[Reading Time: 3 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

We are in an attention war. 

Every desire requires attention. From the workplace to personal relationships, you need attention to achieve your goals. 

If you want your writing to get read, speak visually. 

2 Un-ignorable Stats:

1. 65% of humans are visual learners. 

2. Humans process visuals 60,000x faster than text. 

Attract with visuals. 
Retain with words. 

To gain attention, you must be interesting. 
To keep attention, you must be concise. 

Pair words with visuals.

I create all my visuals in Figma. I leverage text, diagrams, unique fonts to grab attention and add context. 

I will sketch images too. This feels personal and a look behind the scenes (and helps with clarity).

“But I can’t design at all…”
That’s an easy excuse.

I am not a designer. I am self-taught through iteration.

It doesn’t have to be 100% original. This could be as simple as adding font over images, creating mood boards, video commentary, or voice over storytelling. Add your flair to it.

As you publish, you might uncover your unique style and become a category of 1. 

To stand out, your writing needs to:

Hook your reader’s attention with visuals.
Stop the scroll. The algorithms support images (that never hurts).

Study your own behavior. What gets you to stop and read something? 
Likely, it’s a visual aid paired with a compelling hook. 

You have goals. 
You need attention. 
Visuals will help get you there. 

I’ll see you out there. 

CURATED VIBES

A safe space for premium vibes. The best People / Places / Things:

→ 5 undeniable truths from Steve Jobs
Jeff Bezos breaks down his perfect meeting. It sounds quite nice.
[Read]

→ Send more handwritten letters.
Take the time to be thoughtful. You will stand out.
[Read]

→ Build a brand by making your customer a hero
Storytelling builds brands and value.
[See]

→ Document, don’t create.
More documentation, More creation, More distribution.
[See] & [Read]

If you enjoyed this, share it with a couple friends. You’ll look cool and it helps spread the word.

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

• Would you like 1 hour expert workshops to DO more? Click here.

[Reading Time: 4 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

I’m fixing my phone addiction.

Ever since I stumbled upon George Mack’s Cocaine & Kale smartphone post, I have been fascinated with fixing my relationship with my phone.

The concept is simple.

• Kale Phone - Full stack serotonin. Only notes, Kindle, Uber, Maps, and emergency number for 2-3 people to call.

• Cocaine Phone - Full stack dopamine. Twitter. Instagram. TikTok. WhatsApp. Anyone can contact.

I’ve tried all the hacks, 2 phones, light phone, screen time restrictions, hiding my phone in the other room… they all had their issues. Most of the hacks aren’t practical, which makes compliance hard. The cocaine phone always wins.

Smart phones are a powerful tool to have in your pocket. With great power comes great responsibility… phones find a way to take their power and erode our attention.

Turn your phone into a brick

This little device has changed the game for me. (and could change yours too)

This is the brick.

A physical device that temporarily removes distracting apps (and their notifications) from your phone - leaving only the features you choose.

The device is a magnetic, 3-D printed ‘brick’ that allows you to set up different modes to turn your phone into a brick based on different life situations.

It comes with an app that allows you to set up different modes. Switching modes is as easy as a tap.

That’s why it works. You have to physically walk to your brick to unbrick your phone.

I have set up 3 modes.

1. Cocaine Mode - completely unbricked. Everything is active.

2. Work Mode - only apps available that I use for work. Slack, Email, etc.

3. Kale Mode - only the essentials. Text, phone, maps, notes, kindle, wallet.

You can set up as many different modes as you’d like.

Check out a demo video here. Subscribe if you like :)

Why the brick works?

Isn’t this just the same as setting time restrictions on your apps?
Cmon. You know you ignore those every time they pop up. *hits ignore for 15 mins

The brick doesn’t give you a bypass. It turns your phone into a brick.

The only way to ‘unbrick’ is to walk to your fridge (that’s where I keep mine) to unlock it.

This physical barrier creates friction.

Is checking instagram really worth stopping what you are doing, getting up, walking to your fridge and unbricking your phone? Nope.

This turns meaningless phone pickups into a burden. Exactly what you need.

The brick is moving me from URL to IRL.

h/t Greg Isenberg

If you want to get a brick, grab yours here.

If you want a discount code, I have one for you.
Use Code: JORDANBRICK to save 10% off your order.

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→ Skiing in Switzerland vs Colorado
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→ Crafting beautiful presentations in Figma
Level up your presentations from traditional presentation tools with Figma
[See]

→ Jimmy John’s Founding Story
Theo Von interviews the founder of Jimmy John’s. This story is a delight to listen to. Bread Serendipity, Start-up cash, Ups and Downs. Jimmy John’s hasn’t always been freaky fast.
[Watch]

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

[Reading Time: 2 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

This is a secret weapon to selling.

