The Newsletter Pro October 2018

#120 in the 2015 and #343 in the 2016 INC. 500 | 2016, 2017, & 2018 Best Place to Work in Idaho | Marketer of the Year | 24K Club Winner

10.18 208.297.5700 www.thenewsletterpro.com

As Seen On:

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

PAGE 3

Marketing Lies That Are Hurting Your Business

PAGE 4

What Sklar Technology Partners Has to Say About Us Are You Using the Right Bait to Catch Leads? Jim Collins Charts the Path to Greatness USPS vs. Online Marketing How to Craft Emails That Clients Will Actually Read

PAGE 6

FROMBUSINESSOWNER WILL YOU MAKE IT? TO CEO

PAGE 7

Get to Know Maggie Thompson Proof Eyewear Sets a New Standard

PAGE 8

There is a massive difference between being a business owner and being the CEO of your company. At some point, you have to make the transition, or your growth will stall. The reality is that anyone can be a business owner. For years, that’s exactly what I was. I had a number of small businesses that relied heavily on my involvement. If someone called in sick, I was up. Something broken? Call Shaun. If a decision needed to be made, no matter how big or small, everyone knew who to call. If we needed a plan or a new system, good news: That was my responsibility as well. Can you relate?

With 26 million businesses in the U.S. alone, you really are in an elite group of entrepreneurs if you hit any of the above milestones. But revenue alone doesn’t mean you’ve made the transition from business owner to CEO. To make the transition, you need a skill set that is not taught by many. You need systems and processes for running a business. For example, I used to have a 60 percent success rate with new hires, meaning that for each person I hired, only 60 percent of them would still work for me in six months. It was much worse when we looked at the employee retention rate 12 months after they were hired.

You may even blow up at them from time to time. You hope they’ll get the message, but no matter how many times you get pissed, they never seem to pick up what you’re putting down. Finally, you’ve had enough, and you bring them into your office and proceed to laundry-list all the things they’ve done wrong over the last few months. You can feel your blood pressure rising as you list dumb mistake after dumb mistake they’ve been making. Seriously, how could they not know these basic things? The employee might fight back a little, but ultimately, they feel so bad about themselves that they start to cry, and that’s when you let the hammer drop and tell them they’re fired. They shrink into their seat. As they sit there crying, you feel super guilty. This is a small office, and you know they’re a single mom with zero savings. As the guilt of firing them kicks in, you need to remind yourself why you’re firing them, so you share with them a few more areas where they’ve messed up, done a poor job, violated unwritten company policies, and cost you money.

This is how nearly all businesses start and end: with the business owner doing it all.

My crap abilities at hiring meant I had to use another skill I sucked at: firing people.

Because of this reliance on the business owner, you get to a point where the business stalls. This inability to transition from business owner to CEO is why only 4 percent of businesses ever make it to a revenue of a million dollars or more, less than 0.5 percent of businesses ever get to $5 million in revenue, and 0.1 percent of businesses grow to $10 million and above.

Tell me, have you ever had this experience?

You have an employee who isn’t cutting it. They are frustrating you on a regular basis, you start to lash out with your comments, and basically, any minor mistake made by this person can put you in a bad mood.

Continued on page 2 ...

1

www.thenewsletterpro.com

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.

208.297.5700

... COVER CONTINUED Ultimately, you walk them to their desk to pack up their stuff in front of everyone else in the company. You stand there wishing they would hurry up because the whole company is staring. Of course, this single mom is a sympathetic figure, and everyone in the company is now upset and fearful of losing their jobs. After this single mom leaves, you call a company meeting to let your staff know why this single mom no longer works here. Your reasons are 100 percent valid for firing her, but guilt over the situation is starting to kick in, and now, in front of the whole company, you proceed to bad-mouth the single mom and laundry-list all the reasons that she deserved to be fired. The sad truth about the above situation is that I’ve done this. Yup, that is based on a true story. I was once the business owner who operated just like this. It’s embarrassing, but it is the truth, and if I still operated like this, our company would be a fraction of the size it is today. Our employees would never have voted us one of the best places to work in Idaho for three years in a row. To make the transition from business owner to CEO, you have to change. You have to grow. It isn’t about sales and marketing. It is all about you figuring out how to create systems and processes. It is about you developing the skills necessary to hire and fire someone without a 40 percent failure rate or the drama I detailed above. You’ll struggle to get to a million dollars in sales without at least starting the transition process, and unless you’re venture-backed and have money to burn, you’ll never get to $3 million, $5 million, or $10 million in revenue. “It isn’t about SALES AND MARKETING. It is all about you FIGURING OUT how to create SYSTEMS and PROCESSES.” Did I get close?

