Copy-writing Expert Warns Business Owners About Content Writing Practices that Can Ruin Results For Them What copy-writing trends do you faithfully follow in your business? Listen to this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast as copy-writing consultant and marketing expert, Ling Wong, talks about the common copy-writing mistakes business owners blindly follow today. With her vast experience in content creation and marketing, Ling shares a few tips that will help business owners get the best result in producing valuable copy for their audience.

Key Questions Asked:

What would Ling say to somebody who wants to do something else but is scared to do leave their job or whatever they’re doing right now? How did she get her initial client? If Ling were to do it all over again knowing what she knows now, what would she do differently? How important is strategy compared to being tactical? What are some of the common mistakes solo entrepreneurs and small business owners make when it comes to copy writing? What is copy writing? Are there any techniques that are useful in adding personality to a copy?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Expert’s Advice

Ling advises start-up business owners to really understand their risk tolerance. She believes that it all comes down to our own level of comfort, therefore we shouldn’t justify cutting the corner and jumping off the cliff if that’s not in our personality in the first place. Yeukai shares some insights as well, saying that in the beginning, we don’t really need our customers, and that it is only after corresponding and spending time with them that we narrow down exactly what they need and how are we going to be providing that service. There’s no amount of research and survey that can take the place of actually being there and having a conversation and building relationship with your clients. Given the chance to do it all over again, knowing what she knows now, Ling would be more disciplined and really get clear on her message, her convictions and what she’s really good at; and then implement good discipline and discernment on how to apply this message. Tactics and strategy go hand in hand because tactics without strategy is just busy work. Your strategy also needs to be in alignment of what you set out to be, what you conviction and message is. It is the bridge between what you really want to create and the execution. Regarding tactics, Ling says that it does get hard because there’s always new tactics. And while you can definitely implement all the tactics that’s out there, at some point you just have to be smart about it.

Common Mistakes

The first common mistake business owners do when it comes to creating a copy is they try to look around too much that their copy tend to lack focus. Another mistake Ling sees business owners make when it comes to copy writing is making it less personal and more generic, and blindly following formulas and templates and even copying competitions. Ling’s way of writing copy is all about making connection and creating resonance with the readers. Two of Ling’s favorite techniques in copy writing and creating content is what she calls,Purposeful Storytelling and Responsible Vulnerability. A lot of people are afraid of offending people on their copy. Ling suggests an exercise and other tips business owners must do to publish a copy that works for them even though it might be offending to some people.

Leather Crafts Designer Gives Advice on What to Prepare Before Going Full-time as a Business Owner Are your business practices actually helping you create better results? How do you know exactly if you’re doing the right thing for your business? In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, leather craft designer and business owner, Whitney Corley, debunks some myths and misconceptions she has seen other business owners follow over the years. Whitney is the muscle and brains behind the handmade leather crafts called Corley & Hound, creating a more flexible lifestyle for her and her family while making a living out of sheer talent and passion.

Key Questions Asked:

What prompted Whitney into making a business for herself? What advice would Whitney give to somebody who were in her shoes before she decided to work for herself? What challenges did she face when she finally decided to leave it altogether? How much preparation did she do before she launched into leaving what she does completely? What sort of mindset did Whitney have to adopt when she was making the transition? How did Whitney get her first client? What misconceptions on business start up that Whitney have come across with? How do business owners get past the negative mental state? What other beliefs does she see among business owners that is actually a misconception? What sort of mindset did Whitney have to have in order to run a successful business? If she were to do business all over again, what would she do differently?

 Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Expert’s Advice

Advice from Whitney: You should start small, you’re ultimately going to end up where you’re supposed to be. And if you’re not able to immediately quit your job right now, just start small, see where it goes from there, eventually it will grow and you’ll be able to stop doing what’s not working for you more and more. Before working full time on her business, Whitney prepared for what she’ll need on the creative side. However, she did not prepare enough for the marketing side of her business. Yeukai advises start up business owners to take time to find a mentor before you actually launch your business, clarify what steps you need to take and what needs to be done before heading on to do it. Working for yourself definitely takes more responsibility as you have to be responsible for every action that you make. Whitney’s advice for start up business owners: You have to have total faith in yourself that you can do it, do not listen to anybody else that may have doubts. You must believe that you can do it, and it may not be overnight – it will probably take some time, but do not lose that faith that you will make it.

