A Few Ways Your Startup Brain Changes When You’re Dialed In

Sometimes your brain just shifts gears. As a startup CEO you’re used to the constant juggle — the never ending game of “context switching”, that dynamic of shifting from one setting to the next, with nary a break in between. That’s the drill.

Yet here I sit at the end of another week on the road trying to figure out what the heck is happening? Yes, work’s busy — a business trip two weeks ago, a board meeting last week, and now a week-long east coast trip that’s got my circadian rhythm all whacked and my noggin toggling from strict adherence to a healthy diet to rash bouts of exhaustion that cripple my ability to mindfully grub.

That’s why I’m chalking these last few weeks up to my reptilian brain taking over — along with a slightly evolved ability to narrow my focus towards the most critical areas that need my attention for the sake of our company’s success. As a startup CEO dealing with so many moving parts — and so much ambiguity — this state of mind might qualify as one version of what psychologists call being in the “Zone”. Consider the behaviors and themes I’ve laid out below. They’re likely not too dissimilar from what most startup CEOs deal with, especially when on the road for pronounced stretches of time trying to accomplish important strategic progress with external parties while continuing to support and stay connected with everything happening inside the company — as well as on the home front.

Yet read these anecdotes closely and you’ll recognize that they truly are base-level survival and “thrival” instincts that are sometimes exactly what you need to be doing as a startup CEO when racing at full speed. Calling this mode being in the “Zone” is a bit much — I’d simply rather call it “doing your job” when it matters most.

Focus and adrenaline. You hit the road and your focus sharpens instantly. You prep well for the important meetings on the trip and nail the talk track for each conversation. Adrenaline kicks in under the radar and it’s what allows you to bounce out of bed at 6 a.m. eastern time, when your body knows it’s only 3 a.m. Of course, waking early might also be aided by the fact you forgot to pull the bedroom blinds and the sunlight zaps your face straight away! Either way, getting out of your “home” environment forces you to prioritize at another level knowing that many of your conversations will be with people you hope to impress and leave in a state of mind thinking to themselves “Wow, I want to work with that company!”.

Healthy eating goes out the window. Whatever diet or healthy eating regimen you’ve been on heretofore immediately falls to the wayside when you’re in this mode. One night you go from New York to D.C., arrive at a three star (ok, maybe a 2 star ) hotel and blindly order what’s advertised as a “Greek flatbread pizza”. What arrives 20 minutes later resembles something more akin to 6 pieces of pita bread stitched together, slathered with some Ragu sauce, and piled high with a white mystery cheese that to this day remains unidentified. But guess what? Yep, I scarfed it down like Famous Ray himself had hand delivered it from his Manhattan pizzeria.

Now, pay close attention to the two important corollaries intimately tied to the sudden drop in your healthy eating defenses:

• Corollary 1: Your tolerance for bad wine skyrockets. “Is it a heavy red?”, you hear yourself asking the bartender (at the same hotel that served you the pita bread pizza cheese thing), thus instantly signaling to everyone within earshot how low you’re willing to set the quality bar necessary to imbibe. And while it may not be the wine that comes from that oversized bottle with a footprint on the label (you know the brand I’m talking about here!), at this point you wouldn’t blanche one bit by a Malbec described as being “From one of America’s fasting growing wine regions outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico.”
• Corollary 2: This one I describe simply as the “hunt for DD”. Clearly, one of the evil ploys East Coast cities have unleashed on unsuspecting West Coast-ers like myself is to place a Dunkin Donuts outpost on literally every street corner, and in every train station and airport. Except when they don’t! I fell victim to a moment of weakness when — tired, starved, and blurry eyed one evening — I began walking aimlessly inside the Washington, D.C. train station in search of the “Dunkin Donuts” that showed up on Google Maps. After what felt like an hour (but was likely closer to 15 minutes) of traipsing the darkened halls of D.C.’s Union Station, I thought to myself : “For Christ’s Sake, it says Dunkin Donut’s right here across from the damn Aunt Anne’s pretzel place …where the hell is it?!!” Finally, I came to the painful realization — it was gone. Replaced by a freaking Sbarro’s Pizzeria. C’mon, that’s not even real pizza is it?!! So says the guy who ate hotel pizza bread the night before.

