How's your 2023 going so far?

Are you crushing it so far and making moves toward your professional, physical, and personal goals? Or are there some unchecked boxes so far?

I'm making some steps forward, but there's still boxes I need to work on checking off this month.

So I hope this issue helps you check off some of your boxes!

Here's what you can expect today:

• 🤫 $525M Secret Behind Local Email Newsletters
• 📈 TikTok Growth Secrets Behind The $100M Man
• ✅ I checked off 190 boxes last month, here's what I learned...
• 🔥 I bet you didn’t know this famous CEO went from middle class to millionaire to bankrupt all before 16 years old, plus more leaders to watch, listen & follow!

I hope you enjoy this one! Let me know!

-Andrew

🤫 $525M Secret Behind Axios' Local Email Newsletters

Source: Built In

Why this matters: In a world full of noise, Axios cuts through the clutter. Founded in 2016 and in under 6 years it reached $100 million in revenue and sold at a $525 million valuation by focusing only on local news in 30 different markets.

The big picture: The key to their success lies in the foundation of their newsletters, which is also made found in their proprietary Axios HQ technology... Brevity. (Also a great book, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More With Less)

Details: In an industry where newsrooms and media were facing layoffs they grew to over 500 employees and $100M in revenue because their 1500-word posts just work.

The combination of factors behind their Smart Brevity concept includes:

• The audience first, always. Keep only what’s new, interesting, and urgent for them- cut everything else, especially what’s familiar.
• What is your goal?
• Who is your reader?
• And who is a real person that fits that profile? Write it for them.
• Grab their attention immediately. Write captivating headlines & titles under 60 characters.
• Keep it concrete & something people can learn from.
• And keep it conversational not academic.
• Intentional 1-2 sentence blurbs that get to the main point of the news events, and are backed by context and great formatting. Sum it all up in one sentence and say it first.
• What is this?
• And is it relevant to me?
• Write like you speak, not like you want to be heard. Imagine you’re having coffee with a friend, that’s how we communicate.
• Studies have proven that even the most intelligent prefer simple language.
• They’re easier to consume and more memorable.
• Plus they convey confidence.
• Bold phrases act as neon signs, helping the reader know where the story is going quickly. 60-80% of readers will scan before they read. Your goal is to be frugal with words to make it feel more approachable. Stay scannable.
• Use short paragraphs, bolding, and bullets to help the reader get further, faster.
• Brief subject-verb-object sentences with punchy words.
• Stop when enough is enough. The greatest gift you can give you readers is not more information, but time. Use as few words, sentences and paragraphs as possible.
• Consistent daily, output every morning Monday through Friday. Dedication to the craft and industry may seem mundane because it's repetitive but it allows audiences to build trust.

The entire premise of the company lies in its name, Axios, which means “worthy” in Greek. Axios creates content worthy of our attention.

📈 TikTok Growth Secrets Behind The $100M Man

If you don’t know who Alex Hormozi is, he is the $100M man who blew up on social media and grew to over 1.2 million followers in 6 months.

But what most people don't know is Ryan Magin is the team behind his entire TikTok account- and I had the opportunity to meet and learn from an event in January. Here's what I learned.

Ryan said what most people get wrong with TikTok is the algorithm is based on interest, not followers. And you can see in the data that 95-99% of people who watch our videos are not our followers.

What this means is that TikTok will only show things that people show to TikTok they care about. If you keep watching foodie videos, they will keep showing you more of what you like.

Here’s how you can leverage this as an agent. Ask yourself this question, why do people choose to work with you over everyone else?

Sure, they trust you but ultimately, they know and like you. Think of your best friends… shared interests & experiences over time creates connection, aka affinity.

Start macro not micro. 99% of your followers may never see your video so how likely do you think someone locally will see it if you can’t get enough views?

So if you use interest-based targeting you allow yourself the opportunity to get enough reach & views for someone locally to come across your video.

