Work Less, Earn More

Does your brand express your point of view? Or does it just tell people what you do?

If you want to position yourself as the go-to person in your industry–to become a brand people look up to, that they know, like and trust–you have to know what makes you different from everyone else doing the exact same thing you do.

Your personality, your skills, your history, your world view, those are the things that no one else has that will make you the person everyone suggests when someone needs to hire in your industry.

Today, I’m talking to Hillary Weiss about what it takes to go from thinking there’s not much special about how you do things, to building your brand on your unique approach.

Hillary Weiss is the creative director, positioning coach, and founder of Statement Piece Studios. She's also the cohost of the cult favorite YouTube marketing talk show Hillary and Margo Yell at Websites (#HAMYAW).

Hillary has had her work featured on Business Insider, The Next Web, The Observer, and more. Since 2011, she’s helped thousands of brands all over the world get seen and heard (and make serious cash) through her 1-1 client work, writing, coaching, and videos.

Nowadays, she’s on a mission to help more small businesses define their “statement piece”, a.k.a. the bold point of view that makes them radically relevant to their perfect people.

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Set them up once and let them work for you.

To be able to work less and earn more, you have to figure out how to leverage your time–how to do things once that have an ongoing impact.

Sounds like passive income, right? It is. A work-less, earn-more business is one that creates not only ACTIVE income, but passive income as well.

With an online business, without the demands of brick and mortar,  you can set up systems to increase your income without having to increase your hours.

How?

Making more money and scaling your company largely depend on your marketing efforts. Those are the systems designed to attract leads and convert them into paying customers. Those are the systems that generate sales.

While marketing platforms and strategies are as diverse as the businesses that use them, email can be one of the most effective ways of taking people from not knowing your company to becoming full-fledged, enthusiastic customers.

In today's episode, we'll be discussing five of the most powerful email marketing sequences to use to increase sales for your online business.

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How much time do you spend on Instagram?

How much work does it take to really get results?

I see the appeal of Instagram. And I see when I do get involved and spend time on, how much engagement I can create. I love how it allows me to talk to my audience and really start to create conversations, but it’s hard to fit into my limited schedule.

Today, I’m asking Jasmine Star how much time she really spends on Instagram and other social media platforms, why it’s worth it to her, and what are her secrets for making the biggest impact in a relatively limited amount of time.

Jasmine Star is a photographer and business strategist who dropped out of law school and became an internationally recognized creative entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Social Curator and host of the Jasmine Star Show.

Jasmine empowers entrepreneurs to build their brand, market on social media and use it to create a life that they love. She’s been featured in Forbes Entrepreneur and Inc. Magazine.

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Automation saves time, and can help you earn more, but it can also cost you money.

In this amazing digital age we live in, most of us are aware that we can have machines, computers, and software programs do a lot of work for us. And for entrepreneurs, who are trying to build successful businesses, that “free” labor is pretty appealing.

So, we automate. We look for things that can be done the same way each and every time, and we set up a machine system to do those tasks for us.

But sometimes, the soul of the process is lost when we attempt to create an automated process.

What happens when we lose the human touch?

What gets missed when we trade intentional, strategic decision-making and communication for automated processes?

Today, I’ll be talking about the pitfalls of automating too soon and of automating too many of your processes. You’ll hear about the mistakes I made early on in my business and about processes that seem ripe for automation, and what can go wrong when you do it too soon.

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Confession: Lately, I’ve been feeling BUSY.

Not exactly on-brand, right? After all, I’ve built my business on the platform of working LESS -- 20 hours per week or less, to be exact.

Now, don’t get me wrong… I’m still on that track. Not that I can really take credit for that; between 4 kids, homeschooling, housekeeping, a little (tiny) bit of exercise, and just trying to keep everyone fed… I never have more than about 4 hours a day to work.

But that doesn’t stop me from writing a longer to-do list. And then having an anxiety attack because I’m feeling overwhelmed and behind.

#yesimhumantoo

I’ve been taking steps to improve this situation -- starting with just getting real with myself about how much time I actually have available to work each day, and ruthlessly chopping down my to-do list to fit.

