Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread

[Kak]

To all the doomers worried about the stupid cell phone alert earlier today.

 

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[Xeon]

Welcome to the Age of Paid Social Media

The saying goes if you’re not the customer, you’re the product. Now, you’re both. Every big social media app is testing subscriptions. It's a business model that comes with a perverse incentive. Just like airlines, if you make life worse, more people will pay.

gizmodo.com

 

[biophase]

Again... why signing up for a gym is like buying a car.

So today I signed up at EOS fitness. It's the closest gym to my house. $1 initial fee, $49 annual fee and $10/mo. Ok, I can deal with that. I go to sign up and they say, we need your checking account to do an ACH debit each month.

Can we do a credit card? Let me ask my manager. I'm pretty sure she fake texts/calls her manager. It's 9pm at night right now. She comes back, he said ok we can take a credit card.

I act shocked like she did me a great favor and say oh that's great because I was about to go to another gym.

I mean come on, we know the drill. A member can dispute a CC charge if they keep charging them for forgetting to cancel. But an ACH debit? Much harder to stop it or get your money back.

 

[MTF]

The tiny island country of Anguilla is an unexpected beneficiary of the AI boom. The territory's top level domain (TLD) is .ai.

Every time a company wants to register a website that ends in .ai (here are 768 of them), they've got to pay a fee to Anguilla.

The 16,000 person island now makes $3 million per month on these registrations. That's 1/3 of the government's budget.

Another winner in this space? Tuvalu, which reports suggest earns $10 million per year for its .tv domain. "That revenue has allowed Tuvalu to pave its roads, expand electricity access for its residents, and even pay its first annual United Nations membership in 2000."

Micronesia (.fm), Montenegro (.me), Djibuti (.dj), and others have benefited as well.

from Alts.co newsletter

 

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[Robdavis]

Welcome to the Age of Paid Social Media

The saying goes if you’re not the customer, you’re the product. Now, you’re both. Every big social media app is testing subscriptions. It's a business model that comes with a perverse incentive. Just like airlines, if you make life worse, more people will pay.

gizmodo.com

I guess that if you are a drug dealer, then you can give away free product to your customers to get them addicted. Once they 'need' your product, its pay up or withdrawal symptoms.

 

[Raedrum]

I just took a job again in order to sustain my life and my business (might make a thread about that)

First effect: I don't need no more to make sales at all cost, so I'm way less pushy, more generous and I'm sure this will help me to make sales that really count in the future

 

[Jrjohnny]

I always thought an average screen time of 3 hours was bad (50% of it is on the flf, and my phone being on from music)

I want to get down to one hour, but.

3x7=21 hours a week.

There are some people in my class doing 15 hours IN A DAY.

15x7 = 105 hours a week.

Some of them go to bed at 2 am and have to wake up at 7!

It’s scary to see this generation’s trajectory in the future..

 

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[MattR82]

I always thought an average screen time of 3 hours was bad (50% of it is on the flf, and my phone being on from music)

I want to get down to one hour, but.

3x7=21 hours a week.

There are some people in my class doing 15 hours IN A DAY.

15x7 = 105 hours a week.

Some of them go to bed at 2 am and have to wake up at 7!

It’s scary to see this generation’s trajectory in the future..

You care way too much about your dummy friends/classmates.

 

[MattR82]

Did my first attempt at doing a cheapo vinyl wrap on the hood of an old car of mine that's going to be a backup workmobile for staff.

Looked like a wrinkly ballsack for quite some time still not great, but it was fun to learn something new lol.

 

[Kak]

Again... why signing up for a gym is like buying a car.

So today I signed up at EOS fitness. It's the closest gym to my house. $1 initial fee, $49 annual fee and $10/mo. Ok, I can deal with that. I go to sign up and they say, we need your checking account to do an ACH debit each month.

Can we do a credit card? Let me ask my manager. I'm pretty sure she fake texts/calls her manager. It's 9pm at night right now. She comes back, he said ok we can take a credit card.

I act shocked like she did me a great favor and say oh that's great because I was about to go to another gym.

