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  • Seven Tips For Improving Your Employee Attraction And Retention Strategies

    Seven Tips For Improving Your Employee Attraction And Retention Strategies

    Text on a dark grey overlay, says 7 TIPS to IMPROVE EMPLOYEE ATTRACTION and RETENTION

    Hiring an in-house copywriter can be one of the best things you ever do for your business.

    The biggest problem companies face when hiring an in-house copywriter is that they don’t stick around.

    Then HR (or whoever) has to spend time away from doing their job so that they can find another copywriter to hire.

    All the while projects aren’t being completed.

    Or, you’re hiring a freelance copywriter in between, which is great but not as great as having someone in-house.

    I had this guest post commissioned to help companies figure out how to improve the attraction and retention of good in-house copywriters.

    These strategies will improve your ROI.

    The post starts here…

    Because of COVID-19 and the digital transition, organizations are facing a difficult situation.

    The shortage of talent and the increasing demand for tech workers is making companies implement new strategies.

    Organizations are battling each other to attract and retain top tech employees. Since the rules of the game have changed, becoming an attractive employer has become a challenge.

    To stay relevant, you’ll need to embrace changes and adapt

    Improving your strategies can be hard if you don’t know what to do.

    For that reason, if you’re looking to catch top tech employees’ attention and remain competitive, these tips will help you achieve your goal.

    They’ll provide you with everything you need to make workers feel engaged and improve your strategies.

    Promote Teamwork

    Promoting teamwork will help you to increase employees’ job satisfaction.

    For tech workers, working in teams is an everyday duty.

    They often have to work with other professionals during projects, and it allows them to learn.

    When employees work in groups, they feel supported and learn new techniques to lead your company to success.

    In that case, it’ll be beneficial not only to your employees but to your organization.

    Also, when working in teams, employees feel more comfortable because they can build relationships with co-workers.

    Keep in mind that your employees are not machines, and once in a while, they need to relax.

    When workers enjoy their time at work, they won’t think about quitting, and you’ll increase your employee retention rate.

    Make Your Company a Great Place to Grow and Learn

    Nowadays, having growth opportunities and professional development is crucial for tech workers.

    If you seek to attract and retain top tech talent, you must make your company the best place to grow and learn.

    Provide on-site or online courses.

    They are great to help workers develop their soft and hard skills.

    Providing tuition reimbursement benefits is also an excellent way to keep your workers motivated.

    For tech employees, updating and upgrading their skills is indispensable.

    The tech market is a fast-growing industry, and if they can develop their skills, they won’t be left behind.

    Let your workers enroll in coding schools like General Assembly or Flatiron.

    They are among the best coding schools in the US and allows aspirants to learn in-demand programming skills.

    On the other hand, you should encourage your employees to grow personally and professionally.

    Let them get a promotion when they deserve it.

    Not having growth opportunities is among the main reasons for leaving a job, and makes workers feel frustrated.

    Just imagine keeping the same position for over ten years.

    Without growing opportunities, workers will feel their lives are monotonous.

    Let them grow and improve their well being.

    It will make them feel engaged, and their performance will be higher

    Build Relationships With Vocational Schools

    Attracting and hiring fresh graduates will allow your company to innovate the market.

    To stay in the competition, you’ll need young employees to let others identify what’s in-demand.

    When you build relationships with vocational schools, reaching and hiring fresh graduates will be much easier.

    Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Conde Nast are already using this strategy and are taking big steps toward success.

    Don’t hesitate to try new things when it comes to attracting and keeping top tech talent.

    Remember that they are indispensable for staying in the competition and will allow your organization to overcome future challenges.

    Building relationships with vocational schools like Rithm School or Thinkful is an excellent choice because they enable students to learn from experience.

    These students already have work experience before landing their first job.   

    Use Digital Channels to Attract Potential Hirings

    Digital platforms like LinkedIn and Upwork are helping hiring managers and employers find potential hirings with ease.

    LinkedIn, for example, uses machine learning algorithms to help employers find qualified candidates in less time.

    The algorithm provides suggestions based on their requirements and their networks.

    Most tech workers are also using digital platforms to offer their services and look for a new job. 

    Using Instagram to look for new employees is also a great option to attract qualified candidates.

    Be more personal to make them feel comfortable but don’t forget to be professional.

    If they don’t take you seriously, they won’t want to work for your company.

    However, if you keep your professionalism, they will be eager to work with you.

    Involve Your Tech Workers in the Hiring Process

    To attract tech workers’ attention, you must give a good first impression.

    Involving your tech team in the hiring process is an excellent way to make potential hirings feel comfortable and engaged.

    For example, if you’re looking for a front end developer, allowing your web development team to do interviews is the right decision.

    Your tech team knows what it takes to get the job done and will hire the candidate that best fits the company’s needs.

    Sometimes, interviews don’t go as expected because aspirants may feel uncomfortable.

    If you involve your tech team in the hiring process, the aspirants will speak tech and show their actual skills.

    As a result, they won’t hesitate to join your team as they’ll be working with qualified like-minded people. 

    Invest in Tech

    Nothing motivates tech workers more than actual tech.

    Investing in the latest tech devices and gadgets will help you improve your employee attraction strategies.

    When tech workers can use and interact with the latest tech tools, they can provide better results.

    They will also stay motivated by learning more and more to improve their techniques and current skills.

    For example, investing in machine learning or artificial intelligence is a great way to attract data scientists and software engineers.

    As they need to implement machine learning algorithms in their daily work, they will feel excited to work and stay in your company.

    Increase Your Benefits

    Salary is no longer enough to convince tech employees.

    If you really want to make employees feel engaged, you must increase your benefits.

    Otherwise, they may leave your team and look for a new job.

    Companies like Samsung, Google, and Nintendo offer on-site perks like free food, gym classes, and spa sessions.

    However, if you can’t afford it, you can still offer schedule flexibility and benefits like paid vacation leave and parental leave.

    Companies continue to increase their benefits.

    If you don’t take action right now, attracting and keeping qualified workers will become more and more challenging.

