The Newsletter Pro December 2018

The Newsletter Pro December 2018

#120 in the 2015 and #343 in the 2016 INC. 500 | 2016, 2017, & 2018 Best Place to Work in Idaho | Marketer of the Year | 24K Club Winner

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As Seen On:

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

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How to Scale Your Marketing Campaigns Real Success The Faux Death of Media and What Is Really Working Now Don’t Let Your Expertise Go Untapped

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Improving Your Social Media Campaigns

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Mariah Starts a Newsletter War With Shaun

DO THIS AND MAKE MORE MONEY IN 2019 WITHOUT INCREASING AD SPEND!

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Great Things Happen When Business Meets Philanthropy

A few weeks ago, my wife started having crazy pain in her neck … No, it was not just me irritating her, although that isn’t a horrible guess some days. Her pain started in her neck and, over three weeks, progressed down her arm until two of her fingers started to become numb. We’d seen a number of people to figure out what was wrong, but once she started to lose feeling in her hand, we knew we needed to find out what was going on fast. I texted one of my doctor friends who had seen Mariah for this issue and asked if he would order an MRI. He agreed. We got the MRI, and the radiologist had one opinion, but the neurosurgeon we were seeing had another opinion about what was wrong. Mariah and I went into the consultation, and the neurosurgeon thought she had an ulnar nerve issue, which I’ve come to find out is a nerve in your elbow. They wanted to operate in the morning. At this point, Mariah was also starting to experience issues in her other arm, and they also noticed a small bulging disk in her neck. While

we were speaking with the neurosurgeon, he said that if the ulnar nerve surgery (elbow surgery for us laymen) didn’t help, we may need to operate on the other ulnar nerve, and after that, if she still wasn’t better, she may need to have the bulging disk operated on. Wow — That is a crap-ton of operations. The way they started stacking up, I felt like he was a few surgeries short of his monthly sales quota. Now we had up to three surgeries looming, so we went for a second opinion and a third opinion. For the third opinion, I called a buddy of mine, Chad Madden, who is one of the best physical therapists in the country, to get his opinion. Chad and his team looked at the MRI and told me it wasn’t the ulnar nerve and that we shouldn’t let them operate. He implored me to fly her to his office for a week and let Joe, his best PT, work on her. Chad told me he felt there was an 80 percent or higher chance they could get her to 95 percent or better in just five days. Frankly, it seemed too good to be true, but I’ve known Chad for a number of years now, and I trust him, so I booked a ticket for Mariah to fly to Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is where one of Chad’s three offices are. I said a prayer and crossed my fingers for good measure. After an evaluation

from Joe, the issue turned out not to be the ulnar nerve but instead a rib that had been out of place for so long that the moment he put it back in place and Mariah turned her head, the rib popped back out. Ouch!

Five days with Joe and seven treatments later, Mariah was 99 percent better. Crazy, right?

Now, if you’re wondering how all this ties into business, let me pull back the curtain and share two primary thoughts. One is hopefully motivational, and the other one is prescriptive. The only thing worse than having a sick loved one is not being able to do anything about it. I’ve found many times that the only reason we can’t do anything about a loved one being sick doesn’t have to do with the availability of treatment, but rather the lack of money to get those treatments. I understand the struggle. I’ve been very poor, and I’ve had to accept subpar treatment for my loved ones in the past. Had this been an issue with Mariah 15 years ago, we’d likely be on surgery No. 2 as you read this. Continued on page 2 ...

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... COVER CONTINUED

Now I’m not saying all of this to brag; I’m telling you this to motivate you.

You are an entrepreneur; you can be and do anything you want. You can put yourself in the financial position to make sure your loved ones always get the best care. You can set up your business and buy back your time so you can spend time with loved ones before there is an issue. You can work hard so you can create memories that will last a lifetime. You can do it, but you have to choose to go bigger. You have to choose to have a multimillion-dollar business. You have to choose to move your ego out of the way and let others make decisions so you can have more freedom. You have to want this security. Before I jump to my second point, I’ll ask you this: Do you want this security in your life? If so, the next point will help you achieve it. In another article in this newsletter, I talk about the Bootcamp I held at my office a few weeks ago and one of the topics we went over. In the article, I suggest that you focus on the foundational issues in your business before you look for the next shiny object. I know as you read this, you are or soon will be looking for marketing for 2019. You will see the new promise of unlimited new customers with the click of a button, or magic marketing formulas that literally put millions in your bank account each night. I implore you to ignore those. Even if they worked, and that is a big “if,” you need to fix the foundation of your business before you add any more new lead generation. Here is a good analogy: Don’t go operating on both elbows and the neck when a rib and some soft tissue issues are causing all the pain. When you buy marketing gimmick after marketing gimmick, that is exactly what you’re doing. looked at ... I’ve found MASSIVE GAPS in the foundations of the businesses.” “In 100 percent of the businesses I’ve

