9 slides I've used to generate $9M in revenue (steal these):

9 TED Talks in 9 days that will change your life:

Day 1:

Sleep is your Superpower by Matt Walker

• How we can get better sleep
• Why sleep is our life-support system
• Sleep's impact on learning, memory, and our immune

Day 2:

The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown

• How happiness leads to courage
• Understand the importance of feeling connected

Day 3:

Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator by Tim Urban

• The conflict between the "instant gratification monkey" and the rational mind
• Why we binge YouTube and Netflix to avoid important

Day 4:

Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are by Amy Cuddy

• Power-posing and how it can change your mood
• How confidence leads to more successful outcomes

If you want to give yourself a personal MBA, read these 10 books:

Zero to One
by Peter Thiel

Subject: Strategy and Positioning

Lessons:

• Last can be first
• Rivalry causes us to copy the past
• Progress comes from monopoly, not competition

Expert Secrets
by Russel Brunson

Subject: Marketing

Lessons:

• Maintain absolute certainty
• The riches are in the niches
• Convince with emotion first, then logic

$100M Offers
by Alex Hormozi

Subject: Sales

Lessons:

• Create grand slam offers
• Find the starving crowd
• The fundamental equation of value

Deep Work
by Cal Newport

Subject: Productivity

Lessons:

• Embrace boredom
• Create daily rituals
• Find your work-style
• Treat work like a craft

A thread on employee equity in early stage startups -- what are the compensation norms? What every early employee should ask? Some thoughts on whether the structure is fair.

Read on >>

1) First, there are NO NORMS! Hah. I have literally seen everything from giving early employees no equity to giving employee #1s near co-founder level of shares.

But what is more common than not?

2) In the Silicon Valley, if you're hiring your 1st employee, & you've raised NO $$ & are paying very little (e.g $0-$10k / yr or thereabouts), your first employee is basically a co-founder.

And the equity tranche for employee 1 should be closer to a co-founder level.

3) For ex, a friend of mine gave his employee #1 10% (vesting over 4 yrs of course) of the business. This employee was only getting his housing paid for. And this was 10 yrs ago, so it was during the bust.

4) On the flip side, if you have raised some $$ & are paying employee #1 near mkt rate, typically I see around here ppl get 1-5% (w/ vesting).

Caveat - near mkt rate doesn't mean compared to Google or FB salary rates. I mean compared to "normal big cos"

22 startup principles to scale your company in 2022:

1) The obstacle is the way

Every hard problem you solve is a moat that others will shrink from.

Most people don’t have the stamina for hard work.

Challenges completed are insurance policies against competition.

2) Sell your story, not your product

Your company isn’t a product, it’s a story.

Great stories attract great employees and great customers.

Sell your story.

3) Focus on leverage

Points of leverage are areas where inputs can disproportionally affect outputs:

- A better conversion funnel impacts all sales
- A better sales process impacts all revenue
- A better onboarding process reduces churn

4) Focus on customers, not competitors

Success comes down to whether people will pay you to solve their problems.

Competitive intelligence is useful to understand where other attempts to solve a problem fall short.

But the customer’s actions speak loudest.

Today, my little one-person business crossed $3M in revenue.

It took 1,187 days, I ran zero ads & operate at a 94% margin.

Here are the 20 steps of my wild & strange journey:

Hope it's helpful to someone.

[🧵 thread]

1/ Created lots of noise

When I was just getting started, I looked at attention as my friend.

I wrote content every day before I even had a business, just to find my voice.

I started on LinkedIn.

I shared my thoughts & observations about building a SaaS unicorn as the CRO.

2/ Honed in on signals

Inside all of that noise was some signals.

Sometimes I bombed, and sometimes I struck a chord.

The more I looked at what resonated, the more I doubled down.

This allowed me to understand what people cared about.

So, I kept writing & talking about it.

3/ Built a service business

My experience building SaaS was resonating. So I began creating more and more content about that.

Founders sent me DMs asking questions.

I responded to every single one.

Once I had prospects in my funnel, I started consulting.

4/ Found my ideal customers

Inside your customer base is more signals.

What are the commonalities between the customers you love & those who love you?

Mine were early-stage SMB SaaS in the healthcare space. A space I was experienced in & loved.

That became my ideal customer.

Becoming a creator in 2023 will change your life.

Here are 13 tips to make the switch from a consumer to a creator:

Set a Daily “Make Something” Goal

Grab a sticky note and write “make something today"--stick it to your computer monitor.

Your goal is simply to make something--anything--every single day.

Set the bar low and make it achievable.

Creation will start to become a habit.

Document What You Make

Start documenting your daily creation.

Post it online with a few sentences about what it means to you.

Was it an idea floating around in your head for months? A mini essay you've been meaning to write? Code that you finally figured out?

Document it.

Decide Before You Start

Too often I sit down at my computer and wonder what I should work on. That’s dangerous.

The Trick: Decide what you are going to do beforehand.

Write a to do list beforehand, then immediately jump into that first task.

Remove the guesswork.

Separate Creation & Consumption

Computers are for creating, not consuming.

Go to all your social sites and sign out. Set up your computer as your creation hub.

Use your phone or tablet for consumption.

One device is used for creating, the other for consuming.