What’s one thing you’ve learned about writing sales copy that you wouldn’t learn from a book like Cashvertising?
That reading is worth 1/10th as much as actually doing and practicing.
Top performer at MBB consulting, looking into exit options. goal to be 100% self employed in ~5-10 years (not partner track). Looking for a good balance of $, free time to work on eComm, and learning entrepreneurship relevant skills.
Which would you choose?
Venture Capital Associate (mid cap- est 230k)
Private Equity Associate (mid cap – est 230k)
Early stage start up (est 165k + small equity)
None of the above (ideas?)
Venture capital but they are all about the same. VC offers more insight into start ups though so probably slight edge there
Should I stack aside money to go to real networking events (I’m talking about closed events, VIP parties and so on – “real” networking events) upon invitation, so that I can improve my social skills in the presence of rich people and potentially get a job/do a gig for them? I’m talking about flying to other countries.
Absolutely not, networking events don’t have any value.
Then what kind of events actually *have* value?
None. You become connected when you have value as people come to you to ask to work with/for you.
Rest is just marketing
I am doing Native ads and not Facebook because everyone is getting banned no matter if it’s black/white/greyhat.
I want to do Facebook because that is where the big dogs are ($100,000+ profit per day) but I can’t figure out the account game. Did you have a resource for this problem when you faced it?
Not sure what you mean, if you’re running legal ads you’re good to go. Haven’t had an issues in ~3 years now
People are being banned left and right on fb whether they run white hat offers or not
Haven’t had this issue, can see how that’s the case though as they prefer the long-term clients. Would just constantly email them and harass to prove you’re compliant
You haven’t had any accounts banned in the pat 1-3 years? You’re either not running your own ads on FB or promoting something ungodly white hat
We’ve been whitehat for a long time now
Hi WSPs
Where did you manufacture your anterior physical product (the sold business): US, China…?
if it’s abroad, did you visit them?
Thanks
Definitely not answering this, but same answer is that you want to go to read eshows to find the best place and yes visit
1) How much weight do you put in the recent yield curve inversion?
2) Internet marketing as we know it has never seen a recession. Personally I’m wondering if some of these online business owners will get blown up in a recession. What’s your prediction on ad revenues, affiliate marketing, and online consumer spending during a down cycle?
1) no real change we think a downturn occurs around 2021 after election cycle
2) usually cost of ads goes down, since less competition for the bids
1) According to efficiency, we should never go into production b4 testing demand. Apart from placing 3d rendered products on my website and test how they fare, are there other ways to gauge demand?
2) Apart from google SEO, what are some other ways to drive traffic to a site to test demand? I thought of hiring influencers to promote my product but the issue is that the product doesn’t yet exist (since I haven’t gone into production yet) so this is unlikely to fly.
Side note (not a question): In your most recent post, you guys indicated you now have a lot more free time now. If so, do consider bringing pay for answer section back!
Thanks
1) you just look at the click through conversion rate that’s you’re answer. If it’s a product that doesn’t need have online sales funnels we don’t know what to do
2) word of mouth, seo and paid ads are about all there is. You can do influencers but if you don’t even have a product you’re just wasting time. Influencers only good after you are established for a bit though the big three already listed in the first sentence here
Thank you
1. Have you ever hired freelance front-end engineers or website designers? If so, what platforms are best- (Upwork vs. fiverr or word of mouth referrals)?
2. Favorite restaurant in Manhattan for a date? (optimizing for overall experience, not just food)
1) yes all referrals from people we trust
2) we don’t do dating questions anymore, any restaurant close to where you live that is $100 a person or more should be fine
Legit ressources to learn paid traffic? Stack that money forum?
Thanks a lot!
There are no legit sources, the only legit one is to buy traffic yourself, copy competitors and find someone who is already successful to help you.
Just like anything else money related, it’s about working with smart people and practicing yourself
I use STM – definitely takes some of the guesswork out of running campaigns. It’ll teach you tracking, “swiping” landing pages, hosting, running traffic, optimizing using landers/banners/offers, and scaling using credit cards. Highly recommend.
WSPBs “buy traffic yourself” will lead to massive amounts of wasted capital without optimization and an understanding of the campaign launch/optimization process.
Good to know thx!
Starting out want to make money in something while developing skills. Im working a full time job what would you recommend?
1) Freelance Copywriting (to build up skills that you can apply)- or is this area getting too saturated and hard to get clients? Know you need to practice writing for real clients to build up skills but not sure how to differentiate from million other copywriters to get client in first place
2) Ecom- (assume this requires a hefty investment)
3) Start Digital agency and cold call for clients
None get a high paying white collar corriste gig and do the real idea at work. This is covered in our books
Third world country, early 30s. My salary is approx $1000 per month but I’m for now not easily replaceable and I have free time at work.
