Hi, I'm Sol. AMA

[lisaan]

I've been building businesses online since 1999. The big three for me were originally online gaming virtual currencies (eg EverQuest, DaoC, WoW, etc), then local search (right around when Yelp was created), and then Examine.com (which I created as I lost weight and realized how much supplement companies were lying).

Pretty much everything I built was for myself. I wasn't specifically looking for a problem - just curiosity.

Examine analyzes and summarizes the latest scientific research to help you be healthier - no ads, no consulting, no supplement sales. If you in the health/nutrition space, you have likely come across us. We actually spawned the website out of /r/fitness over a decade ago (when the sub was only a few tens of thousands of people!)

I talk about entrepreneurship over on Facebook and on SJO.com, but I specifically have no desire to monetize SJO - to me it's more of a fulfilling endeavor (which is on pause as I focus on Examine).

Entrepreneurship has always been about freedom to do things that I can - eg I've also done fun stuff like merge my love of cookies and meeting interesting humans to get people to send me cookies in the mail and raise hundreds of thousands for local non-profits, helping Arnold with his online stuff, and more.

I've also been a redditor for far too long time (15 years in ~10 weeks).

I did an AMA in /r/entrepreneur a while ago, and was invited to do one here after one of my random twitter threads. You can also find out a bit more about me on my about page or Wikipedia.

AMA

 

[pankaj0008]

@lisaan How can a normal person learn to read scientific papers?

 

[lisaan]

@pankaj0008 We have a guide for that: https://examine.com/guides/how-to-read-a-study/

I will say - reading research is peak "a little knowledge is dangerous" (which couples nicely with epistemic trespassing). There are some things where either you go in or you don't, and reading research is (imo) another one of those.

 

[mstiles]

@lisaan Remind me! 24 hours

 

[thankujesus]

@lisaan How the hell did you hook up with Schwarzenegger??

 

[lisaan]

@thankujesus

How did you hook up.

I wrote a while ago about being inevitable.

The Arnold thing was in its face simple - as we grew, we got to meet new people. One of them was connected to Arnold's team, and that's how I got in there.

Subsequently, my own interest in politics came to play - I was able to engage with the team on a deeper level than they were able to with anyone else in fitness (eg Arnold's big passion is gerrymandering, and I knew a fair amount of nuance) - which built up my rapport with the team.

Eventually I convinced them that email was the big thing... and it took them a while to convince Arnold to get on board, but once he did... he went all in.

We just sent the second email today and it's kind of crazy seeing thousands of actual responses to a single email he sends

The final part - they know I'm not in it to "build" my brand. I don't do any consulting, and I'm not a fanboy, and I'm not "flexing" it all on social, so there's a level of trust I also have.

I'll say this - I've met a lot of famous and rich people, and the more you treat them as a normal being, the better off it usually goes. At my NYC Cookie Off I had people like Seth Godin and Mark Manson there... and each one had a person fanboy over them, and I perma-banned both people for life. I just don't have energy for that kind of shit.

 

[mikeliznsam]

@lisaan First off, big fan of Examine!

Second, what are a couple of the bigger mistakes you made in your career (and how did you recover)?

And third, with so many big-name websites and funded startups these days, how does one make a dent as a solopreneur (or duopreneurs)?

 

[lisaan]

@mikeliznsam Yay thanks!

Bigger mistakes

I'm kind of coming around on this and I think it's more like "what can you look back as missed opportunities."

For example - everyone always blathers on about how "I wish I delegated more"

OK - how the fuck do you get there? You don't just hire someone and go "GOOD LUCK!"

So to me - the biggest mistake was not fully embracing "I've hired someone, which means I think they are smart, and thus I should empower them."

And then how do we empower them?

We set guidelines (at Examine we have a trifecta of documents - an employee handbook that sets the general rules, a document on how we project management/organize, and a document that covers our mission, vision, values, and what we wanna get done in the next ~6-12 months and ~3-5 years). We then have monthly check-ins where we make sure each person is on the same wavelength, any issues, any concerns, etc.

So what was my mistake? Looking back, it was "not communicating enough and focusing hard on guard rails and then letting the team go ham."

I wouldn't say it was a failure... just an important lesson I had to learn myself.

Recovery was more just about ensuring buy-in happens. I'm a bit of a very reactive person, so it was showing to the team "hey this isn't some temporary love fest I am having, this is long term!"

