Alex Sciocchetti’s Post

That’s a wrap folks. Another end to a financial year. In April, I’ll be starting my 15th year! in business. I remember when my goal was just to make it to the 5 year mark. Nearly two decades later I’m still going! 💪 Those who know me, know I’ve been taking action each day consistently. Truthfully, it’s been a flat year for business. I fell short of my sales target, but on my journey, I’ve learned to embrace the ups and downs. Progress isn’t always linear, there are times when it feels like we’re moving backward but we can’t see the growth we are making. Taking a wider step back, I’m super proud of what I’ve accomplished this year: 1. Launched my first paid product, with a third one in the pipeline. 2. ⁠Expanded my LinkedIn audience and network, nearing 4K followers. 3. ⁠Completed my capabilities deck, receiving positive feedback on my offering and package price. 4. ⁠Developed an outstanding onboarding process. 5. ⁠Streamlined my sales process and now investing in a CRM to integrate everything seamlessly. 6. ⁠Received praise from a speaker during a recent call, acknowledging my advice and abilities. 7. ⁠Richard Moore couldn’t fault my LinkedIn profile. He told me my posts are well crafted. 8. Spent time with some amazing people I’ve met through LinkedIn and the groups I’m part off. Currently, I’m focused on building my new website to showcase my work and content I’ve worked hard on. It’s the next piece in the puzzle 🧩 I believe it is essential to acknowledge the growth and actions we’re taking. As I step into April, I’m dubbing this financial year “The Great Year.” I’m determined to make it the best year for my business and life yet. I am confident I’ve laid stronger foundations and now it’s time to execute my plans. Wishing everyone a fantastic Easter holiday and see you all again in April. Hope you find time to rest, relax and rejuvenate. #freelancing #soloprenuer #easter

I just RETIRED at 31 years old and couldn't be happier! I won't work another single day for the rest of my LIFE! Here's how I did it in 5 easy steps: 1. I logged out of all Slack channels. If you're a creative/growth person like me trying to grow DTC/CPG brands from 0 to 7 to 8 figures... Then Slack is literally making you POOR and stealing ALL of your energy. Slack is a never ending cycle of useless messages that NEVER move the needle. It's worse than Facebook/Instagram for productivity because you're expected to answer immediately, stealing ALL your focus and sucking all your productive hours mercilessly. As a creative, you can spend 8 hours a day on Slack, doing nothing... or take 2 hours and use your BRAIN to come up with a new advertising positioning angle that can make a client millions of dollars. I'll take the second one any day. 2. I started saying NO to every single call. All calls can be an email (or a Slack... but I'm out lol). Silence is the ultimate fuel for creative work. So I started defending silence at all costs. 3. I started checking my email once a day. I'll go ahead and ignore and delete emails if they don't have the potential to move the needle for me or my clients. 4. I got rid of ALL negativity. Business is hard AF... why on Earth would you make it harder with a negative attitude??? 5. Last, and most importantly... I started focusing on high-value, high-reward, business-BUILDING activities that feel like play to me, and make my clients a LOT of money... such as a. Scripting video ADS that get attention ruthlessly and create a strong emotional response. b. Positioning a product in ways that can open it up to completely new markets (= new revenue with 0 operational lift). c. Designing landing pages focused on customer acquisition that make people jump off their seats and take action! d. CREATING: offers, ads, products, UGC, etc. So yeah... I'm retired at 31. I'm not "working" a single day of my life. I'm never doing admin stuff again. I'm focusing on fun, profitable activities that feel like play to me. So... I'm so, so sorry if I take 4 months to answer your completely useless email 😬

