Priority Pursuit

So, you’ve decided to scale your service-based business. Congratulations, friend! That’s an exciting step for any small business owner to take. But, does your business have the capacity to grow? In other words, do you have adequate systems, internal processes, and staff to increase your sales without letting work take over your life?

If you’re not sure how to set up your company for long-term success, you’re not alone. But, our friends Abagail Pumphrey and Emylee Williams⁠ are here to tell you that with a bit of planning, strategic pricing, and boundary setting, you can scale your business⁠—and achieve the lifestyle you’ve been looking for⁠—without burning out.

Abagail and Emylee are the brains behind Boss Project, the Incubator coaching program, and The Strategy Hour Podcast⁠. They love helping service-based business owners refine their offers, create client-focused systems, and grow sustainably so they can make more money⁠—and get their time back⁠—at work and home. And, Abagail and Emylee strongly believe that life matters more than work, so their family and team come before everything else (although their clients are a close second!).

In this episode of Priority Pursuit, Abagail and Emylee explain how you can scale your service-based business, make more money in less time, set boundaries respectfully with clients, and build the life you want.

In this episode, Abagail and Emylee discuss:

1. What it means to “scale” your business, & how creative entrepreneurs can scale their service-based businesses
   1. Focus on growing every aspect of your business—not just your revenue.
   2. Break down the scaling process into smaller, growth-focused goals.
2. How creatives can adapt their current offerings to generate more revenue & work less
   1. Deliver a high-touch signature service.
   2. Raise your prices to match your high-touch signature service.
   3. Set bound

Did you know, as of June 2022, there were more than 130 social media platforms? From Facebook to Reddit to Athlinks and more, small business owners have plenty of options for targeting a broad (or niche) group of customers. But, it’s impossible to be active on every single platform. And, even if you try to post on better-known sites like Facebook or Instagram, you might not enjoy being on certain platforms for one reason or another.

Maybe you’ve wondered how to walk away from social media sites you don’t like, but you’re worried about missing business opportunities or connections with potential customers. Well, friend, Lindsay LaShell of Open Lines is here to tell you that you can reach your audience and serve them well without being on every platform⁠—and, you can even say goodbye to the social media channels you don’t like!

Lindsay is a marketing activist, coach, and course instructor who works with underrepresented and underfunded creative entrepreneurs to empower them with opportunities to reach more customers. She loves helping her clients and students understand which social media platforms and other tactics will grow their businesses⁠⁠—and encourages them to ditch the rest. 

In this episode of Priority Pursuit, Lindsay explains how you can walk away from social media platforms you don’t like without hurting your business or sacrificing connections with customers.

In this episode, Lindsay discusses: 

1. How creative entrepreneurs should decide which social media platforms to invest their time in
2. How creatives can prepare to walk away from social media platforms they don’t like without missing out on business opportunities
3. How creative entrepreneurs can overcome the fear of saying goodbye to certain social media platforms
4. The next steps for creatives who have limited their social media presence to the platforms that work for them
5. What creative entrepreneurs should do if they feel overwhelmed with planning, posting, & engaging with social media

You can find a more detailed version of this episode’s show notes at: http://victoriarayburnphotography.com/walk-away-from-social-media-platforms-you-don

As a creative entrepreneur, you’re an expert (or you soon will be!) in your field. And, you might like to find a way to teach others what you’ve learned so you can make an income and an impact. So, how can you sell your knowledge and serve your fellow industry professionals?

Well, course creation may be just what you’ve been looking for! Creating an online course⁠—and selling it to others in your industry⁠—will let you do what you love, earn more money, and give your students tools to improve their skills. And, today’s guest, Melissa Guller, is on a mission to help small business owners do just that: share their expertise by adding online courses to their growth strategy.

Melissa is the founder and CEO of Wit & Wire, where she helps online business owners share their expertise and reach a wider audience with podcasting. She’s worked for Ramit Sethi at Teachable and produced multiple U.S. Top 50 Podcasts, and her top-ranking podcast, Everything is Teachable, came in as the #2 Career Podcast in America. Melissa has also helped almost 2,000 podcasters through her Wit & Wire programs, and she loves teaching entrepreneurs with her online courses on podcasting and course creation. Building and selling these courses has allowed Melissa to increase her revenue and enjoy more freedom in her personal life.

