🔑 A bad way to make money
Welcome to The Business Academy.
I've never met some of my best employees...
I've talked to them but never met them in person. Because many of my employees don't live in the US. They live in Mexico, the Philippines or Ukraine.
Today's newsletter is powered by.... Somewhere.com
You'd be surprised by the roles I've hired abroad.
Today in my companies we have the following staff abroad:
A group CFO, a controller, staff accountants, a marketing manager, an advertising manager, and a US trained lawyer.
Somewhere is a recruiting firm that helps small and medium businesses hire in foreign countries. Their recruiters have connections at top universities in these countries so you can access the best available talent. And most roles are 70% cheaper to hire than in the US.
I've used Somewhere to hire people abroad. And I've talked to other people who have used Somewhere to hire. The feedback I get from others users of the service is interesting.
Most people don't realize the quality or level of employee they could get abroad. Most just assume you hire people abroad for admin roles. No Way! You have to dream bigger...
Somewhere can help you hire managers, executives and also admin in the Philippines and Latin America. If you use my link you'll get $500 off when you hire someone through Somewhere.
What do the following famous men have in common?
Benjamin Franklin
Warren Buffett
Niccolo Machiavelli
Alexander Hamilton
Bill Ackman
All of these men will be remembered in history. And they all happen to be great copywriters.
In today's piece I'd like to make a case for "writing" in public.
When I began my writing journey I followed a simple philosophy many of us know: "monkey see, monkey do".
If Warren and Bill were spending precious minutes writing for the public. I would try my hand as well.
Now that I've been writing this newsletter for almost two years. I have some lessons to share.
You'll be a better thinker
Here are two things I've observed. I now have 80,000+ people that read this new newsletter.
I need to deliver to you, my reader, a quality experience.
That means every week I'm striving to learn at least one thing that is newsworthy, and worth sharing with you. It's like working out. The necessity of using my research muscle is forcing me to learn more.
Secondly. Writing is my intellectual sparring partner.
The act of writing about my learnings for you helps cement those learnings in my mind. Information retention goes way up if I have to read something, and then teach it to you in written form.
Plus, I'm forced to think actively instead of passively about things I learn. Whenever I learn a lesson, I have to ask myself: "what do I think of this?" "why is it interesting?" or "so what?".
This process makes the experience of learning more fun.
People know who you are and what you think
This is something that both feels common but is very unique...
There are 8 billion people on earth. I'd estimate less than 1% of them write and share their thoughts weekly.
If you've been reading my newsletter and tweets for a while, you know how I think. You likely know more about how I think than you know about 90% of your friends.
People who want to work with me, invest in us, or sell us their business can learn how I think through these writings.
My writings do work for me while I sleep. They are out there making friends, connecting, selling, marketing, convincing people.
But also my writings are pushing some people away. Some people don't like me, or what I have to say. And that's OK. It's great in fact.
I prefer to save them time, and me time by letting those folks filter themselves out.
It's a crappy way to make money
I don't recommend it. But because it is one of the world's best sales tools, it can power your other ways to make money. So indirectly, it can be a good way to make money. But don't expect to get rich off your writing alone.
It can also help you advance in your career faster. For example:
My friend used to write the weekly company wide newsletter at LYFT (the car share company). She just raised her hand one day and volunteered to do it.
Pretty quickly she went from being an unknown customer service person, to receiving thank you emails from the exec team and CEO. Everyone knew her name. Because she wrote an interesting report, once a week, to the whole company and signed her name on it.
Her writing was marketing for her! This helped her move up in her job, but she kept writing the newsletter until the day she left the company.
Are you thinking about it?
Give it a try. Even if you write to 30 people once a week, it's great practice (and fun!)
Some useful resources:
my favorite book is: Storyworthy
I signed up for this course to be a better writer: CopyThat
What did you think of today's newsletter? Reply back to this email to let me know, or pick one of the ratings below:
👉 💰 💰 💰 💰 💰 Yes, I LOVED IT
👉 💰 💰 💰 It’s ok
have a great week,
Sieva
Disclaimer: nothing here is investment advice. Please do your own research. The information above is just for information and learning.
