The Design Business Show

Brittany Hodak is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and customer experience speaker who has delivered keynotes across the globe to organizations, including American Express and the United Nations. She has worked with some of the world's biggest brands and entertainers, including Walmart, Disney, Katy Perry, and Dolly Parton.

She founded and scaled an entertainment startup to eight figures before exiting, and she is the former Chief Experience Officer of Experience.com. Her debut book, Creating Superfans, will be in stores on January 10, 2023.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• Brittany grew up watching her father work in customer service, but she had always wanted to work in the entertainment industry
• After making her dreams come true, Brittany realized there was a huge overlap between customer experience and the entertainment industry
• Brittany decided to go back to school, where she got her master's degree in consumer behavior in marketing – she was curious if the same principles that would lead someone to create fans as an entertainer were the same for brands
• Brittany shares how she started working in the entertainment industry at a radio station when she was 16 years old and got the chance to interview rockstars
• After graduating, Brittany moved to New York based on a coin flip and started working for Sony Music
• Brittany had always had this idea since college of a fan package for album releases and making CDs something people want to purchase by making them a collectible
• Everyone dismissed Brittany's idea, so she decided to go out on her own and create her product using the connections she had made in the industry and her connection at Walmart, who had agreed to buy her product
• How Brittany launched ZinePak (short for magazine pack) and started taking the skills she developed and started creating these immersive fan packages for album releases – within the first year and a half, they had worked with stars like Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber
• Brittany started reaching out to companies to buy ad space in her packages in exchange for a branded display in the store featuring their brand
• Brittany ran her agency for about 8 years and one day got a call from a producer who asked if they would like to be on the show Shark Tank – to which they agreed to
• The story of how Brittany and her co-founder went on the show Shark Tank and got offers from a couple of the Sharks, which they agreed to but ended up not doing the deal in real life
• Because of the visibility of the show, Brittany got a lot of invitations to speak outside of retail with very fan-driven industries that weren't related to retail or musicians going on tour
• Brittany continued to run her agency while doing speaking gigs, but it became hard to juggle, so at the end of 2019, she sold the majority of her equity in the business she had founded, which allowed her to do more speaking, researching, and writing

• Brittany's book Creating Superfans is a customer experience book that talks about the principles that anyone can do to connect more deeply with their customers to create superfans
• The power of creating superfans, what a superfan is, why they are important to brands, and how they create positive outcomes for your business
• Brittany shares how influential her dad was in creating her business
• Your brand is more than the products; it's based on the experiences people have with your employees
• Brittany shares a story from her book of an artist who understood that the brand wasn't just him; it was everyone his fans came in contact with, whether it was the merch booth employee, the security guard, or the guitar tech that contributed to the overall experience.
• When starting her business, Brittany had a unique take on being told no – she thought about those no's as relationship building because although they had said no to her, those people had no idea who she was before, and now they do
• One thing to keep in mind is that your customer experience will never be better than your employee experience – if you don't treat your employees well, you can't expect them to treat customers well
• Brittany explains the SUPER Model framework she uses and teaches in her book and says that her book is to help managers, business leaders, and employees have a shared understanding and framework of customer experience
• You can purchase Brittany's book anywhere – it's also offered as an eBook and audiobook
• The design process Brittany went through when creating her book and how she knew she wanted to use color in it, which many people do not do
• Brittany walks us through the key questions you should ask yourself to design your brand
• One goal of Brittany's in 2023 is to no longer do consulting work so she can focus on speaking
• With consulting, Brittany had a hard time saying no – if something outside the scope of their agreement came up and her client asked her about it, she would take care of it because she didn't set clear boundaries
• Now Brittany offers Intentional Experience Design Days, where somebody can hire her for a day to help architect the intentional experience they want their customers to feel throughout the whole customer journey
• Connect with Brittany through her website, and make sure to check out her book

Links mentioned:

Creating Superfans by Brittany Hodak

Brittany Kodak Website

Connect with Brittany on Instagram

Connect with Brittany on Twitter

Connect with Brittany on LinkedIn

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Monica is an eCommerce brand mentor & consultant, a purpose-driven (digital) brand, marketing & strategy professional with 17 years of global experience building brands. She's worked across diverse sectors and companies from Fortune500 to scale- & start-ups.

It all started with an MSc. Business Administration, major in Marketing.

She's worked with Fortune500 companies across brand management, strategy consulting & global marketing. In addition, she has been hired by Google to coach their premium partners - 7-figure scale-ups, Tech, and SaaS & agencies who work with eCommerce businesses.

Monica offers high-touch coaching & mentorship to small business, conscious, eCommerce & product, and retail entrepreneurs.

She is Dutch by birth and Indian by heritage. Global by choice & education.⁠⁠⁠ A creative thinker.⁠ A dancer.⁠ A chai fanatic.⁠ A mom of 2 girls.⁠⁠

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• We talk about how the eCommerce space is growing
• Monica worked in the corporate world for 10 years but decided she wanted to go out on her own and continue the work she was doing, but for small businesses where she could feel the impact she was having
• In the corporate world, Monica worked in brand management for a wide range of brands for a magazine
• Monica then moved into strategy consulting, where she got to take brands from position to action plan to marketing structure
• Right after leaving the corporate world, Monica had a store selling home accessories but quickly realized that wasn't what she wanted to be doing
• The clients Monica works with have usually been in business for 1 – 3 years and have made 6 figures or close to it
• Monica has noticed that most people don't think about doing the brand work, customer work, or strategy work before they start
• The first thing Monica makes sure clients do is to get to know their customers where they do research and in-depth customer and audience interviews – you cannot run a business when you don't know whom you're speaking to
• Monica uses a technique called customer story probing, where you invite customers to tell you stories so you can dive deeper into their emotions, needs, wants, and desires
• The 4Ds or the desire over demographic framework Monica uses outlines the 4 question categories you need to ask your customers – demographics, desires, do, and delight
• How you should base your marketing communication on your customers and where they live, but Monica shares some evergreen communication, such as email marketing
• Monica shares that many people forget about the post-purchase and says you must be nurturing your customers after they have purchased from you
• It's important to move away from a strategy that focuses on just the features of your product to one that evokes emotion
• Monica uses what she calls the customer benefit ladder to get different messaging pieces out – think about the functional benefits, the emotional benefits, the transformational benefits, and the societal benefits of your product
• As an example, Monica talks about Starbucks and how they were focused on creating a "third place" between home and work where you could go and hang out and get great coffee – they combine functional and emotional benefits
• There are many ways to get customer feedback, but Monica says nothing beats doing customer interviews because you can dive deeper into their motivations
• Because Monica dives in deep with her clients, she works one on one with them, and right now, she currently offers a 6-week or 6-month mentorship
• Most of Monica's clients are referral based
• Monica shares that her strategy is the same across her different clients, but the implementation is what's different for each client
• How Monica works with the client's team (if they have one), instead of just with the CEO, for example – this makes sure there is cocreation, and there's not just one person making a plan
• Monica's expertise is in brand strategy, which is different from brand design and copywriting
• For marketing her own business, Monica does a lot on Instagram and LinkedIn but says she's been trying to do a lot more podcast interviews and collaborations with other people and shares that she will be adding a blog to her website soon
• Another way Monica markets herself is through her email lists that she emails consistently
• The keys to your business to create sustainable growth and impact are understanding why you're doing what you're doing, your customers, and your numbers – if you can combine your findings, you will see the answers
• Connect with Monica on Instagram or LinkedIn, and visit her website and get access to her 4D Download so you can take action and get to know your customers

Links mentioned:

Business With Monica

Connect with Monica on Instagram

Connect with Monica on LinkedIn

4D - Desires over Demographics Download

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Nadine Nethery is the Founder of CAN DO! Content and a strategic website and email copywriter for female founders who want to intentionally attract, delight, and retain their dream customers.

