So many things in business are about choosing the right strategy or tool to execute a specific outcome. Something that we as COPreneurs know all about - right? I mean, you wouldn’t grab a shotgun and load up some birdshot when the target is 100+ yards out... But I’m afraid to say that I rarely see my fellow COPreneurs apply that same tactical and measured thought process to their business. I have to admit, I’ve been guilty of this too. Instead we often treat our business like we’re in a fist fight - swinging wildly, trying everything until something works, and attempting to create some distance to give ourselves a chance to strategize. In the same way, most COPreneuers will cobble together a logo, a website, and other marketing materials without very little understanding of their most beneficial use or impact. So what do you do? You train, right? Teach yourself the right tactics and add the right tools to your belt. Then choose the right tool for the right job and execute the corresponding tactics.

I have a confession to make. It seems that this year I’ve come down with SQUIRREL! Syndrome. If you're a COPreneur, it's highly likely that you've come down with the SQUIRREL! Syndrome too. If so, then don't feel alone because most COPreneuers eventually get infected due to our habit of chaotically managing calls for service, juggling multiple case investigations, and our natural predisposition towards perfectionism. These things make us great at our jobs in general but it's also why we struggle when trying to manage productivity in order to be more efficient and effective throughout the day. If this sounds like something you’re struggling with too, let me share with you the top 3 things that have helped me get back on track. Clearly Define the Project: Identify the project objective and desired outcomes. Then, work backwards to determine every single sub-task that needs to be accomplished to bring that project to completion. Document these steps somewhere or place them into a project management software. (Tip: If you’re looking for a great project management software that can also handle all of your business’s proposals, contracts, and invoicing, I highly recommend Plutio!) Block off Time: Sometimes the highest impact tasks are the least fun. If you don’t block off specific chunks of time during your day or week to do them, you will easily become distracted by the things that are more fun, but less important. Eliminate Distractions: There’s nothing that destroys productivity more than phone calls, text messages, or notifications about new emails, social media posts, or the latest Donut Operator video on YouTube. Turn off your phone if you can, but at the very least, close out all email, messaging, and social media applications on your computer or phone when you are doing scheduled deep work. I hope these tips help you be more productive like they’ve helped me, but don’t be too hard on yourself - new habits are hard to make. Make incremental changes and give yourself some time.

LinkedIn is an incredible social media platform to be on if you’re a business professional who is looking to grow your reach. But how do you play the algorithms to your advantage in order to get more eyeballs on your posts? There are a number of different methods that all factor into a holistic and well-rounded strategy, but I’m going to share with you just one trick that I’ve been seeing success with. It’s called News Jacking. The algorithm is designed to recognize topics that are trending and give any posts that are about that topic a higher priority in the feed. If that topic is about a current event, especially on a national or worldwide level, that is even more so the case. When I’m News Jacking, I begin by doing a bit of research in 3 different places: Google Trends, a simple Google search for “trending news”, and the LinkedIn news column. All three of these methods show you what is currently trending in the news. Try to identify news pieces that are relevant to your niche and your expertise. Things that you can offer an authoritative opinion on. Then simply share the link to the news piece as a post with your thoughts on the topic. The algorithm is likely to give your post some extra juice which will of course drive more views, more engagements, more comments, and more connections which will organically grow your overall reach.

My favorite acronym in business - and the one that I need reminded of most - is KISS. Keep it simple, stupid. The obvious accusation here is that needlessly overcomplicating things in your business is just plain dumb. And I couldn’t agree more. I can’t even begin to tell you how much time, money, and energy I’ve wasted doing things that just created unnecessary complications. It’s easy for us as business owners to create complications and confusion by using every new piece of software we can find and then having to figure out how to use them all, or creating complex pricing packages that our customers struggle to understand, offering too many products or services to begin with, or thinking we have to try every high-speed low drag marketing tactic we hear about on the internet. But what I continue to find over and over again is that simplicity is the secret to scale. When you keep things as simple as possible, they are easier to understand and easier to replicate. All of this translates into more time and more money for you and your business. So, keep it simple, stupid. And quit overthinking things. Execute the things that create the greatest impact and put everything else aside.

If you’ve listened to past chapters of the Business Brief, then you know that it’s important to market your products or services not by listing out their features, but by framing them as an opportunity. More specifically, an opportunity for your prospective customer to experience a transformation. You are selling them a new opportunity to overcome a problem that no one else has yet been able to solve for them. When marketing a new opportunity, your focus should be on offering two specific types. The Opportunity Switch and the Opportunity Stack. Your customer has been searching for a desired result and currently they are trying to achieve it through some other method. Your goal is for them to abandon that method and use yours instead. This is the Opportunity Switch - a complete paradigm shift. Let’s say for example that you are marketing a new 3-day in-person interview and interrogation course. What you might offer is a low-priced introductory online course that demonstrates why the old method is ineffective and how yours will give the prospect greater success in the interview room. Now that your prospect has become a customer by purchasing your introductory offer, you can now upsell them on other products that add value to the paradigm shift you’ve already given them. This is the Opportunity Stack. Using the same example I used before, this is likely the right time to pitch them on your in-person course. Once you have the opportunity dialed in, you can continue to pitch higher priced Opportunity Stack offers such as an online masterclass, a mastermind group, or a consulting package where you evaluate recordings of their interviews and provide feedback.

