Chasing Simple Marketing for Entrepreneurs

If you also deal with a chronic illness, you know how much it affects your daily life and your business. And even for those without a chronic illness, if you’re someone who menstrates, you likely find that there are times during the month where you feel like you’re on top of the world. And then there are times where you feel like you accomplish nothing. Spoiler: there’s nothing wrong with you. You just need to create a schedule that works with your body.

And in today’s episode, I’m so excited to introduce you to my friend Sandra.

Sandra Henderson is a wedding photographer, business coach, and podcast host based in Ontario, Canada. She specializes in helping wedding photographers create strategic systems for their businesses to help them get their time back so they can spend it doing the things they love most. As an entrepreneur who also navigates chronic illness life, Sandra also takes a unique approach to using systems that will help businesses thrive no matter what life throws your way. On a personal note, she loves tacos, 90’s music, travelling, and spending time at home with her husband, step-son, and two cats!

Sandra is a fellow endometriosis warrior, and we connected about that and the idea of cycle syncing, which has majorly changed how I view my business. And today she’s sharing the three things she utilizes to create a schedule as a business owner with a chronic illness: boundaries, systems, and cycle syncing. Even if you don’t have a chronic illness, you’ll get so much from this episode, because we’re chatting all things sustainable scheduling.

Sandra Henderson is a wedding photographer, business coach, and podcast host based in Ontario, Canada. She specializes in helping wedding photographers create strategic systems for their businesses to help them get their time back so they can spend it doing the things they love most. As an entrepreneur who also navigates chronic illness life, Sandra also takes a unique approach to using systems that will help businesses thrive no matter what life throws your way. On a personal note, she loves tacos, 90’s music, travelling, and spending time at home with her husband, step-son, and two cats!

https://simplysandrayvonne.ca/

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TikTok: simplysandrayvonne

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If you also deal with a chronic illness, you know how much it affects your daily life and your business, and even for those without a chronic illness, if you’re someone who menstruates, you likely find that there are times during the month where you feel like you’re on top of the world, and then there are times where you feel like you accomplish nothing, spoiler.

There’s nothing wrong with you. You just need to create a schedule that works with your body. And in today’s episode, I am so excited to introduce you to my friend Sandra. Sandra Henderson is a wedding photographer, business coach and podcast host based in Ontario, Canada. She specializes in helping wedding photographers create strategic systems for their businesses to help them get their time back so that they can spend it doing the things they love most.

As an entrepreneur who also navigates chronic illness life, Sandra also takes a unique approach to using systems that will help businesses thrive no matter what. Life throws your way. On a personal note, she loves taco’s, nineties music, traveling and spending time at home with her husband’s stepson and two cats.

Sandra is a fellow endometriosis warrior and we connected about that and the idea of cycle syncing, which has majorly changed how I view my business. And today she’s sharing the three things she utilizes to create a schedule as a business owner with a chronic illness. Boundaries systems, and cycle syncing.

Even if you don’t have a chronic illness, you’ll get so much from this episode because we’re chatting all things sustainable scheduling. You’re listening to episode 174 of The Chasing Simple Podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by my book, Chasing Simple Marketing, and you can grab your own copy at amandawarfield.com/book 

How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways and how do I do it? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly, how do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome friend. This is Chasing Simple Where Practical Marketing Strategy Meets Simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plan for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. So that they have time to grow their business, take time off and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one-on-one clients, such as the contract shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or how my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell reading in our hammock watching Gamecock Sports traveling or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simply an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really wanna be doing is the thing that they started their business to do.

Which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love. Each week, I’ll offer you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choice is, and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips and advice on uncomplicating, your marketing and business. Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? Really quickly, before we dive into this episode, I just have to share something that I’m really excited about with you.

My book, Chasing Simple Marketing, is launching this July. I wrote this book for the business owner that stumbled into entrepreneurship because they were following their passion, but without that Master’s 

of Business Administration 

or that background in business, well, they find marketing. Overwhelming and frustrating.

Throughout these pages, I’m going to take you on a simplicity focused journey to improve your content marketing, and you’ll walk away with an actionable plan to simplify your marketing so that you can fit your marketing into your business without it taking over your business. To learn more about how to grab your own copy and even potentially get on the launch team, head over to amanda warfield.com/book.

I’ll see you there, Sandra. I am so excited to have you here to talk about this today. But before we jump into all the great stuff in this episode, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is that you do? 

Yeah, of course. So my name is Sandra. Like Amanda just said, I am a wedding photographer based.

In London, Ontario, Canada, which I always say is the way less cool. London. Um, my whole area is the complete like direct ripoff of London in the uk. I have an hour drive to get over to Paris. Again, much less cool version of Paris. Um, but just to like paint a picture of whereabouts I am, it’s about halfway between Toronto and Detroit.

So it makes it nice and easy to like navigate where those big cities are. Um, like I mentioned, I’m a wedding photographer and I also am a business coach and podcast host. Um, my podcast is called Keeping It Candid, and both of those specialize in the wedding photography industry and how you can utilize systems to streamline the backend of your business.

Okay, and I have one more question 

before we dive in. For everyone who’s listening, there’s a kitten that just popped up in the background. Um, 

what’s their name and how are they? So well behaved because I had to lock pad may out on our sunroom for 

this because I didn’t want 

her to come scream at us. This is, so, this is smudge and uh, this is very rare behavior for her.

For the last two days, she has been driving me up the wall. She is like, when you see a video online of a cat that behaves really badly, that’s her. Um, but for some reason she is very content to just come in and sleep in here right now. So, hopefully, Fingers crossed that, uh, it stays that way and she doesn’t come and completely interrupt our interview.

That’s so cute. I love the name of Smudge, and she just popped right up and laid right down. She was so well behaved. 

That’s amazing. I was like, wow. I 

wish Padma could do that. Right. Kick her three times this morning. If I were to close my door, she’d be like digging at the carpet. There’s a whole section where like she’s torn right down to the floorboard.

So yeah, this is pretty rare behavior for her. Um, I, knock on wood, we’ll see what happens as we’re talking. Um, but it’s funny, I actually, um, I’m reading a book right now where the main character is a woman with a chronic illness and she just, Found a cat and she decided to name it smudge. And that’s like what I was reading this morning and I was like, do I need to get in touch with someone for stealing my likeness?

Like what is happening right now? That’s actually really incredible. Speaking of chronic 

illness, that’s exactly what we’re gonna talk about today, and you are very open about 

the fact that 

you have a chronic illness. And, uh, for everyone listening, I, I talk about it some, but I also have endometriosis and.

It’s crazy what an effect it has on your day-to-day life. And when I first found out I had endometriosis, I was just like, okay, well that sucks. But the more I go about my life and the more I realize just how much it does affect my day-to-day, I’ve really had to come to terms with how I have to rearrange my schedule for mm-hmm.

This chronic illness. So could you tell us a little bit about what your chronic illness means for you on a day-to-day basis? 

Yeah, absolutely. Pretty similar to what you were just saying. Um, I had actually, I have endometriosis as well as, Chronic migraines and a whole slew of other things that I’m still, we’re trying to find answers for.

If anybody is familiar with living chronic illness life, I’m sure that sounds very, very familiar to you. Um, but like you were saying, like I just, it got to a point where I had to really take a step back and rethink how I was gonna approach life going forward. Um, because endometriosis and many, many other chronic illnesses, they don’t just impact.

Small bits of your life. Like a lot of people think that endometriosis has to do with bad periods, which absolutely is a huge factor of it, but I’m not on my period 365 days a year, thankfully, yet. I still have to manage symptoms day in and day out. Some days are really great, some days are really awful, and sometimes they’re really unpredictable.

And so just trying to figure out, um, different ways to approach my schedule, how I’m spending my energy, the things that I’m giving my energy to, all of those things. Really kind of had to be shaken up and just approached in a totally different way. Um, and so if there’s any sort of silver lining to the pandemic and being, you know, not taking as many photos and, um, having the photography industry hit so hard is that, that was when I was going through, um, some of the worst times of dealing with chronic illness.

And so it gave me a lot more. Space to be able to navigate the changes in my life and how I was gonna do that or how I was gonna approach that going forward. So yeah, it’s weird to say that there was a small silver lining or take good takeaway from the last couple years, but that was it for me. I mean, I feel 

like that’s a healthy mindset, right?

Not everything is all bad or all good, but for sure. So you mentioned that it’s really unpredictable your symptoms and that. It impacts so much of your life and what you’re doing on a typical day, how does that 

affect your business? So like I was saying, I was able to take that time during the pandemic to just kind of like rethink where I wanted to spend my energy, what things were worth, the energy that I was giving them, and which they weren’t.

Um, and that. Gave me a little bit of a different mindset into how I was going to approach my schedule. Um, and so that was the biggest impact in kind of dealing with the unpredictability of everything is arranging my schedule in a way that respected my energy levels and not what everybody else needed from me.

And then also utilizing systems so that I could take. Less time from behind my computer and doing all those little things and put, put that energy elsewhere. Um, so doing things like if I have a wedding on a Saturday, Friday, I don’t have sessions, and Sunday I do absolutely nothing at all except watch Netflix.

Um, and if I am doing sessions, I try to limit myself to three sessions in a day. Or if I have one session a day, then I’m not gonna do more three day, more than three days in a row. And little things like that, I really just kind of had to learn by trial and error and just respecting my body and the messages that it was telling me.

And then just kind of setting those boundaries and making sure that I’m working within those going forward. And then utilizing systems, which I will mention a million times during this chat, um, is really like the key factor into. To making sure all of that can happen. I love 

this so much. Okay, so diving into the boundaries first, how did you go about determining what your boundaries needed to be for yourself?

It was definitely, um, Not the easiest process, that’s for sure. Um, I think that regardless of your reason for implementing boundaries, it’s always going to be a little bit of a learning process, not just for you, but for the other people in your life as well, whether that be, you know, your partner and your family and your friends or your clients and people that you regularly work with.

Um, so it was definitely a little bit of a learning curve, both to figure out what I needed those boundaries to be and what I needed those limitations. To be and to get everybody else on board with supporting those boundaries as well. Um, so on the business side of things, like I was saying, like I limit how many days in a row I’m working or when I’m taking on specific sessions.

Um, I’m also really particular with only responding to my inbox within my office hours, um, using autoresponders so I can still, you know, get that quick email out without me having to get. Be at my computer, um, and little things like that. But it was just a lot of trial and error, like going into, um, it would’ve been June of 2020 when I was finally able to start taking photos again in my area because we had some, uh, pretty intense and long lasting, um, pandemic restrictions.

Um, so I went into that spring portrait season. Just looking to take on as many portraits as I could because I had been off work. I typically start taking photos in late April, early May, and all of my weddings were getting postponed and things like that, so I really needed these portraits and I went out, filled my calendar as much as I could, took on all the sessions that I could, and it was just hitting me.

So hard every single time to the point that like, I’d be sitting in my car after a session for a half an hour just looking to like, decompress and build up my energy enough to be able to safely drive myself home. Um, and little things like that that I really just kind of had to pay attention to the messages that my body was sending me to say, okay, like this was the moment that you pushed it too far.

So that has to be where you put that boundary in. And then the great thing about boundaries is that they can always be changed. So it was that I was taking on, you know, weddings on a Saturday and no sessions on a Sunday, but I would still have engagement sessions on Friday evenings and things like that.

Then it became, you know, that I found that I was not able to show up for that wedding on the Saturday. To the best of the ability that I wanted to because that Friday night session had taken some of my energy away. So then I had to make the decision that we were then taking Fridays and Sundays off around a wedding.

Um, and so yeah, just little things like that. It really, um, first and foremost has to do with just listening to the messages that your body is sending you and just working within your energy limitations. And then when it comes to getting everybody else on board with your boundaries, that’s definitely the harder part.

Um, unfortunately, we all have people in our lives who take advantage of our lack of boundaries. Um, there would be some people who totally respect your boundaries when you start setting them. There were. Be some people who do the opposite of that. Um, and that’s just kind of like an unfortunate thing that we have to deal with when we make changes in our lives.

But in the end, the people that support your boundaries and respect your boundaries and understand the reason why you have them are the people that are worth spending your energy on. And if they’re people who are thinking that your boundaries are an attack on them or whatever reason that they may come up with, maybe they’re not the most supportive person to have in your life.

And maybe you can take a little. Different perspective on how to approach that relationship. Um, because that has a lot to do with like where I’m spending my energy as well, just like arguments that I no longer have the time for and things like that. It all comes together in a very unique way when you’re dealing with chronic illness all the time.

Yeah, 

absolutely. When it comes to, I’m curious, when it comes to setting boundaries and determining what those look like in your life, do you have set these are boundaries for all of time? Until you decide to change them, but like all month long, or do you have boundaries that are set in conjunction with cycle syncing, which for everyone listening, some of my favorite episodes of Sandra’s podcast are about cycle syncing, and I will link those in the show notes because it’s a fascinating topic and something that I am working on doing in my own life and business this year.

But I’m curious, are your boundaries. All months long boundaries, or do they depend on where you’re at in your cycle? 

Yes. I love this question. Um, so it totally depends on where I’m at in my cycle. And if there’s one thing that I hope any menstruates that are listening to this podcast episode take away is to start tracking everything.

Even if you just have a regular cycle, if you’re not dealing with any other, um, chronic illnesses that go along with that, it’s. Still so beneficial. And then tenfold if you’re dealing with endometriosis or P C O S or anything that goes along those lines, that may, um, impact how your cycle impacts your body.

Um, so tracking everything, if you feel good, if you feel bad, if you’re not sleeping properly, um, where you’re at in your cycle. All of those things, I just throw them all onto my calendar. I actually have, like I use. Google calendar. And so you can make your own little like sub calendars within your account.

And I have one called Seasons and that’s where I log absolutely everything. Um, so if you’ve ever heard about seasons with your menstrual cycle before, it essentially lines up, the average cycle is about 28 to 30 days, which is the same, um, length of your average month. And each one of those weeks, um, if we’re talking about like a 28 day cycle, for example, it would be seven days per phase of your cycle.

And each one similarly lines up with the seasons that we feel throughout the year. Um, and so during times like your summer season, um, which is when you would be ovulating, You are more likely to have high energy, less brain fog, um, and have a lot of hormones coming through your body that are pushing you in a positive direction to be able to just like really embrace that creativity that you’re feeling.

Um, and so those times of the month are usually times that you’ll find me working longer hours. Um, I’ll get back onto my laptop after dinnertime, which is a pretty. Hard boundary for me, the majority of the month is I try to, um, shut my laptop down once dinner’s ready and not go back on, which I did for the first time last night after like a couple weeks of breaking that boundary.

And it was hard. I was sitting there and I was like, oh my God, I’m so bored. But yeah, so just kind of like paying attention to those little things and when you’re putting them on your calendar and tracking them regularly, after about three months, you’ll start to see patterns. Um, so if you have a 28 day cycle, for example, you may find that on day 14 that you are feeling a little bit, you know, laish, you’re feeling like you have pretty heavy brain fog.

Um, on average, day 14 ish is when most people will ovulate. Um, again, like factors. Depending on P C O S and endo and hormone levels and things like that will always come into play. Um, but on average about day 14 is when you’re gonna ovulate. And so the week following that is when you’re gonna feel all those great hormones that are gonna push you into having higher energy levels and things like that.

When it comes to your winter season, um, which is the week that you are menstruating, then you’re more likely to feel sluggish and you’re more likely to have a lot of brain fog. If you have endo or P c o S, you could be dealing with a lot of pain symptoms that go along with that. Um, so that week is a week that I really give myself permission to do a whole lot of nothing.

Um, I try to limit my tasks that are super important for the day to just like one or two things. I can usually just pop onto my computer and get them done within an hour. Though, and then I can take the rest of the day off. Um, for some people taking that all that time off may not be needed. If you have an average cycle and you’re not dealing with anything else, or you may be able to, you know, just take one day off or just have a few days of light tasks, other people may need to take a whole week off and just not do anything at all.

Um, but tracking how you’re feeling day in and day out for a few months is going to give you a great starting point on what to expect. Expect and find those patterns so that way you can kind of schedule around it as you’re going forward. Um, so making sure that you’re not putting any super, super important meetings on your calendar during your winter week.

Um, and yeah, little things like that just really help take some of that pressure and guilt off that a lot of us feel when we take the time off. Um, especially if it’s not planned time off. 

Something that I found so interesting when I first started researching cycle syncing is that a man’s cycle is 24 hours, and so each day their cycle just repeats.

Whereas women or those who menstruate have a. 28 day cycle. And so it’s vastly different. And I started, when I realized that I started paying attention to my husband’s attitude throughout the day and every day at four 30, he was so cranky and I was like, you gotta eat something. He’s like, this is just that part of the day where like you need a boost in energy.

And it’s been very interesting to, to look at his cycle throughout each day and compare it to mine throughout the month. Although now his cycle is all kinds of jacked up from working shift work. But. Prior to that, it was very interesting to look at that and just to realize, oh, this whole like nine to five thing that.

We all wanna throw out the window, right? As entrepreneurs, we all at some level don’t wanna work a nine to five. It was created for men with these 24 hour cycles and it aligns best with theirs. And so I, that really gave me permission to go, I can do this my own way and I can set up my schedule in my own way.

And similar to how you use your Google calendar to, to write out like where you’re at in your cycle? I haven’t. I’ve written it out for the whole rest of the year, each week, right before the. Beginning of the first, like Sunday block of the week. I’ve got fall, winter, spring, summer, fall, and I’ve just got it written out so that I can plan my schedule, like you were just saying, around those weeks.

So I really try to, this week’s, technically spring batch week would’ve worked better for my summer week, but. Scheduling conflicts didn’t make that totally possible, but I was able to say, okay, well spring’s a close second at least. Mm-hmm. To that. I definitely don’t wanna do batch work during my winter week.

I’ll get nothing done. It’ll be awful. Right. Um, and so that way I’m making sure I’m scheduling though meetings and important things during my summer week and I’m not scheduling much at all during my winter week. And that’s been really helpful this year for essentially working in sprints. Mm-hmm. Which, Not only am I doing with my cycle and you know, just to work with my own body, but also with my husband’s schedule now that he’s working shift work, that’s, you know, trying to figure all of that out has been really interesting.

And I’m essentially working in these sprints of there two weeks outta the month where I’m working real hard and they’re two weeks where I’m not working a whole lot at all. And it just is what it is. And so that. I don’t know, just knowing that men’s schedules were so different, their cycles were so different.

That really gave me that permission to, I can do this my own way and I can listen to my body, and I don’t have to work 5, 6, 7, 8 hours every single day in order to be a real business 

owner, quote unquote. Yeah, absolutely. I think we all have those like standards set in our brain somewhere locked away in our subconscious about like that.

We have to do these things in order to be a legit business owner. And if people D think that we aren’t doing those things, then they’re gonna look at us in a negative way. It’s so not true. Right. The majority of people don’t care. Like no. If somebody is not gonna hire me for their wedding because I work four days a week, then cool.

They’re not the right couple for me. There’s a million other couples out there and that’s totally fine. So just kind of like embracing that. Um, is a huge mindset shift that I think benefits all entrepreneurs across the board, no matter what industry you’re in. What you were saying about how, you know, the workday and everything was based off of the hormonal shift of men.

It’s so true. And like without going into like a huge feminist offset to like tirade here, um, the majority of our lives that we currently live as a society are built off of ways that. Are sustainable for men. Um, one thing that I learned very recently that was like mind blowing but also not mind blowing at the same time, was that women are more likely to die in a car accident, not because of anything that we do, but because vehicles are tested with crash test dummies that are built to the standard proportions of a male.

And so vehicles are not being tested on women’s bodies to find out how that impact of a crash is going to affect us. Um, and so like when you hear little. Things like that. It’s like, it’s not surprising, but it’s also so surprising and so infuriating. Um, and I think that there’s so many more things that we deal with on a daily basis that are built that way that we don’t even realize.

And so I think it’s so important for everybody, but especially for women, um, to just kind of like embrace that we don’t have to do things the same way that everybody else does. Isn’t that wild? 

I, I learned that within the last few months too, and it just blows my mind. That they’re just not even creating crash dummies in the female form.

Right. Anyways. Crazy. Um, yeah, no, I think it’s so important and I think whether you have a chronic illness or not, moving towards cycle syncing can only benefit. I mean, it can only help your business. And to what you were saying about, you know, if someone doesn’t wanna work with me because I work for four days a week, how are they gonna know also, as long as you’re getting your stuff done?

And that’s what it comes down to. Is that, that sustainability that you mentioned of mm-hmm. Understanding what is truly sustainable for you in a month. Honestly, all that can do is benefit your mental health because you’re not overwhelming your plate with too many things, and also because you’re giving your body what it needs at any given time during the month.

So could you run through real quick, and you don’t have to go into details, but just a real quick spring, summer. Fall, winter, why can’t I remember season, spring, summer, fall, winter, and maybe like one or two things that you could gear your business towards those weeks. 

Yeah, of course. I’ll just give direct examples of the things that I do in my business.

So the start of your winter week is day one of your period, and that is essentially day one of your cycle and it goes on from there. So during my winter week, I do, I spend a lot of time in Canva during my winter week. Um, it’s just something that I can do. To make myself feel productive, which helps for me anyway, deal with that guilt that comes along with taking this time off.

