A&B #61

Hey everyone,

I spent this week updating A&B merch. I created a sweater and two new shirts. You can check out the

merch here

.

I recently got my TikTok account back after being locked out for 2 months and have been posting more funny/entertaining videos there. Link to

TikTok here

.

I also wrote two threads this week:

• 20 AWESOME books you probably haven't heard of

• 20 books that will help you go from amateur to professional writer

Alright, let's dive into this week's newsletter.(ps: If you have any design ideas for a shirt, let me know by replying to this email)

📚 Book Lessons:

This week's book is The Minimalist Entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia. Sahil Lavingia was employee #2 at Pinterest. He then left to raise $8 million to start his own company. Today, he is the founder and CEO of Gumroad. If you want to build a sustainable and profitable business, this book is for you. Here are 3 lessons from it:1) Build As Little As Possible How long did it take him to build the first version of Gumroad? Just one weekend.That's right, Sahil built Gumroad over a weekend because he wanted to sell a pencil icon he designed. Today, that company does $150+ million a year in revenue. And that's the secret of all great companies–they start small.So build a minimum-viable-product as quickly as possible. Build as much as you can by yourself and outsource everything else. That way you keep cost (and risk) to a minimum.Once you're done, get it out into the world and see if anyone actually has a need for it. What you don't want to do is invest a ton of time and money into a project only to realize no one wants it. So, build quickly and ship early.  2) Find Your First 100 CustomersThey say if you build it, they will come. Well, maybe, but that's not a strategy you want to rely on.Getting your first 100 customers requires work. Most people start by reaching out to friends and family, which is a good place to begin, but chances are those people aren't your target customers.Instead, find communities that contain potential customers and contact them personally. When Sahil was building Gumroad, he would cold email hundreds of people and offer to show them how to use his product. So once you find people who you think could benefit from your product, get to cold emailing, calling, and messaging them. It's not a glamourous job, but it's how you get sales in the early days. Save the paid marketing, SEO optimization, and other marketing tactics for when you're profitable. 3) The Best Marketing Is Being YourselfThe best marketing is to be yourself but at scale. Why? Because people don't care about companies, they care about other people.And the best way to be yourself at scale is by amplifying your message through social media account. With social media, you can create a tweet, post, or video once, and share it with potentially millions of people.But you don't want to be sharing photos of your lunch, you want to provide value for free through your content. Here's how:  Teach your audience about your service/product Engage with followers by answering their questions Build your company in public and share lessons learned along the wayBy providing free and valuable content, you'll attract more followers. Those followers will then research your product. The people who find your product or service a fit for their needs, will then buy from you. It's as simple as that.

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Build as little as possible:

• Spend the weekend building version 1.0 of your product.

• Build as much as you can by yourself and outsource everything else to keep costs and risk to a minimum.

• Once you have an MVP launch it and see if it works.

2) Find your first 100 customers:

• Tell friends and family about your product.

• Find communities with potential target customers.

• Reach out to each of them personally through cold emails, calls, or messages.

3) Best marketing strategy = Being yourself at scale

• Social media allows you to create a piece of content once and share it with potentially millions of people.

• Create valuable content by educating people, answering their questions, and sharing what you've learned.

• The Minimalist Marketing Funnel:

  • Engaging content → New followers → Followers research your product → If it's a fit, they'll buy from you

🎧 Podcast Update:

I had Sahil on my podcast to talk about his book. He shared lessons on:

• How he built Gumroad

• Why having a community is a competitive advantage

• Why you should build-in-public

• What Naval Ravikant taught him

And much more.Watch the podcast on YouTube here (or listen to it on Apple or Spotify).

📖 Reading Lesson:5 Tips from Gregory McKeown to get the most of your reading.

⭐️ Weekly Quote:Read to grow the mind.Write to clear the mind.Exercise to calm the mind.Meditate to train the mind.Sleep to rest the mind.(share here)

🙏 Support:This week's sponsor is Audible.If you want to read more books but don't have much time, audiobooks are for you. You can listen to an audiobook while commuting to work, exercising at the gym, or cleaning the house. Audible has an incredible selection of 200,000+ books you can choose from.Sign up here to get two free audiobooks.

Thank you for your support everyone, I'll see you next Sunday!Read on,Alex W.