The Design Business Show

Kate Ahl is the owner and founder of Simple Pin Media, a Pinterest management and marketing company. Through their work with over 700 Pinterest accounts, they take a data-driven approach to crafting a Pinterest strategy that aims to help their clients and students find their perfect person on Pinterest. Kate teaches thousands of people about Pinterest marketing through various speaking engagements and her podcast, the Simple Pin Podcast.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• I share how Kate and I got connected and how she's here to talk about how to use Pinterest in your business
• Kate tells us that her degree is in political science and always planned on being a teacher but ended up getting married, moving, and having 3 kids right away, so she was at home with her kids
• In 2009, right before Kate's son was born, her husband lost his job suddenly, and they were struggling to make ends meet
• During this time, Kate's friend had just started a frugal coupon deal blog and asked Kate to help with Facebook marketing - Kate loved it, and although she wasn't making much, it was what she could handle while having little kids at home
• A couple of years later, Kate and her family were still struggling, so her same friend suggested she help with affiliate marketing - Her friend taught her WordPress while Kate self-taught herself code
• In 2013, her friend suggested managing people's Pinterest accounts because, at that point, Facebook had turned off all business page reach since they had introduced ads
• Bloggers were trying to find a place to get traffic which is when Pinterest popped up on the radar
• Kate shares that she thought managing Pinterest accounts sounded like the worst idea because she was sure that no one would pay her to do that
• For the rest of 2013, Kate learned everything she could about Pinterest, and in 2014, she bought the domain Simple Pin Media and started with a few beta clients
• After 3 months, her clients gave her very positive feedback, so she added a few more clients and then had to decide to make it a legitimate business
• Kate decided to throw herself into it and hired a business coach, now 8 years later, Kate has a team of 35 people, and they work with hundreds of clients
• Pinterest's intent has always been to put the pinner first, which they still do, but it has changed from chronological to smart feed, which is dictated by your engagement and ads
• How Pinterest is a search and discovery platform that is also merging into a shopping platform
• When people go to Pinterest, they aren't looking for a specific brand or person; they are looking for something to solve their problem or dream and inspire
• Kate explains that Pinterest users tend to be cold while Instagram users tend to be warm
• Pinterest intends to shorten the time between idea and purchase - Kate says traditionally, it's about 3 - 6 months
• Kate likes Pinterest because the elements you have on other platforms, like having to write certain things or post at specific times, don't exist on Pinterest

• In Kate's business, they primarily serve clients through their done-for-you services because what they've found is when it comes to Pinterest, people don't understand it; people think they can repurpose content in the same way for different platforms
• Some of Kate's clients feel anxiety around Pinterest because it is pretty picture based, so they give Kate and her team full control
• Kate says that some of their clients still want to control the design of their pins, so they will continue to do that portion of it
• Some middle-ground clients like using Pinterest but would like some guidance - Kate shares that there is a whole education side of the business for those who want to do it themselves
• 8 months into the business, Kate's daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and she realized she didn't have anyone who could keep the business going if something happened, so Kate asked a friend if she could teach her
• After Kate hired her friend, she realized she could teach more women who are at home who have little kids to do what she was doing
• The strategic choice Kate made was to hire locals, so they could meet together and have a community
• Kate figured out that she loves teams; she loves empowering women to recognize their gifts and creativity
• The breakdown of leadership and roles within Simple Pin Media and how most of these women have been with Kate for 6 or 7 years
• How Kate aligns Pinterest with Google and YouTube - the first step is to search on Pinterest for what you think people are asking and see if people are even talking about what it is you provide
• By searching your service or product, it helps you see what's already out there, what people are searching and asking for surrounding your business
• Kate explains that at Simple Pin, they believe pinners go through 3 main stages: inspire, inform and decide
• In the inspire stage on Pinterest, people are just asking questions, the people who click on pin images or videos have decided they want to learn more and are the ones that will potentially go to your website, and when they're on your website, they're going to decide to either buy something or join your email list
• For most marketing professionals, Kate says it's best to get pinners on your email list so so you can warm them up and nurture them
• Once you decide why you're going to use Pinterest, Kate tells people to commit to it for 6-9 months because Pinterest is a long game
• Start by building your profile, then building your boards, then your pin images
• When it comes to what you are pinning, Kate says content is number one - think about the questions people ask you in your business and build your pins around that
• 2 things you need to knock out of the park whenever it comes to your Pinterest strategy are your keywords and images
• Keywords fuel the algorithm on Pinterest by telling Pinterest where to show your content
• Kate explains that pinners are readers and investigators, which is why it's important to start by searching what people are asking around your business so you can craft blog posts answering their questions
• Going straight to a sales page never converts, Kate says, because pinners aren't warmed up to you yet - they've tried it on multiple accounts, including their own
• The first place to consider keywords is at the search bar because Pinterest has search prediction - they also have another tool called Trends, where you can look up any keyword and see at what time of year it has the highest volume of searches
• The second place to consider keywords is your image that displays what it is you're talking about - it needs to have text on it because Pinterest reads the text on images
• Kate loves that Pinterest is not time-based because she could search for something and find a pin someone made 6 months ago
• If you aren't blogging, Kate says you should send them somewhere that they can join your email list
• Kate explains that the boards you've created are where you're pinning to, and you should think of them as silos, and each board should have its own title
• For example, one board could be titled sales page tactics, and another could be copywriting techniques, so Pinterest will see these silos and know that everything in it is about sales pages and the other one is about copywriting
• Kate shares that if you don't blog, you can still create 10 different images that all lead to one page where they can learn more or join your email list because Pinterest will see these images as new content
• Why it's important to have short, poppy copy that catches people's attention on Pinterest
• You could buy templates for your images if you aren't a graphic designer or don't have access to one

