Startup King? Yes. I was created for Startup Life. I am proud of the Startup life. Last year I became a certified Life, and Business Coach specializing in…you guessed it, Startups. 2019 took me on a very different journey with my main startup project. I now have multiple startup projects with partners in Canada, the United States, and Asia. I am so incredibly Blessed and Thankful for all the believers in my life. God has brought some amazing Kingdom leaders into my life the last few years who have walked beside me during this startup season. I have seen the supernatural in the last few months, and I want to share that with you as we move into the Momentum chapter. Supernatural? Yes! There are some things you just can’t take credit for, and that is God moving in the supernatural. It is the best place to be.

Definition of Momentum (noun)

1: a property (see PROPERTY sense 1a) of a moving body that the body has by virtue of its mass (see MASS entry 2 sense 1c) and motion and that is equal to the product of the body’s mass and velocity

broadly : a property of a moving body that determines the length of time required to bring it to rest when under the action of a constant force or moment

2: strength or force gained by motion or by a series of events

The wagon gained Momentum as it rolled down the hill.

Who wants Momentum in Business? 

How about Momentum in Life? Momentum is awesome. It makes the startup life so much more enjoyable. There is only one major problem with Momentum. Can you guess what it is? Momentum eventually leaves us. The most common story in the startup world is when a startup company gets Momentum, and the Founder thinks they have arrived, 

made it. They take their foot off the gas and stop pushing. It all comes crashing down. There is no such thing as automatic Momentum through infinity. It just doesn’t exist in business. It takes work. Consistent, committed, dedicated action. So how can we create and sustain Momentum? You can, but it requires IST. 

IST

What the hell is IST? IST is “Intentional Startup Thrust”. Yes, I made this up – but it sounds good, right? It also just makes sense. Think about a Rocket. I love watching SpaceX launch their rockets. I went to Cape Canaveral for a SpaceX launch last year for my 40th birthday. It was amazing to watch and experience. Launching a rocket is so much like launching a startup. Think about how much work goes into preparing the rocket for the launch. How much is invested in money, time, resources, teams, technology, manufacturing, and so much more? Sometimes you launch, and it blows up in your face. Can you imagine how Elon Musk felt when he was standing there watching one of his first few rockets explode in the sky? How would it make you feel to watch over $50 Million Dollars blow up in your face? You can’t quit. You can’t stop. You have to keep going. Now we are watching SpaceX launch rockets multiple times per month. It’s a beautiful thing to see.

So like a rocket, your idea, your business needs Intentional Startup Thrust in the beginning to create Momentum. You are going to need a lot of IST as you push your startup forward. Every project requires a different amount of IST, so you need to truly understand the plan so you can better understand how much IST it will take to get your rocket off the ground and into orbit. You need a plan.

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail.

I love reading and studying Elon Musk because I can relate on so many levels with who he is as an entrepreneur. One of the things I really feel I connect with him on is how I think. I am guilty of not planning enough. I love to just go. Let’s Go, and we will figure it out as we go along. Sometimes that works, but most of the time, that breeds disaster. You can avoid a lot of pain and create Momentum faster if you make a plan and work the plan over and over and over again until you have success. Since I am not the best “planner,” I hire and partner with others who are talented in this area. One of the first things you need to identify and own as an entrepreneur is what you’re good at, and what you really suck at. Find others who can do what you suck at, and what you hate doing. Focus on spending all your time doing what you love and what you are really good at and watch the Momentum show up quickly. It’s a beautiful thing.

Every startup project needs a plan so you can take off. The first question you must answer is, – where do you want to go? What do you want to build? It’s like building a house – what is it going to look like? One story or two story? Three bedrooms, or five bedrooms? What are you going to build? This plan needs to be detailed. One of the things we don’t think about in this planning stage is our personal life. We don’t plan our self-care into the mix, and so most of the time, we waste away during this initial startup launching process. 

Being an entrepreneur and starting a business is stressful and will take everything you got. You must plan “You” into this plan. You need to take care of your health and your wellness. If you don’t, you just won’t make it. So understanding what it is that you want to build will also help you know what kind of a person you need to become. What kind of self-care and self-training you need to incorporate into the plan for your startup project. You need to get very clear on these details. So for me, in the healthcare space, I started to look closely at leaders in that space. What did they look like? What were their daily habits and rituals in their personal and professional life? I started to look at business leaders who reached the levels I want to reach and got up close and personal with all the details surrounding their map of success. This really started to help me in creating a plan and specification for my personal and business life.

Timeline – Project RoadMap

Your Startup Plan needs a Starting Point and an Endpoint. You need to know where you are going. If your project is a larger one like mine, then you need to create Starting Points and Endpoints for different stages of the project. If you’re anything like me, when you have a Big Idea, you have all kinds of things you want your product or service to do and offer your end user. The reality is, you can’t have it all upfront. You need to learn how to prioritize and build all your big ideas into it over time. So one of the best questions you can answer upfront is – what do we absolutely need to get this up and running?

