The Weekly Startup #17

The Weekly Startup #17

PRESENTED BY: 

Welcome to The Weekly Startup. The weekly newsletter intended to spark your inner fire and build a life you don't need to escape from. 

In today's email:

• Why you should always engage (A lesson learned from last weeks mailing)

• Your circle (Why surrounding yourself with the right people is important)

• Beating self-doubt and boosting self-esteem

• Don't confuse the looks of success with the truth

• What to keep in mind if you compare yourself to successful people

A harsh truth, lessons to be learned!

Hey there,

Welcome to a slightly delayed weekly startup. I won’t go too deep about it but I’m currently in my busiest time of the year. As some of you might know I own a webshop in the custom gifting niche. With Christmas around the corner, it’s a lot of work. Besides that, I help a friend scale his comic & action figures webshop. Again, this time of the year. You know the drill 😅

With 2023 just around the corner I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the whole concept of New Year’s resolutions. 

I want to start with this fragment from MFM where Sam parr and Shaan Puri talk about their lists. It's the whole episode but down below it starts playing from the goal-setting part. Worth a watch if you're looking to change some things around.

The lesson here is if you want to change something. Go ahead and change it. Don’t wait for tomorrow, don’t wait for Jan 1st.

Next, I want to share a personal experience regarding this newsletter and regarding you girls and guys. 

I’ve touched on this topic before regarding open rates, click-through rates, and people who actually engage at the end of the line. I’m referring to The Weekly Startup #11 where I do a breakdown of content engagement on my Instagram to the 4 people who actually reach out at the end. 

With last week's mailing, I’ve noticed a similar thing. And there is a lesson to be learned. 

I did a subscribe and win on my Instagram for some physical books. I got around 100 of you to subscribe in order to enter the raffle. 

The second part of the equation was to vote for your book AND comment after the vote. The simple reason was that I can’t see who actually voted. I can only see data of people who leave a comment. 

I got a lot of votes. Yet only 5 comments. So clearly there is not a lot of raffling to be done. The winners are clear. If you're one of them you'll get an email from me pretty soon.

This teaches a few things. 

First, read to understand. Don’t just assume you know what to do. 

Second, don’t count yourself out. Even if you think you have no chance. It’s all about action. 

Regarding this later, this lesson learned already benefited me this past week. I’ll explain how after the commercials.

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If you’ve been following along you read about my fandom of Scott DeLong already. He is publishing a lot of great content for people who are looking to start and grow a digital business/content website. 

I am applying as many lessons as I can to level up this newsletter and the attached website. Still, it’s a struggle. I have been trying a lot of different angles to get you all to engage. But it’s hard. 

In his last newsletter he offered micro consulting to a maximum of 10 people. 

I started filling out the form and halfway through thought I wouldn’t get it anyway. Then I remembered the lesson from my previous mailing. Even if someone is really big, the number of people engaging is often pretty low. So I continued. And guess what, I got it. In the following days, I've got a master in content building (who sold multiple businesses for millions) check out my stuff and give me personal advice. 

This feels as an absolute win. Please take this experience as a driver for the next time you feel like participating or applying to something is worthless. The world opens up to those who actually get up and convert to action. 

Your circle. 

Me getting micro-consulting from Scott gets me to the next point I want to discuss. It’s about the people you surround yourself with. 

MFM talks about this right here:

The whole concept of your circle is not only about canceling toxic people from your life. But about finding people that can help you level up. And this doesn’t have to be someone close to you. I consider my connection with Scott a step to leveling up. 

The beauty of the internet is that it connects us to pretty much everyone in the world. We are no longer limited to our block. And we are not looking for new bff’s. We are looking for a connection with people that are inspiring. Not someone to drink beers with. 

This doesn’t even have to be an established connection. Meaning that you can level up your circle by just consuming content from people who reached what you are looking to reach. 

Reading the right materials, listening to inspiring stories on podcasts, following the right people on Twitter. Whatever. 

To close this week off I wanted to talk about mindset. Especially self-esteem and doubt. 

Don’t confuse what you see with reality. 

A long long time ago (I don’t remember where) I published an article on self-esteem. 

