Why the Best Entrepreneurs Should Give it All Away

***An entrepreneur's recipe for sweet success***

3.5min Read

Email breakdown:

The secret to building a cult like following and ROIs out of this world
3 People doing it REALLY well
HOW they are doing it

There’s a ~~business~~ LIFE hack that almost seems counter intuitive, but those that figure it out; win BIG

Providing unconditional value.

When you’re starting out, it feels like this is the last thing that you should do…

How can you risk giving anything away for free without asking for anything in return??

You’re so deep in the grind you can’t see the forest through the trees

It might feel like you’re just barely scraping by…

That can’t be a good business model… can it?

It sounds crazy, but it’s actually the BEST business model.

And when you realize this, you start to see it being done by THE BEST.

If you don’t read any further, just remember this —> If you provide value without any conditions, your ROI will be bigger than you can ever imagine. Period.

It’s not rocket science and on the surface it seems like this is so obvious; “provide unconditional value and build a following of loyal fans”… but it’s not done as often as you’d think.

Here are a small handful of “Value Providers” all in very different niches so that you can see how they’re doing it and how it might apply to you.

But further, I’m going to cover a few examples of what this actually looks like in real life and who is doing it really well.

SHANNON JEAN

He truly is the 🐐. If you don’t know him, you’re missing out.

Shannon has done a million things over his years as an entrepreneur, including making millions selling watches.

But where Shannon has really set himself apart is in the way that he’s providing SO MUCH value to the entrepreneur community. Shannon recently launched his social media with less than 50 followers, not even 6 months ago. As of today he has close to 30k just on X.

He has done this through connections and providing value.

He has a ton of lessons from his years of building businesses and he simply SHARES THE STORIES.

But he takes it a bit further, and so should you.

Shannon created a Twitter group for $5/ month. Being in the group allows you to ask advice and learn from him as well as hop on a call once a month with him and all the other entrepreneurs in the group.

The $5 isn’t anything other than a proof of concept. He has value to provide and the fact that people are paying the $5 is proof that it can be monetized. This is essentially a “group funnel”.

So what can Shannon do next? Honestly, the possibilities are endless, but here’s my take.

He’s kind of doing this already, but he has set himself up perfectly for high ticket mentorship and coaching. Shannon is awesome in a group form, but he is FIRE one on one. He has an incredible ability to look right into you and (from experience) tell you what you need to hear and what you need to do to level up.

MACK HOLLINS

Mack is a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills. He was drafted in 2017 and has played for 5 teams, including the Bills. But this guy is FAR more than your normal NFL player. He almost operates entirely in a state of providing value. Check out his IG page for a sec.

Each month he goes through a different challenge where he teaches you how to do something. This month is dance moves. Last month was home maintenance.

Why?

Why not!

These are things that he knows how to do and he has a platform to share them.

But let’s dive even further. On his bio is a link to another page specific to Mack sharing books that he reads. He calls it "Mackbookmondays”.

While his main page has 156K followers, this page has a little less than 3000.

This is where it gets cool. That is his hyper niche right there. His true fans.

They followed him on his main page, but ALSO like books enough to follow him on his book page. Whether he meant to or not, he created a social media funnel.

Each week he posts about the books that he’s reading and then once a month he’ll do a book of the month giveaway if you guess the book from the clue he gives. This generates engagement and excitement around a common love for books.

This all might not seem like much, but Mack is building a following of dedicated fans that are passionate about the things that Mack shares.

What can Mack do next?

I say stay in the book niche and lean into it. Start a podcast talking about books with people that you never thought would be talking about books. For example: professional athletes, actors, famous people that you might not expect to read a ton, but they do.

Mack can use the influence and status he has to bring them on and talk about "everything books".

He should pair that with a newsletter to provide more content OR a review of the episodes and key takeaways. He’ll be able to capture emails that way and own that list. Which is important regardless of the direction that you want to take.

DAVID SENRA

Founder of Founders Podcast, David reads biographies on histories greatest and most influential founders and then reviews these books on his podcast.

It seems too simple to be good, but it is INCREDIBLE. Seriously.

He has a unique ability to take the essence of a book and the founder and describe them in such an eloquent and conversational way. It’s like he’s talking right to you as he describes the book.

For a long time, the only methods of monetization he used were Amazon links. He didn’t do any ads, sponsorships, products, courses or anything else. JUST the value packed episode.

But he’s gained a ton of recent popularity. Rightfully so. And now with the following he has, he’s able to take Founders to the next level.

So this is what he’s done. Remember, this all started with JUST a podcast of David reviewing and summarizing biographies on founders.

He partnered with Readwise to create an app of his own called “Founders Notes”. Where people are able to subscribe and see ALL the notes that he takes of the books he reads.
He has started launching high end events specifically for founders. These are elite level networking events held at incredible venues.
He now has a few very strategic sponsors that he talks about prior to an episode. These are not just any sponsor. You can tell that the connections David has with these sponsored companies go deeper than just a paycheck.

So what’s next for David?

Honestly, he’s really hit the nail on the head. It’s obvious that he’s soaked up the lessons from the great founders he reads about, because he has progressively built an incredible following and ecosystem that is focused around a very specific core message and CLEAR value.

It’s easy to sit here and say “you just have to provide value to your followers and it will all work out”… but the truth is, it’s harder than that.

How to do you provide the value? Who do you provide it do? Where do you provide it?

And then, the big question of “how do you capture a percentage of the value you create?”

So here’s my 30 sec breakdown on providing value to your fans even when you can count them on one hand.

Figure out what lights you up. What are you CRAZY passionate about? What do you lay in bed thinking about and wake up wanting to do? Note that.
Decide to something with that passion, because as David Goggins says “passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up.” So do the work. It doesn’t matter if other people have that passion, they’re different people. You are uniquely you.
Iterate. The goal here is ultimately to build a following and/ or a business behind that passion. It won't work keeping it to yourself. Share your passion in ways that feel comfortable until you figure out the right vehicle. Maybe it’s a blog, maybe IG, X, Newsletter, YT. Maybe you run a community, maybe you go door to door… It might take time to figure it out and thats okay.
Lean into that “vehicle” and do everything you can to take care of the passengers that you have. There might only be 5, thats okay! REALLY take care of those 5.
Grow organically as the demand is required and upgrade your vehicle as a cause of that demand. It’s slower, but it keeps you focused on your passengers and the journey, not the destination or the flashy car you’re driving.

If you are just getting started and need that push to start pursuing a passion, let's talk. Sometimes all you need is someone to bounce ideas off of. I might be able to connect you with someone I know in your industry that can REALLY pour fuel on the fire. Your network is your net worth.

Until next time...

Stay in the fight,

My best tweet of the week:

Kevin Bell 🍩

@kevinasrx

This video will teach you how to juggle. Literally.
As entrepreneurs, we aren’t only natural jugglers, but we’re also in the business of skill acquisition.
7 reasons why this is relevant:
🧵
*** link to full 5 min tutorial at the bottom

5:7 AM • Sep 5, 2024

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My favorite tweet of the week:

Ray Petelin

@RayPetelinWx

I interviewed my daughter every first day of school since kindergarten.  The last one is now done, since she is a senior. 🥹. 
Here's how it turned out.