HerBusiness

Imagine a business that runs itself.

Isn't that just the ant's pants, the ideal scene, the highly-coveted dream for so many business owners? But, is it doable?

Our guest today knows, for sure, that it is.

But every day HerBusiness is working with women business owners who carry their entire business on their backs.

They're doing everything themselves, and some are getting very little sleep.

They are trapped by their business.

If this sounds like you…

Imagine being able to take a 4-week vacation from your business – no contact at all – and coming back to everything running smoothly.

Sounds impossible? It isn't. In fact, it could be possible in just 18 months.

In this podcast episode, you're going to hear how to gradually design your business to run itself.

Our guest is Mike Michalowicz, the author of best-selling books like Profit First, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan.

His newest release is Clockwork - Design a Business to Run Itself.

In this episode we look at:

• Why you should be the super VISIONARY of your business, rather than the superhero
• How having to make all the decisions STUNTS your business growth
• What is the 'Four D mix' and how to use it in your business
• Why you must SUPPORT your employees' decisions, even the bad decisions
• How to define, PROTECT and serve your business's 'Queen Bee Role'
• What is a 'Clockwork business' that runs itself?
• How the AC/DC model helps you IDENTIFY WEAK LINKS in your business
• What allows your team to REVEAL HIDDEN TALENTS

Take a listen.

And be sure to subscribe for more great interviews with inspiring entrepreneurs.

Here are some popular recent episodes: Lessons for Living an Inspired, Creative and Meaningful Life with Guy Kawasaki Becoming a Big Deal in Your Niche with Amy Porterfield How to Stop Marketing AT Your Customers and Start Marketing with Them with Seth Godin

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The worlds of business and creativity have combined.

Exploring your interests and giving in to your creative curiosity can energise you AND innovate your business.

It turns out that allowing yourself to be passionate about something other than your business can energise you, and benefit your business.

While we may see creativity as an indulgence, the little thing that piques your interest may be the next opportunity to grow your business.

Valerie Khoo, visual artist and National Director of the Australian Writers' Centre, recently threw herself into the world of art. This sparked growth in her business, her career, and developed her "Creative Quotient".

Valerie is the featured guest in this episode of the HerBusiness podcast.

In this episode we look at:

• How your creative interests can lead to innovation in your business
• Why creativity is a vital factor in determining your bottom line
• How to incorporate creativity into your life
• The perils of ignoring your 'creative quotient'
• How to tap into your inner genius

Take a listen.

And, be sure to subscribe for more great interviews with inspiring entrepreneurs.

Here are some popular recent episodes:

• Lessons for Living an Inspired, Creative and Meaningful Life with Guy Kawasaki
• Becoming a Big Deal in Your Niche with Amy Porterfield
• How to Stop Marketing AT Your Customers and Start Marketing with Them with Seth Godin

HerBusiness Facebook Page: https:/facebook.com/HerBusiness/

HerBusiness Network for Women Business Owners: herbusinessnetwork.com

When you look back on your business in 20 or 30 years' time, which moments will have made you proud?

• Finding motivation from within?
• Creating moments of joy in your work?
• That you made a 'dent in the universe'?
• The client's you've helped?
• The money you made?

Guy Kawasaki has been a fixture in the tech world since he was part of Apple's original Macintosh team in the 1980s. He had the role of Evangelist for Apple in the early days.

He's widely respected as a source of wisdom about entrepreneurship, venture capital, marketing, and business evangelism, which he's shared in bestselling books such as The Art of the Start and Enchantment.

He is HUGE on social media with hundreds of thousands of followers and he's a sought after expert at the world's biggest marketing and business conferences. He's also currently an evangelist for Canva - the Aussie design tool, and a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz.

In this HerBusiness podcast you'll hear:

• Why the toughest teachers are the most formative (that's been true for me)
• Guy's advice to "Pursue joy, not happiness"
• The important difference between price and value
• Why you should pitch new ideas by telling stories instead of using adjectives
• How to discover a new passion at any age

We also talk about some wise words from Steve Jobs, about 'denting the universe' — a favourite part of the interview that I hope you'll love as much as I did.

You've got things you want to CREATE in your business… products, videos, campaigns, ideas…

And, while that can be a lot of fun, when you put so MUCH of you into your business it can mean that you're left depleted and less than enthusiastic about continuing to create.

