Jerred Moon

Try Harder

jerred

70: Breaking the Cycle – Why Smart Entrepreneurs are Choosing to Think More and Do Less This December

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The holiday season poses unique challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs. As we approach December, it’s crucial to shift our mindset towards this period, not just for the sake of our businesses but for our well-being and that of our families. Thinking time is a great addition for any entrepreneur.

December’s Duality

For many entrepreneurs, December is a double-edged sword. It’s a time when businesses might either be at their busiest or experience a noticeable dip in customer engagement. This cyclical nature can lead to stress, whether it’s from an overload of work or concerns about a temporary slowdown. Moreover, the desire to keep pushing through, to stay on the grind, can detract from the time meant to be spent with loved ones, leading to a mental absence even when physically present.

A New Perspective: The Taper Approach

Drawing inspiration from the world of fitness, where a tapering period allows athletes to recover and prime themselves for peak performance, December can similarly serve as a tapering phase for entrepreneurs. It’s a time to reduce the intensity of our work— not to halt productivity entirely but to recalibrate, reflect, and strategize for the year ahead.

Implementing Thinking Time

One of the most valuable actions you can take during this period is to engage in deliberate thinking time. Inspired by Keith Cunningham’s “The Road Less Stupid,” setting aside time to think deeply about your business, its challenges, and opportunities can lead to breakthrough ideas and clarity. This thinking time is about analyzing the past year, asking critical questions about your business’s direction, and planning strategic moves for the coming year.

Balancing Work and Presence

Adopting this tapering mindset doesn’t mean becoming inactive. Instead, it’s about shifting focus from output to outcome— from doing to planning. This approach allows for a more present and fulfilling holiday season with family, without the guilt or distraction of unfinished work. It’s about understanding that slowing down can be a form of progress, preparing you to hit the ground running with renewed vigor in January.

Conclusion

As we navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship during the holiday season, it’s essential to remind ourselves of why we do what we do. The moments spent with family and friends are precious and irreplaceable. By viewing December as a tapering period, we give ourselves permission to slow down, think strategically, and ultimately, prepare for a successful new year. So, this December, challenge yourself to try harder by thinking differently, strategizing more, and being fully present with your loved ones.

-Jerred Moon

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

(00:00) Introduction – The challenge of navigating December as an entrepreneur.

(00:15) The Seasonal Struggle – Understanding the cyclical nature of business during the holidays.

(01:20) The Taper Approach – Conceptualizing December as a period of strategic recovery and preparation.

(02:32) The Value of Thinking Time – Emphasizing deep, strategic thinking over traditional productivity.

(04:23) Strategizing for Success – Planning and reflection activities suited for December’s unique pace.

(08:37) Conclusion – Encouraging entrepreneurs to embrace a new perspective on December, focusing on strategic planning and family presence.

My Top 11 Books for Business Growth

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Before you dive into my Top 11 Books for Business Growth, make sure you are focused on the right problem.

The highest cost in business is not knowing what you don’t know. You could be fixing the wrong problem or chasing the wrong target.

Check this tweet with my friend, Jake; his response is spot on:

You could be solving a known problem in business, but you could be solving it at the wrong time.

Example: Reading 15 books on hiring when you haven’t made $1 as an entrepreneur solves a problem you will have at the wrong time.

I firmly believe that you need books that meet you where you are.

That’s why book recommendations can fall flat at times. For example, a seasoned entrepreneur making a lot of money may recommend a more philosophical book about the impact of a business on the world.

If you’re new to entrepreneurship, you’ll read that book and think it was a waste of time because it didn’t tell you how to acquire more customers.

  • Some entrepreneurs have a lot of anxiety and self-doubt they need to deal with, so they need more reading on mindset, psychology, etc.
  • Some entrepreneurs are unorganized and inefficient, so they may need to read more about being productive goal setting, and implementation.
  • Some entrepreneurs suck with money and need more education on finance, accounting, budgeting, etc.
  • Some entrepreneurs are the worst at marketing or sales and must go deep down that habit hole.

Today, I’d like to give you 11 book recommendations and a framework for working through them.

I’ve read (well, listened to) over 300 books on business, mindset, etc.

And I reviewed every single one of them before I wrote this for you. I have no idea how on earth I narrowed it down to 11 books. So this may be my first set of book recommendations, but not my last.

For me, somewhere in the range of 50-100 books were aimed at fixing my mindset.