Often I talk to business owners who are exhausted and on the edge of burnout. They ask me what they’re doing wrong and how they can get themselves off the hamster wheel of constantly working in their business. Usually it comes down to a relatively simple concept that somehow seems to be overlooked way too easily. Most business owners tend to build their businesses around themselves. It’s a natural tendency for a new entrepreneur to do everything on their own and do things their own way. I mean, let’s face it, you’re good at what you do. You’re the go-to person. So why shouldn’t it be that way? Well, when you structure your business this way, literally everything requires your input, your effort, your expertise, and your most valuable asset of all - your time. Instead, you need to build your business around systems and repeatable processes. Build your business as if you intend to sell it off and walk away with a pocket-load of cash someday. Even if that isn’t your intention at all. Either way, I promise you that this simple shift in mindset will allow your business to realize growth and revenue that was previously not possible. First, develop a standard service offering (SSO) around your existing product or service and then develop a team that can replicate the process successfully over and over again. And that my friends is how you get off the hamster wheel.

In our last chapter of the Business Brief, we talked about the reason why you need a lead generator. But the problem is there's one significant area where COPreneurs cut corners when setting up their lead generator. Most business owners will create their lead generator and then simply put it into a single row option on their homepage or have a pop-up. Those things are great and you should have them, but that alone is not enough. Your lead generator needs to have its very own landing page. A landing page gives further opportunity to tease the prospect about what they get from downloading it, what problem it will solve for them and how it will make their life better. It also gives you the opportunity to offer social proof like reviews from people that have downloaded your lead generator and seen success from it. If you don't have reviews for your lead generator yet don't let this stop you. They can simply and easily be added later, but more importantly, having a dedicated landing page for your lead generator allows you to gain insightful data that you can't get from just a pop-up or an opt-in on your homepage. This data will help you optimize your sales funnel, increase its effectiveness, and make more money tracking your landing pages, and performance, using tools like Google Analytics, or Facebook and Google ad pixels, and Hotjar. These will tell you how effective your lead generator is at capturing new leads. Proving the performance of a highly visited, but low converting landing page will have a significant impact on lead generation. If you can spend 15 minutes making adjustments that double the number of leads from a single landing page, you can generate significantly more leads for your business. You don't have a lead generator yet and have no idea where to start? That's okay. I've created a free resource for you with eight detailed ideas that you can use for lead generation. Simply head over to https://LEO2CEO.com/8-ideas to download it now.

Your lead generator is the single most valuable asset in your business. The typical website homepage is designed to cater to the problem aware customer who is searching for a solution to their problem and is ready to pony up dollars to solve it. But did you know that only 6% of your site visitors are actually ready to buy from you? If you aren’t aware of this simple fact, then your website is likely ignoring 94% of its visitors. That’s where your lead generator comes in. The lead generator provides the trepid site visitor with some simple, free quick wins and then allows you the opportunity to continue to nurture the relationship through email. Most commonly a lead generator comes in the form of a downloadable pdf, but you don’t have to feel boxed in by that. A lead generator could be: - A quiz or assessment - A mini-course - A template - An exclusive video series - Access to a private community - A chapter of your book Creating a lead generator can be so simple that there really is no excuse not to have one. If you’re one of those COPreneurs that doesn’t have a lead generator and is feeling overwhelmed by this right now, don’t worry. I’ve created a free resource for you with 8 detailed ideas that you can use for lead generation (you see what I did there, right? 😉 ). Simply head over to https://leo2ceo.com/8-ideas to download it now.

Many people think that being an entrepreneur is about lofty goals and saying yes to every new opportunity that comes your way. The truth is, your attention is your most valuable resource as an entrepreneur. And the more things you take on, the harder it becomes to grow your business. It seems counter-intuitive, but I believe that in order to grow your business, you have to do less. Let me explain. I really enjoy watching the T.V. show Kitchen Nightmares. In this show Gordon Ramsey goes into a failing restaurant and quickly whips them into shape. A failure point that you see in almost every episode is that they have too many items on their menu. As the restaurant tries to cater to every possible food choice they end up increasing their overhead. It takes the cooks more time to learn all of the dishes and they are required to keep a larger and wider variety of food in stock. This inevitably leads to a poor execution of the menu as a whole. Gordon’s solution? He pares down the menu to 10 items or less and instructs the restaurateur to focus only on executing those 10 items flawlessly. Distractions will arise in your business, and you will be tempted to take on more things - to try and appease a wider audience. Growing as an entrepreneur requires discipline to say no. In order to do more, you have to do less.