Building Heights in public for May (& birthday edition) 🎂 Tough few months! Relieved to report that: 𝗔𝗥𝗥 (annual run rate):  £9.1M 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲: £770k 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵: 16% 𝗪𝗧𝗙 𝗶𝘀 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰? For those that dont know, ever since we started Heights (as a newsletter) in 2019, we have shared monthly updates on all key stats, the good, the bad, the ugly. 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀 The updates have been pretty poor since November up until last month. Growth not just slowed but we had our first decline in years and after a multi month process to hire our first ever Marketing Director - he wasnt joining til May, so we had a lot to figure out. 𝗚𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗼 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 As a team we recognised a few things were wrong - and went back to the drawing board re-examining everything. The biggest change? 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬. 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗛𝘆𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱 We've been fully remote since we began. Suddenly, that wasn't working. Moments like this present options to founders - you change the people or you change the system but when what you are doing isn't working, you change. We flew our team in for IRL working for a few weeks, and anyone in England now works with us in an office in Soho every Monday and Tuesday. We've gone from full remote to hybrid. It's not perfect, but it's making a difference. We also changed our paid social agency, & switched the internal ways of working to help us ideate, create, publish and distribute new creative ideas at a rapid rate. All these changes were uncomfortable for the founders as much as the team. The one thing we did not want to do, was fire anyone. We have a lot of confidence in our team - but the results were not there. What we needed was a galvanising change, and these decisions that felt really uncomfortable, and frustrated people internally have not just saved jobs, but created new ones with our growth. Instead of cutting, we are back in hiring mode (having made 3 offers in the last month for brilliant new superstars to join us in London). 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 After reporting miserably stressful poor results for months, this feels like the best birthday present of all. In fact, last Sunday we had our best non launch sales day ever, and on Tuesday, when our new marketing director Nicholas Rooney joined for his first day - we beat that day too. That means Nick can focus on long term thinking over fire fighting, which is a dream scenario for all. The credit goes to our awesome team. Signing off with gratitude to them and to all our customers! PS: We also surpassed 10k monthly Biotic+ subscribers to add to our 15k Vitals+ customers and over 2K 5* reviews so it feels like we're finally moving, getting close to our first major company milestone when we began - £10M. Want to help us get there? Head to www.yourheights.com and take care of your brain and gut today ❤️

Today's my 40th birthday, fu*ck it. I'm not happy as I'm having inflammation (CRP 101), and a fever for 4 days. But hey! My mindset is set on getting better, so let me tell you something useful. Not many people can argue with experience and frameworks that work. Those 2 things are the reasons companies hire me. I worked in the civil sector with UNICEF and as a youth worker for a decade. Some things are more important than money. Focus on providing value and helping others. I organized the largest summer camps around with 200 people from 18 countries with no budget—people paid to come to Stara Planina (Balkan mountains) because of the mission and the narrative—to save the mountain villages from dying. They paid for travel and accommodation—that's how good the narrative was. You can do a lot with a little if you're creative and you care. I only used Facebook groups to reach the campers. I got all of my jobs from people watching me from the shadows. I shared results, frameworks, and processes. Today, it's called the Dark Funnel. That's how I get clients today. I went from being a rookie to being the agency's first GM by applying the things I knew (and had no idea I knew). There are good managers and owners; they set an example for me. Managed teams from 2 to 200. The 1st person I hired was also the first person I fired. I learned a lot about people. Set up processes from scratch. I even had to learn what the process was. I took over the sale. Talking about fishing and the NBA would seal the deal, not the core business stuff. I specialized in performance marketing, automation, email marketing, and website personalization. Meet customers 1st, then automate their sales journey. Not the other way around. I learned that performance marketing works as long as you have a budget. After that, you need brand, awareness.. I worked with many startups at all stages, learned to handle CMOs, founders, and investors, and still delivered results. I've worked with many B2C companies, that's why I see what's coming to B2B. I developed a personal brand (never applied for a job) and taught my team how to do it. We closed 60+ deals in the first 18 months. I learned a lot about myself and LinkedIn. I scaled down from an agency model to strategic consulting to be able to do the work I want to do, where I'm best, with the companies I want to work with. I hired the same person as me as a first-time hire. I learned from that mistake. I worked with and consulted about 200 B2B companies in 4.5 years. I've collected many frames, templates, e-books, videos, and, above all, experiences. "Working with you turned out to be much easier and faster than with other consultants or agencies. You've experienced it all. You have examples and frameworks that help us understand things immediately." A Product Manager from the client's company told me once I did everything—spent time in the dirt, failed, won, and repeated. Now I can help others. It makes a big difference.