In this episode of Priority Pursuit, Melissa explains how to create an online course so you can share your expertise with other industry professionals. She also provides tips for selling your offer, budgeting for course creation, making time in your schedule to create courses, and more.

In this episode, Melissa discusses: 

1. When (& why) creative entrepreneurs should create an online course
2. What steps should creatives follow to outline, design, & sell their online courses?
   1. Stage 1: Validate
   2. Stage 2: Elevate
   3. Stage 3 Automate
3. Melissa’s selling tips for creative entrepre

When you think about web design, flawless photos and a gorgeous color scheme may come to mind. But, while those are necessary website components, your site should be more than just beautiful; it must also be strategic. In other words, your website should include relevant, helpful content with a straightforward navigation that makes it easy for visitors to buy or learn more. 

Every creative entrepreneur should have a strategic website because your website is the best way for people to find you and learn about the valuable solutions that you offer. And, by creating a website with excellent copy and user-friendly design, you’ll give customers a preview of the pleasant, professional experience they can look forward to when they work with you.

Friend, I know it’s tough for creatives to find time to build an entire strategic website! That’s why Octavia Elease, a ShowIt web designer, works with creative entrepreneurs so they can save time and communicate their value with websites designed with the customer in mind.

Octavia is an Atlanta-based, Disney-loving designer and educator who enjoys pouring into the creative community and helping her clients grow their businesses. With a focus on brand storytelling and modern aesthetics, Octavia builds strategic websites that allow creative entrepreneurs to reach, engage, and convert their dream customers.

In this episode of Priority Pursuit, Octavia gives us 12 items that you should include on your homepage to engage your website visitors and convert them into customers.

In this episode, Octavia discusses: 

1. The 12 things that must be on a creative entrepreneur’s homepage to convert website visitors into customers
   1. An easy navigation (AKA main menu)
   2. Clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons
   3. A hero image & one-liner
   4. Your customer’s problem & pain points
   5. Successes (AKA value propositions)
   6. Testimonials with photos
   7. A three-step process
   8. An “About My Busine

In recent episodes of Priority Pursuit, we’ve talked quite a bit about blogging, because as a creative entrepreneur, blogging is a great—and free way—to serve your customers, establish yourself as an authority in your industry, and improve your SEO.

However, it isn’t enough to simply write and publish blog posts. You also have to share your blog posts so that your ideal customers can find your content. As a result, in this week’s episode of Priority Pursuit, I want to break down how to promote blog posts for free. In fact, we are going to discuss the exact strategy my team and I use to share each and every blog post we create to generate often thousands of unique viewers per blog post.

In this episode, we specifically discuss:

1. Why is it important to promote/share your blog posts?
2. 11 ways to promote blog posts for free:
   1. Share your blog post on your Facebook page.
   2. Share your blog post in your Facebook group.
   3. If appropriate, share your blog post on your client’s Facebook profile.
   4. Share your blog post on Instagram as a post or reel.
   5. Share your blog post in your Instagram stories.
   6. When you share blog posts on social media, tag peers, vendors, and clients when relevant & appropriate. 
   7. Share your blog post on whatever other social media platforms you use.
   8. Share your blog post on Google Business. 
   9. Pin your blog post to take advantage of Pinterest.
   10. Share your blog post with your email list.
   11.  Optimize your blog posts for SEO so that they can be found on Google.
3. Don’t just complete these steps once. Promote every blog post again & again. 

You can find a more detailed version of this episode’s show notes at: 

Creative entrepreneurs often worry that building their business will be difficult and slow. After all, when you consider selling your product or service, marketing your offer, finding loyal customers, and everything else that goes into running a company, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by how long it may take to see results.

But, you can grow your business quickly and generate more income by selling irresistible offers that are actually fun to create. Natasha Ho of My Six-Figure Year has made a career out of just that: building a business fast and having fun while doing it.

