ProprietHER the Podcast

Today's episode is with Roberta West! Roberta loves everything branding and tech. She is on a mission to make your journey into the online business world a lot less complicated and a lot more beautiful with her Marketing Kits and Funnels for creative brands. SHOW NOTES: “Everybody knows that you should be looking into your revenue and your sales, but most importantly, I think we should be looking at the profit.” 8:12 "At the end of the day it’s not how much money you’re making in sales, but how much money you’re actually keeping in the business, your profit.” 9:30 “If you have one person that buys from you, what is the life long revenue you’re getting from that client?” 10:56 "People need to start with small actionable numbers like your profit. Map out your real profit with all the costs and all the expenses for one of your offers." 19:00 “Your business is an experiment, right? Numbers are such a great indicator of how your experiment is going.” 23:50 LINKS: INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE FREE GIFT: Key Business Numbers Tracking Sheet

Today we’re going to talk about what to do during your off season because let’s be real, we all have “off seasons” or “slow seasons” whether we plan them or not. The point of this episode is to equip you with what you can do when you find yourself smack dab in the middle of a slow season, refreshing that inbox just waiting for biz. I want you to release that slow seasons can be an amazing opportunity for you and your business! So with that, let’s dive in! SHOW NOTES "I want you to start by shifting your mindset from viewing a slow season as bad- but instead viewing it as an opportunity- an opportunity to get to work, to make things happen, to refine your process, to automate new systems for a faster busy season." "Remember, your portfolio speaks not to who you’ve already worked with but to who you want to work with." "You need to understand that you have the ability to add value to another person or business so put yourself out there. So if you’re hearing crickets in your business, what can you do to put yourself out there, and create relationships to build true community?" "Take that slow season energy and burn it on investing in yourself. Focus on studying your craft and what you can do to take it to the next level." "Think about what your time suckers are during busy season and think about what you can do NOW to help with them." LINKS 50% OFF HONEYBOOK | 50% OFF FLODESK

Today's episode is with Emily Grass. Emily is a yoga educator that specializes in helping Empaths. She uses the tools of yoga to help Empaths trust their intuition, protect their energy, and sharpen their superpower, and does this through movement, meditation, and mindfulness training. SHOW NOTES: "If we don't learn how to disconnect, sometimes it can be overwhelming and leave us drained and leave us not wanting to leave the house or do anything." (5:00) "A lot of us assume that other people can feel what we feel so we assume that they'll read our body language or they'll feel our energy when other people aren't empaths and they can't do that. So we really have this responsibility to tell people what we need." (8:15) "It can feel really uncomfortable to set boundaries for that reason, it can feel selfish or you feel guilty like you're taking something away from someone else." (10:13) "If you can't find the time to take care of yourself then you really need to think about that, and sit with that, and figure out how you can prioritize yourself and see that you are important and that you can't pour from an empty cup." 12:35 LINKS: Emily's Free Gift Guided Meditation Emily's Website @: @Emily_Grass_Yoga

Today we’re going to talk about miscarriage. October is pregnancy and Infant Loss awareness month. My hope in this episode is to share my story and thoughts so that you can better understand what it’s like. We'll also talk about some advice on how to console those who have experienced the unfortunate loss of their child too early. SHOW NOTES "Even though I have a beautiful baby girl already, seeing accounts online, new mamas or expecting mamas in person or out in the community just reminded me of what I lost." "How could this have happened. How could my body have failed me like this- and not just failed me, but failed my baby." "But the other half of me was terrified to get pregnant again because of the fear that I might have to suffer through something like this again. I almost feel like I’d just expect something to go wrong." "But that’s just not true. We’re not alone and the more we talk about it, the less we’ll feel alone and the more people will understand and it won’t seem so taboo." LINKS 50% OFF HONEYBOOK | 50% OFF FLODESK

Today we’re going to talk about your website. We want your clients to feel that you’re the perfect fit for them as soon as they land on your homepage. Today, we’re going to talk about the most common mistakes I see boss babes make on their websites, and how to fix them! Let’s make your website shine so that you attract the right clients who are ready to book. Show Notes "We want you to go from someone who’s just offering something, to someone who is more like a friend." (7:08) "We need to shift our mindset so they we stop playing defense in our business and start playing offense." (9:33) "When there is way too much written copy on your website, visitors get overwhelmed by information overload and they don’t want to read it." (12:24) "Our websites are our store front and it is our job to control our ideal clients first impression." (16:44) Links 50% OFF HONEYBOOK 50% OFF FLODESK

Today's episode is an interview with Melissa Badine. Melissa's business originated as a brick and mortar business when she was 17. She is a Registered Massage Therapist but while taking continuing education classes, she was able to find her passion deepen with practices within a body, mind and soul connection.  She found through tapping into energy work that her intuition heightened as she began to listen and trust it. Which brought her a new found empowerment that she loves to share with other female entrepreneurs to help heighten them not only personally, but professionally.  SHOW NOTES 9:05 “Gives us permission for all of us to be like hey, I am not one person, one box and one check, I offer a variety of things that allow me to, you know, maybe dive deeper and help more” 12:03 “why do we feel like we have to have a specific certificate, or enough diplomas, or stars or checks  behind us before we feel credible that our offer in valid?” 14:40 “ There’s gonna be somebody who’s not going to agree with you, and that’s ok. There’s going to be somebody who has an opposing viewpoint, and that’s ok. My job is not to make you agree with me.  18:03 “I am worthy.” 25:45 “We can hold on to that victimhood, or we can get empowered, do the work, figure it out, and get curious, and that’s where I really find the opportunity comes for all of us.  LINKS Website | www.melissabadine.com  Twitter|Facebook|Instagram| @melissabadine Podcast | Mom Bun Media

Today, I’m sharing how to set expectations with your clients so that you are consistently leaving clients happy and willing to share about you and your business. Most of the time when a business experiences an unhappy client, it’s because clear expectations were never set. Listen in for my 4 tips on how to set clear expectations with your clients. SHOW NOTES “As business owners, it’s our job to educate our clients.” (2:45) “If your work isn’t consistent across platforms, our clients will have no idea what kind of work to expect.” (4:06) “Now, as I said there are so many things when it comes to communication for us to think about, but I want to focus on three things: Kindness, quickness, and thoroughness.” (6:01) “So I want you to think about what details you can make sure your client needs to know so that they can be successful with you as well. How can you make them feel empowered? How can you make them feel confident in your and your business?” (11:25) ” A contract can just be an incredible way to lay out all the information in such a way that there aren’t any unanswered questions.” (15:11) Links The Legal Paige Contracts for Creatives 50% OFF FLODESK 50% OFF HONEYBOOK

Welcome to ProprietHER, this is episode 16! Today, we’re going to go over the 3 questions I get asked the most. As I said, the women who have asked these questions range from people JUST starting out, to women who have been in business for years, and who you wouldn’t think have any questions, so there’s something here for you!   The first question I get is kind of a two fold question:   It’s about Pricing their business for profit, and getting people to purchase when they’re just starting out.     Before I to dive into pricing I want to make one very serious PSA: There is a difference between your economic worth (what your skills and experience merit in the marketplace) and your personal worth.  If someone won’t pay your price, or a certain price that you ask, you cannot take it personally. It can be easy to get offended, to feel knocked down, and to think “well, they just don’t think I’m worth anything.” But listen here sister, this is not the case at all. Your personal worth has NOTHING to do with your economic worth.  I’ve also heard people say “charge what you’re worth.” and while that is a powerful message, it’s muddling the line between your economic worth and personal worth, and that’s not a line meant to be muddled. Your personal worth, has nothing to do with how successful you are in business. So whether you charge $100 for a service and someone else charges $10,000 for a service, you have the same personal worth no matter who you are, what you do, what you charge, or what you wear.  Pricing your product or service is tough stuff whether you’re starting or you’ve been in business for years. So let me start off by saying, if pricing terrifies you, you are not alone. I know I say “you’re not alone” so much on this podcast but it’s really true! I really want you to understand that all those feelings, hesitations, questions, and concerns that you have- THEY’RE SO NORMAL IN BUSINESS. Especially when it comes to pricing. We’re going to talk about pricing in two ways. First, for those just starting out, and second for those who are already in business because maybe you’re looking to raise your prices and you don't know how or are terrified.    Let’s tackle the newbies first. Now if you’re just starting your business. Like. Have an idea, a name, all that fun stuff but no experience or clients yet, I feel it is 100% important for you to do some work for free. I know I know. You probably didn’t see that coming. But hear me out. Word of mouth, and proof of your work like photos, reviews, etc is going to so important for your business. If you have NO customers, you need to get some STAT and if that means doing 5 free sessions, or making your craft for 5 people- do it.    When I knew I wanted to start my photography business, I asked EVERYONE if I could photograph them and I said it would be free just so I could build my portfolio because I knew that the portfolio, and the experience a family or couple would have with me, would help me gain the momentum I needed to start my business and get paying customers.    I understood I needed to establish my authority as a photographer by having clients, and even though those families and couples didn’t pay me, I loved on them SO HARD and all I asked for in return were reviews. I understood that to start getting paying clients, I needed MOMENTUM and sometimes in business, as was in my case, I had to CREATE my own momentum. When I posted pictures from my free sessions, other people on social media or who stumbled on my website didn’t KNOW they were free sessions. They just saw my photos and a raving review. BOOM. Done. Plus, the people I worked with, told OTHERS about me. BOOM done again.    Now after I gained some momentum with my free sessions, did I jump immediately up to a $500 session? Absolutely not. As much as we know what others are charging, and as fast as we want to be there, you have to understand that experience does account for something. So I started small and with each session I upped my price a small amount. I did this once I entered the wedding business as well. After each wedding, I raised my price $300 dollars until I hit where I wanted to be. If you start to big, without the experience to back you up (and remember, experience is shown to your potential clients through your portfolio, and your reviews) you’re not going to see the business you want. You’re not going to buy a $100 handmade sign from someone who says they make them and only have 2 pieces of work and 2 reviews to show for it. You’re going to buy the $100 signs from someone who has a larger portfolio and more reviews, AKA more experience. So you’re job, is to get the experience. Get the momentum. Even if you have to create the momentum, get momentum and then increase slowly from there.   Now if you’ve been in business for sometime, and you’re feeling like it’s time to raise your prices, let’s talk it!   I know this is always a question in the back of everyone’s minds! Even when we are just starting right, we’re always wondering “when can I raise my prices!?” But there are a few things to consider when thinking about raising prices! What are your goals?  Often times we’re so caught up in wanting to raise our prices, we forgot to stop and remember that we all have our own unique goals! Is your goal to book 20 clients this year and you’ve booked 30? Then it’s probably time to raise your prices! Is your goal to book 20 clients and you’ve book 3? Then there might be something going on! You need to be looking at what are your booking goals, or selling goals, and where are you currently with those goals. A good rule of thumb is if you keep finding yourself feeling over worked, over booked, and just like you’re working ALL THE TIME, then you probably need to raise your prices. The law of supply and demand Analyzing what your current demand is like. How many people are knocking on your door? And not just knocking, but saying YES I’m ready to book or buy? That answer is really going to help you decide if you need to raise your prices or not.   If you’re getting too many inquiries for a certain date, or for a limited amount of customers you can take, then you need to figure out how you can control the demand, because you cannot control the supply. For example, photographers who can only book one wedding a day, cannot clone themselves and shoot 7 sevens in one day, so they have to control the demand. Same if you take on clients, you can only give so much before you’d have to start cloning yourself to make sure everyone is getting the quality you want right? So how do you control the demand?  Are your clients hesitating? Is there any hesitation when they hear your prices or when you’re talking about your prices? I believe you’re priced well when your clients have to think about your pricing for a second. When they can say, “oh ok, that’s the pricing, but you know what, I see the value, I’m going to do it.”  If you can barely get through your sales pitch and they’re like “yes, we’ll take it all your biggest package!” You probably need to raise your prices.  If you’re constantly booking your biggest package- that can be a tell sign too. So many people feel that “if I raise my prices, I can’t ever lower them again because people will know and that will be humiliating. People aren’t paying attention whether your price has gone up a hundred dollars or down a hundred dollars the way that YOU know it’s changed. People don’t care as much about our businesses as we do! When you change your prices, as with anything in your business give it time. But if you start to notice that qualified clients are walking away, and people you would love to work with are walking away. Go back to remember your goals- do you want to be busy and working? Then maybe you’re priced to high and need to adjust. Just remember to balance your work life so it doesn’t lead to burnout.- Remember you cannot give from an empty cup. So if you’re exhausted and overworked and you’re ready to be DONE- it’s probably time to raise your prices.      2.) The second questions I get asked frequently is how to start shifting content to be more well rounded and not just about the service or products you’re selling.   Using social media to showcase ONLY your work is not enough. So if you’re just posting pictures of your jewelry, or pictures of only your sessions, or pictures of only your gift baskets- you need to start doing more.  Now, many people know this. Many people understand that potential customers want more than just seeing your product or service. People want to CONNECT. They want to get to know the human behind the business. For many, this is a scary concept. They know it’s true, but it terrifies them to put out anything that isn’t strictly business related.  I used to feel this way. Especially when the trend of #Fridayintroductions was really big. The idea of posting a photo of MYSELF and introducing myself on social media gave me honest to goodness anxiety. Like the kind where it takes an hour to even hit the SHARE button. But I knew that if I wanted to see the growth I was hoping for in my business, I had to share more than just photos of session. I knew I had to start talking about my life and myself because people WANT THAT.  Let’s use my business as an example, so I’m a bright and light photographer. There could be 3 others in my area out there with my same style, so what sets us apart? People could look at our instagram pages and see all similar style photos and then, it’s pretty much a coin toss on who they’re going to book right? Well, it doesn’t have to be! Not if I start sharing about me, my life, WHY I started my business, why I LOVE my business, etc.  Your personality is what sets you apart from the rest so let it shine. Plus, as scary as it is to start sharing your life in public on social media, once I started to do it, I saw a TON more engagement. I became so much more relatable to people instead of just another photographer who posts pretty pictures with the caption SWOON.  So first things first is understanding that shifting your content into more than just your product or service is going to be beneficial to your business. Now once you make the decision that “yes! I’m going to start shifting my content and adding more about me in there!” The next question is how do you do it? That’s what a lot of people worry about right, how do I start posting different things? What will people think? Will they think I’m weird? They’re going to be wondering what the heck I’m doing! Let me tell you right now- do not stress about pivoting your content! Especially since you’re still going to be posting your normal work and business stuff, you’re just looking to give clients and potential clients a more overall look into who you are as a person and brand- not just your business. When you look at it that way, it makes it a little easier.  So many people tell me they’re stressed about sharing more about themselves because they’re not interesting or outgoing or entertaining enough. You absolutely do not need to be a loud or entertaining person in order to put yourself out there on social media, but you will need to leave your comfort zone a little bit! I’m a MASSIVE introvert but you probably wouldn’t know that from my instagram! It’s awkward putting yourself out there on social media! Especially as business owners because its so easy for us to hide behind our work, but people don’t want to hire just a business, they want to hire a PERSON and feel connected to that person.  When it comes to pivoting your content, there really isn’t much to it. The first thing I would do is post a picture of yourself and in the caption, write about how you’re going to start sharing more about you so that people can get to know the girl behind the biz! Share why this is important to you, and just be transparent. Heck! Even share how nervous you are to do it! People love authenticity!   3.) Now my last common question goes off of the pervious one. People know they want to share MORE. More than just their business product or service. But here’s what really stumps people. What to actually post.   The next thing you’re going to do is think of your content categories. I’ll link to a PDF of this in the show notes.  You want to think of content topics to rotate through that aren’t business related so think of Personal things you can post. I love the JK5 (Jenna Kutcher 5 method) She says to think of 5 topics that make you, you, OUTSIDE of your business. So for you, maybe that’s being a mom, maybe it’s a love of reading.. think of it this way. If I were to ask your husband “What makes you, you? What does she love?” What would he say? Those are topics you can consistently share about. It’ll make your audience feel a little bit more a part of your life! Now as much as I love the JK 5 method, there are other things you can share about too if you’re looking for more content ideas! I like to say there are 6 content categories.  DOWNLOAD MY FREEBIE ON CONTENT CATEGORIES HERE When you share about other things that aren’t business related, just tell a story when you share about them. Bring people into your life a little bit. People want to feel like they “know you.” It’s weird, but they do. So just share your heart and don’t be afraid to do it!  My best advice is to not worry about it being perfect. Just take imperfect action because it’s better to have it done and out there, than to feel or be stuck in the mud!  The only way to do it is to just START!  After you’ve started posting, give people some time to adjust to your new content push, but they will! Honestly in the grand scheme of things, people will hardly notice you’re shifting topics lol. Because we’re so in tune with it, we think others are too, but most likely they’ll just be like “Oh So and So shared this cool thing today.” whether it’s related to your business or not! So just take the leap friend!    To wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Analyze your pricing. If you’re just starting- creating momentum for yourself and ask 5 people you know if you can do a free product or service for them to build your portfolio or experience. Only ask for a review in return. If you’ve been in business analyze your numbers. Are you hitting the number of sales (whether number of service projects of physical projects) you want completed in a year? If you’re exceeding it, or if you aren’t even reaching it- time to assess what you can do with your pricing to control that supply and demand.   Action step #2:  Are you sharing more than JUST your product or service on your instagram page? If not- post a photo of yourself TODAY and tell people you’re going to start sharing MORE.  Action step #3: Start planning to rotate through the content categories. Think about how you can be creative with what you share on your social media and how you can bring your customer and potential customers along on the journey..  50% OFF HONEYBOOK | 50% OFF FLODESK PRIMALLY PURE CODE: MOLLYK10

