Christopher Ming

I spoke to +20 people about how they navigated the middle of their careers, from PMs to C-suite execs. All were unique in their circumstances but shared common approaches Here are 5 levers to help you navigate your mid-career job search: christopherming.com/find-tech-job/

@alexfinn @readwise save thread

I spent hundreds of hours reading through tens of thousands of lines of code If you learned something new in this post, I'd humbly ask you to leave a like and RT on the post below x.com/AlexFinnX/stat…

🔶 Replies will get you noticed way more Being a reply guy is EVERYTHING This new code pushes your replies to the timeline even more It makes sense. The more replies, the more ad views, the more money for X (and you) Want to grow your account? Time to reply

@bradwolverton @TheHustle @readwise save thread

13/ If you like breakdowns like these: a) RT the first tweet in this thread -- it’ll help more people see this/learn. b) Subscribe to @TheHustle and OPEN IT EVERY MF DAY!!! c) Give me a follow (@bradwolverton). I write about email growth tactics with the occasional wisecrack.

One key to high open rates? Write killer subject lines. What I’ve learned writing and editing 750+ email subject lines @TheHustle. 🧵...

@mikebeckhamsm @ECommDarren @readwise save thread

@ECommDarren I have found myself thinking, "What I wouldn't give for a little quiet." A few months ago, there was a night that neither kid was at the house with my wife and I. The silence was almost stifling. I realized at that moment how much I am going to miss the noise of young kids.

My kids are now 9 and 12. I'm no longer in the phase of having "young" kids. One of the most fascinating things I've learned: Many of my happiest and most cherished memories come from the first few years of my children's lives. Now that they are older, they don't remember these experiences at all. It's jarring when you share a really happy memory with another person, but only one of you remembers it.

@ClarkValberg @jasonfried @Kazanjy @readwise save thread

All good, sir! You make excellent points, many of which are definitely "also true," even if not THE determining drivers of our specific outcome... On venture 💸: While I appreciate the wisdom and principled orientation of the self-funded, sustainable growth ethos, that simply isn't an option in many situations. Especially when the shape of opportunity, competitive landscape, size-of-prize, and timeframe required to seize it demand exponentialism on multiple fronts. One cannot reasonably expect to sustainably soft-shoe to dominance in a fast-moving, winner-takes-all market. Without the support of our brilliant investors and board members, InVision could have never come anywhere close to $100M+ arr, 100% F100 enterprise customers, and 8M users around the globe (even our best direct competitor barely cracked $5M — and still raised VC $$). Did being heavily venture-backed make us impervious to fundamental industry disruption — clearly NOT. But IMO, it was a necessary ingredient for the right to play and win in our space. One thing I’m certain we can agree on is that as a founder, your vision, strategy, and tactics should be "fueled by," but never "defined by," your capital availability. Nothing but big love for my OG SaaS Rabbi ❤️

It's not nuts, it's perfectly reasonable. It's always sad when a company goes under, and people lose their jobs because of it. But if you can't build a business that can support itself, this is what happens. It happens to the dry cleaner on the corner. It happens to the pizza shop down the street. And it happens to the hot shot SaaS app that spends wildly and can't cover their costs. There are many more just like it. Bootstrap, or raise $350M, at some point, the business has to work, or it's gone. And if you've raised all that money, and you still haven't built a business in the end, then it's exactly the outcome you'd expect. You don't get forever to make it work. They had more time than most. Sad to see, but a sight you'll keep seeing. All this funding can't cover up fundamental economics forever. And too much funding makes it exponentially worse.

@LTI_finance @readwise save

If you could switch to 100% remote work, but had to take a $5,000 salary cut. Would you do it?

@triketora @readwise save thread

that’s not to say people CAN’T do the work on their own, and there are some who are so highly motivated that they prefer it and can push themselves harder without the distraction of others, but most people benefit from the guardrails and encouragement of a social environment

i think most people struggle with the accountability of remote work the way most people need group fitness classes, a personal trainer, or at least a gym for accountability — it’s easier to motivate when there are others around, easier to slack when you’re on your own

@jayclouse @readwise save

Announcement time! Today, I'm launching the Creator Science Syndicate – a community of creators, investors, and subject matter experts investing in the best companies in the creator economy. 🔥 WHY A SYNDICATE Over the last several years, not only have I built relationships with a ton of creators, but also the founders of creator economy companies. It's given me the opportunity to personally invest in a handful of companies inside of the creator economy – companies like @MavenHQ and @intros_ai. The Creator Science universe has grown a lot: • 40K email subscribers • 15K YouTube subscribers • 2M podcast downloads • 40K friends on Twitter • 30K friends on LinkedIn And it's created a new opportunity: connecting the creators in my audience to these investment opportunities too. OUR TEAM For this syndicate, I've partnered with @johnmgannon of Venture5 Media, one of the original creators focused on the VC space and an active angel investor. He also cofounded GoingVC, a leading VC education program with 500+ alumni around the globe. I read John's blog for years before he became both a member of The Lab and a personal friend. I'm excited about working with John because of his experience in the venture world, and because he has global reach into hundreds of VC firms that our portfolio companies will be able to tap into as they grow. THE BACKSTORY I first became interested in the syndicate model when I met Peter Livingston (@unpopularvc) in 2020 (this conversation is recorded as a podcast, by the way). Peter showed me that, in a lot of ways, running a syndicate was much more like being a blogger than a venture capitalist. I was studying investing at the time but becoming more interested in being a creator – so this spoke to me. Today, we've come full circle. HOW TO JOIN The creators of the creator economy are doing better than ever – and so are some of the companies supporting them. We won’t just invest in companies that we believe in, but companies whose products we personally use. We have investment experience as well as a unique perspective on creators, their needs, and which companies are actually addressing them. If you're an accredited investor and are interested in investing in some of the best companies in the creator economy...this is for you. I'll add a link to the syndicate in the tweet below and my DMs are open. Our first deal will be shared next week.