If you're one of our three die-hard fans, you must be ecstatic to learn that we recently celebrated our fifth birthday. For everyone else, this will be news (and honestly, we don’t blame you for not giving a damn). We’ve come a long way since 2019. Back then, we were a team of two with laughable delusions of grandeur. Now, we’ve somehow managed to bloat into a team of 25, with employees across six countries on three continents. Not too shabby, eh? Or maybe it is, but we’re patting ourselves on the back anyway. The remainder of this post talks about our learnings over the years. We'd seriously recommend throwing the towel in now because the rest is mind-numbingly boring and dripping with pretentiousness (consider this a public health warning: reading on could induce extreme nausea and an overwhelming desire to roll your eyes into oblivion). Anyway, here goes: ☝ People: Hiring people who share the same values as the founders is crucial. Who knew, right? Without our precious team members, TIDAL wouldn’t be the empire it is today. So, a reluctant hats off to them for not completely ruining everything. ☝ Clients: Working with the right clients is essential for growth and maintaining a positive environment. Shocking, I know. We’ve fired clients who didn’t align with our values because we’re just that picky. It wasn’t great short-term, but it worked wonders for long-term morale. Because nothing says “positive environment” like getting rid of people who don’t agree with you. ☝ Flexibility: Flexibility in everything makes us more agile and gives our employees a better work-life balance. Believe it or not, we actually care about that. We’ve become masters of bending over backwards to accommodate every whim because, apparently, that’s what keeps people happy. Who knew? ☝ Adaptability: The geniuses at Google and Meta (and the less important ones like TikTok, LinkedIn, Snap, etc.) keep us on our toes with their constant algorithm changes. Staying ahead of their unpredictable whims isn’t easy, but it helps us adapt as a team and an agency. Because there’s nothing like a good game of digital whack-a-mole to keep things interesting. ☝ Enjoy It: Growing a small business can be stressful and tiresome, but we’ve learned to enjoy the ride. Sure, there are late nights and weekends spent slaving away, but hey, we get to decide how and when we work and take as many holidays as we want. If that’s not a giant middle finger to the corporate world, we don’t know what is. That’s it for now. A huge thanks to the handful of you who actually slogged through this monumentally pretentious and mind-numbingly dull post about a birthday that’s the digital equivalent of watching paint dry. If you made it this far, you must really have a lot of time on your hands - or perhaps a masochistic streak. Either way, we salute your commitment to enduring this exercise in self-congratulation 🫡

My life got yanked out from under me 130 days ago. No warning. No *real* explanation. No reason I can point to that makes any sense other than the company was irresponsible and lots of us who weren't part of that decision making get to be miserable out here in the wild. I hope they're happy. I hope all of us, including myself, being off their roster has done WONDERS for their bottom line. Me? I've got a leak under my house that has my water bill in the triple digits. I can't afford that. I have a plumber coming to fix it. Can't afford that, either. Someone stole the catalytic converter off the car I literally just paid off. And guess what? I can't afford to get that fixed, either! I cashed out my 401k already because everything is 10x more expensive than it was two years ago. I really hope my not working there made *such* a huge difference and changed things for the better. I truly loved my last job. I was doing great work and was excited about the potential to grow and move up the career ladder there, y'know, eventually. I fell, once again, into the trap of thinking that working hard meant something. I tried not to ruffle feathers, so that I could continue to build a body of work under their shingle that stood up against anyone else's. I was hired to write B2B content and handle communications. My then boss told me not to write more than a few a month because then the VP wouldn't expect a ton of content all the time. So I did what I was told. Which left time to address other things our team was missing. By the time I left, I was handling all social media, writing press releases and handling digital PR with a great agency. I was making the schedule for email blasts for both of our verticals and dealing with the product team to come up with the products we'd be selling. I handled an entire new product launch nearly by myself and it got RAVE reviews. I'm talking creative, copy, social promotion, landing page, email blasts, PowerPoints, teaching the sales team...you name it. That was around 135 days ago. Hard work isn't going to do anything for you. Trying to help in any way you can isn't going to help you. No one is irreplaceable. No one is worth so much to a company that they will be there forever. It doesn't matter if you care. It doesn't matter if you fight for them if anyone talks down about the place. They just. don't. care. You're a number on a spreadsheet. And if your stupid ass boss has some sort of petty reason to cast you aside, it doesn't matter that you were about to buy your first house. Because it's been 130 days, and all the great things we were going to be doing...we aren't doing them. Because as much as that place mattered to me...I didn't matter to it. I will probably never feel safe to make a huge life decision again. I'll be waiting for the other shoe to drop. I doubt they even remember that I worked there. Be loyal to yourself, kids. You matter.

My LinkedIn Journey: From Spare Bedroom to Leading Agency 🌟 When I started my digital career back in 1999 (yep, a long time ago), little did I know where this exciting journey would take me. From the early days of Y2K and building one of the first EMEA intranets in London's financial sector, to running my own web design agency out of a spare bedroom in Poland (before WFH was even a thing!), it's been a wild ride. Life threw me a crappy curveball, and I found myself heading back to Oz, raising my little girl solo. But challenges often lead to new opportunities, right? I dove into agency life and started a side-hustle designing children's swimwear (proudly Australian made - before it was cool and right). I built an ecommerce site before any of the big players and distributed to shops throughout APAC. Juggling late-night packing orders with daytime marketing gigs taught me the power of resilience and adaptability. Fast forward to today, and I'm incredibly grateful to be at the helm of Lucy Bingle | LinkedIn Experts - Australia's leading LinkedIn agency. Ten years ago, I saw the potential for LinkedIn to revolutionise sales and marketing, connecting people, brands, and content in meaningful ways. It's been a joy to help businesses and Leaders unlock the power of this platform. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, I'm excited for the changes on the horizon. Staying ahead of the curve and embracing new opportunities has been a constant in my journey. In fact, I can feel the winds of change blowing once again, and I'm excited to share that a new project is brewing behind the scenes. Watch this space! 😉 I share this story because sometimes, it's the person behind the brand that truly resonates. What's your LinkedIn journey been like? Let's connect and inspire each other! 🙌 (Pic: me, 1999 channeling Gwyneth Paltrow’s haircut in Sliding Doors 😂) #LucyBingle #LinkedInJourney #AuthenticityMatters

