Own It! For Entrepreneurs. Talking Digital Marketing, Small Business, Being Digital Nomads and Success Thinking

Is your other half pulling their weight, or do you do more than your fair share in your relationship and at home?

Nicola has had a hectic and fun week but she’s found it hard as all the jet leg from recent travels finally catches up with her.

Judith has two stories to tell, a happy one about a family party and the other a sad one about the sudden death of loyal long-time client, Kevin.

Nicola’s launched a 21-day challenge with 48 participants, some from her recent trip to Vegas and  some “delicious strangers” who’ve joined via Facebook Ads.

Judith was inspired by a young woman from a corporate financial firm she met at the party who was amazed to discover what she does for a living and reminded Judith how much it’s needed in the context of women and their self-employment.

• Is your other half pulling their weight, or do you do more than your fair share in your relationship and at home?
• How is that dragging down your career and hopes of business success?
• Have you negotiated this split and agreed to it, or has it just happened by default and, if so, what can you do to make it fairer for you?
• How heavy is the sledge you are pulling uphill and who’s getting a free ride?

Nicola chooses Grit and Judith picks Women.

Nicola is seeing much improved rankings for Own It! in the iTunes Top 40 for What’s Hot. Judith is numbers focused with Patreon (8), the podcast FB group (191) and the listener guests booked for the upcoming recording session on 7 th June (4).

Nicola is impressed that Jane Goldman has been hired to write the prequel of Game of Thrones. Judith is impressed by philanthropist Robert F. Smith who paid off the student loans of the Class of 2019 at Moorhouse College, that’s 400 young men and women starting their careers without that heavy burden. He hoped they would find a way to pay it forward and that his gesture would help their community.

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Nicola and Judith share and swap stories, the good, the bad and the ugly, barmen and serving staff for starters and customer service online and off.

Nicola is back from Las Vegas and staying in Shoreham for a few days with family before she returns to Greece. She tells Judith about her last couple of days at the conference  – a cruise, a mansion, hummingbirds – and about the film-maker who has invited her to speak in Dublin in July.

Judith is full of the joys of spring, and talks about sunrises and being able to see the full moon from her bed. She introduces the focus of the week with two stories that inspired it.

Nicola has really enjoyed spending time with personal development people for a week and realising that she has a personal development product she can bring to Audible and eBook formats.

Judith appreciates podcast listener Amanda Johnson for being Own It’s 8thPatreon, bringing total patronage up to $39 a month.

Nicola and Judith share and swap stories, the good, the bad and the ugly, barmen and serving staff for starters and customer service online and off.

• How easy is it to do? How easy is it to get wrong?
• Should you try to please all of the people all of the time?
• What difference does customer service make to client retention and profits?
• What do you appreciate about good service and how can you borrow from those examples and add value to your clients for the joy of it?

Nicola chooses Confidence and Judith picks Professionalism.

Nicola has brought Own It! to the attention of Social Media Examiner.

Nicola is impressed by the well-mannered and engaged young people she met at the conference. Judith is impressed by courier company, Hermes, especially their returns service, and also Karen Flannery listener guest in show #226 as she runs he first triathlon for NACOA.

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What’s the point of masterminding and how does it work well? Nicola suggests it is creating friendships, giving and being of service to the other delegates, networking, learning new skills, sharing, giving and gratitude.

Nicola is in Las Vegas attending a Mastermind event. She’s played poker, been on a yacht, met lots of interesting people, sung karaoke, visited Liberace’s home, eaten lovely food, gone into the desert and seen a real camel, presented at three round tables for 20 minutes each and been very well received, been hypnotised by Marisa Peer and inspired by Marianne Williamson and re-connected with a lot of internet marketers who’ve been in the business for a very long time.

By comparison Judith’s had a quiet week with a horrid return visit from sciatica, but nevertheless she’s had a very productive work week and is enjoying the town where she’s staying, especially the friendly can-do people, she’s pleased with a new hairdresser and bought herself an entirely new summer wardrobe of clothes and shoes and other treats.

Brilliant minds and great feedback for Nicola, which she has found affirming. Judith has feedback to share from a podcast listener/client in California who explains why she enjoys the show, and she’s encouraged a loyal listener to provide Own It! with its first review from South Africa.

