Intellectual Software

With Bitcoin, it feels like a lot of the early adoption around that was as a counter to what was happening in the United States economically with the financial crash and fiat currency being used by the government to prop certain people up and not others. And I think when people are struck with a real sense of unfairness, they start to get motivated to take action --- Mike

SHOW NOTES

02:54 - Introduction and how the invisible hand of the market guided my IPO

06:02 - Bitcoin and the unfairness of capitalism 

08:03 - The chaos of the early internet brought people together

13:01 - Are we not going to teach people philosophy? 

17:05 - NFTs are certificates of authenticity for an idea

22:35 - DAOs are online Co-ops

27:00 - Growing up in a town of population 10 

30:16 - Experiencing community after a decade of isolation

33:00 - Deconstructing the military machine

37:31 - Oregon, counter-culture and small businesses vs Walmart

41:49 - Plato and sandwich

43:43 - Daily routine 

46:08 - Leveraging the wisdom of the crowds

49:38 - How to operate in the fringes of technology

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You can connect with Mike here (https://www.mike-merrill.com/)

My DMs are open for conversations (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

What really makes me pause at this point is not that someone has that unique of a thought process, it's that they've been able to distill it in a really memorable way, like Dawkins memetics. Like the idea of being on your deathbed and having no regrets; that's a very basic concept. I feel like a lot of people throughout history have had that idea, but Jeff Bezos put it into The Regret Minimization Framework and that sticks. -- John Coogan

SHOW NOTES

03:32 - Introduction
04:40 - Big tobacco and the end of cigarettes
07:00 - Society needs Einstein's as well as generalists and those building different knowledge sets
11:10 - From high school rivals to co-founders  
14:17 - Fake it till you make it in silicon valley
18:02 - Distilling complex ideas like Jeff Bezos and Paul Graham
21:30 - I had an empty calendar and read books for weeks in YC
24:57 - America should have a very high customer satisfaction rate
30:17 - At what point did Theranos become a fraud?
35:25 - The main Marxist critique is capitalists are well off than workers
40:16 - We don't have enough founders working on multi-decade problems
43:21 - The second-order effects of building tech infrastructure
45:21 - There's lack of fragmentation in the college education market
51:40 - 3 books that will have a huge impact on civilization 

-------------------------------------------------------------

You can connect with John here (https://twitter.com/johncoogan)

Check out his Youtube here --> https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnCooganPlus

My DMs are open for conversations (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

I've known Dave for a few months now and It was good to finally have him on the show. We talked about a bunch of stuff ( mentioned in the show notes ) from media in the past to where it's going and everything in between. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

SHOW NOTES

03:19 - Bleacher report became my lifeline when I was stuck in the drudgery of a full-time job

09:14 - Lessons from my failure at Inverse and building Audience Builders from first principles

12:40 - Building distribution networks in legacy media brands

17:47 - Deep work and blocking your calendar like Jerry Seinfeld

23:21 - People who shaped my worldview - Kubrick, Scorsese, Lucas, Jake Lodwick, Kevin Rose

29:00 - Taking advantage of platform growth mechanics while building an original voice 

30:55 - Sam Parr is successful because he is a student of history

34:18 - Building a media empire like Pomp 

37:31 - Self-censorship

41:02 - Great brands create an entire world to build deeper fan experiences

45:12 - The promise of the creator economy

49:30 - Creators will start to look more like media companies and media companies will become more like record labels

52:00 - Bringing novelty into interview podcasts 

You can connect with Dave here (https://twitter.com/davenemetz)

My DMs are open for conversations (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Steal My Marketing is back after a long break of self-reflection and doubt. This conversation with Jonathan was recorded a few months back and has everything that I love about podcasting. It allows this 26-year-old to talk to someone I've never met about things I'm deeply interested in. The world is a fascinating place. It feels good to be back :)

SHOW NOTES

01:30 - The accidental entrepreneur

04:30 - Why I bought a 1-way ticket to China right after college

10:00 - Entrepreneurship in China in 1994

13:19 - Business schools teach you working for companies, not entrepreneurship 

16:57 - How we rebuilt our business after the 2008 financial meltdown

23:10 - The markets are the same, the channels have shifted

25:20 - No country matches China's combination of infrastructure & efficiency

28:43 - The miracle of McDonald's is that fries taste the same in London or Beijing 