Her strategic take on audience research and copy turns every brand touchpoint into genuine connections that drive sales, celebrate loyalty, and surround you with keen brand advocates who happily do the word-spreading for you.

Over the years, Nadine has given global e-commerce success stories, game-changing startups, and industry-disrupting service providers the words to shine and the strategies to build a sustainable business long-term.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• How Nadine filled out the pitch form on the design business show.com
• Nadine's specialty is Audience retention, research, and discovery
• Nadine has always loved language and worked as a translator, then after moving to London, Nadine worked in customer service
• After Nadine met her Australian husband, she moved to Australia and worked for the Volkswagen PR team for about 10 years
• Then Nadine had a few babies and lost the job she loved to do
• How Nadine went to work at Australia's largest retailer, which didn't fulfill her but gave her selling skills
• In the search for what Nadine wanted to do, she discovered content marketing and copywriting, which intrigued her because she has always loved writing and language
• The story of how Nadine found a couple of clients through social media and wrote any copy they threw her way
• Nadine discovered it took a lot more to write copy than she originally thought, so she took many copywriting courses, which has changed her copywriting approach into a more strategic one
• In late 2020, Nadine quit her corporate job to go full-time in her business, where she works with female founders to help with website and email copy that supports their audience
• Nadine talks about having more of an impact in her own business than she did in the corporate world

• Everything Nadine does is based on audience research – many clients believe they know their audience when they come to Nadine, but it's usually very surface level
• On Nadine's website, she has a DIY Toolkit that gives templates and strategies for audience research
• A good starting point is sending out a survey if you have an existing audience – starting with where they were at when they started working with you, what it was like working with you, any objections they had when working with you, and then you finish with tangible outcomes they had so that you can use that in your copy
• Nadine says you should ask very strategic and open-ended questions so clients can explain their experience in their own words, which is gold for your copy
• How Nadine works with eCommerce brands and service providers that are in different stages of their business
• Nadine focuses on nurturing the audience to look at the bigger picture
• Customers come to Nadine for her strategic insights, so she is currently doing everything herself without a team
• In her business, Nadine will give design suggestions because she knows how important it is for copy and design to work together
• Clients can find Nadine through her website or Instagram
• Nadine talks about how to know if your audience is still aligned when you are making a pivot in your business by giving people a choice to opt in or opt-out
• How you should clean your email list and social media regularly so you can make sure you are talking to the right people and getting better engagement
• Mapping your customer journey is important so you can show up exactly where your audience needs
• Nadine gives an example where one of her clients anticipates her customer needs by using past purchases to suggest different products
• There are many lessons Nadine has learned along the way, but one big one is staying in your lane – everyone does things differently and shows up differently
• Nadine is a big fan of automation and using Dubsado to automate processes in her business and audience research
• Check out Nadine's website and connect with her on Instagram
• If you want to see what Nadine does, you can sign up to see Nadine's Over The Shoulder Tutorial where she takes a project through client research to website copy

Links mentioned:

CAN DO! Website

Pitch Form - The Design Business Show

DIY Audience Toolkit

Connect with Nadine on Instagram

Nadine's Over The Shoulder Tutorial

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Staci Hauschild is a director of operations and ClickUp consultant. She helps feminist entrepreneurs smash the patriarchy one deadline at a time via strategic planning and business management so CEOs can create positive change in the world, increase their profits, and take real (business-free) vacations.

Staci has lived all over the world and now calls Oaxaca, Mexico, home, where she lives with her two rescue pups and a collection of rescue kittens. She enjoys hiking, collecting rare tropical plants and cacti, and believes that every day should start with a strong cup of coffee and a good book.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• Staci shares what kind of coffee she drinks to help start her day
• The story of how Staci came to Oaxaca, Mexico, on what was supposed to be a 3-month holiday but ended up staying because it felt like home
• Staci decided she could be an English teacher, or she could take her skills and put them online
• When Staci started, she was a virtual assistant, but even as a virtual assistant, she was a strategic partner in her client's businesses, but she didn't know that was a thing
• As Staci learned more, she stepped into more of a management role, and a couple of years ago, she became certified as director of operations
• When Staci graduated from Ops Authority Program, she fell in love with strategic planning
• Without CEOs and visionaries, Staci says she would not have a business – most operators are not great at creating visions for their futures, but they are great at helping other people with theirs
• Staci describes herself as the back-end best friend who doesn't get the credit, nor does she want it
• Strategic Planning, defined by Staci, is a process that creates clarity, direction, and a plan - in the corporate world, it is creating business strategies, implementing them, evaluating them, and making sure they're aligned with our revenue goals and vision for the future
• When Staci talks about vision, she's not just talking about the vision for your business, but the vision for your lifestyle
• Your business foundation is the most important, Staci says, and it includes your business mission, vision, core values, diversity, equality, and inclusion statement, and your revenue goals
• After building your foundation, Staci moves to build strategic objectives or the pillars of business, which are money and finance, service and sales, operational efficiencies, team and human capital, and visibility
• After looking at the pillars of business, Staci takes all the ideas of her clients and categorizes them by the pillars, and then they look at which strategic pillar they should be currently spending the most time on depending on their goals, needs, and visions
• Next, Staci will break client projects down into quarters and then into each month
• Each project has an owner, whether it's the CEO, a team member, or a third-party contractor
• Staci says the strategic plan can work for any level of business, and she helps with who's going to do it and when they're going to do it
• One of Staci's favorite things is visions – she sees client breakthroughs when her clients talk about their vision
• When someone says they want to travel more, for example, Staci helps them nail down the specifics like how often, what they look like, whether they are international or stay-home, etc. So they can get clarity around that
• With visions comes revenue goals, and Staci talks about being taught good, better, and best revenue goals

• Staci says she does the entire strategic planning in ClickUp, from planning to communication to creating the plan, and works with long-term clients who use ClickUp as their main platform
• Operational people usually fall into two categories, those who take the managerial, leadership, and people route or the systems and tech route
• If Staci gets a client who wants to work in another platform besides ClickUp, she will refer them to someone else in her circle because she wants to be more efficient and have lean systems in her business
• It's much easier to educate people and share how you can help them when you hone in on your skills and expertise instead of speaking very broadly and wanting to help everyone
• One service Staci offers is an Operational Consulting Day that takes place over Voxer or WhatsApp – it works as if you're messaging your best friend throughout the day, but instead, Staci is coming it from an operational standpoint
• The Operational Consulting Day is to overcome one specific challenge you may have – for example; people may be working on a job description for a role they want to hire
• The two other services Staci offers are strategic planning and long-term Operational Business Manager (OBM) or Director of Operations (DOO), where she comes in as an integrator to the visionary, where she manages the business entirely so the CEO can step into their zone and do the things only they can do
• Most people don't get into business to manage a business, but that's what Staci got into business to do
• People are at different stages in their businesses where they have different needs and budgets, which is why Staci offers 3 different service levels in her business
• In her business, Staci can only take on a certain amount of retainer clients and a certain number of strategic planning clients, so she sees the Operational Consulting Day as a great way to help other people along those services
• How Staci and her team think no more than 6 months ahead and how this quarter, they are focused on creating a quiz/operational assessment for Staci's community to help determine what area of business they need to focus on and how to do it
• Your strategic plan isn't a to-do list; it's about the strategy and the goal behind it
• Staci didn't realize how intensive it would be to create a quiz, come up with the questions and the results, and come up with the email education sequence for each of those results
• Another thing Staci is working on in her business is creating a strategic planning refresh as a group program because sometimes things don't go according to plan, so she wants to help existing clients be able to refresh their plans if needed