It’s amazing how much has to change as you scale. Recently I had to hire a CFO. A few years ago, that seemed like the last position I’d need, but here I am. The honest truth about this hire is that I needed to do it a year ago but was blind to that fact for two reasons. One was a lack of experience in hiring a CFO. The second was the fact that I’m really good with numbers and had a good handle on the basics for longer than many owners would have, but they still got away from me. So, I’ve got some more questions for you. Do you really want to grow and scale? Do you want to go from business owner to CEO? If you’ve already started making that transition, do you want to improve your skills? If you want to make this transition or shortcut your journey, I have a small training I’m holding in my office on Oct. 25 and 26. The first day of the training, we’ll go over some of the most important systems and processes you need in order to start or continue your transition from business owner to CEO. On the second day, we’ll talk about what is working in sales and marketing right now. I’ll show you real ways (no theory here) to close more deals and generate more leads. These two days If not, that’s okay. Own the decision and ignore the rest of this article.

are going to be jampacked with content. You don’t want to miss them.

Now, I have one piece of bad news. I only have about 20 spots in my conference room for this training. As of this writing, a dozen of the tickets are already sold, so it is possible this training will be sold out by the time you get this. On the off chance it isn’t, and you want to come, you need to register right now because I guarantee we will be close to sold out. Go to NewsletterPro.com/scaleup.

–Shaun

P.S. If we are sold out, I do have a few spots left in my mastermind. Go to NewsletterPro.com/apply and we can jump on a quick call to see if the mastermind is a good fit.

2

www.thenewsletterpro.com

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.

208.297.5700

MARKETING LIES BUSINESS HOW-TO THAT ARE HURTING YOUR BUSINESS

We have to have some real talk here. For YEARS, we’ve been told direct response marketing is all you need. We’ve been told that if you can’t measure it down to the penny, you shouldn’t do it.

I can’t measure the impact my videos have on speeding up a sale or know 100 percent for sure that new lead did or didn’t come from a single video, but I know that when someone starts quoting me from a video I made, they’re very likely going to become a customer — or at least a fan. I can’t 100 percent track the impact each newsletter I send has on retention, referrals, and new sales, but I know that when I’m even one week late sending out my newsletter (that doesn’t happen anymore, but a few years ago, it happened all the time), my sales are down that week. I do know that every time the newsletter hits and I’m promoting our Tesla contest, I get new leads. I know that without the relationship building the newsletter provides, my churn is higher. But maybe I should stop sending it? According to Tony Robbins, it now takes an average of 16 touches before someone will even think about buying from you — 16 times! But if the first touch doesn’t work, let’s give up. If they don’t buy right away, our marketing is broken or the media doesn’t work. The funny thing is that we have so many more tools now to track, yet tracking is more difficult than ever. Have you ever wondered why that is? There is so much competition for our attention. For example, I’m trying to get your attention with this newsletter, but I don’t just want your attention here for 10–20 minutes. I also want you to subscribe to my podcast so we can chat weekly. (Seriously, though, it’s an awesome podcast: ShaunBuck.com/podcast.) I also want to engage with you at another time in the week via the Weekend Reading emails. Heck, I’d love for you to come to Boise for my sales and marketing bootcamp. (There may or may not be seats left by the time this publishes, but here is a link, just in case: NewsletterPro.com/scaleup.) We don’t live in the same marketing world anymore, and we have to stop acting like we do.