Why should boss babe learn to master Pinterest? The amazing thing about Pinterest that I will say is that it is a search engine. It's not a social media platform. The way you want to look at Pinterest is more like Google rather than social media.  Here's the thing that people don't realize is that social media is designed for you to remain within that space. So Instagram does not like you leaving the platform so they will do everything that they can to keep you within the platform. The same goes with other social media platforms. Pinterest, on the other hand, is great because the whole reason if you think about it, every time you see a pin that you like, and you click on it, you're actually leaving the platform. It's driving traffic to the website that you're visiting. So you want to leverage Pinterest in that sense, and you want to use it to drive traffic to your website.  And that's, that's the other thing I want to say about Pinterest as well is that when you use Instagram, like, as a business owner, whenever you create content on all these platforms, your content doesn't even last more than what 24 hours. I mean, that's even me being generous, like typically, it's just a few hours and then you can see that the engagement on your posts starts to die down and that's it. Once it's gone. It's not showing up on people's feeds anymore. It's just kind of disappears. Pinterest, on the other hand, rewards content creators. Like right now I have blog posts that I've written over two years ago, and they're still generating traffic for my website. Honestly, all you have to do is show up on the platform and you can create fresh content in a way without creating more content. I know that sounds like it's a little confusing, but the way you do that is through creating several pins for one blog post. And you can continue doing that as long as you're using like new images with your pins, and then that's considered new content.  So these are the reasons why I love it because it drives massive traffic to your website and gets people off these platforms, but you also can do it in a way that's, you know, that's automated and releases all your time. How do Keywords work on Pinterest and where should be be putting them?  Going back to the point about Pinterest being a search engine, search engines like to crawl through text and words. With Pinterest, you want to include keywords because the algorithm will search for words. The way the platform works is that when people go on to Pinterest, and they type in something that they're looking for within the toolbar at the top, it's very similar to Google in the sense that whenever you start to type something, it has suggestions for you.  So what you want to do is you want to make sure that you're including keywords in your profile in your boards and in your pins, because as people search, that's when your content, your profile, or your boards are going to appear within people's searches. What type of content should someone be creating for Pinterest? What gets the most views? What seems to be the best for that platform? You have to go back to the type of audience that Pinterest has, and also remembering that it's completely different to social media. So for example, if you're using Instagram, the type of content that does really well are really sort of, posts that are very social, you know, sharing pictures of your family and your dogs and your cats, and, you know, every now and again, you can share some content that teaches and shows yourself as an expert in your field or maybe your products. But really, people are Instagram because they want to connect with people and they want to see that kind of content.  Pinterest, on the other hand is completely different. So when people are going on Pinterest, they're actually people who are planners, and people who are researching to buy. They're looking for a solution to a problem. So people use Pinterest more like they use Google than they use Instagram. People on Pinterest don’t care about the social aspects. They don't really care about, you know, seeing personal pictures of you and your family and your cats and your pets and all that kind of stuff. They want a solution to their problem. They are looking for inspiration. So the best type of content that works on Pinterest are actually blog posts, because blog posts are our long form content that teaches people how to go from A to B, so anything that teaches people how to do something in five simple steps, or those kind of lists or breakdowns.  Another piece of content or type of content, rather that I've realized is does really well on Pinterest, are the before and afters. For example, they have a picture of maybe their bedroom before they renovated it and then after the renovation, basically that's how it works. So people love that kind of content, because they're looking for inspiration for a project that they're planning or they're working on. So I'm taking that concept the before and after, and I want to copy and paste it across every niche. So if you're, say, a business owner, and you have clients who are maybe entrepreneurs or business owners, again, what you can do is maybe create content that shows your transformation. How can you show that is it through maybe your analytics and how, for example, in my case, maybe how much Traffic I had before I started Pinterest and how much I had after. I can show that in a visual way through the graphs that I have from my Pinterest analytics. Or maybe you can talk about the sales that you've made, or the results that you've gotten your clients, or your students.  So you can use the before and after transformation story. These are really, really powerful because it allows people to see themselves where they are now and it also paints a beautiful sort of future for them where they can see the possibility of the results that they want to have.   Can we repurpose content from other platform for Pinterest and have it be successful? You absolutely can. And the what I will recommend though is that you don't want to just blanket post everything that you're posting on Facebook or Instagram to Pinterest because like I said the audience on Pinterest is very different to the audience on social media. So certain posts might not work.  You want to position yourself as an expert and show people and teach people and add value to them before you can have them on as clients. So all those kind of posts where you're teaching, where you're explaining, where you're positioning yourself as an expert, you can definitely put those out on Pinterest as well.  You can also like create blog posts where you position your product or your service as the solution to the problem that they're trying to solve. So if you have a product that you sell, you can create a blog post that teaches how people can use your product, for example, in five different ways or five simple steps and then you can include a link for them to purchase it from there. So rather than you just selling off the bat, you can add value first and then kind of make that pitch and sell What Three Take aways can my listeners do TODAY to help move the needle forward in their business?:   1. The first thing you want to do is you want to make sure that You have a blog. A lot of people panic when they hear that because sometimes the platform, their platform of choice is not a blog yet. Sometimes people have a YouTube channel or they have a podcast like you, for example, Molly. So what I always say is that there's a very simple way to get around this. And it's simply through just transcribing all your audio and video content. And that's another way of stretching your content and repurposing it. Every video you create every podcast episode, if you can just send it to a transcribing service or an app or something like that. have it done for you. Do a quick proofread, and just put it up as a blog post and then pin it to Pinterest. That is one way you can do that. So the first thing I'd say is you definitely want to have a blog post or a website with a blog post. And if you're a product based business and you don't have that many You know, you you haven't considered maybe content creation, what I will say is you don't have to get on to the content creation wheel, you simply just want to create a few simple pieces of high quality content that showcases your product as the best and as a solution to this to the problems that people are trying to solve. And then that way, you can then start pinning them and just create different pins for the same blog post. So it really doesn't have to take that much time. So you can work with how much how much or how little time you have.  2. The second thing I'll say is make sure that you switch over to a business account and on Pinterest and that is beneficial for you because one, it just allows you to be seen as a legitimate sort of account on the profile. But also when you register as a business account. You also want to sign up and claim your website because that will enable you to have something called rich pins. Now that process has some, you know, you have to sort of copy the some coding that they provide you with. But don't panic because all you have to do is copy and paste it to your website. But you definitely can do that. And then what that allows you to do is that whenever you're pinning, or people pin from your viewer blog, the rich pin format then extracts all the information of your blog post. And it includes the pin description, the pin title, and all of that within the pin itself. So it creates less work for you. And also, it looks like a more legit sort of format on the Pinterest platform. So it makes you more desirable. So that's the second thing I'd say. Make sure that you register as a business account and claim your website so you can have rich pins because it makes all the difference. 3. And then thirdly, I'd say keywords keywords, keywords like we mentioned like you will not have success with Pinterest. If you do not use keywords. It is a search engine. And the most important thing is to use keywords. If out of this podcast episode, you don't get anything but you get the fact that you have to use keywords you would have done great. Like that's the main thing you want to focus on. Grab her FREEBIE HERE! | WEBSITE | SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLE: @sahartwesigye                  

Welcome to ProprietHER, this is episode number 14 and today, we’re going to talk about work/life balance. Because it’s a thing that so many of us struggle with- more people than ever now with work from home orders, that I think we should talk about it.    I know the idea of working from home, or the idea of being your own boss sounds amazing. It’s the total freedom you’ve always dreamed of! But once you achieve it, or once your company says you have to start working from home, you discover it’s not as easy as you might’ve thought. Now, YOU and only you are responsible for what you do. You’re the one who has to make sure you stay focused and get everything done. That your e-mails are answered, your projects are completed, and everything is hunky dory. Add on top of that keeping the house in order which is going to be a tad harder now that you’re home. Solely because, now you’re home for lunch, and most likely with kids whereas before your house was empty that time of day. Which means, more dishes and messes to clean as the day is going on. Your bathroom is being used more, which means, it’s going to get dirty faster or require more frequent cleaning. Essentially, you being home more REQUIRES more.    So what can we do? What can we do to motivate ourselves? To stay productive? Or on other days, to take a break? And learn it’s ok to NOT work? Working from home blurs lines and it can be hard to know when to do what. And with that confusion- comes guilt.  Have you ever felt guilty because you feel like you’re working TOO much at home? Like maybe you’re answering your phone or e-mails later than you would’ve been if you were in an office or at your old job? Do you ever feel guilty when you’re with your friends or spouse or kids, because you feel like you SHOULD be working? It gets weird and messy. But have no fear friends, that are things that we can do to combat the stress, mess, and confusion.    So with that let’s talk about my first tip.   Get Ready for the Day   If you are your own boss, it’s time to create a routine. If you are working for a company- stick to the same routine you did when you were working. Did you wake up at 6:00am? Continue to do so. Shower, make coffee, and most importantly, get dressed. EVEN if you’re just changing into fresh comfy clothes. Change your outfit, shower or wash your face, have some coffee and create that routine that gets you ready for the day and signals to your body you’re up and ready to do whatever the day requires.    This is so important. Yes it’s nice to make your own rules, or maybe just have the freedom to sleep in a little later now that your company shifted to working from home- but if you get lazy with getting ready. If you stay in your jammies, don’t wash your face/shower, heck don’t brush your teeth, you’re not going to feel ready to accomplish anything. The lazy slumber will be creating a hazy lazy aura around you all day long. So do yourself a favor and start making a getting read routine a priority.    If you don’t think I’m right on this- you’re wrong. Sorry for the bluntness but that’s why I’m your “get a grip” gal pal. You know when you DO have plans for the day, and you get up and get ready. Think about how that makes you feel. Think about how getting ready unconsciously prepares you for the day ahead. Think about how showering or washing your face washes away the sleepies and makes you feel awake and ready. Mentally, you’re in work mode when you’re in your day clothes. It’s all about putting on a different persona when you’re in work mode/awake mode. It’s what tells your brain it’s time to be up and productive.   Not only that, but after a few hours pajamas get grungy. You start to feel uncomfortable and maybe even stinky. This all makes focusing on productive work and life a bit more difficult. It seems simple but creating the morning routine will make a BIG difference.      Create a Separate Work Space   Now, I know that not everyone has the luxury of creating a home office, but the point of this is to set some boundaries in your life. Imagine working from home all day on the couch, only for it to be the same couch you sit on at the end of the day to decompress, veg, and watch TV. It won’t take long until you’re SUPER sick of that couch and feeling stuck, bored, and quite honestly, trapped!   The point is, to be away from the area in the house where you spend the most time. This space should be where you keep all of your notes, equipment, or anything else you need for work. It should be place where your spouse and children know, if you’re in there, you don’t just come barging in because momma is working. Having this separate work space will help you mentally switch off at the end of the day and slip into that “home life” mentality.    One of the biggest secrets to achieving that work life balance you crave- is setting boundaries. Creating a separate work space, instead of working where you spend most of your “home life” time, will help do just that.      Have a to do list   Now I know there are some of you out there who hate lists, but they really help to stay organized, especially in an environment where the lines have become blurred like working from home.   It’s great to have everything you need to accomplish listed out, not matter how long the list becomes, because if you want to rock the work from home life and find your balance, you need to know what you have to do.   Start by making a list and word vomiting all the things you have to do. Then, prioritize your list by what you want to accomplish and finish TODAY.  The first step to accomplishing anything, is knowing what’s on your plate. So make a list, and I even like to write down when they’re due, and then I chip away at my list accordingly.   Now, for me, my list is a running, ongoing list. As I take on a new project it gets added to my list, and as I finish one it gets taken off. Your list doesn’t have to be paper, if you’re like me, maybe it’s a note on your computer, I’ve also used Trello, there are other planning apps out there- but do what works best for you!    Write down what needs to be done, and then enjoy the satisfaction of crossing off your finished projects.   Set hours   This one is crucial. You need to set hours because setting work hours is the same thing as setting boundaries.  You need to set boundaries in order to find a successful balance between life and work. So set hours with what works for your lifestyle. If you’re single, maybe you can do the traditional 9 to 5 at home. If you’re a stay at home, boss babe like myself, my work hours are nap times and an hour after bed time. Know what your hours are and KEEP THEM. If you didn’t finish the project you wanted to by the end of your work day, STOP. It’ll be there for you tomorrow. Learn to quit and honor the boundaries you set for yourself. If you were back in an office, you’d be running out of there as soon as the clock struck 5 to get home so don’t cut yourself short just because you’re ALREADY home.    Know your highs and lows   When you’re starting to work from home, especially for yourself, there is a learning curve. Things don’t have to be done as traditionally as when you worked for a company or someone else. Use this to your advantage. If you’re a night owl, would you assign yourself task in the early morning?  Or would you wait until the evening when you’re more engergized and productive?   You will be the most success if you work on tasks during the times you’re most productive. Whether that’s morning, afternoon, or evening. Don’t make this work from home deal harder on yourself. Understand when you’re most productive and use that to your advantage.    The goal of understanding your highs and lows, is maximizing your productivity. Another common low for people? Distractions. It’s so easy to be working from home and to get distracted by house chores you might want to do, or heck! Even just picking up your cell phone and getting lost down the social media rabbit hole. So keep your phone on silent and away from you, unless you need it for work, and stay as focused as possible. I read a great tip once from a woman who said she keeps a personal notebook next to her when she’s working so when she thinks of something that distracts her like emptying the dishwasher, or vacuuming, she writes it down on her list to do later.   So think be aware of your highs and lows, or strengths and weaknesses. Know when you’re most productive, and know what typically distracts you so you can avoid those distractions.  Fight the guilt   With that being said, you need to fight the guilt. There is no shame in keeping strict office hours even when you’re working from home or even when you’re your own boss. Entrepreneurs have lives too that need balancing. We have spouses, children, parents, friends, AND businesses. So office hours are a MUST in order to balance all of it. Don’t let someone make you feel bad about shutting off the phone and not looking at e-mail past a certain time. Certainly don’t make yourself feel bad either!   The best part? You will ROCK your working from home lifestyle by actually having and living a life outside of work. Burnout is a real thing and it’s hard to recover from. So avoid it in the first place by setting boundaries and honoring them knowing you’re doing what’s best for you and those around you.  Live your life   Lastly, remember why you’re doing all this in the first place. Most likely, it’s for financial freedom, so you can provide more for your family. Well there’s no better gift to your family than YOU. So make sure you ditch the guilt, set the boundaries, and focus on your personal life too.    Clearly defined boundaries will lead to a great personal life and a better work life! You’ll have finally found your balance and instead of giving all your energy and effort into one area of life, learn how to say “no” and set those boundaries without feeling guilty. To wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Designate a specific area of your house to be your workspace. For a while, mine was my dining room! It was rarely used and a perfect place for me to set up camp! After some time, I bought a small corner desk for my closet and started calling that my “office.” So claim a space to be your “work space” and stop mudding the waters between where you work and where you play.  Action step #2:  Set hours. Do yourself a favor and set business hours for yourself. For me, they used to be 9:30-11:00a and then again 2:00-3:30. Now, my daughter is down to the one nap lifestyle so I’ve had to switch it up but that’s when I know I can be productive and focused. Once she wakes up- boss babe hat goes off and momma bear hat goes on. Respect your hours just like you respect the hours of any brick and mortar shop in your town. Action step #3: Create a getting ready routine so that you start the day fresh and ready. Remember- Change your clothes, freshen up, have some coffee or a big ol glass of whatever gets you going in the morning- and rock your work life balance.  50% OFF HONEYBOOK | 50% OFF FLODESK

