Good morning, Vetrepreneur!

A big thank you to our sponsors who keep this newsletter free:

Navigate the Financial Waters with Stillwater Investing.

Built by veterans, for businesses who value their legacy. Ensure your employees have a robust investment portfolio tailored to them. Because those who've defended our nation deserve nothing less than excellence.

​Dale Hartt - Chief Investment Officer and Navy Veteran

---

In the crosshairs: Brian Earley​

Brian Earley has had an eclectic entrepreneurship background.

Starting off as a Marine military police officer may not sound like the typical segue into business ownership, but doing that while training full time for MMA bouts and also getting his bachelors on the side breeds the type of work ethic necessary for success.

After the Marines, Brian landed a job in construction management. Five years in, he started to see a market he could capitalize on.

He saw shoddy work in the industry and a diminishing supply of skilled labor willing to provide a quality service. He also felt an itch for something more challenging.

And so, EBR (Earley Bird Restoration) was born.

Brian dove into exterior renovations focusing on high-end customers wanting quality and precision. The result was immediate. In just 18 months they had 30-40 five-star reviews and a growing customer demand.

It’s funny how long it takes to become an overnight success.

Brian didn’t just happen upon this business success, though.

He’s gone through several business iterations trying to find his calling, and he has the battle scars to prove it.

His first attempt at business was while trying to follow his fight training passion. Opening a gym seemed like the easy thing to do.

That is, until he realized the profit margins were razor-thin, the ROI on lead generation was terrible, and the amount of time it demanded to be run effectively just didn’t make sense.

Lesson 1: Know your business model and how you’re going to turn a profit.

Then Brian partnered with a friend from construction sales to get into the burgeoning ‘bath & body’ market they noticed in the local area.

Making quality soaps with organic ingredients and essential oils sounded like a shoe-in. Until he learned his next business lesson when the relationship soured and he had no passion for the product.

Lesson 2: Be very wary about going into business with friends and family, and make sure you’re passionate about what you do or you’ll have no longevity in the business.

Which brings us to his third attempt at business – flipping cars.

Coming from a construction and mechanically savvy family, the idea was to find great deals on cars, fix them up, and sell them for a profit.

The problem? Good deals are very hard to come by and quality parts are expensive. This leaves you with a very narrow margin to succeed and often forces you to either create a bad product or take a loss.

Brian’s ethic and passion for service frequently left him with the latter.

Lesson 3: Don’t go into a business that’ll force you create a bad product for the sake of profit.

Growth, pivot, and purpose

EBR expanded, covering three states in four years. With growth came hurdles. Employee turnover. Projects hung in the balance. The stress of continuously providing quality service and expanding demands.

He often had to adapt to fill manning voids. Sometimes playing salesman, sometimes laborer, often both. "Fake it till you make it" became his mantra.

At a certain point, he realized he’d grown too big for the life he wanted to live. He wanted to provide for his family and live comfortably, not create the next national construction company.

Earley sold EBR in November 2022 and pivoted to his new independent firm, INTEX Millwork Solutions, focusing solely on customer interaction and construction cost estimation.

More importantly, this freed up a tremendous amount of his time allowing him to set his sights on a new target.

​Rucking Charlotte.

Enter Brian’s most profound venture yet. Inspired by ALCOVETS, Brian envisioned a nonprofit for veterans. A community forged in shared challenges. A refuge from the darker sides of civilian life.

With Rucking Charlotte, veterans bond, support, and uplift one another.

Although in its infancy, Brian’s vision is clear: consistent Saturday gatherings, camaraderie, and a battle against the alarming veteran suicide rates in North Carolina.

He’s looking to generating attention on his rucking non-profit and build this community of veterans supporting each other through whatever trials they are going through.

This is the true definition of entrepreneurship: building up a successful venture so you can live your true purpose and give back your community.

He wanted to give a parting thought to any aspiring entrepreneurs: “People crave professionalism. Good work. Deliver that, and they’ll flock.” Grit, perseverance, raw passion – these make a business. Not opulent marketing strategies. “Care deeply, and customers will come.”

In a nutshell, Brian Earley is a testament to perseverance. A beacon for veteran entrepreneurs everywhere.

