George Mack

How George Mack got highagency.com for nearly free

Mack wanted the premium domain highagency.com but it looked like tens of thousands of dollars. By working brokers he found the 20-year owner was about to let it expire, waited for it to drop into a tiny auction nobody knew about, and won it cheap against only a cannabis marketing agency.

“we realized that highagency.com, the person who'd owned it for like 20 years, I think it was an old agency and it was about to expire when we looked at the domain. So we kind of sat there, waited for the moment that it would expire, and then it went into a little mini auction and nobody else online was aware of it. It was me and a marijuana, a cannabis marketing agency, which makes sense. High Agency.”

How George Mack got highagency.com for nearly free

Mack wanted the premium domain highagency.com but it looked like tens of thousands of dollars. By working brokers he found the 20-year owner was about to let it expire, waited for it to drop into a tiny auction nobody knew about, and won it cheap against only a cannabis marketing agency.

“we realized that highagency.com, the person who'd owned it for like 20 years, I think it was an old agency and it was about to expire when we looked at the domain. So we kind of sat there, waited for the moment that it would expire, and then it went into a little mini auction and nobody else online was aware of it. It was me and a marijuana, a cannabis marketing agency, which makes sense. High Agency.”

First self-made teenage billionaire by 2030

George Mack predicts that thanks to AI and a collapse in traditional teaching, the world will see its first self-made teenage billionaire by 2030. He frames it as an idea that makes him giggle, which by his own test signals it's worth taking seriously.

“is that you'll see the first teenage, first self-made teenage billionaire by the end, by 2030. And I think that, that makes me giggle when I say it, and I think it's true.”

Idea prompt: what's ignored by media but studied by historians?

Mack's favorite question for surfacing non-consensus opportunities: ask what is currently ignored or neglected by the media that will later be studied by historians. He cites microplastics and fentanyl as things he flagged years before the mainstream caught on.

“One of my favorite questions is, what is ignored or neglected by the media that will be studied by historians.”

Steal thisTo find non-consensus bets, ask what the media ignores today that historians will study tomorrow.

The Kael algorithm: filter your own feed to beat the algorithm

Mack audited his YouTube history and found he regretted ~80% of what he watched, almost all of it content under 30 minutes. So he built a script (the 'Kael algorithm') that hides any video under 30 minutes, taking agency over the feed instead of being 'bullied by algorithms.'

“And the single biggest thing of where I thought I wasted my time was content under 30 minutes long. Because it was just brain rot content, particularly under like 5 minutes long, like a Coffeezilla reaction of Logan Paul's done this crazy crypto pump and dump and I just click on it and then I'm in this like vortex.”

Steal thisAudit your watch history, find the common trait of regretted content, and script a filter that blocks it.

Theory of action vs theory of change (Aaron Swartz)

Mack cites Aaron Swartz's essay: a theory of action is doing what your role makes easy (a blogger blogs to cut military spending); a theory of change starts from the outcome and asks why/how repeatedly until you reach a concrete action you can take today.

“Whereas a theory of change is essentially where you go, okay, I want to decrease the United States military. What is— how can I do that? Or like, why, why, why, how, how, how, all the way down. Until you get to a concrete action that you can do today.”

Steal thisStart from the outcome you want and ask how/why until you hit a concrete action you can do today.

Dance therapy beat exercise and SSRIs for depression in a meta-analysis

Mack cites a depression meta-analysis where exercise outranked SSRIs, but dance therapy significantly outperformed exercise, CBT, yoga, and tai chi as the single biggest reducer of symptoms, suggesting a 'Headspace for dance therapy' opportunity.

“The number one, however, significantly more than exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy, higher than yoga, higher than tai chi, was dancing. Dance therapy outperformed exercise significantly. Dance, according to this meta-analysis, had the greatest impact in alleviating depression. So I think there's potentially a Headspace or a Calm to be made that is dance therapy.”

Bet on the countertrend (Chris Williamson)

A trend-spotting heuristic from Chris Williamson: when a new trend emerges, bet on the counter-trend it provokes. Mack applies it to rising nationalism (countered by 'cure your nationality' products) and to historically easy modern life (countered by demand for manufactured hardship).

“The next ADHD is, I think, so one great idea I heard for spotting trends, this came from Chris Williamson, is when a new trend is coming, bet on a countertrend occurring.”

