In the process of building a business, every business owner has defining moments where you are forced to stop, step back, and ask yourself a hard but important question: “Am I doing the right thing here building a business?” In the past few months, that’s the place where I have been. There were big things that happened that caused me to reevaluate everything. There were also small inklings, nudges, and signs from God that led me to today, the last episode of The Game Changer podcast.

My husband, Travis, always said that when you make a job transition, there are always push factors and pull factors. It’s in these two ways that I’ll be talking you through this decision. I'm here to provide that reasoning in a way that is hopefully helpful to you as you navigate how to make these decisions.

Shop the going out of business sale https://katiewussow.com/goodbye

So many of us have ideas that we’re sitting on. Our self-generated creative work, the things that we do for ourselves are often what is most important and meaningful. But it is also the work that can be the most easily pushed aside. We struggle to make tangible progress and our ideas never come to fruition.

Today’s episode is all about how to produce your own self-generated creative work. Joining us is Jessica Abel, a former indie cartoonist-turned-entrepreneur. She coaches other mid-career creatives who want to build more autonomous lives and teaches them how to run sustainable businesses without burning themselves out. Jessica specializes in helping creative people get focused and organized so that they can produce the work they care so much about. Tune in to hear about:

>> How to practically decide what projects are the most important to pursue

>> Breaking down your huge projects into manageable action steps

>> What to do when you find yourself in the dark forest – aka the “messy middle” part of any project 

JESSICA’S Creative Compass Challenge: https://jessicaabel.com/compass

JESSICA’S WEBSITE: https://jessicaabel.com/

JESSICA’S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/autonomouscreative/

JESSICA’S FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/jccabel

JESSICA’S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jccabel

KATIE’S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/katiewussow/

KATIE’S WEBSITE: https://katiewussow.com/

GET THE FREE 90-DAY PLAN TEMPLATE: https://katiewussow.com/plan

In 2020, 12-year veteran wedding photographer, Sarah Bradshaw was coming off of her best year ever in business. But then the pandemic hit as well as other unexpected things – Sarah had to move to be closer to her family which meant changes in her business.

Today’s episode was initially going to be about how to move your business into a new city. But Sarah took it a step further to talk to us today about how to shift your business model. A business model is your plan for making a profit, which customers you’re going to serve, at what price point, and will it be enough for you to sustain a living? Sarah’s going to be teaching us about:

>> Difference between an aspirational middle market client and a true luxury market

>> How she made the decision to scale her business up and up-level her client base instead of scaling the business down to match the Greenville market.

>> Identifying marketing strategies that leverage your strengths and get you in front of the right people.

SARAH’S WEBSITE: www.sarahbradshaw.com

SARAH’S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/sarahbradshawphoto

SARAH’S FACEBOOK PAGE: https://facebook.com/sarahbradshawphotography

KATIE’S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/katiewussow/

KATIE’S WEBSITE: https://katiewussow.com/

GET THE FREE 90-DAY PLAN TEMPLATE: https://katiewussow.com/plan

This episode is all about how to craft a welcome sequence to help you turn your email list from strangers into fans. This is something that you should put into place if you already have a lead magnet and you are already emailing your list consistently. In this episode, I’m breaking down:

>> What you’re risking if you don’t have a welcome sequence

>> 8 things you can talk about in your welcome sequence

>> A simple framework for creating your first welcome sequence from scratch

KATIE’S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/katiewussow/

KATIE’S WEBSITE: https://katiewussow.com

GET THE FREE 90-DAY PLAN TEMPLATE: https://katiewussow.com/plan

Email marketing shouldn’t be transactional. It’s not about getting clicks, open rates, or even getting sales. Email is about building connections so it needs to be personal and consistently add value for your readers.

In part 1 of my interview with Bobby Klinck, we talked about how to do email marketing differently from other entrepreneurs. In today’s part 2, we’ll be getting into actually writing the emails that build a connection with your audience. You’ll learn:

>> Addictive story-based email structure – how you can write emails with personal stories that still have a point

>> What kinds of stories we should be telling

>> Practical ways that you can collect your stories – big and small – so that you never run out of things to write about.

Links

Bobby’s Book: Email Marketing That Doesn’t Suck

Bobby’s Email Marketing Resource Hub

Bobby’s Free Stuff: BadA$$ Online Marketing University

KATIE’S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/katiewussow/

KATIE’S WEBSITE: https://katiewussow.com/

GET THE FREE 90-DAY PLAN TEMPLATE: https://katiewussow.com/plan

How do you write emails that people actually want to read? If we’re trying to use email to build relationships and connections, people are going to need to at least have some interest in reading our stuff.

