ALPHAS1TE

WE ARE SO BACK

One of my favorite quotes of all time is Theodore Roosevelt's Man in the Arena paragraph from his Citizenship in Republic speech. I'm not going to the post it here for the sake of brevity. You probably already know it, and if you don't, you should.

But I do my best to live by it. It's framed on my office wall as a constant reminder to step into the arena and come out of the gate swinging.

Something I've said over the years, however, is that you can't expect to be "in the arena" and not get your teeth kicked in from time to time.

In 2023 I launched a marketing agency. I did everything I knew to do to promote a startup and worked nonstop to stand it up as fast as possible.

And the crazy thing is, it was working. In less than three months, I had paid off my startup costs and was moving towards real profitability.

But then came the blindsiding. I caught my ex-wife cheating on me and ended our marriage immediately. And by the time the disruption of the divorce settled down, I had confirmed deployment orders from the Army to leave the country for a year. It was too much to manage, and I had to shut the company down.

Things ended pretty disastrously. I had to cancel contracts, and pay refunds out of my own pocket in order to make things right. It was embarrassing, to be honest.

Coming home, I didn't think I had it in me to relaunch. After doing all that work just to watch it all burn to the ground, it was difficult to conjure up the drive and motivation to even think of doing it again.

But that's not how I wanted this story to end.

That's the thing. No one really cares what you went through. It doesn't matter how hard or traumatic it was. If you don't pick yourself up off the canvas, spit the blood out of your mouth, and get back in the fight, telling your sob story is meaningless. They're just checking their watch and waiting for their chance to change the subject.

The only thing that matters... is what you do next.

In order for it to be a comeback story, you need to actually have a comeback.

And that's what we're doing. I've had the privilege to get Charles Lee Collins on board and finally build a business with him after all these years of talking about it. We've got some incredible things in the pipeline and the next few months are going to be transformative.

ALPHAS1TE is back.

We're still following the business model I originally launched as a marketing agency for blue-collar pros in the trades and home services who are looking to grow and scale their business. If you want to dominate, we can get you there.

But we're also pivoting to more than that - we're building a library of free and paid educational resources for businesses of all levels, so even if our agency services aren't for you, we can still help you grow.

If you're already doing your own marketing and want guidance to scale or get past a roadblock, we offer consulting services drawn from Lee's 25+ years in the industry.

And beyond that, we offer a totally free beginner's marketing encyclopedia as a resource for anyone.

So instead of being purely a lead generator, we want to be a true partner in your success, wherever you stand. Running a business is hard. Believe me, I know. So let's make it a little easier.

Check out our website and services to see if we're a good fit for you, or know someone who is.

It's time to write the other (and way better) half of this comeback story.

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Today's Lesson:

You do not have to do everything in your business.

In fact, if you try, you'll never break through the clouds to become a true business owner, and instead be stuck in the never-ending purgatory of self-employment.

Instead of having a job, you own a job.

Some self-employed folk take a weird pride in doing it all themselves, like it's a badge of honor.

"I do all the sales and marketing."

"I do all the bookkeeping."

"Hire somebody? Nah, I do all the jobs myself."

Meanwhile, their marketing sucks, they're always hunting work, the IRS is trying to track them down because they filed their taxes incorrectly, and they're working nonstop 80hr weeks to keep the lights on.

If that's what you want to do, knock yourself out. But I don't think that's the reason most of us got into business for ourselves.

You'll probably have to do it all in the beginning, but don't do it all for a minute longer than you have to. Start building systems and making hires to shore up your areas of weakness as quickly as possible.

Automate. Delegate. Outsource. Become obsessed with force multipliers. Build replicable systems. And then focus only on what you alone can do.

Then you'll truly own a business... instead of owning a job.

Today's Lesson:

Learn to iterate quickly.

As an entrepreneur, you're going to try a lot of things that won't work. And that's okay. It's part of the process. You're not gonna hit a homer every time you swing the bat.

But if you spend a lot of time bouncing back from each unsuccessful attempt, overthinking your next step, and worst of all, becoming too emotionally invested in each of those iterations, you're going to lose. Sorry. It's just the truth.

So yes, try a lot of stuff and take a lot of risks. Don't bet the farm or make a move that could prove fatal if it fails, of course. And just know that by the numbers, most of what you do won't pan out.

The good news is, it doesn't have to. You just have to make enough base hits to keep the game going, and once in a glorious while, you'll send one over the fence.

But in order for that to happen, you've got to step up to the plate and swing for it, as many times as you can.

Today’s Lesson:

Low-hanging marketing fruit, Part II - How to get more Google reviews.

This is an easy one. Ask for them.

Every business owner, especially in the home services industry, yearns for more 5-star Google reviews. As they should.

Reviews are powerful social proof that can set you apart from your competition, and are a major decision factor on whether or not someone will contact you.

Frequent positive reviews will also supercharge your local SEO by boosting your Google My Business profile to higher and higher rankings.

But most contractors and home service providers are leaving reviews, and by extension, money, on the table simply because they don’t have a good system in place to ask for them.

A surprising number of businesses don’t ask for reviews at all, and instead just hope people will leave them one. This is dumb. Go on offense. But casually asking for a review usually isn’t enough either. So here’s the play.

You need to plant the idea of leaving a review as soon as you win the job. Make sure to bring it up at that point - “If this job exceeds your expectations, can I count on you for a five-star review?”

Ask again when the job is complete. Send them an exit questionnaire with a link to your review page at the end. And then send a final thank-you email with the link as well.

And don’t just ask, explain. Say something like “I’m so glad you love your new kitchen. If you think we did a great job and want to help us succeed, 5-star Google reviews go a LONG way towards helping us stand out and grow our business. Here’s the link to do that. Thanks!”

If you really want to go all in, offer them something of value in exchange. If you’re a high-ticket remodeler, roofer, etc. who probably won’t work with them again for a long time, it can be something like a gift card or a physical thank-you gift.

If you’re in a recurring service business like landscaping, pest control, auto detailing, or pressure washing, it can be a deep discount or a freebie on their next service.

Not every customer will give you a review, but most will. Put these practices in place, and start racking ‘em up.