Over the past year, we’ve been building out our task management system for Starter Story.
Essentially, it’s Trello inside of our actual CMS.
Our team is global, in different time zones, and many of our freelancers work part time. We don’t have meetings or use Slack, so this task management system is our way of working async
How it works
We use the comments section on our blog posts to assign tasks, get work done, analyze performance, and general discussion.
Freelancers get assigned tasks, and people can reply to tasks, leave replies, tag each other, etc. Everyone also gets email notifications (which is useful for busy freelancers).
Let me show you a simple example.
When we have an idea for a new blog post, we create the empty post in the backend.
Then, this comment gets created, and assigned to one of our content writers.
Essentially, this is a task, with a due date, to get an article first draft completed.
What’s so useful is that this is in the comments of the actual article, so we can always go back and see the history of all changes or projects around that article.
This has allowed us to build systems and processes around how articles get written and reviewed (first draft, editor review, final review), which we can delegate to other freelancers.
This is how we are building a scalable asynchronous media company.
Additionally, this allows us to improve content in a structured way. If we see some content that has potential to move up in search engines, we create a task in those same comments, assigned to one of our freelancers who specializes in SEO.
Here’s a simple example:
Why we are doing this
Our goal is to build a scalable asynchronous media company.
There have been a lot of growing pains (mostly in our process itself), but we have been able to change how the thing works dynamically based on trial and error.
This is something I could see growing into 100+ freelancers, all working together. Right now we have about 15 people working inside this tool.
And, this would work across multiple sites (something we plan on doing in the future).
You could do this in Trello or other task management tools, but building this internally does give us an extra level of ownership, customization, and flexibility.
The key here is the process and systems you define that work for you, not the technology you use!
(if you thought this post was interesting, let me know, i'm curious if ppl are interested in behind the scenes stuff like this)
Building a successful subscription-based media business is extremely hard to do as a young company.
I cannot name one successful community that is less than a few years old that makes millions per year.
The successful ones are built over many years and/or have some X-factor (huge distribution channel, insane word of mouth, huge market trend).
For example, the New York Times has a huge subscription business. But it’s built on an excellent brand and decades of publishing and another solid business model of ads. They built a subscription to diversify their revenue, and they had millions of traffic and brand loyalty that got them millions of subscribers.
It’s extremely hard to build a media company and paywall everything right out of the gate and expect it to work because it worked for the New York Times. You might be able to do it with VC money, but I can’t think of many media brands that bootstrapped it.
I think this is what a lot of people get wrong, including me. At Starter Story, our membership is stagnating. It’s not really growing or dying.
I’ve realized subscriptions are not a truly scalable business model for a young media company. As a mature company, it’s a great way to capture money from your loyal users. but we (Starter Story) are not a mature company yet. We are too early in the life cycle.
So that’s why we are turning our focus back to the ad model this year.
If we can continue to grow content, traffic, and our newsletter, we can sell more ads and land more sponsors. That is actually a scalable business model, so I’ve been doubling down on that as of late.
Plus, you see the latest Netflix news? They lost 200k subscribers. Netflix is probably the most popular subscription in the world. If Netflix loses subscribers, I think every other subscription based business is going to lose subscribers over the next few months. Get ready for it.
I’ll keep you updated on this blog about how that’s going. I hope you like these kinds of updates?
I haven’t gone for a run in over a year. Tennis took over my life.
But this weekend, I ran a half marathon. I flew back home to visit family and run the race with my mom.
I wasn’t really looking forward to it as it was snowing and raining on the morning of the race, but when I got there, it all changed. I got pumped as hell.
The atmosphere, just like all road races I’ve experienced, was electric.
I missed that.
I missed being surrounded by thousands of people that all worked their ass off and trained for months leading up - all of us standing in unison at the starting line at 6AM, adrenaline pumping, and freezing our tails off - with the goal of achieving 13.1 or 26.2 miles on our feet.
But even more, I missed what running does to your mind.
Running gives you space to think. Think about your life. Your business. Your goals. Your past. Your future.
There is no other sport like that - where you go out, alone with your thoughts for hours.
It's funny, I remember discovering the Keto diet 10 years ago on a small but passionate subreddit. I tried it and lost 20 lbs, it felt like a magic diet. But all my friends thought it was super weird.
Fast forward 10 years, and it is totally mainstream! It's a good lesson to remind us that if something gets a small cult following online, there's a good chance it will take off and become huge. Just takes many years to become a reality.
(I'm not Keto, this is more of a lesson in markets and business)
Don't worry about the number of subscribers, but rather the engagement. Open rate, etc.
