The best thing I’ve found to combat the mental and motivational drain your startup can impose is to get out and spend time doing things that aren’t directly involved with your company. It’s easy to spend all waking hours with your baby, but stepping away can give you some well deserved rest and also some third person perspective.

Where to take a break

Here are a few of the things I do that I find the most rejuvenation from:

• Skillshare classes
  I love hearing stories about other people’s successes (and failures). There is nothing better than hearing from someone what they did to reach success in some aspect of life and what they would do different if they could go back. I tend to attend startup-oriented classes and I always come away with actionable points that get me motivated to try something new with my company, blog, etc.
• Non Startup Tech Events
  I’ve been pretty involved in the UX community here in NYC for the past 4 years. The crowd their events attract aren’t in the middle of the startup world, but they are definitely tech focused. It’s refreshing to see what other people are up to and see there is a world of creative accomplishment outside of what’s become my pretty narrow focus.
• Toastmasters
  I’ve been a toastmaster for 3 years now and I always love going to my club meetings. Every member gets a chance to speak in front of the audience of 40-50 people at every meeting for a couple of minutes. Doing that and doing it well is extremely empowering. If you can talk in front of a group like that, there isn’t any group you can’t speak in front of. And knowing that 90-some percent of people are utterly terrified of public speaking makes you feel proud that you can do it.

There are of course countless other things you can do, but for me, doing those three things prove to be really rejuvenating. They recharge my batteries after battling all day long with my company and motivate me to keep fighting the good fight. For me, some of the best rewards for my startup come from taking breaks from it to reflect and do something different.

Don Hewitt and 60 Minutes

A couple of years ago, Don Hewitt, the creator of CBS’s 60 Minutes program passed away and I watched their tribute to him. Don was extremely respected in his field and his success was easy to understand because he only really cared about one thing: tell me a story. When in doubt, tell a story and people will listen. Stories are the most addictive substance on earth.

They Are Easily Transferred

A good story was the first viral communication. When someone hears a good story, it’s easy to take the important parts and pass it on to another group of people in another situation. Not only do people like hearing stories, they like telling good ones. Few things are as rewarding as telling a story your audience is captivated with.

Startup Stories

One thing we’ve gotten a lot of miles out of at Onepager is our story. All of our founders come from small business families and are aware of all the troubles that small businesses deal with. We’ve written blog posts that support and reinforce this story. Our central narrative is so good, I’ve had people pull me aside at industry events and comment on how moving my personal story was. Unlike some press release or Techcrunch article, a powerful story isn’t quickly forgotten.

Another benefit is that if someone relates to your story, they are likely to become fans of your product and sometimes evangelists. When this happens, it’s really special.

Make it a Manifesto

I was compelled to write this post after going to a Skillshare class taught by Derek Flanzraich from the fitness site Greatist. He suggested taking your story and turning it into a manifesto that your whole audience can see on your site. They also have this written on their whiteboard wall in their office. All of these points to hit the story from the user and staff point of view are just solidifying commitment to the central narrative of the company. It’s their guiding light when making decisions and makes decision-making easy (does it fit with our story or not?).

Start Telling Your Story

Decide on what your story is. All great storytellers “strengthen” weak parts of their stories, fill in the gaps, and leave out the irrelevant parts. That’s the art of storytelling and works for your startup story as well. Many big companies (or rapidly successful startups) wind up creating their story afterwards. I think if you can get your story straight from the start and get it out there, you’ll have another powerful tool to get your users engaged.

Post your story in blog posts, manifestos, a YouTube video, tell it to people you meet or give a product demo with a strong dose of your story and why you are doing your project. All of this sticks with people and you’ll be amazed with the results.

Hide the Link Bar

I usually skim through all these bookmarks during the day to give myself a little mental break, but sometimes I kill way too much time doing this. There’s an easy solution for getting this time back. Now I just hide the bookmark bar all day. It’s a nudge to stay on track and has been working quite well.

My favorite episodes are this most recent one with Ryan Carson and the seventh episode with Chris Sacca. Check them out if you’re looking for some high quality inspiration!

Good Reads

• Shit-ass Websites
• How Images Can Boost Your Conversion Rate
• The 15 inch MacBook Air is Coming
• Facebook to Hire Thousands, Open NY Office

Favorite Meta Post

• How Inbound Marketing Can Lead Your Startup to Success

When we all worked at WeWork, one of my favorite memories was going up to the Labs and watching members teaching other members things like iOS programming and Photoshop tips. It’s been a phenomenal environment for people starting their young companies. Instead of sitting in their apartments and coffee shops, they have been able to come and work with like minded and highly skilled people.

This move is a big step for the Labs, which is somewhere between a co-working space and a startup incubator. With 50 desks in their current space, the new 17,000 square foot floor is going to give them a lot of room to grow. It’s also going to give them much more prominence and the ability to host larger events like the hackathons that are common to venues like General Assembly.

If you’re a designer, developer, or any other sort of tech entrepreneur looking for affordable workspace in a highly collaborative environment, be sure to reach out to Matt or myself and let us know if you’re interested.

I remember seeing the long gone founder, Ted Waitt, doing crazy things like posing as James Bond on ski boats in old magazine ads plastered on the wall. All the old paraphernalia showed a company having fun and loving what they were doing. The golden age of the company was different and I was very interested in learning about it. At some point I got to talking to one of the long time employees and she told me all sorts of stories from the past.

