Kyle Mau

Monarch Wave Marketing is a US-based web development agency that builds and manages WordPress sites for...the firearms and ammunition industry. It's a niche that most agencies won't touch. Regulated checkout flows, dealer selection systems, compliance-heavy product pages — the technical work goes way beyond a standard WordPress build. youtu.be/BBSlGLqGeKI

Most accountants don't understand the IRS. Most lawyers don't understand the law. Most doctors Google your symptoms after you leave the room. Credentials don't mean competence. They mean someone passed the tests.

Every day at a set time, my EA sends me a structured report. 4 sections. Takes me about 10 minutes to process. And it's the single most important thing for my sanity. Section 1: Business Action Items. Things that need my decision or response. But not just "this happened." Each one comes with context, a link to the email or Slack thread, and a recommended solution. "This happened. Here are three options. I recommend option two because of this reason." That's the format. Problem, options, recommendation. Every time. Section 2: Business Non-Urgent. Things I should know about but don't need to act on today. And she knows I don't want fluff. I don't need to hear, "XYZ client is angry." I want: "XYZ client was angry. I solved it, it cost $50." The filter matters. Telling me everything is the same as telling me nothing. Section 3: Personal Action Items. Things that need my involvement. The lawyer responded about the visa — here's what you need to sign. I've researched rental cars for your trip — here are two options with prices, features, and pickup locations. Your daughter's passport renewal deadline is in 10 days — I need these documents from you. Section 4: Personal Non-Urgent. Reminders and updates. Dinner with a friend at 5. Researching office spaces, will bring options to our meeting tomorrow. That's it. Four sections. I open it, make decisions, move on with my day. Here's why this matters: Most people run their day reactively. Inbox, Slack, whatever's loudest. Whoever screams first gets attention. Everything else falls through the cracks. If you worked in an office, would you let anyone open your door and start screaming anytime they wished? Do you let people ring your front doorbell and demand you drop their day for them? That's the real-life metaphor of your inbox and messages. The daily report flips that. It turns chaos into a structured decision-making dashboard. Nothing gets lost. Nothing gets forgotten. The priorities are surfaced for you — you're not digging through 200 emails to find the 3 that actually matter. And here's the part most people don't think about: The report also trains your Assistant. The act of writing it forces them to prioritize, filter, and think about what actually matters vs. what's just noise. Over time, their judgment sharpens. The reports get tighter. The recommendations get better. If you manage anyone — not just an EA — try this format. Four sections, once a day, delivered at the same time. Problem, options, recommendation for anything that needs a decision.

"I have an app idea" — the most expensive sentence in business

These kind of motivational takes never come true. At the end of the day we're all on a rock and what we contribute means little in scheme of things. Remember when there was the era of Trump and he was going to change the world and take down the cabal?

Certain countries and regions become better places to hire due to politics or currency fluctuations. And some become so overrun and oversaturated that it becomes unfeasible to hire from those regions. We stay on top of it, so you don't have to. youtu.be/DGI1DakD7Gc

The only country on earth where a significant percentage of the population genuinely believes the government is trying to help them is the United States. Everyone else figured this out generations ago.

When I was selling headphones at Bose, I learned something that changed how I think about sales, hiring, and honestly just business in general... The worst thing you can do is talk to EVERYONE. Saturday afternoon. Holiday rush. Store is packed. Every person who walks through that door is a potential $300-$3,000 sale. And you've got six sales reps on the floor. So who do you talk to? The reps who were happy to grab anyone — the mom with the stroller, the teenager killing time, the guy eating a Wetzel's pretzel with cheese dip running down his shirt — they were always the lowest performers. Every. Single. Time. Because they were bad at choosing. They'd spend 40 minutes with someone who was never going to buy. And while they were doing that, the business traveler who already knew what he wanted walked in and got helped by someone else. That's only the beginning: This isn't just a retail problem. This is a business problem. How many hours does your team spend on leads that were never going to close? How many discovery calls get booked with people who don't have budget? How many proposals get written for prospects who are "just exploring options"? Every minute you spend on the wrong person is a minute you're not spending on the right one. And the right one just walked in the door while you were busy with The Pretzel Muncher. The best salespeople I've ever worked with — and we've placed hundreds — all have one thing in common. They're not just good at selling. They're ruthless about who they sell to. They qualify fast. They disqualify faster. And they don't feel guilty about it. Because they know something most people don't: Saying no to the wrong prospect is the fastest way to say yes to the right one. This applies everywhere. Your sales team. Your marketing spend. Your hiring pipeline. Your client roster. It's all a numbers game. Stop trying to talk to everyone. Start figuring out who's actually going to buy. The Pretzel Munchers will always be there. Let them haunt someone else with their garlic breath. Perry Marshall wrote a whole book about this. 80/20 Sales and Marketing. The core idea is simple: 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort. The other 80% of your effort produces almost nothing. In sales, that means 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your prospects. The people who will actually buy are a small fraction of the people you could talk to. So why are you spending equal time on all of them? Whether you're running a sales team, managing a pipeline, or just deciding how to spend your Tuesday — the question is the same... Am I talking to a buyer, or am I talking to a Muncher? If you can't tell the difference, that's a different problem. But most people can tell. They just feel guilty about it. Don't.

