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The latest Posts from the Jupiter Dispatch

© Domi Hess. All rights reserved.
No tracking. 100% privacy.

Hey, I'm Domi,

growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, I've always been curious about how the world and the business environment around me operate. This is ingrained in my DNA from an early age.For more than a decade now, I have been working in businesses of various sizes and sectors.From incubator, startup (Seed), and growth-stage company (Series D) to family business (SMBs) and even large corporations.My experience extends across private and public markets in diverse industries, including art, forestry, real estate, and currently, technology.My main focus is on combining hands-on operational approaches with strategic initiatives to shape a company's trajectory toward a sustainable future.In my day-to-day role, I am tasked with discovering, developing, and launching new product ideas.As a result, I am constantly learning about emerging concepts, practices, and advancements in business and startups.I invite you to join me on this endeavour to explore the future of entrepreneurial progress together.See you soon 👊Domi

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The universal Blueprint for Entrepreneurs

Finding the right path for your startup requires a certain mindset & method of thinking.by Domi HessRead time: 7.50 minutes

If you look into the “Profession of Entrepreneurship”, you will observe one thing at first. Entrepreneurs come from all walks of life, just like people do.You will find all levels of skill. All shades of smartness or dumbness. People you sometimes think, how on earth this guy can be even successful.You see industry experts which can’t make a company work, being equipped with millions of funding. Versus total beginners which thrive in their new category like they never did something else.An Observation which made me ask:What is the “universal blueprint” to be a successful entrepreneur?To get behind this, you have to bring the following two things together.1. The mindset you need to thrive as an entrepreneur2. The method you have to follow to find the right path for your businessWith the addition of time, these two concepts will lead to a winning recipe for your business success.And it’s important that you apply the two at the same time. The right mindset with the wrong methodology lead you to incorrect answers. As well as, the right methodology with the wrong mindset.If your methodology of searching for the right answers is good, but your mindset is not, you won’t recognise the correct path to follow.Same the other way. Your mindset is maybe the correct one, but without the right methodology you won’t even have the chance to get near the winning trail at all.The mindset you need to thrive as an entrepreneurGetting into the journey to become an entrepreneur is not only a decision. It’s choosing to be different to the rest. And this happens by having a different mindset.But what is part of the mindset you need to have to thrive in every kind of business?1. Pretend that you know nothingDon’t get this wrong here. Of course everyone have a certain skillset and knowledge. Use this where you can.But as universal principle, again, you should pretend to know nothing.Everything you think to know about your customers, what they like, and what they need, is a hypothesis which have to be tested.Too many times experts with 20 years of experience are wrong about what their customers needs.This is a controversial point, but a true one. And everyone can fall victim to this.2. Start to think in experimentsEvery solution and iteration, is an experiment. Every idea you might have, is a hypothesis.This is the only way how you can let go assumptions of your customers or expectations about an industry sector you may have. Your gut feeling can lead you to incorrect or ineffective beliefs.That’s why you have to test everything.More often than not, you don’t know what might work. Even tiny changes can have a huge impact on the results in the end.So be open about the results in general. This will lead you to answers which your competition may never find.Test everyday. Test everything. Let decide the market what is right, not your ego.3. Choose growth at all timesThere is only one option, growth in any occasion.Because growth means to make things better. To improve every day.Growth helps you to find the right path from many different possibilities to choose from and directs your focus on the best results.Without growth-thinking you not have the necessary reason to dig deep enough to find a more valuable solution for your customers.It helps you to decide on which ideas you should work on and which you could cancel out or at least de-prioritise.Growth is the motor of your success.Bonus: Think in “lean” termsHere, you might argue, that you can use the described mindset above without thinking ”lean” and still find the right path for success.But this school of thought can be a boost for your odds of winning.“Lean” means to design your experiments in the most effective way you can. To not blow your experiment up with spending to much.Instead, thinking “lean” helps you to proof your point in the most affordable way.Money is the fuel for the growth engine you want to build. And if you found the right idea, you still can invest more after experimenting.

