Archive of posts from August 2023

I’ve been bankrupted twice.

Zero balances.

A lifetime ago yet still vivid in my mind…

But y’know what it taught me?

1. When you’re hungry, you figure it out
2. You can do that when you’re not hungry

Not sure what to do?

You’re just comfy.

Get uncomfy.

In my experience…

Happy creators focus on making things

Stressed creators focus on ‘making it’

Subtle difference.

Very different outcome.

What if no one social media is doing as well as you think?

Call me crazy…

…but what if…

…some people on social media…

…are bending the truth?

Could that be possible? 😏

You’re doing just fine, champ.

Keep going.

Unpopular habit: Daily drills.

• Daily roleplay your sales process
• Daily follow-up with a lost lead
• Daily meet your customer persona
• Daily update your CRM
• Daily publish one article
• Daily practice your brush strokes

Don’t get ready. Stay ready.

What brands do you love?

If your brand isn’t the first that comes to mind, it won’t for anyone else either.

Fun weekend mental exercise:

“What if I couldn’t monetize my thing that way anymore?”

The ideas that pop up might:

• Improve your marketing/product, or
• Make you change the whole market

Food for thought.

Formulas. Formulas everywhere.

There are more 'formulas' in my Twitter X timeline than an Applied Math textbook.

Content 'formulas'… Success 'formulas'…

(Even the app has an algebraic name now for goodness sakes!)

We’re told there’s a secret. That the cheatcode is the only way to win.

It trains us to believe there’s only one way. That there are walls all around us.

On our interests, our schedules, our creative pursuits.

Hogwash.

So here’s an anti-formula formula.

This one basically means "screw that, you can do anything you want:

Fun + Volume + Skill = Outcome

• If you enjoy it, you’ll do it more.
• If you do it more, you’ll improve.
• If you improve, so will your results.

If you like formulas… there’s your formula.

For more on this topic, check out this week’s issue of The Productoon Newsletter!

Some say you need to grind to achieve things.

Others say you need to work smart not hard.

Both are missing the point.

If you don’t work hard, you don’t build smarts.

Build smarts, you don’t need to grind so much.

Of course, smart and hard outperforms both.

But if you want to choose…

Hard work works when smart work doesn’t.

Option 1:

Grow an audience by showing people how to grow an audience by selling a course on how to grow an audience.

It’s very popular. It’s very effective. It’s very gross.

Option 2:

Make something actually valuable + share it with the world.

It’s not as popular. It’s not as easy. But it’s far more rewarding.

You hate what you do = Your goal is to stop/retire.

You love what you do = Your goal is to keep doing it.

Here’s the big secret:

These equations work in both directions.

I see a lot of nervous energy from creators on social media these days.

Take a breath, friends.

• You’ve the luxury to work on something you love
• You’re investing in your growth
• You’re stable enough to be trying such risky things
• You’re able to be at home, with your family, creating

This was an impossible dream only a decade or two ago.

Think about that.

If you’re a creator, you’ve already won.

These are ‘the good old days’ of when you built your thing.

Act in a way you’ll be proud to look back on.

‘Shortcut’ is a fancy word for ‘off track’.

Building big stuff takes time.

Deploy patience.

Snowflakes tell you to never give your time away.

And oftentimes, they’re right.

But if you want to grow a new business, product or service?

Do things others aren’t willing to do.

If you want leads for your new thing, doing it for free for a limited time gets you good will, good testimonials, good case studies, and good referrals.

And those are all things that will help your new thing grow.

So remind me again why you wouldn’t want to give your time toward that result?

If you want attention, you could just set yourself on fire in public.

The problem is, it only works when you’re the only one doing it.

Also, it’s not really the kind of attention that moves product.

(Unless the product is water, I guess.)

Also, third degree burns 👎

But fire isn’t the problem. We’re just setting the wrong thing on fire.

If you want fast attention, set yourself on fire.

If you want lasting attention, set their world on fire.

Here’s how to set your customers on fire:

• When creating content, serve them so much you feel obsolete after
• When building products, your roadmap is their list of pains
• When leading sales calls, your goal is a decision, not a sale
• When writing copy, it talks more about them than your product
• When planning for the future, it’s a plan for their future, not yours

Phew, that’s quite a bit of change!

The Productoon newsletter goes into more detail about this in the latest issue. Check it out here.

If you feel like you’re in a hurry to make something happen…

Just remember.

The tortoise won.

Building big stuff takes:

- a lot of work - a lot of time - a lot of patience - a lot of focus - a lot of support

IMO the last one is the most important.

Take the time to get the support you need.

Especially when it’s inconvenient.

Underrated marketing strategy: Give away Pringles.