First off, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  SEO is all about tuning up your website so that it ranks better in search engines.  You want your website to show up on the first page of Google when someone types in a question.   The goal is to get your website to show up on the first page of search results. If you are looking up local photographers in your area for example, how many pages are you going to scroll through before you decide to click on a website and check it out?  Probably not that far. Did you know, the vast majority of people never click past the first page.  That first page is prime real estate and where you want to be, and understanding SEO is how you get there.  SEO is something you build. It takes time. There isn’t just a button you can click and WHAM! Your website is optimized for search engines. However, even though it’s something that you build and it takes time, it’s not as hard or confusing as some might think. The first thing we’re going to talk about regarding SEO,  is  Your content.  When it comes to optimizing your content, the first thing you need to start doing is using keywords. Whether you’re writing a blog post, or updating your website, keywords should always be front of mind. Now, what do I mean by keywords. I mean, you should be thinking about what it is your business and content is about, and think about what words a potential customer would type into google if they wanted to find you.  So for my business, as a wedding photographer, I know a keyword for me would be “wedding photographer” or “wedding photography.” Think about what basic keywords represent your business, or post specifically, and make a list!  After you’ve brainstormed some basic key words, it’s time to think of what they call “long tail keywords,” which just means, more specific key words or phrases, that include more words, and are more specific! So if we go back to my wedding photography example, that’s not a great long tail keyword. I mean, it’s pretty general right? If I just used that, think of how many other wedding photographers are out there?! I’d be trying to compete with HUGE websites and blogs and business that are already ranking on the first page of google. A great way to turn this keyword into a long tail version, would be to add my location. Like Wedding Photographer Syracuse NY. Now once you have a list of keywords, basic and long tail, it’s time to use them to your advantage! First, to optimize your website, you need to start utilizing the ALT text feature for all images on your website. ALT text refers to alternative text, and allows you to insert words or phrases as attributes to that image. Doing that, tells website viewers the content of the image, or purpose. You can’t see the ALT text. The only time a viewer would see it would be if there was an error and the image didn’t load. So essentially it’s like an invisible way to jam pack your website with keywords so that you can rank higher on google.  Depending on what website platform you use, it will look different, but there is always a spot to add ALT text for images on your website and blog. Now, keywords are also important for blog posts. Luckily for blog posts, you can download a plugin and Yoast has an AMAZING plugin for Wordpress blogs. If you don’t have a word press blog, there are other plug ins you can download that will help you with your SEO. Yoast plugin gives the post that you write in WordPress a readability score and an SEO score. What I love about Yoast is the traffic light symbol that they use. Red means you need some work, yellow- it’s alright, and green means you’re good to go! Yoast also has a spot for you to type in keywords associated with the post! Point blank- plugins are amazing when it comes to utilizing SEO. A few other keyword helpers besides Yoast are:  Buzzsumo, Kwfinder, Keywordseverywhere. So do your research, see what works on your platform and do yourself a favor and download one! Also, when you’re working on a blog post, you want to make sure your metadata is relevant to your content and includes keywords relevant to your post. Again, we want to be thinking about what our potential clients would be typing in the search bar to find our business, our website, or our specific piece of content like a blog post. Make sure you’re always thinking about search intent and make sure that your keywords, wherever you’re using them are relevant to your business and the specific content they might be representing.  2. Authority You want to establish yourself as the authority. You don’t want to be shy, but you want to be clear and concise in doing so and there are a few ways that we can do this. First, make sure you have strong copy on your website. By copy, I mean wording. Make sure it’s clear what you offer, and where you serve people or where you’re based out of. If you struggle with writing information on your website, from your About me to your Contact page, there are so many free resources out there for you! Plus, if you really wanted to, you could hire a copy writer to do it for you! But bottom line, you need to make sure your copy is strong, naturally uses keywords, and that your copy makes it clear what you do. Another great thing to do, is to work with guest posters or to participate in other collaborations. This allows other people to link to your site, or share with their audience, giving you new viewers, and again helping with your SEO. If you guest post on someone else’s site, you will get what they call a “backlink.” Essentially all a back link is, is when someone shares your URL on their site which will give you some link juice, and that’s a good thing! It’s great for your SEO. Another tip, you want to see what your domain pops up as. So have you noticed when you go visit a website and you see “http://“ Before a website? You want yours to say “https://.” The S makes your website more secure and can help with your ratings. If you are someone who is still using http://. You can google how to switch to https using your host. For each host it is a different process, but that is also something else to consider!  So working on your website copy, collaborating, and making sure your domain is secure, are all things on-site you can do to build your authority. But, there are also things you can do to build authority in the social world, because once you have and optimized website and content, it’s time to start promoting that awesome site and content! First, engage! I cannot say this enough. Leave comments on other posts, interact in forums or groups, and just be genuine. If you leave spammy, generic comments, people aren’t going to be clicking over to your site to read more about what you have to say and that’s the goal! To get people to visit and share your site!  Bottom line: If someone is asking a question and you know the answer, help them.  Be kind, be you, and build connections online.   When you engage online, people will start to recognize your name and business which will help build your authority and trustworthiness- both of which are important components to ranking. 3.) Technical Once you learn how to optimize your content, and you work on building your authority, the last thing to help boast your SEO is to make sure all the technical stuff is good to go.  There are three things I want you to focus on in particular. The first, is crawlability. Crawlability refers to how easy it is for a search engine to process (“crawl”) the information on a website. A crawlable website has: a clear layout, a straightforward sitemap, and an easy-to-access internal links to each page of content Search engines like these features because they make the site easy to navigate. This is pretty technical stuff, but crawlability has nothing to do with user experience, but instead has everything to do with a bot’s experience.  We want to make it easier for a bot to access and navigate the information stored on your site. Now you’re probably wondering Why does it matter? Bad crawlability will hurt your search engine rankings. Google doesn’t want to bend over backward to index your website. They want your site data to be clear, readable, and accessible for readers and their robots. If Google has a hard time processing your website, you will be penalized. Period. End of story.  So what can you do to make sure your site is crawlable?  First, Make sure your site has a simple, organized layout. The more complicated, the most problems can arise and the harder it can be for google to index you.  Second,  make sure there are no broken links on your site. A broken link just means the link a visitor clicks, doesn’t take them to where they want to go, it’s probably happened to you where you get that annoying 404- page not found error code. These are bad for two reasons. First, they obviously make for a bad user experience where a visitor might get annoyed and not want to come back and second, they negatively impact your SEO ratings which is what we DON’T WANT. There are tons of free resources for tracking broken links on your website. You can use google analytics, or Xenu! Next, utilize internal links on your site! Crawlers like internal links for two reason. First, they help the crawler find more pages on your site and Second, if your link includes a keyword, that keyword will help tell the crawler what the next page will be about, making it all the easier for it to crawl more of your content. So utilize internal links when you can! Lastly, keep updating your website! Crawlers like to see new, fresh content on a website. By giving them something new, you’ll keep the crawlers coming back to our websites and by having them come back, you’ll see your search engine rankings constantly refresh and hopefully improve! To wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Start going through your website and add keywords via ALT text to all images on your site.  Action step #2:  Install a SEO plugin to help optimize your content Action step #3:  Check your website for broken links! Remember, broken links equals bad, we want a smooth, user friendly experience! 50% OFF HONEYBOOK 50% OFF FLODESK

Olesya Oligradska is an exercise rehab specialist turned business and mindset mentor. Her passion lies in helping women rewire their beliefs and reclaim their worth so they can sell and grow their business with confidence. She is on a mission to help women build a life of freedom and choice through holistic growth inside and out. She is also the host of The Soulful Selling Podcast, a platform where "sales" is no longer a dirty word and abundance gets to be the new norm.   Talk to us about what old programming means? Old programming is anything that you've been taught from your childhood until really, you are able to make your own decisions. They're taught to us by our parents or teachers,, our coaches, our tutors, family members, like whoever is teaching us, especially when we're young kids, up to seven, we don't really know anything, we don't really have beliefs of any kind. So the first seven years are so important because we absorb everything that we're being told. Everything. Old programing is anything that you believe in to be true for you right now.   2. Talk to us about how old programming can hold us back from growing our current venture?  One of the things that I that I talk to people about is we need to literally erase everything that we know about what it takes to work as an entrepreneur because it's literally backwards. We have to invest in ourselves first, we have to invest in our time. We have to totally rewire. And that's why I go so deep with people about their old beliefs, because I really, truly believe that if we rewire that, our business will just explode. 3. What strategies can we implement to start rewiring our old programming? Number one, you need to start looking at what business means to you. What do you want and what are your definitions of what a business looks like? What are your definitions of what success looks like? So asking those questions, and really just sitting with yourself and saying, “What do I believe right now?” Like, what do I believe about what it's going to take to build my business say, to five figures or six figures? What is that going to take? What kind of energy is it going to take and what are my beliefs? If you don't look at that first and you just go head on into your new venture, there will come a point where you won't be able to move forward. And this is where people have a hard time scaling. Because they're like, I have this thing and it's working really well, and I don't understand why it's not scaling. A lot of that is belief based. Second thing is honestly surrounding yourself with people who, are doing not the same thing as you, but who are chasing the same big visions.  I truly believe everybody on this planet has a different path. So, finding people who you can celebrate with when you get a new client or who you can bounce ideas with who you can talk to you when you're having, you know, a hard day to kind of just bounce you back because a lot of the times it's all emotional for us, especially because we're so close to our business. So that's number two. surrounding yourself with people that are going to empower you. And then number three, I would say is to just really focus on who you are here to serve. So one of the biggest objections that I get when it comes to sales, and this is why I started my podcast is it's like, I don't want to sell because I don't want to sound sleazy, I don't want to sound like I want to make money off of this person. I don't want to sound like I'm trying to get something out of them. And a lot of the times the confusion comes from the fact that they don't actually know who they want to work with. Don’t be someone who says “I’ll work with anybody.” Because guess what, you're going to get anybody and you're going to get people that are going to be excited and then they're not going to do anything, you're gonna waste your time. And it's the same thing with coaching when you are like “I’ll help you with all the things,” the reality is, is that when people go to find you, especially high level people who want to hire somebody for a really expensive price, they will be so confused about your messaging that they won't even look at you. So one of the things that I teach with my clients, especially about scaling is you have to be so niched down. You have to be so crystal clear on who you're here to serve. That clarity is going to show up in your Instagram posts, that's going to show up in your stories, it’s going to show up on your website, it's going to show up in a podcast interview or podcast that you're doing. It's going to show up everywhere. And if you are sending out a confusing message, you're never going to make the money that you want to make in your business. You will always be chasing the next thing.   4. What mindset is required to grow and scale a business? Essentially, you really have to believe that whatever you envision is going to come true. I know that that's really hard for some people to understand, because a lot of people will say, “Well, you know, it's circumstantial, or it really depends on my messaging, and it really depends on blah, blah, blah, blah.” And I'm like, listen, if you don't believe that you can make six figures in your business- like truly, truly down to your bones, whether you see that number in your bank account or not, your business will never scale to six figures. You are able to control what comes into your life, you're able to control what kind of people you invite into your life. And that's why, l I say, getting super, super clear about what you who you want to work with is super, super important. If you don't believe that you can have certain things, they're never going to become your reality, because you're always going to say, I'm not enough. I'm not enough. I'm not worthy. I'm not enough. I'm not enough, and I'm not enough. We need to face that and say, “okay, but what if it was different? What if I was in that? What if I started to think this way and say to myself that I am a six figure entrepreneur? What would that feel like? Like if I were to give you if I were to put six figures into your bank account, what would that feel like?” I always tell people to dream big all the time. And the one mistake that I see people make is that they dream for like three months or six months and then they're like, it's not working. Then, they just give up and they're like, the, you know, manifestation doesn't work. What I'm attracting doesn't work. But what we forget is that we need to give the universe, God, whatever you believe in, time to rearrange your previous life to fit this new one that you want and sometimes it doesn't happen overnight. Sometimes you have to give a time, and the most important part is that you still believe even when it doesn't seem like it's gonna come true. Most of the time people give up before the magic happens, before their manifestation becomes true. What I encourage people to do is always hold the faith, even when it feels like it's not going to come true. Because that's where the magic happens- when you hold the faith, when it looks like it's not going to happen. I think a lot of the times, you have to tell yourself that you're never going to quit, your business is always going to change, things are always going to move in different directions. But you have to promise yourself that you will never quit on yourself because essentially, in our business, if we quit, we're quitting on ourselves. Grab Oleysa's Master Class HERE!: 7 Secrets to Making Sales with Unwavering Confidence  

