Wisdom Talk From Justin Welsh

Today I turn 42.

Here's every unique lesson someone taught me in my 20-year career:

1. Don't fuck around in your 20s.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

2. Build meaningful & modern skills ASAP
3. Travel internationally before you're 25.
4. Don't burn bridges at work.
5. When you become successful, check your ego.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

6. If you party hard, work harder.
7. Don't date people you know you have no future with.
8. Don't take roles at work that you don't have interest in.
9. When someone gives you an opportunity, do your absolute best.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

10. Build boundaries with your boss and direct reports.
11. Never lash out at work.
12. Don't send an angry email. Talk in person.
13. Never shit-talk your employees or colleagues.
14. When you need help at work, ask for it.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

16. Assume everyone has positive intentions.
17. Most mistakes are from ignorance, not malice.
18. Learn to control your own narrative.
19. Hire top performers and get out of their way.
20. Immediately fire people who create drama at work.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

21. Thinking is great. Action solves problems.
22. Some people have it. Some people don't.
23. Everyone has an agenda. Help them achieve it.
24. Don't compare yourself to others. Be your best you.
25. Your environment often dictates your success.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

26. If you can't teach yourself, you're a liability.
27. C students who take action outperform Valedictorians.
28. Plans are great, but planning to be surprised is best.
29. You are who you surround yourself with. Pick wisely.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

30. If you're always a top performer, average people will frustrate you.
31. If you're always a bottom performer, you're frustrating others.
32. If you suck at your job, don't complain. Quit or get better.
33. Being selfish is sometimes the best thing for your family.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

34. Nice guys finish last. Kind, assertive people don't.
35. Some people will hate you for no reason. Screw 'em.
36. Serial complainers aren't worth taking seriously.
37. Only spend time with people who reciprocate.
38. Take a bunch of small risks early in your career.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

39. You can always make more money, never more time.
40. You can't say yes to everyone - don't try.
41. Everyone is winging it. You don't need permission to join them.
42. Optimists are often wealthy, and pessimists are often right.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

Thank you, Dad! 😂

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 11, 2023

Yesterday, my little one-person business crossed $4M in revenue.

It took 1,352 days, I ran zero ads & operate at a 94% margin.

Here are the 20 steps of my wild & strange journey:

Hope it's helpful to someone.

[🧵 thread]

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

My content has been read 267.9M+ times this year.

Here's my very simple 5-step writing process:

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 10, 2023

I also have a system for quickly creating 5-10 pieces of content from one idea.

You can read about that (and steal it) here: https://t.co/x6Rz5vGVEa

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 10, 2023

Cool way to end the weekend.

You may hate LinkedIn, but if you're still sleeping on it...man.

Bad move. pic.twitter.com/euaG5MifwS

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 9, 2023

Everything you want is on the other side of everything you're afraid of.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 9, 2023

How to transition from employee to solopreneur:

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 9, 2023

Something you can do with your eyes closed is worth $1M+

The catch is getting it to a right sliver of the global population that's looking for it.

If that's not a puzzle worth solving, I'm not sure what is.

Start solving it this weekend.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 7, 2023

Solopreneurship is sometimes just about forgetting what day and time it is. pic.twitter.com/khUMmsBsNf

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) July 6, 2023

Justin Welsh At 4 M

Yesterday, my little one-person business crossed $4M in revenue.

It took 1,352 days, I ran zero ads & operate at a 94% margin.

Here are the 20 steps of my wild & strange journey:

Hope it's helpful to someone.

[🧵 thread]

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

1/ Created lots of noise

When I was just getting started, I looked at attention as my friend.

I wrote content every day before I even had a business, just to find my voice.

I started on LinkedIn.

I shared my thoughts & observations about building a SaaS unicorn as the CRO.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

2/ Honed in on signals

Inside all of that noise? Signal.

Sometimes I bombed, and sometimes I struck a chord.

The more I looked at what resonated, the more I doubled down.

This allowed me to understand what people cared about.

So, I kept writing & talking about it.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

3/ Built a service business

My experience building SaaS was resonating. So I began creating more and more content about that.

Founders sent me DMs asking questions.

I responded to every single one.

Once I had prospects in my funnel, I started consulting.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

4/ Found my ideal customers

Inside your customer base is more signals.

What are the commonalities between the customers you love & those who love you?

Mine were early-stage SMB SaaS in the healthcare space. A space I was experienced in & loved.

That became my ideal customer.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

5/ 2x'ed my rates

With a well-defined niche, some happy customers, and testimonials, I 2x'ed my rates.

I started creating more content that was even more targeted. This led to more conversations with ideal-fit prospects.

I said no to any company outside of my niche.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

6/ Reduced my time

With new rates, I could have worked the same and made 2x as much.

Instead, I chose to work 50% of the time and make the same.

I used that extra time to figure out how to scale income that was more automated.

