Shane Martin
@Shane___Martin
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Own and operate 2 micro-agencies. Teaching freelancers to get smarter with business, provide better service, and make more money. Co-founder @paperboy_studio
Start Here đ
Joined August 2021
Absolutely thrilled to add another epic client to the Paperboy roster! Welcome Chris!
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Michael Jordan. Kobe Bryant. D Wade. 3 killers⌠but 1 man behind the curtain. Performance coach & mindset engineer â Tim Grover. I spent hours studying his stuffâŚ. Here are 7 key lessons for developing killer instinct, dominating the competition & coming out on top. đ
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Michael Jordan. Kobe Bryant. D Wade. 3 killers⌠but 1 man behind the curtain. Performance coach & mindset engineer â Tim Grover. I spent hours studying his stuffâŚ. Here are 7 key lessons for developing killer instinct, dominating the competition & coming out on top:
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My agency does 7 figures. Iâm the only employee & I work ~20 hrs per week. If youâre currently freelancing or consulting, you might consider switching to an agency model. Hereâs how (step-by-step). đ.
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Stop trying to manage your time. Start multiplying it. Here are 5 ways to manufacture more time so you can get more of the right things done. Thread đ.
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My 1-person agency generates 7 figures in annual revenue. If I had to start it all overâŚ. Hereâs exactly how Iâd get to $10K per month in 90 days (or less):.
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Ben Franklin was one of the most prolific figures of our lifetime. Postmaster, ambassador, founding father. (Oh yea, he filed 1000+ patents, too.). Howâd he do it all?. Hereâs a 2-min breakdown of his top rules for productivity. đ
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8 ways to optimize your mind & body to get more done:.
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Last month my agency did $70k. I only worked about 2.3 hrs per day. An agency doesnât have to be a massive time suck. Hereâs the process I used to remove myself from 70% of the day-to-day operations. đ.
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Want to make success inevitable? . Stop obsessing over what to work on & start looking at how you work. Here's the 5-part Execution Framework you need to structure your days & ensure consistent progress toward your goals. đ.
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Fastest way to kill your business? .Taking on the wrong clients. Here are 15 client red flags you must learn to spot:. đ.
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The to-do list is broken. Itâs time for an upgrade. Make these 6 tweaks to transform your list from an anxiety pit to a production machine. Thread đ.
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Sales doesnât have to be complicated. 9 dead-simple steps to 2x your close rate.
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I went from charging $10k to $100k for the same service. Follow these 10 commandments to level up your pricing:. đ.
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We all get burnt outâŚ. But some manage to bounce back quicker than the rest. Their secret?. Itâs all about the Re-Charge Ritual. đ.
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From sleeping on a gym floor to selling a company for $50M (in just 3 years). Meet Alex Hormozi âgym bro turned entrepreneur/author. I just plowed through his book, video course, & YT channel. Here are 6 lessons for creating a service business that actually scales. đ
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28 questions to make your 2023 better than your 2022:.
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Actually, there is a secret to successâŚ. But it has nothing to do with working harder, having better ideas, or knowing the right people. If you want to make success inevitable, stop obsessing over what to work on & start looking at how you work. đ§ľđ.
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90% of sales advice boiled down into simple 5-step framework:. S â Serve.A â Ask.L â Listen.E â Empathize .S â Summarize . Letâs break it down, shall we?.
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Want to achieve more?. Hereâs a trick. Stop focusing so much on your goals. Do this instead đ.
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Building a business is all about solving problems. Here are 10 common problems and the books you should read to solve them:. đ.
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5 years ago I started my little 1-person agency. Last year we did nearly 7 figures (in profit). Here are a few things I wish I knew when I first started:. đ.
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New Year's resolutions are a cop-out. If youâre serious about getting what you want, do this instead. The definitive Annual Review template: 28 questions to make your 2022 better than your 2021. Thread đ.
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Do you have a Procrastination Protocol? . Here are 7 ways to bust the procrastination bubble that having nothing to do with âpowering through it.â.
