Enterprenuer
Mark Zhang is the founder and CEO of the Manta Sleep mask, its designed, constructed, and optimized for deep sleep in any environment.
Manta Sleep masks offer 100% blackout to maximize your sleep quality.
Users of Manta Sleep Mask feel 100% all the time.
Mark is a leader in the pro-napping movement and shares his knowledge with others about why an afternoon nap is crucial for unlocking one’s full potential, improving your sleep quality, and tips on hot.
What is the story of the Manta Sleep Mask?
Since I was 15, I have been a light sleeper. I first started using a mask at 15 years old.
Generic sleep masks are uncomfortable and don’t block the light.
They also tend to fall apart after three months.
My business partner and I started Manta Sleep.
We launched our sleep mask via crowdfunding via Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
Being a light sleeper, I always believed that I would be the king if I could improve my sleep quality.
We raised $700,000. The inspiration also comes from…
It was frustrating not to be able to get enough sleep, then wake up tired and not have the energy or concentration to achieve my goals.
Manta Sleep’s central goal is to help light sleepers sleep better to achieve more in their lives.
They will be able to achieve their goals and live happier lives.
How do you stay productive?
In my 20s, I believe I misunderstood ‘being productive’ and ‘being efficient.
They are two completely different things. Productive is when I have a lot of to-dos and tasks, get through them and not stress myself out.
This is productive because I have completed all my tasks.
But it is not always EFFECTIVE. Effectiveness, especially for a CEO, is about making good decisions, reflecting on the situation, learning and reflecting, and working towards a strategy.
In that sense, my concern is less about being productive and more about being a leader.
This means that I need to take time off. This means I should not overpack my days and try to do everything.
This means I need to make time for myself to think, reflect, learn, and be creative.
My usual wake-up time is around 8 AM. I attempt (although I don’t always succeed) to prioritize the most critical tasks for the day.
I would say that running with my dog or on a mat at home doing HIIT for 15 mins is the best exercise.
– Reading, learning, and thinking
– Creation of (ideas and content, strategy documents, etc.
Planning
– Reviewing
I SKIP BREAKFAST because I am intermittent fasting (six hours without food).
I eat lunch and dinner but not breakfast. This is an excellent way to improve your health.
There are many studies. MY BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS ARE CONSTANT because I don’t eat any food, and I feel sharp and energized throughout the day.
After lunch, I take a 30-minute to 1-hour nap. This is my daily routine.
My drug… I HAVE to do it. Without my nap, I can’t concentrate on anything in the afternoon.
A nap is a great way to be productive in the afternoon.
It’s almost as if I have a second day. This is a fantastic productivity hack.
As we are all biologically wired to take a break after lunch. No exception.
My afternoons are spent answering emails, completing tasks assigned by the team, and attending meetings.
I do all the random and small things necessary to keep the business moving forward.
After dinner, I hang out with my wife and dog and, hopefully, our child.
How do you bring ideas to life?
There are many great ideas out there. Everybody has at least a dozen pictures. There are too many.
But ideas without execution are meaningless.
Many entrepreneurs who have great ideas fail because they cannot execute their ideas, fail to bring them to life or give up too soon.
These are some of the most important things to help bring your idea to life.
– Understand your WHY. It would help if you were determined and persistent in bringing your ideas to life.
You must know your WHY. It will help you get through the challenges of bringing an idea to life, regardless of money, passion, belief, or something else.
– Divide a big goal into smaller goals and celebrate the successes at the smaller-goal levels.
Big ideas can be daunting and overwhelming. It’s easier to manage and track the big goals by breaking them down into smaller parts.
We underestimate the amount of work we can accomplish in a given day and overestimate how much we can do in one year.
– Last but not least, you have to be accountable. Some people can do this by themselves.
Some people are better than others. Hire a coach to help you or a friend to hold you accountable.
What’s your favorite trend?
While COVID-19 was terrible, it helped accelerate eCommerce’s growth.
It combined 5-10 years’ worth of eCommerce growth into one.
It showed the world, people, and organizations that remote work was possible and preferable.
These trends are motivating me for several reasons.
The growth potential for eCommerce in the next five to ten years will be incredible.
Small companies like ours have an increased talent pool because people are more comfortable working remotely.
Talented people that were previously ‘locked away” because they were searching for traditional jobs at the office are now available for small businesses such as ours to hire.
– The distribution and realization of the workforce will profoundly affect the way we live and function in the next 10-20 years.
What habits make you productive?
Before everything else, I focus on the most important tasks each morning.
The most important tasks can also be the most challenging.
It’s not about being productive because you get a lot done.
Instead, it’s about prioritizing and focusing correctly to accomplish the most critical tasks.
Later in the afternoon, even though I am not productive, I know that I have completed the most critical tasks, which makes me feel good about my day.
Beyond that, I make sure I don’t have any distractions while I work.
I switch off my phone’s messaging and turn it on silent.
I work in 30-minute chunks. I set a timer and take a 5-minute break every 30 minutes.
What’s your advice for the Noob?
It is essential to know WHY you want to start a business.
This will allow you to stay focused and persevere through the inevitable bumps and stumbling blocks.
Entrepreneurship is not a failure of ideas, smarts, or money.
People fail because they give up. It is essential to have a reason for persisting.
