Restarting From Zero

Hello my friend,

Today, I’ll cover when I quit my job, started a business, and how it bombed (like everything came crashing down). I started again with a new career, new company, new industry, and (as of ~one year ago), a new business.

I waited to share this because failure is hard to talk about. Especially in public. Without something to show for the failure, it’s really just making yourself look bad for nothing. Now that Lumiere is doing well (more on this later), it feels like a good time.

This isn’t a how-to guide. If anything, it’s more like a list of “what not to do,” based on real events in my life (with a few things that finally worked). This is not a guide or ‘thought leadership,’ or me trying to be some guru. It’s more like a letter to a reader who could benefit from it (even if that reader is my past self).

If anything, I’ve always found posts like this helpful. So, I hope it’s helpful for you if you’re looking at bouncing back from a failure or misstep.

Since I’ll be ‘rebranding,’ this newsletter anyway (”Darwin’s Newsletter” isn’t a very inspiring name), I figured now’s the time to get into something a bit more personal. I’ll share more on the rebrand next week.

Today, we’ll cover:

• Quitting and starting from zero (actually zero).

• Everything I should’ve done instead (lessons learned).

• What it looks like to apply those lessons on this new business.

Let’s get into it.

Quitting & Restarting From Zero

When I left my job at that agency to start a newsletter, I had never published a newsletter before. Why didn’t I just keep my job and publish on the side? Why not build it first, and then quit?

I romanticized the leap and rushed it. It was the wrong approach, and probably driven by an inflated ego (hopefully less of this), and a lack of patience (the bigger factor).

I was wrong in so many ways. And as I reflected on this, I was reminded of an author named Ryan Holiday.

He wrote The Obstacle Is The Way, and another 12 or so books. He was the head of marketing at American Apparel at one point, had his own marketing agency. Overall, a very prolific career, and a story that inspired me.

• A young, talented writer suddenly drops out of school (a huge risk)

• Apprenticed under Robert Greene (another best-selling author).

• Became Head of Marketing at American Apparel

• Wrote the best-seller The Obstacle Is The Way and crushed it.

But years later, Ryan told the full story, and it was different.

• He didn’t drop out, he was offered his dream job, and then dropped out after accepting.

• He didn’t stumble into American Apparel, Robert Greene was on the board, and made the connection.

• He had mentors, connections, money, and a plan.

Does it sound like that big of a risk? No. That’s the point. Less romantic, more strategic.

For the record, I’m glad Ryan shared the details and don’t fault him at all. I still like the guy and his books.

The thing is: we’re often told a more dramatic version of the story. It gets our attention because it’s more engaging, and exciting that way. It’s not “lying” per-se, it’s leaving out certain parts of the story. The parts that would’ve left people saying: “oh…of course…that’s why he was successful”.

Obviously it’s harder to sell books if you look like the guy who had it all handed to him. This is why so many celebrities downplay the silver spoons, and emphasize how hard life was (whether it’s a half-truth or a flat-out lie).

Anybody who is looking to quit their job should pay attention to this.

The people who talk about taking these wild risks with success, are not telling the full story. They’re often not risking anything at all, and are just telling the version of the story that’s most likely to go viral.

You don’t have to take such big risks either. Less romantic, more strategic.

And there’s more.

The Lessons in Quitting & Starting From Zero

This is the part where I share the details most people won’t tell you.

Let’s get into it.

The Dumbest Way to Start a Business

When I decided to walk away from my career and start The Level Ups newsletter, I did it all in reverse.

• Most people make sure the next thing is established before leaving (like Ryan dropping out of school after being offered the job).

• Meanwhile, I quit my job having never sent a newsletter, but trying to start a newsletter business.

• Wouldn’t it have been better if I left my job because my newsletter business made more money than my salary?

Not only that, but I didn’t even romanticize the risk when marketing the business, which is ironic because my risk was real, and I did it all solo.

There’s a reason why so many businesses have partners/investors or borrow money

How often do we see solo business owners who never borrowed money? No partner, no investor, no loans, just…vibes?

Jokes aside, it’s actually quite rare, and for good reason.

Partners come with less risk, more help, fewer issues, and someone to talk to (assuming you pick a decent partner). Borrowing money is helpful for obvious reasons.

