I'm A Survivor And Here's How

2024 is a special year: October 10th is Learn to Scale's Five-Year Anniversary. which according to The Knot is...wood? Or silverware?

Every October 10th, I produce an Annual Report for Learn to Scale, aka my own performance review. This year's Annual Report is going to be a bit more comprehensive since it's an important milestone. I'm currently deep in the guts of my own history, but in the next TL;DR, I'll be sharing insights from that analysis, AKA "Shit I've Learned Through Failing Through The Past Five Years."

I was reminded by my friend Kira that according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years.

For this TL;DR, I'm going to share some data points on how this business has survived the 45% death rate from the past five years.

Data Point #1: Luck, Timing, And Things I Had No Control Over

Luck is an uncomfortably large variable in whether a business is successful. One of my most valuable learnings over the past five years was not to ascribe success and failure solely to me, my efforts, my choices, etc. My hot take is that the image of a heroic self-made entrepreneur is just good marketing by service providers trying to sell Squarespace and Quickbooks subscriptions.

Here are a few things beyond my control that went right for me:

• Unemployment compensation was artificially extended due to the pandemic, providing some financial security as I was getting started
• Previous colleagues and friends who just happened to be at organizations that needed what I was offering
• A significant other who was gainfully employed and provided all forms of support while I was shooting dumb videos in our local park​
• Being a white, middle-class, college-educated guy, aka a Cheat Code to Life In America

If you run a business, never forget the Survivorship Bias. Stay humble.

Data Point #2: A Good Plan Violently Executed Now

This email is my 125th TL;DR newsletter. Click here to read my first one.​

Guess how many subscribers I had for that first email?

You nailed it: 30 subscribers:

Today, this email is going out to 7,132 subscribers and on average 47% of you will open it, which outperforms every 2024 industry average and is 1.7x better than my category of Consulting Services:​​

When I started Learn to Scale, I thought a newsletter was a good way of marketing my business. I liked to write, and I heard that newsletters are a good idea, and that was about the extent of my master plan. I didn't have a long-term nurture strategy, it took 10 issues over five months to get to 100 subscribers, and I still spend hours writing them.

However, 125 attempts over five years is a lot of practice.

One thing I learned through these newsletters is that you LOVE free resources and Google Drive files. Click rates skyrocket when I give away resources. Skip down below to learn about your birthday gift from me!

PS. If you have feedback on this newsletter, shoot me an email and tell me what you think!​

Data Point #3: .8 Pivots-Per-Year

Here are some one-liners from years past:

• 2019: Learn to Scale is a consulting service that helps small companies successfully scale by providing training, processes, and advice for talent development.
• 2020: Learn to Scale coaches HR professionals to have a measurable high impact on employee engagement.
• 2021: Learn to Scale provides predictable lead generation and revenue operations for SMBs that want to scale.
• 2023: Learn to Scale guides leaders through the internal challenges that prevent businesses from scaling.
• 2024: Learn to Scale transforms leaders of growing marketing agencies into highly effective leadership teams that are set to scale.

Have I been too pivot happy? Probably.

Have I learned what hasn't worked? Definitely.

Have I learned lots of little things that have worked? Also definitely.

October 10th: Birthday Presents and Open House

To celebrate this 5 Year Anniversary/Survivor-sary, I'm throwing open my doors and sending you a birthday gift.

First, I'm putting together a birthday box of crowd-favorite resources that I've created over the past five years and emailing it out on the 10th. This is only going to my subscribers: tell that entrepreneur friend of yours to subscribe.​

Second, I want to share what I've learned from five years of failing with an Open House. If you want free business coaching, to learn how much I paid myself in 2022, to reminisce about that webinar where only eight people showed up, or any other personal or professional curiosity of yours, I invite you to book a 1-1 with me for October 10th. I've cleared my calendar and given my pride some PTO to share whatever I (legally) can share.

This is ONLY for October 10th, so book time now:

A TL;DR from the CRO

A lot may have changed over the years, but a quiet moment looking out the window never gets old.

-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer

New Blog Article: The Data-Driven Approach to Strategic Planning

The most successful leaders know how to blend intuition and data to guide their business strategy. Learn how to make smarter decisions, minimize risks, and achieve goals using the right mix of gut instinct and great data. Read more...​

Ever since I started writing this newsletter, this outro was a place where I could always be me. Part of why I started a business was to help organizations be places where people could be their true authentic selves. This is one way I eat my own dog food and unveil my true authentic self by sharing what's going on behind the scenes:

• ​Trying to take a million steps in 90 days​
• ​Actually reaching that million step goal​
• ​My honeymoon​
• ​Tumbling Fancy Jasper​
• ​My blooming cactus​

Perhaps some email marketer would say this is stupid, but life's too short to be smart all the time.

Go tumble some rocks and tell someone about it,

Dan from Learn to Scale​

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​PS. Are you a survivor, too?​