This is what the really rich invest in...

But why are they doing it wrong?

👆🏼 You can listen it, up here:

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Why is everyone building an audience for themselves today?

Why are they doing it wrong? 🤔

In this blog post I will focus on this and show the difference between an audience and a community! 😳

But first, let's see... 👀

🚀 How's the challenge?

🪄 Book recommendation AI

Yesterday, we talked to Bendeguz, who is an AI programmer - and an OM follower - about how to create a Book Recommendation AI. Which would give better and better recommendations at the end of each book. 👍🏼

A bit like the TikTok algorithm, only it would be the BookBase algorithm. Some bold ideas have been born, so we'll be working on a side project like this in the coming months. I honestly believe that it could improve the user experience a lot, and of course show you books you've never heard of, but are brilliant! 😲

🤖 OM Laci is the new team member

Relax no... there was no team recruitment without you knowing about it. Laci is an AI who will make Kokesz's job a lot easier. Laci will be a padawan, Kokesz will be the Jedi master and he will program him for everything. 🧙🏼‍♂️

His main task will be to decode the existing designs, and exactly the way Kokesz wants! He will be taught by Kokesz every morning and I think we will be able to show some nice results in 2-3 weeks. 📟

I think you've heard of the foreign competitors, Blinkist, Headway and others. They are doing brilliant things and have about 200 people on their team there. We do NOT want to grow to 200 people so we need to find a way to compete with them in productivity. And the way... is exactly that! 🧠

🅱️ The new update is already in Beta

It's in:

📖 The Books Read page
⚡️ Speeding up the app
🎨 Minimal Design Upgrade
🔐 and Login has a new look

I think it will be out to the public this weekend so you can have a closer look! 🤩

⏰ 24-hour room on Discord

For BookBase members on the Discord server there is a 24-hour room where messages are deleted every 24 hours, this is where I post things that would be too advanced for Instagram or I feel BookBase members could benefit more from it. Now I'm sharing one here too:

"If you don't know what you want to do with yourself in life, follow this formula:

1. 🇬🇧 Complete an English Big 5 personality test for example this: https://bigfive-test.com/test

2. 📝 Copy the results into ChatGPT

3. 🤖 And type this command above it:

"Act as a professional career advisor, I will paste my results from the Big 5 Personality Test and your job is to list me all the possible lifepaths/jobs that are suitable for my personality. List it in a table format and percentage wise."

I think this little half-hour exercise could save you several years, so if you want to read more of these, check out the Discord server at BookBase! 👾

Okay now let's get started!

💭 Why does everyone want to build an audience?

In this day and age, it's very common that everyone is really building an audience. 🧱

A lot of people are really all-in on this project, it's no coincidence that Elon bought Twitter or that all Sharks have TikTok accounts in the last 1 year. 🐦🦈

They all realized a universal truth:

"Attention is the new gold."

One useful thing - not so much though - that I learned in college was this:

From microeconomics to supply and demand theorem:

"As supply decreases, demand increases."

Very simply translated and now you may have my microeconomics professor spinning in his chair if you read this. Excuse me Professor! 🙏🏻

So, in simpler terms, what there is little of increases in value. 📈

What do people have very little of these days? 🧐

Good answer: attention! ✅

Now I don't want to write the goldfish example for 6th time, but it says a lot that the goldfish can focus on a particular thing for longer than modern man. 🐠

👦🏼: "Okay, Kristóf, what am I supposed to do with this?"

If we have that, we are on the right track. Because the next thing we have to understand is that he who has a lot of one valuable thing:

• 🛢 The Saudi family, for example has the oil.

• 💰 or Warren Buffet has the capital

• 👥 or Elon Musk, the follower of... (well he has almost everything)

That one has power!

👦🏼: "So, you are telling me that if someone has a lot of followers, he has power?! Don't make me laugh..."

I don't necessarily mean power to conquer the world, but rather power to achieve certain things more easily. We've already talked about this in the "Leverage" article. 🛸

📕 Book review: This is also mentioned by Eric Jorgenson in his book "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant". Just one part of the leverage pyramid is Media, also known as Attention. You can find this masterpiece in the BookBase!

I'll give you some specific examples from my own life. 👨🏽
Since we have a relatively large number of followers:

• 🎤 I could more easily give TedX presentations, which are not easy to get into anyway. But they were the kind of guys who followed us.

• ✍🏼 It was easier for us to write a best-selling book, not because we were bomb writers, but because we had an audience to sell to.

• 🎟 We've been given free tickets to a sold-out "Necc party".

• 👨🏼‍⚕️ I even got my eye operated by one of the best doctors in Hungary.

