Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 87

Morgan Spurlock: Inside the Mind of a Human Guinea Pig

“You can sacrifice quality for a great story.” – Morgan Spurlock

This is an interview you’ve been asking for since before I started the podcast: Morgan Spurlock. 

Morgan Spurlock (@morganspurlock) is an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker based in New York. He is a prolific writer, director, producer, and human guinea pig. His first film, Super Size Me, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004, winning Best Directing honors. The film went on to win the Writers Guild of America Best Documentary Screenplay award as well as garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Feature Documentary.

Since then he has directed, produced, and distributed multiple film, TV and digital projects, including the critically acclaimed CNN series Morgan Spurlock Inside Man, the FX series 30 Days, and the films Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, Confessions of a Superhero, Freakonomics, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, and many others.

Morgan’s latest project is a tech startup called Clect (homepage, AngelList profile), which is a community for the high-spending collectors community with a one-stop marketplace where people can browse, sell, and buy collectibles of any type imaginable (Star Wars, Smurfs, comics, a Millennium Falcon made from motorcycle parts, etc.). Imagine Comic-Con meets Pinterest and eBay.

In this episode, we cover a ton:

How Morgan got his biggest breaks and, in some cases, made his own luck
How he builds rapport with people and gets them to open up
Tips for aspiring creators and filmmakers
How to get people to care about important issues
Favorite books, documentaries, movies, etc.
Morgan’s thoughts on the future of media and storytelling

If you want a taste of this fantastic interview, here’s the segment on how Morgan gets people to care about important issues.

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast from a film director, screenwriter and producer? — Listen to my conversation with Robert Rodriguez. In this episode, we discuss the creation of “El Mariachi” and how the film went on to win the coveted Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I’ve also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you’re happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What important issues are you most passionate about? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Learn more about Clect
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
Read about Skyler Tanner’s scientific revisitation of Super Size Me
Learn more about NYU Film School
Morgan’s films mentioned:

Inside Man | 30 Days | The Greatest Movie Ever Sold | Super Size Me

Learn more about Morgan Spurlock’s production company Warrior Poets
Learn more about Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand
Learn more about the FOCUS FORWARD innovation series by General Electric
Simple equipment used to record this interview:

Zoom H6 | Shure SM58 with XLR cables

Morgan Spurlock’s favorite documentary of all time: Brother’s Keeper
The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War by Errol Morris
Watch examples of smart nonfiction:

The Jinx | Making a Murderer | Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room | Going Clear

Read about James Cameron’s style, Man of Extremes
Connect with Morgan Spurlock on social media:

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Snapchat: @MorganSpurlock

Check out Nuzzel, which provides a digest from the Twitter accounts you follow

Show Notes

On post-Super Size Me judgment [8:50]
How Morgan Spurlock was inspired to become a storyteller [9:36]
Why New York fits Morgan Spurlock’s personality more than Hollywood [12:45]
Important lessons learned at NYU Film School [13:46]
First major project post-film school [14:35]
On the power of listening [18:50]
On deciding to do 30 Days [24:07]
Mandatory Morgan Spurlock movies [29:23]
How to get people to care about important issues in a noisy environment [36:45]
Movie or TV – How to decide which is best? [38:47]
Resources for masterful storytelling [42:58]
Exploring the future of movie making – TV, Netflix, Networks, etc. [48:37]
Speculating on future projects [51:26]
Who are the filmmakers pushing the technological envelope? [55:52]
The story of the making of Super Size Me [57:25]
On forward-thinking thought leaders [1:01:03]
Most gifted books [1:02:43]
About Clect [1:03:55]
If you could have one billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? [1:07:20]

People Mentioned

Rick Baker
Tom Savini
Joe Berlinger
Bruce Sinofsky
Errol Morris
Michael Moore
Steve James
Al Maysles
John Landgraf
Alex Gibney
James Cameron

Why You Need a “Deloading” Phase in Life

I’ve written about my morning journaling routine once before.

But my journaling–think of it as freezing thinking on paper–isn’t limited to mornings. I use it as a tool to clarify my thinking and goals, much as Kevin Kelly (one of my favorite humans) does. The paper is like a photography darkroom for my mind.

Below is a scan of a real page. Both entries are from October 2015.

The first entry (top half) is simply a list of “fun” things I felt compelled to schedule after the unexpected death of a close friend. Since I’ve ticked all of the bullets off. You’ll notice that I blurred out a few sensitive bits, and I won’t spend time on this entry in this post.

The second entry (bottom half) was written in Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco after a two-hour walk. The gestation period during walking and subsequent entry lead me to re-incorporate “deloading” phases in my life. “Deloading” is a term often used in strength and athletic training, but it’s a concept that can be applied to many areas. Let’s look at the sports definition, here from T Nation:

A back-off week, or deload, is a planned reduction in exercise volume or intensity. In collegiate strength-training circles, it’s referred to as the unloading week, and is often inserted between phases or periods. Quoting from Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning: “The purpose of this unloading week is to prepare the body for the increased demand of the next phase or period,” and to mitigate the risk of overtraining.

So, how does this relate to creativity, productivity, or quality of life?

First, I’ll give a personal outcome — In the last 12 months, I’ve used “deloading” outside of sports to decrease my anxiety at least 50% while simultaneously doubling my income.

Deloading for business, in my case, consists of strategically taking my foot off the gas. I alternate intense periods of batching similar tasks (recording podcasts, clearing the inbox, writing blog posts, handling accounting, etc.) with extended periods of — for lack of poetic description — unplugging and fucking around.  Oddly enough, I find both the batching and unplugging to free up bandwidth and be restorative.

The unplug can still be intense (here’s a personal example in Bali), but you shouldn’t be working on “work.”

Let’s dig into the journal entry, as it provides much of the reasoning.

I’ve provided the scan (click to enlarge) and transcribed the entry below it, including many additional thoughts. The journal itself (Morning Pages Workbook) I explain here:

Now, the transcription with revisions and additional thoughts:

– TUES – SAMOVAR @ 5:40PM –

The great “deloading” phase.

This is what I’m experiencing this afternoon, and it makes a Tuesday feel like a lazy Sunday morning. This is when the muse is most likely to visit.

I need to get back to the slack.

To the pregnant void of infinite possibilities, only possible with a lack of obligation, or at least, no compulsive reactivity. Perhaps this is only possible with the negative space to–as Kurt Vonnegut put it–fart around? To do things for the hell of it? For no damn good reason at all?

I feel that the big ideas come from these periods. It’s the silence between the notes that makes the music.

If you want to create or be anything lateral, bigger, better, or truly different, you need room to ask “what if?” without a conference call in 15 minutes.  The aha moments rarely come from the incremental inbox-clearing mentality of, “Oh, fuck… I forgot to… Please remind me to… Shouldn’t I?…I must remember to…”

That is the land of the lost, and we all become lost.

My Tuesday experience reinforced, for me, the importance of creating large uninterrupted blocks of time (a la maker’s schedule versus manager’s schedule), in which your mind can wander, ponder, and find the signal amidst the noise. If you’re lucky, it might even create a signal, or connect two signals (core ideas) that have never shaken hands before.

For me, I’ve scheduled “deloading” phases in a few ways: roughly 8am-9am daily for journaling, tea routines, etc.; 9am-1pm every Wednesday for creative output (i.e. writing, interviewing for the podcast); and “screen-free Saturdays,” when I use no laptops and only use my phone for maps and coordinating with friends via text (no apps).  Of course, I also use mini-retirements a few time a year.