In 100 percent of the businesses I’ve looked at as part of my mastermind, through a consulting day, etc., I’ve found massive gaps in the foundations of the businesses. These businesses don’t need more leads or advertising; they simply need to get all they can from all they’ve already got.

spend some money to get these things fixed and/or created, but as you do, a funny thing will happen: Your existing marketing will start to perform better, your customer acquisition cost will decrease, and profits will increase — all without a new shiny marketing gadget. If you want to have an amazing 2019; if you want to make more money; or if you want to make sure you can be there for your loved ones with time, money, or both, this is the list to work on. Fix these areas, and watch your business soar. –Shaun

Here are a few areas to look at for improvement in the new year.

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Current customer relationships Marketing to existing customers

Phones (When was the last time you mystery-shopped your own phones?) Sales process Follow-up with leads Lead-to-sales conversions Referrals Churn or lost customers Nurturing of leads Employees following SOP (So customers get the best outcomes)

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All of these should be a priorities over anything new for 99 percent of businesses. You may need to

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How to Scale Your Marketing Campaigns BUSINESS HOW-TO

for Massive Success!

Once you have a response, you need to get volume.

I just finished a two-day Bootcamp for about 25 entrepreneurs at my office in Boise, Idaho. We had a variety of different people in the room, from lawyers and doctors to HVAC owners and real estate brokers. After two full days of training, I hopped on a plane and headed to Vegas for a little R&R and a Halloween party or two. Work hard, play hard, right? One common question I got about this training and that I also get about mastermind is this: “Since everyone isn’t in my industry, will the information be useful for me?” I’m a fan of paying attention to what’s going on in your industry, but it shouldn’t be the only place you look for new information. If all you do is look inside your industry, you’ll never find innovation. The “gurus” in your industry who are selling you all this industry-specific info are not attending a ton of other industry events to find new stuff to show you; they’re going outside your industry. It’s not like I’m not a fan of industry events; I’m hosting one for lawyers with my event partner, Travis Hise, on March 1–2, 2019, all on marketing and sales for law firms. Some of the content will be new and shiny marketing, but some of the content will also be foundational, which doesn’t have to This question cracks me up.

be industry-specific. You can do all the new, shiny marketing you want, but if you’re missing the foundational pieces, it won’t work. For example, one of the trainings I did had three parts: 1. THE KEY ELEMENTS OF ANY GOOD MARKETING CAMPAIGN 2. HOW TO IDENTIFY THE ISSUE IN ANY MARKETING CAMPAIGN 3. HOW TO SCALE YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS Regarding the “how to scale” section, so many people want to go from paying for marketing straight to turning a profit with massive volume. Heck, I want that as well. Unfortunately, that isn’t how most marketing should be scaled. Here is a down-and-dirty explanation.

With volume, you now have an idea of the size of the universe based on your advertising spend, and you can determine if it makes sense to continue with this campaign or not. If you can’t get volume, you again need to look back to Step 1 of this presentation and make adjustments. (By the way, I know Step 1 isn’t in this newsletter; this was a 90-minute presentation, and I simply can’t cram all of that into this issue.) Can you get quality leads who convert into customers from this campaign? If the answer is no, you need to look back at Step 2 of this training. This is how you scale up a new marketing campaign. But most people want to go straight from cutting the check to the vendor or advertising agency and slide right into efficiency. Sometimes that works, but more often than not, it is a total failure, and you waste a ton of good money and a potential good source of new leads. Understanding this foundational info is key to growing and scaling your company, regardless of your industry. The foundational systems and processes aren’t just for marketing and sales; you also need to have systems and processes for running your business, hiring, firing, etc. If you’ve stalled out, aren’t growing, or are simply growing slower than you’d like, it may be a time to go back to the foundation and figure out where things have gone wrong instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water and looking for another shiny object that simply won’t work because the foundation is broken. Finally, once you have response and volume, you now need efficiency.

