WHERE THOUSANDS OF ENTREPRENEURS LEARN HOW TO GROW WEEKLY
She Bootstrapped to $100M Valuation (NO VC) 😱 How to Scale Storytelling & Sales with Stephanie Nadi Olson, founder We Are Rosie
Learn from Stephanie Nadi Olson, founder We Are Rosie
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Hey, It's Alex!
🍵 Here's Your Weekly Tea
Cardi B should be a case study on how to amplify others in business. The quintessential of "don’t talk about it, be about it." From Meg the Stallion to Normani to GloRilla. Here’s what I love about how Cardi moves - she’s unapologetically all that she is while making room for others. This is unfortunately rare in startups where we are socialized to be paranoid about "competition" and cutting each other down. The beauty of Cardi B’s collaborations is in how she speaks love into them. Many of the women she has collaborated with in the last couple of years have leveraged her star power to move ahead but she doesn’t hold that over them. On the contrary, she uses her platform to talk them up and tells the world why they deserve to be there. I rarely see this in the music industry, let alone business. None of us rise without others speaking love into us and into rooms we wouldn’t otherwise have been considered for. Remember Cardi B the next time someone needs you to speak love into them. There’s enough room for us all. Stop holding your breath.
Let's get into your weekly briefing!
💸 HERE'S YOUR TRACTION BRIEFING
Founder: Stephanie Nadi Olson | Company: We Are Rosie | Location: Atlanta, GA
Receipts: After quitting her job, Stephanie went on to create a multi-million dollar platform that connects big brands to top-notch marketers. Her success has largely come from her amazing ability to use storytelling in her sales and marketing to help her close deals and get the word out there.
Here's your traction playbook...
How To Master Sales Through Storytelling
Learn How To Tell Your Story: "The best sales is storytelling and it’s really conversational. You don’t need to go read a book about how to sell. Go learn how to tell a story, go learn how to be really engaging in conversation, go do improv, go figure out how to listen to to people really well." - Stephanie Nadi Olson. While many people assume there's a playbook on how to be a great salesperson, they often forget the human element that comes with selling. Learning how to convey your messaging in a way that resonates and paints a picture will perhaps be the greatest sales skill you'll ever gain. Learn how Stephanie Nadi uses storytelling to boost her sales here.
How To Use Organic Marketing
Never Underestimate The Power of Word-of-Mouth: Have you ever had an experience that was so good you just had to tell your friends about it? Whether it's a new service or a new restaurant, your seal of approval would probably influence their future decisions on the same experience. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways that you can use to advertise your business. The key to great word of mouth marketing is providing consistently exceptional service to your customers so you are always their first referral. Here's how We Are Rosie leveraged WOMM to grow their business by 60% in one year.
How To Get People On Board With Your Vision
Communicate Your Why: We hear it all the time, define your why. The importance of having a clear why for your business is that it makes people understand you and your motivation for running your business. It is the best way to draw in not only partners, but also employees who are excited about your vision and mission for the company. Your why draws out empathy and also helps you get to your what. Here is more on Stephanie's why and how it influenced We Are Rosie's growth.
Support Stephanie in Scaling Impact: If you know any marketers who could use We Are Rosie, please send them their way!
TRACTION TOOLS: How to get it done...
Your Team's Orgasmic Operations Support: This session will talk about how to define roles for your team to handle things like project management, team communication, knowledge base, etc. Secure your spot here.
Set Yourself Up For Growth From Day One In Your Business: Learn how to set yourself up to scale your impact from the very start of your business, and do it on your own terms. Secure your spot here.
Effectively Use Word-of-Mouth Marketing To Scale: Here's how our Queen Ceata Lash used WOMM to scale to 7 figures
Tips On How To Use Storytelling In Sales: Storytelling can help you hit your sales quotas faster. Learn how to use it here.
How To Draft Your Why Statement: Learn how to effectively communicate your purpose here.
Master Sales: Learn how fellow Queen Stephanie Neale bootstrapped a 7-figure consultancy and mastered sales here.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY: Join our community membership waitlist here.
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How to Diversify Revenue & Operationalize to Grow a $Multi-Million Business with Elisa Camahort Page, founder BlogHer Inc.
Learn from Elisa Camahort, founder of BlogHer Inc.
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Hey, It's Alex!