39:24 - Untangled Coaching

46:15 - Why American capitalism will always triumph over Chinese capitalism

You can connect with Jonathan here (https://untangled-coaching.com/about-jonathan/)

My DMs are open for conversations (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Sachit Gupta is THE best super-connector I know. He started with nothing almost 8 years back and has since worked with Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin, and Andrew Warner. His show Conscious Creators reached #1 in entrepreneurship last year and he led the On Deck Podcasting Fellowship. I wanted to bring him on the show to learn his strategies of finding third doors to network with the biggest names in any industry. He shared how he started working with Andrew, told a beautiful story of writing a letter to Tim Ferriss and the exact email he's going to send to Chris Sacca. He's also hosted a ton of poker nights for these influencers and shared his tips on hosting your own poker nights or dinners to increase your network. I also asked him how one could do these on Zoom. And he told us what you should do to connect with someone like Tim or Andrew if they're speaking at a conference. In short, he shared a TON of secrets. 

Here are the show notes :)

05:08 - Cold emailing Mark Cuban, Chris Guillebeau, and Jonathan Fields

09:00 - How I’ll email Chris Sacca and lessons from 1000s of cold emails

14:18 - Standing out in the crowd of 100s of people trying to get attention from your heroes

19:34 - What I learned from Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, and Andrew warner

22:12 - One starts to build an audience when one gives up the need to build an audience

23:55 - Conversations that are casual and intimate are functions of production, not editing.

27:27 - A cold outreach strategy that will change your life

32:10 - How to connect with your heroes hosting poker nights/dinners

36:44 - Writing a letter Tim Ferriss and a hack to connect with speakers in conferences

43:55 - How to reach out to big publications for collaborations

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests as well as other stuff I find interesting in the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Sachit on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sachitgupta)

Conscious Creators Show (http://www.creators.show/)

Danny Miranda is an inspiration and the host of the Danny Miranda podcast. He's gone from 0 to 55,000 downloads in the past 6 months, published 87 awesome conversations, and has shared countless stories of his hustle on Twitter. This conversation goes beyond what Danny has done with his podcast and captures his overall personality, his habits, and his worldview. He's done a lot in 6 months, but I cannot imagine the places he'll go in 6 years and beyond. Hope you can learn from him as much as I did. 

Here are the show notes :)

02:14 - Getting a reply from Mark Cuban

03:32 - Tyler Cowen and my heavy focus on research

06:39 - 75 hard and how I started thinking long term

08:38 - Making friends on the internet is a superpower

09:46 - The role of my parents in my success

10:30 - Gary vee, Kanye West, and Rick Ross

11:50 - Failing in public and Shooting your shots

13:12 - Spotting trends and people early

14:09 - Consistency and my relationship with my audience

15:02 - Setting internal goals

16:39 - Podcasts are you reviewing a person

18:11 - I studied Larry king and Tim Ferriss to learn the skill of interviewing

19:25 - The radical Shopify course I made

21:05 - Happiness comes from struggle

23:11 - I'd love someone to help me with video clips

23:48 - Meditation is letting thoughts go through me

24:32 - My first million YouTube game

25:22 - Having phone calls with my 8k followers

28:39 - Sharing your authentic journey online

31:15 - 3 guests I'd love to interview in stadiums

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests as well as other stuff I find interesting in the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Danny on Twitter (https://twitter.com/heydannymiranda)

The Danny Miranda Podcast (https://dannymiranda.com/podcast)

This conversation is led by Bleacher Report founder Dave Nemetz, featuring Polina Marinova (The Profile Dossier), Jonathan Hunt (Complex), and Brian Morrissey (Digiday Media). The lessons compressed in this conversation are wide-ranging and if there's anything you need to learn about content-led growth, this is it. It was originally held on Clubhouse for Dave's awesome show, The Audience Builders, and I reached out to him requesting to post this on Steal My Marketing 2 days back. And BOOM. Enjoy the conversation :)

And btw, I spent last night reading through some of the best essays I've read in a while on Dave's blog. Tons of material on the early days of Bleacher Report. Check it out - (https://davenemetz.com/essays)

Here are the show notes :)

02:17 - How I scaled The Profile Dossier to tens of thousands of subscribers

08:51 - Convincing Morning Brew newsletter with 2.5 million subscribers to collaborate with me

10:44 - Complex: the convergence of culture and how we built a business around it

16:15 - Going full time with your creative projects and the systematic bias toward strong networks

20:44 - Substack severely lacks creator tools and how to improve it

27:16 - Retaining talent in the media space after they become stars

29:18 - Paid podcasts marketplaces in China and funding creators like startups

36:12 - Every couple of years, someone proclaims that websites are dead. They’re not.

