In this week's podcast, we'll be revisiting through our Podcast Best Of series on how we make, manage and grow money in order to make work optional.

Active income is never passive. 

Work is work.

But the income from your work can be funneled into assets that CAN be passive – and that, ultimately, is the game.

These days, I am passionate about sharing that message with others. 

Even moreso in this online business world, where we have the capacity to build high profit margin businesses.

And, where a little know how on what to DO with that income is life-changing. 

And so, in this throwback episode, I am sharing with you the six steps for building a business that will one day allow you to make work optional and to enjoy true passive income. 

———

Recommended next episode: 

→ ❤️‍🔥😍 Sexy Budgeting, Finances and PROFIT for Online Business Owners

Want more? Here’s how we can help you:

→ Free Workshop — Create our knowledge-based lifestyle business in 2025

→ Subscribe to the Fully Free Newsletter — Come and join the party on Substack! Subscribe for weekly articles, essays and behind the scenes to help you build a lifestyle business.

→ Join Lifestyle Business School — Get the complete Operating System for starting or growing an expertise-based online business to the Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.

Let's talk about finding alignment and balance in new motherhood, especially when your traditional business model and success no longer serves the life you want to create.

In this podcast episode, I share my experience with running a business and raising 2 young kids, finding myself again and building a business that truly lights me up.

This is an interview that first aired on Rachelle Saevils 'Behind the Fold' podcast, where she shares interviews breaking down the real and raw BTS of motherhood and business. 

We discussed: 

• 5:38 - My business growth, fears and preparation during and after my first pregnancy.
• 12:57 - The time in between my first and second child of feeling unaligned and conflicted, that caused me to rethink my whole business model.
• 20:00 - The experience and struggles of having my partner become the primary care giver while I continued working.
• 23:30 - How my motherhood identity and mindset changed from one birth to the next.
• 26:15 - Learning about the power of self care, slowing down and being okay with extended timelines when it comes to goals.
• 34:00 - Focusing on what matters most to you, even if it means a revenue dip in your business for a season.

I hope this episode encourages you to seek balance among all the areas you may be juggling in whatever that might look like for you- give yourself some grace. 

If you love this episode, definitely check out Rachelles podcast, Behind the Fold.

———

Recommended next episode: 

→ I'll be doing a motherhood and business Q+A podcast episode soon. Have a question for it? DM me on Instagram here: @steviedillon_

Links Mentioned: 

→ Behind the Fold Podcast on Spotify

→ Behind the Fold Podcast on Apple Podcasts

Want more? Here’s how we can help you:

→ Free Workshop — Create our knowledge-based lifestyle business in 2025

→ Subscribe to the Fully Free Newsletter — Come and join the party on Substack! Subscribe for weekly articles, essays and behind the scenes to help you build a lifestyle business.

→ Join Lifestyle Business School — Get the complete Operating System for starting or growing an expertise-based online business to the Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.

Ahhhh, attention (aka traffic, aka your ‘top of funnel’ in marketing speak). 

The darling of the Internet!

Understandably so, it’s the tip of the proverbial Internet iceberg and the ONLY thing that’s visible when we’re scrolling online. And for that reason, we’re obsessed with it and start to think that the ultimate success of our online businesses lives and dies by it. 

And whilst it’s true that it matters, it’s just one piece of the marketing funnel pie. 

Let’s talk all things top of funnel – aka traffic, aka the darling of the Internet – and answer some of the biggest questions.

[🎉 New!] Subscribe to Stevie's Substack for weekly articles and behind the scenes: https://lifestylebusinessschool.substack.com/

Episode Shownotes
00:00 Introduction: Capturing attention and growing your audience
00:29 Understanding the marketing funnel
01:13 Five hot tips: Top of funnel strategies
01:25 Tip 1: Top of funnel comes last
05:11 Tip 2: Clarify your business model
09:50 Tip 3: Build your email list
16:20 Tip 4: Message market fit
21:33 Tip 5: Getting attention
40:58 Conclusion and summary

———

Recommended next episode: 

→ Ep 270: Marketing Has Changed. Here’s What You MUST Know to Sell Scalable Offers Right Now.