But with a marketing-centric, digital content business like I run, there’s only so much I can delegate, outsource, and automate. At the end of the day, it’s my face on everything and I have to show up to talk to the camera, record the courses, and write the words.

So, when Andréa Jones was suggested as a potential guest on the show, I jumped at the chance to talk to her!

Andréa is a social media strategist who specializes in how to get results with less effort – girl after my own heart! – and the host of the Savvy Social Podcast.

I invited her onto the show because, not only is she an expert at using social media strategies to grow online business and impact the world, but she does so with a focus on simple strategies that give the biggest results with the least effort

She has some really counter-intuitive strategies… including posting LESS for more impact.

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I don't think I was 5 minutes into learning about online business before I started hearing how important it was to "grow your list."

It seemed like everyone was talking about how important it was to collect email addresses, and how valuable of an asset a big list is.

So, naturally, I got to work.

Only to find out how difficult it is to "grow your list."

After I'd signed up my husband, school friends, and a few random people I'd met in FB groups, I hit a wall. It was literal years before I started seeing real progress.

And you know what made this even more frustrating? The people who DID join my list didn't buy anything.

So there I was, working my tail off to try to "grow my list," spending real money on my email marketing software, and not seeing any real returns.

What was I doing wrong??

Almost everything, it turned out.

And, starting with the very first thing: the first impression people got after signing up for my newsletter.

In today's episode, I'll be explaining how YOU can write an email welcome sequence that will make a great first impression, start building a strong relationship with your new subscribers, and lead them to purchase your product.

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Do you follow anyone online who seems to be 100% unashamedly THEMSELF and everyone seems to love them?

It kinda makes you wonder (or at least, it makes me wonder): is this person just unusually charismatic -- and they know it -- or can anyone be that attractive if they’re that confident?

Margo Aaron falls into this category for me. I stumbled upon her work about a year ago and felt like everything she wrote hit a chord with my soul.

Needless to say, I subscribed immediately. And have read nearly everything she’s sent me since.

Now, I’ve got some questions for Margo. Like…

Basically, what I want to know is: how can we both be ourselves AND be popular?

If that’s possible, then today we’re going to find out, because I convinced Margo to come on the podcast and let me interrogate interview her.

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Episode Mentions

What’s the best thing for you to work on right now to move your business forward?

Well, to answer that question, start with this one: What stage of growth is your business in?

Confused? You’re not alone.

Quite possibly, you don’t know, because… nobody told you what your options are. Nobody broke down the stages of growth and gave you the big-picture for building a successful business.

Not your fault at all, but worth changing! Understanding where your business is in its growth makes it easy to know what your top priority (AKA the work that will actually move the needle) should be.

This week, on the podcast, I interviewed business designer Michelle Warner. Michelle has an MBA from a top business school, and years of practical experience working with small business owners to strategically grow their companies.

In the episode, Michelle walks us through the 5 stages of small business growth (don’t worry, they’re easily understandable!), how to know which one YOU are in right now, and what that means you should focus on to GROW fast and strong.

She also shares exactly what you need to do to move forward to the next stage from where you’re at right now.

If you want to get clarity on exactly what you should be working on right now to build your business, then this episode is a must-listen.

This interview is an eye-opener for sure. Don’t miss it!

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It's tough to explain something if you don't really understand it yourself.

I'm sure you wouldn't try to teach someone how to rewire their computer, bake the perfect soufflé, or correctly identify a genuine Picasso... unless you happen to have the necessary knowledge. :)

But that doesn't seem to stop anyone from trying to explain why someone should purchase a particular product... even if they have no idea why.

Who are these people? Entrepreneurs like us! We have great ideas and products that we want to share with the world.

So... we ask people to buy them and try to explain reasons they should.

But, too often, those reasons seriously miss the mark.

How can we solve this problem? How can we explain our product in a way that makes sense and helps people understand what it can do for them?

That’s what you’ll learn from today’s podcast!

My guest this week is Dallin Nead, a visionary marketer, brand builder, and messaging expert who has taught thousands how to grow their businesses using the Content Supply™ method.

And now, he's sharing that method with us.

In the episode, you'll learn how to create a simple brand story that helps people understand exactly WHY they should buy your product.

And that's the #1 thing that will increase your sales.

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