Marketing Magic - SoundSage

View Details

A lot of experts tell you to give your best stuff away for free. But how much is too much? Are you missing out on potential clients by giving them too much of the “how” when it comes to solving their problem?

This week, we dive into Part 2 of our strategy session with Karlee Welder. She’s a spiritual, holistic health coach that helps her clients find their life mission, soul purpose, and higher selves.

We talk about:

How to make sure you’re not giving away too many goods on Facebook
How to bring your clients into your space and make them feel safe with you
Connecting with people inside Facebook Groups without being spammy
Making sure you’re only spending your time connecting with people that are ready to work with you

About Karlee:

Karlee is your no-bullshit coach! She is a Spiritual Holistic Healer and Nutritionist. Karlee helps souls shatter society's expectations and un-normalize the noise around them to start embodying their truth as their testimony to experience fulfillment in life, relationships, and source of income. Her focus with her clients is breaking through their programming, learning to love being outside of their comfort zone to evolve into a higher consciousness level ~ so that they can achieve all their goals, desires, and dreams while it being in alignment with who they are, using her signature methodology, The Synergistic Shifts. Karlee is on a mission to help as many souls as she can step into their worthiness and live a life that they deserve!

Connect with Karlee: Facebook | Instagram Other Links:

FREE ACTION STEPS CALL: https://p.bttr.to/3sG84Y8

FREE FB GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/reigniteyourpurposeandfindfulfillment

WEBSITE: www.koachkarlee.com

About Marketing Magic:

The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

Identifying your ideal client is a crucial part of figuring out your marketing message. Who is your ideal client and what do they come to you for? How can you use language that speaks specifically to them?

This week, we dive into Part 1 of a 2 part interview with Karlee Welder. She’s a spiritual, holistic health coach that helps her clients find their life mission, soul purpose, and higher selves.

We talk about:

How Karlee works with clients
The different language she uses to reach clients on Facebook
Her favorite way to get her messaging out to her potential clients
What she does to attract her clients

About Karlee:

Connect with Karlee: Facebook | Instagram Other Links:

FREE ACTION STEPS CALL: https://p.bttr.to/3sG84Y8

FREE FB GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/reigniteyourpurposeandfindfulfillment

WEBSITE: www.koachkarlee.com

About Marketing Magic:

View Details

This week we're diving into the ultimate question - how do you get clients on a waitlist so you're not hunting them down every single month?

My guest, Tabitha DeSerrano, is a web designer and founder of Vivid Pixel Studio. She works with women to create professional websites, brand identities and build credibility to attract their dream clients.

We talk about:

How Tabitha works with her clients
The importance of making your brand authentic to yourself
Ways to build brand credibility
How to ensure you'll get clients on a waitlist for your offerings

About Tabitha: Meet Tabitha - the creative designer at Vivid Pixel Studio. She is on a mission to help women with service-based businesses ditch the DIY route and confidently show up as an expert with a professional website so they can establish credibility and start attracting their dream clients! When you partner with Vivid Pixel Studio, you’ll get personalized attention and collaboration from someone who takes the time to understand your business and your vision. She strives to understand you and your business from the inside out so she can create a special experience tailored to your needs and goals. Connect with Tabitha: Facebook | Instagram Other Links: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@vividpixel About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

When you have an offer that's done for you and sometimes standalone, how do you move people into a recurring revenue model so they actually get some stuff done in their business? That's what we're breaking down this week with my guest, Ashley DeLuca.

Ashley is an email communications strategist - so basically, she rocks the emails for you and your business. We're talking about how do we move people from an audit into a recurring revenue model for her business and bridging that gap with both marketing and sales. This is a good one.

We talk about:

How Ashley works with clients and her offerings
The power of email marketing and how it can help your business
Different ways to package your offering to different customers
How to present an offer to reoccurring customers

About Ashley: Ashley DeLuca believes that retention is built through relationships. As an email marketing strategist that focuses on customer centricity, she's mastered crafting customer journeys that increase overall customer lifetime value. She has been featured on Thrive Global, Funnel Magazine, GoDaddy, and others. Ashley will be the first to admit that she's obsessed with avocados, sea turtles, and email marketing. (And won't ever pass up a good cup of coffee!) Connect with Ashley: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

When you're just starting out in your business, there are 1,000,010 things you need to do to get started. But what about actually getting clients and figuring out where they come from? And what makes the most sense?

This week, you're in for a treat. We are kicking off our Summer School Series as we dive into a live strategy session with Cheri Timko. In this episode, we’ll find out how she's taking her 20 years of private practice and turning it into an online coaching business to help couples have the best marriage of their lives.

We talk about:

How Cheri works with clients
How to approach your target market when you're just starting out
The importance of identifying where you clients can come from
How to grab attention in the online space for your business

About Cheri: Cheri Timko works as a Relationship Coach at Synergy Coaching helping committed couples build great relationships. She has also worked as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in private practice for 20 years specializing in couples counseling.

Connect with Cheri: Facebook | Instagram Other Links: www.cheritimko.com

About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

With school out for the summer many of your businesses will also shift into summer-mode.   

Whether you work different hours, take more days off, change up how you work or what you sell — when summer hits, it can drive your business productivity and profits down too.   

All summer long beginning next week we will be doing live strategy sessions with entrepreneurs all over the world on how to keep momentum, no matter how much (or little) they work.   

But before we dive in, I wanted to set up some summer rules of engagement.   In my free Facebook community the #GirlBoss Club (which you should totally swipe in the show notes right now to join); we talk a lot about the things that make us kick-ass girl bosses.   

One is setting bold goals.

Here on the Mallory Schlabach team, we like to make bold moves, so setting bold goals is a no-brainer.

What can that look like for summer?   
If everyone in your industry is moving left, how do you feint right?   
How do you stay in alignment with the type of business/person/mom/spouse/friend you want to be AND still hit bold goals?   

Two is love marketing + sales.   

You won’t have to go all heart-eyes on me yet; but understanding how to market and sell your business (and how your audience will want to be marketed and sold to when THEY are having summer) makes all the difference.   

Three is embracing your numbers.   

You should always know your profit/loss and revenue breakdowns. But you also need to know your cash flow (especially if you’re working less or traveling or spending more).   
What numbers show you you’re doing fine?
What numbers show you something is wrong?  
What numbers tell you the health of your revenue or lead stream?   

Nail these down before you head to the lake.    

Fourth is protecting your time.

Your summer numbers MAY look totally different than your spring hours. That’s 100% OK.   

We’ve been homeschooling since August and yesterday was my first normal business hours preCOVID where I start working at 9 and finish at 3.   It feels a little weird to get used to a different schedule but I didn’t want to be working at nights) like I shifted to do so I could homeschool my four kids this year.

I want to hang out at my neighbor’s pool in the evenings for games and watercolor painting.   I want to see my kids before witching hour when they want to eat everything in sight.

I do NOT want anything to slow down during summer; in fact; if I’ve learned anything during COVID it’s that pivoting brings freedom when you do it in alignment with where you are.   I was terrified homeschooling would shut down half my business last year. Instead — it doubled. On half the hours.   

That tells me that the amount of work I put in doesn’t affect the revenue. It’s WHAT I’m focusing on and how I spend my time.   

The final thing to keep an eye on as you start to head into Summer is to silence that inner mean girl.   

Not even the one who tells you that idea was crappy.   But the one that tells you you’ll never get to go on a vacation like that stranger your Insta-stalking keeps posting pics of.

Or the voice that says you should wear a muumuu in public because you worked so hard this year you forgot to take time for you and you don’t deserve to wear a swim suit.

Or that voice that tells you you’re never working hard enough, if you’re spending time with family and friends instead of constantly working.   

I don’t know about you but I am PUMPED about summer. It just takes a different type of intentionality to live my best life AND grow my business.   I hope today’s mini-crunch session helps you to get into the mindset to tackle summer in a positive way.   

The entrepreneurs who are letting us peel back the curtain on their business over the next few months are inspiring; hopeful; energetic and you’ll find yourself rooting for their business while scrambling to take notes for your own.

If you want to be considered for a free strategy session we share on air, please go to malloryschlabach.com/podcast-apply   

View Details

Have you ever watched someone have a lightbulb moment? This episode is exactly that.

Heather Cate is a graphic designer and self-dubbed website rehabber who helps businesses take their online presences to the next level.

When you start a business because what you do lights you up, it sometimes feels foreign to be the one in the spotlight and having to talk about what we do in a way that makes our business grow.

On this previous strategy session, Heather and I talk about how she can supercharge what she’s already doing to bring in more dreamy clients & how she should step out from the behind-the-scenes work to actually promote her business and show up online herself.

Here’s what we cover:

What website rehabbing is
Heather’s ideal client
The difficulty of putting yourself in the limelight
The mental game of being an entrepreneur
How Heather finds most of her clients & how she can supercharge that
Her most popular service offerings
Heather’s thoughts on whether websites are dead
Her experience using video & how she can use it to maximize her business
The people Heather likes to interview & how she finds them
Who her ideal viewer is & how she can best utilize her videos to introduce her services

Connect with Heather:

Website | Blog | Facebook

About Heather:

Heather Cate, the Buzz Queen, helps you spread the buzz about your business with website design, presenting your company to the world, and getting to the top of Google. She loves the digital marriage of technology and art. It’s about getting to know you, your business, and who you want to sell to.

A Seven Sisters grad, her first job out of college was at the Boston Children’s Museum. Next was being the Director of Communications for a humanitarian relief group in a war-torn country. Then she became a Senior Industrial Engineer for Sylvania, the light bulb company. She’s been building websites and doing digital marketing for over 15 years.

View Details

Have you ever dealt with that voice inside your head that has told you that you “can’t” do something? I feel like we’ve all dealt with this at some point in our lives, which is why I HAD to bring on my friend, Joanna Ziemlewski to the podcast. Joanna is a breakthrough coach that helps people to overcome their limiting beliefs and transform their lives.

So many women I meet run into this tiny seed of doubt in their brains when they create a business, and it holds them back from being truly successful.

On this podcast, we dive into how being an introvert can be an advantage, why you need to take an inventory of your skills and how Joanna helps clients to overcome their imposter syndrome.

If you’ve ever felt the need to change your mindset and rewire your brain so you can up-level your life and business then today’s episode is for you.

We talk about:

How Joanna and Mallory met each other
What Joanna does and how being an introvert is an advantage in business
How to know the difference between imposter syndrome, action problems or skillset problems
Taking an inventory of your skills
How your drive and mindset can help you build the skills you need
What imposter syndrome is
How Joanna helps clients by helping them to identify who they believe they are
How certain events in your childhood creates patterns in your life
Rewiring ourselves to up-level in our lives as we grow and want to do new things
Adjusting your environment to
What clients need to believe to overcome imposter syndrome
Allowing discomfort to work its way through when going after a big goal
Therapeutic and healing ways of releasing energy
Joanna’s rule for failures
How the universe will test you when you want to up-level
How Joanna got started in her business after tragically losing her sister
Healing what’s going on at the root and overcoming your past trauma

About Joanna Ziemlewski:

I help remarkable women stop fighting themselves so they can double their business, make a greater impact, and live a life they truly love. To put it simply, I help you transform years of struggle and self-doubt into the results you want in just 90 days. Sometimes even in 1 day.

It’s based on my belief that there is nothing wrong with you. You are whole, you are complete, and we just need to integrate what you forgot back together.

I’ve learned how to use the body, mind, and spirit combined with expert problem solving to help you strategically build your business while you simultaneously design a fulfilling life. I like to keep things simple and efficient (yeah I’m a former chemical engineer). So I’m one part logical to one part spiritual. A little woo woo, but based on science.

As a certified Master NLP Practioner and Senior Leader with Tony Robbins, I’ve had the pleasure of helping people from all over the world and in different stages of life, transform their suffering into empowering meaning that now fuels them. I have spent the last 3 years as a mentor with Sue Bryce Education helping photographers gain confidence and clarity as an artist to create and grow a profitable business.

As a photographer myself, I adore helping women transform from the inside out just by stepping in front of my camera. Nothing makes me happier than to see that special spark lit from within. And this is what I capture in each woman, whether it’s in portrait or in spirit.

It’s by accepting and integrating all the parts of myself that I realized this was the missing piece. This is why so many women sabotage themselves without even knowing it — filling themselves with judgment, blame and guilt, and then feeling like an imposter either after failure or success. Well, I’m here to tell you no more. Let me show you how to shift this once and for all.

Connect with Joanna: Website| Instagram| Facebook| How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

View Details

Here's an episode that helps break down where you start. It can be so overwhelming.

This was a really fun on-air strategy session with Seyoung Park. As one of our top two most downloaded episodes, it really answers the questions that we want to ask, but are sometimes are afraid to ask out loud. We don't want to feel like we're a newbie. We want to project that feeling of confidence to people who are checking us out. But we still need to know - what do we need to do?

Listen to this episode!

As a new entrepreneur, Seyoung Park has a million ideas buzzing around in her head and its tempting to try them all — that the same time.

But where do you start?

On this episode, we dive into this very question with Seyoung’s business Modern Love. She’s a branding expert that helps female entrepreneurs figure out how to make their audience fall in love with them.

Here’s a little of what you can expect in this episode:

When you’re new, what marketing tactics are appropriate for this level?
How to get and close more leads
What social media platforms to focus on and how
How to know what optins/freebies are truly converting and which ones to put away
The secret to killer email sequences

About Seyoung:

Seyoung is a 23-year-old entrepreneur who established Modern Love LLC soon after graduating from college where she studied art, technology, and design. As a firm believer in taking fearless action to create your dream life, Seyoung uses brand strategy and design to guide aspiring entrepreneurs to take their business from an idea to a magnetic brand. Based in Portland, Oregon, you can find her exploring local cafes or cooking farm-to-table meals for her loved ones.

As an owner of a connection-driven business, Seyoung is always open to fostering new relationships with fellow entrepreneurs, so do not hesitate to reach out!

Connect with Seyoung:

Instagram
Facebook
Modern Love

Five Types of Marketing Episodes:

What Makes or Breaks Your Marketing

View Details

It’s one of the most asked questions we roll around in our head as entrepreneurs: “Am I doing the right thing for my business?”

So I was thrilled to have one of my clients, Lisa Zawrotny, on to dive into her productivity and organizing business and think through her actions she’s focused on and is it getting her the results she wants.

Lisa candidly opens up about her work, her clients and where she’s trying to go. This episode was the first time Lisa and I met, and as you’ll hear, we instantly became BFFs.

Through the strategy session we explored her funnel, got clarity around exactly what Lisa does for her clients and came up with a game plan for how to make the most of the next 90 days.

What Lisa discovered is that marketing isn’t a step-by-step process that you’re either getting right or wrong. It’s a fluid plan that YOU craft to fit your business style and revenue goals.

View Details

It does not surprise me in the least that this episode on how to attract new clients is one of our top listened to episodes over the past couple of years as we hit nearly 20,000 downloads on the podcast.

You never know when you put something out years ago, if what you say holds true through the time, a couple years, and this one does. This one's good. I wouldn't change anything about what I recommend for 13 ways to attract new clients, and the four things you need to have before you even start attracting clients to make sure that it all works.

Links: 15-Minute Fitting Call with Mallory

#024: Double Your Revenue + Stop Hating Sales with Sales Guru Renee Hribar

View Details

We are kicking off 6 weeks of our revisiting our most downloaded episodes! This week, we revisit Episode #46: Motherhood, Feminism + Entrepreneurship with Maggie Frank-Hsu.

This episode is a raw, real, thought-provoking look at how feminism threads itself into our business as entrepreneurs, what it means to label yourself and how it ties into my very fun guest’s business model and viewpoint.

We talk about:

What feminism means to Maggie and why it’s such a big part of her brand
The way motherhood impacted her view on feminism
Why she decided to reclaim the label of feminism
How entrepreneurship, feminism, and motherhood intersect in her brand
How she landed on email marketing
The mom guilt she has experienced in motherhood
Teaching boys to respect and empower women
How email cultivates relationships
Maggie’s practical tips for email marketing

Connect with Maggie:

Website| Instagram| Facebook| Linkedin

View Details

About Sara:

Sara Lewis has been an entrepreneur for 11 years and loves to empower entrepreneurs to use their personality to their advantage. She is the founder of Introverts Emerge, a brand dedicated to the growth of introverted entrepreneurs. Sara has overcome shyness and now coaches others that they too can emerge from the shadows and show the world their light. Connect with Sara: Facebook | Instagram| Youtube Other Links: https://www.introvertsemerge.com

View Details

This week is all about "Find-Marketing."

How do you get in front of new people who don't know who you are?

This specific type of marketing is probably one of the ones that we get the most questions about here, because it's so heavily revolves around paid advertising.

Is it worth doing, is it not worth it? When is the right time?

For some people off the bat, it most certainly is going to be paying for advertising. But there are also some other ways you can drive traffic and meaningful ways you can still grow business. We talk about:

What needs to be happening to drive traffic to your business
Different types of ads and when to use them
Why SEO and keywords are important
How you're driving your warm traffic

Check out the Facebook Ads episode here!

View Details

Most businesses I talked to and work with, get a ton of referrals - like a ton.

And the thing about that is, it's good. It's really great. You want to have referrals.

But what happens when they dry up or go away? Do you know how to use your existing client base to still make money?

This week we're diving in to planning a structuring for how to market to clients and referrals.

View Details

I think the reason marketing gets such a bad rap in the business world is because nobody knows how the heck to track it. So that actually equals money in your business.

This week, we're gonna bust that myth up, we're gonna show you exactly how you tie marketing into revenue, and pretty much make it rain dollars for your business.

I have aptly named this "How Marketing Will Bring You LOTS Dollars" - grammatically incorrect, but I felt like it really encapsulated the heart of this episode. It really answers the big question that I know everybody wants to know.

How the heck do you make marketing grow your business in a revenue sense?

View Details

What happens when you have new people coming into your world? They might join your email list, find out about your business, but they're not ready to buy from you.

What kind of marketing works for this? Let's break that down this week.

Part Two of What Makes or Breaks Your Marketing dives into how you build a marketing funnel that will help your business grow sustainably in a way that's really easy for you to handle, manage and actually like doing!

Previous episodes for email marketing insight:
http://malloryschlabach.com/category/email-marketing/

View Details

Today I’m kicking off a 5-part series where we dive into the murkier parts of marketing that will transform your business if you take 30 minutes this week to inspect.

I believe there are five types of marketing every business needs to have in order to be truly successful.

Most businesses? They focus primarily on 1 type.

Which means 20% of their marketing carries the weight of their business. No wonder people think they suck at marketing, they’re doing it wrong!

The five types of marketing your business should be focusing on every single week are:

Find - Get in front of new people who don’t know who you are.

Attract - Get cold leads to engage with your brand and stick around so you have the opportunity to turn them into buyers.

Nurture - The most common type of marketing: How you show up to your existing audience every week (or a minimum monthly).

Invite - Turn it from marketing to making sales
with a clear call to actionh

Delight - How you wow your customers and turn them into raving fans and lifelong referral partners.

Today we are going to start at the very beginning.

Where do you START someone in your marketing funnel?

And what is a true marketing funnel?

A marketing funnel is a fancy way for saying how do you move a cold lead to a paying customer?

There has to be a specific type of path that helps your lead take baby steps forward or they’ll run to the hills every time.

Episode 34: My Top Secret Method of How to Get Dreamy Clients For Anything

View Details

Are you just starting out in your business? Or perhaps if you're finding this or know somebody who's stuck in the corporate world and is desperate to do something on their own, but has no idea how to get started - especially in this time of COVID.

When things are bananas, you might have kids coming home all the time or going back to school, how do you get your work done and do something you really love?

This week's guest is my friend Sharika Kellogg, owner of the 25/8 Mom. She goes through and talks about how to create a virtual business using the skills that you have right now in this moment without having to do more. That's legit, that makes actual money that you can do on your own from anywhere in the world.

About Sharika: Sharika, The 25/8 MOM is a single mom of 3 little boys and a foster mother of a little girl. She has been working in the online space for over 5 years. Sharika has an amazing super power that she can show you what your virtual profession will be based on your daily tasks and past experiences. That is her jam!

Sharika's passion is helping people figure out how to create virtual professions so that they are owning their time, their financial future and basically their lives!

Connect with Sharika: Facebook | LinkedIn| Instagram Other Links: OWN It Blueprint: https://www.25-8mom.com/OWNITEVERYDAY

FREE Facebook group, The 25/8 MOMs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/the258moms

Free Data Dump Worksheet to assist you prioritizing tasks: https://258mom.kartra.com/page/datadumplist

View Details

When you're just starting out, how in the world do you get your business off the ground?

That's what we're talking about today, as we figure out how to get started. What are the most important things we need to be doing to have a viable business? How can we use marketing to spread the word?

Last week, we talked about how to get your business up and running on social media. So this week, we're looking at how to make a viable business. I don't care whether you are brand new, and this is day two in your business, or you've been doing this for 20 years, everybody wants more leads coming into their business and more money coming into their business.

I want to break this down for you into key questions and areas to look at in your business:

What do you sell that makes you the most money, or, is the most profitable? Most people focus on a lot of different things, because it can get boring. But when you look at your business objectively, what is making you the most profitable?

If you need to break it down, look at some metrics. Look at the last, you know, three months, six months to clients, five clients, whatever makes sense for your business. What are you selling? What are you selling easily? Does it make sense for your business?

Go back to that time versus cost concept. Sometimes you can change the trajectory of your business when you change to be something profitable.

Who's in your network? Who are the people showing up in your world? And what are you noticing about them? How can you sell something to them that would help their business?

Pay attention to those in your circle. Every time I launch something new, the people who buy it first are people who are either existing clients, I know them or I've met them. Whether they're local online, they're in a group, they're on my email list - there has some kind of connection to me first.

Remember, done is better than perfect. One of the Achilles heels of entrepreneurs when they're starting out in this space is that they want to do everything correct.

There's actually two trains of thought. Either you're going to DIY everything because obviously you don't have a lot of money coming in initially, or you're going to blow some money to get it right and get it great and get it perfect.

The problem with both of those options is that they waste time. If you have to wait to do everything by yourself, it's going to take you 10 times longer to get up and moving. Think about how many more people you can reach with your product, your service, your business, your message, your mission. If you at least put it out there, get it out there all the way, you can always go back and make it better.

Be flexible when you're starting out When you're just starting out, especially in your marketing - because what you want to offer is often not the same thing that your audience wants to buy. And that is a hard lesson to learn.

If you can imagine Venn diagram, you're looking for the intersection, and we also call that the sweet spot. That's what people are willing to buy, that they're just desperate to buy. It's something that you can do uniquely and something you're also really good at.

In order to do that, you do want to be flexible. You want to be able to adjust how you talk about things and how you present things, and how you work with people until you find your sweet spot.

Visibility really is king. It's all about consistently showing up.

if you tuned in to last week's episode, we talked about social media - and consistency on branding and showing up consistently in your messaging. There is so much to be said for just showing up day after day after day after day.

Put yourself out there every single day, put yourself out in your community, put yourself out in the online space, put yourself out in social media, and think about how you can be showing up over and over and over again. That's how you start to build.

Free Visibility Guide Apply to be on the Podcast! About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

Just Starting Out: Social Media Magic

errrbody knows that social media is a must do on their business checklist.

But why? And how do you do it well?

And what if you’re just figuring this out or HATE social media?

What then?

Today we’re going to dive into the four key things to focus on (and ONLY focus on) when you’re using social media to market yourself, for the first time, or are giving it a real try.

Brand Consistency - Social media channels are visual platforms which means what people can see is almost more improtant than what they read.

So what do they see when they see you show up online?

Could they tell what you do?
Can they recognize your colors/branding/logo?
Do you have any of those things?

Does it look like you went crazy in Canva and started doing one of everything?

The visual cohesiveness of your brand matters on social media, so make sure you pay attention to what yours is.

This can be as simple as sticking to two-three brand colors, using the same logos and picking two fonts to use when creating graphics.

If you are a perosnal brand, use your face in your social. If you’re not a personal brand, get more personal and put someoe’s face — that is not stock photos — in your social. It will make a huge difference on how people perceive you.

Messaging - this is the heart of anything marketing. How do you talk about what you do and how you do it in a way that compells others to pay you money?

That sums it up quite nicely.

Messaging on social comes down to three things: What do you do? How do you do it? And who do you do it for?

If you are consistently saying the same answer to these questions in your social media posting/graphics/lives/interviews/stories, etc. — then people will start to understand exactly if and why they’d need or refer you.

Which means social isn’t just about attracting dreamy clients. It’s also about being so memorable for what you do that others can easily tag you and send clients your way.

Audience — To build an audience when you are just starting out, you must engage with others. This is where people easily drop off on social media. Here are valid, yet excuses that I hear all the time for not being active on social media
I don’t know what to post.
I don’t want to get sucked in.
There’s too much drama on social.
I don’t understand how it works.
I don’t know what to post on someone else’s content
I don’t see how this could get me more clients

These are totally understandable — but also excuses for why you aren’t showing up online.

First rule of engagement: Follow the Golden Rule. Do unto others on social as you would have them do to you.

When you break this rule, you’ll know it immediately.

Second rule: separate personal from business

I hate social media (personally). But when I only engage with people in my business space, magically, that’s all that shows up in my feed.

I have in-real-life friends who get annoyed I never “comment or like” their posts — and I tell them all the time, it’s because I literalyl don’t see it. Facebooks shows you who you engage with.

