The email client wasn’t ideal. I was using Godaddy’s old system before I eventually jumped on Mailchimp and then Hubspot. So don’t let where you’re at be an excuse.

I started by adding a list of 150 names that I thought could do business with me or refer me to business. Notice I said could not would. No guarantees. Some names on the list I knew would probably just like to follow along. 

I asked most of these folks if they wanted to opt in with personal invites. I made it real clear to anyone on the list they could, and should, opt out if I didn’t add value. 

My only goals were to add value and earn trust. I figured that would lead to possible clients.

Before I sent out the first email, I sat down and came up with 8-10 categories I would update each week. I decided on a set time and day for consistency. Don’t sleep on this one. 

Then I filled in as much of the content for each category that I could for 52 weeks. If memory serves me correctly, I had it filled out pretty comprehensively. 

Some of the categories were digital tools I recommended, inspirational movies I suggested. I also had books I loved and motivational quotes. I sprinkled in some promotion of those I added to the list. This created a Tribe like feeling before Seth Godin ever wrote Tribes. I think it was a big key. 

I intro’d the email with a unique message each week. I allowed myself to shift the various info in each category based on timing throughout the year. Hoosiers is a better movie to plug in the winter during basketball. An MLK quote obviously made the most sense around mid January. 

The emails had an open rate close to 50% each week. I learned to check simple stats like open rate, click through and I figured out who was the most engaged. I shifted my messaging and wrote my intro’s with those folks in mind. 

Eventually one by one they started replying. Yeah, I’d like to connect with you soon and learn more about what you’re doing. You betcha. 

All of our initial clients came from this list. We worked with a few for 8 to 10 years before they sold their business. We still work with others. A few others came and went. This launched our business.

All this from one simple but powerful marketing tactic. 

In 2021, email still works if you work it. 

Next up maybe we’ll talk blogging.

The post How I Got My First Clients 13 Years Ago appeared first on Bryce Raley.

What if the experts are just making decisions to appease your anxiety? I mean if you do a thing you tend to feel less anxious. Wear a mask. Stay at home. Keep your distance. It all can make you feel like you’re doing something to change the status quo. I call it the illusion of control. I think it’s become an idol. I think it discounts God and the natural order of things. It’s my choice to think so and act accordingly. But these experts, first in unison, said masks don’t work and aren’t needed. Then they changed the narrative. However, little evidence has supported this. Just 30 days and we’ll have this under control. They said in July. Your mask is as good as a vaccine said the CDC director in October. That quote seems to be hanging around like a 40 year mortgage. People wil be quick to point the compliance issue. I’m not buying that one. Improper usage is a thing. But I said in April there is no way to create medical grade standards with face coverings.

What if coddling our God-given immune system in an unnatural way is a bad idea? What if we’re doing more long-term harm than good? What if we’ve weakened that innate ability to defend ourselves from viruses and bacterias? Not to mention the side effects of masks. Surely you would reason they are not as healthy as the normal functioning mechanism of our lungs expelling our exhaust from our mouth and nose. It is one of our 5 detox pathways.

What if this really isn’t about Covid but is about control? I mean what part of this year doesn’t feel staged to you? Seriously? Just a bunch of random events colliding. I can’t ignore the evidence that says Covid didn’t just happen. Riots and looting didn’t just happen. Or better yet, start and stop at exacting times. Election shenanigans didn’t just happen. I worry that Covid has ushered in an acceptance of Communist and Marxist ideologies. There seems to be an agenda if you’re at all awake.

You too Can be a Critical Thinker

Hopefully you ask yourself questions like this daily. I know I do. Why accept something because the media says it? Why not question the status quo?

I believe we’ve turned a corner and reached a point where believing masks are good requires a large dose of blind faith. No significant studies show it. The disclaimers on the mask box say they don’t work against viruses. The huge spike it cases with high compliance says they don’t work. The high percentage of positive cases for states reporting mask compliance is a kick in the shorts for believers. Add to that the experts flip flopping across the board and I need far less faith to believe they don’t work.

Regardless of the debate, I’m for the freedom to make this decision for me and mine. On that we’ll probably disagree. Peace

The post What If You’re Wrong About Masks? appeared first on Bryce Raley.

