Unfiltered Entrepreneur by Ashli Pollard - Business Tips for Digital Service Based Founders and Agencies

Save this and use this as your comprehensive launch guide so you spend your time and efforts WISELY. 

Sidemark: one of my main goals for May was to give away as much free info as possible. I mean like -- free educational content that has so much info you could’ve paid for it⁠ -- type of free. So enjoy this week’s issue of free content - because launching your new product or service is a sure-fire way to make some BANK in your business… when done correctly ofc. Also, something to note here: Invest in systems and experts wisely. Keep simple things simple – ESPECIALLY in the beginning. There is no proof that the more complicated and costly a launch, the more money you’ll make. Especially if you haven’t done the work to build your community, nail down your product suite, and optimize your messaging.  Questions about any of these steps? I’m happy to answer them for you right here!

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Nicole Nixon is a top-hairstylist-turned-graphic-designer/brand designer/web designer...basically, she is my go-to for all things creative. She comes from the professional beauty industry, where she worked as both a hairstylist and Director of Education and Training for brands such as SexyHair, Colorproof, and DevaCurl. After finding her way to an online brand design course at the end of 2019, Nicole left the beauty world in order to start her second career as a brand designer. Wanting to build her very own business, Nicole worked really hard over this past year to establish herself in an online space. Now, after successfully launching a second career, Nicole wants to share what she learned with anyone else wanting to open a door to something entirely new.

02:11 — Nicole's Background in the Beauty Industry

04:58 — Pivoting to Something New: Nicole's Gamble

06:45 — How to Move Past The Doubt That Comes with Being an Entrepreneur

10:37 — What Helped Nicole Build Up Her Business at the Start

17:04 — Starting Over in a New Field After Building Up Success in Your Current Career/Business

24:41 — What's Behind Nicole's Passion for the Beauty World

31:34 — Finding a Way Through What You Want to Do vs. What Is Supplying You Money

39:50 — Nicole's Biggest Piece of Advice for Anyone Wanting to Start Their Own Business/Be Their Own Bose

Resources:

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Alia O'Neal is the Founder and CEO of The Product Place. Alia began her career in pattern-making and apparel construction before working her way up to Director of Production and Sourcing. Having climbed to the top of a luxury product-based business, Alia founded The Product Place to help others build up their own businesses. After working with her to create Me Time and achieve my morning journal dreams, I wanted to bring her wealth of knowledge to all of you. I absolutely vouch for her, and she shares so much including how much you can expect to invest, how to avoid being a drop-ship copycat brand, the importance of building out an internal suite catalog, what makes a product-based business so unique, and more! Whether you've been considering creating your own products for a while or you've just started to think about it, this episode is for you.

00:58 — Alia's Background + How She Got Started

10:06 — Current Businesses Ali Sees with The Product Place

13:06 — Investment + Time Commitment

17:35 — Creating a Product (Me Time) + Launching For The First Time

26:34 — The First Step in Creating a Product-Based Business

30:22 — Pros and Cons of Launching with Size Runs vs. No Size Runs

34:46 — Common Mistakes Early Founders Make

41:48 — Manufacturing Overseas vs. Domestically

45:55 — Why Creating Products Is So Special

49:09 — When to Move to a Warehouse

51:07 — Product 24 

Resources:

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Into it? Subscribe/Follow/Rate the podcast wherever you are listening (from one entrepreneur to another, we know how important this is right?!)

And make sure you take your Archetype quiz to unlock loads of free content tailored to you + your business.

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Get more from Ashli over on this side and leave your listener voicemails at the link below!

Bday Team toolkit is $450 for her team contracts + my team toolkitNina Marinaro, Esq. is known online as Nina The Lawyer. She spent over 10 years in NY as a lawyer before deciding she wanted to travel the world. As she started building her dream life, she realized that many online entrepreneurs had no idea how to ensure legal protections for themselves and their businesses. Now she provides business owners  with the contracts they need to protect their content. She has personally saved me tens of thousands of dollars with those contract templates, and I use them in ALL of my businesses. We talk about why you shouldn't be afraid to start implementing contracts and why they are actually a necessary investment in order to protect your intellectual property in an online space. Nina also shares a lot of personal stories to help us all learn from her mistakes. Bring a pen + paper — this episode is full of important info you'll wanna remember! 

02:14 — All About Nina 

04:57 — The Key to Building Trust in Your Online Brand + Maintaining Client Relationships 

13:44 — The 3 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid to Use Contracts 

23:12 — NDA's + Why You Need To Use Them To Protect Yourself 

36:28 — Joint Venture Contracts 

39:30 — Protecting Yourself with Contracts 

48:04 — Fun questions for Nina, including: What She'd Title This Chapter of Her Life, A Mistake She Recently Made + Learned From, What She Wishes People Knew, What She Wishes She Knew, and What She Has in the Pipeline 

The BIRTHDAY SALE:

Resources:

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Building your business is HARD work. We make mistakes, we encounter problems, and we have to innovate at every twist and turn. On this journey that you've started as an entrepreneur, you'll face up and downs. Maybe you'll feel on top of the world one day and unsure of what to do on the next. Maybe you'll encounter having a client base you don't know how to grow, an immense lack of confidence, or that you don't have time to meet the demands of your business. You may even feel like you do not have enough money coming in because you don't know how to drive sales. Whether you're facing all of these or one of these, I'm going to walk you through how to combat four of the most common problems that entrepreneurs face.

— Common Problems Entrepreneurs Face

— Dealing with a Lack of Clients

— Lacking Confidence + How To Deal With It

— Feeling Like You Lack the Time

— Not Earning Enough Income From Your Business

Resources:

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Into it? Subscribe/Follow/Rate the podcast wherever you are listening (from one entrepreneur to another, we know how important this is right?!)

And make sure you take your Archetype quiz to unlock loads of free content tailored to you + your business.

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Get more from Ashli over on this side and leave your listener voicemails at the link below!

Burnout is the boogeyman for entrepreneurs. We worry about it sneaking up on us — hiding behind every corner just waiting to put a huge wrench into whatever plans we have coming up. Luckily, after 10 years in corporate and a few years building my own business from the ground up, I've come up with a few tips that have helped me avoid burnout for my entire professional career. I'm sharing those exact tips in this episode to help any of you who are currently battling burnout or hoping to avoid it in the future as your business grows!

— What Burnout is + Why There Is No Shame

— Tip #1: Busy + Slow Periods

— Tip #2: Time Off

— Tip #3: Creating Balance

— Tip #4: Listening to Your Body

— Tip #5: Integrating Play in Your Day-to-Day

Resources:

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Into it? Subscribe/Follow/Rate the podcast wherever you are listening (from one entrepreneur to another, we know how important this is right?!)

And make sure you take your Archetype quiz to unlock loads of free content tailored to you + your business.

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Get more from Ashli over on this side and leave your listener voicemails at the link below!

So you want to grow your team but you don't know where to start. Maybe you don't know where to look, or you aren't sure how to conduct an interview, or you don't even know how to budget for a new team member. Don't worry — the Unfiltered Entrepreneur is here for you. In this episode, I am going to guide you through the interview process, from finding talent, to creating an application, to having a successful interview. I tell you all about the questions that I ask people and the main things that I look for when I hire someone. (HINT: Finding the "perfect" fit shouldn't necessarily be your main focus!)

1:20 — Our New Team Toolkit to Help You Build the Team of Your Dreams

3:35 — Finding Talent to Interview

6:17 — The Pre-Interview Process + Which Questions You Should Consider Asking on Your Application

14:32 — What to Expect From an Interview + Avoiding Common Pitfalls

19:05 — The Big Three: Basics, Personality, and Values

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

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Maintaining profits in our businesses can be overwhelming. There can be so much to sell, so many sales goals to meet, and burn out is waiting around the corner. Maybe you feel that if you don't meet/maintain that 10k a month, you'll enter into that beast or famine phase where we are working paycheck to paycheck. But what if I told you there was another way? In this episode, I am going to walk you through how to optimize your launches, how to do drops, and how to work with clients — both when you're just starting out and when you're already established.

1:05 — Dealing With Launches + Why You Should Start Planning Your Financial Goals Quarterly

3:05 — How to Plan a Drop + Why You Should Show People an Answer to a Specific Problem

7:35 — 2 Steps to Creating a Space for Everyone in Your Business

11:40 — Splitting Up Your Weeks Into Bread + Butter Services, Lower-Priced Services, Medium-Priced Services, and Hard Pushes

12:30 — How to Sell Something vs. A True Launch Strategy

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

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 What I want from my business and what you want from your business may be two completely different things, and that's okay! Whether you want a side hustle, a company that makes 100k a year, or a big business, each and every entrepreneurial venture is valid. Those business tips you hear on Instagram may not be wrong per say, but they may not be what you need to do for your particular business model. That's where I step in. In this episode, I'm taking you through what each type of business would require from you in order to be successful. You'll hear why the only thing that truly matters is matching the energy inside of you by creating something that fits within your needs and brings you joy.

1:02 — The Different Levels Of Business That You Could Create

5:29 — Side Hustles (30k-50k a year) + Why You Should Focus on Doing One Thing Super Well, Developing a Fully Automated System, and Nailing Your Pricing

9:17 — 100k With A Very Small Team + What The Ideal Client Base Is

11:22 — A Massive Business/Agency (500k-1 Million a Year) With a Full-Time Team + The Sacrifices, Milestones, and Skills Needed to Make it Work

15:57 — Motivational Message to All The Entrepreneurs Tuning In

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

PS: Last week to use code TeamAP for $100 off the Team Bundle!

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Into it? Subscribe/Follow/Rate the podcast wherever you are listening (from one entrepreneur to another, we know how important this is right?!)

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The way that a business grows is basically what it was like for me to find my way in New York. I went from dancing with club promoters to get into clubs for free, to buying one crappy drink because that's what I could afford, to buying anything and everything I wanted once I could finally afford the city. It was a long process that took years, and our businesses also take years to level up to where we want them to be. We have to be patient, take what we can at the level we are at, invest in what we need, and eventually we are going to be where we always wanted to be.

0:19 — The Analogy to End All Analogies: How Our Businesses Are Just Like the NY Club Scene

4:25 — The Life Cycle of a Business

6:50 — Being in Free Central + How There is an Endless Source of Supplies There

8:51 — Investing in Someone to Audit What You Have, to Fill the Gaps You Encounter, and for the Next Level Up Before Getting to Your Own Internal Team

10:50 — Learning Not to Compare Your Business Journey to Someone Else's

13:15 — Hiring a Team You Can Afford

(Listen to the end to get a special discount code!)

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

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Into it? Subscribe/Follow/Rate the podcast wherever you are listening (from one entrepreneur to another, we know how important this is right?!)

And make sure you take your Archetype quiz to unlock loads of free content tailored to you + your business.

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Get more from Ashli over on this side and leave your listener voicemails at the link below!