Make It - The Creative Business Podcast: Recent Episodes
Emma Lemke
Make it - The Creative Business Podcast, is for creatives, makers and artists looking for a weekly dose of business inspiration, tips and actionable strategies. Your host, Emma Lemke, and her guests, will share how to make it in the creative industry without hustle, overwhelm or compromise. You'll discover how to make money and a wonderful life doing what you love.
I absolutely adore Christmas! Anyone else? There is something so magical about this time of year. It’s a time when families gather, gifts are exchanged, communities are engaged & life is celebrated, most importantly, Jesus life.
Each year we try and make Christmas special. We have been accumulating some special Christmas traditions over the years, and I want to share them with you. You can hear about them in full on the podcast episode, but here is a quick summary:
- REAL Christmas Tree hunting & decorating
2 Christmas Movies
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Carolling
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Gifting Books
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Neighbourhood Cookies
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The Christmas Story
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Donation
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Christmas Lights
I don't know about you, but I'm not the same person today as I was yesterday. There have been many changes in my life & as a result, the name & direction of my podcast needed to change a little. In this episode I give you 5 reasons why I decided to give my podcast a facelift & what you can expect in the future.
Have you been thinking about launching an online course? Well I have the perfect episode planned for you. Today, I have Steph Taylor with me who is a launch strategist. She is going to share with us the 101 on launching a course. Steph has done numerous launches herself that have allowed her to travel and take vacations for months at a time. And today I pick her brain and she generously shares so much knowledge and wisdom on this topic. We talk about:
- Who should launch a course
- When you should launch a course
- Why you should launch a course
- Whether the online course space is too saturated and what to do about that
- What you should do to test your ideas and whether they’ll fly
- The biggest mistakes people make when launching a course
- And how you should price your online course
I think you’re going to love this episode and hopefully it will inspire you to start creating a course of your own.
You can find Steph here on her Website, Instagram or on her Podcast
Struggling with your pricing? I have a free Pricing Formula that will guarantee success just for you.
I just wanted to let you know that my free 4 part video training series, The Creative Cure, is still available. If you’re interested in learning 4 strategies to increase the success of your business, by actually working less and having more time in your life for what’s important, sign up for the free video training at emmalemke.com/thecreativecure. I hope to have you join me there.
Today on the podcast we have photographer and business educator Emily Magers. Emily is based in LA and has not only established an amazing photography business but now coaches and mentors other photographers through online courses and in person workshops. In this episode we talk about everything, but the kitchen sink, of creative business.
We talk about how to:
- Price and know your value
- Collaborate on styled shoots and excel your business
- Brand your business effectively
- Get your work seen and stand out
- Create community with others in your industry
- Start a photography business in the wedding industry
- The benefits of education
You’re going to love this episode and learn so much from Emily. To find her online, head over to her website or Instagram.
Struggling with your pricing? I have a free Pricing Formula that will guarantee success just for you.
I am also hosting a FREE 4-part video training series called the Creative Cure. The Creative cure is 4 x 10-20 minute on how you can transform your creative business & life, almost immediately. So if you’re feeling tired, overwhelmed and overworked and with nothing to show for it? This training series is for you. Go to emmalemke.com/thecreativecure to learn more and sign up to receive the tutorials in your inbox. They are starting on June 1!
Today, I have Kate Wilkinson on the podcast with me and I’m really excited for you to hear this one. Kate is a Pinterest queen. She worked her magic on my very own Pinterest account and I have gone from 12,000 monthly unique viewers to 185,000 monthly unique viewers in the short span of 2 months. She not only talks about Pinterest strategy, but she tests all the strategies out on her clients and gets huge success. In this episode, Kate is going to break down Pinterest for you and talk about how you can start using Pinterest to generate traffic to your business in 2020. We look at what Pinterest is, why Pinterest is so powerful, where to start if you’d like to start using Pinterest for marketing, how to design successful pins, how many pins you should be pinning per day and so much more.
For more on getting started on Pinterest, Kate has a free Pinterest Makeover Guide to help you out.
A great tool Kate recommends to help with posting pins to Pinterest is Tailwind. You can get the first month free by heading to Kate’s Instagram bio and clicking on the link. You can use the link below to find her Instagram.
