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#20 - The Remote Solopreneur’s Guide to Creating Systems and Content that Win Over Lighthouse Clients
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#20 - The Remote Solopreneur’s Guide to Creating Systems and Content that Win Over Lighthouse Clients
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Blaine
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Speaker
Ken Yarmosh
Ken Yarvish shares his decades of experience building remote businesses, focusing on operational efficiency, client quality, and scalable systems. He offers practical insights on minimizing unnecessary headcount, using repeatable processes, and balancing automation with human creativity to help solopreneurs thrive and attract the right clients.
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“Learn the ins and outs of content, strategy, creation, production, distribution, growth platforms, tools and more.”
“And today we're going to talk a lot about scaling businesses without burning too much cash. We're going to talk about how to find high quality clients and also how to thrive as a solopreneur business founder and build systems that work for you.”
“People joined instead of going to Apple. My company when remote wasn't a thing because they said, you value not presence and time on the clock and location, but me being able to get the best work done in my career.”
“I do believe that we're going to be more powerful as knowledge workers, combining tools and AI with those knowledge workers, I don't think it's just like, hey, content marketers are going to be replaced by cast magic or AI. I think that content marketers are going to find new lanes. It's called creative destruction.”
“The systems allow us as business owners to scale and to have control over that scale because we say, I'm not just gonna go replace this with another person.”
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He is a business coach. He previously scaled remote agency to over $5 million in revenue. And today we're going to talk a lot about scaling businesses without burning too much cash. We're going to talk about how to find high quality clients and also how to thrive as a solopreneur business founder and build systems that work for you. So, uh, Ken, one of the reasons I'm really excited to chat with you is because you are also a fellow founder. You're not someone who's just like coming up with ideas and telling people what to do. You've been in it yourself. So why don't we start a little bit with your background and we can kind of get into all the, the systems that you built and what you see in the space.
Yeah, man, I appreciate that. And founder to founder, I've been building stuff for decades. You know, I know people will mostly listen to this if they check it out on video later. Like, I've got a little bit of a baby face, but not quite now with the kids and so forth over the last decade. But yeah, I've been a builder and I think that's the most important thing as I've been building from day one into getting into business started. And this will date me a little bit. But the Internet didn't exist, right? And when the Internet started kind of coming out, I was like, oh, this is really, this is going to change the game. So everything from websites, built the first blogs, built the first social apps, then went all in into building the first iPhone and Android apps.
Got a lot of clients, both well known brands as well as startups, helped a lot of people bootstrap things as well as some funded startups, and really kind of just kept following that trajectory. With the exception maybe now. Leave it to you, Blaine, and your crew. I have not fallen into the AI space in terms of building AI myself, but I love tools like, like cast magic. That's why I'm happy to be here today. Um, but trying to now take all those lessons learned. And I was remote before remote was a thing. Trying to build, not with headcount before, that was a thing.
And I'm kind of leading the charge on that today. So really just trying to shortcut people like yourself and, and agent agency founders, solopreneurs consultants. Years of struggles that I went through because I tried to find someone like myself who really didn't exist, because this is still a new thing in the history of, of business to build it this way. So, yeah, man, excited to chat through this today, and I'll let you lead to charge.
Yeah, and maybe I think that's a great place to start. So why don't you tell us a little bit about your first business and kind of how you transitioned operationally to keep things light. I think that's something that's really top of mind for a lot of different business operators and founders isn't just, it's not just about doing the thing, it's how do you do the thing efficiently? Right. How do you minimize unnecessary headcount? Like, remove operational burdens? Like, yeah, just tell me about your experience figuring that out.
And I'm going to go back, and I won't be, you know, back in, you know, 1983, but I'll walk you through the journey a little bit, because I was pushing back against a lot of things that are conventional in business. And even today, sometimes we'll say, like, that's not the way people do it. Yeah, it's called, we're building business for this century. So, as an example, people told me, you got to move to San Francisco or to New York to be relevant. And I decided not to do that, even though I explored that I had really good opportunities to join some great companies then. Remote was an offshore thing, and you couldn't scale remote. And then this thing called 2020 happened, and people realized that business can operate. And that was, you know, not even remote by choice.
That was just remote being forced. Um, so kind of going through this, I saw the heavy expenses of being part of very well funded startups our startups had. And I was like an early employee in certain cases before I became the founder, but we had the best money. I won't name drop, but it was the best money. And the CEO's of those companies, you know what they did? They went out and hired based on college degrees. They went out and hired based on names. X this, x this x this again. I'm not going to out names today.
I have a fancy Ivy League degree myself. But that's not, you know, all, it's not just about a piece of paper, right? And so really seeing what that looked like and the lack of output and in certain cases not hitting the sale or the exit. Hey Joy can join us. And if you had the same amount of stock when Google came around, you'd be able to retire in two years. Except that they were hiring for all the wrong reasons, forcing me to try to move back to these places and it just didn't make sense. So the big thing that I try to share with people today, and a lot of the lessons learned are from the bad bosses and the bad CEO's and all those things, right? Like that informed another 1015 years for me and how I built and scaled my businesses. People joined instead of going to Apple. My company when remote wasn't a thing because they said, you value not presence and time on the clock and location, but me being able to get the best work done in my career.
And that was one of our taglines. Come join us if you want to do the best work of your career. I don't care if you work nine to five or you have to take a lunch break, don't ask for approval on that. Just act like an adult. That was one of our guiding principles. So really kind of flipping the whole model. And I'll leave it simple like this. And I'm sure you want more specifics, you can get more tactically into it, but here is our employee handbook.
Act like an adult, be responsible. Right. I equip you, I give you the best tools, obviously, I love tools and systems. We'll get more into that today. And then I want to get out of your way. Right. I'm going to give you the operating manual, so to speak, but I'm going to. I'm going to have a heavy vetting process for clients, for team members, and then we're just going to do great work together.
So that's like the high level. We could definitely drill down at the specifics.
Yeah, no, I think that's so important for people to hear because, you know, and this isn't actually something that I've like talked about on uploading, but like my story, like, I went the VC backed route before we had the best money. We made all those hires. And one thing that people don't consider sometimes about the business is like when you take on a lot of capital, if you want an exit, well, those investors and all that capital that you raise, they get the money first when it comes down to the liquidation preference. So I think building the right business for you and knowing when it's good to take money and when it isn't, isn't important. It's a superpower. And for you, being able to say, and this is the same way we operate in Castmagic, we're distributed, we're a remote team. It's basically saying, hey, can we put all of that revenue? Should that go into a fancy office, or should that go into the product and the operations and bringing on an extra engineer so we can build product faster and ship out stuff for our customers? I think being able to think in terms of those lens and practically what's best for your business is super important. Um, yeah, I'd love to dive a little bit deeper with you.
Let's talk a little bit about systems. Now, assuming that, you know, you're operating in a, in a, in an operationally efficient sort of way, if it's the thing to do for your business, like how do you approach systems? How do you extract the most out of these people? Besides just saying, act like an adult.
Yeah. And I think systems today, and you probably would agree, just like the word AI to some extent, can be very buzzy, everyone wants to say systems because systems mean something different to every person. But I'll just give a very simple definition around this to kind of ground our conversation. A system, to me, is just a repeatable way to get results. So a system could be something very clearly documented in notion, or a system could be a combination of an SOP plus a tool and plus some kind of human element. I do believe that we're going to be more powerful as knowledge workers, combining tools and AI with those knowledge workers, I don't think it's just like, hey, content marketers are going to be replaced by cast magic or AI. I think that content marketers are going to find new lanes. It's called creative destruction.
There'll be parts that are taken away and given to the tools, and there'll be parts that are given to us that we'll be able to double down and add more value to because we're not doing all the monotonous things that we've done 100 times. So from a system standpoint, I see a lot of clients, I work with hundreds now of clients, solopreneurs, creators, agency owners, and I've built systems to help scale that. When I had an agency, you know, we could maybe get to 20 to 50 clients right at max. And at some point we had a very large agency. Even in that situation, and being a remote first company, the systems allow us as business owners to scale and to have control over that scale because we say, I'm not just gonna go replace this with another person. I loved your perspective on hand. I can get an office, or I can go just hire out of the school, or I could just get a really good engineer who maybe was doing the stuff, watching YouTube at ten years old and. And was building stuff and shipping stuff that was used by thousands of people.