Was able to incorporate a digital marketing agency in the UK through a friend and set up a website with the ability to take recurring payments. Have £234 from first client (a friend, who may cancel before his next instalment cos of the exchange rate).
Question: Wanna do a lead generation campaign on FB to find western prospects then warm call so I can do SEO for on a monthly retainer (I can identify issues site issues and correct them). Do you have any advice or a better strategy?
Endgame is product after learning affiliate marketing but I need to get revenue and build capital. Uphill task but lower cost of living here means I can achieve financial freedom quicker if I get the sales right.
Your strategy seems viable
Unfortunately we don’t know anyone in lead gen and have never focused on leadgen
Thanks!
If I wanted to sell a product around skincare or supplements, is it better to also create articles and put them on the website to attract potential customers. Or is paid traffic onto the website’s landing page the best way?
If you have the time (bandwidth) a blog on the side helps. It just isn’t necessary and shouldn’t be the reason you’re profitable
As a VC associate in a niche industry should I focus on building a side business related to my current focus or expand elsewhere? Trying to balance getting promoted, avoiding conflicts, and being efficient with getting a side business going
Surprisingly doesn’t matter, sometimes your skills don’t align with your focus industry today
If you find an opportunity just jump on it regardless of industry
Thanks again!
Just graduated from college and started working this month, should I look at maximizing my contribution to 401K? (0 income this year until this month)
My company match 50% up until your annual limit (19,000), so $9500. And there this Roth Backdoor thing.
Covered in our books and on the blog.
Hey WSP,
I get some of the points on your post on quitting but it seems to be more art than science. Is that right?
For example one year growth might be slow but it might be due any number of reasons.
Maybe side question how do you know it has truly plateaued to exit?
Have a great day
1) yes always exceptions
2) usually one year of no growth, time to leave
Q1: What is the best time (generally) to fit in your 1h/day workout, while still working on your first million? If in a morning, it wakes you-up. If in the evening, it helps with falling asleep. But if you’re optimizing for money, when is it best to do your training?
Q2: How can overcome the internal negative barrier of “I am not where I supposed to be”. It depresses me that I made mistakes in the past, not from the lack of trying to succeed but due to lack of data due to being an immigrant kid with no parents (your content opened my eyes, although very painful).
Q2b: (fun question, delete if you want): What do you think of Naval Ravikant’s recent tweet storm on How to Get Rich? (link: https://nav.al/how-to-get-rich).
Thanks guy!!!
1) east coast morning, west coast do it st night
2) never had this issue as it’s a complaint/excuse thinking about it doesn’t help you so you’re digging your own grave thinking like that in the first place. Winners don’t do that
Got it!!
2b) They like it
Favorite fast food/restaurants to eat at on the go whenever time is limited to cook? Provided you’re at a point where you’ve barely started working and making money.
What’s your preferred method in investing cash?
1) don’t Really do this but if at an airport the healthiest thing you can really get is the organic juice area. If not in a major city then you’re stuck with fruit and yogurt
2) money market accounts
1. I read your post on “People Management Mistakes”
I would like your advice in terms of “persuading” management to hiring additional talent.
-Currently work in tech and have a number of projects in the pipeline with high positive ROI/short payback periods.
-Middle Management is on the fence in terms of additional hires (are receptive to the idea but believe I turn around projects too quickly so they would need to make a case to Senior Management).
What would you suggest?
2. Do you have any thoughts on the Andy Ruiz vs Joshua fight? (gut feel says Joshua to take this one by decision, felt like he underestimated Ruiz in his last fight)
1) not sure as never in that situation, but from a hiring perspective the only thing middle management or upper management cares about is ROI so prove the hire will be worth it financially and quickly and you’ll Get the Ok. Can’t really help as we haven’t done that and decide ourselves. Overall… the only thing anyone above you cares about is more profits so they look better while doing no extra work
2) no opinion, we don’t bet on heavyweight boxing as a mistake can end the fight unlike lighter weight divisions
Are you in software eng?
If so – it depends on whether execs think dev is a cost center or an investment.
Note that this isn’t binary, if we take Uber as an example then perhaps you can make a case that all of the self driving teams are investments and then app teams are cost centers. Just making something up, but hopefully you get my point
Best way to find out though is to ask 3-5 managers at companies in similar size/stage/industry as yours
19 years old
In Efficiency, you mentioned that you guys would rather take a more entrepreneurial path than going to college. I can graduate with no debt at all, but the time I spend in college could be spent better working more on my business. Going straight to entrepreneurship, especially with all the opportunities online, seems to be a no-brainer. I’m a risk taking kind of person, but I know this is a really big decision.