I mean come on, we know the drill. A member can dispute a CC charge if they keep charging them for forgetting to cancel. But an ACH debit? Much harder to stop it or get your money back.

I wouldn't join another gym without a fake ID.

 

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[Private Witt]

I wouldn't join another gym without a fake ID.

Kak McLovin getting a gym membership.

 

[ZackerySprague]

The Only 4M ARR SaaS Startup to Reveal it All

We’re on a quest to reinvigorate growth for our SaaS startup and we’re 10X’ing the transparency. Funnel metrics, financials, growth experiments, P&L statements and more — nothing is off-limits.

www.groovehq.com

 

[Kak]

Samsung Dex on my Galaxy Fold 5 has officially completely replaced my computer. I get 4k at 60htz on the big screen with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. It's faster than my computer in every way. Boot is instant. Apps are instant. It even works on 5g when the internet is out.

It can literally do every single thing I need, fast. Including audio editing for when I record the occasional podcast episode.

Sure it's almost a $2000 phone, which seems a bit ridiculous, but it has replaced my iPad, laptop, and phone. It's the only device I need now. It is also available on the much cheaper Galaxy S devices.

If you have a samsung phone and you haven't tried Dex yet, you have no idea how amazing your phone is.

 

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[ZackerySprague]

Went to my local sprouts and food some good food companies here's one with the founders label on the back with his family

Only ingredient for his chips are potatoes, sunflower oil, and salt.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Just Ice Tea

Just Ice Tea is a line of organic, real-brewed, just sweet enough tea from the creators of Honest Tea. Through its commitment to fair trade, this ready-to-drink tea available in premium glass and cans helps provide a more just, healthier way of life for our farmers and our planet—and healthier...

eatthechange.com

Their Tea is pretty good.

 

[Lyzmin]

Not sure where to post this so if one of the mods wants to move it, thanks in advance.

My four months of (luckily) not getting into a partnership for a lead generation company.
The following story I'm sharing is packed with lessons I've learned from this experience. The last four months I've been working on this collaboration and it stopped before I knew it. I try to keep it short and mostly include the key lessons. Feel free to ask me anything about the proces. This will be instead of a progress thread I spoke about a few times in some posts I did.

Background
In May I met an entrepreneur through a mutual friend, the connection was there and because of the mutual friend the trusting instantly. He is the owner of a lead generation (through telemarketing) company which specializes in accounting firms and lives in Spain with his family since four years. The company exists over 19 years now and the owner is 17 years older than me. He's doing six figures in profit and we spoke about the options to scale the company because he wants to do a liquidation event in three years, which I liked a lot. At first we spoke about me helping him find the right people for the company so he can grow. After a few conversations we had a great connection and talks started about a partnership.

The deal (The WHAT)
We agreed that we wanted to scale the company and sell it in three years for multiple 7-figures. To him it would be his early pension, to me a stepping stone into the my next CENTS business. He would do the B2B client and finance side. I would to the recruitment, branding and innovations (the company still lives in 2008). We agreed upon this and started the process to get into the partnership together. I would become 50/50 partner in the company starting 2024 and buy equity for a 6-figure amount financed with a personal loan from him. In the moment, not a bad deal as I would pay him out of the dividends so I wouldn't have to put up my own money. We brought on an M&A advisor to set up the deal.

Some red flags while experiencing everything in de company

• He paid himself less managementfee than minimal mandatory in The Netherlands because of a deal with the tax firm. The profit looked higher because of this construct which made the equity more expensive for me.
• His wife is also an employee of the company and had a big say in everything. Sometimes I spoke to him, but I could hear his wife.
• All the active sales agents were underperforming and he wasn't open to get a commercial frontrunner because of costs.
• Once I made some appointments myself he was full on expecting me to do weekly appointment calls which was not the initial agreement.