_The method to find the right path as an entrepreneurEvery business is different. So every business calls for its own way of finding the right ideas to follow.Besides the right mindset, you need an open step-by-step process to get to those ideas.In terms of your domain, this step-by-step process can be specific and differ, but in its core there is an universal procedure for all kinds of businesses, which helps you to find the the most valuable options to choose from.Every entrepreneur has one core mission and this is, to solve problems for a specific customer.This requires to find the most vital solutions to solve these problems.Your step-by-step process have to come with some certain traits. The process should be influenced by research. Means, have to be un-biased, have to be result-driven, and should contain testing every viable solution in repeatable experiments.The step-by-step guideAs stated above, to implement and follow these instruction for the process in the correct way, you have to apply the thinking of a researcher who is working on a study.1. Frame the Problem you want to solveWrite down the problem you want to solve. Be specific here and may break it down to smaller problems.Be customer-centric, even if you look for solutions to your own problems.2. Validate the problemAt this point you have to get precise. Make sure the problem exists at all.Sometimes you recognise at this stage, that the problem is maybe there but don’t need to be solved.So talk to your customers or rethink if this problem is affecting your business at all.3. Find ideas to solve the problemThis is the creative part. Start to think about all possible ideas to solve the problem.Use in addition contrarian thinking. The best solutions are often unobvious.But be aware, not every complex problem needs a complex solution. Think in simple terms.4. Choose the most promising hypothesises for experimentationQualify and look for the most promising ideas to line up tests.Use growth thinking to identify the hypothesis with the highest impact on your business.The result should be a shortlist of ideas you can test in the next stage.5. Build customer-centric experiments to test your hypothesisesSet up experiments for every hypothesis you want to test. Use lean thinking.Every experiment should only use the minimal resources it needs to proof or disprove the hypothesis. (time is a resource too)Build different versions of the experiment and test as often as you can.6. Test, Test, TestRun the tests. If you recognise that they measure the wrong KPI or event, change them.Like a researcher, be open regarding the results. Don’t bias your experiments with a result in mind. Run different variants.And stop the experiments when they proofed or disproved the hypothesis.7. Qualify and interpret the resultsCollect the results and put them into perspective.If you found a promising solution, follow up and test at a bigger scale or with other variants to find an operating blueprint for the implementation of your results.Disproving a hypothesis is a good result too. At least you know that the hypothesis was incorrect then.8. RepeatYou should repeat the whole step-by-step process not only when you disproved a hypothesis. You should test assumptions and possible option at all times.The end of a process cycle is also the start of a new cycle.Final conclusionTo use an universal blueprint to approach and find success in every kind of business, you need a combination of the right mindset and the right method.In the past, research lead the way to find answers to many complex questions in a range of different topics. Enough proof that businesses can learn from this school of thought too.Following this blueprint, helps you to set up a process of finding answers to even hard problems.Implement this framework into your day-to-day operations, and with the addition of time you will find ideas your competition may never find.- - - -
FootnotesFirst Principle Thinking - by Farnam Street

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The Guide for all your Growth Problems

Everything you need to embark on your growth journey to scale your projects or business.by Domi HessRead time: 7.10 minutes

“Growth”Some people love this topic. Some people hate this topic…But why?Maybe because growth is mostly associated with marketing and sales.And like with every other skill and profession, some people are good in doing sales or stuff like performance marketing. And others don‘t.This text will explain you why the above doesn‘t matter. This text will show you why we all, different in ideas and different in our opinions, should care about growth.Let‘s go back into the year 2004. A young college drop-out named Mark Zuckerberg started a new social network called Facebook.We all know how this story of little Mark and his startup went till today.But now one question… Because Facebook, even being a great product already, faced the same problem we all have to deal with…“How can you grow in a repeatable and sustainable way?”To solve this problem, Mark decided to give the topic of „growth“ his full focus.So Facebook started its legendary growth team…Even today, there are still a lot of mythical stories told in Silicon Valley about this team. A team which invented ground-breaking methods for attracting new users.But what was so special about them?Instead of filling it with marketing guys and sales people. Facebook staffed the growth team with their best people and only the best.We are talking about physicists, Harvard MBAs and a lot of PHDs from a wide range of different topics here.With only „retention“ as key growth KPI and a lot of well thought out experiments, the growth team grew Facebook to over 500 million users in only a couple of years.This was maybe the best growth result in modern business history and shows the power of the right blueprint in this major topic.But enough of the story time here. Let's get into the specifics and bring you this blueprint at your hands. And I promise this works in every industry…The right mindset & the right focusFirst things first. You need to approach growth with the right mindset and focus. If you not following this path, you may lose yourself in the marketing jungle.Your first objective should always be to generate long-term and sustainable growth.Everything else leads you to „flashy stuff“ like getting press in famous magazines or getting featured in the Apple app store.This sounds maybe nice, but gives your product only a short spike.I experienced this myself with an art app I was involved with. Even a world-famous celebrity couldn‘t save us long-term growth.So I can’t recommend you to lay your whole existence in ideas like this…Therefore, you should not follow „silver bullets“. Instead you should „fire“ a lot of „lead bullets“. (different growth experiments which lead to compounded growth)To be clear. It‘s better to increase your sign up funnel by 5% than try to land the next TV interview. The latter pushes your ego, the former your revenue for years.This is why you need to focus here. Picking your right „northstar metric“ is key.For Facebook, this was „user retention“ after the sign-up-process.Facebook made it easy to find your first 5 friends fast and give you a reason to login again and again.Another example is LinkedIn. You may remember that the platform asked you to connect with your email contacts after the first sign in?That was genius, because they could notify all of your contacts that you are now using LinkedIn and made them desire the same.Last but not least, you have to think in experiments all the Time.Therefore everything you do to generate more growth, has to be measured and tested.Only this way, you can ensure to learn what works and adjust your strategy on the go.Thinking in experiments & how to rank themThinking in experiments means, that you have to collect all your Ideas for growth. Therefore you should write down „What you do“, „What is the objective“ and „How you measure the success“.It‘s also important to „rank“ your ideas in terms of the „Ease of doing“, the „Likelihood of success“ and “Cost”.But please never forget the other necessary step:Reviewing the results and adjust through your learnings after. You should do this at least every 2 weeks with your experiments.A great system to come up with the right ideas and channels for Growth, is the „Bullseye“ strategy of Justin Mares and Gabriel Weinberg. (see footnotes)This straight forward method lets you choose 3 promising marketing channels, then you test them out and choose the best performing idea.If this channel is sending you to the path of growth, perfect.If not, repeat.Then use 3 other new channels until you find a high performing result.But bear in mind, the channel which brought you to 1k users is maybe not bringing you from 1k to 10k users.“Growth is a never ending hustle.”So be prepared to adjust accordingly on the way up…The supporting thesis for this assumption is the „Law of Shitty Clickthroughs“. A term coined by the growth mastermind Andrew Chen. (see footnotes)This law describes, that every marketing method reaches a point of decreasing clickthrough rates over time.That’s why you see every other year a new marketing trick in the social web.And almost every company is trying desperately to jump on that train.A little tip here:“Going into the same direction as everyone is running to, is usually always a bad idea.”So think more “intelligent” in these situations. I repeat, “growth is a never ending hustle.”Parting advice - be resourcefulBefore you leave, here some tips you should try to implement in your growth thinking:Achieving sustainable growth is far from easy. And you have to compete with a lot of other products and services out there for customers. So remember…„You need to be relentless but patient!“I also advise you, if you think about growth experiments, to be lean and resourceful. Most of us can‘t use VC funds or budgets like Google has, to stimulate growth.So you need to be effective with your resources.If you find a method that‘s working and the retention of your User is getting higher and higher, then you should go full force. Not before.Last but not least, you should think in Warren Buffet’s famous „compounding interest“ idea. Several tiny, but sustainable Increases of growth are better than to follow a shiny marketing “hype train”.Again, you are here for the long game. And this is where you will find your success.So keep growing…- - - -FootnotesJustine Mares: The Traction Bullseye FrameworkAndrew Chen: The Law of Shitty ClickthroughsShaan Puri: Three Things I know about Growth

