The weekly run down: 24th June.

One business insight

📰 TL;DR: start-ups involve doing, not thinking. If you’re trying to think of a great idea, then you simply need to make a start and build from there.

💡 Insight: yes clear thinking is important, but you can’t think your way through life. You must take action. As Steve Jobs once famously said, “You can only connect the dots looking backways”.

The solution: start building, because chances are, your first idea won’t be your forever idea. You need to build, get feedback, iterate and go again.

The key to making this work long-term: take lots of small bets with big upside and little downside.

One copy tip:

📰 TL;DR: TL;DR: attract a loyal audience by creating specific content which they resonate with based on what they’re going through and what they want.

💡 Insight: One of the keys to great copywriting is speaking directly to your target audience. You’ll see a lot of platitude Tweets and “10 best GTP prompts” going around, but that doesn’t mean it’s good content. The writer has usually optimised for engagement which feeds the ego.

The aim of great copy is to attract a loyal audience who will take action and buy into your story.

The solution:

1. Understand your ideal customer and write down their:

   • Frustrations.

   • Wants.

   • Fears.

   • Desires.

Once you understand these, you can create content which plays on the different emotions. This is how you call out your audience and attract them into your world.

Tip: always remember that revenue is the aim of having an audience, not a huge audience that doesn’t take action.

One performance tool

📰 TL;DR: visualization practices can help you manifest your goals. Running through scenarios of you achieving a desired outcome will help bring it to life, because

💡 Insight: visualization is a science back practice of putting yourself in a state to manifest your desired outcome. Before you write this off as woo-woo, hear me out.

 There’s a part of the brain known as the Reticular Activating System, which is responsible for filtering information. The key is to train this part of the brain to spot opportunities related to your goal.

The brain can’t determine what’s real and what’s not. So by running through scenarios of you achieving your goal, you put your mind and body in the state of having already achieved the outcome.

This makes it easier to see the signs along the way.

Caveat: you still have to do the work.

The process:

1. Write down your main goal: get specific- what’s the measure of success, when do you want to achieve it by etc.

2. Visualize yourself achieving this goal: spend 10 minutes a day meditating on this scenario. The more clearly you can feel the emotions and picture the scene, the better.

Tips:

• Create goals but then forget them- too much importance on them pushes them further away.

• Aim to stay relaxed, as being stressed puts you in the wrong state to make things happen

• Live like you’ve already achieved the outcome, this is key.

• Focus on the steps associated towards the goal.

This may raise some eyebrows, but trust me it works. Worst case it puts you in a more positive mood and reduces some anxiety. It takes practice and commitment but stick with it.

For me, this was the missing part when trying to achieve something. I was constantly stressed and forcing things to work.

One favourite Tweet

Justin Welsh is one of the most successful creators on Twitter. Here he gives you a simple solution to never running out of content.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed, feel like you’re running out of ideas and struggle to produce enough.

Remember that you’re just saying the same thing in 1000 different ways. Everything can and should be repurposed across different platforms.

Build in public update

📰 TL;DR: my experience launching on Product Hunt and an alternative way for outreach.

Launching on Product Hunt in less than 24 hours. Product Hunt is an awesome platform for builders launching their products. It’s a great way to gain exposure and network with customers and fellow builders.

The strategy: I didn’t have some master plan other than I wanted to launch fast and see what happens.

I simply:

• Created an MVP page for my product.

• Wrote the content and headers etc for the Product Hunt page.

• Scheduled to launch at 12:01am PST for maximum exposure.

The key is to not overthink it, just follow the launch step guide from Product Hunt directly and you’re good to go.

The results: as expected it didn’t quite go viral, but I’m up to around 40 upvotes last time I checked with some engagement and reviews to follow up with. The way I see it: there are definitely some leads in there I can chat to.

It would mean a lot if you could support the launch here.

Outreach with a twist: I initially found myself getting bogged down by all the ways to run outreach and grow the business, but I’ve since committed to one strategy to go from zero to one.

It simply involves outreaching prospects with upfront work. It’s nothing fancy or new, but in my opinion, it works. From 20 custom outreaches (I would send revised versions of their landing pages and ideas for email and SEO), I’m in talks with 4 companies which are going well. Not bad.

This method is really well received, I’m running at about a 50% reply rate. People really like seeing this level of effort up front. It shows that you know what you’re doing and it makes you stand out.

If you’re an early-stage start-up looking for unlimited copywriting to scale your company, Lemon Leverage has you covered. All for a fraction of the cost of an in-house writer. Feel free to refer anyone you think may benefit for a 10% referral fee.

That’s it for this week, any questions or feedback just shoot me a reply here or drop me a DM on Twitter.

Tom Scourfield

Curious Entrepreneur

P.S: how do you like the new format of my newsletter?

Each week I’ll bring you:

1. One business insight (growth tactics, strat-up ideas and stories)

2. One tip to improve your copywriting (the foundational skill for online businesses)

3. A practical performance tool to improve your performance and wellbeing

4. My favourite Tweet of the week

5. A build in public update from my latest projects

Let me know your thoughts below: