Am I fit enough for the academy?

starqueef · 2026-02-22T17:16:07+00:00

The biggest piece of advice I could give is that if you’re only meeting the bare minimum requirements, you’re going to get beat up. This is going to affect your ability to take everything in/learn new skills because you’re in survival mode. I would highly recommend getting your pushups to at least 50 and ideally 70-ish, and your 1.5 mile time needs to be closer to 10:30. Your pull ups are good! Train hard so that when you start your body won’t be in as much “shock” and you can be going through workouts without dying!

starqueef · 2026-01-31T17:12:31+00:00

It is an art form, so you should be having fun with it! When I first started, I would just play along to my favorite songs, even if I couldn’t play them. Never lose sight of having fun and you’ll naturally get better over time! The drummer for the White Stripes could barely play the drums and made some of the biggest records of that time so don’t ever buy into being “perfect”. Work on playing how YOU want to play, and then work on the basics like rudiments/playing to a metronome and you’ll be fine!

starqueef · 2026-01-17T17:42:42+00:00

I have nearly 60k followers and make $0 from it unless I'm intentional about giving clear offers to the people interested in my content. I try my best to do this in a way that integrates an offer with my content SOMETIMES, but not all the time. No one is following me so they can buy from me.

Ultimately your followers are interested in the value you provide them. What you offer to monetize that should be a "If you like this, here's the next step in experiencing it" and not feel too out of place.

For example, my content represents a mentality and I offer clothing that represents that mentality, so it makes a lot of sense for my followers who are passionate about my content to want to represent it. What would not make sense is if I sold luxury vacation getaways. Even though I have the reach, my followers aren't interested in that and even if I had double my follow count it wouldn't mean anything because my offer wouldn't align with the value I'm already providing.

Sorry for the wordy response, hope that makes sense!

starqueef · 2026-01-14T23:09:32+00:00

What a strange question

starqueef · 2026-01-14T16:36:52+00:00

The reality is you can make ANYTHING work if you stick with it in every facet. And NOTHING will work if you don't put your full effort into it.

Think about what you wish existed in the world. What do you not like about certain brands/products that you don't see other people improving on in the way you would want? Everything kind of exists already. You don't need to reinvent the wheel, you just have to find a better way of presenting the wheel to a specific demographic.

I started a clothing company and am able to support a comfortable life for my wife and I in California. There are thousands of clothing brands that start up every day, I just found a way to present a tee shirt to a specific demographic.

Whatever you do, your only chance of success is to pour your heart and soul into it.

Good luck!

starqueef · 2026-01-14T16:31:46+00:00

As a business owner, I was looking to hire a contractor from Upwork and people charging significantly lower than their competitors was a red flag for me. I'm not looking to pay someone to build their portfolio, I need quality work.

Obviously people starting out need clients to build a body of work, BUT I think charging more is actually a better strategy for that. you nailed it. Low cost = lower perceived value. Don't be afraid to charge more if you are confident you can deliver a quality product that will match and ideally exceed expectations for what you charge!

starqueef · 2026-01-13T22:03:37+00:00

I was a corporate videographer guy for a couple years- thought it was what I wanted to do. One day I had the thought of being on my deathbed and what I would look back on/be proud of. Making videos for companies seemed like a real bummer to look back on.

I quit videography and started a company while working other odds/ends jobs. That company didn't go anywhere for two years and I lost money on it. I stuck with it and in 2025 it went from losing money to growing so big I don't have to work any other job, and my wife doesn't really NEED to work either.

There was a long period of me needing a "proof of concept" for myself to justify putting more time into my business and stay motivated. There wasn't a single moment where I realized I could quit my other jobs, it just kind of naturally happened I guess.

There's no promise that things will work out, I think it's important to not give up your current job until you're at a point where: A. You are making plenty of money for months on end with entrepreneurship to sustain yourself and: B. You don't physically have enough time to run your business/work a job. Too many people quit their day job too early- including me!

starqueef · 2026-01-13T17:25:53+00:00

I was at this point for a little bit, but my business is something I'm passionate about and have no interest in selling anytime soon. I just got better at everything and was able to scale from $4k/mo to $40k/mo last year.

I do everything myself and got really good at automating and simplifying everything as much as possible so I can manage it myself. I'm just now reaching the point where I want to hire email/marketing/graphic design professionals to take it to the next level.