“Deloading” blocks must be scheduled and defended as strongly as–actually, more strongly than–your business commitments. The former can be a force multiplier for the latter, but not vice-versa.

So, how can one throttle back the reactive living that has them following everyone’s agenda except their own?

Create slack, as no one will give it to you. This is the only way to swim forward instead of treading water.

###

Did you enjoy this? Please let me know in the comments.  I’d also love to hear of how you “deload,” if you do.

If you’d like more on my morning routines, here are five habits that help me tremendously.

As always, thanks for reading.

How to Live in the Moment

“Show me that the good in life does not depend upon life’s length, but upon the use we make of it; also, that it is possible, or rather usual, for a man who has lived long to have lived too little.” – Seneca the Younger

I once wrote, “We all like to appear ‘successful’ (a nebulous term at best) and the media like to portray standouts as superheroes…Most ‘superheroes’ are nothing of the sort. They’re weird, neurotic creatures who do big things DESPITE lots of self-defeating habits and self-talk.”

Focusing on what people accomplish without understanding the mindset that enables success leads to limited results. To help close the gap, I wanted to share On The Shortness of Life by Seneca the Younger. It’s a short letter written roughly two thousand years ago, yet it’s timeless.

This is an essay that I revisit at least once a quarter because it focuses on how much time we’re given in life, and how it’s oftentimes misused or wasted.

You can listen to my favorite portion here, which begins with:

“Why do you torment yourself and lose weight over some problem…”

This is a fantastic reminder to mind the critical few and to ignore the trivial many.

You can listen to this one and the rest of the collection via the Tao of Seneca at Audible.com/TimsBooks.

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another segment from The Tao of Seneca? — Listen to How to Avoid the Busy Trap. In this episode, I dig deeper into useful philosophy and how we think of riches (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Boll & Branch. There is a lot of nonsense in the bedding business. For instance, did you know thread-count is not a good measurement of quality? It’s a total myth. The “Made in Italy” label? It isn’t something you should necessarily pay extra for because it generally means it’s just finished in Italy and woven in places like China.

The general industry mark-up for bedding is 700 to 800 percent at most retailers. Boll & Branch creates incredibly high-quality bedding. They are the same sheets you’ll find at my home in San Francisco.

The best part? You can try anything you order at home for 30 days. If you don’t love it, send it back and get a full refund. Go to Boll & Branch and use promo code “TIM” for 20% off your entire order. Whether sheets, towels, blankets, duvet covers, or anything else. Shipping is always free.

This episode is also brought to you by Exo Protein. These guys are making protein bars using cricket protein powder. Before you look disgusted, I bet they taste better than any protein bar you’ve ever had before! With recipes that were developed by a three-Michelin-star chef, the bars are paleo-friendly, with no gluten, no grains, no soy, no dairy, and they won’t spike your glycemic response. In fact, they’re less processed than any other protein bars you’ll be able to find.

Exo Protein is offering a deep discount to Tim Ferriss Show listeners — if you go to ExoProtein.com/Tim today, you can try a sampler pack with all of the most popular flavors for less than $10. This is a startup with limited inventory that sells out all the time, so act fast!

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: After listening to this letter, how can you make a more productive use of your time? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Show Notes

On the fleeting nature of the present moment [4:18]
Lamenting time spent on superfluous actions [7:34]
‘Why do you torment yourself and lose weight over some problem…’ [8:28]
Preparing for war [9:01]
The space between life and death [11:06]

 

Josh Waitzkin, The Prodigy Returns

“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” – Archilochus

Ever since episode #2 of the podcast, you’ve been asking for more Josh Waitzkin, so here it is! This is an in-depth jam session, and you can definitely listen to this one independently.

Josh Waitzkin was the basis for the book and movie Searching for Bobby Fischer.

Considered a chess prodigy, he has perfected learning strategies that can be applied to anything, including his other loves of Brazilian jiu-jitsu (he’s a black belt under phenom Marcelo Garcia) and Tai Chi push hands (he’s a world champion). These days, he spends his time coaching the world’s top performers, whether Mark Messier, Cal Ripken Jr., or high-profile investors. I initially met Josh through his incredible book, The Art of Learning, which I loved so much that I helped produce the audiobook (download here at Audible).

If you’re interested in implementing programs designed by Josh in your classroom, go to theartoflearningproject.org and find out if the program is a good fit for you.

If you have just a few minutes, I recommend learning about the principle of scarcity and how it can directly benefit your life.

This episode is DEEP, in the best way possible. Just like last time, Josh will blow your mind.

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast with Josh Waitzkin? — In this episode (the second ever on The Tim Ferriss Show), we discuss The Art of Learning, what separates elite performers, and strategies for peak productivity (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by MeUndies. Have you ever wanted to be as powerful as a mullet-wearing ninja from the 1980’s, or as sleek as a black panther in the Amazon? Of course you have, and that’s where MeUndies comes in. I’ve spent the last 2-3 weeks wearing underwear from these guys 24/7, and they are the most comfortable and colorful underwear I’ve ever owned. Their materials are 2x softer than cotton, as evaluated using the Kawabata method. Check out MeUndies.com/Tim to see my current faves (some are awesomely ridiculous) and, while you’re at it, don’t miss lots of hot ladies wearing MeUndies.

This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: How can you use Josh’s principle of scarcity to improve creativity, habit creation, or your learning process? Please share your insights in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from this Episode

Dreaming Yourself Awake by B. Alan Wallace and Brian Hodel
Set up a Gibbon Slackline
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
Think Twice by Michael Mauboussin
Learn more about Headspace, a recommended tool for enhancing mindfulness
Learn more about Blue Zone SUP, PaddleWoo podcast and Erik Antonson
Mindset by Carol Dweck
Watch me get my ass handed to me in Brazilian jiu-jitsu
Learn more about The Art of Learning Project
Are you in the educational world? Interested in joining the project? Email: Katy {AT} JWFoundation [dot] com

Show Notes

Josh Waitzkin’s terrifying experience with the Wim Hof method [9:27]
Explaining “flow” and how Josh Waitzkin uses it as therapy [15:22]
Describing a “flow state” and how to initiate one [17:59]
On cognitive biases [21:48]
Developing high level sensitivity and listening to your senses [27:09]
Strategies for on-boarding newcomers to mindfulness training [28:45]
On parenting [38:02]
Fixed perspectives and growth mindsets [47:53]
On training somatic sensitivity [50:35]
On mitigating the dangers of a fixed identity [55:43]
Marcelo Garcia and the principle of cultivating quality as a way of life [1:01:56]
Quality and presence in parenthood [1:05:51]
What is the fire walking process [1:09:03]
Transitioning physical visualization techniques learned from martial arts to less obvious physical activities (investing for example) [1:16:23]
The principle of slack [1:20:20]
The principle of scarcity in the learning process [1:24:41]
Josh Waitzkin’s daily journaling process [1:34:23]
Talking about thematic interconnectedness in the context of education [1:36:38]
Explaining The Art of Learning Project [1:45:41]

People Mentioned

Marcelo Garcia
Jack Ma

How to Get Busy Influencers to Share Your Stuff

One of the questions I’m constantly asked is, “How do I get influencers to help me?”

