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Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

blog.bench.co

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Re: Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

#81

Post by chc »

imron wrote: post #79
chc wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if I knew what went there, it wouldn't be a question mark. My best guess is "luck," though I feel like that's kind of a facile answer. I don't have a better one, at any rate. What do you think it is?

Some people would argue that for the most part you make your own luck.

I suppose this is true, but also mostly irrelevant. If I am faced with two doors, behind one a car and the other a goat, I am technically making my own luck when I pick a door, but there's still nothing I can do to improve my chances of getting the car past 50%.

Re: Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

#82

Post by hawkice »

freshfey wrote: post #4

Patrick has to be one of the nicest people in our community. Whenever I shot him an email, even with the worst questions, he always took the time to respond. And please keep in mind that he used to consult big companies at that time and charge good money for it, but he always helped the community like this. Thank you Patrick and all the best with Starfighter.

Something to note, for those who want to flood nice people with emails: I sent him a couple emails (probably similarly stupid questions -- I recall one was about his thoughts on Twilio having a "build your own appointment reminder" page -- not a direct competitor for your customers, but that does seem a little rude, no?), and never got a response. Nice people get busy, and it's best to consider if clever googling / just trying it will be a better use of the shared public resource called 'Patrick's Good Will'. In my case, I could have just e.g. assumed his thoughts mirrored mine, because even if they didn't, not really important to me.

Re: Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

#83

Post by sarciszewski »

chc wrote: post #81
imron wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people would argue that for the most part you make your own luck.

I suppose this is true, but also mostly irrelevant. If I am faced with two doors, behind one a car and the other a goat, I am technically making my own luck when I pick a door, but there's still nothing I can do to improve my chances of getting the car past 50%.

Getting the car means paying tax on your winnings. Getting the goat? You can make of that what you'd like.

Getting the car past 50% isn't always the desired goal. :)

Re: Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

#84

Post by ForHackernews »

chc wrote: post #62
tomjen3 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patio11 is basically the "charge more" guy. His advice is nearly always "charge more". It is no wonder he gets payed a lot more than you.

He's also a guy who commented toward the end of his consulting career that going out to look for clients rather than having them just appear unasked-for was kind of a new thing for him. I think this also has a lot to do with his above-average income.

I wish I knew more about how to get to that point where clients would find me.

Re: Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

#85

Post by imron »

chc wrote: post #81
imron wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people would argue that for the most part you make your own luck.

I suppose this is true, but also mostly irrelevant. If I am faced with two doors, behind one a car and the other a goat, I am technically making my own luck when I pick a door, but there's still nothing I can do to improve my chances of getting the car past 50%.

You are looking at the single point of choosing the door as your definition of luck, rather than all the decisions that led you to be in a position where your only choices were between a car and a goat.

When I say you mostly make your own luck, I was referring to making decisions and choices so that you don't end up with only a car or a goat as your choices.

Re: Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

#86

Post by tchock23 »

mastermojo wrote: post #80

I noticed the bench.co link in the article, without even realizing the article was hosted on bench.co. Very clever content rich way to do marketing. "For example, Bench handles all of Patrick’s bookkeeping. He’s grateful for the freedom to “never think about it again.”"

He has mentioned Bench a few times as a business model/company he admires in various podcasts he's been on. I wasn't surprised in the slightest when I saw that he was featured on their blog. Either they got word of it, or he reached out to them to be featured (I'm guessing the former).

Re: Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

#87

Post by zem »

davidw wrote: post #56

One of the things I loved about BCC is how it hit many of us over the head with the idea that a product does not have to be 'cool' or innovative or even really all that interesting to make money. Au contraire - bingo is about as uncool and boring as you can get. It kind of opens your mind to new horizons in business terms.

i actually felt that BCC was a very interesting product - it took a small, well-defined problem that was causing a lot of people a lot of tedium, and solved it in a nice, polished manner. far from being uncool and boring, it is a deeply satisfying use of computing - automating tasks for people who cannot automate them themselves, so that a relatively small bit of work for you adds up to a larger win for lots of people.

Re: Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

#88

Post by davidw »

S4M wrote: post #77
davidw wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The secret sauce is that he's a good developer, and really good at "engineered marketing" in a way few people are. In addition to communicating really well.

He also seems very good at marketing himself - as a proof, that so many people here know and talk about him - and at networking; he bought lots of coffees to strangers who asked to meet him in Tokyo - including me.

From everything I can tell, "marketing himself" is mostly just patio11 being genuinely kind and helpful.

Re: Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

#89

Post by roel_v »

chc wrote: post #61
davidw wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that, or you can't find work at all.

Yes, there's an Underpants Gnomes quality to this sort of career advice. It's not bad, but there's a giant "?" in the middle that nobody can really help you with, which seems to involve accumulating a huge base of clients beating down your door.

Actually, that '??' part is only '??' for engineers, who generally don't know how to drum up work.

There is a process to getting business, it's called 'sales'. Take a reputable sales class (3 or 5 days or so). It'll set you back $5k-$10k, and it'll push you way outside your comfort zone, but it works.

Getting business isn't that hard: first, you identify your customers. Then you think of a way how to find those people/organizations. Then you contact them, and set up appointments. Lastly, you convince them (during the meeting) to buy your product (where 'product' can be software you've already written, software you'll write or man hours you'll spend working for them).

The above of course skips over many details. But the point is - selling stuff is not 'luck' or 'magic'. There is a process, although of course it has to be tweaked every time. All you have to do is learn it.

Re: Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie

#90

Post by roel_v »

imron wrote: post #85
chc wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose this is true, but also mostly irrelevant. If I am faced with two doors, behind one a car and the other a goat, I am technically making my own luck when I pick a door, but there's still nothing I can do to improve my chances of getting the car past 50%.

You are looking at the single point of choosing the door as your definition of luck, rather than all the decisions that led you to be in a position where your only choices were between a car and a goat. When I say you mostly make your own luck, I was referring to making decisions and choices so that you don't end up with only a car or a goat as your choices.

"I was referring to making decisions and choices so that you don't end up with only a car or a goat as your choices."

I think this is good life advice in general :)

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