And it’s something that I can do very low energy. It’s something that I really enjoy doing. It gives me a creative outlet that helps me keep my mind off how I’m feeling, um, as, which is really beneficial on those really bad days. Um, and so yeah, I spend a lot of time in Canva when it’s my winter week, just.

Things that are easy to do. Um, when I talk to people both with chronic illnesses, when I talk to parents, anyone who has something that regularly pulls them away from their business, that guilt factor is something that everybody is dealing with. And so I find that just giving yourself something small that you can do that just makes you feel better, makes you feel less guilty, is just, it shifts something in your brain to just make that whole week a lot easier and make you come out of it in a much better mindset than if you have been.

Dealing with that guilt the whole time. I have no idea where this quote came from, and I’m totally paraphrasing, but someone in the land of the internet has said something about how, um, when you are taking time off to rest, but your mind is constantly going over all the things that you should be doing or that you’re not doing, you’re not actually resting.

Um, so that has been a way that I’ve kind of been able to deal with that, is just give myself one little thing that I can just work on mindlessly and it doesn’t matter if it gets done or not. I’ll design, um, graphics to put up on Instagram or I will, um, you know, work on some photos for a blog post.

Little things like that that are very, very low energy. I try 

to do, I save up any of these tasks that come up throughout the month if they don’t have a deadline of like, here’s something I can do. That I don’t need to put real clothes on for. I can sit on my heating pad on the couch and do, I don’t necessarily need both of my screens that don’t take any kind of mental energy, like there’s no strategy involved in it.

Mm-hmm. 

So basically nothing client facing. Right? 

Nothing client facing, nothing. I mean, I’m really not working on, if I’m doing marketing, it’s. The like, okay, what, what graphics do I need? Or something like that. Really no marketing, no strategy. For example, I’ve got, I really have to, as I’m recording this, it’s March.

I really need to figure out what the tagline of my book is, but that’s something that there’s no way I could do during a winter week because it’s so strategic and it would use so much mental energy. Mm-hmm. But can I design a funnel that I’ve already, like can I copy and paste the funnel and set it up for my next speaking engagement?

Absolutely. Cuz that takes no mental energy. It’s just, Busy at work, essentially, and so I save all of those tasks for that winter week during the month, so it’s, I can still check things off and feel like I’ve accomplished something and I’m still doing things for my business, but I don’t have to, I don’t have to get off the couch.

I don’t need two screens. I don’t need 

any of this 

extra stuff. I can just check a few things off, feel like I’ve gotten something done, and then give my mind that ability to truly rest, like you 

were saying. Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. That mindset, almost like a mindset hack to be, for lack of a better word, is a huge game changer in just like getting the rest that you need during that week.

Then going into the spring week, you’ll feel that your energy is coming up a lot from there. Any, whether you are dealing with endometriosis or just having regular periods, you know that like by the time that’s over, you’re just. So glad that it’s done. You’re feeling better, cramps have gone, fatigue is going away.

Um, and all those other things that we have to deal with. All of that is clearing up. And so it’s kind of like, you know, the snow has melted, the flowers have bloomed. It’s time to just get back into the world and start living your life again. Um, so that’s when I will essentially to a certain extent, play a bit of ketchup.

One thing that I am working on myself this year is giving my. Self permission to not play catch up, um, in the sense of like, not feeling like I have to make up for lost time. So if I take one day, if I take a Monday off, not going in Tuesday, feeling like I have to do two days of work, um, that’s something that I’m working on this year.

But you do that, like refreshed mindset does have a way of like whether or not you feel like you’re. Catching up. You’re just, you have that energy to just get back into doing the things that you love. And so I’ll get back into my inbox and rather than taking, you know, the full two business days that they know to expect because I have an autoresponder, I’ll get back within one business day and just like start doing things a little bit more, um, on a faster scale.

And that’s when I’ll start working on more client facing things again. 

Um, I found that this is also a great time. For strategy because you’re mm-hmm. You’re thinking so creatively, like you were saying, the the new energy really brings in that space for creativity, and this is a great time if you are trying to figure out how a funnel’s gonna work in your business or how you want to lead people to a certain thing.

This is a great time to play around with the strategy of different things within your business as 

well. Yeah, absolutely. And even reevaluating those boundaries that you’ve set and things like that because you know, what you were just dealing with over the last week is still fresh in your mind. Um, so if you notice that like, you know, you had done something a little bit, you pushed a little bit too far at a certain time, um, getting that clarity and like that strategy mindset is a great time to just kind of like make those adjustments if you need to.

Yeah, then going into summer, so for me, and I know a lot of people with endometriosis and P C O S are gonna relate to this a little bit, um, but the beginning of summer for me is kind of like half winter, half summer. Um, so when I ovulate it, it is. Pretty similar to when I have my period and that I need to take a few days off and my body is just like, Nope, we are, we are not doing this today.

Um, and so, but thankfully it only lasts about half the week, knock on wood, on a good week. It lasts about half the week, and then I get the rest of my summer week to really embrace that like high energy level and getting shit done during that time. Um, that’s when you’ll find me at my laptop at all hours of the night.

It’s a time when you just feel like the best business owner in the world, like you’re just getting everything done, your posts are going up, your blogs are like amazing. You’re just loving everything that you’re doing. That’s what to expect from the summer week. Summer week is a great week. Thank you. I’m also a huge fan of Summer in Nature, so 

Yeah.

Oh yeah. That’s my favorite give, like I just want a lizard all the time. Give me the right, the heat, the sun, the humidity. I love it. 

I’m counting down until I go to Florida at the end of the month and like the lizard version of me is just waiting to come out. I’m so excited for you for that. It’s gonna be so good.

It’s really cold. Well, I’m not in Florida, obviously, but it’s cold here in South Carolina again, and I’m really upset because we had a string of 80 degree days. Oh. For like two or three weeks. And I was like, oh, spring is here, winter’s over and now it’s like low fifties again and rainy and I hate life.

Yeah. 

You got caught in the false winter or fall. Spring like we did. I did it. I’m watching it snow outside my window again right now. It’s terrible. It’s. I’ve also 

found that I’m so much more social during my summer week. Yeah. Like I’ll find, typically if I have a meeting in the evening, like if I have to go to the church for a meeting or something like that, I am.

Dragging my feet to get there most weeks, but during the summer week, I’m like, yeah, I’ve got energy for this. This is great. Or I’ll find myself spending a whole lot of my day on Voxer mm-hmm. With my friend Hailey. And just like, I, we’re just constantly talking and I, it’s me because I’m being obnoxious and let’s be friends.

Let’s chat because I have all kinds of energy and wanna be social, and I’m such an introvert that that is rare for me, but I, yeah. Very consistently. Every month during my summer week, it’s like, oh, I wanna talk to all the people and I’m gonna send voice messages in dms and I’m gonna do this. And then fall comes and I’m like, don’t talk to me anymore.

Oh, I can totally relate to that. That’s probably how our relationship first started on Instagram too. Cause we were sending a lot of voice messages to each other. Yeah, we probably both in our summer weeks and then we’re like, okay, this is fun. I like you. I 

don’t, I’m overwhelmed 

by dms now. Yeah, exactly. I totally go through those phases too.

Um, and it’s a great week like you were saying to like, have those client meetings. It’s a great week to go to networking meetings and push yourself a little bit outside of your comfort zone that way. Um, and really, yeah, taking advantage of those social energies because you’re right, they do go and. Your hormones.

It’s crazy. Like we don’t realize how, how many different hormones we have and how they each differently impact our energy levels and our mindset and things like that. Um, so when all of those hormones come up from ovulation, it’s like, it just does really great things to your mind and your body for sure.

Then it leads you into your fall week. Um, fall week for a lot of people comes with. Bad sleeping with heightened anxiety. Um, almost, I always say it’s a terrible analogy, but I, for me anyway, sometimes it feels like my body’s preparing for war. Um, because it knows what it’s about to go through the following week as your hormone levels start to come down and things like that.

Um, so I come into that fall week feeling pretty energized. Um, still feeding off of some of those hormones from my summer week. But as the week goes on, um, I find that I wake up a lot more frequently during the night or I’ll wake up a lot earlier in the morning, just not feeling like I’m getting that quality sleep that I really want.

And sleeping is one of my favorite things, so that’s never my favorite week is when sleep escapes me. And so for me, I, like you were saying, like I start to get drained from all of those interactions that I had in the summer week. And so I just kind of have to pull back a little bit, uh, maybe take a little bit of time out of my dms and things like that and just kind of prepare my body and my mind.

Um, For going into that winter week, wrapping up any important conversations that I’m having with clients and things like that. Um, and just making sure that, yeah, I can give my body that respect as we go into yet another winter, because I wouldn’t want to do this every 24 hours like a man has to. But having to do it every 28 days is also exhausting.

It’s, it could stretch out a little bit longer. 

Yeah. Fall for me is definitely, what do I have in my open loops task? Like what? What do I need to wrap up? Mm-hmm. Because I know I’m not getting to it next week, and that is pretty much all I do. I’m not really being social that week. I’m very much just like, okay, what am I wrapping up and finishing and checking off of my to-do list so I can move it off my plate so that I’m not stressed about it next week.

Yeah, exactly. It takes a lot of self-awareness to be a business owner in general, but when you’re adding in chronic illness on top of that, your SI self-awareness almost has to be heightened because you need to be aware of not just what you’re currently feeling in that moment and what you have energy for that day, but you have to have a lot of forethought for what is coming in the future, in the coming days and coming weeks.

Um, and I think that. That’s why tracking becomes so, so important. Because if you don’t ha, I mean, for me anyway, if I don’t have that visual representation, I can’t remember month to month to month what I. Happened one day versus the next. Um, so there are times that I’m like, I feel awful today, and I was not expecting this.

What is going on? I open up my calendar and then I can see, oh, I felt like hell on this day, every month for the last four months. So then I, going forward, well just like. Black off that date. We are no longer working on this date. Um, one fun thing that happened to me earlier this year, I think it was like roughly around the holidays in beginning of January, um, for any Hunger Games fans out there is like, someone like spun my clock.

Like I figured out what that pattern was and then my body was like, oh no, we don’t want you to know what is happening. And just gave it a little spin. And so now I’ve had to spend the last few months just trying to like re, I mean I still track everything, but just kind of like figure out, so there’s.

Random blocked off dates everywhere where it’s like, you know, I felt awful on this day in December and in February, but not in January and March, and like little things like that. But just tracking it gives me some sort of, Kind of like starting point and gives me some sort of control. And that’s I think, really important as well when you’re dealing with the unpredictability of chronic illness life and being an entrepreneur is just finding ways that you can bring that control back into your life in scenarios that are relatively out of your control, I think is super important.

So important. Okay, so 

boundaries. Talked about that. We’ve talked about cycle syncing. You also mentioned that systems are really, really helpful for you in dealing with this chronic illness and you know, seeking your cycle throughout the month because there are some weeks where you’re not working as much.

So what are some systems that you’ve found that are you just top tier? We should really start thinking about A S A P. 

Okay, so number one is autoresponders. I really think that. Auto, auto responders up to a certain point left such a bad taste in our mouth because we would get them and they were just like super boring corporate style to let you know that person wasn’t at their computer and would get back to you later.

There’s so much more that we can do with autoresponders now, especially if you’re using CRM systems, um, where you can just make it a whole part of the client experience without you having to be at your computer. So I have a general, um, autoresponder in my email inbox that just lets people know what day of the week I’m typically in my office, how long it takes me to reply, so that way I’m not getting the same person emailing me every six hours wondering why I haven’t responded yet.

I mean, there’s the exception of there are still people who do it, but. It’s, it’s happens a lot less now. Doesn’t matter how good your boundaries are, there’s always going to be someone who pushes against ’em. So that’s just kind of like a little, little thing to remember there. Um, but yeah, so I have that autoresponder that lets people know, ex when to expect to hear back from me.

And also I have added information in there that if you have a session coming up this weekend, I sent you a different email already that tells you how to get ahold of me around your session. So go and check that email and that will give you the information that you need. And then let them know if it’s something that you really need me for, then just send the email again with urgent in the subject line.

And that way I know cuz I will pop in and out of my inbox. Um, anybody who is like a chronic scroller like I am, sometimes I like tap through all of my apps in the same order, even though I don’t need to check them. So at some point, Even though I have no intentions of responding to any emails over the weekend, I’m gonna end up in my inbox over the weekend.

Um, and so if I see something that says urgent, then I know it’s something that, um, I should dedicate some time to. Um, unless they’ve sent me an email that says urgent in the subject line. And then the first line of the email is, this isn’t actually urgent A happened to me a few weeks ago ago. That’s so unnecessary.

Right. Um, so that, that’s what I have set in for like my just general email inbox. But in my C R M system, I built out questionnaires for wedding and family clients. And so that goes out to them right after they fill out my contact form. They’re getting a personalized email from me, and then a questionnaire that collects information, like if we’re talking about weddings, it is gonna ask them to confirm what their wedding date is, where their venue is, what their budget.

Is for wedding photography, what kind of moments of the day are super important to them so I can get an idea of how many hours they’re gonna need and things like that. All of this is personalized using like fields that auto-populate their name and things like that, and so they’re getting this email from me and they’re getting this questionnaire from me and they have no idea that I wasn’t the one who sent it myself, that it didn’t like that it auto sent, that it was an autoresponder, and that I am off just like enjoying life, watching Netflix and snuggling with my cat.

And that is something that I think a lot of people aren’t embracing when it comes to utilizing autoresponders is that it’s just such a great way to, um, autoresponders and automations in general is a great way to still be able to serve your clients while you are giving your body the time and respect that it needs as well.

Um, so that would be like my number one recommendation, whether you are just looking to like, revamp your systems or get started in systems and you need a little bit of freedom back in your life is. Set up some autoresponders and 

I 

love, I use HoneyBook. I don’t know. Who do you use for your c I use HoneyBook as well.

I love using HoneyBook as much as possible. I use it for my clients, but I also use it. You may have noticed this, I used it to set up my guest interviews for the podcast. Mm-hmm. Because this is a mass, like this is the biggest batch week of my entire year. I am doing 15 interviews this week. It’s crazy.

It’s. Hour after hour, after hour after hour, every single day. My days are slammed and there are so many emails that have to go out. Mm-hmm. There’s so many moving pieces to doing an interview, and I just set it all up in HoneyBook one time, and I just go through and check off everything to make sure that it’s happening and that it’s moving through on an automated schedule.

And HoneyBook does all most of the work for me. I send people, here’s the link to fill out your form. They fill out their form, then they get an email that says, this is great. Thanks. Uh, here, schedule your email. They have my scheduling link inside that email. They schedule their interview. They get another email saying, okay, great.

You’re confirmed. I’ll send you more information. A week out, a week before the interview, they get an email that I go in and I say, okay, here’s the general outline. The whole template is in there. And I just go in and say, we’re gonna talk about this topic and this is gonna be the action steps that we wanna go through, and here’s what you’re gonna, here’s some other things we’ll share.

And I send that to them. And that has the link in there. It’s got everything. And then, Everyone’s on the same page. Mm-hmm. And I spend probably 30 minutes max preparing for each interview and coordinating for each interview because it’s all, I set it up once in HoneyBook and I essentially can set it and almost forget it.

Yeah. Because it’s all in there. And so that’s a system that I’ve set up within my business. Batching is also a system, right? There’s so many. Anything that you’re doing more than once in your business, responding to emails, doing interviews, do whatever, set up templates within Trello or Asana or whatever, and create systems for yourself.

And you don’t have to have them all set out right away. I’m constantly tweaking mine. Every time I redo a system, I realize, oh, it works better if I do it this way and this, it works even better. And over time you build out these templates where you can say, okay, well copy, paste, run through the checklist.

I’m done. I don’t have to think about it. And it makes it so much easier to get things done more efficiently and sustainably while also not having to rely on making sure you have energy when 

you may not. Yeah. That’s so, so true. Um, I love that your podcast is called Chasing Simple, because I think like just simplifying everything in life is so important, but especially in business, and I think a lot of people get hung up when it comes to implementing systems, especially using something like HoneyBook.

Because they’re worried about having things fully automated. But the great thing about HoneyBook and so many other CRM systems is that they allow you to have semi-automated systems. And I, from what you were just describing, it sounds like that’s what you use and that’s what I use as well. Um, and it’s just getting everything set up in a list, essentially a task list, including those templates in with it.

So instead of an email taking five minutes or 10 minutes, For you to send, you’re not writing the whole thing out. You’re not even co copying and pasting it from a different area into an like your email. The email is already there and so something that could have taken you five or 10 minutes is now taking you 30 seconds just to go in and implement those like personal details and things like that.

And then clicking send and just simplifying that process so that, like you said, instead of taking, you know, five, six hours to prep for an interview and getting all those details out, you’re able to do it in 30 minutes and you’re able to batch work for. Interviews, 15 interviews in one day, as opposed to, you know, spreading them out over 15 days because it’s so hard to just juggle all of those pieces.

And I think that any photographers that are listening to this or anybody who does work with a lot of clients all at one time, can really relate to that because there’s so many. Pieces, like moving pieces to the puzzle with every client that you work with, all the prep emails that need to go out, um, all the follow up emails and things like that.

Actually, you know, delivering your service. There are so many things that it’s totally sustainable when you’re first starting out and you’re working with two, three clients, but when you’ve got 30, 40 clients on the go, It’s so easy for those little things to fall through the cracks. And for me, in my business, that’s where my, um, client experience really started to suffer back in 2018.

Um, I had, I think it was in 2017, I had 27 weddings plus all of the engagement sessions and all the family sessions and everything that I was booking. I, that was probably the busiest I’ve ever been in business. And I remember thinking like I had made it like this was. So awesome. I was fully booked out months ahead, but what ended up happening is that I overbooked my calendar and I didn’t have any systems in place.

And so, so many things started falling through the cracks that I wasn’t delivering a great client experience to anybody. There were some clients that happened to get me at a good point, um, and they got a great experience, other clients that I was constantly having to put out fires and constantly having to apologize all while.

Navigating my own health issues that I hadn’t really, I had never a, at that point I had never even heard of the word endometriosis. Um, I had chronic migraines, but I had all of these other things that I had no idea about. I had no idea how my period and my menstrual cycle were actually impacting the ability, my ability to work and things like that.

And so things started to crumble. I stopped getting referrals to, like, my clients were not referring me to their friends and family. All of my galleries in 2018 and 2019 were delivered late. Um, and like I had a bride in my living room on New Year’s Eve left her husband and her kids in the car because we were just waiting for her files to transfer onto a US B, um, which I don’t do US USBs anymore.

If you do a USB photographers, get rid of those. Save yourself the time and energy. Um, But yeah, just like little things like that really started to build up and got to a point where in 2019 it was actually like right around this time, my husband had to call me from work because I was sobbing on the couch telling him that I needed to shut down my business because I couldn’t keep doing this.

I wasn’t like, it was, I wasn’t happy, my clients weren’t happy, and it was kind of like, what am I doing this for? Thankfully he talked me down from my ledge and I shifted my perspective into like, I can’t do this anymore, to how do I fix this? And that’s when I really started to embrace systems and just even just like making a checklist of all the things that you have to do for every client to get started so that you’re not having to use that mental energy to remember all of the things, um, is a great place to get started.

And that like implementing systems, hands down, single handedly saved my business. So great, and it’s such a, such an 

important part of business that we easily brush off and we think, oh, I’ll get to it later, but you don’t have to start big. You can start with just one step at a time, which, speaking of steps and one step at a time, if you could give the listeners just one action step for today’s episode, what would it be?

Um, one, I’m actually gonna give two if that’s okay. So first, if you are a menstruate, I want you to start tracking everything today. Like when you go to bed tonight, just open up your phone, whether you wanna put it on your calendar or just like create a note on your phone and just write down how you felt today.

If you felt like your energy was really low or if you had a lot of brain fog, like you just felt like, you know, your creativity was lacking or things that normally make sense to you. You were really kind of struggling to grasp all those things. Are coming from brain fog. There’s a million things that can cause brain fog.

Just noting all those things down. And then, um, just put, like, have it repeat on your calendar so that the same day next month it’s gonna pop up. Start seeing if you can find any patterns. And then for menstruate and non menstruate alike, my other, um, tip that I would love everyone to take away is to start embracing autoresponders.

Especially with the state of a lot of businesses right now that are getting hit because of the cost of living and inflation and things like that. Um, I know for photographers, a lot of us are going through this because photography is considered a luxury, a luxury expense. It’s important to make sure that.

You aren’t doing anything in your systems that could be hindering those bookings for you because you already have so many things stacked against you. Like, you know, the cost of groceries and things like that are always gonna take priority. And so I think it’s important for business owners to just make sure that there’s nothing on their end that is within their control that could be causing problems.

Um, and so we all know that, you know, in 2023, our customers want things quickly. Um, that’s. But you know, our whole society is built on getting things pretty instantly. And so being able to utilize autoresponders is a great way to make sure that you are the first person who is responding to that inquiry without actually having to be at your computer.