The “Got Got” Swipe file.

What is a “got got” swipe file?

It’s a collection of posts, tweets, sales pages that converted you to enter your email, save, share or buy. How you got got. It’s essentially a personal collection of compelling content that persuaded you to take an action.

Why?
The best way to learn how to sell is to study how you got sold.

Understanding psychology, motivation and persuasion is key to effective sales and marketing. This allows you to study what converts you over time.

Everything is a purchase. Some purchase with time, some with attention, others with email, and the best with dollars.

How to create your Got Got Swipe file:

1. Download MyMind - allows you to quickly save and tag #gotgot to anything you see on the internet.

2. Anytime you see something, enter your email or purchase, save the page that called you to action with a #gotgot tag

3. Reference the file anytime you want to study selling or are about to sell something yourself.

With 2 clicks, you create your own treasure chest.

In the words of the legend, Marshawn Lynch… “I know I'm gone get got, but I'm gone get mine more than I get got though”

The “Got Got” swipe file is me getting mine as I get got.

They get my email. I get their funnel. Fair trade.

Go out and get got.

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→ What if… Figma X Adobe
Combining the power of Figma and Adobe Suite could be wild.. if done tastefully.
[Watch]

→ This guy loves his job
Passion in work is beautiful.
[Watch]

→ Studying the past (feat: Jordan O’Connor)
The beauty in 100 year old engineering and physics books.
[See]

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

[Reading Time: 8 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

Over the years, I’ve had hundreds of ideas that I have wanted to put into the world.

I get an idea for a concept, framework, business, etc.
I get excited.
Start planning.
“Oh this is going to be sweet”
“What should I call it?”
“How should I frame it?”
“Should I publish under my name or a project name?”
“What is the branding going to be?”

Each unanswered question created enough space for doubt to creep into the inspirations to delay its creation. Every question I would ask myself allowed me to believe in the idea less. “this is pointless, it’s not going to work”

This held me back tremendously.

1,000 little decisions prevented me from turning inspiration into reality. My precious ideas left to collect dust in a notebook.

This concept has been one of my biggest unlocks.

Building a brand filter.

What is a brand filter?

A brand filter is a consistent place, voice, and look to filter your ideas through. The process filters ideas through to formalize concepts to find what resonates, turning ideas into concrete concepts.

The filter is simple. Your ideas pass through a consistent brand.

Brand filter outcomes:
1. Attract Like-minded people
2. Build a reputation
3. Build equity

Brand Filter vs Personal Brand

It is a kin to a ‘personal brand’ and can be viewed this way, if you’d like. There is a key difference though (where a lot of the value lives). Your personal brand is detached from the brand filter.

If successful, your brand filter will become bigger (and different) than your personal brand. Audience can resonate with the brand filter without your name being attached to it. Your personal brand can evolve with you.

It’s best to think of a brand filter adjacent to your personal brand. Almost like an outer shell. People buy into people more than faceless brands. Leverage your face to grow the project.

Benefits of a brand filter:

Your brand filter can be an extension of you and can create more optionality in the long-run. It can house multiple projects, evolve outside of your personal interests, capture a more significant audience, and most importantly, build enterprise value.

It comes down to the consistency and ability to produce ideas that people enjoy consuming time and time again. This attracts like-minds, builds reputations, and creates equity.

The best part: your brand filter will grow your personal brand in parallel.

How to build your brand filter:

Ask yourself these 3 questions:

1. Niche - what is your goal for doing this? Who is the target audience? What do you want them to achieve?

2. Brand - Pick consistent colors, brand, voice, and name. This matters a lot. Your audience needs to resonate with it.

3. Long-term ethos - This is your place to publish. It needs to have staying power, evolve with you and a brand that can house multiple projects as it grows and evolves.

There is no exact prescription for how to build a brand filter. It will vary case by case with nuances for your situation. The goal is to create a consistent home for you to publish and test your ideas.

Here’s how I built mine.

Dowithin as a brand filter

Dowithin is my brand filter. The very idea you are reading is passing through the filter. Meta, right?

Dowithin was created after I built my last company. An agency that gave me no agency. I wanted to work with cool people on cool stuff in dope places. I have a ton of interest and hobbies. When I would publish ideas, there was no through line, no consistency. It was a bunch of puzzle pieces that didn’t fit together.

The consistency brand filter was missing.

Dowithin is broad enough to encompass many of those, while focused enough on adding value to others.

