[UP 008] - alpha communities, the stockdale paradox, fat or muscle loss tradeoffs

Hello again.

We’re back. It’s UP. Edition 8. Let’s just jump straight in shall we?

Actually, let me add a little preview section to whet the appetite (and to help you skip to your dessert)

Here’s what’s in this week’s edition:

Play - 💪 Alpha communities - Why you should launch your community with this version first before you go public. And no it’s not a Gymbro fest!

Power - 🥩 Fat vs Muscle loss - Why fasting and its health benefits might actually not be worth it when it comes to your lean muscle.

Presence - 🤔 Stockdale Paradox - Why we must master the difference between faith in better times, and confrontation in bleak times.

Ready? Here we go.

Play - Alpha communities

Communities are great.

I’ve joined a couple this year and I’ve found it’s been a cool way to meet like-minded people and make friends. But it also makes for a great business model.

• Super low cost

• Recurring revenue

• Specific interest groups

• Customers serving each other

• Customers having great experiences

Great right? I’m gonna make sure we incorporate some community with our upcoming brand.

But how exactly do we launch a community?

We launch using an alpha.

I was listening to a video by a guy called Pat Flynn this week, a friendly online marketing guy for those unfamiliar, and he explained the alpha launch concept using the metaphor of launching a restaurant.

Basically, imagine it like inviting 5-10 VIP members of your audience to come and enjoy your pop-up dining experience for free. Start with your most active and likely to play ball members. Show them the concept. Test systems and get their feedback on the experience. And keep working with them closely until they love it.

Now this alpha launch is different from the beta launch. That follows after.

That’s more like a soft launch to your audience where you have your onboarding dialed in and you’re ready to open doors, but to a smaller controlled group that know, like and trust you. Get this right and you’re on your way to go public.

Here were some other little ideas I took away:

• Use applications if it’s premium & specific. You can create different experiences for those who are willing to pay more and want that upgraded better experience.

• Collect community wins. Make a separate space to share stories and celebrate the customer. Make them the hero and feature them on your social media channels.

• And last but not least remember - People come for the content but they stay for the community. So make it a great experience.

Hope that’s made you warm and fuzzy.

Now let me ask you a question no one asks you - your fat or your muscle?

Power - Fat or muscle loss? You decide

One of the big things I’ve been wrestling with for a long time on my health journey coming out of the colder months (where I’ve added some extra pounds), is the idea of training vs fasting. Especially when it comes to dropping body fat.

What’s best? At what times? What’s the optimal mix?

So it was quite surprising and rather admirable to hear a Doc I admire, Dr. Peter Attia, who has been a big fasting advocate in recent years quite publicly, admit that now he’s changed his mind and feels differently about fasting now.

Here’s the video I heard him share his 180, along with some other interesting new takes.

(I massively recommend listening to the video in full when you get some time, but don’t worry, I got the main passage below.)

Here’s what Dr. Attia had to say why he changed his mind on fasting:

"I believe that while there were some clear benefits, it is challenging to quantify the cellular effects. However, I personally felt that the advantages outweighed the downsides.

The main downside of fasting is the loss of muscle mass.

Despite exercising during fasting periods, it is difficult to maintain lean mass. Consequently, I consistently experienced a gradual decline in muscle mass, amounting to approximately 10 pounds over three years.

Presently, I no longer find this trade-off worthwhile, particularly at the extreme level I was previously practicing. Therefore, I have not engaged in a prolonged multi-day fast since the end of 2020."

Any loss of muscle is a big hit to our longevity, but interestingly, fasting too has been shown to promote longevity too.

(I should so reference another rat study right now.
If you’re new here, I like to share rat studies.
Fuck it, here’s the study.)

My take, I think fasting has its place overall, not just for cutting body fat. It’s a great mental discipline as well as a great practical way to get into a flow state when combined with keto. BUT it’s not the answer alone.

I’m looking at creating a more balanced way (weights, fun cardio and some timely fasting) to reach my goals and maintain a decent level of physical fitness. Would love to know how and if you use fasting.

Right, let’s finish with some perspective shifting.

Presence - The Stockdale Paradox

In my reading this week I revisited some James Stockdale wisdom taken from the booklet ‘Courage Under Fire’.

Who’s that? Until recently I had no idea. But this guy is a real-life hero.

The quick bio:

• 37-year Navy career

• Vietnam War POW hero

• Vice presidential candidate (1992)

• Medal of Honor recipient

• Influenced by Stoic philosophy

• Good sense of humour!

Seriously a guy well worth exploring further.

Anyway, in the classic business book Good to Great, Jim Collins describes a conversation with Stockdale about his coping strategy while he was captured and taken as a prisoner.

Stockdale told him:

“I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

Collins asked him who didn’t make it out of Vietnam. Stockdale replied:

“Oh, that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

Stockdale continued:

“This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

Collins went on to label this as the “Stockdale Paradox.”

Bottom line here is we would do well to live in the grey of life. Not at any binary end of the hope spectrum where we are too emotional.

The Stockdale Paradox teaches us to live with Stoic-like acceptance and confrontation of the ugliness of the situation at hand. But also to have unwavering faith that we will change it.

Damn, that gives me the chills.

Here’s to us keeping grounded in reality with that balance in unwanted times.

That’s a wrap for this week. Thanks for reading. It’s so fun to write these for you.

Until next time.

Always Forward,
Utkarsh

P.S. I have a confession. I need your advice.

I wanna grow our UP audience and I want to do it in a couple of ways.
1) Write better emails so that…
2) You’re guilted into referring friends & family 😇

So with that said, I’m gonna ask you…

Appreciate your input! Have a great week.