If your feed is filled with drama, personal family, friends and things that distract you, then you’re engaging on it for your life, not your business.

Does that mean I never comment on something from a friend? No, but it does mean I quickly cull out anything that is distracting me from doing what I need to do on social.

When you engage with others, they naturally engage with you and start to see your content, and it begins to snowball.

It also takes time.

Be engaging. That last tip was for YOU to engage. But social media only works as a growth and visibility tool when you, yourself are engaging.

To summarize — you can’t be a lurker and grow a business on social.

Think about the things that you engage with on social. How do you take those same ideas/types of posts/content and use it from your business’s point of view?

Be interesting. Be human. Be you. Be specific. Be clear about who you are and what you do.

No worries about the humble brag here. People are glossing and scrolling through so quickly, you MUST capture their attention.

They are NOT seeking you out, they’re looking to escape their world.

When you show up as a human, also breaking up the monotony of a day — they start to engage and look forward to your posts.

If you would like my cheatsheet on what social media platforms and content make the most sense for your business, make sure you go to askmallory.com and grab our Where Should I Be cheatsheet.

For more tips on specific social media platforms, check out these episodes from our 6-Figure Social Media Bootcamp a few months ago:

6-Figure Social Media Strategies - 121
Instagram - 122
LinkedIn - 123
Facebook Business Pages - 128

Make sure to like, subscribe and share this podcast with someone else who needs to inspiration to show up on social media (and have it help their business grow).

As you hear in the middle of the podcast, TODAY we opened the doors to Makeover My Social Media: Turn Your Social Media Into More Than a Pretty Feed
A SOCIAL MEDIA MAKEOVER FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR WITH A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK OR LINKEDIN

Begins Feb. 15 - live 30 day bootcamp to makeover your social media and includes more than 100 posts and stories ideas convert, 200+ canva templates, a 30-day social media launch plan for how to sell anything on social, plus four additional bonus you must see.

Go to malloryschlabach.com/socialmedia

View Details

Everyone's favorite thing in life are before and afters. At least, it's one of my favorite things in life.

Today is Part 2 of our "Where Are They Now" series, where I'm bringing back four more guests who have been on our podcast. These women all did marketing strategy sessions live on the podcast, and we wanted to get an update and see where they are now and what's happened in their businesses. We talk about what they've been doing, what amazing things are they working on, and what advice they have for us as listeners. You can find their original episodes linked below:

Janine Esbrand: http://malloryschlabach.com/037-2/
Emma Bates: http://malloryschlabach.com/054-2/
Melody Morris: http://malloryschlabach.com/056-2/
Monique Horb: http://malloryschlabach.com/061-2/

About Janine: Janine Esbrand is the founder of LightBox Coaching. She helps ambitious women to design and launch their dream careers or businesses beyond motherhood through individual coaching, her membership community and her weekly podcast. Janine Esbrand studied for her LLB law degree at City University in London, before spending a year working at a law firm in New York. Upon her return to the UK, she completed her legal training and qualified as a corporate lawyer.
Alongside her legal career, Janine trained as a career and executive coach and is a member of the Association for Coaching. When she is not coaching or practising law, Janine can be found spending time with her husband and two young children, playing netball or travelling.

The Career Change Maker Podcast

About Emma: I am lucky enough to be a mother to three awesome children, ages 10, 8 and 4. And I'm crazy enough to try and run an online business or two. I have started five businesses in the last 10 years. Some of them were very successful, (I even sold one!) and others were total failures.
If I'm not working on my blog or business, you can find me watching New Girl with my husband and eating ice cream.

Emma's Website
Amplified Now Website

About Melody: I am Melody Morris of Total Energy Healing USA. I am an inspirational speaker and a Shamanic Healer. I help women who have experienced sexual or relationship trauma release it and move forward into the life and relationships they desire and deserve. I have studied multiple energy healing modalities for more than 2 decades, both from scientific and spiritual aspects.

Creative Being Academy

About Monique: Monique Horb has a passion for helping women who are busy, tired, and overwhelmed. She does this by organizing homes and paper piles so that women can be more productive, have time and energy to live their purpose, and live the life they want. She loves to say, Life Is Easier Organized!
She began her business, Organizing Your Chaos, after experiencing depression, bankruptcy, adoption, marriage and medical crisis. These things were out of her control, and her home was falling apart. Through twists and turns, she learned that with an organized home she was able to manage.

Organizing Your Chaos

Apply to be on the podcast!

View Details

Everyone's favorite thing in life are before and afters. At least, it's one of my favorite things in life.

So today, I'm excited to bring back four guests who have been on our podcast since we launched a couple years ago. These women all did marketing strategy sessions live on the podcast, and we wanted to get an update and see where they are now and what's happened in their businesses.

We talk about what they've been doing, what amazing things are they working on, and what advice they have for us as listeners.

You can find their original episodes linked below:

Amelia Roberts: http://malloryschlabach.com/047-2/
Rachel Bailey: http://malloryschlabach.com/072-2/
Melissa Ronda: http://malloryschlabach.com/012-2/
Lisa Zawrotny: http://malloryschlabach.com/am-i-doing-the-right-things/

Additional Resources:

Rachel Bailey's Podcast: Your Parenting Long Game

Rachel Bailey's Parenting Relief Kits: Relief Kits
$5 off with code: MALLORY

Melissa Ronda's Podcast: Bad Bitches Losing Weight

Lisa Zawrotny's Podcast: Positively Living

Rachel Bailey

View Details

This year is going to be different. We hope. As January gets off to, unfortunately, a rocky start already, there’s still something in the air about a fresh start (at least on things in your personal life, business and relationship). If you’ve been a listener of the podcast since the beginning you know we’ve introduced two goal-setting frameworks before in episodes 30, 32, 33, 78, 79 and 111. I absolutely love those frameworks and highly recommend them for different ways to think about your year and accomplishing everything you want in your business. Today, though, I want to do a different approach. Whereas goal setting for me is so often tactical — I think 2020 has shown us that tactics go out the window in crisis and cut to the root of who we are and what we really want to do and accomplish and hold dear. So how do you merge your values and personal life with business life into a planning session? Here are the questions I want you to consider: * What did you love about your business in 2020? * What did you hate? * What did you learn? * What changed? * What matters most?

When you answer these questions, it clearly starts to fill in the gaps of what you need to DO to build the business you want. I’m calling it the non-negotiable year. It’s part boundaries and part dreams. And this is how you do it for yourself. About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

How many of you listening right now think that Facebook business pages are dead?

Yeah, most of you are probably reading this and raising your hands. Maybe a little bit pinky finger right there?

This week, we're here to bust that myth. My guest, Rachel Miller of Moolah Marketing, helps businesses grow organically on Facebook. Sometimes up to a million fans. You heard that right. Facebook business pages are so not dead – we're just doing it wrong. So on this week’s episode – the final one for our Social Media Bootcamp series – Rachel busts all the myths and tell us exactly what we're doing wrong.

We talk about:

How Rachel works with clients to help grow their businesses
How to get started with Facebook pages if you’ve never used them
The best strategies to grow organic engagement on your Facebook business page
The importance of building a trust factor with your audience
The biggest mistakes people are making with their Facebook pages
Real client success stories from Rachel’s Facebook course

About Rachel: Rachel Miller is the creator of Moolah, a system helping thousands of small businesses grow on Facebook. She has personally grown engaged fan pages - some to over 500,000 and over 2.2M - fueling massive businesses! Digital Marketer has called her a “Facebook Guru” after she helped them grow one of their pages to over a million fans. Rachel has helped 34 of her students grow engagement and reach over 10,000,000 people with single posts on Facebook. She is the author of multiple books, one of them being a best seller with over 100,000 copies sold and her content has been featured on Good Morning America in addition to other national publications and syndicated shows. As a mom of six kids, Rachel lives in Fort Worth, Texas. Connect with Rachel: Facebook | LinkedIn| Instagram| Youtube Other Links: Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pagestrategies/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/moolahMarketer/
Blog: https://rachelmiller.com/
Facebook Course Link: https://www.moolahmarketing.com/waitlist

View Details

Naira Perez of SpringHill Digital has two decades of marketing experience. She got her start in direct response advertising, building brands on TV before digital was even a thing. Her main areas of expertise include developing digital marketing strategies, identifying customer patterns and behaviors on and offline. We get the most from advertising budget by generating qualified leads, effective planning and execution. From paid media, pay-per-click, integrated campaign design, and audience patterns to new platform initiatives — she does it all — but her specialty is in paid advertising.
Naira loves the excitement of optimizing in real-time and exploring the multiple possibilities that exist in raw data, taking pride in the fact that companies don’t need huge budgets to make their digital marketing more effective.
https://www.springhilldigital.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/springhilldigital/
https://www.facebook.com/springhilldigital
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nairaperez/

View Details

I’m Tammy P!
Facebook Ads Expert
I’m more than just a FACEBOOK ADS EXPERT. I’m also a corporate marketing and advertising consultant, strategist, speaker, and online business owner—and I practice what I PREACH!
For over 20 years I’ve been working in marketing utilizing new and traditional media for billion-dollar companies and ad agencies, as well as my own company. That means, not only do I understand the world of online digital marketing, but I know HOW TO CREATE AN ONLINE BUSINESS WITH FACEBOOK ADVERTISING.
I’ve helped both corporate brands & start-ups sell millions of dollars of products and services online and offline. And I’m ready to help you take your biz to the next level!

My Group, FB Ads for Women Entrepreneurs:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WomenEntrepreneursConnect

My Website, TammyP.com:
https://www.tammyp.com/

View Details

This week, my guest Rose Guthrie is all about Pinterest. We talk about using organic and paid strategies to really grow your audience, drive traffic and getting to be buying clients. Rose is the owner of Rosie Does Digital, a marketing agency that helps businesses grow faster with paid advertising.

We talk about:

How Rose works with clients to grow their audience
The best strategies expand your client base through Pinterest
How to repurpose and share content on Pinterest
The best way to visually represent your brand and appeal to an audience
The importance of consistency on the Pinterest platform

Connect with Rose: Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

View Details

Jessica Stansberry started in 2010 as a web and graphic designer, and quickly morphed her business into an online empire that includes a YouTube channel with 90k+ subscribers, and an iTunes top 100 podcast.

Over the past 10 years, Jessica has taught thousands of entrepreneurs how to start, build, and grow the business of their dreams, spoken on hundreds of stages, and even been on TV a time or two!

View Details

Louise Brogan - host of LinkedIn with Louise podcast, consultant, speaker and Springsteen fan. Louise lives in N.Ireland with her husband, three kids and an energetic spaniel called Bruce. Louise has spoken on stage in London, Dublin, California and virtually in 2020 at VidSummit and Podcast Movement. Louise is an official contributor to Social Media Examiner. Previously named one of the UK Small Business Heroes and invited to 10 Downing Street and the House of Lords to represent small biz in the UK.

www.linkedin.com/in/louisebrogan www.facebook.com/socialbeeni www.instagram.com/louisebrogan_

My free guide is at www.louisebrogan.com/download

My website is www.louisebrogan.com

LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/louisebrogan

YouTube channel with weekly free training - www.youtube.com/c/socialbeeni

View Details

Sarah Wallace helps with Instagram marketing and video confidence for personal brand businesses and small business entrepreneurs looking to step out from behind logos, inspirational quotes, and stuffy content to connect with their ideal humans with a fun, genuine and sustainable strategy.

IG: https://instagram.com/sarahlynn.co
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/thisissarahlynn
Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/sarahlynnwallace
Website: https://www.sarahlynnco.com/

View Details

Myown Holmes is a Social Media speaker , trainer, and strategist on Branding, B2B/B2C Social Selling and Social Media Strategy. She has led Social Media Training
for corporate companies and professional services. Myown is a highly-regarded social media expert to corporate and non-profit entities and has spoken at several conferences, some being Cre8tive Con black writer’s conference in Atlanta, and Social Media Marketing
Made Easy Conference in Norfolk on Instagram Marketing for Small Business, the State of Social, and Creating an influential brand voice on social media for corporate organizations.

Myown has over 10 years’ Digital Marketing experience and has helped use social communication to drive visibility and generate leads.

As a Social Media Trainer, Mrs. Holmes has developed and delivered workshops to businesses and entrepreneurs in areas like Advanced Instagram Marketing Techniques,
B2B/B2C Social Selling, and B2B/B2C Social Media Marketing Basics.

https://www.facebook.com/sociallypolished
https://www.instagram.com/sociallypolished/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/myownh/

View Details

Perhaps you're like me, and during this crazy COVID time you find yourself asking questions that you don't normally pause to think about. Real questions, deep questions about who you are and why you're here and what you're doing.

I think there's so much power on your thoughts when you do actually speak them aloud. It's like the blocks and the puzzle fall into place. When you have to put voice and sound to the thoughts in your head, I think there's a really healthy dose of reality and optimism that comes out of it.

We're now heading into our eighth month of COVID, and the world looks very different than it did in March. I've had a lot of time now to think and reflect on what this means. But I think it's also allowed me to think about the big picture, not only in my business, but in my life. Trust me, there's a lot of introspection happening when you're stuck at home with your entire family for almost a year. I keep coming back to this bigger picture recently of questions like - Why am I here? And why are you here? And why are we placed here in this moment?

If you are placed in this moment at this time for a specific reason, how does that change how you show up in the world?

Think about it. If you're willing to step into the belief that you're here for a reason, and you have a purpose, and you can be a change maker, you can make history, you can change history, you can rewrite the story that everyone's experiencing, and that your kids experience or their kids experience. Even if you don't have kids, that the future generations experience.

It's kind of intoxicating. It kind of wakes you up to think what really matters.

View Details

I'm Audrey Blackburn. I am the President of Blackburn Consulting, LLC. My background consists of over 20+ years of experience working with nonprofit and for profit accounting. I love working with my women owned small businesses and women led nonprofits. My purpose is to see nonprofits thrive when their mission is fully funded and for women owned businesses to have the profit they deserve!

I'm a Certified ProAdvisor who is proficient in QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. I have a Masters in Accountancy from Gardner-Webb University. I work with my clients as an accountant, advisor and Virtual CFO.

I'm certified in many apps that work with QBO to provide efficiency and analysis.

I'm a trainer and a coach.

I'm a wife and mother. I am a native of NC but love to travel and visit all the states. When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher, a hair dresser and a race car driver. That's some combination! These days I get to do a little of everything. My daughter is cheerleader so I am constantly learning new ways to manage her unruly hair. I love teaching my clients and educating them on best practices and I might just drive a tad too fast. I even got to race my car at Virginia International Raceway!

https://www.facebook.com/blackburnconsultingnc/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-blackburn-2753543/
https://www.instagram.com/blackburnboss/

View Details

Alesia Galati is a Full-service podcast manager who helps business owners and thought leaders launch and maintain lead-generating podcasts.

She lives in sunny North Carolina with my husband, two boys, and a rescue pup. When she's not working, you can find her either hiking, chasing her kids around, or watching the latest Star Wars with her husband.

http://alesiagalati.com/
https://www.facebook.com/alesiagalatipm/
https://www.instagram.com/alesia.galati/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alesia-galati/
Free Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/podcasters.society

View Details

As an award-winning business strategist, host of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast, and best-selling author, Racheal Cook is on a mission to end entrepreneurial poverty for women. Over the last 10 years she has helped thousands of female entrepreneurs design predictably profitable businesses without the hustle and burnout that doing #allthethings inevitably accomplishes. In fact, Racheal is a sought after speaker on entrepreneurship, marketing, and productivity and has been featured by the US Chamber of Commerce, Forbes Coaching Council, Female Entrepreneur Association, and more. Her real passion, though, is supporting savvy, soulful women as they implement the strategy, systems, and support to uncomplicate their business so they can work less and live more. Website: https://www.rachealcook.com/ Podcast: https://www.rachealcook.com/blog/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rachealcook Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/racheal.cook/ Twitter https://twitter.com/RachealCook YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUhJX4fhzHIAMyilM5Vitlw Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/rachealcook/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachealcook/ Sweet Spot Quiz: RachealCook.com/MarketingMagic

View Details

Deonjala Williams is the founder of Heart and a Heat Press, an online business educational platform. With over 12 years of entrepreneurial and retail experience, Deonjala teaches her community how to launch their own profitable T-Shirt printing business in 60 days or less.
Deonjala, known more commonly as “Dee”, has had years of corporate employment in retail where she gained significant experience in business, processes and people management. But this didn’t really satisfy her sense of calling, her love of teaching and the drive to build something lasting. Unbeknownst to her boss at the time, she had been planning her exit from the 9-5 for some time when she handed in her resignation letter with great satisfaction. She went on to found Dee’s Sweet Tees and develop Heart and a Heat Press, changing her and thousands of other people’s lives in the process.

IG is @heartandaheatpress

Public facebook group is facebook.com/groups/heartandaheatpresspublic

View Details

Irena has been in business for 22 years teaching visionary women how to take rewarding action on their gut instincts. She draws on her logical background as a Decision Science major and her intuitive side as a Reiki Master, Yoga Teacher, and Energy Reader. She has a free weekly show - Inklings, a group program - the Intuitive Energy Adventure, and works 1:1. She is an Energy Alchemist and Guide that will shine a light on the blocked energy that can show up as limiting beliefs, self-sabotaging behaviors, and glass ceilings. Website: http://www.irenamiller.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/irenakmiller/ Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yogawithirena/ Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/irenakmiller

View Details

Kristen Westcott is a business growth strategist and founder of Kristen Westcott Media (www.kristenwestcottmedia.com ) who has spent the last decade in the legal and education fields supporting leaders and students in the areas of goal setting, productivity and project management. After recognizing her true passion lies in serving entrepreneurs, Kristen honed her skills as a Director of Operations. She quickly noticed that what was holding many business owners back wasn’t a lack of drive or ability, but a lack of foundational systems that could support the day-to-day operations of a scaling business. These days, she spends her time helping online coaches, copywriters and course creators scale without the frustration that massive growth often brings.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristenwestcottmedia/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristen.westcott/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenwestcott/

View Details

Renee Hribar has been a sales professional since 1994 in New York. Making her first million before she was 25 years old, she has gone on to sell millions of dollars in products and services and train thousands to sell for the first time. She is known in her industry as a fun, energetic sales coach who leads with heart. A TEDx speaker who offers training sessions at global conferences, on-demand courses and virtual workshops, she skillfully breaks down her decades of sales expertise. With her one-of-a-kind "laugh & learn" teaching style, you will certainly gain a new view of the "softer side of sales".

https://www.reneehribar.co/register https://www.facebook.com/renee.hribar/ https://www.instagram.com/reneehribar/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/renee-hribar-64a7a3144/

View Details

Echo Huang left China at age 20 to cross the ocean with nothing but $800 and the hope of achieving the American Dream. Her courage and dedication fueled her journey through the business world over the next twenty years, gaining experience working in financial planning firms of all sizes before venturing off on her own. Today, as founder and president of Echo Wealth Management with multiple designations such as CFP, Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license, and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter, Echo helps the country's top executives and entrepreneurs take the complexity out of their finances, giving them the confidence to follow their dreams and achieve their goals.

Websites:
https://www.echohuang.com/
https://www.echowealthmanagement.com/

Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/EchoHuangCFP

https://www.facebook.com/EchoWealthManagement

https://www.instagram.com/echohuangcfp/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/echohuang/

https://twitter.com/EchoHuangCFP

View Details

When I asked my community to define #girlboss, I loved what some of the answers were. “Someone who is driven to do their best to guide their own destiny.” For me personally, I think of unstoppable, courageous badass women. Last week, we introduced the #girlboss framework to reclaim this idea about #girlboss and the whole reason I built a community around it. Well, for me, there's five essential parts that come up with every client I've ever worked with. We ask these types of questions and dive into these parts of their businesses. We do the strategy work around that. Today is about the very first step we have to take. We figure out where we're going, and what this looks like that we're actually building. Now, if you remember, the five pieces of the framework that we introduced last week were: Setting bold goals Embracing the numbers Loving your marketing and sales Protecting your time by building systems and processes Not letting our inner mean girl keep us small Setting Bold Goals This is week one, so I want to redefine what setting bold goals actually means. I think we often we get it wrong. It gets personified and glorified as writing things down by yourself in silence in your favorite notebook. Now, while that is super fun, (and I do have a plethora notebooks), that's not actually it. Setting bold goals is about knowing where we're driving our businesses and being able to map out the steps to actually get there. It's about guts, and it's about vision. It's about following the path that you set for this business. But today, I want to break it down further. First, I want to give you permission to not do things traditionally. You don't have to. If that's how you've grown up, then that's how you typically do it. And you're feeling like you're in a rut right now, you are not alone. We have been in the throes of COVID-19 for almost six months now. I imagine that you've probably noticed that your business has had an insane number of pivots that we definitely could not have predicted in January. The problem many business owners are experiencing is that they just wanted to throw everything away that they had planned in January, right when this pandemic happened. Setting bold goals does not have to require you to buy a pretty planner, take a whole weekend off, or tax your brain so much that you break out in hives and hate setting goals for your business. The very first step is to evaluate where you are in your business at this very moment. Literally, right now - pause and think. What you really need to set bold goals is to be aware of where you are in your business, so that you can set goals that are important to you. They're flexible, and most importantly, they're actually doable. Bold goals require you to actually put them on paper or speak them aloud. They are the things that you really want to have happen in your business. Bold goals are in your gut. What is the thing that gets you excited at night? What gets you excited to wake up in the morning? What are you hoping, dreaming and wishing for? Where do you see yourself? That's what we actually want to be working towards. So, I want you to think about it differently. We need to make sure that we are actually setting goals that inspire us. That's the whole bold part. Looking at the goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2020, things had to drastically change when COVID-19 hit towards the end of quarter one. I had to stop and ask myself – how do I show up and move my business forward when everything is shut down? And in panic mode? How do I dive back? Based on my previous goals, what was I ultimately heading for? Even as an obsessive goal setter, I didn't go back and revisit my original plan. I even had a bunch of quarters and other things mapped out for the entire year. But, none of it became relevant anymore when the pandemic happened. Instead, I had to adopt bold moves. All four of my kids came home from school and started virtual learning. My husband came home from work. He's a physical therapist and has patients who are no longer coming in for appointments. My sitter wouldn't come to my house anymore. Everything seemed upside down.So, my business goals had to drastically change like everybody else's. I had to stop and ask myself – how do I show up and move my business forward when everything is shut down? And in panic mode? How do I dive back? Based on my previous goals, what was I ultimately heading for? How do I still make those things happen? To do this, you have to be flexible and know the pulse of your business. You need to know when it's time to change tactics. It's not going to work in the same way it typically does. Because I'm not the same person I was in January, to be honest. And you aren't either. So for me, that means getting smarter with the types of clients I'm bringing on and the types of offerings I'm putting out there. Eventually I can look back on my 2020 goals and think gosh, this year really sucked. Instead, because ultimately I know where I'm going, I know that where I'm taking my business is the same path. I'm on the same trajectory. Goal-Setting Framework It's so much easier to reinvent your business goals when you are in alignment with where you are in this moment. To get there, ask yourself these three questions: Where you are right now, in this moment? Where are you taking your business? What strategies and tactics are you using to get there? This framework will enable you to set realistic goals.But I want to caution you not to set too many goals at one time. Identify two or three big projects in a three to four month span. That's it. If you set too many at once, you're going to get back into setting meaningless goals and lackluster things that you have no excitement about. Your business is not going to grow like it really could. So, I want you to do the things that you're thinking about in your gut right now, but you actually aren't setting as goals because it feels scary. When you feel that nudge. That's a bold goal. That's a big move that you want to be making in your business right now. Set that as one of your priorities for the next few months, and run at it with all you've got. Let's go Girlbosses! About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #GirlBoss Club.

View Details

It’s time to redefine #girlboss.

Thanks to Sophia Amoruso and her spectacular rise to fame for quirky fashion and a quick run on Netflix, #girlboss is synonymous with fashionable/thin/childless/white/young/ambitious women.

My claim to #girlboss has nothing to do with any of that, except the woman part.

And the ambition part.

Like the ambition I have to out-earn my husband. I used to feel it was taboo to say out that loud, even to him.

Have you experienced some kind of business shaming or judgment, whether it’s the voice in your head or people in your life who want you to tow the line as they have?

I’ve felt the shaming so many times in the past three years while running my own business.

And it is exhausting.

It’s the reason I’ve built the business I have. I needed to find my people.
The women who want to unapologetically chase success. #Girlbosses.

Women like us know we’re good at what we do and the unique way we do it.

But knowing we’re good at what we do isn’t enough. Do you know what a makes million-dollar #girlboss different from everyone else who’s jealous of them?

It’s not vision.

Or revenue, although that helps.

Or even having enough time.

You’re a #girlboss when you start treating your business like you run it, and stop treating it like just another job where you’re the hardest-working employee. I want to reclaim #girlboss, so that’s it’s not just a synonym #Girlboss isn’t just a word for ultra-feminine women who happen to run businesses. #Girlboss is a movement for ambitious women.

So that means understanding our financials beyond revenue, profit, and expenses.

Running a team.

Setting goals and knowing how to hit them.

If we can’t do the things that make our businesses stable, then they won’t grow. Why do we expect that burning ourselves out on client work will ever get us to the level and platform we want to get to?

This is the conversation we need to be having.

So let’s start it right now.

How DO you become a #girlboss?

This is the Reclaiming #girlboss Framework

Set bold goals.

Embrace the numbers.

Love marketing + sales.

Protect your time by building systems and processes.