Okay, let's go spend the money on the thing that makes more sense. So from the operational efficiency standpoint, it's finding the things in the business that need to be not manually done. I have a very simple mnemonic here. It's called DTA. Document, template, automate. Document, something that you do a handful of times a month. Template, something that you do a few times a week. And automate something that you do multiple times a day.
Right. DTA. Very, very simple to think about this. So when you're in your business and every single day, you're doing something that should not be done manually and you're potentially introducing errors. Right. Or you're doing something incorrectly because you just are doing it manually. Perfect place to start. But what I was getting to with the big data points of number of clients is that a lot of people think about systems as something to do.
I want to use a system proactively and I can build it on the fly. I'm not going to wait 17 months to go build a system. If there's friction in the business around this thing, we're going to prioritize that. And sometimes I build a system and sell ahead of the system, even if I want to build a new offer, go target a different kind of client and so forth. So I'm sure you have some questions there. I'll let you dive into it again further.
Yeah, I think that's great. I think DTA is a really great way to think about things because a lot of people might be like, oh, well, I've got a lot going on, but what do I systemize? Where do I even start? So I think just having that framework to understand what to do is very helpful. You know, I know you work in a coaching capacity also with a ton of different entrepreneurs and consultants and that sort of thing. So what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see people making before they get to you? Like, where do you start with them? Essentially?
Yeah, there's a lot of mistakes. Right? And I have this unique challenge. And I'll answer your question, but when you are a founder or a CEO or a co founder or whatever, and you've done that for a while, you become good at a lot of things, right? And I will say one of my, my own superpowers, but also a fault is like, I could do a lot of things. What was the thing that I can help people the most with? What's my unfair advantage? So part of a lot of my own systems are to help me stay in my own, you know, zone of genius, so to speak. And I try to boil this down to answer your question into when I look at most businesses, not saying all businesses, but most businesses, they largely are going to be driven by three systems, marketing, sales and client delivery. You know, our customer, you know, the customer success side. If you're a consulting firm versus a startup, is there hr, these other things? Absolutely. And that's, that's, those are different things.
Those are people systems. But from the functional piece, we have to have a way to get leads, we have to have a way to close those leads repeatedly, and we have to have a way to deliver the experience, the value that we're expecting. So I break it down into those three systems. So a lot of times when I have someone come to me, I'm actually pretty good at all three of those things. I'll kind of start to assess what truly is the challenge that they have within that business, and then we will go into one of those systems that I've built, you know, dozens of systems across each one of those areas, and I'm pretty well known for a few of them. For example, I have a system called scalable service offers, and it's a, an offer framework because offers sit in between the marketing and the client delivery. If you have a scalable offer, it links together with attracting the right, what I call lighthouse client, with a really scalable way to deliver that work without you sitting in front of someone all day long. So it would really be an assessment within one of those systems to start, and then we kind of go deeper from there.
Let's, let's definitely get into offers because I think offers are so, so important. It's something that people just assume rather than thinking offer first and thinking about, uh, you know, what is the market actually want? What is the value that I can provide? A lot of people think, oh, here's what I can do, and then they try to like turn that into an offer, and then maybe the market wants it, maybe they don't want it. So why don't you tell me a little bit about, like, what makes a good offer and how do you turn your skills into an offer that gets you clients that you know you want?
Yeah, totally. And I look at it when we get into offers, we start first with the mentality shift, because we have, and we were kind of chatting offline a little bit beforehand, but hundreds of years of doing business a certain way, and often that's been, we've been told for a long time, even if you have a fancy degree, that bigger is better, right. It goes all the way back to the industrial revolution, and we kind of changed the way that we work then to more factories, more people, more expensive equipment. So I really start with thinking about how do we undo with an offer just always getting paid more to do more things. And a simple example, and I'm just using these examples especially because of, I know, cast magic and what you focus on. But if we go back to, like, ghost writer and they say we get paid to do more posts on LinkedIn, simple way that people have built things forever, and that just locks you into, okay, at some point, you as a solopreneur, you as an agency owner can only grow if you get more clients or if you hire more people. And at some point, there's always a give and take on that. And the two things that people stay up late at night on are, do I have enough people? And do I have enough clients or customers? So we really got to start by looking at this mentality of how am I even approaching the business? How do I want to grow the business? Right.
You've made a decision in your own business that we want to be remote. We don't value sitting in an office together and staring at each other, not saying there's nothing valuable about being co located. I used to do some of that with my team a few times a year. Still, once we go through the mentality, we really have to go through a series of looking at who it is that we want to target. I call it laser targeting, because a lot of the targeting is so generic, right? Title revenue and headcount, those are. That's a lot what people do to define their ICP. And I say the lighthouse client, we go deeper into things like the psychographics, right? How do they think? What are their pain points, the exigraphics? How does the company perceive themselves? I didn't come up with that term exaggeraphic, by the way. It's just a great term.
I like having a bunch of those. Right? But looking at a lot of other data points to help us go deeper into targeting this hyper targeting this lighthouse client, because that is the key to scalability, you know, and even for you. Right. And I'm sure if we had somewhere, we had a beer, we had a coffee, whatever, an espresso, depending on the time of the day, right? And we went into this and you say, okay, here I'm targeting these different kinds of clients. Most businesses are not specific enough. And I'll say, okay, we're targeting marketers or solopreneurs. No, like, let's get really, really clear. And so when you have a single lighthouse client, this is the key to unlocking the scalability for your offer and getting into, again, not just doing more things.
So moving from I write posts to I can help you drive more leads to I can drive more revenue with this particular system that I have developed as a ghostwriter.
Yeah. And that's something I want to talk about in terms of what does it look like to create an offer? Like, what you basically just described is you're saying you don't want to speak to no one. You want to be very specific with who you're speaking to and how you're speaking to them. So when you're crafting this sort of messaging and that, that's going to be present in all of your material from your offer itself to, like, the brand and the service and all the information about it. Like, how do you think about that? About, like, going deep without, like, how do you be niche without being so niche that you're like, oh, there's literally no one in the world that wants this.
And, like, the niche word can be problematic in and of itself. So we'll just leave that on the side. But I get where you're going with it. And again, part of what I use your tool for is some of this stuff. When I have a client that I've gotten great results for, and I literally have a wall of love that has, like, all the top memes on LinkedIn and other social platforms that have worked with me, they could be agencies, solopreneurs. Last Friday, I had someone write a post about me, unprompted, this multimillion dollar agency owner, because I use their own voice and their own success, and I feed that back into cast magic, and it tells me, here's what they valued from you. Here's what their challenge was before they came to you. And a lot of times we get in our heads about this stuff, right? So as you said, I do this service well.
When someone has ever reached out to you or you've done outbound. And I'm not opposed to inbound and outbound or all bound. Right? Like do, do all of them. It depends on your market. But they often tell you what the challenge is. And for some reason, talking about the mistakes, people don't focus on the data points right in front of them. They say, oh, I have to go interview people. Really? You've been in business for five years.
You've had all these clients. Of these 3000, 5000 clients, there's probably five that stand out to you. Those would be the places that I would start with and say, why did they come to you? Why did they buy from you? What did you do? And how do we double down and triple down on that? It's right in front of most people, but often they have the curse of knowledge because they've been doing things for years or decades even.
I think that is really, really interesting because it's something we even see with cats. Magic, right? I think there's a whole bunch of customers that we have and everyone has feedback and everyone has something to say. But there's a rather, like, I can take the broad data perspective and be like, what is the market saying about us? And evaluate it that way. Or I can kind of use a lens and be like, wait a minute, these are five or ten clients who have really solid systems. They know what they're doing. They're asking the right questions. If I just double down on them and model the product after what they need, like everyone, it's going to be successful for everyone else. So like, yep.
How do you, yeah. Like how do you think about that for, um, you know, how do you kind of quiet the noise and help people just focus on, you know, what matters as opposed to getting lost in it?
Yeah. And I think what you said is something that we still should consider. I don't think we should ignore the market. And I don't, I'm not saying that you suggested that, but I think about sort of three bigger buckets that we should be looking at. The first is the market as a whole. Like what are the trends? What are the macro trends? What are, what's the industry doing then? And I'm a big fan and I always give credit to other frameworks, big fan of blue Ocean strategy. And I talk about blue Ocean services because I help mostly, not all, but I help mostly those in professional services, consulting creators that have an element of just not like digital products. Right.
