Get an unfiltered look behind the scenes of a 7-figure online business. Follow along as I learn how to grow the company and become a better leader. The episodes range from my personal lessons and ideas to private team meetings and recorded calls with other business leaders.If you want to peek inside… read more
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This week I did a training with our coaches on “how do you win as a coach”?
If you’re a coach, run a coaching company, and/or are trying to scale your …
Today I want to share with you one of my favorite hiring moves.
It’s super easy when someone new gets hired to have a super slow onboarding period.
But we’ve totally tried to flip this on its head.
Today on the podcast, I …
I find a lot of comfort and guidance in my religion.
Now I fully get each and every person has an individual relationship with God, but I frequently …
There are days when I’m super dialed in and focused, and there are days when every sound, bird, and squirrel grabs my attention.
But I’ve got a new productivity and focus hack that is sooooo good…and it’s simple!
I break …
I have a new business idea…
What are your daily / weekly habits?
It seems like every big entrepreneur has their set of habits that they claim make them successful.
Today, I want …
When you receive interesting feedback/advice from a trusted source, how do you react?
Over the years, I’ve learned that the way I react is critical to whether or not I grow from that feedback.
I go over my strategy for …
We all have to start somewhere.
There used to be a Bryan who had never made a dollar as a coach or consultant…never sold a thing online…and was far …
I love taking lessons from stories, leaders, and history, and seeing how I can apply them to my life.
Recently I was reading through the Book of Samuel, specifically the story of David.
And one of the most interesting …
One of my favorite leadership quotes is “attitude reflects leadership”.
I’ve noticed this is nearly ALWAYS true when I’m working with coaching clients - the attitude of the team is aligned with the attitude of the leader.
After 10 years of 1:1 coaching, one of my biggest “aha’s” happened about a month ago.
And it has everything to do with the way in which you coach.
I think this mindset helps me be a great coach.
And the opposite mindset …
What is your personal definition of “financial freedom”?
Interestingly it tends to be different for each person.
But the reality is that what most of think it takes to be “financially free” may not actually be true …
Yes it’s true.
If you have a coaching or consulting business, you can indeed scale it to 8-figures in just 4-steps.
However, these aren’t easy steps.
…
One thing I recently noticed a lot of people doing (including myself) is that when we see someone do or achieve something great, we immediately elevate that person’s status in our mind.
But that frequently sets us up for …
One thing I recently noticed a lot of people doing (including myself) is that when we see someone do or achieve something great, we immediately elevate that person’s status in our mind.
But that frequently sets us up for …
One of the most demoralizing things in a hiring process is to get on an hour long interview call and know within the first 5 minutes that the candidate is not a good fit.
The way we’ve prevented this is by creating a …
Probably the biggest reason I’ve been able to have success in both business and life is that I’ve created habits that I literally do every single day.
When I practice these habits, success simply happens.
I’m happier, …
There’s something I do for my wife every morning that makes not only a big difference for me, but a difference for her.
It’s one of those things that practically takes very little effort, but has a lot of intention, and …
Ok time for the last in my hiring tips series.
Today, I’m going over my strategy of WHO to call, WHEN to call, and WHAT specifically to ask which will streamline your entire hiring process.
Adding someone to your team can be an incredibly time consuming process.
When you hire someone great, it can truly transform your company for the …
Today I want to share another rule that is super important and something that you should use for every single application.
It gives you a ton of …
One of my favorite things to do is hiring amazing superstars for our team here at Growth Tools.
Growing your team is always exciting, but the …
Good personal finance hygiene is something that on the surface may seem basic, but creating a system around can actually be tricky.
And when you’re a …
Welp, it’s that time of year again.
We’re freshly here in 2024, so it’s time to set goals. It’s my favorite time of the year to reset going forward and review the last year.
This year I’m doing something different.
I’m …
There’s a major pitfall that coaches and consultants (including myself) often fall into that stifles growth and can set you up for failure if you’re …
How many marketing channels do you currently have for getting new clients, not counting referrals?
If the answer is more than one, then there’s a good chance you might be doing something wrong.
In today’s podcast episode, …
One of the more helpful things that we try to articulate in everything we do, are our core USPs (Unique Selling Propositions).
