Podcast appearances and mentions of nathalie lussier

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 2083: Nathalie Lussier's insightful exploration of forgiveness, as shared on MarcAndAngel.com, delves into the complex emotions of pain, guilt, and resentment that arise from past mistakes. Offering practical strategies for self-forgiveness, seeking forgiveness from others, and extending it to those who've wronged us, Lussier illuminates the path toward healing and emotional liberation. Her guidance promises not just relief but a brighter, more positive future for anyone willing to embark on the journey of forgiveness. Read along with the original article(s) here: http://www.marcandangel.com/2009/02/08/how-to-forgive-yourself-and-others/ Quotes to ponder: "Understand that you were doing the best you could at the time, with the experiences and knowledge you had accessible to you." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Choosing the right platform can feel like an impossible task sometimes. There are so many options, from services to creating your own website and owning everything – how do you choose? Well, Nathalie Lussier and I have both been around the block. She owns a popular WordPress-based LMS called AccessAlly, and I've tried dozens of platforms for memberships, including ones I've built myself. So it was interesting timing when we both decided to start publishing on Substack in late November/early December. Today, we're going to trade notes, going over why we decided to move there, what migration was like, and what we like and dislike about the platform. For members, we'll discuss our timing to move within the context of a bigger controversy surrounding Substack. Top TakeawaysSocial Media for promoting and growing your work has been going downhill for a while now. But Substack has built in a number of features, like Notes and Recommendations, to incentivize sharing while also staying on the platform. One of Substack's best features is its interoperability. You can easily import email lists, content, and even paying subscribers through Stripe. And moving is easy too. Everything you can import, you can also export. The best way to leverage Substack's network effect is to find your tribe – people who you can work with to restack, recommend, and follow on Notes. Just like any social network, don't discount the “social” part. Show NotesThe Momentum MemoAccessAllyHow Knowing Your Customers Lets You Charge More with Nathalie Lussier Sponsored by Liquid WebJoin my FREE Newsletter, Podcast Workflows ★ Support this podcast ★

I'm thrilled to welcome the amazing Nathalie Lussier, owner of AccessAlly, to the show. We take a deep dive into Nathalie's bold move to delete Instagram from her life and put her focus on LinkedIn to grow her personal brand and SaaS business.  Listen in to hear how this social media switch impacted her relationship with content creation and learn some important strategies that showcase the power of personal connections on social media and putting the human touch back in your marketing emails.   In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:  The beginnings of AccessAlly starting at 12 years old Using tune-up calls for customer retention The Software and a service business model The human side of your brand Why Nathalie deleted Instagram Nathalie's LinkedIn strategy Building untrackable relationships on social media And so much more!   This Episode Was Made Possible By: Riverside All-in-One Podcast & Video Platform Visit Riverside and use the code DREA to get 15% off any Riverside individual plan. We use it to record all our podcast interviews: https://onlinedrea.com/riverside  2024 LinkedIn Challenge Learn the LinkedIn Strategies that focus on building community, NOT empty attention, at the FREE 5-Day LinkedIn Challenge for Founders, Biz Owners, & Content Creators and give your LinkedIn a makeover, focusing on what really matters: meaningful and profitable connections! From January 15-19, invest 5-days of rewarding work into setting your business up for a major success shift on LinkedIn. Join us here: https://onlinedrea.com/linkedin   About the Guest: Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making websites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. As the founder of AccessAlly, the powerful digital course and membership WordPress plugin for industry leaders, she believes that access to education can help defy stereotypes and make the world a better place. Website: https://accessally.com/   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielussier/  Facebook: https://facebook.com/nathalielussierpage    Go to the show notes for all the resources mentioned in this episode: https://onlinedrea.com/287   

Have you ever wondered how some women seem to have mastered the elusive 'work-life balance' and wish you could get behind the scenes to watch them in action? In this episode, Dr. Crystal Frazee has a personal and thought-provoking discussion with Nathalie Lussier, the mastermind behind a thriving software company, mom to two little kids, and permaculture farmer to hear her wisdom. Together, they tackle the genuine challenges that professional women encounter and share practical strategies to help you redefine success to prioritize your personal sustainability and fulfillment. Tune in as they delve into the significance of managing expectations, setting realistic goals, and the concept of "enough" in both professional and personal spheres. Nathalie's passion for women in tech, creating change, and living in alignment with your values is sure to inspire. FULL SHOW NOTES & LINKS available at: https://crystalfrazee.com/podcast/work-life-balance-for-women/Meet Nathalie LussierNathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has made websites since she was 12. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. As the founder of AccessAlly, the powerful digital course and membership solution for industry leaders, she believes that access to education can help defy stereotypes and make the world a better place while providing a sustainable livelihood for enterprising teachers.Highlights:0:00:00 Creating a life on your own terms00:09:30 Listen to your body's signals00:13:12 Importance of self-awareness and reflection00:16:45 Importance of support and interdependence00:23:08 Rest is productive, prioritize self-care00:29:36 Listen to your body's capacity00:33:50 Shift focus from numbers to goals00:36:16 Liberate yourself from societal expectations00:45:24 Legacy of sustainable, purposeful work00:47:01 Long-term thinking yields lasting success.[00:00:00] Work-life balance for womenMentioned In This Episode:Nathalie's Company - AccessAllyRadical Homemakers bookConnect with Nathalie on Social Media: Nathalie's Website Nathalie's LinkedIn Nathalie's Facebook Nathalie's YouTubeGet Nathalie's 30-Day List Building Challenge - a free mini-course to build your email list faConnect with Crystal Online:Crystal's WebsiteCrystal's LinkedInCrystal's InstagramCrystal's TikTok FREE Leadership Resources from Crystal: Free Short Audio Training: How to Run Your Day Without It Running You Free PDF Training: Stress & Overwhelm Relief Game Plan Get updates about Crystal's upcoming book! REVIVE: The Working Woman's Unexpected Guide to Recovering from Burnout

Nathalie Lussier is a renowned entrepreneur and the Founder of AccessAlly. This innovative WordPress plugin is designed to assist entrepreneurs, course creators, and businesses in establishing and overseeing online membership sites, courses, and digital products. During this episode, we explore her decision to market software as a service (SaaS) rather than the more traditional options like online courses and infoproducts. Nathalie shares her insights gained from mastering the creation of engaging marketing campaigns during various launches. She also discusses her approach to crafting compelling sales emails and her intriguing "email experiment" for nurturing leads. Even in moments of wavering confidence, she excels at organizing memorable events. Additionally, we delve into her unique journey as a woman navigating the tech realm.   This Week on the Get Paid Podcast: Why Nathalie chose to sell software as a service for her main revenue stream Nathalie's background in health and wellness and initial ventures into launching products. Her transition back into software and reaching $100k in her first year Hosting live events to connect with her audience and create a stronger rapport - and finding her confidence in the process  Launching "PopupAlly" in 2013 as a way to test the waters with selling software and providing customer support - laying the foundation for "AccessAlly” The journey to reaching $20-30k per months in 3 years Nathalie's "email experiment" and how she nurtured her list so well with sales emails that they're still talked about years after she sent them What it can feel like to be a woman in tech Building a business that doesn't rely on being the face of it Transitioning their team to a four day work week  Mentioned in this podcast: AccessAlly Mama Gena - School of Womany Arts Meet Edgar Connect with Nathalie: AccessAlly Website: https://accessally.com/ Thanks for tuning into the Get Paid Podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review. Connect with me on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, visit my website for even more detailed strategies, and be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media.  Now, it's time to go get yourself paid.

285 Bloom Where You're Planted   When we are first starting out in our careers it can feel like we're lost and in a rut, constantly fighting the tide as we try to sail the seas of life. However, much like the humble dandelion, it's through this resilience and persistence that we can grow in whatever environment we find ourselves in. In this episode Sarah Elkins and Nathalie Lussier discuss the importance of thriving and trying new things that can bring us joy and fulfillment, even if they are new and strange. Because it is only when we make the attempt that we will learn more about ourselves and the strength within us.   Highlights Sometimes scrapping ideas is the first step in the right direction. Resilience can keep you afloat through all of life's turbulence. Growing and working hard over time on your passions, even if they're new to you.   Quotes “Bloom where you're planted.” “I think it's when people were sharing about it with their friends. The sort of word of mouth effect, because that was like obviously I can like what we created and think it's cool, but if other people aren't seeing the value and aren't sharing it with their friends because they think it's awesome and they need to try it, then I don't know if we created anything great. So for me that was the big thing.” “I feel like sometimes these situations open us up for better things even though it doesn't feel like it in the moment.”   Dear Listeners it is now your turn, I started this question for you about ten or fifteen minutes into the conversation with Nathalie: What can you take on? What can you think about in terms of problem solving where you are now? What is something that you could do, maybe as a side hustle, maybe into the future as you get more experience and build the portfolio of trying it where you are now, being somebody who blooms where they're planted, what problem can you solve? I'll be curious to find out, please comment or send me an email, let me know what you thought of this episode. And, as always, thank you for listening.    About Nathalie Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making websites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college.   As the founder of AccessAlly, the powerful digital course and membership solution for industry leaders, she believes that access to education can help defy stereotypes and make the world a better place while providing a sustainable livelihood for enterprising teachers. Connect with Nathalie on her LinkedIn, and Facebook! Be sure to check out her websites Nathalie Lussier, Accessally, and 30 Days List Building Challenge! About Sarah "Uncovering the right stories for the right audiences so executives, leaders, public speakers, and job seekers can clearly and actively demonstrate their character, values, and vision." In my work with coaching clients, I guide people to improve their communication using storytelling as the foundation of our work together. What I've realized over years of coaching and podcasting is that the majority of people don't realize the impact of the stories they share - on their internal messages, and on the people they're sharing them with. My work with leaders and people who aspire to be leaders follows a similar path to the interviews on my podcast, uncovering pivotal moments in their lives and learning how to share them to connect more authentically with others, to make their presentations and speaking more engaging, to reveal patterns that have kept them stuck or moved them forward, and to improve their relationships at work and at home. The audiobook, Your Stories Don't Define You, How You Tell Them Will is now available! Included with your purchase are two bonus tracks, songs recorded by Sarah's band, Spare Change, in her living room in Montana. Be sure to check out the Job Interview Storytelling Course as well to make sure you nail that next interview!

If you want to have a positive impact on more people, you've likely created or thought about creating an online course.  Introducing Nathalie Lussier, the founder and creator of AccessAlly, one of the best course and membership platforms available for WordPress.  During our discussion, Nathalie shares lessons from her journey as a software developer turned marketing consultant turned SaaS founder, strategies to create and sell your own online courses, and how to help your students get more value from your programs.  You can check out the show notes, transcripts and resources for this and other episodes Leadpages.com/podcast, and if you'd like to learn more about Accessally, head over to Leadpages.com/accessally. Now let's get into the conversation.  

Nathalie Lussier is a force to be reckoned with. She's a female founder of a tech company, a writer, and a permaculture farmer. Obviously, Nathalie knows how to make things happen. Nathalie Lussier is the founder of AccessAlly, a company that aims to simplify the process of content creation, community building, and coaching for individuals with big ideas. We discuss her journey of building a successful tech and how Nathalie's passion has always focused on using technology to impact people's health and well-being.The Unleashing Your Great Work podcast is sponsored by the Great Work Journal! The Great Work Journal is here to answer the question “But HOW?” How can we figure out what our Great Work is? How can we get started, stay with it, and finish our Great Work so it can go out in the world and have an impact?Resources Mentioned: https://accessally.com/free-demo/https://30DayListBuildingChallenge.com/https://nathalielussier.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielussier/Business channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4gwAjm2sVBhhv9CPhopzZAFarm channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtH__FG39_3M7eBE11okm3gJoin the Great Work Community here: amandacrowell.com/great-work-communityClick here to get your own copy of Amanda's book, Great Work.About The Guest:Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making websites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. As the founder of AccessAlly, the powerful digital course and membership solution for industry leaders, she believes that access to education can help defy stereotypes and make the world a better place while providing a sustainable livelihood for enterprising teachers. Nathalie has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Venture Beat, and Mashable.About The Host:Dr. Amanda Crowell is a cognitive psychologist, speaker, author, and coach focused on changing our perspective on the world of work. It IS possible to do Great Work—the work that calls to you from the inside– without sacrificing your health, happiness, and relationships.Amanda is the Author of the book, Great Work: Do What Matters Most Without Sacrificing Everything Else, and the creator of the Great Work Journals. Amanda's TEDx talk has received almost two million views and has been featured on TED's Ideas blog and Ted Shorts. Her ideas have also been featured on NPR, Al Jazeera, The Wall Street Journal, Quartz, and Thrive Global.Follow the podcastTo get each new episode downloaded automatically, click the + to follow the podcast!Leave us a reviewRatings and reviews mean everything to us. They help our podcast rank higher, which means more people will be inspired to unleash their Great Work! Your time to leave a review is greatly appreciated!

In this episode, we dig into all things strategy and pre-sale offers so you can avoid shiny object syndrome and launch your product with confidence. Nathalie shares invaluable tips to make your launch your most successful yet. In this episode:How and why Nathalie chose to start her own business [0:43]The importance of pre-sales [5:44]Shiny object syndrome and staying true to your business [9:40]The magic of execution [13:10]Let's talk pre-sale checklists [15:13]Tips on pricing your offer [17:53]CONNECT WITH  NATHALIE:LI: www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielussier/Website: accessally.comCONNECT WITH HOLLY: • TEXT HOLLY: 614-810-4236 or click here • JOIN THE MASTERMIND: Apply here to chat with Holly • CREATE YOUR ANTI-SOCIAL STRATEGY: https://www.hollymariehaynes.com/social

What does a bad movie from 1992, loss aversion, Steinbeck, pizza, farm animals, and the founder of a software company have in common? Well, you'll find them all in this episode.This episode will take you places. I don't want to spoil it. So suffice it to say, this episode is all about questioning why we act the way we do when it comes to how we scale up (and scale down) our dreams. Footnotes: Learn more about Nathalie Lussier and AccessAlly Far and Away (1992 film) Oklahoma land rush of 1893 “A primer on the 30s” by John Steinbeck More about loss aversion 2002 pizza study Psychopolitics by Byung-Chul Han Check out Nathalie & Robin's farm on YouTube What Works by Tara McMullin Support the research, journalism, and analysis that goes into What Works by becoming a paid subscriber for just $7 per month. You'll get access to bonus content and help me continue to do this work (instead of, ya know, selling you stuff).  ★ Support this podcast ★

Are you struggling to scale your online business? Most oftentimes, even though coaches and course creators have the skills and desire to build a course in a certain area of expertise. But they don't understand what people are willing to pay for or what they want for free. This lack of understanding affects the growth of the business. So what changes you'll need to make? Regarding product market fit, you need to know what people say they want, what they actually want, and what you want to create personally. Aligning those three will guarantee a successful launch for your product. In this episode, we have Nathalie Lussier, the founder of Access Ally. Today, she will discuss the problems other courses have, ways to keep you motivated, and steps you need to take to scale and evolve your business. Resources Access Ally Site Nathalie Lusier Twitter Nathalie Lussieer LinkedinPre Sell Your Online Course Amazon Book

The conversation regarding the removal of WordPress plugin active install growth data has continued this week. The data chart was officially removed from the WordPress.org plugin repository back on September 29, 2022. Even as plugin authors and other community members have asked for the chart's return, no formal reason has been given for its removal. The possibilities of privacy and security issues have been brought up, but there's been no official announcement from WordPress leadership. Over at WP Tavern, Sarah Gooding reports on a Trac ticket discussion started by Mark Zahra. WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has chimed in and said that adding relevant statistics for plugin authors “...will take some work but it's doable.” Mullenweg also responded to a tweet from Zahra stating, “We'll add something new for small plug-in devs.” Meanwhile, the community continues to express concern. Investor and artist Jean Galea wondered if WordPress is entering a “death spiral”. And MasterWP's Rob Howard says WordPress may be turning away its biggest fans. Next up (listen to the podcast for more): Michelle Frechette with the Community Minute! Links You Shouldn't Miss MasterWP's WordCamp travel sponsorship program plans to keep on rolling in 2023. It aims to enable a diverse group of people to attend events by defraying travel costs. This year, the program helped seven recipients head to WordCamp US in San Diego, California. Rob Howard wrote about the reasoning behind and the impact of the program. There's also a form for anyone interested in receiving a travel stipend to attend WordCamp US 2023 in National Harbor, Maryland. Howard also put out a call for potential sponsors. For our part, the WP Minute has made a $1,500 contribution. From the Grab Bag Now it's time to take a look at some other interesting topics shared by our contributors. A hosted WooCommerce package will be coming to WordPress.com in 2023.Carl Alexander took a look at the ups and downs of contributing to WordPress outside of the official project.Matt Cromwell and Kim Coleman sat down with AccessAlly founder Nathalie Lussier to discuss outlining a WordPress product roadmap.WordPress 6.1 will see a performance boost, thanks to the addition of database query caching.A familiar name is listed in Newsweek's “America's 100 Most Loved Workplaces 2022” rankings. Automattic, owner of WordPress.com and founded by Matt Mullenweg, came in at #31 this year.Open source search engine Meilisearch recently

WP Product talk is back with co-hosts Matt Cromwell and Kim Coleman sitting down to discuss outlining a WordPress product roadmap. Nathalie Lussier joins the crew to chat about how she and her team plan the AccessAlly course software development. Follow Matt & Kim on Twitter to participate in the weekly WP Product talk Spaces. Stay subscribed here to catch the edited recording! Links Kim ColemanNathalie LussierMatt CromwellPaid Memberships ProAccessAllyGiveWPSupport the WP Minute

About Nathalie Lussier: Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making websites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. As the founder of AccessAlly, […]

Show Notes Nathalie Lussier is a software company founder who empowers creators around the world to build successful membership and online learning businesses — and as someone who built her first website at age 12, she’s been at it a long time. What I love about Nathalie is that she created the software she sells […]

Nathalie Lussier went from selling online courses to building a SaaS, AccessAlly. She and her team of 8 people crossed $1M in ARR. How do they succeed in a crowded market? What are their strategies to find the perfect customer and build the perfect product? Listen to the episode to see how you can get to $1M in ARR, applying Nathalie's learnings

Too often, choosing your business model isn't a conscious decision and you accept whatever the default seems to be for your industry.But choosing your business model is a really important decision.The business model that you choose affects absolutely everything about how you do business, from what you do on a daily basis to how much money you make and how you make that money, to how much time you spend working each week.Let's open our eyes to the different options out there and make conscious choices about the model that's really right for our businesses, our customers, ourselves, and our personal goals.This episode is part of a series on business models. In each episode, I'm interviewing a business owner about their business model, how it works, how they make money, and what it all entrails so that you can learn about your different options and make that choice.Today I'm talking to Nathalie Lussier about the Software As A Service model and her business, AccessAlly.Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making web sites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college.As the founder of AccessAlly, the powerful digital course and membership solution for industry leaders, she believes that access to education can help defy stereotypes and make the world a better place, while providing a sustainable livelihood for enterprising teachers.Listen to the full episode to hear:Why Nathalie made the leap from hands-on coaching and consulting to developing softwareHow software as a service provides stability for business ownersWho to partner with if you have a great idea but don't have software development experienceWhy AccessAlly stopped paid advertising and focused on content marketing How Nathalie and her team evaluate adding new features and services to AccessAllyLearn more about Nathalie Lussier:YouTubeTwitter: @NathLussierFacebook: @AccessAllyTMPinterest: @AccessAllyConnect with AccessAlly on LinkedInLearn more about Gillian:Startup SocietyGet on the waitlist for VALIDATEProfit Planning ChallengeGet in touch!

Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making web sites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. As the founder of AccessAlly, the powerful digital course and membership solution for industry leaders, she believes that access to education can help defy stereotypes and make the world a better place, while providing a sustainable livelihood for enterprising teachers. Nathalie has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Venture Beat, and Mashable. Access Ally website: https://accessally.com/ Twitter: @NathLussier Facebook: https://facebook.com/accessallytm   2:40 "The most important thing is to have a way to track people's progress." - Nathalie Lussier 4:15 "Don't show someone, 'Here's a hundred moves that you need to learn.'" - Brian Keith 8:08 "You can granularly control what people see and when they see it [in your online course]." - Nathalie Lussier 9:16 "[Objectives and rewards] really motivate people to keep going and actually get the results that you promised." - Nathalie Lussier 12:42 "You go through the right path based on where you are in your life and it hides everything else so you don't get overwhelmed." - Nathalie Lussier 14:29 "Give people points when they do certain actions. That's a great way to incentivize people to be part of your movement." - Nathalie Lussier 16:59 "It really comes down to reverse engineering what your goals are." - Nathalie Lussier  

Ep #112 - This week on the podcast, I'm joined by digital marketing strategist and SAAS founder, Nathalie Lussier. Nathalie is the founder of AccessAlly, an online course creation software for Wordpress. She designed AccessAlly with an emphasis on simplicity so that non-techie entrepreneurs can focus on creating course content without having to worry about technology. By simplifying the process of online course creation and providing customers with needed support, Nathalie has grown AccessAlly into a thriving business and steady stream of monthly recurring revenue. In today's interview, we discuss many of the lessons she learned from launching the software, and why she believes customers have gravitated to the product. It's a fantastic conversation! Learn More About Nathalie Lussier: Visit Nathalie Lussier's website: https://nathalielussier.com/ Follow Nathalie Lussier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalielussier/ Listen to Nathalie Lussier's podcast, "Off The Charts," on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/off-the-charts-business-podcast-with-nathalie-lussier/id833884433     Also, please remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a written review for the show if you find value in it. Your reviews help this show to reach a wider audience and I appreciate everyone that has been leaving them. FOLLOW CHARLES GAUDET ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow Charles Gaudet on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/charlesgaudet Follow Charles Gaudet on Facebook: https://facebook.com/charlesgaudet Follow Charles Gaudet on Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesgaudet   VISIT THE PREDICTABLE PROFITS WEBSITE: https://PredictableProfits.com

As Boss Moms, we don't have to choose between having a meaningful business and our families. We can build what we want, grow it the way we want, and in the case of our guest, run a tech company while living on a farm!    Being intentional about what we grow is super important, and when we want a particular life for ourselves, we often have to go against the grain of fast growth.    In today's episode, I'm joined by the founder of AccessAlly, Nathalie Lussier. How has the lifestyle she wants for her family dictated her growth strategy? How is she helping people build thriving online communities?    In this episode, Nathalie talks about how she built a very different software company, and the power of growing a business at the pace you want.  3 Things You'll Learn in This Episode   How to build a membership site people love being a part of Nathalie put a lot of thought and intention behind every aspect of AccessAlly, what are some of the features that help people build thriving online communities?    Why we don't have to build a great business by way of fast growth How does Nathalie's lifestyle dictate the growth strategy of her business?    How Nathalie merged her high-tech business with farm living Why do our businesses give us so much freedom to build the lives we want?    Guest Bio-  ​​Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making websites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. As the founder of AccessAlly, the powerful digital course and membership solution for industry leaders, she believes that access to education can help defy stereotypes and make the world a better place, while providing a sustainable livelihood for enterprising teachers. Nathalie has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Venture Beat, and Mashable.   For more information visit https://accessally.com/, and subscribe to Nathalie's YouTube channel.  To keep up with Nathalie's farm adventures subscribe to Waykeeper Farm and Nerdery.

Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making web sites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. As the founder of AccessAlly, the powerful digital course and membership solution for industry leaders, she believes that access to education can help defy stereotypes and make the world a better place, while providing a sustainable livelihood for enterprising teachers. Nathalie has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Venture Beat, and Mashable. https://accessally.com/ https://twitter.com/nathlussier https://facebook.com/accessallytm   Check out the Red Beard Radio survey: https://redbeardsurvey.com/