Where to find Kate:
Website | Instagram | Pinterest
Struggling with your pricing? I have a free Pricing Formula that will guarantee success just for you.
I’m excited for you to meet New Zealand's best Graphic Designer, Nicole Macdonald! Nicole is the girl behind the beautiful January Made Design. Within 3 years, her business has taken off and she is one of the most highly sought after graphic designers online. In this episode, you’ll get to hear Nicole’s journey from designing for mechanics and her mum's friends, to now designing for her ideal clients. Nicole shares her challenges and her wins in such a raw and honest way. You’ll love her thoughts on pricing, instagram strategy, marketing, attracting your ideal client and how to stay inspired and stand out to your ideal client and work alongside your competitors. Nicole also gives some solid advice for designers who are starting out.
Follow the links to check out Nicole’s Instagram and Website.
Just recently I put up a question box in my instagram stories for creatives who are just starting a business or are thinking about starting a business. I asked them what they would like to know or learn from me in a podcast. I got so many great responses from this, so I decided to turn this episode into a Q/A. I’m going to directly answer 5 questions that came through from different creatives in the trenches who are trying to figure out what to do as they’re just starting out. So if you’re new to business and you’re in the same boat, I think you’re going to really enjoy this episode. If you have other questions that you would like to ask me, please do! I’m pretty much always available on instagram in my DMs to dialogue with any of you, I actually love doing that! So make sure you connect with me on instagram @emmajanelemke and i’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.
I’m answering 5 different questions:
- When should I start my business and give up my day job?
- How much money should I spend on my business when I’m first starting out?
- What should I sell in my business?
- What should I put on my website?
- How can I stand out in my industry and establish a unique voice or style?
Links in the episode
- My “Beautiful Year” course - how to map out a simple project plan for your business
- The Story Brand website is an awesome place for slogan ideas
- About me - check out episode number 12 with Elise Hodge on How to Write a Compelling About Me Page.
In this episode of the podcast, I am joined by the amazing Tatiana Soash who joins us all the way from Los Angeles. Tatiana is a true creative right to her bones and I am really excited for you to hear all about her journey. She is an incredible Graphic Designer and Hand Letterer - her work is truly phenomenal. She has 5.2 million unique monthly viewers on Pinterest and gives us a mini tutorial on how we too can grow that kind of viewership. She also provides some tips on what she does, how she gets her ideal clients and how she has been getting consistent work straight from pinterest. This is an inspiring episode full of actionable tips that you won’t want to miss!
Links mentioned in this episode:
Website
Youtube
‘You are Badass’ by Jen Sincero
Tatiana's youtube video on how she got 1 million viewers on Pinterest
iPad design apps Procreate and Over
Let me introduce you to Jarrah from SBJ Studios. Jarrah is a marketing expert and helps brands stand out amongst the noise. She is a go-to expert on anything to do with social media strategy and that’s exactly what she talks about in this podcast episode. We discuss how to get engagement on social media, why instagram is an effective marketing tool, how to use Facebook groups to build relationships and increase engagement, how to use hashtags and much more. Jarrah is a wealth of knowledge and has gained huge success for both her own business & her clients.
Highlights from the episode:
- Instagram is a relationship building platforms. Its provides an avenue for us, as brands, to connect with our target audience on a human level, educate them on our industry, brand culture, and in-turn, raise awareness and hype around the products and services we offer. All of this ultimately meaning more sales, more customers, more client.
- It is not about the numbers, it's about engagement. The number of followers does not determine your success on instagram, it's the relationships you build with you followers that's important and that will lead to conversions.
- Quality over Quantity - when it comes to content you put out there, it needs to be thoughtful, planned and exactly what your ideal customer is looking for. Jarrah talks against just posting content for the sake of posting. It's one of the biggest mistakes she sees on instagram. A pretty picture attracts, but in the end that want more than just a pretty picture. They want to be educated, inspired or entertained.
- It's important to promote your instagram outside of instagram for growth. You can put your instagram account in your email signature, a flyer, poster, your personal social media pages, pins on Pinterest, blogs, website etc.
