Trying to grow a small business? Looking to scale a startup? Subscribe for access to weekly newsletters with tips and tricks for growing your business. Real talk. Successes and failures. No marketing hacks. No magic bullets. No cap. 🚀 I help businesses grow. 🚀 Join a community of founders, entrepreneurs, and marketers.
Great founders are great f*cking students
|
Hi Reader, You've got a huge task in front of you. Building a new business from scratch? Attempting to launch a new product? Adding new tech skills to stay competitive? Nowadays we have YouTube, Masterclass, online communities, podcasts, and so much more. How do you tackle what's ahead? If you're going to read anything this week:Three years ago, I became a co-founder in a business that was already built. Joining after something has been built is more like a renovation project rather than new construction. You can't pour a new foundation and build from the ground up. Instead, you do your best to work with the good bones. Of course, when you tear down walls, there's a chance you find surprise problems—robbing you of more time and money. Ironically, one benefit is that you have an existing structure, a guide. Guides can be limiting too.What do you do when you have nothing? Zero, zip, zilch nada. The hero meets its villain: paralysis. Here's what it can look like:
Soon, the busy work begins. Anything to feel productive and to create the sensation of progress. Stop! Where should we start then? The beginning. Too many founders race from idea to construction. We don't want to be late to the party. We believe in our idea so much it needs to be born. We are sure of ourselves. If we weren't, why would we try? I'm starting with academia; becoming a student again. And, I'm getting my "degree" in brand marketing. My curriculum will also need some Gen Ed courses too. If you don't have a guide (see above), you can build your own. Don't jump headfirst into a pile of random tasks that make you feel like a busy, overachieving founder. First, become knowledgeable. Podcasts and videos are great but they lack the salience of texts. I encourage you to read books. It's a lot harder to turn sound bites and niche tutorials into a business strategy. Reading takes a little longer but you can form connections between texts that will allow you to update your assumptions, think deeply, and make the social content you consume more useful and sticky. Today's advice: Stop the f*cking work treadmill for a hot minute. Feed your brain. Focus on weak areas or shoring up your superpowers. No matter what people say, marketing is a necessity. Trust your gut. Learning is an ongoing process. This advice isn't meant to indefinitely delay building your startup. It's meant to help you focus and build smarter. Here's my current reading list:
If you want to save time:Use Blinkist: I like reading books. You aren't me. Blinkist has been around for a minute. As they say, Get the key ideas from the top books, podcasts, and experts in 15 minutes. You can probably buy my entire book list and it'll still be cheaper than one college textbook. Blinkist is $100/year or $8.34/month. If you're a big fan of saving time and money, this is a great option for you. If you want to save money:Visit Protoolio: Their calculators caught my eye. Simple and easy ways to run useful calculations with a brief explanation. There's even more now. The site is useful for quick things if you're just getting started (or need a refresher). At some point, you'll want to build a team of pros. But, why not start lean😉. Most tools are free, but they also provide some helpful templates for modest prices (i.e. $5). ​ I'll see you next week! All my best, |
Marketing, startups and hot takes.
Trying to grow a small business? Looking to scale a startup? Subscribe for access to weekly newsletters with tips and tricks for growing your business. Real talk. Successes and failures. No marketing hacks. No magic bullets. No cap. 🚀 I help businesses grow. 🚀 Join a community of founders, entrepreneurs, and marketers.
Hi Reader, Annoying fact: We love a playbook. A blueprint for how to replicate success. It's not that we are against hard work. What's tough is the uncertainty. We can hire an influencer and get no sales. We can create a ton of content and get no engagement. Our goal is to smooth out that ride without losing a bunch of cash and time. Today, let's look at a brand and take a stab at helping it grow. First, I want to give credit. Andrea Bosoni runs the newsletter Zero to Marketing, where once a...
Hi Reader, Over lunch, I asked a new friend about his approach to his branding agency. Their website is ideal; I'm jealous. With an agency named Off-Menu, the goal is to cook up relatable but different. Relatability is slept on even though it's a key ingredient to brand success. Relatability is engagement. If you're going to read anything this week: What does it mean to be relatable? It's the art of connecting with others on a personal level. Our brands are capable of making these...
Hi Reader, Brands have pressed paused on the growth-at-all-cost era. We're still running some paid ads, but we've scaled back. Now, we're focusing our energy on holistic brand building. Organic growth is back in style. Slow and steady wins the race. As the content schedules ramp, try to remember to stay true and stand on business. If you're going to read anything this week: It's easy to get swept up in trying to achieve a side quest instead of the mission. Brands want to go viral; they want...