The Minimalist Entrepreneur - Summary and review

Minimalist entrepreneurs create businesses that are profitable at all costs.

Minimalist entrepreneurs build on a foundation of community.

When they do build, minimalist entrepreneurs build only what they need to, automating or outsourcing the rest.

Minimalist businesses do one thing, and they do it well.

Minimalist entrepreneurs don't spend time convincing people - they spend time educating people.

Selling is discovery and a possibility to educate yourself as entrepreneur in the market.

Minimalist entrepreneurs share their stories, from struggles to success.

The best marketing shows the world who you - and your product are.

Founder-led content is powerful because it works, as both the book Founder Brand and Getting Acquired talks about.

Learn more: check out my post on "10 ways to build in public as a SaaS founder" with examples to copy.

Become a creator: 3 levels to great content

1. Educate

Start by educating your potential leads and customers. This is how you grow your followers beyond the ones that already know you.

Provide value for free. Without asking for anything in return. Do it over and over again. Share the 100 things you learned from your 100 customers. Do it everyday.

2. Inspire

To grow outside of your "students" you need to go beyond teaching. Move up the ladder and create content to inspire - make your audience feel something.

Turn insights about your subject into insights about life -> a philosophy. This content should inspire people and motivate them to live better lives.

The legendary podcast StartUp by Gimlet Media founder Alex is an example of a documentary-like content series from 0 to exit - that has inspired 10,000s of entrepreneurs worldwide.

3. Entertain

So "Content is king". Well, entertainment is the king of content.

Creating entertaining content - is how to reach the masses - making you relevant to a vastly larger group of potential customers. Have fun while educating and inspiring people.

Example of an entertaining tweet that gained lots of traction by Sahil Lavingia:

"Entrepreneurship: work 60 hours a week so you don't have to work 40 hours a week"

People often talk about the latest Netflix series episode the watched, but rarely about the how to guide they recently read.

Minimalist entrepreneurs own their businesses, they don't let their businesses own them.

They don't spend money they don't have, and they don't sacrifice profitability for scale.

Minimalist entrepreneurs hire other minimalist entrepreneurs.

They do things their own way - and it won't be for everyone. But it will attract the right talent.

Rules are few.