The Product Biz Podcast by Monica Little Coaching

In today’s episode, we dive deep into the world of trademarks, an essential - but often misunderstood - part of protecting your brand and your business so that you never get into legal trouble. Because I bet you AREN'T someone who wants to get a little 'ol "cease and desist" letter in the mail, like... ever. Special guest and trademark lawyer Joey Vitale shares common misconceptions about trademarks vs LLCs vs domain names, why you need to protect your brand EARLY and the risks of waiting, how to work through the trademark application process that is notorious for being a little challenging, why so many applications get rejected and how to prevent that from happening to you, how to protect your logo and business name and slogan from copycats, and more.

Joey Vitale is a trademark attorney (also known as a "brand legitimizer") for online entrepreneurs, course creators, and product based businesses. With his law firm and his courses, Joey helps online business owners call legal dibs on their brand name and signature methods so they never have to worry about losing their brand overnight. Joey has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and has spoken all over the country to help business owners stay safe and thriving.

LINKS MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE
Visit Joey's website at www.indielaw.com
Follow Joey on Instagram @thejoeyvitale

LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
Join the Product Biz Academy waitlist to be first notified when doors open

If your focus leading up to Black Friday is “save the date” posts and “don’t forget that our biggest sale of the year is coming up!” announcements, you are making the BIGGEST mistake possible and preventing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of sales during the most impactful holiday shopping period of the entire year.

During these next two weeks, your main purpose should not be to PROMOTE your PROMOTION. 

Think about it this way: if someone isn’t interested in your product at full price, they won’t care about it even if it’s 80% off during Black Friday no matter HOW many times you tell them that it’s going to be 80% off.

Instead, during these next two weeks, your main purpose is to create a strong sales runway that increases demand and desire of your products NOW so that WHEN you drop the promotion, it is a no brainer for anyone who hasn’t purchased from you YET.

And even better? When you create a strong sales runway now, you’ll get sales NOW and at full price, and ALSO hype up your products for your best Black Friday weekend ever for those who are waiting for the cherry on top.

Tune in to this week’s episode to learn how to prevent this mistake and how to create demand and desirability content for your products so you have your BEST holiday season yet.

LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
Join the Product Biz Academy waitlist to be first notified when doors open

In today’s episode, we’re diving into the three pillars required for a successful holiday campaign so that you can make the MOST of the Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday hype AND before AND after… through 3 pillars that are required for success: Promotion, People, and Performance.

Most business owners only focus on promotions during the holiday season, without realizing that increasing people and increasing performance is what leads QUANTUM LEAPS! Which is why we'll be diving into strategy for all 3 components so that you see the sales you want.

During this episode, you’ll learn:
- How to choose your Black Friday promotion so that it stands out AND is easy for customers to understand so that they actually buy… and the top mistakes to AVOID that would otherwise cause your promotion to be watered down, confusing, or lost in a sea of others (which DOESN’T lead to sales).
- How to run a marketing campaign leading up to Black Friday that DOESN’T include a massive discount but still is relevant to the season so that you keep your profits AND make more sales.
- The importance of increasing PEOPLE (aka the size of your audience) for the success of your promotion… and a few quick tips on how to get more eyeballs to your business now. The goal is simple: more eyes on your brand = more sales when your promotion goes live.
- The importance of increasing PERFORMANCE above all else and how to improve your email marketing metrics, social media engagement, and website conversion. Performance is key to maximizing impact and even small improvements in email open rates, click-through rates, and engagement can lead to massive, massive growth.
- The performance metrics that matter, how influencing these metrics can make a massive impact, and how to keep assessing what’s working (and what’s not) to keep increasing YOUR performance.


LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
Join the Product Biz Academy waitlist to be first notified when doors open

This episode is an EXCLUSIVE Q&A within the pop-up Facebook group that I hosted for small business owners after my LIVE training on How to Create a THRIVING Product Business WITHOUT Relying on Markets. Here are some of the amazing questions small business owners submitted that were answered during this hot seat Q&A for you to learn from, too:

WHOLESALE
- How do you grow your wholesale business?
- How do you get your products into local stores?
- Is it possible to reach your goals without wholesale? All my items are hand made and unique
BRANDING
- What if it your branding has already been done by a professional? How do you know if that is good enough?
- How do you increase brand awareness and lead conversion in a saturated and noisy online market?
SOCIAL MEDIA
- Does growing on social media mean going live on social media?
- Is there a correlation between IG following and sales? How do I know how many more I need?
- How do you get followers on instagram?
- How do you encourage people to share your site so you can potentially reach more people who appreciate your mission statement and product, resulting in increased sales?
- As an introvert how do you do social media videos without showing your face to gain followers and have people trust your brand?
OTHER PLATFORMS
- Do you still recommend Etsy? Are there any other platforms aside from Etsy? Is it ok to like only put certain products on Etsy?
- Do you suggest selling handmade goods on Amazon? Is it worth it?
ADS
- How do I use Google and Facebook ads efficiently and cost effectively?
WEBSITE
- Is there a way to get consistent traffic to my website without having to rely on social media?
- How do I start an email list? I know I should send out emails. But who to?
- How do you drive consistent traffic to your site?
- How to increase conversion for those who do visit your site?

To join Product Biz Academy before doors close on Thursday, October 24th at midnight Pacific, enroll at: www.monicalittlecoaching.com/specialoffer

By now, you probably already know the importance of marketing. 
 
Because marketing is what gets you in front of more people. 
 
If you aren't getting in front of people, you won't have any customers. 
 
If you don't have any customers, you aren't making any money! 
 
Most small business avoid marketing because it just doesn't come naturally… but here’s the thing, no one and I mean no one was born a natural marketer or a natural promoter or a natural salesperson. It’s a skill, a REQUIRED skill, that you can learn. The people who are good at it just have been around it and have learned it and embodied it, that’s it. And if learning this new skill is uncomfortable at first, then that just means you are learning something new and growing – isn't that a GOOD thing? 
 
During this episode of the Product Biz Podcast, we talk about defining your one marketing project that will allow you to learn and grow both as a business owner AND as a business. 
 
You'll learn why discernment is a critical skill that every single small business owner needs... and how to determine if the shiny object or new idea actually will impact your goals and get you closer to where you want to be, or if it’s simply a distraction. 
 
You'll learn how to make your progress faster and specific questions to ask yourself when new items on your to-do list come up to make the SMART decision. 
 
And we'll talk about the power of discipline to help you reach your goals. 
 
These concepts are the 80% of the work when it leads to business growth… and the rest, only 20%, is the mechanics. The sooner you understand what it takes to see result, the sooner you become the person able to GET results. 
 
LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
Join the Product Biz Academy waitlist to be first notified when doors open

A big part of productivity is working on the RIGHT things. 
 
These are the projects, tasks, skills, that actually move the needle in your business. 
 
And another big part of productivity is making sure the RIGHT things aren’t getting the bare bones, the crumbs, the leftover, the barely-there energy because all of your main energy has been spent on OTHER areas of your business that AREN’T necessarily the “right” things to be focusing on. 
 
If you’re struggling to make more sales in your business, I’m willing to bet you are also struggling to find time for marketing and selling… and if that’s the case, it’s time to rethink your approach. 
 
During today’s episode, we will dive deep into what support to get in your business first, what roles to hire first, and how to free up your time and energy, allowing you to focus on what truly matters: growing your business. 
 
During this episode you’ll learn: 

• The value of your time as the CEO of your business and understanding what’s required of the CEO 
• What support to get in your business FIRST so that you can be more efficient 
• What roles you should let GO of in order to let IN more growth 
• The difference between running a business vs. being an employee inside your own business 
• Uncovering the myth behind “my products are too hard to teach others to make them for me” 
• How to make sure you have the time, space, clarity, and mental energy for what matters most in your business 
• How to get started with hiring in your business 

LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
Join the Product Biz Academy waitlist to be first notified when doors open

The million dollar question: 
 
“I have SO much to do in my business AND I have so many responsibilities in life, how can I get MORE done with the amount of time that I do have?” 
 
“How can I get MORE done so I can see results SOONER?” 
 
We’re diving deep into these questions during today’s episode of The Product Biz Podcast… and the answers are going to completely shift how you look at your business and how you run your business. 
 
