Founder of 1% Better™ | Former accountant, future author | Follow me for the best self-development content on LinkedIn

Former accountant.
Future author.

I share actionable, educational, and entertaining self-development content to help my readers live their best lives.

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Colby Kultgen

The scariest part is how normal this feels.

Like we just woke up one day and our entire life existed between three different screens.

If you want to reduce your screen time in 2026, I wrote a step-by-step article on what actually worked for me.

Link in comments.

5 mindset shifts that will change your life in 2026:

1. I can't → I'll learn

Every expert was once a beginner who refused to quit. If you're struggling, it just means you haven't put in enough reps yet.

❌ "I can't do this"
✓ "I'll learn if I stick with it."

———

2. I don't have time → I'm not prioritizing it

Be honest about what matters. If something's truly important, you'll find the time. 

❌ "I don't have time to work out" 
✓ "I'm choosing other things over working out right now."

———

3. I need motivation → I need momentum

Motivation doesn't find you—you create it through action. Motion beats mood every time.


❌ "I just don't feel like it today" 
✓ "If I just start for 5 minutes, I'll probably keep going."

———

4.  I'm quitting → I'm pivoting

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is climb down the wrong mountain so you can start climbing up the right one.

❌ "I've spent 5 years on this, I can't quit now." 
✓ "I've spent 5 years on this, better to cut my losses now and move toward something I enjoy."

———

5.  I failed → I learned

Failure isn't the opposite of success—it's part of the process. Every setback is data for your next attempt.

❌ "I tried and failed, so I guess I'm not cut out for this" 
✓ "I tried and it didn't work. Now I know what not to do next time."

———

♻️ Repost if these resonate.
Send this post to someone who could use it.

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A simple question I use to turn around an “off” day:

What’s the best way I can spend the next 5 minutes?

Yep, that’s usually all it takes.

5 minutes of movement.
5 minutes of writing.
5 minutes of conversation.
5 minutes of something that brings you back to yourself.

When an airplane is off course, a shift of just a few degrees can make the difference between landing in New York or ending up in the middle of the ocean.

Our days work the same way.

Never underestimate the power of 5 good minutes.

♻️ Repost this if it resonated.

Discipline doesn’t need to be difficult.

Here are 5 ways to stay consistent in 2026 (without superhuman willpower):

1️⃣ "Dailyish" Habits
Committing to something “dailyish” keeps you consistent without the guilt of missing a day. It’s flexible, sustainable, and removes the all-or-nothing pressure that leads could lead to burnout.

2️⃣ Shrink the Starting Line
Big goals feel overwhelming. Instead, start with a ridiculously tiny version of the habit: one push-up, one sentence, one minute.

3️⃣ Set "No-Later-Than" Rules
Set buffers instead of rigid deadlines. For example, instead of waking up at exactly 6:00 AM, commit to being up no later than 7:00 AM. Anything earlier is a win.

4️⃣ No "Zero Days"
Even on your worst days, find one small action to move forward. A single page, a quick stretch, or just tidying your workspace keeps the momentum alive.

5️⃣ Design for Bad Days
Don’t build habits for your most motivated self. Build them for the tired, distracted, low-energy version of you. If it only works on “good days,” it won’t last.

How do you plan on staying disciplined in 2026?

———

Shoutout to Oliver Burkeman for tips 1 and 3.
Image credit: No One Cares on Facebook

An exercise everyone should do in 2026:

The Calendar Energy Audit.

We often assume that our biggest limitation is time.

It’s not. 

The real limitation is our energy.

CEO coach Matt Mochary puts it like this:
“We all feel like we have limited time, but that’s not the case. What we really have is LIMITED ENERGY. If we start doing more things that raise our energy, it enables us to do more things in general.”

So where do you start with this?

By removing the activities that drain you.

Here’s how:
1. Review your calendar from a past week, hour by hour.
2. Label each activity GREEN (gave energy) or RED (drained energy).
3. Look for patterns. What consistently shows up as RED?
4. Reschedule, delegate, or eliminate those tasks.

For every RED item, ask yourself three questions:
• Does this need to happen?
• If yes, does it have to be done by me?
• If yes, how can I make it more enjoyable?

