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RESOURCE OF THE MONTH
Up Your Game With
Numerous times over the last few years, I’ve told my team that I’m not the CEO to lead our company 12 months from now, but that I am committed to becoming that CEO. To do this, I read nine books a quarter, am in two mastermind groups, and attend numerous conferences each year. Educating yourself as the leader is even more important the faster you want to scale up. SET THE VISION. It is your job to set the vision for the company. What will this company be like three years, five years, and 10 years from now? What new products or strategies will you develop? How will the culture be at your company 12 months from now? You have to set the vision for the future of the business. This task can’t be delegated. If you aren’t on board and leading the charge, the company will go nowhere fast, which is why you have to spend time setting and managing the long term (three- to 10-year) vision for the company. CREATE THE STRATEGY. As CEO, you have to help develop the strategy to make the vision become a reality. You don’t have to be an expert in all areas that require strategy, but you need to be involved in the planning or approval process for any areas that affect the overall long-term vision of the company. This can include items like goal setting, culture, sales and marketing, etc. WATCH YOUR CASH. Your job as CEO is to make sure you never run out of money. This may seem like a no-brainer, but so few people truly have a handle on the financials of their business. Even if you have a CFO, it is still your job to make sure you never run out of cash. The remaining 20 percent of your month can be spent on the day-to-day work of the business, or on being the celebrity. It can be spent hanging with the team or creating content. But the more you can live and manage the above four areas, the faster you will grow and, in most cases, the happier you’ll be.
walk away at any time. There are a few things they won’t handle, like original logos, your monthly print newsletter (that’s where we come in!), and web design. But for almost everything else, they’re a fantastic go-to. This opportunity means several things. First, you can up your design game . The fact is, design matters a lot, and people are really good at spotting bad design. They might not know how to fix it, but you can bet they’ll laugh or say something to a friend. You’ve probably done something like this yourself at one point or another. Would you like to be the business that’s getting laughed at? Of course not!
As business owners, we have a real need for good design. We need posters for events, flyers to distribute at conferences, and infographics for the website. All of these require professional design if we’re going to be taken seriously. But do these needs justify hiring a full-time graphic designer at $2,000 a month or more? Enter Design Pickle, a company that can take care of those needs for less than $400 a month. For that money, you’ll get a dedicated designer and account manager and unlimited design requests and revisions. No hourly billing. No “changing scope” or other shenanigans. And no contract; you can
On the Road with ALICIANEU
Alicia has been with us since 2014, and that means she’s ridden the roller coaster of growth. We sat down with her to talk about changes big and small. “The Newsletter Pro went from 20-ish people when I started to 60-ish now, which is a lot of growth,” Alicia says. In that time we’ve also moved office buildings, shifted goals, and reorganized the company completely. “The processes and systems changes are the biggest ones,” says Alicia, quickly adding, “for the better. We’ve changed how we handle business, and that’s led to improved efficiency on all fronts.” As one of the best project managers at the company, that improved efficiency
has helped Alicia tackle more projects and lead her team through transitions.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and Alicia is tendering her resignation this fall to fulfill a longtime dream: a doctorate in clinical psychology at George Fox University. Alicia says, “I read the book "Sybil" when I was 12, and by 17 I had the path to my career in psychology all mapped out.” Alicia visited the school four years ago and is excited to take the plunge into this new venture at a prestigious institution. “My husband, Austin, and I are moving to Portland, and we’re very excited.” And while she can’t verbalize it herself, Alicia assures us her dog, Athena, is also thrilled.
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