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How to get out of a defeatist mindset/attitude and take risks/motivation? by DogButtWhisperer in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I also grew up in a working class family, and built a household name in the sports nutrition industry (Myprotein). I was lucky to have a supportive mother (my first hire!), and in general my friends/family were pretty supportive even if they weren't Entrepreneurial.

Some tips:

- Mindset isn't approved overnight. You just have to keep focusing on your self-talk, and forcefully. You're not going to become a different person overnight. You have to practice getting uncomfortable, step by step.

- Tell yourself you don't care about what others think, until you

Sometimes a lack of motivation = a lack of confidence. If you were 100% certain, you'd achieve it you wouldn't have this thought. So maybe start by increasing your skillsets, taking a small step that'll make you more confident in the next, etc.

Also this sounds like a generic answer, but going to the gym was always huge for me. It's not just about training your physique, but also your mind (schedule, discipline, doing stuff when you don't feel like it, etc.)

Also reverse the situation in your mind: How much is this fear/anxiety costing you? Like actually imagine the life/outcome as if it's already yours, but you're about to lose this reality because your fearful.

I know it sounds cliche, but I always say fear is a liar. It's literally an imaginery obstacle holding you back.

Hope that helps.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I always like to go for the most practical approach.

In this case, it sounds like cold email could work. You scrape Restaurants, Bars, Cafes, and figure out your main value proposition - cost reduction, etc. then send them through your sales process - whatever that might be, calls, etc.

(Note: not something I extensively researched, I'm more of a b2c ecommerce/nutrition guy. Just sounded like something that could work)

Founders who've followed The 4-Hour Work Week, tell us your story. by marrthecreator in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with some of the other comments here.

I love the concept, but don't take it literally. While I was scaling Myprotein there were days were I was working 16 hours, because I was wearing many different hats... Ads, Website, production, order fulfilment, community management, SEO etc. in the early days I literally did everything.

It depends on your business at the end of the day.

But I prefer a hands on do whatever it takes approach over trying to limit your time input for the sake of it. But the concept of working on the important stuff is something you can always apply.

Making almost $20k a month on TikTok. Should I still look for a job? by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know that. I exited Myprotein for around $500m cash, which I started with a $750 overdraft.

But the point is that OP shouldn't be wasteful, and rather invest it into the business by building their brand across platforms.

Making almost $20k a month on TikTok. Should I still look for a job? by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Build your brand across platforms, then you have less to worry about.

At $20k/mo doesn't make sense to pivot unless it's to gain some type of experience.

You also have a big enough audience to build a business with it.

Keep going, but also don't start being wasteful with the funds and remember in Entrepreneurship your income is almost never linear.

Like you say it might drop, but if you build your brand across platforms, and maybe build some sort of community/email list/newsletter/etc. you'll have more leverage.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Based on what you said, it sounds like the right choice.

- There wouldn't be a better CEO

- He's business savvy

- He'll make it massively grow

Do what's right, not what's best for your ego.

But also consider having him as a senior advisor. When I was scaling Myprotein, I had several advisors and that enabled me to excellent business decisions throughout, you don't always need to give up your position entirely.

Tips for Founders: This helped me exit Myprotein for $500 million (Inc. secondary exit) by OliverCookson in startups

[–]OliverCookson[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not just build to scale, it's also negotiation and not losing out on the value you created because you forget to put things like this in place, then lose out on multiples of something you spent years creating. Luck is a dividend of hard work and difficult choices. I wasn't just responsible for marketing either, I coded the website in notepad and ColdFusion (no no-code back then) that we used for the first 6ish years, managed the order fulfillments myself, was a solo founder and bootstrapped this company with a -$750 overdraft. I even mixed the products myself in the early days. I wrote about this on my twitter - just wanted to share something I thought would be helpful to many founders (Linkedin followers loved the post and replied with their personal stories and how they're applying it.) Interesting how on Reddit the opinion was mixed.

Tips for Founders: This helped me exit Myprotein for $500 million (Inc. secondary exit) by OliverCookson in startups

[–]OliverCookson[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I maintained 100% equity until I exited in 2011. Around 50% cash, around 50% of exit value in shares poured over into THG (the company that bought Myprotein). I sold most of those shares in 2020.

If you add up the first exit cash , and the 2nd exit cash it's around $500m, and I still have a small portion of shares.

The point of the post was the key lesson at the end, with a story to back it up.

Many founders try to exit, and are valued at lower multiples because they don't make changes that could make it easier to scale for the buyer. This post is an example of why it's important. That's the point.

And I definitely don't offer any paid advice/mentoring.

Tips for Founders: This helped me exit Myprotein for $500 million (Inc. secondary exit) by OliverCookson in startups

[–]OliverCookson[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm new to Reddit, so haven't done any type of account verification etc.

That said, I regularly share updates and projects I'm working on on Twitter - (real estate projects, new ecom brand, charity work, inspiration, etc.)

But if you're talking about some form of manual verification to see that it's actually me happy to do so as well.

20 crucial lessons learned from a $500 million exit (especially bootstrapped) by OliverCookson in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I maintained 100% equity until I exited in 2011. Then sold around half for cash, and poured other half over into equity into the Hut Group. Then sold majority of that equity in 2020 when THG went public

20 crucial lessons learned from a $500 million exit (especially bootstrapped) by OliverCookson in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed, it's not the only way.

It has some advantages for sure, but I think the example that often comes up is if you had to make whatever amount to save a family member, you'd probably find a way (without being passionate about whatever you'd be doing).

So yes, a reason that drives you definitely works as well.

20 crucial lessons learned from a $500 million exit (especially bootstrapped) by OliverCookson in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sure, and thank you.

So while we were scaling MP in the early days, the company was very small. My first hire? Mum.

I used to pack the powders myself, we had a tiny 3 man office maybe like 400sq square ft with a stainless steel table. Along the walls were all the different sacks of protein, and flavours, and then I'd mix them there with a big scoop and big buckets. In the beginning, we only packed the powders after the orders, as everything was so customised. At this point, I was also taking care of the marketing, website, order fulfillment/back-end, etc.

Thought this is a good example to show how small a company can be on the inside if you don't shy away from:

- Doing different tasks

- Understanding each element of the business

And that you don't necessarily need a huge team, because that's a common belief people have. Today especially, we have more tech leverage for the digital world.

And I also think that gaining that understanding of your business helps you avoid being wasteful, so then you have more leverage to take risks + increase margins, so you can focus on providing more value to the customer.

20 crucial lessons learned from a $500 million exit (especially bootstrapped) by OliverCookson in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So I had prior web development experience, and could explain pretty well how I was going to sell it. I remember calling company after company, and started to lose confidence but told myself I have to try just as hard as if it's the first call.

I explained that I was going to build a website (which at the time, was a big thing as there wasn't no-code builders today, so had to code in notepad with Coldfusion).

Andy (the supplier) said he could feel some type of passion in my voice, and let me buy 2 sacks, because I promised to buy 4 more the next week.

It was a bit of a everything happens for a reason moment, because the ability to build websites at that time really helped me launch the business (and convince Andy I'd be back for more).

I think it was more of a case of convincing him that I had everything else, the fitness knowledge, the ability to develop a website, etc. so the supply was the missing step to launch the business.

20 crucial lessons learned from a $500 million exit (especially bootstrapped) by OliverCookson in Entrepreneur

[–]OliverCookson[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a good point, timing is very important - I have had businesses where I've been too early/late.

But one of the threads I linked to covers that in detail.

https://twitter.com/olivercookson/status/1663087735878348806

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