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@jspector @iamjeremyenns Thanks for listening and sharing! 👏

@jayclouse 😄

@jayclouse Aerobics video?

Quick one day mission to @revelstokemtn today

@thesamparr This is similar to what André 3000 said:

"Timing and momentum are more important than talent." https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1725756093643813269

@benjamingaines Being in the trenches almost always leads to more understanding and empathy.

Especially around the emotional stakes of doing “the thing.” https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1761803907045507574

@davidnix_ Millennials are constantly getting (unfairly) blamed for things!

@hatch2k3 Haven’t skied since I was 12, but I’d like to try it again.

@igorbenic We haven’t had new snow in quite awhile. Still hoping for more!

I don’t think I’ve ever gone up to the mountains and regretted it.

Windy day, but still managed to get some good laps in!

I enjoyed hearing @jrfarr’s backstory on the @lmsqueezy podcast.

(Always interesting to hear the experiences that lead someone to becoming a founder)

https://pca.st/episode/791f6f3a-2fa5-4aee-8650-4c1e45d6427e

@asmartbear You are not your customer... except you have both tried to solve the problem and have experienced the emotions that come with trying to solve that problem.

(The big difference is that you were crazy enough to build a business to try to help solve that problem)

@fraserdeans Lately, I've been influenced by @taragentile's exploration of empathy:

https://www.whatworks.fyi/p/decoding-the-language-of-empathy

"Empathy is always constructed. We remain separate from the object of our empathy, never knowing whether what we perceive as a shared feeling reflects the emotional landscape of the…

If I'm buying mountain climbing gear, I want the person who built/designed it to have scaled some mountains!

You can't intuit an experience through customer interviews alone.

I think customer interviews can be enormously helpful.

But I've noticed that folks who interview customers miss signals they would have picked up if they'd previously done what the customer is trying to do.

@asmartbear I think you're discounting all the emotions you experienced as a WP user that informed your experience building WPengine.

You can't really understand why security matters until you've been hacked and lost 122 blog posts. (And stayed up trying to fix it)

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1761803907045507574

The hardest thing to understand (if you've never done what the customer is trying to do) is the EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE.

The feeling of...
...elation when you figure out a cool function in Excel
...shame when someone says your podcast sucks
...despair when your site gets hacked

When you've done "the thing your customers are trying to do," there are parts of that experience that are universal:

"I want my site to not crash if it gets a lot of traffic."
"I want my site to be fast."

Also:

"I hope people read my blog post."

https://twitter.com/asmartbear/status/1761796954822996389

The point is that when you've been doing something for a long time, you start to recognize hundreds of small improvements that could make the experience better.

That kind of insight only comes from being in the trenches. You can't fake it or quickly reproduce it.

This differs from "solve your own problem" in that you're not just fixing a specific thing that's not working for you.

Instead, it's an intuitive sense of how the overall experience could be better for everybody trying to do that thing.

@wbetiago This is different from "solve your own problem" in that there might not be a specific problem you're fixing, but just an intuitive sense of all the ways an experience could be better for everybody trying to do that thing.

@asmartbear I'm talking about the underlying core of the business (in your case: "running a WordPress site that doesn't crash when it gets posted on Hacker News and doesn't get hacked").

My point is that if you're starting a business around "what it's like to run a WordPress site," you…

The only way to truly empathize with the customer is if you've previously done what they're trying to do.

You'll intuitively understand what's at stake, the pressures they are under, what's frustrating about the process, etc.

@saasmakermac By far: @crisp_im

@meemodoteth Critics of Calhoun's rat experiments warn about anthropomorphizing mice.

Even Calhoun himself had multiple conclusions about his experiments; not all pessimistic.

@ericlbarnes Nope.

“The average Canadian home price was $659,395 in January 2024, a 0.3% monthly increase and up 7.7% year-over-year.Feb 17, 2024”

@meemodoteth Yup, I’m familiar with his experiments!

What parts of those experiments do you think are relevant to this discussion?

@ericlbarnes I’d say house prices in North Carolina are much lower than most places on the west coast!

(Also: your POV on house prices seems highly correlated to when you bought!)

@markjaquith Any sources for “probably good until we hit a trillion people?”

@markjaquith What about the “finite resource” and ecological collapse problem?

We can’t just keep increasing the population and consuming limited resources forever…

Ecologically, the idea of “have more kids, consume more” isn’t sustainable… but it’s the only economic model we have.

(Humans can’t keep consuming more and more of the earth’s limited resources)

What viable economic alternatives are there?

@aarondfrancis Haha. Yeah, you’re good. Thank you for your service! 🫡

Population growth (and increasing consumption) is the only economic model we have.

Who is working/thinking about an alternative economic theory that might work at scale?

@nerdontour @iamjeremyenns Thanks for listening (and sharing)!

@jeremyvaught If you know, you know

I highly recommend folks read @taragentile's full exploration of empathy. It's excellent:

https://www.whatworks.fyi/p/decoding-the-language-of-empathy

"What we really need to transform the world of work and business for the better is a full-immersion empathy experience."

"Empathy isn't based on assumptions but on curiosity. It's not based on similarity but on difference.

It requires that we recognize that difference. If we don't, it's just projection. I project my feelings or thinking on you—you project yours on me." – @taragentile

@toomaime Nice! Glad it's working for you. 👍

@benjamincrozat @ianlandsman That's @tylertringas!

