Hazel Pan (2025)

06/05/2024

When Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to become a movie star, Hollywood rejected him.

For over 3 years, he couldn't get a part that fit.

So he grew his real estate business first.

This way, he could afford not to take any "s**t jobs" Hollywood threw at him.

If a script didn't align with his goals, it's "hasta la vista, baby".

But we know how this story goes.

Arnold goes on to knock one goal after another, racking up wins enough for 3 lifetimes.

Now, you may not be Arnold, but here's what makes you similar.

When pursuing a goal, especially one so tough that rushing straight at it could take everything out of you, you may need to make what I call "strategic sidesteps".

For example...

If your goal is to become an entrepreneur, you may have to work for someone else until you save enough money to start your own operation.

If your dream is to become an actress, you may have to work tables at a bar so you can afford to keep auditioning until you get the right part.

If your goal is to become an author, you may have to make money as a content marketer or copywriter first.

These are reasonable compromises, as long as they serve your ideal end.

But the danger starts when you "side step" too long and forget your WHY.

Imagine.

What if Arnold stuck to his real estate business and forgot about his movie star dreams? We wouldn't have The Terminator.

What if JK Rowling stayed in her desk job and forgot the Wizarding World? No Harry Potter.

What if you stayed too long in your "job that pays the bills" and forgot the WHY that compelled you to get a job in the first place?

That's why the passage below from Nicolas Cole's book, The Art of Digital Writing is so relatable.

Even when he found a promising job as an ad agency copywriter, he knew exactly what he wanted and didn't get distracted from it.

It's a timely reminder about sticking to your WHY, even when the side quest starts to get juicy. 😉

Now the next question is... how do you know when to pivot and when to stay the course? 🤔

24/04/2024

The LEGO Turnaround Case Study (A timely reminder about strategic rebranding).

In the early 2000s, LEGO was in crisis.

After losing patent protection, the company faced the daunting challenge of competing with copycats.

This, combined with a decline in interest from a younger generation immersed in video games and tech products, pushed LEGO to the brink of bankruptcy.

Here's what they did:

1. Focus

They made the bold decision to prune their product line, discarding unprofitable kits and other items like apparel and computer games.

Not only did this reduce costs, but it also helped LEGO focus on its original core USP: LEGO bricks.

2. Tapping into an unlikely market

LEGO previously only targeted boys. But by designing sets for little girls, they doubled their market.

3. Digital PR

The company released "The LEGO Movie, to recapture audiences and reaffirming brand recognition.

Results:

LEGO's turnaround strategy paid off big time. Ironically, narrowing their focus expanded their reach.

With brand value restored, earnings soared, and LEGO is once again synonymous with creativity, imagination, and endless possibilities.

The Lesson:
While it's important to stay true to your core values, you have to adapt to changing market dynamics.

(Or else you'll end up joining Nokia in the sad, dark halls of has-beens.)

23/04/2024

Day 4 of my CCPP streak! (The #1 mistake that held me back.)

So what is CCPP and how is it responsible for millions in revenues?

CCPP is a daily business development habit The Freelance Movement tribe teaches, which stands for:

1- Connect
2- Call
3- Proposal
4- Paid

The idea is, if you're always connecting and growing your network, you will never run out of opportunities.

But instead of prioritizing my business, I spent all my time on client work.

Years later, after seeing who in my circles grew or declined, I realized:

Business development and client fulfillment go hand in hand.

If all you prioritize is client fulfillment, you won't be able to grow your business or income fast enough.

If all you prioritize is business development and neglect fulfillment, you'll keep going around in circles too.

A true professional knows how to plan their time to manage both.

Is this something you're doing daily?

P.S.

If you need help opening conversations and networks for your business, contact The Scalelab founders on LinkedIn.

(Or DM me and I'll make an intro.

In less than 4 weeks, we've opened 30+ opportunities for a complex AI/ML/LLM product. (That's just 1 of our clients!)

So if you want to see how The Scalelab team can help with your goals, too, let's connect!

📸: Me back in the day, joining a Freethinkers meetup, hoping to meet some interesting new people. :)

16/04/2024

From 0 to 50,000+ followers and 2 million views for 1 post and 3 million+ total views per month!

My organic growth experiment has just reached a new milestone and I barely spend time on it anymore.

Just crafted the strategy, content pillars, SOPs, and trained The Content Brewery Team to do the rest.