I built SaaS and startups for a long time, but I've now been focusing a little bit more on that market. So in the blue ocean strategy mentality, we look at not only the competitors, we also look at the alternatives. So when I would think about even the content marketers that we were talking about a minute ago, it's like the direct competitor is another solopreneur freelancer agency, but an alternative is chat, GPT, or frankly, even cast magic. Right. To some extent. Now, it's not to be afraid of that. It actually gives us a more complete picture of what that landscape looks like. And we're trying to find the gaps in the market, that blue ocean, as they describe it.
And then the final piece is, I go to the voice of the customer, and it's not just the entire customer base, to your point. That's where I came up with the concept of the lighthouse client. I've worked with so many clients through the years. When I exited out of my other business, I said, you know, I loved a lot of my customers. I love all my customers, right? They paid me money. They cared about me. They decided to go with me over others. But there was a segment of customers, I said, if I could get five of these customers in this new thing that I'm doing, that would be phenomenal.
And so I started going back to those customers and finding the patterns and the traits with them specifically. So the way to keep yourself locked into that. And I will go back to it every day. Like, I will look at things that people have said about me in cas magic. Right. And pull out this segment here. I have a notion page in a broader kind of, you know, business overview that has those quotes or has my look at my competitors and alternatives. And that's what keeps you grounded, because every day, frankly, especially when you get to someone at my size, I've got, like, 50,000 plus followers across all these different places.
People are funnel hacking me. People are using my positioning, right. Even clients that I've trained to some extent have, like, replicated some of my stuff. So I'm always making sure that I have clear positioning, differentiation, and I'm trying to kind of skate where that puck is going. And those are the things that keep me sane in the business. And I think you're, you know, at some of those things probably resonate a little bit because I'm sure there's, you know, whack a mole in terms of others trying to do what you're doing, you know, every single day.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that idea of, like, lighthouse clients and, and because it's really easy to get spread very thin. And, and if you don't have an idea of, like, who is my, who's the lighthouse client, and how do I get more of that? So that the circle, the circle start to become more concentric instead of just like, becoming further and further apart, and you get spread too thin and then you're not building for anyone. So I think that's, that's really great. One thing that you mentioned is content, right? Like, you've grown your business through content. You've been in the content space forever. Why don't you just tell us a little bit about your own specific content workflow and how it plays a part in your business?
Yeah, yeah. No, I love it, man. And I, part of being a builder. And I think you're very similar. I don't want to say we're, you know, the. Exactly the same on this, but I love not only building, I like, I love helping people. And millions of people have benefited from the knowledge that I've shared. Not all of them have obviously paid me something, but I love to help and educate and share knowledge.
And so content has always been a part of me as an entrepreneur. I was writing, you know, blog content when there was no blogs. I was literally hand coding HTML, right? And I was sharing that information. I was on the homepage of Twitter when literally every tweet in the whole system is on the homepage of Twitter. So I've always been part of the content journey, and that's, it's exciting to be part of it still today, all those years later, it has helped me build my businesses to multiple seven figures, multiple times again. I've exited out of where I was before. Now I'm at seven figures again, just as a solo, you know, solo advisor consultant, just without any employees and really limited help using tools like yours and others. And it's not just about the systems, right? But it's about this next part we're going to talk about.
I went hard into LinkedIn after having been on a lot of different channels a couple years ago, and I had, you know, about a couple thousand connections. There were connections, not followers. And I decided when I did that, and it was very lonely for a while, but I was going to almost. I was starting from zero, from revenue again. I get, I had plenty of money in the bank, but it's like I'm starting from zero, right? I had to fund my, not an inexpensive family, all first world problems, private school and all those things, right? But I'm going from zero again. I said I'm going to go hard on LinkedIn. I'm going to figure this out. I'm going to learn what content and copywriting looks like for a platform like that.
And eventually turned off everything else. I repurposed a couple things to x, it was Twitter still then, and used it very much to help me figure out who this lighthouse client was. I started writing and writing and writing. At that point, we were in basically like early 2022. There was kind of return to office stuff going, was talking a lot about remote work, because I had run this remote business for a long time and wrote probably for about five months, where I say legitimately, it was probably my father and an ex coworker who cared about what I was writing about, right? Like, that was about it. But I kept showing up, man, and I think this is the thing that people need to hear about. Oh, delivering value, right? People say, oh, you got to show value. No, you got to show a value.
For months and years, no one cared. But I kept putting things out into the universe to figure out what resonated with those lighthouse clients. And I had, you know, one viral post, had another viral post, had another viral post. Three and a half million views. And what I learned through that process was that I was hitting a nerve, an emotional nerve, but I wasn't tying that enough to revenue. And so it was like lots of interest. Didn't have the offer locked in enough. And so what I said was letting the content again.
I started pivoting the content a bit. Instead of saying remote work, I talked about remote founders. Ooh, interesting. And then I went from remote founders to building a little bit of a category. And I created this category called the remote solopreneur. And it doesn't mean, by the way, solopreneur for me, is not like you can't have any employees. It's about a way you want to grow the business, right? You can have a small team. You could have vas, you could actually have payroll.
I don't care. It's about how you want to grow. What we've been talking about went deeper and deeper on that, started continue to show up and went from lots of views and lots of interest and exposure to lots of dollars and lots of revenue. Now, did that happen overnight? No. I had to make a pivot across the content. But I purposely said, I'm moving away from just being this remote work guy, looking at the data to how do we scale remote businesses? With my decades of experience doing this. So I publish to LinkedIn five to seven days a week to get really tactical here. I usually have a mix of content types, so I have video, which then I repurpose onto YouTube.
They're not traditional YouTube videos, they're just videos that work well on LinkedIn that also are just going to give me some exposure. And that's why I love, like I said, tools like yours helps me repurpose it to work in the different platforms. I repurpose that to x, and then I have my main goal. And this is something that I don't want to almost be like, this would be a whole nother episode. But my view of my content funnel is that social is all about distribution, it's not about conversion. So my goal solely is to get bigger reach for lighthouse clients, not just big reach without lighthouse clients caring about it, to then get them into my seven figure flywheel, which goes on to a welcome sequence, which then warms them up to buy an offer magnet, which is another thing that, again, we probably don't have time to get into, to then get them into one of my medium or high ticket offer suites. And I call all of that the offer portfolio. So that's, it absolutely has allowed me to grow without having a whole team.
I used to have a team that cost me six figures a month, a marketing team. Content people, video people, social people, they're all talented. But now I'm essentially doing the work of an entire content team with just myself and the systems behind me.
That's awesome. There's. There's a lot to unpack here. One point that I love, that I think is so important is this distinction between virality and conversion. Right. Um, I think it actually, this happened to me the other day. Um, you know, I was working on a. This Instagram reel blew up, did like 1.3 million views, zero conversion.
Right.
Because it was just like a fun meme sort of thing, no tie to the business. And I think this is something you see a lot of the time in social where everyone is like, oh, I just need to go viral. I need to go viral.
Sure.
Like, going viral is great, but if you don't engineer the content the right way, you're not going to get any conversion. And similarly, even when we have, as a business, worked with other influencers, we've seen an influencer do something like 50,000 views that drives, like, insane conversion and others that, you know, have a million views and drive zero. So I think understanding that, you know, not all content is created equal when it's not just about the view count, I think that's. That's a very important thing. The other thing I want to get into is, you mentioned systems, you mentioned LinkedIn. I'm curious, like, what. What's your workflow to create that content in LinkedIn? Like, how long do you take writing? Like, what type of content pillars do you have? What's your drafting process? I know you mentioned your cadence, but, yeah, just unpack that a little bit for us.
The tactics here, man. I'm Leonard. About this stuff. So, part of my workflow now was informed by running a fairly large marketing team, in house marketing team. Right. And we were not a marketing agency. I was a software agency, building software and apps. But I used SEO and content marketing then to not have to pay for ads and pay for a lot of other things to drive us to being a multi seven figure agency.
And the world has changed on that front as well now. So social really has came into play on that. And so when I first started making a commitment to write on LinkedIn, it was very low tech. It was a. And it was overly low tech because there was a lot of things going on as I transitioned out of that other business. But it was straight up, like, maybe a Google Doc that just had a post on it and then an idea, and then I flushed it out. Over time, as I got more traction, I'm like, this doesn't work. Why am I doing this workflow when I've built these world class editorial systems? And so I built a very custom notion workflow, which I have never given to anybody.
I have a group of people in my coaching program, and I've walked them through it a little bit, but even I said, I don't want someone to get superimposed and like, oh, I have to follow Ken's system. So the workflow is really as follows. And this is super important. I don't care if it's a notion, a notepad, or you write it down. The most important thing to start with is the idea capture. You have an idea. You have a way to quickly get that idea down into a place that you can come back to later. So getting that idea down is as fast as possible.
