I am a solid three months and $61k into a home renovation with at least another two months $50k to go, which I committed to when the project was going to cost $65k and take seven weeks.

But alas, my house is old, things needed to be brought up to code, the building department rejected our first round of blueprints etc…

This all would have been fine and good if building a business didn’t also take more time and cost more money than I thought it would.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I AM NOT A MILLIONAIRE SIX WEEKS IN? WHAT IS THIS!?

And while patience is my middle name (yes really) it’s never been my strong-suit. But I think that’s a lot of what this year is for me. I am on a mission to be my hottest, richest and boldest self yet and I think in order to do that my average, comfortable and complacent self needs to die.

So we press on. Still doing the reno. Still building the business. Still sitting in my car at 11p gripping the steering wheel shouting over the music “I AM GONNA FIGURE THIS OUT".”

And with enough money, time and a positive attitude, I really believe I will.

Social proof is all over my feed. I am talking screenshots of Slacks, text messages, DMs etc. Whether its positive feedback from a teammate or praise from a client I am seeing creators, founders, marketers and sellers alike post their REAL conversations as images on LinkedIn.

How can you hop on this trend?

If you’re looking to build up your clientele, sharing a screenshot alongside a story about a client win speaks volumes. It says “don’t take it from me, take it from Kevin who was only super successful because of me”… but in a humble way.

Search through Slack, WhatsApp, Email, Texts, DMs and find someone else talking about their success or giving you praise.

Blur out names if/when needed and give context to the message.

If you try it, let me know how it goes. I swear I saw 11 of them today alone.

Always book the next call. Sheesh— such a rookie mistake.

I had six discovery calls for my ghostwriting business this week and on TWO of them I forgot to book the next call while we were still on Zoom.

Now I am chasing down people via email, trying to play calendar Tetris and remind them why they were looking forward to working with me in the first place.

When you book the next call live, excitement is still at it’s peak. Nothing stops you from sending more info in between. Nothing says the deal can’t move forward until you meet again. Another call just guarantees— another call.

So, lesson learned the hard way I guess.

(And don’t worry, I will get them back… I’m annoying persistent like that.)

Your LinkedIn headline is valuable real estate. I updated mine one month ago and have seen an 40% increase in inbound leads. Here’s how to maximize that space:

Who are you? Who do you help? How do you help? Ask me about.

OR

Title @ Company. I help TITLES @ ICP/INDUSTRY achieve RESULTS. Ask me about…

Here are a few examples of good headlines:

Founder @ ACME Corp. | I help Coyotes in the Desert catch Roadrunners | Ask me about anvils as a hunting strategy

Account Exec @ SalesTech | I help sales reps spend more time selling and less time leaving voicemails | Ask me about power-dialers

CEO @ NewsletterTech | Own your audience instead of renting it. Start a newsletter | Ask me how to get your first 1000 subscribers

This framework is customizable, but the goal is to answer the questions and give them a prompt to reach out to you about your area of expertise.

Try it! (Or don’t… I’m not your boss.)

I’m currently wrapping up final phases of my new website and branding so I will be sharing the good, bad and ugly of that experience.

If you ever wanted to know how much a logo/brand identity, website and launching a new company costs swing by next week… I’ll tell you everything.


(Hint: It cost more and took more time than I thought, but it was sooooo worth it and I’ll share all the mistake I made so it won’t take as long or cost as much for you.)

-zo