• Staci says she's always been a cat person, but because she was living all over the world, she never wanted to adopt an animal because she didn't want to put it through the stress of moving every 2 years
• Once Staci was stable in Oaxaca, Mexico, she adopted her first kitten, but during that time, she and her neighbor rescued and adopted out around 40 kittens
• When some of Staci's neighbors moved; they left behind a Siamese cat that Staci tried to adopt out, but no one wanted her because she was fully grown, so Staci took her
• Staci explains that while on YouTube trying to find ways to entertain her Siamese cat, she started to learn more about dogs and says she used to be afraid of dogs her entire life
• Living in countries where there's a high level of animal abuse and lack of resources, there are some scary dogs on the street, but Staci never knew why they were scared – she started to learn that they're scared and barking because they had been abused
• How a dog showed up at Staci's house that she fed, how he's never left and is now the love of her life
• Staci adopted her second puppy after finding her near death on the side of the road and says that she could adopt a new animal every week – sometimes she has to walk away, call a rescue organization, and says she then donates to the organization
• Kittens are less work than dogs because they are independent and so if she sees a kitten, she will pick it up and has reduced 4 cats in the last week
• One of Staci's visions in her business is to be able to donate a percentage of her profits to organizations in Oaxaca, Mexico – Staci donates to big organizations but realizes there is an opportunity within her community
• Staci loves working with people who want to donate their money to organizations or political campaigns because she believes we vote with our dollars and we can create change by earning more in our businesses and doing something good with it
• Learn more by going to Staci's website and connecting with Staci on LinkedIn
• Get a $250 discount on a full strategic planning session with Staci that sets you up with clarity, direction, a plan, your goals, and projects for 6 months with a high-level view of the following 6 months

Links mentioned:

All listeners receive $250 off a full strategic business planning service with Staci.

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Jen Szpigiel has created a multi-million dollar global iconic brand for legendary leadership, life and business. As the owner and founder of Becoming Iconic®️, Jen is infusing years of wisdom, pure-clean energy and proven strategies for the visionaries, legends and entrepreneurs who want to break expired paradigms and shift the narrative within their businesses, relationships and lives.

As an industry leader, top mentor and podcast host, be ready for Jen to expand you into your full potential as the most epic, vision centric leader for yourself and your legacy.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• Jen is a mom of 4, has been an entrepreneur for 16 years, and has been in marketing and sales for even longer
• When Jen was younger, she had a corporate job that she loved, but after the birth of her first baby, she decided to stay home to be with her daughter
• While being a stay-at-home mom, Jen felt like she lost herself, so entrepreneurship seemed like the answer to her prayer because she didn't want to set the example for her daughter that you had to either choose your career or your family – she wants to help be an example that you can have it all
• In 2019, after growing in entrepreneurship and helping people all over the world, Jen felt called to build more of a company and brand
• How Jen kept hearing the word 'iconic,' but she was worried about what people would think or turning people off until she heard the word 'becoming,' and as soon as she put those words together, Becoming Iconic, her soul lit up
• Becoming Iconic will mean different things to different people, but we can all relate to it at some level because we share the purpose of wanting to become all that we can be
• The Spark of Becoming Iconic was from Jen wanting to eradicate the narrative that we have to choose and have a sacrificial life – Jen was living a harmonious life and still has a gorgeous family life and booming business, so she wanted to translate that to others
• Now Becoming Iconic has grown into a personal journey – in February of 2021, Jen's Instagram and Facebook were hacked and disabled, and she never got them back
• When Jen's accounts got hacked, she had tens of thousands of followers and was looked at as an influencer; Jen was leaning on social media to grow her business, it was her main way of communicating with her community, and in a matter of minutes, it was gone.
• How Jen decided to look at her accounts being hacked as a real-life example of becoming iconic – so many people came in during her success and hadn't watched her grow, so Jen thought this would be a great opportunity for people to get to know her and her grit, work ethic, love, passion and see her lead
• Becoming Iconic is now a movement that's growing exponentially, and since losing her social media, Jen shares that they've created their first seven figures in less than six months
• Jen reflects on how she is doing the same things to grow her business now that she was doing 10-15 years ago
• Many people like to blame social media or use it to justify, but Jen says the truth is if you are wasting time scrolling, you're comparing, or it brings you down, that should be a point of reference for you to lead yourself better, it has nothing to do with social media
• Why Jen loves social media is because it opens opportunities to find incredible connections and relationships that you would have never been able to make 10 years ago
• When it comes to social media, Jen says consistency and discipline are the most important
• A lesson Jen learned as a people pleaser who lived for outward validation was to be full of herself, which most people need to learn – as an entrepreneur and leader who wants to grow a business, Jen says you are going to have people who don't agree with you or don't tell you you're doing a great job even when they think you are so, you have to look inward for validation
• Jen explains that she has a team and support, but she has built a business on ethics and integrity, which she feels strongly about – so when you come into her DMs, it's not someone pretending to be her; it's actually her
• It's a contradiction in your life and business to want to be a seven-figure business owner but want to do as little as you can in a day and want to rest – they can exist together, but it's this harmonious living and working hard, and feeling like you had a productive day that Jen thinks people are losing
• Part of the reason people don't want to work as hard is that they grew up in hustle culture, but Jen shares some great things about hustle culture, too, like having a work ethic, following through, and being dedicated
• You can work hard and get rest – when you work hard in your business, Jen says, that's when it starts to thrive
• Becoming Iconic is mainly mentorships; Jen does a lot of private, deep, relational mentorships, which is what she thrives on
• Jen also has a podcast that is part of the brand - it is rated top in business and lifestyle across the globe
• Another part of Becoming Iconic is Jen's magazine and boutique agency
• How Jen describes Becoming Iconic as an umbrella company that supports entrepreneurs, whether service or product based, to build multiple, six or seven, eight-figure businesses
• Jen focuses on leadership, who are you being in your life and business because she will not grow a business that hurts your family or breaks relationships, nor will she let her clients lean in on that as an excuse to not fulfill your dream and destiny within your business