Hope that answers - can clarify further.

make a dent

Oh - easy! Here's a money quote:

In 2018, retail e-commerce sales in North America amounted to almost 637 billion U.S. dollars. Based on the double digit growth, industry experts project the North American e-retail market to surpass 1 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022.

The focus here is retail - once we include service, we must be one trillion already.

So - if you can just capture 0.00000001%, that translates to $100,000. So instead of trying to shotgun shit, you gotta be a rifle.

Everyone loves the 1000 true fans ideal because it shows you that you don't need a vast audience - you just need enough of a subset of a subset of a subset to make a dent.

It's also 100x easier to grow once you are set. Examine started off as bodybuilding supplements. Then fitness. Then health. Then nutrition. Now we're expanding heavily into health categories, conditions, and outcomes, with the potential future for medical + exercise.

The other thing is that big-name sites/funded startups have a lot of external pressure to grow grow grow which can mean shortcuts, shitty service, etc. You just need to solve a problem for enough people and you're good!

 

[iamremnantband]

@lisaan If you were forced to focus solely on SJO.com and scale it, how would you go about doing it?

Expertise businesses seem to have a large bottleneck with the owner having a unique insight/knowledge base which is generally the USP. So what strategy would you implement to alleviate that bottleneck so that one person isn't the source of everything the business needs (content, marketing, products, etc) to scale?

 

[lisaan]

@iamremnantband SJO's entire point is "I've done this, let me share my experiences with you."

The moment I make it my focus, it kind of breaks, ya know?

(Plus since I have a team, including an EA and an apprentice, I could cheat my answer!)

With that said - I'm not a believer in advice. Far too many people learn something on Monday, try it on Tuesday, and then start teaching it on Wednesday.

Imo what really clicks is the experience - which means you've navigated the entire process.

one person

You can only do that to a certain level - you can hire all the external people you want (seriously - hiring an EA is my #1 recommendation), but eventually you need someone who understands how things work and need that buy-in... which is (at minimum), part-time.

IMO far too many people confuse their personal brand as a business, and they get overwhelmed. It's a situation where you cannot have your cake and eat it too!

 

[ktxllc]

@lisaan You have an apprentice?! Man, I wish I'd jumped on that!

What made you want to search for an apprentice, and what qualities were you looking for?

 

[lisaan]

@ktxllc Pop me an email - sol@sjo.com

 

[catholic2001]

@lisaan Hey, Sol. First off big fan of your SJO work. I can't remember when I discovered it, but it never fails to brighten my day when I see a new email (including the one noting this AMA). My question - do you still do your quarterly LinkedIn email blasts, if so have they evolved at all?

I used to be religious about maintaining my network there as people I would worked with directly or knew personally. Lately I'm using it more as a discovery tool to connect with folks in my target market and question if that level of communication would still make sense.

 

[lisaan]

@catholic2001 Thanks

Quartery linkedin

Incidentally I JUST restarted them! I had to stop because LI removed the ability to get emails, but they recently re-added them, so I sent my first one in like 2-3 years just last weekend!

Lately I'm using it more as a discovery tool to connect with folks in my target market and question if that level of communication would still make sense.

100%. What I've found from my network is there are random connections that I would have never even know about. There's a lot of energy in the initial relationship-building, but maintaining friendliness is very low-cost (in terms of energy and time).

Part of it is that people never put out what they are looking for. In my last LI email I mentioned a need for an information architect, and I got a dozen suggestions. Incidentally one of them was somebody I knew, and after finding out they have worked together, I'm much more likely to work with that person!

It's amazing how many people think 1) they are boring and 2) they don't know anybody... but you even spend 5 minutes digging, and you'll almost always find out that both are quite untrue.

 

[jonahmayhew]

@lisaan Hi Sol,

Thanks for doing the AMA

Any suggestions on hiring an EA.

Where do you find them?

Did you make a list of daily or weekly duties' for them to do before you hired?

Did you hire the first one and kept them or have you tried a few and found one that works better with you?

Any tips or suggestions appreciated.

Thanks again.

 

[lisaan]

@jonahmayhew Bah - I've been meaning to write an article on how I found my EA forever :X

Where do you find them?

I found mine on craigslist. I had a friend tell me to look for someone who is a mom who isn't looking to go up a ladder and just wants a reliable job, like 10-3, so she can work but then take care of her kids.

My way of filtering them was just a bunch of tasks that I would do in real life - this included researching people, booking flights, looking up information, spreadsheet skillz, etc.