Right. I will have, like, I might even be walking, doing a walker, you know, taking the kids somewhere. And I have an idea. Got to get that down. And sometimes if, you know, my wife sees, like, okay, he's getting his idea down, let him do that. Right. So there is now a catalog of probably. And I try to trim it quarterly or once a year of, like, hundreds of ideas, right.
That I can go back to, and they're listed by last edited, because I find the ones that are more recent are more easily that you can kind of bring them to the, you know, publishing. From there I go into writing that out. And again, I've learned from others on the stuff, so I don't always take credit. Like, I learned copywriting from some of the greats and some of the folks out there learned about making sure we have the right hook. Right. What's the hook look like? And I've actually become almost like the coach of people who do hooks to make sure that they actually make money, because a lot of people write great hooks and again, doesn't make them any money. So making sure we have the right hook, writing out the body and then adding the CTA. And essentially what I have then is a view in that same place.
So I create a new view. There's basically three views. I use the idea capture view, the what's next view, and then the calendar view, and I have them all scheduled out. So I try to have about two to three weeks kind of scheduled out. They don't all have to be fully ready to go to publish, because now I've gotten so many reps and people need to hear this, man. Like, I've become a great copywriter only after doing it probably a thousand plus times. I published 372 posts one year. Last year it was like up around 300.
And this year will probably be about the same. It's a lot of reps, right, of writing and writing and writing. And that's not even the ones that actually never made it right out there. And then there's just a last piece here that I think is important to say is like, I come back to the data. So I'm looking at the data, I'm looking at what did well, what converted to actual leads. And then I'm repurposing that content or giving it new life. And the new life could be something as simple as I add a selfie to it, right. Or I might actually make a video out of it, or I might create a carousel out of it.
It is a very scientific process, and it's a process that I've put a lot of work into, but it's why, again, I'm getting the results on the other side.
That's awesome. Um, I love that process. It's actually is pretty similar to the way, um, you know, we think about things as well. I think what you said about idea capture is essential, right? It's like, where do you start? Ideas. Ideas pop into your head, write them down, have a place for them. Have a swipe file, and then you want to produce a. You know, you essentially said you kind of have a content pipeline, right? You've got all these ideas. You move them in a pipeline so you know your schedule, because consistency is so important, right? So you don't want to have to be like, oh, crap, now I have to make content.
So if you bring it into your routine, that consistency as a system is really great. So, Ken, want to thank you for coming on. We learned a lot, a lot on this episode. We'll have to. We'll have to do it again sometime. For our listeners who are tuning in, where can we connect with you? Where can we follow along? Where can we find more about you and what you do? Why don't you shout out your socials?
Yeah, I appreciate that, man. Simplest place to go. Cause it's very memorable. Head over to TRS Club Blueprint. It's basically all of what we talked about in a simpler form, very digestible. It's my blueprint from seven, seven figure blueprint from doing this for decades. Remote. Before remote was a thing.
It's free. There's nothing paid on that. A lot of people use it, get supervalued just from that alone. And then I'm hyperactive, as I shared on LinkedIn. So it's just LinkedIn.com in my name, and I'm sure they'll link this up. And then I do repurpose if you're more of an x person to there. But really, the newsletter, I write a weekly newsletter that comes off of the blueprint, and LinkedIn are the two best places to connect. Sweet.
Well, thanks so much for coming on, Ken.
Yeah, absolutely, man. Thanks for having me.
Also generated
More from this recording
Castmagic LinkedIn Post
@Ken Yarmosh has scaled a remote agency to over $5 million in revenue, leveraging systems and remote work efficiencies. He joins @Blaine on this week's episode of Uploading to discuss how knowledge workers can use AI and tools to discover new opportunities instead of being replaced.
Ken breaks down essential business systems with the mnemonic DTA: Document, Template, Automate—key to scaling marketing, sales, and client delivery. Discover how focusing on lighthouse clients and creating targeted content can transform your business growth.
We delve into practical content strategies, Ken's effective LinkedIn workflow, and remote solopreneurship—highlighting the shift from broad objectives to targeted conversion-focused content.
Full episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/askmrpsk39dhuas9eExP?si=dskjwefj4434tdDFS
#uploading #entrepreneurship #contentstrategy #remotework #AIintegration #businesssystems #linkedinmarketing
💬 Keywords
Systems in business, knowledge workers, tools and AI, scaling businesses, DTA mnemonic, Document Template Automate, marketing systems, sales systems, client delivery systems, scalable offer, market demands, growth strategies, remote agency, business revenue, remote work, efficient business operations, content strategy, LinkedIn content, lighthouse clients, conversion over virality, content workflow, remote solopreneur, psychographics, Blue Ocean strategy, market gaps, differentiation, SEO and content marketing, idea capture, content consistency, TRS Club Blueprint, data analysis.
💡 Speaker bios
Blaine is the innovative host of "Uploading," a podcast dedicated to delving into the world of content creation, marketing, and professional growth. With a knack for uncovering the secrets of the trade, Blaine guides listeners through the intricacies of content strategy, production, and distribution, featuring insights from some of the world's top creators and marketers. As part of the Cas Magic community, he offers a comprehensive content workspace for professionals and shares invaluable tips in a weekly newsletter. Blaine also fosters a vibrant Slack community of over a thousand creators, providing a platform for collaboration and inspiration. Join him on "Uploading" to learn from the best and elevate your content game.
💡 Speaker bios
Ken Yarmosh, founder and seasoned entrepreneur, has spent decades as a pioneering builder in the tech industry. Despite his youthful appearance, Ken's journey started long before the Internet was mainstream. Captivated by the transformative potential of the web, he dived into developing websites, crafting some of the earliest blogs and social media applications. His innovative spirit didn't stop there; Ken embraced the mobile revolution, dedicating himself to creating the first iPhone and Android apps. Over the years, he's balanced his entrepreneurial commitments with family life, proving that sustained innovation and personal fulfillment can indeed coexist.
ℹ️ Introduction
Welcome back to another episode of "Uploading...," where we dive deep into the world of content strategy, creation, and business growth. I'm your host, Blaine, and today we have a very special guest joining us—Ken Yarmosh, a business coach who has successfully scaled a remote agency to over $5 million in revenue.
In this episode, Ken defines what makes a system effective and stresses the importance of combining tools and AI to uncover new opportunities. We'll explore his insightful mnemonic, DTA—Document, Template, Automate—which helps businesses identify tasks that can be optimized for efficiency. Plus, Ken shares his journey in content creation, the significance of honing in on your lighthouse clients, and his strategies for leveraging LinkedIn for meaningful business conversions over mere virality. Get ready to learn from Ken's rich experience in remote work, efficient operations, and pragmatic decision-making—all designed to help you elevate your business strategy and reach new heights. Let's dive in!
📚 Timestamped overview
00:00 Experienced founder discusses early internet and app development.
06:11 Importance of business funding and prioritizing investments for growth and success.
08:29 Creating systems allows for scaling business and adding value, minimizing repetitive tasks.
13:28 Undo mentality of always getting paid more to do more, focus on growth approach.
16:51 The speaker uses client feedback to improve their service.
18:21 The writer finds it interesting how customer feedback can be used to improve products.
22:40 Entrepreneur with content experience, success in business.
26:12 The text discusses repurposing videos for different platforms, focusing on reaching lighthouse clients and growing without a large team.
30:29 Learned copywriting, editing, and coaching for effective hooks and writing content with a call-to-action.
31:38 Repetitive writing, repurposing content for new life.
📚 Timestamped overview
00:00 Founder discussing experience building technology over decades.
06:11 Importance of strategic business decisions and investment.
08:29 Delegate tasks, build systems, scale business efficiently.
13:28 Mentality shift needed to grow business successfully.
16:51 Tool helps showcase client's successes and challenges.
18:21 Customers' feedback can guide product improvement effectively.
22:40 Content entrepreneur with successful multiple seven figures.
26:12 Repurposing videos for wider reach and growth.
30:29 Learn from others, write and coach effectively.
31:38 Repurposing content through writing and multimedia forms.
❓ Questions
Sure, here are 10 discussion questions based on the episode featuring Ken Yarmosh on the "Uploading..." podcast:
Systems Definition and Implementation: Ken Yarmosh emphasizes the importance of building repeatable systems to achieve success. Can you share examples of systems that have worked effectively in your organization?