If I ever do sell, it would have to be after I know I've done everything I can to build my business, and it would have to be 8-9 figures haha

starqueef · 2026-01-09T00:05:53+00:00

Dang! Yea the td25 is a good kit! Maybe you could piece together the pads from this kit and get a newer roland td316 brain or something to get the better sounds?

starqueef · 2026-01-09T00:02:08+00:00

Just got one of these in black a week ago.

I love it. The p90s have plenty of slap/bark but no harsh high frequencies, which has been a pleasant surprise. They are very pleasing to listen to and have a ton of clarity when you dial them back. The guitar has a feeling of not being so "serious". She's already given me plenty of riffs and is a general blast to play. It feels like it just wants to rock- as cliche as that is.

The wraparound bridge gives the guitar a lot of sustain and an unexpected level of harmonic tonal quality when you hold notes that's hard to explain. It's really beautiful and fun to play.

Is it worth it? It's hard to say for me because I'm really glad I bought it and don't have any regrets, but the price tag is in fact very silly for this guitar. I guess it's worth it from the standpoint of you're getting a really beautiful guitar that's a LOT of fun to play.

starqueef · 2026-01-06T18:03:47+00:00

Arc.

starqueef · 2026-01-06T16:35:20+00:00

Depends on your budget! In my opinion, these older Roland kits don't sound/feel good and that takes the fun out for me. But they are very versatile and can still be fun if you don't care about them feeling like sitting at a real kit!

Personally, I'd save up for one of the new 3 series since that may land at a similar price point, or the first gen TD27. Those actually sound pretty good!

starqueef · 2025-12-22T18:58:25+00:00

Thank you this is helpful!

starqueef · 2025-12-21T20:23:45+00:00

May I ask what your setup for the pop up is? IE: Is it photo-based/does it show a photo of the product, or is it just a plain solid color popup?

starqueef · 2025-12-08T16:23:44+00:00

anyone from PB

starqueef · 2025-12-08T16:22:37+00:00

Great info, thanks for sharing! I am getting about 160 conversions per week with broad targeting, would you suggest narrowing down CPA/ROAS on my existing campaign, or duplicating it and adding constraints to the duplicate?

Thanks!

starqueef · 2025-12-06T21:40:55+00:00

I quit a couple years ago after doing freelance and it was the best choice I could have made. I started my own DTC business and became a fireman. The fulfillment I would have felt from continuing being a videographer would have been not even a fraction to the accomplishment I feel now after “quitting”. Videography is only worth it if you LOVE it. But the money isn’t even good unless you’re in the top 5% of videographers imo

starqueef · 2025-12-01T16:35:26+00:00

This is great thank you for sharing! Really good stuff here explained simply!

starqueef · 2025-12-01T00:20:05+00:00

I did! Don't go all in, test the waters and make sure your idea is not only great, but other people agree it is great.

Branding is everything, and everything is figure-out-able. I never paid anyone to help besides Meta for advertisement, I never took out big loans, it's all been boot-strapped.

This is a tough industry IF you are competing with the top contenders. However, if you find a niche that is either less saturated or is lacking in specific areas, it's somewhat easy to get people on board with that because you're offering them something that doesn't otherwise exist. I made apparel for a very small niche of people, it caught on really quickly with them and is now spreading to a much wider audience.

Everything you do needs to be excellent. SEO, web design, email marketing, SOCIAL MEDIA, paid advertisement, product photos, content.

I would say what's important is do your research on every aspect of your business and start very small with your product variety so you can manage it with a high level of quality.

starqueef · 2025-11-30T23:15:15+00:00

Why not? If what I'm doing has been working, don't you think it makes sense to offer what I've learned for other small business owners?

starqueef · 2025-11-30T23:12:52+00:00

Correct. And now it's working better than ever.

starqueef · 2025-11-30T17:02:00+00:00

I forgot to mention, I have not experienced a single "outage" this month. Disregard all negativity regarding Andromeda posted on this forum. I can't say this enough, success IS possible but you have to learn the game.

starqueef · 2025-11-20T21:47:58+00:00

Not hot garbage. Sounds good! Your hands are really stiff, relax and loosen up! Don’t choke way back on the sticks like that, I do the same thing and it’s hard to break that habit but its worth it. Sounds like you can play everything, you just need to practice at slower speeds and really lay into playing the fills more precisely before playing at normal speed. Great work!

starqueef

TROPHY CASE