Don’t let the inner mean girl keep you small.

Over the next five weeks I’ll be diving deeper into these five elements that help you transform from the number one employee to the girlboss, and I’ll be bringing on a few experts to help.

Setting bold goalsis more than writing goals in your favorite notebook. (Although, that’s fun!) It’s about knowing where we’re driving our businesses and being able to map out the steps to get there. It’s about the guts and the vision and following the path that YOU set for this business.

Embracing the numbersis yes, knowing your profit/loss and revenue. But it’s also ripping off the bandaid to look at them consistently. To know what metrics we should look at and what story those numbers are telling us about our businesses.

Loving marketing + sales is about how you talk about and sell your business, and understanding you can’t have one without the other. Marketing doesn’t do you any good if you don’t sell and you can’t sell if you don’t know how to talk about what your products and services do for your customer. And if you don’t know how to talk about your products and services, you’re not doing marketing.

Protecting your time is about building businesses that can grow beyond the one-woman team. It’s about treating your business like you’re the boss. Stepping into leadership, hiring for the things you shouldn’t and can’t do, and one day -- building something that could run without you.

And finally, silencing that inner mean girl. Focusing on your mindset, manifesting, and the “woo woo,” is too often sold to us entrepreneurial women as a cure for what ails our businesses.

I think it’s over-emphasized, or at least, emphasized with no follow-up. If you don’t know anything about how to track your finances, when to hire and fire, or how to sell, you can have the most wonderful mindset in the world, but you’ll still have a failing business. Working on mindset is not a cure, it’s a practice. You must take time to do the work, showing up time and time again to work through your inner demons, but getting stronger and faster at conquering them each time. But we must also know that that work is practice for the concrete steps we’re taking to grow our businesses.

Reclaiming #girlboss is about empowering entrepreneurial women to actually do the thing they set out to do: build amazing businesses that matter, without losing who you are in the process, or waking up to realize you’ve accidentally built a monster that you don’t know how to tame.

Let’s say those big dreams aloud.

Decide how we’ll get there.

Create businesses that support the dream.

And find others along the way to make it oh, so fun.

On the next few episodes we’ll be diving into how to scale a business like a boss with smarter strategies where I pull back the curtain on how I run and think about strategy for 7-figure businesses, guest Echo Huang breaking down how women can build wealth, strategist Kristen Westcott is going to make flow of your business feel sexy and more we’ll announce shortly.

Let’s go Girlbosses!

View Details

How do you know if your business is successful?

Or growing? Or what the heck to do to drive the revenue in your business?

Today's episode is all about using data to make decisions to scale to your next million. You're going to love today's guest, Layne Booth, as she comes to talk about data in a way that is going to blow your mind. She makes it totally accessible for even, yes, people like you who think you hate numbers. You're going to love this discussion on metrics and how to bring the data not the drama.

What we talk about:

Breaking down the ABC's of KPI's
Identifying what metrics to track to help grow and scale your business
The difference between lagging metrics and leading metrics
How to turn metrics into data-driven decisions
Where to start if you're brand new to data
Finding the confidence and mindset to successfully analyze metrics
Bringing simplicity back to your business

Layne Booth CEO and Business Growth Strategist of The Project Booth, a business consulting company that uses proven metrics and data to bring business owners to the next level in their business. By strategically planning operations and creating a visual roadmap , business owners can reclaim their time to focus on their business, make data-driven decisions, and capitalize on sales & profits.

With her passion, and over a decade of “in the trenches” experience, as a guiding light, Layne ensures successful growth-minded business owners eliminate overwhelm by bringing clarity to help with teams, capacity and profits… and get back to running a business they love.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/backendbrilliance/
https://www.facebook.com/theprojectbooth/
https://instagram.com/theprojectbooth/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laynebooth/

View Details

If you've noticed, I almost never talk about mindset.

Now, the reason is I often think it's over covered when it comes to business strategy and advice for women. But on the same hand, I can't tell you that mindset isn't important because your inner mean girl is going to feed all kinds of bologna into your mind.

But, that isn't what makes or breaks a business. It's what makes or breaks the leader of the business, and how you show up for yourself and your business. So today, we want to dive in to how you have a million-dollar mindset. We're not getting into the woo-woo, we're going to talk about how you know when to call a spade a spade. How to pay attention to when you're holding yourself back, and when you're just not taking enough action.

View Details

The girlboss book club was something I had started a couple years ago, because It felt like the perfect excuse of how to merge my loves of working with reading at the same time. It was super fun, but it started to become too much of a job. And when it starts to become a job, its just not fun anymore. That being said, I've really missed having reasons and excuses to read really great books. So today, I am resurrecting the girlboss book club and I wanted to announce what our next 10 books are going to be. I've got 10 books for 10 months, but I might throw some other really fun ones in. These books are focused on personal development, finance, mindset, how to be a boss, and more. The book club is very informal. I truly just wanted to create a space where I can say, "here are some really great books that I'm going to be reading and I'll be talking about and sharing." We're going to have discussions about them and some really great conversation starters around the books happening in the girlboss club. What I'm also hoping to do is collect reviews, thoughts and feedback on books - not just the 10 I'm listing today. Think Goodreads, but for business books. I see this going in so many really cool directions, so I had to bring the book club back. Be sure you join my free Facebook community so you can join the conversation!

So in no particular order, here we go.

1. Necessary Dream by Anna Fels Description: Despite the huge advances women have made in recent decades, their ambitions are still undermined in subtle ways. Parents, teachers, bosses, and institutions all give less encouragement to women than men, and women still grow up believing that they must defer to men in order be seen as feminine. If their ambition does survive into adulthood, too often those ambitions must be downsized or abandoned to accommodate “wifely” duties of household chores and child care. As a result, women--unlike men–continually have to re-shape their goals and expectations.

Yet expressing ambition, pursuing it, and getting recognition for one’s accomplishments is critical to identity and happiness. In this groundbreaking work, Anna Fels draws on extensive research and years of her psychiatric practice to offer an original and deeply useful examination of ambition in women’s lives. In the process, she illuminates just what is necessary for women to articulate--and fulfill--their dreams.

Why I’m selecting it: As an entrepreneur and mom, I’ve always found it difficult to balance dreams with obligations and how big is too big or too small? Curious about this idea of ambition and how to articulate it well.

2. Shark Tales:How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran Description: The inspiring true story of Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran--and her best advice for anyone starting a business. After failing at twenty-two jobs, Barbara Corcoran borrowed $1,000 from a boyfriend, quit her job as a diner waitress, and started a tiny real estate office in New York City. Using the unconventional lessons she learned from her homemaker mom, she gradually built it into a $6 billion dollar business. Now Barbara's even more famous for the no-nonsense wisdom she offers to entrepreneurs on Shark Tank, ABC's hit reality TV show.

Shark Talesis down-to-earth, frank, and as heartwarming as it is smart. After reading it, don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking, "If she can do it, so can I." Nothing would make Barbara happier.

Why I am selecting it: I’ve watched Shark Tales and have always found Barbara Corcoran to be kind, yet firm. No-nonsense but inspiring. So I loved the chance to hear her story and what it takes to be a real GirlBoss (my definition).

3. Limitless by Jim Qwik Description: Belief that you are limited might be holding you back from your biggest dreams. In Limitless, I share tools that will help you cast off your perceived limitations.

‍You’re going to learn how to upgrade your brain and memory. What’s more, you’ll learn how to increase your focus, optimize your work time, and form healthy habits.

‍Limitless helps you learn anything faster, and once you’ve done that, there is nothing holding you back from your dreams.

In these pages, you’ll discover:

The secrets to memory and recall
A simple method for learning anything FAST
The 4 supervillains of learning
My #1 tactic to remember names
And much more...

Why I am selecting it: Asked to read this in July and found the ideas fascinating between memory (which I admit sucks) and brain power — not a woo woo book, one about your brain and capacity to learn and do.

4. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki Description: Rich Dad Poor Dad is Robert's story of growing up with two dads — his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad — and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.

Why I am selecting it: One part of my brand and how I coach women is all about making money — and how to use marketing to do it. So I want to get my hands on anything I can about money, finances, investing, common sense principles that unfortunately are not passed down generation to generation or taught.

5. The Now Habit by Neil Fiore Description: THE NOW HABIToffers a comprehensive plan to help readers lower their stress and increase their time to enjoy guilt-free play. Dr. Fiore’s techniques will help any busy person start tasks sooner and accomplish them more quickly, without the anxiety brought on by the negative habits of procrastination and perfectionism.

Why I am selecting it: I often pride my self on how much I get done on a tight deadline — but procrastination causes a lot of anxiety, that I’ve never actually considered. So I wanted to see if it’s possible to stop using it as an excuse and to get into action faster, without guilt.

6. Contagious by Jonah Berger Description: What makes things popular? If you said advertising, think again. People don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?

Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He’s studied why New York Times articles make the paper’s own Most E-mailed list, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children.

In Contagious, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheesesteak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the most boring products there is a blender.

Contagious provides specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and content that people will share. Whether you’re a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.

Why I am selecting it: As a marketer, we’re always breaking down and dissecting what makes things go viral? How does someone get picked up by a huge influencer? What makes the difference? Since we’re all entrepreneurs building empires of one sort or another, I thought this book would be insightful and perhaps encourage creativity in how we approach marketing ourselves and our businesses.

7. Get Out Of Your Head by Jennie Allen Description: Are your thoughts holding you captive? I’ll never be good enough. Other people have better lives than I do. God couldn’t really love me. Jennie Allen knows what it’s like to swirl in a spiral of destructive thoughts, but she also knows we don’t have to stay stuck in toxic thinking patterns.

As she discovered in her own life, God built a way for us to escape that downward spiral. Freedom comes when we refuse to be victims to our thoughts and realize we have already been equipped with power from God to fight and win the war for our minds.

In Get Out of Your Head, Jennie inspires and equips us to transform our emotions, our outlook, and even our circumstances by taking control of our thoughts. Our enemy is determined to get in our heads to make us feel helpless, overwhelmed, and incapable of making a difference for the kingdom of God. But when we submit our minds to Christ, the promises and goodness of God flood our lives in remarkable ways.

It starts in your head. And from there, the possibilities are endless.

Why I am selecting it: Negative self-chatter plagues me more than I’d like to admit. So when this was suggested to me on my Kindle last week, I was intrigued. Yes, it has a religious overtone — she’s a Christian author and I like her work. I liked it because even the title called me out and I wanted a non-woo woo approach to mindset.

8. You Are a Badass At Making Money by Jen Sincero Description: You Are a Badass at Making Money will launch you past the fears and stumbling blocks that have kept financial success beyond your reach. Drawing on her own transformation - over just a few years - from a woman living in a converted garage with tumbleweeds blowing through her bank account to a woman who travels the world in style, Jen Sincero channels the inimitable sass and practicality that made You Are a Badassan indomitable bestseller. She combines hilarious personal essays with bite-size, aha concepts that unlock earning potential and get real results.

Learn to:

•Uncover what's holding you back from making money

Give your doubts, fears, and excuses the heave-ho
Relate to money in a new (and lucrative) way
Shake up the cocktail of creation
Tap into your natural ability to grow rich
Shape your reality - stop playing victim to circumstance
Get as wealthy as you wanna be

Why I am selecting it: I read this book years ago, but know it’s so helpful in getting out of the money stigma nad shame we bring to our adult lives and certain businesses. I love her snarky nature and wanted to dive in again to the beliefs surrounding money and how to break them.

9. No Excuses: The Power of Self-Discipline by Brian Tracey Description: No Excuses! shows you how you can achieve success in all three major areas of your life:

Your personal goals: self-discipline can help you realize that you are responsible for your success and shows you how persistence really does pay off.
Your business and money goals: self-discipline can make you a better leader and a better manager, help you close more sales and make more money, improve your time-management and problem- solving abilities, and make you more effective and successful at work.
Your overall happiness: self-discipline can help you be happier, healthier, and more physically fit, and it can help you in your marriage and your relationships with your children and friends.

Why I am selecting it: I am the queen of excuses for why I don’t need to start something … see my earlier recommendation of procrastination. But it’s not just business. It’s exercise, diets, connecting with others, sending emails, responding to texts…. so much that I always chalk up to not having enough self discipline.

10. Stop Missing Your Life by Corey Muscara Description: n Stop Missing Your Life, mindfulness teacher Cory Muscara takes us on a journey into the heart of what is required for real change, growth, and happiness. He exposes how the phrase "be present" has become little more than a platitude, imbued with the misguided message to be present just for the sake of being present, and reveals how to achieve true Presence: a quality of being that is unmistakably attractive about a person, and one that only comes when we've peeled back the layers of guarding that prevent us from being our full, honest, and integrated selves in the world.

Muscara shows how we build internal walls, what he describes as a "Pain Box" inhibiting us from living a deeply connected and meaningful life. He offers a four-part FACE model (Focus, Allow, Curiosity, and Embodiment) that helps chip away at those walls and builds our capacity to experience the richness of our lives Stop Missing Your Life ultimately teaches how we can find peace in the chaos and become better people for our families, our communities, and our world.

Why I am selecting it: I think COVID has taught me more than anything how to appreciate where I am — but I also think I have a lot to learn in how I show up present always — no matter how crazy or normal life is.

I am really excited about the 10 books I've selected. I'm excited to share them and have discussions with you. I really do want to see what comes up for you while reading these. One thing I haven't mentioned yet - how do you join? Just go to malloryschlabach.com/bookcluband join the list. I'll be sending you the book list, reading order and a link to join the #girlboss club where the discussions are happening. What I'm really hoping comes out of this is great conversation, personal development, challenging yourself to think differently and giving insight to others. Starting us off in August is going to be Get Out Of Your Own Head by Jennie Allen.

I am super excited to get this started - so let's go guys!

malloryschlabach.com/bookclub

About Marketing Magic:

View Details

Feeling exhausted and overwhelmed in your business?

It could be that you haven’t niched down enough yet and found that sweet spot to serve the right people.

In this episode, I was joined by one of my first coaches in the online business world, Tonya Rineer. Tonya is a business coach for life coaches and consultants and a master at niching down.

Early on in her business, she found that she was too addicted to helping everyone with everything. Tonya quickly realized she needed to learn to say no to the things she didn’t enjoy and focus on serving the audience that was right for her.

In this episode, we chat about how to find your niche using what you know about your skillsets, experiences and passions! Tonya gives so much great advice on how to niche down and why it’s crucial for your sanity.

She also explores how you can determine if you need to niche down even further. You’ll definitely want to hear the advice she shares around this!

We talk about:

What Tonya does as a business coach for life coaches
How she was addicted to helping everyone
How she learned to say no to things she didn’t enjoy
Why niching down has helped her to have more energy
How you find your niche through your skillsets, experiences and passions
How the universe sends you tests around your niche
The test you can use to determine if you need to niche down more
What Tonya’s working on next and her plans for the rest of the year

About Tonya Rineer:

Author of the best-selling book Mindset Switch, Tonya Rineer helps coaches and consultants master their mindset, grow their tribe, make great money and make a BIG impact in the world, doing what they love.

Connect with Tonya:

Website | Facebook | Instagram

Links:

Life Coach MBA

Blog Post and Workbook on Niching Down

View Details

What's the best way to grow your business? Grow your team and become the CEO.

But for so many of us, hiring out what we do feels DAUNTING.

Where do you start?

Who do you hire?

How do you know you’ve got a great person?

In this episode, Amanda Davila and I talk about everything outsourcing: how to know when you’re ready, what to outsource first, how to make sure you're financially prepared to outsource!

She spills everything you need to know and her advice on hiring someone and figuring out how to bring in more money to support you as you grow. She talks about her own experience of getting started in the online business world and how she got into work as a virtual assistant and online business manager.

Amanda shares what she does to help people move into the CEO role in their business and what patterns you can look out for that might be a sign it’s time to outsource!

We talk about:

What Amanda does to help people move into the CEO role of their business
Why she ended up moving to Hawaii
How she defines what the CEO role is
Why it’s so hard to start outsourcing in your business
The differences from a virtual assistant and online business manager
How to tell when you’re ready to hire a VA or OBM
Patterns to be aware of that you might be ready to hire an OBM
How to hire the right people for the job
How she noticed a gap in the VA side and how she’s leveraged that
Why she wants to help other people work online

About Amanda Davila:

Amanda Davila is the creator of The CEO Itinerary – guiding entrepreneurs into the CEO role, where they can truly be the visionary of their business.

Passions: Leading female entrepreneurs to rebel against the “norms” and create an authentic journey in life and business.

You can find Amanda with her husband and son enjoying their home in Hawaii, traveling, kayaking, and indulging in fresh-squeezed lemonade and tacos.

Connect with Amanda:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Links:

Outsource Like a Boss

Brain Dump Template

View Details

One way to grow a business faster is to learn to leverage your time to stay in your zone of genius.

But unfortunately, that’s so much easier said than done.

Until you learn how to automate the system and processes in your business.

Are you ready for your business to run more smoothly? I know this is something that A LOT of business owners struggle with on the inside of their businesses.

Setting up processes, systems and automations will save you so many hours per month and that’s exactly what today’s guest, Jessica Danielle came on the podcast to discuss.

Having these things in place will truly set you up to be able to grow and scale your business.

In this episode, Jessica shares what she does to help serve her clients and the tools she uses to help them run efficiently. We talk about some of the reasons people avoid putting systems in place and how you can build them out to be suited for your preferences.

She shares what type of clients she typically works with, what she is loving about her business and how you can get your automations in check!

We talk about:

What Jessica does as a Virtual Assistant and Notion Consultant
How she got started in her own business
How she helps clients get back time in their day
Tools Jessica uses for herself and others
What she does to help people with Notion
The types of clients that Jessica works with
The primary apps she uses with clients
What she’s loving right now in her business
What her course is and how it helps you outsource and delegate
Her new intensive that helps clients automate systems and processes

About Jessica Danielle:

I’m a former administrative assistant, turned Virtual Assistant. I’m a powerhouse of all thing’s productivity: from how to make processes quicker, to setting up automation’s. I can spot an error in an excel spreadsheet a mile away (nerdy, I know), and I get to know new programs and software like the back of my hand.

My journey in the administrative industry started 15+ years ago, fresh out of high school and ready for the world. I fell in love and I’ve never looked back. I have helped so many get organized, simplified processes and helped automate like a BOSS.

I’m obsessed with figuring out how to be more productive, organized and streamlined while keeping up with new software to help you run your business like a pro. I want to help you leave a legacy with your business and lean into your expertise—we’ll start by helping you find those gaps and get you hyper-organized so you never have to look at a to-do list and be stressed again.

Connect with Jessica:

Website | Facebook

Links:

Notion

Crisp

Google Suite

Slack

Todoist

Canva

View Details

Do you have more than one target audience for your business?

The guest that I had on this week’s strategy session has three… yes, you heard that right! She wanted to gain some clarity around how to reach the three audiences that she has for her business and that’s exactly what we talked about in this episode.

I spoke with Emmy, the founder of Shop Local, an online business community that helps people to do exactly what it says: buy and sell their products in the local community.

We talked about an upcoming show she’s doing and how she can attract more vendors to that show. She shares how she plans to run the tradeshow online and her vision around what that will look like.

We talk a lot about how her online marketplace functions (think Etsy but for your local community!) She shares pain points that she helps solve for her vendors and I give some advice on how she can leverage her vendors to reach more people. I also give her some tips around using marketing to help smooth out people’s fears and how to use Facebook groups for marketing efforts.

We talk about:

Why Emmy started her business to help small businesses
What their give-back program is
How she targets her 3 separate audiences
What they’re pushing toward in the midst of COVID
How her online marketplace functions
What they’re doing to attract vendors for their upcoming show
Trends she’s noticed about her vendors
Pain-points that her business is solving for vendors
How she can leverage her audience for her messaging
How they use influencer marketing and live videos
What the fair will look like virtually
Advice for leveraging vendors’ audiences
Why giving people a clear path will help them smooth out their fears
Tips for getting into Facebook groups for marketing purposes

About Emmy:

I started a website company when I was 19 and over the years saw small businesses struggle with the same marketing issues. I realized that there needed to be some sort of shared Community marketing platform that supported local businesses in the community. Shop Local was born and we've grown in communities all over the US that use our mobile app. Now we've launched our Online Marketplace to help businesses survive the big online mogules like Amazon and Etsy.

Connect with Emmy:

Website | Facebook Group | Instagram

Links:

Download the mobile app

How to get your chamber involved in Shop Local Online

View Details

As a service provider, especially one that serves a local community - it can be challenging to think beyond the four walls of your business….

Today’s guest, Amy will change the way you think about your business and how you can expand what you do and who you serve.

Amy Flaherty talks about how she took her mental health practice online. Amy not only runs her private practice but she also runs a membership program and an online institute. In this episode, we broke down her business and particularly how she manages launches.

Launching is something that many business owners are unsure about. The decision about whether you should launch or have an evergreen program leaves a lot of business owners confused.

Amy shares why she chose to do launches and how moving to this model has changed her business and herself as a business owner. We also talk about why it’s okay to make mistakes, what she would’ve done differently looking back now and what she plans to do next in her business.

We talk about:

How she made the jump to take her therapy business online
Why she decided to close her membership
The big things she had to wrap her brain around when moving to online work and into the expertise role
What tools she uses for creating her online membership
Why she does online launches
Why launching is right for her versus having an evergreen model
How moving to this model has changed her business and herself as a boss
What she would’ve done differently looking back
Why it’s okay to make mistakes and learn from them
What Amy plans to do next in her business

About Amy Flaherty:

My name is Amy Flaherty and I’m a Licensed Psychological Examiner-Independent (LPE-I.) You are probably like what is that?? I get that a lot. It’s a unique to Arkansas thing. Arkansas licenses people at the masters level through the psychology board to do testing and counseling; with the “I,”I can practice independently (without supervision). There aren’t many of us so it’s likely you haven’t heard of it.

But the most important part you need to know is that I’ve been practicing therapy with kids and adults since 2005 and have been in private practice since 2007.

I’m also a Registered Play Therapist (RPT). I’ve been a RPT since 2012. Becoming a RPT was really one of the smartest moves I’ve ever made in my professional life.

While sandtray therapy is my passion, it’s not the only method of therapy I use with my clients. I view change through cognitive-behavioral therapeutic lens but utilize many experiential methods to access all parts of my client’s brain.

I’m a constant learner and a self-proclaimed nerd. I have a passion for neuroscience and neuroplasticity, especially as it relates to sandtray therapy.

Connect with Amy:

Southern Sandtray Institute | Sandtray Therapy Association | True Hope Counseling

Links Mentioned on This Episode:

Memberium

Tribe

Product Launch Formula

View Details

  Public Relations often feels unattainable because we usually see it working for giant brands with an agency creating the most incredible spins on news. The secret to actually getting media and the right kind of explosive attention is all about the relationships and followup.

Anyone can utilize PR for their business so I brought Courtney Love Gavin, a public relations strategist to help break down some of the myths that people have about PR and how to use it to grow their business.

Courtney actually started her own public relations firm after using PR to grow her creative goods business. She was profitable within 30 days of launching by using the power of PR to get visible and left the corporate PR world for good.

She discusses how to approach PR for your business and the importance of building organic relationships to help get your message out there.

Courtney shares how to pitch yourself and why you need to filter your pitches depending on who you’re speaking to. We talk about how less is more in the world of PR, why you should have PR for your business and how to use PR in times of crisis.

**We talk about:**

What Courtney does as a publicist
How you can approach PR for your business
Why you should build organic relationships
How to pitch yourself and your business
Why you should filter your message to who you’re pitching to
Why PR is about less rather than more
What the point of PR is for your business
Why you should be putting yourself out there in a meaningful way
How to use PR to manage crisis communications

About Courtney: Courtney Love Gavin is a sophisticated public relations strategist and consultant for visionary entrepreneurs and brilliant leaders. Courtney Love teaches her clients how to use PR to arrest attention, inspire action and increase their credibility, drawing from her 16 years of experience leading PR for the world’s most admired brands and business leaders. Courtney Love is solar-powered and lives in Santa Monica, CA with her rescue dog Chandler Bing. When she’s not consulting or creating communications that convert, Courtney Love enjoys trips to the library and perfecting her right hook.

Connect with Courtney: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Links: My Pretty Playbook

About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

It's funny when you start something, you never really know where it's going to go sometimes. I find that's the case with the podcast. Today, we're celebrating 100 episodes of The Marketing magic podcast, which is pretty crazy because when I started this two years ago, I really wasn't sure where it was going. I didn't have any lofty goals. I just knew it was where I needed to be, and the content platform that was going to be best for my personality, and for what I wanted to accomplish in my business. The rest was just a wild ride.

Here are 100+ truth bombs from the past 99 episodes to give you bite-sized inspiration to build amazing businesses.

