On getting what you want
5000+ words were lost in the making of this newsletter
Heyo!
I hope you are having a wonderful week. I just want to let you guys know that I typed over 5000 words for this week's newsletter, but then lost it all because I forgot to save it.
Friendly reminder: Save your stuff. Frequently.
Anyways, I wanted to extend a special welcome to 6 new subscribers to Austin’s Newsletter! Yall made a great decision last week, and I am not just saying this because it’s my newsletter (okay maybe I am).
If this is this is your first time here, and you haven’t subscribed, join a community of 425 subscribers by clicking that little subscribe now box.
What’s inside
What I accomplished this week that you may or may not care about
How to figure out what you actually want to do with your life
Content I’ve made this week that I think you’d find valuable
Despite losing 5000 words worth of valuable content that I wanted to share with you guys (again, remember to save your stuff), I still cranked out another one! Honestly, I think this one is better anyways.
What I accomplished this week that you may or may not care about
Re-branded my newsletter (obviously you guys got the memo), podcast, and website (it has dark mode)
Started a marketing agency with a very creative name
Spoke with 3 self-storage investors and 1 commercial broker
Built a self-storage investment model
How to get what you want
If you couldn't tell from my last newsletter, I've been doing a lot of reflection. The pandemic has given everyone, including myself, a lot of time to reflect. Like most of you, I've been doing a ton of introspection trying to figure out what I enjoy doing, what I want in life, and how I can get there.
The other day I was reading Sam Altman's tweets and found this one that really resonated with what I am going through right now.
It's broken down into 4 steps:
Figure out what you really want
Learn what it takes to make it happen
Commit to doing what it takes
Stay focused
I read this tweet and was like "wow". It really is that easy. This man really summarized the path to happiness in less than 280 characters. So I thought to myself "beautiful". All I need to do is figure out these four steps.
After an hour of writing and reflecting, I realized this is super hard; as Sam said in the last line of his tweet.
1. Figure out what you really want
I was stuck on this first part, so I started poking around the internet until I came across this video by Mr. Money Moustache; don't laugh this dude is a badass, I'm telling you.
If you have the time, watch the whole video. I watched it on 2x, so I was able to get through it pretty quickly. If 2x makes you crazy, that’s alright, I’d still encourage you to watch it.
The crux of the video is if you want freedom (freedom defined as being able to work on whatever you want to work on), all you need to do is save more than you spend. How do you do this? By paying yourself first.
For example, when I get my paycheck every two weeks, 60% of it is invested in my 401k before I even see it hit my checking account; this is only until I hit my 401k max which I'm on track to hit by September 2021.
If you pay yourself first, you'll be forced to save more than you spend. This wasn't the part of the video that helped me answer those 4 steps that Sam had outlined before, but it was helpful in reinforcing my personal finance philosophy.
You're probably thinking, well of course Austin, if I save more than I spend then yeah, I'll be able to achieve financial freedom, but what does financial freedom mean? I don’t know, I’m still trying to figure this out. Even after writing 10,000+ words on it, I still haven’t nailed it. But let me try to walk you through what it means for me.
For me, financial freedom is happiness. Happiness is being able to work on whatever I want to work on. Work is more fun when you aren't working for money, and you know you have money to support yourself.
I don't want financial freedom because I want to retire early and sit on a beach and get drunk every day. Although that may sound fun in the short term, I think I'd lose my mind if I didn't work on something. I want freedom because there is a ton of stuff I want to do in my life, and financial freedom will give me the time to do the stuff I want to do! Some of those things include:
Completing an Ironman Triathalon
Competing in a Crossfit Sanctinoal Event
Running the NYC Marathon
Opening a Crossfit gym
Buying a house
Building a house
Becoming a part-time professor
Building a YouTube channel
Getting really good at guitar and learning to sing
Visiting National Parks
Learning how to grow a vegetable garden
Learning how to hunt and fish
Opening a bed and breakfast
Building a real estate portfolio
This is just a portion of the list. I literally have an excel file called Aspirations where I document all of this stuff.
Bottom line, I have a bunch of stuff I want to do with my life, and I am not going to be able to do it by living a traditional life of American consumerism. Freedom is what I want, and I am sticking to it!
2. Learn what it takes to make it happen
If my goal is freedom, I need to save money. The steps are to:
1. Max out my 401k (done)
2. Max out my Roth IRA (done)
3. Start a business (pending)
4. Buy real estate (pending)
Theoretically, I would be fine by just maxing my 401k and Roth, but I want more than that. I am not going to be able to achieve my goals with my 401k contributions. It requires more.
I need alternate forms of income in order to achieve my goal. The logical step is to start a business. But, what type of business? How much money does that business need to make? What are the next steps?
