Explore Your Enthusiasm

I'm delighted to be sharing a conversation with Starship Captain, fiber farmer, and yarn dyer Lisa Check, of Flying Goat Farm. To meet more Captains like Lisa, sign up here.

In this conversation we discuss:

• How she balances her fiber flock with organizing Maryland Sheep + Wool
• How she plans out big projects (Holiday Sanity, which is only available in Lift Off)
• What she's struggled with in her business

Listen to the full episode at TaraSwiger.com/podcast111/

I just celebrated a birthday! As I do each year, I looked back on the last year and, well, my whole life. Today I share what that review looks like, all of the other ways I build review and celebration into my business, and how you can review your last month.

• My Annual Birthday review
• Weekly celebration
• Why I start with the question "What's going well?" in the weekly Starship chat
• Monthly review (a part of both Lift Off and Starship)

You can find the Monthly Review questions in Challenge 6 of the #monthofbizlove workbook! Get it here! 

Listen to the podcast at TaraSwiger.com/podcast110/.

Sign up here to get the #monthofbizlove workbook/journal and answer the questions I ask in the episode!

• The entire map of things you might need to fix in your business
• The very first step in loving your business
• What happens after you envision your dream business

Listen to the episode here: TaraSwiger.com/podcast109/

Do you LOVE it?
Do you love all parts of it?

Or are you feeling exhausted, grumpy, and stuck doing stuff you don't wanna do in your handmade business?

It's time we turned all this around. It's time you looooooved your business. Big heart-eyes-emoji love.

If you want to fall in love with your handmade business and explore the foundations of a biz you adore (whether your biz is brand new, or you've been doing it for a decade!), join me in the #MonthofBizLove!

• Daily Instagram Challenges to get you loving your business
• Daily video lessons exploring the Daily Challenge in depth! (broadcast live on Periscope and uploaded to YouTube)
• A 30 day workbook to walk you through each challenge!

To join in:

1. Get your free workbook by signing up here.
2. Follow me on Instagram to get the daily challenge (you may want to hit "subscribe to updates", so you don't miss a challenge)
3. Watch the daily videos (follow me on Periscope or subscribe to my YouTube channel)

Listen to the podcast episode and get all the details at TaraSwiger.com/podcast108

An introvert gets their energy from being alone, while an extrovert gets energy by being with other people. Many of my listeners are introverts (me too!), so I love to find resources for thriving in business as an introvert.  I recently found a great book. In this episode, we'll discuss the three big lessons I took from The Introvert Entrepreneur, by Beth Beulow. And I'm giving away a copy. (Scroll down to enter!) 

• The Introvert Entrepreneur
• The collection of "For Introvert" podcast episodes
• Monthly "What I'm Reading" archives

Listen to the episode at TaraSwiger.com/podcast107/

I am totally delighted to be talking to Starship Captain, video podcaster, designer and co-organizer of the Geeky Puffin Knitpalooza, C.C. Almon. We had a geeky, enthusiastic conversation (I'm more than a little excited that C.C. invited me to teach in the UK!).

We discuss:

• What a knitting video podcast is. (Here's CC's)
• How her online community helped her deal with chronic illness
• What made the difference in her business and led to her biggest month ever.
• Her book, Coffee with C. C. 
• What The Starship has contributed to her business
• The upcoming retreat in England (where I'll be teaching!) and the corresponding knitalong (which I am SO excited about!).

Listen to the episode at TaraSwiger.com/podcast106/

If you spend all the time and

Today we're going to cover how

Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast105/

You're busy making products, photographing, listing, and (hopefully) shipping orders - how do you find the time to also do marketing? In today's episode, we tackle the problem of never having time for marketing.

We cover:

Links mentioned:

Listen in, plus get a FREE worksheet to help you talk about your work without feeling weird, at TaraSwiger.com/podcast104/

How do I describe what it is I do? How do I talk about my work?

This is the question we nearly all have. (If you've figured this out and feel 100% confident talking about your work, email me immediately and tell me your secret sauce).

Even though I've been doing this for 6 years (and have been running my own business for over 10 years!), I struggle with how to talk about my work every day. In every sales page I write, in every conversation I have, and in every byline I submit to a magazine or book.

I don't know that this question ever goes away, but you certainly can get better at talking about your work. In this episode we'll cover what you need to do to talk about your work effectively AND the key to feeling more comfortable. 

To apply this to your own business, fill out the free worksheet that comes with this lesson and stop feeling weird talking about your work today!

Get the podcast episode and the FREE worksheet to help you talk about your work in totally non-weird ways, right here.

You can make your marketing more effective with making one easy switch: Chose one thing, and plan all your marketing around it, for 2-4 weeks.

It sounds easy, but it's also easy to get distracted! So how do you pick your focus and avoid distractions? And how does this make your marketing more effective?

Listen in to learn more, and click here for your free worksheet: How To Avoid Marketing Distraction (You'll also get the podcast transcript!)

Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast102/.