Work Less, Earn More

The majority of the time, I run my online business from my desktop computer and when I’m traveling, I’ll use my laptop.

Working from my phone isn’t my preferred way to do it. I’d much rather be at my desk in a focused environment, but sometimes there’s no avoiding it.

Being able to use my phone also gives me additional freedom and flexibility to bring my office with me when I need to.

Today, I’m sharing five apps that make it much easier to run my business from my phone.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• My favorite app to keep work messaging separate and organized
• The project management app my team and I use to stay on top of tasks
• How we create our Instagram stories
• How I update YouTube on the fly
• My three favorite tools in G Suite

Learn more about Gillian:

• Startup Society
• Get on the waitlist for VALIDATE
• Profit Planning Challenge
• Get in touch!

You can watch a video or read a blog post about how to make money online and think, well, that looks easy.

But you’re almost never getting the whole picture.

What you see in those videos and blog posts is a snapshot, usually of all the things that went right, not everything that went wrong before it started to get better.

You won’t see all of the potential hazards and challenges that come with those business models because you’re not being given the full breadth of the real-world experience of running that business and what it took to make it a success.

So today, I’m talking to online business’s self-labeled Crash Test Dummy, Pat Flynn.

Pat has tested out so many different ways to make money online, and he’s going to let me pick his brain and do a deep dive about what worked, what flopped, and how profitable they really were.

Pat Flynn is a father, husband, and entrepreneur who lives and works in San Diego, CA. He owns several successful online businesses and is a professional blogger, keynote speaker, Wall Street Journal bestselling author, and host of the Smart Passive Income and AskPat podcasts, which have earned a combined total of over 65 million downloads, multiple awards, and features in publications such as The New York Times and Forbes. He is also an advisor to ConvertKit, LeadPages, Teachable, and other companies in the digital marketing arena.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why asking what model you should start with is the wrong question, and the questions you should be asking instead
• How his audience informed Pat’s initial venture into online business
• Why you should think of affiliate marketing and sponsorships as providing a service to your audience
• How books and speaking can support your brand and create income
• The business models that have the highest ROI and profit margins for Pat

Learn more about Pat:

• Smart Passive Income
• Smart Passive Income Podcast
• Ask Pat Podcast
• Instagram: @PatFlynn
• Twitter: @PatFlynn
• Will It Fly? How to test your next business idea so you don’t waste your time and money

Learn more about Gillian:



• Startup Society
• Get on the waitlist for VALIDATE
• Profit Planning Challenge
• Get in touch!

Business owners are always hearing and talking about growth and scale.You want your business to succeed and make money, which means doing more business, right?

But you’ll probably have to make some major changes or pivots along the way to make growth sustainable.

Today’s guest has gone through those major pivots and changes as her business has grown. She’s even gone through several iterations of her business model to land where she is now.

Hannah Murphy is a productivity strategist and owner of With Hannah & Co. She helps entrepreneurs create a profit-focused schedule that eliminates unnecessary task switching, long nights and never-ending to-do lists.

Having been through the long hours, seven days a week trying to grow her client list style of doing business,

Hannah realized she needed to rethink what a productive schedule looked like. Once she did, she was able to achieve the growth she was looking for and more.

I wanted to talk to her about the changes she’s made in her business, from starting as a virtual assistant to becoming a productivity strategist and what that means, and the motivations behind the pivots and phases of her business.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How Hannah approached developing new skills and pitching her ideal clients
• How a simple referral program grew her business from 3 to 27 clients in just a few months
• Why prioritizing systems and recognizing her weak points helped Hannah make smart hiring choices
• How her productivity coaching grew out of her existing clients and when she realized creating a course would help stave off burnout

Learn more about Hannah:

• With Hannah & Co.
• Instagram: @WithHannahAndCo

Learn more about Gillian:



• Startup Society
• Get on the waitlist for VALIDATE
• Profit Planning Challenge
• Get in touch!

