Podcast appearances and mentions of ilise benun

If you need more and/or better clients, but it feels like your marketing isn't working, this episode is for you. Ilise Benun describes what it looks like when it is (and isn't) working and what to do to make sure it does. And if you like what you hear, we'd love it if you write a review, subscribe here and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.

In this new Q&A style episode, you'll learn what to do (and say) when a prospect “rejects” you, how to stay motivated to do your marketing, whether you can have more than one LinkedIn profile and more. And if you like what you hear, we'd love it if you write a review, subscribe here and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.

Content marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools for creative professionals – when you use it consistently. And a marketing newsletter is the most effective content marketing you can do. So today's episode is all about newsletters and its effect, “newsletter magic.” And if you like what you hear, we'd love it if you write a review, subscribe here and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.

Can you trust the results you get from AI – especially when it comes to finding actual clients? That's the question I answered in this episode. If you want my help finding your best potential clients, check out my new 1:1  AI Client-Finding Coaching Calls. And if you like what you hear, we'd love it if you write a review, subscribe here and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.

If the mere mention of another meeting makes you shiver, this one is for you. In today's solo episode, I'm sharing simple ideas about how to handle clients, prospects, colleagues and collaborators when it comes to meetings. And if you like what you hear, we'd love it if you write a review, subscribe here and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.

In this episode of The Businessology Show, Jason dives into the symbiotic relationship between creativity and business savvy. Today's episode features Ilise Benun, a seasoned expert who has spent 35 years guiding solopreneurs and creative business owners on their journey to financial prosperity by merging artistic intuition with business acumen. Ilise dispels the myth that business and creativity are isolated realms, encouraging creative minds to manifest their talents in strategic networking, compelling content marketing, and targeted outreach. Jason and Ilise's conversation peels back the layers on client dynamics, revealing how to spot red flags, establish authority, and maintain professional boundaries. Together, they explore why face-to-face meetings and real-time communication are critical in complex client discussions, and how the post-pandemic landscape demands patience in marketing while offering freedom for growth. Jason and Ilise delve into the art of nurturing leads through various platforms—from websites and podcasts to newsletters and ebooks—stressing the power of consistency. You'll hear practical tips on content creation and targeted outreach, such as dedicating 30 daily minutes to marketing and harnessing LinkedIn to forge genuine connections. Finally, Jason and Ilise tap into the often-elusive subject of money. They discuss not only how to approach the topic with potential clients but also how to position oneself to attract those with higher budgets who value your expertise. Today's episode is great for creatives eager to enhance their business strategy, deepen client relationships, and turn their creative prowess into profit. Join Jason and Ilise for these insights and more.

If you've ever blurted out a price, agreed to a deadline you knew wasn't realistic or, worse, volunteered to deliver a project faster than humanly possible, just to please your client – this new solo episode is for you. These 3 quick tips will save you from yourself! And if you like what you hear, we'd love it if you write a review, subscribe here and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.

As an entrepreneur, who DOESN'T want to get better clients with bigger budgets? Well in this week's podcast episode, Ilise Benun tells us exactly how she helps her clients do just that. We discuss: How to bring your creativity to the business side of your bizHow being in a different stage of the buyer's journey means adjusting the wording on your platforms to cater to those needsThe importance of being clear and creative in who you're serving3 tools in the simplest marketing planWhat you DON'T have to do in order to market yourself and your business More About Ilise Benun: Ilise Benun is a business coach for creative professionals with a focus on mindset, money and marketing. She is also a national speaker, author of 7 books and multiple online courses, including the Simplest Marketing Plan & founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets. Connect with Ilise:Marketing MentorSign up for Quick TipsSupport the show

Here's a rare solo episode in which Ilise Benun answers a question that comes up over and over, “how exactly do you listen to the market” and then shares 6 different things to listen for when you're listening to the market. And if you like what you hear, we'd love it if you write a review, subscribe here and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.

When we say trusting ourselves, which self are we talking about? Which parts of ourselves can't be trusted? That's what we're exploring today with returning guest, Ilise Benun. We discuss how confidence is a byproduct of action, what made her so angry that she decided to start her own business twenty five years ago, building tolerance for silence and small experiments, and why she puts her phone number in her newsletter, on her website, and in the “from” line of her emails. If you haven't already, check out our previous conversation in episode 165: Are your clients bringing out the best in you? Engineering the Evolution of Your Business with Ilise Benun and episode 467 of Marketing Mentor on How to Free Your Time. More About Ilise: Ilise Benun is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets, through which she offers business coaching. She is also a national speaker and author of 7 books, including "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money," three online courses via CreativeLive and Domestika.org, and The Simplest Marketing Plan – all tailored to the needs of creative professionals. She has also been hosting the Marketing Mentor Podcast since 2008, with over 465 episodes at the time of this recording.

Get ready to meet the fabulous Ilise Benun, the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com! She's the go-to guru for creative professionals who want to level up their projects and budgets. Ilise is the real deal, with over 35 years of experience teaching basic business skills like mindset, money, and marketing to solopreneurs and creatives. We're thrilled to call her a friend, and every time we catch up, she drops some serious wisdom on us. Listen, learn, and leave us a comment on social about your favorite part!

It's a veritable hodgepodge of marketing tips in this week's episode. From how to reach out to past clients, how to build momentum in your business, avoiding feast or famine cycles and what do CATs have to do with confidence. Listen in to find out. Drink of the week….Corona Sunrise Click to BUY MY BOOK!CLICK TO DOWNLOAD CHAPTER ONE AUDIO FREEClick to BOOK ME AS A SPEAKERClick to SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTERJulie Brown: WebsiteInstagramLinkedInYoutubeElise BenunWebsiteLinkedInSign Up for Ilise's Quick Tip NewsletterMagic Money Formula Worksheet

Here are a few food-for-thought reflection questions, inspired by today's guest: Are you working with amateur clients or ones who bring out the best in you? Are you pricing the “aggravation factor” into your proposals when necessary? What about “throwing proposals over the fence,” creating self-inflicted stress when prospective clients ghost you as a result? Finally, are you stuck in the feast-or-famine cycle of your business? If any of the questions above resonate, you will love this conversation with Ilise Benun, who has been running her business helping creative professionals for over 35 years. Ilise shares The Proposal Oreo Strategy; how she stays consistent with content creation while walking the line between discipline and rigidity; why she sees word-of-mouth marketing as a result, not real marketing; and creating abundant interstitial time by embracing eigenzeit—the German term meaning “the time inherent to a process itself.” More About Ilise: Ilise Benun is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets, through which she offers business coaching. She is also a national speaker and author of 7 books, including "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money," three online courses via CreativeLive and Domestika.org, and The Simplest Marketing Plan – all tailored to the needs of creative professionals. She has also been hosting the Marketing Mentor Podcast since 2008, with over 465 episodes at the time of this recording.

BIO: Ilise Benun has made it her business to teach basic business skills to creative professionals who should have learned them in school but, alas, did not because it's not taught in school.STORY: Ilise hired a designer to design a brochure for her consulting practice. Instead, he delivered a folder with her logo.LEARNING: Stand up for yourself. Ask every question you can think of. “Ask every stupid question to confirm the details of any arrangement.”Ilise Benun Guest profileIlise Benun has made it her business to teach basic business skills to creative professionals who should have learned them in school but, alas, did not because it's not taught in school. This has, for years, perpetuated a “starving artist” mentality amongst creative professionals, who are naturally talented and could easily bring their creativity to the business side of their business if only they knew how. That's her mission with all of her work through marketing-mentor.com, including The Marketing Mentor Podcast, seven books including The Creative Professional's Guide to Money, three online courses for Creative Live and Domestika.org, and much more. If you want more from Ilise on mindset, money, and marketing, sign up for her Quick Tips.Worst investment everWhen Ilise started her business, she came across a graphic designer and thought it would be great to have a brochure for her consulting practice. The designer showed Ilise images and examples of what the brochure would look like. Ilise was very excited. But when the brochure arrived on her doorstep, it was not what she had imagined. The designer designed boxes of folders with Ilise's logo on it. The designer asked her all sorts of questions, and she answered them. She was utterly disappointed in the product but didn't say anything. She just never worked with the designer again. Ilise was so young, immature, and afraid at that point in her career that she just didn't stand up or advocate for herself.Lessons learnedStand up for yourself and bring yourself to the negotiation.Strip away all of those things you imagine you're supposed to be so that people can see who you are. That's who they're going to want to work with.Andrew's takeawaysWhen working with service providers, ensure that they deliver incrementally or get feedback as you go through the process. Don't wait to get the final product to give your input.Stand up for yourself to deliver to your business partners, employees, and family.Actionable adviceAsk every question you can think of, even if it feels like it would be a stupid one.Ilise's recommendationsIlise recommends her Domestica course, Writing a Winning Proposal. She teaches what she calls the proposal Oreos strategy. This is a way to help people using a food metaphor to learn how to have the money conversation and then decide whether or not to write a proposal based on that conversation.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsIlise's number one goal for the

And now for something a little different: Today's episode is a short clip from the most recent Office Hours, a monthly live and very interactive gathering that has become the centerpiece of the Simplest Marketing Plan, the framework I teach (and sell in the marketing mentor shop). Join me and my guest, copywriter, Bob Bly, for a free live event to launch the new SMP for 2023 with a one-day deal and amazing bonuses. That's live on Cyber Monday Nov 28 at Noon ET. Sign up here: https://tinyurl.com/SMP2023

