How to Sell Online

Money is the one subject no one wants to talk about, yet it's on each of our minds. It's just kind of an uncomfortable topic. I think so many people feel that way because there are so many myths surrounding money. We're conditioned to believe that money is an inherent evil and not something we should want to attain. 

Today, I want to share with you some of those myths. Because I think it can help you start considering different thoughts about money and why you actually deserve it. Money is a good thing and can be such a great resource, and I think you should have more of it!

Stay tuned for the top three money myths because I'm going to bust them so you can be on your way to earning more!

Key Takeaways

• Why you need to charge fair prices (06:00)
• What happens when we feel like money is hard to get (10:05)
• We should focus on learning how to make money (15:00)
• How Alison even began to believe she could be a millionaire (17:15)
• The three myths around money (20:10)
• Money puts value on things (30:20)
• Top takeaways from today’s episode (35:50)

Additional Resources 

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As entrepreneurs, it can sometimes feel like we have all the cards stacked against us. Operating a business while maintaining our personal lives is no easy feat, not to mention all the unexpected curveballs that get thrown in our path.

Today, I had the chance to talk to Sarah Petty. She is an author, speaker, and founder of The Joy of Marketing. She started and grew an incredibly successful photography business and now teaches other small business owners how to charge what they’re worth. 

It was such a great opportunity to pick her brain and learn how she grew and led such successful businesses. We talked a lot about entrepreneurial mindset tips and tricks to ensure you’re working as efficiently as possible while still having time for yourself and your family. 

Sarah and I discussed how to stay focused and identified the biggest distractions that keep us from working to the best of our ability and what we should do to implement good habits so that they stick!

I loved all of the great insights that she had to share and think you will, too, so be sure to tune in to this week’s episode! 

Key Takeaways

• Sarah’s transition from the corporate world to starting her own business (02:50)
• What we’re allowing to take our focus (06:30)
• A key habit to pick up for productivity in your business (10:40)
• The importance of pen and paper for entrepreneurs (17:10)
• How to implement good habits so they stick (20:50)
• Sarah shares her love of entrepreneurship with her children (30:14)
• Why failure is really good (35:12)

Additional Resources 

Get your free copy of Worth Every Penny here

Connect with Sarah Petty here

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When starting your business, it can be so challenging to make all of those initial decisions. Each one feels so loaded and important. I wanted to take the opportunity and give you some helpful encouragement and, hopefully, some peace of mind, too.

A lot of the advice I have to offer is gleaned from the trials and errors I made in my own business. We’ll be going over questions like deciding what to sell in your e-commerce business, how much startup capital you should be investing, and how to ship products without getting swallowed up by inventory in your living room. 

I’m also answering a question I get asked super often about if I still sell online or if I’ve moved on completely.

Be sure to tune in because this episode is filled with the AHA moments you’ve been looking for!

Key Takeaways

• How to decide what to sell in your E-commerce business (05:50)
• Why you need to analyze trends to sell more products faster (09:05)
• How much you need to invest when starting your business (11:00)
• The reason you shouldn’t buy a lot of inventory (14:15)
• You don’t have to ship your products yourself (20:20)
• The truth about whether or not I still sell online (27:00)

Additional Resources 

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In this episode, I have on Karrie Chariton-Bhurgari, who is a Pinterest strategist, to help us understand how we can leverage Pinterest to get customers to come over to our stores and make purchases and join our email lists. Karrie has helped shops, bloggers, and DIYers go from zero pins to over 7.6 million monthly views.

Pinterest is a fantastic platform to get your products out there to the world without investing big bucks in advertising. It would be crazy not to use this power that Pinterest provides for free to get more eyeballs and more customers for your products.

As Karrie puts it, Pinterest has grown from being a social media platform to a search engine and is headed to be more of an ecommerce platform. In March, they had an integration with Shopify to make it easy for Shopify owners to create a catalog and sell their products on the platform.

Good photography is absolutely key in helping you convert your pins. Karrie advises us that Pinterest pride themselves in being an inspiring and happy place. To this end, lifestyle pictures that tell a story will help you connect with your customers and convert better.

To make your products discoverable on Pinterest, you need to think through the lens of the person who wants to buy it. This will help you find the right keywords to use for your product on the pin title, description, and the text overlay on the picture. Karrie advises against using hashtags because they don’t work anymore.

Listen in to this episode to learn more about these and many more Pinterest strategies that will help you get your products to the world.