We keep getting 1000+ followers per day, 100s of comments, and at least 25+ DMs asking us for more.

Sans the odd hater here or there, it seems we have built trust with our audience.

Due to my work with clients + courses and certifications I’m trying to finish, I wasn’t able to implement the campaign to turn these followers into email subscribers yet.

But here’s my checklist of todos and processes you can follow if you want to start building an email list from your content:

👉 Lead magnet - Done! (Created 2 versions for 2 different segments)

👉Landing pages - Done but may need some tweaking. (Built this on Wordpress myself. Mixture of Gutenberg and Thrive Suite blocks.)

👉 Automations - Done! (Used a mixture of Thrive Suite and Brevo for this.)

👉 Welcome email sequences - Done by the team but pending my review.

👉 Offer - still overthinking :D

>>> Overall, offer is the cornerstone of everything I’m building. Getting this right will determine if this experiment is worth it or not.

>>> I have some ideas from my client/mentor Paul. But to validate it, I need to start getting our followers to my email list.

>>> So I tried putting the link to our social media page to see if followers would just sign up organically - only 1 did. :D

With the amount of views we get, we should be getting more.

>>> So what’s next? > New test:

Tweak the “sign up” copy to have a more specific benefit to the audience. Because right now, it’s a generic “sign up for our newsletter” offer.

Let’s see what happens!

—--

If you’re interested in more of these growth experiments, follow along or subscribe to my list! (Link in comments.)

15/04/2024

13 meetings generated in 4 days for this B2B tech/AI client at The Scalelab!

I was nervous because based on my experience, the market our client was targeting isn't an easy one to do cold outreach for.

But I learned something new from our results!

Here's how we craeted content for our cold emails:

1- Create an opening hook that matches the #1 pain point of the segment you're targeting.

Note: Each ICP may have different decision makers with different pain points.

We collaborated with the client to identify "low-hanging fruit" segments, what their #1 problem was, and what solution the client had to offer them.

2- Create a specific subject line no longer than 4 words.

Note: Brevity is critical in cold outreach. (Our highest reply rate subject line is only 1 word! AND it applies to almost any industry.)

For this client, we followed The Scalelab's proven process and created short subject lines leveraging specific items their ICP cares about.

Some ideas for your subject line:

- Namedrop an authority in the space that they respect.
- Reference an event they're expecting or planning to join.
- Use their first name with a relevant question about their pain point. (DO NOT sell anything yet, even in the body.)

3- Keep sentences no longer than 2 lines.

Note: One of our rules at The Scalelab is to explain everything in 2 lines or less.

If a busy executive gets an unsolicited email, reading through a wall of text is the last thing they'd want to do. Say what you want in 2 lines or less.

As a naturally verbose person, I thought this was impossible to do, especially with complex tech products.

But after doing it for multiple clients, I've gotten better at it. It's a great learning experience! :)

4- Say what you want to say in 100 words or less

Note: This is another one of our rules. If we can say what we want in 90 words or less, even better!

Again, you'd think it 's hard to do with complex products.

And clients make it harder by insisting on adding more words. They want to talk about features, offers, features, etc.

But we've found this does more bad than good. So finding a way to trim down word count to 100 words or less is important - especially with email 1.

Again, imagine a busy exec getting an unsolicited email with a bunch of words talking about someone or something they have no idea about. 🙅🏻‍♀️

5- Don't ask for a call right away. Give value first.

Note: This is counter intuitive. Isn't the goal to get them on a meeting?

Asking for a call right away makes you one of those annoying people that has not shared any value yet but is already making an ask.

So for this client, we shared what we call a "value deposit" to make them want to get on a call with us. This is a sneak peek of how we'll solve their problem.

And that's just for the email content!

If you want to know more, I'll share our co-founder's deck in the comments below.

-----

If you need help getting leads for you own B2B tech/service, DM us! 📧

04/04/2024

How amateurs approach feedback:

>>> Get "ego defensive" and shut off.
>>> Ignore instructions and produce half-assed revisions.
>>> Proceeds to talk sh*t with their friends just to get validation.

How pros take feedback:

>>> Ask clarifying questions about the feedback.
>>> Qualifies the feedback based on the reviewer's experience.
>>> Get obsessed about turning "please revise" to "APPROVED."

Ikaw, how do you choose who you want on your team vs who to let go?

