In this Foundations Friday episode, I’m going to give you a quick piece of advice that you can use to improve so many different things in your business. We’re going to be talking about creating a story journal and why you need one. As you probably know, I believe that storytelling is huge in everything that we do.

Your story journal is all about helping you capture the stories that you can use in your business at various times. Stories are the best way to communicate with people because, as humans, we think in stories. They’re very effective not only at getting your message across, but at allowing people to remember your message.

A lot of marketers wonder how to come up with stories. All you need to do is have a journal so that when something happens which you could potentially use in your business, you can write it down. You don’t need to write down a whole, detailed story; you just need to catalogue some quick notes and then think how you can deploy the story in your business.

After making notes, the next level is to think about the themes that you could use your stories for. I provide a few examples of some of my own common themes, but yours will likely be different.

If you do this for a while, you eventually won’t have to do it at all. You’ll start to recognize stories automatically and it will be very organic. After three to six months, you’ll start to see stories everywhere.

• How people, in general, tend to communicate in stories
• The importance of using a story journal
• Why it’s not about coming up with stories, it’s about getting in the practice of seeing stories in your everyday life
• How your stories will turn into lessons, tips, and underlying ideas to reach your audience

For bonus resources and freebies for this episode, go to: http://bit.ly/3bAVQbS

Today’s episode is about something that I heard about last year but wasn’t really comfortable talking about. A year ago, I couldn’t even think about what I’m discussing in this episode. Specifically, I’m talking about stepping into your role as a leader of a team, not as a solopreneur doing everything in your business.

There’s a difference between being self-employed and having a business. A lot of people are self-employed, but they basically just own a job. I was like that forever. I had a scalable business, but the reality was that I had to do the work. I’ll tell you about where you should be trying to go if you’re a solopreneur and the plan you need.

High-level tasks, like relationship building, might bring in hundreds of thousands in revenue, but as a solopreneur like me, I wasn’t doing them because I was caught up in urgent things that had to be done. That’s what keeps us where we are, so you need to transition out of it. There are some challenges, of course, but I explain how you can overcome them.

My time now is largely not spent on things that other people could be doing for me. More and more people are starting to recognize me as the email guy or the guy who teaches connection marketing, and that’s happened because I’ve freed up my time. The revenue is starting to come.

You’ll try things, sometimes they won’t work, and you’ll have to try again. But then, you get that first bit of success. That’s where I am now, and it’s only possible because I have a team.

• Why stepping into your role as a leader will positively grow your business away from solopreneurship
• As the leader, I am the visionary--a role only I can play
• What tasks simply cannot be given to anyone else
• The challenges to overcome so you can focus on your high-level work
• What thinking “like a seven-figure business owner” will do for your business

For bonus resources and freebies for this episode, go to: http://bit.ly/2HooyPf 

Today, I’m going to be telling you why you need to hire a virtual assistant. Getting one is something that most of us wait too long to do, including myself. Hiring a VA can change your life because it will allow you to do more of the things you need to be doing in your business.

Hiring was an area where I had a huge mental block. Usually when I get an idea I execute it right away, but hiring had always been something that I couldn’t seem to do. I would just find reasons not to. There are some things that happened which trapped me in this mindset, so I’ll tell you what those hang-ups were.

You have to think about a VA as less of an expense and more of a way to free up your time. A lot of entrepreneurs don’t think about the emotional benefits of a VA, but when I hired a VA as an executive assistant last November, it actually stopped me from being brought down sometimes.

If there’s work that’s going to bring you down, you shouldn’t be doing it. You can have a VA do things that will move your business forward which you no longer need to do.

Find a way to get a VA if at all possible. I know you’re going to resist just like I did for a long time, but after you take the advice, come back and say thank you to me. It will make things so much better for you because all of a sudden, you’ll be freed up.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE:

• Why bringing on a VA helped propel my business forward
• Overcoming the mental blocks I had about delegating out tasks
• What type of VA is good for your business
• My own experience of letting go of the work that drained me by allowing a VA to manage those tasks on an ongoing basis

For bonus resources and freebies for this episode, go to: http://bit.ly/2S2zfgI 

I’m going to talk to you about where you focus and how you’re viewing things in today’s episode. Specifically, I’m talking about the 80/20 rule, otherwise known as the Pareto principle. It’s hard for me to tell you what to stop doing in your business, but I can give you rules and tell you things that are likely the most important for you to be doing.

The cool part about the 80/20 rule is that it is fractal. This means that if 20% of your work accounts for 80% of the results, then 20% of that 20% accounts for 80% of that 80%. In other words, 4% of your work is going to count for 64% of your results.

