Welcome!

You’ve just stepped into a realm where the audacious spirit of entrepreneurship is not just celebrated but is set free, untethered, and unbridled. Welcome to Entrepreneurs Gone Wild - not just a newsletter, but a sanctuary for the brave souls who’ve chosen the path less traveled.

We know you. You’re the unsung heroes, the silent revolutionaries, the ones who pick a tribe and vow to serve them with unwavering dedication. You’re the ones who take ownership of problems and craft solutions with a mix of ingenuity, grit, and grace. Every day, you’re making the world a better place, one innovation at a time.

But let’s face it - the journey of an entrepreneur, though exhilarating, can often be a lonely one. Amidst the hustle, the screens, and the never-ending to-do lists, there’s a wilderness calling, echoing the untapped potential that lies within you and the uncharted territories that await your exploration.

In this sanctuary, we’re not just about business strategies and profit margins. We’re about the soul of entrepreneurship. We believe in the magic that happens when you step away from the screens, unchain yourself from the desk, and venture into the great outdoors. It’s in these unhurried, unplugged moments that the most brilliant ideas are born, where the world slows down, and where clarity and creativity flow like a tranquil stream.

In each edition of Entrepreneurs Gone Wild, you’ll be inspired by stories of fellow trailblazers like Greg Johnson. You’ll hear tales of how the wilderness not only beckons but breathes life into ideas, invigorates the spirit, and instills a sense of boundless possibility.

So, are you ready to embark on this journey? To explore the untamed, the uncharted, and the unexpected? To discover how the wilderness can not only be a refuge but a source of inspiration, innovation, and invincibility?

Let’s go!

The Alchemy of Less: How Greg Johnson Turned Barefoot Walks into Gold

What’s Greg up to these days? Less. And more. Much more.

If anyone has a visceral understanding of how crucial it is to make your time and attention count, it’s Greg. By-product of being the father of seven? Maybe.

But he’s also done enough things - and done them well - that he exudes a certain sense of calm. Of patience. Of wisdom.

There’s a reason entrepreneurs call him Gandalf. He is a wizard.

Greg helps people understand their own story and tell it well. It’s these stories that build connections. The kind that get traction. The kind that get growth. Ultimately, the kind that drive sales.

Used to be, he had a full slate of coaching clients and some ecomm businesses. But now, strategically, his focus is on writing one of the best damn weekly newsletters out there. Email Magic. That’s where Greg downloads his brain weekly to help entrepreneurs like us use the written word to really connect with the people we live to serve.

It’s a whole new but very old business model.
And it’s one that’s hotter than alpaca breath. 

We all know the drill. Build a list. Make stuff to sell to the people on the list.

Business 101. Email marketing works. It works for physical products, like the subscription box business he has with his wife. It works for services, like his coaching. It worked for his podcast (still miss that!). But as a bolt-on to a business, it gets complicated. Lots of moving parts. Lots of doing this to do that. 

2020 planted a life-changing seed in Greg’s mind. He was working from home, like all of us. But remember, seven kids??? It was really hard to draw a line between home time and work time. Greg grew anxious, always feeling like whichever thing he was doing, he should probably be doing the other thing. [So say we all!]

In early 2022, he solved that. Got an office space near home. Now when he’s home, he’s home. When he’s working, he’s working.

So efficient! But maybe too efficient. Greg was either home or at the office. Indoors.

Greg lives in Colorado, where they say if you don’t like the weather, just wait 15 minutes. They’re not kidding. Still, the winters are long, cold, gray. It’s all too easy to stay indoors. And Greg did. Long about March of this year, he felt like he was losing his mind. And his motivation.

We’ve all been there. Our brains crave a break. We turn to social media… “just for 30 minutes.” Which becomes 90. Stuff doesn’t get done. We feel blah. We get depressed.

That’s when Greg went hunting for a supplement to cure what ailed him. What he uncovered was compelling research suggesting that human beings require sunshine. We require touching the ground with our bare feet. We require deep breaths of clean air. We need to be outside.

Now he walks around the yard barefoot once a day (carefully - they’ve got a puppy!). He walks to the local coffee shop and back to his office. He says, “Outdoors is where I get all my best ideas for my content. It helps me get out of my own head. It fuels my superpower - the ability to rearrange ideas and then create something new out of them. That only works when my brain has space to do that.”

