Wk23 (34.1k subs): I Taught a 21 Yr Old How to Make Millions

The Comeback - Week 23 (34,100 Subs):

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Last week I took a call with one of the entrepreneurs I’m mentoring.

He’s an extremely bright young man with huge ambitions.

At only 21 years of age, he has a lifetime of opportunity ahead of him.

Have to say, I’m slightly envious!

He started telling me how because of his very unique background he’s friends with several extremely famous people in a certain field.

Out of respect, I’m going to leave out the details but it’s safe to say you’d definitely know at least one of them!

So I asked him why doesn’t he consider doing business with them one day?

They already have millions of eyeballs worldwide and huge reputations that many dream of.

As the conversation evolved we both got extremely excited and I’m sure one day he’ll connect the dots.

But it got me thinking.

That’s not the kind of breakthrough you have at school or in an online course.

It’s so specific to the individual.

Yet, for him, that is probably his biggest competitive advantage.

And in life and business if you want to win big you must have an edge.

That’s what investors are looking for.

That’s what your customers want.

That’s what separates the Lions from the sheep.

The Davids from the Goliaths.

So today I’m going to try my best to give you a 4 step playbook to figure out what your unfair advantage is.

Today on David to Goliath:

1. Challenges: Hunting The Animal

2. Breakthroughs: Meet-up Reaction

3. Main Topic: How to Find Your Unfair Advantage (4 steps):

4. Resource Recommendation: Blue Ocean Strategy

Road to 100,000: Behind the Scenes

Challenges - Hunting The Animal

I’d love to tell you how on our charge to 100,000 subscribers everything is going smoothly building David to Goliath - but I’d be lying.

As we recorded this week’s podcast Dan asked me about the past week and I told him “Sometimes you just gotta hunt an animal.”

When our ancestors didn’t have food for their tribe do you think they were worrying about the perfect morning routine or getting a perfect night’s sleep?

No.

They just did whatever it took to feed their people.

Thankfully due to modern technology, we can optimize our lives so that 80% of the time we can maximize a solid work-life balance. Getting the rest we need.

But sometimes when the going gets tough you just gotta hunt an animal.

If you know you know.

Shout out to all you entrepreneurs!

Breakthroughs - Meet-up Reaction

In last week’s Newsletter, I focused on the meet-up we organized in London with 10 amazing entrepreneurs.

As I opened LinkedIn this week day after day I started to see organic posts on LinkedIn from the people who attended, sharing the experience they had.

Before you ask no this was not planned! But it honestly meant so much to me.

All the money and business talk aside, seeing the impact just one event had is a special moment and a great reminder of what being human is all about.

Main Topic: How to Find Your Unfair Advantage (4 steps):

Does this ring a bell?

“Learn the secrets of how I scaled my business doing XYZ”.

I constantly see these ads on YouTube.

Now I’m going to remain optimistic and assume these people are being honest. I’m sure many of them are.

But here’s the big problem no one is talking about.

If one person finds a unique way of doing something, for example winning clients via cold email through personalised Loom videos, it will enable them to have an unfair advantage (for now).

By the time they teach that to the next person arguably, it can work even better because they’ve learned from their mistakes and have optimised the process.

But by the time the 10,000th person implements said strategy the market will catch on and there will be significant diminishing returns.

Which in simple terms means for every new person that copies it the results will get worse and worse.

This is why, in my humble opinion, to win big you must find your own competitive advantage.

Easier said than done!

But I’m going to attempt to give you the playbook here in 4 simple steps:

With the hope, you’ll figure out the rest for yourself!

Because that’s what lions do aka winners.

(If you’re earning over 6 figures a year skip step 1)

Step 1: Lock in The Fundamentals

First a cautionary message. I’m not for one moment telling you to go and reinvent the wheel.

If you haven’t locked in the fundamentals focus on that before anything else.

This includes:

Problem-Solution: Figuring out what problem you are solving for which specific sub-section of the market.

Marketing: Learning how to articulate your solution to the masses, so your target market finds you.

Sales: Learning how to convince a stranger that your solution can solve their problem and why paying you is a no-brainer.

Value: Delivering in line with the expectations you’ve set so you have a happy customer which will refer you future business.

With that out of the way let’s get to the fun stuff!

How to separate yourself from the pack.

Step 2: Figure Out Your Strengths

About a year ago I met a mentor of mine in Vancouver. An incredible entrepreneur who has built and led teams at multiple companies including Tesla. 

The first thing she did was give me a book called StrengthsFinder. A test which helps you understand the ways you most naturally think, feel and behave.

She explained to me the best thing I could do was forget about my weaknesses and just hone in on my strengths.

Using this book and online test I completed the Clifton Strengths assessment and here were the results:

Competitive, futuristic, significance, focus and Individualization.

