🤝 Strategic Networking

• What is the secret to networking? Its not what you think. (Read)

• Good content isn't enough to grow anymore - focus on connections (Read)

• Relationships aren't transactions. if you're going to build your own business, a network of strong, meaningful relationships is a requirement (Read)

📤 Simple Systems

• The Time Audit System (Read)

• The 9 Dead-Simple Steps to Build a Daily Writing Habit (Read)

• How to make progress in any area using the ABC Goal System (Read)

💼 LinkedIn Trends

• The 60-Second LinkedIn™ Roadmap to Success (Read)

• No One Can Find a Job Because LinkedIn Is a Social Network (Read)

• LinkedIn is rolling out so many new updates! Here's everything "new" in one place (Read)

• Strategic Networker: Simon Sinek

• Biz:  Optimist, New York Times bestselling author of "Start with Why" and "The Infinite Game", and founder of The Optimism Company

• Primary Channels: LinkedIn (8.5M), Instagram (4.1M), Facebook (3.8M) YouTube (2.4M)

• Networking Advice:

DEEP DIVE
⭐ Featured Article

Powerful Lessons from a 25-Year-Old Startup

Plan for the best, prepare for the worst, embrace learning, and enjoy the adventures of everything in-between. Love the dirt!

In the Spring of 1999, I bought the domain name tipclub.com for $75 from Network Solutions for the purpose on building the world’s first business networking website.

Five years before LinkedIn even launched.

I didn’t build the online business networking empire I planned, obviously LinkedIn beat me to it.

I didn’t break the billion dollar mark in sales.

I didn’t surpass a million users.

But I do have a story to tell that I will someday share with my grandchildren.

A journey of a lifetime.

After all, how many people have a 25-year old startup?

“You’re no startup!” a friend recently quipped to me.

“You’ve been in business too long!”

Good point. People don’t equate a business operating for twenty-five years (20 years incorporated) as a startup.

But coming out of Covid, my business had been revived, reengineered, and reenergized.

A company with a new vision, new products, new people, and new business model was created.

So, I feel I’m back in startup mode.

And after all, what really is a startup?

According to mainstream sources:

1.) A startup is a business at the initial stages of its life cycle. (Britannica)

✅ Check

2.) A company undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model is a startup. (Wikipedia)

✅ Check

3.) Startups are businesses that want to disrupt industries and change the world—and do it all at scale. (Forbes)

✅ Check

As I see it, I have a 25-year old startup.

And I’m more excited than ever.

Back in the Dirt

“You've gotta love the dirt”

This was the response that Gary Vaynerchuk, a world-famous entrepreneur, gave when asked how successful entrepreneurs built their initial business and outlasted others.

It starts in the dirt. Doing the things that don't scale, talking with clients, spending time in the details, making mistakes, and learning fast.

I’m back in the dirt. And loving it!

The Lessons Learned

By working on a business model for 25-years, I can share the top 10 most important lessons I’ve learned:

1. Find your purpose and what drives you

2. Plan for the best to keep your dreams and enthusiasm alive

3. Prepare for the worst because it could blindside you (Covid)

4. You and/or your business are never too old to be a startup (or “start back up”)

5. Focus on client needs and generating traction for your products or service

6. When you do get traction, start building systems

7. Systems should lead to processes that produce a predictable outcome

8. Invest in growth after getting traction and having your systems in place

9. Automate when possible

10. Enjoy the ride!

I now think about my business in terms of years instead of days.

Success is all about playing the long game.

No shortcuts. No get-rich-quick schemes.

Are you ready for the long game?

It’s worth it.

• Recruiters spend 7 seconds reading your resume. Here are 7 steps to guarantee you grab their attention (Read)

• Here are 15 top websites to land a remote job in 2025 (Read)

• Top 10 Interview Tips

TOOLS

Here, have some jet fuel

Your newsletter, now exiting the stratosphere.

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Our founders sought to bring the tools and tech to creators everywhere that helped turn their old company into a multi-million dollar operation. So when we say we can take you from “up-and-comer” to household name, we mean it.

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In short: maybe your newsletter is stuck on the ground floor because your newsletter platform is stuck in the last decade. 

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