Learn best practices in terms of list cleaning and maintenance. Don't be afraid to remove people off your list and directly ask for readers to unsubscribe.
In terms of advertising and making money from your newsletter, it is ideal to have a newsletter that is sent more than monthly, or weekly. A newsletter with 7,000 subscribers that sends weekly will generally make the same money as a newsletter with 1,000 subscribers that sends 7 days a week.
Ask your readers to reply. This is good for open rates and deliverability. It also lets you talk to your readers and really understand what they want.
Spend some time on the design. Make it look nice, simple, and readable.
Look at the numbers aggressively. If open rates are going down, do something about it, ask for help.
Unfortunately, I learned all of these the hard way 😆
Start every day by creating something. A tweet, a comment, a blog post, a design, a few notes in a journal, some code, etc. I always feel better for the rest of the day with the feeling that I produced at least something, and not just consumed.
One thing that most people can’t wrap their heads around: that businesses grow.
Most people think in terms of their salary. That if you make $50K this year, a nice increase would be to make $55K next year.
But businesses can grow 2x or 3x or 10x in one year, especially in the early years.
I remember back in the day, my friends would ask me how Starter Story was doing. I’d tell them $10k/month, and they’d be like “wait last time you told me you were making $5k/month?”.
For them, that didn’t seem realistic. For me, I was thinking about how to reach the next growth milestone.
Last year, I started building a system for reminding myself to buy birthday gifts for my friends, family, and loved ones.
I’m not the best at keeping in touch with people (need to work on that) and since I have some extra money left over from my business, I thought that buying gifts for people would be a nice use of the money.
I also live in Florida now, and I don’t live close by to most of my best friends and family anymore.
How it works
I went to Facebook and did a spreadsheet export of all my friends, and their birthdays.
I did some cleanup on the spreadsheet, keeping the friends that I actually wanted to stay in touch with, and imported of them into Google Calendar, under their own calendar.
Birthdays for April 2022
For each event, I set an email reminder 7-10 days before, and another reminder on the day of.
Reminders for calendar event
Notification in email
I use my inbox as a sort of todo list, so when this reminder comes into my inbox (10 days before their birthday), it stays there until I figure out the birthday gift. At that point, I have a few days to come up with a gift idea and get it shipped out so it arrives before their birthday.
Then, on the day of their birthday, I get another notification, so I can remember to text or call them.
Buying gifts
It’s been a year, and I’m still figuring this part out. My goal is to get them something unique, or meaningful to our relationship.
Sometimes it's a gift based on an inside joke we have. Sometimes it's a recognition for something they've been working hard on.
Etsy is amazing for designing custom gifts. As a gift for my musician friend, I had someone on Etsy design a plaque for reaching 100,000 streams on Spotify.
Custom recording plaque
Or, I’ll design something on Canva, and put it on a t-shirt or hat or a mug.
Canva mockup
On t-shirt
On Etsy, you can do cool things like this for $25-$50.
Some other good, easy gifts you can do:
Buying stuff on Amazon (easiest method)
Buying a great book for a friend on something they are interested in
Gift cards to their favorite local coffee shops
Find out where they are going to dinner, and call the restaurant and order a bottle of wine to be delivered to their table and surprise them.
After doing this for one year, I’ve found that the gifts can sometimes be a hit or miss, or that is at least my perception. I think that some people love getting stuff with sentimental value, but it might be trash to others.
But that's OK! I'll take a mental note of this and switch up my strategy in the following year.
Something I've been doing lately is actually just writing birthday cards by hand and shipping them via snail mail. I'll report back on this next year.
Why I’m writing about this
Giving gifts is a form of gratitude. And gratitude is something that I’m working on as a human.
As far as the cost, it’s not as bad as you might think. If the average gift is $50 and I do it for 50 people, that’s $2,500 per year. And there are ways you could still do this with far less money.
I’m lucky to be in a place where I can afford that, but more importantly I believe that this money and time invested in your friends and family is worth it.
The last thing I’ll say about this: it does take some time out of your day. Thinking about the right gift, searching for it, logistics, etc. It might sound like a hassle at first, but I actually feel great when I successfully figure out a good gift, and even better when they let me know they got their gift.
I’ve never been one to give gifts, but I’ve really enjoyed doing this over the last year, and plan to do it going forward.
Recently, to help email deliverability for our newsletter, we started asking people to reply to our emails. This (apparently) is a signal that tells Google and other inbox providers that you're not a spammer.
Once we started doing this, I was pleasantly surprised.
Now, we get dozens of replies every day, and it's actually amazing to read them, and I wish we had done it sooner.
It gives us a chance to understand a bit more about our readers, and have a genuine chance to talk to them!
