The Marketing Strategy Behind Multi-Million Dollar Brands

We found a cheat code for learning Spanish using Claude and Anki (without studying grammar). Plus, the Cult Brand marketing framework that turns customers into superfans.

In this episode, Andrew reveals why he is moving to Mexico City and going all in on his startup. Sean breaks down how he scaled his agency to 18 employees and the specific Positioning Strategy he uses to charge premium prices.

Links:

• Andrew’s Twitter: @AndrewAskins
• Andrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/
• MetaMonster: https://metamonster.ai/
• Shipletter: https://shipletter.ai/
• Sean’s Twitter: @seanqsun
• Miscreants: http://miscreants.com/
• Margins: http://margins.so/
• Sean's website: https://seanqsun.com/

For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/.

Transcript:

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I've had several situations where I just like make stupid mistakes. I feel very envious of the

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ability to like, spend all your time and energy on like one thing, we kind of made a mistake that I

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think I've seen a lot of people make. Ever felt like you're stuck making the same mistakes or on

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the verge of something big but held back? Today we explore founder struggles, mistakes, burnout, and

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focusing on real growth. We'll discuss creating content for people, not algorithms, and staying

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grounded in what matters. I'm Andrew Askins, founder of meta monster, and I'm Sean's son

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founder of miscreants. Let's dive into the journey. Like I think a lot of founders like, identify that

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by accident and build a product around that. I don't give it. AI thinks I'm stupid. AI already

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knows I'm stupid. You are selling a methodology where your solution is the only product that

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actually fits said methodology. Learning a language is a lot of work. Demand is a fluid

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substance. My biggest thing is like social anxiety of picking up and making mistakes. Every small

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move is how we can.

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How's your Spanish going? Pretend I was in Spanish. Um.

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Not something smart. So menos lento is is muy, uh. Muy Modesto.

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Muy, muy Modesto. Um, I, uh, I have been texting a lot in Spanish lately, so, like, my

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reading and writing has been getting a lot better. Faster than my speaking and listening. Um,

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I still, I was just hanging out with a bunch of friends last night. Um, and to be fair, uh, four of

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my friends, um, were were ganging up on one of their boyfriends. And so it was,

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uh, there was a lot of very rapid Spanish, um, and a lot of, like, g. Longo slang flying around, so,

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like, not the easiest to understand, but I was just, like, I was just sitting back laughing, like, I

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don't understand any of this. Although, interestingly enough, understood everything at the

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same time. You know, like the universal language. It was pretty obvious what was happening. Nice.

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Also, I heard you have a new, uh, nickname in Mexico City. Yeah, we don't need to go into that.

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That's fine. I feel like. Yeah. Okay. All right. Fine. Am I? My friends, Rosa and Wyatt. Uh,

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Rosa's from here. Um. Uh, and, uh, she's dating my my good friend Wyatt. Um,

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and one night, I may have had a little too much fun, and, uh, they had to take care of me a bit,

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and I got got dubbed El Polito clause. Um, which means, uh, the little colored chick.

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Um, the the backstory is in Mexico City. Like, I don't know, 10 or 20 years

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ago. Uh, there used to be markets everywhere where you could get these little baby chicks that had

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been dyed like neon colors. And the dye was very bad for the chicks. And so, um, you would, like, buy

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them for your kid, and they would inevitably die within two weeks. Um, and so they were like, just

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very hard to keep alive. And so, Polito declares, is a, uh, is a joke you

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make about someone when they can't take care of themselves, when they when they need, need help. You

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know, I don't think you told me. Did I not give you the context? No, that was way more morbid than I

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thought. I thought it was just like. Like it meant, like ugly duckling or like. I mean, it kind of does.

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It has a morbid start, but it basically just means, like, are you dumb little thing you need, like,

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we got you. It's okay. Um,

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sorry. I'm just. I'm trying to imagine I got it all in neon, baby chick. Oh.

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Um. Oh, that's. Did you find them? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're kind of like peeps, you know? they're

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like poop colored. Yeah, but, like living beings. Yeah. So very, very. Oh, wow. Okay. They

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got. All right. Next topic. Um. One thing I've been doing, though, that's been fun. Um,

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so to try to work on my Spanish, I there's this app that all the, like, language learning nerds use

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called Anki. Um, it's a spaced repetition flashcard app. So basically you practice words and then like

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when you get them right, it's depending on how easy or hard it was. It'll like space out how

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often it shows it to you. So like as you learn words you see them less often. The new words

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you're struggling with. You see them more often. Um, and so I've been wanting to use Anki for a really

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long time. Um, but like, their interface is atrocious. It's a great app. It's all open source,

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but it's like the most painful thing to enter stuff. And they have this, like, incredible

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community of, um, of like pe...