People don’t care about what you can do. They care about what you can do for them.

How Dowithin came to life:

Let’s go behind the creation of the brand.

The name:
I had tons of name ideas. Imaginary walls, noticed nauce, out of office… none of those conveyed what the ideas I wanted to explore. I kept returning to do cool stuff with cool people. So I smashed the words together to create Dowithin.

A good name creates immense value. Spend time on a name that can store equity.

The brand:
I studied Mechanical Engineering. Through founding 2 companies, I thought I was engineering my life for optionality and freedom. I wasn’t… I wanted to bend reality and engineer my life.

Pulling from my background, the colors and design elements come from engineering paper.

The logo:
Through several iterations, the logo came out beautifully and had unintentional embedded meaning. I wanted an icon that fit the word. I am thrilled with the outcome.

I had a friend ask “What's the reason you want a brand name? Why not purely your personal name as a brand?”

My answer:
If successful, Dowithin will transcend me as a personal brand and we will evolve separately as time goes on.

Jordan’s interests: 
→ Connecting with others on their passions
→ Family & Friends
→ Business
→ Basketball
→ Sneakers
→ Art
→ Living life on your own terms

Dowithin:
→ Insights to use your skills to create optionality online.

I can sprinkle in my personality into Dowithin, but personal brands are about you. Brand filters are about what you can do for others.

You want to create a recognizable brand that is attached to your project. Audience starts to resonate and recognize the brand in the wild.

This is what success looks like.

As mentioned earlier, a brand filter will help you grow your project and personal brand simultaneously. Audience can opt out of you, but likely will not opt out of your project brand.

Grow both, together.

I am speaking from my personal experience from using this concept. I am seeing the most consistent traction I’ve ever seen.

I made a few decisions that eliminate 1,000 decisions each time I go to publish an idea. I no longer need to create a name, brand, social accounts, etc. Dowithin is there as a filter to force ideas through.

It’s incredibly freeing.

You won’t regret it.

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→ A few laws of getting rich by Morgan Housel
9 “Laws” of unanticipated outcomes of getting rich
[Read]

→ Play Permission-less.
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[Watch]

→ Brand to watch: Maverick Hat Co
Unbranded Collection by Maverick Hat Co. Premium Vibes.
[See]

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

[Reading Time: 2 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

I was drafting a new piece for this week. It was coming together. I was getting excited.

Then I stopped…

It was 67° outside. Crisp air.

I closed my laptop.

Time to touch grass.

Don’t forget to go offline. You’ll come back revitalized.

Go IRL more.

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→ 12 books to read
The look of a well-worn book cover never gets old.
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→ People invest in you, your story and you momentum.
Focus on these more than your product/service.
[Watch]

→ A week’s worth of content production in 2 hours (feat: Cody Schneider)
Simple system for leveraging AI to create a week’s worth of content.
[Do]

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

[Reading Time: 4 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

I made a mistake.

For years, I have written all my ideas in my notebook. Published for only my eyes.

This led to several issues:
- No one saw my ideas
- No feedback, no idea evolution
- No clarity (and worse: foggy head)

Your notebook is a 1-way street.
The internet is a 2-way street.

Benefits of Publishing

1. Feedback: 
Publish. Listen. Refine. Repeat.

See what resonates. The feedback will give you more ideas.

2. Clarity:
Thoughts evolve. Publishing accelerates clarity.

You’ll recognize patterns and will get to know yourself better.

3. Accountability:
People are watching. Put yourself on the hook.

Sign yourself up for a weekly newsletter or thread.

4. Connect:
Attract like-minded people. Make Friends. Meet collaborators.
When you publish, you open up opportunities to attract and collaborate with like-minded people.

Use a magnet, Not a magnifying glass

5. Body of work:
Build a portfolio. One piece at a time.

Over time, this can lead to opportunities, recognitions, or just personal satisfaction. You will see yourself grow

How to start publishing

1. Pick a medium: It can be a newsletter like this or a social feed. It doesn’t even need to be on your own feed. Publish your ideas in the comments section to start.
2. Choose a topic(s): Where can you add value with your unique voice and experience.
3. Start publishing: Get started and iterate over time. You’re work will only be seen by a few people, but you might change 1 person’s perspective.

Don’t worry about rejection or what others might think. If you need to, start on a platform where you don’t know anyone like reddit.

Having your ideas rejected and challenged is evolution. It is critical to growth.

Time to publish.

Thank me later.