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Agencies can be absolute cash cowsâŚ. Yet somehow people still choose to freelance or consult. Here are the 6 things people get dead wrong about the agency model âand why you should start one ASAP. đ.
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To summarize:. Eliminate: Can I live without it?.Automate: Can it be systematized?.Delegate: Can someone else do it?.Procrastinate: Can it wait?. If the task makes it through, then itâs a real priority and an optimal use of your time. Thatâs how you multiply your time.
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6 / Welcome Pressure. How we view pressure determines how weâre impacted by it:. If we fear it, it hurts us. (negative stress, degrades performance). If we embrace it, it builds us. (sharpened focus, creates definition)
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1 / Be Relentless. Success isnât as complicated as most people think. In fact, Tim boils it down to one simple trait: relentlessness. For someâŚitâs innate. But for the rest of us, itâs a choice. But what exactly does it mean to be relentless?.
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2/ Lose âGood Enoughâ. Over the years, MJ racked up quite a few championships. But every off season he had one goal: to get better. Why? . For winners, âgood enoughâ is not an option. Being relentless means committing to endless improvement âeven when youâre winning.
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Bad news: Terrible client onboarding now seems to be the norm. Good news: big opportunity for the rest of us. Truth is, happier clients stick around longer, spend more money, and refer more work. Follow this 7-step onboarding flow to lock in your clients for life:.
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5/ Skip Shortcuts. Put simply, Grover is not a fan of shortcuts, and neither are his disciples. His formula is simple. Define:.1. Where you are now.2. Where you want to be instead.3. What youâre willing to do to get there. Then make a plan and act on it. Relentlessly.
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Put it to practice:. Every time you achieve a goal, schedule a check in. Ask yourself: .- Where did I fall short?.- Whatâs my next advantage? .- Where am I phoning it in?. Winners donât get complacent with small victoriesâŚ. Identify the next opportunity & pounce on it.
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Every time you take responsibility for a mistake, you put you into a âconstant growth cycleâ. Screw up > own > learn > improve. No matter the outcomeâŚ. Take responsibility and figure out how to do better next time.
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Ever had the looming feeling that you should be more productive?. Sucks, doesnât it. Weâve become obsessed with optimizing every minute of our day and itâs starting to take a toll. But it doesnât have to. Here are 6 tips to stay sane on your quest to getting more done. đ.
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7/ Work Harder. After every game, Grover used to ask MJ one question: . âFive, six, or seven?â. What he meant: âWhat time we hitting the gym in the morning?â . Not if⌠But when. Win, loss, soreness, fatigue â didnât matter. Back to work.
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In 2018 my agencyâs average project price was ~$5,000. Today itâs ~$55,000. So what changed? . Looking back, I can boil it down to these 9 lightbulb realizations:.
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3/ Cooler, Closer, Cleaner. Grover has a simple framework for categorizing competitors:. 1. Coolers: Avoid confrontation .2. Closers: Follow you into battle.3. Cleaners: Start the war, then finish it. Metaphors aside, Cleanerâs win. And they win big. Which one are you?.
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Success can be hard. But itâs not complicated. 10 lessons about business (and life) I wish I wouldâve learned 10 years ago:.
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Put it to practice: . Try intentionally putting yourself into stressful situations. Volunteer to give the presentation or to lead the sales call. Your goal is simple: get in some small âpressure repsâ so when the time comes, youâre ready.
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Most New Year's Resolutions will be abandoned by January 19. We're 7 days in. If you want to become a new person in 2022, you need to build an actionable roadmap for change. Here's how:. Thread đ.
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Most plans fail. When they do, your next few steps are critical. Here's how to effectively diagnose, course correct, and get back on track after a plan gone wrong. Thread đ.
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Feeling uninspired? . Not to worry. Here are 6 tips to help you build â and keep â motivation. Thread đ.
