The Art of Manliness - Launch a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend

00:00:00.000 Brett McKay here. Welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast. Have you always

00:00:12.200 wanted to be an entrepreneur, but don't have an idea for a business? Or have you been sitting on

00:00:16.360 a business idea for years, but have never gotten going with it? Well, after listening to this

00:00:20.500 podcast, and by the end of this weekend, you can have a business started that can ultimately make

00:00:24.360 you a million bucks. Here to walk you through the process of becoming a near overnight entrepreneur

00:00:29.000 is Noah Kagan. Kagan is the founder of AppSumo, a software deal site, and a half a dozen other

00:00:34.420 multi-million dollar businesses, and is the author of Million Dollar Weekend, a surprisingly

00:00:39.040 simple way to launch a seven-figure business in 48 hours. Today on the show, Noah and I first

00:00:44.220 discuss the two biggest obstacles that hold people back from starting a business and how

00:00:47.860 to overcome them. We then turn to the practicalities of coming up with embedding a business idea,

00:00:52.500 how to find your first customers, and how to keep growing from there. Along the way, Noah

00:00:57.060 and I share insights into how we turned AppSumo and Art of Manliness, respectively, from side

00:01:01.120 hustles into rewarding careers. After the show's over, check out our show notes at awim.is slash

00:01:06.160 milliondollarweekend.

00:01:17.820 All right, Noah Kagan, welcome back to the show.

00:01:20.940 Good to be back. I missed you.

00:01:22.380 Yeah, so we had you on last time. That was back in 2017, and that was episode number 315, for

00:01:29.420 those who want to check that out. Short story with you is you were one of the first employees

00:01:33.600 at Facebook, but then you got fired before your stock vested. So you missed out on becoming

00:01:38.460 a billionaire. So that was a bummer. But the upside was you started this journey of starting

00:01:43.320 multiple seven-figure businesses. And I think you got a few eight-figure businesses in there

00:01:48.100 as well. And then you've also been teaching other people how to start businesses. And some people

00:01:54.080 have been making a lot of money with this process. And you got a new book out where you're sharing

00:01:58.440 this process. It's called Million Dollar Weekend, the surprisingly simple way to launch a seven-figure

00:02:03.840 business in 48 hours. And I should say at the start, you have a very narrow definition of what

00:02:09.760 starting a business means. Because I think sometimes some people think starting a business means coming up

00:02:14.700 with a business plan, filing an LLC, designing a web page. But how you're defining it for this book

00:02:21.380 in the challenges, just get three paying customers in 48 hours. That's what starting a business is.

00:02:28.340 And I love this idea of the time constraints. I think it can really help people finally get going

00:02:33.780 on something. So where did you get this idea of starting a business in a weekend?

00:02:38.460 There's a guy named Jake who I was talking to this morning. And it's pretty similar to you,

00:02:42.680 and I'm guessing a lot of your listeners. And Jake has three kids. He's got a day job. He's got a

00:02:47.180 wife. And he's always dreamed of having a business and at least having the opportunity to really live

00:02:52.400 how he wants to live and be a good example for his kids. And he's had the same idea for 24 months,

00:02:57.660 two years. And he was an early reader of Million Dollar Weekend. And I was able to get a chance to

00:03:01.740 work with him. And in 48 hours, he changed his life. And the same thing happened for me with

00:03:06.160 AppSumo.com, where I was really excited about how do I get software deals? I love software.

00:03:11.600 And how do I get software deals at a discount for entrepreneurs? And what I noticed in a lot of the

00:03:17.180 years before that, working for Zuckerberg and working in other businesses was just how much

00:03:20.520 time we'll give ourselves to finally do something. But if we really constrain it, and we have to focus

00:03:24.560 on really what matters, which is, can I solve a problem for someone that they'll be excited to

00:03:28.540 give me money for? You're able to actually do that in a very short amount of time without a lot of

00:03:32.720 money. Because most people like Jake, like you, Brett, like myself as well, we're busy. We don't have as

00:03:36.980 much time. But most of us have a weekend available. So what's crazy is, you know, as a, I think a great

00:03:42.560 example, AppSumo.com, I started it for around 50 bucks in a weekend. And this is what I think most

00:03:48.720 people miss out on. They want to have a lot of money, or they would like to make millions of

00:03:52.660 dollars, but they never make their first dollar. And so with one $12 sale very quickly from AppSumo,

00:03:58.520 fast forward 14 years yesterday, I pulled up the numbers for the show, we did $248,163 in sales

00:04:06.320 yesterday. But we started with just one sale. And that's something that when you give yourself a

00:04:11.580 weekend, and you limit that time, and you're not trying to play business or set up social media or

00:04:15.880 do, you know, fancy things, you don't you realize how much more you can actually do and get closer to

00:04:20.420 where you want to go. So you mentioned this student you had who, you know, spent years putting off

00:04:26.560 starting a business, he wanted to do this. And putting the timeframe, giving that goal of starting

00:04:32.420 a business on a weekend, suddenly he's able to do it. What is holding people back from starting a

00:04:39.240 business that want to start a business? Like, what have you found? Are there common excuses,

00:04:42.920 fears that you see people have? Yeah, what I've noticed is that there's, there's so much,

00:04:48.760 there's literally, there's Harvard MBA, there's billions of hours on YouTube, there's unlimited

00:04:53.580 amounts of courses, then how is it that everyone who's got a day job, or is just coming out of

00:04:58.160 college or 60 years old and wants to do a hobby that makes some money, doesn't have a business

00:05:02.200 yet. And what I was able to recognize through myself and literally through tens of thousands

00:05:06.720 of people was that there's two things that they're afraid of, and they don't recognize it as they're

00:05:10.540 afraid of. But it's really the fear of starting. And it's the fear of asking. Those are the two things

00:05:15.940 that have held everyone back from getting success in business, but really in life. And most people feel

00:05:21.340 like they're not ready. It's like, oh man, I'm, I need to research more. I need to go over this

00:05:26.660 business model more. I need to talk to more people about it. And when you actually get going, you know,

00:05:32.000 a simple example, you have kids, it's like, hey, I'm going to teach my kid how to swim. All right,

00:05:36.040 well, you have to be in the pool to swim, which is an obvious example. But people are like, no,

00:05:41.300 I want to read more about how to swim. And I want to watch another YouTube video about how to swim,

00:05:44.480 or I'll buy a book of it. It's like, no, let's get in the pool. And by getting in the pool is how

00:05:47.560 you're going to start getting better at that. And one of the mindsets that helps people

00:05:51.320 is to think of themselves as scientists. So just get going and start doing things.

00:05:55.720 And by experimenting as a scientist, if it doesn't work, that's okay. At least you're doing it.

00:06:00.100 And it'll lead you to a destination that you'll be surprised about, I would say.

00:06:03.880 And the other one that holds people back is the fear of asking. You know, if you don't ask,

00:06:07.860 you can't get. And I've interviewed a lot of billionaires on my YouTube channel over the years.

