Productivity boosters, 2x revenue, saying NO, engineering as marketing, writing 5 books.

Hey,

Jakob here. Hope you’re doing awesome!

Wanted to share a few quick notes on what I’ve been up to since my last email:

• It’s cold, rainy, dark here in Denmark almost every day right now. Kind of sucks. But on the other hand, there’s no better weather if you want to get shit done.
  
  What also really helps is that I finally found an amazing coworking space. It’s a lot easier to be productive when everyone around is you is working on cool stuff.
  
  The place is also a lot more social than the other places I’ve tried here. Everyone eats lunch together every single day. There are ping pong tables, a weeky community breakfast, and different social events. Further productivity booster are that I got a permanent desk which allows me to work with an external monitor and that the place is open 24/7.
  
  Not cheap (~$300/month which includes everything: coffee, drinks, snacks, lunch but definitely worth it.

  

• The cold email agency I started with Ryan is growing faster than we anticipated. We set some pretty audacious goals at the start of the year and it looks like we actually will hit them. Our revenue has doubled since my last email.
  
  At the same time, we’re continuously refining our processes and all result metrics are trending upwards right now. But we’re also developing a better understanding for what kind of business our services is actually a good fit. We currently say no to more than 70% of all inquiries even though we’re not oversubscribed yet.

• The most important thing for us right now is focusing on delivering results and keeping the foot on the gas on the acquisition side.
  
  One channel we’re testing next is engineering as marketing.
  
  I love building simple side projects that provide value to people. At the same time, I’m not a fan of offering free stuff if you have nothing to sell. So what I tried in the past is charging a little money (~$29/month) for access to my side projects like Newsletter Spy or Product Explorer. This worked OK. But I was never able to grow them to a point where they generated significant revenue. It became apparent that I had to change my approach to reach the next level in the entrepreneur game. I stopped launching side project.
  
  But now with a solid premium offer in the back the situation is different. I can build useful tools and make them free. If we get just one additional client this way, it’s totally worth it.
  
  So I completely rebuilt Product Explorer and launched it today, this time charging $0. Any support and feedback on ProductHunt is appreciated!

• Some of you might remember that I sold Product Explorer to Andrew Gazdecki a while ago. He recently approached and asked me if I wanted to take the project over again since he’s not able to properly maintain it. I happily said yes!

• Speaking of side projects, I’ve decided to publish 5 books this year.
  
  The main reason is that writing helps me think. And a longer writing project like a book will help me explore topics I care about more deeply.
  
  One thing that’s kind of obvious to everyone now is that shortform content is frying your brain. It’s easy to convince yourself that, watching a few TikToks or reading a bunch of tweets is just harmless fun. But the detrimental it has on my ability to concentrate and the clarity of my thoughts is significant. It slowly creeps up to you and before you really realize it, suddenly nothing really makes sense anymore. Everything seems so chaotic and outside of your control.
  
  You will encounter every kind of contradictory advice. And yes, all of it is true.
  
  ”Working on 1 good business for 10 years will likely beat working on 10 decent things for 1 year each.”
  
  ”It never makes sense to be "all-in" in business. The risk of ruin (financial or psychological) dictates this strategy. Instead, take care of the downside, and let the upside take care of itself.”
  
  ”Stop drinking coffee”
  ”Every month without coffee will set your business back a month.”
  
  You know, these kinds of things.
  
  It’s all true. It all can work.
  
  The problem is that you need a lot of context to properly understand when to use what for your specific situation. It’s why book summaries and tweets simply do not work in terms of providing actionable advice.
  
  Great books provide all the necessary context and coherent narrative. So you develop a much more nuanced understanding and end up in a state of mind where things do make sense.
  
  The same is true when it comes to writing. There’s zero coherent thought required to publish a tweet. Writing essays is definitely bettter. But I find that it still leaves my brain in a kind of fragmented state. In contrast, when I’m working on a book, I feel a deep sense of clarity. Everything fits neatly together, I’m not repeating myself, and there’s a proper place for every idea in the grander scheme of things.
  
  Now writing 5 books sounds like a huge time commitment. But my main focus is 100% on growing our agency. I’m not spending more than hour a day writing. It’s usually the first thing I do in the morning while my girlfriend is still asleep. There’s a point of diminishing returns when I write longer anyway.
  
  I’ve also noticed whenever someone decides to focus 100% on their writing, it becomes significantly worse. The best writing is done by people who have other shit going on in their lives.
  
  Full time writers tend to overthink, overcomplicated. They often start writing for the sake of writing, not because they feel the burning desire to share something interesting.
  
  With just an hour every day to spare, you simply write what needs to be written and describe things as they are. No fluff, no bs.
  
  There’s an interesting related phenomena I remember from my time working in physics. The “world's foremost centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry” is the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. It’s the absolutely perfect environment for researchers. There are no distractions, no students to deal with. But the crazy thing is that everyone’s research output gets noticeably worse after switching to the IAS. The environment is too smooth. They have too much time to focus on their research.
  
  My current book project is cringy as fuck. Working title “Winner Traits”. My goal is to write the self-help book I always wanted to read. It’s all about the tiny mental recipes that make all the difference between winning and losing on a daily basis.
  
  I’m perfectly aware of how cringy this sounds. At the same time I don’t really care. (Obviously I do care a bit becaue otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this.)
  
  But firstly, I’m writing primarily for myself. I’m writing to understand topics more deeply and see them in a clearer light. It’s the perfect way to bring order to the chaos caused by reading thousands of tweets, listening to dozens of podcasts, and watching hundreds of TikToks giving contradictory advice.
  
  Secondly, my cringy writing is usually the one that resonates the most. I know I’m onto something, when I’m afraid to share something but at the same time have no doubts that what I’m writing is helpful, since I find it helpful myself.
  
  A final note: The “Play Permissionless” book project I talked about a while ago will first become a chapter in this book. Later I might expand this chapter into another book.

Okay that’s all for today.

Talk soon,
Jakob