The Newsletter Pro March 2018

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

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Sync Up Your Teams With Slack Hear It From Brian at Adler Injury Law Disney’s Genius Business Tactics The Growth You Actually Want

PAGE 6 Start to Track These Key

Performance Indicators in Your Business Today!

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Meet Sydnie Kremin

Marketing That Shut Down the Entire City of Boston

GAME CHANGER: The Story of One of My BIGGEST BUSINESS DISCOVERIES!

went out many times, I had to stay home because I was a teenage dad and had responsibilities. The house wasn’t going to clean itself, and those poopy diapers needed someone to change them. So, I stayed home and was basically alone. Being alone wasn’t all bad. I did have plenty of time to daydream about being rich, as well as study business and various business models. In that sense, it was a blessing and a curse. It is often said that being an entrepreneur is the loneliest job in the world, and in many cases, that is 100 percent true. It is hard to talk about difficult times because most

When I was first starting out in business in my early 20s, I had so many skewed thoughts. Some examples included the thought that the franchise model was the be-all, end-all to business. I used to think that no one (and by no one, I mean employees) could do things better than I could — boy was I wrong there. Although the previous beliefs held me back, the one belief that I had in my 20s that held me back the most was that I could go it all alone. I was a bit of a loner when I was in school and as a young adult. Part of it came from being an entrepreneur and simply thinking differently than many of my peers. Part of it came from having a kid early, so I felt I was all alone. The truth of the matter is that, in some ways, I was alone. While all of my friends

“It is often said that being an entrepreneur is the loneliest job in the world, and in many cases, THAT IS 100 PERCENT TRUE.”

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people don’t understand what you’re going through. You can’t tell your employees about hardships because you risk them getting spooked and looking for another job. I’ve actually come to believe that a business with a good culture isn’t as true as it used to be, but if you’re having a hard time making payroll and you tell all the employees, you do run a huge risk of losing some or all of them. If you’re not sure how to market or fix a problem with the business, you’ve got to watch out there, as well. It really can be lonely as an entrepreneur. Most of my friends who aren’t entrepreneurs don’t get it, either. When you’re stressed out about a situation with a customer or employee, it goes over a person’s head. If you have an opportunity, but you feel the risk level is a bit higher than normal, do you chat with your friends over dinner about this million-dollar decision? If they’re not entrepreneurs, it’s hard for them to give advice or to even understand the situation. The loneliness doesn’t only cover the bad times; it affects the good times, as well. Having a great month or year financially? Watch out who you tell. They may want a raise or a handout, depending on who they are. As an example, I drive a Porsche to work as often as I can. It was literally my childhood dream to own one. I’ve been told by both employees and consultants that I shouldn’t drive it to work because I don’t want to make too big of a show that I may be doing well. I ignored both the advice and criticism from the employee. But I mention it to prove my point — it’s lonely being an entrepreneur. Even when you’re doing well, you’re told you should be ashamed or hide it. That’s crazy talk! Side note: To be clear, I’m a big believer in sharing the marbles with the people who help you achieve success, and this includes your employees. I’m not suggesting that if you’re having a great year, people in the organization don’t deserve raises or bonuses. You should never try to get ahead by holding others down. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be allowed to have nice things and enjoy your success. “Most people don’t understand what you’re going through.”

bonus of friendships from people who get you. They’re people who are in the same or a similar boat.

Even with an entrepreneur friend, you have to be careful how much of the good times you share, because it can be easy for some entrepreneurs to get jealous of success.

Joining this group was the turning point for me, both personally and professionally, in a number of ways. During my four years with this group, I was able to get insights on areas where I sucked. I got advice on my business model and got to see other winning business models. This helped me create The Newsletter Pro foundation and adapt what I was doing to incorporate winning strategies from other businesses into my business. I got to ask specific questions to people who had been there and done that, which shortened my learning curve. As an added bonus, I’m still great friends with many of the same 20 people I met in that original group. I do business with some and can call any of them for help, despite that group having dissolved years ago. I’m convinced that having a coach and peer group to help you in business during hard times — and to share in the success of your business when there are good or great times — is one of the single best and most overlooked strategies for entrepreneurs. It was for me, for sure. Since this experience, I’ve used coaches and peer groups without fail each year. I’ve had one or two at a time since I first discovered the power of coaching at this level in 2012. Think about it like this. Tom Cruise is one of the best actors in Hollywood. He may not be your favorite, but from a box-office standpoint, his films have grossed over $9.3 billion worldwide. Whatever you think of him as an actor, it is hard to argue with $9.3 billion of unadjusted ticket sales. Even with all his success, Tom has multiple coaches for acting. One of the best quarterbacks of all time is Tom Brady, and he has a minimum of half a dozen coaches at any given time.

Being an entrepreneur is literally the loneliest job on the planet.

Once we move past how lonely it is, what about how hard it is?

