Take Advantage of Your Resources

San Diego here we come! I'll be attending Geek Out this weekend out in my beloved San Diego put on by my dear buddy Nick Shackelford. I won't lie... I used to think these events were corny as hell and networking with a bunch of ecommerce nerds was a waste of time. Damn I was wrong. 

Over the years I've met so many incredible people online & offline, all by simply putting myself out there. Ya, its uncomfortable and you might have some weird ass conversations, but you're also going to have some incredible ones. Just last year in San Diego I met Sean Frank, the CEO of Ridge Wallet. The dude was just so humble as they are on track for like $100m in revenue. We chatted for almost an hour and he gave me some incredible tips on how to get counterfeits off of Amazon and opened my eyes to processes I didn't even think existed. 

Here's a Challenge for You:

Pick five people in your network that you want to get closer to this year and actually follow up with them every few weeks. We all know how the internet blind date goes. You jump on a "30 minute quick chat", have a good talk, and then never talk again unless you need something. Then it just seems like you're begging for favors. Instead, pick five people and strengthen those relationships. What business can you do together? Do you have passions outside of work? Can you invest in other brands together? 

Leverage Your Community:

Want to get better? Here's a few tweets you can send out to your network and receive immediate feedback. When I say tweets, feel free to post on LinkedIn or your post popular network. 

I forget who said it the other day, but also repurpose your best content. 90% of your audience is going to miss the shit you write. If you have a post that did incredibly well, go find it in the archives and repost it. Sadly those likes are like dopamine for us & you'll gain new followers and growth that way. 

My Favorite Questions:

Last week I had dozens of people write back with some awesome questions. I got back to a lot of you, but here are some that I was saving for this week 👇

When things aren’t moving as quickly as you want them to, and there might not be as much for you to to do compared to when you start to grow, on-board people etc.. How do you handle these periods of patience? I struggle a lot with it mentally due to feeling that I don’t “do enough” even though I might not be able to as off this moment.

Just know that you are not alone. This happens to the best of us and I still feel this pain almost weekly. As the owner of your business you are always going to want to "keep busy" and do anything and everything to move that next milestone or bring in more revenue. Sometimes you are simply just at a standstill and need to accept that. Here's a few things that I have found that have helped me. 

1. Set weekly goals. What are the 3-5 milestones you need to complete this week? If you hit them, you should feel pretty good about yourself.

2. Take more time to learn. Read books. Listen to podcasts. You'll be so shocked at how much you can improve your business while being away from your business.

3. Connect with other founders & people in your industry. I'm secretly working on a Shopify app and rather than having the team constantly in the trenches we are having meetings with 2-4 people a day to get their ideas, learn ways they've struggled, and things they wish they could improve upon.

4. When I look at all the "busy work" & google docs I've made to feel busy, most of that shit was a waste of time and there's pounds of internet dust on those files now

How can I communicate my business more clearly?

Break shit down very basically. Speak like you are talking to a twelve year old. Make it very simple. Short sentences. Don't use fancy words to impress people. If you can't describe what you're doing in two-three sentences, start over. 

If you had the opportunity, what would have done differently with CROSSNET? 

Hire for your weaknesses earlier. It doesn't have to be a robust full time hire. It can be somebody helping out for 2-3 hours a week, I promise it will make a world of a difference. Our finance department (aka me, trying to collect bills once a week) was bleeding. It was terrible. Bringing on our CFO part time to start help steer the ship in the right direction. 

Find yourself a "scrappy grinder" as I call it. The person who doesn't care what their title is, but is willing to get down and dirty and do the hard work while you're just starting out. Someone who's humble and ready to roll up their sleeves to bring your vision to life.

What's your favorite lesson you have learned over the years? 

As a founder your title means nothing. You are not above a single task. In the beginning you are going to be marketing, sales, finance, operations. No one day is the same. If I could recommend anything, get better at sales. Read about sales. Meet with more sales people. No matter your department, you are going to be selling your company, your vision, your story. The quicker you get better at sales, the quicker your company will grow. 

How do I become a better manager?

I'm growing & learning every day. Here are some things that have been working lately. 

• Make sure your team has clear KPIs & weekly goals. I want the team to feel good about themselves, just like I do when 5PM on Friday comes

• Ask them what they need help on! Get honest feedback. What are they struggling with? What materials do they need? How could they be better at their job?

• Listen & don't bark orders

• If your employees job is to spend the company money make sure they have a very clear budget, that you are tracking their spend, and also have a clear way to track the return on that spend. For the longest time we had our social media manger just "go out and do good stuff" and she either felt limited because she didn't know exactly how much she could spend, or spent too much because she was trying to be proactive.

• Lead by example. People want to work for a manager who will bust their ass for their team and go the extra mile

Must Download Software - PRIVY

I get messages almost daily, "Hey Chris I'm just starting off with email marketing what should I use?" The answer is always Privy. Why? 

It's easy af to use. Affordable. Doesn't require a team of 10 data nerds to operate and you can start making money asap. Here's what Privy lets you do:

• Create email & sms popup captures

• Has that cool spin to win function that gets me like a 9% opt in rate

• Lets you add the free shipping bar, countdown timer, and cross sell functionality to increase AOV

• Create different campaigns and functions for mobile vs desktop

The founder Ben is a good friend of mine and is hooking up all my readers with a free 15 day trial and then after that I think its less than two cups of matcha a month. 

Just click here to install on your Shopify store. 

If you're out in San Diego shoot me a message back and lets link up! Appreciate each and everyone reading this. If you have a question, want me to cover something next week, or even want 1:1 consulting let me know.

All the love in the world,

Chris