Chasing Simple Marketing for Entrepreneurs

If social media feels overwhelming right now, you aren’t alone. The constant refrain that I’m hearing is that business owners just don’t know what to do about social media. It’s become overwhelming, it’s harder to see results … it’s just one more thing on top of a lot of other things.

So today I wanted to take you behind the scenes of a social media strategy that you can steal and use for your own business. One that will hopefully make your social media efforts a little more clear.

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]!

If social media feels overwhelming right now, you aren’t alone. Constant reframe that I’m hearing is that business owners just don’t know what to do about social media. It’s become overwhelming. It’s harder to see results. It’s just one more thing on top of a lot of other things. So today I wanted to take you behind the scenes of a social media strategy that you can steal and use for your own business.

One that will hopefully make your social media efforts a little more clear. You’re listening to episode 204 of the Chase In 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? 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 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 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 want to 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 bring 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? There are a lot of different marketing strategies out there.

From content, to networking, to speaking, to ads, and so many more. And with so many different marketing strategies, it’s easy to find yourself hopping from one to the next. without seeing results. Especially when you see other entrepreneurs getting results from their marketing strategies, when you aren’t seeing any from your own.

And after hearing from listener after listener wondering which marketing strategy they should focus on, I decided to create a quiz to help you narrow down Which strategies will be best for you based on your current phase of business. Head to amandawarfield. com slash quiz to take it. Learn where you should focus your marketing energy and start seeing results from your marketing.

Again, that’s amandawarfield. com / quiz. I want to start this episode off by just giving the reminder that your social media is marketing. But marketing is not social media. I was at a conference recently, and I noticed that a lot of the attendees referred to their social media as their marketing.

And when asked about their marketing strategy, all they talked about was social media. And when asked about their social media, they referred to it as marketing. And It’s kind of like the square and the rectangle, right? We learned that a rectangle is not a square. But a square is a rectangle. I might have that backwards, but you get the analogy, you know what I mean?

So I just want to throw that out there that yes, social media is a part of your marketing It should be a part of your marketing strategy in some way most likely depending on your ideal client and all of that, but This should not be the end all be all of your marketing and if it is I really really really encourage you To go take the quiz on my website If you just go to amandawarfield.

com slash quiz That’ll give you some ideas on some other ways that you can market your business outside of social media And this is because we don’t want social media to be our end all be all focus when it comes to our marketing It is a great tool But it’s not the best use of your marketing time and your marketing energy.

So, if you are spending all of your marketing time and energy on social media, you’re doing yourself a massive disservice. And this is because only 10 percent of your audience sees any given post that you put out there on social media. Right? Only 10%. So, if you have a thousand followers, only a hundred of them are going to see any given post.

And this is because the algorithm, well, it wasn’t made to help you. The platform is there to make money for itself. That is it. They really don’t care whether or not your content gets shown to your audience. They want you to pay them to show it to more people. And so we want to make sure that we’re spending our marketing time and efforts primarily on efforts that are actually going to be worth the time and the effort.

But how do we do that? Where are the efforts that are worth that time? Instead of spending our time and effort on a platform that is going to give us so little return, where, where should we be focusing? Honestly, I think your biggest focus, the best use of your marketing time is your email list. Because every single person that you email, they’re going to see that email.

That doesn’t mean they’ll open it. They may simply just hit delete, but they’re at least seeing your name in their inbox, which is bringing you top of mind. Plus emails convert three times higher than social media. So when you have a post that says click here and you have an email that says click here, three times more people are going to click the link in the email versus the one on social media.

So, if you only have 100 people on your email list, and you have 1000 people on social media, you may think, okay, well, more people on social media, it’s worth more of my time, but if only 10 percent of your audience is seeing any given post, so 100, that’s 100 versus 100, and then you’ve got the statistic of, okay, but email actually converged three times higher.

Well, it makes it pretty clear that email is much more worth your time. More people are going to see what you send them, there are better conversions, which means more money. The math just maths, right? However, that doesn’t mean that I think you should completely ignore social media, unless you just truly don’t have the capacity because, listen, I’m here to encourage simplicity, not best practices, right?

But I think that utilizing social media Can be a really strategic part of your marketing strategy as a whole. I think that it is a great place to show up consistently. That doesn’t mean show up to best practices, but show up so people see your face, right? I think it’s great to try to build engagement there.

I think it’s a great place for building Relationships because you do see people’s faces. I just don’t think it should be where you’re spending the majority of your time So what’s the strategy your strategy for social media should be to drive to your email list? Now if you’ve listened to other episodes of mine, you know that a content strategy and a content plan are two very different things So the strategy itself is to drive to the email list, but what’s the plan?

How do you do that? Well, the plan that I would suggest that you steal from this episode is to post once a week talking about your opt in, talking about your freebie, talking about a really low ticket offer, whatever your opt in is. And then, if you’ve got long form content, post once a week talking about your long form content.

And then, if you’re only posting twice a week, That’s enough. If you are consistently posting twice a week and you’ve got one that’s Sending people to your long form content and one that’s sending them to an opt in you are driving people To the places that you can most strategically drive them So that would be my recommendation for a strategy and a plan and if you’re like that sounds great I don’t even have the capacity to do social media you could book one of my repurposing VIP days where I take your long form content and I turn it into emails and social media captions for you So then you can just copy paste and you know That that content is driving strategically to the long form content you’re putting out and if you’re talking about opt ins in your long form content It’s gonna drive to those as well So if you’d like to check that out, I’ll link in the show notes but that’s a great way if you’re like, I just don’t have the capacity to Handle this myself, but I like the idea of posting twice a week once to long form content once to an opt in Then I can help you out with that.

But if you’re like, yeah, I’ve got the capacity I can do this. What are the tools? So I personally use mini chat and plan for my social media tools So mini chat is an automation tool and this actually makes it so much easier to get conversions Right now on social media and you’ve probably seen this in action where someone says, Hey Here’s this thing I have or here’s this podcast episode or this YouTube video comment this thing below and I’ll send you the link Mini chat is the automation tool that makes that possible so if you’re using this plan and this strategy to drive to your email list and You’re posting once a week about long form content and then you’re saying hey comment this specific word or phrase below, and I’ll send you the link to this episode, and then someone comments it, and then automatically in their DMs, Minichat is sending them from you a, Hey, I’m so glad you were ready to listen to this episode.

Here’s the link to it. They’re more likely to click it, and it’s a timely thing, it helps them get that content faster, and it makes them more likely to click through versus, hey, go to the link in my bio, right? Same thing with your opt ins. If you say, hey, here’s this freebie I have, comment this thing below and, um, I’ll send you the link to it.

Same thing, it shows up in their DMs. It is such a great tool. I use this with clients, I use this myself. It’s not a free tool, but it’s something that you can play around with and see if it’s something that you would like to check out. And I’ll link to that in the show notes. The other social media tool is Plan.

P L A N N. I like to use this for all of my social media scheduling because it’s got everything it’s got. You can link to your LinkedIn, you can link to your Pinterest, you can link to your Instagram, your Facebook, all of it. And I was already paying for something for Pinterest specifically, so I transitioned over to this so that I could do Pinterest and all of the other things in one place.

If you just do not have the funds, which I’ll link a plan in the show notes as well, and you can check it out if you want, but if you truly just don’t have the funds and you’re not worried about Pinterest at this point, Meta Business Suite is free. I cannot recommend it enough. I used it for. So long for Instagram content for scheduling it out.

And all you have to do is set it up with your Facebook page and connect your Facebook page to your Instagram. So Meta business suite is a really amazing free tool for getting things scheduled, cannot recommend it enough. Now, the other tools that you’re going to need for this strategy is some kind of.

Email list platform. I personally use Cartra. I Really really really love Cartra, but if you do not sell digital products, and you don’t sell Courses you don’t have a membership. It may be a little too powerful for you at this time I’ll link to it down below just so you can check it out if you’d like if you are someone that’s like oh and all In one would be really great but for A lot of listeners and maybe too powerful, in which case I would recommend either mailer light or flow desk, which I’ll link again.

All of these will be linked in the show notes, but mailer light is where I started out. They have a free version, which is a great way to start out as you’re just very beginning to build your email list. Obviously it’s very basic, but Hey, it’ll get your emails out there for you. However, if you have the budget for something.

You know, a little nicer. I would actually suggest Flowdesk. I wish Flowdesk had been a thing when I first started, honestly, the emails are beautiful. They’re always adding new things and I, I use it with many clients and I love the backend. It’s great to work with their analytics. Aren’t my favorite, but again, for just starting out and not needing an all in one tool, it is absolutely amazing.

So. You need some way to schedule your content, your social media, and you need some way to send emails. So those are the two big categories of tools that you want to look for, and then some examples of what I use for myself, what I’ve used in the past, what I use for clients, that I would actually really recommend.

Now, if you’re like, okay, this sounds great, but like, oh my gosh, an email list, that just sounds like so much. If you need help focusing on your email list, come join us inside of Chase and Simple Marketing in the community. We have a quarter’s worth of content on creating a lead magnet that converts to sales.

So if you don’t have a freebie yet, I can help walk you through exactly what you need to do to create a lead magnet that’s actually going to convert to sales for your offer. Plus we have a quarter’s worth of content about setting up your email list and getting started. And the best part, you can use code listener to get your first month free.

So if you had to amandawarfield. com slash community, or you click the link in the show notes, you will be able to sign up and get that first month free. Now your action step for this week choose an email list platform if you don’t have one yet You don’t have to do anything else. Just choose one again I would recommend card draw flow desk or mail or light you can check out all three of those in the show notes but choose one and then go ahead and You know, get yourself set up on there so that you can start building a list.

Now this week’s book recommendation is The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth. I gotta be totally honest, I, I think I may need to just skip, skip ahead because I don’t remember anything about this book, but I rated it really highly, so I really liked it at the time. Um, this is what happens when you read 150 books a year.

It’s a problem. But, The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth, if you’re looking for a book that you just want to add to your, um, to be read list, it’s a great one. I believe it is, um, like a psycho thriller. I don’t know if thriller is the right word. Um, I don’t know if that’s how they really classify the genre, but that’s how I would classify it.

It’s like a psychothriller. Like, it’s twisty. You’re always like, what’s actually going on? Um, unreliable narrator, maybe, but that’s all I really remember about it. So if you like that type of book. This is a great one for you, and I’ll link to that in the show notes. All right, friends, and 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 the resources you need to simplify your marketing over at amandawarfield. com. 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 204: Steal This Social Media Strategy appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

I’m going to be really honest with you. For the last year or so, I’ve had thoughts about potentially starting a YouTube channel, but each time I began to truly think about it I pushed the idea away, because frankly? YouTube is a LOT of work. And I want to keep things as simple as possible for myself.

However, I know it’s a deeply powerful marketing platform, so even though I wasn’t convinced it was for me, I wanted YOU to hear more about how to leverage it for yourself. Which is why I brought on today’s guest – LaShonda.

LaShonda Brown is an award-winning Tech Educator, YouTube Coach and Speaker based in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of VA. Through her YouTube channel, Bootstrap Biz Advice, her membership, and her virtual workshops, LaShonda teaches service providers how to leverage tech and YouTube to increase traffic to their offers, generate passive income and partner with brands.

However. As you’ll see in today’s episode … the way LaShonda teaches about YouTube and how it can be done simply? Well, she might just have changed my mind about starting my own channel.

LaShonda Brown is an award-winning Tech Educator, YouTube Coach and Speaker based in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of VA. Through her YouTube channel, Bootstrap Biz Advice, her membership, and her virtual workshops, LaShonda teaches service providers how to leverage tech and YouTube to increase traffic to their offers, generate passive income and partner with brands. LaShonda believes there is no shame in bootstrapping and her content will help you keep your expenses low and your profit margin high while you DIY. LaShonda heavily advocates for sustainable, healthy rhythms in business and is most well known for her 20-Hour Work Week practice that’s built on the foundation of deep focus work and a mindful morning routine. In 2022, LaShonda became one of the first 25 Canva Verified Experts in the world. In addition to training organizations of all sizes about Canva, LaShonda serves as an instructor for the email service provider, Flodesk inside of Flodesk University.

Social Links:

http://www.lashondabrown.com

http://www.youtube.com/lashondambrown

www.instagram.com/lashondambrown

www.linkedin.com/in/lashondabrown/

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

Amanda Warfield: I’m going to be really honest with you. For the last year or so, I’ve had thoughts about potentially starting a YouTube channel, but each time I began to truly think about it, I just pushed the idea away because, frankly, YouTube is a lot of work, and I want to keep things as simple as possible for myself.

Amanda Warfield: However, I know it’s a deeply powerful marketing platform. So even though I wasn’t convinced that it was for me, I wanted you to hear more about how to leverage it for yourself. If you so chose to, which is why I brought on today’s guest, LaShonda. LaShonda Brown is an award winning tech educator, YouTube coach and speaker based in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia through her YouTube channel, Bootstrap Biz Advice, her membership and her virtual workshops.

Amanda Warfield: Lashonda teaches service providers how to leverage tech and YouTube to increase traffic to their offers, generate passive income, and partner with brands. However, as you’ll see in today’s episode, the way Lashonda teaches about YouTube and how it can be done simply Well, she just might have changed my mind about starting my own channel.

Amanda Warfield: You’re listening to episode 203 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.

LaShonda Brown: How 

Amanda Warfield: 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?

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 you can suck up their time when what they really want to be doing is 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 uncomplicating your marketing and business.

Amanda Warfield: Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? There are a lot of different marketing strategies out there, from content to networking to speaking to ads and so many more. And with so many different marketing strategies, it’s easy to find yourself hopping from one to the next. Without seeing results, especially when you see other entrepreneurs getting results from their marketing strategies when you aren’t seeing any from your own.

Amanda Warfield: And after hearing from listener after listener, wondering which marketing strategy they should focus on, I decided to create a quiz to help you narrow down which strategies will be best for you. based on your current phase of business. Head to amandawarfield. com slash quiz to take it, learn where you should focus your marketing energy, and start seeing results from your marketing.

Amanda Warfield: Again, that’s amandawarfield. com slash quiz. Lashonda, I’m so excited to finally have you on. It’s funny, we had talked before we hit record where last year I was supposed to have you on and we just weren’t able to make schedules connect and, um, it just kind of feels Serendipitous that it didn’t happen until this year, but man, I’m so excited to have you on.

Amanda Warfield: Can you please tell everyone a little bit about who you are and what you do and who you serve? 

LaShonda Brown: So my name is LaShonda and I am a tech educator, a YouTube coach, and a speaker. And if you had asked me that last year, I probably would have had a completely different intro. So I’m really excited to kind of double down on the fact that not only do I use YouTube for my business, but I have a means to coach people on how to do it in the way that I’m doing it.

LaShonda Brown: And so in this season, I find myself really helping service providers. Who are burnt out actively promoting their business and teaching them passive ways to do it. You know, when I think of active marketing, I think of constant posting on platforms like Instagram or tick tock. And so I’m trying to show people how to create a passive income engine by leveraging technology and YouTube.

LaShonda Brown: And so I am kind of my own case. I’ve been doing it for myself, and now I’ve tested things and done it enough that I can duplicate that process for other people. And so it’s a really exciting season to see who I get to help and what challenges they have. But ultimately, I am probably one of the biggest hype girls for YouTube because it truthfully has changed my life.

LaShonda Brown: Okay, so let’s talk 

Amanda Warfield: about what it is that you’re current. overall content strategy is. So you mentioned Instagram, TikTok, outside of YouTube, what are you doing to market your business? 

LaShonda Brown: Yeah, so honestly, I had this conversation with my husband the other night and it was like, I feel like What you do can’t really be called marketing because it doesn’t look like what other people do and I think ultimately I’m such a community builder That it’s almost like I lean more into Relationship building and then people buy what I’m selling.

LaShonda Brown: I am NOT someone that is constantly nickel and diming people or pushing products because ultimately I My primary customer is the tech company trying to connect with entrepreneurs. So if entrepreneurs didn’t buy anything from me, I would be completely fine. And the first year I did YouTube, I didn’t sell anything.

LaShonda Brown: I needed a break from it. I didn’t want to launch anything. So for one full calendar year. I was a full time YouTuber, not selling to my students. And so once I did my research and kind of learned what they needed and how they wanted to learn, then I could start testing out different strategies and say, okay, well, are workshops a good fit or do we need to do one on one?

LaShonda Brown: Is a group setting better? And so ultimately this year I’ve really settled on a really solid business model. And so my community. They can be mobilized to do pretty much anything. So I communicate primarily to them through email, um, but then sometimes, you know, they’ll message me in the DMs on Instagram, but it’s hysterical because I archive so much content on Instagram.

LaShonda Brown: I have, like, 15 posts and it’s, it’s so funny because I just remember when, like, I was wanting, oh, I should have over a thousand posts. Like, I really should be creating and creating and creating. And so ultimately at this point. I try to park as much content as possible on YouTube because when I post there I get paid to post versus platforms like Instagram, you know, it’s a hope and a prayer, but there’s no guarantee to being paid.

Amanda Warfield: Okay. So interesting. So you’ve archived a ton of your stuff on Instagram. What made you decide to do that? What was the decision factor around that? 

LaShonda Brown: So my Instagram profile is more of a portfolio of sponsored content at this point. There’s a couple posts on there that weren’t paid. But ultimately, when a brand goes to my Instagram, what I want them to see is past activations.

LaShonda Brown: Because I’m not really trying to Reach my target market through my feed content. I’m reaching them through live streaming on YouTube through Instagram stories through ads. And so my primary feed isn’t actually for them, but it’s also a really good example of. How I can help my students to partner with brands, because clearly I am partnered with them and you can see it in plain sight.

LaShonda Brown: And so I just switched my focus. Like, the feed is not really for communication with my audience. It’s a showcase of the past partnerships that I’ve done and different strategies that I’ve implemented. So I can refer back to it and say, hey, guys. Here’s a strategy that you can do versus, you know, hoping that every single post will convert for me.

LaShonda Brown: That’s not really the point. So it takes a lot of pressure off Instagram. I tried to delete the platform and, uh, within a month of saying that I gained like a thousand followers and I’m like, this. This is so ironic, like, I just, I tell Instagram, I’m breaking up with you and then here you go growing. So at the end of the day, it’s, it’s a community platform.

LaShonda Brown: It’s how I engage with my audience because YouTube doesn’t have a direct message feature. And it’s also something that I will bundle with a YouTube video as a way to make additional revenue when I do sponsor content. Oh, 

Amanda Warfield: man. Okay. I feel like we need to have you back on again later this year to talk about sponsored content because that’s a whole other topic that I would 

LaShonda Brown: love to get into.

LaShonda Brown: Oh, that’s a whole thing. Yes. And I, and I think too, I, I think there’s so much bad press. For brands, not, you know, compensating creators fairly. And I think it’s less about the brands giving the correct amount of money to the creators as it is. The creators don’t know what to negotiate for, and they don’t know that you can negotiate.

LaShonda Brown: Um, and so I think that ultimately. Having those negotiation skills from my past career as a corporate film producer, like I go into these meetings, knowing what to look for, knowing what to ask for, knowing that I’m the one with the leverage because they reached out to me. And so I put a lot of effort into those emails and those calls.

LaShonda Brown: And so when I show up for my audience, it’s like, this is just fun. Let’s just have a good time. And so it takes so much of that pressure off because the people with. Money, you know, at the tech companies are the people that I’m putting, you know, the bulk of my brain power into. And then when I look over at my students, I can just serve.

LaShonda Brown: I can be responsive to where they are in the moment. And I don’t have to worry about, you know, is there a trip wire attached to that? You know, how am I funneling them into anything? It’s just, what do you need? Am I a good fit? Great. Awesome. If not, here’s somebody you should reach out to. I love how simple that makes 

Amanda Warfield: your whole business strategy.

Amanda Warfield: Yeah. Well, definitely after we finish recording, we’ll talk about having you back on because I think this would be a great conversation, but I don’t want to get too far down a rabbit hole with that. Circling back to your Instagram strategy. DMs and Instagram stories. You said that most of your content lives on YouTube, that you’re not really, you’re only doing sponsored content on the feed.

Amanda Warfield: So what is your Instagram strategy currently? 

LaShonda Brown: Yeah. So, I mean, I just have a very simple strategy when it comes to deciding what to post and when to show up. You know, I kind of made this decision for myself that it’s either I’m talking about You know, the Lord, or I’m talking about tech. It’s like God or tech.

LaShonda Brown: And I just think the reason why I wanted to lean into that more is because, you know, it’s such a huge part of my success in business that I think in the past, I really didn’t know how to incorporate it. And so really sharing my faith and encouraging people with that during a time where so many people are.

LaShonda Brown: You know, discourage and dejected is really important to me. But at the same time, you know, I want to provide people with practical solutions. You know, what can you actively do to help propel your business forward? And so, you know, when I do these sponsored posts, it’s not just an ad. I have managed to figure out how to do a 60 second vertical testimonial.

LaShonda Brown: And so the reason why these brands are paying for it is they’re like, okay, you’re not just using B roll with text on it. Like you are literally teaching in 60 seconds and you’re funneling people to the long form content to say, Hey, if you enjoyed this, let’s dig in deeper on YouTube. And so I think. My approach to always leaning into how can I provide value with this piece of content?

LaShonda Brown: If even if you didn’t leave the platform, I want it to be beneficial to you. I have done some very simple, you know, what did the calm low lift or low effort reels. For the purpose of funneling people into my free workshops, because I know that I convert a lot of free workshop attendees into members and my membership.

LaShonda Brown: And so again, it’s that mindset of like, okay, fine. I’ll play the game. I’ll do the little 7 second reel that loops with the trending audio just to get you. To opt into my email list to sign up for the free workshop and to get into my ecosystem where I can talk to you directly. And so, you know, I have done that periodically for workshop promotions.

LaShonda Brown: That’s probably the only time that you’re going to see me just creating content from scratch that I wasn’t paid to create. Um, but ultimately I will be paid to create it by getting them on the list and getting them in the workshop and signing up for affiliates and all of that. And so I just think that.

LaShonda Brown: What I have managed to create after a decade in business is a business model that is built on a foundation of ease. You know, I don’t like friction in business. If I ever run into something that is like, things aren’t working, or it just feels like I’m putting so much effort into it with low return. I just let it go because I only work 20 hours a week.

LaShonda Brown: So it’s really easy for me to decide, like, is this worth it? Because if it literally takes up too much of my time. I have to cut it in order to make room for things that will make the money. So having those boundaries and having those guardrails has been awesome. And ironically enough, only working four days allows me to do other things that stimulates me creatively.

LaShonda Brown: And so I have time to kind of recharge. Because it’s four days on, three days off, and that works really well for me. So 

Amanda Warfield: everything that, you know, that I teach, all of the premises of my entire business is also that simplicity, that how do we make it so that our business strategy, our marketing strategy, everything is as simple as possible.

Amanda Warfield: So I really love what you’re doing. I know that there are two things that I think the listeners are going to bump up against as far as things not feeling simple. And I’d love your take on them. The first being that transition from I’m spending all of my time marketing on Instagram, I’m over it, there’s no reach, but I don’t know how to get out of that.

Amanda Warfield: So what is, how do we make that transition from social media focus to YouTube, longer form content? How do we do that in the simplest way possible? But then also, YouTube is the most time consuming and most intensive form of long form content. How do we keep that as simple as possible? 

LaShonda Brown: So the simple answer is StreamYard.

LaShonda Brown: And I’m like, StreamYard just sponsored me already the amount of times that I dropped their name. Oh, my, but here’s the thing. StreamYard is a tool that allows you to live stream to YouTube. And even when you think about the concept of live streaming for some people, that feels super overwhelming. But you have to think of it as you’re able to edit your content as you create it.

LaShonda Brown: And what’s wonderful is it has three features. You can go live. And you can multistream it to LinkedIn, to Instagram, to YouTube, Facebook, what have you. But you can also just use the recording studio. So the same tools that you have if you go live, you could just use the tool and record the video file on your computer.

LaShonda Brown: And then the third feature of StreamRite that I love is the webinar feature. And so For me personally, having a single tool that I can use if I need to record a video file, if I want to go live, and if I want to teach in a workshop helps me to get super comfortable with that tool where I can learn, you know, okay, I can create little video clips in Canva to kind of break up the content, or I can add pop up graphics directly in the editor.

LaShonda Brown: I can add music while I’m speaking directly in the tool. And so, so many of the Editing issues that people have, it completely goes away with that particular tool, because it’s kind of like an all in one solution. The reason why I suggest live streaming is because for so many people, even if it’s one other person, there’s so much more engaging when they know they’re talking to someone versus just talking to the camera.

LaShonda Brown: I’ve gotten so desensitized to it at this point. I’m like, I’m used to talking to myself. I do it every day. But for the vast majority of people, they’re used to, at least, if they’re on a Zoom call, they’re talking to at least one other person. And so if that helps you to appear more natural on camera, then invite your community.

LaShonda Brown: That’s why, that’s one of the reasons why I live stream every Monday at 10. Because if I’m really busy, that one live stream can be my weekly upload to YouTube for the week. It gives me a chance to engage with my email list, engage with my community. And create for the platform, and I can go back and optimize it just like I would a feed video.

LaShonda Brown: So I think that so many people have this perception that YouTube is such a time suck, and they don’t think about how much time they’re actually spending on Instagram. Like, I’m willing to bet, track yourself. If you have an iPhone, go in and see how many hours, because I know it’s plural. How many hours are you spending on Instagram every single week?

LaShonda Brown: When I go live at this point, I probably prepped 10 to 15 minutes before. 945. I’m in there. Okay. What are my points? Let me load those in. I can literally get my content created in an hour and a half every week. Are you spending more than an hour and a half on Instagram? And so it’s really just you have to, you have to get over your preconceived notions and find educators that are willing to teach you different approaches.

LaShonda Brown: To what you’ve always ruled out as an option. Okay, 

Amanda Warfield: so interesting. So you’re going live on Instagram 

LaShonda Brown: each week, each Monday? Is that right? So I’m going live on YouTube. So if I have a, if I have a sponsored live stream, which I do a sponsored live stream at least once a month, then I’ll go live on LinkedIn and on YouTube at the same time.

LaShonda Brown: I will say I have gone live on Instagram and It’s okay, but the better experience is if you’re on YouTube watching it. That’s the primary platform that I suggest people watch the lives on. Okay, so you’re going 

Amanda Warfield: live on YouTube once a week and that is sometimes, maybe often, you’re, you then take that and turn that into an evergreen video.

Amanda Warfield: Correct. 

LaShonda Brown: Yeah. As soon as it ends, it becomes a video on my page and the same views that I got while it was streaming live apply to that video and they continue to grow. 

Amanda Warfield: So, let me ask you this. Do you find that. Do you do any, like, producted videos? Let me ask you that 

LaShonda Brown: 1st. Oh, yeah. So a lot a lot of the pre recorded videos that I do are sponsored at this point.

LaShonda Brown: If I do a pre recorded video, that isn’t sponsored. It’s because someone in my membership has had a question. And I’m like, okay, if you had that question, five other people have that question and it’ll probably be well on YouTube. So let me spend the time, film the content and have our team edit it. But yeah, I mean, you can, I have a friend of mine who I convinced to start posting on YouTube, who was a huge TikTok, um, influencer and she just posts vertical content.