No enough info.
If you can major in something that gets a good paying job (like software engineering) and can do so without debt, college isn’t terrible.
If you have to take on tons of debt then different convo
We already put a guide to college on this blog, search college in function
How do you develop relentless stamina w/o drugs? 14-16 28 48 hours straight work like Felix Dennis (granted he used drugs)
Our ideas are already in the book, you have to be in extremely good shape to keep up. Otherwise many use drugs
The following Qs likely depend on several factors but please feel free to humor me in generalities.
1.) Do you think it’s a good idea to get your products in retail stores before selling your business and why? (E-comm products)
2.) What’s a good % of returning customers to target (out of total customers) for online biz consumer products? (Feel free to use a range here)
1) no the margins are lower for small scale ideas want to be in the green ASAP unless you’re a high flying tech company
2) depends on biz but you want it to be extremely high well into 70s. Recurring biz is the best biz
I’m currently spending ~3 h per workout session, 3 sessions per week doing Ice Cream Fitness + cardio. Is this too much. All I do is compounded lifts and cardio and it still takes that much time. What’s the biggest area to tackle for time efficiency?
Already covered in the book.
What is your view on spirituality and the meaning of life?
Already covered, utility maximization
In regards to your take on the permanent portfolio you discussed owning gold for the first time on your blog. The three ways to invest in gold are 1) ETFs, 2)3rd Party Vault Storage, 3)Personally holding the metal in a home safe/deposit box. Which is your preferred method of investing?
In an extreme scenario if/when major Fiat Currencies fail (MMT gets implemented, QE forever, extreme negative rates,etc.) and say gold goes up anywhere from 5k to 10k an ounce, I see major flaws with all 3; ETFs would be unavailable to liquidate as markets would most likely be shut down or have limited trading. 3rd Party vault storage could be corrupt, difficult reach if held offshore and hard to enforce (if major currencies fail, ownership laws will be last in line due to riots, food shortages etc.) and bank safe deposits could be locked out and holding it on your person could make you a target for violence/theft or an outlaw if owning it is made illegal again. Thoughts?
1) it’s not hard to hold physical gold. So if you’re extremely cautious go with that. If you’re okay with a tad more risk go with the other two.
Seems like you’re overthinking it, unless you’re trying to buy $5M worth of gold it’s not really an issue
1) What do you think a good daily target amount of “deep work” is for someone in their mid to late twenties? (deep work meaning phone face down, headphones on, not looking at emails / slack, actually coding or doing complex tasks).
2) I’m at a small startup, two years out of school. The two product managers we have are leaving. I’m an engineer but think I would be a great fit to take the product lead position. how would you recommend I position myself with the CEO to take the job? (my current plan is highlighting past performance + the efficiencies of an internal hire + some kind of mock project, but would love to get your thoughts)
1) no clue what deep work is. There is just actual work and goofing around reading and “thinking”. So majority should be real work
2) We don’t have any experience there so can’t answer. If you force us to answer your strategy seems sound if you’re politically well liked
1) What’s your website buying process like?
(Or… what you’d like to share: prospecting, contact, valuation, due diligence, negotiation?)
Thanks
We have a filter for a specific type of site and only look at those so.. it’s actually streamlined and if nothing shows up we don’t bother trying to do things we know we’re not good at.
Thanks!
Know your editorial focus is changing now but if you get bored and decide to write it I’d love to read your process.
Just landed a BB IBD summer offer. Have connections in 2 groups. Do I target the more niche, but stable group with less hours(FIG in this case), or go for a “top” group that pulls 20+ more hours than FIG but is targeted by top PE headhunters(Industrials)? The time difference is really throwing off my decision.
Really tough call, probably better to go with the top group for now since you’ll be safer in a down turn. Normally we’d go with option one but the pay scales are moving too much to the group that actually performs.
1.) Took your advice on focusing on the audience that converts and finally got in the green (until ad accounts banned). Now have new accounts and would like to know if I should focus 99% of my efforts on this audience (12mm USA audience; different language so limited expansion). Is this too small for true, full-time income scale?
2.) Currently testing new funnel (Pre-sell advertorial –> Offer page (w/ more copy) –> checkout page –> upsell sequence. So far 25% of traffic clicks through to offer page. For the offer page, do you place offer at top or bottom of page, and does “too much” copy on the offer page reduce conversion rates considering audience already clicked through the advertorial?
Thanks for taking the time to help!