My goal had always been to get my time back.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

7/ Kept my eyes and ears open

Something really interesting happened.

In an attempt to find common problems to productize, I started rereading my LinkedIn DMs.

I had some repetitive questions about SaaS sales, but I also had an inbox jammed with questions about LinkedIn itself.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

8/ Tested a hypothesis

Back then, I had grown to 20k+ followers on LinkedIn & people wanted to know more.

I had a hypothesis that this would be an easy info product I could create & sell.

I put together a short course for $50 (more on price later) & wrote posts about it.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

9/ Made my first product $$

I put the product for sale on Gumroad on April 16th, 2020.

In the first month, I made $10,482.

I was shocked.

I now had my first digital product, but it was in a totally different niche than my service business.

Honestly, this confused me.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

10/ Ran with it

Over the next 15 months, I sold about $75k of the course.

I posted about audience building on LinkedIn and found other ways to continue to land consulting clients. (VCs, news sites, blogs, SaaStr, etc)

Even though it felt confusing, I continued to run with it.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

11/ Tripled down

After the course was outdated, people started asking for a new version.

I rebuilt the course, but this time charged $150.

The earlier $50 price was my "trust tripwire".

I charged $50, delivered 100x worth the price, and built trust w/ a loyal customer base.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

12/ Marketed aggressively

With 100% of my LinkedIn content focused on audience growth, and a product directly related to that content, sales took off.

My previous course grossed $75k in 15 months.

The second version has grossed $186k in 3 months.

Next up...

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

13/ I began creating an army

At the halfway point of my course, people are encouraged to leave a testimonial & sign up for an affiliate program.

I built the same automation at the conclusion of the course.

I now have 1,400+ affiliates that have generated $280,000+ in revenue.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

14/ Built a community

As sales picked up, my interest in consulting faded.

I was doing $2k per day in info products and wanted to run with that.

I opened a private community for creators and charged $199.

Those who completed my course were prompted to join.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

15/ Made a difficult decision

I loved my community but realized that it didn't work with my personality.

It was a $15k MRR business, but I felt like I had to be "on" 24/7.

That wasn't the life I wanted to build.

15 months after starting it, I made a decision to shut it down.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

16/ Reinvested my time

With way more free time now, I decided to start Tweeting.

Using what I knew about growing on LinkedIn, I was able to hit 75k followers in about 6 months.

This provided a new channel to build more stuff.

So I did.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

17/ Created a 2nd digital course

I was doing a podcast with @dickiebush and @nicolascole77 about how I built a system for writing content.

The 500+ people on the call seemed to be amazed by it.

That led to my 2nd course, The Content Operating System.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

18/ Added MRR

I noticed that each week I was spending time creating content templates for myself.

What if my audience wanted those too?

I tested it as a $9 upsell on each course.

8 months later it has 2,100+ subscribers.

Almost $19.3k MRR from something I was already doing.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

19/ Started a newsletter

In January of 2022, I launched my newsletter, The Saturday Solopreneur.

I was determined to deliver one piece of actionable advice each Saturday AM that could be read in 4 minutes or less.

In the last 17 months, I've grown it to 115k+ subs.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

20/ Added sponsorships

With over 115k subs, I can charge for each issue to be sponsored.

I have 2 slots per issue, per week, that sell for $2,500.

Now each weekly newsletter is paying $5,000, and people are getting their brand and business in front of a ton of readers.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

Finally, here's what my business revenue looks like:

Products: $2.34M
Consulting: $1.17M
MRR: $197k
Sponsorships: $164k
Community: $130k

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

One last note:

While this thread might be easy to read, none of this was actually easy.

- It's taken ~4 years & 4,000 pieces of content
- There are days when I think it's all going away
- I'm an outlier - the creator game is tough

Does that mean you shouldn't try? No.

But...

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

You should have a very "long game" mentality.

1. Start a side project.
2. Build it to 60% of your salary
3. Then go all in.

Good luck! I'm rooting for you.

Thanks for taking some of your time to read this today.

Feel free to ask a question & I'll respond to as many as I can.

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023

Please RT https://t.co/WSV9ukavy4

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 23, 2023

Time to pivot and move up a little. Angel invest.

Invest 10K Now, Harvest 10M In 10 Yearshttps://t.co/46c9E5x24i
DemocracyTechhttps://t.co/fX1Weke5np

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 23, 2023

Soloprenuership may have defeated me, friends.

I’m prepping the resume and heading into the job market. Wish me luck.

— Ryan Giordano (@rtgiordano) May 22, 2023

I recently wrote a Tweet that generated:

- 2.6M Impressions
- 9K engagements
- 3K new followers
- 2.3K new email subs

I wrote it using a copywriting formula I created called VFCA.

Here's how it works (and how you can use it too):

— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 23, 2023

I gave it a spin. https://t.co/CMltuYdHBi

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 23, 2023