• Kate shares that to sell their services, their strategy is to market the pathway to get people to a discovery call or on their email list to warm them up instead of marketing the actual service
• When using Pinterest for services, Kate says to think about what people are asking or what you're hearing on discovery calls that you could take and turn into something you can address on Pinterest
• If you have a podcast that you are posting about on Pinterest, and your goal is to get people to sign up for your services, Kate says to put the link to sign up in every post because you want people to take that one action
• Kate shares that the difference between B2B and B2C is the traffic; someone in the food or fashion industry is going to see way more traffic than someone in the marketing space
• One of the biggest mistakes people make is hearing about how someone in B2C is doing and expecting those same results in B2B
• Another mistake Kate shares are that people do not give Pinterest enough time to work; some clients stop working with them after a couple of months because they don't think it's working, only to come back 6-9 months later saying they're getting a bunch of traffic from the things we pinned while working with them
• Kate shares that she has a pin from 2017 that still drives monthly traffic
• Why you can't take your square image from Instagram and directly repurpose it for Pinterest
• How you need to embrace new features on Pinterest - in 2020, Pinterest introduced idea pins which live forever and are short, storyboard stories like Instagram stories that are about the idea or concept and less about the person
• The 4 formats of pins on Pinterest are standard pins, idea pins, video pins, and pin ads
• People on Pinterest aren't there to be entertained, which is why your Instagram reel of you dancing won't perform well on Pinterest - they are there to be delighted and surprised by your ideas
• Kate says you can repurpose your TikTok content on Pinterest as long as you remove the watermark
• Pinterest wants to help physical and digital products, which is unique compared to Facebook or Instagram, where you can't have a shop for digital products
• In Kate's business, they created a new package and way they serve done-for-you clients because they want to take all clients through their accelerator, which goes through 6 key elements for Pinterest marketing success
• After clients go through the accelerator, they can decide if they want to go into monthly management or if they want to pass it off to a team member, which is easy to do because they are fully equipped with the strategy to do that
• Pinterest ads have been clunky in the past, but Kate assures us they are getting better and what should excite people about them is that you don't need to have a long runway with your organic strategy - you can set up your profile and dive right into ads
• Simple Pin Ad Society, which is Kate's low-cost membership that teaches people and helps troubleshoot
• Give yourself enough time to learn Pinterest ads; Kate says about 6-8 weeks to learn and then 4-6 weeks for your Pinterest ads to optimize
• If Kate could go back and tell herself one thing, it would be to not worry about getting it right because everyone is trying to figure it out, the online space shifts and changes so much, and not everyone's method is the same
• Connect with Kate on Simple pin media.com or find them at Simple Pin Media on all channels
• Kate suggests going to their Pinterest profile to see what they are doing and how they are positioning their B2B content or what they're doing with idea pins

Links mentioned:

Simple Pin Media

Pinterest Trends

Simple Pin Ad Society

Simple Pin Media on Pinterest

Simple Pin Media on Instagram

Simple Pin Media on Facebook

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Shanice Miller is a business productivity consultant, specializing in project management, who helps clients ranging from small startups to multi-million dollar businesses save hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. Her passion for identifying and solving inefficiencies began when she sold her first business, an educational consultancy that had been recognized in Forbes and BET, at a less than premium price point because she didn't have her systems and processes streamlined and documented. Over the last 10 years, Shanice has used her ability to identify operational inefficiencies and create solutions to not only help save her clients' businesses (and hairlines), but to also fall in love with them again.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• How I met Shanice through a connection from The Podwise Group
• How Shanice helps her clients automate their processes, which gives them more time and a higher price point for their sales
• How Shanice started off as an educational consultant, but quickly became overworked and overwhelmed because she was doing everything
• Instead of closing her business, she decided to list it on an online marketplace, and got an offer
• Shanice's realization of the importance of documenting processes during the selling of her first business (and how she could have earned a larger payout)
• After selling her business, Shanice did some soul searching and went back to corporate to work in project management
• The advice her mom gave her about your first house being turn-key; and how she could apply that advice to her next business

• Why Shanice likes working with a small team
• How she saved one design client 20+ hours a week by automating the review process using a project management tool
• Why using the tool made it easier for her client to manage and saved her money because she was going to hire a virtual assistant to do it
• The way she works with clients, through her VIP Days that show her clients how to break up tasks, put them into a project management tool and how to automate everything
• Why she focuses on different departments like marketing, sales, customer onboarding
• Mapping out tasks, hiring someone to do them for you, and creating a dashboard so you can see what tasks are in progress, overdue or when someone is stuck
• Why she wants her systems to create a calming feeling for her clients when handing over projects + tasks to your team
• Why Shanice's favorite project management system is ClickUp and some of her favorite features that mean you don't have to use multiple tools
• How Shanice works with clients on their systems + preferred project tools, and the workarounds she uses; like creating automations using Zapier
• Why Shanice wishes she would've done the systems early on; and why she wishes she had a better financial strategy
• A peek behind-the-scenes of what the client session looks like
• Shanice walks be through creating new client onboarding processes + as I create a new services page for my website
• Shanice shares some of her big picture goals for her business, like only working 5-10 hours a week while overseeing tasks

Links mentioned:

https://tasklygroup.com/tdbs

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanicemiller/

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Asha is the CEO of CheerNotes, an inclusive stationery brand that focuses in diverse representation of creatives, designs, and messaging. A creative at heart and engineer by training, Asha seeks to build CheerNotes into a company that not only produces stationery, but also addresses common challenges for consumers and creatives who want to connect authentically. CheerNotes currently curates designs from over 30 artists, creates their own line of cards, and creates custom cards for small and large businesses. You can also find CheerNotes at over 40 retailers across the US and in Marshall's and Winners in multiple provinces in Canada.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• How I asked my friend Shannon, who has been on the show before for some diverse guests, and she connected me with Asha, who is here to talk about her diverse stationery brand
• In junior high, Asha created her first products; skin and hair products for African Americans - this was the first time she desired to fill unmet needs
• Asha had been feeling something missing in the greeting card aisle for a long time, and although she's not a designer, Asha was trying to figure out how she could amplify the work she could find on the internet
• CheerNotes started as a curator for diverse designs - Asha would find designers all over the internet and bring them all to one place, making it easier for people to discover them and buy from them
• Asha would become a customer of these designers by buying from them wholesale
• The inspiration behind CheerNotes happened when someone was trying to buy sobriety anniversary cards for their friend but ended up saying nothing because they couldn't find a card to help them express themselves
• This inspiration made Asha think about other moments and helping people connect, so they started making their cards in collaboration with other communities so they could really understand what people wanted to receive and give
• Asha says she struggled with marketing in the beginning because their business caters to a lot of different niches and identities
• One of the biggest ways they've been able to market is through word-of-mouth and building their community on Instagram
• Because Asha is not a designer, she's been trying to find ways to share her reality on Instagram, which is finding artists and working with artists through her sketches to bring them to live
• How Asha's background has nothing to do with retail or design, yet she's building a creative company - Asha was a chemical engineer for 7 years
• In the future, Asha would like CheerNotes to not only be a gifting mechanism but also be a way for people to find products to help them connect with themselves, like journals
• Asha started the company while in her MBA program, and in her first year, she was working on a completely different idea, knowing she wanted to do entrepreneurship but decided it wasn't a feasible idea
• Over the next summer, Asha was thinking about an idea she had worked on in the past on her own time, which was this greeting card company
• So often, we think about reaching out to people but never follow all the way through, which is why Asha was not only thinking about diversity but also thinking about convenience
• At first, Asha was trying to make a complicated tech-based idea because she felt that for her idea to be good, it needed to be tech-based, which is something she had to get over mentally
• Asha started a Shopify site, reached out to different designers, and told them her vision - they ended up starting with 4 designers
• Asha ended up taking down the Shopify service; she wanted to know if it was enough for them to just be a curator of diverse cards - was it enough for someone to come to them when they could buy cards anywhere else
• CheerNotes started in 2020, and by the end of the year, Asha paused the sign and send service, and they were 100% a curator of diverse and inclusive cards
• How Ahsa is a customer of the designers - they buy the cards wholesale, and they hold inventory, which is currently located in Pennsylvania, where Asha is from
• Asha just moved out of her parent's basement, where she had been working on the business for the last 2 years - CheerNotes headquarters is still in the basement
• How they hold inventory and ship it, whether it's going to wholesale retailers or going directly to a customer - they do not hold inventory for custom cards because they are made on demand