DTA Principle: How has the Document, Template, Automate (DTA) approach been applied in your business, and what specific tasks have benefited the most from this principle?
Scalable Offerings: Ken mentions the importance of creating a scalable offer that meets market demands. How does your business ensure that your offerings remain scalable and relevant?
Shift in Mentality: Ken talks about moving away from being paid more to do more things and instead focusing on strategic growth. How can businesses practically implement this shift in mentality?
Remote Work Benefits and Challenges: Ken has significant experience in scaling a remote agency. What are some benefits and challenges of remote work that you have encountered, and how have you addressed them?
Content Strategy for the Remote Solopreneur: Ken transformed his content strategy from talking about remote work to building a category called “remote solopreneur.” How can other businesses identify and transition to new content categories that drive growth?
Leveraging LinkedIn for Engagement: Ken details his LinkedIn content workflow and engagement strategies. Can you discuss the most effective ways you’ve found to create and repurpose content on LinkedIn?
Conversion vs. Virality in Social Media: The episode discusses focusing on meaningful conversion over virality in social media content. How can businesses balance these two objectives when creating content?
Identifying and Engaging Lighthouse Clients: Ken Yarmosh emphasizes the significance of focusing on lighthouse clients. How do you identify and cultivate relationships with your most important clients to drive business growth?
Continuously Analyzing and Repurposing Content: Ken talks about the importance of analyzing content performance and repurposing it for better engagement. What tools or processes do you use to evaluate and repurpose your content effectively?
These questions can stimulate insightful discussions and help the audience dive deeper into the themes and strategies covered in the episode with Ken Yarmosh.
❇️ Key topics and bullets
Sequence of Topics Covered
Definition and Importance of Systems
Ken Yarmosh defines a system.
Emphasizes systems as repeatable ways to get results.
Highlights the importance of knowledge workers combining tools and AI.
Systems in scaling businesses.
Mnemonic DTA: Document, Template, Automate.
Primary Business Systems
Marketing, sales, and client delivery as primary systems.
Importance of scalable offers meeting market demands.
Shift from being paid more to growth strategies.
Background and Experience
Ken Yarmosh’s history with building websites, blogs, social, iPhone/Android apps.
Working with well-known brands and startups.
Focus on remote and efficient business operations.
Challenges of unconventional business practices.
Operational Efficiency in Businesses
Significance of operational efficiency.
Remote work and hiring practices.
Extracting the most value from employees.
Identifying and Focusing on Lighthouse Clients
Importance of lighthouse clients.
Ken’s passion for helping and educating people through content.
Journey in content creation and consulting business.
Initial struggles with content engagement and LinkedIn success.
Content Strategy and Workflow
Transition from remote work content to "remote solopreneur" category.
Impact on revenue generation.
LinkedIn content workflow including daily publishing, video creation, and repurposing.
Content funnel strategy for reaching lighthouse clients.
Conversion over virality in social media.
Engineering content for meaningful conversion.
Targeting and Client Engagement
Importance of hyper-targeting specific clients for scalability.
Moving beyond generic targeting criteria to focus on psychographics.
Crafting messaging and services for the lighthouse client.
Leveraging data from satisfied clients to refine services.
Grounding in customer feedback and competitor positioning.
Marketing Strategies and Blue Ocean Strategy
Importance of macro trends, competitors, and the voice of the customer.
Identifying market gaps with the Blue Ocean strategy.
Concept of the lighthouse client in new business ventures.
Differentiation and clear positioning for business sanity.
Content Creation Workflow
Ken’s low-tech approach on LinkedIn transitioning to custom notion workflow.
Idea capture, writing, call to action, scheduling content.
Importance of consistency and replication.
Data analysis for content performance and repurposing.
Free Resources and Closing Remarks
TRS Club Blueprint as a free resource.
Invitation to connect on LinkedIn for more content.
Importance of idea capture and content pipeline for consistency.
Host’s appreciation of Ken’s insights.
🎬 Reel script
Hey everyone, it's Blaine here. Just wrapped up an incredible session with Ken Yarmosh on "Uploading." Ken defines a system as a repeatable way to get results - crucial for scaling any business. We delved into his DTA approach: Document, Template, Automate, and how these systems drive success in marketing, sales, and client delivery. Ken shared his journey from building websites and apps to scaling a remote agency to over $5 million. We also talked about the power of targeting lighthouse clients, creating meaningful content, and the importance of operational efficiency. Check out the full episode for detailed insights and actionable tips!
🔑 7 Key Themes
Importance of Systems: Repeatable way to get results
Scaling Businesses: Marketing, sales, client delivery focus
Remote Work: Efficient hiring, operational practices
Content Strategy: Targeting lighthouse clients, LinkedIn workflow
Conversion over Virality: Meaningful content for engagement
Client Psychographics: Pain points, psychographics, exigraphics
Idea Capture: Consistency, idea cataloging, content pipeline
Short Blurb
E78: In today's episode of "Uploading...," we're joined by business coach Ken Yarmosh, who scaled his remote agency to over $5 million in revenue. Ken shares invaluable insights into building systems, scaling businesses, and refining content strategies to grow efficiently and effectively.
Ken dives deep into the importance of combining tools and AI for knowledge workers, shedding light on how systems can transform your business. He also explains the mnemonic DTA: Document, Template, Automate, to help identify tasks that shouldn't be done manually.
On today’s episode, you’ll learn:
How Systems Drive Business Growth with DTA (Document, Template, Automate)
Key Systems in Marketing, Sales, and Client Delivery
Transitioning Offers from Time-Intensive to Scalable Solutions
Identifying and Targeting Your Lighthouse Clients
Leveraging LinkedIn for Consistent and Conversion-Driven Content
Here's a fun fact: Did you know Ken Yarmosh initially struggled with content engagement on LinkedIn but persevered to identify and resonate with his lighthouse clients? His passion for helping and educating people through content has clearly paid off!
Tune in as Host Blaine and Ken Yarmosh unpack these game-changing principles for scaling your business and mastering content creation. Don't miss it!
Listen now to gain these insights and supercharge your business growth!
Interview Breakdown
Join us in this episode of "Uploading..." as we dive into the world of scaling businesses with Ken Yarmosh, a seasoned entrepreneur and business coach who grew a remote agency to over $5 million in revenue. Ken shares his expertise on creating effective systems, hyper-targeting clients, and leveraging content marketing to build a successful solo consulting business.
Today, we’ll cover
Ken’s system for business growth: Document, Template, Automate (DTA)
The Importance of identifying and targeting lighthouse clients
Transitioning from remote work content to the "remote solopreneur" category
Ken’s LinkedIn content workflow for daily publishing and engagement
The significance of focusing on conversion over virality in social media content.
Short Recap
On this episode, Ken Yarmosh shares his expert insights on scaling businesses by leveraging systems and remote work, emphasizing the DTA approach: Document, Template, Automate. He also delves into his content creation strategy on LinkedIn, focusing on targeting lighthouse clients and maximizing conversion rather than virality.
🎠 Social Carousel
Slide 1
Cover Slide:
Title: "10 Tips Every Entrepreneur Must Know"
Subtitle: Insights from Ken Yarmosh on Systems, Content, and Clients
Slide 2
Title: “Define Systems”
Explanation: Systems are repeatable ways to get results. DTA: Document, Template, Automate.
Slide 3
Title: “Scale Efficiently”
Explanation: Focus on scalable offers that meet market demands without needing more hires or clients.
Slide 4
Title: “Lighthouse Clients”
Explanation: Target key clients to avoid spreading yourself too thin and ensure focused growth.
Slide 5
Title: “Content Workflow”
Explanation: Capture daily ideas, write, add call to action, and schedule for consistency.
Slide 6
Title: “Target Psychographics”
Explanation: Go beyond titles and revenue; focus on clients' pain points and specific needs.
Slide 7
Title: “Blue Ocean Strategy”
Explanation: Identify gaps in the market where you can stand out and avoid competition.
Slide 8
Title: “Conversions Over Virality”
Explanation: Craft content for meaningful conversions rather than chasing viral hits.
Slide 9
Title: “Analyze & Adjust”
Explanation: Continuously assess and repurpose your content based on performance data.
Slide 10
Title: “Idea Capture”
Explanation: Maintain a catalog of ideas to ensure content creation is consistent and efficient.
Slide 11
Title: “CTA: Connect & Learn”
Explanation: Follow Ken on LinkedIn for more insights and download the free TRS Club Blueprint for further guidance.
