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"Louis, your business is worth nothing." Louis Swart was 25, running a plumbing business with ten plumbers, and he had just asked a broker what he could sell it for. The broker asked who did the accounts. The quality control. The quoting. Every answer was Louis. Five years later he sold a different business — 200 staff — in two weeks flat. What changed wasn't how hard he worked. It was what he was willing to hand over, and what he had to stop believing about himself first.

Louis went on to build a business turning over $35 million with 450 staff, then spent years training as an NLP master practitioner, hypnotherapist and coach, trying to work out why the success hadn't made him happy. He's the founder of Ironbrij, which places AI-supported virtual assistants into small businesses, and the author of The B Myth.

We Also Talked About

• Why "who does the accounts?" is the only question that matters when you're valuing your own business.
• How busyness gets quietly wired to love, safety and worthiness — and why that's the real thing blocking delegation.
• The delegate, elevate, accelerate process, and why the first step is the one everyone stalls on.
• The 60% rule: stop hunting for someone who works like you and start stacking productivity instead.
• Turning a single screen recording into an SOP and a checklist, instead of losing a week to screenshots.
• The "rip-off and duplicate" R&D department every solopreneur already has.
• Fixing the process rather than the person when something falls through the cracks.
• Where AI genuinely outperforms a human, where it quietly fails, and why Louis still wants both.
• The platform-dependency risk nobody prices in when they build a business on someone else's agent.
• A low-tech Post-it Note tool for working out whether the task in front of you is worth your time.

Want this kind of practical, expert help every week — before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

Resources Mentioned

• Louis Swart's website: https://louisswart.com/ 
• Louis's free resources and downloadable tools: https://louisswart.com/resources/ 
• Louis’s book - The B Myth: How Successful People Accidentally Build Businesses That Steal Their Lives (affiliate link)
• Ironbrij, Louis's virtual assistant and business coaching agency: https://ironbrij.com.au/ 
• Loom, for recording a process and generating an SOP from it: https://www.loom.com/ 
• n8n, the automation platform Louis used to build his first meeting-prep agent: https://n8n.io/ 
• Canva: https://www.canva.com/ 

My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home — practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"In life you have to be willing to get your neck out there a little bit in order to learn something new and different." That's Mary Ann Bautista on how she and her business partner talked a client into letting them experiment with a fledgling platform called YouTube back in 2006. A couple of thousand dollars, a bit of leash, and a lot of what she cheerfully calls messing around later, that client has made hundreds of millions of dollars from the work — and some of those videos are still generating orders fifteen years on.

Mary Ann is the co-founder of TurboRank, a YouTube growth agency that increases visibility and revenue for its clients without spending anything on paid media. She has more than two decades in direct response marketing behind her, and nearly twenty years of working out how YouTube actually rewards content. More recently that has extended to something nobody had to think about before: how YouTube feeds the AI tools people now search with.

We Also Talked About

• Why YouTube is a pull platform rather than a push platform, and what that changes about the content you make.
• The diagnostic step that has to come first — understanding what your target client is actually searching for, down to the keyword.
• What a flywheel means in practice, and the pieces that keep it spinning beyond simply publishing more.
• How off-page engagement in communities like Reddit, Quora and Facebook groups feeds both YouTube's recommendation algorithm and AI citations.
• Why that engagement work has to be done by humans, and the roughly-20-posts-before-you-mention-the-client rule.
• What to do if you're not comfortable on camera, including faceless channels pulling millions of views.
• The publishing rhythm Mary Ann recommends: one long-form video a week plus five or six shorts, batch-produced.
• Why shorts run on a completely different algorithm, and why they should always drive back to your long-form.
• Whether to put your podcast on YouTube, and the marketing levers that exist in video but not in audio.
• Where AI genuinely helps in the process, and where it will get you found out.
• YouTube Shop, the Partner status you need to unlock it, and the platform fee it doesn't charge.

If you've been circling YouTube for a while without quite committing, this is the conversation that tells you where to start.

