Creating Deep Roots

Scott T. Janney here. I’m a passionate entrepreneur with 20 years of experience spanning industries. Welcome to my newsletter!

In my newsletters you’ll find:?

• Tips on what I think it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur based on experience gained, lessons learned, and things I’ve read over the years.
• Takes on business, industry news, entrepreneurship, and anything else relevant to my experience/knowledge.?
• Stories about my current work as CEO of Magazine Jukebox (MJB) that I hope will be useful for budding entrepreneurs and interesting for others.
• Valuable content that’s also entertaining. As my newsletter name suggests, I’ll aim to offer a good mix of business and entertainment.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll talk about your customers being your 12th man and creating deep vs. shallow roots for your business. Then, I’ll share some new tips and takes.

The 12th Man

The Seattle Seahawks are known for saying that the crowd is the 12th man. Their team gets so much of its energy from their fans. The crowd’s energy can literally beef up a win and affect the outcome of a game.

I thought about this in relation to customers. When it comes to business, having those hype customers - the customers that are cheering you on - is ridiculously important. This is because these customers are the ones who are going to help you thrive, sustain, and grow.?

In business, you have peaks and valleys. Your ’12th man’ customers are going be the ones who help you when you’re climbing up that peak exhausted and out of breath. They help you get to the top. They’ll also be the ones helping you get out of your valleys (as long as you maintain a focus on pleasing them), by providing feedback to help you improve your product and customer experience. Every time a customer renews with Magazine Jukebox , I get that feeling of going towards a peak. Every time a customer provides us with feedback, I feel us getting out of a valley. Knowing that our customers are continuing to believe in the product and service we’ve built is an amazing feeling.

Always count on your customers for feedback and support. Just like with the Seahawks fans, your customers can be your 12th man.

Deep vs Shallow Roots

I was speaking recently with the Magazine Jukebox team about which industries we should target. We’ve built up pretty good networks in the healthcare and laundromat industries, with partners such as Baptist Health , University of Miami Health System , and, Dave "Laundromat Millionaire" Menz . MJB is a great fit in these industries, and we’ve been working on growing and deepening our connections in these fields. We were debating whether or not we should move more focus into new industries or continue targeting the industries where we have a strong presence. In the end, we decided to continue our main focus on our current target industries.

I brought up the analogy of deep vs. shallow business roots during this discussion. Focusing on certain industries and building deeper roots is more valuable than trying to target too many different industries at once - all you’ll get is shallow roots within each industry. These roots matter because in a storm, if your relationship is deep rooted, you can withstand and survive it. If your roots are shallow, your business tree will quickly topple over when the storm hits. Storms could be competition, regulation, increase in cost due to inflation, etc.?

Build deep relationships with your customers and within certain industries. It’ll help your business withstand whatever storm is coming your way.

My Monthly Tip

Enjoy the journey as you grow your business! Enjoy all the small talks, round table discussions, intimate group settings for personal growth, fewer meetings, time to build your product/service, less money = fewer problems, fresh perspectives on everything, coffee with colleagues…?

As you scale, these moments become increasingly rare, and you'll miss them. So, cherish this phase, grow the best you can, and build the culture you want to work in every day.

My Monthly Take

Even your MVP (minimum viable product) can bring business your way - with a lot of time and a little money. Here’s a product market fit hack I used early on to determine product fit without spending much money (just a few bucks, but a lot of time).?

When we rolled out our MVP, we had one publisher giving us a thumbs up. I needed to find out how the market would respond, not just one segment, but multiple (car dealership, medical office, restaurant, cafe, and others - 20 in total). I visited each with our MVP and a form asking them to commit to buying ($100 for the first full year) if I could deliver MJB as shown and with my vision. I received 19 out of 20 signatures.?

With publisher buy-in (costing $600 for a whiteboard video illustration) and 19 businesses saying "Yes" after 2 days of meetings ($13 in gas and $1.80 in paper/ink), I knew we had something. I remember telling my wife Lauren K. Janney , "We have something!"?

We then found investors to get this into production. It took another year to have something to deliver, but by keeping in touch with those 20 businesses (19 signed initially), all 20 signed by product launch.?

You don’t always get it right, and not everything is going to align. But with a vision, support, and a bit of luck, you can bring a product to life. Hope this helps, it’s not always easy, but it’s possible!?

What’s Next??

Keep an eye out for next month’s newsletter to discover more about my experience with Magazine Jukebox , along with new entrepreneurial tips and takes. I hope you found this newsletter to be valuable and entertaining.?

Please subscribe and share my newsletter if you enjoyed it. Also, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or comment below with any feedback - tell me what you liked, what you didn’t like, and what you’d like to see more of.?

Recent updates to share:?

• MJB Podcast is back! ?? Sign up here to be a guest: https://magazinejukebox.com/podcast
• I was featured in the Start Virginia issue from Virginia Business . Check out the elevator pitch for Magazine Jukebox here: https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/the-elevator-pitch-2/
• Magazine Jukebox Successfully Closed its Seed Round ??
• I gave a talk for 757 Startup Studios / 757 Collab to fellow entrepreneurs about bringing their businesses to life. I also shared my journey and exciting yet stressful parts of growth.?

By the way, we also prepare a monthly newsletter for Magazine Jukebox. Feel free to subscribe to the Magazine Jukebox newsletter if you’re interested!

Thanks for reading!?

Interested in investing in Magazine Jukebox? Feel free to email me at [email protected] .

#entrepreneur #business #industrynews #entrepreneurship #magazinejukebox #digitalmagazines #entertainment #biztainment #boss #work #podcast #linkedinnewsletter #ceo #podcasthost #tips #takes #teamculture #startup #team #founder

-?