The big break up
This summer I wanted to experience everything in the company and I already brought some people on board to show I know my game of recruitment. I made appointments as well, but noticed that this wasn't something I'm getting energy from. In my mind I would bring a commercial leader on board and build around this person. For months I've been saying that everything is still flexible and I need to see what would be the best way to approach everything. So the first week of September I made an extensive email with all my ideas and plans on HOW we will scale the company starting 2024. Also that I don't see myself making any appointments myself forward because I see my value in other areas as recruitment, which is my specialty. That same afternoon I received an answer that it's totally not HOW he sees it and doesn't see any reason to continue the process of a partnership. The following weeks we went a bit back and forward about costs that've been made by both parties and since this week everything is done and I probably won't see/speak to him ever again. He saw me as a partner who would make mostly appointments and do some recruitment so he could stop making appointments directly.

Key lessons for me

• Before going into a potential partnership, learn everything there is to know about company structures, different taxes and reading all of the numbers. In The Netherlands I've been independent for ten years, but the business owning side of entrepreneurship is a whole other set of rules. I know that now.
• Somebody who's led a company for a long time a certain way (especially almost 20 years) is more than reluctant to change his ways. Even if he tells you multiple times on forehand how bad he wants te scale.
• If you know WHAT you want together verbally, before finalizing it on paper; work out the HOW in detail as well. Finalize the HOW on paper before you finalize the what (equity). If I did this three months ago, we would probably already would've split up without the costs.
• Work a minimum of three months in a company to get to know the operation. This way the company will either promote or expose itself. In my case there were a lot of 'exposes' which made me write an extensive email.
• Always be willing to walk away. At first I was devastated.. My big stepping stone, being a business owner, selling the business in three years, start my next Fastlane business with 7-figures in the bank.. gone! After two week of reflection I'm actually really happy about it, I dodged a big bullet of 6-figures and working for someone else's pension which wouldn't lead to a 7-figure exit in three years.
• Build your own business first before joining an existing business and buying equity. It's easier to buy revenue, than to create it, but you have to take the lessons first. In my case I belief I almost jumped from step 2 to 10 without the proper lessons in a bear trap.
• I love consultative selling and getting clients. My hit and run sales days are over. Whenever I'm talking to a potential partner I need to communicate it to manage expectations.

What now?
I have a great project until the end of the year which gives me a lot of freedom. I started rereading Unscripted and am mostly focused on growing. January I fly to Gran Canaria for ten weeks remote working. At the moment there are three potential projects for next year I'm talking with companies about. So there will be enough opportunities to make money. As for my Fastlane project, I'm focussing on RPA. In my opinion this will be the future for recruitment and the growing labour market shortage. to be continued.

Thank you for reading!

 

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[monnffffiiiiiii]

I finished TMF in Nov 2019 and joined the forum a few months later.

I have since tried to build around 20 businesses, from a meat delivery service to a beer company, to a social media app, to an Airbnb concierge, to a Tinder coaching service, to a transportation app, and a bunch of others I don't even remember.

I wrote books I never published and built websites I never launched.

I've made every mistake in the book, lost thousands of euros, fought with friends-turned-business-partners, and ofc, all of my ideas failed.

I also worked for a startup for a while, which also failed.

The only thing that earned me some money was writing online and selling digital products.

If I could go back in time and tell myself something, it'd be this:

1. You're not going to build a business fresh off the boat.

There is an "E" in CENTS for ENTRY, and ENTRY basically means SKILLS.

People are paying you when you can do something they cannot.

So LEARN SOME SKILLS. Anything.

• Learn to cook and sell food.
• Learn to clean and sell cleaning service.
• Learn beekeeping and sell honey.

A classmate from university was selling cakes online.

Earlier I went to buy stuff from a shop called "Mega China" owned by a guy who don't even speak the local language - his skills is to import a million different items from China and stack them on shelves.

Business is simple. Make/buy something -> sell it.

But it demands skills. Which skills?

Let's ask Naval Ravikant: Learn to sell, learn to build, if you can do both, you will be unstoppable.

Learn to sell:

• Sales: I found bowtiedsalesguy to be the best resource by far.
• Marketing: I found Positioning by Ries and Trout and Different by Youngme Moon to be the best marketing books out of the +20 I've read.