When I started entrepreneurship I…

  • Thought small…
  • Had a scarcity mindset…
  • Dealt with a lot of anxiety…
  • Had issues with money and abundance….

So I had to do some serious work to change my psychological programming. Honestly, it was a lot of work. I’ve read about some woo-woo stuff, a lot on the subconscious mind, and much more. It took a long time to change, but who I was ten years ago is nowhere close to the same person I am today.

Buuuuuut that may not be you EVER, or that may not be you RIGHT NOW.

So I am going to give my recommendation in relation to a framework.

Entrepreneurial Educational Framework​

Study the above image for a minute. Its about a framework and not specific books for business growth.

First, imagine it’s raining money outside. So you go out to catch as much money as possible, but you notice that it disappears once it hits the ground.

So you grab one of those water cooler paper cups to catch the money…. Hey, it was all you could find…

You start with this tiny paper cup (black). Once it’s full, you stack a new layer to catch more (green). Once that is full, you can stack more (yellow), etc.

Put simply: It would be best if you didn’t jump to studying how to increase the LTV of your customer before you know how to correctly and consistently acquire customers.

And if you miss the base, or it breaks, (mindset & productivity) entirely, all the money will run straight out the bottom, even if you have every other section in place.

If I had to put revenue levels on each area, it would look like this:

  • 1-2: $0- 6 figures
  • 3-4: 6 – 7 figures
  • 5: 8+ figures

Now, do an honest assessment of where you are in your journey. Then, select a book from the appropriate category.

I am still learning in all these areas. Currently, most of my study is in area 5.

Top 11 Books for Business Growth

1.) Mindset & Productivity

2.) Customer Acquisition (Sales & Marketing)

3.) Systems for Scale

4.) Customer Success (Increase LTV)

5.) Customer Acquisition 2.0 (Multi-Channel)

And that’s it for today!

Now, pick a book and start reading!

-JM

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The Try Harder Manifesto

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In the 1930s, Allen F. Morgenstern coined the phrase “work smarter, not harder.” 🤦🏻‍♂️

It was the 1930’s… It made A LOT of sense back THEN…

How are we carrying that phrase with us nearly 100 years later??

Let’s be real: everyone and their AI-powered dog is spouting the “work smarter, not harder” mantra. But I’m here to tell you it’s mostly a load of crap. Do you think all those tech gadgets designed to make our lives easier are magically going to pave your road to success? Think again.

Here’s the thing: when you’re sitting on your couch, letting Alexa fetch trivia for you, or waiting for your DoorDash burrito, you’re not exactly unlocking your full potential. Sure, sometimes saving yourself some mental energy is good. Like, if you’re figuring out how to carry a ton of mulch, by all means, use a wheelbarrow. But that’s just common sense.

Most of us aren’t struggling with mulch logistics. It’s the big goals – building a business, getting healthy, you name it – that take actual work. And I’m talking about a level of grit that makes the whole “efficient and easy” lifestyle look like a joke.

Most people say work smarter.

I say try harder.

Origins of Try Harder

First, let me tell you where this all started.

try harder​

I wanted nothing more than to be a pilot in the Air Force while I was in college; to get there; I had to take a lot of different tests. One of those tests was called the TBAS, or the Air Force Test of Basic Aviation Skills. Simply put, it was a test of directional orientation and hand-eye coordination.

I went in a little cocky to this test, even though you can only take this test twice, ever, in your lifetime.

Well, I got my ass handed to me. I bombed it.

I wanted to be a pilot and thought I had just pissed that opportunity away.

With my first TBAS score, I knew my chances of being a pilot dropped to nearly zero.

Part of me felt like maybe I wasn’t supposed to be a pilot.

But another part of me thought, why not just get better at the test?

The only problem was that it was an impossible test to practice. The Air Force doesn’t let you sit around and play with their system, so if I were to get better at the test, I would have to recreate it myself.

I had an epiphany in the shower (I know, so cliche), but I understood how and why their directional orientation test worked, even though it was over 300 questions.

I immediately got out of the shower and started two write down the framework they were using from memory. By the time I finished, I had recreated the directional orientation portion of the test.

Next, I needed to recreate the hand-eye coordination part of the test. I reached out to my Dad, a computer genius, and he recreated the test from my crude description with some basic software and an old joystick.

Next stop. Practice. Practice. Practice. And more practice.

It kind of felt like cheating. But at the same time, I wasn’t breaking any known rule about the test.

So what happened?

