First Class Founders: Creators | Solopreneurs | Personal HoldCo

E15: Sandy is the Founder of Spotted By Humphrey, a dog boutique curating playful dog goods for good dogs. The shop has grown tremendously since its launch in 2018. Sandy and Humphrey were even invited down to Los Angeles for a segment on Shopify's YouTube channel. This was a professional studio set with camera crew, backstage make-up artists, and real actors and actresses on the set. Sandy's secret to growth has been building a strong brand identity. She built an audience over 150k followers across all social media channels and today, she's going to share her framework for building a successful brand. ***TOPICS:Definition of Brand (2:38)A brand is a feeling that consumers get when they're interacting with you. So it's something that's not definable by the company to the extent that a brand is defined by the relationship between the company and its customers.Framework for Creating a Strong Brand (4:32)Step 1: Identify your values.Step 2: Live your values consistently.Step 3: Be open to adapting your brand values.Identify Your Brand Values (5:56)Start with yourself. Think about how you see yourself as a brand, what values you live by, or simply just how your friends might describe you.Stay Consistent with Your Brand Values (8:53)Every touchpoint in the customer experience should embody these values. Think of the colors on your website, the tone of your social media posts, or the way that your emails look. So the more consistent they are, the more effective you'll be at reinforcing those values.Evolve Your Brand Values (13:28)It's only natural that a brand changes and evolves over time like humans do. It doesn't have to be drastic as a complete rebrand. It's really important to continuously observe the trends within your industry and assess what kind of changes feel appropriate to your brand.Audit Your Brand Values (17:48)If you have a business, when was the last time you did an audit on your brand values? Visit them now and update them.***LINKS:instagram.com/SpottedHumphreytiktok.com/@SpottedHumphreySpottedByHumphrey.comJOIN: First Class Founders Premium MembershipDOWNLOAD: Hyper-Visuals For Our Episodes (Free)***FOLLOW / REVIEW:- Follow - Leave 5-star review***CONNECT W/ YONG-SOO:- X- Threads- LinkedIn- Newsletter***First Class Founders is a show for indie hackers, bootstrapped founders, CEOs, solopreneurs, content creators, startup entrepreneurs, and SaaS startups covering topics like build in public, audience growth, product marketing, scaling up, side hustles, holding company, etc. Past guests include Arvid Kahl, Tyler Denk, Noah Kagan, Clint Murphy, Jay Abraham, Andrew Gazdecki, Matt McGarry, Nick Huber, Khe Hy, and more. Episode you might like:Future of Newsletters with Tyler Denk, Founder & CEO at BeehiivFrom Zero to 100K Subscribers: How to Grow Your Newsletter like a Pro with Newsletter Growth Expert Matt McGarry...

E14:  Today, I'm sharing a framework called the 'I / We / They' framework that I developed to help me gain clarity on what I need to work depending on the stage of my business. I wish that someone had taught me this framework 7 years ago when I first became an entrepreneur.***TOPICS:I / We / They Framework (2:09)There are 3 parts to this framework: Experimental, Operational, and Scaleable, corresponding to I, We, and They respectively.Experimental Phase (2:26)The Experimental phase of your business starts with yourself. This is where the "I" portion of this framework comes into play. It's characterized by building your audience and validating your ideas. During this phase, you're trying lots of new things. You're still exploring what might work and that's OK. This phase tends to have the greatest fear of failure and self-doubt as you'll have more questions than answers.Operational Phase (6:12)You need to create three primary systems: lead-generation, value-delivery, and overall operations. Build an all-star caliber team around you to help you with these 3 processes. Work with them carefully and refine these systems over time. Mentor your team and teach them everything you know about your business.Scaleable Phase (15:03)So your business is growing and you’re working with your team to build out processes and systematize your operations. Now, it’s time to empower your team. What motivates employees is the autonomy to make big decisions for the company. Ownership over creation. Ownership over decision-making. Ownership over action. The biggest growth levers in my own business happened when I let go of control and delegated the decision-making process to my team.Strategies for Delegation (16:45)Encourage your team to brainstorm solutions first. Then, give feedback on the decisions that your team makes. If you must come up with the plan yourself, get your team's buy-in so that they feel ownership over that decision. And lastly, trust your team to make the right calls, but it doesn't hurt to verify first. By doing this, you're eliminating your own decision-making bottleneck at the company and also empowering your employees. Elevate the key operators in your business to take the reins from you.***LINKS:Episode 12 - How to Find, Nurture,JOIN: First Class Founders Premium MembershipDOWNLOAD: Hyper-Visuals For Our Episodes (Free)***FOLLOW / REVIEW:- Follow - Leave 5-star review***CONNECT W/ YONG-SOO:- X- Threads- LinkedIn- Newsletter***First Class Founders is a show for indie hackers, bootstrapped founders, CEOs, solopreneurs, content creators, startup entrepreneurs, and SaaS startups covering topics like build in public, audience growth, product marketing, scaling up, side hustles, holding company, etc. Past guests include Arvid Kahl, Tyler Denk, Noah Kagan, Clint Murphy, Jay Abraham, Andrew Gazdecki, Matt McGarry, Nick Huber, Khe Hy, and more. Episode you might like:Future of Newsletters with Tyler Denk, Founder & CEO at BeehiivFrom Zero to 100K Subscribers: How to Grow Your Newsletter like a Pro with Newsletter Growth Expert Matt McGarry...

