life update: bro everything is awesome in a way I wish everyone could experience. Ridge will GROW more this year than we did in TOTAL revenue in 2024. Podcast network helping thousands. Making millions. Shows are now more popular than ever. Beautiful wife. Perfect son. Its a level of blessed that I wish on everyone. WE ARE ALL SO FUCKING BACK.

Just got an offer, A LOI, to acquire ridge for over a billion dollars. I’m sure you are wondering… Did you take it? Who made the offer? I’ll tell you… Who made the offer??? ME. IN TEN YEARS. #LOCKEDIN

two types of people at the top: 1. made it and done. sold, got the bag, on the beach. never hear from them again. 2. havent looked up long enough to realize they passed the finish line years ago. these people are the ones still texting you to launch a new side project. in the dms, at the dinners, writing down tips. all while sitting on 9 figures. I sold my agency for 8 figures in equity in ridge. We grew ridge 100x. literally. launched a podcast. turned it into a network. easily an 8 figure enterprise. some days it gets REAL tempting to be a type one. but I cant get outworked by an oldhead who is already richer than me. now its about ego. back to the grind.

It’s all so obvious. Make good products. Make good ads. Have a good offer. Use a 3pl. Run the ads on meta. Take care of customers. Repeat steps 1-3 until rich. That’s all the info you ever need. Don’t buy a course. Just read the list. And try again.

If your P(DOOM) is anything above 0, why aren’t you selling all your possessions and joining the Amish? If you honestly believe ai will kill us, you have two options: Try to stop it Or get off the grid So if you aren’t working at a lab or in the government, then why aren’t you rolling big doinks in Amish? I think it’s all just fake. Ai won’t kill everyone. I think it’s going to make life awesome. Work will get better, medicine will get better, everyone will be smarter. I’m at ZERO p doom. I’m living with P UTOPIA

Most people on here are making content for bots, engaging with bots, arguing with bots. the internet is for bots

Growth is a miracle drug. It cures everything. The simplest, fastest, easiest way to fix every problem in your life: Just keep growing

woah new late night model release! has anyone tried these new models from anthropic???

the bull case: Look, I am a known optimist. So it wont surprise everyone to hear I think things are going to be awesome. Here is my perspective: if you are still in business today, you survived at least 6 great crises in the past 6 years. you survived covid, you survived 2 painful presidential elections; you survived a WORSE gas crisis because of the ukraine conflict; you survived inflation; you survived interest rates rising faster than they ever have, you survived a banking crisis (SVB) if you are in business today, you are resilient are things great today? depends where you look. housing hasnt imploded. unemployment is steady. the largest, most important companies in human history are still growing and shipping new products there is weakness for sure- gas prices are the obvious one. They are the front line on a vibes-secion. the reason gas prices matter so much is because it is a commodity with no substitute good. if banana prices go up, you might eat more oranges. But you have to drive to work every day. if gas is $3 or $8 a gallon, doesnt matter, you have to drive. and I wish gas prices were lower. it is the most direct way to put more spending power back into the average amercians hands. but look at the chart- inflation-adjusted, it is a dollar cheaper than the ukraine war peak, and $2 cheaper than in 2008 the economy is more diversified, directly because of the ukraine war, so even with the Iran war dragging on, the impact has been less I'll tell you, I see the strength in my sales data. this is NOTHING like 2022. 2022 had runaway inflation. a real energy shock. no great new products or investments happening. in contrast- people are spending. people are employed. stock market is at all time highs (I think this plays a factor) the reality- it is an election year. both sides are in full-on doomer mode, trying to push a narrative. from my seat, as the ceo of a mid-size discretionary goods company: It is the greatest time to be building all decade.

There is just no way things don’t work out. I’ve never seen a future so bright. All doom is fake. Things are amazing and only getting better. I’ve never seen more people winning, in every conceivable way possible. Losing shouldn’t even enter your conscious

"Brand" is used so much that it is meaningless. Using one word, what best describes "brand" to you:

Hot take (that will make everyone fight): If you are young and ambitious, you are better off being in ANY city in America vs 99% of Europe. Sure London beats Columbus Ohio. But outside of like 4 cities in Europe, any mid sized city in the USA has a better chance of making you rich

Every single dollar I have made, for over ten years, was directly because of Shopify Shopify makes millionaires

It might be the most reckless time in history to be an angel investor and not a public market investor