Um, I think it was actually Natalie from HoneyBook and posted on her Instagram just this last week, um, about how, I think it was like 86% of people will book or hire someone who is the first to respond. That’s the only factor. And so, um, like I tell people all the time, and they look at me like I have eight heads when I say that I am typically one to two days to one to two business days to reply to an email.

But if someone’s inquiring, they’re getting an email from me within an hour and other different, um, Phases during the relationship I have with my clients who have hired me, they’re getting informational emails and things like that that are going out to them that I just am not at my computer to do. And so they’re still getting that experience without me having to be there.

And so, yeah, I would really love to see people in embracing autoresponders and things like that. Okay, great. So 

you’re gonna start tracking everything’s related and you’re going to start embracing autoresponders. Yes. If you could give everyone one book recommendation, what would it be? Um, so 

my book recommendation is one called The Night Circus.

Um, I randomly stumbled across this book in a bank, which is like such a strange place to, um, Stumble across the book. Um, but everything about this book just like totally caught me off guard. So I was at a bank doing some banking and they had a table in the bank that was filled with used books that they were selling for charity.

And I finished what I had to do. I had to wait for my husband. So I was just browsing through these books and I saw this book. The Night Circus, the cover caught my eye. I flipped it open. It was a fantasy book, which is not normally my jam. So I was like, this sounds really interesting. Judge the book by its cover.

I was like, not my jam. I’m not really a fantasy person. I put it down and then we left and we went and had lunch. And the whole time we were eating lunch, I could not stop thinking about this book. There was just something about the way the description was written. So, um, we didn’t have a car at the time.

I had like a 10 minute window before our bus was coming. So I ran back to the bank and I bought this book for $2 and then I ran and I just made it to catch the bus. And when I tell you I could not put this book down, I’ve read it so fast, I’ve recommended it to a million people. It is the most beautifully written book I’ve ever read.

The descriptive words that they use make you feel like you can smell the smells and you can hear the sounds, and it’s just, it’s mind blowing how well. The descriptions are written. My husband’s always saying they need to turn it into a movie, and I’m like, no, they’ll ruin it. They’ll never be able to do on film.

What I did in my brain as I was reading it, the book is about, um, some magicians who like, not magicians and like. You know, it can make a bird come out of a hat kind of thing. But like, they’re like, almost like wizards to an extent. And they have a competition, um, with one another where they train, um, they each pick a person and train them from childhood into adulthood.

Um, teaching them all their magic ways and then sending these people to compete with one another. So it’s, it’s a super, super interesting book. Um, I’m a sucker for a love story, so there is a love story built into it as well. Um, but it was the kind of book that when I was done it, It was not even just that the book itself had a great story and was written really well, um, but it was.

So outside of what I normally read, that it was like really eye-opening perspective for me in that sense as well. And just like taking a chance on something that’s not really, you know, what you normally, um, normally align with or normally or what are you aren’t normally drawn to. Um, so yeah, that’s a really, a really long-winded answer, but I absolutely love the night circus, so that’s what my answer is.

Okay, 

great. I, I have not read that, so I’ll have to check that out and we will add the link to that, to the show notes. Friends. 

Okay. Sandra, exactly. 

Everyone is enamored by you and they wanna know more about what you do and how you can help photographers. 

Where can they find you? Yeah, of course. So you can find me on Instagram at simply Sandra, Yvonne.

Um, and that’s my TikTok handle as well. You can find me over there and then you can also find me on the Keeping It Candid Podcast. So the full title is Keeping It Candid Wedding Photography Unfiltered. Um, and you’ll hear an interview with Amanda on there. Um, we talk about all things wedding photography, um, and how it relates to systems and things like 

that.

All right. Thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it, and I know that this, this interview is going to be very eye-opening for a lot of people as far as how they create their schedules. 

Oh, I hope so. Well, thank you so much for having me. This is awesome.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all of the resources you need to simplify your marketing [email protected]. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time. Now. Go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

The post Episode 174: Creating a Schedule as an Entrepreneur with Chronic Illness with Sandra Henderson appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

We all have them – creativity slumps. As you know, one of the reasons I’m such a huge proponent of batching is to decrease these slumps, but they still happen. Sometimes it’s time to create content and you just don’t have any ideas on what to talk about or how to serve your people.

So today, I’m giving you 9 different content ideas that you can take with you into those slumps. In fact, if you follow through and do this week’s action step, you’ll have a content bank of 45 different ideas you can save for those days when you just aren’t feeling it.

Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Also, if you would be willing to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the world to me. It’s such a small thing that can make a big difference in helping me spread this message of simplicity to other overwhelmed women.

Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at [email protected]!

We all have them. Creativity slumps. As you know, one of the reasons I’m such a huge proponent of batching is to decrease these slumps, but they still happen. Sometimes it’s time to create content and you just don’t have any ideas on what to talk about or how to serve your people. So today I’m giving you nine different content ideas that you can take with you into those slumps.

In fact, if you follow through and do this week’s action step, you’ll have a content bank of 45 different ideas that you can save for those days when you just aren’t feeling it. You’re listening to episode 173 of The Chasing Simple Podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by my book, Chasing Simple Marketing, and you can grab your own copy at amandawarfield.com / book.

How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways and how do I do it? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly, how do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome friend. This is Chasing Simple Where Practical Marketing Strategy Meets Simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plan to helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. So that they have time to grow their business, take time off and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one-on-one clients, such as the contract shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or how my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell reading in our hammock watching Gamecock Sports traveling or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simply an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really wanna be doing is the thing that they started their business to do.

Which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love. Each week offer you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choice is, and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips and advice on uncomplicated your marketing and business. Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? Really quickly, before we dive into this episode, I just have to share something that I’m really excited about with you.

My book, Chasing Simple Marketing, is launching this July. I wrote this book for the business owner that stumbled into entrepreneurship because they were following their passion, but without that Master’s of Business Administration or that background in business, well, they find marketing. Overwhelming and frustrating.

Throughout these pages, I’m going to take you on a simplicity focused journey to improve your content marketing, and you’ll walk away with an actionable plan to simplify your marketing so that you can fit your marketing into your business without it taking over your business. To learn more about how to grab your own copy and even potentially get on the launch team, head over to amanda warfield.com/book.

I’ll see you there. The first type of content that you could put out when you’re in a slump is to create some kind of collaboration. So that would mean going to a friend or another industry expert and saying, Hey, I would love for you to write a. Guest blog post for my website. I would love for you to be a guest on my podcast.

I would love for you to come be a guest on my YouTube channel or do an Instagram live with me, whatever that would look like. The beauty of collaborations is that typically the guest is doing the heavy lifting as far as coming up what to talk about or they should be. And that is why when we are pitching ourselves for collaborations, We really should be doing the heavy lifting.

If you haven’t already, go listen to episode 164, how to write a successful pitch for podcasts. We should be doing the heavy lifting though when we’re pitching ourselves for collaborations because all of us get into these slumps and coming up with what to say feels excruciating sometimes. It just is the way it is, especially when you’re, you know, 200 blog posts in 200 episodes in it can be hard to know.

What else can I talk about? In fact, I have a client who I think literally works with me because. She’s created so much content that she just doesn’t even know what to say anymore. And that’s a large part of why that we work together. But it can be really hard. And so when you can say, Hey, let me come in and take the heavy lifting off your plate, they’re so much more likely to say yes.

So when you are wanting to work with someone, a lot of times if there’s someone who. They’re already focused on speaking engagements. They probably have different ideas on their website of things that you can talk about, but you can also go to someone else’s content. What have they’ve written blog posts about?

What have their own podcast episodes been about? Is there anything that you’ve seen them talk about that you would love to see them talk about on your show? Or you could just straight up ask them, Hey, I would love to have you on my podcast, my YouTube channel. I would love to have you write a blog post.

Here’s a little bit about my audience. What do you think that you could talk about that would serve them best? And just ask them. So collaboration’s a really easy way to get out of a slump and not have to come up with brand new things to say. Another thing that you can do, another content idea would be writing a review or speaking a review of a.

Product, service or event that you have used or been to and your audience would also benefit from. So if you’re, you took a course on copywriting, but your audience is busy moms, they’re probably not gonna be interested in your review of that, right? Because it’s not something that they need or want or care about.

But what is something that you could review that they would care about and give them the good, the bad, the ugly? What did you love? What did you wish you could see differently? That’s why we love reviews is because we love to know, okay, here’s what. People liked about it and here’s what they didn’t like, and you can decide whether or not what they didn’t like actually matters to you too.

And if it’s a deal breaker for you, you know it’s not right for you. But if it’s something that you’re like, oh, I don’t care about that, that that doesn’t bother me, I’m getting this for a totally different reason, then. That’s great. So make sure you include all of the things in the review. I wouldn’t trash anything you’re trying to be an affiliate of, but if you do have an affiliate link for said thing, that is a great opportunity to plug it and potentially make a little side income through that affiliate link.

With that review, the next content idea I’ve got for you is behind the scenes. So open up the curtains and take people behind the scenes of. Your month, your week, your day, or a specific project that you’re working on. For example, um, my quarterly. Coffee and conversations episodes, that’s a whole peek behind the scenes of what’s happening in the last quarter of my life and my business.

When I share the behind the scenes of batch week on Instagram, that is a behind the scenes of my week, there are podcast episodes I’ve done where I give the behind the scenes of a launch and really take you and say, okay, this is what I wanted. This is what happened. This is what I thought was gonna happen.

This is what actually happened. This is how. I can improve this thing that I didn’t love this time. This is what I’m gonna make sure I do again, and just sharing what went well and what didn’t, and just what is happening behind the scenes. The fourth content idea I have for you is a roundup list. This can be done in two different ways, so you can do it in a way where it’s also a collaboration where you go to multiple experts in your industry and say, Hey, I’m doing an episode, or writing a blog post about the specific topic.

Can you give me your best tip for this topic? And then you gather all of their tips and all of their information, and you just. Mash it all together into one piece of content. You can also do this without collaborators. You can just do this on your own and you can write a post that rounds up all of the different tools.

That your audience should know about or all of your favorite ways to do a certain thing or, well, for example, this episode is a roundup list. I have nine different content ideas for you for when you’re in a slump, so I just round it up all of the different ideas that I could come up with of simple and easy content types that don’t really have to be thought a whole lot about.

The fifth content idea I have for you is to talk about something that you’ve learned this year. Now, this one will require. A little bit more thinking than some of these other ones, but we’re all always learning. And so what’s one thing that you learned this year that would be helpful for your audience?

And then give them an overview of that. The next idea is a how to guide. So how to plan a garden this spring. How to manage your time well in the summer when your kids are out of school, how to. Create a content marketing strategy and just give simple, here are 10 steps, here are five steps, here are three steps.

Here’s what you need to do to make this happen. Here’s how you get this done. The next idea is a q and a. And this can be done in a few different ways. You can. You know, put up a question box on your Instagram, send out an email to your list and say, Hey, I’m gonna do a q and a episode. What are all your questions on this specific topic?

Or you can do a, Hey, I’m gonna do an ask me anything episode, anything goes, or I’ll take topics, or I’ll take questions around this certain topic or these specific topics. What do you wanna know? Let me know. And so ask for questions. And then all you have to do is choose the ones you wanna answer and answer them.

The eighth of the content ideas is to create a challenge for yourself. Now, again, this one will be a little bit more work than some of the other ones. So if you’re in the kind of slump where you’re just playing burnout and you don’t. Want to do any work. This may not be the one for you, but if you’re just in a creative slump, this could actually be really great for you to bring you out of that slump.

So create a small challenge that you’re gonna do for yourself that your audience would be interested in following along with. So maybe that means that you’re gonna do. A month of decluttering and you’re gonna put out a new podcast episode or a blog post each week about what you decluttered or YouTube video.

You’re gonna put out long form content each week, specifically around what you decluttered and what you got done. Maybe you’re going to, it makes me think of Gresham Rubin, um, and her book, I mean, really all of her books. She sets these challenges for herself and then she writes entire books about them.

Um, It can be small, it can be week long, it can be month long. It can be quarterly. It can be weekly for whatever that may look like. Maybe it’s just a three day challenge for yourself of something you’re gonna do. I did this last year when I first was getting started on TikTok, and I didn’t create this big official challenge or anything, but I personally challenged myself to show up on TikTok for a certain amount of time, in a certain number of days.

I did, I believe, three times a day for 30 days. No breaks for the weekend, and that was this challenge that I set for myself. And then I did the challenge and I also shared what I was finding through Instagram and here on the podcast. And so that was a really easy way for me to come up with something new to talk about and just gimme a little different take on things.

Now the final content idea I have for you is to ask AI when you are struggling to come up with things to say, you can go to chat g BT, or Game of Magic, or whichever AI tool you use, and you can say, Hey, give me 10 content ideas around this certain topic, and that will help. You brainstorm and maybe help give you something that you hadn’t thought of before that you could talk about.

They’re not always great ideas, but it’ll give you a bit of a jumpstart when you just don’t know what to talk about. So real quick, those nine different content ideas, again for when you’re in a slump. One. Collaborations two reviews, three behind the scenes, four Roundup posts. Five, something that you’ve learned this year.

Six, how to guide seven, a q and a eight, create a challenge for yourself. Or nine, ask ai. Your action step for this week is to take a few minutes and I want you to brainstorm five different pieces of content. For each of those different nine ideas. Now the Ask AI is really easy because you just say, Hey, give me five different ideas, or you could come up with five different prompts.

So maybe you ask ai, give me 10 different content ideas for topic one, topic two, topic three, topic four, topic five. Maybe that’s a better way to do it. But that’s your action step this week. Just set aside 30 minutes and brainstorm those five different pieces for each of these nine content ideas. And then you’re gonna have a whole list in your content bank that you can easily refer back to when you need some new ideas.

This week’s book recommendation is Counterfeit by Kirsten Chin, and this book was very interesting. Highly recommend. It is about these two women that end up getting into this illegal business together with counterfeit purses. And I don’t wanna spoil anything, so I’m not gonna go any farther and. Really explain anything else because I hate spoilers, but highly recommend Counterfeit by Kirsten Chin.

I will link that in the show notes so that you can check it out, and until next time, my friend, I hope that you’ll go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all of the resources you need to simplify your marketing [email protected]. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time, not go out and uncomplicated your marketing and business.

The post Episode 173: 9 Content Ideas for When You’re in a Slump appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

When I’m working with clients, email lists are always, without fail, at the bottom of their to-do lists and the lowest of their content priorities. I’m not sure why email marketing has gotten such a bad rep over the years, or if it’s just fear because it feels so intimate (because it is), or something else, but I am constantly finding myself in a position where I’m trying to push email marketing into a higher priority for clients and students.

But an email list? It’s an incredible way to nurture relationships with your people. They find you through social, or other visibility opportunities. You send them to your long form content so they can really get to know you and hear from you. But your email list? That’s where you continue to build that relationship.

Not to mention that it’s the BEST way for you to sell. Without a doubt.

But, because email marketing can seem so scary, I brought in an expert to help us make it a whole lot simpler.

Kate Doster is the host of the Do The Brave Thing Podcast, creator of the Love Your List 2.0 email marketing mega course and is dangerously obsessed with helping ethical entrepreneurs carve out their slice of the interwebs by wooing the hearts (and wallets) open of their small but mighty audiences thanks to fun email marketing and Easy Yes mini-offers. She believes you don’t need to bleed the alphabet or be a dirty rotten spam face to write emails that jolt subscribers into taking action, gobbling up your paid offers like candy… or kale if that’s your thing.

I mean, just by that bio, I know you know that she’s incredible at what she does right? Just wait until you hear this episode. Kate is a wealth of gold, and every time I hear her speak, I learn a hundred new things. It’s incredible. So, let’s introduce you to her, shall we?

Kate Doster is the host of the Do The Brave Thing Podcast, creator of the Love Your List 2.0 email marketing mega course and is dangerously obsessed with helping ethical entrepreneurs carve out their slice of the interwebs by wooing the hearts (and wallets) open of their small but mighty audiences thanks to fun email marketing and Easy Yes mini-offers. She believes you don’t need to bleed the alphabet or be a dirty rotten spam face to write emails that jolt subscribers into taking action, gobbling up your paid offers like candy… or kale if that’s your thing.

Social Links:

https://www.katedoster.com https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=Kate%20Doster @‌kate_doster

Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Also, if you would be willing to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the world to me. It’s such a small thing that can make a big difference in helping me spread this message of simplicity to other overwhelmed women.

Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic

When I’m working with clients, email lists are always without fail at the bottom of their to-do list and the lowest of their content priorities. I’m not sure why email marketing has gotten such a bad rep over the years, or if it’s just fear because it feels so intimate, because it is, or if it’s something else.

But I am constantly finding myself in a position where I’m trying to push email marketing into a higher priority for my clients and students. But an email list. It’s an incredible way to nurture relationships with your people. They find you through social or through other visibility opportunities. You send them to your long form content so that they can really get to know you and hear from you.

But your email list, that’s where you continue to build that relationship. Not to mention that it is the. Best way for you to sell without a doubt, but because email marketing can seem so scary, I brought in an expert to help us make it a whole lot simpler. Kate Doster is the host of the Do the Brave Thing podcast, creator of the Love Your List 2.0 email marketing mega course, and is dangerously obsessed with helping ethical entrepreneurs carve out their slice of the rubs by wooing the hearts and wallets of their small but mighty audiences.

Thanks to fun email marketing and easy. Yes, mini offers. She believes you don’t need to bleed the alphabet or be a dirty, rotten spam face to write emails that Joel subscribers into taking action, gobbling up your paid offers like candy or kale, if that’s your thing. I mean, just by that bio, I know you know that she’s incredible at what she does, right?

Just wait until you hear this episode. Kate is a wealth of gold, and every time I hear her speak, I learn a hundred new things. It’s incredible. So let’s introduce you to her, shall we? You’re listening to episode 172 of The Chasing Simple Podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by my book, Chasing Simple Marketing, and you can grab your own [email protected] / book.

How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways and how do I do it? Are launches still a thing and most importantly, How do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome, friend. This is Chasing Simple where Practical Marketing Strategy meets Simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business so that they have time to grow their business, take time off, and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one-on-one clients, such as the Contract shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or how my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell reading in our hammock watching Gamecock Sports traveling or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simply an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really wanna be doing is the thing that they started their business to do.

Which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love. Each week, I’ll offer you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choices, and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips and advice on uncomplicating, your marketing and business. Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, 

shall we? 

Really quickly, before we dive into this episode, I just have to share something that I’m really excited about with you.

My book, chasing Simple Marketing, is launching this July. I wrote this book for the business owner that stumbled into entrepreneurship because they were following their passion, but without that Master’s of Business Administration or that background in business, well, they find marketing. Overwhelming and frustrating.

Throughout these pages, I’m going to take you on a simplicity focused journey to improve your content marketing, and you’ll walk away with an actionable plan to simplify your marketing so that you can fit your marketing into your business without it taking over your business. To learn more about how to grab your own copy and even potentially get on the launch team, head over to amanda warfield.com/book.

I’ll see you there. Kate, I am thrilled to have you on Jason Civil. I’m so excited. I was telling you before we hit record that your podcast is actually one of the very first podcasts that I ever listened to when I started my business, and so this is just such a a fun full circle moment for me, and I’m really excited to have you on.

But for everyone who hasn’t met you yet, can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what it is that you do? 

Sure. So, hey everybody, first of all, I’m very excited to be hanging out with Amanda. She’s awesome. But y’all already know this cuz you’ve subscribed and hopefully left a review. Just gonna slide that in there.

You can do that while we’re chatting. It’s fine. It’s fine, it’s fine. Um, so I’m Kate Dosser of Kate doser.com. I host the newly rebranded Do The Brave Thing podcast. It used to be called Inbox Besties. And. It is my soul and soul’s mission to put money in the hands of good people so they can do good with it.

And to really prove that nice people do not have to finish last in business, that sales does not have to be the devil and gross and pushy, that you can actually present information in a way that feels good to you, that another brain’s gonna read and be like. I’m all over that like give, give, gimme like your like the absolute best.

And so I want my people to get thanked every time they send emails or they offer a sales solution to somebody. Any of that sort of stuff. So, Take things that people hate the most and make them easy. I love their 

mission so, so much. It’s so good. I think it’s important to note that we can often get into that place of like, oh, I don’t wanna sell because people are gonna think I’m salesy.

And it’s like, but you’re, you have a business, you’re running a business. And you have to make sales in order to continue to keep the lights on. And I do wanna dive into how we actually make sales through our email lists later in this episode. But first, I kinda wanna backtrack and talk about what, what is an email newsletter?

What’s the purpose of it and how do we utilize ’em in our businesses? 

Sure. So an email newsletter. I like to try to have my students and everyone send. Once a week. So it’s only, usually it’s four emails a month I think that most people can manage. But here’s the thing, even if you missed a week or two, just get right back on the horse.

People’s lives are so busy that unless they are like your die hard super fans and say you’ve constantly been emailing on a Wednesday, and then all of a sudden they don’t hear from you, you might get some people being like, are you okay? Because that has happened to us once. And it turns out there was a glitch in our email sent and how our list wasn’t getting our stuff.

