The Martell Method w/ Dan Martell

Ever noticed my black wedding ring? Want to know a secret about it?

It’s electronic (made by Oura).

It measures a lot of cool stuff about my body, including my sleep.

I didn’t care about sleep for YEARS. It wasn’t until I had kids (aka: human alarm clocks) that I had to dial in my routine and structure.

As soon as I started measuring my sleep, I knew I wanted to manage it better and get more from it.

I wanted a world-class sleep every night.

I met with biohackers and sleep nerds who’ve performed countless studies on what makes sleep great. I read their books, ran my experiments and tuned my body to maximize sleep.

Now I fall asleep almost instantly and get a sleep quality score of 93 / 94 most nights.

My 8-hours each night is so restful that I know I get WAY more out of each day. I’m sharper, more focused, and have clarity of mind. 

I recommend all entrepreneurs improve their sleep.

I don’t expect you to go to the lengths I have. I know it’s not for everyone… but I have some strong opinions on sleep and want to share the short version with you.

If you want to get a quick improvement without all the experimenting, then here it is.

Here are the 6 deep-sleep tips for you that I outline in this video.

Daily Dumps (Hilarious name, I know… but stick with me!)
Early To bed
Cold Room
Ramp Down
Black Out
No Consumption ← The truth hurts…

I’m no stranger to stress. I bet you aren’t either.

Running your own software business is guaranteed to have stressful moments. 

But wouldn’t you be a better leader and grow a stronger company if you slept well every night, and could face the stress of each day fully energized?

Just try it.

Don’t believe the myth that you have to run on 4 hours of sleep per night because “there’s too much to do in 24 hours”.

In this video, I mention lots of resources, apps, devices and experts for improving your sleep. I’ve put all of those together into a resource pack for you too.

Although I recommend you start by checking out the video, the resource list is right here when you need it.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

How To Get To Sleep When Your Mind Is Racing: https://youtu.be/4mQx5WHN2b4
Oura Ring: https://ouraring.com/
SleepStream 2: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sleepstream-2/id432771824
Sleep Master Sleep Mask: https://amzn.to/2MefgYK

Exclusive Download: Funding Options Evaluator™ – Evaluate The 6 Models and 11 Sources Available to Fund Your SaaS Business Without Giving Up Valuable Equity - https://bit.ly/2XvvRfR

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If I took the pain of early-stage software founders and boiled it down into one question, it’s this:

“How do I fund my software business without giving up ownership?”

Although I don’t believe that money solves everything, I know that it helps.

With enough funding, you can:

- Hire talented staff
- Outsource your problems to agencies
- Invest in ads and marketing funnels
- Survive any harsh drops in the market

All of that sounds like a dream for SaaS founders trying to grow their business.

But thinking “If only we had the money” can easily walk you straight into a trap: 

Selling too much equity.

Equity is the #1 most VALUABLE thing you have in your company, and you want to protect that rather than giving it away for a quick cash injection.

If you want to successfully exit your company in the future, then the equity you’ve lost can strip you of millions of dollars from that final sale to new owners.

The good news is that there are non-dilutive funding options available.

That means you don’t have to sell a percentage of your company, but you still get the cash to grow and scale your business.

If you can pull it off, that is 100% the way to go. It’s a win-win.

But evaluating your SaaS funding options can be overwhelming… So in this video, I’ll show you how to figure out the best way to secure money while protecting your company.

- Examine Your Exit
- Map Growth Engine ← This is critical.
- Evaluate Options
- Calculate The Cost
- Lock It In

I get to coach some of the fastest growing entrepreneurs and businesses who want to spend money to make money. 

If you can turn $1 into $3 in a short enough period, then you’re ready to SCALE. 

But you’ve still got to get the money to spend in the first place.

One of my coaching clients, Mark, had grown his SaaS to $1M ARR and wanted some extra funding without giving up a chunk of his company. He secured $750k in non-dilutive funding.

So what did he do then?

You bet he poured that cash into the SaaS growth engine and revved it up!

