Every Sunday morning I like to write about 3 random things on my mind.
Sometimes these things are about business…
Sometimes they’re about life…
And other times they’re just completely random.
With that said…
Let’s dive into the first thing on my mind this morning…
1. Entrepreneurs who don’t own their audience are flirting with disaster
Yesterday I saw on Twitter that a prominent writer on Substack had her account shut down.
Why?
She wrote about something Substack didn’t agree with.
This same thing has been happening on Youtube for a while (and is only getting worse)…
Bret Weinstein has a huge podcast, and is facing a ban on Youtube because of some COVID treatments he talked about.
It’s insanity.
And it’s only going to get worse.
I always cringe when I see a Youtuber who’s entire business is on Youtube.
They don’t have an email list…
Or customer data…
Everything is in the hands of Youtube.
This is a risky game.
Cause at any point, Youtube could give you the axe.
And your whole biz falls apart.
Which is why you always want to be in control of your audience.
You want to have your customer data.
So you can just direct them somewhere else if needed (I think email is the best for this).
But either way – you want to be in control of your audience as much as you can.
Alright let’s jump to the 2nd thing on my mind this morning…
2. I’m starting to get recognized in public, and it’s a very strange thing
Over the last year, I’ve had probably 10 people recognize me in public.
These are people I don’t know.
They’re just on my email list…
Or they watch my Youtube videos.
And they see me at an airport, or at the park, and they come and say hello.
The first time this happened, it caught me off guard.
I didn’t know what to say.
I was shocked more than anything.
Cause I wasn’t expecting it.
But now that it’s happened a few times I’m a little more aware.
I try to go out of my way to say hello, and thank ’em for reading my stuff.
Part of it is cool to see I have this kind of effect on someone I’ve never met…
And then the other part is just surreal, because its not like I’m a celebrity or anything.
I have an email list of 3500 people.
And a pretty small Youtube channel.
And compared to the world at large, our little internet marketing world is quite small.
But it’s still cool to see that the stuff I talk about has such a big effect on people.
That means a lot to me.
Alright let’s do one more of these…
3. Being smart does not equal being rich
I’m a great example of the fact that you don’t have to be smart to be successful.
I was reminded of this the other night at a party I had at my house.
Some girl at the party really liked my house, so she was asking me what I did for a living…
“I’m an entrepreneur” I said. “I coach copywriters and entrepreneurs and teach them how to make more money”.
She didn’t totally understand what I did…
But she knew I was successful…
“So you must be like really smart, huh?” she says.
I start laughing.
“Not really”.
I went on to explain that I was a pretty average student.
I barely got a 21 on my ACT in highschool (which was below the national average).
I have a degree in Sports & Leisure Studies (the easiest major they had at Ohio State).
So in the traditional sense, I’m not smart.
I’m probably middle of the pack.
Which this girl could not wrap her head around.
She was currently in school getting her masters.
And she got like a 1550 on her SAT (which is crazy good).
Yet despite being really smart, she’s pretty much broke.
Which wasn’t surprising to me.
Intelligence and income are not directly related.
What makes you money is having money-making skills.
Things like…
Being able to sell stuff…
Being able to make other people a ton of money (like song writers or financial traders)…
Being able to create things that attract an audience (like Youtubers)…
All of these things make money.
You don’t need to be smart to do them.
You just need to get good at that skill.
And I think that’s an important point.
Cause most people think you have to be smart…
They think smart = success.
And that’s just not true.
You can be bad in school and still make a whole lot of moolah.
The two things are not related.
What matters when it comes to money is being good at a specific skill that makes money.
That’s the key.
Make sense?
I hope so.
Cause that’s all I got for ya this morning.
Enjoy your Sunday…
– Justin
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