Yo yo yo what is up? You sexy bastards? It is. Your boy Cava AKA Rabbi can lose a game Noah Kagan today. You know what it is? It's answering your questions. Number 9, damn 42, nine of them. You all seem to like it and you ask a lot of questions. If you want your questions answered in a future episode, just go to ok.com /, ask Noah and some of your questions. Today, we have three questions from Sam, Lewis and David, we're going to be talking about getting feedback, which I think is one of the most powerful tools for self improvement.
Aunt, in any aspect of her life. Number two, we can talk about business, ideas and 31, talk about, joy, and Entrepreneurship, and scaling, a success of your company. And Beyond, Let's Get It On.
Because number one from Samuel Norman, sounds like a person who founded America, hey, no, it seems like you are someone that's always asking people for feedback to improve yourself which is awesome. What makes you say that Sam just kidding. I am trying to do more of it in my own life on the other hand I noticed a lot of people don't like receiving constructive feedback. Do you have any tips on giving constructive feedback to your co-workers or team leader without offending them? We Sam. I like you already can work it out. See what? I'll come slash careers. Feedback is one of the most powerful tools
In the world, I was talking to someone at our absolute calm. He's like, hey, I want to be a better speaker and the two things like he's like, can I have some feedback about it? And I said one record
when you give speeches and interact with other people
and then to at the
end of your meetings are as you interact with the end of it, just ask for feedback and in our leadership meeting,
we asked for feedback at the end of it, our town halls, we ask for feedback. So it sounds like there's a few things, I think there's actually really important ways of feedback. Number one you have to ask just ask. So if you don't make a sale, if you get rejected by a guy or girl, if you didn't get the thing you wanted,
Or if you did just be like hey what did you like about it or what you think I can improve. Number two, I tend to never give feedback or advice unsolicited and I think it's a really important point. A lot of people like, who I'm going to tell you something. It's like full, I didn't ask your opinion, shut the hell up and so be really mindful about starting to give people advice or feedback that didn't ask for it. Three when you're doing feedback in
general. I do ask for a lot of feedback so I have
my relationship coach. Stephanie rig. I also my best friend's one be very intentional about how many people are asking for feedback. I have noticed.
Recently, when I'm asking for, like 10 people, what do you think I should do? Or give me feedback about this? It's like, all right. Well, I'm just not willing to
hear the right answer, the hard answer when I know it
myself. So if you're asking a lot of people for feedback about the same thing, that means you're just avoiding the problem, but what the other thing with that is asked intentional people. If you're asking someone who's not successful in their giving you feedback about success, it's like that, you know, a lot of people love to give advice about parenting that don't have kids shut the hell up. So I think there's an important point there about being
intentional, about who you ask for feedback,
one of the ways we do feedback.
In appsumo is called T. 3 B3 of talked about this a little bit in the past but I even think it's t 1, b 1. And so we're doing.
We do a biannual feedback across the company where people get it, give it to the company and people get to give it to each other as well as themselves.
What I've learned, there's a book
called work Rules by Laszlo Bock. I believe highly recommend you work to
Google and one of things I've taken away and I like about that is just ask for one thing. Like what's one thing
you like I'm doing? And what is one thing you want me to prove?
What I've realized is that when you ask for like, give me a bunch of
feedback.
I don't know, you get 18 thousand things and it's like, okay well which of these things should actually be
doing and it's really hard to make progress on that. I think other things with feedback is you have to do it regularly on the things that you want to improve on. Like and you really can feed back on anything like, hey, how is my
business going to ask your customers, how's the relationship going? How am I as an employee? How am I as a leader? How am I as a
friend? And then guess what? They're going to tell you and you can make it better. One thing I do with feedback is I
write it. The hell down and I look at it often. So I have a thing that's called
Noah's Lane of leadership.
I don't know, that's just what I call it and it's at the
top of my notes and it's saved. And so the,
you know, feedback that I have is just like step in more with marketing. So that's a lot of what I'm doing and I'm assuming, I think there's a lot for me to add there, but I think a key thing is, as you're getting feedback, make sure you're looking at it frequently. Now your question, specifically, Samuel Norman kinda sounds like Sam
Adams. Was, how do you give constructive feedback? People don't like receiving
constructive feedback. Give me tips on giving it to
other people. So, the number one thing I
do always with
Feedback number one is ask for permission,
so if it's tips on giving it if they didn't ask for it, then I gently won't give it. If it's someone that reports to you I always just ask permission like hey Samuel can I give you feedback about how you ask this question and they could say no and if they say no that, I don't give it to him. And I think that's step. Number one, number two, with feedback. What
I've noticed that I'd done incorrectly is that I'm not specific. It's
like, hey, I really like for you to have more ownership. It's like, what does that mean? Know what I've worked on is that if
Giving feedback to someone be very specific. So for instance,
I met with our marketing team about a promotion we're doing in September
and I didn't like what we called in. I didn't like some of these things and so historically have like, hey can I give some feedback and I'd give it an energy. I don't like it, and I'm like, okay well what don't you like? And so it now it's like well, here's what I here's some ideas of what I think I would change. So it's very more specific about it so that it can actually work on it. Adding is just like a key. Part of the feedback is being very specific about it.