So his advice is to breakdown your content into 3 buckets using his HEM methodology (short for Hemingway which I'll into in a bit):

• Hobbies (20 videos a month) - This is what do you like, enjoy, and consume? Where do you spend your time and money currently? What are some things you would do even if no one paid you for them? These are your interests. (1mil + views)
• Expertise (5 videos a month) - This is what you have been paid for in the past, but you don’t do for your job. It can be skills that you do but aren’t your main source of income. It’s not your career, but something you know more than the average person (25k to 500k views)
• Mastery (5 videos a month) - This is what you get paid for. It’s something that you’re really really good at and have 1,000 or 10,000 hours of mastery. (10-25k views IF you do really well)

Hobbies > Expertise > Mastery.

The TikTok algorithm works top-down. It’s top-of-funnel marketing, not bottom-of-funnel or search-based like YouTube. A prime example is Keith Lee, but I’ll get into that next week.

When people see your hobby videos and show the algorithm they like your content, then TikTok will show them more of your other videos.

How can you put this into practice? Simple:

1. Make a list of 25 things that make up WHO YOU ARE.
2. Then cut that list down to your top 5-10.
3. Those are the 5-10 things that you can create content around.

There’s some other great advice behind why our videos get low views; it’s CUB (confusing, unbelievable & boring) and it’s not BEAR (believable, energetic, authoritative & relatable), but that’s too much for one post.

If you have questions, you can always feel free to ask.

✅ I checked off 190 boxes last month, here's what I learned...

Excel

Rob Dyrdek's 0 to $405M story inspired me to take a new level of accountability in these 3 areas this year:

1. Professional
2. Personal
3. Physical

At first glance, I felt disappointed by these gaping holes when I reviewed January.

But then I realized I made 190 tiny actions last month. And those were only the actions I set based on my goals- which blew my mind.

The biggest reason why I think Rob is perfecting human efficiency by tracking every second is that he sped up his rate of accountability:

• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly

The lesson I learned from this: tiny actions daily create habits.

“You can't manage what you can't measure.” - Peter Drucker

Here's an excel sheet template.

*I added Energy (Mood) and EQ (Emotional Reactivity) daily under scoreboard plus a few other things but hopefully this helps get you started.

🎙️ x 🎥  Stories Worth Learning:

• I bet you didn’t know this famous CEO went from middle class to millionaire to bankrupt all before 16 years old + a second great podcast to listen to
• Why everybody should write investor updates even solo-preneurs
• Graham Stephan's 500M Youtube process for making viral videos
• 10+ tools every leader needs to replace their entire team with AI

🐦 Leaders Worth Following:

• $769M Team Leader, Tim Smith, changed the game with his listing videos, now he has a Podcast.
• 40% of Ken Pozek's $244M real estate business comes from YouTube, now he's building a local media arm.
• Codie Sanchez shows why & how everybody can & should buy businesses in 2023.

📝 In Case You Missed It:

• February's monthly content drop
• $30 hack to 10x your Zoom Quality without wasting money on expensive webcams
• Why I believe every leader should read this book

That's it for today! See you next week!

If you have any questions then reply & let me know so I can make sure that I'm not just making stuff out of my head, but answering the questions you care about!

Let's have an amazing week!

Andrew Bayon

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‍

🧱 An Unfiltered Conversation with NY's #1 Mortgage Lender (Top 10 in US) | Brian Scott Cohen

Watch Now

Meet Brian Scott Cohen. This is an unfiltered conversation with Brian Scott Cohen, NY's #1 mortgage lender, top 10 in the US, and the most reachable mortgage lender in NY with over $6 billion in loans & 9,000 homeowners served.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• 00:00 - intro
• 02:15 - his story after 19 years
• 07:34 - 19,000+ TikTok followers: embracing digital
• 10:25 - overcoming tough markets
• 16:54 - high volume but high touch
• 22:55 - work life integration as a high performer
• 25:38 - over prioritizing communication
• 32:08 - becoming the knowledge broker
• 34:36 - meeting & working with Ryan Serhant for 15 years
• 40:25 - Brian's secrets for long lasting relationships
• 46:23 - educating & expanding into new markets
• 57:06 - world class leadership