Noah Kagan — How to Launch a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend (#717)

#48hourchallenge – My name is Christian Hartch and I have a business, Treasure Town, which trades rare coins and makes YouTube videos (150,000 subscribers!) about collectibles. I took the same class Tim is referencing (High Tech Entrepreneurship) at Princeton University last semester (was my worst grade ever – LOL) and listened to the full four-hour podcast while working on the business. Pretty sure Tim & I are/were in the same fraternity at Princeton as well… have been a listener since 2019 or so (graduating this Spring).

My team is in the eLab Accelerator on campus and is excited to continue scaling the business by providing people with an awesome collecting experience. We’ve sold over 25,000 individual coins (small relative to mid-large size coin companies, but a great milestone for us) and are ramping up now that my involvement on our water polo team concluded this past fall (so much time back!).

I’d love to meet Noah out in Barcelona, and if selected, my contact info is christianh[at]treasuretown[dot]com. Very appreciative of your podcast.

#48hrchallenge

Thank you Tim and Noah for an amazing episode, as always it was inspiring!

I am a Modern Etiquette and Communication Consultant. I have had my business for over 4 years. I started first under a large franchise model, and then last year legally cut ties with that brand and have been respectfully operating under a non-compete for the past year.

In the past 48 hours I ,
-Sent a survey out to all previous clients to see what they would be interested in for future offerings
-I asked if they would be willing to put a deposit down to hold a spot in future workshops
-I have started Evernote (Thank you for the recommendation from your podcast years ago Tim) Notebooks for the top three business “branches”
-I have a spreadsheet for venue locations and I have created a time block for calling venues daily (so I have done this for the past two days)
-I have outlined my next blog post, after reviewing what it’s popular vs what people are not reading. Turns out, people really just want etiquette information. Most popular blogs reflect how a gentleman dresses and how I plan holiday meals.
– I am meeting tomorrow with two other professionals in different fields to see if we can be a mastermind group to help build our individual businesses.
– At my “Breakfast Club” networking group this morning, I used Tim’s Formula of 1 brag, 1 ask and 1 give for my 30 second pitch (I said how I became an etiquette expert – review my degree in Communication Disorders and Research on the most effect strategy for people with hearing impairment to habilitate to a hearing world), I asked them to read and comment on my last blog, and then I offered a free 30 minute consultation for public speaking for any member of our group.
– I have started a review process of my contract for my two biggest clients last year, evaluated what a price increase would look like, what other services could I offer in addition to the contacts.
– I have set a meeting with the executive board of my largest contact to show value of my consulting skills and facilitate how they will handle rolling out of their positions this year.

Thank. you for the fun conversation and motivation to move forward. One resounding message I heard was that success comes from being succinct or focusing on the one thing that is needed or that you can be excellent with. I would appreciate your time to hash this out a little bit. If I could ask to speak with you, I would like to have your perspective of this as a market that I could build and sell. Ultimately, it is not sustainable for me to be teaching etiquette as a one woman show for the next 25 years. I would like your insights on how a social consultant business could grow into a sellable company. I would appreciate your thoughts on publishing as the gateway to becoming a keynote speaker. I will come prepared with open ears to listen and learn and a curious mind full of thought out questions.

Thank you for the space to dive into this challenge and to know there is still Hope for Entrepreneurs to learn and grow.

#48hourchallenge
I’ve been listening to Noah Kagan and Tim Ferriss for years.
I’ve had the itch to get into entrepreneurship but never really got started. Well I would always tell myself I was getting started by researching and exploring the idea, but there wasn’t any action to bring the idea to life.

I have made more progress in the last 48 hrs than I have had in the last 10 years.
– Validated business idea on colleagues “English Conversation Lessons based off of popular streaming shows.”
– Built a quick landing page + booking on WIX. (Sorry I tried TidyCal, but I want to sell subscriptions and WIX had it working faster)
– Using Canva as a shareable whiteboard for interactive lesson
– Applied for LLC
– Made my first sale. (Big Discount, but hoping for more testimonials and referrals)
– Getting request / talking to other teachers who want to join

Just wanted to say thanks for 10+ years of advice. It’s been stewing in me and now it seems to be ready.

Great episode, can’t believe I’m finally caught up on the podcast to the point where I can participate! My #48hourchallenge came as a weekend plot twist after I lost my wallet at Perry’s on Union in SF.

Embracing the entrepreneurial spirit, I l turned inconvenience into inspiration and launched a centralized fingerprint payment system (OVE Touch & Go). I’ve been moonlighting for 4 years and would love the opportunity to flip the script, quit my job and take my startup full time.

Plus the opportunity to return to Barcelona (mi ciudad favorita) would be amazing! Noah – please say we are going to Bo de B and Razzmatazz!!!

Thanks for episode, I’ve learned a lot from both of you guys over the years.

I run a few online businesses and for the #48hourchallenge I decided to learn how to deploy custom AI models, deploy a music generation model to complement my lyric generation website, and soft launch it to my existing users.

I’ve already made $4000 in new subscription sign ups and am working on a hard launch in another week once I iron out some kinks.

Thanks for the motivation!

#48HourChallenge

So I‘ve been thinking for 5 years now about creating a personal brand on the area of personal development or my cringy title „spiritual mentoring“.

One of the greatest challenges for me was perfectionism, especially when it comes to creating videos of myself. Filmed them a tausend times but never posted.

I decided to do the opposite to get momentum. Do them as minimal as I could. Intentionally make the production value „low“ (no fancy lights, simple equipment, probably like most videos are made ^^). But all in the aim of putting myself out there and start spreading the message I have to share.

In the equivalent of 48 hours I managed to create 3 videos up to now (2 have been posted as of writing this post). But If I get the chance to work with Noah for a Day, would be amazing to experience more of what can make the process of creating a personal brand more efficient, successful!

