Growth Letter #1
I’m soooo excited to send you my first letter!
There’s so much to unpack, so let’s dive right in…
First a bit about me…
Hi, I’m Ro.
Over the past decade, I’ve been heading marketing departments, creating & executing ambitious strategies, while also leading, growing, and mentoring marketing teams.
I’m all about marketing, business, and personal growth!
Growth is my thing - and if it’s your thing too, I’m sure you’ll enjoy these letters.
👩💼 1. MY FIRST MONTH IN BUSINESS
I call it a successful first month 🎉
Most of my of goals were achieved and the ones I didn’t achieve I’m either nearly there or there was a really good reason for it.
Two of the days I had planned for studying - I ended up replacing with self-care and time for myself (one full day of wine tasting, cheers!).
The strategy and launch for YourBrandInPhotos (a project with my hubby) were put on hold due to client work - that was a good reason not to tick this box!
The good
⏱️ Owning my time and not having to ask permission to do things and go places
🫶 My heart was full when people from my network (or referrals from my network) booked clarity calls with me to get advice on their next steps to bring their ideas to life or just consult on how to grow their business further (I had 5 of this in November)
💕 Blessed with 2 clients in my first month in business - who also happen to be 2 incredible humans
The bad
🌙 I was working late nights (cough it’s midnight while I type this cough) and weekends - something I’d prefer to avoid moving forward. I want to be gentle with my time and setting boundaries is important!
Even if I know that starting a business means sacrificing… 😇
The ugly
👎 How my mind took me to dark places sometimes. A few times I found myself saying “What am I doing? I had a good job and stable income” (btw the same happened every time I put myself in very uncomfortable situations). My coping mechanism? “Silenzio Bruno”. Check my post about it HERE.
How I got my first 2 clients:
✔️ The first thing I did was to reach out to a couple of people who had asked me for marketing help in the past - this is how I got my first client
✔️ The second one was a referral from a friend
And now… my goals for December:
✔️ 1 retainer consultancy client (6 to 12-month project)
✔️ 1 study day
✔️ 1 self-care day
✔️ Workout 3 times a week
✔️ Read 1 book
✔️ Put 1K into investments
✔️ 1 full week working on YourBrandInPhotos to launch it in January (I’ll tell you more about this project in Jan letter)
✔️ 2 posts on LinkedIn
✔️ 4 posts on IG
And also:
Many family days, pizza nights, wine, and fun while celebrating Christmas.
💡 Growth tip: don’t wait for the New Year to set goals. Do it & review it at the start of every month! I’ll share more about it further down.
⚒️ 2. TOOLS & RESOURCES
Forest app - stop distractions and stay focused while planting trees 🌳 with this app you can set the timer for up to 2h. During this time our phones will be planting trees and earning credits and if you try to access apps or social media you’ll destroy your forest. This has been wonderful for me to work for chunks of time without any distractions. The best part? With the pro version, you can actually start planning real trees.
Zoho invoice - The thing about starting a consultancy business no one tells you about: you need to figure out how to invoice your clients and how to track your time. Everyone and their mother talks about Toggl for time tracking - but Toggl doesn’t do invoices. So I turned to Zoho and I’m quite happy with it! I can track my time, add my clients, add my hourly rate, and bill the hours automatically. I can also create a pdf of the invoice with a link to Stripe that my clients can click to pay. Simple, awesome & FREE!
Built with - Want to know the tools your competitors are using? You can “spy” on them by adding their URL and it will tell you all the tools that are integrated with their site. Pretty cool right?
🤓 3. GROWTH HACKS/EXPERIMENTS
In business:
Especially if you’re a service provider - make it really easy for your leads to book time with you.
A couple of simple ideas & free that will get you more leads:
1. Add a WhatsApp widget to your website so people don’t need to spend time looking for a way to contact you & filling up a form. See the example used here.
2. Give easy access to a scheduling tool like YouCanBookMe or Calendly (both have free versions) so that people can schedule a time to talk to you or book your services. You can then link this in your social media Bio or your website. You’ll look professional and you’ll remove the pain from your potential customer to set time to talk to you.
In life:
Grow your savings by tracking ALL your expenses. Money can go as easily as it comes. You can earn 30K and save a lot and you can make 100K a year and have no savings.