  Creating a Freebie: Yes Girl, You Have Something to Offer   Today we’re going to talk about creating a freebie because doing so gives so many benefits to your business, like for example it can help grow your following or e-mail list, it helps build trust between you and your following, and it helps position yourself as an expert, just to name a few.    So first things first, how do you decide what to create a freebie on? Because that’s the first and biggest hurdle right? Feeling like you don’t have anything to offer, or that no one would want to learn something from you. First off- that’s totally false. Because you DO have something to offer, and we’re going to walk through how to figure out what that is.    I should start by saying, a freebie doesn’t have to be anything crazy and I think that’s where people get hung up. They worry they don’t have enough knowledge to share with the world in freebie form so they just don’t bother. But here’s the secret truth- it doesn’t have to be this super detailed, crazy, life changing freebie. The purpose is to help someone in a quick, and easily digestible manner.    For example, common freebies often follow the format: 5 Steps to… or 3 Tips for.. Or Quick Hacks about XYZ… so it doesn’t have to be overwhelming.    Now knowing that, you need to think about your niche and you need to think about what it is within your niche that you’re SUPER passionate about, that you could offer assistance to others with.    So for me, I nerd out over instagram. I nerd out because when I first started using Instagram for my business- I KNEW NOTHING. So what did I do? I stalked articles on pinterest, I binge listened to podcasts and youtube, and just soaked in all the information I could. And then, I realized I had a lot of knowledge about instagram that others didn’t!    From that realization, I took ONE aspect of Instagram and I decided to make a freebie about hashtags. Now I hope you’re with me on this, because hashtags are only one piece of the entire instagram puzzle. So again, it wasn’t crazy, it was just one piece of information I knew really well and decided “hey! I could take this knowledge, write it out, and create a freebie on it!” And that’s exactly what I did.    Now we need to put this in terms of your business. You are doing something that others do not know how to do, or do not know how to do as well. Again, I know it’s so common to feel like this isn’t true, that we don’t have enough knowledge to be sharing with others, or certainly not enough knowledge to be creating a freebie on. But I want to be clear, you are one step ahead of someone- and that is all you need to be in order to create a successful freebie.   When we get stuck in entrepreneurial land, and we’re watching all these boss babes who are killing and who are where we want to be, it can be hard for us to see our own special talents and it can be hard for us to realize that we have some knowledge that could benefit others! BECAUSE we’re so busy following our role models, that we don’t see the people who are following us because we inspire them. Remember, The kindergartner looks up to the first grader, and you only need to be one chapter ahead of someone in order to help them!   With that in mind, think about your niche and most importantly, think about your ideal client (because everything in business comes down to knowing our ideal client! And if this is something you’re still struggling with, be sure to check out episode 4.) But knowing your niche and knowing your ideal client, what knowledge can you share with them, that will help them?    It’s really that simple!   Again, this would be based on your knowledge and what you feel comfortable and confident in sharing with your following but you just need to think of quick helpful knowledge that you can share, that your ideal client would find useful and helpful.   If you’re still struggling, really take the time to sit down and think what your ideal client is struggling with. What are their fears? What makes them mad? What makes them sad? What are their goals? Once you know the answer to those questions, create a freebie that answers their struggle. Create something that brings them a solution to their problem, or if not a full solution, a helpful way to get started.   The hardest part I won’t lie, is believing in yourself! If you know your audience and you know their needs, then thinking of a freebie topic should become that much easier. The struggle is getting past that mindset block and understanding you don’t have to have 5000 followers to make a difference. You don’t have to have a full time business. You don’t have hit a milestone before you are capable of sharing your knowledge with the world.    Now that we’ve gone over how you’re capable, because you are, and we’ve made the idea of creating a freebie less scary, I want to share the actual logistics of creating a freebie with you. Because for some of you, THIS could be the part that’s hanging you up.     Like I’ve learned from Jenna Kutcher, it can be as easy as opening up a word document, typing out your information, and then saving it as a PDF. BOOM. DONE.   I’ve actually downloaded freebies that use that very process and I didn’t think anything of it. It’s super simple and all you need is Word or Pages on your computer.   However, me personally, I’m a visual person, so I like when things look pretty. If you’re like me in this department, I LOVE PicMonkey for all of my creating needs. It’s a super easy design tool that gives you access to stock photos and videos, thousands of templates and graphics, and you can check it out HERE, but essentially, it’s a super easy way to make beautiful graphics and freebies.   But what I want to be sure you understand, is whether you go fancy or not, you need something typed up and saved as a PDF. That’s it. Once you’ve done that- you have your freebie! So time to pop the champagne, order takeout, do a happy dance, and CELEBRATE! I feel like creating a freebie is such an important step in the realm of business because, as I said before, it can help you gain more followers, it helps position you as an expert, and it just adds VALUE for your following. And if you’ve been following along with me, you know that as business owners we should always be thinking “how can I add more value for my clients?”   Now you might be wondering, “Molly, what the heck do I do once I have this saved PDF version of my Freebie?” That’s a good question and honestly, it depends on what the purpose of it is. You could use your freebie to grow your e-mail list, or you can upload it somewhere like Google drive which is what I do, and get a shareable link for it! That way, you could just share the link with your audience or in your profile   To wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Work on writing out your ideal client’s struggles. Even if you’ve already done it, make sure it’s up to date. Get them out of your head and write them down somewhere whether it’s on paper or in your computer/phone. Action step #2:  Brainstorm Freebie titles or topics. Start thinking about your skills, and think about what you know that someone a chapter behind you doesn’t know. Action step #3: Pick one of those topics and just start getting the information you want to share on that topic out of your head and onto paper or into your computer phone.        

I’m going to start right off by saying: Having the right mindset is key to having a successful business. But all too often, we get into our own heads and we chip away at our strong mindset with our self doubt. We question ourselves, our products or services, we compare ourselves to others, we hit a bump in the road; and then that strong mindset we THOUGHT we had, starts to crumble and we wonder what we’re even DOING on this journey and trying to be our own boss. Let me tell you something right now, mastering a strong mindset, has the ability to get you through anything, and I mean literally anything, on your business journey. So what are the things that we struggle with the most when it comes to our mindset? This episode is going to go over 5 common mindset struggles for boss babes. Now you're probably wondering when you hear me talk about mindset, “Molly, what does my mindset have to do with my business?” Girl. It has EVERYTHING to do with your business. I love being a business owner. It’s given me so much freedom and control over my life- which are usually some of the very reasons that people want to START a business but, there will be challenges on this entrepreneur journey. I’m just being honest. And mastering your mindset and setting your expectations is going to help you move through those difficult times with confidence and encouragement that you’ll come out the other end.  So what are some of the things that boss babes commonly struggle with when it comes to mindset?  1. Needing Constant Praise So often in the business world there will be periods of time where all you will hear are crickets, and that can be HARD. It can make you start to wonder if you’re even WORTHY of success and it can make you want to give up before the crickets end and the success arrives. So let’s address this one. Getting constant praise would be nice wouldn’t it? Not even just in business but in all aspects of life! I know I would eat it up. But the reality is, that doesn’t happen. Again, there will be times of complete and utter silence in your business (except for the crickets). We all have slow periods or seasons. It’s normal. But what you need to understand is that just because no one is biting, or liking, or commenting, or whatever, doesn’t mean you aren’t still making an impact or that they aren’t still watching, and reading, and listening to what you have to say.  While it’s nice to receive constant praise, understand that while people might not be engaging, they’re watching. They’re seeing you show up and they’re seeing you present yourself as the expert. Know that constant praise, isn’t always an indicator of success. People can be “silently” praising and “silently” engaging in your business as well. Your job is to remind yourself of that when things get a little slow or quiet because you ARE WORTHY of that success that you’re working towards! And you will get there! It can be so hard for us boss babes because we tend to follow all of our role models online and we see all their success, but success doesn’t happen overnight and it sure didn’t for them either! Success comes when you put your blinders on, do the work, and show up for the people in your circle RIGHT NOW. When you do that, you’ll start seeing the progress that you want. So when you feel like you’re not getting any engagement, you’re hearing the crickets, you starting wondering if you’re worthy of that success- remember- who never know who’s watching you, and you’re worthy.  Don’t let the crickets drive you to giving up before that “success” arrives. It takes time! So keep showing up, do that work, and know that you’ve got this! You’re impacting more people than you know! 2. Sharing Your Passion with Your Audience So what do I mean by that? I mean, When you KNOW you have a good product or service and you know it can change lives, or make an impact, or just that you would be the best provider for them, but you struggle with getting that across to others. You struggle with sharing that passion. Because, whether you realize this is the problem or not, you hate feeling “salesy.” Let me start by saying if you AREN’T passionate about your product or your service then you’re in the wrong business. You absolutely, 100% need to be PASSIONATE about what you’re selling because people don’t buy products or services, they buy your passion. They buy your story and your WHY. And if you aren’t passionate about your product or service, why should they be? Why should they trust you and work with you? When you’re passionate about what you’re doing, you need to share that passion. When you do, it makes “selling” so much easier. Selling doesn’t have to feel slimy, or uncomfortable. If you, again, are passionate about your product or service, and truly believe in what you have to offer, then share your experiences, share your heart, BE OPEN AND TRANSPARENT and let your passion shine through all of your content. When you do that, you’ll be showing others not just what you do, but WHY you do it. Why you’re the best person for them to work with. So if you’re feeling weird about sharing your passion with your audience- you shouldn’t. Being open, transparent, and authentic is what’s going to help you move that needle forward in your business. It’s going to build that know-like-trust factor with your following, and when you share your passion, your personality is going to shine through right along with it which will allow you to connect on a deeper level with your following! If you don’t believe me that sharing your passion is important, think about the people that YOU following and look up to! How often do you feel like they’re actually just “selling” to you, compared to how many times they’re passionate, real, and authentic? When they’re real about what they do and why, doesn’t that draw you in more? Don’t you feel that connection with them? Like WOW, they’re just like me!  Don’t be worried about letting your passion shine through your work and content. Again, if anything, it’ll make your followers feel more drawn to you and what you offer! 3. Imposter syndrome!  Imposter Syndrome is unfortunately an all too real, and all too common stressor that all boss babes deal with throughout their business journey, and at all points of their business journey. It’s not something you magically outgrow.   Sometimes, regardless of knowing that  you’re  good at what you do and that you have many happy clients, sometimes we just can’t seem to shake the “not good enough” feeling. So what do you do? How do we work through this mindset struggle? Episode 2 dives deep into ways you can combat imposter syndrome, but if I had to sum it up for you in one point, it would be to put on your blinders.  I think one of the biggest reasons we all suffer from imposter syndrome is because we get stuck comparing ourselves to what others in our industry, or heck! Just what other entrepreneurs are doing. When we start focusing on others in our industry, we start wondering “Should I be doing more? Should I be doing that?” or we think things like “I just want to be as good as they are! Or get as many likes as they do, or make as much money.” instead of focusing on how we can serve our current audience well. The best advice I can give is advice I heard from Jenna Kutcher earlier this year, she said when she was first starting, she unfollowed all similar accounts because she found herself comparing her work and business to others, and it lead to imposter syndrome feelings and analysis paralysis- which none of us want.  So if you know that you’re good at what you do, and you have happy clients to prove it but you’re still feeling like you’re not enough, it’s time to PUT ON YOUR BLINDERS. Unfollow the accounts that make you feel “less than,” and start focusing more on how you can serve your current following SUPER well.   4. Other people’s opinions Have you ever purchased something online and you loved it SO MUCH you actually went to leave a review? It’s very rare I take the time to leave a review, but when I do, it’s because I LOVED that product or service. Usually when I go to leave a review, I scroll through other ones.. Does anyone else do this? And when I see a bad one I’m always baffled. I really am. How could this person leave such a bad review when I absolutely LOVED this service or product?! The answer? You cannot make everyone happy. People will always have their opinions. Whether they think you’re crazy for starting your business, they think your product is weird or unnecessary, they just want to judge you to judge you- You cannot please everyone. You will never be EVERYONE’s cup to tea. I hate saying that, because I hate thinking that I can’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and I hate thinking that you can’t be too, but it’s the honest to goodness truth.  It’s hard to put yourself out there if you’re worried about what others will think. But if you don’t put yourself out there, if you don’t 100% commit to this business and share your passion with conviction, I can guarantee you will not last.  I recently read a quote and it said something like “No millionaire ever got where they are by caring that someone thought their idea was stupid. They just went and did it anyway.” That cannot be more true and was actually the case for one of Netflix’s co-founders Marc Randolph! I listened to him at a conference where he was saying how people thought the idea of Netflix was crazy and would never work- GOOD THING HE DIDN”T LISTEN RIGHT?!  It’s hard NOT to care. And the only advice I have is to again put on your blinders- but to just DO IT. Take a deep breath, push through the anxiety, and just put yourself out there. Screw other people’s opinions. And honestly, if you push through, I can guarantee you, you will see results.  It’s tough for sure, but once you do it a few times, it gets easier. And the only way to be successful in your business adventure is to be CONFIDENT about why you’re on this journey in the first place. Because if you’re not confident in your business, how can you expect your following to be? So who cares what they’ll think? Again if it’s something your passionate about and you know you’re good at, take a deep breath, and just KEEP DOING IT. Keep showing up, being authentic, and being you. 5. Staying positive and calm in negative or hostile situation At some point, someone might want a refund, or might be unsatisfied, or you might just meet a miserable person on your business journey, or you might genuinely make a mistake or let something slip through the cracks- we are all human after all. It happens to the best of us. And when it does? It can be really hard to stay positive and not want to just give up and quit, or to defend yourself with all the sass your body can muster.  But this struggle ties in with the last one. We have to remember, that we are not everyone’s cup of tea. At some point, you might hit a negative or hostile situation in your business, and when that happens, I’ve learned to just apologize, no matter what, and offer to do what you can. It’s really that simple. The golden rule comes into play here and you really just have to treat others how you would want to be treated.  However, there are ways to hopefully avoid any negative or hostile situations and this goes back to being as authentic and consistent as possible across all your platforms. If people can get to know you and see your work and its consistent, they’re going to know what to expect. But if you’re showing inconsistent work across all platforms and your personality is all over the place (like you’re the fake you online only for them to meet a totally different boss babe in person) , then they’re NOT going to know what to expect when working with you and you’re way more likely to run into an issue.  So while, back in common struggle #4, you might be worried about what others will think, it’s a lot better to push through that fear and be your true self, than to put on one persona online, and another persona comes out when a client works with you.  One of the biggest secrets to success is consistency, so make sure you’re consistent in your work, and your messaging.  Put on your blinders, Be authentic, be consistent,  and let that passion shine through. When you do those things, all these common mindset struggles will become easier and easier for you with practice! To wrap it up... Let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Make a social media post today that’s personal. Share about your passion for you business and why you’re so passionate about your product or service! Action step #2:  Unfollow the accounts you feel you tend to compare yourself to. You can always re-follow them later in life but for now, do yourself a favor and unfollow them so you can focus on YOU, Your following, and your business.  Action step #3: Review the content and wording that you have across all platforms so you can make sure you, your products, and your business are showing up consistently to your audience.

