Growth // Codex Newsletter

A Weekly Digest Dedicated To Helping You

Produce // Promote // Profit Better // Smarter

Welcome back Rogue, this issue is dedicated to starting at the end

If we were to take all of our goals and ambitions, group them together, we’d see that we aren’t so different after all. Easy to see this right? Then why is it, that HOW to get there is so hard?

A lot like the fitness industry, the self help and guru industry is a huge market with billions in sales, mostly because they sell the belief that everyone but them is flailing around like

But, what about those of us who are tired of the cliche copy and pasted advice?

If we take all their advice, all their platitudes (cliches) and all their $10,000 seminars we get at its core Cooperation // Competition

It’s why when we tested out a challenge we named “change the game” a year and a half ago, we had one member try to do a chargeback after having spent $2,000 on a gurus “master course” on sales 

Why?

Because in our $97 challenge, he said Phase 1 (of 3) encompassed everything he had just spent $2,000 on

The major difference?

We focused on Cooperation // Competition – cutting through the fluff

So lets cut through the fluff

The other day while on a call with Sean Gray (the brain behind all the things Sales and Business Development) we were talking about there being this “awkward silence” or “calm before the storm”

Subjectively, that feeling could mean something different to whomever its affecting (Fear and Hope). Notice what you notice

And if the reactions to the eighth issue were any indicator of where we’re headed, it’s encouraging, not just because it’s nice to know folks are opening their emails, but more importantly, paying attention

You don’t always have to have the answers, the quote “it’s not the destination, but the journey” can easily rack up thousands of likes and comments on IG but in reality, how many of us are actually exploring?

We used to explore, wonder, imagine, and tinker so much as kids, remember?

When folks stop exploring, they get duped into thinking giving someone $2,000 will alleviate all their woes – money can solve a lot of our problems today yes

But cooperation // competition applied correctly solves all of them for years to come (remember that saying, “give a man a fish, teach a man to fish”?)

As the country repeats it’s regular cycle of economic doom // boom, it reminds me of something known as the Red Queen effect

Depending on your perspective, this map can feel like economic doom, or opportunity boom

On the off chance you’re not as obsessed with game theory and concepts like the Red Queens Gambit like I am, the main idea is that you adapt, or die – think of it like this, it leads to the everyday Joe and Jane fighting over resources

Finite resources at that, remember all those people running to buy toilet paper? While science will help us see it’s rooted in fear based behavior that pushes folks to seek some form, any form of security – we still couldn’t help but ask as many people on line buying rolls upon rolls of it “why are you buying this specifically?”

It’s been months and still haven’t heard a straight answer

• Is poverty the enemy?
• Is capitalism the enemy?
• Is money the enemy?
• Is politics the enemy?
• Is social media the enemy?

Depends on who you’re asking, and who its affecting more

It’s a story as old as time, one fighting what the other created. We’ll cover this later on, more in depth, but for now – copy and paste this into your notes

Easy CHOICES – hard LIFE

Hard CHOICES – easy LIFE 

Pro Tip // Monthly Reminder

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

• First Issue
• Second Issue
• Third Issue
• Fourth Issue
• Fifth Issue
• Sixth Issue
• Seventh Issue
• Eighth Issue

Let’s move on to cutting through the fluff and fury that is 2020, because we’ve got 2021 as the next playing field

Let’s CREATE, not compete, and improve how we

Produce

Pro Tip:

“El que pregunta, aprende”

Spanish Proverb // (Translation: “Those who ask, learn”)

Social media is the news now

As you read this, 26% of Americans go to YouTube for their news, Twitter breaks news faster than most news media, and Facebook makes misinformation as easy as hitting “like”

Take this recent tweet via Lenny Rachitsky, ex pm at Airbnb

Then you’d take a look at the responses 

Now let’s say you’re starting off with opportunities that won’t have you working double. From the responses you’d take a look and see that theres a pattern here

They’re all setting up how to 

• Communicate
• Create
• Store
• Keep tabs on expenses and so on

Let’s say you take some of the ones you’re really good at using, maybe you use them already, you could

• Create a tutorial (with affiliate link)
• Create a short and sweet review
• Bundle a few with promo codes and with a transformation in mind

What kind of person do you serve? Take a few mins today and type in a typical question they would have and explore the comments – another fun place to find how people really feel is Amazon reviews – look for reviews with a 3-4 stars rating 

Which takes us to the second and fun part of this issue, adding a little panache into how you

Promote

Pro Tip:

“Simplify, Simplify, until there’s nothing you can remove”

Pro Tip

How we use Social Media keeps evolving, at this point and time, you’ve got a huge surge of noise.

This presents us with a new list of Pros and Cons. Some of those pros are that as advertising has become easier to access and do, it has made the job of those who communicate better, easier

I’ll hear gripes and complaints from just about everyone in marketing that advertising and marketing business how hard it is to market etc but really, it isn’t – its easier than ever!