Here's where smart companies are actually hiring right now: EASTERN EUROPE / BALKANS ($1,200–$2,000/mo) → Serbia: Great talent, strong work ethic, growing tech scene. Average local salaries $750–$1,000/mo so your USD goes far. → Ukraine: World-class talent. Resilient, hardworking, highly educated. This is where HireUA got its roots and we're proud to still work with Ukrainian talent. → Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Moldova: Overlooked by 99% of businesses. That's exactly why they're gold. You post a role and get 30–50 qualified applicants — not 768 unqualified ones. LATIN AMERICA ($1,000–$1,800/mo) → Argentina: Inflation crisis means senior-level people are actively looking for USD work. You get overqualified talent at mid-level prices. → Venezuela: Argentina on steroids. The talent didn't disappear when the economy collapsed. These people survived one of the worst economic collapses in modern history. They can handle your workload. → Mexico: Same timezone as the US. Mexicans understand American business culture — you don't have to explain idioms or work norms. And you can fly there in 2 hours. → Brazil: Creative powerhouse — especially design, video, and content. São Paulo's tech scene is world-class. CAUCASUS ($1,000–$1,600/mo) → Georgia & Armenia: Strong in tech and engineering. Timezone is tough for US (8-9 hrs ahead), but if you run async or you're Europe-based — gold mine with zero competition for talent. Insider Secret: Countries where English is an official language produce MORE unqualified applicants, not fewer. Why? Low barrier to entry. Everyone applies. You get volume, not quality. In countries where English is less common — Argentina, Serbia, Ukraine — only the truly skilled candidates even bother applying. They worked harder to learn the language. They're more intentional. The talent pool is less diluted. Stop fishing in the most crowded pond on the planet.

Driving for fun on an empty road with the windows down is one of the best feelings on earth. Commuting 45 minutes in traffic to sit in an office you hate is one of the worst. Same activity. Completely different experience. The difference is choice.

I use a framework called the Triple S for every task I hand off to a new hire. Show, Supervise...then Shut your damn pie-hole you big yapper. Phase 1: Show. I do the task while they watch. Screen share, narrate everything — every click, every decision, every "I do it this way because..." Record it so they can rewatch. Phase 2: Supervise. They do the task. I watch. They have the reins. I correct in real time. I let them struggle a little — but I don't let them drown. Phase 3: Shut Up. This is the one that kills founders. You sit there — camera off — and you let them work. They are expected to operate autonomously. You're only there as a safety net for serious issues. And here's what happens in Phase 3 every single time: You watch them do it at 90% of the quality you would. And every fiber of your being wants to jump in. "No, not like that — here, let me just..." Don't. Because 90% done by someone else is infinitely better than 100% done by you. You have 47 other things that need your brain. This task is no longer one of them. The transfer is complete when the person can write the SOP for that task themselves. They don't just do it — they can teach someone else to do it. That's the standard. Show. Supervise. Shut Up. Scale this across every task in your business and you'll have someone running independently within a month. The hardest phase is always the third one. Because letting go feels like losing control. It's not. It's the only way to actually get it.

There are two types of candidates. People who want a job. And people who want THIS job. The difference is everything. Someone who wants a job sends the same resume to 300 companies. They don’t research any of them. They don’t read the website. They show up to the interview hoping you’ll say yes. When you ask why they want the role, they say, “I’m really passionate about the industry.” Bleh. Pass. Here's the full story: hire-ua.com/they-want-a-jo…

80/20 applies to almost everything in life. 20% of your clients cause 80% of your problems. 20% of your employees do 80% of the work. 20% of your wardrobe is worn 80% of the time. 20% of the food at a restaurant is what everyone actually orders.

