#082 Paul Millerd: Profits in Publishing, Why Self-Publish, How Authors Make Big Money Oct 29, 2024

Links:

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:03:15) - Introducing Paul, and the early days of the publishing industry.

(00:06:48) - The earliest days of publishing, distribution of profit, and printing methods.

(00:17:46) - The 2014 E-book collusion

(00:20:27) - The self-publishing surge, the $4.99 sweet spot, and where authors can optimize.

(00:24:47)- The history of paperbacks

(00:37:28) - Book deals and agents

(00:48:15) - The India market, publisher problems, and compounding disinterest.

(01:06:06) - The future of publishing

To support this podcast:

>> Explore writing or publishing your book with Scribe: Scribemedia.com

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/

>> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

>> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage

>> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

>> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

>> Text the podcast to a friend

>> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!

Here’s what we explored in the episode:

We dive deep into the quirky history of the publishing industry, tracing it all the way back to the 1400s.
In the 19th century, authors could increase their earnings by co-investing in fixed costs, like print plates and bookbinding.
Traditional Publishing has always seen hardcovers as “the real books” and sought to protect them and their profits.
Trade paperback was published only after a successful hardcover, with those rights often sold separately.
Self-publishing changed the game for authors, with Amazon enabling print-on-demand and much higher royalty percentages.
If you are an author signing with a traditional publisher, realize YOU ARE NOT THE CUSTOMER–book retailers are their customers.
Lots of authors who earned big money retained their rights.
Stephen King retained his paperback rights an early successful book. After the hardcover version succeeded, he sold those rights for $400,000
Harper Lee made significant earnings from To Kill a Mockingbird by retaining movie adaptation rights.
Tom Clancy held on to his film and international rights. This later became highly lucrative as his popularity grew and more of his books got adaptations.
Traditional Publishers often prioritize prestige, tradition, and their profits – which doesn’t always align with author’s goals.
Indie authors can now disregard tradition and experiment with pricing strategies to maximize reach, revenue, and their own personal results.

Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.

Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.

#081 The Next Industrial Revolution w/ J. Storrs Hall [Replay] Oct 02, 2024

This is a replay of episode 34 of this podcast.

Links:

Josh’s Bio - Autogeny.org

Where is my flying car? By J. Storrs Hall

Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper

The Martian by Andy Weir

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Beyond AI by J. Storrs Hall

Nanofuture: What’s Next For Nanotechnology by J. Storrs Hall

Other Episode You’ll Like:

Solocast #3: Nuclear, Nanotech, and the next Industrial Revolution (Book Recap: “Where is my Flying Car?”)

Massive Opportunities w/in Design & User Interface with Cliff Kuang

To support this costs of producing this podcast:

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.com/

>> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage

>> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

>> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

>> Text the podcast to a friend

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

#080 Solocast #3: Nuclear, Nanotech, and the next Industrial Revolution [Replay] Sep 17, 2024

This episode is a replay of episode 22 of this podcast.

Links:

Eric’s Blog

Eric’s blog post on digital scarcity

Eric’s Blog post on The Cost of Trust

Technological revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez

Topics:

(0:08) - Introducing the Web3 discussion

(4:13) - What is the Blockchain?

(6:06) - Lowering transaction costs across Web1, Web2 & Web3

(9:46) - Creating cheap, digital scarcity

(12:12) - Why does the blockchain matter? Trust & Decentralization

(18:50) - What happens when blockchains are deployed? Digital and Physical impacts.

(26:26) - Technological Revolutions & Financial Capital by Carlotta Perez

(28:23) - DAO: Distributed Autonomous Organization

(30:51) - Predictions: The biggest networks will be bigger than the biggest companies

(39:03) - Wrap Up: What do you have to do?

(42:02) - Web3 is supposed to be fun!

#079 Andrew Wilkinson: De-risking Leverage, Investing vs. Operating, and the Best Part About Business [Replay] Aug 21, 2024

[This is a replay of episode #002]

Andrew Wilkinson is the co-founder of Tiny, a venture capital firm that has helped to build over 25 profitable internet businesses over the last 15 years. He got his start founding MetaLab, one of the world’s top design agencies. He has gone from working out of his apartment a little over a decade ago, to today overseeing a group of companies with over 300 employees and tens of millions in revenue.

To support the costs of producing this podcast:

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/

>> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

>> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage

>> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

>> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

>> Text the podcast to a friend

>> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!

#078 David Senra + Mitchell Baldridge #5: David’s Private Conference, Writing Books, and Building Networks Jul 30, 2024

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:03:24) - Recapping FoundersOnly Conference

(00:36:36) - Helping others first

(00:44:32) - Baldridge updates & the power of working hard

(01:03:46) - How do you want to spend your time?