40:35 - Why publishing everything at midnight gives Digiday a leverage

44:17 - Creating evergreen content and the power of long-tail

47:07 - Evergreen Profiles by Polina: Elon Musk and Charlie Munger

I write a few awesome emails a month here (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Dave Nemetz (https://twitter.com/davenemetz)

Polina Marinova (https://twitter.com/polina_marinova)

Jonathan Hunt (https://twitter.com/jonathan_h)

Brian Morrissey (https://twitter.com/bmorrissey)

Darius Mirshahzadeh is a serial entrepreneur and a bestselling author. He spent his childhood in Iran and the US and learned the core principles of business from watching his dad run gas stations. I loved the stories of him selling candy in school to starting a nightclub business in college. Although the nightclub failed, it taught him valuable lessons. We also talked about Tony Hsieh ( and Holacracy), Elon Musk ( and luck), wresting (and staying in the game), and the interesting story behind his book.  

Here are the show notes :)

02:20 - My Story

03:12 - Culture, Leadership and Navy Seals

06:07 - Tony Hsieh, Holacracy and why it failed 

9:28 - Iranians being the Italians of the middle east and childhood

11:22 - Lessons from my dad 

13:09 - Running a candy business in school and a failed nightclub business in college

16:47 - Why I'd never start a nightclub business

18:43 - A good market hides all the dead bodies

23:00 - Wrestling is a sport where you get your ass kicked until you're good 

25:08 - Elon Musk - luck and staying in the game long enough 

29:17 - A keynote that turned into a book and why books are a 5-year time investment

31:31 - The Greatness Machine and podcasting 

I write a few awesome emails a month here (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Darius on Twitter (https://twitter.com/kingdarius)

Darius' Website (https://therealdarius.com)

Austen Allred is the founder of Lambda School and one of the smartest entrepreneurs trying to fix education. We talked about Austen's fascination with reading history in the context of business, his deep interest in shareholder letters and internal memos of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Disney, and other great companies, and his thoughts on first principles thinking. He also shared how a Mormon mission he went to at age 19 in Eastern Ukraine has shaped Lambda, how he built his network in silicon valley, and putting 100% of his net worth in Tesla. He put out his bear and bull case for Clubhouse and why he thinks it's a $400 billion company. I thoroughly enjoyed discussing topics like Peloton replacing religion in America, the death of silicon valley, democratizing angel investing, and raising a $30 million fund without even intending to do so. It was a fun conversation.

Here are the show notes :)

02:42 - Why I love reading biographies of The Wright Brothers and John D Rockefeller

04:56 - Amazon's shareholder letters are the best business writing ever

05:41 - Thinking in first principles can be taught

07:10 - Spending 2 years in Eastern Ukraine at the age of 19 and how that has shaped Lambda School

09:16 - I'm used to a lot less dopamine than most people 

11:36 -  People are way more open to cold emails than most people assume

12:46 - How I built my network in silicon valley from scratch

15:01 - How the world will look like if Lambda school succeeds 

17:05 - Why I put 100% of my net worth in Tesla

18:38 - Clubhouse will be a $400 Billion company

21:06 - Twitter Spaces lacks the magical experience of Clubhouse and why it will fail

23:08 - Lambda school is priced low even though it feels high to a lot of people

25:25 - How I'd grow a podcast really, really fast

26:13 - If I wasn't doing Lambda School, I'd probably work for Roam Research

27:10 - Peloton is replacing religion in America

28:24 - CEO-COO relationship and the common thing among all great silicon valley companies

30:22 - Giving away free services for hyper-growth 

31:36 - Why startups are now taking less than $5000 angel investments

34:30 - Silicon valley is dying

37:17 - Raising a $30 million fund without intending to

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests as well as other stuff I find interesting in the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Austen on Twitter (https://twitter.com/austen)

Lambda School (https://lambdaschool.com/)

Mubs has been making things since he was about 8 years old. Selected as ProductHunt's maker of the year for 2016, Mubs has worked on 100+ side projects. He's collaborated with Nathan Latka on Founderpath and done tons of cool things. We talked about some of his successful early projects, Product Hunt, podcasts, no-code, Nathan Latka, and more.  

