Noah Kagan
Appearances
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
100%.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Every billionaire has a few different things, but I'd say the two most common things between a millionaire and a billionaire, most billionaires picked one thing, just one thing. Let's just go. I mean, Bob Metcalf at Ethernet created the Ethernet, pretty big deal. John Paul DeJoy, he created $2 billion companies, Haircare and Patron Tequila. Michael Hudner did Ships.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And all of them just have one thing that they focused on and most of us are like well I'm gonna do real estate and I'm gonna do a little content and I'm gonna try to eat commerce business I'm gonna have a seven passive income stream. Yeah, I don't and so for me as I've gotten older I'm only doing app sumo.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
It's like I have a book Oh my girlfriend and our baby that's number one and then it's like app sumo number two my business and then I yes I get to do YouTube which I love making content similar to you I have a book where I'm teaching other people how I did what I did. Yes, and I I love that they did one thing.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I think the second thing that's probably not recognized is they're in billion-dollar markets. They're in billion-dollar opportunities. So what's a billion-dollar opportunity? Honestly, this is going to sound silly, but like lawn care. How many lawns are out there? You have a lawn? I have like a fake yard, yeah. It's a lot of water in California, so yeah. True. Do you have a pool? I do, yeah.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Pool care. And how much do you pay your pool care person? Oh, 100 bucks a week. Weekly, yeah. So 400 bucks a month. Yeah. So that's $5,000 a year. You have 50 pools. It's like, hey, that's a million dollar opportunity. And then so you realize like pools and certain things like can be billion dollar markets.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And most people, and this is something I had to recognize through boring businesses, boring businesses is not, and it's not just boring. It's just billion dollar opportunities. Like, and John Paul DeGioia was a great one that I sound fascinating because he's like, find something that's in the reorder business too. So not just a billion dollar market, like shampoo, billion dollar market.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
But people need to buy your product over and over and over again. So I think there's something fascinating. A billion dollar market is a product that people need like pool care. Doesn't have to just be tech. I come from tech world, but there's a lot of different businesses out there to be creating. Like you can make money in a lot of different ways.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And that's been also fascinating with talking to all these people. Yeah. From ships to basements. Like there's just so many different ways. Right. A lot of ways.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Yeah, I remember him. The other person I think of when I think of success, I asked the founder of Strava. You know Strava? It's a cycling tracking app. It's like a social network for cyclists. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is the most unique one. I don't know. I don't think he's a billionaire, which is totally great. He's still doing really well. It's an amazing app, big business.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And I asked him, I was like, what success? He's like, not waking up to an alarm. That one's I never forgot because it's such a, it means you have freedom of your time. You're a time millionaire. And the fact that you're like, I can wake up whenever I want and do the things I really want in my day. That is, to me, I like, okay, I like that level of success.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And the other guy was the founder of Kinko's? His founder of Kinko's. And yeah, I mean, what was shocking about his story, he sold his company 2.4 billion, became a billionaire. And the disappointing part, he was awesome. I really admire him. Mr. Ophelia. But he said he was stressed for 34 years. He's like, every day I'm stressed. Building back business. Yeah. He's like, is it going to work?