To help us with this, I’m joined today by one of my business mentors, Bobby Klinck. Bobby is a lawyer turned business coach who helps entrepreneurs build profitable knowledge businesses. Bobby and I love to talk so we had to split this into two episodes. In part 1, he talks about:

>> How email fits into your marketing plan and helps you turn strangers into raving fans

>> Why it’s important to write emails like a friend, not like a brand

>> The four parts of a story-based email structure that can help you write truly addictive emails

Links

Bobby’s Book: Email Marketing That Doesn’t Suck

Bobby’s Email Marketing Resource Hub

Bobby’s Free Stuff: BadA$$ Online Marketing University

KATIE’S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/katiewussow/

KATIE’S WEBSITE: https://katiewussow.com/

GET THE FREE 90-DAY PLAN TEMPLATE: https://katiewussow.com/plan

When we think about email, we tend to think about just the regular newsletter. Don’t get me wrong, those emails are important but there are so many other ways you can use email to strengthen your relationship with your subscribers.  Today we're talking about five ways that you can use email marketing in your service business. 

We are talking about:

>> A concept called permission marketing and how it applies to email

>> Why you don’t need to worry about unsubscribes

>> 5 kinds of email sequences you need in your business besides the standard newsletter

KATIE’S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/katiewussow/

KATIE’S WEBSITE: https://katiewussow.com/

GET THE FREE 90-DAY PLAN TEMPLATE: https://katiewussow.com/plan

You’ve probably heard people talk before about the importance of having a clear niche, or you’ve thought about niche-ing down yourself. So how exactly can you be sure it’s the right move for you?

Tune into today’s episode where we’ll talk about what it really means to niche down and how to know when you should. Having a clear niche lets you powerfully attract the right kinds of clients to your business so it’s important to know:

>> Five signs that you’re ready to define your niche

>> Common misconceptions about what it really means to niche down

>> How to make sure that your chosen niche will help you build a profitable business

KATIE’S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/katiewussow/

KATIE’S WEBSITE: https://katiewussow.com/

GET THE FREE 90-DAY PLAN TEMPLATE: https://katiewussow.com/plan

You may not know this, but your business has one job, and one job only – generate an income for you as the owner. Erica Goode, a former corporate accountant turned fractional CFO, joins us in today’s episode to help us answer the question of how your business can start doing its one job. Besides being passionate about the topic of helping entrepreneurs pay themselves what they deserve to earn from their business, she’s breaking down for us:

>> How you can know how much you can afford to pay yourself (and how to overcome the fear of picking the wrong number)

>> The mechanics of paying yourself depending on what kind of business entity you have

>> How you can get started with paying yourself even when you aren’t making what you want to make yet

Sign Up for Erica’s Money Stuff Newsletter: https://www.ericagoode.com/

Erica’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erica.goode.cpa

Katie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiewussow/

Katie’s Website: https://katiewussow.com/

GET THE FREE 90-DAY PLAN TEMPLATE: https://katiewussow.com/plan

Book: No B.S. Small Business Book by Casey Graham

Article: More Than Half of Entrepreneurs Forego Salaries When They Launch Their Companies

Episode 104, Five Reasons Why You’re Spending Too Much Money on Your Business

Episode 105, How to Plan for Smart Business Investments in 2022 (and Avoid Buyer’s Remorse)

Episode 114, How to Achieve Financial Sustainability in Your Business with Dondrea Owens

You’ve probably seen countless examples of creatives like you quitting their jobs and making real money from their creative talent. You know that building a business is possible, but why does it seem like it’s working for everyone besides you?


Building a long-term sustainable business will require you to continue to operate in your role as a creative but also step into a new role as a business owner. Listen in today as I talk about how you can build confidence as a business owner so that you can build a truly sustainable business. I’ll be exploring:


>> How our internal beliefs can keep us stuck and unable to learn new skills


>> Where real business success is actually built (hint – not the exciting, external stuff but the boring internal stuff)


>> How clarifying your owner’s intent can help you stop caring about what other people are doing and focus on your own business


FREE TRAINING: How to Build a Sustainable Business Doing What You Love
https://katiewussow.com/webinar

KATIE’S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/katiewussow/

KATIE’S WEBSITE: https://katiewussow.com/

GET THE FREE 90-DAY PLAN TEMPLATE: https://katiewussow.com/plan

No B.S. Small Business Book by Casey Graham