Create Your Laptop Life ® - A Marketing & Online Business Podcast

People have a tendency to set goals that they actually have no control over. In this episode I will talk about how you can set goals that you have control over, which can lead to meeting the kinds of goals you have no control over.

Twitter is making a comeback. Obviously it's had its ups and downs but in this episode I will explain why in 2022 the best thing you can do to test out content, and get new ideas is to get back on Twitter.

In this episode we discuss launches, and how to manage that project with drop dead dates for certain aspects, and looking at the big picture before getting into the tiny details.

We know that growth is super important for your business, but do you have a super clear, comprehensive and epic list building strategy for 2022? In this episode I will give you just that. So listen here to find out what you need to do to have an irresistible lead magnet, and find out where you can get an easy email sequence to help build your list in this new year.

What do people actually mean when they say they want to take their business to the next level? On this episode I'll explain what it really means to level up in business, and why you might be happy staying at a lower level and just getting really incredible at that level.

In today's episode I want to talk to you a little bit about strategic planning, big picture planning for your business for 2022. If you are like me, you're probably neck deep in planning mode for 2022, so I just kind of wanted to take you a little bit into my process and how I set intentions for the year. You'll be blown away by how stupidly simple it is.

On this episode I'm going to give you 13 of my favorite free list building ideas. And I know I've talked about this before, but if you are stuck on this idea of an irresistible freebie and you want to build your list, you should pay attention to this podcast episode.

Today I want to talk about how to get something done that you're procrastinating on. This is sort of just Julie's version of how to do something. I don't say that it's backed on science. This is just my unsolicited advice and opinion about how to get something done that you are procrastinating on.

This happens all the time, we have offers that do well, and then they don't. All of the sudden things crash, or you may have an offer that you put out there and no matter what, just seems like it's been a slog. In this episode I will teach you how to track down the problem with your offer, from the top of the stream down, so that you can target and fix it, to get your offer to where you want it to be.

On this episode I give an overview of my recent Disneyworld Mastermind event, including how we were able to mix work with play, what went well, what was hard, and I would recommend getting out of your comfort zone to do something fun.

A lot of people ask me how I knew that Cathy was the right person to start a business partnership with. In this episode I give a little background on how she and I ended up on this journey together and give my three tips about what you should look for when you're thinking about having a business partnership of your own.

In this episode I show you my formula for how to sell something that is largely intangible and hard to communicate. So if you are trying to sell something intangible and aren't quite sure how to do it, this is the episode for you.

Writing hooks is not something people naturally know how to do. So in this episode I will go over some of the things you need to know, and what to avoid when writing great hooks.

A lot of us in marketing we get excited about marketing and we forget that marketing actually drips into delivery and the better you are at delivering a great experience the better you are at delivering what you say you're going to deliver, the more likely they are to buy in the future, the more likely they are to give great testimonials, and the more likely they are to share with their friends. So there are four key things you have to think about when someone becomes a customer.

In this episode I talk about how I have run, and continue to run both group coaching programs and masterminds. And I believe that the terms are very interchangeable as they are used in everyday vernacular, but I see them quite differently. And I think that these differences are important enough to help you really dial in what it is you're looking for, from a lifestyle perspective, and from an offer container perspective.

On this episode I talk about why I ran a Facebook group talking about Covid and did daily takeaways during the thick of it for over a year. Then discussing losing steam and feeling like I had said everything that I could say about it, only to recently have several medical emergencies in a short amount of time, including the harrowing experience of my teenage daughter getting Covid and staying in the hospital for a few days. I discuss her symptoms, as well as how I was feeling about antivaxxers, and my own anxiety during it all.

Events can feel like a lot of time and money and energy and they sometimes aren’t profitable, but they can also have many unexpected benefits. In today's episode I talk about the benefits I noticed while putting on our recent virtual event called The Marketer's Heart.

What is your "enough" number? I recently got that question from one of my Digital Insiders about how much money you want your business to make, and still have freedom and fulfillment with your family goals. In this episode I will explore the different facets of what an enough number means and what kind of growth you want to have in your business to achieve that number.

Today I’m back with a new 10 Step Formula. You guys loved the coaches/consulting formula, so I am here with the service provider formula, which is specifically for done-for-you services. The idea is anything where you’re doing actual work where it takes time using your hands, not just your brain, will work for this formula. So listen to this episode so you can follow my 10 step Service Provider Formula.

I’m working on this new idea, and it’s all about easy to explain formulas for different online business models. And just because it’s easy to explain doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. But it will create a roadmap that’s pretty simple to follow. So I’m thinking about creating these 10 step formulas for each of the different online business models, and I’m going to start today with the coaching formula.

On this episode we talk about making decisions about big purchases. Now, whether this is in life or business, all of us have opportunities to make big purchases, right? Whether it’s, “Should I take that vacation? Should I hire that coach? Should I do that mastermind? Should I buy that house?” It is hard to make decisions about whether or not you can afford something big, because we all don’t have a crystal ball of what’s going to come in the future. So here I will go over some questions you need to ask yourself before you make a big purchase.