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1 / Be Relentless. Success isnât as complicated as most people think. In fact, Tim boils it down to one simple trait: relentlessness. For someâŚitâs innate. But for the rest of us, itâs a choice. But what exactly does it mean to be relentless?.
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4/ Extreme Ownership. When you screw up, you have three options:. 1. Explain.2. Blame.3. Own. Kobe had many opportunities to blame his team âespecially in the dark days of 05 - 07. But he knew that only one of those choices leads to growth.
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Stop trying to manage your time. Start multiplying it. Here are 5 ways to manufacture more time so you can get more of the right things done:.
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Outsourcing to contractors allowed me to 3x my business. But finding the right fit can be a painful process. Hereâs the 7 step system I use to hire right (the first time). đ.
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6 / Welcome Pressure. How we view pressure determines how weâre impacted by it:. If we fear it, it hurts us. (negative stress, degrades performance). If we embrace it, it builds us. (sharpened focus, creates definition)
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Hereâs the 6-step client onboarding formula my agency uses to kickoff $100k projects. (And how to make your own). đ.
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2/ Lose âGood Enoughâ. Over the years, MJ racked up quite a few championships. But every off season he had one goal: to get better. Why? . For winners, âgood enoughâ is not an option. Being relentless means committing to endless improvement âeven when youâre winning.
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Put it to practice:. Every time you achieve a goal, schedule a check in. Ask yourself: .- Where did I fall short?.- Whatâs my next advantage? .- Where am I phoning it in?. Winners donât get complacent with small victoriesâŚ. Identify the next opportunity & pounce on it.
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Rule 3 â Work in compartments . Work expands to fill the space itâs given. Thatâs why Franklin built time constraints into his daily schedule. Every task had a beginning and end. Embrace the hard-stop and watch your intensity of focus double.
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What if you could control your motivation?. Letâs talk about Mimesis. What is it and how can we leverage it to reach our goals & accelerate our success. Thread đ.
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95% of business owners are wasting their marketing dollars. Why?. Because theyâre driving eyeballs to a dead-end offer. Hereâs how to build an offer that attracts more eyeballs, converts more clients, & closes higher ticket deals:.
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Why havenât you started your agency yet? . 7 reasons youâre still choosing to freelance (and why you need to reconsider): . đ.
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If you learned anything interesting from this thread, a retweet would be greatly appreciated! . Linked it below!. Thanks for reading.
Michael Jordan. Kobe Bryant. D Wade. 3 killers⌠but 1 man behind the curtain. Performance coach & mindset engineer â Tim Grover. I spent hours studying his stuffâŚ. Here are 7 key lessons for developing killer instinct, dominating the competition & coming out on top. đ
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Every time you take responsibility for a mistake, you put you into a âconstant growth cycleâ. Screw up > own > learn > improve. No matter the outcomeâŚ. Take responsibility and figure out how to do better next time.
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5/ Skip Shortcuts. Put simply, Grover is not a fan of shortcuts, and neither are his disciples. His formula is simple. Define:.1. Where you are now.2. Where you want to be instead.3. What youâre willing to do to get there. Then make a plan and act on it. Relentlessly.
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3/ Cooler, Closer, Cleaner. Grover has a simple framework for categorizing competitors:. 1. Coolers: Avoid confrontation .2. Closers: Follow you into battle.3. Cleaners: Start the war, then finish it. Metaphors aside, Cleanerâs win. And they win big. Which one are you?.
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If your path to success is paved with excitement â be careful. The truth is, success should be kinda boring. If you want to achieve big things, press pause on your grand ambitions and build this foundation first. Thread đ.
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7/ Work Harder. After every game, Grover used to ask MJ one question: . âFive, six, or seven?â. What he meant: âWhat time we hitting the gym in the morning?â . Not if⌠But when. Win, loss, soreness, fatigue â didnât matter. Back to work.
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You can also use systems to automate. I hate recreating the wheel. Thatâs why I create SOPs (Standard Operating Procedureâs) for everything. âHow to Pay My Taxes .âHow to Choose a Hotel .âHow to Onboard a Client . Why go through the mental anguish every single time?.
