What Works

The Nitty-Gritty:

* Why social media marketing agency founder Andréa Jones doesn’t try to game the social media algorithms to build her audience and, instead, spends a lot more time behind the scenes* How she finds people to connect with, how she starts the conversation, and how she follows up* The process and tool she uses to track her time spent on her behind-the-scenes audience-building* Why creating social media content is still an important part of how she’s building her audience

Back in 2010, I was spending a lot of time on Twitter.

And, I can remember realizing one day, while working from my dining room table back before I had an office to call my own, that a lot had to be happening behind the scenes.

In other words, there was everything I could see happening on Twitter, in emails, on websites, and in teleseminars. And then there were all of the conversations that had to have happened to make that possible.

I could see people promoting each other’s programs and services. I could see joint ventures. I could see genuine friendships and deep collaborations.

I could see these same people start to rise to the top, see their audiences explode, their authority grow exponentially.

And I knew—for certain—that it wasn’t just happening, it was being nurtured and engineered behind the scenes.

All of a sudden, I felt like I was on the outside looking in.

Except, I didn’t feel like an outsider. I just felt like I needed to find the door.

My hypothesis was that much of this relationship-building that turned into serious audience-building was happening in-person at events and coffee dates.

I didn’t have access to that.

But I did have Twitter and it felt like the next best thing.

So I started to put together a list of the movers and shakers that I wanted to form relationships with.

I made that list the main Twitter feed that I saw. I spent a good hour or two every day (okay, probably more than that) pouring over that feed and interacting with what people tweeted. It was strategic and genuine at the same time.

The results came fast and furious.

In no time, I had all sorts of new friends and opportunities.

And, even though I was forming these relationships one at a time, I started to see my audience grow exponentially from the shares and comments I was receiving from the people who I was interacting with. I was getting interviewed, hosting panel discussions, and being invited to events.

Those individual relationships led to massive growth.

Over time, I started to rely on these relationships and stopped putting such an emphasis on meeting new people. In fact, meeting new colleagues and influencers became a pretty low priority.

That was a mistake.

When I realized that my audience-building had stalled out last year, I started thinking about what I could do to jumpstart growth again.

So I asked myself: what’s worked in the past?

The answer was easy, networking behind the scenes, connecting with people one at a time, trusting that real relationship-building leads to real audience-building.

And yep, I can say the results have been typical in the best possible way.

Here’s what I know:

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A year ago this week, I deleted about 12,000 people off my email list.

That meant that my audience shrank by about 80% with the push of a button.

GDPR was going into effect and, while I wasn’t caught up in the mass hysteria happening in the digital marketing world around compliance, I did look at the regulations as an opportunity to take a new approach to building an audience for my brand.

Quick aside—pro tip: never get caught up in any mass hysteria, especially when it’s about digital marketing.

The me of 2018 felt pretty calm and collected about the whole thing—but the me of 2016 or 2017 would have lost my marbles.

That email list—and the number attached to it—represented all of the work that I had put into writing, speaking, teaching, and positioning my business over nearly 10 years. But there was a problem…

I had become more attached to the number than the people on that list.

And that number was holding me back.

I viewed every marketing, branding, sales, or product development decision through the lens of that number.

I would experiment with messages, angles, and stories to see what would happen to that number—and all of the smaller numbers it would spit out, like click thru rate, open rate, or unsubscribes.

It wasn’t that I didn’t care about the people reading—I cared about them deeply. It’s just so easy to forget that numbers are people… and that sometimes the people I care about most just aren’t represented by the big number but by one that’s much smaller and harder to discern.

When I made the decision to all but start over with my email list, it was a decision to do the work to find that number, rediscover the right people, and rebuild my audience from there.

This month, we’re tackling a topic that tends to be top of mind for most small business owners: building your audience.

Whether your business is the kind that thrives with an audience of 10 or whether you’re aiming to reach millions, we’ll be exploring what works for a variety of entrepreneurs as they work to attract the right people and earn attention for their brands.

Now, I’ve been building an audience online for over 10 years but my perspective has recently made a big shift.

To kick off this month’s theme, I decided to share what’s working for me as we build an audience around honesty and transparency in small business—including my own.

The first thing that’s changed is who I show up as.

When my company made a big shift 2.5 years ago to focus on The What Works Network, I declared that I was no longer the teacher or coach. My products weren’t going to revolve around how much I knew and how much of that I could teach you.

I simply recognized that I didn’t have all the answers—and I wanted to turn my focus to gathering a group of people to build collective knowledge.