Let’s look at it another way. Have you ever wondered how a company that has zero revenue can be worth tens of millions? It all comes down to attention. Right now, attention is the most valuable asset on the planet. You can have a million eyeballs, no revenue to speak of, and still be worth tens of millions of dollars. Stores track average time in store; they discovered forever ago that the longer you’re in the store, the more you buy. Websites have found that the more times you log on and the more time you spend on the site, the more valuable you are, even if they haven’t figured out how to monetize you yet. In real-world businesses like yours and mine, the more attention you have, the more time you spend with customers and prospects. And the more celebrity or expert status you can create in their eyes, the more money you’ll make. This is also why churn is such an important number; the lower the churn and the longer you have someone’s attention, the more valuable they are to the company. I’ve often been asked why I use newsletters and why I prefer print over email. It’s simple. With print, I can get the average person to read for 10–15 minutes; with email, I get eight seconds. With print, I can lower churn; with email, I actually decrease how much people trust me, according to numerous studies I’ve read. Why print over email? Because that is what works to get people’s attention. If it ever shifts, I will cheerfully shift with it. I’ll leave you with this advice: Stop fighting against the change and start working with it. You need people’s attention and time, so focus on media that gets you that. Need help finding a reputable vendor for whatever media you’re planning on adding? Email me. If I know one, I’ll get you their name and number. Shaun.Buck@thenewsletterpro.com –Shaun

Well, that’s simply bad advice today.

When we were talking only about newspaper ads, radio, and yellow pages, that was good advice. Today, that advice is business suicide. The reality is that you can’t measure it all. Even if you could, the measuring of all media would be a full-time job. The testing would be brutal and very slow going.

Here is the reality of the world we live in today.

I can’t measure the impact of good reviews, but I still do marketing to get them, and I know for sure they help. I also know bad ones hurt. I can’t measure the impact of much of my social media, but I know people look me up on it and that if I didn’t have any social media, I’d lose business. Yes, I know you can measure paid ads. Can you measure the click fraud, though? I can’t measure the exact impact of each email and each direct mail piece in my nurture campaigns (I think there are 40 or 50 steps now), but I know I close less business without them. According to the advice being given today by many “gurus,” I should stop those campaigns, since I can’t 100 percent track that ROI. That is crazy talk and bad advice.

3

www.thenewsletterpro.com

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.

208.297.5700

MARKETING HOW-TO

CLIENT SUCCESS

Something That Works A DIGITAL EXPERT TALKS PRINT MEDIA There are two things every business should have: a podcast and a newsletter. It took me a little while to get on the newsletter train, but I’ve been working with The Newsletter Pro for going on three years, and I’ve never regretted it. People might ask, “Why does a data security company have a print newsletter?” Well, because it works. And not only does the newsletter work, it works for both retention and referrals. We certainly send out emails and do digital marketing too, but what I love about the newsletter is that you know it’s getting into your clients’ hands. They can’t delete it or unsubscribe with a click. The newsletter is on their desk. Since people have to at least pick it up if they want to throw it away, they might as well open it up and read it! And people really are reading our newsletter. I get feedback all the time from people who have questions about a cyberattack they read about in my newsletter or who just want to tell me they loved the annual gift suggestion article we put out in December. Just recently, I had a meeting with a prospective client whose first contact with Sklar Technology was through our monthly newsletter. In regard to the process itself, what I like most is that The Newsletter Pro manages the whole thing. Their schedule guarantees consistency, which is so important in marketing. I do my own podcast, and there have been times when I’ve gone for three weeks without being able to upload a new episode. That never happens with my newsletter. My writer calls me, we chat about my articles for a bit, my project manager keeps it on schedule, and my clients get my newsletter in their hands each month like clockwork. The Newsletter Pro takes care of everything, and it’s not that much of a time investment. It’s an hour max every couple of weeks, and your clients never forget who you are. Thanks to the newsletter, my clients don’t look up my competitor first when they have a problem. Plus, when I call to invite clients to an event, I’m not cold calling. They’ve been reading the newsletter, they know exactly who I am, and our events see high attendance as a result. With the newsletter, our retention is up, we’re getting more responses from clients when we reach out, and the FSIs are a successful conversion tool. Plus, I think it’s fun. When you find something that works like the newsletter, why wouldn’t you have one?

