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If you missed the last SITREP, click here.

Well, hello again. Primal here bringing you another Situation Report. It’s a new year, and 2020 was a challenge, but we survived. 2021 will have its unique challenges, but we will continue to adapt with the times. We’re here for the long haul. So, let’s jump straight into things… While we are a preparedness oriented business, it doesn’t mean we are prepared for everything, and 2020 caught us off guard. It didn’t directly attack us so much as it did our members. It hit many of our members in the wallet, and our overall engagement and activity suffered as a result. I want to start this SITREP off with a timeline of events. A lot has happened over the last few years, and I want to bring you up to speed. Here’s a quick recap.

2018 – The Year Of Risk

This is the year we made some dramatic moves and took some real risks as a business. Up to this point, all of our growth was completely organic, and it was good, but not great. This year we decided to phase in a paid advertising strategy for the first time, and we went pretty big. We leveraged some personal credit lines and invested nearly 20k into an ads campaign and 5k into camera equipment to take our content to a higher level. We did exceptionally well too. We were up to over 320+ members in the tribe at one point. The problem was… the camera equipment that I purchased wasn’t planned. It was a move I made out of scarcity, and it came back to bite me in the end.

Despite doing phenomenal with our ads campaign, we came up an inch short in the end due to my hasty camera equipment purchase. This forced us to halt the campaign as we didn’t have enough funding to cover it and keep it going. It was a harsh lesson I learned and cost us a lot of time and money to recover from. Long story short, once we killed the campaign, the tribe slowly dwindled from there, and we lost a ton of members over the following 6-12 months. We provide massive value, but some big things were stunting our growth and retention that I was blind to at the time. The failed ads campaign shed light on these things for me and showed me what I needed to fix. It showed me where the holes in the ship were so that I could plug them up.

2019 – The Year Of Survival

This year we spent the vast majority of our time fixing the holes in the ship. We scaled back general free content creation and focused on our core business. This was the year we launched 3 new programs. WASP, The Vanguard, and our Guest Contributor Program. These 3 programs are designed to keep our members accountable and focused and provide them with ways to earn money, supplement their membership, and much more if they desire to do so—the perfect trifecta of programs to increase our member retention.

This is also the year we launched our Sgt. Sage Bootcamp Training Course. A 30-ish lesson video course for onboarding new members that helps them get educated on all we provide, cause it’s a lot. The failed ads campaign from 2018 revealed that it was so much value and information that most people didn’t soak it in. It’s like drinking from a fire hose, so we built this course to act as a flow reducer. With these programs and new onboarding course, we have dramatically improved our retention rates.

Nonetheless, we spent the majority of 2019 hanging on by threads. The blow we took during 2018 hurt us pretty bad, but I was okay with the slow comeback because I am focused on the long term. We operated on fumes while I stayed “below deck” most of this year, scooping out water and plugging holes. Not many got to see this side of me. Some might have even thought we were closing up shop, but that’ll never be the case. This year I also began writing the manuscript for my book, “The Primal Method: A Strategic Approach To Preparedness,” which was another big hole in the ship. Before this book, the method was always a little vague and hard to understand. This book had to happen for us to truly build our Tribe again. So I focused hard on it and got it done.

2020 – The Year Of Recovery

As if the last two years weren’t hard enough, 2020 made us hold its beer. This was going to be the year we bounced back and got substantial gains. Instead, it shit all over us all. I refuse to die, though, so I kept my head down and just worked hard all year. I had to phase back in some consulting work and real estate (My other businesses) to make ends meet and keep us floating. We lost a ton of members this year on top of the ton we lost the year prior. It nearly ended us, but again… I refuse to die. I kept my head below deck most of 2020 also, writing fiercely, trying to get my book published, and by the end of the year, I finally did it!

Publishing my book was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, mostly because I did every aspect of it entirely on my own. I did the cover design, illustrations, writing, editing, formatting, and publishing. On top of all that, I also did all the narration for the audiobook myself too. It was a lot of work, but we got the job done and published right at the end of the year. This was the primary focus of 2020, but now that the book is complete, it’s time to move on to other things. There were many other smaller wins over the last 2 years, though, so be sure to recap in the earlier SITREPS if you have time.