You have to set the vision of the company, create the culture, hire, fire, and train. Next, you need to set the goals and priorities for the company, yourself, and the team. After that, maybe we better think about sales and marketing. Don’t forget about HR, taxes, and other regulations. We all have customers, and they have needs — some reasonable that should be accommodated and some unrealistic and totally unreasonable. All of our employees have lives, needs, and issues, both personally and professionally, which need to be assisted or managed. I know I’ve questioned my sanity a few times over the years. But the reality of it is that you don’t have to — and shouldn’t — go on this journey alone. In 2012, I joined a mentoring group that had 20 members, and it changed my life. This was the first time I had ever joined any type of coaching. Previously, I thought I didn’t need it. I thought I could go it alone, as I mentioned earlier, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Every single great entrepreneur, athlete, actor, speaker, etc. has a coach. When you put like-minded entrepreneurs in the same room, you get an added Have you ever thought being an entrepreneur is something only crazy people do?

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Go to NewsletterPro.com/apply . On this site, you’ll see a short application. Once you apply, I’ll have my team reach out to answer any questions and do a

If you want to be open, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly in your business, while also getting to see behind the scenes of other people’s businesses, this may be a good fit. If you’re willing to talk about KPIs in your business and what’s working and not working, this may be the group for you. 1. If you can’t prove you’re at a million dollars in revenue, this is not the group for you. 2. If you can’t commit to three meetings per year, again, you should pass. 3. If you are a jerk, you and I won’t get along well, so save us both time and don’t apply. 4. If you can’t honor commitments, this isn’t the right group for you. I know that’s a lot of rules, but putting on this group is more about making sure the people who join are a good fit. How many people join is less important to me. If you think you may be a good fit, here are the steps. I have a few rules that must be followed:

He personally pays some of the coaches above and beyond what the Patriots pay for.

fit check. Once they sign off on you, you and I can jump on a short call, and I’ll give final approval. This will help ensure the right people make it in and the wrong people don’t.

You will never be at the top of your game without coaching and a solid peer group.

That, though, creates another major problem. Where do you find a good coach and peer group?

–Shaun

I’ve struggled with this for years. Finding someone who is actually doing and not just teaching is hard. Finding a group that doesn’t have 50 or 100 people in it so you can get individualized attention is also hard. The worst things that can happen in a group are either that the info is not useful or just theory, or the group is so big you can’t actually get the help you need. With that in mind, due to a larger than normal influx of requests, I’ve decided to create a small group just for companies looking to scale. What do I mean by scale? If you’re looking to add strategies and tactics in sales, marketing, hiring, firing, and training of employees, team building, culture, and management, this is a group you should consider.

P.S. The nitty-gritty: There will be three meetings, two in Boise and one in Las Vegas (when it’s cold in Boise). The

first meeting will be on April 26 and 27. The exact days of the additional meetings will be agreed upon during the April meeting. The additional meetings will be in September 2018 and February 2019.

There will be other cool benefits, which we can send you additional details about after the application.

P.P.S. This is going to be a small group mastermind, so the seats will be crazy limited. If you have any interest, apply now to reserve the opportunity to join. NewsletterPro.com/apply

In order to survive in the intensely competitive contemporary marketplace, businesses need to be more nimble and collaborative than ever. There’s no time to play telephone around the office, hold unnecessary meetings, or constantly update members of the team about every little detail of a project. What’s more, as companies expand and workers begin working remotely, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep everyone on the same page. RESOURCE OF THE MONTH SYNC UP YOUR TEAMS WITH The Messaging Platform for the Modern Marketplace

day off or a manager reviewing productivity among your marketing team, you can track down old communications with a simple search. These archives also index any file that’s uploaded within the system, allowing users to search for keywords not only in the chat, but in any shared Word or PDF documents throughout the network. It’s just one feature of many that makes life easier. And that’s exactly what Slack does: It simplifies your life. With an attractive and easy-to-use interface, the program gets out of the way, allowing you and your team to interact clearly and rapidly with no obstructions. There’s simply no better way to build a space of transparency and synchronicity throughout teams, whether large or small.

member of your team who isn’t in the chat, it’s easy to tag any user across the network with a simple @ mention. Then, they can join, talk it out, and leave when their task is complete. So far, these features may seem fairly basic. Aside from the robust and crystal-clear implementation, which makes navigating the program a breeze, online chat has been around for years. But when you account for Slack’s wide array of additional tweaks and features to the common chat formula, it really shines. For instance, everything within Slack is automatically indexed and archived. Whether you’re a team member catching up on a project after a

Luckily, there’s Slack, a streamlined messaging app that gathers every communication across your entire company under a single platform. As many businesses are surely aware by now, Slack is perhaps the most hyped and lauded collaborative tool on the market, and with good reason. Let’s start with its primary feature: instant chat and messaging. The application connects users in real time, but it also understands that not everyone is needed for every conversation and that every discussion should not necessarily be accessible to the same employees. You can set up open conversations in both one-on-one and sub-group settings while restricting access to keep out unwanted or unneeded parties. If your group has a question for a particular

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I recently got home from a family trip to Disney World. Every year, we take a few family vacations, but the big vacation is a rotation between Disney World and Hawaii. I’m thinking of changing that to two Hawaii trips for each Disney World trip, but that’s a topic for another time. Disney’s Cash Cow Genius Way of Turning a Slow Time of Year Into a Will Change the Way You Think About Sales >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8

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