Brief Overview

A Facebook memory popped up in my feed yesterday and took me back to that same exact day only a few years earlier, and it suddenly made me stop and reflect. I had received a message from Inc. Magazine – the magazine for small business. They offered me an amazing opportunity to craft an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I was able to share it with Marie Forleo, Lewis Howes, James Wedmore, Michael Hyatt and many others. In this episode, I’ll tell you more about what happened and why it’s so important to invest in yourself.

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Big Ideas

An Unforgettable Experience with Inc. Magazine  [1:52]

Back in 2012, Inc. Magazine called asking for our advice on a membership site they were looking to start. They said that knowing my extensive experience, they’d love to talk to me about best practices. In fact, they asked whether I knew any membership site owners who would be willing to come together for a day to share best practices together. Without any deliberation, I agreed to get the biggest heads in the membership site game together. Inc. Magazine hosted the meetup in their head office in the World Trade Towers.

I couldn’t believe it was happening. Not only that Inc. Magazine called us, but now we were co-hosting an event together! People like Marie Forleo, Lewis Howes, Ramit Sethi, Carrie Wilkerson, Ryan Lee, Chris Farrell, Bill Harris and many more were there. We charged everybody who attended $1,000 and gave all that money to our charity. At the end of the event, we raised tens of thousands of dollars, got to experience Inc. Magazine in the World Trade Center in New York City, and learned best practices from different market perspective and membership site owners.

How Far We’ve Come  [4:08]

When I was looking back at the picture of us at Inc. Magazine holding the big check that we wrote to the charity, I thought of how incredible it was to see the growth that everyone in the picture had experienced from that moment in time.

Back then, I was still running WIshList Member with my partner. I have since built Tribe and our company, North Results, and we grew over $6 million in the first 10 months.

Or take Lewis Howes in that picture. He was not the Lewis Howes that you know today. He hadn’t launched his podcast yet, but now he’s on top of iTunes. Or you look at Marie Forleo who was a powerhouse back then and is still a powerhouse today. What Marie is doing is working and it’s lasting over time. Or Michael Hyatt, who had just left his position as CEO of Thomas Nelson. Now Michael is putting out multiple best-selling books and has exponentially grown his company since then. I also look at my buddy, James Wedmore. James of today is having such a profound impact helping business owners get their team and processes in place so they can scale, grow and build a business that doesn’t stress them out. And there’s Carrie Wilkerson, who is physically a different person. She’s lost so much weight, she’s healthier, happier and it’s a real joy to see the transformation in her. Then there’s Derek Halpern, who didn’t have the haircut he has today, but his business continues to evolve. It’s truly amazing to see what’s happened.

3 Key Things to Remember  [7:38]

When I look back at this, three things stand out to me. Number one, tactics will change. Tactics are the tools of the day that are working only in that specific moment in time, and are dependent on the platforms that are constantly changing and evolving too.

Number two, proven strategies stay consistent. A strategy is the higher-level view of what makes a business successful. When you’re thinking about your strategies, you want to be thinking about what the elements are that will stay consistent over time.

If you go back and listen to Episode #1 of this podcast called Marketing is Simple, it boils down to three key areas. Number one, getting attention; number two, converting attention; and number three, keeping attention. So, when you think about a strategy, it falls into one of those buckets. Whenever you are looking to achieve any of those key areas, you need to ask yourself what are the tactics that are going to help you achieve it.

And number three, The X-factor in terms of your business’s ability to grow is not so much the tactics or strategies, the X-factor is you. Your growth, your ability to adjust, to continue to grow, to have insights, to act on those insights. It’s your ability to implement, to get things done, to inspire and to motivate, your ability to attract. So when I look at that group of people and I look at the progress so many of them have made, some will be tactical, more will be strategic, but the big X-factor is you.

Invest in Yourself  [11:22]

My question for you is, what are you doing to continually grow? What are you doing to move yourself forward and become a better leader or entrepreneur? What are you doing to not only grow your business but grow yourself? Make it a great day today, and do something to move yourself forward. You start to see the people who separate themselves over time and that is going to be you, just because you are investing in yourself.

Memorable Quotes

“Tactics will change, but proven strategies will stay consistent.”  – Stu McLaren

Resources

MYB 001: Marketing Is Simple

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