Thread by @theBuoyantMan

Twitter has been a positive influence this year for me.

Can't point one single person to have influenced me the most. But put these people in combination, and they all influenced me collectively to elevate my life to the next level.

The list below 👇

https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish/status/1341143438067167234

Started with @naval @balajis - wanted to eventually get to where these two are in life. The kind of processes they have set up in life to be learning machines is unparalleled.

All their podcast episodes, and of course @Naval's threads influenced a lot.

Came across @david_perell and @fortelabs. Influenced by them, went into the productivity and note-taking rabbit hole. Discovered SO MANY things that as an Indian you're oblivious to, if you don't expose yourself to what's out there in the world.

@david_perell and his articles influenced me to pick up writing again (used to write on Quora and had a blog). Tiago influenced me to strive to optimize life as much as possible, and it began the note-taking habit, and the actual "reading with intention" as a habit.

Through @david_perell, discovered @dollarsanddata and his journey of passion and consistency inspired me. Also looked at @lifemathmoney's journey to 150k+ follows. I thought, "if he can start his blog in 2016 and twitter in 2018 and get here in 2-3 years, why can't I?"

Also through @david_perell, discovered @shl and loved his medium posts, his tweets on running a business. Being a business owner affected by Covid, it was a wonderful way to relate with someone who has done it all.

Through him, discovered the "How to crush it on Twitter" video.

After watching that video, I decided to stop being a passive consumer, and start being an active contributor, to add value with whatever I know. I started actively sharing my learning in public, no matter how amateurish it was. That's when I came across @brandonthezhang.

Here he was, all of 18-19yo, doing things that even people with experience weren't doing. Having really admirable people like @JamesClear on his podcast, I couldn't help but admire him. Decided to get my blog created and to start writing seriously.

Around this time, I also rediscovered @JamesClear and @ShaneParrish - I have followed them passively for few years now, but only got very serious and binged on their content. I read James' content on Twitter month by month from his first tweet, listened to all episodes of TKP.

Around this time, @brandonthezhang had put out a tweet saying that he'll be apprenticing for someone named @jackbutcher. I had come across @visualizevalue before that. But then, I really took notice. For a couple of months, I just followed him, passively reading his tweets.

While all this was happening, I was silently watching someone go from around 80-90k to 200k followers - @dmuthuk. While i didn't agree with him on one or two things, the way he crafted his Twitter account, and the values he hammered - brilliant stuff.

Until I discovered @dmuthuk, my tweets were all over the place. Then, I stuck to few topics only (while still broad). That allowed me to grow further.

Around this time, I had started doing podcasts and did few episodes by approaching people I looked up to in Finance.

This was around the time @david_perell reached 100k and reading all I can about writing online, and also learnt of his WOP course in detail. Went through all his free content. Condensed everything and started applying on my Twitter. Still haphazard, but there was some difference.

Then I came across @nateliason and his blog was among the best I could have come across at that period. I wanted to work on content marketing for my own business and put together a plan for making money as a freelancer too. His articles helped very much.

After following @shl passively, and also after seeing so many people selling ebooks and courses through something called GumRoad, I looked it up. It was a minimalist's Shopify. Looked up who the founder was, and there was @shl. Learned some more, going through his past tweets.

This was around the time @jackbutcher had tweeted "Make $1 on the internet". That was thought-provoking. I had done it before (freelancing as a wordpress website developer for small businesses) and I took it even more seriously this time.

I did few wordpress website development projects for some traders (including @madan_kumar), and few other small businesses.

This helped me get some perspective. But there was a ceiling to what I can make. The only thing I knew didn't have a ceiling was Trading.

It was then I came across @jackbutcher's "Build once Sell multiple times" image on Visualize value. That was a flash bulb moment. Had always known this at the back of my head, but never thought to apply.

I wanted to share my experience on growing my twitter account. I also had 3-4 years of business experience in India which I could compile as a course to shorten people's learning curve. And then there was this Python backtesting that I was doing, which i didn't think much of.

I started working on learning how to create ebooks (since that seemed simpler and low cost to reach more people) and started to compile all that I learned about Twitter, and on how to grow, connect, network on twitter.