Learn to build:

• This means choose your market well. Some people decide to learn how to code, others learn how to grow fruits and vegetables. And others learn how to build cars and rockets. Choose something (1) you can be better than the competition at making, (2) that interests you, (3) that people want to buy.

From experience doing my stuff and hanging out with entrepreneurs, the smaller you start, the better. Chanel started with one hat, Facebook with one line of code, and AB-Inbev with one beer.

2. The second thing is mindset.

It took me three years to go from walking into a shop and see what I could buy to walking into a shop and see what I could sell.

I no longer go shopping. I go "research selling", which means I go to shops to see what people buy there.

While simple in appearance, this mindset shift took some time.

3. Don't forget to enjoy life.

I've spent most of the last three years working and doing nothing else because I was obsessed with making money.

It went fast - too fast - and I regret it today.

You earn money to do life, not the other way around. Getting rich isn't a race and retirement is a lie. Even after you "make it", you will never *not* be working.

Boredom is more painful than painful work. I know no rich people that do fvck all all day. They all work. But they do work they enjoy.

That's the ultimate flex: having no obligations whatsoever, and only do the work you enjoy.

Conclusion

I'm a workaholic so, in retrospect, these past few years (albeit painful sometimes) have been fun.

Maybe it was the ultimate purpose since the beginning. Unfortunately, I tend to forget it sometimes.

So my hopes for the next few years are not to forget to have fun and to nurture the relationships I have neglected.

And of course, to build a small profitable online business.

 

[MattR82]

Samsung Dex on my Galaxy Fold 5 has officially completely replaced my computer. I get 4k at 60htz on the big screen with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. It's faster than my computer in every way. Boot is instant. Apps are instant. It even works on 5g when the internet is out.

It can literally do every single thing I need, fast. Including audio editing for when I record the occasional podcast episode.

Sure it's almost a $2000 phone, which seems a bit ridiculous, but it has replaced my iPad, laptop, and phone. It's the only device I need now. It is also available on the much cheaper Galaxy S devices.

If you have a samsung phone and you haven't tried Dex yet, you have no idea how amazing your phone is.

I want this so bad, but I would F*ck the screens up and smash things up almost instantly with what I do day to day. I'm not allowed to have nice things just yet.
I wonder how old of a galaxy S Dex would work well on.

 

[GPM]

Going to the gym in Mexico was so easy.

Sign a paper saying that if you hurt yourself it is your own fault. Hand them some pesos. Pay by the Day, week, month, multi month or year. The longer you pay the cheaper it is. Done.

I built a gym in my basement in Canada. My wife has an external membership because she likes classes, but it is a pain the a$$. The only fitness membership I've ever signed, and would ever consider getting again, is Muay Thai. I'd never go to a commercial gym.

 

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[MattR82]

In Australia the cancel anytime gym membership is becoming a popular selling point. Not long till the lock in model is completely gone I think.

 

[GPM]

There are only 3 phones since the dawn of the modern cell phone (think black and white flip phone circa 2000ish) that I have actually been excited to use and enjoyed:

- Motorola RAZR
- Blackberry (some time around 2009, I don't remember the model)
- Huawei p20 pro.

Everything else has been trash in one way or another. Brand and OS doesn't matter. They all suck.

 

[MTF]

Went to my local sprouts and food some good food companies here's one with the founders label on the back with his family

Only ingredient for his chips are potatoes, sunflower oil, and salt.

This is actually still an unhealthy product. Every single junk food manufacturer puts sunflower oil in their products.

If you need to eat chips, find something without sunflower oil. Olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil are way better.

Ask @MitchC, he loves his seed oils.

 

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[MitchC]

This is actually still an unhealthy product. Every single junk food manufacturer puts sunflower oil in their products.

If you need to eat chips, find something without sunflower oil. Olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil are way better.

Ask @MitchC, he loves his seed oils.

It took all my self control to stop myself from replying when I saw that post and now you tag me?? after my rant about Australian unions??

this forums as bad as social media at getting me wound up

 

[Andy Black]

Not sure where to post this so if one of the mods wants to move it, thanks in advance.

