
Mixergy Premium - AndrewWarner
http://swombat.com/2012/7/9/mixergy-premium
======
drewcrawford
I am a Mixergy fan, but I have been debating about canceling.

It is a great show, and Andrew is wonderful. That's the problem. It's easier
for me to listen to other people's success stories than to write my own. I am
concerned that I spend too much time learning how to be successful and not
enough time actually working on being successful. Rarely at this point do I
feel that the barrier is because there is some _knowledge_ that I did not
_know_ , but rather because of failure to ship. It's possible that my
perception is wrong, but obviously I do not think so, or else I would change
my perception.

If I was able to contain it to one hour a week, it would be fine. But the
problem is finding that one interview that is most optimal this week. He turns
out too many high-quality interviews even to evaluate.

It's hard for me to evaluate objectively what is the right balance between
genuinely helpful consumption and genuinely valuable production. I seem to
oscillate quite a bit from week to week, and so I wonder to what extent my
opinion is reactionary. But my thinking lately is that I do not make effective
use of the resources I have available to me. Improving the quality of the
signal is only good if it makes a net improvement at some point, it is no good
if the signal runs straight into earth ground. I am not saying that
consumption is non-useful at all, we are at different stages, etc. I am just
wondering if I have personally been overestimating the utility of consumption
to the detriment of production.

I also do not have a commute, so I do not have the "how do I make use of this
dead time?" question that swombat seems to have. That may play a role in my
analysis.

~~~
revorad
_It's easier for me to listen to other people's success stories than to write
my own. I am concerned that I spend too much time learning how to be
successful and not enough time actually working on being successful._

Holy cow you stole words from my brain! But, after battling with this feeling
for a while, I've finally come to a working solution.

The mistake I was making was taking other people's results as the lesson. That
led me down all the wrong rabbit holes and left me feeling exactly as you do.

What I now do when I listen to Mixergy or any other startup stuff is treat it
as stories and try to learn what experiments to run, what to test within the
framework of my work.

I do not let any of it derail my own plans.

This means I don't randomly read or listen to stuff any more. When I am
working on my site's marketing, I will go and find some marketing material. If
I'm working on A/B testing, I'll read up on that.

And finally, sometimes I just have to let go and watch some random stuff
because I do enjoy it. It's like war stories to me.

Don't get down. If you're really not getting much work done, then just shut it
all out for a bit and get the work done.

~~~
BrokerChange
I use Pinboard to place the articles I read into buckets:

* Ruby * Customer Life Time Value * Landing Page Best Practices * Etc.

Then when I need to work on something for my site, I'll reference Pinboard and
pull up all the amazing content I've compiled over the years (I imported my
Delicious links), do sometime reading, create an action plan, and then go
execute.

Just my dos pesos.

------
dools
I can't imagine a more emphatic Mixergy fan than myself. I wrote a post at the
beginning of this year[1] with a list of things you can do to afford the
paltry sum Andrew charges for his content.

I don't even pay $25/month, I pay $200 _per year_. The content I've seen on
Mixergy has not only helped me refine the pitch for my products, but also my
service and consulting business which helps me make money to build the
products.

In fact, I _get work_ by simply pitching people the exact same systems I learn
on Mixergy - basically taking what I've learned and applying it to _other_
people's businesses.

It's like having a degree. Someone introduced me the other day as the
"walking, talking Mixergy king". Like in entrepreneurial circles, it's so well
known that having an encyclopedic knowledge of the content is tantamount to
having a qualification.

If you're not already a Mixergy premium member, get in now while the price is
this _low_. It's the single best source of business advice in existence.

[1][http://www.workingsoftware.com.au/page/A_list_of_things_you_...](http://www.workingsoftware.com.au/page/A_list_of_things_you_can_do_to_afford_Mixergy_Premium_in_2012)

------
WadeF
Mixergy Premium is worth subscribing to simply because you know the content
will be good and you don't have to wade through a bunch of random startup
advice porn to get the good stuff.

I've found it helpful to take notes and try to implement just one or two of
the easiest things afterwards. The strategy has worked well and I more than
recoup the monthly cost.

------
badalyan
One of my best investments as a startup entrepreneur.

I begin each day with my "Mixergy Morning". Not only do I gain deep insight,
I'm also provided with enormous amounts of motivation for the day.

------
sopooneo
My complement and gripe: Mixergy is great. I listen to it because I enjoy it a
lot. It's because I enjoy it so much that I tolerate the host projecting his
insecurities onto his guests.

Its interesting that Marc Maron's comedy podcast is a very near parallel. He
is a good but slightly lesser known comedian who interviews masters of the
craft about their histories and how they succeeded.

But also parallel is Maron's tendency to frame his questions around his own
neurosis, effectively assuming his guests deal with the same demons he does.
To some extent both hosts are correct and we all struggle. But in both cases,
they almost put words into their guests mouths.

