Dominic Hay

Careers | Money | Investing | @thecareerguard | Join 10k+ readers who accelerate their career & build wealth with 5 minutes a week↙️

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.

Getting up everyday and deciding to build your personal brand is a hard choice.

To grow you have to: Get creative, write, engage, DM, learn how to write threads and more.

But, hard work pays off.

Keep going.

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

Yesterday went crazy from a feature on a Podcast + Tiny Ad budget.

The Careerguard grew by 70 subscribers today on @beehiiv. Subscribe below 👇🏽 https://t.co/jP2HpUFGe7

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@javiergarcif2 @beehiiv My TikTok has 45k followers, I have a few lead magnets in my bio and I also spoke at a live event yesterday where on my final slides I had a QR code with my newsletter sign up landing page 🚀. Yesterday was a result of the combination of both.

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

TikTok + IG + LinkedIn = Takeoff🚀

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@gregisenberg Useful ✔️

[GREG ISENBERG @gregisenberg]

Here are the 12 questions I get asked the most (from building wealth to learning new skills):

1. How do I go from zero to 10,000 followers on social?

The fastest way is through replies.

You literally don't need to post content of your own.

Here's the playbook:

1) You make sure your bio is optimized
2) You set tweet (or IG etc) notifications for people in your space
3) You comment thoughtfully on their posts quickly
4) You gain a few followers daily
5) You do this consistently

This is the sure way to getting a base of followers in a niche.

You can't lose.

2. Where do you see content going in 2024?

Content has been over produced over the last few years and it’s about to go more raw. Especially video. The trend with short form video has been every second amplified with sound effects and zoom ins. Price dings and GIFs. I think you’ll see more creators go raw and see lots of luck there.

Examples include Sam Sulek or the handwritten photos you're starting to see on Instagram. Or this handwritten photo I included in this post.

Content is moving behind the scenes.

Truth is social used to be like that. Everything old is new again.

3. How do you make the most amount of impact on the internet?

1) Pick a worthwhile topic. Nicher the better
2) Write clearly. More clear than anyone else
3) Write regularly. Every single day
4) Collaborate with other writers like you. Help them
5) Open your Twitter DMs. Look for gold

4. What was biggest lesson learned from selling your company to WeWork and being at WeWork at the height of craziness?

When I joined WeWork, something stood out. People referred to "adam" in an almost god-like way. They were referring to Adam Neumann.

It was fascinating to see on a dime how thousands of people went from worshipping Adam to despising him. He went from god to enemy overnight.

Employees thought their stock options were worth millions and ended up being pretty worthless. That's why.

Teaches you a lot about human nature.

5. How would you make $1m or $10m in 2024 if you had to and only had $25k to do it?

Firstly, good things take time. Figma (now worth $20b) took 7 years to reach $1m in revenue. Things move slowly until they move fast.

But if I had to make $1M, I'd follow the ACP funnel (audience, community, product) to build an asset light, profitable business targeting a niche I probably found on Reddit.

So, I'd pick a unique category, something where I'm not competing with anyone. I'd build a social account (partner with creators to pump it with the $25k), convert into a free Whatsapp, Circle or Skool community to get their emails and build them a product. The product probably would start be a lightweight software product or paid community.

6. What is the best community platform?

There is no perfect community platform. Depends on the needs.

First start with building a growing internet audiences, and then pick a home that you think they'll enjoy.

No two communities are the same so they needs change.

7. How do you learn new skills?

A framework for learning any new skill I use:

1) Limit scope (focus)
2) Write learnings every day (memory)
3) Learn with others (accountability)
4) Teach newcomers (practice)

8. What's your best advice for how to win on the internet?

1) Have a bias for action

2) Ignore noise

3) Be obsessed

4) Accept pain, don’t suffer (pain is inevitable, suffering is optional)

5) Find cheerleaders. People above you, people below you, people on your level

6) Don’t follow growth hacks. If someone is telling you about them, it’s too late

7) Don’t trust public revenue numbers on Twitter, LinkedIn etc. They are probably false

8) Your brand should be so good people want to wear it on t-shirts. I call it the t-shirt test

9) Underspend on material possessions, overspend on people, experiences, that move you faster

9. Should I build in public?

Move in silence or move loudly, nothing in between

10. What's the number one way to get people to buy your product?

Besides building an internet audience, If you want someone to want something, tell them they can’t have it or build virality into the product.

11. What was the last epiphany you had?

I had a realization about the type of experiences you have in life:

A toll gets you to somewhere you want to go to. A tax sucks you dry.

Be okay with tolls in your life, they make you better. Taxes on the other hand are a part of life and of course should be paid, but you don't want to live a life with only taxes, no tolls.

You want mostly tolls, some taxes.

12. What's your spicy take of the day?

Reading books is so back right now Stood the test of time with so many new media coming out for hundreds of years.

As people want places away from their phones and eventually Apple Vision Pros (digital detox), old school book sales will increase.

[Justin Welsh @thejustinwelsh]

People fail at business because they're doing fake work.

Rocking horse syndrome -- feels like you're moving forward but in reality, you're going nowhere.

Examples:

- Designing logos
- Reading about business
- Constantly testing technology

Anything but generating revenue!

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

Don’t sleep on TikTok.

450 very engaged subscribers, all from video content.

Is it time for you to pivot to video content? 👀

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@ChiefKeinZ Dwl. 🤣

[Revamped | Career & Workplace Development @RevampedCP]

Gen Z are over having their work ethic questioned: ‘Most boomers don’t know what it’s like to work 40+ hours a week and still not be able to afford a house’, per Fortune.

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@AnokyeMiller We have lost control. Hopefully things change asap. We need a new striker also.

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@VladSoriano Happy New Year 🥳 Wishing you the best in 2024 Vlad🥂

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@The_Emmanuella_ Happy bday 🎉

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@DionneLDN Extremely tbh

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

Pivoted from Twitter to TikTok a few months ago and it lead to almost 13k followers, around 15 DMs / week / new business / 30 email opt ins a month… if tweeting isn’t for you, maybe consider video. Follow me while you are at it: https://t.co/7x5rI146F5

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@The_Emmanuella_ Check your DM please

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@Charles_SEO Should I just be buying editorial backlinks or should I invest in guest posts for my blog https://t.co/nLM1rIQToE?

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@AnokyeMiller See why I don’t get excited about new deals until season starts. Lol… that wasn’t stage fright that MLS performance 😭😂. Even Declan rice I’m not gassed about. Let’s just wait and see

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@IamChristelleD_ Top 2…. 1. Making sure visas were in place for a Aviation client who specialised in air to air refuelling during Brexit (my other business)…. 2. Dealing with a upset client who’s ad account was blocked and had a £2k/ day ad budget across Meta 😫

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

The bigger the problem you solve, the more you’ll be compensated 💰✔️

[Dominic Hay @SoAmbitiousDom]

@OjediranAyo Bigger & more complex