Natasha is a marketing and sales strategist—plus a chef, wife, and mother—who helps service-based entrepreneurs grow their businesses (and enjoy their work time) to achieve the lifestyle and freedom they desire. Like many of us, Natasha started in a 9-to-5 corporate job, but once her son was born, she decided to leave her marketing gig (and the three-hour round-trip commute) and explore opportunities that let her spend more time with her family. 

At first, building a business from scratch felt slow and draining for Natasha. But, once she took her mentor’s advice to “sell first,” she earned $20,000 in a week with her very first offer, virtual cooking classes. Natasha then repeated this method to sell out immersive retreats, one-on-one business coaching sessions, and more cooking classes—growing her business to six figures in its first year while working just 25 hours a week. Now, Natasha gets to help other creative entrepreneurs increase their revenues, cut their hours in half, and have fun while working with their dream clients.

In this episode of Priority Pursuit, Natasha explains how to grow a business quickly, incorporate “play” into your work, and free up your time for what (and who) matters most in your life.

In this episode, Natasha discusses: 

1. How creative entrepreneurs should grow their business quickly
   1. Decide who your dream customers are.
   2. Sell your offer first; then, market & create it.

Creative entrepreneurs often struggle to find the balance between doing what they love—what they’ve spent their entire lives studying and working toward—and making enough money to build the life they want. In other words, any of us aren’t taught how to grow the business side of our craft, whether that’s photography, art, music, writing, or another creative venture.

Fabiana Claure—a concert pianist, university educator, entrepreneur, and business coach for musicians—understands this struggle firsthand. “I saw so many colleagues finish their education, but then flip from what they had pursued and studied for their entire lives because they just needed to make money,” she says. “And I didn’t want that to happen to me; I knew there had to be a better way.”

While she initially thought (and was taught) that someone else would have to employ her as a musician, Fabiana discovered that she didn’t have to wait to earn a living from her craft. Fabiana taught herself about marketing, client services, pricing structures, and more from the lens of a creative entrepreneur. And, she started to build the life she wanted while doing what she loved: playing and making music.

Fabiana turned this knowledge and experience into a first-of-its-kind music business course at the University of North Texas, then an online program for creatives called The Musician’s Profit Umbrella—taking the lessons she taught her university students and making them available to the public. 

Since then, Fabiana has helped thousands of musicians increase their income through online programs for creative entrepreneurs. With these programs, musicians can learn how to achieve financial and artistic prosperity, win back their time, and build a legacy—all without sacrificing their quality of life.

In this episode of Priority Pursuit, Fabiana explains how to make an online program for creatives so you can increase your income, raise your rates, and keep burnout at bay.

In this episode, Fabiana discusses: 

1. Why creative entrepreneurs should design & sell online programs
2. What qualifications & attitudes creative entrepreneurs need to make an online program
   1. Take action quickly to bring your vision to life.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might already know about the puppy saga that’s been going on at our house. But, in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll fill you in. 

A couple weeks ago, I was walking Hattie like I do every morning. However this particular walk threw us for an unexpected loop, because when Hattie and I got back to our block, I found a tiny, black puppy frolicing on the sidewalk and trying to eat a dandelion. 

With no owners in sight, I scooped him up, gave him a bath, took him to our vet to see if he was chipped (which he wasn’t), and I posted his photo all over social media and lost pet websites in an attempt to find his home. 

I’m still in disbelief that nobody claimed this sweet boy, whom the vet said was no more than 12 weeks old when I found him. But, Zach named the pup “Little Richard,” and we’ve had him for almost two weeks now. 

Little Richard is sitting on my lap as I record this, but before this episode airs, he’ll be in his forever home, which I am both so happy and so sad about. We found the most ideal home for this lab-hound pup, and we know he is going to be well loved. But, you can bet there will be tears when we drop him off with his parents in just a couple days. 

At this point, I’m sure you’re thinking, “That’s great Victoria, but what does a puppy have to do with running a small business?” And, after two weeks of having a pup and an older dog, I can promise you that your business has more in common with dogs than you likely think. 

In this episode, we specifically discuss: 

1. Like it isn’t fair to compare a puppy who is learning to a dog who is well trained, it isn’t fair for you to compare your business to someone else’s that is further along than yours & allow yourself to feel less than. 
2. Like businesses, dogs are trained & raised to serve different purposes. 