 Discover how you can gain back control of your business and avoid underselling yourself Find out what are the marketing strategies that fit your business and guarantee high sales without the stress Understand the importance of strategizing your proposal to turn prospects into high-paying clients Resources/Links: To learn more about how you can build the business you've always wanted without the marketing stress, click here: https://www.marketing-mentor.com/ Summary Do you feel like you're underselling yourself; are you always being ghosted by your prospects? Have you been struggling with looking for the right money-making marketing strategy? How can you make an effective proposal that will turn your prospects into clients? Ilise Benun is a business coach for creative professionals, a national speaker, the author of 7 books, and the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com. In this episode, Ilise talks about how you can form better relationships with your prospects and turn them into high-paying clients through the proposal Oreo strategy. Check out these episode highlights: 01:34 – Ilise's ideal client: “My ideal client is creative professionals. So, designers of all types, copywriters, who want, I like to say, better clients with bigger budgets or bigger clients with better budgets.” 01:58 – The problem she solves: “So for the most part, my clients are not marketing themselves because they don't like marketing. And they just think word-of-mouth is the best marketing tool and they end up just taking whatever comes along.” 02:39 – The symptom of the problem: “They're taking whatever comes along, and probably not being paid what they think they're worth for their work. Often their clients or their prospects are ghosting them and not responding to their outreach or to their follow-up.” 03:38 – Clients' common mistakes before consulting Ilise: “Often, the thing is that there are too many marketing tools to be using and too many ways to find prospects. And so often people are just doing a little bit of everything, and that's not what works.” 04:41 – Ilise's Valuable Free Action (VFA): “Well, this is where I want to describe the proposal Oreo strategy because it's something anyone can do. And it's like a sandwich cookie. So instead of when a prospect says just send me a proposal and then you spend a lot of time, invest a lot of time on a proposal and you don't know if it's a good thing to do.” 06:56 – Ilise's Valuable Free Resource (VFR): To get marketing-mentor.com 07:19 – Q: What are the marketing tools that work? A: And they are strategic networking, targeted outreach, and content marketing, all focused on a particular niche or vertical market so that they see you over time. Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode: “You have to focus. You have to figure out where are your ideal clients.” -Ilise BenunClick To TweetTranscript (Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast) Tom Poland 00:10 Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I'm Tom Poland beaming out to you from the little sunshine coast in Queensland, Australia, joined today by Ilise Benin. Ilise, good day from down under. A very warm welcome. Where are you based? Ilise Benun 00:24 Thank you so much, Tom. I'm happy to be here! And I am based in Savannah, Georgia in the US on the Southern Eastern coast. Tom Poland 00:32 How's the weather right now? Ilise Benun 00:34 It's lovely! Nice and warm for February, much warmer than usual but just how I like it. Tom Poland 00:40 Just slipping into spring. Sounds nice! For those of you who don't know Ilise, she's a business coach for creative professionals. She is also a national speaker. She's the author of, not one book, but seven books, and she's the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com. Our subject today is, “How to Get Better Clients with the Proposal Oreo Strategy”. Now, for those of you who are not in the US, and Oreo is a, what is it, Ilise? Ilise Benun 01:14 It's a sandwich cookie. Tom Poland 01:16 It's a sandwich cookie and very yummy, I believe. Ilise Benun 01:19 Yes, especially frozen. Tom Poland 01:21 Oh, there's a twist! Did not know that. “How to Get Better Clients with the Frozen Proposal Oreo Strategy”. Let's rock and roll. Our seven minutes start now, Ilise. Question number one, who is your ideal client? Ilise Benun 01:34 My ideal client is creative professionals. So, designers of all types, copywriters, who want, I like to say, better clients with bigger budgets or bigger clients with better budgets. Tom Poland 01:48 Or c) both of the above? Question two, thank you for that. Very succinct, very precise. Question two, six and a half minutes left, what's the problem you solve for them? Ilise Benun 01:58 So, for the most part, my clients are not marketing themselves because they don't like marketing. And they just think word-of-mouth is the best marketing tool and they end up just taking whatever comes along. And they get to a certain point where it's not good enough. They know they can do better. And so, I basically help them identify who their ideal clients are, develop relationships with them, and then be there when their prospects are in their moment of need, so they can make the connection and do the project. Tom Poland 02:27 Makes a lot of sense! So, question three, six minutes left, what are some of the typical symptoms that these creative professionals are going to be experiencing that would give them a heads up that they need to find out more about what you do? Ilise Benun 02:39 I mean, they're taking whatever comes along, and probably not being paid what they think they're worth for their work. Often their clients or their prospects are ghosting them and not responding to their outreach or to their follow-up. Or even, sometimes, in the middle of a project, the client disappears because they're not high-quality clients. And I think the worst thing is they feel like they're not in control of their business because they're not. Tom Poland 03:10 Yeah, it sounds like they're fighting a losing battle. They're scratching their head, figuring out, “Well, why don't I get better quality clients? And I'm doing such great work, why aren't people more responsive, and so on?” So, we're talking about professionals, they're going to be making an effort. They're going to be trying stuff. So, question four, what I'm interested in here is, what are some of the common mistakes that your clients, when they're new to you, tell you that they made before they find your solution? We've got five minutes left. Ilise Benun 03:38 Well, I mean, often, the thing is that there are too many marketing tools to be using and too many ways to find prospects. And so often people are just doing a little bit of everything, and that's not what works. You have to focus. You have to figure out where are your ideal clients. How are you going to introduce yourself to them? And then how do you stay in touch with them over time. So, people are generally wasting time in a very haphazard, scattered way with their marketing tools, and then wasting time also on proposals that go nowhere. Tom Poland 04:13 It's so true. We see, you know, the latest flash thing and there are some amazing testimonials and people just go and take another squirrel. And they quite catch that one and go and chase another one. And yeah, it's easy to be seduced into that. So, let's flip it now. Let's talk about some positive things that folks can do to move to solve the problem. We've got four minutes left, one valuable free action, like a top tip, that's not going to solve the whole problem, but it might take folks a step in the right direction? Ilise Benun 04:41 Well, this is where I want to describe the proposal Oreo strategy because it's something anyone can do. And it's like a sandwich cookie. So instead of when a prospect says just send me a proposal and then you spend a lot of time, invest a lot of time on a proposal and you don't know if it's a good thing to do. Instead, you use the proposal Oreo strategy. Cookie number one is the qualifying conversation where you gather the information to make sure that this is a good fit for you. And if it's not, you decline and you don't write the proposal. The cream in the middle is the proposal, the actual document that you write based on the information that you've gathered in cookie number one, the qualifying conversation. And the key to it is cookie number two, which is when you present in real-time, your proposal and you walk your prospect through it so that you can gauge their interest and respond to any objections and answer any questions, and therefore avoid being ghosted. And more and more this is what's working because people just don't read anymore. And they don't have time to respond. But if you got them on a call, then you can build the relationship and figure out where is this going? So that's the proposal Oreo strategy! Tom Poland 06:04 And would there be some value in presenting the proposal as a draft, so the prospect feels they have some input on it? Ilise Benun 06:12 Absolutely. I love that idea! And actually, you could even present it without pricing. And say, “I just want to make sure I've got everything we discussed in here before I put some prices to this.” And part of the qualifying conversation should be where you find out what they can afford, and what are they thinking number-wise, that again, you don't waste your time on a project on a prospect that can't afford you in the first place. Tom Poland 06:41 There's some gold in there. Thank you for that! There are some great top tips, more than one. Question six, and we've got 90 seconds left. What's a valuable free resource? Where can we direct folks to? A website where they can find out more about what you do and perhaps get some more ideas? Ilise Benun 06:56 Yeah, marketing-mentor.com. There are lots of free resources. My “quick tips” is the thing I suggest people sign up for. And that's my email newsletter where I share content on a regular basis. Tom Poland 07:09 Perfect! Marketing-mentor.com. Go get it, folks! Last question, 70 seconds left, what's the one question I should have asked you, but didn't? Ilise Benun 07:19 Well, it's kind of a big question, but I'll distill it into what are the marketing tools that work? And they are strategic networking, targeted outreach, and content marketing, all focused on a particular niche or vertical market so that they see you over time, and then, again, are reminded that you're there, and don't forget about you when they have a need. Tom Poland 07:45 Give me those three again, will you because we've got 30 seconds left? Ilise Benun 07:48 Strategic networking. So, networking in a very strategic way, right, not just anywhere? right? Targeted outreach, which is hyper-customized, super-personalized outreach to the people who are the ideal clients that you want to work with. And then content marketing that speaks to their pain points. And that's in the form of blogs, articles, or LinkedIn posts– all of the things that show that you know what you're talking about. Tom Poland 08:16 Ilise Benun, thank you so much for your time and your insights and for sharing so generously. Ilise Benun 08:20 My pleasure, Tom. Thank you. Tom Poland 08:22 Cheers. Tom Poland 08:24 Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we're doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It's very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.

