Surprise, I am back!

I know I went dark haha. I haven't sent a newsletter out in the past couple of months. I only want to send this when I actually have something useful to share. Sending something just for the act of sending it is not productive or fair of your time.

I will say that it has been such a busy summer and I am excited to share some of the things that we have been working on over the past few months.

TLDR: We bought a company and launched the waitlist to our community Belmont, which is a community for ecommerce founders.

💼 Fun Fact: 75% of mid to large scale of enterprises that have replaced their workforce with AI have seen an increase in spend vs a reduction in spend (shocker, I know haha). 55% of those business leaders regret implementing AI vs investing in their human workforce, and want to revert the decision. A few of these companies are Amazon, Meta, Klarna, IBM, Uber, and Ford Motor Company.

📣 Shout-out: To Erica Lester, PMGs Director of Strategy and Growth. Over the past 4 months she has dived deep on our positioning, messaging, and breathing some new life into our marketing and sales lifecycle. She has really put in a lot of long hours (and dealing with me haha), and I am very excited with the changes that have been made.

— August Shah

It has been a busy summer and I wanted to start off by sharing some very exciting news. Partnered Management Group has acquired Alderaan Enterprise! (Yes, just like Star Wars, don't send me a cease and desist 😂.) This deal has been in the making for the past 7 months and I am excited to finally be able to talk about it.

Alderaan is a fractional operations and project management firm founded by Leah Leaves. Over the past decade Leah has built Alderaan around serving mid-sized agencies, helping them simplify operations, strengthen their teams, and grow with intention and confidence. What drew us to Alderaan was pretty simple, the way they work and the way we work are the same. They show up as true partners, they build real relationships, and they help organizations grow sustainably.

We believe the strongest organizations are built by bringing the right people together around a shared purpose. This is a defining moment in our history, and a strategic investment in the future of PMG. There are big things ahead and I am feeling energized!

If you or someone is thinking about an exit, shoot me an email: [email protected].

Meetings are one of the easiest traps to fall into in any organization whether you are just starting out or in a mature stage. It starts innocently enough and before you know it your meetings have meetings to talk about the first meeting! I have seen calendars so packed that there is legitimately no room left to execute.

That is not a team, that is a meeting circuit.

Dont worry this is not a hot take, the fix is not eliminating meetings entirely, it is being ruthless about which ones actually are needed and stay on the calendar. In our experience there are really only 4 meetings every team needs.

Daily Standup: Keep this by department, not company wide. The goal is just a quick pulse check, what is getting done today, what is blocked, what needs attention. Fifteen minutes max. If it is running longer than that then it will need to be rethought. Depending on your team or department's working style, these can even be made asynchronous.

Weekly Leadership Sync: This is where decisions get made, priorities get set, and the leadership team stays aligned on what matters for the next 2 weeks. Personally, I find that we are able to work more productively and hold each other accountable easier when we are all meeting on a consistent basis.

1 on 1s: These are non negotiable for me personally. They are about getting to know your people. What is going on in their world, how are they feeling about the work, and do they feel supported. When your team feels like you actually know them and care about them beyond the work they produce, it helps to create a culture founded in trust and care.

Quarterly All Hands: The one time the entire organization comes together. Use it to share wins, challenges, address where the business is headed, and give your team the full picture. People do better work when they understand the context they are operating in. In our all hands we do an anonymous team survey where the team shares their thoughts on what could change not just operationally, but also culturally. This has been extremely helpful in helping to understand where we are at as an organization and to help hold me and the leadership accountable.

Everything else can probably be an email or Loom.

Answer:

Every team has one. A dashboard or tool that someone spent a lot of time and dedication building, got a great reaction in the launch meeting, and then just quietly disappeared into the background collecting digital dust. I have been guilty of this myself (and maybe still am) and it typically comes down to the same thing. The rollout was a bit…rushed.

Honestly, the easier part is building the dashboard. Getting your team to actually adopt it and have it become part of how they work is a completely different challenge.

When we roll out any internal tool or dashboard we do our best to slow down and be intentional, and yes sometimes the rollout pace is too slow for me, but the end product is better. But before anything goes live we get feedback from the people who are actually going to use it every day.

That input shapes the final product and it gives the team a sense of ownership over something they helped build, which goes a long way when you are asking them to change their habits.

A rollout really comes in 2 phases:

Phase 1: The launch and introduction, which is walkthroughs, showing people where it lives, and what they are supposed to do with this tool and how it can help them.

Phase 2: The adoption, which is the longer phase. This is the period where the dashboard or tool has to find its place in the natural rhythm of how the team actually works. It takes consistent check-ins, reminders, and leaders actually pulling it up in meetings so the team sees it being used at the top.

A dashboard or tool nobody looks at is not a problem with the tool or dashboard. It is a change management problem.

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On top of acquiring Alderaan this summer, I also built and launched Belmont.

Busy summer, I know.

I have been going to networking events and business dinners for years and if I am being honest most of them are a waste of time and money. You show up, make small talk, grab a drink, collect some business cards, and go home having accomplished little. The founders I actually lean on when things get hard are maybe 5 or 6 people I can text at 1am when something is on fire. Not really something you find at the hotel bar of a networking event.

Earlier this year I hosted a private dinner for 6 e-commerce founders in Charlotte. No hidden agenda, speakers, or handing out business cards. Just dinner and a truly honest conversation about what was actually going on in their businesses. That is where Belmont was born.

Belmont is a private community for e-commerce founders built around 12 all expenses included dinners a year in Charlotte, a private Slack, and founders who actually show up for each other. Its not just another Slack Group.

I am wanting to get to 20 signups before launching and we are 60% there! The waitlist is live now and the first 50 paid members lock in 30% off for 24 months.

Whooo! Alright now that's a wrap for this edition. Me and the wife are going to spend the week out in sunny California and drinks lots of wine hah. 

Till next time!