→ Ep 271: Are Funnels Dead? No, But Things Are MESSY Right Now (Here's What to Do About It)

Links Mentioned: 

→ Traffic Playbook [Currently 70% Off]: Get the Marketing System for driving the volume and quality of traffic required to sell your scalable offers in 2025.

→ Click Power Podcast Episode

Want more? Here’s how we can help you:

→ Free Workshop — Create our knowledge-based lifestyle business in 2025

→ Subscribe to the Fully Free Newsletter — Come and join the party on Substack! Subscribe for weekly articles, essays and behind the scenes to help you build a lifestyle business.

→ Join Lifestyle Business School — Get the complete Operating System for starting or growing an expertise-based online business to the Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.

Recently, Google embarked on a mission to answer one question: 

‘How do consumers decide what they want to buy and who they want to buy it from?’

The answer was.. squiggly, the say the least. 

To stand out and sell in 2025, you’re not just ‘one funnel away’ anymore. Instead, it’s essential to build an ecosystem of touchpoints to satisfy the savvy, skeptical buyers that you’re the real deal. 

The 'middle of funnel' is more important (and squiggly) than ever, and to stand out and sell? Yours needs to be robust. 

The test is this — if someone found you right now, would they have 7-9 hours of touchpoint available with you to binge on demand? ⁠

If not, you need today's episode. 

And if you do, you still need it - because there's four other tests I share, too. 

Episode Show Notes:
00:00 The changing landscape of marketing
00:14 The middle of funnel squig
02:25 Reasons why the landscape has changed
02:26 Reason one: Trust desert
03:30 Reason two: A more discerning market
04:33 Reason three: Savvier research abilities
05:41 Five tips for standing out
08:18 One: Build a strong brand
14:34 Two: Establish a middle of funnel trigger
18:41 Three: Automate your middle of funnel ecosystem
25:35 Four: Create long form content
32:56 Five: Inject authority markers

[🎉 New!] Subscribe to Stevie's Substack for weekly articles and behind the scenes: https://lifestylebusinessschool.substack.com/

———

Recommended next episode: 

→ [Last week's episode]: Marketing Has Changed. Here’s What You MUST Know to Sell Scalable Offers Right Now.

Links Mentioned: 

→ Don't Build Businesses! Build Projects! Part 1/5: The multi-passionate personal brand-based founders guide to a business that prints cash, serves well and sets you free

→ Traffic Playbook [Currently 70% Off]: Get the Marketing System for driving the volume and quality of traffic required to sell your scalable offers in 2025.

Want more? Here’s how we can help you:

→ Free Workshop — Create our knowledge-based lifestyle business in 2025

→ Subscribe to the Fully Free Newsletter — Come and join the party on Substack! Subscribe for weekly articles, essays and behind the scenes to help you build a lifestyle business.

→ Join Lifestyle Business School — Get the complete Operating System for starting or growing an expertise-based online business to the Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.

Marketing has changed. If you want to drive the volume and quality of traffic you need to sell your scalable offers in 2025, this is for you. 

Side note — this is absolutely NOT for the full-time content creators, and the people who spend their days marketing online for a living. It’s for the people who NEED to understand how this stuff works to build the thing they ACTUALLY DO (without it taking 18,273 hours a week). 

Episode Show Notes:
00:45 Understanding the marketing funnel
02:09 The Importance of messaging in marketing
07:10 Building an effective marketing funnel
14:35 Bottom of funnel
22:56 Middle of funnel
27:44 Top of funnel
34:28 Conclusion and Next Steps

PS [🎉 New!] Subscribe to Stevie's Substack for weekly articles and behind the scenes: https://lifestylebusinessschool.substack.com/

———

Recommended next episode: 

→ Click Power: The One Metric That Could Sink Your Next Launch

Links Mentioned: 

→ Traffic Playbook Course: Get the Marketing System for driving the volume and quality of traffic required to sell your scalable offers in 2025. 

