The Missing Link Podcast

Today on the podcast I interview Laura Sprinkle - an affiliate partnerships strategist who specializes in working with digital course creators. 

Over the past 4 years, her approach to partner programs has helped everyone from budding entrepreneurs to seven-figure industry leaders garner more than $15 million in partner revenues. 

On today’s episode Laura shares her unique approach to partnerships - which involves creating high-touch relationships, empowering clients like Amy Porterfield, Todd Herman, and Selena Soo to build in-house teams rather than outsourcing and bringing as much fun to the process as possible. 

She is the host of her own podcast, The Laura Sprinkle Show, and the co-author of a best-selling anthology.

Today on the podcast, I sit down for an incredibly open and honest conversation with Natalie Bullock Brown. I personally have had the privilege of knowing Natalie since high school. Natalie has always been one of those people who lights up every room she's in. Her smile radiates, and she has a huge, huge, compassionate heart for others.

She's also incredibly passionate about finding equality in the world and in particular, as a documentary filmmaker of color, she's interested in having the story of Black people told from the perspective of those who have lived it. Natalie is an award winning, Emmy nominated producer, and a Teaching Assistant Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies at North Carolina State University. Which is why when I thought about the importance of having a conversation about how we as business owners can start to think differently about diversity and embrace Black Lives Matter in an honest and genuine way, there was no question in my mind who I wanted to have this conversation with.

2020 has shown us so much civil unrest and 2021 still calls for us to change in profound ways. Natalie sits down with me for an honest conversation and shares some great insights how we as business owners, as community leaders, as members can truly shift the way we think, act, and live.

I'm hoping this is the first of many conversations with Natalie. She's an incredibly powerful figure because she's so willing to share her honest truth. So carve out some time, this is a bit of a longer episode, and I hope that it calls you to some action today.

When you first started your business, you probably never envisioned that part where you have to get on a call with a prospective client or customer and sell your products or services. The truth is, not many of us really do. All you really think about is the waves of people who come into your business that love what you have to offer and love what you do. Tell me if you can relate.

Here's the thing: selling for most of us, isn't something we can avoid in our business. And in fact, I can't tell you how many people come to me, even after years in business, telling me that it's their least favorite part of their business. I'll be honest, once upon a time that was me. I swore that I was never going to get good at selling, let alone be great.

Turns out that I just didn't really get that selling isn't a bad thing. And in fact, it can be a way that you are of service to others. So today on the Mindset First Podcast, I'm going to dive in and help you understand how you too can get over some of the beliefs that you have about selling and really get great at it.

When it comes to speaking, I find that most people “find their way” into it. It’s not necessarily at the top of most of our list because it exposes so many of our fears and it’s just not necessarily something we’re taught - oh hey Johnny, are you going to grow up to be a speaker one day? Um . . . you mean do I want to get on stage and feel like I’m being looked at and maybe judged just to get some message across?

The truth is that most people after learning that speaking means getting up on stage and having any number of eyes on you find it a little scary - even those of us who actually enjoy it get nervous. Actually, I used have to take beta blockers when I first started speaking. But the truth is that speaking can be a very powerful form of marketing for your business. I personally know that I have generated business from over 80% of my speaking appearances. So, I wanted to bring on a guest who really understands the power of speaking as a form of marketing and how to leverage it to scale your business.

Laurie-Ann Murabito, Business Coach & Speaking Strategist, is a reformed painfully shy gal turned professional speaker. Leaving her successful corporate healthcare job with no business plan but a desire to help more people using her talents and skills, Laurie accidentally gave her first speech, attracted clients and quickly replaced her corporate income, which paved the way to speaking and coaching. Today she works with entrepreneurs to grow their businesses using the best form of marketing speaking by leveraging live and virtual platforms to get visible, attract clients and monetize their intellectual property.

How do you use those qualities in yourself that you judge, or that maybe have been painful in your life, and turn them around to be an asset for your business? How do you take the stories from the past and use them to build something powerful that helps other people?

