Stu Heinecke - How to Grow Your Business Like a Weed: A Complete Strategy for Unstoppable Growth

This is a really innovative concepta brilliant read that reframes seed stage startups as mighty weeds.

CHRIS WILKES, vice president, HearstLab

There are few books that I've come across in my life that cause me to drop everything I'm doing. For me, those books include The Hard Thing about Hard Things, Crossing the Chasm, and now I add Stu's masterpieceHow to Grow Your Business like a Weed.

AMMANUEL SELAMEAB, founder of venture
capital-backed startup Accrue.io

Weeds teach us that our business roots must take hold in conditions that enable growth and scale. Weeds also show us that while we must remain grounded, agility is the key to sustainability. As we read this practical, must-read guide to growing any business, we couldn't help but notice that Stu Heinecke consistently mentions conditions (culture) and grounding (values) before growth, scale, and agility. In other words, throughout this book, Stu provides leaders with the best possible advice: before building a business that can thrive in even the harshest of environments, we must intentionally createand consistently maintainan inspiring foundation.

S. CHRIS EDMONDS AND MARK S. BABBITT,
coauthors of Good Comes First

Stu Heinecke has delivered a fresh and deep-thinking approach to strategic business leaders who need to disrupt, pivot, and adapt for rapid growth.

MARCIA DASZKO, author of Pivot, Disrupt,
Transform, speaker, and strategic change consultant

We've always known what it means to grow like a weed. This book tells us how to scale like a weed.

ROBERT MANKOFF, former cartoon editor at the
New Yorker, cofounder of Cartoon Collections

Gardeners have been waging war with weeds, but we have neglected to learn from these skirmishes. In How to Grow Your Business Like a Weed, Stu Heinecke shows us the many lessons we can learn from these invasive plants. Like weeds, these ideas will creep into your thoughts and inspire you!

CHARLES BIRNEY, cofounder of Podville Media

For millions of years, weeds have perfected their processes to adapt, spread, and grow. Stu brilliantly outlines how weeds are genetically programmed to execute their process and the unique attributes that give them their unfair advantages to dominate. I highly recommend this book as part of your own process to grow and scale your business.

ERIC BRISTOL, director of Demand Generation at
Salary.com

Stu Heinecke's book opened my eyes to how the weed ecosystem and the world of professional sales are so similar. The sales process is replete with positive growth agents such as referral sources, social media influencers, and reference customers, while there are also negative agents such as the competition, objections, and ghosted prospects. I love how he presents this intertwined set of forces as fighting and at the same time, working in tandem.

FRED DIAMOND, president and cofounder,
Institute for Excellence in Sales

Successful entrepreneurs are a lot like weeds. Both adapt to thrive despite the environment, challenges, and competition they face.

JEREMY KNAUFF, entrepreneur, columnist, CEO
of Spartan Media

This book brought back to me the Marines who stood up with the Marine Special Operations Command as a part of SOCOM in 2006. We were a weed to the rest of the Marine Corps. Our commander, General Dennis Hejlik, saw how we were going to create our long-term relevancy as the world migrated away from traditional military operations. The establishment wanted us to go away, but we persevered to resist the desire to pull us out of the ground. I have taken this mindset into my practice as a digital marketer. Many scoff at the idea, but like a weed, virtual live-selling has become even more important with the challenges that the pandemic created for brick and mortar companies. Weeds are the out-of-the-box thinkers of our planet and look to thrive no matter what the circumstances.

JIM FUHS, Lt. Col. USMC (retired), president of
Fuhsion Marketing

Next time you spot a weed, take a closer look. It's a miracle of evolution, mindset, process and growth strategy. As Stu explains in this book, there is a lot to learn from weeds that can transform the scale of any business.

JIM HUFFMAN, CEO, GrowthHit

In How to Grow Your Business Like a Weed, Stu Heinecke shares his exhaustive research including interviews of everyone from billionaires to scientists regarding the parallel of growing a business or nonprofit or community to the amazing garden weed. Those building a business in today's changing landscape will benefit from the Weed Mindset and the W.E.E.D.S. model for success. Once the right process and mindset are in place, growth can be massive. This book leads the way for that to happen.

LORI RICHARDSON, author of She Sells, CEO,
Score More Sales

The mark of a good book is that it gives you insights and strategies to be successful. The mark of a great book is that it transforms how you think, how you feel, and how you react to challenges and opportunities. Stu Heinecke has written a great bookone that should be read and referenced over and over again. The weed metaphor is a powerful illustration of how to capitalize on the shifts happening in our marketplace, expand our sales organizations and grow our businesses. Just brilliant!

MERIDITH ELLIOTT POWELL, author of
THRIVE, keynote speaker, CEO

I speak with thousands of small business owners every year, and they always ask the same questionhow do I grow my business? From now on, my answer will be, Buy this book!

RAMON RAY, Smart Hustle founder, SCORE
podcast host, and author of The Celebrity CEO

Today, what every business is looking for is resilience and the ability to scale new ideas in even the toughest environments. Author Stu Heinecke in this new book shares his decades of experience, expert case studies, and a brilliant new perspective on how you can grow your business like a weed! Highly recommended reading you can take practical actions from immediately.

SCOTT NEWTON, managing partner, Thinking
Dimensions

I've worked really hard throughout my entire career. As a result, I now find myself with a beautiful garden that I am extremely proud of. Stu's book has challenged me to rethink the value of the dandelion. It disrupts a gorgeous green field with almost no effort at all. I want to be that dandelion.

TED CLOUSER, president/CEO, PCA Technology
Solutions

With How to Grow Your Business Like a Weed, Stu continues to open our eyes with his insights into new perspectives, possibilities and ideas to market and grow our businesses. His astute observations regarding the parallels between business growth and sustainability to that of weed strategy will benefit any entrepreneur interested in accelerating their success!

TODD A. GOLD, president and managing partner,
REOC San Antonio

This edition first published in 2022 by Career Press, an imprint of

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

65 Parker Street, Suite 7

Newburyport, MA 01950

www.careerpress.com

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2022 by Stuart A. Heinecke

Foreword 2022 by Nicola Corzine

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.