What’s the point of masterminding and how does it work well? Nicola suggests it is creating friendships, giving and being of service to the other delegates, networking, learning new skills, sharing, giving and gratitude.

Nicola chooses Wow and Judith picks Endurance.

Judith’s second viewing at Worthing reported that they thought the flat was overpriced by £5k, and Nicola reports that podcast download numbers are now 108,152.

Nicola gives ClearFocus.Consulting the big thumbs up for organising the event in the desert, and Judith raves about the cheery DHL man who, though 90 minutes, late was still cheery at the end of his very long day delivering parcels to an ungrateful public.

This is the story of how Karen Flannery went from being a teacher to buying two lingerie shops in Cheshire with her friend Kate who one day phoned and asked “Do you want to sell bras?”.

Nicola’s “ground out” 500 words for Write Club and immediately entered them into a competition called Just Back (from Oz) at The Telegraph. She’s excited about her next trip to Vegas in early May, especially hearing Marianne Williamson and Marisa Peer speak from the stage at a mastermind event.

Judith enjoyed her birthday, a couple of house moves, four days in a country cottage, a thank you letter, a nice birthday card, Waze playing nicely with Spotify, all her PPI funds safely gathered in and cleared funds leading to a shopping spree and more.

Nicola is excited about chat bots and even contemplated opening a new business, before deciding to stick to being a consultant as she remember she prefers teaching you how to do it rather than doing it for you.

Judith’s shares an unsolicited testimonial, and her enthusiasm for Discord App.

This is the story of how Karen Flannery went from being a teacher to buying two lingerie shops in Cheshire with her friend Kate who one day phoned and asked “Do you want to sell bras?”.

Karen describes how losing her parents, getting married and having children and expressing her inner entrepreneur led to a massive change of career, from one she loved to something completely different and why she grabbed that opportunity. K & K are passionate about the benefits of a well- fitting bra and their shops focus on fitting customers, especially younger ones for lingerie, swimwear and nightwear.

Nicola chooses Love (lots of birthdays this week of those she loves) and Judith picks Interregnum.

Judith’s got a second viewing at Worthing and Nicola reports that the podcast’s download numbers are back to normal.

Nicola was unusually NOT impressed by the big fight scene in GoT (too dark) and Judith was delighted with her niece Clare’s marathon run (six hours, “hard from mile 8”), especially the £9,000 fundraising Clare achieved for Womankind. Plus, what an eye-opener Facebook Fundraisers turned out to be too.

Today’s Focus is prompted by Own It! suddenly soaring over 100,000 downloads after more than 4 years and 200 weekly shows.

Nicola’s been doing website things and enjoyed some really useful SEO tips which she shares including a resource called MajesticSEO.com. She uses the word Linkerati (!) and talks about some all-clears she received at a couple of specialist medical appointments.

Judith doesn’t feel like she had a bank holiday over the four-day weekend, she’s been so busy she exhausted herself and had to re-schedule her commitments including the podcast on Thursday this week.

Nicola is delighted with some problem-solving she’s been doing with FB Lead Ads and ManyChat, she’s got both working for her where they hadn’t before.

Judith’s put her website back online and immediately sold a digital copy of her book.

Today’s Focus is prompted by Own It! suddenly soaring over 100,000 downloads after more than 4 years and 200 weekly shows. J&N talk about starting things –v following through and what it means to be career self-employed, finding a way to enjoy marketing so that it is possible to stick at it for however long it takes.

LISTEN HERE TO OWN IT #225: Fun and Easy Marketing

Nicola chooses Humdrum and Judith picks Commitment.

Judith finally got all the conveyancing paperwork done for her BTL flat in Worthing. It swallowed up all of Sunday and involved the bribery of hot cross buns. It took four hours and involved 27 pages + 6 more and 9 emails to three different people. Phew! But now it’s done. And on Bank Holiday Monday there was the first viewing, from a BTL investor who has decided to widen his search to include Brighton instead of Worthing.

Nicola likes The Bay on ITV starring Morven Christie, and Judith is impressed by Tiger Woods’ winning the US Masters for the first time since 2005 and more importantly for her golf-mad nephew, Jeremy, sticking by his hero for those 13 years while Tiger wasn’t so successful in winning.

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Judith and Nicola discuss the matters raised by Nicola’s new website and marketing plan. Which URL will she use? James Schramko advises sticking her NicolaCairncross.com as it is her authority site.

