Today is my 9th anniversary of building Herb.

4 years earlier, I was working a sales job at Kraft Foods.

Today, Herb crossed $420K MRR.

Here's the Vision Board System that helped me scale:

10 inspiring documentaries that will change your life in 90 minutes (guaranteed) 👇

1. The Defiant Ones (my favorite documentary series)

2. The Last Dance (all episodes are 🔥)

3. Free Solo

4. Jiro Dreams of Sushi

5. Jeen-Yuhs

9 slides I've used to generate $9M in revenue (steal these):

If you liked this, you will love my newsletter - The Soulful Entrepreneur.

I share tools, systems, and mental models to help you achieve your dreams in life and business.

Subscribe

This is a very long thread. @SamtLeslie asked to give the playbook for service companies so here it is. Follow it and you’ll get to 5M+ in a few years.

This is pure operations playbook.

No leadership, financial or HR discussion. Enjoy.

Industry:
Doesn’t matter much. @sweatystartup has an awesome list of service industries on his website that will get the job done.

Trades:
If you are under 3M and in multiple trades you’re doing it wrong. I was there and it was a mess.

Businesses under 3M don’t have good system, managers, effective onboarding, training, hiring practices, or pricing methods. If you did then you’d be bigger.

Trades cont:
Multiple trades doubles that mess. Get your first business figured out then work on another.

I would recommend earliest 4M to add a second trade, if at all. Any earlier you’re splitting focus and treading water.

Focus Focus Focus.

Software:
If you’re using anything besides Servicetitan then please stop and go get Servicetitan. No other software even close to their capabilities.

It is 50% more expensive than other programs on the market while making you 100% better than any competitor not using it.

There are 5.14 billion Google results for "how to build a startup."

Most are a waste of time.

Here are 5 that are pure gold:

1) Learn from Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and other top entrepreneurs.

Essays, videos and interviews on startup topics including fundraising and growth from the best founders of our

2) Join a community of like-minded entrepreneurs.

Success stories, case studies and camaraderie as hustlers build side projects and MVPs in public, sharing what they

3) Find the right freelancers to get your product off the ground

Graphic designers, software engineers, content creators, marketers and more.

I've hired great people from around the world using this

4) Learn how to market your business

Facebook's Ad library lets you see the ads running for any company in the world.

It's a powerful tool to understand your competition and get ideas on how to position

1/23: One #startup trap to avoid (founders and VCs) is to fall in love with a value prop that can’t be delivered IRL now. Good diligence will surface disconnects but they’re often brushed under the rug by #VCs who believe fixing delivery over time will be fine. Unpacked:

2/23: The foundational reason why this matters from day 1 is that building a franchise of loyal customers is difficult for any #startup to pull off but the challenge is amplified if the #startup has to rebuild its franchise as it scales.

3/23: Broken or unfulfilled promises lead to customer behaviors that have real consequences. Poor ratings and reviews. High customer service costs. High complaint volume. Low engagement. High attrition/returns/cancelations. Low organic growth.

4/23: Undoing damage takes time and sometimes is nearly impossible. Convincing inactive customers to “retry” your product isn’t easy. Overcoming bad reviews can be a Herculean task. And resources will be thrown at fixing past sins at the expense of new functionality.

5/23: And guess what happens when #VCs dig into questionable early performance numbers? These conversations tend to revolve around caveats, apologies and synthetic analysis that bakes in significant improvements (many of which are still “unknown” in nature).

How I created a six figure business by only writing tweets in a third world country.

A thread on how a razor and $50 changed my life:

I'm by no means special, I'm actually stubborn as fuck.

English isn't my first language.

For months I just lurked Twitter not doing anything.

It was not until an opportunity literally fell in my lap that I decided to take it.

But here's how I did it (and how you can too):

The funniest part of the story is how I did literally nothing for months on Twitter.

Just write, write, write.

Meanwhile, I saw everyone winning.

"I made $100k last year!"

"I made $50k last month!"

"This tweet made me $1,000!"

I started asking questions:

"How the fuck do you make $50k in a month?"

"Clients? How do you get your first client?"

"What would my clients even pay for?"

Then I kinda put it aside and kept writing tweets.

100 followers, then 1k, then 2k then 10k and it all went pretty well

One problem tho:

I loved it.

I really did. Writing is so fucking dope to me.

But I haven't make a single cent from it.

Zero.

"Follow your passion" seemed like bullshit, until it hit me:

9 TED Talks in 9 days that will change your life:

Day 1:

Sleep is your Superpower by Matt Walker

• How we can get better sleep
• Why sleep is our life-support system
• Sleep's impact on learning, memory, and our immune

Day 2:

The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown

• How happiness leads to courage
• Understand the importance of feeling connected

Day 3:

Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator by Tim Urban

• The conflict between the "instant gratification monkey" and the rational mind
• Why we binge YouTube and Netflix to avoid important

Day 4:

Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are by Amy Cuddy

• Power-posing and how it can change your mood
• How confidence leads to more successful outcomes