Measuring Success: count your wins!

Hey there Founder,

It has been 9-months since I started my journey on LinkedIn but 6-months since Alexander Kalinov and Boris Bandev from Stray Sheep issued me the challenge of comparing our achievements back in March of this year.

Let's back up and go to the WHY before we get to the achievements themselves.

I saw someone who had made a post on LinkedIn celebrating their first 6-months with their own business. What clients they had gotten, what events they had attended and even hosted - it was not only wholesome but a beautiful way to structure how we think about the time that has passed.

It's easy as an entrepreneur to get bogged down by it all.

To say "it's too much" and "I haven't done anything that matters" so having these reflections every 6-months really does put into perspective all that you genuinely have been able to achieve in such a short period of time!

My 6-months worth of Achievements:

1) A Growing Portfolio

With the two new additions in the last 6-months (and 1 more coming hopefully by the end of the month) I am now part of 5 startups (6 soon-to-be!). The sole-owner of my own marketing agency Adan Media as well as either investor or advisory board-member in the rest. I will make separate posts about each of them and our goals there.

2) 500,000 Impressions

I am beyond belief shocked that I am almost at 500,000 impressions on LinkedIn at this stage. I remember when I started, I was seeing people who were celebrating that they reached 1-million impressions and all of my posts were getting 200-300 each. I've come a long way since, though many posts still hover around that mark, but I am steadily looking forward towards bigger and better targets!

3) Developing the Best-in-Class Blueprint for Founders with the one and only Bryan Mulry !

Now this was a very random idea that spawned at the beginning of August when I reached out to Bryan and showed him my Excel Sheets (not a euphemism).

I have developed over 9 years an Excel worksheet from which I have managed marketing campaigns (where it started) all the way to the entire operations of my startups. This was, and in a way still is, my baby. Problem is? People don't like Excel! Good news is - I found - Notion! We have been building up this incredible Digital Product for Founders to be able to improve their #Sales and #Marketing Strategies and reach their goals sooo much more effectively.

Massive, and I mean HUUUUUGE thank you to everyone at Notion as we got selected for the #NotionForStartups program and got #NotionPlus and Unlimited AI for the next 6-months to help us develop this further.

4) Invitation to attend the #SpotlightConf by Semrush

I can't list achievements and not mention the invitation I received from Sasha Ankudinov and the team over at Semrush to attend their #Spotlight Conference in Amsterdam, NL on the 30th October this year!

I am properly buzzing to attend and if you are there - do make sure to reach out - I have booked 4 days in the city to explore and meet up.

If you're a Marketer, Founder, or anybody doing anything in Marketing or Sales - you gotta check out Semrush. I joke with you not - their stuff is out of this world!

5) My newsletter

I can't tell you how thankful I am for each and every one of you who have subscribed to this newsletter, especially those who read it, and even more so to those who engage in some way! It is without a doubt an incredible feeling and I will do what I can to make sure I keep posting articles that are genuinely interesting and valuable! As of typing we're at 1670 subscribers and growing daily.

6) Ranked Top of Google

Now this was a bit bizarre and I wrote an article for my newsletter on this. I know that for my name Lenard Adanov I will rank highly everywhere no matter what - the luck of the draw having a truly unique name in this world and working in Marketing, I know!

The weirder thing is ranking top for phrases like "Top Voice Badge LinkedIn" and having my article get tens of thousands of impressions from that alone. It's a bizarre feeling, but one I do most certainly want to repeat!

7) 4x Top Voice Badges on LinkedIn

And continuing from the topic that got me in Google's Spotlight (and in Semrush's - pun intended), I got myself the #TopMarketing, #TopInfluencerMarketing #TopMarketingStrategy and just recently the #TopDigitalStrategy voice badges. They're tough to keep and tougher to get so I pick my battles for the collaborations I put out there, but from 6-months of holding onto them I can say with certainty now - they're well worth it!

Conclusion

It has been a mad 6-months looking back. I do only mention the achievements though believe me - there were plenty of low points as well. Clients who refused to pay, family medical emergencies, panic attacks, breakups and more. Genuinely a crazy amount of things have happened in this half-a-year but it has been one to remember for sure!

Better still - one to relax from now as I'm off on a road-trip across Greece from the 20th September until the 1st October for my birthday.

Alexander Kalinov and Boris Bandev - the glove is thrown! Show me what you've been up to.

As for everyone else - I'd love to hear how the last 6-months have treated you and better yet - what the next 6-months hold for you! Comment below and let me know!

Kindest regards,

Lenard

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