You won’t be able to eliminate every RED task (and that’s okay).

But even cutting a few can make a huge difference.

♻️ Repost this if it resonates.

graphical user interface, text, application

How to read 50 books in a year (even if you’re busy):

How to read 50 books in a year (even if you’re busy)

7 questions that will define your next decade (a 15-minute exercise you won’t regret):

7 questions that will define your next decade

The goal-setting method used by the best baseball player in the world:

If you don't know who Shohei Ohtani is, he's basically the Michael Jordan of baseball.

The single most dominant two-way player the sport has seen in a century.

When he was a high school freshman in Japan, he created this detailed 64-cell roadmap with one central goal: to be the number 1 draft pick for 8 NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) teams.

And it worked.

If you're wondering, this is called the Harada Method.

Here's a quick breakdown:

1. Choose one clear, meaningful long-term goal and a deadline.
2. Break that main goal into 8 subgoals that cover different areas needed to achieve it.
3. Break each subgoal into 8 specific actions, skills, or habits (filling the 8×8 grid).
4. Turn the most important actions into a small set of daily routines and track them.
5. Review your progress regularly, adjusting subgoals and actions based on what you learn.

This is a pretty intense exercise, which I definitely don't think is for everyone.

But I do think it's an amazing way to break down a big goal into something actually actionable.

I’ve linked a template in the comments if you want to try it.

I’ve spent the better part of the last decade obsessing over productivity.

Not just how to get more done.
But how to get the IMPORTANT things done.

Here's everything I wish I knew 10 years ago summed up in 20 sentences.

Make sure to save them.

♻️ Repost this if it resonated.

I’m 34. 

Last year, I moved to a city where I didn’t know anyone.

I wish I could say that I immediately built a strong social circle, but that’s not true.

The reality is I struggled.

I’m a huge introvert, so socializing doesn’t come naturally to me at all.
And adult friendships don’t “just happen” like they do when we’re young.

The big unlock for me was realizing that building friendships requires the same intentional effort as anything else important in my life.

So that’s what I did.

I got intentional. I put in the reps.
And guess what happened? It worked.

Here’s everything I learned along the way:

How to build (and maintain) friendships as an adult

I love the message here.

It's so easy to get caught in the trap of "I'm too old", or "it's too late".

But here's the reality: Five years from now, you’ll be five years older regardless of what you do with that time.

You may as well spend it becoming the person you want to be.

It reminds me of a story I heard from writer Mark Manson:

"A friend of mine once told me a story about his grandmother. He said that when her husband died, she was 62, and for the first time in her life, she began to take piano lessons. For weeks, she practiced all day, every day. At first, the family thought it was a phase, but months went by and she kept playing.
​
By the time she was in her 90s, she had been playing piano every day for 30 years—longer than most professional musicians have been alive. Everyone who heard her play swore she must have been a concert pianist in her youth. No one believed her when she said she took her first lesson in her sixties."

As we head into 2026, don’t let “too old” or “too late” be the reason you hold yourself back.

 How to get your sh*t together in 2026

12 habits in 12 months to change your life forever.

My friend Justin Wright put together this useful cheat sheet of 12 daily habits with massive ROI.

My challenge to you:
Pick one habit per month for the next year.

Master it before moving to the next.

By December 2026, you'll have 12 life-changing habits on autopilot.

♻️ Repost to share with your network.
➕ Follow me (Colby Kultgen) for daily self-improvement content

I’m 34.

Here are 7 career “cheat codes” I wish I learned sooner:

7 career cheat codes I wish I knew sooner

Don't set SMART goals in 2024.

Set SMARTER goals...

We've all heard it before, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, etc.

But I've always thought something was missing from this framework.

Actually, a couple things:
1. Making goals easy to start immediately(most people get stuck here).
2. Encouraging regular reflection and adjustment of goals.

Thus, SMARTER goals were born:

Specific: Clear and well-defined.
Measurable: Quantifiable or assessable.
Achievable: Realistically attainable.
Relevant: Aligned with broader objectives.
Time-bound: Has a defined timeline.
Easy to start: Simple to initiate or begin.
Reflective: Encourages regular reflection.

Try them out.
Let me know what you think.