• The story of how Jen and her business partner decided to part ways so Jen could stand on her own two feet and the things that came to light because of it
• Most of Jen's time in business was dictated by what people told her she could and couldn't do until she started doing it her way and began pioneering the coaching industry
• Jen shares that she went to school for fashion and has always loved style – when she went on her own, she decided to explore that in her business and did more fashion and branding photoshoots, which she loves
• How Jen was finally able to fall into herself and follow her intuition in her business and create her Becoming Iconic Magazine, which has been a dream of hers since she was 20 years old, even after so many told her it wasn't a good idea
• Jen wanted her magazine to be a place for entrepreneurs to get sound business advice but also be inspired by beautiful things, lifestyle, places to visit, and things to eat – so she created it, and it has been one of the most successful things she's done
• What holds many people back is wanting to do something perfectly the first time, so Jen shares some of the errors inside her first issue of the magazine and how she used them as an opportunity to be better
• Jen walks through the different features and columns within her magazine and how some are more business based while others are more life based
• You can have the digital copy of the magazine complimentary on Jen's website, or you can subscribe to get the beautiful glossy pages delivered to your doorstep
• The two other people Jen has on her team to help with the magazine are her designer and her operational business manager – Jen does all the copy and even handwrites the addresses on envelopes because it means so much to her that people would subscribe

• Jen created The Becoming Iconic Podcast to explore conversations, meet new people, and help those who aren't ready to come into her world to be mentored by her
• How Jen's intention for her magazine and podcast was not to make money - they are passion projects of hers, but they do bring in income
• In Jen's offers, it's a lot of intimate setting work because she loves relationships and partnerships
• In 2023, the main ways to work with Jen are through private coaching or her mastermind called Icons which is about teaching women that they do not have to wait for success to feel like the women they want to become
• Jen feels that 2023 will be a year of deepening the experiences she offers to make them the best they can be
• If Jen wakes up tomorrow and wants to try something, she can because she's not attached to the outcome; she's attached to creating an exceptional experience which gives allows her to do things in a playful, curious way

• Jen says she found a great photographer and videographer who work together and says she wanted to create a fashion influencer vibe under a coaching umbrella
• The inspiration behind Jen's photoshoot came from a fashion influencer in Germany, and she shares that she wanted to create photos that were mysterious, inspiring, professional, and edgy-elegant all that the same time
• Jen does her hair and makeup for her photoshoots because it's more about the feeling than how she looks
• Why Jen believes putting on clothes and being presentable is part of what makes her feel good because after Jen had her first daughter, she lost herself and became the sweatpants mom after having gone to school for fashion, so it makes her feel better to get up, put a little makeup on and get dressed
• Jen talks about how we're told to build our email lists so if we lose our social media, we'll still have access to everybody, which is true, but Jen doesn't believe the outcome is as solid as we're teaching – not all the people on your email list will refollow you on your new social media
• How Jen communicates through email but is not consistent with it because, to her, there are so many other ways that are more elevated to connect and communicate with her audience
• Jen's 3 favorite places to communicate with her audience are through her magazine, podcast, or Instagram
• Many of us spend too much time in the 'waiting' – we're waiting to feel ready, confident, for the right time, for somebody to give us to go ahead, etc., and what Jen knows is that these things don't lead us into decisions, what does is our heart, soul, and trust
• You don't have to wait to do what you want and chase your dreams – Jen says there will never be a right moment, so create the perfect moment for yourself
• Check out Jen's website, Becoming Iconic, listen to her podcast, view her magazine, and connect with her on Instagram

Links mentioned:

Becoming Iconic Website

Becoming Iconic Magazine

The Becoming Iconic Podcast

Work With Jen

Connect with Jen on Instagram

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Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes.

Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board

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Amanda Walker is a certified master coach who inspires coaches to become better coaches. Amanda is passionate about helping coaches and online service-based business owners get their clients massive results in order to grow a profitable coaching practice. She is the host of the Best Damn Coach Podcast and runs the premier coaching program for coaches, Best Damn Coach.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• How Amanda had sent me a pitch over the summer to come on the show and talk about high-touch marketing strategies that you can use to grow your business organically
• Amanda's perspective is that everyone is a coach in some way – if you're a parent, you're a coach; if you're a spouse, you're a coach; if you run a business, you're talking to clients that you're coaching in some element
• This first coaching job Amanda had was coaching boy's pee-wee basketball at age 15 – it was that job that made her realize she had a passion and a gift for helping people create results
• Amanda wore a lot of different coaching hats and was a teacher, but the year after her son was born, she decided she didn't want to continue teaching; Amanda took a year of sabbatical in case she wanted to come back but ended up falling into entrepreneurship
• How Amanda opened how her own coaching practice in the health and fitness industry, which she did for about 6 years - she had success in organically attracting many coaches and aspiring coaches
• Many coaches attracted to Amanda's work wanted her to help them in their business, which is how she decided to move in that direction with her business
• Amanda wanted to help coaches scale to 6 figures and beyond practitioners but, more importantly, work on the art and mastery of coaching because she believes there are a lot of outside resources, but the one thing that will trump when it comes to growing your business organically is, results that you create with your clients
• After Amanda had children, she went through a personal weight loss journey, and her first clients were her fellow gym-goers who saw her transformation and wanted help doing the same thing
• As business owners, we're all serving people, and the most important thing we will do is create results because our people become walking billboard advertisements for us
• The first few years of Amanda's coaching business were done through email because she was afraid of live coaching, and for the first client she had, she charged $50 for the month because she was scared to ask for money
• The online coaching industry is predicted to be a 20-billion-dollar industry globally by the end of 2022
• Because there are so many online coaches, Amanda's mission is to help her clients stand out, and her perspective is that you don't do that from fancy Facebook ads or templates – what makes them stand out is who they are as people and how they connect with others

• Amanda's signature program, Best Damn Coach, is a 6-month to year-long experience - Amanda believes it doesn't do service to entrepreneurs to have a course, step-by-step mission – Amanda believes in real-life support from real-life people holding space for us to be accountable
• The Business Accelerator is another one of Amanda's offerings that aim to take coaches, consultants, and mentors to the 6-figure mark
• Amanda's high-level mastermind called the Inner Circle for those who are already succeeding and looking for intimate upleveling strategies – they have live events and retreats that coincide with this mastermind
• Why Amanda keeps one-to-one clients because she believes that to teach coaching, she needs to be involved in it
• When you're growing organically, the first thing you need to do, Amanda says, is shut out the rest of the noise and get back to the basics of human connection
• How you can grow to a 6-figure business without a large email list through intentional connections with your small audience
• At the core level, we are meant to be part of a tribe; when we think about that, we have more opportunities to make our clients feel connected to us, safe, and trusted.
• Amanda is a practitioner of NLP, and something she teaches her clients right away is understanding what rapport is – there's verbal rapport and unconscious rapport
• When you hear someone's voice or when you hear your name, you automatically build a deeper level of unconscious rapport, which is why Amanda teaches clients to take communication out of text messages and take them into audio or video
• Amanda shares that she communicates with her email list twice a week – One is a call to action to listen to that week's episode of the Best Damn Coach Podcast, and the other is a message dedicated to celebrating clients
• When Amanda showcases the results clients are having, it builds trust – she usually takes a screenshot of a result a client shared with her and writes about it
• High-touch strategies to Amanda is going above and beyond in the most personal way to cultivate a feeling
• Amanda leverages audio and video in email marketing by sending a video in the first email after someone signs up for one of her programs so they can see her and hear her voice
• Another high-touch strategy Amanda does is calling each person who signs up for one of her programs
• When Amanda has a warm connection, she will reach out with a personal audio message
• Amanda is constantly looking to nurture the person versus taking a blanket approach to marketing
• The story of Amanda's client who hosted a workshop and how she sent a personalized audio message to those who attended and those who signed up but didn't attend to see if they had any questions – she got great results from this high-touch strategy that led to a purchase of the workshop
• Another client of Amanda's sends audio messages back in response to the direct messages she receives on Instagram and asks to hop on a call with them to help answer their question further, which has yielded great results
• Inside Amanda's Best Damn Coach program, they focus on the 4 Ss of coaching: Sales, Service, Strategy, and Self-Coaching
• In the Business Accelerator program, they dive deeper into creating frameworks by looking at the common steps clients take when they see success
• Within Amanda's teaching, there are many frameworks she uses; one, for example, is the BEST model is one Amanda teaches to create flow and results inside a coaching session
• In the Best Damn Coach Podcast, Amanda explains that they focus on 3 things – 1) helping listeners be better coaches, mentors, and guides, 2) helping listeners coach themselves, 3) helping listeners grow a thriving business
• Two things in Amanda's business that she has stuck to are communicating with her email list every week and posting consistently with her podcast because she says it's important to show up when people are expecting you to
• Amanda says entrepreneurship was the greatest journey of personal development she never knew she needed because it brings up insecurities and weaknesses that are exposed for a growth opportunity
• How personal development is tied directly to your profit – Amanda says if you are not nurturing yourself, there is no way to handle the mindset drama that happens inside a business
• Personal practices that Amanda uses are journaling and using her personal certifications to visualize where she dreams of taking her business