Here‘s the link to the Videos and the channel: [Moderator: YouTube link to J J Buldin channel on YouTube (at) jjbuldin redacted per embed policy.]

I know it‘s not much rn. But It‘s the beginning (which I ‚officially did 5 years ago, there is a video about it).

Funny sidenote: I am latino, and my GF also made me keep the M‘stach.

So there it is! Thanks for the great conversation Tim and Noah. Greeting from the Austrian Alps

#48hourchallenge

It’s now two days since I listened to the podcast, so I may be too late to enter the competition, but still wanted to share my results after doing the #48hourchallenge.

I have not made any money, but I have taken more productive steps on my business than the 3 weeks prior. I was able to finish setting up my website with a ”join waitlist” button to try and validate my idea. I have made a list of companies I want to work with and who I think would benefit from my service, and I have started reaching out to them, asking if they would be interested in what I have to offer (overcoming my fear of asking).

To get more distribution, I’m trying to partner with a creator with a good product-audience-fit. Therefore, I’ve been reaching out to some creators as well, asking if they want to partner up this.

Thanks Noah and Tim for giving me a kick in the ass! Hopefully this can lead to my first client, or maybe even invalidating my idea so I can move on to the next one.

#48hourchallange

Value Add First to NOAH:
MY MOM IS THE MICHAEL JORDAN OF NANIES
& BABY SLEEP TRAINGING COACHES!

Congrats Noah on the news of a baby! Background: My mother is raised 8 kids of her own kids. Then, became a highly specialized/sought after nanny for top surgeons in at Penn University Medicine. Her baby sleep training approach is developed with occupational therapist, pediatric MD specialist, and tons of research. I (along with everyone I know) did it for my baby. My daughter went from waking up 3 times a night for an hour to 12 hours of strait sleep IMMEDIATLY after only two training sessions and has not relapsed.

Baby Sleep Training Process:
FROM MOMMA ARCIDIACONO:
It does work if you are consistent. The first night is the toughest because you are constantly going in to reassure the baby but not pick him up. Because of this, the baby won’t be scared just pissed you’re not picking him up.

You can call me with any questions!!

Sleep training

Your baby should be at least FOUR months old (older if preemie) and drinking 28+ ounces during the day.

Before starting this three night sleep training you need to start weaning your baby from any nighttime bottle feeding by decreasing the ounces slowly the week or two prior. For example, if your baby is getting up at midnight and at 4 AM and drinking 6 ounces you should decrease the ounces to 4 ounces then 2 ounces after a few nights at a time.

THREE NIGHT SLEEP TRAINING

Must commit to three nights consecutive sticking to the plans, however many hours it takes. It may be a rough couple nights (usually just day one is a lot). It’s hard to hear your baby cry, but if you realized your baby needs a good night sleep as much as the parents do, you will stick to the schedule. If your baby cries for hours, then you give in, you just made your baby cry for no reason.

Need to purchase if don’t already have…
Swaddle wrap or Magic Merlin Sleep Suit (make sure finger aren’t bent back when putting on)
White noise machine on high all night
Huggies Overnight diapers (possibly also need a diaper insert pads to prevent leakage)

Bottle before bed
Put your baby to bed awake with pacifier if needed
Your baby should be In crib in baby’s room
overnight diaper
Swaddle or Magic Merlin suit
White noise machine (ON HIGH ALL NIGHT)

Put your baby in crib awake tired with noise maker on high volume all night.
If/when baby cries, wait five minutes before going back in room.
After five minutes go back in the room. Do NOT pick up your baby. Soothe your baby by talking and caressing head, body, face for ONE minute.
After one minutes, leave the room.

Set your timer for ten minutes before going back in room. After ten minutes, go back in and ONLY talk to your baby. DO NOT TOUCH, caress, or pick up baby. ONLY SPEAK to calm your baby for ONE MINUTE. Leave room after one minute.

Set alarm for 15 minutes before going back in room. After 15 minutes go back in and ONLY talk to your baby. Do not caress, touch or pick up baby. Only speak to calm baby for ONE MINUTE. Leave room after one minute.

Repeat the last step for as long as your baby cries…Every 15 minutes go back in your babies room and only speak to your baby to calm him down. Do not pick up baby or touch baby. Stay one minutes then repeat…

Go in every 15 minutes from here on for ONE minutes to TALK to your baby to calm him. DO THIS FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES FOR YOUR BABY TO FALL ASLEEP.

Repeat for the next two night. Each night should get better. Fourth night your baby should be sleeping through the night. Be consistent moving forward after this. Your
baby should always be put in his crib tired but awake so they learn how to sooth themselves to sleep. Obviously if baby is sick, none of this applies.

It is very difficult to hear your baby cry. The first night you may be up most of the night going in to calm your baby down every 15 minutes. Your baby will feel secure throughout the night because you are constantly going in to assure them that you are with them by speaking to them. Since you are going in every 15 minutes, your baby won’t be afraid or feel abandoned (he will probably just be pissed that you’re not picking him up!)

If you don’t think you can go through hearing your baby cry, especially because you are exhausted yourself, then you should not even begin this. If you start it, you should stick to it so your baby does not cry for no reason. Hopefully it will not take hours, but be prepared.

I just trained my grandson in a total of 14 minutes crying (5 minutes, then I went in for a minute, then 9 minutes later he feel asleep for the night. Never making it to the first ten minute mark). It’s heartbreaking and I was tempted to go in at 8 minutes…so glad I didn’t because a minutes later he was asleep for the night.

It has worked with my children, children I nanny, and now my grandchild.
From all the specialist and my experience… I stressed the importance of sticking this out for three consecutive nights.