1) the answer is if you found money you take it. Unless you’re rich need to build respect for cash flow so go for it until it crashes. No clue how much you’ll make until you see the numbers
2) This is not possible to answer, every market has weird nuances to them. Copy your best competitor that is the answer. Or buy better software to figure out where exactly they drop off
I know you guys say drop the losers, but “cool” seems to be going out 2-4x a week, posting on instagram, and being a degenerate traveling and living in the red. Girls seem to go for this.
Do I use losers and go out with them? Or Drop them all and hit the bars solo
Never had this issue, going out 2x a week is more than enough unless your social skills are weak. Unless they have attractive friends no point in going out with them
Background:27yo, currently not making enough to quit my white colar job, thinking of attending free university for 3 years for better white collar job in tech.
Let’s say you are doing affiliate marketing with income going through a relative’s credit card. If this relative lives abroad, how risky is it not to declare this in your taxes?
Second Question (if unable to answer first question because not a tax attorney). Can you recommend more books about e-commerce and affiliate marketing, as well as forums to discuss progress and potentially find a mentor. Heard thevault is good.
1) Unless its a huge number probably unlikely going to matter but you should just set up an account to auto pay off the card so dont see how this is an issue to begin with
2) None.
Thanks.
I’m auto paying into an account in their name as well. The country where she lives is known for their tax inefficiency, with rampant tax evasion.
Should be fine unless egregious, you’re just paying off a card
Hopefully the Q&A is not closed yet totally forgot about it with all the work.
Been at a current PE firm for almost a year but it’s a sweatshop with no time to start a side biz. Was planning to leave after bonus to a firm with (hopefully) better hours but now a bit concerned about job security with upcoming recession in 1-2 years. Don’t want to be the newest hire at the next firm and then the first one to get laid off. Not concerned about job security at current firm since we’re understaffed anyways lol. Is that a legitimate concern? (I’m associate level btw)
Thanks.
Better to play politics better and reduce hours, if you are in good standing they will let you take your foot off the gas slightly.
Switching i always a crap shoot. Never know if it is a disaster unless you have a friend there
27 years old, $2M liquid, no experience in online business
Do I buy a website (100-300k) or build from scratch?
Do I stick to my area of experience (investment advice) or do supplements, skincare, etc where I have no experience?
Thank you
Easy build from scratch.
Spending money on things you dont know is a near guarantee for disaster.
In Enterprise Sales. Do office politics rules apply as IB or Wall Street? What are largest differences
Thoughts on workweeks for sales Are you still hearing 60+ hour weeks to get to thresholds needed?
Any new adjustment in your rules in efficiency for Enterprise reps.
Great content thanks
All politics post apply to every single corporate job so yes.
Hours don’t matter in performance based roles, hit your quota
Ideas for what to do with lots of excess cash in a high cash-flow business? – Buy RE through the corp?
Could pay ourselves out into a trust, buy RE and lease back to business
Same answer as efficiency: reinvest in biz otherwise go to triangle investing
1. How do you adjust for inflation when spending passive income? What would you consider eating into principle?
Example: $1m yields a 7% return, would you spend $70k or would you account for 2-3% inflation and spend around 4%? (or is this an irrelevant question as you would always be making additional non-passive income?)
2. You said that “some people have a good year and then buy a 50-60k new car, setting them back at least a year”.
Assuming that I cannot get by on uber/public transit, when would it be appropriate to drop down money (30-40k) on a “nicer” car versus a 10k beater? After I’ve “made it”?
1) 4% should be your return in general, don’t spend principal good to go. 99.9% chanc did you do get rich you won’t stop working entirely so don’t worry about it.
2) when you’re rich enough to never work again you can buy whatever you want as long as you don’t touch principal.
How do big ($10M+ revenue) info product (with subscription) guys have their merchant accounts set up? We keep migrating our Stripe rebills to new Stripe accounts because apparently you can’t rebill customers across gateways without an initial transaction.
I doubt the big players risk having all their rebills/recurring revenue locked up in one gateway. Can you give a specific example of a solid set up (which gateway, multiple real merchant accounts (?), when to rotate, how to migrate away to new gateway/processor if there are problems).
Thanks
No clue as we don’t do info products. Only consumables, this should be easily found if you just go to a large conference in the niche though.
Have about a 3/4 of a mill saved up from a few years of running my own business.
Looking at a 5Mill 7unit piece in the metropolitan midwest area rather new.
Roughly about a 5% cap rate.
Would you think this is a good asset to add to an already diverse portfolio…
I.e good time to get into more real estate or just hold off and wait?
Have not before managed a multiunit location – recession imminent but rates look attractive right now
Please try to answer this question from a 5-15 year scope.
Thanks.
