An open apology to entrepreneurs

I owe all of the entrepreneurs out there an apology. Somewhere along the way I lost my way. Let me explain.

You see, I started SouthFound because I was passionate about helping entrepreneurs and startups “find their voice”. As a three-time startup founder I’ve been in your shoes. I know what it feels like to want to grow your business so badly that it hurts. I also know that being an entrepreneur can feel very, very lonely. So, I created SouthFound to help entrepreneurs and startups succeed….together.

That vision is now four years old. Which is both hard for me to believe in some respects and easy to believe in others.

Late last year those four years started to take their toll on me. But if I am honest with you, it got hard because I had fallen into the trap of monitoring vanity metrics. I was spending too much energy comparing the amount of work I put into the community and content (like the podcast) with the number of people that were engaging with that content. So, because of my own vanity, I pulled the plug on the podcast and turned my focus elsewhere.

What I should have been doing was focus on the impact that SouthFound was having one person at a time.

The thing is, what is hard about running a community service is that it is hard to know who is listening and who isn’t. Or, how many people you are helping. Because people don’t always take the time to tell you that they loved your latest article, your new course, or your podcast episode.

Now that I have that off my chest, let me tell you what I am going to do about it.

I’ve been quietly working back to a schedule where I am producing content for the community. I launched a new course on Udemy, I’ve been posting articles on the my blog, I wrote a book called “The Ladder or The Grind”, and……

I am bringing back the podcast. In the near future the SouthFound Startup Podcast will make its return. But don’t call it comeback. Call it a new beginning.

As always thanks for your support. I hope you will tune in when the podcast goes live on June 1st. Not because I want to see how many listeners there are, but because I don’t like talking to myself.

You can find the podcast here.

P.S. If you know an entrepreneur or startup I should feature on the podcast please have them request to be featured.