Ahhh Instagram. The ever changing, ever frustrating but necessary social media platform for business. Instagram is a beautiful thing for us boss babes! It’s a great, and FREE, marketing tool! But even so, there are so many people who struggle with getting the most out of the app. One of the biggest struggles? Gaining followers. So today we’re going to talk about three tips to help you gain followers- and not just gain followers- but how to gain followers outside of your circle.   How many can relate to this struggle? It can be so great to have supportive friends and family, and even just nosey people from high school who want to keep track of what you’re up to, but how do you branch OUT of that circle? How do you reach those ideal clients that you DREAM of working with but don’t know? That’s what we’re going to talk about today.   Before we dive into the three tips, you need to stop obsessing over vanity metrics.    Right now in the world there is this current obsession with business owners, bloggers, influencers and the like to grow fast and furious on social media. And by fast and furious, I mean gain TONS of followers, likes, and all that fun stuff.    We need to shift our focus from follower counts, page views, and likes, and start focusing more on ENGAGEMENT. Because engagement friends, is what it’s all about.    If you feel like you’re stuck on your numbers- you need to get unstuck. If you feel like you’re hung up on that follower count- you need to stop.    Here’s why. While follower counts, page views, and like are metrics with some merit, they’re really just shallow indicators of success. Vanity metrics can (and will) fluctuate and they fail to show you what’s going on behind the scenes! Because while it’s cool to reach a large number of people, what’s really going to move the needle forward in your business is quality over quantity.    If you have 10,000 followers but none of them are your ideal client, none of them are engaging in your content, and none of them are buying what you’re selling- then what does that even matter?   BUT on the flip side, if you have 100 ENGAGED followers, you could be raking in some decent money from people who ARE buying what you’re selling, people are benefiting from your content, and people who are invested in who you are as a business! Engagement is what moves us forward in business. It’s the engaged followers that support us, not the people who follow just to follow.    Tips to gain followers outside of our circle:   1.) HASHTAGS! I remember when I first started to use instagram for my business and I had no idea how powerful hashtags were! I honestly thought they were more of an optional feature, and maybe you feel that way too! But let me tell you right now- they are not optional- they are a NECESSITY! If you want to see growth in your business, then you need to start using them   Did you know that a post that has ONE hashtag gets 12.6% more engagement than a post that has 0 hashtags?! Crazy right?! Knowing that, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to start using them TODAY.   A hashtag or the pound symbol, before a word or phrase, allows you to categorize and label your image on instagram, facebook, or other social media platforms. However, for today's tips, we're going to focus mostly on instagram. When you use a hashtag, your image will show up in searches under that tag, and allow you to connect with other people and content in that category. So, each hashtag has it's own feed or gallery so to speak. When hashtags are used correctly, they can help you speak right to your target audience and gain qualified followers that are outside of your circle.    If you really want to see results from hashtags then you need to use hashtags with intention and efficiency. Using generic hashtags like #happy, or #swoon (guilty of that one,) isn't going to get you the engagement or the audience you're looking for. So what can you do? The first tip with hashtags, is to be specific. Be selective with the hashtags that you use. Remember how I said hashtags are like a search engine? So before you use a hashtag, think to yourself "Would my ideal client USE that tag?" What is the point in using a hashtag, if it doesn't target your ideal client?! Once you grasp that mindset, you're starting to think in the specific nature that hashtags require. Tip two is to use location specific tags. For example, I live in Upstate New York, which is very different (and about 4.5 hours away) from NYC. If I just use the tag #nybride, that's all fine and well, but most likely my local bride isn't using that hashtag to find her wedding photographer. Using a location specific hashtag can put you in front of the clients who are looking for a service provider right in their area! Do not underestimate the power of location specific tags! Not only that, but it puts you in front of other people in your area that you might not have ties to! (the whole purpose of today’s episode right?! To gain followers outside of your circle?!) The same goes for adding a location on your post in general. Add where you are whether it’s a small town, a big city, a park, a fair- always add your location because again, you never know who might be searching for that tag OR that location! And just to prove this works, when I started using location specific tags, I was found by a local business who asked if they could add me to a directory that they run of other business educators in the area! So now, because I used a location specific hashtag, I was found by another business and am now on another platform for people to find me!  Tip three is to make sure your ideal client is front of mind when creating a hashtag. Do you know who your ideal client is? If you don’t, you need to figure this out. Episode 4 is all about how to nail down your ideal client so if you’re stuck in that department, be sure to give it a listen! I want you to think of this: Have you had a past client that you just ADORED? Or, is there someone out there that you know you would love to work? If so, go and check out their page! See what hashtags they're using, if they're using any, or see what interests them! If the tags they use are in your realm of industry, it wouldn't hurt to pick them up because using the same hashtags or similar tags, will put you in front of like minded people! It also helps to do the same with your top engagers. See what hashtags they're using as well!    Tip four? Go check out your competitors hashtags. You know, the ones that are killing it in the market and you're wondering how they're doing it? Well go look and see! Side note: I'm not telling you to go and copy all the same hashtags that they're using, because some might not be on brand for you. However, if there are some that really resonate with you and your brand, then pick them up! Now, I really just scratched the surface on information about hashtags but I really wanted you to see how powerful they are for your business and how they can get you in front of people outside of your circle! Those four quick tips will definitely help you get started but if you want more, check out my freebie on hashtag hacks to get alllllll the details about hashtags! You can snag it HERE!   2.) CUSTOMERS   I think one of the most underrated way to gain exposure in your business is to leverage your customer. Happy customers are another amazing source of free marketing.    The first thing you need to do is to ask your customers for reviews. You should be asking this of all your customers. Reviews are amazing and there is so much that you can do with them. Today, we’re focusing solely on growing our social media following outside of our circle so that’s what I’m going to focus on, but there is seriously so much that reviews can do for you and your business. For example, if a client leaves a review, go on canva, make a quick but cute graphic with their review, and share it to your story! Or heck! If you aren’t a crafty person, take a screen shot of it and post it on your story! And then- tag them in it. When people get tagged by a business on social media, it makes them feel like a million bucks. Have you ever experienced the feeling? I know when a business shouts me out, I get all giddy inside and feel cool for like 5 whole seconds. But by tagging them in their review, you give them MORE happy feelings about working with you which can lead to them telling other about you and your business.    So first, ask all your clients for reviews and then POST THEM. Whether in your story, or on your feed. Share the good things people say about you because it helps build trust between you, and future clients.   Second tip, is to encourage your clients to post about your service or product on their OWN pages. Say they bought a mug, or earrings from you. In your confirmation e-mail, add a part that say “Post a picture of you and your product and tag me for a chance to be featured on my account!” or something enticing like that. Then, when they do it, you can share their post in your story which will help build even more trust between you and your future clients, but more importantly, it encourages your client to do advertising for you because now that they’ve posted about your business, whether in their feed or story, your business is getting exposure to all of their followers- AKA people NOT in your circle!    Again, the easiest way to make this happen is to encourage them with an e-mail saying if you do this, we’ll re share it and you’ll be featured on our page but once you get someone to start, and your followers see that you share customer posts and stories, they’re going to know “oh if I buy from her and tag her she’ll share it” because they’ve seen you do it with others!   Now if you’re a service based business, you can still do this! You just might have to be creative on what you’re asking them to share! So in my photography business, people just share the images I took of them and they tag me in them. But if you do coaching, maybe have them tag you in a results picture, or a before and after shot! There’s definitely ways to utilize your clients in both product and service based businesses.    But Now let’s say you’re still in the beginning stages of business, and your only customers have been your closest friends and family. That doesn’t matter. Honestly, it can be better because you can harass them and make them post a picture of your product or service lol but even though they’re already in your circle, when they share on their feed or in their story, you’re still getting in front of their audience and you never know who will see it, love it, and then follow you as a result! Because even though it’s someone in your close circle sharing about your busiess, you don’t know EVERYONE they know, and if you can gain ONE outer circle follower from that post, that’s all you need to get the ball rolling!   So when it comes to customers USE THEM! Ask them to leave a review and then share their reviews! Ask them to share about their experience or product on their pages for a chance to be featured and then reshare or repost all of that client love!    People love being featured. So give them the opportunity and relish in the fact that you’re making them feel special while also getting exposure to a ton of potential new customers. Again, this works like crazy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a friend post about jewelry they bought and tagged the business and then I went and followed the account AND ended up buying something. I’ve even done this with photographers! I’ve seen someone post their pictures and I loved them so much I clicked on the tagged photographer, followed them, and booked a session! If you think about it, you’ve probably done this before too! So give your clients an amazing experience with you so they want to share all about it and then repost and reshare the heck out of it!   3.) KEEP AT IT   We all want to grow our businesses big and we all want to do it super fast. But the reality is the fastest way to do it, is to dig in and do the work which sometimes, isn’t that fast at all. The real secret to growth is momentum. You really just need to gain momentum and start where you are.    Look at the people you have right now and think about how you can serve them SO WELL that they talk about you and your products to everyone they meet. When you can do that, when you can focus on providing your customers with love and value, from there you’ll grow. When it comes to growth and gaining followers outside of your circle, all it takes is for a friend to tell a coworker, and then that coworker buys something and then they tell their friends and so on and so forth! Again, you just need to gain some momentum.   To wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Start using hashtags on all your posts- NOW. If you want to expand your reach and break out of your inner circle- you have to make sure your post is visible to others! Again, I have a freebie all about hashtags so make sure you snag it HERE so you can start getting started and seeing that needle move forward in your biz! Action step #2:  Ask clients for reviews. If you’ve had recent clients, I’d say within the past three months, reach out to them and ask for a review! Start sharing them and tagging your customers in them! If you’re working on something for someone now, whether a product or service, reach out and say “hey when this is done, would you mind posting a picture and tagging me?” Just ask! People are more willing than you would think to support small businesses in any way they can! And then moving forward, add it right into a confirmation e-mail or whatever way works best for you and your biz! Action step #3: If you’ve don’t something for a friend or family member in the past- no matter how long ago- ask them for a review TODAY. Seriously. Badger them. They're your friends and family so you can! Remember, the secret to growth is gaining momentum and sometimes as business owners, we have to create our own momentum. So look around at where you are and use what and who you’ve got! 

Meet Chaya! Chaya Gutnick is someone who helps business owners create simple systems so that they can get things done faster. In her last full time employee position, she was able to complete her work in 15 hours a week. So when she was looking to start consulting and looking into how she could really benefit business owners, that's what stood out to her. I mean, what business owner doesn’t want to turn their 40 hour work week into 15 hours of work a week!?     Her WHY is really to help you guys figure out how to get meet all your goals and really get there but not do it in a way that's overwhelming and all over the place where you constantly feel pulled in so many directions.   She has managed a team of 20+ people so she knows what it takes to keep things running smoothly while making time for needle moving activities. Chaya is pursuing a doctoral degree in organizational leadership and is always looking to learn something new!   You can check out her website at controlmychaos.com   The Interview Cliff Notes:   Molly: I love how you said that you help people know establish the system so that they're more productive. But I think a lot of people when talking about business don't even really know what a system is. Can you explain that? What is a system in your business?   Chaya: A system is just like a repeatable way of doing something. It can look like a checklist, it can look like a software that you use to do a certain thing. It can be like really simple things like book marking Facebook groups. So instead of going on Facebook, getting lost for 25 minutes wondering why I'm even on there, right? I just click on my bookmarks tab, open all and all those groups are open. So those are some relatable examples of what a system could be.   Molly:  What would you say to people that feel they're just too busy to take the time to create a system?   Chaya: I would say a few things. I would say if you're happy where your business is at right now, then that's fine. You don't have to create systems, right? Like, if your business is working well, you're happy with your life, you're happy with the amount of time you have and all that stuff, then you're not one who needs a system, and that's fine. But most of us don't fall into that category. And if you don't fall into that category, and you do want to create systems, I would just recommend time blocking it off in your calendar- set a time. First think what are the  things that you do every day that you'd like to create systems for? And then let's say you start blocking off an hour for creating one type of system or creating another type of system.   If you're not finding the time, you need to make the time, that's really what I would say. You need to decide that it's important to you. It takes discipline. And one of the things that, that I remind people all the time is, when you don’t want to sit down and think about systems, think about your goals. Just think about your goal and say, I have to do this hard thing in order to get to my goal.   Molly: Do you have any tips to help people stick to a system that they've created?   Chaya: Okay, so I was actually talking to someone yesterday and we were talking all about personality, and how different people need different types of systems. Like some people need visual systems. Some people need a really technical system. Some people just like a simple spreadsheet, right? Try and think back to a system that has worked for you in the past, and think about why it worked for you and then try and replicate that.   As far as sticking to your systems, the first thing I always recommend is choose a system that's going to work for you. Figure out the type of system you need in order for it to work for you. The second thing is is that visualize your goals. For example, you could visualize where you want to be in five years, and what your life is going to look like and what you're going to do and what you're going to have, or, really what your day would look like. And every time you don't want to do your work, or you don't want to follow through, think about that. You can even above your computer, put a picture of the type of house that you'd like to live in. I was just working with a client who wants to move somewhere. So he's going to put up a picture of the neighborhood he wants to move into. Try visualizing as much as possible that goal that you have, and it can either be a five year goal or a six month goal- whatever works best for you.   Molly: I’m not gonna lie when I first started business, I didn't know what scaling meant. So I want you to just kind of talk about What does that mean to scale your business? And how do these systems help you do that?   Chaya:  So scaling your business really just means to grow your business, to make it bigger, whatever bigger means to you. Does that mean servicing more clients and making a bigger impact? Does that mean you're more profitable and therefore meet your goals in a different way? Does that mean you're more profitable, and you can therefore give back to your community to causes that are important to you? So, scaling means growing, everybody has a different goal when it comes to growing and it just means growing closer to that goal.   That's what I would say scaling means, and systems help you get there. So, systems help you do things faster so you're able to do more things in less time. But, also what I focus on when I'm working with people is simplifying and staying really focused because a lot of us get distracted easily. We're like, oh, I should be on Facebook. I should be on Instagram, I should be on LinkedIn, I should be on tik tok, right? And we come up with all this stuff that we’re excited to do, but it’s almost to a fault because you’re all over the place and then not doing anything well. So focus on doing less things better. Quality over quantity.   So one of the first things we'll also kind of focus on is what are your goals and what are the fastest ways to get there. That’s why I’m all about simple systems because they help you to get stuff done faster. Then, if you have a really good system set up, then outsourcing and delegating becomes so much easier because you already have systems in place for people to learn.           Molly: What are some tips you can give people so that they can grow their business faster and stronger?   Chaya: Yeah, so the first thing that I would say is this: with tips, it’s easy to like see a tip and do it or say you do it, but you really need to go all in. If you hear a tip, and you're not actually fully using it, you're not really going to get all the benefits. So this is going to be something that you've heard before, but if you're not really doing it fully, you're probably not at all getting the benefits of it. The tip is scheduling your day. Instead of having a to do list, schedule it on your calendar, so anything that you would otherwise put on your to do list, schedule it. It could be client calls, certain marketing activities that you're doing, sales activities that you're doing, content creation, whatever that looks like in your business, time block those things out.   I would also say see what you can eliminate and eliminate as much as possible. Anything that's not actually getting you to your goals, eliminate it.   The next thing I would say is like automate, right? You look at things that can be done automatically and set that up. Then if you're at the point in your business where you can delegate I mean, definitely looking at what can be delegated     Keep tabs on Chaya! Chaya has a Facebook group called Business Owners Scale Simple Systems that you can join HERE. She does a ton of free trainings in the group about every 6 weeks!  