“Growth”Some people love this topic. Some people hate this topic…But why?Maybe because growth is mostly associated with marketing and sales.And like with every other skill and profession, some people are good in doing sales or stuff like performance marketing. And others don‘t.This text will explain you why the above doesn‘t matter. This text will show you why we all, different in ideas and different in our opinions, should care about growth.Let‘s go back into the year 2004. A young college drop-out named Mark Zuckerberg started a new social network called Facebook.We all know how this story of little Mark and his startup went till today.But now one question… Because Facebook, even being a great product already, faced the same problem we all have to deal with…“How can you grow in a repeatable and sustainable way?”To solve this problem, Mark decided to give the topic of „growth“ his full focus.So Facebook started its legendary growth team…Even today, there are still a lot of mythical stories told in Silicon Valley about this team. A team which invented ground-breaking methods for attracting new users.But what was so special about them?Instead of filling it with marketing guys and sales people. Facebook staffed the growth team with their best people and only the best.We are talking about physicists, Harvard MBAs and a lot of PHDs from a wide range of different topics here.With only „retention“ as key growth KPI and a lot of well thought out experiments, the growth team grew Facebook to over 500 million users in only a couple of years.This was maybe the best growth result in modern business history and shows the power of the right blueprint in this major topic.But enough of the story time here. Let's get into the specifics and bring you this blueprint at your hands. And I promise this works in every industry…The right mindset & the right focusFirst things first. You need to approach growth with the right mindset and focus. If you not following this path, you may lose yourself in the marketing jungle.Your first objective should always be to generate long-term and sustainable growth.Everything else leads you to „flashy stuff“ like getting press in famous magazines or getting featured in the Apple app store.This sounds maybe nice, but gives your product only a short spike.I experienced this myself with an art app I was involved with. Even a world-famous celebrity couldn‘t save us long-term growth.So I can’t recommend you to lay your whole existence in ideas like this…Therefore, you should not follow „silver bullets“. Instead you should „fire“ a lot of „lead bullets“. (different growth experiments which lead to compounded growth)To be clear. It‘s better to increase your sign up funnel by 5% than try to land the next TV interview. The latter pushes your ego, the former your revenue for years.This is why you need to focus here. Picking your right „northstar metric“ is key.For Facebook, this was „user retention“ after the sign-up-process.Facebook made it easy to find your first 5 friends fast and give you a reason to login again and again.Another example is LinkedIn. You may remember that the platform asked you to connect with your email contacts after the first sign in?That was genius, because they could notify all of your contacts that you are now using LinkedIn and made them desire the same.Last but not least, you have to think in experiments all the Time.Therefore everything you do to generate more growth, has to be measured and tested.Only this way, you can ensure to learn what works and adjust your strategy on the go.Thinking in experiments & how to rank themThinking in experiments means, that you have to collect all your Ideas for growth. Therefore you should write down „What you do“, „What is the objective“ and „How you measure the success“.It‘s also important to „rank“ your ideas in terms of the „Ease of doing“, the „Likelihood of success“ and “Cost”.But please never forget the other necessary step:Reviewing the results and adjust through your learnings after. You should do this at least every 2 weeks with your experiments.A great system to come up with the right ideas and channels for Growth, is the „Bullseye“ strategy of Justin Mares and Gabriel Weinberg. (see footnotes)This straight forward method lets you choose 3 promising marketing channels, then you test them out and choose the best performing idea.If this channel is sending you to the path of growth, perfect.If not, repeat.Then use 3 other new channels until you find a high performing result.But bear in mind, the channel which brought you to 1k users is maybe not bringing you from 1k to 10k users.“Growth is a never ending hustle.”So be prepared to adjust accordingly on the way up…The supporting thesis for this assumption is the „Law of Shitty Clickthroughs“. A term coined by the growth mastermind Andrew Chen. (see footnotes)This law describes, that every marketing method reaches a point of decreasing clickthrough rates over time.That’s why you see every other year a new marketing trick in the social web.And almost every company is trying desperately to jump on that train.A little tip here:“Going into the same direction as everyone is running to, is usually always a bad idea.”So think more “intelligent” in these situations. I repeat, “growth is a never ending hustle.”Parting advice - be resourcefulBefore you leave, here some tips you should try to implement in your growth thinking:Achieving sustainable growth is far from easy. And you have to compete with a lot of other products and services out there for customers. So remember…„You need to be relentless but patient!“I also advise you, if you think about growth experiments, to be lean and resourceful. Most of us can‘t use VC funds or budgets like Google has, to stimulate growth.So you need to be effective with your resources.If you find a method that‘s working and the retention of your User is getting higher and higher, then you should go full force. Not before.Last but not least, you should think in Warren Buffet’s famous „compounding interest“ idea. Several tiny, but sustainable Increases of growth are better than to follow a shiny marketing “hype train”.Again, you are here for the long game. And this is where you will find your success.So keep growing…- - - -FootnotesJustine Mares: The Traction Bullseye FrameworkAndrew Chen: The Law of Shitty ClickthroughsShaan Puri: Three Things I know about Growth