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1. Stop Hustling. I know, Instagram told you to âgrindââŚ. But Twitter is telling you to get some sleep. If you want to be at the top of your game, you need a rested mind. Lets make it easy for you. .
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Newsflash: Running the country ain't easy. Here are 5 productivity lessons gleaned from from great American leaders. Thread đ.
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Try this: For the next 3 days, wake up and review what you did the day before. Run each task through this filter:. Am I doing this task out ofâŚ. âObligation?.âFOMO?.âGuilt?. If yes, consider that a sign that it may not be worth your time.
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I used to think cold email was the âdoor to doorâ salesmen of the internet. Not for me. That isâŚuntil I generated $238k âout of thin airâ with a single campaign. Hereâs how to use cold-email to actually get more clients (without being a scum bag):.
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4/ Extreme Ownership. When you screw up, you have three options:. 1. Explain.2. Blame.3. Own. Kobe had many opportunities to blame his team âespecially in the dark days of 05 - 07. But he knew that only one of those choices leads to growth.
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Hourly pricing is going to kill your business. If you want to break the hamster wheel of trading time for money, you need to understand the art of value pricing. Hereâs how:.
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Rule 1 â Set an intention . Ben had a lot going on. In order to stay effective, he knew he couldnât focus on everything at once. So every morning before starting his day, heâd ask one question:. âWhat good shall I do todayâ.
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Put it to practice: . Try intentionally putting yourself into stressful situations. Volunteer to give the presentation or to lead the sales call. Your goal is simple: get in some small âpressure repsâ so when the time comes, youâre ready.
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We canâŚ. Manage It: Do things fast, squeeze in as much as possible. (Bad). Prioritize It: Focus on completing only the most important things. (Better). Multiply It: What weâll focus on here in this thread (best).
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Step 6 - Strategic marketing moves. Rule of thumb: Once you have 3 solid clients, start marketing (but not before). Iâve tried it all âhereâs what works best:. - Incentivized referral program.- Online audience.- Creative partnerships. (Threads coming on all of these soon).
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1. Eliminate. First things firstâŚ. Stop using your time to do things that donât need to get done. No brainer candidates like tv and social media should definitely be on the chopping block. But you know that. Iâm talking about âproductiveâ stuff, too.
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Step 7 - Raise prices . Now the good stuff. Check out these industry avgs: . Freelancer: $30-60 p/h.Agency: $120-250 p/h. Takeaway: Clients expect to pay more for agency work, so start charging it.
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In the next 48 hrs you need to:. 1) Pick a name (something thatâs not your personal name).2) Make a site (keep it simple, no âAboutâ page for now).3) Get generic emails (hello@ / support@ / pm@). Thatâs it. Everything else will come later.
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Want to build a successful agency? . You better be able to answer these 9 questions first:. đ.
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Leveraging contractors has allowed me to 3x+ my agency. Ive hired 100+ over the years, but finding the right fit wasnât always easy. Hereâs my 7-step system for hiring to scale:. đ.
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The quickest âhackâ to succeeding in a service business is learning to match your price to your client. Hereâs the story of the $150K project that forced me to rethink my pricing and changed the trajectory of my business (for good):.
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Step 2 - Leverage contractors . Yes, for this to work âyouâll need a team. But employees are risky, expensive & unnecessary. With contractors we can: . 1. Reduce risk (only pay when thereâs work) .2. Scale quickly (more/less as needed).3. Test rapidly (experiment for fit).
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Reading 30 books per year is cool and allâŚ. But you know whatâs cooler? . Reading 3 books and actually implementing what you learn.
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1) Dream: Paint a picture of my life in 3 months (emotional) . 2) Plan: Map out the major milestones (logical). 3) Routine: Develop a daily routine to get me there (tactical). 90% of success is about HOW you work ânot what you do. Nail this first, or no use in moving forward.