The first goal of any new campaign is response .

If you create a new campaign and simply get zero response, it is difficult to turn those zeros into a whole number. When you get a goose egg from a campaign, you need to go back to Step 1 of this training.

–Shaun

P.S. We have another Bootcamp coming up Feb. 7–8, 2019. If you want help, you can get a ticket for only $297 until Dec. 14, 2018. Go to NewletterPro.com/scaleup.

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MARKETING HOW-TO

CLIENT SUCCESS

– Duane Hamilton Hamilton Insurance Group I get calls every month from different people talking about my newsletter. The newsletter helps me stay in touch with my clients, but they also love it. I get 2–3 calls every month, someone different each time, telling me how great the newsletter is. My mom did a one-time dinner thing with some friends. One of them is a client of mine and said, “Duane, your newsletter is fabulous! You must spend a ton of time on this.” Shaun’s offering of a mastermind is an inspiration for me. I know there’s a certain level a business needs to be at. I aspire to be at that level so I can be a part of that group. YOU MUST SPEND A TON OF TIME ON THIS THE RESULTS HAVE BEEN newsletter that I used to send out was not going to cut it anymore. In the weeks since, the results have been astounding. It has only been two weeks since our first issue dropped, and neighbors are already gathering in their driveways to discuss our newsletter and our business. I have had grown men approach me and secretly share that they found the cover story to be “touching.” And lastly, if you think you can get by without The Newsletter Pro, you’re right, but your newsletter will suck. Hire them, and you too can have control over your customers’ driveway conversations! ASTOUNDING! The Newsletter Pro is amazing! I decided to contact them after realizing the shameful excuse for a

Do you remember in 2010 and 2011 when e-books were all the rage? Everyone seemed to be writing an e-book or buying e-books. The Kindle was somewhat new and taking over the world. I remember reading one article that said the e-book was going to replace the physical book … I laughed. Today the e-book is a distant third in the book category. People prefer physical books first, audiobooks next, and then way down on the list are e-books. What happened? Why didn’t e-books take over the world as advertised? The Faux Death of Media and What Is Really Working Now Jeanine Blackwell’s Model on Mindset, Method, and Momentum Besides world-renowned author J.K. Rowling, not many people can say that they came up with a successful seven-figure business idea on a napkin. But in just two years, author and inventor of Create 6-Figure Courses™ Jeanine Blackwell went from a corporate career as the head of learning and strategy to a consultant for Fortune 500 companies to Amazon’s No. 1 Course Creation Expert — and just like J.K. Rowling, Jeanine plotted her future plans across the top of her napkin during a solo dinner on a business trip. Since the night she sat in that restaurant scrawling some potential goals, Jeanine has become a leading expert in online course generation and has been recognized as a Top 40 Business Coach. THE EXPERT CALLEDYOU If you haven’t noticed the trend here, any time some new media makes its way into the world and starts to gain traction, someone in marketing starts talking about the death of the old media that is OUR BOOKSHELF

– Eric Nehring Minnesota School of Music

Her most recent book, “The Expert Called You: How 8 Experts Built a Business and Life They Love, Sharing What They Know (and How You Can, Too)” is a sarcastically humorous yet edifying guide that equips

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still a much larger industry than the new media. This has been going on for hundreds of years. One example was TV and radio. TV was going to kill the radio back in the ‘40s and ‘50s. I’m not sure who predicted that, but since I listen to the radio on my drive to work, I feel like they may have been wrong on that prediction. In 1922, they thought radio would kill the newspaper, but that also seems to have been wrong. The internet hasn’t even killed the newspaper or the yellow pages. If a type of media was going to die, you’d think it would be the yellow pages, but a quick internet search tells me that the yellow pages industry is still a $3-billion-a-year business. What? My point to all this is that media rarely dies. When it does die, it typically is a result of government regulation, not another media. The hype about one type of media claiming it is the best ever and will make you rich is just that — hype. E-books didn’t kill real books, Facebook hasn’t killed a single type of media, nor has Instagram, and Snapchat is just trying to stay in business.

