Sweeping the floors

In 2021, I launched a podcast that was destined for success. At least, that's what it looked like on paper. We had all the ingredients: a star co-host with over a million followers, producers who handled the biggest shows in business and we were filming in insane venues while everyone else was still recording on Zoom. It was like having Gordon Ramsay, a Michelin-starred kitchen, and premium ingredients for your first dinner party.

Except it wasn't a five-star experience. It was just... okay. And okay doesn’t get you anywhere on the internet.

The problem wasn't in the ingredients, it was in the chef. Me. I didn't enjoy doing it. Worse, I didn't feel we had a "product worth selling." It felt like we were like every other pod out there. We were the auditory equivalent of lukewarm coffee – neither hot enough to energize nor cold enough to refresh.

So I did what any rational person would do: I grabbed a notebook and started writing. I needed to figure out if the juice was worth the squeeze. This is something I think every founder should do regularly. Lay it all out, the costs, the potential upside, the time investment. I realized that even if this thing took off, the cost of getting there might not be worth it.

That's when it hit me: I needed to sweep the floors.

No, I didn't start a janitorial service. I'm talking about doing the unglamorous work myself. The stuff you think you're too good for, too busy for, or too important to handle. The nitty-gritty that you've convinced yourself is better left to others.

I could've quit. It would've been easy to blame the algorithm, say podcasting wasn't for me, and move on to the next shiny object. And to be honest, I thought about it. But something told me to keep going, to see if there was a chance this could work.

So I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. Every morning, I started with the analytics. Not just glancing at numbers, but really studying them, looking for patterns, insights, anything that could tell me what was working and what wasn't. I asked myself hard questions about where the real potential was. I responded to every single YouTube comment. I asked many of them to have video chats with me. I had the hard convos. I asked them what they hated about the show to

I made big changes.

I rebranded from the vague "Where It Happens" to "The Startup Ideas Podcast." I stopped chasing big-name guests and started bringing on interesting up-and-comers with fresh perspectives. I fired the fancy producers and took control of the process myself. It was like trading in a luxury car for a reliable pickup truck – less flash, more functionality.

And something magical happened.

I started having fun. I was laughing more during recordings, adding more value to the conversations. The podcast felt alive again.

In just 30 days, the podcast grew 4x. It's now one of the fastest-growing business podcasts on the internet. But the numbers, impressive as they are, aren't the real win here. The win is that I rediscovered my passion for the project.

I want to share my lesson with you. Because I think it’s relevant to any founder, creator out there.

Sweeping the floors pays off.

You can outsource a lot of things in business, especially when you're established. But when you're still finding product-market fit, when you're still figuring out what makes your thing special, that's not something you can just hand off and expect product/market fit to magically appear. That's on you.

So as you’re building out your startup ask yourself:

Have I swept the floors yet?

Have I done the unglamorous work that's necessary to really understand my product, my audience, my market?

Because once you've done that dirty work, once you've really gotten your hands dirty, you'll be a much better hands-off entrepreneur. You'll know what questions to ask, what metrics really matter, what your audience really wants.

You can't put your business on auto-pilot unless you've first flown the plane yourself. It's like trying to write the recipe before you've tasted the dish.

#1

ripe @ripe0x writing code is easier than writing ideas 9:14 AM • Oct 2, 2024 3 Retweets 15 Likes Read 3 replies

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It's definitely getting there. Writing code getting easier and easier with all these AI-assisted coding IDEs like Cursor and Replit. What does this mean for you?

#2

Raph. H. @Rapahelz @pmarca In French, the same term (retraite) is used for retirement and retreat. "If you love what you do the only exit strategy should be death." - Warren Buffett Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 @pmarca I am greatly looking forward to my retirement, which will begin in [squints, checks notes, scribbles math, stares] 2051. 4:14 PM • Sep 30, 2024 1 Retweets 12 Likes

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Really gets you thinking.

#3

Matt McGarry @JMatthewMcGarry This is crazy: The most profitable part of Forbes isn't subscriptions, print, or ads. It's Forbes Marketplace. An affiliate marketing biz started in 2019 that Forbes owns 40% of. Forbes Marketplace gets 27M+ search visits/month. An estimated $300M–$400M in annual revenue! https://x.com/i/web/status/1840017109591425391 9:13 AM • Sep 28, 2024 0 Retweets 21 Likes Read 2 replies

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Mind blown. A reminder that affiliate marketing businesses are beautiful businesses to be in.

#4

Jacob Andreou @jacobandreou If you think Duolingo is dead because people will manually prompt chatGPT to learn Spanish, you’re ngmi Productizing AI will matter even more in 2025 11:15 AM • Sep 27, 2024 29 Retweets 741 Likes Read 62 replies

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This got me thinking of my content diet. How do you feel it up so that you get inspired instead of stressed when you login to social?

New Startup Ideas Podcast (SIP) episodes🧃 How to name your startup (and why naming matters) ​Apple, Spotify, YouTube​ ​ How to grow your app to millions of users with a tiny budget (54 minute masterclass) ​Apple, Spotify, YouTube​ ​ ​

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Thank you for reading Greg's Letter. I hope you found it valuable. Reply if you did. I won't be able to get to every response, but I read every single reply.

And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube if this gave you any value. You'll get free startup ideas every few days.​

And feel pay to join Community Empire to get tools, content and community to get you moving along your startup journey.

Until next week.

Be well,

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