Find your voice. Find what you have to say. Find what's important and be willing to say it out loud. - Episode 095 with Maggie Frank-Hsu
Speak up. That's different than just finding your voice because sometimes we just don't know what to say, and sometimes we're afraid to say it. So whether you fall into either one of those camps, I want you to have permission again and to hear it over and over and over and over and over and over and over. You're allowed to say things you're allowed to have a point of opinion, you're allowed to say more than just what you're good at or what you're doing in your business. - Episode 095 with Maggie Frank-Hsu
Find women who are pulling up chairs at their table for you to join. That's a big difference from people who are putting their claws out, especially in the women's space. If you've never had someone who is amazing, who's ahead of you, who's on the same par with you, who's doing great things that you look up to that's been like, Hey, you know what, there's room for you at my table here figuratively or literally, you need to find new posse. There is so much space and growth and amazingness that happens when women take each other under the wing and support each other and you need to find that kind of community. - Episode 095 with Maggie Frank-Hsu
Find a group of women entrepreneurs who are ahead of you and pay attention. - Episode 095 with Maggie Frank-Hsu
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable with your message. That can either look like being uncomfortable saying the same thing over and over or by being uncomfortable in your business, period by saying the hard things. - Episode 095 with Maggie Frank-Hsu
I found this quote on one of the episodes Episode 52, I believe, and I loved it so much. I forgot it was even in there.”Don't take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from.” Gosh, I should get that one tattooed on my arm right now. And I know some of you right now need to hear this message today.
Entrepreneurship is hard. And there are no overnight success stories no matter what you believe, or what you see online or what you read on the news. Entrepreneurship is hard for a purpose. And it is to help you discover who you are. I think it's so much deeper than just having a business. It also is this whole thing with teaching you who you are as a person, and what you're supposed to be doing here on this planet. - Episode 039 with Lilah Higgins
The most successful brands and people behind the brands are confident. That's their secret weapon. If you don't believe in yourself, Why will anyone else believe in you as well? That's a deeper conversation I go into with Candice Hickman on building a successful personal brand and lolly if you want to see someone who exudes confidence you need to follow Candace. - Episode 035 with Candis Hickman
Successful business owners have clarity in their business. And that's what makes all the difference. - Episode 025 The Difference Between Successful Businesses and Those That Fail (It’s Not What You Think)
Clarity allows you to put blinders on so you can really focus on what's important in your business and you don't feel so scattered all the time. - Episode 025 The Difference Between Successful Businesses and Those That Fail (It’s Not What You Think)
Okay, and the last one for this section and I loved it, was from one of my longtime clients, Becky, when she says, “Be brave, be yourself. Mess and all.” - Episode 014 with Becky McCoy
Set up Google Analytics on your website for the love of tacos. - Episode 092 Geeking Out on Google Analytics
Understand funnels, even if you're never going to use the word funnel, you have them in your business.So if you understand how they work and how they work in your business, even if you're never going to call it that, it's going to help you close the gaps, and scale your business that much faster. - Episode
Track activity metrics, not vanity number metrics. I could preach on this all day long. Episode Five is when I go really deep into metrics. But if you're afraid of metrics, you have no idea what to track or you've never tracked them before. This is a great place to start. - Episode 005 The Down and Dirty of Marketing Metrics
Know your revenue, know your expenses and know your profit margin in your business. Know the finances know the numbers know the big girl things you need to know that kind of scare you. - Episode 005 The Down and Dirty of Marketing Metrics
Here's some of the biggest mistakes that I pulled out of episodes that you're making on your website. You're too general with your copy. - Episode 015 The Top 5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make On Their Website That’s Losing Them Clients (and how to fix them)
There are too many calls to action on your website. - Episode 015 The Top 5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make On Their Website That’s Losing Them Clients (and how to fix them)
It's unclear what you do. Or it's unclear how to work with you or buy from you or purchase that thing. - Episode 015 The Top 5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make On Their Website That’s Losing Them Clients (and how to fix them)
And your website is too busy. If you have any of those things happening on your business, it's not working for you and you're going to lose control. If you have people coming to your website you're expecting to buy and they just bounce because of one of these things. It's heartbreaking. So audit your website, look at these five things and figure out how do I make my website better, so I'm not driving people away? - Episode 015 The Top 5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make On Their Website That’s Losing Them Clients (and how to fix them)
On the flip side of that, here's what you do need to have on your website, that's gonna make a big difference. You have to have a site period. - Episode 086 What to Put On Your Homepage to Make it Rock
Show you are alive online and also make it mobile friendly. - Episode 097 with Meg Casebolt
What fits in your screen is what matters the most. With so many heat map tests I've done on websites, I can tell you the things they look at the most are on the top part of that screen. - Episode 086 What to Put On Your Homepage to Make it Rock
Your navigation is more important than you think. So be really thoughtful in how you lay out your navigation so people can get to where they need to go on your site to make a decision about whether to follow you or buy from you or do whatever you're asking them to do on the site. - Episode 086 What to Put On Your Homepage to Make it Rock
Have a strong call to action on your site and ask someone to do something important on your site - Episode 086 What to Put On Your Homepage to Make it Rock
Most people are not ready to buy from you when they land on your site so have an optin so you can nurture people. - Episode 086 What to Put On Your Homepage to Make it Rock
Know what people are doing on your site, (which you can see with Google Analytics) - Episode 092 Geeking Out on Google Analytics
If you have a local business or want to get clients in your backyard, set up Google My Business. - Episode 089 Geeking Out on Google My Business
Don't try to sell everyone in your hometown. - Episode 066 How to Outpace Your Competition with Local Marketing
Be taggable. And what I mean by that is we've all seen people get tagged in Facebook land, or on Instagram, other platforms for something, right? So what are you coming top of mind for? What would someone tag you for if they could on social media, if you don't have a thing, you need to create a thing that they can be known for. That's how you rise to the top in a local community. - Episode 066 How to Outpace Your Competition with Local Marketing
Some of the biggest game changers I've seen for local marketing is for people who make connections in their community. Local is all about who you know, so get in front of people who you can collaborate with. That's going to be like pouring gasoline on your fire for a local business. - Episode 066 How to Outpace Your Competition with Local Marketing
Create a personal brand. If you want to stand out, you got to have a personal brand you have to have something that you're known for. - Episode 066 How to Outpace Your Competition with Local Marketing
Assume no one has met you met, so start at the beginning and always introduce yourself and show your authority and expertise. - Episode 066 How to Outpace Your Competition with Local Marketing
If you only had one hour of time to promote yourself, make sure you're being visible everywhere all the time. - Episode 087 The One Hour a Week Marketing Plan
Build community. This could be fitting calls, this could be Facebook messages. This could be chats, this could be made up in real life, but you've got to have some kind of connection with people. - Episode 087 The One Hour a Week Marketing Plan
Create content at least once a week - Episode 087 The One Hour a Week Marketing Plan
and promote the heck out of that content. Promoting is infinitely more important, but you just have to create it so you have something but spend more of your time promoting and then creating content. Don't agonize over it, put it out in the world and then promote it like crazy. - Episode 087The One Hour a Week Marketing Plan
You have to make offers, sell something, tell people how to buy something from you, tell them how to work with you, tell them where to find that thing, etc. - Episode 087 The One Hour a Week Marketing Plan
When something isn't working in your business, you usually didn't get it wrong. It usually means you're focused on the wrong thing. - Episode 077 Why No One is Buying From You… And How to Fix It
Sometimes we get so excited talking about a thing that we forget to actually do the ask. We're just telling them what to do next. Do the ask and you'll see a lot more conversions happening. - Episode 077 Why No One is Buying From You… And How to Fix It
Follow up, like it's your job because it is your job, the follow fortune is in the follow up, that's the same that's super popular. Because it's true. The more you follow up with people just consistently showing up in their life, checking them with them, the more sales and revenue you're gonna bring, yay. - Episode 077 Why No One is Buying From You… And How to Fix It
Ask for the sale. You can't make business grow if you don't actually tell them you're selling something and ask them if they want to buy it. - Episode 024 with Renee Hribar
Promote until you can't anymore. I basically sum that one up because you cannot over promote yourself. - Episode 077 Why No One is Buying From You… And How to Fix It
If your inner circle does not know what you do, I guarantee your audience doesn't either. - Episode 064 How to Get Clients in Your Own Backyard
Know the difference between just-in-time learning and just-in-case learning. If you're chasing everything in your business or feeling really, really distracted, it's really important for you to take a step back for one second and ask yourself Am I doing this? Or am I learning this? Because it's just in time for that thing I'm trying to do that's driving my business? Or am I learning this just in case I need to know it or just case as to my fallback or like a what if scenario, those are two very different mindsets than one's going to help you grow your business and one's going to keep you in fear and learning and kind of in the baby mode, which you don't want to be in your business. - Episode 063 with Mary Czarnecki
To get more growth focus on these five things: 1) How do I get more leads or more people into my doors? - Episode 063 with Mary Czarnecki
2) How do I convert more people into paying clients or customers? - Episode 063 with Mary Czarnecki
3) How do I increase the transactions, whether that's having them buy more often from me or having them buy more things from me at one time, so either increasing the transaction price or increasing the frequency? - Episode 063 with Mary Czarnecki
4) Look at raising your prices. When you raise your prices, that's going to change your profit margin a lot - Episode 063 with Mary Czarnecki
5) Or lower your margins by cutting expenses. That one's the easiest to do but has the least impact.
Share your story, because it matters. I actually wrote this down three times on accident, it’s that important. If you think about it, the people you're most connected to, or if you're a reader, like me, I consume books like crazy. I can sit down and read a whole book in one sitting because I'm connected to this story because I feel like I'm part of it. I want to know what happens next, I'm invested. - Episode 056 with Melody Morris
Also, not only just tell your story, but be quirky. Use your weirdness as an asset. You can never be too weird. I take myself for example, most people are not talking about tacos and have hot pink and specifically talk about women only, but I do and that's what's working for me and I love it. It gives me such freedom to show up how I want to show up in my business, and it will give you the same freedom as well. - Episode 056 with Melody Morris
Crush it on one platform first, and then expand to other platforms. I'm going to sing that until I go to heaven one day. People, you do not have to be on all the platforms to start out with. In fact, if you're not crushing it on one platform, what makes you think you're gonna crush on 10 platforms? So get really, really laser focus and figure out what's working on that platform. How do you engage with people, and then move to other platforms because they all work a little bit differently. And it's really hard to split your focus so many different ways when you're still testing things out. - Episode 055 13 Ways to Attract New Clients
Get crystal clear on your message, and it's okay to get help with your message. I have to get help with my message too. I can pull a message out of anybody except myself. Get help with your message because it's really hard for us to see what's most important when we filter it through our own brain. - Episode 055 13 Ways to Attract New Clients
Have a really clear offer. Make sure it is so clear, obvious what it is you do and what results you get for people. - Episode 055 13 Ways to Attract New Clients
Focus on referrals. - Episode 055 13 Ways to Attract New Clients
Because we all know your net worth is your network, whether like one of those like sappy little quotes that really make a big difference. People matter. So figure out how to pour into people how to give back to people and how to get that reciprocated back to you as well. - Episode 055 13 Ways to Attract New Clients
You must have sales conversations to grow a business. I had to put my big girl pants on when I hired my sales coach a few years ago, because I was terrified of sales conversations. - Episode 024 with Renee Hribar
Be willing to show up as an expert in your business. That doesn't mean you have to be the expert but you are an expert in what you know. You don't need a certification. You don't need a letter. - Episode 055 13 Ways to Attract New Clients
Repurpose your content pretty pretty please with a cherry on top. Repurposing allows you to promote one piece of content 100 different ways instead of always creating new content. It also makes you feel omnipresent. - Episode 056 with Melody Morris
If you're not consistently creating content, I challenge you to start today. Put something out in the world nothing bad's gonna happen I promise. - Episode 056 with Melody Morris
People buy into people and their stories. So if you struggle with putting into words what you do, do it with a story. It allows people to figure out a way to understand what you do in a way that makes sense to them. - Episode 047 with Amelia Roberts
Dive into the Dream 100. I do this with all my mastermind clients and local clients as well because it makes a huge difference. It's all about making connections that matter because no one has a self made successful business. - Episode 047 with Amelia Roberts
More than 90 percent of leads are not ready to buy anything from you. So have a way to capture and nurture them. I've had people who have been following me for three plus years, who are just now saying yes to some of the things that I've put out there. But they would have never been able to say yes, if I hadn’t had a way to connect with them. - Episode 047 with Amelia Roberts
Create the whole enchilada in your business to see if you’re underpricing yourself and where. So many entrepreneurs come from a traditional trading time for money scenario, and what we want to get to instead of trade money for value. If you can list out all the things that you do for your clients and the price of each thing, you’ll see your value differently. - Episode 042 How to Stop Underpricing Yourself
Need clients NOW? If you're not visible, nobody can find you. Also, show up where your leads are. Talk about the transformation and make offers. If you don't have people immediately buying from you or people who are connecting with your offers, look back at those four pieces and see which one's going wrong. - Episode 067 How do I Find That Elusive Client?
If you can simplify what you're doing, you can scale it, you can scale it way faster than if you have something complicated. So figure out: what is the one platform you're showing up on? What is the one main opt in, you're driving people towards? What is your one content channel that you're focused on? And what is your one traffic source? If you can nail down those five things, you're going to create a marketing machine and sales machine for your business. - Episode 041 The Marketing Magic Framework to Simplify Your Marketing
For the person who has a million ideas, one thing that will help you is if you ask yourself, what is my goal? Where am I going with my business? It will help you narrow down the most important two or three things out of all the ideas that will help you get traction. If you don't know where you're going or what you're building, then it's really, really hard to figure out the actions that you need to take that are going to get you good results as opposed to just being busy and feeling productive. - Episode 037 with Janine Esbrand
Oh, the creepy exercise. I've had literally every single person I work with do this. The creepy exercise helps you connect to the right buyers and it will change everything about your business. Listen to the full episode for how to do this. - Episode 034 My Top Secret Method of How to Get Dreamy Clients For Anything
Create bite-sized goals if you have goals that aren't getting reached in the way you want them to be reached with how you know you've hit them. Adding a little bit of metrics and accountability to it makes a really big difference. - Episode 033 How to Actually Accomplish Goals You Set
If you are curious to try old school methods or afraid to try old school methods, here are some of the ones that are really working well. Direct mail, believe it or not, still works in certain industries. I recommend it to a lot of local people, especially because unless you're a national brand, you're usually not using mail anymore to reach your people so it's gonna stand out. - Episode 031 Old School Marketing Methods That Still Work
Get personal and reach out human to human. And I don't mean by just putting the personalized tag in your email, for example, but people enjoy the face to face connections and the things that can’t just be automated. - Episode 031 Old School Marketing Methods That Still Work
Meet people in real life. People still love to meet face to face and it's still going to be important for your business to figure out how you can work that in. Whether that means you travel to conferences, again, whether you meet people locally in your community, that's going to make a big difference. - Episode 031 Old School Marketing Methods That Still Work
Ask for referrals. You've heard referrals come up a couple times, but give referrals, ask for referrals, solicit referrals, all the things. There could never be enough referrals going on. People generally like to recommend you to people if they had a good experience. So make sure you over deliver on experiences so it makes referrals way easier to get. - Episode 031 Old School Marketing Methods That Still Work
Think about your business in terms of funnels and work backwards to figure out how to find your best client. Imagine you're taking them on a journey. Sometimes they come in as newbies, and you're leaving them during the path. Sometimes they come down further along, and they want to get to the next step or the next scale. So if you know that you're taking people on a journey, it's helpful to kind of engineer the journey along the way, right? And so it helps if you start backwards, if you know where you're taking them, how do you help them along each step of the way. And so how you can find them, if you don't know where you're taking them and you don't know where you're going to find them to begin with. - Episode 028 Are Sales Funnels Dead?
Take the time to set up your SEO. Set up SEO for your pages for your descriptions, for your keywords, for your alt tags - Episode 097 with Meg Casebolt
Content is a long term game plan that we don't often invest enough time in, but exponentially will pay off for your business because people are just going to always see it doesn't go away. It lives on the internet forever, right? - Episode 027 How to Get Free Leads For Your Biz
Email your list. If it feels like a ploy or that you’re bothering them, it's because you're not connecting human to human, you're looking at them as a sale or as a transaction. - Episode 029 Crafting Emails That Make Your Business Money
Review your past mistakes and results before you set new goals. I think it's one of the most overlooked steps of goal setting when we don't review what's already happened and what we've done. - Episode 030 The One Thing to Do Before Setting Goals
Getting out of the messy middle of your business (where you feel stuck and doing all the things and growth seems impossible) requires a giant leap. Listen to the full episode for how to break free of this common business growth model. - Episode 026 How to Shift Your Business When You Feel Stuck
Need to figure out the biggest gaps in your business? Ask yourself: Am I making enough money? If your answer is no, I want you to look at your pricing, the offers you're putting out in and what revenue generating tasks you're doing in your business. - Episode 025 The Difference Between Successful Businesses and Those That Fail
Next question, am I closing sales? If your answer is no, you're not closing very many sales. You need to talk to more people or take a look at your offer. Take a look at your sales process or figure out how to drive more traffic. - Episode 025 The Difference Between Successful Businesses and Those That Fail
Next question is, Do I have enough traffic? A lot of times people jump to this one saying, Oh, I just need to have 1000 people on my list and a million followers, this many page views. So if you're not having enough traffic come to you, the question you need to look out is, where are you hanging out? Where are your people? Where and how do you connect with your people? And how do they know you exist? - Episode 025 The Difference Between Successful Businesses and Those That Fail
Don’t jump into paid advertising until you have the marketing foundations in your business to support that kind of traffic. If you are not selling to the existing audience you have, adding more numbers to your business is not going to give you more money. - Episode 025 The Difference Between Successful Businesses and Those That Fail
Ask better questions if you’re not getting great qualified people to work with you. My sales coach taught me is to ask questions to determine if THEY are a good fit for you, not for you to sell yourself. - Episode 024 with Renee Hribar
You cannot run an entirely passive business or start one from scratch and hit the revenue goals you want to hit. In case no one has told you, you will not hit the revenue goals you want to hit unless you're willing to invest a lot of money in ad spend. That's just the bottom line. - Episode 024 with Renee Hribar
Treat people like people and it makes your business work a whole lot smoother. - Episode 024 with Renee Hribar
Act like the CEO. This is what CEOs focus on: the sweet spot of clients who you actually get results with, time block to focus on revenue producing tasks are the things that are in your zone of genius as a CEO and knowing what your numbers and your metrics are. Those are the key indicators of someone who knows how to run a successful business and is going to be set up for success because you focus on these types of things. You're not putting out all the fires, you're not chasing all the things you're knowing when to delegate stuff. You know when to hire people. - Episode 023 How to Treat Your Business Like a CEO
The old adage, if you build it, they will come is false. You have to actively seek out your leads to grow. Know your offer, know who is perfect for it, know where to find them, share the successes you've given to people or why they love what you do, and then go after them. That's how you grow a business. You don't just wait for them to come to you. - Episode 021 What’s the Fastest Way to Make Cash?
Treat all news as positive even if it's not totally positive all the time for you or them. But especially when you're pivoting and you're afraid that you're gonna hurt someone's feelings or you're gonna let someone down in your audience. People want to think the best of you so don’t tell them everything horrible you’ve been thinking or doing, lead with a positive mindset to change. - Episode 020 How to Handle the Transition in My Business When I Pivot
These are the four strategies to think about in your business: Have a big picture strategy. This is where you look at your business anywhere from six months to two years so when you're running your business and in the day to day when you're doing all the things it helps you know if you’re staying the course and creating where you want to go. - Episode 019 Four Marketing Strategies Your Business Must Have
Have a growth strategy. This is the one where I most often work with my clients on is to look at the numbers and metrics. If you know your numbers, if you know how to get there. - Episode 019 Four Marketing Strategies Your Business Must Have
Have a quick fix strategy for immediate cash flow or visibility. This strategy helps create new ideas, do a big blitz around one idea or use someone else's platform if you have the opportunity. The problem is, if you do this very often it creates tunnel vision in your business and you no longer have a path you're following. - Episode 019 Four Marketing Strategies Your Business Must Have
Know the seasonal launches and patterns in your business. Typically, people think of these either in the launch world, whether you're launching courses or a digital product, or you know, like seasons, you're having actual, like, products get product lines coming out when you're launching things. But I like to think about seasons, seasonal launches differently than those. I also use launches in terms of how do I create the business I want to create based on my lifestyle? - Episode 019 Four Marketing Strategies Your Business Must Have
More people get stuck on creating content because of mindset, and the stories that we're telling ourselves more than anything else. It's not usually because you don't have any good ideas. So I want to challenge you, if you are afraid to create content, you're stuck in creating content, you know, you want to create content, any of those content pieces or categories, just start putting something out there. And it's going to make a huge difference. When you let go of the fear when you let go of the thing, like a fear that you're going to be useless or it's not a good idea. And you just release it into the world, you're going to be surprised how much traction it gets. - Episode 018 Content Creation for Dummies
Know when NOT to invest $10,000 in your business. - If you're desperate for a solution or a change in your business, it's not the time to invest money, the problem is not in what you're doing, the problem is in your head.
Don't invest when the price tag is too high. I tell people all the time who want to join the mastermind with me. “This may not fit your budget and don't put it on a credit card, please, I don't want you to go into debt to work with me. There's other ways to work with me, or to grow your business until you can get to a point where you can afford me.”
If it sounds like a miracle program, it probably is.
If the person is brand new to you, it's not a great idea to invest in dollars with them.
If you've never worked with someone before in any capacity, whether that's even just trying their opt in, watching their lives taking their advice on something before you invest a ton of money
If it's a program where you don't have access to the person, then it's probably not the program for you.
Just be careful with “gurus” You'll know who they are, if you follow them, you know, they have million dollar launches and those kinds of things. I would only caution you to be wary with them, because they have accelerated success. And it's easy for people to buy into, again, that hope and dreams of the possibility of businesses. That's not realistic for a lot of people because there's a tipping point in businesses, and it happens to all of us at some point or another. If they're having million dollar launches, they've hit their tipping point, right. It's where all of a sudden all of the hard work you put into it. Finally tips and you can have these massive launches massive, massive rewards and successes in your business, but it doesn't happen overnight. And what they're selling is that it can happen overnight. - Episode 017 8 Signs You Shouldn’t Invest $10K Into That Magic Bullet Program This Fall
If you're doing too much on your to do list, then it's time for you to create a minimum viable task list. I love this because it gives you permission of the things you have to get done versus the things you should and should get done, there's a big distinction and a lot of times our to do list doesn’t break those up for us. - Episode 016 5 Ways to Crush Your Fall Goals Even if Summer Wasn’t So Productive
Marketing isn't always going to be tied to revenue and that's okay. I think that's important to say because I think a lot of times in business, we assume anything we do in business is going to bring us back money. And sometimes that's not the case. That's not what it was meant to do. Yes, marketing should bring back some money. That's the whole point, right. But if you don't know how to sell either, then marketing is not coming to you a lot of good, it's gonna get you a lot of visibility, but you're still not going to make sales. - Episode 014 15 Secrets That Will Change How You Feel About Marketing with Becky McCoy
It's okay if not everyone is going to follow you forever, or for not going to take your entire path. It can be really frustrating as a business owner because we know the results we can get for our clients and our customers if they just do what we tell them to do. Right? If you would just do what I told you to do. I know you would get to x. But that's not the case. People are people and people are fickle. People don't always do the things they want. Do because they have their own agendas, and rightly so. So I want to give you permission to understand that it's okay. If people don't complete things that's on them more than it's on you and your program for the most part. - Episode 014 15 Secrets That Will Change How You Feel About Marketing with Becky McCoy
The more specific you can get, the more you're going to find your people. And this goes back to niching down. It's a very, very scary thing for a lot of people. But I promise you, it's going to make a world of difference in how you market and how much easier it becomes to market when you get really crystal clear. - Episode 014 15 Secrets That Will Change How You Feel About Marketing with Becky McCoy
You don't have to serve one type of person forever. I think a lot of times when we feel like we're pivoting, we call the word pivot a lot right now. In our businesses, we feel like oh my gosh, I'm such a fraud. As you grow as a person and as a business, your audience may change entirely. - Episode 014 15 Secrets That Will Change How You Feel About Marketing with Becky McCoy
Marketing is creative. It's a creative work and it really depends on who you are as a person. That's why formulas don't work. So if you're looking for formulas, that doesn't work for marketing - Episode 014 15 Secrets That Will Change How You Feel About Marketing with Becky McCoy
Take risks in your business, be okay to be uncomfortable and it's okay to be afraid. I want to normalize all these things for you. It's okay to take a big leap into the unknown sometimes, because a lot of times we're going to find it's a lot less scary than we thought it was going to be. And we're really totally equipped to handle big leaps and growth in our business. - Episode 014 15 Secrets That Will Change How You Feel About Marketing with Becky McCoy

And that’s a wrap! 102 marketing and business tidbits pulled from the past 99 episodes to help you be a better biz owner, marketer for your business and all-over human in this business world.

We have an incredible lineup of guests, strategy sessions and FUN topics for the rest of the year like the Enneagram & Your Business, social media and FB ad experts, and so much more.

Thanks for being on this journey with us at Marketing Magic. <3

View Details

Do you know the direction that you want your business to be headed to?

With everything happening around the world with he COVID-19 pandemic, there’s no doubt that the decisions you make now can have long term impacts on your business.

With that in mind, I wanted to bring on someone who could help us understand and navigate through this time better within our businesses. I had the pleasure to speak with Casey Gromer, founder of Wave Marketing.

Casey helps companies by stepping in as their own CMO and helping them to make better, more informed marketing strategies.

She shares why you need to know what direction you want your business to go and the foundational things you need to consider during this time.

Casey talks about why you need to create 90-day action plans and the importance of having a weekly CEO meeting to assess direction and strategy. We also talk about the differences men and women have in how they grow and market their businesses, why she hires other marketers to help her in her business and so much more.

