Your agency doesn't have a sales problem. It has a people problem. I spent 15+ years building teams, from scrappy startups, to scaling tech companies, to huge agencies like GroupM and WPP. Now, I give small agency owners the SOPs, frameworks, and hard truths they need to build high-performance cultures that run without them.
The TL;DR, Reflecting On What It Means "To Newsletter"
October 1 - October 14
Big Reflection Energy
Every year since I became an entrepreneur, I've assembled an Annual Report in early October. It's a chance to collect all the data, balance all the books, and assess what's working and what's not.
Reflecting is a crucial and boring practice. It's slow and doesn't feel like you're moving forward, but done well, it calibrates and adjusts your trajectory to reach your goals more effectively.
In my 2019-2020 Annual Report, this was my recap of this very newsletter:
Then in the 2020-2021 Annual Report, I discovered that email sends spiked by 459% when I started to run Challenge campaigns (such as Camp Career Confidence):
Reflecting back on these snapshots in time, it's the one thing I've kept consistent since the fall of 2019. Everything else I've changed, adapted, abandoned, or just failed at...but not this newsletter.
Hmmm. Interesting.
My hypothesis is that I both like writing and writing for an audience. Whether it's in my own head or not, I imagine all of you are expecting a saucy Friday morning email. This expectation makes me leap out of bed at 6am with my mind buzzing, "What story can I tell through the TL;DR today?" Sometimes the night before I pour a glass of wine and luxuriate in reading and summarizing articles for this newsletter. Looking at my Annual Report for this year (still in progress), it's clear that no matter how busy life was getting -even getting married!- I put aside time to craft a TL;DR. This newsletter is fun for me.
Definitely interesting.
Doing a reflection is dead simple to start but can feel aimless without some framework or reason why you're reflecting. You also don't have to assemble a 37 slide Annual Report to reflect: a journal, a Word document, or the Voice Memo app on your phone can do very well.
Fortunately, my 20/20 Perspective podcast cohost Alycia Angle and I created a guide for people to start reflecting. It's designed to be a self-coaching guide with a simple prompt every day for 30 days. Framework: check.
Even better, it's a verbal journal: recording your audio captures more than just words, but also the emotions you load into your vocal intonation. Audio: so much more juicy than words on a page.
However you choose to reflect is right. Choosing to reflect is a vulnerable and brave exercise. Make it a habit and you'll grow and evolve faster than ever before.
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A TL;DR from the CRO
Looking back on the past year, I've never regretted taking a good nap.
-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer
TL;DRs From Around the Internetverse
- How to handle the five horsemen of a toxic work culture: Disrespect, Noninclusive, Unethical, Cutthroat, and Abusive MIT Sloan
- Keep strategic planning focused on strategy, not operations HBR
- Three tips to holding coaching conversations Center for Creative Leadership
- The Eisenhardt method of divining truth from a few case studies Quartz
- The perfect team composition, as defined by Kathleen Eisenhardt using the Eisenhardt method YouTube
It's soup season.
I'm not the biggest soup fan. I like a bit of crunch and substance to my food, but every once and a while a hearty soup satisfies. Right now I'm reflecting on the delight from this chickpea, orzo, and mustard green soup (it's the rosemary that makes it, baby).
Being in New England for virtually all of my life means that October is full of wet leaves in the gutter, darkening days, and dropping temperatures. It's the perfect storm for a soup.
Every time I make a soup, I'm shocked by how much work it takes and how much work it doesn't take. Sure, there's the prepping, the sautéing, and the simmering...but then it's done! I'm always surprised when I get soup after cooking soup. It's the same feeling after making homemade pasta: I made the thing that comes dried in boxes!
Do you have other foods that you rarely make but generally enjoy when you make them? How about making it this weekend?
Stirring the pot through self-reflection,
Dan from Learn to Scale
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PS. This is what an ideal October morning should look and feel like.
Dan Newman
Your agency doesn't have a sales problem. It has a people problem. I spent 15+ years building teams, from scrappy startups, to scaling tech companies, to huge agencies like GroupM and WPP. Now, I give small agency owners the SOPs, frameworks, and hard truths they need to build high-performance cultures that run without them.
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