On the last episode I did a kind of state of the union recap, that a lot of people appreciated, because I shared more realistically my numbers, what it looks like in the backend. So to follow up, I wanted to give you some really practical advice about how to think about your revenue in profits now. This episode I give a step by step guide on how to split up your money when you start out relatively low, so it gets easier as you make more and more money.

In a year that had so much conflict and trauma, it was hard not to procrastinate recapping it and summing up my takeaways from 2020. But in this episode I will do so by telling you how 2020 was the year I finally started talking about politics and religion, even though I've been told to never, ever do that, and how I broke away from past experiences and was able to find my own voice. I also talk about my year end revenue, how it differs from how other internet marketers talk about it, and why I want to change that.

So back in the summer my Digital Insiders were really hankering for an in-person visit, the Coronavirus had kind of waned a little bit in certain parts of the country. So we decided to do a dry camping trip in Moab, Utah so we could meet safely without putting anyone at risk. In this episode I tell about the adventure we had while RVing 33 hours across the country, and what I expected and how it differed from what really happened. You'll also hear why my biggest takeaway from this experience ended up being totally different than what I thought it would be.

I’m constantly an advocate for macro organization, which allows you to still have some disorganization. So I’m trying new things all the time to try and see what works for me. So in a business you have three different types of activities, you have promotional activities, which are related to outward selling of your services and products. You have process based activities, which are things you just do every day, and then you have production, and production is for project based things. In this episode I will go over how I put these three modalities into a three tab calendar in order to be able to simultaneously work on all of them without something falling to the wayside. It allows me to be organized on a macro level, instead of a micro level, which I think is better.

If you're thinking about offering access to you on Voxer for high touch coaching, I have some tips and tricks to help it go smoothly. I also give you some upsides and downsides to help you decide if this is something that you really would like to do for your clients or customers. I'll go over everything from how much time I spend answering Voxes each day, to who I give access to, to how you can avoid burnout.

For this episode, I want to share a Facebook interview that I did with Jennifer Sobel. She’s in my Digital Insiders, and her story is awesome. If you have launched a funnel that has flopped or failed, you want to hang tight for this interview, because in it we talk about her journey from starting with a very broken sales funnel, and how she moved through over the next year to create a profitable funnel that was netting about 20-25 thousand dollars a month in profit.

Sometimes when you are successful, you find out that someone has knocked off your product. In this episode I give you some effective ways to differentiate yourself or your product from the knock offs out there. I also give advice for when someone completely copies your stuff word for word, because at that point it is illegal and you need to take action as soon as possible.

A lot of certification and digital marketing programs focus on one of three things, how to build funnels, offer creation and strategy, or funnel copy and design. In this episode I will give you an inside look at the certification program I am building, Funnel Gorgeous Society, which focuses on all three of those instead of just one. I explain how we decided what we would ultimately focus on, why this certification will have an exam, how long it will take to complete the certification, and why it has a high completion rate.

In this episode I answer a question from one of my Funnel Gorgeous Society group members that asks, "How you can build a funnel for a client when you haven't had a 6 or 7 figure funnel yourself." I explain why you might feel like an impostor, and have doubt in your own expertise, and why it's still okay, because people who live in apartments, can still know how to build a house.

As women we tend to struggle with an extra amount of guilt over taking time away from our families while we work on our careers, and it is a balancing act that is very difficult. In this episode I share a discussion I recently had with a friend about my journey of hustling and working to bring a business to a million dollars in revenue while also balancing being a wife and mother. It is my hope that this discussion will help other women on their entrepreneurial journeys and make things a bit easier.

Dismantling racism will come at a cost. A cost of power, of wealth, of opportunity. As long as there is a hierarchy designed to keep White people at the top, there will be a fight to redistribute that equity.  It demands it. And the ones who will fight the hardest to stay at the top are White people. Which means the only way it changes is if enough White people get disgusted enough at the injustice to dismantle it.

In today's episode we talk about the most important questions you need to ask yourself while you're in the midst of planning your business. I give a great example of a done-for-you business in which we ask the important questions, and then answer them so that everyone can get a good idea of how it works. Before you listen it would be a great idea to go to JulieStoian.com and get the free spreadsheet there, that we talk about in this episode, so you can begin answering these questions for your own business.

When you’re looking at your business you want to make sure you have the right people in place, you want to make sure you have the right process in place, and you want to have the right tech tools in place. But over thinking when you have to make a decision on the tool you want to use, is really not beneficial. In this episode I give you examples of the tools that are available. This way you will have an easier time making a decision on which tool to use based on your business' needs, and you won't have to spend more than 15 minutes doing it, or second guessing yourself.

Launch Gorgeous finished with its first group of students and in this episode I give you some examples of what the students biggest takeaways were. You will also hear about some of the experiences they had while trying to do their launch in the midst of the Coronavirus drama, and what they felt their victories were.