Even with all of the WordPress consolidation happening, there's still plenty of opportunity ahead for the industry. There's lots of potential users, customers, and room for investment (note: we just saw the acquisition of Yoast happen by Newfold, formally EIG. If I had to guess, somewhere between a $30-50M deal.) If you though the plugin space is crowded or even more specifically the membership & LMS veritcal, then I have a surprise for you today. Nathalie Lussier, founder of AccessAlly a LMS plugin for WordPress joins us to talk about her venture in building her business. From selling online courses and building community to building and selling software — this is a fantastic lesson for all of us. Her and her team are really proving that in the a crowded market, you stand apart from the crowd by knowing who your perfect customer is and building them the perfect product. Episode Transcript [00:00:00] This episode is brought to you by paid memberships pro well, actually it's their other product. Site-wide sales at site-wide sales.com. It's a complete black Friday cyber Monday and flash sales tool for WooCommerce or paid memberships pro. Before, you know it, the deal day holidays will be fast upon us. And you want to prepare your WooCommerce or paid memberships pro website.[00:00:20] With the site-wide sales plugin, use it to make custom sale banners, targeted landing pages or apply discounts automatically in the cart. Use it to track the performance of all of these promotional features using the reporting feature, which will paint the picture of your black Friday and holiday shopping sales. I use it to help make your woo commerce or paid memberships pro store more money.[00:00:43] Get the first 30 days for free. And then it's an easy $49 a year. Check out site-wide sales.com. That's site-wide sales.com to make more money. This holiday sale season.[00:00:56] Matt: Even with all of the WordPress consolidation happening, there's still plenty of opportunity ahead for them. There's lots of potential users, customers, and room for investments notes. We just saw the acquisition of Yoast happened by new fold, formerly EIG. If I had to guess a deal somewhere between a 30 and $50 million acquisition, if you thought the plugin space is crowded or even more specifically, the membership and LMS vertical is crowded.[00:01:22] Then I have a surprise for you today, Natalie Lucier founder of access, ally and LMS plugin for WordPress joins us to talk about her venture in building her. From selling online courses and building community to building and selling software. This is a fantastic lesson for all of us. Her and her team are really proving that in the crowded space, you stand apart from the crowd by knowing who your perfect customer is and building them the perfect product you're listening to the Maryport a podcast for the resilient digital business builders.[00:01:51] Subscribe to the newsletter maryport.com/subscribe and follow the podcast on. Spotify, wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts better yet. Please share this episode, please do, because I just read that the best way to grow a podcast is word of mouth and sharing. So please share this episode with others.[00:02:09] We'd love more listeners around here. Okay. Let's get into today's episode.[00:02:13] It almost feels like a SAS software as a service. Tell us about that, that moment when you realize I'm teaching people, I might as well build the software too.[00:02:22] Nathalie: Yeah, absolutely. So I was in the like marketing and tech space and doing videos on like, how to build a popup and how to do things on your WordPress site and how to market your courses and all of that stuff. And I was teaching. In courses and also on YouTube and people who were, signing up to our free challenge.[00:02:42] We had a challenge called the 30 day list building challenge to help people build an email list and they were signing up. And it was, becoming pretty popular. So we had a lot of people logging in at the same time. And at the time. I thought we were getting attacked by hackers or something.[00:02:56] Cause we have so many logins and the way that our plugin that we were using at the time it kept pinging our CRM and every single time somebody went to any page on that site. So, we were having nightmares basically. I would wake up every morning and have to call my host to have them. Unlock us, essentially, we put my website back up and then all the people who were signing up were upset with us because, they signed up and they couldn't get what they were asking for or what we had promised.[00:03:21] So essentially my husband and I were like, okay, let's just quickly whip up a plugin to replace what we have right now, just to stop this problem. And so that's literally in one weekend we wrote the first beta beta version of access ally. And it was just to solve our own problem. Yeah. But then after that, we kind of realized like, Hey, okay, this gives us a lot of, interesting options.[00:03:40] And we started adding on and kind of building other things that we thought would be very useful for the people going through our courses and content. And that was kind of the start of what you see today.[00:03:51] Matt: So you ha I, I didn't write this down in our peer review, but what was the timeline you had popup ally first and then.[00:03:58] Then we created access ally, correct?[00:04:00] Nathalie: Yes. So we built SSLI first just to solve this problem. And we knew that someday we might release something like this, but it just felt like too big of an undertaking to do a whole like online membership or LMS or anything like that. So we ended up building popup ally next and releasing that first because we knew we could do a free version.[00:04:19] We could see how that went. Then we could do a paid version and see how that was. Being responded to and how we could handle support and all of that. And then we realized, okay, yes, we can actually do this. We have the chops. And so let's go all in on SSLI and kind of build[00:04:33] Matt: that. And I'll, I'll paint sort of the the, the picture at least of the way that I see it in my head is pop-up plugin a very, very broad market, big market.[00:04:44] Chances are anyone who might be selling courses or digital content is going to be attracted to a pop-up to use on their site to capture the visitor's attention. And, oh, by the way, we also. Have this LMS plug-in fair statement.[00:04:58] Nathalie: Yeah, it totally started off that way. It's a much broader, pop-ups are much broader.[00:05:02] And then, yeah, like you said, people who are using them to build an email list and audience, they probably will want to sell something online. So, so that pretty much leads to access ally.[00:05:12] Matt: Yeah. I want to start with something that I won't say it's a curve ball, but a little bit on the hot seat, but something that I totally enjoy what you're doing with access ally is the pricing.[00:05:22] And I think I know a lot of Plugins in the space a lot of, well, let me ask you this question. Before I dive into that, do you refer to it as a plugin or software? Like how do you feel about the product itself? I don't want to just say plug in if you feel like you're greater than that.[00:05:40] This episode is brought to you by paid memberships pro well, actually it's their other product. Site-wide sales at site-wide sales.com. It's a complete black Friday cyber Monday and flash sales tool for WooCommerce or paid memberships pro. Before, you know it, the deal day holidays will be fast upon us. And you want to prepare your WooCommerce or paid memberships pro website.[00:06:01] With the site-wide sales plugin, use it to make custom sale banners, targeted landing pages or apply discounts automatically in the cart. Use it to track the performance of all of these promotional features using the reporting feature, which will paint the picture of your black Friday and holiday shopping sales. I use it to help make your woo commerce or paid memberships pro store more money.[00:06:24] Get the first 30 days for free. And then it's an easy $49 a year. Check out site-wide sales.com. That's site-wide sales.com to make more money. This holiday sale season.[00:06:37] Nathalie: Yeah. So it is technically a plugin, right?[00:06:39] So people download it and install it. But we do see it as software, as a service, just because we are constantly developing and people have so many feature requests and things that we're constantly updating. So, and then we also offer a lot of support. So that's the service side as well. So I do feel like it's a little bit more than just like here, download this plugin and good luck.[00:06:57] It is like a real partnership. And I think that's why the price, in my opinion reflects that when people will come to the website and people also do think so. I mistake that it's a platform and that it's totally hosted. And we've talked about potentially doing that, but we do also appreciate that it's a plugin and they could work with other things.[00:07:13] And there's a lot of benefits to being in that WordPress ecosystem too.[00:07:18] Matt: That's sometimes it's a disadvantage for a bulk of visitors that come to the site and they go, oh, wait, I was looking for a plugin. This looks like a platform. Do you, have you ever noticed that a drop off in the quote unquote funnel at all, that, that you've actually paid close attention[00:07:33] Nathalie: to?[00:07:33] Usually it goes the other way where they wanted a platform and then they're like, oh wait, I need to WordPress. So most, most of our marketing so far is kind of the opposite, but yeah.[00:07:44] Matt: Yeah, I wanted to give you a sort of a fair chance to see how you disseminated between the plugin and the, and the soft.[00:07:51] As a mindset, because I think a lot of us, myself included, like I have a tiny little plugin, easy support videos. I've done other plugins in the past, which have burned a miserable failure of a death. And, but the fact of the matter is I was always kind of just like, oh yeah, it's just, it's just this plugin.[00:08:08] And I think a lot of us just have to say, no, This is a software business. Like let's, let's, let's, let's give ourselves a little bit of credit here. Like this is a software business that we're in. We're not just like this little throw away plugin, even though that's the technical term for it. And I think we could do a lot for ourselves mentally.[00:08:24] If we just have a little bit more of that, that confidence boost when, and when we look at it, because it changes the mindset, it changes how you approach it. And that's what I want to talk about with your. $99 a month. That's what access ally essentials starts with. That's one website. Very far beyond what, you might see from just, let's say a free LMS or an LMS plug-in that's $79 for the year or something like that.[00:08:49] How did you get to this pricing? Was it immediate or did you have some bumps and bruises along? That's[00:08:55] Nathalie: a great question. So we started off at 79 a month. That was before, that was the first price that we started originally a couple of years ago. But yeah, we've, we've had a lot of conversations internally and a lot of it really comes down to what value I think we really provide to people.[00:09:10] So we are pretty close to making people money, right. So we help them take payments. We have an affiliate program built in and we basically help them sell courses. All kinds of other things. So that to me shows me that we can provide a lot of value for them. And when you're comparing, what other tools they might be purchasing to do with something similar, sometimes they might be purchasing, multiple things like maybe it's multiple plugins, or maybe it's like one thing for a shopping cart, one thing for this other thing.[00:09:36] And then by the time you add up all the time, Invested in making all of those things work together. That's kind of to us a lot of value, so that's kind of how we thought about it. And then we were also just looking around at some of the competition and also what we knew we needed to charge to provide the service that we wanted.[00:09:52] So that also came into it a lot. So we have two full-time support people and US-based, they we love taking care of our teams, so they have, good salaries and benefits. And I don't think we could do that if we were trying to charge less and try to compete on the, on the pricing side, we wanted to really provide more value and then also charge well for it.[00:10:12] And there is also something that changes when somebody pays more for software, which is that they're a little bit more committed. They're really in it for the longterm. Most likely to stick as well. So like, obviously if it's too expensive for them, they're not going to sign up in the first place. So we kind of lose people that way, but we do have more people signing up and staying long-term because they know we're kind of in that partnership.[00:10:33] And a lot of times people tell us we love access ally because it lets us do all these great things. But also because every time we have a question or we have something we want to do that just quite do yet, it comes out like a month or two later. Right. So that's something we couldn't do if we were, trying to appeal to too many people at a lower price.[00:10:51] Matt: You have a degree in software engineering, this, that answer and the way you've positioned the product is what I'll say. And these are my words, not yours is a much more mature business answer than what I normally see in the WordPress space. Again, myself included, you build a product you're like, oh my God, does anybody want to buy this?[00:11:11] And then you say to yourself, I know what I'll do. I'll just make it cheap. Then somebody will certainly buy it. But you, you jumped in at an eight. 860 ish dollar a year or a little bit more at my mass. Not really good right out of the gate at 79 bucks a month. Is this the first business you've launched or this you're a second, third, fourth, fifth business.[00:11:29] Cause it sounds like you've gone through the paces a little bit before.[00:11:32] Nathalie: Absolutely. So yeah, this is not the first business. And I started off with my very first business out of college. It was all in the healthy eating space and that was kind of my training business. So I just learned like marketing and like I built my own website and all of those things.[00:11:45] And then. The kind of teaching of the online stuff and the online marketing was kind of the next one. And then this is sort of the third business I would call it and yeah, it, it definitely like we learn so much. Yeah. Yeah.[00:11:58] Matt: And this is a great thing because I think this is hard to just like, this is not a question, but much more of just like a general statement and then interested on your thoughts, but it sort of raises the value of all of us, right?[00:12:12] When you price your product like this. Well, you're getting true value. You're asking for true value. And on the other end, it's a, it's a solid business. Like you said, there are people working for us. We're paying them well, you're going to get great support. You're probably getting a higher degree of customer as well.[00:12:30] Like they're not coming in, just like, give me all this free stuff. Cause they're already paying a hundred bucks a month. So there's a different level there. There's money out there that I think a lot of people just get a fee. I get that fear factor where like, oh, I guess I do have to do a hundred bucks for the year because my God, nobody will buy it otherwise.[00:12:46] But yes, there are people who just want good stuff with great support. And that's the most important part for them is to like have somebody that's going to be there for them and stand the test of time. Right. Especially if they're a long-term WordPress user who has seen other places come and go or freelancers come and go, they don't want that.[00:13:08] Their vote of confidence is I will pay you a solid amount of money. So you stay in business and support me. Well, But it sounds like you've learned that over the years and that's how you've got to this point.[00:13:18] Nathalie: I literally had customers tell us that we know you're not going to disappear overnight because we're paying you well, and that's worth it to me.[00:13:24] Is that kind of security. And yeah, absolutely. We have that long-term vision and that long. Yeah. Stay in the game kind of energy. And I think that definitely comes across with the people that end up signing up for us. Yeah.[00:13:37] Matt: To that. I was going to put you on the hotspot, but then we kinda, we kind of shifted a little bit on your pricing page.[00:13:42] One of the check marks is top of the line support. I feel like everyone might say top of the line support, or we have the best support. What does top of the line of support mean for you and for your customers?[00:13:53] Nathalie: Yeah, we have a lot of things that we do for our customers. So everyone gets a free jumpstart calls.[00:13:58] So that means after they purchase, we get on like a zoom call with them. We help them get everything set up. We answer any questions they have. We make sure it works with the things that they're currently using or planning to use. So that's a big part of it. And then we also have a tune-up calls. Three times a month right now.[00:14:14] And so they can jump on any time they have questions or want to walk through something that they're trying to accomplish, that maybe they got stuck on. And then in terms of actually, if you get into a situation where you're stuck or anything like that in between, then we also have email support. And like I said, we have two people dedicated to that.[00:14:30] And obviously our response time varies, but right now it's like averaging at eight minutes, which is kind of crazy. So during this. So, yeah, we do have, we do a lot and then we also have really robust, message-based and videos and all of that stuff to make sure if you're more of a, self-serve kind of like, I just, I'm working at midnight.[00:14:47] I know you're not gonna be online. I'm just going to finish this up and watch this video kind of thing.[00:14:51] Matt: Yeah, it's fantastic. It's one of the things I do as part of my role at cast dose is we do two weekly calls, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:00 PM, Eastern, same kind of thing, open office hours, or show up.[00:15:02] If you have a question, you can answer it there. We don't do phone support, which is still like a thing these days. Like people still are like, why can't I just call somebody? It's like, well, we have these two dedicated hours where you can hop on a zoom call and you can chat with us, which I think is a fairly fair approach.[00:15:16] Plus. Nearly 24 7 help desk support through Zendesk and an email and chat. So, that's a fantastic approach. I certainly like your approach of having that onboarding call that kickoff, call that alone, which I know developers, the more developer mindset folks who don't want to talk to anybody. I just want to print money with my product that I'm selling.[00:15:36] Don't ever talk to me, just buy it. Man, you can re like that's literally what you can charge. Out of the gate. Like if you just tell somebody that you buy this and I'll hop on a zoom call to help you set it up, whatever that means for your product, that's worth so much money to somebody. And it's just that one hour of your time.[00:15:53] I know there could be some chances where they knock on the door against, Hey, we're going to hop on another call. I think largely 95% of your customer base will never knock on your door again and just email you. And I think that's a fantastic approach. I applaud you for that. What else do you provide on those tune-up calls?[00:16:10] Is there anything else that you do in a more structured approach? I just leave the door open. I say, come in and show up and ask anything you want, but do you approach it with any more structure than that? Yeah,[00:16:19] Nathalie: for the most part, we just talk about what people bring to the, to the call, but sometimes we do have like new features or new scenarios and things that we've kind of seen people creating and we want to share it with them.[00:16:30] So sometimes we'll do like, okay, you're doing a teams kind of feature. So that basically means, you're selling to a bulk group of people and then here's how you set that up. And here's how they would assign other team members to the courses and that kind of stuff, or we'll do like, okay, here's what you need to know about doing this summit.[00:16:46] If you're using XSLT to run your summit, like how you do that. So we'll kind of talk about a little bit about those scenarios that are kind of either popular or that we've seen someone do really well and kind of want to share with the rest of the community.[00:16:57] Matt: Gotcha. No, that's awesome. I will, I will write that down or release it to my episode and then apply that to cast those next time.[00:17:04] I'm on my next time. I'm on my call. You started to, to say that, look, we know who our customer is. One they're paying a little bit more. We're helping them make money. Who would you say your best customer profile is for accessing.[00:17:19] Nathalie: So some of our best customers are people who are in the business space.[00:17:23] So they may not be like teaching business, but maybe they have business processes that help other business owners. So kind of that team aspect I was talking about. So, we have people who are, let's say a sales trainer, and then they've got a program that they've developed that they sell to other companies to train their sales teams.[00:17:38] Or we have someone who's doing a coaching certification. So she's a coach and she's teaching other people how to become a coach. So they will become certified in her method. So there's a lot of that kind of teaching something, but two groups of people that tends to be one of our bigger people. So we have like a dog trainer and I think, she comes in and she's, she's got groups of doc trainers in other businesses learning her methods and that kind of thing.[00:18:01] So that seems to be one of our, our ideal.[00:18:04] Matt: Yeah, no, that's awesome. That's awesome that you can identify. How can you paint the picture of how that has changed if at all, from when you first started the business? Like, did you go into the business thinking, yeah, we're going to serve this one particular set it's changed.[00:18:18] Nathalie: It's changed a lot over the years. Mostly our understanding of it. I think kind of similar people have been coming to us just based on like, who knows us and who they've recommended it to, and that kind of thing. So we've got a lot of authors and speakers and podcasters, and basically the content creators do come to us quite a bit.[00:18:34] And over the years we realized, okay, the ones who are really doing well are the ones who they have a little bit more of that leverage. They can kind of sell to more people. So that's. Evolved over time. We definitely have people who are more of the, do it yourselfers or who are just getting started.[00:18:47] So that that's great too, but I think our kind of top customer, those people who are a little bit more established and have that credibility and can kind of scale a little bit faster that way.[00:18:56] Matt: One of the questions I have written down from our pre-interview was how you navigate the competition.[00:19:00] And as we're talking, like, I'm thinking about. Like boy I don't know if you compete against anybody in the WordPress space, just because of your positioning, your brand value statements and who you, who you're serving now as customers. Do you find yourself competing with more WordPress or more SAS based or is it just a, a good 50 50 mix?[00:19:18] Nathalie: Yeah, it's a little bit of a 50, 50 split. I would say. We definitely could be more with like Kajabi and teachable and Thinkific for the most part. But we also have a little bit of competition on the WordPress side too. It just depends on like what people are familiar with when they find us. So a lot of times if they aren't familiar with WordPress and they've probably looked at LearnDash or number press or lift your LMS or something like that.[00:19:39] So they're kind of familiar more with that. Or if they're kind of. Sort of, they don't quite know what they're doing, but they just know they want an online course and they might have already looked at Kajabi or teachable or Thinkific. And so they'll kind of compare us very differently based on their background and kind of where they're coming from.[00:19:55] So we do have a lot of developers who are more comparing us to WordPress versus business owners themselves tend to compare us more to the class.[00:20:03] Matt: Yeah. If you grew up in WordPress and you only knew of the WordPress LMS plugins, you'd be like, yeah, it's a decent size market, but then once you get into like these SAS based businesses I'll keep the name.[00:20:15] I won't say the name, but I worked with a hosted LMS. It wasn't really even an LMS. It was just a membership. It had nothing to do with like learning modules or structures or anything like that. It was just a membership site. I'm trying to say this without revealing who it is, there was nothing wrong, but yeah, so it was like this blanket membership thing.[00:20:34] And it served all kinds of anyone. And I, I talked to this person and I heard what they were doing for revenue. I was like, Wow, the space is that big. Like, I can't even imagine what these other platforms that are doing that have, like, hyper-focused got great product, great marketing after this person had anything wrong, but it just made me and my eyes wide of like how big this market is.[00:20:57] Do you have a sense? Of how large the market is numbers wise for outside of the WordPress LMS[00:21:03] Nathalie: world? Yeah, so I don't know the exact numbers, but I know that sort of the LMS, like in general market is like billions of dollars and just continues to increase year to year. So it's definitely growing and obviously like with COVID and like a lot of things have changed more and more in the online direction.[00:21:20] So. Only going to keep growing in my opinion. But yeah, I don't know the exact numbers for each individual businesses, but I know that, some businesses are going public or, so there's definitely a lot of growth in this space. For sure.[00:21:33] Matt: You said you started a business with your husband.[00:21:35] Labeled co-founder too, or just painting.[00:21:40] Nathalie: He's definitely my co-founder, but I would say he is more like head of engineering and just focused on development and kind of making sure that that sort of thing is solid[00:21:49] Matt: with everything that's going on. With, COVID weird to say, cause we're like for two years, I feel like we're going two years into it, 20 years into it feels like, but at least in the podcast world, we saw a huge rush to private podcasting company.[00:22:01] Only podcasting a way to communicate internally with your organization instead of just video calls all day long. I'd imagine there's a market there for you where people started knocking on the door saying, Hey. It w maybe we don't want to sell this, but we need software that structures education to our organization out.[00:22:18] Do you feel like you're at a point where maybe having a sales team knocking on enterprise doors and like playing that game, is that something that you're interested or exploring or already doing?[00:22:28] Nathalie: That's a great question. So we do have one person on our team who's in sales, but we haven't done as much of the outreach piece.[00:22:34] So that is definitely something that is kind of. I think on our horizon essentially so far, we've been just working with the market that we know and kind of just building for them, but there's definitely a lot more potential for where we can go. And we're actually just trying to figure out like what what that looks like and kind of what, what those, like other verticals might be as well.[00:22:54] Cause we are trying to just stay focused just because I think that's easier to grow, but once we've kind of figured this out, then I do think we can kind of open up to the other verticals.[00:23:03] Matt: Is this a fully bootstrap business? Or do you have investors that salesperson when, what is their responsibilities now?[00:23:11] Is it just answering questions? Inbound questions. Does he, or she like structure custom agreements extra support, that[00:23:18] Nathalie: kind of thing at the moment, it's basically she does demos. She'll do some of those onboarding calls. So it is half, I would say customer support, half sales in that way. And then we have marketing that does more of the, like getting people to book those demos and kind of come to the website and all of that.[00:23:34] But yeah, that's something that we're like definitely like all eyes and ears open for how to, how to do that slightly[00:23:39] Matt: differently. Have you had any requests from bigger enterprises or brands, could pay more than a hundred bucks a month?[00:23:46] Nathalie: I have we've had some clients and part of it is like sometimes like a school would be interested, but then we, there's a couple of things that don't quite work.[00:23:55] Either. Have certain requirements and that we're not quite fast enough to be able to like, get up to speed on what they're needing. So we, like, I think it's kind of that tricky thing is like, we built it really for entrepreneurs. So when we have different types of institutions that come to us we might not have exactly, exactly what they want, but we have like 80% of what they want.[00:24:12] So this is kind of the, the balance of what we're working[00:24:15] Matt: on for sure. Put a an identifier on whether or not that's like a feature that you don't have, or like an administrative thing you don't have like SOC two compliance or something. Ridiculous.[00:24:28] Nathalie: Yeah. A lot of times it's like SCORM type stuff and like more more things that I don't personally have as much experience.[00:24:35] Yeah. Even just having a conversation about it is kind of like, okay. Tell me exactly what that means. It gets a little bit tricky versus where if they're talking to someone who has that experience, they're just going to be like off to the races with that. Yeah.[00:24:47] Matt: Yeah. It's another lesson. Again, just looking at your site and listening to you and how you position yourself.[00:24:53] Like, there is lots of opportunity there. And, and for other folks who are listening to this in the WordPress space, 90, but I don't wanna say 90%, but 70% of the time, like when a big enterprise knocks on your door, Your price could literally be 10 X, what you're charging now. And it has nothing to do with the features.[00:25:13] It is the time that it takes to sell them. Right. It's just the sales process. It literally like six months to a year for most of them. And then it's all this administrative stuff back and forth. And then it's your terms. How can we pay you? Right. And. People are like, wait, we don't have a credit. We're not going to give you a credit card for a month.[00:25:32] We want to pay for three years. Like, where's the, where's the legal ease around that. And it's like, if you just had like all of this templated purchasing or procurement structure in place, you could be off to the races without even adding features. And in fact, I'd say features ends up being. Down the totem pole because a marketing person gets excited and they're like, yeah, this is a great product.[00:25:54] Oh, by the way, here's the procurement team. And then you're just like, oh shit, I got to go through legal now than I have to go through InfoSec, and then I get to talk to like the CFO and they get to talk about like, structuring a contract. So, again, no real question there, but just from my own experience, like I think WordPress can do WordPress products can do better by satisfying some of those needs that just doesn't have anything to do with.[00:26:15] At the end of the day. Yeah, absolutely. You your husband to support people? I heard the sales person. That's five, a marketing person is six. How much more on the[00:26:27] Nathalie: team? Actually two marketing people right now. One person who is in people ops, and then we have two development interns as[00:26:36] Matt: well. Nice. How do you recruit the interns locally?[00:26:39] Nathalie: Yeah, so they're at the university of that. My husband and I both went to, so they have a really great program. That's like a co-op program. So we basically just post and interview and hire and it's been going really well.[00:26:50] Matt: Yeah. I would definitely say a lot of that. Some agencies and product people should definitely look locally.[00:26:55] For developers, especially in that sort of intern phase, it's great to sort of educate people locally and pray to God. They stay, don't leave the area when they graduate, because where I'm from, they leave the area when they graduate and we lose that, that great talent. When you started, how big was it?[00:27:08] Nathalie: When I started, it was just me, my husband, and an[00:27:11] Matt: assistant any, and this was going to be a broad question. Thoughts on hiring people, growing the team? What was that? Was that stressful at all? Turbulent at all?[00:27:22] Nathalie: Yeah, it was a huge learning curve. So I feel like some of our best hires we figured out. A little bit late was it was already in our community.[00:27:31] So they were already, super fans or maybe they were building websites for people using our plugin. And so they already have the talent and the know-how and he just had to like recruit them. And that, that was a big learning curve because we were posting on these very broad job boards and finding people who were just looking for a job and they don't really care about us.[00:27:50] And so when something else comes along, The end. So, that was a big kind of ruining her for us. And yeah, we're doing a lot in that, in that way. Like how can we nurture our community? How can you make their lives easier and better? And then, if they're ready for a different kind of position that fits what we're looking for, then yet we're definitely super excited about.[00:28:09] Matt: Yeah. Yeah. The whole, like, I don't know if you hear it, but I've heard it before I started or when I was starting my businesses, like hire slow fire fast and I'm like, yeah, Yeah, you just got to laugh at that. I'll be like, I just need people now. Like I don't have time to slow this process down. And then you realize that six months into it, you're like I pick the wrong person or this or this person picked the wrong place.[00:28:32] And now what do I do? And that is so true. I mentor at a local accelerator in the, and it's a nonprofit accelerator for sustainable businesses in my area and the company that I'm mentoring. Now, they're trying to launch a nonprofit for daycare for disabled children. And. They're raised. They're, they're trying to figure out how they're going to get money.[00:28:51] And they're talking about grants and funding and all this stuff. And they're like right out of the gate, we want to hire 10 people and I'm like, man, that's going to be tough. Like you don't like that process of just getting people in, especially 10 of them is going to take you. It's going to take a thousand people to talk to literally quite literally to get these 10 perfect people in the door here.[00:29:11] And it's, it is not easy. What's the next role that you think you'd be hiring?[00:29:13] Nathalie: We're actually hiring right now for a product manager and that's sort of. Me cause I've been head of product for quite a while. And it's great because I talk to our customers a lot. So I kind of know what they were looking for and how to build what they want.[00:29:27] But I also know I could be doing other things too. So it's kind of just freeing myself up a little bit so I can do more of the marketing and the sales and kind of the things you were talking about, like, okay. Like what's next, like lifting my head up a little bit and yeah.[00:29:39] Matt: Looking bigger picture. Is that where you would focus more on marketing sales?[00:29:42] If you were to alleviate[00:29:44] Nathalie: yourself? It, yeah, more marketing and sales, more interviews like these, more things like that where I can be a little bit more publicly visible and kind of get the word out for access to LA. Yeah.[00:29:55] Matt: Let's talk about the marketing side of it. How, without giving away the secret sauce, what, what has been your best approach to reaching these customers?[00:30:03] Previously you built your own audience. I assume you still leverage that same audience. What other areas are you getting into or how are you expanding that?[00:30:11] Nathalie: Yeah. So a lot of, I think my success is from list-building and building that community in the beginning and just having a lot of alignment with what they wanted and also like what we were offering.[00:30:22] And so we've done so much in the list, building realm, like we did a free challenge, we've done a like free, essentially a free video course where people like opt in and then they get a free video every day for 30 days. And that was probably. Lead magnet that was so super successful. And then, yeah, like, YouTube podcasts I've pretty much done all of the marketing things and kind of took a break for the past year and a half just because I had a baby and then obviously pandemic and so many things happened, but yeah, I feel like there's so much in the space of marketing that works really well.[00:30:52] I will say I don't tend to jump on. Like flashiest things. So I deleted my Instagram account. I'm not on Tik TOK, I'm not doing it clubhouse. Like I know there's been quite a few trends of like new platforms and new things, but I try to stick to things that work long-term. So for me, that's like SEO, YouTube videos.[00:31:09] Like those are the kinds of things that once you put it out there more and more people will find them over time. So to me, that is a really good long-term kind of investment on the marketing.[00:31:18] Matt: Yeah. Yeah. I find Instagram to be challenging personally myself, even though I shouldn't, I just like podcasts, you should be able to, like flex in that area.[00:31:27] Is that what the kids say on Instagram? Like flex in that area and it should work well, but it doesn't, especially on like the WordPress site. It's like, there's nothing really flashy. That's going to be like excited. Like here's a picture of the dashboard with a filter on it. Like, what are we going to do here?[00:31:40] I get so jealous when I look at like other companies and other brands, right. Cool, like collabs, like backpacks, collabing with like these other makers or creators, like, ah, it's such an awesome way. You can't do that with WordPress is nothing there. It's fun and exciting. It's a challenge for sure.[00:31:54] What about you hinted before. That maybe you kind of explored the world of SAS. I know you said you wanted to be hyper-focused or you are hyper-focused even if it wasn't full on SAS, would you go and kind of pivot to supporting a Drupal or Joomla or another platform at all? Is that anywhere on the radar, SAS or otherwise?[00:32:14] Nathalie: Not so much the other off of WordPress. If we were to do more of a SAS, we would probably just take WordPress and host it and kind of do it. Like plug and play one click button. Your site is ready kind of thing. Which I know other platforms like Rainmaker have done, like they took WordPress and they sort of, Close it off a little bit.[00:32:32] So that's something we thought about and we've tested doing like hosting with the seam and things like that in the past. But also we know that our people tend to be power users and they want to be able to install other things and kind of make it work with other stuff. And that's kind of the beauty of WordPress.[00:32:45] So we don't want to like cut off the best part. So yeah, we kind of, we explore it like almost every year. We're like, what about now? What about now? But I don't think it's really the right move.[00:32:56] Matt: Yeah. Yeah. What about this is also kind of marketing kind of product, but what about partnerships in the WordPress space?[00:33:05] Advice or success that you've seen or not that you've seen in the space that you can speak towards partnering other plugins and, or e-commerce plugins or marketing plugins or anything like that.[00:33:15] Nathalie: Yeah. There are certain plugins that are positioned to do amazing things in terms of partnerships. So I know like WP fusion is an amazing one that they work with so many different things.[00:33:25] And so we've integrated with, with them. And there's a couple of other plugins that we've integrated with. But I would say our biggest integration partners are actually the CRMs and the email marketing systems that we integrate with. So they're kind of outside of WordPress, but we do integrate tightly with them.[00:33:38] So that gives us that ability to like co-market with them. And we're all listed on their websites and stuff as an integration options. So that has been really nice for us too. And people who are really looking for something that deeply integrates with that, they tend to come to us because of that. So.[00:33:53] Yeah. I almost feel like WordPress is awesome. And also there's other tools that most people are using. So just thinking about at that level too. So for example, we don't have an integration with zoom, but we used to have an integration with Google Hangouts. And so we would have, people could start a Google hangout from inside their membership site.[00:34:10] And so I think that's something too it's like, how can you connect to things outside of WordPress? Sometimes that people use a lot as well. So those are some, some things we've done in the past and some things that are still working well for[00:34:20] Matt: us, this seems to be a recurring. Trend in my last few interviews.[00:34:25] Is is integrations. Ad-ons, when to make those there's a million places you probably want to integrate with, I'm sure there's a million people who have requested things to integrate with. How do you find that balance? Because at the other end of it, and people are probably sick of me saying this already.[00:34:41] Is there is that the, the overhead of an integration that just doesn't become as popular as you thought it was going to be MailChimp, even though MailChimp's popular, let's just say MailChimp fell off the face of the earth. Then it's like, man, I got a half a dozen people over here using MailChimp and I still get to support this.[00:34:55] Add on how do you make the decision on when to support one or when to make one? And co-brand with one, two at the same time. Yeah.[00:35:03] Nathalie: So we currently integrate with five different email marketing systems. And the first one, we just build it for ourselves. Like, like I said, so that one was an easy, easy. Yes. And then after that, we looked at their biggest competitor essentially.[00:35:16] And so we went with that one and then. We noticed a trend where a lot of people were switching from both of these two to a third one. So then we integrated with that one. And then the next two are kind of just, they were all being compared a lot. So that kind of made sense to integrate at that time.[00:35:30] But yeah, we have, we have people constantly asking us to integrate with new payment systems and some people maybe in Europe can't use certain systems or in other parts of the world where they can't use Stripe, for example. So we definitely get a lot of. And I think it's exactly what you said.[00:35:46] Sometimes it comes down to numbers and if we've only had one person ask for it, like, I'm sorry, it's just probably not going to have it right now. And also integrations do change, right? So they changed their API and then we have to test and maintain and make sure it still works the way that promised or, that used to at least.[00:36:01] So that's been a bit of a trick. The situation over the years, because as those companies that we integrate with change and mature we have to kind of keep up with that. So that's definitely been a bit of a tricky thing. And we do have a whole backlog of integrations that people have asked for.[00:36:14] And we did keep our ears open. We keep track of each person that asks for it. And then when the numbers kind of tick up high enough, then that's kind of, usually when we pull the trigger on them,[00:36:22] Matt: I'm looking at the integration page now. I actually don't see a MailChimp. Has MailChimp not been requested or you just refuse to support the monkey?[00:36:29] Ah, yes.[00:36:30] Nathalie: So we've had a lot of people ask for it. I've never[00:36:32] Matt: said that on the air before it refused to support the monkey. I don't know where that came from, but sorry, go ahead.[00:36:36] Nathalie: That's hilarious. Yeah, no, we've definitely had. For MailChimp and our reasoning for not integrating so far is that they didn't have the functionality that we needed in terms of tagging and automation.[00:36:47] So we tend to integrate with the kind of more advanced CRM that do a lot of like cool things. And that basically think back to access LA after. And I know they've added a lot over the years, so we're probably gonna be revisiting, revisiting that again soon, but yeah, for now yeah, there's definitely people who've asked for it and.[00:37:02] Matt: I noticed that the footer there's a page called discover experts. Find an expert. I forget the title of it. It looks like there's a 20 ish or so maybe more if I actually filtered through and started searching how does this program work and what have been the, the positives and negatives of trying to build something like this off the ground, get something like this off the ground, because I know it's difficult to wrangle folks together to really get something of value here.[00:37:30] Yeah.[00:37:30] Nathalie: So we started our certification program. I think it was. Six years ago. So, it's been quite a few years in the making and the first round of it was in person, you had to fly out, we taught you everything there was to know about access ally and building sites and really kind of digging in. And it was a huge, it was a $10,000 program to sign up.[00:37:51] So it was definitely like, you're jumping in all in and that commitment level kind of connected with the people who were ready for it. So that really jumps start the program. And, a lot of those early people have had, hundreds of clients sent their way because of, being early adopters and kind of pioneering some of the things that we did with them and giving us feedback to improve the product and all of that.[00:38:11] So that's kind of how it started and then it's really kind of shifted over the year. So now it's an online things, so they don't have to come and fly out and meet us and learn the software. We actually teach them online. And basically what we do is we. Make sure they're really great at what they do.[00:38:25] And then we kind of filter them out based on what they're focused on. So some people only work with one CRM, that's their jam. They're super awesome at it. Other people love to do the design aspect of the site. Other people are more on the course development. So how to design the course in like the content and modules and all of that.[00:38:41] So we kind of have people doing different types of things. So we know kind of who to recommend when somebody comes to us and doesn't want to do their own setup and do all that.[00:38:49] Matt: Yeah, that's fantastic. And putting a price tag on it is very smart and I'm just like thinking in my head, how can I, how can I do that too?[00:38:58] Like, that's such a, that's such a great idea. I I've, I've, I've known about obviously certification programs. A lot of them again, when you're looking at the top it's it's, it's all paid. I again, when I look at the things happening in WordPress, because we're so I don't want to say desperate, but we're just so like desperate to get people excited.[00:39:14] We're like, just any, if you could fill out this form, you're a partner. Like if you can get through the capture, you win. They're like, okay, that's the bar we're setting for ourselves. But no, it's great that it's paid. And then, obviously don't have to tell you, but once people are paying for it they're spreading the word.[00:39:29] They want you to succeed. You want them to succeed and it's just those positive inertia in, in that direction. So that's fantastic. That's great to see that, that program, that program working before we hit record, you mentioned that you have a F potentially a new theme coming, anything that you can hint at about that release and why you started to be.[00:39:48] Nathalie: Yeah. So we've actually been working on it for about a year, which is like insane, but it's one of those things where we wanted it to be just right. And there's a lot of options for themes and builders and like Burke and so many things that people can choose from to make their sites look great. And the reason we decided to do our own theme is really just menus.[00:40:07] I know it sounds so simple, but when you have a course and you have our multiple courses with a different menu on each course, it's a lot of work to set up those menus on all those pages and. So that's kind of one of the biggest benefits it will save then you access LA theme. And then it also integrates with all the progress tracking.[00:40:23] So you can kind of see, like, as you're going through like little check marks show up beside your menu and you have your little progress bar that shows you how far ahead you are in a course or program. So we just wanted to make it easier for our customers to make things that look great out of the box if they don't want to hire a designer.[00:40:38] So that's kind of our thinking with that.[00:40:40] Matt: Yeah. Yeah. That's no, that's great. That'll be a huge, I'm sure, again, and just from my work with other LMS plugins, that's, that's always the hangup. It's like, I've got this perfect theme and it serves like all of my marketing and how I want my blog to look and how I want my homepage to look.[00:40:55] And then you install the LMS and it's like, that is the ugliest progress bar I've ever seen in my life. No, it looks like, I don't know what it is like this looks like a geo city site that I built, 30 years ago. Why is it looks so terrible is because it's not styled for it. Right. And it's, that's a huge crux of WordPress and plugin integration.[00:41:13] Are you excited about anything Gutenberg related? That's going to make your life easier for the plugin, for the theme.[00:41:19] Nathalie: Yeah. I really want to love Gutenberg and I think it's getting there, like, no, no, I really think it's we're close. And I think that a lot of people had a lot of. Emotions, let's put them around.[00:41:32] And and I think that we're really, really like if we're not there yet, I think we're like super close to actually having that. So we're actually going to be recommending people, use Gutenberg with theme. So if people don't have another option that they prefer, and I think that's going to be really amazing.[00:41:46] So XSL, it comes with blocks already, so it can do all the things that it needs within that area. I like kind of your main part of your content for your courses and stuff. So I'm super excited about that. And it's actually something I want us to go into more, like, I think that's direction. I really want the plugin to go into Morris, making the blocks even better.[00:42:03] So yeah, I'm definitely all in on Gutenberg, but I think that there's still a lot of resistance from people who are more familiar with it, or maybe haven't played enough with it and feel a little bit of that. Yeah, not too sure about it yet.[00:42:17] Matt: Yeah. In the beginning, everyone was sort of just, throwing their hats off saying why, why, why, why, why do we have this?[00:42:23] But you know, over, over time, like we all should have known like any soft first version of a piece of software. You, we all know it's not, it's not the, the version we are really gonna fall in love with. And it's taken a few years. I certainly enjoy it, but yeah, there's still some things where I'm just like, I literally can't drag this block into a column.[00:42:42] Like the most basic thing I should be able to do ever. I can't do those are some frustrating points and then there's some other awesome points. And I was making a landing page for, at castles today. And, and like the quick commands of like the forest lash and you just hit I, and an image pops up or P for power, like that stuff navigating that is it's fantastic.[00:43:06] Like, it just makes that stuff so much easier, but yeah, there's still some pain points and I think, I think it's going to be another year, maybe two until it's really smooth, especially with full site editing.[00:43:18] Nathalie: Right? Yeah. I feel you on that. And I think it's like, just. Keeping the hope right. That we'll get there and like, just keep them at it, keep it going and just putting our support behind it too.[00:43:29] I think as business owners, we have to say like, no, this is the direction we're presses going in. And we have to put our support behind that too. So that's. Yeah,[00:43:38] Matt: for sure. Natalie Lucier is founder and CEO access. ally.com checkout access, ally.com. If you haven't, if you have a customer or a client or you want to launch your own LMS, check out access, ally.com, Natalie, anywhere else you want folks to go to say thanks.[00:43:52] No, that's[00:43:53] Nathalie: that's fine. Thank you[00:43:55] Matt: stuff, everybody else. My report.com my report.com/subscribe. Join the mailing list. And if you want your weekly dose of WordPress news and under five minutes, the WP minute.com. ★ Support this podcast ★