I often talk about what to do with leads once you have them — how to close and convert more leads to sales. I sometimes even go into relationship-building strategies with a newsletter or other media. But what about simply getting more leads? Make Sure You’re Using the Right Bait!

OUR BOOKSHELF

Take Your Company

With Jim Collins’ Award-Winning Book In the August edition of our newsletter, we discussed Jim Collins’ latest book, “Great by Choice,” and the lessons it offers leaders looking to thrive in the face of chaos. But entrepreneurs with sound business knowledge and finely honed leadership skills may still struggle to grow their business. If you’re an accomplished small-business owner looking to take the leap to the big leagues, consider picking up a copy of Collins’ magnum opus, “Good to Great.” A titan in both business and intellectual circles, best-selling author Jim Collins should need little introduction. He’s an alumnus and former faculty member of the Stanford School of Business and built his reputation using painstaking market research to reshape our fundamental understanding of how businesses succeed. “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t” is a book with a singular purpose. As the name suggests, Collins’ most famous work is laser-focused on how good businesses ascend to become household names. Rather than rely on personal anecdotes or popular wisdom, “Good to Great” uses years of research spent pouring over the history of hundreds of elite companies to deliver tangible advice with machine precision. FROM ‘GOOD TO GREAT’

– Randy Sklar Sklar Technology Partners

4

www.thenewsletterpro.com

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.

208.297.5700

If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while, you’ll know I’ve found that people often don’t need more leads; they need better systems and processes for nurturing those leads and closing sales, or they need to follow up more. But sometimes you really do simply need more leads. I’m sure you can find places to generate leads, so I’m not going to laundry-list media sources. Instead, I want to talk about lead quality and catching those leads. First things first: Not all sources are created equal, and one mistake I’ve watched people make (and have even made myself in the past) is trying to simply take what worked somewhere else and duplicate it for a new media source of lower quality. Years ago, when I made this mistake, I was trying to take a working book funnel that was getting warm traffic from website visitors and JV partners and use it on Facebook for very cold traffic. I did get opt-ins — 500 in a single month (full contact details like name, address, and phone number). Unfortunately, around 400-plus of these were bad leads.

the right people before committing to any long- term business strategies. Simply put, you have to get everyone seated on the bus before you decide where you’re going. Collins and his research team also investigate how leadership qualities factor into greatness. Through what they’ve labeled “The Hedgehog Concept,” they point out that most great leaders share a quality ancient Greek myths attributed to the little spiny critters: Rather than knowing many small truths, they know one great Truth. The ability of leaders to see how every facet of their business fits into the bigger picture is an invaluable part of finding success. The ultimate message of “Good to Great” can be boiled down to “Look before you leap.” Greatness is not accidental and it’s not guaranteed. Making the leap takes conscious effort, a great team at your back, and savvy leadership. For the small percentage of business owners who don’t already have this seminal work on their bookshelf, get reading. Most people have one lead magnet, if any. I read a study about a year ago, and although I don’t have the exact results anymore, it said that companies with five or more lead magnets generate 200 percent more leads than companies with one lead magnet. Even if you only got 100 percent more leads, that would be worth figuring out how to get five working lead magnets, wouldn’t it? work, or that it doesn’t work for my business, but the reality was that I was using the wrong bait (lead magnet) with the wrong nurture and follow- up system. When switching to a totally cold traffic source like Facebook, I should have known to switch my lead magnet and follow-up system. I needed bait that would allow me to call out more targeted leads and a system to better filter good leads from bad leads. Once I filtered the good from the bad and warmed the leads up a bit, I could drop them seamlessly into the warm funnel I’d already built. I was fishing in the ocean but trying to use the same bait I’d use to fish in the stream behind my house. It didn’t work. Same goes for whale hunting. You can’t use bass bait to hunt a whale.

