I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Meeting people with different perspectives
Hey Reader,
I was recently at a mastermind in Mexico put together by my friend, Matt Schnuck.
There were eight of us, which was the perfect size. Everyone could sit around the dinner table—which was outdoors in front of a stunning ocean view in Cabo.
While I knew of everyone, I’d only met one of them in person.
I’ve been reflecting on how valuable it was to get around people with different perspectives.
It seemed like everyone there was buying companies. Specifically, they had a holding company buy a bunch of smaller companies for cashflow. Then they’d roll all the cash from the different ventures up to the parent company and redistribute it.
I tend to always focus on revenue, but everybody else was focused on EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).
This is totally different from how I tend to think of things. My attention is usually on revenue being number one and profit second. But everyone else emphasized profit and cashflow.
A lot of them had a healthier separation from their companies and personal identities. I’m used to having one company and pouring all of myself into it, but they don’t have their identity rolled up in their business. In many cases, they don’t operate the business themselves, they find a CEO to put in place and coach them.
A business type many of them liked was agencies. In fact, half of the group had an agency doing at least $1M/yr in profit, and two of them have agencies doing $2M and $3M/yr. I was surprised at how good of a business agencies are.
Nick Huber was using his Twitter audience of nearly 300,000 to start a bunch of companies. Most people think, “I’ll grow my Twitter following so I can grow my newsletter and sell products.” But Nick’s thinking like a Billion Dollar Creator: “What is the highest leverage place I can direct the attention of my audience?”
One of Nick’s ventures is a real estate cost segregation company that is making $250,000/mo just 9 months in.
My typical way of operating is, "Do one thing at a time.” But Nick called that into question for me as he’s starting six new companies at the same time.
It’s easy to get stuck in your own little bubble. You hear certain messages repeated often enough, you assume you know how the world works. For me, some of those messages might’ve been things like, “Focus on revenue,” “Grow this way,” or “SaaS is better than agencies.”
It’s good to venture outside your usual context, meet new people, and get a reminder that there are many ways of doing things.
We don’t always make a point to seek out people with different perspectives, though. That’s not something that happens automatically. In fact, the opposite happens by default: algorithms will continue to show you more and more of what you want to see.
You have to make a conscious choice to change your environment, the content you consume, and the people you hang out with. It takes a bit of effort, but it’s so worth it.
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CONFERENCE
Come see Amy Porterfield Bloom speak at Craft + Commerce
Speaking of changing your environment and getting around people with different perspectives, our conference, Craft + Commerce, is happening in just a couple of months!
New York Time Best Selling Author, Amy Porterfield, is just one of the incredible speakers you'll love this year.
Join us in downtown Boise June 8th–10th for a three-day conference full of keynote talks, intimate workshops, ConvertKit experts, parties, and meetups. It's all about earning a living online with creators like you.
Hope to see you there!
PODCAST
“We own 7 properties. Why can't we pay for groceries?”
Ramit Sethi's podcast is so good. It's all about the stories we tell ourselves about money.
The title of this episode is pretty crazy, but the content is really interesting. It's about a couple who feels guilty about everything they spend.
Ramit breaks down why they're always worried about saving enough and talks about how to build trust.
(Ramit also has a new series on Netflix called, How to Get Rich.)
BLOG POST
Her Unexpected Elopement Company Is A Runaway Success
Janessa is a good friend here in Boise and she’s built an epic business.
Her company, Simply Eloped, is the largest elopement provider in the world.
This post goes into detail on their early products and packages, breaks down revenue per year, talks about how the business survived the pandemic, and ends with advice for entrepreneurs just starting out.
Enjoy your day!
—Nathan
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
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