13/02/2024

The Creative Worker's "4-Hour Dilemma"

I once thought about "changing careers" because I thought if I was really good, I could do this all day, 16 hours everyday if needed.

But past my limit, the flow dies, and I'm crawling to finish stuff.

Admin stuff, calls, and other tasks are doable, but for deep creative work like writing, I really max out at 4 hours!

That's why when I'm in that flow state, I REALLY HATE IT WHEN I GET INTERRUPTED. 🤬🤬🤬

How do you work around your creative deep work limits?

Mine: Switch to another task or to recharge activities for 1 to 3 hours then get back to work! :)

P.S.
Really grateful for THE Stefan Georgi , one of the most prolific copywriters I respect, for sharing this!

07/02/2024

Pretentious people keep saying we should stop using CLICKBAIT, and I DISAGREE.

Today, I came across this post by Nathan Cole that presents a great case for clickbait.

I love clickbait. When used correctly, it brings eyes to the things that matter.

Meanwhile, the boring openers pretentious people prefer fails them. Because it doesn't attract eyes to the important things they want to share.

So don't let pretentious, pompous people scare you away from clickbait.

It has worked since the beginning of time. Human nature hasn't changed since. If human nature does evolve past clickbait, we will not be here for it. (that will not happen in our lifetime.)

So lean into clickbait. Just make sure you deliver the goods on what you teased.

Link to Nicolas Cole’s full post about headlines and hooks checklist in the comment below.

06/02/2024

I felt like an impostor, so I looked at the one source of truth that didn’t care about my “feelings” - data.

Here’s 2022 stats of a cold outreach campaign I did for a client that retained me for 2+ years.

This client is backed by powerful investors and the ex-politician founder's billion-dollar network.

I did their website overhaul + content marketing and gained the client’s trust, because they then asked me:

Hey Hazel, we also need help with this (cold outreach campaign), could you do it?

My answer. I was part of campaigns like that for clients and leading it is not my specialty, but I'll figure it out.

And figure it out, I did.

Today, I'm heading copy and doing strategy for a cold outreach agency that trusted me: The Scalelab

But back then an important client just trusted me enough to ask me to do this extra thing for them and I accepted.

Each lead I got has a potential value between $3k to $150k+ depending on what contract they end up closing for.

Not bad for someone who said “I’ll figure it out” eh?

P.S.
It was day 1 🩸when I wrote this so logically, the feels may mostly just be hormones.

Which is why having these “unemotional” stats sheets on hand is so valuable. Especially for hormonal, PMS-ing females. :)

P.P.S.
Thanks to The Content Brewery team for helping me with my campaigns and now, The Scale Lab team for trusting me.

CTA:
If you need help with your own campaigns, just send me a DM. 📨

30/01/2024

At 76+, former pro bodybuilding champ Arnold Scharzenneger still works out everyday.

And this got me thinking. As all-around marketing & business strategists, how can we maintain a no-fail daily routine?

For those who no longer know The Terminator, Arnold is also a Hollywood blockbuster star and former governor of California.

If someone knows how to “GIT GUD” at doing ALL the things, Arnold is the guy!

He just keeps his daily routine everyday, and even when nearing 80, he never stopped.

It’s embarrassing when I compare how I manage my schedule! (That said, I don’t have as big a team as he has to do all his chores.)

But after watching his Netflix documentary and subscribing to his newsletter, I picked up the one, simplest lesson that is so obvious, it’s embarrassing not to do it: build a daily habit.

Whatever thing you want to get good at, add it to your “daily workout”.

Second, pick a similarly ambitious peer to “work out” with.

Third, follow the “gods”. Whoever’s winning, study them.

So, I’m brushing up my good old Google Sheets study habits tracker to analyze my own copy & marketing “workouts”.

I already do write and work daily, but I haven’t tracked diligently.

I’ve been so focused on implementation and delivering that I missed another crucial thing for growth: strategic optimization.

This changes today.

This year, my daily commitment will no longer be about “implementation” or “getting the work done”.

That’s the bare minimum.

This time, my “daily reps” will be about “strategic optimization”. How to deliver work that wins, and does so repeatedly.

What’s your daily “workout”?

20/11/2023

Me, a weird, ADHD girl adept at "masking".

Hazel Pan

06/05/2024

24/04/2024

23/04/2024

16/04/2024

15/04/2024

04/04/2024

13/02/2024

07/02/2024

06/02/2024

30/01/2024

20/11/2023

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share