This blog post will outline approaches that work with true “influencers”–people who can single-handedly make or break a product launch.  I’ve been fortunate to interact with hundreds of such people since 2007. (If you’re more interested in pitching big media, here’s a template for how I do it.)

Specifically, I share an e-mail below that gets nearly every “influencer” element right.

But before we get to that, here are some ground rules for interacting with influencers or power brokers:

If you’re asking them to share something, offer GOOD CONTENT on a website and not merely a sales page or pitch.  Responsible guardians of large audiences like good editorial.  The reputational risk of sharing great content is close to zero. Conversely, the risk-benefit ratio of sharing a sales page is practically all downside. Make the calculus easy or you’re just pissing in the wind.
Do not e-mail or contact them unless A) they’ve given you their contact info directly, or B) you can get a warm introduction from a good friend of theirs (tip: ask the “friend” when they last had dinner or drinks together).  My preferred approach is in-person meetings in social settings.  Here’s the playbook I used to make SXSW in 2007 the tipping point for the launch of The 4-Hour Workweek. Cold e-mails–which most effective people ignore–are a waste of everyone’s time.  Put in the ground work and play the long game.  Think sniper rifle and not shotgun.  If you only have one chance to make a first impression, don’t screw this up.  “Sorry, let me try again…” almost never works.  Review this before drafting pitches.
Before you reach out, ask yourself “If this person agrees, are they setting a dangerous precedent for themselves?” If so, they won’t agree, so don’t waste your breath.  For instance, why can’t I retweet fans’ Kickstarter campaigns?  Because if I publicly help even one stranger, I will be deluged by thousands of “Pls rt my Kickstarter campaign!” requests and my Twitter feed becomes unusable.  For the same reason, I can’t wish people I don’t know a happy birthday; if I open that door, I will get thousands of never-ending b-day requests.
Give them a graceful exit.  This means never using BS like “I look forward to your favorable reply!” That stuff is terrible.  Be different and do the opposite. Close your e-mail or pitch with “Of course, no worries if you’re too busy to reply.  I know how busy you are.  Warmest wishes to you and yours…”  In my experience, giving people an easy “out” dramatically increases response rate.
Don’t “keep in touch.” It drives busy people crazy.  Treat e-mailing them as you would knocking on their door and interrupting dinner. Treat it that seriously and use it that sparingly.

All that said and as promised, please find below an e-mail from Andrew Zimmern (@andrewzimmern), which I received not long ago.

You’ll see how he gets many subtle elements right.  Personally, I would have modified the subject line and closing line, but the length and don’t-make-me-think assets are otherwise outstanding.

###

Subject line: Little Help From My Friends

[TIM:  The single biggest weakness in this email is the subject line, IMHO, though perhaps they tested it. I would have seen it sooner had it been “Quick question from Andrew Zimmern” or something personalized along those lines.]

Dear Friends:

I hope this email finds you well! My team and I recently relaunched our online store: Shop Andrew Zimmern and I am thrilled to share it with you. It’s a mixture of curated items that I have found on my travels and use in everyday life, along with other branded items from the AZ collection. The assortment of products is ever changing and new items will be added throughout the year. Please a take a minute to check it out: http://shop.andrewzimmern.com.

Don’t be surprised when you stumble upon something you love!

This is where I need your help. It would mean the world to me if you would take a minute and share our shop with your audiences. As we try and build a bigger customer base from the ground up, we could use your support. We provided a few tools to make it easy. Check them out below. If you have any questions, please contact Kelly (fakeemailfromtim@avoidingspam.com) or myself! Thank you again for everything.

Sample tweets:

Stocking stuffers for food geeked friends & family, hand-picked by @andrewzimmern: http://shop.andrewzimmern.com
I’m loving the globally curated gifts/gear from my pal @andrewzimmern: http://shop.andrewzimmern.com
Travel gear & food finds hand-picked by my friend @andrewzimmern: http://shop.andrewzimmern.com


Sample Facebook post:

In search of stocking stuffers for your food geeked friends & family? My pal Chef Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods, has relaunched his online shop, featuring unique travel gear and food finds curated from around the globe. Check it out: http://shop.andewzimmern.com


Shop Andrew Zimmern – editorial content for sharing:

AZ Spotify playlist: http://bit.ly/shopAZplaylist
DIY cocktail bitters + recipe: http://bit.ly/shopAZeockc
Adventurer gift guide: http://bit.ly/shopAZadventure

Kindly,

xx

Andrew Zimmern

###

Afterword from Tim

As one last philosophical morsel, here is the quote that Andrew has at the bottom of his personal e-mail signature:

“If there’s one thing that frustrates me more than anything about the notion of being right, it’s that being right too often gets in the way of being generous. Because being right is too often used as a way to protect us from doing the thing that will actually most serve us. And if I can leave you with one thought, it’s that being right is completely fucking irrelevant.”  – Danny Meyer

For those eager beavers out there, here are 5 more tips for e-mailing busy people, and here is my conversation with Andrew Zimmern on his success habits and routines.

How to Avoid the Busy Trap (and Other Misuses of Your Time)

“A good man will not waste himself upon mean and discreditable work or be busy merely for the sake of being busy. Neither will he, as you imagine, become so involved in ambitious schemes that he will have continually to endure their ebb and flow.” – Seneca

Today’s episode is a bite-sized morsel for your brain and for your life. This is an excerpt from my favorite writing of all-time. This letter is #22, “On the Futility of Half-way Measures.” As usual, Seneca takes a little time in his preamble to get warmed up. That is his style. He seems to enjoy feeling out the recipient of his letter before jumping into the details.

I love this letter because it addresses how we spend our time, which is one of the biggest stresses for all people, and especially entrepreneurs.

My favorite portion is:

“Hence men leave such advantages as these with reluctance.”

I encourage you to listen to this and think of ways that you can adapt Seneca’s wisdom to your own life. Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another segment from The Tao of Seneca? — Listen to How to Achieve Self-Ownership. In this episode, I dig deeper into how we think of gain and loss and how to be a good person (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I’ve also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you’re happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: How did this episode help you reconsider your current use of time and energy? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Show Notes

Start of Letter 22 – On the Futility of Half-Way Measures [5:28]
We must withdraw from showy, depraved pursuits [5:34]
Do not hamper yourself, be content with your current business [7:43]
A motto for Stoicism [9:33]
Eluding the slavery of bickering [11:33]
Finding a way out of the trappings of wealth [12:42]
Final words on living nobly [13:22]

People Mentioned

Epicurus
Zeno
Crispus

The Random Show, Ice Cold Edition

“We were in the locker room getting naked and two guys were like ‘Tim! I love your book!'” -Kevin Rose

This is not going to be a long-form interview where I dissect and deconstruct a world-class performer. Instead, this is a special edition of The Random Show.

I am joined by Kevin Rose (@KevinRose), serial entrepreneur, and all around wild and crazy guy!

Have just 2 minutes? Learn about the dating app I think is even better than Tinder. 