• Faire is a growing wholesale broker that connects small businesses with other small businesses, which makes it a lot easier for other brands or shops to discover them and buy from them
• At the time, Asha didn't know that designers had their products in multiple online shops - Asha believed that the designers wouldn't want her to take away from their possible sales
• After the summer of 2020, Faire, along with other greeting card entities, had a lot of initiatives to help black-owned brands get into wholesale, so there was an explosion of black-owned brands on Faire, which made it easy for Asha to discover brands to have on the site
• How Asha has a wide variety of people that she buys from, mainly from Faire because that's where almost all her suppliers are
• Asha says she pays a lot of attention to different hashtags that are related to the people they are trying to help serve or feel unseen in the greeting card aisle
• If people are interested in having Asha buy their cards wholesale, they can email her at [email protected] - introduce yourself and share your work and get on Asha's list so you know when they'll be buying again
• Asha explains they only buy at certain times because they are trying to get website volume up and because she wants to be a good customer who's able to make repeat orders
• We discuss the different categories and communities on CheerNotes.com: African American, Hispanic, South Asian, LGBTQ+, pet lovers, pop culture, sobriety, wellness, self-care, etc.
• If Asha designs one of the cards, she explains that it might be more text-based than illustrated, and for all the other cards, she does creative direction where she sketches or makes a creative brief, then explains what she wants so the designers can help bring it to life
• How Asha created a creative direction process because she wanted her line of cards to be more cohesive and recognizable even though she has multiple artists
• Asha uses Canva to do a mock layout of the card structure; the designers take that, make a sketch, then do a review, and it goes into the final design stage
• The custom cards offer came about when Asha was in school, but due to covid, they couldn't come back to campus, so the school reached out and asked if they could make a card to send out to students and remind them of the community they're apart of
• Custom cards are one of the main ways that they can keep funding the business
• How Asha has been able to work with Target for a few projects in their accelerator program
• If someone is interested in a custom card order, they can email Asha at [email protected], but they also have an area on their website for custom cards as well
• To clarify, Asha's work with Target was for custom cards; they aren't on shelves - Target doesn't usually take on card brands because they have a relationship with one of the major brands
• When it came to Marshalls, someone from their team reached out to Asha after discovering CheerNotes on Instagram and checking out their site and wanted to know more about the company
• The relationship between CheerNotes and Marshalls seems to be atypical where the retailer is buying the goods upfront - you don't always have the opportunity for a large retailer to buy upfront and promise not to return everything
• CheerNotes' biggest wholesale presence is with smaller shops around the country - Asha believes the best place to start a wholesale journey is in your backyard
• The first place Asha pitched was a coffee shop/bookstore in her hometown; the second place Asha pitched was a coffee shop/bookstore she came across while traveling in New Orleans - she congratulated them on opening by sending samples of the cards, which went over very well
• Asha says a good place to start when creating an inclusive brand is by intentionally seeking out diverse creatives outside of campaigns because often, these creatives are only sought out when a certain month or celebration comes around when they should be sought out all year round
• Diverse designers create work that appeals to everyone, which Asha has realized in her own business - when you purchase a card, you might not identify the same as the designer(s) who created it
• In terms of what's next for CheerNotes, Asha wants to focus on expanding what they offer - Asha would like to offer more items that people can find for personal use
• Asha always envisioned CheerNotes being a connection company, not a holiday company, so it's important for Asha to create connections with others but also with the designers that they find and to have self-connection
• They have found that small and medium-sized businesses are attracted to the custom work CheerNotes has and like the ability to offer something to their clients that is personal
• Connect with Asha on Instagram, get on their email list through their website because they are working on more ways to give tips and learn more about the creatives they work with, or reach out to Asha through email at [email protected]

Links mentioned:

CheerNotes Website

Connect with Asha on Instagram

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Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes.

Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board

Let's connect on Instagram!

• What also contributes to Jessica's ability to do websites quickly is having a good niche and a very specific package outline - that's not to say she can't customize a package if a client needs more than 8 pages
• Jessica shares that she does service-based websites and typically doesn't do membership or e-commerce websites
• The two platforms Jessica builds websites out of are WordPress and Squarespace
• Jessica does not call herself a developer, but she does know enough code to customize a few small things and has developers she reaches out to when she needs help
• For websites, Jessica takes care of the hosting setup, design, SEO, and connects any special plug-ins the client needs but does not do copy
• Sometimes clients write their copy, have a copywriter they know, or Jessica has a couple of different copywriters she partners with