00:06:12.860 And the number one thing they all say is sales, is what is the skill that's helped them become a

00:06:17.720 billionaire? And what is a sale? A sale is an ask, right? And think about it. Like if you want

00:06:23.820 to raise, if you want an employee, or if you want a customer, you just have to practice asking. And

00:06:28.500 thank God it's a universal skill that you don't have to be tall or skinny or any physical or gender

00:06:34.380 ability. It's universally available to practice and get better at both of those things of starting

00:06:38.280 right away and asking.

00:06:39.280 All right. So starting and asking are the biggest fears that hold people back from starting a

00:06:43.780 business. And I imagine people come up with excuses to hide those fears, right? It's like,

00:06:49.600 well, you know, I got to do, like you said, I got to do more research, or I need more capital so I

00:06:54.160 can develop the website, or I don't know anything about marketing. I got to come up with a marketing

00:06:58.200 plan. But like, really, there's probably just covering the fear of starting or the fear of just

00:07:03.740 asking, you know, for money.

00:07:05.540 Of course.

00:07:05.940 Yeah.

00:07:06.120 Well, let's thank you. And to me, what always seemed risky, right? And it's sad, I talked to

00:07:11.260 someone yesterday. But it always seemed riskier for me to have a day job I didn't like, then at

00:07:16.640 least take a chance on myself. And to be clear, that doesn't mean quit your day job. Jake has a

00:07:20.100 great day job that he's keeping and enjoying. And Jake actually got five customers. He wants to do

00:07:24.580 guys golf trips. That was his dream business. And we were able to get that going in a weekend.

00:07:30.220 Now, I'd say even for like yourself, did you quit your job to start this show?

00:07:33.160 I did not. So the Art of Manless started in 2008. It was just a blog, like a text,

00:07:38.440 like go to artofmanless.com. And we still do that. We still go to artofmanless.com. We still put out

00:07:42.740 new content there. But I started when I was in law school. And, you know, I started as a hobby,

00:07:48.280 basically, something fun to do to as a creative outlet. And then it started making money. Even when

00:07:53.720 it was making money, I still graduated from law school. And I got a job in legal research. I worked for

00:08:00.240 Thomson Reuters. And graduated in 2009, took the job with Thomson Reuters. And then in 2010,

00:08:06.880 that's when I finally quit my day job and went full time with AOM.

00:08:11.420 I think that's such a great example for people to realize. So number one, the first thing you said,

00:08:15.920 and this is the part I think people get backwards in business, it's fun. Find something fun. You're

00:08:21.520 like, hey, I'm going to just write articles and explore manliness and parenting and things for guys.

00:08:27.660 Like, how beautiful is that? And you didn't go risk your career. And especially a lot of people

00:08:32.800 have day jobs. It's like, I don't want anyone to risk that. And then you stuck with it, which is

00:08:36.700 the other real important part besides getting started is how do you find ways not to quit too

00:08:41.080 soon? And what I found, you know, for me running a business, I'm still running AppSumo.com, which this

00:08:46.320 year will do over $80 million. And that to me is insane because it started in a weekend. But I find that

00:08:52.380 business is just the best way I've ever learned about myself and done things where I can feel good

00:08:56.620 about myself. And importantly, I can actually even then create the life I want to live.

00:09:00.900 Because, you know, I've been fired twice. I don't know if anybody's ever been fired out there. But

00:09:05.260 getting fired made me realize like one person decided my future. And I at least wanted that

00:09:09.200 option. I wanted the option where like, hey, even if I get fired, I have something else or not,

00:09:13.860 maybe I can keep, you know, my day job and my side hustle. But you do have to get started on it so

00:09:18.180 that, you know, 14 years ago, no, I'm thanking him. So I do wonder for which one listener today is going to

00:09:23.400 thank themselves for listening to this show today, taking action and in five years be,

00:09:27.420 you know, way further ahead than they ever imagined.

00:09:30.420 Okay, so in your book, Million Dollar Weekend, you walk people through a process and how they can get a

00:09:35.460 business going up and running, you get a paying customers within 48 hours on a weekend. And some

00:09:40.420 of these businesses, you know, some people might make a million dollars with their business. But I

00:09:45.820 think your bigger point with this book is that you can start a business that makes a decent chunk of

00:09:50.880 change that can significantly improve your life. And what that number is, is going to vary from

00:09:57.080 person to person. And you have this idea of the freedom number that can give people a concrete

00:10:02.600 goal to shoot for. So what is a freedom number? And how can that help? It's one of those, I think

00:10:08.160 it'd be a source of motivation to get going on your business.

00:10:12.600 Well, I asked Jake, I called him this morning before the show. I was like, hey, Jake, I'm going to

00:10:16.320 remain list. You know, what was it for you? He's like, I think about this future where I can do

00:10:22.540 this as my dream. And it's like, wow, great. Everyone can think about what is their fantasy.

00:10:27.500 And sometimes though, the fantasy is so far away that it doesn't seem attainable. And what I

00:10:32.000 recognize, and this is something that I've seen be very impactful for myself, as well as I've talked

00:10:35.760 to a lot of other successful entrepreneurs, which is having a small attainable monthly number where

00:10:40.060 once they get their side hustle to that, then they can at least make the decision whether they want to

00:10:44.240 quit their job or not. And it's the number that covers your basic necessities. So savings,

00:10:50.080 food and entertainment, and then living expenses. And what people realize when they actually put

00:10:55.620 this together, and you could do it right now, I'd encourage people again, we'll talk about now and

00:10:59.000 how in a moment. But you realize like that number is a lot smaller than I thought. And then when you're

00:11:03.640 actually doing the thing you want to do for a living, what I've noticed, you actually end up making

00:11:07.640 a lot more money because frankly, you're enjoying it. And if you're not like, wow, I can live my life my

00:11:12.560 own way. And I would say wealth and having money is really how little you can worry. Because you

00:11:18.420 don't have to worry about some of these things. Like I have to worry about my job, I have to worry

00:11:22.080 about my boss or about savings. And it's interesting when you start taking that that power for yourself.

00:11:28.780 And in this freedom number, it can vary from person to person depending on their goals.

00:11:32.700 Right? So some people, maybe they want to quit their job completely. And just all they do is rely

00:11:38.180 on the income that comes from their side hustle or their business. Some people, maybe they like

00:11:42.340 their day job. Right? Maybe they enjoy doing whatever they do. But they just want enough money

00:11:47.000 to, I don't know, pay off some debt. Or they just want enough money to make a month where they can

00:11:53.040 go out to eat with their family and not have to worry about, you know, the prices on the menu.

00:11:59.160 And you can find out a concrete number for that. Like I want to make 1000 extra dollars a month

00:12:04.020 so I can do X with my life. And it might not even be that much.

00:12:08.960 It's way lower. So my number was 3000. And so I thought if I can make 3000 a month,

00:12:13.780 I can quit this job, which it was fine, but I didn't really care for it. And I've always dreamed

00:12:17.340 of being an entrepreneur and being able to live remotely. And it took a few months,

00:12:22.140 but then with AppSumo, it eventually got there and I was able to quit and go do that.

00:12:25.100 What amount were you at when you decided to quit and go all in and art of manliness?