CURATED VIBES

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→ The Loneliness Economy (feat: Hugo Amsellem)
Technology facilitated modern loneliness. Can it fix it too?
[See]

→ Textbook playbook for launching a new product.
This newsletter launch is a mini-masterclass for how to launch your side hustle.
[Learn]

→ Make your house look 75% better (feat: Hans Lorei)
Interior design matters. Learn the rules from one of the best.
[Learn]

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

[Reading Time: 6 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

I’ve invested $5,000+ in online courses over the last 3 years.

Not all have been worth it…

There are 4 of them have been worth 10x the admission price.

The learnings from these 4 courses triggered a complete paradigm shift for how I think and build businesses.

These are my Mt. Rushmore of courses, what you’ll learn, the outcomes, why you’ll love them too and why this combination is the modern MBA.

Mt. Rushmore of Courses

1. Visualize Value Training Bundle by Jack Butcher

The training bundle consist of two courses:

1. How to Visualize Value - teaches you how to turn your ideas into high-impact, unforgettable visuals that cut through the noise of the newsfeed.

2. Build Once, Sell Twice - shows how to package your expertise into digital products that work without you, to scale your influence, impact and income.

Price: $149

Outcome: By mastering the art of visualizing value, you're not just making things pretty; you're effectively communicating a complex idea in a simple and persuasive manner. This means you get to be noticed in an oversaturated market.

With build once, sell twice, you transform your business model. Instead of trading your hours for money, you're investing time upfront to create a product that can be sold over and over again.

Transformation: When I took this course, I was running an agency. I shifted our offerings completely from time-based proposals to value-based projects. Profit margins went from 50% to 70% overnight. The best part: Customers were happier.

Why you’ll love it: Learn how to speak visually and how to package your expertise into products that divorce time and money.

Bonus: Jack is a course artisan. As you make your way through the course. You will learn how a good async learning is structured and how to design hen you first start on a new endeavor, you start with a basic tool: your labor.

2. Community Empire by Greg Isenberg

The internet has changed the way businesses can be built. Creating an online empire requires a blend of audience, community and monetization strategies. Community Empire is a course and community membership that pairs all of these elements:

1. ACP Framework Course - teaches you how to find a niche, underserved audience, build a community and create products they want.

2. Monetize your empire Course - learn how turn your audience into dollars with paid communities and products.

3. Community - work alongside other internet business builders.

4. Free Skool Software ($99/mo value)- Skool is a premium place to build community and host courses. This is worth the price alone.

Price: $99/mo membership

Outcome: Get the playbook for creating internet businesses from audience to products.

Transformation: Audiences build influence. Communities build empires. This course is new, but the lessons and members have rewired my thinking for building internet businesses.

Dowithin Skool Soon? I think so.

Why you’ll love it: Actionable playbook for how to monetize your audience with community. The power of connecting your customers together cannot be understated. This is the modern business cookbook.

3. Power Writing by Shaan Puri

Become 2x better at writing in 8 days. This is less of a cohort-based course and more of a 2 week concert. Shaan teaches the techniques and templates for writing killer emails, blog posts, and landing pages with the showmanship of a performer. Power Writing lessons:

1. Cold Emails that actually work

2. Landing pages that convert

3. Secrets to going viral

4. Pitching your brand without stumbling

5. Write banger headlines

6. Writing internal memos like Jeff Bezos.

Price: $950

Outcome: The world revolves around writing. Actionable lessons that you can start implementing immediately.

Transformation: My writing lacked a punch. Power Writing made it concise and clear. More cold emails were answered, more replies to cold DMs, more business opportunities.

Why you’ll love it: The lessons are entertaining. You don’t feel like you are in a course, you feel like you are watching a performance.

4. The ContentOS by Justin Welsh

Build a content system. ContentOS is a practical system for turning 1 piece of content into dozens. ContentOS has simple techniques for:

1. Creating a content production system

2. Build a system to create multiple pieces of content daily.

3. Creating an inspiration file

4. Build templates to accelerate growth

Price: $150

Outcome: Stop overthinking content. Start publishing more in less time and work.

Transformation: I would spend hours on 1 big piece of content with little repurposing. All my effort was going into this 1 piece, but I was leaving a lot of on the table by not repurposing on other channels. ContentOS gave me the insights to set up a system to create newsletters, tweets and templates.

Why you’ll love it: It’s 55 minutes long, cutting straight to the value. You can get through the content and start implementing within 3 hours.

The Modern MBA

I consider this lineup of courses the modern MBA.

The modern MBA costs $1,349.

The average MBA costs $61,800. 45x more than the modern MBA.

Why this course stack is the Modern MBA?

It’s the combination of skills required to build an online business.

