10 Things I Learned From Noah Kagan (On Marketing, Entrepreneurship, & Life)

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In September 2023, I sent a 19-page pitch deck to Noah Kagan breaking down all the things that could be improved for his social media and email. 6 months later, I was hired full-time as head of social/email content. Since then, I’ve helped Noah market an NYT best-selling book, grow his email list by 30,000+ active subscribers, and publish an article a week read by who knows how many people.

Needless to say, I’ve learned an incredible amount. Not just around marketing and entrepreneurship - but also leadership, relationships, and prioritizing the important things in life. So here it goes. Here are 10 things I’ve learned so far from one of the most influential figures in my life:

1) Work backward from your Dream Life

I’m in a season of my life where it feels like there are a lot of unanswered questions. What should I do with my career? Who should I be with? Where should I live? How do I want to show up as a son, brother, friend, and person? When Noah was at a similar crossroads, he wrote out, with as much clarity as possible, what he wanted out of life. “You want to get clear on what ‘success’ actually means to you,” Noah said. “Far too often, I see entrepreneurs start a business for freedom but get sucked into their business and end up working MORE than if they just stuck with their day job.” What’s your dream life? Write it down and keep it in a place where you look often to remind yourself.

2) Test, then invest

As a marketer, your primary job is to figure out what your ideal customer wants and where they hang out. This means you’re constantly testing different lead magnets, calls to action, and pieces of content to figure out what resonates the most. When I first started working with Noah, I was a “qualitative marketer” which is a fancy way of saying I guessed a lot and hoped for the best. Noah taught me the power of being a data-driven marketer. “If you’re not tracking data,” Noah would say, “You’re not marketing, you’re gambling.” Working with Noah, I learned how to set goals, track KPIs, and use data to adjust our strategy.

3) Pay attention to your money relationship

One thing I admire about Noah is how transparent he is about… well, everything! He recently shared his full income and expenses breakdown - and one of my biggest takeaways is “that which gets measured gets improved.” For the past 15 years, Noah has tracked his finances in a spreadsheet. Every month, he looks at his financial health and then lists action steps to improve it. “I’ve found there’s a direct correlation between monitoring your money and the effort you put into growing it,” Noah said. You can apply this same mindset to other areas of your life: track your workouts, track your nutrition, track your marketing. That which gets measured gets improved.

4) Build an email list

When we launched Million Dollar Weekend, we expected YouTube to be our primary driver of sales. After all, Noah has over 1 million subscribers. The reality? Our promotion video only got 25,000 views. Relying on social or paid media is like building a castle in the sand - you don’t really control the connection with your audience. An email list gives you optionality no matter where you are in your career. Few assets are more powerful than being able to consistently communicate with a group of people who know, like, and trust you.

5) Focus on ONE goal

Noah was employee #30 at Facebook and worked directly under Mark Zuckerberg. When he pitched Mark on selling tickets inside Facebook events (because at the time, Facebook wasn’t profitable), Mark said no, then he took a dry-erase marker and wrote on the board: GROWTH. “Mark’s goal was 1 billion users,” Noah said. “If something wasn’t driving toward that goal, we didn’t do it.” We’ve applied that same lesson on focus to our current work. When I started helping Noah with content, we tried to grow on every social platform. But once we determined which platform was driving the most active email subscribers, we stopped trying to grow everywhere and only focused on Twitter. You don’t grow fast by doing many things, but by doing ONE thing extremely well.

6) Double down, double down, double down

One of the ways Noah reminds me to stay focused is by asking, “How can we do more of what’s working?” When we promoted Million Dollar Weekend, we noticed story-based emails performed better than the typical ‘3 mini ideas’ emails. So after the launch, we pivoted the newsletter to do more story emails. “When something works do more of it,” Noah said, “At the same, aggressively cut the things that aren’t working. There’s nothing wrong with experimenting and trying new channels. But you need to know when to stop. Be ruthless.” A habit I’ve implemented is doing a weekly T3B3 review. Every Sunday, I’ll list the top 3 things that are working and the bottom 3 things that aren’t working in my work, health, and life. Then I’ll block time in my schedule to do more of the top things.

7) The Name Test

With the rise of AI, it’s never been easier to start creating content; It’s also never been more difficult to stand out. Anyone, anywhere can voice their opinion. A simple test to ensure our content doesn’t get lost in the noise is the Name Test: “If you covered your name and profile picture, would people be able to tell it was your writing?” The idea is that you only want to write about things you’ve actually experienced - and write with your authentic voice. Earned insights make the best content.

8) Have more patience it will work out

Noah is the CEO of AppSumo (a $100m/yr business). But in the first 10 years of his career, he was rejected by Google (twice), fired by Facebook after 9 months, fired by Mint after 10 months, and built 20+ startups that didn’t work out (ouch!). If I’ve learned anything from Noah’s career, it’s that the best results come from compounded time. Beating yourself up because you’re not a multi-millionaire with six-pack abs is a miserable way to live. “If you’re doing the reps, the results WILL pay off,” Noah said. “Be impatient with actions and patient with results.”

9) Don’t let work consume your life

When I asked Noah for career advice, he told me that I was doing what he wished he had done when he was my age: interning at cool companies, putting out content, and working with people ahead of me. But he also mentioned the importance of having a diversity of experiences. “I worked A LOT in my 20s,” Noah said. “I don’t regret it because it got me to where I am today. But don’t forget to have fun too! Play sports, travel abroad, and hang out with friends. Ironically, doing those things will give you more inspiration for your work.”

10) If you don’t ask, you won’t get

There are so many more lessons that I’ve learned from Noah. But my BIGGEST takeaway is to find people that inspire you… and go learn from them.

You don’t need permission. Ask! (But ask intelligently 😉)

Jay “#1 Noah Kagan Fan” Yang

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