Like, no, I have pen. They’re got it. So that’s actually gonna be really fun. So it’s like, okay, now all of a sudden it’s from, oh my goodness, I have to email my list. Like all of the time, what are we gonna say to them? Now? It’s like, okay, I only have to talk to them four times. Why? We want to be able to stay top of mind.

We also have to remember that if someone gave us our email address, and I think this is where the nice people get all like clammed up. Like, oh, I don’t wanna annoy people. It’s one of those things that if they gave you their email address, they’re saying, at least at that moment of time, please talk to me.

I think that whatever you’re doing is interesting and cool, let’s be friends. And so, just like any new friendship, you can’t just go from talking to somebody once and then only talking to them like once a year. Like, I have best friends from high school, we cannot talk for three years and then just pick it right up.

But it’s because we had that base of friendship. So your newsletter is to really establish that sort of base of friendship too. I always say we wanna try to be people’s favorites when we pop into their inbox because people also have this weird trait. Cause I really love treating people, like people where say they’re like really like into photography.

They’re gonna sign up for like, Three newsletters about photography or three, you know, how to write your book email because they’re like so into like, oh, this sort of stuff. So we want it that you are their favorite person and they send, so really your weekly newsletter or biweekly, if you have to do twice a week, you, I mean twice a month you can, is just to be able to say top of mind, say relevant to say hey and, uh, to give ’em a little bit of a dopamine hit when they see 

your name.

You hit the, the nail on the head with two things that I am. Over and over and over again. Reiterate on this podcast, one, your content is all about building relationships with your people. And I love your example of the high school friends that now you don’t have to talk to them all the time, but it’s because you have that foundation, because you have that relationship.

And I, I, I love that imagery there. But the other thing you hit on is that. And you didn’t say this in so many words, but you kind of implied it. You don’t have to pop back into somebody’s inbox after ghosting and be like, Hey, sorry I was gone. Just don’t tell them cuz they did notice. Yeah, 

no. Do you, what I suggest for, uh, my students in Amanda is she’s fantastic.

I’m sure she’ll have links for you guys down below for all that funness. All you need to do for that is, I always like to go in with something valuable. Maybe like, you know, three tools or resources again. And if it’s something like, okay, like Kate, I teach, you know, I don’t, you know, sell an online course or anything like that, like I’m a local photographer.

Maybe it’s, you’re gonna share with ’em the three best places to take your spring photos, graduation photos, um, you know, three props, everybody needs four. Again, whatever type of photographer you’re doing, right? So you’re gonna list those three things. I mean, if you wanna link them to your Amazon store, get some affiliate income, that’s cool.

But then at the bottom, literally after you give them something cool, you’ll be like, P, wondering how I got your email address in the first place? You signed up for a free gift on? And then just say the name of your website. So say if you have multiple freebies, opt-in gifts, lead magnets for all the same thing.

That thing that you give somebody. So they’ll give you their email address just. Blanket you signed up for our email. It’s on our website. And you link out to the website. If you’re not really into family photography right now, click here and unsubscribe. No hard feelings. So all of a sudden it’s taking it from like, oh, I need your sympathy.

Oh, I’m so bad. Nobody cares. So much cares. Um, again, there are gonna be some diehard fans. I’m might be like, oh, where were you? But usually they’ll reply back and be like, oh, are you feeling okay? I was missing you. And it’ll be fine. I haven’t had a student yet get like a mean email reply back. Um, they might have gotten, some people will get a reply back, like, unsubscribe, and it’s like, dude, why can’t you hit this link at the bottom of the email?

But I’m like, I get more satisfaction. I’m like, ha, you’re not cool up to hang out with me, sucker. Get outta here. I like to put around on them. 

I think the meanest email I’ve ever gotten in response to one of mine is someone responded back and they said, please stop sending me emails. And also my name isn’t blank.

And I was like, you signed up, you told me that was your name. 

Right? Like, did you read? But, but 

in the end you just laugh off 

and it is what it’s, yeah. It’s like, okay, I guess. And uh, yeah, cuz we very, very rarely get mean emails back. And again, I think that’s another thing that some people worry about, but you have to realize, usually if you get a mean email back, it’s just somebody having a bad day and they feel like they’re gonna be a keyboard hero.

And they’re just gonna like fling it back to you. Um, I’ve only gotten mad about a hater once. Usually we just delete them. I know like some people like to engage with them. I very rarely don’t. The last hater that we got, which was the first one in a very long time, it was like attacking my people for being afraid to send emails.

I’m like, absolutely not. So that, that person suffered my raft because like, you can say whatever you want about me cuz like you don’t necessarily know me like you can’t hit my character. But like if you go after my people hoho, that Scorpio comes out real fast, real fast. 

I love that and, and I think it’s so important that you, you mentioned the people that are on your email list, they want to hear from you because that’s something that we forget so often.

But also you are very well known for saying people don’t hate getting emails, they hate getting bad emails. So how do we know if the emails we’re sending are actually. Good emails because I think a lot of times we expect to get a ton of responses and a ton of clicks and all of this, and so we, if we’re not getting that, we think, oh, they don’t wanna hear it from me.

And also they think my emails are terrible. So how do we know if that’s not 

the case? If they think your emails are terrible, though, usually we’ll reply back ironically and be like, that’s a hot trash. So if you’re not getting somebody replying back or several of people replying back saying, this is hot trash, then you are fine.

Now if you’re like, but Kate, I’m not getting that engagement that I’m looking for. Um, those open rates, those click-through rates, that sort of thing. First thing with open rates, just so you know, all email service providers, your convert kids, Your mailer lights, your MailChimps, they do constant contact.

They all have a hard time registering opens due to privacy things on mobile devices. And where are most people on mobile? I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but that’s also something to look at where it’s just like, oh, so it’s saying that you know about 20 people, you know about 20% is opening, chances are it’s probably higher.

Cuz we’ve gotten some people that are like, I do open all of your emails, but I’m like, are you getting these? Like, yes. So it could just be that they’ve got some type of ad blocker, pixel blocker. They’re not loading your pictures for some strange reason. So there’s that. We need to think of why is somebody going into the inbox?

This is how we know if it’s a great email or not. Why is somebody going into the inbox? They’re procrastinating. I already said that. They’re looking for a dopamine hit and we need to be able to hit a human brain where it’s expecting it, right. Think about it, and I was gonna hold up a book, like y’all could see it.

Like when you’re reading an actual real book, I’ve got relentless on my desk that I’m looking at. You know you’re gonna have big paragraphs, right? But you’re in that frame of mind. Same thing with if you’re gonna go to a blog post or listen to a podcast, you are in that frame of mind. So if you decide like, oh, I’m sending buckets of value, and your email is like super long and it’s really like info dense, if you will, someone’s just gonna be like, oh, I’m just gonna read this later.

Or they’re just gonna read the top half and then they’re gonna be gone. So we wanna make sure with our emails, Technically they could be longer, but we really just want something kind of short and punchy and to the point. And so say for example, if you are giving people three tips to landing in their first publisher, right?

Because maybe you’re an author who helps authors, um, or maybe you are in the other end chance where you write fiction and you’re just giving ’em a little teaser. This is really great for all my fixators. She’s giving a little teaser of the next scene coming up. It’s like, that’s it. You can end it on a cliffhanger, right?

Back to those people who are more educators or personal brands. Instead of giving them, you know, 15 ways to say grow their email list, you’re gonna give them like two cuz a brain can implement two, three at the max and then be like, and if you don’t like any of those or you really need to see, recharge your list, click here to get.

Again, 12 more. So that way now they’re in the frame of mind if, okay, I’m in my learning mode. Let me go to the blog. I’m in my learning mode. Let me go to YouTube. Let me go to a podcast. I think when people are getting mad about replies in particular, it’s because they’re asking the question wrong. Like they’ll be like, so what’s your biggest struggle with blank?

Right? So you know what we were talking about lifting. I’m a power lifter cuz that’s what moms do when they turn 38. Um, so like, what’s your, not that I talk about this, but like, what’s your biggest problem with power lifting? One, most people don’t wanna admit that there’s anything wrong with them or that they’re technically struggling.

Right? But if you decide to put in a sentence instead, like, I know I should be power lifting more, but. People all of a sudden could fill in that butt, cuz now it’s the butt’s fault. It’s the excuses fault. But I get really sore. But I get discouraged when I don’t hit the weight that I want to. But this isn’t me.

I’ve got really long femurs and a short torso. So squats are horrendous, right? Like I’m not built to squat. I can’t do it very well. So all of a sudden you’re gonna end up getting more replies that way. Or even you might have a casual sentence like, have you ever felt this way? Or you can ask them like, what’s your best tip for keeping your house clean?

Are you going to get a hundred percent of your people applying back? No, but you’re gonna get a handful. And so make sure that you reply back to those people and be like, oh, thank you very much. And sometimes, you know, you can share their ideas. And I think that that also sort of shows like. What we were talking about with this whole like friendship model.

Like, oh yeah, like, but this can be a collaborative effort. So I hope, I hope that helps. Really. A good email is one that I’ll always tell people. You can have some sort of interesting at the top or just being like, yeah, so the other day I was, it doesn’t have to be this big, huge, long drown at stories. My authors will be fine with this, but the rest of us, we don’t need.

Beginning, a middle and an end. We don’t need a dramatic conclusion like we were on a lifeboat raft and we were about to die, and then all of a sudden we learned how to run Facebook ads and we were saved and like it was like the life of pie all over again. Right now. We don’t need any of that. Um, I just posted an Instagram story that’s like, Hey, do you know, like it’s national celery month, right?

And then you can literally just go, I go to Hollywood. Oh, it’s uh, holiday insights.com. And then now all of a sudden you can do one on my turn of phrases that we talked about instead of Love your list, which got me thinking about or in celebration of natural celery month because it is so boring. I wanna let you know some ways you can spice up your interior design or ways that you can get in more vegetables.

Or if you want to, cuz we had talked about selling, using those weird sort of holidays is the perfect time to offer a discount for something. Just, just cause it’s like, um, I did one sale and it went bananas. It was National Mint Julep day. I’m like, is that a thing? Like it was kind of near the Kentucky Derby.

I’ve never even had a mint julep. And so I, so I had. Relate it to the fact that I thought it was completely random and how it had to do with the color green and that they could make green from their emails. Right? So you can do a lot of things that are just sort of like interesting now all of a sudden.

Oh, a sales email’s a little bit interesting. Um, leading into, you know, a blog post can be more interesting and realize with any skill, like it’s gonna take a little bit of time to master, but I’ve never heard of one person’s business being completely destroyed by an email unless you’re like sending a whole bunch of like, racial slurs, in which case you shouldn’t be sending any emails ever.

Um, so other than that, it will be fine. And the more you do it, the easier that it’s gonna get because you’ll realize. No one newsletter, no even one sales or launch email sequence is going to make or break your business. It’s that showing up. It’s that being consistent. It’s that trying, it’s that full body of work.

Um, like Jenna Fisher from the Office talks about in her autobiography, um, about acting, right? Like you wanna go on as many auditions as possible so people see your body of work. You’re gonna wanna send those week weekly emails so people can get to know you better. Oh man. There’s 

so many, so many golden nuggets within all of that that I don’t even know where to start next.

I love that you pointed out and gave us permission to be bad at it at first, and just to figure it out ourselves and to just keep practicing and also to send those emails so that you do have that body of work. No one 

ever learned how to swim by reading a book about it. Oh, they learned by getting in the water.

You gotta get in the water. 

So good. And we’re all gonna be bad at it the first time we try something and that’s okay. And we may find a hidden talent that we didn’t even know that we had, but we won’t know unless we try. I also love, obviously the, the idea of writing as if you’re in a relationship with these people because you are.

And just making it simple, making it short, making it sweet. It’s like when you write an email to a friend or someone else that you know, or that you’re working with in some collaborative effort of some sort in your personal life. You’re not gonna write them paragraphs and paragraphs and paragraphs, you’re just going to give them what they need and move forward.

And that’s kind of what we should be doing with our people 

as well. Mm-hmm. And you also, again, when you start to think of them as your friends, that they wanna hang out with you, right? All of a sudden, it’s not like I’m annoying them, it’s you’re talking to your friend who’s almost. As excited about your thing as you are, right?

So like you don’t ever think to yourself, oh man, I’ve interrupted my best friend by sending ’em a TikTok with a bunny eating strawberry. When you know darn well they love cute animal videos. No, you’re brightening their day by popping up with this random notification message. So same thing with your emails.

And I think that a lot of people when they’re teaching email marketing, they escape the fact that there’s a lot of energetics into it. And so if you’re like, yeah, man, I’m gonna talk about someone who also really thinks that like photography and family memories, like these things are really important, they’re gonna cherish this stuff.

They are just as cool as I am when it comes to this. All of a sudden it’s just like, rather than like, oh man, how do I convince you know this, this hater lady to, to not be mad that I’m sending an email about the best places to take their pictures this fall. 

What a mindset shift. That’s absolutely incredible.

It’s so true. I send TikTok to people all day long with no explanation either. I’m just like, here’s a link. You’ll get it. You’ll know. Just watch it. It’s worth it. 

Exactly. 

Okay, so keep the email short and readable, really sticky there. Make sure we’re writing as if we would write to a friend. What other tips do you have for making sure that we write really great emails that people actually wanna read?

Well, I think that you, you’ve touched on it twice already, which is really hitting that nail in the head because we know people are going to the inbox for quick dopamine hit. You do wanna make sure that your email is skimmable, and if you’re like, Hey, I’m spending all this time writing this bad boy. The writing will get faster as you go, but you wanna make sure that you’re using short paragraphs like two sentences max.

And because I speak a lot, as you guys can tell, and I interrupt myself a lot, I’ll have really long run on sentences because it sounds the way that I talk. And that’s what’s really great about emails, even if you are. Uh, you know, even if you’re like, but Kate, like I need to be a little bit more professional, you can be a little bit more professional.

You don’t have to be like, yo, what up dogs? Like, no. If it sounds stupid coming out of your mouth, don’t type it right like that. That’s kinda what we’re going for for these sorts of things. So it’s like, okay, we’re gonna go ahead. We’re gonna make sure that it’s skimmable, so we’re gonna do shorter paragraphs.

Every once in a while, especially when you think something is important, you can use bold cuz that works really well. Um, if you are a big talker like I am and you have side thoughts, I always put those in parentheses with little italic so people are aware that I’m interrupting myself. And those are just some little ways that we can get there.

You can. Include images. I know that some people will tell you not to have things that are very graphic heavy, and if you look at things like, you know, target or even Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks, those are all images, right? Obviously they work right, or that people still will be doing it. But in your industry, like if you’re a photographer, you wanna make sure that your template looks pretty.

It doesn’t have to be like super over the top, but you wanna make sure that it’s aesthetically pleasing to your brand. You wanna include some photos that you have. If you’re more, you know, a personal brand or like an author, you’re just sort of building relationships. You could include things like either pictures of you or your cat.

You can do like little gif or gifs, however you wanna pronounce it. Hard G soft G I don’t want, don’t wanna get in a battle. I mean, you could let us know when you write your review, how you say it cuz or that G or F you. You. This could be the debate in the review section. Include one of those. You add it just like you would any other picture.

And I feel like that just gives it like, Space for somebody’s brain to be in there. It gives them a little visual to look at. Again, maybe you’ve got a chart. Um, if you are trying to get somebody over to a blog post, maybe you’re gonna make a little mockup with the blog post and a computer. Maybe you’re just gonna take a screenshot of the blog post.

You’re gonna make sure the image links over. People will click on it, look over there. So there’s a lot of things that you can do to make it enjoyable to the eyes to read. But again, you want short paragraphs. Bold, sometimes an image here or there, and then you’ll be good 

to go. So you’ve mentioned a few times things like getting people to click through, going to blog posts, going to all of these different things.

How do we know what effective CTAs are for our audience and for our emails? 

Okay, so for CTAs or Call to Actions, in my opinion, effective one is, well, what’s your goal? So before I sit down for an email or before how my students do, I always ask ’em like, how do you want people to feel? What action do you wanna take?

And what is your ultimate bigger business goal with that thing? So sometimes it is just gonna be a reply, so there’s not gonna be any links out to anywhere, right? Because we just, we just wanna be casual, we wanna talk about it. Sometimes we want people to go over to a sales page or we want them to book a call.

So, If I want them to go over someplace, I’m gonna link out more than once. Cuz that just makes a lot more sense because people might not necessarily scroll up. So definitely in the PS I’ll be like, PS don’t forget to read this article to get, you know, five more tips for growing your email list. And then I always would wanna add something a little bit more intriguing, like, number three, help me get a thousand people.

Or my audience loved number six, right? So that way people have not only that sort of, if they call it benefits in copywriting. Copywriting with a W guys, not with an R. I can’t, I can’t help you legal wise, but writing wise, I’ve got you. So it gives them, yeah, another reason to go and click over. When I mention the blog post in the body of the email, I’m gonna make sure that’s linked out.

I might have, sometimes I’ll do like the little carrot guy or I’ll do like an emoji. Again, if it fits your brand, put one in there. If it doesn’t, don’t where it’s like the actual, like arrow that sort of highlighting it. Um, if there is a benefit, if it’s a sales email, particularly like for a course, anytime I mention the name of the course, I’ll just have it linked out.

You almost wanna think of this, like you’re writing a blog post where you sort of like interlink things. So you’re gonna have some call to actions that are very, very direct, right? Where it’s like, reply back and fill in this blank. You’re gonna have it there. Maybe it’s bold, so that way people actually read that line.

Other ones, it’s gonna be like in Love Your List. We talk about this. So if you want to be able to email your list and get flooded with replies and PayPal notifications. And so I will highlight with a hyperlink, if you will, to the sales page with an inbox full of thank you messages and PayPal notifications.

One, it’s a different color than all the rest of the text. And two, it’s it’s clickable. So people are gonna be like, oh, I do want that. And they’re gonna click on it. So again, Do you need to have like a million links out to where you’re going? Probably not, but I would say at least three depending on the size of the email.

Cuz why not? Yeah, it, it’s one of 

those things that I know I tend to find myself being like, oh, have I linked to it too many times? But in reality, like you said, how many people are actually reading to the bottom of a 

full email? And if they are, are they gonna go back up to the top? So, so towards the bottom, always like to have something out there.

And that’ll also a question that I’m sure is probably not, cause it’s like, okay, can I link to a lot of different things? Again, it depends on your goal. If you’re trying to get somebody to. Your whole goal is that you want them to sign up for a webinar. I’m not gonna tell them about another blog post that I have, or another podcast that I have going on, or even another product that I have going on.

If you’re sending sort of more of a casual email where it’s like, yeah, you know what? I like them to go to the blog post. Like, that’d be pretty cool, but they wanna check out my pay products. That’s fine. Cause every once in a while, it’s just your goal. It’s just kind of, you wanna be there, right? So if you wanna include some links down at the bottom of your email, that’s like, if you’re struggling with X, do y want blank?

Click on this. And so you can have like other ways that I can help you section down at the bottom. But if you’re like, no, Kate, like I am doing my Labor Day sale, then don’t look out to any place else. 

Don’t do it. So speaking of sales emails, how can we, well first, let’s just start with this. What, other than the fact that you’re trying to make a sale, what’s the difference?

Between newsletter emails and sales emails. 

I don’t think there needs to be any probably that you’re not going to send people out to any other place but that sales page or, but that link to book a call or you know, to buy on Amazon wherever you’re sending them. Um, if I’m sending more of a casual newsletter, like we had sent wine the other day cuz they’re just using my train of thoughts and I probably linked to like four or five different things.

And again, it was just like hyperlinking stuff because I was just like, My goal for this is just for people to see. I’ve got lots of random stuff. I hope that that answered your question a little bit. So that’s kind of where I would go if you just the general sales goal. 

Yeah, absolutely. And then how do we, how do we use our typical weekly or biweekly emails or in our newsletters to move people towards those sales?

I think that people really underestimate what I like to call casual selling, and we talked about it a little bit already. It is, again, having those sort of like other ways that I can help you at the bottom of your email. It’s maybe for this email, you’re gonna give them a tip that, you know, you were talking to one of your students, or you had one of your clients, right?

It’s like, so the other day I was doing a photo session and you’re gonna link the word photo session to your booking page, right? With a client who said they were so on photogenic. Well, it turned out if you just actually, and then again, maybe you’re gonna tell them to position their head closer to the camera or to that thing where, You put your tongue on the top of your mouth and it gets rid of your double chin.

Just one of those sorts of things, right? So again, we’re just hyperlink to the top. We’re giving ’em that sort of tip. Probably have that visual if it’s like see me with the chin, move without the chin, and then at the bottom it could just be like, and I’ve got two spots open up for brand photo shoots.

Click here to snag one of the two while you are gone. Right before they’re gone. So that is a weekly newsletter, essentially, right? You’re giving them a tip, you’re popping in their inbox, but you’re just. Selling to them too. Cause 

why not? And there’s so many things happening within that type of selling too.

You know, you’re giving social proof because you’re, you’re saying, oh, I was with a client. I was with a student. You’re showcasing that people actually want what you offer. You’re showcasing that you are an expert in what you do because you’re giving those tips. And then you’re also just casually mentioning that they can work with you.

