Invert Your Problems

It’s 9 pm on Monday.

I’m sitting a my desk soaking up all the blue light so l can to deliver my newsletter for the week. It goes out tomorrow morning at 6am.

I’m sweatier than I’d like to admit thanks to this wonderful heat wave we have in San Francisco. Not even an 8sleep can salvage the sweaty slumber I am about to experience this evening.

At this point there are 70 of you subscribed to this newsletter. I don’t do this for the vanity or the numbers, but I sure as hell like it when this reaches more people.

Can you do me a favor and share this with someone who you think might like this. Then you can peer pressure them into subscribing. That way you you can flip book clubs on their head and have a little newsletter club.

Imaging this: you text each other every Tuesday about how great this newsletter was and if I hit the over/under on type-o’s for the week.

Could be cute, even magical🪄

So. If you could help me (and my ego) out. They can subscribe using this link here 🙌🏻

Now that I got that out of the way...

Let’s talk about a conversation I had with my friend Jake this afternoon. Shoutout to Jake for the 4pm flat white. I’m cracked out at 9 pm on a Monday because of you. 🤪

Jake and I are sitting on a bench watching the lines form for the ferries to cross the bay at the end of the work day. Sipping our coffees and sharing life updates since we first reconnected almost exactly this time last year.

I was telling him how I was planning to make a big change in my life. I vomited out all the ideas I had that I wanted to pursue. Few of which I was actually making money on. But I wanted to cut the cord and jump into it.

I broke down how I plan to drastically cut expenses to make this happen. All the mitigations I planned put in place for how long I could “figure it out” for. At what point I would consider living in my car and how long I had until I needed to consider doing that. I had the runway mapped out. I showed him my excel sheet to prove that I did my homework.

“You’ve got it backwards man. Stop thinking about how to cut expenses. Flip that on it’s head. Figure out how to make more money. Not how to spend less”

I had a holy shit moment.

When faced with a tough challenge, whether its personal or as a business. The natural instinct is to cut costs and switch into survival mode.

Survival being stay alive as long as you can (financially).

This might not be true in all scenarios but it this inversion was the exact framework I needed. Most of the time we default to cutting things out. Perhaps because that’s the easiest conclusion to jump to? You cut what you think you can go without. But you can only do that so much until it begins to have a negative impact on your overall ability to operate.

Independently or as a business.

With a little bit of effort and some creative thinking. Can you flip this problem on it’s head and focus on how you can make more?

Example 1: In business

You own an agency. You are overworking your employees because your nightmare client is too demanding. They’re now working double time and want to leave. You’re also getting burn out. The business struggles because you want to grow to hire more help, but your expenses are too high.

Invert the problem.

Instead of cutting costs to keep the business going, can you bring in a higher paying client at 2x the price that might not be as demanding. Now your employees are happy and the business is healthy.

Now you cut out the shitty client.

Example 2: In your life

At your job. Are you burnt out and tired of being underpaid? But you don’t want to switch jobs because switching is going to require more work to get up to speed. Even better, you have a feeling you’re going to have to now devote more time to that new role for that sexy 15% pay bump (so your mom can brag to her friend that you got a new job). Instead you now start cutting costs to save up. Whether that’s to buy a house (that you now can’t afford (shoutout inflation)) or buy more concert tickets and drinks.

Let’s invert that shit.

You’re not going to get rich by saving money. And you’re definitely not going to improve your life by cutting coupons and hunting for deals at TJ Maxx and on Amazon.

You create wealth (and many other skills) by earning money. Not saving it.

You might think this is douchey to say but this switch-up helps in more ways than one. It encourages you to think differently. It kills the victim mindset. It shifts you from reaction to action.

Now it’s in your control.

Next time, instead of figuring out how to save $100 on sushi by eating out on Sundays.

Figure out how to make $500 with the incredible skills you already have.

Trust me. They’re there.

You’ve got it.

Now sell it.

You’re Awesome,

Jared

P.S. I just launched my third Plunge Party. It’s gaining steam. If you know anyone who lives in the Bay Area that you would like this and loves meeting new people. Can you share this with them? 🧊

I Dig So You Don’t Have To

Send me live music you’re vibing to right now.

I’m going to feature some of the best sends down here for the homies 👇🏻

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Cool Thing I Found On the Internet

My friend Marianne just showed me Wispr Flow. Their dictation is incredible. Apple talk to text has dropped off and isn’t good. This is spooky good