• When someone says yes to you, Amanda says you have to understand that clients go through a moment of buyer's remorse, so immediately you want to instill belief in them and reconfirm that their success is inevitable, which is a step many people miss because they're more focused on the details like booking a call with them or having them fill out a form
• One thing that makes a great coach is your ability to create results – Amanda says if your clients are putting in the work and they don't see results, it's time to reevaluate your coaching, and just because you get a certification, it does not mean that you are ready, able or confident enough to cultivate that
• Another piece that Amanda believes makes a great coach is your ability to do the work yourself – Amanda says she only takes her clients as far as she's willing to go herself
• A couple of reasons coaches don't make money is because of fear, they don't have a clear offer, or because they have money drama – in the beginning, people want to be accessible to everyone, but you might not always be the best fit for someone to come in and invest in you
• In the past couple of years, Amanda thinks the global pandemic positively impacted the online coaching world through many opportunities because coaching becomes more powerful as more people are exposed to it
• Amanda also believes coaching rivals therapy because there are things coaches can do that therapists are limited to – it's the reason she works with so many therapists that are transitioning into coaching because they see the value in both
• During the pandemic, Amanda also learned that there are a lot of disappointing things happening in the coaching world around integrity
• There is no barrier to entry in the coaching world, so anyone can decide to be a coach for whatever they want, and no one is checking in on them; there's no certification required
• Amanda created the Best Damn Coach program because they believe you don't need a certification to be an amazing coach, but you do need to have a heart for integrity, hone your craft, and be able to learn from other people
• Listen to the Best Damn Coach Podcast – on Tuesdays, they release content-driven episodes, and on Fridays, they release behind-the-scenes episodes where you get to hear Amanda live coach somebody
• Connect with Amanda on Instagram, where she has many free resources

Links mentioned:

Best Damn Coach Podcast

Best Damn Coach Program

The Business Accelerator

Inner Circle

Connect with Amanda on Instagram

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Let's connect on Instagram!

Nhat is the Director of Bridge Creations, he established the business in 2021 through a background of emotional trauma with discrimination, abuse, and workplace toxicity, but contrary built potent health with a desire for sports. The two fields led to opposing outcomes of good and bad health, valuing the need for adequate well-being with picturing a deduction of health implications. He combines his health background with his graphic design experience to envision visual collateral to aid, encourage and empower healthy living.

Nhat graduated from the University of Canberra in 2021 with a Master of Design Strategies; he also holds a Bachelor's and an Honours degree in graphic design, specializing in visual communication, branding, design-led innovation, and information graphics.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• The story of Nhat's university assignment, which made him realize the impact graphic design has on health, and the article he wrote with his colleagues called Service Design Thinking For Social Good
• Nhat has had many health issues since he was around 12 years old, dealing with racism, school-yard bullying, and cyberbullying, and for 4 years, was a victim of a toxic workplace
• Why Nhat is passionate about improving health with graphic design so hopefully, in the future, health issues can be reduced
• How graphic design can communicate facts and health information more effectively – covid is a great example because when you scroll on social media, you see posts about daily numbers or graphics on how to stop the spread
• Nhat's assignment combined two areas, health and graphic design – the assignment was a brochure on how to prevent childhood obesity that communicated strategies, was persuasive, informative, and engaging
• Current clients of Nhat's come from networking events in Canberra, Australia, which is one of the most innovative cities in the world and Australia
• Each month, Nhat attends a networking group called the Canberra Innovation Network, which includes many different entrepreneurs and investors, which is how he has gotten his current clients
• Even if a company has nothing to do with health, Nhat is good at finding some small components – for example, one of his recent clients has a company that uses nursery rhymes to help school kids with vocabulary learning, and Nhat was able to find some health-related elements like mental and social health to help improve their wellbeing and learning
• At this stage in his business, Nhat is trying to build evidence through the clients he has so that in the future, he can have more proof behind his process and send proposals out to health-related entrepreneurs
• Nhat shares another client example where they changed their logo to help improve awareness of their business and significantly improved their marketing content
• A lot of Nhat's current clients are entrepreneurs because they can lack the graphic design skills needed to effectively communicate their message, which is how Nhat helps
• Nhat is most passionate about physical health in the industry, and before his university project on childhood obesity, he did a hypothetical promotion on health for university students to improve exercise, which helped him shape his business niche
• Because of Nhat's sports background, he has much experience with the physical, mental, and social benefits that physical health has
• In the future of his business, Nhat hopes to see people applying more visual collateral because, while in school, he realized how underestimated and underappreciated graphic design is

• Many people think graphic design is the cherry on top, but Nhat believes it's the opposite because when you look at marketing, people tend to focus more on images and videos, which is why it's so important to implement
• In the future, Nhat would like to assist clients with anything from their marketing content to their branding to their website and would like to see health service providers better improve the usage of graphic design because he would love to see a reduction of health issues
• Nhat focuses on static images and photos but can consult and identify strategies for video content as well and, most recently, has worked on logos for clients, along with other promotional materials
• In the future, Nhat would be interested in doing public speaking to share his passion for graphic design and health, along with sharing his own story
• Nhat likes to include the why behind his business on his website and in the pitches he gives because his personal experience played such an important part in shaping his business
• Evidence building is one of the most important things Nhat has learned since starting his business – it's not enough to just say how great your service is; you need to be able to show the impact it has had for past clients
• One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to health and design is designing something just because they think it's right; you need to make sure you're inclusive and make sure you understand your audience so you can pinpoint their pain points in the promotional content
• The name of Nhat's business, Bridge Creations, came from his thinking about bridging the gap between health and graphic design
• Check out Nhat's website and connect with Nhat on LinkedIn

Links mentioned:

Bridge Creations

Service Design Thinking For Social Good

Connect with Nhat on LinkedIn

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Let's connect on Instagram!

Cristina Robinson is the founder and designer behind The Lovely Geek, a web design studio aimed at elevating women in their online presence.