We talk about:

How Casey got started with her company Wave Marketing
The long term implications of making decisions in this climate
How there’s more that one right path to grow your business
What foundational things you need to think about for your business during this time
Why Casey hires other marketers to help with her business strategy
How she approaches strategic planning and her tips for planning
Why you need a weekly CEO meeting
The differences between how men and women grow and market their businesses

About Casey Gromer:

I'm your Small Business CMO. Companies just like you hire me to help their business reach its full growth potential.

I'm a strategic marketing leader, partner, and trusted advisor. I put strategies and systems in place to ensure the success of your marketing initiatives. Together, we put the right people doing the right things so you are able to save time, resources, and money. Once you have the structure, it’s easily repeatable to support your long term growth.

I’ve spent over 20 years leading marketing teams for Fortune 50 corporations and now work with companies with big visions.

Connect with Casey:

Website | Facebook | LinkedIn

Links Mentioned on This Episode:

Casey’s free checklist

A Fresh Wave of Marketing: An Intentional Approach to Marketing for Visionary CEOs

View Details

Do you know the direction that you want your business to be headed to?

With everything happening around the world with he COVID-19 pandemic, there’s no doubt that the decisions you make now can have long term impacts on your business.

Casey helps companies by stepping in as their own CMO and helping them to make better, more informed marketing strategies.

She shares why you need to know what direction you want your business to go and the foundational things you need to consider during this time.

We talk about:

How Casey got started with her company Wave Marketing
The long term implications of making decisions in this climate
How there’s more that one right path to grow your business
What foundational things you need to think about for your business during this time
Why Casey hires other marketers to help with her business strategy
How she approaches strategic planning and her tips for planning
Why you need a weekly CEO meeting
The differences between how men and women grow and market their businesses

About Casey Gromer:

I'm your Small Business CMO. Companies just like you hire me to help their business reach its full growth potential.

I’ve spent over 20 years leading marketing teams for Fortune 50 corporations and now work with companies with big visions.

Connect with Casey:

Website | Facebook | LinkedIn

Links Mentioned on This Episode:

Casey’s free checklist

A Fresh Wave of Marketing: An Intentional Approach to Marketing for Visionary CEOs

View Details

At the time of this recording, we’ve been in lockdown for COVID-19 for two months and businesses are just starting to open up in phases across the country. With it comes a lot of uncertainty, fear and even hope.

What no one seems to be talking about, is What’s Next? And what does our world and businesses look like Mid-COVID, and eventually, post-COVID?

That’s why I knew I had to bring on Connie Chesner to talk about what’s next for many business owners. Connie is a market research consultant, strategic insights expert and the leader of Armored Team Building and Armored Research.

During the pandemic, she created a report that helps businesses know how to balance the uncertainty of the world with still running a business and how they approach it with their customer base. In this episode, we get into understanding where your target market is and how you can get the inside scoop of what they’re thinking.

She tells us about the report she conducted on market motivation and COVID-19 and the 5 major shifts we’ll be seeing as we navigate, “America On Pause”. Connie dives into how to avoid uncertainty in hard times, why you need alignment in your messaging and importantly, how you decipher between facts and fake news.

We talk about:

Connie’s background and what brought her to start her businesses
What her report looks at and how she predicts COVID-19 will affect the future of our world
How individual business owners should approach their business strategy during this time and build trust with their customers
How you can use market research to understand where your customers and clients are at currently
Why now is a good time to utilize the creepy exercise with your market
How brands can avoid uncertainty in hard times
How some companies are coming up with unique ads right now by getting creative and looking at the markets
Why you need alignment in your messaging
How to know if a source is credible and reliable

About Connie Chesner:

Connie is a master at resiliency and human motivation with 20+ years in psychology, qualitative market research, and hard earned personal experience. She’s been an international media expert, keynote speaker at conferences such as Loyalty 360, a professor, has run projects to launch and reform multi-national brands, and today she weaves that deep understanding into guiding people to stronger leadership and fulfillment.

Her diverse background in training, mentoring, and guiding others allows her to connect motivational psychology and self-defense training in transformative ways. Krav Maga began as a way to rediscover herself, her trust, and her confidence after a 5-year abusive relationship, but quickly turned into a passion and vehicle to impact teams in revolutionary ways.

She has successfully founded two businesses and worked within corporations and agencies, allowing a diverse understanding of how individuals and organizations motivate, build trust, maintain, and grow.

Connect with Connie:

Website | LinkedIn

Links Mentioned on This Episode:

Free Report Download

Armored Team Building LinkedIn

Connie’s Post with Video on Brands All Having the Same Message (17:01)

View Details

Websites are magical. And beautiful.

But just because you build one, doesn’t mean people will come.

That’s where Google comes in. So how do you get your website to show up on the first pages of Google?

If you want your website to get in front of tons of people, you need to pay attention to search engine optimization (also known as SEO).

In this episode, I was joined by Meg Casebolt, an SEO genius and founder of Love at First Search. We explore the in’s and out’s of SEO and how to get your website ranked higher in search engines.

Meg and I geek out on how she helps clients with their SEO and the first place to start working on your SEO. She gives us her favorite tools to help improve your rankings.

We chat about why you need to have consistency for the sake of your SEO and how you can use customer reviews and testimonials to help your business show up higher in searches.

We talk about:

What Meg does and how she got started in the SEO world
How testing things out helps you to figure out what you really like for your business
Meg’s approach to SEO and where she starts
How to audit your own website SEO
Tools she recommends for improving your SEO
Why you need consistency to optimize your SEO
How to use Google My Business
Why you have to be willing to put in the work to show up in search results
How reviews help your website to get found in search

About Meg Casebolt: I’m Meg Casebolt and I’ve been helping female business owners like you create beautiful, search-friendly websites and strategic content for the past 6 years.

I’m your no-B.S. bestie who makes it super easy for your dream customers to find – and adore! – you online, resulting in effortless web traffic, consistent customers, soaring profit and SO much more free time (and sanity)!

Connect with Meg: Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube

Links Mentioned: UberSuggest

Google Trends

Google Search Console

Google My Business episode

SEO Starter Kit

View Details

Clearly, I love podcasting.

A lot.

And I DO recommend it over blogging to a lot of clients and guests.

But how do you know if a podcast right for you?

And How do you wrap your brain around what message you want to share?

It’s honestly amazing how much reach a podcast can bring to you and your business.

In this meta podcast episode all about launching a podcast, I brought on podcasting strategist, Kat Brendel to talk about why you might want to start a podcast, how you can get started now and how to get over some of the limiting beliefs that stop you from sharing your voice.

For instance, did you know at the beginning of 2020 these were the most recent podcasting stats:
- There are 850,000 podcasts available right now
- 50% of Americans listen to podcasts and 22% listen weekly
- 25-44 year olds make up 50% of the listenership
- 80% of listeners listen to the entire podcast or most of it
- 20% speed up the podcast

Kat shares how she got into podcasting after leaving her startup job and founding a coworking space specifically for women. She shares how local businesses can use podcasting as a marketing strategy. She also gives her advice on following your intuition on what medium to show up on if you feel that podcasting isn’t the right fit for you.

We talk about:

How Kat got into podcasting after working in PR and marketing
Her experience of leaving a job to start a coworking space and work on her podcast
Why she encourages people to launch podcasts
What Kat does with podcast coaching and the first steps to getting started
The things that Kat’s noticed as the best strategies for building a podcast audience
Her experience with using podcasts for local business
How Kat recommends that people start if they want to create a podcast
Why you don’t have to start a podcast if it doesn’t fuel you

About Kat Brendel: Kat Brendel’s love of stories led her to study journalism and build a career in media. After getting a boatload of marketing experience in South America, the US, and Europe, she learned not just how to tell good stories, but how they can drive businesses forward. She hosts the Leading Rebels podcast, co-founded CoWomen, and collaborates with bosses like you to launch & grow your podcast to grow your audience, impact, and business!

Connect with Kat: Website | Instagram | Podcast

Links: How to Grow Your Business With a Podcast

Quiz: Should You Launch a Podcast?

"Your Guide to Find & Own Your Story" Blog Post / Podcast Episode

Bosspod Academy: Launch Your Podcast With More Strategy and Less Overwhelm - Like the Boss You Are!

The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas

View Details

Have you ever felt tired of talking and talking and promoting that thing you’re really good at… because the thing you’re really passionate about is on the tip of your tongue but you’re too afraid to voice it aloud?

Or better yet, have you ever censored yourself from posting something or piping up in a conversation because you discarded your thoughts as important enough?

This is something that dawned on me a few months back at a conference. There aren’t enough loud, proud, female entrepreneurs that are sharing their voice with the world.

That’s why I had to bring Maggie Frank-Hsu back to the podcast for another interview. Maggie is a copywriter and writing coach for entrepreneurs. We had a deep discussion on finding your voice and latching on to your big idea.

We get into what Maggie does to help clients find their big idea. She talks about overcoming the wrestling match of what you should do and what you actually want to do.

Maggie and I talk about how finding her own voice has impacted her. She also shares her experience of writing her book, Be About Something, which will be releasing in June of this year.

We talk about:

What Maggie’s done in her career as a copywriter and writing coach
How she’s found her own voice in her business
Why it became important for Maggie to pivot to this in her business
Her belief about finding your voice and your big idea
The wrestling match between what you should do and what you want to do
Her advice on how to start finding your voice
How she’s overcome imposter syndrome and her inner mean girl
Giving power to the feelings that you have
How finding her voice has impacted her personally and professionally
Maggie’s book process and what it’s going to be about

About Maggie Frank-Hsu:

I’m Maggie Frank-Hsu, an email strategist and copywriter who works with moms who are entrepreneurs. I’ve spent my career helping my employers and my clients seize the attention of their audiences and move them to action via the written word. I’ve always been a writer, and I received my Master’s degree from Columbia School of Journalism and worked for national magazines like Gourmet, Martha Stewart and ESPN the Magazine. Then I spent the next 10 years building online audiences that grew to over a million visitors a month.

I combine those two sides of my expertise—writing and strategy—to help business owners turn their subscribers into people who love to get marketing emails.

Connect with Maggie:

Website | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn

View Details

Admit it.

Google Analytics has you excited about data and nerdy stuff.

It's ok! You're in good company.

Today we are wrapping up our Geeking Out series on Google Analytics to walk through a few more ninja moves you can do and glean from with advanced reports, goals and conversions.

But first... Analytics vs Reporting. What's the difference?

Our brains glaze over when we start thinking about data because we consider it from a reporting perspective. Reporting spits out facts.

Analytics tell us what happened and how much so we can use our brains to figure out what happens next.

Our brains must explain why it happened so we can decide what we’ve learned and make a plan for how to get more of that activity.

So let's look at some advanced reports to help that analytical side of you.

SEO Reports These use to be the go-to reports on Google Analytics back in the day because you could find out the keywords you were being found by on Google. And then they took them away and crushed every SEO consultant’s job and made it way harder.

So, these reports are honestly a lot less useful, but you can still get some good insights if you set up Search Console on your website.

Without search console set up, if you click google/organic and drill down to keyword reports, you’ll see 90% of the keywords are hidden behind 'not provided'.

So how do you get something useful?

One of the most useful reports for keywords right now is found by looking at the landing pages on your site to see where your traffic is going from organic search on your site. You can get there by going to > Acquisition > Channels > Google/Organic > Keyword > Landing Page

I can see people are finding my home page, podcast and specific podcast episodes through organic search -- which tells me what to make sure my SEO is set up well on.

The other report that will help are Search Console Reports can give you some insights by looking at the Queries Report (which is a fancy term for the keywords people are finding you through).

Step one is to make sure you have Search Console turned on for your site. If you haven’t set it up before, it will prompt you to set it up on your site in the Admin section.

One thing you'll want to be aware of is that Google only keeps the data for 90 days in the Search Console so you'll want to download it every quarter for historical purposes if that kind of information is important to you.

Social Reports This report answers the questions: Is our social media strategy working?
How does social impact people coming to my website and how does it impact my marketing goals?

This is the second caveat on this topic but, these reports aren't as useful as they used to be because they haven't been updated by Google in a long time.

Looking at the overview for social reports will tell you how many conversions were happening on your page (if you set up goals) and how many were from social media.

The section for Social Network will show you all the social channels in one place, and you'll also be able to see what landing pages are driving social media activity back to your site.

Content Engagement One way to measure content engagement on your site is to look at how your visitors are interacting with the content on your page, the flow of content throughout your site and what your content is asking them to do.

Site Search If you have a lot of content, make sure you set up the site search function so that visitors can search your content to find exactly what they are looking for.

If you have this turned on, this report will tell you the exact phrase your visitors were searching for, how long they searched, what pages they were searching on, etc. -- which is helpful for you to know what's working on your page, where people may be getting stuck or what they're coming for.

Site ContentThe second report for content engagement to look at is found in Behavior > Site Content > All Pages.

We talked about this report in an earlier episode because it allows you to see what pages your visitors are going to most often.

The ninja move you can make to simplify the report and stop yourself from having to scroll 100x is to create content groups so you can see what topics are most helpful instead of scrolling through all your pages.

To set these up, go to Admin > View > Content Grouping to define rules for your content so that Google Analytics will group the visits by these rules.

For example, you could define a rule for each of your post topics or categories (popular topics in your blog/podcast) to see which group or topic idea people are consuming the most.

This will help you know what to focus more or less on, as well as what content is connecting with your audience, which one to create content upgrade or options for, and what to set goals for, so you can watch conversions.

Tracking Funnel Conversions
Last week we talked about how to set up goals, and how they are easy to set up if you have thank you pages.

But a ninja move you could do with goals is to create funnel reports and track how a visitor moves through a funnel on your site.

As a reminder, when you're looking at Conversion Reports and the Goal overview, it's showing you if a personal got to a specific destination you've set up as a goal on your website and if the goal was successful.

If you added the value for that particular action so you can track value of leads/activity, it will also show up here.

The next step is to set up more than just the action that marks it as a conversion in the goals by creating funnel steps in Goals.

If you know the Goal is for someone to purchase a cat pillow on your site, the other funnel steps that you could be tracking are:
Step 1 — cart view
Step 2 — checkout view

This will track how many people add it to their cart, how many go to checkout and how many actually purchase the cat pillow so you know where the gap is in your online funnel.

Advanced Segments I'm already a huge fan of segmenting your audiences in marketing because it allows you to get super granular in how you work and help others.

The amazing thing is you can do this with data from Google Analytics to make insightful analysis about your audiences.

Let's go to the Audience overview by clicking Audience > Overview first. In the "Click add segment" in the top right corner takes you into a whole new dimension of data so you can look a slices of your audience and compare it to other slices.

Google has a bunch it has created automatically that you can select from and see what they do or you can create your own.

For example, you could compare what bounced traffic do vs people who actually convert on your site. You could also look at mobile traffic vs desktop traffic. The possibilities are limitless.

By selecting a few of the segments, it will show them together so you can compare in one place.

The cool thing about creating your own advanced segments is that it will show you on the sidebar how many people your custom segment applies to as you’re building this segment, much like it does with the audience on Facebook when building ads.

Some of the things you can look at by segmenting your audience are: who converts better, what traffic source is better, how long they stay on the site, and if it’s worth spending a lot on mobile views/efforts if everyone is desktop, etc?

Ta da! Now you are a ninja at Google Analytics and know how to do the nerdy things that will make your business soar, all by looking at what’s already happening in your business online.

For me, some of the biggest takeaways I've discovered with Google Anayltics is who my audience is, what are they doing, are they behaving how I expect, what’s working, what needs tweaked and what’s worth it?

Remember that for the rest of April I am doing free mini website audits, so please go to askmallory.com to submit your site and get a live walkthrough with me and three tweaks to make right now that will make the biggest impact on your revenue and conversions.

Next week we have special guest Meg Casebolt, founder of Love at First Search to dive into SEO and what’s working right now.

And if you are not already a subscriber, make sure to scroll up on your phone or on the website and hit subscribe from wherever you’re listening so you get the latest episodes dropped straight to you each week.

View Details

Welcome back to part 2 of Geeking out in Google Analytics.

Last week we laid a foundation for Google Analytics by explaining the lingo, telling you how to set it up or make sure it was on your site and what’s possible with Google Analytics.

Today, we’re going to dive into some of the reports that you want to take a look at to see which ones are going to be most important for your business as you get started with Google Analytics.

Like I mentioned last week, my goal is not to tell you what reports to run or how to run your Google Analytics account. Instead, I want to teach you how to look critically at the data coming in so you can make smarter decisions about what you’re promoting, or advertising, or launching, or spending money on.

As we dive into the four main categories of reports, make sure that when you’re looking at reports that you set the default view to be 30 days. Anything less is not going to give you a great snapshot that’s meaningful.

Audience Reports The first category of reports when you’re just getting started is Audience Reports. These reports are answering the question: Who is visiting your site?

1. Find out if your traffic is mostly local or all over the country/world
Am I reaching the right people?

2. Mobile reports
How are they visiting? How much effort should you put into mobile vs desktop design and traffic?

3. Userflow
How people are moving through your site, where they drop off

4. Demographics of visitors Age range, gender, interests (what else you’re interested in thanks to third-party cookies)

Acquisition Reports These reports help you to understand the traffic patterns and answer the question: "Where does my traffic come from?"

Channels = communication channel, when I mention channel reports in this section*

Important reports to look at in this section are:
1. All Traffic - which will show you by channel, where your people are coming from to hit your site.

Ninja move: Split up traffic into non-branded organic search (people searching for keywords and find you) and branded organic search (type your brand words in and find you) in a filter so you can see how people are searching for you and if its through keyword or brand recognition.*
Why is this a ninja move to track? Because branded organic search stays longer and is worth more than cold non-branded search, which equals easier conversions and more revenue for your business if you're selling anything.

2. Source/Medium - This report tells you who sent the traffic and how they sent the traffic, and then you can drill down to see what page they sent traffic to
For example, google/organic means your traffic came from Google's search engine and they sent the traffic to you because of organic keyword searches.

When you see the word referral traffic, it means that someone clicked to your site from another browser or link - (like a blog, directory, social platform, etc).

If you advertise on Adwords you can look at Adwords report to see who they are.

3. Social - This report will tell you what percentage of your traffic comes from social platforms, what channels and how many are contributing to your website goals if you’ve set them up with social value.

4. Campaigns - This report will help you track what campaigns are effective and profitable if you use UTMs to track email campaigns or paid traffic to your website.

Behavior Reports These reports are answering the question: "What did a visitor do on our website?"

In this section (and all main categories of reports, the overview page is a dashboard where you can drill down into specific reports for each section -- it's just showing you the data at a glance in a pretty format.

1. Behavior Flow - This report shows how your website visitors go through different pages of your site, whereas User flow looks at the specific user. That means you can see common paths people take on your website from one page to another and see where they drop off -- or if they're behavior is what you're expecting and what you've designed your site to do.

2. Site Content Report - This report tells you which pages get the most traffic. It's one of the most common reports website owners look at. But the next step needs to be: What is this a result of and why is this traffic coming here?

3. Landing Page - This report tells you how the visitors found you, which means the first page they came into your site

Understanding where people are first "landing" helps you understand what pages to make improvements on. If they have a high bounce rate then there is room for improvement. :)

4. Exit page — This report tells you what page they left the site from. Everyone has to leave the site at some point, so the question you need to answer is: Does it make sense that they are leaving from here?

One thing to note is, landing pages will have a high bounce rate just by the sheer volume of click-throughs, so don't panic about your number.

Conversion Reports (Goals) These reports are answering the question: "What is the purpose of my website?"

One way to figure this out is to set goals because that is how we tell Google Analytics what’s important to us on our website.

Goals > Overview will show end result of how it’s tracking the conversions

To set up goals, go to Admin > Goals
You only get 20 goals in Google Analytics so don't go crazy creating goals for everything until you know what makes sense for your site to track.

First, create a new goal. You can use a template, but give it a name that makes sense to you because the generic names are well, generic.

There are four types of goals:
Destination (thank you or order complete pages)
Duration
Page/Screens per session
Event (something that happens within a page)

Destination goals will be able to cover 75% of the goals you create because it's how you track final results like confirmation pages for options, purchases, abandoned carts, registrations, etc.

Setting up goals makes everything else mean more in GA because it’s tied to what matters — conversions and growth, not just action or behavior.

You can DO this! Don't you feel 100x smarter about Google Analytics right now? Next week on Part 3, we'll wrap up Google Analytics by looking at some advanced reports, how to analyze the data and track conversions better.

View Details

Let’s talk about Google Analytics and why it’s time to geek out over them today.

Google Analytics give you the answers about what you need to do or how to make money or what’s working and what’s broken on your website.

Even if you like data, the problem most business owners have is that we look at data like numbers and sometimes forget to reflect and analyze if what we were trying is actually working or not.

Just like the scientific process, it’s helpful to approach data by following (although, let’s be honest, I’m not going to be quite this formal)

Set question
Do some background research
Create a hypothesis
Test it
Analyze the data coming in and then
Decide what to do about it.

This is part 1 of a 3 part series on Google Analytics and today I want to break down some vocabulary you may have run across in wondering how the heck do you figure out what these numbers mean in GA.

Web property – looks at your domain

Views – filters & how they look at the data

Sessions = 30 minutes or less

Cookie – stores data about who you are in the website

New Session = sees your cookie for the first time
(but would be treated different if they cleared their cookie or were on mobile, etc.)

Returning – have seen this person cookie’s before, then you know they are coming back (loyal people)

Users (visitors) – unique cookies over a certain period of time (like everyone over the past 30 days) (can be inflated again like how many unique computers you’ve seen)

Page views – page view and fired up the code when it loaded

Bounce Rate: # sessions and only saw one page
You want to improve it against your number right now — having a high number isn’t necessarily a bad thing

Goals: Trains GA what is the purpose of your website

Google Analytics Basics Next, let’s talk about some basics.

First, create a Google Analytics account if you don’t already have one.
– sign up at analytics.google.com
– add the code to your website
– then the data starts to come in and you learn about your audience

If you are unsure if you even have it, or if someone created your website and helped you with it, you can right click in Chrome (that’s my favorite browser) and choose to inspect or view source code and search among the code for gtag.js or analytics.js (for Universal Analytics) or ga.js (for Classic Analytics)

Second rule: Don’t track yourself. Make sure to apply a filter around your IP address to block yourself from being counted in the data.
*make sure you are an admin for your account so you can set this up.

Third rule: Define goals of websiteThis could take all day, which is why we’ll go into it in more depth on the third episode. This is a ninja move that makes analytics so valuable, that most people don’t take the time to learn and set up.

When we are talking about goals on Google Analytics, there are two kinds:
– Macro goal == makes you money
– Micro Goal == nice but doesn’t bring you revenue

Now, let’s look at why we’re going into nerdy detail about website data.

What’s possible with Google Analytics? Here are just a few things we can track and watch with Google Analytics:
– Content performance: You can get there by going to Behavior > Site Content > look at page views/ avg time on page to see what your audience likes most.
– Bounce rate to measure performance of your pages and if people are converting like you expect on the pages
– Page value: When you set goals, you can also set revenue amounts for actions and pages, which will allow you to see the value of each page on your site if they’re contributing to your revenue
– Find out what content can be promoted more on social media that isn’t promoted enough (what isn’t getting any page views)

Which Reports Mean Something? There are four groups of reports that we’re going to walk through in the next two episodes, but I wanted to outline where we’re going with them, so you could start to poke around this week.

Audience ReportsThese reports answer the questions:
Who are your people?
Where are they from?
What do they do on your site?

Acquisition ReportsThese reports answer the questions:
How do visitors come to your site (all traffic)?
How do your Google Ads drive traffic?
What’s working with organic search?
What platforms on social media are bringing traffic to your site?
What campaigns are driving traffic to your site?

Behavior ReportsThese reports answer the questions:
What they did when on your site?
What content did they view and in what order?
What do they come to first?
What makes them leave?

Conversion Reports
These reports answer the questions:
Who achieved what on your website?
(hit certain goals)

One more cool thing I want you to know before we break down reports next week and what numbers are important to watch… you can do this all from your phone! (or at least watch your dashboard easily with Google Analytics app for your phone.

If this is your first time listening to the Marketing Magic Podcast, I’m delighted to be in your ear today. One thing you’ll soon realize is that I love websites as a marketing tool for all businesses, but especially local ones — and most people aren’t using their site in a way that actually grows their business.

During the entire month of April I am doing free mini-website audits of your site.

If your website is not bringing perfect-for-you clients to your inbox consistently… something needs to change!

After tweaking nearly every client’s website I’ve worked with, I’ve realized that most people optimize for pretty… not for conversions. If you want a website that compels your leads to say yes, beg you to work with them and hand over a credit card, let’s do an audit of your site and I’ll tell you the three most important tweaks to make right now to make a difference with the traffic landing on your site.

Go to askmallory.com to submit your website.

View Details

All of the businesses I work with are local businesses with physical locations or businesses that are working with local clients. That means with our country’s current status of states sheltering in place, downtowns shutting down and businesses in the service industry involuntarily closing until we see what COVID-19 is going to do, figuring out how to adapt is paramount.

So let’s talk about practical ways you could move your local business online and still bring in revenue.

Optimize your website for traffic Most businesses I work with have some kind of online presence, but they’re using it as a place holder, and not necessarily a way to make money.

If you do not have a website for your business yet, some easy options that you can easily build yourself are Squarespace and Wix. They are great platforms for starter sites and you can have a new website up and running in a two hours or less.

WordPress is my favorite option for hosting websites but there is a learning curve on how to get started. With its new Gutenburg builder release, it has a drag and drop option now too which makes it MUCH easier, plus it’s more robust on how to integrates with everything in the world.