- It's important to socialise! Essentially, this means liking, commenting, Dming other profiles that share the same values as you. Don't expect people to engage with what you put out there if you're not engaging with other people. That's not how friendship works!
- Facebook Groups - there are many ways that you can use Facebook groups to grow your audience. You can engage with other Facebook groups or create your own. The key here is to actively engage in Facebook groups, not just passively like posts. Inside these Facebook groups, provide value, and you'll receive new followers in return.
- Digital story telling - tell a story, this is a great way to engage your audience. People love stories. Make your captions into stories and give your audience a reason to engage. Ask them questions and respond to their answers.
- Differentiate yourself - Jarrah says, "In the absence of any other differentiator, your potential client/customer will always decide on PRICE. If you’re like me, and don’t want to have to compete with every other person within your industry on something as frustrating as price, it is crucial to create a personal brand for yourself that puts you on a pedestal as a thought leader within your industry/niche. That “differentiator”? It’s providing value to your audience and allowing them to connect with you on a personal level. Think about it, if your potential client/customer already knows, likes and trusts you? You’ll be the obvious choice between you & your competitors".
- Maintain authenticity - Jarrah says, "For me? Authenticity comes back to that overused, white girl saying… “your vibe attracts your tribe”. My transparency on Instagram has been KEY in not only the growth of my following, but it’s also been the catalyst for finding my voice as a brand and attracting the kind of clients i want to do business with".
- Hashtags - they work! According to Jarrah you can get more impressions on your posts by using 30 hashtags. She suggests using hashtags that are relevant to your post and industry. You can read more about what she says about hashtags here.
Where can you find Jarrah/SBJ studios?
Instagram | Website | Facebook
I have always wanted to have an artist on my podcast, and today is the day! Emma White is an incredible Abstract Landscape Artist who has been exhibiting her work for over 10 years now and studied a Diploma of Visual Arts, a Bachelor of Fine Art & also her Masters in Teaching and Visual Art and Design. Her work is unique and her story wonderful! In this episode we talk about what a day looks like in the life of an artist, what inspires her, how she gets her work seen, how she juggles wearing the artist hat and the business hat. I hope you enjoy this chat that we have together.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Emma’s Instagram
Emma’s website
This episode answers the number one question at the moment “Should I be selling at the moment? If so, how?”. In this episode, I talk about my own struggles in this area and give you some ideas on how you can be selling during this time of crisis. The short answer is, yes you should be selling at the moment! I make the following points in the episode:
- You need to survive.
- There is actually more money out there than you think. The governments are pouring money into household incomes to support the economy. Those who are suffering financially are being supported.
- Don’t over dramatise this. Stop making statements like “Noone can afford me at the moment”. This is a mind game you are playing with yourself. There may not be as many people that can buy, but there are still a lot of people who can & actually want to.
- Make Adjustments. You may need to pivot and change things up a bit, but you can still sell. Just make sure that it will serve your audience and is relevant to what they are experiencing right now. It might mean you advertise and push a lower priced item during this time.
- Get your messaging right! Your messaging and how you communicate with your audience will make a difference in your sales right now. Don’t turn off and pretend that nothing is happening, speak to the current climate and offer solutions. Your message will mean everything.
Get my free guide How to navigate your creative business through Covid 19. I want to see you not only survive this, but thrive! All the best!
Links mentioned in this episode:
- FREE - Email Template for Florists
- FREE - How to navigate your creative business through Covid 19.
- Amy Porterfield Episode 307.
- The Village Markets - Insta Market idea.
- Summergrove Estate - A wedding venue offering Virtual Tours.
- Amanda Jane Jones - Rainbow window display that went viral.
- Tess Guinery - Prayer Wall
- Amanda Jones (The Honest Jones, One Minute Film) - Audio/Video Live
- JJ Heller - New Song written.
- Figtree Pictures - Messaging Example
- Married By Josh - Messaging Example
This episode is a special bonus episode with guests from different places around the globe. I gathered a few of my favourites together to share some encouragement and advice with you as you navigate your creative business through this crisis that is currently disheartening the entire world. We’re living in such a crazy time.