This represented a huge change in our business model—and I knew that.

What I didn’t realize at the time was how much that was going to change the way I approach audience-building, too.

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The Nitty-Gritty:

* How Kate Northrup started doing less by accident—and why she decided to move forward doing less on purpose* The exercise Kate used to determine the 2 activities that have led to her biggest business wins* How the way Kate asks for and receives help has evolved since she became a mom* The process Kate uses to know what she needs help with so she always has an answer to the question, “What can I help you with?”

All this month, we’ve been exploring running our businesses by the numbers.

We’ve heard from a bunch of small business owners about how tracking metrics and financials have led to better decision-making and results.

But the one number we haven’t tackled yet is… TIME.

They say that we all have the same 24 hours as Beyonce to make things happen.

But what “they” don’t account for is all the help she has or the way she structures her time to focus on what’s vitally important for her. And the result? We feel shamed into adding more & more to our to-do lists.

Today’s guest, Kate Northrup, has a different approach.

Simply put, Kate is an advocate of doing less.

I’ve known Kate for many years now and I’ve loved watching both her business and her personal life bloom in new ways. It would be easy for her to be an overwhelmed, overworked entrepreneur, wife, and mother. But Kate has made it her business to figure out how to do less and achieve her goals in life and business.

As an entrepreneur, bestselling author, and mother, Kate Northrup has built a multimedia digital empire that reaches hundreds of thousands globally. She’s committed to supporting ambitious women to light up the world without burning themselves out in the process. Kate teaches data-driven and soul-driven time and energy management practices that result in saving time, making more money, and experiencing less stress.

Kate’s work has been featured by The Today Show, Yahoo! Finance, Women’s Health, Glamour, The Institute of Integrative Nutrition, Wanderlust, The Huffington Post, and more.

Find Kate on her podcast, on Instagram, and on her website.

If you’re hungry for more real talk about growing & running your small business—without the hype or gimmicks, join us inside The What Works Network.

Next month, we’re turning our attention to building an audience and cultivating the relationships that can move our businesses forward. We’re even hosting an all-day virtual conference on the topic on Thursday, June 13th, featuring Amy Walsh, Dr. Michelle Mazur, Alethea Fitzpatrick, and Dana Kaye. We’ll deep dive into topics like representing your brand visually, creating a rallying cry for your business, building an inclusive audience, and nurturing a magnetic brand.

We’ll be opening membership to The What Works Network soon: click here to get all the details and signup to be notified when you can join us!

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Imagine the open rate on the last email you sent to your subscribers.

Think about the net profit your business has generated already this year.

Consider how many people viewed your last video, clicked on your blog post, or listened to your last podcast episode.

Those numbers aren’t just numbers for a lot of us.

At best, they can be subtle points of validation that we’re headed in the right direction. At worst, they can be emotional landmines.

All this month, we’ve been exploring how metrics, traffic, and financial impact the decisions we make as business owners.

These are important conversations because we’re often missing key pieces of information that make decision-making easier. But let’s not pretend that knowing your numbers will make all of your decisions objective or black & white.

Every time I peer into my profit & loss statement or check on the click thru rate of an email, I’m confronted with my own expectations and mindset.

If I’m not careful about checking those expectations before I start digging into the numbers, I could (and have) end up berating myself for old mistakes or less-than-stellar performance.

The flip side of this is that, not only can getting clear on our metrics or financials help us make more objective decisions about our business, it can present a huge opportunity for cleaning up our mindset and setting clear expectations for ourselves. We can address the emotional weight that comes along with tracking sales, leads, or our time.

We asked 7 members of the What Works Network to share a time when getting clear on the numbers told them a surprising story about what was really going on under the hood.

As you listen to these stories, consider the emotional or mindset transformation that had to happen alongside each new decision made based on something as seemingly objective as numbers. Put yourself in these small business owners’ shoes and think about what it took to start operating in a new way, regardless of the evidence.

In this episode you will hear from Susan Boles from Scale Spark, Kirsty Starmer from Build@Beach, Natasha Vorompiova from Systems Rock, business strategist Michelle Warner, Parker Stevenson from Evolved Finance, photographer Trish Mennell, and Julie Treanor from Just Lead.

Do you have a story about learning something surprising about your business based on metrics or financials? Have you made a big decision because you finally got clear on the numbers? I’d love to hear about it! Share your story on Instagram and tag me, @tara_mcmullin and use the hashtag #explorewhatworks.

Ready to join the conversation?

