Growth // Codex Newsletter

A Weekly Digest Dedicated To Helping You

Produce // Promote // Profit Better // Smarter

Welcome back Rogue, this week marks our one month anniversary and not only are we excited, but also appreciative of our members who aren’t wasting any time – putting these resources into effect, some are testing, some are accelerating at a pace that’s exhilarating, and we are extremely proud 

It’s a confirmation of sorts, that as a collective, we are indeed ready to escape average

This past week, we talked to some folks who expressed feeling stuck – not a fun feeling

I mean, who enjoys feeling powerless and frustrated? So we dug a little deeper and the most common responses were….

• “Laziness”
• “Insecurities”
• “Not feeling my aesthetics”
• “Not knowing exactly what I want my niche to be”
• “Not having a clear direction & not being “trendy” makes it hard 😫”
• “The fact I want to be consistent with A LOT of things at once lol”
• “I know I need to be consistent and I’m pretty good at it… but when new ideas/task come up? Lol 🤯”
• “Fear of failure, over planning and overwhelming myself”
• “Laziness stemmed from ADHD/anxiety! the most challenging part was accepting it.”
• “Lack of inspiration & perfectionism”
• “Imposter syndrome.”
• “ADHD // Organization”

*If you see your response above, I feel ya, if you don’t see your response above, it’s only because it overlapped with others* 

As you continue reading, consider this…

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; 

The valiant never taste of death but once. 

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, 

It seems to me most strange that men should fear; 

Seeing that death, a necessary end, 

Will come when it will come.”

William Shakespeare // From The Book: Julius Caesar

Our relationship with failure is not only important, but often… overlooked.

When things don’t go our way it sucks yea, in fact, we are wired to avoid pain. BUT, the silver lining, we can build real resilience.

Funny story, the very first issue of the Growth // Codex almost didn’t happen

Now, let’s not mince words, sh*t is in fact nuts, but so far – the more of you I speak to, the more it’s evident that you’re a little weird too – a superpower when molded

Which is why you’re here

Lets get started

If you missed, or simply would like to reference the first three issues

• First Issue
• Second Issue
• Third Issue

Let’s explore this weeks segment on improving how we

Produce

Pro Tip:

Quote

When I was active duty (Army) while out there… “sightseeing”, we’d constantly do something named a sitrep (Situation Report) and a spotrep (Spot Report)

When I first started, these were incredibly annoying, it wasn’t until I was on the receiving end that I finally had that ohhhh moment

How does the receiving end differ?

When someone gets ambushed while on patrol, delivering supplies, or just overall fcukery ensues, these reports get sent to QRF’s (quick reaction forces) and it helps us assess, and get you out of there safely and fast

Imagine if the person sending it felt embarrassed… Imagine if they never sent a distress call… or worse… when I asked them for their sitrep // spotrep they responded with “I’m fine”

How we respond to failure is paramount to our success, in order to produce, it benefits you to acknowledge that plans are just really…

Overvalued guesses

Maybe thats not the nicest way to put it, but you get the gist 

What are you building? Working on?

How honest are you with yourself?

Here’s a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis we use for ourselves and those we help – you can download it and fill it out

The thing about producing better is understanding better – and we wouldn’t be practicing what we post if we didn’t catch that *special note: If you don’t know yet what you want to work on, dedicate time to figuring it out.* While we may have put out the right stuff, it’s not always going to be at the right time.

After you’re done with that, here’s a challenge we’re testing out doing a sitrep // spotrep followed by

One way we’re tackling this is by (replicate this, cause mannn does it work)

We Pick 

• 3 Hashtags
• 3 People that follow our page 
• 3 Pages we follow

We set a reminder on our phone for every other day

Every other day we

• Engage those on the list, authentically
• Send 3 cold outreach messages, dms, phone calls 
• Make 1 offer 
• MINIMUM

So far this strategy has shown amazing traction and expanded out network vastly, our production is not only easier to execute, but manage as well

Which takes us to the second and fun part of this segment, the part where we go over improving how you

Promote

Pro Tip:

“Learn the rules, so you can break them like an artist”

Pablo Picasso

This weeks topic is especially fun for me as a Growth Hacker – gaming the publicity industry 

It started with a tweet, which led to some mixed reactions

And a long time member of our tribe asked this

Publicity has been slowly changing with the power of social media, the days of needing massive amounts of money to get traction are gone – with some creative flow and execution you too can start building a brand, a movement, a company and mission

Of course, some have found ways to jump on to the gap between information and you

For anywhere from $500 — $5,000 (depending on who you work with) you can buy your spot on publications and lists, it’s not exactly well known, and that’s why the prices vary so wildly (kind of how folks were selling verification badges)

How Do I Hack This?

You can respond to inquires and ads like the ones seen above

Or, you can find these publications weak spot, oops i mean area of opportunity – contributors

These publications leverage people who want to make money, get their name out there and boost their brands, so they invite them to be contributors (they even charge lol) and in return folks get to say they’re writers for them.

You can simply go to the site of the publication you’re interested in and see the authors – reach out to them, or if you’re a little shy a quick shortcut is to Fiverr

Just type in the publication that comes to mind and chances are someone is going to be able to help.

These publications can help you get verified, views, etc and still mean something to a lot of people, it’s 2020, live a little and get yourself some traction

*Special mention: If you’re considering doing press releases, make sure they’re not to announce a new launch, focus on what the transformation is*

Leverage is a powerful thing, here’s a behind the scenes brainstorm session where we discuss leveraging other platforms to create a process that’s fast, fun, and repeatable with CFO Christian Williams

https://youtu.be/5jolrvVfnJM

Alrighty then, on to how to better

Profit

Pro Tip:

Sometimes the best way to help someone is just to be near them

Veronica Roth // From The Book: Divergent

Are you attracting the right customers?

Are you working on things you’re exceptional at? Love?

Here’s what i did to start getting myself out of that rut

A few years ago, i was struggling to find a decent (never-mind great) company to work with // for, at the time, Growth Hacking wasn’t a well known thing yet, so for years i did work under the title of CMO (Chief Marketing Officer).

The problem?

Most companies // founders see anyone outside of them as someone to just give orders to (even though publicly they’ll spew the shtick on how much they love being around those smarter than them)

I kept coming across situations and companies that were less than desirable, throw in a few schemers and a dash of the occasional getting fcuked over like one company to this day still owes me $25k (they can’t pay cause they burned through their investor dollars so no use pursuing lol) and I think you can see why I was more than done

I wasn’t a beginner, and I wanted clients // business that reflected my actual status, not what some glorified middle man thought I was worth with a paltry salary (while super annoying how cheap many companies are, most pay justtttt enough to get you to do what they don’t want to)

Something had to change, so I started treating myself like a client – while exploring what those that were successful before me were doing

What do you think I found?

A lot of them weren’t leaps and bounds ahead of me, no magical talent, what they did have was the ability to solve highly complicated problems

Here’s what i wrote down and audited myself with

• What’s my ideal customer like?
• Do they know who I am?
• Would they find me helpful? Competent?
• If they came across my brand, would I come across as someone they connected with?
• What would they need to take action?

After starting there I began testing my hypothesis (educated guesses) with the action plan mentioned above in the produce section

*Special Note: If you have trouble with any of the questions, that’s where to start*

Alright, now off you go, test, tinker, and remember that the best place to start off is where most quit

Till next week, here’s to escaping average

Your response and feedback helps us, help you, so

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