Want this kind of practical, expert help every week — before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

Resources Mentioned

• TurboRank, Mary Ann's YouTube growth agency — https://turborank.co/ 
• Mary Ann Bautista on LinkedIn, which is where she says to reach her — https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryannbautista/ 
• vidIQ, for turning long-form video into shorts — https://vidiq.com/online-business (affiliate link)
• Shopify, which connects to YouTube Shop — https://www.shopify.com/ 
• YouTube Shop — requires YouTube Partner status: 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within a 365-day period
• Reddit, Quora and Facebook communities, as off-page engagement grounds

My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home — practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lauren Harris says even MrBeast probably watches his own videos and thinks, “I should’ve gotten more views.”

It’s a small, funny moment in our conversation, but it points at something bigger: most of us are chasing the wrong numbers in our marketing, and it’s keeping us stuck. Lauren is a marketing strategist and co-founder of Reliable PR and Marketing, and in this episode she walks through what separates a business that’s simply “doing” marketing from one that’s actually strategic about it.

Lauren co-founded Reliable PR and Marketing after building it from a fake business she dreamed up for her master’s degree in marketing at Northeastern. Since then, she’s grown it into a full-service agency handling launches, PR, and marketing strategy for businesses across a range of industries. Her focus is helping business owners move past random tactics and build a strategy — target audiences, content pillars, and the analytics to match — that actually compounds.

We Also Talked About

• How Lauren went from a graduate school class project to co-founding a full-service PR and marketing agency.
• The difference between “doing” marketing tasks and marketing with real strategic intention.
• Why copying a competitor’s tactics can backfire when your audience isn’t the same as theirs.
• How Reliable PR builds a marketing strategy from the ground up: business basics, competitor analysis, target audience psychographics, and content pillars.
• Why each of your five content pillars should tie back to a specific audience and a specific goal.
• How to get past the fear of analytics by matching the right metric to the right goal, instead of only watching likes and followers.
• The real difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan.
• How to think more strategically by stepping out of your own preferences and into your audience’s.
• Lauren’s “60/40 rule” for balancing what your audience wants to see with staying true to your brand.
• Why the generations aren’t as different as you’d think when it comes to doing their due diligence before they buy.
• How to start making short-form video even if you never want to be on camera.
• Why PR matters for small businesses, and how to pitch your own story to journalists and local media.

Want this kind of practical, expert help every week — before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

Resources Mentioned

• Reliable PR and Marketing — https://reliablepr.net/ (free guides and checklists for business owners)
• Reliable PR and Marketing on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/reliable.pr/

My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home — practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For years, Ange Dove ran a successful copywriting agency in Singapore with no website that had her name on it, her photo on it, or any trace of her online. "I had no visibility whatsoever," she says. Then a coach gave her one blunt instruction — Google yourself — and what she found (nothing) changed how she thought about her business for good.

Ange has run her own business from Singapore for more than twenty years, first as founder of a copywriting agency serving multinational companies, and now as a coach helping business owners build the visibility she once avoided entirely. She's also the host of her own podcast and YouTube channel — a full turnaround from someone who once needed a whole afternoon to record a 30-second video.

We Also Talked About

• How a competitor's decision to close her business after 10 years in the same industry made the shift feel suddenly real for Ange.
• Why "people buy from people, not companies" cost Ange work for years without her realizing it.
• The line from a coach — "it's not about you, it's about who you serve" — that changed how Ange thinks about showing up online.
• How a 21-day group challenge got Ange comfortable on camera, and why doing it alongside others made the difference.
• A simple trick for talking to a camera lens without it feeling like talking to nobody.
• Why Ange thinks older generations may be more addicted to social media than the younger ones now pulling away from it.
• How repeated waves of technology — Google, content marketing, and now AI — forced Ange to keep reinventing her business model.

