Three Reasons Why I’m Putting My Heart into Timeline Genius

For the past 2 and a half years, I’ve been working days, nights, and weekends on Timeline Genius. And I’ve been investing my own funds to build it. For my first blog post, I thought it would be appropriate to share why I love Timeline Genius and why I’m so committed to it.

But before I dig deeply into my own inner motives and passion, I just want to say that I have an amazing team in this venture. And without them, there would be no Timeline Genius. This fact should not be overlooked as I write about my inner workings here.

Ok, so back to the exercise of sharing the reasons for my commitment to Timeline Genius… I’ve given this a good deal of thought, and here goes my answer (in classic Eddie-enumerated-list style :D).

1. Timeline Genius is aligned with my deepest professional purpose.

I’ve been a full-time entrepreneur for the last 10 years, and all of my previous experience has helped me come to realize my deepest professional purpose: I want to build products and services that solve real problems in the world and that make people’s lives better.

I mean, that’s a big part of why we’re all here, right? …to make the world a little better than it was before we showed up 🙂

I think we’re all hardwired to feel great when we’re helping other people. That’s why so many planners have told me things like, “The best part of my job is when a bride comes up to me and hugs me with tears in her eyes and tells me that she never could’ve done it without me.”

It just feels good to add value in the world. And I’m completely convinced that if I can add enough value, my success will take care of itself.

So back in 2013 when I was looking to start a new venture, my first step was to search for a real and significant problem. And my approach for finding such a problem was super simple. I just started talking to a bunch of successful wedding planners and asking them a straightforward question:

What’s the biggest or most irksome problem you have in your work on a regular basis?

As I kept talking to over 100 planners around the country, I started hearing the same answer over and over. They’d say, “Eddie, I absolutely love being a wedding planner, but I find it really tedious and time-consuming to create timelines.”

It’s not that these planners were bad at doing timelines; quite the opposite. They were great at doing timelines, but they wanted an easier way to do them in less time.

After I heard enough people telling me how much they would appreciate a software that would drastically reduce the time and headache that went into creating timelines, I set out to build it.

And the more I’ve worked on the project, the more passionate I’ve become about solving this problem. Like the Blues Brothers (Akroyd and Belushi) said, I’m “on a mission.” And I won’t stop until timelines are a complete cinch for planners, so you can all spend more time working on your business or enjoying your family and friends.

When I’m up at 2am working on some new Timeline Genius feature, one of the things that keeps me going is all the emails and calls I’ve had where planners are saying things like, “This is so helpful Eddie. Thank you!”. That’s high-octane entrepreneurial fuel for yours truly.

2. I’m driven to take care of my wonderful family.

I’ve been married for a little over 5 years now. My wife and I have a son who’s coming up on 21 months old. And if the world only knew how blessed I am… 🙂 I’m so grateful for these two, and I’m relentlessly dedicated to providing for them.

 

So that’s definitely another thing that keeps me pushing hard. I’m thinking one day, when my little fella gets a little older, he’s gonna look up and say, “My daddy built a really cool company that helps a lot of people.” 🙂

3. Wedding planners ROCK!

The third reason I’m so passionate about Timeline Genius is that I’ve really come to love wedding planners. Seriously, you all rock!

At this point, I’ve had the privilege of talking to (or more importantly, listening to) so many extraordinary people who are in the profession of wedding planning. Every story and every background is unique, but there are some wonderful common attributes that most of you share.

First of all, you’re entrepreneurs, and that makes me connect with you right away! When I talk to you, and I hear that passion in your voice for what you do and that fire and determination to follow your dreams… when I hear how you’ve chosen to take the road less traveled so that you can do what you love and have more control over your time… and how when you started your company, you didn’t quite know how you were gonna pull everything off… Yeah, that’s the good stuff!

I know what those hopes and fears and ambitions and joys feel like as an entrepreneur, and it just makes me wanna build something that empowers you and helps you keep pursuing those dreams.

And the other thing is, my own wedding day was certainly one of the biggest and best days of my life. So I know how important your work is. You’re building experiences for people that they will literally remember and cherish until their dying day. That’s inspiring, meaningful work, so it’s a pleasure to help and support you in that.

Wrap Up

So those are my main reasons for being so passionate about Timeline Genius. I hope that by sharing these I’ve given a little more insight into the spirit of our company.

Oh, I want to say one last thing here… For every one of you planners who took time out of your crazy-busy schedules to talk to me about the idea of Timeline Genius in the early days… and to every one of you who is currently using the site and sharing your positive feedback… I want to say a huge Thank You! Your support means more than you know!

#the-mission-continues