😨 Don’t Listen To This Advice

Hola amigos,

I’m writing this at the airport having spent the last two weeks in Spain. It was one degree in the UK but 20 degrees and sunny in Málaga 🇪🇸 

Are people in sunnier countries happier? It certainly energized me to focus on more impactful work.

This week’s newsletter is about receiving the right advice. Enjoy!

💭 Thought of the week

“Advice is one thing that is freely given away, but watch that you take only what is worth having.”

In the book The Richest Man in Babylon a boy is learning about money from his father who is the richest man in the city.

The son is given a pot of gold and trusted to make more money from it. Instead, the son gives the gold to a brickmaker who is selling rare jewels.

This turns out to be a scam, where he’s sold worthless pieces of glass that looked like gems.

“But why trust the knowledge of a brickmaker about jewels?” exclaims his father.

“Would you go to the breadmaker to inquire about the stars? No, by my tunic, you would go to the astrologer, if you had power to think.”

“Next time, if you would have advice about jewels, go to the jewel merchant. If you would know the truth about sheep, go to the herdsman.”

I had a great call this week from an established agency owner turned creator. We spoke about a range of topics, including whether or not I should move to London for better networking opportunities.

My immediate circle think it’s a bad idea to take on extortionate rent, but this creator said it was one of the best decisions he’s ever made. He’s lived in New York and has recently moved to Austin to be closer to the action happening there in the creator economy.

“If somebody hasn’t done what you’re looking to do, don’t take advice from them.”

This sounded harsh at first, but having sat with it I can understand where he’s coming from.

How can somebody help us to make an informed choice if they haven’t done it themselves? Its a lot easier to dish out advice than to actually go and do the thing.

This is not to say we shouldn’t value people’s perspectives - we all need a support system - but its wise to consider a person’s background when looking to take advice seriously for a big decision.

When I think about creator marketing, if you want to grow an audience on a particular platform you should go straight to somebody who’s done it before. This will accelerate your learning and will help you avoid the common pitfalls.

From my experience, most people are happy to help.

If you want to make progress even faster, consider investing in a coach or paying somebody to help you. Trading time for money, if you can, will be worth it if you go to the right person.

This is your reminder to think Who Not How. Before jumping into the “how” of what must be done to achieve something, think instead “who”.

Who could help you achieve your goal? This is how we obtain leverage and work smarter, not harder, to get more things done.

Lastly, be generous with helping others and sharing your own lessons from your experiences. It’ll come back around I promise.

💡 A perspective to consider

Feeling lost on who to contact for advice? Remember Six Degrees of Separation.

The world isn’t as large as you think. We’re all connected by six or fewer social connections.

Ask smart people to connect you to other smart people. Simple, yet effective.

❤️ Content I LOVED

📚️ Book - Who Not How by Dan Sullivan 

- This short book shows you how the largest creators execute on multiple projects with the same amount of time in the week.

📚️ Book - Lighter by Yung Pueblo

- This book has helped me tackle face-on some of the difficult conversations I’ve needed to have in my personal life.

📹️ Video - “How big the universe really is” by Historic Vids on X

- This video zooms out from a woman lying on the beach all the way to the Observable Universe. This shows how small we really are - a great watch for when you’re feeling overwhelmed.