Basically - how are we …
One of the biggest reasons for potential coaching clients to be disappointed in your offering or program is expectations misalignment between sales and onboarding.
On today’s podcast, I walk you through exactly what we …
One of my favorite questions is what’s the most important thing in…
I ran across a story today that I love.
It’s a story about attrition, survival, and Harrison Ford.
And as a coach, consultant or CEO of a company, …
I ran across a tweet today from Brent Beshore on some sales advice that he found a few years ago but remains some of the most valuable advice he’s …
As the CEO of our company, Growth Tools, I’m constantly focused on what we can do as a company to continually improve our product and remain the best …
One of my favorite teachings by Jim Collins is that of the Stockdale Paradox.
It’s really counterintuitive, but I reread it fairly regularly because …
One challenge that coaches frequently face is setting and matching expectations. It’s a challenge that we’ve encountered many times through the …
Sometimes we need something to shake up our lives.
For my director of sales, he’s training for a marathon.
For a friend of mine, it’s making a new youtube video every day for the next 100 days.
Recently, I decided I wanted …
Can you be a better coach?
As entrepreneurs and business owners, it’s easy to get caught up in the sales & marketing part of your business at the …
I’ve got a (very) short little knowledge nugget I want to share with you today on my number 1 hiring rule.
It’s something we do before hiring ANYONE …
One of the most uncomfortable things that comes with running a business and managing a team, is addressing when sometime is underperforming either operationally or relationally.
Maybe they’re not hitting the numbers they …
One defining characteristic of ultra successful coaches is that they are always looking for ways to improve:
One of the exciting growth points we reach with GU clients is when they hit a revenue mark whereby they need to start hiring a team.
Whether it’s an assistant, another coach, sales person, etc, growing your revenue to …
Is there anything more draining / disappointing / upsetting than investing a ton of time and effort into something, and then it NOT coming to …
In case you haven’t guessed yet, I’m really into habit forming :)
In my experience, powerful results come from consistency, and consistency is built …
A concept we strongly believe in at Growth Tools is “radical FIO (Figure. It. Out.).
We recently changed our strategy on the sales side of the …
One of the things I’ve been thinking about recently is a concept from Gary Keller’s book “The One Thing” (which is one of my favorite books BTW).
“The One Thing” is literally when faced with some uncertainty or issue, …
Do you ever have genius ideas but then you’re not sure what to do with that idea?
Either you go to execute it and things just to really flow.
Or maybe it’s just not the right timing.
I pride myself in being an “execute …
One of the things I have found that is amazing at building trust and relationships, is asking questions.
Now not the types of interview style questions where you come off as superficial or socially unaware, but the types …
Whenever things feel a little out of control or I get emotionally rocky, I find my center by grounding myself in three simple habits that keep me …
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership.
What makes a good leader?
How does leadership differ from “people management”?
Am I a good leader?
As I’ve been researching, I wasn’t quite satisfied with most of the …
A fairly unique quality I have (which can be both good and bad), is that I like to move fast to change a result that I don’t like.
Well…the month of …
The other day, my wife and I were having a discussion that actually became a bit heated to a point where my words and emotions just completely exacerbated the situation.
And at the point where things were about to turn …
What do you do or say when someone says I’m sorry to you?
I explain a little more about this in today’s podcast episode here.
But I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
This is completely non-biz related and really just …
There’s a simple principle I have to make a conscious effort to remind myself of on a regular basis.
Keep. It. Simple.
Too often we add complexity to …
When you’re faced with hurdles or problems in your business (a common one we hear is “I can’t figure out how to get new clients), how do you respond?
I know many times in life, even sometimes today, I go into what I call …
2 ways to lead
2007 letter from IRS
Library of Alexandria
Amazing Facebook ads?
I just finished reading Influence by Robert Cialdini and loved it!
The big idea in the book is that persuasion is a powerful and learnable skill. It …
3 ways to build creativity
Marketing plan = Teach 1 new audience per week
$100m webinar funnel
Write a 3 year vision in 90 minutes
Your product most likely has one of these 3 problems:
1. Seems to complicated
2. Problem isn’t acute enough
3. Price seems too high
These 3 problems create the vast majority of buying objections that your prospects will …
Our mission
20 weeks in a row
My OMAD story
Tool thinking vs Problem Thinking
What worked 6mo ago?