This was also the year that I lost my good friend Eddie Debus, our dedicated tribe fitness coach and the man who wrote the foreword for my book. It hit me pretty hard, on top of 2020 already being what it was. I’m still dealing with this now as it wasn’t long ago at the time I’m writing this SITREP. Our businesses were intertwined in many ways, I still have a lot to unwind, but we’re getting there.

2021 – The Year Of Expansion

This year, right now, it’s time to work on a lot of other great things that have been under the radar for a while now. Completing the book project has given me back a lot of valuable time to do great things. This year I refuse to let politics or pandemics hold us down. We will prevail this year and come back stronger than we have ever been. Certain puzzle pieces had to fall together for us to come back, and now that they have, I am so excited for what comes next. Here’s a look at some critical projects on our Ops. Radar this year.

  • WASP Enhancements – We are working to build SMS features into the core database of the program. This will give us the ability to send WASP partners daily/weekly check-ins from me personally. We are also working on cleaning up some areas of the program and overall process to make it more effective for everyone. This includes adding a certified WASP coach aspect. As we continue to grow, I will need more than just myself to coach new and existing members. We will be looking to bring on our most dedicated and exemplary members as WASP coaches. If this interests you, just let us know.
  • Vanguard Enhancements – We will be adding new products to the affiliate program this year, including The Primal Method book itself. Furthermore, we plan for at least 10 new training lessons to go in the “Vanguard Growth Tactics” training course. We are giving you even more free expert level training on marketing to help you grow your tribe and earn more money by being a member and living the #TribeLife.
  • Operation Optimize Curriculum Updates – For the last year, we have had a War Planning 2.0 Beta group testing out a brand new process, and it’s insane! I am happy to announce that we are wrapping it up this month, and we are aiming to update a module or two of training inside of Operation Optimize. You do not want to miss this training! So keep your eyes open.
  • Guest Contributor Program Enhancements – Along with the curriculum updates to the VGT course. We will be improving the process even more, and we are looking to increase our payout levels. We’re also looking to bring on a handful of creators this year. So if you’re interested, apply here.
  • Tribe 3.0 – We will be making massive enhancements to the account dashboard and the #WarriorMission training process. We will also be revamping our membership structure once again, adding new perks and membership options. There are a ton of awesome things with this particular project that I can’t wait for you all to see.
  • Alliance Program Enhancements – We’re adding a new free membership option to our alliance program. Meaning we will bring on a massive amount of new businesses to the program, providing you, our members, a vast list of tactical gear and services discounts, taking our 10-15 partners well into the hundreds if not thousands over the next few years. This will also result in a lot more gear for our #WarriorMission rewards packages, and of course, excellent content opportunities.

This is just a handful of projects on the radar. We will declassify many more over the year, and you will see those show up in the “Ops Radar” down below. It will include both business development projects, as well as content projects. Just check out the “Start here” card below, and it will explain to you how the Ops Radar functions. I created this radar so you all could see what we are cooking up in real-time and be involved with it, so check it out!

The Ops Radar you see below will be showing many projects over the coming months. We are actively building out this project database so that you can see inside our operation, make suggestions, and get a better view of what we are doing. Please be sure to bookmark the (Ops Radar & Milestones Page) to reference from time to time! We will be adding a lot more to it very soon.

OUR OPERATIONS RADAR

Our objective here is to provide higher caliber resources and information that enhance your preparedness in all aspects. If you’re enjoying the content you get from MASK and want to help support our mission please consider becoming a member of our elite community that we call the Warrior Tribe.

Comprised of those most serious about preparedness, our Tribe will help you take your survivability to the next level through active training, accountability, and advanced resources. Our organization is rapidly growing and we would love to see you become a bigger part of it.

JOIN THE WARRIOR TRIBE

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Primal

Author Primal

Owner of MASK Tactical & The Warrior Tribe.

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