"its literally from trybe. I got it from sideshift. dudes it on euka. I use creatify with reacher to social snowball my refunnnel" wtf is everyone talking about nothing makes me feel more unc than tik tok shop why are there so many agencies and discord groups and calls and software products that seem to do the same thing... so I built a primer its on youtube we are doing 6 figs a month, in a category NO ONE thought could work. at a price point no one thought would work. worth watching

How to build an online business of any size: 100k- anyone can do this. any product can do this. I've met a kid doing $100,000 a year selling tiny toy violins. The internet is infinite. whatever you are doing, 100k is a drop in the ocean 1m- this is where you can start making a real living. Ive also seen basically any idea get to a million a year. There was a guy whose whole business was mailing people joke potatoes, and he was doing several million a year. This is where you just need a little bit of infrastructure. A Shopify store, an Instagram account, maybe a marketplace. And this is where those beginner style courses help. learn how to build an email in mailchimp. learn how to use capcut to make a tik tok. learn how to log into business manager learn how amazon wants you to die but once again, anything can do 1m a year. but it will require a LITTLE bit of skill. 5m- now this is where you have to know what you are doing. you need: one sales channel where you are top 10% one marketing channel where you are top 10% silver tier infrastructure (prob not ready for gold tier) a big enough product category here is what I mean- say you sell t shirts. there are easily 1,000 brands doing 5m a year selling t shirts. It can be done; you can do it. But you need some more advanced understanding of e-commerce basics. you can focus on amazon and amazon ads. or you can do it all via organic viral short form videos or you can do it all via paid ads to do it ALL on organic, you need to be a top 1% poster to do it all on amazon, you need to be a top 10% amazon account and if you do it all on meta, you need to be a top 20% ad buyer / creative strategist the path to win on paid ads (like meta) is the most well-trodden, and requires the least amount of luck its just good ads, a clean offer, a big enough tam, and unit economics that work 10m- this is where you need to start being multi talented. good at meta AND something else. good at amazon AND tik tok. this is also where you can start to afford actually good agencies. if you are a 5m a year brand, good talent and good agencies arent giving you their best. everything has to be homegrown or YOU have to do it. But at 10m, that changes, and it's way easier to recruit people who are better at specific tasks. also at 10m, product realities really start to matter TAM, repeat, etc if potatos can do 1m, t shirts can do 5m, 10m is when you need something unique or different in the market the same product BUT CHEAPER the same product BUT BETTER a new thing that solves an old problem 30m- the only difference between 10m and 30m is you NEED other people to get here. I have seen a strong CEO try and hold a business together by themselves to 30m... and fail you end up being burnt out, you end up being the bottleneck, not learning or growing faster than the buisness if you got to 10m, you can get to 30m, with the right team/mentors 50m- this is where you need to actually upgrade stuff. no more mailchimp. No more local accounting firm. you have a real business, with real cash flow. You need a real bank, a real line of credit, no more cash advances. try to get a board together. Because a 50m business has to have at least 3 things going for it: - new products for tam expansion - new ad channels for new eyeballs - new sales channels (wholesale or amazon) - international - celeb/influencer backed - venture backed (to waste money) can be any of those. but one single product on meta cant really sustain a 50m brand anymore. even if you are a gruns, aggressive sub on one sku, you see the writing on the wall and start to look at colors, flavors, new sales channels. And at 50m, the right key piece of information can double the business. what to focus on, who to hire, what to avoid. this is why you need real systems. they will slow you down, but help you land on the right path faster 100m- At 100m, you need each and every one of the list above to be working in your biz. When Ridge crossed 100m, we had an 8-figure Amazon business and an 8-figure international business. we were in wholesale, we were working with influencers daily. at 100m you can in fact afford the best help and talent. You now need to have the correct strategy to point them at. 100m brands die on bad advice and being slow. You can afford the McKinsey analysis... but dont listen to it the fact is the path at 100m changes every 2 years. Unless someone has JUST done it, they will have last years playbook and fuck you Also at 100m- you get to the law of large numbers. your growth will slow. you must understand your true tam and where this business naturally wants to be. if you arent failing at half the things you try, you are playing too conservatively and will start to shrink everyone wants to kill you. your team will start to have big company problems. you are going to be sued. but a good 100m ceo looks more like a 10m ceo. just with more support, more resources, and experts actually doing the work 1b- idk, not here yet. check back in 2 years though ;)

No one cares if you fail. The embarrassment is all in your head. Everyone wants you to win. You owe it to them to try harder.