Steal thisWhen you spot a strong trend, identify and build for the backlash counter-trend it will create.

Hardship as a service: a daily negative-visualization app

Following Chris Williamson's 'bet on the countertrend' rule, Mack pitches that because modern life is historically easy, people will crave hardship. His idea: a Stoic negative-visualization app that drops you into a WWII trench each morning so you wake up grateful, which he calls a potential billion-dollar product.

“So I think negative visualization is a tool from Stoicism, but I think there's probably a billion-dollar idea in a product, a product you could build out of that.”

Steal thisBuild a daily negative-visualization app that simulates historical hardship so users wake up grateful.

The third-world prison test for high agency

George Mack's fastest way to identify the most high-agency person you know: ask who you'd call to break you out of a third-world prison cell. The answer surfaces resourcefulness better than wealth or status.

“And the way I would describe high agency is if you were stuck in a third world prison cell, and had to call somebody to break you out, who would you call? And that's probably the most high-agency person that you know.”

Steal thisGauge someone's agency by asking who you'd call to break you out of a foreign prison.

The 4 tenets of high agency

George Mack breaks high agency into four components: locus of control, intentionalism (knowing your direction), resourcefulness (capable of the outcome), and a high bias for action.

“One, locus of control. So I have control. Two, intentionalism. So they've thought about the direction that they want to go in. Three, resourcefulness, which is I'm capable of getting the outcome. And then four, high bias for action, which is they've already fucking started the thing before they've even listened to this podcast. They're just constantly moving. So those four things.”

Steal thisAudit yourself against the four tenets: control, intentionalism, resourcefulness, bias for action.

Screen candidates with weird teenage hobbies

George Mack's favorite interview filter: ask about weird teenage hobbies. Going against the crowd as a teenager predicts high agency as an adult, and one founder uses it to pre-screen every candidate.

“one of my favorite ones that I've told a few founders and they go, this is awesome, of asking for weird teenage hobbies. Because if they can go against the crowd when they're a teenager, so much easier as an adult. It's tough, but it's easier. And I have one founder who voice memored me the other day and he goes, I pre-screen all candidates with that. And it's like the best quality filter of potential people.”

Steal thisAsk candidates about their weird teenage hobbies to test for independence and agency.

Treadmill friends vs. sofa friends

George Mack's energy test for high agency: treadmill friends leave you so energized you can't sleep, while sofa friends drain you until you need to lie down. Audit who in your life is which.

“Energy distortion field. So if you meet with them when you're tired and defeated, you leave the room ready to run a marathon on a treadmill with max incline. And low agency people do the opposite. So this is the kind of idea of treadmill friends. Afterwards, you've got so much energy, you need to go on a treadmill, you can't sleep. Then you have like sofa friends who you need to lie down after hanging out with them.”

Steal thisSort your relationships into treadmill friends and sofa friends; spend more time with the former.

Mean to your face, nice behind your back

George Mack argues high-agency people invert the default social incentives: instead of flattering you to your face and gossiping behind your back, they tell you the hard truth directly and praise you when you're gone.

“So to go against the social incentives of pain, I'll say a rude thing to your face that you need social pain. And also when you're not there, there's no benefit. Actually, all the benefit is to gossip behind your back. To do the opposite and swim upstream, you need agency.”

The cocaine phone vs. kale phone method

George Mack carries two phones with separate SIMs. The kale phone holds only serotonin apps and necessities (Audible, Notes, Uber, Maps) plus an emergency contact; the cocaine phone holds Slack, WhatsApp, and social media and lives in a drawer. He calls it the best thing he's done for his mental health.

“So the kale phone is like all serotonin apps that make you feel good. So Audible, Notes, Uber, Google Maps, stuff that you need for necessities as well. Maybe an emergency number for your mom, wife, business partner if they need to get a hold of you. So you have that peace of mind when you're not on your cocaine phone that they can still get a hold of me. Worst case scenario, somebody dies. Then cocaine phone, everything. Slack, WhatsApp, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram. Let's go crazy. Put the cocaine phone in the drawer, check it when you need to check it.”

Steal thisRun a second phone with only essential apps; lock social and messaging on the phone you leave in a drawer.

