Hey, happy Sunday to an outstanding entrepreneur! So proud of you 🙂 I hope you’ve taken some time to celebrate this journey and enjoyed something fun this weekend. Based on our wonderful Tuesday event, let’s dive into a concept that stood out from the discussion!

🤝 Real Friends vs. Deal Friends

If you were at the event, you heard Leonora Zilkha Williamson say that an impactful framework for friendship is “real friends vs. deal friends,” a concept from Arthur Brooks.

Here’s the “real friends vs. deal friends” TLDR (read more here):

We all have a bunch of surface-level friends, kind of like the clutter in our closets. Just like a good decluttering session can make us feel lighter, focusing on our meaningful friendships can do the same. Brooks says we should weed out some of the transactional friendships and make room for those who truly bring out the best in us.

True friendship? It’s all about spending time together on shared passions and valuing each other as human beings, not the opportunities we give each other. True friends don’t need anything from one another but choose to value each other on a deeper level.

Spending less time with some of our "deal friends" gives us more time for those who make us the best versions of ourselves. Close friends are our go-to people for life's ups and downs. Building real friendships takes time, but it's worth it—our happiness depends on it!

Leonora’s Tip: Pair Relationship Check-Ins With Other Activities

Write a friend when you don’t need anything from them, just to see how they’re doing. Make it even more effective by pairing it with something else you’re doing. It’s based on “habit stacking,” a concept from James Clear’s Atomic Habits.

• Ex:

  • Leonora texts a friend every time she parks her car

• Other habits you could test:

  • Send a message when you're on public transport

  • Work out with friends—get fit and catch up

  • Everyone needs to eat. Grab dinner with friends more often, even if it’s just for 30 minutes

  • Call a friend every time you do laundry—make chores more fun!

🗣️ Why I Care  

Speaking of making connections, conferences can often feel hollow. In my 170+ interviews on understanding the mindsets that drive entrepreneurs, I found many people hesitant to open up and go deep. That's why I started attending as many late-night events at conferences as possible. With their guards down (and in a more cheerful mood), people were more willing to break out of the "deal friend" shell. I wanted to get to know the real person behind the entrepreneur.

✅ WeStand Friend Event

I’m SO thankful for the lovely people who joined. We learned so much about the importance of friendships and how to cultivate ones that count. Here is our amazing crew in the middle of an intriguing conversation (plus my grateful face):

👥 Reminder! Join My First Program :D

I’m building impact-driven entrepreneur groups focused on choosing and navigating four key relationships to accelerate success: two professional (mentors and teammates) and two personal (friends and significant others).

These accountability groups will help us navigate these relationships, enhance leadership skills, and reach our goals faster while making a positive impact!

From 170+ interviews, I found strong relationships are crucial for success. Studies show that 65% of startups fail due to human-centric issues (HBS). With content created alongside an executive coach and Vanderbilt professors, and my 5+ years of focused learning in this area, we’re ready to dive in.

I know time is tight for all of us, so we’ll meet every 2 weeks for 8 weeks, 1 hour each session, focusing on one relationship category per meeting. There will be 3 groups of 7 founders. Interested in joining? Fill out this form!

Please spend some time with a real friend this week,
Ginny
Founder, WeStand
LinkedIn 
[email protected] 

P.S. What is WeStand?

WeStand helps impact-driven entrepreneurs feel less stressed and lonely by improving leadership and relationship skills. We talk in Zoom groups about research-backed best practices for four key relationships that drive success: mentors and teammates (professional) and friends and significant others (personal). The long-term vision is to build a SaaS tool to train out relationship weaknesses quickly.

Why relationship skills?

• After 170+ interviews and 11 conferences focused on learning from founders, I found that relationship skills were one of the biggest determinants of startup success. How founders handled conflicts, breakups, and growing apart from people made all the difference, and those with the strongest relationships were also the happiest. I want to help people build those relationships. Also, according to HBS, 65% of startups fail due to human-centric problems.

Am I an impact-driven founder?

• If your startup contributes to social, health, environmental, educational, and cultural breakthroughs, then yes! As long as you have a strong mission for the greater good in one of these 5 areas 🌎