AI for Business; How Hired Google Exec; 7 CEO Boot Camp Tips; Give to Grow

"…insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Growth Tools – More Languages — we've recently added Ukrainian, Italian, Polish, and now Chinese (simplified) versions of the Growth Tools (One-Page Strategic Plan, FACe, PACe, Rockefeller Habits Checklist, etc.). We also have Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, German, French, Dutch, and Social Sector (language adapted to non-profits). Here's a link to the various language versions of the Growth Tools

AI for Business People — Doug Rose's book Artificial Intelligence for Business: What You Need to Know about Machine Learning and Neural Networks is written for non-technical executives to help them understand in a practical sense how all this new technology can be applied to scaling the business. I suggest reading the Foreword to the book as an excellent overview to guide you to which of the three sections of the book you wish to start. SPro and book club members will receive a copy next week. Then come hear Doug keynote, along with 9 others top biz thought leaders, at our ScaleUp Summit Oct 16 – 17, Denver. It's a way for your team to "read" the equivalent of a dozen books while getting some important talk time away from the office for two days of learning and growing.

7 Scaling Up Tips from CEO Boot Camp — Michael Loban, co-founder of InfoTrust, did an excellent job in this Inc. article summarizing seven tips he picked up at our CEO Boot Camp. Since I don't do any one-on-one coaching anymore, these intimate 3.5 day boot camps give me and serial entrepreneur John Ratliff time to interact directly with 7 CEOs in a beautiful setting in the Florida Keys. The goal is to add millions to the bottom line of the business while easing the pressure on the CEO. Please take 2 minutes to scan down through the 7 excellent tips and save the $14,500 fee to attend the boot camp.

Already Exceeded 2017 Sales – Give to Grow (Gazelles case study) — and InfoTrust's other co-founder, Alex Yastrebenetsky, also attended the CEO Boot Camp and emailed me an update – including what he did to attract a top exec from Google to his firm. It was so beautifully written I'm sharing the complete email below.

Hi Verne,

I just got home and had a crazy need to email you and share this.

It is absolutely incredible what your lesson of giving to grow is doing for me and the company. Just a few weeks ago we got our Foundation approved by the IRS, so we now have an official 501(c)3 run by my wife that gets 5% of our operating net income as a company. We've been doing many community support things for a while, but with the Foundation it kinda went to the next level and a lot of incredible opportunities to help started to come our way. We also kicked off DreamOn after the CEO Boot Camp and we are already doing some crazy things. But the interesting thing is it's driving a major uptick in productivity and giving us a pure hunger to grow profitably so we can run a healthy business and support all these opportunities. We have already exceeded our 2017 sales. My wife is doing the actual Foundation work, so I do not get distracted from doing what I do best – make money for the foundation to do good things. And this gives me an opportunity to work with my wife which is awesome.

This is exactly what you were talking about when you taught us to contribute far and beyond our comfort zone and that the "universe" and our inner drive will find the way to make it happen and then some.

For instance, just 3 days ago we found out that because of some political stuff we are losing an account worth 5% of our revenue. I was upset, but I did something crazy. I told Michael and my wife that I feel the need that I cannot explain to make a big donation. I am on the board of Cincinnati Children's Hospital. I emailed them that my family is going to donate (what is a lot of money for us). I did not want to live in scarcity mode and make it impact my decision-making. And within 24h we closed $1.5M worth of business, which will more then cover our loss. Can't explain it.

But this is not everything. Not only has the impact of "give to grow" on the organization been incredible and has attracted a number of very strong female leaders, but we just hired a VP of Sales from Google. A guy left Google and joined us because of one thing – he wanted to be able to show his children that his work made a major impact on the community and he knew that he can get this with us. It's only been 3-weeks but he is a total rock star. In our world getting an executive to leave Google and join us (without giving up equity) takes a small miracle. You, sir, helped me make this miracle happen and I very much appreciate it.

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend. Thank you again for everything you are teaching us. The results of your teaching, just in our case, are now helpin
g hundreds of people. I can only imagine combined contribution impact from all your students. You are changing hundreds of thousands of lives through the work of us, entrepreneurs, and your children should be very proud of what you do.

One Seat Open CEO Boot Camp Oct 2 – 5 — we just had a CEO need to postpone his attendance at our upcoming CEO Boot Camp, so we have one open seat. Here's a link for more information.

Growth Institute — John Mullins, entrepreneur, author and an associate professor at the London Business School – will host a complimentary, live webinar tailored specifically to CEOs and top executives this Wednesday, 5 September. On this webinar, John will help you understand how to fund your future plans by leveraging your established customer relationships. Space is limited so sign up now! Click here

CEO-BOOTCAMP: spend 3.5 days with Verne, serial entrepreneur John Ratliff, and 6 other CEOs in a beautiful retreat setting, addressing the constraints holding back you, your business, and your industry. October 2 – 5; January 15 – 18, 2019.

EXITING: Thinking about selling the business for $40 million or more? Want to get 25% to 200% more than you thought? Request the whitepaper from the Exit Strategies Summit at Harvard from Denise Richmond at (610) 299-6466 or email at [email protected]

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? Contact us at [email protected] for more information or visit https://coaches.scalingup.com/.

TECHNOLOGY:

Create Accountability – Drive Execution with Align, cloud-based software designed to scale up your Rockefeller Habits implementation. www.aligntoday.com – on your computer, tablet or phone. Click here to watch an introductory video.

Better Book Club — What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.