– End of Carousel –
New Idea
Idea #1: Focusing on Lighthouse Clients
Focusing on lighthouse clients can significantly enhance business scalability and efficiency, as highlighted in Ken Yarmosh's discussion in the podcast through activities like:
Hyper-targeting Specific Clients: Yarmosh emphasizes the importance of identifying and focusing on a single "lighthouse client" to unlock scalability. By concentrating efforts on a highly specific client segment, businesses can craft tailored messaging and services that resonate deeply with their target audience.
Leveraging Satisfied Client Data: Instead of generalizing targeting criteria such as title or revenue, Yarmosh advises using detailed feedback from satisfied clients to refine service offerings and marketing strategies. This data-driven approach ensures that the business continuously meets the unique needs and pain points of its ideal clients.
Analyzing Macro Trends and Competitors: Yarmosh stresses the need to focus on what truly matters by considering macro trends, competitors, and the voice of the customer. By doing so, businesses can identify market gaps and position themselves uniquely to their lighthouse clients, consequently ensuring sustainable growth and avoiding getting lost in market noise.
1 Key Learning
Embrace Systematic Scalability for Business Growth
Business professionals should prioritize developing scalable systems that combine tools and AI, focusing on lighthouse clients and hyper-targeting for maximum efficiency.
By identifying and concentrating on lighthouse clients, professionals can create tailored, repeatable processes that lead to sustainable growth. This strategy diminishes the need to constantly hire more employees, allowing businesses to scale organically.
Achieving scalable growth doesn't mean doing more, but doing the right things systematically. Focus on what truly matters—leverage tools and AI, decipher the needs of your lighthouse clients, and build efficient, repeatable processes for sustainable progress.
Don’t spread your resources thin. Invest your efforts in understanding the psychographics and pain points of your core customers. Tailored, systematized approaches can lead to efficient business practices that facilitate growth without the perpetual need for more manpower or clients.
💎 Maxims
Absolutely! Here is a comprehensive list of maxims derived from the insightful concepts discussed in the interview with Ken Yarmosh on the podcast "Uploading...":
Define Systems for Success: Create repeatable ways to achieve results by combining tools and AI with human ingenuity.
Document, Template, Automate (DTA): Identify and systematize tasks to enhance efficiency and scalability.
Focus on Core Systems: Prioritize marketing, sales, and client delivery to drive your business forward.
Scale with Smart Offers: Develop scalable offers that meet market demands, avoiding the trap of doing more to earn more.
Remote Work Efficiency: Embrace remote work practices to build efficient operations and scalable teams.
Operational Efficiency Matters: Make practical, data-driven decisions to enhance overall business operation efficiency.
Empower Knowledge Workers: Equip employees with the right systems and tools to extract maximum value and innovation.
Target Lighthouse Clients: Focus on key clients who set the standard for your business, avoiding the risk of being spread too thin.
Passion Fuels Persistence: Let your passion drive you to create valuable content and stay engaged with your audience.
Content Consistency is Key: Maintain a consistent content creation and publishing workflow to build and retain your audience.
Conversion over Virality: Aim to create content that converts and resonates deeply, rather than just achieving high visibility.
Hyper-Target Specific Clients: Go beyond superficial targeting criteria, focusing on psychographics, pain points, and unique client attributes.
Data-Driven Refinement: Leverage data from satisfied clients to fine-tune your services and messaging.
Focus on What Matters: Concentrate on macro trends, competitor strategies, and customer feedback to stay grounded and relevant.
Identify Market Gaps: Use strategies like the Blue Ocean to discover unmet needs and differentiators in the market.
Feedback-Grounded Differentiation: Differentiate your business clearly by analyzing feedback and competitor positioning.
Systematize Idea Capture: Implement a reliable workflow for capturing and organizing content ideas.
Repurpose and Analyze: Regularly analyze content performance and repurpose high-value pieces to maximize impact.
Offer Value Freely: Share valuable resources and insights generously to build trust and community.
Consistency and Replication: Ensure your content creation process is consistent and easily replicable to sustain long-term effort.
These maxims encapsulate the fundamental principles discussed in the episode, offering a roadmap for building efficient, scalable, and market-responsive businesses.
Hustle Thread
Tweet 1:
Ken Yarmosh started building websites.
He faced early challenges in content engagement.
But he persevered.
Tweet 2:
Today, he's a successful business coach,
Scaling a remote agency to $5M revenue.
Here's how Ken did it: 🔥
Tweet 3:
Ken's journey began with a passion for websites,
Educational content, and helping people.
Tweet 4:
Struggled initially with content engagement,
But discovered his "lighthouse clients" on LinkedIn.
Tweet 5:
Shifted his content strategy,
Focused on hyper-targeting specific clients,
And saw revenue soar.
Tweet 6:
From remote work content,
To creating a new category: "remote solopreneur."
Tweet 7:
Developed a seamless content workflow on LinkedIn,
Daily publishing, video creation, and repurposing,
Drove meaningful conversions.
Tweet 8:
Using DTA: Document, Template, Automate,
Ken maximized operational efficiency,
Scaling his remote agency successfully.
Tweet 9:
Ken's story reminds us:
With the right strategy,
Consistency, and focus, success is attainable.
🧿 Viral Breakdown & CTA
Why does scaling your business feel impossible?
DEFINE SYSTEMS 🔄
You’re feeling like it’s all on your shoulders, right?
Stick with me and I’ll reveal how to alleviate the burden using systems.
Wondering how to turn chaos into efficiency?
Well, when it comes to scaling businesses, Ken Yarmosh is an authority you can trust. As a business coach who scaled his remote agency to over $5 million in revenue, Ken knows the ins and outs of operational efficiency.
So, what’s the trick to making growth manageable?
INTRODUCING DTA 📋
Ken's simple framework, DTA: Document, Template, Automate, is your roadmap to business efficiency.
~~
Document — Capture Every Process
Start by comprehensively documenting every task you or your team performs. Create easy-to-follow guides or videos. This step is crucial because it transforms your business knowledge into an asset that can be universally accessed and executed. Not only does it make training new hires simpler, but it also safeguards your business against losing critical knowledge when key team members leave.
Template — Standardize Routine Activities
Next, turn your documented processes into templates. These can be checklists, forms, or standardized emails. Templates act as blueprints, ensuring consistency and saving time. By having predefined steps, your team can execute tasks more uniformly, reducing errors and improving reliability. This also allows you to quickly adapt to new projects without reinventing the wheel each time.
Automate — Let Technology Take Over
Identify tasks that are repetitive and can be automated using tools and software. Whether it's email marketing, scheduling social media posts, or customer follow-ups, automation frees up time for higher-value activities. It also assures these tasks are done strategically and on time, maintaining momentum in your business operations.
Remember, growing a business doesn’t always mean scaling up your workforce or client base but becoming more efficient.
To dive deeper into strategies like these and learn directly from top Founders and Operators, check out the "Uploading" podcast, where you get real, actionable advice to grow your business. Listen now and streamline your path to success! 🚀
Uploading... Titles
Ken Yarmosh, Business Coach - Scaling to $5M with Remote Work & Systems
Ken Yarmosh, Solo Consultant - The Blueprint to Hyper-Targeting & Customer Conversion
Ken Yarmosh, Remote Agency Expert - DTA: The Key to Automating and Scaling Your Business
Ken Yarmosh, Content Strategist - Unlocking LinkedIn Engagement and Revenue
Ken Yarmosh, Systems Guru - Building a Business Without Conventional Practices
Ken Yarmosh, Growth Coach - From Struggling to Thriving: Navigating Client Relationships for Success
Ken Yarmosh, Marketing Strategist - Mastering the Content Funnel for Meaningful Conversion
Ken Yarmosh, AI and Tools Advocate - Leveraging AI to Create New Opportunities, Not Job Losses
Twitter Post 1
This 1 simple mnemonic can transform productivity.
DTA: Document, Template, Automate
Identify tasks that shouldn't be done manually and scale effectively.
Mindsets
If you’re looking to enhance your business efficiency and scalability, here are some mindset shifts inspired by our latest episode with Ken Yarmosh that can help you get there:
💭 Shift your focus from task execution to systems thinking. Emphasize building repeatable processes using the DTA principle: Document, Template, Automate. This shift will help you streamline operations and unlock growth opportunities without increasing headcount.
💭 Adopt a value-first mentality in your offerings. Instead of being paid more to do more, concentrate on creating scalable offers that truly resonate with market demands. This approach will reduce the need to hire more people or constantly chase new clients.
