7-Figure Small

This week, we talk about SEO. But it’s a bit of a different SEO conversation than you may be used to.

Because often when we talk about SEO within the context of building an audience, we focus on it from the beginning. What better way to get to your minimum viable audience than with organic search traffic ... right?

Well, maybe not.

As we’ve discussed in bits and pieces on previous episodes, you aren’t really ready to execute a smart SEO strategy until you have your minimum viable audience already built. At that point, you actually know something about your audience beyond the hypothesis that you start out with.

Once you’re there, then you can take what you know, craft an astute SEO plan, and drive the kind of targeted organic traffic that you can actually convert into subscribers -- the kinds of subscribers who may even be on the fast track to becoming customers.

And Jonny Nastor knows plenty about how to do this, because he’s been doing it successfully for clients for years. And he shares his expertise with us in this episode.

In addition to this week's main topic, we take another trip inside Brian's mind, answer some mailbag questions, and discuss headlines about a new way startups are raising money, the secret to business and artistic success, and why internal links really matter.

Headlines:

1. The SEC and New Breed of Startups Fuel the Equity Crowdfunding Flame (https://www.inc.com/amrita-khalid/the-sec-new-breed-of-startups-fuel-equity-crowdfunding-flame.html)
2. This Is the Secret to Business and Artistic Success (https://ryanholiday.net/secret-to-success)
3. 10 Easy But Powerful SEO Tips to Boost Traffic to Your Website (https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/easy-but-powerful-seo-tips-to-boost-traffic-to-your-website)

Back in November of 2020, this week's guest tweeted, “It’s hard to overstate how monumental and empowering the digital revolution has been for independent creators.”

His name is Corbett Barr, he's one of the founders of Fizzle, and for the past decade-plus he's been at the forefront of this revolution, creating successful content and products while helping other creators do the same.

This week, Corbett and fellow digital pioneer Brian Clark discuss some of the lessons they’ve each learned that will help us all succeed as independent creators in 2021 and beyond.

In addition to this week's main topic, we take another trip inside Brian's mind, answer some mailbag questions, and discuss headlines about community becoming a competitive advantage, the latest trends in podcast listenership, and an update on the PRO Act.

Headlines:

• When Community Becomes Your Competitive Advantage (https://hbr.org/2020/01/when-community-becomes-your-competitive-advantage)
• Yes, Podcast Listenership is Still on the Rise (https://www.vulture.com/2021/03/podcast-listenership-download-data-on-the-rise.html)
• No, The PRO Act Wouldn't Kill Freelancing (https://brandonmagner.substack.com/p/no-the-pro-act-wouldnt-kill-freelancing)

This week, we discuss a topic that gets asked about nearly every time we do a Q&A for Unemployable Initiative members: how to build an audience. Specifically, how do you start from scratch, or close to scratch, and build a minimum viable audience?

As you know from the definition of minimum viable audience, once you have an MVA the audience starts to build itself. That doesn’t mean the work of filling the top of your funnel is done, but it does mean that you have some momentum and a head of steam to help keep you growing.

But how do you get that momentum going in the first place? Especially when there is so much content out there already, which can it feel like such an immense challenge just to get noticed?

To be clear: there are no silver bullet in this episode. There is no secret we reveal that will allow you to supersede a couple of fundamental truths of audience building: 1) you have to create high quality content for a specific audience, and 2) you’re going to have to invest time or money, or both, to get that content in front of the right people.

If either of those two truths scare you off, this conversation may not be of much use. But if they don’t, then join us and our special guest Sonia Simone to talk about what’s working for building a minimum viable audiences in 2021.

In addition to this week's main topic, we take another trip inside Brian's mind, answer a bevy of listener questions, and discuss headlines about how the pandemic is messing with our brains, whether the PRO Act should worry freelancers, and how marketing will (or won't) change after the pandemic.

This week's headlines:

1. How the Pandemic is Messing with Our Brains (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/03/what-pandemic-doing-our-brains/618221/)
2. Does the PRO Act Threaten Freelance Careers?
(https://www.jennifergregorywriter.com/2021/03/01/guest-post-deborah-abrams-kaplan-explains-why-the-pro-act-threatens-freelance-careers/)
3. 10 Truths About Marketing After the Pandemic (https://hbr.org/2021/03/10-truths-about-marketing-after-the-pandemic)

Todd Tresidder has built his successful two-stage career by walking the walk.

First, he became a self-made millionaire by learning how wealth is really created and spotting the contradictions in what is often taught. Then, he helped others do the same at Financial Mentor by creating frameworks and guides that help people ignore the noise and focus their financial decision making and what will actually help them build wealth.

And along the way, he’s proven to be a believer in a concept Brian discussed most recently in the first lesson of Community Commerce Essentials -- two of the seven questions Brian outlined for finding your winning difference: who does your audience want to become and who do you want your audience to become?

That latter part is what really sets Todd apart, because he wants his financial mentees to view their path to financial freedom as a path toward personal growth as well. In fact, he views them as one and the same.

We talk about all of this with Todd on this week's edition of 7-Figure Small.

In addition, we discuss a few headlines around NFTs, the future of work, and email. Then we end by answering some questions from Unemployable Initiative members and folks who were there for the live broadcast of this week's episode.

After two episodes of the new format of the show, fate intervened. First, the winter fiasco in Texas knocked Jerod’s power out, and then the next week his wife gave birth to their second child. So, congratulations to Jerod and Heather!