Her passion for the web started in high school and led to an internship with Intel, followed by several years of freelancing. Armed with her Bachelor of Science degree in Web Design & Interactive Media, she spent nearly a decade working for local Sacramento agencies before ultimately becoming her own boss.

Her experience from the big agencies inspired her to help small businesses, and now she works almost exclusively with female solopreneurs making their brands shine.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• How I met Cristina through Paty Ventura, who was on episode 193 of the podcast
• Cristina was inspired to create her own website after meeting a friend at summer camp who had a website on Yahoo Geocities and an online journal
• If you wanted to customize any text or put in any images, you had to learn HTML, so Cristina started teaching herself a lot of the basics
• In high school, Cristina took a beginning HTML class, and the teacher saw she was passionate and showed a lot of promise, so he asked her to be his teacher's assistant for her senior year
• While being a teacher's assistant, Cristina got the chance to redesign and maintain the school's website
• Other school staff members noticed Cristina's work, and then she found out about an internship for high school students with Intel, which her teachers encouraged her to apply for
• During her Intel internship, Cristina met a lot of other students, got a great learning experience, and it gave her insight into the corporate world
• Unfortunately, most colleges at the time didn't offer a web design degree, the closest they had was majoring in communications or computer science, but that wasn't the route Cristina wanted to go
• Cristina started looking at more specialized schools, like The Art Institute, where she was able to find a web design and interactive media major
• How Cristina's first freelance client was the traditional nightmare client who made her question if she actually wanted to freelance
• While in college, Cristina was able to get her first paid internship with a local agency, and after she graduated, it turned into a full-time role
• Most of the people at the agency Cristina had gone to school with, so she knew their work ethic, and they were able to collaborate well together
• This agency is where Cristina met Paty because they both went to The Art Institute and worked at this agency together
• The agency was big into tourism, so Cristina got to work on a few projects for Yosemite, the state fair, and a lot of local businesses in the Sacramento area
• Cristina says she had a lot of great learning experiences and met a lot of people from working at the agency
• Because Cristina grew up 45 mins away from Sacramento, she didn't really know her major city until she started working at the agency, which made her appreciate it
• After working at this agency for a few years, Cristina got a job at another agency where she was able to focus on design - she got to do website design, interface design, print design, and dabble in app design
• When Cristina got pregnant with her daughter, she decided to stay home and went back to freelancing, which is how she ended up where she is today
• All of Cristina's clients have been referral based and have been people that she's worked with already in some capacity
• Most of Cristina's freelance work has been with small business owners, usually solopreneurs, and she shares she only started working with companies when at the agencies
• Cristina has done enough work to realize her sweet spot is working one-on-one with women - women much like herself who want to be their own boss, and Cristina comes in to help with the online portion
• How Cristina started branding this year because she found that the people coming to her either had a brand they created but weren't happy with or they had nothing
• Branding isn't Cristina's preferred offering, she can do it, but she would rather partner with someone so she could send clients to that person for the branding experience and then have clients come back to her to take care of their website
• Cristina shared she just found someone she would like to partner with who does branding

• For project management, Cristina uses Dubsado because it has a great client portal option, but she also uses Notion and has found it very handy for her retainer clients - with Notion, Cristina creates content and calendars, tracks hours, tracks projects, and says you can create whatever you want
• How Cristina recommended Notion to her husband, who is a Twitch streamer and content creator, and now he uses it to organize all his YouTube videos and TikToks and even writes his scripts in it
• In Notion, Cristina will create a content calendar, and within that calendar, she has different templates for each content type - blogs, emails, Instagram posts, Reels or TikToks, etc.
• For example, Cristina will look at her calendar and see that on Tuesday, she wants to do a blog post, so she'll select her blog post template, which already has all the fields she needs in it
• Within the database in Notion, Cristina can see a list of all of her content, and as she's brainstorming, she can put all her ideas in one place so when it comes time to map out her content, it's very easy to do and well organized
• Cristina says she's always been a blogger and likes to create that content when she has time
• One tool people should be utilizing the power of LinkedIn because their algorithm can get you a lot of exposure - Cristina recommends using LinkedIn's section where you can write articles
• One thing Cristina likes to do is create an article on LinkedIn that's similar to a blog post she already has, so if someone wants to read more, they can click over to her website to read the blog post, so she's still driving traffic to her website
• Cristina offers a retainer service after she's worked with a client on their project because she finds that people end up wanting to be very hands-off and want someone to help maintain - Cristina says it's really up to the client what they want her to do
• A lot of times, Cristina's retainer clients will write up blog posts by throwing their content in a word document, and then she's responsible for scheduling it, putting together the graphics, and making sure it goes on all the right platforms
• Cristina always designs her websites with the intention of the client saying, thanks, I've got it from here, but a lot of times, the clients want her to continue to help maintain
• In Notion, Cristina has a client-facing content planner for her clients to see what content is scheduled - then they can make decisions on adjustments or adding on
• Clients have appreciated seeing their content scheduled out so they can see where they're at and what they need to provide
• Cristina has found that most clients have worked with another website designer who worked with them one time and then disappeared, which makes Cristina sad because then the clients don't have the tools they need to maintain
• It's important to Cristina that she emphasizes no matter what, even if it's been days, months, or years since she's worked on a client project, they are a client for life, so they can always reach out to her
• There was a time while working at the agencies when Cristina was not taking on freelance work, but she still took care of and helped her current clients
• When people feel taken care of, they're going to have nice things about you
• The biggest tip Cristina has is to build a routine based on what works for you and know what time you have blocked off for certain tasks
• It's important for Cristina to balance work while being a mom - her kids are up from as early as 6:00 am and take a nap around 1:00 pm, so she knows that the tasks she's working on during those hours need to be ones where it's okay if she's interrupted or ones where she's not being paid hourly
• Knowing which tasks require your full, entire attention vs. which tasks can be interrupted a little bit is important
• Check out Cristina's website, The Lovely Geek.com, and connect with her on Instagram

Links mentioned:

The Lovely Geek Website

Episode 193 with Paty Ventura

Connect with Cristina on Instagram

Connect with Cristina on Pinterest

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We are Jessia Gleim (rhymes with slime) and Amy Christie (yes, she has two first names). Together, we founded Flairst, which is grounded in our love of creative thinking, enthusiasm, and problem-solving. Our passion is empowering ambitious women-led DTC eCommerce brands. Consider us your strategy and growth partner - we'll scale your business through personalized, data-driven omnichannel social media advertising and help you make shit loads of money! We don't just focus on the now. Instead, we help bulletproof the future of your business by creating sustainable, profitable revenue. At Flairst, we're all about putting money in the hands of women. Nothing makes us happier or more fulfilled than seeing our clients win BIG!

