There is a business concept that I learned recently which was a huge revelation for me.
It helped me optimize Lead Cookie, increase our profitability, and streamline our operations.
The concept is "The Queen Bee Role" and it actually comes from Mike Michalowicz's most recent book called Clockwork.
Read MoreIt may seem counterintuitive, but taking a vacation is one of the most productive things you can do as an entrepreneur.
As I write this, I just returned from a 1.5-week vacation where I did hardly any work. I will be honest, I checked in a couple of times, but for the most part, I was totally disconnected from my team.
On the surface, you would think that a vacation means you are not getting anything done.
Read More"Your business is a reflection of you."
This simple lesson that I first learned from my adviser, Alex McClafferty, keeps proving to be true time and time again.
Over the past few months, I found myself rather stressed and ridden by anxiety.
And as a result, that flows onto my team, and eventually onto our customers.
For the past 4 years of my entrepreneurial career, I have been on a path of building a scaleable, productized service.
For years, I stopped and started many that ended in failure.
And eventually, with Lead Cookie, I hit a pretty decent success.
"That which is measured, improves" - Peter Drucker
One of the simplest and yet most effective things you can do to improve your business is to create a metrics dashboard that measures your Key Performance Indicators (KPI's).
When you have insight into your metrics, you can see problems before they arise and course correct.
Read MoreAbout two years ago, I found myself frustrated.
I had been at the entrepreneurial game for 8 years at that point, and I still just didn't feel like I was "making it".
I was working countless hours.
I was making OK money, but not nearly what I had hoped for.
And I ultimately just felt like I should be doing better than I was.
5 minutes... That is how long I spend working on a podcast or blog after the recording and writing is done.
Everything else is 100% systematized.
I don't touch my email marketing software.
I don't touch my website.
All I do is create the content, and the rest just happens.
The month was March of 2018.
I had just laid off 6 people from Lead Cookie.
Lead Cookie had racked up $22,000 of credit card debt.
And for the next two months, I wasn't going to be getting paid.
I picked up a copy of the book called The One Thing by Gary Keller.
And the opening line changed me.
"If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one." - Russian Proverb
Read MoreOver the past 20 months, I went from being a consultant to running a productized service, generating over $50k MRR. During the first 6 months of that time, I worked with my advisor, Co-Founder of WP Curve Alex McClafferty, and I am currently working with him again.
During those 6 months, I took a total of 120 pages of notes from our calls. After each call, I would go back and highlight my key learnings and insights.
Recently, I decided to read through all 120 pages of notes and pull out the key insights.
Read MoreThere is a habit that my team has done on a weekly basis for over three years now.
We did this even before Lead Cookie existed when it was just myself and my ops director.
This habit has been a complete game changer for our business.
It's called Workshop.
Read More68.56% of Lead Cookie's revenue is a direct result of my personal brand.
This comes in two forms.
Referral partnerships.
Content marketing.
In this article, I am going to explain my philosophy behind the choice to build my personal brand, and more details on how I utilize it to drive such large amounts of revenue toward our business.
Read MoreFailure. It fucking sucks.
In November, I started up a business in stealth mode that would eventually become Content Allies. I signed a few early customers in stealth mode, and then publicly launched the company at the start of January.
The problem I was aiming to solve was one I experienced myself.
Read MoreAt Lead Cookie and Content Allies, we have a team of over 20 virtual assistants who work with us. They are literally the backbone of our company and run a majority of the actions that our company takes on a daily basis.
And as of today, we have a 95%+ success rate when hiring new virtual assistants, and an extremely minimal turnover rate. Only two team members have left us since starting, and both were because they received offers that were at triple the pay rate we offered them.
Read More2083 email signups.
That is how many people have opted in for my Lead Cookie lead magnets in the past 18 months.
That is 100% organic without any advertising spend at all.
28.32% of revenue.
That is how much of our overall revenue has come from Content Marketing at Lead Cookie.
Whenever I started Lead Cookie, I had a mentor ask me some questions.
But to be honest, I didn't really think through them well at the time. This is what lead me to leaving open a fatal flaw in my business model which I wrote about last week.
And so as I start up a new venture, I returned to the big question that my mentor asked me at the time. I have shared the question in more detail, and even walked you through my own processing of that question with Content Allies.
Read MoreEarlier this week, I announced that I am launching a new business.
To many people this came as a shock when I told them. They said "If things are going so well with Lead Cookie, why would you divert your attention to launch something new?"
And the truth is, things are going well with Lead Cookie. In 18 months, we have grown from Zero to $60k in MRR.
Read MoreYes. You read that headline right.
I am launching a new business.
Content Allies - Virtual Assistants for Content Marketers
After 18 months of building a productized Linkedin Lead Generation service up to ~$60k in MRR, I've decided that it's time to start a second business.
Read More2 hours... That is roughly how long it used to take me every time I closed a new customer.
Today it takes 5 minutes...
That is because I have automated our entire closing process and customer onboarding process.
In this article, I am going to walk you through the closing automation I set up and provide you with a model of what you could do for your own company.
Read MoreAs you start to improve your sales and marketing game, you will find yourself having a lot more conversations with potential prospects.
And with those conversations, you will repeat yourself often.
That is why it is essential to create a bank of sales scripts that you can use and customize over and over again.
In this article, I am going to share the standard sales scripts that I use and teach you a few tricks on how to use them effectively.
Read MoreOne of the biggest mistakes you can make in sales has nothing to do with losing the deal...
In fact, you won't even see the problem until you start to work with the customer. It is only then that things get bad...
The mistake is misaligned expectations.
It starts in the sales process, and it affects everything after.
Read More