LaShonda Brown: Like you don’t have to even, long form is an option of YouTube. It’s not the only function of it. So you could literally do 30 to 60 seconds. Vertical content. You could be reposting what you post on Instagram. So there’s just a lot of different options available. And at the end of the day. It’s the platform that compensates creators the most fairly of all of the different social media options.

LaShonda Brown: So if you want to be paid to post and paid to market your business, it’s the way to go. 

Amanda Warfield: Okay, so you’re doing both live and kind of productive quote unquote videos. Do you find that there’s a difference analytics wise in the, the views, how long someone watches between the two different 

LaShonda Brown: types? So the live streams definitely have a longer watch time, which is very interesting because the production value is a lot lower.

LaShonda Brown: So I do see longer watch time with the live streams. The CPM is lower on live streams, but it’s not that different. It’s about 5 off for me. Um, so in terms of AdSense revenue, not that different. Um, YouTube does promote live streams differently than feed content. So. I’m way more likely to get thousands of views on a feed video than a live stream.

LaShonda Brown: But at the same time, you can go back in and you can optimize your content with your tags and keywords and whatnot. So after it’s over, you can still treat it like a feed video. So I, I think in a lot of ways, The live streams are kind of this untapped territory as well, because there’s still so few people doing it.

LaShonda Brown: Right. And so to be able to say, you know, once a week, if you have questions for me, just hop on my life and you can ask me live. There’s something about being able to engage with your audience in real time that just shortens the sales cycle. You know, because people are like, Oh, like I can trust her. Like there’s no editing.

LaShonda Brown: There’s, you know, if I have a question in the moment, she can answer it. And it’s just so much more authentic and genuine. And so I think. What’s really happening in online marketing across the board is people are just so tired of the smokescreens like they want real, they want honest, they want ethical and so those are the types of values that are communicated when you’re willing to be vulnerable and just show up live, and I’ve noticed as a speaker.

LaShonda Brown: I’ve become a better speaker live streaming more because it’s, I’m basically, I’ve got a stage every week, you know, and so I’m able to really refine my messaging and I learn how to think on the spot. I learned how to handle, you know, things going wrong because inevitably things happen. And so I just think it’s a good training ground for anybody who’s an online educator because.

LaShonda Brown: If you’re just waiting around for a summit or a conference to have an opportunity to speak, you know, you’re not going to hone those skills as fast as if you’re showing up on a regular basis on YouTube. 

Amanda Warfield: Absolutely. Okay, so Lynn, you mentioned that you prep your content about like 10 to 15 minutes before.

Amanda Warfield: Yeah. Do you, Have set topics each week or is it kind of a free for all people come and ask questions? Is it a mix? What does that look like? How do you decide what 

LaShonda Brown: you’re talking about? I did a lot of experimenting last year and I think the sweet spot for me is to have a general topic, you know, create that thumbnail, create a title, a very brief description about, hey, we’re going to be going over this.

LaShonda Brown: Um, I’ve heard someone call it a listicle, which I’m like, I never heard of that before, but like, you know, five things, three things, four things. So I usually have at least three points on the given topic at that time. And so I’ll get on, you know, say hello to people, do a little housekeeping, kind of an update on what’s happening with my brand.

LaShonda Brown: Then I transitioned to a time of education and then I go to the comments. And so the live stream can be anywhere 30 minutes to an hour, but no longer than an hour. Um, and so I just kind of block out 10 to 1, uh, 10 to 11. And it’s interesting because sometimes people will just ask you questions and like the Q and a becomes like a whole nother session in and of itself.

LaShonda Brown: And what I love about that is my editor can go in and, you know, she can take out, you know, me saying the question, the answering the question, and then that’s really good LinkedIn content. It can be repurposed as a clip, you know, in an Instagram story. So in my mind, You know, YouTube, especially my YouTube live streams, that’s like top of funnel for content creation for me.

LaShonda Brown: You know, here’s a bunch of content. Here’s me talking for 30 minutes to an hour. Hopefully you can, you know, glean two or three clips from this, and then we can utilize that to market various things throughout the week. Man, this, 

Amanda Warfield: I gotta be honest. I have been very, I would never do YouTube and I am. You’re changing my 

LaShonda Brown: mind.

LaShonda Brown: It sounds a lot. Well, and here’s the thing. It’s funny because I, I may have shot myself in the foot because I say all day long that courses are dead. And yet in the back of my mind, I’m like, dang, I need to make a course about how I left straight. Like, you know what I mean? It’s like, I say they’re dying.

LaShonda Brown: But so maybe I could come up with a different approach. Maybe it’s a challenge. Maybe it’s a boot camp. But to be honest with you, I, I think that’s what’s been leveling the playing field for my membership. Like, they do not have time to be editing this content, you know, and so I think the idea. Of being able to use a tool that’s very similar, a very similar vibe to zoom.

LaShonda Brown: You know, if you can teach a workshop on zoom, you can use StreamYard. A tool that is not so overwhelming that they can create that content. They can get it out on a regular basis. Time block it out. Batch their content. It’s just a dream, right? And so, yes, you can hire editors and, and you can edit yourself.

LaShonda Brown: But I think. When it comes down to it, you have to just get started because everybody, I think some people say it takes up to like a hundred videos to hit your stride. I think that’s a lie. I’ll be honest with you. I think if you have help, if you have a coach, I would hope to think you’re not just doing a shotgun approach for a hundred videos before things take off.

LaShonda Brown: Um, but at the same time, you just have to do it. You know, you have to build up that muscle. It gets easier over time. You get better and better. I look at live streams from four months ago and I’m like, ugh, you know, I’ve gotten so much better. And so you just have to be open to saying every video I’m going to show up a little bit better than the last one.

LaShonda Brown: And just keep posting. Nobody’s going to be digging in the depths forever. So just keep going. 

Amanda Warfield: Okay, so that brings up a really interesting point, though, that I want to make sure we hit, is the, the idea of starting over, I think, is what is keeping people attached to Instagram for so long. I think they’re like, but I have an audience here, but I have a community 

LaShonda Brown: here.

LaShonda Brown: But do you? Are they engaged? 

Amanda Warfield: That. But then also, we all know how hard it is to get people off of Instagram. So. What would you say, how do you handle the starting fresh? You’re like, okay, I’m gonna start posting on YouTube, I’m gonna go live, but I don’t have an audience there. What do you say to that? How do you 

LaShonda Brown: start building that audience?

LaShonda Brown: So this is a really good question. I’m actually working on, uh, formulating a workshop 1k subscribers. Because I feel like, once you get over that hump of having at least a thousand, obviously you would, if you have 4, 000 watch hours, you would qualify for monetization. But I think it’s a mental thing. We only have a few hundred followers on any platform, it’s kind of like Uh, it’s just not where I wanted to be, but if you can get at least a thousand, you know, then it’s like, okay, not so bad.

LaShonda Brown: And so I think When it comes down to it, a lot of people don’t like the idea of starting from zero, but many of us have an audience somewhere, right? You either have an email list, you have an Instagram following, like, if you’re in business in 2024, I’m sure you have an audience on some platform. And so ultimately.

LaShonda Brown: The most important thing I can communicate is you can entice people to leave whatever platform they’re on and go where you want them to go. Just like you would, if you were launching a product when you launch a course, you’re driving traffic from Instagram to teachable or Instagram to Kajabi or whatever you’re using.

LaShonda Brown: So we understand the concept. A funneling traffic to a location, but we don’t make it enticing enough for people to leave where they are to go to YouTube. We just go like, oh, new YouTube video. Oh, starting a YouTube channel and you have to think about starting your YouTube channel like a launch. There has to be some type of excitement.

LaShonda Brown: Some type of incentive because you’re asking people to use one more app and subscribe to one more thing. And so, again, just like you would launch a digital product or, you know, a course, you need to launch your YouTube channel and you need to continue. To update people about your milestones, about your wins.

LaShonda Brown: About comments, people are leaving on your content that’s performing well. And so I just think ultimately it comes down to just having a launch mindset with your channel and not just treating it as yet another profile because, you know, I had a linkedin profile for years that was freaking dormant because I thought as an entrepreneur, I.

LaShonda Brown: What do I need LinkedIn for? I’m my own boss, but I made one when I was in college because that’s what you did to find jobs. And so now that I realize that LinkedIn is like the new business Facebook, I circled back and for months I’ve had to post engaging content to tell the algorithm that I’m actually posting and that page isn’t dead.

LaShonda Brown: And so it’s just important to just think about how can I encourage people, not just. Oh, hey, go consume more content somewhere. Why should they, you know, position it in such a way where it’s like, Hey, you know, I’m doing a, a five day video course on X, Y, Z. And it’s hosted on YouTube. You know what I mean?

LaShonda Brown: Like it’s all about positioning. It’s all about having a launch mindset, but I think the biggest problem why people start YouTube channels that never grow is they think, Oh, well, if I just start one, people will come and that’s just not how it works. Okay, 

Amanda Warfield: ma’am. This is good. I love this. I’m all about a launch.

LaShonda Brown: So, yeah, I mean, you make it fun to you could do a giveaway, you could do collabs like you could do a scap. I’ve even done a scavenger hunt and videos before. It’s like, find the hidden word and all these videos for a chance to win a free website. Like, I mean, get creative. I think, I mean, that’s my own little soapbox, but it’s like, you know, we are called to be creative.

LaShonda Brown: And I just think so many of us. have stopped using our imagination and all we’re doing is just duplicating what we see other people doing. It’s like, my word, be unique. It’s easier when you’re unique because you’re no, you’re not competing with anybody else. So what’s something crazy you could do? Maybe you could cook your favorite meal live on your YouTube channel and just chat.

LaShonda Brown: You could do a wine tasting. You could do a knitting party. I mean like at a certain point it’s like you have to think of marketing like I’m doing something crazy enough that someone would want to do a story on me. If, if, if someone hears the concept and they go, oh my gosh, that’s insane, like I need to contact, you know, New York Times or Washington Post or whoever, then you’ve got a good strategy.

LaShonda Brown: But if it’s like, Oh, womp, womp, I’ve heard that before. It’s going to fall flat because you’ve got to cut through the noise. So I just encourage people, like so many people are so afraid of being disruptive. And it’s like, it’s the noisy people that are winning right now. It’s the people that are, you know, doing something so different that it’s causing you to notice.

LaShonda Brown: That are really growing and really thriving. And so what is it that you can do to put your own unique spin on whatever it is that you offer and use that to get people to leave the platform they’re on? Um, 

Amanda Warfield: absolutely. You probably have many people convinced, like you’ve convinced me that maybe this is something that we should start doing.

LaShonda Brown: Maybe you should consider it. Here’s the thing, it’s making me money. I’m not, I’m just not going to lie to people. Like, yeah, I know it works. It’s what I did. It is making me money. I am making six figure income, working 20 hours a week. I’m the healthiest and happiest I’ve ever been. You decide for yourself.

LaShonda Brown: Right. You know, it’s a very simple pitch. 

Amanda Warfield: What would your suggestions be for equipment? Because I think that’s another thing that holds a lot of us back, is it’s like, I don’t even know, like, do I need a camera? Do I need, I have a mic, obviously, as a podcaster, but like, what do you need? I know you recommend StreamYard, but, which we’ll link to in the show notes for everyone, but, Yeah.

Amanda Warfield: What, where do you start with 

LaShonda Brown: equipment? Yeah. So, you know, that is a common question. So we did a whole workshop about preparing for your first YouTube video. And we did a setup on a desktop, a setup on a laptop and a setup on a cell phone. And ultimately, when it comes down to it, you need to utilize the tools that you’re the most comfortable with.

LaShonda Brown: And you can always upgrade from there. I’m, to be completely honest with you, a lot of YouTubers are telling people to film YouTube content on their cell phone. And I think that’s stupid. And the only reason why I say that. Is because when it comes down to it, once you film it, then what? You know what I mean?

LaShonda Brown: Like, most people are not going to manage a YouTube channel on their cell phone. So you’re going to have to transfer the data. Now you have this giant video file. Like, are you plugging in an external microphone to your, to your phone? And so for the vast majority of people, I just recommend that they use their webcam and they use.

LaShonda Brown: Their microphone, like you would on a zoom call, like truthfully start out with what you would utilize to just talk to someone virtually, whether you use Google meet or zoom or what have you start there. And again, you can always increase production value because, like, you know, if you were looking at the clip right now, like, I’m using an actual camera right now.

LaShonda Brown: That’s why I have a 1080 feed and it looks like my normal YouTube content. Um, because I’ve invested in that setup. And so over time, as you get better and better, you could buy a higher quality webcam. Then maybe you can use an actual DSLR camera as your webcam. And so I think that’s actually the easier way to do it because any other way, then you’re having to transfer that data and then you’re getting into a data nightmare.

LaShonda Brown: And so I just think, you know, yes, yeah. You can use your cell phone if you want to make shorts, but practically speaking, I probably would not record a long form YouTube video on my cell phone because editing it, transferring it, uploading it, it just feels like a nightmare to me. Man, 

Amanda Warfield: so true. I bought a Mac this year specifically because I wanted my phone to link up with my computer 

LaShonda Brown: easily.

LaShonda Brown: Yeah, with AirDrop. AirDrop 

Amanda Warfield: is great. It is, but there are some things that I still struggle with. I had um, camp with my youth group this past weekend, and I’m trying to get the photos and the videos off of my phone, onto the computer, onto the program to be able to show them off on Sunday, and it’s just, it’s a nightmare.

Amanda Warfield: I can’t get things to sync up correctly, and I’m just like, you know what? This is such a pain, even with stuff that talks nicely to each other. So definitely a good point. 

LaShonda Brown: Yeah, the Dropbox app is helpful. I use that a lot on my cell phone. Um, but even still, even still, I mean, it’s all about reducing friction because I think ultimately the best tools are the ones you actually use.

LaShonda Brown: So it’s like, just what are you going to actually use? I literally have some members in my membership who will open up zoom and do a zoom call with themselves and record there and then put it on YouTube. So it’s, it’s just really not nearly as complicated. You’ve got to focus more on the quality of the content.

LaShonda Brown: You’re saying then the production value as long as the audio is decent and the lighting is decent. People will watch it. So I just wouldn’t stress too much about that. 

Amanda Warfield: Speaking of your membership, tell us a little bit about that for those of us that are like, okay, I want to get started, but I still 

LaShonda Brown: need help.

LaShonda Brown: Yeah, I, I’m not gonna lie to you. I am so freaking proud of my membership because I think after seeing them engaging in the comments on our workshop this week, I’m like, oh my gosh, I’m actually building a real community and not just a bunch of people that pay for the same thing. So that’s really exciting.

LaShonda Brown: Um, so basically the YouTube membership is the only way to get ongoing YouTube coaching support from me. So the, the keystone aspect of it is leveraging the app async, which is kind of like Voxer on steroids. And essentially every member in my membership has their own thread with me, where whenever you have a YouTube question, you can just send me a voice note and within 48 hours, I’m going to respond to you.

LaShonda Brown: You can send texts, you can send audio, you can send a photo. And so that is a very simple way for you to get, you know, questions. Questions answered about YouTube. Then I give people my YouTube content calendar template, which will show people how to actually create content that generates traffic to your offers, because a lot of people don’t formulate their channel correctly.

LaShonda Brown: So they’re not seeing a benefit from posting fairly early in the process. So I give them that. Then we do monthly workshops where I bring in subject matter experts. And so you get a ticket to all of those plus the replays. So this week we were talking about, um, four different AI tools other than chat GPT that are going to help save you time and that was absolutely incredible.

LaShonda Brown: And so the last thing I would say about the membership that’s really cool is you get me for accountability, which I think is hysterical because I love kicking people in the butt. So people tell me what they intend on doing and I’m like, okay, if you tell me. Understand, I will check in on you. Now, I will help support you in that.

LaShonda Brown: I will encourage you in that. But at the same time, I’m going to ask you, and I think for so many people, they simply need someone else to care about their dream. They need someone else to care about what they’re trying to accomplish to actually show up and do the thing. You know, and that’s why personal trainers work and that’s why group fitness classes work because people need to know that other people are aware of what you’re striving to do.

LaShonda Brown: And so, um, you know, I thought about different pricing structures and, uh, what makes sense and I just settled on 50 a month and at least for this year, that’s what I want to keep it at. I want to make it super accessible. I’m not trying to break the bank that’ll help cover the software costs and, and my VA who helps me out.

LaShonda Brown: Um, but it’s just wonderful. I think it’s just an awesome outlet for people to be in network with other people that are trying to make YouTube work for them. And everybody’s coming at it from different angles. I have a lot of people who are podcasters wanting to leverage YouTube, which is a fun dynamic.

LaShonda Brown: So I hope we kind of do some type of collaboration with all of them at some point. But yeah, it’s just a genuine community. There’s laughter in the chat. There’s celebration in the chats on our calls. And we just have a really good time. And for that, I’m really grateful. Well, 

Amanda Warfield: listeners, if this is something you think is.

Amanda Warfield: Right up your alley. We’re going to link to this in the show notes. You can easily check it out and Go join that great community that Lashonda’s created. So before we end, I’ve got two final questions for you The first is if you could give everyone just one action step to take this week, 

LaShonda Brown: what would it be?

LaShonda Brown: I would say sit down and think about what your free, low, mid, and high ticket offers are. And I know that’s like a really weird piece of advice, but the amount of people that start a YouTube channel that don’t have those four categories covered. blows my mind. YouTube is an incredible way for you to draw traffic to your email list with free offers.

LaShonda Brown: So like, that’s great. Right. But then we also want to make money. We don’t want to just be spending money on the channel and not getting a return. And so, you know, the low ticket offers help a lot to get buying customers on your email list. And then hopefully, you know, they benefit from that low ticket offer and then you can upsell them.

LaShonda Brown: You know, that mid ticket offer and then that high ticket offer for some people, they may go straight to it. They may just go. You know what? No, I want one on one time with you. I want to book a strategy session, or I want a VIP day or whatever that looks like for you. But once you have those offers defined.

LaShonda Brown: Then you can create content that’s specifically geared to addressing problems for people and those 4 buckets. If you don’t have that before you start posting, what you’re going to get is a bunch of people who are just. They never, you know, subscribe to your email list. They never buy anything you’re trying to sell.

LaShonda Brown: And so if you have those offers defined for yourself, it’s going to impact what you create. So that’s what I would encourage people to do. And honestly, that thought process could help you on any marketing platform. But specifically, if you’re trying to make money with YouTube, you need to have those offers defined before you start posting.

LaShonda Brown: Yeah, being 

Amanda Warfield: strategic is so important when it comes to your content marketing. Absolutely. So if you could give everyone a book recommendation, and it can be a business book, but it doesn’t have to be, what would it be? 

LaShonda Brown: This is going to sound like super moody and overdramatic, but right now I am walking through the book unmet expectations.

LaShonda Brown: And I think, you know, in a post COVID world, I think we’re all kind of like, okay, we had some expectations, you know, 2020, the year of clear vision, going to do all the things. And let’s be honest, that did not, that did not happen. That did not happen. And so I think we all had expectations of how things were going to go.

LaShonda Brown: And how you deal with things not panning out is a big deal. And so I, I’ve really enjoyed walking through it. I’m not quite done with it yet, but it’s been a really good read. And so I would recommend that one. All right, 

Amanda Warfield: we will link to that in the show notes, everyone. LaShonda, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your expertise.

Amanda Warfield: I look forward to having you on again soon to chat more about sponsorships. 

LaShonda Brown: Well, I would love to come back and thank you again for having me.

LaShonda Brown: Thank 

Amanda Warfield: 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 over at amandawarfield. com. 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 203: The Power of Youtube with LaShonda Brown appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

One of my favorite ways to grow my audience is through being a guest on other podcasts. I started doing this during my first year in business, and it’s become the only growth strategy that I’ve used every single year in business.

Don’t get me wrong. At first, it was terrifying. I can remember the first interview I did so vividly. I pulled all of my shoes out of my closet, because I’d seen podcasters say their sound was best in there. Then, I wrote up pages and pages of notes and printed them out.

And so, I sat in my closet with my laptop and mic in front of me, constantly referring to my notes, and shaking like a leaf the entire time. I had so much adrenaline rushing through my body.

And now I barely have to prepare before an interview because it’s become so second-nature. Plus, the results I’ve seen for guest episodes is unmatched. They help my email list grow, they helped my book launch become such a success, and the backlinks to my own website are great for my own SEO.

Which is why I brought on a podcasting expert to share more about a Podcast Tour and how you can use one in your own marketing this year. My own podcast producer, and my dear friend – Haylee Gaffin.

Haylee is a podcast producer, strategist, and owner at Gaffin Creative, where she helps podcast hosts plan their podcast launch and create strategic content that serves their brand and audience. As the founder of Mic Check Society, a community for podcasters, and host of Clocking In Podcast, a podcast for professionals making their way in the working world, Haylee is on a mission to help hopeful podcast hosts grow their brand.

Haylee Gaffin is a podcast producer, strategist, and owner at Gaffin Creative, where she helps podcast hosts plan their podcast launch and create strategic content that serves their brand and audience. As the founder of Mic Check Society, a community for podcasters, and host of Clocking In Podcast, a podcast for professionals making their way in the working world, Haylee is on a mission to help hopeful podcast hosts grow their brand.

Social Links:

gaffincreative.com

https://www.instagram.com/hayleegaffin/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayleegaffin/

http://clockinginpodcast.com/

http://micchecksociety.com/

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

Episode 202 – Podcast Tours and the Benefits of Being a Podcast Guest with Haylee Gaffin 

Amanda Warfield: One of my favorite ways to grow my audience is through being a guest on other podcasts. I started doing this during my first year in business and it’s become the only growth strategy that I’ve used every single year in business. Don’t get me wrong, at first it was terrifying. I can remember the first interview I did so vividly.

Amanda Warfield: I pulled all of my shoes out of my closet because I’d seen other podcasters saying that their sound was best in, in their closet. And then I wrote up pages and pages of notes and printed them out. I’m talking like five pages of notes. And so, I sat in my closet with my laptop and my mic in front of me, constantly referring to my notes and trying to turn them so quietly so the microphone didn’t pick up the sound of the paper, and shaking like a leaf the entire time.

Amanda Warfield: I had so much adrenaline running through my body. And now, I barely have to prepare before an interview because it’s become so second nature. Plus, the results that I’ve seen for guest episodes is unmatched. They helped my email list grow, they helped my book launch become such a success, and the backlinks to my own website are great for my own SEO.

Amanda Warfield: Which is why I brought on a podcasting expert to share more about a podcast tour and how you can use one in your own marketing this year. My own podcast producer and my dear friend, Haley Gaffin. Haley is a podcast producer, strategist, and owner of Gaffin Creative, where she helps podcast hosts plan their podcast launch and create strategic content that serves their brand and audience.

Amanda Warfield: As the founder of Mic Check Society, a community for podcasters, and host of The Clocking In Podcast, a podcast for professionals making their way in the working world, Haley is on a mission to help hopeful podcast hosts grow their brand. You’re listening to episode 202 of The Chasing Simple Podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield.

Amanda Warfield: This episode was brought to you by the Chasing and Simple Content Planner, and you can grab your own at amanda warfield.com/planner.

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? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly, how do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 want to be doing is the thing that they started their business to do.

Amanda Warfield: 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 bring you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you.

Amanda Warfield: 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? There are a lot of different marketing strategies out there.

Amanda Warfield: From content, to networking, to speaking, to ads, and so many more. And with so many different marketing strategies, it’s easy to find yourself hopping from one to the next without seeing results. Especially when you see other entrepreneurs getting results from their marketing strategies. When you aren’t seeing any from your own and after hearing from listener after listener wondering which marketing strategy They should focus on I decided to create a quiz to help you narrow down Which strategies will be best for you based on your current phase of business?

Amanda Warfield: Head to amandawarfield. com / quiz to take it. Learn where you should focus your marketing energy and start seeing results from your marketing. Again, that’s amandawarfield. com / quiz. Haley, I’m so excited to have you back on Chasing Simple. And, um, last time, which I’ll link to this episode in the show notes, everyone, but last time we talked about really deciding what our success looks like for ourselves.

Amanda Warfield: And I think that was such an important topic. Especially at the time that, um, we recorded that, but you are such a knowledgeable expert. I can’t believe I haven’t had you back on the podcast before now. So, why don’t you go ahead and just introduce yourself really quickly, tell everyone who you are, what you do, 

Haylee Gaffin: who you serve.

Haylee Gaffin: Absolutely. Thank you for having me back. Um, my name is Haley Gaffin and I own Gaffin Creative, which is a podcast production company for creative entrepreneurs. And we have really kind of niched into the podcast launch and production space to take all the heavy lifting of. Running a podcast off of the creative who does not really like to do that, but then we also run a podcast community called my check society where we provide educational content, a Facebook community, and we have, um, monthly calls as well.

Haylee Gaffin: And then I’m also the host of clocking in, which is a podcast for podcasters. And if 

Amanda Warfield: you guys love the way the Jason Sibyl podcast sounds, Haley and her team are the ones that actually produce my podcast. It literally would not exist without them. Just straight up wouldn’t because I hate editing with every fiber of my being.

Amanda Warfield: They, they do it and they do it so well and it, they just make it sound so great. Could not say enough good things about Haley and her team, so just a little plug for them there. If you are looking for editing help because you also hate editing, they are my go to for sure. 

Haylee Gaffin: I appreciate that. 

Amanda Warfield: Okay, so today we’re going to talk about a podcasting tour and I wanted to talk about this specifically because I know that a lot of my listeners 

Haylee Gaffin: are 

Amanda Warfield: intrigued by the idea Of having their own podcast, but have maybe paid attention to things I’ve said and realized that it’s not no work.

Amanda Warfield: And there may be holding off on starting their own podcast. And so they want to just dip their toes in by guesting on other people’s podcasts. And I think this conversation about a podcast tour is going to be really beneficial to those that already have podcasts, those who maybe don’t even want podcasts, but want to grow their audience.

Amanda Warfield: in bigger ways and for those who are interested in a podcast, but maybe just not yet. So why don’t you go ahead and tell us what is a 

Haylee Gaffin: podcasting tour? Absolutely. I think, like you said, a lot of creatives don’t know if a podcast is right for them. And that’s one of the first things I talk to potential clients with, uh, is if you don’t have the time to pitch yourself to be on podcast to go and record those interviews and to promote.

Haylee Gaffin: The podcast that you have been a guest on, then you probably don’t have time for a podcast because that is the easier side of things. Um, and when I say easier, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get every yes. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to, you know, magically be on 100 podcasts a year. That takes a lot of work, but if you can like.

Haylee Gaffin: Spend the time finding the podcast that you want to be on, pitching those podcasts. You can get a sense of, is podcasting right for me? Do I enjoy interviews? Would I rather be talking by myself? So I learned very early on that I prefer solo episodes. Like I enjoy creating exactly what I want to say. But as time went on.