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Everything I know about Copywriting...

Because writing copy is crucial. Learn to sell & bring Ideas to life through simple words.by Domi HessRead time: 6.20 minutes

Why I even bother you with the boring topic of copywriting…“It’s writing salesy words.”“I don’t care, I can hire someone to do that job anyway.”I know your thoughts about this…But what if I tell you, that there are a lot of cases where great written copy made other people millions in a day? (yes in a day, not months!)Meet Hint. (a vitamin water company)Hint had a big problem. They were paying too much in acquisition costs per customer. And they also weren’t finding enough of them in the first place.So the marketing team started to improvise with copywriting in form of a written advertorial… (we will talk later about this)After that, they used payed traffic to bring potential customers on this post.Then something really surprising happened…Instead of getting 80 customers a day with a high spend of money, they drove down their customer acquisition costs to cents per customer. Next they made millions of revenue a day.Only with a little "founder" story, Hint was solving their growth problems all at once.And I teach you now how you can do this too…Great copy is not always obvious. The rules for converting texts are sometimes even weird. But they can help you to succeed although if you can’t throw a lot of money around you.This is why copywriting as a skill is so important.Do a quick rethink. You sell all the time. To your partner, to your kids, to your family, to your friends, at work... You sell everywhere & every day.Copywriting can make all of this stuff easier and can push your career to new horizons.So reading the next part is a wise investment of your time. I promise…All the following tricks are proven in battle & any language. (like german, spanish etc.)So let’s jump into the rabbit hole:General advise for writing great copyThe most important tip at first. Don’t write like business schools and marketing classes try to teach you…Don’t write boring business speak like 90% of the people!No-one likes to read this. This kind of stuff is not converting readers to customers.Instead: Write like you speak. This is the most important cheat to success. (this is why I write to you, like I would talk to you in person)Write simple but straight: Don’t use any specific jargon. Use words and sentences everyone can understand. Don’t use passive voice.Write with rhythm: Use a long sentence, then a short one. You often can replace a comma with a point. Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence.So you see. The voice & tone in how you talk to the reader is important. Of course you can vary your “voice”, if the context of the topic is more “serious” or more “fun”.But, how can I bring the reader to follow my ideas with this, you may ask.This is where the following formula turns your whole game to the top…The AIDA-FormulaAIDA is maybe the most crucial system to write converting texts and messages. And it is easy to learn too.AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. This his how you lead the reader down the “slippery slope”. (will explain that in the next step)Attention: Use this for an attention grabber. An interesting fact. A quote or a sticky beginning. Make the reader curious for more. (rewrite the first sentences until it’s an attention grabber)Interest: Here you have to feed the reader with interesting facts. Use KPI’s or just explain why your product is good stuff.Desire: Describe the benefits for the reader. Or the lifestyle the reader gets with this, if following the instructions.Action: The call to action. What the reader has to do now. How you can order or subscribe... (don’t forget the action!)Interesting side fact: You may recognised that I used AIDA for this Text as well.I started with some quotes to make you curious. Then I told you an interesting story of what you can achieve with copywriting. Making you desire the same in your future and show you now how you can do this as well.This example proofs, that copywriting works. Write AIDA next to your texting tool before you start writing and follow the system. And yes it’s that easy…The “slippery” tricksLet’s talk “slippery slope”. What do I mean with this? These are the little but effective tricks to keep you engaged and create FOMO for the reader.These tricks are way more simpler than you may believe…So to create the “slippery slope” try these tricks here:Use hooks: Like: “I promise you there is a better way…” or “Do you really think this is the best way to do this?”. You get my point.Copy should create tension & resolve: Do that in best case multiple times. Show a problem first and then the solution.Use Emotion: Emotions are one of the best triggers to make readers read. Think first of the emotion you want to create and then start.Dialogues can add depth: An easy way to create emotion and “stickyness” is to use dialogues between people or groups.Use Endorsements: They are perfect as an opener and create interest as well. Especially from industry experts or well-known people.Use BOLD, Italics or Colour: See how I use these visuals to make a point. Design is also important for readability. Make it easy to skim through your Text.Paint a vivid Picture: This is a great way to build a slippery slope. You help the reader to imagine the situation and emotion you create.Use ( ) parenthesis for adding context: Just see how I use this to add jokes, context or give a certain tone to the story.Power Tip #1: A pro cheat is to start your copy with a story. A story can be the attention & interest part together. Remember a story has a main character, a hero’s journey and a plot with up’s and down’s like in Hollywood films.Parting Advice - “Trust the process”Before you go, here are some things to consider.There is always a discussion between long vs. short copy. In general, your copy needs to be long enough to achieve your desired action. Bringing your idea into the reader’s head is the target.So here is my rule of thumb:Longer copy is better for unknown, expensive products.Shorter copy it better for well known or cheaper products.Just imagine Dirk Nowitzki is offering a course in vertical throwing. And a random Guy from a Sports-Club is doing the same. Dirk would need just short copy, because he don’t have to proof something in terms of throwing a basketball. The other guy should use long copy to succeed.This brings me to the next point. Always explain the obvious things to the reader. Don’t forget this. Also, address objections which are may coming up.But what if you can’t use longer copy? A great Way to save a lot of copy is to use pictures or a video to show how your product works. This can be worth 1000 words of copy. So show your stuff.The Following is important too. Do you ever heard of the term “forgotten copy”?Everything is copy. Even your “unsubscribe” page, the check-out in your shop or the “about us" page. (second most visit part of your website)Use this as well for great copy. Don’t forget these opportunities.Now we talk about advertorials, social proof and testimonials. You may think they are “scamy” or “sketchy” shit you don’t need.Wrong! This things done right, can be worth millions. (like in the story above)So don’t think there is no need for this. You can make this stuff with ethics. Just don’t be “scamy” and “sketchy” like so many others.Also a cool tip is to start building a “swipe file”.A swipe file is a collection of great stuff you find in the internet that inspire you to write great copy. Every time I come through great copy, I screenshot it and put it in my swipe file.So you never run out of good ideas…Power Tip #2: To nail always the right tone, warm up before you start. Look for a great Ttxt of someone you really enjoy reading and like the voice of. (maybe use your swipe file)Then copy and rewrite the text for 5-10 minutes yourself. After this little practice, start writing your own text. (I think of this like warming up before sports)You will be surprised, but now it feels like you write in the shoes of the author you copied. A really great way to write in the voice you want.- End -This was a long exhausting post, but an important one. Proofs also my point that copy has to be as long it has to be. Hope I gave you some good tools to start your journey through copywriting. Feel free to share this text with friends who need help here too.- - - -FootnotesSam Parr: Copy That - Paid Course

