Tiny Course Empire Podcast

Tiny Course Empire Podcast

By Cindy BidarBusinessMarketing
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Tiny Course Empire Podcast episodes

  • Overcoming Shiny Object Syndrome

    Interesting marketing strategies. Must-have software. Fun business ideas. Limited-time course offers. Intriguing new social platforms.

    There’s no shortage of potential opportunities for small business owners. Every day our inboxes and social feeds are filled with exciting new tools and can’t-miss tactics.

    Frustratingly though, the things we think are going to change our lives (or at least our businesses) are often the very things that hold us back. Chasing all of those ideas prevents us from making real progress. It’s so common there’s a name for it: shiny object syndrome.

    It’s likely you’ve encountered it before, and you almost certainly will again, so what can you do about it?

    In this episode, we’re going to take a look at what shiny object syndrome is, how it damages your business and distracts you from your goals, and what you can do—starting right now—to overcome it.

    Prefer a transcript? Here you go!

    What you’ll learn in this episode:
    • What shiny object syndrome is and how it impacts your business
    • Examples of shiny objects you’ve probably encountered
    • Why shiny objects seem harmless (but aren’t)
    • How to evaluate new opportunities and offers so you can know if they’re the right choice, or just another shiny object
    • Resources mentioned:
      • Wikipedia’s definition of shiny object syndrome
      • Do You Have ‘Shiny Object’ Syndrome? What It Is and How to Beat It, from Entrepreneur.com
      • Entrepreneurs May Be Particularly Susceptible to Shiny Object Syndrome, from Inc.com
      • Your 20-Minute Overwhelm Elimination Plan will help you get back on track if you’re feeling overwhelmed
      • 24 min
      • How to Become a Better Writer

        Owning an online business means you get to wear a lot of hats. Bookkeeper, project manager, website developer, and perhaps most important hat of all, that of content creator.

        In fact, I can’t think of a single business that doesn’t require writing of some kind. You have emails to send, products to develop, sales pages to create… The list goes on.

        Even YouTubers or podcasters will tell you that much of their work is in writing (or at least outlining) the content that drives their business.

        Yet if you ask most people, they’ll tell you “I hate to write” or, “I’m just not a good writer.”

        If that’s you, then listen up, because today I have a plan you can use to become a better writer, even if you’d rather schedule a root canal than draft a blog post.

        Prefer a transcript? Here you go!

        What you’ll learn in this episode:
        • A three-step editing process you can use to improve any piece of writing.
        • Why most people think they’re a bad writer even if they’re not.
        • Tools to use to improve your writing.
        • What you can learn about writing by reading bad books.
        • One thing you must do right now to change how you feel about your writing.
        • Resources mentioned:
          • Grammarly – Misspelled words , apostrophe abuse, and poor grammar are no match for this useful tool.
          • Hemmingway App – Named after a writer famous for his short, simple sentences, this app is great for those of us (me) who tend to use more commas than periods.
          • On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft – This book by horror novelist Stephen King is part memoir, part instruction manual. It’s entertaining, informative, and he is unaccepting of your excuses for not writing more.
          • Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content – Ann Handley is one of the writers I most admire. If you love the book, be sure to sign up for her newsletter, too.
          • Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – The book for anyone who’s ever felt overwhelmed by a writing project.
          • The Artist’s Way – If you struggle to make writing a habit, you could do worse than to follow Julia Cameron’s morning pages routine.
          • 19 min
          • Marketing Without Social Media
            Marketing Without Social Media: 21 Ways to Grow Your Audience

            It’s not a secret that organic reach on Facebook, Instagram and others is at an all time low. What’s worse, even if you’ve mastered a platform or two, it seems as if every week or so, there’s yet another algorithm update that threatens to destroy all the work you’ve put into it.

            Pinterest users are even feeling the pinch. The platform is often referred to as a search engine rather than a social network, and as such it’s been the go-to traffic source for bloggers in many niches for years. But now, even Pinterest has left some content creators feeling frustrated over a dramatic drop in traffic.

            But what can you do? How else can you get the word out about your latest course, or your new opt-in offer? Turns out, there are plenty of ways you can market your business without social media, and in this week’s episode, I’ll give you my top 21 suggestions.