For example, here is one that I love. Someone out there is going through their first moment in realizing they are an entrepreneur. Love to see it.
I looked through my timeline, and I guess I stopped blogging every day over the last year. I even stopped doing my monthly updates. Part of me thinks that it’s like some sort of depression, but really, I think I’m just going through changes, as a person and as an entrepreneur.
I’ve just been a more balanced person, I would say. I ended the nomad life and got a nice apartment with my girlfriend.
I’ve been playing tons of tennis and really trying to improve my game in the long haul. I see tennis as another side hustle, in some ways, although it doesn’t make any money. It’s something that I really enjoy building and growing and learning.
We also got a dog. I bought a car, too. A couple years ago, I would have told you I’d never do these things.
Also, my business is changing. Sometimes it’s hard to talk about what’s going on because I’m not sure it’s going to work out! It feels like we are blazing a different path, now. I’m talking to people in new industries that I didn’t know existed.
Every year (as an entrepreneur) I become dumber and I realize I know very little.
And to write a really good blog post, you really have to feel confident (and complete) on your topics, especially if you want to write great pieces.
But more and more lately, I’m in learning mode. Embracing the idea of being a life long learner.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be writing. I still write every day, often it’s just in a notebook, or something internal for Starter Story.
I’m resurrecting this daily blog, starting yesterday. More to come.
I stopped listening to music while working. It wasn’t a conscious decision. It just happened over time.
And in the past couple years, I also stopped following my favorite genre and many of the artists in it.
If I ever hear that they released new music, sometimes I’ll go listen, but often I lose interest quickly.
As someone who was obsessed with music in his 20s, I was intrigued as to why this was. So I looked it up.
I now can’t find the article, but the premise was that in our teens and 20s, music helps us form and reinforce our identity. We listen to the same music as our friends, online or offline, as a way to feel connected and like we belong.
But as we get older, we have a better sense of who we are, and what we want to do in life. So music is less effective for that.
I certainly feel that way - I’m way more confident in who I am than I was in my 30s. I’ve made a lot of decisions over the past couple of years to stop doing things that were mainly just to fit in. And start doing things that were true to myself.
Impact 1 Billion entrepreneurs by January 1, 2025 - reach 1 Billion unique individuals through Starter Story's products and media.
This is the most important goal because it prioritizes everything else. Every hour of every day will have a purpose, as this is the main goal that I'm working towards for the next 3 years.
Good things come in threes, right? Every 3 years, I set a goal like this. And I put it on a piece of paper and try to read it every morning and evening.
One thing I need to do better: announce this goal to the world. I need to talk about it more. I have some fear that maybe I can't do it, or this is a stupid goal. But I need to be open... There's no more hiding when you state your intentions and purpose with the world.
2. 6AM Wakeup
6AM Weekdays & 6AM Weekends.
Been doing this for a couple months, but I need a few more months to build the habit.
This is the habit that makes all the other good habits fall into place: reading, writing, eating well, etc.
3. NTRP 4.5 Ranking (tennis)
Right now 3.5. In order to get better, I need to:
Find the right coach & take 1 lesson per week
Play 1 match per week
Play 1 person better than me per week
Learn to learn: Drills, books, and cross-training
4. Life & People
Take a week off every quarter, disconnect, learn something new
Travel somewhere every month, even if it’s just for the weekend, or working out of a different city. Spend money on travel.
Unemployment is not high because people are lazy...
Unemployment is high because people are starting their own business.
(+ some thoughts as we enter 2022)
To start a business in 2021:
- You can start with $0 (no VC needed) - You don't need a co-founder - You don't need an accountant, lawyer, coder, marketer, etc - You don't need 'entrepreneur secret sauce' to build a successful business
But most people get the word 'business' wrong.
They think of a nice small business, e.g. ice cream shop or restaurant.
'Business' in 2021 is:
YouTuber, TikToker, podcaster, course seller, e-commerce store operated from bedroom, etc
Those are the new BUSINESSES.
In other words, a good business to start in 2021 is:
Solo, digital, online, from home, non-disruptive, using skills you already have.
For example, this entrepreneur (with no prior experience) makes six figures per day helping people learn Excel on TikTok.
Her background?
She was teaching Excel for fun at her day job. Regular job, climbing the corporate ladder...
But then COVID happened and she all of a sudden had: TIME.
With this extra time, she started teaching people Excel on TikTok.
Now a multimillion-dollar business...
IMO this is only the beginning.
Now we will see a tidal wave of skilled employees taking their talents to the Internet (like the Excel TikToker).
Before 2020, only the 'Innovators' were building solo online businesses.
