Season 4 Finale

Conor McCarthy (0:08)

Hello all, and welcome to the Season Finale of Season 4 of The First 10 Podcast. I wanted to recap some of the incredible wisdom shared by my array of guests this last season, a season where I focused on serial entrepreneurs. First things first though, I dedicated this season to my dad, who passed away in August 2021 after a short illness. My dad spent his working life as a bank manager, working for Bank of Ireland. Through him, I got to meet the entrepreneurs and business builders of his day and hear about whatever their thing was.

Dad would explain their business and balance sheets to me and what he looked out for as they applied for loans, etc. Sometimes I would get to see their built ideas if they had a prototype. My dad ended up helping a lot of businesses get off the ground in Ireland, through lending, through advice, through his connections. He really enjoyed helping people start and grow their businesses, be they early technology companies in the 90s or simple bricks and mortar businesses. Some of that enjoyment of turning ideas into reality, I guess rubbed off on me as I started my own businesses or helped others build theirs. I've been able to see how much work goes into building a business of any size and to spot places where I might be able to support. The successes, the failures, the sprints, the rests, the relationships, the innovations, it's all part of the game of trying to create real value through solving real problems in the world. As I reflected on the podcast recently, I realized how much it's really about finding the stories of people breaking free of gravity as we create the new or growing into new spaces. That gravity might be internal to us, or something about the market we're entering, or be composed of the many things that get a business going. Getting your first customers is one of the many, many inflection points on the road to success. And as they say, getting started is half the battle. So my job here is to pay more attention to just that piece. Many people who listen to this podcast are on their first business as a freelancer, a bootstrapper, or an entrepreneur. And it's entirely possible that one business will be your forever business. But chances are, it will take you places you never would have imagined. In my own case, I went from being an entrepreneur to being a freelancer, to bootstrapping, and now I'm back to entrepreneurship again. If you seek to be self-employed, you may wear one or all of these hats in your work life. And hearing from people who start and start again, I think is hugely helpful. This journey has also been helpful for me to see where my skill set lies at the intersection of marketing, customer, and product. If you're interested in seeing more of my work or working with me, there's lots more detail on my website at conormccarthy.me. Just click on the Work With Me tab to see the different ways we can chat. Finally, the rest of this episode is a collection of the answers to the final question I ask all my guests. That question is, what would you say to someone just starting out to find their first 10 customers? It's like a refresher for my regular listeners. And if this is your first episode of the podcast, it's a great way to dip your toes in. It's actually a pretty great set of pointers for anyone looking for their first 10 customers. The goal of this podcast is to help business builders learn some quote best practice when they go looking for their first 10 To expose the things worth doing and the things that might be dead ends that ultimately cost time and money. We should all be recycling these days. And when it comes to understanding your customers and how you talk to them, there's a ton of value that my guests have shared that is worth repeating here. Lastly, a thanks. I've been reflecting on how I really love making this podcast. It's fantastic when I hear back from you about something that struck home or an insight you had into your own business based on something a guest said. I'm very, very grateful for you all. And please do share the podcast wherever you see fit. And if I could make just one ask, it would be that you go to the Apple iTunes store and leave a rating for this podcast and even a review. Feedback helps me make this podcast better. And my podcast editor, Bren, will be making some amazing images of some of the reviews, so your review might get featured. I'll leave links in the show notes. So I hope you enjoy this collection of insights from this season, and I'll see you on the next season of The First 10 Podcast. What would you say to someone who is starting out in any business, who are looking to get their first 10 customers?