If you don’t think you can go through hours hearing your baby cry, then you should not even begin this. If you start it, you should stick to it so your babies not crying for no reason. Hopefully it will not take hours, but be prepared.

Love-
Momma Arch

…if you don’t choose me. I hope this helps you anyway. If you want more info reach out.

Result within 48 hours: From the moment I started listening to this podcast with both of you.
– I started my design and construction residential building business.
– I have closed $4,438.88 in sales. HOW?… Door to door. I knocked on my neighbors door houses for construction projects to do. I will send you jobber.com breakdown.
-I got a the next in line to CFO of five bellow to venmo me $1 and join my board. (Lunch Scheduled)
– Scheduled/ Cold Call meetings with 3 successful building business owners.
– I got a great Estimating/CRM/Payment System $15/Month (Jobber.com); Opened Business Ach Bank Account, Got Business Phone Number $10/ month Verizon one talk.

I will be in Barcelona Anyway! If you are able to make it work I will be in Barcelona Feb 28th – March 6th. I can also extend or come early.

Gavin Arcidiacono
Philadelphia Pennsylvania
[Moderator: Contact information redacted from comment but preserved in intake fields and screenshot.]
GrandKey Design and Build Construction

G’day Tim & Noah,
Thanks so much for the podcast episode, it has kicked me into gear for the shake up my business needed #48hourchallenge
I own a small business baking brownies in Brisbane Australia.
It was our 8th Birthday last week and every year we deliver a brownie cake to our first ever customer – Chris as it’s his birthday too!
I started this business as I saw a lack of great customer service, so brownie are the vehicle to deliver that, and this has paid off with growing a great local community- we were voted Best Brownie in Brisbane by the leading Newspaper thanks to this great community and have 5 star rating on Facebook.
We have grown year on year since we started, even during Covid – so we’ve sat down and really had a good hard look at our business (My wonderful Husband Allan helps out and 2 of my daughters work for me while studying)
We asked alot of WHY questions off the back of listening to the podcast and really looked at how I can streamline the business and as was mentioned right at the end, be a bit kinder to myself- as I do alot of 12-16 hour days and was starting to wear this like a badge of honour – this has to stop! I only have one life and this little man made monster as I affectionately call it, has to start working for me. I have listened to The 4 hour work week a bunch of times and that was after my personal trainer gave me 4 hour body back in like 2011. So I had already done things like batching emails but this sit down chat about the business has challenged some of my unsubstantiated beliefs & I am now implementing some things and giving me back some time.
Thanks guys for really making me have a good hard look at my business and make some changes to tip the scales on work life balance.
Cheers
Tracy

I did a complete overhaul at my Jiu Jitsu academy. Hired a local artist and we painted the whole thing for 14 hours a day.

Hope it brings people in! #48hourchallenge

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2tKrfoJp65/?igsh=MXd1dHppemx5ZGViOQ==

Thank you for your great podcast together. We are building an app where we could use the 48 hours challenge with. Noah doesn’t need to fly far if he is in Barcelona. I stay not far from there. #48hourchallenge

#48hourchallenge

First off…. If nothing else, while listening to this interview Noah inspired me to visit Barcelona. I priced a trip from my local airport to Barcelona and ended up getting a deal w/amex points. I’ll be there for 10 days in April. Never been, have no plan, and I’m going solo.

I hate the idea of having to go solo and forcing myself to meet new people cold turkey, but …..thats why I need it.

My Bizz
I have a great day job, but have always been passionate about health. I hosted a podcast for over a year called Chasing Energy on this topic.

While listening to Rhonda Kilpatrick extoll the virtues of sprouting, I tried it out myself. I did like EVERYONE ELSE and used a mason jar and it was hardly worth the effort.

I later heard her on @Kevin Rose’s podcast and both of them said it was just too much to keep up with.

This got me frustrated. I spent 3 years, 10 prototypes and finally designed a device called the Sprout Spout. It is a massive improvement and innovation over the current sprout options offered. 3 seconds a day, 4 days gets you 8 – 10 cups of nutritious sprouts. Harvest and cleanup is a joke. No more deep dives on sanitizing the deep corners of a glass jar.

We are about a month out from launching our ecommerce store.

I have no experience and have had to learn everything from LLC setup to patent to shipping to packaging to marketing as I’ve gone along.

Things are about to get real!!!

I’d love some guidance on how to guide this into a 1 mill $$ business.

Thanks you Tim and Noah for your candor and insights.

All the best

Daniel

#48hourchallenge

The timing of this episode was spot-on. I have recently ventured into creating my own EdTech start-up, and I had a mental block that convinced me I couldn’t sell, offer, or even talk about my start-up until my MVP was market-ready. In other words, I wanted my MVP to be my full product.

Your podcast reminded me of the importance of talking to all the stakeholders involved with the product, including our buyers. So, I decided to discuss our vision with as many stakeholders as possible.

Now, I have not only received great feedback to enhance our product further but also managed to secure a meeting with a potential major client, even without having a complete product; discovered some financing opportunities; and a new person might even join the team.

#48hourchallengd

#48hourchallenge
I started an ecommerce business selling eclipse glasses for the upcoming total eclipse. For a while I was too caught up in the strategy, what is the best target market (wholesale vs retail) and how should we aim to reach them. After a few months of trying to figure this out, I pivoted and decided to just do something.

I found the CFO of the largest manufacturer of these glasses in the country, dm’ed him on linkedin and was able to source through him. I then built a website and started selling them. Sales started to come in and our strategy completely changed, eclipsing 15k in sales so far. All because I embraced the #48hourchallenge and “now not who”

#48hrchallenge
Have to be honest, had never heard of Noah before (have heard of appsumo though) and have been following Tim since I read 4HWW in 2007. This was an absolutely amazing episode. Short and sweet (because I’m posting from my car; parked), here is what I did:

– booked (and quickly completed) 2 important meetings
– those meetings lead to 5 high level introductions – meetings yet to happen
– brainstormed v2.0 of our SAAS (currently operating our MVP for past year trying to drum up business – zero revenue)
– completed schematic of v2.0 to hand to developers, which includes an immediate pathway to revenue once completed in 2 to 3 months.