You can find a more detailed version of this episode’s show notes at: 

https://victoriarayburnphotography.com/what-puppies-small-business-owners-common. 

Mentioned Links & Resources

• Save 50% on Your First Six Months of Quickbooks Self-Employed - http://victoriarayburnphotography.com/quickbooks/ 
• Save $50 On Your First Order of $100 or more from KISS Books - http://victoriarayburnphotography.com/kiss/  
• Join the Priority Pursuit Facebook Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/179106264013426    
• Follow or DM Victoria on Instagram -

Is blogging already part of your workflow and marketing strategy? If so, great!

As we’ve discussed in previous episodes of Priority Pursuit, blogging is a great way to establish yourself as an authority in your industry, attract customers, and lead prospects through your sales funnel. Blogging also gives you content to share on social media on the regular, is a great way to serve your clients, and is an effective way to save time when you can answer repeat client questions by simply sharing a blog post with them rather than drafting a long email. 

But, here’s the thing. While blogging comes with many benefits, unless you’re taking the time to optimize your blog posts for search engines, you are drastically limiting your blogs’ reach. 

I mean, think about it, while you might be sharing your blog posts via social media and email, unless your blog posts can be found on Google (or you run ads to them, which is a conversation for another day), your blogs will only ever be found by the people who are already part of your audience, meaning your blog posts will only be seen by your current social media followers, email list subscribers, and those who already know your website exists and happen to peruse your blog while being on your site. 

However, when you optimize your blog posts for search engines, you can help your blog posts get in front of prospective customers who are actively searching for your content—and likely your products or services. 

I’ve shared on the show before that my couples regularly stumble across my blog posts via Google, and I often have couples book me because of these blog posts. As a result, I know the power optimizing blog posts for SEO firsthand, and in this episode of Priority Pursuit, we’re breaking down exactly how to optimize blog posts for SEO so you can get your blogs—whether they be educational posts or blogs that showcase your work—in front of your ideal customers via Google. 

The steps we discuss in this episode include: 

1. Optimize your blog posts for strategic long-tail keywords. 
2. Write quality content that serves your ideal client well. 
3. Include both internal & external links. 
4. Include visuals & optimize them through titles & alt text. 
5. Be sure to give your blog post an SEO title, slug, & meta description. <

As creative entrepreneurs, we’re constantly trying to grow our businesses by reaching more people with valuable information and solutions to the problems they’re facing. And, because our prospects are spending more time online than ever before, it makes sense to meet them where they are—which is often in their inboxes. But, how do you convince more people to sign up for your emails, engage with your content, and eventually become happy customers?

Believe it or not, online quizzes are one of the most effective ways to build your email list. When you give website visitors helpful, personalized information within a fun, engaging quiz, of course they’d want to share their email address with you to get even more of your great content! But, how do you create a quiz your audience will actually want to take, and how can you easily build a quiz and add it to your website? Today’s guest, Josh Haynam, shares his expertise on quiz-building and converting leads into customers.

Josh is the co-founder of Interact Quiz Builder, a software that helps creative entrepreneurs build leads and make sales by connecting with customers through engaging and personalized quizzes. The very first quiz he and his co-founder made in 2014 converted at 40%, while the websites they were building only converted at 2%. Because of this crazy successful conversion rate, Josh went all in on quiz-building to help his clients generate leads. 

Today, Interact customers enjoy the same 40% average conversion rate with personalized and engaging quizzes that generate 42,000 new leads per day. (For comparison, landing pages with downloadable PDFs only have a 10-14% average conversion rate. That’s quite a difference!) By creating interactive and relatable quizzes that entice people to sign up for more information, creative entrepreneurs can stand out in their industries and form a connection with their leads.

In this episode of Priority Pursuit, Josh explains how you can build your email list using quizzes that are fun, engaging, and relatable to your audience.

In this episode, Josh discusses:

1. Why creative entrepreneurs need to build their email lists
2. Why you should build your email list using quizzes
   1. When & how to use a quiz for lead generation
   2. Examples of quizzes creative entrepreneurs can make