Ever since I could remember, I've been pretty obsessed with starting a business. I've had a ton of ideas about businesses to start, but have never ended up sticking with them.
The fact of the matter is, when starting a business, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. When I was younger, I thought that you needed to invent something or create something entirely net-new that the market has never seen before; this couldn't be more false.
Identify a service that is in demand
Learn how to perform that service
Find a client
Perform service and provide excellent customer service
Repeat
It's that simple. So following that framework that I just outlined, what business am I going to start?
A. Identify an in-demand service (done)
Consulting services; a mix of marketing and staffing. Specific services include:
FB ads
Web design
Content marketing
Talent acquisition
Video marketing
Digital product design
B. Learn how to perform that service (done)
I just finished a course on FB ads. I have designed dozens of websites. I create content weekly (newsletter, podcast, blog and YouTube). I am in the process of learning about video marketing by learning on YouTube. I have built and sold digital products with over 200+ downloads.
Safe to say, I'm pretty competent in these areas, but am continuing to learn more every day.
C. Find a client (in progress)
Here is where I am right now. I actually spoke with my friend Amanda about this; she owns and operates her own marketing agency. She told me this is the most difficult part, but once you get your first few clients, the work will start trickling in.
My strategy for finding my first clients is through my personal network. I've contacted a handful of business owners in my network to see if I could help with anything; for free of course. I'm just trying to build up my presence and experience first.
If you know of any small businesses that could use help with digital marketing, shoot me an email!
D. Perform services and provide excellent customer service (to do)
I am not here yet, but I will share with you guys once I get there! For now, this is "what it takes to make it happen". It's hard work and it's going to take time, but I am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want.
3. Commit to doing what it takes
Here's my written commitment.
4. Stay focused
Would you do me a favor? If I lose focus or start drifting - and I know I will - shoot me an email saying to get it together. Thanks.
Subscriber Q/A
So I think the future of this newsletter is going to be mostly reflection-based. However, I realized what the heck are you guys supposed to do with this information? Yeah, I know my story is interesting and that's why you stick around, but seriously?!
So, what I am going to do is make a little section at the end of these sharing answers to questions you have all sent me throughout the week.
If you feel inclined to ask me a question, feel free to shoot it my way and I will try my best to answer it for you. I ain’t no guru, but I'll try.
Q: Why are you starting a marketing agency? - Chris
A: My goal is to be “freedom” (able to support myself/hit my investment goals) within the next 3-4 years. I can’t do that on a my current salary so tryna make a couple extra grand a month to supplement that
Q: Why do you like real estate so much?
A: They’re not making more of it. There’s a fixed supply, so demand will always increase over time. Real estate is a safe investment until Elon strats putting people on Mars; partially kidding, but like, that would increase the amount of real estate humans can occupy.
Q: What's your plan for growing an agency while continuing to focus on producing content and working on other projects?
A: I think it’s all about priorities. My priority right now is to generate enough income to hit my financial goals. I'm willing to sacrifice working on other projects in the near term if that means I can work on a bunch of stuff in the future. I've also realized the best content creators are the ones that actually have a story to share. There are a bunch of people on social media who haven't actually done anything, but are really good at convincing people that they have. I don't want to be one of those people. It's much harder to grow an audience that way.
Q: How do you balance working full-time at Deloitte and working on side projects and creating content? - Aadit
A: I get up early, work during my lunch break, and work at night. My day typically starts around 6:00; 5:00 if I'm with Rachael (she gets up at 4:00 AM for work...fun, I know). That gives me around 5-6 hours to work on this stuff. Also, I try to batch my work. For example, if I know I want to write 2 threads this week, I'll do all the work on the weekends and then schedule to send them throughout the week. I do something similar with my newsletter.
Q: How do you plan your content and how much time does it take? - Tina
A: I'm naturally a pretty curious person. I have 40,000 things I want to learn about, so finding stuff to write about comes pretty easy. In terms of how much time it takes, it depends. I don't really keep track of it because I enjoy it so much. It doesn't feel like work to me. If I had to put a number on it, I probably spend around 10 hours on content per week. However, I realized most of my growth comes from engagement vs. creation, so I've shifted my focus more on responding to tweets and adding value rather than putting out an insane amount of content every week.
Content I’ve produced this week
Podcast: How to build a content strategy
Alrighty, this concludes this edition of Austin's newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
I have been loving writing these things. I have tried to write newsletters in the past, and they always feel like a pain. This one, however, has come very naturally. I look forward to writing it every week and I get the biggest high from clicking that publish button. However, the biggest value comes from engaging with you all. I’d love to have the opportunity to get to know each of you personally.
Shoot me an email!
What’s your name?
Where are you from?
What are you building?
Looking forward to next week my friends. Until next time.
Best,
Austin