    Conclusion

    Following these tips is vital for attracting and keeping qualified workers in 2021.

    These tips will allow you to remain in the competition and keep fighting in the war for talent.

    Be always open to try new techniques and implement new practices.

    Traditional strategies are not useful because employees’ demands are increasing day by day.

    Embrace changes, and don’t hesitate to go the extra mile if necessary.

  • Teachable’s Share What You Know Summit Notes [2020]

    Teachable’s Share What You Know Summit Notes [2020]

    Unfortunately I forgot to go back and watch the rest of the Teachable Share What You Know Summit (2020) videos before they were removed, so these are the notes I was able to gather.

    These are my rough notes, but feel free to copy and paste and organize in your own documents.

    If you share the notes please link back to this page 🙂

    7 Steps to Creating and Selling a Profitable Online Course / How to Create a Profitable Online Course in 30 Days – Ankur Nagpal & Jess Catorc

    1. Find your most profitable course idea
    2. Set your income [[Goals]] for your course using our formula
    3. Grow your course audience and email list with our playbook
    4. Price your course the right way
    5. Creat your schoola nd a high-converting course sales page
    6. Create and record a course people love
    7. Launch your course using our course marketing plan

    1 – Find profitable course idea

    Think about your secondarys kills or hobbies related to your current business or passion
    The riches are in the niches
    Your voice and POV are unique; only you can give your topic a signature flair
    Courses serve as a stepping stone from non-customer to customer to service client.
    Show them how to do it, they make money, then they can hire you
    Less is more
    Providing a transformation for students is the mosti mportant part of any successful online course.

    Brainstorm topics
    Determine the transformation/outcome
    Choos the most impactful transformation

    2 – Set your income [[Goals]] for your course using our formula

    Revenue goal = (total email subscribers X conversation rate) X price for course
    Figure out how many email subscribers you need first.
    (250 subs * .02 conversion rate) * $200 course = 5 sales for $1000

    3 – Grow your course audience and email list with our playbook

    Give away free value in exchange for email address
    Giveaways
    Free mini course
    Host a webinar or workshop or summit

    4- Price your course the right way

    Average price of top Teachable is $272, with many up above $1000
    Charge premium
    Easier to hit income goal
    Attract more engaged students
    Students are more enthusiastic and likely to put it to use

    5 – Create your school and a high-converting course sales page

    Successful sales page has:

    1. Title and Description – clear of what the course provides. Clear is better than clever
    2. Video – improves conversion rate, shows people there’s a real person, you’re passionate
    3. Course description – emphasize outcome over features. “Achieve this by learning that”
    4. Testimonials – Try to get video, hop on zoom calls, ask what were pain points, what were hesitations before investing in it, waht was the outcome they achieved
    5. Payment plan – offer flexible plans, you only collect about 75% of payment plans

    6 – Create and record a course people love

    Create an outline – what someone will need to go through to get to your courses desired outcome, work backwards
    Each step becomes a section – 6-12 sections, put videos in the sections
    Make sure outcome is not too big or too vague
    Video framework – What you will learn, why it’s important, and how to do it
    Simple is always best. Just record it. You can always improve it later.

    7 – Launch your course using our course marketing plan

    Open for a fixed number of days, temporarily close to focus on students
    Two phases in 30 days

    1. Educate, 1 to 2 weeks, give nothing but pure value
      1. students know you can help them, generates demand, they trust you
    2. Launch, 1 to 2 weeks. 8 days is often a great length
      1. Keep it small
      2. Prelaunch phase
        1. Email day 1 – give a taste of course teaser
        2. Email day 2 – reveal cards with a “what is” your course
        3. Day 3 – open enrollment
        4. day 4 – answer FAQs
        5. Day 5 sprinkle surprise bonus
        6. Day 6 Thank yous and social proof
        7. day 7 – present logical argument for why the course makes sense “This is for you if”
        8. Day – alert enrollment is closing – geniune scarcity

    Keynote w/ [[Lisa Nichols]]

    You can teach something other people are already teaching
    No one has your style or the way you deliver
    We are reptition learners
    It’s about expanding your comfort zone
    Being methodical with systems is very important
    Work the system consistently
    Are you doing the highest revenue generating activity that only you can do?
    Write down the things you have done, a “Ta-Done” list, so that you can see what you’ve done as reinforcement.
    To launch, stabalize, and scale, you have to reach out of your comfort zone and you have to learn new things.
    People are more commited to a familiar discomfort than an unfamiliar new possibility.
    It’s not your opportunity to give the world You. It’s your obligation.
    Share your gifts.

    Effective Messaging Strategies: How to Turn Your Idea Into Structured Content – Matthew Encina, Regina Anaejionu, Mike Greenfield, Molly Keyser

    Pre-sell to prove viability of course
    Get an accountability partner and put something at stake…punishment if you fail
    Practice in public
    Everything you publish you’ll get feedback on and you can iterate
    Have a solid outline
    Teach a framework
    What is everything you want a person learning from scratch to know about this?
    Break it down even further; do it again for each thing
    Compare to other courses and books
    Read the comments to know what to include or not include
    Create smaller stuff, post on [[YouTube]], use the comments and questions as ideas to build a full course
    There’s a difference between people who say they will buy and actually do buy
    Make sure people vote w/ their dollars
    1 on 1 coaching calls give you a lot of insight into the questions people have

    Limitless: Supercharge your Brain to Learn and Achieve Anything Faster – [[Jim Kwik]]

    Knowledge isn’t power. It’s potential power.

    In 48 hours you lose 80% of the information you’ve consumed.
    Prevent that by taking notes.

    Notes are better when you include your own thoughts with them. Don’t just write down the note, add how it applies to you, any ideas you have of how to implement in your life or business, etc. Jim calls this Capturing Notes and Creating Notes. I need to start doing this in my iBook/Kindle highlights.