I decided to carry on with a return to the old interview format for one week only.

In this episode, I have a great chat with John Warrilow about some of the key concepts from his new book, The Art of Selling Your Business. I’ve interviewed John before about designing your business to be an attractive acquisition target with a recurring revenue model, and this time we’re exploring how to prepare for an actual exit.

We begin with a question that many don’t really spend time considering: Why do you want to sell? Getting a little philosophical about the reasons for selling your business can spare you a lot of second-guessing later.

After that, we discuss the danger of timing your exit, the “5-20” rule for potential businesses that will want to acquire your business, how to deal with earnouts and attempts to “retrade” the deal, how to nudge the purchase price up, and much more.

John shares a lot of value in this interview, and answers some common questions that everyone who sells a business needs to understand. Let’s jump right in.

With podcasting still going strong, newsletters having their moment, and blogging still right there in the thick of it all, it sure feels like the internet is returning to its roots in a good way.

As Justin Jackson put it in a tweet: "The classic internet is back in style: mindful, slow pace. Less frenzy. Feels good."

We sure agree.

So this week on 7-Figure Small, we rounded up Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse, a couple of pioneers of the early internet, to join Brian Clark for a chat about what’s new, what’s different, and what’s the same as it ever was.

As always, we begin by kicking around some headlines and end by answering listener questions.

In between, during our main topic, Brian, Chris, and Darren go deep on:

• Their experience launching Third Tribe
• The power of virtual communities
• Why email remains so important
• Where podcasts fit within an overall content marketing strategy
• How curation has evolved

And much more.

As all freelancers and solopreneurs know, or eventually learn, starting a successful small business is a challenge -- a challenge worth accepting because of the rewards that come with it.

But what about the steps beyond that first level of success? What if you decide that you want to take your six- or seven-figure small business and scale it up?

It's doable, and there are well-worn paths you can follow. But it's not the right path for everyone. Is it the right path for you?

That's the subject of this week's edition of 7-Figure Small with Brian Clark, who has made the decision to scale several times in the past and experienced the challenges and rewards that come with it.

Ryan Deiss has too. Like Brian, he's a serial entrepreneur. He founded Digital Marketer and is currently helping small businesses scale successfully at Scalabale.co.

This week, Ryan is our guest for an in-depth discussion about how to weigh the benefits and challenges of scaling your business so you can make the right decision for your situation.

This week's episode also marks the debut of our new format: 7-Figure Small Live.

So in addition to the discussion on scaling your business, we begin by kicking around a few headlines (about Robinhood, Clubhouse, and Substack) and then finish up by answering questions from our live Zoom audience of Unemployable Initiative community members.

There are, without doubt, a lot of podcasts other there. But that’s not the same as there being a lot of truly engaging podcasts.

People tend to think if they just land the right guest (you know, the one that’s been on every other show like yours), your downloads would double and sales would skyrocket. But think about it ... how can that be true?

Rather than just another podcast, you need a premise that does more than prompt a download. Something that speaks to your intended audience in a way that simultaneously delivers the value they’re looking for, in a way they weren’t expecting.

This week’s guest on 7-Figure Small has some thoughts on the subject. In fact, Jay Acunzo has lots of thoughts, and they are incredibly insightful.

If you’re trying to grow your business with a podcast, or you’re contemplating it, this episode is a must listen.

From his early work at companies like Google and ESPN, and spanning 15+ years of public performance and creative projects, Jay has inspired and pushed others to question the status quo, find and share their voices, and make a difference with the work they create.

He’s now building his own solo business helping people find their voice and build an audience -- all in a way that leads to real revenue, not just downloads on just another podcast.

Over the last 15 years or so, there have been a multitude of people who have started creating content for a specific audience, and bootstrapped their way to 7-figure success. Build the audience first, and the revenue follows.

Katie Wells of Wellness Mama is one of those people. As a mother of six, her interest in helping families become healthier stemmed from her own research in raising healthy children -- a familiar case of purpose preceding profit that powers so many bootstrapped digital media businesses.

Today, Wellness Mama is a thriving business that initially hit the 7-figure mark by recommending quality products and services to people who trust Katie to put their well-being first. And then she developed her own line of natural products under the Wellness brand, which is now a successful and growing ecommerce company that has weathered the pandemic and looks to have an exceedingly bright future.

It’s all too easy to look at Katie’s success today and think this is something that’s too monumental to achieve. But everything starts with one small step at the beginning. Just one person making a decision to provide meaningful value and solutions to others.

If you have a strong sense of purpose that you’d like to turn into a business, Katie’s story will help you get started. Her insights in this episode are incredibly valuable, and she shares more than a few nuggets of gold that can make your own journey less mysterious and more fruitful.

It’s never been more doable to start a digital business. The increased “virtualization” of business, education, communities and events was happening anyway -- and then 2020 kicked it up to a much higher level.

But most of us start off as freelancers and with other client service businesses (I know I did). It’s a rite of passage where you learn how to make it without a J.O.B., and often reveals the driving sense of purpose for the business you really want to start and run.

Like a lot of young people, Krista Stryker thought she knew what she wanted to do after school, and like a lot of people life presented other plans. She ended up as a freelance copywriter, while starting a blog to talk about her passion for fitness on the side.

That blog turned into 12-Minute Athlete, which is now an app, book, and website dedicated to high intensity interval training and body-weight exercises. And even with her success, Krista is looking to take her business to the next level thanks to her belief that physical fitness must be accompanied with mental fitness as well.