Now we are entering 'Early Adopters' phase.
Of course, I've seen countless people starting one person, solo, online companies at starterstory.com.
Two days ago, I lost a tennis match that I shouldn’t have lost. It really made me frustrated. I couldn’t sleep that night, and I kept criticizing myself for how I blew my lead - I choked!
I went online and did some more research. Came across this video:
What I took away from this video: Pressure is a privilege. Instead of running from the pressure moments, and wanting to avoid the “nerves”, embrace them.
Flip the “nerves” on their head. Have fun. Be less concerned with the outcome and be more concerned with the present.
Because “nerves” are what lead to progress, if you handle them right.
Being nervous means you’re out of your comfort zone. Which is Step 1 (in tennis, and in life). The only thing you can control is your reaction to those nerves.
You can embrace the pressure, focus, and be at peace with the outcome. Or you can panic, and figure out how to get back into your comfort zone.
What do you say? “Today I lost” or “Today I learned”?
The comfort zone, the learning zone, and the panic zone
You can’t play a really conservative game if you want to win (comfort zone). You also can’t panic and try to hit shots that are out of your wheelhouse. You need to have a balance and hit the shots you know you can hit, be aggressive, and be OK with fucking up, as long as you’re LEARNING from your fuck ups.
Today, I went into a match with this new mindset.
I started out really poorly, lost the first set 1-6.
But it didn’t really phase me. I breathed, laughed, and smiled. I made conversation with the people around me.
Then I took the 2nd set 6-4.
After each changeover, I muttered to myself “embrace the pressure”. I said it loud enough for people to hear me. I smiled and didn’t think about the outcome of the match.
Went to the 3rd set (tiebreaker) with the same mentality.
Here’s an example of what I changed: Before, on a second serve, I’d be nervous and think: “what if I miss this?”. But this time, I felt grateful to have this pressure on me. I embraced the nerves, threw the ball up, and visualized exactly how I wanted to hit it.
I “went for my shots” and I didn’t get mad at myself when I missed. Because I was making the tough, aggressive shots, that I needed to win, and I wasn’t falling back into my comfort zone.
When I missed, I told myself “that was the right shot, good job”.
I won the tiebreak 11-8 and won the match.
Today was my biggest breakthrough, so far, in tennis. This breakthrough had nothing to do with strokes or technique, it was purely mental.
When you’re in the match, you’re not going to get better physically - you can only focus on being mentally tough. Tennis is such a mental game.
I love this game and I feel such a privilege to go through this process!
Yesterday I lost a tennis match for the first time in a while.
It made me think again about what Harry Dry once asked me about tennis: “do you love to lose?”
I think about that often... I don’t love to lose, but I do believe that losing leads to more progress than winning - especially if you want to get better, faster.
Novak Djokovic’s all-time record is 978 wins, 198 losses. That means he still loses around 2 of every 12 matches.
Denis Kudla’s (the #95 tennis player in the world) all-time record is 61 wins, 107 losses. That means he loses almost 2 of every 3 matches.
But Denis Kudla has still won over $3.5M in his career purely from tennis matches.
The Pusher
Yesterday, I lost to a pusher.
In tennis, a pusher (also called a grinder) is an opponent who always hits the ball back in the court, but without any power and speed.
A pusher hopes for a long match. They can get to every ball. And they get most balls back. They grind and wait patiently for you to make the mistake.
After I lost to the pusher, I searched YouTube for strategies on how to beat pushers. This comment made me stop and think:
Pushers are like the gatekeepers to becoming a strong player. Once you’re good and have a complete game they are easy to beat. But as you are learning they are extremely tough.
I love this way of looking at it. Pushers are actually the definition of mediocrity. Their strategy works and they can win matches, but they will never reach the next level.
To Get Better, You Have To Get Worse
Pushers are the type of people that believe success comes purely from hard work and a “grind” mentality.
They’re not willing to take a step back and focus on fundamentals. They’re not willing to fix the holes in their game. They’re not willing to fix their backhand.
I think tennis is like a lot of things in life.
To get better at something, you have to get worse at it, first. Whatever you're trying to learn or improve - you have be OK with sucking at it for a temporary period of time.
Most people are too scared of that idea and they won't even get started
The Mediocre Backhand
For example, if you have a mediocre backhand.
The pusher won’t fix his mediocre backhand. He’ll cover it up, hide it, and protect it with hacky tactics. The pusher avoids his weaknesses.
The balanced player will fix it, and embrace it. He’ll get lessons, watch videos, hit backhands for hours, and will be OK with losing 10+ matches while developing his new backhand.
The balanced player embraces his weaknesses. He loves losing.