Myths and Misconceptions

One misconception that Whitney has seen is that starting up a business is really hard. And while it can be hard, what’s really hard is keeping a positive mental state. For those people who get stuck on having a negative state of mind, if you feel like you have worked so hard and you still have not done anything well, it doesn’t mean that you’re a failure, just do the best you can with what time you have. Another misconception that Whitney has come across with is that you don’t have to personalize every order. When it comes to marketing, Whitney has now perfected Etsy’s systems; she has been working on making her product sale-able on Pinterest. Given the chance to start all over again, Whitney would change the way she prepared, she would spend less time creating all of the different little items that she provides, and spend more time marketing instead of creating, or understanding how to market.

Transformation Expert Talks About the Importance of Empowering Business Owners Today What needs to happen internally when you’re in a transitional phase? Transformational teacher and empowerment expert, Jody Swift, talks with Yeukai about the many aspects of transformation, especially for individuals who are planning on or are in the process of building their own business.

Key Questions Asked:

How does Jody work with business owners today? What would be her advice to business owners to get themselves back on the track? How can business owners engage in becoming aware of themselves? Is there anything that people are doing which they think are having a positive impact yet in reality they are not making a good impact at all when it comes to reaching their goals as business owners? How did Jody get her first client? How does she market her business today? How does Jody go about picking the right people to work with?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:                              

Jody’s Journey

Jody helps people who are challenged of being two people to figure out their why from the beginning. Once you figure out what your love languages are and what drives you, you can figure out whether or not they are being fulfilled in your workplace. People stay where they are when they are being rewarded in some way. Jody recommends two pieces of literature for business owners to pick up: The ‘5 Love Languages’ by Gary Chapman and ‘The Passion Test’ by Chris Attwood and Janet Attwood. So many times we’re waiting to talk, we’re not actually listening to what somebody has to say… Being able to communicate where we’re at with whomever we’re with makes a big difference in terms of the success of that communication piece.

Becoming Aware

Business owners can get so wrapped up in the how, we forget about the initial intention of looking for what they want to get out of the business. When she’s doing goal setting with her clients, Jody suggests that they rid themselves of the burden of the how because it will come if you focus on the end result. Jody markets her business mainly through word of mouth, Facebook and other social media platforms, and sending newsletter to the people she meets.

Expert’s Advice

Jody believes in the power of attraction. When it comes to people to work with, she is looking for particular personality types – the really open minded people who see possibility in a number of different things. Jody advises business owners to form their tribe. Get clear on your vision and then form your tribe, find the people who believe in you and who believe in your vision, and the rest will come. Another advice Jody gives to people is to continue to educate yourself on you – not just on business but on you, and how you tick.

One of the Industry’s Most Talked-about Marketing Expert Warns Business Owners Not to Make These Mistakes How do you go from being broke to running a seven-figure business doing what you love? Amanda C. Watts is a marketing authority and has proven herself to be the right expert when it comes to turning one’s passion into a full time job or even a successful business venture. In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, Amanda answers Yeukai’s questions about the mistakes she often see business owners do that keep them from achieving their full potential, and how to best avoid them.

Key Questions Asked:

What had to happen mentally in order for Amanda to build a seven figure business? What advice would Amanda give to someone who wants to actually make things happen but there’s no support from family or anyone around them? What role did mentors play in Amanda’s journey, especially when she was just starting her business? How did she get her first client? What mistakes does Amanda see start up business owners do that stops them before they even get started in making money? How does she go about helping client find out exactly what they are good at or who they should be working with? Is there anything that business owners do which they think is helping to build their company, yet in actual fact, it’s the opposite? What’s one big tip that Amanda would give to start up business owners? If she were to do it all over again, what would Amanda do differently?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

The first thing Amanda would advice start up business owners to do is to surround themselves with peers. As for finding her first client, Amanda did not go on to social media and post 20 updates a day. Instead, she went to LinkedIn and sent emails to people who she thinks need her expertise. Two massive problems that new entrepreneurs make: 1) They don’t niche so they don’t become a specialist in something. 2) They charge for their services by the hour. Don’t sell by the hour, package up huge value, work out exactly how much you can help someone, turn it into a package, and work with them for three months or for six months. Almost all of the client Amanda has worked with find that their niche is actually in their story. One thing that she gets her clients to do is to write out their story because there lies some clues as to who you should be helping. Another mistake business owners get stuck on is being very busy being busy. One solution Amanda suggests for this is to outsource. As soon as you can afford it, start investing back into your business and have someone take the grunt work. One big tip that Amanda would give business owners is to “fill yourself up with the information of the experts on YouTube.” And also, “don’t build a business brand, build a personal brand” because it’s the personal brand that people actually buy from. Therefore, it is important to build a personal brand. Another mistake is that a lot of people give up their day job too soon, when some people can grow a business while still being in their day job. Amanda advises business owners to not rush to leave their day job, do it safely. And to find someone who has been there and done it and get support from them so you can eliminate mistakes. Amanda gets her clients to ask themselves two questions every day: “What was a win and what was a learning?” (What mistake have they made and what have they learned from that?) Because our power and our success comes from our learning and our mistakes, not from where we naturally win.