This confirmed that my biggest strength overall is leadership. I operate best when defining a vision and galvanizing a group of talented individuals to achieve a common goal.

I highly recommend you complete this test yourself (and for your team) as it will reveal a lot.

Here’s a link so you can check it out.

Most importantly though it will enable you to build a life and business in arenas where you have huge competitive advantages.

Step 3: Knowledge/Skillsets/Experiences

As Darwin once famously said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

You may believe that your life to date is useless and unrelated to your current career path.

That was exactly my belief and this is where I need to challenge you.

Why?

Innovation happens when new ideas from diverse backgrounds challenge conventional wisdom.

Let me give you an extreme example from my past to prove the point.

When I was a kid I got incessantly bullied at school.

What on earth does that have to do with business Nigel?!

Well, I’m glad you asked.

Being the odd one out and desperately trying to fit in with crippling insecurities showed me life from the other side.

So instinctively I now know when someone is struggling - I know how to connect with people - and I know how to ensure everyone in the group feels safe.

For leadership, this gives me an unfair advantage.

Funny how life works out, hey?

But I’m certainly not the only one. You too have unique life experiences and skillsets you’ve picked up along the way.

Whether it’s an intense passion for gaming, random books that changed your life or a traumatic experience from your childhood - these are unique to you and only you.

Review your knowledge, skillsets and experiences and consider how you can use them to give you a unique advantage today.

I promise you the more you dig, the more gold you’ll find.

Step 4: Assess Your Network

Imagine you were friends with Elon Musk?

How many opportunities do you think you’d get?

How much of an advantage do you think you’d have?

And all it takes is one of those special people.

The 21-year-old I mentioned earlier has extremely famous people in his network he considers friends. He never thought one day he could do business with them.

But once you’ve got the experience and built up your reputation you can.

Maybe you don’t know any Elon’s. That’s fine - nor did I.

But you’re probably much closer than you think.

To analyze your network use the leverage filter.

I went into detail on the 4 types of leverage from Naval’s book in this Newsletter but to keep things simple you have:

1. Capital - People who have access to money

2. Tech - People who are software experts

3. Talent - People who know extraordinary talent

4. Media - People who have huge attention online

Once you’ve identified which point of leverage they’re strongest in, start building a relationship - leading to future partnerships (more on how to build strategic business partnerships in the main topic of this Newsletter).

For example, to help grow this Newsletter I recently struck up a partnership with Kieran Drew who has a ton of media leverage on X, LinkedIn and his Newsletter.

He did a shout-out for David to Goliath and in return, I’ll be doing the same for him!

If you’re looking to improve your writing skills and build an online business go subscribe to Kieran’s Newsletter - his emails are action packed full of useful tips!

If you visit this link he’ll also give you a free copy of his 10 tips to make your content irresistible when you subscribe. Enjoy!

In summary, to find your unfair advantage:

Step 1: Lock in the Business fundamentals.

Step 2: Complete the Clifton assessment to figure out your strengths.

Step 3: Think about how you can apply your past knowledge, skillsets and experiences to bring a fresh perspective to your work. The crazier the better.

Step 4: Analyze your network through the leverage filter and start building relationships that lead to partnerships.

You won’t find this advice in courses for $997 because it requires you to connect the dots for yourself. It’s a framework, not a copy-and-paste template.

If you want to have an unfair advantage in life or business and lead from the front you must take self-responsibility.

Resource Rec: Blue Ocean Strategy

When everyone zigs, zag.

That’s the premise of this book by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

Red oceans are all the industries in existence today. Where industry boundaries are defined and companies try to outperform their rivals to grab more market share. Cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody red. Hence, the term ‘red’ oceans.

Blue oceans on the other hand are all the industries not yet in existence. Unexplored and untainted by competition. Like the ‘blue’ ocean, it is vast, deep and powerful. With huge upside opportunity and profitable growth.

This book gives you frameworks and real-world KPIs to assess opportunities for creating a blue ocean in your market.

I’m about 1 quarter of the way through right now and have already learned so much!

If you want to learn more here’s a link.

One things for sure: This is how to gain a huge unfair advantage - to the point where competition becomes irrelevant.

I’ll leave you with this: Business and life are a jungle - every opportunity is up for grabs.

But as Matthew McConaughey said in The Gentlemen there’s only one rule in the jungle:

“When the lions hungry, he eats.”

(Damn, I love that movie)

So don’t settle for being a sheep.

Be a lion.

Stand tall.

Be different.

And find your unfair advantage.

Then go all in.

Until next time - keep dreaming like a Giant.

But believe, fight and act on your dreams like a god damn Underdog baby!

Yours truly,

-Nigel Thomas

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