Does not seem wise to drop your net worth into something like that with zero experience
What’s one thing you’ve learned about writing sales copy that you wouldn’t learn from a book like Cashvertising?
That reading is worth 1/10th as much as actually doing and practicing.
Top performer at MBB consulting, looking into exit options. goal to be 100% self employed in ~5-10 years (not partner track). Looking for a good balance of $, free time to work on eComm, and learning entrepreneurship relevant skills.
Which would you choose?
Venture Capital Associate (mid cap- est 230k)
Private Equity Associate (mid cap – est 230k)
Early stage start up (est 165k + small equity)
None of the above (ideas?)
Venture capital but they are all about the same. VC offers more insight into start ups though so probably slight edge there
Should I stack aside money to go to real networking events (I’m talking about closed events, VIP parties and so on – “real” networking events) upon invitation, so that I can improve my social skills in the presence of rich people and potentially get a job/do a gig for them? I’m talking about flying to other countries.
Absolutely not, networking events don’t have any value.
Then what kind of events actually *have* value?
None. You become connected when you have value as people come to you to ask to work with/for you.
Rest is just marketing
I am doing Native ads and not Facebook because everyone is getting banned no matter if it’s black/white/greyhat.
I want to do Facebook because that is where the big dogs are ($100,000+ profit per day) but I can’t figure out the account game. Did you have a resource for this problem when you faced it?
Not sure what you mean, if you’re running legal ads you’re good to go. Haven’t had an issues in ~3 years now
People are being banned left and right on fb whether they run white hat offers or not
Haven’t had this issue, can see how that’s the case though as they prefer the long-term clients. Would just constantly email them and harass to prove you’re compliant
You haven’t had any accounts banned in the pat 1-3 years? You’re either not running your own ads on FB or promoting something ungodly white hat
We’ve been whitehat for a long time now
Hi WSPs
Where did you manufacture your anterior physical product (the sold business): US, China…?
if it’s abroad, did you visit them?
Thanks
Definitely not answering this, but same answer is that you want to go to read eshows to find the best place and yes visit
1) How much weight do you put in the recent yield curve inversion?
2) Internet marketing as we know it has never seen a recession. Personally I’m wondering if some of these online business owners will get blown up in a recession. What’s your prediction on ad revenues, affiliate marketing, and online consumer spending during a down cycle?
1) no real change we think a downturn occurs around 2021 after election cycle
2) usually cost of ads goes down, since less competition for the bids
1) According to efficiency, we should never go into production b4 testing demand. Apart from placing 3d rendered products on my website and test how they fare, are there other ways to gauge demand?
2) Apart from google SEO, what are some other ways to drive traffic to a site to test demand? I thought of hiring influencers to promote my product but the issue is that the product doesn’t yet exist (since I haven’t gone into production yet) so this is unlikely to fly.
Side note (not a question): In your most recent post, you guys indicated you now have a lot more free time now. If so, do consider bringing pay for answer section back!
Thanks
1) you just look at the click through conversion rate that’s you’re answer. If it’s a product that doesn’t need have online sales funnels we don’t know what to do
2) word of mouth, seo and paid ads are about all there is. You can do influencers but if you don’t even have a product you’re just wasting time. Influencers only good after you are established for a bit though the big three already listed in the first sentence here
Thank you
1. Have you ever hired freelance front-end engineers or website designers? If so, what platforms are best- (Upwork vs. fiverr or word of mouth referrals)?
2. Favorite restaurant in Manhattan for a date? (optimizing for overall experience, not just food)
1) yes all referrals from people we trust
2) we don’t do dating questions anymore, any restaurant close to where you live that is $100 a person or more should be fine
Legit ressources to learn paid traffic? Stack that money forum?
Thanks a lot!
There are no legit sources, the only legit one is to buy traffic yourself, copy competitors and find someone who is already successful to help you.
Just like anything else money related, it’s about working with smart people and practicing yourself
I use STM – definitely takes some of the guesswork out of running campaigns. It’ll teach you tracking, “swiping” landing pages, hosting, running traffic, optimizing using landers/banners/offers, and scaling using credit cards. Highly recommend.
WSPBs “buy traffic yourself” will lead to massive amounts of wasted capital without optimization and an understanding of the campaign launch/optimization process.
Good to know thx!
Starting out want to make money in something while developing skills. Im working a full time job what would you recommend?
1) Freelance Copywriting (to build up skills that you can apply)- or is this area getting too saturated and hard to get clients? Know you need to practice writing for real clients to build up skills but not sure how to differentiate from million other copywriters to get client in first place
2) Ecom- (assume this requires a hefty investment)
3) Start Digital agency and cold call for clients
None get a high paying white collar corriste gig and do the real idea at work. This is covered in our books
Third world country, early 30s. My salary is approx $1000 per month but I’m for now not easily replaceable and I have free time at work.