———

♻️ If you enjoyed this, repost it to your network and follow me (Colby Kultgen) for more content like this.

7 cheat codes to remember (almost) everything you learn.

Save this and send it to your study/work buddy!

7 cheat codes to remember (almost) everything you learn

In a perfect world, we'd be off our phones completely.

Probably skipping through a meadow somewhere.

Sadly, we don't live in a perfect world.

So I figured if you're going to be on your phone, you might as well be doing something that actually adds to your life.

Save this and repost it if you got some value.

8 Apps to Grow Your Brain Instead of Rotting It:

Avoid these time management mistakes in 2026.

Save this and repost if it resonated!

5 brutal time management mistakes stealing your life

How to improve any relationship in your life in 2026.

Take out your phone and send this text message:

“How can I be a better [friend / partner / son / etc.] to you?”

When I first heard this idea, I knew I had to try it immediately.

To be honest, I was pretty nervous.

Sending a message like this requires a lot of vulnerability.

But the responses I received were amazing.

They gave me specific and practical ways to show up better in the lives of the people I care about most.

This is the kind of question we should feel comfortable asking but rarely do.

Instead, we go through life assuming we know how others feel.

What they need.
What they expect.
How they want us to show up.

But the truth is: most of us don’t have a clue.

Asking is how we learn.

Try this out.

You might be surprised by what they share and how much they appreciate that you cared enough to ask.

January 16th was National Quitter's Day.

Yep, by the second Friday of January, roughly 80% of people will have already given up on their New Year's resolutions.

Which makes today the perfect day to recommit.

Save this and send it to someone who needs it.

How to actually start doing something (and stick with it)

Jay Yang

Head of Content to Noah Kagan

Deciding to drop out of college to join Acquisition.com changed my life.

But that's not where the story starts...

When I was 16, I cold-emailed Tyler Denk, the CEO of beehiiv, with a list of ideas on how I could help. That email turned into an internship where I built beehiiv 101 - a course that’s helped hundreds of users unlock the platform’s potential.

At 17, I sent Noah Kagan, founder of AppSumo, a 19-page pitch deck breaking down gaps in his social media and email marketing - and how to fix them. That landed me a role as Head of Content, where I led campaigns (like the one that made Million Dollar Weekend a New York Times bestseller).

At 18, I decided to try my hand at the game of business and scaled a boutique ghostwriting and creative studio to six-figures within its first year.

At 19, I dropped out of college to work at Acquisition.com on Alex & Leila Hormozi’s media team where I led the written content engine. I was their first and only internal copywriter and wrote across every major format including social, email, ads, VSLs, and YouTube.

I also helped run the marketing campaign that broke a Guinness World Record for most nonfiction books sold in 24 hours and generated $106M in three days. 

It's been a ride.

Today, I focus on three things:

First, I write books about building a career without waiting for permission. My first book, You Can Just Do Things, became an Amazon #1 bestseller.

Second, I publish The Spark, a weekly newsletter on marketing and strategy read by more than 10,000 people. It's where I test ideas before they turn into books, frameworks, or client work.

Third, I work directly with a small number of founders and CEOs on developing their brand positioning and creative strategy. If you're looking to elevate your brand, feel free to reach out :)

When I’m not working, you’ll usually find me lifting heavy things (roughly 10-12 times), playing pickup basketball, or working on my next book.

Content Strategist

I landed a $150,000 head of content role at 17.
How?


I sent a pitch deck.

It was 19 slides - that broke down Noah’s social and email funnel… and how it could be improved.

On top of that, I sent 9 ready to be published pieces of content.

Why does creating pitch decks work?

Because it eliminates the two most common friction points employers have:

1. Who are you?
2. Can you help me?

By doing the work upfront, you show:

1. You want the job
2. You can do the job

I call this “The Permissionless Approach”.

Wanna see the pitch deck I sent?

Comment “PITCH” and I’ll DM you!

(Make sure to send me a connection request so I can message you)

I want to be rich.
I’ll admit it.


But not so I can buy a Rolex or Lamborghini.

I want to be rich so I can control my time and go to the gym at 3pm on a Tuesday.

So I can sit at a cafe and order breakfast without looking at the prices.