@_May_Ham @ShaanVP @milkroad @readwise save

Nifty Nest, my Web3 newsletter, just crossed 15,000 subs. Since April 6th we’ve written 46 articles Bookmarked 500 threads And spent $10,204 on user acquisition Three things you should know about newsletter growth + the state of Web3 1️⃣ @ShaanVP timed @milkroad's sale like a genius Crypto newsletters are *HARD* right now. Example: There were 160k NFT traders on Jan 1 2023. This week there are 47k. That's a 70% decline in active users. Milk Road turned off paid ads b/c of performance issues. It’s no bueno. 🟢What worked: @SparkLoopHQ and @beehiiv have been amazing. I wanted a few of the biggest finance / Web3 / AI newsletters to recommend me to drive the volume I needed. So I DM’d them and asked nicely. A few said yes. Thousands of readers at ~$.74 / sub. 2️⃣ ~50 Twitter accounts control how Crypto Twitter trades millions of dollars. Really. If you go to Twitter’s ad manager and try to target followers of the top 50 NFTinspect Twitter accounts, global reach plateaus around person #25. So a lot of subsequent news can be emotional dominoes. 🟢 What worked: There are some awesome people out there known for getting deep into the data. @waleswoosh @punk9059 @Tyler_Did_It and @zachxbt have (perhaps unknowingly) been the best sources of high-quality information I could hope for. I lean on their tweets/threads all of the time. 3️⃣ I have 2-3 spare hours/week to focus on Nifty Nest writing and would be a bottleneck if I wrote every article 100% myself. 🟢 What worked: Hiring someone who already liked crypto was a lifesaver. Hiring a writer? Find someone who genuinely enjoys *what* you write on. You can't teach enjoyment. Then work with them on *how* you want to write it. Excited to see where we go next and a special thanks to a few of my favorite writers these days for keeping me motivated/sane :') @NFT_GOD @callmehouck @chenellco

@bajillions_ @jackbutcher @readwise save thread

My main takeaways reading Goop's history were: 1) "Build distribution, then build whatever you want" - @jackbutcher 2) If people love your brand vibe, you can build anything that fits that vibe 3) To get attention, be 10x riskier (The Gold Dildo Law 😂)

I thought Goop was a joke Then my wife made me read the history I'm now convinced every newsletter writer should study Goop Here it is, the unofficial history of Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop:

@Altimor @readwise save thread

So in short: - put the reference at ease - use what you heard from the candidate - read between the lines, double click like crazy - ask for examples and concrete impact - ask for top 10 / 5 / 1%

I’ve conducted 100s of reference checks, and recently realized how much I’d learnt by giving a crash course to a friend about to conduct one. There’s an art to getting someone’s friends / front door checks to say bad things about them

@mattragland @readwise save

I have 3 kids, a full-time job, workout 4x per week, coach baseball, volunteer at church, and spend the majority of my weekend time with my family. Here's what a normal week looks like 👀 The Simple Time Block Breakdown ⏰ 🔴 Work = 40-45 hours, little early/late 🟢 Social = Church, kids baseball, football 🟢 Family = 90% of wknd time and all evenings 🔵 Workouts = 3-4x CrossFit, BJJ, plus playing with boys A few things to point out and how I work around the inevitable changes of entrepreneurial work, raising 3 young boys, and staying connected to my wife and friends. I stick to core hours at work between 10a-4p every day except Thursday (BJJ). My best work days are the ones where I go straight from a morning workout to the office. I stay dialed in and get a lot done, which carries to the rest of the week. I avoid work on the weekends (hence the "event" note) but often write my newsletter late Friday or early Saturday when kids are sleeping. I'd rather work on the edges and keep my weekends free. My wife and I set our workout times and stick to them. If I want to go to Jiu-Jitsu, then I need to go at 6am. If I'm tired, that's fine, but I don't get to go in the evening instead. I have my time and it's up to me to go. Speaking of my wife - she's incredible. She homeschools the kids and runs the house day-to-day. There's tension, sure. We are always tired and often feel like we're pushing a boulder up a hill. We would like more 1-on-1 and 1-on-none time. We're very focused on providing that balance for each other, but it's always a bit less than we planned for. But it's also a season of life with young kids that we are embracing for their joy and energy. We try to bring friends to our activities, e.g. the farmer's market, workouts, hikes, the zoo, kids games, or host watch parties during football season. I call this "happy stacking" because I'm doing multiple things I enjoy at the same time. Like sitting in an old van at a brewery. It's hard not to want to do MORE. I honestly want to work more than I do, there's so much energy and momentum in the business. But I also want to spend more time with my kids, and hell I want to train more than I do (CrossFit and BJJ). That's the biggest challenge - Fitting in everything I want to do - Realizing I can't do everything I want to do - Not comparing to other people's social posts - Remembering I'm on my own path and timing One more thing: I have been recognizing and rewiring old beliefs about what the perceived limitations of my own path are, i.e. "guess I'll make less money then." It's striking a balance between gratitude for what I have (and there is so much to be grateful for) and openness to the opportunities that come my way. Thanks for reading all the way down. I'd love to hear from other people (especially parents) on how they make a busy, ambitious, but still pretty balanced life happen. Rooting for you all!