If you’re ready to get real about your small business and talk about what’s really working without the hype or gimmicks, you’ll want to join us inside The What Works Network. We’re opening the doors to new members soon! Click here & sign up to be notified when we start accepting new members.

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The Nitty-Gritty:

* How Jordan Gill used data and experience to set competitive prices for her business operations firm* Why she focused on serving seasonal service-based businesses and how that impacts the way she delivers her service* The stat she used to figure out a new way to offer her services* What expenses Jordan accounts for in pricing her unusual offer

Sometimes the numbers top you in your tracks.

It was the summer of 2017. I was on a bonus day of vacation with Sean and Lola because our original flight had gotten canceled.

We were on the way to Sean’s grandmother’s lake house and I thought I’d check in on my email quick since I’d be coming back to work a day later than planned.

Staring at me from the top of a stack of unopened emails was an email informing me that, soon, 30% of our membership revenue was going to flow toward Apple instead of our bank account.

My stomach sank.

The still-new community wasn’t even breaking even yet and now we were going to have to give up 30% of our revenue to the world’s richest company?

I panicked.

Luckily, even in my panic, I read through the email a few more times to check the—unbelievable—details. It turned out that Apple was going to take 30%—but only for memberships that originated in our app.

Okay, crisis averted. But in the time between my panic and realizing what was really going on, I had already started to concoct a plan.

My plan was simple: we needed a serious influx of new members to offset the potential hit to our revenue. So… get this… I decided to drastically reduce the price of membership from $60 per month to just $15.

Yes, that’s right, when faced with the potential loss of 30% of our revenue, I made a decision to lower our prices.

Hear me out: I thought that by lowering the price to something more akin to a piece of software you subscribe to, I could build our customer base by hundreds—if not thousands—while maintaining our current expenses.

This did not happen.

Instead, new members joined at about the same rate but with 75% less revenue coming our way.

It didn’t take long to realize that this was not working.

The numbers just didn’t add up.

Without an onslaught of new members at this lower rate, we were never going to be able to cover costs.

I’d made a big pricing mistake and something had to change.

Of course, it wasn’t just a matter of covering expenses. That’s an important part of pricing—and one we’ll get into the nitty-gritty of in this episode.

But price tells a story. While I was trying to tell a story about our community being as invaluable as one of the software tools you run your business with, the story we were really telling was just, “This is cheap.”

By raising the price, we could better reflect what we actually offer.

That’s another piece of the story we’re covering in today’s episode.

Meet Jordan Gill. Jordan runs a business operations firm and is the founder of Systems Saved Me, a hub for templates and online training designed to improve your business systems.

Jordan is adamant about running her business by the numbers.

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I know plenty of small business owners who struggle with how to price their products or how much to invest in advertising. I see people question whether they can hire someone to help or whether that conference is in their budget.

And at the heart of all of these questions, are the nitty-gritty financial numbers behind all of our businesses.

Unfortunately, we often get caught up in the sexier questions and forget to dive into the reports… if we have the reports at all.

My business had been making well over $100,000 per year before I finally hired a great bookkeeper who could help me understand what was really going on with our finances.

There is absolutely no shame in not having your bookkeeping and financial reporting figured out right now. But today is the day you need to start moving in the right direction if you want to experience more clarity and growth for your business.

In this episode, we’re continuing our “what’s working” series. This series features consultants, service providers, and software companies that help make small businesses work. They offer a bird’s eye view across industries and business models to help us parse the trends and systems that are actually working for lots of businesses.

I’m joined by Kaitlyn Louvier from Bench, a hybrid bookkeeping software and service provider for small business owners. Bench’s goal is to help entrepreneurs master their financial lives with highly personalized bookkeeping services.

Kaitlyn and I talk about the difference between bookkeeping and accounting, what solid bookkeeping helps you avoid, and the top 5 numbers you should be tracking in your business finances. We also chat about the pros and cons of the options small business owners have to keeping their books managed.

This conversation is a valuable look at what’s working to track your numbers no matter what kind of bookkeeping system you have. But if you’re ready to level up how you manage your business finances, you can support the work we do here at the What Works podcast by giving Bench a try. Go to explorewhatworks.com/bench to start your free trial and get 20% off your first 6 months of bookkeeping. That’s explorewhatworks.com/bench or mention What Works when you start your trial!

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The Nitty-Gritty:

* Why Madison Wetherill found herself the owner of two small businesses—and how she knew something had to change about the way she was managing them* How Madison came to think of herself as a “busy person” and why that impacted the way she structured her time* What she noticed about the way she was spending her time and how it related to the results she was creating* The way she restructured her priorities and found a new—more productive—set of responsibilities that help her drive revenue

I just got home from talking with the new manager of my climbing gym.

