And She Spoke

Pinterest is a powerful tool for anyone who runs an online business. A whopping 92% of our social traffic comes from the platform, so it's time we share with you our secret sauce: Promoted Pins. With Facebook Ads, you generally target people by demographic or psychographic information. With Pinterest, you can target by search terms (i.e., you only pay to expose your advertisement to people who are already looking for what you’re selling). In this episode, we share seven tips for optimizing your Promoted Pins: authenticity use text overlays strategically optimize pin descriptions with keywords create vertical pins to take up more real estate on the screen try out a collage (such as a yoga sequence broken down by pose or a recipe broken down by step) be sure to include your logo or website on your image (People steal!) don’t use hashtags

Starting an online business? You need to run (not walk) to go hire a virtual assistant (VA). At least that’s the conventional wisdom we were told when we first started this entrepreneurial journey... We’ve streamlined our team in recent months and taken over tasks that were once delegated to virtual assistants and agencies and it has been THE VERY BEST decision we could have made for our business. We call this process “insourcing,” and although we naively thought we coined the term, it turns out to be a well-studied business phenomenon. (Heck, even the Obama Administration had a directive on insourcing back in 2012.) When is the right time to insource vs. outsource? Listen in to learn the powerful strategies that we’ve uncovered to increase our revenue while cutting costs and reducing stress and anxiety in our business.Joy: Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary LifeHustle: Tailwind   (This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to purchase, we may receive a small credit or commission at no extra cost to you.)

Given that your business and personal life are likely to overlap, should you create a separate Instagram account for your business? Many online entrepreneurs consider their personalities to be part of their brands. A single account shows you walk the talk without getting overly sales-focused. If you mix business and personal, that balance makes your online presence feel more authentic and grounded. If you have a partnership like we do (or a larger team), on the other hand, you’ll need to create a separate account. You’ll also want to consider opening a separate business account if you’d like to keep your personal life more private (or if your personal posts seem like too much of a departure from your business).

In this episode, we discuss our theory of why tools like Snapchat and Instagram Stories have become so popular (and why they worry us at times). We’ve been wrestling for months with our opinions about ephemeral content on social media. Why, as entrepreneurs, would it make sense to put time into creating content that’s fleeting? At the same time, ephemeral content is often refreshingly honest and unscripted.  Joy: Baron Fig Lock + Key Hustle: Plann

Today’s episode dives into strategies for using hashtags (on both Instagram and Pinterest) to grow your online following. Hashtags allow your posts to become searchable on social media, so it’s a powerful way to get new eyes on your content. For Instagram, we recommend that you: Research the hashtags that influencers in your niche are using and exploe the hashtags that your quintessential clients are including in their posts as well Mix up your hashtag blocks so that you don’t get shadowbanned For Pinterest, we recommend that you: Use 4-6 hashtags max in your Pin descriptions Don’t use hashtags in promoted (paid) Pins Don’t waste your time revisiting old Pins to incorporate hashtags Incorporate at least one long-tail keyword hashtag in ALL of your Pins moving forward (to create a curated feed if someone clicks the tag)

“We are being sold on the need to upgrade all parts of ourselves, all at once, including parts that we did not previously know needed upgrading.” - Alexandra Schwartz It’s a brand new year, so that means our culture is abuzz with the aspirational narcissism of self development. In this episode, we discuss our opinions on New Year’s resolutions, the self help movement, and our society’s increasing focus on productivity. Other Mentions: Improving Ourselves to Death, Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials Joy: Grain Mill Hustle: Calendly Chrome Extension

