Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
Success at the highest levels is just about knowing what questions to ask.
What combination of words will you choose? With what tone… and for what purpose?
All of this plays a role in making sure you get the clearest answer possible so that you can make the best decision possible (your job when senior), and also in strengthening your relationships with your team (your other job as a leader).
—
Just my takeaway from today!
My job is very different now leading a company of 30+ vs. when I first started.
If you want an inside track to what it’s like to scale and grow successfully - would love to have you follow along!
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Quick Mental Hack: if you want to start creating content, but are worried about what other people will think of you...
Anyone who would judge you is someone unhappy with their own life.
Everyone who's actually successful will applaud you for going after it.
They know what it takes to put yourself out there, and the courage it takes to truly pursue your dreams.
Cheering you on!!! 🤗
273 - 5
I just pitched Alex Hormozi to invest in my Startup 👀
And I need your help!
I just posted a TikTok pitching Alex to invest in my Startup, Stan, and I need YOU to go watch it!
Bonus points if you watch all the way through and tag @ahormozi in the comments!
GO GO GO!!!!
Link: www.tiktok.com/t/ZTNkrhRNo/
108 - 5
Just wrapped an incredible week at the Hoffman Institute learning how to heal our 'inner child'.
These were my top 3 learnings in hopes they can help you too:
❤️ Not All of Your Depression is “Yours”
My biggest realization this week was just how much of my depression wasn’t actually “mine”.
As kids, we don’t realize just how much our parents shape our worldview.
We mirror them.
We take on their anxieties, their depression, and their anger.
We start to "carry" their struggles.
For example — if we see our mom constantly overworrying about things going wrong — we start to subconsciously adopt that same pattern of overworrying.
But these patterns don’t have to be ours!!!
Our parents had to develop these patterns to cope with their own struggles -- but we can choose to shed them at anytime!
👨👩👦 Pretty Much Everything Goes Back to Mom & Dad
It’s a widely accepted insight at this point that much of our emotional pain is driven by what love we did (and didn't!!!) get from our parents.
For example, are you a perfectionist or a people-pleaser?
If so...
↳ Did you have to ‘achieve’ in order to be special growing up?
↳ Was it safe for you to ‘fail’ at home?
↳ How did you earn your parents’ love or approval?
Or do you have destructive patterns around dating toxic partners?
If so...
↳ What hole are you trying to fill that mom/dad didn’t give you growing up?
The more awareness we can grow around these patterns, the more we can heal.
❤️ And Lastly... There is Nothing Wrong with You
So much of our pain is self-induced.
We are SO harsh on ourselves.
Our brain says things to us like:
↳ “I’m not good enough.”
↳ “I'm so ugly. I wish I was a few pounds thinner.”
↳ “I’m not successful enough - look at everyone else.”
That if we just fix these things about ourselves... 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 we'll be lovable.
When in reality — we’ve always been whole.
We’ve always been what Hoffman calls “love and light”.
Pure potential.
---
So go easier on yourself — you’re the only one you have. ❤️
I know all this stuff sounds pretty woo-woo, but I swear it works!
Wishing you a blessed day. 🫶
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I often feel guilty about not being ‘more productive’.
Here are 3 ways I’m trying to work less and not feel guilty about it:
🤖 Realizing I’m Not a Robot
As much as I’d like to believe that I can just go go go go go constantly, I’m starting to get to the age where my body just doesn’t work that way anymore.
Accepting this reality, and reframing rest as a net positive thing for my productivity has given me a lot more peace with unplugging.
I need rest in order to show up as the best version of myself for my team!
🎨 Realizing Creativity Requires Space
In the old age of just cranking, maximizing my hourly work input made sense.
But once you build leverage in your career, you start to realize that a single good idea can actually be 100x more valuable than grinding for 100 hours straight.
Theoretically, I could be more ‘productive’ for my company if I took an entire month off, but came up with our next BN$ idea, rather than having cranked 100 hour weeks all week on incremental stuff.
🤦🏻♂️ Realizing Work Isn’t Everything
Okay I know this one is really obvious guys…
But when you’re so stuck in it, it’s kinda wild how much you get sucked into work.
It’s this massive black hole that can completely disorient you from what truly matters in life.
Ask any happy person who was also successful — and I bet they’ll tell you their loved ones were much more important to their happiness than their work.
