5 Unhinged Lessons in Starting a Business

Hello!

My name is Clark Marchese and I am starting a business. It’s called Pine Forest Media and it’s going to be a HUGE success. 

Because I know you’re so interested, it is a media production company. We mostly make podcasts for now that focus on the intersection of nature 🌱, science 🔬, and the environment 🌎, with the rest of society. 

This business is also brand new! I love how supportive you're being already just by reading this and sharing it with everyone you know. Anyways, starting a business isn’t the easiest thing to do, so I am sharing 5 lessons that I’ve learned I’m still learning through this process. 

Number 1.  You’re on your own kid, you always have been. 

Thanks Taylor Swift. Why are you so right tho? A lot of start-ups are group efforts. But a lot of them aren’t. Maybe one night you go out for chili fries with the guys and everyone gets excited about the idea of an AI-powered hot dog drone and you all decide to develop a new app together. For me it wasn’t like that. If you can believe it, not one of my best Judys were as interested as I am in science podcasting and also willing to put in several months of work for free. Weird. 

Starting a business on your own is tough but it is also pretty cool. You get to be as creative as you can be. You get to make all of the decisions. You get to practice being accountable to yourself. 

You also may not be as alone as you think you are. Tap into your support network. Ask your mentors for advice. Force your friends to give you their opinion. Your loved ones love you and they’ll love to follow you on your journey.  

That said, if you are working alone, keep reading. 

Number 2. You have to be a self-taught gawd. 

I went to school for Media and Communications. So I knew how to write and I knew how to research. Turns out there’s a lot more involved in starting a business. I would wake up every morning knowing what I needed to do, but not how to do it. 

All of a sudden I needed to become an audio editor, a website designer, a copywriter, an expert in social media marketing, a business manager, and an accountant. All of these things people go to school for and get paid to do. But when resources are tight in the early stages of a business, you have to figure out how to do a lot of things yourself. 

Udemy was an extremely helpful platform for me. It offers a repository of cheap online skill-building classes that teach you enough to get yourself off the ground. 

A piece of advice if you’re not working alone - even if you’re in the same industry, finding business partners with different skills to you will really speed up the process. 

A piece of advice if you are working alone - see Number 3 below.  

Number 3. In through the nose, out through the mouth - patience. 

I can guarantee you two things. The first is that starting a business takes a long time. The second is that everything about it will take longer than you anticipated.   

I set aside what I thought was a generous three days to set up a business bank account and now, almost two weeks later, my debit card has just been sent in the mail. 

Patience has never been my strong suit. But sometimes you have no choice but to wait for the things you desperately want. Bridgerton Season 3 is a perfect example. 

I could insert a proverb about the journey being just as important as the destination but it’s true. You’re learning a lot of new skills along the way, and eventually you’ll get to where you want to go. 

There’s a lot of roadblocks, especially in the beginning. But most of the things that are slowing you down now only apply to the early stages of business ownership and once they’re done you never have to do them again. And the things that you do have to do again and again you’ll only get faster at. 

Babies crawl and then they walk and then they run. 

Number 4. Protect your peace from perfectionism.

Science tells us that procrastination and perfectionism are closely linked. That’s right - you’re not just lazy, your 8th grade English teacher Mrs. Baker just made you hate yourself. But you can let it go, you can throw a party full of everyone you know. 

One of the things about being an entrepreneur pre-launch is that there are really no deadlines. You can tinker and tweak over and over trying to get everything exactly right. Or you can put off work entirely out of fear that you never will. The latter can turn into a vicious cycle where you feel like you’re not good enough and shouldn’t even try (so I’ve heard…) 

At some point you just gotta throw yourself out there and make changes later. Be confident in the work that you produce and launch, publish, promote. 

Number 5.The solulu is to stay delulu. 

One way to overcome perfectionism is to decide that everything you do is already perfect. 

Within reason that is. Jokes aside, I find that a healthy dose of delusion can be a effective antidote to self-doubt. 

The amount of times I’ve had to tell myself, “everything is fine” -  well, the limit does not exist. Even if that’s delusional and everything won’t be fine, I still find it to be a helpful thing to remind myself. 

Starting a business is scary. It’s overwhelming, daunting, and frustrating. I am writing this article today because I am feeling scared, overwhelmed, daunted, and frustrated and I needed to step back from my other tasks.  

But it is a good moment to remember that cliche affirmations actually do affect your mindset. Here’s a couple to try yourself:   

“I can do anything I set my mind to” 💪

“I am brimming with potential” 🤡

“I am pursuing my dreams” 💃

I work in podcasting so I might also say things like: 

“100,000 people are going to listen to my first show in the first month.”

“Something in the Water is going to get 10,000 five star reviews.” - (leave a review please ) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“I am good at making podcasts.”

Conclusion

Thank you for being one of the one hundred million billion people who made it to the end of this article.  

You’ve already found our LinkedIn, but can find more information about me, my business, and our upcoming shows at pineforestpods.com or our social media @pineforestmedia. 

Good luck to all the current and future business owners out there - you’re doing amazing sweetie!