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Hey, I'm Domi,

growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, I've always been curious about how the world and the business environment around me operate. This is ingrained in my DNA from an early age.For more than a decade now, I have been working in businesses of various sizes and sectors.From incubator, startup (Seed), and growth-stage company (Series D) to family business (SMBs) and even large corporations.My experience extends across private and public markets in diverse industries, including art, forestry, real estate, and currently, technology.My main focus is on combining hands-on operational approaches with strategic initiatives to shape a company's trajectory toward a sustainable future.In my day-to-day role, I am tasked with discovering, developing, and launching new product ideas.As a result, I am constantly learning about emerging concepts, practices, and advancements in business and startups.I invite you to join me on this endeavour to explore the future of entrepreneurial progress together.See you soon 👊Domi

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The universal Blueprint for Entrepreneurs

Finding the right path for your startup requires a certain mindset & method of thinking.by Domi HessRead time: 7.50 minutes

If you look into the “Profession of Entrepreneurship”, you will observe one thing at first. Entrepreneurs come from all walks of life, just like people do.You will find all levels of skill. All shades of smartness or dumbness. People you sometimes think, how on earth this guy can be even successful.You see industry experts which can’t make a company work, being equipped with millions of funding. Versus total beginners which thrive in their new category like they never did something else.An Observation which made me ask:What is the “universal blueprint” to be a successful entrepreneur?To get behind this, you have to bring the following two things together.1. The mindset you need to thrive as an entrepreneur2. The method you have to follow to find the right path for your businessWith the addition of time, these two concepts will lead to a winning recipe for your business success.And it’s important that you apply the two at the same time. The right mindset with the wrong methodology lead you to incorrect answers. As well as, the right methodology with the wrong mindset.If your methodology of searching for the right answers is good, but your mindset is not, you won’t recognise the correct path to follow.Same the other way. Your mindset is maybe the correct one, but without the right methodology you won’t even have the chance to get near the winning trail at all.The mindset you need to thrive as an entrepreneurGetting into the journey to become an entrepreneur is not only a decision. It’s choosing to be different to the rest. And this happens by having a different mindset.But what is part of the mindset you need to have to thrive in every kind of business?1. Pretend that you know nothingDon’t get this wrong here. Of course everyone have a certain skillset and knowledge. Use this where you can.But as universal principle, again, you should pretend to know nothing.Everything you think to know about your customers, what they like, and what they need, is a hypothesis which have to be tested.Too many times experts with 20 years of experience are wrong about what their customers needs.This is a controversial point, but a true one. And everyone can fall victim to this.2. Start to think in experimentsEvery solution and iteration, is an experiment. Every idea you might have, is a hypothesis.This is the only way how you can let go assumptions of your customers or expectations about an industry sector you may have. Your gut feeling can lead you to incorrect or ineffective beliefs.That’s why you have to test everything.More often than not, you don’t know what might work. Even tiny changes can have a huge impact on the results in the end.So be open about the results in general. This will lead you to answers which your competition may never find.Test everyday. Test everything. Let decide the market what is right, not your ego.3. Choose growth at all timesThere is only one option, growth in any occasion.Because growth means to make things better. To improve every day.Growth helps you to find the right path from many different possibilities to choose from and directs your focus on the best results.Without growth-thinking you not have the necessary reason to dig deep enough to find a more valuable solution for your customers.It helps you to decide on which ideas you should work on and which you could cancel out or at least de-prioritise.Growth is the motor of your success.Bonus: Think in “lean” termsHere, you might argue, that you can use the described mindset above without thinking ”lean” and still find the right path for success.But this school of thought can be a boost for your odds of winning.“Lean” means to design your experiments in the most effective way you can. To not blow your experiment up with spending to much.Instead, thinking “lean” helps you to proof your point in the most affordable way.Money is the fuel for the growth engine you want to build. And if you found the right idea, you still can invest more after experimenting.