🍵 Here's Your Weekly Tea
“Go Fast. Break Things.” I’m sure you’ve heard this. We live in a microwave culture. We want things instantly. But here’s the thing about instant - it’s never that good. The startup space emulates this mentality. An analysis was done on when startups scale. Fun Fact: On average, it takes a company 49 months to start scaling. They found that startups that scale too early, fail. In addition, startups that scale fast are no more likely to succeed than their slower scaling counterparts. For most early-stage companies, scale shouldn’t be the focal point. Experimenting should be. The problem early-stage companies face when obsessing about scale results in a failure to experiment in pursuit of finding silver bullets. I’ll save you time - there are no silver bullets in the startup game. What worked for someone else, may not work for you. So stop obsessing over scale and get out there and experiment.
Let's get into your weekly briefing!
💸 HERE'S YOUR TRACTION BRIEFING
Founder: Elisa Camahort Page | Company: BlogHer Inc. | Location: San Jose, CA
Receipts: Elisa is an OG influencer, way before influencers were a thing. By productizing her business and diversifying her revenue streams, she was able to build a media company, raise $20M and exit.
Here's your traction playbook...
How To Grow Your Revenue
Diversify, Diversify, Diversify: Did you know diversifying your revenue streams is a great way to minimize business risk? Finding creative and innovative ways to serve your existing customers means that you can give them what they want and need while not depending on one revenue source. For Elisa and BlogHer, that meant launching a web community, hosting conferences, starting a publishing network and so much more. Learn how they were able to scale their business using this strategy here.
How To Successfully Productize Your Services
What Do Your Customers Actually Want?: "These were all products that served our business, and served our customer and served our brand." - Elisa Camahort Page. What is the secret to successful productization? Finding out what your customers really want and finding different ways to provide them with services/products that will serve them. That involves deep research, speaking to them and actively listening. A good product solves a pain in a repeatable way. Get down in the ground and find out what your customers are saying and what they want.
How To Find The Right Investors
Look for Passionate Money: Find investors who believe in you and what you're doing. Investors who are aligned with your company's vision and mission. Your business will definitely pivot and change with the seasons, but your investors need to have faith in your leadership ability to navigate through those changes. You need investors who are willing to weather the changes with you.
Support Elisa in Scaling Impact: Find out more about what Elisa and The Cru does here.
TRACTION TOOLS: How to get it done...
Time Management for Founders: Learn how to successfully manage your time so you can do more. Join us here.
Diversify Your Revenue Streams: Too many eggs in one basket? Learn how to diversify your revenue streams here.
Productize Your Consulting Service: Get the ultimate guide here.
Increase Revenues By 30%: Find out here how Susan Perlman increased revenues by 30% for her company.
Create an Operational Model That Works: Learn how to create a business model with accurate operating costs here.
Productize To 8-Figures: Gloria Hwang scaled a passion project to an 8-figure productized business. Learn here.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY: Join our community membership waitlist here.
GET YOUR FREE 5-MIN WEEKLY GROWTH PLAYBOOKS
Master Connections = Build A Multi-Million Dollar Business - Here's How She Did It with Susan McPherson, founder McPherson Strategies
Learn from Susan McPherson, founder of McPherson Strategies.
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Hey, It's Alex!
🍵 Here's Your Weekly Tea
"We cannot be what we cannot see." Last week, the founder of Patagonia put his money where his mouth is and showed us what scaling generational impact can look like. Here’s the thing - your business will NOT save the world. Many startups seeking cash tend to partake in saviorism tactics because it makes who they’re pitching to "feel good" and quite frankly, it’s an ego boost. If done well, your company can serve - not save. However, what happens when many companies focus on serving the collective? That’s where impact lives. Toxic capitalism and the people who benefit from it, want the current system to stay in place and will tell you that what Yvon Chouinard has done with Patagonia "will not work". News flash - the current system doesn't work for 99%. Can Patagonia as a company by itself end climate change? No. But the intentional action by its founder gave us a new model of impact we can see to envision what we can become. When we start seeing, more of us can start being. That’s impact.
Let's get into your weekly briefing!
💸 HERE'S YOUR TRACTION BRIEFING
Founder: Susan McPherson | Company: McPherson Strategies | Location: New York, NY
Receipts: Susan is a connections wizard! She started and scaled a multi-million dollar business utilizing her strong connections, great sales techniques and hiring a winning team.
Here's your traction playbook...
How Successful Founders Get Sh!t Done
Develop The Lost Art of Connecting: "I believe the fundamental difference between networking and connecting is leading with how you can be helpful to others. And when you’re helpful to others, the help comes back." There's a lot that goes into developing a strong business connection. Similar to how you would approach personal relationships, fostering strong business connections depends on what you can do improve the life of the people you are connecting with. When was the last time you spoke to someone who made it all about them? Wasn't fun was it?
