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You might not know my story yet, but… I’ve come a long, long way.
I wasn’t born into success.
I was a very troubled teenager, big-time. In and out of jail a few times. Rehab too.
But I pulled myself out from some bad places, took responsibility for my life, taught myself to code, and started building software companies.
I really struggled, until at 28 a US firm acquired my business and I found a real taste of success.
My journey taught me that your thoughts, your beliefs, whatever it is that makes you YOU will influence your business’ bottom line.
You’ve got to know your relationship with success.
You’re on a journey. We all are. And the more you know about where you are on your journey, the clearer you can see your next steps.
In this week’s video, I want to help you see with clarity where you are at by looking at the 5 Levels From Survival To Significance and mapping them onto my own journey.
The 5 Levels from Survival To Significance is a framework to see what challenges you are facing next. The levels are:
1. Survival
2. Security
3. Stability
4. Success
5. Significance
I first heard about this from John Maxwell, a prominent leadership speaker and author, when I brought him out to my hometown and got to hang out with him for a whole day.
I want to share it with you because it’s helped me make sense of my journey. As the founder and the driving force behind your SaaS, who you are matters.
So check out the latest video, and please leave a comment to let me know if this resonates with you.
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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.
+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell
Exclusive Download: Future Living™ Framework – Play a Bigger Game and Enhance the Way You Communicate Your Vision to Everyone You Interact With - http://bit.ly/2oEB9rL
Exclusive Download: Fundraising Like a Pro – Learn the 3 phases of fundraising and a 7 week process for starting & closing your next round of funding - http://bit.ly/2m53ar9
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Years ago I attempted to raise money for my first company, Flowtown, with my co-founder Ethan.
You know what we did? We cold emailed investors.
We figured “We have a startup, they invest in startups… so surely they want to hear from us”, and hoped our confidence would cut through the noise.
It didn’t work. Obviously.
They didn’t even bother to reply.
So we hunted for advice and came across Naval from AngelList.
Everything he said about fundraising just… clicked.
We put it in practice and successfully raised our of fundraising for Flowtown and I later closed my Clarity.fm round ($1.6M) in just 3 days!
This process works.
I’ve taught it to over 100+ of my coaching clients and they’ve raised over $200 Million from investors.
Now I’ve made a new video about it so you can learn the process too.
It’ll be a shift in the way you think about raising funding, but if you’ve ever wanted to approach investors do not even try without first checking out this super-important video.
There’s 3 stages you’ve got to move through properly before you’ll have a chance with investors. Getting this right from the start made such a difference for me, and I know it will for you too.
1. Research
2. Track
3. Connect
If you had investors for your startup, imagine the difference it would make.
You could focus on the bigger picture, hire a team to support you, and really put some fuel into your business’ engine.
Well in the video, I pull apart each stage so you know exactly what I mean and how to take actionable steps towards getting that investment.
I even teach you exactly how to get introductions with the best investors out there for your specific type of startup.
Check it out and be sure to leave me a comment letting me know your experience with raising money, no matter how good or bad.
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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.
+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell
Exclusive Download: Fundraising Like a Pro – Learn the 3 phases of fundraising and a 7 week process for starting & closing your next round of funding - http://bit.ly/2m53ar9
Exclusive Download: Precision Scorecard™ – Keep Your Leadership Team Focused & Accountable To Growth - http://bit.ly/2kMuQRa
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I love speaking at live events and conferences.
But at what cost?
For about 4 years I was regularly invited to talk on stage and found myself getting more and more frustrated when I wasn’t getting enough results to justify it.
I’d spend time away from home, away from my family and away from the business work that needed to be done…
…only to get home jet-lagged and with no new leads or growth.
What I saw was that not all stage appearances are the same, and at some point, you’ve got to ask yourself “Is this really moving my business forward?”
I needed a way to measure the value of a stage.
And I mean both physical stages and digital stages. That could be a conference or live event, or it could be a podcast interview, TV appearance, webinars… if there’s an audience that’ll watch it, then it’s a stage.
So I turned to my buddy Pete Vargas. He’s the best in the world at this, an absolute pro at measuring Stage Value Index (SVI) and leveraging any speaking opportunity, and he helped me build a solid strategy I now use all the time.
Now I want to share that strategy with you so you can leverage live appearances for your business. Check it out in my latest video:
What I’ll show you in this video are the 5 points you need to consider to make the most of any speaking opportunities. They are:
1. Goals Of The Stage
2. Capture Leads
3. Conversion Tool
4. Measure SVI
5. Look For Leverage
Without having a proper strategy your stage appearances won’t grow your business as much as they should.
Man, I wish I knew this before I started those 4 long years of live speaking events.
If you want your startup to grow, if you want your business to succeed, then check out the video and drop us a comment to let us know which of the 5 points helped you the most.
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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.
+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell
Exclusive Download: Precision Scorecard™ – Keep Your Leadership Team Focused & Accountable To Growth - http://bit.ly/2kMuQRa
Exclusive Download: The Rocket Demo Builder™ – Never give a boring software demo again and close up to TWICE as many deals by this time next week - http://bit.ly/2kCmxXX
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In my career, I’ve hired dozens of salespeople… and I made some big mistakes when I did.
Expensive mistakes.
In my 20s I hired a guy and paid him $80k salary and all he did was talk about how he was going to close big deals… without ever doing it!
For a whole year, this guy promised me the world and delivered absolutely zero value. And I actually paid him for it!
Compare that to now: Last week I hired a salesperson on Wednesday who closed a deal by Friday, and another by Monday. 2 within ONE WEEK after hiring him.
I’ve gotten way better at picking the right people for my team.
There are gifted salespeople out there. People who fight for your product, really connect with potential customers and ultimately help you win happy clients. They make it sooooo easy.
But first, you’ve gotta find them.
And as I always teach: that means you need a system. A plan that helps you reliably find talented salespeople that deliver results… fast! No more wasting money.
Here’s how I do it. This is my system to make sure I’m separating the trees from the weeds, all distilled into 5 steps. Check out this week’s video.
I won’t hire a salesperson without ticking off these 5 points. This is my checklist:
1. Profile
2. Top Of The Funnel
3. Video
4. Test Project
5. Sales Playbook
A great sales team will skyrocket your business. They become your front line.
You might hate pursuing sales, but for the right person… they live for it! They get a rush out of achieving their (and your) goals.
I’ve worked with plenty of entrepreneurs who try to sell from behind their keyboard. Sure – with the right marketing, automation and brand strategy, it works. But nothing beats the direct feedback from a sales call or a face-to-face meeting.
I’ve had my sales team come to me with all kinds of discoveries about our potential customers, their fears, their goals, and the barriers they’re struggling to breakthrough… just because they spoke directly to them.
That feedback drives the strategy and product roadmap for the company.
You don’t get that from sitting behind a keyboard.
And… you also don’t get that from lousy salespeople either.
Make sure you hire the right people. Check out this week’s video and you’ll already be better off than I was in my 20s, making $80k mistakes!
I’d love to hear about your experience with a sales team too, so drop me a comment and let’s share war stories.
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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.
+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell
Exclusive Download: The Rocket Demo Builder™ – Never give a boring software demo again and close up to TWICE as many deals by this time next week - http://bit.ly/2kCmxXX
Exclusive Download: Precision Scorecard™ – Keep Your Leadership Team Focused & Accountable To Growth - http://bit.ly/2lq3vUR
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A few years back I had the privilege of hanging out with Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and Square, while we were on a speaking tour in Canada.
This guy is a machine. He’s running 2 x Billion dollar businesses with a combined employee count of over 5000… at the same time.
So I figured a guy with a net worth of $5.7 Billion (yes… billion) might know a thing or two about leadership for scaling businesses.
…I was right.
Jack shared with me heaps of insights about leadership but there was one that has stuck with me ever since:
The idea of the Author vs the Editor.
This idea alone has affected how I think about leadership and my relationship with my teams, but it’s 100% applicable to startup teams at a small scale too.
It would be greedy if I kept it to myself, so I want to share it with you in this week’s video.
Your ability to lead your team has a direct impact on your company’s success, whether you like it or not. But great leadership is a muscle that can be trained… starting with this video.
These are the 5 key points I cover this week:
1. Define The Outcome
2. Let Them Author
3. Sort
4. 1-3-1 Rule
5. Coach To Success
The good news is that improving your leadership skills isn’t a burden. In fact: it will make your job easier!
You’ll get more out of the resources you already have, you’ll leverage hidden talents in your team, and you’ll find innovation that gives you a competitive edge.
It’s a common mistake I see when founders and small-time CEOs think of leadership only when the team is big. By that point, company culture is already infused.
I absolutely recommend you take some time today to really think about how you lead your team and watch this week’s video. It’s worth taking Jack Dorsey’s insights seriously.
I know I did.
Let me know in the comments if you found Jack’s insights as valuable as I did.
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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.
+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell
Exclusive Resource: Precision Scorecard™ – Keep Your Leadership Team Focused & Accountable To Growth - http://bit.ly/2lq3vUR