Lee Kuan Yew obsessed over Singapore's airport like an onboarding flow

George Mack recounts how Lee Kuan Yew ran Singapore like a CEO, fixating on the airport as the country's onboarding experience: queues, bathrooms, cleanliness, and the drive into the city, because it's the first and last impression for talented arrivals.

“And one of my favorite anecdotes about Lee Kuan Yew is how he used to obsess about the airport onboarding experience. And it's interesting, you see, you see such obvious ideas in startups and you go, why don't countries just take this? The onboarding experience or the conversion rate optimization of a landing page or a website or an advert versus the when you arrive at the airport, what's the airport like? What are the queues like? The immigration queues like? What are the bathrooms like? How clean are things? What's the first few miles from the airport to the city? Lee Kuan Yew used to obsess over everything”

Steal thisTreat a customer's first and last touchpoint like a product onboarding flow worth obsessing over.

Sleep trackers should hide your score until the next week

George Mack argues that letting users see last night's Whoop or Oura score the next morning creates an insomnia cycle, since pressure over the score worsens sleep. As CMO he'd hide scores until a detached weekly summary.

“if I was, if I was the CMO of Whoop or Oura, the one thing I would suggest them to do, like coming in as a product thing, would be to never allow you to know the next day's score. Because this, this, this is actually probably one of the most toxic things I think we'll see for sleep, of people checking their sleep as well as going to sleep thinking about what score they're going to get. It's the opposite of what you want. That's literally creating an insomniac cycle versus a week later having a summary of the previous week when you're detached from the results, probably useful.”

Steal thisDelay performance feedback to a detached weekly summary when daily scores trigger anxiety loops.

LMNT founder runs 3 weeks on, 1 week off

George Mack describes LMNT founder James, who scales the electrolyte company (growing into the hundreds of millions) on a 3-weeks-on, 1-week-off cycle for himself and his whole leadership team: three weeks of sprint, then a week to assess OKRs and plan the next sprint.

“He does 3 weeks on, 1 week off, 3 weeks on, 1 week off. So, you know, the whole, one of your aphorisms or Naval aphorisms of sprint like a, sprint like a lion, don't graze like a cow. And I realized with his philosophy, what he's doing there is he has that 1-week assessment period”

Steal thisRun work in 3-week sprints with a dedicated 1-week off-cycle for assessment and creative recovery.

There's no such thing as overworking, only under-resting

George Mack reframes burnout: there is no overworking, only under-resting. He calls deliberate rest 'rest ethic' and treats his subconscious as a technical co-founder that solves problems while he's off.

“My friend called it rest ethic. I was like, ah, that's the sticky idea that it needed to be compressed. He talks about his subconscious as his like technical co-founder. So like, right, leaving ideas of his subconscious. And yeah, I think we'll see more and more focus in that area as leverage gets higher and higher and realizing that there's no such thing as overworking. There's just under-resting.”

The Buffett Coin: source your values from who you'd invest in

George Mack's name for Warren Buffett's exercise: pick the classmate whose future earnings you'd buy 10% of, then ask why, to reverse-engineer their values. Flip it to whose losses you'd take to find anti-values. Works for health coin and happiness coin too.

“as a thought experiment, look around at the people in the class right now. And if you could invest in them and get 10% of their earnings for the rest of their life, who would it be and why?”

Steal thisPick the person whose lifetime earnings (or health, or happiness) you'd buy 10% of, then copy the values that made you choose them.

A self-awareness test your whole circle fills out about you

George Mack pitches a personality test where, instead of rating yourself, your spouse, parents and business partner answer the questions about you. Stacks the proven virality of personality tests with a social-graph loop and a killer ad ('find out what your wife thinks about you').

“And this kind of idea of a self-awareness test where the personality test you potentially fill out, but everybody in your close circle, so your wife, your parents, your business partner fills out. And you have a note there. Reason why I like this idea is it's a little bit of a lot of clues. You've got one, stacking on personality tests that have always worked, but two, the social graph effect, and then three, the advert angle of being able to run adverts directly on find out what your wife thinks about you.”

Steal thisBuild a personality quiz that others fill out about you, then run ads on 'find out what your wife really thinks.'

The planning fallacy: 3x the time, 2x the cost

George explains the planning fallacy: projects take roughly three times as long and cost twice as much as estimated, and simply knowing about the bias doesn't fix it. He speculates this is why Elon sets absurd deadlines, knowing the slip is baked in.

