Reformed pirate. Direct response lifer. Over $850 million in sales. Man behind the curtain.
Charleston, SC
Joined December 2011
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Use small words.
Make big promises.
Give iron clad proofs.
This is the whole of the law.
There are too many people out there that are too goddamn sad. And I mean this in the least creepy way possible, but it would be a seriously great time to start a cult. The ROI would be enormous.
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Wait... you mean you make a lot of money not following the crowd?
Nonsense. No one listen to Matt. Also I have some Tulips to sell you. Very well priced. $500,000 a bulb.
Every smart founder and investor is piling into AI right now, which makes it the most crowded trade in business.
That's exactly why a good non-AI idea might be the most underpriced opportunity out there.
When everyone runs one direction, the open field is usually behind them.
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Couple of thoughts:
1- This is awesome! Do it.
2- Ayman, How have we never met? Why aren't we friends?
3- You'd get 10X the results with a company of 2-5. A fractional CTO+CMO supported by their own AI departments would mean you'd work less, make more, and be less lonely.
I took AppSumo from $3M to $84M as CEO and cut my own hours in half doing it. I've been saying “hiring is a sign of failure” for 10 years.
If I'd had AI back then, I would have done $840M.
Today I run ~140 Grok Bots, and I only talk to about 8 of them. Here's how:
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Also true for direct response. 70% of tests fail to move the needle.
Most of the time you strike out. Sometimes you hit a grand slam.
The fastest way to get more of the second is to accept a lot more of the first.
You win by stacking up the most at bats,
Hard truth... You have not failed enough for the success you say you want.
A list of failed businesses over the last 15 years where I lost my own $$:
- Threadsrefined ( -$100k)
- Packaging Co (-$1.5M+)
- CPG Co (-$50k)
- Selling south (-$50k+)
- Colombia JV BCI (-500k+)
- Carwash JV (-$67k)
- Office bldg (-$120k+)
- RSCS (-$950k)
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This is a totally rational conclusion.
And there will 100% be creators like that.
But you're ignoring how much younger audiences (Gen Z, Gen Alpha) absolutely hate AI.
They will demand human creators.
"Content creators" as we know them, will not exist in the coming years
Nobody will be YouTubers, influencers, etc
Why?
Because there will be AI-generated content creators that are 1000x more entertaining, engaging, knowledgeable, etc
These AI creators won't be operated by individuals. They'll be operated by quant-like firms that ingest enormous amounts of audience data, continuously optimizing every aspect of their content based on real-time engagement metrics
Every video, joke, opinion, every interaction will be engineered to maximize audience attention
Especially now that algos rule everything by serving you content they think you will like
Human content creators will still exist but it will be akin to me day trading on Robinhood vs a team of 1,000 quants at Jane Street
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If you own a business @bot is about to either give you a flood of new customers… or you are going to figure out what a DDOS attack feels like.
You need an AI to answer calls or soon all you’re gonna do is talk to robots.
"I don't actually have eyes on the sky."
That's what my Grok @Bot told a Comcast rep who asked about the weather 😂
It also told the rep that a competitor was offering a much lower price and negotiated both a price decrease AND higher speed for my internet.
Below's the 20-second reel of the real call.
📌 Watch the full video to see this feature in action: youtu.be/F-356TczoQU
(Btw, all Grok Bot users should have access to call US businesses now, just ask your bot to dial a number and give it some context upfront)
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If you run a small business you need an AI phone answering system ASAP.
Because 1 of 2 things comes next.
1. @bot answers all these calls and gives you a huge stream of new customers
2. You get nothing done ever again b/c the phone WILL NOT STOP RINGING.
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I’ve sold just over $1 billion dollars worth of stuff on the Internet.
There are 4 moats left in a world of AI.
🧵
Ships: You provide interconnection between systems (including physical delivery) or audiences that would be more costly to replace with an owned solution than to pay your usage fee
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You can make so much money with a dog newsletter. it’s just“I own a dog” makes almost nothing. “This is the newsletter for people who want to make Westminster” or “schutzhund mastery” print. Newsletters make money when they are their audience’s obsession. You have to get them paid, get them laid, or give them an identity if you want to make money.
Newsletter riches are in the niches - but def not in the dog space lol.
Here’s some rich niches for you:
- trading
- bizopp
- any collectible
- self help
- govcon
- accounting
- tax strategies
- real estate
- M&A
- retirement planning
- insurance
- cybersecurity
- legal
- SBA loans
- biotech
- crypto (still)
- medical
- agriculture
BTW: For those of you who don't know WPP has a $12 billion market cap and Q3 earnings of £3.274 billion.
It’s almost like nobody on here has heard of TBWA, Publicis, WPP, Havas, BBDO, Saatchi
Every single one of those and many more are bigger than Vayner Media
The story that agencies aren’t scalable is a lie you read on twitter
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Question for other solopreneurs out there. When you sign a contract that asks for your title at your company, what do you put?
I alternate between:
-Chosen One
-Supreme Mugwump
and
-He Who Stands Above All
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How most people use AI:
1. Manager writes 2 line email saying "you aren't hitting KPI & it's a problem"
2. Run it through AI
3. AI returns + sends email w/ 5 pages of added fluff
4. Employee has AI summarize long ass email
5. AI returns "you aren't hitting KPI & it's a problem"
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So, someone explain Claude's new text watermarking to me. Because as far as I can tell, they're freely admitting that they're going to take their already wonky ass writing and make it even wonkier, so you can tell AI wrote it. That is not a useful thing to do.
PS: Claude already writes the worst copy.
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We all feel that way. But it's an important reminder: the biggest innovations are taking something that is standard in one industry and bringing it to another.
coming from dtc background it is pretty funny that the concept of creator marketing is like the most viral mind blowing marketing strategy of the year in b2b re; the wispr flow program
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