Establish healthy boundaries to manage startup life alongside a day job

Whether it’s turning unused bread into beer (then back into bread) or cola from rescued cherries, food and beverage startup Citizen is about extracting maximum value from resources.

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The same might be said about how Donald Shepherd, one of the startup’s co-founders, handles his time.

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Shepherd is part of a collective – including chef and restaurateur Ben Bayly, baker Andrew Fearnside of Wild Wheat, and brewer Mike Sutherland of Sawmill Brewery – which runs Citizen. The business rescues food that would otherwise go to waste and upcycles it into food and drink; it launched its first products (two beers and a sourdough bread) in 2020 and it’s since produced cider, sauces, sodas, wine and a burger with BurgerFuel.

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But like a lot of founders, Shepherd balances working on the startup with a day job – in his case, as brand lead for Allpress Olive Groves, based on Auckland’s Waiheke Island – and spending time with family (including two sons aged 11 and 16). Here he shares how he manages it all, with “a very logical and practical approach” that involves clearly dividing his time, staying ahead of challenges with good communication – and early starts.

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Compartmentalising time

Startups bring constant challenges in terms of your mind is always on. Through the recent changes in the world – from Covid and lockdowns and some genuine market impacts – there is no rulebook to this. So you’re continuously having to review and rethink and redo. That’s really difficult to allow yourself a physical and mental break from; it's been a really intense period of time.

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Forcing breaks is the way I do it. I don't work at night anymore and I really try to avoid working on the weekends as well. So I've got that demarcation.

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I'm also in a privileged position that I've changed my work, so I work four days a week in my day job, and then I have a dedicated full time Friday on Citizen. It means I've got financial security, if you will, from my day job, but space for being a co-founder on my project.

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When I'm working on my day job, I'm clear: I don't touch my Citizen work. That's really important for clarity of thought and out of respect to my employer. And I find it's just healthier. Previously, I was working five days a week at my old employer, so I find I have more time and space now to fit things in.

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We live on the North Shore and I commute to Waiheke Monday to Thursday. I get up and I do my work in the morning on Citizen, then I literally get in the car at six in the morning, and I have that physical demarcation into Allpress Olive Groves-mode. And I don't step out of that until I go home in the evening.

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Being an early bird

I have the opportunity to wake up before everyone else and do some work. And that's always good because you've got things done before the day kicks off.

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I get up at four in the morning. I’m from a dairy farming background, so I grew up milking cows; it was somehow hardwired into the DNA. I'm also really fortunate that I'm someone who can get by nicely on six hours’ sleep and function; I'm not an eight-hour person. I used to get up and do some training, so I've now just switched from training to working in the mornings.

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Exercise as another marker in the day

I used to do lots of marathons and triathlons and things like that, so that was spending a lot of time doing hard running and long distances. I now do that in the evenings and that's part of my transition from work, into family time. I come home and I run but it's shorter; I don't do all the crazy big runs anymore.

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Physical exercise is really important for me. I probably run three times a week for 35 to 45 minutes – and then I'm lucky enough my lovely wife and I go for nice long walks around the beaches during the weekends. That’s slow and steady so we can chat and catch up.

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Then I'll also play basketball one night a week with my son. Well, actually, I run around a court and get in the way.

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Staying ahead of the game with communication

Citizen has always been based on a collective of people and that requires that I have collaboration with people in a timely manner. It means you're working through problems together and the burden isn't just on you.

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Early communication and early engagement helps create a more cohesive flow of thought and work, and it reduces pressure and stress. It's when you're not doing that early that it creates problems because you're always on the back foot – you're under pressure, you're asking for favours for things to happen. It’s about being a little bit ruthless and going, ‘what are those critical few things?’ rather than ‘let's do lots’, so it's a bit more focused and therefore you're doing less tasks.

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And I certainly haven't got it right; there are still a lot of ‘oh shit!’ moments, but I think being as organised as possible reduces that stress.

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Find your people, and talk to them

When you’re under pressure and stress you tend to go inwards, whereas that's when you need to talk. That's always a challenge. When you're a founder you feel that handling the pressure is primarily your responsibility but it's important to talk about it and find those people who are there to support you. And there are loads of them. That's really helped me – connecting at the right time, in the right way and with the right people.

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As told to Caitlin Sykes

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How I keep well’ highlights what individual founders do to keep themselves mentally and physically in the right shape to deal with the demands of startup life. If you know someone with wellness insights to share, email caitlin@caffeinedaily.co

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