on board for this raise. That's it, we put our blinders on. And they don't always think about leaning into relationships and leveraging social capital. So who do you know who's in your networks that would understand your business? And would be aligned with the mission and the values? And is there a way you can lean in to other founders who've raised people who are mentors or advisors in the startup or impact investing ecosystem? My guess is you already know some folks. And even if you don't know them that well, you're probably if you've been doing any work to cultivate your network at all, you're probably only one person away from some leaders who could really help you move the needle with less output of energy from yourself and your team. So how can you be smart about leveraging social capital and making the connections with people who understand your mission, understand your values, have well developed networks and would say, I'd be happy to help you with that. So be thinking about that. So that you can get more return on the time and energy you have available for this important raise that you're doing.
Paul Zelizer 19:59
So those are five However, the suggestions that come to my mind, again, I just want to, first of all, say thank you for what you're doing. And also just acknowledge that you're in a time where there's a lot of output when you're doing a significant raise. And it's normal to have wear and tear on the system. You know, as humans, we do have this capacity to physically spread. But we could also sprint mentally and emotionally and spiritually, in doing a raise is kind of a sprint, it's an intensive, concentrated time. And whether we're talking peak performance from a sports perspective, or peak performance from a business leadership perspective, over and over again, the research that we've learned in the past 10 or 20 years is the importance of recovery. So these tips are like helping you think about how you can bake in pauses, whether it's for some movement, whether it's some time to connect with the people you love, or whether it's some time, on a Saturday afternoon to jump in that hot tub and take a long nap in your trip to your equivalent of a place like Santa Fe getting a break. I hope these tips are helpful to you, I really appreciate what you're doing thanks for caring about our world and for creating an impact business to try to make it a better place. Before we go, I just want to remind you that we do three interviews with world class social entrepreneur leaders. If you have an idea of somebody who you think would be a great fit for us to do a show with do an interview with please go to the AWARE printers by play and go to our contact page. And we have three simple guidelines. We try to be really clear about who we're looking for, for those interviews. And if you take a look at the guidelines and you think you've got somebody, send it on you. For now, I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these intense times. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.