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear this fascinating episode with Dom D’Agostino? I mentioned that he deadlifted 500 pounds for 10 reps after a seven-day fast. Listen to our conversation in which we discuss fasting, ketosis, and the end of cancer. (Stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I’ve also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you’re happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What other recovery and/or self-improvement techniques would you like to learn more about? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Listen to episodes on sauna use with Dr. Rhonda Patrick and Wim Hof
Learn more about Ray Cronise, who helped with the Ice Age chapter in The 4-Hour Body
Check out the Hoshizaki Ice Maker
Learn more about contrast therapy
Learn more about Yaktrax for walking on snow and ice
Check out the Bumble dating app
Sign up for Kevin Rose’s newsletter – The Journal
Sign up for my 5-Bullet Friday newsletter
Watch BJ Miller’s TED Talk, “What Really Matters at the End of Life”
Pick up a Rumble Roller
The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Get a Fitbit Blaze to monitor your heart rate
Learn more about Human Longevity, Inc.
Headed to Yellowstone? Take a tour with Two Top snowmobile rental and follow Michelle
Thinking about returning to magazines? Try these:

National Geographic | Scientific American | Monocle Magazine

Download the podcast suggested by Bill Gurley, Radiolab’s CRISPR
In New York City? Check out Hearth Restaurant
Brodo by Marco Canora
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
Subscribe to Foodist Podcast, the podcast of Darya Rose

Show Notes

On using saunas and cold treatment [6:03]
Winter footwear and the story of Kevin’s NYC ice wipeout [16:18]
Discussing the Bumble dating app [20:00]
Kevin’s new newsletter [25:18]
Tim’s recommended books for this episode [31:59]
The Fitbit Blaze and heart rate monitoring technology [34:23]
On returning to print magazines [45:43]
On Marco Canora’s book and Hearth Restaurant [53:52]

 

The Interview Master: Cal Fussman and the Power of Listening

“It took me 10 years to understand that an interview was more than Meet the Press. Then another 20 [years] to figure out that it was more than sitting down with George Clooney and having the time of my life.” – Cal Fussman

This episode is very special to me and features a verbal Jedi who never gets interviewed himself: Cal Fussman.

Cal (@calfussman) is a New York Times bestselling author and a writer-at-large for Esquire Magazine, where he is best known for being a primary writer of the “What I Learned” feature.

The Austin Chronicle has described Cal’s interviewing skills as “peerless.”

He has transformed oral history into an art form, conducting probing interviews with the icons who’ve shaped the last 50 years of world history: Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Jack Welch, Robert DeNiro, Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, Dr. Dre, Quincy Jones, Woody Allen, Barbara Walters, Pelé, Yao Ming, Serena Williams, John Wooden, Muhammad Ali, and countless others.

Born in Brooklyn, Cal spent 10 straight years traveling the world, swimming over 18-foot tiger sharks, rolling around with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, and searching for gold in the Amazon. He has also made himself a guinea pig—Cal has boxed against world champion Julio Cesar Chavez and served as a sommelier atop of the World Trade Center. He now lives with his wife—whom he met while on a quest to discover the world’s most beautiful beach—and his three children in Los Angeles, where he spends every morning eating breakfast with Larry King.

If you only have a couple of minutes, listen to this entertaining segment on what it’s like to do shots with Hunter S. Thompson.

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast from a guest who works behind-the-scenes with some of the world’s most talented people? — Listen to my conversation with Rick Rubin. In this episode, we discuss cultivating world-class artists (Jay Z, Johnny Cash, etc.), losing 100+ pounds, and breaking down the complex (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by Audible. I have used Audible for years and I love audio books. I have two to recommend:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

All you need to do to get your free 30-day Audible trial is go to Audible.com/Tim. Choose one of the above books, or choose between more than 180,000 audio programs. That could be a book, a newspaper, a magazine, or even a class. It’s that easy. Go to Audible.com/Tim and get started today. Enjoy!

This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams.

Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What can you do this week to make yourself a better listener? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Enjoy!

Selected Links from the Episode

The Power Broker by Robert Caro
The Promise of a Pencil by Adam Braun
Read Cal Fussman’s Mikhail Gorbachev interview
Watch George Foreman win the heavyweight championship
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln by James Humes
Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore
Man on Wire by  James Marsh
The Walk by Robert Zemeckis
Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal
A Feast of Snakes and Car by Harry Crews
Read Cal Fussman’s piece in Esquire, Drinking at 1,300 Feet
Learn more about Cal Fussman:

Twitter | CalFussman.com

Show Notes

Quincy Jones and his unique book signing practice [9:38]
Cal Fussman’s pivotal childhood moment [10:42]
Deconstructing the skill of asking great questions [12:28]
Contrasting interview styles from different life stages [19:53]
The importance of University of Missouri Journalism and its role on Cal’s career [26:08]
What it’s like to do shots with Hunter S. Thompson [30:21]
The story of Cal Fussman’s start in international travel [34:08]
How a single question could get Cal Fussman 6 months of housing and lodging while traveling [51:53]
Common mistakes and lessons learned about the art of asking questions [55:19]
On honing the ability to tell stories [1:05:18]
What happened at the end of Cal Fussman’s travels, which changed his interviewing style [1:09:13]
On speaking at Summit at Sea [1:17:33]
Decoding the art of the interview [1:31:08]
The story of boxing Julio Cesar Chavez [1:41:22]
When you think of the word successful, who is the first person who comes to mind and why? [2:20:18]
What George Foreman did to change Cal [2:29:54]
Most gifted books [2:34:01]
Favorite documentaries and movies [2:41:56]
If you could have a billboard anywhere, what would you put on it and why? [2:48:27]
Advice to Cal’s 30-year-old-self [2:49:08]
The story of the time Cal Fussman had writer’s block, and what Harry Crews said that saved him [2:55:30]

People Mentioned

Quincy Jones
Robert Caro
Muhammad Ali
Hunter S. Thompson
David Halberstam
Ezra Pound
Petra Němcová
Mikhail Gorbachev
Julio César Chávez
Alex Banayan
George Foreman
Michael Moorer
Toni Morrison
Harry Crews

 

How to 10X Your Results, One Tiny Tweak at a Time

“I think the subtraction can be just as valuable as the addition.” – Tim Ferriss

If you’ve enjoyed my previous in-between episodes, then this might be your favorite episode ever. It’s one of the most actionable, information-packed interviews I’ve ever done.

This time, it’s Joel Stein (@TheJoelStein) asking the questions. Joel is one of the funniest writers I have ever read, and he’s great at leading an interview.

Here’s how it all happened: I have many different conversations with journalists. It can be painful when I have a 1-2 hour conversation, and then it’s cut to a single sentence as a quote in a piece. And it’s often a misquote. So how do you fix that? Well, you record it yourself, which is how this episode was created. (With the interviewer’s approval, of course.) This way, you don’t “lose” the content, and you cover your ass with media and journalists.

Joel wanted me to help him figure out 5 areas he could upgrade in his own life for a series on self-improvement. In this episode, we discuss a wide variety of topics, including:

How I choose what to improve from infinite options
How you can subtract your way to success
The genius of Ben Franklin
Why self-improvement doesn’t mean self-centered
How I say no to time-consuming lunches, coffees, and other meetings
How I tackle cold introductions
How I surmounted Lyme Disease
My 100% complete break from start-ups (read this for more)
My podcast process
Tools and tactics for reversing email overwhelm

Enjoy!

Listen to it on iTunes.
Stream by clicking here.
Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast packed full of actionable tips that I use in my own life? — Listen to this short episode on the magic of mindfulness. In this episode, I discuss how to complain less, appreciate more, and live a better life (stream below or right-click here to download):

This podcast is brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs.

I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I’ve also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you’re happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run.