@OneJKMolina @readwise save

A mistake people make with lead magnets: Giving too much value away. For example, which one has the most value? A) An 17-page course on how to get six pack abs B) A one-page checklist on how to grow your arms A has more value. But B has FASTER value. As a beginner, A includes - Sitting down on the computer - Making time - Taking notes - Reading the whole thing - Sacrifice things you could be doing While B includes - Maybe 2 minutes of reading - Scratching your itch So what should you promote as lead magnet? Fast Value. Fast Beats More.

@holmisthename @Readwiseio save

I used a framework to start a local newsletter that now has 10.000+ subscribers (as a side hustle). Here's how I did it step-by-step: 1): How I Found an Audience I went to Reddit and scrolled through all the subreddits that I'm a genuine part of. Picked a local subreddit, and started providing massive value by creating a weekly post about 5 cool things happening every weekend in my city. 2): Launching The Newsletter I signed up for Mailchimp, created a quick brand/logo and launched the newsletter in a few hours. I linked to my newsletter on one of the posts that I did for the subreddit, like this: "Subscribe for 5 cool things happening every weekend". 3): First Subscribers I had a free account that allowed like 50 free subscribers. I had to switch from free to paid version within the first hour of posting about it in the subreddit. 4): Posting Every Week I kept posting on the subreddit every week, providing value. My post was often the top post in the subreddit. The post on the subreddit was identical to the email, but lacked images - so the email looked way better. I always added "looks way better on email" with a link to the newsletter. 5): My First 1.000 Subscribers The posts on Reddit got me my first thousand subscribers. I did research every Wednesday about what was happening in the coming weekend, and posted on Reddit with a link to subscribe. 6): From 1.000 to 5.000 Subscribers I launched a few Facebook ads. I went out, took a picture of a local landmark and added the value proposition on top of it: "Newsletter that keeps you up-to-date". People started signing up, and it only cost around $0.50 per subscriber. 7): How To Get Cheap Conversions with Facebook Ads Don't create ads, create content - that's it. Create content that could've been made by your low-tech friends. It needs to look organic (and kinda ugly) to work. 8): From 5.000 to 10.000 Subscribers With ads, Reddit and word-of-mouth - it started growing quickly. The newsletter was getting around 80-100 new subscribers every day. 9): What To Do With 10.000 Subscribers With that amount of subscribers, you can reach out to local businesses and ask them if they want to advertise. You can start charging for premium content (been getting 2% conversion on a $5/month product). 10): The Network Effect With 10.000 local subscribers, doors will open. Need tickets to a sold out event? You'll get it. Need an intro to a cool person? No problem. It's almost like being an influencer, without the fame.

@alexgarcia_atx @Readwiseio save thread

This is from my newsletter. Here's what to expect: • No wasted info • Actionable • Playbooks • Twice a week • In your inbox You can join here: marketingexamined.com/sub

A new algorithm. 13,000 lines of new code. How to win on X in 2023: (Visual Thread) 1. Replies over reposts 1 reply is worth 13.5 retweets and 27 likes. Here's how to optimize for this • Comment Contest Create a contest around your content. And host it in the comments.

@JMatthewMcGarry @Readwiseio save thread

Hope this helps! If you enjoyed this: → Follow @JMatthewMcGarry for newsletter tips. → Ask me a question below and I'll answer. → RT to share it with others.

Newsletters are the best online business to build in 2023. Here's how to make your first $10,000 from a newsletter (even if you've never made a penny online before).👇

@Codie_Sanchez @readwise save

The days of fully-remote work are over. We're never fully going back into the office. But we'll never be completely remote. Companies will use return-to-work mandates aggressively... or layoffs.

@JMatthewMcGarry @readwise save thread

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@debarghya_das @readwise save tweet

The class warfare between execs and employees around remote work is in full swing: Many / most CEOs (Amazon in this case) believe work from home is not productive and will lay off those who fail to comply.