00:12:29.440 I don't remember. That was 13 years ago. I mean, I think it was enough where

00:12:33.800 I could, like, I think my magic number, this is kind of generic, is enough where I could

00:12:37.960 pay for health insurance for my family. At the time, that was my big concern. Like,

00:12:43.280 can I afford health insurance? And I think my parents and my in-laws, they were kind of

00:12:47.640 concerned about that, the being the entrepreneur things. Like, you know, I had the steady job

00:12:51.460 where he had benefits, health insurance, a retirement plan, et cetera. And so for me,

00:12:56.800 it's like, if I can pay for those things, then I'm good.

00:13:00.460 Well, it was interesting, you know, two quick stories on that. Like, when I quit Intel,

00:13:05.820 which was a horrible job, to go work at Facebook, my whole family was like, you're crazy. I can't

00:13:12.080 believe you're going to go to this company, da-da-da. And Intel laid off 10,000 people

00:13:16.040 a few weeks later after I moved over to Facebook. And it's just a good reality that, like, if you are

00:13:21.920 not at least creating some of your own businesses or incomes, that you're not as much control over

00:13:25.700 your destiny. And even a safe company like Intel is not safe. And the other thing I was mentioning

00:13:30.980 earlier is I did talk to someone recently, and I felt sad that they felt that they had no ability

00:13:36.800 to get started and change their future. They're like, yeah, I got this job, which this is very

00:13:41.760 normal. I got a job, I've got a kid, I'm stuck here, I can't do anything about it. And when you

00:13:46.380 start taking action, when you start maybe posting something online, or you start getting one person a

00:13:51.260 customer in your business. And that could be, the amount of ways people are getting rich is

00:13:55.300 unbelievable. And I've seen a lot of it on my YouTube channel, from people doing strawberries,

00:14:00.220 energy traders, you know, there's real estate, there's a lot of different ways, plumbing.

00:14:06.460 And, you know, I come from tech, and it's so exciting to realize that there's a lot out there.

00:14:11.160 But you do have to get started on it today. And then you just like you and me and a lot of other

00:14:15.820 people have done it, you do have to figure ways to help you stick with it, so that you can get to

00:14:19.440 the Freedom Number and then beyond that. Well, yeah, talking about that idea of getting started

00:14:22.780 today, you have this mantra, it's now, not how. What do you mean by that? And how can people start

00:14:28.880 living that mantra? So when people, let's take a business example, you want to start a dog walking

00:14:35.900 business. You know, most people think, well, how would I start a dog walking business? I probably need

00:14:40.040 to get an LLC, then I'm going to buy a domain, then I need to find a developer, then I might need to get

00:14:44.720 some funding, or I need someone who's technical. Oh, no, there's AI. So I need to have some AI now in there.

00:14:49.440 And last year, I needed to put some crypto so people can pay for their dog walking in crypto.

00:14:54.040 Right? So they're thinking about how to do it. But then if you actually just take the mantra of

00:14:58.060 now, not how, what I'm encouraging, and this has been the number one breakthrough from the book,

00:15:03.300 and we survey, we have a 1300 person beta team that's gone through the book. This is the number

00:15:07.980 one breakthrough, which is, instead of giving themselves excuses and thinking about how,

00:15:11.900 what can they do right now to move themselves forward? And so with the dog walking app,

00:15:16.120 you can literally text, call, WhatsApp, DM, three people and say,

00:15:21.020 hey, I'm thinking about dog walking app, can I walk your dog today?

00:15:24.740 And then people are like, really? It's that easy? I'm like, yeah, that's the whole point.

00:15:28.400 That's exactly how so many of literally billion dollar companies, just like Airbnb,

00:15:33.460 Airbnb started by them sending an email to a conference that they were attending saying,

00:15:37.420 we're renting out a couch, does anyone want to pay 150 bucks for it?

00:15:40.220 Right away, right now. And so acting in the now is preventing you from letting, getting the fear

00:15:46.900 ahead of you. Because you just get going, fear has to catch up. Just go and get started.

00:15:53.720 And by doing that, by putting out that, like what you did, you got started, you put out the first blog

00:15:57.780 post. That builds confidence.

00:16:00.360 Yeah. Okay. So have a bias towards action. Just quit thinking too much. Just start working. You'll

00:16:05.620 figure things out as you go. And what's great about doing things now is you actually get

00:16:09.480 information because you see what happens and that can actually help you refine and actually come up

00:16:14.740 with your business plan after the fact. And it's more useful, I feel like, because it's concrete data.

00:16:20.420 A hundred percent. I mean, it's like sitting on the sidelines trying to figure it out. But if you just

00:16:24.560 go do it, you actually know it. Like take Jake, who we talked about earlier. You know, Jake's had the

00:16:28.800 same idea about doing golf trips for guys for two years. But until he literally called someone right away

00:16:35.040 when he did the Million Dollar Weekend Challenge, he just did it right now. And the person said,

00:16:40.200 sure. And we can, you know, get into that a little bit later. But it was like, just because he got

00:16:44.060 going, then guess what? That gave him confidence to be like, hmm, maybe I can ask another person

00:16:47.540 right now. And then in a weekend, he had five paying customers for his golf trip, which he took two

00:16:52.800 years not being ready for.

00:16:54.980 Yeah. Okay. So the next part is overcoming the fear of asking. And you talk about developing your

00:17:00.320 asking muscle. How do you develop your asking muscle?

00:17:06.200 Yeah, I was mentioning earlier, I got to interview John Paul DeGioia. He did Patron Tequila and Paul

00:17:11.480 Mitchell Hair Care. And he said sales is the number one skill people can get better at. And that is

00:17:17.180 what's helped him become a billionaire. And you start realizing that everything in life is

00:17:20.640 communication. Everything in life is sales. Everything in life really ultimately is an ask.

00:17:25.100 So you want a wife, you probably have to ask someone out. You want a relationship. You want an

00:17:29.940 employee. You want a raise. And in business, if you want a customer, or if you want a viewer or a

00:17:35.960 listener, you have to ask. And when you don't ask, you don't get. You just get whatever you're

00:17:41.560 getting. And what I've noticed is that the fear of the ask is temporary. But the upset of these ask

00:17:47.960 is really unlimited. People think of asking as a negative. You think of it as a positive, right?

00:17:51.940 Okay, maybe this rejection is leading me to somewhere positive. It's leading me to learning. It's leading

00:17:57.020 me to some outcome that I can get to. Whereas most times people never ask at all. Or if they ask once,

00:18:01.700 they get rejected and they stop. And you just start realizing that if you can do that in light,

00:18:06.600 silly ways, then when you start doing it in ways that maybe matter more to you, and you've already

00:18:09.460 practiced it as a skill, the success that you can have is amazing. So I always talk about the coffee

00:18:14.400 challenge. And this has become, you know, I'd say worldwide famous, where it's a very simple,

00:18:20.440 easy way to develop your ask muscle. And all you do is next time you buy coffee, or if you buy a taco,

00:18:25.040 or if you're at a restaurant, you just ask for a 10% discount. And if you, a lot of times I'll say,

00:18:30.760 why? If you want to make it really hard to say nothing. But if you want to say, hey, Noah Kagan,

00:18:35.740 I'm following this 48 hour business challenge, a million dollar weekend, told me I need to do it.