If you’re wondering how you’re going to navigate your business through this time, or you need some positivity and encouragement - this episode is for you. We’re all in this together. Now is not the time to give up, lose heart or spiral into a negative trail of news articles. We can’t be in denial, but we can step up, show up & do our part to help our communities get through this together.
Let me give you a word of confidence during this time of uncertainty - you will get through this!
In this episode you will hear from:
- Laura from La La Social Club
- Brooke from Brooke Art Studio
- Riz Macdonald from Foundd Legal
- Ashlyn Carter from Ashlyn Writes
- Amy Parfett from the Wed Shed
- Abby Muendel from Abby Muendel Photography
- Annalise Maddrell from Going Bare
- Swell Magazine
Resources Mentioned inside the episode:
- FREE Riz Macdonald's (Foundd Legal) Business Challenge
- FREE Ashlyn Carter’s Copy Swipes
- FREE Email Template for Florists during the Coronavirus
- FREE Checklist “How to get your Creative Business through COVID 19"
In the episode I answer the following frequently asked pricing questions:
1) Is there a formula for pricing or do I just need to guess my prices?
There is a pricing formula! In this episode I answer 7 questions and this is my most popular - Is there a formula I can use or should I just guess my prices? I also put together a Free Guide that will take you through the Pricing Formula. If you’re a visual learner (especially when it comes to numbers) I think you’ll find it very helpful.
(answer inspired by business finance hero Shanna Skidmore)
2) How do I price correctly when everyone else in my industry isn’t?
Stay in your lane! There is more to this answer, but basically, I just encourage people to not look at the competition, but rather, look at the data and the facts. To run your business and for your business to be sustainable you NEED to price properly.
3) Should I list my prices on my website?
I encourage you to get in front of your potential buyers in a conversation through email, over the phone, or by skype. If your prices are on your website, you may deter some people from even contacting you. These people may actually be willing to pay your price after you take them through a nurturing sales process. In a nutshell, you want to have as many people enquire as possible to have the best chance at converting the most people into high paying clients. Inside the episode, I give some ideas of when you need to have your prices on your website, but these are only in unique cases.
4) How should I price my services to friends and family?
Short answer - just be consistent. It’s up to you!
5) Do I have to raise my prices to make more profit? Or is there another way to make more money?
You can do other things such as decrease the costs in your business. The other option is to get more clients, but that’s not usually the desired outcome because that means more time investment. Basically you have two options to increase profit - increase price or decrease spending.
6) If I know I need to increase my prices, what do I do with current clients on retainers?
Communication is key and incrementally increasing your prices by 10-20% (no more) at a time. It’s also important to show how you’ll be adding value with the price increase. This will reassure current clients. Obviously, if you have one-off clients, you cannot increase your price.
7) What if people don’t book me because my prices are too high?
You don’t want everyone to book you. The aim should be to get 30% of your enquiries turning into clients. Not everyone. Not everyone will pay your price and that’s ok.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Pricing Formula - This pricing formula guarantees profit every time.