Key Takeaways

• How to add the Pinterest app to your Shopify store and apply to Pinterest vendor portal (06:54)
• Pinterest is a search engine, so use keywords; hashtags don’t work anymore (07:40)
• Your products on Pinterest will appear on Google search results as well (08:26)
• Why you need good photography and beautiful pictures to convert your pins (10:23)
• How to keep your Pinterest game simple (12:42)
• New pins are doing better than old pins (20:58)
• Use Tailwind to schedule your pins (22:15)
• Why you may need to pin other people’s pins (29:18)
• Pins take a while to show on people’s feed, so focus on evergreen promotions rather than flash sales (37:46)
• Have a purpose of every pin and the Call To Action you need potential customers to take (42:44)

Additional Resources

• https://karriemarie.com/about-me/
• www.pinningfoundations.com
• https://www.facebook.com/KarrieMarieVA

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Bethany started writing a book ten years ago. She struggled to find a publishing agent to read her book. She sent numerous queries to agents to get them interested in her book. She sent more than 100 of these without any success. She got so frustrated and cried a lot and eventually moved on and forgot about the book.

This was until January of this year when she was out on a cruise. On one of the dinner nights, she met Anissa Holmes who connected her to someone who helped her publish her book with Morgan James Publishing in just three weeks.

Bethany advises people who are struggling to find a publisher for their book to look at other options. There are so many options today, including going the self-publishing route. She adds that you need to keep networking and talking about your book. You never know when you might  meet a good connection who will point you to the right direction.

Key Takeaways

• Make 2020 your Year (05:31)
• Networking can change your timeframe very quickly (09:22)
• Do the work to increase your luck (10:20)
• There are hybrid methods of publishing; you don’t have to go the traditional way (16:31)
• How to write a book (18:11)
• Step into the uncomfortable to grow (21:36)
• Leveraging influencers to sell a book (24:24)
• Your 101st try may be the life-changing yes (29:21)
• Take your book and turn it into an experience for your readers (26:39)

Additional Resources

Bethany Lee's Website 

Bethany Lee's Instagram 

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There are many changes happening with Instagram. Just like other social media platforms, Instagram has its tips and tricks to optimize your content and grow your following, and what a better way to learn more about these than from an Instagram expert.

In this episode, I dive into all the details and ask Elise all the questions that e-commerce brands have on using Instagram. We cover everything from bio, hashtags, insta stories, and Instagram TV to strategies for growing your following and everything in between.

We talk about the different places that you can post on Instagram and where you are likely to be seen and grow your following. Elise drops a bomb on why comments are likes are not what the Instagram algorithm is looking for to get you more exposure.

Tune in to hear what will make you hit the explore page and learn everything about Instagram.

Key Takeaways

• Why you should repost and republish your content all over (04:24)
• Top 3 places you should be posting on Instagram (05:41)
• Instagram has evolved from perfect images and over-edited photos to real and raw images (10:36)
• More people are scrolling through stories than the feed (11:55)
• The three types of content you can post on Instagram (16:08)
• You don’t have to show your face on Instagram. You can simply be the voice of your brand (17:24)
• Why smaller niche hashtags are better for your content to be found (20:11)
• How to clean up your bio and have a strong Call to Action (25:20)
• Consistency rather than perfection is the key to follower growth on Instagram (40:33)
• Shares and saves are better for hitting the explore page than comments and likes (42:16)

Additional Resources

Story Vault 

Elise's Instagram 

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Entrepreneur life comes with some challenges that will make us feel like quitting. These thoughts will cross your head so many times. But you know what, you are not a quitter. You will carry on and will be fine in the end.

 Understanding the reasons why you feel like quitting will help you push these thoughts away from your head when they come. These reasons are the normal challenges that entrepreneurs face. They are like bumps along the way but you’ll get over with and carry on.

Listen in to these 11 reasons so that next time you feel like quitting, just know that you are not alone. Reset your expectations when faced with these challenges. You don’t have to quit; you can do this. The world needs your products.  

Key Takeaways

• You expect to make a million dollars overnight and you don’t (03:19)
• Why school screwed us up and makes us feel like failures while we are not (06:35)
• You want to quit because your family needs you all the time (08:46)
• You are afraid to celebrate your small wins because it feels like bragging (11:57)
• You think everybody else will celebrate with you, they wont (13:38)
• You feel busy all the time (15:10)
• You got your first one-star review (17:17)
• You are not tracking your numbers: keep your books clean (19:20)
• Products got delayed: plan for delays, they will always happen (21:56)
• Price increases thus increasing your costs; Increase your prices as well (23:27)
• You are tired; take a break (25:51)

Additional Resources

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How do you connect with your audience with everything that is going on currently? How do you show them love and serve them at a higher level? With everything getting canceled due to the virus, it may seem difficult to connect with everything on the world pivoting to online.