Here are the show notes :)

00:50 - My first side project tracking football games as a Liverpool fan

02:33 - It took weeks to set up servers back in 2000

04:07 - A side project that got 4 million pages views in its first week and others

10:01 - Looking for ideas and validating them

14:10 - How Product Hunt has evolved over the years

16:33 -  An idea I thought would never get traction but is now used by corporations

18:53 - Why Podhunt is rethinking podcast recommendation systems

23:03 - Taking multiple small bets vs solving 1 big problem 

24:55 - Working with Nathan Latka and what it's like

28:14 - Think of how your product serves the Product Hunt audience and how we did it with Founderpath

31:42 - Thoughts on no-code tools 

33:56 - The most interesting people I've met on PH and Indiehackers 

34:57 - Josh Pigford and my definition of success

36:22 - My advice to young entrepreneurs

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests as well as other stuff I find interesting in the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Mubs' Twitter (https://twitter.com/mubashariqbal)

I read Richa's Indiehackers story when it first came out and sent her a DM on Twitter. I was surprised by how much she knows about Youtube's algorithm and I've never met anyone who understands Youtube SEO to the core, as much as Richa does. We talked about how she left her job at Microsoft to start Coach Viva, meeting her cofounder, and their road to 6 figures. Along the way, Richa has mastered Youtube ( her main customer acquisition channel), copywriting ( their landing page converts at a mind-boggling 17%), and the psychological barriers that were stopping customers from trying out Coach Viva. We also talked about going from a 1-on-1 consulting agency to SaaS and a super-smart book summary startup idea. More in the show notes below :)

00:56 - Why I left Microsoft to start Coach Viva

03:17 - What holds your customers back is the psychological piece, not the strategic piece

04:25 - User interview to validate my idea

06:46 - Building an MVP with Facebook Messenger and Google Sheets

07:36 - Finding a cofounder 

08:29 - Our first customers came from our personal network

09:18 - Youtube SEO as our main customer acquisition channel 

10:44 - Moving from an agency model to a productized service

13:20 - Youtube wants it to be easy to categorize your videos

17:54 - The exact tools we use to nail Youtube

21:15 - Most marketing advice is geared towards companies that have some cash to burn

23:23 - Copywriting the landing page that converts at 17%

26:32 - Understanding the beliefs of your customer at an intimate level

28:44 - Our sales shot up when we started pitching our product in every video

32:00 - Selling to customers outside the tech crowd is very difficult the lean startup way 

35:03 - Why you should share 'Why and What' content instead of 'How' content in emails

37:06 -  Riding on keywords that people are already searching for

38:19 - A unique book summary idea and making unknowns into knowns

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests as well as other stuff I find interesting in the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Coach Viva (https://coachviva.com)

Richa's Twitter (https://twitter.com/arichaprasad)

I went into this episode thinking I'd learn about travel during covid and the tiny house movement. I came out learning about habits, reading books, journaling, meditation, engineering luck, and much more. Last year, Hector was working in a startup as the head of growth and getting burned out when he went to a 10-day silent retreat in the Himalayas. He returned to chaos. The latest round of funding had fallen through and half of the company was fired. That's when Hector decided to try his idea -> a 3-day experience in a cabin in the woods, with your phones locked away in a box, among birds and grass and books and binoculars. National media loved it, the customers are booked for all of 2020 and they're expanding. One of the joys of doing the podcast is talking to founders very early in their journey. This was one :) 

SHOW NOTES

01:16 - Introduction

03:02 - The unplugged experience 

04:13 - Locking away customers' phone 

05:32 - Growing up in the countryside 

06:50 - Joining a startup 

08:17 - Failing in sales, product, and growth 

10:44 - Learning from being around founders 

12:23 - Expansion, distribution, and mistakes 

14:54 - Quitting drinking, meditation, traveling to India and the birth of an idea 

19:42 - Reading, Headspace, Transcendental meditation and changing bad habits 

26:00 - Making peace with your mistakes 

29:32 - Social Media and our relationship with our devices 

31:30 - Journaling and how the trip to India changed me 

37:05 - Tiny house movement and Unplugged 

40:06 - Learning from customers and experimentation 

43:24 - Cost of buying cabins and my first one 

45:38 - First Principles and cultural nuances in your startup experience 

49:38 - Expanding with the 2nd cabin and a subscription box 

52:32 - Getting covered in national media and engineering luck 

54:27 - Customer Demographic of Unplugged and reaching out to them 

58:24 - Connect with me 

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests as well as other stuff I find interesting in the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com) 