Even with all of the WordPress consolidation happening, there's still plenty of opportunity ahead for the industry. There's lots of potential users, customers, and room for investment (note: we just saw the acquisition of Yoast happen by Newfold, formally EIG. If I had to guess, somewhere between a $30-50M deal.) If you though the plugin space is crowded or even more specifically the membership & LMS veritcal, then I have a surprise for you today. Nathalie Lussier, founder of AccessAlly a LMS plugin for WordPress joins us to talk about her venture in building her business. From selling online courses and building community to building and selling software -- this is a fantastic lesson for all of us. Her and her team are really proving that in the a crowded market, you stand apart from the crowd by knowing who your perfect customer is and building them the perfect product.

Ep. 82 - Do you want a deeper and more personalized learning experience for your customers? In this episode Chris is joined by Nathalie Lussier to talk about her software AccessAlly. Nathalie is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making web sites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. Have a listen to learn more about this powerful digital course and membership solution for industry leaders.

Do you want a deeper and more personalized learning experience for your customers? In this episode Chris is joined by Nathalie Lussier to talk about her software AccessAlly. Nathalie is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making web sites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a…

Implement A Membership Site To Serve More People And Make More Money While Having More Freedom - The Key Is Knowing Your Ideal Audience   About Jennifer Dopazo Jennifer Dopazo started Candelita as a way to offer website design, brand identity, UX/UI design, and membership sites to the new entrepreneurs of the world. She is often sought out by solopreneurs desperate to get off the hamster wheel of discovery calls, blogging, writing emails, and 1-to-1 client work, so they can prioritize what truly matters to them. Jennifer believes we can all influence more people, while still spending time with those we love the most. That is one of the biggest reasons why she's pivoting her business to focus on building membership communities. The Drain When Jennifer started her business, she was working a lot, and doing all the things she saw everyone else doing. It was draining. She was doing so much work but not for the right clients. The guilt of saying no to anything that came her way, so she said yes to a lot of projects that didn't fulfill her. By not saying no to projects she didn't want to work on, she started to get burn out.   The Ideal Client As she started talking to people, she realized that the people she wanted to work with were the people that she wants to develop a relationship with and can envision having dinner with. It's a new characteristic to attach to your ideal client avatar. It's important in professional relationships to have boundaries and to align values. Have the hard conversations before you sign the client to be sure that you are aligned and have similar goals and desires to serve others. It's possible to have these conversations with the people you truly want to work with. Trying to Follow What Other People Are Doing Doesn't Work As individuals, we need to do the processes, things and work with the people that are aligned with ourselves in order to succeed.  Doing what other people are doing will not allow us to be authentic or connect with the people we want to work with or are meant to serve. When we try to mimic others, we don't feel natural and feel good about our work. Brand Identity Your brand identity is everything that represents your business outside of you as a personal brand. The elements that make you recognizable, memorable. These include your logo, your color palette, and your typography. Implement a Membership Site Jennifer realized that her skills with website design were beneficial for designing membership sites. She began testing her processes and services to see what she aligned with. By being aligned in her business and working with her ideal clients she was able to design the life she wanted. She could close her computer at the end of the day and focus on her personal life and the people she cares about. Implementing a Membership Site is Like Opening the Junk Door When thinking about narrowing the scope of your business, think about the junk drawer. There are so many things in the drawer that don't inspire you, that you don't use, that you no longer need, etc. Think of your business in the same way. Whatever doesn't fuel you or you don't feel is beneficial to your clients, stop offering it, or change it. Jennifer started focusing on memberships by doing this exercise. Building a Membership Community When is a good time to implement a membership site? Building a membership community is similar to evaluating and streamlining your processes. Be very clear on who this is for, what is the transformation you want them to experience.  Imagine a timeline, where the client is starting, and where they will be in a year. Start with what your process is today. What are you teaching people? Walk through the process with the client, from the first engagement all the way through to delivery. Doing this will help you create a framework for your membership. Think about how can you help them go through the same steps and get the same results as a group vs. 1-to-1? Create and provide the tools the clients need to accomplish this, video, PDFs, workbooks, etc. Think about how you can translate what you are already doing so that the clients can do the work at their own pace. Make sure they have enough time to do the work. Your lessons need to accommodate the client's schedule. This goes along with knowing who your ideal client is. Again, you have to know your ideal client well. Before You Implement a Membership Site, Know What Your  Clients Want? Before creating a community, ask your former and current clients what they would be interested in as far as a membership goes. Get feedback before designing and implementing so that you are answering the needs of your ideal audience. Ask the clients if they would be interested in participating in a beta run of the program. If you don't want to invest in a site for the beta program, have people join you for the videos for the duration of time you think is necessary for them to complete the program successfully. Do the program live and gather feedback. This will help you avoid frustrations. The key is to not overwhelm the members of the site. People need the time to implement the work. One of the success metrics for memberships is whether or not people implemented the work. The goal is for people to actually interact with the community, do the work and implement it. There is no magic in implementing a membership site. It comes down to how the members feel. Do they feel they have enough time to learn and do the work, or are they feeling overwhelmed? Sometimes we overwhelm people because we are so excited, we give them so much, and then they can't accomplish it all. It's best to start slow, and not give too much When implementing a membership site, think about having monthly themes. Your implementation will depend on what you are offering and how much each member will need to do. Be sure and check in with your members as you implement so that you know that you are going at the right pace. Getting genuine feedback is very important and will help you frame the program going forward. Cost of Implementing a Membership Site The cost of a membership site depends on what the implementation looks like. Jennifer works with people to set up Kojabi, Teachable, and other similar platforms. She also does custom WordPress membership sites that offer features the template platforms don't have. Jennifer recommends starting with a platform and using them until you run into limitations. Once you run into limitations, think about a custom site. This will give you an opportunity to know what is working and what isn't. Pricing to set up a membership ranges from $3500 on one of the aforementioned platforms, up to $6500 or more for a customized membership site. The plugin Jennifer referenced is Accessally.com, founded by Nathalie Lussier. The Plugin works for Wordpress.com. But Jennifer likes to use a separate website because otherwise it can get very heavy and slow and hurt your SEO. She said that it's easier to troubleshoot when you have two separate sites. Jennifer believes that we can all influence more people, while still spending time with those we love the most. She believes that membership communities are the way to accomplish this. Memberships allow you to help more people while spending the same amount of time. Memberships are very scalable. Working with 1-to-1 clients takes more time than doing the same thing for more people in the same amount of time. Implementing a Membership Site vs. Group Coaching Memberships are recurring payments. They could be a course for 6-weeks, or a class, or group coaching. It's the same idea, people coming in paying monthly, quarterly, etc. while having access to something, learning, and doing the work. Learn More About Your Host, Robyn Graham, Click HERE. To learn about The Brand Marketing Insider by Robyn Graham, click HERE. Join the Female Entrepreneur Insider Facebook Group HERE. Book a Brand Marketing Strategy Session HERE. Ask Me Anything HERE. Connect with me, Robyn Graham: Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Pinterest Learn more about Jennifer and connect with her: Website: www.jenniferdopazo.com and https://candelita.is/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferdopazo/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferdopazo/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jenniferdopazo

Social media is a major marketing channel for LOTS of small businesses, and it's an important part of the decision-making process if you're thinking about your own marketing from a perspective of privacy, so I wanted to bring on someone who did go through this evaluation process and implemented their OWN experiment. Key Takeaways: - How Nathalie made the decision to drop the pixel and leave Instagram - What she does instead now and we talk about how to get real, actionable data while still respecting people's privacy AND holding true to her own desire not to support Facebook as a company. - The projects and ideas that I'm still working on implementing for ScaleSpark when it comes to digital privacy

Nathalie Lussier is the founder of AccessAlly. In this episode we dive into her journey and learn how her diverse entrepreneurial endeavors (from raw food to business consulting and live events) eventually led her to start her software company. - AccessAlly: The most flexible WordPress LMS and membership plugin for today's entrepreneur - 30 Day List Building Challenge As always, this episode of Starting Now is brought to you by BYLT. At BYLT we help you get started online. Whether you want to start a blog or a business head on over to BYLT.co to get started. Subscribe to Starting Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also watch the video interview on YouTube. And, finally, if you're enjoying our podcasts and care to learn more about us, at SPYR we build minimalist businesses and we help you start your own at BYLT. Find the full transcript and more at BYLT.co/nathalie-lussier

Jennifer Dopazo is a graphic designer specializing in Brand Identity, Interaction Design and UX/UI Design. She's the founder of multimedia design studio Candelita and a 3-time American Graphic Design Award winner. Jennifer helps organizations attract their dream clients by translating their big vision into an awesome digital experience with a unified brand. She's worked with companies like The New York Times, Pepsi and Nickelodeon, along with authors like Danielle LaPorte. Here's what we covered on the episode: How Jennifer's podcast company asked if I'd be interested in hosting Jennifer on my podcast, to which I said yes because we've never had someone on the podcast to discuss membership design before Jennifer tells the story of how she dropped out of business school and went back to painting school, where her teacher suggested she go into design How Jennifer's brother was talking to his friend whose sister works as an illustrator and how they connected her and Jennifer Jennifer explains that the sister was a professor at the school in Venezuela that Jennifer went to and how she explained that the design school is great because it's more than graphic design or illustration, it's visual communication Jennifer enrolled in school and in three years was graduated and wondering what to do next, when her brother suggested she move out to NY and complete a postgraduate course After graduating college, Jennifer worked in a small studio her professor founded doing government and non-profit work Jennifer explains that she's kept her business small and how she is in the front, working one on one with clients while she has developers and a designers helping her in the back Jennifer expresses how keeping her business small has made for better connections and better client care Jennifer is friends with Nathalie Lussier, creator of AcessAlly who reached out to the community and asked people if they'd be interested in being part of what they were launching and learning a new way to offer a different service, which is how Jennifer got involved in memberships Why Jennifer loves working in memberships is because she gets to see many different professionals, from different backgrounds come to her and say, I want to build a learning platform Jennifer starts by defining her clients' customer journey and asking them what they want their members to learn/do so they can map it out and create a list of tasks to accomplish Jennifer explains how some platforms have too many bells and whistles that overwhelm members and how you need to decide if you want to have a platform or if you want to host it yourself How it can be hard to keep members' retention after a while and how Jennifer walks her clients through keeping them engaged with new content and different interactions Jennifer gives examples of how to keep members engaged through community involvement, becoming an ambassador, offering different content, or specialized events. How Jennifer tackles clients wanting to use other platform ideas and how she walks them through an exercise that gives them clarity on what they actually need for their platform Why Jennifer tries to discover what the minimum requirement is for each member to come back and feel that they are learning and why it's not good to throw everything at them when they login When Jennifer's clients go through this exercise and gain a better understanding of why they like the reference they picked, it can sometimes be a branding issue and not an experience issue Jennifer shares her loves for processes and how she always starts with discovery work, which is all about your member persona, understanding the user journey, and understanding the design and architecture Jennifer likes to keep her clients very involved and feels it makes them trust you more when they get to see your process How Jennifer believes everyone has their own process that works best for them and how doing that process will make for the best delivery One tip Jennifer has for creatives who want to create their own methodology is to document what your process to deliver looks like, so then you can give yourself specific tasks that need to be done Keep it simple by splitting up your framework into six phases and defining what before and after looks like for each phase How LinkedIn has been Jennifer's best friend for finding consulting opportunities with big companies like, The New York Times and how just talking about the past work she's done on her LinkedIn has helped her gain clients Jennifer shares that when it comes to accepting work, make sure you feel out if they are a good fit for you and make sure to take care of your space because it can be uninspiring to accept the wrong project or say yes to everything that comes your way Jennifer discusses the awards she has won, which have mostly been print work and shares that they have been projects that came her way through friends How one award winning design was a book cover that she loved working on because it was nice to get away from the computer and work on some illustration Connect with Jennifer on her website, the Candelita website, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn Links mentioned: AccessAlly Connect with Jennifer on her Website Candelita Website  Connect with Jennifer on Instagram  Connect with Jennifer on Facebook Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn   Like what you heard? Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes. Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board Let's connect on Instagram!

Comment gagner de l'argent de façon authentique? Entrevue avec Nathalie Lussier Coach d'affaires transformationnel. Nous discutons de: Comment gagner de l'argent de façon authentique grâce à ta passion? Comment aimer l'argent et les croyances qu'ils y sont reliées? comment créer une entreprise en ligne avec des produits, services, formations en ligne? Comment trouver l'équilibre avec notre vie personnelle et professionnelle? Comment ne pas subir à la performance tout en restant stratégique? Les clés pour manifester une meilleure vie? Nathalie Lussier est la fondatrice de Nathalie Lussier Impact, une entreprise de formation et de coaching qui accompagne les entrepreneurs en leur offrant un système qui leur permet de partager leur talent et leur passion et de créer une entreprise rentable, profitable et viable en utilisant le web. Nathalie est facilitatrice certifiée, formatrice agrée par la CPMT Gouvernement du Québec et diplômé de l’Université du Québec. Elle a accompagné des centaines de personnes à créer et à propulser leur entreprise selon leur propre vision et qui les fait vibrer. Aujourd’hui elle est coach d’affaires transformationnel, enseignante, conférencière, et maman de 2 enfants avec du TEMPS pour sa famille, ses activités et son développement personnel. Elle a su développer une entreprise qui lui permet maintenant de prendre 1 semaine de vacances par mois afin de profiter de la vie et de la présence de ses proches. Rejoindre Nathalie sur Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NathalieLussierImpact/ Rejoindre Nathalie sur Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nathalie_lussier_impact_fr/ Site web de Nathalie Lussier https://nathalielussierimpact.com/ REJOINS LE WEBINAIRE COMMENT FAIRE PIVOTER TON ENTREPRISE DANS LES TEMPS DIFFICILES ÉCOUTER JUSTE ICI https://youtu.be/P-ThMHMcKm4 Suivre Lyne St-Amand sur le réseaux sociaux. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lynestamandconferenciere/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lyne.stamand.puissancefeminine/ Youtube https://youtu.be/VN5MyOfu8uY Joindre mon podcast Femmes puissantes, Femmes inspirantes sur Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/femmes-puissantes-femmes-inspirantes/id1433707734 Rejoins ma formation gratuite les 5 raisons pourquoi tu vis dans le manque juste ici https://lynestamand.com/formation-gratuite/ Lyne St-Amand Coach intuitive transformationnel, experte en féminin sacré et conférencière.  J'accompagne les femmes à reprendre leur puissance, confiance, s'aimer, être et renaitre grâce au féminin sacré. Au plaisir de partager avec vous! www.lynestamand.com

Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making web sites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. As the founder of AccessAlly, the powerful digital course and membership solution for industry leaders, she believes that access to education can help defy stereotypes and make the world a better place while providing a sustainable livelihood for enterprising teachers. Nathalie has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Venture Beat, and Mashable.

You read this episode’s title correctly. In this episode, Jenna interviews Nathalie Lussier, Founder of AccessAlly, to talk about marketing in the age of privacy and why Nathalie chose to go against the grain of marketing by opting out of using pixels and retargeted ads. As new regulations are enforced, she shows us it’s possible to succeed without the data we’re so used to having—but only if it’s the right decision for your business. Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to The DigitalMarketer Podcast? Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on iTunes and leave us a review! iTunes not your thing? Find us on Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or at DigitalMarketer.com.

A decade in review is supposed to start with the year 2010 but in order to fully explain the changes in my life in the last decade we need to start with the year 2008.  In 2008 I had moved to London from Iceland to finish my Executive MBA at London Business School. There I attended a life-changing seminar with Tony Robbins called Unleash The Power Within. I sat down on the second day of the seminar next to a man, called Martin, who first became a friend but after meeting again at another Tony Robbins seminar we became more than friends. Instead of becoming the CEO of Nissan in Sweden I took a leap of faith and moved with one suitcase to Switzerland to live with a man that I barely knew. It was not an easy decision and the first months together were difficult as we were getting to know each other. But the more time we spent together the more we fell in love and I started to think, maybe this is the love of my life. In 2009 after looking for a job for six months in Switzerland where I now lived, I finally found a job and became a managing director at a medical technology company. Everything was new to me, I was still getting used to being in a relationship, living in a little village and now a new job in a field that I knew nothing about. I also had become a stepmother of two little boys, age 3 and 4, and this was a role I never expected to have as I wasn't planning to have children of my own. Turns out that I am a good stepmom, enjoyed the role, and have over the years given my boys guidance on many things that will help them become good grownups. Martin and I loved spending time together, playing golf and traveling. In 2010 I started to get sick. Pain was not unfamiliar to me, I had sometimes had back pain and headaches, but this was different. I started to get a strong pain in my shoulder. I felt it most strongly after driving for an hour so my conclusion was to drive less. But after a while I also got the pain without driving. The pain started to pop up in my neck, a pinching ear pain and very strong headaches. I started to wonder if this had something to do with my job. My employer got me a special chair but then my table was even higher and I had to hold my hand up to be able to work on the computer. I took a 3-week summer vacation and decided not to touch a computer in the hope the pain would go away. When I got back the pain was even stronger and by November it was so bad that I couldn't work anymore and went on medical leave. In 2011 I continued being sick and in total my medical leave was 7 months. My employer at the medical technology company fired me for being sick but as luck will have it, I was offered a job the day before I got fired. I was excited about the new job but had to wait to start until I recovered which wasn't until the summer. I became the country manager of an Icelandic software company and my boss was only an hour away, also living in Switzerland. The best thing about the job was that I could work from home, the worst part was that many of my clients were an hour-drive away. The pinching pain in my shoulder always came back after every drive. I enjoyed my new job in many ways as it was a startup but acquiring clients through cold-calling was not my cup of tea. I also started to wonder if it was really worth having a country manager in Switzerland. In 2012 Martin and I got married after being together for 4 years. The relationship was now tried and tested and I had almost fully recovered from the repetitive strain injury. We invited friends and family from Switzerland, Germany, UK and Iceland and 80 people came to our wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony in an Icelandic independent church with a red-haired priest who said “you may now kiss the groom” followed by celebrations in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland. I had wanted a June wedding because then the sun doesn't go down. A month after the wedding we traveled to Greenland for our honeymoon. It was an unforgettable 5-day experience where we saw beautiful arctic sunset every night, lots of icebergs and wildlife. Just before the honeymoon I had lost my job so I was unemployed again, the second time in two years. I saw this as a clear sign that I should now start my own business. In 2013 I was looking for the perfect business idea. I did a couple of online courses but they were only a few weeks long and then the support was gone and I was lost. I had hoped by doing these courses I would figure out my business idea but I didn't. I had all kinds of ideas, writing travel books, becoming a professional photographer, setting up an online shop with Icelandic design. None of the ideas sounded great so I was running in circles and overthinking every step. In the end I got so frustrated with my lack of progress that I set myself a deadline of getting my website up and running in 2 days. I did and I published my first blog post “Why ‘Start before you are ready' is the only way”. What followed were a series of blog posts on how to find your passion and a profitable business idea. By the end of the year I still didn't have a clear business idea but I could feel that it was just around the corner. In 2014 I finally started my business. It was like in the Alchemist, the business idea had always been there, right in front of me but I just hadn't seen it. Of course I was supposed to be a business coach, after being a successful CEO for 10 years and having an MBA from one of the best business schools in the world. And I wanted to help women overcome their doubts, start to believe in themselves and turn their passion into profits. I put a button on my website for one hour business coaching and on March 26th, 2014, the first person bought. That's when I knew that this would work out although I wasn't sure yet how. In the middle of the year I started with weekly webinars and by the fall I had over 1500 email addresses on my list. I bit the bullet and hired a business coach to get over my fear of selling. And even before we started to work together I had the first breakthrough and sold a six week coaching package. I learned to launch and by the end of the year I had made $72K, there of $55K in the last three months of the year. In 2015 I started attending conferences and events. My first event was Money Bootcamp with Denise Duffield-Thomas in London where I met a lot of women who I only knew from the internet. Suddenly the world was so small and everything felt so doable, and many of them knew me from my weekly webinars, I was starting to become known.  - As a side note, Denise Duffield-Thomas is a keynote speaker at the Selfmade Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland in June this year! - My second event was a big conference in San Diego called Social Media Marketing World and even without knowing anyone there, I had a great time and made an effort to get to know some of the speakers. - As a side note, the event organiser of Social Media Marketing World Phil Merson is one of my advisors for the Selfmade Summit. In spring I attended Off The Charts by Nathalie Lussier and it was there that a light bulb went off. I was in a room with 300 female online entrepreneurs and I realised that I wanted to create something like this in Europe, a conference and community. In May 2015 I gave my TEDx talk after months of preparations and still today I am proud of my talk and the message. In October I got my first international speaking engagement when I spoke at Lisa Larter's One Day event Money Mindset and Marketing. There another seed was planted, I wanted to do more speaking and definitely have my own event sooner than later. By the end of the year I had doubled my revenue to $164K. In 2016 I joined my first mastermind that included 3 in-person retreats in US and Canada and I went on my first cruise, an Abraham Hicks cruise in Alaska. I was traveling a lot and mostly alone but I got great support and encouragement from Martin, my husband, super fan and biggest critique. He even started to suggest that I could retire him since I was doing so well in my business. I thought he was joking but he wasn't. The signs were there that his job was not as secure as we thought it was and after 10 years with the same company he lost his job in the fall of 2016. This gave me an extra boost to ramp up the business and have my biggest launch so far, $230K. By the end of the year I had again doubled my revenue, now to $340K. In 2017 I created SOMBA, Sigrun's Online MBA, a 12-month program for women who want to build a profitable online business based on their passion. I was no longer offering 1-1 coaching, I had replaced all my income with group coaching since two years. Martin joined the business as a COO and this allowed us to spend a lot more time together. We joined a mastermind in California with 4 in-person retreats and even brought the boys with us to one of the retreats. My dad was diagnosed with bone cancer in May 2017 and that was a huge shock to me and my family. I changed my travel plans and managed to stay 50% of the year in Iceland, including 5 weeks summer holiday with the boys, like we do every year. By the end of the year I had tripled my revenue and finally crossed the magical million dollar mark.  In 2018 I also spent 50% of the year in Iceland, mostly alone, so I could see my parents. After the fast growth of the year before I was struggling with growing pains. I knew I needed to expand my team but I somehow wasn't ready yet. Martin and I were still in the California Mastermind and for the second year in a row we took the boys with us to one of the retreats, this time in San Diego. My dad was feeling a bit better which was a relief, although we know it is a temporary condition. I was running 4 mastermind groups and building out SOMBA while I also started to create a new group coaching program called Momentum. I got the courage to book the venue for my upcoming conference The Selfmade Summit and started to see how my vision of a worldwide impact was coming to life. In November I attended Iconic with Ali Brown and decided on the spot that she would be my next business coach. By the end of the year I had made $1.5M in revenue. In 2019 I took advantage of the fact that my dad was feeling a lot better and spent only 3 months in Iceland and ramped up my travel. Overall I was 165 days on the road and mostly business trips to the USA, Canada and other European countries. Martin traveled with me on many of the trips but he also always made sure to go regularly back to Switzerland to take care of the boys. I was in two masterminds in 2019. That wasn't the original plan but when my previous business coach offered a special 7 Figure Mastermind I couldn't resist. This was the year where I finally got over my resistance and expanded my team which now counts 10 people in my core team and 20 people in my expanded team. In November, Martin and I, went on an 18-day cruise over the Atlantic ocean as preparation for our dream cruise which will be on our 10 year anniversary. Then we plan to go to Antarctica. By the end of the year I had made $2.2M in revenue.  This was a 10 or actually a 12 year review. It is truly amazing what is possible in 10-12 years. In 2008 I wasn't planning to have my own business or change the world but a seed was planted at a Tony Robbins event. There I wrote down a vision of having my own business and making a million dollars plus achieving gender equality. Today I have my own business, I am making multiple million dollars and I am accelerating gender equality through my work. By helping women start and scale their businesses to six and seven figures I am ensuring that women will become financially independent and create their own wealth. And that's how we truly will achieve gender equality. “We tend to overestimate what we can do in a week or a month.But we underestimate what can be achieved in a year or a decade.” - Sigrun Come to Iceland in 2020 for the Selfmade Summit 2020 Join us for 2 transformational days of online business strategy, mindset breakthroughs and meaningful networking guaranteed to propel your business forward…. In one of the most exceptionally beautiful places in the world.  Early bird tickets are now available for the largest international conference for women entrepreneurs - The Selfmade Summit 2020! Buy your tickets at www.sigrun.com/selfmadesummit today! Please share, subscribe and review Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Sigrun Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe and review on Apple Podcasts or Google Play Music so more people can enjoy the show. Don't forget to follow and connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Click here to learn how to leave a review, then head over to Apple Podcasts for your chance to win a special thank you gift!

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! Welcome to my August 2019 Income Report! Every month I publish an income report to take you behind the scenes of my online business and reveal exactly how much money I make, how much I spend and lessons learned along the way! Important things that happened in August I decided to stop taking 1:1 web design clients for at least 6 months, maybe longer. I continued working on my “Jumpstart Your Website Traffic” evergreen course. I released a private member podcast for my Website Marketing Lab Students. I moved all my websites from my good ol’ Bluehost Shared Hosting to their WP Pro Optimize WordPress hosting. I booked a photographer to get new brand photos taken for the first time since 2016! I redesigned my Website Marketing Lab, Web Designer Academy + individual courses dashboards. “The how presents itself once the commitment is made.” Corrine Crabtree Review of my goals My target revenue goal is $15,000 a month. My minimum baseline is to make around $2500 to cover my normal monthly expenses, I set aside $2500 a month for taxes, I pay myself $5,000 a month and I want to build up a reserve so that I can invest in my team, give myself a raise, have a cushion to cover the ebbs and flows of revenue and eventually cover my husband’s salary. So my minimum baseline is $10,000 a month, and as I mentioned in my income report last month, I want to hit that first $15,000 month by March of 2020. So with that, here’s how much money I made in August of 2019. Total Revenue: $12,243.69 Affiliate Income: $2381.30 Courses: $3574.39 Done For You & Consulting: $6288.00 Total Expenses: $1953.78 Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here.   Net Profit: $10,289.91   Biggest Lessons Learned So I’d mentioned in my July income report that I’d cleared my schedule to work on content and that I only kept a few pre-scheduled meetings and blocked my calendar from anything else being scheduled. And let me tell you, it felt like a vacation. Even though I worked every single day, weekends included, it did not feel like work at all. It was invigorating. Because I was making my own schedule, setting my own priorities, and having full control and flexibility over my days. And that’s why I started this business in the first place! If you’ve been around here any amount of time, you know that my business is about 50% scalable income through affiliate revenue and courses, and 50% time-for-money through consulting and 1:1 web design work. And back in February and March, I’d gone through Nathalie Lussier’s AccessAlly advocate training to get certified to be listed on her website as someone approved by their company to build membership sites and online courses for their AccessAlly customers. And that led to a TON of new client inquiries and opportunities to work on some really cool projects… And also a ton of drama in my mind. Because my calendar starting getting booked again with tons of meetings. I started waking up with major anxiety on all the things I had to get done that day.  I started working every evening and weekend and saying no to spending time with family and friends because I needed time to get my stuff done. I’d had a few meetings with a potential client with a really big and lucrative project.  They had outgrown their current course platform and wanted to move to AccessAlly. And just a side note to those of you who want to build an online course someday…  Consider starting on a platform that can grow with you. Plug and play platforms like Teachable and Thinkific are great for your budget when you’re starting out, but know that you’ll pay the piper when it comes time to move because it’s not easy. There’s a LOT of moving pieces involved. Anyway, I had several meetings with this client to understand their needs and fully spec out their project and give them an estimate, and as I was calculating the number of hours it would take me, and then looking at my calendar to see where I’d fit this project in, I realized that in order to get it done in their requested timeline of 2 months one - it just wouldn’t be possible without me bringing on a team and getting them up to speed, two, I would have to press pause on my entire business for 2 months and focus exclusively on this client. And if I didn’t bring in help, I’d need to press pause on my business for 4 months. And deep down in my gut, I didn’t want to do it. But I thought, “You know, I need to still give a proposal, and I just need to put a price on it that would make it worth it to me to do it. And then I just delay my Website Marketing Lab and Web Designer Academy launches, or I can just fit my stuff in on the evenings and weekends.” And in that moment, I realized that I’d made the scalable revenue side of my business my side hustle, and prioritized the instant gratification and relief that comes with getting that first deposit from a client in my bank account.  It was the same fear that prevented me from quitting my day job in the first place. Why do I keep telling myself that I want to grow the scalable revenue side of my business, the side that I love, that doesn’t feel like work, that gives me total freedom, and yet my actions are to continue to take on 1:1 clients and treat my stuff as my side hustle? So I made the decision to let this particular client know that I wouldn’t be submitting a proposal because I wouldn’t be able to meet their timeline and give their project the undivided attention it would need to be successful. I updated my sales page for my 1:1 web design package to notify people that I’m not accepting projects until February of 2020 and directed them to my Web Designer Academy Expert Directory. I updated my Acuity Scheduling availability to accept consultations to 1 hour a week (and after a conversation with Rana Rosen in Episode 249, I realized that by doing that, I left the door cracked open JUST a little bit to breaking my commitment to myself.  And then I did last week’s interview with Amy Eaton, Episode 251, all about her journey from freelance photographer, trading her time for money to creating a massively successful online course teaching makers how to take photos of their products. It was an amazing interview. We talked about how you have to be crystal clear on what you want, and how we both wanted freedom more than anything else and that’s why we do what we do. And then she said that she made the decision to stop taking clients so that she could focus on growing her scalable revenue, and when she got inquiries, she’d say “I’m not taking any new clients right now…” and to me, those sounded like magical words. I’d never thought of saying them before. Because it still leaves the option open for me to make a different decision should I want to. And then she said something at the end of our interview about how she had to stop playing small.  You can go back and listen to it - it was SO GOOD, but in that moment I realized that by continuing to accept 1:1 web design clients so that I didn’t have to feel the fear of maybe not making enough money - I was playing small.  By not going all in on the scalable income side of my business and always having one foot in client work and one foot in my courses, I’m keeping myself safe. I’m staying small and not taking any risks. I’ve been crystal clear on what I’ve wanted from the moment I started this business, but I keep cheating on my dream every time I accept a new client project. So in August, I made a decision.  I’m not taking any new clients right now. I worked on finishing up the ones I have, and I started sending new inquiries to my Web Designer Academy grads who are listed in my expert directory.  And starting in September, I’m focusing exclusively on marketing my Free 5 Day Website Challenge, my free Jumpstart your Website Traffic Mini Course, and opening the doors to my Web Designer Academy twice a year instead of once, and doing consistent promotions for my Website Marketing Lab. It really feels like I quit my day job again. I’m cutting the cord and letting go of that security of the big payday to go all in on marketing myself and growing my audience. And I’m 100% confident that I have the right system, strategies and support in place to do it. So if you want to follow this new chapter of my journey, including all the wins and mistakes I make along the way, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you don’t miss an episode. Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you right here next week with my guest Kim Wensel from the Pattern of Purpose Podcast all about how to pivot to find your purpose. And if you need a website but have no idea how to get started, go to https://www.peptalksforsidehustlers.com/5day and sign up for the 5 Day Website Challenge and learn how to create a website for your side hustle. And if already have a website and you want to learn how to get traffic to it, go to www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com and sign up for my free 6-part mini-course that’ll walk you through how to get started getting targeted traffic to your website.

This is an interview from the Evolutionary Biz 2011. The links have expired, but the content is still awesome which is why I put this interview on the podcast! To find out more about Nathalie Lussier, go to https://nathalielussier.com/

Nathalie Lussier with Marc and Angel shares how to forgive yourself and others. Episode 452: How To Forgive Yourself and Others by Nathalie Lussier with Marc And Angel on Forgiving & Moving On with Life Marc and Angel Chernoff are New York Times bestselling authors, professional coaches, full-time students of life, admirers of the human spirit, and have been recognized by Forbes as having "one of the most popular personal development blogs." Through their blog, book, course and coaching, they've spent the past decade writing about and teaching proven strategies for finding lasting happiness, success, love and peace. Marc and Angel's New York Times bestselling book, Getting Back to Happy: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Reality, and Turn Your Trials into Triumphs, is a guide to spark sustainable action - and to return to whenever needed. It's available online at http://www.marcandangel.com/book/ and on Amazon. The original post is located here: http://www.marcandangel.com/2009/02/08/how-to-forgive-yourself-and-others/ Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com & in The O.L.D. Facebook Group and Join the Ol' Family to get your Free Gifts

Nathalie Lussier with Marc and Angel shares how to forgive yourself and others. Episode 452: How To Forgive Yourself and Others by Nathalie Lussier with Marc And Angel on Forgiving & Moving On with Life Marc and Angel Chernoff are New York Times bestselling authors, professional coaches, full-time students of life, admirers of the human spirit, and have been recognized by Forbes as having "one of the most popular personal development blogs." Through their blog, book, course and coaching, they've spent the past decade writing about and teaching proven strategies for finding lasting happiness, success, love and peace. Marc and Angel's New York Times bestselling book, Getting Back to Happy: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Reality, and Turn Your Trials into Triumphs, is a guide to spark sustainable action - and to return to whenever needed. It's available online at http://www.marcandangel.com/book/ and on Amazon. The original post is located here: http://www.marcandangel.com/2009/02/08/how-to-forgive-yourself-and-others/ Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com & in The O.L.D. Facebook Group and Join the Ol' Family to get your Free Gifts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vous rêvez d’une vie plus enrichissante? Je vous propose de venir à la rencontre d’experts coachs, mentors et d’entrepreneurs qui vous démontreront que c’est possible de vivre sa passion. Ils vous donneront des informations sur comment y arriver! Inscrivez-vous dès maintenant au web sommet Osez voir GRAND! et laissez-vous transporter dans l’univers du possible! Ça commence le 21 mai et c’est GRATUIT! Cliquez ici pour vous inscrire>>https://osezvoirgrand.com/lynestamand Ou écouter le podcast Juste ici Pour l'entrevue complete des maintenant!    

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! Welcome to my April Income Report! Every month I publish an income report to take you behind the scenes of my online business and reveal exactly how much money I make, how much I spend and lessons learned along the way! Important Things That Happened in April We kicked off the Website Marketing Lab with a new round of students going through the 8-week program. Later in this episode I’m gonna break down my entire launch strategy for you and give you all the stats and numbers so you can see what that looked like. I started working on my Growth University Roadmap I completed the AccessAlly Advocate training. Review of Goals My goal for the month of April was quite a bit different from my typical goal of making $10,000 in revenue and paying myself $5,000 and setting aside the other $5K for taxes and expenses. And that’s because I made two pretty big investments in the future of my business in the first quarter of 2019: #1 – Becoming an AccessAlly Advocate for Nathalie Lussier’s AccessAlly membership plugin. That’s the online course plugin I use to run my Free 5 Day Website Challenge, my Website Marketing Lab and my Web Designer Academy, and it’s the online course platform that I recommend and implement for some of my clients. So basically I paid $1500 for a certification program, and I went through an 8-week training course to learn the ins and outs of the plugin. I completed the program, I’m waiting for my evaluation and then once I’m certified, I’ll be listed in the directory of AccessAlly experts for their customers who want to hire an expert to set up membership sites. I’m super excited about it because I really love the platform, I’ve seen huge success with it in my own business, and I know I’m uniquely positioned as both a web designer and someone who’s had great success with my own online courses to bring massive value to my clients. So that investment was a total no-brainer, I’m 100% confident that I’ll make it back and then some, but it was a short-term outlay of cash out of my bank account make it happen. #2 – Growth University The second big investment I made was in Growth University, a coaching program run by Bryan Harris from Growth Tools, formerly known as VideoFruit. The cost of the program at the time I enrolled was $5,000, and if you listened to my March income report, you know that I had a conversation with my husband about investing in this program, because it meant that instead of writing myself a full paycheck every month, I’d be shorting it by $1000 a month for 5 months to pay for this program, because my husband was a little iffy on me paying some random guy on the internet $5,000 for training (which cracks me up because my business is that I’m some random girl on the internet that people pay thousands of dollars to for training)! My husband is starting to understand that I do lot more than just build websites for clients I find online… Anyway, I opted for the payment plan option, but halfway through April I thought, I’d really just love to pay this off and be done with it and not drag it out, but if I do that, it means that I’ll have to short myself like a paycheck and a half. So again, I had that conversation with my husband, because really what I’m asking is for our personal bank account to pay for this training without it actually commingling our funds – knowing that I’ll do the work and do what it takes to make back the investment and then some. So we did. I paid off the Growth University investment in April, $4000. So, I think about myself in the early years of my business and my mindset around paying for coaching and training vs. my mindset now, and there’s a huge difference in my thought process – and my results. It’s not “I’m gonna spend money on this course and I hope this works for me, I hope I get the results they are promising…” It’s “I’m gonna spend money on this course, and I’m all in. I’m gonna make time for it, I’m gonna do all the steps and I have no doubt that I’ll get results because I’m not going to stop until I reach the goal I set for myself. And if I get stuck or need help, I’m going to ask for help.” Like, the way I used to think about it, it was like the results were out of my hands. And that’s why I kept thinking that things I was doing weren’t working. I’d try them once and if they weren’t a massive success, I’d declare it a flop and try something totally new. I’d think “That strategy doesn’t work, I gotta try something new.” But that’s totally not true, that’s just how I was thinking about it. And that’s not how I’m thinking about my Growth University Roadmap at all. The results are totally in my control. I’m thinking, “Everything I’ve done to this point has led me here, and my only job is to follow the plan we worked out together, and never stop until I reach my goal.” So you’ll see later on when I share my revenue and expenses that I had a HUGE outlay of expenses this month – something I may have thought about in the past as a risk that may or may not pay off. But now I think about them as a bet on myself, and those pay off for me 100% of the time. And they were planned, and I feel good about my decisions, and I am confident that I’ll reach my goals. What I Focused on in April So you may recall from my March income report that I launched my Website Marketing Lab course, which teaches you how to market your business online and get traffic to your website in authentic and algoritim-proof way. So in this income report I’m gonna break down my launch strategy and results for you so that you can do this yourself in the future. For anyone that’s new to the podcast, I have a free training called the 5 Day Website Challenge which teaches people how to DIY their website – and it teaches EVERYTHING. Like, all of the things that I do for my paying clients, I put that process together in a free training to teach people who are in the beginning stages of starting their business and really shouldn’t be investing in a professionally designed website yet how to do it themselves so they can start marketing themselves and getting clients. So I love web design, but websites are really a means to an end, and my real passion is online marketing, and creating websites that help people market themselves, and I love teaching all of those tactics to people, and showing them how to set up the tech to market themselves, because again, when you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t be hiring people to do this stuff for you because you’re testing out a lot of things, and so many things are going to change and you need that flexibility to be able to set that stuff up and make those changes yourself. So people sign up for my 5 Day Website Challenge, and they really just think of me as the tech girl, you know, their WordPress BFF. And the mistake that I’ve made in the past is to just jump straight from “here’s a free training to teach you how to build your website,” to “want to pay me to learn how to market yourself?” and there’s a disconnect. They either don’t look at me as their go-to marketing person, or they don’t realize that they have to market themselves because they think having a website will automatically bring them traffic. So I needed to do something to bridge that gap, the gap from having a website to actually getting traffic to the website, and the gap from thinking of me as your website person to thinking of me as your online marketing person. So that’s why my whole Website Marketing Lab launch strategy starting out with another free training called 5 Day Freebie Challenge where I taught my method for creating a freebie that helps you grow your email list on autopilot, and then at the end, I invited anyone who wanted to continue on with the process of learning how to market that freebie to join the Website Marketing Lab. So here’s how it worked – and I teach this strategy in depth in the free 5 Day Freebie Challenge – which by the way I’m actually hosting another free 5 Day Freebie Challenge on May 13 if you want to get in on it – just go to www.wp-bff.com/freechallenge or click on the link at the top of the show notes to save your spot. First, I have a bit of an advantage because I already have an email list, and last year I did a survey asking them what their biggest struggle has been when it comes to their business and what they want to learn next – and there were 2 things that kept coming up: how to market myself and how to get traffic. And I know that the answer to how to market yourself and how to get traffic is not what people typically think it is, like search engine optimization or blogging or social media. Those are tactics, not a strategy and I think that’s why people get so frustrated is because they go straight to tactics without having all the right pieces of the strategy. The answer to how to market yourself is building an email list, and the way you build an email list is by giving away valuable free content in exchange for an email address. And the way you get traffic is by sharing that free thing online with an irresistible call to action that makes people want to go to your website and get the free thing. And so I knew that what was going to move people from having a website and not getting traffic to having a website that gets traffic is to teach them how to create the freebie that they need to be able to execute all of the marketing tactics that are supposed to bring you traffic. And I also knew that the freebie is just one part of the overall equation, so I could deliver massive value by teaching them how to do that part for free, and then the natural next step for anyone that wanted to then learn how do all the tactics to actually get that freebie in front of their ideal clients would be to join me in the Website Marketing Lab. And if they didn’t join me, that’s okay too, they walked away learning a ton and they might decide to join the next time around, or tell other people about it. So to put together the free training, I outlined the 5 things people needed to learn to create their freebie, and then I decided I wanted to deliver the training live in a Facebook Group where I could interact with people and answer their questions instead of doing via email or prerecording it. I also created a workbook, because I wasn’t just teaching them concepts, I wanted the training to be really actionable, and I wanted them to walk away with something tangible – because I really wanted them to get a taste of what they’d be doing inside of my paid program. So here are the stats: I had 2500 people on my email list at the time. Starting about a week and a half before the 5 Day Freebie Challenge I sent out an email inviting my list to the free training. I sent three more invitations over the course of a week to anyone that didn’t sign up. I added a HelloBar across the top of my WP+BFFs site and my courses site so that any visitors there would see it and sign up. I totally forgot to put it on my Pep Talks for Side Hustlers website. I posted about it on Instagram a couple of times, and I created a pin on Pinterest about it, and I posted it in my Facebook Group a few times. And I mentioned it on a few podcast intros leading up to the start date. I didn’t run any ads for the training at all. I had 600 people sign up for the free training. So then, when people signed up, they got an email letting them know the details of the Challenge and what to expect, that I’d be sending them a workbook the day before the Challenge, and to join a special Challenge-only Facebook group that I created just for the Challenge. Then I’d go live each night at 7PM, and I’d send out the replay to them the next day if they couldn’t join me live. Out of the 600 that signed up, 350 actually joined the Facebook group, and I had about 40 to 50 people join me live every night, which was SUCH a blast. I taught my concept for 20 minutes or so, and then I spent the last 40 minutes answering questions. And by doing it that way, I learned a ton about what their needs were, and when it came time to invite them to join me in the Website Marketing Lab at the end, it was a natural next step for me to make the offer because I knew I was right on track, I wasn’t doing a hard sell, i didn’t feel like an informercial. Throughout the Challenge I let people know that on the last day I was going to let them know how to continue working with me, so it wasn’t like a bait and switch, and then I talked about the Website Marketing Lab at the end of Day 5, and then I also did a followup email sequence to everyone that signed up letting them know what kind of results they could expect by following the marketing roadmap I created for them inside the Website Marketing Lab. So out of 600 people, I had 8 new people join the program at $297 for the first month, and then $49/month ongoing – and that revenue was actually part of my March income report, it’s the $49 ongoing that you’ll see in this income report. And that’s actually in line with what I was expecting based on the price of the program. And then after it was over, I surveyed everyone who signed up but didn’t purchase and asked them what influenced their decision to NOT buy, and over 95% of respondents said that they wanted the program – and that their decision to NOT buy wasn’t motivated by price, which totally validated that I’m marketing it effectively, and that my price isn’t too high. So the key takeaways here are that when you can do something to provide massive value to your ideal client, but that’s also going to give you tons of insight on whether you’re on the right track or not, that’s always a good use of your time. I’m about to break down the revenue numbers for you in a sec, but I want to point out that when I sold the Website Marketing Lab, I hadn’t created any of the content yet. I did that for a few reasons – one, I’ve created programs before that no one purchased, and it’s a total waste of time. Two, doing a Live Challenge and interacting with the people I was going to offer my course to BEFORE I built it helped me make sure that I was creating exactly what they needed, instead of what I thought they needed. And three, it’s totally keeping me accountable to getting all the course content done, because that’s what I spent all my time on in April, was recording the modules I’d outlined, and setting them up in AccessAlly and releasing them to my students, week by week. And like I said, I’m opening up the program again in May and testing a different pricing structure –  with the added bonus for new students that all the content is done so they can work at their own pace! I’m also working on some new techniques to validate the pricing and my offer as part of Growth University so I can get that dialed in – because as those of you that listen to the podcast, I’m always worrying about my pricing. But when your students tell you they can’t believe what they’re getting for the price and that they would have gladly paid more, that’s a sign that you’re on the right track! So with all of that, here’s how much money I made and spent in April of 2019: TOTAL REVENUE: $6529.44 Affiliate Income: $1973.80 Courses: $1891.80 Done For You & Consulting: $2664.64 TOTAL EXPENSES: $6753.60 Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here. NET PROFIT: -$224.15 BIGGEST LESSONS LEARNED This is the first time I’ve posted a negative profit, but I totally expected it, so it didn’t throw me into a panic like it might have had I not started actually planning out a monthly budget before the month started, Dave Ramsey style. I have an extra $4500 in expenses in April due to Growth University and AccessAlly Advocate training, which I totally planned on and knew I wouldn’t be paying myself for the second half of April – but what I didn’t plan for is a Done For You web design client not paying their invoice on time, which is why I have negative profit in April. I did get that payment, just not until May. So right now, I feel like I have a total clean slate. Everything is paid for, I’ve actually reduced my baseline expenses significantly, which you’ll start to see in my May income report which means I get to take home more profit, or bring in more help or whatever needs to happen as my partnerships start to bear fruit and my email list grows and I get more and more successful students coming out of the Website Marketing Lab and Web Designer Academy, and I start booking more lucrative Done For You projects. So my biggest lesson learned this month – and it’s one that I know I’ve mentioned before but it keeps proving itself to be true –  is that how I think, and what I believe about what is possible, is 100% responsible for my results. It’s what drives my action or inaction. It’s not that I signed up for this coaching program or that certification program, it’s that I believe that I will do what it takes to take action on what I learn inside of those programs and that I know I won’t stop until I’ve reached my goal, and that I believe that it’s possible for me. And so if you can start cultivating that belief in yourself too, that you’ll never stop trying until you get what you want, then your success is guaranteed. So if you want to sign up for my next 5 Day Freebie Challenge, even if you’re listening to this months after it was published, head on over to www.wp-bff.com/freechallenge and save your spot in the next one – I’ll teach you everything I can pack into 5 daily lessons about how to create the kind of freebie that helps you market yourself online. And if you need a website but have no idea how to get started, go to peptalksforsidehustlers.com/5day and sign up for the 5 Day Website Challenge and learn how to create a website for your side hustle.

Shownotes: http://fizzleshow.com/313 How do we run a business that does not run us into the ground? Can we give energy into our hustle without having none left for anything else? How do we keep the wind in our sails? The idea of managing the size of a business to suit your actual needs seems to becoming more and more attractive to a lot of entrepreneurs. It is something we have spoken about before on the Fizzle Show and we strongly believe you are the one who should decide the scope and ambition of what you do! In this episode, we take this idea one step further and think about just how much and what kind of work you really need to do today. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, is there an obvious question that you see being asked that you know how to answer? Today on the show we are joined by Nathalie Lussier who is a digital strategist, the founder of Access Ally and has made it her mission to help you achieve your dreams. We talk to her about automation, the customer's journey, facilitating a good experience for an audience, improving the work you have already done and why you already have everything you need. For all of this and more, join us today! Key Points From This Episode: • A quick introduction to Nathalie and her business. [0:03:26.4] • Switching the equation around so your business serves you. [0:08:30.7] • Breaking things down in past, present and future. [0:13:16.2] • Sustainable entrepreneurship and the value of service. [0:15:26.6] • The vital lessons that we learn in trying times. [0:19:17.4] • The expert's dilemma and getting perspective on your own value. [0:22:40.7] • The patterns that helped Nathalie discover her gifts in plain sight. [0:26:35.5] • How Nathalie's answered the questions she was encountering. [0:31:35.3] • Moving forward with freebies towards paid services. [0:35:54.7] • Fighting your own battles and slaying your own dragons. [0:41:02.8] • Nathalie's business preparation for having her baby. [0:46:51.2] • The architecture of online business and the customer journey. [0:51:54.1] • Stamina and dedication to bettering a single offer. [0:54:32.6] • Post mortem, taking stock and dialing it all in for updates. [1:00:49.4] • Honoring the work already done and doubling down. [1:04:40.7] • You already have what you need! [1:08:01.1] • And much more! Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: • Fizzle — https://fizzle.co/ • AccessAlly — https://accessally.com • Nathalie Lussier — https://nathalielussier.com • Oprah — http://www.oprah.com • Jerry Seinfeld — http://jerryseinfeld.com • Dan Tocchini — https://www.crunchbase.com/person/daniel-tocchini • Schitt's Creek — https://www.netflix.com/za/title/80036165 • Trello — https://trello.com • Atlassian— https://www.atlassian.com • Narnia — http://www.narnia.com • Vitals — https://vitals.agency/ • Jim Rohn — https://www.jimrohn.com • Nathan Barry — https://nathanbarry.com • ConvertKit — https://convertkit.com • Fizzle Try 5 — http://fizzle.co/try5 • Fizzle Goals Course — https://fizzle.co/courses/goals • Fizzle Journaling Course — https://fizzle.co/courses/journal • Drip — https://www.drip.com • Fizzle on Twitter — https://twitter.com/fizzle • Fizzle Defining Your Audience — https://fizzle.co/guides/defining-your-audience • Fizzle Roadmap — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/small-business-roadmap-1-clarity • Fizzle Just Ship It Challenge — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/join-30-day-just-ship-challenge • Fizzle Customer Conversation Course — https://app.fizzle.co/courses/customer-conversations • Fizzle Just Ship It Challenge — https://app.fizzle.co/just-ship-it-challenge • Fizzle Post Mortem Workbook — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/learning-from-pain-via-post-mortems-fs295/ • Aiden Fishbein — https://vitals.agency/blog/author/aiden/ • Courage and Clarity — https://www.courageandclarity.com/ • Steph Crowder on Twitter — https://twitter.com/stephcrowder_ • Corbett Barr on Twitter — https://twitter.com/CorbettBarr • Chase Reeves on Twitter — https://twitter.com/chase_reeves • Chase Reeves Reviews — https://www.youtube.com/user/chasereeves • Fizzle Sparkline — https://fizzle.co/sparkline • Fizzle Essentials of Web Design Course — https://fizzle.co/library/essentials-of-website-design-for-business-builders • Fizzle Website Tune Up Curse — https://fizzle.co/courses/tuneup • Start A Blog That Matters Course — https://fizzle.co/start-a-blog-that-matters • Fizzle 80/20 Copywriting Guide — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/writing-copy-for-web • Fizzle Toolkit — https://fizzle.co/toolkit • Fizzle Craft + Commerce — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/craft-commerce • Fizzle Project Management for Entrepreneurs — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/project-management-for-entrepreneurs • Fizzle Hosting — https://fizzle.co/hosting

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! Welcome to my February Income Report! Every month I publish an income report to take you behind the scenes of my online business and reveal exactly how much money I make, how much I spend and lessons learned along the way! IMPORTANT THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN FEBRUARY I wrapped up Growth Tools’ Partnership Accelerator Program. I finished the migration from Infusionsoft to ConvertKit. I accepted a couple of small projects… I joined the AccessAlly Advocate Program I changed the 5 Day Website Challenge back from free for 30 days only to always free, bundled in the Website Copy Guide with the upgrade & raised the price. I started going live on my Facebook page every week. I booked a ton of guests on Pep Talks for Side Hustlers I booked a speaking gig at the Thrive Conference for Bloggers I took a girls trip to Colorado I announced the Web Designer Academy Expert Directory I started listening to a podcast called Losing 100 Pounds, recommended by Amy Porterfield, and it’s been a total game changer. Notes I found to myself in my planner: You are booked out this week, do not accept any more work. You are killing it this week!!!! You are booked out this week and next week. Do not accept any more work. My plan for vacation: let clients know ahead of time, put up an out-of-office, forward support requests to Laura. You are booked out this week. REVIEW OF MY GOALS Last month, I shared with you my revised income goals, which I’ll recap for you here… But before I do, I want to share with you something that I learned from listening to the Losing 100 Pounds podcast. The host of that podcast, Corrine Crabtree, talks about how the most important skill to develop when it comes to weight loss is doing what you say you’re going to do. And that requires two things: creating a plan, and then following that plan. And what I noticed about myself when I first started listening to her is that I resisted creating a plan for what I would eat and how I would exercise every day. It’s the same thing I did back in the day when my business coach wanted me to plan out my months, weeks and days. I wanted freedom, and felt like planning was stifling my freedom. Same thing with food. I didn’t want to “lose my freedom” But then when I committed to taking my biz coach’s advice and start planning, another interesting thing happened: The plan I created for myself could only happen in a perfect world, with all the stars aligned. I could never, ever accomplish my goals every single day. There’s nothing like never ever being able to reach your goals every single day to make you feel super frustrated all the time and compel you to make decisions that bring you instant relief, whether in business or with food. So as I look back on what I declared to be my January income goals, I see that I created my perfect, stars must be aligned and I must be all powerful to control the universe around me, unattainable plan. Which is: Pay myself first – $5,000 Increase my revenue from Courses & Done for You projects by $2500/month to cover potential end of contract. Build a cushion in my business savings of $10K ($833/month) $2500 Expenses $1500 Taxes Because when I look back at the past year of expenses, I’ve rarely capped them at $2500. Every single month is a little bit different. Increasing my revenue by $2500 a month ain’t gonna happen overnight. And that savings cushion I’d like to build, setting aside $833 a month? It’s already the end of March as I write this income report and it hasn’t happened for the past two months. So from this income report on, instead of creating one, big perfect goal and practicing being frustrated when I don’t hit the target every month, instead, every month I’m going to create a plan for revenue and expenses based on past history and reality. Yes, it’s important for me to pay myself first. And it’s really important for me to pay my quarterly taxes, and pay all of my expenses and never go into debt. But it’s also important for me to practice creating a REALISTIC plan and follow that plan instead of creating a PERFECT plan knowing it’s never gonna happen the moment I close my laptop. So I do have a general revenue goal in the short term of $10,000 a month, and in 12 months I’d like to have that bumped up to $15,000 a month. And I’ll share with you exactly how I plan to accomplish that in future income reports. WHAT I FOCUSED ON IN FEBRUARY I designated February as a List Building Month, and I also focused on completing the Infusionsoft to ConvertKit Migration, and I did LOTS of client work, lots of podcast interviews and lots of pitching. TOTAL REVENUE: $9197.15 Affiliate Income: $1401.70 Courses: $2269.00 Done For You & Consulting: $5,526.45 TOTAL EXPENSES: $3289.57 Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here. NET PROFIT: $5907.58 BIGGEST LESSONS LEARNED   So when I added up all the numbers for February and saw that I made around $9000, it actually surprised me because February just felt really, really tight cash flow wise. Because if you look at the numbers, revenue minus expenses, paying myself first my standard paycheck amount of $2500 twice a month and then setting aside money for taxes, I’m actually just robbing Peter to pay Paul, as my mom would always say when we were growing up and she would sit at the dining room table to do the bills. I totally recognize that I’m paying my paychecks to myself for the prior month when the cash comes in the current month. That, my friends, is not sustainable, and trust me, I see what the future holds if I continue on this path. While I’ve cut some big expenses that weren’t giving me returns, I also totally recognize that I’ve made some investments in my business that take cash out of my pocket in the short term that I expect to get a return on in the future, including two copywriting courses that have been total game-changers for my marketing copy for my paid programs and sales pages and have already given me a return, and the AccessAlly Advocate Program – which is a certification program for Nathalie Lussier’s AccessAlly Membership Site & Online Course plugin, which in my experience is like, hands down the best membership PLATFORM, not just plugin, out there if you’re serious about generating revenue through courses and membership sites. The certification is $1500, and once I complete the certification I’ll be listed in their expert directory as someone certified to build sites with AccessAlly for all her awesome clients that want it done for them – plus I’ve totally got other plans to leverage that certification. So I had to make a decision in February when I booked another 1:1 Done For You project that I was going to do the job myself and not outsource any of the work so that I could keep the fees and stabilize my cash flow. And for a couple of other small projects that I’d taken on, that I mentioned in last month’s income reports, I decided that I needed to just put in the extra hours to finish up the work myself so I could keep the fees and make ends meet. So I’m back up to around 60 hours a week at the moment… and if you recall back in episode 199 with millionaire business owner Bernadette Doyle who challenged me to start tracking my time and to figure out how to work 25 hours a week if I really wanted to work less… I’ll just say this – I’m doing what I need to do at the moment to get where I want to be, and I don’t expect this to be a long-term overwork burnout situation like I found myself in last year…. It’ll be interesting to review this income report in a few months to see how this pans out!! And I expect my cash flow to improve starting in April. Something that was also weighing on my mind in February was getting my taxes done! I had this really unsettling feeling all year that I wasn’t paying enough in quarterly taxes, being that it was my very first year of self-employment combined with all of the tax code changes that were coming into play. So I was really eager to get everything together and do my taxes. We’ve always done our own taxes which when I tell people that they find it alarming or crazy, but fun fact – back in my early 20’s, I sold Mary Kay cosmetics. I was terrible at it, but that’s beside the point. We had the opportunity to get extensive training on bookkeeping and taxes, recordkeeping, keeping business and personal finances separate and filling out our schedule C at tax time and what’s deductible and what’s not… I feel like that education on the administrative side of having your own business was super valuable, and even though network marketing and MLMs are not for me, I’m really grateful for having learned that stuff and its really benefitted me now. So anyway, we did our taxes and I was super relieved to discover that I pretty much hit my quarterly estimates on the nose and I didn’t owe anything more for 2018, and now I’ve got a full year on my own to look at as a benchmark for what I need to set aside in 2019. We’re also building a house. We bought 4 acres in the country last May, and having our taxes done was crucial to figuring out timing of when we can get a construction loan to start building. Another thing about being self-employed is that lenders look at the past two years of business income (not revenue, but what I paid myself after taxes and expenses). For my husband, it’s like, oh, just bring us your last two pay stubs. So I’m not sure that my business income from 2017, when my biz was still a side hustle and I had a TON of expenses paying subcontractors to do things I didn’t have time to do because I was working full time – combined with 2018 is enough to get a construction loan/mortgage. So stay tuned to find out if we’re breaking ground in 2019 or if we’re waiting til 2020. The really exciting thing about February was all the guests that I had the opportunity to interview on this podcast, and those interviews are being released every week on the podcast. I’m talking to so many inspiring entrepreneurs that energize me and keep me excited and engaged and moving forward and have such good advice not just for you guys, but for me too! So that’s been a blast. And finally, I took some time off to spend a long weekend in a cabin with two of my best friends that I’ve known since I was 8 years old – and if you’re keeping track, that means we’ve been friends for 31 years. And each of us brought some of our friends and the six of us just had an awesome time talking, cooking, laughing, and relaxing. Work hard play hard, right? So as I look back a year to how I felt this time in February 2018 vs. now, I think I feel just as determined as ever to continue to grow my business. But it’s different now, one year in. My determination isn’t clouded by fear anymore. It’s backed by confidence. I have a lot of experiences and data from the past year to look at to help me make decisions this year. But most importantly, I believe in myself just as much as I did back when I started my side hustle. I knew from the moment I started that I would make it my full time job. And I did. Maybe not as fast as I wanted to and maybe not the way I thought it would, but I made it happen. And I also know that I’m going to get my cash flow under control, get ahead and meet that next goal. And I’m okay with not knowing exactly how or when. Certainty is a wonderful feeling.

