My Most Valuable Business Advice
read time 6 minutes
This week's newsletter is sponsored by my friends over at AppSumo.
New YouTube video JUST released. Watch here.
I charge $1,700 an hour to consult businesses scaling to 8-figures and beyond.
Which is a LOT of money, but here's the weird thing...
I find myself repeating the same 9 pieces of advice over and over and over again.
So today I want to give you my most common advice so you don't have to hire me and can save yourself a few bucks:
1. Tell Your Story Better
Story is the source code of the human experience.
It’s how we make sense of the universe and give meaning to the things in our life.
Without story:
- your wife is just a stranger
- your childhood home is just a pile of bricks
- your wedding ring is just a hunk of metal
And it’s the same for your business.
Story is the vehicle through which your customers connect with your company.
Learning to tell your story in a compelling, impactful, and influential way is an easy way to double your business, fast.
2. What's the True Cost?
Opportunity Cost is hard to quantify on a spreadsheet, which is why we tend to overvalue the "hard" cost of dollars leaving our pocket.
In my experience, missed opportunity is almost ALWAYS more expensive in the long run than the cost of capital in the short-term.
Here's a concrete example: Hiring
There are only ever two times to hire:
• Too soon
• Too late
The cost of hiring too is capital.
The cost of hiring too late is missed opportunities.
As a general rule:
The cost of the second is almost always greater than the cost of the first.
3. Execute the Fundamentals Daily
Forget massive action…
Success is often simply the result of tiny daily decisions compounded over decades.
Fundamentals executed with excellence wins championships.
Questions to ask in your business:
What are the fundamentals that:
- Generate and Convert Leads
- Deliver exceptional experience to my customers
- Decrease churn and increase lifetime value
Literally all the growth you could ever want is on the backside of these three questions.
Learn more about how to execute these fundamentals to grow your business to 8-figures and beyond by watching this video.
4. Belief Precedes Excellence (and failure)
Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.
It's cliche, but so damn true.
Most business initiatives fail before they even get out of committee because the group doesn't BELIEVE it'll work.
A good rule of thumb:
If there's any doubt, there's no doubt... you will fail.
Now, that doesn't mean you go through life with a delusional self-belief that everything is always going to work out perfectly.
But it does mean that most any belief held with sufficient conviction can be made true.
There's no getting around this:
People show up differently when they show up with absolute certainty that what they're doing will work.
The converse of the above is also true.
Your job as the leader is to be a reality distortion field that infuses your team with belief at every step of their journey.
5. Never Assume You Know The Answer
Couple years ago we were raising capital for a deal.
Investor shoots me an investor and says:
“Put me down for $250k.”
Over the next two months I email him 7(!) times to sign the papers.
No response.
I mentally wrote him off, but fired off an 8th email.
And voila…
$250k and signed docs landed the next day.
There’s magic in the follow-up.
But only if you NEVER assume the answer is NO.
As a larger rule for business:
The person who thinks they already have the right answer stops asking the right questions.
This has been my downfall more often than not.
6. Sales is Service
I was talking to a financial advisor struggling to grow the other day.
He said:”If people only knew how much money we’ve made our clients, they’d be knocking down our door to do business with us.”
Me: “So why don’t they know about you?”
Him: “I’m just uncomfortable with talking about myself and what we do on social media.”
Me: “Kinda selfish that you aren’t sharing your story, don’t ya think?”
Here’s the thing…
If your product/service can GENUINELY help people, then don’t you have a moral obligation to tell as many people as possible?
I believe you do.
When viewed through that lens:
Sales isn’t sleazy… it’s service.
Now get out of your own way and go serve somebody.
Watch this video to learn the 7-Figure Sales Script we use at all my companies to generate millions in revenue?
Speaking of products that can genuinely impove the quality of your life and make you more money...
This week's newsletter is sponsored by my friends at AppSumo.
One of the most expensive parts of running a business is all the software subscriptions you accumulate over the years...
The monthly recurring fees stack pretty quickly and I don't know about you, but I often have 5 or 6 subscriptions I'm still getting billed for despite the fact that I don't even use the software anymore.
Here's where I'm gonna go into grumpy old man mode:
It wasn't always like this, ya know? Back in my day you could just pay once and get the software for life.
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7. Clearly Defining the Problem is Half the Solution
Here’s the most common complaint I hear from founders:
I just don’t have enough time.
Wrong…
You don’t lack time… You lack Clarity, Focus, and Discipline.
Let’s talk about that first one: Clarity.
Most people just solve whatever problem pops up and screams at them the loudest in any given moment.
And they do this because they don’t know what is the ACTUAL priority in any given moment.
They lack Clarity.
This is why a problem well defined is half solved.
Remember: Speed is the result of Clarity.
8. Optimize Your Resource Allocation
Business is nothing more than the allocation of scarce resources.
Here are your most important resources as an entrepreneur:
- Energy
- Skills
- People
- Capital
- Technology
You can never ask yourself too often:
“Am I allocating my resources as effectively as possible?”
Watch this video to learn how to manage your resources for maximum leverage.
9. Start at the End
Most people are mindlessly following a path laid out for them by society.
Entrepreneurs are a different breed.
They’ve bucked society’s expectations and went off to build their own thing.
But still… charting your own course is difficult.
And we often find ourselves walking in the easily visible steps left by those who came before.
“I want to build a billion dollar company.”
“I want to run a team of 100 people.”
“I want to disrupt this industry.”
Cool…
But do you really?
Maybe yes. Maybe no.
Only YOU can answer that question, but it is perhaps the most important question of all…
Otherwise you might look up one day and realize you spent your life climbing the wrong mountain.
Until next week...
Stay Hyperfocused, My Friend
AV
P.S. If you ever want FREE coaching, click here and follow me on Instagram. I go live there once a week to answer any and all your questions.
From YouTube this week:
Brutal Advice To My Younger (Poorer) Self
Here’s some other ways I can help you:
- Check out the Amplified Impact daily podcast for a quick-hitting daily dose of motivation and inspiration for the entrepreneur looking to maximize their return on life.
- Do you have a business you’d like to scale to 7-figures and beyond in the next 12 months? Then you should join the Beyond the Apex Accelerator Group Coaching Program.
With a library of trainings, tools, weekly group coaching calls, accountability sprints, and a community of high level entrepreneurs, the Accelerator Program is designed to help you take your business to 7-figures and beyond in the next 12-months. Click here to apply.