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Hector's Newsletter (https://unplugging.substack.com) 

Hector's LinkedIn (https://linkedin.com/in/hector-hughes-10082195/)

Sid Jha started a weekly newsletter in May 2019, while he was in college, sharing his observations on books and academic papers, unique business stories, and a few niche parts of the internet. He sent the first few editions to his close friends and over time has built a base of 3000+ subscribers. He's since met some very interesting people like David Perell and Packy Mccormick and learned a ton of lessons. These days, 30% of his articles are based on stuff shared by his readers, which is quite amazing. Ever since I interviewed Dickie Bush a few weeks back, I wanted to interview someone in the newsletter space again and Sid is one of the most interesting people I've met online. His tips on starting a newsletter and building distribution into the content are really valuable. We talked about a lot of interesting things - more in the show notes below. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Happy Sunday :)

SHOW NOTES

01:40 - Introduction and College

02:48 - Sunday Snapshots and why I started writing the newsletter 

04:01 - The habit of reading 

05:41 - The American and Indian culture of entrepreneurship

07:07 - Entrepreneurship is an investment with unbounded upside 

08:05 - Taking notes and breaking down the Starbucks loyalty system

10:48 - My process of writing and the value of consistency 

12:55 - My process of crafting an edition of Sunday Snapshots newsletter 

14:36 - When I realized people outside my friend circle had started reading the newsletter

17:05 - David Perell and Packy Mccormick

18:28 - Building a personal monopoly and the infinite leverage of the internet

20:15 - Accountability is underappreciated and why super-rich people are fit

21:27 - How I'm building my personal monopoly with observation-based writing on tech, history, or people

23:40 - How I'd grow a newsletter from scratch if I started today

26:31 - Building distribution into your content and why you should never write about Mark Zuckerberg

27:56 - Your Chief of staff would be an extension of your abilities and should complement you

30:30 - How I made sure my breakdowns of Lyndon B. Johnson's went viral

32:02 - Narvar and controlling the post-purchase experience of e-commerce

33:50 - LBJ book series and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

34:43 - My favorite newsletters - The Generalist, Femstreet, Remains if the day, Sari Azout, Eugene Wei, and Venture Desktop

36:24 - Asking users to share my content and managing scale

37:36 - I'd rather have fewer subscribers than a low email open rate

39:04 - Success according to me

39:54 - Ideas I'm playing with for the next editions of the newsletter

40:57 - Start your newsletter today, set a deadline, and commit to it

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests as well as other stuff I find interesting  in the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Sunday Snapshots (https://sss.substack.com)

Sid's Twitter (https://twitter.com/sidharthajha)

Sid's Longform Essays (https://www.sidharthajha.com)

Andy Bailey is the founder of NationLink Wireless (sold) and Petra Coach. As a kid, he'd climb trees, pull mistletoes and go door to door selling them. He'd sold candy bars, oil lamps, books, cut grass, and worked at a factory, all before graduating from school. In college, he started a landscaping business and a car phone installation business. While still in college, he started NationLink Wireless, which he grew into one of the top 200 fastest-growing privately-owned companies in the country.  

Since selling NationLink, Andy has pursued his calling of helping other entrepreneurs scale their business. We talk about how Andy went $1.5 million in debt and clawed his way back, the stories behind the businesses he's started, helping founders find their purpose, climbing mountains, running a half marathon, writing a journal, and much more. 

SHOW NOTES

02:02 - Introduction

03:57 - How I ended up with 2 software companies in the process of scaling Petra Coach

06:56 - Selling candy bars, mistletoes, and oil lamps in schools

08:27 - How a class on sales in college changed my life

11:17 - NationLink, and other businesses I started in the early days

14:25 - Going $1.5 Million in debt in the process of selling NationLink and lessons learned

18:52 - Building a business that you could sell for $0 and still be fine

21:30 - Selling time for money and building a business that makes money while I sleep

23:20 - There are very few points in a person’s life where we actually have the ability to design what we want next

