The Foundation: one month in



It's been a month since I was accepted into The Foundation. Although the course only started on March 30, here is a small recap of where I'm at as of April 24. I guess you can see that as an intent to get accountability working for me!

As soon as I got access to the platform, I started working through the first module called Mindset. Most classes are in the form of a video with tasks associated. As I have decided to make the most of this opportunity, I've been recording my thoughts, noting the main points from the videos and answering the tasks in a very small (9x14cm) Moleskine notebook that I've bought for the occasion. The value of what's already in that notebook is incredible! (note to self: scan the pages, should it be damaged/get lost)

I had unfortunately a rather strong flu for one week around April 11, during which I didn't make any progress (well, I did spend lots of time listening to podcasts, including Starting from Nothing, I guess that can count somewhat ;) ). But I came out of it even more motivated, and scheduled my first practice Idea Extraction call right away! Take Action!

That first IE call took place on Wednesday. I have to say that I felt a bit stressed during the few days coming up to it. The call itself went fine, as far as a first IE call goes I suppose. I wasn't able to extract a pain though, mostly due to the fact that I asked too much closed questions. Esther was really helpful in her feedback, and I expect to get better at it with practice.

That day was also when I finished copying my first Copy letter. I started with the Serious Growth Training System letter. It took me 5 days to get through that first letter, filling in two A4 pages per day. And now I've started on my second (CombatJKD). I can't remember the day since when I've had to write so much by hand. I have a pretty bad hand writing, and I feel physically tired after writing the two pages. I've been thinking for some time that I'd like to work on a prettier handwriting, I have to read-up on the subject and use this task to work on both subjects...

By now I have gone through all the classes of the second module called Your First Customer. I want to get that first customer before starting on the next module, that's where my focus is for the coming weeks.

Yesterday I was asked if I wanted to host the first call of my Mastermind group. Nothing fancy, each of the 9 mastermind members will rotate to host the calls, but I said YES! This morning I set up a Doodle schedule to find out when folks would all be able to join. The groups have not been announced yet, this will likely happen around May 1st. I'm looking forward to this first call!

Today I've reached out to the other 6 Foundation members in The Netherlands to ask them if they would be open to do a practice IE call with me. I'm hoping to keep the momentum and practice my IE skills next week! [Hey, first response received in less than one hour, and it's positive: Great!] I chose to contact the members in The Netherlands, as I want to practice doing calls in Dutch. The reason thereof is that I plan to have most of my IE calls in that language, as I want to target customers locally (time zone and all), but I must certainly practice in English as well as I will validate the pain/ideas overseas.

So at this point:

  • I've gone through the classes of the first two modules
  • I'm practicing the skills of Idea Extraction
  • I'm copying 2 pages of Copy every day

I am conscious that I still have lots to learn, in particular to get more fluent at IE. BUT IT FEELS GREAT!