• 1 Meditation

• 9 Lessons Dan Koe Taught Me About Running A 1-Pers …

• 7 Learnings

• Miscellaneous

1 Meditation

Someone just drove past and called me a “Gay faggot” as I sit in the car at work.

(Australians — specifically bogans — have a way with words 🙃)

It’s a rainy, windy day towards the end of winter here in Perth.

2 things are on my mind:

• The importance of enjoying the journey.

• Staying objective with social media growth.

The Journey

My favourite phrase — ever — is “the journey is the reward”.

I first encountered it in Steve Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson.

(A must read)

Jobs learned the concept from a spiritual teacher in India. It became his mantra. And I adopted it in January 2022, when I started my online tutoring business.

I spent 3,000 hours and $80,000 over 18 months building an online course nobody wanted.

That still stings a little.

But nowhere near as much as you might think.

Why?

Because in January 2022 — right before I started planning the course — I asked myself, “Okay Lennox, what’s the worst case scenario here?”

One of the answers I came up with was basically:

→ “I build something nobody wants… BUT I still learn invaluable lessons that’ll help me later on.”

Here’s the main point:

I easily recovered from the business fail because I enjoyed the journey of learning and knew — whatever happened — nothing could take that away from me.

So, how can we learn to enjoy the journey?

It comes down to two key elements:

1. Presence

2. Gratitude

Presence is about being aware of the present moment.

It's easy to get caught up in anxiety about the future or depression about the past, but true joy comes from grounding yourself in the now.

If you're aware of what's happening in this very moment, it's impossible for anything to be wrong.

This concept is beautifully explored in Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now."

It’s 1 of 4 books that profoundly changed my life.

(The other 3: Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest, David Allen’s Getting Things Done and James Clear’s Atomic Habits)

The best way to practice presence is through meditation.

After meditating every day since November 2020, I can confidently say it’s the best way to unlock awareness and presence.

The second element is gratitude.

And it’s essential to truly enjoy the journey.

Why?

Gratitude is a muscle that most people never train.

(Which is why most people have a negativity bias)

If you’re grateful about more “boring” things in day-to-day life, you find the journey more rewarding – because the journey is boring.

Over time, your gratitude muscle grows so big that it finds beauty in the most mundane things.

For example – I’m grateful for the nose strip I’m wearing right now because it helps me breath through my left nostril better.

So, how do you get gratitude gains??

You gotta build a habit to train the gratitude muscle.

My recommendation is the Four-Minute Gratitude Game (4MGG).

Spend four minutes each day writing down as many things as you can that you're grateful for. This exercise forces you to think outside the box and appreciate even the smallest things in life.

When you pair presence with gratitude, you enjoy the journey. It becomes the reward.

The Ebbs & Flows of Audience Building

After spending 1,500+ hours on Threads (or creating content about Threads) over the past 13 months, here’s the lesson:

Growth is never linear.

There are growth periods and there are plateau periods.

I was having a growth period up until 2 weeks ago.

And then — outta nowhere — a plateau.

I found myself overthinking and questioning everything.

Am I doing something wrong?

Have I been shadow banned?

Are people turning against me?

But then, just as suddenly, I had a post go viral.

It brought in 250 new followers overnight and 70 new members to my community.

(1/10th of the total number of members)

Then I noticed I was giddy for the rest of the day — and all my worries disappeared.

Two lessons from this experience:

1. Do not give up if you’re experiencing a plateau. Rapid growth is just around the corner.

2. Strive for objectivity. Don’t let an algorithm dictate your emotional wellbeing. Be a Content Scientist, not a Content Solicitor.

Think of audience growth like waves in surfing.

You ride big waves.

But then they fizzle out, and you have to wait for the next set to come in.

The key takeaway:

• It's not a question of if more waves will come, but when.

So that it’s for this Meditation.

• Enjoy the journey by practicing presence and gratitude.

• Remember to ride the waves, but don’t get out of the water if there aren’t any. They’re coming.

Enjoy these 9 lessons Dan Koe taught me.

And keep it simple until the next Lesson ❤️

9 Lessons Dan Koe Taught Me About Running A 1-Person Business

This is Dan Koe.

He made $4.1M in 2023.

I had to know how he did it.

So I spent $6K & 220+ hours to get these 9 lessons from Dan inside his mastermind.

Steal them to reinvent yourself:

1️⃣ YOU ARE THE NICHE

• Build for yourself

• Write to yourself

• Sell to yourself

“There are millions of people with the same interests, problems, and desires - and you only need to find a fraction of them.

The most profitable niche is you."

2️⃣ BECOME A ONE-PERSON BUSINESS

“A modern business can be broken down into 3 core components: brand, content, and product.

• Your brand is your story.

• Your content is a map.

• Your product is a game.”

3️⃣ BALANCE WORK & REST

“The paradox of productivity is the less you work, the higher quality your work is.

Imagine training in the gym for 8 hours trying to be as “productive” as possible...”

4️⃣ WRITE & LEARN DAILY

“Marketing and sales allow you to craft a valuable message.

Wriring and speaking allow you to distribute that message.

Study them all and you won’t need to worry about money, replacement, or your career."

5️⃣ SET MASSIVE GOALS

“When you:

• create a meaningful hierarchy of goals,

• acquire the skill necessary to achieve those goals, and

• act from the perspective of your highest self,

… life becomes enjoyable.”

