Do you find yourself working long hours, yet at the end of the day wonder what you actually achieved?
Do you often get frustrated with not being able to get big projects completed, because you can’t find the time to get them done?
In this episode of Next Level Influence, Melanie Benson and Samantha Riley discuss how to stop wasting time on activities that don’t move the needle toward your goals so you can get more of the right things done without feeling overwhelmed.
Kick off the new year right by understanding where you want the business to be and what you need to do to get there. 
Don’t get trapped in confusion or being blinded by bright shiny things that aren’t relevant to you right now.  Instead, learn how to know what opportunities to say yes to, so you can achieve your big, hairy, audacious goals in 2023 and beyond.   
Here are some of the highlights of this episode:

• The importance of having clarity on your goals, and how to align your theme for the year (01:39)
• Find the data to know what moves the needle in your business (02:50)
• Determining criteria for successful activities that move you toward your goal (05:12)
• Samantha and Melanie's theme for 2023 (05:50)
• Establishing standards and boundaries to increase productivity (07:20)
• The benefits of delegation if you want to grow (10:20)
• Why it’s significant to know and live your role in the business (11:50)
• Understanding your human design for business success (15:50)

Quotes:
"Knowing the right things to do helps us be more productive with the right things." -Melanie Benson
"Get the right things done by committing to your role, and make sure you have people on your team that can do the things you get distracted by." -Melanie Benson
"You have to be very clear on your goals because if you're not, it's very difficult to know what to say yes to and what to say no to." -Samantha Riley
"If we're not constantly learning, reflecting, and changing things up, then we're not having the full human experience." -Samantha Riley

Resources:

• Download The Million Dollar Plan to discover the 9 key growth areas for more income, freedom, and impact https://samanthariley.global/PLAN/
• Learn more about Melanie's 7 Step Proven Framework and Add Another 6 Figures to Your Business https://amplifywithmelanie.com

Melanie Benson, host of Amplify Your Success PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Samantha Riley, host of Influence by Design PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Produced by Your Podcast Concierge 

So many entrepreneurs don’t reach their next level of growth and self-sabotage by holding themselves back, all because of a belief that shifting from one level to another requires a lot of hustle and grind. 
In this episode of Next Level Influence, Melanie Benson and Samantha Riley engage in a mindset-shifting episode about why having a 7-figure business can be easier than having a 6-figure business.
Take your influence and business to the next level by increasing your momentum and learning how you can remove the business bottlenecks that are currently preventing you from scaling further. 
Here are some of the highlights of this episode:

• The belief that ignites self-sabotage (01:12)
• Understanding growth bottlenecks and their impact on business (02:25)
• The crucial role of optimizing boring business tasks (04:09)
• Scaleable offerings and common misconceptions around them (06:25)
• Influencing next-level growth via repeatable systems and delegation (08:35)
• The ultimate trap that keeps business owners from reaching exponential growth (13:00)
• The power of stepping up as the visionary/ CEO in your business (14:49)

Quotes:
"Whatever level you're at now, getting to that next level always appears harder than it really is." -Melanie Benson
"When you master removing yourself as the bottleneck, you're actually tapping into a momentum that is very easy to grow exponentially." -Melanie Benson
"Implementing systems won’t hold you back.  They will give you freedom in your business." -Samantha Riley
"If you're going to continue doing tasks yourself because it's faster, you'll do it forever. And that’s going to be like running a never-ending marathon." -Samantha Riley
Resources:

• Learn more about Melanie's 7 Step Proven Framework and Add Another 6 Figures to Your Business https://amplifywithmelanie.com
• Download The Million Dollar Plan to discover the 9 key growth areas for more income, freedom, and impact https://samanthariley.global/PLAN/   

Melanie Benson, host of Amplify Your Success PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Samantha Riley, host of Influence by Design PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Produced by Your Podcast Concierge 

To grow your business and brand influence you’ll need to evaluate your marketing performance. It’s important to know what works and what doesn’t, so you know where to improve.
In this episode of Next Level Influence, Samantha Riley and Melanie Benson discuss how to establish marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) to grow your business.
Tracking and understanding your KPIs means you’ll be aware of where to focus your time and attention for the best return on investment for your time. You’ll also learn what attracts people to you, and what drives them to continue to work with you.
Here are some of the highlights of this episode:

• The benefits of tracking your numbers (01:40)
• Conversion rates that Samantha and Melanie track in business (03:45) 
• How Melanie analyses the data from her opt-in rates (06:30)
• Detrimental expectations from a webinar and the KPIs to track (08:33)
• Data that can be extracted from email conversion and open rates (12:05)
• Why Samantha doesn’t aim for a zero percent opt-out rate (14:17)
• Understanding customer lifetime value (16:00)