If you’re stuck on what bait to use, I get it. That is the hard part. I wish I had a formula that said, “Use this bait to be flooded with new customers.” If I did, I’d be happy to sell it to everyone, but the problem is that it takes a ton of trial and error to find what works. Here’s the best advice I can give you: Don’t fall in love with the lead magnet you create. If the market doesn’t like it or it is attracting the wrong prospects, you have to change it. Sometimes you have to show the market what they think they want and then also give them what they need. By the way, changing your lead magnet doesn’t always require a whole rewrite. Sometimes it’s just the headline or copy that needs to change. Sometimes that bait will work well, just not with the type of media you’re trying to use it in. Whatever the case, all is not lost just because you don’t knock it out of the park the first time. P.S. I’m going to be discussing lead generation at the Scale Your Business Bootcamp at my offices on Oct. 25 and 26. Make sure you grab a ticket if any are still available: NewsletterPro.com/scaleup. –Shaun

The whole campaign was a failure. It would be easy right here to say Facebook simply doesn’t

Have You Heard the Good News?

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 — ”Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Your every act should be done with love.” Matthew 11:28-30 — ”Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” 1 Peter 3:10-11 — ”Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.”

Armed with this data, Collins presents us with seven key factors shared by companies that “made the leap” to greatness. One such valuable concept is the idea of “First Who, Then What.” Through blunt, often humorous prose, Collins argues that entrepreneurs must focus on hiring

5

www.thenewsletterpro.com

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.

208.297.5700

BETTER YOUR BIZ

USPS VS. ONLINE MARKETING

It’s a good thing our computers no longer announce “You’ve got mail!” each time a new message appears in our inboxes. Considering that the average person receives no fewer than 147 emails per day, we would be hearing “You’ve got mail!” once every 2–3 minutes over the course of an eight-hour shift! With that in mind, it makes sense that the average time spent reading an email has dropped from six seconds down to three, and that’s only if the recipient chooses to open it — because there’s a 91 percent chance they won’t. Sure, email marketing is free, but when you factor in the questionable deliverability rate, the abysmal open rate, and the downright nonexistent read rate, you have to ask yourself, “Am I really making the most of my marketing efforts?” The answer should be a resounding “No.”

According to the stats above, you’re only reaching about 1 percent of your target market — and they’re only interacting with your email long enough to delete it from existence. Ouch. On the other hand, according to the USPS 2015 Fact Sheet, the average consumer only receives 3–4 pieces of direct mail in their mailbox each day — a much more manageable number. On top of that, those direct mail pieces have the potential to linger around that consumer’s home or office for up to four months. Granted, an email might linger around someone’s inbox for several months (years ... decades ... ), but by then it’s already been lost to the abyss — never to be seen again.

free. Because of that, they’re likely to pay little to no attention to your email newsletters — or whatever other marketing messages you choose to send electronically. But something magical happens when you combine email marketing with direct mail: Suddenly, you’re not just a meaningless message in their overflowing inbox, but a caring company reaching out to their consumers by any means possible. Your read rates skyrocket, and your conversion rates soar! THE BOTTOM LINE IS THIS: Email marketing, on its own, simply isn’t enough — and an email-only newsletter is a huge mistake. But when email marketing meets direct mail, the two tactics combine to form a marketing force that simply can’t be beat!

When it comes right down to it, your customers weren’t born yesterday; they know that email is

RESOURCE OF THE MONTH

Let AWeber Help You Reach Your Audience An Email Marketing and Automation System That Works!

SUBSCRIPTION GROWTH If you already have a large email list, moving your subscribers to AWeber will give you no trouble at all. Then, using their form generator, you can create simple yet powerful sign-up or opt-in forms for any new customers. You can also create custom fields to learn more about your subscribers and even use forms to tag and segment subscribers to deliver targeted automated email campaigns. AUTOMATED EMAIL DESIGN AND CONTENT AWeber will help you create awesome emails by letting you choose from the perfect HTML templates to match your brand according to color scheme, layout, design, and more. In addition to overall aesthetic, AWeber’s automated system features a drag-and-drop editor, which allows you to click content elements from an easy-to-use toolbar, drag them into your email message, customize them, and then send away.