Why you voted for the swamp will be the first place I start.

So why did you? Actually, I don’t care. Comments closed. I’ll tell you why. Cause Trump’s tweets. Cause Trump’s arrogance. Cause Fake Russia Hoax. Cause I listen to the media. Cause I’m a programmed sheep.

All I know is you’ve lost any credibility to talk about insiders in Washington. Any credibility to talk about selling out to China. You can’t talk about war hawks or the military industrial complex. You just voted for all that. You voted for the deep state cabal. Save it on term limits bro. You’re against that.

You put us on a path to communism. You voted for a bunch of cheats and scam artists. You back extreme liberal policies. You have zero credibility with me on politics and honestly I don’t trust your decision making either.

I’m a Christian. So you need something I’m here. You want to talk about Jesus and how you need him in your life. I’m here. But I’m protecting my faith, my family and what’s left of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Peace. Deuces. Keep on walking. Got nothing to say to you. Live with what you created.

The post You Voted for the Swamp appeared first on Bryce Raley.

A few weeks back we started a series about foundational aspects of your business identity. We discussed the importance of a shared company vision. Next time around we’ll talk about your Core Focus, Niche, and Mission. In a few weeks, we’ll discuss your Company’s Marketing Strategy. Finally, we’ll wrap up this particular series with a post on EOS. EOS is the Entrepreneurial Operating System that we’ve been implementing the last 6 months here at The Squad. In this post though, we want to address the topic of Core Values.  

We’ll answer the following questions:

• Why your business or organization needs Core Values?
• How to go about creating them?
• How to live them out on a daily basis?

The Core Values at The Marketing Squad came about almost by accident. I guess you could say it was amidst a time of turmoil that we found a chance to gain clarity amongst ourselves. We took the better part of an overnight retreat at the Louisville Marriott East to put index cards and sticky notes all over a table and wall. We cut and sliced and diced until 8 remained. Some say you only need 5-7. We settled on 8 and wouldn’t trade a single one. We’ve never felt like we needed a 9th. So I guess that’s telling.

In order to see if we had the “right people in the right seats on the bus,” we took to the exercise of determining our Core Values. The goal was to see if we were on the same page. The goal was a conversation starter. The end results was a beautiful expression of 8 Core Values that have guided our business ever since.

WHY YOUR BUSINESS OR ORGANIZATION NEEDS CORE VALUES?

It’s hard to know your common thread as an organization if you don’t have shared Core Values. People can get behind a vision, but it doesn’t mean they will attack the goals and objectives in a common way. Core Values assure you have a chance to win as a team. Not having them could mean half your organization is heading in the wrong direction.

HOW TO GO ABOUT CREATING CORE VALUES?

I don’t know that our method was the best, but the end result turned out just fine. Whether you’re implementing Gazelles Scaling Up or EOS, or some other system, they should point you to some version of building your Core Values.

If you don’t think your ownership or leaders can pull this off, don’t be afraid to ask for help. We lean on Daniel Montgomery and Lauren Tharp of Leadership Reality to help facilitate many of our discussions around topics like this.

HOW TO LIVE THEM OUT YOUR CORE VALUES ON A DAILY BASIS

You can have reminders on your website or signs put on the wall, but it will all fall flat if you don’t live them out day in and day out.

Here are 4 Ways We Make Sure We Don’t Forget Our Squad Core Values

1. We build recognition programs around them. Our Squad Core Value card exchanges were a big hit in 2018. Our annual Squad Core Value winners were also awarded at our January kickoff luncheon. That’s just two ways we build recognition around these Core Values.
2. We make our Core Values a part of the meeting pulse here. Core Values are a part of our Daily Stand-ups. They have their own place in our monthly staff meeting called The Squddle. They are part of our Quarterly 5-5-5 reviews with each team member. It’s hard to forget them when they appear in most of our meetings.
3. My biggest shift as our leader has been finding ways to lead to the Core Values. Every situation that goes right is usually because we’re exemplifying our Core Values. Every situation that goes wrong is offending one or more Core Values. Mark McNulty over at ActionCoach Bluegrass probably helped me get in this mindset the most when I worked with him a few years back.
4. Last but not least, we do the unthinkable in most businesses. We hire and fire based on these Core Values. You’re not welcome on the bus if you don’t exemplify our 8 Core Values. If you have major issues with more than one of them for an extended period of time, then let’s face it, you’re probably not a good fit. We telegraph a lot as leaders by who we allow on the bus or ask to get off the bus.