I went from a pretty awful score to one of the highest scores they had ever seen on the test and bumped my chances of getting a pilot slot to nearly 100% (which I did achieve, if you don’t know my entire backstory).

The lesson I learned from all that: TRY HARDER.

I saw guys fail that test ALL THE time, and what would they do? Cry about it and try again a few weeks later, HOPING they improved.

Well, I wasn’t leaving my second and final attempt at that test to hope or chance. Instead, I would try harder than anyone else and show up prepared.

And that’s the exact mindset I’ve applied to entrepreneurship and scaling businesses.

Most people will commit to writing 10 blog posts, so I’ll do 1,000.

Most people will try 5 email opt-ins, so I’ll do 500.

Try Harder: The Framework

Do you see how it works?

I developed a simple Litmus Test to determine if I am taking the right actions.

I call it the A-T-T Test.

First, the ‘A’ is for Average

Second, the ’T’ is for Trying

Third, the second ’T’ is for Trying Harder

AVERAGE

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Average is what most people would do.

Average people aren’t very successful.

Average people make average attempts.

TRYING

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Trying is what an above-average person would do.

People who are trying are generally seeing some success.

They have a little more direction in their attempts.

TRYING HARDER

try harder​

Trying Harder is what almost no one does, and it’s a superpower.

People who are trying harder see a wild level of success.

They make attempts in which failure is unreasonable.

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Let me give you a quick example of reading or acquiring knowledge.

Average person…

  • Reads a book when they feel like reading a book.

A person who is Trying…

  • Tries to read ‘X’ number of books per month, picked randomly.

A person who is Trying Harder…

  • Identifies weakness, finds books to strengthen given weakness, and creates a reading “program” to improve in the given area. Takes notes and assesses outcomes.

To define “TRY HARDER” it’s to Make an attempt in which failure is unreasonable.

And that’s all you need to do.

When you encounter a problem or obstacle, brainstorm an attempt that would not allow you to fail. For example, what are the things no one else will do? That is what you need to do.

Why does this work?

Try Harder Magic: Volume & Precision

try harder, try harder definition, jerred moon​

It works for two reasons: Volume & Precision.

1.) Volume – The first thing trying harder typically brings is volume. In my example above. Most people will commit to writing 10 blog posts, so I’ll do 1,000. When you increase volume to abnormal levels, you will get uncommon results.

2.) Precision – The second thing trying harder will bring is precision. Most people make a lot of half-hearted attempts in many different areas. Trying harder brings a lot of effort, strategy, and ideas to one problem.

For instance, some people will think to scale their business, they need to run ads (which could be 100% true), so they turn on some ads. They did a quick Google search, learned the basics, turned on some ads, and continued their business. Then they get confused when their company doesn’t triple in the next 30 days.

If you were genuinely sold on advertising being the ONE thing you need to scale your business, why wouldn’t you go all in? If you can’t afford to hire a marketing agency, scrounge up the cash to pay an ads manager for an hour of their time and pick their brain. Buy all the courses, etc.

Try harder than most do! That’s the secret to scale.

We can talk ads, marketing, and product, but all of that needs to be wrapped in the TRY HARDER blanket.

To scale, you need to do many things that DO NOT SCALE. None of the actions I mentioned are scalable. They take a lot of time, effort, and energy. However, you’ll learn what effort is moving you towards your goal and which ones are not.

You’ll slowly be able separate the wheat from the chaff.

But you don’t get there until you learn to TRY HARDER.

Exercise: 

  • Take one problem your are facing or a goal you want to achieve.
  • Next, brainstorm what you feel an average attempt would be.
  • Then, brainstorm what trying would look like.
  • Lastly, brainstorm what trying harder would take.
  • THEN EXECUTE!!

Try harder,

-JM

Why Most Entrepreneurs Absolutely Can’t Stomach Facebook Advertising

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Interested in Facebook Advertising?

Well, then, let me ask…How much can you spend to acquire a new customer?

What is the lifetime value of your customer?

Do you know? You should.

Today, we discuss the math of scaling a business and online advertising.

Facebook Advertising: My First Attempt at Scale

My first honest attempt at scale came via Garage Gym Athlete, selling $25/mo memberships.

I had a couple of hundred dollars I could devote to advertising, and I really could not afford to lose money. So I made that my ONE job: Learn Ads.

And it seemed that no matter what I did, I could not make selling a $25 membership profitable. And if I was profitable, it was never sustainable or scalable.