PROGRESS TRACKERS AWeber also helps you analyze your marketing success through deliverability rates and tracking systems. The tracking systems will help you segment your email list based on how your readers engaged with your material. Through an easy- to-read mobile dashboard, you can see which subscribers clicked on what content, and then you can take those statistics and generate new emails tailored to customers’ likes and dislikes. This information will help you track your emails’ revenue and drive traffic to your website. Through these features and many more, AWeber can help you and your business grow. Type AWeber. com/newsletterpro.htm into your search bar to start your free 30-day trial and let AWeber help you craft good-looking emails that get real results!

Picture this: You just arrived to work after a busy but enjoyable weekend. You sit down at your desk, log on to your computer, and open your email. Then, bam! Your email inbox hits you like a brick wall. Amidst the unending list of promo offers, surveys, and spam, you struggle to separate the necessary information from the pile of cybertrash. The monotony that stems from an inbox chock-full of identical, run-of-the-mill emails often leads to mass deletion, leaving customers unaware of pertinent information companies need to share with them. For this reason, a lot of businesses have opted to use AWeber to better communicate with their clientele. AWeber is an email marketing and automation platform built for time-strapped content creators, small-business owners, and entrepreneurs to help them grow their audience and readership. AWeber offers their clients some fantastic features.

6

www.thenewsletterpro.com

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.

208.297.5700

HOW MAGGIE HELPS US ALL GROW Our Resident Gardening Expert

Here at The Newsletter Pro, we have a lot of fun terminology, but one of our personal favorites started as an attempt to describe our amazing team lead and project manager, Maggie Thompson. Because Maggie is always going out of her way to show consideration for her teammates — whether she is bringing in “just because” cupcakes, dropping candy off at your desk, or recommending a TV show or podcast she thinks you’ll love — we have started to refer to any acts of kindness around the office as “being Maggie’d.”

While she is definitely known for her thoughtfulness, Maggie is also quite famous for her sensational green thumb. “My husband and I have spent a fair amount of time cleaning up the planters, debating what we wanted to grow, making too many trips to Home Depot, and painstakingly weeding the garden,” Maggie says. “Now, after all that preparation, we spend lots of time enjoying the fruits of our labor.” When it comes to horticultural trade secrets, Maggie explains that being willing to prepare, make adjustments, and oversee several moving parts are all fundamental to success. The foresight that she possesses in the gardening sphere has definitely bled into her role as a team lead. Maggie’s position requires ample preparedness but also relies on her ability to recalibrate those plans when necessary. Just as she has to deal with variables like too much sunshine or rain affecting the growth of a fruit or vegetable, navigating changes on the fly makes up a large part of Maggie’s role at work as well.

Fortunately for us, Maggie revels in the sometimes unpredictable nature of her job. In fact, she credits much of her own growth, both as an employee and as a person, to her year here at The Newsletter Pro. She says, “Working here has helped me to find my voice and my confidence. My team and I engage in real communication, and through our conversations, I can see the true value of my contributions.” While Maggie praises this job for stimulating her growth as an individual, we hope she knows how much she aids her team members in their own growth as well. All of us here at The Newsletter Pro are so grateful for Maggie’s goodness, her patience, and the fact that she brought her green thumb to work along with her.

KEEP UPP With Our

BEST POSTS

If you’re looking for more great content — like what you’re reading in this newsletter — to drive your business forward, take a look at these articles on our blog. Move Over Cash. Content Is King Now NewsletterPro.com/content-is-king-now Your Sales Process in Today’s Economy NewsletterPro.com/sales-todays-economy Lessons in Business Innovation From the Payment Megagiant NewsletterPro.com/lessons-in-business- innovation Content: The Lifeblood of Small-Business Growth NewsletterPro.com/lifeblood-of-small- business

7

www.thenewsletterpro.com

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.

