Happy Birthday to Me!

David’s note: If you’re also having an existential crisis about building your consultancy, or want to talk about any of the topics in this newsletter, reply to this email to let me know, or book a time here for us to chat!

Also, please share this newsletter with all your friends who might find it useful - especially if they are also running Data & AI consultancies of their own (or considering building one).

This upcoming Wednesday, I’m turning 33.

It’s not a crazy milestone birthday or anything, but like any other birthday, it’s sent me into a bit of an emotional tailspin.

This time last year, I had just launched my company, and everything felt so new that it’s hard to look back on it and not see how much of it was due to the sugar high of just starting your new business.

With a year of perspective, though, I can tell you that the past 12 months have been insane in a way I’ve never experienced in my life.

And while I could probably sit here and do one of the classic “33 lessons I learned for my 33 years” sort of post, I don’t think anyone wants to read that.

So I’m giving you 5 instead.

My hope is that, just like when Superposition turned one a couple of months back, I can give you a recap of where (rather than my company) I sit today, and how I’m thinking about my life from a more personal perspective.

And while normally I might tie those to insights into how you should run your consultancy, I figured you might appreciate a more direct window into the weirdness that is my brain for once.

So enjoy, and I’ll be back with your regularly scheduled programming next week!

As a very anxious person, starting my own business is probably one of the weirdest (and least effective) ways of dealing with the unknown.

Running your own shop, after all, means embracing that you are not in control as much as you think.

12 months ago, I could not have told you all the amazingly weird shit I would get to do, but looking back, I feel incredibly lucky that I even got the opportunity to do things that would’ve been unthinkable to me in my normal corporate life.

Like taking a meeting while drinking a beer from the canals in Amsterdam:

Or hosting a live version of my game show in front of an audience of like 200 people:

Or writing a ridiculous weekly newsletter where I get to post insane memes to share real lessons about building a consultancy with almost 200 Data/AI nerds:

The point is to say that if you’re anything like me, you probably spend a lot of your time worrying about what’s next and whether things are going to work out your way.

But life has a really funny way of bringing you the opportunities you need and deserve.

The saying goes “chance favors the prepared mind”, and I think that’s especially true, because prepared often means prepared in terms of being ready for the work to come.

But in the past year I’ve come to realize it also means being prepared and flexible for whatever lemons (and other fruits) that life throws at you.

Which is a great segue for our next lesson:

As a lifelong try-hard, one of the things that happens when you’re working for other people is that you build a weird insulating barrier from owning your own decisions.

Everything that goes wrong is literally always one unit of effort away from getting solved, and the wheel that you’re on never keeps spinning.

If you’ve ever met at all, you’ll know that I’m a very impatient person.

So this past year, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is how taking a second to appreciate the reality of my situation can help me, in particular, to really build ownership of what goes on in my life.

The funny part about entrepreneurship is that it’s lonely, for better or worse. No matter what happens, no one is coming to save you.

While that’s obviously quite scary, it’s also very freeing.

If you’re reading this, you’re likely also building something of your own. So from one try-hard to another, believe me when I tell you that being lonely is not the end of the world.

But instead of falling into a permanent state of panic, you should take a look around you and take real ownership of the things you’ve failed at.

And above all else, you need to breathe.

I have way more energy than like 99% of people, and for most of my life, that has been a huge asset to me.

I may not be the smartest, or fastest, or most capable person on earth, but I can outwork a large majority of them.

And I sure am one of the most stubborn out of all of them.

One of the driving principles of my work since I launched my company is that I could always do MORE: more content, more sales, more work.

But the biggest surprise to me in the past year is that while I accounted for how much work I had to put in, I did not account for how I would have to respond emotionally and physically to all the downs of running your own business.

And those downswings have been insanely exhausting to come back from on their own right.

For most of my life, I’ve been able to take bad news pretty easily and get past it. After all, like 50% of being a consultant is constantly failing in one way or another.

But failing as an entrepreneur is just a fact of life, and I’ve learned that the key isn’t to know how to fail but rather how to recover from that failure.

Otherwise, you’ll find yourself burning out and asking your brain and body whether you can continue trucking forward, only for them to go like:

I cannot stress this enough: YOU DO NOT HAVE INFINITE ENERGY.

(I’ve learned it the hard way)

When I take on particularly exhausting bits of work, I’ve learned to say no to whatever is next on the to-do list. Whenever I’ve gone through a bad sales outcome, I’ve learned to close my computer and go for a run. Whenever I’m just not feeling a bit of marketing work or whatever, I go play with my cats.

I’ve learned to find outlets, and to take them seriously.

So should you, for your own sake (and that of your team).

I don’t think I have to overexplain this. The lesson I’ve learned is: lean into who you are, be yourself, show your expertise, share openly, and most importantly, DO NOT GATEKEEP KNOWLEDGE.

Everything else (including opportunities, partnerships, clients and more) will come to you as a result.

You might think I’m talking about physical attractiveness here, but I’m not at all.

What I mean is that I used to be one of those people who thought, especially when it comes to your career, expertise and capability should win above all else.

The reality, as I’ve realized this past year, is that being capable is like 5% of the battle.

The rest is people being aware of what you do.

One of the biggest challenges of starting a consulting business in particular is that your expertise is quite literally the product.

But if you think about it for one second, people aren’t just buying expertise. They’re buying your expertise (and perspective).

You’ve probably heard this before, but let me say it again so you don’t think otherwise: When someone hires you or your company, they’re doing so because they like how you think - and they think you can be a credible partner to solve their problems.

The expertise, the capabilities, the offerings. All a lot less relevant than you think.

You are what matters.

Be an expert, of course. But be open about the cool shit that you’re doing, and the opportunities will come to you. People want to be part of cool things, no matter the context.

And in the last 12 months, I’ve learned that the best way to be part of cool things is to make them happen.

To celebrate my birthday (and to eat my own dog food, as they say), I’ll be taking a few days off this week and next to rest and recharge for the rest of the year.

That said, I’ll be back next Monday with the usual newsletter and a few surprises, so stay tuned for more!

If you’ve enjoyed the topics I talked about today and want to talk about how I can help your consultancy, let’s chat!

I specialize in helping founders of boutique Data & AI consultancies solve the existential problems that come as they brute-force their growth.

So if you’re stuck along the process of scaling your shop and need an external perspective, I’m here to help!

Want to talk about a problem internal to your company that you’re struggling with? Sign up for a free therapy session with me, and let’s talk about it!

Want help to expand, ideate, and scope Data & AI projects with your clients? Sign up for a demo workshop to see how we can help you!

And if you want more details about either, check out my:

Otherwise, thank you so much for reading, and see you next week!