Thread by @matt_gray_

My businesses generate $1,160,000 every month.

But in 2014, I almost lost everything.

The government raided my office and tried to throw me in jail (for something I didn’t do).

Here’s the full story of what happened and how it changed my life:

This story begins in 2011.

I had just graduated business school, and got a job at Kraft Foods.

The pay was bad. And the work was depressing.

But, after 2 weeks, I realized no one tracked my hours.

So I secretly started working just 2 hours every Tuesday.

I would do any critical tasks I needed to get done at breakneck speed and then leave myself 50+ hours a week to:

• Learn
• Study
• Meet new people

…and explore my curiosity. Literally, nobody noticed.

I used those extra 50 hours to go all-in on learning how to code.

After a few months of learning to code, I could’ve probably landed a job at a tech company.

But I decided early on that I wanted to own something that could grow.

So, me and two of my buddies, started Bitmaker.

Bitmaker was a coding bootcamp in Toronto.

Over the course of a few years, we trained 2,000+ software engineers and got them jobs at companies like Shopify and Facebook.

90% of our students landed jobs within a month of graduating our program.

We were crushing it.

Then disaster struck.

The government raided our offices, threatening to shut us down and fine me $1 million.

I panicked. Saw my life flash before my eyes.

But then I had an epiphany that would change everything.

I emailed 3,000 people in my network over 18 hours.

The next day, we were trending on Twitter in Canada.

5 days later, we were back in business.

I learned the power of community and building a loyal audience.

It's the ultimate business insurance policy.

But success came at a cost.

I was burnt out and started drinking too much.

I'd built a business that was running me into the ground.

I realized I needed to design a life and business around freedom.

That's when I discovered the 4 W's.

The 4 W's of freedom:

• Work WHERE you want
• Work WHEN you want
• Work on WHAT you want
• Work with WHO you want

This became my north star for building businesses.

It led me to create systems that would transform my life and work.

I grew my audience to millions of followers without spending a dime on ads by leveraging the "Content GPS":

A system that attracts your ideal audience and converts them into customers on autopilot.

It's the most powerful tool I've discovered in 14 years of entrepreneurship.

The Content GPS has 3 core components:

1. Grow your rented audience (social media)
2. Own your audience (email list)
3. Monetize your audience

Most people mess this up. They create content randomly with no strategy.

But that's a recipe for burnout and giving up.

The key is to pick a niche and 4 content categories within it.

My niche is helping founders scale to $5M/year with proven systems.

My categories?

Systems. Marketing. Audience Growth. Community building

In a world of generalists, be a specialist.

But having an audience isn't enough.

You need to create an offer so irresistible that strangers can't help but buy from you.

You need to deeply understand your ideal client's pains and desires, and then create their perfect solution.

Remember: Build something people want.

Once you have your offer, it's time to build systems.

At Founder OS, we use a 3-part system for every task:

1. Loom video walkthrough
2. Google Doc with step-by-step instructions
3. Examples of excellence

This allows us to delegate effectively and scale efficiently.

Finally, building a team of A-players.

Hire people smarter than you, then get out of their way.

Give them the tools, resources, and environment to thrive.

Default to trust. Delegate authority, not just responsibility.

Your job is to enable greatness, not micromanage.

These systems have helped me build a portfolio of successful online companies.

But more importantly, it has given me true freedom.

I travel the world, work 4 hours a day, and make memories with the people I love.

That's what being an entrepreneur is all about.

Want to learn how I scaled from 100 followers to 100k in 90 days?

Join my free live workshop on October 24th (11 days away) to steal my homework.

And get access to my “1M True Fans” blueprint worth $249 (for free).

Grab your spot here: founderos.com/workshop