Nathalie Lussier is has created a unique, powerful LMS plugin for WordPress that people seem to love. That’s because Nathalie, on top of using the product herself, listens to her customers. In this episode, she’ll give us lots of great advice for how to grow our business and improve customer relationships. Show Notes AccessAlly 30 […] The post Nathalie Lussier and AccessAlly appeared first on How I Built It.

How to sell marketing funnels with Nathalie Lussier from AccessAlly! This week I'm extremely happy to talk to Nathalie Lussier from AccessAlly, about selling marketing funnels to customers. AccessAlly is a course and membership plugin for WordPress, with LOADS of amazing marketing funnel features. In this episode I'm going to talk about how those features and tools, inside AccessAlly can help us sell marketing funnels to customers. Nathalie offers great insight into what customers are looking for, how to show them what we can do for them and how selling marketing funnels doesn't have to be complicated. Nathalie's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/nathalielussier AccessAlly: http://bit.ly/2D5ITGy

How to sell marketing funnels with Nathalie Lussier from AccessAlly! This week I'm extremely happy to talk to Nathalie Lussier from AccessAlly, about selling marketing funnels to customers. AccessAlly is a course and membership plugin for WordPress, with LOADS of amazing marketing funnel features. In this episode I'm going to talk about how those features and tools, inside AccessAlly can help us sell marketing funnels to customers. Nathalie offers great insight into what customers are looking for, how to show them what we can do for them and how selling marketing funnels doesn't have to be complicated. Nathalie's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/nathalielussierAccessAlly: http://bit.ly/2D5ITGy

Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur, international keynote speaker, and author who has been making web sites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. Her bootstrapped startup AmbitionAlly, has been featured in Entrepreneur and is inspiring a culture of intuitive small business marketing software across the globe. Nathalie has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Venture Beat, Mashable, Business Insider, Yahoo! Finance, and Under 30 CEO. She's the creator of the hit 30 Day List Building Challenge. https://accessally.com/

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! When I discovered back in 2014 that I could make a living by giving everything I know about WordPress away for free, everything in my life changed. I stopped spending my free time watching the Real Housewives and starting listening to every podcast and reading every book and blog post and newsletter I could find about building a successful online business. And every successful online entrepreneur I found had the same piece of advice: Build an email list. Specifically, give away something of value in exchange for an email address. And those that didn’t start right out of the gate building an email list? Oh, how they regretted it! Like my mentor-from-afar, Pat Flynn. Okay Pat. You have what I want, I’ll do whatever you say. So as I was putting the finishing touches on the Free 5 Day Website Challenge at the end of 2014, I decided I’d give it away in exchange for an email address instead of making it publicly available. Then, I pasted a link to it in Nathalie Lussier’s 30 Day List Building Challenge Facebook Group freebie Friday thread. And my email list grew from 0 to 1 subscriber. was. hooked. Whatever happens to your brain when you get addicted to something, I think that’s what happened to mine when I got that email from MailChimp. I became simultaneously addicted to checking my email and growing my list. From that moment, my singular focus was to grow my email list to 10,000. Why 10,000? Probably because that’s how many subscribers Pat Flynn had when I read his article lamenting about how he wished he’d started sooner. I was on a mission, and I shared my 5 Day Website Challenge in Facebook Groups more consistently than anything else I’ve ever done. In 2015, I had grown my list from 0 to 1800 subscribers. In 2016, I ended the year at 4200. But in 2017, things slowed WAY down. I closed out 2017 with 4500… Because I removed about 1500 unsubscribes from my list. I hadn’t realized unsubscribers were showing up in my counts… I could have really bummed myself out about that many people unsubscribing… but something I really internalized in my research about building my business is that not everyone is going to resonate with my personality (and never-ending typos where I interchange “ed” and “ing”) and that’s okay. But still, 10,000 was the magic number, and I was determined to make it happen in 2018. Only 5500 to go!! I can totally do that now that I don’t have a day job anymore! In February 2018, I peaked at 5002 subscribers. And then along comes GDPR… Which if you’re not familiar, GDPR is a European law that basically says you can’t send marketing emails to people that live in Europe if you didn’t disclose you were gonna do that and get their consent when they signed up – so if you’re gonna keep doing that, you need to get fresh consent. And since I just said “Hey, I’ll show you how to build a website in just 5 days even if you’re not techie” and I didn’t say “by the way I’m gonna send you a newsletter, and info about my paid programs” – and I also had no idea who on my list lived in Europe vs. anywhere else, I made the decision to get fresh consent from my entire email list of almost 5,000 subscribers. So if you paid attention to the subject line of this email, you’ll know that after that fresh consent campaign, I had 1000 people say YES, I want to stay on your email list!! Are you kidding me right now?? Can you imagine 1000 people in a room? I can’t. It’s a lot of people! (If you’re one of those people, YOU ROCK, by the way). And then I deleted 4000 people from my email list. Ouch. I felt like I had worked really hard to get to that number… and now I can’t say I’ve helped over 5000 people build a website… And now it’s going to take FOREVER to get to 10,000…. So I started June of 2018 with less email subscribers than I had when I ended my first year of business. And guess what happened? Nothing. Nothing changed. Everything kept chugged along as it had been the first 6 months. Wait, so I don’t need 10,000 email subscribers to have a successful online business? Nope. So I tell you this big, long story about my email list obsession because I want you to know that you do not have to have a ginormous email list to find success in your business. Now, I know you might be thinking: Easy for you to say, Shannon… you deleted 4,000 and have 1,000 left. Boo hoo. I have 12 people on my email list and 6 of them are family. I’ve done everything you’ve said to do, and I feel stuck. To which I say: You gotta start somewhere. And something you did got 6 people to raise their hand and say yes, I want your freebie. What did you do to make that happen? Do more of that. And then keep doing it. Your email list is your tribe, your community. They are real people, not numbers. And when you only have 6, or 20, or 50, it’s easier reach out to them individually and thank them for signing up and ask them if they’d be willing to answer a few questions to help you find more people just like them. How did you find me? What was your biggest takeaway from my freebie? If you could wave a magic wand and solve your problem, what would that look like? How would that make you feel? Work with what you’ve got. If 6 people said yes, you are onto something. Your job is not to focus on the number of subscribers you have on your email list. It’s to focus on the actions you took to find those people and compel them to subscribe and do more of that. You WILL get traction if you keep taking action. (I really didn’t mean for that to rhyme…) It’s very possible that the way you are describing your freebie on your website doesn’t do it justice. “Give away something of value in exchange for an email address.” It’s that “of value” piece that trips people up. Let me ask you a question… If I go to your website, will I be able to tell exactly what results I’m going to get if I give you my email address and take action on the information you give me in your freebie? If I say “Join the 5 Day Website Challenge” or “I’ll show you how to build a website in just 5 days even if you’re not techie”… Which one clearly tells you what result you’re going to get? Which one is going to get you to fork over your email address? Describe your freebie on your website by the results people will get from it, not just by its name. So I’d love to hear from you – hit reply and tell me the name of your freebie and what result I’ll get from taking action on it. And if you’re feeling stuck when it comes to building your email list, I’d love to hear what you’ve tried so far and what’s going on in your head when you think about building your list. Until next week…

Nathalie Lussier shares her story and software for content and courses. Join the Marketing Futurists as we dive into the personalization of conversations and content delivery on this podcast episode.

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! As more and more people are beginning to realize the freedom, flexibility, and financial independence that starting an online business can bring them, there has never been a better time for you to finally start that freelance web design business you’ve been daydreaming about. Brands understand how much more powerful online influencers can be compared to traditional advertising, which means anyone can start a blog and make money from sponsorships and affiliate marketing. Entrepreneurs who started businesses a few years ago by DIYing are now ready to up their game and hire a professional. People at the end of long careers are transitioning their skills and experience into a “second act” and needing websites to get started. Side hustlers are coming onto the scene at a record pace, starting businesses online to supplement (and even replace) their day job income. So with all this opportunity out there waiting for you, why is that when it comes to marketing yourself as a web designer and getting your first paying client, you feel like a total imposter? Let me guess… You’ve built a couple of websites for yourself or friends, but you’ve never had a paying client and you don’t have a portfolio to show potential clients. You feel like you don’t know enough. Maybe you’ve used website builders and never actually written any code. Maybe you’ve taken a course but not had a real client. What if someone asks you to do something you don’t know how to do? What if you mess something up? You don’t feel qualified to charge people yet. You think you just need more experience, and you’ll get it by building websites for free for friends and family until you have a good enough portfolio, and then you’ll slowly start charging for your work as you learn more. This is what most wannabe freelance web designers think, and these thoughts are so overwhelming that most never even get started, or if do, they quickly burn out before they ever start to make any real money. I’m here to tell you that there is another way. A way to build your experience and credibility without having a portfolio or having to work for free. I found it, quite by accident, and I’m gonna break it all down for you here. We’ll cover: How I got my first clients (and why it was a total disaster) How I burnt myself out and almost gave up freelancing The one shift I made in my business that unexpectedly changed everything Why I went from no clients to turning down clients. How I was able to go from side-hustling to quitting my day job and making between $8-10K a month as a web designer. How you can start marketing yourself as a freelance web designer and get your first client. How I Got My First Client In 2014, I was working at a nonprofit doing marketing and IT support. I had been at the company for about 7 years and I was making great money… but I was miserable. Every week sitting in the same rush hour traffic, listening to the same garbage morning radio show, rotating between the same five business casual outfits every week. Every day, doing the same pointless busy work, listening to the same complaints, navigating the same office politics. The one thing I loved about my job was WordPress. It was my escape from the monotony and drama at my day job. I was completely self-taught, spending who knows how many hours combing through forums, trying things, breaking things and fixing them all along the way. I had thought about freelancing so that I could maybe make enough money to quit my day job, but I felt like because I had no formal web design education, no one would hire me. So I just pushed the idea away in my mind and closed the door on it. But then one day, I was at the gym and one of the girls I was working out with asked me what I did for a living. “I’m in IT,” I replied. “Oh, and I do web design on the side.” I immediately feel my face get hot. “Why did you just lie to her?” I thought. “You’re not a web designer! You’ve never coded a WordPress site from scratch and you’ve never had one client!” And then she says, “Ohmigosh, do you know WordPress? We use it at work, and our developer disappeared. I’ve got this huge event coming up and I have no idea what to do!” We set a coffee date up, and I decided I would charge the same hourly rate I was making at my day job. She said yes, and I had my first client. A few weeks later, I mention this cool new side hustle to a friend and he said, “You know WordPress? My dad’s site got hacked and he doesn’t know what to do. Can you help?” Now I had two clients. The following week, I get a phone call from a vendor at my day job. “Hey, who built your website? We have to move all of our clients to WordPress and we need help!” And before I know it, I’m working an extra 40 hours a week outside of my day job. I know this sounds really simple, but I know how hard it can feel when you’re just starting out – but the key takeaway here is that you simply have to make it known to other people that you’re a freelance web designer – even if you don’t have a portfolio. If you can solve a problem for potential clients, you’re on the right track! Start building relationships with people in related fields, like virtual assistants, graphic designers and digital marketing agencies. Say things like, “If you know anyone that needs help with their website, I’m taking new clients.” For me, getting clients happened quite naturally after I got over the fear of telling people that I was a web designer, but what I didn’t yet know is that my imposter syndrome was still lurking in the background and had me on a path to disaster. The Burnout I had several clients, but I was far from the web designer I always imagined – a creative genius who is building gorgeous, innovative websites that I’m proud to show off. Instead, I was constantly on call, fixing emergencies and working on everyone else’s schedule. I didn’t know how to set or hold boundaries as to when I’d be available for work. Worse, I realized that I wasn’t charging enough, but I didn’t feel confident in raising my prices because I felt that I couldn’t because I was self-taught and didn’t go to college for web design. So I was working full time, side hustling full time and feeling completely overwhelmed. Blend all of that with a family emergency and I had a total breakdown – which came in the form of me yelling and breaking down into tears in the middle of a meeting at work, sending a poorly written apology email and taking the rest of the day off. “This is not what I thought it would be. I’m wrapping up these client projects, and then I’m done,” I thought. My dream of becoming a freelance web designer had died. Or so I thought. Because if you’re anything like me, once you REALLY want something, you’re not going to stop until you figure it out. The One Shift in My Freelance Web Design Business That Changed Everything One morning I’m sitting in rush hour traffic, and instead of listening to garbage morning radio I had started listening to podcasts. This particular morning, Chalene Johnson was interviewing this guy, Pat Flynn, who makes money by giving away everything he knows about creating passive income online – and he earns affiliate commissions on the plugins and themes and hosting and services people bought to implement what he taught. “Wait, did I just hear that right?” I thought. It’s like I heard a record scratch in my own mind. “This is a thing? You mean, I can create videos teaching everything I know about WordPress and make money from it – AND I won’t have to work with clients? Um, SIGN ME UP!!!!” At that moment, everything changed. I started researching affiliate programs and was astounded at how many existed for stuff I already used. I began to outline my tutorial videos and scheduled time to record them. In the evenings worked on building my website and signing up for affiliate programs. On the weekends I recorded my tutorials and added them to my website. In just a couple of months, I had created the 5 Day Website Challenge, a free 5-module video course that teaches how to build an entire WordPress site, the same exact site I built for paying clients with no steps left out. It had a few affiliate recommendations in it for tools that I used myself and were teaching inside of the training, but 90% of it could be done at no cost to the Challenger. Okay, it’s done… now how do I get people to find it? Which led to the bigger question that I had failed to ask myself before diving in a building the thing… Who is this actually for? There have got to be more people out there like me, I thought. Women in their mid-thirties who just looked up one day and thought, is this it? Is this all there is to life? I had a different dream, and now I’m just trapped and I want the freedom of being my own boss, being in control of my time and taking the glass ceiling off of my earning potential. Women who want to start an online business like that B-School thing I kept hearing about or like Chalene teaches in her Marketing Impact Academy. I want to help those women build their websites so that they can have their dream too! The other thing that I knew from listening Pat Flynn and Chalene Johnson is that I needed to build an email list. And so I set my WordPress training up to be something that I’d give away for free in exchange for an email address so I had that part down, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about building my email list. So I just Googled “how to build an email list” and I found Nathalie Lussier’s 30 Day List Building Challenge – and the strategies I learned in that training are what led me to my very first subscriber and my very first affiliate commissions, and the realization that I had created something that people really, really needed. So I put my head down and focused on list-building. Get as many people as possible to sign up for the 5 Day Website Challenge so I can earn affiliate revenue and not be an order-taking pixel pusher (outside of my day job anyway). What I did not expect is that my dream clients started asking me to build their websites for them. Why I Turned Down Potential Clients Powerful women building life-changing online businesses starting reach out to me and asking me build their website for them. And at first, I told them no. I was so burnt out on my disastrous freelance experience, I never wanted to feel that way ever again. So I told them, “I’m sorry, I don’t work one on one with clients. I just teach you how to DIY. And I was also very confused as to why someone would pay me to do something that I was showing them how to do, step by step, nothing left out – for free? But then it hit me. I had earned their trust by peeling back the curtain on my process. I had built credibility by freely giving away my knowledge and sharing it in a way that anyone could understand. And people felt like they already knew and liked me because I shared stories like this one about why I was giving it all away for free to them, because I didn’t want them to be held back by the tech. I didn’t have to “sell” my services, people were asking me if they could BUY from me. It’s a business owners’ dream! But I still said no, because I was afraid. I didn’t want it to feel like how it felt before when I had no systems, no processes, no boundaries and no help and placed no value on my skillset or my time. Plus I still had a day job and I wanted to have somewhat of a life outside of it! Why I Decided to Start Working With Clients Again By then, I had released a paid WordPress training course that was not making the money I had expected it to make, so I set up a consultation with a sales expert who had taken my 5 Day Website Challenge. She had reached out to me for some advice and when I read her website copy I knew she was the person who could help me sell this course! That free twenty minute conversation changed my life. I walked away realizing that it didn’t matter how I had learned what I knew or whether I knew everything there is to know, my years of knowledge and experience matter! The fact that I know how to find the answers quickly matters. The fact that I want to help people get what they want matters, and it all has value. And when I decided to put systems and processes in place and create a web design package together that I knew I could deliver while still working full time at a price that felt good to me, I started to say YES to people that asked to work with me. And every time I worked with a client, I learned something new that would lead to a change in my process or my pricing. Oh that took WAY longer than I thought it would. I need to charge more for that next time. We got off track here, how can I prevent that from happening with the next client? I need help, I’m going to bring in some subcontractors so that I can get all of this work done on time. And over the next two years, I consistently grew the passive income I was making from courses and affiliate marketing, and the time-for-money income I was making building websites for clients. When I got to the point where I was completely maxed out on time and the amount of money I could make while still having a day job, I put in my notice at work. I quit my day job on January 2, 2018, and I’ve consistently earned between $8,000 – $10,000 month since becoming self-employed. Here are five things that I want you to take away from my story: You don’t need a portfolio to build credibility. I still don’t have a portfolio on my website! Simply give away everything you know for free by creating tutorials, training and content. It positions you as trustworthy and as credible to people that need what you have to offer.   You can call yourself a web designer whether you’ve had paying clients or not. If you know how to build a website (code or no code), then you’re a web designer! But I get it… if you’re not ready to say that just yet, you can offer web design services. Or say you build websites. Just know that no one has to bestow the title upon you.   You are definitely going to mess things up, but like Marie Forleo says, everything is figureoutable. Something is not going to go as you expect on every single project, but if you’re a problem-solver, if you’re persistent and you’re willing to dig in and figure it out, you’ll be fine. Yeah, you might lose some time, but you’ll know for the text time you come across that same problem!   You are never going to know everything there is to know. You just aren’t. There’s no better way to learn than as you go in real-life situations. Yes, it might take you longer. But are you confident in your ability to find the answers as you go? If you’re not confident, there’s no amount of learning or schooling that can get you there because you will always run into something you don’t know how to do.   Please don’t work for free or barter for experience or exposure. You’ll end up working for that client for free (or super cheap) forever. How do you draw the line between what you’ll do for free and what they have to now pay for? And once you get some paying clients, who is going to come last? Yep, the client who doesn’t pay you. And then they get resentful because now they are in a bad spot and you’re not available to help them. When you work for free, you also start getting referrals of clients that also can’t afford to pay you for your services. Your time and knowledge is valuable, even when you’re just starting out, and it gets even more valuable over time. You have got to start right out of the gate setting firm boundaries on your pricing, otherwise, like me, you’ll feel resentful, burnt out and at risk of giving up on your dream! If you’re going to spend any time doing something you aren’t immediately getting paid to do, spend it on creating free content that builds your credibility and putting together packages of services you feel confident you can deliver! So how do you start a web design business without a portfolio or having had a single client? Start by building the best website you’ve ever built for your own business. Pretend you are your own dream client and just knock your own socks off. Then, start creating content that helps other people get what they want and positions you as someone who knows her stuff. And give it all away for free to attract traffic to your website. You’re not giving away your time for free, you’re giving away your knowledge. There’s a difference. Then go create something extra awesome to build your email list, build trust over time through consistency and then let people know when you have open development spots on your schedule and set up free consultations. You’ll be closing sales with confidence in no time, and you’ll look back at the days where you worried about not having a portfolio with fond memories.

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! So you want to start a freelance web design business, but you’re just getting started so you haven’t had a paying client yet. Which means you don’t have a portfolio… So how are you going to get someone to pay you to build a website for them when you don’t have any client work to back you up? And since you haven’t had any paying clients, how can you even call yourself an actual web designer? You don’t have much experience, what if you mess something up? You shouldn’t charge that much when you’re just getting started. You definitely need to spend more time learning, because what if someone asks you for something you don’t know how to do? You just need more expertise, and the only way to get it is to work for free for friends and family until you have a good enough portfolio. And then you can slowly start charging for your work as you learn more. Eventually, you will know everything there is to know about web design, and then people will be lining up to give you their money! No. No. No and no!!! This is what most new freelance web designers think, and it’s so overwhelming that most of them never get started, or they quickly burn out before they ever start to make any real money. What if there was another way? A way to build your credibility without having a portfolio or having to work for free? I’m here to tell you that there is another way. I found it, quite by accident, and I’m gonna break it all down for you today. So back in 2014, I was working at a nonprofit doing a hybrid job of marketing and IT support. I had been at the company for about 7 years and I was making great money… but I was miserable. Every week sitting in the same rush hour traffic, listening to the same garbage morning radio show, rotating between the same two pairs of Express Editor pants, 5 New York & Company tops, and rotating between the black or brown pair of sensible Franco Sarto booties. Every day, doing the same pointless busy work, listening to the same complaints, navigating the same office politics. Every night, coming home too stressed out and exhausted from the drama of the day to think about what to make for dinner which led to the inevitable conversation with my husband: Me: “Where do you want to go for dinner tonight?” Him: “I don’t care.” Me: “Me neither, I just don’t want to make another decision, my brain is fried.” Him: “Okay, how about Flanagan’s?” Me: “Eh, I’m not feeling it…they don’t have anything healthy…” Him: Annoyed look. Me: “Okay, fine, whatever, that’s fine. I’ll find something I can eat there.” And then I eat a quesadilla washed down with a few Miller Lites for good measure, and now I’m finally feeling relaxed. Go home, go to bed. Sleep like crap. Wake up, start over. Waiting for the weekend. Wash, rinse, repeat. The one thing I loved about my job was WordPress. It’s not something I learned in college, it was a skill that came from me being a natural problem solver (and honestly a little bit of a rebel). I discovered WordPress around 2005. I worked at a law firm, and there was a guy who had scammed thousands of people out of money in a Ponzi scheme. Our firm was tasked with auctioning off all of his assets and distributing whatever they recovered to the victims – and they needed a way to be able to quickly communicate updates on the asset recovery to thousands of victims. Our website was not that nimble and required paying a ton of money to our web developer to update, so I did some research and discovered WordPress. I pitched the idea to my boss, offered to roll up my sleeves and figure it out and that’s when I fell in love with the power of WordPress. And then as I moved forward in my career and listened to people complain about how much time they spend doing ridiculous things that should be easier, I realized… WordPress can do that. There’s a plugin for that. We can automate that. We don’t have to spend tens of thousands on fancy software and hire web developers because I can totally build that. So that’s what I did, and I loved it. What I didn’t love is all the red tape involved. The meetings. The chain of command. The slow pace of progress – or the complete reversal of progress when people felt threatened by change. Then one day, I’m sitting in my beige office and I hear someone say, “Have you ever had 7-Up Salad? It’s got lemon jello, lime jello, marshmallows…” and I started to feel all panicky and I thought, “This cannot be it! There has got to be more to life than this!!! I cannot do this for the rest of my life!” And the panic was quickly replaced by the guilt because I made good money and great benefits and I should be happy with what I have so stop complaining because there are people less fortunate than you in this world, now get back to work! Around the same time my best friend had asked me to read Chalene Johnson’s PUSH with her, where you figure out ten life goals, and then the PUSH goal is the one that when accomplished makes all of the other goals easier. So here’s the conversation I had with myself as I was trying to figure out my PUSH goal: Okay, so I want to eat better, exercise more, lose weight, be less stressed and spend more time with my husband. What’s going to get me there? Being in control of my time and schedule. Okay, how will you do that? By being my own boss. How can you be your own boss? Start my own business. What are you going to do? Build websites with WordPress. Bingo. So I’m at the gym one day trying to exercise my way out of that quesadilla/Miller Lite habit I mentioned earlier, and this girl asks me what I do for a living. “I’m in IT. Oh, and I do web design on the side.” I immediately feel my face get hot. Why did you just lie to her? You’re not a web designer! You’ve never had one client, liar!!! “Ohmigosh, do you know WordPress? We use it at work and our developer ghosted and I’ve got this event coming up and I need major help.” Wait, so I can come to your rescue? She had said the magic words. We set a coffee date up, and I had my first client. A few weeks later, I mention this side hustle to a friend. “You know WordPress? My dad’s site got hacked and he doesn’t know what to do. Can you help?” Um, yep. I’ve cleaned a hack or two in my day. I can help. The following week, I get a phone call from a vendor at my day job. “Hey, who built your website? We have to move all of our clients to WordPress and we need help!” And before I know it, I’m working an extra 40 hours a week outside of my day job. But I’m not the web designer I always imagined – a creative genius who is building gorgeous, innovative websites that I’m proud to show off. I’m a pixel-pusher, taking orders and barely charging for my time because I feel bad that I’m not an expert certified web designer who can code a website from scratch with a degree in computer science – and these people really need my help! I can’t ask them for more money when they ask me for more changes – but I’m super resentful when they do!! Blend all of that with a family emergency and I was perfectly poised for a breakdown – which came in the form of me losing my ish on a coworker, sending a poorly written apology email, and taking the rest of the day off. This is too much. I’m wrapping up these client projects, and then I’m done, I thought. My dream of becoming a freelance web designer had died. Or so I thought. Because if you’re anything like me, once you REALLY want something, you’re not going to stop until you figure it out. I was on my way to work, and instead of listening to garbage morning radio I had started listening to podcasts, and this particular morning Chalene Johnson was interviewing this guy, Pat Flynn, who makes money by giving away everything he knows about creating passive income online, and he earns affiliate commissions on the plugins and themes and hosting and services people bought to implement what he taught. Wait, what??? It’s like I heard a record scratch in my own mind. This is a thing? You mean, I can create videos teaching everything I’ve learned about harnessing the power of WordPress over the past several years and make money from it – AND I won’t have to work with clients? Um, SIGN ME UP!!!! At that moment, everything changed. In my spare time, I started researching affiliate programs and was astounded at how many there were for products and services I already used. I began to outline my tutorial videos and scheduled time to record them. In the evenings worked on building my website and signing up for affiliate programs. On the weekends I recorded my tutorials and added them to my website. In just a couple of months, I had created the 5 Day Website Challenge, a free 5-module video course that teaches how to build an entire WordPress site, the same exact site I built for paying clients with no steps left out. It had a few affiliate recommendations in it for tools that I used myself and were teaching inside of the training, but 90% of it could be done at no cost to the Challenger. Okay, it’s done… now how do I get people to find it? Which led to the bigger question that I had failed to ask myself before diving in a building the thing… Who is this actually for? There have got to be more people out there like me, I thought. Women in their mid-thirties who just looked up one day and thought, is this it? Is this all there is to life? I had a different dream, and now I’m just trapped and I want the freedom of being my own boss, being in control of my time and taking the glass ceiling off of my earning potential. Women who want to start an online business like that B-School thing I kept hearing about or like Chalene teaches in her Marketing Impact Academy. I want to help those women build their websites so that they can have their dream too! The other thing that I knew from listening to Pat Flynn and Chalene Johnson is that I needed to build an email list. And so I set my WordPress training up to be something that I’d give away for free in exchange for an email address so I had that part down, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about building my email list. So I just Googled “how to build an email list” and I found Nathalie Lussier’s 30 Day List Building Challenge – and the strategies I learned in that training are what led me to my very first subscriber and my very first affiliate commissions, and the realization that I had created something that people really, really need. So I put my head down and focused on list-building. Get as many people as possible to sign up for the 5 Day Website Challenge so I can earn affiliate revenue and not be an order-taking pixel pusher (outside of my day job anyway). What I did not expect is that my dream clients started asking me to build their websites for them. Powerful women building life-changing online businesses wanted me to build their websites. And at first, I told them no, I don’t work one on one with clients. I just teach you how to DIY. And I was also very CONFUSED –  why would you want to pay me when I’m showing you exactly what to do – for free? But then it hit me. I had earned their trust by peeling back the curtain on my process. I had built credibility by freely giving away my knowledge. And people felt like they already knew and liked me because I shared stories like this one about why I was giving it all away for free to them because I didn’t want them to be held back by the tech. I didn’t have to “sell” my services, people were asking me if they could BUY from me. It’s a business owners’ dream! And I said no!!! Can you believe it? And I said no because I was afraid. I didn’t want it to feel like how it felt before when I had no systems, no processes, no boundaries and no help and placed no value on my skillset or my time. Plus I still had a day job and I wanted to have somewhat of a life outside of it! By then, I had released a paid WordPress training course that was not making the millions I had expected it to make, so I set up a consultation with a sales expert who had taken my 5 Day Website Challenge. She had reached out to me for some advice and when I read her website copy I knew she was the person who could help me sell this course! That free twenty-minute conversation changed my life. I walked away realizing that it didn’t matter how I had learned what I knew or whether I knew everything there is to know, my years of knowledge and experience MATTER! The fact that I know how to find the answers quickly MATTERS. The fact that I want to help people get what they want MATTERS, and it all has value. And when I decided to put systems and processes in place and create a web design package together that I knew I could deliver while still working full time at a price that felt good to me, I started to say YES to people that asked to work with me. And every time I worked with a client, I learned something new that would lead to a change in my process or my pricing. Oh, that took WAY longer than I thought it would. I need to charge more for that next time. We got off track here, how can I prevent that from happening with the next client? I need help, I’m going to bring in some subcontractors so that I can get all of this work done on time. And over the next two years, I consistently grew the passive income I was making from courses and affiliate marketing, and the time-for-money income I was making building websites for clients. When I got to the point where I was completely maxed out on time and the amount of money I could make while still having a day job, I put in a 7-month notice at work. I gave them 7 months because I’d also been promoted to an executive role and I wanted to give them plenty of time to find a replacement. I quit my day job on January 2, 2018, and I’ve consistently earned between $8,000 – $10,000 month since becoming self-employed. So here are five things that I want you to take away from my story: You don’t need a portfolio to build credibility. I still don’t have a portfolio on my website! Simply give away everything you know for free by creating tutorials, training, and content. It positions you as trustworthy and as credible to people that need what you have to offer. You can call yourself a web designer whether you’ve had paying clients or not. If you know how to build a website (code or no code), then you can call yourself a web designer. Or if you’re not ready to say that just yet, you can offer web design services. Or say you build websites. It’s not like being called Doctor. No one has to bestow the title upon you. You are definitely going to mess things up, but like Marie Forleo says, everything is figureoutable. Something is not going to go as you expect on every single project, but if you’re a problem-solver, if you’re persistent and you’re willing to dig in and figure it out, you’ll be fine. Yeah, you might lose some time, but you’ll know for the next time you come across that same problem! You are never going to know everything there is to know. You just aren’t. There’s no better way to learn than as you go in real-life situations. Yes, it might take you longer. But are you confident in your ability to find the answers as you go? If you’re not confident, there’s no amount of learning or schooling that can get you there because you will always run into something you don’t know how to do. Please don’t work for free or barter for experience or exposure. You’ll end up working for that client for free (or super cheap) forever. How do you draw the line between what you’ll do for free and what they have to now pay for? And once you get some paying clients, who is going to come last? Yep, the client who doesn’t pay you. And then they get resentful because now they are in a bad spot and you’re not available to help them. When you work for free, you also start getting referrals of clients that also can’t afford to pay you for your services. Your time and knowledge are valuable, even when you’re just starting out, and it gets even more valuable over time. You have got to start right out of the gate setting firm boundaries on your pricing, otherwise, like me, you’ll feel resentful, burnt out and at risk of giving up on your dream! If you’re going to spend any time doing something you aren’t immediately getting paid to do, spend it on creating free content that builds your credibility and putting together packages of services you feel confident you can deliver! So how do you start a web design business without a portfolio or having had a single client? Start by building the best website you’ve ever built for your own business. Pretend you are your own dream client and just knock your own socks off. Then, start creating content that helps other people get what they want and positions you as someone who knows her stuff. And give it all away for free to attract traffic to your website. You’re not giving away your time for free, you’re giving away your knowledge. There’s a difference. Then go create something extra awesome to build your email list, build trust over time through consistency and then let people know when you have open development spots on your schedule and set up free consultations. You’ll be closing sales with confidence in no time, and you’ll look back at the days where you worried about not having a portfolio with fond memories.