Haylee Gaffin: That got harder and harder and I started realizing I need interviews. I need to talk to other people. I need to find ways to repurpose. But that’s not going to be the case for everyone. So figuring out what you like. by interviewing on other people’s podcasts, and that’s where a podcast tour comes in. So, a podcast tour, you can kind of make it what you want it to be, whether you’re going all in, in Q1 or Q2 of whatever year, and you’re pitching every single podcast you possibly could for a specific reason.

Haylee Gaffin: So, there are two main reasons that you would want to be on a podcast. One is to get visibility, and Share your expertise with a new audience, and then the other is to sell something. For the most part, those are your two main reasons. And when you go on a podcast tour, you can either spread it out through the whole year to get visibility, or you can go all in at one time and that be your main goal and focus.

Haylee Gaffin: And you’re pitching a ton of podcasts to be on them within a certain time range. And you’re telling them, hey, I have this thing launching, I would love for it to go out by this date if that’s possible. And depending on how much they have going on, they can usually make that happen if it aligns with what they need.

Haylee Gaffin: So, 

Amanda Warfield: I know that this varies for everyone and everyone’s goals. But when you’re helping a client kind of come up with a podcast tour and decide if that’s right for them, what kind of numbers? Are you typically encouraging them to aim towards how many pitches do you encourage them to send versus and maybe you don’t even focus on this number versus how many you actually get on?

Amanda Warfield: What does 

Haylee Gaffin: that look like? Yeah, so for most of my clients are not trying to hit a ton of podcasts in a certain time frame, they’re looking to. Like, oh, I want to be on two podcasts a month. And what I like to lean into is unless you have a personal relationship with the podcast hosts, you have a 50, 50 chance of getting on their show.

Haylee Gaffin: So if that’s the case, you want to pitch at least double. Or more of what you’re actually wanting to be on. So say your goal is to podcast a month. You should be pitching this month for next month because it’s likely they’re not going to be able to book you in this month. If they can, that’s awesome. If not, it’s okay, you know, just plan ahead.

Haylee Gaffin: But if you’re trying to get on to a month, four to six a month at least. Um, and sometimes if you’re shooting for like really big podcasts, It’s going to, you’re probably going to want to shoot for 10 pitches every single month in order to land your two. 

Amanda Warfield: Okay, so then knowing that you want to pitch a certain number, how do you find podcasts to pitch to?

Haylee Gaffin: Yes, so there’s a few ways you can go about it. The one that most people are going to tell you is to go into Apple and find a podcast you love, scroll to the bottom and see the similar podcasts. But there’s a much easier tool that takes a lot less Work of you like going in and searching, and it’s called raf, it’s raf.com/graph, like G-R-A-P-H, and you can type in the name of any podcast.

Haylee Gaffin: So I’m gonna go in right now and I’m gonna type in chasing Simple and I’m gonna pull up exactly what it tells me similar podcasts are or, and this is podcasts that listeners will go in and. Like, if they listen to your podcast, they also listen to these other ones. So it basically creates a web. So I can see there are probably a hundred podcasts that I’m looking at right now.

Haylee Gaffin: And you could just kind of scan through all of them and see different podcasts that you could go in and pitch. And that’s based on one podcast that you enjoyed listening to. That may also be something your audience would want to listen to as well. Wait, how did 

Amanda Warfield: I not know this existed? So, okay, does this tool, does it only show active podcasts or does it, is that 

Haylee Gaffin: something you still need to research?

Haylee Gaffin: Oh, you know what? I’m actually not sure. I, I believe it’s only showing active because there was a time when my podcast was on a break. And I went in and searched, and I had six podcasts related to mine. And now that I’m active again, I have a hundred podcasts related to mine as, like, actively. 

Amanda Warfield: Interesting.

Amanda Warfield: Okay, so that cuts out a whole extra step, 

Haylee Gaffin: too. Yes. I would probably still make sure, like, because you’re going to go in and look at that podcast anyway to see what topics they’ve covered, I would still look and see that they’re active so you’re not wasting your time creating. A specific pitch for them.

Amanda Warfield: Okay, so going off of that, they find potential podcasts, how do they decide if it’s worth sending a pitch to? 

Haylee Gaffin: Yes. So, this is where your judgment kind of has to come into play. There are people that are going to say, like, don’t pitch to the smaller podcasts. Well, I disagree with that because even if a podcast only has 10 active listeners, those 10 active listeners are listening.

Haylee Gaffin: And so if you are jumping on to sell a service, those are 10 potential people that could work for you. Um, so don’t let the number and like, we can’t see those numbers, but don’t let a number that someone says, Oh, I only have 10 listeners a month. Don’t let that deter you, um, because there’s so much more you can do with it.

Haylee Gaffin: That particular interview, which we can get to in a minute when we talk about repurposing, but when it comes to actually pitching and deciding, oh, should I pitch this podcast, make sure it aligns with your audience. Make sure that the topic makes sense. The number of times that my clients have gotten pitches and all of my clients are in the creative entrepreneur space.

Haylee Gaffin: The number of real estate. Pitches they’ve gotten the number of garbage truck pitches. I have personally seen where it’s like Oh, I run a trucking company that art we specialize in garbage truck Management that does not make any sense for any of my clients. So don’t be the person that pitches that if you’re creative Don’t go and pitch a garbage truck podcast.

Haylee Gaffin: It’s not going to make any sense unless you specifically want to serve that niche in whatever it is that you do. And it’s a waste of your 

Amanda Warfield: own time, right? We’re all about keeping things simple, keeping things in the most efficient way we can. And if you’re sending pitches to things that aren’t going to do anything for your business, What’s the point?

Amanda Warfield: Which leads me to my next question. How do you get the most out of doing a podcast tour and guesting on podcasts? 

Haylee Gaffin: Yes. So there are three main benefits that I see podcasters looking to grow and gain from doing a podcast tour. The first is building authority and credibility. The second is. Increasing their visibility and brand awareness.

Haylee Gaffin: So the difference between those two is you’re building authority for longevity versus. creating brand awareness kind of in the moment. And maybe you’ll get some Instagram followers, or maybe you’ll have a few new people explore your website. Um, but then the third is repurposing content. And then there’s one more that is actually selling.

Haylee Gaffin: So to get the most out of it, I personally think that if you’re going to go on a podcast, selling should not be your priority. But you can offer like an incentive of, Hey, here’s a freebie. If you want a free, if you want to come learn more about whatever I talked about in today’s episode, or if you’re trying to sell something like a service or a new offering that you have mentioning it, but you should be specifically focused on that brand authority and credibility and visibility and brand awareness, because it will create more opportunity for you longterm versus.

Haylee Gaffin: Oh, I want to sell this 19 product, like. That’s not necessarily going to be the thing that drives your business in the long run. As far as actually like taking advantage of those opportunities, grow your email list while you’re on them. Offer that freebie. Instead of saying like, oh, come work with me, which obviously you can also say that, but get them in there with a freebie as well.

Haylee Gaffin: Say, you know, oh, I have a podcast budget worksheet. You can head to Gaffincreative. com forward slash podcast budget, and there’s a little plug for you. But if you do that, they can get on your email list. Then you can nurture them in the longterm, but they have likely just met you as a guest on a podcast.

Haylee Gaffin: They don’t know you well enough to purchase from you. So keep that in mind as you are going on a podcast tour and getting yourself in front of new audiences. It’s so 

Amanda Warfield: smart and I know that I’ve talked about this before on the podcast, but the reality of podcast listeners is that. They, there’s no easy way to click over, so if you’re just selling the likelihood of them being like, oh, yeah, let me go out of my way to buy this thing is so slim, but if you’re giving them a really great freebie, they’re much more likely to go out of their way to grab something for free.

Amanda Warfield: That sounds really, really helpful to them. So would you say that your call to action for all three types? For all three goals is a freebie or would you, for any of them, would you do a different 

Haylee Gaffin: call to action? You could definitely do a different call to action. I think the freebie is a great opportunity if you have one.

Haylee Gaffin: So for example, on this particular topic, I, as a podcast producer, work with podcast hosts. What we’re talking about today is very much Focused on the podcast guest. I personally don’t have an offering for you. Like I don’t have anything to drive you to me, but in the off chance that you are someone who wants to start a podcast, you now have my name, you now have my brand and you’re aware that people like me exist and that’s really all that I need.

Haylee Gaffin: When the time comes, they’re going to think, Oh, Amanda had that person on the podcast. What was her name? I’ll go look or I’ll DM Amanda. I’ll find out what it is. And that’s plenty for me. That’s plenty for most podcast guests. Now you can be very strategic and be like, Oh, I’m going to incentivize you to come follow me on Instagram, shoot me a DM.

Haylee Gaffin: That would be great if y’all want to do that. But like the purpose of brand. Visibility and awareness is to get my name out there. So, I don’t think a freebie is absolutely necessary. It doesn’t always make sense because I personally can’t serve guests in a way that a pitching agency could. You know? Yeah.

Haylee Gaffin: Okay. 

Amanda Warfield: So, going off of that, if you don’t need a freebie, necessarily in order to be a guest on a podcast. What, how do you know if you’re ready to be on a podcast tour and ready to start really guesting on 

Haylee Gaffin: podcasts? I think going in knowing what your goal is. So for a lot of business owners, I feel like they are afraid to start because they don’t know they’re speaking topics.

Haylee Gaffin: They don’t know what their long term offering is going to be. And I do think that’s a good flag for you to know whether or not you’re ready because Podcasts have a lot of longevity, they have a very long life, and if you are a brand designer going onto a podcast to pitch your web design services and in six months you realize I hate web design and I’m not going to do it anymore, you have a podcast out there.

Haylee Gaffin: That’s all about web design, and it doesn’t necessarily make sense, so I would definitely consider like, how long do I think I’m going to be in this role? How long am I going to offer these services? Am I happy with these services? And am I ready to speak on a topic? Without knowing where the conversation is going to go and can I do that?

Haylee Gaffin: Um, I’ll give you 1 example of where I had created an offering and I’m so excited. I pitched a client to put it on their podcast. We even talk about it in the show. I, it was a flop, the, the offering, it was like a group coaching program type of thing for podcasters and that still lives out there to this day.

Haylee Gaffin: It doesn’t exist. I never brought it back. Like, so just be very intentional about, okay, if I’m going to talk about something, is it something that’s going to live for at least a year on my website? Um, I think a 

Amanda Warfield: good rule of thumb for any growth marketing strategy, not just podcast tours, is to first launch it to your audience.

Amanda Warfield: With any offering and test it with your current audience, you’ve already nurtured because they’re going to be more likely to go for some kind of offer like that or some freebie if they already trust you right versus a growth marketing strategy. You haven’t built that no, like, and trust factor yet. And so going to someone else’s podcast or doing a newsletter swap or whatever growth strategy you’re working on, you haven’t proved.

Amanda Warfield: With an audience you’ve already nurtured that it’s a success. It might not be something that’s ready for a podcast or 

Haylee Gaffin: absolutely I completely agree with that and I think to Understanding that when you’re going on these podcasts Episodes and interviews, you don’t necessarily have to sell your services.

Haylee Gaffin: Um, it’s great too, but especially if you’re going on a podcast tour in order to learn whether or not your podcast or whether or not you actually want to launch a podcast. You have all the time in the world to craft exactly how you’re going to utilize your podcast. And you can learn from the experiences within each show.

Haylee Gaffin: So say you go on your first three or four episodes and you’re like, you know, I really would have rather talked about this thing. I didn’t feel as comfortable on this particular topic. You can shift that as you’re pitching in order to align it with what you want to do. Same goes for when you actually start your podcast.

Haylee Gaffin: You can go a few episodes in and realize I don’t like interviews or I don’t like solos and you have the opportunity to shift that and move it along to exactly what you want it to be. That’s such good 

Amanda Warfield: advice. Yeah, everything’s just an experiment, right, when it comes to marketing. Let’s get into the logistics of this.

Amanda Warfield: And I’m kind of thinking that we break this up into before, during, and after. How do, what are the steps, how do they prepare to pitch slash be a great guest? What’s the before process 

Haylee Gaffin: look like? Yes, so the before would start with doing your research. Um, using that chart that I mentioned, finding the podcast that fit you, but then when you are actually prepping to pitch, you need to be doing research on each individual podcast.

Haylee Gaffin: So step number one is do your research. Number two is crafting that actual pitch and customizing it. So if you’re offering. I’m going to be talking about two to three speaking topics of Hey, I would love to come out on your podcast and talk about, actually, this is what I, I like to see is I want to come on your podcast and talk about this, and this is why, but if that topic doesn’t align with your content calendar, here are two other topics that I could talk about the other thing with your pitch, it needs to be very custom to the person you’re pitching and their audience.

Haylee Gaffin: Here’s why. That it’s going to be a good fit for your audience. I know that you speak to XYZ because I actually listen to your podcast. There are times I’ve seen people like take the exact title of an episode and say, I loved your episode about and not even changing the title. They’re just copying and pasting.

Haylee Gaffin: Which, fine, like, I get you want to highlight exactly which episode, but I very rarely see someone who actually took the time to listen. And you don’t have to listen to a full episode, you can skim it, you can listen on 2x, you can fast forward, but make sure that The host knows that you know who their audience is, you know what their podcast is actually about, and you know the format of it.

Haylee Gaffin: So that would be step two, crafting relevant topics and your pitch. Can 

Amanda Warfield: I just say that podcast hosts can tell if your pitch is genuine and if it’s not. It’s so obvious between the people who did their research and who just did a quick Google search. When you’re pitching someone that’s unknown to you, or you’re unknown to them, maybe I should say, the fact that they may not know who you are, I think, isn’t really what matters.

Amanda Warfield: What matters is how genuine and how custom your pitch is. The amount of people that I’ve been like, I don’t have a clue who you are, but your pitch was incredible, and I know that you took the time to do the research. Absolutely. Come on as a guest. I’m all here for it because I know if you put that time into a pitch, you’re going to put that effort into the episode as well.

Haylee Gaffin: Absolutely. I actually got a pitch that wasn’t for a podcast guest, but it was rather a, someone who wanted to help create additional content for my podcast. And they actually went through my whole website, pulled out phrases that I use and used it in the pitch. And I was like, This actually makes me want to hire you.

Haylee Gaffin: Like, I don’t like cold pitches for services, but it makes me want to hire you. So yeah, definitely keep that in mind. Um, and then additionally, when you’re crafting these pitches, make sure that you are providing more benefit to the host and their audience than you’re taking from the host and their audience.

Haylee Gaffin: There are a lot of benefits for podcasts. guests to go on a show. But in return, the really, the only benefit for a podcast host is they’re not having to create the content that they normally would have to do for a solo. And they might get your audience if you share, but that’s a huge problem in any pod, like any niche of the podcast industry is guests don’t necessarily always share.

Haylee Gaffin: So if you can highlight That you’re going to share that you’re going to be around to answer questions of their audience. Those are things that the podcast host will see and like, like that just sets you apart from other pitches. So those are all of my, like, befores. There’s two other things that you could consider doing.

Haylee Gaffin: Um, one is highlighting your credibility. So if you have a speaking page or you have an about page, highlight where you’ve been a guest on other podcasts if you have. If not, that’s okay too. We’re in the process of building that. Um, if you’ve spoken at other conferences, events, retreats, anything, summits, online summits are my favorite.

Haylee Gaffin: Place to get speaking experience because I personally struggle this on a stage and speak But I am fine doing it behind a camera, you know, like very different experiences for me And you can highlight that so make sure you highlight that if you have That to back you up and you can even link to that in your pitch as well and then during the actual pitching process my biggest recommendation is to Uh, be professional and responsive.

Haylee Gaffin: It is really hard for a host to get a pitch, respond immediately, and then not get anything back. So like, be aware of your inbox in the days after. Follow up. I wouldn’t necessarily say annoy them, but following up once, maybe twice, if they responded, uh, at one point and then just kind of stopped. Because they are busy.

Haylee Gaffin: Most of the time, especially in our industry, podcasting is not their full time job. They have an actual job that they’re using to market their podcast, or using the podcast to market their job. So just be aware of that as well. The last piece of this is always be networking and building relationships.

Haylee Gaffin: This happens before, during, and after the pitch. So if you are a long term person and you’re like, you know, I really want to start doing this next quarter. This is the quarter you should start engaging with their accounts, following them on social media, making sure they kind of have an idea of who you are.

Haylee Gaffin: If you have friends that have been on the podcast, ask them for an introduction. Like it’s very, it’s very easy to build relationships and networking. When you actually plan for it, and, um, I think the final thing I’ll say is. Be aware of if you decide to have someone else pitch you, there are going to be podcast hosts that don’t like that.

Haylee Gaffin: I think Amanda is one of them. I think they’ve heard me rant about this before. Yes. I personally don’t love being pitched by other people. I. I do understand the reasoning, and here’s my, here’s my thought process around it. If you’re someone who is too busy to pitch yourself, you have two approaches that are easy, easy opportunities for you.

Haylee Gaffin: Have them pitch as you. Like, it is so easy to just give someone either access to your email, or You just copy and paste their pitches into your email. It’s that simple. Or, if they are pitching you, have them copy you and give you a heads up. Hey, I’m going to start sending these at 8 a. m. if you’ll go through and respond to every single one of them and say, Hey, I just wanted to reach out and say I love your podcast.

Haylee Gaffin: I would love to be a guest. I think that virtual assistant name has added all the information above, looking forward to chatting. That way it’s not just like, I’ve never spoken to this person, they don’t have time to talk to me, they had someone else pitch me. That’s, that’s how I feel about it is like at least have some sort of communication with me if you want to be on my podcast 100%.

Amanda Warfield: Yeah. And it’s even like you said, it can be, they did all the work and you copy and pasted it and it at least makes me feel like you cared enough to do anyways. You’ve heard me rant about this. They’ve heard me rant about this. I won’t spend a lot of time on it. But yeah, 

Haylee Gaffin: 100%. I will say too, there are podcast hosts that like, won’t take pitches of people who pitch themselves.

Haylee Gaffin: Because they think like, oh, they’re not qualified enough to have someone else pitch them, so. It’s, there’s like a, I don’t, it’s, it’s very interesting. It’s a weird industry. A great divide between the two 

Amanda Warfield: camps. Okay, so we’ve done the pitch. We have gotten accepted on the podcast. I know that you edit a lot of interviews.

Amanda Warfield: What separates the good guests from the great guests? 

Haylee Gaffin: Ooh, this is a I love this question. I hate when people say I love this question, but I really do. After editing so many podcast interviews, you’re like, I hear this phrase over and over and over again. Yes. So I actually do have quite a few tips. For the guest to be a good guest one is to, if you’re going to go on a podcast tour, or even just be on one, two, three podcasts, invest in a microphone, just do it and then understand how your microphone works because I have gotten plenty of podcasts that they use their computer microphone, which is awful, or they’ve used air pods, don’t use air pods, uh, you can use them to listen, but don’t use them As your microphone, it sounds really, really rough, worse than your actual computer.

Haylee Gaffin: Interesting. So if you take nothing else away, take that away. Do you have, 

Amanda Warfield: sorry, do you have a page on your website that lists like different, like mics and stuff? 

Haylee Gaffin: I do. I have, I can, we can link to it in the show notes. I’ll link to that. It has three, um, microphone options that I recommend. I don’t have the Blue Yeti on there.

Haylee Gaffin: That is a very popular one. And I do think, as I do this with the Blue Yeti. I, so here’s, here’s my thoughts around a blue Yeti. It is very popular. Most of my clients have them or started with them. And I think you can get a better quality sound for the same price. It’s just not as cute. Like my microphone was cheaper than a blue Yeti and it’s not very cute.

Haylee Gaffin: It’s just a black microphone. But, um, I do think that’s a good podcast guest microphone. If you’re like. Oh, I just want to use something easy. The other problem with Blue Yeti is most people don’t know how to use them properly, which is another reason I don’t. Necessarily recommend it does take a lot of research to understand the settings what side to actually speak into on your you’re doing it correctly already checked.

Haylee Gaffin: Yes. Yeah. But yeah, because you got on to me.

Haylee Gaffin: Once I started 

Amanda Warfield: working with Haley, she was like, um, you need to change the setting and the setting. And I was like, how do you know that you haven’t even seen it? But yeah. It’s fine. 

Haylee Gaffin: It’s fine. Yeah. Well, that’s, that’s my main reason for not doing a blue yeti, but if you have one, use it. Like I don’t, if my clients come to me and they have one, I’ve never tried getting you to switch microphones.

Haylee Gaffin: I don’t think it’s necessary. I think if you just know how to use it, it works great. So that’s my first tip for being a good guest. It’s just having solid client. Microphone, quality and audio quality. My second one is, and this is something that has come up a lot recently, is not, there’s a phrase we use in the podcast industry called Stepping on Lines, and it’s where, so I’m gonna have you tell me some, tell me about a cat right now.

Haylee Gaffin: Like one of your cats. Oh, cat. Oh. 

Amanda Warfield: Um, well, pad may just left 

Haylee Gaffin: me. Yeah. . Oh yeah. Mm-Hmm. . That’s stepping on people’s lines where you’re like constantly agreeing with them, or if you’re finishing their sentences. So like, if you and I are on the same page, but I’m taking a little longer to get it out, oftentimes a guest or a host will try to like help by finishing the sentence, but it interrupts the flow of conversation.

Haylee Gaffin: So that’s a, that’s the second tip for being a good guest is just learning not to step on lines. I think I’m actually pretty bad about that. That’s good to know. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I mean, I know I’ve done it to you a few times already today. No, I would say, like, a yes every now and then is totally fine.

Haylee Gaffin: And then the other thing is, like, internets. You know, the there’s a delay sometimes. So, yeah, this is good to know. This is something that I need to improve. Okay. Okay. So what’s the next step? Um, okay. The next step is knowing how you want to end your podcast episode. So this goes for both the host and the guest.

Haylee Gaffin: If the host is like, okay, and where can people find you? And you start sharing a hundred places, people can find you. They’re not going to go look them all up. So my recommendation is to actually just look up or just say your website, if you’re a business owner and your primary social media presence, and then if you have an offering, don’t go and list every single thing out.

Haylee Gaffin: Um, yeah, it’s people turn off. The podcast episode, 

Amanda Warfield: I’ve got to be honest as a host, I would even say choose one, choose one thing. And if you do have your own podcast, that should be your one thing because you know you’re talking to podcast listeners, but I know that’s like my pet peeve when I’m interviewing people and they start listing off five things and it’s just like, all of these are linked in the show notes.

Amanda Warfield: Give them one action step. Cause they’re going to have all of 

Haylee Gaffin: these in the show. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if like you felt filled out an intake form. And, you know, like, oh, they’re going to link to all of these. Um, I wouldn’t even, yeah, I wouldn’t worry about all of them. If you don’t have a podcast, because if we’re talking to, like, people who are looking to get on podcasts instead of driving traffic to theirs, I would do your social media.

Haylee Gaffin: They can connect with you and stick to you, um, instead of, like, oh, you can head over to my website. I mean, you could, they could find you, but if you want them to connect with you on Instagram or TikTok or wherever. 

Amanda Warfield: But yeah, if we’re building the know, like, and trust factor, where do you show up most? It’s probably going to be social media.

Amanda Warfield: Yes, absolutely. Okay, so any other tips for being a good guest? 

Haylee Gaffin: Uh, I think the last one is just share. Share because they have shared their audience with you. Make sure you share the podcast episode with your audience as well. 

Amanda Warfield: Which leads us into the What do we do after? So kind of share for us what we can do after the interview, after the episode airs to make sure that we’re getting the most out of the interview 

Haylee Gaffin: that we just did.

Haylee Gaffin: So the number one thing is, like I just said, share, highlight it to other people on your email list, whatever social media platforms you’re on. Do the work to actually highlight, Oh, I know what I’m talking about enough to be on a podcast. Yeah. And if you are someone who you’ve been on 30 podcasts, make sure that you’re finding ways to still share and it’d be big because if you’re here’s a problem I’ve seen in the industry and it’s not that it’s really, it’s a problem for.

Haylee Gaffin: The host or the guest, it’s more on the host’s end of like asking great questions because say I pitch this topic to you, this podcast tour and the benefits of being a podcast guest. If I go and pitch it to 10 other people and they all have asked me exactly what you asked me, I’m likely not going to share their episodes.

Haylee Gaffin: But if they’ve done a little. pre research to figure out, okay, Haley has talked about this on this podcast. What can I do to separate myself from that interview? Then I’m likely going to share it because one of my favorite podcast interviews I’ve ever been on, we steered so far away from podcast production and like got into deeper personal connection.

Haylee Gaffin: And I was like, that was a, that was probably my favorite interview. And I barely shared about podcasting and it was. Really great for me to be able to share it and like, say, you’ve never heard a podcast interview like this before, but on the other end of things. You could also consider how you can repurpose the content.

Haylee Gaffin: So, if you are someone who has your own podcast, you can do a feed drop or a repurposed episode where you’re highlighting, I was interviewed on Amanda’s podcast, I really, I actually did this with Amanda’s, and, or making a blog post out of it. So highlighting exact conversations you had linking to the blog posts that Amanda puts out, that would be another way to repurpose your content 

Amanda Warfield: for everyone listening.

Amanda Warfield: If you’re someone who’s like, I think I might want to start my own podcast. I might be interested in starting my own podcast. I’m actually going to link a couple different clocking in episodes. In the show notes, so you can listen to those that Haley already has this content that she’s created about starting a podcast and one of those that I’ve picked out to share is actually one of these episodes that Haley has repurposed from someone else’s podcast.

Amanda Warfield: And so if you want to see a little bit of how she actually does that, you’ll, you could check out the show notes and those different episodes and see that in the show notes. Yay, 

Haylee Gaffin: I do. I really have been leaning into repurposing interviews lately. Um, and I wouldn’t say like repurpose them every like back to back, spread them out over time, especially if you’re in a busy season and you’re like, I just don’t know if I have the capacity to record another episode this month.

Haylee Gaffin: There you go. You have an episode already recorded. But as far as. Sharing or like, what to do right after an interview is there is no better place to show up than on the post of the person who hosted the episode. So go to their post. If they drop episode, like, in the feed, you can ask them if they’ll add you as a collaborator on the post.

Haylee Gaffin: You can ask them. Hey, do you mind if I drop in and comment? Actually, they don’t even care. As long as you’re engaging on their post, go in and get and engage with their audience. Who’s asking questions, commenting, whatever it is, um, show up on their social media posts when it goes live. Okay, 

Amanda Warfield: so I’m curious if you have any tips, and you may not, but for repurposing episodes that maybe feel like five other episodes you’ve done.

Amanda Warfield: Do you have any tips on how we can repurpose those without feeling like we’re just repeating ourself over and over 

Haylee Gaffin: again? Um, okay, I’ll push back a little bit because how many times does someone have to hear something for it to stick? And then You’re using my 

Amanda Warfield: own words against me, Hayley. 

Haylee Gaffin: I knew I would be.

Haylee Gaffin: And then the other thing is In every single podcast interview that you are a part of, that host is going to bring something new to the conversation that a different host didn’t or that you didn’t. The other benefit of repurposing content like that is that you’re more likely to sell to another audience than you are your own.

