Richa Singh’s Post

Every career is a tale of two cities. It was the best of times… 2005 - Started in Ministry. Built a thriving community of students and leaders.  2010 - Started 1st business: a photography studio 2012 - Completed a Masters in Psychology, Culture, and Theology 2012 - Started 2nd business: The Meaning Movement (Still going! Join the newsletter!) 2015 - Launched a course that did went on to do $36k in passive revenue 2017 - Joined 1st startup as CEO. Executed $700k launch. Grew customer base by 15x. Launched 5 products. Did $3M in sales. 2018 - Started building real estate portfolio (9 units). 2019 - Landed LOI to sell startup. 3x’d the valuation.  2019 - Started a sales agency for SaaS teams. 2020 - Pivoted agency to be a venture studio. 2022 - Passed $5M in software sales.   2023 - After 5 builds and 2 exits, ramped down studio to pursue other projects.   2023 - Interviewed for Product roles at Meta, Google, Reddit, Vimeo, GoFundMe, AppFolio, Zwift, Descript, and many others. Now - Fractional CMO and Product. Writing the newsletter. And building what’s next. It was the worst of times… 2005 - Struggled with depression. 2010 - Grad school was an excuse to leave ministry and save face. 2011 - Waited tables to make ends meet. 2015 - Launched online course. Failed. 2015 - Emergency surgery. Almost died. 1 Month in Hospital. 1st child was born weeks later. 2022 - Business partner left. Grandmother died. Accountant died. Hit a wall of burnout. 2022 - Revenue dried up. Went months without pay. 2022 - Took a role at an agency. 2023 - Fired by agency. 2023 - Applied to 552 roles. Didn’t get an offer. Now - Still figuring out what to do with my life. Use the first story to build credibility. Use the second to build trust. But... Don’t compare your inside to someone else’s outside. Don’t compare your journey to someone else’s results. If you ever have imposter syndrome,  Remember, everyone’s a mess at some level. And that’s the level where we connect the most. Not everyone knows what it’s like on the top of the mountains. But we all know what it’s like in the dark nights And in the deep valleys. Sure. Don’t brag about your failures. But also learn to be proud of what you’ve been through. The path shows your strength & resolve. Your failures aren’t powerful enough to define you. And they’re what makes you human. Remember who you are. — Thanks for reading.  👋 I'm Dan Cumberland 🚀 If you like content like this, I'd love for you to follow me.   I write on psychology, leadership, and product. 📷: Me in that rare PNW sunshine

We all know the pandemic wiped out many aspects of my business, but after more hard work and risks than I'll ever admit, we're back on solid ground. SocialNext is thriving, and I feel successful again. Not arrogant or boastful, but successful. But to quote my favourite Disney song from Encanto: "Pressure like a drip, drip, drip that'll never stop." I've surrounded myself with a great group of trusted contractors and peers who have undoubtedly helped maintain the success of SocialNext, but the decisions of how we move and adapt, are ultimately up to me. Our company has one full-time employee: Me. And with that comes an insane amount of pressure. Most days I don't even notice it, but in the last few weeks, it's been creeping in. There's no doubt, I know we have a great product. But when I hear rumblings in our community, "Why didn't Mike do this, why didn't Mike ask me," it does start to play tricks on my brain. I don't think people mean ill-will, it's more just seeing how big we have grown, and thinking there's a bigger team involved or that our decisions are more personal than they are. And I think years ago, criticisms like that would have crushed me. But what I've learned over the last few years is to trust my instincts, but also trust the growth. Not only that, after last year's SocialWest, I told myself that I would have to start believing the compliments that I hear, not just the complaints. And without a doubt, the thing I've been telling myself lately, is that I'm a good person, doing the best that I can, to make sure that 2,000 attendees, plus hundreds of sponsors and speakers are taken care of. To me, it's all about intent. This year, we'll likely cross $1,000,000 in revenue. A number I never dreamed of in a million (pun intended) years. And this is my 11th year as an entrepreneur. This is a good lesson for my entreprenerial friends. This isn't about bragging. It's about sharing the lessons that have helped me build this business without huge budgets or giant teams. Truth: Be honest with yourself about the challenges and the wins, but also with your clients and customers. Don't oversell, just tell the truth. Instinct: You got this far because you're smart and capable. Listen to your gut. Belief: Believe in your product, your service, your mission. Believe in yourself. What's the one thing you're doubting right now? What if you trusted your instincts instead? Let's turn that drip, drip, drip of pressure into a wave of confidence. 🌊