And so there’s so many in just one small sentence. So many things you’re doing to kind of push people towards the sale. Without being super salesy. So I think that was a really 

incredible example. Yeah. And so say if we’re still giving the example on how to be more photogenic, right? Then say layered on top of that, you’re like, okay, like I do wanna offer, you know, the next two people, or I am doing like a a 25% off sale.

You can mention that 25% off sale. The next email, most email servers, providers, I know ConvertKit does this. I feel like all of them do really will be able to give you a link to your last newsletter that you sent out, or previous newsletters so you can send one. You have full permission to send one. That just gets to the point, right, because sometimes those are going to be the ones that get the most open.

So that subject line right before the sale ends, we’re just gonna be honest with people. 25% off. Is ending blank. Two hours, three hours. It’s like, hey, first name. I’m also not a fan of these like last minute things, but I did wanna let you know if you are looking too blank, blank, blank and blank. Like, click here to save 25% off.

And don’t forget, last week we gave you that tip on how to look more photogenic. So if you’re worried about not looking so nice, don’t worry. I’ve got your back right now you’re linking out to the other newsletter. Well, guess what? You have that casual selling, you have that social proof, right? So you can give yourself permission because I can, we like to treat people like people.

I feel like. I don’t know if you guys are old enough to remember you, you can. Um, he’s just not that into you. This was when like sex and the city was really big. I think it’s actually written by a guy that wrote it on the show and he talks about Justin’s long character. Talks about how this girl waits to the very last minute to pay her credit card bill.

Even though she knows she doesn’t do, just because she likes that dopamine adrenaline rush. So there are going to be people that just like, they know they’re gonna buy. I’ve definitely done it to creators before. Like they know they’re gonna buy it, but they just don’t wanna wait till the last minute.

Right. Or there could be people that didn’t necessarily see your photogenic email, or maybe they don’t think that’s a problem and they think that they’re gorgeous. Right? So, but all of a sudden that top Senator line was like, Ooh, 25% off. I did need that. So that’s why you wanna offer it to both source sets of people.

Well 

then you’ve also got the people like me, who I’m not, I don’t necessarily love the dopamine hit, but I’ll read something and go, oh yeah, I’m gonna do this. And then I get distracted by the 200 other things on my email list. And you get that last call and you’re like, oh snap, I gotta go do this right this second.

Or else it’s, it’s over. 

I went, then I was, and presented that before I hopped on the call. I talked about how, so I have my husband’s a stay-at-home dad, and I’ve got my two girls, and it’s like all of them have fevers, right? So like I’ll get interrupted a lot and then having a D H D on top of it, like I’ll forget what I was doing when I come back and I’m just like, do like eight other ideas, 12 other tabs are going on.

It’s like, oh yeah, 100%. 

There’s always. A million things happening inside of my brain at all times and, and it’s very easy for me to be like, yeah, I’ll get back to that. And then it is in one of those open tabs that I have 200 of, and my computer starts running slow and I’m like, oh, I gotta exit out of everything.

And then I lose it 

and it’s gone. Are you like me? I use Google Chrome and I have that extension that’s called One Tab. So like if I’ve got a million, I’ll click on one tab and then it like puts them all together and then I’m like, oh yeah, I’ll definitely go back to one tab. It has so many groupings of links that I’ve never gone back to.

I’m very interested to see. But in the back of my brain, she, people, like people I know, all those old tabs are safe because I could not bring myself to just X out of them. What if they were important? 

Uh, I get really frustrated when the computer starts moving at a minuscule pace. Yes. And I’m like, forget it.

I need nothing. And then 10 minutes later I’m like, oh, dang it. There were things I did need. And they, now they’re gone forever. It’s fine. So send that email. 

Yeah. So, so do not feel bad. And again, if all of your emails are just like, why haven’t you booked this session yet, dummy? Like, you’re dumb. Right? Or again, if they were all just sort of all focused on the sale, like, don’t forget to save 25% off.

Why haven’t you saved 25% off I more, and you’re gonna have to pay 500 bucks more if that’s the general vibe. Then yeah, people are gonna hate that. And unfortunately since I don’t think there’s a lot of great examples of selling separate, Amanda, obviously she sells great, but there’s not that many examples of people selling and being really like authentic and genuine that you just default to sounding like that sham wow guy.

Cuz all you can think about is that used car salesman. All you can think about are those bad people in the movies, right? Or like those weirdos that like show up to your door to sell solar panels and you’re like, am I getting scammed for solar panels? Like pro? I know you’ve got a quote, but back up here, right?

And so also we talk about energetics, right? When you’re going into this as a spot of like, I’m doing this 25% off, not cuz I need business and maybe you too, but as an appreciation to my people and like it’s awesome that now they’re gonna be able to try my stuff out. Anna, I get to make more money. Oh, that’s sweet.

All of a sudden that paradigm shift is so different. And one of our students, and love your list, she needed. Just a straight up flash sale because the car was dead and they needed a car cuz it was just one car. And she had tried her on flash sails before and they had never worked. And so the first thing I had her do was get into a real nice, energetic state to realize that people had wanted to work with her, but maybe they couldn’t make ends meet and this was gonna be their perfect opportunity to fall in love with her.

Even more so. They’re gonna win. She is gonna win. She honestly booked out every single spot that she had to open up two more spots. So she got 12. She only needed 10, and there were three people on the wait list for the next time. And she had tried selling this offer before and she barely sold one. But when we’re coming at it, it’s like, Again, why does the thing that she’s helping with matter?

Hers was, I believe Google placements, her things are like Google reviews, something of that nature. Um, it was for local businesses actually. And so again, she was talking about the benefit of the thing. It’s like, oh yeah, and until Friday we can do this together for this much off again. So she has that sort of sequence of events.

So again, it hits those sort of different people. It’s not just like, give me your money dummy. So, but again, the last one always just has to be like, if you’ve got something ending. You’ve just gotta let people know, cuz you’re always 1000% gonna get people being like, can I still get it? Or, what’s this? We had sent an email, like literally it was at this point, it was almost like four weeks ago for something that was 24 hours only.

It wasn’t even a sale, it was just like access to a training cuz it was part of a launch. And I literally just saw the inbox when I was popping on here. Somebody was like, can I just have access to this? So I’m like, no. Like, no, I need to stay in integrity. No, you cannot. But again, I don’t want you thinking that you have to discount things or you have to have bonuses for things.

You can just bring up your services and it’ll be quite all right. You can bring up your books whenever you want to. 

So good. Kate, every time I hear you, z I just feel like I learn a million things, so I know that everyone who’s listening is going to want more from you. Where can they find you and what’s the best place to get connected?

Oh, 

thank you. So if you guys are struggling with what to send your email list, you can go to kate doser.com/two years. Amanda will probably have a link in the show notes that you guys can just click on cuz you might be driving or walking or doing the dishes. So you can just go to Amanda’s link and that is going to give you two or years worth of strategically planned email ideas so you don’t have to worry about what to send your email list until.

Like 20, 25 at this point, which is Banana Pen. It’s like mid 2025 at this point. And so it’s not just like a whole bunch of ideas. It’s like we have some students that’ll use it, it’s free guys. They’ll use it like, okay, I have third week of March talk about this. And they just talk about that. They have, some people like to month hop.

Um, I’ll always let you know if it’s something relevant. Like if you talked about like salary month, I’ll always let you know like, this is March, so don’t talk about this in June. Although if you wanted to, you could be like, did you know in March it was celery month? So if you ever miss one of those fun days, like.

Y’all did, you know, like two weeks ago it was Na nacho day and we missed it. Well, here’s how you can make some cheddar cheese for your business. Right? All of a sudden we got nacho cheese. Right? See how obviously casually it goes? And people really enjoy those because now they’re gonna be like, nacho day is a thing and I missed.

There gonna reply back and have a lot of fun. So hey, doster.com/two years. Wherever you’re listening to this podcast, you can always type in, do the Braves thing, or just Kate Doster, and it’ll show up. It’ll be a picture of my face, and I’ve really, really, really been enjoying Instagram lately. So I’m just finally getting hit to the train eight years later.

Uh, and I’m Kate underscore Doster over there. Um, in my stories you’ll see a lot of my power lifting. I don’t put it on my main feed too, too much. Um, but I stopped sharing them for a little while. My stories and people got mad at me. They’re like, what’s going? I’m like, you’re coming to us for business advice.

Like, do you really wanna see me? Wait, we do. We really do. So again, and this is in my opinion, when we were talking about. The way human brain, like when it’s positioning itself like, oh, I’m going to a blog so I know I’m gonna need to like really pay attention to things like I feel like your Instagram stories is where you can have those sort of casual more conversations.

It’s again, if you’re looking at my stories, you’re like pretty in it. Win it. And that’s the way I also like to think about emails. So I’ll toss in some power lifting stuff in there every once in a while. So 

we’ll definitely link to all of that in the show notes also. It’s so wild to me. When I downloaded your freebie in 2018, it would’ve been to have something to send to your list every month until 2020.

And then what? 

Like, and like I tell people, so if you’re listening to this stuff episode you’re listening to in August, you’re like, oh man, like I missed out on all of January’s until July’s. Those months come back. What? Uh, so you can just use them at the end instead of the beginning. It’s not one of those things like, oh man, again, I’ll make a note of if it’s like, oh, this is a third Thursday.

But again, you can just be like, did you know the third Thursday of the month? Or did you know that National Donut Day? That’s another fun one. Um, my favorite email that I ever sent, and then I will stop talking, was for a summit for one of my really good online friends and it was National Cheese Day. And I made so many cheese puns.

It was 14. It was the best email I had ever, ever written, and my assistant, Abby Mann’s my inbox because with my D H D, I’ll never get back to people. And she was like, we had two pages worth of for reply. We were like, what the top affiliates for that summit because again, it fit my brand and it fit my style.

Again, if you’re more buttoned up and serious, by no means could you send a shoes pun email. That’s just like so me, right? And so that’s why I wanna make sure all this stuff that you’re writing, especially when it comes to email list, and it’s okay if your tone voice changes at some points, but like make sure your things, like your landing pages or your social media, do they all sort of sound like the same person.

So good. 

Okay, so if you would give everyone just one action step to take this week based off of this episode, 

what would it be? I would say email your list. If you have no ideas, you can go for the two years worth of email ideas. If you are really scared cause it has been a while, then go with the example that we already shared in this episode with three things.

Things, places, stuff, apps, people love things. Um, even if it happens to be things to buy, just remember if you are pointing to something that is an affiliate offer, that you have the disclosure down at the very bottom that if they click on the link that you might get some type of compensation. But it doesn’t have to be, it can be things that are just free that will help people with whatever you sort of talk about, right?

Or, and if you’re like, but Kate, like I’m an author and I do like fiction stuff. That doesn’t work. Chances are if somebody subscribes to your email list in order to fiction, they’re also probably into writing. They’re also into book nerds, right? So now you’re gonna bond with people about your love of books.

So maybe if you have an aesthetic like book library, you’re gonna talk about where you got your stuff or how you put it up, or again, you can always think of things cause people are buying stuff. Even if they’re not buying stuff, they can use stuff. And then just add that, oh, wondering how I got your email address in the first place?

You’re also into vampire fan fiction. 

So good. I love it. That’s a great tip. And also, yeah, don’t be scared. They’re, most people are gonna be like, oh, if they think of it, they’re gonna think, oh, I haven’t seen their stuff pop in my inbox. That’s weird. And then they’re 

not gonna think of it again. Yeah. And like, why are you gonna be a jerk for like the five people that are super, I’m sure it’s more the five people, everyone, but like if there are five people that are so unbelievably excited to hear from you for a while, or it just made their day that they found it was natural nacho day two weeks ago.

Right. Why are you gonna let the one or two people, that could be a Debbie Downer. Holds you back from reaching the people who actually care. Like now you’re the jerk all of a sudden. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the people that had the time, I’m like, who has the time to be sending hate emails to people? But like, why?

Why are you gonna deny those other people who are genuinely excited? Same thing with the sales emails, whether it is there’s a discount or not a discount. There could be people who genuinely need your help with this thing and you’re gonna deny them cuz you feel bad. No, don’t be a jerk. You know the best thing that you’ve got is that course on how to have your chickens.

We have a Chicken Academy student instead of Love Your list. And so she’s the top of my brain cuz she just had an amazing launch. Like I. No. If you make things that are helpful, you need to tell people about them, don’t be a jerk. So good. 

So if you could give everyone one book recommendation, what would it be?

It can be fiction, it can be work related, but it, it can be literally any book that you’re like, this is something everyone needs to 

read. There’s, of course, there’s like two books that come to mind. Um, so again, I was like, oh, probably. Okay. Cause I feel like this one, the tone, a lot more people will enjoy essentialism.

Um, when you guys see it, it’ll be like black scribbles and how the word essentialism on there. And that’s just talking about actually like. Getting rid of all of those frivolous things that you think you need to be doing, but really don’t. And it’s not necessary about delegation. It’s about taking the time.

Cuz again, we’re also go, go, go. We all have a million tabs open, really about taking time to like ask yourself like what is it that truly matters? And so that way you can be really present in that time. Um, I’m gonna sneak another one in there. This one, not everyone’s tone’s gonna like it. So like if you don’t enjoy the attitude of say like a Michael Jordan or a Kobe Bryant, this might not be for you.

Uh, but. If you were a secret output, like call myself, uh, relentless by Tim Glover is ridiculous. Um, the subtitle is to go from good to Great to Unstoppable. And again, it’s one of those things and not everyone enjoys the attitude. I really did love that, um, the book about it, but it’s essentially about, they talk about how there are people that are like closers and cleaners.

So it’s like if you’re the person when the fire alarm’s going off, that everyone is looking at. You are the cleaner, right? And so it really talks about sort of embracing that and that sort of championship mindset. But again, that’s not really your thing. Um, you might not like it, but everyone essentialism is so great.

Well, we will 

link to both of those in the show notes so you guys can check it out. Kate, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate that you took time out of your day to come and chat to us about email marketing. Thank you. 

Email your list. They wanna hear from you.

Thank 

you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all of the resources you need to simplify your marketing [email protected]. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time. Now, go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

The post Episode 172: Emails Your Audience Actually Wants to Read with Kate Doster appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

There are so many different types of growth marketing strategies out there – how in the world are you supposed to know which you should be focused on? Should you be writing guest posts? Pitching yourself to be on podcasts? Trying to find speaking engagements? Hosting Workshops? Which are right for you and when should you focus on them?

I am here to make this simple for you, friend. Today we’re going to cover exactly which types of strategies you should be focused on based on where you are in your business journey. If you haven’t listened to episode 169 where I cover the 3 phases of a business journey, you’ll want to go listen to that first. Or, you could head to amandawarfield.com/quiz/ to discover which phase of business you’re in so you know which of these strategies are right for where you are now.

Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Also, if you would be willing to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the world to me. It’s such a small thing that can make a big difference in helping me spread this message of simplicity to other overwhelmed women.

Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at [email protected]!

There are so many different types of growth marketing strategies out there. How in the world are you supposed to know which you should be focused on? Should you be writing guest posts, pitching yourself to be on podcasts, trying to find speaking engagements, hosting workshops, which are right for you, and when should you focus on them?

I am here to make this simple for you, friend. Today we’re going to cover exactly which types of strategies you should be focused on based on where you are in your business journey. If you haven’t listened to episode 1 69 where I cover the three phases of a business journey, you’ll wanna go listen to that first, or you could head to amanda warfield.com/quiz to discover which phase of business you’re in, so that you know which of these strategies are right for you.

Where you are now. You’re listening to episode 171 of The Chasing Simple Podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by my book, Chasing Simple Marketing, and you can grab your own [email protected] / book.

How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways and how do I do it? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly, how do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome friend. This is Chasing Simple Where Practical Marketing Strategy Meets Simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. So that they have time to grow their business, take time off and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one-on-one clients, such as the contract shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or however my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell reading in our hammock watching Gamecock Sports traveling, or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simply an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really wanna be doing is the thing that they started their business to do, which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love.

Each week, I’ll offer you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you. So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choice is, and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips and advice on uncomplicating your marketing and business.

Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? Really quickly, before we dive into this episode, I just have to share something that I’m really excited about with you. My book, chasing Simple Marketing, is launching this July. I wrote this book for the business owner that stumbled into entrepreneurship because they were following their passion, but without that Master’s of Business Administration or that background in business, well, they find marketing overwhelming and frustrating. Throughout these pages, I’m going to take you on a simplicity focused journey to improve your content marketing, and you’ll walk away with an actionable plan to simplify your marketing so that you can fit your marketing into your business without it taking over your business.

To learn more about how to grab your own copy and even potentially get on the launch team, head over to amanda warfield.com/book. I’ll see you there. 

Back in episode 169, we discussed the three phases of a business journey, which are content creator, foundation builder, and established entrepreneur. And in that episode, I go over what it looks like to be in each of those different phases, what your typical, overarching business goal is at that time.

What your growth strategy focus should be on and what your nurture strategy focus should be on today. I wanna take that a step deeper. So if you haven’t listened to that episode, I highly recommend that you go back and start there so that all of what I’m saying today makes sense and that it’s all in line in your brain.

But today, I wanna take it a step deeper, specifically talking about growth marketing strategies because a lot of times, What ends up happening is we, we try to do all the things in order to see growth, and we end up overwhelming ourselves and overloading ourselves and not giving these different growth tactics the time and the commitment that it needs to get into it and tweak it and improve it.

And so when I wrote Chasing Simple Marketing, I really wanted to include these different. Phases and what you should be focusing on within each phase so that there’s less overwhelmed, so that you can say, this is the phase I’m in. These are the tactics that work best for this current phase, and this is where I should be focusing my time and energy, instead of really spreading that time and energy all over the place and trying to hit all the things and then not seeing growth because you’re not giving any of them the the time that they need.

So let’s just get right into it. The course creator phase. If you’re in this phase, what I would recommend as the best thing to focus on for growth, the best growth strategies for you is honestly to just really focus on engaging and building relationships with people. So, It sounds simple and it’s really easy to write off, but it’s really, really important because this is going to set the foundation for all of your future growth marketing strategies.

So I really encourage you to do this both virtually and in person. And with two different types of other business owners. So you want to make sure you’re connecting with business owners and building relationships with those that have the same target audience as you, even if they do something completely different.

So for example, if your target audience is. Busy moms, you want to find other people that also target busy moms. And maybe that means that, you know, you’re, you do time management for busy moms and they do capsule wardrobes for busy moms. And so what you talk about is so drastically different, but your audience is the same.

So you wanna build relationships with people that have the same audience as you. And then you also want to build relationships with people that. Do the same thing as you, whether or not their audience is the same. So why? Why is this Because. I know that a lot of times it can be like, well, why would I wanna build relationships with my competitor?

But here’s the thing, there’s enough space for all of us, and truly, your competitors can be great referrals when they’re full and they don’t have the space to take on one-on-one clients, but they know you and they think of you, and they go, oh, well I know and trust this person. I can’t take you on right now.

But they might be able to. Also, we all do things a little bit differently, and so it wouldn’t be that outrageous for someone to maybe, let’s say someone comes to you and they need help with a certain aspect of what you do and it’s not your area of expertise, and you know that a competitor actually would be a better fit.

And you can refer them out, and that’ll happen. Vice versa. When you are giving to others in that way, they’re going to give back to you. And so you wanna build those connections with people in that same area of expertise because it’s all about community over competition, right? We’re here to lift each other up.

And that leads me into the in-person meetups. If you can find a Rising Tide Society chapter near you, I highly recommend going to find that chapter and going and meeting up with them. I’m part of the Rising Tide Society chapter. In my local area, I’m one of the leaders, and it is so nice to be just surrounded by community and of other business owners in your local area, particularly business owners that are really, really passionate about community over competition.

And I, for a long time, did not go find in-person meetups because my target market isn’t really my local area, but I regret that so deeply now. I wish I had been doing this. Years and years before I did. So highly recommend finding some sort sort of in-person meetup if there’s not a rising Tide Society chapter.

I’m sure there’s some other type of meetup happening around you with other business owners. And I would recommend similar to what we were just talking about with the kind of people you wanna build relationships with. You want to find meetups for. Other business owners, but also can you find meetups where your ideal audience would be hanging out.

Now, don’t do this in a creepy way. Obviously, if you’re not a mom and your target audience is moms, which I don’t know why it would be, because let’s be real, you don’t have the, the life experience that they do, so it’d be hard for you to, to really. Tweak your messaging to speak to them. But let’s say for the sake of this example, if you’re not a mom, but your target audience is moms don’t go to like a mom meetup at a church where they’re bringing their kids to hang out.

Like that’s creepy, right? But where can you go that your audience is also hanging out in person and just. Be there and be around. So do that in person. Find those two types. Find other business owners, people you can connect with that do what you do, and then also find where your audience is hanging out, but also do this virtually.

And this. Is where we can really get lost. We, we can set these goals for ourselves to connect with a certain amount of people each day, and I really, really do not want you to do that. Do not make a to-do list task that says connect with five new people today. Because what ends up happening is you’re not really building relationships because you’re just focused on hitting that number.

Instead, I want you to think about who is in your industry, who is in an aligned industry. That you want to connect with and then connect with their content, engage with their content, focus on building a relationship with that person and not so much trying to hit specific numbers. And again, there’s a fine line here.