Hannah Murphy & Jess Shipton Episode
Copywriter - Elise Hodge
Copywriter - Ashlyn Carter
The School of Beautiful Business - Waitlist
Two Warm Hands - Ceramicist
My facebook group “Make It - The Creative Business Podcast”
Shanna Skidmore
In this podcast episode I’m interviewing Riz Macdonald! She is the owner of a company called Foundd Legal that helps people like us, creatives, designers and makers, stay legal & protect our businesses. Now this is something I know nothing about so I was so excited to be able to pick Riz’s brain for you guys. Here is just a few of the things we talk about in this episode:
- Contracts
- When and who to use contracts with
- Privacy policies
- Terms and conditions
- The importance of all this legal stuff
Riz breaks down everything into simple language, which I really appreciate. And to make things even nicer, she has a beautiful accent to listen to.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Foundd Legal website
Foundd Legal Instagram
Riz’s Instagram post about using contracts with friends
Mailchimp
Active Campaign
Are you struggling to attract your ideal client? Are you posting on instagram and hearing crickets? Do you feel like your business isn’t growing and you’re not sure why? These are all questions that my guest today, Sandra Chau, is going to be answering. Sandra transformed her business and many other creative businesses with visual strategies. She provides tips on how to use cohesive imagery in your business, how to make your Instagram look aesthetically pleasing and how to take and find photos to use in your business. This episode is all about how you can implement a visual strategy in your business and strengthen your brand.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Sandra’s Instagram page (a great example of strategically used, beautiful imagery)
Sandra’s online School of Visual Branding
Sandra’s website
Stop Looking Like Everyone Else - Free Online Workshop
VSCO - an awesome photo editing app Sandra uses
In this episode I interview the queen of productivity, Hannah Murphy. Hannah is a university student with a business on the side (wow!) The fact that she can manage both studying and a business is testament to the fact that this girl knows how to organise herself! In this episode, she shares her story and also her batching tips and tricks. We use the word “batching” a lot, so for those who don’t know, batching is grouping similar tasks together and doing them all at the same time or on the same day, in order for you to work most efficiently. Hannah breaks this concept down further in the episode through a little mini training session. Hannah so kindly broke down her batching strategy into 5 simple steps. Here is a little sneak peak into the 5 steps:
- Work out when you want to work. This one's my favourite! She says the first step is to figure out when you actually want to work and how often you want to work. This way you can make sure your work doesn’t interrupt that dream life you’re trying to create.
- Brain dump all the tasks you do. Hannah thinks there is something really liberating and powerful about getting out a pen and paper and writing absolutely everything down that you do in your business.
- Categorise each task. Once you have it all down on paper, you can categorise the tasks. A little Marie Kondo style! Sort and group together similar tasks for optimal organisation. She gives some really great examples of how she does this in her business.
- Plan your batch days. Now that you know what’s going on in your business, you can plan your week out and allocate similar tasks on the same day.
- House them somewhere. Lastly, Hannah encourages creatives to house their tasks in a project management tool. This way, you don’t have to try and remember everything you’re doing, your project management tool can do that for you. Her recommendation (and mine actually) for this is ASANA. It’s the best!
I hope that you enjoy this episode as much as I did! All the best with batching your work and creating a more productively, and ultimately, more profitable business!
Links mentioned in this episode:
Hannah’s freebie - How to Create a Productive Schedule in 30 Mins
Asana
Hannah’s Instagram
Hannah’s Pinterest
Rest. It’s such a beautiful word! One of my favourites actually. The word brings warmth, breath and joy to my heart. I mean, who doesn’t love rest?! Usually when we think of rest we think of sleeping, time out, holidays and a binge session on Netflix. But, in this episode, I want to talk to you about a new type of rest that doesn’t come immediately to your mind. What I want to share with you is a ‘rhythm’ of rest -- of soulful rest, that can transform your life. This is not a sleep, it’s not a holiday (although all of those things are very healthy and very important) it's a rest for your heart. A time to reinvigorate your heart, soul & mind.
In this episode I will share with you:
- A break down of my own definition of rest, “to cease from work in order to remember, restore and return. Remember what’s important, restore what may have been lost, and return rest to others through service”.
- I also breakdown what I mean by rhythm and what a rhythm of rest is. I talk about rhythm being a song and I how believe that rest needs to become a song in your life, a beat that you sync your life to.
- I talk about adopting a daily rhythm of rest and what that might look like. I talk about my daily rhythm. We get really practical with ideas on how you can rest daily and have this become a routine &/or spontaneous thing each day.
- I share with you my weekly rhythm of rest that I call the Sabbath. I talk about why I have a Sabbath every week and why I think the Sabbath is important. I share with you briefly what the Bible says about the Sabbath and why I believe that God loves rest and wants us to rest. Despite your worldview and belief system, you’ll love this concept of a weekly rest. So don’t tune out just because I mentioned the word “God”. This episode is for everyone - I promise!
- Recently I’ve been inspired to have a monthly rest pattern and I talk about some ideas for this inside this episode too.
- My husband and I have unintentionally been having a yearly rest pattern. I want to share with you what this is. It’s not just a holiday, sipping kombucha by a pool (although that is great and I’m totally up for that too!). It’s about a yearly rest rhythm that aligns with my definition of rest - remembering, restoring & returning. It will all make sense to you once you’ve listened to the episode.