💭 Engineer your content for conversion over virality. Be hyper-specific about your target audience, understanding their pain points and psychographics. This targeted focus will help you build a stronger connection with your lighthouse clients and improve your business’s conversion rates.
For more insights and practical strategies, tune into our latest episode of "Uploading..." featuring Ken Yarmosh.🔍🚀
#BusinessGrowth #Scalability #ContentStrategy #RemoteWork #UploadingPodcast
Future State, 6 reasons post
In just 6 months, I've mastered the art of consistent content creation on LinkedIn, narrowing my focus to lighthouse clients, and built a content workflow that generated significant engagement, transformed my business strategy, and led to scalable growth. My approach to LinkedIn has allowed me to find an efficient way to grow without being spread too thin. Here's how you can do it too:
BACKGROUND:
Forget traditional business growth methods; the key to success is identifying and connecting with your lighthouse clients on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has the potential to be more than just a networking platform; it’s a powerful tool for targeted content creation that can drive significant business transformation.
Old Strategy:
Broad, unfocused audience
Spread thin across various channels
Unclear messaging and value proposition
Inconsistent content engagement
New Strategy:
Hyper-targeted lighthouse clients
Focused and strategic content distribution
Clear and compelling messaging
Consistent and meaningful engagement
By refining my own content strategy and being persistent, I was able to see a considerable impact on my business, without relying on the traditional growth methods of hiring more people or chasing more clients.
HOWEVER...
This pivot didn’t happen overnight. It took thoughtful and strategic adjustments. If LinkedIn evolves and its users adapt, it can become an even more robust platform for achieving targeted business growth.
Here are my 6 recommendations:
Develop Hyper-Targeted Marketing Tools: Incorporate tools that help businesses zero in on specific psychographics, pain points, and behaviors of their lighthouse clients. This includes enhanced filtering and search functionalities.
Enhance Content Scheduling and Analytics: Provide more comprehensive content scheduling tools that integrate with other platforms, paired with advanced analytics to measure performance and optimize content strategies.
Foster Community Building: Create features that encourage building smaller, more engaged communities within LinkedIn to foster deeper connections and more meaningful interactions with lighthouse clients.
Improve Conversion Tracking: Offer better ways to track the journey from content engagement to lead conversion, making it easier to understand what content drives actual business results.
Expand Integration Capabilities: Support more third-party integrations to streamline workflows, such as CRM tools, email marketing platforms, and project management software, to enhance operational efficiency.
Optimize Video Content: Increase the functionality and analytics for video content, allowing users to capture insights and engagement metrics more effectively, making it a more powerful tool for lighthouse client targeting.
LinkedIn has a tremendous opportunity to help businesses scale efficiently by focusing on what truly matters—targeted engagement with lighthouse clients.
P.S.
What strategies have you found effective in targeting and engaging with your most important clients on LinkedIn?
Do you believe LinkedIn should develop more features to support advanced business growth strategies?
Workbook
"Uploading..." Podcast Episode Workbook: Ken Yarmosh
Episode Title:
Ken Yarmosh
Speakers:
Blaine: Host
Ken Yarmosh: Guest
Part 1: Understanding Systems for Business Scale
Key Concept: Defining a System
Definition: A system is a repeatable way to get results.
Activity: Write down three systems you currently use in your business.
Key Concept: DTA Mnemonic
DTA: Document, Template, Automate
Exercise: Identify three tasks in your business that can be documented, templated, and automated.
Task 1:
Task 2:
Task 3:
Key Concept: Primary Business Systems
Primary Systems: Marketing, Sales, and Client Delivery
Reflection: How do these systems currently operate in your business? Write a brief description for each.
Marketing:
Sales:
Client Delivery:
Part 2: Crafting Scalable Offers
Key Concept: Scalable Offers
Scalable offers meet market demands without an increase in direct labor.
Exercise: List your current offers and analyze how they can be scaled.
Offer 1:
Offer 2:
Key Concept: Shift in Mentality
Move from “get paid more to do more” to growth strategies.
Action Plan: Develop a strategy to scale your business using current resources. Focus on efficiency over just hiring more staff or acquiring clients.
Part 3: Content Creation and Engagement
Key Concept: Workflow for LinkedIn Content
Ken's Workflow: Daily publishing, video creation, repurposing, content funnel strategy.
Exercise: Plan a week’s worth of LinkedIn content using Ken’s workflow.
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Part 4: Identifying Lighthouse Clients
Key Concept: Lighthouse Clients
Focus on building for specific, high-value clients.
Exercise: Identify your lighthouse clients based on psychographics, pain points, and "exigraphics."
Client 1:
Client 2:
Key Concept: Crafting Specific Messaging
Tailor your messaging and services to your lighthouse clients.
Activity: Write a draft message targeting your lighthouse client.
Draft Message:
Part 5: Strategies for Remote Work and Operational Efficiency
Key Concept: Remote Work
Importance of remote work in scaling and operational efficiency.
Reflection: What are the benefits and challenges of remote work in your business?
Benefits:
Challenges:
Part 6: Utilizing Content for Business Growth
Key Concept: Content Workflow
Idea capture, writing, adding a call to action, scheduling.
Exercise: Create a content calendar for one month. Make sure to include stages from idea capture to publication.
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4:
Key Concept: Consistency in Content Creation
Exercise: Identify which of your existing content can be repurposed and how.
Content Piece 1: How to repurpose
Content Piece 2: How to repurpose
Summary:
Write a brief summary of what you have learned from this workbook and how you plan to implement these strategies in your business.
For more insights and to connect with Ken Yarmosh, check out his TRS Club Blueprint and follow him on LinkedIn.
Tweet thread on learnings
Tweet 1:
Just had an insightful chat with @kyarmosh on the latest episode of "Uploading...":
Ken shared his approach to scaling businesses through systems:
📈 DTA: Document, Template, Automate
Key takeaways from his expert perspective on operational efficiency: 👇
Tweet 2:
The Power of Document, Template, Automate (DTA)
Avoid manual tasks whenever possible.
Document your procedures, turn them into templates, and automate them.
Frees up time for knowledge workers to focus on higher-level opportunities with tools and AI.
Tweet 3:
Importance of Scalable Offers
Stop thinking you need to do more to earn more.
Create offers meeting market demand that can scale without additional headcount.
Focus on growing strategically rather than just acquiring more clients.
Tweet 4:
Targeting the Lighthouse Client
Identify that one key client and build your strategy around them.
Don’t spread yourself too thin. Hyper-focus on what they need.
This specificity paves the way for greater scalability and success.
Tweet 5:
Transition in Content Strategy
Ken shifted from remote work to the "remote solopreneur" category.
Learned to resonate better with his audience, leading to impactful content that actually converts.
Conversion > Virality in the social media game.
Tweet 6:
Leveraging LinkedIn for Business Growth
Ken’s LinkedIn workflow includes daily publishing and video creation.
Repurpose content strategically and maintain a robust content funnel.
Consistency and targeting lighthouse clients are key to LinkedIn success.
Tweet 7:
Using Data to Refine Your Services
Don’t just look at titles and revenue. Dive into psychographics and pain points.
“You can’t get lost in the noise,” Ken says.
Refine your services and messaging based on in-depth data analysis.
Tweet 8:
SEO and Content Marketing over Paid Ads
Ken grew his software agency without paid ads.
SEO and strategic content marketing were his go-tos.
Building a custom workflow for idea capture and content scheduling laid the foundation for consistent growth.
Tweet 9:
Consistency is King
Capture ideas quickly and build a robust catalog.
Stick to a streamlined process: idea capture, drafting, and scheduling.
Consistency in these areas makes scaling and sustained growth far more achievable.
Youtube Description
Ken Yarmosh: Revolutionizing Business Systems and Content Strategy in 2024
Looking to transform your business operations and content strategy in 2024? This episode of "Uploading..." featuring Ken Yarmosh is the ultimate guide you need.
Unlocking the Power of Systems:
Join us as Ken Yarmosh defines a system as a repeatable way to get results. He'll explain why knowledge workers need to combine tools and AI for new opportunities, rather than being replaced. Discover the significance of systems in scaling businesses, and learn Ken’s simple and effective mnemonic, DTA: Document, Template, Automate, for easily identifying tasks ripe for automation.
Scaling Your Business:
Yarmosh delves into the primary systems that drive businesses—marketing, sales, and client delivery—and emphasizes the importance of having a scalable offer that aligns with market demands. Understand how to shift away from being paid more to do more things, towards growth strategies that reduce reliance on hiring more people or acquiring more clients.