Yes: each chip incurs a cost to you

Yes: the market values it higher because of that

Yes: they’ll want the rest of the tube

So many folks are stuck ‘preparing’:

• Preparing to research their idea
• Preparing to start their new blog
• Preparing to build a product
• Preparing to do cold calls
• Preparing to talk to cusrtomers
• Preparing to make the website
• Preparing preparing preparing

And it’s widely considered to be necessary.

Except…

You don’t need “time to prepare” to play.

You just pick up the controller and go.

And so it is with business.

If you choose.

Ready, Player One?

Being a Creator is like playing Sonic The Hedgehog:

You think it’s a game of speed…

…But it’s actually a game of patience.

Speeding through levels for a high score is cool, once you know the levels like the back of your hand.

If it’s your first playthrough, the way to win is to take it steady.

Spoken to a handful of creators who feel they’re “too late”.

Too late to start the business.

Too late to learn the new skill.

Too late.

I don’t care if you’re 20, 30, 40, 50, 60…

…it’s not “too late” to build something you love.

It may be silly-speak advocated by testosterone-fuelled FOMO-dealers on Twitter…

…but it doesn’t need to be your reality.

Close Twitter. Learn the skill. Start the thing. Do it because you love it.

It’s not too late.

If you want attention, you could just set yourself on fire in public.

The problem is, it only works when you’re the only one doing it.

Also, it’s not really the kind of attention that moves product.

(Unless the product is water, I guess.)

Also, third degree burns 👎

But fire isn’t the problem. We’re just setting the wrong thing on fire.

If you want fast attention, set yourself on fire.

If you want lasting attention, set their world on fire.

Here’s how to set your customers on fire:

• When creating content, serve them so much you feel obsolete after
• When building products, your roadmap is their list of pains
• When leading sales calls, your goal is a decision, not a sale
• When writing copy, it talks more about them than your product
• When planning for the future, it’s a plan for their future, not yours

This week’s productoon goes into more detail on this topic. Check it out at The Productoon.

Hard task - Hard work = Hard

Hard task + Hard work = Easy

Funny how that works?

Here’s the thing about hard things:

• Building what you want is risky and hard.
• Not building what you want is crowded and hard.
• The path well travelled is busy hard.
• The path less travelled is thorny and hard.
• Charging a lot is hard.
• Charging a little is hard.

It’s all hard. So what?

Pick your favourite kind of hard and go for it.

Your work should be like a tube of Pringles:

Give a chip away and people want the rest of the tube.

Perfect the chip and the tube takes care of itself.

“Once you pop, you can’t stop”.

Want fast attention?

Set yourself on fire. That’ll get you attention.

Want lasting attention?

Set their world on fire. Blow their minds, solve their problems, make their worlds better.

Which sounds better to you?

I don’t think life should be fast.

But doing these things fast helps slow life down:

• Buy stuff that speeds up work
• Buy stuff that speeds up learning
• Buy time from others (for systemised tasks)

These things sound like speed-boosts…

But they give you time back.

Achieve more AND have more free time?

Yes please.

You truly care about way less than you think you do.

Today, our son bumped his head and started crying.

Nothing serious. No harm done.

But in that moment, my wife and I shed every other concern, idea, dream and thought.

In that moment, we just wanted him to be okay.

These moments are little reminders about what we care about most.

It’s worth trying to keep what we care about most in mind, every day.

Preferably, without requiring any little reminders.

Some games reward you for being fast, always-on, and micro-focused through the night.

Like flipping NFTs.

Some gamers reward you for being steady, consistent, and macro-focused through the decade.

Like building a business.

Forget where you’ll be in 12 days.

Build for where you’ll be in 12 years.

Things got real good, real fast, when I:

Removed:

• Toxic environment
• Fragmented focus
• Lack of reps/output

Added:

• Self-care
• Singular focus
• Consistency

Try it!

Shared this observation with someone today. Thought I’d share it with you too:

People are getting better at turning out the commercial break.

They don’t watch commercial breaks. They watch things they want to watch, and don’t care how it gets to them.

• People don’t care about low-effort creative anymore. They used to, but user sophistication is way up, tooling is better, volume of content is way up, and they’ve seen it all before now. There’s just too much “OK” content out there. People are attracted to “Excellent”, tolerate “Good”, and ignore “OK”.
• Either be Excellent, consistently, or don’t show up.
• Excellent is compensated, be it in attention or brand deals or ad revenue or deal flow or whatever the creator wants. Consistent excellence gets you there.

“Consistent excellence”.

What can’t be achieved with “consistent excellence”?

And all you need in order to achieve that is to work on your craft until you’re great at it… then simply show up consistently.

You can do that, right?

What they say:

“I need passive income, else what’s the point”

What I hear:

“Why shave, it only grows back”

Remember: there’s nothing wrong with showing up & doing the work.