I talk about a few Biblical concepts in the episode that you might be interested in delving into deeper. In this episode, I look at the concept of the ‘Sabbath’. If you’re interested in learning more about this, I’ve put together a free guide where you can have a look at some passages in the Bible yourself and see what you think. Interested? Here is the link.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Nancy Ray on monthly rest. Nancy talks about a monthly rest, but also a daily, weekly, yearly rest too. Nancy is a kindred spirit. I was inspired by this episode, which made me reflect on my own life and the way I incorporate rest. You can listen to her episode called “Rule of Life” if you’re interested in more content on this topic.
FREE GUIDE - “Biblical Business - The Rhythm of Rest”. If you’re interested in going deeper into what the Bible says about the Sabbath or you’re interested in learning about why I do the Sabbath the way I do, download the freebie and take a look for yourself about what the Bible says.
My facebook group “Make It - The Creative Business Podcast”. I hope to have more actual conversations with listeners on the page, so if you’re wanting to chat, that’s the place to be.
In this podcast episode, I catch up with Elise Hodge to talk about ‘About Me’ pages. Elise is a copywriting wiz and also has a Christian blog called She is Light, but also teaches copywriting to creative entrepreneurs. She helps creative women craft compelling copy that will convert prospective leads into paying clients. Inside the episode we unpack more of Elise’s journey as an entrepreneur and we look at 7 amazing points on how to craft a compelling ‘About Me’ page on your website. Her 7 points are:
- Your about page is not about you
- Introduce yourself
- Identify your customers problems
- Expand on the problem
- Insert yourself as the solution
- Tell your story
- Include a call to action
In the episode, Elise goes into detail and explains each of these points, so it is definitely worth the listen!
Links mentioned in this episode:
- www.elisehodge.com.au
- www.sheislight.com
- The Bible – Matthew 5:14-16
- Elise’s About Me page
- @elise_hodge
We live in a world that has come to hooray the hustle and congratulate the busy. It's true, that we even find value in how busy we are and we think THAT is success. But success is not busyness. ‘Busyness’ is a facade to the problems and issues we face in life and business. Business is a strategic and smart way to face the issues in your life & business.
It is possible to have a smart business, not a busy one. In this episode, I talk about my journey from busy to smart. I outline 4 things I did in my business to turn it around. Here is a snapshot of those 4 things that I did to make my business smarter:
- I assessed what was working & what wasn’t working and focused on the things that were actually moving the needle forward in my business. The things that weren’t working, I quit.
- I increased my prices & set a limit on how many clients I needed. Increasing my prices, meant I could reduce the amount of clients I needed in my business. This meant I was working less and making more money.
- I developed a smarter marketing strategy. We often can get so busy marketing in ways that aren’t actually bringing in revenue. I identified what marketing strategies were bringing in money and focused on these few things. I then said no to other marketing opportunities.
- I developed better systems! With good systems in place, I could work less and save time on mundane tasks. I will give you examples of how I did this in the episode.
Freebie: My Top 10 Business Tools for Creatives
In this episode I connect with and interview a great friend of mine, Jasmine Flamenco. She is a serial-preneur! She's had her hands in a lot of creative pies and has recently settled into a Graphic Design business where she creates some beautiful and unique logos, websites and designs for other creative business owners. During the interview we talk about Jasmine’s journey from studying graphic design at university, working for Graphic Design companies and then doing her own thing. I also pick her brain around the importance of visual branding, a logo, a website & a pretty Instagram feed. I think you’re going to love some of the really practical tips she gives us on all things visual in a creative business.
To connect with Jasmine, follow these links to her Instagram page and website.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- The Wild Now
- Tess Guinery - Apricot Memoirs and The Moon Flower Monologues
- Brendon Burchard - High Performance Habits
- The RE Club
Boundaries! If I struggle with anything, it’s this. Boundaries! This is something I am intentionally working on in my life & business at the moment and something I think you should be working on too. In this episode, I give you 5 boundary ideas that you should implement straight away! They’re easy, but effective! Here is a snapshot:
- Create office hours. Begin your day at a particular time and end your day at a particular time. Stop working just “whenever” and merging your personal life and business life together.