Quotes:
"The better your business performs, the more people you can impact." -Samantha Riley

"You can't grow what you don't measure." -Samantha Riley

"If you don't know what your numbers are then you don't know where to put your time and attention." -Melanie Benson

“If people are opting out of your list, it’s not a bad thing. It may mean that your emails aren’t relevant to the problem they have right now.” -Melanie Benson
Resources:

• Download The Million Dollar Plan to discover the 9 key growth areas for more income, freedom, and impact https://samanthariley.global/PLAN/    
• Learn more about Melanie's 7 Step Proven Framework and Add Another 6 Figures to Your Business https://amplifywithmelanie.com

Melanie Benson, host of Amplify Your Success PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Samantha Riley, host of Influence by Design PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Produced by Your Podcast Concierge 

There’s been a major shift in the coaching industry - you may have noticed that some coaches are leaving the industry and changing direction.
This “dying-off” of a fantasy of being a coach presents great opportunities for those resilient enough to stay at the top of their field.
In this episode of Next Level Influence, Melanie Benson and Samantha Riley prepare for the new year by discussing their predictions for the growth opportunities in 2023. 
To do well in business in 2023 and seize these opportunities demands an understanding of your unique superpower, and helping others acknowledge you as an authority.
Here are some of the highlights of this episode:

• The die-off of the coaching fantasy (00:58)
• Why it's important to get clear on your unique superpower (03:07)
• Amplifying visibility with relatability (06:25)
• The components of relatability (11:11)
• Where is content shifting to in 2023 and the big opportunity that comes with it (12:12)
• The power of simplification and how to embrace it in business (16:40)

Quotes:
"The way to stop being a best-kept secret and to really stand out is by taking your unique superpower and helping people understand that you are an authority." -Melanie Benson
"It will not be enough to be good at what you do anymore. You have to be seen and experienced as an authority." -Melanie Benson
"Visibility needs to come from a place of service and giving value to others." -Samantha Riley 
"As experts, we don't necessarily want our videos to go viral as it may not attract the right audience. We're better off keeping our message tight and making sure it gets to the right people so we get a better return on investment." -Samantha Riley
Resources:

• Learn How to Avoid the 17 Mistakes You Are Making As A Guest Expert That's Costing You Leads and Clients by Melanie Benson https://melaniebenson.com/magnetize/   
• Discover The 9 Key Growth Areas For Your Business That Will Give You More Income, Freedom and Impact through Samantha's The Million Dollar Plan™ https://samanthariley.global/plan/ 
• Next Level Influence Episode 18 Lessons Learned

Melanie Benson, host of Amplify Your Success PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Samantha Riley, host of Influence by Design PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Produced by Your Podcast Concierge 

We’re coming to the end of 2022 and for some of us, it’s been an incredibly powerful year. We’ve experienced transformations through painful lessons and discovered new growth opportunities.
Exploring these lessons will give you a better understanding of where to pivot, invest, and how to manage challenges moving forward.
In this episode of Next Level Influence, Samantha Riley and Melanie Benson chat about the lessons learned from this year. 
It’s much harder to move forward and make the changes needed for your next level of growth if you don't look back, reflect and learn from the lessons. These learnings will help you better plan and make the changes needed for the coming year.
Here are some of the highlights of this episode:

• Melanie’s Year-End Wrap-Up and how she uses it to plan out the next year (02:29)
• Samantha’s preparations for 2023 and the value of having a supportive network (02:59)
• The dangers of over-delegating and the learnings Melanie got from a difficult situation (04:45)
• The significance of having the right people when scaling a business (09:53)
• Samantha’s challenges and learnings from doing 30 podcast episodes in 30 days (12:55)
• Changes in podcasting during the pandemic (19:40)
• The cost when you operate outside your human design (23:49)

Quotes:
"You can't move forward and reach your next level of growth without reflecting back." -Samantha Riley 
"When you're up-leveling in business, there will be hard decisions to make. Sometimes some people need to get off the bus to allow other people to get on the bus." -Samantha Riley
"You can delegate ownership but you have to invest in having the right people to accelerate growth. If you don't have the right people and level of expertise and you're giving them ownership, you're bound to have problems and breakdowns in business." -Melanie Benson
"When you understand your human design profile, you learn how to engage with others in a way that activates the most energetic flow state." -Melanie Benson
Resources:

• Download The Million Dollar Plan to discover the 9 key growth areas for more income, freedom, and impact https://samanthariley.global/PLAN/ 
• Learn more about Melanie's 7 Step Proven Framework and Add Another 6 Figures to Your Business https://amplifywithmelanie.com 
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't

Melanie Benson, host of Amplify Your Success PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Samantha Riley, host of Influence by Design PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Produced by Your Podcast Concierge 

Hiring and training teams involve investing a good amount of money and time.  But some entrepreneurs feel like it’s wasting their resources because good results aren’t being achieved.
Delegation is a crucial factor in the success of your business growth, but not getting the results you want may lead you to wonder if the time, effort, and money are worth it. 
In this episode of Next Level Influence, Melanie Benson and Samantha Riley speak about how you can empower your team to achieve your goals. 
Not having a team limits your business growth, so you need to learn how to expand their impact by empowering them. 
Here are some of the highlights of this episode:

• Samantha’s onboarding process of team members (03:59)
• Why it’s important to hire people who have an ownership mentality (05:37)
• The impact of human design on how team members achieve goals (08:20)
• The advantage of employing people with different personality traits (11:20)
• Getting clear on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and addressing bottlenecks (15:45)
• How to evaluate the outcome of your investment in your team (21:05)

Quotes:
"Delegating is such a key part of growth and being able to reach more people." -Melanie Benson
"We need to balance our team and understand what kind of role, energy, and human design they have so we don't get stuck all trying to be part of the wheel." -Melanie Benson
"Your team will not perform at their best if they're being micromanaged. They'll be afraid at every step, so you need to give them space to operate at their best." -Samantha Riley 
"If we love what we do, we push forward. If we're hating what we do, we hold back." -Samantha Riley


Resources:

• Download Samantha's Guide to Create Your High-Performing Team https://samanthariley.global/TEAM/ 
• Learn more about Melanie's Hiring For Growth Guide by sending her a message
• Next Level Influence Episode 006: Using Your Human Design to Create Aligned Content

Melanie Benson, host of Amplify Your Success PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Samantha Riley, host of Influence by Design PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Produced by Your Podcast Concierge 

Many entrepreneurs set goals at the beginning of the year but a whopping 80% of these goals are never achieved. 
The idea of setting goals may seem exciting, but actually committing to achieve them is a whole different story.
In this episode of Next Level Influence, Samantha Riley and Melanie Benson chat about what you need to do instead of goal setting so you can achieve powerful outcomes for your life and business next year.
Here are some of the highlights of this episode:

• How to decide on a theme for next year (03:05)
• Melanie's and Samantha's themes for 2022 (05:52)
• How to ensure your decisions are aligned with your goals (12:18)
• The impact of challenging your belief systems (15:28)
• How habits can hinder or move you towards your goals (17:10)
• Finding the gaps in your business, and knowing what needs to be done (18:57)
• Milestone projects that scale the business forward (20:18)

Quotes:
"Our habits can either hinder or help us. Paying attention to your habits helps you move towards your goals." -Samantha Riley
"Our belief system plays out more than any of us could ever know." -Samantha Riley
"One of the reasons why people don't achieve their goals is that their habits are taking them away from the goals instead of moving towards them." -Melanie Benson
"Setting a theme acts like a guiding light for the goals you set. It will give you a much greater chance of realizing those goals instead of them disappearing on a piece of paper."  -Melanie Benson
Resources:

• Discover The 9 Key Growth Areas For Your Business That Will Give You More Income, Freedom and Impact https://samanthariley.global/plan/  
• Unlock Your Hidden Profits in Just 4 Simple Steps https://melaniebenson.com/profitexplosion/ 

Melanie Benson, host of Amplify Your Success PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Samantha Riley, host of Influence by Design PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Produced by Your Podcast Concierge 

Podcasting is growing exponentially, yet some people don’t recognise its value in brand visibility.
It’s challenging to stand out with platforms such as social media, blogs, or YouTube. But podcasting generates an intimate opportunity that can easily capture the listener’s attention.
In this episode of Next Level Influence, Melanie Benson and Samantha Riley talk about how to get booked on high-profile podcasts. With its evergreen shelf life, podcasting is a coveted visibility strategy you should leverage to grow your business. 
Here are some of the highlights of this episode:

• Why podcasting is a hot visibility strategy for your brand (03:30)
• The value of consistency in podcast guesting (06:25)
• Understanding the power of a great pitch (8:48)
• Common mistakes that prevent you from getting booked on podcasts (18:22)

