About Being Lucky…

I’m a believer in creating your own luck in business. I’m not ‘lucky’ to have a successful online business for almost two decades. I created it, I earned it. And I did that by doing 4 things consistently:
 
  1. Learning

I’m always learning something new or re-learning something I already knew. If you’re not learning, you’re not growing. If you’re not growing, your business won’t grow. The more you grow inside, the more successful your business will be.

So whether I’m learning a new marketing tactic or studying ‘divine success’, I know that learning will ultimately show up in the success of my business and my life.

  1. Implementing

Of course if you don’t implement what you learn, what’s the point? I implement more often than most, which shows up in my success. I’ve also learned to delegate much more to my team which means we collectively get a lot more done.

My coach’s request to you is to pick one thing you’ve been meaning to implement, either choose to do it yourself or decide who to delegate it to, pick a completion date and get it done!

  1. Leveraging

You can’t create a truly lucrative business without leveraging as much of your time and your talent as possible. One way I do this is via my ‘3+’ rule. Whenever I’m trying to decide whether or not to implement something, I ask myself if I’ll be able to use whatever it is I’m considering in three or more ways.

A simple example of this is writing blog posts about my area of expertise. Those blog posts become articles on niche publication sites, podcast episodes, and social media posts that invite readers back to my website to subscribe to my email list.

  1. Mentoring

I’ve had at least one mentor since I was 13 years old. One of the many lessons I learned from him was that I didn’t have to go it alone, that I could ask for help and be given it without strings attached.

As I grew up, I’ve had different personal and professional mentors, which is why it’s always an easy decision for me to make that investment, in both time and money, especially when it comes to my business.

Which of these four resonates the most with you right now? Pick one and start creating your own luck by putting it into action right away.

I’ll be sharing a lot more how-to’s in my upcoming free workshop series – join us here.

 

 

What’s your unique message?

 

What’s your Unique Message?

You may wonder what your Unique Message has to do with building your online business.

It’s simple, really…

If you come from an authentic place, success is inevitable.

Your Unique Message is what you do and who you do it for.

And the more you make it uniquely you, the more it will resonate with the right people.

Here’s something I do with my Online Business Breakthrough students.

It’s called the Center of Authenticity question.

(hat-tip to my very first coach for teaching me this – thanks cb!)

If you’re just starting out in your online business, then answering this question will move you leaps towards making it stand out from the crowd.

If you’re already in business for yourself, answering this question will help you define the benefits of what you offer from an even deeper authentic place that will not only make you more memorable, but will draw more of those ideal clients to you as well.

Here’s the question:

‘What has happened in your life, good or bad, that would be the most useful to share with others?’

For example, maybe you’ve gone through a divorce that was difficult and the people in your life seem to remark frequently how well you’ve handled things. You could create an online business around helping others through the same experience.

Or maybe you’re a teacher and you constantly get accolades from parents and colleagues about how well you work with the difficult kids in the classroom. You could create an online business where you work with those kids specifically.

Or perhaps you’re a stay-at-home mom who is exceptionally good at living well on a budget. You could create an online business based on your tips and techniques that have worked well for you.

Or maybe you’re a yoga instructor, massage therapist, day spa owner, or provide other healing arts services. You can take your experience and knowledge about your industry online to create additional income streams for your business.

All of the above are real-life student examples, by the way. 😉

Once you have a compelling answer to the Center of Authenticity question and have weaved a story around it that you can share with others, you will be creating a connection with them that simply doesn’t come from saying, ‘I’m an author and a speaker’ or ‘I’m a life coach.’

Telling people your story – how you got to where you are and why you are doing what you do – makes them feel connected to you.

It helps them get to know you, learn to like you, and trust that you are who you say you are and know what you’re talking about.

And you know that people only buy things from people they know, like and trust, right? 😉

Your answer to the Center of Authenticity is one of the easiest roads to building your own successful and sustainable 6-figure business.

So, what’s your Unique Message?

PS: Figuring out your Unique Message is one of the first steps inside the Online Business Breakthrough!

Interested in finding out more? Join me upcoming free workshop here.

3 Simple Steps to Grow Your List with Attention

One of the most important assets in your business is your email list, so I want to give you 3 simple steps to grow your email list.

Growing my email list was what changed everything in my business, moving it from a very slow 1:1 sales cycle to a much more lucrative 1:many sales cycle instead.

But how do you grow your list, consistently and easily?

By paying attention to it.

Because, just like money, your list likes to be paid attention to. And if you don’t pay attention to your list, it will demand your attention one way or another.

If you pay attention to it, it will reward you with more income, more joint venture opportunities, better relationships with your audience, and a lot more.

But if you don’t pay attention to it… well, none of those things can happen.

Luckily, paying attention to your list is easy. 🙂

It’s just three simple steps: Create, Schedule, Automate

Step 1: Create your promotions channel list

Once you’ve created your fresh and compelling free content opt-in, the next step is to create a list of places you can promote it.

Depending on what channels you’re using to grow your audience, this may include using social media, pay-per-click ads, sharing with memberships or organizations you’re a part of, or other avenues through which you can reach your market.

Because my business in 95% online, the main channel I use to promote my freebie is social media, and mostly on Facebook.

Your first step is to make a list of the various channels you can use to promote your free content opt-in.

2. Schedule your promotions

Your second step is to create a promotion schedule for your free content opt-in. Decide where and how often you’ll promote your freebie through each of your channels.

