Are you on the hook?

Aug 24, 2023

Welcome back to Greg Isenberg’s weekly newsletter where I give you high-quality insights on building community-based businesses.

There are no ads on this newsletter or my podcast to make this an A+ experience for you. All I ask is you enjoy and share. Seems reasonable, right?

🎧 New episode of the pod is live with Nick “Sweaty Startup” Huber

I talked to Nick Huber about buying vs building companies and building a multipreneurship and holding company empire. He’s built a $25M empire over the last few years.

At the end, Nick screen-shared his entire lead magnet and email funnel system for the first time ever. We also chatted Beehiiv vs ConvertKit. It’s worth the watch/listen.

Pretty awesome convo.

Spotify

Apple

YouTube where you can see screen-sharing at the end (subscribe for exclusive videos like stealing my playbook to go viral)

📖 Are you on the hook?

People think the greatest productivity hack is waking up early and getting into a cold plunge.

But, I’ve learned it has to do with a mindset and the concept of "being on the hook”.

I’ll give you an example.

Writing a newsletter and growing on Twitter have come naturally to me.

YouTube, however, is the exact opposite.

I cringe at seeing myself on camera — it makes me uneasy, and I can’t lie, YouTube comments tend to be pretty ruthless.

But growing my YouTube is an “asymmetric upside” decision. Meaning, heads, I win big. Tails, I lose only a little (time/money).

Asymmetric Bets To Scale Your Business - FourWeekMBA

When you come across asymmetric decisions in your life and business, those are the decisions that move you and your business from good to great.

So with YouTube, I committed to it. And I also threw my limiting belief that I’m “just a words and keyboards guy” out the window. Let me give this a real shot.

90 days.

If I don’t like it after 90 days, I’ll quit.

If I enjoy it after 90 days, I’ll keep at it.

And by the end of it, I’ll know more about YouTube — and myself — than I did at the start.

Starting is the hardest part, though. I’ve been wanting to do YouTube for a while now, but I’ve always come up with different excuses for why now isn’t the right time.

It’s kinda like going on vacation when you’re an entrepreneur. It’s never a “good time” but you have to do it anyways or else you’ll never go.

So back to you…

There’s definitely something in your world that you’ve been wanting to accomplish. Maybe it’s a personal goal, like committing to Friday date nights. Or it’s a professional goal, like checking in with every member of your team each month.

If you haven’t started at this goal you’ve always wanted to achieve, how about putting yourself on the hook?

Throw your limiting belief out the window.

There’s 3 ways you can commit to accomplishing your goal.

Let me explain:

1. Financially invest in your goal

I knew I wouldn’t take YouTube seriously using my Mac’s built-in webcam and microphone.

So I dropped $1,500 on camera equipment and learned how to set it all up.

This is a considerable amount of money — enough that I wouldn’t be happy letting the gear collect dust in a storage closet. I need to get use out of what I’ve bought to make the $1,500 worth it.

If you want to start a gym habit, buy some shorts that make you feel comfortable and stylish.

If you want to start a business, open up a bank account and put your initial investment in.

This has to be something that gets you closer to your goal AND would be uncomfortable to let go to waste.

2. Socially invest in your goal

I’ve told you, my Twitter followers, and every friend I have that I’m starting a YouTube channel.

If I don’t post a video in the next few months, it’s going to be uncomfortable to admit I gave up on my goal before I even started.

It will make me look bad.

You can bash your friend’s new fitness IG account all you want, but if their public commitment to getting in shape actually helps them commit to their goal, what is there to make fun of?

Public accountability is a surefire way to take action. You are, quite literally, putting yourself on the hook for the next time you’re asked about your goal.

3. Commit to a schedule

I’m writing and recording a new YouTube video every week for the next 90 days.

It’s already blocked off in my calendar. Barring any emergencies, I’ll be sitting in the same spot recording a YouTube video at the same time every week — and you can’t stop me.

Making your goal a part of your daily/weekly schedule (and committing to it) allows you to prove to yourself that the goal is worth doing.

You can’t control the outcome of your goal — but you can control what you put into it.

Did you fail?

If you’ve invested in your goal financially, socially, and with your time — chances are you’ve gotten closer to accomplishing it.

And you’ve given it your best shot and still aren’t seeing any traction, quitting is an option.

In fact, it’s smart.

You didn’t fail — you figured out what doesn’t work for you.

The only way to truly fail is by giving up before giving yourself a chance.

That’s why putting yourself on the hook is so darn powerful.

You can come back to your goal and realize that you didn’t fail, or waste your money or time — the experience gave you a story that will help others.

So, what should you be putting yourself on the hook for?

By the way, subscribe to my YouTube channel and you’ll get extra insights about how to build community based businesses (and keep me accountable). Latest video is how Thomas Frank sells Notion templates to make $100k/month. You can check in on my progress on my YouTube channel here — hold me accountable

❤️ Greg’s bookmarks:

3 things I found interesting this week:

#1 - This is so true. Full tweet

#2 - Sometimes following best practices isn’t the right approach if you want to stand out. This guy gets that. Full tweet.

#3 - Just picked this book up about building clarity in your life. Clarity is everything. Excited to dig in. Full tweet.

👋 Ways to work together?

Turn your ideas into designs that people love. Design has mega impact and we use Dispatch for all our businesses. Design has impact on revenue and developing a moat. Free to set up a call.
I jump into a few random sales calls sometimes too.
Work with Boring Marketers. I’m astonished how they can drive revenue using SEO. Free call and you might learn a thing or two about using AI-assisted SEO to bring revenue for your business. The Boring twitter is a must follow.
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