So, how can you create at an optimal level AND avoid burnout?

Michelle Falzon's 5-part creation "flow" makes life and business fun again… and also hugely productive, creative and successful in a way you can sustain and feel great about!

Listen to the HerBusiness podcast episode to hear:

• What the "Burnout Loop" looks like (and how to avoid it in 3 easy steps)
• The ONE VITAL STEP you might mistake as "procrastination" (and how it's holding back the quality and quantity of YOUR CREATIVE OUTPUT)
• The 5-part Creation Flow that guarantees you A HIGHER LEVEL OF PRODUCTIVITY (and fun!) in your business and leads to long term, sustained success
• Why "self-care" is WAY more than getting a massage every now and then and the POWERFUL REJUVENATION STRATEGIES that will renew your passion and revitalise your business results overnight
• The two VITAL steps you must take BEFORE creating ANYTHING in your business that will dramatically uplevel your speed, outcomes and growth
• Why REACHING outside your comfort zone is part of the creative process and the surprising strategy you can do TODAY that will make this feel effortless – literally PULLING you forward to create what you are REALLY here to build in your business and the world

Most business owners are intentional about what they do in their business.

But WHEN they do things?

More often than not, the timing of significant activities gets left to chance or availability.

What if the timing of an activity, either the time of day or day of the year, made the difference between success and failure?

Daniel Pink, author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timinghas researched the effect of timing within dozens of scientific fields and applied the findings to business.

In this podcast episode you'll learn about the science of timing, and how to choose the right timing for your next important activity.

"We go crazy over who's going to be at a meeting, and what we're going to do. When it comes to when we do it, we think it doesn't matter. It matters. It matters a lot."

Daniel Pink's research found that being intentional about the timing of activities drastically improves outcomes in your business: the productivity of internal meetings, the effectiveness of marketing promotions, and how a customer feels after a sale.

A few small tweaks to the timing of your activities could be a game changer for your business.

And the best part is: it doesn't have to cost you a cent.

Listen to discover:

• The PERFECT TIME for YOU to make better decisions, ask better questions and be MORE creative
• When to schedule your IMPORTANT work so that it takes advantage of universal principles of timing
• The best time to START your new project or business
• What your doing with your time that reduces your PRODUCTIVITY and your creativity
• How to keep yourself and your team ENGAGED AND MOTIVATED, even when you're
• working on long-term projects
• The powerful thing you can do at the END of a sales transaction to have your customers give you 'FIVE-STAR' REVIEWS
• What time of day to hold your most important meetings (and what types of meetings work BEST in the late afternoon)

Your hidden genius is inside you, waiting to be coaxed out.

At first, your hidden genius shows up as a little wisp that floats across your head. You might have dismissed it. Maybe you thought it wasn't clear enough to be taken seriously.

But you can move forward with just the wisp. You think, "I'm going to follow that wisp", and see what happens next.

You're more than you're allowing yourself to be

In this HerBusiness podcast interview with Victoria Labalme, you'll learn how to highlight the awesomeness that will draw people to you.

You should be asking "What lights me up?" and then "How can I put this out into the world in service of others?"

That's a transformative question to ask.

Because when you inspect all those things that light you up, you'll find a common thread between them.

And that thread, which Victoria calls the 'Throughline', helps you create an experience that stops time for people.

Listen to discover:

• What are YOUR unique value proposition and your hidden genius?
• The importance of recognising the 'through line' that keeps trying to get your attention
• Why you already have all the tools you need to stop doing it like everyone else
• What it means to brand with your passion, and do what lights you up
• How not to fall into the 'compare and despair' trap
• "Just because you have an offer, doesn't mean you have to take it" and other gems
• Why Victoria thinks decisiveness is overrated
• How to turn daily communication moments into a work of art
• Reaching INSIDE to find your OUTER path

What if you could end price negotiations and stop clients from haggling, once and for all?

According to marketer Seth Godin, one simple (but not easy) change that can make all the difference is to stop trying to sell to everyone, and instead to get specific about WHO you serve.

And that means doing something that fills most business owners with fear:

Saying NO to customers who are not your target market.

In this interview with Suzi Dafnis and Seth Godin, you'll learn how to position your business to the right audience and gain the confidence to say:

"I made something of value for a select few people, and it's worth what it costs."