From humble beginnings, the speaker shares their journey of moving to the Bay Area, bootstrapping their business, and working at Ripple. They also talk about attending SXSW and partying with Coolio, their crazy bootcamp experience, and transitioning from a blockchain engineer to an online knife seller. The chapter also touches on the speaker's viral celebrity French bulldog.

E12: The creator economy has exploded. It's more important than ever to build an audience. I've built a simple 5 step framework to help you find, nurture, and grow your audience. By the end of this episode, you will know how to build your audience AND grow a loyal following through engaging content. I'll break down what type of content you need to post for which segment of your audience.***TOPICS:Find Your Voice (1:31)Find your own unique voice. You don't wanna be just another creator in a sea of content creators. This is not how you'll be able to build an engaging audience. Why should anyone listen to you? Do you have an important message for your audience?Identify Communities (5:47)Go where your audience is. Communities can be found anywhere from in-person meetups to online forums to Twitter groups. Identify and go where your future audience hangs out.Deliver Value to Communities (7:01)Add value to each community. Establish your authority in that community.  Once you've established your reputation within that niche, you can start broadening your area of expertise.Content Structure (14:09)Your content should have an enticing hook, which is your beginning. Next, we have the main body of your content. Don't forget to keep your content interesting by using metaphors and telling stories. Humans are wired to remember stories. Finally, we have the end. This is where you summarize the main points of your content in an easily digestible way so that your audience can quickly sum up your content in a few words. You should also have a call to action for your audience.Content Breadth vs. Depth (16:22)A broad type of content is something that's relatable to more people. This increases your potential reach and variety. Showcase your creativity and knowledge with content that goes deep.  As part of your content strategy, you need both broad content and specific content. Broad content for relatability across a wider audience, specific content for building authority within your current audience. ***LINKS:Episode 1 - How to Turn Your Passion Into a BusinessEpisode 2 - How to Achieve Success in the Face of AdversityJOIN: First Class Founders Premium MembershipDOWNLOAD: Hyper-Visuals For Our Episodes (Free)***FOLLOW / REVIEW:- Follow - Leave 5-star review***CONNECT W/ YONG-SOO:- X- Threads- LinkedIn- Newsletter***First Class Founders is a show for indie hackers, bootstrapped founders, CEOs, solopreneurs, content creators, startup entrepreneurs, and SaaS startups covering topics like build in public, audience growth, product marketing, scaling up, side hustles, holding company, etc. Past guests include Arvid Kahl, Tyler Denk, Noah Kagan, Clint Murphy, Jay Abraham, Andrew Gazdecki, Matt McGarry, Nick Huber, Khe Hy, and more. Episode you might like:Future of Newsletters with Tyler Denk, Founder & CEO at BeehiivFrom Zero to 100K Subscribers: How to Grow Your Newsletter like a Pro with Newsletter Growth Expert Matt McGarry...