3 marketing wins from Q2
Our #1 marketing tweak of Q2
4 steps to theme and create the headline:
1. Who is your best fit client?
2. What desire are you satisfying for them?
3. What product result does that?
…
A friend hired a writing service recently. The clarity in their offer and the process was the #1 reason he chose them over someone who would have …
Defining who are best fit client is has moved the needle in a significant way.
In this episode I interview Drew Breaux, the Growth Tools director of …
1. Drink giant glass of water now
2. Text 1 friend that you love them
3. Drop and do 25 push-ups
4. Go for 10m walk outside
5. Help someome this morning
6. Take 5m to imagine a 5 star future
7. Eat < 50 carbs today
8. Get …
What is a problem so interesting and inspiring that you could dedicate the next 3 decades to solving?
Podcast Update
🤔interesting...
Economics of @tldrdan ‘s daily newsletter. Runs on sponsorships.
- 118,000 subscribers
- 36% open and 8% click
- Tech audience
Charges $1,000 per email.
Details: …
Got big questions about your career or company?
Good. You should.
Exhibit A: Phil Knight started Nike in 1964. Twelve years in he still had major …
Simple way to catch issues on your team before they spiral...
Track these 4 metrics:
1. Hours
2. Stress
3. Happiness
4. Education
Monitor weekly. Meet if any are out of whack.
When was the last time your team convinced you not to do something that you wanted to do?
If you can’t remember, that’s a problem:
1. Everyone has ideas
2. Most get run through the filter
3. Yours probably bypass the filter
Writing Tip: Split your writing ito two sessions.
1. End each day by writing for 15m
2. Start each day by writing for 45m
3. Publish by 8am
Leaving it mid sentence and letting my brain work on it over night works wonders.
How to set quarterly goals
Here is the simple framework I use:
1. Vision: want I want things to look like
2. Habits: Do task X times, use streaks
3. Projects: 1 time initiatives
4. Use basecamp to log it all
Listen to …
Life lesson I learned recently
I've been thinking about this quote a lot...
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time …
I’m keeping two tabs open in my browser at all times durring this crazy Corona event.
1. Stress reducing protocol
2. Worst case scenario list
These 2 …
Recently the Growth Tools leadership team had a meeting to talk about how to encourage and incentivize everyone at the company to identify small …
I came across a fun chapter from Austin Klein’s boom, Show Your Work, today. The chapter Is entitled, Share something small everyday. It resonated with me. So in this episode I’ll read you the chapter and share why I …
This week has been the most bizarre and crazy week I can remember in multiple decades.
I just sent a video and update to our team sharing how I’m …
One of the best uses of my time right now is working with our leadership team 1:1. I love it. But one of the down falls is my calendar can turn into a hot mess of random meetings.
So, today I wrote a quick memo to …
Each day starts the same for me. I sit down at my desk and do my Morning 10. These are 10 shot tasks that take 1 minute or less to do. These 10 things set my tday up well, prime me to be productive and ensure that the …
In this episode I read an article by Michael Hyatt entitles “Why Vision Is More Important Than Strategy”.
https://michaelhyatt.com/why-vision-is-more-important-than-strategy/
Highly encourage you to read the article. …
Every quarter we do a challenge on our team focused on encouraging and empowering each person to find problems and opportunities for the company (and fix them).
This quarter the person with the best project wins a $2k …
I just finished reading my favorite book on naming things (products, companies etc.) and I loved it!
I recorded a short video summary and wrote up detailed notes on the book so that years from now I can come back to it …
Recently I made two small adjustments to how I schedule lunch meetings.
A few smart people I know are hardcore into Linkedin for biz dev. I've mostly looked at Linkedin as a giant spam trap.
However, my curiously was piqued. So, I hoped on with Marti Sanchex who mentioned that he was using …
I struggle to name things. Product, companies, podcasts etc. It’s so bad that I struggle to name our dog.
I picked up a book on naming recently to help. And I loved the book. It’s Hello My Name Is Awesome by Alexandra …
I’m thinking of hiring someone to help answer 95% of my emails. Email and inbound messages have become a big problem and my slow response times is one of the biggest “weights around my neck”. Listen as I process through …
My business coach shares a quote and post on Linkedin recently. Its been in my head ever since.