That’s the value of getting your funding sources right: you can maximize your growth AND retain ownership as you do.

Tune in here to check out the video and if you have any questions, leave me a comment.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: Funding Options Evaluator™ – Evaluate The 6 Models and 11 Sources Available to Fund Your SaaS Business Without Giving Up Valuable Equity - https://bit.ly/2XvvRfR

Exclusive Download: Challenge Funnel Hook™ – Craft The Ultimate Name For Your Challenge To Attract Your Perfect Fit Customers - https://bit.ly/2Ze37L1

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If you’re looking for growth hacks ripe for a SaaS business, then you need to see this.

I’m going to show you a powerful strategy that will help you achieve 3 things:

1. Increase your lead generation
2. Boost customer activation (making them engage with your software)
3. Reduce your churn rate

…all while you make more sales.

Don’t believe me?

Alright, you twisted my arm…

Here are some numbers that prove it:

I have coaching clients that are using this exact strategy to gain 1200 new leads PER WEEK, reduce their churn by 30%, and double their activation rate.

The growth hack I’m going to show you is a Marketing Challenge Funnel.

If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry.

In this week’s video, I’m going to explain exactly what it is and how you can create one that will attract your perfect customers.

5 qualities make a Marketing Challenge Funnel kick-ass:

It Drives Adoption
Bitesize Bridge
Stack Offer & Upsell
Engage Cohort
Bolt On Funnel

Once you create the ideal Marketing Challenge Funnel for your SaaS product, you can reap HUGE benefits. 

I’m talking massive ROI for the time you spend creating the funnel.

But… the catch is that you’ve got to make it work for your product. 

You can’t just throw together a “near enough is good enough” challenge or else it isn’t going to move the needle on any of your vital metrics.

That’s why I wanted to create this video. If you apply this strategy and nail your Marketing Challenge Funnel… it’s virtually impossible not to see results.

As always, I love hearing your thoughts on my strategies so drop a comment and let me know what challenge you’re going to make.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: Challenge Funnel Hook™ – Craft The Ultimate Name For Your Challenge To Attract Your Perfect Fit Customers - https://bit.ly/2Ze37L1

Exclusive Download: Agency Amplifier™ – How To Manage An Agency Without Wasting Your Money & Make Sure They Deliver Results Every Week – https://bit.ly/3cock7i 

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I’ve seen it too many times…

Agencies that screw a business like yours out of your hard-earned cash.

You hire an agency wanting quick results but end up with a hole in your bank account and a laughable ROI to show for it.

Whenever I see this, I don’t blame the agency. 

I blame the business that hired them.


Harsh? Yes. 

But it’s true.

Agencies can get you GREAT results (and I’ve worked with many over the years)…

…but ONLY IF you work with them to get those results!

If you are going to hire an agency, whether it’s for SEO, digital marketing, content creation, or any of the thousand types of agencies…

Promise me one thing: 

You’ll take responsibility for getting what you need out of them.

I’ve seen great agencies deliver incredible results for one business owner… followed by poor results for another.

The agency didn’t change. So what did? The client. (That’s you!)

Just like any of your employees, you need to manage your relationship with an agency.

After seeing a few businesses getting crippled by this recently, I decided it was time to shoot a new video on how to maximize output from working with an agency.

Just by following these 5 points, you’ll pay an agency the same but get 300% better results:

- The Goods 
- Baseline Metrics
- Meeting Rhythm (it makes a huge impact)
- Resource Project
- D.R.I. (learned by Steve Jobs)

Once you get a good system for working with agencies, you can hire them whenever you need them and drop them when you don’t.

It’ll make it easy to try new business strategies or pivot your brand quickly.

No fussing around with interviewing each employee.

Agencies are one of the keys to quick, flexible growth with your SaaS.

But you cannot expect to drop a bucket load of money into their account, disappear for a few months, and then see a massive boost in your business growth. It just won’t happen.