It was during my beginning days as a freelancer when I followed a lot of peers on social media and absorbed all their successes. It made me doubt my own skills. How could they sign so many clients, have it all figured out while I was struggling to get a grip on this new adventure. 

It wasn’t until I met one of these peers and concluded that they felt exactly the same. They just struggled, did a lot of low-paying giggs and portfolio projects. Basically the reason for sharing so much of it online was because they had the time to share it. 

I shifted to a different mindset real quick after that. Basically, my saying goes. If people have the time to post about their work on social media they are not really busy. 

When looking at other people we often forget where they are coming from. So instead of just assuming they are better than you, try to break it down it and figure out why they are successful. 

A few examples of this in practice. 

I know that I’m in a fortunate situation because I’m a white male born in a western country. My struggles are how I like to call them ‘western world problems'. 

There are people with actual problems. I’m just a big crybaby compared to those people. 

So I already have some big advantages. There are no crazy high rollers in my family, but in the end, I inherit some real estate which kind off ensures my retirement. Not a fancy Lambo driving retirement but a 'singing out my days without a lot of trouble' retirement. 

Remember this when you look at the things I do. You probably face different struggles, we are not the same. We've all got our own path. 

A second example is one of a guy from my city I know. He sold his software company for millions. I don’t like his personality. But the fact is he sold his business and made bank. 

I’m not jealous, but I’m triggered that he pulled it off and I find myself struggling with ways to grow my ventures. 

Then I found out that his daddy was loaded. He funded his business and made it a lot easier to grow quickly. 

There is not wrong with that, but it puts things in perspective. It makes his success a little less self-made. 

The third example is from the MFM podcast. Where Sam and Shaan discuss schooling. They had some fancy educations which were paid for by…. Their dads. 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not hating here. But I’m trying to paint a picture of looks vs reality. 

People can be very successful but if there is a solid base to fall back upon it makes the hassle a lot easier. If you could lose it all there is something way harder about starting a business. 

In regards to self-esteem, this is a variable to add to your equation. 

Don’t beat yourself up if you’re behind on others. Don’t think that you're doing something wrong or you’re not good enough. We all had different backgrounds and motivations. 

It doesn’t mean that there is no work to be done in the above scenarios. Everyone is still putting in the hours. But it’s a lot easier to just drop whatever you’re doing and switch careers when there is a solid base you can fall back on. 

I do however feel that ‘motivation wise’ there is a big advantage in not having these securities. Staying motivated is hard. Especially when you’re a spoiled brat (Sorry not sorry). So don’t think you have no chance if you’re not having these advantages, just use them to fuel your motivation.

In a certain way we are all leveraged. You are probably reading this mail on your phone or laptop with an active internet connection. That puts you ahead of a lot of people. Just saying. 

Anyway. Use the above to your advantage. Beat your self-doubt and boost your self-esteem. The fact that you’re reading this also means that you’re trying to level up. It’s a journey we all follow. 

I’m going to stop here. Like in every mail I would like to add a cta (call to action) if you feel like something triggered you are you have a different thought, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can just reply to this email, it’s connected to my personal email. Let me know your thoughts. 

Appreciate you all for reading. 

Stay safe and see you next week. 🙏

Erwin

How You Can Help Me. (If you like this mailing)

First of all, thanks a lot for reading. It motivates me to create and find more content going forward.

I want this information to be free for everyone. The world will only be a better place if chances are distributed more evenly. Inequality is already growing too fast. It's up to us to tighten the gap. 

You can help me grow this educational platform I'm building in 2 easy ways (that cost you nothing).

1. Share this newsletter with friends who could benefit.

2. Follow me on Medium (I need 100 followers to get paid by Medium for my writing)

Thank you!

You made it to the end. I hoped you liked the insights provided in this mailing. This email is brought to you by Startup Library, a brand of The Growing Investor. I intend to shift my cheezy quote game on Instagram to a more serious game where I share with you the resources I use to keep myself updated and motivated. If you got any suggestions feel free to reply to this mail or send me a DM on Instagram. If you found value for a friend I would appreciate it if you'd share this mail with them and have them sign up as well.

Thanks again and I'll see you next week with new resources to shake your professional world.