The Game Changer

On this very special episode, I’m interviewing my business coach, James Wedmore. I joined James’s signature program, Business by Design, in August 2019 to support me as I made the transition from 1:1 coaching to an online group coaching model.

A lot of creative entrepreneurs are interested in selling digital products – like courses, memberships, and even templates – but they aren’t sure where to get started. But even worse, most entrepreneurs don’t have the practical tools or the appropriate mindset to make their hard work pay off online.

In this episode, James is sharing with us some of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to creating and selling digital products. He shares:

• Why “what do I want to create” is the worst question you can ask when you are getting started online.
• The simple way to decide what you should teach, sell, or offer to your audience.
• A mind-blowing method for selling your digital product before you create it. 

Links 

Register for James’s free training, Your First 100 Leads, by visiting www.katiewussow.com/james.

Follow James on Instagram or listen to his podcast, Mind Your Business.

Follow Katie on Instagram or visit the website to learn more about her work. 

Lauren Ramirez is the founder and CEO of Lauren Ramirez Styling and Interiors in Austin, Texas. When she started her business, she was a solopreneur with no formal training in design who struggled with imposter syndrome. But now, only four years later, she is a sought-after firm of choice for C-suite executives and other professionals in Central Texas.

Lauren did what many creative entrepreneurs only dream about – she built and scaled a profitable business to the point of having a team. In the interview, she shares how she did it, including:

• Practical strategies that helped her take herself seriously early-on and overcome imposter syndrome.
• How she defines her ideal client and vets the wrong clients before she starts working with them.
• The role of community in her life and business.
• How she knew when she was ready to hire a team and focus on business growth.
• What is helping her stay motivated and engaged as a business owner during Covid-19.

Register for my free training, 5 Step-Framework to Build a Profitable Business

Follow Lauren on Instagram or click here to learn more about their work.

Follow Katie on Instagram or visit the website to learn more about her work, www.katiewussow.com.

We all want our pricing to reflect our true value. The problem is, it’s not enough to know your value; you also have to be able to communicate your value. As many of us have experienced, it doesn’t matter if we “charge what we’re worth” if clients aren’t willing to pay.

Learning to articulate your value is both a challenge and an opportunity. It’s a challenge because articulating your value is one of the hardest skills you have to learn as a service-based entrepreneur. However, if you can learn to do it well, you’ll have no problem booking clients at premium price points.

If you want to articulate your value in order to justify a higher price point, you should emphasize these four things:

• Your person – the type of person that you specialize in helping.
• Their problem – what is the problem that you help your ideal client solve.
• Your process – what steps will you take to solve the client’s problem.
• Their promise – what is the tangible outcome or result that your ideal client will experience from working with you.

Links & References:

Get the FREE mini-course, Price for Profit.

Building a Storybrand, by Donald Miller

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more about my work at katiewussow.com.

Pricing is a huge pain point for creative entrepreneurs. In this episode, we are talking about pricing mistakes creative entrepreneurs are making that are keeping them overworked and underpaid. 

Many of the pricing mistakes people are making come from the same root issue: you think pricing drives your sales. I can understand why you think that pricing drives sales. Oftentimes when people say they don’t want to work with you they say the reason is money. 

But, if people walk away from working with you based on price, it’s probably not because you chose the wrong price. It’s likely because you have a problem with your marketing.

Believing that pricing drives sales lead creative entrepreneurs to charge less for what they do and continue to be overworked and underpaid freelancers instead of thriving entrepreneurs.

Here are the four mistakes we talk about on the episode:

Mistake #1: Pricing based on what other people charge
Alternative #1: Pricing based on your own revenue needs

Mistake #2: Pricing based on your own time and effort
Alternative #2: Pricing based on the value you create for your clients

Mistake #3: Using discounts to drive sales
Alternative #3: Using bonuses and add-ons to drive sales

Mistake #4: Creating mini-packages to drive sales
Alternative #4: Focus on selling your signature service

Links & References

Get the FREE mini-course, Pricing for Profit.

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more about my work at katiewussow.com.

Many early-stage creative entrepreneurs are more like frustrated freelancers than thriving business owners. They struggle with:

• Not understanding their value and how to communicate it.
• Working crazy hours without making enough money.
• Lacking the confidence to charge their worth.

Amber Crudup is a brand designer and business coach who helps creative entrepreneurs build structure in their business so they can have more profit in their business and more freedom in their lives.

On this episode, Amber shares:

• Why services are much harder to price than products, and how you can begin to understand and communicate your value.
• A simple way to know how much your work is worth.
• How structure breeds confidence in your pricing, your process, and your marketing efforts.
• Why not having enough clients probably isn’t the biggest problem preventing you from being profitable.

Links & References:

Connect with Amber on Instagram

Learn more about Amber here.

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more about my work at katiewussow.com.

Many creative entrepreneurs are using content (blogging, podcasting, youtube, and social media) to attract clients into their business. Unfortunately, too many people are spending their precious time and energy creating content without a good strategy!

Your content should be effectively bringing new clients into your business. In this episode, I’m sharing five principles to make sure your content is strategically and intentionally attracting the right clients into your business.