Listen to our favourite marketer in conversation with Suzi Dafnis to hear:

• What it means to really SEE our ideal clients
• Why all we need to be successful is the smallest VIABLE market
• What stops us from being REMARKABLE MARKETERs and business owners
• Why SPECIFICITY BEATS GENERALITIES when it comes to your niche
• How to get into the heads of those that we want to MAKE AN IMPACT on
• The important DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BRAND MARKETING AND DIRECT MARKETING and why we should be doing both
• Why discounting OUR PRICE tells our market we are scared
• The role of FREE CONTENT VS PAID CONTENT in our bigger plan
• You can DO WORK THAT MATTERS for people who care

What if you could find a way of doing business that works for your bank account, supports your wellbeing and one that follows the path of least resistance?

That's what this episode of the HerBusiness podcast, with Denise Duffield-Thomas, the author of Chillpreneur, is all about.

Listen to this podcast episode with Suzi Dafnis and Denise Duffield-Thomas to discover:

• What it means to be a Chillpreneur
• The beliefs that could be limiting your business success
• How to handle the 'snakes and ladders' ups and downs of business without quitting
• Why it pays to celebrate when things go wrong
• How to have ambition without overworking
• The small tweaks you can choose thatcreate a business that feels good to you
• What it means to be a contributor and to a guru (and why being a contributor lets you off the hook and reduces stress)
• Why failures are a perfect tool for your future Oprah interviews ;-)
• The conversion reality and why it's not a barometer to how good your stuff is
• How to show up exactly as you are to be your most compelling to your audience

Getting marketing messages right is a fine art. What if there were a few small changes you could make, tiny changes even, that could drastically improve the profit on your next marketing project?

Research suggests that the key difference to the results you get can depend on how you present information before you get to your real sales pitch. Dr Robert Cialdini, the world's expert on influence and persuasion calls this Pre-Suasion.

For example…

When asking customers to try a new product, asking a question a particular way shot

In another example, the use of specific symbols in an email produced FIVE TIMES as many sales as ones without. Two images on a website when tested against one another, with nothing else changed, netted TOTALLY different results.

These aren't random incidents. They're actually the result of the deliberate use of Pre-Suasion. Now you can learn how to use Pre-Suasion to increase conversion rates in your own business.

In this podcast interview with the world's expert on influence and persuasion, Robert Cialdini, you'll learn how to structure information to guide customers' attention so they buy more often. And, how to ethically influence them to buy more expensive items than they had planned to buy from you.

Listen to this podcast episode with Suzi Dafnis and Dr Robert Cialdini to discover:

• What are the six influence principles and how they make your marketing more persuasive
• How to guide people to move in the direction of the message that we're going to send, before they experience that message (ie. what to do before asking for the sale)
• Why you should ask for your customers' advice rather than their opinions
• How small changes to a landing page can steer customers in a particular direction
• Which one tiny change to an email subject line made a 5-fold increase in sales
• How to use the principles of authority and social proof to boost sales conversions
• Where to place testimonialson your website for best results

What impact does your environment have on your creativity and productivity?

Disorganisation can prevent you from quickly laying your hands on the information you need in your business or life admin. What's more, clutter creates frustration and slows you down.

Clutter can be either physical clutter or mental clutter – messy desk, too many unfinished projects in progress, and focusing on perfectionism when perfect isn't necessary.

In this HerBusiness podcast episode with Suzi Dafnis and Gretchen Rubin, you'll discover how to create the right level of outer order to suit your business and your life.

"What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while."

Hear about Gretchen's game-changing daily habits that contribute to order.

Like the "One Minute Rule": Anything you can do in less than a minute, do it right away. Print out a letter and file it. Respond to an email with a quick one-paragraph reply.

This gets rid of a lot of the tiny tasks that are the scum on the surface of life. Deal with them as you go and you can create and maintain order, leaving room in your life for the things that make you happy.

Listen to this episode with Gretchen Rubin to discover:

• How outer order contributes to inner calm
• One of the worst uses of your precious time is unnecessary busy work
• How to let go of the clutter of unfinished projects, without guilt
• Use the "Ten Minute Closer" and the "One Minute Rule" to transform your productivity
• Why there's no right way to create and maintain order
• How to free your mind (and your shelves) for what you truly value