#Youcanhavesuccess #believeinyourself #positivemindset #GoodLifeOverEveryThing #Action #GoodLifeCashFlow #instantpay #digitalmarketing "Discover the secret to a 2-hour workday and a $100,$300,$600 $900 daily income. No experience? No problem!" Community that want to help family,s, #workfromhome #moms #dads #lookiingforjob #Laidoff To learn more put " READY" in the comments and I will love to share with you send you the details!! 🌟 Ever feel like you’re working harder and harder but getting nowhere? That was my life. I worked my way up from being a dishwasher to a chef, but long hours and heat in the kitchen took a toll on my health. Double emphysema and pneumonia made it impossible to keep going. After that, I drove for Uber, but I still felt stuck. 💡 Everything changed when I discovered a better way—a system that allows me to work from home and earn $100, $300, $600, or even $900 daily. Today, I finally have the time and freedom to focus on what matters most: my family and my dreams. This opportunity isn’t just about earning more; it’s about reclaiming your time and building the life YOU want. 📣 If you’ve ever felt like your job is taking too much and giving too little, let’s talk. Drop a 💬 below or DM me for info about a free webinar that shows how you can do the same. Let’s turn financial pressure into financial freedom. #TimeFreedom #WorkFromAnywhere #FinancialSuccess #Entrepreneurship #SideHustle #DigitalMarketing #digitalmarketing #moms #dads #sidehustle #workfromhomejobsformoms #blackfridayspecialoffers

I’m more excited about my business and what’s ahead than I have been maybe ever. People need us. They need the extra income. They need an opportunity to get ahead. A place where they can be themselves. A place where hard work PAYS OFF. A place that serves and celebrates the little guy. A place that’s stable. One where they can grow old. A place where they can find hope again. 🔥 This I don’t usually talk to the MLM crowd cause it’s just not my jam… My passion and super power is taking normal every day moms and dads and turning them into earners…. But, last week’s news about Beauty Counter has got me feeling a special type of way…. Particularly, my entire feed being flooded with posts about: “This is why you don’t put all your eggs in one basket and why you need multiple streams of income!” No‼️ This is why you don’t join start ups. This is why you don’t join companies under the hype of getting in the tree early. This is why you don’t join products with overpriced products that are an extra expense. People aren’t writing emails and slanging debit cards and selling E Courses because they are crushing it and want to diversify….. They are doing it because they are hurting now more than ever. MLMs are in a 30% backslide and that’s a conservative number. These companies are selling $80 shampoo in an economy where people are selling plasma to buy bread for the week. These companies have a 15-30% reorder rate and they can’t fill up the holes fast enough. You couldn’t pay me enough money to ever even look at another opportunity because I am paid so well here… Our business is growing and we have room! I’m not going to write emails because I don’t need to. Market saturation is a myth. I joined in year 24. I am on year 14. And last night we maxed out our zoom 1 minute after it started with 500 people on. That’s what happens when you are partnered with a company that has a legacy of success, proven track record and products everyone already uses that are competitively priced in the market place with a 96% reorder rate. And because they are 100% debt free I don’t need to diversify anything…. Cause our paychecks are coming no matter what 🤍 XO Trish💕😊

Starting a business with my brother almost ruined our relationship. Narjeet and I grew up not just as brothers, but as best friends. We did everything together, shared whatever we had, and went to the same school. We loved and respected each other (most of the time), and it was a great relationship. Our roads diverged during college, but we kept in touch. I stayed in Delhi, Narjeet moved to Germany, but our bond was as strong as ever. So much so that one day, we realised we were facing the same problem — Though our corporate careers were panning out well, we both felt unfulfilled. We wanted to create something of our own. So just as we’d done as kids, we decided to start a venture - together. We both quit our jobs and started building Lean Apps as co-founders. Things were fun at first. We had a lot of energy, and it was nice to work together. But soon, the ‘honeymoon period’ ended. - We realised we barely knew how to run a company - Our first (equity-based) business model failed - We struggled to deliver projects within timelines - Our savings ran dry, increasing financial stress Fighting fires everyday was not easy, and put our relationship under a lot of stress. We started arguing almost every day. And in the middle of all this, we also decided to build our own product. I took the charge on this, but it failed, and I got all the blame. This failure was the final blow. Narjeet and I both started blaming each other, and didn’t even want to see each other’s faces. This company had taken us from brothers to enemies. We tried bringing in coaches, but it only provided temporary relief. We would end up fighting again. I would feel quitting and moving out every day. But I had nowhere to go - Lean Apps was my home, and I had to keep building it no matter what. So we fought the stress and anxiety, and kept it going for 5 years. Yet, things didn’t get any better. I blamed Lean Apps for ruining our relationship, and cursed myself for decided to work with my brother. Even my family said the same thing. But recently in 2023, the universe brought us together again, and something changed. I was scared of getting into the same situation, but this time we sat together and shared our feelings openly without judging each other. We finally felt like we understood each other’s worlds. We went back to our childhood, and spoke about our happy memories. Bringing our inner child back was the bridge to repairing our relationship - the energy in the room changed. We do these checkins regularly now, and work together with a different energy and better aligned goals. Our relationship is still a work in progress though, and I have full faith that we will be able to solve this and become good friends like we were. But if you’re considering starting a business with a loved one, please be very careful. The success of your business shouldn’t come at the cost of something you treasured more. #entrepreneurship #lifejourney #brother