Was able to incorporate a digital marketing agency in the UK through a friend and set up a website with the ability to take recurring payments. Have £234 from first client (a friend, who may cancel before his next instalment cos of the exchange rate).
Question: Wanna do a lead generation campaign on FB to find western prospects then warm call so I can do SEO for on a monthly retainer (I can identify issues site issues and correct them). Do you have any advice or a better strategy?
Endgame is product after learning affiliate marketing but I need to get revenue and build capital. Uphill task but lower cost of living here means I can achieve financial freedom quicker if I get the sales right.
Your strategy seems viable
Unfortunately we don’t know anyone in lead gen and have never focused on leadgen
Thanks!
If I wanted to sell a product around skincare or supplements, is it better to also create articles and put them on the website to attract potential customers. Or is paid traffic onto the website’s landing page the best way?
If you have the time (bandwidth) a blog on the side helps. It just isn’t necessary and shouldn’t be the reason you’re profitable
As a VC associate in a niche industry should I focus on building a side business related to my current focus or expand elsewhere? Trying to balance getting promoted, avoiding conflicts, and being efficient with getting a side business going
Surprisingly doesn’t matter, sometimes your skills don’t align with your focus industry today
If you find an opportunity just jump on it regardless of industry
Thanks again!
Just graduated from college and started working this month, should I look at maximizing my contribution to 401K? (0 income this year until this month)
My company match 50% up until your annual limit (19,000), so $9500. And there this Roth Backdoor thing.
Covered in our books and on the blog.
Hey WSP,
I get some of the points on your post on quitting but it seems to be more art than science. Is that right?
For example one year growth might be slow but it might be due any number of reasons.
Maybe side question how do you know it has truly plateaued to exit?
Have a great day
1) yes always exceptions
2) usually one year of no growth, time to leave
Q1: What is the best time (generally) to fit in your 1h/day workout, while still working on your first million? If in a morning, it wakes you-up. If in the evening, it helps with falling asleep. But if you’re optimizing for money, when is it best to do your training?
Q2: How can overcome the internal negative barrier of “I am not where I supposed to be”. It depresses me that I made mistakes in the past, not from the lack of trying to succeed but due to lack of data due to being an immigrant kid with no parents (your content opened my eyes, although very painful).
Q2b: (fun question, delete if you want): What do you think of Naval Ravikant’s recent tweet storm on How to Get Rich? (link: https://nav.al/how-to-get-rich).
Thanks guy!!!
1) east coast morning, west coast do it st night
2) never had this issue as it’s a complaint/excuse thinking about it doesn’t help you so you’re digging your own grave thinking like that in the first place. Winners don’t do that
Got it!!
2b) They like it
Favorite fast food/restaurants to eat at on the go whenever time is limited to cook? Provided you’re at a point where you’ve barely started working and making money.
What’s your preferred method in investing cash?
1) don’t Really do this but if at an airport the healthiest thing you can really get is the organic juice area. If not in a major city then you’re stuck with fruit and yogurt
2) money market accounts
1. I read your post on “People Management Mistakes”
I would like your advice in terms of “persuading” management to hiring additional talent.
-Currently work in tech and have a number of projects in the pipeline with high positive ROI/short payback periods.
-Middle Management is on the fence in terms of additional hires (are receptive to the idea but believe I turn around projects too quickly so they would need to make a case to Senior Management).
What would you suggest?
2. Do you have any thoughts on the Andy Ruiz vs Joshua fight? (gut feel says Joshua to take this one by decision, felt like he underestimated Ruiz in his last fight)
1) not sure as never in that situation, but from a hiring perspective the only thing middle management or upper management cares about is ROI so prove the hire will be worth it financially and quickly and you’ll Get the Ok. Can’t really help as we haven’t done that and decide ourselves. Overall… the only thing anyone above you cares about is more profits so they look better while doing no extra work
2) no opinion, we don’t bet on heavyweight boxing as a mistake can end the fight unlike lighter weight divisions
Are you in software eng?
If so – it depends on whether execs think dev is a cost center or an investment.
Note that this isn’t binary, if we take Uber as an example then perhaps you can make a case that all of the self driving teams are investments and then app teams are cost centers. Just making something up, but hopefully you get my point
Best way to find out though is to ask 3-5 managers at companies in similar size/stage/industry as yours
19 years old
In Efficiency, you mentioned that you guys would rather take a more entrepreneurial path than going to college. I can graduate with no debt at all, but the time I spend in college could be spent better working more on my business. Going straight to entrepreneurship, especially with all the opportunities online, seems to be a no-brainer. I’m a risk taking kind of person, but I know this is a really big decision.
