Happy Trends Tuesday!

Last week, California passed a bill that allows weed dispensaries to be your neighborhood cafe. 

Now you can sit down and get baked while eating your regular baked goods, like the hazy dazy folks in Amsterdam. 😶‍🌫️

The news got me thinking about “vice” businesses — it just so happens that we've got quite a few battle stories on building cannabis brands in the Trends archive. 

Want to see them in future issues? Gimme a shout here! 

In today's email…

• The future is sustainable aviation fuel 
• How to keep your wealth once you've made it, according to an ex-pilot
• What we’re surfin’, from the hot sauce show to someone who makes $80k/yr out of nothing

Let's dive in! 

🎤 PR STRATEGY, SIMPLIFIED

Think like a journalist – build out your list – pitch like you’ve been there – rinse and repeat. Here’s the 4-step framework to nailing your next press release.

🚀 WHERE TO BUILD NEXT

SAF is taking off

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a cleaner way to power aircrafts, is the hottest commodity as of late — and probably for the next decade. 

Companies that produce clean jet fuel are raising massive rounds across stages: 

• Twelve: $200m in Series C
• Air Company: $69m in Series B
• Aether Fuel: $34m in Series A

Sources: Multiple market reports

The producers mentioned above convert waste carbon in the air (usually in the form of CO₂) into jet fuel. But there are a lot more ways to make SAF, like from corn, fats, and algae. 

“We will start to see more and more SAF, growing exponentially over the next five, 10, 20 years using all different feedstocks and technologies,” said Nancy Bsales, COO of 4AIR, a sustainable aviation company. 

Money’s pouring in from both private and public sectors: 

• Major commercial airlines like United, Virgin and American are all backing early stage SAF producers. 
  
  
• The Biden-Harris administration invested ~$300m in SAF grants, hoping to reach the 100% SAF goal in 2050 (we’re at 1% now). 

So how can you get in on this trend with sky-high stakes? Here are some ideas to get your gears turning: 

Source: Federal Aviation Administration

1. Focus on the supply chain 

Many steps are involved in making SAF, and you can come in at different stages to find market gaps. 

🌾 Sourcing: Become a clean energy broker who collects waste from feedstock suppliers (farms, waste management companies, restaurants, etc.), and sells them to SAF production facilities. 

You can also monetize the data — do some research and build a comprehensive database of suppliers, their feed types and production capacities, then charge SAF makers a fee to gain access to the data.

Source: Trellis Group

🚚 Logistics: Develop software to improve the SAF supply chain, like optimizing routes, monitoring (and reducing) emissions during transport, etc. We could also see blockchain-based applications that record end-to-end SAF production, distribution and transactions. 

📜 Compliance: Regulations around SAF are constantly changing, so you can become an SAF compliance expert who helps companies acquire certifications and stay compliant. 

2. Sustainable business travel software

Zooming out from the energy side, we see an opportunity to focus on the growing consumer concern about air travel’s environmental impact.  

Flyers gotta fly. That’s not gonna change. But you can build a ticket booking platform that helps travelers — especially business ones — book more sustainable flights. 

Business travel booking platforms are attracting major capital. Engine raised $140m at a valuation of $2.1B. BizAway cleared $39m. 

Partner up with companies with frequent travel needs. Offer incentives like turning their carbon offset credits into future miles. You can even tag on a corporate carbon credit card (try saying that 2x fast).

The impact of individual travelers might be small, but those willing to make a change represent a sizable market you can tap into. 

If you lack experience or connections in the aviation or energy space, influencing the industry at a fundamental level is hard. But every bit helps — consumer products could be a way to break into the conversation. 

Keep reading to see how you can make money in sustainable aviation through info-based consumer products.

⚙️ OPERATOR WISDOM

You’ve made your money. Now how do you keep it?

The kind of person you need to be in order to acquire wealth is different from the kind of person you need to be to preserve it. 

The problem? Your mindset changes slower than your financial position, and it’s not always obvious when you need to begin the shift.

Mike Brown knows. 

After building and selling an 8-figure business, he did what many do: bought nice cars, built a fancy house, invested in startups, and always paid for dinner.

Then he acquired a business that turned out to be a lemon, requiring tens of thousands in cash infusions every month. 

With most of his newly won wealth illiquid, and his cash reserves getting squeezed, he quickly found that despite having millions on paper, he was working harder than ever before.

The challenges of wealth preservation are rarely talked about. Now that he’s coming out the other side, Mike recommends these three steps to avoid scrambling your nest egg…

1. Unwind your “money stories”

Once flush with cash, it’s vital for founders to pause and reflect on their subconscious beliefs about money.

“Nobody’s going to be able to transition from accumulator to preservation [mode] without understanding the stories they’re telling themselves about money,” Mike said.

There are two archetypal stories to start with:

• Scarcity vs. abundance: Most people see these as binary, but really, they represent a spectrum. The goal is to avoid the ends and find some place in the middle.
  
  
• What kind of spender are you: We build our identities around the things we do and don’t spend money on. What do you tell yourself about your spending priorities? Why?

Understanding (and consciously choosing) healthy stories will help you avoid wealth-sapping behaviors.

2. Slow down

Before he was an entrepreneur, Mike flew jets for the Navy, where the pilots had a saying: “No fast hands in the cockpit.”

Moving too fast is how you crash.

When you exit a company, there’s a lot of pressure to start investing your windfall immediately. But this is one situation in which you should resist the need for speed.

It’s fine to leave your money in cash for a while (or in S&P 500 stocks). 

“Give yourself some breathing room,” he said. “Let all the emotions and all the other things that come with an exit kind of flow through you.”

Source: Tenor

3. Seek peer accountability

Eventually, you’ll begin making investments, and at that point it’s crucial to have a peer group that can help you vet your ideas.

To provide this for himself and others, Mike created Unbreakable Wealth, a multi-day peer-to-peer wealth-building experience, complete with a personal advisory board.

Their job is not to evaluate whether an investment is good, Mike said, but to gut-check whether your actions and portfolio allocations are aligned with your long-term wealth goals.

“[Having] that would have saved me from many decisions that led me to the place that I got completely strapped," Mike said.

🗂️ OPEN TABS

🌶️ The hot one: The real sauce behind YouTube's most star-studded show

🧑‍💻 From X: A template for building your SaaS landing pages

🧢 Watch: The guy who gets paid $80k/yr to do...nothing

💭 Relatable: How living fuller — not bigger — can lead you to a good life