For example, Elon Musk owns less than half of Space X, and just 12% of Tesla. It’s common, and in many cases, businesses only grow in the first place because of the partners/investors involved.

I wouldn’t necessarily seek out a partner to split ownership, but I should’ve definitely considered borrowing money when the rates were better. I saved a ton, but when you take a huge leap, you want to reduce the risk as much as possible, and having extra money available never hurts (provided it’s a decent interest rate).

How I Accidentally Sold Something I Couldn’t Deliver (And Then Refunded Every Customer)

I wanted cash in the bank, so I created a “Premium Membership” with a series of perks.

It was cheap, a $500 lifetime membership for anybody who bought in advance. I sold many.

But, this was another business entirely (which I’d also never done before), and it came with different problems, like having to do this while publishing every, securing my own advertisers, etc.

Fast forward, I didn’t go through with it, and refunded everybody. It was a product created like a bandaid over my panic. I refunded 45 people. It sucked.

Creating and selling things that didn’t match the vision I originally had for the business was a sign of desperation. The moment that starts happening, it’s time for a change.

What I’m Doing Differently

So here’s a quick recap.

• Quit my job and started a newsletter business called The Level Ups.

• Between sucking at it and a family thing, it didn’t work out.

• Refunded 45 people their original $500 for that “premium membership.”

• Start working at beehiiv.

• Started a new business, and apply the lessons

So what are the big differences?

Focus On The Product:

For those who don’t know, Lumiere, is my home fragrance business; candles for now. Super clean ingredients free of phthalates, paraffin, parabens, etc., and they smell fucking amazing.

I’ll share the story of “why candles?” another time (it’s really good).

I started learning perfumery a year before even starting the business. I took a perfumery course, got help from ChatGPT, watched so many videos, practiced every day for a year (all before selling a single candle). I still pay for several subscriptions to private groups for professional perfumer to stay on top of my game.

Contrast that with The Level Ups, a very unoriginal newsletter based on a blueprint started by other companies. I went from zero, to publishing daily, with no practice. The voice and tone I wrote with was popular, but the actual content didn’t really hit.

You can tell which company was putting out a better product (even if they’re completely different businesses).

And yes, there are times we can’t practice and have to just do things. The core product of the business cannot be something you make up and half-ass (it’s what you’re selling, after all).

Word of Mouth

I don’t run any paid ads (tried it, was expensive). I don’t pay influencers (tried it, they are very difficult to work with). There are no paid promotions of any kind, anymore. I have no staff, and do the majority of the work in my apartment.

So what do I do for marketing? Not much, except one thing.

Whenever I met someone who was already buying candles from another company, I gave them one or two of mine for free.

No long pitch. No video. Just: “Hi, I make these, try one,” and that’s it.

The FB ads sucked. Influencers sucked. But this is 80% of all my sales. Slowly but surely, I can see the numbers going in the right direction. It is such a good feeling.

There’s no desperate race for millions of dollars right now. I keep crushing at the day job, and this is a fun business on the side, and that’s how I want it.

Absolute (Controlled) Chaos

I made a joke last week about how working at beehiiv was “Absolute Chaos,” which is true, but also not the whole story. It feels chaotic because of the amount of work we do, how fast we ship, and how even one or two bad decisions can put us a week or two behind.

But under the hood, it’s shockingly organized. Three or four major updates per week, plus another 16 cooking at any given time, all tracked and accounted for. Some of them are “vibe tracked” during busy weeks, but you get the idea.

The Level Ups was just chaos. I was writing a daily newsletter, since day one, leaving no time for planning, strategy, even a little bit of thought. From the beginning, I completely underestimated the business model.

Lumiere is the opposite. I make the inventory in advance, which leaves time to plan every details like the product, design, shipping, fragrance formulas, etc. Ironically, I actually run my business similar to how we run product beehiiv, and so far it’s been working well.

Wrapping Up:

Most people don’t talk much about where they went wrong, or they’ll say things like “I wasn’t organized,” without specifics we can actually learn from.

It’s always a little nerve-wracking to open up about these things, but I’m confident it’ll help at least one person, and that’s enough to make me content.

As always, thanks for reading.

Please note, there might be a slightly different look to next week’s newsletter. Nothing major is changing otherwise, it’s just the name, look, and a little bit of the content.

Now, a word from this week’s sponsor.