→ Substack Series on Refining Your Marketing Message (this is a series of five newsletters, it will be updated soon to include marketing messaging, positioning and more)

Want more? Here’s how we can help you:

→ Free Workshop — Create our knowledge-based lifestyle business in 2025

→ Subscribe to the Fully Free Newsletter — Come and join the party on Substack! Subscribe for weekly articles, essays and behind the scenes to help you build a lifestyle business.

→ Join Lifestyle Business School — Get the complete Operating System for starting or growing an expertise-based online business to the Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.

[🎉 New!] Subscribe to Stevie's Substack for weekly articles and behind the scenes: https://lifestylebusinessschool.substack.com/

If you love behind the scenes episodes, this is for you. 

After spending a year building out my new business model, it's time to take everything I've created and grow it.

To "stay the course", as my friend Odette said to me at brunch last week.

So today, I want to share with you my 2025 game plan, real numbers and all! 

Episode Shownotes:
00:00  Introduction: Transparency and Real Numbers
03:30  Step 1: Setting the Vision
17:39  Step 2: Making the Plan
35:00  Step 3: Execution and Tracking
32:27  Habits, Systems, and Support for Success
39:19  Summary of 2025 Game Plan

———

Recommended next episode: 

→ How to Make $500k within 24 Months with a $500k Offer

Links Mentioned: 

→ My 2025 Game Plan on Substack

→ My 2024 Revenue Numbers Revealed

→ My YouTube Page

Want more? Here’s how we can help you:

→ Free Workshop — Create our knowledge-based lifestyle business in 2025

→ Subscribe to the Fully Free Newsletter — Come and join the party on Substack! Subscribe for weekly articles, essays and behind the scenes to help you build a lifestyle business.

→ Join Lifestyle Business School — Get the complete Operating System for starting or growing an expertise-based online business to the Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.

🏜 We're officially in a trust desert, people. Your future buyers still want to buy, sure. 

But, the times are a changin' and to keep up, we need to level up. 

Here's just a few of the changes in the online business landscape that have accelerated over the past 12 months: 

🤠 We're all super aware that there are cowboys in the industry, and many of us have been burnt by them;

💸 We don't have as much free cash to splash, and we're super wary of ensuring it goes to the right person for the job; 

🤖 AI is advancing at a clip, and we're craving a unique perspective and a human to lead us; 

💅🏼 The industry is becoming more sophisticated, and in a buyers market we're spoilt for choice; and

📈 Buying cycles are getting longer, as people stop responding to direct response marketing and instead are taking their time to make sure a purchase is the right one for them. 

All of these changes have led to the "perfect storm"; one where the online business landscape is fast being split down the middle into two clear camps: 

The first? Those willing to do what it takes to develop trust. And the second? Those still clinging onto the old ways of doing business, and wondering why it isn't working anymore. 

In today's podcast episode, I'm breaking down what this trust desert is and five things to consider to ensure that you don't get left behind. 

Here's a summary of points covered: 

1) Touchpoints: The need for more touchpoints to build rapport with audience prior to purchase. 

2) Audience: The increasing importance of audience and community. 

3) Middle of Funnel: The non-negotiable need for a middle of funnel content channel. 

4) Thought Leadership: Why how to content no longer cuts it. 

5) Catering to Longer Buying Cycles: Why multiple touchpoints are needed to achieve a benchmark CVR. 

If you need help with developing trust with a robust traffic system for developing traffic and building trust with them, you need Traffic Playbook! This is a full course included in Lifestyle Business School, and also able to be purchased separately. 

To check it out, click here. 

Want more? Here’s how we can help you:

→ Free Workshop — Create our knowledge-based lifestyle business in 2025

→ Subscribe to the Fully Free Newsletter — Come and join the party on Substack! Subscribe for weekly articles, essays and behind the scenes to help you build a lifestyle business.

→ Join Lifestyle Business School — Get the complete Operating System for starting or growing an expertise-based online business to the Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.

In the past month, I experienced the “tipping point” in the leveraged business model I started building out from scratch 12 months ago.

All leveraged expertise-based models have them, IF YOU KNOW TO STICK WITH IT LONG ENOUGH TO GET TO THE MAGIC ✨

But, this isn’t always in line with the rhetoric online.