    “Knowledge is power…Knowledge is profit…The faster you can learn, the faster you can earn.” – [[Jim Kwik]] #quote

    “Everything in your life gets easier if you learn how to learn.” #quote

    “The #1 skill to learn in the 21st century is your ability to learn rapidly.” #quote

    Enemy #1 – Digital Deluge
    Too much information, too little time. “Taking a sip out of a firehose”
    “Information Anxiety” causes higher blood pressure, compression of leisure time, sleeplessness.

    Enemy #2 – Digital Distraction
    Too many pings, notifications, messages, emails, etc etc
    We can’t concentrate or focus enough to really get things done

    Enemy #3 – Digital Dementia
    We offload too much of our memory to our devices. I’m guilty of this big time…I’ve always believed that having a digital “external brain/second brain” was the way to go…maybe I’ve been wrong.
    “Life is the C between B and D.” B=Birth, D=Death, C=Choice #quote
    Memory is important because you can only make decisions based on information you can remember.

    Enemy #4 – Digital Deduction
    Algorithms only show us what we want, which doesn’t give our brain opportunities to flex.
    Analytical ability is decreased, ability to discern and reason are decreased. Critical thinking is decreased.

    F.A.S.T. – How to learn quickly
    Forget –
    Temporarily forget what you already know. As buddhists say, “keep a beginner’s mind”.
    Forget about distractions. DON”T MULTITASK. There’s no such thing as multi-tasking.
    When you think you’re multi tasking, you’re not. You’re actually task switching.
    You can not do two cognitive abilities at one time.
    Task switching is costing you time. Focus and Flow are interrupted.
    You make more mistakes.
    You burn more brain glucose (mental energy).
    Forget about multitasking, forget about distractions.
    If you think of something, write it down. Come back to it later.
    Forget about your limitations.
    Active –
    Education in our society hasn’t kept up with the changing times.
    Traditional education trained us to be passive.
    “The human brain doesn’t learn through consumption, it learns through creation and creativity.” #quote
    Take notes.
    Ask questions.
    “Learning, like life, is not a spectator sport.” #quote
    Don’t stop playing!
    Be willing to make mistakes.
    State-
    The mood of your mind and body.
    “All learning is state dependent.” #quote
    “Information combined with emotion becomes long term memory.” #quote
    The mood you are in when you learn something is attached to the information.
    If you “learn” something in a bored state, you won’t remember it. This is why most people don’t remember things from school.
    People don’t buy logically, they buy emotionally.
    “We are not logical; we are biological.” #quote
    Never learn something in a bored state.
    When teaching, get to their emotions. Don’t make them be bored.
    Your physiology affects your psychology. And vice versa.
    Teach –
    If you want to learn something faster, learn with the intention of teaching someone else.
    Intention matters.
    “When I teach something, I get to learn it twice.” #quote

    Forget what you know so you can learn it brand new.
    The best of the best get really good at the fundamentals. They never get tired of the basics.

    Genius leaves clues. #quote

    As your body moves, your brain grooves. #quote
    Brain Derived Neurotropic Factors – created when moving, your brain craves them/movement. Like fertilizer for your brain.
    People learn from podcasts/audiobooks faster when walking, elliptical, bike, etc.
    Get up and move on a regular basis!

    Success Formula: head + heart + hands. Head is the knowledge, Hands is the action, but heart is also super important. You have to care. You have to feel a sense of purpose.
    What’s your reward if you follow through? What do you lose if you don’t follow through?

    “Leaders are readers.” #quote This guy LOVES rhymes.
    Read a book a week. – On average takes 45 minutes of reading per day.

    Limitless Model:
    3 forces keep you limited

    1. Mindset – What you believe is possible. What you believe is capable. What you believe you deserve. Your mind is always listening to your self talk. Turn your self talk positive.
    2. Motivation – Procrastination is a motivation issue. Formula for sustained motivation: PxExS3 : Purpose x Energy x Small Simple Steps. Write down and follow processes!! A confused mind doesn’t do anything.
    3. Methods/Process – Most people know what to do, but don’t do it. Write down the process and follow it every time. Improve as you can.

    How to find small simple steps (S3): ask “what is the tiniest step I can take that makes progress toward this goal, where I can not fail”
    Examples:
    Goal: read a book. S3: Open the book. Seriously. That’s it.
    Goal: get fit. S3: put on running shoes.
    Goal: floss. S3: floss 1 tooth.

    Mindset + Motivation = Inspiration
    Mindset + Methods = Ideation
    Motivation + Mindset = Implementation
    Middle of the diagram = Integration. Limitless. That’s the goal.

    Do not downgrade your dreams to meet a rough situation.
    Instead, upgrade your mindset, motivation, and methods.

    “Your life is like an egg. If an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends. But if it’s broken by an inside force, life begins. Great things begin on the inside and you have greatness inside of you. You have genius inside of you. Now is the time to let it out.” #quote

    Learn, earn, return. Give back when you become successful.

    If you knew you were only going to have one car for the rest of your life and you had to make it last, how good would you take care of it? You only have one brain. You only have one body.

    [[Instagram]] Story Sales – [[Dot Lung]]

    Dialog – Relatablitliy – Authenticity – Give Value – Opinion – Niche

    Dialog

    The more conversations and comments you get, the more your posts show up in the feed.

    Craft dialog and conversation.

    Good personal brands are problem solves.

    Most people make money by solving a problem. What problem are you solving?

    Create dialog to position yourself as the expert

    Generate a list of 30 pain points/ problems. Segment them into 3-4 categories. These are your content pillars. Create the solutions. Turn it into social media content.

    Relatability.

    If you want more likes, create relatable content.

    Content is relevant and evergreen.

    Invoke emotion.

    Use storytelling.

    Humans connect through emotion.

    Authenticity

    “#YourVibeAttractsYourTribe” #hashtag

    Be the true you.

    “When you show up as yourself, you eliminate the competition.” – [[Sunny Lenarduzzi]] #quote

    Giving Value

    Outteach your competition.

    The value you give, the more attention you will get.

    Give value, gain influence, get attention.

    “Your personal brand is not about you. Your personal brand should be about the problem you solve in service to other people.” – [[Rory Vaden]] #quote

    Live in service to others. Hw can you make people’s lives better?

    Opinion

    Share the good, bad, or ugly of how you feel.

    It’s okay to polarize your audience. You’ll attract superfans and repel any who don’t belong.

    Niche

    Niche formula: bit.ly/dotsdragons

    You need to know who you are talking to.

    Start at the smallest viable audience.

    Sales

    1. Set goals
    2. Never sell on the first date
    3. Plan and execute the Dragon
    4. Scale your Sales

    Cold Lead -> Warm Lead -> Hot Lead
    Feed Post -> Instagram Story -> Direct Messages

    Grow – offer high value, meaningful, relabale content
    Nurture – Branded content, Storytelling, Lifestyle, Educational content
    Sell – Content to Convert

    Instagram Sales Funnel

    Instagram (Conent) -> Website -> Purchase (Email List)

    Stories are the best to sell.

    • Raw and Real
    • Intimacy – Like, Know, Trust factor
    • Automatically opens reactions to DM
    • Swipe up feature to direct traffic to website (requires 10,000 followers)
    • Polling sticker to qualify leads…DM any qualified leads directly

    NOTE: IGTV can swipe up WITHOUT 10,000 followers

    Instagram Story Highlights Optimization

    What? (Solution) -> Who? (Target) -> Why? (The Need) -> How? (The Results, Social proof) -> Your Unique SP -> Your Story

    15 Seconds each story

    Instagram Sales Story Sequence 1

    Problem, Agitation, Discredit, Solution (PADS)

    4 Stories, one for each.

    Problem – Identify pain points.

    Putting your face on video is IMPORTANT…grows your business faster.

    Agitation – Worst case scenario.

    Always have a small “caption” for people who don’t have sound.

    Discredit – Possible Solutions that don’t work.

    Bring up solutions they may have tried that didn’t work for them.

    Solution – Deliver the solution/give value

    Instagram Sales Story Sequence 2

    Picture, Promise, Prove, Push

    Pitcure – Paint a vision, “Imagine this…”, the dream, what its like having the problem solved

    Promise – What is your solution for desired outcome?

    Prove – Insert testimonials, results, data, case studies, social proof…pin testimonials to your highlights

    Push – Call to action.

    Chris Do Sales Formula

    Serve (with love)
    Ask
    Listen
    Empathize
    Summarize

    Ask: where are they? what are their goals? What are they struggling with?

    Tools and Tips for story creation

    Create backgrounds for written content.

    Be consistent with branding and colors and font

    InShot, Canva, Unfold

    Keep everything in one easy to access folder

    Fill screen with color by holding for 2 seconds

    iPhone Live Photos can be Boomerangs (press on photo w/ one finger to convert)

    Check out @30daysrealchallenge

    Exclusive Live-Only Q&A w/ [[Gary Vee]]

    If you can’t figure out what thing to focus on, flip a coin. If you find yourself down the road 2 years not happy with it, try something else.

    5 Powerful Email Strategies to Level-Up Your Business in 2020 – [[Pat Flynn]]

    Growing Your List

    Nobody wants more emails.
    But they do want the results.

    Offer a lead magnet. (I don’t know if I agree with this anymore. it does work)

    Make lead magnets that are quicker and get the reader results faster.
    Short and easy.

    Ideas for short and easy lead magnets:

    1. Resource or Tool list
    2. Quick start guide
    3. Cheat sheet
    4. Checklist
    5. Mini Email Course
    6. Sample Chapter
    7. Templates / Worksheets
    8. Hidden Bonus Content

    Advanced Strategy:

    Run a challenge
    “Go from 0 to 100 email subscribers in 3 days”
    The shorter the challenge, the better

    Using your list

    Ask “What’s you #1 challenge related to (problem)?” in an email
    Check out book Ask by Ryan Levesque

    5 Day Product Launch Email Sequence
    Launch email – talk about what it is. Be specific! Who’s it for? What’s in it for them? Specific call to action.
    Day 2 – How do I know this is real? Proof, Light on stats, heavy on emotion (the story)
    “Online, people default to doubt.” #quote
    Day 3 – Call out the objections. What fears/worries do they have? Tackle them head on. This is one of the highest converting emails.
    Day 4 – Why they need to act now? Amplify the problem. Reiterate scarcity.
    Day 5 –
    Morning – Last Chance, FAQ
    Noon – Subject: I recorded this video just for you
    6 hours left – Final call

    Day 5 Noon vid:
    Make personable.
    Say “You” not “You Guys”
    Make it short, less than 2 minutes
    Unlisted, hosted on YT

    Framework for How to get better everything:

    It’s important to build a relationship
    IFTTT
    Segment your list and send specific emails
    Improves open rates and conversion rates
    Don’t treat all of your leads the same.

    Ask what’s the biggest challenge?
    Seperate into segments based on similar answers.
    Deliver unique content based on segments.

    How To Confidently Create Videos for [[Social Media]] That Sell – [[Elise Darma]]

    Video #stats:

    • 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support ([[HubSpot]], 2018)
    • 88% of video marketers are satisfied with the ROI of their video marketing efforts on social media ([[Animoto]], 2018)
    • Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year ([[Optinmonster]], 2019)
    • 87% of marketing professionals use video as a marketing tool ([[Wyzowl]], 2019)
    • Videos are a consumers’ favorite type of content to see from a brand on social media ([[Animoto]], 2018)
    • Video posts have 38% higher engagment rates than image posts. ([[Elise Darma]], 2020)
    • Video posts receive 2X the comments than an image post. ([[Elise Darma]], 2020)

    The secrets to being on camera:

    1. You are your own worst critic
    2. Feeling self conscious? What’s the worst thing that could happen? You could die. Is it likely? Not at all.
    3. Imperfect action beats perfect inaction every time. #quote Don’t give yourself more than 3 takes. That’s all you get and then move on.

    The secret to being on camera: it all starts in your mind.

    Formula for videos that sell

    S.P.A. – Sleuth, Plan, Action

    Sleuth –

    Take note of every single question and comment you get. What are the questions that people are asking?