 Discover how you can gain back control of your business and avoid underselling yourself Find out what are the marketing strategies that fit your business and guarantee high sales without the stress Understand the importance of strategizing your proposal to turn prospects into high-paying clients Resources/Links: To learn more about how you can build the business you've always wanted without the marketing stress, click here: https://www.marketing-mentor.com/ Summary Do you feel like you're underselling yourself; are you always being ghosted by your prospects? Have you been struggling with looking for the right money-making marketing strategy? How can you make an effective proposal that will turn your prospects into clients? Ilise Benun is a business coach for creative professionals, a national speaker, the author of 7 books, and the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com. In this episode, Ilise talks about how you can form better relationships with your prospects and turn them into high-paying clients through the proposal Oreo strategy. Check out these episode highlights: 01:34 - Ilise's ideal client: “My ideal client is creative professionals. So, designers of all types, copywriters, who want, I like to say, better clients with bigger budgets or bigger clients with better budgets.” 01:58 - The problem she solves: “So for the most part, my clients are not marketing themselves because they don't like marketing. And they just think word-of-mouth is the best marketing tool and they end up just taking whatever comes along.” 02:39 - The symptom of the problem: “They're taking whatever comes along, and probably not being paid what they think they're worth for their work. Often their clients or their prospects are ghosting them and not responding to their outreach or to their follow-up.” 03:38 - Clients' common mistakes before consulting Ilise: “Often, the thing is that there are too many marketing tools to be using and too many ways to find prospects. And so often people are just doing a little bit of everything, and that's not what works.” 04:41 - Ilise's Valuable Free Action (VFA): “Well, this is where I want to describe the proposal Oreo strategy because it's something anyone can do. And it's like a sandwich cookie. So instead of when a prospect says just send me a proposal and then you spend a lot of time, invest a lot of time on a proposal and you don't know if it's a good thing to do.” 06:56 - Ilise's Valuable Free Resource (VFR): To get marketing-mentor.com 07:19 - Q: What are the marketing tools that work? A: And they are strategic networking, targeted outreach, and content marketing, all focused on a particular niche or vertical market so that they see you over time. Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode: “You have to focus. You have to figure out where are your ideal clients.” -Ilise BenunClick To Tweet Transcript (Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast) Tom Poland 00:10 Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I'm Tom Poland beaming out to you from the little sunshine coast in Queensland, Australia, joined today by Ilise Benin. Ilise, good day from down under. A very warm welcome. Where are you based? Ilise Benun 00:24 Thank you so much, Tom. I'm happy to be here! And I am based in Savannah, Georgia in the US on the Southern Eastern coast. Tom Poland 00:32 How's the weather right now? Ilise Benun 00:34 It's lovely! Nice and warm for February, much warmer than usual but just how I like it. Tom Poland 00:40 Just slipping into spring. Sounds nice! For those of you who don't know Ilise, she's a business coach for creative professionals. She is also a national speaker. She's the author of,

In this short solo episode, I share a few thoughts inspired by a book I'm loving lately, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. It's both deep and practical at the same time, my favorite combination. Enjoy and I'll be back with much more in the new year. And if you like what you hear, we'd love it if you write a review, subscribe on Apple Podcasts and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.

Creative professionals - from coaches to designers to many self-employed individuals - sometimes have a harder time managing money. Questions about how much to charge for their goods and services and how to establish a business for long-term financial success is not always readily available. Our guest Ilise Benun offers practical advice for creatives on how to distinguish their "worth" from their "value," bake-in retirement savings into their pricing model and establish a successful operation year-round. More about Ilise: She is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets, through which she offers business coaching to small groups and 1:1. She is also a national speaker and author of 7 books, including "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money," 3 online courses via CreativeLive and The Simplest Marketing Plan – all tailored to the needs of creative professionals. Since 2008, she has hosted the Marketing Mentor Podcast. For access to Ilise's Simplest Marketing Plan, which includes her 3 most effective marketing tools for creative professionals, click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ilise Benun is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets, through which she offers business coaching to groups and one-on-one. She is also a national speaker and author of seven books, including The Creative Professional's Guide to Money and three online courses via CreativeLive — all tailored to the needs of creative professionals. Since 2008, she has hosted the Marketing Mentor Podcast. Connect with her on LinkedIn and get her Quick Tips at www.marketing-mentortips.com.  In this episode… How can you turn your creative business into a thriving organization? With more engagements on social media, how can you successfully network and reach clients?  According to Ilise Benun, it takes courage to position yourself as an expert — but this is what you need to do. She recommends generating an outreach that is authentic and personalized based on the research of each client. Sending out a monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly email newsletter generates higher response rates and allows your business to continue to grow.  In this episode of Access to Anyone, Michael Roderick and Ilise Benun, Founder of Marketing Mentor, discuss developing relationships to build the business you love. Ilise talks about creating the right mindset to avoid desperation, establishing who you are trying to reach by generating the right content, and recommendations on the most effective marketing tools. Get creative with this episode!

On this episode of THRIVE — sponsored by Workamajig — Kelly and Ilise Benun discuss the disconnect between the value of business services and the value of the person selling them. They give actionable steps to get more comfortable having the money conversation with prospects and clients.Ilise Benun and I cover these points and more:Common struggles that agency owners deal with around money;The Proposal Oreo Strategy to help you talk about money during sales calls;How to guide the discovery conversation to further test the client's readiness;Recommendations for creatives who are looking to improve their money conversations;Healthy tension and difficult conversations build lasting client relationships.Be sure to tune in to all the episodes of THRIVE to get practical tips on becoming a conscious leader, growing your agency, and more. Thanks for listening, and I'd love to hear your takeaways!If you enjoyed this episode, post it in your stories and tag me @agencyscaler. And don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast wherever you listen.Learn more about THRIVE at https://klcampbell.com/category/podcast/ CONNECT WITH ILISE BENUN:Marketing MentorThe Marketing Mentor Podcast LinkedInTwitterFacebookCONNECT WITH KELLY CAMPBELL:LinkedInInstagramTwitterWork with Kelly LINKS MENTIONED: Book - Worth It, How Getting Good at the Money Talk Pays OffBook - The Creative Professional's Guide to MoneyThrive Ep 90 - Winning an RFP with Playfulness, with Sophia Story

Pricing creative work if an art onto itself. Should you charge hourly or by the project? Are you pricing yourself out of desperation or with profit in mind? To help with some of these questions, I wanted to share a few lessons from a class taught by Ilise Benun on understanding what you're worth, the science of pricing, and four pricing strategies you can use right now.  Ilise has built a career advising the independently employed. She has authored 7 guidebooks for creative entrepreneurs and runs the popular online freelance resource, The Marketing Mentor. Ilise is her today to teach you how to land clients who value your services and stop the self-defeating cycle of taking whatever comes along. Also in this episode: The myths of the “starving artist” + non-traditional paths aren't “real jobs” Negative money mindset that asking for what you want is greedy or selfish Imposter syndrome  This episode is critical listening, and only scratches the surface of what Ilise covers in her class. If you're trying to make money from what you create, be sure to check out her class on CreativeLive. Enjoy! Have a question? Text me 1-206-309-5177
 Tweet me @chasejarvis --- Today's episode is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world's largest hub for online creative education in photo/video, art/design, music/audio, craft/maker and the ability to make a living in any of those disciplines. They are high quality, highly curated classes taught by the world's top experts -- Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy Award winners, New York Times best selling authors and the best entrepreneurs of our times.

In This Episode:    Ilise Benun helps creative professionals bust through mental money blocks, to find better projects with bigger budgets. She's a national speaker and author of 7 books, including "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money," and 3 online courses tailored to the needs of creative professionals.   Since 2008, she has hosted the Marketing Mentor Podcast and her newest project is her role as “Business Coach” for the Savannah College of Art & Design.   With over 30 years of experience, Ilise has a lot to teach about clearing the mental clutter, getting more comfortable with tough money conversations, and building a thriving creative business. Let's dive in.    Episode Highlights   How Ilise helps her clients clear their mental clutter  Why promoting your creative on social media may NOT be a good idea How to create a marketing plan for your business that works for you and your personality  How to break out of the “low paying client' cycle and work with clients who are happy to pay you more  Why Ilise thinks you've been brainwashed to avoid marketing your business Understanding the difference between “worth” and “value” when pricing your services  How to develop great collaborative relationships with your clients The 3 simple action steps you can do over and over again to get a flood of great clients  How to meet potential prospects and develop a genuine relationship with them Busting through mental money blocks that stop you from earning more How to make money negotiations a conversation instead of a confrontation And plenty more along the way. Get the resources mentioned in this episode below.

A little planning goes a long way. With a written marketing plan, we can focus on our translation work but still continue with our marketing efforts […] The post Episode 272: Simple and Practical Marketing Plan for Freelancers – Interview with Ilise Benun appeared first on Freelance Translator Business: Marketing Tips for Translators and Companies.

