A coach walks through a founder's mistake: she told her team investor money was coming, it didn't, and now she feels like a fraud. The video covers how to follow up with investors, reset expectations, and separate what you control from what you don't.
I literally just finished a coaching call in which my client was talking about the fact that she has made some commitments that she can't live up to. She has told her team that the investor money was imminent because the investors, previous investors who were going to reinvest in her company, That said, the money was going to come and they would just finish the paperwork. And that's now 2 months ago and the money is still not there. And so she felt like a complete failure and a fraud. She felt like she'd been lying to the team by telling them that, don't worry, I will be able to make July payroll. I will be able to make sure that we don't have to lay off people and that we don't have to limit some of our activities. And so we spent a fair amount of time talking about this idea that you make commitments, you make promises, and some of them you honestly feel strongly that you will be able to keep. And then for a number of reasons, you're not external to your influence. The things you cannot control leads you to not be able to keep those promises. But she still feels like a major failure. She feels like she's let people down and was quite upset about it. This is something that all founders, all CEOs will experience in some way or another throughout their career. The longer you've been in the building companies game, the more you know that these things will happen, and perhaps the more you are cautiously optimistic when somebody promises you something, for example, an investment, and the more you're able to wait until the money is actually in the bank before you start telling other people about it. So how do we deal with this? How do I take her through a coaching session like that? Well, we started by talking about the fact that nobody is perfect. And yes, we can say that and we know that, but what does that actually mean? And so I painted a picture. I said, all right, so she has never let anybody down. I said, right? This has never happened before. She goes, no, I do have, because there was this situation, that situation where I didn't say, I didn't do what I said I was going to do. But that was because there were other things happening in my life. So I couldn't, I felt like I couldn't prioritize doing these things. And I said, exactly. We don't know why the The investors didn't send the money yet, even though after repeated follow-ups they said, yeah, yeah, it's on its way. There could be all sorts of things going on in their personal or professional lives. It could be a cash flow issue that they're not ready, willing, and able to admit to. Who knows? Or it could be that they've gotten cold feet and that they're actually not going to make the investment. But all of that is beyond her control. And so I advised her to go back to the investor and saying, listen, I know I've been asking you this many times, but now instead of asking when will the money be here, I'm going to ask you or talk to you about what it is that's preventing you from wiring the funds. And I would like to ask you to be completely open and honest with me. Is it because you've lost faith in that project? Is it because you don't have the money? Is it something that's technical? And if so, something with banks or whatever? Can we— can I get more information? Because me following up with you and you're not responding, or me following up with you and you just saying, hey, it's coming, doesn't really help anybody. So the point of doing this video is this idea that You will let your team down and you will let yourself down along the way. And the important thing is to remember there are 2 things you can control: how you act, what you actually do. Are you acting in good faith? Are you doing the best you can? And how you relate to your thoughts. Those are the 2 things you can control. Anything and everything else is beyond. And so maybe think about that when somebody says they're going to do something. Just take a beat and realize that they believe that they will do this, but they may not be able to. And so you should not count on it, so to speak, until it has happened. All right, that was an example of what happens in some of the coaching calls that I do. I hope you found this helpful and If I can help you, or if you have any questions about any of these topics, just get in touch and I'd be happy to talk to you.