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! Something I have wrestled with since the day I launched the 5 Day Website Challenge is how much I’m giving away for free. The 5 Day Website Challenge is like, my whole entire web design process from start to finish. It’s the same process that clients pay me thousands of dollars to do for them, broken down into over five training videos. When I first launched it back in January of 2015, it was completely free with a Facebook group for support, and I earned affiliate commissions from those people that chose to purchase my recommended products. In the first 6 months the challenge grew from 0 to about 600 people – but what I realized is that most people are joining the Challenge after they already have web hosting, which is where I make the bulk of my affiliate commissions, so I wasn’t making as much money as I had expected based on typical conversion rates. Then about halfway through 2015, I decided to make the Facebook group a premium feature because it was there that I was spending a couple of hours a day answering questions that people had whenever they’d get stuck. I put this weird pressure on myself that I had to be in there constantly, letting no question go unanswered for more than a couple of hours, which was a super tall order considering I still had a day job and everything else I was doing for my company, WP+BFF. Guess what happened after I did that? Everything slowed. People stopped sharing the 5 Day Website Challenge. They weren’t upgrading to get access to the Facebook group. My email list growth stalled and my affiliate commissions stalled. I realized that I had removed a key part of the Challenge that helped me build the know, like, and trust factor that’s required for selling online – me, in the group, showing up, providing value and getting to know people – so I made the Facebook group free again, but set the expectation that I’d be in there answering questions just a couple times a week instead of 24/7. In my quest to further monetize what people would tell me, wow, I can’t believe you give all of that away for free, I joined a premium priced sales coaching training boot camp. My intention was to learn how to better sell my extended WordPress training. When I had my one-on-one call with the course creator, she swiftly told me that I should make Days 1 and 2 free, but make people pay to continue the Challenge. Her reasoning was that most people were dropping off at Day 3 anyway, so why not get the people that are fully invested to pay. And I get it. I understand what she meant by getting those people who were already bought in to by in further and giving them a chance to pay me, but I actually never tried that… It just didn’t sit right with me. It felt like a bait and switch. I mean, I’m sure I could have made it work so it felt authentic, but at the time I just couldn’t see how. My gut told me not to do it. So I continued doing what I was doing for a while until it was time to update my videos, which I do about every 6-9 months. At that time, I also decided to upgrade my online course platform. I was using OptimizePress, which at $99 a year is a steal over other online course platforms, although sometimes it feels like you have to be a rocket scientist to get all the options just right for it to work the way you intend (which is why I created a course on it, but that’s another story). My mentor-from-afar Nathalie Lussier had just released her AccessAlly plugin and I had just moved from Mailchimp to Infusionsoft for my email marketing platform, so I was totally able to use her plugin – and I was pumped because it really is like the cream of the crop when it comes to online course plugins. It’s so intuitive and it’s really built with the entrepreneur in mind. So instead, I decided to offer an instant access upgrade. I got the idea from Nathalie Lussier’s 30 Day List Building Challenge – it’s a totally free training that is dripped out over 30 days, but if you want to unlock all 30 Days at once, you can pay like $27 and get it all. So I decided that instead of taking part of the Challenge away after a couple of days and putting it behind a paywall, I’d make an offer to the people that really were serious and major action takers and give them an opportunity to get access to all 5 days of the Challenge at once plus some bonus content for just $17. But to be totally honest, I wrestled with it. Sometimes it felt like I was totally devaluing myself. If I really wanted to quit my day job, I did need to make actual money to pay the bills, right? So last fall, I was at a conference in my hometown called Women in Digital, and I can’t even remember what the session was about, but I could feel this internal struggle building up in me during the presentation, so when it was time for Q&A I raised my hand and I said, “I’m a web designer, and I provide 1:1 web design services but also teach entrepreneurs how to build their own websites with WordPress, and I have this tutorial series that I give away totally for free. But I struggle with this all the time – why would anyone hire me when I’m giving away my entire process for free? I feel like I’m shooting myself in the foot sometimes.” And the presenter told me to go buy this book called Getting Naked and it would give me some perspective on why I should keep doing what I’m doing. So being the good student that I am, I promptly ordered it on Amazon Prime and it arrived at my door the next day. I cracked it open, and read the first few pages and I was like, “Okay, this is SO BORING, I don’t see what it has to do with my question at all, I don’t have time for this, I’ll read some other time.” And I put it on my bookshelf and there it sat, for a year. And in the meantime, I relaunched my 5 Day Website Challenge again, this time testing a new monetization strategy: free for 30 days, upgrade for $29 any time for lifetime access. A few weeks ago, something inspired me to pick it back up. Who knows what. So it’s a story about this guy who works at a management consulting firm that acquires their nemesis consulting firm who like, wins every single contract and has raving fans for clients and gets all their business on referrals and has like no sales team. And it’s this guy’s job to go in, figure out what’s going on with all of their clients and absorb them all into this monster firm. And he’s shocked one day when he goes out on a pitch meeting with this firm because they didn’t have a sales presentation or big partners with them, they literally went into this meeting and got straight to work on figuring out what the problems were and providing solutions. And the mean guy is like “You’re working for free? Aren’t you going to bill them for that? You weren’t even prepared with a sales presentation.” And the other guy is like “We don’t do that, we’re partners with our clients, we don’t care if they go and use one of our ideas from that free meeting and go make $10 million dollars, we know who they are going to call or refer when they need someone.” And that’s exactly what I have experienced. People who built websites with me three years ago with my free Challenge are now at a point in their business where they are ready to take it to the next level and too busy to DIY, or they just need something more robust that they want my team to build for them. People that built a website with me that will probably never buy a single thing from me send referrals my way constantly which result in revenue. The word of mouth marketing I get is awesome. Would I make more money if I put everything behind a paywall? Maybe in the short term, but I think I’d have to spend a lot more on marketing to get people in the door. And my $29 for lifetime access test? Some people are going to tell me that price is way too low and that I’m making it seem like it’s not worth it to pay for. Others will tell me it’s too expensive. Others think it’s a bargain, and others think it’s the right price. It’s all relative. But in looking at my stats – if people are going to upgrade, they do it in the first 5 days because they are super motivated to get their site done. And those people that upgrade are likely to become customers of my other products – and it’s because they are the type of target customer I’m trying to attract, not because my training isn’t any good and no one will pay for it – which is a thought I’ve been guilty of thinking even in the face of hundreds of testimonials that say otherwise. If people don’t upgrade then, what my data shows me is that the majority – not everyone, there are always exceptions – but the majority are unlikely to complete the challenge at all, let alone pay for lifetime access. So I tell you all of this today to tell you two things: Don’t be afraid to give away your best stuff for free. Not your TIME, but your best information, tips, and strategies. It shows your expertise, builds your credibility and it builds trust and the value comes back to you in other ways besides money. Referrals. Customers who have been waiting for the right time to work with you. Word of mouth. And two: test different pricing strategies and be willing to accept whatever outcome the data shows you. Try not to get your self-worth all tied up in it. Test different things, find what feels right for YOU. As you gain confidence, you’ll increase your price. And everyone if going to have a different opinion of your price. Try not to have making money be the only factor in your pricing strategy. I know that sounds weird because it’s business, and we’re in business to make money, but I’m also in business to make an impact AND make money. What about you?

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! Expenses Breakdown Tools: AccessAlly (Membership plugin for all of my courses) – $79.00 Acuity Scheduling (Done For You Consultations) – $10.00 Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, etc.) $64.48 Auphonic (audio optimization for podcast) – $11.00 Bluehost – $79.76 Dropbox (File Storage) – $19.99 FreeConferenceCall.com (Coaching & Client Calls) – $3.00 GDPR Compliance Plugins – $76.61 GSuite (wp-bff.com Email) – $10.76 HauteStock (Stock Photography) – $99.00 Infusionsoft (email marketing, automation, e-commerce & customer management) – $341.45 LibSyn (Podcast Hosting) – $8.00 ManageWP (WordPress Site Management for Clients & WordPress Protection Package) – $102.77 Popup Ally Annual License Renewal (List building plugin) – $99.00 Soundup (Alexa Flash Briefing Hosting) – $9.99 WP Imagify (Speed Optimization) – $9.99 WP Rocket – 2 Licenses (Speed Optimization) – $78.00 Zapier – $15.00 Client Plugin Renewals – $263.30 Total: $1381.10 Marketing: Bonjoro (Video Welcome Service) – $25.00 CoSchedule (Social Media Scheduling) – $59.00 LinkTree Pro (Instagram Profile Links) $6.00 Total: $90.00 Professional Services: Bench Accounting – $135.00 Total: $135.00 Help: Subcontractors (VA Team, Graphic Designer, Web Developers, Pinterest Specialist) $2040.00 Learning/Mentorship: Mindmeister Annual Subscription – $35.94 Sally Hogshead How to Fascinate – $27.99 Total: $63.48 Travel: None Bank/Credit Card Processing Fees: Credit Card Processing Fees: $188.74 Office Supplies: None Total Expenses: $3898.32 Net Profit: $5656.04 Biggest Lessons Learned The biggest lesson I learned as I reflected back on May is that when I protect my time, I feel more in control. When I started scheduling and blocking my time in this new way, I felt more in control. When I was able to work on the projects that I love, like the 5 Day Website Challenge and Pep Talks for Side Hustlers and marketing, it all feels right and worth it. And that it’s very important that I write these income reports and review them sooner than three months behind. Because they help me get so much perspective and even some clarity about what to do next. Remember how I almost spiralled out of control in April from taking on too much client work? Well, I was still hungover from that in May and it really clouded my decision-making. I had a few Done For You proposals still out there that I decided to put some intentional effort to follow up on these projects and book them… “but if I do this,” I thought, “I’m going to need to bring on a project manager to manage them.” And I was really torn, because I know bringing someone on is going eat into my profit and I NEED to put a paycheck into the bank every two weeks… But I’m also trying to put my time into raising my passive income, and part of that could be hiring a team to run the Done For You projects, raising prices and me just selling them and coaching a team through the actual work. I don’t have to be the one doing all the things, I just need to slow down enough and make space to hand things over to people who are better suited to do them than I am – and on a per project basis rather than a monthly contract until I have a consistent, stable income. I can’t (and shouldn’t) do every single thing in my business. That’s how I end up making $15.62 an hour. Because honestly, I feel like if I give up on client work, I gotta shut down the Web Designer Academy too. Right? And am I ready to do that? No, I love mentoring other web designers that are just getting started. I would NEVER coach them to build the situation I had created for myself. But for some reason I was just not taking my own advice!!! So I posted a position to my Web Designer Academy students, and three amazing candidates applied!! “Okay, so now what? How do I choose?” I thought. Oh, and I had no guaranteed work to give to them because these proposals – where I had gotten a verbal yes that prompted me to even post this job description – hadn’t yet signed a contract or paid a deposit – which means they’re not actual jobs on my schedule. So I asked each candidate if they would be willing to do a trial project and I told them that it wouldn’t be until I booked a new project. Guess what? I didn’t book a single new project in May. And I’m not at all surprised. The energy I was putting out closed off any possibility of that happening. In fact, I was relieved. Relief wins out over everything. But I felt bad about getting three awesome people all excited to work with me and then womp womp, nevermind! I don’t have any projects for you after all!! Running a business is HARD when there are other people besides me involved! So I put my head down into redoing the 5 Day Website Challenge and adjusting the marketing, the sales funnel and the pricing strategy. I took a deep dive into Nathalie Lussier’s AccessAlly and implemented all kinds of new features that weren’t there when I first started using it three years ago. It was a total blast, and things started to feel right again. But I knew deep down, I was still going to have to make some cuts, that my expenses were still way too high especially with no new Done For You Clients coming in to cover them. And when you look at my income reports, you can see that there’s one clear place to make a few cuts that have a big impact. Independent contractors. The people I pay to help me with day-to-day stuff and DFY projects. Ugh, these are real people whose contracts I need to cancel. It’s not like just cancelling a subscription, it’s like telling someone “Hey, remember I used to pay you X? Well, you can’t count on that anymore… Hope you can still pay your bills!!” And I know it’s my own hangups around money that make me feel terrible, that make me dread having those conversations, because I feel like I’m putting that person in a bad spot. And because I’m afraid of not having enough money and I’m projecting it onto other people. But it’s not personal, it’s business. But it is personal, to me. I’m sensitive. I care about stuff like that. But I also have to put myself and the health of my business first. So I cancelled my Pinterest management contract and took that on myself with the goal of learning exactly what I was outsourcing. I honestly feel like I made a mistake jumping into that one so quickly, but that’s a blog post for another time. And again, I felt relieved. Some of the financial pressure was lifted. I had two more contracts to cancel… But those, I still had to muster up the courage and it took me until June to do it. All in all, I’m proud of myself. I have consistently shown that I know how to make money. When I quit my day job because I had maxed out my ability to grow my side hustle, I thought “If I just had more time I’d be able to generate $10K a month.” And I was right. But it didn’t turn out the way that I thought it would. It’s not all smooth sailing. And the reasons why I love writing these income reports is because most of the time, this feels hard. Like, when I’m in the thick of it. But then when I reflect back on the month, I think: “Wow, Shannon. Look what you were able to accomplish in 30 days. And you’re pushing through the hard stuff and you’re not giving up. And here’s a little perspective for you: And in the past four years, you haven’t gone into debt, you haven’t dipped into personal savings, you’ve been profitable from day 1, and you haven’t missed a paycheck. You are so powerful. You are going to eventually get this working the way you want it to work so that it FEELS the way you want it to feel and you’re not worried about money all the time. I wouldn’t change a thing about this journey. Not one thing.

Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I have met many smart, savvy, and inspirational online entrepreneurs. These powerhouse online business owners have truly motivated me and made a significant impact on my life and journey in entrepreneurship. To celebrate our 200th episode of The Sigrun Show - as well as achieving 100,000 organic downloads without paid promotion, I reached out to some of my favorite guests to share their best business advice for new online entrepreneurs. I asked them to think back to where their life and business was five years ago to gain inspiration and ideas about what advice they would give to a new online business owner. Here's what they said…   Step Outside Your Comfort Zone Kate Erickson, the host of Kate's Take podcast and Implementer at Entrepreneurs On Fire, was the first guest on the show. After seeing her keynote talk at Social Media Marketing World in 2017 - where she shared how she started her podcast with simple equipment and reading her blog posts - Her speech created a lightbulb moment for me and I was inspired to finally take the leap and start The Sigrun Show. For our 200th episode celebration, Kate shares how stepping out of her comfort zone has been the key to creating the success she desired to advance her career and business. Kate Erickson's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “Step outside of your comfort zone.”   Surround Yourself with the Right People Mark Schaefer was also a significant inspiration in my podcasting journey after I saw him speak at Social Media Marketing World in 2017. His speech inspired another lightbulb moment… to launch my podcast with 100 episodes in 100 days and, of course, I wanted him to be one of the amazing guests on my show! In episode 5, he talked about how to become known in your industry in as little as 30 months or less and covered some of the topics that he wrote about in his book Known, which launched last year. In this episode, he shares an important piece of advice on how to build a successful business that he learned from one of his past mentors. Mark Schaefer's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “Surround yourself with the right people. Have the courage to rely on people other than yourself and be smart enough to know the possibilities to ask the right questions.”   Don't Wait! Take Inspired Action. My third guest on the show was Elena Herdieckerhoff in episode 7 and she discussed how she achieved an unbelievable 1 million views on her TEDx Talk. Elena is a dear friend of mine as well as a mastermind buddy in a mastermind group I've been a part of for over four years. She has successfully built and sold a skincare brand, and is currently the founder of Red Dot Stage. In this episode, she shares how she learned that believing that you are good enough and taking inspired action is the key to building a successful, profitable, and sellable online business. Elena Herdieckerhoff's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “If you know there is one big game-changer that will put your business on the map, decide today that you are good enough and are able to make it happen. Don't wait for the ideal time or opportunity. Simply make your game changer your priority. Take inspired action and you will make it happen sooner than you think.”   Keep Learning & Implementing In episode 9, I interviewed Natalie Sisson, who was the fourth powerhouse entrepreneur on The Sigrun Show, where she explained why after seven years of running her business, the Suitcase Entrepreneur, she decided to take a sabbatical. Natalie was one of the first online entrepreneurs I started following five or six years ago and was a huge inspiration to me while starting my online business. Since her sabbatical, she has rebranded her business under her own name and has a book coming out soon! Natalie Sisson's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “Keep learning. Keep implementing and continue to be a leading learner.”   Stop Trying to Be Perfect While I was preparing to launch my show, I reached out to my community and asked who they would like to hear as a guest on the show. Zach Spuckler was one of the first - and most requested - names that people asked for. Zach is best known as the creator of the 5-Day Challenge course and the host of the Heart, Soul, Hustle podcast. On episode 15, he shared how to use a challenge to sell your high-end program. He is a wizard when it comes to implementing launch and funnel strategies and creative marketing ideas, and he continues to inspire me and others to try new things and keep innovating. Zach Spuckler's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “Stop trying to be perfect. Stop thinking that the first draft is going to be everything and more. Get something out there! If you don't put an offer out into the world, people can't pay you and if you don't get paid - you can't run a business.”   Write an Exit Strategy Today! My dear friend and mastermind buddy, Shazzie, has successfully built a multiple 7-figure business that she later sold. Since one of my 2017 business goals was to grow my business to become a 7-figure business, I decided to feature her on my podcast. On episode 19, she shares how she turned her passion and business idea into a million-dollar company and today, she explains why it's important for online entrepreneurs to create an exit strategy sooner rather than later. Shazzie's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “Write an exit strategy today. Now. It's a magical spell that creates the brightest possible future for yourself and your loved ones.”   Attention is the Online Currency Jill Stanton and her husband Josh are the founders and creators of the Screw the Nine To Five Facebook community and membership site where they help unsatisfied and aspiring entrepreneurs build the life and business of their dreams through actionable strategies, simple how-to, resources and tools, and so much more. Jill previously joined me on episode 29 where she shared the secret behind gaining raving fans and high retention rates. Her top business advice is for entrepreneurs to truly understand why building your reputation and putting yourself out there is critical to building a successful online business. Jill Stanton's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “Attention is the currency online. When you have it - everything becomes so much easier. So put yourself out there. Spread the word!”   Look at Your Big Picture Goals Sarah Grear is a phenomenal copywriter, copy conversion expert, and the creative director and owner of Creative Custom Writing, Inc. I have been friends with Sarah for several years so when I was preparing to launch SOMBA for the first time, it was a no-brainer that I should work with her to create a compelling sales page. After I launched The Sigrun Show, I reached out to Sarah to be a guest on the show to share her insight and tips for online entrepreneurs on how to grow their businesses from six to seven figures by honing their copywriting skills. To celebrate our 200th episode, Sarah explains why new entrepreneurs need to look at the bigger picture goals when creating their online packages and setting their prices instead of simply settling with lower priced projects. Sarah Grear's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “Look at the big picture goals when you make decisions about the packaging or what you are offering to your clients so you can make those decisions to grow in your business.”   Success Lies in Consistency Over the last 200 episodes, I have rarely featured any single guest more than once - Lorraine Dallmeier has officially broken a new record for The Sigrun Show. Including today's episode, she has been featured as a guest expert in three episodes. Lorraine first joined me on the show in episode 81, where she discussed how she bought an online business four years ago and grew it from earning low five figures to over seven figures per year. In episode 180, she shared the 5 types of copycats and a 10 step action plan on how to deal with copycats. In this episode, she shares why the key to building a highly successful and profitable business lies in taking consistent action each day. Lorraine Dallmeier's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “The key to success lies in consistency. Don't ever stop what you are doing; just keep going every day because you'll constantly build up your business further.”   Start Small and Scale Up When I attended Chris Ducker's Youpreneur Summit in London last November, I had the opportunity to see Janet Murray speak on the power of PR. Janet is the host of The Janet Murray Show and the founder of Soulful PR. I had the pleasure of interviewing her in episode 117 where she shares how entrepreneurs can get free PR for their online business as well as how they can use stories unrelated to their business to promote their brand. So, it's not a surprise that her key piece of advice for online entrepreneurs is related to building and growing your audience. Janet Murray's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “Start small and scale up as you're building your audience.”   Focus Your Message April Perry is the owner of LearnDoBecome.com where she teaches thousands of entrepreneurs, companies, and individuals around the world the system she created to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed. In episode 150, she shared how she used to feel overwhelmed and how she overcame that feeling by creating systems, routines, and building what she calls a “command center.” As many entrepreneurs often feel overwhelmed in running their businesses while taking care of their families, that episode has been one of the most popular episodes of the show. Now, she shares how she learned the power behind having a focused message in your sales copy and marketing strategy can significantly impact the growth of your business. April Perry's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “When you have a focused message and a clear way people can hire you to solve a pain point, you can grow a business and really help a lot of people in the process.”   Be Open to New Opportunities Tiffany Lee Bymaster had a fascinating career as a makeup artist and stylist, working with some amazing actors on the set of television shows and movies. She was also a talented lifestyle blogger and today is widely recognized as Coach Glitter. Tiffany joined me in episode 172 where she talked about how entrepreneurs should become comfortable with taking imperfect actions to achieve their business goals. She is one of the best affiliate marketers I know and is a true inspiration for thousands of online entrepreneurs. In this episode, she shares why it's important for entrepreneurs to be open to new possibilities and opportunities that life presents to us on a daily basis. Tiffany Lee Bymaster's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “Be open to the possibilities of things. You can't even predict where your life may take you next. Keep your mind, heart, and soul open to all of the opportunities that life will present to you on a daily basis.”   Be a Leading Learner When I started my journey into building an online business, Nathalie Lussier was one of the first online entrepreneurs I noticed and began following, so when I met up with her at Social Media Marketing World 2018 - I asked her to be a guest on my show to share her story. Nathalie is the creator of the 30-Day List Building Challenge. In episode 194, she shares how this well-known challenge has impacted her business and how creating the ultimate challenge can help you build your online business. When I reached out to her to participate in our 200th episode celebration and share one piece of key advice she would tell a new entrepreneur - she did not hesitate, nor disappoint. Nathalie Lussier's Advice for Online Entrepreneurs: “Keep learning. Keep implementing and continue to be a leading learner.”   Let's Celebrate! Launching The Sigrun Show in August 2017 was a dream come true and now reaching 200 episodes is a very proud moment. I am grateful to all of the guests that have come on the show - and a special thanks to those who have contributed to episode 200. I'd love to celebrate this milestone with you too - with a GIVEAWAY! Go to sigrun.com/200 now for all the details!

Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and the creator of the 30-Day List Building Challenge. She created her first website at the age of 12 and, later,  graduated from college with a Software Engineering degree. She refused a job offer from Wall Street to start her own business. Together with her husband, Nathalie currently runs her online software business, and has been featured in Inc. Magazine, FastCompany, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, and Business Insider. Nathalie joins me to share how to create the ultimate challenge to build your business. She shares how she developed her idea for the 30-Day List Building Challenge as well as the strategies she uses to motivate people to finish the challenge. She also explains how to include tripwires in your marketing strategy as well as the lessons she has learned throughout her journey as an online entrepreneur.   “Getting people engaged and getting them the results you promised is really what it's all about.” - Nathalie Lussier In This Episode of The Sigrun Show: How Nathalie got into online business How the 30-Day List Building Challenge helps her current online software business What is a tripwire and how it works How PopupAlly and AccessAlly have prepared for the GDPR regulation changes How to create free content to encourage your audience to complete your challenge What gamification is, how it works, and ways to implement it Key Takeaways: The natural progression from list building is to launch something. Think about putting yourself in the shoes of the person taking this course or this program. Think about how busy their life is and how they're trying to fit this into their schedules. When creating content for your free course, do shorter videos and easy-to-digest type of content. Use psychology and motivation to encourage challenge-takers to complete your course. Think about prizes that complement the kind of content you are creating. Resources Mentioned: Coursera   Connect with Nathalie Lussier: AmbitionAlly PopupAlly Pro AccessAlly 30-Day List Building Challenge Please share, subscribe and review on iTunes Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Sigrun Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe and review on iTunes or Google Play Music so more people can enjoy the show. Don't forget to follow and connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Get Your Free Training Through my own entrepreneurial journey and by training thousands of online entrepreneurs I've identified 7 STAGES of a Profitable Online Business. Get free access to the 7 Stages training videos and take your online business to the next stage.