All this simply because we had a few hundred thousand followers - for which I am very grateful to you from here -. 🙏🏻

👦🏼: "Okay, I'm starting to get it, so if I put up a Meme page on TikTok, can I have power?"

Well, the answer is... NO! ❌

Well, not completely, because it's also important that people know you.

It's a bit like a - listen carefully because I'm going to use a very corny English word - Personal Brand! 🤨

You have to market yourself in a way that people you want to work with or people you want to get to know notice you. 🤝

OM is only half a Personal Brand, because I don't run it under my own name - consciously - but I put my face to it. 🔥

If you have a good Personal Brand, then a lot of doors will open for you, it's no coincidence that Sharks put so much time, money and energy into their own personal brand, as it also determines what kind of people go to them for investment. 🦈

💡 Side note: There's Alex Hormozi, who scales $3 million companies to $30 million. He has built his own personal brand by starting to share his best advice for free, hoping that people will get to 3 million and then there will be no question of who they turn to for help. From here I'd say it was a brilliant move on his part!

📕 Book recommendation: Kevin Kelly's book 1,000 Real Fans also describes how if you could ONLY get 1,000 real fans for yourself or your community, you could live well enough off of that for the rest of your life. He breaks this down for you and gives practical examples. It's up on the App if you want to listen.

Think about it, you're about to ask for an investment and you have 2 sharks both offering the same thing, but one has 100 followers and the other has 100,000, who would you rather sign with? 🧐

If you think about it, with 100,000, you would have access to his audience. The shark could market your service there. You could quickly double or even triple your revenue. 😲

So that is why people are so hung up on personal branding. 😳

However, they can't see the wood for the trees and 1 thing I think they are doing wrong... 🌳

Let's see...

🧐 How do you do it right?

The audience you build has 3 levels:

1️⃣ The first level is when your followers are watching your content and they can relate to you.

2️⃣ The second level is when you connect with them one on one, so if they write to you, you help them, if they ask you a question in a Live you answer it, etc.

💡 Side note: Few people get to this point because it's a "job" and many get caught up in the magic of fame and feel - quite wrongly I might add... - superior to other people.

I feel this level has been very well surpassed by OM, it really is fair to say that I have replied to every Instagram DM message so far, ALL of them! 💬

The fact that I don't comment on YouTube and TikTok is solely due to my lack of time and not because I don't enjoy the conversation there too. Just to see the numbers, we get about 250-300 comments a day on these two platforms. That would be about 8 hours of one person's work to respond to them on my behalf - or an AIs, only then again it wouldn't be so personal -. 😵‍💫

And then comes the 3rd long-awaited level, which very few people can reach and we are still just spreading our wings. 🦤

3️⃣ The third level, when your followers can connect with each other. This is when your audience turns into a community! This is the point where you form your own little "tribe"!

It's terribly difficult to beat and takes a surreal investment of time and energy, but it's worth it. 🤩

👦🏼: "Fuck I get it Kristóf!! So, if I make a community that blindly follows me, like Tate, I've reached level 3!"

You half hit the truth... 😏

However, here we have to draw a nice line between Cult and Tribes - Cult vs. Tribe.

🧟‍♂️ The Cult: In today's world, when they blindly follow a person without questioning and/or interfering with their decisions.

vs.

🧝🏼‍♂️ Tribe: In today's world, when a community fights for a common goal and helps each other along the way. There is a leader, but his or her advice, at most, is taken as suggestions and not specific instructions.

Just look at these people:

• 🐍 Andrew Tate

• 👨🏼‍🌾 Luke Belmar

• 👨🏽‍💻 Iman Gadzhi

They are all brilliant at building their community, truly amazing even for me. It's just that some of them are starting to move into the Cult - which is understandable on their part, because the full power, the total unquestionability is there - just not sure if it really serves their community the best. 🤔

👦🏼: "Okay, so how do I build a Tribe?"

The question itself is a great one! But the answer is quite complex, but as usual I'll try to keep it simple. 😉

Well, the first and most important thing is to first build an audience around an interest. It could be money making, healthy living, socializing, whatever. ⚒

Once you have your audience, give them the opportunity to ask questions and actively respond to them. That way you'll quickly move up to level 2. 💬

Then you need to create a place where these people can meet. It could be Discord, Slack, Facebook group, whatever. The main thing is that your followers can get to know each other and talk to each other. 🤝

💡 Side note: It's no coincidence that we went all-in on the Discord server, it was simply the logical choice from all points of view. Of course, the audience meetings and presentations helped a lot, but this server also gives us the possibility to communicate 0-24.