Want this kind of practical, expert help every week — before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

Resources Mentioned

• Ange Dove's website: https://angedove.com
• Ange's 12-week personal branding challenge: https://coach.angedove.com/aa12
• Scrivener (the writing software Ange used to build her copywriting business): https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview

My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home — practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chosen episode title: AI Is a Toddler With Crayons: How to Rein It In and Put It to Work

You don't expect a digital marketer to say this out loud: "Let's call cold email what it is. It's spam. It's B2B spam." But Dan Kurtz has spent twenty years learning exactly where the line sits between marketing that works and marketing that gets you deleted — and these days he's building AI systems that let one person do the work of ten, without crossing it.

Dan started out getting mom-and-pop shops found online, scaled his skills across a 300-location national fitness franchise, and did stints inside Nielsen and Microsoft Bing before founding Miss Pepper AI, where he builds marketing automation and AI-driven sales systems for businesses.

We Also Talked About

• Why your Google Business Profile only ranks if your website mirrors it, with pages for every service and area you claim.
• How a modest press release can land a local business in Google's AI answer boxes.
• What "black hat" actually means, and the irony Dan spotted at a major SEO conference.
• The permission gates that keep automated outreach on the right side of spam — and the law.
• Using AI as an "assembly line worker" instead of a creative that veers off the path.
• Why Dan starts every automation project with the most overworked employee in the building, stopwatch in hand.
• How to bring managers on board by showing them productivity, not problems.
• Who gets replaced and who gets promoted when AI arrives — the line-worker-to-plant-manager shift.
• Dan's advice for employees: use AI to optimise your own work first, and become the use case.

Want this kind of practical, expert help every week — before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

Resources Mentioned

• Miss Pepper AI — https://misspepper.ai/
• Dan Kurtz on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtzdan/
• Linchpin by Seth Godin (affiliate link) 
• Pipedream (secure integration platform) — https://pipedream.com/

My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home — practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Your price selects your customers.”

That one line from Per Sjofors stopped me in my tracks. Per — known as The Price Whisperer, a name he didn’t even give himself — has spent years running pricing experiments across companies in four countries. Some sent revenues up 30% in a quarter. Others were complete disasters. And that’s exactly why he says small businesses shouldn’t run pricing experiments at all — there’s a smarter way.

Per has been the CEO of multiple companies across the US, the UK, Switzerland and Sweden, and his secret sauce is applying behavioral science to pricing and go-to-market strategy. He’s also the best-selling author of The Price Whisperer: A Holistic Approach to Pricing Power.

We Also Talked About

• Why everything your business does — marketing, messaging, targeting — affects what you can charge.
• The two exact questions to ask 50 potential customers to find your pricing range.
• Why copying competitors’ prices means following someone else’s guess.
• Why cost-plus pricing ignores the only thing that matters: what buyers think it’s worth.
• The pricing-page mistake that preconditions customers to think you’re expensive.
• Why you should always present a proposal rather than just sending it — and what to say when a client insists you just email it through.
• How price anchoring works, from a Thai restaurant menu to Apple’s $17,000 watch.
• Why raising your prices can attract better customers and slash support costs.

Want this kind of practical, expert help every week — before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

Resources Mentioned

• Per’s book, The Price Whisperer: A Holistic Approach to Pricing Power (affiliate link)
• Per’s company, Sjöfors & Partners — https://sjofors.com
• Per’s YouTube channel — https://www.youtube.com/@thepricewhisperer

My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home — practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“I don’t have a story.”

Sara Lohse hears those words almost every day, and she doesn’t buy it for a second. Her proof? A spot on one of the biggest finance shows around — landed by offering to tell the story of a regrettable tattoo she got on holiday in Ireland. As Sara puts it, “you don’t need to have that massive story. You just need to tell it to people in a way that connects with them.” This episode is about finding, and finally telling, the stories you’ve been sitting on.

Sara is a podcast producer and strategist, and the founder of Branded Media and Favorite Daughter Media. She started in advertising, landed in wealth management where she was handed a podcast and told she was now the executive producer, and fell so hard for the medium she went all in — now helping everyone from wealth managers to solo creators use podcasting and storytelling as genuine marketing tools.