E11: Podcasting has seen continued growth year over year and it looks like the growth is here to stay. I'm here to tell you my top 5 reasons for why everybody should consider having a podcast whether that's for your own business or for your own personal brand.***TOPICS:Podcast Growth Statistics (1:26)Since 2006, there's been a steady rise of Americans who have listened to a podcast in the past. It's grown so much that big media companies are now spending a lot of money to produce podcast-only shows. Most Important Factor for Podcast Success (3:39)The most important factor in your podcast's success is consistency. And what’s the secret sauce for consistency? You genuinely have to enjoy the art of podcasting.Your Own Audience (5:47)Podcasting is owned media. Just like how you own all the email subscriber data if you have a newsletter, podcasting is similar in that it's a platform-agnostic medium that will live in perpetuity. This is very different from platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.Paid vs. Earned vs. Owned Media (6:58)At the top of the funnel, you have paid media. Next level down from paid media is earned media. Earned media is essentially any online word of mouth. Owned media is any online property that you control and is unique to your own brand.Leaving Behind Legacy (9:24)An RSS podcast feed cannot be taken down unless you decide to take it down yourself. First Class Founders will continue to evolve as I evolve as an entrepreneur. I love being able to share my journey and thoughts with an audience in real time.Media Leverage (10:55)There are four types of leverage: Labor, Capital, Media, and Code. Someone can listen to this exact episode tomorrow, or in 10 years. Over time, this exact episode can be listened to over and over again.Monetary Potential (13:02)Subscription-based podcasting can be a great business. There's very little overhead. There's no physical inventory. There's no growing labor cost and infrastructure cost. Once your show grows, you will have predictable recurring revenue.***LINKS:Andrew WilkinsonEpisode 3 - Secrets of CompoundingJOIN: First Class Founders Premium MembershipDOWNLOAD: Hyper-Visuals For Our Episodes (Free)***FOLLOW / REVIEW:- Follow - Leave 5-star review***CONNECT W/ YONG-SOO:- X- Threads- LinkedIn- Newsletter***First Class Founders is a show for indie hackers, bootstrapped founders, CEOs, solopreneurs, content creators, startup entrepreneurs, and SaaS startups covering topics like build in public, audience growth, product marketing, scaling up, side hustles, holding company, etc. Past guests include Arvid Kahl, Tyler Denk, Noah Kagan, Clint Murphy, Jay Abraham, Andrew Gazdecki, Matt McGarry, Nick Huber, Khe Hy, and more. Episode you might like:Future of Newsletters with Tyler Denk, Founder & CEO at BeehiivFrom Zero to 100K Subscribers: How to Grow Your Newsletter like a Pro with Newsletter Growth Expert Matt McGarry...

Explore the different types of luck: blind, serendipitous, expertise, and idiosyncratic. Learn how to increase luck through online communities and expertise. Discover the science of luck and how it can be created. Explore the concept of defining luck and creating a playbook for success.

E9: How do you level up from millionaire to billionaire? We discuss the 5 mindset differences between a millionaire and a billionaire. By the end, you'll have the playbook for jumping from a millionaire to a billionaire.***TOPICS:Impact Over Money (1:40)Billionaires measure their success in units of impact vs. units of money. They are motivated to hit a certain milestone whether that's feeding a billion people, in the case of motivational speaker Tony Robbins. Or Marc Lore, who is now on a mission to build a new utopian city called Telosa. Or Elon Musk, who wants humanity to colonize Mars through SpaceX.Constant Learning & Self-Improvement (3:44)Bill Gates takes an entire week off to read every year. Billionaires are hungry for knowledge. They study historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, and others to learn the fundamentals of achieving success. Grant Cardone also believes that there is no such thing as burnout from working too hard. He believes that you're not getting enough unexpected wins in your work which is causing you to feel burnt out.Thinking Bigger Using Leverage (7:51)Billionaires are tackling the world's largest problems. So naturally, they use more leverage than anybody else in the world. They are running multiple businesses at the same time, leveraging a great team to make it all happen.Optimizing for Time (9:35)Millionaires have a tendency to save money whenever possible. Billionaires optimize for time instead. Billionaires plan out for several decades in advance. Jeff Bezos infamously kept reinvesting Amazon’s profits back into the business for decades despite shareholder pressure to become profitable.Contrarian Approach to Decision-Making (15:06)Billionaires are constantly assessing risk vs. reward and limit their downside as much as possible while leaving the upside unbounded. They are calculated in their risk-taking. Yet, once they find an asymmetric risk/reward payout, they go all in. Millionaires diversify their investments into things like index funds to reduce their risk but billionaires put their eggs in a few baskets and watch them very closely. ***LINKS:Episode 2Episode 3JOIN: First Class Founders Premium MembershipDOWNLOAD: Hyper-Visuals For Our Episodes (Free)***FOLLOW / REVIEW:- Follow - Leave 5-star review***CONNECT W/ YONG-SOO:- X- Threads- LinkedIn- Newsletter***First Class Founders is a show for indie hackers, bootstrapped founders, CEOs, solopreneurs, content creators, startup entrepreneurs, and SaaS startups covering topics like build in public, audience growth, product marketing, scaling up, side hustles, holding company, etc. Past guests include Arvid Kahl, Tyler Denk, Noah Kagan, Clint Murphy, Jay Abraham, Andrew Gazdecki, Matt McGarry, Nick Huber, Khe Hy, and more. Episode you might like:Future of Newsletters with Tyler Denk, Founder & CEO at BeehiivFrom Zero to 100K Subscribers: How to Grow Your Newsletter like a Pro with Newsletter Growth Expert Matt McGarry...