Don’t let that stop you from doing it. You can learn more and be successful by just doing it.
Focus on sales for the first three years. This is all you need to worry about.
Many people are ‘playing business.’ I see them getting an office, business cards, and designing websites.
These distractions are nothing. Your job as a founder is to solve challenging problems and make sales.
Once you have sales coming in, don’t worry about the rest.
I was also a keyboard warrior, spending so much time early in my entrepreneurial journey just banging away on the keyboard and figuring everything out myself.
It was slow going. When I spent the money on conferences to meet people and exchange ideas, my business grew tremendously.
It’s not worth trying to figure everything out yourself. Instead, go out and get ideas from others.
Even though it may seem expensive to attend these conferences, especially if you are starting or don’t have much money, it is worthwhile in the end.
What is one thing we can all agree on?
Startups will only succeed if they are managed as a benevolent dictatorship.
When you begin a business, the first thing you should do is to focus on sales. Literally, sales is all that matters.
To live your best life, you must have great sleep.
If you don’t get enough sleep every night, it’s impossible for your potential to be fully realized.
In the next 50 years, the blockchain will weaken the power and influence of governments around the globe.
What do you recommend as an entrepreneur?
Learn, learn, learn. Growing up, the problem is that learning can be dull.
In my 20s, history was something that I found fascinating. It’s so vast and impressive.
In high school, history was something I hated.
It wasn’t about learning from history but more about remembering dates.
Rediscover the joy of learning, and continue doing it.
Your competition will catch up to you if you stop learning and improve.
Things are constantly changing, especially in business.
There are always exciting new things to learn.
What’s your rich strategy?
Define the WHY (vision of your business) and trust your team to help you reach that goal.
In the early stages of your business, you might not see this as necessary.
You’re trying to survive and make sales. It was about me doing things.
Me getting sales. Me performing the accounting. Me doing customer service.
As the business grew, it became impossible to sustain.
I became overwhelmed and couldn’t do everything well.
It was then about team building, hiring, and trusting others to do the same job as me.
To do this effectively, I had to get deep within myself to define our vision, mission, and values, why we are here, how we want it to work, and where we want it to go.
This became the filtering mechanism that allowed me to attract people who believed in the same things I did.
Once we had all these fantastic people in the business, it was time to delegate and trust them to make decisions in whatever they were doing.
They will feel like they have no control or ownership of the process.
If everything goes well, you will have incredible accountable people and do a better job than you as an entrepreneur/CEO.
This allows you to spend your time on vision and strategy, which the CEO should be doing.
How do you overcome Failure?
In one of our eCommerce companies, the entire salAmazon’sl was focused on selling on Amazon’s Marketplace.
Although this was great as everyone shops on Amazon, it meant thatAmazon’sto concentrated the risk onto Amazon’s marketplace.
This allowed us to control our fate as an eCommerce business.
This was very risky. The worst-case scenario was when one of our Eurocouldn’tler accounts got suspended.
We couldn’t get it back. It was devastating, as we had put s” muccan’tort into this and Amazon s “id “You can’t use our platcouldn’tmore.”
It was something that we couldn’t control for a long time.
It’s made me feel very low and stressed.
It’s not something that I can work hard to get out of.
How could a small business like ours be successful when Amazon tells them no? I couldn’t have team members to care for. I couldn’t help but keep going.
This is the lesson to be learned: diversify. We now sell on multiple platforms and have our store so that no single entity or company can stop us.
This applies to all other platforms, such as Facebook, Google, or Bing.
We make sure that we have multiple traffic sources, hosting, and platforms.
Can you share a business idea?
This service provides luxury sleep optimization. You will be tested, monitored, and checked.
Then you can relax, meditate, eat, sound, and see.
This service allows you to have the best possible sleep and provides actionable advice.
What’s your recent best buy?
I bought a Logitech MX Master 3 Wireless Mouse. This mouse is great for my wrist and hand, considering how much I spend at the computer.
I spend money to get the best out of everything I use/interact with most. My desk, chair, and monitor are my laptop.
What are your favorite Softwares or Apps?
The notion has been an excellent tool for me. It has so many templates that you can download and use.
This is my favorite part. Take this example:
– a to-do list
– A task prioritization system
– a decision-making process
A weekly review
Daily review
A note-taking system
You could read all about it and find the best way to do them all, but these templates have been created already, so you can download them all and win.
Which book would you recommend?
A Guide for the Good Life is a book I recommend. It is a modern translation of stoicism.
Because it is actionable and can be applied to improving the quality of your life in a short time, I love stoicism.
Even if I were flipping burgers at Mcdonald’s every day, my quality of life (access to technology, medicine, and food) would be 100x better than that of the kings and queens of 300 years ago.
What’s your favorite quote?
My favorite quIt’sis:
“Success doesn’t have it’s about greatness. It’s all about consistency.
“t’s about consistency” and hard work. Dwayne Johnson: “Greatness will come.”
This quote inspires me daily to strive for business success.
TL;DR by Mark Zhang
When you begin a business, the first thing you should do is focus on sales. Sales are all that matters.
To live your best life, you must have a great sleep.
If you don’t get enough sleep every night, your potential can’t be fully realized.
Your WHY is what will guide you through the challenges of bringing something into being.
Reduce a significant goal into smaller goals and celebrate the successes at the smaller-goal levels.
