"Million Dollar Weekend" Breakdown: Meat, No Fat • Part 2/2
How to bridge the gap between good idea and good income. • Part 2 • Wisdom Hit #8
If I forgot everything about business, I would start with this book. It contains everything you need to know to get started.
After breaking down every chapter, I'll show you what actually works for regular entrepreneurs, what's complete BS, and the one strategy that changed everything for his business.
This is Part 2 of my Million Dollar Weekend breakdown—where we get into the real money-making tactics.
Chapter 6: Social media for growth
This chapter starts with Noah telling us how he raised $30,000 from his audience for Bo Jackson’s charity bike ride.
Then he tells us how great it is to have an audience. We already know that. Real question—how to build it?
Lesson:
Unique angle and unfair advantage.
Take, for example, Ben Kenyon. Ben is the head strength and conditioning coach for the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team…
Unfair advantage here is as clear as day. Ben can start a YouTube channel or newsletter with very little competition.
Anyone can talk about NBA online, but Ben has a strong authority card in his hand. And even more important—insights!
“What’s your unique angle in thirty seconds or less?” In other words, why would anyone care to read his newsletter?
You can answer that for yourself (look below, Chapter 6 challenges). Do it before you start anything. Here’s a template:
I write about [topics]. [Results they will get from your offer].More about that here:
Don’t make the same mistake I did—writing about anything that interested me. If you go to “Archive” and scroll for a while, you’ll see a random jumble of topics. Turns out that’s not the best way to write a newsletter.
Truth to be told, that’s something I struggle with a lot. Even today. I rebranded the newsletter, but I’m still not sure.
I’m for a lookout for that “That’s it!” feeling, but I can’t find it. Reply to this email and let me know what you would like to see here.
Content circle framework:
Core Circle: Start with a very narrow audience. Ali started with the medical school exams for British people. Your niche within a niche can be the most obscure thing imaginable, as long as it makes you and your audience passionate.
Medium Circle: As you move bigger, your content should overlap somewhat with what concerns your Core Circle, but it should appeal to a broader audience. Ali started talking about studying and productivity in general, since that’s required for all students.
Large Circle: Here you go for the largest audience possible that’s still related. Some of Ali’s most watched videos are about his salary—made possible by his medical video fame—or the latest Apple product—which he uses to increase productivity. All the circles should still include your core audience but keep expanding your circle of influence.
Keep in mind that something that works well as a YouTube channel won’t necessarily work well as a newsletter.
Summary:
Write your unique angle.
Pick a platform.
Create.
Be the Guide, Not the Guru
Chapter 6 challenges:
1. Write out your unique angle. There are no right answers here. You can change these any time you'd like.
Who are you?
Why should people listen?
What are you passionate about?
What will you do for people?
Update your bio.
Choose your one platform, and using the unique angle pitch you wrote out before, clean up and rewrite your profile/bio on that platform to reflect who you are and how you help your ideal customer.
Create your own Content Circle.
Think back to your validation days: Who are the customers you want to appeal to and what’s the outcome you can create content for? What’s the unique point of view in your content they’d be excited to hear about?
Post one piece of content.
Now it’s time to post content publicly. Now, this piece of content can come in any format.
Chapter 7: Email for profit
Noah starts by telling us how he 95x his per email revenue by telling a story instead of selling.
Lesson:
Normally, Nikola would have just written: “There’s a deal on this product and you get to save $1,000!” Throw in a buy button and that was my typical email. It was just “Go buy!”—not much more than that.
About $100/email
It started with a line I will never forget:
“If you get a boner when I whisper the word ‘Garamond’ into your ear .. . you might be interested.”
$9,563 in 24h. Garmond is a font, and they were offering a deal for Kernest, which included it.
Part of final copy:
…You see, my friend, today we’re reaching out only to the community of people known as font fanatics.
You know who you are!
If your knees go weak when I whisper, “GARAMOND.”
. . . you might be one of ’em….
Why is email so important? If you're interested in newsletters, you know that already.
To quickly sum up what Noah said:
AppSumo generates $65M annually: nearly 50% comes from email (consistent for 10+ years).
Email beats social media followers: 1M+ social followers < 100K email subscribers.
Guaranteed reach vs. algorithm luck: 40K people open every email vs. unpredictable social reach.
Email isn't dead: 4+ billion users check it daily (89% check every day).
Platform risk: Algorithm changes killed LittleThings ($100M loss, 75% traffic drop). And you can get banned any time.
You own your email list: It's portable if your business shuts down.
Cost-effective growth: Growing/messaging email lists costs less than paid ads.
How to get first subs?
Create a lead magnet: something you will give out for free in exchange for an email (ebook, checklist, resource)
Get people there.
Lead magnet examples from the book:
A checklist that can be used to properly perform something I explained in a video.
A template for determining, say, a business’s profit margin.
An advanced guide that goes further into the details of a subject of one of my videos.
A unique book that provides substantial value but is offered for free. For me, it is 11 Side Hustle Ideas to Make $500/Day from Your Phone.
A DIY carpenter could offer plans to make a corner table.
A marketing YouTuber could offer scripts of what to say on sales phone calls.
A landscaping expert might offer recommendations for which kinds of
grass to use around the United States.
Getting your first 100 subs.
Noah’s advice—use your network.
My advice—start on Substack. Currently, that’s the best place on the internet to gather emails. Use any existing social media to direct people on your list.
The law of 100.
Photography professor Jerry Uelsmann split his photography into two groups: the Quantity group and the Quality group.
The Quantity group had to take 100 pictures to get an A grade by the end of the semester, and the Quality group could turn in just one photo by the end of the semester —but it had to be perfect to get the A.
Can you guess what happened?
The Quantity group kicked the Quality group’s ass—in terms of quality!
Why?
The Quantity group experimented more! They took tons of photos, learned from their mistakes each time, spent more time in the darkroom, and they got better with time.
That’s what the Law of 100 is about.
Quality beats quantity, but quantity is the way to learn.
If you want to start a YouTube channel, publish 100 videos.
If you’re doing a newsletter, write 100 emails.
If you’re starting a new hobby like chess or guitar, practice for 100 days.
If you’re creating a business, directly pitch 100 customers.
Do it 100 times before quitting. Consistency grows tasty fruits.
Summary:
Your email list is your most important asset.
Chapter 7 challenges:
Build your landing page. You can set up one like Julien’s for free with SendFox.com (a service I helped build).
You can use free sites: Wix, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Carrd, and Google Sites, or even Canva.
Update email signature and social media bios. Put your landing page address in your email signature and your social bios.
Guide I used to create my email signature:
Create a Lead Magnet.
It’s time to create your first Lead Magnet using the process we’ve just outlined above. You can use your piece of content from the previous chapter as a base or start something new. Don’t spend more than two hours on the first iteration.
Set up an autoresponder.
I happen to think SendFox.com (I helped build it) is pretty darned good, but there are a bunch of others that I recommend, like ConvertKit.com and Mailchimp.com.
The Law of 100.
Commit to doing 100 emails, posts, or whatever action will move you closer to your goals.
Chapter 8: The growth machine
After Noah was rejected as a director of marketing at Mint, he came back with a detailed marketing plan. What happened next?
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