SSS#139: šŸ¤” Audit Who is Shaping Your Thoughts

Newsletter

āŒ›ļø No time to waste.

šŸ¤æ Let's dive right in.

Livin La Vida Luna

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I need to start using reverse psychology on this girl. Whenever I ask her to "look at the camera" she looks in any other direction.

Thereā€™s this idea that you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

So this week, Iā€™ve decided to audit who is shaping my thoughts.

Iā€™m going to skip the back and forth in-person relationships (family, friends, business associates) and jump directly into who I consider ā€œoptionalā€ input-only relationships.

These are the people Iā€™ve sought out to learn from. And I do so mainly through 3 different mediums: Podcasts, YouTube, and Email Newsletters.

Between the time spent driving and working out, I listen to podcasts for a total of 8-10 hours per week. I spend 2-4 hours per week watching YouTube and another 1 hour per week reading newsletters.

šŸŽ™ Podcasts

  • The Tim Ferriss Show - Some refer to TF as the Oprah of Podcasting. His guests range from A-list celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lebron James, and Ed Norton to niche domain experts like Cal Newport, Mr. Money Mustache, and BrenĆ© Brown. Tim started out as the ā€œGuinea Pig of Human Optimizationā€, but recently transitioned into someone much more introspective. Iā€™ve been following his work ever since reading his first book, The Four Hour Workweek, back in ~2010.
  • Noah Kagan Presents - Noah is a serial entrepreneur and marketing expert. He was #30 at Facebook and #4 at Mint.com. Zuck fired him and he ended up quitting Mint before his RSUā€™s vested in order to start his own company called, AppSumo, which is basically Groupon for SaaS products. Noah is the Walmart version of TF. Although that sounds like an insult, I mean it as a compliment. His guests are of the lesser-known variety, but still quite interesting. His podcast episodes are typically short and to the point. Thereā€™s little to no warm-up period and even less cool-down. Itā€™s just straight fire from beginning to end.
  • My First Million - Hosts, Shaan Puri and Sam Parr, are two ā€œtech brosā€ that recently exited their respective startups. I love listening to this podcast because the bulk of the content is one of my favorite past-times: talking about pie in the sky business ideas and judging established businesses without much factual context. My favorite episodes are the ones with recurring guests, Steph Smith and Andrew Wilkinson.
  • All-In Podcast - A heavy-hitting group of billionaires and centi-millionaires that discuss the prior weekā€™s biggest issues. They discuss politics, economics, business, and more. I probably really like this show because thereā€™s a brown guy on it and theyā€™re all self-proclaimed degenerate gamblers. Two of them have their own jets. Oh, and the intro/outro music is as catchy as the song from Friends.
  • BiggerPockets - I donā€™t listen to this podcast much anymore but itā€™s probably the most important podcast on the list in terms of the impact itā€™s made on my life. I probably wouldnā€™t be where I am today (professionally) if I didnā€™t binge listen to the first ~200 episodes back in 2016/17.

šŸ“§ Email Newsletters

  • Morning Brew - I typically read the Morning Brew newsletter as Iā€™m drinking myā€¦ ā˜•ļø morning brew. This is headline skimming at its finest.
  • James Clear - Author of Atomic Habits, James Clear, sends his 3-2-1 Newsletter every Thursday. 3-2-1 stands for 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question. This is a bite-sized email. The content can be read in a minute or two. However, I like to read through it, mark it as unread, then read through it again when I have more time to reflect on the message James is trying to get across.
  • Creator Hooks - This newsletter identifies YouTube Videos that outperform their channelā€™s average. For example, letā€™s say thereā€™s a video with 100,000 views, but the creatorā€™s channel only has 5,000 subscribers. Creator Hooks would codify the title in order for other creators to easily apply it in their respective niches.
  • 5 Tweet Tuesday - There are 500 million tweets per day. Most suck. Shaan spends all week scrolling Twitter, so we don't have to. He shares a mix of hilarious, insightful, and shocking tweets.
  • S.T.U.P.I.D Friday - Copywriting Expert, Neville Medhora, sends out a weekly email in the following format: Swipe File, Thought, Uplifting, Picture, Interesting, Drawing. I took Neville's Copywriting Course back in 2021 and (i think) it helped me become a better storyteller/writer.

ā–¶ļø YouTube Channels

  • Ali Abdaal - Ali is a former Doctor turned YouTuber. Heā€™s from England so his accent is super soothing. The production value of his videos is what I aspire to. I absolutely LOVE how transparent he is about everything from his business to his personal life. Heā€™s also the founder of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy course I took in 2021.
  • Ryan Dossey - If youā€™re looking to source off-market real estate deals, Ryan Dossey is the only person you need to follow. His channel is full of free information that can help you build a lead-generating machine.
  • Alex Hormozi - IDK where this guy came from, but he absolutely flooded my timeline on all platforms over the past 6 months. Iā€™m still getting to know what heā€™s about, but early signs point to him sticking around and gaining mind share.