You don’t wanna spam them, you don’t want to, uh, try to force anything, but pay attention to their content. If they share a story about. Maybe a place they’re traveling and you also really love that place. You could respond to it. It doesn’t have to be forced, and it doesn’t have to be numbered and very specific.

It’s just pay attention. Who are the people that you wanna build relationships with and pay attention to what they’re posting. And when it makes sense to respond, respond it with any relationship, you can’t force it. And it’s going to take slow growth over time. If it’s been a while since you have made new friends, because I know a lot of times we, we just continue on with the friendships that we’ve had for years and years, right?

If you haven’t had to experience moving to a new place or whatever, Scenario would make it so that you would need to find new friends if you haven’t experienced that recently, it might be difficult to think back and remember, but when you were first starting to make connections with, let’s say you moved to a new place and there’s a neighbor across the street that you wanna build a relationship with, you’re not starting out by immediately going over there and telling them your deepest, darkest secrets and.

Going over there every day or anything like that, that takes time. It’s a okay. This week we waved across the street at each other and said hi. Next week, we maybe stopped and talked for a minute. A couple weeks later, we stopped and talked for a few minutes, and then maybe we finally made plans to go take a walk together or go have coffee.

And it’s a very, very slow progression. So, Realize that that is going to be the same here virtually and in person as well. So if you’re a course grader, you’re focusing on just building relationships. And again, I know that seems so simple and so foundational and really easy to write off, but those relationships will be the foundation for all of the future growth.

Well, most of the future growth tactics and growth strategies that you’re gonna implement, So next you’ve got the foundation builder phase, and what you’re going to focus on here is leveraging those relationships that you’ve been building in order to show up on someone else’s content. So a guest blog post, a guest podcast interview, or showing up as a YouTube guest doing a joint live for social media.

This is the easiest stepping stone into. Uh, going above and beyond and spending extra time on these growth marketing strategies. So when you’re in the course creator phase, you’re focusing on creating your own content and building relationships. But then when you get to the foundation builder phase, you’ve got all these other things going on, and you’re also going to add in this addition of whatever it may be, guest blogging, podcast, YouTube, joint lives, so on and so forth.

You have been spending all this time getting to know. Your target audience and your own messaging, and if you are trying to do these, Podcast guest deans and guest blogs and things like that before you really understand that you’re gonna have a hard time communicating how exactly it is that you can help this other creator.

Back in episode 1 64, how to write a Successful Pitch for podcasts. I covered all the things you need to do to write a successful pitch, and the basis of a successful podcast pitch is, Talking about how exactly you can help someone else’s audience. And so if you haven’t figured it out, you’re gonna have a really hard time putting out those pitches and getting yeses.

And so if you do this before you’re ready, well, I. You’re going to waste a lot of time because your pitches are probably not gonna be accepted, and you’re spending all of that time on them. So we don’t wanna see that. Now, be aware that, as I’m saying, maybe wait, because of this reason, I’m not talking to you perfectionists that are trying to wait for the perfect moment.

There is no perfect moment. You’re never gonna be fully ready. Your messaging is, Always going to be changing, but that’s the reason that I say maybe wait until the foundation builder phase so that you do have some idea of your messaging and you’re able to really articulate, Hey, I would love to come be a guest in this capacity within your content.

I know that your people are X, Y, Z, and they struggle with X, Y, Z, and here’s how I can help that. What do you think? And you’ve gotta be able to put words to that and articulate that really well in order to see yeses from those pitches. So that’s why I would suggest waiting until the foundation builder phase for these, and then also on top of that, They do take time.

It does take time to write the guest blog post or show up and do the podcast interview or show up for the lives. You know, it takes time and it does take prep work, and so you wanna make sure that you are able to not only have the time for it, but also have the mental capacity to prepare, and then afterwards also look at it and say, how could I improve this?

What was my goal? And how can I make this better? So for example, maybe you listen back to the podcast episode that you guested on and just went live, and you go, you know, I really wish that I had said at the end that they could find me on my podcast instead of sharing my Instagram. I really want to make sure that I’m driving people to my podcast and I, uh, I just wish done that differently.

Or maybe there’s a freebie that you’re offering at the end of an episode and you’re not seeing the conversions and you have to go to. Plan B and go, okay, well maybe that one isn’t right for this topic or this audience. Maybe I need to rethink this. There’s all kinds of different things that you can rethink, and if you’re just blindly trying to get as many of these as you can and you’re not really ready for it, it’s gonna be really difficult to have that mental capacity and to continue to leverage them to the best of your ability.

So then we’ve got the established entrepreneur phase. For this phase, you’re gonna really, really be able to step up your game because you have your offers, you have all of your core offers created. You know what the flow looks like through that value ladder that you have, and. You are able, most likely to spend more time doing these growth strategies because you have so many of these foundation pieces in place.

So growth marketing tactics would look like speaking engagements, whether in person or virtually joint venture webinars, bundle contributions, or even going into paid marketing like sponsorships and ads and all of these. Have so many different components to it. There’s so many different ways that you could go about it.

You know, with speaking engagements, you’ve got speaking on stage, speaking in people’s membership communities, speaking on summit, all kinds of things like that. Joint venture webinars are, if you haven’t heard of them, they’re where you, you create a workshop and you collaborate with another person, another entrepreneur who has an audience that.

Is similar and that would benefit from said workshop. And then at the end you upsell one of your offers and the person that is doing it with you gets a cut, a large cut typically of the revenue made from each of those sales because you’re leveraging their audience bundle contributions. We’ve all seen bundles, right?

You. Give an offer, a product that you have, and you have to make sure that you have time to market it and to really sell it to your people so that you make money from it. And then you’ve got paid marketing. You can sponsor different things, you can run different ads, you can do influencer marketing.

There’s all these different ways that you can really pour into these different growth marketing strategies. But with each of these, they are even more time consuming and you have to be even more intentional and strategic. So when you. Do that speaking engagement, you have to be able to sit down and say, okay, what could I do differently to make this better?

What did my conversions look like? What was my goal? Oh, this JV webinar, man, there’s so many moving pieces and I wish the conversion rate had been higher for this, and I wish I had been higher for this, and I wish it, there’s more moving pieces, so there’s more that you have to consider and really think about how you can improve the next time.

And so it’s not something that you can just say, okay, I’m gonna do a JV webinar. Let me create it real quick. It’s. Gonna take, honestly, when you’re first getting started months to really figure out exactly how you wanna do it before you can systematize it. So all of these things really should wait. If you’re feeling ready beforehand, go for it.

Some of them like bundle contributions. You could probably start in the foundation builder phase. Once you have some different offers and maybe even ads, running ads to different products or freebies that you have. You could start earlier, but free. Realistically, the established entrepreneur phase is a really great time for that.

And so if you look at all of these. Speaking engagements, JV webinars, bundle contributions. Um, guest blogging, guest podcasting, joint lives. All of those are built on relationships. And even if you’re looking at paid marketing, if you do influencer marketing or you’re running sponsorships, those all leverage relationships as well.

Facebook ads, Instagram ads, you can just put up, they don’t, you don’t need relationships for that. But when you take the time to build relationships with people, you will then be able to leverage those relationships later on for all of these different growth tactics. Now, again, we’re not. Building relationships just for the sake of how can you help my business?

It’s a give and take. It’s a how can I help you and how can you help me? And we wanna keep that in mind, but. The focus of today was just what are the different growth tactics and when should you be focusing on them? So just a quick recap. If you’re in the course creator phase, you wanna focus on building relationships.

If you’re in the foundation builder phase, you wanna focus on guessing in people’s content. And if you’re in the established entrepreneur phase, that’s when you’re gonna really take things to the next level with the bigger and more visible types of growth strategies. Now, if you’re not sure which phase you’re in, or if you just want more resources, go take the quiz.

Head over to amanda warfield.com/quiz and it will tell you which phase you’re in, and also give you further resources, different podcast episodes and freebies that I have and different things that you can go check out to. Take all of this a step further. So again, that’s your action step for this week.

Go take the quiz, amanda warfield.com/quiz, and this week’s book recommendation is meant to be by Emily Giffin. And I’m gonna be really honest with you, I don’t remember what happened in this book, but I gave it four stars. I ran it last August, so a year ago basically. And I. Don’t remember at all. So sounds like it’s time for me to reread, but I’m just gonna read you a quick synopsis and that’ll give you an idea of what it’s about.

So the Kingsley family is American royalty beloved for their military, heroics, political service, and unmatched elegance. In 1967, after Joseph s Kingley Jr. Is killed in a tragic accident. His charismatic son inherit the weight of that legacy, but Joe III is a free spirit and a little bit reckless.

Despite his best intentions, he has trouble meeting the expectations of a nation as well as those of his exacting mother Dotty. Meanwhile, no one ever expected anything of Kate Cooper. She too grew up fatherless and after her mother marries an abusive man, she’s forced to fend for herself. After being discovered by a model scout at age 16, Kate decides that her looks may be her only ticket out of the cycle of disappointment that her mother has always inhabited.

Before too long, Kate’s faces in magazines and on billboards, yet she feels like a fraud. Faking it in a world to which she’s never truly belonged. When Joe and Kate unexpectedly crossed paths one afternoon, their connection is instant and intense, but can their relationship survive? The glare of the spotlight and the so-called Kingsley Curse?

So that is the synopsis that’s given online. Uh, I will link to this on the show notes again. I really don’t remember what happens in this book, but I gave it four stars, so it must have been pretty darn good. And with that, my friend, I hope that she’ll go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all the resources you need to simplify your marketing [email protected]. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never missed an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time. Now, go out and uncomplicated your marketing and business.

The post Episode 171: Growth Marketing Strategies for Your Phase of Business appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways and how do I do it? Our launch is still a thing, and most importantly, How do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome, friend. This is Chasing Simple where practical marketing strategy meets simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focus, content marketing and launch strategist, speaker educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Also, if you would be willing to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the world to me. It’s such a small thing that can make a big difference in helping me spread this message of simplicity to other overwhelmed women.

Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at [email protected]!

How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways and how do I do it? Our launch is still a thing, and most importantly, How do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome, friend. This is Chasing Simple where practical marketing strategy meets simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focus, content marketing and launch strategist, speaker educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. So that they have time to grow their business, take time off and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one-on-one clients, such as the contract shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or helping my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell.

Greeting in our hammock watching Gamecocks boards traveling or forcing our cats to snuggle me. If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simpy and obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily can suck up their time when what they really wanna be doing is the thing that they started their business to do.

Which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love. Each week offer you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choices, and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips and advice on uncomplicate, your marketing and business. Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? Really quickly, before we dive into this episode, I just have to share something that I’m really excited about with you.

My book, chasing Simple Marketing, is launching this July. I wrote this book for the business owner that stumbled into entrepreneurship because they were following their passion, but without that Master’s of Business Administration or that background in business, well, they find marketing. Overwhelming and frustrating.

Throughout these pages, I’m going to take you on a simplicity focus journey to improve your content marketing, and you’ll walk away with an actionable plan to simplify your marketing so that you can fit your marketing into your business without it taking over your business. To learn more about how to grab your own copy and even potentially get on the launch team, head over to amandawarfield.com/book.

I’ll see you there. Oh my friend, I am so glad that you’re here with me today. I am in a bit of disbelief because if you’re listening to this the day it Goes, live, my book, chasing Simple Marketing, a Crash Course in Content Marketing for showing up, saving time, and growing your business launches. Tomorrow, which means that I am anxiously awaiting that that final moment where the book is actually heading into people’s hands.

I’m finishing up any last minute details and I’m really gearing up for the launch and it feels unreal when I started this journey. It was sort of a split second decision. I was at a conference and I had had it in my mind for a while at this point that I wanted to write a book, and I had even started jotting down some potential ideas, but I didn’t have a win.

I didn’t have. How I didn’t, I had nothing at that point other than a random Trello card with a bunch of really, really random ideas. And this idea that one day I would write a book and I went to this conference and there was a session on writing a book, and I picked my topic and did a mind map brain dump of everything that I thought I might wanna talk about.

During that little workshop and I walked out of there with the decision of what I was gonna write my book about and the fact that I wanted it published by the time I turned 30, which if you’re listening to this, the day it goes live is tomorrow and it’s been, that was May, 2022. This book launches July 26th, 2023, and it is absolutely surreal that this is here and that this is happening, and I’m sure you can tell by the fact that I’m speaking so much more slowly than I normally do, than I’m just sort of at a loss for words.

I’ve never worked on a project of this magnitude before. I’ve never. I’ve never done anything like this, and I have to say that I’m, I’m proud of myself for sticking it through and getting to this point and getting this book out into the world. I know that there’s so much that I. I wish I could do differently and things that I would change and all of that fun stuff that, you know, we as achievers and perfectionists always feel with a project, but I truly am proud that I can say that I’m an author and that I can say that I was an author, author by the time that I was 30.

And you know, it’s an arbitrary date, but it also. It feels good, but like I said, I’m at a bit of a loss for words right now, so I thought that today it would be fun to actually let my beta readers kind of take the floor. When I was in the process of writing this book, one of the things I made sure to do was to together a small group of beta readers who got the very first draft.

They’re like, The messiest of messiest, of just drafts of very, very, the messiest messiest manuscript of all time. They got to take that and read it and then give feedback on it. And so today I’m going to share what they had to say after reading it. First, my friend Sabrina, who was a beta reader, she actually was kind enough to send over her own thoughts and her own voice, and so you’re gonna hear what she has to say next.

Hi, my name is Sabrina Gebhardt, and I am a photographer and business coach. I primarily work with female creatives, specifically photographers who are also moms, and they’re really struggling with the balance of running a business and managing their life. I read an early edition of Amanda’s book because, well, I love Amanda.

I love what she stands for, and basically everything she writes. I consume her emails, her social media content, everything is so valuable. I knew I would enjoy the book. Let me tell you, chapter three is my personal favorite. It is all about relationship, marketing, community, and consistency, and why those things are so important when you are sharing about your brand.

One of my favorite lines from this chapter is this. It says, creating community means giving a place for your people to gather and find their people too. It creates a space where what you’re doing with your business is bigger than just you. Being in community with others that value the same things as you, gives you a feeling of belonging no matter how old you get.

Having that in your life is so important. I really think that that quote and this chapter and this book, it really gets to the heart of why we need to be so certain about what our values are and what matters to us, and how we can share that and simplify our marketing to reach our ideal people. It is such a beautiful picture of how business can be easy when it’s done right.

Amanda’s book is fabulous and it gives. Really tangible takeaways. There’s great stories. I know that you’ll read it and find immense value right from the get go. You know, as I was listening to that, I had this thought that maybe I should have hired Sabrina to read the audiobook version of Chasing Simple Marketing, because she just read that quote so beautifully and just made it sound.

So alive, but truly, Sabrina mentioned that we have very, very similar philosophies and that could not be more true. If you love what I do and talk about here over on Chasing Simple and you vibe with my business and my philosophy as a whole. You are definitely going to want to check out Sabrina and her podcast in particular, which is called Shoot It Straight.

She does do a lot of photographer education, but I promise you that if you’re not a photographer, you still wanna go check out her stuff because it’s not, it’s not all photography and there’s so much good stuff inside of everything that she does. Even for those that. Aren’t photographers. So again, her podcast is called Shoot It Straight, and I’m gonna link to her website and her podcast and her Instagram in the show notes.

Be sure to go check her out because if you love what I do, you’re really gonna love what Sabrina does. Now I also wanted to read some of the feedback I got from the beta readers that had sent in their written reviews and their written feedback. So from. One of my beta readers, this was their review of the book after they read it.

Amanda breaks everything content down into simple practical tips and strategies. You will have a better understanding of the types of content, how to use them, how to reuse them, and be able to create a plan to batch your content so that you are controlling it and it’s not controlling all of your time.

She’s not afraid to tell you to stop focusing all on the numbers and rules you hear online, and instead, focus on consistency and time. This book feels like getting to know a friend through the story she shares, and she’s so relatable when it comes to how she felt when she began her marketing. You will think she was inside your head because we all have felt stuck, overwhelmed, and even confused about what we were supposed to do.

You will finish this book feeling Confident and creating a plan for your content. Another beta reader wrote, if you’re looking for something to simplify and better understand your content marketing, this is your book. Amanda has jam-packed this book with easy explanations, relatable examples, actionable steps, and further tasting recommendations to enhance your business branding, whether you’re just starting out or a little bit more established and looking to create better efficiency.

This book is not a rags to riches or a one in a million fairy tale story, but a realistic, honest, encouraging, and impactful read. And another said I could have been reading a book about myself. I have never felt so seen and understood, but also inspired to keep going to create a business that I love without feeling so overwhelmed and behind.

Amanda has always been my go-to person for tough love and truths when it comes to creating content, and this book puts everything I’ve learned from her into an enjoyable action filled read. I also asked my beta readers once I had finished what was one piece of information that stuck with them the most, and I wanna share a few of those here too.

So one person said it’s okay for me to start small. I’m the type of person that always tries doing everything and the way things were broken down, it made me more comfortable with posting less often into less platforms. Being the exact solopreneur you wrote this book for, this helped me realize that while it’s just me, I.

Can’t create all of the content and perform needle moving tasks consistently at the same time. Another person said the simplicity of just zooming out and planning strategically and then intentionally setting aside time to create content. You relate it in such a way that made it finally feel doable. A couple other people really loved when I walked through creating and repurposing a blog post.

This was so helpful and I read through it three times to cite being a person who writes blog posts all the time. And one last one that I’ll share. The idea that really stuck out to this person was to stop trying to make the content complicated. Repetitiveness is totally fine because the entire audience doesn’t see everything all the time.

So those are just a few thoughts that my beta readers had as far as what stuck out to them and also how they felt about the book. And if you’ll indulge me for just another minute, I really wanna share some of the endorsements that I got for chasing Simple Marketing. The first was a permission slip to stress less and focus more on what matters.

Amanda provides a clear roadmap on how you can grow your business without spending all of your time and energy on marketing. That was from Natalie Frank, the author of Built to Belong in Gutsy. Another one I got was in a world where business feels more and more complicated each day, Amanda keeps marketing simple, chasing simple marketing strips away the comparison traps and shoulds of business marketing.

Instead, she delivers an honest, insightful look into how to market your business without burning yourself out. If you’re looking for a sustainable way to market your business for the long haul, look no further. Jessica Razel, author of Shattered. And finally, if you love to work harder or not smarter, don’t read this book.

Amanda does a fabulous job of distilling sometimes intimidating marketing strategies and confusing jargon into a super simple, easy-to-read guidebook plus her top-notch storytelling makes it feel like a conversation with a friend over coffee. If you own a business and want it to grow without wasting tons of time in the process, you need this book, Anna Dearman Cornick.

Author of Time Management Essentials, host of the, it’s about time podcast and time management strategists. I am overwhelmed by the amount of love chasing simple marketing has already received, and I know so many have already pre-ordered their copies. If you haven’t, and you’re listening on July 25th as the day this episode airs, you can still head over and pre-order your copy, either head straight to Amazon and just.

Search, chasing civil marketing or head to amanda warfield.com/book. But if you’re listening to this on the 26th or later, the book is live, the book is available, and you can grab your copy right now. You can find it by heading over to just those same places, Amazon or straight to my website. You’ll find it either way.

And if you do order it, I want to know what your biggest takeaway of the book is. So for those of you that pre-ordered, once you get it in your hands and you’re able to start reading, Please send me a dm, send me an email, let me know what it is that stands out to you most, and what is the main takeaway from reading this book?

And for those that didn’t pre-order but are going to order theirs as soon as it launches well, I still want the same from you. Thank you so very much for being on this journey with me, my friend. It has truly been the rite of a lifetime, and it’s been such a privilege to have you alongside with me. Next week, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled episodes, but until next time, I hope that you’ll go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all of the resources you need to simplify your marketing [email protected]. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time. Now. Go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

The post Episode 170: What Readers Have to Say about Chasing Simple Marketing appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

When it comes to marketing strategies, there are hundreds out there that you could implement. Which can be fun, but is also a leading cause of marketing overwhelm. Because oh my goodness there’s so much to do but so little time.

The good news? You don’t need to implement every marketing strategy in order to see success. In fact, depending on where you are in business, there are certainly strategies that will work best for you, and you can forget the rest.

It all comes down to the 3 phases of a business journey, and where you fall on that path. In today’s episode, I’m sharing what they three phases are, how to know which you’re in, and how to leverage the best marketing strategies for each phase.

Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Also, if you would be willing to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the world to me. It’s such a small thing that can make a big difference in helping me spread this message of simplicity to other overwhelmed women.

Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at [email protected]!

When it comes to marketing strategies, there are hundreds out there that you could implement, which can be fun, but is also a leading cause of marketing overwhelm because oh my goodness, there’s so much to do, but so little time. The good news, you don’t need to implement every marketing strategy in order to see success.

In fact, depending on where you are in business, there are certainly strategies that work best for you and you can forget the rest. It all comes down to the three phases of a business journey and where you fall on that path. In today’s episode, I’m sharing what the three phases are, how to know which you’re in and how to leverage the best marketing strategies for each phase.