E8: Gather up your to-dos for the week! We'll go over the Eisenhower Matrix, finding your lead domino, timing your tasks, blocking & tackling, and last but not least, we'll discuss how you can multiply your time. Ready? ***TOPICS:Eisenhower Matrix (1:31)The Eisenhower Matrix will help sift through which tasks you're supposed to be working on so that you can make the most out of your day. The core essence of the Eisenhower Matrix is to filter through which tasks are either important or urgent so that you can prioritize your tasks.Lead Domino (5:33)Determine which specific one task will help completely eliminate the rest of the tasks on your list. If they can not be completely eliminated altogether, then look for the one task that will essentially be your "lead domino" that will make all the other tasks on your list easier.Timing Your Tasks (8:11)Did you know that there's a 2-hour window every day where doctors deliver more fatal doses of anesthesia before surgery? In the same two hours, Danish students score significantly lower on standardized exams. Likewise, during these two hours, CEOs are more likely to say things they may later regret on quarterly earnings calls which can cause their stock price to plummet. Can you guess which 2-hour time period this is?Blocking & Tackling (13:16)Schedule uninterrupted time into your calendar. Turn off all your notifications, put your phone on Airplane Mode, close all your other windows, and just concentrate on your task at hand.Multiply Your Time (16:35)Rather than asking “What’s the most important thing I can do today?”, reframe the question to “What’s the most important thing I can do today that would make tomorrow better?” In other words, by thinking about how we use our time today, we can free up our hours in the future.***LINKS:The One Thing by Gary KellerWhen by Daniel Pink Rory Vaden - Multiply Your TimeJOIN: First Class Founders Premium MembershipDOWNLOAD: Hyper-Visuals For Our Episodes (Free)***FOLLOW / REVIEW:- Follow - Leave 5-star review***CONNECT W/ YONG-SOO:- X- Threads- LinkedIn- Newsletter***First Class Founders is a show for indie hackers, bootstrapped founders, CEOs, solopreneurs, content creators, startup entrepreneurs, and SaaS startups covering topics like build in public, audience growth, product marketing, scaling up, side hustles, holding company, etc. Past guests include Arvid Kahl, Tyler Denk, Noah Kagan, Clint Murphy, Jay Abraham, Andrew Gazdecki, Matt McGarry, Nick Huber, Khe Hy, and more. Episode you might like:Future of Newsletters with Tyler Denk, Founder & CEO at BeehiivFrom Zero to 100K Subscribers: How to Grow Your Newsletter like a Pro with Newsletter Growth Expert Matt McGarry...