25:09 - Every coach coaches the same damn sport in a different way

27:28 - Working on the business instead of working in the business

30:10 - How we helped a healthcare company find its purpose

34:24 - Why we don’t hire people who’ve never run a successful business

36:29 - Learning John D. Rockefeller’s habits from Verne Harnish

39:04 - Entrepreneur’s organization

41:32 - Writing a journal, gratitude, exercise, and reading 10 minutes a day

47:00 - Climbing mountains and why I ran a half marathon with a 20-pound weight on my shoulders

49:34 - Favourite books

51:55 - The most successful person according to me and re-setting my reading goals each year

53:35 - Entrepreneurship in Nashville

54:22 - The best place to reach out to me

54:50 - Make your passion profitable and then scale it

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests as well as other stuff I find interesting  in the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com/)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Andy's daily video series (https://www.facebook.com/petracoach)

Petra Coach (https://petracoach.com/)

Andy's book "No Try Only Do" - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34895649-no-try-only-do

Matthew Stafford was working for a government-backed program connecting investors and founders when he had an idea of conducting founders' dinners. 9 years back, almost to this date, he conducted the first 9others dinner in Central London. That dinner has led to 100s of other dinners in 46 cities around the world and has connected 4000+ entrepreneurs. It later led to Matthew's angel investments and laid the foundations for Dot Matrix Group. 

But Matthew's entrepreneurial journey didn't start here. It started much earlier when he was in school selling recorded TV programs to his friends or selling t-shirts to pubs, right after college, or hosting a Y Combinator event in London which was never about to happen in the first place. Matthew's journey is the journey of hustle. When he was out of depth, he tried. When he was disappointed, he tried. When he failed, he tried. In many ways, it's a simple story. In other ways, it's an astounding journey of a boy who dreams.

SHOW NOTES

01:37 - Introduction

02:14 - How working for a government-backed program led to the idea of 9others and founders dinners

09:40 - Reaching out to investors and founders through networking events 

12:09 - Why we kept 9others gatherings deliberately small, over a meal and paid sessions, and made sure it was valuable to all members. 

17:27 - If you run a Saas company, talking to the guy who runs a coffee chain is the best thing you can do

20:28 - Expanding the network to other countries and helping billionaire Ryan Graves launch Uber in London

27:23 - Revenue structure of 9others

29:14 - Setting the rules of the game and why paid memberships work better for problem-solving events

32:56 - Reflecting on inspiring entrepreneurs I've met through 9others - Uber, Citymapper, What3words

38:10 - Growing up on a farm

39:27 - Starting a t-shirt company right after school 

43:00 - Writing 100 letters a day to get my first customers

45:40 - Talking myself into a job, getting an MBA, and why everyone should try selling t-shirts online

49:06 - Hosting the coolest YC event ever

54:09 - Starting my own investment syndicate - Dot Matrix Group

58:56 - My investment philosophy and Founder - Product Fit 

59:24 - Favorite Books

01:01:07 - The next decade will be about people realizing everyone can become an angel investor

01:02:50 - Why Chris Sacca is my greatest inspiration

01:05:22 - Think about what you can contribute - Give more than you take

01:06:27 - Connect with me

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests as well as other stuff I find interesting  in the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com/)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Matthew's Twitter (https://twitter.com/mstafford)

Matthew's Newsletter (https://matthewstafford.substack.com/)

9others - https://9others.com

Dot Matrix Group - https://www.dotmatrixgroup.com

This episode happened because I got lucky :D  I was scrolling Twitter and saw Dickie’s tweet. He basically said he was available for 3 hours the next day and was looking for ideas. I asked him to come up on the podcast and within 24 hours, we were on call. The magic of the internet :)

Dickie has an interesting story. He started writing a curation of his favorite podcast episodes, book notes, and articles on his newsletter, Dickie's Digest, at the beginning of 2020.  He started with 5 subscribers and now has 1000+ subscribers from 29 countries in just 10 months. He writes awesome tweet threads, read by Naval Ravikant, and Tim Ferriss, to name a few, and just started a community for writers last week that already has 100+ members the last time I checked.

