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- š§š¼āš Blueprint 058
š§š¼āš Blueprint 058
Winning vs playing, atomics, pursuit vs craft, TV shows, speed to value, timewasters
Welcome back to Blueprint.
If youāre new to the series, itās been 58 weeks (1 year + 1 month + 2 weeks) since I went full-time as an entrepreneur.
My goal is to go from $0 ā $1M/month in income while transparently documenting the entire journey, strategy, and moves made.
Each week, I share learnings & experiments (in written form)
Each month, I share income & strategy shifts (in video form)
You can watch the Year 1 recap video here
TODAYāS TOPICS:
š | Week 58 Metrics + Recap
āāļø | Winning vs Playing
š¤š¼ | Atomics
šŗļø | Pursuit vs Craft
š | Kallawisms (TV shows, speed to value, reps with intention, timewasters)
A reminder that the internet game is not zero-sum. Everyone reading this can win at an unlimited scale. Iām writing this for the internet astronauts building their own worlds. If thatās youā¦letās ride š©š»āš
WEEK 58 METRICS & UPDATES
Week 58 Metrics + Updates
A few quick updates:
Threads: Iāve added Threads to the metrics tracker. Something important is happening here. I canāt say this with certainty, but I get the feeling that consistent engagement on Threads algorithmically adds a booster to your IG. In other words, if youāre actively trying to grow your IG, Iād be engaging on Threads. Vibes are also much more positive, people want to be there, less political content, etc. My approach? Right now Iām cross-posting my tweets to Threads, but will start developing a more āThreads-specificā strategy over the next few weeks.
Wavy: Iāve also added a second newsletter called Wavy. Wavy will be solely focused on content & marketing. Iām going to keep Blueprint exactly how it is (on entrepreneurship, mindset, mental frameworks, my journey) and put all of my content strategy, content trends & content learnings in Wavy. Iām also going to start breaking down other viral content and explain exactly why it works, how to extract those learnings to use in your content, etc. If you follow me only for the entrepreneurial journey, subscribing to Blueprint only is perfect. But if you like reading my thoughts on both the journey + want hyper tactical content/marketing/growth tips & emerging trends, Iād encourage you to subscribe to Wavy as well. Itās free :)
Vlog 1 (Why Vlog?): My first vlog is dropping tomorrow morning on YouTube. Hyped to start doing this consistently
SANDCASTLES
Sandcastles
Before we dive into todayās post, I wanted to share a quick teaser of a new project I'm working on...a storytelling assistant.
After spending 18 months making content daily, Iāve realized the hardest part is consistently turning good ideas into great scripts/stories.
This is the elusive āsauce layerā I always talk about.
But imagine if you could bottle up my storytelling process/frameworks and tap into it on demand for content in any lane/industry?
This is currently in the works. Our storytelling assistant will help you write world-class video scripts instantly.
To date, I havenāt used any off the shelf AI writing tools because I think their output is way too generic and not optimized for high-performing content.
Weāre going to solve this.
I'm using my expertise in storytelling to build a hyper focused tool that will solve this specific problem.
I'm giving Blueprint readers early access & special pricing when it goes live. If you're on this list, you'll secure the Blueprint special.
If this sounds valuable to you, make sure to sign up (https://sandcastles.ai).
WINNING VS PLAYING
Winning vs playing
Growing up, I realized early on that I was ultra competitiveā¦
ā¦a real maniac when it came to games, competitions, challenges or anything with a score.
And I know this personality type isnāt for everyone, but I love winning.
My goal, when approaching any game, is to play continuously, obsessively pursue the optimal strategy, beat everyone, and then go to sleep.
And youād think this would be the perfect personality to succeed at entrepreneurship.
It might be, but it turns out, it has a major blindspotā¦
When you operate in maniac mode, youāre optimizing for short, intense bursts.
All my life, this is how Iāve played.
In school, for example, I wouldnāt study until the night before a test.
I would cram a full semester of learning into the 10 hour window right before, stay up all night, use the pressure as adrenaline, take the test, and then crash right after.
And this style had never let me downā¦until now.
Because entrepreneurship demands a much different mode of game play.
Itās true that company building has a bunch of mini sprints that require max effort, but theyāre part of a massive 100 mile race.
Instead of being given one game with fixed opponents and learnable strategies, youāre taken to an endless arcade, where you have to beat thousands of games against infinite opponents with rules that constantly change.
There is no winningā¦there is just playing.
Itās a forever game with infinite levels.
And when you approach forever games with a sprinterās mindā¦you end up with sore legsā¦a lot.
To win at entrepreneurship, you canāt be a hare or a tortoise.
You have to be both.
And this has been the hardest lesson Iāve had to learn.
The goal is not to win and be done. There is no doneā¦.
The goal is to win the day and survive long enough to get to play again tomorrow.
This is why I donāt believe entrepreneurship is for most people (and why the reward for those that do succeed should be so great).
Because in order to make it, and stay sane along the way, you have to shift your brain from liking winning to liking playing.
Sure, when you zoom out, youāll be able to see wins, but when youāre in the trenches, day after day, you have to find a way to derive satisfaction from getting to play.
At my core, Iām despise the idea of participation trophies, so this concept has been the hardest for me come to terms with.
I spend most of my internal dialogue trying to trick the āwin at all costsā guy into being happy with another 16 hours spent charging up the endless mountain.
Because the reality isā¦playing must become winning or true winning will never come.
ATOMICS
Atomics
Iāve tried my best to stop listening to podcasts (to preserve more thought space for original ideas).
One of the few that I did listen to this week was Chris Williamson & Alex Hormozi.
