#113 April's GROWTH Edition

Welcoming you back with the implementation of our new monthly layout! So to kick off April, we figured it’s only fitting that this edition focus solely on GARDENING. Flowers, vegetables, and everything you need to know about soil.

Just kidding. A little April Fool’s anyone?

No? Just me laughing?

Corny jokes aside, this edition does have something in common with gardening, considering it’s all about growth.

Moving forward, that’s our focus to start each month. Growth. Brand-growth and self-growth. Followed by:

• 2nd Edition - Productivity (AI tools, hacks, etc.)

• 3rd Edition - Money (personal finance, business ideas, etc.)

• 4th Edition - BEHIND THE GRIND INTERVIEWS

I’m so excited for the debut of that fourth edition. Launching in May, our interview series will feature Q&A from successful investors, entrepreneurs, influential leaders and more so that we can learn how to get where we wanna go.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. In the meantime, let’s jump in.

No Foolin’ Around With These Highlights🤝 

ELEVATING YOUR BRAND 📈 

• Help Yourself With This Game-Changing Networking Hack

• Learn About Persuasion & Influence with Content for Your Commute

• Happy Hour at The Search Bar: Trending Products, Apps, and Queries

FATTENING YOUR WALLET 💰️ 

• Hustle Hub: Leadership, Small-Business Advice, and 10 Hot Side-Hustles

BOOSTING YOUR PRODUCTIVITY 🚀 

• Give Your Network and Productivity a Jolt with April’s 2-DO LIST

NETWORKING HACK 🤝 

Help Yourself by Helping Others

Last Friday, I paid for a 1-on-1 consultation with someone who’s worked in media for 15+ years and once sold a newsletter for 7 figures.

I think (if you remember from last week’s Cool Communicator section, you should veer away from saying “I think” - go check out the edition as to why…)

This consultation was necessary. While OTF has certainly come a long way in only two years, most of what I know was self-taught. Literally building the plane while flying it. An expert’s advice is exactly what we need to take this to another level.

When he received payment from me, he reached out and asked for my availability. I gave it to him, and he replied:

I was happy. Day and time was set; he was willing to review materials in advance; he— wait, did he say to give him a call on his cell?!? No face-to-face.

I wanted to get the absolute most out of this consultation possible, so I asked if we could set up a Google Meet instead.

His reply:

Sure, I appreciated the offer for a follow-up, but this was not what I wanted. I resolved not to settle for anything less than a Google Meet. But to get what I wanted, I had to get creative. I needed to stand out. I needed to bring value. To make him want to help me.

So I helped him first.

I combed through his website and took notes about my “customer journey” in the hopes of helping him maximize the site’s efficiency. Then I sent him another email:

I wanted to make it clear that I put in the time and effort to help, so I put that in bold and italics so it would stick out immediately. Then, at the end of the email, I included my notes:

Here’s what I woke up to the following morning:

It took me about an hour to go through his website, jot my notes, and then put it all together in an email. That hour - a relatively small amount of time, all things considered - made all the difference in me getting exactly what I wanted to achieve. Real talk.

O.T.F. 
O.F.T - One Final Thought

When you help others, they’re far more likely to return the favor. This isn’t ground-breaking. But sometimes we’re so busy, we forget that this is how the world works. I, too, forget sometimes.

In that moment though, I knew I had to do something different. Simply asking politely - making the email about me and my needs - wasn’t going to work. I needed to make it about him. Needed to help him!

Which, in the end, helped me.

CONTENT FOR YOUR COMMUTE 🚶🚆 🚗 

• ON FOOT: Want to “master human dynamics, relationships, and becoming your best self?” Then The Art of Charm is for you. 4.7/5 on Apple Podcasts, with (an estimated) hundreds of thousands of listeners per month. (Episodes are on the longer side, so might take you a few trips back and forth to work.)

• TRAIN TIME: Okay, you’re persuasive. How can you turn that persuasiveness into $$$? Check out Influence Weekly, a fellow beehiiv newsletter. With over 24K subscribers and counting, it’s a solid choice for influencing, marketing, and persuasion in general.

• FIRST CLASS: On your next flight, enjoy the book that perfectly embodies and explains why my Networking Hack was successful. It’s called The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea. A unique take on a timeless mantra: “Give and you shall receive.”
  

HUSTLE HUB 📈

YOUR SUCCESS:

Be a HUSTLER - Here are the 10 fastest-growing side-hustles in the United States in 2025. (If you can’t access the article, here’s a list of the hustles and how much they’ve grown so far this year:)

THEIR SUCCESS:

Be ADVISED - Bar Rescue’s John Taffer knows what he’s talking about. So you may want to take his advice regarding “the small business practice that drives him nuts.”

YOUR SUCCESS:

Be PATIENT - A lack of patience is a sign of bad leadership. Let’s do and be the opposite.

THE SEARCH BAR 🔎

What’s Trending Heading into April 2025

• EXPLODING TOPICS - At this point, they’ve got a standing reservation in THE SEARCH BAR. They’re just so good at what they do. The website has plenty of incredible data, but here’s what stands out this week:
  44 Trending Products to Sell in 2025.
  

• Fastest Rising Apps (courtesy of SimilarWeb.com): If you’re in the Northeast, this list of Risers makes perfect sense - the weather’s been insane. (I’m no meteorologist, but a 20+ degree drop in a single hour seems crazy.) So people wanna read weather forecasts, get their food delivered, and watch TV. Makes sense.

•  Most-Searched Queries about “Self-Growth” - to fit the theme of the edition, I used Answerthepublic.com to find out what people are searching for related to that topic. The data it produced was great, and all it took was signing up for a free account. In the future, our searches will be more specific, but for now here’s a small taste:

Here are a handful if you’re unable to read on your device:

• What are self-growth books?

• What are self-growth quotes?

• What flowers represent self-growth (interesting if you ask me)?

• Why self-growth is important?

• How to self growth?

2-DO LIST 💡 

April

1. Network - Reach out to someone you want to learn from. Whether it be Instagram, LinkedIn or Email — if you’re lacking in an area where you want to improve, find someone who knows more than you, and make contact. Be personal, lead with a compliment, and see if you can apply this week’s Networking Hack.

   
   

2. Use ChatGPT More - Like every day! Use it in place of Google; let it help you do research or find books / newsletters / podcasts to digest; ask it for advice while cooking, dealing with problems at work, etc. Or, if you have more specific needs but don’t know where to start, try this prompt: “I have an interest in using ChatGPT for ____________, but I don’t know the best way to use you. Please ask me questions to help get me started.”

Before You Go!

Thanks again for joining us! Next week, we’ll be back with April’s Productivity Issue, featuring Working With AI, Expert Advice, and much more!

(If it feels like we just did this, our apologies - it’s because we’ve reorganized our monthly editions! We’ll be back into a normal flow in no time!)

In the meantime, please share your insights in our Community Poll on the way out.

Community Poll 📊 

Last Week’s Poll Results:

In your opinion, which is most crucial for financial success?

• Skill Set

• Productivity / Work Ethic - 17%

• Network - 66%

• Passive Income & Investments - 17%

• Luck

• Other

See you next Tuesday 🤝 

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