Recently, I lost purpose and the motivation to show up. 😰 I thought I hit "bored-out" and took 3 months off. But, that wasn't it. After my last startup was acquired in 2019 for a non-retirement level exit, all I wanted next was to build a small company that could pay me $20k a month. I was 37 and had never gotten a "market salary". I always made compromises and lived frugally. After a decade of chasing and being in survival mode, I just wanted to have a "normal life" like peers my age. I wanted to go to restaurants and order without looking at the price first. I wanted the possibility of buying a home. I wanted to take holidays and attend destination weddings -- to make up for the ones I missed in my 20s. I started eWebinar to be a micro-SaaS company. One that could be run with a small team, limited support, and one we could stop growing once it hits a certain number. The idea and product became much larger than anticipated and I gave up the idea of building a micro-company. It would've been irresponsible to stop pushing a business that's working. 4 years later (beginning of this year), we broke even. I started paying myself, then increased it every month as revenue grew. My number was hit, I was finally living comfortably. My drive dissipated. I stopped feeling the hustle and started feeling the exhaustion. A couple weeks ago, an epiphany hit me. Steve Jobs said you can only connect the dots looking backwards. What if I could try and connect the dots forward? I'm a believer that you're exactly where you're supposed to be. This has been a special year. I'm at the peak of my professional and personal life. My social community exploded and it has become the most important thing in my life. It is the thing that gives me the most joy and excitement. I have daydreams about a life that we can share with our friends every day. Whether that’s a new way of living at a compound or a building, I don’t know yet. What I do know is that to turn that dream into reality, we need significant capital. I started eWebinar to give myself a good life, but I didn't need much to live large. The idea that we could channel eWebinar's success into a community project next time around reignited the fire I lost. I rediscovered purpose by imagining a life of impact that goes far beyond my own enjoyment. 💡 They say you can never do it just for the money -- turns out, they were right. What is the thing that gets you out of bed and charges your soul? What is going to be your legacy? ___ I'm Melissa Kwan, 3x bootstrapper with 1 exit. I'm the Cofounder of eWebinar & Host of ProfitLed Podcast. 🔔 On my newsletter, ‘your founder next door', I share what it's like to build a company without an abundance of resources or friends in high places.

Here is what I learnt during my first year as a startup founder, out there in the oxygen-starved wilderness. 1. Plan beats no plan: We didn't end up doing many of the things we planned to do. But we couldn't have done what we did end up doing without sketching out a (hopeless) plan first. 2. Everything takes longer -- and that's fine. You can be fast, lean or great as a startup. You can even be two of these. But not all three. We chose to be lean in these financially challenged times. And we must be great when it comes to our content, otherwise why bother. That means we may not be the fastest startup in the race. Ours is a marathon, not a sprint. 3. Solo-parenting and recurring medical crises need not be a hindrance. I launched the business from a hospital cafeteria while my wife had a breast cancer operation. During the year since I have mostly solo-parented our children while she recovered. Now she is starting a new job that has her travel half the year. And that's fine. My domestic responsibilities give me inner balance. I stress less about work and get more done -- because the company is not the only thing that matters. 4. Media is not dead. This charmed sector we operate in gets a bad rap. Mostly because old dogs struggle to learn new tricks, and crash. And there are lots of new tricks to learn. Opportunities galore. One day media operators will look back on this era and moan: I wish I'd started then. 5. You don't need a fancy VC to get going. We've not taken a dollar of investor money so far. We've made enough to fund operations. We've never missed payroll. We've built ten separate publications (not all launched yet). And we're growing about as fast as we can handle. What more could you ask for after the first year? BIG THANK YOU to everyone who is reading and supporting us!