00:18:40.600 And then they're going to reject you. Most of the time, once in a while, you get a discount. And the

00:18:44.240 point is not to get the discount. The point is to actually get the rejection. And let me just actually

00:18:49.560 pull this up. There was a guy who just did it. I always ask the same question afterwards. I said,

00:18:55.040 what'd you learn about yourself from the rejection? And here's, his name is Stetson. He just texted me

00:19:02.020 Monday. He said, I overthink things. I ran through every scenario in my head before actually taking.

00:19:08.460 And I'm actually good in these awkward situations until it comes time to ask for something. Then I

00:19:12.940 get weird. And ultimately, he realized it didn't kill me. And that's the whole power of the coffee

00:19:19.800 challenge, is that you do it in a kind of silly way. Whether you're a sales pro, then do it.

00:19:23.500 Or whether you've never asked for anything, then do it. And if you can just commit to going and doing

00:19:28.480 that, you start realizing, whoa, it's never as scary as it seems. And that's true for a lot of

00:19:33.600 this business stuff. It should be fun, like you said with your post. And these things aren't as

00:19:37.100 scary. But you do have to get started. Then you do have to ask people for things in business.

00:19:42.100 Okay. So you got to overcome your fear of starting, overcome your fear of asking. That'll do a lot for you

00:19:49.180 to actually get going with your business. But let's say someone's out there and they say,

00:19:53.200 I really want to start a business, but I don't have any ideas. Or maybe they have an idea and

00:19:59.800 they don't know if it's a good one. So how do people usually go wrong with coming up with business

00:20:09.000 ideas? For business ideas, the book literally starts with frequently made excuses. And the first one and

00:20:14.840 two is I have no ideas or I have too many ideas. So I'm going to give you three ideas in three minutes

00:20:19.120 in three ways. And then I'll give you even one more that people can do right now, not how.

00:20:24.240 So number one, solve your own problem. So break your day down into morning, afternoon, and night.

00:20:31.020 And just think what's bothering you or what could have been better. So for me, in my morning,

00:20:35.900 every morning now I'm looking at this painting that's been on my ground for two months.

00:20:38.820 And I'm just like, I've got other things going on. And I was like, oh, it's so annoying. Or for

00:20:45.040 lunch, my girlfriend and I are working and it'd be really nice to have food delivery.

00:20:50.100 And so it's like, oh, that's kind of interesting. Number two, look at your credit card bill. This is

00:20:54.580 a classic, I would say, but look at what you're spending money on or look at what you're

00:20:58.500 not spending as much money on. And those are both opportunities.

00:21:02.680 Most problems you're facing in your life are business opportunities for yourself and for someone else.

00:21:07.040 And lastly, look at what you're avoiding. So I was like looking at what's been on my to-do list for

00:21:11.720 a long time. Again, what you're not doing is something else that probably others aren't doing

00:21:15.220 too that are a business. And I'll give it a now, not how example of asking that people can do again

00:21:20.040 right now. Text a friend. Hey, I'm trying to come up with some of my business ideas. You know me.

00:21:25.360 What is the kind of business you think I could start and be good at? And just text someone right now.

00:21:29.880 And I think you'll be surprised by just, again, asking and doing it right in the now,

00:21:34.140 the results you're going to get. And most people, I don't think you can mess up ideas.

00:21:39.100 Right. You can only really mess up just not executing. There is stuff about making sure

00:21:43.440 it can be a million dollar business, but really by just executing it will lead you to get to that

00:21:48.880 place, will lead you to get to your freedom number and beyond. Right. You talk about customers want

00:21:53.340 solutions, not ideas. It's like look for solutions to problems. And that's how I started AOM,

00:21:57.900 the impetus behind Art of Manliness when it was just a blog before it was a podcast was I thought

00:22:05.440 men's magazine sucked back in 2007, 2008. So I said, I'm going to start the men's magazine

00:22:11.160 that I'd want to read. And I did. And I found out a lot of other men felt the same way that I felt.

00:22:16.600 And so that's how, that's how we started.

00:22:19.340 Solve your own problems. Like if you could, if you only had to do one type of business,

00:22:23.060 just make sure you're the first customer. Absolutely. I hated paying full price for software.

00:22:26.540 I still do. Again, come back to things that at least you'd be excited because I've done

00:22:31.240 businesses that are opportunities like today, AI is what everyone's chasing. It's like not something

00:22:36.100 I'm personally that excited about, you know, on AppSumo, we have a lot of software deals

00:22:39.560 in AI and that's great. But for me, I'm just excited to promote the deals. So again, come back to the

00:22:44.960 problems where you're at least the first customer. And I think it makes it much, much easier to stick

00:22:49.480 with these businesses because it does take time for them to produce the compounded returns.

00:22:54.580 We're going to take a quick break for a word from our sponsor.

00:22:56.540 And now back to the show. Okay. How do you actually figure out if, so let's say you settled

00:23:07.500 on an idea or a solution. You settled on a solution to a problem you're going to solve.

00:23:11.860 How do you know if it's actually going to make money?

00:23:14.740 What you do need to do before we sell to customers, and this is something I was thinking

00:23:18.700 about yesterday. I was watching some Netflix with a girlfriend about Amasus. And I was like,

00:23:24.600 could you make it be a million dollar masseuse? And before you jump into, let's say you're excited

00:23:31.080 to do physical therapy. Okay. Well, how would it actually be a million dollar business? And so

00:23:35.280 you've got to make sure you're not running really, really fast in the wrong direction.

00:23:38.380 How many people, like how is the market trending in this area? So let's take AppSumo for instance,

00:23:44.160 or physical therapy. AppSumo and software 10 years ago when I started it, you could see that the graph

00:23:49.040 was trending up. And I was just in a great wave. And so just being mindful of that, same with physical

00:23:54.060 therapy. Is that trending up? You can go to Google Trends, look over five years, is it flat? Is it up or

00:23:58.280 down? Because what you're aiming for is markets that are going to get bigger and bigger and bigger,

00:24:02.040 and you just get a slice of it? As well, what does the business model look for therapy? So if you're

00:24:07.100 doing one-off massages at home at $140, like, cool, that's $140. But to make a million dollars,

00:24:15.060 what is that? Let me do the math. That's 7,000 massages. 7,142. That's going to take you a while.

00:24:22.920 Okay, well, if I did it that way, I probably need to change some things out. And so before you,

00:24:26.780 again, try to validate the business, making sure people want it at least three customers in 48 hours,

00:24:30.800 I would definitely recommend looking at what would it take to make a million dollars for yourself,

00:24:35.780 just to get an understanding of it. And again, all this stuff should be quick and fast,

00:24:39.980 and not as a distraction from actually focusing on the business and the problems you're solving.