You’re listening to episode 169 of the Chasing Simple podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by my book Chase and Symbol Marketing, and you can grab your own copy at amandawarfield.com/book.

How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways and how do I do it? Our launch is still a thing, and most importantly, how do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome friend. This is Chasing Simple where practical marketing strategy meets simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. So that they have time to grow their business, take time off and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one-on-one clients, such as the Contract shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or how will my students simplify their marketing and launches? And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell reading in our hammock watching Gamecock Sports traveling or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simpy an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really wanna be doing is the thing that they started their business to do.

Which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love. Each week offer you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choices, and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips and advice on uncomplicate, your marketing and business. Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? Really quickly, before we dive into this episode, I just have to share something that I’m really excited about with you.

My book, chasing Simple Marketing is launching this July. I wrote this book for the business owner that stumbled into entrepreneurship because they were following their passion, but. Without that Master’s of Business Administration or that background in business, well, they find marketing overwhelming and frustrating.

Throughout these pages, I’m going to take you on a simplicity focused journey to improve your content marketing, and you’ll walk away with an actionable plan to simplify your marketing so that you can fit your marketing into your business without it taking over your business. To learn more about how to grab your own copy and even potentially get on the launch team, head over to amanda warfield.com/book.

I’ll see you there. Within a business journey, there are three different phases, particularly in relation to how you’re marketing your business and your marketing strategy. You’ve got the content creator phase, the foundation builder phase, and the established entrepreneur phase. So let’s start with the content creator phase.

Now, not everyone will actually go through this phase. This one is kind of optional and it just kind of depends on. How you start your journey. So there are many of us, especially in this online business space, where we did not expect to become business owners. It was never our goal. It was never our intention.

We don’t have an MBA or a business degree. We just didn’t plan. In hindsight, when you’re a few years into business, you may look back and go, huh, all the signs really were there when I was a kid. But at the time it’s not. It’s not like it was something you actively thought about, right. And so a lot of us end up either following a passion of ours and it kind of turning itself into our a business.

A lot of times this is makers or photographers or something in that super creative space where you started something because you had fun with it and it was almost a hobby, and then it kind of turned itself into a business slash You’ve also got those of us that never planned to start a business, but then one day we.

Kind of woke up and recognized the opportunity that is this online business space and decided that we were gonna, we didn’t know what we were gonna do, but we were gonna figure it out, which is kind of how I got into this. And there are some people even who start creating content with zero plans to start a business, and then one day they wake up and go, oh, I have an audience.

I could turn this into a business. So there. Are really three types of people that end up in this content creator phase, but also there are a lot of people who start a business and know they’re starting a business and they jump straight into that foundation builder phase. So you may or may not go through this one or have gone through this one, but the content creator phase is essentially this phase of business where alls you’re really doing is creating content and you’re maybe trying to figure out how to get a client and what you’re going to do to help your clients and what that looks like.

But you’re just kind of floundering in a way. And a lot of times we feel like we’re floundering and we shame ourselves for it. And I’m not gonna get on a soapbox about this, but I really could go on and on about it because I wish I could go back and talk to baby entrepreneur, Amanda about this and let her know that that’s actually a good thing.

And to encourage myself to flounder. Because that’s really what this phase is all about. So when I’m breaking down these phases, there are three things that I talk about. There’s the business goal. And that’s kind of the overarching, within this phase, what are you trying to do for your business? And then there’s also the marketing strategy, which is broken down into two parts, growth strategy and nursery strategy.

So in this phase, the business goal is to determine how you can use your talents and your gifts to help others and figuring out what that first offer will be, and then making those very first sales. So you’re. Floundering and just kind of figuring out how can I help people and how can I use what I can do to help people to actually make money and okay, how do I get those first few clients or customers?

That’s the goal of this space is just figuring that out. So how do you market that? How do you, how do you utilize marketing if that’s your goal and it’s just kind of figuring things out? Well, your growth strategy, which remember a growth strategy is how you’re bringing in new audience members. You wanna really make sure you’re focused on making and building connections.

I did not do this well, and I wish I had because it would’ve set my business up for even faster growth. I wish I had been so much more intentional from the beginning about [00:08:00] getting out and going to conferences and networking, attending retreats, and just putting my name out there and. Meeting people because relationships are going to be so, so, so, so, so, so important for building your business.

So that’s your growth strategy is just get out there and make connections, whether you go to things in person or you attend virtual events and you’re really intentional about connecting with other attendees and the speakers, whether you just make sure you’re in intentional about connecting through social media and content, but taking the time to do that and to just connect with people and build relationships.

Your nurture strategy, on the other hand, is what you are doing to build relationships once you’ve brought in those audience members. So that would be experimenting and having fun, posting the social media, creating content. You don’t have to have it all figured out and. Your content can kind of be all over the place.

You can really just throw spaghetti at the wall, right? So that you can just figure out what it is that you wanna talk about and how you can help people. So this phase is, again, not very defined, and I know it doesn’t sound super strategic, but I promise if you give yourself that permission to. Not be super strategic, it’s gonna take you a long way.

So we’ve got the foundation builder phase. Some people start here, like I mentioned, some people totally skip the content creator phase, but for others it’s the second phase in business. And in this phase, you know how your business serves others and you have at least one offer that sells. It may not be making you six figures or even it may not even be making you.

You know, $20,000, but it’s an offer that sells and that you can consistently see sales from, and you know you’re gonna be able to continue to tweak and hone in on it and make it even better and more appealing. So with this one, your business goal. Within this phase is to determine the foundational offers of your business by creating offers that are complimentary to your main offer.

So you’ve got your one main offer. As you start this phase, what is the step before that offer, and what’s the step after? And you wanna make sure you’re developing those offers on either side so that you’re kind of hitting this range within the customer journey. So if you look at. Content batching Bootcamp.

My course about bashing your content, that course came out and it was the main course, right? It was my main offer, and it was for people who needed help solopreneurs or people with really small teams that needed help creating a month’s worth of content in just one week, so that they weren’t constantly creating content and stuck on that content creation hamster wheel.

Right? After running that a few times and launching it a few times, and it’s selling really well, I began to see that there were two different ways I could take things. I had my students that had done that and were successful, but needed ongoing encouragement to keep up the system. And then I also had people who weren’t quite ready to buy because they just didn’t even know what to post about or win.

They were so overwhelmed that the idea of creating content in general was just too overwhelming. And so I created for those people a year’s worth of content prompts. So they could just go in and say, okay, what’s this question? Here’s my answer to it. Let me create a piece of content around it. What’s this question?

Here’s this. And so they didn’t have to think about anything. They just sat down and created prompt or created content based on those prompts. But then the people who had taken the course and were ready for the next step, well, they were able to either go on and. You know, they have their content under control.

So they’re ready for strategy and ready to work one-on-one with me, or they’re ready to move into a membership and just get ongoing accountability. They could kind of take it in a couple different ways, but I was able to, once I had that foundational core offer, I was able to really look at it and say, okay, well what do people need next?

And what do they need before this? So that’s what you’re trying to figure out here is what is this little mini value ladder within my business so that I can walk people through these different phases. So what does that mean for your marketing? Okay, well, your growth strategy, you’re gonna go back and begin to leverage those relationships that you’ve been making in order to get in front of new audiences.

Because remember, we’ve always gotta be getting in front of new audiences in order to bring them back to nurture them. So all of those connections that you’ve been making, do they have a blog? You could write a guest post for it. Do they have a podcast? You could be a guest on? Do they have an Instagram that you could go live on them with?

Like, how can you get in front of new audiences? Just with the friends that you have at this point, how can you leverage each other’s audiences in order to get in front of new people so that you can start bringing them back and share what it is that you do, and then once you’ve brought them back, your nurture strategy is going to be to continue to refine your messaging.

Now that you have spent some time throwing that spaghetti against the wall, and now that you know what your main offer is and you’re starting to figure out, okay, well the people that aren’t ready for the offer need this, and the people that have finished the offer need that you’re able to really narrow in on your audience and also to really hone in on the problem that you solve.

And so you can continue to refine your messaging to make sure you’re talking to these different parts of your audience. And also these different problems that they have. But until you’ve created that foundational one offer and you’ve moved into this foundation builder phase and you’re ready to build upon that foundation, that’s gonna feel really overwhelming.

And that’s okay because you don’t have to refine your messaging yet. And then we move into the established entrepreneur phase. These are the later years in owning a business where you are confident in running your business and really beginning to step into your own instead of listening to what all of the voices around you are telling you that you should do.

In this phase, your business goal is to set up systems that are going to help with scaling and growth. So maybe that means you’re setting up email funnels. Maybe that means you’re setting up automated CRM systems. Maybe that means you’re setting up, you know, if you had one-to-one offers and now you’re realizing, okay, well I could create a shop with templates, or I could create this or that, that I can then just go in and say, oh, I’m part of a summit.

Here’s a software that I have, and then I’ve got a trip wire, and then an upsell and a down. You know, all of those different things. You can set up these systems to help with scaling and growth. Your growth marketing strategy is to continue to leverage those relationships, but for bigger opportunities, larger audiences, and more selling.

So things like speaking, jv, webinars, summits, bundles, all of those things that are gonna take more effort, but also allow you to build a deeper relationship. Faster with these audiences and really bring them in and bring them in warm instead of bringing them in cold. And then your nurture strategy for this business phase is to really just focus on your funnels for nurturing and selling on a larger level.

Because when you go out and you say, Hey, here’s a freebie that I have, or Here’s a small offer that I have, and then. They sign up for your email list and then you don’t do anything with that. Well, it’s not doing you a whole lot, but if you can set it up so that, okay, they download the freebie and then they’ve got a quick trip wire where one of your products is available for a really cheap price for a limited time, and then there’s an upsell, and then there’s all of these different ways that you can set up funnels and you’re able to focus on simply bringing people into the freebie.

And then your funnel sells for you on the backend, and so you wanna make sure that the marketing that you have within those funnels is really nurturing your people and letting them get to know you. So your growth and nurture strategy align similarly here because you’re really focusing on getting people into those funnels, but then making sure that those funnels are actually going to build relationships for you.

So to recap, the three phases are the content creator phase, the foundation builder phase, and the established entrepreneur phase. And throughout each of these phases, you’ve got different business goals and different strategies. So when you’re in the content creator phase, you don’t need to be worried about speaking and JV webinars and bundles.

But when you’re in the foundation builder phase, well you should probably be doing a bit more than just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall, right? So, With each step you take in your business and each phase that you transition into, there are going to be more responsibilities for you, to bring in new audiences, and then to nurture the audience you have really, really well.

If you’re not quite sure what phase of business you are in and what marketing strategies you should be focused on, hand over to amandawarfield.com/quiz to find out and to be sent resources to help you take action on those marketing strategies. This week’s action step is to pre-order chasing simple marketing crash course and content marketing for showing up, saving time, and growing your business.

Inside of the book, there is an entire section of the book that covers this, so I gave you a quick 15 minute overview. I’ve got an entire section, like we’re talking four different chapters. In this book that cover extensively exactly what this looks like, the different phases and the different strategies within each phase, and which ones you should be doing and which ones you’re not ready for, and all of those things.

So if you have not already, be sure to pre-order the book. You can head to amanda warfield.com/book or to Amazon and just search Chase’s simple marketing to go ahead and pre-order. Everyone who pre-orders is going to be sent the first chapter so they can start reading. And then also my KPI spreadsheet template.

This template is what I use for myself and for my clients, and it’s exactly how we track our goals and how we’re doing with those goals. And then we’re using that information to inform our content strategy, and it’s broken down by different types of goals. So if you have a goal to sell, A certain number of shop items.

I’ve got all of these different key performance indicators in that section that you should be looking at as far as, okay, how many people got onto the sales page, how many people actually went to the checkout cart, how many were hard abandoned, all of those fun things. It’s gonna give you some ideas for which KPIs you should be tracking so that you can help inform your own content strategy.

And I sell it in my shop, but you can get it free just by pre-ordering Chase and simple marketing. If you pre-order from Amazon, be sure to forward me your pre-order confirmation, your receipt so that I can send you your pre-order bonuses because Amazon doesn’t tell me who orders. I don’t get any of that information, so make sure that you go ahead and forward me that so that I know that you need to get your pre-order bonuses.

Like I said, you can search it on Amazon or you can head to amanda warfield.com/book. All right, my friend. Until next time, I hope that you’ll go out and uncomplicate your marketing and biz.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all of the resources you need to simplify your marketing [email protected]. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time. Now, go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

The post Episode 169: 3 Phases of a Business Journey appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

Learn more about grabbing your copy of Chasing Simple Marketing: amandawarfield.com/book/

[00:00:00] Hey there, friend. I’m going to keep this little announcement episode short and sweet. I promise I won’t take up a ton of your time, but I did want to let you know that Chasing Simple Marketing is officially available for pre order. Now, everyone who pre orders is going to get the first chapter sent right to them so they can go ahead and start reading while they wait for their book to arrive.

And then they’re also going to get my KPI tracker template. This template is the one that I use both for myself and for all of my clients so that we can make sure that we’re tracking numbers that actually help us understand how our marketing is working and where we may need to make some improvements within this tracker.

I outlined the various types of revenue streams you may have, whether it’s a membership or a course or a one on one service or something else. And exactly what it is that you should be tracking so that, you know, whether or not your marketing is working, the problem that most of us have with KPIs [00:01:00] is that we either don’t track or we are tracking, but we’re tracking numbers that aren’t really informing our strategy.

We’re tracking things like how many followers we have, which is great to know, but. Doesn’t really tell us what we should be talking about and when, and where we may be having problems within our funnel. And that is the entire purpose of this KVI tracker template. It’s going to help you know what you need to be working on, whether it’s your sales page, whether it’s your top of the funnel, whatever it is, it’s going to let you know where your numbers aren’t matching up to what they need to be or where you can improve them.

So if you would like to grab that tracker template, it is in my shop and you can snag it for 47. Or, you can head to amandawarfield. com slash book, pre order your copy of Chasey’s Noble Marketing and get that tracker template for free as a thank you for pre ordering. Oh, and if I could ask one thing, it would be that if you do pre order, would you mind sharing about it on your Instagram stories or even on [00:02:00] threads and tagging me?

I would love to be able to reshare that and just. Let’s help generate some more buzz for pre order and let more people know that it’s finally available. Thank you genuinely from the very bottom of my heart for being excited about this book. I’ve had so much support over the last year as I have been writing and creating and now launching it and I am just, oh, so very thankful.

So again, you can grab your own copy at amandawarfield.om/book.

The post BONUS: Pre-Order Chasing Simple Marketing! appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

Ahh, the social media content buckets strategy. It’s one of the most talked about, but least explained content strategies out there. So we’re going to dive into it – what it is, and why I don’t think it’s a very good strategy.

Instead, I highly encourage you to consider using themes when planning your social media content. There are 5 themes you can rotate through, and in today’s episode I’m covering what those are, how you can utilize them, and even what your calls to action should be for each theme type. If you’re constantly stuck wondering what in the world you should be posting about, today’s episode was made just for you.

Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Also, if you would be willing to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the world to me. It’s such a small thing that can make a big difference in helping me spread this message of simplicity to other overwhelmed women.

Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at [email protected]!

The bucket strategy is one of the most talked about, but least explained content strategies out there. So we’re gonna dive into it, what it is and why I don’t think it’s a very good strategy. Instead, I highly encourage you to consider using themes when planning your social media content. There are five themes you can rotate through, and in today’s episode, I’m covering what those are, how you can utilize them, and even what your calls to actions should be for each theme type.

If you’re constantly stuck wondering what in the world you should be posting about, today’s episode was made just for you. You’re listening to episode 168 of the Chasing Simple podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by my book Chasing Simple Marketing, and you can grab your own at amandawarfield.com/book.

How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways and how do I do it? Our launch is still a thing, and most importantly, how do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome friend. This is Chasing Simple where practical marketing strategy meets simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. So that they have time to grow their business, take time off and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one-on-one clients, such as the contract shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or helping my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell reading in our hammock watching Gamecocks boards traveling or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simpy an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really wanna be doing is the thing that they started their business to do.

Which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love. Each week offer you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choices, and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips and advice on uncomplicate, your marketing and business. Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? Really quickly, before we dive into this episode, I just have to share something that I’m really excited about with you.

My book, chasing Simple Marketing, is launching this July. I wrote this book for the business owner that stumbled into entrepreneurship because they were following their passion, but without that Master’s of Business Administration or that background in business, well, they find marketing. Overwhelming and frustrating.

Throughout these pages, I’m going to take you on a simplicity focus journey to improve your content marketing, and you’ll walk away with an actionable plan to simplify your marketing so that you can fit your marketing into your business without it taking over your business. To learn more about how to grab your own copy and even potentially get on the launch team, head over to amanda warfield.com/book.

I’ll see you there. So what is the bucket strategy? In all likelihood, if you’ve been around the online business space for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard of this before, but it’s essentially where you come up with five topics or buckets of topics that you rotate through in your content, particularly in your social media content.

And so you’ll talk about the topics in bucket one and then bucket two’s topics in the next post, and then a post after that, you’ll. Talk about bucket threes and then four and then five, and then once you’ve hit all five different buckets, you’ll go all the way back to bucket one and continue to rotate through.

That way you always know what you’re going to be talking about, and your audience kind of continually gets the same thing from you. The problem with this is that your business content gets lost in this shuffle, and there’s no real strategy behind it. You choose five different things and you talk about each of them on a rotational basis, but your content doesn’t lead anyone anywhere because there’s no journey for your audience to take, and you’re not consistently solving their problems.

Because typically what this strategy, what you’re doing is picking five topics that are. Things that you’re passionate about are things about you. A lot of people will do, you know, okay, my buckets are gardening and recipes and motherhood and travel and oh yeah, what my business about, which is.

Copywriting and all of these other things, while they’re a great way for your people to get to know you, because you’re talking about five different topics all along the same amount of time, you’re likely confusing your audience as far as what your experience is because you’re all over the map. Using buckets makes more sense.

If you’re in the content creator phase of your business journey where you’re just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall, then it does wean. You’re further along and you’re trying to really showcase that you’re an expert in your field. It also tends to work better for people that have more influencer e type content, but when you are trying to showcase your expertise, It really just confuses your people because you’re talking about your expertise so little compared to how often you’re talking about all these different parts of what makes you you, and it gets lost in this building of a personal brand.

However, I do understand the appeal of buckets. It is a really simple way to make sure that you’re hitting all of the important parts of your business. And it’s a really easy way to come up with things to say for your social media content. My suggestion is that instead of having five topics that you rotate through, you implement five themes.

So these five themes will help you make sure that you’re creating different types. Of social media content, but you’re also able to make sure that you’re consistently showcasing your expertise. So the first one, first of the five Themes, entertainment. Now I already know, I, I know that there’s some of you because this would be Me Too, that’s going absolutely not.

I’m, I’m not entertaining. And you know, some people are naturally funny and outgoing and this type of post is a no-brainer for them. They can create entertaining content like nobody’s business. However, for those of you that are thinking absolutely not, no way, not me know how entertaining content doesn’t have to make someone laugh.

It doesn’t have to be funny. It simply has to grab their attention and make them curious. So, for example, I love time lapses of literally just about anything, cleaning, painting, working out. It could be the most mundane task in the world, and I love them. Those types of content pieces are always sure to make me pause on my scrolling and actually sit down and watch because I find them so entertaining.

So don’t feel like you need to be naturally funnier, outgoing for something to be entertaining. And these posts, they’re really great for letting your audience into your world and expressing who you are so that they can get to know you. Typically with an entertainment type post, your call to action is going to be to engage with the content in some way.

So leave a comment, share tag someone who should see this, you know. Engage with that piece of content in some way, shape, or form. But here’s the thing. Those personal bucket topics that we get told to use within this themed content, this would be a good place to implement some of those personal bucket topics.

So you’ve got five different buckets, or four different buckets, or however many personal buckets you wanna have. Let’s say five instead of. One in every five post being about gardening because that’s something you’re passionate about. One in every 25 will be about gardening, so it’ll still get talked about and people will still begin to understand that that’s something you’re passionate about, but it’s not going to distract from the rest of the content that is actually going to be showcasing your expertise.

Now the second content theme that you could implement would be a client or customer showcase. So in these, you’ll want to somehow showcase your expertise and what you do to help others by showcasing your clients and your customers in some way. So this can be through a testimonial that you share through talking about an experience you had with a client or a customer.

Or even just through talking about what it’s like to be a client of customer or if you’re sharing that journey. It also could be as simple as. Sharing about the client. You don’t even have to say anything other than, this is one of my clients and I want to like, and here’s what they do. You don’t have to talk a whole lot about how you help them.

Just by the nature of saying, Hey, this is one of my clients, and then showcasing them. You’re still letting people know who you help and how you help them. So for these, your call to action is typically going to be the next steps for how someone can work with you. Or even in those cases where you’re just showcasing the client to go follow the client and interact with them in some way.

But for most of these, what’s the next step for how they can work with you? Do they need to go to the link in your bio to look at your services page? Do they need to go to your shop and purchase a course? Do they need to leave a comment so that. You can send them the link to your calendar to hop on a quick call, whatever that next step is, that’s probably gonna be your call to action here.