We’re far from done, but I am extacted about the 2 day push.

Thanks,
Derek

Hey guys 🙂

Loved the podcast, but I just couldn’t leave the part about Poland uncommented😁
It is true that 10k a month is a lot in Poland, but nowhere near the millions. Does put you maybe in top 5%, but what is fascinating and maybe worth considering, if you are a digital nomad, is that you can actually live a pretty comfortable life in Poland if you have 2 people working minimum wage jobs (about 1k US a month). You can actually rent a 2 bedroom apartment and afford food, which doesn’t seem to be the case in any of the States. You also get free healthcare and free schools (university included)😁
And really guys. Please do visit and you can see that is it not a 3rd world country like you make it sound 😂 I will be happy to show you around 😁
Best
Michal

#48hourschallenge

I run an influencer marketing company, we work with thousands of creators per month, force-growing brands.
I’ve been postponing what I’ve accomplished these last 48 hours for literally more than 1 year, due to the time I estimated it takes to complete.
Instead, I started this Friday morning with Tim & Noah on the pod, and I decided that there’s way more I can get done in these 48 hours than my brain tells me.
Sat down, full focus, not even 48 hours yet, but got 80% of it done.

An internal restructuring of roles, needed to scale from our current 50 people to 200-300, that brings clarity overall in the org.

Also, I finished the episode in 3 mornings, which was quite a challenge due to you guys ranting on for 4 hours haha.

Thanks for the awesome content and inspiration, legends.

#48hourchallenge

Mr. Kagan and Mr. Ferriss, great format with the casual conversation. Hearing Tim laughed numerous times during this podcast was heart warming.

Been working on a Shopify application which I spent way too much time on development. The podcast came at the right time; especially when Noah talked about to validate the market first. That was a wake up call. Have been speaking to multiple potential customers.

Please keep up the great work guys!

John

Hi Tim and Noah

#48hourchallenge

Thank you for such an amazing Podcast.

The Podcast helped re-inspire me to do more in a different way.

You are right, showing people what product you have and hoping they will come grab it is not the best approach.

On the other hand, reaching out to people and talking to them to see if theres any interest and getting them to say yes to you and themselves is a whole new level I haven’t seen.

I run a business called The Mind At One Coaching and I help men and women heal from their past Sexual Trauma. I find it a challenge for men and women to reach out for help and even when they do… they disappear due to how they feel about themselves and about healing.

I want to be to hold a retreat to provide them with all the resource they require to move on from the past and help them heal.

So this 48hrs
– I will direct message everyone in my FB sexual trauma group and find out if theres any interest in a retreat to help them heal
– Also to support the retreat and cause to put money towards it
– I will start learning how to negotiate and be a better communicator by starting the 10% discount question on my purchases this weekend

I would love to sit down and learn from you.
I understand this may not be the speciality that you niche in. However, I believe underneath my niche there is a business aspect that requires learning.

You mentioned you have a coach for your emotions. I believe that is amazing. Having your feedback on what I am working on would be amazing. In return, this will help me, help others heal from their past trauma

Thank you so much

Cally

I got my butt into gear and took major action for this #48hourchallenge.
I have decided to launch a CPG product and found myself in a bind when it came to hiring a graphic designer and a marketing agency. Do I go with the bargain-priced people I can afford from Fiverr and risk poor quality and time delays? Or do I go into major debt hiring people I can’t afford? One marketing agency told me they have the best google ads genius in the world, but I need at least $300,000 to pay for it. Instead of mulling this dilemma over until my brain turned to soup, I quickly purchased two courses online and started them both. One is on Adobe Illustrator and the other is on Google Ads. I plan to do my own design and marketing in the beginning until I get a MVP. I’ve gained quite a bit of momentum this way rather than letting analysis paralysis take me down. I created enthusiasm and energy around launching my product. Thank you Noah and Tim.

#48hourchallenge

Noah – Thank you for distilling these strategies and making them accessible for the average person. It’s clear you put a lot of effort so that anyone can crack the code if they desire.

Results after 48 hour challenge: 6 customers acquired, 1 blog post written, email list started, 5 companies emailed for partnerships, 2 co-founders messaged, side-side hustle started

I don’t drink coffee, so when I picked up my meds from CVS, I asked for a 10% discount. Puzzled, the pharmacist explained my insurance paid $600 dollars for the drug and my co-pay was only $25. I replied “Thank you! And can I still get 10% off?”. The pharmacist said no. XD

Following the process, I identified my niche, a need, and messaged my top ten. “You want to charge for a tool that will tell me how much things will cost when I arrive somewhere I haven’t traveled before?”. No takers (at least they told me fast!). I felt the sting of failure, but kept moving. Idea #2 was a hit – 1 taker immediately, 5 more came the next day. Bingo! Off to the races. Materials ordered and I’m going to ask feedback from each customer to learn.

My 48 hours were over – but the fire had been lit. I have footage from 1.5 years of travel of products I love in cool, remote places. I emailed these 5 brands of which I’m an avid user to see if they would pay for the footage or for me to be an ambassador. Worst they can say is no!

MDW makes it clear there’s no limit to the value one can create. I get excited everytime I see problems, and now I keep coming up with ideas. There were two products I thought of in the shower and then learned they were currently being manufactured by early stage startups. I messaged both companies. I offered my skills, why they might need someone like me at this stage, and offered to work for free in exchange to negotiate for equity if I can provide legitimate value. Responses pending.