The old catalog business is growing and working, and you know who they’re targeting with these catalogs? Millennials. They love ‘em. In fact, many online-only retailers are now adding catalogs to their marketing arsenal. Could you use a catalog to sell more? Even if you only have services, could you advertise those services once or twice a year all in one place? I’ve seen it done and was told it worked. You know what else is crushing it right now? Anything live and in-person. In the physical therapy world, using social media and your own internal patient list to drive people to in- office demonstrations is not only working but growing many independent PT practices. Using online and offline marketing to sell an event isn’t new. Demonstrating that your product or service works and that you’re knowledgeable is a tried-and-true tactic for closing more business, but it wasn’t typically done in the PT world until recently. I know of it being done in law and chiropractic as well, all with really good results. Could you add in live and in-person demonstrations or trainings? One of my big pushes for 2019 will be just that — live trainings and events. Maybe you should consider them as well. Of course, I’m not suggesting that events are easy to pull off, or

even that it’s easy to get butts in the seats. But they work. All you have to do is crack the code.

I have a friend who is flying any client into their office who spends XYZ dollars or more per year with them. They’re paying for the airline ticket and hotel of the person coming to build a deeper relationship as well as upsell and cross- sell the client. This is a one-on-one version of a live event. Here’s another marketing tactic that is working really well — although, to be fair, it has always worked well, even though it is executed poorly by most. The strategy is partnerships. We heavily use this tactic, as do many of my most successful friends. The tactic is simple, really: Find those who have already gathered your ideal clients and work out a deal that allows you to market to their clients and prospects. We’ve been using this for years, and it has crushed it for our business. I recently expanded the program by adding budget and a human to be in charge of it, and low and behold, it is working better than ever. We plan on going even deeper into partnerships in 2019 by finding more people to work with Continued on page 6 ...

Enough about death — let’s talk about life and what is working for businesses right now.

entrepreneurs all over the world with expertise on how to make a big impact, and, in turn, earn a large paycheck. Using Jeanine’s efficient and successful method to generate revenue and attract customers, solopreneurs, medical professionals, coaches, consultants, freelancers, and several other types of business owners can scale their companies in a highly profitable way. Jeanine’s book opens with advice on how to make an impact doing what you love while also living the life you

them to adopt her “Mindset, Method, and Momentum” model.

Have You Heard the Good News?

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to build a leveraged business for yourself and get the freedom you want and deserve. Order your own copy of Jeanine’s instructional book by going to jeanineblackwell.com/ milliondollarstrategies .

Matthew 1:20 — ”But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’” Matthew 1:22-23 — ”All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).” John 1:14 — ”The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

always imagined. Then, she introduces readers to her eight featured

experts who have created their own businesses using their tailored knowledge. Throughout the book, Jeanine

explores the pitfalls that will hold people back from joining her movement and encourages

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MARKETING HOW-TO CONTINUED ... and expanding our offerings with those we already work with. Everyone can use this strategy. Even if you’re a local business, there is someone else who has your customers or someone else who gets to your customers before you do. How can we work with those people? Can we create something that is valuable enough that the primary business will share it or promote you? Can you provide a thank-you gift for each new customer the primary business gets in exchange for the lead? Would it make sense for the primary business to host a webinar with you, promoting you? Can the two of you put on an event together and split the costs and the leads? Do you want a campaign that always kills it? Here’s a strategy that has a 100 percent success rate. What is it that you were doing in the past that was profitable and worked so well that you simply stopped doing it?

Spend 15 minutes brainstorming your marketing campaigns and looking for the successful ones, and then look for successful ones that you’ve stopped doing, and ask, “Why aren’t we doing this anymore?” You will find an easy win. You know what else is crushing it — I mean seriously crushing it? The phones. Getting a prospect on the phone for a sales call or appointment can have a profound impact on profits. Years ago, I was given this advice, and it changed my life. Heck, it changed my family tree. Thank you, Jimmy and Travis, for this piece of knowledge. I’m telling you right now that if you aren’t monitoring your phones and using the phones to generate new business, you are leaving potentially millions on the table. If you’re not spending time with prospects and customers, engaging them and nurturing them, and if you’re not hitting them up in the real world, you are missing out big time. Sales will soar by

simply adding a real-world component to your marketing — the more, the better.

–Shaun

P.S. I would be negligent in my duties if I didn’t mention the one media that crushes it and allows you to engage physically and digitally with customers and prospects: a newsletter. If you’re looking to start a newsletter for 2019, you need to start now to have your first one ready by New Year’s. Go to NewsletterPro.

com/schedule or call 208-297-5700 to get an

appointment to chat with my team and kick 2019 off right.

