As I write this, my older son and I are on our way to hike the Grand Canyon together.
It’s a father-son rite of passage trip with a small group of fellow dads and our teenage sons.
I’ll write more about it after we return…
But I share this with you because this is Issue #052 of The Digital Contrarian…
Meaning, one year ago this week…
I started writing this email newsletter…
And it all began quite inauspiciously – with the first issue titled: [Issue #001]: An embarrassing confession…
At the time, I didn’t know exactly where I would take things…
But after a few weeks of writing a weekly email personally by hand, I made the decision that I wanted to create something unique…
The world had reached a fever pitch of enthusiasm around AI generated content.
And services were emerging that promised to use the power of AI to generate email newsletters that required “zero human effort.”
“What if I did the opposite?” I thought.
What if I wrote every word of copy myself.
No team of writers. No AI.
And instead of trying to spend as little time as possible…
What if I spent an entire day writing each issue, each week?
What if I put real effort into it?
What if I wrote about business & life through the lens of the highly-diverse domains unique (or nearly unique) to my life:
Permaculture and regenerative farming…
Neuroscience and consumer psychology…
Global macroeconomics and investing…
Fatherhood and philosophy…
Could I create something that would stand out in the sea of noise?
Could I create… a Category of One?
1 | Getting Yourself into the Top 0.3%.
I had just come off a 10-year run building a highly-profitable $10M+/year consulting & software company…
And as CEO of two businesses simultaneously…
Our companies landed on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in America an unprecedented seven years in a row.
To put that in perspective…
According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are approximately 211,230 people employed as “Chief Executives” (i.e. CEO) in the United States.
And according to Inc. Magazine, since 1982…
There have been approximately 31,700 companies that have landed on the Inc. 5000 list at least once.
Any guesses how many CEOs have made it onto the Inc. 5000 list seven times in the last four decades?
(I was curious, so I did the research.)
The answer is fewer than 700.
Less than 700 human beings on planet earth have ever done it…
The equivalent of 0.3% of all CEOs in the United States….
Or 1 in 11.6 million people alive today.
In other words…
That may not put you in a Category of One – but it gets you pretty damn close.
2 | The Single Biggest Lesson I've Learned as an Entrepreneur.
There are so many contrarian lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur – especially when it comes to earning a place among those 700.
By the way, the Inc. 5000 list is something you become eligible for when you hit $2M/year in revenue in your business – and are growing at least 40% over the most recent three-year period.
The results are based on your actual IRS tax returns, signed off on by a Certified Public Accountant.
For reference: Inc. 500 companies (the top 500 fastest growing businesses) have typically grown by 1,600%+ over their most recent 3-year period; we made the Inc. 500 list once when we landed at #462, which was was extremely hard to do. That was a wild, intense 3-year period of hyper-growth, and not something I’d recommend repeating without serious purpose.
Here are a few of the more notable lessons learned along the way:
Phase 1:
Growing from $0 to $25,000/month in 18 months…
“Using Kaizen to Grow $500 at a Time.”
Phase 2:
Expanding to over $100,000/month within 3 years…
“The Relentless Pursuit of Less but Better.”
Phase 3:
Scaling to over $1M/month over the next decade…
“Inch-Wide, Mile-Deep – Powered by Rocket Fuel.”
(These were the Inc. 5000 years…)
Phase 4:
And then selling the company in 2024…
“The Hidden M&A Dynamics of Every Market.”
(Unpacked in the “$70M Business Exit Mistake” session I hosted a few months ago.)
* * *
But BY FAR – the single biggest lesson I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is this:
No matter what you decide to build, no matter what you decide to sell – the only business worth building is a business that puts you in a Category of One.
Anything else?
Is a complete waste of time.
3 | So, What Is A "Category of One" Business (And Why Is It So Critical)?
A Category of One business is one where no direct comparison exists – because your positioning, packaging, and personality effectively make you the only choice for your ideal customer.
And more than anything else, this is the secret to…
-
Charging premium prices…
-
Generating way-above-average profit margins…
-
Creating a line of people desperate to do business with you…
-
Avoiding the slow death of commoditization…
-
And making your “competition” irrelevant…
Because after all, as Peter Thiel famously wrote in Zero to One:
“Competition is for losers.”
Hey – he wrote it, not me :-)
* * *
Today…
When I’m not out in the field farming…
Or writing my next book…
Or hiking the Grand Canyon…
I’m spending my days advising a small handful of smart, ambitious entrepreneurs (typically running $1M-$10M+/year businesses) who get this idea – and are looking to create their own Category of One company with my help.
And in this process…
I’ve discovered something important:
The playbook I followed step-by-step?
It can be repeated.
4 | How to Build Your Own "Category of One" Business.
To celebrate the 1-year anniversary of The Digital Contrarian…
I’ve been feeling inspired to host a free live workshop titled:
“Category of One: A $10M/Year Business Blueprint.”
And I’ve decided to host it later this week, once I return from the Grand Canyon.
(Details below…)
It’s the same playbook I’ve used to both scale (and sell) two of my businesses…
And the same playbook I’m now using with the handful of private advisory clients I mentioned earlier.
And the good news?
It’s a playbook I can show you how to follow as well.
Here’s the link to register:
Full disclosure:
This is going to be an advanced session.
We’ll be covering deep-end-of-the-swimming-pool type stuff.
Or in other words…
This is not for beginners.
In fact, this session is going to be *most* relevant if you’re doing at least $1M/year in your business (or you’re very close.)
For this reason, I was planning on only making this session available to paying members of my private mastermind…
But I’ve decided to open it up to Digital Contrarian subscribers…
Aka you :-)
That said, there is a hard cap of 300 spots on this session, which is what the Zoom meeting maxes out at.
And while I have no idea if this is going to fill up…
I think there is a good chance it might.
So if you’re interested, here’s what to do:
Step 1: Register using this link:
Step 2: block off your calendar.
(We’ll go 75-90 minutes.)
Step 3: Show up 5 minutes early to make sure you get in.
Make sense?
Okay, cool :-)
Want to join my next virtual workshop?
Get notified about my upcoming free workshops, town halls, and special events before I announce them anywhere else.
* * *
Alright, I’ll leave you with that for now.
My son and I have a big few days ahead on the trail…
It’s way past my bedtime…
And I need to get some rest.
Have a great rest of your weekend…
Remember to hug the ones you love.
And until next week,
Ryan :-)
P.S. What’s the first secret to building a Category of One business?
Well, I’ll give you a hint…
It starts with this:
Nobody can outcompete you at being you.
More to come on the session this week… see you there?