If you already have a website, focus on these things:

Focus on gathering reviews from existing clients for social proof.
Optimize your Google My Business profile to capture local traffic.
Make sure your services and products are listed and available for purchase.

Set up online payments/processing If you have a business where your client/customers traditionally pay you at the time of service or in-person through cash or check, now is the time to migrate them to online payments. Not only will this set your business up to be cash positive when COVID-19 settles down, but it’s easier to manage than chasing payments.

If you have physical or digital products to sell, set up an e-commerce part of your site and a payment processor using Stripe, Square or Paypal, for example.

Start having online consultations/bookings Local businesses thrive on face to face interaction, so even as an online business serving local businesses, I’ve found it hard to break local business owners from wanting to only meet in person. Not anymore.

Everything has moved online in the world and people are starting to get comfortable with connecting on a computer instead of just face to face.

Zoom is my favorite platform to use for web-conferencing and 1:1 calls. For so many types of businesses right now they are offering it for free or at a reduced cost to get started.

This can be used for any service-based business when you need to have a consultation with a client before you can even begin working with them. It can be used for health and medical fields, for photographers, coaches, consultants, teams, and more.

A dance studio owner client has taken all of her classes online with Zoom so that students are logging in from their homes to take the classes with her, instead of losing all the revenue from her students while her physical studio is closed.

A photographer client has moved all her initial photography consultations that are usually in her studio to Zoom so that she can talk to them about their personal branding and headshots and plan for them once the social distancing lessens.

Presell things right now that can be offered or delivered at a later date There is a lot of opportunities to keep your business moving forward by bundling together services, products, and events to be fulfilled at a later date this summer/fall when things settle down.

Look at what you offer and how you can start to presell it instead and offer a bonus as a reason for people to jump in now, instead of waiting for a later date.

For example, a massage therapist could presell a bundle of massages and throw in a bonus.

A coach could presell a workshop, course or event and add in 1:1 strategy, additional resources or a collaboration with another coach that complements what they do.

A health coach could presell a group program with bonus of recipes, an eating plan, or workouts from home with body weights, etc.

A home decorator could presell room makeovers with a bonus of a resource guide, or custom picked paint swatches or a strategy session.

Set up online scheduling Online scheduling is great for scheduling appointments, classes, workshops, and managing pick up dates/times if you have people coming to your storefront to pick up items and want to be able to keep them social distancing.

My favorite tool is Acuity for online scheduling. It can also take payments, block off your personal calendar, send reminders and texts.

Use your email list to nurture your people. Local businesses often use emails infrequently or to promote a sale. Now is the time to use it to build relationships and keep your client based connected to you, even if your physical location is shut down.

Use emails to:
– Tell them about what you’re doing in this current environment
– Tell them what your business looks like when the world is shut down
– Tell them about what things you’re working on when everything starts back up again
– Give them ways to support you from their homes
– Share what you sell! Show pics of your products. Tell the stories of your clients. Ask for their opinion on things. Show them how to share the love of your business on social media. Ask them to submit photos of them doing something while quarantined that might relate to your business.
– Keep them updated on what’s happening locally.
– Showcase other local businesses that are open in some capacity.

Emails are going to be the lifeblood of how businesses stay in contact with their tribes moving forward.

Have a social media presence. Even if you’re favorite platform is currently collecting dust, it’s OK to start posting. In fact, everyone is glued to their phones watching the curve of the COVID-19 infections, so there is a greater opportunity than ever to stay in front of them.

Those things we just talked about for emails? Use them for social posts as well. Mission accomplished!

Collaborate with others. Teamwork makes the dreamwork — even from a distance. While the world goes on lockdown and people are afraid to be around others, figure out how to foster community and collaboration around your business. Who can you team up with to go live, feature, create a special offer or event with?

How can you create something new that your audience or community needs in this weird vacuum?

I saw today a post that showed that Airbnb, Square, Pinterest, Uber and so many other HUGE brands were birthed during the last recession in 2008-2010.

While it can be a time wrought with panic and fear (and for good reason) there are still good things that rise from the ashes if we have the courage to find them.

From now until the end of April, I am offering free mini website audits to help you get the most out of your website during these crazy times. Fill out the form below or click here to request one for your business.

View Details

Everything in the world feels like it’s falling apart and you own a local small business. How in the world do you keep it going so that you’re still standing when everything seems to calm down?

Today we’re talking about how to pivot your business and handle the chaos when everything in the world seems to stop. We’re not going to dive into the C-word. But we are going to talk about how the heck do you keep your business going? And yourself going when everything in the world seems to stop.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I have spent Oh, I don’t know how long has it been a week trying to wrap my brain around what in the world is happening across the world with a Coronavirus? Oh, I said I wasn’t gonna say it the C-word. Because for me, it really feels like an out of body experience. And I’ve had a hard time wrapping my brain around.

How do I still run a business when it feels so trivial and when there are such big pressing things going on? And how do I support others whose entire livelihood and impact are going to be affected when people can no longer come to their doorsteps, and if they can’t move what they do easily to online spaces?

I want to walk through the process of what I’m doing and what I’m I’m walking my clients through just in case it’s helpful for anybody else who, like me is kind of been in this Limbo state of wanting to do something, wanting to make sure I’m active and doing all the right things and also at the same time feeling exactly paralyzed and frozen and not really sure how to take the next step or what the next step looks like.

I heard a Facebook Live from my husband’s CEO talking through shock and symptoms of shock and what we’re going through as a nation in a world and it really helped clarify for me why I feel the way I do and why I’m kind of stuck in business in life at this exact moment.

If your inclination right now if you’re like naturally pausing or freaking out a little bit, that’s totally normal. I think a lot of us are just still trying to figure out what’s happening, what’s going to happen. How bad is this going to get? Are we going to be safe? Is the economy going to collapse?

So I did some research into symptoms of emotional shock because no one is talking about how everyone is feeling across the world right now. Now emotional shock, that’s not a clinical term. I am not a clinician and I am not diagnosing anybody. Let me just make that disclaimer.

But I thought some of the symptoms and the ways that they manifest in people were really important because I am feeling them a lot right now. So for example, adrenaline rush. That’s the feeling when you either can’t fall asleep or you’re feeling a little bit hyper, like your skin’s buzzing a little bit.

Oftentimes you could feel sick to your stomach or just sick about whatever happening or you know, just kind of like all ill like a general malaise and not thinking straight. These are all potential symptoms of emotional shock.

Another one is feeling disconnected from what’s happening. That’s what kind of clicked for me because I’m like, ‘Yeah, I do kind of feel like I’m not engaged in any of it because I don’t really understand and can’t fully wrap my brain around it.’

Another symptom is feeling like I’m pulling away from things because of intense emotions. As a symptom, intense emotions are important when they are not normal for you, whether you want to laugh or cry, or even go and physically run away.

Two other symptoms or signs are feeling unusually exhausted or all over the place. Again, this is not a diagnosis of anything, but it was helpful for me to take this possible list of symptoms for emotional shock and compare it to what maybe some of us are feeling right now because it also helps you feel normal and not make super rash decisions.

Now, that we’ve addressed how so many people are feeling right now AND that it’s normal, I want to walk through what are some of the things you can do to kind of talk yourself off the ledge a little bit? And then how do you apply that to your life and your business?

So I’m kind of talking from dual perspectives today. I know most of the time I talk primarily just about my business and other people’s businesses. But the reality is, I had four kids come home on Sunday with no school. And to be honest, I would not be shocked in the least bit if there’s no school for the rest of the year for a lot of schools. I can see that writing on the wall, and I’m bracing myself for it.

But that is a huge swing if you are used to working full time and now you have kids home full time and you’re expected to homeschool them. That would put me into shock.

The work is mostly online and I have four kids, preschool, first, second and fifth graders, so all varying levels all varying learning styles, and I am not a teacher for a reason. Let’s just put it that way. So I am a little anxious one about how are we going to manage this? How do I keep them from not killing each other? It’s like summer but worse because I won’t have my summer nanny or sitter to come for a few hours every day to watch them so I get a break.

It’s like no, no, you’re quarantine in your house. You also have to be the teacher and wear all the hats and keep the clients going. So I don’t know about you, but it feels like a lot. Not only that, but you have to make sure you’re not going to breathe on anybody or catch anything and make sure you have groceries and not going out and toilet paper. How do you juggle both things?

Personally, I really had to put on my hat and be like, how do I make my brain understand that this is not business as usual, even though I am you know, if you listen to me at all, you know, I create a plan, I chase the plan, I conquer the plan.

Right now, I don’t really have a plan. I don’t know how to make a plan. I have a very loose schedule, we wrote out on a scrap piece of paper for how we’re going to handle school, but we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Other than that, I don’t know how to juggle everything either. How do I fit in homeschooling and life and do all the client stuff that I would need to do and want to do? How do I at least keep my business stable, if not growing or failing?

So some of the things that I have done that have helped me and that I’m walking my clients through, as well, is to think through all the options.

Think through worst-case scenarios The first thing I like to do, even though it smells like a weird place to start, is I honestly like to think through worst-case scenarios. It’s always helpful for me to start with worst-case scenarios and let my brain go there and think okay if all these horrible things were to come to pass, how would I handle it? What would I do? What would be the next thing I do? What would I say? What can I do instead?

That helps me think through all the freakout things. So I like to make a list asking myself “What could happen?” Once I put all the horrible things on the one side, on the other side, put your response to them. And it doesn’t have to be a good response. Your answer may be “I don’t know yet,” which is fine.

It helps to get these all these swirling thoughts onto paper and out of our heads because your brain is like an open loop. You have a thought in there and you think, Oh, I thought that and now I forget it.

No, no, it’s still running in the back of your mind. And it’s using power. And it’s creating that anxious feeling in you because you’ve not solved a huge problem that you’ve put into your brain. So sometimes it’s helpful to get it onto paper to get it out of your head.

Triage your immediate needs The next step I like to take once I go through all the doomsday things in my head is to ask “What are the immediate needs? and How do I triage both my life and my business right now?”

So what are the things, almost like fires that you have to put out? What things do you need to keep going right now? How can you adjust your schedule? How can you adjust your expectations? How do you handle refunds? How do you handle you know, people dropping out? How do you handle no traffic? How do you handle people paying you for products for things that are not going to happen in the next month or so like all those things? What could you do instead?

Once you have this way smaller list of immediate needs, it helps you realize, “Okay, I can actually do that.” I think for a lot of us like every other thing in life like chores, laundry dishes, we’re like, it’s gonna take forever.! I don’t want to start. We just procrastinate, when in reality, it probably takes less than five minutes to do a lot of these things but in our brain, we just hype it up. So make the list, figure out what are the things you have to do right now, and just take some baby steps towards it.

What opportunities do you have to pivot? The third way I like to think about things, is to ask “What opportunities do I have to pivot? What can I do differently? How can I look at this from a different viewpoint?” Because there are always opportunities. Even if it’s not your first choice, there are still opportunities to do things differently that are going to help you move forward in some way.

I think about it in these types of categories: Family, Kids, Health, Food, Exercise, Me Time, Work, Faith…

What can I do differently? What’s going to have to change? Some things are a given and you just have to learn to adapt, so you’re asking “How can I make the most of this?”

We’re handling the kids and homeschooling, and food differently than normal right now. If you’re limited at the grocery stores or don’t want to go out and there’s no delivery, how are you going to handle that? How are you going to do meal planning? How are you going to do snacks? How am I gonna keep all these kids fed and from eating everything in sight? How am I going to still be active and still do things that are important to me when the YMCA is closed?

How do I still be social? Even though some of us have an online business because we’re introverts, we still are social people. We still network, we still go to things. So how can you do that still and not lose that connection? How do you connect with other people?

How do you get some extra time? My friend Maggie put out an email today about that she’s part of a summit. The topic she’s covering is loosely paraphrased: How do I still be me when I’m now always on mom-mode? I think this is an excellent topic, because finding time to be you without any of the labels is going to be more important than ever. t

Now to business: How can you pivot your business to be more remote or virtual right now? Again, this is very important right now because we can’t be in contact with others and who knows how long this is gonna last. So what are the things you could do to sell your products or services to get in front of people to move through your store? Can I just say that it’s going to look very, very different, especially for local businesses for a while. It’s gonna look very different for you than what’s normal.

And finally, faith. If faith and religion are important to you, how are you going to tap into that feeling of being a part of something else? How do you tap into that feeling of being connected to God and corporate worship and that kind of thing? Because I think now when we’re all kind of isolated, you’re going to start wanting to tapping into something bigger than yourself? At least that’s been my experience.

So those are the three ways that I am thinking through things and working with my clients on right now. Let me remind you that we’re not solving everything right now. It’s more of just brainstorming. It’s about taking some of the ideas and the big worries and the fears and the pressures out of your head and onto paper, so you can really see them and breathe life into them.

Some of them may be horrible, some of you may have to shut down your business, which would be absolutely horrible, you know, so what next? How do we stop that? How do we slow that down? How do we pivot that? If we don’t talk about it, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen? So I think it’s always important to have those honest conversations, even if it’s with yourself, about what your reality is, what could possibly happen and what do we have in our power right now to change and affect it in a positive way.

Then finally, on the mental health aspect of this how do you step away from these big feelings and emotions of emotional shock? I think it’s helpful to breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, and I’m going to listen to this episode just as many times as you are to remind myself to breathe.

To journal. It’s hard to talk to somebody about your feelings and your thoughts. I’m raising my hand right now because feelings don’t come easy to me as a three on the enneagram. Journal them, write them out. Don’t let them just sit in your head because they have way more power in your head and then do on paper.

Meditate. You know, take time to do meditation. talk it out with someone if you’re the extrovert who’s dying to be in proximity with someone. Talk it out, call somebody, FaceTime, hop on zoom, get on a podcast. Use the platforms that you have and what comes natural to you. But give yourself space and grace in time and tell people you need help with things.

I also think it’s helpful to try to be as normal as you can be. Like right now my kids are still playing outside in our culdesac all the time, which is really nice. I can still read books, we can still do game nights. We really can still do lots of things and it’s helpful to remind ourselves of what is still normal.

I hope this is helpful to anybody who’s listening to this little episode to not feel like you have to have it all figured out. Just brainstorm. Help calm your brain down. Be aware of your possible emotional shock and how to talk yourself off the ledge here.

I am going to be going live on Thursday, March 26 at 2 p.m. EST in my Facebook group, the #girlboss Club. It’s a very safe space for women who are supporting other women businesses. We’re all over the world all stages of business, but I think it’d be helpful to kind of just start that conversation and honestly I was in no shape to start this conversation last week when all this quarantine and homeschooling thing hit. Now we know how it’s going to look for a bit, I’ve talked myself off the ledge and am ready to have the conversation for other people as well.

View Details

Have we talked recently about how 100% of my clients are trying to find local clients in their backyard? That means whether you're an online business owner and have never tried or are curious about trying to figure out, how do I get clients in my own backyard?

Or you're an actual business who depends on people coming into your storefront or getting business from you in your community in order to survive, then you're gonna want to hear how to supercharge your local marketing efforts with a free tool that I'm sure you've heard about by now. We're talking Google My Business today.

Today we are totally nerding out on Google My Business. Okay, so let me just give you some background. Google My Business is a free tool, of course, put out by Google to help local businesses get found in search. As we all know, the explosion of Google as a traffic source has exponentially increased year after year after year.

This year in particular and at the end of last year there was a huge surge for the key phrase popping up when you're doing an organic search for _ near me. Like hair salons near me, restaurants near me yada yada yada near me. Those near me searches have exploded. And it's making a huge impact. Google is taking notice of it so much that they're really amping out the effort they put into your Google My Business listings.

So let me break it down for you just in case you're not aware of what Google My Business is. If you're ever on Google, you'll know that how it aggregates data and websites when you search for something in a Google bar is way different than it was just even six months ago. Before organic searches, blog posts, and things were keyword rich and heavy, and that's how you were noticed on Google.

Now, you still type in something and keywords still matter. However, Google is populating the first I don't know five to seven things with Google My Business listings. You are actually going to see a map and local listings near you before you're going to see any of those other rich keyword blog posts and things that are traditionally what we think about when we think about Google and organic searching.

So why is that important for you? Well, it's kinda free traffic? So you definitely want to take advantage of getting to the top of Google per se, for things that matter to you. And you can do it really easy first by claiming your Google My Business listing. I'm not going to go into detail on the specifics of how to start with that, because I just didn't have enough time to dive into that. So we'll cover that another day. Or you can literally Google that yourself, find and set up and claim your listing.

PreWork: Claim Your Listing But the first thing do is check and see if you've claimed your listing, if it is not a claimed listing, when you Google yourself and look at the listing it will ask do you own this business? Or do you want to claim this website? So do that first.

Now, why I get so excited about it is because we've been working on this tool six to nine months with some of my local clients and they're seeing a phenomenal results. Like people coming in to their site through organic search, organic calls to the businesses, people asking for directions, a huge spike in traffic just overall and it really works in conjunction with the visibility things you're already doing. But in a local market, it just supercharges it.

So one thing about Google My Business is obviously it's really, location and geo area specific. So for the most part, it's really going to be targeting about a 20 mile radius from wherever you are setting your address to be in your Google My Business listing. So that's really good to know.

Now a few stats if I have not already impressed upon why you need to make sure you have Google My Business setup if you're a local business or want local clients. Let me give you two numbers because you know, I love numbers. First, the average Google My Business listing gets 59 actions every single month. And by actions, I mean either clicks to your website or they're calling straight from the listing or they're asking for directions. So on average, most businesses who are profiled who are active who have their stuff optimized on Google land, are getting 59 actions.

I mean, it's jaw-dropping for some of you, especially service-based businesses to think about what would even half of that do for you if it was organic traffic coming in. If even 30 people were coming or calling or asking their questions or clicking through to your website or getting directions if you're an actual physical place they can visit, that's amazing!

Couple this with the fact that we know that 92% of consumers look at websites before they choose a local business. If you do not have your business showing up in their search if they can't see a Google My Business listing, they don't know where you are, and you totally don't look legit. You just got passed up for someone else in your hometown who does something similar and probably not even as well, let's be honest, right? We want you to be the top dog in your local market.

Here are six really good things for you to think about and do with your Google My Business listing.

First: Optimize Your Listing. When you go to look this up, basically consider this as a directory listing. When you're looking at your Google My Business profile it contains a ton of information about the core of your business. This includes everything from the actual business name, categories, which each listing is grouped by. By the way, you can choose multiple categories, you basically have a primary and a secondary, but you have to pick from their chosen categories. You can't make something up like horse whisperer scuba diver like that's just not a category, okay, maybe like water or something would be, but there are specific categories.

Here's a link to the list of categories available.

Other things to make sure are correct are your address, your service areas ( this can include everything from a mile radius, zip codes, it could be areas). Just as a caveat, if you were to put the entire world on your service area, that's not going to get you visibility in your entire world. Google My Business is primarily is a local business tool. And so it's that's what I said at the beginning. It's really just reaching about a 20 mile radius, but that doesn't mean you can't have you know, larger service area listed as well.

Also make sure to include your business hours, phone numbers, contact information, and website.

If you're a service provider, and people can book appointments, there is space to put your calendar or add your appointment link URL in there.

If you're a restaurant, put your menu up there,

If you're a service or a product-based business, it has sections for you to put your services or products. If you have like a ton of stuff, don't put everything in there. Add the most popular ones or what most people are going to be searching for.

Then, make sure you really work on your business description. This business description is like your elevator pitch. It's written in a way for people who have no idea about your business so that you're pitching them on what it is you do at a high level. This description can include keywords and you're allowed to have up to 750 characters. Please for the love of everything, Use every single one of them! This is free space for you to use and the more that you can pull and write to your ideal consumer or client in your local market, the better your results will be.

If you're unsure of how to fill that space, make sure you include highlights about your business in there, how you work with people, what results look like, etc. If you do nothing else with Google My Business, at least one go in and claim your listing, which by the way, you do have to do this through mail. There's a whole process Google does. You go in, you claim the list and you put some verifying data, and then they actually mail you a postcard to your physical address with a secret code you have to put in.

Second: Add pictures. This might sound weird, but haven't you searched Google for something and then clicked over to the images tab? Yes, well, how do they show up? They show up because Google's picking up on the keywords or in the way that they are described, attributed and saved.

So a few key things about optimizing pictures:

They can't be large pictures, make sure they're less than 10 megabytes. Most people should be able to do that or use a free compression service online.
The size which works best right now, when we're recording this in 2020 is 720 pixels by 720 pixels.
The best way to save your pictures to really get a lot of juice out of them is to save it like company_name_ city you live in or were serving in_your business category. When you name your pictures like this before uploading, it's not only going to show up for your business when searched, but your pictures are then going to come to the top as well in image searches.

Pictures to include when setting up your listing are your business logo, a cover photo of your business. a picture of the inside and outside of your physical space if you are a brick and mortar, a picture of you if you're the owner and of you and your team. And then if you have product or services, include a picture of you demonstrating the product or service

A fun little fact for you about business photos on Google My Business is businesses that have photos receive 42% more requests for driving directions to that location, and a 35% higher rate of click through to the websites, just because they have actual photos.

Third: Create a local landing page. This is a ninja hack, but remember how I talked about in your listing where you can list your website, and you can even list like an appointment calendar? Now of course if you have a super small niche and only one thing you actually do, you can send people straight to your website. But how much cooler would it be to actually capture that traffic to take the next micro-step with you by pulling them into a landing page?

For example, if you have a service-based business most people unless it's like something they already have an appointment aren't going to be like walking in and buying something unless they've been doing a lot of research on the back end. But you always want them to take the very next step with you, which is probably going to be click through to your site or to possibly call. Why not drive traffic to a landing page that is built specifically for the audience and for the people who are going to be clicking through? If you think about it, I think the stat right now is 84% of Google My Business searches or searches coming where someone clicks through to Google My Business are organic searches, which means they're not direct. It's not someone typing in like Mallory Schlabach, for example, or marketing magic into their Google.

Most people would be finding you through organic searches if they hit your Google My Business Listing, so that means they don't know who you are. They just wanted the thing that you do. And now you have to teach them who you are. So think about that. When you create a landing page, if it's someone brand new to you, what would you draw them into? What's the very next baby step you want them to take?

You're probably going to want to sell them on some kind of opt-in be able to contact them, get them to book a call a special offer a special deal or something. Think about those things and how you can really use that link instead of just driving it back to a basic website, landing or a squeeze page where you can be nurturing them further and grabbing their email address. Oh, I see light bulbs going off. I hope I'm super pumped about that.

Mine's gonna be actually driving to my local marketing helps domain which is going live soon, which I'm super pumped about as well. Because local marketing, that's what I do. So I need to draw people to that to that website as well.

Fourth: Collect reviews. This should be a no brainer. However, it sometimes feels really scary to collect reviews, especially when they're posted on the internet for everybody to see. And we all know people see them. I check reviews for everything. I check reviews, all kinds of stuff, restaurants, places, I'm going service-based businesses. So make sure you're collecting testimonials and reviews for your business. Actually, the best way to do that is to set up your business on autopilot and create a really simple email template. And then just ask people after they've had some kind of great interaction, or worked with you in some way, ask them to leave you a Google review. And just put the link in there.

And set up some reminder emails as well, because people always forget, and we assume they just hated us because we only asked once. So just follow up with them, collect the reviews, ask them to leave your review, because it makes a huge deal. The flip side of that, too, is I don't know about you, but I always also look to see if anybody is responding back to reviews.

So it's equally important to make sure you're responding with to both positive and negative reviews left on your profile, because that one tells a lot about the character and the type of business you are if you respond to them. Well, well don't get in a fight with people who review and there are totally trolls that's what happens and those can be scary, but Like a one-star review, they're not even real. You can dispute them. That's part of business. Honestly, I can't remember I think the episode I did in December, I had to look up the stat again. But it was basically how people are more find businesses who are like 4.2 and 4.3 stars more trustworthy than five stars because everybody expects something to go wrong, right?

Like, it just seems a little weird if you always have five stars. So don't be afraid of not an awesome review. Sometimes it's gonna happen.

Fifth: Post on Google My Business Did you know you can post in almost the same way you can on social media platforms? This is cool. Except for people don't really comment or interact, so you aren't required to monitor this profile all the time, which is kind of nice. But you can repurpose content from your social media and post on Google My Business.

When you post content it's going to show up in the listings. Some posts which are really popular and work well on Google My Business are call to action posts, basically sale posts, like the thing you're trying to ask them to do something for your business. So it could be literal sale post if you're your product business and you're featuring a sale or some kind of event of some kind.

Branded posts about your business that you post on other social media sites work well on Google My Business, as well as actual content, such as sharing snippets of your blog, podcast clips, long-form content, behind the scenes to show what's happening in your business and how you do things these all help your stand out. You can also do a review showcase.

So if you get Review, highlight it talk about it, not only is it great for it to be an actual review on your Google My Business listing, but it's great to use it as content as well, and Question and Answer posts. Right now the recommendation is to post two or three times a week. Definitely not more than once a day, that would be kind of excessive. It's not a platform that's moving as quickly as you know, Facebook and Instagram right now, which are like running on like two and a half hours window. The great thing about Google My Business is that it doesn't require a whole content strategy around it. Basically, it just helps give you a boost in visibility for free.

