Leverage podcast featuring Peter Shankman, public relations master, best-selling author and host of the #1 ADHD Podcast Faster Than Normal.
Peter Shankman lives a faster than normal life and rocks it. He’s an uber-successful entrepreneur, public relations master, best-selling author, host of the #1 ADHD Podcast “Faster Than Normal,” and single-dad to his 5-year old daughter. Not to mention a licensed skydiver, marathon runner, Ironman participant and Peloton junkie. It’s not that he has more time on his hands, he’s learned how to leverage his ADHD and use it as a gift.
It all started in the mid-90’s when Peter was in an online chatroom and was encouraged to apply to a newsroom start-up. With minimal experience outside of a journalism degree, Peter helped build the largest digital online newsroom in the world — AOL — in just 3 years.
In the wake of the dot-com boom, with the priceless experience gained from AOL, Peter wanted to start a PR firm. The only problem was… he had no money. With the upcoming release of the movie “Titanic,” Peter had the idea to take his rent money and get 500 t-shirts made with the quote “It Sank. Get Over It.” and sell them in Times Square. He sold out in 6 hours.
Taking the t-shirts online, he cleared $100,000 in under two months. Enough money to start his PR firm.
Peter hasn’t slowed down since. To what does he attribute his success? In his mid-30’s Peter was diagnosed with ADHD, and learning how to “drive” his faster than normal brain has been a game-changer.
“When you’re driving a faster brain — just like when you’re driving a Lamborghini — you have to know how to drive it.”
Here are 5 productivity hacks that helped Peter leverage his best life:
- Discipline
- Systems and Processes
- Structured Days
- Wake-up Early,
- Workout
Listen in to learn more about Peter’s 5 personal productivity hacks, read the blog post (6 min read) https://blog.getleverage.com/faster-than-normal-peter-shankmans-five-productivity-hacks-efceb7bb32d
OR download the episode cheat sheet at podcast.getleverage.com
Leverage Podcast featuring Nick Sonnenberg, Co-founder and CEO, Tanya Fraser, Head of Tasks and Florence Bout, Head of Operations at Leverage.
Like any new business, Leverage was not immune to the challenges and adversities that most start-ups face.
As many of you may know, Leverage was founded in 2015 by Ari Meisel and Nick Sonnenberg. Leverage soon created a name for itself in the world of outsourcing as a premier service. With a team of 150+ virtual assistants, the company was growing at a rate of about 5–10% each month…
But things quickly changed in October of 2017, when Ari unexpectedly decided to leave the company. Nick had virtually no notice — a mere 5 minutes to prepare for what was about to happen.
The biggest initial challenge was dealing with the division of roles and responsibilities between the two founders. Ari was the face of Leverage, working closely with clients, managing the team and company marketing. Nick, on the other hand, was the driver behind operations and technology.
He had, historically, been completely behind-the-scenes. Many clients and team members didn’t even know who Nick was, and this was a big problem.
Very quickly, as Nick took over the daily operations of the company, he uncovered some core issues that had been largely swept under the rug. Ironically, Leverage — a so-called “productivity company” — was actually running extremely inefficiently. Premature scaling is a big issue for new start-ups, and Leverage had unfortunately fallen into this familiar trap, which masked the core, fundamental issues the company had.
This extreme event was almost a blessing in disguise for the company. It forced the internal Leverage team to ask themselves the question:
Who are we and what direction do we want to go?
Over the course of the next several months, the team completely re-evaluated and re-structured how the company operated, working towards fixing those core issues. It allowed Leverage to “grow-up” as a company and become stronger than ever.
Nick was keen to on restructuring Leverage to be a non-hierarchical, self-managing organization. He took bits and pieces from the books Traction by Gino Wickman, The 12-Week Year by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington, Tony Robbins’ RPM Method, and Scrum Methodology for software development.
Through this process, there were 5 key lessons learned for creating a more united and productive organization:
Creating a Company Vision
Clear Roles & Responsibilities
Process Documentation
Establishing Quarterly Goals
Implementing Structured Meetings
Listen in to dig deeper into these 5 keys lessons, or read the full blog post at: https://goo.gl/2FdppA
When it comes to marketing content, website copy is often neglected. Yet, it’s a huge (and often missed) opportunity to craft the right message in order to reach the right audience. Well crafted content ultimately helps you attract your dream customers, boost conversions and improve your retention rates. In other words, website copy has powerful potential.
The problem is that time, budget and resources are typically spent on marketing emails, ads, landing pages or places where companies see a direct ROI.
Although you might not immediately see hard numbers from website copy, it is still a form of sales writing. It may be more subtle than direct sales, but it is where you’re selling your most important product — your business — and therefore the same types of sales strategies apply.
If a company writes in “me me me” style, the content is based around what the company does, how great it is, and how they are better than the competition. What’s missing in this style of copy is the relation and benefits to the user/customer. Companies should refrain from being focused on themselves and rather focus on what they can do for the potential customer.
