Unlocking 5 min insights from the world's best podcasts.
Oxford, UK
Joined November 2021
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Quda retweeted
New episode of @CodeConquerPod online 🚀
From songwriter to no-code founder, @JustinQuda talks about building learning platform @askquda
✅ Transitioning from music to edtech
✅ Monetization strategies for Quda
✅ Overcoming perfectionism
Find the links below 👇
Quda retweeted
Excited for @JoinQuda in 2024 🎉
Now I've added video Q&A, I'm pitching some phenomenal educators & startup founders to share their learnings
Emails out this week to @noahkagan @stephsmithio @asmartbear - shooting for the best :)
Who else should I invite?? Ideas pls 🙏
Quda retweeted
I am in an endless cycle of being a beginner.
No shame there.
Even things I thought I already knew, I have to re-learn.
But that's the beautiful thing.
Each incremental learning leads to incremental growth, and the journey can be beautiful if you embrace it.
Quda retweeted
Imagine teaching guitar without putting an instrument in someone’s hands.
Or teaching ceramics without having people work with clay.
Or teaching tennis without swinging the racket and hitting balls.
I’m sure there’s some way to teach those things without doing those things, but come on, we all know you have to do those things to really learn those things.
I believe business is in the same category. It’s much closer to learning an art, sport, or instrument than it is to learning history, political science, or another subject primarily taught through written texts, lectures, or observing without doing.
Yet how many entrepreneurship programs out there require their students to start a real business? They may exist, but I’ve been around and haven’t seen one yet. It can be the simplest damn business — buying and selling on eBay, for example — but it’s got to be a business with costs, products or services, and sales to customers. And it should start on day one, class one, and go at least as long as the course allows. The businesses that are started, and the struggles and successes that ensue, should be the subject matter, period.
Instead, there’s a lot of talk. There’s a lot of abstraction. There’s a lot of strategizing. There’s a lot of business plan writing. There’s a lot of game play. There’s a lot of theorizing. And there are plenty of case studies.
But there’s very little guitar being played, clay being formed, and balls being hit.
Imagine learning guitar by planning how you’re going to play. Or learning how to throw a pot on a wheel by presenting a Powerpoint on it. Or learning how to keep the ball in the lines by studying how the lines were painted.
We’d roll our eyes. And rightfully so.
Yet this is how entrepreneurship is taught.
Heads should roll. And rightfully so.
Give me two people — Person A has spent two years in business school studying how to start a business that doesn’t yet exist. Person B has never set foot in business school, but has been running their own business for two years.
Who’s learned more about entrepreneurship along the way? Who has the advantage in year three?
I know who I’m picking. You?
To learn business, do business.
Quda retweeted
🎉 Introducing: Founder Video AMAs on @joinquda
First up @jasonfried of @37signals :)
Jason shares super helpful takes on product dev, recruitment, launching & lots more.
All in 1 place searchable by topic:
askquda.com/home/jasonfried
Got a new question for Jason? Ask away. 🤩
Quda retweeted
Learning is not a passive absorption of information, but an active engagement with ideas
Challenge what you read, connect it to what you know, and chat about it with others
Active learning turns information into understanding
Quda retweeted
Whoop 🎉
In between selling my home and getting kids' xmas presents, I've built video answers!
Makes sharing knowledge even more personal.
You now have a choice between answering in text, audio or video.
Excited to get more educators on to @joinquda to try :)
#buildinpublic
Quda retweeted
Q: I often get stuck with copywriting for my startup and newsletter. How do you make writing easier?
@jasonfried's answer on this is vintage @37signals:
— Do what you enjoy ❤️
— Treat it as play
— Things flow when you’re into it
— In writing, drawing contrasts with what you’re not is a great way of identifying who you are
— Enjoy the process and you’ll have no regrets even if the outcome is failure
Here’s Jason’s full answer on Quda @joinquda:
“I think it's a skill; like pretty much everything in life is a skill, you can get better at it the more you work at it, the more time and attention you have, hopefully the better you'll be. But I do think it's important to enjoy it. It's hard to get better at something if you don't like it.
And so, writing for enjoyment is a big part of this. Find something you can write about that you care about. Plus I always like to point out contrasts in writing. I think if you can find contrast, it's easier to write about things because you have a little bit of an enemy. But you’ve got to enjoy it. If you're going to sustain it, you have to ultimately enjoy it. Everything's easier when you're having a good time.