Hope this video helps you next time you work with an agency. Got any agency horror stories to share? Let me know in the comments on the video here.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: Agency Amplifier™ – How To Manage An Agency Without Wasting Your Money & Make Sure They Deliver Results Every Week – https://bit.ly/3cock7i 

It’s a gift… and a curse…

I bet you have it too. 

You can’t get your mind off of it, can’t shut it down.

You wouldn’t be an entrepreneur if you didn’t have it…

What is it?

The Entrepreneurial Muscle.

It’s that thing that makes you analyze businesses wherever you see them, that makes you criticize marketing material every day.

You do cost-vs-revenue math in the supermarket aisle… count seats in the airplane and multiply by ticket cost… try to predict the next tech trend around the corner…

It’s impossible to switch it off!

Here’s my tip for you this week: Train that muscle!

I guarantee you’ve seen a business solution before that made you say: “Why didn’t I think of that?!”

Well, the entrepreneur that had that idea… they trained this muscle.

The stronger that muscle, the easier it will be for you to:

Find business ideas
Rapidly improve them
Innovate

So, I’m going to take you to the mental-gym today and we’re going to lift some entrepreneurial weights. Cool?|

Play the episode and let’s get started.

Here are the 3 things I’m going to hit you with:

Frustration List – Start one today
Idea Machine – Crank up the RPM
Gratefully Driven – The mindset you need

At its heart, entrepreneurship is about creating.

It’s about identifying problems that need solving and being resourceful in assembling solutions to fix that problem.

Every billion-dollar business was once just an idea in someone’s head.

The next one could be yours.

Drop me a comment and let me know how you’re going to keep flexing that muscle.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

WATCH: 
How to Start a Business: https://youtu.be/wtez3RuBh8E
The 5 Most Profitable Business Ideas That You Can Start in 2020: https://youtu.be/1LLou9c2dgo
How To Find Pains That Lead to Rapid-Growth SaaS Solutions: https://youtu.be/0jjL3ZDpkxc
How To Come Up With Your Winning Business Idea: https://youtu.be/0Ul4aUS1dxQ

Exclusive Download: The Business Playbook Templates – Easily create a business playbook to free up time, deliver consistent work and train your team - https://bit.ly/2VFB4BR

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Over 10 years ago, I nearly had a breakdown that cost me my engagement to my fiancée.

So, what happened? 

I was working waaaaay too much. I was afraid that if I didn’t pull 70 – 80+ hour weeks, my business would come crashing down.

In reality, I sucked at hiring people.

That’s all it was.

I didn’t know how to assess my business and identify the areas that needed the most support, areas that I could hire people to fill.

But once I eventually learned that skill? It turned everything around.

I cannot emphasize this enough:

If you want to grow your business, learn how to hire your way out of problems.

You won’t grow if you can’t get this right.

I’ve got a video for you on exactly how to find the next person you NEED to hire in your business.

This is my original take on the problem, backed by my own experiences, studies and observations from my high-level coaching clients.

Pay attention to these 5 in the video:

1. Time Study ← It’ll help with more than just hiring
2. Hire An Assistant
3. One Thing
4. Avoid Pain
5. Value & Energy

I’ve encountered businesses that keep hiring new people… but fail to fix their biggest problems.

Every time you hire someone new, it should be based on a thorough assessment.

You need to hire the people that make a difference, and not those that won’t.

I regularly meet with a group of high-level software founders. Everyone in the group is running a $10M+ ARR business. Big companies… with big problems.

Their ability to identify a bottleneck in business and quickly fill it can cost them millions. 

As a group, this is one of the strategies that we focus on most.

If you’re not at $10 million a year, don’t panic – that’s the point of this video, to bring those high-level insights to you.

Check it out here and drop me a comment letting me know:

Who would you hire next? And why?

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: The Business Playbook Templates – Easily create a business playbook to free up time, deliver consistent work and train your team - https://bit.ly/2VFB4BR

Exclusive Download: High Tempo Testing™ – Define a Solid North Star Metric & Identify Experiments Worth Running That Drive You Closer To Predictable Growth - https://bit.ly/2VBLWPW

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Alright…

Time to let the cat out of the bag:

I’m a huge Elon Musk fan. Not because he’s in the limelight most weeks, but because of how he thinks about business.

