Oodles of Value

Hi,

I have only been in trouble at work one time in my life, and when it happened, I didn’t even realize it. My manager called me into the office and asked me to tell my side of the story. I had no idea what he meant—I didn’t have a side to the story. He explained that I rushed a customer out the door and didn’t offer the level of customer experience the store expected.

I had to ask him again, “What customer are you talking about?”

He told me about an older woman who came in, and apparently, I said the words you can never say: “I guess we don’t have anything for you.”

The memory started coming back. I began to replay the moment more vividly. My first thought was, “Oh yeah, she was really aggressive.”

Here’s what happened: An older woman walked into the store (we sold shoes) and said she needed a walking shoe. Business as usual—if I had a dollar for every time that happened, the store wouldn’t have had to pay me.

She looked at the shoe wall and mentioned that she didn’t like running shoes for walking; they had never worked for her. I started my usual spiel about how we recommend running shoes for walking, but before I could finish, she interrupted:

"I’m not wearing any running shoes, I won’t even try them on, and I want a shoe today.”

We had one shoe: a leather version of a running shoe that said “Walker” on the side. She tried it on, didn’t like it, and I was stuck.

Do I try to convince her to wear a running shoe, or do I let her leave? I let her leave.

Why Tell This Story?

The running shoe store’s business model was simple: give people a world-class experience, and they’ll tell their friends. That experience included education about the shoes, education about walking/running, a smile (gotta be happy), and, most importantly, problem-solving.

The thesis was clear: give so much value that $120 for a pair of shoes seems cheap.

Oodles of Value

Today, I want to talk about giving so, so, so much value—oodles even. It’s been the heart of The Hero’s Journal, the hypothesis behind Atypical, and, honestly, the reason I read and make coffee.

What is Value?

Alex Hormozi has this equation in his book $100M Offers, and I think it’s a good way to look at value:

Dream Outcome x Perceived Likelihood of Achievement ➗ Time Delay x Effort & Sacrifice

If you look honestly at your marketing principles, you can ask yourself: Is the value I’m offering greater than the price I’m charging? If the answer is yes, boom—you’re giving outsized value.

The Hero’s Journal

Last week, we left our heroes feeling funky about their big Kickstarter campaign. This week, we’re talking about how we used the Hero’s Headquarters to try and scale value. 

The Hero’s Journal is pricier than other blank journals—we know this. That means we have to provide so much value that, even if someone feels the sting of spending $50, once they receive it, they think, “I would’ve spent twice that.”

One of the benefits of having the warehouse in our house was making the shipping experience exactly what we wanted. Toss a sticker in? Boom, sticker in the package. Double-reinforce the packaging to avoid dents? Done.

When we first moved in, we also made a big effort to keep creating content around The Hero’s Journal. Zach—our CMO at the time—was great on camera and would do weekly video essays. Nick and I started a podcast, and we made a series of videos showing off The Hero’s Headquarters.

One of my biggest regrets from that time is that we didn’t keep up the flow of content. We knew it would take a long time to see results, but I think if we’d stuck with it a little longer, we could’ve unlocked another gear.

The packaging, content, and marketing were all part of the plan to give our heroes more and more value, building a deeper relationship with their journals and, ultimately, with themselves.

One last note: We believe in not creating landfill products. If something we make isn’t worth keeping for a long time, we don’t want to make it. Our goal is to show people they’re the hero of their own life—not to contribute to landfills. Making something designed to last is its own kind of value.

Atypical

One of the things about Atypical is that we know it’s a cool idea: an American guy playing basketball in Europe. It’s eye-catching. But if you actually want to make it work, you have to move past that.

First, you have to decide the outcome you want—and I’m not talking about views or subscribers. I mean: What good do you want to create? Entertainment? Education? Profit?

Once you understand the outcome, you can work backward to create as much value as possible. For Trey and Atypical, the mission has always been clear: “Be the mentor [Trey] wished he had on his journey.”

Trey is 355 videos into his YouTube journey, probably twice that on Instagram and TikTok. The amount of value he’s given away for free dramatically outweighs the few things he’s sold.

Everything we sell moving forward ties back to the free value already given. We build on what matters most: giving.

Reading

This week was a great podcast week for me.

For me this newsletter doesn’t work if I am not reading or listening to something. The ideas I take in work as the raw materials for the concepts in this newsletter. Without a steady flow of new ideas, I cannot create value with this newsletter.

 I really enjoyed The Diary of a CEO, where two people from opposite sides of the aisle had a conversation about life after the American inauguration.

The best part? It was very civil—an exchange of ideas, stats, and perspectives. It felt like what those conversations should be, instead of whatever we usually get from mainstream (or otherwise) political commentary.

Coffee

I meant to make the video I promised, but this week has been insane. Who knows—maybe I’ll make it over the weekend.

Lately, I’ve been making espresso with fermented-process coffee beans, and it’s been a delight. Great flavor but still bold.

To be honest, this coffee section is a bit lacking, so I will tell you one of my coffee related dreams: 

One day, I want to have a team I get to work with, and whenever I do check-ins with them, I want to have their favorite coffee drink waiting for them at the start of the meeting. To me, leadership, camaraderie, and even friendship are so much stronger when the people involved are actively supporting one another.

Conclusion

I’ll leave you with one last story from The Diary of a CEO. Scott Galloway shared what he tells his sons about being a man, and it really resonated.

He explained that his sons live in a surplus—all the functions in their lives give more than they take. But when they become men, this equation flips: It becomes their job to give more than they receive.

He frames this not in a machismo way but in the little things: filling empty glasses around the table, opening doors, listening more than you speak, etc.

Live a life where the value you add is greater than the expenditure you require.

CYA,

Kyle