You've heard me say time and time again - build your list! If you want to grow your business, whether you sell products, services, or are a creator, you need to get people on your email list. And today's guest, Maciek Palmowski, has definitely done that. He and his wife started the only Polish-language WordPress-focused newsletter (quick a niche) and grew it into quite a popular English-language newsletter. The format and process for putting it together are interesting too - making this a fantastic episode for those struggling with (or struggling to start) their newsletter. In Build Something More, we talk about what it's like being an ESL programmer in an English-dominated market.

Top Takeaways

• The Twitter community can be a great place for finding news and growing your list!
• The secret to growth: stay consistent and put in the work. People will come, and share it!
• Trial and error is super important. Try things out and see what works. See what doesn’t. Iterate quickly.

Show Notes:

• Maciek Palmowski
• Maciek on Twitter
• Delicious Brains blog
• wpcontent.io
• Mailchimp
• Newsletter Glue
• Gutenberg Times
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

As an elder millennial, TikTok as a platform scares and upsets me. I’m not really sure how to use it to grow my audience (if it even can) and I’m worried it’s just going to be a huge time suck. But according to Rebecca Simon, if your business isn’t on Tiktok, it’s a huge missed opportunity. SO naturally, I asked her how a small business owner can make the most of the platform; Rebecca offered some of the best advice I’ve heard for any social network! So if you’re wondering how you can grow your audience through TikTok, this episode is for you. Plus, in Build Something More, I ask Rebecca how some of my favorite Tiktoks were made.

Top Takeaways

• It's important to have the right SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) in place with VAs, employees, or even just yourself.
• The direction all social media is moving in is video. Instagram rebranded as a "video" platform, and TikTok is leading the charge. That's why it's so important to be there.
• The biggest benefit is TikTok is pushing you to new people. Discovery is much better on that platform that on follower-centric platforms like Instagram.

Show Notes:

• Rebecca Simon
• Rebecca on Tiktok
• Rebecca on Instagram
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

It's another live coaching call! This time I have podcaster and WordPress site builder Nathan Wrigley. We chat about how I format this show, record the bumpers and the intros, and the benefits (and potential pitfalls) of batching. Then we roll into making money: how to find and land sponsors, and when to think about monetizing your podcast. Nathan has been a podcaster for a long time, so it was great to field his questions as well as get his perspective. Plus in Build Something More, we talk about what it's like to run a virtual summit.

Top Takeaways

• Have a good process for outreach to guests and sponsors. You can better track, schedule and batch!
• Should you think about monetization before you launch your podcast or after? It's a great question! You should think about why you're starting your podcast and how you can monitize. But you should wait to launch until you have a money making plan.
• One this is absolutely necessary though: Build your email list!

Show Notes:

• Nathan Wrigley
• Nathan on Facebook
• Can Solo Developers Exist in WordPress?
• The First Stuff You Should Know Episodes Were 6 Minutes Long
• ConvertKit
• Build Your List Using ConvertKit with Angel Marie
• Newsletter Glue
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Sometimes you know you're destined to run your own business. You work for companies and realize that you can't really work within the confines of a corporate structure. It's something I realized pretty much in high school. And it's something today's guest, Lauren Kennedy, has known all her life. Realizing then, she took her drive and built a marketing automation company…with a twist. While both marketing and automation can be terms associated with the impersonal, she's set out to build a people-first company. And that's the main focus of our discussion today. Of-course, it didn't stop me from asking about marketing automation. And in Build Something More, we talk about being active and helping people on social media, including Reddit.

Top Takeaways

• Sales is the authentic exchange of knowledge - you're showing people what you know, and what you can do. Put another way, your knowledge is not proprietary. Your ability to do it is.
• The goal of marketing automation is to get as much done with as few resources as possible. You can make sure you communicate personally and properly with the right automations.
• Be a sponge. Take every opportunity to learn and absorb - about your craft, about your clients, about your employees. Then squeeze it back out.
• Pre show release - how hard it is to come up with an elevator pitch for yourself, imposter syndrome

Show Notes:

• Lauren Kennedy
• Lauren On Twitter
• Lauren on Linkedin
• Lauren on Facebook 
• Building and Evolving Profitable Project Plan with Jennifer Bourn
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Often, when it comes to launching, writing, recording, building funnels, or whatever else it is we need to do, it's easy to start because we're motivated. But the longer a project goes on, the harder it can be. The more frustrating it can get. And the more likely quality starts to go out the window. Well, today's guest, Elizabeth Pampalone, has a solution: get it all done in 1 day. From launching websites to writing a full year of blog posts, Elizabeth's process of blocking off a whole day and walking with her clients through a tried and true framework has proven successful. Here is how she does it. Plus, in Build something more, we chat about early businesses and how to handle premium products for clients.

Top Takeaways

• Implementing is the hardest part of the work for most people - building that into a day, and into your schedule helps you ship.
• You need a "Deep Work" style day to get the work done. Eliminate distractions and context switching.
• Checklists are a huge help. They reduce the mental energy of figuring out what to do next so you can just do.