Elon thinks laterally. 

He comes at business problems from obscure angles and I think that’s the secret behind his genius.

If you could apply even one-tenth of his innovation to your business, you’ll leave your competition in the dust and future-proof your growth.

That’s what I want to give you in this week’s video.

I’ve read almost everything that has ever been published on Elon just to extract the valuable business lessons that I can coach my clients with.

Now I’ve distilled it down to 5 major components of Elon’s business mastery. 

These are the things you can use in your strategic thinking, planning and behavior in business. Here we go:

Vector Alignment 
First Principles ← You need this. Really, we all do.
Build the Machine
Hire The Best
Market-Driven Innovation

Do you remember those lateral thinking games? For some strange reason, they were popular in the late 90s. 

It was usually a puzzle, riddle or problem that you could only solve if you abandoned a traditional approach to logic and thought outside of the box.

That’s what Elon does.

He’s easily one of the most innovative minds of our time and there’s so much we can learn from him that applies to business.

I was fortunate enough to meet Elon only briefly when I was catching up with one of my early mentors, Bill. 

(If you’ve heard Elon’s famous quote: “Being an entrepreneur is like chewing glass and staring into the abyss”… he actually got that from Bill!)

Beyond that, I’ve just found his mind to be fascinating and I hope this video inspires you too.

Anything else to add to my 5 points? Drop a comment on the video and let me know.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: High Tempo Testing™ – Define a Solid North Star Metric & Identify Experiments Worth Running That Drive You Closer To Predictable Growth - https://bit.ly/2VBLWPW

Exclusive Download: Top Books For Transforming The Entrepreneur’s Life – Carefully Curated List From Over 1000+ Books and Almost 20 Years of Reading - https://bit.ly/2wAt4Zn

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When I was 26 years old, my company Spheric was growing steadily. 

We were doing about $2.5 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), with about 16 employees.

But… I felt suffocated.

I was struggling to cope with the daily challenges that came with business, so I reached out to a mentor for help. 

The first thing he did? He asked about my routines.

What was I doing every day? Every week? Every month?

I hadn’t really thought about it. I just worked as hard as I could.

But he opened my eyes to my habits and I began to experiment with optimizing my daily routines.

Whoa… What a difference it made!

I began to restructure and create a balanced and healthy life that could sustain the high demands of the work I was doing.

Since then, I’ve had the privilege of hanging out with 100’s of other millionaires and I discovered that we all have similar morning routines.

I’d even say that if you want to live a bigger life and have more success… start by changing your mornings.

Here’s my routine, why I do it this way, and how it helps me perform better. You’re welcome to borrow it.

I’m serious about this. If you make these changes starting today, your life will change for the better. It’s impossible not to.

These are the 8 that I insist upon:

1. Drink
2. Meditate
3. Affirmations (you’ll feel strange at first but it works)
4. Goals
5. Gratitude
6. Visualize
7. Read
8. Move

If I had a poor morning routine, I don’t think I’d be able to do what I do.

You just can’t tackle daily business problems without a clear mind. It’s all about giving yourself the opportunity to be your best.

Work with yourself, not against yourself.

I swear, morning routines are so important that it’s a hot topic amongst millionaires. We read books about this stuff. For good reason.

You can steal my morning routine, I don’t mind.

The key is to have one.

If you want more examples and some great books on the topic written by millionaires checkout:

1. Morning Miracle by Hal Elrod
2. 5AM Club by Robin Sharma
3. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: Top Books For Transforming The Entrepreneur’s Life – Carefully Curated List From Over 1000+ Books and Almost 20 Years of Reading - https://bit.ly/2wAt4Zn

Exclusive Download: Trial Converter Campaign™ – Never lose trial customers & learn how to activate them as revenue generating clients for your business - https://bit.ly/3bXQOW6

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Does your product have a hook?

