The Martell Method w/ Dan Martell

WATCH: The Integrated Life - Can entrepreneurship and family really co-exist? I believe it can: https://youtu.be/QQmR9eXbtBM

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Six years ago, Renée and I were living in San Francisco.

I had just closed a round of funding for Clarity.fm while Renée had just co-founded a new marketing agency of her own.

Things were crazy. But they were about to get crazier ;-)

Turns out Renée was pregnant with our first son, Max… and it took a whole 3-months after Max was born for Noah to sneak into the picture.

Add it all up and our two boys are just 11-months apart.

Talk about a massive life change.

But through all the massive shifts, the ONE thing that became most important to me was to make sure, that even from such young ages, our kids would be primed for a life of continued growth.

This obsession led to a deep dive into all the latest research and findings from mindset specialists, performance coaches, sports psychologists, and parenting experts.

After six years of implementing, testing, and iterating within our own family, here are the five biggest keys we’ve discovered to raising growth-minded children.

While not a definitive ‘be all and end all”… the following five practices have proven to be tremendously powerful (and rewarding) in helping my boys grow up with a growth mindset:

1. Meditate
2. Teach a growth mindset
3. Encourage the effort
4. Recognize the journey
5. Make the words matter

One of the simplest but most powerful secrets for cultivating and sustaining a growth mindset is the art of recognizing the journey.

Credit goes to my good friend, performance coach, (and father of three,) Todd Herman.

Intense challenges and frequent setbacks are essentially a prerequisite for growth, and one of the best ways to build resilience and motivation is to frequently remind your kids to look back and appreciate how much ground they’ve already covered.

This is true whether they’re learning how to ride a bike for the first time — or building their first startup in your basement ;-)

One of the coolest “side effects” of implementing these practices with your kids, is that they have a residual effect on your own growth mindset.

Few things are more rewarding in life than growing alongside your family.

Watch the full episode to learn the four other practices that have become a core part of our day-to-day family life … and then leave a comment letting me know which ones you plan to integrate with your own kids.

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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: The Integrated Life - Can entrepreneurship and family really co-exist? I believe it can: https://youtu.be/QQmR9eXbtBM

Exclusive Download: The Weekly Sync™ Format - Run Your Weekly Team Meetings Following This Structure Easy, Fast & Productive  - http://bit.ly/2yV6PKV

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I’ve nerded out to over 1,000 business books.

Of course, there’s the *obvious* classics like Traction, Scaling Up, and Good to Great.

But there’s also this little-known, underground classic that I REFUSE to let any of my private coaching clients do without.

It’s so *under the radar* that at last count, it had a whopping total of 9 Amazon reviews (all of them 5 stars by the way…)

It’s called Extreme Revenue Growth by Victor Chang, and it’s pretty much required reading for any SaaS founder truly serious about their company’s growth.

If there’s one book you want to obsess over this month, I recommend this one takes up the prime real estate on your night table.

But for now, I wanted to share the 5 key components that can make the quickest impact on your company.

At a high level, the 5 key components of extreme revenue growth are:

1. Target a customer who’s aware of their problem
2. Promise your company makes
3. Distribution channels
4. Product that fulfills a promise
5. Sustainable competitive advantage

If you want to save yourself from years of unnecessary struggle, I suggest paying particular attention to #4.

You can have the best marketing in the world,  make the most attractive promises, and have the widest distribution channels and affiliate partners in the industry…

But if your product isn’t delivering on the big promise… you’re essentially digging your own digital grave.

But when done right, you’ll leverage what I call “viral word of mouth” or VWOM… which not only delights your customer base but creates an army of evangelists that create an amplification effect for your product.

If you don’t yet have “VWOM” working for you, you’ll want to pay special attention to how to create it.

It’s one of the single biggest factors in extreme growth — and what has allowed startups like BioTrust out of Austin to grow to over 100M+ in revenue in under 4 years.

Give the full episode a watch here and let me know in the comments which component of extreme revenue growth you’ll be focusing on in the coming weeks.

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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 Weekly Sync™ Format - Run Your Weekly Team Meetings Following This Structure Easy, Fast & Productive  - http://bit.ly/2yV6PKV

Exclusive Download: Precision Scorecard™ – Keep Your Leadership Team Focused & Accountable To Growth - http://bit.ly/2CK2azt
 
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Tell them what to do.

Check that’s been done.

Tell them what to do next.

Leadership 101 right there. A fine recipe if you want to run a mediocre company with eight or  ten B level players that constantly tap into your managerial bandwidth and cripple your capacity to achieve accelerated growth.

An outdated paradigm for any SaaS founder with more ambitious plans to scale.

For that SaaS founder, I offer a major upgrade from the “transactional leadership” approach.