00:24:44.520 Now, to your original thing, Brett, which was how do you validate it? There's three ways I'd tell

00:24:48.440 people to validate. One is pre-ordering. So that's asking, and this is the best way,

00:24:53.340 because it's the most active. And the best example of this is Elon Musk with Cybertruck or

00:24:59.180 Model 3. People deposited six years ago for Model 3 and for Cybertruck. Model 3 was 10 years from

00:25:06.700 when he delivered. And this is also the same with events. Every event you ever bought, you pre-order

00:25:10.900 it. You buy a ticket, you go to the event. And have they ever canceled events? Yes. And if you're

00:25:16.180 trying to get pre-orders for your idea, and no one wants it, awesome. You didn't build a website. You

00:25:20.740 didn't go to Alibaba or China to make the product. You didn't waste a lot of time to find out something

00:25:25.420 no one wanted. And then you could learn from that. And that's the beauty of this.

00:25:29.360 The other two methods that I think can be good, but aren't as direct, that's why I don't always

00:25:34.080 encourage them, is marketplaces. So when I started AppSumo.com, I posted it on Reddit. I said,

00:25:40.080 hey, there's this product called Imgur. I got a discount on it because I cold emailed the founder.

00:25:44.580 And there's a marketplace of people looking to spend money or that are excited about things.

00:25:48.700 And you could post it on there. You could post it on IndieHackers. You can post it on Etsy,

00:25:53.960 Nextdoor, wherever it is, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, wherever it is worldwide,

00:25:57.180 places where people are raising their hand to spend money. And then lastly, to get customers,

00:26:01.440 you can try landing pages and ads. So that's been a common one people talk about, I would say,

00:26:05.640 but I think that's my least favorite. Actually, I know it's my least favorite. Because then you have

00:26:10.520 to learn about how to do a landing page. Then you have to set up an ad. Then you have to spend money.

00:26:14.480 Then you have to wait for results. And that is fine. I think that's okay. But again, you can do it a lot

00:26:20.020 quicker and cheaper. And that's what I've found to be more effective than having to wait, which happens

00:26:25.780 in some of these other two approaches. I was just thinking about some of the little businesses that

00:26:31.420 I've started throughout my life. I forgot I did this. And it was though I did the whole act

00:26:36.100 and now not how. And I validated it really quickly, didn't spend any money. And I used marketplaces,

00:26:43.780 kind of what we would call them primitive marketplaces. So when I was in college,

00:26:48.220 I lived in Mexico for a few years. So I could speak Spanish fluently. So when I got back and

00:26:53.140 I was in college, I offered tutoring services. And so I just created a crappy flyer for Spanish

00:26:59.700 tutoring service. I think I charged $25 an hour, like $20 an hour. This was 2005. So that was a lot of

00:27:05.540 money back then. And I just posted it on the bulletin board in the foreign language department

00:27:10.820 at University of Oklahoma. And within a week, I think I had five clients. I had five customers

00:27:17.700 who called me and said they wanted Spanish tutoring. So I was making, what was that? A hundred bucks a

00:27:22.800 week extra. That was pretty dope. When you're a broke college student, I was making a hundred and

00:27:27.040 it was only, I was only spending five hours a week. So that was a great, that was a success. I validated

00:27:31.920 that one really quickly. The other business idea I had when I was in, I think it was, I was in law

00:27:36.940 school. So this was 2005. And so this was a period where iPhones weren't really a thing yet. I don't

00:27:44.560 even think the iPhone was created in 2005, but people had iPods. And so people also had CD

00:27:51.340 collections that they accumulated for years. So I had the idea I would help people transfer their CD

00:27:58.060 collection to their new iPod. And so I created these flyers and I put them out everywhere. I didn't get

00:28:04.660 any calls on that one. So I gave up after a couple of weeks on that one. But I thought it was a cool

00:28:08.880 idea. I love it, man. Wow. That's awesome. You know, the most successful people I personally

00:28:15.280 admire and have seen have also tried the most things, right? And by doing it, you start recognizing,

00:28:20.500 okay, I'm doing this. This isn't working, but I'm learning something. And this isn't working,

00:28:24.000 but I'm learning something. And then for me, you know, same as you, I've tried, you know,

00:28:27.840 I had a ninja card.com website where I did discount cards for college students. And then I had

00:28:32.780 a blog called freecalls2.com, which was voice over IP phone calls on the internet.

00:28:38.160 And they may seem silly, right? And most businesses start as hobbies. And so it's good to start a

00:28:44.040 hobby and stick with this hobby. And then each of these things we learn from that have led us to

00:28:48.360 eventually, you know, I'm sure there's subtle pieces of all these projects that led you to where

00:28:53.020 our demandliness is. And same thing with me and getting to where AppSumo is today.

00:28:57.460 No, for sure. Okay. So validating. So what do you think, what's the most effective way? What's the

00:29:01.580 way you like to validate or find customers? Pre-ordering. Yeah. Just that. And that can be,

00:29:06.580 that's easy. Just texting people. You text three people. Here's this thing I'm going to offer.

00:29:11.840 It's, you know, $50. Can I send you my Venmo? And that's it.

00:29:17.020 So let me maybe provide some frameworks to make it even easier for people that are thinking like,

00:29:21.860 Hey, I've got it. Most people have an idea. Even my brother. I love my brother. He's a doctor.

00:29:25.760 He had, yes. I'll link my girlfriend this morning. He had this idea for ultra endurance powder. So

00:29:33.060 he's, he's a, he's a doctor and he created this powder for himself for when he went on long bike

00:29:37.240 rides. And again, it was, he just solved his own problem. And most people like, well, that's not a

00:29:40.700 business. It's like, actually, that's exactly what a business is. And what I'd recommend to him

00:29:46.000 is what I'd recommend for people out there is I call it listen, options, and transition. So how do you

00:29:52.260 actually communicate with people? And by the way, remember we talked about starting and asking now

00:29:56.480 it comes into play in a fun way where you can actually get paid for it. So for him, you can

00:30:00.540 text and stuff. I like calls and whatever's real time. Cause when you post on social media or you

00:30:05.920 post in the marketplace, you're kind of waiting. Now, when you're asking someone for some like,

00:30:10.080 you know, ultra endurance sports powder, you don't have to make it this big. Uh, will you buy from

00:30:16.080 me? Cause that's kind of, I don't know, that that's a little scary at times, especially if you're not

00:30:19.580 experienced, but you can call any of your friends up and ask for feedback. Like people ask for

00:30:24.300 feedback all the time. Hey, I'm working on a book. Hey, have you gone to that restaurant? Hey,

00:30:27.900 I got this idea. Hey, I'm want to do this to my room. What do you think? And so you call and listen.

00:30:33.520 So you call up a friend and say, Hey, I'm working on this business idea about powder. Do you,

00:30:38.740 and you call people by the way, so call people that you think would actually be interested in this.

00:30:43.360 So for my brother, it would be, who have you ever ridden bikes with? He's a huge cyclist.

00:30:47.120 Just make a list, call your dream 10 and put them on a list. And now let's go through people

00:30:51.420 you think would actually be customers for you. And a lot of times when people start businesses,

00:30:55.700 Brett, they try to start it outside of their zone of influence and it just makes it so much harder.

00:31:00.840 So what are skills that you're already good at and who do you already have access to?