If you’re curious about our Core Values, here they are in all their glory.

We Are:

Here is a quick video where we discuss them further. Stay tuned next time for our post on Core Focus, Niche, and Mission.

Are you interested in learning more about how our Core Values impact the way we serve our clients? Let’s grab coffee. I’d love to learn how your business’ mission and our Core Values compliment each other.

The post Why You Need Core Values in Your Business appeared first on Bryce Raley.

As I’ve grown as the leader of The Squad, things that previously had little meaning to me, now capture the majority of my focus. It’s quite the shift. I’m referring to our Core Values, Vision, and Mission (Core Focus). Our operating system is another. For many years I just thought, “We operate and that’s our system.”

In the coming weeks, I’m gonna go deeper on my journey into how and why our Vision, Core Values, Core Focus, and EOS operating system not only became important but also the biggest part of my job daily here at The Squad.

Until recent years, vision was one of those things that had little meaning to me. I never understood the importance of vision. I believed that I was acting in the capacity of a visionary just from sheerly starting the business and cultivating the brand, however, vision wasn’t much in my mind beyond some good quotes.

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. — Jonathan Swift

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. — Helen Keller

Where there is no vision, the people perish. — Proverbs 29:18

Through business coaching, an EOS implementation, and a few more years of wisdom under my belt, I’ve come to realize just how important vision is to an organization.

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF SHARING A VISION FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Whether you’re leading a softball team, a business, a non-profit, or even your family, if you don’t have a shared vision it’s really hard to get anyone to follow along or buy-in.

I’ve found that having a vision that’s on paper is key. For years it was in my head. I see it when I look around at the team we’ve built, the office we just moved into, the partners we serve, and the culture we have. However, it’s not that useful if it’s all in one or two owners’ or leaders’ heads.

I’ve worked hard to sell people on the vision of who we are and where we’re going, but as you grow you don’t have as much time to spend with each person on the team, especially new ones. You have to trust that a common vision is documented and expressed so that the team you’re building knows where we’re going and can buy into the journey.

When you’re recruiting, people aren’t just interested in good compensation, benefits, and meaningful work. They want to buy into a vision. Is this a home for me?

When you’re serving clients or selling a product, people don’t just buy for now, but they want to buy into a vision. What’s coming next?

When you’re creating emerging leaders within your business, they want to see themselves in the future and buy into a vision. How can we grow alongside one another?

It’s the same thing for a group of parents and kids on a softball team or a soccer team. It’s the same thing for a group of volunteers who’ve organized themselves toward a common cause.

There needs to be a leader and the leader needs to express (with the help of other key stakeholders) where the group is heading by way of a vision. At The Squad, we go a step further and collect the ideas of everyone on our team as we’re shaping our vision and our goals.

DOCUMENTING OUR VISION WITH THE EOS BUSINESS OPERATING SYSTEM

The biggest breakthrough we’ve had in 2018 and 2019 is that we’ve chosen to document our vision in the EOS system. EOS is a business operating system that we found through a referral from Scott Diamond, CEO of Unified Technologies. Unified has leaned on EOS and in the process experienced scalable growth, making the Fast 50 list in Louisville for multiple years. We jumped in sideways last year and began our own journey with the help of an EOS integrator and our business coach.

Creating our VTO was one of the final steps of the Proven Process in EOS. We completed ours and presented it to our team on Friday, January 11 at our annual kickoff luncheon.

The VTO is the document we use to capture all aspects of our vision. It’s shared with our team for full transparency. Below are the items that make up the VTO:

• 10 Year Target
• 3 Year Picture
• 1 Year Plan
• Annual Goals
• Quarterly Rocks
• Issues List
• Core Values
• Core Focus
  • Our Purpose or Mission
  • Niche
• Marketing Strategy
  • Target Marketing/List
  • Three Uniques
  • Guarantee

We’re super excited to have completed ours and now the larger journey begins. Leading to it and adjusting it as we gain traction in the business, and from time to time, hit the ceiling – which is a normal part of a business cycle.