How To Build A Business Quickly
Invest In Good People: You're great at what you do - but you can't kill it at everything. Part of Susan's quick success was finding a team that could do what she couldn't and do it amazingly. While she's great at building connections, she didn't want to get stuck in the minutia of building a business. The result was quick growth that contributed to her company's success.
How To Close A Sale
Look for Signals: To successfully close a sale, you need to be a master conversationalist. That means learning to listen intently. In your listening, look for signals of your prospect's hopes and dreams because if you can be able to deliver some of their hopes and dreams then they will buy anything from you. Of course only promise to deliver what you actually can.
Support Susan in Scaling Impact: If you know any organizations looking for help with impact focused communication, send them their way. To learn more about her successful networking strategies, get her book here!
TRACTION TOOLS: How to get it done...
Mental Health Circle: The Last 100 Days of 2022 - Preventing Exhaustion: Learn how to effectively manage the pressure and expectations that come from career and entrepreneurship. Join us here.
Time Management for Founders: Learn how to successfully manage your time so you can do more. Join us here.
What is a Buying Signal?: Understand when your prospect is ready and willing to buy here.
Build Authentic Business Relationships: Learn here how to build business relationships that are mutually beneficial.
Identify The Right Hires: Learn here how our Queen Kaitlyn Knopp was able to find the right team to help her scale her business.
Building Mutually Beneficial Partnerships: Tanya Van Court built a fintech platform primarily by fostering her relationships. Learn how here.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY: Join our community membership waitlist here.
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How to Use Experimentation to Find the Right Areas of Entrepreneurial Focus; Importance of Rest & Play in Entrepreneurship with Amina Moreau, Co-Founder & CEO Radious
Learn from Amina Moreau, Co-Founder & CEO of Radious
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Hey, It's Alex! 💛
Welcome to your Weekly Traction Briefing - your 5-min weekly growth playbook where we break down what's happening in business, how to Get Sh!t Done, and how to grow. If this briefing is helpful to you, share it with your friends so they can grow with you & thousands of other entrepreneurs.
🍵 THIS WEEK'S TEA
"Quiet Quitting" is a distraction. "Quiet Firing" is the problem. You know those dumb companies forcing people to return back to the office? That's a ploy to get people to quit. Why? They don't want to pay severance Some of the worst forms of capitalism. Do NOT model this in your company unless you are ok with becoming the oppressor 500,000 jobs were created last quarter. Yup. LinkedIn is bombarding us with annoying a** layoff news every second but they're failing to tell us about a crap load of new jobs created. Tech only makes up 2% of the workforce. Great reminder that innovation goes beyond the tech industry. In f**k boy news, Miyoko Schinner, founder of THE Miyoko's brand is being sued by her board. "Is it just a competition where the winner takes all? The current model supports a few gaining a lot, and then some through consolidation, while others never get their foot in the door. See what the founder had to say here. This is a lesson to founders - don't get it twisted. Your board members and investors will have your back until you seem like a threat to their vision of returns. You are not the exception. #StayWoke
❓ GET YOUR GROWTH QUESTIONS ANSWERED❓
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We're answering your specific growth questions with our guests! If your question is selected, we'll give you and your company a shout out on the podcast and in our weekly emails 🙌🏾
👑 Founder: Amina Moreau | Company: Radious | Location: Portland, OR
🧾 Receipts: Amina has scaled her business to 120+ spaces across two cities, 40+ corporate customers with 50% repeat business, growing waiting list across the country and beyond. She's also a serial entrepreneur who has successfully scaled and exited two other businesses.
💸 HERE'S YOUR TRACTION BRIEFING
How Rest and Play Is A Key Part of the Entrepreneurship Journey
Find Your Sweet Spot - "You have to find ways to make it playful. You have to find ways to enjoy it otherwise why are you doing it? What I realized though is that while playing for fun is fun, playing to improve is also fun. Playing to compete is also fun. However, you have to do it in a way that feels right for you, and figuring out what that sweet spot is takes some work." - Amina Moreau. Learn more about how Amina has approached rest and play to help her successfully scale three companies HERE.
🛠️ MORE TOOLS TO GET IT DONE: Learn how founders can practice self-care HERE.
🤗 BECOME A MEMBER: Ready to grow you? Join a powerful, hyper-connected, and supportive network helping you grow your business, reduce overwhelm, and teaching you how to hit goals consistently. Explore our membership HERE.