Another component of getting feedback is also culturally,
so I was in Israel.
Well last week and there's no fluff, it's like hey you suck fix this, which is kind of nice, it's
kind of relieving and so it does depend on the relationship and the
culture of the company that you're in. So it
appsumo we have a thing called feedback as a gift and it's under that. I encourage
all the time. Let's debrief this, let's get feedback on this. Let's see how we can improve it and it's something I'm encouraging but that's also part of the culture of our
company. So final thoughts about feedback is Sam. Your question is, how tips on giving constructive feedback without offending? I don't
Back should ever be offensive. I think the number one thing is that you need to ask them if they want the feedback as well. I think there's something interesting Samuel where you're, you know, I'm curious how much you ask them for feedback about yourself but if it's constructive in a productive way and people are accepted
it and yeah, I think that's going to be a great thing. If you give it unsolicited Lee I think is where you have problems.
The only last thought I would, I would give Samuel is in this question is about how to give it to others. Maybe there's something about yourself to ask for it. So anyone's listening now like what's something you would improve your life? Is it your
tennis game? Is that your writing ability is your relationship?
Bishop is it your mental
health? Maybe ask someone you respect for some feedback and I think you'll
be surprised. If you say what's one thing you would recommend when someone's outside of the Fishbowl, is what I like to call it. It's a lot easier for them to help. You see where to
improve question over to Louis melhor, Anka, can that's a great name. When looking for business ideas, one might think money is the only drive in metrics. What else is there besides money Louis. But but how do I look for ideas that will have some positive impact on the
World, in fact. Is that even possible? Let me see. Let me tell you, money. Is the only thing that matters, dude. I don't know what compacting. The world sound yada. Yada yada sounds Millennial to me. I'm just playing on that man. There's a lot and a little in this question. So when people are looking for business ideas, I think that's sometimes the wrong approach.
I don't generally try to look for a business idea. I try to find pain and I look for pain in
myself. I look for. What's a problem that I would just like solved? And so I really would start with that. So A
Mm
of, is it hard for me to find good coffee? Is it hard to get
food delivered?
Where I'm at in Spain?
Is it really annoying like
for instance, right now to get a vat, refund, whatever the hell that means in Europe is
a real pain in the butt. And so, oh man, I love to have a service that is, oh, that's kind of interesting. I like, how
painful is it? I believe if you're the number one customer and you're happy with whatever you can solve, then you're always going to be satisfied whether you make it a big business or not. So I would start from there in terms of business ideas and a lot of times people are looking for business videos, the reality is that they're
just avoid doing work and it's easier and fun to like buy
things and read that.
Your things and listen to podcast and do all that stuff, besides the
hard part of going up to a customer or for me like talking to a girl in the street, like it's uncomfortable. But that's the part that moves you forward to a goal that you want to be accomplishing. So enter the business is I'm going to give you free ones, start a YouTube channel. Anything you're interested in sell anything online on Etsy, Facebook, Marketplace, Craigslist or wherever you are in the world go and help someone on a to list that they have clean. Someone's plates. Do someone's laundry, most someone's lawn clean, someone's pool. There's basic stuff like Drive Uber, there's guaranteed stuff where
You can control the revenue dials that I would highly encourage you to be thinking about. So, looking for business ideas is the easy part. Doing it is the hard part.
Now, you were talking about positive impact on the world and is it even possible? I
remember about 15 years ago, as I was working on startups and try my own businesses,
I always used to say in my 20s, I want to change the world, I want you to run and someone has to do the rabbi
actually, maybe remove a time. It was my
mom. And they said, well, how many people do you need to change a change the world? Like, what do you mean
a lot? It's like well, how many millions like, well, why million over 10 + y 10
over?
And why
one of her billion when you go to heaven or wherever you end up? There's not like an
express lane for how many people you've impacted. I think
there's an express lane for. Do you feel like
your life had meaning for what you
wanted? And so I think when you're setting this big thing about positive
impact in the world, really almost everything should have a positive
impact on the world unless you're like robbing or killing or like creating a new drug that like Fentanyl and you're killing people like that's probably having a negative impact on the world but, you know, maybe in some people enjoy it. So what I would encourage you as I think when you're thinking so big, about how big of a positive impact
its kind of
Holding you back from starting today
and really almost anything you work on. Can find meaning and can have a positive impact.