This podcast is also brought to you by Thrive Market. If you’re anything like me, you care a lot about the food you put in your body. In fact, I think it’s much more important than exercise. The problem is that good food can be extremely expensive…but it doesn’t have to be.

Thrive Market is like Costco for everything healthy – an online shopping club offering the best brands and groceries at 25-50% off retail prices, shipped nationally for free. There are a lot of Slow-Carb Diet friendly items that I recommend in The 4-Hour Body. You can easily filter everything by your preferences: paleo, gluten-free, vegan, raw, non-GMO, etc. Best of all: each paid membership also sponsors a free membership for a low-income family.

Until December 15th only, you have an opportunity to win $10,000 in top-tier healthy food and other prizes from Thrive Market. Go to this link, and when you enter to win the prizes, you’ll automatically be sent a link to download the Slow-Carb Diet® Cookbook.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: Based on my idea of subtraction, what could you remove from your life that would make you happier and/or more productive? Please share in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Measure your ketone levels with a Precision Xtra Blood Glucose and Ketone Monitoring System
Project Management Tools:

Asana | Basecamp | Trello

Slack for eliminating email
Screenflow to record videos to describe my process for doing important things. I upload these videos to a Dropbox folder. When I need someone to execute that process for me, I send them the Dropbox link. That saves me the time of training a new person on each task.
Try out If This Then That automation software
Connect with Joel Stein:

Joel Stein | Twitter

Show Notes

How do you get started in self-improvement? [8:18]
Strategies for saying ‘no’ to time-intensive meetings and/or coffee dates [9:59]
The crux of self-improvement: What gets measured gets managed [12:39]
A technical example of measuring self-improvement [13:45]
A fascinating example of measuring social self-improvement in categories like father, husband, provider, and lover [15:57]
Can self-improvement be selfish? [18:25]
What modern people tend to most focus on improving [21:09]
Money and sex: ideas for measuring and improving [22:06]
Ideas for cutting down on email [22:46]
A framework for decreasing anxiety and tackling psychological issues [25:41]
On doing away with email forever [28:36]
Getting specific on various implementation methods of the 80/20 analysis [31:44]
What I’m working on at the time of this recording: podcast production [33:26]
On the counter-productive nature of amassed tools and real progress [35:40]
On developing assertiveness [36:36]

People Mentioned

Peter Drucker
Benjamin Franklin
Peter Thiel
Robert Scoble

Real-World Blueprint for a $5-Million Week

Ramit Sethi is on the short list of people I respect in the world of finance. In a space saturated by gurus who promote one method of investing and then follow another, Ramit has always been willing to share real numbers. And as a guest on the podcast, he also revealed many of his best successes and experiments.

Ramit built his personal finance blog up to more than 1 million+ readers per month, and has turned it into a revenue generating monster and a growing business with more than 30 employees.

I asked Ramit to dig into the specific details of his most recent success: a $5 million week. Here’s the blueprint he used to make it happen. Enjoy!

Real-World Blueprint for a $5-Million Week

In April 2014, our business generated $5,524,714 over the span of 6 days.

In this post, I’ll show you the launch formula and strategies I used to grow a blog from $0 in revenue to a multi-million-dollar business.

Quick caveat: I had no idea that my blog — which I started from my dorm room in 2004 as a hobby — would ever turn into a “real” business.

The first version of my site was focused on personal finance.

Notice the horrible design and lack of any business model. It was just a hobby!

Along the way, I learned that you can create a business using your own rules.

Tim has already invited other great entrepreneurs to explain how to find your first business idea, how to gather 100,000 emails in a weekend, raise $100,000 on Kickstarter, or even travel the world while building your business.

These are the lessons you won’t learn in any MBA program, but they can be the difference between launching a product that struggles…and one that generates millions of dollars, year after year.

This is the deeper side of business that’s not often talked about. Most of the advice I found when I started my business focused on tools and “hacks,” like A/B tests on headlines…but very little about what happens at higher levels of business. That’s why I decided to write up what I’ve learned.

Since I never expected this to become a real business, I experienced the journey with a blank canvas, in a sense. Everything was new. I didn’t know what I was “supposed” to do, so I tried it all. Over 11 years, we made some unconventional decisions in our business. Some were big mistakes. Others paid off.

Now let me show you how we got to a $5 million week.

*     *     *

“It’s Not Magic, it’s Math”

I used to look at other entrepreneurs who seemed to intuitively “know” what products to create, how much to charge, etc. Years later, I learned they actually used sophisticated models to help them make decisions. (Weird how they failed to mention that.)

Over time, I learned that it’s not magic — it’s math.

Let me show you a simple version of these models, which can help you understand where to spend your time and where to not waste it.

Take a look at what it takes to generate $1 million over five years:

Let’s ignore what the product actually is. We can figure that out later. For now, just focus on the numbers.

Here are a few things to notice and consider:

Isn’t it surprising how you can sell 30x more of the $50 product, but the $2,000 product still generates more revenue? (Of course, it’s much harder to sell a $2,000 product than a $50 product.)
These estimates are conservative: I chose 15 sales/month because anybody can achieve that with a little bit of work. I chose 5 years because — who knows? — maybe you’ll decide to move on and do something else. I like to be conservative in my projections.
QUESTION: Based on what you just read, would you create a $50 product or a $2,000 product? (Hint: There are successful businesses at either price point. Each has trade-offs. For instance, you could create a $50 product in a month or two, offer it for sale, and get market feedback FAST. A $2,000 product will take considerably longer — months, if not years. But the long-term rewards can be worth millions.)

Now here’s how we might get to $5 million:

Things to note:

Here, we have the exact same 3 products, but a higher number of sales. If you want more sales, there are two primary ways to do it: more traffic or higher conversions. Simple and straightforward.
If someone buys from you once and likes what they get, they are far more likely to buy again. In our own analysis, a customer is 2,300% more likely to buy from us than a non-customer.
QUESTION: Should you optimize for more customers or more revenue? Based on the numbers above, if you had to choose, what would you do? For instance, with a lower-priced product, you’ll need a lot of customers to make substantial revenue (the “McDonald’s model”). Alternatively, you could sell a higher-price product and profit from fewer customers — but those take longer to build and test (the “Rolls Royce model”).

Now let’s get even more sophisticated: Let’s say we wake up and realize that selling a $50 product is a lot of work for a small return, so we decide to add a subscription product.

This is starting to get really interesting.

Subscription revenue is considered “high-quality” revenue since it’s recurring. In other words, it really adds up, which is why businesses like Netflix are so amazing.
QUESTION: Can you spot which factors we’re leaving out to keep the model simple? (For example, retention, refund rates, cost of marketing, taxes…) That’s intentional. If this simplified model shows that you can’t realistically make a profit, none of that stuff matters. You only need to pay attention to these details if the model says the opportunity is worth pursuing.

What do you take away from the 3 examples above?

For me, seeing these numbers raised a lot of questions. Can an entrepreneur really survive selling a $5 or even $20 product? If you’re Procter & Gamble, sure. If you’re Alex The New Entrepreneur, that’s going to be tough. (Especially since low-price customers are lower quality, ask for refunds more often, and often make your life a living hell.)

Now let’s go one level deeper. Instead of just asking ourselves how many sales we need to make, we wanted to “stress test” our idea to see if it’s even realistic:

I don’t know about you, but I have no damn clue how to get 100,000,000 to visit my website. But I knew I could find a way to get 250,000 to find me.