I’m dead serious here. I don’t know a single business owner that doesn’t have a campaign like this.

RESOURCE OF THE MONTH

Get Out of Your Social Media Slump Let Buffer Help You Succeed at Digital Marketing

SO WHAT?

In case you forgot, you’re busy. Maybe you have to remember to call a supplier in the morning, and you have a big meeting tomorrow afternoon. At some point you have to hire a new manager, prepare for the holiday season, and juggle ways to launch a new service.

cuts out the need to remember to create a post that day and create it multiple times for different platforms. And your posts will be consistent across all sites. I STILL DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THAT Planning ahead can save you time, but what if you’re still too crunched to do that? Buffer makes that easy, too. Simply click the Buffer extension on your browser while you’re on a website you want to share, and Buffer will create a post for you with a link to that website. All you have to do is schedule a time. And Buffer’s mobile app allows you to keep customizing and scheduling posts as you go. The platform also lets you add team members to your account, so your employees can schedule posts for you. Since you won’t have to spend hours per day posting to social media, you can spend time interacting with your clients by responding to tweets or “liking” posts you’re tagged in. Responding to your clients will take mere minutes and make a significant impact.

Buffer isn’t just designed to make your posting abilities easier — it also helps you improve your social media savvy. Its analytics can help you track your posts’ engagement, page views, and link clicks, so you can monitor your progress. Buffer offers a slew of articles to help inspire and educate you about furthering your social media presence and improving your skills. Don’t forget social media because you’re too busy. Jump-start your campaign with help from Buffer, and make 2019 your best social-media year yet.

And don’t forget about your social media.

It’s an easy piece of marketing to misuse and neglect, but if you’re not creating, posting, and interacting on social media, you’re missing a crucial piece to generating business. If you’re considering ramping up your social media presence, the online social media planning platform Buffer can help you create an easy — and effective — campaign. HOW DOES IT WORK? With Buffer, you can plan ahead to avoid day-of panic. For example, if you want to promote a special that your clinic is hosting, you can create a post and schedule it to publish on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at the same time. This

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“Work Hard and Take Fun Seriously” is one of the nine core values that defines how we work at The Newsletter Pro. In many cases, entrepreneurs use their own foundational principles as a way to create an atmosphere for employees that will assist with retention and overall morale, but in the process, they lose sight of how these concepts apply to them. That’s why when Mariah Buck hacked Shaun’s email to start a competition for our Tesla Referral Program, we had to sit down with her and find out how she was living this core value. “Shaun and I both are ultracompetitive, and when you’re the wife of an entrepreneur, finding ways to get involved is almost a necessity,” Mariah says. As the Director of Partner Relations, Mariah is an IT’S ON!

Are You #TeamShaun or #TeamMariah?

expert at forging relationships with other businesses so we can help them achieve their missions. “I operate in my role from a perspective of ‘How can I serve you?’ Everyone has needs, and for us, we want to help leaders with theirs,” she explains. If you’ve ever spent any time with Mariah, you know her genuine beauty is only outdone by her ravenous professionalism, so having her lead the way with relationships is a no-brainer, and she agrees. “It’s an ideal role for me because it uses my talents. I love creative advertising and empowering leaders.” One of the most significant ways Mariah serves others is by helping them understand our Tesla Program, which she helped create. “Above all, it’s a way for clients to leverage our product for their gain. The program is turn-key for them; all they need is to provide us with contact information.” Perhaps the most substantial impact Mariah has on our company is the perspective she brings. “I really want to infuse my personality into this business,” she explains. One way she does that is by helping

entrepreneurs with one of their biggest

struggles. “Whether it’s at our mastermind or the Scale Your Business Bootcamp, male owners are always asking me, ‘How do I get my wife on board?’ I explain to them that I had to understand Shaun’s contagious passion to be innately hardwired. To connect, I had to grasp ways I can be a part of that.” She explains this concept best by stating, “Being an entrepreneur is not a job.” You can find out more about Mariah’s battle with Shaun on our Facebook page. If you need a little more motivation for #TeamMariah, Shaun does not like cheese, which is very suspect indeed.