We Also Talked About

• Why “I don’t have a story” is almost always false — and how to spot the story you should tell first.
• The “use your outside voice” test for finding a podcast topic you’ll never run out of steam on.
• Why we’re not short on information anymore — we’re short on connection, the one thing AI can’t fake.
• The counterintuitive trick of giving away the ending up front, and why it works especially well for ADHD brains.
• What podcast monetization really looks like — and why “return on impact” beats “return on investment.”
• The reframe that turns 20 downloads from an empty stadium into a crowded living room.
• How short-form video and long-form audio feed each other, and why your face on screen builds the trust that sells.

Want this kind of practical, expert help every week — before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

Resources Mentioned

• openthisjournal.com — Sara’s hub: download her storytelling journal exercises free, grab the book, and find her socials and calendar.
• Open This Book: The Art of Storytelling for Aspiring Thought Leaders (affiliate link) – Sara’s book
• Branded Media — Sara’s podcast production company.
• Favorite Daughter Media — Sara’s strategic podcast guesting company.
• Podmatch (affiliate link) — the guest-matching tool Trudy uses (and how she found Sara).
• Descript (affiliate link) — the tool Trudy uses to transcribe and edit episodes.

My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home — practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"I had no idea that even existed. I didn't even know that you could do that. What a dream job!"

When Lindy Alexander first discovered that travel writers could be flown around the world to write about their experiences, it opened a door she never knew existed. But her journey into travel writing didn't begin with exotic destinations. It started much closer to home, with a curiosity about writing, a willingness to learn, and a determination to create a flexible career that fit around family life. In this episode, Lindy shares what it really takes to break into travel writing, why human stories matter more than ever in the age of AI, and what she learned from launching her own podcast.

Lindy Alexander is an award-winning freelance writer, travel writer, educator, and founder of The Travel Writer Accelerator. After spending a decade as a social worker and completing a PhD, she transitioned into freelance writing and built a successful career writing for major publications while helping aspiring travel writers get published. Through her courses, coaching, newsletter, and podcast, she helps writers develop the skills and confidence needed to land regular commissions.

We Also Talked About

• How Lindy transitioned from social work into a full-time freelance writing career.
• Why travel writing is about much more than exotic destinations.
• The surprising opportunities that emerged for travel writers during the pandemic.
• Why human experiences are becoming more valuable as AI-generated content increases.
• The thinking behind launching her new podcast, Inside Travel Writing.
• The benefits of creating short, practical podcast episodes.
• How podcasting helps build trust and authority with an audience.
• The role AI can play in research, editing, and idea generation—and where it falls short.
• Why reading the publications you want to write for is still one of the most important success factors.
• What editors are really looking for when evaluating story pitches.
• The difference between a great experience and a great story.
• How The Travel Writer Accelerator helps writers get their first commissions and build long-term careers.

If you've ever wondered whether freelance writing or travel writing could become part of your business or income strategy, this episode is packed with practical insights and encouragement. Listen now and discover how small steps, consistent effort, and strong storytelling can open unexpected opportunities.

Get regular access to tips, techniques and advice from experts about growing your business:
https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter/

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Lindy's Website
https://www.lindyalexander.net/

The Freelancer's Year
https://thefreelancersyear.com/

Inside Travel Writing Podcast
https://thefreelancersyear.com/podcast/

Travel Writer Accelerator
https://thefreelancersyear.com/

Instagram – Lindy Alexander Writer
https://www.instagram.com/lindyalexanderwriter/

Instagram – The Freelancer's Year
https://www.instagram.com/thefreelancersyear/

Publications Mentioned

BBC Travel
https://www.bbc.com/travel

National Geographic Travel
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/

Condé Nast Traveler
https://www.cntraveler.com/

Lindy mentions that writers who have completed her travel writing training have gone on to secure publication opportunities with outlets including BBC Travel, National Geographic Travel, and Condé Nast Traveler.