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Am I have a payroll? Do I have to do this thing? I have to fly that stuff. And I remember just being like, I don't want that. And that's the coolest part about life. I can look at Lewis. I can look at Noah. I can check him out. I can be like, whose haircut do I want to try? And guess what? You create your own.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
You take all these different ones and you get a piece together the haircut you want to actually wear. Yeah. So I like seeing that. I was like, I don't want to live that life. I'm happy making less money, but doing it the way I want. Yeah.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Yeah. I'm 41, and I think you have to be stressed in your 20s. There's a part of stress that's good. It's not always a bad thing. You have the book out there, Upside of Stress. So in your 20s, you're figuring out your life, and you're just working your ass off. You don't know really what's happening. And in your 30s, you're kind of a little more clear. You're like, okay, I like maybe YouTube.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I like promoting products. And then your 40s, for me, I find it calm. And that just takes time to find out who we really are and be patient with some process that eventually we will figure it out. And for me, COVID, I would say, is when I finally found more peace.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Why did COVID bring you peace? Because I recognized that how I was approaching business, I had a plan. I was like, here's what we're going to be doing. Here's our budget. Here's our business. And I have a plan that I can follow. So that was part one. And part two is I didn't really like how I was living. I was engaged. And it Didn't work out. Really? Yeah.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
My business partner had a line he was recommending. He said to me, he's like, are you getting what you're getting or are you getting what you want? From the relationship? Yeah. Not from as a business partner. He's great. Shout out Chad. He's amazing.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Yeah.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Or are you getting what you want? And what was the answer? I'm not getting what I want. And that's hard, right? I think most of us, this is the thing I've noticed about advice, especially watching interviews and interviewing people. Most of us know the truth. We know our truth. It's just hard. And we don't want to accept it. Everyone has courage.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Like I did this ayahuasca thing, which I know is more common now, but I did it years ago and courage to me was I was afraid of it, but I did it anyways. And then I was still scared and there was a whole crazy story about this, but coming out of it, I was like, oh, I realized I can do hard things and all of us can do hard things, but we have to face the hard thing. Yes. And we all have it in us.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And so for me with breaking up with the fiance, which was tough and I knew what was that like? That was probably one of the more bigger regrets in my life that I didn't do it sooner because I wasted her time, wasted my time. Yeah, that's tricky. It was two years of just like back, and everyone's gone through this.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
It's not unique for me, but it was two years of, okay, let's try to make it work, but I know I'm not really good for you and I don't feel good about myself. And so it was like, eventually when COVID happened, that was kind of our, we had some issues that went down and I was like, I can't do this. Like, I can't spend, the specific thing I thought was like, do I want 40 more years of this?
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Oh man, yeah. That was, it was tough.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Yeah. And I mean, all that added up. I mean, even doing like this book, Million Dollar Weekend, or YouTube and stuff, nothing was wrong, but she is not, with our relationship, she did not get excited, like, I want to go to YouTube. I like attention. And my partner now with Moffitt, she's like, go on YouTube, have fun with Louis. Like she's, and for me that worked.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
My ex will find a partner that's better. And so with COVID, it was like having a plan of business, breaking up with the fiance. And then I think the other part that was kind of interesting was experimenting with life. There's a scene with business. It's an experiment. It's all an experiment. It's a game. Yeah. And I experimented just different ways of living.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I experimented finally living kind of rich. Like I had money, but I never enjoyed it. Really? Yeah, I think we're all taught that money can't buy happiness and that you're like, you know, you shouldn't be buying these things and don't live this way. And most of the ones who are showing that stuff are actually probably not, don't have the money for it.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I don't mean poor, but like they probably don't have the money. Most rich people don't even be posting about it. Right. And so I started, I rented a Malibu beach house. I rented a lake house in Austin. I started doing these things. I got like an RV for a month and I just kind of like drove around and like hung out in the RV.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And I was like, wow, having some nicer space to live makes me feel a lot better. And so those kinds of things led me in a direction where single for a while, started doing dating coaches. had a business plan that I was executing for AppSumo, so I felt in control of the business. And then I felt like, I'm actually going to start taking care of myself.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And then I also felt like I could take care of others then too, as I was feeling better about myself. And that, I think the past three years, I've felt much better, just been much calmer.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
was gonna work out what was your views around money during that time were you more anxious and stressed were you more abundant thinking like where were you at with money it's easy to be abundant when you have money i'll tell you that it's hard when you and that's what most people they're struggling with money that's why i'm like let's talk about entrepreneurship because that's a way of you can changing your situation which everyone can do and i had a friend who said no you're here and you're here where you want to be and it's actually closer than you think