We hear of “quick wins”, “six figure launches” straight out of the gate and unicorns who build their dream business in a year.

And sure, with some business models, that may actually be possible.

Take a service-based or freelancer business model for instance.

You can build it in a day, book yourself out in a week and be making $10k in a month.

The trade off? That the revenue comes at the expense of your time.. forever.

When you’re creating a leveraged business model that ultimately gives you compounding revenue, high profit margins and MORE time back as time goes on, it’s different.

There’s the decision to start.

Then, the build.

And then FINALLY, the tipping point.

The tipping point is the inflection point where the work you have done up until that point starts to compound and snowball.

Your revenue starts to really increase.

Your time and the energetic lift starts to decrease.

And all of the hard work starts to pay off.

But, it’s a process, and it’s in NO WAY instant.

I think being more honest about this is only going to serve people, because they might then have more realistic expectations, stay in it for the long run and actually start to see the fruits of their labour over time.

In today’s podcast episode, I am going to share a little about that process.

I’ve followed this exact same process now for three iterations of my business.. and it’s the SAME EVERY TIME.

Podcast Episodes Referenced:

• Ep 185: ❤️‍🔥😍 Sexy Budgeting, Finances and PROFIT for Online Business Owners
• Ep 262: How to Make $500k Within 24 Months With a $2k Offer (Detailed Step by Step)
• Ep 253: Engineering Alignment: Building an Offer That Sparks Joy, Lights You Up and Brings Happy to Your Day

Want more? Here’s how we can help you:

→ Free Workshop — Create our knowledge-based lifestyle business in 2025

→ Subscribe to the Fully Free Newsletter — Come and join the party on Substack! Subscribe for weekly articles, essays and behind the scenes to help you build a lifestyle business.

→ Join Lifestyle Business School — Get the complete Operating System for starting or growing an expertise-based online business to the Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.

It’s official ONE WEEK until my 7th business birthday (and my ACTUAL birthday! 🎈), so I thought it a good time to reflect on 7 lessons I’ve learnt from 7 years in business. 

Here goes!

1️⃣ It’s okay to leave money on the table. 

2️⃣ Traditional business advice might not apply. 

3️⃣ There isn’t one right way of doing business. 

4️⃣ Everything is a solvable problem. 

5️⃣ Take the action and the outcome will (eventually) take care of itself.

6️⃣ On indecision. 

7️⃣ Make your success a habit. 

Read the full blogpost here.

Want more? Here’s how we can help you:

→ Free Workshop — Create our knowledge-based lifestyle business in 2025

→ Subscribe to the Fully Free Newsletter — Come and join the party on Substack! Subscribe for weekly articles, essays and behind the scenes to help you build a lifestyle business.

→ Join Lifestyle Business School — Get the complete Operating System for starting or growing an expertise-based online business to the Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.

⏰ PSA: The price for Lifestyle Business School increases by up to $900USD in 24 hours, and we have just added a new super accessible payment plan. Click here.

This is a business strategy podcast Q+A, where I am answering some JUICY questions.

Let’s call it a big ‘ol business strategy sesh!

I answer:

➡️ I am a creative and I want to expand my clients/audience with a leveraged offer like a digital course or products. What is the best way to do this?

➡️ I want to create a low cost digital product, around $30. Can I be successful with this?

➡️ I have a specialised niche and I want to create something lower cost to serve them. Should I?

➡️ How much time do you need to dedicate each week to build a successful lifestyle business?

And more!

These are some of the questions that have been coming through as we prepare to close the doors on the current price, extended time bonus and all of the other special bonuses. Whether you are thinking about joining Lifestyle Business School, or you simply love a good strategy jam sesh – this is for you!

Want more? Here’s how we can help you:

→ Free Workshop — Create our knowledge-based lifestyle business in 2025

→ Subscribe to the Fully Free Newsletter — Come and join the party on Substack! Subscribe for weekly articles, essays and behind the scenes to help you build a lifestyle business.

→ Join Lifestyle Business School — Get the complete Operating System for starting or growing an expertise-based online business to the Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.