Again, Mixergy free and premium are well worth it and, if you read this
Andrew, despite my unsolicited criticism, I do love your show and appreciate
all the work it must take.

------
BryanB55
I'm a Mixergy premium subscriber and was at Andrews event in Austin during
SXSW. It's mostly all great content but I must say I probably haven't logged
in to listen to anything within the last 3 months or so because I've just been
so busy and trying to focus on creating rather than spending so much time
learning.

I feel like I often go through phases where I'll learn a lot of new techniques
and then spend time implementing but lately implementing has been taking up a
lot of my time.

~~~
dools
Do you download the audio? Even when I'm not actively studying Mixergy I
constantly listen to both the interviews and courses while I do exercise.
You'd be surprised how much sticks in your mind simply by osmosis.

------
DanielBMarkham
I like and respect swombat, and Andrew seems like a great guy who is on a
mission, but this subject is a lot more complex than just people randomly nay-
saying anything that gets posted on HN (which happens).

The problem is that there is simply way too many people wanting way too much
money for stuff. Everybody that has a business model that includes startups is
doing some kind of Chinese Math that begins with "if we can take 1 million
startups and help them make 50K per year, and then we _only_ ask for 20% of
their profit in return...."

The problem is that most startups fail, even with the super-awesome help you
are providing. That means there's no money for _anything_. There are far too
many companies selling the _dream_ of doing X instead of X itself. So yes, I
can provide you with a master class on product positioning, and hell, at the
end of the day you can even feel like you've learned something and took lots
of action items, but did I actually help you position your product? Or just
give you stuff to do in the "product position" space? Acceptance critera has
to be either "this mandatory overhead" or "this directly generated X amount of
sales". That's it. Leads don't count (unless you've established a pipeline and
can demonstrate it works). Being pleased with content -- even having a great
feeling after consuming content and picking up things you feel are really
useful -- doesn't count.

Like I said, I'm not trying to knock Andrew. For the few interviews I've seen,
he's doing a bang-up job, and if the issue is just what to pay for quality
entertainment, I'd much rather pay 20 bucks a month for that kind of content
than something silly like a cable movie channel. I'm just saying that over a
period of years I have grown exceptionally careful about spending money on
anything. It's way too easy to spend more for stuff than you'll ever make
back.

Want to know where I feel like I've picked up the most value? Serendipity.
Some guy posts a random link on HN. I'm doing a Google search on one thing and
come across something else. Those kinds of things only happen once every year
or two for me. If I had my way I'd make a big house and invite the top 100
scrappy entrepreneurs to live there while I just hung out. Now _that_ would be
worth making a sacrifice and taking a gamble. Once again, this has nothing to
do with this particular offer. Some kinds of information transfer work best in
an interview/publish-subscribe format. Some work best in a P2P, informal,
indirect setting. To me at least, important startup lessons seem to fall into
the second category.

~~~
swombat
Paradoxically, I don't think Mixergy is most useful to the broke failing
startup. Failing startups at that stage tend to be time-rich and cash-poor (I
know, I've been there!). If that's where you are, I don't think Mixergy
Premium is right for you.

As for me, right now I am cash-rich (well, relatively) and time-poor. I barely
find the time to do any of the important stuff. You know, like figuring out
how to get leads out of linkedin and redoing our website to generate more
leads. So for me, if I can pay some double-digit amount of dollars and make
progress on those important objectives that have a bottom line impact of tens
of thousands of dollars, as I said, it's a no-brainer. I know it's an easy
argument to make, but if I sell a single client because of one of Mixergy's
talks that will be worth £5-10k _this year_ (based on our average claim size)
- and that's not counting future years and other leads that may come from that
client. And from following the instructions in the LinkedIn masterclass, I
have already generated about half a dozen leads. Sure, maybe none of them will
convert, but that's half a dozen more leads than I generated through LinkedIn
ever.

Sitting through a bunch of videos that teach you about stuff you can't really
apply is a waste of your time and your $25/m. Sitting through a video that
teaches you, in a concise manner, something you can use right now in your
business is priceless.

Anyway, so to summarise, Mixergy is gold dust for the time-poor and cash-rich,
but not the time-rich and cash-poor.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
So here's the thing: most startups fail. Failures are the norm in the startup
life, sometimes by a ratio of 19-1.

Aside from the cash-rich/cash-poor discussion, which has some merit, the
problem is that harvesting useful information from startups is tough because
there's a vast amount of selection bias going on. Everybody who succeeds
believes that the things they did helped them succeed. This would seem
obvious. But the math doesn't work out. The problem is that most of them are
much better at telling their personal story than drawing useful conclusions.

I _think_ that somebody like PG is starting to see enough samples that he can
make some broad and rather useful statements. I believe you may be able to
start teasing out the signal from the noise once your sample size gets into
the hundreds or thousands. But the vast majority of this is just people
sharing their own experiences -- and sometimes being a bit reluctant to dive
into the juicy details. Nothing wrong with that, and as you say if nothing
else there's a lot of solid things to learn also. You have to be careful to
clearly understand whether you're buying the steak or the sizzle.