1. Address all of your content to your ideal client. Your content should address the problems, pain points, struggles, and challenges that your ONE ideal client is experiencing.
2. Release content on a consistent schedule. When it comes to content, consistency and quality are more important than frequency. Releasing content on a consistent schedule builds trust and credibility with your audience.
3. Create content that prepares your ideal client to buy from you. Instead of using content to give away your valuable knowledge and expertise for free, create content that leads customers on a journey toward the solution you offer.
4. Use calls-to-action regularly. Give your audience a clear next step.
5. Gather feedback from your audience. If you don’t know what topics to address, survey your audience and review your analytics.

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more about my work at katiewussow.com.

Many creative entrepreneurs struggle with selling their services, for example:

• Getting ghosted after the discovery call
• Sending out your price sheet and never hearing back
• Getting pushback or objections to your prices

Jereshia Hawk is an entrepreneur and high-ticket sales coach who specializes in helping service providers raise their prices, articulate their value, and confidently sell service packages that cost between $1,500 and $15,000.

On this episode, Jereshia shares:

• How an employee mindset prevented her from making money early on in her entrepreneurial journey
• The biggest mindset shift you need to make before you can become effective at selling high-ticket packages and programs
• How most entrepreneurs are emphasizing the wrong things in their sales conversations, proposals, and website copy (and what you should be emphasizing instead)
• How she is helping women overcome entrepreneurial poverty and teaching them how to not just generate income but build wealth
• What it looks like for her to walk in faith as a business owner and obey God in the big and small business decisions

Connect with Jereshia on Instagram

Learn more about Jereshia here

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more about my work at katiewussow.com.

Almost every aspect of our lives is radically different than it was a week ago. On this show, I’m going to address a common mistake I see people making when they are responding to the COVID 19 crisis. That mistake is making decisions from a place of panic and not thinking about the big picture. 

I want to introduce a new way of thinking about the current circumstances, and this concept is called the Stockdale Paradox. This term was coined by Jim Collins who wrote a book called Good to Great, and he found in a multi-year study of large corporations that those who adopted the Stockdale Paradox drastically outperformed their competitors. 

The Stockdale Paradox is a mindset that tries to do two contradictory things at once: 

• Confront the most brutal facts of your present reality
• Maintain hope that you will succeed in the end. 

If we can learn to do this, not only will we get through this crisis, but we will be able to succeed in ANY environment. 

Here are three practical ways that you can confront the brutal facts of COVID 19.

• Take some time to reflect and consider what’s working and not working in your business. 
• Figure out a plan to generate revenue in the short term. Make a plan to ensure that your basic needs are covered.
• Take care of yourself and recognize you may need extra rest and self-care in the coming weeks.

Here are three ways you can demonstrate unwavering hope in your long-term success and position yourself well to come out of the crisis.

• Ramp down, don’t tap out. Resist the urge to put your business on pause. 
• Work on your business instead of in your business during the slow season.
• Take the opportunity to build relationships and create goodwill with your customers and industry.

Links & References

Good to Great, Jim Collins 

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more about my work at katiewussow.com.

A lot of people dream of starting a business, not that many people actually leave the comfort and security of the corporate world to chart their own path as an entrepreneur.

In today’s episode, one of my former clients Catherine Andrews shares her experience transitioning from her cushy job in corporate communications to being a full-time life coach. In the interview, Catherine shares:

• The baby steps she took in the direction of entrepreneurship even while she was still working in her corporate job. 
• What she wishes she did to prepare for the transition out of her 9-5, even besides having a financial cushion.
• The importance of building accountability structures for ourselves and staying away from busywork.
• Three tips for dealing with intimidating business tasks that are way outside of our comfort zone.
• How being an entrepreneur has been a personal development accelerator.

Catherine’s story will encourage anyone who is considering taking the leap out of a traditional job as well as those who already have.

Links & References

Sign up for the free training, 5 Profit-Killing Mistakes that Keep Creative Entrepreneurs Overworked and Underpaid

The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron

The Game Changer Podcast, Episode 11 -- I talk about how it took a year to really define my niche

Catherine’s podcast, The Sunday Soother

Catherine’s website, catherinedandrews.com 

Follow Catherine on Instagram

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more about my work at katiewussow.com.

On today’s show, I interview Jessie Khaira, a designer of luxury Indian weddings who got started in the industry 17 years ago when she decided to rent the chair covers she had bought for HER OWN wedding.

Like many creative entrepreneurs, Jessie really struggled with confidence and under-pricing her services when she was getting started. But through strategic moves and mindset shifts, she has been able to establish herself in the luxury market and charge literally hundreds of thousands of dollars for wedding design.

In the interview, Jessie shares:

• How she went from charging $20 for one-off centerpieces to six figures for the design of entire events
• The “aha” moment that led to her doubling her rates overnight without losing business
• Why having higher prices actually made it easier for her to book clients
• How a conversation with a complete stranger helped her get clear on her niche

Jessie’s story is one of resilience, I know you’ll love hearing her honesty, tough love, and contagious laugh.

Find Jessie on Instagram or visit her website jessiekhaira.com.

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more about my work at katiewussow.com.