Business designer Michelle Warner and I talk about how she helps business owners move beyond the basics to build something more sophisticated. We discuss her experiences as a startup founder and CEO for hire and how these helped her realize that she loves the messy, early building phases of a business. We also chat about the state of online business at the moment, how things have changed in the online business market, and why it’s important for smaller businesses to get ruthlessly focused.

Megan Hale is a leadership coach and former psychotherapist who works with women entrepreneurs through her business Wild & Holy to build sustainable business.

Megan and I talk about some of the values that she weaves into everything she does: community, vulnerability, and tolerance being three of the most important. Megan also talks about how she’s appealed to a target market of more seasoned business owners.

In this episode I share my million dollar roadmap. Even if you're not quite there yet, have a listen because it’s actually a more doable than you might believe. In this episode I share some of the things that need to be in place to do it successfully and with confidence. Because I think that's what it really takes -  confidence, determination, desire and vision and these 6 steps.

Tara McMullin is the founder of the What Works Network, a membership community for small business owners getting real about what’s working & what’s not as they manage their businesses.

 

Tara talks about what inspired her to create the What Works Network, why she loves empowering small business owners to come up with answers to their own questions, and the triumphs & challenges she's encountered while switching from an online course model to a community-driven model.

Lee Chaix McDonough is a licensed social worker, therapist, coach, and founder of Work Your Inner Wisdom. We really dig into how mindset affects the way you build and scale your business and how the same mental blocks can come up over and over again in your entrepreneurial journey. Lee also talks about why meaning, mindset, and mindfulness are the cornerstones of her coaching practice and why so many helping and healing professionals initially struggle with the business side of creating their own practice.

Maggie Frank-Hsu helps moms who are entrepreneurs do more with their businesses by using email marketing strategy. She focuses on helping moms feel empowered, re-establish their identity after having kids, and embrace their ambitions for their growing businesses. She’s also a big proponent of re-purposing content and showing up in a consistent way for your audience so you can not only build a stronger relationship with them, but improve your selling and guarantee a minimum income, too.

I'm clearing the air on marketing. I don't think any of the mass-marketing tactics work when you're focused on trying to get the next sale and how to move people into specific kinds of sales and offers, then you still need to be really intentional who you connect with. That requires ensuring you're messaging and offers convert first. That's positioning, which is all about communicating your value so that people understand what you do, who it's for, and they get excited to go the next step.

After 8 years in the corporate world, and two years as cofounder of a tech company, Natalie Sisson turned her blog The Suitcase Entrepreneur into an online education company where she created online courses, coached, and held international retreats to show people how to build a business they loved, from anywhere. Now, she does strategic consulting with impact driven ventures, coaches purpose-driven entrepreneurs, and builds online learning solutions to help people thrive in the future of work.

Janelle Allen is the founder of Zen Courses, where she helps business owners make actionable, learner-focused online courses that change lives. She brings Instructional Design perspective to course design + building, and builds courses that improve student results, increase revenue, and boost authority. We discuss 3 channels she focused on to build her audience, how to pre-validate your course offering before releasing it, and why she thinks building a list is something every business owner should do.

Michael Roderick is the founder of Small Pond Enterprises, where he helps thought leaders and entrepreneurs create referrable brands. We kick things off by talking about how he built his business around his expertise in networking. He describes his networking framework and how to implement it so that you and you peers are giving each other the best support possible. And we also dive into his process for making your brand more referrable.