Thanks for listening. 🙏

Start with an ugly UI. 👏👏👏 https://twitter.com/LaravelPodcast/status/1760665886766113133

@LaravelPodcast @taylorotwell @stauffermatt Yes! Start with an ugly UI. 👏

@SegMetrics @TransistorFM @AcquiredFM Thanks for sharing it! 🙌

@KarenUnland, I love how you've articulated the importance of journalism here! 👏

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0VAhNBvDlt/

@nathanclark_ @djrosent @gilbert Yes: David and Ben are doing sponsorships right.

I love how they adopted @Airbnb’s idea of the “11-star experience,” but for podcast sponsors and listeners.

@andrewshell I haven't heard of them altering their original position:

https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1225149444603011072

Gotta give a shoutout to @dceddia's Recut app for Mac.

I use it all the time now in my screencasting workflow. Saves me a ton of time! 💯

@andrewshell My understanding is that as they "left the cloud," they first migrated the old legacy apps to their new on-prem infrastructure.

However, these legacy apps are all still hosted SaaS applications and are still available to legacy users.

So, I don't think your points/questions…

@arvidkahl @RoxCodes Great episode!

@MostlyTechPod “Small world,” @ianlandsman: my middle name is Ian.

RT @asmartbear: Freemium can work for self-funded companies, but beware — you don’t learn the right things from freeloaders, only from payi…

@jclermont 🤣🤣

@michaelwhittle 🎵 I wish we'd all been ready... 🎵

@adamwathan @LaraconUS I want to see a Taylor vs Adam Fortnite Battle Royale on the big screen.

@DCoulbourne @LaraconUS DAAAMN. 🔥

Every time I get raptured, this message appears on my phone

@lovevalgeisler Welcome back!

The algorithm here has gone through multiple iterations since you’ve been gone.

@JoeTannorella Which ones have you been listening to?

@merott Silverstar. BC 😄

@AndrewAskins Yes! 👏

RT @metzgereduard: Wow, it amazes me how well @mijustin's email template works he shared here: https://justinjackson.ca/welcome-email

We switched that on…

@metzgereduard Nice!!! So glad to see people applying this one.

@claybitner XERO

It was the only one my accountant and I could agree on! 😜

@igorbenic Nice! Where is that?

@jbrooksuk Not yet!

@htmxpert @TransistorFM 🙌

We’re also investing more in real human live chat support at @TransistorFM.

I personally can’t stand AI chatbots. Having a live human who’s fully empowered to help you solve your problem is 💯💯💯 https://twitter.com/ianlandsman/status/1759301142402503037

@podcastharry Haha. Nope! 100% real

@adamwathan Building your whole identity (and business!?) around tearing down someone else’s work is pretty lame.

Cruisin’

@MikeShoss @TransistorFM Yup!

https://developers.transistor.fm/

@ivanbrezakbrkan 🙌

@UsefulWithWords @daniel_nguyenx You’ve got to build a network!

@marcelfahle @daniel_nguyenx Nice!!

@daniel_nguyenx Yup. I have a friend who just launched a freelance business, and I recommended he do the same thing.

“Who are 5, 10, 20 people you can think of that might need video editing services? Email those people and let them know you’re launching your own business.”

@matthaggman @AcquiredFM I think Acquired is increasing sales on a lot of books!

@rezzz Works for everything.

I have a friend who just launched a freelance business, and I recommended he do the same thing.

“Who are 5, 10, 20 people you can think of that might need video editing services? Email those people and let them know you’re launching your own business.”

@DanielZarick 🎯 yes!!

You end up learning so much:
- are people excited about this?
- how motivated are they to buy?
- what hesitations do they have?
- what’s the primary friction for them to become a paying customer?

When you're about to launch something new, your first step shouldn't be buying ads, optimizing for SEO, or posting on social media.

Instead, write a personal email to anybody in your network who might care.

I have a template for tracking this here:
https://justinjackson.ca/100-emails/

If you don’t know a bunch of people (personally; not cold contacts) that you could send an email to, it’s likely you haven’t done enough of the foundational work in your product category.

You’ve got to build connections! (And that takes time)

The hard part about giving marketing advice is most folks don’t want to do the uncomfortable, challenging tasks that will get you your first 10 customers.

Write 100 emails to people you already know in your industry.

@SP1NS1R It’s so good. https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1217320820873166848

@BamigboyeBiodun @laravelphp @taylorotwell @laravelnews Wow! Looks awesome.

@raae 👀

@eugenefvdm Thank you for reading (and sharing!)

RT @eugenefvdm: Another incredible article about marketing your SaaS by @mijustin I learn so much from him!

https://justinjackson.ca/100-emails?ck_subscriber_id=1566984535

Here are the numbers from LinkedIn

Holy crap... Mastodon skews way older than twitter.

@Shpigford Yup. We're just out here in the in-between space.

@CasJam Yess!! Was hoping for a new episode today.

@matfrana 🙌

@KatieKeithBarn2 Yup. Agreed. https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1758580863590084660

If you remember the Soundblaster 16 talking parrot then we can be friends.

I've always preferred the term Xennial for people like me (1977-1983).

We really were the crossover generation between Gen X and Millenials (and have unique attributes compared to both groups).

We had an "analog childhood and a digital young adulthood."

@matfrana I've always preferred the term Xennial (1977 to 1983) for people like us.

We really were the crossover generation between Gen X and Millenials (and have unique attributes compared to both groups).

I was born in 1980, which technically makes me Gen X (1965–1980). 😮

@typeoneerror I cross-posted this to LinkedIn, Threads, and Mastadon... very curious to see the differences. 👀

Which generation are you in?

(I do these polls so that I can feel old)

@levelsio @dvassallo NICE.

I need to get better at buying stocks. 😅

Do you buy them personally (after-tax?), or do you buy them with a holdco?