• The number one tip Jessica has for maintaining your website is keeping up with plug-in updates - it's the biggest thing people forget about
• Jessica explains website plug-ins are like apps on our phones - sometimes the plug-in updates are the developers realizing there was a security issue, or if there's a WordPress update, they're making sure the plug-in works with the newest version, which is why you need to keep it up to date
• Another thing people forget to do is update their websites when dates for events or deadlines change, or they no longer offer a certain service, which is frustrating to your clients - you want to make it as easy as possible for people to buy from you
• Jessica says you should do plug-in updates ideally once a week, at the minimum every month, and once a quarter click through your website and make sure everything is still displaying correctly
• One thing Jessica likes to tell people is the client experience starts on your website before people even inquire or start working with you
• Jessica's not sure how she's able to do everything like her YouTube channel, blog, podcast, etc., but she utilizes good work boundaries so she can
• Jessica says one reason she's able to do so many things is because of her client onboarding process; she's always used a CRM - right now, she uses HoneyBook, which automates the onboarding process
• It's helpful for Jessica to have some educational pieces automated because she doesn't have to go back and forth so much with clients at the beginning of the process
• How Jessica's onboarding and automation process has changed many times over the years
• As a side hobby, Jessica has 2 Etsy Shops that are automated, where she designs and sells t-shirts; she uses Printify and connects it to Etsy, so after she designs a shirt and uploads it to Etsy, Printify does the printing and shipping
• Jessica explains why she uses HoneyBook in her business and the different capabilities it has, like creating email templates and sending them out according to your workflow
• Know that you don't have to choose the tools that everyone else is using or talking about - there are so many different options, and it all comes down to what is going to work best for your business
• Content marketing is the number one way Jessica gets clients because she's found that her educational content helps build trust and credibility
• Jessica has a blog, a YouTube channel, and a podcast but says those 3 things are really the same because her YouTube video gets re-purposed as audio on her podcast, and then both of those plus the transcript are added to her blog
• Jessica's main social media platform is InstagraJessica Freeman is an Atlanta-based, award-winning web designer who has been in business for ten years. Jess helps nutrition and fitness business owners build authority and get more clients through their websites and online presence. When she's not working with clients, you can find her teaching on her YouTube channel and podcast.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• Jessica knew she wanted to be a designer at 15 years old, which is what she went to college for - during college, she started doing freelance design for her friends that were in various student activities
• Right out of college, Jessica was able to get a couple of design jobs, and two years after she graduated, she took her business, Jess Creatives, full-time
• When Jessica first started, she would do a lot of one-off projects and says that one of her first clients after college was a guy who had her design the side of box trucks
• One of the joys about having your own business is being able to change it when you change your mind or as you grow
• Jessica's strategy has always been about empowering her clients to do what is best for them and teaching them how to manage and update their websites
• How Jessica does a lot of education through her website and social media but also one-on-one with clients - she knows her clients appreciate that about her because they can come back to her for updates, but they also know how to do them themselves
• The first website Jessica worked on from start to finish was for one of her long-term clients - she says it was a good learning experience and that she believes she only charged 500 dollars for that project
• Over the years, Jessica has had many different packages and says she changes her packages based on the market, what people what, and what they're interested in
• Jessica says she typically just handles the website, but if people want to add on branding or anything extra, she can do that as well; it just doesn't happen very often
• When changing her packages, Jessica pays attention to those who didn't end up booking with her to see if there's something she isn't offering that they want
• A couple of years ago, Jessica started doing websites in one or two days as an offer but has recently decided to stop doing this because she needs more flexibility in her schedule because of her daughter
• Before Jessica started doing websites in one or two days, she had a two-week timeline for websites, which is what she is going back to
• Jessica's two-week timeline is typically for an 8-page website, including SEO.
• Part of what makes it so easy for Jessica to do websites so quickly is her clear processes, doing education with clients, and not having to wait long for content or feedback from clients
• m, where she does a lot of educational content, along with YouTube, on ways to use your website, best practices, quick tips, client experience, etc.
• What's working well for Jessica on Instagram: Carousel posts, breakdown of SEO strategy pieces, and posting different ideas like what fonts to use or how to apply your color palette
• Instagram Reels do pretty well, but Jessica explains that she gets a lot of random likes from people, which is cool because it reaches so many people but doesn't really get her in front of the people she wants to be
• Jessica thinks there are so many ways people could productize their services to create other opportunities in their businesses, like creating customizable templates or offering a VIP day
• I explain how I can't design a sales page in a day, but I can get with a sales page client and map out their launch strategy in two half days - what works for us might not work for you, and that's okay because you should offer your packages and services in a way that works well for you
• Connect with Jessica on Instagram and check out her website

Links mentioned:

Jess Creatives Website

Connect with Jessica on Instagram

Connect with Jessica on YouTube

Jess Creatives Content Library - Blog + Podcast

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!

Meet Renée Serrant-Layne, an online marketing and launch strategist, marketing systems expert, and avid track and field fan. Armed with her FCE Framework, Renée works with online entrepreneurs to design and build their custom marketing ecosystems that take care of their audience on their entire journey to a purchase. And to do so in a way that feels fun, fulfilling, and aligned with the way they want to show up, serve and sell to their audience. Renée is able to break down the marketing process into easy-to-follow steps, through her signature foundation, communication, and expansion process. Renée has proven through her work with clients that having a profitable business doesn't mean that you have to lose that personal touch or spend hours of your life doing activities that frustrate you and steal your joy.

With 10 years of business development and online marketing experience, Renée brings a wealth of knowledge to the table for her clients, spanning social media strategy, funnel design, and marketing tech, as well as development of multiple income streams.

Renée has been part of numerous marketing tech and business development panels, including the RAW Summit, the Innovate Barbados International conference, and many others. Renée's signature direct yet approachable style always makes clients feel understood and appreciated. Clients love Renée because of her thoroughness, responsiveness, sincere desire to see their businesses succeed, and unshakeable commitment to helping experts show up, market, and sell their products and services through genuine connections with their audience

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• How Renée and I met through Sage Polaris, who recommended Renée to be on the podcast
• Renée shares that she was working as a hairdresser in Barbados when she had her son but wanted a better way to leverage her skills and create a more flexible lifestyle, which is how she stumbled into consulting and the online space
• When Renée first started, she had a mentor who was from Barbados that had created a virtual agency, which showed Renée what could be possible for her
• To start, Renée was a general administration virtual assistant but quickly realized that wasn't what she wanted to do
• A client asked Renée about using the Katra platform to build funnels and systems - after tinkering around with it, Renée found it very fun, which is how she got started with funnels and became familiar with automation
• Because Renée is a strategic thinker, she wasn't just happy setting up automation and doing design, so strategy became a big part of what she did and still does
• Renée believes being able to see the bigger picture and piecing smaller things together is an important skill to have when it comes to funnels because it takes a lot of little things to create your outcome
• The first project Renée worked on was one where she had to design and set up a lead magnet - it was a downloadable PDF where she designed the page, set up the automation, and created a nurture sequence
• In Renée's business, they focus on offering design, tech set-up, and copywriting for funnels
• Renée says it's important to know yourself and your brand so you can weave it into everything you do - it's not just about your brand colors; it's about the entire look and feel of a page, the language you use inside email sequences and the type of lead magnets you use to get people to join your email list or buy from you
• For example, If you are more of a writer and are good at using language to get people in your funnels, you're probably not going to use a lot of videos or a podcast; you might use blog posts instead because writing is the best medium for you to communicate your value to your audience
• When it comes to funnels, Renée says it's not about what the latest tools are or what's trending; it's about thinking about who you are, what your brand stands for, how you feel most comfortable, and what the most effective way is for you to show up and communicate with your audience