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We often feel the need to cross everything off our list as soon as possible. But in many cases, waiting is the right move. Sometimes things work themselves out. Or worse, become irrelevant & unnecessary later. Donât rush to do something that doesnât need to be done yet.
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Want to scale your agency?. You canât just focus on marketing & sales. You need a bulletproof fulfillment process. Here are 8 systems every agency needs to unlock growth. đ.
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Aim for perfection, get procrastination. Aim for consistency, get results.
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Them: Youâve got to spend money to make money. Me: Going on $3M in bottom-line revenue without spending a single dollar on ads. 13 ways to increase profit in the next 30 days (without spending money):. đ.
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Freelancers typically struggle with 1 of 4 problems: . 1. They charge for labor, not value.2. They have zero leverage on their output.3. They're selling a service, not a solution.4. They haven't optimized their fulfillment funnel. Solve for these & you'll be in the top 5%.
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You do not work FOR your client. You work with them. Youâre a partner, not a lackey.
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The easiest way to automate team management? . Letting your team manage themselves. Let's talk about the end-of-day checklist:.
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Okay, so what does it mean to multiply time?. Itâs simple: . We multiply our time whenever we do something today, that will lead to more time tomorrow. Simple? Yes. Easy? Letâs find out.
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Bad clients will make themselves apparent almost immediatey. Pay attention to red flags: . 1. Flip flopping on scope .2. Nickle and diming .3. Taking forever to respond to emails . The list never ends. What red flags have you noticed?.
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3. Delegate. Problem is, we live in a DIY culture. We arenât trained to spot opportunities for delegation. If youâre an entrepreneur, thatâs a big problem.
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4 - Hack legitimacy with systems. For the client, strong systems signal legitimacy and create trust. Develop them for every step in your processâŚ. Then communicate them relentlessly:.âPut them on your site.âAdd to your pitch deck.âTalk about them in your meetings.
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I've run my agency from a coffee shop for the last 6 years. Red Bull, Disney, HBO, Oprah. Nobody cared. You don't need much to do well, stop imposing unnecessary barriers on yourself. Just start.
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5 - Give a free audit. Next Iâm cold DMing 20 people on LinkedIn. Anyone who might be a fit for me. - Iâm personable.- I add value (a few practical tips).- I offer a free audit. (See attached sample). Send enough of these and youâre guaranteed to land some calls.
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Step 3 - Make 1 hire. No need to go crazy at the start. Pick one task that isnât critical to your service â start there. 1. Go to Upwork.2. Copy a similar job post.3. Hire them for a test. Donât be afraid to cycle through until you find the right fit. Hire fast, fire faster.
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4 - Automate. Next I turned to technology to automate as much of the remaining steps as possible. Favorites include:. Scheduling > @Calendly .Client onboarding > @typeform .Email outreach > @MeetApollo .Canned email response > @Streak .Project Management > @mondaydotcom.
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2. Automate. Technology is awesome. Figure out how to use it to give you more time. For example, I got tired of answering the same questions with clients. So I built out canned responses and set up Streak gmail add-on to handle them instead.
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Intense bursts of activity will always outperform long, steady-state work. Start with small cycles and work your way up. Level 1: 25 min on // 5 min off.Level 2: 45 min on // 15 min off.Level 3: 60 min on // 20 min off. Build the focus muscle.
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In coming weeks Iâll be diving deeper on:. What to look for when hiring.How to manage a remote team.The cold email campaign that generated $200k.7 systems for freeing up time .Tools I use to automate my agency. Let me know what else you want to know in the comments below.
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This thread is part 2 in a series where Iâll be deconstructing the habits, routines and hacks of high performing people. Make sure to follow me to stay tuned: @Shane___Martin.
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Step 5 - Get clients . Got systems, got a team ânow you need work. Do anything you can to get your first few clients:. > Beg friends to make connections.> Scour LinkedIn.> Cold call.> Knock on doors. Donât worry about scale yet.
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