John Cocktosen

slop slangin' 🤖

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

Stop trying to hire for "creative strategists" and become one u lazy fuk

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@Prithvi_Jadwani Thats what im there steering it for

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

I am really vibing with opus 4.8 - especially when discussing and implementing things related to buyer psychology.

It takes direction, and feedback VERY well.

Past models could always tell you why their direction was flawed but then would just spit out more of the same slop.

Opus 4.8 seems to incorporate feedback better than any other model i've used as it iterates.

5.5 is still my autistic workhorse though.

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

I use it with droid. Not sure if this tracks when using through other harnesses

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@StartupSpells they are aggressive. hats off

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

Higgsfield got some true dark lords over there in their conversion/retention department man.

This is a straight up diabolical reversal of a standard Continue/Go Back pattern from their cancel flow.

Would I do this? No. But game respect game. Get that paper boo

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@father_mihai Yea Higgsfield has some of the most confusing pricing packages and onboarding on signup, and equally confusing cancel flow. Its probably working well for revenue but im not sure conversion by confusion is long term sustainable

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@iblamejulius 10000%

[Alen Sultanic @IAmAlenSultanic]

There's a huge difference between "marketing" and "solving problems".

If the game hasn't been profitable to you, most likely, you've been focusing on marketing without actually solving a problem.

Once you start thinking about solving problems, marketing becomes a whole lot easier...

...Because, what's a market if not a place where problems find their solutions?

- Alen

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@andrewjfaris Hard to believe someone who grows dtc brands can't understand why waking up to a massive sudden change to the most important section of the most important page in the store is a serious issue

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@gioblaze0069 🙏

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

We did $100m in sales off of this one single idea.

Wanna make it in consumer?

1. Find a predatory practice they were gaslit into accepting as "normal"

2. Wake them up to the truth by telling a good story.

3. Convince them you can solve the problem for them (even temporarily)

4. Actually solve it

5. Get lots and lots of MIDs

[Alen Sultanic @IAmAlenSultanic]

The credit card company's entire model is a bet that you won't be able to pay it off and will get stuck paying interest. That's it.

There is no other way for them to make money other than this: bet on your inability to pay it off.

Hence, the model's presupposition is that if you need credit in the first place, you most likely don't have money, so you can't just pay it all off at once, so you get stuck in the interest cycle.

This is why I have zero debt.

And yeah, I know what some of you will say..."but there's good debt", no, there's no good slavery.

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@IAmAlenSultanic The necessary evil of legalized loansharking when scaling. What a time to be alive

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@Westoncb "I need you to do this thing. NOT [completely irrelevant thing we've never even talked about or brought up before]"

[Stefan Georgi @StefanGeorgi]

"If it were easy, everyone would be a gajillionaire."

It's something I find myself telling business owners nearly every week.

-When a brand owner tells me they are struggling with high ad costs, or a plateau.
-When a service business loses a big customer or account.
-When an owner is struggling with inventory management, or faces a cash flow crunch.
-When market conditions change and a startup that seemed destined for the moon suddenly ends up on life support.

It's probably my favorite aphorism because it's so obviously and observably true. Most entrepreneurs are not gajillionaires and never will be. Most of them fail.

And the fact that succeeding wildly in business is so hard is actually great news for you.

Why? Because if you do succeed in your business, you create a whole lot of value.

Think about it: value is driven by scarcity.

And real winners in the world of business are scarce. So if you defy the odds and do win big, it's worth a lot both to you, and to other people.

Meanwhile, if winning were easy, the outcome of winning would be far less valuable for all.

So thank God that succeeding in business is hard.

And also, thank God that you get to experience that struggle.

Because it means you are in the arena...

Fighting for your life...

And that's exactly where you're supposed to be.

The struggle isn't an unpleasant side effect of entrepreneurship, it's the entire point.

And when you start to realize this...

The struggle no longer feels like one. It's just the nature of what you do.

That's a powerful reframe. You stop operating from a place of panic or fear....

And you stop experiencing crises.

The truth is that crises are virtually nonexistent in business.

Instead, what most people call crises are simply problems or challenges that need to be solved.

And solving those problems is how you succeed while others fail. The better your solutions, the more you win. The more you win, the more complex your challenges become...

And the only real limiter to your growth and ultimate economic upside here...

Is whether you can keep solving challenges at an increasingly higher level, or if you hit a wall.

You...and your team. Because that's the other part.

As you grow, the challenges become too complex, too numerous, or too multifaceted to solve on your own.

Which is why you need to build a team and focus on hiring great people.

That alone is its own challenge. It's also hard. Which is why a great team is so incredibly valuable.

I don't know if it's fair to say that what I've described here is the whole game in business...

But it certainly is a big part of it...

So the more deeply you embrace the struggle, the better your chances are of defying the odds.

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@inacrazyworldd just a cbid and a dream

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

ecom bros can't actually be this far behind?

We were doing this shit back in 2009

[Zak @zakburgers]

Rosabella putting RE: in the subject line which helps to increase the open rates

"RE:" in a subject line can make the email look like an ongoing conversation or a reply to something customer previously sent, which can increase open rates because people think:

- someone answered their question

- it’s part of an existing thread

- or it’s a personal email rather than marketing

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@coleschfr 😭😭😭

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@zakburgers It works but its also a great way to get flagged by your ESP

[John Cocktosen @indiewhacker]

@blockchainbalak 🤡