Are you struggling with productivity? Have you started on this business venture, or heck! Maybe you’ve been rocking it for a few years, but you’re struggling with managing your time? Struggling to know how to prioritize? Struggling to know what to work on first? Let’s get real. Time management is HARD STUFF and when you feel like you’re always scrambling with a ton to do and no idea where to start, that’s one of the worst feelings out there! So today, we’re going to go over some tips on how to prioritize your projects and manage your time so that you aren’t feeling stressed, panicked, and left suffering from a big ol’ case of analysis paralysis.   Tip #1.) Create your To-Do list   The first thing to do when starting to establish an effective time management system is to write down all that you have to do and WANT to do. Now, I don’t care if lists aren’t your thing, because in order to manage your time effectively, you have to know what you have to do! Makes sense right? So write down what products, projects, and services you have to do or provide, and write down your other business to-do’s that you want to get done! Whether that’s updating your website, responding to e-mails, sending out contracts, catching up on blogging, scheduling social media posts- whatever you want to get done- write it down.   Don’t worry about the order at the moment. The goal here is to word vomit all that’s on your mental to-do list and we’re going to work from there.  Without knowing what we have to do, we can easily spend our days being “busy” but not necessarily productive. Remember, busy is NOT a badge of honor, being PRODUCTIVE is.    There are so many ways to create your to-do list! The key to success with this whole process, is knowing what kind of person you are! If you’re a sticky note person (like me) then do what works for you. You don’t want to be a sticky note person and then start trying some new app for organization. When you do things like that, that’s when you fall off the wagon and things are still left in a chaotic cloud of stress and disarray. You could use a journal, sticky notes, a planner, an app- whatever works for you. This is seriously not a one size fits all kinda deal here. So think about what method you prefer and stick with what works. Get your mental to-do list out of your head and somewhere where you can SEE it. That’s the key.    Tip #2.) Give it an ending   Now, I don’t know you personally, so I don’t know if you’re a service based, or product based business. Either way, I want you to set a deadline for your products or services. For example, I’m a photographer. For all weddings, I have a deadline to deliver wedding galleries in 60 days, and all other galleries (like engagement, maternity, family)  in 30 days. This is not just a deadline in my head- this is something that I tell all of my clients during client meetings, in e-mails, and I remind them again at the end of each session or wedding. Sharing this deadline keeps me accountable.   I want you to set deadlines for your products or services. So when someone orders or books, how long until they receive a finished product or until their service is finished or shipped? Doing this helps keep you on a schedule and makes it 1000x easier to prioritize.    Not to mention, people LOVE knowing what to expect. As a photographer, I obviously love pictures, so I get mine taken a TON. When I have my pictures taken and I’m not given an estimated delivery date, I get so annoyed. I become this obsessive creature who checks her e-mail 5 times a day in case the photographer magically did them overnight. Why? Because I don’t know what to expect. It’s honestly maddening! Have any of you ever experienced anything like this or is it just crazy old me? I LOVE knowing what to expect. Because of that, I always let my clients know what they can expect from me. I personally feel like it’s good business!   So whatever it is you offer, give it a deadline. I don’t care how small, or how big the product or service is- start by setting a realistic deadline so that you can effectively start prioritizing your to-do list.   Before we go on to the next tip for managing time effectively- here’s a quick little tip for setting project deadlines. Make sure when you’re setting a deadline that you allow for a grace period in case anything every happens. Even though I have a 60 or 30 day deadline for pictures. I almost always deliver before the deadline is up. However, when unexpected things come up, like when we had our miscarriage, or you get sick, or someone in your family falls ill, you’re going to be happy you set a deadline that allowed for some grace time. So even if you feel like you can finish something in a week, it might be best to tell your clients or customers, that it will be done in TWO weeks. Not only does that give you a grace period, but it helps you practice the whole “undersell and overdeliver” philosophy. When they receive their product earlier than anticipated, they’re going to be thinking Wow that was fast! This is awesome! I would totally recommend them and use them again!” Versus if you cut yourself short and miss a deadline because life happens, they’re not going to be as happy waiting longer than expected.    Just something to consider when setting deadlines!    Tip #3.) Prioritize your List   Now that you have brain dumped your list, and you know how long it takes to complete an order or service through to completion, it’s time to prioritize your list. Obviously, time sensitive stuff comes first. If you’re having a slower period of business, then you can prioritize based on what you want to get done versus what you HAVE to get done. BUT if things are booming, it’s time to take a look at what needs to get done first. This may seem like a no brainer but things that are due first get worked on first, and projects with due dates get done before projects that you’re doing for “fun” or for business asthetic. The most powerful tool for your business is a happy customer, so if you have orders make sure you’re working on them everyday and the fun stuff like website design or business rebranding comes after.   So sit down and look at your projects. The ones you have active right now, you most likely haven’t communicated a deadline for, but think about who put the order in first and prioritize accordingly. In business, the goal is to keep customers waiting as little as possible so that’s what you should keep front of mind when starting to get everything in order. Do you see how having a deadline for your products and services helps in this department? It just makes it so much easier to know what needs to be done first.    For example, someone might have order or booked with you first, but depending on what service or product they purchased, maybe you have longer to work on it than someone else who purchased and product or service that doesn’t take as long. For me, I may have a wedding and then 3 engagement session within a week. Even though I had the wedding first, the three engagement session will be due first, so I try to bang those out as soon as possible and slowly chip away at the wedding in-between!   Tip #4.) Set Office Hours   Once we can visualize our list, give our service deadlines, and then prioritize accordingly- It’s time to get real. If you want to make this business thing work, you need to have some sort of structure. You also need to know how much time you have so you can know when to work on what. Now, we already know what we should be working on first because we’ve prioritized our to-do list, but now, we need to figure out how much time you can legitimately devote to your business daily- or weekly if you know you aren’t going to be working everyday. Again, the key here is to be realistic so we know what we’re actually working with.   Now for me, I’m a boss babe, but also a full time stay at home momma. So my business runs around nap times and bedtime. At this point in my life, I know I have 4 hours a day I can devote to my business. I leave the first nap free for me to clean, shower, nap myself if I need to, and do “me things,” like binge watch the office! But second nap and after bedtime is when I work.      So what does that look like for you? Are you juggling multiple kids and maybe you can only devote an hour or two after bedtime? Do you work a traditional 9 to 5 still and know that you don’t want to be working all day everyday so you’ll commit to 2 hours three times a week, like 6-8p M, W, F? What is realistic for you so that you don’t get burned out, and so that you can still have a life? That’s what you need to figure out. Once we know how much time we’re working with, that’s when we can start getting productive.   Tip #5.) Schedule it out    Now we know our prioritized to do list, we know our deadlines, and we know how many hours we have to work with. So all that’s left to do is to schedule it out! Let’s go back to my previous example of have a wedding followed by three engagement session in one week. Let’s also be real and throw in how I have a podcast episode, blog post, e-mail, and social media to get out weekly. Knowing I only have 4 hours a day to work, I might divvy it up something like this: 2 hours editing (what I edit would be based on what will be due first), 1 hour podcast episode (scripting/interviews/editing/and corresponding blog posts), 30 minutes social media planning (this could rotate based on the day of the week, like maybe Monday I plan out instagram, Tuesday I plan out Pinterest, etc) and then, 30 minutes working on weekly emails.    So I look at how much time I have to work based on the office hours I set for myself, I look at my list and see what I have to do and what needs to be done by when, and I schedule around that. It’s actually really easy! You just have to take the time to set project deadlines (which REALLY helps with time management) and you have to have some set structure as to when you work! When you do those two things, everything becomes so much clearer!   Now, I kinda told you how I might break up my four hour slot but there are a few other things that can help to make sure you stay on track, and that you keep managing your time to the best of your ability.    First, USE A TIMER! No shame here. If you’re someone who gets so absorbed into one project- set a timer so you know when you’re allotted time is up and it’s time to switch gears! Multitasking can be hard so if you need to juggle multiple projects, schedule them out and set a timer!   Second, leave your phone somewhere NOT where you are. It can be so easy to start answering texts, getting side tracked, wanting to check social media, or your e-mail. Seriously. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole. The best thing you can do is to leave your phone somewhere else- in another room, on silent, so it can’t distract you. Plus, if you only have a few hours a day to work on your business, you want them to be as productive as possible.    Lastly, don’t OVER do it. This applies in two ways. First, do over schedule your time. I like to only schedule 3-4 things a day and that way if I’m really on a roll with something a go over my time a little, I still have time to finish my other tasks. By not over scheduling my time, I’m giving myself a cushion! That way if you’re feeling super productive, roll with it!    The second point, is to not multi-task too much. Focus the majority of your time on your most important task, and then add maybe 2-3 other small things you can work on for a short period of time! Again, multi-tasking is hard and sometimes juggling too many projects at once can result in us dropping or forgetting small details which we don’t want. So again, check your list and focus on what is the most important priority and organize your time accordingly.    Tip # 6.) BATCH IT UP!   Batching is a beautiful thing. Now you might be wondering what I mean when I say batching so let me break it down for you: if you schedule out a chunk of time for blogging, or social media, don’t just focus on what you’re going to post that day. If you can, block a larger chunk of time and batch a whole weeks worth of social media posts/captions. Or draft as many blog posts as you can. Or plan out an e-mail series. They say By concentrating on one task for a longer period of time instead of swapping from this to that and back to this, you are scientifically more productive and focused, which is why I said to make sure you don’t OVER schedule yourself. Work on a max of ¾ things a day and focus on one task at a time! During your time slot bang out as much work as you can. Batching is wonderful and can save you so much time and brainpower.    Tip #7.) REDUCE, REUSE, REPURPOSE!   Reduce your stress, reuse what you’ve got, and repurpose your content! I cannot stress this enough! If you’re someone who is crunched for time and wondering how you’re going to “do it all” start repurposing your content. Did you write a blog post recently? Instead of spending minutes thinking of a caption, pull a few lines from your blog post! Did you write a killer caption last year? Reuse it. Did you have an awesome post on FB last week? Share it on instagram this week. Seriously. No one will notice and you will start saving yourself a TON of time. When you start thinking of everything you put out there as reusable content, everything feels 1000x easier. Did you write a killer caption that got a ton of engagement? Maybe write a blog post about the same topic and just go a little deeper! I mean you already know it’s a hit! If you want to start managing your time better, start looking at what you’ve already done and repurpose it. No need to reinvent the wheel everyday, for every platform.   Time management is a tricky sticky subject because it’s definitely different for everyone. You need to find what works best for you and the best way to do that is to be real about how much time you have to devote to your business, and to make sure you’re clear on your deadline. All the rest if I’m being honest, is going to be you figuring out what works for you!     To wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Brain dump your mental to-do list. Let it allll out. From actual paid projects/services to things that you want to do for your business like marketing, blogging, website work, etc. Write down what it is you want to get done so you can start managing your time appropriately. Action step #2:  Give your products and services a deadline. How long until you deliver a final product? Start sharing your deadlines with your customers so they know what to expect and you’re held accountable. Action step #3:  Figure out your office hours. Sit down and figure out how much time you have to truly commit to your business on a regular basis.      GRAB 50% OFF your annual Honeybook subscription here! GRAB 50% OFF your Flodesk subscription here!

It can be really tough when you’re starting a business to feel confident in what you do and what you’re selling. Honestly, it can feel tough even when you’ve been doing it, for any amount of time. Sometimes we just all get inside our own heads and think of a gazillion and a half ways to self sabotage ourselves. Who can relate? I know I sure can! We start thinking, “what will others think, who am I to share this/sell this/teach this”- you name it. The Imposter Syndrome feelings take over and we’re left with an empty tank, no motivation, and scared to put ourselves and our businesses out there.    So how do we show up with confidence. How do we own where we are and what we do? How can we show people that we’re in this because we care! We’re passionate! And we’re the right choice for them.   The first way to start owning where we are?   Personal Development   If you’re struggling to feel ENOUGH- then you need to do some personal development. If you’re hunky dory and loving life- you still need to do personal development. There isn’t anyone in the world who won’t benefit from personal development. It’s how we grow! There are some great books that you can read and podcasts you can listen to that will help light a fire under your butt.   I know that it can be hard to show up because we often tell ourselves lies about ourselves, like how we’re not enough, how our goals are ridiculous, how everyone else is doing this “life” thing with such success and we’re barely getting by.. What’s worse about telling these lies to ourselves, *because they are lies,* is that we BELIEVE them. The more we say them to ourselves, the more we believe we aren’t enough, or that our goals ARE ridiculous, or that everyone is living their best life and we’re not. It’s a nasty cycle sister.    What I also know? Is that personal development is embarrassing. You agree with me don’t you? That’s why when you hear me say personal development you cringe a little, or scoff and think you don’t need it. You think personal development is only for whack jobs you are on the brink of losing their minds? Been there! Kind of ashamed to admit it now BUT I want to be real with you all and I’ve started to realize that the things we think, the things that we’re scared of, the things that make us feel embarrassed- are all actually pretty common thoughts and feelings among others.   I’ll tell you this: EVERYONE feels like they’re not “enough” at some point in their life. Everyone has these moments. This is something we really need to remember when we start feeling any type of “less than.” I’ve found that personal development has helped me feel so much less alone in these seasons of life, and has helped me to really own where I am! Because authenticity doesn’t just sell, it’s craved. It’s relatable. People want to know they aren’t alone in their thoughts and feelings! Honestly, it makes them feel a little bit more sane! It sure does for me! If we can learn to truly embrace where we are, even the messy bits, that’s what people resonate with.   You know in Frozen 2 where Olaf says “Advancing technology is both our savior and our doom.” He’s so right. Social media has us seeing everyone’s happy moments, everyone’s perfectly curated and best work, all perfection all the time and it does affect us! It can actually make us lose our focus and wish we more more like THEM instead of owning where we are and what makes us unique! Don’t believe me? Ever see someone actually get real on social media? Like a mom who shows up with super messy dirty hair and talks about how she pees when she laughs? It makes you laugh and giggle because you can relate! It’s real and it makes you think “wow ok! It’s not just me thank goodness!”   Challenge yourself to do 30 minutes of personal development a day. Whether that’s a book, or a podcast, or reading someone’s blog. Start working on yourself, and you’re going to feel so much better about where you are and how you can show up as authentically as possible.   Here are a couple of my favorite books and podcasts!   Personal development books: Girl Wash Your Face - Rachel Hollis  Girl Stop Apologizing - Rachel Hollis  Read This If You Want to Be Instagram Famous - Henry Carroll  Brave, Not Perfect - Reshma Saujani  Millionaire Success Habits - Dean Graziosi   Personal Development Podcasts: Goal Digger  SHE  The Skinny Confidential  The Broad Experience  Girlboss Radio with Sophia Amoruso       Leaning Into Our Superpowers!   Superpowers are a unique mix of your knowledge and experience that only YOU have. No one has the same experiences in life, and no one absorbs knowledge in the same way. Because of that, you have something that others don’t and it’s time to OWN it!       We need to make a mindset shift to focus on our strengths instead of our weaknesses or what we’re lacking. When we do that, our confidence will soar because we’re doing what we’re good at! If there is something you’re not good at, but has to be done in your business- outsource it! Ask someone else to do it! That way you can focus on your strengths and let someone else handle the stuff you aren’t a wiz at!     Kick Comparison to the Curb   Unfortunately, Comparison can be so stinkin easy to waste a lot of energy on, become distracted by, and get stuck in.   But I want to tell you something right now, comparing ourselves with others, is AGAIN, something that everyone has suffered from in some way, shape, or form. Whether that’s comparing their business, their fitness, their looks, their jobs- it’s common and you’re not alone.   Jordan Lee Dooley said  “We spend a lot of our energy assuming and categorizing instead of empathizing and connecting and it needs to stop.” I couldn’t agree more.    Comparing ourselves to the people around us is like racing the person on the treadmill next to us- it gets us nowhere and more importantly, it just distracts us from our own goals.    Let me tell you something right now, you cannot run a successful life, business, or relationship if you’re too busy trying to make it look like someone else’s.    So what can we do to overcome the need to compare our race with others?  A.) Remember your purpose.  If you aren’t clear on your purpose it’s like shooting into the dark. You’ll be pursuing whatever your goal is aimlessly and open up allll the doors for distraction. Be clear and focus on YOUR goals, not anyone else’s.   B.) Remember this: Her success, is not your failure.  Just because you see someone out there killing it and doing what you want to be doing it, doesn’t mean that you’re any bit “less than.” You don’t know the circumstances surrounding her success, like how long she’s been at it. So put your blinders on, focus on YOUR goals and what you can do to get there, and give yourself grace by remembering that cheering someone else on, doesn’t hurt your progress.   C.) Communicate Make the connection. If you find yourself comparing yourself to someone else- reach out to them. So often we compare ourselves to someone and get it in our minds that they put their pants on differently than we do. I don’t know about you, but anytime I’ve had preconceived notions about someone, they’re almost immediately shattered once I get to know them. Even though someone may seem super successful, put together, and intimidating, at the end of the day, she’s just another girl trying to find her way through life. So if you find yourself stuck on them, reach out and make that connection. Become friends and learn from each other. Knock down those walls that make you feel like you’re in a race that’s totally made up in your head. The best way to do that is to communicate. So send the DM, the e-mail, the text, and get to know you’re competition.       Crystal Clear Clarity If you’re in business, you have heard “find your why,” probably a gazillion times. You know why you hear and read about it so much? Because it is SO IMPORTANT! Now I won’t go too deep into this topic because I have a whole episode on The Business WHY! That you can listen to HERE.    Finding and knowing our business WHY leads to crystal clear clarity. It helps us know our purpose and our mission for being in business. When we know our WHY, it is so much easier to make decisions, focus, and stay the course because fuzzy targets don’t get hit, and knowing our WHY leads us to clarity in our businesses.    Not only is gaining clarity important, but knowing our WHY helps us stay motivated! When you have a dream or a passion you will be inspired to go out and pursue it, but what happens on the hard days? What happens on the days people want a refund, someone leaves a bad review, someone chooses another business over yours? Having a WHY helps to keep you motivated and grounded. It pushes you on the tough days and reminds you of why you started your journey in the first place.      Really think about your WHY. Think about your values. Think about what is important to you. Think about your goals. What are you doing everyday that aligns with that? What habits have you created that will bring you closer to where you want to go? And what habits have you created are holding you back from achieving those goals.     Goal setting   Goal setting is crucial in order to get where you want to do. Without goals, we’re all just aimlessly going about life.    Where people often  struggle with goals, is that they make them too big, and they don’t know where to start. The secret to success is baby steps and imperfect action my friends. It’s showing up consistently, and when we know what we’re working towards, that imperfect action and consistency is much more doable.   Sometimes, we’re so busy hustling that we can’t see outside of the bubble of chaos around us.    I love the exercise from Dean Grazisosi where he tells you to extract yourself from your current chaos, place yourself one year from now, and look back. What does that best year look like? When you know- write down what you would have to do, to get there. There are your goals.    If one year even seems too big for you, break it down into quarters and what you’d like to accomplish in the next three months. Then think of the steps you need to take to achieve those goals!   Once you know what goals and steps you want to conquer- here are a few tips to succeed:   A.) Set a deadline. Hold yourself accountable. So many people will break commitments to themselves before anything else, but you have to change your mindset if you want to become successful. Write down your goals, and then set a deadline to hold yourself accountable. Shift your mindset so that you don’t back down, or cancel on yourself.  B.) Set a reward. Reward yourself when you make progress on your goals, whether thats taking a day off, going out to teat, getting your nails done, whatever is exciting to you, reward yourself. When you know there’s a reward at the end of the goal, it can make finishing that goal that much easier C.) Plan ahead. Prepare yourself for any obstacles that might come your way when trying to accomplish goals. If we prepare for set backs, and anticipate them, we’re more likely to recover and pivot faster than if we hadn’t prepared for the obstacles. So plan ahead and be ready to keep pushing on if an obstacle hits.  6.) Celebrate the wins along the way   I am all about celebrating! In our house, we love celebrating any and all achievements because WHY NOT! And that’s the same mentality I want you to have with your business! Maybe you hit 100 followers on your social media account- then celebrate! Maybe you book 5 clients in a month! CELEBRATE!    Bottom line: Stop waiting until the end to celebrate! Small wins along the way are building up to those BIG victory moments and deserve to be celebrated.    What is the point in chasing after something if you are not celebrating along the way? It’s about the journey not the end point. Goals change over time there’s never a true END because by the time you reach your current goal, you’ll have set new ones! If you are always hustling with no celebrating, that makes for a pretty sad journey! So take time to pause and reflect on how far you’ve come and CELEBRATE!   I have a friend who has what she calls “success journals.” In her success journal, she writes down all of her wins, no matter how small it may seem to a random person. When she’s having a low day, a day where she feels unmotivated, a day where she questions what she’s doing and why, she goes back and reads all her successes and they make her feel GOOD. They remind her of how far she’s come and all she’s accomplished! It reignites that fire under her butt and gives her to fuel to keep moving forward!    So start celebrating your wins, no matter how big or small. Buy yourself a new top, treat yourself to a mani/pedi, go on a trip, go out to dinner, whatever it is you like but reward yourself and enjoy this journey and everything you accomplish along the way!   And there you have it folks! 6 tips for owning your truth. Owning where you are and sharing your journey with confidence.      To wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Determine your superpowers and strengths and start leaning into them! Focus on what you’re good at! Remember where your focus goes, your energy flows. So hone in on the strengths and ignore your weaknesses. Action step #2: Set goals for your business. When you feel yourself getting distracted, feeling down, and unmotivated- remember your goal and think of one thing you can do in that moment to get one step closer to your goal. Use goals as a way to keep you on track for what is important in your life and business. Everything else, that doesn’t align with those goals, is white noise!   Action step #3: Figure out what small win you’ve recently had that you can celebrate this week! Make a plan to reward yourself for the successes you’ve seen!     50% OFF HONEYBOOK   50% OFF FLODESK    

