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- SoC #58: How Running My Own Business Has Made Me A Better PM
I'm Lisa 👋 Welcome to this week's edition of Stream of Consciousness - the newsletter for product leaders who want to build products and their careers more consciously, in ways that are inclusive, holistic, ethical, accessible, and sustainable.
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In 2021 I started Conscious Product Development as a solopreneur after leaving Google.
The circumstances under which I started Conscious were not ideal, but I'll leave that can of worms for another newsletter!
I had a few very specific desired outcomes in the beginning:
Impact problem spaces I care deeply about
Be financially independent of any institution/company/org.
Become a better entrepreneur
Enjoy my life and what I am spending most of my time doing
While it's been a roller-coaster of a ride, I have ended up with so much more than I originally intended - including skills that have made me a better product manager.
What do I mean?
Working for myself has helped me improve in these specific areas, which have a significant amount of PM skill crossover:
Decision-Making Skills
Because I am ultimately accountable for every decision at the end of the day, it means I have a much more well-defined feedback loop that starts and ends directly with me.
If I make a bad decision, it literally impacts my life and I feel the pain of that deeply. If I make a good decision, I get to live with the positive outcomes of that.
It's a lot simpler than working with massively cross-functional teams where the ground and variables involved are always moving.
Rather than try to de-tangle how my specific actions impacted the general outcome of different situations, I have a very clear line of sight that helps me understand when I have made poor decisions, specifically where I went wrong and where I need to improve.
That's gold.
Time and Focus Management
This is probably my biggest area of learning.
Everyone thinks that life is peachy as a solopreneur, being able to control your own schedule, not being required to be in specific team meetings and syncs, etc.
What I actually learned is that that when you've got a blank slate, unless you get real clear on your desired outcomes and why those are important, what your values are, what you want your life to look like inside and outside of work, when you work best in a day, how you want to feel, and more, things can go off the rails in a heartbeat.
In my case, my slate was far from blank - I actually only run Conscious part-time because I have been dealing with complex medical issues which have required a significant percentage of my time and focus.
That's been my highest priority, and it means I have had to figure out creative ways to get things done amidst what initially felt like impossible constraints...Not unlike what it feels like to be a PM most of the time!
This is one of the reasons I've written extensively about time and being more conscious about where we're exerting efforts (see A Few Thoughts on Conscious Time, Treat Your Time as a Product, Want to Make A Change? Don't Forget to Time-Block, Protect Your Sanity: Why Guardrails Matter).
Marketing
As a full-time PM, I have had many touchpoints with marketing over the years and tackled tough questions like:
"How will we talk about this product we are conceiving of when we launch?"
"What types of transformations are we selling?"
"How might we educate customers when we are first to market in a new market?"
I've been part of crafting pitch decks, website messaging, product demos, press releases and more.
But I'd never done it solo, for my own business.
I learned first-hand how important marketing is to the success of any product or service, and how much effort it takes to do this really, really well.
While I have a lot I still have to learn in this area, I have been able to do things like start and grow this newsletter (thank you for being part of this 🙏), figure out how to market myself on social platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter in a way that's authentically me and on brand with Conscious, test out sponsorships, learn how to talk about my products and services and create feedback loops that not only help me get better at marketing, but also that help me prototype and validate new ideas publicly.
Tech Stack Requirements
Because one of my goals from the outset was to enjoy what I am spending most of my time doing, I had to figure out what that looked like.
I ran (and continue to run) different experiments to help me test the waters. I have made about 1000+ mistakes that would have saved me a lot of time and energy (and money!), but I ended up learning a hell of a lot about integrations and connecting different software tools and platforms to form my holistic tech stack.
I felt the pain if I didn't have my requirements fully fleshed out when deciding on a new tool to bring into the fold, and saw the immediate rewards when I could do things like automate payment processing.
I learned about a million different website, design, scheduling, finance, marketing, and sales tools and what the pros and cons of each are (let me know if you'd like me to write more on this - I could definitely do an entire series on what I learned!).
I was the one doing the investigating, the validating, and the actual connecting of tools.
This gave me a new perspective and has improved how I think about making decisions about the HOW of product development.
Why I Would Recommend Trying Your Own Thing
Whether it's as a side hustle on top of your full-time job or whether you want to do this full-fledged, running a solopreneur business is the most direct way to get feedback about yourself to improve your skills, validate what you definitely love vs. what you definitely hate to do, and is a fun challenge to take yourself out of your comfort zone.
While it can be isolating at times especially if you are not also working a full-time job, some ways you can offset this are by working out of coffee shops and co-working spaces, self-assembling a VIP board, and joining communities of other solopreneurs.
Are there any parts of my journey you'd like me to dig into more to help you learn from my mistakes? Are you thinking about launching your own thing but are facing some barriers? Let me know!
Conscious Bytes 📰
MAKE YOUR CAREER COUNT: A CPD community member recently shared 80,000 hours with me (thanks Brandon!) and I absolutely love this idea. It's a NFP that's focused on helping you use the 80,000 hours that form your entire career to have the most positive impact on the world. They have a newsletter, job board, podcast, a series of guides that cover everything from "What are the most pressing world problems?" to "What makes a high-impact career?" and more. Highly recommend perusing their site to help you re-frame how you think about your career.
Soulwork 💜
✨ DWIGHT'S SOUL BOOM: Rainn Wilson, the actor that plays Dwight in The Office, was recently interviewed by Rich Roll on his podcast about "Soul Boom", a new book he just launched about spirituality and the things that connect us. Here's the interview!
Thanks for Reading!
If you're looking to improve as a conscious product leader and achieve outcomes in your career and the products you are building more intentionally, there are 4 ways I can help you:
Have a great week!
-Lisa ✨
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