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! Hey, BFFs!!! So in my Free 5-Day Website Challenge, I kinda feel like I did a bait and switch on you… I lure you into the Free 5-Day Website Challenge with the promise of helping you to build a website. And I totally deliver on that promise… but… At about Day 3 of the Challenge, I hop up onto my soapbox and tell you that you have to build an email list. Like, I don’t care what your business is, you have to build an email list. The whole entire point of me even teaching you how to build your website is to give you a mechanism for building your email list. Pretty sneaky, right??? Building the actual WordPress site is the easy part. Getting the design, look, and feel the way you want, a little bit harder, but still totally doable. Writing your content and adding it to the site – that takes time and a clear vision of who you are and who you serve. It’s getting people to your site once it’s done that’s the hard part. And do you know what most people do? They focus on SEO (search engine optimization). They ask things like: How do I get on the first page of Google? I heard that Google will penalized me if (insert reason here). I need to make sure I don’t do that. I heard that Google likes it when you do (insert SEO thing here). I need to make sure I do that all over my whole entire site. And then they spend all of their time in a dark room with their laptop, tweaking every single word and image on every single page and post on their site, testing page speeds and file sizes and meta tags and alt tags and… I could go on and on and on. But do you know what they aren’t doing? Intentionally driving targeted traffic to their website. Connecting with real people. Interacting. Providing value. Putting something OUT so that something can come back IN. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Is SEO important? Yes!! Absolutely it’s important. But when you’re a solopreneur who’s just starting out, it’s not important yet. It’s not the best way for you to be spending your time. The amount of time and effort you would put into SEO when you’re a brand new online entrepreneur would far outweigh the benefits (in most cases.) So what should you do instead? The 30 Day List Building Challenge!!!!! Don’t let the name fool you. Just like the Free 5 Day Website Challenge, it’s kind of a bait and switch… The 30 Day List Building Challenge is going to show you exactly what to do, step by step over 30 days to drive traffic to your website and how to convert that traffic into subscribers. And that’s the secret sauce to building an online business that you love. Because once you get people on your email list, you can start to create a relationship with them through providing more valuable, actionable, relevant content and eventually offer them something for sale. And you can track how people interact with your email. Did they open? Did they click? What did they click on? They must be interested in X, I’ll send them more content related to X. Maybe I need to create a product or service around X because so many people are interested in the topic. Or maybe I thought people would be interested and no one was, so I know that I probably shouldn’t waste my time creating a product around X. Without an email list, you’re really just taking stabs in the dark. The 30 Day List Building Challenge is entirely responsible for the growth of my business. I didn’t know this whole online entrepreneur thing existed. I didn’t know there were people in Facebook groups supporting each other as they build their businesses. I built the Free 5 Day Website Challenge and had no idea what to do next to actually get it in front of people. So I did what I always do: GTS (Google That Shit). I literally typed in “how to build an email list” and voila, the Free 30 Day List Building Challenge appeared. Oh, the irony… I signed up, followed the steps on Day 1, paid for instant access to all 30 days because I just couldn’t wait that long to get started, and after following the steps laid out for me, I instantly went from 0 subscribers and zero money to 1 subscriber and $115 in affiliate commissions. That’s not a big, sexy number, is it? But it starts with ONE. You add subscribers to your list one at a time. You add customers to your business one at a time. And that one subscriber confirmed for me that I created something that people need. So I continued following the steps laid out in the 30 Day List Building Challenge, and now, 3 years later I have just over 4,100 highly targeted prospects and customers on my email list. I had my first $5,000 month, then my first $10,000 month and a few more $10,000 months after that. You can read all about that here. So here’s why I’m telling you all of this: From June 1st to June 30th, the 30 Day List Building Challenge will be happening LIVE. I’m going to do the Challenge, and the creator of the Challenge, Nathalie Lussier, will be list-building right along with us. Nathalie will be sharing tons of $0 budget list-building tips (so we don’t have to waste our budget on Facebook Ads to grow our audiences!) plus a special 30-day printable schedule that we can follow day-by-day to reach our list building goals. She’ll talk about all the different ways to build our lists, so we can pick which one to focus on in June – and how to design an amazing opt-in giveaway that gets shared like crazy!! And I’ll be sharing with you my most effective list building strategies and trying out new ones too! Here’s how to join us: Sign up for the 30 Day List Building Challenge here Mark your calendars for Wednesday, May 24 at 7PM PST (9PM Central, 10PM Eastern) for a LIVE interview on Facebook with Nathalie Lussier on Vicki Fitch Live to kick things off. Click here to RSVP to the event on Facebook and Like Vicki’s Facebook page here to be notified when she goes live! Commit to taking one small action step to grow your list each day starting June 1st. Then at the end of the 30 days, you’ll look back and see that you’ve grown your email list with a ton of new highly targeted and super engaged fans and potential customers. And THAT is how you build an online business you love. Can’t wait to see you in the 30 Day List Building Challenge!!! P.S. The 30 Day List Building Challenge works no matter what market or niche your business is in… and most of the strategies involved are totally free. What have you got to lose? Sign up here.

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! Welcome to my January Income Report! Each month I publish an income report to take you behind the scenes of my side hustle and reveal exactly how much money I make, how much I spend and lessons learned along the way! If you want to build a website and learn how to make money online, check out this blog post on how to get started! View all of my income reports here! January 2018 Month in Review January 2, 2018 was my very first day of self-employment and I had spent three months planning a huge live, online party to celebrate. #SideHustleGoneSerious was a 2-hour live broadcast on Facebook Live which including dream guests like Nathalie Lussier and Rebecca Tracey of the Uncaged Life (um, pinch me, did that really happen?) Bree Pair of Thrive Creative Events and my business coach, Vicki Fitch, who pushed me to hold the event, helped me plan it and emcee’d the whole thing. My affiliate partners Bluehost and Theme Foundry contributed free hosting and free Make Plus upgrades and we did fun giveaways all night! The livestream generated 5,700 views 97 shares and hundreds of likes (are you kidding me right now?), and it was an amazing way to kick off the new year and my new business!! Then, on January 2, when all my former coworkers were heading back into the office, I treated myself to a massage. And two days later, I did something that I never would have been able to do the first week of January had I still been an employee  – I jumped on an airplane and took a 5-day trip to visit my best friend in Colorado. I spent the month taking full advantage of my newfound freedom. Working from bed. Meeting my husband for lunch on a random Monday (we had never gone to lunch together in our 15 years together, you guys, even when we worked together). Staying in pajamas all day… you know, basically pretending to be a teenager again. Important Things That Happened in January I opened enrollment for my Web Designer Academy again in January as a live launch with a closed cart. Live launches take a lot of resources and time, and after my experience in January, I’ve decided to test out making it an evergreen program starting in April of 2018. I also launched my Serious Side Hustlers Membership Program in January, which took all of the content I had previously had inside of the BFF Academy for $199 and made it more accessible to beginners at just $29/month. I tested launching the program with a 7-day free trial for live viewers on my WordPress Tips, Tricks and Hacks webinar and promoted it again on my Make Plus webinar – and the replays of those webinars were added as modules inside of Serious Side Hustlers. I did have a few cancellations within the 7 days, but the majority of people who took advantage of the free trial remained members (hi guys!! you rock!!). I started sending out short tutorials weekly on Saturday mornings to keep people engaged and moving forward without feeling overwhelmed, something I really felt was lacking in the BFF Academy. I also had several Done For You projects that I was determined to wrap up in January. Review of My Goals My number one goal in January was to have $10,000 in revenue because my rough breakdown to replace my paycheck, cover business expenses and pay taxes is: $5000 – Income to cover my old monthly paycheck. $2500 – Expenses $2500 – Taxes I also set the goal to add 333 email subscribers, launch my new subscription-model for access to my courses, launch the Web Designer Academy and write two guest posts – one for the Thrive and the other for Nathalie Lussier (didn’t happen). What I Focused on in January As I was trying on my newfound freedom in my first month of self-employment, I also felt the pressure of actually hitting my income goals for the first time since I started my business- because this month, no paycheck was going to magically appear in my bank account on January 15. You can learn more about my weird money issues in this blog post, The Lies I Tell Myself About Money and on this Facebook Live with Michelle Bobrow of the Holistic Wallet. And unlike the past 3 years where I could be a little looser with spending in my business because I was reinvesting much of what I made back into it, now I felt a lot of pressure to pay myself first using the Profit First model (great book – check it out here), which I wasn’t used to doing. Sure, I had put money away to help me weather the ups and downs, but I just feel like I have something to prove, that I can hit these numbers on a monthly basis and our personal bank account won’t see any difference in the amount being deposited into it twice a month (now by me instead of my employer). So, my focus on January was purely on making money. Obsessively. To the point where if I continued on like that, it would be detrimental to the foundation of my business. To the point where my husband is telling me to chill out. Historically, any time I have focused on just the numbers and not the why behind the numbers or the people I’m helping, my rate of growth slows down because I’m not doing what I need to do to reach new people and nurture the relationships I currently have.     Find out exactly how I made $10,016.93 in my online business in January 2018CLICK TO TWEET    So here’s what it looked like in January. Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here. Income PASSIVE INCOME TOTAL: $3600.55 TIME FOR MONEY TOTAL: $6416.38 Done For You Projects – $3916.38 Consulting – $2500 Total Income: $10,016.93 Total Expenses: $2486.96 Net Profit: $7529.97 Biggest Lesson Learned I’m writing this income report in early April, so I’ve learned a lot of lessons in my first three months in business which I outlined for you here in this blog post, The Truth About My First Three Months of Self Employment. With my Done For You web design projects,  I discovered is that I hadn’t been giving my clients enough time to pull together what they need to on their end. So reflecting on that, I restructured my Done For You Process to build in more time to help my clients create their content and build in more checkpoints and deadlines to keep projects moving forward. Now that I feel like I have a better process for these projects, I’ll be marketing them more. Ultimately, my goal is to have more revenue on the passive income side than the trading my time for money side, but my last few Done For You Projects went so smoothly with this new process that I’m going to continue focus on growing a team to help with those projects. And this change is resulting in a new module in theWeb Designer Academy where I teach web designers how to get clients and effectively manage projects. Reflecting just on what I’ve outlined here in January, looking at these numbers, the biggest takeaway I’m seeing is that I’ve got lots of different opportunities to increase my revenue on the passive income side. I’m moving away from the traditional launch model where I have an open and closed cart to a model where anyone can join any of my programs at any time. It’s a model that feels better to me in many ways – more authentic to me, and also it’s not a huge time-suck like I’ve found the traditional launch process to be. I’ve created affordable payment plans which not only helps my community of beginners get access to the content, it also creates steady, recurring revenue for me. It’s a win-win in my opinion. What I haven’t been doing as well is promoting all of these opportunities because I’ve been so hyper-focused on bringing in that $10,000 that I’m not looking at the long-term growth of my business. Not anymore, BFFs! Not anymore. You’re going to see lots of cool stuff coming in the next few months to fuel the growth of the passive income side of my business – because that’s what’s scalable! So, what questions do you have for me about this income report and how I run my business?

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com Already have a website? Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com Leave a Review! Welcome to my January Income Report! Each month I publish an income report to take you behind the scenes of my side hustle and reveal exactly how much money I make, how much I spend and lessons learned along the way! If you want to build a website and learn how to make money online, check out this blog post on how to get started! View all of my income reports here! January 2018 Month in Review January 2, 2018 was my very first day of self-employment and I had spent three months planning a huge live, online party to celebrate. #SideHustleGoneSerious was a 2-hour live broadcast on Facebook Live which including dream guests like Nathalie Lussier and Rebecca Tracey of the Uncaged Life (um, pinch me, did that really happen?) Bree Pair of Thrive Creative Events and my business coach, Vicki Fitch, who pushed me to hold the event, helped me plan it and emcee’d the whole thing. My affiliate partners Bluehost and Theme Foundry contributed free hosting and free Make Plus upgrades and we did fun giveaways all night! The livestream generated 5,700 views 97 shares and hundreds of likes (are you kidding me right now?), and it was an amazing way to kick off the new year and my new business!! Then, on January 2, when all my former coworkers were heading back into the office, I treated myself to a massage. And two days later, I did something that I never would have been able to do the first week of January had I still been an employee  – I jumped on an airplane and took a 5-day trip to visit my best friend in Colorado. I spent the month taking full advantage of my newfound freedom. Working from bed. Meeting my husband for lunch on a random Monday (we had never gone to lunch together in our 15 years together, you guys, even when we worked together). Staying in pajamas all day… you know, basically pretending to be a teenager again. Important Things That Happened in January I opened enrollment for my Web Designer Academy again in January as a live launch with a closed cart. Live launches take a lot of resources and time, and after my experience in January, I’ve decided to test out making it an evergreen program starting in April of 2018. I also launched my Serious Side Hustlers Membership Program in January, which took all of the content I had previously had inside of the BFF Academy for $199 and made it more accessible to beginners at just $29/month. I tested launching the program with a 7-day free trial for live viewers on my WordPress Tips, Tricks and Hacks webinar and promoted it again on my Make Plus webinar – and the replays of those webinars were added as modules inside of Serious Side Hustlers. I did have a few cancellations within the 7 days, but the majority of people who took advantage of the free trial remained members (hi guys!! you rock!!). I started sending out short tutorials weekly on Saturday mornings to keep people engaged and moving forward without feeling overwhelmed, something I really felt was lacking in the BFF Academy. I also had several Done For You projects that I was determined to wrap up in January. Review of My Goals My number one goal in January was to have $10,000 in revenue because my rough breakdown to replace my paycheck, cover business expenses and pay taxes is: $5000 – Income to cover my old monthly paycheck. $2500 – Expenses $2500 – Taxes I also set the goal to add 333 email subscribers, launch my new subscription-model for access to my courses, launch the Web Designer Academy and write two guest posts – one for the Thrive and the other for Nathalie Lussier (didn’t happen). What I Focused on in January As I was trying on my newfound freedom in my first month of self-employment, I also felt the pressure of actually hitting my income goals for the first time since I started my business- because this month, no paycheck was going to magically appear in my bank account on January 15. You can learn more about my weird money issues in this blog post, The Lies I Tell Myself About Money and on this Facebook Live with Michelle Bobrow of the Holistic Wallet. And unlike the past 3 years where I could be a little looser with spending in my business because I was reinvesting much of what I made back into it, now I felt a lot of pressure to pay myself first using the Profit First model (great book – check it out here), which I wasn’t used to doing. Sure, I had put money away to help me weather the ups and downs, but I just feel like I have something to prove, that I can hit these numbers on a monthly basis and our personal bank account won’t see any difference in the amount being deposited into it twice a month (now by me instead of my employer). So, my focus on January was purely on making money. Obsessively. To the point where if I continued on like that, it would be detrimental to the foundation of my business. To the point where my husband is telling me to chill out. Historically, any time I have focused on just the numbers and not the why behind the numbers or the people I’m helping, my rate of growth slows down because I’m not doing what I need to do to reach new people and nurture the relationships I currently have.     Find out exactly how I made $10,016.93 in my online business in January 2018CLICK TO TWEET    So here’s what it looked like in January. Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here. Income PASSIVE INCOME TOTAL: $3600.55 TIME FOR MONEY TOTAL: $6416.38 Done For You Projects – $3916.38 Consulting – $2500 Total Income: $10,016.93 Total Expenses: $2486.96 Net Profit: $7529.97 Biggest Lesson Learned I’m writing this income report in early April, so I’ve learned a lot of lessons in my first three months in business which I outlined for you here in this blog post, The Truth About My First Three Months of Self Employment. With my Done For You web design projects,  I discovered is that I hadn’t been giving my clients enough time to pull together what they need to on their end. So reflecting on that, I restructured my Done For You Process to build in more time to help my clients create their content and build in more checkpoints and deadlines to keep projects moving forward. Now that I feel like I have a better process for these projects, I’ll be marketing them more. Ultimately, my goal is to have more revenue on the passive income side than the trading my time for money side, but my last few Done For You Projects went so smoothly with this new process that I’m going to continue focus on growing a team to help with those projects. And this change is resulting in a new module in theWeb Designer Academy where I teach web designers how to get clients and effectively manage projects. Reflecting just on what I’ve outlined here in January, looking at these numbers, the biggest takeaway I’m seeing is that I’ve got lots of different opportunities to increase my revenue on the passive income side. I’m moving away from the traditional launch model where I have an open and closed cart to a model where anyone can join any of my programs at any time. It’s a model that feels better to me in many ways – more authentic to me, and also it’s not a huge time-suck like I’ve found the traditional launch process to be. I’ve created affordable payment plans which not only helps my community of beginners get access to the content, it also creates steady, recurring revenue for me. It’s a win-win in my opinion. What I haven’t been doing as well is promoting all of these opportunities because I’ve been so hyper-focused on bringing in that $10,000 that I’m not looking at the long-term growth of my business. Not anymore, BFFs! Not anymore. You’re going to see lots of cool stuff coming in the next few months to fuel the growth of the passive income side of my business – because that’s what’s scalable! So, what questions do you have for me about this income report and how I run my business?

Visit EOFire.com for complete show notes of every Podcast episode. Nathalie is a digital strategist, software engineer, and founder of the AmbitionAlly software startup for ambitious business owners. She's been building websites since she was 12 years old, and she loves helping entrepreneurs get techy with it and launch their courses online, profitably.

As creative entrepreneurs with varied interests, it can be difficult to figure out what it is that you want to do in your business. Nathalie Lussier joins us to talk about her journey in moving from one business idea to another, getting feedback along the way, and ultimately building an online business that is fulfilling for herself, her team, and the people she serves. This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks Cloud Accounting Get full show notes for this episode here --- Follow Nathalie on Instagram: @nathlussier Follow Being Boss on Instagram: @beingbossclub Follow Being Boss on Twitter: @beingbossclub Follow Being Boss on Facebook: facebook.com/beingbossclub

If you haven’t come across our guest today through her incredibly popular 30 Day List Building Challenge, then you’ve most likely seen one of her products at work – PopupAlly, which creates polite pop-ups for websites. Nathalie Lussier has been designing software that has helped so many entrepreneurs uplevel their online businesses and I am so excited to have her on the show today. Her story shows how success is a spiral staircase because even though you can’t see all the way up, you can always see the next step. Taking the next step over and over is what led Nathalie from her first business idea, which was based on a nutrition blog to where she is now – the leading lady of a software empire!  

If you haven’t come across our guest today through her incredibly popular 30 Day List Building Challenge, then you’ve most likely seen one of her products at work – PopupAlly, which creates polite pop-ups for websites. Nathalie Lussier has been designing software that has helped so many entrepreneurs uplevel their online businesses and I am so excited to have her on the show today. Her story shows how success is a spiral staircase because even though you can’t see all the way up, you can always see the next step. Taking the next step over and over is what led Nathalie from her first business idea, which was based on a nutrition blog to where she is now – the leading lady of a software empire!  

Today's guest, Nathalie Lussier, is passionate about helping others find their passion and make an impact in the world. She has made some big goals to help others and is talking about them today. Nathalie has helped many companies generate millions of dollars on a national and international scale by promoting a change in mentality within team management and teaching techniques to do the right things at the right time efficiently and thus achieve goals. Nathalie was very successful in the corporate world, though something was missing.  Like many other people she wasn’t feeling fulfilled. She decided to leave the corporate world and with a career objective of being able to help people maximize their skills.  By combining all the elements of the tools and knowledge she has acquired during her career she can put it to use on a larger scale. Entrepreneur and founder of Nathalie Lussier Impact, Nathalie offers people from anywhere in the world the ability to awaken their passions for them to live the life they have dreamed of and to stay completely connected. She also works with other conscious entrepreneurs who have a deep desire to live their passions as well as having a positive social impact, all while generating an income they have set without sacrificing their relationships and free time.  To help these heart centered entrepreneur to spread their message to the world, she created a very successful program Connect, Serve & Make Money. IN THIS EPISODE 3:35 Nathalie worked for many years in corporate business and ended up getting burned out. While she was working with people in corporate business on their separate passion projects, she saw that they loved the independent projects. This led her to want to encourage that love and that's when her entrepreneurship journey started. Her goal is to inspire 10,000 people which is what led her to start the Do What You Really Love! summit. 6:59 She says everyone has a passion. You can find your passion. To Nathalie, the definition of the word passion is if you're passionate about something, it means to build a life that you want. You will have a bunch of elements in life and you can follow those to find the true path to purpose. 10:06 Your passions will change throughout life. Think about all the proponents that create your life and write down what you're passionate about. Think about it as "when my life is ideal, I am having __________." You don't want to create something you don't want to live out. 11:30 Intention, attention and no tension. The power of intention and being clear about what you want. Once you find your passion, set the intention and become clear about what you want. Attention - take actions to getting to where you want. No tension - there is a force that will help you get where you want to be. Nathalie says her way of living is to set her attention for what she wants or something better. 16:25 You need to focus on what you really want in life because there is so many distractions in life. Nathalie ranks her passions and uses her top 5 passions which guide her. She uses her passions to filter her life. If choices don't match up with her passions, she won't do things. 19:10 If you have a passion, it's because there's something there that you can build a business around. There is a niche or a market for it. By telling yourself that there is business, you need to not tell yourself that, but go back and set an intention around that business idea. You create what you want to create in your life. 21:42 The Do What You Really Love! has a lot of great people joining Nathalie on her summit. Her criteria for her contributors have gone through very painful things and who have come through them and overcome those to live the dream they want. With their stories, they've built what they want to have. 25:31 We are in the world to make an impact, don't let go of the dream to make an impact. Ask for help. Because we need to be together. The power and energy we have right now on the planet are about co-creation and if we are together, we can move mountains. [bctt tweet="Passion is like bread crumbs that guide you to your true purpose." username="tonyarineer"] KEY TAKEAWAYS Nathalie's goal is to inspire 10,000 people which is what led her to start the Do What You Really Love! summit. Passion is like bread crumbs that guide you to your true purpose. She says everyone has a passion. Intention, attention and no tension You need to focus on what you really want in life because there is so many distractions in life. EPISODE RESOURCES Episode 004: Why you need a Do Not List Do What You Really Love! Summit *affiliate link Free Money Mindset Training- just in case you're ready to take your profit power to the next level! Hang out with us inside our free Facebook Community- where every day is a party! CONTINUE THE PARTY WITH NATHALIE Nathalie Lussier Impact Facebook page 

So you’ve launched a product or service you’re really proud of, complete with a stellar membership site, but all you hear are crickets. Today’s guest has firsthand experience with this frustrating scenario, and she is here to help you learn from her mistakes and build an audience first.  Nathalie Doremieux and her husband, Olivier, spent ten years working as software engineers in Silicon Valley before returning to their native France and founding New Software Marketing in 2006. But they made the mistake of thinking that if they built a quality piece of software, people would find them. Because of their inexperience in the marketing realm, the business struggled. Down to their last $2,000, Nathalie and Olivier invested in a coach who changed their perspective, pushing them to focus on skills they might leverage to monetize quickly. It was then that they niched down to web design and membership sites, and New Software Marketing took off. Five years later, the multi-six-figure business serves entrepreneurs and public figures including Kimra Luna, James Five years later, the multi-six-figure business serves entrepreneurs and public figures including Kimra Luna, James Wedmore and Kate Northrup. Today Nathalie shares the importance of ‘the hustle’ early in your entrepreneurial journey, how she and her husband approach working together, and the biggest mistakes people make in building websites. Listen and learn how to build an audience that will make your product launch a success!   Key Takeaways The mistakes Nathalie made in building her business Hid behind expertise Ignored marketing piece   How Nathalie pinpointed web pages and membership sites as niche Sought help of coach Determined what could monetize quickly Built list of people with interest in establishing websites Developed a reputation in space (via blogging, etc.) Saw need for memberships sites in offline entrepreneurs seeking online presence   The importance of ‘the hustle’ early on in your entrepreneurial journey Quit 9 to 5 for 24/7 Must build business first, then enjoy four-hour work week   The necessity of building an audience Nathalie created online course, built membership site Launch fell flat because she overlooked marketing component   How Nathalie approaches working with her husband Became entrepreneur for love Had to acquire entrepreneurial mindset Clearly defined roles (she is face of company, he works behind-the-scenes)   Nathalie’s biggest accomplishment in business thus far Accepting invitation to speak on stage Boosted business to next level To grow, you must get comfortable with being uncomfortable   The biggest mistakes people make in designing websites Make themselves the focus, rather than the visitor Must convince visitor you can do something for them in five seconds Goal is to add visitor to list with free content   Resources Off the Charts with Nathalie Lussier   Connect with Nathalie Doremieux New Software Marketing

I’ve known Nathalie Lussier for several years. I followed her online for a bit, then eventually got to know her in a group where we were both members. What I’ve felt about her from the beginning >> she’s SMART. Super smart. And she’s also very gutsy. She bets on herself and has been doing this from the beginning of her career when she declined a job offer from Wall Street straight out of college to start her own business instead. It’s been quite an evolution and ride for her in business. And we go DEEP on this episode because ya’ll know that’s how we roll on Get Gutsy. Some sparkly gems you’re going to love: How to know if your path is right for you (and how to pivot quickly if you go off course) How she determined what roles new team members could handle to make space for her first baby The mindset she had to embrace to be ok with supporting full-time employees The magic word that makes for smooth sailing with her husband who is also her business partner The power of pop-ups on your website to increase conversions by a HUGE percentage Why membership sites matter Why you need to use ideas before they expire Who you are writing for when you craft your messages (this may surprise you!)   Dive in. About Our Guest Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur, international keynote speaker, and author who has been making websites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. Her bootstrapped startup AmbitionAlly has been featured in Entrepreneur and is inspiring a culture of intuitive small business marketing software across the globe.Nathalie has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Venture Beat, Mashable, Business Insider, Yahoo! Finance, and Under 30 CEO. She’s the host of the Off The Charts business podcast, and founder of the hit 30 Day List Building Challenge. Enjoy! xoxo Jenny P.S. Subscribe to the podcast + leave a review + rating to spread the GET GUTSY message far + wide. Means to world to me! We are all in this together.

Vicki Fitch Live: A Fresh Perspective #Podcast Episode #38 with Nathalie Lussier International #Keynote #Speaker and Founder of #AmbitionAlly www.AmbitionAlly.com Nathalie shared she was an adolecent entrepreneur creating her first website at 12 years old, her Bachelors Degree in Software Engineering and her Passion for #HealthyEating. We got a sneak peek inside her life and learned about #BubbleTea, The #IdeaSanctuary and of course the first polite #PopUp. She made us laugh and smile and things were even a bit emotional as RockStar of the week Shannon Mattern shared what an inspiration Nathalie was to her and how she built her Six Figure Side Hustle starting with Nathalie's 30 Day List Building Challenge which we are starting together on June 30, 2017. Go to www.vickifitch.com/biz to register so we can welcome you to the the #Rockstar #Wolfpack My direct affiliate link is http://nathalielussier.com/adirect/… Vicki is a #DirectSales Expert, #Author, #Speaker, International Business #Consultant & top daily #livestreamer on #Periscope and #FacebookLive. For more info, visit www.VickiFitch.com & she offers a #Free 20 Min #Consultations www.vickifitch.com/20 For more information about #Infusionsoft #VirtualAssistant Services, #FacebookGroup #30DayListBuildingChallenge go to www.VickiFitch.com/Biz If you are interested in being a GUEST or SPONSOR on the show, fill out this questionnaire to see if you are a good fit https://vicki14.typeform.com/to/Gc5phr Thank you everyone for watching and we'll see you Wednesday Nights at 7pm Pacific, 10pm Eastern and remember to catch Monday Night for He Said Red Said at 7:30pm Pacific, 10:30pm Eastern This broadcast was produced by Stacy Lynn & Randall Harp of Chapel Hill Media Dream it, Believe it Achieve it! & #RockThatDream

If you've been around for a while, you know that at Create If Writing, I'm all about growth without the use of smarmy tactics. The kind that make you feel gross in your SOUL. Who better to talk about non-smarmy marketing than Nathalie Lussier of Ambition Ally, one of my favorite companies, both in terms of products and values. In this interview, Nathalie shares about starting her company, what's working in list growth right now, and how she commits to non-smarmy marketing. This post contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase something after clicking through, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you!   Links from the Show: Our Sponsor, PopUpAlly Pro from Ambition Ally This week's free training: Email Automation Non-Smarmy Marketing Nathalie recently shared a post on her blog about the dangers of income-claim marketing. This is essentially selling your product based on the success you've had in the past, not the value or service or outcomes they've provided. These numbers CAN be a good thing because we are curious. We'd like to know what goes on behind the curtain and behind the scenes. But those same numbers may not be the best way to get people to BUY. It can be a trap for both the consumer and the producer because neither may be able to replicate those numbers. The consumer may be disillusioned or dissatisfied and the business may find themselves trapped trying to go bigger or repeat the same numbers. It's not a sustainable way to grow a business.  Whatever we are offering needs to solve the problem that people are having. Go back to your core values. For Ambition Ally, the values are solving problems through software. (PS- I LOVE how simple that description is. Can you describe what you do in this concise, clear way??) Tips for Non-Smarmy Marketing Start by solving problems Test and find what works before you market it (like Nathalie did with the 30-Day List Building Challenge) Consider marketing by sharing the outcome, not based on your own past successes Don't lose sight of your core values & your WHY What's Working in List-Building Right Now Exit Intent Pop-Ups - Since Google has made its update penalizing sites that are using intrusive pop-ups on mobile, it may be a good idea to consider that desktop might be next. An exit intent pop-up shows up when someone moves to click away from your site and doesn't impact the user experience while reading the post. Scroll-Based Pop-Ups - On mobile, these don't show up until someone has scrolled through 80% of your post. This keeps you Google-friendly and is great also for the reader.  Content-Based Pop-Ups - Using a tool like PopUpAlly Pro, you can choose for certain pop ups to show up on certain categories of pages. This gives a more targeted invite to your email list.  Mistakes That People Are Making Vanilla Calls to Action - When you run across a sign-up form that says "Sign up for my newsletter," there is no REAL incentive. Write unique copy that is inviting and clearly shares the incentive for signing up. Make It PERSONAL - Your language should speak to a person so they read it and KNOW it's speaking to them. Being specific and speaking to exactly to what people are looking for really helps.    Don't miss the Idea Sanctuary, the newest video series from Nathalie Lussier helping you sift through all your ideas and refining and polishing them so you can launch them. (I just finished the first video and love it!) What is YOUR biggest non-smarmy marketing tip? Share in the comments or hop into the Facebook community so we can discuss! 

In this episode Gemma is joined by Jo Gifford, founder of the Killer Content Academy, to talk about how to step away from the insanity online. Resources mentioned in this episode: Ali Brown's fantastic podcast: https://alibrown.com/2017/04/08/stop-the-online-insanity-glambition-radio-episode-105-with-ali-brown/ Tara Newman: https://www.taranewmancoaching.com/ Blow up the Blueprint (Jo's Facebook group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/356692711204788/ Income claim marketing is a recipe for disaster - here's what to do instead (article by Nathalie Lussier): https://ambitionally.com/generate-more-leads/advertising/income-claim-marketing/ James Altucher: http://www.jamesaltucher.com And as promised... For more simply smart strategies and business inspiration, find Gemma here: http://gemmawent.co.uk/ For more creative thinking tips, find Jo here: https://www.jogifford.co/  

In this episode, Tara speaks with Nathalie Lussier. Natalie is the founder of AmbitionAlly which creates intuitive small business marketing software for WordPress. She has been making websites since she was 12 years old. Nathalie graduated college with a degree in software engineering and a job offer from Wall Street. But she turned down this […] The post Episode 75 – Fixing What’s Broken to Develop New Products with Nathalie Lussier appeared first on What Works.