00:31:05.260 And so make a list of them. And then when you call, say, Hey, I know you're a cyclist.

00:31:08.720 Are you ever going on long rides? Yeah. Oh. And when you're listening, really what you're trying to do

00:31:13.080 here is you're trying to elevate their problems if they actually have them. And if they have

00:31:17.760 problems, then great. We'll solve them next. If not, cool. It's not a problem for them.

00:31:21.880 So for, for my brother, it would be, Hey, are you ever tired after your rise? You're tired after

00:31:26.680 20, 30, 40, 50 miles of cycling. Oh yeah, I am. Then you create an option for them. Well,

00:31:31.480 I actually have a solution to the problem you said, and it's called ultra endurance powder.

00:31:35.140 I think he was calling it horse powder for himself. And then, yeah, you present some options

00:31:42.260 for these people. Hey, here's the powder. Is that something you'd be interested? What do you think?

00:31:46.160 And again, none of this, you should never have to convince someone. If you're convincing them,

00:31:50.300 you're selling them. And to me, that's aggressive versus asking and learning. And if it's something

00:31:55.140 they're interested in, then the last one is T. So it's L O T. Listen, option, transition. And the last 0.95

00:31:59.280 one, you just transition. It sounds like you want the powder. I'm going to be putting this together.

00:32:02.540 I'd love to get you as a beta customer. Is that something you could send me a Venmo, PayPal,

00:32:06.900 crypto cash check today for $10 or $20? And again, you know, in the process, you do need to follow

00:32:13.780 a little bit of how do you come up with your pricing, which is much quicker than people realize.

00:32:18.920 And you see if they'll actually pay you. And that's the truth. And people are always surprised

00:32:24.400 that people are excited to pay for that, pay for their problems. They're like, wow, this is actually

00:32:29.000 how it can start. And it's just so empowering. That's why I always share this story where,

00:32:33.880 yeah, my first sale was $12. This little hobby where I wanted my own deals on software could

00:32:38.440 then turn into where it is today, which is unbelievable. But I did get started and I found

00:32:42.720 something that people were excited. And it sounds like you too, you tried things that, yeah,

00:32:46.880 language tutoring, cool. And by the way, that language tutoring business could have turned

00:32:50.620 into Duolingo.

00:32:51.240 Could have, yeah.

00:32:52.620 So when people try to, no, it's just language tutoring. No, that can be wherever you want

00:32:56.040 to take it. Same thing with, you know, my business with Absum. And same thing with my brother. Like

00:33:00.100 this horse powder business could turn into, you know, GNC or it could turn into some large,

00:33:04.700 you know, health food company.

00:33:06.780 Okay. So just following the advice we just talked about now, you can get a business where you get

00:33:11.640 paying customers within 48 hours. I think anyone could like, literally, I think people can do that

00:33:15.680 after they listen to this podcast. And they've validated a business by getting paid by three

00:33:20.440 different customers. That's the goal. How do you grow that business to where it's making more

00:33:26.980 money? You're getting more customers.

00:33:29.780 Yeah. Just go to your contacts in your phone, right? If you're, if you're listening to this,

00:33:33.940 just go look at your contacts. Everyone has at least 150 guaranteed. And those are all potential

00:33:39.680 customers. And all those contacts have other potential customers. And those really are your first

00:33:44.220 customers. And people really make it way harder on themselves. And I'm like, you don't have to,

00:33:49.020 it should be easy. Now business, when we break it down in terms of how to scale a business,

00:33:54.420 it's only three W's. So what's the problem you're solving? That's the first W that people actually

00:33:59.680 care about and are excited to have you solve. Who is that person that wants it? And where are they?

00:34:05.060 That's it. And again, it doesn't have to be hard. And so what I always recommend, and this is

00:34:12.080 something that it's really tough for people, is whatever you did to get your first three,

00:34:16.480 just keep doing that exact same thing. So keep doing more of what's working. And then ask those

00:34:22.100 three for referrals. Because again, you know, people, oh, how do I do my ads? How do I do

00:34:26.940 affiliate? How do I do content creation? I don't even want to be on social media. Don't, don't do any

00:34:31.500 of it. You know, Jake, I don't know if he even has social media, the golf trips guy, but he does golf

00:34:36.540 with people. And so he asked those people to be his customers. And then he asked those people for

00:34:40.740 one person to come on the golf trip. And that is how we got going. And literally you can do more of

00:34:46.140 that to keep growing the business before you even try to do a bunch of other things. Now, if you are

00:34:52.020 saying, hey, I've literally maxed out everyone in my network, which no one ever has, I promise that.

00:34:57.540 What I do recommend is a growth machine. And so how you can approach a growth machine is you're going to

00:35:02.540 number one, do things in public. Because what I found is that by just putting myself out there

00:35:06.980 for the past 24 years, it's just been an awesome way to meet people like yourself, Brett. It's just

00:35:11.740 been fun. And again, whether you want to have a big business now or later, having yourself in public,

00:35:18.380 having emails, so you can actually communicate with your audience is insurance. So if one day your

00:35:23.920 boss fires you, or one day you're like, actually, I have a thing I've been building. I want to

00:35:27.980 communicate with people. Having an email list that you can contact people. I use SendFox, but there's

00:35:31.840 MailChimp, ConvertKit. There's a lot of options today. Creating content being public and having

00:35:36.600 that audience communication, I would say is essential. Now in terms of the growth machine

00:35:40.260 for scale, the way I've always done it at AppSumo, at Mint, at my YouTube channel, even what I'm doing

00:35:46.080 in the book, is you work backwards from a goal of what you want to accomplish. And you make a list of

00:35:51.060 all the different ways you think, where are these customers that I'm looking for? Are they on Facebook

00:35:56.360 ads? Are they in social media? Is it wholesale? And I make a list and I prioritize it based on the

00:36:02.320 impact I think I can have in terms of sales expected from those channels. And then I literally

00:36:07.040 take the top three and I experiment with that for a month, going back to experiments. And I see if any

00:36:11.460 of those three, what I expected and how they actually performed. And then I just double down

00:36:16.240 the one that works. And people are like, no, it's got to be harder. It's like, literally,

00:36:20.440 that's AppSumo today. Millions of buyers a month, $80 million plus. And it's the same formula that's

00:36:26.360 other businesses. Okay. So yeah, your channel, it could be LinkedIn. Imagine business-oriented,

00:36:34.200 managerial type. If you're doing business-to-business type business, that's where you probably want to

00:36:38.540 be. You could do Instagram. And all these channels have their pros and cons. And you have to find the

00:36:44.500 one that you like doing. You settled on YouTube. That's what you like to do.

00:36:49.520 Yeah. I mean, you ultimately have to promote the business where your customers are. And your best

00:36:53.460 marketing is happy customers. So that's, again, I think people want a lot of, you know, silver

00:36:59.800 bullet magic. Like, oh, okay, but there's a Facebook ad thing that I can do. And it's like,

00:37:04.060 yes, that can work. But one, just because it works for one company doesn't mean it's going to work for

00:37:08.720 another. And if you just do more of the basics, like almost every entrepreneur I meet, that's their

00:37:14.020 business isn't growing. I said, what did you do to get your business growing? I used to message people

00:37:18.220 one by one. How often are you doing that today? I'm not doing it. Just go back and do that. And

00:37:23.180 that is nine times out of 10, I think that I've, I've seen hold people back from scaling their

00:37:27.260 business. And yes, there are other things that you can experiment with and you can get those things,

00:37:32.060 but do more of what already was working. And then the way the value that we call it AppSumo is called

00:37:36.760 test and invest. So test these other new channels. And I can give you an example. We tested last year,

00:37:42.360 we're sponsoring video creators to promote AppSumo and make content about software for

00:37:47.980 entrepreneurs. And we just tested it. We paid someone a thousand bucks. I don't remember even

00:37:52.220 who the first person was. And the return, meaning the amount of people that came in and spent money

00:37:57.300 on AppSumo from that was we made our money back the same week. And so fast forward a year later,

00:38:03.760 we tested that. It worked. Now there's five people recruiting and building out our video ambassador

00:38:08.960 program. But you can look at it on Facebook ads. Our Facebook ads don't make us almost any money.

00:38:15.760 And that's okay too. But again, do the basics really well. Make sure your customers are happy,

00:38:20.880 get referrals from your customers, and then try out other platforms. And what works for someone,

00:38:24.420 maybe it's LinkedIn. LinkedIn doesn't do much for me. Instagram, TikTok doesn't do much for me.

00:38:28.760 But I found that YouTube and my email list is really my bread and butter. So I focus on that for

00:38:33.320 my personal. Yeah. And in this process, you're big on collecting emails because you own

00:38:38.760 your emails as opposed to having your whole platform be on social media where you're at

00:38:45.700 the mercy of some corporation's algorithm. I mean, they can change it and then your reach goes down.

00:38:51.160 So email is stable. It's direct. You can control it. And that's going to be your biggest sales funnel

00:38:56.760 probably. Let me share a crazy story literally from last week, Brett. It was sad, but also a great

00:39:03.500 reminder. So I have a million subs on YouTube and we were able to do it in two years.

00:39:08.340 And I posted a video and most of my videos get a million views. And we posted a video that has,

00:39:15.360 as of today, I have to pull it up, but I think it's at 10,000 views.

00:39:22.040 Right. Which is, uh, that's not good. Uh, let me see this video.

00:39:26.380 12,066. So think about that. I've, you know, spent two years, a lot of content, a lot of people,

00:39:35.060 most videos to get a million. And that's a great reminder that I'm not in control of communication

00:39:40.560 with my audience. YouTube is, and I have to create a content that serves them and not me or my

00:39:46.280 customers. And email is the best direct line to your audience and ideally audience that can become

00:39:51.860 customers. AppSumo does about half of our $80 million a year via email. So for people that

00:39:58.020 are out there, they're like, Oh crap. Yeah. Maybe that's, maybe I'm doing lawn care. I should have 0.94

00:40:01.640 an email. Maybe I'm an accountant or tax person. I should do email. Maybe I'm thinking of doing a

00:40:06.440 business in the future. Yes, you should get an email list. And so let me just give people,

00:40:10.400 you know, if you want to get a hundred subscribers, let me just give you a few things that you can do

00:40:14.280 right now. So number one, you don't even need an email service. You can just use Gmail.

00:40:19.000 Now that's literally how I started AppSumo. I just literally, I use my Gmail to send people

00:40:23.460 their codes for the software. And so you don't have to even use a service. Number two, you need

00:40:30.600 to make something that people actually want to receive. Like, I don't know about you, Brett,

00:40:33.460 but when my girlfriend emails me, I always open it. And so if you're going to have an email list,

00:40:40.340 you need to have something that people are actually excited, you know, like your content. It's been

00:40:43.440 high quality content for 15 years, 16 years.

00:40:48.220 Yeah. And so you're creating high quality content. So think about what is it? And doesn't

00:40:52.420 need to be every day or every week. It could be monthly that people are excited to read.

00:40:56.780 So is the thing you're sending actually good? It all comes back to that. Like you make a good

00:41:00.440 product. All the marketing is easy. And most people think they have marketing problems when

00:41:04.440 they really have business problems. Meaning you have to make stuff that people are excited about.

00:41:09.020 The three ways that you can grow your email list. Number one, here's a stupid way. Just update 1.00

00:41:14.220 your email signature. If you're emailing people, just put your email signature in there.

00:41:19.640 Second way, we talked about the dream 10, which if you open your contacts in your phone,

00:41:23.480 you go on LinkedIn, you go on Instagram, you go on WhatsApp, you go wherever. Just go look who are

00:41:28.860 people that you think should be hearing about you. Let me give you a recent example. I wanted to prove

00:41:33.940 million dollar weekend. So I asked the audience what business I should start. And I didn't want to use

00:41:38.540 my email list or any social media. That was part of the challenge. And they said I should start a

00:41:43.460 software company. I was like, okay, I'm pretty comfortable with that. And so one of the problems

00:41:48.200 I noticed with my credit card bill was DocuSign. You ever use DocuSign or HelloSign?

00:41:53.280 Yeah.

00:41:54.380 I just hate paying for it because I don't use it very often and I only need to use it once in a while.

00:41:58.800 So I was like, huh, that's kind of an interesting one. So I went through the whole process and what I did

00:42:04.260 to find my dream 10 was I looked, I went to my Gmail and I searched anyone who in the past five

00:42:09.680 years who emailed me a DocuSign. I just looked who's already, who's an ideal person because they're

00:42:15.440 using a competitor. And if I hate it, maybe they do too. And I put that on a list and I contacted

00:42:20.680 them. And that's how I was able to get about 3000 sales in 48 hours. And then I'd say the last one,

00:42:26.860 this was, this was a good reminder. It's called lead magnets. And again, I think people make this

00:42:30.840 stuff so ominous and complicated. Those two things we said about your dream 10 or dream 100 and your

00:42:35.900 update your email signature, that alone can get you a hundred subscribers. What a lead magnet is,

00:42:40.320 and I'll just give you an example. I posted on LinkedIn, hey, here's how I do my planning for my

00:42:45.920 goal setting for 2024. If you're interested in my goal planning, go to noakagan.com, join the newsletter

00:42:51.060 and I'll send it out to you. And all I did was then share via my newsletter, how I do my yearly goal

00:42:56.520 setting. That's it. It doesn't have to be something super complicated. And that worked really, really

00:43:01.660 well. I think we doubled the amount of people that normally join just by having something that they

00:43:05.260 were excited to get from my newsletter, not, you know, some crappy PDF that's like, here's five ways

00:43:10.200 to have a better life. That was my first lead magnet when I started AOM in 2008. It was a PDF. It was

00:43:17.400 a guide to being a gentleman. And it was so crappily done. I had no design skills and I was just

00:43:24.680 making this thing in Microsoft paint. It was bad, but it worked.

00:43:28.940 I'm sure at the time though, it was pretty good. How did it work?

00:43:30.600 Yeah, it worked well. I mean, I got a ton of email subscribers from it and I also used to get RSS

00:43:35.100 subscribers because RSS was a thing. So I would include a link in the RSS footer feed.