This package arms you to sell with words and visuals, create systems for production, package your experience into compelling offerings - all powered by audience and community.

It’s a great time to build.

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→ The Dad Billionaire
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[See]

→ Low Vibes? Get your lighting right.
9 home lighting rules to create zen
[Learn]

→ MrBeast’s Subscribers every year on his birthday
Keep going. [Data]

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

[Reading Time: 2 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

Imagine labor as the kinetic force you exert to turn the gears of life. It's the grunt work, the sweat equity, and the muscle behind every task.

What if raw labor could evolve into something more powerful?

The Progress Lever Arm

When you first start on a new endeavor, you start with a basic tool: your labor.

Picture this tool as a wrench.
The job: loosen a stubborn bolt.

Initially, the wrench feels inadequate, offering no more than your bare hands. It's laborious work. There's no torque, no momentum. You're basically wrestling with the bolt.

What if instead of wrestling the bolt over and over, you found a way to extend the wrench’s lever arm?

The longer the wrench, the less force you need to apply. The bolt starts turning.

This turns your labor into leverage. This is progress.

Leverage Works For You

The key is to invest in work that becomes self-perpetuating. The work starts to work for you.

Make your initial labor count by focusing on projects that not only solve the immediate problem but also arm you with tools for future tasks.

You have 2 choices:
You can struggle with the same ineffective tool (your labor) or you can do the work to make enhance your tools to make the work easier.

Some examples:

• Job Hunting?: Skip the one-off resume. Build a public portfolio that not only impresses your next employer but also magnetizes freelance opportunities. It's a living example of your experience that evolves with you.

• Selling new clients?: Don't just pitch. Record workshops that show your product or service in action. This content not only educates but also serves as evergreen marketing material.

• User Onboarding?: Scrap the complex manuals. Design a frictionless self-guided implementation that empowers your users, turning them into evangelists for your product..

The Leverage Equation

Converting labor to leverage is not accidental - it’s intentional. It takes foresight, planning and focus on doing work that continues to work for you. The goal is to amplify your capacity.

The equation is simple: Intentional Labor * Time = Exponential leverage.

Leverage is power.

What is your job to be done?
How can you turn labor into leverage?

CURATED VIBES

A safe space for premium vibes. The best People / Places / Things from the week:

→ The Sponge Pop Filter Studio Mic Hack 
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[See]

→ Collaborate to Climb (ft. Jared Robin)
Competition is overrated. Collaboration is under-utilized. Collaborate with others in your space to make 1 + 1 = 100.
[Learn]

→ The Power of a Name: Don’t judge a book by its cover is terrible advice, design a better book cover
George Mack was featured on CNBC for his Cocaine vs Kale phone concept. The only reason: the name.
A catchy, memorable name is everything. Listen to an clip discussing this concept from NIA Podcast.
[Listen]

→ Brand to Watch: Concrete Greens
Sweet lifestyle golf brand focused on city golf.
[See]

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

[Reading Time: 2 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

We spend our childhood figuring out how to fit in.
We spend the rest of our lives figuring out how to stand out.

In efforts to conform, we are left empty, confused and lacking identity. We trade our true selves for comfort.

The answer is to optimize for being known well instead of being well known.

What’s the difference between well-known and known well?

Well-Known: Many people know of you
Known well: People know who you are (interest, desires, fears, traits)

Well-known: “aren’t you that guy from _____”,
Known well: “I saw this and thought of you.. I know you’d love it”

Well-known is surface, known well is depth.

Being known-well is 10x better than being well known.

Known-well brings you opportunities, new ideas, funny videos, new connections, friends, places to visit, food to eat. Things and people you want in your life will gravitate to you.

It’s a life cheat code. Share your interests openly. The right people will take notice and come into your orbit.

How to become known-well:

1. Get cozy being uncomfortable. You can’t be know if you don’t put yourself out there.

2. Share your ideas with family and friends. The more you share, the more known you’ll be.

3. Publish your thoughts. Write, vlog, podcast - interests to attract your people.

The results: Others will know you. You will know yourself.

CURATED VIBES

A safe space for premium vibes. The best People / Places / Things from the week:

→ Behind the Scenes of a Podcast Setup (ft. Lenny Rachitsky)
See what goes into an elite podcast gear stack
[See]

→ Creative Tension to start and scale businesses (ft. Jesse Pujji)
A mental framework with two components: Desired future state (DFS) & current reality (CR)
[Learn]

→ Show me a golf picture that rivals this one?
A thread of beautiful courses curated by golfers. Some of these courses joined my bucket list.
[See]

→ Content to SaaS: Story of StanStore
John Hu was a content creator on TikTok. He built a product he needed. His company just crossed $5M ARR.
[Learn]

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

Bec

[Reading Time: 4 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

We are talking about tools I use every single day and how I use them.

