In partnership with

🤝 Strategic Networking

• Want more referrals in 2025? Here is what you need to do... (Read)

• How to Use AI for Networking (Read)

• 7 Easy Ways To Land More Referrals From Your Networking (Read)

📤 Career Advice

• 10 things NOT to say in a Job Interview, (And what TO say instead) (Read)

• 7 Easy Ways To 10x Your Job Search Productivity (Read)

• Most people don't know how to use ChatGPT for job search. Here are 10 ChatGPT prompts to land your dream job (Read)

💼 LinkedIn Trends

• There are 7 LinkedIn laws every entrepreneur needs (Read)

• New LinkedIn features and changes 2025 – edition 7 (Read)

• I've booked 209 meetings on Linkedin in the last three months, because of a simple framework (Read)

• Power Networker: Justin Welsh

• Biz: The Saturday Solopreneur 

• Focus: Justin Welsh is a prominent solopreneur who has achieved significant success by building a diversified portfolio of online businesses.

• Primary Channels: LinkedIn (781K), Twitter/X (544k), Instagram (79K)

• Accomplishments:

  Justin's one-person business has surpassed $10 million in total revenue over five years and nine months since its inception.

• Views on Strategic Networking:

  ✔️ Most people network like amateurs. Fix it by doing these 3 things (Link)

  ✔️ The secret to powerful networking isn't about who you know …  (Link)

  ✔️ Relationships aren't transactions. The faster you figure this out?  (Link)

DEEP DIVE
⭐ Featured Article

Still A Startup After 25 Years. What's the Secret?

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 most important lessons I’ve learned:

• Find your purpose and what drives you

• Plan for the best to keep your dreams and enthusiasm alive

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

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

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

• When you do get traction, start building systems

• Systems should lead to processes that produce a predictable outcome

• Invest in growth after getting traction and having your systems in place

• Automate when possible

• 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.

TOOLS

How 433 Investors Unlocked 400X Return Potential

Institutional investors back startups to unlock outsized returns. Regular investors have to wait. But not anymore. Thanks to regulatory updates, some companies are doing things differently.

Take Revolut. In 2016, 433 regular people invested an average of $2,730. Today? They got a 400X buyout offer from the company, as Revolut’s valuation increased 89,900% in the same timeframe.

No wonder 10K+ everyday people are taking the chance on Pacaso.

Founded by a former Zillow exec, Pacaso’s co-ownership tech reshapes the $1.3T vacation home market. They’ve earned $110M+ in gross profit to date, including 41% YoY growth in 2024 alone. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.

The same institutional investors behind Uber, Venmo, and eBay backed Pacaso. And you can join them. But not for long. Pacaso’s investment opportunity ends September 18.

Invest While You Still Can

_{Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.}