Many have asked me why I became super reclusive from LinkedIn over the last 1 year! 2023 was one of the most difficult year of my life- both professionally and personally! At the beginning of the year, when the recession was at its' peak- it was impossible to raise investments and customers were penny pinching with every cents and extending cash flow. Managing cash became exhausting! I remember, I used to cry in my room for hours and celebrate birthdays right after with my employees with a happy face as if everything was alright. But it wasn't that easy to get me to tap out for it is my unwavering grit that had got me thus far! Time to get my act together! Over the next 6 months, it was time to cut out all the distraction and focus on 3 things- CASH FLOW, CASH FLOW, CASH FLOW, the heart of any startup. Every single day, I told myself, lets survive today for tomorrow we will be fine. I cut down every single luxury, including my own salary so that we could put every single dollar into the business. We focused on the Unit Economics of Pareto's and trip down on the 80% of the customers that were nothing more than a distraction. The results were astounding! We became cash flow positive and remained cash flow positive for the last 8 months (except for 1 month). We were consistently bottomline profitable, growing our take rate Month over Month! We got 2 world class co-founders joining the team along side me (Stay tuned for that) to take this 🚀 to the next level! It is great to be back on LinkedIn, truly living the phrase of "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!", knowing we need capital to touch the stars and not fix the roof above our head! P.S- Here's a photo from one of such birthdays 😢

Let me tell you a little story about taking a leap of faith... Saying "adios" to a cushy salary? Definitely not a piece of cake. Picture this: job cuts left, right, and center, budgets tighter than skinny jeans. But hey, why not add a little spice to the mix? 🌶️ So, I decided to volunteer as tribute during our company's "Let's downsize" extravaganza in Jan 2023. Terrifying? You betcha! But here's the twist: Companies still needed to flourish, and I realized I could be the secret sauce, the magical unicorn, that helped them soar without breaking the bank. Fast forward through countless cups of coffee and networking galore, and voila! I bid farewell to the 9-5 grind and launched my own advising gig. 🚀 And guess what? It's been the rollercoaster ride of a lifetime! 🎢 Here's my two cents: 1. Dive headfirst into what sets your soul on fire. ✨ 2. Design your dream lifestyle and chase it like your life depends on it. 3. Don't forget to call in the cavalry - your friends and network are your secret weapons! 🛡️ Oh, and here's a little secret: If the entrepreneurial journey isn't your cup of tea, you can always boomerang back to the 9-5 grind. No harm, no foul. 💪

Dad guilt…here we go again!! 💙🇺🇸 I fly out to the US later this month for the first trip of 10 planned this year meaning I’ll physically spend 10 weeks away from my family in 2024…Austin, Miami, Tampa, Arizona, Boston, Raleigh, Las Vegas and San Fran on the radar! I constantly wrestle with “Is me doing it for them, a good enough reason to spend so much time away from them?” On a professional note, the evolvement and growth of ‘Land and Expand’, ‘Founders and Funders’ as well as developing 100’s of new connections, relationships and friendships across the US has been my greatest achievement yet. I’m immensely proud of the growing businesses we have providing valuable services to Founders, VC’s, CxO’s and our valued Primary Partners. 2024 promises to be amazing!! I’ve never chased the money. My biggest fear is not meeting our potential. It’s looking at a service like ‘Land and Expand’ an environment for sales which created a $3m pipeline in 12 weeks and locked in 100’s of new job opportunities to deliver high class service to the end client…and thinking… “How can we do this, at scale and take market share? How do we move that needle whilst reducing the failure ratio for Tech Scaleups?” That’s what really fires me! 🔥 And so, I settle my ‘dad guilt’ with the acceptance that hopefully my children have a positive role model. Someone who follows his passion, lives a full life, is kind, empathetic but driven and motivated and is always in the moment 💙, in the time he spends with them. A bit heavy for a Wednesday, I know… Dream big = Inspire those people closest to you!🙏🏽 Mission - To reduce the failure in 5yrs ratio for Scaleups, globally. #bettercallpaul ☎️ #fridaymotivation #fridaythoughts #dadpreneur