Today is not my Birthday but Happy New Year to me. And I declare this Year as my Year of Super Focus This morning, as I woke up, the name of my old blog popped into my mind. Out of curiosity, I quickly Googled it and—boom—there it was. It took me back to 2020-2022, a time when I was determined to make money online. I tried everything. I created countless websites, ran all kinds of ads, and even promoted platforms I wasn’t exactly proud of—yes, I’m talking about betting and p_rn platforms. I was all over the place, trying to find a way to make something work. I still remember joining Medium when it was just starting to gain traction. I even have one of my old blogs there. But despite my efforts, things didn’t always go as planned. Google blocked my AdSense account, and when I moved to Facebook, the same thing happened—I still got a few bucks sitting there, unused. There all kind of pop up ads, Taboola, and others Jai Looking back, I realized I was constantly jumping from one niche to another. One minute, I was writing about pregnancy and childbirth, the next, I was giving relationship advice. I even wrote about s-x at one point, all in a bid to push affiliate links. I signed up for countless affiliate programs, but I rarely saw results—and even when I did, withdrawing the earnings felt like an impossible task. But here's the thing - 2024 is different. After many breaks and lessons learned, I’ve finally entered the YEAR OF SUPER FOCUS. I've realized that betting on random niches isn’t my thing anymore. I now have a clear vision of what I want and where I’m headed. So, stay tuned—I'll be updating my profiles soon and diving fully into my NEWLY FOUND NICHE This time, I’m committed, focused, and ready to make it work! #NewBeginnings #SuperFocus #EntrepreneurJourney #FindingMyNiche #my story

🌿✨ She stepped back...but it was all worth while. If you're new here, welcome. If you've been here a while, you will notice I have taken the time and choice to rebrand, factorise and refocus on my business model. After taking a deep dive into my journey as a Social Media Specialist, I’ve made the powerful choice to step fully into my magic and embrace the workload that really lights me up. 🔥 From what started as a small-time VA venture, Sassy Socials then turned into Social Media Management and then wonderfully, into Strategy, Branding and Coaching. But wait... I am still your Autumn fairy! Pink and Orange will be staying strong as ever! This rebrand doesn't come at ANY cost to the current situation! Authenticity, always. I am more aligned than ever to help you overcome the burn-out and overwhelm of running your business, while also attracting the clients (and income 💰) that match your dream vision. ✨ We’re talking less hustle, more flow. Less stress, more ease. I understand the weight of constantly juggling your business AND your social media. That pressure of feeling like you're always on, but never truly present. Trust me, I've been there. 🌱 That’s why I’m here to help you save precious time, create content that feels authentic to YOU and attract the kind of clients that not only align with your energy but the content that you really love and trust. Together, we will transform your brand and make sure you’re getting paid what you’re worth. 💫 Are you ready to step into your power and build the business of your dreams without the burnout? Let's make it happen! 🌸 #femalebusinessowner #socialmediastrategist #contentcreation #personalbranding #rebrand

I said goodbye to the corporate world in April 2023. When I left, I was running the sales at a 7 figure agency. It was my dream job with an awesome team. But there was a problem… I was: → Drained balancing my job and side hustle → Working 60 hours a week → On the edge of burnout So I could’ve done one of two things: A. Stick around, clock 140+ hours, and maybe lose my job and my fledgling agency. B. Leave. I chose B. And there I was, unemployed (again), lost but still hopeful. I had no idea what I would do next, Because at the time, all l really had was: → A personal brand (under construction) → A 5 year old laptop that barely worked → A dream to build something great → And my parents’ basement Every single day, I worried. “What if this doesn’t work out?” “What if people call me a failure?” “What am I going to tell Mum and Dad?” But I didn’t stop. I kept posting. I kept learning. I kept showing up. Exactly 1 year later, we’ve: → Scaled a Li SAAS company to a 6 figure run rate → Built a multi 6-figure branding agency → Grown the team to 5 rockstars → Served 25+ Founders clients → Driven 1M+ in revenue for them → Written 1000+ social posts If there’s one thing you can take away from my story, Let it be this: The odds will almost NEVER be in your favour, You’ve got to do it ANYWAY. - What’s your big hairy audacious goal for 2024? Share it in the comments.