Brandon Loures on SEO: Self Implementation vs. Hiring an Expert Have you ever tried implementing SEO strategies on your own? Or maybe this is the first time hearing about this? Wherever you might be, and whatever your business might be, you have to know about SEO and why hiring an SEO specialist is the best decision you will ever make when it comes to attracting more customers into your website. In this Episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, SEO expert Brandon Loures talks about his struggles and triumphs with SEO and what business owners should do if they want to get started with implementing this strategy.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Brandon get started with SEO? How did he get his very first client? What is the most challenging thing he’s had to face earlier on and how did he deal with it? How did Brandon deal with doubt in those early days? What is the first skill every business owner needs when it comes to implementing SEO strategies? What is the secret to success with SEO? What tools do Brandon use to help him with SEO? What is the role of Social Media when it comes to SEO? Why hire an SEO consultant? Knowing what he knows now, what would Brandon do differently given the chance to start all over again?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

 Starting Out

When you’re starting a business, you need to have both the relational capital and financial capital. Relational capital may be even more powerful than financial capital. Brandon got his first clients through capitalizing on his network. Brandon found it challenging to transition from working with a team in an agency to working by himself and having to manage his time a lot more efficiently. To get around that, he had to look into his organization and started using tools such as CRMs. First thing business owner needs to understand is the search landscape. Because SEO is all about what people are searching, Brandon recommends that business owners should read books that talk about the beginner’s guide to SEO.

SEO Tools and Secrets

The secret to SEO is having a foundation of good content that covers the main topics of your services on your actual website. One of the tools that Brandon likes to use is HARO or Help A Reporter Out. SEO is not only about what your website says but also what other people say and HARO is a tool that you can use to get media queries. When you’re creating a content for your website, keep the social aspect in mind.

Must-know About SEO

If you don’t have a good understanding of SEO and your goal in your business is to get more visibility, you should go ahead and hire an experienced SEO consultant. Going back to the beginning, Brandon wishes he would have known how important search engine partners are. Given that chance to start again, business to business relationships is something that he would’ve started earlier. Another thing he wished he has done more was read business books that talk about his specific industry. Good SEO consultant would be able to look at your analytics and can help you make decisions like whether or not you should offer a certain service in your area. SEO involves a lot of research that can be valuable for decision making in business.

Arti Sharma’s Success Tips on Effective Digital Marketing Are you eager to begin with digital marketing but don’t know where to start? These three basic skills and other tips from Arti Sharma will surely help you when it comes to getting started with digital marketing. Arti has been in the industry for a while and is producing great results for her clients in Canada. She’s currently helping business owners get better results with the exact strategies that she’s using in her own business.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Arti get started with digital marketing? What is the first skill every business owner must cultivate or to develop in order to succeed in the digital world? What sort of things do they need to have on their website for it to be of value to the people visiting? What us the next aspect of critical skill that business owners need to develop in order to succeed in the digital world? Where should business owners put their focus on if they want to increase their presence and get more clients? What advice would Arti give to business owners?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

First Skill: If you have a budget for a website, then it’s a good place to start, having your online branding intact and having it in a succinct manner is important. There are three things you need to understand if you’re designing your own website: First, as a business owner, your website’s your sales person and you have to make sure that your website speaks to your audience first, so write down the purpose of your website, write down who is the targeted audience that your website will serve and what kind of information will they take away from here. Finally, you want the brief to identify what are the calls to action you need to have your audience who visits you take. Make sure that your brief is clean and crisp, use some modern buttons as well as colors that resonate with your target audience. The next skill business owners need to know once they have a website is how to focus on and make sure that people are sticking to the website. This is about ongoing content marketing and making sure your website is being found. When you build a website make sure that it is responsive, that it is set up in a way that it switches the design on every mobile device and that it creates a user experience and also ultimately will convert better for you. It is also important to optimize your site for local searches. Arti strongly believes that content is still key and relevant content is all the more important. Another step that Arti finds to be very important is the email marketing. There are so many messages out there, so integrating your marketing message is important, and touching with these techniques or strategies is all the more fruitful for you as a business owner if you can combine those two. If you’re one of those people who are starting out and want to reach more audience fairly quickly, Arti suggests for you to invest in social media and content marketing. Choose one to two that you really know how to work and then do them really well, consistency is important. It’s all about connections and contents today when it comes to digital marketing, so the more you share other people’s content, you tap into other people’s connections equally well. OPC means Other People’s Content plus Other People’s Connections – tapping into that leads to more abundance. Arti advises start up business owners to seek for a mentor, and if your business and your working capital allows, then hire a business strategist or a business coach early on. Don’t be shy to ask for help.