Today’s episode is Part 2 of our quick overview of online challenges. (You can listen to Part 1 here.) Offering a challenge can work wonders for your email list, but only if that challenge truly appeals to your audience. You’ll want to be strategic at every step in the process. Here are our tips for creating a successful email-based online challenge: Find out what your audience wants. If you offer a 10-day core strength challenge but your readers are more interested in meditation, you’ll get far fewer new subscribers. Utilize polls, track your own stats to see which articles and other content users are reading, and start conversations on Facebook to test the waters before settling on a topic. Make sure your challenge is unique. OK, it doesn’t have to be one-of-a-kind, but it certainly can’t be dime-a-dozen! Pick an angle, add a twist, and find a way to customize your offering. Keep it short and make it doable. Length is key. Too short and you don’t get bankable buy-in from new readers, too long and participants lose interest. Most experts recommend seven to 10 days for an online challenge. Make your challenge meaty, but not overwhelming (aim for participant actions steps that take under 10-15 minutes per day). Promote, promote, promote. Buy Facebook ads, post promos to Instagram, start a challenge-specific pin board, create a series of YouTube videos, post daily reminders to your blog, or commit to a daily Facebook Live broadcast. Tell everyone everywhere about the stellar challenge you’ve created, and (gently) nudge them to sign up. Incorporate interactivity. It may be tempting to write every word of your content challenge ahead of time and then step back and watch it all unfold, but resist the urge to remove yourself. Online challenges that include a social or interactive component are far more popular and effective. Don’t forget to follow up! Hopefully your challenge doubled or tripled your list, but don’t just congratulate yourself and move on. As we mentioned earlier, these folks are now primed to buy from you, so consider offering challenge participants a deal on one of your products or classes. If nothing else, prep and send a quick poll to find out what worked and what didn’t so you can tweak the challenge for its next round.

In this episode, we summarize our big picture approach to online marketing. We see so much excitement among our clients about their teaching content, but all too often, marketing is an afterthought. We have four basic suggestions for getting your brand in front of new people: Master the Hashtag. Incorporate SEO. Invest in Paid Marketing. Be an Inspired Guest. Once you’ve got someone’s attention, how do you keep them interested in your brand? Get them on your email list via a generous, free opt-in offer. Create and share great free content on a regular basis. Send out a regular newsletter that showcases your free content. Add a call-to-action to your social media platforms at least once per week.  Joy: Clear Window Bird Feeder Hustle: linktree

Today’s episode is Part 1 of our quick overview of online challenges. An online challenge is a multi-step, user-driven series of activities guided by pre-written content. Challenge creators are usually trying to build their followings, and the challenge itself offers subscribers a tangible, fun, motivating reward for signing up. Online challenges can be run through blogs, Facebook Groups, Instagram, virtually any online medium, but if you’re aiming to build your email list, your challenge should be email-based. A well-crafted challenge can: teach your subscribers to open your emails build rapport and connection with your community highlight your expertise as a teacher or coach prime subscribers to purchase Tune into next week’s office hours episode to hear our favorite strategies for building an impactful challenge!

“Singularity is the source of innovation.” — Carol Sanford Although new entrepreneurs can benefit from initial coaching and mentorship, your value proposition ultimately comes from your unique essence. In this episode, we discuss the work of Carol Sanford and the reason why it is so important to identify your business’s essence. In some ways, essence is related to branding, but your business’s essence is bigger than its brand. As Sanford notes, “Essence is unique to each company, and cannot be made up...It is similar to the uniqueness each child has in a family. Children prosper best when their essence is honored and contributed. Only years later will you know their brand and how they apply it to their work in the world. They will be most successful and creative when their life and work are aligned with their essence. The same is true for business.” So many potential clients reach out to us asking “How can I possibly be successful when there are so many other yoga teachers, health coaches, fill-in-the-blanks, online already?” The answer we always give is “But they’re not YOU.” The world doesn’t need a handful of famous, untouchable  gurus. Human beings crave connection and there are people that can benefit from YOUR unique way of teaching, coaching, and serving. Other Mentions: Quintessential Business Workshop Joy: @carissabaktayHustle: Finding Your Company’s Essence – and Using it for Growth, What Is Regeneration? Part 4 – Singularity, The Regenerative Business