Did you make a list of daily or weekly duties' for them to do before you hired?

Basically. You just have to spend a few weeks noting down all the tasks you are doing that are not... necessary for you to do. Even stuff like booking a haircut for your dog. I wrote it all down, and was VERY honest about what the job entailed. I never talked about the fun stuff, which was all a nice bonus after the hiring

I actually went through two before I found my current one, who is DA BOMB.

Sorry - I have a lot more to say, but my brain is tired right now.

 

[mommajulesberry]

@lisaan Cool to see you here. I was on Examine a few years ago when I was having trouble making sense of what supplements to buy.

Real talk: Since the pandemic, I stopped going to the gym. Got a full kit (squat rack, bench, weights and Concept2). My diet is OK; I do a meal service (hungryroot). I've gained 20 pounds. Wife had a kid 9 months ago. Pandemic has kept me inside. Business is thriving, my health isn't.

My strategy is always to go 100% balls-deep in whatever I do. But that seems overkill and not sustainable with the biz/baby/wife/family coming to visit now that we all got that vaxx.

My question: What are the 1-2 new habits I can create to get back into the gym, eat better and/or generally get healthier?

 

[lisaan]

@mommajulesberry

Cool to see you here. I was on Examine a few years ago when I was having trouble making sense of what supplements to buy.

Sweet

100% balls deep

If I may, how old are you? As I've aged, the one lesson is that 100% is for very rare occasions

1-2 habits

Honestly, people look for a homerun, but that's not it.

1. Get enough sleep. Seriously - you should be waking up without needing an alarm clock. And if you are hitting snooze - GO TO SLEEP EARLIER!
2. Go walk. I walk 10k steps per day - and no music, no podcasts, nothing. It gives you some downtime, lets you de-stress, forces you to move, and helps with digestion. And I'll be honest - I have a pure engineering mindset of "OPTIMIZE ALL THINGS" but my walks are totally inefficient. And you don't need a mammoth 90 minute walk - just add 5 minutes walk, 10 minutes here, and it adds up fast.
3. Just eat some damn vegetables. I find that most people hate veggies cuz our parents were SHIT at cooking them! I hated veggies, now I cannot imagine not eating them. EASIEST recipe in the world - take brussel sprouts, and quarter them. Put them in a cast iron or pan or whatever you can throw in the oven. Now cover them with slices of salami. Roast. The fat drips off the salami onto the brussel sprouts. If you want, halfway through take it out, and just mix it all up. BAM

You do the above and you'll honestly be ahead of 80% of people.

 

[confused2082]

@lisaan Thank you for doing this!

I have two questions if you don’t mind, and I’ll try to keep them brief.

1. You touch on the importance of persistence in reaching a realistic goal of “1000 true fans” and use Examine as an example of doing just that. Since this is r/growthhacking, what hacks would you suggest to help scale that growth?

Put another way, assuming quality content was being created on the regular and the creator was positively interacting with the community of true fans in some way, what would you do with the proverbial $1000 or less to find those first 25 true fans (which at $100 each would roughly double the original investment allowing for scaling)?

1. The general rule of thumb for entrepreneurs is to solve a problem and find people willing, and able, to pay for it. I’m a disability advocate. The need for solutions is there—the money is more complicated. Improving accessibility means building solutions for all not just those that can pay for it. How do you build social enterprise programs that are both profitable and accessible?

Thank you.

 

[lisaan]

@confused2082

Hacking

I generally do loathe the word, but I'll say that people flit around way too much - on insta, on tik tok, on this, on that. Find one distribution channel that has your audience and focus on that shit.

It could be any slice - eg it could be forums. It could be ads. It could be facebook. It could be twitter comments. People go shotgun when really there is SO much money out there that you need to hammer one thing.

find those first 25 true fans.

Honestly - twitter comments sections are great. Find someone with a mid-sized audience (25k-125k) and contribute positively (insightful, friendly clarification, etc). There's sooooo much shit out there that people notice when you bring signal in the sea of noise.

solve a problem

Oooof - this one is a tough one. I've had a bit of experience, and imo, one of the harder things to do is hiring - you can act as a middleman that effectively filters/curates people who can do X but may have Z issue (this doesn't just apply to disabilities - it can apply to convicts, it can apply to immigrants, people who don't speak the language, etc).

For example in Toronto there's a courier service that relies on disabled individuals as their staff.

HTH.