I loved running Growthtrackers…until I didn’t.
Many days, I would think how cool that this is my job?
Other days, I would realize I had set myself up for a rigorous schedule that was hard to break away from.
It’s almost worse when there’s no one else to blame but yourself 😂
Earlier this week, I was texting with my friend Arturo about it. He’s a founder type turned CEO and we’ve been in each other’s businesses for 17 years.
He asked “Why would you shut down your main rev stream?”
This is what I said:
The longer answer is in this video I made yesterday.
Growthtrackers was a program about experimentation. During its two years, I ran hundreds of small experiments to course correct its challenges.
Some metrics got better (referrals actually coming in as members).
Other metrics got worse (member session attendance).
And man, that churn hits hard and fast at $500/mo per person.
The results members were getting (# of new leads, # of referrals, % of closed clients, avg deal size) definitely got way better over time which seemed so promising, but somehow I could just never parlay that into easier sales.
Telling those success stories was not clear cut. It’s a big reason why I’ve gotten so into really fucking good testimonials.
Towards the end, I felt like I just kept missing the mark and I was spinning out doing so much of it alone.
I’m glad I shut down Growthtrackers. I miss it. But it was the right move.
(And FWIW all of its members seem to be thriving. It really makes me glad to see the community hang together in our new home on Slack and support each other all over the internet without the container of a membership).
Whether you’re thinking about launching a membership or you just wanna know how I screwed mine up so bad, it’s all right here for you on YouTube.