By the way, this isn’t all-or-nothing. If you can’t find 250,000 visitors, you can start with 50,000 or even 5,000.

Let’s say instead of 250,000 visitors (which takes a lot of time to get) you have just 1,000 email subscribers. Also, instead of creating a $2,000 product (also tough when you’re starting out) you build a $250 product.

Using the same math above — a 1% conversion rate — you could earn $2,500 per month from just those 1,000 people.

Kevin Kelly calls this the 1,000 True Fans approach, where even 1,000 true fans can fund you for life:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

This is pretty amazing if you want to create something with impact. It means you don’t always need venture capital fundraising. It also means that 1,000 “true” fans are worth more than 100,000 vaguely interested readers.

We actually have data to support the “1,000 True Fans” idea. Take a look at the difference between a dedicated group of “true” fans vs. a larger group of onlookers.

Here, we got virtually identical sales from a small group of 10,422 customers vs. a larger group of 178,111 subscribers

We got more sales from a much smaller, focused list than a huge list of 178,711 subscribers! You don’t need everyone — you just need the right people.

Unlike building an audience of 250,000, you can get 1,000 true fans from a single guest post. On Tim’s podcast, we talked about how one blog post can be “life-changing”(skip to 23:35).

And just like you don’t need 250,000 people on day one, you don’t need all 1,000 True Fans on day one. If I were starting from scratch today, here’s how I’d frame it:

“Yes, 1,000 fans would be amazing, but I can start with 1 fan. And if I can get 1 fan, I know I can get 10 fans. Then 100. And once I have 100, I know I’m onto something.”

Nobody builds a massive audience overnight. I wish I could go back in time and shake myself to stop comparing myself to people who’d been in business for years and years. Trust your models, put in the work, and your business will grow.

I used these simple models that told me some basic things:

How much could a $50 product generate vs. a $2,000 one
You don’t need $10 million in venture capital to start a business
In the beginning, you just need a few fans who love you instead of aiming for tons of people.

Were these models perfect? No. Later, when my business grew, I showed these models to more sophisticated entrepreneurs. They laughed.

But you don’t always need the fanciest tools to grow. These models were good enough to take me from idea, to launch, to sales. Leave perfection to losers. “Good enough” is the motto of every entrepreneur who lives to fight another day.

Once I started generating a little revenue, I noticed something I wouldn’t have expected.

The World Wants You to be Vanilla

Have you ever noticed how the minute you start trying something new, the entire damn world tells you what you should do?

This happened when my business started growing:

“Ramit, you really need to get on Facebook”
“LOL $99? Maybe I’d buy it if were $0.25 and had a 30-year-guarantee” (I hate these people)
“So you’re just one of those scammy ebook guys who writes those long sales pages?”

If you’re ever tried to change your diet, you know what happens: Your boss, your aunt, and your garbage man all start giving you their advice.

I got this a lot. People would laugh at the name of my book (Tim and I both joke that we have the scammiest sounding book titles of all time). They told me my headshot sucked. And they had all kinds of tips for places I needed to advertise, including buying random people McDonald’s meals and talking to them about personal finance. Never ask the general public for marketing advice.

Here’s an unexpected lesson I learned: The world wants you to be vanilla. They want you to be the same as everyone else. But the minute you are, they abandon you.

They’ll try to get you to charge less. They’ll critique your design. But as soon as you conform…you look like everyone else. And in a world full of websites and ebooks and apps, if you look like everyone else, you’re dead.

When I started growing business, I realized something: I could choose. This was MY business. I didn’t have to follow someone else’s formula to be successful.

This chart should surprise you — not at all the things we did, but at all the things we chose not to do. If you listen to the advice of internet pundits, they’ll tell you how you “need to” use podcasts, SEO, SEM, marketing automation, email marketing, webinars, and on and on. Ignore them. The worst thing in the world is to be mediocre at 15 different platforms.

We’re very selective about what we pursue and when. For example, it makes no sense to split test until you have enough traffic for statistically significant results.

Sometimes the stakes are even higher. Here’s a type of marketing funnel that’s been effective for us:

You see a lot of people on the internet trying to launch on day 1 with funnels like this. The truth is not so simple.

When I was in 4th grade, they separated the boys and girls into separate rooms and taught us a sex-ed class. I’ll never forget my teacher, Mr. Binning, giving us a serious warning:

“Guys, avoid shaving for as long as possible. Once you start, you can never stop.”

I think about his advice a lot. For instance, we used to use Aweber, a simple email service provider. As we grew, we kept hearing people tell us we “needed” to switch to a more sophisticated platform. The world wants you to be vanilla — why don’t you buy a new car? Why don’t you upgrade your software? Come on, dude.

I resisted for years because I knew that once we switched, we’d need more and more staff to support it. Finally, after we were bulging at the seams with over 150,000 subscribers, we switched to a more sophisticated email platform. Now I don’t even know how to send an email! We have an entire staff dedicated just to running the new platform! Be careful of when you choose to upgrade — you can never go back down.

“Get a real marketing automation platform. Run Facebook ads! You definitely need SEO.”

The world wants you to be vanilla.

Another example: there’s a great sushi restaurant in San Francisco where it’s almost impossible to get reservations. If you try to walk in after 7:30pm, sorry — you’re out of luck. When I finally got inside, like a true weirdo, the first thing I did was start analyzing how much revenue they were leaving on the table.

I’m sure they could generate 25% more revenue by squeezing more tables in. But they just don’t care. They run their business the way they want to, and they have a line out the door every day. That attitude inspires me — to be able to run my business the way I want, and to be able to choose the customers I want to work with. To sacrifice short-term revenue to create a business I am proud of.

Most entrepreneurs don’t explicitly decide what kind of business they want to run. I’m challenging you to think about it. Do you want a business like McDonald’s or Louis Vuitton? There are no wrong answers, but your decision will have profound effects as you go from $10,000 a year, to $10,000 a month, to $10,000 a day, and even $2 million in one day, as we did on 4/4/14.

Just think about the way Louis Vuitton sells its items. How do you expect to be treated when you walk into their store? How much merchandise is on the shelves? How is it displayed? What does the staff member look like? How do they treat you?

Now compare that to McDonald’s or Home Depot. Totally different. Not better or worse. Different. Different prices, brands, scalability, etc.

How to Draw the Line in Your Business

Years ago, we made a decision not to play in the $50 sandbox. I’d rather give away 98% of my material for free and charge premium prices for top-tier material for elite students. Once you make a decision to play at the top of the market, that narrows your audience, the channels you use, and your marketing strategies. That’s exactly what you want to do — make a decision, then focus.

For example, here are a few decisions we made that makes us starkly different from most businesses in our space:

We spend millions of dollars testing, refining, and perfecting our products before they ever see the light of day.
We make it difficult to join our courses and actively encourage people not to join. We consider student selection a strategic decision
We send long, meaty emails — even though the “experts” say you should get straight to the point because “nobody has time anymore”

You can do some of this, all of this, or none of this. The point is that it’s up to you.

We chose to operate in a premium market. Now let me show you how selling works at the $2,000+ level.

Sales Strategies to Generate $5 million+ in 6 Days

Selling a $2,000 product is nothing like selling a $100 product. Think how the Four Seasons is marketed vs. Holiday Inn.