My four months of (luckily) not getting into a partnership for a lead generation company.
The following story I'm sharing is packed with lessons I've learned from this experience. The last four months I've been working on this collaboration and it stopped before I knew it. I try to keep it short and mostly include the key lessons. Feel free to ask me anything about the proces. This will be instead of a progress thread I spoke about a few times in some posts I did.

Background
In May I met an entrepreneur through a mutual friend, the connection was there and because of the mutual friend the trusting instantly. He is the owner of a lead generation (through telemarketing) company which specializes in accounting firms and lives in Spain with his family since four years. The company exists over 19 years now and the owner is 17 years older than me. He's doing six figures in profit and we spoke about the options to scale the company because he wants to do a liquidation event in three years, which I liked a lot. At first we spoke about me helping him find the right people for the company so he can grow. After a few conversations we had a great connection and talks started about a partnership.

The deal (The WHAT)
We agreed that we wanted to scale the company and sell it in three years for multiple 7-figures. To him it would be his early pension, to me a stepping stone into the my next CENTS business. He would do the B2B client and finance side. I would to the recruitment, branding and innovations (the company still lives in 2008). We agreed upon this and started the process to get into the partnership together. I would become 50/50 partner in the company starting 2024 and buy equity for a 6-figure amount financed with a personal loan from him. In the moment, not a bad deal as I would pay him out of the dividends so I wouldn't have to put up my own money. We brought on an M&A advisor to set up the deal.

Some red flags while experiencing everything in de company

• He paid himself less managementfee than minimal mandatory in The Netherlands because of a deal with the tax firm. The profit looked higher because of this construct which made the equity more expensive for me.
• His wife is also an employee of the company and had a big say in everything. Sometimes I spoke to him, but I could hear his wife.
• All the active sales agents were underperforming and he wasn't open to get a commercial frontrunner because of costs.
• Once I made some appointments myself he was full on expecting me to do weekly appointment calls which was not the initial agreement.

The big break up
This summer I wanted to experience everything in the company and I already brought some people on board to show I know my game of recruitment. I made appointments as well, but noticed that this wasn't something I'm getting energy from. In my mind I would bring a commercial leader on board and build around this person. For months I've been saying that everything is still flexible and I need to see what would be the best way to approach everything. So the first week of September I made an extensive email with all my ideas and plans on HOW we will scale the company starting 2024. Also that I don't see myself making any appointments myself forward because I see my value in other areas as recruitment, which is my specialty. That same afternoon I received an answer that it's totally not HOW he sees it and doesn't see any reason to continue the process of a partnership. The following weeks we went a bit back and forward about costs that've been made by both parties and since this week everything is done and I probably won't see/speak to him ever again. He saw me as a partner who would make mostly appointments and do some recruitment so he could stop making appointments directly.

Key lessons for me

• Before going into a potential partnership, learn everything there is to know about company structures, different taxes and reading all of the numbers. In The Netherlands I've been independent for ten years, but the business owning side of entrepreneurship is a whole other set of rules. I know that now.
• Somebody who's led a company for a long time a certain way (especially almost 20 years) is more than reluctant to change his ways. Even if he tells you multiple times on forehand how bad he wants te scale.
• If you know WHAT you want together verbally, before finalizing it on paper; work out the HOW in detail as well. Finalize the HOW on paper before you finalize the what (equity). If I did this three months ago, we would probably already would've split up without the costs.
• Work a minimum of three months in a company to get to know the operation. This way the company will either promote or expose itself. In my case there were a lot of 'exposes' which made me write an extensive email.
• Always be willing to walk away. At first I was devastated.. My big stepping stone, being a business owner, selling the business in three years, start my next Fastlane business with 7-figures in the bank.. gone! After two week of reflection I'm actually really happy about it, I dodged a big bullet of 6-figures and working for someone else's pension which wouldn't lead to a 7-figure exit in three years.
• Build your own business first before joining an existing business and buying equity. It's easier to buy revenue, than to create it, but you have to take the lessons first. In my case I belief I almost jumped from step 2 to 10 without the proper lessons in a bear trap.
• I love consultative selling and getting clients. My hit and run sales days are over. Whenever I'm talking to a potential partner I need to communicate it to manage expectations.