Remote Work and Efficient Operations:
As a business coach who scaled a remote agency to over $5 million in revenue, Ken shares invaluable insights on the importance of remote work, efficient hiring practices, and operational efficiency. Learn the challenges and rewards of building a business with these unconventional practices.
Targeting Lighthouse Clients:
Learn how to identify and focus on lighthouse clients to avoid spreading yourself too thin. Yarmosh shares his passion for educating people through content and his journey from early content struggles to successfully engaging his lighthouse clients on LinkedIn.
Content Strategy for Solopreneurs:
Explore the transition in Ken’s content strategy towards building a category called "remote solopreneur," and its impact on revenue generation. Dive into his comprehensive LinkedIn content workflow, which includes daily publishing, video creation, repurposing, and a content funnel strategy that sharply targets and converts lighthouse clients.
Engineering Content for Conversion:
Understand why Ken emphasizes conversion over virality in social media content. Grasp the importance of engineering your content to drive meaningful conversions rather than chasing fleeting likes and shares.
Hyper-Targeting Clients:
Gain insights into the necessity of looking beyond generic targeting criteria to focus specifically on the psychographics, pain points, and "exigraphics" of your lighthouse client. Ken discusses how just one well-targeted client can unlock scalability and offers guidance on crafting messaging and services specifically for them.
Leveraging Data for Business Growth:
Ken talks about leveraging data from satisfied clients to refine your services and messaging. Understand the Blue Ocean strategy to identify market gaps and the concept of anchoring your business to the specific segment of customers that set the bar for new ventures.
Workflow and Content Creation:
Peek into Ken’s custom notion workflow for time-efficient idea capture, writing, and scheduling of content. Discover the importance of quick idea capture, creating a catalog of future use ideas, and maintaining consistency and replication in content creation.
Free Resources and Community Engagement:
Ken generously offers a free resource called TRS Club Blueprint and invites connections on LinkedIn for more content. Blaine, our host, underscores the importance of having a robust idea capture and content pipeline for sustained online presence and growth.
Don’t miss this episode if you’re eager to operationalize efficiency, master remote work, and rejuvenate your content strategy for 2024. It’s packed with actionable insights that can propel your business to new heights.
Simplify
Sure, here's a simplified version of the podcast content:
Podcast Name: Uploading...
Episode Title: Ken Yarmosh
Speakers:
Blaine: Host
Ken Yarmosh: Guest
Key Facts of the Episode:
System Basics: Ken Yarmosh explains a system is a repeatable way to achieve results. Knowledge workers should combine tools and AI to find new opportunities rather than worry about being replaced.
Business Scaling: Ken stresses that systems help businesses grow and shares the mnemonic DTA: Document, Template, Automate. This helps identify what tasks can be automated.
Core Systems: Marketing, sales, and client delivery are the main systems driving businesses. A scalable offer that meets market demands is crucial.
Mental Shift: Businesses should focus on growth strategies that reduce the need for more employees or clients rather than just doing more tasks for more pay.
Blaine's Podcast: "Uploading..." features interviews on content strategy, creation, distribution, and growth.
Ken's Background: A business coach who scaled a remote agency to $5 million in revenue, Ken has experience in building websites, apps, and working with big brands and startups.
Remote Work: Ken talks about the importance of remote work and efficient hiring practices.
Operational Efficiency: Both Blaine and Ken share their experiences with building businesses and stress operational efficiency and practical decision-making.
Value from Employees: The discussion includes how to get the most value from employees.
Lighthouse Clients: Ken talks about the importance of identifying key clients (lighthouse clients) and focusing on them.
Content Creation Journey: Ken shares his journey from struggling with content engagement to resonating with key clients on LinkedIn.
Remote Solopreneur: He shifted his content from just remote work to building a category called "remote solopreneur," which boosted his revenue.
Content Workflow: Ken's LinkedIn content strategy includes daily posts, videos, repurposing content, and a funnel strategy to convert key clients.
Conversion vs. Virality: The podcast discusses the importance of conversion over just being viral on social media.
LinkedIn Content Tips: Ken shares his process for capturing ideas, writing, and scheduling posts consistently on LinkedIn.
Data-Driven: Analyzing data helps Ken tweak and repurpose his content.
Free Resource: Ken offers a free resource called TRS Club Blueprint and invites listeners to connect on LinkedIn.
Conclusion: The episode wraps up with Blaine expressing appreciation for Ken's insights and discussing the importance of idea capture and having a content pipeline for consistency.
Uploading LinkedIn-YouTube
@Ken Yarmosh scaled a remote agency to over $5 million in revenue and now shares his insights on building efficient, remote businesses. 🚀
Ken joins @Blaine on this week’s episode of Uploading... to detail how he combines tools and AI to uncover new opportunities, emphasizing the power of systems like DTA (Document, Template, Automate).
From engaging LinkedIn workflows to identifying lighthouse clients, Ken highlights the importance of targeting the right audience and staying ahead with trends and competitor analysis.
We dive deep into sustainable growth strategies, operational efficiency, and creating a scalable offer that truly meets market demands.
Full episode here: [YouTube link]
#Uploading #BusinessGrowth #RemoteWork #ScalableSolutions #OperationalEfficiency #LinkedInMarketing #ContentStrategy
5 Characteristics of Winners
#Uploading podcast special with Ken Yarmosh highlighted powerful characteristics that set winners apart in business operations and content strategy:
✅ Building repeatable systems for scalable success
✅ Leveraging DTA: Document, Template, Automate
✅ Hyper-targeting lighthouse clients
✅ Emphasizing conversion over virality in content
✅ Grounding decisions in macro trends, competitors, and customer voice
Empower your journey with these insights and keep scaling! 🚀
The Rule, The Process, Keys to Success
Ken Yarmosh offers a perfect illustration of the DTA rule in business.
When it comes to scaling businesses, he considers himself an advocate of DTA: Document, Template, Automate - a principle he emphasizes as pivotal to reducing manual labor and achieving efficient results.
For Ken, the most exciting part of the process is the ideation phase - identifying opportunities and combining tools and AI to streamline tasks and maximize productivity. Working with knowledge workers to create seamless systems is pure joy...
Then comes the nitty-gritty part - documenting every task meticulously, creating detailed templates, and ensuring that automation runs smoothly. It’s laborious and often feels like a thankless grind.
Because that groundwork is essential.
Documenting processes step-by-step, making exhaustive templates, and testing automation repeatedly - it takes an incredible amount of precision and time. 😓
Interestingly, Ken's milestone is creating a scalable offer that meets market demands without getting bogged down by the endless cycle of manual tasks.
I actually give Ken the most credit here because he persistently revisits and refines his systems until they’re foolproof - ensuring each one functions efficiently to support growth strategies.
It's true, we often aim for that flawless system, where every task is seamlessly automated. There's always something to tweak or improve, though these refinements may not be apparent to everyone. But we notice them and recognize their crucial role in making the system robust.
Ken and I have seen similar pains in tech and business development.
The relentless quest to build the perfect system or a scalable offer feels never-ending. There's always a new variable, a new tool to integrate, or another iteration needed.
What's been invaluable to Ken is identifying and serving lighthouse clients rather than spreading himself too thin. Focusing on specific market needs allows for more meaningful and impactful investments of his time and resources.
Don’t aim to please everyone, and avoid building for what 'might' be. Focus on what you have and what you know works. The last piece becomes significantly easier to refine and perfect.
📖 Rules for Growth & Success
This idea changed how I think about business growth and scaling...
My 'DTA' Approach:
I've found that the success of any business system follows a repeatable process:
• Document your tasks.
• Create a Template.
• Automate wherever possible.
When you document your tasks, you create visibility and clarity.
When you create a template, you ensure consistency and efficiency.
When you automate, you free up valuable time and resources.
Your business's growth is determined by your ability to consistently follow these steps.
In other words, the way you build and refine your systems ultimately defines the scalability and success of your business.
The most successful businesses don't just work hard--they work smart.
They continually refine and optimize their processes for maximum efficiency.
That ongoing effort to improve and automate tasks compounds dramatically over time.
That is how they achieve remarkable scalability and success.
This approach applies to every aspect of business:
Marketing: document your campaigns, template your processes, and automate distribution.
Sales: document your pitches, template your proposals, and automate follow-ups.
Client Delivery: document your workflows, template your deliverables, and automate routine tasks.
Never underestimate the business that diligently focuses on streamlining and optimizing its processes.
Remember: Document, Template, Automate.
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