Like if you're making games, like I was working on games back in the day, and I was like, I hate this. I think people are wasting their time,
but there's other people who make games and love making it. And I'll admit, I'm entertaining the world. I'm
giving people things to do and helping people improve their reflexive
skills. So do I think it's possible to hell? Yes. And pretty much anything you're doing. That's a business. If you believe it's helpful
and it's making an impact then. Yeah, you're doing the right
thing. I was working on my Tick Tock Channel which is tick-tock
Come at Noah Kagan I was putting out content earlier on that. I did not think was making a positive impact. I thought a lot of the content and ideas and videos. I was putting out, I just did not think we're helpful, I did not think there are beneficial. I thought when I watched him I'm like, I cringed, I'm like, man, I feel like I'm wasting people's time.
So I would also check
in with yourself about what kind of impact you want to have
focus on just one person and as long as you're doing it for yourself and one other person, you're doing a great thing and that's a positive impact is
making the world better. You know, with our YouTube channel or without
Suma.com deals. A lot of the
Time. I try to disconnect myself
from the revenue, or the views, or the subs followers, or any of the stuff. And I'm like, am I proud of what I put out and do I think it's helping people in the way that I'm hoping it
should. And if I'm okay with that, then that
satisfies it. Because if you rely
on external or
quantification on how many people to impact like that can never end and when you get to a million people that have bought your product or reviewed your thing or done this, whatever that's like what that this is kind of arbitrary and so I think find the things that are sustainable that are satisfying to you and you're proud that you think are really
helping yourself and other people there.
Anything for you. Louise. And a lot of people
who want to have their own businesses, just
start today, like overhead up one friend and be like, hey is
there you have a business going on? Are you have a kids you need baby sad. Like, let me just help you with one thing even if they're free and I think you can make a lot more progress than you
realize question, 3, from David bencroft. Damn, you sound like a Brit. I love Brits. Hello Noah. I'm currently 31 years old, running an e-commerce business doing six figures in annual revenue and I am grinding six days a week trying to scale it to a seven-figure a year online.
Business. I noticed many successful entrepreneur, is that your submission that they wish they would have enjoyed the journey more when they were starting out? Can you, elaborate on what that means for you? David Brinkerhoff. Thank you for the question. As you guys are submitting questions at, okay? Dork tocom slash asked Noah for future
episodes. Be more
specific and
like tell me your e-commerce business want. I can give you a shout out in the show, but it also makes a little bit easier for me to dive in. To see what the difference is between us. You know how to get from 6 to 7 and from seven eight and eight to nine. When I started up someone and to be clear a lot of our narratives and Nostalgia about things are lies, its
How we think they were versus, how they
actually are, are two different things. But when I started out saying, what wasn't
a grind ever
for the first year, it was
to me. I was mostly alone and it was
just all about like what's a tool I want? And can I get a deal on it? And it wasn't
really a grind. I didn't have an outcome. I didn't have a destination. Like, I want this to be a
million-dollar company or I want this to be a
billion-dollar coming. I want to have a hundred people working here, I didn't want anything. I was like, I want to 3,000 bucks, I want to get awesome deals on software, and if I can't have other people buy it too, like this would be.
Really cool. And that was it, it was never a grind. So I think the work
grinding is interesting and I think in life historically, a lot of the times, I thought, alright, if I work really hard, I can coast and that's just not the case with the cases. It should be about sustainability. That's really what I'm about now. So, with the YouTube channel, my intent is not how many Subs like by get a hundred thousand or a hundred or billion or whatever that is. It's like, how do I do this for 10 years and so I think it's amazing. Give yourself credit. I hope you are a lot of people in those including myself, don't give enough credit to ourselves not arrogance, or Cockiness
but duty but the sentence
You're coming. This is awesome in terms of enjoying the journey, more, I think. Even you asking that question is a great, you know? Sometimes just asking the question what you said, which is, how can you enjoy the journey more? Is you recognizing? Hey, I'm working really hard. How do I appreciate what I've done, or what my customers are doing? Or what? I'm selling a little
bit more. Maybe that, you know what? I've seen one of the things we do is like Max post, once a week,
a customer story, and it's awesome. It's like, hey, here's my journey of being a customer. And here's how I'm seeing was
helping me. And it's like, damn, that's cool. And that's enjoying the journey. Another story I think about another few stores, I think.