The Right Way to Do Customer Service

One story that sticks with me is what the employees that built computers were responsible for. They started with a pile of parts, assembled them, and boxed the final product. In each box, they put a handwritten note with their name and telephone number. The note told the customer that if they had any problems, feel free to reach out to them personally. All of the computer assemblers had individual telephones in their work area and would stop what they were doing to answer calls from their very own customers. Needless to say, Gateway customers became extremely devoted, maybe a little because of this unique take on customer service.

It Didn’t Last Forever

I can see how that sort of customer service isn’t the most scalable, but it’s ultimately sad that it had to change. Eventually personal computers margins dropped to next to nothing and Gateway moved their manufacturing business to China. Their unique customer service ended. Somewhere around that time the decline of the company started slowly and one of the great computer brands began to fade away. The pride in the product was gone and customers eventually noticed and reacted accordingly.

The lesson I take from this is believe in your product and personally stand behind it and its value. If you do that, then great customers won’t be too far behind and you’ll have a lot of fun in the process.

The UP Life

The thing that convinced me to shell out $100 was the wristband (OK it’s a bracelet) and how beautifully designed it is. I love having products with great industrial design around. For some reason that makes me happy. So, I figured even if UP proved to not be too useful, I’d have a nice piece of ID in my apartment to fiddle around with once in a while.

It turns out, UP isn’t a letdown. There are some negative aspects to it, but it’s proven to be pretty fun and motivating so far.

What I Like About UP

UP tracks your sleep, movement, and eating. The act of tracking those three parts of your life is very enlightening. If you can imagine a Google Analytics for your health, that’s basically what UP does. Just the act of recording your health and measuring your results in comparison to the goals you’ve set is very motivating.

The most interesting feature is how it tracks your sleep. You can actually see when you’re in deep sleep, light sleep, and awake. It turns out I’m a very light sleeper while my fiance sleeps in long deep sleep stretches. I’m not sure what I’ll do with that information after a couple of weeks, but it’s still neat to learn something about our bodies that we might never have otherwise.

What I Don’t Like About UP

A lot has been made of the hassle of syncing UP with your phone. Instead of doing it all wirelessly through Bluetooth, UP requires you to plug it into the headphone jack of your phone. Honestly, I don’t think it’s a terrible process or, as some are saying, a kiss of death for the product. You really should only be checking your progress a few times a day and it’s hardly an overwhelming hassle to do the very quick sync. I imagine they tested doing Bluetooth or not and the battery drain proved more of a detriment than the manual sync.

The biggest thing I dislike about UP is the app, and in particular, the food tracking. To track meals, you take a photo of what you’re eating and an hour later, UP asks how that meal made you feel. I assume in the future UP will start telling me what to eat based on how the food has made me feel in the past. I’d like to see the food tracking be a little more scientific (like the rest of UP) and track the calories of each thing you eat. That way you could manage your health much more accurately.

It Accomplishes its Goal

I’m sure in the future they’ll update the app to improve the UX and incorporate more functionality. The promise of wearable technology is huge, even if it’s a bit creepy. But for now, the UP succeeds at making you more conscience of your health and encourages you to make choices that make you feel better.

• 44% of direct mail is never opened. That’s a waste of time, postage and paper.
• 86% of people skip through television commercials.
• 84% of 25 to 34 year olds have clicked out of a website because of an “irrelevant or intrusive ad.”

Startups have been figuring this out and have been working hard to build on the newest iteration of marketing: inbound marketing, which aims to educate and inform your market. When it’s done properly, it is insanely powerful. An example we’re all probably aware of is 37signals with their Signal vs. Noise blog and books. They are continuously writing content that hits home with their target market, those who manage projects and client relationships. If you’re new to the tech scene, it’s hard not to spend hours digging through their archives and feel empowered to change the world. That’s great, but as far as 37signals is concerned, spending all this time with them is bound to make you very interested in their products. They earn their readers trust that their the experts at the subject and therefore must have the best tools to tackle the challenges their readers face.

Content is King

I recently re-experienced the enlightenment I had with Signal vs. Noise so many years ago. It happened with the blog Contrast, which is run by a member of the team behind the tool Intercom. Contrast focuses on all the challenges startups have with building their product, getting it in front of users, and iterating to perfection. With so much killer content and benefit brought to me, I was seriously interested in their product. I had never thought I’d need an in-app CRM but their content pulled me in and now that I’ve been using their product, I’ve realized it’s very useful in my work.

Another good example from the tech world is KISS Metrics. They are constantly all over Twitter with great content of their own and from other sources.

It Works Everywhere

Ecommerce sites are pushing hard to become inbound marketers. Mr. Porter and Patagonia jump to mind. Tech consultants run blogs that reinforce their expertise. Scoble famously blogs and keeps Rackspace in the front of everyone’s minds. Even the sugar-water-pushing Pepsi runs a Tumblr with X Factor content that you can assume hits home with their demographic.

Making it Work For You

I think inbound marketing is conceptually simple: create content that truly resonates with your target audience and do it repeatedly. In practice, it’s a real challenge to stay motivated and keep quality high. That must be why we’ve been blessed with a startup like Contently. I guess they’re trying to prove that throwing money at a problem still works after all.

Good Reads

• Overnight Success: It Takes Years
• The 90-9-1 Principle
• Patience and Hard Work

Favorite Meta Post

• Switching from Client Services to Product Startup