One built on the ethos of empowering your team members to claim ownership over a shared vision, and remain in a ruthless, autonomous pursuit of its achievement.

The latter is called “transformational leadership” and I go into what it means and how to adopt its core principles in this week’s episode.

Upgrading to a transformational leadership model is a process I encourage EVERY founder in SaaS Academy to commit to.

While the shift requires some extra initial resources on your end (time, energy), if you commit to it, you’ll be at the helm of a more committed, self-directed, empowered, and fiercely loyal team in 6-8 months from now.

Well worth it :)

Here are the high-level steps to get you started:

1. Don’t tell them them what to do — instead, talk about outcomes you want to achieve.
2. Constantly track, measure, and report progress
3. Coach them to success

The third point will require the most discipline from you.

There will be times when it’ll feel easier to just “tell them what to do”… but by coaching them towards finding their own solutions, you’re in turn, coaching a more empowered, creative and resourceful team member — which in the long run, is a MUCH more valuable asset than someone who can simply take directions.

Watch the full episode for the deep dive, and then comment below letting me know ONE thing you plan on doing to adopt a more transformational leadership model.

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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: Precision Scorecard™ – Keep Your Leadership Team Focused & Accountable To Growth - http://bit.ly/2CK2azt

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 - http://bit.ly/2E7ddVb

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Chances are you’ve already done some work in defining your “customer avatar”.

At the very least, I feel good assuming you don’t think I’m talking about a blue space creature ;-)

But when it comes to defining and dialing in your B2B SaaS avatar…

… the rules are a bit different.

There are specific nuances that you absolutely want to pay attention to before scaling up your marketing. And since most ignore these nuances, this is usually the VERY first things I zero in on with new clients inside SaaS Academy.

Oftentimes, my recommendations feel counterintuitive and flat out painful. But the record-breaking months that stem from a hyper-focused avatar quickly soothes those wounds.

In this week’s video, I cover the 6 aspects of your perfect SaaS avatar that you need to get laser-focused on in order to start targeting your most profitable (and probable) customers.

At a high level, you’ll be defining your avatar based on:

1. Firmographics
2. Demographics
3. Technographics
4. Psychographics
5. Roles
6. Give them a name

Of the six, technographics tend to get the biggest blank stare.

If it’s new to you, don’t worry. I break down exactly what it means and how to leverage it to get a leg up on your competition in this week’s episode.

I’ll also show you a really unique way to use psychographics to accurately predict how likely a prospect is to buy. This tip alone can save you and your sales team dozens of hours on calls that are essentially DOA.

Give it a full watch here, and then let me know in the comments how you plan on optimizing your avatar.

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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 - http://bit.ly/2E7ddVb

Exclusive Download: Weekly Sync™ – Run Your Weekly Team Meetings Following This Structure Easy, Fast & Productive – http://bit.ly/2RdA8At

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We’ve all suffered through it.

The end-of-year Zoom call where the fearless founder, likely fueled by a few craft beers, starts riffing off bold projections for the upcoming year.

“We’re gonna crush it”  

“We’re gonna change the game”

“2x… 5x… 10x”

You get the idea ;-)

I’m all for setting ambitious goals, and have crazy amounts of respect for any founder audacious enough to pursue them.

But ONLY if they’re backed by a robust forecasting and tracking/reporting system that helps bridge those “BHAG’s” into reality.

Without that, you’re blowing hot air and essentially giving your team an unrealistic (and unwinnable) game.

In this week’s episode, I cover the 7 aspects of a powerful forecasting system that helps you ground ambitious goals into the day-to-day reality of your startup… while keeping your team excited and motivated to hit them.

At a high level, your forecasting system will be made up of the following:  

1. Historical Data
2. Resources
3. Work Backwards
4. Set Targets
5. Review Monthly
6. Iterate Quarterly
7. Don’t Teach Your Team to Lose

The final point is arguably the biggest difference between companies that win and those that fizzle out. Any founder can step in front of a team and declare plans to “take over the world”.

But massive goals WITHOUT the proper forecasting system are a recipe for disaster.

Reckless enthusiasm will only take you and your team so far.

At some point, those missed projections will breed a losing culture and a collective eye-roll with every new initiative you dare set.

By all means, go big. But stay real.

And implement the forecasting system in this episode to coach a winning culture that actually follows through on their plans for world domination ;-)

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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: Weekly Sync™ – Run Your Weekly Team Meetings Following This Structure Easy, Fast & Productive – http://bit.ly/2RdA8At

Exclusive Resource: Future Living™ Framework – Play a Bigger Game and Enhance the Way You Communicate Your Vision to Everyone You Interact With - http://bit.ly/2OGwDEp

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I still remember the sudden flood of texts and emails.