Joking with a friend today about the past 72 hours, we threw around the idea for funny t-shirts that our community of dirtbag climbers would want to buy. My side-side hustle is now underway. This is mostly because I want to wear these shirts!

Your story made it clear that repeated action is the recipe for success. Thank you for this gift of knowledge Noah. Thank goodness you were fired from FB! Who knows what our world would look like without you inspiring those who need it.

P.S. – Tim – Thank you for another great episode. Your documentation of your journey (from 4HWW to now) has increased my quality of life dramatically. It’s clear you’re thoughtful and have a desire to give back to your community. I hope on your lowest days, you know that you could eat Cheez-its on your couch for the rest of your existence and you’d still have good karma points to spare.

#48hourchallenge

#48hourchallenge

Hi Noah and Tim,

Thank you for this insightful podcast. I’ve been a longtime listener and fan. I’m an artist, former journalist. While studying Comms, Business, and Publishing in college, I worked on a morning show from 5am-9am and waitressed in the evenings. I went to grad school and worked at two renowned outlets while studying. I stayed at the second for a few years before taking a sabbatical to write novels.

I’ve been working with an editor over the last six years. I have three novels, four revisions on the first, two on the second, and a completed draft of the third. But there’s a hesitation to complete.

In my first year of writing these novels, I fell into artistry and it has become my sole source of income. I’m in an industry where I cannot control much. I’ve been “throwing paint at the walls and seeing what sticks.” My brain recognizes patterns and numbers best and so my tactic has been to work harder than everyone else and put in 10,000+ hours. I feel anxious that opportunities will stop presenting themselves if I place all my proverbial eggs in one basket, but I feel stretched thin. As Tim says, it should be easier. I’d love Noah’s help with a life audit. I want to refine my processes, optimize my time to only the essentials, get more focused, invest in the right activities, and shorten my morning routine.

After listening to the podcast, in the last 48 hours, I first did a SWOT analysis of myself as a business. I’m enthusiastic, hardworking, and willing, but my weaknesses are in action (when it comes to being self-employed). The first thing I did was find an ops person. I reached out to five VAs on fiverr to 1) find agents that would be interested in my novels and send out queries, 2) do my social (for my needs, I chose fiverr over hiremymom), and 3) enter data and analyze trends. I am beginning a one-month trial for each of them – giving them variations of the same task.

I nervously followed up with friends and took them up on their offers to beta read my novel, tabbing ten pages they might find most interesting; reinstalled instagram and set up the next few weeks of instagram posts; and logged 10 hours in Research and Development. I also scheduled and paid for a few ongoing language classes that would open up opportunities for my line of work. Lastly, I created a portfolio for critique and reached out to industry professionals I admire and asked if I could pay them a fee for consultation, “My network is my net worth.” I found the last part the most difficult. In my industry, this isn’t normal and I was worried about potential backlash. I was also unsure of how much to offer them, but the LinkedIn messages have been sent and I look forward to their responses. Thanks for this little kick in the butt.

Thanks so much Noah and Tim. Loved this. Such good practical advice.
Noah after this I signed a contract to put on a big sports summit focussed on getting young people off the streets into sport and movement. I’ve been contacting sponsors and speakers plus we got the website live [Moderator: Link removed to includesummit (dot) com.]

I’d really love to work on the business with you in Barcelona. This is an event that is not only about making money but having impact on young people who need help. Lets do this

Hi Noah and Tim,

I decided to get out of my own way and commit to your #48hourchallenge this past weekend!

To start I had to remove all my excuses. I did all my grocery shopping and house cleaning during the week so come Friday night after work I was able to sit down with a clear mind and start – without reeling off a list of reasons not to.

Firstly on the Friday night I started by establishing a few tangible outcomes I wanted to see by the end of the weekend which included logo, basic website, get 3 people to commit to purchasing the product and an eBook. And then under each of those big goals, wrote down a bunch of little tasks that would help me achieve that goal, on the proviso that I would only spend time on it if in the end met one of these bigger weekend goals. That really helped me stay focused and not go down rabbit holes.

It got easier as it went on to say to myself “Get it DONE not perfect” which helped me move on from spending too much time on the little details (for example logo fonts) to get really big chunks of work done. The time constraint in the back of my mind actually propelled me forward and drove me to actually completing tasks rather than procrastinating and tell myself I would “come back to them later”.

At the end of the weekend (I ended up spending 21 hours and 5 minutes of focused hours on the project from Friday – Sunday evening) I had created so much more than I hoped – a lead magnet, eBook, website and have established a business name, domain, etc. all centered around the idea of creating a tool for older people to be able to craft a Legacy Letter. Four of my friends committed to buying the end product to give to their parents!! I love everything I have created and am really proud of the process I undertook to achieve it!

Next steps – Marketing planning and execution, and officially launching the website!

Thanks so much for the inspo!

Vamos!

Kim

#48hourchallenge

Hey there-quick bit of feedback. While I am a complete fangirl of all you do (won’t go in to details, just know, love love), this episode got me to reply. Cutting right to the chase, regarding the “hugging” comments. There is so much stigma about touch and connection, I longed for a more “boundary” centric commentary rather than what came off to me as “shame” based. As well, while I completely agree with “time and place” around people approaching yourself and Noah, he promotes the assertiveness, so why would’t people do so…Unfortunately, while I would have sent this episode to my 22 yo and recommended to a few others, I will avoid given the mixed message and the weirdness around “hugging.”

Looks like I missed out on the #48HourChallenge, so good luck to the winner..

But I’ll post my situation anyway…

I am a retired software developer living in Japan. When covid hit, I came out of “retirement” and spent 2 years writing software to help me learn Japanese more efficiently. I then started a Japanese company, developed a WEB site for users to download the software and have been trying to develop a following of both students and Instructors.