How to Find Your Focus
Experiment, Experiment, Experiment - If you're looking to find your focus and achieve success, there's one thing you absolutely can't skimp on: experimentation! By trying out new ideas, taking calculated risks, and keeping an open mind, you'll discover what works best for you and refine your approach to achieve success. And the best part? Experimentation helps you stay nimble and adapt to changing circumstances, ultimately leading to even greater success and fulfillment. HERE is how Amina approaches experimentation.
🛠️ MORE TOOLS TO GET IT DONE: Learn how to test digital business ideas HERE.
When Resources Are Limited, How Do You Experiment?
Conduct Market Research - "One classic mistake that entrepreneurs often make is that they have this idea they want to put out into the world. Sometimes it works as is, but if you're unwilling to take feedback and make changes, you might not be building something that other people want. You might be building something that you want to put out there regardless of whether other people want it." - Amina Moreau. Market research is essential for entrepreneurs, especially when resources are limited and experimentation isn't an option. By conducting thorough research, you can gain a deep understanding of your target audience, competitors, and market trends, helping you make informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes. Learn more HERE.
🛠️ MORE TOOLS TO GET IT DONE :Learn why market research is important HERE.
RSVP TO THIS MONTH'S TRACTION TRAINING
Wednesday, March 1st @ 6pm EST: How to Apply for Grants & NOT Waste Your Time. RSVP
THIS WEEK'S GROWTH GUIDE
Learn how to bootstrap your way to the top by building a badass brand.
Learn how to scale by mastering different growth channels in the Traction Library.
🤗 BECOME A MEMBER: Ready to grow you? Join a powerful, hyper-connected, and supportive network helping you grow your business, reduce overwhelm, and teaching you how to hit goals consistently. Explore our membership HERE.
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With Love & Impact,
Alex Batdorf
Chief Get Sh!t Done Officer
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When Funders Said NO, She Grew To $10M+ in 5 Years with Whitney Headen, founder 19th & Park Inc.
Learn from Whitney Headen, founder of 19th & Park Inc.
You're viewing an archive of Get Sh!t Done Weekly Email Traction Briefings. Join free to receive your weekly 5-minute growth playbooks & grow alongside thousands of entrepreneurs
Hey, It's Alex!
🍵 Here's Your Weekly Tea
This weekend, I was on a long car ride with my friend who is a DEI champion. We talked about why the entrepreneurial ecosystem continues to fail at creating equitable outcomes. Whether that be an obsession with VC when less than 1% of ANY founders will ever raise or perpetuating business practices that harm the collective. But let's be real - how can we create equity by using the same models that have proven to be inequitable and expect a different outcome? This was amplified after seeing how a community "for founders" is under fire for acting like a cult and harming women. It's not surprising. Why? They studied and leveraged cult-like tactics to grow for growth's sake. They’re not the only ones and they have and will continue to be rewarded for it because they aren't incentivized to change. Startups are actually encouraged to be reckless until they implode. The business of entrepreneurship needs a reckoning. Everybody needs to ask themselves - am I really committed to building for the good of the collective OR am I doing this for power? If we are honest, the actions of many fall into the latter. Intentions are NOT enough. Actions are everything.
Let's get into your weekly briefing!
💸 HERE'S YOUR TRACTION BRIEFING
Founder: Whitney Headen | Company: 19th & Park Inc. | Location: New York, NY
Receipts: With no funding from banks and other sources, Whitney and her partners were able to bootstrap and scale to 8 figures and in only 5 years.
Here's your traction playbook...
How To Nail Business Development
Create Visibility Then Build Relationships: In their early days, 19th & Park wanted to create visibility for their business. They knew they had a killer offering, but how would they communicate that to potential clients? The first three years were all about getting people to know them and how awesome and unique their services were. In the process, they built strong relationships and built an impressive portfolio. 5 years in, that early ground work still pays off.
How To Sustain Your Business When You Have No Funding
Be Conservative With Your Funds/Bootstrap: "Being very conservative with funds was one of our main early reasons for our success." - Whitney Headen. Whitney and her partners were forced to bootstrap mainly because they couldn't get funding - even with $2.5 million in revenue. As a result they had to watch how they spent money, understand the ins and outs of accounting, and change their mindset around money and success in general. They are now self-sustaining and don't need funding anymore!
How To Diversify Your Services
Don't Do Too Much: "There was a point when we were over diversifying. We were trying to do too much and being everything for everybody. We realized very quickly that we weren’t making any money doing that and we weren’t providing a niche service." - Whitney Headen. Diversification is an unpredictable and sometimes high-stakes game. For 19th & Park, they relied on their collective skillset to decide whether or not to diversify. They also listened to what their clients wanted to decide whether it made sense to bring in a new service. Don't over-diversify, you might run yourself thin and ruin your reputation in the process.
