From Vision to Execution: How Founders Stay Focused Under Pressure | TFJ E76

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welcome to the founders Journey podcast

inspiration education for Founders by

Founders hey I’m Greg Moran I’m a

multi-exit Founder turned VC and host of

the founders Journey podcast built a

number of companies and I’ve got all the

same scars that you either have or

developing as you go uh so today we’re

going to dive into one of the most

critical skills that every founder

really needs to master and that’s how to

stay focused Under Pressure so whether

you’re in the middle of a product launch

a fundraising round or you’re just

managing the day-to-day daily chaos how

you handle pressure will make or break

your success and also make or break the

way that you the effectiveness with

which you lead your team so in the next

couple minutes I’m going to walk you

through the exact mental Frameworks and

strategies that I’ve seen used by

successful Founders to go from having a

big Vision to consistently executing

under stress and it’s a hard thing to

Master first I want to talk about by why

pressure why the pressure can feel so

overwhelming as a founder or a startup

leader it for Founders pressure comes in

all directions it’s coming from you know

every minute from your investors your

team members your customers and often

and worst of all from

ourselves this constant barage creates a

feeling that you’re being pulled in a

hundred different directions and you

know what you you are getting pulled in

a 100 different

directions the key problem that we tend

to lose focus on is the bigger vision

and we get caught putting out fires

constantly so how do you counteract this

starts with Clarity you need a Crystal

Clear Vision of where you’re going so

let’s dive into practical Solutions you

need a system to Focus you can’t rely on

sheer willpower or motivation it’s not

going to get you through it’s too

fleeting instead you need a routine or a

structure that creates Focus for you so

one system I recommend is time blocking

you create specific time blocks of time

in your day it’s exactly what it sounds

like those time blocks allow you to

focus solely on that task so if you’re

still going through your day thinking

you’re multitasking and everything it’s

complete you’re not right what

time blocking does is it allows you to

focus and that’s what you need as a

Founder so for example I know Founders

who schedule 90 minutes of deep work

sessions in the morning before any

meetings there’s no emails there’s no

distractions there’s just focused work

on the highest priority tasks it’s also

important to review these priorities

weekly right because these priorities

can change so you want to make sure that

they’re still aligned with your

long-term

goals I personally use this time

blocking method I try to block out

couple hours first thing in the morning

just for those high value tests so it’s

something I do I also block out all of

Friday to get focused on the things that

I need to accomplish to set up the next

week and complete this week strong so

another method is a two- list strategy

so one list contains your long-term

goals

the other your immediate tasks at the

start of each day

prioritize what those things that are

going to move the needle on your

long-term goals so look at those

immediate tasks are they actually going

to move the needle are they not if they

are prioritize them if they’re not they

fall to the bottom of the list the two

list strategies are really effective way

for helping make sure you’re

prioritizing those things that are

really going to drive your business and

yourself forward so let’s move into

mental resilience and this is another

really important one how do you how do

you keep your focus sharp when things

aren’t going as planned and as a founder

or startup leader things almost never go

as planned we all know that so one

technique that I’ve seen work wonders is

visualization big fan of visualization

High performers I don’t care if you’re

an athlete a movie star rock star or an

entrepreneur High performers use this

all the time before you start your day

or you enter a big meeting take five

minutes just five minutes to visualize

yourself executing the tasks that you

need to be able to succeed this primes

your brain to focus on the right actions

you’re going through the actual process

before the process takes place that’s

what visualization does right it allows

us to work out the Kinks

before we’re in the spotlight

visualization is a incredibly powerful

tool if you haven’t used it before

another technique is mindfulness

meditation so there’s a lot of studies

out there on meditation that show even

10 minutes a day to help reduce that can

really help you reduce stress and

increase your focus it sounds really

simple but what it does is it trains

your brain to stay in the moment which

is crucial under pressure now personally

when I think about meditation for me

meditation is a hike I live in the

mountains in

Colorado I can walk out I can take a

hike through the woods I don’t have to

sit you know in a yogi position for

meditation that kind of quiet in nature

is really what I need so determine what

is your form of meditation right because

it really does help your brain to stay

in the moment and really helps when the

pressure starts to mount last I want to

talk about something a lot of Founders

Overlook and I’m hoping it’s exactly why

you’re here today Founders need a

support system it’s that simple you

can’t do this alone as a Founder you’re

often the one supporting

everybody but you need your own sounding

board as well this could be a mentor a

coach a peer group there’s so many great

peer groups out there find other

Founders that you can bring together to

be your own Mastermind group get a coach

get a mentor I work with a lot of great

Founders to really help them kind of

work through this working under pressure

so some of the most successful Founders

I know meet regularly with small peer

advisory groups they discuss their

challenges they get feedback and it

helps them stay accountable for their

big goals right that’s a lot of what

this is right it’s just helping us stay

on focus when the pressure starts to

mount so in summary to go from Vision to

execution under pressure is not about

working harder dispel that notion it’s

about having systems in place

maintaining mental Clarity and

surrounding yourself with the right

support start building those systems now

and you’re going to find that executing

your vision becomes far more consistent

even in the face of adversity so thanks

for tuning in don’t forget to like And

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and uh really appreciate you tuning in

today we’ll see you next time