7 lessons

My business is on track to do $160-$180K this month and we’ll be over $200K/m very soon.

I consider myself to be relatively intelligent but not a genius by any means.

I’ve also traveled and partied a lot while growing this thing.

It took a while (6 years) to get here, but I’m here.

I credit this to persistence AND picking a low-risk business that rewards longevity.

This is the path that has worked for me.

For those who want to accomplish something similar, here are 7 lessons passed from me to you:

Lesson #1: Pick an industry that’s growing and won’t go away

Alex Hormozi once said:

Play games where if you wait, you win.

If you committed to one industry for 10 years, it would be unreasonable not to succeed.

So do it. Try to pick a small niche that’s growing and will be here 20 years from now.

My company has exclusively worked with medical spas for the past 6 years.

As of 2023, there were only 8,841 med spas in the US. This is expected to grow 10-15% annually from 2023 to 2030.

The market is very small, growing fast, and not going away.

People will always want to look + feel better and that’s what medical spas help with.

This is why it was a good bet to stake my claim in this market 6 years ago.

Lesson #2: Exploit your pre-existing advantages

Even in a small industry, there will be intense competition - especially if you’re in the US.

You MUST differentiate hard and fast. The easiest way to do this is to leverage something unique about you.

My dad owns a med spa. This is very unique and hard to replicate. It was a no-brainer for me to pick the industry.

Valuable differentiators: deep personal experience in an industry, your parents in the industry, extreme knowledge and passion around a subject, or deep industry connections.

Lesson #3: You don’t have to love your niche

Gurus will say you must find something you love.

I say: what if what you love doesn’t make money?

I’m a 29 y/o male. I’m not super passionate about medical spas. Surprise surprise.

What I am passionate about is building a machine that helps medical spas grow without me having to do anything.

Making the machine better every day is super satisfying to me.

This is why you don’t have to love the niche itself.

Pick an aspect of business that you love and focus on that.

Lesson #4: Become the opposite of your industry stereotype

Marketers are notorious for over-promising and under-delivering.

That’s why if you’re a marketer, you should obsess over having an incredible product.

Local brick-and-mortar businesses are notorious for being terrible marketers.

That’s why if you run a local business, you should get really good at marketing.

LESSON #5: Let your clients build your roadmap

You can build a bangin’ business simply by listening to your customers.

Get on a texting basis with your best clients.

Get on calls with them and ask them what they want.

Take note of what stops people from signing up and what causes them to quit.

This should tell you exactly what to focus on over the next few months.

LESSON #6: Start an email list and YouTube channel ASAP

You could have 1M followers on Instagram but then have your account banned.

META could also change up its algorithm, reducing how many followers see your posts.

That’s why you want to build an off-platform following. Email is the best way to do that.

The best way to get your email list to buy your stuff is to post on YouTube.

The best part about YouTube is the long-tail effect. It’s a search engine so people will find videos years after you make them.

I regularly make sales from videos I made 5 years ago.

Youtube and email are also not going anywhere. Make a 5-year bet on them now and thank me later. ;)

LESSON #7: Be stubborn in niche, flexible in model

If you follow lesson #1 you will have chosen a niche that is not going away.

If other people are making money serving your niche, there is no reason you should ever switch to a different industry.

This is actually called “niche-hopping” and is a big reason people fail.

They never stick it out long enough to develop the authority required to dominate.

What is ok to change is how you serve that niche.

We stuck with medical spas for 6 years but switched our core service 4 times.

This is because technology moves fast. AI happened. We had to pivot until we found the best way to solve our clients’ problems.

There’s this quote: “Every industry is great, and every industry sucks.”

The grass will always be greener and you’ll always think someone else has it easier.

They don’t. They’ve only stuck with it long enough to see the benefits.

The key, again, is finding something worth “sticking it out” in.

Once you find that, batten down the hatches and apply the principle of compounded effort.

Give yourself a long time like me and chances of failure are relatively low.

You’ll also have a lot of fun during the process. 😉

Till next week,

Graydon

Cool things I found during my weekly internet stroll.

FDA approves AirPods to be used as hearing aids. Would be cool to use the same feature to acquire sonic super-hearing abilities.

Snap unveiled their AR spectacles and they look terrible.

SpaceX engineer performs ‘the first violin solo in space’. Super cool how they synchronized her with musicians from around the world.

Served up by Spijker & me.

I Feel Like Dancing | Anthony (GR)

Wrong | Marc Gonen

Back On 74 (Rework) | Betical, Arper