I am very good at starting businesses, but if I’m completely honest, I initially started most of them very badly. When I launched my first proper graphic design and printing business in the early 90s, I managed to get a loan and immediately blew £1,500 of it on a hot foil printing machine. I wasted months of my life and had many frustrating late nights trying to calibrate the thing, get the print straight, and generally making an absolute mess of the handful of jobs I had actually managed to win. I didn't know what I was doing, and I got it completely wrong. Then one day, I saw an advert for a competitor who could produce a hundred perfect plastic business cards for about £8. That was half the price I was charging, and even cheaper than I could buy the blank card stock for myself. I could have thrown the towel in. Instead, I decided to never turn my machine on again. I used that competitor to make the cards for me, doubled their prices, and suddenly had all my time freed up to actually go out and sell my wares. It was the biggest lesson in leverage I ever learned, and I only learned it because I failed so miserably first. Right now I'm changing my newsletter and blogging platform, because last year I made the wrong choice. But I couldn't possibly have known that at the time, with all the research and overthinking in the world. I only know now, from hindsight, that their are better options. The most important thing is to make a decision and do it. 𝗔 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗻𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 if it gets the ball rolling. If you are sitting on a business idea right now because you are trying to make the plan perfect or you are terrified of getting it wrong, let me save you the suspense: you are almost definitely going to get it wrong. And that is exactly how it is supposed to work. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁. You have to get through the messy early days to find your footing. Action is always better than sitting on the fence.

Business observation: People notice consistency long before they engage with it. Lately, I've had several people tell me, "I see you everywhere." The funny thing is... I'm not everywhere. I'm just showing up consistently, joining conversations, and participating in communities I genuinely enjoy. I used to think community growth came from creating more posts. Now I think it comes from creating more conversations. Have you ever had someone tell you they've been watching your content for a while before they finally commented, replied, or reached out?

Has anyone used Skool live or the built in meeting feature to record a podcast episode?

comment BANANA and watch ur DMs...

do you like mangoes?