It’s about learning how to deal with adversity and learning how to be honest with ourselves and still stay hopeful in the process. Mark shares how he got started working online and how the runaway success of his first book affected his life, along with a message of wisdom and hope we can all apply to our lives.

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Highlights

[04:18] Mark is the author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life and Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope.
[04:51] He began blogging online about 10 years ago after reading The 4-Hour Workweek.
[05:57] He was doing affiliate marketing, content marketing and web design. He had a blog for each of his websites. He ended up being a better blogger than a marketer.
[07:24] Mark self published a dating book in 2011.
[07:53] In 2013, things began to blow up. He got his book deal from there.
[08:49] He caught the golden era of Facebook and 8 or 10 of his articles went viral.
[11:10] Having titles that draw attention still matters.
[12:52] Mark has always been working on his email list. It’s the backbone of any blog.
[14:29] Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram are great for getting traffic.
[15:19] Mark’s book kind of tricks people. Caring is what makes life meaningful. It then becomes a question of what you choose to care about.
[16:51] Today, people are trying to define what is worth their time and attention. That’s the main focus of Mark’s book. It also rips on classic self help content.
[19:28] Mark’s book has been out for three years, and it’s still on the New York Times list. It was incredible the way the book took off.
[21:14] He was preparing for the book’s popularity to wane, but it didn’t.
[22:48] The book has given him the license to write whatever he wants. He is really grateful.
[24:08] Mark did have pressure when writing his second book. He was concerned about how his fans would feel.
[26:46] We like progress and to see things move up. It’s upsetting to watch the downside.
[28:24] Mark’s new book also had an insane launch that was beyond good.
[30:03] He realized the launch was great and each book has its own lifespan. He made peace with it. Now he doesn’t have to worry about a follow up.
[33:25] Mark shares his personal and business lessons. Personally, he experienced deaths of people very close to him. In business, he had a lot of failures that gave him resilience.
[36:13] The failures can help build up an immunity.
[38:29] Mark’s new book is about encouragement and that things will always get better. And why technology has made us become unhinged and to be about yourself.
[41:37] Mark is doing a book with Will Smith called Will.
[43:01] Mark has a group of friends that he grew up with. His core group helps him keep perspective.
[44:53] His best piece of advice was from his dad. Mark’s content was stolen by a big blogger. His dad explained that there were two types of people: those who look for golden eggs and those that create golden eggs.
[47:50] Creating value where there was none before is a valuable skill.