“If what you expect to happen doesn't occur, what are you going to do instead?” is a question that today's guest asks every day, so she is ready for anything. Ilise Benun is “a business expert for creative professionals,” an author, speaker, and teacher. In this conversation, she brings her message of reality and what […]

“If what you expect to happen doesn’t occur, what are you going to do instead?” is a question that today’s guest asks every day, so she is ready for anything. Ilise Benun is “a business expert for creative professionals,” an author, speaker, and teacher. In this conversation, she brings her message of reality and what […]

In this episode, we review some feedback we received on a LinkedIn post asking people their thoughts on the resurgence of QR codes over the past several months - due to the Covid-19 situation. Resources mentioned in this episode: Ilise Benun - marketing-mentor.com Visness Card Digital Business Cards - visnesscard.com QR Code Generator - https://www.qr-code-generator.com/

It's rare that I find someone else whose advice on freelancing I really trust. But that's not the case for my guest today. Because it's very easy to take and trust her advice. My guest today is Abbi Perets. She wants moms to know you don’t have to choose between kids and career. She's the coach and mentor moms turn to when they're looking to break into freelance writing and earn great money from home on their own terms. She combines nearly 20 years of experience freelancing for some of the world's biggest companies with first hand knowledge, having five kids of her own, including one with special needs. She understands the unique challenges moms face every day and has created programs specifically tailored to meet those challenges and empower moms all over the world to have it all. And importantly, we talk in this episode all about how to send great pitches, some of the mistakes that people make when pitching, and how you can avoid those mistakes. Welcome back, everyone to another episode of the Advanced Freelancing Podcast. My guest today is one of the few people that I would trust with giving you freelance advice. The list of people I do not trust is way longer. But I am so excited to have Abbi here on the show because she really knows what she's doing. She gives authentic advice. And she's helped a lot of other freelancers, specifically writers, grow their business. I often feel like people ask me, “Oh, have you worked with so and so? What do you think about this person's courses?” And I feel like all too often I'm saying run away. It's so nice to have a couple of people that I actually do trust. So if somebody asked me advice, I'm happy to be like, “Oh, yeah, you need to go learn email sequences from this person.” It's so awesome to be able to have you on the show. We have a lot in common. We think the same with a lot about business stuff, but I'd love for you to give us a brief introduction, who you are, and what you do right now. All About Abbi She runs Successful Freelance Mom. And she is a mom of five kids, including one with special needs. She has worked as a freelance writer for 20 plus years. And today, she still does freelance writing work. And that's something that's really important to her. She still does the work with clients. So she’s not talking about theory that she learned in that work 20 years ago. Today, she teaches moms how to get started in freelance writing. And she has a couple of courses that are very general on how to get started in freelance writing. Then some of that are very specific and geared towards doing a specific offering a specific service, email sequences to course creators, and she loves it. She loves every second of it. Abbi hit on something that's one of my pet peeves too.  And that is somebody who freelanced once 10 years ago or sold one project on Upwork. It's not that they don't have valuable information to share. But I do question whether that's relevant.  We could like just make this like 30 minutes on what we don't like about other people. But I hate to seem that negative, but it's true.  Because what happens is, and Abbi probably sees this with a lot of her core students, by the time someone comes to you, they might have already looked at or purchased something from someone else and been disappointed and it they’re jaded. It crushes me because they're very concerned about working with anyone else again. They have these beliefs or ideas about how things should be or have to be because they heard it from somebody else.  And then it didn't work for them. So there's such a mindset thing, especially when you start about all the confidence that it takes and fake it till you make it and being damaged by one person. My advice...keep looking. I guess my advice on that would just be that you purchased a product a software worked with somebody, bought their course, bought their ebook, and didn't love it, so keep looking. That person is not the only authority. I would even say that if you bought something of mine and it didn't resonate with you, go find somebody else who teaches that might be able to help you. I just think it's so important that listeners know that because that's always been one of my big things, too. I don't feel like I can authentically talk about what it means to freelance today, if I'm not at least doing that. I have several clients, right. It's so cool that Abbi has it set up the same way. And I definitely want to talk about email sequences. But what we're hoping to focus on in this episode is pitching. I'm sure Abbi has seen it. I've seen it. Our clients have seen it. So many pitches are terrible and awful. The sad thing is you can avoid almost all of this. So I asked Abbi to talk about a top two or three things that she sees people doing over and over again that are just wrong. We’re talking wrong on the level of, “Yeah, don't even send the pitch. If you're doing this, just wait until you've got it refined.” “Hi. I’m a freelance writer.” Abbi thinks that a thing that someone teaches on the internet that is wrong, is do not start your pitch with “Hi, I'm Abbi and I'm a freelance writer.”  Because guess what, we know who you are. Because it's 2020, she has email, and it says your name right up there! And you probably say in your subject line something about whatever it is that they're looking for in a writer. You don't need to waste anyone’s time.  She thinks that a lot of people don't realize how much email some of these editors get in an hour, forget about a day. Literally hundreds of emails. They don't have that eight seconds that you've stolen it from them. And in pure resentment, they're just going to click “Delete”. That's it. Exactly. And especially if you're pitching on a platform like Upwork, where the client is soliciting a writer or a graphic designer, it's obvious that if you're replying to the post, you do that thing. So you don't need to recap it. “I’m really good at it.” The other one that drives me crazy is when people say, “I'm a good freelance writer. I'm really good at it.”   I would hope so. Because you shouldn't be in business if you're mediocre or bad. People still put it in there. You should only say things like, “I've been doing this for five years.” if there's some specific reason that the five years really matters.  Because it's not enough! Abbi is right about people having such a limited attention span. And if you put the good stuff about you at the bottom of the email, they’re never gonna get there. They're just going to delete it right away and you lost your chance with that editor or with that potential client. So that's definitely a good one. I totally agree with that. Track your email. Then this is a little admin thing surrounding the pitching, but Abbi always tells her students to track the email that they're sending. And she does this. She did this with everything. First of all, if she’s sending an email to her husband, she wants to know that he opened it and read it so that he can't tell her late, “Oh, I know I was supposed to do that.” Yeah, you did. Because you read the email, cookie. So I saw you open it six times at work. Track everything you sent. Because if you see that people are opening your email and you're never getting response, something about your pitch is not resonating with them. They're not giving you a chance. On the other hand, if you see that it's being opened multiple times, and especially in different locations, then you can tell a pitch is being forwarded around the office, being discussed, maybe in working meetings, that kind of thing. That's a great time to follow up and say, “Are there any Additional questions I can answer for you?” So just an admin thing around emails. It gives you a sense of how your pitch is being received. And if it's being opened at all, if it's being open and never read again, or if it's being open multiple times. Track your email. Getting flagged as spam. That's so good!  Because there's so much information you can get from that. And you don't want to wait until you've sent 40 or 50 pitches and aren't getting any responses. Because I've even seen freelancers who are sending pitches, and for whatever reason, there's something about their email address that's getting them flagged as spam. So it's not that the pitch is bad, but seeing that in the tracking that no one is even opening it. That tells you that there's something wrong there. Maybe your email address doesn't seem professional enough, or it's reading like a solicitation and the spam filter is catching it. So there's a chance to fix some stuff there. Email Tracking Software I know that HubSpot allows you to track up to 200 notifications. So I think that's every time someone opens an email per month for free. I know about mail track as another tracking tool. What do you recommend that freelancers use for tracking? Abbi has been using Streak which is a free Google Chrome extension. It works with Gmail. And so Streak has a paid version. You don't need the paid version. The paid version is for really a team of people who are doing multiple project management type tasks. The free version is unlimited in how many emails you can track per month and whatever. And it is robust! So for Abbi, it works exceptionally well.  She uses it herself. And she recommends it to her students.  She loves it.  And there's nothing like Mailtrack. She thinks it puts those little track my mail check at the bottom of every message. So Streak has nothing like that. It's not infallible, but nothing is and it's really, really good for what you need. I can't think of any use case for a freelance writer where  this wouldn't be a good fit. That makes a lot of sense because I agree. I installed Mailtrack to try it and it drove me crazy. I felt like it was buggy and it put at the bottom of every email that it was being tracked.  Sometimes you don't necessarily want your prospective clients or current clients knowing that you're tracking your email or their email. It's nice to have that as a secret tool in your arsenal to be like, “Hey, John Smith opened my email 21 times. This is the perfect time for me to write a custom follow up because obviously, there's something about it that got his attention.” But you don't really want to show all your cards with that. So I love that idea. It's so simple to do. It probably does not add any more than a handful of minutes to your pitching process. A basic misconception. I think another misconception that people have and we'll talk about this later is that it's as simple as sending a pitch and a client opens your email, reads it, writes back, and goes, “Sure send me the contract. Let's do thousands of dollars of work together.” A lot of the business is in the follow up.  You're setting yourself up for success with that. Follow up from day one by tracking it just makes it so much easier for you. I see people have these complicated spreadsheets that show when they contacted people. You don't need all that. Use the free version of Streak, get all the benefits of it, and don't add more stuff on your plate. So that's great. Abbi would also say, if you're not using Gmail, there's so many great tools built right in. They've even got this new, little nudge feature. If you sent an email a couple of days ago, and you haven't had a reply, it'll pop it back into your inbox and say, “Hey, you didn't get a reply to this. Do you want to do anything with that?” So I wouldn't necessarily take Google's advice every single time and immediately send a follow up three days later, but I do love the snooze feature, for example. So she will often snooze that and say, “Hey, remind me again 10 days from now.” Because that's the point where she does want to follow up and she does want to take a look. Is your email address unprofessional? So again, on the admin side, we talked about your email address might be coming off as unprofessional or getting flagged as spam. If it's an AOL.com address, It's definitely getting flagged as spam. If it's a hotmail.com address, it's 100% getting flagged as spam. It is 2020, get your own domain name and get a personal email address. It's not that expensive. I feel like Google charges $6 a month for that. I know I just put one of my websites on the year long plan with Squarespace. And it was one of the bonuses that came with that. A year of professional email. So at the bare minimum, you should be using something @gmail. com, you can probably get away with that if you don't want to deal with the hassle yet or not ready to invest. But it's such a small and easy thing to do to get that yourname@yourname.com or yourname@yourbusiness.com. Even if you don't have the full website setup yet, you can still leverage that email address.  It comes across a lot more professional because we've all received those annoying emails. Usually it's from SEO services. At least that's who targets me. And it's so obvious that it's a poorly written pitch. I mean, it starts with Dear Sir every time. Which I'm just like, “No, that's not accurate.” But you don't want to come across like those people. You don't want to be the fly by night, template pitch that has no rationalization to it. So try to stand out! Little things like your email address can make a big difference. They really, really can. And that's going to bring Abbi to her next point.  I mentioned these things that feel like templated pitches. So she’s all in favor of templates and systems and processes that save you time. But they shouldn't ever feel like templates and processes and systems that you created to make your life easier and to not really care about your clients. So she has a couple of  rules for business or rules for life or just things that she lives by core values. Don't lie. Don't send an email you'd be embarrassed to show people in your real life. These are basic things to Abbi, but a lot of people don't bother to follow them. So if you are a person who follows them, you will stand out. One of the things that she thinks about a lot and that she talks about a lot is that you should genuinely care about your clients and the people who you work with. You should really care about them. And you should think of them in a sense, as your friends. Yes, you want to have a professional relationship with them, but you should think of them as people whose well being you care about, whose time you want to protect. So don't send them crap that you'd be embarrassed to show people in your real life when you're emailing someone.  