”If you can measure it, you can manage it”
Track it, learn where the money is being spent, and see where you can cut so you can save for the things you love: That big trip you always wanted to do, that home renovation, the car that needs to be replaced.
Or use that money to make more money with small investments :)
🧚 4. GROWTH INSPIRATION
Inspo #1: Rich Wesler’s post about charging for your value - not per hour. I recommend reviewing the full carousel here.
Inspo #2: You’re a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero
This was my reading in November. I’m committing to read a book per month.
What’s it about?
How to work your Money Mindset
Why I liked it
I come from a mindset of money scarcity and I’m very conscious that this is a big blocker in my life & finances.
This is why I’m committing to working on my mindset while I’m also learning about investments.
This book did its job - helping me to work on my mindset and it also came with some practical exercises.
My big takeaway
At one point she talks about why you shouldn’t have a plan B when you’re off to chase big dreams.
I had already quit my job when I read this and I kept saying to myself and others “if it doesn’t work I’ll look for a job again”.
I then asked a bunch of people in my life who all have now successful businesses if they had a plan B - they all replied no. They were set to make it work. There was no plan B - and guess what, they made it work.
I’m still not against having a plan B - but the big danger is that it can make you lazy as soon as you find a bump on the road.
🚀 5. ONE ACTIONABLE GROWTH TIP
Let’s talk about resolutions and goals.
In December/January is when most people get excited about resolutions. We see the new year as a new opportunity to turn our life around.
The problem: life gets in the way, the excitement fades and we soon forget about what we wrote in that piece of paper.
I made this mistake many times - until I actually learned!
I absolutely love goals - any time of the year (and I’m not a fan of new year resolutions).
Here’s why.
In the past, when I was doing NY resolutions, I’d write some wishes on a piece of paper like:
I want to exercise more next year.
I want to travel more.
Etc.
What did I actually achieve?
NOTHING.
Why?
Because there was no plan.
No strategy behind it.
No numbers to measure the progress.
No real intension of making it happen.
No focus throughout the progress.
What I do instead - with REAL examples and TRUE stories from my life (and btw both examples were a common effort with my hubby):
STEP 1: I’m very clear on my vision: I want to do a round-the-world trip.
STEP 2: I do all my research to understand how much money I need to make my vision come alive.
STEP 3: I set my goal: 30K in savings to travel the world and to restart our life after
STEP 4: I break down how much I need to save each month & track all my expenses in Excel to understand where I can make cuts: I know we need to save 1 to 2K each for almost 2y to make my vision come true.
STEP 5: I track, review and adjust every single month and start getting excited as my savings grow.
STEP 6: I plan the itinerary, buy the tickets and make it happen!
Another example:
STEP 1: I’m very clear on my vision: I want to lose weight (I was 68kg when I started)
STEP 2: I do all my research to understand what could work for me: I decide on intermittent fasting and exercise outdoors.
STEP 3: I set my goal: I want to get to 61kg
STEP 4: I break it down: I want to lose 1kg per month
STEP 5: I track it daily, weekly, and monthly: I bought a smart scale and a smartwatch to track my progress and I get excited and motivated as I see my weight go down.
PS: I managed to get to 59kg and got back to 61kg after my trip to Sicily this summer. 🙈
See how it works?
Did you know?
25% of all new year's resolutions will be given up within a week.
Only 3% of people have written goals with a plan on how to execute them.
So the actionable tip for you:
Focus less on resolutions.
Focus more on goals.
Have a vision.
Set your goal to achieve your vision - they have to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.
Then break it down - how are you going to track this on a monthly basis?
Finally - review and track every single month.
If you’re really intentional about your vision, doing these steps can help make your wildest dreams come true.
If you’re not - you’ll stay stuck in Wishland forever and always (I wish I could travel the world one day, I wish I could make more money, etc).
3% of people who have a written goal with a concrete plan are 10 times more likely to achieve success than those who are not.
Be part of the 3% of achievers 💪
👋 6. CAN I HELP?
If growth is your thing too but you’re feeling stuck (in life or in business), let’s talk.
⏱️ Book a 30min clarity call (FREE). Best for: Badass entrepreneurs/CEO’s who are launching a new business/product OR are ready to further scale their business and need clarity for the strategy and next steps. BOOK TIME WITH ME HERE.
⏱️ 60min leadership mentoring (PAID) Best for: Managers who are struggling to lead and inspire their teams. BOOK TIME WITH ME HERE.