Show Notes

• Elizabeth Pampalone
• Elizabeth on Facebook
• Elizabeth on Instagram
• Elizabeth on Linkedin
• How Your Content Strategy can Grow Your Business with Jean Perpillant
• Monster Contracts
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Hey everybody and welcome to episode 234 of How I Built It, the podcast that offers actionable tech tips for small business owners. Today's sponsors are TextExpander, and Nexcess. Jason How knows a thing or two about ads, start with this: don't start with Ads. Jason gives us a couple of important aspects of running ads you think to think about before actually running the ads - like how to get your offer to a place that will compel people to actually click on ads.

Top Takeaways

• BEFORE you run any ads, you need to get your offer right. Figure our whom you serve and do the research to make sure your offer is a good one. 
• The messaging will be completely based on the offer. 
• Get people into your funnel with a clear CTA, and have a good confirmation page.

Show Notes:

• Jason How
• Jason on Linkedin
• Jason on Facebook
• Jason on Twitter
• Agency J on Linkedin
• ZipMessage
• S.I.N. Offer by Todd Brown
• Hyros
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Look. I get tons of backlinks and cold outreach every day. It’s frustrating and annoying. It’s frustrating and annoying because it’s blanket cold outreach. The people reaching out don’t know me and are just swinging wildly. There’s gotta be a better way, right? That’s what Andy Cabasso is here to talk about. How can YOU get effective with your cold outreach to grow your traffic and your business? It’s a great conversation. Plus in BSM we talk about domain authority. 

Top Takeaways

• People doing outreach need to recognize that content creators are getting pitched to constantly. It's SUPER important to personalize to prove you actually did the research.
• When it comes to cold outreach, one of the most important aspect is the follow up! 
• When you create content, you should spend as much time promoting it as you did creating it. Organic SEO is great, but competitive.

Show Notes:

• Postaga
• Andy on Twitter
• Skyscraper Technique by Brian Dean
• Sam Brodie & Selling Your Business
• Semrush
• Ubersuggest
• WP Owls
• Deliverability Podcast on SPAM lists
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

It's a listener questions episode! I thought it would be fun to round out the summer by answering some questions you've asked about how to run and grow a podcast. I hope you enjoy! in Build Something More, I tell you all about what I learned at Skip the Grind and how it's shaping my business, and this podcast, moving forward.

Top Takeaways 

• The biggest way to grow your show is by having a clear Call to Action and a strong show notes page. 
• BUILD YOUR LIST! No matter what you're trying to do - build a community, sell products, sell a course or service - your email list is the life's blood of your business and your podcast can help you grow it.
• There are 2 million podcasts but only about 65% are actually active. For comparison, There are over 37 million YouTube channels. 

Show Notes

• Send in Feedback or Ask a Question!
• Why Course Creators Should Start a Podcast
• Course Creators Community Podcast
• How Skip the Grind Showed Me to Focus my Business
• Next Steps for How I Built It
• Podcast Subscribe Buttons
• Podcast Stats from BuzzSprout

Sponsored by: Nexcess | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Today's Episode is a little bit different. See, my friend Alastair McDermott has a couple of problems he'd like to solve: launching and promoting an online course, and growing his podcast. I believe these 2 things go hand-in-hand. A podcast is a great way to establish trust and expertise, which in-turn helps you sell more courses. So instead of Alastair dropping knowledge on us (which he does anyway...) we flip the script in this live coaching call, and he asks me a bunch of questions! This is one of my favorite episodes of the year - and highly educational for both of us! 

Top Takeaways

• Beta testing your course is a great, lower-risk way to get your information out there and get real feedback. 
• A podcast is a fantastic way to grow your audience, estabilish trust and expertise, and sell your courses. 
• One way to grow your own podcasting audience is to guest on other people's podcasts!

Show Notes

• Alastair McDermott
• Alastair on Twitter
• The Recognized Authority Podcast
• Building and Evolving Profitable Project Plan with Jennifer Bourn
• How to Hire a VA That Actually Helps You with Matthew Yahes
• Authority by Nathan Berry
• Pricing Creativity by Blair Enns
• Want to participate in a live coaching episode? Leave a Message Here.

Sponsored by: Nexcess | Termshub | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

All too often, we hear only the success story. The Olympian who won the goal. The successful millionaire who launched a business from her dorm room. It's easy to assume these stories are without struggles. But what we don't see is the sacrifices the olympian made. We don't see the dozen other ideas and years of work the successful millionaire put in. Today we get to hear it all. Paul Lacey is as generous with his time as he is with his story. See, Paul has gone a long way in his travels as a web developer, from the pre-dot-com burst to crashing an agency and bouncing back. And he's learned a ton along the way that he generously shares with us in today's episode. So I just tried to get out of the way and tell his story. I think you'll love it.

Show Notes:

• Paul Lacey
• Paul Lacey on Twitter
• WP Builds
• Fourth Doctor
• How Giving Back saved my some gig
• Ron Gijsel Episode
• Company of One
• Creator Crew

Sponsored by: Podcast Liftoff | TextExpander

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps overwhelmed solo business owners go from overwhelmed to having their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without selling your soul to AI...and run your business without sacrificing the rest of your life, or your health.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it. https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/