Paige Filliater Talks About Tips, Tools and Mindset to Having Success With Social Media Do the efforts you put into your business pay off? If you don’t know what you’re missing then you can’t change anything and you’ll always get the same results. In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, Social Media expert, Paige Filliater, talks about her journey from earning two to three thousand dollars to a whopping six-figure income per month. Paige has certainly proved to be the go-to person when it comes to social media marketing, and here’s why.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Paige get started with her journey? What advice would she give someone who is afraid of getting started? What do business owners need to do in order to move from their current ROI to making a six-digit income? What type of mindset do start-up business owners need to have in order to achieve success in their business? What steps should business owners follow if they are having struggles with re-structuring their packages? How has mentorship helped Paige achieve great in her business in such a short span of time? How does Paige go about identifying the right person to work with? What criteria did she use in finding a mentor? What are the tools that Paige use in her business? Given the chance to start all over again with her business, what would Paige do differently? What stopped her at first from doing those things?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

According to Paige, it only takes one client to jump start your business. So find that client to help you get your feet wet and see what kind of results you get. Hiring a VA enabled Paige to focus more on what she’s good at. Mentors or coaches are the ones who know what you need to do or have been where you are, and thus can help you get to where you want to go. Mindset: You need to look at what you do as a gift and as a transformation for somebody as opposed to something they’re paying you for, or the idea the thought that they’re paying you for your time. They’re not paying you for your time, they’re paying for the transformation that you’re providing. The first step every business owner needs to take is knowing who the person is you want to serve -and not just who needs what you’re offering, but those who can afford really investing themselves. Identifying the person to work with: Paige looks at a few things, such as who she could get the best transformation for with her gifts and my. Criteria for mentor: It’s about how they make you feel, and whether they are giving you immediate results that you can use and get immediate results from. Assigning value to your time and for each task that needed to get done will help you determine whether it’s best to give them to the VA. Given the chance to start all over again, Paige would outsource sooner and would hire a mentor sooner. According to Paige, investing in your business is not the same as investing in yourself. You have to invest in yourself as well as in your business.

Success Tips from Public Relations Expert: Ixta Gerard What do you need to know before hiring a PR expert? Bilingual and bi-cultural public relations professional, Ixta Gerard, shares a few things you need to know about Public Relations today, especially for business owners need who wants to succeed in building lasting relationships in and outside of their business.

Key Questions Asked:

How was it like for Ixta when she was just starting her own PR business? How does Ixta go about meeting clients and having them actually pay for the services she’s offering? Knowing what she knows now about public relations, what would Ixta do differently if she were to start all over again today? What sort of things should business owners look for before they hire a PR agency?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:  

You and Your Business

When you specialize in a certain area and decide to build your own company around it, you should know that it’s a completely different thing to manage a business and there are other things you have to learn to make sure that you can succeed or at least make your business sustainable. Business owners have to put themselves out of their comfort zone and learn other things that may not have anything to do with what their core skills. As a business owner, you have to do a lot of self training, you can join webinars, look for mentors in and outside of your area, read various literature that teaches you about different trends or things that you should learn that you can offer to your clients as well as for your business and how to promote yourself. Ixta looks for mentorship because she believes that as a business owner, you need people to guide you. It’s normal to feel lost sometimes, but you need those people to give you some light to make sure you’re int he right direction.

PR Agencies

One important thing to make sure before hiring a PR Agency is whether or not you have a budget assigned for public relations because what happens most of the time is the results that you obtain from implementing PR strategies are almost directly related to the investment that you make. The first thing that PR Agencies review are your business objectives and immediate goals. This is so that they can make a plan for you that’s aligned with those goals that you want to meet.

