From Analysis Paralysis to Action: Overcoming Startup Inertia

Dr. Gina Anderson: [: 00:00:00

You have to go through things that aren't pleasant, to make that stronger and to make yourself build resilience. And so those taught. That taught me specific lessons that, you know what? It just, it builds a fire inside of you to wanna go towards it, whatever it is. It's, it takes confidence and belief that you have the locus of control inside of you to go get it.

And in this case, nobody was gonna hold us back rejection after rejection. You have to have a bias towards action. You have to take initiative. And so the question is what are we gonna do?

: that was Dr. Gina [: 00:01:00

Why is that important to this conversation? It's important because success is often a combination of mindsets, tool sets, and skillsets. And the reason why, what Gina said reminded me of. That is because her story is one of reshaping the mindset and moving forward accordingly to generate massive results.

up accelerating her into her [: 00:02:00

Let's learn a little bit more about Dr. Anderson. She's the CEO of Luma Brighter Learning an award-winning learning company. And a 2024 and 2023 recipient of the Prestigious Inc. 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies award. Dr. Anderson. Routinely publishes new measurable science-based techniques, specifically focused on learning and logistics and transportation to help companies improve their safety scores and uphold compliance.

She's the author of Thrive, how Learning Can Ignite a New Way Forward, and a contributing author to the bestselling book, perspectives on Invisible Illnesses. She's recognized as a thought leader in learning and an ink contributing author. She's also the creator and host of the I Love Learning podcast, where leaders from around the world share what motivates them to learn.

And Dr. Anderson holds a doctor of education in instructional systems technology from Indiana University where she also minored in learning science. She has a passion for helping people learn. Gina, welcome to the show.

Dr. Gina Anderson: Thank [: 00:03:00

Dr. Jim 2.0: Yeah, it's it's gonna be a fun conversation and I think I'm going to have a little bit more fun than usual because these are two nerds in front of a microphone. So this should be this should be interesting. We often talk about how experiences earlier in our careers helped fast forward us to where we are today.

So I think a good place for us to start is tear the bandaid off and have you tell us about one of the biggest screw ups that you had in your career and what that taught you.

Dr. Gina Anderson: For me it was really about waiting. I had this like impending inertia where I was paralyzed by really only seeing a problem with one solution. And I often talk about it like analysis paralysis where I had created a product I was ready to go to market and instead of selling it.

waiting for, but I we didn't [: 00:04:00

So it was a huge screw up because I waited. We actually went after a National Science Foundation grant. We had a partnership with a university well established. I'm sure you've heard of University of Notre Dame. They're well-known the South Bend City schools. We had buy-in from leadership from around the city.

r funding again. We thought, [: 00:05:00

Dr. Jim 2.0: So I wanna dig in a little bit on what you said, and that's a pretty interesting sequence of events. One of the things that I'm wondering about is, early on you just mentioned, Hey, we built this product, we think it's great, and. We don't have, the resources internally to hire sales or hire marketing.

the reason why it caught my [: 00:06:00

Dr. Gina Anderson: That's good.

Dr. Jim 2.0: Whenever we think about the decision matrix, I. Like how do we make decisions? We often gravitate towards the things that we like to do versus the things that we don't like to do, but know we need to do.

And I'm probably hacking that up, but what I'm wondering is why did you automatically go the direction of let's apply for grants versus. I think the product's great. Why don't we just sell it ourselves and try to make a go of it? What was the, what was your mindset there where you automatically went the direction of applying for grants versus trying to make it happen yourself?

and I can do it well enough [: 00:07:00

The ironic part of that, like you said, the decision tree, like you as the person creating the product. Is the best person to sell it, right? It's 'cause you have the most passion. If I'm able to go convince the University of Notre Dame to support my idea if I can go to the city schools of South Bend to say this is a product that I have that I want money for, and I can convince these large organizations, why couldn't I convince myself?

I was good enough to go sell the product myself. And I actually write about this mindset in my book as a learning scientist because it's really interesting how we ourselves hold ourselves back and back in the mindset of taking action on something. So why? You're right. Why couldn't we sell it?

Dr. Jim 2.0: . I like how you mentioned that sometimes our minds get in the way of what we should be doing, or and I describe it as negative self-talk keeps us from doing things.

ant to jump forward a little [: 00:08:00

So when you get that rejection the first time, what was going through your mind?

Dr. Gina Anderson: You can't believe it, right? So you get rejection and you think how is this possible? Like, how can they not see the benefit of this thing that you've built, that you've put so much time in? And so I think at that point, I've seen a lot of entrepreneurs do this. You do it yourself. You doubt maybe it's not a good product.