Forget trying to stick to a workout schedule. Once you have that first early wake-up call of the trip you’re immediately locked into a morning mode that’s absolutely not conducive to running, cruising the elliptical, or hopping on a SoulCycle. Plus, if you’re like me, by the time you’ve scheduled all the important meetings you want to make happen on the trip, the only time you have left during the day is literally the travel time from one meeting to the next. Thus, take solace in the fact that your workout schedule reduces to walking the streets of New York City, D.C., Chicago, or Boston, which if done in July produces ample sweat to make it almost feel like you dropped into a hot yoga class (sans the requisite Lululemon attire of course).

Clearly, zooming around the country can wreck havoc on your healthy lifestyle, especially when you’re in the midst of processing information about the rapidly changing industry dynamics that surround your business. With this in mind, there are three other important facets that may tweak your brain waves when you’re operating in this realm.

Clarity around important meetings and perspectives. Maybe it’s the unique ability our brain has to narrow its focus and tap into adrenaline, but when in this operating mode, you’re able to zero in on important external relationships and click with people. Now for me, maybe it’s the fasting I default to because I’ve over-scheduled my day, but more likely it’s the excitement of telling people the Remind story and how we’re helping so many teachers, students, parents, and educators collaborate more closely together. For each of us, when we’re able to peel away the other topics and distractions that cloud our focus, we can really nail the meetings that matter — and foster the relationships that help propel our companies rapidly forward.

Creativity gets zapped. This is the observation that actually triggered this post. While on the road over much of the last month — coupled with preparations for a board meeting and several exciting 3rd party conversations — I’ve noticed a decline in my ability to creatively step outside these more narrowly defined lanes through which I’ve channeled my attention. Which, by the way, is exactly as it should be. I’m just noticing that when my CEO brain turns it’s attention to the near, medium, and even long-term ramifications of really important issues and projects, the side affect is that a big chunk of what my brain might otherwise creatively ruminate on gets dialed back. Personally, this means the natural flow of topics I might write about — or new business ideas I might noodle on — that typically bounce around my brain are put on pause when I’m hunkered down.

Feeling alone. When you’re focused on the important path forward for your company, and you literally “hit the road” to help that cause, be prepared to feel lonely. The startup CEO job in general is designed to be a lonely one — there are always things you’re processing and thinking about that you might not have a clear outlet to discuss with someone. But in this unique operating mode you find yourself in, the notion of being alone goes deeper. For significant chunks of time you’re physically detached from family, friends, and your team. When you are “home”, you can still feel a little alienated given the time you’re still spending in meetings and conversations that take you away from time with your teammates working through operational priorities, or that take you away from time with your family. The way I’ve learned to deal with this dynamic is to know that during these windows I’m doing important work for my company — and my family — that will pay dividends in the future.

Remember, none of us operate in an accelerated mode like this all the time. Psychologists tell us we are actually in any mode that resembles a “Zone” for very limited amounts of time, but when we are, we can absolutely achieve new milestones and define new perspectives for our businesses and our lives. Traveling and engaging with the external world oftentimes triggers in me a unique set of feelings and behaviors, and as my examples above attest, these last few weeks have felt this way to me. I’ve been fortunate to engage in several weeks of really great meetings about Remind and to think more broadly about the future of the platform we are building in education. And while it’s been a bit lonely on the road, I’ve been emboldened by an amazing Remind team that’s executing together as “one team” focused on “two goals”, and by a family that supports me in the mission I’m on to help bring an important personalized learning platform into K-12 and higher education.

Oh, and on the health front, being on the road actually helped me get back into my intermittent fasting mojo, and I even mixed in a couple salads. And thankfully, my frustration from the D.C. train station was alleviated when I finally tracked down that elusive “DD” in Boston (as you’d expect), and treated myself to a donut — chocolate old fashioned of course!