Noah Kagan, Chief Sumo at AppSumo.com, shares his entrepreneurial journey from working at Facebook to building an eight-figure business. Learn about the importance of asking for what you want and Noah's Million Dollar Weekend process.
Order our new book, The Score That Matters
https://amzn.to/47K2g4f
Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com
- “Rejection is a test if you really want something. The upside of asking is unlimited.”
- "People are afraid of asking. The people who make it happen are willing to ask, be rejected, and keep going."
- One of the biggest lessons learned from working with Mark Zuckerberg? Pick one goal. Then focus relentlessly on reaching it. His was 1 billion users on Facebook. This is how Noah has grown App Sumo to $80m in revenue. Focus on one big goal and the system implemented to make it happen.
- Noah's parental influence:
- Fearlessness - Ask for everything. Set rejection goals. You learn that selling copiers door to door.
- His mom is very disciplined. Always working out in the gym. She follows through. She's persistent. She grinds. His mom also hated her job.
- "I don't want to live a 'what-if' life"
- "Are we getting what we get or are we getting what we want?"
- The law of 100 -- Do the thing 100 times before you quit.
- Get going, get started. It's about now, not how.
- Create an exciting vision: "What are we looking forward to?"
- Million Dollar Weekend:
- Start it
- Build it
- Grow it
- Noah's philosophy on interviewing:
- 1) Talk with people you're genuinely interested in
- 2) Tell them how they’ve positively impacted your life. People love genuine compliments. And they loved to hear that they’ve helped others.
- 3) Tell them what's in it for them. Create questions that make your guests excited to answer (set them up to tell interesting stories)
- Entrepreneurship is not risky. Risky is spending your life at a job you hate, with people you don’t like, working on problems you don’t care about.
- Freedom is about gaining control of your schedule. Money is the tool, not the goal.
- This trip was one of my highlights of the fall. Nothing like biking across America. So much good time to think and reflect. Reminds me that whenever you’re in a funk, just get moving. (Helps to be surrounded by beautiful landscapes)
- The future of big business is small teams. One person. No employees. Everything automated. Solopreneurs are the future.
- Acknowledgements:
- Adam Gilbert for our bike ride ten-plus years ago where I shared a dream to put my knowledge into a book for other people. And for always always being my guardian angel.
- Tahl Raz - I dreamed for years of the chance to work with you on a book. Thank you for taking a chance on me. Somehow you were magically able to take all my adventures/theories/ideas/antics and put them together in a helpful narrative better than I could have ever dreamed. Thank you! Also for being a mutual lover of schvitzing.