The method to find the right path as an entrepreneurEvery business is different. So every business calls for its own way of finding the right ideas to follow.Besides the right mindset, you need an open step-by-step process to get to those ideas.In terms of your domain, this step-by-step process can be specific and differ, but in its core there is an universal procedure for all kinds of businesses, which helps you to find the the most valuable options to choose from.Every entrepreneur has one core mission and this is, to solve problems for a specific customer.This requires to find the most vital solutions to solve these problems.Your step-by-step process have to come with some certain traits. The process should be influenced by research. Means, have to be un-biased, have to be result-driven, and should contain testing every viable solution in repeatable experiments.The step-by-step guideAs stated above, to implement and follow these instruction for the process in the correct way, you have to apply the thinking of a researcher who is working on a study.1. Frame the Problem you want to solveWrite down the problem you want to solve. Be specific here and may break it down to smaller problems.Be customer-centric, even if you look for solutions to your own problems.2. Validate the problemAt this point you have to get precise. Make sure the problem exists at all.Sometimes you recognise at this stage, that the problem is maybe there but don’t need to be solved.So talk to your customers or rethink if this problem is affecting your business at all.3. Find ideas to solve the problemThis is the creative part. Start to think about all possible ideas to solve the problem.Use in addition contrarian thinking. The best solutions are often unobvious.But be aware, not every complex problem needs a complex solution. Think in simple terms.4. Choose the most promising hypothesises for experimentationQualify and look for the most promising ideas to line up tests.Use growth thinking to identify the hypothesis with the highest impact on your business.The result should be a shortlist of ideas you can test in the next stage.5. Build customer-centric experiments to test your hypothesisesSet up experiments for every hypothesis you want to test. Use lean thinking.Every experiment should only use the minimal resources it needs to proof or disprove the hypothesis. (time is a resource too)Build different versions of the experiment and test as often as you can.6. Test, Test, TestRun the tests. If you recognise that they measure the wrong KPI or event, change them.Like a researcher, be open regarding the results. Don’t bias your experiments with a result in mind. Run different variants.And stop the experiments when they proofed or disproved the hypothesis.7. Qualify and interpret the resultsCollect the results and put them into perspective.If you found a promising solution, follow up and test at a bigger scale or with other variants to find an operating blueprint for the implementation of your results.Disproving a hypothesis is a good result too. At least you know that the hypothesis was incorrect then.8. RepeatYou should repeat the whole step-by-step process not only when you disproved a hypothesis. You should test assumptions and possible option at all times.The end of a process cycle is also the start of a new cycle.Final conclusionTo use an universal blueprint to approach and find success in every kind of business, you need a combination of the right mindset and the right method.In the past, research lead the way to find answers to many complex questions in a range of different topics. Enough proof that businesses can learn from this school of thought too.Following this blueprint, helps you to set up a process of finding answers to even hard problems.Implement this framework into your day-to-day operations, and with the addition of time you will find ideas your competition may never find.- - - -
FootnotesFirst Principle Thinking - by Farnam Street

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The Guide for all your Growth Problems

Everything you need to embark on your growth journey to scale your projects or business.by Domi HessRead time: 7.10 minutes

