Momentum Mountain

From the moment we decide, a force is required. Strategic action geared to find, and then maintain momentum.

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“Inspiration is perishable – act on it immediately.” -Naval Ravikant

Meaningful momentum is awakened in endless ways. Early momentum might mean showing up at an event for the first time, researching the competitive landscape, testing an early hypothesis, leaning into customer discovery, considering potential co-founders, building product, and eventually activating a launch sequence.

Once a project is launched, the need for momentum gets stronger. It only becomes more important. There are a world of examples, but growing the business, achieving milestones, and celebrating progress are all forms of valuable momentum. Even in later stages of a company, momentum drives activities like succession planning, navigating exit paths, and considering how your human, financial, cultural, intellectual, and network capital can be recycled back into the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

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Need help regaining momentum?
Connect at BenMcDougal.com

If momentum is maintained long enough, the result can be a flywheel effect that feeds on itself. Most things you want to grow require attention, but with less friction, momentum delivers bonus time and valuable understandings. Space for new activity emerges and that keeps things interesting.

The tough reality may be that if momentum is melting, it’s difficult to recapture. Once something melts, it’s never quite the same. These dips are moments to consider when and what to quit. If there’s enough energy to keep going, there may be a way to keep building.

Like the opening quote reminds us, inspiration is perishable. The longer stagnancy lingers, the farther you get from momentum. Tactics to maintain kamiwaza, even when momentum is melting, starts with communication. Honest communication adds clarity and is the easiest way to appreciate the realities of slowness. Reducing the weird by exposing the why, also keeps different stakeholders on the same page. By reducing the tension that quietly brews in silence, teams may be able to run at lower speeds, even during lethargic times. If left unattended however, this can devolve into a lack of urgency that brings another set of challenges. At lower speeds, perhaps less movement is needed to regain the sense of shared momentum?

That’s a real thought, but a tad boring. When it’s time to thrive, not just survive, sparks fly as initiative is taken. Tactics for climbing a momentum mountain include:

    • Connecting within startup communities
    • Travel and learning something new
    • Saying “yes” to unlock adventure
    • Saying “no” to create space
    • Revisiting customer discovery
    • Building a new feature
    • Considering a pivot
    • Onboarding new customers
    • Adding to the team
    • Have fun, then stay centered on a climb down
    • Whatever else generates joy in your own life

Momentum is crucial to playing long-term games with long-term counterparts. Find a good pace by exploring the momentum you’ll need at different stages of the quest. This awareness helps you quit chasing momentum and sets us free to forge better art at a sustainable speed. Continue to multiply mass and velocity, which equates to momentum when, where, and how it’s needed to stay wild.

Isochronal

Repetition builds clarity for the stories of our quests. Isochronal means uniform in time, or occurring at regular intervals. Let’s think through why recurring reminders are needed to motivate awareness, action, and steadfastness.

The starting state, is how hard it is to get anyone to do anything. Motion requires force. We don’t know what we don’t know. The dance of an entrepreneurial lifestyle takes time and action calls for commitment.

That’s a heavy ask and attention is scarce. Whether it’s garnering early feedback, attracting customers, or in general, finding people who care while also maintaining momentum, there’s an art form in blending new ideas with repeated elements of your mission.

Along they way, playing with specificity helps to make a quest feel less intimidating. Recurring pieces of a puzzle act like stepping stones. The jumps may be short at first, but the size and distance become advanced on the path to scaling ideas. Scaling is hard and even a small audience is challenging to activate with consistency.

This is partly because consistency requires sacrifice. When it comes to business, consistency is what most people want. Passion is fine, but are you healthily obsessed? The sacrifice is worth it when discipline makes business an authentic experience. It can almost become a hobby that pays. We enjoy hobbies and it’s easy to be authentic when you enjoy something. No act required. It’s easier to be consistent when you’re authenticity feels normal. When consistency is then united with discipline, perhaps we find our own isochronal.

Your own version of isochronal is thoughtful repetition that helps to deliver on whatever the promise may be.

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When it gets repeated, the story grows.

True fans can stay in-tune, then steadfastness catches fresh awareness along the way. What’s your smaller, more specific target audience? It’s a moving target, but how can nimble calls to action resonate with the smallest viable audience?