It was November 2013 and Google had just announced “Helpouts”.

My friends, advisors, and investors all thought it was the death knell to my company, Clarity.fm…  and thought it to be their duty to let me know.

Fresh off TWO successful exits, I was no stranger to competition and had become resilient in focusing on “me” while tuning out the noise.

But when a 100 billion dollar giant comes thumping into your backyard, you tighten up and take notice.

I had a choice.

I could wave the white flag (no thanks).

I could fight back with all I had (not my style)

Or I could lean into the 5 mindset shifts that I cover in this week’s episode.

At a high level, here are the 5 mindset shifts you need to make to deal with competition:

1. Work backward
2. Learn, don’t distract
3. You do you
4. Life supports those who support life
5. Attract what you put into the world

It took all 5 shifts to successfully overcome the Google threat.

But 2.5 years later after the announcement was made — Google abandoned the project and Clarity.fm, the undisputed leader in the space, was sold to startups.co

I didn’t “win” by outcompeting Google.

I won by “being 100% me” and staying true to my customer and their biggest needs.

And I invite you to do the same.

If you’re feeling the sting of competition, give this episode a watch, and then let me know in the comments what you plan to do to stay focused on you and your customer.

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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 Resource: Future Living™ Framework – Play a Bigger Game and Enhance the Way You Communicate Your Vision to Everyone You Interact With - http://bit.ly/2OGwDEp

Exclusive Download: Perfect Week™ Worksheet – Quickly design the most productive week ever, while working less using block time - http://bit.ly/2zV361A

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You can have the best product in the world.

The best plan in the world.

And the best team in the world.

But if *this* entrepreneurial beast rears its head in your life and business — you’ll still risk having the entire thing burn to the ground with little to no warning.

We’re talking about entrepreneurial burnout and overwhelm.

Two things that NEVER get spoken about or factored into that epic Zoom call with your team where you list out all your massive Q4 goals. Yet nothing stalls progress more than a founder (or entire team) who’s constantly running on fumes and flirting with elevated cortisol levels.

And since sidestepping burnout is SO fundamental to hitting your goals and growing your software company…

… I shot a new episode outlining the 4-Step process I personally use to get my team quickly back on track when things start to flatline.

At a high level, here’s what you’ll want to do at the FIRST sign of burnout (pro tip: don’t wait for your team members to admit they’re having trouble. Do this proactively):

1. Dump it
2. The Four D’s
3. Chunk it
4. Sequence

By dumping EVERYTHING on your list, you’ll immediately gain much needed perspective and mental/emotional distance from the stack of items. In short — you’ll empower yourself to get proactive instead of reactive.

From there, the Four D’s (which I go over in full detail in the episode)… will give you a clear action plan on how to handle each task.

You’ll watch your “to do” list shrink, get additional support/resources where needed, and feel an immediate sense of renewed excitement and energy around your MOST critical projects.

It’s not always sexy — but this is one of those ‘difference” makers that truly separate the Fortune 500’s from the footnotes ;-)

Watch the full episode here, and then drop me a comment letting me know what you plan to delegate next in your business.

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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: Perfect Week™ Worksheet – Quickly design the most productive week ever, while working less using block time - http://bit.ly/2zV361A

Exclusive Download: Weekly Sync™ – Run Your Weekly Team Meetings Following This Structure Easy, Fast & Productive - http://bit.ly/2zVnsHW

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“How’s your company doing?”

It’s a simple question.

Yet one that freezes so many SaaS founders in their tracks.

Why? They have no freakin’ clue how to answer it.

Do you mean churn?

Do you mean new leads?

Do you mean expansion revenue?

Without a clear scorecard, you don’t know what game you’re playing — and if you don’t know the game you’re playing, not only is it impossible to “win”, but you’ll burn out trying to play every game all at once.

Before I had a clear scorecard at Spheric Technologies, we were up to 16 employees and a million plus in revenue — yet I was a total wreck.

I was accountable for EVERYONE — double checking the most basic things like invoicing at 2 am… on top of my core role as CEO.

And it was all because I failed to implement a scorecard system, and delegate ownership to the right team members.

Simply put, unless you implement a Precision Scorecard™ in your company (and assign ownership to the right team members)… your growth will be severely stunted and you’ll be flirting nonstop with burnout.

In this week’s video, I give you the simplest (yet most powerful) scorecard that you can print out and implement as soon as your next team meeting.

At a high level, here are the 5 key ingredients of a killer scorecard:

1. Funnel Metrics
2. Weekly Measurement
3. Net New Numbers
4. Targets and Actuals
5. Assign Ownership

If personal (or team) motivation has ever been an issue in your company, you’ll want to pay special attention to implementing #3 on the list.