I mean, a value hook. 

The hook is when someone can see exactly who your product is for and why it’s valuable. These product hooks get stuck in your customer’s minds like a jingle to a catchy song. 

It’s what makes them say “Oh, I get it”. 

But the way you make (or sharpen) your hook is called positioning.

Positioning is the message you take to market, how you describe what you do, and what you front-load and communicate FIRST so people can understand the value of your product.

Even the best SaaS product can fail to scale if you don’t nail your positioning.

When I launched Clarity.fm, I wasn’t clear about our positioning at all. We created a call system but we didn’t know our hook.

Until I spoke to Omar.

Omar was a customer of Clarity.fm that spent $9000 in a single day. I got him on the phone to ask why… and he immediately described how our product was perfect for him.

He was a growth-minded entrepreneur who would prefer to spend thousands of dollars to speak directly with experts that could solve his problem than to travel to conferences in the hopes of meeting them.

Boom.

That was our hook.

We rebranded Clarity.fm for entrepreneurs seeking business advice from experts and our growth tripled.

Same call technology, same SaaS… but new positioning. 

Finally, we had a hook. And everything changed.

If your SaaS isn’t growing as fast as you want it to, you’ve got to go back to basics and get your positioning right. 

I’ve recorded a video with the 6 components to consider when positioning your product. Take the time to watch it. This is the strategy that makes massive growth possible.

This video is inspired by April Dunford’s amazing book Obviously Awesome, where she presents these 6 components:

1. Competitive Alternatives
2. Unique Attributes
3. Value
4. Target Market Characteristics
5. Market Category
6. Relevant Trends

It’s an awesome book (see what I did there?), and I highly recommend it. 

It wasn’t specifically written for SaaS founders which is why I made this video.

But that’s what I love about business strategy. It transcends product formats.

Whether you are selling physical products, services or web-based software, a product will always sell better if you have a great hook.

Enjoy the video, and drop me a comment below if you find it resonates with you.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: Trial Converter Campaign™ – Never lose trial customers & learn how to activate them as revenue generating clients for your business - https://bit.ly/3bXQOW6

Exclusive Download: The Rocket Demo Builder™Never give a boring software demo again and close up to TWICE as many deals by this time next week - https://bit.ly/2wPzdAR

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At 17 years old, I learned to code. It was the skill that helped me out of a pretty dark place, and I actually got pretty good at it. 

But after 10 years of writing code for my own companies, I had to confront a difficult truth: 

I was the bottleneck in my own company.

I realised that writing code wasn’t enough. I had to be a leader. I had to learn how to hire, train, retain and manage different teams.

Including sales people.

Over the years, I’ve had to hire and work with lots of sales teams for myself and for other companies that I’ve helped including Udemy, ClickFunnels, Proposify and Carrot.

These were companies that grew fast.

It became 100% necessary to ramp up new sales people as quickly as possible so they could be closing deals ASAP.

In a B2B business, your sales teams are THE people who turn your product into revenue. They are the voice of your business and convince new customers to sign up.

So if you could create an environment that onboards new hires and gets them closing deals sooner… You’ll directly affect your bottom line.

After years of experience and consulting in this field, I’ve made a video with the exact strategies I use with my coaching clients to get new sales people selling more and selling sooner.

Even if you have a sales team you can trust, I recommend you hear these 4 strategies:

1. Filter ← the questions you need to ask first
2. Training
3. Measure (Got your benchmarks?)
4. Coaching

I can now get a new sales rep up to 80% of a sales quota within 60 days of hiring… or less.

I’ve even seen 60% win rates on sales calls executed by brand new sales teams.

That’s the value of a good system.

It means I can safely know that my entire team could fall apart and I could have a new team converting customers less than 2 months later.

Don’t be the bottleneck in your business.

Become the leader you need to be and your business will grow.

Got any questions? Would love it if you left me a comment on the video here.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: The Rocket Demo Builder™Never give a boring software demo again and close up to TWICE as many deals by this time next week - https://bit.ly/2wPzdAR