I've been running Herb for 3,089 days.

I made thousands of mistakes that cost me time and money.

Along the way, I've developed 10 principles I live by.

Today’s issue takes 2.3 minutes to read

Enjoy!

1. Hire The Best

Early on I didn’t take hiring as seriously as I should have.

Take your time.

Only hire people that are curious, competent, and dedicated to your mission.

It’s either a HELL YES or a no.

2. Own Your Community

You don’t own your Twitter.

You don’t own your TikTok.

You don’t own your Instagram.

Drive people to your email list.

And control your destiny.

3. Create a Content Blueprint

Consistent content 1000x’s your surface area for luck.

Find your people.

Spread your mission.

Have fun.

Add value to peoples’ lives.

Here is what I do for my personal brand:

I publish threads every Wednesday and Saturday on Twitter.

I push content every day at 8am and 1pm EST on LinkedIn.

I send this newsletter every Saturday AM.

What's your content cadence?

Start now.

Yesterday you said tomorrow.

4. Be a Category Pirate

If you’re not the leader in a category, invent a category.

At Herb we are the leader in cannabis-marketing-as-a-service (CMaaS).

We are the #1 cannabis marketing company in the world.

We built a community of 14 million people.

We have the strongest cannabis content in the world.

What category are you the leader in?

5. Be the Healthiest You Can Be

Early on I neglected my mind, body, and soul.

It cost me deeply.

I became depressed.

I treated myself and others poorly at times.

Optimize your health and you optimize your life.

Aim to be at your peak performance.

I exercise every morning.

I do yoga 3x a week.

I meditate daily.

I believe entrepreneurs are like athletes.

We need to be at our best to win.

6. Ignore the Haters

Caring too much about what other people think is a recipe for unhappiness.

Learn to not give a f***.

Enough said.

7. Fall in Love with the Process

Startups are a marathon, not a sprint.

I used to be overly obsessed with outcomes like revenue, exits, and goals.

Once I fell in love with the soulful journey of running my company everything changed.

I’m now happier and more successful than I ever could have imagined.

8. Give Without Any Expectations

So much of business is about reciprocity.

Pay it forward.

Help others without any expectations.

Eventually what goes around comes around.

9. Experiments > Perfection

Give up trying to be perfect.

Be more like a scientist and have fun running experiments.

10. Prioritize Play

Life is too short to do what others tell you to do.

Prioritize the people, places, and things that give you energy.

Say no (or delegate) the rest.

I travel every 6 weeks.

I take time to enjoy nature.

You only live once. Live it to the fullest.

That’s it.

If you enjoyed this newsletter please forward it to one person you think would benefit from it.

My mission is to inspire 1 million entrepreneurs to live their dreams.

P.S. I love hearing from you.

Follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

P.P.S. I run a marketing engine masterclass to help entrepreneurs scale past $5M annual revenue and win their niche.

Use code JULY65 for 65% off (expires in 3 days).

Here is a recent review:

If you want to learn more check out my website https://www.mattgray.xyz/courses.

See you again next week.

Let's win together 🥇

My Playlist

Here is my gym playlist (it's 100% certified, organic, rap bangers).

Pro tip: Sort it by 'Recently Added.'

New songs from:

• Future

• Kendrick Lamar

• Drake

Let's get after it relentlessly 💪