The customer wants to know what’s in it for them. Writing in a way that answers and supports this question is “you you you” style.
Use your words to talk directly to your audience, by using the term “you” or elaborating on the many ways you help your clients. In this form, you’re showing how you can solve their problems.
“Fluff” is vague, meaningless copy that says the exact same things you expect every other business to say, such as “we focus on making our customers happy” or “we are better than the competition!” These statements are usually said without any proof.
Instead of relying on generalities, be specific, offer benefits, and give proof to show your business is credible.
Proof can be in the form of testimonials, case studies, or a specific process (if your process or way of business is unique).
Don’t leave the customer hanging by letting the conversation end at the bottom of your webpage. Do place a CTA on every page––whether it is your Home, Services, or even your About page––to guide the customer on a journey of what to do next.
The CTA can be different on each page to fit with the page content and to link to the desired outcome. Some pages may link to your blog while others link to your portfolio or a direct ‘buy’ page.
Before you write, you need to know who you are writing for, what you want to say, and how you want to say it.
Click here to receive your bundle.
Read the full blog post here: https://goo.gl/yvz7bU
Get the FREE Leverage Website Copy Guidelines Cheatsheet at podcast.getleverage.com
Leverage Podcast featuring Scott and Orlena Ballard, Leverage clients, partners at Confidence Coach and in life.
In this episode, Brittney Martinson, Head of Client Success at Leverage talks to Scott and Orlena Ballard about a unique task they’ve outsourced to Leverage:
“Need a VA to made a dinner reservation every Thursday Night at 7:15pm for my wife and me”
At Confidence Coach, Scott and Orlena coach their clients on how to have success in their business - but also in your most important relationships. Married for 37 years, dating for 40 — Scott and Orlena know that their marriage is their #1 priority in life and you need to put the work into it to make it last.
“You can have the greatest amount of success in a Business, but if you don’t have any personal relationships that are enriching, that are better, that are growing, that are deeper in love - what do you really have?” —Scott Ballard.
Any success principles learned in business can be directly related into relationships, and vice versa. In business, you have to invest time and resources, have a plan and strategy - the same goes for a marriage. Business is driven by human relationship, so using relationship practices as well in business drives success. How you take care of your customers and how you take care of your spouse should be very similar.
“If we don’t have this [marriage], then we don’t have anything… We can do all the work, all the business, all of the success but If we aren’t having success in our relationship it all doesn’t really matter.” —Scott Ballard
To build a relationship - you need to invest and keep taking it to the next level. Scott and his wife are committed to Thursday Date Nights to continue to invest in their marriage and relationship. Scott used Leverage to get creative about their date nights and free up his brain-space to instead plan their conversations and ask questions during the dates which was most important part of that time together.
What’s the Formula for the Perfect Date: Consistency + Curiosity + Caring
Consistency:
Block off the time your schedule, so life can’t schedule other things into the date nights. It’s has to become a priority, a non-negotiable.
Curiosity: Date with a Purpose
Each Date, Scott comes up with 1-3 questions to ask Orlena, and to have Orlena ask him. By leading the conversation this way, it becomes more real, honest and has more depth. The questions can be about their life, how to serve, love and be better in their relationship. There is a lot that Scott continues to learn, wasn’t aware of or has changed about his wife. Learning something a new partner after 40 years is the same experience as a first date. “Wow this is an amazing person” and earn to learn more about them.
Here are some example questions provided by this power couple:
What is one thing can I do to better serve you in our relationship?
Tell me about an experience when you were a child when you experienced great joy?
What would make you feel more loved in this situation (whatever that situation is) - how do we lovingly work through this?
What are your expectations for our relationship in the next year, how do you see us growing?
Caring:
Using this time to really listen to your spouse. During off all distractions, leave your phones and apple watches in the car. Dedicate this time to your spouse. The date is supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable, so the ambiance of the date is important. Dress-up! It doesn’t have to be wildly romantic, but strut your stuff!
“If you want to have a relationship to last for a lifetime it’s about commitment, not emotions, feeling or love. It’s about saying you’re committed to this person for a lifetime, and from there the real joy and love can grow. Committed and you’re going to do the work no matter what.” — Scott Ballard
How can you expect a marriage to be great in 10 years if you don’t put in the work?
Do the work in a relationship. It’s the most important relationship in your life, and yet we typically don’t do the work. It’s just like a business, you have to invest time and resources, have a plan and strategy. In this day of age, it’s not talked about, and its not thought about. Which is a shame because there is so much joy and so much good that will come out of it if you are intentional about your commitment to your relationship. Don’t just settle for being roommates.
Scott and Orlena challenge you to take a risk for the one you love today. Do something so out of the box that it startles them back into the relationship. Ask yourself what you can do today, radically, to love the person you’re with. And see what happens!
You can learn more about Scott and Orlena Ballard at
https://www.confidencecoach.org/
Take advantage of their FREE 30 min consultation to enhance your relationship (or business!)