Hey, I'm Ben!
I build, buy, and invest in businesses.
I've had 2 successful exits. Way more failures.
I write about building Freedom Companies to achieve what I call the three freedoms:
A life of financial freedom.
A life of time freedom.
A life of creative freedom.
I send one action packed email a week called a 1x1x1 where I write about businesses and people that I think are inspirational when it comes to creating freedom in their lives, or updates on the businesses we're building and buying.
This newsletter is the highlight of my week and I hope I can inspire and guide you to building your own freedom company.
I send one action packed email a week called a 1x1x1 where I write about businesses and people that I think are inspirational when it comes to creating freedom in their lives, or updates on the businesses we're building and buying.
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What’s up Product Hacks fam. It’s your favorite product email of the week where we cheer on the builders! The product managers or entrepreneurs that are grinding daily to build great products that SELL! Let’s dive in!
I’ve been at this every weekend for a month now collecting thoughts, notes, and trying to put together a banger newsletter that you all can enjoy. Have some thoughts on what could make this better? I’d love to hear them! Email me at: newsletter@theproducthacks.com
I’ve been taking to Reddit and Twitter recently, stumbling my way through threads working to help fellow product managers and entrepreneurs to launch new products. What I’ve found in my stumbling is that there are a lot of frustrated product managers and entrepreneurs out there, and the sources of this frustration are fairly consistent. Here are some examples of situations I’ve noticed:
Building products is tough. Building products that are actually successful and make money is f*cking hard. It is really easy to burn out with this kind of role. So today, I’m sharing some self-care tips and ideas that can help when these situations arise.
Join a community — Reddit, Slack, LinkedIn groups, there are so many communities out there sharing and solving challenges just like the challenges I shared above (excluding the one on dairy). Get in a product or startup community, get active, and feel the support! Remember that you’re also part of the Product Hacks Fam and can send your challenges to newsletter@theproducthacks.com or tweet at Ben.
Fight for product ownership — When I say ownership here, I’m referring to the ability to have the autonomy to make decisions for the product. I run into so many PMs that have their hands tied behind their back in regards to what they can do. This has happened to me a few times. Here is how I got out of it.
I was really struggling to get stakeholder buy-in for the product I was managing. There would be a wave of approvals and a lot of micro-management. I needed ownership to make the product I was working on successful. So I proposed an idea. I asked for full P&L ownership of the product, meaning I managed the financial success of the product as well. I made the case that in 6 months if I can’t improve the product P&L (meaning I needed improved performance, revenues, profits, and costs for the product) then things could go back to the current management style. P&L ownership was granted. Fast forward, the product was super successful and my girlfriend at the time and I got ice cream to celebrate (I actually dropped my ice cream so it was a pretty sad celebration).
My point here is it’s important for product managers to fight for ownership to eliminate the stress of bottlenecks and to keep the product moving. Maybe it’s not full P&L ownership in your case but fight for any ownership you can get. I will say that trust needs to be built over time to make this happen so remember to always work to earn stakeholder trust as well.
Always be planning a pivot — You always want to be building your plan B or what I call “the escape hatch” in case your product moves south (I also have a plan B for when the aliens finally make it so tweet at me if you want that)! This means always looking for new product opportunities in the event a pivot is needed. Spending a few hours a month on an escape hatch really helps me eliminate stress, especially when my products stall out. Remember, there are five distinct stages of the product life cycle: development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Build forward, not back, and prep for maturity and decline.
Network — I’m always surprised when I meet really talented product folks and find that they don’t put any time or energy into networking in their space. In a way, this is an escape hatch! Not only can networking help you find a new job if you ever need it, but it can also aid in the support community I mentioned in point number one. Finding a few product managers and entrepreneurs that you can share with and find support is immensely helpful.
Take care of your health — There is so much burnout in the world of product managers right now. The demands are high and the tolls are heavy. Remember that the mind and body are all one system. Take care of yourself. 8 hours of work at full mental capacity is the equivalent of 16 hours at 50% mental capacity. Give your body time so you can be highly effective on the job.
It’s that time when I get to share my favorite design find of the week! I think product managers, entrepreneurs, and designers can find design inspiration everywhere they look. Here’s a new favorite and what I want to pull into some future designs!
This mural is called “Wisdom” and was completed in Geneseo, NY by the artist Key Detail.
One of the things I fell in love with instantly was the color pallet. Using Adobe Capture on my phone, I can pull the exact hex for all the colors used in the mural. Stashed that away for later ;) Don’t have Adobe Creative Cloud? There are a number of other capture apps out there for snagging color samples.
I also loved the head of the bear. I personally felt it could be adjusted to be a rather iconic logo down the road. In my pocket now!
Check out the project on Behance!
God, I hate email. I hate it more than I hate products that provide no value and make no money. I hate it more than the time my dad gave me a bowl cut for 8th-grade graduation.
Then, Loom entered my life. Instead of writing about Loom, I’m giving you a Loom about Loom and why I like the product (naturally).
Loom Product Review — Watch Video
Me! No cool sponsors this week for the dozens of readers. So you all get our hero, Mr. Elon Musk, because his products go to space and that’s where our logo is from.
Ben Sampson is a product nerd and current co-founder at WeHero. He has built 4 companies in the past 10 years, and worked as a consultant for 4 years helping some of the largest companies in the world like Bloomberg, Dun & Bradstreet, etc. make some of the best products in company history.
Yes, I wrote this in 2nd person because it just sounds sooo much cooler! See you all on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Hey, I'm Ben!
I build, buy, and invest in businesses.
I've had 2 successful exits. Way more failures.
I write about building Freedom Companies to achieve what I call the three freedoms:
A life of financial freedom.
A life of time freedom.
A life of creative freedom.
I send one action packed email a week called a 1x1x1 where I write about businesses and people that I think are inspirational when it comes to creating freedom in their lives, or updates on the businesses we're building and buying.
This newsletter is the highlight of my week and I hope I can inspire and guide you to building your own freedom company.
