Startup 2 Standup 
Five practical takeaways
- Helen linked feeling good with clearer thinking, intuition and effectiveness.
- Performing at your best does not mean avoiding the natural ups and downs of life and business.
- Helen suggested that procrastination is not automatically a problem if it is not negatively affecting you or other people.
- Founders described changes in decisions, relationships, patience and everyday habits when they were not at their best.
- Helen encouraged founders to notice reactions that keep returning and consuming time or energy.
Summary
During our SU2SU guest-speaker session, Helen Amery explored a part of founder performance that does not always get as much attention as systems, money or processes: how founders feel while running the business.
Helen asked the room to notice what happens when they are performing at their best, what changes when they are not, and which reactions keep returning.
Founders contributed their own experiences around decision-making, rest, procrastination and relationships, while Helen shared examples from her specialist work.
Introduction
Founder conversations often stay focused on the tangible parts of business.
Processes. Systems. Money. Things we can see, measure and change.
Helen opened our session by focusing instead on emotional reactions and the effect she believes they can have on performance.
Her point was not that founders should pretend difficult situations feel positive. She encouraged the room to notice how they operate when they feel at their best and what changes when they become reactive.
Here are seven of the strongest takeaways we heard.
Takeaway 1: Helen linked feeling good with clearer founder performance
Helen explained that founders can bring together intellectual thinking and intuition.
In her view, operating at your best makes it easier to access that intuition and then use the tangible side of business to act on it.
One founder described good days as times when he could “motor through” his work and found decisions easier.
That gave the room a simple reflection:
What changes in your own work when you feel at your clearest?
Takeaway 2: Performing at your best does not mean life stays easy
Helen described life as naturally having ups and downs.
She did not suggest founders should avoid difficult feelings. In her explanation, additional difficulty can arise when someone starts resisting what they are feeling rather than allowing it to be there.
Another founder described getting some of their best ideas while resting because they were no longer distracted by everything happening around them.
Helen connected that example with the value of moving between action and rest.
Being at your best does not always mean doing more.
Takeaway 3: Procrastination is not automatically a problem
Procrastination led to one of the clearest exchanges in the room.
One founder explained that he enjoys working towards deadlines and sometimes leaves things later because he likes the rush of delivering within a shorter timeframe.
Helen did not automatically treat that as a problem.
Her distinction was whether procrastination is upsetting the person or negatively affecting people around them. She also shared an example of another founder who felt leaving things late was affecting his team and decision-making, and that his work could be better if he changed the pattern.
Otherwise, as Helen put it, somebody may simply be a person who works close to deadlines.
Takeaway 4: Notice what changes when you are not at your best
Founders in the room described very different experiences of not performing at their best.
One spoke about becoming easily irritated and short-tempered, seeing relationships deteriorate and feeling more likely to make poor decisions.
Another described eating less, including skipping breakfast and delaying lunch.
Helen used those contributions to show that reactivity can appear differently from person to person.
A useful question from the discussion is:
What changes for you when you are not performing at your best?
Takeaway 5: Founder pressure can appear in different forms
Helen shared several examples from her client work.
These included overwhelm, time pressure, self-doubt, imposter syndrome, compulsive phone use and difficult business relationships.
One CEO she described felt there was no space for herself and no time to think about the business rather than simply being in it.
Another client was repeatedly checking his phone, while another was struggling to think about anything except a difficult situation involving the leadership of his business.
These were Helen’s client examples, not universal founder experiences. But they showed how differently the same sense of being off track can appear.
Takeaway 6: Helen distinguishes relief from what she describes as the root cause
A central part of Helen’s session was her distinction between temporary relief and addressing what she describes as the underlying cause of a recurring emotional reaction.
She used a garden analogy. The visible thoughts, feelings and behaviours were compared with what grows above ground, while Helen described her work as focusing on the root underneath.
This is Helen’s explanation of the approach she uses in her specialist work. It is not an SU2SU methodology or a universal clinical conclusion.
The practical question her explanation raises is:
Does this reaction keep appearing even after I thought I had dealt with it?
Takeaway 7: Pay attention when you keep going around in circles
Towards the end of the session, Helen explained how she spots situations that somebody may want to explore further.
She mentioned certain people or circumstances repeatedly causing a reaction, wasting too much time or energy on something, feeling as though you are constantly forcing or pushing, and thinking that a reaction makes no logical sense but still experiencing it.
She also mentioned problems that someone believes they have solved before but that continue to return.
Repeated pressure deserves attention when it keeps returning.
The session did not suggest that every difficult feeling needs fixing. Helen herself described learning to allow quieter periods without immediately trying to work out what was wrong.
How can founders continue the conversation through SU2SU?
Our role at Startup 2 Standup is to bring founders into conversations with people who understand the challenges they are dealing with.
Founders can explore more expert conversations through the Startup 2 Standup YouTube channel and our guest-speaker archive.
Members can also bring live business challenges into our weekly Founder Surgery calls and explore the wider community through SU2SU membership. The current SU2SU site also lists guest-speaker sessions and Knowledge Bank access as member benefits.
Conclusion
Helen’s session reminded us that founder performance is not only about the tangible parts of running a business.
She encouraged founders to notice what happens to their decisions, relationships, energy and behaviour when they are not performing at their best, without treating every difficult feeling as something that needs fixing.
If this is something you are working through, explore the full range of SU2SU expert sessions, bring the wider business challenge into a Founder Surgery or explore membership to continue the conversation with founders and specialists.
FAQs
How did Helen connect feeling good with founder performance?
Helen’s view was that feeling good can help founders access their intuition and operate more effectively. She connected this with clearer decisions, stronger relationships and better use of a founder’s capacity.
Is procrastination always a problem for founders?
No. Helen suggested that it becomes worth exploring when it causes a problem for the founder or negatively affects their team, relationships or decision-making.
What changes did founders describe when they were not at their best?
Founders discussed irritability, becoming short-tempered, relationship difficulties, a greater likelihood of poor decisions and changes in eating habits.
What did Helen mean by going around in circles?
Helen described recurring reactions or situations that continue consuming time or energy, even after someone believes they have dealt with them.
What approach did Helen discuss?
Helen discussed an approach she uses in her own work, which she said was founded by John Mace. She described it as addressing what she considers to be the root of recurring emotional reactions. Claims about its mechanism, speed and outcomes came from Helen’s presentation and should be understood as her specialist claims.
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