Bad photos are the norm. Taking it seriously

"I like your blog.  It has authenticity," Adam said on Friday last week.

Aww, shucks.

We stayed on the phone for a bit longer after Andrea dropped off the call to talk about some of the strategic business stuff beyond the scope of marketing.

Everything in the business has been tracking well.  I have been focused on the product and marketing, so sales and business development have slipped a little in the last few weeks.  This slowness has weighed down my conscience. 

"You will never get anything if you don't ask, Horace," Beau said to me in the cab today.  "I'm serious.  It doesn't matter how uncomfortable you might feel.  This is sales."
"So my natural position, and I am not saying I can't be more assertive, is to drop hints and hope the other side volunteers."
"You have to ask!"

We caught up today about our secret project for 2018.  Beau had some great ideas that will mean I must go exploring the back streets of Waterloo and Redfern in the coming weeks.  

Sometimes I feel like Beau is the bad cop to my good cop.  It isn't so much that I am not forthright, but rather I tend to become overly friendly with people a little too quickly.  As a result, I tend to treat every relationship like a friendship - and friends do not take from friends.  Friends give, with only the hope and no expectation of reciprocation... and this is not a good thing in business, especially not when we are approaching the stage of VC funding.  I keep forgetting that VCs do not see us as coffee buddies (yet).  We get one shot with each VC, and we have to make the right impression from the start.

That reminds me.  I really must make more time for my friends... that too has slipped a little in the last few months.  How bad is it that I am the founder of a social startup and I cannot find time to be social myself?!