            Prefer a transcript? Here you go!

            What you’ll learn in this episode:
            • Why I finally (mostly) left social media, and how I’m making Facebook work on my terms today.
            • The single most important marketing channel all small business owners should be prioritizing, and why.
            • How to leverage search (and not just from Google) to get in front of your ideal audience.
            • The strategy I used to launch my business and quickly grow to six-figures in revenue.
            • What Steve Martin can teach us all about getting noticed in a competitive world.
            • Resources mentioned:
              • Debbie Gartner’s SEO guides are worth every penny. Start with this one if you’re brand new, or this one if you’ve been blogging for a while.
              • Stupid Simple SEO is the best full-featured course on SEO I know of. I took it two years ago and it’s well worth the time and money investment. Start with Mike’s free class to learn more about the topic and his teaching style.
              • Affiliate Program Success was not mentioned, but it’s a helpful resource if you’re interested in creating your own affiliate program to sell your courses and products.
              • Medium.com has a built in audience and it’s easy to get started syndicating your content there.
              • HelpAReporter.com is a great resource if you want to get quoted on high-traffic sites. Sign up as a “source” and then choose the types of notifications to receive.
              • Meetup.com makes live, in person networking easier. Just search your area for your topics of interest.
              • UpViral makes hosting a viral contest as simple as filling in a few details.
              • Steve Martin has the best advice you will ever hear about finding success, and it’s not just true for show business.
              • In episode eight I talked more about participating in bundles and giveaways for list building.
              • 33 min
              • 22 Tips for a More Successful 2022

                This is the final episode before we kick off a brand new year. And since this is episode 22, I thought it was only fitting that we celebrate with 22 ways we can all have a more successful 2022.

                Whether you’re a course creator, a coach, or a digital product seller, and even if you’re just starting out on your business journey, you’ll find something here to kick off the new year with purpose.

                Here’s to a fantastic year for us all.

                Prefer a transcript? Here you go!

                What you’ll learn in this episode:
                • How taking better care of your mind and your body can make a difference in your business results, too.
                • Why you should say “no” more often.
                • Why you might be “failing ahead of time” and what to do instead.
                • How digital (and physical) clutter causes stress and wasted time.
                • How to let things go and feel good about it.
                • How the simple act of tracking your KPIs can dramatically improve your business.
                • The number one thing you can to do increase your income and audience reach this year.
                • Resources mentioned:
                  • The Intentional Inbox: This free resource from Kelly McCausey will change how you do email.
                  • Organizational Mastery for Online Entrepreneurs: I taught this workshop live, and the replay is now a part of the Six-Figure Systems membership.
                  • Sunk costs fallacy: The human tendency to put more effort, time, or money into a failing project, simply because we’ve already invested so much.
                  • How to Be Consistent: Being consistent is far more important than being a brilliant marketer or having a great business mind.
                  • A Year of Yes: Shonda Rhimes’ bestseller about saying yes to more opportunities. I’m saying no instead, and I talk about that here.
                  • How Cal Newport reads five books every month.
                  • Rescue Time, Toggl, and Clockify: Tools I’ve used to track my time.
                  • Tips for adding more passive income to your business.
                  • “… It’s not like if you don’t take action you’re reducing your risk of failure. You’re just failing ahead of time.” Brook Castillo, the Life Coach School Podcast.
                  • 35 min
                  • 7 Ways Time Tracking Helps You Build a Better Business

                    I know, I know.

                    You didn’t quit that soul-sucking day job just so you could punch a time clock every day in your own home office. Believe me, I get it.

                    I’ve said many times over the years that the best part of quitting my job was that I got to turn the alarm clock off* on a (more or less) permanent basis.

                    But here’s what else I know about you.

                    You want to be more efficient and productive, so you can work fewer hours. You want to earn more while working less. And you definitely want to  hand off those projects and tasks that aren’t the best and highest use of your time.

                    Tracking your time can give you all of those benefits and more, so in this episode of the Tiny Course Empire Podcast, I’m challenging you to get out a timer and track your work hours, even if only for a week.