Hereās a remix on one of my favorite bits from the conversationā¦I call it atomics.
At 1:13:58, Hormozi explains his framework for breaking down tasks into base level component parts.
The example he givesā¦if someone gave you the direction to ābe more charismaticāā¦what do you actually do?
Itās hard to action on ābe more charismaticā because charisma is actually a bundled termā¦made up of 10-15 tactical skills/actions (e.g., smiling when meeting someone, eye contact, putting your shoulders back, etc.).
He goes on to explain how he uses this frameworkā¦breaking tasks into component skillsā¦when training team members.
Instead of telling a new video editor to ābe more like Jimmy,ā he ruthlessly tries to break down what makes Jimmy good into simple & straightforward component parts.
I think of these as the atomic units.
I find this frame extremely helpful for every task. Hereās how Iāve been implementing itā¦
Currently, Iām in a period of max delegation.
My goal is to abstract away every single thing off my plate except for a) coming up with original ideas and b) recording/writing them.
This is where I believe I can offer max leverage.
So to delegate the rest, I need to break down my work into the small possible components.
What does, āedit this video in my styleā actually mean?
Well for the captions alone, itād be:
Use this font style in this positioning in this size
Switch the captions exactly when the frame switches
Use a background color in these scenarios and no background in these
Use big fonts here, here, and here, and small fonts everywhere else
Look for these outlier cases, etc.
This is obviously a trivial example, but all of a sudden āmatch my caption styleā becomes a super specific series of atomic steps at the smallest possible unit that are much harder to miscommunicate.
Iām now applying this framework to every form of communication possible.
To eliminate missteps, over communicate at a smaller atomic level.
PURSUIT VS CRAFT
Pursuit vs Craft
Everybody wants to find ātheir thing.ā
Most people believe the goal is to find something theyāre naturally good at.
But I think this is the wrong approach.
The goal is not to find something youāre naturally good at (the craft).
The goal is to find something that you naturally enjoy getting better at (the pursuit).
Itās a small nuance that makes a massive difference.
For example, you may naturally be top 1% in the world at making clay pots.
And thatās awesomeā¦but if you donāt enjoy the process of getting better at making pots, youāll never practice, youāll never achieve mastery, and that natural gift will eventually atrophy.
Because to be great, at any craft, requires an obsessive and maniacal pursuitā¦daily improvement.
The natural gift alone is not enough.
So to find your purpose, the answer you seek is not finding the craft youāre suited forā¦itās finding the craft you like pursuing.
Do you enjoy the process of getting better at this thing enough to spend 30,000 more hours to eke out a 1% skill improvement.
If soā¦youāve found your thing. Start climbing.
KALLAWISMS
Kallawisms
Treadmills for the mind
1. TV Shows
My homie JT Barnett made this post referring to podcasts as TV shows. It started spinning my wheels.
I think this frame should be applied to all content makers/brands.
Every ācreatorā should think of themselves like a TV channel. You content is programming. Why should your target audience watch it?
For me, Iām building an āentrepreneur/builderā channel. My goal is to become a place that entrepreneurs want to consume content because itās fun and helps them win.
With this frame, I need to constantly ask myselfā¦is the content Iām producing good/entertaining/valuable enough to get entrepreneurs to spend some of their attention on it?
If not, the format/framing may not be right.
This thesis is one of the reasons why Iām starting to vlog. Iām trying to infuse more of my personality and quirks as a wrapper around some of the substance/frameworks. Iām excited for you guys to check out vlog 1 tomorrow!
ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā
2. Speed to value
This is one of my most important marketing concepts.
You need to increase your speed to demonstrable value.
If your product is a shoe insert that helps avoid cankles, you want to decrease the amount of time it takes for a viewer to see the benefit.
If youāre making a video about a robot washing dishes, show the robot as soon as possible.
Compressing the time from start to āseeing valueā will help viewers answer āwhy is this for me?ā much quicker.
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3. Reps with intention
Another Chis Williamson special.
I saw this clip of him working out with an absolute monster, Mike Israetel.
Mike goes, āweāre not here to do reps, weāre here to do one rep at a time, very well.ā
And it hit me.
Lately, Iāve fallen prisoner to putting out content reps without intention.
Every rep should have intention behind itā¦is it an experiment, a test, a value gem, etc?
Reps without intention are just motion.
Motion isnāt progress. Motion in a single direction is progress.
Donāt rep without intention.
ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā
4. Timewasters
Sometimes Iāll look up after a day/week and wonder where all the time went.
When I sit and reflect, most of my wasted time comes from mindless scroll breaks (that turn into 30 min. wormholes), an extra 30 mins before/after bed, etc..
Almost all of my wasted time comes from overconsumption and overscrolling.
Iāve tried my best to limit this by using my Brick to block social as much as possible.
Itās a conundrum, best summed up by this tweetā¦
Iām a better CEO when Iām not consuming social content often. Iām a better marketer when I am. Tough balance.
ā Tommy Clark (@tclarkmedia)
8:46 PM ā¢ Aug 30, 2024
WEEK 58 BEST CONTENT
My best content from last week:
šÆ | Somebody should make an entrepreneur reality show that combines Love Island x Shark Tank: Watch
šŗļø | Mindtrip lets travelers earn up to $10K/month by sharing their travel recs (short): Watch
šÆ | Why Mindtrip could be huge (long short test): Watch
āļø | How to get set-up as a travel creator for free on Mindtrip: Watch
š§š¼āš | Blueprint 057 - Shipwrecks, worldbuilding 101, obituaries, rare air, money points, systems vs ideas: Read
If you enjoy reading Blueprint consistently, let me know how I can improve it to make it more valuable for you