Maybe, no one will buy it. So you start asking yourself these questions, and like you said, it's a self, the self-talk that's not positive. And you start questioning it. Absolutely. Did I question do we even have a product? And I think that's when everything changed.

: Once you started [: 00:09:00

What was it about those multiple failures that provided the momentum for you to shift gears and do something different?

Dr. Gina Anderson: Yeah, I think that actually builds confidence. Is the rejection is getting, rejection builds resilience. It actually helps create confidence that you may not have had. I know that seems counterintuitive. But you have to go through hard things. It actually is part of our human cognition. It's our anterior mid singulate cortex.

those taught. That taught me [: 00:10:00

And in this case, nobody was gonna hold us back rejection after rejection. You have to have a bias towards action. You have to take initiative. And so the question is what are we gonna do?

Dr. Jim 2.0: when we look at the trajectory that you took, we're talking maybe two, a couple of years, maybe longer, to get to the point where you have to channel your inner Thanos and say, fine, I'll just do it myself. But there's a lesson there too, before you started to.

Try and sell on your own. What did you learn by those three long drawn outs that you needed to do differently when you started making the decision that I need to go to market myself?

Anderson: Yeah, I think it's [: 00:11:00

And in this case, it was marketing. And also selling. And so to be able to go door to door with those skills and building those skills and look, it wasn't the first time over those three years I had been selling it without even knowing I was selling it. Because I had talked about it so much. I had formulated it so much in my head that I knew the value that people saw in the idea.

the day, go out and sell the [: 00:12:00

Dr. Jim 2.0: Oh, that's really interesting what you just said about, you had been selling the entire time and learning what people taught, thought about the product before you actually went into active, outbound sales mode. The reason why I caught my attention is that when you think about startup philosophy, it's fail, fail fast, fail off, and fail forward.

One of the struggles that happens in founder-led organizations is that you're not getting in front of enough people and getting enough feedback from people who are agnostic to who you are or who your product is for you to iterate to the point where the product actually has legs in the marketplace.

So when you look at that. How did you take, how did you increase the reps in the market so you can actually really validate what you have as a product when you finally decide to flip the switch and actually actively sell this in the marketplace?

as a point in time where we, [: 00:13:00

We had a president of a local bank that we were pitching the idea to and telling 'em what we wanted to do. That actually said, I'll buy your product. I. So our first sale was done inadvertently that we weren't even quote unquote selling, right? So I think that is the, that was one of the biggest lessons too, is that just having the passion and knowing that you're filling a gap in the market sells itself because there is a need for your product.

an sell. So we sold it a few [: 00:14:00

And while we were working on. A pro the product with one of our clients, we actually were introduced to the concept of maybe your product actually applies somewhere else. So it get got us thinking that we had something that was more, even more applicable in a different industry.

Dr. Jim 2.0: So there's a few things in what we've talked about so far that I wanna sequence out and get a bigger idea or better idea of what we learned from it. Early on in the process, there was inertia you couldn't get going, and then once you got going. For lack of a better phrase, you fell into a couple of early sales and then in founder-led organizations, your earlier sales are generally people who are early adopters.

g still to getting going and [: 00:15:00

Dr. Gina Anderson: I would say the one thing is trying to figure out like what is holding us back? Because I think for us it was taking little steps and feeling things out, which in the end ended up helping us scale to be where we are today with such strength. But it was learning what did the customers like and what did they appreciate and understanding really.

Why we weren't taking action. Again, it goes back to bias of action in your mindset, because why aren't we taking action in other areas? And so from listening to that and reflecting on our own thoughts of really what is it that's holding us back, and honestly, I think it comes back to fear, right? Fear of failure.

Fear of the [: 00:16:00

Dr. Jim 2.0: You mentioned two really important questions. As you're going through this learning process and shifting the way that you operate, one was the question, what's holding us back?

What is holding us back from doing the things that we need to be doing or doing what's necessary? That's a really interesting question. And then the other question that you asked earlier on was a comment from one of your early buyers, maybe you're not in the right space. So when you look at those two questions, how did that, those two questions come together that provided the aha moment, that changed the way that you were thinking, changed the way that you were looking at the marketplace and changed how you actually went to market?

s like reflecting on really, [: 00:17:00

We're often very focused on one way of thinking and one way of doing something. But when you can open and ask yourself the question, why not? Why not me, why not now? It's powerful.

t's a really great question. [: 00:18:00

What happened that connected those dots finally for you, that you ended up landing in the space or in the niche that you're in?