SHOW NOTES

02:21 - Introduction

04:28 - Playing football for Princeton University

05:50 - Starting Dickie’s Digest newsletter and unlocking the leverage of the internet

08:22 - Business growth, people growth, and systems growth

09:17 - My first subscribers were my family and two roommates

10:20 - Most people don’t want to be told it’ll take them 30 weeks to reach 200 subscribers

11:43 - In content creation, there is something about credibility that is formed as a result of your consistency

13:00 - The most viral tweet thread I wrote and it went viral

15:37 - What I learned from  Anthony Pompliano and David Perell

17:43 - Lessons from War of Art and beating the resistance

19:33 - Minimum Viable Action

22:03 - Intentional day planning, optimizing my days for flow and context switching

24:36 - The most marked-up books on my bookshelf

26:03 - Stoicism

28:26 - Lessons from best sports coaches - Nick Saban, Phil Jackson, Bill Belichick

30:27 - Why you should start writing a journal - 500 words a day for 500 days

32:13 - All things Dickie's Digest

33:48 - My entire process of writing Dickie's Digest

37:35 - Content aggregators that I look up to

40:33 - Anyone who wants to become a better writer should learn copywriting and the best books on copywriting

42:26 - Content creators who are killing it on Twitter

43:22 - How to write great Twitter threads and how I do it

46:17 - Writing a newsletter is the highest leverage thing you can do with an hour of your time

47:16 - My favorite podcasts

48:31 - If you’re optimizing for one thing in life, it should be for your energy levels

50:08 - Twitter has democratized access to some of the smartest thinkers on earth

52:27 - Why I believe Chamath Palihapitiya is the most successful person 

54:07 - Rolling funds and how Shaan Puri and Anthony Pompliano raised their multi-million dollar funds from Twitter

55:42 - SPACs and why you should invest in one

59:20 - Connect with me

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests as well as other stuff I find interesting  in the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com/)

You can also follow me on Twitter for similar stuff. My DMs are open (https://twitter.com/AbhishekLpd)

Dickie's Website (https://www.dickiebush.com/)

Dickie's Twitter (https://twitter.com/dickiebush)

Dickie's Digest (https://dickiebush.substack.com/)

Corey Haines tells this crazy story of how he got his first marketing job, within 3 days, to propose to his girlfriend. Last year, he left his job as the head of growth of Baremetrics, to go bootstrapping full-time. He's since worked on Hey Marketers ( a job for only for marketers), Swipe Files (a curated library of the best marketing examples with detailed teardowns of what makes them great), Mental Models for Marketing (Mental models and frameworks have literally been a game-changer in being able to think about marketing as a whole) and Refactoring growth (how profitable software businesses systematically acquire and retain customers the hack-free, spam-free way). He also hosts 2 podcasts, writes on his blog regularly, and shares very valuable marketing tips on Twitter. It was through Twitter that I started exploring his content and was flabbergasted by the sheer amount of good content he produces. He has so much to share, and we're here to listen :)

SHOW NOTES

02:17 - Introduction

03:20 - A trip with friends that changed the trajectory of my life

05:30 - Podcasts that inspired me to explore marketing

07:10 - Took my first job to propose to my girlfriend

08:30 - How I started Hey Marketers

10:35 - Tips on creating your own job board

13:20 - The idea behind Mental Models for marketing

15:17 - How learning timeless frameworks and principles behind marketing was a game-changer for me

19:20 - We hire products just like we hire people 

25:30 - Building an audience 

28:10 - My stairstep approach to building an online business

33:00 - I had the idea of Swipe Files while trying to launch Baremetrics' affiliate program. 

37:20 - My favorite Books and Podcasts 

38:45 - Customer research is the ultimate competitive advantage

40:48 - Great resources on copywriting

43:03 - Why I'm documenting my entrepreneurial journey on my podcast

45:04 - Time management and juggling multiple projects together

46:14 - People I follow on Twitter for their awesome content

49:00 - Why I'd rather be Warren Buffett than Elon Musk

50:50 - The one thing I'm good at, that I'm not widely known for

52:42 - Leaving a legacy

54:25 - If you're already on some kind of trajectory, you don't need a mentor

55:40 - The best place to reach out to me

I share all the articles/podcasts/books I consume during researching my guests on the newsletter as well as other stuff I find interesting (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com/)

Corey's Website (https://www.coreyhaines.co/)

Corey's Twitter (https://twitter.com/coreyhainesco)

The guide to validating startup ideas ->  https://guide.opryshok.com/ (use code "stealmm" for $5 off)

Jesse Cole became the General Manager of the Gastonia Grizzlies baseball team and took it from losing $100,000 a year and $268 in the bank account to selling out games. After selling the team he bought the Savannah Bananas baseball team and went on from selling a single ticket in the first 2 months to sell a million tickets. He's turned baseball games into a circus, with grandma beauty pageants, choreographed dance routines by players, male cheerleading squads, and many more crazy, awesome ideas. In the process, he's made his company, Fans First Entertainment, one of the fastest-growing companies in America and has transformed many lives along the way. Here's his story, and how he did it. 