Here’s the WRONG math I was going…

  • Let’s say I spent $30 a day on Facebook ads
  • And for that money, I got one member that paid $25

I would consider that a $5 loss.

So I would go through the cycle most entrepreneurs go through…

“The Cycle of Despair”

  • Get excited about the prospect of running ads
  • Turn ads on
  • Check ads every 30 minutes
  • Get scared I am spending too much money
  • Turn ads off
  • Repeat next month

You might be asking: “Why would I consider that a loss even though they could stick around for another month and become profitable?”

Because I had almost no money to advertise!

I couldn’t hope that person stayed a second month because if they didn’t, I was losing money. And it was money I could not lose.

Facebook Advertising: The Real Math

Then, I started to do the CORRECT math, and scaling started to work.

Here’s the formula:

  • CPA < LTV = Keep Scaling / Spending

If you’re new to this stuff, CPA = Cost Per Acquisition, or how much it costs you in ad dollars to get one new customer. And LTV = Lifetime Value, or how much a customer will spend with you in total throughout the life of their account.

Let’s start with calculating your LTV. There are several ways to do this, but I want to do the most uncomplicated calculation that works.

Let’s say you have been in business for three years and generated $350,000 in total revenue. Next, let’s say you have had 1,000 customers in those three years. If you know those two numbers, you can easily calculate LTV.

LTV = Total Revenue Generated / Total Customers

LTV = $350,000 / 1,000

LTV = $350

If that’s what my business looks like, I can do some very different calculations in advertising. Going back to my previous example of spending $30/day on ads and getting one customer that pays $25 per month (CPA = $30) – That’s a HUGE win!

CPA < LTV = Keep Scaling / Spending

$30 < $350 = Keep Scaling / Spending

That means, technically, I could spend $300 or more to acquire a new customer, and over the life of their account, I would remain profitable.

However, in reality, this is a terrifying and uncomfortable thing to do. Because if you are selling something like a $25/mo membership, it will take 14 months to realize the lifetime value of the account.

And that, my friends, is “The Drop.”

Facebook Advertising: The Drop

Most people will never be able to scale their business because of “The Drop.”

The Drop is where you have unrealized revenue and actual expenses.

It’s a period in which you are spending money on ads, but in the short term, you are unprofitable, but in the long run, you will become profitable. The real goal in advertising is to have an immediate ROI, but I’ve seen very few do this well and consistently.

So there will be a few months when you must continue spending money on advertising and trust math. It’s that simple. And it’s uncomfortable because you don’t ACTUALLY know if everything will work out. Because life isn’t a mathematical equation.

But, in every business I have scaled, it eventually works out. If you can stomach “The Drop.”

How to Survive “The Drop” and SCALE

So let’s talk about making it through this Drop if you want a BIG business.

① First, you need to know your LTV and try to make it as high as possible and know your CPA and make it as low as possible. Getting a high LTV means selling more (additional products/services) to your current customers or raising prices. And if you have a recurring membership, you should be hell-bent on reducing churn and getting people to stick around as long as possible!

A great way to have a high LTV is to take outstanding care of your customers, be good at what you do, and offer more to them.

To reduce your CPA, you’ll need to learn or hire for copywriting, creative, etc. These things need to be good to lower CPA.

In my case, I spent two years working on every aspect of reducing churn. When we were done, our stick rate was 3x the fitness industry average. I also took copywriting courses, ad courses, etc.

② Second, be in a place where you have money/data to run ads. That means you may need to run your business for 1-2 years before you can start to scale with any advertising. After a certain amount of time, you will have the cash and know your metrics. Then, you can begin to play the scale game.

③ Third, build your business grit. The Drop is much easier to talk about than it is to live through. In my case, it was so incredibly stressful. I didn’t know if it would work, and I was burning cash to determine if my math was correct. This is the grit you need to build, the comfort you need to kill – if you want to scale.

One thing to note: “The Drop” can be 14-30 days in some businesses. And in other cases, several months to a year. The more significant the gap between LTV and CPA, the shorter the Drop.

If my LTV were $20,000 and my CPA was $100, I wouldn’t have to stomach the Drop very long. But if my LTV is $200 and my CPA is $175. Technically, the math works out, but you are running on a razor’s edge.

Takeaways for today

  • Use the simple scaling formula: CPA < LTV = Keep Scaling / Spending
  • Increase LTV as much as possible
  • Reduce CPA as much as possible
  • Learn to survive “The Drop.”

If you have any questions about this, please let me know!

Thanks for reading!

-JM