Since 2024, I’ve spent $200k learning how business, marketing & sales work.
In 2 years, I scaled my media agency to $2 million in revenue, worked with billionaire founders & launched my 3rd company 2 weeks ago.
22 things I’ve learned so far: 🧵
1/ Invest more in operations than in sales
You can learn sales with experience. But operations require systems & playbooks which are veins of a business.
Cashflow is a business’s blood but without veins, it will bleed out.
You’ll realise this when it’s too late.
Act now.
2/ It's better to hire for character than experience
It sounds absurd but most experienced people don’t have the best character.
The success blinds them & they’ll leave you in a flick of a second.
To have loyalty, train a newbie. They’ll forever be grateful.
3/ If you sell high-ticket, tell your prices at the end
The entire point of selling a high-ticket commodity is to starve the prospect of the pricing.
Show the value > Tell why they need it > You’ll close 30% more deals
4/ If you can’t write well, you can’t prompt AI
LinkedIn & X are full of AI slop.
It’s not AI’s fault, it’s the blunder of founders who write generic prompts & expect a masterpiece.
Describe what you want in detail.
My shortest prompts are at least 1000 words long.
5/ Your competition is the person you were yesterday
We spend all our lives competing with others who we don’t know.
But we don’t challenge the person we are which is directly proportional to our success.
Be 0.1% better today than you were yesterday.
Things will get better.
6/ Forget what the market says & do what you feel is right
Founders spend their lives trying to get a product market fit. Few go by their heart & build what they love.
Steve Jobs never cared what people wanted. He built what he believed in.
Today, Apple is worth $4.5 trillion.
7/ If you’re not making your company AI native, you will fail
AI is the future.
It belongs to those who are writing code, programming agents to do their job so they can have all the freedom in the world.
The most successful founders by 2030 will all have AI native companies.
8/ Quit cold DMs, they are as irrelevant as your ex
Cold DMs are the worst form of abuse when it comes to lead gen.
I spent months perfecting my messaging & it’s a lot of effort.
Then I just started to befriend people & it worked 90% better.
Plus, it only takes 3-hours daily.
9/ Say the truth even if it damages the deal, they’ll remember you forever
Learned this from @naval recently.
I’ve always told my clients the truth. A couple thousand dollars are not worth having people know you’re a liar.
When people know you’re sincere, you’ve already won.
10/ Your competitor should be your bestie
90% of people who I consider my competitors are either friends or good acquaintances.
We talk, exchange ideas, build together.
Make friends. You’re going to need them.
Being a founder is lonely.
11/ Clients are insecure, they pay you to do what they can’t. Be firm but empathetic
Observe this.
Every prospect that books a call with you, will always be insecure.
Ask them 2 questions, their biggest pain atm & the perfect outcome.
^ That will tell you all about it.
12/ Splurge money if it gives you experience
New founders love hoarding cash, not the best practice.
I spend money recklessly when I know it can help me learn, biggest advantage of money.
Besides, you only win after failing, otherwise it's just divine intervention
13/ Sales should be the last thing you outsource (my mentor, friend, brother @thefernandocz told me this)
I spent $50k+ on sales guys who couldn’t increase our revenue & I’ve hired experienced guys.
No one gives a sh*t about your revenue except you.
Be personal about it.
14/ The entire point of posting online is to help your ideal buyer
Most founders use AI for content, not realizing that it:
• Bleeds the brand
• Kills trust & authority
• Destroys the business
Get a good agency & build w them for 6 mons to 1 year if you're serious. (try us)
15/ Spend money as if it deserves you instead of the other way around. You’ll soon notice that you don’t go broke anymore
The who landed rockets post launch, @elonmusk repeatedly risked personal financial collapse to fund Tesla & Space.
Saving will keep you in the middle class.
16/ Your favorite employee is the biggest a**hole after you, fire them. The company can only have one a**hole & that’s you, the founder
Keep your business a dictatorship, never a democracy.
It doesn’t work & favoritism kills a business faster than unpredictable cashflow.
17/ Cold emails are good but they only work when you have the right infrastructure
To make it predictable, you need to use a set number of tools that work together.
You can’t do it alone.
We offer premium GTM (book a call to discuss)
18/ Believe in God with absolute certainty.
Even if you’re an atheist, just pray for what you want for 5 mins every day.
You never know who’s listening, maybe that’ll help you if you’ve tried everything & failed.
Don’t tell anyone about it.
Just do it.
19/ If you can’t close, you’re an employee
People think closing is hard, well it is.
A few points to help you:
• Show value
• Talk less
• Let them speak
• Propose a solution at the end
For more, you can always DM, I’m thinking to start business consulting.
20/ Take the riskiest move in business if it makes sense to you. You’re the founder, you know your sh*t better than your investors, partners & employees
Most founders tend to seek validation from their stakeholders.
It’s okay actually, but you need to believe in yourself too.
21/ Cold DMs harm your brand more than they yield, quit it & do warm outreach instead, it gets me 60 qualified leads monthly & takes 3 hrs/day
I spent 7 months doing cold outreach, it burned my LinkedIn account, even got X suspended.
Cold outreach via social media is deadly.
22/ Quit ads
Your personal brand is what you need to invest in for a year & you won’t run ads again. I've never run ads for @4SocialsHQ.
I know 99% are terrible & you’re sick of them.
Check my website:
If you like what you see, book a call.4socials.xyz
Founders: We'll build your personal/company brand on 𝕏 (and beyond) without you lifting a finger.
We've helped 58 clients get 2+ billion combined views.
Interested in how we can do this for you? Book your free discovery call here:
calendly.com/4socials-growt…
Thanks for reading! A bit about me:
In 2024, I co-founded @4SocialsHQ - a premium lead generation agency helping top founders, VCs & execs attract capital, clients & talent with proven content + outbound systems.
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