“Growth”Some people love this topic. Some people hate this topic…But why?Maybe because growth is mostly associated with marketing and sales.And like with every other skill and profession, some people are good in doing sales or stuff like performance marketing. And others don‘t.This text will explain you why the above doesn‘t matter. This text will show you why we all, different in ideas and different in our opinions, should care about growth.Let‘s go back into the year 2004. A young college drop-out named Mark Zuckerberg started a new social network called Facebook.We all know how this story of little Mark and his startup went till today.But now one question… Because Facebook, even being a great product already, faced the same problem we all have to deal with…“How can you grow in a repeatable and sustainable way?”To solve this problem, Mark decided to give the topic of „growth“ his full focus.So Facebook started its legendary growth team…Even today, there are still a lot of mythical stories told in Silicon Valley about this team. A team which invented ground-breaking methods for attracting new users.But what was so special about them?Instead of filling it with marketing guys and sales people. Facebook staffed the growth team with their best people and only the best.We are talking about physicists, Harvard MBAs and a lot of PHDs from a wide range of different topics here.With only „retention“ as key growth KPI and a lot of well thought out experiments, the growth team grew Facebook to over 500 million users in only a couple of years.This was maybe the best growth result in modern business history and shows the power of the right blueprint in this major topic.But enough of the story time here. Let's get into the specifics and bring you this blueprint at your hands. And I promise this works in every industry…The right mindset & the right focusFirst things first. You need to approach growth with the right mindset and focus. If you not following this path, you may lose yourself in the marketing jungle.Your first objective should always be to generate long-term and sustainable growth.Everything else leads you to „flashy stuff“ like getting press in famous magazines or getting featured in the Apple app store.This sounds maybe nice, but gives your product only a short spike.I experienced this myself with an art app I was involved with. Even a world-famous celebrity couldn‘t save us long-term growth.So I can’t recommend you to lay your whole existence in ideas like this…Therefore, you should not follow „silver bullets“. Instead you should „fire“ a lot of „lead bullets“. (different growth experiments which lead to compounded growth)To be clear. It‘s better to increase your sign up funnel by 5% than try to land the next TV interview. The latter pushes your ego, the former your revenue for years.This is why you need to focus here. Picking your right „northstar metric“ is key.For Facebook, this was „user retention“ after the sign-up-process.Facebook made it easy to find your first 5 friends fast and give you a reason to login again and again.Another example is LinkedIn. You may remember that the platform asked you to connect with your email contacts after the first sign in?That was genius, because they could notify all of your contacts that you are now using LinkedIn and made them desire the same.Last but not least, you have to think in experiments all the Time.Therefore everything you do to generate more growth, has to be measured and tested.Only this way, you can ensure to learn what works and adjust your strategy on the go.Thinking in experiments & how to rank themThinking in experiments means, that you have to collect all your Ideas for growth. Therefore you should write down „What you do“, „What is the objective“ and „How you measure the success“.It‘s also important to „rank“ your ideas in terms of the „Ease of doing“, the „Likelihood of success“ and “Cost”.But please never forget the other necessary step:Reviewing the results and adjust through your learnings after. You should do this at least every 2 weeks with your experiments.A great system to come up with the right ideas and channels for Growth, is the „Bullseye“ strategy of Justin Mares and Gabriel Weinberg. (see footnotes)This straight forward method lets you choose 3 promising marketing channels, then you test them out and choose the best performing idea.If this channel is sending you to the path of growth, perfect.If not, repeat.Then use 3 other new channels until you find a high performing result.But bear in mind, the channel which brought you to 1k users is maybe not bringing you from 1k to 10k users.“Growth is a never ending hustle.”So be prepared to adjust accordingly on the way up…The supporting thesis for this assumption is the „Law of Shitty Clickthroughs“. A term coined by the growth mastermind Andrew Chen. (see footnotes)This law describes, that every marketing method reaches a point of decreasing clickthrough rates over time.That’s why you see every other year a new marketing trick in the social web.And almost every company is trying desperately to jump on that train.A little tip here:“Going into the same direction as everyone is running to, is usually always a bad idea.”So think more “intelligent” in these situations. I repeat, “growth is a never ending hustle.”Parting advice - be resourcefulBefore you leave, here some tips you should try to implement in your growth thinking:Achieving sustainable growth is far from easy. And you have to compete with a lot of other products and services out there for customers. So remember…„You need to be relentless but patient!“I also advise you, if you think about growth experiments, to be lean and resourceful. Most of us can‘t use VC funds or budgets like Google has, to stimulate growth.So you need to be effective with your resources.If you find a method that‘s working and the retention of your User is getting higher and higher, then you should go full force. Not before.Last but not least, you should think in Warren Buffet’s famous „compounding interest“ idea. Several tiny, but sustainable Increases of growth are better than to follow a shiny marketing “hype train”.Again, you are here for the long game. And this is where you will find your success.So keep growing…- - - -FootnotesJustine Mares: The Traction Bullseye FrameworkAndrew Chen: The Law of Shitty ClickthroughsShaan Puri: Three Things I know about Growth

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Everything I know about Copywriting...

Because writing copy is crucial. Learn to sell & bring Ideas to life through simple words.by Domi HessRead time: 6.20 minutes

