'Tis the Season for Spending

I love Black Friday. It's not just because I'm a business owner, but I consider myself a pretty penurious person and find it difficult to treat myself. It's a constant running joke in my household that I love massages, I can afford massages, but I don't get one unless I've "earned" it in some arcane way, which means I end up getting 1-2 massages a year.

Replace "massage" in that previous sentence with
clothes
shoes
grooming products
bedding
dog toys
yardwork supplies
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etc. and it's the same story: Thrifty Dan rarely spends. Poor CRO Roman Noodles, chewing away on the same tattered rope toy.

There is one time a year that I finally purchase things I should have purchased months ago and that's Black Friday. The deluge of advertising, the promise of a deal, and the mindset that I shouldn't have to "make do" with old shoes or ripped rope toys breaks through that Wall of Thrift and I finally buy things.

Perhaps you're like me: you're thrifty, you go without, you save, you make do. Or maybe you're not as extreme, but you're open to a deal. Or maybe you're not like me at all...what's that like? Do you just...buy things? Wow. Moving on...

I've got a deal for you:

If you or your organization purchases a Learn to Scale Small Agency Assessment before January 1st, those dollars will be applied to any standard training offerings in 2025.

Deal hunters, here's the math: a Small Agency Assessment is $750. It's a fast deep dive on your agency's marketing, sales, and service to really identify root problems, give you some actionable suggestions, and help sculpt a path forward to greater profitability.

If you purchase this before Jan 1 (even if we actually conduct the assessment in 2025), then you get a $750 discount on any of our training offerings anytime in 2025.

Here's the current (and growing!) menu of standard training offerings:

• ​Communication for Small Marketing Agencies​
• ​Change Management for Small Marketing Agencies​
• ​Time Management for Small Marketing Agencies​
• ​Emotional Intelligence for Small Marketing Agencies​
• ​Presentation Skills for Small Marketing Agencies​

We're really pushing the Assessment this Black Friday because in the learning world, a prescription for training without a diagnosis is malpractice. 110% of people who ask for a training on X really need a training on Y and the Assessment helps uncover the evidence to validate that...while also solving X along the way.

Let the season of spending commence: treat yo'self. Get a new rope toy, a massage, and business clarity.

A TL;DR from the CRO

Black Friday is the day I've been waiting for...new rope toys!

-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer

New Blog Post: The Ultimate Guide to The Lean Canvas for Small Marketing Agencies

Every business, at some point early in its lifetime, needs to really nail down their business model. The Lean Canvas is a great framework for agencies and small businesses to align your team members, narrow your focus, simplify your decisions, and measure the right data in order to help you grow faster.

Last week I ran into a loyal TL;DR subscriber, Igor, and he specifically asked about my systems and workflows for getting work done. I said, "If you'd like, I can share a bunch in next week's newsletter?"

Igor, this is for you:

1. On a typical Learn to Scale day, I start by writing my goals and schedule for the day in my Poketo quarterly planner. To ensure I'm doing the right things, I reference my weekly goals that I wrote in the planner on Monday morning (I have 30 minutes on Monday set aside to do this).
2. My mornings are time-boxed on Google Calendar for "deep work" so I can focus on projects. My body is best at doing focused work in the mornings.
3. I "punch" in to my Streamdeck that I integrated with Toggl, based on the client or internal Learn to Scale work that I'm doing. This helps me track time easily.
4. My biggest challenge is doing business development, so I've added extra workflow steps to actually get that work done:
   • I use Hubspot religiously to track everything with business development. Every contact that goes in to the CRM gets a Task, even if it's to follow up in 6 months.
   • I have a jar of marbles to count outreaches: if I set a goal for 20 outreaches, I have to put 20 marbles in the jar.
   • I have three recurring timeboxes every week to protect time to do business development: an hour for emails on Monday, an hour for general business development on Tuesday, and 30 minutes for social media on Thursday. This is in addition to any specific goals for the week...but I'm not always the best at following my own rules 😅
5. If a project involves writing, I use Google Gemini Advanced and I've set up a Gem (basically a customGPT) that has a Small Agency Owner persona baked into it. Based on the project, I'll either start with the Gem and explain the task, or I'll write the thing and then ask if it would resonate with a Small Agency Owner.
6. At lunchtime I walk CRO Roman Noodles and leave my phone behind. Breaks matter!
7. In the afternoon, I know I'll get sleepy and unfocused so I try to book all my meetings for the afternoon hours. Talking to people gives me energy! I also use Hubspot's Meeting Scheduler whenever someone wants to meet with me, which is integrated to my Google Calendar so I don't get double booked.
8. When I have meetings, I use Fathom for note-taking, I turn on my Elgato Key Light wirelessly through my Streamdeck (so I look nice on camera), and after the meeting I document my follow up tasks into my planner or Hubspot right afterwards (otherwise I'll forget). I then promptly forget what happened in the meeting.
9. At the end of the day, I return to my Poketo planner, check things off, and write a short reflection to the questions in the planner:
   • A victory you claimed today
   • A hurdle you encountered today
   • What's inspiring you today?
   • What brought you joy today, and how can you inject more of that into tomorrow?
10. If I played my cards right, I can sign off around 4:30pm. If I didn't, I might do an hour or two of creative work after dinner (my body does good creative work in the evenings).

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Hope that's what you were looking for, Igor.

Dan from Learn to Scale​

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​PS. While you are waiting for your Thanksgiving flight, consider: could we board better?​