Sticky Notes (sexy colors)

I went through this process with my development team when I built my first mobile application. I had all these crazy cool ideas on features and functionality, but we just couldn’t build that into the first version of the app, especially with the timeline we had in place to get us to launch. So we did the Sticky Note exercise. You take one color of sticky notes, and you write down all the features or all the things you absolutely want your product and or service to do. Then you take another color, and you write down all the things that are necessary for your launch. These are the absolute musts. 

Then you choose another color, and you keep breaking it down four and five layers until you have defined what is going into your first built, then your v1.1, or v2.0. This exercise brings so much clarity to everything that is required to have a successful launch. You don’t want to get in the trap with your startup of not getting to market fast enough because you feel you need more than what you really need. Most of the time, as the Founder of the company, you can get stuck in this place. This is why it’s so important to work with a team, especially others on your team that think differently than you.

Specifications Document

Once you have figured out your product and service, now you can get into the details. I am in the software space, so I am going to refer to this a lot as it’s my world, and this is all I live and breathe most of my day. So when building a piece of software, or specifically a mobile application – you should create a prototype first before you start writing code. A prototype will help you prepare your master specifications document and assist in sourcing the technology you will need to make this dream a reality. You get very detailed and very specific, just like building a house and deciding on how many electrical outlets are going into the living room, what kind of flooring is going into the kitchen. This is the same for software. I am most passionate about User Experience as my design skills play actively in this stage of the project. So screen colors, digital assets such as buttons and icons, branding into the overall experience over multiple screen changes. There are so many details that go into creating a digital product and platform like a mobile application. If it’s not going into the specifications document, then it’s not being built.

Teams + Sprints

When you are finally ready to start building, you need to know who is going to do what, and everyone needs to know where they are going. When we are building a module of our product, we work in teams best suited for that part of the project, and we organize our build times into design and development sprints. This way, everyone is accountable to each other. Just like building a house, the drywaller knows he has to get his part done before the painter can get in. The teams push each other to stay on the course according to the project roadmap. This also puts quality control measures in place so you can test along the way and make sure the product and service are working well – especially during development. Many times you will discover points in the project where you will have to pivot and make adjustments critical to the success of the project. You will have others join your team during a project and see things from a different 

view – creating an opportunity to make a change that will help you create Momentum faster. Don’t be afraid to pivot. Teams are powerful. Build a great team, and you will have Momentum quickly.

Just Do It

Just do the work. There is something magical about just getting into the trenches and working the plan. One meeting leads to another meeting. One door opens to another door. We get so stuck in life waiting for the magic to appear, but the magic is in the work. The Momentum is in the Just Do It. The hardest part is getting started. You think about losing weight, getting healthy, getting fit. The first day is always the biggest challenge. The first push is always the most difficult, but as you move forward – day two becomes easier, day three, day four…the magic is in the push. 

This year our oldest daughter Thalia (“TalCraw”) will be the face of Velour eyelashes. I am so incredibly proud of her. People ask me all the time; how did she do it? How did she build this massive following on Instagram = 486K (@thaliabree), and YouTube = 581K (@HeyItsThalia). I used to say I don’t know. She just did it. If you would ask Thalia how she did it, she would also say I don’t know. The truth is she did Just Do It. She did the work. She started the 

conversation and took the time to build the relationships by keeping the conversation going. She is now trusted by world-class brands to start their conversations with her influence. It’s an incredible thing to watch. She also started her clothing line (@TalClothing) by Just Doing It. 

I am so incredibly proud of you, Thalia.

Then there’s my little Boo, my Abigail (“AbbyCraw”), my youngest daughter. Just a few years ago, she decided she wanted to learn how to skate. We were down in Arizona at the time. Go figure, right? We are in a beautiful, warm, sunny place, and she wants to go hang out in a cold ice den. So she did. She Just Did It. She made the decision and started to put in the work. It started with some basic skating classes, and group classes, then she joined the figure skating club. Then she had a chance to train with Gracie Gold, a Team USA Olympian. I watched her try and fail, jump, and fall. The most powerful part was watching her get back up and going back to work. She is a tough young woman. When she makes her mind up, she makes it happen. 

I am so incredibly proud of you, Abby.

Sustaining Momentum

If you want to keep the Momentum alive, you must keep your eye on the ball, the goal. It’s kinda like the game of golf. You look at where you want to go. You adjust your line, position your body, and then trust your swing. I always thought it was crazy that you had to stare at the ball in golf. Why don’t we stare at where we are going? That’s not how it works. It is truly a game of Mindset, making the decision, and then trusting the decision. If you’ve played golf, you know what I’m talking about. Have you ever made that decision, and it was time to swing, but at the last second, you changed your grip, or you changed your footing, something? Yes, this can be our biggest obstacle in business as well. Keep your eye on the ball. Trust your aim. Trust your decision. 

Distractions will come, challenges will come, it will feel at times that you are slowing down, and everything is about to come to a full stop – but keep pushing ahead. Push hard. When you have Momentum and things are feeling good, keep pushing. When things feel easy, keep pushing. When someone turns on you and spits in your face, keep pushing. Like a pilot keeping a plane on course, you must make small adjustments here and there. 

Add some more IST – Intentional Startup Thrust. You will lead the pace of the team with the effort you bring day after day. 

Be committed. Be consistent. Be the hardest worker on your team. Be the thrust.