So my wife and parents don’t have to worry about money or getting a job.

So I can travel freely and show my kids the world.

So I can take my friends out to dinner and say “don’t worry, it’s on me”.

That’s my idea of a rich life.

Money isn’t the goal. It’s a tool to live a deeper, more fulfilling, adventurous life.

Hi, I’m Jay Yang. 👋 
Got a bunch of new connections, so wanted to reintroduce myself.

A hill I'm willing to die on:
I believe you don’t need permission to create your own opportunities. 

When I was 16, I cold-emailed Tyler Denk, the CEO of beehiiv, with a list of ideas on how I could help. That email turned into an internship where I built beehiiv 101—a course that’s helped hundreds of users unlock the platform’s potential. 

At 17, I sent Noah Kagan, founder of AppSumo, a 19-page pitch deck breaking down gaps in his social media and email marketing—and how to fix them. That landed me a role as Head of Content, where I helped run campaigns (like the one that made Million Dollar Weekend a New York Times bestseller). 

At 18, I decided to try my hand at the game of business and scaled a ghostwriting and creative agency to six-figures within its first year. 

At 19, I self-published my first book You Can Just Do Things, which became an Amazon best-seller, and dropped out of college to work at Acquisition.com.

It's been a ride.

What I learned:
Most things in life are way more achievable than you think. If you decide what you want, and go after it with full effort and intensity, the world will bend to your will far more easily than you might think. You can just do things!

Today, I focus on two things:

1️⃣ I write books about building a career without waiting for permission. I'm working on my second book right now. 👀 

2️⃣  I publish The Spark, a weekly newsletter on marketing and strategy read by more than 10,000 people. It's where I test ideas before they turn into books, frameworks, or client work.

(You can subscribe free here: https://lnkd.in/gcsRwcSp)

When I’m not working, you’ll usually find me lifting heavy things (roughly 10-12 times), playing pickup basketball, or hanging with my family.

If any of that tickles your fancy, welcome to my corner of the internet. 🤝 
~~
Ps. My story may look like a straight line, but there were countless mistakes, dark moments, and f*ck ups along the way.

I give a TON of credit to the incredible mentors and people who took a chance on an ambitious, naive kid.

And it goes without saying, I wouldn't be who I am without the unwavering support of my parents and brother Max Yang 🫶 

Let's keep getting after it!
- Jay

2025 was hands down the BEST year of my life.
Why, you ask? ...



I followed through with my goals.

How?

Accountability.

For every single goal that I had:

• Gaining 10 lbs. of lean muscle
• Growing my Instagram to 250,000 followers
• Running a marathon

... I had an accountability buddy (or buddies).

2026 is no different.

I just wrapped up a 2 HOUR Q1 2026 planning session with my friends - and it was AWESOME (!!)

We each wrote down what we wanted to START doing, KEEP doing, and QUIT doing.

Then we wrote down the inputs of how we would measure progress.

• Austin Kennedy's going to be posting content every single day. 👀

• Luna Bitar's focused on scaling her app to $5k mrr. 📈

• Sofia Marin's writing 300 words a day towards her first book! 🔥

• Connor Burd's locked in on scaling his app to the moon 🫡

• Thomas Tsiftilis's goal is to land an internship at an early-stage fin-tech startup ⚒️ 

• And I'm posting 2 reels every day on Instagram + working on my second book 😈 

2026 is gonna be HUGE (!!)

What's one of your 2026 goals? 👇

Hot take:
One of the best ways to network is in fact NOT to be interested…


But instead to be interesting.

Be valuable. Have a skill set. Be someone worth knowing.

No one wants to hang around someone who's needy.

This is Frank Lofaro... and he changed my life.
Here's the story:


When I was in high school, I used to binge watch the vlogs the Acquisition.com team put out. One of the recurring characters was Frank ‘the Tank’.

He started as a recruiter, was promoted to director of recruiting (where he hired over half the team), then became director of workshop operations.

So when I joined Acquisition.com... I'll admit I was nervous. I'd been watching these people for years. Now I had to work alongside them.

One of the first people I opened up to was Frank. I told him I was feeling some imposter syndrome being around so many talented people.

He looked at me, smiled, and stopped me mid-sentence.

“Jay, stop. You totally belong here. There’s a reason you were recruited.”

Then he told me a story that’s stuck with me:

→ “Eagles fly high. Pigeons fly low.

If you think you’re a pigeon, take a look around.

If all you see are eagles, chances are… you’re an eagle too.

And if you still doubt that you’re an eagle, just give time time. Pigeons can’t fly at eagle's height for long.”
 
And that’s just one of the many lessons I learned from Frank.

When I joined Acquisition.com, I came in knowing a lot about content and media, but almost nothing about business.

Frank woke up at 3:30 am every morning with me for two months straight and jammed on business and scaling (Yep… you read that right).

And the result?

The other day I was talking to a guy who owns a moving company. He said his business had stalled out and was at the same revenue level for the past few years.

I asked him how he was getting customers, what margins were, and whether he could take more customers.

I realized his margins were getting crushed because his price was too low.

I told him his offer was commoditized and he needed to find ways to increase the perceived value so he could raise prices.

He was shocked I could diagnose it that fast with almost no context.

And it was because of all the pattern recognition I learned with Frank.

Honestly, I feel like such a weapon now. 

Frank, thank you for helping me believe in myself.

Thank you for waking up at 3:30 am to work through business problems with me.

Thank you for being my basketball buddy, and for always being willing to listen.

Most of all, thank you for being a great friend.
~~
Go follow Frank Lofaro to improve your business & people & process acumen!

When I was 17, I landed a role as head of content to Noah Kagan.
It completely changed my life. Here're my top 10 lessons:


1) Work backward from your Dream Life
2) Test, then invest
3) Pay attention to your money relationship
4) Build an email list
5) Focus on ONE goal
6) Double down, double down, double down
7) The Name Test
8) Have more patience it will work out
9) Don’t let work consume your life
10) If you don’t ask, you won’t get

There are so many more lessons that I’ve learned from Noah.

But my BIGGEST takeaway is to find people that inspire you… and go learn from them.

You don’t need permission. Ask!

Love ya, Noah Kagan 🫡

10 lessons from Noah Kagan

Have a bunch of people asking to join the LinkedIn group I made.

Should I open it up to the public? Will only do it if more than 25 people comment "YES" on this post.

I gained 2,000 followers in one week.
Here's how:


Step 1: Survey the landscape

Whenever I'm starting a new project or entering a new field, I try to gather as much context as possible.

I texted my LinkedIn influencer friends for advice on how to start posting on LinkedIn well.

They gave me great advice:
• Post ~5 times a week
• Post in the morning (more people are active)
• Post stories / personal posts on Sundays
• Saturdays have the worst engagement
• Focus deeply on your hooks (it's diff than every other platform)
• The first 15min after your post is live is most important to get engagement
• Comment underneath other people's posts with insights

Step 2: Define my goal

I'm not here to waste my time and yours posting AI slop and "7 reasons why you need to mediate" BS.

I'm here to share my story. To test ideas before they become newsletters and book concepts. To inspire people. And to sell my book You Can Just Do Things.

How can you win if you haven't defined what "winning" means?

Step 3: Don't reinvent the wheel

A friend told me that giveaway posts were doing well.

(This is when you tell people to comment and then DM them a free gift)

So I gave away the pitch deck that helped me land a $150,000 role at 17.

This brought in 1,000 new followers.

Then (and here's where it gets good), he told me to make a "reintroduction post" where I reintroduce myself and my story to all my new followers.

This brought in 500 new followers.

Bang bang.

Then... I shared a mega 10-slide carousel on lessons I learned working with Noah Kagan.

Bang - another 300 followers.

I told my friend what happened and he said, "Good. Now do it every month."

Mind blown.

So be on the lookout for more goodies ;)

Step 4: Don't do it alone

I created a group chat with 4 other creator friends who are also going hard on LinkedIn in 2026.

We share tips, give feedback, and just overall send good vibes to each other.

I'm definitely more consistent because I'm not doing this LinkedIn thing alone.

Hope this is helpful!

I'm having a blast figuring this platform out.
- Jay Yang

Ps. I truly believe one of the best things you can do for your career is write online. Not only do you hone a foundational skill, but you also attract other like-minded people.

