Tim Ferriss and I used to live in the same neighborhood.
There was a park down the block where we walked our dogs (Molly and Sid), so we ran into each other so Molly and Sid played together.
We hardly ever talked about work. We'd just talk about standard neighbor stuff, like:
"Wow isn't this weather great!?"
"How's Molly doing?"
You know, normal stuff.
To Tim, I wasn't Sam Parr, Founder of The Hustle. I was just a random guy named Sam who lived in the neighborhood and had a dog named Sid.
Then one day out of the blue, I get an email from Tim. It was something along the lines of: "Hey I know The Hustle. I like how you all do email. I'm launching an email thing. Can you help me?"
I responded: "Yeah, I'll meet you at the cafe in Glen Park."
Later that day, I went to the restaurant for our meeting. I walked up to Tim and said hello.
He looked a little surprised. He said: "Hey man! What are you doing here?"
At this point, I was a little confused:
One: Tim and I had plans to meet there. And two: he was the one who reached out to me.
"What do you mean what am I doing here? We have a meeting!"
(That's what I thought... not what I actually said to him.)
What I DID say was, "Oh I'm Sam Parr. I'm the guy you emailed."
And he said, "Wait — you're Sam Parr!?"
So I confirmed that, indeed, it was me. We sat down and had our meeting. That first 'official' meeting eventually led to Tim becoming an investor in The Hustle.
And we're very lucky to have him onboard.
Why am I telling you this?
At the end of the day, Tim Ferriss is just a normal guy. Just like me and you.
We didn't meet at some high-powered event at a rooftop bar. We literally met in the park... walking our dogs.
Here's what I learned from this experience:
Sometimes your biggest connections and opportunities come as a result of who you surround yourself with.
Everyone kind of knows this already, right?
I'm not telling you anything new.
But think about how often you're bumping into the movers and shakers in your industry.
Think about how many more opportunities and relationships you could develop if you inserted yourself into a new entrepreneurial community.
Listen…
If you live in San Francisco, Austin, NYC, or any other major business hub… you're probably better positioned than most people to meet new friends and allies who can help you in your journey.
But what if you live in Old Bridge, NJ?
What if you live in South Sioux City, Nebraska?
What about if you live in Caribou, Maine?
The cool thing is, thanks to the internet your geographical location no longer determines your destiny.
I knew when we launched our Trends publication, we didn't just want to create another newsletter.
We wanted to create community.
More importantly, we wanted to create a movement.
We wanted to gather the smartest hustlers, operators, builders, and founders in one place… so the collective network effect would make this community the most powerful business network in the WORLD.
When you surround yourself with the right kind of people, opportunities arise every single day.
When you put yourself in a room with other titans of industry, it's almost impossible not to become more successful. If nothing else, by osmosis.
We have that community.
It's already built.
It's ~14,000 strong and it's growing every single day with industry leaders like Ryan Hoover (Founder of Product Hunt), Harvey Finkelstein (President of Shopify), Ryan Begelman (Cofounder of Summit Series), Brian Halligan (CEO and Founder of Hubspot), Andrew Warner (Founder of Mixergy), Courtland Allen (Founder of IndieHackers), and many many more.
Right now, you can jump in for just $1.
When you sign up, you'll get access to:
- The Trends Private Community, where you can get feedback on a business idea, ask a technical question to other founders, and stay on-top of what's happening in the startup world
- Our extensive research database, where we've compiled funding data for ~2,400 successful Kickstarter campaigns, more than 100 stories of small businesses that survived the Great Recession, stats for the top 1,000 Shopify stores, and a whole heck of a lot more — so you can use lessons learned from other businesses and industries to fast-track your growth
- The full Signals library, where we use hundreds of thousands of data points to reveal industries poised for explosive growth. (We're basically handing business opportunities to you. All you have to do is take them and run with them.)
- Weekly case studies that dive deep into the inner workings of specific businesses and industries (we've done fancy bibles, sports betting, and even secondary sneakers in the past)... you'll be able to see inside wildly successful businesses, and apply their learnings to your own
- And our AMAs and learning cohorts, where industry experts and founders join us to talk about things like "20xing a D2C Business with TikTok," "Ideating 101: Lessons from the Trenches" (led by Gagan Biyani, Co-Founder of Udemy), and "The Perfect Cold Email" (which I've used to build my entire career)
Bottom line:
Plugging yourself into this community is worth way more than $1.
So click here to get instant access to Trends (it'll be the best $1 you've ever spent)
-Sam
Founder & CEO of The Hustle & Trends
P.S. In the year 1954, something happened that changed the world forever. One man, armed with some very important data did something that no human had ever done before.
It's a wild story, one I'll share in a few days. It's packed with valuable insights for all the founders and investors out there.
Keep an eye out for my next email.