• Renée shares the story of a client who wanted a funnel built and explains that the best way this client shows up is through speaking engagements, so at the end of the client's speaking sessions, she had a specific call to action which resulted in the client having an 80% email open rate, a 45% - 60% open rate for her nurture sequence and making over $100,000 on this one offer
• Renée's bread crumb sequence that they integrate into pretty much all nurture sequences is a way to drop information in bits to keep people engaged and wanting more until they get to the main offer
• How mapping out the funnels is one of Renée's favorite parts of the process because people don't understand how strategic you have to be when creating a funnel - it's the whole process of someone learning about you to guiding them to buy your product or service
• Renée finds that most people take the standard blueprint when it comes to funnels and apply it to their business without thinking about if it's in alignment with how they want to run their business or how they want to show up to communicate and sell
• We are too ridged in the way we think about getting someone into our space and onto our email list - we need to realize there are so many different ways to get someone into your funnel
• Some things that are trending and working well, Renée says, are audio summits and podcasts
• Webinars are not dead, but Renée says they are very dependent on the type of business you have, your business model, and who your audience is - the content of your webinar is very important and needs to be strategic
• Renée uses her Facebook group and her personal Facebook page to market for her business but says referral partnerships have been the biggest driver for her business
• In the last few years, Renée has learned that being able to pivot is essential to businesses because the market is everchanging, so you have to pivot to best serve or communicate with your audience
• Another thing Renée has learned about herself is that she prefers relationships - she thinks it's very important to focus on developing relationships because not everyone will become a client, but they could become a referral partner or ambassador for your brand
• Focus on connecting with people, being genuine, and authentic with people instead of just selling, selling, selling
• Also, know that it's okay to do things differently than other people - you can take their advice and decide not to use it or adjust it and do it your own way - Renée shares that her approach to funnels has changed significantly over the last four years
• Renée thinks we need to be way more strategic when it comes to funnels because we have approached funnels in an incorrect way for so long
• The intensive Renée did that changed her approach - she says you need to be more focused on the quality of clients you attract at the top of your funnel and then filter people out based on whether they are ready to work with you or not ready to work with you right now
• What we tend to do is market to everybody and get anyone we can in our funnel, but what that does is dilutes the quality of clients because it's not speaking to a specific person who needs your information
• How you should focus on attracting a very specific person that you know has been thinking about that problem at that particular point in time and then filter (instead of funneling) them into two segments - those who are ready to pay and looking for a solution and those who still need more information
• When you address your funnels with Renée's mindset, you will see that your buy-in time is shorter and your sales sequence is shorter because you've filtered people at the beginning vs. the end
• If you're funneling, it can feel forced or pressure-focused, but filtering will help you have a much easier time developing and mapping out your funnels and presenting information in alignment with where the person is at in terms of the buyer's journey
• Connect with Renée on Facebook, join her Simple, Sustainable Marketing Facebook Group or visit her website to learn more

Links mentioned:

Connect with Renée on Facebook

Simple, Sustainable Marketing Facebook Group

Renée-Nichole Website

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Jessica Kupferman is the co-host and co-founder of the She Podcasts brand, which currently supports over 21,000 female podcasters and has a digital marketing reach of over 55,000 content creators. Her sweet spot is helping podcasters set up systems for growth and training them on how to obtain sponsorship. She also is an internet "Bat Girl" with an odd amount of experience in way too many software services.

When she's not planning the next She Podcasts LIVE, you can find her offering education to independent podcasters on marketing, growth, and sponsorship.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• How Jessica and I met in 2012 when we were both in Elizabeth DiAlto's coaching group and how I've been on Jessica's podcast, Lady Business Radio
• Jessica explains that she is formally trained in marketing and sales but fell into podcasting - Jessica does more of the marketing and branding, whereas Elsie, her partner, does more of the voices and audio technology
• Before starting a podcast, Jessica was a social media and website designer but started a podcast because that wasn't going as fast as she would have liked
• I talk about how Lady Business Radio was a big inspiration for my show
• Jessica felt that a lot of other talk shows were men interviewing men, which annoyed her - so she thought about all the fascinating women she knew and decided she'd interview them and get into more than just their rise to the top story
• The reason Jessica stopped Lady Business Radio was because she got pregnant, and by then, Jessica was also doing She Podcasts Podcast; when she came back from maternity leave, the Lady Business group she had created was stagnant, but the She Podcasts group was bursting which is why she dove hard into that business
• When Jessica started Lady Business Radio, she was a blogger and would write emails to her list, but never really had comments on her blog posts or emails, but when Jessica started the podcast, she shared that suddenly she had feedback, mentions, comments, etc. from an audience that she had never met
• Jessica believes that having a podcast gives people an insight into you that they would not normally get, which elevates the relationship between you and your audience
• People say the market is saturated with podcasts, but there's only one person that sounds like you with your experience and knowledge
• Lady Business Radio was a way for Jessica to build her business, and she used the platform to do that
• I love that Jessica asked the questions everyone is wondering on her show
• When Jessica was a designer and coach, she had to maintain two brands because the She Podcasts had to be a brand, and Jessica Kupferman was a separate brand
• Jessica shares that she rebranded her personal brand 6 times but says now she focuses mostly on the She Podcasts brand because that's how she makes money and because the two brands are honestly tied together in many ways

• How Jessica enjoys the clientele of podcasters more and that they were asking her for things like a directory, a membership, or a conference - so they delivered by turning She Podcasts into a business and conference
• Jessica has changed the look of the She Podcasts site multiple times because she believes you can change your logo colors, put your logo on top of any pattern, and it will still be recognizable
• As long as you keep the font and logo the same, you can change out the design elements - Jessica says it's like changing clothes on your brand
• Elsie and Jessica have tried many ways to make money over the years, but in 2019, the conference made them the most money - due to the pandemic, they created a virtual membership because they wanted to support women podcasters but also still make money
• The hotel they had booked for their conference told them they had to do their conference by the end of 2021, which didn't really create revenue because they had to hire and pay so many people to help
• This year, the conference and membership are making revenue, but Jessica says it has been tricky because of the pandemic
• Right now, Jessica says they are making money through sponsorships for their conference, podcast, social media, and membership - Jessica shares the other sources of revenue they are considering
• Elsie is who helped Jessica start the podcast - Elsie reached out about doing a show with Jessica, and within 3 days, they had a brand, website, and logo
• How Elsie has a full-time job working as the community manager for Libsyn, a podcast hosting company
• When it comes to the business, Elsie helps with the content, membership, Facebook group, answers questions; and Jessica says Elsie is the one with the podcast skills and is the people's person
• Elsie works her full-time job and helps with the business on the side - Jessica has another employee, Melissa, who is an operational manager
• The She Podcasts Conference is October 11 - 14 in Washington, D.C. - find out more at shepodcastslive.com
• Going forward, Jessica says she is going to focus on selling as many tickets as possible, and then after the conference is over, they will look for another hotel for their next conference and figure out their next project, which might be a directory or network of podcasts
• Jessica shares that she finds the process of coaching and being coached difficult but enjoys being a content creator and marketer
• By going to conferences, saying yes to interviews, and coaching people, Jessica has been able to build her reputation and relationships with big companies and other podcasters in the industry
• I share that I don't necessarily want to leave the online space, but I do want to work on more mainstream projects and campaigns
• If we want to stay as experts in the digital space, Jessica says we need to figure out the Web3 and metaverse, so we can learn it for ourselves to then help others when they ask
• How deciding what you want to do is hard - it's okay to change what you do or rework it, so it supports what you want to do moving forward
• Part of the reason Jessica stopped doing Lady Business Radio is that it turned into her asking people she admired to be on the show to other people asking her to be on the show, which made Jessica feel like she had to decide who was worthy of being on the show
• I realized after years of saying I'm not good at branding that I am - I share that if I'm going to be interviewed on a podcast, I want to talk about building a brand that's specific to the products and services you build because that's what I'm obsessed with
• Jessica wants you to know that your business is your design - if something is not fun anymore, you stop, but if you miss the money, you restart and do it in a way that's easier for you or less soul-sucking
• If you want to start a podcast, the best place to go is shepodcastlive.com - the speakers at the conference are all podcasters; it's inspirational, educational, supportive, and fun
• How being in the same room with people who are doing the same thing as you helps you feel like you're a part of something and reassures you of what you're building