Why I even bother you with the boring topic of copywriting…“It’s writing salesy words.”“I don’t care, I can hire someone to do that job anyway.”I know your thoughts about this…But what if I tell you, that there are a lot of cases where great written copy made other people millions in a day? (yes in a day, not months!)Meet Hint. (a vitamin water company)Hint had a big problem. They were paying too much in acquisition costs per customer. And they also weren’t finding enough of them in the first place.So the marketing team started to improvise with copywriting in form of a written advertorial… (we will talk later about this)After that, they used payed traffic to bring potential customers on this post.Then something really surprising happened…Instead of getting 80 customers a day with a high spend of money, they drove down their customer acquisition costs to cents per customer. Next they made millions of revenue a day.Only with a little "founder" story, Hint was solving their growth problems all at once.And I teach you now how you can do this too…Great copy is not always obvious. The rules for converting texts are sometimes even weird. But they can help you to succeed although if you can’t throw a lot of money around you.This is why copywriting as a skill is so important.Do a quick rethink. You sell all the time. To your partner, to your kids, to your family, to your friends, at work... You sell everywhere & every day.Copywriting can make all of this stuff easier and can push your career to new horizons.So reading the next part is a wise investment of your time. I promise…All the following tricks are proven in battle & any language. (like german, spanish etc.)So let’s jump into the rabbit hole:General advise for writing great copyThe most important tip at first. Don’t write like business schools and marketing classes try to teach you…Don’t write boring business speak like 90% of the people!No-one likes to read this. This kind of stuff is not converting readers to customers.Instead: Write like you speak. This is the most important cheat to success. (this is why I write to you, like I would talk to you in person)Write simple but straight: Don’t use any specific jargon. Use words and sentences everyone can understand. Don’t use passive voice.Write with rhythm: Use a long sentence, then a short one. You often can replace a comma with a point. Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence.So you see. The voice & tone in how you talk to the reader is important. Of course you can vary your “voice”, if the context of the topic is more “serious” or more “fun”.But, how can I bring the reader to follow my ideas with this, you may ask.This is where the following formula turns your whole game to the top…The AIDA-FormulaAIDA is maybe the most crucial system to write converting texts and messages. And it is easy to learn too.AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. This his how you lead the reader down the “slippery slope”. (will explain that in the next step)Attention: Use this for an attention grabber. An interesting fact. A quote or a sticky beginning. Make the reader curious for more. (rewrite the first sentences until it’s an attention grabber)Interest: Here you have to feed the reader with interesting facts. Use KPI’s or just explain why your product is good stuff.Desire: Describe the benefits for the reader. Or the lifestyle the reader gets with this, if following the instructions.Action: The call to action. What the reader has to do now. How you can order or subscribe... (don’t forget the action!)Interesting side fact: You may recognised that I used AIDA for this Text as well.I started with some quotes to make you curious. Then I told you an interesting story of what you can achieve with copywriting. Making you desire the same in your future and show you now how you can do this as well.This example proofs, that copywriting works. Write AIDA next to your texting tool before you start writing and follow the system. And yes it’s that easy…The “slippery” tricksLet’s talk “slippery slope”. What do I mean with this? These are the little but effective tricks to keep you engaged and create FOMO for the reader.These tricks are way more simpler than you may believe…So to create the “slippery slope” try these tricks here:Use hooks: Like: “I promise you there is a better way…” or “Do you really think this is the best way to do this?”. You get my point.Copy should create tension & resolve: Do that in best case multiple times. Show a problem first and then the solution.Use Emotion: Emotions are one of the best triggers to make readers read. Think first of the emotion you want to create and then start.Dialogues can add depth: An easy way to create emotion and “stickyness” is to use dialogues between people or groups.Use Endorsements: They are perfect as an opener and create interest as well. Especially from industry experts or well-known people.Use BOLD, Italics or Colour: See how I use these visuals to make a point. Design is also important for readability. Make it easy to skim through your Text.Paint a vivid Picture: This is a great way to build a slippery slope. You help the reader to imagine the situation and emotion you create.Use ( ) parenthesis for adding context: Just see how I use this to add jokes, context or give a certain tone to the story.Power Tip #1: A pro cheat is to start your copy with a story. A story can be the attention & interest part together. Remember a story has a main character, a hero’s journey and a plot with up’s and down’s like in Hollywood films.Parting Advice - “Trust the process”Before you go, here are some things to consider.There is always a discussion between long vs. short copy. In general, your copy needs to be long enough to achieve your desired action. Bringing your idea into the reader’s head is the target.So here is my rule of thumb:Longer copy is better for unknown, expensive products.Shorter copy it better for well known or cheaper products.Just imagine Dirk Nowitzki is offering a course in vertical throwing. And a random Guy from a Sports-Club is doing the same. Dirk would need just short copy, because he don’t have to proof something in terms of throwing a basketball. The other guy should use long copy to succeed.This brings me to the next point. Always explain the obvious things to the reader. Don’t forget this. Also, address objections which are may coming up.But what if you can’t use longer copy? A great Way to save a lot of copy is to use pictures or a video to show how your product works. This can be worth 1000 words of copy. So show your stuff.The Following is important too. Do you ever heard of the term “forgotten copy”?Everything is copy. Even your “unsubscribe” page, the check-out in your shop or the “about us" page. (second most visit part of your website)Use this as well for great copy. Don’t forget these opportunities.Now we talk about advertorials, social proof and testimonials. You may think they are “scamy” or “sketchy” shit you don’t need.Wrong! This things done right, can be worth millions. (like in the story above)So don’t think there is no need for this. You can make this stuff with ethics. Just don’t be “scamy” and “sketchy” like so many others.Also a cool tip is to start building a “swipe file”.A swipe file is a collection of great stuff you find in the internet that inspire you to write great copy. Every time I come through great copy, I screenshot it and put it in my swipe file.So you never run out of good ideas…Power Tip #2: To nail always the right tone, warm up before you start. Look for a great Ttxt of someone you really enjoy reading and like the voice of. (maybe use your swipe file)Then copy and rewrite the text for 5-10 minutes yourself. After this little practice, start writing your own text. (I think of this like warming up before sports)You will be surprised, but now it feels like you write in the shoes of the author you copied. A really great way to write in the voice you want.- End -This was a long exhausting post, but an important one. Proofs also my point that copy has to be as long it has to be. Hope I gave you some good tools to start your journey through copywriting. Feel free to share this text with friends who need help here too.- - - -FootnotesSam Parr: Copy That - Paid Course

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I write Content for European Founders, Executives & Entrepreneurial Thinkers.

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The latest Posts from the Jupiter Dispatch

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