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I was like, really? He's like, yeah, it's much closer than you think. You thought it was a bigger gap. I thought it's a gap. I thought there's something I don't know. I thought there's something outside. And it's something I think we're both, as we've gotten older, it's all inside. Yeah. Just being kind of like, hey, it's okay. Yeah, of course. It's okay.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Now with my ex, it was not that there was a good or bad thing about money. It was just how we treated each other with it. Like I didn't really spend a lot of money on myself.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Was it in stocks? What were you doing? Yeah. My father built his own business and then lost it to drugs and alcohol. And it was, it was a sad, like, that's definitely for me. I think a lot of, a lot of men, we want our fathers to recognize us. And I was fortunate. I have a great mom and a great stepfather. But for me, that, that father attachment. Yes.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Um, and I think with growing up with Jewish parents, candidly, like we're taught to be very frugal. We're taught to be very practical and it's just like, go make money. And that, that's a thing versus like, all right, how do you enjoy life? And I think with my ex, it wasn't, she kind of made me feel bad about it.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Like, why don't you spend money or we go to the airport, it's like $5 for a bottle of water. I'm like, I'm going to go to the bathroom and drink from the faucet. Like, or like, I'm just like five bucks. It's fine. I don't care. And I'm, there's still times, but over time you start spending in different things. Like I bought a fancy Jaguar. I had so much regret on it. Yes, you did. Oh yeah.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I hated it. I hated it. I dude, I, Oh man, it was the worst. Cause I don't care about nice cars. I have a 2004 Miata. I just got a new Vespa. There you go. That's the second I do. I do have a, I have a model Y, but it was not important to me. And I think that was interesting where she wasn't in free. Both of us. She wasn't like, Hey, she was like, you're being cheap. I was like, okay.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
You know, it kind of like felt deflated versus, and I was like, hey, why don't we, you know, do you want to try spending these things? Can we rent it for a day? Right, right, right. So I think there was ways of actually being more positive to each other with money. Right. Wow.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I'll tell you the part that's counterintuitive for me. So every day I write down something I'm grateful. And almost everything I'm grateful for is silly. Like to me, it's like I'm grateful for electricity. I'm grateful for water. Yeah. Hot water. I think that's silly, man. Yeah. Those are the ones I really love because it's available and it's not realizing how great life really is for all of us.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I mean, if you're able to watch this, life's probably pretty good. Yes. It doesn't maybe feel good in this moment or you don't have the money, but that's also something you could change. In terms of having...
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
candidly i i don't think i always felt worthy of what of like having certain things like having a wife or having a partner or having a kid um and even with facebook and stuff like that i felt like well zuck fired me i'm not worthy of having a business really yeah i felt like oh this guy knows something better than i don't and i think a lot of us feel that way like oh these other people have these things am i actually worthy of this stuff and how do we you know you talk about gratitude and vision i think everyone can spend more time just being grateful for themselves
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And how do we just actually give more kindness to ourselves? So one thing that I work on, anytime I'm kind of criticizing myself, it's like, all right, let's say one nice thing. And it kind of, what's crazy is you do that enough times, like criticize, nice thing, criticize. And we are literally the meanest people in the world to ourselves. Like, you know, your worst friend is yourself.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And so how do you change that relationship over time? And now it's just kind of like throughout my day, I'm like, dude, good job. Like, hey, you hung out with Louis, great job. And the more that we start doing those things, I think that's a way that, yes, you can manifest other things, but it's just really how do we work on being nice to ourselves? And that's really helped over time.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Literally until probably the past year, just very low. Like, let's talk about the book. No, no, this is good. Man, probably until literally like two years ago. Maybe fours, threes, fours. Threes and fours. Yeah, like I was getting partners that liked me just because that's what I got. And then with AppSumo, I think I had this fear I'm going to ruin this business.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
So I try to pass it off and not do it. And even with this book, I had to go through my own journey of, okay, I'm going to hire Tal Raz, one of the best business writers in the world, and I don't have to face myself.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And when all of us face these hard things in life, whether it's writing a book, whether it's relationship, whether it's starting putting yourself out there a little bit and you face some of the fears and you start just even small, the smallest thing. And you're like, maybe I am worthy. Maybe I can do these things.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And with AppSumo, when the previous CEO quit and I came back to work, I definitely was like, I'm ruining this business. I'm messing. And I did make a lot of mistakes, but I just stayed with it. And I had great people around me. And so over time now, I'm like, and I get feedback.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
One of the easiest things that anyone can do to improve right now, really literally right now is text someone, how can I get better? Whether it's in your relationship, just ask your partner, whether it's at work as an employee or as a founder. And so it's just through working with people, getting feedback over time now, I'm like, Pretty good at this.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I used to always, this is, I haven't really talked about this. It sounds small. I used to always call myself Chief Sumo because I never wanted to be a CEO. I never thought I was the right leader. And in the past 18 months, two years now, I'm the CEO. And so maybe for others out there, how are we labeling ourselves? Yes. And what are maybe small steps?
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Not that I've been big, like I have to go some dramatic thing that I can just do that makes me feel good about myself. That moves me in that direction. Same with the relationship where I didn't, I went, I worked with Stephanie Rigg. She's a woman out of Australia. Great on Instagram, really great content.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And a lot of what we talked about was like, what are you doing that makes you feel good about yourself? Like you drank last night. How did that make you feel? Like you're doing this type of activity. Like you're going on this date with a girl you don't want. How'd that make you feel? Like you're showing now with my partner Mafe, it's like, how am I showing up for her?