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• How Jessica and Amy sent me a message about being on the show and why I think the story of their business is important
• Jessica and Amy both have fine art degrees and had separate businesses before creating Flairst together
• Jessica shares that she loves paper products and was designing a series with Shutterfly but had some health problems and needed a way to do her own thing, which is why she started her freelance design business in 2014
• After doing some design, someone asked Jessica if she could help with marketing, so she had her own marketing business going on for a while; then, around 2015, someone asked if Jessica could help with Facebook Ads, which is how she got into ads
• In 2016, Jessica had her first child and quickly realized she could not be a one-woman show; Jessica dreamed of having a partner but never thought she would because she needed someone who could do it all and understood being a parent
• Both Jessica and Amy had been going to a conference called Alt Summit for 10 years and had previously met there, but they didn't remember meeting until they randomly got paired as roommates
• After sitting down with each other at the conference to get to know each other, Jessica asked Amy to join her business
• While at home with her oldest, Amy decided she needed something that fed her soul, so she learned everything about blogging, and within a year of blogging, she was also creating content for other people
• Amy shares that she got to see the launch of many social platforms and got to figure out how they worked for creators and how they've changed to have advertising
• As Amy's kids got older and more involved, she found content creation exhausting and needed something where she could leverage the skills she already had – Amy could build a website, create graphics, write copy, and build ads, but she didn't know how to do all of that and get clients
• How Amy will be attending Alt Summit in New York this fall, but Jessica will not because she is 9 months pregnant and will be having her second child soon
• We talk about the Alt Summit conference, which Jessica and Amy recommend for anyone in the creative space - the information is good, it's aesthetically pleasing, and the community is great

• When Jessica and Amy are interviewed on podcasts, the host always says they are the first duo they've ever talked to, which always surprises Jessica and Amy because so many people wished they had a partner
• How motherhood, living during a pandemic, and entrepreneurship can all be very isolating – there are very few people who understand it, even if your friends and family support you in it
• Jessica and Amy didn't go into their business to only work with women; it just naturally happened that way – their mission is to put money back into the pockets of women and families
• It's hard to be a parent, a primary caregiver, and a businesswoman at the same time, which is why Jessica and Amy believe it takes a village – not just with your children or yourself but also within your business
• Jessica shares that having a partner to be with her and help grow their team has been so impactful not just for the business but for her mental health
• Although Jessica and Amy have similar backgrounds and learning abilities, they are opposites - Jessica says she is unorganized, has her head in the clouds, and has to focus on the next step in front of her, while Amy is organized, grounded, and looks at the end goal
• How being opposites has been beneficial for their business, their mental health, and just life
• Jessica says being a parent and having a business mesh together well because it gives you the flexibility you need
• Amy says the jobs they worked before creating Flairst were partly out of necessity because of the lifestyle they were living at the time and how their current work also compliments their current lifestyle, where if they need to drop what they're doing for their kids, they can do that
• Jessica and Amy's business is rooted in social media advertising, and Jessica shares that social media has been a blessing because so many women have been able to create businesses, substantial income, and influence from their phones on their own time - they know it can be hard to get back into the workforce after having children or taking a gap between working
• Amy wishes the type of partnership she has with Jessica on every woman because even though they don't live in the same place, the mental and emotional support that comes with being a partner and sharing the responsibility of growing a business together is something Amy wishes everyone could have
• Even contractors and other members of your team that aren't as fully invested in your business have a different take on the business – Jessica and Amy are equally attached to the business
• Because there are two of them, Jessica and Amy have been able to lean into what they are really good at because they don't have to do absolutely everything by themselves
• Amy shares the conversation she and Jessica had at Alt Summit when they decided to work together after barely knowing each other
• When Amy came in, she brought the business mindset because, at the time, Jessica didn't have a website or brand name, just an LLC, a bookkeeper, and clients for them to work with
• Jessica and Amy had much trust for not knowing each other well but had made a pact early on to always tell each other the truth no matter what
• In 2019, Jessica and Amy went back to Alt Summit and gave a presentation about ads which is when they decided ad strategy for direct-to-consumer, women-led, eCommerce businesses would be their only offer
• One of the best things Jessica and Amy have done for their business is working with a business coach whom they work with individually and together
• Before narrowing down their offer, Jessica and Amy did everything under the sun for clients but found they could best serve clients by just offering ad strategy, which they are really good at
• The advertising education Jessica and Amy have has come from the free resources they've found on the internet
• How Jessica and Amy have always been obsessed with the psychology behind why people make purchase decisions and the emotional relationship that goes into advertising
• Jessica and Amy say to think of advertising like online dating – all these steps need to happen before you ask someone to marry you
• Typically, Jessica and Amy get clients through fostering relationships and networking by going to conferences, usually with women, because women like to create relationships before making a business decision
• Amy shares that they work with direct-to-consumer eCommerce businesses that own their data
• If you're a business on Amazon or Etsy, that platform owns your business data
• When Jessica and Amy work with clients, it's less about the product the client sells and more about what stage they are at in their business
• Because of the changes in the iOS update, pandemic changes, and the growth of digital advertising, the market has changed – when Amy was first starting, all of the social media platforms worked for the creator, but now the algorithm has changed to benefit the platform so they can run ads
• Ad costs have gone up, making it more complicated for small businesses
• The businesses that Jessica and Amy work with are usually well-established, mature businesses that are in the 2.5 – 3-million-dollar range because that allows them to have an ad spend range of $20,000 – $25,000 a month to be able to pay to play on social media platforms
• It can be frustrating for small businesses that can't afford to pay to play, but Jessica and Amy highly suggest growing your organic marketing by building your email list, social media, community, and influence until you are to a point where you can scale

• Direct-to-consumer brands that have created products that hit an emotional pain point or solution with their consumers will be successful
• Jessica and Amy don't see success with direct-to-consumer brands who create a product and then go try to find their target market, but if you create an audience and community and then sell to them based on what they are asking you and what they need, that's where you will find success
• Amy says brand and product positioning is about your customers remembering that you have served them well and will continue to engage with them – you need to have your product proven organically by a community of people
• There are a lot of different ways to run an ad strategy, but Amy says the first step is to pick your objectives
• In ad strategy, there are a lot of levels because you are working with many different people at different stages in the buying cycle
• You want to bring in new people to grow your community, make sure you're managing and supporting your current customers, and grow the lifetime value – which is where the organic marketing portion comes in with Jessica and Amy's ad strategy
• Jessica gives an example to show how it's not just one advertisement: it's a whole strategy cycle to get someone who has never heard of you to become a repeat customer
• Amy says that their strategy and all strategies should be built on data which is why businesses today need to be thinking about building their data portfolio
• Before the iOS update, Amy explained that data on the internet was like one of those big communities where the backyard of all the homes is shared; each of the homes would be a different social media platform, and they all shared the same third-party data – it was inexpensive and free for anyone to use
• After the iOS privacy update, it's like all the backyards were fenced in, so now you only have access to your backyard, which is why it should be your top priority to build your data portfolio because that's what's necessary to build efficient, functional, profitable ads
• We talk about the mascara line I want to create, the story behind it, and how to create a community first to then launch my product
• Connect with Jessica and Amy on Instagram, TikTok, or visit the Flairst website – feel free to ask them questions because they want to know what other business owners are curious about and want to know

Links mentioned:

Flairst Website

Connect with Jessica + Amy on Instagram

Connect with Jessica + Amy on TikTok

Like what you heard?

Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes.

Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board

Let's connect on Instagram!

Hi. My name is Melissa. If you're new here - hey!! I'm so glad you're here today. If you're not new, heeey! I'm grateful that I get the privilege of being in your ears and eyes. I say ears for those who listen and eyes for those who prefer to read the show notes on our website. Sometimes I prefer to skim show notes instead of listening to a podcast. I'm a fast reader and easily distracted; plus I wanna make sure the show is accessible to them in whatever ways they want to digest the info.

