Growth // Codex Newsletter
A Weekly Digest Dedicated To Helping You
Produce // Promote // Profit Better // Smarter
this issue is dedicated to the mom & pop businesses, the small businesses, the brick and mortar businesses
Recently, we teamed up with LA County to begin revitalizing and empowering California small businesses
The results in a short amount of time have been inspiring to say the least
Let’s take a behind the scenes look at how you too can leverage what GrowthHaxx is spearheading in LA and help each other get over our bullsh*t in one week
If you didn’t miss last week’s issue, you saw how we dug deeper into extracting value from imposter syndrome – in essence, taking what would normally be our “weaknesses” and repurposing them to be useful
For example, one common response to last weeks issue was the large amount of people who consider themselves introverts, but reported being able to work a room if needed
Just as many were surprised to find out that like us, they’re Ambiverts
We can work a room, but need to recharge away from people
Knowing is the first step
Let’s say you’re an introvert who can work a room when needed (Ambivert) – and you’re struggling // or considering creating content
Hate showing your face?
Uncomfortable recording your voice?
Lucky for you, with tools like Canva you can create
- Info graphics
- Checklists
- Case studies (show your work)
- Tweet threads
- Ebooks
- The list goes on
Let’s say your budget is kinda small
Take Georgie, who leveraged her “weaknesses” and began learning, practicing and eventually creating a lucrative digital events business
Leveraging her experience and learning curve, she has monetized everything she loves via partnerships & content
I for example share breakdowns on Twitter
Even with an audience a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what we have on Instagram, because I am where my ideal person hangs out, my “weaknesses” of having a face for radio has become a strength
So much in fact that I’ve since pivoted away from Instagram for the past 3 months
Alright, time for the fun stuff
Let’s explore this weeks segment on improving how we
Produce
Pro Tip:
“Branding requires accountability. To build a great personal brand (an eponymous one), you must take on the risk of being publicly wrong.”
Book: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness // Author: Naval Ravikant
If you missed, or simply would like to reference the other issues
When we started working with the fine people of LA County, we ran into a theme
A pattern where we kept hearing (in their own words)
- I’m special
- I’m too old // young for __
- I’ll start Monday
- If I had more time then I would do __
- When I have __ I will be __
- And my personal favorite: “ I know what I’m doing”
Rogues and Roguettes, what do you see here?
So how did we spark some of the best results they’ve seen in years? With some business owners employing happy people (at $15 per hour too!)?
We started by asking ourselves, “How do we empower these people to take action?”
Motivation and inspiration only lasts so long
Discipline and perseverance on the other hand….
We started by exploring with them
- What is standing in my way this time?
- Why do you feel stuck?
- What’s blocking your path to nirvana (goals accomplished, fulfillment)?
Then we got as specific as possible.
Breaking it down (feel free to screenshot // add to notes)
- What obstacles are in front of you?
- Will you need specific tools or resources to overcome them?
- What obstacles keep repeating themselves?
- Is it the lack of a particular skill or a state of mind that makes you feel that you’re unable to push through?
- What traps are behind you keeping you chained to the past and not allowing you to move forward?
Looking at the issue from all 3 perspectives strips the issue down to all the known variables and finally you know what you’re really dealing with here.
At GrowthHaxx, we’re all about playing the hand you’ve been dealt masterfully
There are some things that you can change while others are out of your control. So after seeing their hands, we set off to leverage them
One of the pit stops was visiting a wonderful and powerful resource
Mintel’s TOP TRENDS OBSERVATIONS – if we’re going to produce better // smarter, then we also need to identify our customers patterns as well
We learned that even with spending dropping substantially, “treat yourself” comfort food was doing exceptionally well. BUT – many restaurant owners were still on the fence in regards to marketing or even investing in ads. So we went the “show em, instead of tell em” route
We looked at the most popular purchases, took some liberties, and let the people tell the businesses what they thought
From almost no engagement to all of a sudden, foot traffic, their phones ringing and registers chachinging
Which takes us to the second and fun part of this segment
How to insert a little growth hacking into how you
Promote
Pro Tip:
“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
Book: The Picture of Dorian Gray // Author: Oscar Wilde
Hungry yet?
As mentioned above, with comfort food being a hot commodity (that was almost a pun 😃) the founders of Sassy Bird got right to work
Something they capitalized right away on, was giving their customers something Instagram worthy
What this looks like in action:
Whether you sell goods or services, what helps a TON is creating // sharing “stuff” that illicits emotions and makes people look good
When Sassy Bird Co-Founder Frank Lopez started managing their social media pages, he kept asking himself, “what would get someone to stop scrolling and look?“
“What could I give my customer that would have them so excited, they want to tell their friends?
He dug into his family roots that are full of hospitality, big portions and a no BS attitude and whaddya know
Those “Weaknesses” as most businesses would see it, became the wind beneath their wings (ok maybe that’s my last pun for now)
Last but not least, how despite lockdowns and Covid19, you can still turn a healthy
Profit
Pro Tip:
“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.”
Book: The Picture of Dorian Gray // Author: Oscar Wilde
There’s an art to discovering the beauty and opportunity in everything
As Sassy Bird set out to spread the love to their customers, we came across something else, how do we pull off a win-win-win? The beauty and opportunity in our situation?
One where the customers are all smiles, the founders are able to enjoy their profits, and their staff enjoying a win too
Remember the produce section above?
Well when we rang Frank through the wringer, we identified his “weakness” of doing everything on his own, from the hiring to the books to the managing
Something to keep in mind – you get what you pay for
With running your business – with the food you buy
The examples are plenty
So we challenged Frank during an intervention where we had him promise at ballpoint (write contracts with yourself!) that he would practice delegation
The first thing we asked him was “if you were sick and couldn’t go into work who would you rely on to run the show?”
Once we identified who was a good candidate we then challenged him to dedicate the rest of the week to having that person shadow him and do as he does while documenting what happened
What this looks like for you:
- Where do you fit into the grand scheme of things?
- Are you someone who starts things? maintains things? or improves things?
- Be very honest with yourself, typically we tend to excel at one thing and are proficient at a second hardly ever do we excel and perform exceptionally at all three
- With your area of weakness how can you structure a win for you a win for your customer and a win for the person you’re about to delegate this task to?
- Set reminders to yourself to trust the other person to get the job done set key performance indicators (KPI‘s) to measure performance accurately and not emotionally
With more time to do what he does best he would use this time to leverage social media improve advertising double up on outreach dedicate a few minutes every single day to responding to customers and yelp reviews
The results?
- This divide and conquer strategy resulted in
- An awesome manager that runs the show (and trains staff)
- All employees now get paid $15 an hour minimum
- Huge increase in sales
- Extremely noticeable increase in customer satisfaction (some customers travel up to an hour and a half to eat at Sassy Bird)
- More free time
But that’s not the coolest part, Sassy Bird has only been open for a few months
Yep, it opened during the pandemic, and there are two more locations to come in the next few months
The biggest thing we hope you takeway from this weeks issue is that life, like business isn’t necesarily complicated, we just make it so
Let’s break free of the excuses of needing more motivation, or a “chance”, let’s proceed with clear heads, discipline and a work ethic that allows us to enjoy more of what we achieve, and work smarter
Alright, now off you go, test, tinker, and a weekly remember that the best place to start off is where most quit
*Special Note: We mentioned you’d be getting a sneak peek at one of our member sessions where we go over how to pick, plan, and start a side hustle – to avoid spamming anyone, dm us here if you’d like to be sent the private link*
Till next week, here’s to escaping average
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