(01:10:38) - Great book recs, Scribe, and the knowledge gap

(01:44:38) - Unethical founders

(02:00:56) - Optimizing for usefulness

Links:

Founders Podcast

Mitchell Baldridge on X

Get in touch with Mitchell

David Senra on X

Perplexity AI

Books:

Hard Drive by James Wallace

So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

Jerry Seinfeld in GQ

Zero to One by Peter Thiel

To support the costs of producing this podcast:

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/

>> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

>> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage

>> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

>> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

>> Text the podcast to a friend

>> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!

Important quotes from David Senra and Mitchell Baldridge:

"People don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. And so like we could write a book on this two-hour or whatever long conversation we've had and every single person's going to have a different perspective."

— David Senra

"I'm here to be the best in the world at what I'm doing. And then you get around other people like that. Like we just talked about Mike Ovitz. You think he was optimizing for days on the golf course?"

— David Senra

“I wake up every day more obsessed to the point where, like, if this continues, we're going to have to be concerned about me. And what I love is I'm really trying to go after it.”

— David Senra

"Books don't have to make money to make you money."

— Mitchell Baldridge

"Mute the world and build your own world and it's like part of building your own world you don't want to start from zero like a feral child in the middle of the woods."

— Mitchell Baldridge

#077 Alex Komoroske: Systems Thinking, Builders vs Gardeners, and Working In Large Organizations Jul 18, 2024

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:03:52) - The Gardener of Systems

(00:07:43) - Builders vs. Gardeners

(00:11:09) - Who are the best farmers of miracles?

(00:16:52) - How did you become a “systems” person?

(00:23:45) - What does Systems Thinking look like for you?

(00:53:09) - Alex’s Slime Mold deck

(00:55:12) - The iterative, adjacent possible

(00:59:53) - Alex’s experience at Google

(01:03:12) - AI uses and potentials

(01:17:54) - Book recommendations

Links:

Alex’s website

Alex on X

Alex on LinkedIn

Emergence by Steven Johnson

The Systems Bible by John Gall

The Origin of Wealth by Eric Beinhocker

To support the costs of producing this podcast:

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/

>> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

>> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage

>> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

>> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

>> Text the podcast to a friend

>> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!

Important quotes from Alex Komoroske:

"I think that to really wrestle with systems you have to let go and just dance with the system."

— Alex Komoroske

"I like the word gardening because it underlines that you are not in control of this system. You are influencing it."

— Alex Komoroske

"The builder gets immediately to work, but the gardener understands that other things can be alive."

— Alex Komoroske

"Technology should be about helping people create and use hand-tuned tools to extend their agency in collaborative ways."

— Alex Komoroske

"If people who are very unlike each other all find it interesting or intriguing, that's a good sign that it will spread out to be a very large audience."

— Alex Komoroske

#076 The Alliance of Entrepreneurs and Scientists with Arkady Kulik of RPV Jun 26, 2024

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:43) - Russian interpretations of friendship

(00:09:28) - Thoughts on the state of society and its rate of technological adoption

(00:13:22) - Creating alliances between entrepreneurs, capitalists, and scientists

(00:17:17) - Rick Rubin on Creativity in Investing

(00:20:55) - Does Taste exist in the world of VC?

(00:26:06) - Becoming a better Communicator

(00:40:59) - What archetypes do you see in the folks you work with?

(00:44:18) - Arkady’s background and career

(01:00:34) - Arkady’s thesis and technical due diligence for rpv

(01:11:26) - Companies Arkady is excited about

(01:16:55) - What important problems are you not seeing pursued?

(01:21:11) - How can people get in touch with you?

Links:

Arkady on LinkedIn

Rpv Venture Fund

Specialist by Robert Sheckley

The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

To support the costs of producing this podcast:

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/

>> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

>> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage

>> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

>> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

>> Text the podcast to a friend

>> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!

Important quotes from Arkady Kulik:

"Good communication is essential to avoid conflicts and build better relationships, both personally and professionally."

— Arkady Kulik

"Aligning visions with founders is critical. It’s not just about the business, it’s about shared values and missions."

— Arkady Kulik

"The alliance between entrepreneurs and scientists is the key to unlocking humanity's transition to an advanced civilization."

— Arkady Kulik

"Technology is the only source of never-ending growth. Our ability to reshape what we have with a small amount of resources into something fantastic is a never-ending source of creativity."

— Arkady Kulik

"People who are not true to themselves and lie to themselves are not founder material. The people who don’t lie to themselves and know what they are trying to do are the ones who can actually get there."

— Arkady Kulik

#075 Flywheel Masterclass, Flying Planes, and Building For Creators with Nathan Barry of Convertkit Jun 04, 2024

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:05:10) - The decision to live in Idaho

(00:08:21) - Nathan’s flying hobby

(00:15:09) - Building Flywheels

(00:46:07) - Incentive compensation and giving people ownership

(01:06:39) - Inflection points in building ConverKit

(01:14:16) - How to work on a ton of things

(01:23:15) - What are the rules of thumb you use the most in life?