There are a few hurdles (not the least of which is speaking the language) which have been hampering my success.

While I can “speak” Japanese conversationally, my comprehension is very poor (thus the reason I created the software…), and adding in the various levels of “polite” speech necessary in Japanese business practices, it’s not in my best interest to do presentations myself…(I had hoped to find a Japanese business partner early on, but have not had much luck…probably the most important issue…)

In any case, in the last 48 hours:

* I signed up for an account on AppSumo 🙂
(actually I did that a couple of weeks ago, but I’m filling in the details this weekend…)

* Created a private WEB page and videos to target specific Japanese language instructors – I have dozens, if not hundreds of learning sites, programs, etc. where I am trying to target customers – the software is complimentary to these sites, not direct competition…

* Sent a few e-mails of introduction to potential users/instructors based on the above sites

Note that “Introductions” are essential in Japan, and my biggest hurdle to date – there doesn’t seem to be a “group” of professional Language teachers on Linked-In, nor have I found the appropriate Facebook/MeetUp/Etc. type of individuals…

Any advice appreciated!

Thanks!

#48hourchallenge
This episode was a complete beast, packed with so much value that I probably have to hear it a couple of times 😁

My 48h challenge was to create an analysis sheet for our first employee. Sounds not so special at all, but if you try to scale your business it is incredibly hard to put the emotions and feelings you have for your „business baby“ into numbers!

Thanks to Tim and Noah for this episode!

Dear Tim and Noah,

thanks for this challenge. It kicked my ass to execute on the vision I have had for years now.

It took me around 3 hours to draft me a letter to be sent (via snail mail) to 1,000 contacts (research and completion 5 hours) in a specific niche for this products.

Now, two weeks after sending it, the results are (at the time of writing):
– 83 confirmations and intents to move forward

With a SaaS product, with a pricing structure:
– 2,497 € setup fee (50% discount, normally 4,999 €)
– 69 € monthly fee (87% discount, normally 499 €)

Which sums up to 275,975 € for the very first draft. The next weekends I’m in the trenches to actually build the product to deliver it in May. The prototype / singular execution is already working. Need to build a tenant structure around it now.

#48hourchallenge for the win!

My #48hourchallenge officially start yesterday. I drove to DistribuTech in Orlando in order to find my first customer for IoT and Machine Learning consulting services! I’m here , day two and networking like crazy !

#48hourchallenge !

Tim and Noah, thank you for the wisdom shared, and I am excited to read the book – just ordered (along with A Million Miles in a Thousand Years!)

I have just established the framework for a niche concierge business in an industry / market segment I am a SME in. I got most of the legal paperwork in place this morning, and have begun on wireframes for the website, with outreach done for web devs (if there are any here reading this comment, HMU!). Today I am calling and emailing my network to pitch the idea and secure first investors at a low level, such as you guys discussed on the pod.

The idea and model are solid. I know the plan for success, am I am on it now thanks to you guys.

Thanks again!
Alex

How To Beat Google Ventures With 1 Simple Question And A $7 Microphone

“Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.”

— Raymond Teller

“God made the senses turn outwards, man therefore looks outwards, not into himself. But occasionally a daring soul, desiring immortality, has looked back and found himself.”

— The Upanishads

“Holy shit,” I thought. “I just found my million-dollar idea.”

As the manager of a ritzy burger joint, it seemed like another ordinary day serving our usual customers. A steady stream of remote worker bros endlessly yammered on their AirPods. Blonde women fresh out of yoga distracted me with every tousle of their perfectly unperfect hair. Faceless executives schemed over oxtail and green curry aioli.

After I watched yet another rich corporate automaton neglect to tip, I rolled my eyes.

“How much longer do I have to endure this?” I thought.

I stole a quick glance at my phone—and was caught off-guard.

On my lock screen: a single text from an unknown number.

I opened the message.

What I read instantly shocked me into adrenaline-fueled overdrive.

Specifically, the last three words:

“I am interested.”

It was my mom’s best friend. She found out about what I was selling and was ready to buy. In less than 48 hours, I sold her $598 worth of product—without spending a cent on advertising. Along with the two other customers, I had a grand total of three buyers. My idea was validated.

My business wasn’t a new idea. I wasn’t the first person in the sector. I didn’t even have a website. But I had something no one else on Earth had: the interview.

It’s July 3rd, 2019. A thin black cord snakes out of the headphone jack in my iPhone. Draped across a worn coffee table, it meanders around two glasses of water and a French dictionary, then runs up the front of a black tee shirt. The cord ends with a lapel mic clipped onto the neckline, below the kind eyes of the person sitting across from me: my ninety-one year old grandmother, Munz.

There she was: the woman who’d lived through the Great Depression, World War II, and the birth of the Internet, punctuated by countless presidencies. Amid the chaos of an alcoholic husband, she had raised my dad and three other sons.

She was dwarfed by the tattered green armchair that stuck out among the weathered wood and tidy bookshelves. The chair was her favorite spot to read, and a gift from the daughter she never had: my mom. That day, there was a purity in her presence. Life’s difficulty had been stripped away and she was simply sitting with me, a tabula rasa. The summer light threw burning parallelograms on the Oriental rug at our feet, a vestige of her time as an antiques dealer. She looked at me patiently, waiting for the first question.

I asked it before I realized it was even a thought:

“What’s your earliest memory?”

The next hour was a cold plunge into a world I had only read about. There was no electricity on her family’s farm. The bathing wash tub was filled with water heated on a wood stove. Butchers and greengrocers delivered food to the family’s rented icebox in the city—a PO box for perishables. The first time she flipped a light switch, she was overcome with an intoxicating rush of excitement.

During that conversation, I had a revelation. I realized the one thing I never wanted to lose—and the one thing I would inevitably lose—was every single person I loved. And when I lost a person, I would lose their stories, too.