You’ve got your messaging down, now it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty.

Part three of The Easiest Business Plan Ever breaks down your marketing strategy.

This is where you’ll get down to the fine details of your customer’s demographics and psychographics so you can figure out how you’ll get the word out about your business and how you’re going to tell people about your products so you can start making sales.

This is where you’ll really start generating that to-do list of action items to get your business up and running.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How overly wide demographics water down your message and hurt your sales
• Questions to help you find the key psychographics your customers will have in common
• Ways to estimate the size of your target market
• How to build brand visibility
• The two parts of your conversion strategy

Learn more about Gillian:

• Startup Society
• Get on the waitlist for VALIDATE
• Profit Planning Challenge
• Get in touch!
• The Easiest Business Plan Ever

Resources:



• Business Planning DEEP DIVE (Pt. 1)
• Business Planning DEEP DIVE (Pt. 2)
• FREE 6-Part Business Planning Video Series

Your business has a name, an address, a legal structure, and a clear description of what you do. What next?

Part two of The Easiest Business Plan Ever covers your marketing messaging.

This is where you take that clear, concise description of what your business does, and turn it into persuasive messaging that makes people want to work with you or buy from you.

Getting your marketing messaging down means you know who your customer is, what their problems are, and how your product or service solves those problems.

And that sets up your business for success.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Questions for getting clear on your customers’ problem and the result you offer
• Why your customers need to really understand how your offering solves their problem
• How the story of your company and why you do what you do strengthens your message
• Key questions to differentiate yourself from the competition
• How to turn your product or service into a system

Learn more about Gillian:



• Startup Society
• Get on the waitlist for VALIDATE
• Profit Planning Challenge
• Get in touch!
• The Easiest Business Plan Ever

Creating a solid strategic plan for your business doesn’t have to be a long arduous process.

Four years ago, I created the Easiest Business Plan Ever and it’s since been downloaded by literally thousands of people.

But up until this point, I've never gone very deep with any one section of the plan, so starting today, that’s going to change.

I’ll be breaking down the business plan, section by section, step by step over the next three episodes to answer your questions about how to use the template to easily create a business plan and strategy that works for you.

We’re starting today with your business overview and all of the pieces you’ll need to have worked out from your business’s name to something called the chart of accountability.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Four things to keep in mind when naming your business
• Why your business might need multiple addresses
• Key considerations when choosing a legal structure
• Questions to help you write a clear, concise description of your business and its mission
• Why you should create your chart of accountability even if you’re a sole proprietor

Learn more about Gillian:



• Startup Society
• Get on the waitlist for VALIDATE
• Profit Planning Challenge
• Get in touch!
• the Easiest Business Plan Ever

When you’re thinking about creating a digital product, there are a lot of decisions to make.

Should you create a course or a membership site?

Write a book or provide one-on-one coaching?

There are so many options, and each one has its own nuances, benefits and challenges.

Whatever product you decide to create, you’ll have to make choices about structure, pricing, marketing and more.

In this episode, I’m talking to Julie Solomon, CEO of EmpowerYou Inc, host of the Influencer Podcast and creator of SHINE.

Julie is an expert in digital marketing, PR, and personal branding and I wanted to talk to her about SHINE because it is so different from a lot of what we see online. I wanted to learn more about how she structured the program and what led her to some of the choices she made.

We’ll also dig into how she markets a premium program with a matching price tag, growth challenges and the pros and cons of running high-ticket programs.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• The market challenges Julie designed her program to address
• Why she pivoted away from a monthly membership model to a six-month commitment
• How Julie attracts organic leads to her program with her podcast and social media
• Why Julie settled on her price point, and why she hasn’t changed it even as she’s iterated other parts of the program

Learn more about Julie:

• JulieSolomon.net
• Instagram: @julssolomon
• The Influencer Podcast
• SHINE

Learn more about Gillian:



• Startup Society
• Get on the waitlist for VALIDATE
• Profit Planning Challenge
• Get in touch!

