The 7 Laws of Scaling with Jim Huffman

Listen to today’s episode about how Paul Graham, Y-combinator Founder, gives advice on how to come up with startup ideas.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

• The blog post How to Get Startup Ideas by Paul Graham
• What makes Paul Graham impressive
• Main takeaways from the blog post
• Organic vs recipe startup generation
• Best quotes from the blog post
• Some of the best points from the post
• Disagreements with the blog post
• Why this read is iconic
• Who should read this blog post and why

Resources:

• How to Get Startup Ideas
• Jim Huffman website
• Jim's Twitter
• GrowthHit
• The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Today, we're sharing financials.  From losing $400k in 48 hours to hitting $2M in sales, I bring my business partner on to talk about the lessons learned growing our agency. Plus, hear how we met and become partners - it's not the traditional story.

Here are some of the lessons learned running the agency:

• Niche Down in Your Focus
• Focus on Systems and Onboarding
• Value Based Pricing 
• Invest in a premium website if you charge premium prices
• Culture is Everything

Resources:

• Losing $400k in 48 hours
• Jim Huffman website
• Jim's Twitter
• GrowthHit
• The Growth Marketer's Playbook

In today’s podcast episode, you’ll hear from Ben Wilson, who has his own podcast: How to Take Over the World. Listen in to hear about the energy, charisma, and common traits of people like Jobs, Edison, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

• How Ben came up with the name and concept of his podcast
• Traits you need to have to take over the world
• The energy of the people who are the best in their fields
• How to maximize where energy goes
• The function of charisma
• What it means to be half-insider half-outsider
• An unexpected common trait among leaders
• Half-baked startup ideas that Ben has
• The nicest thing someone has done for Ben in his professional career

Resources:

• How to Take Over the World
• Jim Huffman website
• Jim's Twitter
• GrowthHit
• The Growth Marketer's Playbook

In today’s episode, we discuss an iconic blog post from Nathan Barry -  The Ladders of Wealth Creation: a Step-by-Step Roadmap to Building Wealth. 

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

• Who Nathan Barry and his path to creating ConvertKit
• The main takeaways from the blog post
• What is the Ladder of Wealth Creation
• How building wealth as a skill
• Investing your time in wealth creation or wealth creation skills
• Why SAAS companies should have their own ladder
• Disagreements with the author’s work
• Why this is an iconic read
• Who should read this blog post and when

Resources:

• The Ladders of Wealth Creation: a Step-by-Step Roadmap to Building Wealth
• Jim Huffman website
• Jim's Twitter
• GrowthHit
• The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Nathan Barry is the CEO of ConvertKit, an email service provider that's gone from idea to $30M in ARR with zero funding.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

• Nathan’s explains his framework: Ladders of Wealth Creation
• Should you start something yourself or acquire a business
• Why you should focus on a small niche when competing against a powerful incumbent
• How he has grown ConvertKit from idea to $30M ARR
• How he approaches capital allocation and leverage as a bootstrapped owner
• How to attract talented people when you have less money to offer
• What aged well and what didn't with Nathan's book Authority 

Resources:

• Nathan Barry
• ConvertKit
• Authority 
• Jim Huffman website
• Jim's Twitter
• GrowthHit
• The Growth Marketer's Playbook

In today’s episode, Miguel Fernandez talks about Capchase and how he was able to raise over $280M.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

• What problem Miguel wanted to solve with Capchase and why
• What the people who borrow from Capchase use the money for
• Advice for bootstrap founders that are worried about raising money
• How Miguel approached growing at such a large scale so quickly
• What makes Miguel good at sales
• Miguel’s half-baked startup ideas
• The nicest thing anyone has done for Miguel in his professional career

Resources:

• Miguel Fernandez
• Capchase
• Jim Huffman website
• Jim's Twitter
• GrowthHit
• The Growth Marketer's Playbook

In today’s conversation, we talk about with Charles Myslinsky about how to choose the right path to go down, whether the windfall from Wal-Mart changed his life, and what changes so that the timing of a project goes from wrong to right.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

• The right path to go down when it comes to ventures that could be rocket ships
• Whether the windfall from the Wal-Mart sale was life-changing
• Lessons learned from working with Marc Lore
• His half-baked startup ideas
• How to define product and what Charles’s job title means
• How the CEO of Ojo decided he wanted the company to be product-led
• Where Ojo is going
• The nicest thing anyone has done for Charles in his professional career

Resources:

• Charles Myslinsky
• Ojo
• Jim Huffman website
• Jim's Twitter
• GrowthHit
• The Growth Marketer's Playbook

In today’s episode, you’ll hear from David C. Baker, author of The Business of Expertise. Listen to learn about the tactics that can help you stay in the category of a thought leader or a decision-maker, the mistakes people make when positioning an agency, and how you should be thinking about pricing for your agency.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

• The difference between being a decision-maker and an order-taker
• Tactics to stay in the category of a thought leader or decision-maker
• Mistakes in positioning an agency
• Examples of how people starting today should focus their positioning
• Why you should start with strategy and not execution
• How you should price your services as an agency
• A good margin for an agency
• The right size for an agency and the return for selling an agency
• How someone who wants to be a thought leader should think about content
• David's half-baked startup ideas

Resources:

• David C. Baker
• The Business of Expertise
• 2Bobs
• Jim Huffman website
• Jim's Twitter
• GrowthHit
• The Growth Marketer's Playbook

Can you be a leader and be lazy with your time and personal contribution to the workplace? Today’s episode is about an iconic read, in this case, a blog post by Andrew Wilkinson. In the post Lazy Leadership, he discusses delegation, building a machine, and working smarter instead of harder. Listen to the episode for a discussion about the blog post including the overall messages of the post, the best quotes from the post, and who needs to read this post the most. 

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

• What “Iconic Reads” is all about
• Who is Andrew Wilkinson?
• What does “Lazy Leadership” mean and the main takeaways
• Best quotes from the blog post
• What we agree and disagree with about this blog post
• Why this is an iconic read
• Who should read this blog post?

Resources:

• Lazy Leadership by Andrew Wilkinson
• Andrew Wilkinson
• Jim Huffman website
• Jim's Twitter
• GrowthHit
• The Growth Marketer's Playbook

What are the four types of leverage? How can you use them to grow a business or grow your career? Today’s guest is Eric Jorgenson,author of the book The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness. Listen to the episode to hear what Eric has to say about working with Naval, understanding and using the different types of leverage, and where to get started with a new idea.

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

• How Eric’s book with Naval came to be
• The 4 different types of leverage
• Where to get started with leverage as a business owner
• Eric’s half-baked ideas
• The nicest thing anyone has done for Eric in his career
• Where to find Eric

Resources:

• Eric Jorgenson
• The Almanack of Naval
• Jim Huffman website
• Jim's Twitter
• GrowthHit
• The Growth Marketer's Playbook