So, to all the budding Brians out there: dream, dive, stumble, soar. Rinse and repeat.

If you'd like to contact Brain, email him here: Earleysales@gmail.com​

---

Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs):

Ever wonder how some people get swarms of fans, followers, and customers knocking at their digital doors?

It all comes down to having a layered sales funnel that acts as a guide to prospective patrons, removing a significant amount of the work needed to turn them into paying customers.

Building an effective sales funnel that attracts, directs, and closes your target audience is critical to your business’ success.

Let’s unravel how this system works.

Have you heard of the content all-stars like Justin Welsh, Jade Bonacolta, Been Meer, and Sahil Bloom? They've made a massive impact on the social media turf attracting hundreds of thousands of followers growing at a cyclic rate.

How have they been able to do this?

Content. The kind that's regular, relatable, and so good you can't help but share.

The key aspect is ‘regular’. It's like the steady drip of a coffee machine, serving up steaming content day after day. This is important for a very particular reason:

The 70–20–10 rule of content creation: 70% of your stuff is average, 20% is terrible, and 10% is great.

You see this across the creation spectrum from writers to musicians to artists. The vast majority of work done by even the most accomplished creators never sees the light of day.

You can see this rule clearly displayed in my LinkedIn impressions screenshot.

Views of my posts seem to bounce along the bottom apart from four massive spikes. These are my masterpieces, if you will. What I can capitalize on to drive my business forward.

I didn’t know beforehand that these were going to strike a nerve with my audience. I put effort and passion into each one, but the only effective test is to publish.

As you create more, you see what works and you learn what fails. You’re able to refine and replicate your content to see better and better engagement.

But you’ll never get there if you don’t first create the mediocre 70% and terrible 20%.

Onto the content itself.

LinkedIn adores carousels. They're perfect for sharing tips, journey snippets, or compelling stories, one slide at a time.

Twitter screenshots? Think of them as a digital whisper, a snippet of chatter overheard and then showcased for LinkedIn’s audience.

And Twitter threads? They’re today’s tales by the campfire. Bite-sized, engaging, and just the right amount of information.

Finally, there's the power of images. In a world where attention spans are as short as a goldfish's memory, a striking image can draw in crowd.

You’ve got their eyeballs on your content. Now it’s time to guide them to your domain – literally and figuratively.

The idea is to ‘de-platform’ your audience, moving them from whatever social media platform you’re using, and getting them to your website so you remove the variability of the algorithm.

LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc., they all own their algorithms which dictate how many people see your content. You can make your content favorable to these platforms to generate a lot of traction; but ultimately, you have no control them.

You accomplish this by offering your audience with value outside of your daily posts, known as lead magnets. Got an e-book? A helpful checklist? A quirky quiz? Or even better, a newsletter?

Use them as proof you offer more than LinkedIn snippets. Your calls-to-action are clear directions for your audience to follow which lead them where you want them to go.

Whether it's a compelling "Read this!" or the ever-enticing "Don’t miss out!", they're the signals guiding your audience away from the platform you don’t own and onto the one you do.

Your website allows you to capture their email through a form, and now you have direct access to your audience. According to McKinsey & Co., email marketing is up to 40x more effective than social media.

That’s some serious traction to drive revenue from.

Now for the coup de grace. They’ve landed on your site. Devoured your newsletters. It's time to make them feel at ease.

Building trust isn't about grand gestures. It's about consistently delivering value. Keep the quality of your content top-notch and never take your audience’s attention for granted.

When they’re ready, introduce them to what you’re offering. No hard sells, just a gentle nudge. By this point, your audience has largely sold themselves.

So, what’s the recipe for success?

Be present, provide value, and keep it authentic.

Whether it’s the content you create or the products you sell, make sure it’s genuine. Always remember, in the vast world of social media, authenticity is the name of the game.

---

If you enjoyed this and you need help starting or growing your business, here's how I can help:

​​One-on-One Coaching:​ Accountability, experience, and honest guidance. If you're needing help getting started or your growth has stalled, check out the different options of how I can get you back on track.

If you're interested in having your business advertised on this newsletter to 1,000+ veteran entrepreneurs with a 70%+ open rate, schedule a consultation call to design your ad.

​