Haylee Gaffin: Like it’s so much easier to get What you do, what you offer out there. And I don’t think I realized it until I was working on client podcasts. And one of my clients never talked about her offerings on her podcast. But the second one of my other clients interviewed her, she like spouted off everything that they would need.

Haylee Gaffin: And I was like, you did so well in selling yourself. Why do you not do that on your podcast? And she’s like. I was just thinking that when I got off the interview with her. So it is so much easier to sell to a different audience that’s not yours. Um, because you’re trying to get into their audience versus your audience already has.

Haylee Gaffin: an idea of what you do, or at least you think they do. And sometimes they don’t like the number of times someone has come to me after they’ve launched a podcast and said, gosh, it was so hard. And I’m like, Oh, well I could have helped you. And they’re like, you are, apparently I don’t talk about launches enough.

Haylee Gaffin: So yeah, it’s always 

Amanda Warfield: so humbling when your audience lets you know, like you’re not doing a great job at selling yourself. 

Haylee Gaffin: Oh yeah, yeah, all the time I feel like that. Okay, so, 

Amanda Warfield: wow, you’ve given us a lot to think about and to take from this. If you could give everyone just one action step to take this week, what would it be to kind of get started on this whole journey?

Haylee Gaffin: Absolutely. One action step I would say is to start thinking about the topics that you want to talk about, the key takeaways, and potential questions. To provide to the interviewer. That way you are setting them up for success, but also setting yourself up for success because you may give a topic to a podcast host and they may not go in the direction that you want them to, that would guide them into whatever offering you have for that particular topic.

Haylee Gaffin: So whatever resource you want to guide someone to, make sure that you highlight, Hey, I have this. Would you please ask me this question? 

Amanda Warfield: Yeah, and even if you don’t have an offer, if you’re someone who’s just building visibility, there’s nothing more jarring than someone taking what they think your topic is about and taking you down this direction that it’s not about at all.

Amanda Warfield: And then you’re trying to figure out how to reel things back in to what you’re actually trying to teach. That’s, yeah, I learned that the hard way, so take Haley’s advice. That’s a great action. So, you have a membership for podcasters that I’m a part of, but I, and it’s geared mostly towards podcasters and that’s kind of how you market it, but I also think it could be really great for those that are just guesting on podcasts.

Amanda Warfield: So could you share that with everyone and just kind of tell them a little bit about what it is and how they might find it 

Haylee Gaffin: helpful? Yeah, so Mic Check Society is our community for podcasters where we offer educational content and, um, a podcast. Facebook group. Uh, so it’s all of our members are inside of a Facebook group.

Haylee Gaffin: We do two lives a month and then we have a call every month that everyone can join and ask questions. And as far as like non podcast hosts, we do have a lot of resources for audio quality, making sure that you have a good sound. And we are always coming up with new topics based on the The requests of our members as well.

Haylee Gaffin: Um, it’s also a great place. If you’re looking to get started in podcasting, we do have a lot of podcasters who are still in the planning process. They’re not quite ready to launch a podcast, but they’re exploring the idea of it. And, um, yeah, it’s, it’s been a fun, exciting community to, to host and be a part of over the last year and a half.

Haylee Gaffin: And we have made some really fun changes. over time. So yeah. And I also have a discount code for your community. Um, if you use the code chasing simple, you will get 10 off per month, making it 9 a month for your membership. 

Amanda Warfield: Oh, that’s amazing. Yeah. I would love to see you guys in there alongside me. The best way to get on someone’s podcast, I think, is to By having a relationship with them and this is a membership full of your ideal people if you’re trying to pitch to podcasts and that’s a great way to get your foot in the door and a really great way to be able to add a little we’re both in Hayley Gaffin’s Mic Check Society together kind of thing inside of your pitch.

Amanda Warfield: Just a little pro tip there for some of the ways that I like to um, position my pitches and how I often find people to pitch to is through memberships that I’m a part 

Haylee Gaffin: of. Yeah, and we even have the members that want to, uh, contribute, we have a directory inside of the dashboard. So it has, if you want to pitch them to be on your podcast, if you have one, or if you want to pitch to be on theirs, um, they can say like, yes, I would love to accept pitches, um, or.

Haylee Gaffin: No, I don’t want to accept pictures. So you can go through that and kind of explore. Should I even say I got your information from Mic Check Society? That type of thing. Love that. 

Amanda Warfield: Okay. One final question for you. And because you edit my podcast, you know what’s coming. If you could give everyone one book recommendation, doesn’t have to be business, can just be fiction, can be whatever you want.

Amanda Warfield: What would it be? 

Haylee Gaffin: This is interesting because I just got back into reading, um, like for fun. I was a business all the time kind of book reader and I realized I hated reading because that’s what I was doing. So, I, I’m, I’m sure at some point in the last year this has ended up. On your podcast, but I was introduced through Tick Tock, but it ends with us.

Haylee Gaffin: I do not know what about that two book series. I loved so much, but I finished it in four days, the two, both books. It was for me, that was mind boggling. I don’t read like that. So that would be my recommendation. If you’re trying to get back into reading, I really thought you were going to go with this is the hurt of the traveling pants.

Haylee Gaffin: I’ve been burned. I’ve been burned in case y’all are not aware. There’s a. I don’t know. Is that a fifth book? Fourth? Fifth? I don’t know. There’s a final book to the Sisterhood series. Like ten years later or whatever. Yeah, ten years later it came out. I think I was out of high school or graduating. I don’t know.

Haylee Gaffin: But it’s very depressing. It’s not good. So if you a depressing, sad end to a wonderful series. Read it. Otherwise don’t. I’m gonna pretend that book doesn’t exist for all of time. I still have four chapters left and I can’t finish it. It’s really not worth finishing. I don’t think it is. It’s literally sitting up there since.

Haylee Gaffin: Yeah. No. Oh, thank you so much 

Amanda Warfield: for being on again, Haley. And we’ll have to have you again at some point to talk about, you know, actually starting a podcast and what that looks like, because I know that’s going to be such a helpful topic as well, but I appreciate you 

Haylee Gaffin: for being here today. Thank you so much.

Haylee Gaffin: And if anyone wants to connect, I’d love to connect over on Instagram. It’s just at Haley Gavin.

Amanda Warfield: 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 over at amandawarfield. com. 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 202: Podcast Tours and the Benefits of Being a Podcast Guest with Haylee Gaffin appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

A few months back, I did an episode on the marketing lessons I’d learned from Taylor Swift. And I had a BLAST creating that episode, and based on the DMs I got, you had a blast listening to it.

So, today I wanted to come back with a similar episode. One where I take a passion of mine, and extract lessons on business. Today – I’m sharing 5 business lessons I’ve learned from Walt Disney himself.

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]!

A few months back, I did an episode on the marketing lessons I learned from Taylor Swift, and I had a blast creating that episode. And based on the DMs that I got, you had a blast listening to it. So, today I wanted to come back with a similar episode, one where I take a passion of mine and extract lessons on business.

Today, I’m sharing five business lessons that I’ve learned from Walt Disney himself. You’re listening to episode 201 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? Are launches still a thing? 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 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 want to 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 bring 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? There are a lot of different marketing strategies out there, from content to networking to speaking to ads and so many more.

And with so many different marketing strategies, it’s easy to find yourself hopping from one to the next. Without seeing results, especially when you see other entrepreneurs getting results from their marketing strategies, when you aren’t seeing any from your own. And after hearing from listener after listener, wondering which marketing strategy they should focus on, I decided to create a quiz to help you narrow down which strategies will be best for you based on your current phase of business.

Head to amandawarfield. com slash quiz to take it, learn where you should focus your marketing energy and start seeing results from your marketing. Again, that’s amandawarfield. com slash quiz. You can dream, create, design, and build the most beautiful place in the world. But it requires people to make the dream a reality.

Walt Disney once said this when asked about Disneyland, and he’s 100 percent correct. Disneyland is one of the most magical places in the world, right up there with, you know, Disney World, and probably the other Disneys, though I haven’t been to them just yet, and a few other special places to me. But it truly is magical, and without the thousands of people that go into these parks each day, It would be nothing without those people.

Disneyland, Disney World, Disney as a company would mean nothing. And yes, of course, financially, right? You’ve got this massive organization. You have to pay salaries. So you need people to come and spend money But even before that they never would have gotten to the park phase of this business if people hadn’t bought in to the earlier eras of Disney into the animation into the movies right by building a community around this magical animated cartoon kind of experience There would be no Disneyland.

There would be no Disney World. There would be no theme parks. So in order to make a dream a reality, you’ve got to have people. And as business owners, that means, yes, audience members, right? We need sales. We need people who want to buy what we’re offering. But we also need people in our corner. We need people who are there to support us.

And cheer us on in both the good times and the bad. We need business friends and business besties and even business acquaintances. We need to fill those circles that we have with people that we know and know of and that no one know of us. So I encourage you to really focus in on community this year. If that’s not already a goal that you have, I really, really encourage you to do that.

That’s the first lesson that I’ve learned from Walt Disney. The second lesson is a really fun one, I think. I nerded out over this when I discovered it last year. But, the Mickey that we have all come to know and love isn’t Walt Disney’s Mickey. When you walk through, I cannot think of the name of this attraction, but there’s an attraction at Hollywood Studios in Disney World, maybe One Man’s Dream might be what it’s called.

I cannot think of it off the top of my head right now, but there’s an attraction at Disney World in Hollywood Studios where you go through and it just showcases all of this, you know, Disney history and Those of us Disney nerds, of course, take our time and walk through it. It’s not a big exciting ride or anything like that, but I find it so fun.

And when my husband and I were walking through it, I guess this was A year and a half ago at this point, we were walking through and reading things and I came across this section that I either glanced over previous times of walking through or it just didn’t click for me, but it talked about the fact that the Mickey we know and love today was not actually drawn by Walt.

His Mickey was what kind of started Mickey Mouse, right? Obviously, he’s the creator of Mickey Mouse, but After Mickey had become successful, Walt knew that he needed to rebrand Mickey, and he actually hired someone else to do it. And so the Mickey we know and love today was, yes, created by Walt, because Mickey is his brainchild.

But another animator actually drew Mickey and created and rebranded Mickey into what he is today. So I thought that was really exciting just because I’m such a nerd but really interesting and it’s a great lesson and a great reminder to us as business owners that it is good. to outsource. It is good to focus on our zone of genius and then bring others in who can do the things that aren’t our zone of genius and make them even better.

Now, I know that outsourcing requires money and it requires profit, right? And that’s not always something that we can do right away, but it’s something to start thinking about, even if you can’t afford it yet. What would you like to outsource? The first thing I’ve shared this before, the first thing I ever outsourced was my podcast editing and it is the best money I spend every month because Without a doubt one this podcast would not continue on if I was having to edit I mean we are over 200 episodes in there would not be 200 episodes if I was the one that had had to edit all Of this time because not only is it not my zone of genius.

It is a nightmare for me and Had I somehow Mustard up the energy to actually edit 200 episodes. It wouldn’t be as good as what the amazing team at Gaffin Creative does for me. So. That’s something that I outsourced and it was the first thing I outsourced, cannot recommend it enough because it was something that I truly dreaded doing.

On the other hand, something that I don’t dread doing, but I know isn’t my zone of genius is design work, right? Now the Chasing Simple Content Planner. If you bought the 2023 version. That version is great for content as far as the planning and walking you through what you need to do and giving you the meat and potatoes, right, of what you need for planning out your content.

If you had that one and you thought, wow, this is ugly. There’s no judgment because I think that too I designed that one and I got what I needed into that planner to test it out To see is this what people want for me to see? Hey, is this a viable offer? I wasn’t going to hire someone for that first one if I didn’t even know it was gonna sell but for 2024 I knew that I wanted to hire a designer to actually make it beautiful as well as functional.

So instead of a hearty meal of meat and potatoes, you get this gourmet meal that could be served in a five star restaurant. It is beautiful. The designer did such a great job. Essentially the planner is my Mickey, right? The original one worked. It was a, a great test. It was proof of concept. And then I said, okay, time to hire someone else to rebrand this.

So it actually looks just as great as the work itself. And it is, it, it highlights And really showcases how great the planner is because it’s so beautiful and fun to look at. Those are things that, yeah, five years ago, I would have never been able to outsource. But as I’ve grown and as I’ve gotten proof of concept of different parts of my business and different offers, I’ve been able to go, okay, I know this is going to sell so I can afford to hire someone to outsource this for me.

Or I know this is going to do something for my business. So I know that I can outsource this, whether it’s something I dreaded or something that I didn’t mind, but knew wasn’t quite my zone of genius. The third lesson from Walt Disney is that all of our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.

And that’s the thing about a small business owner. You have to be courageous. This is not what’s considered quote unquote normal. This lifestyle, this instability that we sign up for. I mean, it’s all up to us, right? And especially for those of us in the online space, people that aren’t in the online space don’t get it.

So you have to be courageous. You have to be brave. You have to really believe in yourself enough to go, yes, I can do this, to go, okay. I believe in myself, I believe that I can make this work, it’s not going to be easy, but I’m going to do it. And I’m going to do something that other people aren’t brave enough to do.

And that quote is, it actually was on the journal of the very first notebook I used when I was first starting my business and I was terrified. And that reminder was a reminder to me that keep going. This is something you feel like you’re being called to do. Keep going, be courageous. You have to be courageous.

No one else can be brave for you here. Even with the most supportive husband. I mean, if you’ve read my book, you know that Russell was super supportive right off the bat, but You have to have that courage for yourself, and no one can have enough courage for you if you’re not courageous. And that doesn’t end once your business has started.

It is a daily drawing into this well of courage that you have to have in order to be a business owner. Now, the fourth lesson that I have learned from Walt Disney is that your launches are not What the end result of an offer is gonna be. So if you listened to episode 196, you heard me talking a lot about timing and creating offers and reiterating offers and all of this fun stuff.

Highly recommend that you go back and listen to that one if you haven’t already. But, let me give you a little timeline of Walt Disney’s story to showcase this. So, he began his career in animation in 1920. And then, three years later, he filed for bankruptcy and left Kansas City to move out to California.

So in 1923, just three years later, he begins his career, and then he has to file for bankruptcy and move away. Five years after that, Mickey comes about. Mickey was created in 1928, eight years after he began his career in animation. His first feature length animated cartoon, Snow White, came out in 1937, 17 years after starting his career in animation.

So for 17 years, he wasn’t even creating Disney movies, which is what we all have come to know and love, right? For those of us that are 90s babies, 80s babies, that’s what we grew up on was those great Disney movies. It took Disney 17 years to even get the first one out there. And actually move into that offer.

That wasn’t an offer he had. Sixteen years after that, so sixteen years of creating animated cartoons, Disneyland construction begins in 1954. Thirty four years after he began his career in animation. And then it opened in 1955. So again, when we think Disney, we think incredible movies, we think theme parks.

That’s, those are the two big things, and it took thirty four, thirty five years to get to that place of having the theme parks. And, here’s a little fun fact. Opening day for Disneyland was a complete disaster. There were attractions that weren’t ready and weren’t opened yet. It was so hot that the asphalt on Main Street was literally melting.

Drinking fountains weren’t working, which again, it was very, very hot. Bathrooms had crazy lines because they didn’t have enough bathrooms, they ran out of food and drinks. It was a unqualified disaster. And yet, you look at the Disney world, the Disneyland, the Disney brand of today, and it’s a well oiled machine.

I Nerd out over the little details of operations for Disney, especially, which I’m not going to go into here, but if you also want to nerd out about that kind of thing, head to the Pixie Dust and Profits podcast and listen to some of their episodes, because they really take a deep dive into things like that in every episode, and it’s incredible.

But in 1955. Disneyland opened and was a total disaster and yet look at it now and it’s been almost 70 years That’s a long time. I mean Walt Disney wasn’t even alive to see Disney World opened but all of this has come about over time and through trials and failures and reiterations and improvements and so when I hit this wall of feeling like my business Always has to be changed and I’m always tweaking things and like I’m just never getting it right This is always a great reminder for me that hey Disney never quite got it right either.

There were always improvements right and He had ups and downs as well So if Walt Disney can accept that or you know if he this amazing visionary could go through that and then build this amazing company that’s here today, I can also handle that. And then the final lesson kind of goes off of that, and it’s that Walt Disney once said that Disneyland will never be completed.

It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world. And that is just a reminder to me that my business will never be done. I will never reach this place of feeling like I quote unquote made it. That I have it all figured out and that I’m not going to make changes. It’s just simply always going to be continuing.

It’s just simply always going to be growing and always going to be changing. And as long as I can continue to create a vision and continue to be imaginative, it’ll never be complete. Now, your action step this week goes back to that very first lesson from Walt Disney, and that is to find your people. I have been talking about this a lot recently, for good reason, because in 2023, one of my goals was to find more community, and I cannot tell you how great it was 2023.

I had a really hard year personally, but I had my best year in business. Because, and I know it was very specifically because I had community, and not just financially my best year in business, but mentally my best year in business. So, find your community, and if you need help doing that, I really recommend, here’s your action step, to find your nearest Rising Tides Society chapter and get plugged in.

I absolutely adore the Rising Tide Society. I love what their mission is. I help with their marketing. It is a non profit that is really passionate about helping connect entrepreneurs and creative entrepreneurs in the online space to Build community over competition. And so so you can find your nearest chapter for free I will link in the show notes where you can do that And I just cannot recommend it enough go try it out again.

It’s free You can go get plugged in with other people in your community Which is so nice to be able to meet up in person with other entrepreneurs And that’s your action step for this week Now, your book recommendation is The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth. And I have to be honest, I don’t remember anything about this book.

Um, I read a lot faster than I record podcast episodes, and so I am still recommending 4 and 5 star books from 2022. And this was at the tail end of 2022 when I read this, and so I don’t remember what it’s about, and looking up the description didn’t help jog my memory, so I don’t remember what it’s about.

I’m, it’s a thriller of some sort, um, kind of a mystery thriller, so if you like those types of books, I did rate it very highly, I just don’t remember what it’s about. So I will link to it in the show notes and you can check it out yourself, but The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth. And now, my friend, until next time, I hope you’ll go out and uncomplicate your marketing abyss.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode’s show notes, as well as all of the resources you need to simplify your marketing, over at amandawarfield. com. 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 201: 5 Business Lessons from Walt Disney appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

It’s more than a little surreal to be recording my 200th episode of the Chasing Simple podcast.

200 Episodes. 54 incredible guests. And a wonderful team who helps make this happen each and every week.

To Haylee and Megan of Gaffin Creative – thank you. This podcast would not and could not still exist if I had to edit each episode myself. You two are the real MVPs.

To Jennifer Gregson my wonderful VA. I would be completely drowned by this business without you as my right hand lady. Thank you thank you thank you for always being so top of things and forcing me to ask for help.

And to you, my listeners. Without you, there would be no podcast. Thank you to each of you that DMs me and shares your takeaways and your action steps each week. Thank you to each of you that shares about the podcast on your Instagram and tags me. And thank you to each of you that silently tune in week after week. I am beyond grateful for you most of all.

I wanted to come up with a fun and cool episode for 200, but after thinking it over for quite some time, I realized that I should just do what I do best here on Chasing Simple and get really transparent with you about my business journey to date.

So, buckle up and get ready to hear about my business journey over the last six years – the ups and downs, the false beliefs, and just how full circle everything has come.

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 more than a little surreal to be recording my 200th episode of the Chasing Symbol podcast. 200 episodes, 54 incredible guests, and a wonderful team who helps make this happen each and every week. To Hayley and Megan of Gaffin Creative, Thank you. This podcast would not and could not still exist if I had to edit each episode myself.

You two are the real MVPs. To Jennifer, my incredible, wonderful VA, I would be completely drowned by this business without you as my right hand lady. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for always being so on top of things and for forcing me to ask for help. And to you, my listeners, Without you, there would be no podcast.

Thank you to each of you that DMs me and shares your takeaways and your action steps each week. Thank you to each of you that shares about the podcast on your Instagram and tags me. Thank you to each of you that has left a review of the podcast in Apple Podcasts or wherever it is that you listen. And thank you to each of you that silently tune in week after week.

I am beyond grateful for all of you, most of all. I wanted to come up with a fun and cool episode for 200 because it’s a big deal, but after thinking it over for quite some time, I realized that I should just do what I do best here on Chasing Simple and get really transparent with you about my business journey to date.

So, buckle up and get ready to hear about my business journey over the last six years. The ups, the downs, the false beliefs, and just how full circle everything has come. You’re listening to episode 200 of the Chasing Simple podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by you.

Thank you for being here today, my friend.

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 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 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 want to 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 bring 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? There are a lot of different marketing strategies out there, from content, to networking, to speaking, to ads, and so many more.

And with so many different marketing strategies, it’s easy to find yourself hopping from one to the next. Without seeing results, especially when you see other entrepreneurs getting results from their marketing strategies, when you aren’t seeing any from your own. And after hearing from listener after listener, wondering which marketing strategy they should focus on, I decided to create a quiz to help you narrow down which strategies will be best for you based on your current phase of business.

Head to amandawarfield. com slash quiz to take it. Learn where you should focus your marketing energy and start seeing results from your marketing. Again, that’s amandawarfield. com slash quiz. February 2018, which was. Six years ago was when I conceptualized starting a business. It’s when I, if you’ve heard my story, I went to Russell and said, I want to start a blog and turn it into a business.

And I don’t know how, but I really feel like this is something I need to do right now. And that was six years ago. I’m starting my seventh year. of Dreaming Up My Business Now, and it’s really fun that my 200th episode of the podcast coincides with that. And man, there’s just so much to look back on, but going all the way back to February 2018, it’s, it’s such a fun full circle moment.

Um, we were living in Washington, and I was yearning for more freedom and flexibility. In finances, but also just More importantly, in life, it felt like my schedule and Russell’s schedule was constantly conflicting. I just wanted to be able to spend more time with him, and When I started thinking about starting a blog in a business, I didn’t really know what to expect.

I didn’t have a clear picture of what that would encompass or what things would look like and I knew I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. But the more I learned as I prepared to launch in May of that year, The more I was really convinced that I was going to have this six figure success in if not year one, definitely year two.

And I’d have thousands and thousands of followers. And I just was convinced that I would be making tons of money with my business. And that success looked like that, that that’s what success was. And I think that’s really what the root of it was, is that I was very confident in the fact that this would be a success.

One, because I’m stubborn, but two, because this was something so out of left field that I Was really feeling called to and Something so unexpected. I had never Necessarily thought I would start a business which we can go back even further and I can see the threads of the fact that really I Was an entrepreneur from a very young age But I I didn’t have that logical thought in my mind.

And so this felt so out of left field I felt so called to it and I was convinced it would be a success But you know What I realize success is now, and what I thought success was then, very different things. I was very much fed and believed the idea that six figures and working on your laptop at the beach or at the pool meant success.

And now I realize that making enough to have freedom and to not have to take my laptop to the pool or to the beach is really what success means to me. But, regardless, that’s where I thought I would be, and so I thought it’d be fun to just Let’s, let’s explore the journey of what each year looked like and where things have gone and how I ended up to where I am now.

So 2018, like I said, that’s, that’s where I started with the idea and this all came to me in February and I tried to push it away and it kept coming back up and so I talked to Russell and he was, you know, all for it and super supportive and um, I spent February, March and April learning. All I could about everything, everything I needed to do to start a blog and to Start a blog that would become a business and setting up my website and doing this and doing that and I was just doing all Of the things and I officially launched on May 1st of 2018 And then I spent the rest of the year really focusing on things like routines and time management I created my first educational offer because I always knew right off the bat that I wanted to use my skills and my love of education within this business.

And so my first offer was a workbook on routines. And I’ve shared this before. I thought it was going to be this huge launch. And I thought, you know, if I build it, they’ll come. I did all the things that everyone said. I, you know, I created it. I beta tested it. I, I got people to help with the launch, you know, did all of these things.

And When you look at the numbers, it was a huge success as far as conversion rates go, but of course my audience was teeny tiny Um, and so I felt like it was a huge failure. And so then that was, you know, end of 2018, then I started thinking Okay, well, what else can I do? Because of course my mindset was if that didn’t earn me a ton of money Then it must be the offer Right.

That was that was definitely where my mindset was. It’s got to be the offer if you build it They’ll come if it’s a great thing so 2019 I spent the basically the entire year focusing on capsule wardrobes and I built out my first course and Again, when I launched it that summer, it was a great success by the conversion rates But again, my audience was small And, so even though I felt good about that launch, I also didn’t at the same time.

Like, I was excited because I had pulled off what I felt like was a major launch, and I was excited because I You know, I sold like courses and people went through the course and told me like I had great feedback from it So that felt good. But what didn’t feel good was that I only made like two thousand three thousand dollars that year total Which you know again in hindsight, obviously it makes so much sense But now I know a lot more than I did then and so I was like, well Maybe what I should actually focus on is time management.

And so 2019 was the year that we left Washington, Russell got out of the military, and we moved back to South Carolina at the very end of 2019. And at that time, at the very, very end of 2019, in December, I decided I was going to start offering. One on one time management coaching and so that was when I very first started offering that and I was specifically talking to other business owners with this whereas before my audience had been Basically anyone it wasn’t specific to business.

It wasn’t specific to I didn’t have an audience necessarily It was just literally anyone who wanted to get a little bit more organized and feel less overwhelmed and wanted to simplify and then This time management. I was like, you know what I’m gonna focus specifically on business owners. I have spent the last two summers being full time in my business and in between during the school year running this as a side hustle and As of the move I was officially full time with the business again, not because I was making money was not at all but because Of the timing of the move, we didn’t move until the very end of August, so we got to South Carolina like mid September because we took our time and drove across the country and explored and all of that.

And at that point, the school year had started. As a teacher, I wasn’t finding. a lead teacher position at that point, and we had decided that it was a good opportunity for me to give the blog a chance, to give the business a chance, and try to see if I could grow it full time, because Frankly, if you’re not a lead teacher at a preschool, um, you’re making minimum wage.

And minimum wage in South Carolina is and was 7. 25 an hour and we just kind of thought, you know what, that’s not, it’s not that much money and we can get by on Russell’s income. So we took the chance and we took that dive. And so I started focusing more on time management for business owners. Then 2020 rolls around and in January, again, this is four or five months later, I and Russell are stressing about the fact that I’m not seeing movement and growth in the business.

And, you know, in hindsight, of course I was seeing it, but we didn’t feel like it was moving fast enough. And so I got a job. I became a floater for a preschool and I also signed up to be on their substitute list and that was end of January, early February of 2020. And then we all know what happened very shortly after that.

So, um, with the pandemic, I was forced back into full time entrepreneurship essentially. And yeah, it It really forced me to keep going with what I was doing to not give up, and by accident, things took off in 2020, so two years after I had started. So by accident, things took off. I posted on Instagram. You know, just a random post that I threw out there about how I batched out a month’s worth of content in just one week, and it got a ton of traction.

And then I thought, huh, I’ve never had anything get this much attention, so let me post about it again. And so I did, and it once again got a ton of attention. And I thought, hmm. This, this could be something and so I continued to talk about batching and I created a course on content batching, content batching bootcamp.