00:43:42.980 Do you think people know RSS?

00:43:44.880 I still use RSS. I love it. I use Feedly.

00:43:48.700 How do you read RSS?

00:43:49.800 Feedly. That's what I use. 0.53

00:43:51.840 Oh, do you really? Wow. I use Pocket mostly for the articles.

00:43:54.680 Yeah, I like Pocket. Pockets hit or miss. Some of it's good. Some of it's bad. There's

00:44:00.060 like certain people like to follow regularly and get their updates. So I use Feedly for

00:44:04.280 that. But yeah, Art of Manly still has an RSS feed, guys. I'm going to sell it. It's

00:44:10.620 great. It's full text too. It's not the like click here to read the whole thing. You can

00:44:14.580 read the whole thing in your feed reader.

00:44:17.580 You know, one of the things we kind of said before the show got going is like, you know,

00:44:21.880 you get started, you get asking, you stick with it. Did you ever imagine it would be

00:44:26.120 like this where you are today, 16 years later?

00:44:28.180 No, I didn't. I did not. I mean, when I started AO Women, I had the idea for it. I was excited

00:44:35.140 about it. It's like, this could be something. Like I think it could be something, but I didn't

00:44:38.600 think it would be, I had no idea it would be a podcast. I had no idea that it would be

00:44:42.980 like The Strenuous Life. I had no idea I would write books based off of it. I had no idea

00:44:47.860 I'd be working with my wife full time from our house. No, no clue. We just did the next best

00:44:55.240 thing. Just took action after action after action and just did it for a really long time.

00:45:00.900 And here we are now.

00:45:02.360 That's, yeah, that's it. And it's possible. I think that's one of the things people need

00:45:06.840 to believe. I never, the life I'm getting to live. I don't know if you would have told

00:45:10.460 me even a few years ago, I would be able to live it. And it does take, yeah, it takes

00:45:14.860 time. You know, one getting started, you might start realizing, holy, it could be possible.

00:45:18.980 And it does take, you know, even writing down like, Hey, what could happen in the next

00:45:22.400 few years? Cool. All right. Let me start today. And what do you think helped you stick with

00:45:27.160 it? You said something earlier about that.

00:45:31.280 I think, well, I think both my wife and I have a personality that's sort of a stick to

00:45:35.960 it disposition. We're workhorses. Like we'll just keep going and going and going. And I

00:45:40.780 think it also helps that we enjoy it. You know, I enjoyed it at the start 16 years ago

00:45:44.260 and you know, I'm still enjoying it today. But I mean, I think, you know, in every job, even

00:45:48.520 if you have a dream job, there's going to be things that you don't enjoy. Like, yeah,

00:45:53.260 it's a job. Right. And Kate and I, we still hit walls. Occasionally we get burned out, but

00:45:59.100 then, you know, we just keep going and then we get back to enjoying it again. So I think

00:46:04.060 the fact that we love the work we do goes a long way, but then also experience, I mean,

00:46:08.580 you have to like just experiencing those bits of success on the regular helps out a lot,

00:46:14.860 you know, setting goals, achieving them that helps out a lot. And then just getting the feedback

00:46:19.880 that we've gotten over the years from our readers and listeners saying how an article helped them

00:46:25.580 with, you know, it could be like a small thing in their life or some people I've, you know, we've

00:46:29.020 gotten like wedding invitations from dudes who were like, I read this article about how I need to

00:46:34.660 stop hanging out with women and start dating them. And I started asking women on dates and now I'm 0.99

00:46:40.720 getting married. Here's an invite. I'm like, wow, that's, that's crazy. Um, and what's crazy

00:46:44.760 about doing it for this long, it's been really rewarding is we've been doing it long enough where

00:46:50.320 there are guys who started reading us when they were like 16, they're now 32 years old and they've

00:46:57.980 got kids, they're married, they've got a job. And we get letters from these guys saying, yeah,

00:47:03.680 I started reading you when I was 16. And like, you had content that helped me with like different

00:47:07.300 stages of my development into adulthood. Like you helped me learn how to tie a tie for a dance.

00:47:14.020 You learned, helped me, you know, how to ask a woman out on a date and you helped me with

00:47:18.320 parenting advice. And that's, that's really super rewarding. That is awesome. That was really nice to

00:47:25.580 hear. I was like, tell me more of these stories. Well, no, this has been a great conversation. I think

00:47:29.560 the big takeaway is you want people after they listen to this episode to go buy, buy the book. I'm sure

00:47:34.880 you're going to make the ask here in a bit. That's fine. But also you want people to go out if they've

00:47:40.300 had that idea for a business this weekend, make it happen. You can make it happen. Just start now

00:47:46.920 and get over the fear of asking and then follow this process. I wasn't going to ask. No, I was

00:47:53.220 going to actually give you the opportunity to ask here in a bit because I always ask, where can you

00:47:57.360 learn more about your book and your work? Okay. So where can people go to learn more about the book

00:48:01.460 and your work? And is there someplace people can reach out to you to report whether they

00:48:06.580 started a business this weekend? Like, can they tweet at you? What, what, how do you like that?

00:48:10.340 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, go to milliondollarweekend.com and what I'm excited about, I'm excited for people

00:48:17.880 to get the book. I want to see them sending me a photo. You can add Noah Kagan on all social media.

00:48:22.620 And I want to see who's going to change their life in 48 hours. And people have 52 weekends to do it.

00:48:27.620 They have 52 chances. And I'm very excited because I'm already seeing, I saw this guy, Jake. There's

00:48:32.700 this other woman, Mackenzie, who has a greeting card business. There's this guy, Pat. He's actually

00:48:36.820 featured on the back of the book. He emailed me two weeks ago. He quit his job. And when people

00:48:41.260 realize that if they can get started today, they're going to enjoy the rewards in a little bit of time

00:48:45.340 and that they can actually do it is exciting for me. And this book in business, I would say for

00:48:50.160 everyone is, is the realization of who they can actually be and realizing it's not as far away as they

00:48:54.840 thought. All right. So what was the web address again? MillionDollarWeekend.com.

00:48:58.920 MillionDollarWeekend.com. Well, Noah Kagan, thanks for your time. It's been a pleasure.

00:49:02.460 It's great. Great to hear your voice again, man. I missed you. And maybe we'll do it in five years

00:49:05.900 instead of seven. Yeah, we'll make that happen. My guest name is Noah Kagan. He's the author of the

00:49:10.880 book Million Dollar Weekend. It's available on Amazon.com and bookstores everywhere. You can find

00:49:14.680 more information about his work in the book at his website, NoahKagan.com. Also check out our show

00:49:19.520 notes at aom.is slash milliondollarweekend. We find links to resources. We delve deeper into this topic.

00:49:24.840 We'll see you next time.

00:49:54.840 Family member, do you think we get something out of it? As always, thank you for the continued

00:49:58.400 support. Until next time, it's Brett McKay, reminding you to listen to AOM Podcast, but put

00:50:02.560 what you've heard into action.

The Art of Manliness - January 31, 2024

Launch a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend

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