Look, business is hard and all this stuff's hard. We know that's the case. How can we, you put things a little bit more in our favor? How can we increase our odds? Or how can we get through it? Hopefully, you find something that you enjoy. It tickles you in some way.
Let's say this Once thing we’re launching doesn't pan out. It totally might not. I don't know what's going to happen. At least I enjoyed writing about the launch, and I'm going to enjoy writing the next thing and the next thing and the next thing because I enjoy writing about these kinds of things and these are points of view that I believe in and I have whether or not the market responds. The market will tell me. I have some ideas. I think it's going to work, but I don't know. But at the very least, I enjoy the process and I enjoyed the work. That's key. Otherwise, it's really hard to sustain things for a long period of time.
I've picked up the guitar ten times in my life to try to learn, and I can play okay, but I just don't enjoy it as much as I enjoy drums. I just enjoy drums. Whenever I get behind a kit, I just enjoy that way more.
And I just can't fake it; I just love drums more than guitar. That's just the way it is. So I should lean more into that. It's fine to find something that just feels more natural and do that. I think you're gonna at least have a better shot and enjoy the process.”
Quda retweeted
I am not anti-formal education. I’m anti crippling student debt, outdated teaching methods, training for 20th century jobs, bloated administrations, low accountability, and rubber stamped degrees that aren’t reflective of knowledge demonstrated.
Just wanted to clear that up.
Quda retweeted
If you don't go a day without thinking about the future of humans and AI, you're in good company with @JustinQuda and I. Check out the convo: inside.com/ai/posts/video-hu…
How do you manage having a day job and building a side startup?
Here’s an honest discussion I had with @StephZielinski at @inside about the trade-offs. Not easy but doable!
What’s your experience managing this?
Justin: I'm not going to give a rosy picture. It's really hard. I'm a father too and have a young family. With a busy day job I have to fit @JoinQuda into the evenings. I've cut back on sleep, but I found a way to manage it so long as I'm not going too far. I just try to keep a balance basically. And that's really important because you do not want to sacrifice mental health or your health in general. It's the most important thing. So if you are doing it, it’s possible but make sure you keep balance.
I've written a bit about this online too that's got a lot of responses. One element that is helpful about keeping your day job is you don't have the financial worries and that's a huge thing.
I have actually seen people I've known online give up their jobs only to struggle to get enough revenue to cover costs and then gone back to work. Some have succeeded with that strategy, but I think with startups, it's a high risk strategy if you've got no sure path to revenue because I think revenue generally takes longer than you think. So I would just say that if you can find a way to have work while pushing forward your idea, then for me, that's been the wisest choice.
@StephZielinski: That's where the long term game that you were mentioning comes in. Your ingredients that you've put together in this recipe are, they all fit together for a reason. I see how your desire to stay with this project for a long time fits with that balance and maintaining mental health that you're describing.
Justin: Yeah. Absolutely. But to your point about the day job I feel you don't want to be in a day job where you're not learning, right? So there will be ways to have synergy between your day job and your side hustle. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive. They can assist each other for example with knowledge transfer. There can be ways that you can do both and enjoy both. It doesn't have to be like the day job is the demon, and then the startup is the fun. They don't have to be contradictory!
Quda retweeted
Q: What's your copywriting process for launching new products?
Loved talking with @jasonfried (ceo @37signals) on @JoinQuda recently. Got a lot of insights from his answer on this:
Great copy enthralls the reader. How words are laid out on the page matters. Let it flow rather than be forced. Approach writing like you’re molding clay, it's play...and if it hasn’t come in 10 mins, come back later!
Here’s Jason:
“So I just wait until I feel a certain spark and then I start to write. And I’ll typically write the whole thing in 5 to 10 minutes, and I don’t edit as I go. That’s never going to be the final version. But it’s the first version. If it takes me longer than that, I don’t carry on writing because then I find myself struggling to write something. I need to feel like it’s flowing out of me effortlessly for it to be good.
