09/19 |#035| If You FALL, We'll Pick You Up!

Good morning and welcome back.

Fall is around the corner. A new season upon us means another set of goals for you to achieve before winter.

Help us help you get there - hit us up at [email protected] and let us know what you want to see more of!

Here are the highlights of today’s edition:

💡 Advice from Gary Vaynerchuk about Content Creation Fear

🤝 A Digital Networking Hack That Can Help With Website Construction

🍟 A French Supermarket Food-Shaming Major Brands

➕ Much. More.

Experts’ Advice 🫡

• THEIR SUCCESS: Here’s the story behind how Sam Parr went from selling hotdogs to selling the newsletter “The Hustle” for $20M+.

• YOUR SUCCESS: We all succumb to mindless scrolling, which hurts productivity. Here’s what you can do to mitigate this, courtesy of bestselling ‘Atomic Habits’ author, James Clear.

• THEIR SUCCESS: Here’s inflation advice from a man whose side hustle earns $170K annually 👀 

• YOUR SUCCESS: Scared to get into the Content Creation game? Here’s advice from Gary Vaynerchuk that can help you out.

Finance 101 🤑 

What the heck are five insurance policies that I should have?

Short & Sweet: Long-Term Disability Insurance, Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Homeowner’s Insurance (Renter’s for those who rent), and Automobile Insurance.

Why It Matters: They are vital to providing peace of mind, and they’ll protect you throughout your life if and when the unknowns occur.

💡Here are things to consider about each one:

• Long-Term Disability Insurance: Think about your superhero powers – your ability to earn is one of them. Long-term disability insurance is like a shield for your money-earning power. If you ever get really sick or hurt and can't work for a long time, this insurance helps you continue to pay the bills for stuff like your home, food, and more.

• Life Insurance: Life insurance is a gift for your family. If something happens to you, it helps pay for your funeral as well as their current and future bills.

• Health Insurance: Health insurance is like a magic spell that makes sure you can go to the doctor. It covers routine doctor visits, prescriptions, and even big things like surgeries.

• Homeowner’s Insurance (or Renter’s Insurance): Imagine your home is like a castle, and everything inside is your treasure. Homeowner's (or renter’s) insurance is like a forcefield for your castle and treasure. If something bad happens, like a fire or a break-in, this helps you fix or replace your stuff.

• Automobile Insurance: If you have a car, think of auto insurance as a superpower that protects you and others on the road. It covers both your car and another’s if you happen to get into an accident.

🖥️ Carrd:

Want to build a website to sell something or promote your personal brand, but don’t know where to start?

The OTF team suggests using Carrd.

It’s simple to use and comes with generated templates for your website that are quick and to the point.

According to our research, online creators use them primarily to set up their landing pages or to create personal websites.

Making a website is a crucial step on your entrepreneurial journey. Make the process easier for yourself with Carrd.

(Note: this is not a paid advertisement for Carrd. We just think it’s awesome.)

Also, you can get the Pro version for just $19 a year. Yes, per year…

Here is what that includes:

Self-Interest:

• Talk about how procrastination can be productive.

Human Interest:

• Talk about Spenser Skates and Curtis Liu, whose gamble to “shut down” a very promising startup led to an entirely new business worth $1.35 billion.

Artificial Interest:

• Talk about “the next wave of generative intelligence.”

Fall is in a couple of days, so why not do something outside your comfort zone for the fall season?

 💵 DOLLAR GENERAL:

A dollar store overcharging customers?

With a name like Dollar General, consumers are right to expect a bargain. If you live in Missouri, however, what you get is ripped off. “Missouri’s attorney general filed a suit against Dollar General claiming [they] violated Missouri consumer protection laws by charging higher prices at checkout than what the store listed.”

In November 2022, the Ohio AG pursued a similar lawsuit, which was settled out of court - that’s two strikes, D.G!

 🔵 bluesky:

Watch out Twitter / X / whatever you’re called these days.

You might not see it as a big deal when compared to Twitter’s population, but Bluesky has hit a milestone, “as it has passed over one million registered users.”

When you consider their slow growth plan, only allowing users to access the app via waitlist or invite, it’s not too shabby.

 👍️ CARREFOUR:

This French supermarket chain is fed up!

The headline is too good not to quote: “Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands.” In other words, any brand that shrinks the size of their product as a deceptive way to save / make more money is getting called out publicly!

While Carrefour has their own motivation for doing this, it’s nice to see customers get some honesty for a change.

💰️ dragos:

Industrial environments can never be too safe.

Dragos just raised $74 million dollars, bringing their total raised to $440 million. Who are they? They are “a company building software to secure control systems for manufacturing and industrial equipment” from outside threats.

They serve both private organizations and governments and get bonus points for a company name that sounds like something out of Game of Thrones.