Links mentioned:

She Podcasts

She Podcasts LIVE

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Paty Ventura is a creative mind with a business brain. She believes in helping businesses conquer their market, launching successful branding, websites & marketing campaigns through her DiamondBase platform.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• How I found Paty on Twitter through Ari Hale, a guest on Episode 186 of The Design Business Show who shared her episode on Twitter
• Paty shares that she has always been creative and fell in love with the creative industry as a profession when her parents bought her a camera at 15 years old
• Through photography, Paty self-taught herself Photoshop and editing and found graphic design - she knew at 16 that she wanted to be a graphic designer
• Paty went to school for design and received a bachelor's degree in front-end design and visual development
• How Paty still does photography today and incorporates it into everything she does
• When Paty started doing freelance, she would take on photography and design projects but soon realized she was acting as a mini agency and started taking herself more seriously as a business owner
• What sets Paty apart from other creatives is she tries to set her clients up the right way through her DiamondBase methodology
• Paty shares that her 4 types of services are websites, branding, marketing, and photography campaigns
• Last month, Paty hired her first official team member that helps her with copywriting, digital marketing, design, etc.; and says she is considering hiring another person because she realized she needs more help
• Paty shares that she has been in business on and off for 7 years
• The primary projects Paty works on are web design projects - anything from e-commerce sites to fully custom solution sites
• Typically, the clients Paty works with are luxury/minority-owned, and she says at the start, she thought she could work with everyone, but through her rebrand realized that she does have a niche

• Patty shares some of the wonderful luxury/minority-owned brands she works with
• Through using Twitter threads, Paty saw her business skyrocket and has been able to connect with her ideal clients and get the projects she wanted
• Patty says that people don't take advantage of Pinterest enough, especially those in the creative space - she shares that a pin she uploaded to Pinterest 2 years ago is still driving traffic to her website
• What works for Paty is repurposing content on Pinterest in Twitter in different ways
• When Paty works with clients, she gives them presentation-worthy deliverables, which she will resize and put on Pinterest - Paty says she's able to create 10 - 20 pieces of content on Pinterest that link back to her website from one client project
• For Twitter, Patty uses the questions she gets from clients, and after answering them personally, she talks about the topic in-depth on a Twitter thread
• Paty felt that her brand was all over the place, which is why she did a rebrand recently to nail down what she's doing and who she is
• On Patty's social media platforms, she has been talking about what makes her, her, which has to do a lot with her Mexican culture - In her new brand, she incorporates the beauty of Mexico that she sees and wishes others would see
• Paty's brand is on a mission to redefine Mexican elegance
• By revisiting Ari's Allergic to Hourly program, Paty realized she needed to restructure her business because she had outgrown it - feeling burnt out, that doesn't mean you're a bad business owner; you just need to restructure your business and shift your strategy
• Paty realized she was never going to be able to grow her business if she was doing everything herself, 16 hours a day which is when she decided to get serious about hiring
• Before, Patty saw hiring someone as a burden, but once she got out of that mindset and thought about where she wanted her business to go, she realized she needed a team
• Paty is building her business, Casa Ventura, to have a world-class reputation as the go-to creative studio for luxury, minority-owner brands, and products
• Paty is passionate about helping luxury minority brands and celebrates their wins because they deserve to be on the top shelf, next to CHANEL and DIOR she says
• While growing her brand in the future, Paty will focus on helping minorities and redefining the elegance of Mexican culture
• Connect with Paty on Twitter, Instagram, or her website

Links mentioned:

Connect with Paty on Twitter

Connect with Paty on Instagram

Casa Ventura Website

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Illiah (ill•e•ahh) is a brand designer to visionary business owners, mentor to ambitious graphic designers, and mom to two gorgeous muses, C&V. Her business exists to help entrepreneurs find + use their voice through their visuals so they can clearly + effortlessly communicate their own big mission — and do it with more elegance + style than her closet currently holds, which is saying something! 💃🏻

Through her signature offers, Creative Director on Demand and Your Revolutionary Rebrand, she closely collaborates with entrepreneurs from Baltimore to Amsterdam to create timeless brand identities, scroll-stopping social media graphics, and drool-worthy workbooks, which means she knows a thing or two about creating a consistent brand across any medium. There's only one thing she won't design: websites. Ask her why!

Alongside that, she mentors graphic designers on 🔥 to advance their online business skills, hone their design expertise, and reach their growth goals faster. In 2019, she was a Rising Tide Society and Honeybook "20 on the Rise" winner.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• How we first met Illiah on Episode 40 of The Design Business Show in 2019
• We chat about the evolution of Illiah's brand - she believes in brand evolution because branding isn't done when you receive your perfectly polished logo; it continues
• Illiah explains that in 2019 she was dedicated to being a brand designer but started to hear her clients say they didn't know what to do with everything she gave them
• Clients would want to hire Illiah to help them with everything, which led to her retainer service, and while doing that, she realized branding is not a complete, perfect thing you can check off your list; it continues
• Illiah's retainer clients are now her Creative Director on Demand clients, where they continue building their brand over a long period, so when new opportunities present themselves in their business, they always have a designer on hand
• The timeline of brand evolution - Illiah says when you first start, you have a bare minimum brand, and as you experiment and explore, you move into the discovery phase; as your brand progresses, you become an industry leader, and from there, you become universally recognized
• Why Illiah doesn't design websites is because she believes in focusing on what you're really good at - she doesn't want to be good at designing websites; the technology moves way too fast for her liking
• Illiah went to school for design in the early 2000s when web technology was brand new, so she also does not have a background in websites because it wasn't taught in her curriculum
• I like how Illiah positions rebranding as an evolution because there is so much pressure for businesses and brands to be perfectly polished when they might not have the budget or capacity for that
• Illiah's presentation slides on, Why a Perfectly Polished Brand is a Waste of Time (for now) - Illiah believes that a brand is always evolving
• A bare minimum brand is super new to the business, it's scrappy, and it's when you're exploring who you are as a brand - Illiah says she believes there is no need to design here because your brand is so much more than just your logo
• The next stage is the discovery phase where you've been in business for a couple of years, you know who your clients are and what you want to offer, but you're still discovering who your brand is - this is where you can invest in design, with an understanding that it will evolve in the future
• An industry-leading brand has grown more established, and you're more clear on who you are, who your clients are, and your offers are set - at this point, most industry-leading brands will have invested in full, professional branding
• Illiah says to think about Starbucks when you think of a universal known brand - they've invested in multi-layer branding, and they have the understanding that they will continue to refine it as their audience and offerings grow
• Another point Illiah would like to make is even when you're at the end of this timeline with a beautiful, polished brand, that doesn't mean the work or your investment ends; it should continue
• Illiah walks through the evolution of Starbucks, and why we all feel good about the brand experience they provide to us as customers
• In a bare minimum stage, Illiah says business cards, an easy-to-update website template, and choosing 1-2 of your favorite social media platforms to be on are great starting points
• When you're in the discovery brand stage, Illiah recommends a professional brand identity, revisiting your website, and says you can add in more layers like email marketing, opt-ins, and lead magnets
• At the industry leader stage, Illiah suggests community graphics if you have a community, course materials if you have a course, having a stronger focus on social media, webinar slide templates, different deliverables, etc.
• Illiah shares the story of a client who has been with her since 2012 and walks us through his brand evolution - she shares that they've gone through their businesses together and that it has been interesting because she's been able to witness each stage in the brand evolution timeline