Quotes:
"If you don't know how to deliver a good podcast episode then you're not going to get booked on high-profile podcasts." -Melanie Benson
"You don't need to be on everybody's podcast. You just need to be on a podcast that is creating a connection with your ideal clients or creating new opportunities." -Melanie Benson
"No other platform allows us to dive deep, talk about our zone of genius, and show people what we know and how we interact better than podcasting." -Samantha Riley
"You need to understand that showing and doing the interview is not the whole podcast strategy. The whole strategy is also about how you're bringing people back to your world." -Samantha Riley
Resources:

• Learn Melanie’s How to Avoid the 17 Biggest Mistakes When Podcast Guesting https://melaniebenson.com/magnetize/ 
• Get a copy of Samantha’s Podcast Guest Advantage - The 5 steps to getting yourself booked on podcasts  https://samanthariley.global/guest/

Melanie Benson, host of Amplify Your Success PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Samantha Riley, host of Influence by Design PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Produced by Your Podcast Concierge 

Do you regularly spend more time doing tasks that you could have easily assigned to someone else? And instead of showing up as the face of your business, you regularly get caught in the weeds?
This symptom is a strong indication that you’re a bottleneck in your business. 
In this episode of Next Level Influence, Melanie Benson and Samantha Riley exchange insights about how you can remove the bottlenecks that prevent business growth. If you want to succeed in business, there are many areas you need to focus on.  However, not dealing with the bottlenecks steers you away from achieving your goals. 
Here are some of the highlights of this episode:

• The importance of recognising you are the catalyst in your business (02:05)
• The top five bottlenecks that are preventing you from scaling your impact (04:37)
• The danger of doing tasks outside your genius zone (04:53)
• Why you need clear systems and procedures to grow (07:45)
• The outcomes of investing in your business (11:17)
• The impact of spending time on unaligned opportunities (15:25)
• The significance of having a plan in business (17:47)
• How to remove bottlenecks (19:38)

Quotes:
"Spending time on opportunities that are not a good fit means you will not have the time to invest in things that will move the needle." -Melanie Benson
"If you're doing something that someone else can do better, faster, or cheaper than you, you're probably bottlenecking your growth." -Melanie Benson
"As the CEO of your business, your biggest contribution is the vision. Without sharing your vision, you can't move your business forward and impact more people." -Samantha Riley
"To influence more people, we need to be showing up. The more time we're spending backstage in business, the less time we're being seen."-Samantha Riley
Resources:

• Learn Melanie's 7 Step Proven Framework for getting booked as a Guest Expert https://melaniebenson.com/7-steps/   
• Discover The 5 Biggest Mistakes That Coaches Make That Prevent Them From Having A High Performing Team https://samanthariley.global/team/ 

Melanie Benson, host of Amplify Your Success PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Samantha Riley, host of Influence by Design PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Produced by Your Podcast Concierge 

Does the idea of increasing your revenue sound exciting, but you’re worried that it will mean a lot of extra work?  
What if you could earn more next year without working harder? 
In this episode of Next Level Influence, Samantha Riley and Melanie Benson chat about how to earn more and command authority in your niche. Implementing a strategy to 10X your revenue may be easier than you think but it does require the confidence to try new things - “What got you here won’t get you there”. 
Here are some of the highlights of this episode:

• How to tighten your niche to attract more ideal clients (02:55)
• How to implement The 6X Effect in your business to clarify your niche  (05:35)
• Melanie’s framework of ‘The Target’ to speak directly with your ideal clients (06:57)
• How to use authority positioning to raise your profile (08:45)
• The symptoms of being wrapped in an invisibility cloak (14:30)
• The value of positioning and why authority is in the eyes of the beholder (17:50)

Quotes:
"Authority is in the eyes of the beholder. If your ideal clients and community don't recognise your authority, it's your job to curate it." -Melanie Benson
"You have to position your expertise in a way that people get how amazing you are and know that you're the go-to authority." -Melanie Benson
"You can't play in a low vibrational sandpit and expect to attract your ideal clients." -Samantha Riley
"Don't enter into something with the idea of 'what can I get out of this?' You need to go in with the intention of serving." -Samantha Riley

Resources:

• Download and learn more about Samantha's 5 foundational principles to position yourself as the Stand-Out Expert in your niche https://samanthariley.global/checklist/ 
• Learn Melanie's 7 Step Proven Framework for getting booked as a Guest Expert https://melaniebenson.com/7-steps/   

Melanie Benson, host of Amplify Your Success PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Samantha Riley, host of Influence by Design PodcastInstagramFacebookTwitterLinkedIn Produced by Your Podcast Concierge