Nicola’s back in Stoupa and enjoying creating a Facebook furore with her Fitbit, plus the glorious Greek bonkersness of the stick with the red rag on it denoting a dodgy road surface, and a surprise visit by a huge moth when enjoying a drink at Steki’s.

Judith has moved into her nephew’s flat in Brixton, having fun with his lovely young cat, finding some help with moving out on London Marathon day via Airtasker, and she’s thrilled with her fourth PPI win, the biggest yet.

This week Nicola is all about her website, marketing her own business and refocusing on her client avatar. She’s engaging with Sue Okell’s process, working with the guys at Studio 1 Design for the website makeover she won at SuperFast Business and reading a book by Allan Dib called the One Page Marketing Plan.

Judith’s fire is fuelled by being back in her old neighbourhood, connecting with and using her old bank, her old post office, her old MoT station, knowing her way about with ease and with no need of maps apps and she’s amazed by how easy it is to get around, find things and people and be found. Nothing stays the same and there are two or three ways in which everything isn’t old, it’s new, and that’s refreshing too.

Judith and Nicola discuss the matters raised by Nicola’s new website and marketing plan. Which URL will she use? James Schramko advises sticking her NicolaCairncross.com as it is her authority site. She’s going to an SEO meeting to clean up some of the issues she believes may be limiting her traffic to that domain. She wants the new website to keep the same colours but be lighter and brighter and
she’s making some brave decisions about client attraction which she believes is her USP.

LISTEN HERE TO OWN IT #224: Clean Marketing

Nicola chooses Balance and Judith picks Flexibility.

Judith’s got her first viewing at her BTL flat for sale in Worthing on Easter Monday. He’s an investor which is precisely what she wants and, as she says, it only takes one.

Nicola has some good news about the podcast itself, download numbers are up significantly. Some days, downloads are 500-700 and one day they were 1246! At 18 th April, only half way through the month, total download numbers are 5800, enough to cause Nicola to nearly fall off her chair. Both J&N are excited.

Nicola likes Game of Thrones and Naked Beach, and Judith is surprised to have fallen instantly back in love with London Town, and all it took was one drive early on Sunday morning round Marble Arch.

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Bearing in mind what Nicola said last week about her success in selling from the stage giving her cause to think about all the marketing she normally does, Judith brings the focus of the week and it is selling.

Nicola is planning her return to Stoupa on Saturday and reports that she feels recuperated after her long flight back from Oz. She’s also been shopping and re-stocking – new suitcases and a hard drive and more booty besides including a Fitbit and contact lenses.

Judith’s still focused on the logistics of this week’s house move, all was going swimmingly until a blown fuse took out the central heating and the shower!

Nicola has been reviewing her notes from the SuperFast Business Conference and James Schramko has sent all the delegates a recap document with a photo of him and Nicola winning her prize of a website makeover on the cover. She’s starting to think about what she learned from the speakers and is contemplating running some more Be Everywhere Online challenges.

Nicola recommends: a book called Content Hacking by Alexi Neocleous which was given to her at the conference, a slim volume she says.

Judith has been taking a closer look at her Facebook Page stats and insights, all green arrows demonstrating results moving in an upward direction and that’s even before she’s started to focus properly on this.

Bearing in mind what Nicola said last week about her success in selling from the stage giving her cause to think about all the marketing she normally does, Judith brings the focus of the week and it is selling.

How many ways are there to sell besides from the stage? Webinars, sales pages, email campaigns, product launch formulae, selling by appointment face to face, selling by cold calling or cold emailing, selling via relationship-building so that eventually you get to pitch, identifying ideal clients you do want to work with and building up a prospects list.

But eventually you get in front of someone and have to ask for the business. Not many people relish that bit except J&N it seems. How did selling acquire a bad name? Is there any selling without marketing? Own It has discussed marketing a-plenty over the years, but what ways are there to go straight for the sale?

Nicola recommends: Spin Selling by Neil Rackham and Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross.

Nicola chooses Re-Stocking and Judith picks (Inner) Knowing.

Nicola has received her paid-for screenwriting critique and is pleased with it, and Judith wants to discuss paid-for newsletters as a business model as inspired by Justin Brooke, one of the first guests on Own It! The Summit.