Because I mainly grow my email list via social media, my schedule may look like this:

– 2 Facebook Page posts per week
– 2 Free Facebook Group posts per week (my group)
– 2 LinkedIn posts per week
– 2 Instagram posts per week

Remember that not everyone who follows your social media accounts will see all your posts, so don’t worry about posting too often or posting the same content across all your platforms.

Ok, your turn –> Create your own promotion schedule for your freebie, using the list of channels you wrote in step 1.

3. Automate the promotion of your free content opt-in

While you can promote your freebie manually, as soon as you can, either hire someone to do this task for you, or use the native scheduler for each platform, or consider investing in a third-party scheduling service, like Hootsuite.

Now that you know where and when to promote your free content opt-in, your next step is to pay attention to it even more by nurturing the list you’re growing. (Go here for more on how to do that.)

Questions? Ask them here

If you want very affordable step-by-step training on how to write an effective nurture sequence for your online business, then check out my Online Business Breakthrough program.

Online Business Breakthrough is the #1 affordable & accessible online training for new and emerging service-based business owners who want to create a highly profitable business online in less than part-time hours.

Writing an Evergreen Nurture Sequence to Make More Sales: 3 Easy Steps

Writing an evergreen nurture sequence to make more sales is one of my favorite things to do. These are the email nurture sequences that specifically lead a new subscriber to become a new buyer without any additional effort on my part. And it doesn’t get much better than that!

Here are three easy steps to writing an evergreen nurture sequence so you can make more sales on autopilot too:

1. Start with the end in mind

Before you start writing your evergreen nurture sequence to make more sales, you need to know which specific offer you’re leading your reader to.

For example, let’s say you have a membership, and you want to encourage your reader to join. When you’re writing your email nurture sequence, your emails should talk about your membership, but only indirectly at first. See #2.

2. Tell stories

One of the best ways to turn a reader into a buyer is to tell stories about your offer.

What made you put the offer together and why does it matters so much to you and to your reader? Where were your current members before they joined and what have they gained from being a part of your membership? How does your membership relate to where your potential buyer is today with regards to what’s going on in their minds and their hearts. What’s the mini hero’s journey you can take them on?

Ask yourself these questions and jot down notes on how you can weave a story around your answers that will resonate with your reader. This is the best way to connect with your reader both in their mind and their heart.

3. Ask more than once

Near the end of your email nurture sequence, you’ll make them an offer to buy.

What I see happen too often is that the ‘ask’ email gets sent, but your reader doesn’t buy. And while there are a million reasons why they didn’t say yes right away, it’s not an effective use of our time to figure that out when it comes to using an email nurture sequence to make more sales.

What IS effective is to ask again – and again – and again, in different ways and in different timed intervals. In between, you continue to nurture the relationship in a variety of ways, until they say yes, or until they move on.

(and for my top two tips for highly effective emails, click here)

Questions? Ask them here

If you want very affordable step-by-step training on how to write an effective nurture sequence for your online business, then check out my Online Business Breakthrough program.

Online Business Breakthrough is the #1 affordable & accessible online training for new and emerging service-based business owners who want to create a highly profitable business online in less than part-time hours.

Writing an evergreen nurture sequence to make more sales

5 Easy and Effective Ways to Say Thank You in Your Business

5 easy and effective ways to say thank you in your business​Here are 5 easy and effective ways to say thank you in your business today!

It seems that the holiday season starts earlier and earlier, with Christmas cards taking over most of the card section of any store right after Halloween (if not before!).

However, as for planning on how to market for and during the holiday season for our business, it’s almost never too early.

One of my mantras is “Giver’s Get,” meaning that you’re giving from a place of having no expectation of receiving anything in return.

Here are 5 ways that you can give in your business, feel really good about it, and reap the rewards from the Universe.

1. Thank your clients and customers.

An obvious one to do around Thanksgiving is to show your gratitude to your current clients and customers for their business. But you might be surprised at how few business owners actually take the time to do this.

It could be something as simple as expressing your thanks in a short email. Or you could send a thank you card in the mail. Or you could take it a step further and send a postcard that expressed your gratitude with a link to a special free gift to your clients and customers.

Taking the time to say thank you goes a long way towards deepening that all-important relationship with your current clients and customers. If you do nothing else this holiday season, at least do this.

2. Give your email list a gift.

Your ‘pot of gold’ in your business in your email list of potential clients and customers. You should always be treating them well, but at least once a year, offer them a gift – no strings attached – just to say thanks!

3. Give a holiday coupon.

As a gift to your list as well as to give you a boost in your income, why not offer a coupon towards one or more of your offerings. You could offer a 2-for-1 coaching session, or a 20% off discount for one of your ebooks or ecourses, or you could offer a special price for the month of December only on one of your programs. Your options are endless so feel free to get creative!

4. Give your affiliates a gift.

Your affiliates are also one of your greatest assets in your business. Show your gratitude to the folks who have chosen to join your ‘sales force’ by increasing their commissions for the holiday season.

Ideally, your commission rate should be at least 30%. Why not reward them further for promoting your offerings by doubling their commissions to 40% or more?

5. Give yourself a gift.

And don’t forget yourself! If you haven’t already, hire a virtual assistant to help you now so you can enjoy more of your holidays. You’ll be so glad you did and you’ll never go back to being a lone ranger!

My favorite site to find great VAs is https://www.upwork.com.

Now you have 5 easy and effective ways to say thank you in your business. I’d like to invite you to choose at least two of these ways of giving in your business to implement this holiday season and watch what comes your way in return.