    Plan –

    Plan your equipment. Plan your talking points. NOT a script.

    Outline Format:

    • Hook
    • Outcome / Result of following the video
    • Testimonial
    • The Basics
    • Tips
    • Call to Action

    Short Video Format:

    • Hooks
    • Tips
    • Call to action

    Action

    Hit the record button.
    Also don’t forget to give your viewer a call to action.

    No [[AIDA]], [[ACIA]] – Awareness, Connect, Interest, Action
    Consider the source.
    Example: a [[YouTube]] video is search based, so it’s most likely to be at the Awareness stage. They are just discovering you. This CTA should lead to a valuable resource (lead magnet).
    Example: Your Instagram feed is mostly people who have already connected with you.

    CTA’s that Sell

    [[Instagram]]

    • Tap the link…
    • Send me a DM…
    • Comment below…
    • Reply to this Story…
    • Comment with code XYZ for…
    • Swipe up… (if you have it)

    [[YouTube]]

    • Head to the link…
    • Watch the next video on…
    • Subscribe for future trainings…

    [[TikTok]]/Reels

    • Head to…
    • Message me for…
    • Find my [[YouTube]] for more…
    • Find my Instagram for more…

    How to repurpose 1 video

    1. Post video on [[YouTube]]
    2. Share in Stories to drive people to the YT vid
    3. Do the same on TikTok
    4. 7-30 days later…share the ENTIRE video on IGTV

    Overnight Rockstar – [[Susie Moore]]

    Storytelling in the media. Why sahring your story and experiences will make you famous.
    Media wins can happen quickly when we share our stories

    “Stories are a communal currency of humanity.” – [[Tahir Shah]], in [[Arabian Nights]] #quote
    “When we find ourselves in someone else’s story, we feel a little less lonely in the world.” – [[Taffy Brodesser-Akner]], [[New York Times]] #quote
    “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” – [[Seth Godin]] #quote

    No one else has your story. That’s why it’s special.

    you don’t have to be an “expert”

    Sharing what you’ve learned with others is a form of generosity.


    The following notes are from the Teachable Share What You Know Summit (2020) Night School:

    Digital Note-Taking for Course Creators – [[Tiago Forte]]

    Create one central knowlege managmeng system, “Second Brain”
    Put all the best info you know
    Use the info from your second brain any time you need to create content

    Capture – Organize – Distill – Express

    Capture
    Download a digital notes app to store ideas
    Centralized and synced across devices
    Quick and dirty
    Personal and private
    Designed for quick capture

    Organize
    Use the [[PARA]] system
    PARA – Projects. Areas. Resources. Archives.
    fortelabs.co/blog/para

    Distill
    Highlight the best parts so they stand out
    [[Progressive Summarization]]
    fortelabs.co/blog/ps
    Highlight the parts that stand out to you the most

    Express
    Put the pieces together and share your knowledge
    1. Seeing
    2. Writing
    3. Drawing
    4. Performing
    5. Producing
    6. Selling
    Don’t hoard knowledge

    “I look at books as investments in a future of learning rather than a fleeting moment of insight, soon to be forgotten” – [[Kevan Lee]] #quote

    How to Get Clients to Come to You First – [[Rebecca Tracey]]

    Copywriting

    1. Strong Message
    2. Clear Niche
    3. Great Packages
    4. Telling the World

    Your message is the backbone of your busienss.

    Why do you care? What do you believe about the work you’re doing in the world?

    Niche down – if you try to help everyone with everything, you’ll burn out and sell nothing.

    Niche = clear and simple problem people have
    Makes selling easy

    What specific problem do you help peole with?

    Packages = service offers w/ a specific focus, set price, built around a solution to a problem

    People don’t like uncertainty with their money and their time

    Spell it out, tell them exactly what to buy (idea: quiz form)

    No more than 3 options (start w/ one)

    Havign market research is like cheating in your business

    Ask: What do you struggle with most as it relates to (industry/niche/problem)?

    How many packages do you have?
    Does your package solve a clear problem?
    Does it have a set (not hourly) price?

    Marketing = telling the people that you need you that you can help them

    Can you clearly talk about what you do?

    Don’t overcomplicate your pitch

    Don’t use industry jargon

    Template: I work with (who), who (problem). I help them (result) so they can (why).

    Clarity makes a big difference.

    theuncagedlife.com/resources

    7 Tactics for More Profitable [[Facebook Ads]] Campaigns – [[Khalid Hamadeh]]

    Total Value = Advertiser Bid X Estimated Action rates + User Value

    Past conversion rates influence future conversion rates

    Bid your true value! If a purchase is worth $10 to you, set your manual bid to $10
    Improve conversion rates and minimize significant edits
    Target the right people with good creative

    Always monitor your ad relevance diagnostics metrics

    Aim for 50+ conversions per week per ad set so FB can optimize

    Reduce learning resets / significant edits

    Fewer ad sets and campaigns well enable you to be better optimized

    Have a robust lookalike targeting strategy

    It’s not just about signal volume, it’s also about signal health
    Send back as much information as you can (conversions, clicks, etc) via fb pixel
    Use standard events
    Universal placement
    Representative fires
    Parameter Pass-back

    Creative is king; build for mobile

    1. Capture attention quickly. Be thumb stopping.
    2. Design for Sound off.
    3. Frame your visual story.
    4. Showcase your product or service.
    5. Play with formats.
    6. Leverage moving images (cinemagraphs).
    7. Test variation on the same concept.

    Use Pixaloop to make images move. Cinemegraphs convert better than still images.

    If using video, make sure audio is not required.

  • I don’t feel good about what Marketing has become.

    I don’t feel good about what Marketing has become.

    I’ve been thinking a lot about how I don’t feel good about marketing anymore.

    I’m starting to find out that I’m not the only one.

    Nat Eliason wrote about killing all of his lead magnets.

    There is not a single newsletter I was coerced into joining that I enjoy or have stayed subscribed to.

    I’m starting to feel the same.

    I also discovered a book I had bought in a Humble Bundle, “Rehumanize Your Business,” which is about sending personal emails as a part of your marketing.

    It focuses more on building relationships with clients and potential clients, rather than throwing everything out to see what sticks.

    Which is where marketing currently is.

    Right now, most internet marketing teaching goes like this:

    1. Make content
    2. Add a lead magnet/content upgrade to collect emails
    3. Send weekly emails to newsletter
    4. Sell to those people.

    It’s mostly automated and entirely a numbers game.

    It’s inhuman.

    I am guilty of teaching this stuff, too.

    It does work…but it’s entirely a numbers game.

    It’s built on a concept of throwing everything you’ve got out into the internet and seeing what sticks.

    And then there’s paid advertising.

    We all use Adblockers now, right?

    …anywhere from 18% to 79% of your monthly data bucket can go toward delivering advertising…

    With social media, we know that it’s killing us emotionally.

    How many people are you finding and hiring on social media?

    How many are finding and hiring you?

    One study reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that liking more posts was tied to worse mental and physical health and “decreased life satisfaction,” while another study by the University of Copenhagen found that many people suffer from “Facebook envy,” the concept of being jealous of friends’ activities on social media.

    So here’s what my new plan is:

    It starts with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

    You do keyword and competitor analysis, and then build content out based on that.

    Then you direct people to the email newsletter. But without a lead magnet.

    This requires decent copywriting skills to work well.

    It’s also going to significantly decrease the amount of signups you get.

    This is intentional.

    We want less sign ups who only want the free stuff. We want quality sign ups.

    We want people who sign up because they care about you and what you’re working on.

    It’s going to be significantly less. Be prepared for this.

    Now we’re going to reach out to each one.

    Not an automated welcome sequence. We’re going to look and see every day who signed up.

    Since we’re saving time in the content treadmill, we’re going to spend the newly freed time doing this.

    And we’re going to send them a video.

    It’s a personal video. Eye contact. Say their name. Wave in the beginning. Smile.

    Don’t try to sell. Just introduce yourself. Thank them for joining the list.

    Ask them what they’re struggling with (in regards to your industry).

    After that, you add them to your follow up sequence and newsletter.

    That sequence needs to provide value.

    No sales. Just straight value.

    Don’t make it last longer than a week.

    If your welcome sequence is 3 emails, have one go out every couple days.

    If it’s 5, space them in a way that makes sense.

    For example, maybe emails 1, 2, and 4 have small actions to take. Stuff they can do immediately.

    Email 3 has a medium sized action, something that takes 2 days.

    Email 5 is going to take them a few days.

    So we space out the emails like this: Email1, 1 day later Email2, 1 day later Email3, 2 days later Email4, 1 day later Email5. Then a week before they receive any more emails.

    Any time they reach out to you, a reply to your video or any other email with substance, respond with another video.

    Keep building this personal relationship.

    This will lead high quality sales to you without you having to do anything “icky” or impersonal.

    How does this scale? We’ll talk about that next.

    How to scale it on up

    Just starting out, this shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes per video.

    If you’re spending more than 10 minutes on the process of recording, uploading, and sending a video…you’re overthinking the whole thing.

    Your video itself shouldn’t be more than 2 minutes.

    Personally, I don’t get so many sign ups every week that I can’t block out enough time to send them all.

    That’s by design.

    But if you do, that’s great too!

    Eventually, you’ll get it down under 10 minutes just from repeating the process.

    But probably not less than 5 minutes. I just don’t think the technology will move that fast for you.

    Just for the sake of argument, let’s say you never get faster than 10 minutes. Worst case scenario.

    If you get 1 signup per day, you can pretty much just knock this out as they come in.

    I recommend you block out a point at the end of your day to do this.

    Just look in your software (I use ConvertKit) and see who signed up.

    1. Record video,
    2. upload video,
    3. send video.

    10 minutes per day…maybe 30 minutes on Monday if you take weekends off but still get subscribers.

    Let’s jump up to 10 per day.

    This is pushing it to almost 2 hours per day.

    If you’re doing the sales part right, you should be getting a pretty good conversion rate from sign ups to clients (or product sales).

    At that point you need to figure out, is it worth it to keep doing this yourself?

    Only you can answer this question based on how much income each signup is worth to your business (I’ll show the equation later on).

    Personally, if I were at that point, I would be hiring help.

    Here’s what I would hire them to do:

    • Send me info of the signups for the day.
    • I would record the videos and them to the assistant.
    • Assistant uploads.
    • Assistant sends.

    That removes me from the aspects that don’t require me.

    Because my brand is ME, I need to be the one in the videos.

    At 100 or more per day, we’re in the big league.

    This is where it might become unscalable for a lot of people.

    There are two reasons here why it might be unscalable:

    1. Whatever you’re selling has too low of a margin to make this worth it.
    2. Your sales sucks and you’re not getting enough.

    Here’s how you figure out if it’s still scalable:

    You take how many subscribers you get and see how many turn into sales.

    If you get 100 subs per day and 60 result in sales, you’re at 60% conversion rate (that’s good).

    Multiply that by the lifetime value of a customer.

    Lifetime value is how much value you expect to get out of one customer.

    If you sell one ebook at $9.99 then that’s the lifetime value…9.99.
    If you sell a $1000 service w/ an optional $100/month package, and you have 60 customers but only 30 of them pick up the optional package, with 15 doing 6 months and 15 doing only 3 months, you gotta do some math.

    I’m gonna be a little harsh…this is pretty basic algebra. If you can’t do the math, get an accountant or maybe you shouldn’t be in business.
    I almost didn’t graduate high school because I failed Algebra 2 and then I almost failed out of college for failing the same dang class. If I can do this math, you either can or know someone who can help you.

    I mean heck email me the info and I’ll do the math for you. I don’t mind.

    Anyway the answer to the above equation is that we have 15 customers worth $1600, 15 customers worth $1300, and 30 customers worth $1000. Average them out and we get ((1600 * 15) + (1300 * 15) + (1000 * 30) / 60 )= ((24,000 + 19,500 + 30,000) / 60) = 73,500 / 60 = $1225.