- Limit your client intake. Decide on how many clients you want to take on each month and stick to it! This will actually be a positive thing in so many ways.
- Personal Phone Use. Our phones can be so interruptive. If we work with our phone by our side, the temptation to pick it up, scroll social media, or instantly respond to text messages is too big! Put your phone away and have a window during the day for phone use.
- Plan your Big 3. Thank you Michael Hyatt for this one! The guru of productivity says to pick 3 things to work on and prioritise everyday. Get these 3 things done before you do anything else.
- Give yourself more time than you think. When you communicate with clients, let them know something will take you 3 days if you think it will take you 1 day. Under promise and over deliver.
The Beautiful Year Retreat
In this podcast, I talk about my favourite topic, Money! I believe it’s really important for creative business owners to understand the money in their business. Knowing your numbers will give you freedom and confidence. Ultimately, it's the money that helps us live the life we want to live. Most creatives have started a business because of a lifestyle change and it’s the money in our business that will help us achieve that. I talk through 6 practical steps you need to take to understanding and making more money in your business. Here are the 6 steps:
- Highlight 6 months bank transactions - highlight and categorise every transaction into Job Costs, Overheads or Income.
- Calculate totals - what is the total for each category you highlighted?
- Calculate profit - what is your overall profit?
- Determine percentages - what percentage can you put to each category? For example, 30% job costs, 20% overheads and 50% profit.
- Evaluate your percentages - What percentage are you taking away as profit? Are you spending enough on your business or are you spending everything on job costs?
- Determine your needs - how much do you actually need to make? How can you increase your price or decrease your spending to reach that goal?
I go into the details of each step in the podcast, but you can also download the freebie that outlines exactly what steps you need to take to determine whether you should be increasing your price in your business.
In this episode I share with you some golden gems that I have discovered in Marie Forleo’s book “Everything is Figureoutable”. “Everything is Figureoutable” is a mindset shift that I think every entrepreneur needs to make. After a year of consulting & coaching many different creative small business owners, I’ve realised that mindset plays a big part in the results that we get! We can talk strategy, money, pricing, marketing (all the business things) but if we don’t have a belief that we can do it, we can’t. This may be the single most important thing to running a successful business, knowing that “Everything is Figureoutable”.
Marie Forleo’s book “Everything is Figureoutable"
Freebie "Mindset Prompts"
So often people get the definitions and purpose of branding, marketing and selling muddled. Branding are the visual and written aspects that identify your business in a promotion. Marketing is the strategies you implement to attract people to your enquire or check out your product or service. Selling is actually securing people who have arrived in your inbox or on your website into paying customers. Each of these three elements are highly essential for every creative business. In this episode, I clarify what they are and look at ways you can work on these three things in your own creative business.
Resources mentioned:
- Donald Miller “Story Brand”
- Shop my Visual Brand Style Guide Template
One of the biggest challenges I face, and still do in my business, is around money and the way I view and interact with money. I will go as far as to say it was the SINGLE BIGGEST OBSTACLE between me and running a successful, profitable business. I had to make some significant shifts in my mind, in order to take my floristry business from suffering to profitable. In this episode I want to share with you 5 very significant mindset shifts I had to make when it came to money. I strongly believe every creative needs to make these shifts in their mind to see money start to flow into their business. These mindset shifts have become five mantras that I remind myself of:
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I am not my Ideal Client
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Money is not Evil
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I Need to Spend Money (wisely) to Make More Money
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There is Enough Work to Go Around (My Competition is not really my Competition)
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People are Always Willing to Spend More than They Let on.
MAKE IT HAPPEN FREEBIE
Grab my Free Money Mantra Poster here. Print it out & post it on your wall as a daily reminder.