No enough info.
If you can major in something that gets a good paying job (like software engineering) and can do so without debt, college isn’t terrible.
If you have to take on tons of debt then different convo
We already put a guide to college on this blog, search college in function
How do you develop relentless stamina w/o drugs? 14-16 28 48 hours straight work like Felix Dennis (granted he used drugs)
Our ideas are already in the book, you have to be in extremely good shape to keep up. Otherwise many use drugs
The following Qs likely depend on several factors but please feel free to humor me in generalities.
1.) Do you think it’s a good idea to get your products in retail stores before selling your business and why? (E-comm products)
2.) What’s a good % of returning customers to target (out of total customers) for online biz consumer products? (Feel free to use a range here)
1) no the margins are lower for small scale ideas want to be in the green ASAP unless you’re a high flying tech company
2) depends on biz but you want it to be extremely high well into 70s. Recurring biz is the best biz
I’m currently spending ~3 h per workout session, 3 sessions per week doing Ice Cream Fitness + cardio. Is this too much. All I do is compounded lifts and cardio and it still takes that much time. What’s the biggest area to tackle for time efficiency?
Already covered in the book.
What is your view on spirituality and the meaning of life?
Already covered, utility maximization
In regards to your take on the permanent portfolio you discussed owning gold for the first time on your blog. The three ways to invest in gold are 1) ETFs, 2)3rd Party Vault Storage, 3)Personally holding the metal in a home safe/deposit box. Which is your preferred method of investing?
In an extreme scenario if/when major Fiat Currencies fail (MMT gets implemented, QE forever, extreme negative rates,etc.) and say gold goes up anywhere from 5k to 10k an ounce, I see major flaws with all 3; ETFs would be unavailable to liquidate as markets would most likely be shut down or have limited trading. 3rd Party vault storage could be corrupt, difficult reach if held offshore and hard to enforce (if major currencies fail, ownership laws will be last in line due to riots, food shortages etc.) and bank safe deposits could be locked out and holding it on your person could make you a target for violence/theft or an outlaw if owning it is made illegal again. Thoughts?
1) it’s not hard to hold physical gold. So if you’re extremely cautious go with that. If you’re okay with a tad more risk go with the other two.
Seems like you’re overthinking it, unless you’re trying to buy $5M worth of gold it’s not really an issue
1) What do you think a good daily target amount of “deep work” is for someone in their mid to late twenties? (deep work meaning phone face down, headphones on, not looking at emails / slack, actually coding or doing complex tasks).
2) I’m at a small startup, two years out of school. The two product managers we have are leaving. I’m an engineer but think I would be a great fit to take the product lead position. how would you recommend I position myself with the CEO to take the job? (my current plan is highlighting past performance + the efficiencies of an internal hire + some kind of mock project, but would love to get your thoughts)
1) no clue what deep work is. There is just actual work and goofing around reading and “thinking”. So majority should be real work
2) We don’t have any experience there so can’t answer. If you force us to answer your strategy seems sound if you’re politically well liked
1) What’s your website buying process like?
(Or… what you’d like to share: prospecting, contact, valuation, due diligence, negotiation?)
Thanks
We have a filter for a specific type of site and only look at those so.. it’s actually streamlined and if nothing shows up we don’t bother trying to do things we know we’re not good at.
Thanks!
Know your editorial focus is changing now but if you get bored and decide to write it I’d love to read your process.
Just landed a BB IBD summer offer. Have connections in 2 groups. Do I target the more niche, but stable group with less hours(FIG in this case), or go for a “top” group that pulls 20+ more hours than FIG but is targeted by top PE headhunters(Industrials)? The time difference is really throwing off my decision.
Really tough call, probably better to go with the top group for now since you’ll be safer in a down turn. Normally we’d go with option one but the pay scales are moving too much to the group that actually performs.
1.) Took your advice on focusing on the audience that converts and finally got in the green (until ad accounts banned). Now have new accounts and would like to know if I should focus 99% of my efforts on this audience (12mm USA audience; different language so limited expansion). Is this too small for true, full-time income scale?
2.) Currently testing new funnel (Pre-sell advertorial –> Offer page (w/ more copy) –> checkout page –> upsell sequence. So far 25% of traffic clicks through to offer page. For the offer page, do you place offer at top or bottom of page, and does “too much” copy on the offer page reduce conversion rates considering audience already clicked through the advertorial?
Thanks for taking the time to help!