Tools so good I take them for granted. These aren’t complex productivity systems.

Just damn good tools.

1. Figma

Figma is my visual journal. I use it for everything. From brainstorms, visuals, presentations, mood boards to planning home renovation projects.

Figma is versatile, easy to learn and collaborative.

Plan: $12/mo
I used Figma for free for years. I just converted to the paid plan for collaborations and project files.

Workflow Tip:
FigJam on iPad & Desktop: I put my iPad Pro with Apple Pencil on my desk with the same FigJam on my desktop. I can seamlessly switch from typing to drawing in the same document, which is ideal for ideation.

2. CleanShot X

I use CleanShot 10+ times a day. It is the ultimate screen capturing tool. It’s 50 tools in one. I used it for many of the visuals while writing this.

My favorite features are record screen as a gif, scrolling capture, record a talking head video, quick annotations.

Plan: $29 One-time payment

Workflow Tip:
You can set your screenshot destination so your desktop does not become a screenshot graveyard. Automatically add screenshot to your clipboard for rapid sharing.

CleanShot makes my life easier.

3. MyMind

MyMind is my second brain. When I see, read, or hear something online, I add it to MyMind.

MyMind is beautifully designed with a seamless Chrome Extension and Mobile app that make saving and organizing a second nature. I have tried to set up second brain systems in Apple Notes, Notion, Evernote… failed every single time. Those systems aren’t dynamic and become out of sync without routine maintenance.

MyMind eliminates that. I tell everyone I know about MyMind, so I am telling you too.

Plan: Free

Workflow Tip:
Set up a tagging system and smart spaces for easy discovery of your past thoughts.

4. Snipd

Snipd is the podcast player I didn’t know I needed. I used to take a screenshot of my podcast player to record important time stamps. It was a disaster.

With Snipd, I can quickly capture small segments of podcasts to save or share. Stop sending friends 2 hour podcasts links. Send them snips. They’ll love you (and actually listen to it)

It’s a game-changer for me.

Plan: Free

Workflow Tip:
Use Snipd + MyMind to automatically save podcast notes on the go in under 1 minute. This is my single favorite workflow.

See Snipd + MyMind in action

5. ToteBook Journal

I love analog, especially in an overwhelmingly digital world.
ToteBook by StudioNeat + Sharpie Pens are the best analog combo in the game.

ToteBook comes in 2 sizes with a smooth soft back cover, dot grid, and spine stickers. The paper is soft-white wood-free 100 GSM and a dream to write on.

The lay-flat binding is underrated.

I buy Totebooks in bulk.

Price: $10/journal

Workflow Tip:
Journal often. Write out your thoughts.

If you have any questions about how I use these tools, shoot me a reply. If you want more in-depth workflow walk-throughs, let me know.

CURATED VIBES

A safe space for premium vibes. The best People / Places / Things from the week:

→ Brand to Watch: Carte Blanche
Carte Blanche turns 1 year old. Exhibit 009 “Greatest hits” launches Aug 29th. The aesthetic, ethos, and mission are dialed.
Doers: Adam Wilbanks & Louis Leidenfrost
Where: Atlanta
[Watch]

→ How to start an audience from scratch (ft. Eric Siu )
The playbook to unlock discoverability and get eyeballs.
“Create content that you genuinely enjoy creating and you will become good overtime. Guaranteed.”
[Learn]

→ The Boring Business Stack
Criteria for the perfect ‘boring’ business. Boring businesses are the future.
[Read]

→ Vanguard Cash Plus Account: 4.70% Savings Account
Make cash work for you. Starting at 4.70% APY. $0 Fees. This is a pilot offer. Worth keeping an eye on.
[Save]

→ Printing Money selling Dad Hats: Simple Ad, Big Cash
A simple ad, made on Canva, makes money. Show the product, Tell who its for. Profit.
Doer: Bart
Where: Seattle
[Print]

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

[Reading Time: 3 minutes]
[Vibing Time: ∞]

How do I find my thing? What’s my niche?

Curiosity Compounds

In a world saturated with possibilities, the power of curiosity is often forgotten. Yet, it’s the compass that guides us to uncharted territories, urging us to explore.

People over complicate the question: How do I find my thing?

It’s the wrong way to approach the question.

Most of the time: your thing finds you.