By the way, I keep reading posts where nutcases (usually Silicon Valley engineers) rant about enterprise software businesses that don’t show the prices on their website. “What a waste of time,” they say, “I would never buy from this site.” They are right. They are not the customer. Instead of trying to understand the real business model, they dismiss the companies as stupid.

These companies are not dumb. They just know their customer, and it’s not the person who wants to comparison shop on price.

Here’s an example of how we sell one of our flagship courses, Zero To Launch, a course on creating your own online business:

Actual $5 million email funnel from IWT

This is the sales funnel for the product, consisting of emails, blog posts, and webinars. Certain marketing elements are obvious, but others are not.

First, we aren’t reinventing the wheel in places we don’t have to. Just like Tim wrote in The 4-Hour Workweek, “I don’t walk down the street on my hands just because everyone else walks on their feet.”

Similarly, much of the structure of this sales funnel is quite standard:

We sent 3-5 emails per week (ignore people who say that’s emailing too much — people actually love getting emails as long as they’re good)
We did a webinar to introduce our sales week
We used case studies and money-back guarantee elements to provide “risk reversal”

We also used a variety of tools to power the launch:

Email Delivery: Infusionsoft & Maropost
A/B Testing: Visual Website Optimizer & KISSmetrics
Webinar Hosting: Ustream
Landing Page Platform: Leadpages
Live Chat: ZopIM
Customer Support: Zendesk

So far, none of this is out of the ordinary. Many entrepreneurs have used the exact strategies and tools above to generate a 6-figure launch. But I didn’t want the typical 6-figure launch.

It turns out that the real decisions that drove $5 million in sales were not the tools I used nor the pricing tier we chose. In fact, many of the most important decisions contradict the “rules” we’ve all been taught.

The real decisions that drove $5 million in sales were made years before we ever launched this product.

$5 Million Lesson #1: We’re Selective About Who We Serve

We’ve all heard about “niching it down,” or choosing your customer. When I learned more about that sushi restaurant in San Francisco, I started to admire how they lived and breathed this.

If you weren’t there early enough, sorry. If you asked for substitutions, you should probably try another place down the street. Of course, they had to have the best sushi to set these rules, which made their restaurant even more interesting to me.

Over time, we’ve learned to be very selective about who we allow to join us. Notice we use the word “allow” — not to be arrogant, but because we spend millions of dollars developing and testing our material, we consider it a privilege to allow someone to join.

That means we don’t allow anyone with credit card debt to join our flagship programs, a decision that costs us more than $2 million dollars per year. We use the carrot-and-stick approach:

The carrot: If you’re in credit card debt, we don’t want your money until you’re financially comfortable. We believe you should be focused on paying your debt off, not joining a $2,000+ course. So we send them a free copy of my book chapter on paying off debt and tell them to email us when they’re debt-free. We’ll be here to welcome them in.
The stick: We also tell them that if they join with credit card debt, we’ll refund their money and ban them for life. We take this seriously and maintain a “DNS” — Do Not Sell — list.

We also make it intentionally difficult to join our courses. One of the first things you’ll notice when you visit GrowthLab is that you cannot buy anything from it. We strategically and intentionally only allow you to buy from our email list, so we can first build a relationship and show you how our material is different.

And even then, courses only open for a few select windows throughout the year, then close days later. They remain closed for months or even years.

We’re looking for decisive students who are ready to take action. (When students miss a deadline, we get predictable requests to let them in. We always say no.)

Perhaps, it would be easier to simply post a list of our products with a link to buy, and if our courses were $100, we would take a very different approach. But that’s not the customer we want, just as a high-end handbag store does not run 70%-off sales.

In fact, we have actual data showing the difference in quality between prospects (non-buyers) vs. students (buyers). Remember how we generated 649 sales from 10,422 people — and just 619 sales from over 15x as many people?

Tim often writes about 80/20 analysis. When you focus on your true customers — the ones who are ready to take action, the ones for whom price is a mere triviality — you can counterintuitively spend more time and more money serving them.

This is why every single student who joins one of our courses receives a live phone call from a trained representative.

It’s why we continue to send high-quality material and free updates years after they’ve joined a course.

And it’s why we’re able to extend 12-month payment plans when our competition typically only offers up to 3 months.

How to Find Your Rabid Fans

I’m going to show you the first step to attracting diehard, lifelong fans who buy from you and tell their friends.

First, just for fun, let’s assume you’re creating a product about careers. Right off the bat, we can answer some important questions:

Who are you targeting? Based on what we covered today, do you want to target (1) college students who have never had a job, (2) unemployed people, or (3) people who already have jobs but want to make a change? You could choose any option, but let’s pick #3, people who already have jobs but want to change.
What’s going through the mind of people who want to change their careers? If you went to the bar with a friend, what actual words would he use to describe it? Maybe it’s “I don’t want to be chained to this desk for the next 40 years.”
Why haven’t these people already taken action? Do they say things like “I know I need to network, but I’m an introvert and I hate selling myself?”

Here’s a tool to get even more specific about who your customer really is:

This is called a Customer Desire Map. Here, you write down the pains and fears, hopes and dreams, barriers and uncertainties of your best customer. This tool has helped us nail down the positioning for million-dollar product launches in multiple industries.

Now you try it: Pretend you’re building a fitness product. Using the same format above, paint the perfect customer for a fitness product using the same phrases they would.

For instance, your map might include phrases like this:

“I try so hard, and nothing works.”
“I need more energy.”
“You want me to eat less bread? No way.”

By the time you build your Customer Desire Map, you will know who your most likely rabid fans are. You would recognize this person if you met them in a bar. And when you sit down to build your product, write your copy, or publish guest posts, you’ll be 100% clear on who you’re speaking to.

$5 Million Lesson #2: The “Students For Life” Philosophy

For 8 years, we’ve sent 3-5 emails per week, plus blog posts, plus videos — all free.

My goal is to create free material that’s better than anyone else’s paid stuff. And when a reader uses my free material to negotiate a $28,000 raise, they instantly become a student for life.

At that point, price is practically a triviality.

One of the primary reasons we can sell products that are 10x – 100x the price of our competition is that we get them results before they even have the chance to buy. That’s because 98% of our material is free. In fact, if you look at the sales funnel above, you’ll notice that the first two weeks are focused on getting our students successful results — whether or not they pay us a cent.

We believe that as long as we continue producing the best material — free and paid — it’s just a matter of time until they join us. With that long time perspective, you can do some really cool things.

You can invest in them first by sending them free PDFs, detailed videos, and even host meetups around the world because you know when you invest in your prospects first, eventually they’ll invest in themselves. It could be with you or with someone else, but if your material is the best, they’ll eventually come to you.

You can get more personalized. I get 2,000+ emails per day and read every single one.

If someone emails asking whether a course is right for them or not, we’re completely candid and often direct them to a competitor product. We know the power of trust you build when you’re honest with a prospect, especially when it goes against your best interest. In the short term, it might cost us $2,000 or $5,000. In the long term, it’s priceless. This is based off of my mentor Jay Abraham’s strategy of preeminence.

In short: While others focus on sales-page optimization, by the time we make our sales page live (“open” it), we aim for the sale to be a foregone conclusion.