Our successful virtual conference was so enlightening. We got to see how you can connect with your audience virtually. I go through all the steps we took to prepare for the conference and how we made it a good experience for everybody attending from their homes. A lot of thought went into planning to deliver this amazing experience.

I was nervous and uncomfortable at first being something new. It is normal to have these thoughts when trying out something you have never done before. It doesn’t mean you stop or quit. It means you are growing and learning the process. You grow when you are uncomfortable. That’s when you make things happen.

Tune in to this episode and hear how we pulled the virtual conference off and all the good things and lessons that came out of it. 

Key Takeaways

• How do you connect with your audience with the world pivoting to online (02:29)
• Background to the planning of the 2020 conference (04:28)
• It is normal to be nervous and uncomfortable when trying something new (09:28)
• Creating a memorable experience for the virtual conference attendees at home (12:19)
• Finding someone to hold you and help you get though when you feel you can’t (15:01)
• How I chose speakers for the virtual conference (30:24)
• The bad from the virtual conference (32:25)
• The good things that came out of the conference (36:40)
• Some of my favorite quotes from the event (40:31)
• Top takeaways from the conference (42:23)

Additional Resources

• https://alisonjprince.clickfunnels.com/next-level-apply

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Shelley, Missy and I are business partners in the How Does She business. Shelley has the superhero power of making business relationships work. She also does a good job working with influencers for the business. She helps us understand some of the things you can do to make business relationships last. She also shares how to work with influencers.

Shelley shares how we started our blog business back then with just a small amount of money we had. It took more than three months to make $1000. We saved this money in our nest egg which was a smart move. Our business has grown ever since.

Having been business partners for more than 10 years, we have seen the best and worst of each other. The key to our relationship has been Shelley. She explains how she uses her personality as a peacemaker to solve disagreements that will always arise in business and in life. As business partners, you should focus on the 95% of someone that is good, not on the 5% that is difficult.

Influencers are a great way to sell your product. They are so powerful, you have to use them appropriately and sincerely. They have taken time to build their audience so love them and listen to them. Having a good product, getting it in their hands, telling them the earning potential from the product, and appreciating them are some of the ways you can build a winning relationship. 

Key Takeaways

• You can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar (11:05)
• Everyone’s perspective is valid; you are not always right (12:21)
• Speak 9 positives about a person before speaking a negative (12:49)
• 5% of everyone is difficult, focus on the 95% goodness (15:00
• Make your email and direct message titles to influencers personal (17:49)
• Tell the influencer their earning potential based on previous sales (19:57)
• Tell your influencer why your product is a good fit for them and their audience (23:41)
• Get your products into the hands of the influencers (24:26))
• Follow up and then your influencer and appreciate them (25:38)
• Have a good product, not junk (26:51)
• Find an influencer who is honest and speaks the truth (28:18)

Additional Resources

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After trying deal sites and Shopify store, Vina settled for Etsy to sell her product. In Etsy, just like other platforms, you have to make sure your listing has a good title, has good pictures and you are offering your customers what they are looking for. Vina did this by learning what people were searching for and optimized her listing using keywords. This led her to make $20k from one shirt.

Having that many orders, Vina had to deal with the fulfillment part to get the orders to her customers. She used her Shipstation account and also Etsy shipping to deliver all these orders. Etsy shipping helped her manage her orders in the click of a button with the same price as ShipStation. She breaks down the numbers involved when selling on Etsy for us.

She advises us that you should look at Etsy as a deal site where you can build your brand. It’s a great place for someone who is starting out because you don’t have to build the perfect store. You can test your product here to see if it is a viable product and if anyone likes it, then move on as you build your brand. 

Key Takeaways

• Making it easy for your customers to find what they are looking for (05:25)
• How one shirt made $20,000 in one month (08:50)
• Using resources on your current platform to make better decisions for your product (10:08)
• Titles are important on Etsy, make them relevant and easy for your customers (11:14)
• Letting go of the product you think will sell and sell what your customers are asking for (14:17)
• Start small so that you are not overwhelmed by the orders (15:18)
• Why you need to replicate your listings on Etsy using keywords (17:04)
• How upselling on Etsy helps push customers to add your other products to their order (18:12)
• Fulfilling a large number of orders in the middle of a pandemic (25:30)
• Why Etsy is a good place to start while testing if you have a viable product (28:15)
• Three tips for having a successful listing on Etsy (32:04)

Additional Resources

Vina Howell's Store

• https://unleashedpen.com/

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