KEEP UPP With Our

BEST POSTS

If you’re looking for more great content — like what you’re reading in this newsletter — to drive your business forward, take a look at these articles on our blog. Maximize the Value of Your Business NewsletterPro.com/value-of-your-business/ Become ‘Oversubscribed’ and Boost Your Business NewsletterPro.com/become- oversubscribed/ In Marketing, Is There Such a Thing as Bad Exposure? NewsletterPro.com/marketing- bad-exposure/ Success Isn’t a Coincidence: Focus on These 3 Things NewsletterPro.com/success-isnt- coincidence/

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BUSINESS PROFILE ROSA’S FRESH PIZZA And the Power of Creatively Paying It Forward

One of the joys of running a successful business is the chance to give back to the community. We all have causes near and dear to our hearts. More often than not, the hardest part is figuring out exactly how to support charitable organizations for the less fortunate in our areas. But when a business finds a creative, meaningful way to give back, it can take off like a rocket. That’s exactly what happened to Rosa’s Fresh Pizza in Philadelphia. Mason Wartman held down a high-powered finance job on Wall Street before he made the decision to give up the world of investment for something a little more down to earth. “I had always wanted to start my own business, and there’s a bunch of dollar pizza stores throughout New York and Manhattan,” Wartman told TheTab.com. “I thought it was a concept I could work with here in Philly.” While Wartman thought he could serve up authentic New York pizza slices to the people of Philadelphia, he didn’t expect to start one of the city’s most viral charitable efforts. His story illustrates how you can create a way to give back that aligns with your business and ideals. THE MOMENT OF INSPIRATION As a result of their $1 slices and welcoming atmosphere, Rosa’s Fresh Pizza was already a place for homeless and low-income Philadelphians to grab a fresh, hot, and delicious meal. While this inclusiveness was always a core aspect of their business, they didn’t start a system of paying it forward until one customer inspired them to do so. “One day a customer came in after reading that we naturally serve a lot of homeless people because it’s affordable food,” Wartman recalled. “He tried our pizza and liked it. He asked us if homeless people ever came in short and didn’t have a full dollar. They did, and I told him as much. He offered to pre-purchase a slice for the next homeless person.” Apparently, this customer was inspired by a practice in Italy called “caffè sospeso” where customers

purchase coffee in anticipation for those who may not be able to pay for it.

The program has served hundreds of slices to homeless people throughout Philadelphia. It’s a staple of the community and a model for other businesses to follow. HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN GIVING PROGRAM Look, there’s nothing wrong with simply picking a worthy organization and sending them a check. However you want to give back is welcome, but finding a way to help and inspire people can turn a simple donation into a movement. Here at The Newsletter Pro, for example, we support a number of causes that align with our values as a company. As the holidays approach, we set up a tree to provide gifts for children placed in short-term foster care during Christmas for a program called Fostering Christmas. As many of our staff are starting families of their own, it’s a cause that resonates with all of us. Every year, we buy more gifts and help more kids. We never forced our staff members to participate; they did it of their own accord. Similarly, one of our clients, Christopher J. Berry, has found a way to give back to a cause that directly affects his work. Because Chris works in financial and elder-care planning, Alzheimer’s and dementia are daily concerns in his world. It’s no wonder, then, that he helps organize his local Walk to End Alzheimer’s and asks his clients to help fundraise it. He talked about it in his newsletter, and his firm was able to raise more than $12,500 for the walk this year. As all of these examples attest, paying it forward in a way that encompasses who you are as a company can yield huge benefits for your community. As you’re thinking about giving back this holiday season, ask yourself if there’s a way to creatively inspire both your team members and your customers/clients to join you. It may not result in feeding thousands of hungry people, but we promise it will yield something extraordinary.

After receiving the customer’s donation, Wartman placed a Post-It on the wall that would be redeemed by the next homeless customer. From this

one small gesture, a revolution was born. FROM 1 SLICE TO MORE THAN 100,000

While Wartman didn’t put that Post-It on the wall with the intention of the program exploding, that’s exactly what happened. Once word spread of the concept, it took off like wildfire. “People from all over the world donate online and visit us in the shop when they’re in Philly,” Wartman said. “It’s a concept that a lot of people understand very quickly. They appreciate the simplicity of participating and the transparency of the program. It encourages more involvement.”

After the story was picked up by USA Today, it was shared far and wide. Today, Rosa’s Fresh Pizza gets dozens of donations every day. Customers love being able to help those in need, and they enjoy sharing kind words via those Post-Its. If you walk into Rosa’s, you’ll find hundreds of them plastered to the wall. Rosa’s is now more widely known for their creative way of paying it forward as much as they are for their affordable, tasty slices.

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