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These are re-posts from the original sources. Author: growtheverywhere

Tom Kulzer walks us through how he went from a wireless modem salesman and Olive Garden busboy to an accidental email marketing guru. Tom started AWeber during his Sophmore year of college after figuring out a way to automate his follow-up emails to his wireless modem customers. Today, AWeber has amassed 105 team members and over 120,000 paid customers around the world.

• Tom is a college drop-out whose 1-year off from college to focus on AWeber is still going 16 years later.
• Has gotten in trouble with his wife for saying weekends and weekdays are equally fun and inspiring.

Key Takeaways:

• Tom discusses how he realized an opportunity in email marketing when other salesmen wanted to use his email automation techniques and asked for help.
• Wondered if he could earn some money with his idea and change his college-eating Ramen days forever.
• How Tom got his first few hundred customers quickly by leveraging an online marketing newsletter he moderated for 3,000 subscribers.
• Challenges faced without a payment processor in place to accept eager customer's money.
• Amassed his next 1,000 customers and beyond through word-of-mouth and exceptional service.
• Why Tom thinks email marketing competition is a good thing and what he focuses on instead.
• Get the dirt on the challenges Tom thinks business owners will face in email marketing in 2014 and the simple solution to help combat it.
• Insights on why AWeber continues to behave as a start-up and the importance of staying agile in a growing marketplace.
• How the dynamics of AWeber's team has changed as it's grown to 105 members.
• Why an open-office layout and hiring the right team members is key to effective communication and growth.
• Shares regrets on waiting too long to hire and the fear behind it.
• Managing and balancing autonomy, team players, self-motivation and the challenges therein.
• How it only takes one employee to take the whole team down, and how everyone at AWeber is responsible for keeping checks and balances in place.
• Relates creating a job page and video with a company sales page to help promote the culture of AWeber to new hires.
• What Tom tells new employees about self-motivation and success.
• Hear surprising results behind motivating employees to refer talented hires with lucrative bonuses.
• Shares AWeber's signature core values and how it empowers employees to make informed decisions.
• Discusses his waterline analogy for team members to consider when tackling issues.
• Why AWeber houses two giant slides leading from the second to first floor and what employees are really doing to blow off steam.

Recommended Resources:

• Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization – Every corporation develops a handful to hundreds of tribes that can be managed and lead to maximize their productivity and growth.
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't – Case studies and insights on how elite companies made the leap into greatness and were sustainable for at least 15 years.