A second revelation—the value of this idea—would reveal itself six years later, in a moment of blinding clarity.

I’m not the most likely of entrepreneurs. My business history reads like the miserable first half of every great comeback story:

2000: My nine-year-old sister opens a business selling candy and stickers to the family, tied to a points system. Four-year-old me learns the pains of inflation as the points I earn arbitrarily buy fewer and fewer items over the next few weeks.

2010: I begin working for my dad during the summers, doing construction site cleanup. I’m repeatedly reprimanded for cloud-gazing and singing. I spend an entire summer working in my mom’s salmon-colored khaki pants before I realize I’m the only one on the job site dressed like a coxswain on his day off.

2018: I graduate college and start Boomerang Marketing, a social media marketing agency. My parents come up with the name because they like that it had “Boomer” in it. I book my dad as my first client. Drunk off Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Work Week, I get in trouble by claiming I will only be working four hours a week. I quit the business after two months to prevent gouging my eyes out optimizing another Facebook ad.

2019: I move to the Dominican Republic and start The Perfect Soundwave, a weekly curated playlist of non-misogynistic EDM. I build an email list of fifty people and bag a sponsorship from the same earplug company that works with NPR and Redbull. I spend the next year trying to figure out why my Paypal subscription button isn’t working. I finally give up.

2020: I forget that the Paypal issue was due exclusively to my lack of coding skills. I decide I will become a freelance coder and travel the world. I enroll in an online course. A few weeks later, while debugging some Javascript, I spend ten minutes looking for a single misplaced comma—and decide coding isn’t the right path for me. I hire an Albanian twelve-year-old on Fiverr to walk me through the final project. He becomes my therapist for a few hours as I dump all my frustrations about coding on him. He does not offer to help me out in the future.

2022: I move back to my home state and decide I will become an excitement coach. I write an entire curriculum. I spam my pitch so many times that Facebook bans me from sending any messages for twenty-four hours, twice. Somehow, I manage to do the same thing for iMessage. I finally get two people on the phone for a consultation call, only to realize that neither has any money to spend.

2022: I pivot, realizing that loneliness is a recurring problem in my life. I decide to coach people on strategies that have worked for me. I write up another curriculum and beg two people to coach them for free. Halfway through, I realize thirty days isn’t enough time to fill a gaping emotional hole in a person’s life. I quit, yet again.

Five years after the interview with my grandma, it’s 2023. I’m out of ideas. Entrepreneurship has never seemed so far away. Every attempt to make money has failed. I’m making food in a restaurant, and I have no momentum. I’ve quietly shelved the idea that I could be an entrepreneur á la 4-Hour Work Week.

As a Hail Mary, I apply to a Master’s program for journalism. As one of my application pieces, I leverage my decade of experience making electronic music and working with audio. I splice together interview segments of my grandma talking about living in San Francisco after college, juxtaposing her trip to my trip living in the Dominican Republic after college.

I’m accepted to the program, and I keep thinking about that submission. On a whim, I rework the application piece. I remove everything about my story, add more of my grandma’s unique anecdotes, and pair the audio to some unreleased songs I had produced.

When I show the finished product to my parents, they are astonished. Suddenly, Munz is back in the room with us. It’s the second time I’ve ever seen my dad cry. I’m proud of my work, but I don’t think much about it.

Fast forward to 2024, when I hear Noah Kagan talking about Million Dollar Weekend on The Tim Ferriss Show.

Cue revelation number two.

Once I heard the episode, I realized that I had been sitting on my million-dollar idea this entire time. If my dad was brought to tears by hearing his mom two years after her death, would other people want to record their loved ones, too? I preordered the book that day and waited excitedly for it to come out.

Once I read through most of Million Dollar Weekend, I was ready.

That weekend, the 48-hour challenge began.

On Saturday, when I researched the market size for my idea (page 71), I stumbled across a Google Ventures-backed company that turns 30-minute phone interviews into 15-minute family heirlooms. That was the validation I needed.

It was also a huge problem. How could I, a lone entrepreneur working minimum wage with zero connections, compete against the hulking behemoth that is Google—a company with billions of dollars at its disposal?

To find my competitive edge, I turned to a three-part framework I’ve honed over years of meditation. It reveals the hidden gifts in personal and professional problems. I call it Advantage Awareness.

First, I listed the issues.

1. The competition makes preserving a family story as easy as a phone call, so they can get anyone, anywhere. I couldn’t compete with that frictionless experience.

2. Even if I managed to have a good phone conversation, thirty minutes wasn’t enough time to dig into the details of the interesting stories.

3. I couldn’t get good enough audio quality from a phone call that would meet my high standards.

4. If I competed on the same price point as this venture-backed company, I’d go broke.

Second, I asked myself one crucial question: How is the problem the advantage?

Then, I examined each problem as an advantage.

1. I couldn’t compete with a virtual interaction. But fifteen years of acting, teaching, and speaking foreign languages means I didn’t have to. I’m much stronger in person. In that arena, I could leverage an intoxicating magnetism I’ve sharpened for over a decade. Reaching anyone anywhere is good for virtual interactions. However, the scale of the competition means they can’t send their interviewers to each physical location—the travel costs would be astronomical. If I did my interviews in-person, I could dominate.

2. I had little confidence I could get good interview material in thirty minutes or less. But my struggle with loneliness meant longer conversations were more personally satisfying. I would increase the interview time to an hour, which would allow my magnetism to work its charm most effectively. I would also be able to follow my curiosity without worrying about how to extract good stories in under thirty minutes.

3. I had no idea how to get high-quality audio from a phone call. But a decade of producing music, DJing, and working with sound domestically and internationally meant I saw a different path. If I recorded the interview myself, produced my own backing tracks, and mixed and mastered the final product, I could make a higher quality product than using audio from a phone call. I even found the $7 lapel mic I had used to record Munz’ interview six years ago.