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Am I actually aligning my priority to my behavior? And every time I do that, I'm like, like I cooked her some food two weeks ago. I was like, I'm proud of myself. I'm glad I could take care of you. Yeah, I'm really proud of myself. And all of us feel these different ways. It's not like some exclusive club where everyone's always feeling happy. Yeah. Right?
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
But it's doing things that make us feel good about ourselves that, frankly, it's all within our control. I think over years, you realize it's not external validation. It's like, how do we get more of the internal validation? That internal person that's like, hey, I'm doing pretty damn good myself, and that's okay.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I've seen one or two. I don't know if I've seen three.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
and around money, love and relationships. Different things, man. It doesn't happen all at once. Like even taking Million Dollar Weekend as an example, you know, I've worked for Zuckerberg. I helped start Mint.com. Like I've started so many different businesses that have made millions of dollars and I still felt afraid. Like, can I put a book out there that people actually want?
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And can I actually even help them? And so I thought by hiring someone who's like the best around the world, I cold emailed him. Like, can you work on me with this book? He's like, sure. And so I paid him money. And I was like, okay, good. At least I don't have to do it. I don't have to face myself to see if I can actually write a book.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And then as the book got closer to having to submit the manuscript, as you know how it goes, I was like, this is not, I have to face myself with this book. I have to see if I can really do it. What did you not face? Actually writing a lot. We wrote the book together, but it was like, is this the book that I want to put my name on?
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Is this a book that I can say, hey, if you're trying to start a business, there's some things about starting, building, and growing that I can help you with. And so I had to face the book. I had to face myself in actually writing the book. And yes, I worked on it lightly, but at a distance. And I think a lot of us do that. It's like, okay, well, let me avoid that thing.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
Let me avoid the relationship. Let me maybe avoid the work. And so then I basically like, I don't know if I'd call it hermit mode, but basically like sat in my room and more or less for about a month, just like heads down, worked with beta readers. And then I was like working on the scripts and all these things. And I was like... And then I was going with people.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
So every week we have five people going through the book. I had a guy living at my house about a month ago. And through doing it, I was like, oh, I can do this. I can do this. This works. And we all feel that. We all feel that in a lot of different ways. Maybe in a relationship. Maybe it's with work. Maybe it's with ourselves.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And so kind of this concept lately I've been really, really embracing is like, what's the hard thing I'm avoiding and how do I go into that? So I voted the book for a while of it. And then I was like, no, I'm going to go full in. Same with apps and with CEO. I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to do it. I wanted someone else to do it.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And same thing when he quit, when I was on a bike ride, I was biking across America and he quit. And, uh, I didn't want to come back. And he, one of my best friends was like, well, who's paying for the bike trip? I was like, absolutely. He was like, well, you should probably, and the guy who's running, it doesn't want to be there. So I came back and had to face that.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
And, you know, the same experience, like it's surprising how much we're afraid of things. And when you finally do it, you're like, it wasn't as hard as I thought. Right. And I'm much more capable than I realized. And that's true for everyone. Right. And it's just thinking about what these things are. Wow.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
They're both insanely hard. Both insanely hard. Yeah. AppSumo is definitely some of the hardest work I've ever done. And I would say by being an entrepreneur, though, I feel lucky. I feel like it's the hardest thing, but this is the part that I think I'm assuming you can resonate with. The things that are the hardest for us are also on the other side of that, the things we're most proud of.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
I don't know. We're never not proud of ourselves when we do something hard for ourself. And I'm really proud of my work at AppSumo where I'm like, I'm showing up. And so for everyone out there, whether you're doing YouTube, whether it's religion, whether it's sports, whether it's a business, like how are you showing up or in your partner? And the same thing with my partner where.
The School of Greatness
How To Take Control Of Your Financial Health To Create Lasting Abundance
It's been a challenge. You know, I'm flying to Spain. I'm staying up till 10, 11 p.m. to work Spain hours so that I can be with her. And now that she's pregnant, it's like, okay, am I really showing up in the relationship for what she needs? And that's, lately it's been awesome. It's been, I'm happy to show up for those things, but it's been, it's been a journey to get to that point.