Tools Mentioned

Claude
https://claude.ai

ChatGPT
https://chatgpt.com

Airtable
https://www.airtable.com

My newsletter is for people who need a way to make money from home so they can build a better life for themselves and their families: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“If you want to write a book in five minutes, I’m not the coach for you.”

That strong declaration from Dr. Rhonda Lawson sets the tone for an enlightening and refreshingly honest conversation about authorship. In this episode, Rhonda shares what it truly takes to write, publish, and promote a successful book. From navigating self-publishing to leveraging AI responsibly, this discussion offers practical insights and inspiration for anyone ready to turn their ideas into impact.

Dr. Rhonda Lawson is a literary strategist, author, and founder of Meet the World Image Solutions. With a background as an Army journalist and public affairs professional, she combines storytelling, marketing expertise, and modern technology to help writers publish and promote their work. She has authored multiple novels and anthologies, empowering aspiring authors to bring their stories to life.

WE ALSO TALKED ABOUT

• The differences between traditional publishing and self-publishing—and how to choose the right path.
• Why writing a book is only half the journey and marketing is essential for success.
• Practical strategies for promoting a book through events, social media, and targeted outreach.
• How to plan successful book signings that attract the right audience.
• The importance of identifying and understanding your ideal readers.
• Designing professional book covers and formatting for a polished final product.
• The role of AI in organizing ideas, editing manuscripts, and enhancing productivity.
• Why authenticity and human creativity remain essential in the writing process.
• Tools and platforms that help authors streamline content creation and promotion.
• How storytelling can build credibility and support business growth.

Enjoyed this episode? Tune in to hear Dr. Rhonda Lawson share expert insights on writing, publishing, and marketing your book. Subscribe to the Online Business Launchpad Podcast so you never miss an episode.

Get regular access to tips, techniques and advice from experts about growing your business:
https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter/

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Meet the World Image Solutions: https://mtwimagesolutions.com 
• Canva: https://www.canva.com
• Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP): https://kdp.amazon.com
• Find great podcast guests: PodMatch (affiliate link) 
• Content 360 (social media scheduling platform) - https://get.content360.io/ 
• Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Substack

My newsletter is for people who need a way to make money from home so they can build a better life for themselves and their families:
https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“It doesn't have any friction with the real world. It doesn't have the contact with the real world that we do, you know, to like immerse ourselves in experience.”

That’s how Emily Aborn describes the difference between AI and human writers — and it perfectly sets the tone for this conversation.

If you’ve been wondering how freelance writers (or anyone who uses their words to make a living) can continue finding clients in today’s economy, this episode is for you. We talk about what’s actually working right now — from collaborations and in-person networking to brand cohesion and creating a client experience people can’t stop talking about.

This isn’t hype. It’s practical strategy grounded in lived experience.

Emily Aborn has been running her copywriting business since 2018, though writing has always been the undercurrent of her life. She works with entrepreneurs and small businesses to create clear, compelling messaging that reflects who they truly are. Beyond writing, she’s deeply focused on community, collaboration, and building long-term business relationships that lead to sustainable growth.

WE ALSO TALKED ABOUT

• Why collaboration is one of the most powerful (and underused) growth strategies for service providers
• How in-person connections can lead to unexpected opportunities and referrals
• The importance of cohesion between your online presence and your real-world personality
• How Pinterest can become a long-term traffic driver when used strategically
• Why your client experience is your most reliable marketing asset
• The role AI can play — and where it still falls short

If you’re building a business using your expertise, your creativity, and your words — this conversation will give you practical ways to strengthen your visibility and client pipeline.

Tune in to hear the full discussion.

Get regular access to tips, techniques and advice from experts about growing your business:
https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter/

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Emily Aborn’s podcast: Small Business Casual
• Pinterest (as a long-term content strategy platform)
• LinkedIn (for conversations and professional visibility)

My newsletter is for people who need a way to make money from home so they can build a better life for themselves and their families.: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.