When I consult, I make enough to spend it on a lot of things, and I have. For
instance I love being a pro member of SEOMoz. But after a couple of years of
membership, I'm just now thinking I have a handle on using it to gather real
returns, and the return rate isn't worth the investment right now -- no matter
how much sales I'm making. Same goes for a few other helper subscriptions. To
me having the cash doesn't change much: I'm still left looking at an industry
that makes people feel as if they're well underway to internet riches or
whatever instead of actually sending them there. This isn't meant as a ding
against anybody doing it. It's just a damned difficult subject. If anything,
having the cash to buy whatever I want makes the problem _much tougher_.
Suddenly I'm awash in all kinds of content and services that each require
attention and all promise incredible returns if I just follow along. Do you
have any idea how much regular content is pushed out each month for folks
interested in business?

I used to listen to a lot of pop-business audio. Stuff like "Learn to master
NLP and increase your sales overnight!" I found that while I enjoyed a lot of
it, it just didn't have immediate value. When I thought about how disappointed
I was, I thought about quitting. But there was always that next one. Surely it
would pay off. Out of maybe 50 of these things 2 or 3 actually paid off (and
they paid off in a big way). Looking at the startup-helper community, I get
the same feeling, only more so. I don't feel cheated or anything, I just feel
like what people want -- feel-good useful-sounding advice and encouragement --
and what they need are two entirely different things.

Yes, if you get one lead that converts it's easily worth it. Say a 5%
conversion rate, you'll need 20 leads to make that happen. If you learned
something that gets you 20 leads, and if they convert at that rate, then it's
worth it. Congratulations. Track those leads and come back to us with some
numbers. You know, it's entirely possible that you could be generating leads
that don't convert at all. Or they could convert at a higher rate. We just
don't know anything at all right now.

I hate to sound like an asshole, but I don't want others to go down this same
track. Too many times you just listen to the audio, get excited about the
_possibilities_ of what can happen, take a few notes, make a few changes, then
move on to something else next week. You're purchasing an emotional
experience, not leads. Yes, the leads appeared. That's a number. Work the
numbers, not the feelings.

~~~
swombat
:-)

As I said: _Sitting through a bunch of videos that teach you about stuff you
can't really apply is a waste of your time and your $25/m. Sitting through a
video that teaches you, in a concise manner, something you can use right now
in your business is priceless._

You say: _I'm still left looking at an industry that makes people feel as if
they're well underway to internet riches or whatever instead of actually
sending them there_

I couldn't agree more. If you're thinking of watching/listening to Mixergy
just to "get on your path to riches", then that's a terrible reason to do it.
Much like watching Peepcode screencasts "to learn about programming" without
actually having any programming you want to do.

On the other hand, if you're looking to learn something specific, a mixergy
masterclass is a great way to do that.

As for the criticism of sample size, most of the interviews are not presented
as holy truths, but just as "this is what happened to me" report. If you read
some absolute truth in them, that's your fault, really, since the interviewees
are generally humble enough not to claim that their experience is universal.
Consider the Mixergy podcast as a place where you can expand your sample size
somewhat.

And finally, re: leads, ask me again in 2-4 months - that's how long leads
usually take to convert in this industry... Some of them, though, are
qualified leads - I can tell that already - and the discussions are going well
with them, so at the moment I'm hopeful. That being said, I think I've been
around the startup advice block enough to be able to tell useful actionable
information from hogwash - so I don't think I'm just fooling myself by
believing I've learned something when I haven't.

Edit: talking of being time-poor, time for bed!

------
jonathanjaeger
I've listened to Andrew's interviews several times. He's the best at prodding
to get an answer in the nicest way possible, and sometimes that leads to the
most insightful comments from the entrepreneurs.

------
antonioevans
I evangelize Andrew's stuff to the NYC Startup community all the time. It's
like one of those secret clubs in Chinatown which you need the password. I
just tell them : _Mixergy_

------
mindcrime
OK, I'll bite. It's only $25/month, and I got a good vibe from reading
swombat's notes from the one course. I just signed up, and am looking forward
to gaining some useful knowledge here.

We (Fogbeam Labs[1]) are still in the "Customer Discovery" phase of Customer
Development, and I'm hoping some of the material on Mixergy will: help with
finding people who will participate in the CD process with us, and help us
nail product/market fit.

[1]: <http://www.fogbeam.com>

------
andrew_wc_brown
Mixergy Premium is like a gym membership.

You'll end up spending money on something you won't actually do because when
it comes down to it you just have to do it.

------
cpuspin
Startup / business content is not something I'm short on lately. There's a ton
of free stuff I have yet to consume, and so spending $25 /mnth doesn't seem
necessary for me.

~~~
brandnewlow
Andrew's stuff is in a league all it's own.