A friend said, "Bro, honestly, your followers would appreciate you teaching them how to do backtesting with Python and test many strategies, instead of the Twitter networking book."

This was another lightbulb moment. I didn't think much of it. But I put out a poll.

I spaced out the polls and follow up polls few days at once, and there was overwhelming majority requesting for backtesting with Python.

I was like, "Okay. This could work. How do I now give these people 10x value?"

I started compiling the course outline.

This was when I researched how @david_perell's Write of Passage was conducted by talking to its participants. Wanted to create a similar experience, at an Indian budget.

Have been following @AliAbdaal on YouTube since Jan this year. And his YouTube course turned out a blessing.

After I created a rough outline of the curriculum for the course, I wanted to write it in a proper way and create a simple but proper landing page.

That's when I came across @coreyhainesco and his @SwipeFilesco on @IndieHackers.

They just released a swipe file explanation on @AliAbdaal's landing page for YT course. I learnt good practices for copywriting from his page. That led me into a copywriting rabbithole.

This helped me discover @joserosado @TejDosa @oliviercantin etc. Learnt some copywriting.

After this, I remembered @jackbutcher again and binged through his tweets since 2016-17 period till date. Took detailed notes, condensed all that, and was able to arrive at what his worldview is. Interesting guy and his tweets before 2019 were amazing.

Then, through @joserosado and few others, I discovered @dvassallo.

I was so confused about pricing my course. Should I price it at 50,000 rupees (since it's 3 months) or should I price it at 5,000 rupees? I put out a poll. And found out 50% would be happy to pay >= 15k.

The remaining 50% had people who thought the course was worth nothing, some who thought it was worth 400-500 rupees for 3 months, some who thought it was worth 1000-2000 rupees, and about 30-35% voted for 5000 rupees.

This was because I'd asked for multiples of 5000 in the poll.

Then I stumbled upon this tweet from @dvassallo

https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1247944527983214592?s=20

That particular tweet changed the way I looked at running the course.

I created a refund policy (for people to get full refund within 30 days of the 90 days course).

I wanted to price it at 15k, but since I'm a first time course creator, priced it at 8k for the 1st batch.

I wrote a long-form copy using the insights I gained from @SwipeFilesco @harrydry and his @GoodMarketingHQ website content.

I put it up for pre-launch registration in November last week. Closed the registration on December 20th, with 100% slots filled.

Now, I am applying all that I learnt from @fortelabs BASB, Praxis blog, @david_perell's WOP related content and his videos on Youtube, and everything I learnt through observing @anthilemoon's community building - in building this course.

@obsdmd - Obsidian, the note taking tool has been very influential in this process. Erica Xu and Shida Li were very courteous in responding to my queries, as a beta tester of Obsidian. Through them, I also discovered "Discord", a wonderful alternative to Slack.

Discord is where I am hosting my course community's live discussions. When @RoamResearch didn't allow me access to their tool, and priced it at $500, @obsdmd released their tool free for personal use, with almost similar essential features. Been using it to do all my writing.

Along the way, I watched one guy zoom from 0 to ~50k followers on Twitter - @10kdiver. His growth has been phenomenal and the way he writes is amazing. He's been courteous enough to let me in on some of his secrets to Twitter growth and writing well.

Twitter has facilitated and allowed me to participate in discussing things with some of the aforementioned people. Most people I approached were courteous enough to respond irrespective of my account size or relevance. Learnt how wonderful this side of the world is.

I further discovered @aaraalto from one of @visualizevalue articles. He helped me through some of the critical thoughts I had for my own next phase in Twitter and writing. His content is just so meditative, and it's helped calm me into slowing myself down.

I'd be stupid to not acknowledge how inspiring @APompliano and his brother @JoePompliano have been. Listening to APomp's podcast with Perell, and how started with super-laser-focus on Twitter and eventually created a multi-million dollar media brand was very valuable.

All these people put together, have inspired me in different ways, and I have learnt a lot from all these people I have mentioned here, mostly just by going through their past tweets and their blog posts/videos, where they are all dropping immense wisdom.

When the student is ready, the teacher will show up. I found a teacher in all these people, and they have all made my 2020 immensely productive and thoughtful.

I think more and more people should discover these people and absorb all the wisdom they are dropping.