“The planning fallacy is this idea that if you say I'm going to achieve X within a month, it will probably take 2 months. And no matter how long, and even being aware of the planning fallacy doesn't prevent it from not happening. So you constantly, it takes 3 times as long as you think it will and costs twice as much, which is interesting when you read Elon's biography. I wonder if that's one of the reasons why he just always sets absolutely absurd deadlines.”

Steal thisAssume any project takes 3x the time and 2x the budget you planned.

Start with the ad, then build the business

George Mack designs businesses by imagining the advert first. His test for a 'sticky idea' is total emotion times the number of people who can understand it. If you can't compress the pitch into a 2-second scroll-stopping moment, the idea needs more work.

“I always think from the compression algorithm. I know we spoke about this, Sean, of like a sticky idea, which is essentially all adverts, like good adverts themselves are a sticky idea, which is essentially the following algorithm of total amount of emotion times number of people that can understand it. And that is what makes ultimately a good advert. And if I can't compress it down, because people talk about an elevator pitch, it's almost like the ad pitch, right?”

Steal thisBefore building, write the Facebook ad. If it can't stop a scroll in 2 seconds, rework the idea.

Sex will die as a reproductive mechanism

George Mack predicts that with IVF, biobanks and embryo selection, wealthy parents will increasingly screen 10 embryos for disease risk (and later traits like height and IQ), and this will trickle down through society over the coming years.

“So sex is going to potentially die as a reproductive mechanism.”

Embryo screening funnel: 'Are you worried about Crohn's?'

George frames a business around embryo selection by working backward from the Facebook ad: target people scared of a hereditary condition. Wealthy parents will pay almost anything to spare a child from diseases they've watched relatives suffer, and unit economics drop over time.

“goes back to Sean's point, work backwards from the Facebook ad. Like, are you concerned about ABC, diabetes, Crohn's disease, insert condition? Funnel right there. And immediately you can see how you can have very wealthy people paying a lot of money for that. And with time, the unit of economics will go down further and further.”

Steal thisRun condition-specific ads ('worried about diabetes?') into an embryo-screening service.

Eye-art startup opened 150 locations in a year

George describes a fast-growing European/American startup that scans and prints magnified photos of your iris (selling for £200-£300). He says it opened roughly 150 locations in the last year, one of the fastest-growing startups around.

“They opened 150 locations in the last year or something like that. So it's growing like bananas.”

Mold cleanup as a service with a free-inspection funnel

George pitches mold remediation built ad-first: 70% of US homes have mold, so run a horrific 'find out if you have mold' ad, give the inspection free, then sell remediation that runs into tens of thousands. Pair with a health influencer as 'chief influencer officer' and ride the steadily rising Google Trends line.

“Working backwards from the ad first, find out if you have mold in your house, like a horrific image of the mold and horrific insights into the damage that mold can do. You could sell the visit for free and people are ripping up their houses, spending tens of thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Steal thisOffer a free mold inspection ad, then upsell remediation; sell the leads to local crews if you don't want to operate.

Replace St. George's Day with 'Dunkirk Day'

George proposes rebranding Britain's forgotten national day into 'Dunkirk Day,' built on a clear enemy (Hitler) the way US Independence Day has one. Morning for complaining and tea, afternoon for RAF flyovers and British icons, potentially adding billions to UK tourism.

“And essentially canceling St. George's Day and creating Dunkirk Day. So, yeah, the Britain's finest hour. We've made a lot of mistakes, but Britain's finest hour was when we escaped Hitler's Germany. 400,000 men with Churchill, all of Britain came up together, sending the boats across.”

Steal thisBrand a national celebration around a clear enemy you escaped, not a vague mascot.

Win clients with an anonymous value-first ad account

George grew his agency by building The Ad Professor, an anonymous Twitter account that just shares great ads and spec creative for brands like Tesla and Ryanair. Value-first content with only a soft plug at the end turned out to sell better than any salesperson, and nobody knew it was him.

“A little bit like plug at the end, but it's always value first. And I think that model of who you went to school with and knowing people that way versus just making dope things online and people seeing the ads and realizing that those Porsche ads from the '70s still have relevance today and trying to create ads that are just super sexy.”

Steal thisBuild an anonymous, value-first content account in your niche and let inbound DMs become your sales pipeline.