• When Illiah sells her Creative Director on Demand service to people who have never met her, she tells them she is their creative and strategic partner
• Illiah explains the mentorship program she is experimenting with for young designers because she's always felt there needed to be a bridge between whatever education you have as a designer to becoming a business owner or professional
• In school, you may think you're just becoming an artist, but the strategy is such a big piece of design which is something Illiah shares she didn't learn in school but through experience, which is why she created Elevate & Cultivate, which is a big community now but doesn't serve the exact purpose
• The design mentorship Illiah is experimenting with was brought to life because while at a retreat, another designer mentioned having an apprentice, so they partnered together, and when they got back home, they spent 4 hours on a call outlining the entire program and application
• Fast forward a couple of months, Illiah reconnected with a designer she had helped at the retreat, and now Illiah has an amazing apprentice - Illiah's goal for her apprentice is to harness her creativity, business skills and get the freedom and flexibility we all want as design owners
• Illiah explains that the mentorship is a 7-step program where steps 4-7 are dedicated to coaching
• Honeybook and Rising Tide Society hosted a community recognition program called "20 on the Rise" - someone nominated Illiah, and she won after filling out a questionnaire, sending over what she was currently working on, and sharing her future plans
• The biggest thing Illiah has learned over the last few years of her brand evolution is that her brand will never be perfect and that she should accept it for what it is today and know tomorrow, it will grow, change and evolve
• Illiah shares some brands that she currently loves, which include, Making Good with Lauren Tilden and her sister's lash studio, Miami Volume, Nicole Yang Design, and more
• I share people I admire in the online space like Jordan Gill, Ari Hale, my mentor, Erika Lyremark, and bigger brands I love right now are OUAI, which I believe is doing a lot of revolutionary marketing, and The Kardashians from a business sense
• When you feel that it's time for a change, you have to follow that and take baby steps to achieve what you want, which is what I've had to do recently
• To find out more, connect with Illiah on Instagram and check out the C&V Creative Website

Links mentioned:

Episode 40 of The Design Business Show with Illiah Manger

Creative Director on Demand

Your Revolutionary Rebrand

Why a Perfectly Polished Brand is a Waste of Time (for now)

Elevate & Cultivate

Connect with Illiah on Instagram

C&V Creative Website

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Let's connect on Instagram!

Adam Pearce is the co-founder and CEO of Blend Commerce, the eCommerce Customer Experience Agency. Adam and his team have worked with over 200 Shopify retailers to help them provide memorable customer experiences that drive growth in revenue and profit.

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• I share how Adam and I met and that he's on the show to talk about designing sign-up experiences that sell and add value to customers and brands
• Adam shares what he thought life would be like after college and the different types of jobs he had
• While working for an education app company, Adam's brother-in-law approached him about a new Canadian app called Shopify that he was going to start developing on
• Because Adam had experience marketing for app companies, his brother-in-law thought maybe they could do something together
• Adam admits that he didn't think Shopify would work out but has never been happier to be wrong
• 5 years ago, Adam, his business partner, and his brother-in-law started an agency that started doing eCommerce sites for small companies
• The importance of customer experience has been amplified, and companies realize that it will drive profit for them
• Adam talks about moving from consulting to teaching and says after a few years of teaching; he realized how difficult it was
• Adam shares that running a company is easier than teaching was and what you should think about when deciding to switch careers or companies
• The beginning of their agency was crazy, and they realized they needed to niche down
• How Shopify was a completely different company from when they started to what it is now - as Shopify has changed, they've had to adapt
• When looking at eCommerce sites, Shopify is only 2nd to Amazon
• The initial challenge of the agency Adam shares was picking a niche that was going to be enjoyable and is something that the market and industry wanted
• A typical client profile for their agency would be someone who has been doing business for 2-3 years, 3 million dollars a year in revenue, and uses Shopify as their main channel for driving revenue.
• A few years ago, Shopify was about getting someone to make an initial purchase – now, it's more about the customer and thinking about how we can get them to come back

• For Adam, the concept of just having a website to sell is going away because so many different social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook offer eCommerce for customers to purchase on their app
• Business owners and companies need to know that consumers will want to interact and buy from you on multiple different channels, in multiple different ways – so only having one way for consumers to buy isn't ideal
• When clients come to Adam with a problem, he first looks at the data to identify if that is the true problem they are having or if it's actually something else
• Adam and his team focus on CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) and look at metrics like average revenue per customer, average order value, and doing calculations to determine the real CLV and the projected CLV
• Instead of just looking at conversion rates, you need to consider how profitable each customer for your company is based on what they're going to buy, how much it costs to provide what they're going to buy, and how much it costs to acquire them
• When it comes to a good conversion rate, Adam says it depends on the industry, product, and quality – he gives an example of two clients who sell similar products but have very different conversion rates because they have different price points and target demographics
• Some companies offer industry data and benchmark tracking reports like Klaviyo, which gives you a better idea of what your conversion rate should be so you can change things in your business if needed
• Adam feels most agencies do not do a great job with customer experience because everyone involved, the designer, copywriter, developer, etc., are working for themselves and not together for the user to create an excellent customer experience
• I love that Adam focuses on the customer experience because I feel another thing that has been lost is the onboarding and offboarding processes
• When you get a client committed to a contract or get paid at a physical store, Adam explains that as business owners, that's a winning point, but for the customer, that winning point hasn't started yet – your job is to make them feel great about their purchase