                    I’ll give you all my tips for tracking effectively including what tools to use and what exactly you should be tracking.

                    Prefer a transcript? Here you go!

                    What you’ll learn in this episode:
                    • Why I recommend you track your own time, but not your team members
                    • The number one benefit I personally see when I track where I spend my time
                    • My favorite free tools to use for tracking time
                    • Three time-tracking methods to try
                    • What to track, and how to use the information to make better business decisions
                    • Resources mentioned:
                      • Rescue Time: This automated tracking system is great for people who forget they have a timer running, but it won’t track everything.
                      • Toggl: Simple, free, and it features great reporting.
                      • Timery: This iPhone app offers a really useful interface for Toggl.
                      • Clockify: I love that this one integrates with my to-do list manager.
                      • My favorite notebook: Manual time tracking in a beautiful notebook isn’t as painful as it might seem.
                      • Pricing calculator and video: Play with some numbers here to see how time tracking impacts your business.
                      • * Except I do still get up with an alarm clock, because I find I’m much more productive at 5 AM than I am in the afternoons. That’s something I discovered through tracking my time.

                        My time tracking grid in a favorite notebook.
                        29 min
                      • 3 Easy Ways to Earn Passive Income in Your Business

                        Warren Buffett famously said, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”

                        For online business owners, that means finding ways to earn passive income. While we all know that there are very few truly passive income options, there are a lot of ways to leverage our time and energy to earn more from work we’ve already done.

                        In this episode, I’m sharing three easy ways you can start leveraging your efforts and yes, even make money while you sleep.

                        Prefer a transcript? Here you go!

                        What you’ll learn in this episode:
                        • Why most passive income isn’t really passive at all—and why you should still make it a priority in your business.
                        • Five ideas for using automation to increase your passive income.
                        • Three ways to leverage time and assets to create more passive income.
                        • How to profit from other people’s work, and even how to give things away for free and make money with them.
                        • Resources mentioned:
                          • Tiny Course Empire teaches you how to build a catalog of small courses you can mix, match, and endlessly repurpose.
                          • Making Money With Freebies is Karon Thackston’s guide to giving away free stuff and profiting from it. Use code MMWF to save $10 at checkout.
                          • WP Popups lets you put sale notifications anywhere on your website.
                          • 23 min
                          • How to Be Consistent

                            What’s one thing that sets successful business owners apart from those who struggle to gain traction?

                            It’s not better tools or more education.

                            It’s not more influential friends or a more profitable niche.

                            It’s not even about your skill level.

                            Being successful in business requires one thing above all else: Consistent action.

                            But showing up consistently is hard. There are so many other things competing for our attention every single day.

                            Family and friends we want to spend time with. Never-ending projects around the house. (“Why hello laundry. Again.”) An entire parade of appointments to be made and rescheduled and eventually kept.

                            And all of that before you can even think about “me” time.

                            Taking consistent action in your business can feel downright impossible in the face of everything else you’ve got going on.

                            It doesn’t have to be though. Not when you have a plan.

                            Prefer a transcript? I gotcha covered right here.

                            What you’ll learn in this episode:
                            • Why you get to define what consistency looks like in your business (with just a tiny caveat).
                            • Why trying to maintain consistency doing something you hate is never going to work.
                            • How to set yourself up for success just by paying attention to your personality and work habits.
                            • How to make it easy to be consistent.
                            • How to shift the way you think about your business so it becomes nearly impossible not to show up consistently.
                            • Resources mentioned:
                              • Kevin Whelan writes a daily email newsletter all about marketing. I enjoy reading it, and I think you might, too.
                              • The Notion Nerds are a not-safe-for-work podcasting team who chat about productivity, project management, and (of course) Notion. You’ll find them on YouTube and in your favorite podcast app.
                              • Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. Famous for his avoidance of social media and even email (gasp!) Cal Newport makes the case that success is easier when you’re less distracted and more able to go deep on what really matters.
                              • How to Achieve Every Goal is the episode where I talk about, well, how to achieve the goals you set for your business or your life. It’s not that hard to do when you have a plan to follow.
                              • 18 min
                              • How to achieve every goal

                                It’s that time of year again. A brand new, shiny calendar is just around the corner, and that means it’s time to set some goals.