Anyways - here we are, several weeks after I "should've" recorded and published this episode; but I just could not bring myself to do it. Not for any reason other than I didn't really know what to say beyond the cheesy "I can't believe it's been 200 episodes" sentiment. I wanted it to be extra special. Then I put a lot of pressure on myself (which I then resisted) and then I wonder if what I have to say is still relevant.

I've recorded at least a dozen solo episodes and haven't felt this kind of anxiety about publishing an episode before. So I didn't force it; I gave myself lots of grace until it's like okay girl - time to move forward. Last night I watched The Redeem Team on Netflix with my youngest son; and I believe it was Dwyane Wade who said (I'm paraphrasing here) that you're not moving because you're afraid of success. As long as you move, it's good, so here I am, moving.

I've got some very unrealistic, but fun goals for this podcast in the future; so first and foremost I want to say thank you to everyone for listening, sharing, connecting, and just giving me the privilege of helping you. And, this is very important, a thank you to Cora and Grace, who help me publish the show every week. If there's ever a week we don't publish; it's always on me and I'm so grateful for their support. I started out the show doing everything myself and realized quickly I couldn't keep doing it all on my own.

I launched the show in October 2018, so just over 4 years ago. My friend Kira Hug, who is the co-founder and co-host of The Copywriter Club podcast, interviewed me for the first episode and for episode 100. Kira was really the first one to tell me to host a podcast and didn't really listen to me when I gave her all the reasons why I shouldn't have one.

I recorded the first episode and sat on it for 6 months; published 4 episodes; and then didn't really take it seriously until January 2019. At that time in my business I was running paid mentorship programs for designers and this one messaged me to tell me that she loved my show and listened to it at the gym; and it really motivated me to take it a little more seriously.

At 200 episodes in, we've interviewed 150+ diverse experts and received over 120,000 downloads. We've been ranked a top podcast for entrepreneurship in Sweden, New Zealand, Japan, India, Great Britain, Germany, Colombia, Brazil and Australia, and a top podcast in business in Belgium, Czeck Republic, Egypt, Ireland, Pakistan, South Africa, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates, and a top podcast for all podcasts in both Cyprus and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

In 2019 we won "Best Podcast" at the Social Media Club Hashie Awards, and I almost didn't submit the podcast for the award. My friend Caroline Jones gave me the nudge, and I still can't believe I won. So apparently my questioning the podcast relevance is normal, but not necessary.

A lot of podcasts get more downloads + rankings and awards, and some get less. I'm very content with where I'm at, and don't stress about that stuff.

I really like how we tell the stories of the guests on the show - and the nitty gritty details that help me understand how they got to where they are; so I can see what's possible for me. In college I don't really feel like it was explained very well what opportunities were available to me, so that's one of the reasons I love this show.

And, I get to talk about what I don't think is mentioned enough in this industry; how design, copy, marketing, strategy, UX, tech, systems and all the creative elements have to work together to create successful brand campaigns + product launches. It's becoming more and more clear to me that understanding those things is one of my super powers.

As I learn to embody this super power, and my business shifts and evolves into doing more creative launch direction for B2C brands; I'm really excited to tell more stories behind-the-scenes of your favorite product launches + brand campaigns from designers, founders, creators and to understand like we did with the McDonald's rebrand in episode 116 with Tyler Brooks and the Jill Brand Launch with Meagan Carboney in episode 184.

So, if you're someone who has a product launch or brand campaign behind-the-scenes story you want to share on the show; go to the "Be a Guest" in the footer of our website to submit your pitch. I'm much more interested in the nitty gritty details than your 3-step formula.

And while you're on the website; you can sign up for email updates to be the first to know when episodes go live. I'm excited to incorporate the emails in our weekly production process so I can share a few personal insights about every episode as it goes live.

If you're on the website or have visited it or you listen on any podcast platform; you may have noticed we're slowly making some much-needed design changes. When I launched the show, I kept the same podcast art with a photo of me in a blush suit jacket with my hair pinned back and very curly. As both the show and my personal brand have evolved; I knew it was time for new podcast art.

It's one of those things I tried doing on my own after putting it off for months and months. And then I decided to hire a designer to help me.

One thing I'm very clear about right now in this phase of my life is that I don't want to put my face all over the internet right now. Maybe in 2023. Not now, though.

So, I knew for the new podcast art, I didn't want to use my photo. I really like the podcast episode graphic we use to share on social media and the logo; I just wanted new art.

So, I hired Taylor Weaver, and she nailed the concept in the first try. Score! Thank you, Taylor!

In the next phases of the rebrand; we'll be making some updates to the UX of the podcast website. Most likely in 2023.

On a little bit of a personal note; last month I was driving to one of my son's football games that was 3 hours away; and on the way I listened to Kendall Jenner's interview on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast.

There was a video clip that went viral of Kendall talking about being kind to her inner child and that anytime you're mean to yourself, you're being mean to your younger self. So, she has a photo of herself as a little girl on her bathroom mirror "so that every morning, every night, every day when you walk into your bathroom and look and the mirror your looking at her and remembering that if there's anything negative that you're saying about yourself, or ever being mean to yourself, you're talking about her."

This really resonated with me, not because I'm doing any inner child work; but because I think it's important to be kind to yourself and to pay attention to the things you say about yourself.

I hesitated to record + publish this solo episode and one reason was because I wondered if anything I had to was relevant without another guest on the show. I even question it when I have guests on the show.

If you saw the title graphic for this episode on social media; and the graphic actually features an image of me from when I was a kid. I was probably 11 in the image and it was from a photoshoot my sister and I had done as kids to promote our singing business. My mom made our costumes, my dad was our manager and we were living our parents dream. My mom had the calendar made in 1997; and kept it on her wall until at least 2005 when she sold her house.

Unfortunately for my parents, I killed their dream of my sister and I becoming pop stars because I didn't like all the practice that went along with it. Sorry mom & dad!

Now I get to use my voice in a different way; by talking to the creators, designers, and founders behind your favorite product launches and brand campaigns to uncover why they do what they do in the way that they do it. Because to me, graphic design is not just what a website or logo looks like. It's about strategically using beauty and language to construct a path that connects your ideal customers to your products and services.

I can't believe that we're at episode 200. It's been four years since I launched this show. Four years and 200 episodes is wild to me.

The fact that people listen to a show I created simply because I wanted to know what opportunities were available to me is wild. And the fact that people still engage; and want to be a guest on the show blows my mind. I'm just a regular chick from the midwest who became a mom super young whose kids are pretty self sufficient; and I'm excited to explore the new opportunities out there for me and spread the word even more.

And I have a short ask: leave us a review. You can do it on any platform - we're on iTunes, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher and Spotify.

I have one more ask: Send me a message and tell me if any episodes have inspired you and/or you have anyone you think I should interview. If you go to Melissaburkheimer.com there's a red button that says "Send Melissa a DM" and you can message me on Instagram, LinkedIn or you can email me.

I'll be sharing more soon about what I've been working on in my business; it's not quite ready yet; or maybe I'm not ready yet (I published this episode - a big to-do off my list!).

Remember to be nice to your younger self and be nice to my friend.

Talk to you soon!

Links mentioned:

Episode 1

Episode 100

Episode 118

Episode 184

Be a Guest on the Show

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