    $1225 is the lifetime value of a customer.

    Once you figure out the lifetime value of a customer, you can then compare with how long it takes you to make the video, how long it takes your assistant to get it out there and how much you’re paying them.

    You figured out it is still scalable. Now what?

    If you’re getting over 100 subscribers per day with a decent conversion to sales, you should consider removing yourself as the face that sends videos.

    Instead, hire community managers (for products) or account managers (for services) to handle it.

    At that point you should have people who’s entire job is to work with your customers/clients directly.

    Now, you’re not a solo-preneur with an assistant…you’re an agency.

    Put some experienced people in charge of the accounts and train them to send the videos.

  • Everything I’ve Learned From Eddie Shleyner

    Everything I’ve Learned From Eddie Shleyner

    Eddie Shleyner is the Lead Copywriter at G2.com & Founder of VeryGoodCopy.com.

    Notes from his micro-courses coming soon…

    How to grow your social media following over 10k in under a year:

    If you look at any email Eddie sends (usually from VeryGoodCopy), there’s a button that asks you to like a post on LinkedIn.

    It looks like this:

    A screenshot of one of Eddie Shleyner's emails that has a LinkedIn button in it.
    Sign up for his VGC Plus. It’s awesome.

    That’s it. It’s that simple.

    You can do that with any social media you have.

    It doesn’t have to be LinkedIn.

    All you gotta do is ask.

  • Garrett’s “I Only Need One” Method to Making Big Bucks

    Garrett’s “I Only Need One” Method to Making Big Bucks

    My dad goes to a lot of trade shows. One year he saw one booth that was a guy with a fold-out table. Nothing special.

    There was a sign that said “Consulting: $100,000”.

    My dad walked up and asked him, “Does this actually work?”

    And the guy replied, “I only need one.”

    2021 Update: my dad informed me it’s actually a TV commercial.

    In Overlap, Sean teaches us that we need to get to a new normal of 6 months of expenses in the bank.

    At that point, you can quit the day job and change the Overlap to the Career.

    According to The Street, the average income in the USA is just under $50,000 a year.

    I don’t like to do a minimum of 6 months’ expenses. I like to do a minimum of 6 months of lifestyle.

    So, let’s say that’s $25,000.

    Now, you need a service. Something that’s going to make your client money.

    Maybe you sell it for $1000. You need 25 clients to get there.

    What if you sell it for $25,000? Then you “only need one”.

    Going by Overlap, you should expect to work at your day job for 2 years before you reach that point to quit.

    Obviously, your single big-ticket item needs to provide well over $25,000 worth of value to a client.

    Is there something you can do that is worth that much to the right client?

    Don’t think about “well I mostly market to Etsy sellers and most of them don’t make that much money.”

    Instead, think “well I mostly market to Etsy sellers but there are other industries where I could provide $25,000 worth of value. And they can pay it.”

    Then you only need one. In 2 years.

    In 2 years of Overlapping, can you find ONE company that would pay $25,000 for your service?

    Year 3: $50,000
    Year 4: $100,000
    Year 5: $1,000,000

    10x your ex’s 10x (and make them wish you hadn’t split up).

    For $25,000, I can help you become a brand people are proud to buy from.

  • Everything I’ve Learned from David Ogilvy

    Everything I’ve Learned from David Ogilvy

    David Ogilvy is one of the most famous ad and copywriters in history. I’m pretty sure the character Don Draper from Mad Men is based on him.

    “Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process. You can help this process by going for a long walk, or taking a hot bath, or drinking half a pint of claret.”

    David Ogilvy

  • Everything I’ve Learned From Cole Schafer

    Everything I’ve Learned From Cole Schafer

    Cole Schafer is a copywriter who runs a company called Honey Copy.

    …our weaknesses don’t take away from our strengths, they inform them.

  • Conversion Class Micro Course Review and Notes

    Conversion Class Micro Course Review and Notes

    Conversion Class Micro Course by VeryGoodCopy Review

    10/10 will read over and over again.

    This micro-course is a fantastic primer for newcomers to copywriting, and full of great reminders for those who have been writing for years.

    Also, the idea of micro courses is brilliant and I’m absolutely going to rip that off.

    Conversion Class Micro Course by VeryGoodCopy Notes

    Coming soon.

  • 30 Days to Better Writing Notes

    30 Days to Better Writing Notes

    30 Days to Better Writing is was a course by Sean McCabe of seanwes.

    Update 2022: Sean McCabe has taken the course down and disappeared. I could not complete it in time to get a full set of notes. RIP.

    The course objective is to build a writing habit in 30 days of consecutive daily writing.

    Each day, Sean includes tips and advice, and optional writing prompts.

    I’ve gone through this multiple times and enjoyed it every time.

    I am taking and sharing my notes this time to help me internalize them.

    Day 1 Stats

    • Word Count: 1270
    • Comments: Was a good brain dump. Got out lots of ideas I can build upon and act on. Mostly for the day job.

    Notes

    Any ideas we don’t write down will die when we die.

    Writing something down increases the likelihood of it happening.

    Writing is the starting point of all other mediums

    • Speeches
    • Products
    • Songs
    • Books
    • Podcasts, etc

    It all starts with writing.

    Writing is a skill that can be developed, and one of the most important skills available to humans.

    If the best athletes train daily to improve their abilities, so should writers.

    If you’re not good at writing now, that’s okay. You can learn.

    Anything you care about and want to improve at must be practiced daily.

    You don’t have to publish daily. You don’t have to share everything you write. But you must write.

    Writing…

    • clears your mind
    • improves your speaking
    • improves how people see you
    • can grow your audience
    • can put your name on the map

    Commit to writing daily. It must be scheduled.

    Chain writing to another habit.

    Example: After waking up, make coffee. Once coffee is ready, sit down and write.

    Sean suggests starting for 20 minutes per day.

    Set goals as time instead of word count.