Put some effort into it. Even if it's a pitch, and even if you are using a template, put some effort and thought into it. She uses, for example, a tool called a TextExpander tool. There are different versions of this. The one that she uses is literally a $4.99 one time fee app. And it makes her life so much better because she can say of all of these templated responses that she can call up with just a keystroke or two, but then she always goes in and personalizes them. So the part that doesn't change is the service that she offers. Every single client who she works with gets the same offer, because that's the service that she offers. So it's an email sequence, it costs this much, and if you want a sales page, it's this much. But what she’s pitching to them, why she’s reaching out to this particular client, that's going to be the part where she’s going to put in that personalization. Be honest. And she finds that it's most effective, again, if you're honest. If you actually looked at their website, and there was something about it that spoke to you and made you say, “Wow, I want to work with this person.” Or if you're on Upwork, or a site like that, and you see a posting, what made you apply to that posting? And please don't tell me it's that they're offering a lot of money. That's not a good reason. There should be something beyond that that is pushing you to reach out to this specific client and not that one. So talk about that. And don't be afraid to let some of that passion come through. She thinks it makes pitching much more enjoyable for you as the person who's writing the pitch. And it certainly makes the person who opens it and reads it feel much more engaged with you if you're starting off by saying, “Wow, I looked at your website and your involvement with this organization, or the way you're approaching this, or the people you're serving…” Whatever it is, talk about the pizza thing that jumped out at you and got you excited. Absolutely. There's way too much generalization in some pitches. And it always surprises me, especially when I see that in responses to an Upwork gig. Because you're competing against other people there. If you're cold pitching somebody, they might have other freelancers that are cold pitching them, but most likely not at the same time as you sent your message on LinkedIn or your email. Use personalization. But when you're on Upwork, it's essential to have some level of personalization and a lot of times people will say, “Well, how do I know what that is? I can't see the client’s name. They didn't include their link or Upwork won’t allow them to do it.” Look for the clues that the client has left you in the job description if they are hiring a virtual assistant and it says, “I'm looking for someone who's super organized and a great communicator.” That's the personalization you put into the pitch. Not saying, “I'm a great virtual assistant.” Lead with, what it is about your communication.  Is it a feedback comment from a previous client that said you were the best communicator they'd ever interacted with? Is it the fact that your organization spills over into your personal life and your friends are envious of your closet? Share things that speak to that level of personalization even when you don't have a ton of information. I think it is an important sticking point that comes up a lot with beginners as well. It's easy for more experienced freelancers to pitch. They've got all of this background, past clients, testimonials, and referrals. If I knew, what the heck do I say in my pitch so that it's honest, like you mentioned, but not making promises that aren't true or not giving away necessarily, “Hey, you might be the first client I'm ever going to work with. How do you get a that in a pitch? Confidence is key. Abbi is definitely a huge fan of honesty. So she would never say you should claim to have experience that you don't have. But she also doesn’t think that you need to open with, “I've never done this before.” So you want to strike a balance.  One of the sentences that she loves, and she wants to give credit where it's due, her friend Lauren Golden uses this sentence and teaches this sentence, and that's, “I'm confident that I can do this for you. I'm confident that I can do this thing that you need for you.” Tell them the process. If you make your pitch about the outcome, that you're going to deliver the results that you're going to give your client, then you're driving that conversation. So it's not going to be about samples, clips, and experience. It's going to be about what you are going to do for them. Sometimes it can be very helpful to talk about the process you're going to follow to get the work done. You might say something like: “Hey, if we work together, we're going to start off with a kickoff call. That'll be about 45 minutes. Here's what I'm going to ask you on that call. Here's the information, I'm going to need to see from you. After that, it'll be about a 10 day turnaround time for me to do the work. During that time, I'll update you every other day by email, or I'll work in a shared google doc.” Whatever it is, talk about your process that makes you sound like you know what you're talking about. You have a process, you're laying it out for them, and you're making it really easy for them. Your clients don't necessarily know how this project is going to run. Because just like it might be the first time you're doing it, it might also be the first time they're outsourcing like this. So if you step up, and you say, “Hey, this is how this will work.” You take a lot of pressure off them. Think about it like this. If you're going to renovate your kitchen and you hire a contractor to come and renovate your kitchen, you’ve probably never renovated the kitchen before. So hopefully you hire a contractor who's perhaps done this once or twice, but every contractor has to start somewhere. So maybe this is that. But if he tells you, “Hey, okay, on Tuesday, we're going to come and we're going to demo. You're not going to have cabinets or counters or whatever. It's going to take two weeks after we measure for the things to be built and made. Two weeks later, you're going to have wood boxes in your kitchen. And then I'm going to come three days after that and do the countertop.” At least you have some sense of what's happening. Even if he's never done this before, and it's his first time and it's your first time, you feel a little bit more confidence in the process. Abbi thinks it's also okay to say to a client, again she wouldn't open with this, but she thinks it's okay to in your discussion, say, “Hey, I'm still nailing down my process on this, which is why I'm going to slightly discount this project or, which is why I'm doing this for x amount of money, when in the future, I plan to charge this much.” I think that that's an okay thing to say, when you're starting out if you really want the work, you really want this particular client, and you feel like this is your end. Telling the client the process adds accountability. I love all of those ideas. And I especially like explaining what the process is going to be like for the client. Because the other thing that's great about that, if you're just starting out, you've kind of set up your own loose accountability there by saying, “”Okay, we're going to start with the kickoff call.” So if I get this project, I need to be organized for that kickoff call. How am I going to block my schedule for that 10 day delivery period to make sure that I meet the deadline and the process that I've already presented to the client? I think clarity helps a lot. And clients want to be thinking about that end process of where you can take them. I love the idea of saying that I'm confident I can do this. Talk about your experience. Another one that I recommend is saying, especially if you have past experience, even if not freelance related, “I rely on my blah, blah, blah degree in web design to help my freelance clients.” or “I rely on my five years of experience working as a nonprofit to now serve in a consultant role.” So that's absolutely true. If it's accurate for you because you are relying on that experience. That's the passion and the interest in the background that potentially brought you to the type of freelance work you're doing today. So I completely agree. Do not lie. Do not say these are the kinds of results I get for my clients if you don't have any results yet. You don't need to say things like that. Of course, when you get to the more experienced freelancer point, you absolutely want to start adding those things into your pitches. Great comments and feedback from clients, amazing results, big name clients you've worked with. But please don't feel as a beginner like you have no chance if those things are missing from your pitch. Because I think you're just relying on a little bit different approach. But that doesn't mean it's not valid. And you have to think about the fact every freelancer started with no experience. So many people have found a way to break in and they are just a couple of steps ahead of you. That's really important to keep in mind. So two things... One is you might be new to freelancing, but you have a lot of other experience. Abbi said she can't tell you how many students she’s had who come to her and say, “I have two doctorates, and I've been the president of Uganda for seven years. Do you think I'm qualified?” She said she’s like, “Yeah, I feel like you can probably handle writing. Yes, I feel like you will be okay.” So don't discount the 10 years of corporate experience that you have in any writing work or freelance work that you've done.   Anything that you've done in your past that relates to what you're trying to do now, counts.  It matters. It's real experience. Every Freelancer starts somewhere right? Everybody has a first project. She loves to tell her students it's not only does every freelancer have a first project, every brain surgeon in the entire world has to at some point, picked up a scalpel and sliced into someone's brain for the first time. And she feels like not to belittle what we do by any means. But she feels like brain surgery is just a little more complex than most freelance writing projects. My goodness, Abbi just gave me a flashback. In my husband's third or fourth year of medical school, he rotated with a surgeon.  And the guy was more than ready to throw him into gastric surgeries with no experience.   My husband was like, “Yes, I've been trained to do this. I understand the theory of it. I know what that process should be. “ But he's like that first time that he goes, “Okay, you tie this up.  You close this out and you do the sutures.”  Everybody gets over that hurdle, no matter what your line of business or your passion is.  So keep that in mind.  Continuing to push yourself and get over those hurdles, especially as you expand your business too.   Me and Abbi have both had the first time we coaced somebody, the first course we created, which by the way, mine sucked.   So it’s going to be okay. However, if the first thing you create, the first thing you do, the first pitch you write, is maybe not a home run, that's okay. Because sometimes I think it's about that confidence of sending it out. Sometimes I hear especially from freelance writers that they're like, ”I'm going to take the next five to six months to write.“ And I'm like, “No, you're good. Like you don't need to spend six months workshopping this.” Sometimes it's just about maybe you don't send that first pitch to your dream client. But getting over that hurdle is so, so important. Following up. So let's talk about following up because this is really where your pitch can go from an email that happened to get read to now we're talking about potentially closing a deal. A lot of freelancers often ask me and I give them the answer that they hate, which is it depends if there is a specific formula for following up. I think there are loose guidelines around when and how you follow up.  So I was curious about Abbi’s thoughts on “you've sent the pitch, we tracked it, we see it's being opened, it's possibly being forwarded around” what now?  Abbi says follow up is so critically important. She follows Ilise Benun of Marketing Mentor. got it. And she did a podcast episode or an email or something about how somebody was trying to get on her podcast. Abbi had emailed her multiple times. And she said, “I feel like she probably thinks she's bothering me, but I happen to know I'm really busy and every time she emails I'm like, Yes, I meant to go and look up her stuff and I haven't had time yet. If she keeps following up, she's going to get booked in that slot.” So we write all these stories in our heads about how they must have hated it or they would have replied, but the reality is people are busy. They're spending far less time thinking about you than you think they are. No one cares about you very much. So the act of following up is really important in and of itself. How and when do you follow up? So how and when Abbi typically advises to follow up is if after two weeks if you've seen that that email has been opened multiple times, it's a good time to follow up. But how do you follow up? Abbi doesn’t forward the old email. Don't do that. To her, that's weird. She would do a new email with a new subject.  You can even say following up, put a dsah, and then your original subject line. And that's something that she likes to do personally. And then, “Hey, I wanted to follow up with you. I'm sure you're busy. Here's how I can help you…” Hit the high points. Here's how I can help you be less busy. And here's how I can take some of this load off of you. I want you to think for a second about the one behind the one. There's the thing that business owners say like, “I need social media management, right”. But what they mean is “I need more clients. I need more money.” That's what they actually want. So speak to that want behind what they actually want to get from this relationship. I can help you grow your business, I can help you whatever it is that you're offering to do for them. Hit the high points and make it super easy for them to get back to you. It's not, “Hey, you can call me at this number.” Nobody wants to pick up the phone anymore. Put a calendar link right in there and make it super easy for them, click here, book a time with me, I will be happy to take care of everything for you and give you all the answers you need. Take this project off your hands, get it done, and get it delivered. You can even say something like, “I'm currently booking work for whatever next week, two months from now…” Whatever it is that you're trying to project in your business that can sometimes push people into that response. If your email hasn’t even been opened. Abbi thinks that if you've seen that an email hasn't even been opened and it's been two weeks, then she would definitely send it with a completely different subject line because it wasn't ever opened. So ignore that first subject line.  