Support Whitney in Scaling Impact: Tell a friend to tell a friend! Also, if there’s a creative who’s underappreciated and needs an opportunity, send them over to 19th and Park - they're always looking to grow awesome talent.
TRACTION TOOLS: How to get it done...
Startup Marketing for Founders: Join us for a LIVE #TractionClass
September 14th @ 1PM EST | RSVP NowFourth Floor X UBS Fellowship Program: Calling all BIPOC Founders! This is a great opportunity to grow and scale your company. Join The Fourth Floor X UBS Fellowship program and connect with a community of BIPOC founders and board candidates.
Ultimate Guide To Business Development: Find out here how the right business development strategy will grow your company.
How The Right Relationships Build Businesses: Here's how Alix Peabody used the relationships she had to help her build a multimillion dollar business.
How To Be Conservative With Your Funds: Learn here how fellow Queen Jennifer Eden self-funded and learnt how to manage her finances when scaling Tampon Tribe
To Diversify or Not To Diversify: Learn whether or not you need to diversify your business services here.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY: Join our community membership waitlist here.
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How She Scaled a "Lifestyle" Brand in a Highly Regulated Market with Alix Peabody, founder Bev
Learn from Alix Peabody, founder of Bev
You're viewing an archive of Get Sh!t Done Weekly Email Traction Briefings. Join free to receive your weekly 5-minute growth playbooks & grow alongside thousands of entrepreneurs
Hey, It's Alex!
🍵 Here's Your Weekly Tea
Is it just me or do people not understand the true definition of the word - "wild"? If Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin's leaked party pics are considered wild, me and my friends should be considered crazy! And nah - I'm not apologizing for it and neither should any woman, regardless of her position. There's nothing better than being around dope women, making moves in the world, while allowing ourselves to let loose and be free from the day to day pressures. This is Leadership to me. Experiencing all parts of being whole so I can lead from that place. Women are not compartmentalized versions of social expectations that we never asked for #Unsubscribe. Let's have a "wild" week, shall we?
Let's get into your weekly briefing!
💸 HERE'S YOUR TRACTION BRIEFING
Founder: Alix Peabody | Company: Bev | Location: Venice, CA
Receipts: Alix has been able to break into and succeed in a privately held and capital-intensive industry by thinking outside the box and having a strong conviction in what she is doing.
Here's your traction playbook...
How Scrappy Marketing Built A Business
Create Hype Around Your Product: Before having an actual product, Alix was able to build a strong brand for Bev through scrappy marketing. She created a strong social media presence for her product. Not only did this validate what she was trying to sell, but it also created hype and interest even before manufacturing. How did she create success with this method? She implemented her strategy little by little to gain momentum.
How To Shift The Culture Within An Industry
Partner with the right industry players: Bev's big why is transforming social spaces by creating a drinking culture that inspires equality, embodies inclusive fun, and powers communities for the better. Being in an industry that is associated with a lot of vice, Alix had to create a unique strategy that would shift the culture within the industry. By partnering with key players including bar owners, transportation companies and venue spaces, she was able to start conversations on how the alcohol industry could promote positive social change.
How To Stay The Course When You're Told No
Have Strong Conviction In What You're Doing: "I was turned down for capital financing 368 times before I got my first check. Over the course of two years. It was not all rainbow and butterflies. It was really tough in the beginning. That is why you need to have conviction in what you are doing." - Alix Peabody. Failure and rejection is part of the course for most if not all founders. A lot of the time you'll be the only one who has faith in your idea. That is why it's important to have a big why. A strong conviction in your idea and the purpose it serves within your industry.
Support Alix in Scaling Impact: Go check out your local liquor store and try out some Bev! You can also listen to more of her insight on her podcast - madebychicks.
TRACTION TOOLS: How to get it done...
Startup Marketing for Founders: Join us for a LIVE #TractionClass
September 14th @ 1PM EST | RSVP NowHow To Find Capital To Scale In A Capital Intensive Industry: Find out here how Leah Caplanis was able to raise $4.5M and scale within the alcohol industry.
How She Built The Fastest Growing Whiskey Brand: Here's how Fawn Weaver was able to build Uncle Nearest on 99% earned media.
What Is Scrappy Marketing: Learn more about scrappy marketing and how it makes you more agile here.
Has Your Investment Been Rejected?: Here are 10 steps to help you handle business rejection by investors.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY: Join our community membership waitlist here.