E7: How do you create that perfect customer experience? Also, should you ever fire your customers? What about the popular saying "the customer is always right"? Plus, I introduce a simple framework for customer service that will change the way you think about customer experience.***TOPICS:Who is Your Customer? (1:36)A customer is any person or business that is paying for your product or service. Always ask yourself - Who is your customer?Airbnb's Superstar Experience (2:56) If you want to build something that’s truly viral, you have to create an absolutely incredible experience that you tell everyone about. Reverse engineer the hypothetical ten-star experience. When You Should Fire Your Customer (6:45)Entrepreneurs fall into the trap of putting too much weight into the monetary side of a deal and not enough consideration for the other variables in play. I've made this mistake myself and I learned the hard way when it comes finding the right partnerships.Lesson Learned (7:50)At GrowthJet, we should have fired one client earlier to avoid the headaches that we had to endure in the aftermath. The important lesson here is that you can and should fire your clients if they're being problematic to you or your team or compromising the integrity of your service or offering. Finding Sponsors For Your Newsletter (10:25)Thinking from first principles allows you to think outside the box and see what is possible using a whole different approach.Customer Experience Framework (12:58)What is the function of customer service within this customer journey? Customer support exists to fill in the gaps between your customers' expectations in their journey of what should have happened vs. the reality of what actually happened.Pareto Principle - 80/20 Rule (15:32)80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. In other words, a small percentage of causes have an outsized effect.Business Ops as a Production Plant (16:15)Imagine your entire business operation as a production plant. When something breaks, it increases your overhead cost. You want to catch your problem early. The further you catch your bottleneck, the bigger the cost of fixing it.Steve Wynn's Daughter's Half-Eaten Croissant (18:28)This story demonstrates an important point in designiJOIN: First Class Founders Premium MembershipDOWNLOAD: Hyper-Visuals For Our Episodes (Free)***FOLLOW / REVIEW:- Follow - Leave 5-star review***CONNECT W/ YONG-SOO:- X- Threads- LinkedIn- Newsletter***First Class Founders is a show for indie hackers, bootstrapped founders, CEOs, solopreneurs, content creators, startup entrepreneurs, and SaaS startups covering topics like build in public, audience growth, product marketing, scaling up, side hustles, holding company, etc. Past guests include Arvid Kahl, Tyler Denk, Noah Kagan, Clint Murphy, Jay Abraham, Andrew Gazdecki, Matt McGarry, Nick Huber, Khe Hy, and more. Episode you might like:Future of Newsletters with Tyler Denk, Founder & CEO at BeehiivFrom Zero to 100K Subscribers: How to Grow Your Newsletter like a Pro with Newsletter Growth Expert Matt McGarry...

E6: What do Patagonia and Richard Branson have in common? Likewise, how about Amazon and Elon Musk? We'll compare these two companies and two remarkable billionaire entrepreneurs. I'll also discuss strategies on how to differentiate yourself when you're a bootstrapped company by referencing Seth Godin's purple cow concept. Last but not least, we'll introduce and apply the mental model of First Principles Thinking and how you can use it to come up with innovative solutions to complex problems.***TOPICS:Patagonia (1:56)Founded in 1965 originally as Chouinard Equipment, the company was an early pioneer in the sustainability movement. Today, Patagonia still exemplifies this important mission of protecting our planet with innovative initiatives.Amazon (3:17)Amazon was born during the frenzy of the dot com era in the 1990s. Amazon grew at all costs without much consideration for the harmful environmental impact of its growing logistics business, or even for its own employees.Seth Godin - Purple Cow (6:17)To build a remarkable company that stands out from the crowd, you have to embody strong values that make your company unique and special.Henry Ford (7:50)Henry Ford once said, "If I had asked what people wanted, they would've said faster horses." Ford mass-produced the first automobile thinking in first principles.First Principles Thinking (8:07)Thinking from first principles allows you to think outside the box and see what is possible using a whole different approach.Ray Kurzweil (11:14)Ray Kurzweil thinks that humans are approaching an inflection in longevity, hitting longevity escape velocity.Elon Musk (11:56)Elon Musk is an entrepreneur who often thinks in first principles, coming up with the concept of the Hyperloop while working on Tesla and SpaceX. Musk is pushing into new frontiers that have yet to be explored by humanity.Richard Branson (12:34)Richard Branson is another successful entrepreneur. Utilizing Seth Godin's purple cow concept, his publicity stunts and framework for launching businesses in well-established industries is very different from the way Elon Musk approaches business building.***LINKSEpisode 5 - The Pros and Cons of Bootstrapping vs. FundraisingJOIN: First Class Founders Premium MembershipDOWNLOAD: Hyper-Visuals For Our Episodes (Free)***FOLLOW / REVIEW:- Follow - Leave 5-star review***CONNECT W/ YONG-SOO:- X- Threads- LinkedIn- Newsletter***First Class Founders is a show for indie hackers, bootstrapped founders, CEOs, solopreneurs, content creators, startup entrepreneurs, and SaaS startups covering topics like build in public, audience growth, product marketing, scaling up, side hustles, holding company, etc. Past guests include Arvid Kahl, Tyler Denk, Noah Kagan, Clint Murphy, Jay Abraham, Andrew Gazdecki, Matt McGarry, Nick Huber, Khe Hy, and more. Episode you might like:Future of Newsletters with Tyler Denk, Founder & CEO at BeehiivFrom Zero to 100K Subscribers: How to Grow Your Newsletter like a Pro with Newsletter Growth Expert Matt McGarry...