Sixth: Filling out frequently asked questions that customers ask you. These FAQs are often questions you're already going to get and by answering them publically on this profile, it's going to cut back on tire kickers just kicking to find out information. These questions also help them answer some baby questions in their brains that help them to take the next micro-step with you.

Now, if I have not already sold you just you know, come find me and I'll help you get on board. Honestly, the women that we have been working with this for even the last three to six months on optimizing their profile, are seeing tremendous results. And the really cool thing is that Google will send you insights every week, and there's also an app you can look at for metrics.

I geek out on all of this to tell you that if you want to get clients locally or you need clients locally for your business this is a fantastic tool, that I just cannot speak high more highly that you should be optimizing and utilize it in your business.

If you do nothing else in 2020 for local marketing, you should definitely do this thing. I think I'm like giving you the ultimatum like six times today. But I have really, really, really, really seen it work. It's a super hot topic, I swear, Google's probably gonna make us pay for it eventually. So definitely hop on this wave while you can, it's gonna make a huge difference in your local traffic.

View Details

Being real matters in everything.

It’s an added bonus that it helps with your marketing too.

Even though I’ve been doing marketing for more than 13 years, I’ve wrestled with finding my voice for more than two years.

Which is one of my main reasons for loving this podcast.

While it’s a huge boon to my business, it’s also a passion project where I get to talk about what I want. And if I don’t feel inspired like last week — and release an episode off the cuff four days late, its OK because it’s my podcast and I can figure out what matters.

So why is there an episode on this now?

Because it’s only March and I hear a frantic weariness from all the people in my life — both personal and business.

The Coronovirus.

American politics.

The economy.

Winter.

Personal traumas.

The pressure of growing a viable business.

If you add all of these things on top of trying to be perfect and image-worthy at all times, I feel like no wonder it’s March and we are weary.

If you’ve ever needed it, today, I give permission to be you, always.

This means in all your relationships. In parenting – both people and pets!

Certainly be you in your own business .

My good friend Maggie Frank Hsu writes exquisite personal emails that I devour every week. And more often than not reply back to.

She talks about just sitting down and writing to write, not to have amazing words come forth.

What would your life look like if you took the time to just be you? How would you show up differently than you do right now?

What would you stop doing?

This is me: We joke about my love of tacos – but I am a freak. They would come up in conversation eventually, let’s be honest.

Besides tacos, I’m passionate about women knowing money and numbers and being able to visualize and build wealth and teams and sustainable businesses.

I am also the inappropriate friend sending memes at all hours of the day.

I am a book lover — to my husband’s chagrin sometimes. I wanna nerd out more than I currently do.

I’m also going to tell you that parenting is super hard. I want it to be OK to say it aloud sometimes and not have this picture-perfect image.

So back to being real — now that we’ve talked about permission around it.

I’ve always said it’s the tiny things that endear us to others and build that know, like, trust factor.

I see it play out over and over again.

Just last week, I took my oldest daughter to a Lauren Daigle concert. She’s a mega Christian artist with a soulful voice you can’t help but love, in case you are googling her now.

In the middle of a set, she finds a scrunchie in her pocket while explaining the next song and starts cracking up and talking to herself. It’s so random — but interesting. She’s a SUPER STAR being totally normal and squirreled in the middle of her own concert.

It made her even more relatable. Especially when you add her deep Louisiana accent.

If you’re a parent, just think about the unique personalities of your own kids — each one is probably so different than the other and has quirks that crack you up and that you want to remember forever.

You ARE THE SAME.

We just never see the magical endearing things in ourselves.

I see it. Others watching you see it.

So go be you.

View Details

I get it. We’re not all marketers and we don’t have all the time in the world to promote our businesses. So what do you do if you have limited time to promote your business yet you still need big results and leads flowing in your door?

If you only have one hour a week to dedicate to marketing your business, what are the activities you should put at the top of your list? There’s a misconception that you have to spend hours marketing, and you totally can spend hours marketing, but it’s really more about busy work sometimes, then true marketing. So I want to break down the four things you should be doing in your one hour a week, if you only had an hour with maybe a couple of extra bonuses because I think you’re going to find you have a couple pockets of time in your week that throw some of this stuff in.

First, let’s break down marketing into a couple of categories. When I think about marketing tasks, they usually flow around some of the big Ws. Okay, remember guys, I was a former journalist, but you know, the five W’s right, like the who, what, when, where, why, when how all those things that was pretty much the core of how we had to write stories and how we interviewed people was we had to get these basic facts. It’s called the lede in journalism and it requires you to know what you’re leading with in an article.

It’s the same thing with marketing and your business, you need to figure out the W’s for your business and how to promote it. The most important questions I’m going to help you answer are the where, the who, and the what of your business.

So if you have an hour a week and have to cram it in, these are the things I want you to make sure you’re tackling every single week or you really don’t have a business, right? It’s really hard unless you have a crazy referral system to have people coming into your business if don’t got visibility, baby. So the first step is you’ve got to be visible.

Make sure every single week you are doing something to get visible in your business. That’s everything from, if we’re talking about local marketing, face to face if you’re going out or if you’re in your community, region or area. For social media, this could include posting or sharing a blog, going live, meeting up with someone face to face. Figure out how are you going to be visible during your one hour a week.

Figure out is how to build a community. A lot of people don’t consider this to be part of marketing. But if you think about it, where do a lot of your leads come from? They often come from people or from your circles of people who know you, right? And so if you don’t know anybody, it’s going to be hard for you to grow those circles of people, and have them interact with you in a way that’s going to compel them to either work with you, or buy from you. So back to our W questions, for this one you’re answering the Where. Where do you need to be to build community and what does that community look like for you?

So if you’re an online business this could be a Facebook community or a LinkedIn community. It could be a physical community, it could be a support group. There are so many different things you could be creating community around, but you need to figure out what does that look like for your business? Because if you’re not furthering the community around you in some way shape or form, then it’s going to be really hard for you to grow a business. Communities are great marketing for you because when you build a community, you get a built in group of cheerleaders.

Who does not want somebody to go up before them and be your cheerleaders? By investing a little bit of time in someone and when I say community also, I don’t mean you have to like go to like a, like a group, a group thing every week, but you do need to pour into somebody who’s in your community, because basically, they’re able to go out and be like a sounding board and a voice and a marketing for you. Because they’re going to talk about you once you’re top of mind.

Talk with people. Often times people use marketing to hide behind actually doing face to face conversations with potential clients. But if you’re not talking to people, it’s really hard to sell something. If you didn’t talk to people how would you know what to put out there? One on one conversations guiding someone around what you do helps you figure out “How do I sell what I have? How do I talk about it better? What are the words I need to be using to promote it?” If you talk to people, they’re going to give you the language and objections, and all the things in their head, which you can use to promote your business in some way, shape, or form.

Promote your content. You have to promote what you’re creating and promote what you’re doing. You have to talk about it. If you don’t put out your content and you don’t talk about, “Hey, I have this blog, or this podcast, or this live or this sale, or I’m doing this event,”… if you don’t talk about it, people won’t know about it.

We often assume in our minds that we’re boring people or are so obnoxious when we talk about our stuff. And that’s really just your perception of how you feel about your own words coming out of your mouth.

You cannot over market yourself.

I can’t say it enough.

So whether you have a million hours in the week or one hour in the week, you got to be putting yourself out there and getting visible. If you have no clue or if you’re like, I need help, please, please, please, please, I need help on getting visible, please hop on over to get the free Get Visible Guide that walks you through how to create a visibility plan. It has 63 ideas right now for how you can get visible. That’s one of the most important pieces and that’s why I included it first. If you don’t have visibility, you don’t have a business period.

How hard is it to find somebody when you don’t know they exist, right? People are looking for what you do and what you offer, what you sell. If they can’t find you, then you can’t grow and you can’t reach them and you can’t connect with them and nurture them and all the things we talked about in the podcast.

So start with being visible. Download the guide if you need help with that. Build your community. That’s investing in one person who can help you move forward or showing up for a group of people. Remember those concentric circles, how they spread out and word of mouth kind of happens in your business. You actually talk to people so you have a pulse check, and so you get feedback on what you’re doing, what you’re offering, what your price point is, what the languages, the objections, all of those things that help answer conversations, and then promote, promote, promote, promote, promote.

Don’t be afraid to promote yourself and what you’re doing. During your one hour a week what you’re doing is setting up how to promote yourself for the rest of the week. Take 15 minutes to do that.
Break those down into 15 minute segments to make sure:

• All right I’m gonna slip in a 15 minute call with someone here.
• I’m gonna make sure I’m visible in these four places.
• These are the people I want to talk to this week.
• This is how I’m going to build community this week.
• These are all the ways I’m going to promote my content and put it on autopilot.

There are so many tools out there, there are no excuses for you not to have be able to put stuff on autopilot and show up every single day and promote your business every single day. If you need recommendations, some of my favorite ones to use, clearly Facebook, you can just use the like the scheduler in there. I love Recurpost. Buffer is a great one.

Bonus tasks! Now a couple of bonus things if you find yourself able to squeeze in more than just an hour a week or you have pockets of time you want to fit this in. The other three things that I recommend to make sure you’re doing is making offers to people, creating content and tracking metrics.

For making offers: This may feel like sales, but if there is no way for people to figure out how to buy something from you or work with you, then your marketing is pointless. You have to be selling things in order to have a business. So whether that’s selling yourself, your services, your products, and event tickets, you got to be talking about it and making offers. So make sure you have a way for people to work with you.

For creating the content: this goes with promoting content. For so many of us, we don’t have a problem creating content, we just forget to ever talk about it again. I would rather you share the crap out of your content, one thing a million ways rather than create a million different pieces of content that you never talk about? So create content if you need to.

For tracking your metrics: Figure out what’s working, see what channel where people coming from, what’s actually getting you closer to your goals. If you don’t have a goal with your marketing, then you’re just doing busy work also. Want to know how I track marketing metrics to get started? Grab my Sexy Marketing Metrics Spreadsheet on Episode 005 here.

I hope that this helps break down and demystify the big marketing activities that I always tell you to focus on your business.

View Details

If you don’t have a website, you’re basically living under a rock. I don’t care who you are or what business you have, you must have a website. So what do you need to have on your website?

I’m going to cover the most important things for your homepage. Not only because that’s where most people land first, but if that’s not going to convert people to something else on your website, then nothing will.

I did an informal poll my group asking them what they click on when they come to the website. They want to know about you, they click to you, they click to how they work with you. They scroll down to find out if there’s something they can opt into. They want to read reviews, which is great because it’s all the things we have on our list to go through today.

A GREAT headline Okay, so the first thing, the most important thing you’ve got to have on your site and what a lot of people are getting wrong is the headline. Just think about the giant text on your site. It’s often behind a colored background on your face. If you’re a solo entrepreneur, you’re the face of your business.

The headline needs to say, what do you do? And who do you do it for? That’s the number one thing.

If you remember from last week, if you’ve heard me talk about websites before, it kind of works the same way as it did in the journalism world, right.

When I was a copy editor and a page designer, as a journalist, I know we’re worried about what’s above the fold. What’s going to get people to pick up the paper and actually buy it. Now granted, this is when people actually bought a newspaper. This was like way back before the whole industry broke. But the same principle applies to your website. You basically consider what is the thing that they can see on their screen that’s going to be called your above fold.

And you need to have your biggest headline, so like nerdy stuff here, but your h1 tag, if you’re selecting your font or your copy on there or you’re hand-coding it to h1 tag right there. That’s the biggest font size that your theme or your website will pull and it’s the most important thing that one Google is going to pull for you when it scrolls or crawls on your site.

But also, there’s something about size and how people relate to how important that text is. That’s why that’s the biggest headline in newspapers, right? Like, like, Whoa, this is so important, because it’s like size 63 font. The same thing applies to your website. So make sure when someone can land on your site, both mobile and on a desktop that you have a giant headline.

If that is not the first thing people see they’re immediately going to bounce. You may have like a half a scroll up to answer Who is this and what is this thing. People are always looking for something to give them reassurance that they’re in the right place. This could be a tagline. It could be a short sentence, it could be something like a phrase. Whatever it is, that’s what’s going to be hooking people so they continue going.

Remember, the whole point of when you get people to land on your website, is you’re taking them on a journey, and you want them to keep scrolling or to do the thing you’re asking them to do across your site So make the big claim and put your stick in the stand so that it screams: I do this for you!

A subhead that gives details that clue them that they’re right at home The second thing which goes along that is your subheading. You want to make sure that you’re able to break it down with more specifics. So for example, it could be something really short and pithy. On the new website that I’m launching, it’s going to say something along the lines of growing your business locally. It’s giant, top pink has a period, but my subhead is I help female entrepreneurs and small business owners grow locally to six figures and beyond.

Right, like that’s my hook and my promise and like a little bit more detail to give some specifics because at first, they are going to be like, Oh, yeah, like if you want to grow your business locally, in a local market in some way, whether that’s your town, your community, your state, your whatever, whatever is local to you, they should know immediately if they are in the right place and then they can pre-qualify themselves with your subhead.

So, get really, really specific and your subhead and break it down because you want people to be drawn to you like a siren call, right? You want them to know if they’re in the right spot. It’s kind of the same thing when we talked about the email list, right? You want people to either stay on your list and engage or unsubscribe immediately. Unsubscribing is not a bad thing. For the first couple of times, it hurts our feelings.

Create a call-to-action The third thing on your site is your call to action. What is the one most important thing for people to do when they land on your site? Because that’s the thing I want you to be calling out multiple times on your homepage, okay? They need to be able to see a couple of different times the button could literally say the exact same thing. But the way you talk about whatever it is, you’re asking them can be a little bit differently, okay?

The call to action is the most important thing. A lot of times it could be like book a call, it could be an optin to your list, it could be download something and it could be click over to something else. You’re going to want to make that call to action to be collecting information in some way, shape, or form whether that’s taken into a form, whether it’s a pop-up, whether it’s something, but the call to action should be taking them along the next step in their journey with you and your business.

So for example, the thing you’re going to see most on my website when I talk about it, and even right now, if you go to my website right now at malloryschlabach.com the thing that I talk about everywhere on that homepage is The Get Visible Guide.

It’s my main offer that I put out there. Of course, if you come through the podcast there’s all these like extras and freebies and bonuses and other things you could download. But on my homepage, the one thing I talked about like five different ways is to get visible guide. It’s got the step by step guide on how to get more visibility. It’s got the giant checklist in there and like all the places and things to try and I talked about it lots of different ways because I know if I get people to come in that’s a great starting point for people to kind of get introduced and to figure out 1) if I’m for them 2) if that’s really actually their problem. and 3) can they get some wins with me to finally figure out like who am I and what exactly do I do?

Other things that I could have on there or I may have put on them on the rebrand I will most likely have some kind of link maybe link somewhere like a book a call and talk to me right some people not a lot, maybe like three to 6% Probably are ready to actually talk to someone just to see, right. Like they’re just talkers. And that’s fine. That’s what I need to do.

A lot of people, they’re just browsing, they’re just searching. So you want to give them something to do that takes them a little bit further along, gives them a taste of you. And that’s why opting into something is always a great idea.

Show me the TRANSFORMATION Okay, the fourth thing that you need to have on your website is you need to make sure that you’re talking about the transformation that you provide, or you offer you give where you’re taking people basically. And you can do it in a lot of different ways.

One, you need to definitely have copy about it. And you can also show it through some of the next couple things that come in such as your testimonials and your social proof. But a lot of times if you go back to and I will have to find the episode for this. But when I talked about the creepy exercise, the one thing you need to do to really get into the head of your clients. The things that come out of that exercise need to be on your website because that’s where the transformation starts to happen. That’s where you get into the conversations happening in their head.

When you call out the thoughts in their head, they can’t just scroll by. They are consuming your copy now. And the more people are scrolling, the more people read, the more they make decisions on you and fall in love with you. And like you, which we want to happen — that know, like trust factor. So make sure you are very clear on your transformation.

I see people get tripped up on this and leave it off their website because they’re afraid they’re bragging if they talk about how they help people. No, no, no! That’s why they’re here in the first place. It’s almost like the people who have the best transformations are the ones that are going to win, honestly.

Share testimonials and social proof Another way to show the transformation is to make sure you have testimonials and/ or social proof that you work with real-life people or you sell things to real-life people. Here’s how I differentiate between testimonials and social proof.

Testimonials are where people actually give you a few sentences talking about what their experience has been like working with you and kind of what’s happened and where they’ve gone and when they do they’re often a little bit longer usually. And usually, they have been collected from a form on a phone call, on a session, whatever it is, collected it some way through that part of them.

Social Proof, on the other hand, could be for like literally screenshot and reviews. It could be pulling in from Google reviews, like widgets or apps on your website, could be seen as screenshots, Facebook comments. That’s why it’s really important to take screenshots of everything so you can use it but also because those work really well.

I almost always look at reviews before I buy stuff. I could invest in $27, I could be investing $2,700, and it doesn’t matter. I’m going to be looking at reviews and what do other people say because it helps me confirm why I’m wanting to buy it, right? We’re always looking for things to reaffirm that we’re making the right decision, or to help us be like, Oh, you know what, you know, I wasn’t quite sure and that this is why Okay, so social proof is super important. But testimonials are equally important because they tell more of the story, right? They’re not just like great words. wins for your business. But they also tell the story, which is really important to kind of capture people’s attention.

Make sure they can opt-in to your list The sixth thing you need to have on your homepage is your opt-in form.

Sometimes, it may make more sense to have people click to download a coupon if you’re a local brick and mortar business, or you have a product business because you want them to download the coupon and come into your store. Other options could be to have them subscribe to the podcast. It could be joining your email list, or downloading a guide, or getting a coupon.

Make sure you have a way for people to opt in with you some way shape or form on your website does not have to be the exact call to action we talked about earlier, but it definitely can be but make sure they could opt in.

Pictures of YOU The next thing is you need pictures of you and your brand and your business. Stock photos are not cutting it anymore. I’m sorry if you like them, but they’re just not. People know when it’s a stock photo and there is some kind of turn off in your brain when you’re like oh This is all fake people, I can tell nobody looks like this in real life, or nobody smiles like that, or poses like that or like looks like that at a table, they don’t really work as well.

If you are trying to grow something local in your in your market, people want to know your real and they want to know you’re a real person and that you look like them and you fit into their world view and all those things. So put your face on there, put your brand on there, put your products on there, put like behind the scenes stuff on you. Make sure whether you’re the face of your business or not, there’s pictures of you on the site. And there’s real life pictures. It’s not just stock photos, it’s going to make a huge difference in converting people on your website.

Make it crystal clear how to work with you The eighth thing, do people understand how to work with you? And what exactly are you selling or offering? You’ll be amazed at how unclear most websites are that it’s not obvious what you do, or what you sell or how to start working with you or buying that thing.

Share who you are I know a lot of people bounce over to your about page from your website visitors. But you can stop the bouncing if you put a little section that talks about you and what you do on the homepage. People like to know those details which is why it’s such a popular hit on your site.

If you look at your Google Analytics, which in a couple of weeks, you’ll be able to if you don’t have it set up on your site yet because it’s an upcoming topic, but if you look at your analytics, you know, those are most often the most popular pages.

It’s definitely so for mine, so I get a ton of hits on the homepage, I get a ton of hits on the podcast page. And then it goes to the work with me. And then about me. These are my four most popular pages on my website. Your audience wants to know how do you work with people, and they want to know who you are. They want to know your story. They want to know why you do what you do. They want to know the person behind the brand.

So make sure you whether it’s a small call out section, whether you’re weaving your story throughout your copy, however that is whether it’s a video of you talking whatever it is, make sure you are not only just your faces on there but who you are a little bit about what you do and how you got there is on there as well.

That’s going to go a huge way to helping people do what you want them to do on your website. Okay, I hope this was like oh, I can do this or Oh, I have a lot of this stuff on here. Because really, it’s not hard to do it right.

It’s like these are simple changes, they just take a little bit of brainpower and thinking, and like different ways of how you talk about your business that isn’t really natural to us. Like, that’s basically all of marketing is, if you can figure out these nine pieces on your website, then you could market anything in your business, just FYI, we weren’t sure that you can go make a list of all these things.

And this we’re gonna talk about everywhere else as well, right? it bleeds over and the more you get comfortable saying this stuff over and over and over, the easier it’s going to be talking about what you do.

We get out of practice, we don’t know how to talk about what it is we do in a way that sells and so we like, Oh, I feel so icky. And that’s you know, don’t feel icky. It just takes practice, it’s uncomfortable. We’re not groomed to talk about ourselves naturally unless we are a narcissist or something.

That’s not running around in my veins right now. It just doesn’t come naturally to most people and that’s okay, but you do have to practice you do have to talk about it, and it’s going to get easier as it goes.

To apply for a free website teardown of your site, make sure you join the #GirlBoss Club on Facebook and add your website to our tear-down thread.

View Details

Many of you don’t know that I started out (after dropping the newspaper industry like it was hot) building websites. By hand. Like with HTML and CSS. This was pre-Dreamweaver, which was one of the first WYSIWYG platforms on the market. While in college I wanted to go to grad school to do magazine design — but only two schools in the country offered it and it was the opposite direction my soon to be husband and I would be going for his PT school — so that dream died out. But I think that’s why I loved websites so much. Because it reminds me, abstractly, of magazine design. So — in 15 years of picking apart website and rebranding them, here are the five biggest mistakes that are costing people conversions and how to fix them:

PROBLEM #1 You’re being too general in your copy.

Solution: You only get a second or two to make an impression on your visitor — and if you aren’t drawing them in with the first line of copy, you’ve lost them. They’ll never see the beautiful graphics you slaved over. All the content you painstakingly created. The beautifully photoshopped pictures you posed for.

The first copy on your page should include who you work with, how you help them and what the result is after working together. Treat your website like the top half of the newspaper. In journalism, it’s called “above the fold.” The MOST important stories with the juiciest details and best photographs are always at the top of the front page with the biggest headline. It should be the same way with your website. PROBLEM #2 You have too many calls-to-action on your site.

Solution: You’re the expert in your subject. Give your visitors ONE thing to do on your site and repeat it over and over again. If you ask them to optin to your freebie, join your mailing list, schedule a fitting call and join your Facebook group all in the same line on your site, you’ve lost them.
Eliminate the confusion and decision overload by giving them the best recommendation you have and pointing everything to that one thing. PROBLEM #3 It’s not clear what you do. Solution: Sometimes when I review a site, I can’t tell what it is they do, and I’ve worked with them! It needs to be obvious what your specialty is, how you work/help people and what they need to do to take the next step with you. PROBLEM #4 It’s not clear how to work with you and/or purchase.
Solution: If you are a service-based business, as the majority of my clients are, you need to explain how exactly you work with your clients, what all you help with and what the relationship looks like. It’s why I do the live strategy sessions on the podcast. Not only do I want you to be able to take the advice and apply it to your own business, but I also want you to understand what it would be like to do a strategy session with me yourself, and how I could fit into helping your business. It’s much easier to convert someone to be a client if they can picture how you’d help them.
Next steps: Get specific on your website of how to take the next step, how you work with people + what to expect PROBLEM #5 Your website is too busy. Solution: If you have too much going on in the design and layout of your website, your visitor will leave without a glance back. The more things that are presented for someone to browse, the less likely it is they’ll click on anything.
Want to apply for a free website teardown for your business? (in the nicest way possible)

Apply at askmallory.com and I'll audit your website, give you tips for how to tweak copy, design and flow for maximum conversions. <3

View Details

Are you ready to build a website that sells for you?

What many entrepreneurs fail to realize is this: your website can become a tool for selling to your audience. It’s literally doing the work for you when people visit it. If it’s built right that is.

That’s why I was so excited to bring on today’s guest, Katie Saunders of Pop and Grey. Katie is a website designer and branding strategist that helps business owners build websites that sell.

She shares how you can evaluate your brand, how you can know that it’s time to work with a branding strategist and web designer and what you should absolutely avoid doing on your website.

We also dive into knowing who your audience is, what message you want to send them and why it’s so important to be intentional with your website navigation.

We talk about:

What Katie does to help clients
What it means to build a website to sell
Knowing who your audience is and nailing down your message
Aligning your branding with brand values
How to evaluate your own brand and decipher if you need a rebrand
Figuring out what you want to convey to your audience through your brand
Being intentional about your website navigation
Her recommendations on when to work with a branding strategist and designer
Website no-no’s to avoid when building your business
Considering how your website will display on multiple browsers

About Katie Saunders:

After a decade of working as an art director in a custom publishing house, architecture firm and advertising agency, I took the leap in 2012 to go out on my own and build pop and grey.

I craved an intimate project experience working one-on-one with creative business owners. I knew with my expertise and their passion, I could design truly meaningful brands that made an impact rather than churning them out as quickly as possible for decision-makers that didn’t have a true stake in their success.

I work directly with entrepreneurs and business owners in the interior design, photography and fashion industries. Together, we build a timeless but dynamic visual identity that blends their messaging and positioning with visuals that express their distinctiveness without a word. It is a true collaborative process that I am privileged to be a part of every single day.

I live in a quiet town in North Carolina with my husband, our two wild little girls and two big, sloppy dogs. When I’m not working, you can find me whipping up something scrumptious in the kitchen, redecorating our house yet again or singing karaoke and showing off my sweet dance moves with my kids. And later, mixing cocktails with my husband and either losing to him at a board game or beating him at basketball in the driveway.

Between work, a busy family and fitting in the workouts that keep me from going crazy, life does not allow for decaf. My daughters have taught me more than a few lessons on effective communication, multitasking like a boss and that laughter and a little chocolate cure almost everything.