So, of course Greg was out walking, wandering, pondering, when a thought he’d tucked away for more than a year came back to him.

See, at the Capitalism Conference of 2021, he heard Sam Parr speak. You know, the guy who built and sold The Hustle for a reported $30M? That guy. Sam wasn’t alone in this. Multiple people there had built multi-million-dollar businesses on the back of newsletters.

The takeaway that rattled in Greg’s brain for the next couple of years was this:

“If you create a specific audience with a specific interest,
you can simply monetize the fact that you have their attention.”

Let that gem soak in for a sec.

Greg let the idea marinate for a while, too.

What if he focused on just this? What would it look like if he could spend a significant portion of his time each week on just this? What if it could become a significant portion of the revenue he takes in?

And what if he documented the process of building a newsletter as a business that creates $10K per month in consistent revenue? What if he taught other entrepreneurs how to do it, too?

(Greg’s the whole reason you’re reading this on or from beehiiv, btw. I’m learning from the master. If you’d like to learn from him, too, just use his link to get your free account.)

Beehiiv was created by some of the guys who built the Morning Brew newsletter, also a crowd favorite. Sold for multiple millions. Everything they learned, everything they used to grow and monetize Morning Brew… it’s in here. No Frankensteining stuff together. Instead of building in isolation, collaboration serves as the growth engine. There are multiple easy ways to monetize. And they’re adding new functions all the time.

They had Greg at collaboration.

Greg says, “When I can work with somebody and see that interaction yield a tangible, fruitful result for them down the road, that is the most rewarding thing that I can imagine.”

Some of my favorite quotes:

“Once people know you can do something well, they’ll ask you to do it.” (If that’s not a double-edged sword, what is?)

“Camping? It’s not a vacation.” (says the man with 7 kids)

“Touching the ground with your feet is a supplement.”

“I think that people need to rediscover that we need nature, you need sunshine, you need to touch the earth with your feet. If you think I'm crazy, try it for two weeks and then come back and tell me what happens.”

If you’re not already subscribed to Email Magic… you’ve been missing out, big-time. But you can fix that right now - and you can even check it out before you subscribe. Right here.

I promise, it will become your favorite Wednesday read.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah… I’ll Go Outside Later

Hey, we all know we should spend more time outdoors. But with your nose to the grindstone, it can be hard to give yourself a recess pass.

So, how do you make it happen?

At first, it’s all willpower. Every day, you’ll feel the tug-of-war as you debate getting outside or “just finishing this one last thing” first.

But here’s the kicker… Once you’re out there, with the sun as your spotlight and the breeze whispering secrets of untapped markets, it’s a game changer.

Nature has this uncanny knack for turning the cogs, for igniting the sparks of innovation. It’s not just about catching a break; it’s about catching those elusive brainwaves that are the lifeblood of our trade. Before you know it, what started as a reluctant stroll morphs into a daily pilgrimage to the altar of creativity.

So, let’s make a pact - to step out, breathe in, and let the outdoors be the canvas where our most audacious ideas come to life.

Cool Stuff from the Community

• 🏁 Win a Race Day Experience! 🏁 Carey Rouse wants you to feel the breeze in your hair… at 100 mph. Enter now for a chance to spend a day at the track, racing a high-performance car with your own private driving coach! Enter now - this high-octane experience could be yours!
  

• 🎉 Special Offer Alert! 🎉 Unleash your entrepreneurial potential with Gut Tastic! Use code GETWILD at checkout and snag a 1-month supply at a whopping 40% off! 🚀💪 Your journey to optimal gut health just got a whole lot more affordable! (I make mine in a cup of Fireside Vanilla Spice tea.)
  

• 👋 Hey, it's your turn to inspire! We're handpicking subscribers like YOU to feature in our next spotlight. Share your journey, your highs and lows, and let’s celebrate your entrepreneurial spirit together. Book your interview now - your story is worth telling! 🚀✨

xoxo,

Sue

P.S. Next Friday, we’re putting another outside-lovin’ entrepreneur in the spotlight… one who recently killed a pain-killing business off so he could go FAST with a more adrenaline-filled business.