Here are some specific suggestions for creating fans for life:

In your emails and blog posts, aim for a ratio of at least 80% meat (valuable content with no selling whatsoever) and 20% pitch (sales material).
Prove how good your material is first — for free. There are millions of other sites out there. Why would anyone listen to you? Prove it, using great content, success stories, and even personal interaction using email and chat. You’ll instantly stand out.
Employ the Damaging Admission. If someone wants to buy your product, but you know it’s the wrong fit, be honest. You’ll give up short-term revenue, but they’ll respect you, tell their friends, and someone will be 10x more likely to buy when the time is right.

$5 Million Lesson #3: The CEO Sets the Strategy, Not the A/B Test

We once ran a low vs. high price test. According to the test, we would maximize revenue if we charged the lower price. I reviewed the data and thought about it. Deciding on the low price would instantly generate hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue.

As an entrepreneur, some of the most challenging decisions are those where lots of money is staring you in the face. But I don’t think business is always just about money. Ultimately, I decided against the lower price because it would attract the wrong kind of customer (and headaches).

Tests are terrific. Data is critical. But the CEO ultimately sets the vision and makes the call.

Don’t get me wrong: testing is a huge component of my business. For example, we ran a successful test to optimize our email subscribers that generated $87,000 for us.

Can you guess which variant was the winner?

The winner was variant 3. This one test produced a sizeable increase in email subscribers, which is worth over $87,000 annually to our business.

You see lots of winning split tests on the Internet. They’re fun to brag about. But almost nobody will tell you two things:

How much revenue their test generated. It sounds impressive to say you got a “50% lift in email subscribers,” but if that doesn’t generate actual money for the business, who cares?
The shameful secret of the testing industry is that most tests produce 0 winners!

At IWT, between 70%-80% of our tests do not move the needle in any way. And we’re good at what we do! Would you be comfortable doing something and knowing that 70% of the time, it would fail?

The key is the strategy of being methodical, not any one test. It’s like writing a book — your table of contents matters more than any individual page.

When you understand that failure is part of the process, you just keep going. A few years ago, I was sure my readers wanted a product on healthcare. After all, I’m an educated guy and I couldn’t figure out how to choose my health insurance!

We spent over $50,000 building a product, beta testing it with students, even writing copy for a launch.

We locked this healthcare product away in our vault and it will never be sold to the public.

Because after all that testing, we realized this product was going to be a complete failure. It turns out people love to complain about healthcare…but few want to really do anything about it.

This was a very expensive lesson for us. It taught us to become much more rigorous around testing. Our goal is to virtually guarantee success before we ever launch something.

Of course, sometimes your gut choices backfire. 

I once decided we needed to switch email service providers. We hired someone to help us lead the evaluation process, which took more than 3 months. We finally conducted the due diligence, legal and engineering checks, and signed the $100,000 contract. The next week, when my team logged in, they realized — to their horror — that the software couldn’t perform a simple function that was critical for us to use the software. Their engineering team wouldn’t promise when they’d build this feature in the future, so we were stuck. My team asked me what we should do.

By this point, we’d already paid them $30,000. I gave them a call and said, “Look guys, I’d appreciate your help on this. We made a mistake. We’ve already paid you $30,000 even though we haven’t imported a single piece of data. Honestly, you should keep that money. But I’d personally appreciate it if you could cancel the rest of our contract so we don’t have to pay $70,000 for software we don’t use.”

Their response:

Translation: We feel sorry for you, but we’re still collecting your $100,000.

I can’t really blame them. After all, it was my fault for not overseeing the project. I fired the team member, swallowed the $100,000 cost, and set systems in place so we’d never make the same mistake again. Sometimes your gut leads you the wrong way.

Still, if we were to base every decision on what test data showed us, we’d soon look like every other site — with loud, shrieking claims, blinking headers, and page-long testimonials. I’d rather be dead.

We do use rigorous testing methodology. In fact, we’re running more than 20 tests at any given time. But we always balance science with art.

Let me show you what I mean. There are two kinds of posts that gets tons of likes on Instagram: food pics and inspirational quotes. I love nachos as much as anyone, but I’ll be damned if my Instagram is going to turn into a food-review account.

Yet if we follow the raw data, that’s what many businesses become: a test-driven Frankenmonster built to appeal to the lowest common denominator. They chase the empty click, the easy “like.”

It’s tempting to post something that you know will get 500 likes tomorrow. And sometimes, you really want to post an inspirational quote. Great! Do it!

But the pursuit of a cheap click at the expense of all other standards is the beginning of the end for a business. Every time we’ve insisted on quality, it’s paid off. And every time we’ve tried to take a shortcut, we’ve paid dearly.

To make sure you can set strategy, here are a few important considerations.

How to Find Time

The first thing I learned was to be intentional. I wasn’t going “find” time unless I made it. So I started by clearing one hour per week for big-picture thinking. Eventually, I blocked off an entire day.

It’s on the calendar so my team knows:

“Strategy Wednesdays” on my calendar. DND = Do Not Disturb

At first, it feels weird to block off this time without any clear-cut purpose. Do it anyway. I found several million-dollar breakthroughs on my strategy days and they’ve become a catalyst for my business.

Once you have time, it’s important to read the right material

Personally, I like to read books from people I admire. Here are five books I suggest you start with:

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink
The Robert Collier Letter Book by Robert Collier
Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson
Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca and William Novak

Good ideas can shape your mindset and strategy. So, making time to read is inevitably a part of building a better business.

The True $5 Million Lesson

I thought that as I grew my business, I’d learn about the super-secret tools that successful entrepreneurs used once they crossed $1 million, $5 million, and beyond.

But actually, I learned two very different lessons:

My first lesson was that business isn’t just about creating money. Of course, you need to get paying customers. And when you launch, you should be fiercely focused on building an audience of people who love what you’re doing (and are delighted to pay). Ultimately, every successful entrepreneur I know looks for more meaning than another $100 of revenue. For me, it’s about impact and generosity.

My second lesson was that you can create a business your way.

There will always be people who criticize you for charging too much. Let them complain. They’re not buyers.

There will be people who tell you that you “need to” set up a Facebook page, or Twitter account, or Instagram. I didn’t have those for years. And even if you took all my social media accounts away today, it would make zero difference to my business.

There are even people who think that online courses are a total scam! Nothing I say will change their mind. I love getting their hate mail, though.

And don’t always be different, especially conspiciously. I once had a friend tell me he wanted to charge $62, an unusual price, for his product. “Why?” I asked. “I just want to try something new.” My friend was being an idiot. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel: Most things in business are remarkably similar. You need a website, an email list, a sales page, and a product. Get those basic things right, and you will grow. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel on everything.

The most successful entrepreneurs — the top 1% of the top 1% — learn when to break the rules. It’s like when you learn how to dress well and you start experimenting with patterns and textures because you want to. One day, someone’s going to say, “Dude, that doesn’t even match,” and you’ll say, “So?”

It’s the same with your business. Know the best practices, execute them, but as Marshall Goldsmith says, “what got you here won’t get you there.” Your greatest successes won’t come from imitating best practices. Your competitors are almost certainly following a me-too playbook.

We were fortunate to generate $5 million in 6 days. Sure, the tools helped. Yes, the headlines mattered. But ironically, when we stopped chasing revenue and instead shifted to impact and students for life, that’s when we grew faster than ever before.

Ramit Sethi is the New York Times best-selling author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. He writes for over 1 million readers/month on business, careers, negotiation, and psychology. If you’re interested in launching an online business, get our exact, word-for-word funnel that generated $400,000: GrowthLab.com/400k