So, you just raised a million bucks. First off, congratulations! You just hit a milestone & secured your paycheck for a while.

Second, welcome to the shitshow that is your inbox. Expect to get a million and one people coming out of the woodwork, each asking for money. Some of them may even offer to help you in exchange for said currency - some of those might even be smart about their approach.

Here’s the deal: I know there’s a lot on your plate right now. But there’s only four things that truly matter at this point. Here they are in order:

Proving product-market fit (if you haven’t already) - this includes branding, messaging, packaging, and more.


Building your high value evergreen marketing / sales channels - meaning, you own these & they can realistically run forever, generating a minimum of $3K in profit per successful action (preferably more) - action meaning partnership / event / sale / whatever. - This includes lead generation, content, partnerships and more.


Nailing your UX (That’s user experience you freaks - get your minds out of the gutter!) - This includes your UI (for things like tech), packaging, post-purchase experience, follow up, customer service and more


Removing yourself from full time core business ops - this includes recruitment, organizational structure, mindset / attitude development, automation software and more

Everything else is essentially superfluous if it doesn’t directly contribute to a foundational goal in one of these 4 areas. That means about 90% of what you COULD do is probably completely unnecessary.

Why do I say this? Well, let’s go through each area in order:

PMF - without this, you’re dead in the water. Literally, people are saying “we don’t need you.”


High value evergreen sales channels - without this, you’re not gonna get yourself any more customers. No customers = no money = no business = no magic tooth growing machine (Fun fact: that’s actually a thing. It uses ultrasound.)


User experience - This is where people STAY, and where people refer. This is the difference between constantly looking for new customers to pay you $100, and having one client bring in $1.5 Million in revenue over the course of 2 years.


Removing yourself from core ops - if this doesn’t happen, you have a job. Not a business.

Lastly, what do I think these look like ideally?


PMF - Optimize for high value. In a perfect world, you’re different from the rest of the herd and command a premium price because of it. Look at Ferrari vs. Honda, or even better: Sugarfina vs. generic gummies.

Ferrari is different because it offers one of the greatest car experiences ever made by man. (At least according to their fans.)

Sugarfina doesn’t use better ingredients or fundamentally better candy (In fact, it’s mostly the same as the generic), but they DO use great packaging, great branding & great marketing to stand out and command a much higher price. Literally $9.50 for a 3-4 oz cube VS. $1.70 for the same size generic bag.



High value evergreen sales channels - you want marketing & sales channels that you OWN, that you can use forever. Maybe it looks a little different month to month, but your core idea is still there.

For great examples, look at products like Liquid Death & Paul Mitchell. They have distributors which stock their product and get it directly to the customers. In Paul Mitchell’s case, these distributors are also essentially affiliates - salons who have a vested interest in making even more sales of Paul Mitchell.



User experience - Give people immediate wins / excitement. You want your product to feel amazing the second they actually try it. For consulting / info types of things, that means your knowledge has to come off as extraordinary from the start, like it’s speaking directly to someone’s heart & soul.

You also want to make it easy, fun & profitable for people to share your stuff. Why would you tell your friends about Erebus? Oh I dunno, maybe because you’ll earn some free card packs for it AND get to play with them? More fun, more cards, and all it takes is 2 clicks.



Removing yourself from core ops - figure out people, first and foremost. Know exactly what type of person you want to work with and want working with you. Learn how to test knowledge, personality, and fit in a way that feels natural.

Ultimately what you want to do here is create a culture. A kind of ultra-exclusive club where only the best of the best are allowed in. People who truly care about doing a great job.

On top of that, you want to give them a reason to stick around, and help them grow their skills. Not only do you get them working harder for longer, you also get better workers over time.

Everything else typically falls into place when you figure out how to find the right people and nurture their talents.



And there you have it. There’s a lot to consider here, but as long as what you’re spending money on is going to help you solve one of these issues foundationally, you’re going to do very well indeed.

"The great irony of money is that when you don't have it, nobody wants to give you any. Yet when you have more than you know what to do with, everyone wants to give you more of it." ~ Synclair

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