Moonshots & Resources

Howdy from Durham,

Welcome to the 11 new subscribers from this past week!

Today, we're jumping into my thoughts on the future of my own work.

We're ~40 subscribers away from my goal of hitting 250 by the end of 2022.

My ask to you this holiday season: please give me the gift of forwarding this email to someone in your network who you think might enjoy it.

If you've been forwarded this email and want to receive articles like this straight to your inbox, you can subscribe by using the button below!

The first failure of many.

Folks who have been a part of this community know that I am a man on a mission.

Specifically, I want to enact the following changes within the education system:

1. Develop an engaging curriculum that prepares high school students with the skills that they need to succeed as adults.

2. Create a 1-year alternative route post-high school where students serve communities across America and become eligible for scholarship/job opportunities after completion of the program.

This year, I pursued #1 with the creation of Essential Skill Sets.

Spoiler Alert: I drove 1,000 people to the website - not a single one signed up for the free playbook.

Now, a single Facebook ads campaign isn't indicative of an idea's validity.

But building the prototype clued me into one key thing - my ideas are moonshots.

What do I mean by that? Changing the education system is a massive undertaking that requires a great deal of resources.

I am not confident that I have the financial or the social capital to execute missions #1 or #2, at the moment.

Results of the Essential Skill Sets ad campaign. The top row was a financial education focussed ad. The bottom row was a general education ad. The financial education component resonated with people more. As a result, cost per click (CPC) was 3x cheaper. Still, not a single person bit on the free playbook I had listed - meaning I had 0% conversion on my call to action (CTA)...laymen terms - that's not good.

Failure is to be expected. In fact, I need to fail more.

I know 3 things:

1. Moonshots require repeated experiments so you can learn from your failures.

2. These experiments are easier to execute/learn from with resources.

3. Financial resources are not easily acquired in education.

The profit margins in education aren't favorable (which is likely the leading variable causing a lack of innovation in this space.)

By starting with limited resources in an industry that is not known for making money, I could potentially hamper my ability to facilitate experiments, fail fast, and identify what does/doesn't work.

If I am not failing fast and identifying what works alongside a strong team, it will be difficult to make these moonshots a reality.

tl;dr I first need to build social and financial capital to execute these moonshots.

I'm not saying I couldn't make change if I jumped in full-time on these 2 moonshots now.

I'm just saying I think I could execute better with higher leverage and bring about more systematic change if I had said capital down the line.

The landing page of the curriculum I produced at essentialskillsets.com. This hasn't proven to be successful, but I love this design.

Resource acquisition first, moonshot second.

So we know I need money, and we know I need to build a network.

Last week, I outlined the 5 ways in which we make money - labor, optimization, performance, creativity, and judgment.

In 2023, I will be pursuing creativity (founding a company) with all of my effort.

Why? Starting company allows me to build resources in the 2 areas that I'm lacking in:

1. Social Capital - allows me to collaborate with awesome people with a similar mind for taking moonshots

2. Financial Capital - allows me to build equity within a company and develop the necessary resources to fund the moonshots (this is fully dependent on the company being successful - lol)

Feels kinda weird saying, "I want to acquire more money."

But I'm a strong believer that money doesn't change you. Rather it amplifies who you are and what you're about.

My goals with money are simple - control my time and use it to amplify my two missions in education.

Link to last week's piece on the 5 ways we make money.

My focus is on becoming a founder in 2023.

We've now set forth the following parameters:

1. I don't have the resources for the moonshots.

2. I will acquire the necessary resources by starting a successful company.

3. I will return to the moonshots when I have resources and a higher degree of leverage.

To accomplish #2, I'm asking myself the following question:

What intersection of skills, industries, and problem sets are you uniquely qualified to operate in?

Skills - product strategy and storytelling

Industries - web3 and AI

Problem sets - TBD

Hate to leave you hanging on specifics re: the problem sets, but frankly I'm still working it all out myself.

I promise to report back updates here.

Here's to what I hope is a whole bunch of failure in 2023 that empowers me to return to my 2 missions down the road - whether that be 2 years, 10 years, or 20 years from now.

What I'm paying attention to:

• Hourglasses and Tree Stands by Haley Brengartner - This is the best piece I read this week. It's on Haley's first experience hunting. Here's a snippet: "An (actually fun) ER visit and 5 stitches later, Auston asked me a question that I meditated on long after my response. 'So, are you done hunting?,' he asked with sympathetic eyes, to which I responded 'no' with a giggle."

Photos of The Week

Location this past week: Durham, NC

Took part in Durham holiday tradition #2 - the lighting of the Christmas tree in City Center.

I joined the Research Triangle's local Eagles' fan club - Tri Eagles Fly.

Lunch with friends Mike and Emily from Colorado who were traveling through the Mid-Atlantic region for the holiday season!

While writing my 2022 annual review, I was looking over analytics from this past year. There was a massive spike of traffic to my personal website on 3/31/2022. Despite my best efforts, I can't track how this came about. My hypothesis: someone featured my content in their newsletter that day. Why do I think that? You can track an acquisition source from a website. You can't from an email. So, to whoever highlighted my content 8.5 months ago... I don't know who you are, but thank you 😂

This is the reach of my writing from this past year. I had readers from almost all of North America, Asia, and Europe, got a few folks from Australia, a great deal were from South America, and parts of Africa!!

I typically don't edit this newsletter the morning of, but I took this picture of Durham after returning from an F3 workout at 5:30am today. F3 stands for fitness, fellowship, and faith. They're free, peer-led workouts for men across the country. No one goes by their real name. Everyone gets a nickname. Some example names include "Sprinkles" or "Banana Split." It was my first time going, so the group affectionately named me "Matt Foley." Why did I get a seemingly "real name" as a nickname? Because I lived in a van down by a river.

Thanks for reading

What moonshots do you want to make?

Is there a way in which I can help you make them?

Shoot me a reply and let me know!

Josh

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