Annie Bauer is a beautiful soul and business mentor for female entrepreneurs who I met during my business course with Dean Graziosi, Tony Robbins, and Jenna Kutcher! Her main passion is helping to lead female entrepreneurs and side hustlers to success in their careers. Molly: What would you say is the biggest obstacle facing women who are trying to start their business or side hustle? Annie: Self doubt and lack of confidence. Women have been conditioned and taught to play small. When it comes to running your own business, we have to learn how to have a bigger voice and to not be embarrassed to share that we have something (whether a skill set of physical product) that can help someone. This is tough not just for people in the beginning stages of business, but also for those who have been in business for years. Molly: What would you say to women who feel stuck in the traditional 9 to 5 and want to start their own business and leave those traditional confines? Annie: I want to help women set up a new model or system that doesn't include the 9 to 5. When we as women work in the 9 to 5 system, we often fine that we're sacrificing certain things, like being able to raise our children, for making money. My stance is that the 9 to 5 system isn't going to change anytime soon, so we need to go away and create our own system so that we can have more control over our destiny. Molly: I think a lot of these women who feel stuck in the 9 to 5, who might have ideas on businesses they want to start, don't because the idea of money stops them. What would you say to the women who feel like it takes a lot of money to start a business or a side hustle? Annie: That might have been true years ago, but with today's technology, you can start a side hustle with almost nothing. Molly: What are three steps women can take away right now if they are feeling paralyzed with confusion, indecision, or not having enough to make that start? Annie: The first thing, even if you don't have any followers, is to go set up an e-mail service provider and start talking to them! *My favorite is Flodesk and I cannot rave about it enough! Grab 50% off your subscription here! SNAG IT HERE!* The second thing is to figure out where your ideal clients hang out on social media and to get on there! Social media is free. Get on there and tell people who you are, what you do, and what problem you solve. The third thing is to set up a free zoom account. You can talk unlimited on one on one calls and you can start making those connections. Molly: Why should women act now to build a life that they love and not later? Annie: Now is always the best time. Get out of your head and get into action. Action leads to momentum. Time is your most precious asset. Taking action can be as simple as setting up a facebook page, or joining a group of like minded people; it can be just one small simple action. Molly: Can you tell our listeners what a mentor is and how they can help entrepreneurs in their business? Annie: So many people ask this. People say "why do I need a mentor, can't I just figure it out on my own?" But it goes back to what I said before, time is your most valuable asset. A really great mentor or coach will simplify and streamline things and get you where you need to go faster, with more clarity, and more purpose than you can get there on your own. Go to somebody who you feel is trusted person. Hire someone who is results and progress oriented. Hire someone who will help you save time and get there faster. Make sure you hire someone who is listening to YOU. What you want and your dreams. Molly: What is a membership community Annie: Membership communities are really unique. You pay a monthly free to be in the community but it's also a way to get advice, coaching, and direction so that you also have accountability and guidance along the way. With a membership community you also have the added benefit of all the other people in the group or community. Annie's Freebie: 5 ways to go from Stuck to Started

One HUGE Business Success Hack That Isn’t Talked About Enough!     Do you feel unseen in your business. Do you feel like you’re shouting to the masses and you just don’t know how to stand out? Then let’s start on today’s topic- A rarely talked about business success hack. Today we’re going to talk about one business success hack that I don’t think is talked about enough in the industry. It’s a real truth, and something simple that you can start doing TODAY to gain the momentum you need to move forward.     This topic is a little golden nugget and here it is-  If you want to succeed in your business, you need to shift your mindset to always be thinking “how do I add more value.” That’s literally it. That’s the big secret. And I feel like no one ever talks about it.    Now even though it’s a quick easy little tip, changing our mindset can be tough to do. Often times in business, we work so hard that we start to almost feel entitled. We start gaining this mindset of “I deserve this and the success that comes with it” because I put in all this time and I worked so hard. but in reality, everyone is working hard and the only way to success IS to work hard- there is no shortcut.    But shifting our mindset to one that focuses on value over volume is one that will do WONDERS for you business.   So how do we set ourselves apart from all the other hustlers out here? We have to add more value.   People fail in their business because they’re not thinking “how can I do more and add more value.” They’re just thinking money money money, bookings, bookings, bookings, followers, followers, followers.    I was a total example for this when I first started. My biggest thing was just focusing on getting that next booking or client. But when I stopped doing that and shifted my mindset to serving my current clients SUPER WELL, like better than any one else, my business changed, and changed for the better.    Tony Robbins said this during my business course “We’re all equal as souls, but we’re not all equal in the market place. It’s our job to become UNequal in the market place!” The only way we do that, is to add more value.      Now, let’s dive into a way we can add more value as business owners to our clients.   Tip #1.) Get to learnin’ - I could probably make this a tip for everything. You all know I’m a forever learner but there’s a reason. There’s always something to learn. For this topic, I want you to be working harder on yourself than you do at your job. You should be working harder to become more valuable to your audience. The best way to do that is to learn. Immerse yourself in personal and business development. This should be something that you never stop doing. I believe in doing some sort of personal or business development for at least 30 minutes everyday. When you start doing this, you’re going to be able to gain advice and knowledge that you can pass on to your following. People don’t always want to be sold to. They want to feel encouraged, uplifted, and inspired! When you work on yourself, you’ll gain material to share with your following that will help them start to build themselves up and also, to start building your credibility and authority as an expert. Bonus points if you share with your following what you’re doing to further your knowledge! Listening to a podcast- share it. Just read an awesome book- tell them about it. Taking a course- talk about it! People want to see what you’re doing that puts you in a place to be called an expert.   Tip #2.) Think of your ideal client- I want you to think about who exactly it is you’re trying to reach. You should be thinking about what they need, and what you can give them to add value to their life or experience. So for example, maybe you’re a dog trainer, but your real interest or passion- is dogs with high anxiety- so there’s your really refined niche. Once you know your refined niche and ideal client, you need to be focusing on that person only- so for our example, the person who has a dog with high anxiety. Your captions on social media should speak to that person directly. When you keep your ideal client in mind- brainstorming ways you can add value to them becomes easy! You could create a freebie with your top three tricks to help manage a dogs anxiety. Now notice- it’s only 3-5 tips or tricks- or only a condensed overview of your expertise- you’re not giving them everything because if you do that, then you have nothing to sell. But you’re giving them enough where they feel that they get value from you, and they learn to trust you and start to see you as the expert on the subject. You can do this in your captions as well! You could write one tip in a caption that would benefit your ideal client.    If you’re interested in making a freebie and don’t know where to start, I’m linking my favorite design app in the show notes! If you sign up and make a design through the link provided, you’ll earn a free credit! So check it out! It makes designing content SUPER easy!   Tip #3.) Market Research- Study what other successful people in your niche are doing. I’m NOT telling you to copy them because that will get you nowhere! If you look at one person in your niche that’s where you want to be- I want you to see if they’re doing something that adds enormous value. If they’re successful, I’m sure they are. But let that fuel you to figure out how you can add value to your business. See what kind of stuff they’re offering. Your value will needs to be different than theirs because 1. YOU’RE DIFFERENT, and 2.) Because you’re different, you’re attracting a different kind of person or client. Look and see if it’s a free download, a free webinar, maybe they post IGTV’s with tips for that niche, see what they’re doing so that you can brainstorm on the different ways on how to get your value out there.   Tip #4.) Engage- If you really want to add value- engage with your following. Don’t be so focused on the numbers that you forget to create genuine connections. So how can you create those connections? When someone comments on your post, like or love their response, and then comment on it as well. Every. Single. Time. Do not let one comment go unanswered. If someone DM’s you, answer. If someone replies to your story- answer! And use it as a chance to build connection! Ask them what’s new, ask them about themselves- ENGAGE.    Here’s the truth- people want to interact with a human! They want to feel connected to you.  This could be another change to reflect on the people you look up to the most in your niche- why do you like them so much? Do they engage with their following? Do they feel real? Do they share their personal life as well as their professional biz? I bet they do! And there’s a reason they do it. People crave connection and authenticity. So don’t be afraid to show up and be you.     When it comes to adding value keep this front of mind: know who you’re dealing with, know what they want from you, know what they fear/struggle with, know what excites them- and be able to meet those needs better than they can meet them themselves. Pull them into becoming a client by providing them with an irresistible offer or content that’s full of SO MUCH VALUE.    Keep this in mind though- adding value- doesn’t mean you have to offer a freebie of some sort. It means showing up for your client in a REAL way. It can be small things like writing meaningful captions! As in, captions that are more than the word “swoon!” Talk about you so they can get to know you, talk about what you’re working on, share some advice for them- right there in your captions! You could poll your audience and ask them what they would like to hear or learn about, ask them what they’re struggling with right now, and then fill that need for them.    It’s like the bible says in Matthew 20:26: whoever wants to be a leader among you, must first be a servant.    So think of ways you can stop selling and start SERVING. When you do that, people will see all this value you’re giving them FOR FREE, and they’re going to wonder how much more value they would receive if they were an actual client from you. When they see how much you serve them with meaningful content, their mindset is going to shift and they’re going to start seeing you as an expert and authority figure in your niche. They’re going to start trusting you, feeling like they know you, and they’re going to want to give you their business over someone else who hasn’t added that extra value to their life.    Our job as business owners is to provide value to our following. We want to give them a REASON to follow us. So what value are you going to deliver that will leave an impact on their life?   This tip is seriously gold. If you’re struggling with standing out in the crowd start adding more value to your business TODAY. You WILL see a difference.      So to wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Post on social media today using a caption that provides one piece of advice to your ideal client. Think of what their biggest struggle is, and address it!  Maybe you’re a wedding photog- post advice about preparing for the wedding day Maybe you’re a makeup artist- write something about how they can get the most out of their trial Maybe you’re a coach- write an encouraging tip that people can start implementing day! I could go on forever with examples but all you have to do is think of your ideal client, what their needs are, and how you can serve them. Then take that and bundle it up in a caption! Action Step #2: I want you to sit down and write out a list of the top 3-5 things your ideal client is struggling with. Focus on those, and use those as ideas to write meaningful captions going forward. Or if you’re feeling really wild, you could create a downloadable freebie addressing their struggles! Don’t skip this step. It will only take a couple minutes but will give you so much clarity going forward! Action Step #3: Engage with 5 people in your following. Do this by DMing the people who are most active on your feed (they like your content, and comment on your content the most), and strike up a conversation. Reply to all comments on your posts and stories from here on out in a personal way. Don’t just reply with the same generic response to everyone. Really be intentional with your responses.     CODES   50% OFF HONEYBOOK: www.mollykrajewski.com/honeybook   50% off Flodesk:  www.mollykrajewski.com/flodesk   CANVA: www.mollykrajewski.com/canva

