100+ Best Greg Isenberg Quotes of All Time to Inspire You

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

Okinawa is an island in Japan with the highest life expectancy. It’s called “the land of immortals.”

The secret: almost everybody gardens.

Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. Be sustainable.

Find your gardening.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

Never assume you still have time.

As Alan Watts said: Dance, while the music is being played. Tomorrow will never come.

Seize the day.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

22 things I learned about writing on the internet in 2023:

1. The best posts are written without ChatGPT.
2. Be entertaining, educational or ideally both.
3. Make the posts about them, never about you.
4. Delete non-useful words. Every word matters.
5. Write like you talk. 100 % of the time.
6. Use cliffhangers. Algorithms will love you for it.
7. Pick words that stick in people’s brains.
8. Spacing matters. Make it easy to scan.
9. Always be clear & concise.
10. Stories work 10x than non stories – hook, problem, solution.
11. The only content strategy you’ll need: overload people with value on every post.
12. Use lists often, people bookmark them.
13. Write as clear as possible. Plain English > fancy words.
14. Use numbers/data as a way to hook, but never mislead.
15. Use questions throughout the post, not just beginning or end – like “did I miss anything?”
16. Address your audience directly.
17. Adapt tone/length for each platform.
18. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have fun with it.
19. Inject personality in every sentence.
20. “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
21. People can tell if you use AI in your words or images.
22. Controversy sells. The algo rewards it for better or for worse.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

How to protect your energy in 2024:

• Do digital detox night. Choose one night each month to turn off all digital dvices like phones and computers.
• Spend the night in relaxing activities like reading, playing music, or just spending time with loved ones.
• Reflect on what has been draining your energy over the past month.
• Choose one actionable step to reduce this energy drain for the next month.
• Put this change into action and assess its effectiveness at the month’s end.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

The multipreneur framework:

• Pick an underserved niche using tools like Reddit.
• Be a solopreneur and go build a product.
• Get to product/market fit ($10k-100k/month).
• Hire operator.
• Repeat in new category.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

30 life hacks for greater happiness:

(Read these to start your 2024 off right)

1. Use social media apps on desktop only so you don’t get sucked in.
2. Use analogies. People remember them.
3. Being someone’s IG close friends doesn’t mean you are close friends.
4. The fastest way to get out of your town is by building an internet audience to attract people into the same stuff as you are.
5. Build an email list yesterday.
6. Don’t be the last one to leave the party, you’ve got a big day tomorrow.
7. Come to dinner prepared with interesting stories.
8. Start a “no-complaints” day and shift perspectives. Listen more than talk.
9. Use your favorites on the contact screen and call those people at least once a week (also, call your mom).
10. Show up to meetings with small gifts (the ROI is insane).
11. Build your own BS detector. Most of what you read is BS.
12. Gift your friends randomly. Be a secret Santa not just during the holidays.
13. Keep a learning list, make learning your “side-hustle.”
14. Use colored pens to enhance note-taking.
15. Create themed playlists, curate moods. They are time capsules for you to remember chapters in your life.
16. Listen to happy music often. I do reggae on Sundays.
17. Create your personal “quote collection” to stay inspired.
18. Don’t forget about day 1 friends. They’ve known you from the start.
19. But don’t keep friends around for the sake of it. Friends help other friends grow.
20. Craft a personal mission statement to guide your decisions.
21. Throw dinner parties and invite the most interesting people you can find. Do it in multiple cities.
22. Chasing generational wealth is overrated. Wealth is underrated.
23. Give friends lifts, pick them up from the airport.
24. Amplify your weird, celebrate your uniqueness.
25. Send friends songs you think they’ll like.
26. Pour people’s drinks before yours. People appreciate that.
27. When you’re out with people breaking bread, put your phone on airplane mode.
28. Seek discomfort daily, put it in your calendar.
29. You’re never too late. I went to a Phish show in 2025 and everyone told me Phish was over.
30. If you are safe, control your own schedule, feel at peace, and are growing every year, then you are wealthy.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

How to get your first 1,000 community members

(And your first 1,000 customers):

1. How to get your first 1000 community members:

• Decide on a community worth creating.
• Establish a common goal of that community (learning X, doing Y).
• Build an audience first.
• Convert audience into community (IG account into private Skool)
• Use community ambassadors.