I still have it today. It’s my best selling course by far. And that’s it. At the time, I was really insistent that I was simply focusing on time management and systems when it came to batching, which is essentially what batching is. It’s, it’s a system that you create and a way to manage your time and your resources and your mental capacity for content creation.

But as I taught it, because I taught it live the first three times as I taught it, and I launched it one after another, after another, I kept getting questions about content strategy. And I realized, oh, I, I know this stuff. This is, this is something that I know. And I, I do understand it. And so the more I got asked about it, the more I talked about it and throughout the end of 2020 and into the beginning of 2021, I realized, huh.

Um, I can’t help people with their marketing strategy. And so I started taking on strategy clients at the end of 2021 for 2022. And I spent 2022 really serving those clients well and really fine tuning and perfecting how it is that I create my own strategies and how I create those strategies for clients.

Learning what my process was and what I believed about marketing. And I also, in 2022, was the first time I spoke on stages. I spoke at a handful of conferences and events that year. Focused on building funnels on the back end of my business, so that I could have not just launch launches, but also evergreen promotions.

So I had the launch promotion and evergreen promotions together. But, I spent a lot of time in 2022. Wondering what I was doing wrong. I still was not making all that much money. So, 2022 was the year that I was finally bringing home what I made as a preschool teacher. But, that was what, 1, 2, 3, 4 years into my business.

I was finally bringing home what I made as a preschool teacher. Not much, not a lot, not a lot at all. So, I spent a lot of time wondering what I was doing wrong. I felt like I have the knowledge, I know what I’m doing, I understand business strategy, I’ve got funnels, I’ve got launches, I’ve got this, I’ve got that.

Why am I not farther ahead? Why do I feel like Something’s missing. Spoiler alert! What I was missing was relationships, and early in 2022, I did a lot better job of building those relationships, and I spent 2022 spending a lot of time building relationships, and I cannot tell you the difference that it ended up making in my business.

In 2023, I launched my book, which, you know, most of you probably know, if you listened to the introduction of this episode, you know, I launched my book. I started writing it in 2022. And when I launched the book in 2023, it had all, like, there was so much success. And I’m still just honored beyond words for that.

But it all is because. I’ve built relationships and I spent so much time intentionally building relationships and people were happy to spend 20 ordering a book and to share about it on Instagram and say, Hey, I know her and she wrote a book. And so all of that happened, you know, leading up to July, 20, 23, things were.

A huge success, 2023, every year in business has gotten just better and better. And so, 2023 felt very successful for me as a business owner. In 2022, I launched My shop and so in 2023, I spent a lot of time Doing even more with the funnels on the back end of my business so that things sell evergreen a whole lot easier So that when people come in at one point, there’s you know This entire ladder for them and there’s three different ladders and I could share about all that another episode But basically I was really Flexing out the foundations of my business and then in July, which if you’ve listened to my episode from beginning this year about my 2024 goals, you know, that things took a drastic turn in the year and life has just been constant since then.

And now that full circle moment, um, I ended 2023. back in Washington, living in Washington again, and working part time, which it’s such a nice full circle moment because when I was working part time before I felt like I had to and I so desperately wanted to build this six figure business because I wanted to be successful and I wanted this freedom and now I’ve come to realize I don’t, I still, to this day, we’re in year seven of business now.

I have not hit six figures. I could hit it this year, but I’m not even counting on it, honestly. Yet, I feel so successful. I’m going to be the breadwinner for our family for a large chunk of this year. I’m working part time not because I have to, but because I I really want to because I enjoy that part time job and because it’s something that I feel really passionate about and that is such a difference maker and that is the exact freedom and flexibility that I really wanted when I started my business.

And so man, it’s been such a journey and it’s, it’s made me emotional, um, to sit here and think about how full circle it has become in the last six years. So. What I want to encourage you to do this week, your action step, write out your own business journey. Celebrate how far you’ve come. If you feel like sharing about how far you’ve come, please send me a DM.

I’d love to celebrate you and I also just want to really encourage you to To think about what success means to you, there’s another podcast episode I will link to it in the show notes where Hayley Gaffin came on and we talked about this previously So you can listen to that if you haven’t already.

It’s been a while since it came out So maybe you should free listen, but yeah, write out what your journey looks like take the time to celebrate it and really sit down and think about what success means to you because Often the reason we started our businesses What we envision success being isn’t what it actually is, but the heart and the root of what we think success is.

Was there from the beginning, if that makes sense? I don’t know, maybe that’s really convoluted, but basically it’s just kind of amazing to sit back and think about. So, okay, I’m gonna stop rambling. Thank you for letting me share that with you and just enjoy this full circle moment for episode 200 of the Chasing Civil Podcast.

I am so grateful that you’re here. Whether you, this is the first episode you’ve listened to, or if this is the 200th episode that you’ve listened to, I am beyond grateful for you. I wouldn’t be able to keep. running this podcast without the listeners. So thank you. for tuning in as often as you do. And I’m just incredibly grateful for you.

Your book recommendation for this week is The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hildebrand. Uh, she is often recommended by me. I love her work. I will link this one in the show notes as well. But basically it’s got, it’s got some historical drama kind of. Sort of mixed into it, which is a fun twist on what she normally does, but it’s, it’s about a hotel, and this hotel is, has rumors to be haunted, and there’s some things, you know, some, some drama and some mysteries that you’re trying to figure out, and yet it still has her typical flair, so.

It was a really fun, I don’t want to say deviation of what she normally writes because it was still similar, but she, she added some extra things this time around that I thought was really fun. So, The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hildebrand. And until next time, my friend, thank you for being here. 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 over at amandawarfield. com. 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 200: A Look Back at 6 Years in Business appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

One of the most frequently asked questions in my annual survey is – how do I find and get to know my audience? Which, is valid, because understanding your audience is one of – if not THE- most important part of marketing.

If you don’t understand your audience, consistency won’t matter. Exciting launches won’t matter. Basically, nothing will matter. So, I brought in an expert on messaging and market research to help us dive into who our audience is and what they need from us.

Nadine Nethery is the Founder of CAN DO! Content and a strategic website and email copywriter for female founders who want to intentionally attract, delight and retain their dream customers. Her strategic take on audience research and copy turns every brand touchpoint into genuine connections that drive sales, celebrate loyalty and surround you with keen brand advocates who happily do the word-spreading for you. Over the past 7 years, Nadine has given global e-commerce success stories, game-changing startups and industry-disrupting service providers the words to shine and the strategies to build a sustainable business long-term.

Nadine Nethery is the Founder of CAN DO! Content and a strategic website and email copywriter for female founders who want to intentionally attract, delight and retain their dream customers. Her strategic take on audience research and copy turns every brand touchpoint into genuine connections that drive sales, celebrate loyalty and surround you with keen brand advocates who happily do the word-spreading for you. Over the past 7 years, Nadine has given global e-commerce success stories, game-changing startups and industry-disrupting service providers the words to shine and the strategies to build a sustainable business long-term.

Social Links:

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Amanda Warfield: One of the most frequently asked questions in my annual survey is how do I find and get to know my audience? Which is valid because understanding your audience is one of, if not the, most important part of marketing. If you don’t understand your audience, consistency won’t matter. Exciting launches won’t matter.

Amanda Warfield: So basically, nothing will matter. So I brought in an expert on messaging and marketing research to help us dive into who our audience is and what it is that they need from us. Nadine Nethery is the founder of CanDo Content and a strategic website and email copywriter for female founders who want to intentionally attract, delight and retain their dream customers.

Amanda Warfield: Her strategic take on audience research and copy turns every brand touchpoint into genuine connections that drive sales, celebrate loyalty, and surround you with keen brand advocates who happily do the word spreading for you. Over the past seven years, Nadine has given global e commerce success stories, game changing startups, and industry disrupting service providers the words to shine and strategies to build a sustainable business long term.

Amanda Warfield: You’re listening to episode 199 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.

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? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly.

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 Gamecock Sports, traveling, or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

Amanda Warfield: 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 want to be doing is the thing that they started their business to do.

Amanda Warfield: 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 bring you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you.

Amanda Warfield: 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 

Nadine Nethery: we? 

Amanda Warfield: There are a lot of different marketing strategies out there.

Amanda Warfield: From content, to networking, to speaking, to ads, and so many more. And with so many different marketing strategies, it’s easy to find yourself hopping from one to the next. without seeing results. Especially when you see other entrepreneurs getting results from their marketing strategies, when you aren’t seeing any from your own.

Amanda Warfield: And after hearing from listener after listener wondering which marketing strategy they should focus on, I decided to create a quiz to help you narrow down Which strategies will be best for you based on your current phase of business? Head to AmandaWarfield. com slash quiz to take it. Learn where you should focus your marketing energy and start seeing results from your marketing.

Amanda Warfield: Again, that’s AmandaWarfield. com slash quiz. Hi, Nadine. I am. So excited about this conversation. Like I just mentioned before we hit record, I know that this is something that my audience has heard me talk about more than once, but I’m really excited to hear an expert’s take on the how of it, the why of it, just more in depth conversation about.

Amanda Warfield: Really getting to know your own audience, but before we get into all of that good stuff, tell us a little bit about who you 

Nadine Nethery: are and what you do. Yeah, certainly. Thanks so much for having me, Amanda. Um, can’t wait for this chat. One of my favorite topics. Um, so I’m Nadine, I am a strategic website and email copywriter for women led brands, and I’m based in Sydney, Australia, um, where I am on the outskirts, on five stunning acres and chase my three kids when I’m not.

Nadine Nethery: Busy in my copywriting cave, um, working for, for client projects. I came into copywriting like so many of us on a bit of a detour. I’ve got a background in marketing and corporate communications. So I’ve always had to find that special angle to sell a product or, um, You know, um, come up with that unique point of difference to, to really get people to, to fall in love with the brand.

Nadine Nethery: Um, and then, yeah, redundancy came along, you know, several pregnancies, as I said, and, um, that sent me on a bit of a soul searching journey to work out what I want to do, how I can have the biggest impact, um, and also find the biggest fulfillment. So yeah, it took a few years, but, um, eventually. Came into copywriting via content marketing, um, because back then, you know, social media had organic reach and actually, um, was somewhat more, um, yeah, more easy to tackle than it seems today.

Nadine Nethery: So it came into. My own business that way, and then fell in love with copywriting, went, um, and trained with some of the best copywriters because I love learning and, um, yeah, it took the full time plunge into, um, yeah, quitting my, my corporate geek in late 2020, and I’ve never looked back and nowadays I get to support amazing women.

Nadine Nethery: Um, both e commerce and service based businesses on their copywriting journey and, um, yeah, finding their voice, getting their point of difference across, and most importantly, writing copy that really speaks to the core of their dream audience. What 

Amanda Warfield: happens when we don’t truly know and understand our audience?

Amanda Warfield: How does that affect our 

Nadine Nethery: marketing? Yeah. Um, basically it means you are basing everything in your business on assumptions, because let’s face it, we are all super close to our business. We are very passionate about with what we do. We think we know our zone of genius and why people are actually trusting us with, um, their brand and.

Nadine Nethery: inviting us into their business to help them. But, um, yeah, when it comes down to it, um, that can be a huge problem for your marketing because your messaging is going to fall flat. Um, your copy actually is not going to speak to the problems, the desires, the transformation that your audience is hoping. And ultimately you can send as many emails and, um, You know, send out as many social media posts as you want, but it’s not going to get you the result that the audience actually is going to be primed and ready to, um, see you as that perfect fit and the perfect solution to help them out of their, um, yeah, out of their funk.

Nadine Nethery: That’s so 

Amanda Warfield: good. And just the idea of your copywriting falls flat. I know that I’ve experienced this. I’m sure my audience has when you think like, Oh, I’ve got everything set up and prepped and ready to go for this launch or this new offer or whatever it may be. And you put the content out there and it just crickets.

Amanda Warfield: And you’re like, man, I thought, I thought I had it figured out. And so that’s a sign of actually, you didn’t dig deep enough quite for your audience and, and they don’t feel like, you know, them, they feel like you just kind of have a general idea of them. So on the flip side of that. What do you see happen when you have clients that you’re working with and you guys are able to really ensure that you do understand their audience?

Nadine Nethery: Yeah, so every client, um, project that I take on always starts with audience research and actually taking that step back and, um, yeah, having a conversation with either their existing audience, if they established and they’ve been around, around for a while. Or if they are trying to change a niche, you know, launching new offers that speak to a different audience, um, we’re going to actually speak to them, their ideal new audience to make sure that we have that messaging down pat.

Nadine Nethery: So, um, yeah, that process often comes with so many aha moments. Um, along the way as well, not only when it comes to the way they’re showing up online, but also, um, when it comes to their services, how they deliver them, the products, um, in themselves, the, you know, online course, et cetera. So it really, um. Yeah.

Nadine Nethery: Helps them, helps them understand themselves more, their business more. And, um, yeah, it, it means ultimately their website copy, the email copy is doing the selling for them with them without having to push that hard sell. So they can just be authentic. They can show up with empathy because they have that clear understanding.

Nadine Nethery: And it makes everything so much easier. Um, and ultimately even your website becomes a, an organic sales machine where people who resonate with your messaging are going to reach out, book that discovery call, book, you know, your one on one session. If you can book online. Um, and those people who aren’t your perfect fit audience, they’re not going to waste your time or their time, and they’re going to click away.

Nadine Nethery: And ultimately that is what your website should be doing. It shouldn’t be vanilla speak to everyone. Um, it really needs to do that pre selection for you. Um, and it is, it just means you run a much more streamlined business that organically attracts, um, who is perfectly positioned to buy from you. So how do you go 

Amanda Warfield: about getting to know your audience?

Amanda Warfield: What do you do? 

Nadine Nethery: Yeah. So, um, as I said before, you can either tap into your existing audience or into, um, that potential audience that hasn’t worked with you before, and they are both really valid, um, really amazing perspectives and, um, you can. Begin with a customer survey. So that’s how we usually begin.

Nadine Nethery: It’s a very strategic set of questions that takes your customers or that perspective audience on, um, a journey to relive that experience with your brand. So it starts with looking at what happened before they decided that they need help with X, Y, Z problem. And you know, those mindset hurdles that were going on, how they potentially consider.

Nadine Nethery: Solving that problem and then also what made you that perfect fit. Um, then we’re shifting to, um, during the process. So those first aha moments that came with it, um, the immediate transformation, immediate wins. And ultimately down the track, you want to, um, work out the tangible results. So hard hitting wins that you can turn into amazing.

Nadine Nethery: Really relatable copy bits and pieces. So that can be numbers that can be, um, you know, increase in retention. It just makes it super relatable rather than sticking with, um, words like, you know, uplifting, empowering, like I empowered my customers, my customers felt more confident, all those things are great, but, um.

Nadine Nethery: You know, no one can really relate to it. Whereas if you can put hard numbers to it and actual results like, you know, I doubled, um, the number of inquiries and I even landed 90 percent of those customers. Um, so everything feels much more relatable, um, and much more real, um, and people can picture themselves.

Nadine Nethery: In your customer’s shoes. So that’s the first step. So surveying your audience and then if you have responses, um, that where you go, oh my God, that’s something I never considered. It’s an angle that’s really interesting. They are super generous and, and share really generously in, in their answers. Then I would recommend inviting them for a quick chat.

Nadine Nethery: So, you know, 15 minutes of your time, you can even return the favor and let them pick your brain for 15 minutes just to get them across the line and actually, you know, commit to that, that appointment. Um, and that’s where you have the opportunity to dig even deeper. So you can, um, let them elaborate on, um, their answers, um, and have those follow up questions that really allow you to, to go even deeper.

Nadine Nethery: And the good thing about conversations is you can transcribe them. Which means you don’t have to frantically take notes along the way. You can listen with intent after if you revisit that transcript, it allows you to pick up the actual words and the actual language that your audience is using that you can then literally plug straight into your copy.

Nadine Nethery: Um, in, in many instances. 

Amanda Warfield: I love that you pointed out that using the surveys helps you to make your copy and your content so much more real, because over and over again with my clients, I see, you know, I’ll, I’ll say, okay, well, what’s the transformation or what is their win or, you know, I’ll ask a question when we’re trying to really dive into their offer, their offer messaging.

Amanda Warfield: And. They’ll come back with something like empowering or whatever, and it’s like, that’s great, but that’s really fluffy and it means nothing to anybody. Unless you’re feeling empowered in any given moment, it’s hard to encourage someone to feel that, 

Nadine Nethery: you know? Yeah, and um. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s, um, it’s so much more relatable.

Nadine Nethery: Um, and you get people to, to nod along. So you want that, um, you know, that instant scrolling people can’t get enough of your sales page because they just feel so heard and seen and understood. And that’s only going to happen if you take the time to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and actually go on that journey with them and work out.

Nadine Nethery: How you can support them, who is that perfect fit, and that means ultimately you get, get customers working with you that are going to get the outcomes that you want, and that’s the win win for everyone. You don’t want to attract customers who were never the first and the perfect fit in the first place.

Nadine Nethery: It’s true. Such a good 

Amanda Warfield: point. So how often. Should we be going about doing that market research and sending out those surveys? 

Nadine Nethery: Yeah, so I would start if you’ve never taken the time to actually survey your audience and take that step back, then I would send one out today, this week, you know, actually put it on your to do list because it Doesn’t take very long and, um, the aha moments that come from it are so powerful, but if you already have done it, um, I would see and investigate how you can incorporate, um, automated surveys into your onboarding process, um, and.

Nadine Nethery: Offboarding process along the way within your client project. So it feels more organic and you don’t have to actually remember to check in with customers down the track because we’re all busy. There’s so much to do. And, um, you know, with CRM systems, it’s so easy to ask a set of very strategic questions as you welcome people on board.

Nadine Nethery: Um, and then as you deliver. Let’s say your website copy, you know, that email flow, whatever you deliver, um, for those immediate wins. And then again, you know, a few weeks or a few months, depending on what, um, how long it takes for your, your deliverables to, to do their job, um, you again, just. Touch base with them, check in, see how they’re going, which you should be doing anyway.

Nadine Nethery: Um, and then throw in a few, a few strategic questions that get you those tangible wins. So you can then add them to testimonials and, and also use them on your website, on your sales page, wherever you might need them. So the key is to automate it where you can to not add to your already long to do list, but make it super streamlined and, and something that you can, um, yeah.

Nadine Nethery: You can tap into on an ongoing basis. So 

Amanda Warfield: when you’re working with one on one clients, you recommend towards the beginning at the end, and then a few months later as well. 

Nadine Nethery: Absolutely. Yeah. What about 

Amanda Warfield: for those that are listening that have more digital based products or even physical products or courses, things like that, how can they.

Amanda Warfield: Automate 

Nadine Nethery: surveys. Yeah. Yeah. So I’ve got a few, um, digital products myself. So, um, I have, again, strategically placed a few, um, strategic questions along the way. So I do have an intake survey. Again, very, very strategic, very short because people are very excited, they want to get stuck in. So again, capturing that initial thought pattern, why they were looking for the cause, what made them buy, um, you know, what convinced them to, to hand over their credit card details.

Nadine Nethery: Um, and then as they go through my course content, I also have one question, surveys after, um, particular modules where I expect, you know, big transformations, big aha moments, the penny drops. And, um, they are super powerful as well because they are in the moment live feedback as people have watched your content, they, you know, have engaged with that new piece of information that’s going to get them to their win.

Nadine Nethery: Um. So they have been super, super practical to even dig deeper into the actual course itself and work out how I can improve it and how I can, um, yeah, add to it to have even more impact. And then I also survey them after the course. So once I’ve completed it, um, get that feedback. So, you know, whether the course aligned with their expectations, um, how I can improve it, as I said, I’m a big fan of, um, using those insights to actually improve your business.

Nadine Nethery: The way you do business, et cetera, as well. So yeah, and that is super simple. You just embed those surveys in your course portal in your platform. Um, something that is just sitting there waiting, waiting for your audience and your, your students to, um, to tap into. 

Amanda Warfield: That’s so great. And I love that. Okay. So beforehand, you’re like, what, what made you buy and where are you now?

Amanda Warfield: And then at the end, okay, where are you now after you’ve done the work? But when you’re asking questions throughout. After a particular part of our module, what kind of questions are you asking there? 

Nadine Nethery: Yeah, it’s literally just, for example, in my audience success formula. So part of it is actually tapping into your audience without knowing where your audience hangs out.

Nadine Nethery: You don’t have existing clients. So it’s something a lot of. My students have never considered before because there’s that assumption that you have to have existing clients. You can’t do audience research without actually serving people already. Um, and so after that particular survey where, um, I explore online snooping as I like to call it in a non creepy way.

Nadine Nethery: Um, a lot of people are just, yeah, so. So, um, surprised that there was so much goodness at their fingertips and, um, they never considered tapping into it. So, um, there are so many gems that have come from that, that I now use in my sales emails as, you know, screenshots, screen grabs to, to even just highlight that the first module in, in that particular program is already setting you up with so many, um, you know, successes, even before you send your first customer survey.

Nadine Nethery: Yes, that’s all about the instant aha moment, that penny drop situation to, to really get the excitement and, um, again, the language that they’re using to describe that to, um, use it in the copy. 

Amanda Warfield: Okay. So once you’ve done the market research. Then what do you do with that information? How do you, how do you kind of go through and disseminate through it?

Amanda Warfield: Yeah, 

Nadine Nethery: yeah, that’s the key because, um, you know, you can send out all the surveys, have all the responses, and if you don’t actually systemize them, um, you have spent a whole lot of Time looking through it and otherwise. All right. So I love to organize them into buckets, which, um, you can absolutely add to as you go along, you can also update them because let’s face it.

Nadine Nethery: Um, with recessions and pandemics, all the things that are popping up around us, not no one’s will coming. You nimble and adjust your messaging to go with the times because things that were applicable three years ago, pre COVID. probably have shifted somewhat since then. So it’s important to keep that up to date, gather new intel, um, and then update those buckets as you go along.

Nadine Nethery: The actual buckets themselves, um, are tapping into that customer journey. So that experience from pre purchase through to, um, transformation. Um, and we’re looking at objections. So those things that We’re holding people back potentially, uh, from purchasing, um, around, you know, it could be cost, it could be time, it could be mindset.

Nadine Nethery: So all those, um, juicy details, then the pain points. So what tangible problem is keeping them up at night that they’re trying to solve? Um, on the flip side, we’ve got the transformation. So what are they hoping to achieve by taking your calls by working with you one on one? And we’re also looking at false beliefs.

Nadine Nethery: These are super handy as well, because we need to acknowledge them and, um. You know, because we’re all surrounded by family, friends, society that try to tell us certain things are true and applicable. Um, so we’ve got those voices surrounding us, um, that impact our purchasing decision as well. So finding out those misconceptions that, um, were floating around, around, you know, audience research, great, great example.

Nadine Nethery: You know, people don’t think they need. Audience research, because they know their audience. So it’s around, you know, addressing those, um, false beliefs and, um, validating, you know, the actual, the actual truth. Um, we’re also looking at sticky words, um, my favorite. So these are part of the response, um, the survey responses that are so good that you can literally copy and paste them often into headlines, subheadings.

Nadine Nethery: Um, into bullet point lists of, you know, tangible outcomes. They are amazing. And basically your audience is doing half your copywriting. For you, um, as an example here, I’ve recently worked with a, um, membership or, um, empty nest midlife women. So women transitioning from being all absorbed into, you know, in being a mom, their kids are moving to college and all of a sudden they’re left with that big void.

Nadine Nethery: And, um, we also surveyed, you know, her audience and, and, um, got to know them to actually work out. What is what the problems are, the objections, you know, the transformation and, um, someone responded that they are looking for the 50 year old version of their favorite play group mom. And that is something I could never have come up with.

Nadine Nethery: And, um, it is so relatable and tangible and, um, real that we literally use that in, um, in her sales copy left, right and center, because it’s just. Yeah. Too good to pass by. So things like that, often you read it and you go, Oh my God, it’s a completely different perspective. Something I could never, never make up in my wildest dreams.

Nadine Nethery: Yes. A sticky words and sticky terms. They are amazing. And often as well, um, you can have a bucket around, um, things about you. So testimonials, um, when you survey your existing customers, um, And if you design your survey strategically, you can actually piece together really powerful testimonials. Away along the way as well for your website, because you are taking them on that journey, you know, what was going on in their lives before they worked with you.

Nadine Nethery: So that addresses the pain points, the transformation they’ve experienced, and then those tangible results and those testimonials really do the selling for you. Um, and are so much better than those that say, you know, Amanda was amazing to work with because that does no good for anyone. Sorry. Yeah, the nice side benefit from, um, yeah, getting all those buckets is to actually be able to have fresh testimonials, um, that you can use obviously with permission.

Nadine Nethery: So, you know, make sure you include a question in your survey as well that, um, that addresses that and just, you know, says, can I use your insights on my website? And you’d be surprised, a lot of people actually are more than happy to share. That’s so powerful. Okay. 

Amanda Warfield: So you take the answers, the survey responses, and you kind of sort them out into all these different categories.

Amanda Warfield: When you sit down to write and create that copy and that content, how do you use what you’ve sorted to craft something that is actually going to 

Nadine Nethery: help increase those sales? Yeah. So when I then approach, um, my client’s website copy, for example, I have a very Um, you know, thought out structure for each of the web pages, um, that takes the reader on the journey.

Nadine Nethery: So depending on which section I’m working on, I will visit, um, certain buckets in my spreadsheet, um, and see how I can incorporate them, um, in the copy. So basically, um, the audience is doing the, the basic structure for me, you know, the content, and then what all it comes down to is for me to actually, uh, put it together in a way that.

Nadine Nethery: Sounds good and presentable. It actually leads the reader to that next, next logical step, but it just takes out the guesswork, um, that so often happens when, when you’re trying to write anything for your business, be it an email, your website, you’re staring at that blank page and you have no idea where to start.

Nadine Nethery: So this way you can actually go to pre You know, pre sorted, pre curated ideas, um, and then turn them into bullet point lists, um, and yeah, really have relatable structure for your copy, um, before you even start writing. And then the sticky terms, um, as I said, I look through those all the time and see how I can, how I can even use, you know, fractions, um, of that.

Nadine Nethery: Of those expressions in a copy because it just takes, um, your copy game to that next level. This 

Amanda Warfield: is so helpful. And this has been such a great dive into how exactly to get to know your audience and then how to use what you’ve learned about them. In your content, your copy and your messaging so that you can increase those sales.

Amanda Warfield: But if you could give everyone just one action step for 

Nadine Nethery: this interview, what would it be? I would actually just send that first survey literally. Um, it takes 10 minutes of your time. Um, I personally use. Google, um, Google forms. There are so many other, you know, free platforms out there. It’s not complex and, um, it can gather data in the background as you keep working.

Nadine Nethery: And then when you have the time, you come back to it and sift through it, but commit to those 10 minutes today to put together a survey that takes your reader, um, your audience on, on that journey to actually, um, start collecting. Data for your copy and, um, get into the habit of, of making it a regular, um, a regular process in your business.

Nadine Nethery: Yeah. 