What now?
I have a great project until the end of the year which gives me a lot of freedom. I started rereading Unscripted and am mostly focused on growing. January I fly to Gran Canaria for ten weeks remote working. At the moment there are three potential projects for next year I'm talking with companies about. So there will be enough opportunities to make money. As for my Fastlane project, I'm focussing on RPA. In my opinion this will be the future for recruitment and the growing labour market shortage. to be continued.

Thank you for reading!

Great writeup. Thanks for sharing with the forum.

So you work in recruitment? If you're an INSIDERS you might be interested in @Lex DeVille 's new progress thread.

 

[Andy Black]

Samsung Dex on my Galaxy Fold 5 has officially completely replaced my computer. I get 4k at 60htz on the big screen with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. It's faster than my computer in every way. Boot is instant. Apps are instant. It even works on 5g when the internet is out.

It can literally do every single thing I need, fast. Including audio editing for when I record the occasional podcast episode.

Sure it's almost a $2000 phone, which seems a bit ridiculous, but it has replaced my iPad, laptop, and phone. It's the only device I need now. It is also available on the much cheaper Galaxy S devices.

If you have a samsung phone and you haven't tried Dex yet, you have no idea how amazing your phone is.

That's amazing, but now I think about it it makes sense that a smartphone may replace a laptop for many functions.

Is it an app? I can't find it on Google Play.

 

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[Jrjohnny]

I saw a post on here earlier about stretching and how it improves sleep quality.

I used to take like an hour to fall asleep, because I just kept tossing and turning and still had extra energy.

I started exercising for about an hour and a half, and meditating for 10 minutes, which lowered it down to 30 minutes

But my quality of sleep wasn’t that good, I still was awake for an hour and a half (waking up in the middle of the night)

I realized I’d wake up because my muscles were so tense.

I was averaging 7 hours and 40 minutes of sleep.

I started stretching for 10 minutes, and meditating for ten minutes combined (godsend combo)

I’d fall asleep in about 20 minutes, sometimes 15 or even 10 minutes.

My new sleep average is about 8 hours and 20 minutes, today I got 8 hours and 40 minutes.

Which is equal to about 100% ROI on sleep, 400-600% ROI on time taken to fall asleep.

Which in my world, could translate to easily a 1500% return on working, focus, attitude, decision making and gym performance

 

[Kak]

That's amazing, but now I think about it it makes sense that a smartphone may replace a laptop for many functions.

Is it an app? I can't find it on Google Play.

It's baked into the phone if you have a Samsung. On mine, I just bought an C to HDMI cable that said it was rated for 4k, and when I plugged it in, it activated. I use a wireless charger while it's taking up the port.

Google it for your phone before you go buy anything.

 

[ZackerySprague]

This is actually still an unhealthy product. Every single junk food manufacturer puts sunflower oil in their products.

If you need to eat chips, find something without sunflower oil. Olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil are way better.

Ask @MitchC, he loves his seed oils.

Lol well i didn't know this, but I just thought it was cool to see non-name brands at a sprouts store. I originally wanted Tejava Tea that's why I went there.

 

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[nopalmer]

Now all I can think about is how much I want chips.

 

[Goodfella999]

Again... why signing up for a gym is like buying a car.

So today I signed up at EOS fitness. It's the closest gym to my house. $1 initial fee, $49 annual fee and $10/mo. Ok, I can deal with that. I go to sign up and they say, we need your checking account to do an ACH debit each month.

Can we do a credit card? Let me ask my manager. I'm pretty sure she fake texts/calls her manager. It's 9pm at night right now. She comes back, he said ok we can take a credit card.

I act shocked like she did me a great favor and say oh that's great because I was about to go to another gym.

I mean come on, we know the drill. A member can dispute a CC charge if they keep charging them for forgetting to cancel. But an ACH debit? Much harder to stop it or get your money back.

Eos is a pain in the a$$, I had to get a manager in person to cancel. Gym was so crowded 24/7 also