How your thing finds you:

1.Follow your curiosity

This isn't aimless wandering; it's about purposeful discovery. Every innovation, every masterpiece, has been the offspring of a curious thought, paired with past experience.

Steve Jobs’ said, “You can't connect the dots looking forward... only looking backwards." What he hinted at was the unpredictable nature of life.

Curiosity is our tool to gather these dots. While we might not know how they'll connect in the future, they invariably do.

Imagine life as an expansive store, each aisle filled with a endless choices and you have limited resources (time). You're window shopping, researching, evaluating, soaking in the essence, and exploring the potential of each idea. You can only buy one thing.

Window shop life with curiosity.

2. Get Focused

The digital age presents us with endless information, an overload. Without focus, we're merely skimming the surface, jumping from one shiny object to the next.

Curiosity uncovers hidden gems. Focus polishes them.

Once curiosity has led to a gem - your thing - stop being curious. Put blinders on and focus. Put constraints around the area of focus and watch your results soar.

3. The Delicate Balance

There's a thin line between curiosity and distraction. Curiosity and focus aren't opposing forces. They're two sides of the same coin.

Without curiosity, you won’t know what to focus on. Without focus, your curiosity never compounds value.

In the dance of discovery and dedication, remember: Curiosity finds, but focus refines.

Get curious, get started, get consistent

This is how to connect the dots and compound learnings. Curiosity to find your thing, focus to compound your thing.

It’s an iterative balance. This is the simple recipe.

At the end of the day, you are your niche.

CURATED VIBES

A safe space for premium vibes. The best People / Places / Things from the week:

→ Garage Studio Tour (ft. Roberto Nickson)
A must see workspace set-up and next level gear list.
[Watch]

→ Ads that work (ft. Ad professor)
The best way to learn how to sell is to study how you got sold.
[Learn]

→ Short-form video templates without your content being cut off
You do all the work, make sure your audience see your work in all its beauty.
[Download]

→ How-to Guide: How to add Profile links to you 𝕏 Bio
𝕏 is your digital front door. Don’t miss the opportunity to show off your beautiful paintings & furniture to welcome your guests. It’ll help you convert.
[Download]

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

How to become an overnight success?
Work for 10 years

This is 10 years in 10 seconds.
Each dot is 1 day.

This is 10 years in 10 seconds

It doesn’t look like it, but it is.

Jeff Bezos has a famous quote: “It takes 10 years to build an overnight success”

Overnight success stories captivate us. Deep down, we know it's not all magic, but every time a success story hits, we're like, "they just exploded overnight."

Some of the best built over 10 years… or more.

Some Examples:

James Dyson: Founder of Dyson Corporation [15 years]

He build 5,127 prototype iterations before getting it right.

• 1970: Dyson becomes frustrated with the performance of his vacuum cleaner and begins to experiment with alternative designs.

• 1978: Dyson builds his first prototype vacuum cleaner, which uses a cyclone to separate dust from the air.

• 1986: Dyson's first vacuum cleaner, the G-Force, is released in Japan.

Walt Disney: Founder of Disney [32 years]

He was obsessed with animation and make it his life goal.

• 1923: Disney moves to Hollywood with his brother Roy to start their own animation company, the Disney Brothers Studio.

• 1941: The Disney Brothers Studio goes bankrupt due to financial difficulties during World War II.

• 1955: Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.

Soichiro Honda: Founder of Honda Motor Company [22 years]

His first company manufactured piston rings for Toyota. It failed because of quality issues.

• 1937: Starts Tokai Seiki, a company that manufactures piston rings.

• 1946: Honda Motor Company is founded.

• 1959: Honda introduces the Super Cub, which becomes the best-selling motorcycle in history.

JK Rowling: Author of Harry Potter [7 years]

She was famously rejected by 12 different publishers before getting signed.

• 1990: Rowling begins writing the first Harry Potter book while she is a single mom, living on welfare.

• 1995: Rowling finishes the first Harry Potter book and sends it to 12 different publishers, all of which reject it.

• 1996: Bloomsbury, a small British publisher, agrees to publish the first Harry Potter book.

• 1997: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is published in the United Kingdom.

The consistent theme: Nothing, nothing, everything.

Nothing, Nothing, Everything

You want to become an overnight success?

Start asking yourself important questions: What does success look like? Are you on the right path? What am I willing to sacrifice?

Map out your end game and work backward from a 10-year plan.

Think in decades, act in days.

Track progress daily, measure results yearly, but define success every ten years.

What day are you on?

Keep going.

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

“Damn. Am I a small boy?”

I muttered under my breath in the grocery store.