Wait: don’t fast forward… this isn’t yet another story about how fitness is like business.

I was there to talk to him about a job.

As in, a job that I am considering taking…

Of course, I don’t need this job. It would simply be a way for me to continue learning and sharing my passion for climbing.

They’ll pay me; but it literally isn’t about the money.

Because, as you can imagine, the numbers don’t add up.

This month, we’re talking about running our businesses by the numbers, looking at the way we spend our time, make decisions, and plan.

I’ve already been working at my climbing gym—just an hour per week teaching beginners how to boulder. I haven’t been paid this little per hour since 2004.

Taking on some additional responsibility and exploring a new skill set won’t get me any big pay raise. Actually, it won’t get me any pay raise.

My priorities are clear. My life & business come first. This job—no matter how much I might enjoy it—comes second. If I take it, I’m confident I’ll do great and show serious commitment. I’ll be an asset to the gym. And I’ll learn some new things along the way.

Unfortunately, our priorities aren’t always that cut and dry.

It can be tough to know whether the thing you’re spending time on is paying the dividends you need it to—whether those are financial or otherwise.

Madison Wetherill—a food blogger and the founder of Grace & Vine, a web design studio—found this to be the case late last year when she realized that her food blog was taking up most of her time but her web design studio was producing serious financial results.

It was time to make a decision and get her priorities straight.

Madison and I chat about how she ended up with 2 businesses in the first place, how she knew something needed to change, and how her workdays have changed now that she’s reprioritized her businesses. We also discuss how she’s becoming aware of her identity as a busy person—and the challenges that creates.

Have you made an important decision in your business because you got real with the numbers? Have you discovered a new opportunity right under your nose when you examined your traffic, profit margin, or conversion rate? We want to hear about it!

Share your story on Instagram and tag me, @tara_mcmullin and use the hashtag #explorewhatworks.

Now, let’s find out what works for Madison Wetherill!

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The Nitty-Gritty:

* Why Rita Barry chose to focus on helping clients understand the numbers when it comes to their website traffic* The mistakes small business owners make that prevent them from taking advantage of the information they have* The first step Rita takes with every new client* Why Rita maps the customer journey and how it helps her make recommendations to clients* What Rita looks for when she opens up her clients’ Google Analytics dashboards

Let’s cut to the chase: how confident are you in your ability to understand what’s going on with your website traffic?

When was the last time you even logged into Google Analytics or your stats dashboard? Do you know where your traffic is coming from and what traffic sources produce the most email subscribers or sales?

Do you know what blog posts bring in the most revenue? Do you know what social media platforms actually drive traffic to your website (or just which ones you think drive traffic)? Do you know the process a new customer goes through from the moment they hit your website to the moment they make a purchase?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, dear listener, you’re not alone.

The truth is that I don’t know the answers to most of these questions, either. I have a good idea of where our traffic comes from and how new subscribers get on our email list.

But I could be doing a lot more to equip myself with the knowledge I need to make better decisions and smarter investments.

Today, I’ve got a special interview with Rita Barry.

Rita is the founder of a marketing agency that specializes in helping their clients understand the metrics and analytics behind their businesses so they can make the most of the information they have.

As with the rest of our “What’s Working” series, instead of asking Rita what works for her, I ask what’s working as she helps her clients navigate the world of conversion rates, website traffic, sales funnels, and buyer journeys.

Rita and I talk about how to approach Google Analytics (hint: it’s not a Magic 8 ball), how she chooses what metrics to track for her clients, and why she focuses on mapping the customer journey in every client engagement. Plus, we also unpack a lot of the shame and overwhelm can come along for a ride when you dig into your numbers.

Have you made an important decision in your business because you got real with the numbers? Have you discovered a new opportunity right under your nose when you examined your traffic, profit margin, or conversion rate? We want to hear about it!

Share your story on Instagram and tag me, @tara_mcmullin and use the hashtag #explorewhatworks.

Now, let’s find out what’s working in traffic and analytics!

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The Nitty-Gritty

* How Jennifer Johansson started promoting her art on Pinterest* What happened when one of her pins was repinned over 50,000 times—and why it created a spike in traffic but not in sales* How she regrouped and made a decision to create a online course inspired by her viral pin* The process Jennifer used to create her online course and how her course has impacted her art business as a whole

Going viral doesn’t always go the way we planned.