I can point everything great that has happened in my career back to my decision to start writing online in 2021.

If you're debating if you should start but don't know where to start, try this:

• What did you learn this past week?
• What are your goals for next week?
• What are you thinking/struggling with?

Cheers! 🤝

Weekends are for building 🫡 

Can anyone guess what I'm making?👇

Connecting people together is my love language.

Comment below. How can I help you? 👇

A hill I'm willing to die on: STOP networking. Skip the networking events. Skip the coffee chats. Skip the "can we connect?" LinkedIn requests.

Build yourself into the type of person the people you want to network with WANT to hang around. That's the only hack.

The weeks after the holiday season is always weird for me.

I move slower. I take more time to rest. I reflect a lot.

And the past few weeks have been no different.

2025 was the best year of my life.

• I scaled my ghostwriting agency
• Wrote my first book
• Dropped out of college
• Moved across the country
• Ran a marathon
• And had a ton of internal revelations living on my own for the past year.

I had a friend ask me what my 2026 goals were.

I expected myself to say more followers, more money, more recognition, and feeling “happy”.

But my answer surprised me…

I said, “peace”.

And I've been thinking about why that caught me off guard.

I think when you're young, you want external things (attention, money, recognition, validation). You think if you just get enough of those, you'll feel complete. So you chase them. You put your head down, grind, and tell yourself you'll figure out the rest later.

But the older I get (and I know, I'm only 20, but still), the more I realize those external things were never really the point. The things I actually wanted were internal all along (close relationships, freedom, confidence, and feeling at peace).

Sure, I still have external goals.

• I want to write my second book.
• Record more videos for Instagram.
• Buy my first real estate property.
• Bench 225 lbs.

But for the most part, I just want to continue compounding the momentum I built in 2025. I want more good days.

And maybe that sounds like my ambition is quieting down.

But I actually think it's the opposite.

I saw this tweet the other day from James Clear. Dan Go asked him what a normal day of work looks like, and he said:

"Wake up without an alarm. Read and write in the morning. Eat lunch and go for a walk. Interviews and calls in the afternoon. Lift. Eat dinner. Family time."

That's it. Nothing flashy. No private jets or crazy launches or viral moments.

And I don't know. Something about that hit me. It's so simple. Most people would look at that and think it's boring. But I think that's the whole point.

A good life is just a string of good days. And that? That's a really good day.

So I'll leave you with a question I've been sitting with:

If you couldn't tell anyone what you were working on, would you still work on it?

I'm still figuring that out myself.

The highest performers I know are rubber balls not glass balls, they bounce they don't break.

Kevin Kim’s got a mean serve 😮‍💨🥲

Creator Partnerships | 8+ Figures in Creator Partnerships Closed

LEAVE YOUR HOUSE!

I work from home. It's easy to stay home. Too easy.

But the amount of time you spend at home is inversely correlated to your success - professionally and romantically. (From Scott Galloway's newest book).

In the age of remote work, it's easy to become sedated by an unremarkable cycle of waking up, working, scrolling, eating, and sleeping.

You forget to live.

Here's what's been getting me out lately:
- Indoor volleyball
- Pickleball with Jay Yang
- Hitting the gym
- Pickup basketball
- Working at a cafe or friend's office

Home is for sleep and recharging. That's it.

Remote work is a privilege. Don't let it become a prison.

What's your go-to reason to leave the house? 👇

Well this post blew up...
Want the pitch deck?

My hands hurt from replying and messaging everyone 😅 
And I'm pretty sure I missed a bunch of you (sorry!)

So here's the link to the pitch deck for free:

https://lnkd.in/gQEeTjwm

Enjoy!

Ps. If you use "The Permissionless Approach" - please DM me... I'd love to hear your story (!!) 

Pps. If you click around my website, you may find some other juicy pitch decks 👀

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The Battle

Colby Kultgen

Jay Yang

Followers

Posts

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Performance ScoreColby Kultgen's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJay Yang's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Colby Kultgen

Jay Yang

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Colby Kultgen's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJay Yang's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreColby Kultgen's LinkedIn Performance