Earlier today, we had a session with our latest project, one business owner who was stressed beyond belief said we sounded cocky – instead of arguing opinions we went for precious and fun facts

I asked her, how do you currently market? Advertise?

After 5 mins of rambling (I wasn’t going to interrupt her) I asked again, ok so how are you communicating with your customers? Are you putting in $1 and getting back $3? It’s an arbitrary number sure, but it’s more so to see if they were measuring // tracking their activities

I won’t bore you with all the details but long story short, her answer was no, no actual campaigns or ads or evergreen content, no other outreach but fliers and relying on her network and the occasional marketing agency that promised the moon and the stars

It comes down to getting out of your own way, it’s no longer about who makes the best X, but who is having the better conversation // connection

As we were saying above, so much noise 

So what if we added a little context?

Recently we asked someone of you what your TOP pain points were.

But we didn’t write out “hi rogues, what is your top pain point” lol, that would be lazy

Instead we asked “if we were to help you, what would be the first thing you’d love for us to help you do better”

Top answers were

• Building brand
• Marketing 
• Creating content 
• Prospecting // Leads

Fun fact: for those that said “boosting” brand, this is otherwise known as marketing

Now, as I said before, tech has helped make a lot of this accessible to all of us – and at this point and time, everyone claims to be an expert at marketing – so we won’t waste our time with anything that might sound remotely familiar – you’ve got google for that

Since our “lane” is Growth Hacking meets Psych, meets Tech, we’ll approach it from that angle. 

Given the top pain points, we wouldn’t bother with a list of steps, you can scroll through IG and 99% of entrepreneur pages are all using the same people on Fiverr to create the same info graphs (if you’d like some made up, the prices are really good these days, just type “IG Infographics” into the search bar)

In our shoes, we started by addressing this with a workshop we’ll be hosting next week for some business owners in LA, where based on their list of top pain points, here some of how you could approach this if you were in our shoes

• Building brand: Building a new one from scratch as a group, walking them through what building one actually looks like
• Marketing: Lol, I’ll leave this one to all the “gurus”, long story short, just remember that marketing at its core is having a conversation with your people that gets them to take an action
• Creating content: What are 3 things you can’t shut up about? What’s YOUR favorite method of communicating? (I.e. Writing, convos, on camera etc) and start from there 
• Prospecting // Leads: Walk them through the three points above, leading with what the benefits of your product // service look and feel like to the customer

Which we’ll dig into no, for this weeks segment on improving how we 

Profit

Pro Tip:

“A pound of practice is worth a ton of theory.”

Katriel C Sarfati

You don’t have to be an expert to make a buck or 9 – in fact, you could steal the ideas highlighted above, and host a prelaunch this weekend 

You could take the steps above and create a product

On and on and on we could go, about all the how’s and what not, but the thing is, here’s where we’ve kind of learned to focus. Talking the Talk is easier than ever, walking it on the other hand… 

Putting it into motion is why I’ll tell anyone who’ll listen; CREATE, don’t compete

Over the course of time, we’ve put out information that has helped not only our tribe, but those who’ve convinced themselves we’re their competition

Imagine competing with the very people who are sharing how to do stuff… it’s weird. Anywho, onto this money

In exploring ways to profit, dollars and helping it all make cents (fcukin A are puns fun for me) we’re constantly revisiting our perception and strategy on all things money

Even I, who worked in banking at one point, VC another, and startups have to go through re-education every now and again 

Hate it or love it, it is what it is, and something that I’ve come to learn and respect is that capital doesn’t play favorites, it has no loyalty, it just is – it’s a social contract of sorts. WE give it value 

So when it comes to how to make money, you’re going to get a million different answers, because we all value and prioritize different things, we have similar wants, yes, but different opinions // theories

So instead, we’ll focus on the very practice of profit

Not too long ago, we sat down with a heath and wellness company, with covid closures, their storefront was struggling to find new ways to remain profitable, so we started at the end

We began by asking them, what kind of person do you help the BEST?

Going through this process we began extracting the characteristics, the goals and a lot of what made them, them. The stuff that people truly enjoy (and not what they assumed everyone loved)

With this avatar (customer they serve the best) we took a look at where they hung out, what they read, listened to, even what they enjoyed eating // drinking

Whaddya know, the owner happened to know of a healthy and delicious juice brand nearby,

You see where this is going?

Did it cost the businesses extra money? Nope

Did they spam us with corny ads? Nope

We brought that delicious juice into the mix, with special pricing for their customers, much to their surprise, their customers were elated – they felt seen, appreciated, special

It was as simple as telling returning and consistent customers about the fun update, and they organically spread the word (man its like these puns write themselves)

This type of practice is that of adding value, you know that buzz word every one keeps throwing around? Well since the majority can’t seem to give a real life example, here’s what it would look like in practice

Like the Red Queens Issue, if the majority of gurus are competing over attention, likes, followers and the proverbial pat on the head

You and I can leverage that to go and create some real and new value with customers, PROFITS

Till next week, here’s to escaping average 🤟

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