2. How to get your first 1000 customers:

• Do community “drops”, small micro-sites that spread the word.
• Build an audience of 10000 people.
• FOMO is your friend (exclusivity sells).
• Partner with communities to promote.
• Go to your customers offline. Offline matters more than ever.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

How to avoid burnout:

{Make this part of your New Year’s resolution)

• Avoid influencers who glamorize the grind
• Avoid screens when you can
• ~7h sleep
• Limit alcohol and caffeine
• Create boundaries from work. Unplug
• Take regular vacations
• Take regular “me time”
• Go for regular walks
• Eat well
• Practice mindfulness or meditation
• Schedule weekly hobby time, something non-work related that you love.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

Quincy Jones would talk to every person at a book signing and leave a personalized note even if it took him until 3 AM to get home.

He understood the power of making people feel heard.

Personalization is the secret weapon to build loyalty for your customers & team.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

How to write copy that isn’t boring (and that sells):

• Don’t write copy, write stories.
• Can be long or short, but must take you for a ride.
• Focus the entire story on the problem the customer has.
• Share credibility.
• Create a clear call-to-action.
• Invoke curiosity with open loops.
• Start a story, don’t finish it immediately.
• Use power words that trigger emotion.
• Words like “astonishing” or “jaw-dropping”.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

How to win on the internet in 2024:

1. Marry the niche, date the product.
2. Make a meme page. Understand the meme culture, own the community, use the insights for a product you’ll sell.
3. Educate over entertain. You can have more fun entertaining, you can make more money if you educate and if you do both you’ll never need to find a job in your life again.
4. Make friends with people in your industry. Earn their trust. Don’t ask for anything for a long time. Overwhelm them with value. It’ll pay back.
5. Be different. Don’t just copy what other people do. Be the one that gets copied, not doing the copying. Way more cool.
6. Listen to podcasts and take notes each time. It’s basically like you’re sitting in the room with the world’s greatest founders and entrepreneurs. Share notes with others, discuss.
7. Throw small 10-person events in major cities. You can’t win on the internet by just being only on the internet.
8. DM someone new every day. Send them a Loom on why they should care.
9. Have an email list. Don’t trust any social platform. Bank on your email list, not your follower count.
10. Be good at introducing yourself. Your bio should reflect that. Everyone is interesting in one way or another.
11. Have goals. Qualify them. Ask people how you’re doing.
12. Have a monthly investor update but just for trusted industry friends. Make it max 25 people. Ask for feedback on how you’re doing. You can include your friends and family.
13. Don’t raise VC if you don’t need to. Spoiler alert: you probably don’t need to.
14. Spend money on ads. I’ll teach you how to write well in your niche because you don’t want to waste any dollars. And you’ll learn quickly what resonates with your niche.
15. Focus on 1 social platform first, with one format of post. Until you have 100k followers, do not look at anything else.
16. Be data-informed not data-driven. Don’t do things because your analytics are telling you to. You’re a human being, you understand your community, act with a mix or art and science.
17. Put buy buttons on the internet. Let people buy your products in many places. Don’t be shy to sell.
18. Get on the internet to post content ideas, get off the internet to get content ideas. “How to vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
19. Set post notifications for the most interesting people in your space. Reply thoughtfully. You’ll learn a lot.
20. Big conferences are a waste of time and money. Better spend time/money elsewhere.
21. Don’t get jaded. There will be bumps in the road, jerks on social, people copying your product but the internet is your oyster.
22. Get smart at AI and hiring global talent. It’ll save you time and keep you profitable.

Greg Isenberg

@gregisenberg

5 tips for building a successful business in 2024:

(I would have failed without these)

1) Audience-first approach

Before any product, I build an audience.

If I can’t build the audience, I don’t build the product.

The audience don’t just validate the idea, they shape it.

2) A sticky name

Lots of people say names don’t matter.

“Just build something people love”.

Not true. A quality name is an idea virus.

It’s a gum on your shoe or that song you can’t get out of your head.

3) Think in funnels

You can’t just expect people to come back to your products.

You have to remind them.

And not to be shy to ask for their emails or SMS.

In return, give them something they really want. That’s my next point.

4) 90% of your products should be free, 10% paid

Give away stuff to make an impression: digital assets, free communities, challenges to stimulate your community etc.

Free products that build mega trust with hearts and minds.

And if you win the heart, the cart follows.

5) Using spy software

EtsyHunt, Subredditstats, Google Trends are your best friends.

The data is out there. The tools are out there that give you a microscope into what’s happening with a community.

And what sorta startup ideas are working (and not working).

Bonus: #6 what’s noise or what’s signal

Conferences, being in TechCrunch and being on Forbes Lists are examples of things that are massively overvalued.

Make it a habit to ask yourself “is what I’m doing noise or signal?” is probably one of the greatest productivity unlocks for entrepreneurs.