By tracking net new numbers, you literally “engineer” motivation into your scorecard, and defend against complacency.

It’s a small step (literally a few clicks on a spreadsheet) that can make a massive impact over the weeks and months.

Check out the full episode here, and let me know in the comments what changes to your scorecard you plan to make in time for your next weekly meeting.

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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: Weekly Sync™ – Run Your Weekly Team Meetings Following This Structure Easy, Fast & Productive - http://bit.ly/2zVnsHW

Exclusive Resource: Create Your Dream 100 List – Learn How to Identify The 100 People That Will Transform Your Life (Peers, Advisors & Mentors) - http://bit.ly/2y7oaR1

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“Why would they ever give me the time of day?”

“How could I possibly add value to their life?”

“How could I reach out without feeling needy, desperate, or an intrusion on their day?”

These are just a few of the excuses founders make for not reaching out to the game-changing mentor or advisor that could dramatically accelerate the growth of their business.

Instead of the “who” — they play it safer by focusing on the “how”.

It’s far easier to order the top 10 books on company culture off of Amazon than it is to personally reach out to the CEO or founder REFERENCED as the main case study in all those books.

Learning the “how” is great.

It’s a necessary part of your growth and learning as a founder.

But it’s an incremental, highly linearized “long game”… and unless it’s supplemented with the sheer magic of having the right mentor at the right time… you’re essentially giving up the possibility of any kind of exponential, hyper-accelerated growth.

I experienced this first-hand at Flowtown, where my co-founder Ethan got invited to attend the Summit Series — a gathering of some of the world’s most elite entrepreneurs.

After some resistance, Ethan finally went — and the contacts he made from that event alone helped Flowtown hit cashflow break-even.

Later on, Mark Cuban, who also came out of that “network” ended up investing in my next company, Clarity.fm.

Needless to say, I’m a huge believer in growing your network of mentors and advisors (and it’s why I’m so adamant about getting my coaching clients inside SaaS Academy to dial in their Dream 100.

But as a quick primer, I recorded this episode to show you the 4 fundamental questions you should be asking before building your “reach out” strategy.

At a high level, it comes down to these 4 questions:

1. What are your goals?
2. Who’s done this before (ideally in your city)?
3. How can you add value to this person?
4. How can you spend more time with them?

As I mentioned, I get the most resistance with #3.

Founders, especially in their early stages, have so much doubt about how they can add value to people much further along in the entrepreneurial journey.

I promise you it’s possible.

And in today’s episode I share a few specific things that you can do immediately to kick-start that process.

Give it a watch, and then let me know in the comments WHO you plan to reach out to — and what value you plan to offer. I’ll reply back with my feedback.

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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: Create Your Dream 100 List – Learn How to Identify The 100 People That Will Transform Your Life (Peers, Advisors & Mentors) - http://bit.ly/2y7oaR1

Exclusive Download: Trial Converter Campaign™ – Design You Messaging Protocols And Double Your Trial Conversions Within 3 Months - http://bit.ly/2OGzjlr

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Back when I was growing Clarity.fm, we were getting a TON of organic traffic.

At its peak, we were clocking in at over 100K unique visitors/month.

Which on the surface sounds like a number worth fist-bumping over.

Problem was…

Barely any of those visitors were actually converting into free accounts or paid calls.

About 2% to be exact.

(I can’t believe I thought that was OK)

And it’s not like the leads were bad either.

Problem was, our conversion process was broken, and our homepage was acting as sign up repellant.

That’s when we dove deep and made a few tweaks that eventually brought up our visitor conversion rate to 20%.

In this week’s video, I share the 5 key strategies you need to start implementing to convert more visitors into trial users… and get better ROI on your inbound efforts.

At a glance, here are the six strategies your visitors are practically *begging* you to implement:

1. Know your customer
2. Trustworthy landing page
3. Offer live chat
4. Lead magnets
5. Mix up the content
6. Collect feedback

All five strategies are non-negotiable —  you must start implementing now!

And if you aren’t already doing so, collecting feedback gets an immediate bump up the priority list.

The way I see it is this — either you’re winning or you’re learning.

If you’re letting visitors bounce without getting at least some sort of hint as to the friction they’re experiencing…

… then not only are you NOT converting… but you’re robbing yourself of your BEST shot at climbing out of your conversion hole.

It’s one thing to leave money on the table.

It’s another to fail to cash it in for valuable insights.

Give the full episode a watch here, and then let me know what initiatives you’re currently working on to convert more visitors into trial signups (or demos).

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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™ – Design You Messaging Protocols And Double Your Trial Conversions Within 3 Months - http://bit.ly/2OGzjlr