A lot of agencies and service providers have taken a hit during the uncertain time of the Coronavirus. But there is not reason why they can't survive and even thrive during these times. In this episode I will explain what three types of companies you can pivot towards and be able to provide service and get those businesses online during a time when online companies are thriving.

A lot of us have built our business in one of the greatest economies ever, where we’re always trying to stretch to the next thing, to the new thing. But preparation is sort of working in the opposite direction. It’s not that you don’t stretch, it’s not that you don’t push, but preparation is to make ready the thing that you can’t see yet. In this episode I will teach you my strategy for having a business savings account and being prepared for times like we are currently experiencing, and being able to have a life raft that can help you as well as people around you.

During these unprecedented times, we have to be able to shift and make changes to continue to be able to serve our customers. On this episode I interview Todd Herman, who was recently diagnosed with Coronavirus and who is an entrepreneur and coach, about how we can get through the changes with people's needs and still be able to serve. He also talks about how we can use an alter ego to help us make decisions, and be confident in what we might not be otherwise.

On this episode I talk to you guys about what’s going on in the world. Obviously we are living in unprecedented times with the spread of the Covid-19 virus. I’m thinking a lot about the idea of influence, and when we have a platform as marketers or entrepreneurs, we have people following us, and our words mean something. In this episode we will explore what that means and how we can have business as usual, when it's not business as usual.

In this episode you will get a behind the scenes look at our new experimental launch style as we turn Launch Gorgeous into a premium done with you program. I explain the differences between this program and some of the other lower end products we offer, and how this is specifically designed to get you to launch by a specific date and have a successful launch.

In businesses we talk often about how to get a funnel to work and the strategies involved for it to be successful, but it seems that nobody is discussing what happens after your funnel works. In this episode I talk about three things that you may feel after your funnel works, and why they are completely normal. We discuss feelings of hating your customers, emotional weight, and wanting to burn your business to the ground, and the strategies you should take to get past them.

When creating a new product to sell it's hard to know if you are entering a market that is too saturated. But the answer to that question is that every market is too saturated. The key to finding a place in that market is finding a way for your product or service to stand out for being different, unique, or creative. So whether a market seems overly saturated or not, don't let that stop you from carving out a place in it.

Having focus is a skill that is most important when you are trying to launch a business. Sometimes we get caught up with anxiety, worry, and stress when launching something that we don't realize that the real problem we're having is focus. In this episode we're talking about why learning how to recognize when your concentration has been broken and how to turn it around and re-focus is actually the key to becoming better at focusing.

On this episode I tell the story of one of my Digital Insiders and a launch that she did for a bookkeeping course. She did a webinar, and when sales were not as good as expected, and when she felt pressure to pivot from her original offer, she instead decided to stay the course and work through the problems. In the end she was able to have a very successful launch, that had she changed, may not have done so well.

A launch is a way that you bring your product or service out to the market using a crafted campaign, playbook, or story line to release it. I have been absent from the podcast for a while because I have been working on creating the content for a new product that teaches you how to launch your product or service into the world. In doing so I discovered that there are basically 3 different types of launches you can use. In this episode I give a brief explanation of each of the 3 types and let you know how you can get on the waiting list for Launch Gorgeous.

I have decisions and every decision seems to have rabbit trails and side trails and just all kinds of stuff that makes me nervous, because I think that if I make the wrong decision it will have ramifications. And that kind of thinking can really just totally throw you off, so instead you just say, “You know what, I’m just going to do what’s right in front of me.” and choose the next right thing.

Once you have your course idea, which we talked about in the last episode, you really need to come up with a unique selling prop, a mechanism that you use that’s different than other people, for your actual program. In this podcast I give you eight examples of how to do that, and really make your particular product stand out from the competition.

If you want to build a course but are struggling with thinking you don't have any marketable skills, I have made a list of ten questions to ask yourself to help identify what you are an expert in. If you ask yourself these ten questions, chances are you can figure it out, which makes it way easier to build a course in the first place. So listen to this episode, and then figure it out for yourself.

At a recent mastermind event my biggest takeaway for people in business is that your number one priority, your number one resource, your number one job is to fill the bank of you, for without it you’re going to rob the world of your unique message and mission. On this episode I talk about why you have to be able to bet on yourself in business and realize the worth of your skill sets if you are going to be able to succeed.

So many people think that it's impossible to launch a course because of the time it takes when you're already too busy with your actual business and existing clients. I want to finally address this issue and let you know that you're not unique, or special. Many people who have been similarly busy with their businesses have been able to change their mindsets, and displace other work in order to get a course launched and develop a more passive income. I'm here to tell you that it is possible, and show you how to change your own mindset to get it done.

There are three critical components to every launch that will make them successful. In this episode I go over what the three elements are, and how they work, which is part of a course called Launch Gorgeous that I'm giving away for free as a bonus in Pete Vargas' Stage To Scale program. So if you want a brief explanation before you purchase the course, this is the episode to listen to.