#46 Purging Temptation 📧 Producing Content 💻 Product Photography with Midjourney 💻

Good morning and welcome back!

We woke up this morning thinking about…gasoline.

This is what the past year has looked like with regards to gas prices in the United States:

OTF is a lot like gasoline in one crucial way: we both aim to get you where you want to go.

But our differences might be more important: unlike gas, we’re consistent and we’re always easy on your wallet!

Here’s What’s Fueling This Edition:

📧 Keeping Temptation Out Of Your Inbox

📷️ Product Branding Using Midjourney

💻 Tips for Building Your Reputation Through Content Creation

➕ Much. More.

Experts’ Advice 🤝 

Who is Mike Matthews?

• He has sold more than 2 million fitness books and is the host of the Muscle of Life podcast (over 35M listens).
  

• He is the founder of LegionAth, which is an all-natural sports supplement company that has over 400,000 customers.
  

• Despite all he has on his plate, he still finds time to Tweet some gems on his X page. 

Who is Nick Huber? 

• He’s the founder of a service company that sold for seven figures, and his X account has a following of 338K+.

• He also writes a weekly newsletter that provides you with 200+ entrepreneurial ideas where “the competition is weak, the costs and risks are low, and the odds are good.” It gets emailed to you the moment you subscribe.

Making Cents 💰️ 

Why The Heck Should I Keep
Temptation Out Of My Inbox?

Short and Sweet: You’ve undoubtedly got an inbox filled with spam and promotional emails right now. It happens all year round, but especially during the holiday season.

You should take some time to purge and unsubscribe.

Why It Matters: Because you don’t want to be tempted to spend money on things you and your loved ones don’t need. Achieving your financial goals requires self-discipline, which means resisting temptation.

The best way to do that is to eliminate it before it has a chance.

💡 Consider These 3 Things:

1. Each company that emailed you wants the same thing: your money. It’s the cold easy truth. Don’t let them get it with a random discount to something if you don’t really need it, especially around the holiday season.

2. Resist the promotional deals and unsubscribe. Declutter your inbox. Too many offers could lead to many unnecessary purchase decisions.

3. Do your best to keep your money and use the 10/10 rule. When you want to buy something, wait for 10 minutes. If you’re still unsure after 10 minutes, don’t buy it.

(Btw - we’re not financial experts, and we’re not Scrooges, either; we’re just trying to help you build wealth little by little.)

Hustle Hub 📈 

• THEIR SUCCESS: Famed investor Charlie Munger died recently, a month away from the big 1-0-0. The following tips won’t help you reach triple digits, but they may help you build wealth.

• YOUR SUCCESS: Here are six ways to be a great mentor at work, which can be quite valuable whether you’re running your own business or working your way up the corporate ladder.
  

• THEIR SUCCESS: Who says teachers have to be broke? Learn about this educator’s 125K side-hustle here.

• YOUR SUCCESS: Could generosity be a key ingredient in the recipe for success? Psychology Today explores that question here.

Working with AI 🦾 

💡 How to do on-brand product photography with Midjourney, the AI-image generation product.

Before we jump in: if you are not too familiar with Midjourney, check out our Midjourney tutorial from 7/25. As you might expect, it’s in our Working With AI section.

The following tutorial is from our favorite AI newsletter, Superhuman.

Are you looking for branding help with a current or future product?

Let’s bring it to life with the following formula:

Prompt = (Composition) + (Scene Description) + (Colours) + (Style of Shot)

Here are three examples of how the above formula can result in three different styles or shots.

1. Flat Lay / Overhead Shot:

Close up shot from above, oranges, fresh and juicy

2. Playful and Entertaining:
   

straight-on shot of 4 strawberries, sliced, thrown in air from table, light peach-coloured blends background, in the style of minimalist playful

3. Traditional Product Photography:

Straight on composition, two boxes, slightly angled sits on top of table, gradient yellow colour blends, mango, sliced mangoes in the style of minimalist background, commercial photography 

Midjourney is pretty cool, isn’t it? You can subscribe for only $10 per month, which is a steal if you’re using it for all your branding / image-generation needs.

Digital Networking Hacks 💪 

🧠 If you’re looking to put out content in 2024, here are 4 suggestions to start off on the right foot.

1. Set up a document using Google Docs for your ideas. Your thoughts and ideas for content need go somewhere, so start simple and use a document. Google word documents can even be used offline.

2. Craft up a concise and compelling bio across the platform you will be working on. While it might seem obvious to most, doing this helps new people who land on your page know what it is you offer or what services you include. Just remember the two C’s when doing your bio and don’t overthink it: Concise and Compelling.
   

3. Take a couple hours every week for one month to learn one new thing. Whether it be how to write, how to make engaging short form video content, or researching what the best platform is to use for your service, find the time every week. Make and take your time to focus and learn about one thing to make your content better. Long game > short game.

4. Just start. The hardest, yet most simplest thing to do. Don’t wait to make it perfect. Don’t second-guess and then never post it. Write the content. Publish the post. Buy the domain. Build the website. Start somewhere and build brick by brick.

(Even if you’re not looking to be a content creator, this approach can help people in any industry demonstrate their expertise online, which in turn can lead to better job offers, promotions, etc.)

Major Moves 🗞️ 

 💊 PURDUE PHARMA:

The Sacklers are back to court…

A while back, it was decided in court that if the Sacklers paid $6 billion to those harmed by the opioid epidemic, they would be shielded from further liability. But now it looks like that deal is up in the air. “The opioid crisis comes to the Supreme Court as justices hear arguments in a challenge to the bankruptcy deal.”

The more information that comes out, the more it seems like $6B was getting off easy. Let’s see what happens 👀

 🧑‍💻 kognitos:

Automatic processes to make businesses more efficient

Every business is always looking to maximize efficiency. Kognitos is here to help. “Today, Kognitos can automate tasks like voice transcription, light image editing, QR code scanning, creating data visualizations, and filling out PDF forms.” They just raised $20M for their troubles.

The fear is always that automation will result in a loss of jobs, but it could also make people better and happier at those jobs by removing mundane tasks from the to-do list. Only time will tell which side wins out.

 🦚 PEACOCK:

They’re really struttin’ their stuff (yes, that’s a peacock pun)

The article’s open says it all: “Peacock has hit 30 million paying subscribers, and Comcast thinks it will only continue to get bigger.” They credit their success to being both more user-friendly and more creator-friendly than other streaming services.

OTF Takeaway: Going out on a real limb here - if your product/content is high-quality and unique, you will succeed.

🤔 again bio:

A bacteria that eats exhaust and emits vinegar? Yes, please…

Again Bio is an environmental tech company based in Copenhagen, and here’s what they do: they pump “industrial exhaust into a 65-foot-tall reactor, where bacteria feeds on climate pollution and hydrogen and excretes a useful byproduct: vinegar.” They provide this service FOR FREE, since their profits come from the sale of resulting vinegar products.

They quietly raised $10 million earlier this year, but if this bacteria works as well as it seems - they claim it eats about a ton of CO2 per day - they will undoubtedly raise much, much more.

Food For Thought 💭 

You are now On The Fly and In The Know.