SHOW NOTES

01:40 - Introduction

02:02 - Owning 2 baseball teams at a young age

03:50 - My dad loved baseball and taught me to follow my passion

05:35 - Sometimes you gotta try lots of things to find your passion

07:50 - One of the most dangerous things you can have is success

10:08 - It took 10 years of hard work to make Gastonia Grizzlies successful

11:10 - The toughest times in people's lives are short term

13:00 - COVID - What an amazing time to test new ideas

15:24 - Removing all ads from Savannah Bananas stadium

17:20 - Livestreaming baseball matches - Bananas Insider

18:16 - You have to be willing to be misunderstood at first

21:29- Offering an internship to Barack Obama

23:28 - Validating ideas

25:56 - Hiring employees looking at their FUTURE resumes

27:48 - Three-year vision for Savannah Bananas

31:06 - Mentors - Walt Disney, Bill Veeck, and P.T. Barnum

34:28 - Learning from brands outside the industry

38:35 - Books that have inspired me

40:12 - Paying employees to read books and learning together

43:00 - How a Thank You letter led to writing "Find Your Yellow Tux"

45:45 - The Thank You Experiment

48:31 - Miracle Morning and daily routine

51:39 - Favorite podcasts

53:22 - Why I started my podcast

54:20 - Connecting with Jesse

For weekly updates on podcast episodes, subscribe to the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com/)

Jesse's Website (https://findyouryellowtux.com/)

Jesse's Twitter (https://twitter.com/YellowTuxJesse)

Jesse's Book  (https://www.amazon.com/Find-Your-Yellow-Tux-Successful/dp/161961846X)

Jesse's Podcast (https://findyouryellowtux.com/category/podcasts/)

The Savannah Bananas (https://thesavannahbananas.com/)

Arvid Kahl built his SaaS business FeedbackPanda from $0 to $55,000 MRR in 2 years, without any outside funding or marketing spend. After selling it in 2019, he started sharing his lessons on Twitter and his blog (https://thebootstrappedfounder.com) which later turned into his book "Zero to Sold". He also runs a newsletter and podcast where he shares his lessons in business and things he's learned along the way.  Zero to Sold is an amazing book with decades of lessons condensed into 500 pages. I loved it so much I immediately wanted to bring Arvid on the show and pick his brain. Thankfully, he agreed :)

SHOW NOTES

01:35 - Introduction 

04:14 - How studying politics and philosophy helped Arvid understand complex human behaviors in coding

06:46 - You cannot prove things right. You can only prove them wrong

08:10 - Describing Feedbackpanda and the early days of validating the idea

16:25 - Finding good problems to solve 

18:00 - When people use Excel sheets, it's an opportunity for a SaaS business

21:55 - How Feedbackpanda got its first users from a single comment in a Facebook Group

23:05 - Prioritizing features for your SaaS product 

26:31 - Why Indiehackers should focus on niche SaaS markets   

32:55 - A local marketplace idea that failed because Arvid did not understand the workflow of his customers.

37:08 - How to ask the right questions and The Mom Test.

40:47 - Being part of niche communities is a basic requirement of understanding your customers

43:23 - Growing Twitter community from 400 to 8k followers in 11 months. 

45:38 - Selling 2500+ copies of Zero to Sold and creating building products with your audience. 

48:14 - How the Indiehacker community is uniquely helpful to upcoming entrepreneurs.  

50:19 - Why Arvid started a newsletter for Feedbackpanda sharing stories of his customers.

55:26 - How writing a blog paved the path for Zero to Sold

01:01:02 - Why 30-day free trials are better than 7-day free trials

01:04:55 - Arvid's favorite books

01:07:30 - Places to connect to Arvid

For weekly updates on podcast episodes, subscribe to the newsletter (https://stealmymarketing.substack.com/)

Arvid's Blog (https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/)

Arvid's Twitter (https://twitter.com/arvidkahl)

Arvid's Book  (https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/zero-to-sold/)

Arvid's newsletter (https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter/)

Arvid's Podcast (https://bootstrapped-founder.transistor.fm/episodes)