If you’re a business leader or owner who’s interested in topics like this, then stay tuned for one of our next posts about establishing Core Values.

P.S. If you’re a fellow EOS-run business, and you think we have some synergy in working together, then let’s connect. We’d love to learn about your business to see how we can help Tell Your Story and Grow Your Business.

The post I Never Understood the Importance of Vision appeared first on Bryce Raley.

Our family loves watching Andy Griffith episodes on Netflix. I grew up watching the reruns with my dad, uncles, and grandpa on TBS or TNT. The show never loses its nostalgia for me. In modern days, I may look to Seinfeld or The Office for my fix, but I’ll never lose my love for Andy and Barney.

I’m speaking of the old black and white episodes of course, before Barney’s exit. Andy Griffith without Barney was like The Office without Michael Scott. It worked, but it just wasn’t the same.

Given that it’s 4 degrees in Louisville, and thus Netflix season, my family has been binging on Andy again. When I watch with my kids, I love that they get a good wholesome perspective on life. I wish more shows today mimicked Andy. As Andy is teaching his lessons to Barney, Opie, Aunt Bee, Goober, Gomer, Floyd, and others, he’s also always teaching us.

Since I’ve logged a good portion of screen time watching Andy throughout my life. I thought it was worth pointing out some of Andy’s greatest lessons on leadership that have influenced me.

1. ANDY LIVED IN THE GRAY.

He rarely found black and white answers to many of the situations he encountered. I love finding black and white answers to life’s situations. Problem is, I hardly ever encounter ones that have a simple fix.

Usually, many of life’s issues live in the gray. As leaders, they require us to pause and reflect – to empathize and put ourselves in other’s shoes and show some compassion. Andy exemplified the ability to pause and reflect on each situation at hand. And how he approached them leads me to my second lesson.

2. ANDY WAS A CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVER.

Being creative problem solvers is one of our 8 Core Values here at The Squad. We have some great team members who exemplify creative problem solving. I think Andy did this about as good as anyone I’ve ever seen – fictional or in real life.

Leaders are often called to solve large and complex problems. It’s just what people look to us to do. Andy often found himself in a situation that called for this trait. Whether he was bailing out Barney, disciplining Opie, or leading Aunt Bee, he was the ultimate creative problem solver.

3. ANDY HELPED GET THE BEST OUT OF THOSE AROUND HIM.

He looked for ways to give others the credit and he created environments where others could flourish. There’s no other explanation of how one could work with characters like Floyd, Gomer, Goober, of course, Barney, and even it’s me, it’s me, it’s Ernest T.

Andy could have taken back the reins from any of the above, but he worked hard to find ways to work with them, despite their ineptness at times.

Leaders at times must take charge, and Andy did so on many occasions. But they must also let go and create a path for others to grow and develop. Leaders have to get the best from others. I always liked the quote from Ronald Reagan, “Leadership is letting someone know their breath smells, without actually telling them.”

4. ANDY WAS AS COMFORTABLE WITH DIGNITARIES AND OFFICIALS AS HE WAS WITH HIS COMMON MAN.

Andy Griffith was a humble man who didn’t see himself as more than he was. I believe that’s why he’s been such a darling for so many years. The fact that generation after generation can relate to Andy, Barney, and their little town of Mayberry is quite impressive.

Leaders must be able to relate, serve, and lead all at the same time. Andy modeled this quite well. He would jump in next to his team, advocate for the least of these, and lead with wisdom when the situation called for it. Around The Squad, we always strive to operate as Servant Leaders to our partners and to others on our team.

In the coming weeks, we’ll continue talking about things like Leadership, Vision, and Core Values. Hopefully, amidst the busyness of life and business, a nugget will stick with you and make you better tomorrow than you were today.

If there’s a topic you’d like us to address, then leave a comment below or on social and we’ll move it to the top of the content calendar.

If you’re looking to work with a marketing agency that operates by strong foundational Core Values, then look no further, here we are. Let’s start a conversation! 

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