An Executive Assistant with eight years of experience at a Fortune 500 company applied for a role with one of our clients. Resume was flawless. References were excellent. Interview was polished. On paper, this was the best candidate in the pool by a mile. Hired. Started. Failed. It didn't work. Within six weeks, both sides threw in the towel. Here's what happened: The EA came from a 1,000-person company. Structured hierarchy. Formal communication. Clear processes for everything. Every task had a playbook. Every decision had a chain of approval. The client was a 30-person startup. Priorities shifted every 48 hours. Half the tools were held together with duct tape. The founder made decisions on the fly and expected everyone to keep up. The EA wasn't bad. She was trained for a completely different environment. She waited for processes that didn't exist. She looked for approval chains that weren't there. She drafted formal memos when the founder wanted a 2-line Slack message. She was uncomfortable making decisions without explicit permission — because in her previous world, that's how you got fired. In the new world...that was just the norm. Expected, even. And the founder was confused. "She has 8 years of experience. Why can't she figure this out?" Because experience isn't transferable across environments the way people think it is. Take note: An EA who thrived in corporate structure can be awful in startup chaos. And an EA who thrives in startup chaos might feel sloppy and undisciplined in a corporate setting. Neither one is wrong. They're just...wired for different worlds. When you're hiring for this role, stop matching the resume to the job description. Match the person to the environment. This example can apply to any role across any type of company. The trick to all of this is to just make it clear from the start. Spell it out. Make sure all candidates know the score. It may still be that the right person doesn't have the experience. But you need to prepare them. Nobody likes being handed a live grenade 2 seconds before it goes off.

The "$2/hour VA" playbook is 2010 advice. It doesn't work anymore. In this video, we break down the actual system we use at HireUA to place top-tier remote talent — the same process behind thousands of placements worldwide. youtu.be/uWEmR3fhenY

You can work 2 hours a day and be more effective than someone working 10. The 10-hour person is answering emails, sitting in meetings, and "staying busy." The 2-hour person made 3 decisions that moved the business forward and closed the laptop.

I've been through more Assistants than I'd care to admit. And the pattern that kills the relationship isn't what you'd expect... It's not incompetence. It's not attitude. It's not a skills gap. It's passivity. The person who sits around waiting for instruction instead of going and figuring it out. The one who says "what should I do next?" every morning. OR My FAVORITE... "Do you have any more tasks for me?" The one who finishes a task and then... stops. Waits. Until you assign the next one. That's not an Assistant. That's a VA with a fancy title. A real Assistant wakes up, looks at the calendar, looks at the inbox, looks at the task board, and starts moving. They don't need you to tell them what to do — they already know, because they understand your world well enough to see what's coming next. And here's the thing: Passivity doesn't look like a problem at first. It looks like patience. It looks like "not overstepping." It looks like someone being respectful of your authority and waiting for direction. It even feels nice for a week or two. Then week three hits and you realize nothing is happening unless you push it. Every task requires a nudge. Every follow-up requires a reminder. You're not managing someone — you're dragging them along behind the car like a dead raccoon stuck in our wheels. And the worst version of this? The person who takes an assigned task and narrates every obstacle back to you instead of solving it. "I tried calling but they didn't answer." "The system wouldn't let me log in." "I wasn't sure which format you wanted." "Waiting for your feedback!" These aren't updates. They're requests for you to do their thinking for them. It just adds to YOUR ticket queue. The difference between an Assistant who lasts and one who doesn't comes down to one question: Do they drive, or do they drift? Drivers see the task, see the obstacles, solve the obstacles, and deliver the result. They might ask a clarifying question — but it's precise, it's early, and it's once. Drifters see the task, hit the first obstacle, and float back to you. Then hit the next obstacle. Float back again. You can usually spot this within two weeks. Watch what happens when you DON'T check in. Does work still move forward? Or does everything stall until you push? That's your answer.

Best cold email subject line I've ever seen

Here's what I tell every business owner before they post a single job listing: Sit down for one week. Just one. Track every single thing you do. Every task. Every interruption. Every 15-minute rabbit hole. How long it took. How much brainpower it actually required. Don't cheat. Don't round down. Don't skip the embarrassing stuff. Include the 20 minutes you spent arguing with an airline about a booking. Include the 35 minutes reformatting a spreadsheet someone else should have built. Include the hour researching a tool you'll never buy. At the end of the week, you'll have a list. And that list will sort itself into 2 distinct categories almost immediately: Things that require your brain — and things that don't. The things that don't? That's the job description. Right there. No guessing. No job title first, tasks second. Tasks first. Then figure out what to call it.

Competence is so incredibly rare that when you find it, you feel like you discovered a new species. Ownership is even rarer. Most people do what they're told. A few do what needs to be done. The gap between those two things is liquid gold.