• Adam explains the 2 ways clients work with their agency 1) through their Customer Value Optimization Program and 2) on their email marketing through Klaviyo
• What's different about their agency Adam says, is that they understand at times, you will need to dip more into the design side or the marketing side than others
• Before a customer even comes across your brand until they make their last purchase – they look at all the interaction points that aren't great for your brand so far or don't exist so they can increase the customer lifetime value
• Adam shares that they have been partnered with Klaviyo for the last 4 ½ years – and when they work with clients in that capacity, they look at where money is being left on the table through their email marketing and help clients increase revenue
• The agency focuses on website design, development, and Klaviyo email marketing – Adam says when it comes to social media, paid, or SEO, they have a couple of partner agencies who they refer their clients to
• What has been working for eCommerce product and service brands is using onsite quizzes – Adam gives a client example where they have a button on their site that people can click if they aren't sure where to start, and it walks them through a couple of questions and asks them about their taste to better recommend products and create a personalized experience
• Adam says that quizzes have good conversion rates, but even if a person doesn't convert from your onsite quiz, you have now captured a lot of information about that person – all that data can be used in Klaviyo for your email marketing to personalize responses
• If you search for eCommerce quizzes, you will be flooded with information because it does work as a sign-up and conversion tool
• In Adam's opinion, pop-ups that still work are ones for products with low average pay for the brand, but because everyone uses pop-ups in the same places, it can be overwhelming to consumers if they are jumping from brand to brand
• When you're offering pop-ups for large discounts, you have to ask yourself if that is attracting customers that will keep coming back – Adam suggests being smarter with pop-ups by asking one simple question instead and gives an example of how this would benefit you as a brand
• Adam says when they ask questions in their pop-ups, they like to build anticipation and then ask for the consumer's email at the end to share their results
• If Adam could go back 5 years ago, he would tell himself not to judge a book by its cover and what he means by that is, as an agency, they used to judge the way a potential client approached them and their initial site – but you can never know how good or bad a business is without talking to the business owner
• Adam shares some apps that are unique and work well from a customer experience point of view – one is VideoEyes which crawls YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. for videos that mention your products that you might not know about and bring them back to your Shopify store – it also allows you to grab any video you've made and create a call to action so people can buy and checkout from the video
• Another app Adam recommends is Penny Black which allows you to personalize your packaging based on data from a customer
• To learn more about Adam's agency, you can go to the Blend Commerce Website, and you can connect with Adam on LinkedIn

Links mentioned:

Blend Commerce

Shopify

Klaviyo

Penny Black

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn

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Kris Ward is creating a movement where your business supports your life instead of consuming it. Kris is the founder of the Win The Hour, Win the Day philosophy.

After the loss of her husband, Kris returned full-time to her work as a marketing strategist. She was relieved that her business had not only survived her absence but was growing. Now, Kris has completely changed the landscape for entrepreneurs by sharing the successful practices that allowed her absence.

Kris has shared the stage with Jack Canfield - Chicken Soup For The Soul, Kevin Harrington original Shark from Shark Tank, James Malinchak -ABC's Secret Millionaire, Sharon Lechter - Rich Dad Poor Dad Co Author and

Joe Theismann - NFL All star and commentator to name a few. Kris has also featured on award winning podcasts, radio and TV shows.

Kris is an acclaimed podcaster. You can hear Kris on her own podcast - Win The Hour, Win The Day, where she has engaging conversations with dynamic guests covering a variety of business topics so you can get to your next win now!

Here's what we covered on the episode:

• I share that Kris and I connected because she had sent me a pitch - I was impressed with her pitch and could relate to her story, which is why I was excited to have her on the podcast
• Kris shares that when she first started her business, 12+ years ago, she was working crazy hours the first 2 years
• By the end of her first 2 years, Kris was told that she was losing her charm, so she went from working 16 hours a day to 6 hours a day - which didn't happen overnight
• A couple of years later, Kris's husband was diagnosed with colon cancer, which resulted in her taking a step back for a couple of years
• When Kris returned to the business after her husband's passing, her existing clients had no idea of her absence
• Clients started to approach Kris about helping them with time management, productivity, team building, etc. because they didn't notice her absence; they thought she could help them step back a little to free up their time from their business as well
• Kris believes that your business should support your life, not consume it, and is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs achieve that
• Kris realized that many entrepreneurs looked good on paper but were working way more hours than people thought they would be in their small business journey, so she had to reach those people, which is why she wrote her book, Win The Hour, Win The Day
• 20% of Kris's work is still marketing strategy, and the other 80% is her passion for creating a movement where your business supports your life instead of consuming it
• In Kris's book, she heavily leans into your team, your time, and your toolkits
• What Kris means when she says win the hour, win the day is that if you break your day into bite-size pieces by the hour, you can win the hour, you can win the day, you can win the week, you can win the month and so on
• Running a business off a to-do list is never going to work; Kris says it adds stress and is a rotating list of emergencies - what you want is systems and processes in place, like our super toolkit that allow you to get ideas to execution
• How creatives are not favorable to systems because they probably had a job where procedures and systems were in place that the end-user did not create - but having them in your own business is a game-changer because it allows you freedom
• Kris shares how one of her clients was able to implement systems into her business to help manage her time, deliver superior service, and set up boundaries
• Most clients get 25 hours a week within the first month of working with Kris and her team

• Kris believes that your team should manage you - you should not be parenting them
• When hiring a team, you need to have the infrastructure to support their talents in place before or be in that process while they're coming on; otherwise, you'll be throwing work at them, stressing them out, and it will fall apart
• You can have a fantastic team with 1 or 2 people - Kris shares that she has 4 people on her team but works with many large, successful people from all different levels
• Why you shouldn't use email to keep your systems and how it's important to keep your systems in one place - Kris and her team use Basecamp
• Kris believes that you can't do a whole lot without a team because you're limited to your capacity and talents
• How Kris realized that she could have her team take courses for her
• The subject of Kris's podcast is general business; she shares it could be anything from social media to sales
• Kris's book Win the hour, win the day is offered on Amazon, and her coaching program, Winners Circle, which she's super passionate about because it allows her to help more small business owners and entrepreneurs
• You can have dreams, and it shouldn't cost you your health, family time, or lifestyle, and business should be fun; otherwise, why did you leave your last job
• Kris believes that a book is a very polished business card that gives you authority, which can lead to other opportunities
• How Kris's podcast tends to be a lead generator of connections and how some guests on the show end up working with Kris
• You always want to be moving to the next thing - you may be fantastic at what you do, but if your competitors get their ideas executed faster and more consistently than you, they win the game
• Kris says you want to have a lean team and says that you can get crazy talented people from around the world for affordable prices
• For the Winners Circle, they do find, hire and train people for people in the program
• Why design is super important in your business because it helps you present the quality of your brand - it's not talked about enough, and the impact it has on the consumer to make decisions
• The pandemic changed a lot of things for small business owners and entrepreneurs, but those who had the infrastructure in place were able to pivot and change easily
• If you're saying, "once I get caught up, I can.." that should be a red flag, Kris says, because the point is to bring in more business, so you should be busier, and if you can't keep up now, you never will - which again is why systems are important
• Kris says she's surprised at how useful she finds TikTok - she's learned more about LinkedIn off TikTok, and it's changed the content she produces because she realized it had to be quicker, cleaner, less polished sometimes, and heavy on tangible takeaways
• How TikTok is big on whatever you did today, you'll be better tomorrow - it's more about posting 3 or 4 times, and it's very forgiving, Kris says
• Connect with Kris on TikTok or LinkedIn and go on over to free gift from kris .com to get some gifts from Kris - some are free, and some they still charge for

Links mentioned:

Win The Hour, Win The Day Podcast

Kris's Book - Win The Hour, Win The Day

Winners Circle Program

Connect with Kris on TikTok

Connect with Kris on LinkedIn

Free Gift From Kris

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