Today on Mindset First, I sit down with Reese Spykerman. Reese helps Ecommerce businesses increase their website sales through design and copy conversion strategies. But the importance of this episode is truly about how you shift some of those things that you're telling yourself every single day and change them into something that helps you grow? That makes you feel whole, that helps you do something so much bigger in the world. Reese's honesty and her willingness to share her story are powerful and beautiful.

I'm excited to share this episode with you. And would love to hear where are you still struggling? Where can you use some support to shift your personal stories? So tune in and let me know what you think.

Today I sit down with an award-winning email copywriter and businesswoman, Brenna McGowan. Brenna shares her personal story of building her business in her 40s and facing all the stories she told herself about how she couldn’t do what she set out to do and built a business where she helps clients tell everyday stories that fill up their own program.

Going from a stay-at-home mom who just wanted to make an extra 500 bucks two years ago to a booked up, in-demand copywriter working alongside some of the biggest names in the space - she faced all kinds of stories that she was too old, that she had nothing unique to offer and that she wasn’t worthy of success. So many of us tell ourselves similar stories and it can hold us back.

We talk about how mindset has supported her in getting to the next level and how when she gave herself permission to do the thing, she was able to move forward.

No one likes dealing with disappointments. In fact, most of us will do almost anything to avoid disappointment. We hate the idea of what our disappointments might say about who we are and what we do. We'll avoid things that help us grow our business, like being visible or connecting with people that might help us grow our business. The truth is, the reason we do is we're so afraid that maybe someone is going to see past who we say we are.

But the truth is, is that disappointments in business and in life are inevitable. They actually happen every single day. And the more we can learn to embrace our disappointments as a natural part of our business growth and future, the better we're able to rebound and move forward in ways that might be even better than what we thought possible.

Today on the Mindset First Podcast, I share my mindset first approach to disappointment. Instead of sitting and feeling defeated, using this framework will help you get out of the spiral of negative self-talk, pain, and sadness that is often accompanied by the experience of disappointment.

Today’s guest describes herself as a heavily tattooed, colorful (in language and in skin coverings) rocker-turned-marketer with a specialty in direct response marketing.

In the last decade Angie Colee’s work has made over $30 million in sales. She’s worked with and written for some pretty big businesses and names – including Lowe’s, Masterclass, Kevin Rogers (founder of Copy Chief), and Jeff Walker (creator of Product Launch Formula). She’s also in the middle of a bit of a pivot with a platform she calls Permission to Kick Ass which focuses on showing freelancers how to really thrive instead of getting stuck in a soul-sucking routine. We spend a lot of time talking about the ways we give away our power and what you can do to reclaim it and I’ll be honest - Angie’s vulnerability during this episode blew me away. Toward the end of our conversation she shares about some personal experiences she’s going through right now and how she’s managed to stay in the discomfort so she can truly live her truth. You’ll want to listen.

Mike Kim is a speaker and marketing strategist who specializes in brand strategy and copywriting. He’s been hired by some of today’s most influential thought leader brands including John Maxwell, Donald Miller, Suzanne Evans, and Catalyst.

For years he was the Chief Marketing Officer of a successful multi-million dollar company near New York City. Nowadays you’ll find him speaking at conferences, looking for the next great place to scuba dive, and sipping a glass of Macallan 15 — all while teaching everything he knows about branding, entrepreneurship, and life through his hit podcast, Brand You.

Nothing trips up business owners more than money, which is why when I was introduced to Christine Luken, who calls herself the financial lifeguard, I was intrigued. Christine's focus is helping clients ditch their cycle of shame around their finances and help them make peace with money. Like so many others, Christine herself had a lot of money shame when she was young, because as an accountant, she was supposed to have it together.

But when she hit rock bottom, having debt upon debt, instead of focusing on spreadsheets and budgets, she started to look at creating financial literacy and looking at her relationship with money.

Today's conversation is an important one because we talk about the patterns so many of us fall into when it comes to money, but we don't know how to move past them. This is one of the areas that we all struggle with so much in our life and in our business. Christine's approach, which goes beyond budget looks really at what's happening below the surface so that you can overcome your money struggles.

This is going to be a good one, and I hope you enjoy every piece of information she shares.