“The more a CEO does the weaker the business becomes”
In this podcast episode I read the rest of the post to you and share …
Instead of asking, “What’s wrong?” Ask “What happened?”. That phrase is neutral, holds no baggage and will get the person in a more calm and logical …
Want to go to a marketing conference with me? I have an extra ticket, thought it might be cool to see if anyone wanted to hang for a few days with me …
A quick update on what we’re working on this month at my company
1. Swipe 2 of my favorite email sequences for free
2. We’re hosting a “How to write your launch email sequence” class next week
3. We’re hiring a coach and …
I’ve been stuck. Finally took a super small action and before I knew it I had 3x’d my production of the last 5 weeks. Quick story and tip of how to use this.
Two of my big targets for the year are:
1) Best year of marriage ever
2) Treat my personal brand like a business
These are the 6 activities I’ve committed to doing in Q1 to work towards those targets (and the number of …
I had no idea what Kobe meant to so many. Over the last 48 hours I’ve been inspired, moved to tears and motivated by his life.
Here are 6 quotes that moved me the most:
1. "I can't relate to lazy people. We don't speak …
This podcast started on a whim as a fun little side project 8 months ago. And I’ve really enjoyed it and want to take it more seriously in 2020.
My new target is to consistently get 1,000 downloads per episode.
Here are 7 …
1 simple hack for better meetings
1. Make a ‘meeting notes’ gdoc
2. Link it in your bookmarks bar
3. Take notes durring the meeting in the doc
4. …
8020curve.com
Story of our new Director of Marketing and how he 5x’d sales of our most important product in his first 3 weeks.
Great end of year review process from Tim Ferriss.
1. Get a notepad and create positive and negative column
2. Go thru calendar, pictures, orders from …
Me thinking out loud about a new potential project to take on in 2020. What do you think?
I just finished one of my all time favorite books...
The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard
Big Idea: 3 simple 1-min tasks to be a world class leader. They aren’t hard and don’t take much time.
1. One Minute Goals
…
I spent a few hours researching all the deals I got durring 2018 Black Friday and a few things stuck out.
1. get on the waiting list x sneak peak
2. our deal is live w/ subject line reminder of deal
3. our deal is …
Our 5-step high-ticket sales funnel
Every month Will Hoekenga and I get on a call and talk about major initiatives and stuff I'm working on at my company, Growth Tools.
This is our …
How to never get made at someone
My #1 scheduling and planning tip
Ruben Gamez asked how I go about taking stuff from the books I read and implementing and executing on them.
1. Read one chapter at a time
2. Underline key points and concepts as I go
3. At end of chapter, stop and write …
James Clear recently asked how decide which projects to work on. Here is our process:
1. Pick projects quarterly
2. Dont add new projects once quarter begins
3. Capture any new project ideas
4. Spend 1 hour a month …
Every month I shoot a quick video updating the Growth Tools team on what we're working on and what I'm excited about.
Highlights:
Update #1: An …
We usually get 100+ applicants when hiring. Filtering through them all can be tedious.
Here are 8 things that I’ve noticed make people stand out.
1. …
One tweak thats helped to 2x buy-in from the team = rephrase task as a question.
👉🏻 “What would you think about ?”
Helps leadership develop by …
How to cancel 50% of your meetings
Every month I shoot a quick video updating the Growth Tools team on what we're working on and what I'm excited about.
Highlights:
Update #1: A 94% …
Want to know how to pick KPIs for your team?
This is how we do it.
1. A quesiton that pulls out your KPIs
2. What to do if you still cant get them
3. …
Val Geisler and I had a 30m coaching session on raising prices.
We talk about:
1. Risk of raising prices
2. How to do it with out scaring off clients
3. Niche service idea for her to be able to charge more
Enjoy!
Tweet From Benji
8 Hacks For A Healthy Remote Team
1. Track happiness, stress and hrs
2. 1:1's every 3 months
3. Clear expected outcomes
4. Wkly KPIs tied to outcomes
5. Wkly & Quarterly goals
6. Meet in-person every 3mo
7. Live video for …
Simple exercise to increase your teams happiness and low their stress.
