I send one action packed email a week called a 1x1x1 covering crazy cool businesses I spot, updates on what we're building and buying, and lessons from the journey of an entrepreneur.
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For those of you that are new here, every week I send what I call a 1x1x1.
One thought from my week.
One interesting find/tool from my week.
One image from my life.
Let's dive in 👇
I was analyzing how I spend my workday, and after a deep audit (aka staring at my calendar for 30 seconds), I realized 80% of my time is just marketing.
Marketing for my own companies.
Marketing for the companies we help at Pono.
Marketing for friends who text me, “Hey bro, quick question…”.
Why so much marketing? Because it’s stupidly hard.
It’s like trying to win a game where the rules change every week, your competition is cheating, and the referee is a drunk algorithm that may or may not show your ad to real humans.
I throw money into experiments, light some of it on fire, and hope that by sheer luck or the grace of the marketing gods I stumble upon something that actually works.
And when I do find something that works?
OH. MY. GOD.
It feels like discovering fire.
Or inventing the wheel.
Positive ROAS is my kink.
I get literal chills when I crack the right marketing mix.
It’s like watching an ad campaign go from “burning money for sport” to “printing money while I sleep.”
I share this all to say: if marketing feels like you’re just setting cash on fire while whispering “please work” into the void, congrats, you’re normal.
Marketing is a lab, and the only way to win is to keep running experiments until you finally cook up the magic formula.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a few more experiments to run (aka throwing ad dollars into the abyss and praying to the Zuckerberg overlords).
We’re down in SLO for the month, so I did what any responsible adult would do.
Joined a gym I’ll pretend I’m going to use regularly.
But here’s the wild part.
It has basically zero staff.
No front desk, no trainers hanging around, just someone who swings by once a day to clean and give the occasional tour.
Security? All handled by Alarm.com’s access control system.
My phone is my key.
24/7 access, and when March ends, poof, I’m locked out automatically.
No awkward cancellation calls. No “please don’t leave, we’ll give you a free tote bag” emails.
It’s a lean, automated, no-overhead setup.
Could see more gyms (or businesses in general) going this route.
Low friction. Low cost. High convenience.
Now just waiting for the owner to respond to my "Mind sharing your financials?" text.
Somewhere out there, they’re either drafting a reply… or blocking my number.
Yup, I’m that guy.
We've been really enjoying our time in SLO.