Links:

Nathan Barry on X

ConvertKit

Nathan’s website

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

Good to Great by Jim Collins

Small Giants by Bo Burlingham

To support the costs of producing this podcast:

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/

>> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

>> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage

>> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

>> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

>> Text the podcast to a friend

>> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!

Important quotes from Nathan Barry on building audience, wealth, and startups:

"If I look back at all the good things that have happened in my career in the last 3 years, they all come from writing. One little habit of writing 1,000 words a day revolutionized my career."

— Nathan Barry

"ATTENTION IS THE MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE"

— Nathan Barry

"When you start writing you don’t have to worry about crafting perfect prose. Instead you just need to focus on teaching useful skills."

— Nathan Barry

Making money is a skill—like playing the drums or piano—that you can get better at over time.

I wouldn’t expect to be able to sit down at a piano for the first time and play a concerto. The same is true for making money.

This is why most first companies fail.

— Nathan Barry, Ladders of Wealth Creation

#74 Rolling Fun #8: New LPs, Mark-ups, Giant Guns for Space Cargo, How to Find a Lead Investor, Software for Manufacturing, AI for Ecomm. May 21, 2024

Links:

Join us in Rolling Fun!

Hear our other Rolling Fun eps!

Rolling Fun GPs:

Al Doan - Founder of Creativity Inc., a $100m+ collection of e-commerce brands. Founder of Pretzel. BS from BYU Hawaii, OPM at HBS. Makes one hell of a peach cobbler. (Twitter, LinkedIn)

Bo Fishback - Founder of Lightspeed Genomics (acq 2008), Orbis Biosciences (acq 2020), Zaarly (acq 2020). BS in Biomedical Engineering from SMU, MBA at HBS. Once drank a whole gallon of milk in an hour. (Twitter, LinkedIn)

Eric Jorgenson - CEO at Scribe Media. Author of Almanack of Naval Ravikant. Has a podcast. Barely graduated from a state school. Received a cease & desist from Craigslist for some frowned-upon marketing techniques. (Twitter, LinkedIn)

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:02:49) - Showing love for new LPs

(00:10:25) - Q1 New Investment: Dirac

(00:16:23) - Q1 New Investment: Reactiv

(00:26:53) - Q1 New Investment: Longshot

(00:34:44) - How Founders can find lead investors

(00:52:05) - Stell Engineering raised a Seed round!

To support the costs of producing this podcast:

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/

>> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

>> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage

>> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

>> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

>> Text the podcast to a friend

>> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!

Important quotes from Naval on building wealth and the difference between wealth and money:

How to get rich without getting lucky. - Naval Ravikant

Making money is not a thing you do—it’s a skill you learn. - Naval Ravikant

Seek wealth, not money or status. - Naval Ravikant

Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant

Money is how we transfer time and wealth. - Naval Ravikant

Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.

You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity—a piece of a business—to gain your financial freedom. - Naval Ravikant

Important quotes from the podcast by Naval on Leverage:

“Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”

—Archimedes

To get rich, you need leverage. Leverage comes in labor, comes in capital, or it can come through code or media. But most of these, like labor and capital, people have to give to you. For labor, somebody has to follow you. For capital, somebody has to give you money, assets to manage, or machines. - Naval Ravikant

Capital and labor are permissioned leverage. Everyone is chasing capital, but someone has to give it to you. Everyone is trying to lead, but someone has to follow you. - Naval Ravikant

Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant

If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts. - Naval Ravikant

Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgment. - Naval Ravikant

Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve. - Naval Ravikant

Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.

Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.

#073 Rolling Fun #7: Q4 Updates: Nuclear Fusion, AI for Kids, AI Manufacturing — and how founders can find lead investors May 01, 2024

Links:

Join us in Rolling Fun!

Hear our other Rolling Fun eps!

Rolling Fun GPs:

Al Doan - Founder of Creativity Inc., a $100m+ collection of e-commerce brands. Founder of Pretzel. BS from BYU Hawaii, OPM at HBS. Makes one hell of a peach cobbler. (Twitter, LinkedIn)

Bo Fishback - Founder of Lightspeed Genomics (acq 2008), Orbis Biosciences (acq 2020), Zaarly (acq 2020). BS in Biomedical Engineering from SMU, MBA at HBS. Completed the ‘impossible’ Gallon Challenge, drinking a whole gallon of milk in an hour. (Twitter, LinkedIn)

Eric Jorgenson - Founding team of Zaarly. Author of Almanack of Naval Ravikant. Has a podcast. Barely graduated from a state school. Received a cease & desist from Craigslist for some frowned-upon marketing techniques. (Twitter, LinkedIn)

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:00:06) - Warming up the vocals/ catching up

(00:09:14) - Q4 Catch-up and new deal flow

(00:15:16) - Portola

(00:41:40) - Atomic Industries