If I don’t get there early, then I just stop and maybe I’ll start again tomorrow or something like that. But that’s how it starts for me. Then I read it back, then I edit, then I tweak, I play with the intro, I play with the ending, you know, I do all the editing. It’s playing. For me, it’s playing. It’s like molding clay. I’ll pick a word, I’ll look at a line, sometimes I’ll have a paragraph and I go, this would be better with this final sentence on its own line, you know?
So I may put in the cursor and hit return twice, get it on its own line, and it gives it more of a punch, more energy. So I’m always thinking about rhythm, energy, what it’s like to read something, to stop, to move your eye down to the next line, read something, see that it’s gonna be short, anticipating that it’s probably gonna be punchy because it’s short, and then deliver on that.
So it’s those kinds of things. For me, it’s a very poetic musical experience, to write and to read and to edit.”
Quda retweeted
Now on askQuda, AMA about building fast app prototypes 🙂 askquda.com/home/vlad
Quda retweeted
I just spent the last hour scrolling through askQuda by @JustinQuda, and all I could think was how awesome it is that nowadays we have access to powerful tools that connect us with experts in various fields, making it easier than ever to seek knowledge and gain insights.
Quda retweeted
My interview with @inside is live 🎉
Loved our eclectic convo @StephZielinski
— humanoid robots
— AI pollution
— theology
— building in public
— killer features
Can't wait to do more of these ♥️
more below 👇
Quda retweeted
Q: Do you have any tips for overcoming writer’s block?
Loved @jasonfried's (ceo of @37signals) answer on this.
Speak it first! ❤️
“I think a lot of people have a really easy time communicating verbally. They can have a conversation, they can hold a conversation, no problem, but then they freak out about writing.
I would just write like you speak. In fact, if you have a hard time starting writing and you don't like looking at that blank page, just dictate, just talk and dictate and record and transcribe, and you'll start with a draft of something, somewhere, and you can refine and play with that, like mold it again like clay, if you feel like that would be helpful for you.”
There are some great tools you can use for this like @louispereira’s AudioPen.
Jason continues:
“I think a big part of the reason why people get scared about this or get knocked off course is that, in school and university, and growing up, writing was a very formal experience.
There were these rules and business letter styles, formalities you were supposed to follow. That's one way of writing, but I don't think you have to write that way. You're out of school, you're not going to get graded anymore. Just, you know, write and communicate. So this is the way I think about it, communicate. Don't write. Communicate. It just happens to be communicating to your fingers. When you start thinking about it like that, I do think it gets easier.”
Listen to the full @joinquda interview on your fav podcast app. Just search for One Million Steps. :)
Quda retweeted
Had a super fun time talking about the writing process of the ONCE announcement, and my writing style in general. Here's the video...
Once is a new suite of products coming from @37signals
Last night I chatted with @jasonfried on how he approached writing the copy for the launch
Learn:
— communicating your big idea
— writing with verve
— defining who you're not
Links below 👇
Quda retweeted
Once is a new suite of products coming from @37signals
Last night I chatted with @jasonfried on how he approached writing the copy for the launch
Learn:
— communicating your big idea
— writing with verve
— defining who you're not
Links below 👇
Quda retweeted
Q: How do you balance the demands of running your own business with having a partner or family?
In this clip @arvidkahl explores one of the big mental health pitfalls you can slip into as solo entrepreneur, how to balance the personal & professional:
"One of the main reasons this can be particularly problematic for entrepreneurs is that the success of your business often depends on your personal commitment and dedication. Things like how long you'll stick with a struggling project because nobody else is going to do it. You stretch yourself thin when you're giving your all to both your family as you should be, and your business as you want to."
Being torn between the two is a real risk. Fortunately, there are practical ways to bring them into alignment, Arvid continues:
"It is crucial here to set boundaries and prioritize your time for both roles. This might involve setting aside specific times for work and for family. Delegating tasks and then seeking support from your partner, other family members, and the founder community at large.
It can also be helpful to find ways to incorporate your family into your work, such as involving them in your business or setting up a home office that allows you to work while still being present for your family. I co-founded Feedback Panda with my partner Danielle, and while it wasn't always stress free to work together and live together, her support and immense knowledge of our audience were invaluable.
We developed something we called wearing our founder hat when we had conversations. So whenever we were talking about business stuff during non-business times, we'd explicitly mentioned to each other that we were talking as our founder persona, not the partner. Wearing the founder hat, drawing that line truly helped."