Dr. Gina Anderson: Yeah, so our office location was right next door to a company serving the transportation industry. They actually saw what we were doing for the higher education space and the business space. And they suggested to me that, you, do you know any fleets that you could go out and observe? And I'm like, no, I don't.

trucking companies and I was [: 00:19:00

So that can connection. Of having somebody introduce me and being willing and open to sit and go observe. And all it was an observation because I didn't, we didn't have to move forward. But when you see a need and you could solve a problem with your product, why not?

or solutions oriented from a [: 00:20:00

Dr. Gina Anderson: Yeah, I think we're still overcoming it. I don't think it's ever something that maybe in some industries, you have a population that didn't grow up with technology that's primarily in the space. But here's the thing. An 80,000 pound vehicle nuclear verdicts. Safety being the most in critical thing in the industry.

The health and wellness. The mental health and wellness of the truck drivers. There's such a need that, again, an industry with inertia and not making change is just gonna make, more drivers not enter into this space. And we all need truck drivers. It's a industry we all need. And so we still are trying to support the industry in understanding the difference between learning science and learning technology.

years. [: 00:21:00

Dr. Jim 2.0: So I wanna zoom out a little bit. When we think about the conversation that we've had so far we've talked through a couple of different transitions. One was just getting moving and. Then the next was getting, moving in a direction that's oriented to something that might scale or get bigger.

And as you're going through these transitions, you, there was a lot of inertia that you had to overcome. And when you look back at that, how did the process of overcoming inertia better prepare you for success in the long run?

When you're talking about product development, when you're talking about sales, when you're talking about opening into new markets, what's the story there?

k to after going through the [: 00:22:00

And I was waiting again. It's like I'm waiting for the industry to invite me to come speak. I'm waiting to have opportunities to get out and share science. And one of the other Inc, 5,000 companies said to me. Don't ask permission. You should make your own voice. And the thing is, a light bulb went out.

n and our minds. We hold the [: 00:23:00

So I actually have that tape to my desk as a constant reminder that you have to do things you don't, and stop overthinking it. Stop holding yourself back.

Dr. Jim 2.0: So it's interesting that you mentioned that, and it's interesting at a couple of different fronts because what you're describing flies in the face of a lot of biographies of startup founders. 'cause most tech startup founders are always talking about run fast and break things, and you've taken a very deliberate approach and then gotten faster as you go.

When you look at this journey that you've been on, and you've had a couple of pretty significant pivots, and if you were talking to that startup founder that's 10, 15 years behind you, just thinking about starting up their pro product or starting up their journey, how would you advise them?

When it comes [: 00:24:00

Dr. Gina Anderson: I would definitely tell them. So don't avoid action because you're afraid of making mistakes. Really the only mistake that you can make is not trying to do what you're trying to do to begin with. For me, as a learning scientist, I always think of. Trying something is not failure. 'cause a lot of times people are, the one thing you're scared of is the fear of failure.

And really there's no such thing just learning. I always try to think of what is really holding me back. It's like, why not? I said this earlier, like, why not? What let go of whatever is holding you back and really pay attention to. Why are you overanalyzing? Why was it that I wasn't going after? Why was I going after grants and not selling?

uture when you're being held [: 00:25:00

The locus of control is inside of you. I'm waiting. I'm over here waiting to be invited to speak. Who am I waiting for? Really, I'm the one that should be out doing this and speaking on learning and learning science. And always, and you said this earlier, practicing self-talk. My, my secret weapon has always been my mind.

be the bridge that helps us [: 00:26:00

If you have the confidence and you're telling yourself that you are boundless and you can sort, you really can accomplish the impossible.

Dr. Jim 2.0: Great stuff. Gina. If people wanna continue the conversation and learn more about you and some of the things that you're into, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Dr. Gina Anderson: I'm on LinkedIn Gina Anderson. You can find me on a luma brighter learning.com. Thank you so much for having me today.

Dr. Jim 2.0: Great hanging out with you and and thanks for coming on the show. And I think when we're talking about the startup journey in general or.

How you can get faster at progress or faster at success. There's a lot in what you said that makes sense, but there's two things that I think are particularly important to call out. And the two things that stand out to me is one of your points about letting go of your assumptions. Why aren't we in the, in this space?

y shouldn't we consider this [: 00:27:00

The other part of the conversation that stood out to me was how you mentioned that it was through a partnership relationship that. You ended up in the trucking space, ended up in a space that you would've never considered.

ever initiative that they're [: 00:28:00

So for those of you who've been listening to this conversation, we appreciate you hanging out. If you like the discussion, make sure you leave us a five star review on your favorite podcast player and then tune in next time where we'll have another leader hanging out with us and telling us about how they screwed things up big time.

But that screw up ended up providing them the key to hitting fast forward on their career.