About. And hopefully, this helps you as about bike riding. And a lot of times when I'm bicycling, I'm thinking about the destination. I'm like, man, I can't wait to get this bike ride and like all this stuff in the and I remind myself, you know, pretty frequently during the pain of the bike ride during the scenery, the bike ride during when I'm like not focus on anything but just like getting up the hill. I like this is the whole point. Why are we such in a rush to get to the end? And I've just remind yourself of that. So as you're doing some shit email or as your customers complaining, or as you're doing something like be like, oh yeah, this is the whole point. The other
I do that on the bike ride is also to smile. So as you know, find the
things of your work that aren't a
grind and maybe spend more time in those. For instance I got absolute calm, you know, I'm back CEO which you could physically is really cool and it's really fun. I love the team, I love our partners, I love our customers. I love this whole like running a company stuff
but some Excellency it's like, HR or
people team? I don't know, dude. Like I just want to be happy and get paid real fat and enjoy their lives and work, you know, enough to make progress but I don't really care like health benefits whatever
you want but marketing.
Motion branding
like talking to that kind of stuff. Oh my God. I do it all day long, and it's never a grind. Like, I
want if I could have my whole weekend that I'm not, it's not grind, its but, uh,
baby. I don't know. Maybe, I grew up with margarine. If you guys don't know what that was. And so I would figure out in your company about the grind part from six to seven figures, it sounds like one. What's the area's? You want to spend more time? And to can you stop doing some things or like hire people or bring the bring in software apps to attack on really affordable? Great software to help, get to that next level of business.
The join the journey more right now. I'll tell you one
mindset shift. That's been a dramatic Improvement for me at the absolute calm experience. I've been back a little over a year and a half and I don't know where it came from, but my number one, mindset as CEO and running the companies, how can I enjoy the problems that we're facing more
than the kind of interesting?
And I thought that was just really interesting. So when people ask me about it, I'm like, man, we have a lot of problems and I love
it. I don't know. I don't know where it came from. It was on the toilet or something, but just thinking that way has really
shifted how I think about everything.
Going in our company where I'm like, I love that. We have problems and it's just like, oh, there's a people from over here. Okay, cool. That's like really interesting to solve and or marketing is not doing certain things like, okay, cool, that's great, new problem
and our customers, we need to understand him better. Our partners aren't getting something
else like oh, cool more, great problems. And then, you know, obviously prioritizing which ones most
important, but shifting to enjoy the
problems focuses on the experience, and not the destination. And so there's, there's real Beauty in that man. There's real Beauty. And just like, shifting your
Said about how things are going on. Last thing, about enjoying the journey when they were starting out, I guess I would talk about relationships. It's a
similar parallel, right? I'm thinking, oh man, you know,
for any of us in relationships, it's like, oh, when you finally have a kid life will be complete or you finally find a husband or wife, it'll be completed. Or when we finally did get a house, it'll be complete and I will say, definitely when I've got a house, I was like, wow, yeah, I guess I'll share that as a story in a parallel to it but I got the house and I'm like, I am definitely happier. But now I'm in Spain for the summer and I'm like I have a small
A little apartment and like, pretty just as happy, but I created so much stress along the way to get that house and it kind of ruined the process, right? I was just like I need this house, I have a
good one and I finally got it wasn't much happier but I have a regret and
a learning which was could I just relaxed and enjoyed more the experience to get to the house? Because I'm gonna get there either way. But yeah. It's like why don't I smile more during the process and learn from that? And one of the things I wrote down and I think about it almost every single day is definitely one of the themes in my life right now is it's all going to work.
Go. But if you're hard-working motivated person, which if you're listening to the podcast, I think I do believe you are. It's going to work out, you are motivated person, you do get shit done, you will follow through with things, you are reliable, and it will end up working out. And so, what I'm telling myself and really internalizing is that, let's not create so much stress and internal conflict and tension internally along the way and enjoy the uncertainty, enjoy. Some of the discomfort, enjoy the up, enjoy a load of the down in the sadness.
And trust that it will all work out for you. David Luiz and same. All right. You sexy bastard. I hope you enjoyed this Q&A episode. I really
do enjoy these. I'm kind of
surprised how much there's to share, how much I enjoy asking. You guys asking questions,
go to ok.com, ask, Noah to submit a question, absolument. I'll come if you're not subscribed app so in our condo, go to Epsilon dot coms. No, join the newsletter. You know, I got my own newsletter, doing worry about that one because you're joining up, sumos, you're on the YouTube channel, youtube.com slash. Okay.
Work. I love feedback about these episodes. Hit me up on Instagram or Twitter at Noah Kagan,
you know, do
let's go ask each other for some feedback today that is a wrap. This episode was dedicated to George aka the intern. Who has been a really fun person to experience. He was a listener and a subscriber, just like many of you were and he's been involved in helping us do podcasts and so many things over the years, really appreciate, he's got a great attitude and he's just a, he's a quirky person, which is glad I got to experience him. And
And each other in our lifetime and I wish him all his dreams and more come true. Have a nice day.
What's your favorite?
Brand of water.