If you triple the amount of time that you spend on that 4% work, you can expect a big increase in revenue. I’ll let you know some of the 4% work that I’ve done in my own business and how this type of work can change over time.

You should stop worrying about the people who aren’t on your email list, or the ones that don’t respond. When you put all of your focus on serving the 20% of your audience who really care, you’ll be doing your best. It will even attract people outside of the 20%.

I want you to be constantly thinking about the 80/20 rule. Determine what your 4% work is and who your 4% people are. These are the places where little bits of time and effort can have a huge impact and really move things along.

• What the 80/20 rule is and how it pertains to your business focus
• How you can identify your powerful levers to more your business forward
• How you need to shift your focus on your already raving fans and how to keep serving them
• My own business examples of my 4% work and how it continues to evolve
• My four key points to help you see where your 4% work is in your business

For bonus resources and freebies for this episode, go to: http://bit.ly/385aPc0 

Today’s topic is pretty darn important, and I hope the way I’m going to describe it will resonate with you because it took me forever to understand it. It’s about how you need to stop focusing on being so efficient and start focusing on being effective. It’s an important distinction, so join me as I explain what those words mean.

When I finally got this concept, it helped me to demystify something that my coach had been talking about a lot. He says that if you want to make a bigger impact, do less. That never made sense to me, but it did when I finally understood the concept of being effective instead of efficient.

Being efficient is just getting stuff done, but being effective is a measure of how much you’re moving the needle forward in your business. Most of us in the online space are doing a lot of stuff that has zero impact on our business. I’ll tell you the tough question that you need to ask yourself about your business and then give a clear social media example of not being effective.

A lot of entrepreneurs are looking at social media in the wrong way. If you want to be effective on social media, it’s not about blaring your message to the world; it’s about engaging with people.

Sometimes, we don’t want to do the hard, deep work so we just give ourselves a lot of busy work that’s easy to check off. I encourage you to track your time for a while, and then critically ask yourself if what you’re doing is actually moving your business forward. 

• The concept I’ve learned for my business about being effective
• How you need to shift your focus from checking “to-dos” off a list to effective ways of moving your business forward
• Why doing the right things matter more than doing more things
• The deep work is going to grow your business, not the busy work

For bonus resources and freebies for this episode, go to: http://bit.ly/372eciD

In this show, I’m going to give you permission to stop doing some things. When I talk to some online entrepreneurs, they are often overwhelmed by all the things they feel like they have to be doing. Listen in as I go through the five things that you need to stop doing if you want your business to grow. After, you’ll be able to stop doing the things that don’t matter and start doing the things that do.

Much of the overwhelm that entrepreneurs are facing is from this constant noise from gurus that talk about some new program or new tactic. These “ninja tactics” are not what you need to be focusing on, but I’ll tell you what you really need to turn your attention to.

Another place you can reduce your overwhelm is in your need to make things perfect. I give you my own examples when I knew things were not perfect, but I also knew they just needed to get out there. There are quite a few downfalls to having a perfection mindset, and I’ll let you know what they are.

The final point I mention relates to all the other points: stop comparing yourself to other people. Comparison is the reason why so many people feel so overwhelmed. It’s so pervasive that most people don’t even realize it’s happening.

If you stop doing the five things I mention in this episode, I truly believe that the overwhelm will pass. I’m giving you permission to focus on the basics and to not worry what other people are doing.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE:

• When you keep feeling overwhelmed in your business, you need to return to the basics
• The five things I had to learn to stop doing in order for my business to grow
• Why investing your energy into proven strategies will be the thing that works
• Why the five things I mention to stop doing are what might actually be holding you back in your business

For bonus resources and freebies for this episode, go to: http://bit.ly/39bMPnN 

I don’t really know how to describe today’s episode. It’s like a Seinfeld episode, where it’s about one thing but it’s really about something else. The specific thing we’re talking about is why you shouldn’t feel like you need to buy a journal just because everybody else is doing it. Even if you do use a journal, you should still listen today because it goes much deeper than that.

My wife had to tell me to stop buying journals and planners at one point because I had so many. There was a predictable routine whenever I bought planners, so I share this with you – it’s the reason why I don’t buy them anymore.

Part of the reason I kept feeling the need to try new planners is because everybody in the online space is talking about how they plan their day. Quite honestly, you can be a successful seven-figure business owner without using a planner at all.

You need to have plans, but there is no one-size-fits-all solution. There are some people that just aren’t wired to use a daily planner, and I think it’s even more prevalent among visionary entrepreneurs. I’ll fill you in on the way I keep myself on track, no planner required.