That's just the technical stuff, and now for the little tips that will probably help you most in building your tribe. 🧠

📕 Book recommendations: In his book Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson, he specifically explains that if you want to be an expert in any area of life, how to build it, and 3 of the tips below are from him! Yes, you already know... it's also up in BookBase.🎧

1. You must have a strong story as a leader - Origin Story

This is how your tribe will get to know you and how they will decide whether to follow you in real life. Here you can tell them where you came from, what difficulties you have been through and how you overcame them. With a little exaggeration, you have to show your skills and expertise so that people really see you as worth listening to! 🧐

👨🏽: My Origin Story is quite long so I won't write it word by word, but it briefly describes my relationship with my grandfather and how I went from being the worst student to a man who has helped thousands of young people and who wants to change the education system so that we can live a better life.

2. They need to see your weaknesses - Character Flaws

Because it brings honesty on the one hand, and on the other, you know what you need to improve on. Many people get stuck here because they can't put their ego aside and can only idolize themselves. 😔

👨🏽: In my case, it's that I'm very hot-headed, impatient, competitive, sometimes blunt, which offends others and that my goal is more important than anything else, which after a while leads to obsession.

3. You have to be extreme within certain limits - Polarity

You have to stick to one side and stand for or against it. A lot of people either love our videos or say, "Here we go again with this guy... It depends on what you see in him, some see him as an opportunity for progress, others see him as an attack. 🧭

👨🏽: I truly believe that young people are not stupid, it's just that the education system is not suitable for them. I'm very much against spoiled, rich, pretentious young people who haven't earned the price of a stick of gum but drive their dad's Mercedes. And I'll stand up for them any day!

4. Show which side you're on - Us vs Them

As I said before, you need to make it clear which side your tribe is on, what values you have and what you no longer tolerate. 📜

👨🏽: For us, it's hard-working young people who want to achieve their dreams vs. Daddy's little boys. Our values include humility, helpfulness, hard work and lifting others up. What we don't tolerate is negativity, humiliating others and grandstanding (I'm sick of it anyway)

5. Who/What are you fighting? - Monster

It is important that once you have taken sides you have a "monster" that you are trying to defeat together. Don't look for an enemy, look for a "monster", the easiest way I can tell the difference for you is: 🐉

The "Enemy" is a threat to you.

Whereas a "Monster" is a threat to a larger group in society.

👨🏽: In our case, it's the education system... just think about it:"I think many of you have felt that school does not necessarily prepare you for life! School was a great place to be in the 1900's, because students could get a free education where they actually learned useful things. But nowadays the world has sped up, but the education system has not kept up and has not molded with it. 😒

So, what can happen is that we learn about Hydrogen bonds, but we don't learn how to pay taxes or even how to communicate effectively with others. ❌

Different kids come to school excelling in different things, but the education system wants to mold everyone into the same.

Albert Einstein had a saying:

"Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by how well it can climb a tree, it will live its whole life as a fool." 🐠 🦧

The current system teaches you how to be a good employee and not how to leave the system and achieve your dreams! 👨🏽‍💻

We have to admit the system is outdated and those who rely only on what they are taught in school may not have a bright future! 👎🏼

It's not ONLY what you learn in school, it's what you learn in school that counts!" 🤯

6. Which way are we going? - Mission

Specifically show that if someone joins the tribe, where they can go. This is actually a vision that we are trying to help you achieve. 🚀

👨🏽: For us, it's that if someone perseveres and works hard, they can design a life for themselves where they don't have to take a holiday, they can work from anywhere, anytime and have experiences along the way. We are NOT saying that we are giving him this, but rather that we are giving him the opportunity to acquire information, it is up to him to apply it and work hard enough for it.

7. How can we help you?

So, we have a person who can identify with our mission and who may not have similar goals. Then comes the "How", so how can we help him to achieve his goal. Because it is ok to have a common mission, but there are also individual goals and we need to support each other in that. 🏎

👨🏽: For us, that's BookBase and all the content we share. It all goes towards giving as much useful information as possible that can start a person on the path to progress. And if it is combined with hard work, you can make a very nice life for yourself.

💡 Side note: We target young people for 2 reasons. The first is because we are young, we are just a step or two ahead and we know the problems you are facing. The second is because there have been several studies on this, that a person's mindset can change easily up to the age of 25.

And then we come to the last point! 👣

To the checklist, which gets more and more complicated for me week by week as I try to dissect deeper and more complex topics. 👨🏼‍⚕️

I sincerely hope I can get this right, but if it's not clear enough, feel free to write me in a comment and I'll try to explain it better! 📝

So...