 How Nathalie Lussier Built a Powerhouse Business Using Virtual TeamsWant the transcript? Download it here. In this episode, special guest Nathalie Lussier, who has been making websites since she was 12 years old, takes us through her journey of starting her own business and using virtual teams to help her grow her business to what it is today.  Nathalie takes us back to the beginning when she started with just one VA who was working 5-hours a week, and how she has grown her team to include seven specialists, who span the globe. Some of the areas covered include:The importance of good systems and processesThe need for a project management toolAllowing your team to step-up and performThe importance of meetings with your virtual teamTips on engaging the ‘right' virtual team memberWhy it is important to adopt the mindset of ‘let it go and have somebody else do it'.  Let us know what your key takeout has been from this episode and join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group. In this episode:01:50 – Who is Nathalie Lussier?03:25 – Nathalie's virtual team04:40 – Her first real hire05:53 – The importance of using a project management tool07:47 – Good systems and processes already in place8:23 – Write down your processes, step-by-step10:57 – Growing the team13:26 – Allowing your team to step up16:31 – Managing a big virtual team18:16 – The importance of meetings21:54 – Nathalie's tips on engaging a VA24:27 – Investment vs expense mindset26:58 – Share your business vision with your team28:19 – Wrapping things up  Barbara:  Hey everyone, and welcome back to another show of Virtual Success, where we give you the inside scoop on outsourcing success for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. I'm joined as always by my fantastic co-host Matt Malouf. Matt how are you? Matt:  I'm well, how are you Barb? Barbara:  I'm great thanks, excited about today's show as always. Because we've got a new guest on the show today. Matt:  Yes. Barbara:  Nathalie Lussier who a lot of listeners will be very familiar with. Because Nathalie is someone I followed myself, in my own entrepreneurial journey for a long time. She is the founder of Ambition Ally, which has the software tools, “Access Ally” – which is a membership site, a fantastic membership site plugin, I think if I'm using the right term. She also has Popup Ally, which is a popup forum builder on websites. I love the fact that Nathalie … not only does she have a team, a virtual team that we're going to talk about today. But she is also a female really going for it in the tech space, which is not that common, getting more common. Nathalie, welcome to the show. Nathalie:  Thanks for having me here guys. Barbara:  Great, so Nathalie just to kick off, can you just give us a quick idea of what you're up to today? A quick synopsis of where you started, and this whole virtual team thing. You started out as I think a web developer? Who is Nathalie Lussier? Nathalie:  Yeah. I like to go way back to how I got started on the web. I started making websites when I was just 12 years old. I studied software engineering, and I had this job offer on Wall Street that I turned down to start my first business. That very first business was in the hub space and the info-product marketing space. I quickly learned that my gift was technology, but for some reason when I was in the corporate world I didn't really enjoy my work in that space. I realised, “okay, let's go back to tech, let's focus on that.” So I did do web design in those early days. Then I switched off to doing more website building and more training in the tech space and marketing space. Then eventually I came full circle and I started designing software where instead of teaching people how to use tech tools, I design the tech tools to make it easier for them to achieve their results. So that is how I got to where I am today with our Ambition Ally products for ambitious business owners.

In this episode special guest Nathalie Lussier, who has been making websites since she was 12 years old, takes us through her journey of starting her own business and using virtual teams to help her grow her business to what it is today.  Nathalie takes us back to the beginning when she started with just one […]

Nathalie is a digital strategist, software engineer, and founder of the AmbitionAlly software startup for ambitious business owners. She's been building websites since she was 12 years old, and she loves helping entrepreneurs get techy with it and launch their courses online, profitably. Sponsors Northeastern U: Northeastern University’s D’Amore McKim School of Business offers the master’s degree for corporate entrepreneurs and is now accepting applications for its January cohort of online Innovation students! Lenovo: Lenovo systems allow you to partner with leading software providers to ensure your cloud solution is best-in-class!

Crushin' It vs Being Crushed   Nathalie and Robin are a husband and wife duo who are new parents to baby girl Tegan. Today we're talking about what it's like to both work from home while hot potatoing a baby back and forth, why Robin never gets baby guilt when he's working on the business, and how their team is stepping up.    Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making web sites since she was 12 years old, and graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street. In a gutsy move, she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. Nathalie helps thousands of people all over the world get techy with it, and has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Venture Beat, Mashable, Business Insider, Yahoo! Finance, and Under 30 CEO. She's been blogging for over 10 years, and really “gets” the online marketing landscape, focusing heavily on improving key business metrics like traffic, subscribers, and sales. Clients and customers rave about her ability to simplify the complex, and make technology and digital strategy easy to understand and implement.   Robin Li is a former financial consultant who has a passion for writing efficient code, and eating fine food. He can dance circles around any math problem, and can pick-up new programming languages within days. He is a WordPress plugin writing ninja, and has mastered the ins and outs of marketing platforms like Infusionsoft. Above all, Robin believes that no problem is impossible to solve, and all solutions should be elegant. You can find Nathalie and Robin here: http://ambitionally.com http://nathalielussier.com http://30daylistbuildingchallenge.com   And don't miss out on all the happenings during the Crushin' it vs. Being Crushed Parenthood Series by signing up here! 

Today, I’m thrilled to have Nathalie Lussier on the show. I’ve actually known Nathalie for a heck of a long time now dating back since 2010. In fact, I remember the early days when we were both launching our blogs But since 2010, Nathalie has been kicking butt. She first found success with her site Raw Foods Witch where she teaches people about the benefits of raw foods. But what I love about Nathalie is that she’s a techie. With her tech, design and marketing skills, she also created NathalieLussier.com where she now helps small online businesses get off the […] The post 129: How Nathalie Lussier Created A 7 Figure Business Selling Software And Courses Online appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

Ever spend 5, 10 or even 20 hours writing a high quality blog post only to watch it fall by the wayside? Your new post fails to attract social shares, traffic or email subscribers. It’s the ultimate reason most bloggers quit after 3 months. So what should you do? Spend years honing your writing skills? Make a deal with the devil, go to sleep a nobody and wake up an Influencer? But what if there was a way… To drive more traffic and subscribers to every post you publish, to know with utmost certainty that every post you publish will crush it before you write it? Well, there is: Content promotion. About Cody Lister: When Cody Lister graduated, he stayed in New York to start his career in corporate finance. When Cody was 24, he caught an intense case of the startup bug and changed careers to work at two startups, one in financial research and news and another in social media reputation management. Before Cody worked at the social media reputation management company, he started managing pay per click ads for small and medium-sized businesses. Along the way, Cody found out that he had a knack for optimizing online ads! Once he left the social media company, Cody ramped up his pay per click advertising clients to turn it into a full-time business. Along the way, he learned how to write “epic” content and guest posts by following what the other top blogs were doing. (That means he jumped from “Financial Analyst” to “Marketing Director” to “CEO” as my job title) The issue then became scaling up. He's always had fire in my belly for helping small businesses and he love the impact paid search, content marketing and guest blogging can have on a business’ bottom line. But he knew if he wanted to grow his business and make more money, he would need to find larger corporate clients that could pay him bigger fees. That’s when Cody decided to start the MarketDoc blog and create online courses, to help small business owners, solopreneurs and bloggers grow their businesses by combining the power of effective blogging and content promotion strategies that work. There’s too much misinformation out there and he wants to serve as your go to resource for what’s working right now. Cody has been featured by some of the top blogs out there, like Lifehack, SEMrush, Kikolani and soon Kissmetrics, Nathalie Lussier’s AmbitionAlly blog and more! Cody writes at least 1,000 words per day because he enjoys it and enjoys teaching small businesses as much as possible.  About Vincenzo Landino: Vincenzo is an entrepreneur, speaker and host of the Brand Boost Podcast. He is the the founder and Creative Director of Aftermarq, a video content consultancy specializing in brand amplification and digital storytelling. With experience as a brand correspondent, Vincenzo’s portfolio includes a 1 billion impression campaign launch for Applebee’s as well as work for Mazda, Kia Motors, Paul Mitchell Schools, Barilla Pasta, DC United, Tinder, and Zoomph. Outside of his professional life, Vincenzo is a die-hard Steelers fan, avid golfer and wine maker. Voice Over Artist, Rachel Creveling Rachel owns Belle Strategies, a social media marketing company specializing in turning followers into customers. She has been providing voice over talent for 6 years and has recorded for TV, Radio, and Podcasts. Find her at www.bellestrategies.com. Enjoy the podcast? 

Building Your Business and Family at Home with AmbitionAlly founder with Nathalie Lussier. In this episode of the Boss Mom Podcast, Nathalie talks about becoming a six-figure entrepreneur at a young age, a new mom and great business practices.   In this episode you’ll hear: Nathalie became a passionate entrepreneur at age 12. Her home birth and motherhood. How she views pregnancy and running a business after becoming a mother. How she designed her tools based on her niche. Challenges Nathalie has faced as a mom and entrepreneur. How she prioritizes her business. Nathalie's advice for moms and growing a business. Recommended links and resources: AmbitionAlly Off the Charts Live Birth Lessons blog post Asana Slack Groove Headquarters Can I quote you on that?  Functionality is created in everything we create, but it has to be pretty too. - Nathalie I like to keep things simple, but elegant. - Nathalie My business will always be there, but it's something I'm going to always have. You don't get the baby moments back if you are trying to push and work all the time. - Nathalie The long term view allows you to focus on the small things that are important. - Dana Don't be afraid to focus on a one on one business model if that's where you are at. - Nathalie Give yourself permission to let go of the things that aren't working. - Nathalie Reverse engineer your goal and see what you need to be doing to get there. - Nathalie More about our guest, Nathalie Lussier. Nathalie Lussier is an award-winning entrepreneur, international keynote speaker, and author who has been making web sites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street, but she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. Her bootstrapped startup AmbitionAlly, has been featured in Entrepreneur and is inspiring a culture of intuitive small business marketing software across the globe. Nathalie has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Venture Beat, Mashable, Business Insider, Yahoo! Finance, and Under 30 CEO. She’s the host of the Off The Charts business podcast, and founder of the hit 30 Day List Building Challenge. Website / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter / 30 Day List Building Challenge Connect with Dana: Instagram / Periscope (her total happy place) We love hearing from you guys! If you’ve got a question about today’s episode or want to leave us some inbox love, you can email us at hello@boss-mom.com Or, you can always find both Dana hanging out in our Boss Mom Facebook Community.  We would LOVE it if you’d leave a podcast rating or review on iTunes. We also know it can be kind of tricky to figure out. Here are a few step by step instructions on how to leave an iTunes rating or review for a podcast from your iPhone or iPad Launch Apple’s Podcast app. Tap the Search tab. Enter the name of the podcast you want to rate or review. Tap the blue Search key at the bottom right. Tap the album art for the podcast. Tap the Reviews tab. Tap Write a Review at the bottom. Enter your iTunes password to login. Tap the Stars to leave a rating. Enter title text and content to leave a review. Tap Send.

Kimra Luna is a personal branding and online business strategist.  She helps freedom-seeking entrepreneurs to stand out, captivate their audiences’ attention and monetize their authentic brands online. As a leading authority on the use of Facebook ads and webinar-based training as both list and brand building tools, she took her business from zero to over $880k in sales and cultivated an email list of over 14,000 subscribers from 50 countries around the world during her first year in business. Kimra is the creator of Be True, Brand You, her signature online program which has hundreds of students enrolled.  Her Facebook group, The Freedom Hacker’s Mastermind has over 20,000 members and is widely regarded as one of the most interactive, generous and supportive groups for entrepreneurs online. Kimra has been featured on websites including Forbes, BusinessInsider, Farnoosh.TV, Chris Ducker.com, Female Entrepreneur Association.com and has been a speaker at Nathalie Lussier’s Off The Charts Live. You can find Kimra on YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and of course Facebook where she consistently provides advice and guidance to her group The Freedom Hacker’s Mastermind. Notes from the show: Freedom hacking is seeking a freedom-based lifestyle through technological advances; freedom is the ability to make your own hours, choose your own clients, etc. Even though Kimra seems to be an overnight success, she spent 8 years growing online mom's groups and health and wellness groups before exploding with Freedom Hacker's Mastermind. Facebook is not like email or other social media--no need for email blasts. Instead, people appreciate that you spend time and give value without feeling overwhelmed by information. "In Defense of Facebook" and "The Gift of Gratitude" She got her start in concert booking and led a music industry life until the economy collapse in 2008. She spent the four years prior to her "million dollar year" on welfare. Social media, especially Facebook, saved her life. "People want to buy from people, not a logo." She started her business by messaging potential clients how they would prefer to learn. Their answer? Webinars. Be True, Brand You is a comprehensive program; it is not "niched down."  In the age of trolling and mommy/daddy wars, entrepreneurship allows for unconventional parenting. "Dumb-Ass Stuff We Need to Stop Saying to Dads" Her superpowers include teaching and being intuitive about people who are givers and people who are takers. Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income and Ask Pat podcasts This podcast hosted by New York attorney Michael Prywes was sponsored by Prywes Schwartz, PLLC, a law firm devoted to artists and entrepreneurs. This podcast may contain attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Nathalie Lussier has been building websites since she was 12, and I trust her more than anyone with her knowledge on pop ups and list building because she has the experience to back it up. Nathalie has launched her 30 day challenge to get people out of their comfort zones, building their lists, and improving their business. Here we talk about which pop up plugins to use and how, and the tricks that Nathalie used in both paid and free advertising to build her customer base.

In this episode I talk to renowned digital strategist and co-founder of AccessAlly, Nathalie Lussier. As well as discussing her transition from programmer to online marketer, Nathalie shares tips and insight into list building, creating compelling online courses and how to improve your member experience.

Nathalie is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making websites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street. In a gutsy move, she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college.

Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a challenge with your business and wondering, “How did I get here…again?!” Nothing feels worse than the suspicion that you’ve been spinning your wheels for the past month. (Or quarter. Or year.) The last thing we want is to get caught in a downward spiral, where we never get to overcome our struggles and rise past a certain level. But what if that spiral was actually going up, not down? I spoke with Nathalie Lussier, world-class digital strategist and email building expert, about this problem that confronts all of us: how to understand the recurring patterns in our business. Not only does she give some sage advice on how to deal with these patterns, but she shows how embracing them can actually help you build your business by narrowing your niche. We usually think of business strategy as being a line between Point A and Point B…and measure our success by how straight that line is. But in real life, Nathalie says, the path is more like a spiral staircase. As we make our way up to the next level, we revisit the same issues, challenges and themes over and over again.  When you come up against circumstances that make you think “How did I get here again?”, flip the way you’re looking at them. Even if it’s the same issue, you’re in a different place with it than you were six months (or even six weeks) ago. What’s more, each time you revisit that same situation, you learn something a new and deeper lesson about it, which you can then pass on to your target audience. They’re all climbing spiral staircases of their own, and they need your story to help them keep going. EPISODE FREEBIE Click Here to Get Nathalie's "Spiral Staircase Exercise" FREE DOWNLOAD Three Things that Define Your Niche Whether you say “nitch,” or pronounce it “neesh” like Nathalie (who is French),  you already know that digging deep into your niche is a cornerstone of your business’ success. According to Nathalie, your niche is the sum of three things: Your topic Your story Your audience Each time you make another look on the spiral staircase, you go deeper into each aspect of your niche. Here’s how: Your topic - Each “spiral” builds new expertise that narrows the focus of your business. It takes you from a broad category (“I help people achieve better health”) into a very specific component of that category (“I offer natural healing methods that cure migraines in ten seconds or less”). Your story - Each “spiral” is a new chapter in your story, which creates new opportunities for connection with your audience. Your audience - Each “spiral” lets you understand more about your own challenges and develops new strengths to overcome those challenges. As a result, you have renewed insight into who needs you the most. Narrowing Your Niche Helps You Build Your Audience It’s easy to assume that it’s better to go bigger in the beginning stages of your business, to collect as many people in your audience as possible, and then narrow your niche once you’ve got a solid email list going. In fact, Nathalie recommends just the opposite: Go narrow in the beginning. Establish yourself as an authority in one very specific area, build a small but mighty email list, then unfold into new products and new ideas when you’ve built the relationship with those clients. “[When] people already know you as an expert in one thing, it’s easier to add expertise in other topics." Narrowing Your Niche Helps You Say “No” Narrowing your niche also helps you save a lot of time (and headache) by giving you opportunities to say “no.” When all you want is to build, network and grow, it can be terrifying to turn down opportunities. The problem is that every time you say “yes” to one opportunity, you have a little less energy to invest in all the other opportunities you’ve agreed to. You have to decide ahead of time what the smart "yes-es" are, and then stick to your guns. Nathalie carries around an index card with her five goals for the quarter listed on it. When an opportunity comes up, she compares it against these five goals. If the opportunity actively promotes one of those goals, she gives it a yes. If it doesn’t promote those goals, no matter how great it sounds, she says no for right now. It may be hard at first, especially if you’re someone who has a hard time turning people down. But saying “no” in one place is what will give you time and energy to say “Yes!” down the road to unexpected windfalls. As Nathalie puts it, “Saying no leaves margin for magic.” Narrowing Your Niche Helps You Ask for What You Want Think about some of your mini-goals for this quarter. Maybe you want to get published in a prominent magazine or website. Maybe you want to speak at someone’s live event, or host an event of your own. Maybe you want to join forces with another business. These kinds of opportunities don’t usually come knocking—you have to ask for them. Chances are, you’re one of several people asking. But when you have a clearly defined, highly specific niche, you’re bringing something to the table that will stand out.  Your niche gives you leverage to show why what you have to say matters, who is going to listen, and how success in that opportunity can be measured. Those are win-wins for you and the person you’re asking. EPISODE FREEBIE Click Here to Get Nathalie's "Spiral Staircase Exercise" FREE DOWNLOAD Narrowing Your Niche Reconnects You with the Deeper Meaning of Your Business Take a minute to really search your soul. What are you really passionate about changing in the world? Whom do you feel the most empathy for? Whose troubles do you burn to solve? Your compassion is a powerful indicator of where your niche really lies. Identify the people whose struggles motivate you the most, and let them become co-creators of your business by defining your work around their needs. “A lot of times, we get caught up in the logistics and the analytics, what’s the conversation rate, what’s the opt-in rate… Just remember that there’s a human being on the other side of that screen who has their own heartbeat, hopes, dreams and goals. When I’m sending an email, I’m not sending an email to my list—I’m sending an email to all these incredible human beings.” Next time you find yourself in an all-too-familiar position in your business, don’t lose heart. Look for the opportunities it offers—opportunities that you’d never have seen last time you were in this place. There’s nothing wrong with a spiral if it’s leading you upward.

Today, I’m talking about how to eat and live healthy when you’re traveling (without letting it take over your trip). Why travel? Even though we work online in the digital space, most of us are building relationships by flying or driving to conferences, meetups, and events every year. And, of course, vacations are essential to your self care. “Ladies, I need some advice/suggestions on eating well for travel. I’ve got two upcoming trips (yay!) but I don’t want to lose the amazing habits Adria has helped me to create.” – Nina We had a discussion about this in the Feed Your Hustle Facebook group a while back. I figured it was perfect timing for this episode in light of the holiday weekend and that I just returned this week from traveling to Dallas for Nathalie Lussier’s Off the Charts Live conference, a meeting of 200 incredible heart-centered female entrepreneurs. “The goal of healthy travel is to keep your energy flowing and avoid that tired, weighted down feeling that comes with lots of sitting and heavy foods.” – Adria DeCorte  In today’s episode, you’ll learn: How to eat healthy when traveling by plane with only a carry-on bag (including what to bring and what to purchase when you arrive to make it easy!) The healthy snacks and food tips Feed Your Hustle community members swear by (and a surprising idea I never thought of before!) Tricks to keep your energy flowing with movement without even touching the hotel gym Exactly what to do before you arrive to make it easier to eat healthy during the rest of your stay What I do to feed my hustle if the conference is serving lunch or you’ll be eating out regularly Mentioned in this episode: The Feed Your Hustle Facebook group – to continue the conversation beyond the episode!! My go-to YouTube playlists for morning ritual yoga, vinyasa flow yoga, and HIIT workouts Travel Tools, Grocery Lists, and Recipes  Find these resources in the full show notes at http://adriadecorte.com/episode13 .

Nathalie Lussier found success as the Raw Foods Witch, where she teaches people about the benefits of raw foods. She has since used her tech, design, and marketing skills to create Natalie Lussier Media where she helps small online businesses get off the ground.

Visit EOFire.com for complete show notes of every Podcast episode. Nathalie is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been making websites since she was 12 years old. She graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street. In a gutsy move, she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college.

Having your first live event is a new and exciting challenge. But what can you do to get people not only excited about your event, but get off that fence and say YES? Guest teacher, Nathalie Lussier gives some great tips on how to pull off your first live event successfully. Hint: Sell the experience, […] The post MBA191 Guest Teacher: Nathalie Lussier- How to Sell Out Your 1st Live Event appeared first on The $100 MBA.

Having your first live event is a new and exciting challenge. But what can you do to get people not only excited about your event, but get off that fence and say YES? Guest teacher, Nathalie Lussier gives some great tips on how to pull off your first live event successfully. Hint: Sell the experience, […] The post MBA191 Guest Teacher: Nathalie Lussier- How to Sell Out Your 1st Live Event appeared first on The $100 MBA.

You know how Josh is the resident SEO Hoe and goes bananas over all that stuff and I'm the normal one? Well, prepare yourself because I am about to geek right the eff out over this next Couple Spotlight! We're talking shop with Nathalie Lussier and her hubby Robin Li all about being softies (not in the conventional way!) and jumping into biz together. This power couple met in University and have been together ever since. After graduation, Nathaie began building her own business and Robin started a career. Not too long ago they decided to converge and become business allies as well as lifelong allies - hence their awesome name, Ambition Ally. As if I didn't love them enough already, they had some really sweet things to say at the end of this episode so go on, click play at the top of the page, download this in iTunes or listen on Stitcher. If you like what you hear, be sure to give us a 5 star rating or leave a review! And do not forget to tune in for a new episode every Thursday at 7am EST. Click Here to Subscribe and Make Sure You Never Miss an Episode

Nathalie Lussier shares how and why you should be building a list to grow your business in today’s marketplace. The post DYM 068 – Nathalie Lussier: List Building Secrets & The Power Of Setting Bold Goals appeared first on Driving Your Marketing.

From my first episode I've had a lot of questions about how and why I decided to start a podcast, this increased after I was quoted in a recent Forbes article by Nathalie Lussier. This of course leads me to today's episode, all about how and why I started Hit the Mic with Stacey Harris. One thing I want to say right now though is if you're thinking about starting a show, DO IT! I waited like 6-12 months after I had the idea to actually get started and it's really been an amazing thing for me and my business. So go get started today, below are the tools I use to run my show every week.   Resources Podcasting For Promotion, Positioning & Profit: Podcasting Book on How to Podcast and How to Create a World Class Podcast To Generate Free Traffic, Leads, Sales + Establish Expert Status By Kris Gilbertson Podcast Launch: How to Podcast; a complete guide. Includes 15 Video Tutorials! By John Lee Dumas Samson Meteor Mic USB Studio Microphone GarageBand Libsyn Hosting   Connect with Me Email me at podcast@thestaceyharris.com Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes for a shoutout on a future show

I am ridiculously excited to be sitting down with Nathalie Lussier today. She's such an amazing women and such a powerhouse entrepreneur. In the interest of full disclosure I want to share that I'm a part of Nathalie's Daring Business Cultivator(one of the best business decisions I've ever made) and she's a great mentor of mine. We're talking about following your gut (even when that means changing directions), we talk about beta testing, speaking and writing for free, and the power of networking. A little about Nathalie... Nathalie Lussier has been making web sites since she was 12 years old, and graduated with a degree in Software Engineering and a job offer from Wall Street. In a gutsy move, she turned down this job to start her own business right out of college. Now running a six figure consulting company, Nathalie helps thousands of people all over the world get techy with it, and has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Venture Beat, Mashable, and Under 30 CEO.     Learn More Launch it and Profit 30 Day List Building Challenge Be sure to grab a ticket to Nathalie's live event - Off the Charts LIVE Connect with Me Email me at podcast@thestaceyharris.com Tweet with me and include #HittheMic

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Nathalie Lussier found success as the Raw Foods Witch, where she teaches people about the benefits of raw foods. She has since used her tech, design, and marketing skills to create Natalie Lussier Media where she helps small online businesses get off the ground.

Eating “Raw” unheated foods have become all the craze, so we couldn't have chosen a better guest with Halloween right around the corner then The Raw Foods Witch, Nathalie Lussier. As many of you know, I am an advocate of using “raw” foods to boost metabolism and have beautiful skin, and this radio program with Nathalie will help us learn how to get healthy and energetic using raw foods, and help you overcome any unknowns or misconceptions you may have around eating raw food. We'll discuss the 2 necessary ingredients to making the transition to raw food as easy as waving your magick wand. (Hint: It’s got nothing to do with the food!) We'll also uncover how getting clear on your raw food stumbling blocks is the key to overcoming them. Lastly, we'll look at the 5 most common raw food hurdles and why we have them. The benefits of going raw are endless and we'll uncover those with Nathalie!

Eating “Raw” unheated foods have become all the craze, so we couldn't have chosen a better guest with Halloween right around the corner then The Raw Foods Witch, Nathalie Lussier. As many of you know, I am an advocate of using “raw” foods to boost metabolism and have beautiful skin, and this radio program with Nathalie will help us learn how to get healthy and energetic using raw foods, and help you overcome any unknowns or misconceptions you may have around eating raw food. We'll discuss the 2 necessary ingredients to making the transition to raw food as easy as waving your magick wand. (Hint: It’s got nothing to do with the food!) We'll also uncover how getting clear on your raw food stumbling blocks is the key to overcoming them. Lastly, we'll look at the 5 most common raw food hurdles and why we have them. The benefits of going raw are endless and we'll uncover those with Nathalie!

Nathalie Lussier is a digital strategist who believes that unique businesses deserve unique strategies to succeed online…and she loves coming up with ideas to match your ambition. An early-adopter of technology as a child, Nathalie was designing websites by the age of 12. Despite having job offers from prestigious Wall Street firms, Nathalie followed her passions and while growing her first business, being her quirky self, and wearing a witch's hat in her videos, she built a website that now boasts 750,000 yearly visitors and over 1 million page views. That's when her readers started asking her how she did it, which brings us to today's interview. Rubber-Meets-The-Road Tip * Nathalie is good at simplifying the complex. " Start where people are at." (Meet them where they are.) In her healthy eating site, she'd literally show people how to cut an avocado and how to know when it's ripe. It sounds rudimentary, but people are looking for help and are embarrassed to admit what they don't know so start small and work you way up in helping your prospects and clients. * Start with a good site and a follow-up system in place. Nathalie offers her 30-day list-building challenge for free. Most people are building big Facebook profiles or Twitter followers but no email lists. The problem with this strategy is if people weren't online when you made that Tweet or Post you've lost your chance to make an impact and a sale. Also, social media is quickly becoming a pay-to-play arena. If you are going to spend money online, make sure you start with a good web site and email follow-up sequence. (That's why I recommend HubSpot ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/ ).) * Nathalie recommends Wordpress and she has some great plugins she recommends that are free to use and can help you grow. * Wordpress SEO by Yoast ( https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/ ) (SEO still matters) * Pop-Up Ally ( http://ambitionally.com/popupally/tutorials/ ) , which Nathalie and her husband created * “Empower your audience to share for you.” Have easily-shareable images. Click To Tweet ( http://clicktotweet.com/ ) from blog posts. * Google+ is important now. (It was then, but not in 2019!) * Start with great content. * Have strong calls to action. * If I don't ask people to share they don't. * Use BackupBuddy ( http://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/ ) to backup your Wordpress website. * Use a more robust host for your site once you start making money and increasing traffic. Nathalie uses WP Engine. I use Media Temple ( http://www.mediatemple.net#a_aid=531b4ca789c0e ) for this site but I got started with HostGator ( http://secure.hostgator.com/~affiliat/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=wes1479 ) (and still use them today for development of new sites before I launch them). * Don't get stuck in thinking about everything. Just get going and put one front in front of the other. Links Mentioned * Death To The Stock Photo ( http://deathtothestockphoto.com/ ) * WP MultiSite ( http://wpmultisite.com/ ) * Nathalie Lussier's Home Page ( http://nathalielussier.com/ ) * Off The Charts Business Podcast With Nathalie Lussier ( http://nathalielussier.com/podcast-2 ) * 30 Day List Building Challenge ( http://30daylistbuildingchallenge.com/ ) * Off The Charts Live ( http://offthechartslive.com ) * Nathalie Lussier Google+ ( https://plus.google.com/117381317686689316989 ) * Nathalie Lussier on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/user/nathalielussier ) Get all of the show notes for every episode of The Sales Podcast ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/podcasts/ ) with Wes Schaeffer, The Sales Whisperer® ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/ ). Use these resources to grow your sales: * Sell More This Month ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/30-day-sales-growth ) * Hire Better Salespeople ( https://talentgenius.simplybook.me/v2/ ) * Hire The Best Keynote Speaker ( https://www.wesschaeffer.com/ ) * Find Your Best CRM ( https://info.thesaleswhisperer.com/best-crm-quiz ) * Join the Free Facebook Group ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/theimplementors/ ) Check out earlier episodes of The Sales Podcast: * Episodes 1 to 10 ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/sales-podcast-episodes-one-to-ten ). * Episodes 11 to 20 ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/the-sales-podcast-episodes-11-20 ). * Episodes 21 to 30 ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/sales-podcast-episodes-21-30 ). * Episodes 31 to 40 ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/sales-podcast-episodes-31-40 ). * Episodes 41 to 50 ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/sales-podcast-episodes-41-50 ). * Episodes 51 to 60 ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/sales-podcast-episodes-51-60 ). * Episodes 61 to 70 ( https://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/sales-podcast-episodes-61-70 ). Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-sales-podcast/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy