You're missing perspective.

Last month, my wife Jennifer and I hosted a private dinner in Toronto for sixteen members of our online membership called Unsubscribe.

Most of these folks had never met each other before, and I hadn't met any of them in person either.

Sara came from nursing before becoming an author. Sunmoluwa is from Nigeria, living in Toronto, and teaches people to speak French. There were folks who'd built SaaS companies, some people who were pivoting because AI was eating their lunch, and others trying to figure out their next move.

I kicked things off by telling everyone how the night was going to work. We'd spend the first 45 minutes going around the table for introductions, and everyone would share two things:

What's your superpower as an entrepreneur?

And where do you need help right now?

Sara talked about leaving nursing to run her creative business. Two people talked about struggling with marketing. Lots of worries about business models now that AI is changing everything.

Then, somewhere along the way, something shifted.

People stopped performing and started getting a bit more real. I'd see someone lean across the table and say, "Wait, you're dealing with that too?" and suddenly three people would huddle together. I watched a woman who'd been quiet all night light up when someone asked her about a problem she'd been stuck on for months. Another guy pulled out his phone to show someone else his pricing page because they were having the same struggle.

Over the five hours that we spent together, I learned that almost nobody in the room thought about business the same way. Everyone came from different industries, and even different countries, with wildly different business models and skillsets. And yet there we all were solving problems for each other that people in our own industries haven’t been able to help us with.

A few days later, Sara posted about our dinner on LinkedIn:

I read that sitting at my kitchen table, and had to stop for a second.

Because I'd watched it happen all night. People who normally wouldn't be in the same room together, helping each other see things they couldn't see on their own. And the reason it worked wasn't because everyone thought about problems the same way.

It worked because nobody did.

The three months I wasted

Back in 2020, I was convinced I needed a pre-recorded webinar to sell a $50 course.

Everyone was talking about webinars. Russell Brunson was preaching the webinar funnel. And every case study showed people using 45-minute presentations to sell their courses. So I spent three months building mine. Script, slides, recording, the whole thing.

Finally got it all set up and started running traffic to it. And my sales were fine. Not great, but fine.

Then I talked to another guy who was also selling a $50 course. I asked him about his webinar funnel, and he looked at me like I was crazy.

"Just promote the thing," he said. "You don't need a 45-minute webinar to convince someone to spend $50."

I was sitting at my kitchen table in Los Angeles when I heard that advice. And I just sat there for a minute, not saying anything.

I didn't feel stupid. I just felt this lightning bolt of simplicity hit me. Holy shit. I'm making this way too complicated. The answer had been right under my nose since the beginning.

I got off the call and stared at my screen.

And then I tried it.

I took the webinar out and spent the next two weeks sending people straight to my sales page from social media.

And guess what happened.

My sales went up 4x almost immediately.

Clearly, the webinar wasn't helping. It was creating friction. I was asking people to sit through 45 minutes before they could buy a $50 course, so most people just left.

When I saw my sales increasing, my first thought wasn't relief. It was amazement. I couldn't believe how simple the fix was to drastically improve my sales. And then a bigger question crept into my mind:

Where else am I overcomplicating things to my own detriment?

Now, to be clear, Russell Brunson wasn't wrong. Webinars work great for $2,000 courses where you need to build trust and overcome objections. But I was selling a $50 course. The advice was right for him, but wrong for me.

I only figured that out when I heard a new perspective. And once I saw it, I started seeing it everywhere.

What actually changes

When I realized I could reduce the complexity of my business and succeed without following "best practices," something shifted.

I started to trust myself and my instincts. When I thought something would work, but industry experts told me it wouldn't, I stopped listening and just went ahead. And I’ve been right to trust my instincts more often than not.

So I no longer seek permission or validation. I just create hypotheses and get to work proving or disproving them. And if I really can’t figure something out, I try my best to expose myself to enough different perspectives that I might find a blind spot, instead of just following what one “expert” might say.

Because when you only hear from people who think like you do, every piece of advice sounds equally valid. You don't have a way to evaluate it. You’re likely to follow whoever's loudest or most convincing.

I see this all the time with people who get stuck. They consume content from the same five creators, and join communities full of people doing the exact same thing they're doing. And then when something isn't working, they don't have any other framework to try.

They're not missing information. They're missing perspective.

And that's what these private dinners are really about for me. They’re not just for networking. They’re for getting people together who think differently, so we can help each other see our blind spots.

The bottom line

The ultimate advantage isn't having all the answers. It's being willing to seek out perspectives that might prove you wrong or change your way of thinking.

So here's my question for you today: What's something you think would work well for your business, but you're afraid to test it because it goes against the advice in your echo chamber?

Maybe it's the opposite of what the experts say. Maybe it's simpler than what everyone's doing. Maybe it's something you've been told won't work, but your gut says it will.

Reply and tell me. I read every response.

That's all for this week.

See you next Saturday.

P.S. My Early Black Friday sale ends soon. If you're interested in growing your audience on LinkedIn, growing your newsletter subscribers using content, or building a lean, profitable, one-person business, now is the time to save 60% to 75% on all three of my courses. The LinkedIn OS and Content OS are being retired after and will no longer be available (but students have lifetime access!)

• ​​The Creator MBA: 75% Off!
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• ​​The Content OS: 60% Off!