Darlene Hull Shares Useful Tips For Choosing The Right Social Media Platform For Your Business What exactly is the best Social Media Platform to frequent in when you’re a business owner? In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, Social Media expert, Darlene Hull answers this question along with many others you may have about how and where business owners should start when it comes to Social Media Marketing. Darlene believes that the basic processes in Social media can go a long way, and is the key to a highly effective highly efficient and highly profitable social media marketing strategy.

Key Questions Asked: 

How did Darlene get started and what roadblocks did she face along the way? Where should business owners start when it comes to social media marketing? Is there a step by step process that business owners can follow? Where does Darlene see social media going in the next few years and how important it is for business owners to jump on it now? How can they use the Facebook Page effectively? How does Facebook Algorithm work? What is the best Social Media Platform for business owners? How often do Business owners need to post on their social media accounts? Are there any tools that make all these easier? Knowing what she knows now in running her business, what would Darlene do differently if sh were to do it all over again?

Highlights of Lessons Learned: 

Starting Out

One major roadblock Darlene faced earlier on was suffering a disaster in the business because they tried to offer too much to too many people. That’s when she realized they had to scale everything back. Your starting point in social media depends on where your market is. It depends on who you’re trying to reach and what you’re trying to reach them with. Generally, you’ll want to create a place where your target market is going to hangout even if they’re not interested in your product, so when they finally want what you’re selling, you’re the first one to come into their minds.

Facebook Marketing

Because Facebook is the biggest market out there, it is also the most difficult platform to market with. With Facebook, it’s important to have a very clear target market. Darlene sees Social Media making a bit of a shift in the next few years. Instead of a static page, it will be more instant messaging apps as live messaging and interacting with customers one on one will be more of a thing. One thing that will never change when it comes to breaking the Social Media is authenticity and personal engagement. With Facebook, you need to have a great cover image that is not necessarily advertising your product but advertising how you want people to feel when they get there. You want to have really interesting posts, lots of visuals, you want to ask good questions as well. Facebook only shows to 2-6% of the people following you. Mastering Facebook will help you master other Social Networking Sites.

Social Media Platforms

Your business dictates which platform you should focus on. Darlene’s principle is “Be everywhere, focus on the one that really works.” If you’re a business-to-customer type of business, Facebook is the best platform for you to focus your efforts on because people are there anyway just interacting and seeing places they like to go to. If you are a business-to-business then it’s usually LinkedIn. The number of times you should post on your social media depends on how many things are already being posted in that stream and how fast do they go by. Facebook lifespan is about 2-3 hours, Twitter lifespan is about 45 minutes, LinkedIn really only needs about a post a day or three or four times a week, most of them should have something going out daily. Pinterest should be at least once a day, as well as Instagram and Snapchat. Darlene and her team uses tools like Feedly, an RSS Feed Meter; Post Planner and Hootsuite to make posting easier.

Nicki Morris Reveals 3 Consulting Mistakes Entrepreneurs Do That Can Actually Hurt Their Business Do you know who to go to if you want a consultant to help you in your business? Nicki Morris, a business start up expert who focuses on working with people who have the passion to start their own business, talks with Yeukai Kajidori on this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur about three business consulting mistakes as well as other tools ans strategies every business owner needs to know about.

Key Questions Asked:

What is the number one mistake that business owners make when it comes to choosing who to work with in their organization? What sort of tools or strategies can business owners use to help them to gain that clarity? What is the best mindset for business owners to have when they are going in to consult with a business consultant? Knowing what she knows now about running a business, if she were to do it all over again, what would she do differently? How did Nicki identify the right price for the value that she brings into an organization?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Mistakes to Avoid

The number one mistake that Nicki sees business owners often do is not having clarity around what their actual business challenge of problem is, which is supposed to define what they need a consultant to take care of. This leads to the second mistake which is: business owners can’t budget because they don’t know the value of the solution. The third mistake is not having very clear expectations with the scope of work of the consultant.

Tools and Strategies

There’s a variety of different tools that business owners can use to asses the health of their business. Nicki usually recommends organizations to break it into internal factors and external factors. Two of the most common tools business owners can use are SWAT Analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat) and PEST Analysis (Political Economic Social Technology). When hiring a consultant, business owners need to be open minded. They need to go into it with an open mind towards improvement and be able to accept constructive critiques toward their business. Business owners need to show their vulnerable side and need to be honest with their consultant. Your business’ success is based on your relationships, not only with your customers but also with your competitors and others.