Fat Stacks ®️ @FatStacksBlog

The internet made starting a business cheap. AI is making execution cheap. The remaining expensive part is sticking with something long enough to become unusually good at it. Technology keeps removing barriers except one: patience.

One of the worst email habits is “protecting” your list from emails. “I don’t want to bother them” sounds considerate, but what you really have is a costly communication channel you’re afraid to use. If sending an email makes people unsubscribe, you didn’t lose access to them. You never had it in the first place. Hence, for my B2C newsletters, I send an email EVER SINGLE DAY.

I publish both B2C and B2B newsletters. A B2C newsletter needs a lot of people to care a little. A B2B newsletter can work if a very small number of people care a lot. That distinction is critical to your email strategy.

My goal used to be to build a big company. Now my goal is to build a company that does big things. Those are very different ambitions. One requires more people. The other requires more leverage.

@ivanjurashere And even then, companies can slash dividends at any time.

I don't think passive income is the goal. Leverage is. Passive is about avoiding work. Leverage is about getting more out of each hour.. One is about doing nothing. The other is about making what you do count.

@xSoloTrades Yes and no. Depends on the task but the up front trial and error effort can be high. So far, my time spent in automating has been very well worth it. I've been able to take plenty of time off this year because of it.

I don't want AI to make me 30% faster at doing something I don’t like doing. I want AI to make it so I never have to do that task again. Efficiencies are nice. Elimination is better.

@MintedEmpire It sure is fun, that's for sure. I have to reign myself in though.

I got so engrossed in work today that I completely lost track of time. I missed including links to my latest long form videos in my daily email newsletters (firing up long-form YT channels for my lifestyle brands this week… finally). I published the vids then looked up. I couldn't believe it was 11:30 am. Emails go out at 9:40. We talk endlessly about working less. Four-hour workweeks. Passive income. Escaping the grind. But maybe the goal isn't to spend as little time working as possible. Maybe it's to find work that is all-encompassing. The kind where you forget to check the clock. Isn't that the point?

@Szamu2 Heck ya. The up front effort is monumental.

Someone told me they’re "building passive income streams." I asked what they’ve built so far. "I'm still researching niches." That was two years ago. Checked their site last week. Four posts. Passive income is somewhat real. But passive is the back end. The front end is 18 months of working hard for nothing. The long tail will pay you, but first you pay in.

Absolutely. Just takes time. I'm constantly dumping in new stuff to test and track. Most things don't help it but that's the process I did way back to come up with what's working now. I still get more traffic from social than email but email with social for discovery will be key for long term growth (and exit). I also continuously experiment with additional monetization - courses, syndication rev share, YouTube (just getting started), SaaS, email ads (usually very disappointing) and whatever else I dream up.

@IntrovertGeekUK I get Discover traffic and around 1,000 search visits per day. I don't focus on either... it's what I get. Not much overall from Google unless Discover gets generous.

Everyone wants recurring revenue. I'm more interested in recurring work that produces revenue. Topic generation. Content production. Posting to social media. Sending email newsletters. Why? Because recurring tasks handled by AI are recurring revenue.

Tim Ferriss used to this with Google Ads. I know because I clicked and paid only be told after "purchase" that it was some form of experiment or something (he worded it better). But yeah, plenty of ways to test. My goal right now is to stay in my lane. I have two solid publications going with good potential. I've been working them pretty hard for a couple of years. Now they're running smoothly with a small team and AI giving me time to return to Fat Stacks.

The dangerous thing about AI isn’t that it can do your work. It’s that it makes every bad project idea feel worth starting because it’s so darn easy. Before AI, you’d not give it a second thought because it was too costly to risk. Now you can have a logo, SaaS and sales page by lunch for mere dollars.

@amazingdanray Haha, I know. I've learned to be judicious. I have two publications do well so if anything does not pertain to them, I ignore it. However, because those two sites are doing well and have potential, I'm willing to test/try pretty much anything on them.

🎯💯 So true Paul. Here's how I look at it. I remember the day I learned about affiliate marketing. I had no clue such a thing existed but when I did learn, I knew it was what I wanted to do. Eventually I focused on display ads but my point is people either feel completely compelled to do this crazy online publishing thing when they hear about it or they aren't. I was compelled.

Yeah, it's worth it. I send daily to tens of thousands of readers for two sites I focus on. The list grows daily so the the revenue grows over time. Because I monetize mostly from on-site ads, I need serious volume for good revenue. One site does well. The other is in earlier stage. The key is retention for long term growth.

@IntrovertGeekUK Email, Pinterest and Facebook. I've expanded my approach to social and email. It's full blown publication now with video (long and short form), daily emails, multiple FB pages, etc.

@alamin_parves_ Everything except my long form video content. Video thumbnails are AI though. Other than that content is AI-assisted, workflows are totally AI. Email newsletter creation and scheduling is AI. It's infused throughout most of what I do. It did not write this reply though 🤣

I used to measure productivity by how much I got done. Now I measure it by how much I never have to do again. A productive Tuesday is good. An AI system that eliminates working Tuesdays is better.

Agree to an extent. Even with AI, 100% is not really 100%. Stuff needs monitoring. I have several humans in the loop for all content production. The AI kicks in with automations after the content is handled. But, in my case, once content is reviewed and published, the following automations for distribution and email newsletter creation are passive. The email newsletter automation is one my favorite because it really does earn on autopilot (after content is published).

@PassiveSphere Ha, yup still alive and kicking.