    It doesn’t need to be perfect. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar or anything else.

    Just write.

    Set a timer for 20 minutes and write until it goes off.

    Sean offers the following writing prompts:

    • What made you enroll in this course?
    • What are 3 ways you think writing will benefit you?
    • What are you afraid of when it comes to writing?
    • What sacrifices will you have to make in order to carve out half an hour a day for writing?

    Day 2 Stats

    • Word Count: 1226
    • Comments: Another good stream of consciousness…did some planning and got some clarity. Used the writing prompts.

    Notes

    Getting started is the hardest part…but once you get started it’s easy to keep going.

    One problem is that you don’t schedule the writing, which gives you the “freedom” to put it off.

    Also schedule the end…the limited time helps.

    Too many options, too much time, and too much freedom will paralyze you.

    Don’t worry about the first words being the right words. They won’t be.

    Write all of the words, right and wrong. Delete the wrong words later.

    You can’t edit what you haven’t written.

    Start with stream of consciousness writing: write down every thought.

    This bridges the connection between your mind, fingers, keyboard, and document.

    Don’t worry about whether or not it makes sense. It doesn’t matter if it’s relevant.

    Sean’s writing prompts for the day:

    • What is one of your favorite things to do outside of work when you have free time?
    • What do you enjoy most about this activity?
    • Why have you not dedicated more time to this activity?
    • Do you think that’s a good excuse?
    • What do you propose to do differently or sacrifice so that you can spend more time doing the things you enjoy?

    Day 3 Stats

    • Word Count: ~250
    • Comments: Wrote significantly less today BUT that’s because instead of stream of consciousness writing and/or following prompts, I decided I needed to get some rough outlines of my processes down. This is a very important task I’ve been putting off for some time.

    Notes

    Start your day with writing.

    Plan your topic for tomorrow, the night before.

    You won’t have to waste time trying to figure out what to write about.

    Your brain will get started processing the topic.

    Getting your writing done first thing means you’re coming off the charge of sleep.

    Kind of like what Mark Twain (I think?) said about eating the biggest frog first.

    This also reminds me of something Sean said a while back…what you do first in the day shows your priorities.

    If you save writing as the last thing, you’re setting it as a low priority.

    But this is 30 Days To Better Writing, so obviously we’re making writing the priority.

    Sean recommends waking up early.

    I don’t agree that is the key…as Tim Ferriss says in his book Tools of the Titans (BJ Novak chapter), “For lifelong night owls like me, it’s nice to know that when you get started each day seems to matter less than learning how to get started consistently, however your crazy ass can manage it.”

    I have found that I do my best writing first thing in the day, and in an interruption-free setting.

    It doesn’t matter if that’s at 6 AM or 9 AM, as long as it’s first and distraction free.

    YMMV; it’s up to you to figure out what works best for you.

    Sean was able to write millions of words in a year “with a daily commitment and a decision to maximize my output by writing at the most productive time.”

    Don’t shortchange yourself by writing at a time where you write less!

    Here’s my steps to figure out when you write better, adapted from Sean’s advice:

    1. Write whenever you want for 7 days straight.
    2. Log your output — time spent and words written.
    3. Commit to waking early for just one week.
    4. Write as the first thing you do in the morning.
    5. Log your output.
    6. Do the same for writing at various other times of the day.
    7. Compare your results.

    Included writing prompts:

    • Write about how much you hate waking up early.
    • Write about your plan to start waking up early.
    • Write about the benefits you’ve seen from waking up early.
  • 48 Laws of Power Review, List, and Notes

    48 Laws of Power Review, List, and Notes

    48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Review

    I haven’t read this yet, but it’s on the list.

    I’m going to be honest…based on the list I pulled…the Buddhist in me is not excited.

    I don’t think many of these are the types of things I care to do.

    That said, these are things people are doing to us.

    Whether or not we want to follow these 48 Laws of Power, it’s good to be aware for when people are using them on us.

    48 Laws of Power List

    1. Never outshine the master
    2. Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies
    3. Conceal Your Intentions
    4. Always say less than necessary
    5. So much depends on reputation, guard it with your life
    6. Court attention at all costs
    7. Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit
    8. Make other people come to you, use bait if necessary
    9. Win through your actions, never through argument
    10. Infection: Avoid the unhappy or the unlucky
    11. Learn to keep people dependent on you
    12. Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim
    13. When asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never their mercy or gratitude
    14. Pose as a friend, work as a spy
    15. Crush your enemy totally
    16. Use absence to increase strength and honor
    17. Keep others in suspended terror, cultivate an air of unpredictability
    18. Do not build a fortress to protect yourself, isolation is dangerous
    19. Know who you’re dealing with, do not offend the wrong person
    20. Do not commit to anyone
    21. Play a sucker to catch a sucker, seem dumber than your mark
    22. Use the surrender tactic: transform weakness into power
    23. Concentrate your forces
    24. Play the perfect courtier
    25. Re-Create Yourself
    26. Keep your hands clean
    27. Play on people’s need to believe to create a cult-like following
    28. Enter action with boldness
    29. Plan all the way to the end
    30. Make your accomplishments seem effortless
    31. Control the options, get others to play with the cards you deal
    32. Play to people’s fantasies
    33. Discover each man’s thumbscrew
    34. Be royal in your own fashion. Act like a king to be treated like one
    35. Master the art of timing
    36. Disdain things you cannot have, ignoring them is the best revenge
    37. Create compelling spectacles
    38. Think as you like but behave like others
    39. Stir up waters to catch fish
    40. Despise the free lunch
    41. Avoid stepping into a great man’s shoes
    42. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter
    43. Work on the hearts and minds of others
    44. Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect
    45. Preach the need to change, but never reform too much at once
    46. Never appear too perfect
    47. Do not go past the mark you aimed for. In victory, know when to stop
    48. Assume formlessness

    48 Laws of Power Notes by Chapter

    These are not just “Cliff’s notes” style.

    I include my own thoughts and examples of how I’m applying it to my life.

    Coming Soon…

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