My dear friend Brigitte Lyons is a media strategist and PR specialist. But back in 2013, she wrote a blog post about… an unrelated topic.

This was back before blogging always had to be strategic content marketing. And so, when Brigitte had something to get off her chest, she wrote it down and published it.

This blog post started to make the rounds. It even ended up on Reddit and drove crazy amounts of traffic to her website.

For more than 2 years, Brigitte’s website traffic was dominated by people coming to read this off-topic blog post.

In Google Analytics, this looked good. But for Brigitte’s business? Well, it really had no bearing whatsoever.

Brigitte might have seen this spike in traffic as an opportunity to go rogue and develop a whole new line of business. After all, the numbers don’t like, right? Thousands of people were clamoring to read this post.

But not every viral sensation is a business opportunity waiting to happen.

Luckily, Brigitte stayed the course and has an incredibly successful PR firm today.

Of course, sometimes traffic tells a different story. Sometimes an unexpected viral hit can turn into an unexpected product strategy.

This month, we’re exploring the ways we engage with numbers as small business owners. Often, when we get clear about the numbers, our next steps are much easier to figure out.

Traffic can be a tricky number to parse…

…but when paired with other information and matched with curiosity, we can make better decisions and follow the best opportunities.

My guest today is Jennifer Johansson, a mixed media artist, living and working in Carbondale, Illinois. Jennifer studied art and education in college, going on to teach high school art and art history for 15 years. About 9 years ago, she was able scale back her teaching to focus more on her art.

In an effort to spool up her art business, Jen started sharing her work on Pinterest. And one day, she noticed a particular pin was sending an outsize amount of traffic to her website. Not only that, it was generating comments and emails from interested people.

But they weren’t so much interested in buying her artwork as they were in learning how to create the art they saw on Pinterest.

Jennifer spotted the opportunity—which was distinctly different than Brigitte’s!—and started to take action.

In this conversation, Jennifer and I talk about the pin that went viral, the decision to build an online course about her unique style of art, and the nitty-gritty of how she created the course. We also chat about how her business has evolved as a result of pursuing this line of business.

Have you changed course in your business because you got real with the numbers?

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When I signed off on my taxes last month, it was the first time in 10 years that I didn’t owe any money to the IRS.

In fact, I got a refund.

Now, I’d love to tell you that’s because I was much more diligent with my financial planning. And, that is partially true.

But the main reason I’m getting a refund is that I personally made a lot less money last year.

Not gonna lie: making less money was a big hit to my ego.

Worse, I realized how much my personal identity as a provider, a businesswoman, and a leader was tied up in the dollar dollar bills.

Let me clarify: I don’t define myself by how much money I make. I don’t think I’m worthless if I’m not rich…

What happened is that I had been using money as validation. I equated my ability to do my job with my ability to continue to grow the revenue my company generates.

So it wasn’t so much the money itself—but continuing to push the needle on that money that felt tied to my value as an entrepreneur.

Taking a deliberate step back to pivot, as well as develop a new product and marketing strategy, as I have over the last 2 years, just didn’t allow me to grow at the same rate.

But, instead of seeing that objectively, I responded emotionally.

I’ve recently learned something fairly obvious but nevertheless profound about myself: I define myself by my accomplishments.

Not just because my accomplishments tell others something about who I am but because I worry, deep down, that I don’t have much to offer. The more I accomplish, the more value I can believe I have.

Accomplishing that year-after-year revenue growth was a sign that I had created something valuable… that I was valuable.

In that way, money has been an easy metric for me to use to measure my worth and to calculate the exact value I’m creating in the world.

That means that when my paycheck took a hit, it felt like my credibility took a hit.

Of course, revenue is just one very small way to measure success or value. Thankfully, I can use it to pay my mortgage but otherwise it’s about as useful as a Facebook like or an Instagram follow when it comes to measuring my personal value.

While I’m personally working on not defining my identity or credibility solely by what I’ve accomplished, it has been helpful for me to look at what we’ve accomplished as a company outside of my self-imposed numbers game. I’m choosing to take pride in the process and enjoy the journey of refining my approach.

Today, my company produces this exceptional podcast that gives you behind-the-scenes access to how businesses actually run (no gurus, hype, or magic formulas).

My company hosts an exceptional network of small business owners having candid conversations about what’s working and not working in their businesses.

We’ve dialed in operations, honed our approach, and nurtured a community culture of constructive optimism.

My company facilitates small group masterminds that bring business owners together around a common goal. I’ve personally had the chance to level up my facilitation skills and learn how much I love this role.

Today, my company operates better than it ever has.

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