When you set up email marketing for your business, it can completely change the way you market your business overall. Being in someone’s inbox is a totally different game than showing up in their social media feed.

There are so many tools that email marketing opens up to you that allow you to get more personal and responsive with your email list than you could ever be with social media ads.

If you’ve been hesitating learning how to use email marketing for your business, today’s episode is for you.

We’ll cover everything from choosing the best software platform to setting up your opt-in forms and how to build your list.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• The pros and cons of three free email marketing platforms you can use while you build your list
• Why you might want to use a thank you page instead of a pop-up for new subscribers
• How to create an enticing and valuable freebie for new sign-ups
• How to promote your freebie to build your list

Learn more about Gillian:

• Startup Society
• Get on the waitlist for VALIDATE
• Profit Planning Challenge
• Get in touch!

Resources:



• MailerLite
• Sender
• ConvertKit

So you’re thinking about starting a podcast.

Maybe you want to expand your audience, or maybe you want to build an audience and create authority to support your online business. 

Both are great reasons to get into podcasting.

So what’s holding you back?

In today’s episode, Melissa Guller of Wit & Wire joins me to talk about strategies for starting and marketing a podcast, from the planning you need to do to marketing strategies. 

And we’ll break down misconceptions about the charts, market saturation and why you don’t need a ton of equipment or technical know-how to hit record.

Melissa Guller is a course creator, podcast producer, and the CEO of Wit & Wire, where she helps online business owners build their authority and reach a wider audience through podcasting. 

Bigger picture, Melissa loves to teach entrepreneurs. She’s a top-rated instructor on Skillshare and in person at General Assembly, and she previously worked full-time for Ramit Sethi and Teachable. She’s helped over 2,000 podcasting students through her Wit & Wire online courses, and she's on a mission to help more diverse business owners earn money online doing work they love.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Three reasons to start a podcast even if you don’t have a large following
• How to use seasons as part of your marketing, to test content, or to give yourself a break
• Why you need to be strategic about choosing your category and what charting means for your podcast
• The difference between owned media and earned media and which one you should focus on for growth
• How to pitch yourself as a guest on someone else’s podcast and invite guests to your own

Learn more about Melissa:

• Wit & Wire
• Instagram: @WitAndWire
• Wit & Wire on Pinterest 
• Wit & Wire Podcast

Learn more about Gillian:

• Startup Society
• Get on the waitlist for VALIDATE
• Profit Planning Challenge
• Get in touch!

Resources:

• The Best Podcast Microphones for Any Budget
• FREE How to Launch a Podcast in 60 Days Without Feeling Overwhelmed

Email is not dead.

When you’re selling products online, you always need a few different tools in your marketing kit.

You’ll use advertising so people hear about your products in the first place. Then you’ll need some way to move those leads from lukewarm to interested in buying to paying customers.

And most businesses, from small local retailers to big-name brands, are still using email as a key part of their sales process.

And that's why I find it, especially ridiculous when people say that email is dead.

We’re all still using email. It’s a primary method of communication in general and it’s still a primary sales channel for most businesses.

Which is why today, we’re going to discuss how to launch a product with email.

We’ll get into the details on conversion rates, how to incorporate webinars and options for setting up your email sequence. Because no matter what your advertising strategy is to move people into your funnel, you’re going to need emails to convert those leads.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why webinars are especially helpful for smaller brands to boost conversions
• Pros and cons of short and long launch sequences
• The importance of the pre-launch period
• 10 emails that will increase your sales by 500%

Learn more about Gillian:

• Startup Society
• Get on the waitlist for VALIDATE
• Profit Planning Challenge
• Get in touch!

Resources:

• Work Less, Earn More Ep 78: The Beginner’s Guide to Webinars Part One
• Work Less, Earn More Ep 79: The Beginner’s Guide to Webinars Part Two