The third themed post you wanna put in there is educational, and it’s exactly what it sounds like here. You want to. Educate your audience under area of expertise and how it is that you can solve their problems. These pieces can just be straight informational pieces, or they can lead back to your latest piece of long form content.

You can say, Hey, there’s more on the blog. There’s more on my latest podcast episode. These are also a great chance to throw out new ideas that you’ve been thinking of to see how they stick maybe for a potential future offer or a future piece of long form content. I like to do this a lot. Actually.

You’ll notice that I will, you’ll probably never notice because it’s so far apart, but I will start talking about a podcast episodes topic on social media. Before I ever even create the podcast episode about it, just to get the conversation going and kind of see where people are at with it, these educational pieces.

Y it’s sharing what you know and how you can solve their problems in any way, shape, or form that you can. And your call to action here will vary, but can be anything from asking them to share, to comment, to say for later, all the way to encouraging them to go look at the long form content that gives them more context and.

I will just say, because these types are so valuable, I tend to sprinkle these in a lot more than the others, so, Yes, you’ll rotate through these five themes, but it’s not a straight 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I often will do one educational, two educational, three educational, four educational, and then one educational two.

So I’m con consistently putting educational in there. I do this for myself and for my clients because it’s just such a great way to really showcase your expertise and how you can help. The fourth theme is engagement. The purpose behind an engagement post is to well boost your engagement, and this can be as simple as posing a question to your audience and encouraging their response, or they can be something as complex as stirring up controversy.

I had a client the other day, and I, I do not take credit for this. In any way, shape or form. She did this all on her own. But I had a client the other day post on her Instagram stories asking, she put up a series of polls and it was just kind of a this or that, this or that. And the very last one was, if you had to give up one thing for life, would you give up bread or adult relations?

Um, and it, to me, it was just the funniest thing and such a perfect example of. This is just for engagement. That is all that was. Not only would she have people, you know, engaging in all of the different polls on her stories, but then I know for a fact she had to have gotten so many comments about that because my immediate response was to instead of vote, it was to DM her.

And so then not only. Is she getting engagement and boosting her profile and boosting the engagement on her account, but she’s opening up the door for tons of conversations with people. So super well done. But no matter what direction you take these pieces of content, your call to action, it’s. Always going to be to have them engage in some way, typically by commenting.

But you can also encourage shares and saves. And then in Instagram stories, you’ve got all of those different engagements, questions and polls and all kinds of fun stuff that you can use to really encourage engagement. And this is one of those posts that I think, especially right now when we are. Not seeing a lot of engagement, we tend to also stop doing these and then it becomes a chicken or the egg situation.

Make sure you’re putting just engagement for the sake of engagement type post-op, because yes, we’re not seen as much as engagement as we’re used to, but also we will continue to see less and less if we’re not encouraging engagement. We’re not encouraging our people to engage with us. And then the fifth and final theme is promotional.

And here’s the one that most of us avoid, like the plague. The big ask in this kind of post you’re selling, you’re sharing about a free download that you’ve created, or you’re sharing about some sort of collaboration, like a summit or a bundle that you’re part of. Your call to action is going to be along the lines of whatever it is that you’re talking about in that post, whether it’s to apply, to work with you, to go buy a digital offer, to sign up for a seminar bundle, or to download your free opt-in.

You need to post these more than you think you do. You need to post ’em way more than your ego wants you to. You have to share exactly how someone can work with you or they will not know. The educational content theme that I said earlier, I use most. It’s so important. But if you never then take it to the big ask, then ask people to take the next step with you.

It’s not gonna do you any good because then you’ve got all of these people that know what you do, but have no idea how you do it, and have no idea how they can even work with you. So make sure you are putting in that promotional content. I try to make sure that within every. Five posts, there’s at least one big ask, and I try to make sure that at least every other week, one of them is a sale.

Whether it’s you’re selling an offer in a shop, or you’re telling someone to work with you, or whatever that may be. Every five, whether you’re talking, you know, five feed post or five stories, whatever that looks like, have at least one big ask, and one time it can be a freebie, but the next time it needs to be.

Selling and then it can be a free vegan, but then the next time it needs to be selling. You want to make sure you’re letting people know how they can work with you. So those five themes, again, entertainment. A client or customer showcase educational engagement and promotional. By rotating through these five themes, you’ll make sure to cover a variety of types of content and do everything from educating to building relationships to selling.

Without confusing your audience by talking about a wide range of topics, it should be noted that you don’t need to blindly rotate in this exact order over and over again. Like I said, you’ll want to ensure that you’re using a mix of all of these throughout the month, and again, you probably do need to add more promotional posts until the mix than you plan to now, your action step for this week.

For more ways to simplify your marketing strategy, be sure to go pre-order chasing simple marketing. You can either. Head over to amanda warfield.com/book or head straight to Amazon and just search Chase and Simple Marketing and go ahead and pre-order that everyone who pre-orders is going to get in the first chapter of the book sent to them already so that they can start reading.

And they’re also going to get my KPI spreadsheet template. This KPI spreadsheet is what I use for myself and also what I use for my clients to help make sure that we’re on track with our goals and to help inform our content marketing strategy. So it helps break down what your goals are and then the key performance indicators that tie back to those goals.

So for example, if you have a one-to-one offer that you are trying to book a certain number of. Well, it’s going to have a section for that one-to-one offer, and then underneath that it’s going to have a bunch of different key performance indicators that you should probably be tracking. Like how many people fill out your form, how many people book a call, how many people convert at the call, how many people, so on and so forth.

So I have that all broken down for you already, and you can get that for free just by pre-ordering, chasing simple marketing. If you purchase through Amazon, please be sure to forward me your receipt because Amazon doesn’t tell me who buys. What, so forward me your receipt so that I can see and so that I can get you those pre-order bonuses.

Again, either head to Amazon or head domain to warfield.com/book, and that is your action step for this week, and your book recommendation is Chasing Some Marketing, a crash course, and content marketing for showing up, saving time, and growing your business. Until next time, my friend. I hope that you’ll go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all of the resources you need to simplify your marketing [email protected]. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never missed an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time, not go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

The post Episode 168: The Social Media Bucket Strategy appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

It is officially July, which means we are mere DAYS away from the Launch of Chasing Simple Marketing. Right now, I am eating, sleeping, daydreaming all things book launch, so I thought it would be fun to come back in with another read of a chapter.

Way back in January, I read from the first chapter of the book, but today I’m going to take you into the heart of the book where I’m explaining how you decide what your marketing strategy should be. Because let’s face it – there are a LOT of different strategies out there, and marketing strategies can become convoluted very quickly.

Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Also, if you would be willing to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the world to me. It’s such a small thing that can make a big difference in helping me spread this message of simplicity to other overwhelmed women.

Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at [email protected]!

It’s officially July, which means we are mere days away from the launch of Chasing Simple Marketing. Right now I am eating, sleeping, daydreaming, all things book launch, so I thought it would be fun to come back in with another read of a chapter. Way back in January in, I believe, episode 1 45. I read from the very first chapter of the book, but today I’m going to take you into the heart of the book where I’m explaining how exactly you decide what your marketing strategies should be.

Because let’s face it, there are a lot of different strategies out there, and marketing strategies can become convoluted very quickly. You’re listening to episode 167 of The Chasing Simple Podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by my book, chasing Simple Marketing, and you can grab your own at amandawarfield.com/book.

How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways and how do I do it? Our launch is still a thing, and most importantly, how do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome friend. This is Chasing Simple Where Practical Marketing Strategy Meets Simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. So that they have time to grow their business, take time off and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one-on-one clients, such as the contract shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or helping my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell reading in our hammock watching Gamecocks boards traveling or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simpy and obligation. They know they need it, but. They don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really wanna be doing is the thing that they started their business to do, which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love.

Each week offer you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you. So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choices, and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips and advice on uncomplicate, your marketing and business.

Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? Really quickly, before we dive into this episode, I just have to share something that I’m really excited about with you. My book, chasing Simple Marketing is launching this July. I wrote this book for the business owner that stumbled into entrepreneurship because they were following their passion, but without that Master’s of Business Administration or that background in business, well, they find marketing overwhelming and frustrating.

Throughout these pages, I’m going to take you on a simplicity focus journey to improve your content marketing, and you’ll walk away with an actionable plan to simplify your marketing so that you can fit your marketing into your business without it taking over your business. To learn more about how to grab your own copy and even potentially get on the launch team, head over to amanda warfield.com/book.

I’ll see you there. I was going through a marketing course I’d bought with my calendar printed out in front of me and my rainbow of pins laying beside my computer so that I could color code my plan by platform. I was feeling so proud of myself for making an investment in my business, and I was on top of the world.

I was finally going to get my marketing together. Up until that point, I’d spent hundreds of hours researching and trying to mimic what other entrepreneurs were doing in their content. While reviewing content plans on Pinterest, the plans that came up were full of International Donut Day and Wacky Sock Wednesday.

Absolutely none of which helped me to grow my audience, build relationships, or make sales. I was ready to finally figure out this marketing thing and decided that investing in a course from an expert was going to solve all of my problems. Only as I sat there and I watched the course, I felt confused.

The instructor was giving all kinds of information, but it felt like there were just these giant holes in the information given. I was told that I was supposed to use a theme for each month of content, but how, what was I supposed to do to determine, said theme, and what was the purpose of theming the month?

How did, how did that help? I’d spent all this money and still felt like I had no idea what I was doing. I internalized that clearly. I wasn’t meant to be good at marketing because I didn’t get it. Friend. If you’ve had these thoughts, please know that I am wrapping you up in a virtual hug right now because they just aren’t true.

The problem isn’t you. It’s a lack of foundational teaching on where to begin, what a strategy is supposed to even look like, and the why behind your marketing. All too often in the online business space, the terms content strategy and content plan are used interchangeably, but they aren’t the same. And unfortunately, we believe that our content plan.

Is our strategy, hence the disconnect I was feeling with this marketing course I took, I thought I was getting an education on strategy, but all I was learning about was creating a plan. A content plan is simply outlining what you’re going to talk about and when it’s, when you pull up your digital calendar, or if you’re old school like me, you print out a blank calendar and start using that pin rainbow to mark what’s been posted throughout the month.

You assign each platform of color and you decide how often you’re posting each platform. You take that platform’s color and you start marking every time you’ll post a said platform by writing its name on each assigned square, and then you go back in and you assign random topics to each piece of content throughout the month by pulling them out of thin air, rotating from a list that you pop together.

That’s a content plan. It showcases when and where you’re posting and what you’re talking about. When you do post a content strategy, on the other hand, is your overarching guide to what you’re going to create based on data and goals. You have to have an end in mind before you can create your strategy, and you need to understand where you currently sit with your business and your marketing.

For example, maybe you have an offer or product that you’re wanting to sell. You’ll want to have that in mind as you create your content strategy and then content plan. In order to use that information to create your content strategy, you’ll need to understand the action that you want your audience to take.

Purchasing your offer, and you’ll need to understand your messaging in order to guide them through the customer journey that they’ll need to undergo in order to be ready to purchase Chapter nine. We’ll discuss the customer journey in detail, but can you see how there’s more to deciding what to post than just rotating through a list of topics?

You can think of your content strategy as a building support and inner structure while you think of the plan as the design elements of the building. The plan can be beautiful, but without the strategy, the content you put out isn’t likely going to stand up for your business. A strategy is the blueprint and a plan is how you execute said strategy.

But all too often we start with the plan and skip the strategy. So what we’re executing doesn’t mean a whole lot to our businesses, and it doesn’t increase our sales in revenue. It’s important to note that there should always be two parts to your marketing strategy, your nurture strategy, and your growth strategy.

In chapter one, you were introduced to my client, Elise, who was consistently putting out content to nurture her audience, but she wasn’t doing any work to get in front of new audiences because she only had a nurture strategy. She wasn’t seeing growth in her audience size. Both are necessary for a fully functioning marketing strategy.

We’ll start with the nurture strategy is this is where content marketing comes into play with this strategy. The focus is to spend time nurturing your current audience, which means showing up for them consistently, getting value in education, and leading them into your sales processes. Because remember, sales and marketing aren’t the same things when you’re creating and publishing content.

You’re building relationships with your audience members. We’ve talked about the importance of building the no like and trust factor, and building those relationships through your content is a critical piece of every marketing strategy. All of this is critical to your nurture strategy. Within your nurture strategy, you’ll also want to keep in mind that every piece of content you create should have a few things.

One, a purpose. The four main are educating, entertaining, building relationships, or connecting and selling. It’s likely that any given piece of content will have more than one or, or even all four purposes within it. But if it’s not doing any of the above, It’s probably not worth creating for your business.

Two, a strong hook. Our attention spans are short. You’ve got to learn to grab your audience’s attention right from the beginning by making them want more. For example, this book’s very first sentence. I started batching my content because a dog had peed on our carpets. That’s a hook right from the beginning.

It made you go, huh? And wanna keep reading. Three, a call to action or a cta. Every piece of content needs to be created with a specific goal in mind. The key is to choose your call to action before you ever begin writing your content. That way you ensure that you’re writing content that will lead toward that goal.

In order to determine what each of those key pieces of your content strategy should be, you’ll need to know what your goals and purpose are for each piece of content you put out. How do you know what that is? Well, this will vary depending on where you are in your business journey and what your current business goals are.

At first, it may simply be to educate, get your ideas out there and build relationships. Then as you become more concrete in your business and have offers to sell, it’ll be to sell that offer later. You’ll be focused on scaling and really getting people into your email funnels. If this seems overwhelming and we’re unclear right now, don’t worry.

We’ll be covering this in depth in chapter seven, eight, and nine. Not to mention that as you get further into your business, things naturally just become clearer. It doesn’t all need to come together from the beginning, and you don’t need to fully have your strategy mapped out for all the years to come be patient and take things one step at a time.

As we saw with Elise, content marketing cannot exist in a bubble. It’s only one half of a marketing plan. You must also have a growth strategy that gets you in front of new people and brings them into your audience so that you can nurture them. And no content Marketing should not be your growth strategy.

Can it grow your audience? Sure. Virality happens, which brings in new faces. Your audience might love a piece of content and share it, which will lead to growth, but that growth is a byproduct, not a strategy. If you cannot guarantee that a piece of content will be getting you in front of new faces, it’s not part of your growth strategy.

An exception here would be when you’re a first adopter of a new platform, like we talked about back in chapter one. When you hop on early, your likelihood of seeing virality is much higher due to lack of competition. Megan, being an early adopter, a potential growth strategy. What are some other examples of growth strategies?

Well, we covered growth strategies extensively in the last chapter, but as a reminder, some examples would be Pinterest guesting on other podcasts or YouTube shows, guest teaching in membership communities, attending events or conferences where your ideal client is attending, participating in bundles. The common denominator on the vast majority of these, connecting with others in your industry and using those relationships to get in front of their audiences.

Then the goal is to bring those audiences into your own audience so that you can build relationships with them, with your nurture strategy. So how do you determine what your strategies should be? Well, your strategy will look different for each phase of business that you’re in. There are a lot of marketing strategies out there, but they don’t all make sense for every phase of business.

We want to ensure we focus on efforts that will be most effective and worthy of our time, so we can simplify. Therefore, we must look at the three phases of business and determine your strategies based on those faces. And that my friend is where we are going to stop. If you would like to read the rest of chapter six and the remainder of the book where I go in depth about various marketing strategies and how to use them based on where you are at in your business, be sure to head to a mantle warfield.com/book to pre-order chasing symbol marketing.

You can also head straight to Amazon and search for it there and be able to pre-order it there as well. When you pre-order tracing civil marketing, you’ll not only get the first chapter sent right to your email so you can go ahead and start reading, but everyone who pre-orders is also going to get my KPI spreadsheet That will help you track all of the data and information you need to make sure that your content is connected towards your goals and actually moving you towards those goals.

So your book recommendation for this week is Chase and Simple Marketing, and your action step is to go ahead and pre-order by going to Amazon and searching Chase and Simple marketing or heading to amanda warfield.com/book. And until next time, my friend, I hope that you’ll go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all of the resources you need to simplify your marketing [email protected]. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time, not go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.

The post Episode 167: Sneak Peek: A Chapter from Chasing Simple Marketing appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

Join the Book Launch Team for Chasing Simple Marketing: amandawarfield.com/launch-team/

Learn more about grabbing your copy of Chasing Simple Marketing: amandawarfield.com/book/

[00:00:00] How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways and how do I do it? Are launches still a thing and most importantly, How do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome, friend. This is Chasing Simple where Practical Marketing Strategy meets simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. So that they have time [00:01:00] to grow their business, take time off and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one-on-one clients, such as the contract shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or however my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell.

Reading in our hammock, watching Gamecock Sports traveling or forcing our cats to snuggle me. If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simply an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily can suck up their time when what they really wanna be doing is the thing that they started their business to do.

Which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love. Each week, I’ll offer you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free [00:02:00] community to encourage and equip you.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choices, and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips and advice on uncomplicating, your marketing and business. Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? As you can tell from the title of this bonus episode, I have a very exciting announcement for you.

The Launch team application for my upcoming book, chasing Simple Marketing is officially open. And if you haven’t heard the news, I have written a book and it is launching this month, July 26th. Now, this is really exciting because as you know, if you’ve listened to previous events, Previous episodes. I am a huge proponent of batching and I actually batch all of my podcast episodes at least two months in advance.

But for this special bonus episode, because it’s so timely, I am recording [00:03:00] this these same day. It goes live, so it is July 1st as I’m recording this. This never happens and I. Am just in this, this immense state of gratitude, but also surrealness that we are here. This month has been, you know, in my calendar, in my mind, for over a year now.

I started the book writing process, May, 2022. I was at a conference when I started my first mind map and really committed to a specific launch date, which is my 30th birthday coming up later this month because I wanted to have written a book and be published before then. I wanted to have that done by 30, which is definitely an arbitrary goal.

I’ll be really honest. I recognize that, but, It was something that I really wanted to challenge myself to do and to push myself to do. So we are here in launch month and this has been over a year coming and I just. [00:04:00] I can’t believe it truly, it is so surreal, especially because I have just finished this morning making all of the formatting changes to the hard cover and the ebook and the cover should be done.

Monday, hopefully it, there’s like two teeny, teeny, teeny tiny tweaks that need to happen. And so hopefully once those are made by my cover designer, we will be able to put the official stamp of approval on it and get those files ready to go. So we are so close to being done, and that means that we are moving officially into the marketing phase.

There are many different phases to this entire process. You’ve got the writing phase, the revision phase, the publication phase, which is what we are wrapping up now as we’re finishing all of these different [00:05:00] versions and all of the different things that need to be done to, to make them happen. And then you have the.

Marketing phase, and that’s the last official phase. But you’ve also got the actual launch itself, and then you’ve got post-launch marketing, which I’m not gonna get into all of this right now. That’s not the, that’s not the purpose of this episode, but it is really exciting to be moving into that final phase.

And it’s just surreal. It’s so surreal. So that brings me to the purpose of this episode. As we move into this final phase, as we move into launch month, I need your help. I cannot launch this thing on my own. And this book, this project has been the most collaborative project that I have. Ever done in my business or really anywhere.

And so we’re going to just continue that trend and I am going [00:06:00] to ask that if you are someone who is really, really excited about this book coming out, I would love to have you as part of the launch team. So what does that mean? What does the launch team do? Well, If you’ve never been part of a book launch team before, the purpose is simply to help spread the word about the book and also to help get reviews on places like Amazon and Goodreads.

That’s the main goal is let’s get as many people aware of this book as possible. And like I said, I cannot do it alone, which is where the launch team comes in. So my big ask for everyone on the launch team is that you pre-order that physical copy of the book, that hard cover, and then. Everyone on the launch team who pre-orders will also be sent a version of their choosing audio or ebook so that they can immediately dive in.

That way when launch day comes around July 26th, you’ll be able to [00:07:00] actually leave. An accurate and real review of the book because the hard cover, the physical copy, it won’t actually ship until launch day. And so in order to make sure that you have time to leave that review and actually read the book and take it in, you can either get the audiobook or the ebook and you’ll be able to choose whichever one is best for you.

You’ll just let me know that when we communicate once I’ve accepted you onto the launch team. So that’s all you have to do. Pre-ordering your physical copy and then committing to either reading or listening, whichever your choice is, and leaving a review on launch day, which is July 26th. Now, if there are any other ways that you would be willing to support the launch, I would be eternally grateful.

However, those are not required to be part of the team. So I wanted to put this invitation out to you. If you would like to be part of the launch team, just head to Amanda warfield.com/launch team. Again, amanda warfield.com/launch team and fill out the form. It’s just [00:08:00] a few quick questions, and again, Alls you have to be willing to do is to pre-order that physical copy and then leave a review.

So I would be just, oh, so grateful If you would join me in this. If you believe in the message of simplifying your marketing and the necessity of simplifying your marketing, and you wanna help spread the word about how we can do that to other entrepreneurs, I would love for you to come join me on the launch team.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all of the resources you need to simplify your marketing [email protected]. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never missed an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time. Now, go out and uncomplicate your marketing and [00:09:00] business.

The post BONUS: Join the Launch Team for Chasing Simple Marketing appeared first on Amanda Warfield.