It either wasn't interesting enough to them or it never made it to the inbox or they have a lot of email and things get lost. Whatever. forget about it. Come up with a new subject line, something that you feel might hook them in and get them to open your email. You can use the same text of the email if you want to, although I would read it over to make sure that there's nothing in there that's getting it filtered into spam. Just give it a once over. And if you see that something was opened once and then never opened again, it still could be worth a single follow up. In that case, I would kind of make a note to yourself that this is the last chance for this guy because you feel like he's not interested.  And it’s fine that not everybody is going to be interested in you. And that's okay, too. Make the follow up different than your original email. I love all of that. And one of the things that I really want to hone in on, which is what you talked about, is this idea of making the follow up be a little bit different than your original email.  Not forwarding the same email and not saying, “Hey, again, here's my website with my samples.”  Remember, these people are busy. If they didn't look at your samples from the first time around, or even if they did, they don't want to see that again. So you're getting into the psychology of it all right? Who is this person?  They're busy, but obviously there's a need and a want here because they opened my email five times. So how can I hit home with that?  Another place where people get stuck a lot is the multiple follow ups. And I think that's important to do. Because sometimes you will hear from clients that you haven't heard from in weeks, months, sometimes even years.  And they will appear out of nowhere. Even if you've never worked with them. There was someone that I wrote a proposal for, that they didn't accept, but they forwarded my name to somebody else who contacted me out of the blue. Because I had kept following up on the proposal that they never signed and went for. So I like to think of it as you're opening all these doors, then leave them open for as long as it makes sense. Don't do the follow up of like, “Hey, just following up on this.” That's appropriate if they have a proposal or a contract that is pending a signature. Then you can be that directive, like, “Hey, I just want to make sure my invoice gets paid, that you saw this contract and scope before you agree with it.”  But make it more personal. When you're still at the pitch level or you're trying to get them on a call or something like that. I think a lot of people kind of miss that. Creeper status. Now, after the first couple outreach efforts, I get a little bit of creeper status going so I will start googling the company and the person I'm emailing. I will look for articles or new studies that came out that were relevant to their business. And I will say something like, “Hey, I came across this article on email marketing, and how the ROI on it is, blah, blah, blah, dollars for every blah, blah, blah dollar you spend. I instantly thought of you because I know I've sent you previous information about email marketing and I really feel like for your audience segment. It could be key.” If the CEO was recently received an award or was featured in an article, use that as your follow up like, “Hey, I saw this. This is super cool. It's part of why I'm so pumped to potentially work with you.” So make it a little more personal. I think that every client and potential client hates when people say, “Hey, following up.” or  “Hey, checking in on this.” over and over and over again.  Because you're making it all too easy for them to just say, “No, not right now.” There's no incentive for them to take any action based on those kinds of statements. So you want to prompt them. This is what you're missing if you don't work with me, “Hey, I'm really passionate about your company or you or your industry.” Something that's personal that makes them go, “Man, if we are gonna outsource it, it's gonna be to this freelancer because their follow up game is solid.” Abbi shared that if you want to go an extra step, send a video pitch.  This is something a lot of people are going to hear this and be like, “I'm not doing that.” But Abbi encourages you to think about it. She has students who have had an enormous amount of success with video pitches. They will literally use Loom, again free Google Chrome extension that’s super easy to use. Even if you've never used it, you can be up and running in 45 seconds, because you're a human with a brain. You go to their website and you can talk about them and like, “Oh, my gosh, I love this stuff about you.” Or you could take that article and say, “I'm reading this article, and I'm just thinking about you. This line in particular really speaks to me and reminds me of your company, because XYZ.” Number one, not everybody is sending video pitches. Number two, it is clear that you made this effort specifically for that client. It catches their attention.  And Loom loads things so nicely with this preview right in the email. People are like, “Huh, what's that?” And they click and you don't want to go on for 17 minutes. But if you do like a two- three minute video, that's something that has a real impact. And you get a notification when they've watched it. So another nice tool for “Oh, hey, they watch this.” You know you are going to stand out in their mind. We're writers, because we're introverts and whatever. Get over it. They're not looking at it to judge your makeup or whatever. They care much more about themselves. So take the time, make this little video pitch because it makes such a difference. I can't even tell you how many clients I've landed, or at least opened the lines of communication, because I sent a one or two second video.  It's really your chance to show that you're a human too. You're not just a taskmaster who does projects and turns them in. You're a human being. And you have a personality. You care about their business. I also worked with an online business manager for about two years. And it was from an Upwork pitch. But she went one step beyond to Google my name and made me the two minute video that says, “Hey, I went and looked at your website and as your OBM here, the three things that I would change that I don't think are working as well as they could.” No one else even spent the five minutes today to check out who I was and where I probably needed the most help. And so that led to a two year contract for her. Make it personal. So anytime I can do something that's a little bit personal like the video, going that little one step beyond the follow up.  Another one of my favorite follow ups is pitch the person then connect with them on LinkedIn. I did this yesterday.  And I was pitching a speaking gig. I wrote the custom pitch to the conference organizer. Five minutes after sending it, I sent a connection request on LinkedIn. And said, I like to add a note section connecting I said, “Hi there, I'd love to connect with you because blah, blah, blah.” But then I put at the end, “Also, I just sent you an email on 2029 friends. Looking forward to connecting.” And because people still tend to check their LinkedIn, which might not always be 100% true on email, that's another great way to follow up or keep that conversation going or ground somebody whose email inbox is bogged down to go searching for your name. Add a note to connection requests. Abbi loves that I sent a personal message with my LinkedIn request. Because sometimes you can get dozens if not hundreds a day. And when they don't have a personal message, she’s not necessarily going to bother to approve them. Because she doesn’t know who you are. She doesn't know anything about you. And she doesn’t know if you're a good connection for her.  She’s very selective with her LinkedIn connections. Because when she puts out content on LinkedIn, she wants it to be showing to people who actually may engage with that content. So if it's somebody who has taken the time to write her something personal, she will almost always accept them even if they're outside of that immediate market. She thinks, “Okay, this person made the effort and told me why they wanted to connect with me. Sure.” But if you don't bother to do that, then you are missing out on a chance to connect with people. I leave my connections for the longest time in purgatory on LinkedIn if I can't figure out who they are and what they do.  This is especially true if you don't send the note. Also, your tagline on LinkedIn is extremely big.  Someone the other day tried to connect with me and their tagline was “Making dreams come true.” And I thought, what does that mean?  And what industry are you in? Some of the people that I connect with, not just connects with, but gets right back to them immediately, are those who are like, “Hey, I saw your TEDx talk.  I loved Episode 90 of your podcast.” It's like, “Oh, yeah, this person actually knows who I am. They're not just randomly clicking people you might know and adding connections for whatever reason.” So if we think like that, I guarantee you marketing managers and busy entrepreneurs think like that, too. So it doesn't even have to be related to the service that you pitch. It may be you saw them deliver an amazing keynote and you comment on like, “Hey, you really killed it on that stage. You did an amazing job.” You're much more likely to open that line of conversation and communication. So I think that's so important and underutilized. Abbi has also had students of her who will sign up for her free email course, they'll like her Facebook page, they'll join her group, and then on LinkedIn, the message will be something like, “I swear, I'm not a stalker.” So you know, it took five seconds to write that. It made her laugh. And she gets it. She knows you want to follow her in these spaces. That's totally cool with her. She is there for it. She’ll even reply to something like that like, “Haha, I don't think you're a stalker. It's awesome. So glad to connect.  Let me know if you're finding everything you need.” And now we have a conversation going so. So there are definitely ways that you can do that and it's such an easy way to stand out from the crowd. Just give them a nudge. So to close things out, because I feel like we could talk for hours, say you're in the process of following up, you've suggested the call, and they haven't taken it. Do you have any tips for how to nudge that person into getting them on the phone? Because I feel like that's where so much business is done. How do you nudge that person without being annoying? How could it be most effective at sort of prompting them into that action step of the phone call? Abbi would definitely start with her calendar link. And if that hasn't been clicked on, if that hasn't resulted in the follow up, then she might, in her next follow up, propose two times. She would say, “Hey, I'd love to get this on the calendar. Would Tuesday at 3:00 or Wednesday at 10:00 be better for you?” Then if one of those works, then she'll send that calendar invite. There is no foolproof system. It is a little bit tricky there. She doesn’t have a great foolproof system. And she doesn’t think there is a foolproof system for every situation. For example, her calendar link is linked to a zoom call. Which is a great little setup, but some people may be intimidated by the calendar link in general and by the idea of Zoom. So maybe make it a little bit easier. “Would it be easier for you if I called you at 10am on Wednesday?” Think about the person.  If you're speaking to someone of a certain age, they may be less comfortable with some of the technology. And if you're speaking to someone who's not in a technology field, they may not be comfortable. Another thing that she ran into was some corporate clients can't access some of those zoom things on a corporate network. So be cognizant of that and say, “How can I do this? How can I make this easier for you?” I love that and giving them a reason to take the phone call, even if it doesn't end up going further with business. Maybe there's a question they have around content marketing, or maybe you have a couple of recommendations that aren't giving away the farm, but allow you to get some of your insight in there, and really get them to see you as an expert. So when people are busy, there has to be a reason for the phone call. Your link cannot be a 45 minute thing that you're scheduling. Keep it to 15 to 20 minutes if they're definitely interested. And they've written back saying, “Yeah, we really need someone to help with XYZ service.” You can expand it to 30 minutes. But you want to watch your time too so that you're not giving away too much and it's not leading to business. But definitely give them a reason for that phone call to make sense. Get them thinking. Right now we're in q1, a lot of companies have met and decided their budgets for the year. That might be a good opportunity to be like, “Hey, I'd love to hear about your content marketing and traffic goals or email newsletter goals to close out quarter one and kickoff q2 strong.” That gets them thinking about it. And If you've hit the right employee or that's on their list of things to achieve, there's more of a chance that they're at least willing to talk to you, especially if it makes them look good if you're going to give them a tip or if you're going to propose an easy solution. You may say, “Hey, your email newsletter is not converting, I know because I'm a customer and these were the problems I encountered with it.” They're much more likely to hire you. And you also can make that employee look good when they go to their boss and say, “Hey, I've got some excellent feedback on how we can improve this. And I found the professional who can help us to accomplish that and knock it out and start seeing better numbers.”  More Abbi later. I love it. This is not the last Abbi will hear of me because I have so many things to pick her brain about. We're definitely going to try to have her come to a live training in my facebook group specifically about email sequences.  Iit is kind of in the freelance writing world like writing emails for other people. Abbi’s Facebook Group is amazing.  Another one of my pet peeves with the online world is Facebook groups where, especially writers, love to pile on each other or critique other people's rates or be negative or write comments like “You'll never achieve your dreams.” Abbi’s Facebook group is not like that. I also strive for that to not be my Facebook either. But I would if you're a writer, even if you're experienced, I would strongly recommend joining her facebook group because it's a very supportive community and people write actionable tips in response to questions.  They don’t write supervague, like, “Hey, I can offer you a phone call.” You're going to get good answers to your questions. Thanks for tuning in for another episode of the advanced freelancing podcast. For more freelance advice, get a copy of my book Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business—available now! Buy it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and more. Connect with Abbi: Website: com Instagram: @AbbiPerets Facebook: Successful Freelance Writing Moms