The Super Important Business WHY Do you ever feel unmotivated in your business? Ever want to just give up because you’re hustling so hard? That can all be fixed with one thing- nailing down your WHY.   Let’s talk about nailing down your business why. If this is a topic that makes you feel anxious, or if you just have no idea who your ideal client is or why exactly you want to chase this career, then this episode is for you.    Since we’re at the beginning of the podcast, I wanted to start with advice for the beginning of your business. Now don’t be fooled. This topic is one that can be addressed MANY times throughout your business journey as your brand and mission evolves.    You’ve probably heard people say that you need to know your business WHY. You need to know WHY you’re in this specific business and trying to make a space for yourself in this competitive world.    Now if you’re anything like me, I used to DREAD this topic. I always knew I wanted to go into business but it was so hard for me to answer why? Uhhh “to make more money I guess?” “ to have more time?” I mean, it sounded generic and I had no idea how to figure out why I wanted this so badly. I just knew I wanted it.    Your WHY is what motivates you to be in your specific niche. You might see businesses post on their website “We’re wedding photographers because we believe in the sanctity of marriage.” Or health experts saying “We’re here to serve you because we believe a healthy life is a happy life.” People want to know why they should choose you as the expert and the best way for them to figure it out, is to know why you’re there in the first place.    Today, we’re going to talk about why it is you do what you do. Now I know that the best of the best out there talk about their why’s with such passion, clarity, and conviction, that it can seem intimidating. It honestly did for me!    But in reality, most people really don’t know why they do what they do or they know their WHY on a surface level. Today we’re going to go from a surface level WHY, from thoughts on why you want to successful- to anchoring it in our heart with feelings and emotions. When you do that - there’s no stopping you.   Have you ever been around kids, and notice how they always ask, “WHY?” Even from young ages, we instinctively understand that having a WHY or a motive behind an action is the most important piece of any story. It creates validation.    As a business, knowing your why will help with two crucial things Stay committed Getting others on board with your business We’re going to go through both of those points today.   Simon Sinek said “People don’t buy what you do or how you do it, they buy WHY you do it.”   I’m going to be honest, I always struggled with my WHY. I heard COUNTLESS successful entrepreneurs mention it on all sorts of blogs, podcasts, and in courses. But I felt like I didn’t know WHY I wanted to start my business, I just knew that I wanted to.   Then I invest in a business course with Dean Graziosi. In the course, they provided me with the perfect tool to uncover my WHY and I want to share it with you because it was so powerful for me and my business.   This specific exercise is going to help you to find your business WHY that will keep you committed. But here’s the thing- You really have to sit down, and take the time. When you do- I promise you you’re going to discover the fuel you’ll need to keep moving that business forward- no matter what happens.   I want to stress one point before I walk through it with you. Not having a true, strong WHY is one of the biggest reasons why people fail in the business world. Really let that sink in. Lacking in your WHY, means you’re lacking clarity in your business. Your WHY, is completely tied in with your mission. If you don’t have a strong mission- what do you have? Your WHY is so much deeper than what you think. If your WHY is “to make more money,” that’s great, but that’s not going to keep you committed when things get tough- which they will.   Having a clear WHY, or purpose, or mission, is on its way to becoming the number one thing that will set your business apart from the rest. Businesses with a strong defined purpose have better customer engagement, connect deeper with customers, and fuel their bottom line. It’s crucial to the success of your business.   Now let’s dive in. This exercise is called 7 Levels Deep. I can tell you this method is tried and true! Since working through the 7 levels, my why has never been more clear and my drive to push through and continue the work I’m doing has never been stronger!      The first question is this: Why is it important for you to become successful? I want you to write down your answer, or if you can’t write it down, think about it and say it out loud if possible! WHY is it important?   When you have your answer- we’re going to turn it into the next question! So when I did this exercise, I answered by saying “It’s important for me to become successful so that I can create a community and scale my business.”   Question number two would then be “Why is it important for you to create a community and scale your business?”   Do you see what I did there? I took the answer from the first question, and turned it into the second question.  This whole exercise is asking why you wanted your previous answer and why it’s important to you. You’re going to do this 7 times! Yes. 7. That’s why it’s called 7 levels deep. It is the magic number. I’m going to be honest- this gets hard and you’re going to have to dig really deep. The point of the process is the more you ask why from the previous answer, the more you’ll get out of your head and get more into your heart. Digging deep is going to be how you find out your real WHY which will fuel you through any problem you’re going to face.      When you’re having a bad day- you’re not going to be thinking of your surface WHY like “i want to create a community and scale my business” -that’s not enough to drive you on a bad day. It’s not enough to get you out of bed when you’re not feeling the best. What will get you out of bed, what will help you break through the barriers, what will allow you to never stop, is knowing your final 3 in the 7 levels deep.   When I learned this exercise in my business class from Dean Graziosi, he talked about how he cried his first time completing the exercise. Like I said, you really have to dig deep and get to the core of who you are. You might even have to work through childhood experiences to understand why you want this better or different life now. Again, it’s personal,and It’s definitely for you. However, if it works with your brand, don’t be afraid to share it! The WHY you figured out from going 7 levels deep, is the why that is going to help you stay committed. I can’t tell you how many people I know who started a business, but gave up as soon as the waters got a little deep. Want to know why? Because they didn’t have a strong why. They didn’t have a strong enough reason to push through when the going got tough.    You can find the worksheet for the 7 Levels Deep exercise here.   Now I want to dive into another aspect of knowing your WHY, because we also want to find out why you’ve decided on a certain niche, because this is what’s going to help get your ideal clients on board with your business.   So in the beginning of this episode, we talked about how knowing your why will help with two crucial things   Staying committed- and we talked about this with the 7 level deep exercise. Those deep, core reasons will be what keeps you moving forward when the going gets tough. Getting others on board with your business- which we’re going to talk about now.   Do you ever feel like people don’t take your business seriously? Maybe even your closest network like family and friends views it as more of a “hobby” then as a career.    Maybe more than your closest network, you don’t feel like your following takes you seriously. This is where knowing your business WHY can help you.   Let’s talk about your passions. There are so many businesses out there right? It’s honestly amazing how we can turn a passion into something that helps us keep the lights on, but what people want to know is why you started that business. Why is that niche your passion.    With so many businesses out there, customers want to feel like they’re supporting a cause, not just buying a product. Make sure your following knows that you love what you do. When they know that, and they see how much you love what you do, they’ll be more confident that you have the best product or offer the best service, and they’ll want to support your enthusiasm with their business.   So why are you in your niche? This ties in with finding your story. What happened in your life that made you passionate about what your business is? Mine was my grandmother and upbringing, maybe yours was how you went to the library for a free jelery making class and it was so fun it hooked you! You loved expressing yourself through your art, and it made you feel XYZ.   Write down WHY your niche is your passion. Figure out why you started on this specific path, and share the heck out of it. Tell people your story. Tell them why you’re not only in business, but why they should work with you over someone else. Sharing your story will help your ideal clients relate with you and will help create that relationship all business owners need to create that know-like-trust factor.    The key to harnessing passion is understanding your why. Why did you become a fitness coach? Was it because you lost 50lb and learned how a healthy lifestyle correlated to a happy life? Then that’s your why and that’s the story you need to share the heck out of with your clients.        To wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Complete the 7 levels deep exercise. ACTUALLY WRITE IT DOWN! Don’t skip this friends- you’re only cheating yourself. And for the sake of transparency, I want to share this took me a long time to fill out. So don’t be afraid to start and come  back to it if you have to! Action Step #2: Write down the story of how you got into your niche and why it’s your passion.  Action Step #3: Share the story you wrote down from action step number two on social media with a picture of you where people can actually see your face. Use this to start building genuine connections.      CODES:   50% OFF HONEYBOOK: www.mollykrajewski.com/honeybook    

Struggling with Imposter Syndrome? Let’s Squash it.     Are you having an identity crisis? Do you feel like a fake when you so “oh I’m a _(enter your business profession here)__” Is it hard for you to even say that? If you’re getting imposter syndrome- it’s so natural and I feel it all the time! And if you feel it, it’s really just a sign that you’re stepping into this new season of life.     We’re going to talk about the all too common feeling of Imposter Sydrome. Do you ever feel like you don’t belong in your industry? Do you feel unqualified, unsure of where to start, or just afraid of failure?    That “I have no business doing this” feeling is real and common.    Imposter syndrome can be debilitating. It can lead to a bad case of analysis paralysis and as business owners- that’s the last thing we want to have happen. We don’t want something to stop our momentum.    So we all know what imposter syndrome is but I want to say that it affects everyone differently. We all experience it in different ways, based on our different personalities.    Maybe you’re a perfectionist who can’t enjoy her success because she’s always thinking she could’ve done better, maybe you’re an over achiever and need external validation instead of feeling content with getting your own stamp of approval, maybe you’re someone who wants to appear as though everything comes quick and easy for you and if it takes you a little bit longer to master something you feel stupid and incapable, maybe You’re the independent you feels like a failure when she has to ask for help, or maybe you’re someone loves being seen as an expert, but is always scared that you’re never going to appear experienced enough or knowledgeable enough (spoiler, that’s me).   Imposter Syndrome affects us all differently but there are things we can do to squash it. And that’s what we’re going to dive into now.   Tip number 1.) Utilize your support system. This is different for everyone. It could be your husband or boyfriend, it could be your mom or dad, or it could be your bestie. Nominate someone in your close circle to be your cheerleader. Find someone who is going to give you permission to take the leap and start this new chapter. A lot of times with imposter syndrome, we’re worried what others will think right? So find someone close to you who will cheer you on, build you up, tell you how proud they are of you, and essentially, fill your confidence tank up so you have the fuel to keep going.   Now maybe you don’t have a business yet. Maybe you just have an idea, but you’re unclear on how to take action. Maybe you’re thinking “I’m not a qualified business owner,” and that’s whats fueling that imposter syndrome to slow your game. I still want you to find a support system, or an accountability partner. Here’s the thing- in today’s world, we put so much pressure on titles as an indicator of success. When someone asks you the dreaded “what do you do for a living,” we hate admitting that we’re “figuring it out”, or that we have an idea we’re pursing, or heck! We even hate admitting that we’re doing anything creative or entrepreneurial at all! Society likes short, quick, and easy to digest labels. We feel the need to give quick polished answers because if we don’t, we have to explain and see people question what we’re doing, or question our potential success.    Tip number 2.) Embrace Where You Are. The more you embrace where you’re at, rather than envying or worrying about where you are not, you’ll grow. I want you be thinking “I DON’T know how to run a business- but I’m not going to worry about” I want you to just be putting one foot in front of the other, show up online daily, and see what happens. I recently heard some awesome advice from Jenna Kutcher during my business group that I wish I had heard when I first started! She said that in her beginning, she unfollowed all people in her industry because she found herself constantly comparing herself to them and found herself feeling “less than.” WHO ELSE CAN RELATE TO THAT!? I know I can! And sometimes when we focus too much on what others are doing, especially if they’re where we want to end up, we can try replicating what they do or have and then we’re not being true to ourselves. So stop focusing on what you don’t know, and focus on what you have the ability to do right now. Put your blinders on and keep yourself focused on who you can reach, serve, and impact right where you are. Give yourself the permission to be successful and understand that you don’t have to be qualified or certified to make a difference in someone’s life! Don’t worry about having the perfect plan, just let it go, and start where you are.    Tip number 3. Get to learnin’! When you feel like a fraud, instead of trying to hide or fake it until you make it- embrace it. Now I know that sounds weird. But I want you to admit that you’re unsure or inexperienced and then go find out about it! Or have someone teach you about whatever it is you’re pursuing. If you want to get from point A to point B, something’s got to give. Your best thinking and tactics got you to where you are right now. So if you want to GET to point B, you’re going to need help. So go seek that help. Find a mentor, take a course, listen to podcasts, read, do whatever it is that will educate you in your new niche. People are going to respect you for owning where you are and seeking the wisdom of others. Bonus points if you share what you’re learning when you’re learning it! People LOVE feeling like they’re along for a journey and a part of the process, so don’t be afraid to share!   Tip number 4. Prepare Yourself for all Outcomes.  The best business advice I ever read was to be prepared to fail and don’t be afraid to fail. Now I’m not telling you to be negative and expect the failure, I’m telling you to prepare for it. Let’s put it this way: if you don’t prepare for it, and you launch something that is a total flop- You’re going to feel like life just sucker punched you in the face. BUT when you prepare for it, you’re equipping yourself to be able to respond, absorb the blow, and then pivot. You’re going to recover faster if you prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Failure is apart of life, it’s how we respond to failure that counts.   Tip number 5 Do the Work. Listen. There is no easy button in the entrepreneurial world. If there were, we’d ALLLL be pushing it. If you really want to stop feeling like you don’t belong, then it’s time to roll up your sleeves, dig your heels in, and do the hard work. It’s hard when we see our role models in this space being so successful, and we just want to be there with them. We don’t have the patience to build up a strong business foundation because we just want to be to our end goal, or point B already. But hear me when I say- People are rewarded in public because they practiced and worked their BUTT off in private. The stuff that we do in private- that’s the messy stuff. That’s the stuff that a lot of people don’t share. It’s the nights where we cry because we’re not seeing the growth we wanted to. What might look glamorous and easy to someone now, doesn’t mean they didn’t start right where you did- at the beginning. You have to dig in, do the work, learn the hard way, ask questions, fail, and get up and try again.    Imposter syndrome won’t go away just because you do something impressive- it’ll go away when you press in and work hard. When you do the work, show up everyday, take action day after day, you’ll not only see results in your business, but you’re going to start becoming more and more confident because you’ll be seeing all of the work you’ve put in.    Do your best, start where you are and remain committed.      To wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Choose who you’re going to nominate as your accountability partner! Let them know that you need them to build you up and encourage you. TELL THEM HOW YOU’RE FEELING so that they can best support you. Ask them to check in on you, or just be a “vitural” support but liking all your posts, commenting on them, and sharing them! Action Step #2: Write down one thing that you can do right now to serve the audience you already have. Maybe it’s sharing your story and how you’re starting this new  business journey, maybe it’s being real and talking about how you’ve been suffering from imposter syndrome lately and see who else in your audience relates to those feelings, maybe it’s offering some specific tips from within your new niche. Pick one thing, and share it with your following today.  Action Step #3: Figure out what educational resource you’re going to dive into to become more knowledge on your new journey. I believe in doing some sort of personal or business development for 30 minutes every day. Subscribe to this podcast to help you with business tactics, buy a book that will help you, take a course in your specific niche- pick an educational resource and start committing to fueling your mind for 30 minutes a day. *Side note- this doesn’t have to take extra time out of your day! I love podcasts because you can listen while doing laundry, driving, getting ready, etc. So there should be no excuses!       CODES:   50% OFF HONEYBOOK: www.mollykrajewski.com/honeybook  

How to Nail Down Your Ideal Client       Do you struggle with getting engagement on your profile? Do you struggle with getting people to not only buy what you’re selling, but getting them to follow you in the first place? Well my friend, there’s a way to fix this. It’s narrowing down your ideal client. Often times in business, we want to try to reach as many people as possible, because we think that will allow us to maximize our potential income and business growth. But here’s the deal- the more you try to be for everyone, the more you’re actually for no one. Marketing is just as much about repelling people as it is attracting people. I KNOW it’s scary. I know you hear that word repel and you cringe and feel a jolt of anxiety run through you. You’re probably thinking “I can’t REPEL people, I NEED people, because I need to make money to keep the lights on.” But let me tell you a little secret- the riches are in the niches my friend. And with that, let’s dive in.     If you’re anything like me, this topic is one that I struggled with for a long time. I could just never figure out HOW to nail down my ideal client. Even once I had her in my mind, I didn’t really know how to use that knowledge to move the needle forward in my business. Once I learned how to nail down my ideal client and speak to her, things really started changing for me!   So let’s start from square one.    Now we all have things we’re good at right, they’re our business “superpowers” if you will. Knowledge and experience that’s unique to us. Our superpowers are what help us nail down our niche. It’s like how I realized newborn photography isn’t for me, and I landed on my niche of wedding photography. Weddings were much more for me because I was raised in a family full of strong marriages and loved everything to do with love. It was something I was passionate about whereas anything else, I had zero excitement for.    The first thing you’re going to need to know is what you’re good at doing that allows you to serve a specific niche in your business. Remember, marketing is just as much about attracting the people you want, as it is repelling the people you don’t want.  So who are the people you want to serve. What niche is it that excites you? Again, my example was realizing wedding photography was my talent and goal, whereas all other kinds of photography like newborns and families had me feeling like I’d rather go back to my desk job. My goal was to ATTRACT wedding clients and REPEL all other clients. For you it could be bridal makeup versus prom/event makeup. It could be creating hand lettered signs for home decor over escort cards at a wedding. You need to find your niche.   Knowing your niche is only the first step. After you know your niche, you need to decide what your ideal client in that niche looks like. So for me, I narrowed down my superpowers to wedding photography. Knowing that was my superpower, my ideal client would be a bride. However, not ALL brides are my ideal client. I had to think about what my ideal bride was like, and then market to her specifically.    The more narrow and specific you are with outlining your ideal client, the more likely you’re going to be able to “catch” them.     Let’s create your ideal client. How old are they? What do they do? What do they want? Work through these questions to really nail down who your ideal client is so you can start focusing on them.   1.) What are your ideal client’s top 3 pain points.    2.) What are your ideal client’s top 3 desires.   3.) Who are their role models & who do they follow?     4.) What social platform are they most active on?   5.) Where do they go to learn new things and get information?     6.) Where would they hang out in real life?     Here’s the deal, when we can nail down our ideal client, our message becomes much clearer because we know WHO we’re talking to! Not only that, but when we know what they’re struggling with and what they want, we can speak right to them!   Once you can visualize your ideal client, you’re going to speak to her (or him) and that’s it. If you’re having trouble getting people to follow your business or page, it could be because you’re so busy trying to be for everyone, that you’re not attracting anyone. They more specific you are, the more you’re going to attract someone. Do you struggle with getting people to engage on your profile? You’re going to be getting tons of engagement when you’re speaking directly to your client and giving them content that speaks to their heart, their fears, and their personality.    If you’re vague, without a clear mission, and all over the place dipping your toe in here and there- you’re not going to see that needle moving because you’re not committed to a specific kind of client. You’re not digging deep enough to resonate with them. So that’s what I want you to leave here thinking about today.     So to wrap it up let’s go over three action items we can do today to move the needle forward: Action step #1: Go back through the 6 questions and write down all your answers. Seriously. I have my paper on my ideal client on my desk. Always. Because sometimes I need to remind myself of my ideal client to stay on course! Action step #2: I want you to edit your preferred social media profile and website accordingly. So think bio section, wording, colors- start applying the things that you think your ideal client is drawn to. Action step #3: Start writing your captions directly to the ideal client. I don’t want you to think about everyone else, I want you to focus in on your ideal client and just write like you’re talking to her     CODES   50% OFF HONEYBOOK: www.mollykrajewski.com/honeybook   50% OFF Flodesk:  www.mollykrajewski.com/flodesk