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Judith encourages Nicola to review her month in Australia. What did she learn about her business and her life? She concludes that travel makes you feel alive, she won a big valuable prize of a website makeover worth AUD$4000 with Greg Merilees...

Nicola’s back from her travels Down Under, staying in Shoreham in the UK this week before going back to Stoupa at the weekend. She endured some difficult fidgety seat companions on her return air trip with Emirates, but is pleased with her noise-cancelling headphones and serotonin combo. 

Judith’s adventures in house-sitting continue this week with the first of three house moves in 2.5 months and she’s pleased with her decision to put into storage everything she can’t carry easily.

Nicola is thinking about doing less marketing, given her sales success in Australia. And Judith reflects on her feelings about stopping her newsletter, specifically a couple of wins: far fewer Contact form spam emails in her inbox and feeling able to unsubscribe from the newsletters of others. She’s thinking about how she feels about Facebook too, in a good way.

Judith encourages Nicola to review her month in Australia. What did she learn about her business and her life?

She concludes that travel makes you feel alive, she won a big valuable prize of a website makeover worth AUD$4000 with Greg Merilees, she met up with lots of old and new friends and everything fell easily and magically into place with her connections.

She uses words like excitement, adventure, anticipation, friendship, connection and gratitude about feeling happy all the time which, after three years, feels like a gift.

Nicola chooses Living (to the max) and Judith picks (and explains) Carefree.

Not much to report this week; Nicola had little time for writing on her travels and Judith is dodging doing a whole package of form filling re selling her flat in Worthing.

Judith was very happy with Natalie, the gardener, who came to tidy up the garden before the homeowners return from their travels and the window boxes she’s planted up as a welcome home gift.

Nicola was very impressed by James Schramko’s organisation of his Superfast Business event which he does himself. The event ran very smoothly which made it a pleasure to attend.

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Sue teaches us that we have only 7 seconds to grab the attention of visitors to our website so we must get their attention and address their two questions immediately: How can you help me? How can you solve my problem?

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After years of struggle, attempts and control, hard work and driving business results, how does this translate suddenly into ease and flow and vibe, even to the extent of both N&J channeling writing, downloading words and ideas in abundance, and allowing wonderful opportunities and synchronicity into both of their lives that make them both exclaim in wonder? How do you decide when to push and when to allow?

Nicola is enjoying her stay in Sydney with her brother Alex; the ferries, the zoo, a Japanese restaurant, meeting two chaps from America, speaking at a coaching and leadership event with 70+ attendees, a mani-pedi and more treats.

Judith has organised a roof over her house-sitting head all the way through until 2nd July. She’s delighted to have been asked by Lisa Warner of Fink Cards to add 7 more questions to her list of 43 about money and she’ll have a full set.

She’s noticing she’s feeling some marketing fatigue and is even thinking of NOT sending out a newsletter this week, even after having written it. She’s being guided by vibe and intuition, and experimenting too.

Nicola is totally inspired about her writing. She’s reading and writing scripts and doing some more study, including Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass.

Judith’s loving the Own It! podcast right now. There’s a new (7th) Patreon in Sharon Gaskin, and the influx of new members to the free companion Facebook Group enables community building, getting to know the listeners and invite them on as guests, and creates dialogues and relationships with listeners all around the world, even a potential new client this week for Judith from the podcast.

After years of struggle, attempts and control, hard work and driving business results, how does this translate suddenly into ease and flow and vibe, even to the extent of both N&J channeling writing, downloading words and ideas in abundance, and allowing wonderful opportunities and synchronicity into both of their lives that make them both exclaim in wonder?

How do you decide when to push and when to allow? This discussion is the first of several as they are right at the beginning of their journey with the Abraham-Hicks work.

Nicola chooses Over-Stimulated and Judith picks Miracle.

Nicola has written a pilot 6-episode TV series and submitted it to two production companies plus offered it up for a professional paid critique. She’s working on project #2, which is a 90-minute feature film.

Judith’s pushing on with the Worthing estate agents and tomorrow will visit them with her passport (KYC).

Nicola loves Irini, the Greek lady on MasterChef for the way she’s educating viewers about the beauties of Greek food. And Judith loves Gareth Malone for his two TV shows about the school at the foot of the Grenfell Tower.

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