In this episode of Built to Stay we interview Ilise Benun host of the Marketing Mentor podcast. Ilise is a national speaker, 7-time author, and business mentor for creative professionals. Today she shares how builders can improve their marketing, especially if they are freelancers. For more exclusive content go to builttostay.com

Ilise Benun is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets, through which she offers business coaching to small groups and 1:1. She is also a national speaker and author of 7 books, including "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money," and 3 online courses via CreativeLive – all tailored to the needs of creative professionals. Since 2008, she has hosted the Marketing Mentor Podcast and her newest project is her role as “Business Coach” for the Savannah College of Art & Design. Follow her @ilisebenun and get her Quick Tips at www.marketing-mentortips.com Mike Montague interviews Ilise Benum on How to Succeed at Connecting With Content.   In this episode: Mass marketing doesn't work anymore How to do “Bat Signal” marketing with quality content Attitudes to improve your marketing Use content to begin and develop a relationship with your prospect How to create the right content and get it in front of the right people What does sending content to a prospect look like, and how to use it to spark a conversation Here's where the magic happens Make it a 30 minute a day habit Your mindset is the most important thing Best attitude, behavior, and technique for How to Succeed at Connecting with Content. The How to Succeed Podcast is a public and free podcast from Sandler Training, the worldwide leader in sales, management, and customer service training for individuals all the way up to Fortune 500 companies with over 250 locations around the globe. Find white papers, webinars, and more in our free Sandler E-Learning Library: https://www.sandler.com/sell Enroll yourself in our video self-study online courses at: https://shop.sandler.com/category/online-courses

Ilise Benun is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets, through which she offers business coaching to small groups and 1:1. She is also a national speaker and author of 7 books, including "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money," and 3 online courses via CreativeLive – all tailored to the needs of creative professionals. Since 2008, she has hosted the Marketing Mentor Podcast and her newest project is her role as “Business Coach” for the Savannah College of Art & Design. Follow her @ilisebenun and get her Quick Tips at www.marketing-mentortips.com Mike Montague interviews Ilise Benum on How to Succeed at Connecting With Content.   In this episode: Mass marketing doesn't work anymore How to do “Bat Signal” marketing with quality content Attitudes to improve your marketing Use content to begin and develop a relationship with your prospect How to create the right content and get it in front of the right people What does sending content to a prospect look like, and how to use it to spark a conversation Here's where the magic happens Make it a 30 minute a day habit Your mindset is the most important thing Best attitude, behavior, and technique for How to Succeed at Connecting with Content. The How to Succeed Podcast is a public and free podcast from Sandler Training, the worldwide leader in sales, management, and customer service training for individuals all the way up to Fortune 500 companies with over 250 locations around the globe. Find white papers, webinars, and more in our free Sandler E-Learning Library: https://www.sandler.com/sell Enroll yourself in our video self-study online courses at: https://shop.sandler.com/category/online-courses

Ilise Benun is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, the go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better projects with bigger budgets, through which she offers business coaching to small groups and 1:1. She is also a national speaker and author of 7 books, including "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money," and 3 online courses via CreativeLive – all tailored to the needs of creative professionals. Since 2008, she has hosted the Marketing Mentor Podcast and her newest project is her role as “Business Coach” for the Savannah College of Art & Design. Follow her @ilisebenun and get her Quick Tips at www.marketing-mentortips.com Mike Montague interviews Ilise Benum on How to Succeed at Connecting With Content.   In this episode: Mass marketing doesn’t work anymore How to do “Bat Signal” marketing with quality content Attitudes to improve your marketing Use content to begin and develop a relationship with your prospect How to create the right content and get it in front of the right people What does sending content to a prospect look like, and how to use it to spark a conversation Here’s where the magic happens Make it a 30 minute a day habit Your mindset is the most important thing Best attitude, behavior, and technique for How to Succeed at Connecting with Content. The How to Succeed Podcast is a public and free podcast from Sandler Training, the worldwide leader in sales, management, and customer service training for individuals all the way up to Fortune 500 companies with over 250 locations around the globe. Find white papers, webinars, and more in our free Sandler E-Learning Library: https://www.sandler.com/sell Enroll yourself in our video self-study online courses at: https://shop.sandler.com/category/online-courses