4. I didn’t know how to compete with rock-bottom prices. But what if I didn’t have to? If I doubled the price, the hour-long interview, original music, production expertise, and face-to-face interaction would more than justify the cost. Paired with the loneliness epidemic, I knew older generations would consciously pay to capture family stories, while subconsciously paying to alleviate loneliness.

Third—the final part of Advantage Awareness—I pieced my advantages together to form a solution: An in-person, hour-long interview where I do the interview, music, and production myself, at twice the price.

Suddenly, I wasn’t competing on price or speed. In fact, I wasn’t competing with the company at all.

These differentiators would put things squarely back in my control. The interview audio quality would be higher. It would alleviate loneliness for both people. And I could utilize the networks I’ve already built in my local community instead of using digital ads.

And just like that, the product was born. I call them life recordings: one-hour conversations that I reduce into 15-20 minutes, set to music, and—if people choose—pair it with a slideshow of meaningful pictures from the interviewee’s life.

On Saturday night, I called my parents to ask them if they knew anyone who would be interested in doing a life recording. They told me two of their neighbors were moving into a retirement home next month. My parents committed to buying each of them a life recording as a thank you for being a part of the community.

Suddenly, I was in business.

On Sunday, I spent three hours making a one-minute ad, bugging my parents to listen to iteration after iteration until I had something I was proud of. That night, I emailed the final version to my mom and started to plan how to get the word out.

A few days later, my mom’s friend texted me. She’d heard the ad when my mom showed it to her at the hair salon. I sold her a life recording package for $299, scheduling the interview for the next day.

That next day, at the end of an interview in her living room, she wiped away tears from talking about memories of her mom. She then told me she needed to do another life recording because there was still so much left to say. My first customer was a repeat customer—a powerful message that I was on the right track.

Now, I have a validated idea, $1196 from three clients, and the ability to start building the life I want to live.

But that’s not the end of the story.

After my second interview with my mom’s friend, I realized I was a six-minute drive away from the retirement home where Munz spent the last six years of her life. I thought I could record the residents’ stories, but I was nervous. Who am I to request a meeting with the Executive Director without a tangible product? Then I remembered what Noah stresses in the book: “NOW, Not How.” I had a six minute drive to come up with a plan, and my mind was totally blank.

I walked into the building and asked the receptionist to see the Executive Director. She furrowed her brow and asked me why. I fumbled through a clunky pitch about life recordings. The receptionist gave me a quizzical look and told me to wait at the desk. She came back a few seconds later and said I could go into the Executive Director’s office.

When I walked into the office, I introduced myself. Then, using the idea from Noah’s cold email to Reddit’s founding engineer, I let her know that I had a personal connection to the facility she runs.

“Actually, my grandma used to live here,” I said.

“Oh, who was your grandma?” she asked.

After I told her my grandma’s name, the Executive Director stopped.

“I remember her! There are few people on this earth who are as gold as she was.”

This was an astonishing detail. Two years after my grandma was gone, the Executive Director still remembered her. It was a testament to the kind of person Munz was.

It was also my in.

“Because she was such a wonderful resident,” she continued, “I’m willing to send out an email to all the residents and their families that you’re offering this service. Email me a blurb and we’ll get it going.”

And just like that, I had momentum. And all I did was ask.

Walking out of the office, a wave of bittersweet emotion rolled through my chest. I never expected to return to the retirement home after Munz died. On my last visit, Munz’ room had been empty. Her favorite green chair—where she read her French dictionary, where she thought about the daughter she never had, where I interviewed her six years ago—was gone. And so was she.

I’m still living in the soft blur of her life’s finished crescendo. But deep in the vacuum my grandmother left in her absence, there exists a pinprick of fresh, cold oxygen to fight away the chaos: an audio file that will outlast us both.

#48hourchallenge

#48hourchallenge
This conversation hit different. I let the conversation permeate over 5 days while I remunerated on my YouTube Channel that I’ve been wanting to focus on, but without direction. At day 3 in the podcast, with the prompt of not letting the algorithm be your master, and energized by Tim’s curiosity into individuals who specialize on furthering one craft, I found my “next big idea”. This is where I’d normally plan for weeks, researching the best equipment to support the next step in my journey (I recently sold two 360 cameras on ebay because the biking podcast turned out to be doing way too much). The idea was simple: Improve my note making technical skills on the platform Obsidian and share my results on YouTube. Besides, my girlfriend has been asking me to teach her about my “second brain” since we first started dating. Eventually I finished the podcast, and I took the 48 hour challenge personally. I first thought “too bad this is a bad time in my life to do it”. I’m in the middle of planning my proposal to my girlfriend which is one month away and completely unplanned. I had to go into the office for work. I have apartment viewings scheduled because my lease is up at the end of May. But, this is the 48 hour challenge; Aren’t these conditions kind of the point? Plus, I’ve been telling everyone (including my girlfriend, who was thrown off by the randomness) that if I could go anywhere in the world it woulds be Spain, because it’s the “New Austin” (I live in Houston, and prefer it).
I didn’t know I’d change my entire video idea half way through the challenge, or that I’d have to stay up all night figuring out how to actually code a custom note making template, or that my friend would remind me the last day that we have tickets to a concert at 8:00 PM, only 3 hours before my 48 hour challenge is up. But I do know that life would be too robotic without surprises. So I embraced the journey and made some compromises in the sake of being able to look myself in the mirror and say I really made a video on how to “Never Forget Your Memories Again with an Automated Daily Journal” , from idea to upload, in less than 48 hours. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a concert to go to (with 3 hours to spare).

#48hourchallenge

Digital currency for the homeless that diverts money away from drugs and alcohol and towards things like housing and re-training.