Make sure to find the right balance that works for you! 🤗
--
➕ I post my daily thoughts, struggles, and lessons learned building a Billion $ Company — follow along if you to be a part of the journey!
121 - 6
I cold emailed Mark Cuban and he actually responded.
This is how you write a good cold email that people respond to 👇
🪝 Your Subject Line Needs to Hook
How many times have you seen boring email subject lines like “Informational Interview Request”?
People immediately delete those!!!
People decide in the first 2 seconds whether your email has value to them.
So your Subject Line needs to build rapport, credibility, and be personalized.
All while being short, concise and readable!
Rather than saying “Informational Interview Request: blah blah blah”, find common ground you have with the recipient like “Fellow [College Alum] Reaching Out”.
🤗 Use Your First Line to Build Rapport
I’m in the camp that opening up your email with a “Hope you are doing well” is a waste of valuable space up front.
Instead, I tend to jump right into things.
Specifically, I always mention something highly specific and personalized about the person, like:
“I have a huge respect for how you’ve disrupted the pharmaceutical industry”
or
“Congrats on all the success you’ve had with the Dallas Mavs!”
So many salespeople and tech bros are all business - and forget to build genuine human connections.
Don’t be a tech bro.
📱 Optimize for “Scanability”
Please for the love of God stop sending massive walls of text.
No one is going to read the novel you wrote!!!
Especially on mobile.
I often use bullets to help me get across my point quickly, like:
“Since dropping out of business school to start Stan, we’ve:
• Scaled from $0 to $25M ARR
• Helped 50,000 Creators Make Tens of Millions of $
• Hit Profitability after Raising a Seed Round from Top Investors"
Short, punchy, & readable.
—
Being good at cold emailing has genuinely changed my life.
It’s landed me millions of $ of funding and connected me with billionaires.
So if you at all want to improve your cold emailing, I actually recorded myself emailing 25 billionaires to get them to invest in my startup in my most recent video: https://youtu.be/JH1sZ9ySTvc?si=RLFyq...
—
And teaser — you’ll be surprised to see who responded 🤗
431 - 14
This is your daily reminder to always shoot your shot.
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take!!!
169 - 2
Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia taught me my favorite business term ever ...
He calls it his 'MBA', but I guarantee it’s not the same ‘MBA’ you’re thinking of...
Yvon runs Patagonia through his methodology: ‘𝐌anagement 𝐁y 𝐀bsence’
🧗 What is ‘Management by Absence’?
Yvon would take months off at a time to go on climbing trips, and he never worried about the business.
Instead, because he knew he had hired good people, he knew that his complete absence would actually be a good thing for the business.
He knew that while he was gone, his staff would have to step up and make hard decisions without him.
It’s a similar mentality to letting your kids fall down and get up for themselves, rather than coddling them their whole lives.
—
This is actually why I never get too stressed when I unplug for my yearly trip to Bali (sorry… I know I’m a complete meme of a startup founder here… I mean who wouldn’t be happy in Bali??? 🤦♂️🏄)
I feel like every time I get back, my team has “up leveled” while I was away.
And then because I’m well rested, I can cover for them to take time off, and then we’re off to the races!
335 - 10
Working from the office today!
Back in the day, I used to love long weekends, but for a reason you wouldn't expect:
Nothing drove me harder than knowing that while everyone else was on vacation, I was outworking the competition.
I'd gleefully crank on a Saturday or a long weekend Monday.
---
I'm admittedly no longer a huge proponent of this kind of mentality and hustle culture anymore.
But I gotta admit - it feels good to have that killer mindset and just 𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒌 through work every now and then.
To anyone else working right now - know that your hard work 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 pay off.
362 - 16
My Startup hit a really, really big milestone today.
We’ve officially made $100M for Creators!!!
This is probably my favorite accomplishment we’ve ever hit at Stan, because this means that we’re creating real value in this world.
It’s so cool to think that Stan has helped add $100 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏 dollars to the economy.
That’s $100 million dollars in the pockets of everyday Creators like you and me, just trying to pursue their passions and feed their families.
We’re coming for you, $1 billion. 😎
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I'm a reformed Goldman Sachs investment banker and Stanford MBA on a mission to help you build your own thing.
My goal is to teach you a better business education than Stanford/Harvard, entirely for free.
I feel super grateful that you're here, and I hope I can do everything I can to help you on your journey.
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnghu/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/jayhoovy/
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@jayhoovy