                                THIS is the year you’ll finally lose weight, get fit, start a blog, write a book, launch a YouTube channel, organize your house, quit your job, learn to knit…

                                All. The. Things.

                                Sound familiar? There’s just one problem.

                                Setting goals is easy. Achieving them requires an entirely different skill set.

                                In this episode of the Tiny Course Empire Podcast, I’m breaking down exactly what it takes to achieve every goal you set. Whether you want to launch an empire or organize your photos, there’s a formula to follow.

                                So come on along, and let’s get goaling!

                                Prefer a transcript? I gotcha covered right here!

                                What you’ll learn in this episode:
                                • The one element of SMART that you must get clear on if you want to actually achieve your goals.
                                • Two must-have pieces that make up every successful achievement.
                                • The real reason to write down your goals and keep them handy.
                                • How to avoid setting yourself up for failure.
                                • Why tracking your progress sucks sometimes, and why you should do it anyway.
                                • Resources mentioned:
                                  • SMART goals: What they are and where they came from, courtesy of Wikipedia.
                                  • Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones: James Clear’s popular book about, well, habits.
                                  • Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything: Not mentioned in the episode, but this book by BJ Fogg is filled with practical tips on creating and sticking to new habits.
                                  • Habit tracking in chart form: Some days I find my weight tracker inspiring. Some days, not so much. But the habit of doing it definitely helps to keep my goals front of mind.
                                  • Goal achieving worksheet: Brainstorm ideas, create projects and tasks, and track the whole process from start to ultimate completion.
                                  • 23 min
                                  • How to Use Google Alerts to Grow Your Business

                                    There are all kinds of pricey tools you can invest in as a small business owner, but one of the most useful is the free Google Alerts.

                                    In this episode, we’re digging into what Google Alerts do, how to set them up, and some ways you can use them to not only grow your business, but protect your online assets as well.

                                    Prefer a transcript? Here you go!

                                    What you’ll learn in this episode:
                                    • Why Google Alerts is a must-have tool for anyone looking for more search engine love.
                                    • How to find potential affiliates and JV partners with Google Alerts.
                                    • What opportunity phrases are and how to use them to be more visible online.
                                    • Resources mentioned:
                                      • Google Alerts (of course)
                                      • Quora.com: A great place to discover what questions your audience is asking. Use site:quora.com + your keyword in a Google Alert.
                                      • How to Set Up a Google Alert: This guide is a part of the Visibility Toolkit. If you’re looking for more ways to boost your online visibility, this kit is a great place to start.
                                      • 27 min
                                      • 6 Online Business Models to Try

                                        There are almost as many ways to make money online as there are people in the world who are doing it.

                                        In this episode, I’m going to break down six popular online business models, including what it takes to get started, the profit potential for each, and how to know which one is the right fit for you.

                                        Plus, we’ll talk about how to combine business models to create multiple streams of income in your business.

                                        Prefer a transcript? Here you go!

                                        What you’ll learn in this episode:
                                        • Which online business to build when you need quick cash.
                                        • Why even the most passive sounding model requires a lot more work than you think it will (sorry – no free rides here).
                                        • How bloggers get paid, and why it might not be exactly like you imagine.
                                        • The one business model that I think is right for everyone (even you).
                                        • Resources mentioned:
                                          • How to Choose Your Tech Stack: If you’re feeling stuck in marketing technology quicksand, this episode is for you.
                                          • What Happens to Your Business if You Can’t Work: For freelancers and solopreneurs who need a backup plan (in other words, all of us).
                                          • Membership Site Q & A: Before you dive into creating a membership site, you’re going to want to give this a listen.
                                          • Six-Figure Systems: My monthly training and mentoring membership where you’ll get help with all your online business questions.
                                          • Discover Your Ideal Online Business: Take this quick quiz to see which business model is right for you.
                                          • 29 min

                                          About Tiny Course Empire Podcast

                                          From the publisher's feed

                                          At the Tiny Course Empire Podcast, host Cindy Bidar is banishing the online marketing overwhelm and busting the myths about digital course creation that keep you stuck in startup mode.