My First Million podcast blasting through my airpods in the middle of the coffee aisle. Shaan & Sam riff on “small boy stuff’. Shaan rambles off a quick list of unwritten rules of what makes a small boy.

His voice starts fading into the background…As I evaluate if I was a small boy.

The conclusion? I was…a lil bit.

Truth is: Everyone has some small boy in them.

No one wants to be a small boy. Society makes it easy to small boy. It’s not your fault. It’s natural. It just happens. The goal is to limit it.

To limit, we must define. What is small boy stuff?

What is Small Boy Stuff?

Small Boy Stuff is thinking small or acting immature, not looking at the big picture or stepping up when it matters.

Here’s a guide of Small Boy Stuff:

What is a good playbook without some nuance?

A question from @ChristianDoesUX in this tweet hits the sweets spot. ”What work seems like small boy stuff, but actually packs a punch?

This is no small boy stuff on hard mode.

The fine balance of engaging in tasks seemingly beneath your pay-grade but leaving a thoughtful, meaningful impact.

This is where the winners play.

A guide for meaningful details that look small, but make huge impact:

How to avoid small boy activities:

1. Assess your actions. If they resemble small boy moves, stop it.

2. Embed this blueprint in your routine - print it, pen it, place it on your mirror.

When you find yourself drifting into small boy behavior, this can be your lifeline.

It’s a great time to stop doing small boy stuff and start doing that big boy stuff.

Let’s do.

Jordan

[Listen] to the Clip of Small Boy Stuff from My First Million.

How to get involved:

• Follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

• Enjoyed this? Share a review

If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them. We appreciate referrals to doers.

[Reading Time: 2 minutes]

Over the past decade, I have built 2 companies: a VC-backed startup & grew an agency to 7 figs/year. It was great.

Then, I realized I built my own prison.

Both were a mirage of optionality.

One served investors, one served clients & employees. None served me. I was no longer excited by what I was building. I felt uninspired.

There was something missing.

The entrepreneurial journey celebrates taking risk to gain freedom and independence. “Build your own thing, be your own boss, control your schedule.” These mantras obscure reality. Even with success, you may not end up where you wanted. This came true for me.

So I went back to the drawing board to think about what I actually wanted. After reflecting, the same theme resurfaced: I want to do cool stuff, with cool people, in cool places.

It sounds cliche. It's what we all want: fulfillment, purpose and time with meaningful people. When you think about it, its all that matters.

After 2 years of reflection and learning, I wanted a brand to filter my ideas through and a place to publish. Dowithin was born. (I will tell the story of how the brand came to life soon. Spoiler: it didn’t happen fast)

Dowithin is the journey of building the life you want on your own terms.

There’s no greater freedom than optionality.

The harsh truth is that optionality does not magically appear one day. It must be intentionally engineered into your life.

The process can take years. It looks different for each individual. Each journey is unique. Its starts with self-reflection of your end goals:

• “What do I want my life to look like?”

• “How do I want to spend my days?”

• “Who do I want to spend it with?”

• ”What does ‘freedom’ look like to me?”

• “What do you NOT want?”

Dowithin is a community and tools for engineered living and earning online.

Design intentionally, build leverage and give yourself options.

The best way to build leverage is publishing your ideas online to make a name for yourself.

How?

How to build leverage online?

1. Publish your Ideas

2. Attract like-minded people

3. Create permission-less projects for people you want to work with.

4. Build a valuable network

5. Turn your experience into product leverage.

There are countless “how to make money online” resources. Before you can earn online, you have to find your voice, build a reputation and network, then turn your experience into value.

I followed these steps and everything changed for me.

Outbound became inbound.

Unread DMs turned into calls and consulting opportunities.

All with less than 500 followers.

You can do the same.

I have one regret. Not starting earlier.
When I wanted optionality, I didn’t have it. You need to build up good will to cash in when the time comes.

Why?

In the age of the internet, owning equity in your reputation online is key.

“Personal branding”, finding your unique voice, and understanding the power of publishing is the path of owning your future.

Your online personal brand is the modern-day resume. Don’t wait to start investing in your brand. You may need to leverage it tomorrow.

The goal?

Enhance the quality of your life, enjoy people, earn back your time, and make a long-term investment in your future.

Of course, you can’t do it alone. Nor should you.

I’m glad you are here. Let’s do, together.

Jordan

What to expect:

• Visualized writings and frameworks

• Tools for living and earning online

• Productizing your experience into systems that allow you to work 8 hours and earn for 24 hours a day

How to get involved:

• Subscribe & follow the journey on Twitter

• Join a community of doers

PS. If you know someone who would enjoy this, feel free to share with them.