If you’re one of those people who worries that you’re not doing things the same as some of the big-name people, it’s okay! As long as you’re getting the work done, that’s all that matters. You don’t have to do something just because other people do it. I finish off with the story of how I found my ideal morning routine.

• Why journals or planners might not actual work for you
• You can still be successful without doing what everyone else is doing
• Having plans and structure is still crucial for your business, but there are different ways to do it
• What “keystone habit” I use on a daily basis that helps everything fall into place
• There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to anything

For bonus resources and freebies for this episode, go to: http://bit.ly/391QhRN 

This episode really hits home because we’re going to talk about how to pitch yourself to podcasts the right way (in other words, the Certified BADA$$ way). Even if you’re not interested in doing podcasts, the same principles will apply any time you’re pitching yourself.

I got inspired to talk about this because the other day I received a few podcast pitches at the same time, and one of them was so laughably bad that I was amused by it. I’m going to share that email with you and talk about the many reasons why it won’t lead to being a guest on my podcast or any other one. This is just the beginning of the bad pitches I’ve gotten.

There are a few key concepts that you need to be thinking about when pitching yourself. The first is something that I always preach, and after laying that framework I go into some more aspects that your approach to this should include.

My team and I have a process we go through when we’re looking for a podcast I can appear on, and it’s longer than you might think. I bring you through all the steps from my point of view and what really matters to me when looking for podcasts to collaborate with.

I believe that being a guest on other peoples’ platforms is one of the best ways to expand your reach, especially if you’re just starting out. If you come at it from a place of building relationships and quality, you can build a plan for pitching that will be very helpful.

• Why quality is always better than quantity as a guest appearance
• How far-reaching your impact can be when you build a real connection with other podcast hosts (and online business owners in general)
• If hiring a booking agent is right for you, and how important it is to vet who you hire
• My detailed process before I even think about pitching to be a guest
• How to figure out and implement a meaningful and successful pitch

For bonus resources and freebies for this episode, go to: http://bit.ly/3aZBFnL

In one of my swift-kick-in-the-ass episodes, I’m addressing something that I see a lot in the online space. There are a lot of online entrepreneurs that get upset or annoyed when they face a problem. Today, I’m asking you to shift your mindset. Instead of being annoyed by problems, you need to embrace them. This can shift everything in your business.

If there weren’t problems in the way of your business, there’s no way that you could even have a business. Somebody else would have already built your business if there were no challenges along the way. I’ll discuss the number one characteristic that successful business owners have – it’s not about having the best idea or being the most charismatic.

Your customers are only customers because they’re facing a problem. For me, I need to embrace that my customers have problems, and it wouldn’t make sense if I embraced that but thought that I shouldn’t have any in my own business. We end up attracting people who are like us to our business, so embracing the concept that there are problems and they can be solved is crucial.

Getting pissed off at problems is going to repel people away from you. People who want to pay money don’t want to be around negative people. To avoid being put in a negative headspace by problems, the easiest thing to do is embrace them.

Embrace the problems. See them as things that you get to do, and then you’ll have the right mindset. That’s my call to action for you.

• Why you need to embrace the problems in your business
• How shifting your mindset can enable you to succeed in your business even when you run into problems along the way
• Discover why the most successful business owners aren’t necessarily the best at what they do, and yet they still have success
• How to see problems as opportunities in personal growth

For additional episode resources and freebies, click here: http://bit.ly/3aToYL7

This is one of my favorite topics. It’s something I’ve talked about a lot, and it sets me apart from most of the other entrepreneurs in the space. What I’m talking about is my “non-launch launch” method. It really drove my business forward last year, and I want to share it so you can see if it will work for your business too.

One of my launches in January 2019 didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, so I brought up my problem at a mastermind and gained some input from my peers. They suggested I just send out a simple email instead of relaunching, and I did that over the following months to great success. I’ll share with you one of the ways some people inadvertently put a giant impediment in front of them and how you can avoid it.

A non-launch launch is not right for everyone. Just one reason I mention in this episode is that you’ve got to have a warm audience already. If you don’t, who would you be sending your emails to? It’s important to be continually cultivating your audience.

People act like I’m against launching, and in some ways I am. I’m against focusing all of your attention on the launch and then ignoring stuff the rest of the time, which is what a lot of entrepreneurs are doing.

My method gives you a chance to get sales in without costs, and that’s the kind of thing I love. After taking in this episode, I encourage you to think about if a non-launch launch strategy will work for you!

• Why moving away from the traditional launch might work better for your business
• Which business is the non-launch launch right for
• What obstacles you might be putting in your fans' way
• How to execute the non-launch launch