Because at the end of the day, SO much of society’s conditioning is actually making us the OPPOSITE of productive. It’s making us unable to focus. It’s making us crave change and more change and more change. Which leads to context switching, burnout, chasing after dopamine via doomscrolling, and LESS productivity no matter how many tabs you have open or how many things you TRY to do at once. 
 
So WHAT is the answer on how to get more done if doing everything at once is NOT working? 
 
In this episode, you'll learn practical strategies to rewire your brain in a way that will allow you to ACTUALLY get shit done in both business and personal life… without the burnout. 

LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
Join the Product Biz Academy waitlist to be first notified when doors open

There are two COMMON challenges most small business owners face which costs them THOUSANDS:

The first challenge is not knowing what problem their product solves.

The second challenge is DOUBTING the significance of that problem.

Knowing the specific problem your product solves is the backbone of your branding, your marketing, your overall business strategy. Knowing this can create GREAT pieces of content for social media vs. generic, vanilla, boring pieces of content on social media that leads to low engagement and nonexistent sales. Knowing this can create GREAT content for email marketing vs. general, vanilla, boring pieces of content for email marketing that leads to barely any opens or clicks to your website. Knowing this can allow you to CONNECT with your followers, your email subscribers, your target audience and allows your customers to KNOW what you stand for.

EVERY product solves a problem, from ceramics to jewelry to skincare to women's fashion and more. If you aren't sure what problem your product solves, this episode will help you get clarity on this fundamental part of your brand.

And then, there’s the other challenge. Which is the myth of "Big" vs. "Small" problems.

If you think that your products don't solve a “big” enough problem, you'll walk away from this episode understanding the importance of owning the value your product brings to customers. And how thinking that your products don't solve a “big” enough problem is actually rooted in fear...

During this episode, you’ll understand how to challenge your beliefs about the value of your products and how to show up authentically for your products, your business, AND your customers.

LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
Join the Product Biz Academy waitlist to be first notified when doors open

It’s time for a little bit of honesty hour involving Instagram, if “rich” content is enough, and if you can expect to see success, or even growth, on Instagram when you are getting less than 200 views per reel or a handful of likes per post.

During this episode of The Product Biz Podcast, you'll learn why your content might be falling flat, how to use your engagement to test your messaging with every single post, how to calculate how many sales to expect from each post based on your engagement (so you can see in plain daylight why your content might not be converting), the importance of WHY Instagram actually matters (and why it matters MORE than SEO) in the digital world we live in, and more.

Plus, you'll hear THREE types of content idea, new ways to approach your content that you probably haven't heard of, that will allow you to stand out from the sea vanilla content that is otherwise constant regurgitated on Instagram so you DO start to stand out and get real traction.

LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
Join the Product Biz Academy waitlist to be first notified when doors open!

As an introvert who is learned to be super independent from an extremely young age… I didn't realize the power of proximity until I started my own business.

Back when I first started Plant Based Beauty, I was proud to do everything via me, myself, and I. I had a few small business owner friends who I met at markets that I would talk to about business every now and then, but I honestly felt awkward and out of place if I would ask them business questions. It didn't take long to realize that I didn't have anyone to turn to that actually understood what it meant to run a product based business, and the only “people” I had to talk to were Google, random blog posts, and other random insights from the internet.

When I left my full time job to focus on Plant Based Beauty fully, I KNEW that sitting behind my laptop and bring my phone by myself 24/7 was NOT going to be the most conducive environment to growth. 

And I KNEW that when people want to run a faster mile, they join a running group that runs FASTER than them. 

What I am sharing with you during today’s podcast episode is the reason WHY it’s so important to be around those that are “running faster than you”. We talk about borrowing the belief of others, how this can shift your perception of what’s even possible for you, the importance of being in an environment that uplifts you (rather than those Facebook groups that just complain about how hard it is to run a business, how Etsy is evil, and how social media is impossible...), how community prevents self-sabotage, and SO much more. 

Because the truth is, if you are not surrounded by people who are contributing to your evolution, consider that part of why your evolution may feel more like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

LEARN MORE FROM MONICA LITTLE
Website: www.monicalittlecoaching.com
Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
Join the Product Biz Academy waitlist to be first notified when doors open