In this episode I talk about the 7 pillars of every successful creative business. I go through each one of them step by step and talk about how each of these pillars are crucial to the success of all creative businesses. The seven pillars are the following:
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Defining & Focusing
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Sales & Marketing
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Creative Edge
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Analysis & Strategy
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Profit & Money
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Process & Productivity
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Mindset
What I’ve found is that if one of these pillars isn’t quite in balance or we haven’t focussed on one of these pillars enough we will probably be seeing some issues in our business. I think you will find this episode valuable as I break down each pillar for you and help you identify which areas in your business you may need to work on.
Get the Make it Happen Freebie:
https://emmajanelemke.lpages.co/make-it-happen-7-pillars-of-a-successful-creative-business
In this freebie you will find a checklist under each of the pillars discussed in the episode. These checklists will help you know how you can work on each pillar inside your business.
Facebook Group:
If you ever need help or don't understand, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me on Instagram or in our Facebook Group "Make it - The Creative Business Podcast".
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Makeit
In this episode, I interview Social media and SEO Expert, Jessica Shipton. Jess studied a Bachelor of Communications, double majoring in Digital & Social Media and Public Communications. On top of this, she gained a lot of industry experience working for a marketing agency. She now runs her own business helping other businesses grow their online presence through Social Media, SEO and Google Advertising. Now, I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but that means she knows a whole lot more than I do about the foreign world of SEO & Google! In this interview, Jess takes us through five simple ways that SEO can drive more traffic to a website. This is like a little mini training and by the end of the episode you will have some actionable steps to take for your business.
The five strategies include:
- Adding Keywords
- Implementing Metadata
- Image Alt-Text
- Readability
- Inbound, Outbound & Internal Links
These are some key resources Jessica mentioned in the episode:
Yoast - https://yoast.com/
Neil Patel - https://neilpatel.com/
Answer the Public - “Answer the Public” - https://answerthepublic.com/
You can get in contact with Jessica for more help & advice on all of the above here:
Website - https://www.jessolutionmarketing.com.au/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jessolutionmarketing/ (@jessolutionmarketing)
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JESSolutionMarketing
Brooke is a multi-passionate creative, who has been travelling the world over the past couple of years & developed an amazing creative business where she makes content for small businesses. In the episode I describe Brooke as an ‘expresser of all things beautiful’ because she literally makes magic with whatever she puts her hands to - she is an artist, painter, hand lettering queen, a photographer, graphic designer, web designer, poet and copywriter. She went from struggling to figure out what to do with all her creative talents, to now finding her groove, making money and working with some amazing clients. In this episode we talk about Brooke’s journey as an artist, how she overcame some of the challenges she faced with turning what she loved doing into a career and how she makes money while travelling all over the world and staying in amazing accommodation FOR FREE! We also tackle money, mindset & how to tackle the different seasons as a creative.
Check Brooke out:
Website: https://brookeartstudio.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brookeartstudio/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brookeartstudio/
A huge thank you to some of my favourite creative brands who have contributed to the giveaway happening between the 23rd and 30th of July.
https://brookeartstudio.com/
https://rawhouseco.com.au/
https://www.hallethelabel.com/
https://studiumessentials.com/
https://axelandash.com/
Check them out!
In 2015 I took the leap, left my teaching job and started a creative business. In this episode, I share with you all of the challenges that I faced in both my life and business. More importantly, I share with you four things I did in my business to overcame these challenges:
1) Focus in one one thing. Having multiple ideas when I first started out hindered my progress. When I finally settled on one thing, this moved the needle forward in my business.
2) Increase my Prices. The single best thing I did for my business. Check out my free guide to help you with this:
www.emmalemke.com/01
3) Marketing! I worked out that instagram marketing wasn't the be all and end all. It was outside of instagram marketing that I began to see growth.
4) Stay in my own lane. I needed to figure out what was going to work for me and my lifestyle. It's so easy to look at what everyone else is doing and copy, but so often what everyone else is doing just isn't going to work for you.
Thanks you Brooke, from Brooke Art Studio for sponsoring this podcast. If you would like to purchase her amazing Photo Presets (they are out of this world) go to: www.emmalemke.com/presets
When you buy these presets, you're supporting both Brooke and my podcast so a huge, big thank you to you!
Welcome to the Make it podcast! This is just a quick outline of what the podcast is all about - my desire to equip, train and inspire creative business owners.