About Ilise in her own words:If you are serious about growing your creative business -- whether that means getting more/better clients or strengthening your foundation -- and need practical guidance, accountability and a sounding board, I can help. (Be sure to sign up for my Quick Tips and/or take advantage of the free 30 minute session at www.marketing-mentor.com)I am a national speaker, the founder of Marketing Mentor, a business coaching program for creative business owners and independent professionals, and a Programming Partner for HOW Design Live. I work one-on-one in person, online and on the phone. Topics covered include: - Choosing Your Niche- Dealing with Difficult Clients- How to Position Your Services- Pricing Your Services- Proposal Review, Critique and Rewrite- Marketing Plan Development- Content Marketing Planning and ImplementationEvidence proves that if you integrate marketing into your day-to-day process, you can get the clients you want, instead of being at the mercy of whoever comes along. But it means putting yourself first. How? Commit to working ON your business before you work IN your business -- early in the day and early in the week. Spend your first 30 minutes every day on yourself, before the day and the week gets away from you. (For more, read my #MeFirst blog post. https://www.marketing-mentor.com/blogs/news/we-need-a-mefirst-movementI’ll help you put yourself first. We'll set realistic goals and I'll keep you accountable for them. You lead and I guide. That's my mentoring style. I'll help you choose a viable market, position yourself as the expert in that market. Then we'll choose the most effective (and least $$) marketing tools to reach your market.Specialties: marketing plans and proposals for creative professionals (designers, writers, illustrators, video producers, photographers) & professional service providers (lawyers, consultants, speaking coaches, personal trainers, computer experts and even other marketing consultants).

Friends, today we’re talking to Ilise Benun. She’s the founder of Marketing Mentor, a firm that specializes in helping creative professionals take their work to the next level, as well as an author, speaker, and teacher. I’m really excited to share this one -- Ilise taught us a lot in this episode. We talk about the creative life, doing creative work, and how we can position ourselves to keep doing this work without falling into the feast/famine cycle, which many of us in creative or client-based work have found ourselves in. We talk about discovering who we are and trusting our intuition, and Ilise asks us some really powerful questions: What would be the best thing for me to take in right now? What would it look like if I were ready? Am I learning anything? Is what I’m doing reinforcing the beliefs that are holding me back? What would be beautiful in this moment?This is a really juicy conversation -- you’re going to have notes from this one.Where you can find Ilise:Website: https://www.marketing-mentor.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/ilisebenunLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilisebenun Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilise.benun References mentioned:The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What it Means to be Alive by Brian ChristianThank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by Thomas L. Friedman

Ilise Benun is an author, consultant, national speaker, founder of Marketing Mentor and co-producer of the Creative Freelancer Conference. She is on a mission to teach people who work for themselves how to take control of their business and get the work they want, which she does through one-on-one, as well as group, mentoring. She speaks around the country to trade associations such as the UPA, Her books include “Stop Pushing Me Around: A Workplace Guide for the Timid, Shy and Less Assertive,” “The Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing," and her latest, The Creative Professional's Guide to Money: How to Think About It, How to Talk About It and How To Manage It (HOW Design Books, Spring 2011). Sign up for her Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor at: http://www.marketing-mentortips.com

Interview with Ilise Benun the founder of Marketing Mentor https://www.marketing-mentor.com/ This action-packed episode is brought to you by the performance marketing experts at Voy Media. https://voymedia.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/digitalmarketingfastlane/message

Don't you just hate talking about money with clients? Either you're quoting WAY too low, or you're putting out a number that makes you feel like an imposter. Either way, talking budget is a source of incredible anxiety for most freelancers. Unless, of course, you're Ilise Benun. Ilise LOVES having the money conversation with clients, and that's because she's figured out a great trick for making both her and her clients comfortable discussing budget.  It's a simple trick, but it's a mind-blower: she asks "is this a $500 project, a $5000 project, or a $50,000 project?" Find out WHY this amazing trick works in her conversation with Kyle!  Today's links:  https://www.marketing-mentor.com Sign up for more great tips from Ilise at https://www.marketing-mentor.com/pages/quick-tips https://twitter.com/ilisebenun https://easel.ly/infographicdesign Theme song by topmen.bandcamp.com! Want to support the show? Order a custom infographic from Easel.ly! Use this link (https://www.easel.ly/infographicdesign/) for a great price!  Think you'd be a great fit for the show? Let me know at twitter.com/KCarCFH Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or recommend us to a friend. It helps immensely.

If you struggle when talking money with clients, this episode is for you. It's an excerpt from a recent workshop I gave for creative professionals on how to take more control over your business (and your pricing) by learning when and how to initiate the money conversation with confidence. If you like what you hear, write a review, subscribe on Apple Podcasts and be sure to sign up for my Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.

Subscribe to theDIYpreneur on Youtube, Spotify, and my community! Ilise Benun is a coach and a strategist. She helps her clients find bigger clients with better budgets. With an interesting business model Ilise runs, see what kind of ugliness she had to face and how she managed to overcome it!

In this episode, I’m really excited to have on the InnovaBuzz podcast as my guest, Gigi Rosenberg a public speaking coach, artist coach, a writer and solo performer. Gigi has 25 years of experience in corporate communications and fundraising and her specialty is working with executives, scientists, introverts, nonprofit leaders and ambitious artists. She helps them deliver presentations with confidence and ease, by helping them find their story, organize what they have to say and homing in on their most important message. In our discussion, Gigi talked to me about How focusing on your audience and their needs and also remembering to breathe will calm you in any presentation or speech Getting clear about the transformation you want the listener to experience and Gigi observed that Everything is a performance! Ilise Benun on episode 162 introduced us to Gigi. Listen to the podcast to find out more. Show Notes and Blog The Podcasts

In the latest HOW Design Live podcast episode, Ilise Benun, founder of Marketing-Mentor.com and HOW Design Live Programming Partner, talks with Puno Puno, Instagram Expert (@punodostres) & Influencer, about how to use Instagram to find yourself and how to use questions to make the right impression. See Puno’s talks, “How to Make Friends with Strangers,” “Instagram for Freelancers,” plus her SquareSpace workshop, all at HOW Design Live 2019 in Chicago, May 7-10. Details at howdesignlive.com

Today’s guest is Ilise Benun. Ilise is the founder of Marketing Mentor, an agency that helps creative solopreneurs, consultants and owners of small creative businesses find the right clients and avoid the feast or famine cycle.

In the latest HOW Design Live podcast episode, Ilise Benun, founder of Marketing-Mentor.com and HOW Design Live Programming Partner, talks with Gaemer Guttierez, VP and Creative Director at Staples, about what it takes for creatives to be -- and become -- leaders. See Gaemer’s talks, “Doer To Leader: The Crazy, Sexy, Untold Truth” and “Are We Just Apples & Oranges? How Creative and Marketing Can Stop Fighting and Combine Their Unique Gifts” presented with Rebecca Sears, all at HOW Design Live 2019 in Chicago, May 7-10. Details at howdesignlive.com

With all the competition out there it's all too tempting to be seen as the person who is available 24/7 on demand and who over delivers every time, just to bag those all important clients and prospects. But by doing that you could actually be harming your business, your clients, and most importantly your work-life balance. Here to tell us why it's so important to set realistic boundaries and expectations from the get-go, and how it could actually boost your business, is the brilliant Ilise Benun…

In the latest HOW Design Live podcast episode, Ilise Benun, founder of Marketing-Mentor.com and HOW Design Live Programming Partner, talks with Bridget Watson Payne, Executive Editor for Art & Design at Chronicle Books. She’s speaking on how to become an author as part of the Creative Freelancer Track at HOW Design Live 2019 in Chicago, May 7-10. Details at howdesignlive.com

In the latest HOW Design Live podcast episode, Ilise Benun, founder of Marketing-Mentor.com and HOW Design Live Programming Partner, talks with Greg Larkin, author of This Might Get Me Fired, about how creatives can be the change agents that help transform corporations from the inside. See Greg’s talk, “Punks & Pinstripes: The Secret Society Of Exponential Intrapreneurship,” at HOW Design Live 2019 in Chicago, May 7-10. Details at howdesignlive.com

This special episode is the audio version of Ilise Benun's new presentation, How to Get Better Clients with Bigger Budgets, hosted by Communo.com. (Watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/BSPKWDRE6Wg). It is, she outlines clearly and succinctly how the only 3 marketing tools you need work together to reinforce your message when you follow the Simplest Marketing Plan. If you like what you hear, write a review, subscribe on iTunes and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor. 

In the latest HOW Design Live podcast episode, Ilise Benun, founder of Marketing-Mentor.com and HOW Design Live Programming Partner, chats with Dave Brown, co-founder of Brown&Co The Brand Collective, about the broken “agency model,” the gig economy, the crowd-sourcing of creativity and a possible solution he’s developed with 2 partners.

Ilise Benun talks with poet and coach to creatives, Mark McGuinness, about his new book, 21 Insights for 21st Century Creatives. (Download the book here.) The focus in this conversation is on important business insights for creative professionals, including how to get out of your own head, how and why to invest in yourself and how to take ownership of your work so you never need to worry about self-discipline. If you like what you hear, write a review and subscribe on iTunes and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor. 

If you are thinking of writing a book to market your business, listen to Ilise Benun's conversation with publishing veteran, Jane Friedman, on the difference between publishing for money vs. publishing for credibility, the myths about being an author, the rise of self publishing and, of course, how to get your book published. If you like what you hear, write a review and subscribe on iTunes and sign up for Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.