208.297.5700

208.297.5700 391 N Ancestor Pl, Boise, ID 83704 Keep up with our latest office news, blogs, and promos at www.TheNewsletterPro.com!

BUSINESS PROFILE THE NEW STANDARD FOR BUSINESS How Proof Eyewear Changes the Notion of Authenticity

The list of “Shark Tank” failures is longer than the Cleveland Browns’ championship drought. Entrepreneurs of all types head into the proverbial red zone of business that is this show — full of blind ambition — only to fumble the ball on the 1-yard line. A national TV audience watches as investors cut down the business model of these startups — and their hope of success right along with it. But while many pitches fail, never to be resuscitated, there are a few business owners who don’t look at Mark Cuban’s refusal to invest in their idea as the end of their dream. Brothers Tanner, Brooks, and Taylor Dame took their idea for handcrafted, sustainably made sunglasses in front of the “sharks” but came out empty-handed after failed negotiations. But their passion for their product and altruistic approach to business wasn’t going to be thwarted by lack of funding. The brothers credit their unwavering resiliency to a deep-rooted family history. Proof Eyewear was founded in 2010 by these three brothers from Idaho. While the company is a venture among siblings, it’s not the first family business in the Dames’ history. As a matter of fact, Proof may never have happened had their grandfather not started a sawmill back in 1954. Drawing from his inspiration of working at the mill, Brooks developed an idea for wooden sunglasses frames. As his concept began to slowly take shape, Brooks moved his business to the most logical location for a startup with a great idea: the garage. But unlike other companies with similar origins, such as giants Apple and Amazon, Proof’s drive for growth never outpaced their passion for giving back. As the company expanded operations over the next eight years to over 20 countries and millions in annual revenue, they developed the one aspect that makes Proof truly unique. Wooden frames were revolutionary at the time, but trends come and go. What never leaves is the impact you can make on the world. Ray-Ban, Kate Spade, Maui Jim, Coach, and Oakley all create sleek eyewear that enhances an individual’s style. Proof does that

but also uses their business as a platform to make a meaningful difference in the world.

Proof built a brand that caters to a hyperspecific demographic by using very broad strokes that don’t threaten the sensibilities of the status quo. Millennials make up a significant portion of not just the sunglasses market, but the consumer base as a whole. This generation wants the products they purchase to stand for more than just vapid, aesthetically pleasing ideals. Proof’s socially conscious business model is attractive to the people they cater to, but what they do with their branding isn’t aimed at sales. It’s raw authenticity. If you spend time in their headquarters in Boise or engage with employees who work there, you quickly understand that sunglasses are just a vehicle. What resides at the core of Proof’s brand is simply human connection at all levels. That’s not something you can fake or manipulate. It comes from an incorruptible heart focused on other people, and that’s what the world desires. Consumers no longer crave just the sexiest brands out there. Products need to be social, substantial, and sustainable to reach the newest echelon of buyers. You can’t fabricate authenticity. It has to come from a genuine place full of heartfelt desire to create a bond, which is precisely where the Dame brothers have succeeded. Proof removes the plastic from not just their glasses, but also from how they approach business.

Each year, Proof comes up with an initiative to serve the people of the world in areas that matter to those who work for the company. One-quarter of the world’s blind population resides in India. In 2015, Proof decided to donate $25,000 to build two eye clinics in India aimed at helping those in need. That was just one of many projects Proof has implemented since 2013. In 2017 alone, they boasted the following achievements: • $73,385 DONATED FROM PURCHASED FRAMES • 240 CATARACT SURGERIES • 200 TREES PLANTED • 1,209 GLASSES DONATED • 2 TONS OF GARBAGE PICKED UP • 5,954 HEALTH AND VISION SCREENINGS • 338 LOCAL COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS • 8 COUNTRIES IMPACTED

8

www.thenewsletterpro.com

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.

208.297.5700

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8

www.thenewsletterpro.com

Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs