Howdy folks,

Coming to you a day later than normal. I was going to get this out late last night but I felt the writing quality would drop. So instead I took a day off, recharged & made sure this week’s writeup was packed with goodies that I think you’ll love.

Here are the 2 topics this week.

1. The ABE’s of Entrepreneurship

2. The 5 Why’s Technique

By the end of this post, you’ll have a better idea of how to use experiments to start or grow your business and 1 key strategy to gain more motivation, clarity & direction by asking 1 simple question.

There’s even a freebie download to help get you started.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

👨‍💻 Modern Entrepreneurship

ABE’s: Always Be Experimenting

I’ve just finished listening to Million Dollar Weekend by @noahkagan CEO of @appsumo (a $100m business). As the name suggests it’s all about giving actionable tips, ideas & advice on creating a million-dollar business.

There was one idea that really stood out for me and it was how passionate he was about experimenting when it comes to creating and growing a business.

It’s something I feel personally as well. You’ve always got to be experimenting. Between different business ideas, marketing strategies & design tweaks. Should you focus on social media marketing, testing different ad copy, or choosing this shade of grey vs blue?

Business changes fast and online business changes even faster. Therefore it’s never been so important to stay on top of things and one way to do that is to ABE. Always Be Experimenting.

But here 4 ideas that Noah shares on experimenting

1. Experiments vs Running a Business

2. Experiments Are About Starting

3. It’s Okay To Fail

4. Test, then invest

So my biggest takeaway from Noah’s thoughts on experimenting is that it is a key ingredient to building a business.

It’s how you can get over the fear of getting started and it’s what keeps you ahead.

I always find that framing tasks as little experiments takes some of the weight off that it needs to work or perform in a certain way.

A real example from this week

I’m experimenting with paid to promote my newsletters. I invested $150 ($50 per newsletter) and then ran ads. Changing the terms, prices, & regions.

The goal is to see:

1. Does it actually grow the audience?

2. Is that audience a great fit? (Do they love the content every week)

3. Can I run these ads on a regular basis & at what cost?

I’m a big believer in “you don’t know - what you don’t know”. I’ve written before one of the best ways to learn more is by putting money where your mouth is to test & learn faster.

So don’t be afraid to run your own experiments in business. Maybe it’s growing a personal brand, selling your knowledge through consultations or courses or maybe it’s setting up some ads as well.

Oh, and the results of the experiment? It’s only been a couple of days but the audience is growing daily by 2-10 people with these ads - so if you’re new here, welcome aboard 🖤

👨‍🎨 Life Design

Start With Why

If there was 1 word that could help more people tap into more motivation, purpose and meaning in life - it would be the word ‘Why’.

Simon Sinek literally wrote a book on it and I did a deep dive into his lessons here.

But I just wanted to share some personal thoughts and specifically a little exercise to help you get better clarity & direction in any area in life.

It’s asking yourself why 5 times technique. If you do that you will get to the root of why you want to do something and once you get there you’ll unlock all the motivation you’ll ever need.

The 5 Whys Technique Example

Goal: I want to lose weight.

1. Why do you want to lose weight?

   Because I want to feel healthier.

2. Why do you want to feel healthier?

   Because I want to have more energy.

3. Why do you want to have more energy?

   Because I want to be able to keep up with my kids and be active with them.

4. Why do you want to keep up with your kids and be active with them?

   Because I want to create lifelong memories with my family through activities and adventures.

5. Why do you want to create lifelong memories with your family through activities and adventures?

   Because I want to be a positive role model for my kids and do my best to live long enough to see them grow up through life.

It’s such a simple method to get to the bottom of what our core motivations are. If you’re finding yourself stuck in a certain area of your life right now try asking your why enough times to figure out what is your why.

Here’s a little curve ball that often gets me. Sometimes if you ask yourself why enough times you might even realise that you don’t actually want that thing in the 1st place (for me it was giving up that dream of the 5 am club).

🎁 Members Freebie

If you’d like to give the exercise a go here is The 5 Why’s Worksheet as this week’s freebie. You can choose 1 area that you’d like to gain more clarity with and use the space provided to dig deeper.

🔥 Interesting Finds

Improve your writing with Hemmingway Editor

I stumbled across this free online text editor which helps with editing your writing you can check it out here. Not affiliated just thought it was cool.

(A little side note that I shared here about my dyslexia & how I’ve overcome my struggles with writing.)

📚 The Book Club

Here's what I've been reading or listening to lately alongside some little nuggets I've picked up through the week.

1. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Finished up Million Dollar Weekend I wanted to get on to the next book. Steal Like an Artist has been on my reading list for a while. So far it’s been refreshing to hear a more creative angle towards work & business.

2. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

🎵 Music to Vibe too

Stumbled into this gem on YouTube today. Never heard of Neo-Soul Guitar but I’m now a big fan. A great laid back set to kickback to.

Come join the listening party with one of my curated Spotify playlists

• 🤘 Rock Out | Belfast in the 00s

• 🧊 Vibe | Bali Beach Bar at Sunset

• 🔋 Energy | London Rave at 3am

🏝️ Lifestyle Entrepreneur AI Images

We’ve talked about experiments & the 5 whys - giving the example of health. One of my favourite ways to experiment is to get creative with healthy cooking - so that’s what this week’s image is about.

And that is it for this week's newsletter folks

Wishing you a great week ahead as always

Let's catch up soon

Matt

Stay awesome

🫶

P.s

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this week’s newsletter. Each week I try to improve it by at least 1% through mini-experiments. I read every email reply & poll feedback 🖤.

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