1) the answer is if you found money you take it. Unless you’re rich need to build respect for cash flow so go for it until it crashes. No clue how much you’ll make until you see the numbers
2) This is not possible to answer, every market has weird nuances to them. Copy your best competitor that is the answer. Or buy better software to figure out where exactly they drop off
I know you guys say drop the losers, but “cool” seems to be going out 2-4x a week, posting on instagram, and being a degenerate traveling and living in the red. Girls seem to go for this.
Do I use losers and go out with them? Or Drop them all and hit the bars solo
Never had this issue, going out 2x a week is more than enough unless your social skills are weak. Unless they have attractive friends no point in going out with them
Background:27yo, currently not making enough to quit my white colar job, thinking of attending free university for 3 years for better white collar job in tech.
Let’s say you are doing affiliate marketing with income going through a relative’s credit card. If this relative lives abroad, how risky is it not to declare this in your taxes?
Second Question (if unable to answer first question because not a tax attorney). Can you recommend more books about e-commerce and affiliate marketing, as well as forums to discuss progress and potentially find a mentor. Heard thevault is good.
1) Unless its a huge number probably unlikely going to matter but you should just set up an account to auto pay off the card so dont see how this is an issue to begin with
2) None.
Thanks.
I’m auto paying into an account in their name as well. The country where she lives is known for their tax inefficiency, with rampant tax evasion.
Should be fine unless egregious, you’re just paying off a card
Hopefully the Q&A is not closed yet totally forgot about it with all the work.
Been at a current PE firm for almost a year but it’s a sweatshop with no time to start a side biz. Was planning to leave after bonus to a firm with (hopefully) better hours but now a bit concerned about job security with upcoming recession in 1-2 years. Don’t want to be the newest hire at the next firm and then the first one to get laid off. Not concerned about job security at current firm since we’re understaffed anyways lol. Is that a legitimate concern? (I’m associate level btw)
Thanks.
Better to play politics better and reduce hours, if you are in good standing they will let you take your foot off the gas slightly.
Switching i always a crap shoot. Never know if it is a disaster unless you have a friend there
27 years old, $2M liquid, no experience in online business
Do I buy a website (100-300k) or build from scratch?
Do I stick to my area of experience (investment advice) or do supplements, skincare, etc where I have no experience?
Thank you
Easy build from scratch.
Spending money on things you dont know is a near guarantee for disaster.
In Enterprise Sales. Do office politics rules apply as IB or Wall Street? What are largest differences
Thoughts on workweeks for sales Are you still hearing 60+ hour weeks to get to thresholds needed?
Any new adjustment in your rules in efficiency for Enterprise reps.
Great content thanks
All politics post apply to every single corporate job so yes.
Hours don’t matter in performance based roles, hit your quota
Ideas for what to do with lots of excess cash in a high cash-flow business? – Buy RE through the corp?
Could pay ourselves out into a trust, buy RE and lease back to business
Same answer as efficiency: reinvest in biz otherwise go to triangle investing
1. How do you adjust for inflation when spending passive income? What would you consider eating into principle?
Example: $1m yields a 7% return, would you spend $70k or would you account for 2-3% inflation and spend around 4%? (or is this an irrelevant question as you would always be making additional non-passive income?)
2. You said that “some people have a good year and then buy a 50-60k new car, setting them back at least a year”.
Assuming that I cannot get by on uber/public transit, when would it be appropriate to drop down money (30-40k) on a “nicer” car versus a 10k beater? After I’ve “made it”?
1) 4% should be your return in general, don’t spend principal good to go. 99.9% chanc did you do get rich you won’t stop working entirely so don’t worry about it.
2) when you’re rich enough to never work again you can buy whatever you want as long as you don’t touch principal.
How do big ($10M+ revenue) info product (with subscription) guys have their merchant accounts set up? We keep migrating our Stripe rebills to new Stripe accounts because apparently you can’t rebill customers across gateways without an initial transaction.
I doubt the big players risk having all their rebills/recurring revenue locked up in one gateway. Can you give a specific example of a solid set up (which gateway, multiple real merchant accounts (?), when to rotate, how to migrate away to new gateway/processor if there are problems).
Thanks
No clue as we don’t do info products. Only consumables, this should be easily found if you just go to a large conference in the niche though.
Have about a 3/4 of a mill saved up from a few years of running my own business.
Looking at a 5Mill 7unit piece in the metropolitan midwest area rather new.
Roughly about a 5% cap rate.
Would you think this is a good asset to add to an already diverse portfolio…
I.e good time to get into more real estate or just hold off and wait?
Have not before managed a multiunit location – recession imminent but rates look attractive right now
Please try to answer this question from a 5-15 year scope.
Thanks.
Does not seem wise to drop your net worth into something like that with zero experience
If it’s a small fraction of net worth then sure.