✅ What exactly do you do if you want a Tribe?

[ ] Step one, choose a topic you feel competent in. 🤔

[ ] Step two, start sharing your thoughts on that topic. Preferably choose social media platforms where it's easier to grow organically, e.g., TikTok. 🎥

[ ] Step three, when you have a small community, start talking to them and encourage them to ask you questions! Of course, answer those questions and don't leave any unanswered. 💬

[ ] Step four, communicate as much as possible your story and why they should listen to you on this topic. 🙏🏻

[ ] Step five, it's good to put your ego aside over time and share your weaknesses. This will make you more trustworthy to your audience! 😔

[ ] Step six, choose a side for yourself, where you stand and find a "monster" that can be a threat to a larger group of society. 🐉

[ ] Step Seven, have a mission and clearly communicate "How" you can help those in your tribe. 🚀

[ ] Finally, create a platform where members of your tribe can get to know each other and help each other along the way. 🤝

That's my short checklist for this, although I will add that if you want to do this right, it's a never-ending process, but it's also at least a year before you can get to level 3 of the audience. ✅

I sincerely believe that in the years to come, attention will become an even rarer resource and thus its value will increase even more. 📈

However, I am also struggling with a big CHALLENGE right now...

🔥 Challenge

The biggest challenge right now is to align my heart and my mind because we are about to make a pretty big decision. There are many factors in the equation and a risk-reward factor. 🧡

Namely we received an inquiry and if we could get investors for the App. The problem is that we currently have NO need for investors. I know we can do it all on our own and our finances are pretty much in order. ❌

However, the mentorship, networking and marketing value could be sufficiently large. So, I am thinking very hard about it. Unfortunately, the formula is much more complex than that and I can't share all the little details yet, but I can tell you that I am facing one of the most difficult decisions in the history of OM. 😔

💡 Side note: There is such a contradiction in me, that I, who has always been against investments and Startups that throw money around and I, who has built up the BookBase with full self-financing - with the help of the team of course!! - would now turn my back and accept an investment?! I don't know, it would be weird for me, I'd have to get used to the idea. At the same time, I can't be so selfish and who knows how many young people could be reached by the Book Club and OM and how many lives could be changed because of it. I can honestly say that I've been thinking about it for days... and I don't see a way out yet.

📖 What have I read now?

• I read a fascinating newsletter where the writer broke down how much time we spend doing certain activities in our lives. I'll stick that picture in here.

💡 Side note: School is only 1.6 years because you're only in school for about 6-7 hours a day on average and here 1.6 years is counted as 24 hours, every single day.

• I read Weiser's book - Labelling in 3 days. It was a short read, it had useful things about persuasion, but it was more of a teaser to read more of his work or to go to one of his events - which I may do in the future. 📒

• I bought 3 second hand books - in almost new condition by the way - on Vinted and will be diving into these this week. But I won't read the whole thing, just the chapters that interest me or are useful in my current development. I'll show you what I've taken:

  • 📕 The Rule That There Are No Rules (The Netflix Story) - Reed Hastings

  • 📘 The Startup Method - Eric Ries

  • 📙 Control your anger, control the situation - Dr. David J. Lieberman

💡 Side note: Maybe this will help me overcome my hotheadedness!

🎧 What did I just listen to?

• I saw an excerpt from an interesting interview with an Olympic athlete and he told me what his coach - who is an Olympic champion - told him: 🥇

  • "The girl got really sick in one of the training sessions and she was in a bad mood, and the coach said to her, relax, the law of THIRDS still applies to you.

  • Then she looked puzzled and asked what? 🤨

  • Then the coach explained: When you are preparing for an important competition, the Law of Thirds applies, which means that 1/3 of the time you will feel exceptionally good, 1/3 of the time you will feel average, and the other 1/3 you will feel very bad. You're in that third right now, but as long as those proportions don't get very upset, you're on the right track!

  • If you're feeling too good too often, you're not training hard enough, if you're feeling too bad, you might need to rest, but as long as those thirds are split right... you're on the right track." 🙏🏻

  • This has helped me a lot to think about my own life and assess my own thirds, it's worth doing for YOU. 🫵🏽

• I was also in philosophy class this week, this time the topic was heroism.

  • I learned a lot about magic tales, Greek mythology and why the hero must always recreate himself. ⚒

  • Just the other day I was thinking about how much I love going to this class, I can't explain why, but maybe it's because it takes me out of my everyday mindset. 💭

✍🏼 Top quote

"Be who you needed, when you were younger." ~ Unknown

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