To create intrigue alongside consistency, combine personal touch with true understanding. Humans can say less when something is understood, so tighten your vocabulary with fewer words. It must maintain reality, but fewer words can make things easier to repeat and therefore, remember.

When anything becomes worth repeating, the motivators of a mission can be passionately passed to future leaders with added clarity. This becomes critical for long-term quests that have ongoing rotations of participation. New leaders who keep innovating on what works can revitalize a team, support healthy succession in an organization, and keep dots connecting for the community. Without clarity, the fresh energy of future leaders can be misguided and may fracture progress. The story of any quest will always be evolving, but how might clarity on a foundation of constants support more lasting, recurring momentum?

For external communication, sequencing keeps each touchpoint lighter. Conciseness allows first impressions to be impactful, then content that rhymes over time can guide more isochronal action without hesitation. Repetition brewed with the staying power of sequencing keeps the narrative consistent and therefore more transferable. Transferability helps make onboarding newcomers sustained, bold, honest, and efficient.

Isochronal sequencing also bridges dips in clarity among different segments of existing stakeholders. It’d be nice if recurrence wasn’t a part of the equation, but it’s loud out there! Attention is hard to earn and harder to maintain. We also know endless reminders are annoying. The weight of too much at once is daunting too. There’s an art form in communication that guides lasting enrollment.

Be isochronal with a strategic cadence, perceptual learning, fresh consistency, and space for sequenced storytelling.

NOTE: This writing is an expansion on No Running, an earlier (and less thought out) writing on repetition.

Rock & Radio

Max Schaeffer is an Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame Inductee jamming on a new kind of mic. EP79 features a professional conversationalist sharing insight from 40+ years in radio!

This influencer is also an award-winning theatrical director, actor, and producer. Ben and Maxwell discuss timely vs. evergreen content, regulations of radio, metrics that matter vs. opinions of estimates, and curating dollowers beyond passive followers. After the break, we explore how to lead by doing, radical ways for radio to remain relevant, and then Max… as he’s done so many times, in so many ways, closes things down in style.

LISTEN on APPLE PODCASTS
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BONUS MATERIALS

Maxwell’s Iowa CoffeeCast

https://BenMcDougal.com/content-creation

http://Rock-Radio.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

EP48 – Consistency Counts 🎙️ Michael Libbie

EP59 – Agents of Change 🎙️ Amner Martinez

EP69 – Generative Humans 🎙️ Chris Snider

http://YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

http://CollectorHardbackEdition.com

http://BENBOT.ai

DSM USA

Tiffany Tauscheck is the President & CEO of Greater Des Moines Partnership! This special episode highlights the results of Tiffany’s recent 11-county listening tour with 23 different chambers of commerces and how different communities can collaborate even when environmental factors are different. We then shift gears to discuss leadership within transitional times, data-driven storytelling, and the future of the Des Moines metro.

After you refill your mug, Ben and Tiffany talk about evolving startup communities and entreprenierual ecosystem building. As a cool connection to EP72 of YDNTP, listen as we discuss innovative ideas for member-supported organizations, such as chambers of commerce, non-profits, and industry associations. We review the economic and talent development showcased in the DSM Partnership’s 2024 Annual Report, then go flying with ecosystem allies before an invitation to get in the arena.

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BONUS MATERIALS

Tiffany Tauscheck Bio

Living in Des Moines

Spark DSM + Scale DSM

DSM Partnership’s Entrepreneurship Resources

http://DSM-USA.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

EP5 – Jam with Jay 🎙️ Jay Byers

EP13 – Growing the Garden 🎙️ Diana Wright

http://CollectorHardbackEdition.com

http://RoastedReflections.com

http://BENBOT.ai

Speak Up

Erik Dominguez equips leaders to confidently communicate. He transforms fears into fuel and speaks nationwide. Whether you’re interested in paid public speaking or working to unite a team, EP74 will inspire you to pause, listen, then come off mute.

After your friendly host narrates Anticipation within another classic break without commercials, Ben and Erik share a handful of specific terms to avoid, assets to extend your reach, and how to cut things to create space for storytelling to land. If your message matters, this is yet another timeless relic to savor.

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BONUS MATERIALS

https://ErikDominguez.com

https://ErikDominguez.com/youtube-2

http://Speak-Up.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

Roasted Reflections Break: Anticipation

Waukee APEX

http://BENBOT.ai