5 levels of delegation via @michaelhyatt
Level 1: Do what I have asked you to do
Level 2: Research and I’ll decide
Level 3: Research, show options and make recommendation
Level 4: Decide and tell me what you did
Level …
Monday Starts A 30-Day Experiment.
Can we do a $10k per month lead gen service for companies w/ LTV >$2k?
Goal = 5 committed partnership with projected qualified lead count of 1000 and sales of $20k.
I found a tool that turns my podcasts into videos.
1. Publish an episode
2. They email the video <2hrs
I do nothing. It just magically …
18 months ago I found our long term business model
1. Create free marketing tools
2. Tell users about our paid training products
Getting clear on …
Yesterday we had a brainstorming session to talk about new product concept.
Be a fly on the wall as we discuss:
1. The concept
2. Should we and …
@CaseyGraham told me a CEO has 3 jobs:
1. Vision: stay focused on it
2. People: recruit and retain the best
3. Money: don’t run out
My top …
A challenge I gave the team last week:
1. Share your top “figured it out” moment from the week
2. Everyone votes on their favorite
3. Most votes gets …
Are you a “year end review” blog post addict?
Will DeShazo shares lessons, recommendations and highlights on his 28th birthday.
📖 Best Book: “Never Split The Difference”
🔮 Biggest Lesson: “Being intentionally …
To get a meeting with someone:
If you know them:
1. Create a cal invite with agenda in description and time of meeting
2. Send it to them. Don’t ask, just send.
If you don’t know them:
1. Ask for the meeting
2. If no …
Each month I film a short video updating our team on:
1. What I’m excited about
2. What we’re working on
3.. A few fun behind-the-scenes things
I thought I’d share an audio only version here this month.
Weird thing happens each time I hire: Apps falls into 2 groups:
1. Pass
2. Maybe
Then 1 comes along that blows me away and resets the bar. All the …
2 months ago on a whim i invited 5 clients to come to dinner.
1. Meeting in real life 👍🏻👍🏻
2. Immediately evident they are **craving** community
3. Best product research and customer insight process ever
You …
#1 Lesson From Reading 3 Books Written By The Basecamp Guys
1. These books are amazing talent recruiting rolls
2. I (think) I’m going to write a book
…
Had an idea today: “Whay if I did your list building and lead gen for you?”
1. The service that inspired me 2. Breakdown of how it would work 3. My …
Do you use Audible?
Return books you never finished or didn’t like for credits. (h/t @robwalling)
1. Account Details
2. Payment
3.
It’s easy to come across like a jerk in an email. Use 3 words to end every on a good note no matter how difficult or direct the email is.
“Thanks so …
If you hate the financial mgmt part of business, try this...
+ 2 meetings (quarterly & bi-weekly)
+ 2 reports (transactions and RYG)
+ 2 approvals (bills and budget)
It takes < 2 hours per month.
Hiring is tricky. I haven't mastered it, but we've been working on it for 3-years now and have learned a ton.
In this episode I share our hiring SOP.
And 5 lesser known hiring tips that have made a huge difference for us.
TL;DR time delay posting to social or sending emails using Spark and Buffer. It keeps my brain from being attached and wanting a response
What if you could create a legit sales webinar in 15-minutes?
+ Hear about an idea for our next Growth Tool
+ The types of tools that have almost no …
A tweet by @deveshkhanal inspired these thoughts...
1. How I saved $60k a year in my biz
2. A challenge to throw away your second monitor and fire your VA
I had a marketing idea last night I’d like your feedback on...
1. Do you like it?
2. How would you promote
Simple copywriting technique that you can learn and use today.
Our Facebook ad cost has slowly risen over the last 45 days. Couldn’t figure it out.
So I hired Neville to write some fresh ads. Cost dropped from …
I’ve been struggling. Pep talk to myself.
+ Old overweight dude at the gym that’s been schooling me
+ James Clear kicking my butt
+ 3 thoughts on …
Update and recap on my “best marketing idea in a long time” experiment.
This week I’ve sent out 100 pitches. Hear the results. 1 pitch sucked and the …
Not getting annoyed or even mad at people saying stuff I vehemently disagree with can be hard.
Here is a framework I’ve started using that’s helped me:
“Done-for-you” as a lead magnet?
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