Amanda Warfield: I love that. Get started. Send that first survey today, friends. So if you give everyone one book recommendation, what would it be? What’s a must read or must 

Nadine Nethery: listen to? Yeah. So I, um, I love Kate Northrop’s book, Do Less. Um, as it’s quite shocking, actually, as women, I think we’re so, um. Yeah, so, so removed from our bodies and our blog sometimes that, um, yeah, reading it just really opened my eyes to, um, the way I reacted to, you know, client projects, even like my timeline, my calendar.

Nadine Nethery: So for those of you who haven’t heard of the book, it’s all about, um, yeah, understanding your cycle as a woman and then trying to. Book appointments and you know, your client work around your cycle rather than having to, uh, keep writing on against, um, you know, your natural, um, the natural way your body wants to, wants to behave in certain weeks.

Nadine Nethery: And, um, yeah, obviously it’s not always possible to keep weak, clear, um, of client work. But when I can. I try to, um, yeah, work out which appointments naturally would flow into this week. Um, and which ones I should put off for another week if possible. So, um, yeah, for those of you who want to understand how your body as a woman impacts not only your life, but your business and everything that comes with it, highly recommend.

Nadine Nethery: I need to 

Amanda Warfield: reread that one. I read it when I was like first beginning my journey to understanding my cycle and how all of that works. And now that I’ve been doing this for a while and really have been working on Cycle Syncing, I should go back and reread that. It’s sitting on my bookshelf. 

Nadine Nethery: So that’s a great recommendation.

Nadine Nethery: Yeah. Same. Peace from Rwanda. 

Amanda Warfield: Nadine, thank you so, so much for being here today. I really appreciate you taking the time to just Pour into everyone that’s listening and help them get to know their audience a little 

Nadine Nethery: bit better. Thanks so much for having me, Amanda.

Amanda Warfield: 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 over at amandawarfield. com. 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 199: Increase Sales by Getting to Know Your Audience with Nadine Nethery appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

Last month I had the incredible privilege to be able to attend two very different conferences – one as an attendee (the Creative Educator Conference), and the other as an educator (Conquer Live). Both of these experiences were nothing short of amazing, and I am still on cloud 9 a few weeks later because of them.

So, today I wanted to share a bit about each one of them and get them on YOUR radar. Because as I’ll share in this episode – there’s nothing more powerful for your business than an in-person event.

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]!

Last month, I had the incredible privilege to be able to attend two very different conferences, one as an attendee and the other as an educator. Both of these experiences were nothing short of amazing and I am still on cloud nine a few weeks later because of them. So today, I wanted to share a bit about each one of them and get them on your radar.

Because, as I’ll share in this episode, there’s nothing more powerful for your business than an in person event. You’re listening to episode 198 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 slash 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 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, 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 want to 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 bring 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 There are a lot of different marketing strategies out there in business from content to networking to speaking to ads and So many more, and with so many different marking strategies, it’s easy to find yourself hopping from one to the next, without seeing results.

Especially when you see other entrepreneurs getting results from their marketing strategies when you aren’t seeing any from your own. And after hearing from listener after listener wondering which marketing strategy they should focus on, I decided to create a quiz to help you narrow down which strategies will be best for you based on your current phase of business.

Head to amandawarfield. com slash quiz to take it. Learn where you should focus your marketing energy and start seeing results from your marketing. Again, that’s amandawarfield. com slash quiz. I want to start with the biggest lesson that I learned between going to these two different conferences, and that is to get in the room, get in the room.

I’ve shared this before on the podcast, but I spent years isolating myself as a business owner and I had this misconception that doing business online meant doing it alone. And it’s just not true and your business cannot and will not grow. If you’re not building relationships, if you’re not making connections and over the last several years, you know I’ve been meeting all of these really incredible people virtually and online and just with timing of things I haven’t had the opportunity to go to a ton of conferences And the ones that I have been to, either I wasn’t meeting people there that I had already connected with online, or I was there for a very short amount of time.

And these conferences were the first time that I really got to enjoy being in the room with people that I had connected with, and that I had talked to virtually, and over Zoom calls, and that I’ve interviewed for the podcast, or I’ve been on their podcast, and man, it was amazing. And And not only did it lead to new leads, I booked a new client at one of the conferences, I mean some really incredible things happened business wise, but it just felt so good.

Good. It just felt so good to be surrounded by people who get it and I can’t emphasize it enough I feel like there aren’t truly words to describe the way it feels and how incredible it is. But I Truly would really encourage you to find a conference. That’s your action step. Spoiler. I’m just gonna go ahead and share it Your action step is to find a conference and make it your goal to get there for the next one Whether that’s this year or next year, whether you have to start saving or you can go ahead and afford it, it truly is worth every penny.

It’s an incredible investment in your business and in yourself, and it really will fill your cup. And it’s going to help you grow your business. Period. You’re gonna learn new things, you’re gonna get new ideas, you’re going to make connections, get in the room with people who are your ideal audience, and who are people just doing this with you, side by side, in the same industry, in similar industries.

I, I cannot. share how much of a difference that it makes, and frankly, if there was only one thing you ever did to run a successful business, it would be that. So, that’s the biggest lesson that I learned. But I did want to share more about each of these conferences, because they were so different, and the experiences were so different, and yet they were both truly incredible.

And I know that when I’ve been researching different conferences or retreats in the past, I’ve always Googled, you know, this, the name of said conference reviews, and I’ve looked to see what other people have said about it. So, I wanted to kind of pass that on and do that for someone else who may be interested.

So the first conference I went to was Lili Amati’s Creative Educator Conference. It was in Dallas, Texas. And this was the one that I was an attendee for. So I was not speaking. I was just there as an attendee to learn. And there were roughly, I think, around a hundred attendees. And, um, I don’t remember how many speakers, quite a few, but it was absolutely incredible.

This conference is for creative educators. So whether you are creating courses or you’re simply putting out content that educates your audience in order to help them decide whether or not they need to work with you, whatever that may be, if you’re educating in some way, shape, or form. This conference is probably for you.

In fact, most of my audience, most of my listeners, if you’re listening, this conference is probably for you. Leili brings in incredible educators, but outside of that, she has a true gift for creating conferences. I mean, again, I haven’t been to a ton of conferences, but I’ve been to enough to know that when I walked into this conference, I knew it was different, and I knew immediately that Leili had a really, really special gift for this, from the way things were set up, to the intentional details, to the actual speaker topic, the speakers and the speaker topics themselves.

Every little thing had been thought of and there was just so much intention and so much detail and so much planning that you can tell that Laylee did and she really brings together just Incredible people so that’s kind of my rough overview of what that conference was. I learned so much I have Pages and pages and pages of notes that I will be going through over honestly probably the next year because I’m gonna implement things slow and steady, but if you are someone who educates and You want to improve How you’re educating and how your education is growing your business This is a conference you’re definitely going to want to add to your list.

I’ve already, I’ve already signed up for my ticket for 2025, right? So, um, I truly mean it when I say that this one is absolutely amazing and well worth every single penny. The second conference I attended was Conquer Live, and this is hosted by Jamie Fisher and Heather Lacey. And this is a conference specifically for photographers, so if you’re a photographer, Add this one to your list.

And I was one of the educators for this one. So I wasn’t attending as an attendee, but as an educator. And what makes Conquer so different and why, if you’re a photographer, you should definitely add it to your list for 2025, is the The way that things are set up so with the creative educator conference again, it’s a hundred people at that one I don’t know how many 20 25 will be but a hundred people a hundred attendees and then all the speakers and everyone else and you You have to pay for your ticket to the event, which does like, there’s breakfast and there’s lunch and all of that, but you have to pay for your transportation, you have to do your own dinners, and you have to pay for your hotel.

Again, worth every penny. I’m not, that’s not. This isn’t a, this one’s good, this is bad. They’re just different. Um, there are a lot of really great pros to that, which, you know, I’m an introvert. I love having my own space. So for me, I love those kind of conferences. Conquer Live is different. And again, this isn’t saying one is better than the other.

They’re just different. But Conquer Live is different because it’s a much smaller group. There are only 15 attendees and I believe there were like 12 educators, something like that. 15 attendees, 12 educators. roughly 30 people in the house, give or take, and you’re all in one house together. People are definitely sharing rooms, you know, I had a roommate, everyone had roommates, some people had multiple roommates, um, but you’re all in the one house together.

You pay for your ticket, and once, you just have to get there. All of your meals are covered, and in fact, they They do catering, so you plan ahead of time. Okay, what meal do I want from this place for each meal? And honestly, the Google form was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen. It must have taken them hours and hours and hours to put that together.

But you tell them ahead of time what you want. They order the catering. Some of the volunteers that they have go and pick it up and deliver it to the house for you. You don’t have to leave the house once you get there. Food is covered. Everything’s taken care of. It’s really incredible. But outside of that, because you’re all in one house together and you’re so, you’re just, you’re doing life together for a few days, right?

Um, The educators and the attendees got so much time together. As an educator, this was really, really incredible and I can only imagine the impact it made as an attendee. But as an educator, it was so nice to, you know, you, you go up and you speak and you share your presentation and at most conferences when you’re doing that you, you, You go up there and you really hope that you’re changing someone’s viewpoint, and you’re making, for me, like, making their marketing a little bit simpler for them.

And you hope that someone will come up and ask you questions, but otherwise, that’s just kind of it. You know, you’re there, and you mingle with the attendees, and you do what you can, but at Conquer, they take that to a whole other level. Where, as an educator, you’re truly there to serve. We quite literally, one morning, the educators Make breakfast for everyone and we serve the attendees and it just the heart behind that is so evident And you know, we each had a buddy where we were Connected with someone one of the attendees and it was kind of our job to make sure that they went home with an action plan and one that wasn’t going to overwhelm them.

And we got, you know, 10 minutes specified with each and every person, every single attendee, which I just thought was so incredible, where they could ask you as many questions as they could fit into those 10 minutes. And there’s so much other time and other things you’re doing with each other. We’re playing games, we’re doing karaoke, it’s all There’s all of these activities for bonding and all of that makes it so that the attendees are comfortable coming up to the educators and asking questions and whipping out their laptop and saying hey can you show me this thing real quick and can you help me work through this and it just it’s really powerful.

So if you’re a photographer put that one at the top of your list. Both of these experiences were so different, in fact, almost complete opposites, and yet they were both so incredible. I will 100 percent be going back to Creative Educator Conference as an attendee. I would be thrilled and honored to attend Conquer Live as an educator again.

I mean, these Our conferences that I, I, I fully endorse and I just can’t say enough good things about them. And so, yeah, like I said, I just kind of wanted to pass that on. I know that many, many, many of you that listen are educators and I also know that I have quite a few photographers in my audience and I just.

Wanted to share these incredible opportunities. I didn’t want to gatekeep them. Um, and if you have any questions about them, please DM me. I am, I would love to chat further about them. So again, like I said, your action step for this week is to choose a conference and whether it’s one of these or not, That doesn’t matter, but choose a conference and make it your goal to get to the next one.

Because like I said at the beginning, best thing you can do for your business is to get in the room. Now, your book recommendation for this week is The It Girl by Ruth Ware. This is a bit of a psychological thriller and I don’t want to give anything away, so I’m going to say very little, but as I always do, I feel like, but this one is about two girls that are roommates and one of them ends up being murdered and the book is kind of essentially solving for who did it.

So if you like psychological thrillers, if you’ve read any of Ruth Brer’s other stuff, I love all of her books that I’ve read. So highly recommend. And if you want the link to that, it will be in the show notes. 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 the resources you need to simplify your marketing over at amandawarfield. com. 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 198: January Conferences Recap: Creative Educator Conference and Conquer Live appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

I have a confession: business finances have been a sorely neglected topic here on Chasing Simple. And for that, I apologize. Frankly, it ironically mimics how our finances are treated in our businesses as well.

But we’re working on correcting that (both on the podcast, and within our businesses) and today we’re going to hear from my dear friend Madison who is passionate about financial literacy for female entrepreneurs.

Madison Dearly is a bookkeeping team serving brand and website designers and female business owners in the online space with friendly, hands-on financial tracking and analysis. With a ton of experience in small business accounting, Madison clearly understands how confidence in your business’s financial health fuels the growth you deserve. (And it also supports the lifestyle you work so hard to afford!) In short, these gals are not your dad’s stodgy bookkeeper, okay? For more information (and to make new friends), visit http://www.madisondearly.com.

Madison Dearly is a bookkeeping team serving brand and website designers and female business owners in the online space with friendly, hands-on financial tracking and analysis. With a ton of experience in small business accounting, Madison Dearly understands how confidence in your business’s financial health fuels the growth you deserve. (And it also supports the lifestyle you work so hard to afford!) In short, these gals are not your dad’s stodgy bookkeeper, okay? For more information (and to make new friends), visit http://www.madisondearly.com

Social Links:

Website: https://madisondearly.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madisondearly/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@madisondearly

Paid Maternity Leave spreadsheet: https://madisondearly.com/maternity-leave

Online Business Budget spreadsheet: https://madisondearly.com/online-business-budget

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

Amanda Warfield: I have a confession. Business finances have been a sorely neglected topic here on Chasing Simple, and for that, I apologize. Frankly, it ironically mimics how our finances are often treated in our businesses as well. They’re often the last thing that we think about, and you know, we may do the bare minimum to balance, but At the end of the day, it’s not what we spend most of our time thinking about, right?

Amanda Warfield: We’re working on correcting that, both on the podcast and within our businesses. So today we’re going to hear from my dear friend Madison, who is passionate about financial literacy for female entrepreneurs. Madison Deerly is a bookkeeping team serving brand and website designers and female business owners in the online space with friendly, hands on financial tracking and analysis.

Amanda Warfield: With a ton of experience in small business accounting, Madison Deerly understands how confidence in your business’s financial health fuels the growth you deserve, and it also supports the lifestyle you work so hard to afford. In short, these gals are stodgy bookkeeper, okay? For more information and to make new friends, visit madisondeerly.

Amanda Warfield: com. Padme says hello, everyone. You’re listening to episode 197 of the Chasing Simple podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by the Chasing Simple content planner, and you can grab your own at amandawarfield. com slash planner.

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? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly, how do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 want to 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.

Amanda Warfield: Each week I’ll bring 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.

Amanda Warfield: Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? When it comes to creating your monthly content calendar and sitting down to create your content, because you’re batching it, right? The first step is not writing in the monthly calendar. It’s not even writing your categories and important dates on the calendar.

Amanda Warfield: If that’s where you’re starting with your content planning, well, all you’re creating is a plan, but what you need is a strategy. What’s the difference? A strategy is like the inner structure of a building, while the plan is the decor. A strategy is what helps you achieve your goals, and your plan is how you achieve them.

Amanda Warfield: Your strategy is where you’re leading your audience, and your plan is what you’re talking about and when. Without having a strategy first, putting together a plan will simply mean pulling ideas out of thin air. So, how do you start with a strategy? By starting with your goals, and working backwards to ensure that you’re moving your audience toward them.

Amanda Warfield: What are your yearly goals? Quarterly goals, monthly goals, and weekly goals. How can you translate them into content your audience wants to ingest? You’ve got to consider those questions before you even begin deciding what it is that you’ll post about. And if you want a simple way to create both your strategy and your plan, grab your Chasing Simple content planner.

Amanda Warfield: The planner is my number one bestseller, and for good reason too, because this massive, more than 130 page planner was designed with strategy in mind. It’s not merely a place to write down what you’re going to post and when. Yes, that’s part of it, but first, you’ll walk through intentional pages full of strategic questions to get your brain moving in the right direction before you even start writing down your topic ideas.

Amanda Warfield: In addition to the traditional calendar pages, you’ll find yearly planning pages, monthly prep work, monthly reflection questions, repurposing worksheets, and so much more. If taking your content to the next level is a goal of yours, the Chase and Simple content planner was created for you. Grab yours for just 27 at amandawarfield.

Amanda Warfield: com slash planner. Madison, I’m so excited to have you on today. You’re actually, I had one other guest, I think in this batch of interviews that I’ve actually been lucky enough to meet in person. And so it’s so nice to like, I’ve gotten to see you in person. We’ve had dinner together and learn together and now we get to choose, which is really, really fun.

Amanda Warfield: But for those that haven’t been that lucky, can you tell everyone who you are and a little bit about what you do? 

Madison Brown: Yes, and it almost stinks that we’ve met in person because now I’m just like kind of sad that I can’t hug you. I know. Because I really just enjoy spending time with you. But hi everyone, I am Madison Brown.

Madison Brown: I am the owner of Madison Dearly Bookkeeping. We are a top notch bookkeeping agency for branded web designers, creative online business owners who think big. I am a wife. I am a mama of two, uh, little ones. They are four and two, so if you know, you know. And, uh, life is grand. So yeah, that’s a little bit about me.

Amanda Warfield: One of our very first interactions together, which you reminded me of when we were at the conference together in September, I was very rude. And I, I don’t even know, 

Madison Brown: I 

Amanda Warfield: probably just messaged you out of the blue, which makes it a hundred times worse. But I messaged you on Instagram and I was like, so why would I need a bookkeeper?

Amanda Warfield: Because I do all of this myself. Like, I don’t understand. And genuinely, I was trying to understand because I felt like there must be something I’m missing, but I’m sure that came off as incredibly rude. And I’m sure that everyone else who has a similar thought process is probably wondering the same thing in a much nicer way.

Amanda Warfield: So can you tell us? What it is that you and your team do for your clients exactly and why it is so important that we as business owners have a 

Madison Brown: bookkeeper. Yes. And I said it to you then and I’m going to say it to you again. And for everyone listening, it was not rude. It was not rude at all. It was honestly, as you know, when you’re, when you start following that person on Instagram and you’re like, this seems like something that I might need, but do I?

Madison Brown: Actually really need it. Um, and especially when it comes to finances, when you have the IRS, like hovering over your shoulder, you’re like, do I actually really need a bookkeeper? It’s a genuine question. But I remember I was pretty new in my business and I probably was trying to sell you honestly, because I needed clients.

Madison Brown: I, I, I just needed that’s where I was in my business. So what we do for our clients is really just putting together a set of reports that tells you exactly how much money that you brought in in the previous month or the previous however many months that were, you know, contracted to do your bookkeeping for and how much money that you spent.

Madison Brown: So what did you bring in and what did you spend and what’s left over? Um, it’s really important that this is done in your business, whether it’s by a bookkeeper or you’re doing it yourself, because if you just don’t know what these numbers are, you don’t know how much you can pay yourself, how much you can.

Madison Brown: Save to invest in something that you really want for your business. It’s crucial to know these numbers. So whether you’re doing it yourself or hiring someone, you have to be doing it. And you’re kind of a rare egg too. I think there, I don’t even know if that’s the right term, rare egg. But I think there are a lot of people that just know that they hate bookkeeping.

Madison Brown: They’re like, I don’t want to do this at all. So they will outsource it. Then there are some people that are like you, where you’re like, well, kind of don’t hate this. And I do it every month. And it’s not that complicated for me. So the learning curve for you is pretty short is what it sounds like. And if you, if that’s something that like your brain works that way, you have a good process for it by all means, save the money, do it yourself.

Madison Brown: As long as you know that you’re getting it done accurately and you’re actually getting it done. 

Amanda Warfield: And I do really enjoy, like I reconcile every month. Like I’m, I’m on top of it, but I’m going to tell you, Madison tax time came around. And as I was preparing things for my CPA, Because I finally outsourced that this year, I was having issues with QuickBooks where I would go to a category and it wasn’t showing me every single transaction in that category for some reason.

Amanda Warfield: And I, I think I messaged you and I was like, do you do this for your people? Because I never want to do this again. I need to hire a bookkeeper this year simply to avoid that at tax time again, because I had all the numbers there and for some reason I was like, why, wait, that’s the total. And this is what it’s showing me.

Amanda Warfield: And these two are not adding up. So what is happening? And it took my husband and I like 30 minutes to figure out that for some reason it wasn’t showing every, even though everything was categorized in the right category. It wasn’t showing all of them. And I was like, forget this. I’m hiring a bookkeeper this year.

Amanda Warfield: It’s going on the goals. 

Madison Brown: Oh, I hate that so much. And especially because most people know that the QuickBooks name, everybody knows QuickBooks. So I think a lot of people, when they think of bookkeeping, they automatically think of QuickBooks, but I use Xero, X E R O. That’s what we use, um, in my agency. And it is so much more.

Madison Brown: simple. They are very intentional about taking out all the accounting jargon. And QuickBooks also has just kind of functionality issues that pop up like that for people who even do understand what they’re doing. Even for me, I’m an accountant, a bookkeeper. I have a long history of being in the finance industry.

Madison Brown: Don’t get annoyed being in QuickBooks. That’s because of the functionality issues and, um, because of all the accounting jargon. No one wants to see that. 

Amanda Warfield: No, it’s so confusing. I’m constantly like, how do I categorize this thing? Because I don’t know how it works within how they’ve categorized things. And then I send it to my CPA who wants to categorize it a different.

Amanda Warfield: Oh, Lord. All different things. Okay. So. When should someone hire a bookkeeper? How 

Madison Brown: do you know it’s the right time? Yeah. Um, so kind of going back to what we said, there are really two types of people. You either know that you absolutely hate bookkeeping and you don’t want to touch it at all. Um, but you know that you need to get it done.

Madison Brown: It’s something that is a non negotiable. If you have a business, there is no IRS saying like, did you post on Instagram today? Like, no, there is an IRS asking. Did you do your bookkeeping? Um, so you have to get, have to get it done, but if you hate it, you might want to just outsource it from the very beginning, so that you know that it’s getting done on a monthly basis, and you know that it’s accurate.

Madison Brown: Um, but there are some people who are totally fine doing it themselves, whether that’s with a spreadsheet, um, or in a software, if they decide to do a software themselves, um, and you can do it yourself for A good two to three years, especially at the beginning of your business, where you might not have a high volume of transactions and it might not take you very long, whether you do it like a finance Friday and, you know, carve out a little bit of time every Friday or once a month, um, it might not take you very long, but if you’re doing it yourself.

Madison Brown: And you actually like doing it, or you have a short learning curve, then it might be time to outsource if it’s just taking you too long, if you start selling, uh, from one to one to one to many, and you now have a higher volume of transactions, it might just be taking up too much of your time. And it might make more sense and just be more efficient for you to hire a bookkeeper at that point.

Madison Brown: So 

Amanda Warfield: hiring pros, efficiency, not having to do it at all, having it totally off your plate and having someone who is able to say, here’s what you made. Here’s what you spent. Profit loss. You also help with budgeting. 

Madison Brown: Is that correct? Yes. Yes, we do. I do this actually, uh, like once a year and I’ve only done it with, um, clients, like current clients, but I thought about opening it up to other people who would want help with like putting together an annual budget because we, when we think of budgets, what do you think of when you think of budgets?

Amanda Warfield: I mean, I think of the envelope system, but again, I feel like maybe I’m just like a weird person that’s weirdly into finance and I ended up in it as a career. 

Madison Brown: No, I think a lot of people think of that. A lot of people think of Dave Ramsey or they think of, Oh, I need to not go to Starbucks for the next three months.

Madison Brown: Cause I’m trying to. pay off whatever XYZ debt. But sometimes people forget that you need a business budget. You actually need to know what types of expenses are you going to have over the next three to six months to a year. Um, are you going to give your team member a promotion and how are you going to pay for all of this?

Madison Brown: What are your, what do your sales goals need to be? So I have done like VIP budget days with my current clients where we put together an entire like annual budget and they are So fun clarity is like not doesn’t even begin to touch like how people feel when they come away from this, but I also have a business budget spreadsheet template that I launched a couple months ago, which is like under 100.

Madison Brown: And it’s for someone who just needs like a templated version of a VIP day, and they can actually put like an entire budget together so. Yeah, that’s the thing that I do. I go, I have definitely been looking at that. You would love it. You would love it. Uh, it’s definitely, 

Amanda Warfield: yep. It’s a need for sure, because I’m great at budgeting.

Amanda Warfield: And I I’ve talked about this in another episode with a different financial guest, but I’m great at personal finance budgeting. I am not great at it with the business because cashflow is a thing that I just can’t wrap my mind around. So what tips do you have for someone who. Maybe they would like to outsource, but they don’t have the funds yet to outsource their bookkeeping.

Amanda Warfield: What tips do you have for someone while they’re working to get to that place of being able to outsource to someone like 

Madison Brown: you? Sure, just really getting everything organized. Act as if you already have a bookkeeper, which means Keep your receipts. Make sure that they’re in a nice Google Drive. Um, sort it by year and by month.

Madison Brown: Um, so make sure that you have, you’re keeping your receipts documented, but then also make sure that you have separate bank accounts. Keep your, your personal bank account separate from your business bank account. That is going to, whether you’re doing it or a bookkeeper is doing it, that is going to help tremendously to cut down on the time that it takes to do your bookkeeping.

Madison Brown: Because as your bookkeeper, I do not need to know how many times you went to Target and Nordstrom and Sephora and like, I do not need to know any of that stuff. So separating that out, keeping your receipts. Just overall being more organized with your money. If you have a PayPal, make sure that it’s a business PayPal so you can add team members to it in the future.

Madison Brown: And if it’s a PayPal, only have your business payment on there, not like your personal card. Things like that that make it a little bit more streamlined and organized so that once you do have a bookkeeper jump in, they are ready to go and it’s easier for them to turn around reports faster for you. I 

Amanda Warfield: will never forget sitting at dinner and we all got our receipts and the rest of us are just like shoving it in our bag.

Amanda Warfield: Right? We’re like, whatever. We’ll deal with this later. And Madison is just like quickly taking a picture and immediately uploaded it to her drive. And I was like, Oh, dang it. I don’t do that ever. And I’m ashamed to say that I still don’t do that. And it’s been six months. I’m going to start this week. I’m going to go set that Google Drive up right after we get off of this call.

Madison Brown: Yes, I love it. I love to hear it. It’s kind of habit for me now. And maybe because it doesn’t happen very often, we really, I don’t travel that much. I love to go to in person conferences, which is where I usually have to snap a picture of a receipt for a meal. I think the ones. like a meal or Amazon or Target, those in the moment have to be saved because those are the ones that are always that an auditor is going to ask questions about if you ever do get audited and you have to have the backup of like, this was lunch with Amanda in Charleston or whatever, you know?

Madison Brown: Yeah, I do. 

Amanda Warfield: In the receipt, there are some that have gone missing. I’m just going to be real honest, but the, for the most part, I save them. And the ones that I do have saved by right, what the conference was and whatever, like this date on there, just, just say a case, but, um, let’s talk about auditing actually, because that’s something you’ve been talking about on your YouTube channel and on your Instagram over this last week, you were an auditor 

Madison Brown: at one point, correct?

Madison Brown: I was, yes. For a top 10 public accounting firm back in my day. 

Amanda Warfield: So what, what kind of things do we need to be aware of? And I know I saw your Instagram post earlier because I stalk you, um, where you were talking about, you know, our biggest fear is always, I’m going to go to jail, which it totally is. That is always my big, that was why I was like, I got to get a CPA cause I’m going to go to jail.

Amanda Warfield: I don’t know what I’m doing. Um, What do we actually need to worry, quote unquote, worry about versus what do we not? 

Madison Brown: Um, number one, you’re not going to jail unless you do something illegal. I will say it one time, I will say it a thousand times. You are not going to jail unless you do something illegal. You are not going to jail if you expense something that you shouldn’t expense.

Madison Brown: What will happen? Let’s just say you expensed, um, Gosh, what’s something like clothes. Let’s say you went to Nordstrom, you spent 500 on a bunch of clothes and the IRS came and audited you and said, Hey, you actually can’t spend money on clothes unless they are branded or there’s some kind of uniform that you wear every day to work.

Madison Brown: They can’t just be everyday clothes that you would wear to work. A party. Then they come in and they say, Hey, you actually can’t expense that. They take it off of your books, which basically increases your taxable income. You basically just have to pay back, pay and probably some fees. You are not going to jail for it.

Madison Brown: Uh, they will just basically have to make adjustments for that. But, um, I think people. Also just need to overall, like we’re talking about how good receipt documentation really, truly, because those are the things that they are going to ask questions about, or the things that you really can buy whatever you want from Amazon.

Madison Brown: So that receipt does need to be saved to show. Actually, I bought a tripod and a camera for my YouTube and a microphone for my YouTube so that you clearly have that piece of paper. That is your defense to an auditor that shows this really was a hundred percent business deductible. That’s so helpful and 

Amanda Warfield: actually really calming for my warrior perfectionist heart because so often when I bring up that concern of like, I’m going to get in trouble.

Amanda Warfield: I’m going to go to jail. It’s always, you’re not going to be audited. You’re not big enough. And that’s always it, which is, you know, a fair, like, Objection buster to that, but I, I like you’re so much better where it’s like, okay, but even if you get audited, you’ll be fine. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just money.

Madison Brown: Really? It’s really not. Yeah. And they honestly auditors. Like, I was the jokester. I was the jokester of the audit team. I was the one that came in and was like, Hey, everybody. I know none of us want to be here, but like, let’s make it fun. Okay. So we, like, Okay. Gave our people the list. You already know what you’re going to need.

Madison Brown: They show you everything. We ask questions. If there’s any kind of like, oops, then we go back and fix it. And it’s not a big deal. So hopefully that continues to calm you. Although I feel like 

Amanda Warfield: you’re probably very few auditors that are as incredible as you. Thank you. 

Madison Brown: Okay. There’s 

Amanda Warfield: more. I mean, you just. So special in so many ways that you’re all very lucky to, to have you on as a guest right now.

Amanda Warfield: Thanks. You also have, in addition to your budget spreadsheet, you also have another DIY. offer. Tell us a little bit about that because I think there are going to be some people that are going to 

Madison Brown: want this. Yes. This one is very near and dear to my heart. This is the paid maternity leave plan spreadsheet.

Madison Brown: Um, this is for anyone who is planning on taking a maternity leave. Uh, it can honestly be used by anyone who wants to take time off in their business. So it doesn’t have to be just for women who are Pregnant. Um, but I made it that because I know that there are so many business owners who are afraid to get pregnant or think that they’re not able to get a maternity leave.

Madison Brown: And that’s just not the case if you have proper planning. So I made this spreadsheet ridiculously affordable, honestly, and very simple and easy to use. All you have to input is the amount of months that you have until the baby is here. The amount of months that you want to take off. all of the expenses that you need to pay while you’re away, whether that’s team members or your software subscriptions, whatever that might be.

Madison Brown: And then it calculates everything of what you need to save monthly until the baby is here, all of your goals. It’s just a really simple and easy to use and effective spreadsheet that almost instantly creates a plan for you so that you are prepared to take off as much time as you really want to. For maternity leave.

Madison Brown: If you’re a 

Amanda Warfield: business owner of that, I get questions about batching for maternity leave all the time. So I know there are people that are going to definitely going to be interested in that. If you could give everyone an action step to take after listening to this episode, what 

Madison Brown: would it be? That is a great question.

Madison Brown: Well, if you don’t already have a business account, that’s separate from your personal, that’s always, always voice. My number one, um, that is a really easy. Thing to do, but extremely impactful. And the second thing would really be making sure that you’re covered with your bookkeeping, whether that’s hiring someone or doing it yourself.

Madison Brown: Put a recurring calendar invite to yourself on the calendar to make sure that you get it done or co work with somebody else who’s like a business bestie that also needs to get their bookkeeping done so you can hold each other accountable or just hire the bookkeeper. I was talking to a client actually a couple days ago and she was saying, So many people just don’t think about what it feels like after you have hired the bookkeeper, or actually done the bookkeeping, and you’re on top of that system in your business.

Madison Brown: There is such an indescribable amount of peace and freedom and confidence. Knowing what your numbers are. So you can clearly say, how much can I pay myself? Can I be paying myself more than what I’m paying myself? That is like one of the biggest, most beautiful things about bookkeeping is if you know your numbers.

Madison Brown: You can bring more money home if that’s the case, if you’re, you know, profitable and in a good way. But yeah, I would say that that is the number one thing. Like as soon as you are finished listening to this podcast, make a date with yourself to do your own bookkeeping, whether that’s in a spreadsheet or a software or go just hire the bookkeeper because every single one of my clients will tell you that they wish they hired me earlier.

Madison Brown: And if someone did 

Amanda Warfield: want to work with you. Where can they learn more? 

Madison Brown: Yes, I am Madison Deerley everywhere. So at Madison Deerley on Instagram, I love, love hanging out in the DM. So please just like come say hi to me and you won’t have a choice. We’ll be best friends. Um, I’m also madisondeerley. com, madisondeerley on TikTok.

Madison Brown: If you want to watch, it’s pretty, it’s pretty lame over there right now. I’m dabbling in it, but I’m still over there. So. Yeah. That’s nearly everywhere to channel. 

Amanda Warfield: Gosh. Yeah. I have a YouTube. 

Madison Brown: I don’t normally like, that’s not like the first thing that comes to my, to the forefront when people ask that, but yeah, I just launched a YouTube a couple of months ago, you know, one month out one month, almost to the day.

Madison Brown: And it is going swimmingly. I love it. I love to talk clearly. Um, but I feel like there’s also so much that business owners need to know and need to have. Accessible to them. I really, really genuinely want financial literacy to be higher for business owners and for women. Uh, so yeah, YouTube is where we hang out and we educate and yeah, 

Amanda Warfield: come find me there.

Amanda Warfield: Absolutely. And we will link to all that in the show notes. But before I let you go, what would be one book recommendation that you would give to everyone that they need to read? And it, it can be business, it can be finances, it can be fiction, whatever. 

Madison Brown: Well, the number one that comes to my head, and you’ve probably talked about this a hundred times, I would be shocked if you hadn’t.

Madison Brown: Atomic Habits is just so good, and I know everyone raves about it, but it really is that good. I feel like I’ve read the book physically once, and then I listened to it on audio again, just To really let it sink in. And one of the most impactful things that I remember from that book is never miss twice.

Madison Brown: Um, so it’s okay to have your day. It’s okay to, um, miss out on a, on a habit that you’re trying to create, but don’t let it happen twice. So like really, really striving. Cause I’m the person that will give myself grace all day. I’m like, you know what? It was a bad day. I need to give myself grace. I need to sit back.

Madison Brown: I need to watch trash TV today. But I’m going to give myself this one day and the next day I know because this is a habit that I’ve said is really important to me to come back and completely knock it out of the park. 

Amanda Warfield: I love it. You know, it’s funny. I think probably at least half the time guests do say atomic habits as their recommendation, but it’s always really interesting to hear what their biggest takeaway was because that is always different.

Madison Brown: So that’s interesting. I was going to say A Court of Thorns and Roses because I’m currently reading that right now and it’s so good, but I’m not finished yet. So don’t give me any spoilers. I see you waving your hands. It’s 

Amanda Warfield: so good. It’s also good. We’ll talk about that 

Madison Brown: later when you’re done. I 

Amanda Warfield: love it.

Amanda Warfield: Madison. Thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it. 

Madison Brown: Of course. Thank you.

Madison Brown: Thank you 

Amanda Warfield: 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 over at amandawarfield. com. 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 197: Bookkeeping and Business Finances with Madison Brown appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, it’s very easy to get swept away in how successful everyone else is… the successful launches, new offers, client wins…. and miss out on the struggles happening behind the scenes…. the missed client payments, the refund requests, and missed deadlines, working when sick, feeling like it’s time to find a “real job”.

So, today, I wanted to bring you behind the scenes and point out 4 things that most, if not all, entrepreneurs are experiencing that you WON’T see them talking about in their 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]!

When it comes to entrepreneurship, it’s very easy to get swept away in how successful everyone else is. The successful launches, new offers, client wins, and miss out on the struggles happening behind the scenes. The missed client payments, the refund requests, the missed deadlines, working when sick, and feeling like it’s time to find a real job.

So today, I wanted to bring you behind the scenes and point out four things that most, if not all, entrepreneurs are experiencing that you won’t see them talking about in their marketing. You’re listening to episode 196 of the Chasing Simple podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by the Chasing Simple Content Planner, and you can grab your own at amandawarfield.

com slash planner.

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 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 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 want to 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 bring 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? When it comes to creating your monthly content calendar and sitting down to create your content because you’re batching it, right?

The first step is not writing in the monthly calendar. It’s not even writing your categories and important dates on the calendar. If that’s where you’re starting with your content planning, well, all you’re creating is a plan. But what you need is a strategy. What’s the difference? A strategy is like the inner structure of a building, while the plan is the decor.

A strategy is what helps you achieve your goals, and your plan is how you achieve them. Your strategy is where you’re leading your audience, and your plan is what you’re talking about and when. Without having a strategy first, putting together a plan will simply mean pulling ideas out of thin air. So, how do you start with a strategy?

By starting with your goals, and working backwards to ensure that you’re moving your audience toward them. What are your yearly goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals, and weekly goals? How can you translate them into content your audience wants to ingest? You’ve got to consider those questions before you even begin deciding what it is that you’ll post about.

And if you want a simple way to create both your strategy and your plan, grab your Chasing Simple content planner. The planner is my number one bestseller, and for good reason too, because this massive, more than 130 page planner was designed with strategy in mind. It’s not merely a place to write down what you’re going to post and when.

Yes, that’s part of it, but first, you’ll walk through intentional pages full of strategic questions to get your brain moving in the right direction before you even start writing down your topic ideas. In addition to the traditional calendar pages, you’ll find yearly planning pages, monthly prep work, monthly reflection questions, repurposing worksheets, etc.

And so much more. If taking your content to the next level is a goal of yours, the Chase and Simple Content Planner was created for you. Grab yours for just 27 at amandawarfield. com slash planner. So the first thing that you’re not going to see inside of someone’s marketing is timing. And I’ve shared the story before about how I realized.

that some of these alleged overnight successes had actually been marketing themselves as a personal brand long before they ever started selling something, so that then when they started selling something they were a quote unquote overnight success and they built a six figure business in the first year.

So they’d been building that audience, right? That’s part of what I’m talking about as far as timing, but the other side of things that isn’t just, oh, I, I Made it or I became successful or I hit the six figure mark in however much time There’s also the idea of timing as far as creating offers specifically so When you go to create an offer Most of the time it’s not This major, giant success right off the bat, right?

It isn’t making you thousands of dollars right away. It’s not selling to hundreds of people immediately. Most of the time, you have to really carefully construct your offers. And it takes, it takes shifting through as if it was an onion, right? So you’ve got this offer, you’ve got this onion, and you know what you want to do with it.

But you have to somehow peel back enough layers to make sure that what your offer is doing is also what your audience needs from you. And so, 90 percent of the time, I would say, we have this offer in mind and it’s got all of this cool stuff and we have all of these goals with it and we want to teach all of these things and do all of these things for people.

And it’s a big, massive thing. thing, an onion, right? A big old onion. And then we put the offer out there and we get some bites. And over time we slowly peel back what it is that our clients and our audience members and our students want. And eventually we get to that core, that core of the onion, that core of the offer.

And that’s what becomes successful. But that’s not going to happen the first time you launch something and it’s probably not going to happen the second or maybe even the third time. It’s going to take multiple iterations and you’re going to reiterate and reiterate and reiterate. We can find ourselves feeling like, Oh, my offer wasn’t successful, so I’m just going to throw it away instead of reiterating it.

Now it’s one thing if you put an offer out there and you get no sales and you had people on the sales page and you talk to those. People or at least some of the people and they just say yeah, it’s just not for me because of XYZ But there are a lot of different things that you can look into to decide what it is that went wrong.

Even if there were no sales, it might not be the offer, right? It might be that you didn’t get enough people on the sales page. It might be that the marketing, the copy on the sales page, isn’t great. It might be that the marketing to get people to the sales page wasn’t what it needed to be. There’s so many different pieces to Any sale and any marketing effort that it could be any number of those things and so that’s a totally different episode that I could do but When it comes to is it the offer?

It’s probably not even if you didn’t make any sales It’s probably just it needs some peeling back. So What does that look like in practicality? Well When you put an offer out there, what you want to make sure you do is you want to do all you can to get sales, obviously, right? Whether that’s reaching out individually to people who have shown interest, whether it’s just asking market research questions, whether it’s, you know, offering extra bonuses for beta clients, beta students, right?

You, you want to make sure that you’re doing all you can to get people in there and you’re not just saying, Hey, this thing’s available. And then. Leaving it at that. Once you get people in there, what we tend to want to do is we tend to think, okay, well the launch is over so I’m going to move on to my next big project.

No. What we want to do is we want to make sure that we are really pouring into the clients or the students that have purchased this offer. That means holding their hand through the entire thing. That means really diving into what it is that they’re doing and helping them finish it. So if it’s a course, even if you’ve pre recorded everything, You want to make sure that you are following up with those students, encouraging them to finish it, encouraging them to get through it, seeing what their problem points are.

And if it’s clients, you want to make sure you’re touching base regularly with what it is you’re doing and what it is that they need from you. You want to make sure you are with them 100 percent of the way of this. Then once the time is over, once the work with the client is done, once they have completed the course, or if you have a And I don’t mean they lose access, but I mean, 90 days until this thing at the end of those 90 days, even if they didn’t finish, follow up and say, Hey, what did you like about this offer?

What would you like to see done better? Where can I improve? Where’d you get stuck? And ask those questions because you have been holding their hand along the way they’re more likely to answer. And then you have to take those responses. You have to figure out what the true needs are, because again, sometimes they’ll say, oh, I just didn’t have time.

Well, that’s not actually a way that you can improve the offer, right? But maybe it’s okay, they didn’t feel like they had time. Maybe they were either overwhelmed or maybe they needed to, you know, have things broken down a little bit more. Maybe there’s too much, you know, you can brainstorm a bunch of different ways.

So you take that feedback and you brainstorm what it actually means for your offer. And then. What you want to do from there is you want to improve this offer. So again, we haven’t moved on to our next project, right? We haven’t said, okay, well, launch is over. I’m doing the next thing on my list. No, we are still in it with this launch, with this offer.

So then you improve and you plan your next launch and you launch it again. And you do the same thing until you know that people are getting through this course or this. People are seeing results, people are telling you what you need to hear, and you’re able to take that and improve your marketing. You want to, if at all possible, relaunch the same offer two or three times and improve it each time before you send it to Evergreen.

And that’s what I mean by timing. You have to really put in the time for each offer to Make it successful. And that’s not something that we see necessarily what we see is we see someone pumping out new offer after new offer or new offer, seemingly, but most likely what’s happened is they have spent the time reiterating these offers.

And so they have a launch cycle that they can move through because they have done that work to improve these offers. But we don’t see that we just see them. Oh, well, yeah. This quarter they’re launching this thing. Next quarter they’re launching that thing. Then they’re going to launch this thing. And then every December that, you know, we’re seeing their launch cycle because they’ve done the work with their offers and they’ve put in the time to make their offers what they are today.

The next thing that we won’t see in someone’s marketing kind of goes along with the first point, but There, there’s another side of it that I’d like to point out is offers that don’t sell. So when we see a launch, the job of the business owner of the marketer is to make it as appealing as possible for their audience to buy.

And so you’re not going to see someone tell you that their launch flopped or that an offer isn’t selling, especially during the launch week. There may be times where, I know I’ve done this, where I’ve said oh, this was a total flop and I kind of showed you the behind the scenes of that so you could get a realistic glimpse of, hey, sometimes this happens, but for the most part, you’re not going to see someone say, yeah, this offer didn’t sell at all.

You’re not going to see that, right? Why would they tell that in their marketing? Unless it’s part of their platform, right? That transparency like it is part of mine Like my goal is to make marketing really transparent and to make business itself really transparent But that’s not gonna be everyone’s platform It’s not gonna be most people’s platforms or maybe they do but in a different way, right?

So that’s something you’re not gonna see you’re not gonna see someone say hey this offer didn’t sell and so it’s really easy to look at someone’s marketing and go hmm Man, they’ve had a lot of launches this year. They must be doing really well. A launch doesn’t mean the launch was successful. So just something to keep in mind with that.

The third thing that you’re not gonna see in someone’s marketing is the late nights to meet deadlines. I personally have fallen into a bad habit of this lately as I’ve gone through some personal things over the last, gosh, six months and There are a lot of times late nights to meet deadlines and that’s just something you’re not gonna see you’re gonna see people showing you Hey, look, I’m working on this this this and this today and I’m accomplishing so much and sometimes that’s true Right like as women We tend to have one week out of every month in our cycle where we’re like, yeah, I am on it and I am crossing things off the list and I’m killing it.

But that’s not the norm. And so when we see someone post something like that every now and then of how much they got done, we think that that’s normal. When in reality, there are days when they just don’t feel like it. And there are days when They have to stay up late to meet deadlines and force themselves to stay up to get things done And they’re not proud of their work there are days when they have to choose between doing something fun and meeting a deadline and there are Entirely too many business owners out there that want to paint this image of if you’re working hard You’re not doing business, right?

And that is just not the case being a business owner even if you’ve got quote unquote passive income and even if you are able to travel and do all of this stuff. It’s hard work and it means hard decisions sometimes. And you know what? Sometimes it means late nights to meet deadlines. So if you’re looking at other business owners and you’re saying, man, they don’t seem like they’re doing any work and I am busting my hump and getting nowhere.

It’s because you’re only seeing the highlight reel. And the final thing that I want to point out that you’re not going to see in someone’s marketing. It’s kind of a three for one. You’re not going to see the uncertainty. You’re not going to see the failure. Then you’re not going to see the mistakes.

Because we all make them. We all have moments where we go, I don’t know if this is the right decision. Or, you make a decision, and in hindsight, you go, well, that was terrible. I wish I’d never done that. I feel like a failure now. You’re not going to see those moments where someone wants to throw in the towel.

Again, there’s always going to be the exception to the rule. Sometimes people are going to say, Yeah, hey, here’s, you know, here’s what I’ve got going on. And this really sucks right now. But you’re going to see that far less often than you would see the reality of how often it happens. So, those are just four things that I wanted to point out.

as far as the behind the scenes of what it looks like to be a business owner. Because I don’t want you to go into this year with expectations of yourself that aren’t realistic. Entrepreneurship is hard. It’s a lot of work. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not full of joy and that it’s not exciting and fun and full of freedom.

But in order to appreciate the freedom, it’s best if we have a realistic look at what some of those hard parts are so that we know, yes, to expect them, but also so that we know we’re not alone, and that when we’re dealing with these things that It’s normal and that it’s not what it’s not that you’re doing anything wrong or that you’re not meant to be a business owner So I hope that you take this and you feel some relief your action step this week is Just to send me a DM on Instagram and say hi Or if you don’t want to DM me DM someone that you would like it to make a connection with and just say hi because the best way to combat The hard parts of entrepreneurship is connections and community.

So that’s your action step. DM me or someone else that you want to make a connection with and say hi. Now your book recommendation for this week is Maggie Moves On by Lucy Scor. This is a, it’s a total rom com, total quick read kind of book and it’s about this I don’t know if she’s a general contractor or a designer, kind of a little bit of both.

And she is restoring this old Victorian mansion and is flipping it essentially. And she ends up, you know, getting involved with the landscaper that’s doing the work and she’s really resistant to it and he’s, you know, all of that fun stuff. So if you like those types of books, Maggie moves on by Lucy Score and I will link to that in the show notes.

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 the resources you need to simplify your marketing over at amandawarfield. com. 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 196: Marketing Secrets – What You Don’t See in Someone’s Marketing appeared first on Amanda Warfield.

We all started our businesses so that we could make more and work less, right? That’s essentially what every business origin story boils down to. And I’m right there with you. I recognized that as a 3rd year teacher, I wasn’t ever going to make much more than I was already making. And I had too many missed chances to spend time with my husband due to conflicting schedules. So I started out on my own path.

And early on into my entrepreneurial journey, I came across today’s guest, Cailen Ascher. She was sharing all about the fact that she worked full time, but only in 3 days a week and I was FLOORED. Although I’d started my business for time freedom, I hadn’t known that time freedom like that was even possible.

Cailen Ascher is an award-winning Business Coach with a 3-day workweek, a mom of two little girls and the creator of Scale-Up Accelerator — a program that helps coaches create and launch a highly profitable Premium Group Program that can bring in $100K+ per year with ONE Zoom call a week. Cailen has been featured in Business Insider, Huffington Post and Inspired Coach Magazine and has been interviewed on top podcasts like Entrepreneurs on Fire and She Means Business Podcast among many others. She is also host of The Soulful Business Show which airs weekly. Her programs have helped 1000s of coaches & service providers transform their lives and businesses with her proven strategies for working less, making more and living better. Cailen lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her husband, two young daughters and a spunky dog named Olive.

Today, you’ll hear Cailen and I discuss what the shift to working so much less looks like, and how she did it. Spoiler: she leverages group coaching to serve more people in less time, and she’s going to also share some tips on how to do that yourself if that’s a business model that seems like a good fit for you.

Cailen Ascher is an award-winning Business Coach with a 3-day workweek, a mom of two little girls and the creator of Scale-Up Accelerator — a program that helps coaches create and launch a highly profitable Premium Group Program that can bring in $100K+ per year with ONE Zoom call a week. Cailen has been featured in Business Insider, Huffington Post and Inspired Coach Magazine and has been interviewed on top podcasts like Entrepreneurs on Fire and She Means Business Podcast among many others. She is also host of The Soulful Business Show which airs weekly. Her programs have helped 1000s of coaches & service providers transform their lives and businesses with her proven strategies for working less, making more and living better. Cailen lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her husband, two young daughters and a spunky dog named Olive. Get her free training which reveals How Coaches Are Earning Over $100,000 Per Year With Just ONE Zoom Call A Week. Grab that over at http://www.CailenAscher.com/free .

Social Links:

http://www.CailenAscher.com

https://www.instagram.com/cailen.ascher/?hl=en

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

Amanda Warfield: We all started our businesses so that we could make more and work less, right? That’s essentially what every business origin story boils down to. And I’m right there with you. I recognized that as a third year teacher, I wasn’t ever going to make much more than I was already making. And I had too many missed chances to spend time with my husband due to conflicting schedules.

Amanda Warfield: So, I started out on my own path. And early on into my entrepreneurial journey, I came across today’s guest, Kaylin Asher. She was sharing all about the fact that she worked full time, but only in three days a week, and I was floored. Although I’d started my business for time freedom, I hadn’t known that Time freedom like that was even possible.

Amanda Warfield: Kaylin Asher is an award winning business coach with a three day work week, a mom of two little girls and the creator of scale up accelerator, a program that helps coaches create and launch a highly profitable premium group program that can bring in six figures each year with one zoom call a week.

Amanda Warfield: Katelyn has been featured in Business Insider, Huffington Post, and Inspired Coach Magazine, and has been interviewed on top podcasts like Entrepreneurs on Fire and She Means Business Podcasts, among many others. She is also the host of the Soulful Business Show, which airs weekly. Her programs have helped thousands of coaches and service providers transform their lives and businesses with her proven strategies for working less, making more, and living better.

Amanda Warfield: Katelyn lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her husband, two young daughters, and a spunky dog named Olive. Today you’ll hear Katelyn and I discuss what the shift to working so much less looks like and how she did it. Spoiler, she leverages group coaching to serve more people in less time and she’s going to share some tips on how to do that yourself if that’s a business model that seems like a good fit for you.

Amanda Warfield: You’re listening to episode 195 of the Chasing Simple Podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by the Chasing Simple Content Planner, and you can grab your own at amandawarfield. com slash planner.

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? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly, how do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 Gamecock Sports, traveling, or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

Amanda Warfield: 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 want to be doing is the thing that they started their business to do.

Amanda Warfield: 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 bring you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you.

Amanda Warfield: 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? When it comes to creating your monthly content calendar and sitting down to create your content, because you’re batching it, right?

Amanda Warfield: The first step is not writing in the monthly calendar. It’s not even writing your categories and important dates on the calendar. If that’s where you’re starting with your content planning, well, all you’re creating is a plan, but what you need is a strategy. What’s the difference? A strategy is like the inner structure of a building, while the plan is the decor.

Amanda Warfield: A strategy is what helps you achieve your goals, and your plan is how you achieve them. Your strategy is where you’re leading your audience, and your plan is what you’re talking about and when. Without having a strategy first, putting together a plan will simply mean pulling ideas out of thin air. So, how do you start with a strategy?

Amanda Warfield: By starting with your goals, and working backwards to ensure that you’re moving your audience toward them. What are your yearly goals? Quarterly goals, monthly goals, and weekly goals. How can you translate them into content your audience wants to ingest? You’ve got to consider those questions before you even begin deciding what it is that you’ll post about.

Amanda Warfield: And if you want a simple way to create both your strategy and your plan, grab your Chasing Simple content planner. The planner is my number one bestseller, and for good reason too, because this massive, more than 130 page planner was designed with strategy in mind. It’s not merely a place to write down what you’re going to post and when.

Amanda Warfield: Yes, that’s part of it, but first, you’ll walk through intentional pages full of strategic questions to get your brain moving in the right direction before you even start writing down your topic ideas. In addition to the traditional calendar pages, you’ll find yearly planning pages, monthly prep work, monthly reflection questions, repurposing worksheets, and so much more.

Amanda Warfield: If taking your content to the next level is a goal of yours, the Chase and Simple Content Planner was created for you. Grab yours for just 27 at amandawarfield. com slash planner. Hi, Galen. I am so, so, so excited to have you on. I feel like I’ve been saying this with everyone, but I’m just really excited about this batch of interviews.

Amanda Warfield: You are someone that I have been following since. 2018, 2019, way back in the beginning of my business. So it’s, it’s a real nice like full circle moment for me to have you on as a guest for chasing simple. So can you just real quick tell everyone who you are and what it 

Cailen Ascher: is that you do? Yeah, absolutely.

Cailen Ascher: Thanks so much for having me on Amanda. So I’m Kaylin Asher. I’m a business coach. I specialize in helping coaches and aspiring coaches create high ticket group programs so that they have a more spacious schedule and are able to have a scalable offer instead of kind of getting. Trapped in creating another job for themselves with back to back one on one calls.

Cailen Ascher: And, you know, I kind of went down that path for a while and I realized it was not a good fit for me, my energy, my, you know, my lifestyle. I’ve got two young kids and my husband and all of that. So I really love helping women create programs that You know, really help other people, but also support them in the process so they can serve from that place of overflow and not feeling depleted by, by doing our good work in the world.

Cailen Ascher: So you’re pretty 

Amanda Warfield: well known for having a three day work week and then also teaching others how to have a three day work week. Can you kind of. Back us up and tell us how that all began and how that came about for you. 

Cailen Ascher: Yeah, absolutely. It’s such a good question and one that I talk about a lot on podcasts because I feel like that schedule is like the magical unicorn of schedule, the three day work week.

Cailen Ascher: So what happened for me was I, I started my coaching business when it was just me and my husband. We didn’t have any kids, you know, as we were kind of chatting beforehand, I definitely have workaholic tendencies. I love my business. I love the work that I do, so I can just fill all my hours all the time with it.

Cailen Ascher: But that wasn’t actually translating into clients and money. I was spending lots and lots of hours. But what I’m realizing now is not on high revenue generating activities. And then I found out I was pregnant with our first daughter. And so it was this weird moment where I was like, what I’m doing isn’t sustainable at all.

Cailen Ascher: We have this new little baby arriving who I want to have time with. And I want to be a really present and hands on mom, but I don’t want to let my business go. And it really felt like this. insolvable problem for a while. I took some months off right after she was born, which was wonderful. And I, this idea landed for me one day, I was like, what if I had a three day work week?

Cailen Ascher: Instead of working five days, I’d have three days of work and four day weekends. It like, it just felt like the balance was really there. And then, The clincher was, well, can I make money doing this? Can I, can I actually make my business, you know, you know, at the time, I think I was making like 20, 30, 000 a year.

Cailen Ascher: It was not, you know, where it is today at all. And I was like, I don’t know if I could even sustain that if I’m only working three days. And what happened in that 1st year of stepping into my 3 day work week was that I made that and then some and within a year or so, I was at the 6 figure level and I realized now it came because that transition came because I, I put my values 1st, my time, my energy, my family.

Cailen Ascher: And allowed my business to support that instead of thinking, I had to put all of my time and my energy into my business in order to be successful. And so, I mean, that translated into a lot of a lot of other actions and mindset shifts and all of that. But the basis of it was, is that I was really defining what success looked like for me and and owning that and and not feeling like I had to go above and beyond that in order to create the business that I wanted.

Cailen Ascher: So, it started because I stepped into motherhood and, you know, since then. It’s really impacted a lot of the work I’ve done over the years with my clients because I’ve, you know, I realized a lot of people step into their coaching businesses because they want, they want freedom, they want flexibility. And then they kind of just default to their habits and patterns that they learned from society or from their nine to five job.

Cailen Ascher: And it’s not really the business they want once they get it going. And how can we repackage that, redesign that into something that really feels good and makes them a lot of money in the process. The 

Amanda Warfield: idea that, you know, you’re working all the time and yet you’re not actually generating that revenue that you wanted in the, the time you’re spending, isn’t connected to revenue generating activities.

Amanda Warfield: It’s such a gut punch because it can feel like, no, I need to do all of these things. Everything I’m doing is important, but then you hear about all of these people like yourself who do scale back and they spend way less time working and then their business grows and it’s always kind of mind blowing.

Amanda Warfield: And I feel like we could spend. Honestly, multiple episodes, just talking about why that is and, and the mindset shifts that occur when you do take that step back and are forced to work well are forcing yourself to work less. But I think my biggest question is how do you overcome those mental blocks?

Amanda Warfield: Because so often in theory, and again, we were talking about this before we hit record, but. Yeah. I’m spending this year really focusing on working less. My husband’s working a shift schedule. And so his schedule is always changing and I’m matching my schedule to match his so that we can spend more time together, which is incredible.

Amanda Warfield: But it means that I’m working significantly less than I ever have. And those mindset mental blocks are they’re hard. And it’s just, I want to work. I love working. I love what I do. It’s fun to problem solve and to, to do all the things and to run a business. But I know those workaholic tendencies aren’t actually helpful and in the long run are probably harming my business more than they’re helping it, but it’s the, the mental blocks that make it so difficult.

Amanda Warfield: So how did you overcome all of those when you decided to take those steps back? Yeah, 

Cailen Ascher: I think, and you know, I still have mental blocks coming up, right? I’m not at this place where I’m like, I have no blocks in front of me. We all, we all deal with them. And so I think the first step, and it seems like you’re there for sure with what you just shared, is self awareness of being aware.

Cailen Ascher: That these thoughts aren’t serving you, that these habits aren’t serving you, that the things you’re doing aren’t for your highest evolution and that just that the awareness breathes some space between you and that thought, or you and that action. And you’re not, you’re not the thought. You know, you’re not a workaholic.

Cailen Ascher: You’re someone who has workaholic tendencies at this moment in time, or someone who used to have workaholic tendencies. Like, we want to do that. Like, always put it in the past. So I think that awareness is really key. And then something that I’ve been asking myself that is really useful is. When I come up to something and like there’s a thought or a decision, I ask myself, like, am I approaching this decision from a place of lack and fear or from a place of clarity and expansion?

Cailen Ascher: And you can use whatever words feel good for you, from fear or from faith, like, but where is this action coming from? Where is this decision coming from? And that gives me such instant clarity. Because this happened the other day, there was. You know, people, you know, we, I have a woman who’s taking all the sales calls for us.

Cailen Ascher: And there were people, a lot of people booking calls with her. And there were some that I was like, should I cancel these calls? Like, they don’t seem like a great fit, but I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. And my husband was just like, where is this thought coming from? Is this coming from like your highest successful self, or is it coming from a place of lack?

Cailen Ascher: And I was like, Oh, you’re right. It’s coming from that place of, you know, back in the day when, like, you don’t want to cancel calls because that means you’re saying no to clients where now we’re, we’re at a point where we’re scaling and like, we have to kind of make those tougher decisions. And it was, it’s so helpful.

Cailen Ascher: To have something that can kind of just call you out on your own behavior. And so I would recommend if that resonates, like, having a question or having something that kind of pulls you back from that quandary of, like, should I do this? Or should I do that? Or, you know, you’re engaging in a habit that you don’t want to be engaging in and just be like, where is this coming from?

Cailen Ascher: Is this coming from my highest self? Or is this coming from, like, My old self, my residual self, the self that, you know, got me to where I am, but isn’t necessarily the person who’s going to take me where I want to go. That’s 

Amanda Warfield: so good. It’s such a, such a important question to ask ourselves that I know I struggle.

Amanda Warfield: I struggle with that slowing down and becoming self aware. I’m really good at being self aware in, you know, retrospect. Like, oh, that, that was this, but it’s really hard to notice in the So it’s a very important question to be thinking on. I’m curious what roadblocks either mental or physical you butted up against when you first decided, okay, I’m going to work three days a week.

Cailen Ascher: Yeah. I mean, the first roadblock was just like, oh my gosh, will this even work? Like, will I make enough money? Will there be enough time in those three days to get all the work done? And I proved to myself pretty quickly that when I put. Structure around my work hours. I was much more efficient and effective and how I was using my time.

Cailen Ascher: I kind of equate this to, you know, when we started out, my husband and I were living in like this, like, 600 square foot cottage. It was adorable. You know, we just have stuff for that space. And then, you know, we found out we were pregnant. We moved to our house now, which is like a 5 bedroom house. And there’s so much more space.

Cailen Ascher: And I was like, Oh, my gosh, it’s going to take us forever to like, get all the furniture and the things we need and it’s like, all of a sudden, now this house is packed. It’s like, it just happens so quickly. And so I think whatever container you’re giving yourself, and especially if you don’t have a container for just like, I will work whenever to max capacity.

Cailen Ascher: The time is going to fill. You’re going to find ways to fill the time and a lot of it is going to be like redoing stuff, rehashing stuff, like pulling apart things that don’t really need to be pulled. You know, like, we just get into bad habits where if you know, oh, I only have like 3 hours today to work.

Cailen Ascher: You’re going to make highest and best use of that time. And so it really pulls into focus. What are the most important activities and what is, like I said, like, revenue generating business growth, you know, planting the seeds for clients and money. Like, those are the activities we want to spend our time on.

Cailen Ascher: Not like. Playing in Canva or tweaking our website or, you know, all those things that might seem fun and enjoyable and they can be, but really, if you have three hours, those shouldn’t be the activities you’re doing. It should be doing the stuff that’s going to grow the business, make money, patron clients.

Amanda Warfield: It’s funny because I’ve seen this happen myself this week in particular. So as we’re recording this, it’s obviously batch week for everyone’s listening. You know, I do batch week every single month and every single month I batch the whole next month. Or every single month I set aside a week where I batch the whole next month’s worth of content in that one week, get it scheduled so that I’m not sitting there and marketing every single day during the month.

Amanda Warfield: And I have more flexibility with my time because my marketing is working for me. But this week in particular, and once or maybe twice a year, depending on how many guests episodes I end up doing, I also do a guest interview batch week where I batch all of the guest interviews for the entire year. I’m doing those together this month, which has been a fun experiment.

Amanda Warfield: And I realized that I’m completing my typical batch week work in just an hour or two every morning. And I have finished that work faster than I ever have yesterday morning. I messaged my friend and I was like, I’m already, I’m already pretty much done with my, all of my April content right now. And normally this takes me a full work week to do that much content.

Amanda Warfield: And it’s really amazing the way that it really just expands to whatever space you give it. And I posted on my Instagram stories about that. And I had so many DMS of people being like, I do the same thing when I give myself more time for whatever it is, but in particular batch week. It takes all of that time.

Amanda Warfield: And so it’s been very interesting to see that for myself, and it will certainly be a challenge. I give myself moving forward to see if I can even further simplify and shorten what my match week looks like. But you’ve mentioned the revenue generating activities a few times now. Can you kind of walk us through what those look like for you?

Amanda Warfield: And How you determined what you were going to spend your three days a week on and what you weren’t, because I, that’s definitely going to be the biggest thing for everyone is how do I cut back on what I’m doing? I feel like everything is vital. So how do you know? 

Cailen Ascher: Yeah, I mean, for, for all of us, and depending on the role that you have in your business, I mean, right now I do have teams.

Cailen Ascher: So that has shifted what I spend my time on. But if you’re pretty solo in the business doing all of the things, obviously, there’s going to be some administrative stuff you need to do each day. Like, you need to check your inbox. You need to make sure that, you know, if there’s little things that need responding to timely stuff, absolutely.

Cailen Ascher: Like, it’s not about ignoring those things, because those are important. And if someone needs to hear back from you, it’s important they hear back. But generally, when we’re talking about revenue generating activities, These would be marketing activities. These would be, um, outreach activities, you know, reaching out to people who might be, um, that you’ve been in correspondence with, or if you do any kind of advertising, like checking your Facebook ads, updating those, those types of things, or, um, one of my favorite, which is happening right now is, is visibility, you know, getting out there in front of other people’s audiences, speaking on podcasts, online summits, um, Conferences in person, if you can, now that the world’s open back up, um, you know, those types of things like leveraging your time in a higher capacity, and then also some of the, the revenue generating activities can look kind of mundane, but depending on you need to be consistent with stuff, right?

Cailen Ascher: Like sending emails. I send emails every week to my list at least once a week. And if they didn’t hear from me every week, Okay. The right people wouldn’t show up as buyers for my programs and so it might not look like this, like, like, super, like, sexy, exciting thing that you’re doing, but some of that background nurturing on through your email through your social media content.

Cailen Ascher: If you have a podcast, like, you don’t have to do all the things, but pick. Like, 1 or 2 places where you’re going to show up consistently and let that be enough, but be consistent because if people are never hearing from you on email, or if they check your social media, it hasn’t been updated in 4 months, or if you had a podcast for a hot minute, and now there’s no new episodes, and there’s no reason why people aren’t going to check it.

Cailen Ascher: There’s not that social proof that you are, like, out there doing the work and that’s what builds know, like, and trust over time. You know, people have signed up for your email list, getting those regular emails. And so that’s always been really important for me. I still, you know, I don’t have a copywriter.

Cailen Ascher: I write all of my emails. I do my own podcasting, like. This most of the social media content, I create myself because I really want people hearing from me so that if they’re interested in working with me, they have a sense of what I sound like, and what I act like, and all of those things. And it’s not just me behind the scenes, like, playing in my business.

Cailen Ascher: And so, and another key piece of it for a lot of us is business development. And so that can look like. New projects that you’re working on new things you’re rolling out or also like learning be working with a coach or working inside a program to develop new skills or to, you know, step into that next level of your business, whatever that looks like.

Cailen Ascher: But. I would say a lot of times when we’re coaching, especially when we’re 1 to 1 coaching, it’s like 70, 80, 5, 80 percent of our time is spent serving our current clients. And then that little remainder of like, 15, 20%. Is what we use to try to make, get more clients and make more money. And really, we want to almost have the inverse of that, like 70, 80 percent of the time we’re planting seeds for clients.

Cailen Ascher: We’re planting seeds for money. We’re planting seeds for growth and then in that little bit of time, that remainder of time is where we’re serving our current clients and not in a way we’re like. You know, once they pay us, I don’t care anymore, but just we need to start thinking of switching how we’re spending our energy.

Cailen Ascher: If we want a business that’s sustainable and growth oriented. And that’s why I love the group model, because you can make highest and best use of that 15, 20 percent remainder, however much, you know, like that little bit of time you can coach in such a powerful, impactful way when you have a group model.

Cailen Ascher: Rather than trying to like cram all your one on one clients or limit the number of one on one clients you have, you can still make a really big impact with that less time. So that’s been a big upgrade that I’ve made that’s opened up my three day work week even more was making that transition from one to one to group coaching.

Cailen Ascher: I love that you 

Amanda Warfield: talked so much about spending a large chunk of your time on your marketing and your visibility because So often, that’s one of the first things we’re told to outsource and don’t get me wrong. I am a content strategist. I do that. I am the person that people outsource to is so often it’s made to seem as if it’s just something you can brush under the rug and you so you can focus all your time on your clients and on the back end of your business.

Amanda Warfield: And it’s all important. But if people don’t know you exist, they won’t work with you. And so I love that that was your perspective shift of, I need to spend more time marketing and less time serving clients on a one to one basis. And so you moved into group coaching and I know that you have just been wildly successful with that.

Amanda Warfield: I’m curious what you’ve done to make that switch so effectively, because I already know that there are people listening, going, I can’t even get enough one to one clients to feel like I could make a group coaching program. So how do you make that shift effectively? 

Cailen Ascher: I think a lot of us are introduced to good group coaching as a downsell cheaper option to one on one.

Cailen Ascher: So we’re told, okay, first you create your one on one offer and then you create your group offer, which is cheaper. And then you make that into a course. And then you have a tripwire, you know, like we have that whole Ascension model. But what I love doing is. Making the program, the group program, the signature high ticket offer of the business.

Cailen Ascher: And it’s not to say you never coach one on one again, but it’s just lifted to such a VIP premium level that you really get to cherry pick your very best clients. If you even want to do it at all. So if you’re charging currently 3, 500 for one on one, you know, like three months of one on one coaching that group program.

Cailen Ascher: Should be 3500 like we want to come in and replace it or even create a program. That’s maybe a little pricier. Like, can we make it even better and higher value somehow? And so we’re not taking a step back where it’s like, oh, now I need to get 3 clients in my group just to replace that 1, 1 on 1 client.

Cailen Ascher: We want to make sure it’s an even switch out. And another thing is that because of that, I mean, the programs we help our clients create are, you know, on the least expensive side, like 3000, all the way up to 10 So these aren’t programs that we then need to go get 50 clients for. You can get five, eight, 10 people.

Cailen Ascher: And that can be like, You know, you’re almost making six figures from one enrollment, depending on your price point. And so what we really focus on is like intimate high ticket group coaching that you don’t need to have these massive enrollments for, but you can still have that massive, like that massive launch number, you know, like a 50, 75 K launch.

Cailen Ascher: By making sure you’re putting this program together in a way that’s really high value, because ultimately people don’t really care if you’re getting most of the time coached 1 on 1 or in a group, or they don’t that’s not what’s important to them. What’s important to them is a solution that’s going to work.

Cailen Ascher: And if you have a proven process that can help them that we can. Package up into a repeatable model for group coaching with maybe some, you know, specialization like we give our clients a couple one on one calls to make sure they’re feeling really that high touch aspect. But if you’re able to do that and get them the results, they don’t, they benefit more almost from the group because they’re with a little cohort of individuals who are doing the work alongside of them and they have accountability partners and they have this like mastermind energy on this path of change, rather than it just being you and them every week on a call and you’re like their only reference point.

Cailen Ascher: There’s no other, no other perspectives. And so what I found is a lot of my My clients like the group model a lot better than one on one once they’re introduced to it. And I know from my own experience, I exclusively invest in group coaching at this point. Like I want to work with, yes, a very educated mentor, but I like the idea of being surrounded by people doing the work together.

Cailen Ascher: It brings me confidence and faith that we’re like all on the rise together. 

Amanda Warfield: Absolutely. I’m, I’m the same way at this point. I will almost never invest in one on one coaching just because. The relationships that you build within these other people that you’re being coached with. It is truly priceless, really.

Amanda Warfield: I mean, some of my greatest business friends come from a mastermind that I invested in years ago. And gosh, I have a client from that. I’ve got an incredible business friend and it’s it’s not that you go into those hoping for those things, but well, maybe the friends, but when it comes out of it, it’s always like, oh, this is all because I.

Amanda Warfield: Invested in something and invested in a program. And I invested in my situation for this first one I invested because I really loved the educator that was teaching it. And I wanted to learn from her and then I got out of it and I was like, Oh, that was great, but even better is the relationships that I’m building.

Amanda Warfield: And so that’s always something I consider when investing now in group coaching programs is what am I going to get out of it from the educator? What am I also going to get out of it from the people that are going to be doing it with me? 

Cailen Ascher: Yeah, it’s so true because. Being an entrepreneur can be such an isolating journey.

Cailen Ascher: You know, you’re I’m in my office alone, you know, on a computer screen and it’s It can feel really solo. And so, if you are in a group program, you’re instantly tapped into a network of people who share similar values, have similar vision, are ambitious, are successful, um, it just immediately surrounds you with, with peers and a support group.

Cailen Ascher: And I mean, I feel very fortunate on the home front that I’m super supported, but I know that everyone feels that way. And so I think. You know, getting into a community, a small intimate space like that can be so, so beneficial 

Amanda Warfield: for someone who is thinking, okay, maybe this is something I want to move more towards.

Amanda Warfield: What are some tips for getting started in creating a successful group coaching offer right off the bat? And what are some common mistakes that you see? 

Cailen Ascher: Yeah. So I think what’s really important is that you pick a specialty for your program and kind of Opposite of that is when you go to general, that’s a mistake where it’s like, this program could help all people on the planet or all women are all mothers.

Cailen Ascher: And it’s like, okay, maybe that feels like you’re getting narrow by saying mothers, but how can we make it more specialty? Like, are these working mothers? Are these stay at home mothers? Are these mothers of women? Yeah. Babies and toddlers, or these mothers of school age children, or these mothers whose children have left the nest, and they’re looking to reclaim a sense of identity.

Cailen Ascher: There’s so much nuance in there, and we really want you to be a specialist when we partner with you to create a group program, because that is what is going to make it a no brainer investment for your right clients. If it’s really kind of general and wishy washy of like, oh yeah, we’re going to up level together, and it’s going to be amazing.

Cailen Ascher: It’s just like these big, like, open ended blanket statements. That doesn’t really get people excited. You want to be kind of polarizing and share, like, the, the specific methodology that you have for this specific person and the transformation they most desire because that’s That’s what people are going to pay for.

Cailen Ascher: You know, that’s when they’re like on the call, like, how can I give you money now? Because I’m so excited to work with you inside this special container you’ve created just for me, because it feels, it feels like the one on one aspect where, you know, we can kind of customize for our clients. You know, we have to we can’t do that with a group program.

Cailen Ascher: So instead we have to pick a specialty so that the right people feel that level of customization, even though we’ve created a program that can help multiple people at a time. And so I think that’s, that’s a really powerful shift. In general, in our business, because I think when we start in one on one coaching, we have the opportunity and sometimes it’s important to explore.

Cailen Ascher: It’s like, when I first started coaching, it was like, some people needed more mindset stuff and people needed more marketing stuff and some people needed more sales stuff or a mix or, and they wanted to be coached differently. Some people wanted, you know, lots of plans. Other people wanted to talk just in big general ideas.

Cailen Ascher: But when you make a group program, you get to decide, like, what do I stand for? What’s my mission? What’s my message? How do I want to show up as a leader? How do I want to curate this group and this energy and this environment? And it really takes you to that next level in your business because you, you really are forced to not let your clients take the lead, but you take the lead and you decide what it’s all about.

Cailen Ascher: And that’s really exciting and powerful. And Instantly, like makes your marketing better, makes your sales better. Like it improves everything across the board because you’ve gotten focused and specific. You know, it’s funny. My next 

Amanda Warfield: question was going to be, how do you market this? How do you actually get people into your coaching program?

Amanda Warfield: But you just, I feel like you hit the nail on the head. It’s all about being specific because if you’re shouting into the void about, Oh, I help. Writers get their book published. Well, it’s kind of niche, but it doesn’t tell me what my pain point is yet. If you go and you say, I help entrepreneurial writers get their book published, that’s a whole different story.

Amanda Warfield: And I mean, that’s, I found my book editor specifically because she markets very specifically to entrepreneurs turned writers, entrepreneurs turned authors is what she calls them. And I was like, Oh, that is, that’s me. You know, how to. And it books that are just like what I’m doing. And so that very specific getting really niched down is how you market the people.

Cailen Ascher: It’s so true. And it feels good. I mean, it feels good to have that level of clarity and specialization because the coaching industry is crowded and, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think there’s also a higher demand for coaching than ever before, but it’s a lot different to be a social media strategist versus an.

Cailen Ascher: Instagram reels strategist, right? Like, if you’re going to create a program, if you’re like, oh, I can help you with all things, social media. Okay, yes, maybe some people would be interested if they want, like, really broad social media strategy, but if you can give them, like. A deep dive into a specific area, rather than just kind of a blanket version over lots of areas.

Cailen Ascher: That’s so much more valuable to people and they really associate you with that thing and see you as an expert. And that’s a lot more valuable for so many reasons, you know, just, you know, people really are going to gravitate towards you and you’re going to be referable, you know, it’s like, okay, if someone wants Transcribed Social media.

Cailen Ascher: It’s like, oh, yeah, maybe your name will come up. But if someone’s talking specifically about, oh, my gosh, like, I know I should be doing Instagram reels. And I know there’s like, best practices and I feel like they’re changing all the time. I don’t know what to do. They’re like, oh, you should absolutely talk to so and so, because that’s what she does.

Cailen Ascher: Her program’s all about that. And it does. It makes you so much more referable. And I’ve noticed that in my own journey as I started focusing more and more on high ticket group coaching. It becomes so much more referrable because not all business coaches focus on that. There’s lots of different approaches to building a successful business, but if people align with my approach, then I’m the person that whose name they’re sharing.

Cailen Ascher: So 

Amanda Warfield: we know we need to be niched out. We need to know what our niche is and who we’re helping and how we’re helping them. Is there anything else that we need to have in place before creating a group coaching 

Cailen Ascher: program? Yeah. You need to know that. The journey that you’re taking them on, like, where are they starting from?

Cailen Ascher: And where do they want to go? And that’s going to help you. We call that your framework, but that’s going to help you build out your curriculum because. If you aren’t quite sure where they want to end up, it’s going to be really hard to create a cohesive curriculum to get them there. So you have to figure out what is the shiny destination that they’re.

Cailen Ascher: Aiming for that. They really desire that they want to have at the end of it. And then you can reverse engineer the steps, the milestones along the way, and also the obstacles that they might meet along the way as well. Because then you can anticipate those obstacles and create content in your program to help them.

Cailen Ascher: Remove them or eliminate them all together. 

Amanda Warfield: So important that transformation is key. And that’s when I’m working with clients, that’s the one thing that we always end up having to go all the way back to, because you can’t have a content strategy without knowing exactly what it is that you’re giving your people.

Amanda Warfield: So super important. If you could give everyone just one action step to take after listening to this episode, what would it be? 

Cailen Ascher: I would say this is what landed for me. So I’ll share it. Um, ask yourself what you want to be known for. And don’t worry if what you start, I would get a pen and paper, get your journal or whatever and ask right at the top.

Cailen Ascher: What do I want to be known for? And don’t worry if what comes pouring out of you doesn’t immediately seem related to your business. Don’t force it to seem related to your business. Just let it flow, but I guarantee there’s going to be some golden nuggets that come out. Flow onto that paper. If you’re not self censoring that are going to inform your business in some way, shape or another, right?

Cailen Ascher: Like who you want to be working with or how you want to be working with them or shifts you need to make to your schedule or where you want to be visible or how you want to be visible. There’s going to be something that flows out of you that gives you additional clarity. So I would, I would ask that and and see what arrives and then go from there.

Cailen Ascher: And then if you 

Amanda Warfield: could give everyone 1 book recommendation, 

Cailen Ascher: what would it be? Oh gosh, I have so many books. I have piles of books on my nightstand. Gosh, there’s two that are coming up. The one I’ll recommend is one that I’ve tried to read several times over the years and it just wasn’t landing for me. So if you pick this book up and you’re like, this is not for me, put it down for three years and then go back.

Cailen Ascher: But it was, um, it was actually the complete works of Florence Goldschinn. Her most Famous book is called the game of life and how to play it. And she was an author back in the thirties, um, thirties, forties, and she. Totally was tapped into something beyond herself, definitely like channeling information about how to align with your desires and create them.

Cailen Ascher: And I just found it so interesting that after all these years of trying to read this book, just in like the last six months, I finally. Picked it up again and everything was clicking. So I’ll offer that in case it’s going to click for somewhere, someone else, because it’s been around for a long time.

Cailen Ascher: There’s a lot of wisdom in there. Okay, perfect. 

Amanda Warfield: We will link to that in the show notes. Now, if anyone’s listening and they’re like, I need to learn more about group coaching and how I could potentially implement this in my own business, where can they find 

Cailen Ascher: you? Yeah. Over at kaitlynasher. com, my main website, um, got lots of information about how to make group coaching work for your business.

Cailen Ascher: Got an awesome freebie. It’s called how to make over 100, 000 a year with one zoom call a week. Um, it’s a quick like 20 minute training. It takes you deeper into my, um, my model for group coaching and how it can work for your business. If it’s something that’s of interest to you. Awesome. 

Amanda Warfield: And we will link to all of that in the show notes friends.

Amanda Warfield: Caitlin, thank you so much for being here today. I really 

Cailen Ascher: appreciate it. My pleasure, Amanda. Good to see you. Good to see you.

Amanda Warfield: 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 over at amandawarfield. com. 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.

Amanda Warfield: 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 195: Making $100k+ a Year, Working Part Time with Cailen Ascher appeared first on Amanda Warfield.