Issue 125: The Many Sources of Free Money 🤑

+ halftime health check

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The results are in y’all! STAT ATTACK 👊 is officially a permanent fixture in this here newsletter. We got plenty of votes and the overwhelming majority was to keep it in there.

Wanna see something else? Whether that’s to add something new or scrap a section altogether, just sMaSh ThAt RePlY bUtToN and let us know! 🤓 

| TWEET OF THE WEEK

Who doesn’t love free money?

Ohhhh I can hear you responding now, “there is no such thing as free money!”

To which I say…not true dear friend.

There are many sources of free money, even if you find some contorted way to say it isn’t free. Free money is the best kind of funding for your business, and today I want to talk about how you can get some of this free money.

I define free money as this:

→ zero-interest rate cost and zero equity cost

To a business, that is free.

In my career, I’ve seen a handful of different types of capital sources that qualify as free.

Here’s the three I’ve benefited from. It’s story time boys and girls. Sit down and buckle-in.

1 - Customers

Believe it or not, getting customers to finance your growth capital requirements is the best source of money.

And I’m not even talking about profit here. I’m talking about having customers pre-pay for things before you’ve had to deliver the product or service.

We did this with Lomi when we launched our crowdfunding campaign. We raised $7.5 million in 45 days by doing a giant pre-order campaign on Indiegogo.

The cash raised from this campaign allowed us to invest in the manufacturing of bringing the first lomi devices to market.

We gave up no equity to get it.

We used no debt to get it.

It had a 0% rate on it. That’s FREE

| YOUTUBE UNIVERSITY

Half Time Health Check

| TOGETHER WITH SARAL

💸 This Influencer Mistake
Might Be Draining Your Budget 💸

Aren’t you tired of seeing the same faces selling everything from toothpaste to clothes? So are your customers.

Smart brands (think Obvi, Tabs Chocolate, Legends) are taking a different approach. Instead of chasing one big influencer, they're building a team of smaller, niche voices who align with their brand.

These micro-voices are way more effective. The trust they share with their followers is like having a direct line to the exact audience a brand wants to reach.

But finding these hidden influencers isn't easy. That's where SARAL steps in.

It's not just another influencer marketplace with a limited reach. SARAL is a search engine that works with Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to find any profile that fits your needs.

Need someone who loves vegan cooking in Seattle? Find them on SARAL. Want someone in Miami who’s into sustainable fashion? They're just a search away. Plus, with AI-powered lookalike suggestions, your pool of potential partners will NEVER run dry.

Ready to try it out? Start your free SARAL trial today and see how niche influencers can work for your brand.

| QUICK SHOTS

  • @itsNickSimpson: I shipped $100k worth of inventory to @Amazon, and now they’ve misplaced it. Meanwhile, I see resellers hawking it on eBay.

  • Jon Loomer: Meta is rolling out First Conversion reporting. Do you have it yet?

  • @BenKnegendorf: I ordered from @1stPhorm late last week and they did a few things that really impressed me. My marketing mind lit up with some of the things they were doing on their website, at checkout, and post-purchase and I had to share. Time for a thread 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

  • @andrewjfaris: Say I want to test two different first time customer offers on my sitewide pop-up…

  • Ashvin Melwani: As brand owners, we sell products that are MEANT to be consumed every day so naturally we set subscription renewals for every 30 days.

| HERE FOR THE MEMES

| AND IN OTHER NEWS…

| GET LINKED

| RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE & SERVICES

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  • BoxFort Commerce helps clothing & high-sku brands scale with efficient Shopify fulfillment. Unlike the Bobs & Monks of logistics, we ship hundreds of thousands of orders for 3 of our own clothing and jewelry brands, so it’s imperative that our processes are built around saving money & consistency. Learn more here.

| STAT ATTACK 👊

| YOU’RE HIRED

Brand

SaaS

  • Outbound Sales Director (Hyros)

  • Content Marketing Manager (Talkable)

Got a job you want us to list? Let us know.

| THE OUTRO

Oh man, did you know that Kai, aka “The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker” aka “Caleb Lawrence McGillvary” eventually went to jail for another murder? Take me back to the good ol’ days when Kai was a hero and Sweet Brown was remixed for the hottest track in 2012.

Don’t grab no shoes or nuthin’, Jesus! ✌️

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