Aaron Martin will be in the hotseat on Thursday. Attached is his newest proposal of services. It would be great if you could review it before the meeting.

Sharing a free promo code: I thought you might enjoy an extended 2 month free trial of Sales Navigator Core. You can learn more about Sales Navigator and join using the link below. Don’t miss out – the link expires in 30 days! https://www.linkedin.com/premium/redeem/?upsellOrderOrigin=sn_referral_promotion&coupon=rWPEU8pnW&customKey=ref_s&redeemTypeV2=REFERRAL_COUPON

I have a question for our community here. As independents and fractional business owners I am sure you are watching expenses and what subscriptions you are paying monthly and annually for. I have tried to be very diligent in tracking subscriptions, and I always maintain a "lapse list" - certain subscriptions that I am willing to let expire and then see what falls apart. Others can never be allowed to lapse (for example the subscriptions keeping my website and email online). What are some tools and subscriptions you absolutely swear by? What are the ones you'll want to cut first when it's time to tighten purse strings? For me the critical ones are: 1) Google workspace (for my domain, email, and some of the AI stuff) 2) Google One (Cloud backup of critical information) 3) Cellphone plans Ones that I am using but don't consider critical at the moment: 4) Claude 5) Gamma.app (built most of my original collateral on it, but looking at phasing it out) 6) RedZone (this is a new and specific one that a marketing team I have engaged requires, if you are interested I can discuss this more) Ones that I am toying with letting lapse: 7) Zoom premium Ones that I have let expire: 8) Fireflies.ai 9) LinkedIn Premium (but will probably reinstate) I am sure there are other things I am missing. Also this is not necessarily ALL my operational expenses, I also have budgets for AI API usage across different platforms. But I am trying to keep subscriptions lean.

A business owner asks you for a quick 30-minute, "Just to pick your brain" call. (Or offers to take you to lunch.) No scope, no intro call, just advice. What do you do?

A few weeks ago, I reviewed our LinkedIn engagement list and removed members who were no longer publishing original posts at least once a week. This week, I completed another review and found that very few members on the current list are consistently supporting the other participants. The purpose of this group is mutual support. It only works when everyone follows through on the commitment to visit the other members’ profiles, like their posts, and leave thoughtful comments each week. This group is specifically for members who publish original LinkedIn posts approximately once a week or more. Reposts do not count as original content for participation in the group. Because the current list is no longer functioning as intended, I am closing it and starting fresh. I will post a new sign-up shortly for members who are actively publishing original LinkedIn posts and are genuinely prepared to complete the weekly engagement sweep. There are no hard feelings if this no longer fits your schedule. You will always be welcome to join again when you are posting original content regularly and are able to participate consistently.