Hey all,
Somehow I slid into a podcast with the likes of Seth Godin.
A few weeks back, I took a right on South 4th Street, left on Bedford, and walked to David Nebinski’s home, just down the street from my apartment in Williamsburg, BK. Upon arriving, I learned that David and I have the same birthday (year and all), and both started our careers in equity research.
David has a podcast called Portfolio Careers. I think we were supposed to talk about having varied interests and building a portfolio career. Instead, during episode #276, I went on a tangent about relationships.
When I was working with Ryan Leslie on SuperPhone, we spent a lot of late-night work sessions jamming about the concept of 1,000 true fans. Coined by Kevin Kelly, 1,000 true fans is, in a nutshell, the idea that no one needs 1M Instagram followers to build a career. Instead, we need 1,000 people who, for lack of a better way to say it, genuinely f*ck with us. The early adopters who will purchase whatever we’re selling. (I think I’ve just inadvertently connected the dots between me and Seth Godin.)
My conclusion from all these work sessions on true fans was that my life consisted of my relationships—the people I interact and communicate with the most. And if there were a place that could visually represent what my life looked like, it was inside of my text feed. I could scroll through my texts and see exactly what I was up to. And even if what I was up to wasn’t something I cared to admit, it would always be 100% true.
If you want to make music but have no music friends on iMessage, you’re probably not making music. (This one rings true for me.) The same goes for starting companies, writing books, dating, and more.
So what are you creating on text? Are you generating awesome sh*t or fun with friends? Connecting with family? Building something? Or are there a few conversations that are spinning lightweight drama and not serving the grander mission you’re on?
It can be a tough pill to swallow (it’s certainly been for me at times), but the answer to how you’re spending your time and how to change it lies right inside those blue bubbles. And by god, I’m not saying to go out and cut people out of your life. I’m simply suggesting that if you want to change your life, a good place to start is with who and about what you’re texting.
Peace out,
Mike
🔖 My feed this week
Portfolio Career
Episode #276: Building Relationships and Huddle
Episode Notes (by minute):
1:30: How hosting dinners helped build relationships and to some extent where Mike is now as the Cofounder of Huddle
3:15: “I really believe that life is lived in relationship. So if you want to change your life, you really do have to change the people you talk to every day.”
7:00: How Mike is intentional about the people in his text feed, and why you may need to cut some people from it
9:00: “through your relationships is how you will create whatever you want to create.”
10:30: How you could start hosting dinners by starting with your closest friends first
17:30: How being coached is helped Mike a lot through accountability
21:00: 3 trends that Mike is seeing about startups and flexible work: people are leaving big tech to freelance, those same people are starting businesses, and people being more open to building their company flexibly
28:00: How ~25% of the Huddle community has W-2 full-time job
31:00: How Mike holds himself accountable to X amount of messages per day and setting up meetings with people.
36:00: How Mike wishes that he would’ve stayed in touch with people in his network
39:00: How Mike has gotten a lot of value from journaling daily
Listen to Portfolio Career on Spotify below.