6️⃣ MASTER YOUR FOCUS

“Every successful person –

by any standard, even if that version of success means rejecting the world and living a life of peace in the woods –

knows that focus is the catalyst to the good life.”

7️⃣ CREATIVITY = BALANCE + REST

“4-5 hours of work paired with active rest seems to be the sweet spot for most impactful creatives...

If they can change culture and business with their methods, why can’t corporate workaholics do the same?”

8️⃣ SOLVE A PROBLEM, SELL THE SOLUTION

“The goal is to:

• tap into your creative genius,

• create solutions to true problems,

• condense valuable information, and

• raise the well-being of the collective through your efforts.”

9️⃣ SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE

“You have $100,000 trapped in your head.

Starting a business is how you begin to order that information to display its perceived value.”

DAN KOE MASTERMIND CHEAT SHEET:

1. You are the niche

2. Become a One Person Business

3. Balance work & rest

4. Write & learn daily

5. Set massive goals

6. Master your focus

7. Creativity = balance + rest

8. Solve a problem, sell the solution

9. Share your knowledge

7 Learnings

Why Being Yourself Is a Myth (170824)

“Being yourself” requires you to know who you are.

So… who are you?

• Are you a lawyer?

• Are you a creator?

• Are you argumentative?

• Are you lazy?

Your answer = your identity.

But the problem with identity is that you cling onto it.

(How many times have you heard a loved one say, “It’s just who I am” with a defeatist attitude?)

So don’t “Be yourself”.

Don’t ask “Who am I?”

Ask “Who am I becoming?”

The moment you reach that person, you’ll find someone else to become.

It’s never ending, but that’s growth – and I’ll take that any day over stagnation.

Source: Why Being Yourself Is a Myth in Life and Business

The 3 Ms of Storytelling in Sales Copy (180824)

→ Myths, Misconceptions, Mistakes.

Myths: a story or belief that isn’t true.

• e.g. “Only big businesses can succeed online.”

Misconceptions: a wrong idea or belief.

• e.g. “You need to be a professional writer to write on Threads.”

Mistakes: things people do wrong.

• e.g. Focussing on your product’s features instead of its benefits.

Each M is the start of a story in sales copy. It’s a problem.

Then you agitate that problem (e.g. “You’ll fail in business if you go on like this”).

Then you present the solution (e.g. “Thankfully, my software rewrites all your features into benefits that convert!”).

Source: Copywriting Secrets

The Super Mario Effect (190824)

In Super Mario Bros, failing on a level is frustrating.

But each time you fail, you learn a little trick you can apply next time you attempt the level.

You repeat this process over and over until you finally complete it.

Then you move onto the next level and do the same thing all over again.

In Super Mario Bros you gamify failures. They’re fun.

To succeed in business, you must do the same thing.

Treat every failure as an opportunity to learn what you did wrong so you can overcome the challenge next time you encounter it.

Source: 13 Years of YouTube Knowledge in 46 Minutes

The $68,000 Marketing Lesson (200824)

Direct response marketing ≈ social media ads. The good ones pique your curiosity and get you to click on something.

• e.g. Russell Brunson

Branding ≈ leading with value first; audience building.

• E.g. Hormozi

Direct response gets faster results, but the time it takes to optimise ads is better spent on building your brand.

• For direct response, the moment your ads stop, you stop making money.

• Branding has infinite leverage. Anyone can learn from your valuable social media content at any time.

→ The $68,000 Lesson: Build a personal brand.

Source: We Paid $68k for a Mastermind — Here’s What We Learned

The Secret to Selling Without Selling (210824)

→ “Stealth closes”

1. Lead with value

2. Include a subtle CTA at the end

E.g. I used a stealth close for the first time the other day in this viral thread.

The result?

• It got me 250 followers and 70 new membership application to join Saints College overnight.

Stealth close formats:

• By the way, did you know that you can _____ with _____? Yep, it’s true. Go here for more information.

• By the way, did you know _____ will help you _____? Yep, it’s true. Go here for a quick demo.

• By the way, did you know we still have _____ available? Yep, it’s true. Go here to find out more.

Source: Copywriting Secrets

Is It Better to Be a Specialist or a Generalist? (220824)

→ Embrace generalism to discover specialism.

≈ Be a generalist (try lots of stuff) first. Then — once you find something you like + you’re good at + is valuable in the marketplace — specialise in that one thing.

But never stop following your curiosities and learning new things.

Source: Is It Better to Be a Specialist or a Generalist?

The Art & Science of Writing Great Hooks (230824)

A hook is an angle or a slant you use to create intense curiosity with your target audience.

• A hook’s purpose is not to sell, convince, or convert. It is only used to induce curiosity.

3 hook formulas:

1. One-sentence story

   • “How I used a simple hack to go from 17 followers and living in a gym to become a successful Threads creator.”

2. Unlikely character + timing + results

   • “Former lawyer goes from depressed to success in 18 months with this weird habit.”

3. Result - pain + timing

   • “Gain 1,000 followers overnight without posting or engaging.”

Source: Copywriting Secrets

Miscellaneous

Vanity metrics

More from me

• 6,500 thriends!

• 1 REAL lesson after 1,000+ Threads posts

• The 80/20 of Threads growth

• Don’t build an audience on Threads

• How to use Threads Insights

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