Connect with Katie:

Websites | Facebook | Instagram

View Details

Emails are great and all, but what about when you want to do some magic with emails? I'm talking all about email automation and how they're going to rock your world, and most definitely your business.

One reason I love email so much and how much email marketing can do for your business because of the way you can set up automation to make it do amazing things. So today I want to break down some of the most common email automation that you may or may not be using in your business.

Now disclaimer as with most things, this does NOT mean you have to go set up all of this automation right now. But they are all really great ideas of things that you can use in your business eventually or the things you might want to work towards or have someone set up for you. So let's just get the wheels spinning today.

I have seven different types of automation that I'm going to walk through.

Delivery Email Automation

Let's start with the obvious one here. This is the one that almost every single person listening will probably be familiar with. That's the delivery of a product or a freebie email, right?

When someone opts into something, even though someone buys something, right, this that can really cover two types of things. So when we're talking about automation for these types of emails, a lot of times these are going to be kicked off automatically based on what you have set up on the back end of your system.

This automation’s the easiest because it can literally just be one email. Basically, it's just making sure that people get whatever it is they need to get from you whether that's something they bought a download, a freebie, an email series.

One way to look at automation is its a way to keep everybody happy and thriving and nurtured in your business through email magically delivered like your robots running around. That's why I love it so much.

Because people get angry when they don't get stuff delivered. People get angry when they don't get the freebie they download it even though it's free, right?

We all feel that way like, “Oh my gosh, it's been two minutes, where's that download? I really wanted it!”

And we don't want to let people down. So this is the first one at a minimum. Every single person should have this setup on all of your things. Make sure that it's automatically delivering things to your people and email. Even if it's a responder just like Hey, I'll get back to you in five minutes or two hours or I'm going to give you a call or whatever it is. People just really like to know what's happening next to make our brains feel better.

The Welcome Automation

The second type of email automation that is super important is going to be your welcome sequence.

I'm often surprised when I start working with clients to find out most of them don't have this one set up already. It seems like it should be really commonplace if you create automation in the order you need it, but that's not how we think.

We kind of like to put out fires mostly in our business especially for working on the backside.

A welcome sequence’s purpose is to initiate or introduce yourself to whoever is just joining your email list because often, people are scrolling by and they happen to click. But they may have no idea about you or who you are, you may have just appeared in their feed, or you could be running conversion ads, it could be on Pinterest, there's like it could be sent to them from somebody else, they may have no idea who you are from Adam or Eve.

You need to introduce yourself to them, help them get warmed up to your list, find out who you are and decide if they want to stay. That's really important if you haven't paid attention to our email series last couple weeks, because we want people on our list who actually want to be there and open our emails, right.

It's not the goal to collect as many people as possible on our email list. That doesn't really serve us in any way in our business unless they're active, engaged and ideal clients who would want to buy from you in the future. So it's really important to make sure that we're warming them up in a way that introduces us to them. And allows them to interact with us as well.

One question that comes up is: How long do I make a welcome sequence?

I've seen people do it anywhere from two emails to 50 emails, and let me just say that 50 feels like a lot. So don't feel like that's a number you want to shoot for.

Basically, it's a handful of emails as with any other kind of writing role, write enough to convey the point and not a word more. You don't want to belabor the point but you do want to make sure you get your point across.

I believe mine is somewhere between four to six emails in my welcome sequence. My goal with a welcome sequence is to get new people introduced to you, move them along in their journey to getting to know you and help them decide what's the very next step.

I think a lot of times people get really confused about how to make email sequences because they don't know what to say.

To make it really simple, you just want to make sure you're taking them along the journey to make a decision about you in whatever way shape or form that is.

So for me, in order for them to get to know me really well, I want to make sure that they're get ingrained into my community and where I hang out a lot. If someone meets me through the podcast, it’s usually a pretty good lead because you've heard my voice hopefully a couple times, and you can make a decision pretty quickly about whether she's a crazy person or a good fit. T

I need people to decide immediately whether they liked me or not because I don't waste time. So I really want you to decide immediately, before we even talk or connect, like, it's like you're stalking me through the podcast, right or stalking me through my videos or in my group. And I want people to just know, know that they're for me or not, does not hurt my feelings.

If you join my list and bounce. That just means I'm not your cup of tea. That's okay.

So the welcome sequence sets the tone so they can figure out if they like you and what you are all about.

The reason welcome sequences are important beyond setting the tone is to help them learn to open your emails and like you. If someone just joins your list and then the next thing they do is they get just a random email sent out to your list, it's going to feel a little bit disconnecting, and they're not going to feel the need to open the emails or remember who you are even because they haven't been introduced to warm up to you.

So on that delivery email sequence, we just talked about, introduce the welcome sequence when you say, “Hey, here's your thing you wanted. By the way, I'm going to send you a couple of emails to let you know who in the world I am. And if I'm not for you just click unsubscribe anytime at the bottom.

This teaches them Oh, something's coming to my inbox, don't freak out. I'm going to open this one from her because she seems okay.

The Segment Automation

This type of automation helps you to put your people on your list in the buckets so you can serve them better. This type of automation isn’t for everyone, but it works really well if you have multiple businesses or serve two different audiences. Knowing who is on your list helps you figure out what to send them, and protects the integrity of your list because you don't have to blast your email list all the time, you can send segmented emails to one section.

It works like this: You send an email and ask them to click a link usually, and it tags them if you have a tagging system. If I haven't mentioned it before I use Active Campaign. I love it and I cannot recommend it highly enough, I will drop a link in the show notes for that as well and tell it to every single person and try to convert you to Active Campaign that I can. But that's what I use. And I love it because it has such a robust tagging system and segmentation automation and visual automation. And I could just geek out for a really long time on their features.

The Client Check-In and Client Follow Up Automations

These two automations are tied together. For my business, I have a pre-session questionnaire that includes two or three questions to help my client who is doing a strategy session with me get in the frame of mind that I need you to be so we have a really productive strategy session.

It's not very fun or easy for us to be like, “Okay, great. You paid me for this time what are we gonna talk about?” and you're like, “Ah, that's what you're gonna tell me.”

That's gonna waste a lot of your session and we don’t want to do that.

So before I walk into a strategy session, I make sure that they have these questions and can figure out how to get the most out of our time together.

On the flip side, after a session, I make sure to follow up to make sure that we covered everything they wanted to, did this bring anything to mind we need to be aware of, Is there something else you want to talk about next time... like those kinds of questions.

This helps to neatly tie a bow on sessions especially if you're a coach and consultant. I do this with one on one client work, I do this with my coaching clients in the mastermind, and I definitely do it with any strategy session.

I just want to make sure that I'm doing the best that I can to my ability to serve you and answer questions and all that good stuff, but also help you process what we talked about.

I know being on the end of coaching calls with my own coach, it's like a fire hose shooting at me, there are so many things going through my head.

I had this an epiphany this summer when I realized I can't do the work for my clients. Unfortunately, I can't run their business, I can't make them be successful. I can't make them see what I see or see how amazing they are.

They’ve gotta figure it out themselves. I can give them all the tools in the world and the manual. But if they can't put it together and their own terms and ways it makes sense for them that it's just not going to work.

So figuring out how to really empower the people you work with, to make those leaps and to make those connections and get excited and take the action is really important

You could also use these types of automation with products, following up on a purchase, following up if they met you in person, following up when you give a speech, any kind of event type thing; there are so many different ways you can use it.

These two automations could be a one-time thing, or it could be on a schedule, like every 30 days or 90 days, whatever fits your business. But those are really important to have because if you don't get feedback, and if you don't help people process how they work with you and what's going on in their life, then they don't make progress and blame you for not making progress.

Onboarding and Offboarding Clients Automation

The next important email automation that I want to talk about, again, is in the client category. In the same way, the follow-up and checking in is important, so is onboarding and off boarding.

If the welcome sequence sets the whole tone for people who are brand new to you, how you onboard clients, how you offboard clients after their experience with you, also sets the tone with how they feel and think about you and see their experience and recommend you to others.

So I have a whole system and process, shout out to Natalie Gingrich for helping me set up this in her amazing A-Team.

Thinking through this type of automation requires you to ask: what's important? How do I want people to feel every step of the way? What are the most important details I need to get so that I can help them be successful? What are the things I'm going to pepper into surprise them? What are the touchpoints going to be so if they start to drop off, I can keep them moving forward?

So one thing I didn't talk about, not only can you do email automation that actually sends just emails, but you can also trigger them to send you emails and reminders to do things and put things on your calendar. If your mind hasn't exploded yet with all the things you could possibly do, that little taste of one is going to blow your mind. You're going to be going through Zapier forever tonight trying to figure out what in the world could you make your emails do to make your life easier.

But onboarding and off boarding is important again, because you're getting feedback and you're setting the tone. If you haven't figured it out, that’s the theme here. We're just making sure we're making our people feel really comfortable and confident in what they're doing and what you're doing.

Sales Automation

This last automation/funnel is equally important but often does not fall top of mind to people because it feels a little bit hard. A lot of times people set them up either prematurely when they don't have everything in place. And so it doesn't work out. And then they just think they suck at sales.

Other times, they just don't have enough stuff to set it up yet. Sale automation work when you opt into a list for something and then you’re shown an offer for something small that’s related either on the thank you page or after a couple of emails.

In my opinion, you have to be amazing at copy and emotions to write these well. Most people who want to set them up want passive money, but don’t know their business and audience well enough to pull off a passive sale. When done correctly though, these can work really, really well.

This topic of email automation is just scratching the surface of what’s possible with email automation in your business. Look at how you can just with just one new email automation and see how much easier it makes your business run, then try out other ones.

About Marketing Magic:
The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

Last week on the podcast we talked about all the ways to grow your email list and why. So if you’re jazzed up a bit about email, I’ve done my job.

Except there’s a place I think you may get stuck that we need to talk about today.

For online business owners who want to become known locally in their own community, region or state — the problem with writing emails is that they usually don’t know what to say.

But for some reason, when you have a business that only operates locally and you depend upon the people in your community to become your clients or customers to thrive — that’s not the case.

You tend to get stuck with WHY do I even need to email?

Ooh lolly — get ready. What I’m about to break down is going to have you rethinking your email marketing. In fact, I almost feel like local email campaigns are even MORE important than for any other entrepreneur.

And here’s why:

Emails from a local business feel urgent. They usually revolve around events — whether that’s sales, special promotions, workshops, limited space, an event you’re hosting, a place you’ll be out in town — it’s all around something happening, that if the people on your list don’t open — they’ll miss out entirely.

This means you have a HUGE opportunity to use email to increase your foot traffic.

If your community expects to be in the know when they join your list and you’re driving them back to your physical location, to meet you, to a workshop, etc. — you’ll immediately increase the foot traffic to your business.

Email marketing helps your local business create a community. That’s one reason people shop, live and participate in their hometowns and surrounding areas, right? Because of the community. The chance to get to know their neighbors. To shop local. To help the economy where they live.

If they are asking for a community, why not create your own raving tribe of fans rallying around your business?

Use email to bring people together for a purpose. Invite them to an event at your physical location if you have a brick and mortar.
Start a quarterly or monthly dinner/cocktail party/coffee meet up if you’re a service provider and don’t necessarily want people crowding into your office (or home office).
Host a panel around your business with community members.
Participate in your local community and invite your clients/customers to come participate with you.

These things can only help your business — and they make you feel good in the process.

Email marketing helps your local community be in the know. We are a nosy bunch of people.

It’s why we keep opting into things every single day. We want to know what’s new. We want to be first to hear something. We want the inside scoops, the special deals, the coupons, and one-time seasonal offers.

So use your email marketing to give that to your tribe.

Make them feel special and they’ll reward you with their loyalty and their referral powers.

Email marketing helps your local business build relationships. This one feeds into all the others if you’ve noticed, but so much of marketing is built on how you make others feel. Not necessarily what you’re teaching them.

People buy from those they know, like and trust. So use your email list to bring the human side out of your brand, so others get to know you.

Be quirky. Show off your office pet. Introduce your team. Talk about what you do on the weekends. Invite them to your IG feed if it shows the behind the scenes of running your business.

The more people get to know you, the more they can’t help but fall in love and invest themselves in you as well.

Email marketing can be used to educate. In the online space, this is where we usually see most of the email go to, which is why so many entrepreneurs struggle with consistently writing emails. That’s way too much pressure on them all the time!

However, sometimes you want to show off your expertise to your people and you can use email to help them understand why you and your business and no one else’s locally.

This is one way to stand out.

Highlight products if you sell things in a physical shop.
Host workshops around your area of expertise and invite others to come.
Host an interview series of other local business owners to discuss a topic in the community and how you can solve it, and invite others to watch.
Show the behind the scenes of how you create, invent or talk about your business. Highlight what makes you different.

Just recording this episode has my wheel spinning again on how to utilize email even more in my own community — and I hope it’s doing the same for you.

View Details

Growing your email list can be crazy lucrative.

Or crazy hard.

And sometimes both.

You’ve heard a million times to “grow your email list” but what does that actually mean?

Today we’re going to dive into 13 ways to grow your email list (that you may not have thought of yet, and certainly haven’t tried).

Do a giveaway/participate in a giveaway I don’t know why this one came to mind first, but likely because I participated in one this fall and loved it! Giveaways are a ton of work if you’re the one hosting it — but the reward pays off when you get to go in front of everyone else’s audience and be the expert.

As a presenter in a giveaway, you get access to an audience you’ve never seen before and if you get your message in alignment with who you’re in front of, the opt-in rate will be astronomical.

I launched my Local Marketing Boss Guide — which you can snag for yourself for free at askmallory.com to a group of online business owners from all over the world. Despite my topic seeming like it wouldn’t mesh — I know entrepreneurs are out there in the online space wondering how to get clients in their own backyard and that opt-in is STILL performing at 98% optin rate — which is crazy good.

Create a freebie/optin This one feels really obvious — except it’s often overlooked because you have no idea either what to put out there that might actually attract ideal clients vs anyone. Freebies get a bad rap for being noise — but I love them. They allow you to introduce yourself, test a piece of your content out, take your lead further into the nurture journey and it costs nothing!
Create a free report/education Yes, this technically is an optin, but the reason it gets its own special category is that it attracts a different type of audience and buyer when you’re creating reports and or educating. Reports carry weight, allow you to do polling and research, often have stats and case studies and are REALLY juice for getting people to opt-in…. that is again IF you are creating something your ideal person really needs/wants.

This type of option is mostly used in tech and educational sectors, as well as stuffy corporate, so you can take the idea and make it stand out if you’re in a different market.

Ask people to join your community/group I love this one! And for good reason. Women who join the #GirlBoss Club not only are amazing but exactly who I’m trying to help grow a business. Despite being on technology all the time, we are a disconnected people and we all crave community. Creating a community, whether that’s on a social platform or in real life is a great way to grow your email list. People who join your community get to know you even faster than those on your list — so when they join, it’s like lighting a match. They begin to show up more in the community and open emails more and respond. We all want these types of people on our lists.
Create a special deal/offer/coupon This works for any type of business, but especially brick and mortar stores. People like to shop local if they’re already out, and they will make an extra effort if they have a coupon or special offer that allows them to get something at a reduced rate or for free. In other words, it’s the catalyst for bringing people to your storefront — which allows you to make a sale — not just gain a new subscriber.
Invite people to get an advance notification on an event Exclusivity is a powerful tool that can be used to inspire people to take action. And as you may have noticed, that’s a lot of what we’re trying to do with growing an email list. We have to inspire them to sign up, click the button, enter their email, join the thing. It’s not a passive event — which makes it so valuable to your business.

When you can tease an event and get people to sign up for a waiting list or to be the first to know — they can’t resist. Not only does this allow you to pre-sell your idea for free, but it also gives you a list of people begging you to offer it to them.

Win-win!

Create content upgrades for your podcast, blog, and videos. Content upgrades are the things you’ll see at the end of blog posts, show notes and in the comments or last frame of a video that invite you to give your email address in exchange for something else related to what you’ve just consumed. Most of the time it’s another piece of content (sometimes the same format, but other times a guide, book, list, etc.) that you can download to help you even more than the topic you’ve just learned about.

Once you have someone consuming your content you MUST send them on to something else. Content upgrades allow you to give them an easy yes without showing them all your offers (or your only freebie offer) again and again.

Create pop-up forms on your website As annoying as they are — pop-ups work! Like really well. Even the most obnoxious ones you can never seem to get out of. Don’t be like them, but I would recommend you create a pop-up on your website, or at the very least and exit-intent pop up that shows up when they try to leave a page so you can capture their info before they are gone before.

From what we know about web traffic, you usually have 15 seconds or less to capture their attention. If they are consuming content, the length of time goes up, but after that, if you don’t capture their email, they usually never return. Isn’t that terribly sad?! Especially if you’ve run any kind of ads or promotions to get that traffic to your site!

Create landing pages for your freebies/content (not just popups) Pop up forms have their place for sure — but so do landing pages. A landing page is a page that houses a freebie that someone has to give their email address in exchange for it. What’s unique about landing pages is that is usually has a headline, graphic, a form of some kind, a call to action button and maybe a logo.

Some landing pages get a little fancier with more text. Or testimonials — but the important thing is that the navigation is missing so they can’t exit easily. The main goal is to get someone to convert on this page without getting bored and clicking somewhere else.

Get in front of other people’s audiences When I do strategy sessions with female business owners, one common question I ask over and over is “Whose audience can we borrow and get you in front of?” This could be someone’s Facebook or LinkedIn community, an email list, a live video, an actual location.

The point is to borrow other people’s social capital by letting them speak about you to their community so they are warmed up and excited about you.

When done well, this can explode a list’s growth because people are more likely to pause and pay attention when someone they know introduces them.

Share your freebies! You must spend 5 times more promoting a piece of content than just creating it. That number seems bonkers — but we spend so much time creating something that we forget that we need eyeballs on it to make it worth it. Make a plan every single day (that you work) to get your freebie, content upgrade, content, interview, etc — out to the world so more people know about it.

You can never over-promote yourself.

Sure you may annoy yourself — but the person who shows up the most wins the game.

Start pinning Pinterest is a big project goal for me in 2020 to leverage. I dabbled in it in 2019 but this year, we are doing it for real. Why? Because for my niche, Pinterest is a huge traffic source and one that’s only continuing to grow and evolve. Pinterest is like running cold ads to your freebies/optins (which you can totally do) without all the guesswork of audiences.

When you set up your content correctly, understand how keywords and group boards work, you’ll be able to harness so much more traffic and people to your list than you thought possible.

Add your link to your email signature This one is a tiny baby suggestion, but it gives me so much mileage. I make sure that anything someone can opt-in to is at the bottom of ALL of my email signatures. This includes my work and personal emails. You never know who may need you, know of someone, or have no idea you offered this. Make it easy for someone to click and join if they want to check you out.

View Details

Today’s landscape looks very different than a decade ago.

For so many entrepreneurs and small business owners, your biggest competition is no longer the other businesses who are similar to you.

It’s the Internet and it’s unstoppable.

Did you know that 88% of people who Google a local business will show up or interact with them in the next 24 hours?

Magic happens when you’re local to someone — it compels them to take action so much faster.

That means today not only do you need to stand out in a loud, crowded online space, but you also need to be known locally — because those buyers, when you connect with them, move so much faster, which will scale your business quick.

Today I want to get you all jazzed about what local marketing can do for your business.

And let me be very clear.

Local marketing is for almost every single business owner.

Especially the ones who listen to this podcast and that I work with. I personally have not met someone who wouldn’t win with local marketing, but I do know there are some business exceptions out there.

This is for if you live in a town and you only sell in that area — like a local business or brick and mortar.

Or if you are an online business and have never made it work or even tried local marketing.

Nearly 46% of all Google searches are seeking local information. This means that nearly half the world is looking for someone near them! This is amazing news for people who can be found locally. That’s you, by the way.
“Near me” or “close by” type searches grew by more than 900% over two years. YES. This is me. I let Google add this all the time to my searches. Why? Because we often feel we can trust something near us. Especially if we want to know if it exists or not.

Plus, we’re lazy. And we don’t want to go too far from our home or place of work.

72% of consumers that did a local search visited a store within five miles. This proves my point above. Your people are right around you in a very small radius. That means part of your local marketing strategy in 2020 should be getting to know your neighbors and community, well.
50% of small businesses don’t have a website. This one KILLS me. Absolutely. I spent many years, and actually do still build websites here and there for clients some, building sites and making over ugly ones.

That was over a decade ago.

And there are STILL people without websites.

I don’t care who you are or what you do.

Websites are crazy cheap to create your own. If nothing else put up a landing page with info and link to contact you and download a coupon code.

Of course, I would recommend working with a designer and marketer who can help you make a killer site that actually converts, but that’s level 2.

61% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site. This is a big ouch I see right now with most businesses. We KNOW we need to be mobile-friendly. We just don’t know how. Even big names and brands get this wrong still.

I almost would say to design for mobile before desktop — just because of how our world is searching, but that really depends on what your Google Analytics is telling you about where your website traffic is coming from.

And if you didn’t know it could do that, we need to chat. Actually, let’s make that an episode here soon.

Search result information will send 70% of consumers to a physical store This is amazing news for local brick and mortar businesses. And I use this term a lot. If you aren’t sure what I mean, I mean small businesses with a physical location.
You’ve already heard me tell you how many people are looking locally. The good news is that they’ll also travel to you and come to your store.
92% of searchers will pick businesses on the first page of local search results. This is where SEO comes into play. Yes, it’s that tricky backend side of marketing and tech wizardry that has us all scratching our heads and sometimes crying in a corner. This should be another episode to do soon.

We DO like to pick from the first page. I know that first hand. The good news is there are ways to help you get there (or you can do AdWords too!)

Almost 71% of small businesses do all of their own marketing in-house. But, according to Forbes, the small businesses that are happiest with their marketing performance hired outside agencies to handle it for them.

I just wanted to include this stat because it made me happy. I’m just surprised that 71% isn’t higher on how many businesses try to do all their marketing alone! Bottom line is, get some help, hint hint.

To help you really figure out what works and what doesn’t so you’re not wasting dollars and scaring yourself about how to grow.

80% of small businessesdon’t utilize content marketing. I’ve seen this one be true because especially when I’m auditing local businesses even in my own downtown, I ask what are you putting out into the world about what you do and they give me blank looks.

It’s never even crossed their mind to feature a product each week, or go live in front of their store, or talk about what they do in their community and share it on their Facebook page.

We’ve got to change this — because we are consumers — especially of content, and definitely of video.

Less than 30% of small businesses use website analytics, call tracking or coupon codes. And without knowing what’s working, it’s hard to craft a smart marketing plan. The geek in me is crying. But I also think this is why so many people think marketing doesn’t work for them. It’s because they have no idea what’ working or even what to watch to know. There are lots of episodes about marketing metrics in here. And if nothing else, shoot me an email because I promise I can tell you the exact metrics to start watching to know when to stop doing something or whether to invest more into it.
63.6 percent of consumers say they’re likely to check Google reviews before visiting a business. Ah, the power of reviews. They really, really, really do work. And for good reason. So please make sure you’re capturing them if you are LOCAL! (and always, but especially local) because they help how you show up in searches, they affect Google My Business and people will click on you over others if you have ratings.
The 4.2 -4.5 range even beats out a perfect 5 stars. DO you believe this one? I do. I think there’s a psychology behind it, although I don’t know for sure.

But I imagine the reason people go for less than perfect stars is that it feels more believable and they imagine there will be someone unhappy, but that it should be very, very small.

If you can’t tell by my energy level, this is exciting news. These are facts about who we are as a culture and how we find, relate and search out businesses around you, and I hope it lights a fire under you to make sure you figure out a local marketing plan in 2020.

If you want a guide that walks you through how to do just that, go to askmallory.com right this second and download my guide on
How to Build a Local Client Base & Show Up As the Local Go-To Expert, (Even if You Have an Online Business, No Idea Where to Start or A Lot of Local Competition)

View Details

January is the time of year when we figure out all the new things we want to accomplish in the new year, and I LOVE it. But it should also be a time to figure out all the things you really should STOP doing, like immediately. So I've had a bunch of downtime over the holidays to really figure out what's held me back and how to change it.

Stop being wishy-washy about my niche. I preach 100x on here to niche down.

I’ve known what I should niche down to for 6 months. I've dabbled in it — sat on it — been afraid to say it loudly. Enough. I want to be known for one thing and the thing I am hired for 90% of the time is how to get clients locally. So there. You heard it here first for reals. Watch for a big shift in messaging that's clearer and actionable, plus changes across my site and social.

Stop saying yes to everything. When I audited my year, I realized I said yes to every opportunity, client, offer, thing that I could — just in case It might lead to something. This sounds so dumb, but I ordered a "Make a Decision" note pad off Amazon from Knock-Knock. They have amazing, cheeky giant notepads on everything from meal planning, to grocery lists to brainstorming to love letters to you name it.. there’s something out there.

Anyways, I ordered this notepad to help make quicker decisions and realize what’s important — but also to filter through my big picture goals I’ve set for 5+ years too. Sometimes you just need to get out of your own way!

Here's a pic and link to this (I'm not an affiliate or anything!).

Make a Decision Pad from Knock-Knock on Amazon 3. Stop excusing my health away. In my FB group on 12/31, I posted how hard and amazing 2019 was. And it’s true for me, like so many of the women in my group — it was a doozy AND wonderful.

But one thing that I completely neglected until it was too late — is my health. I’m still dealing with blood tests and doctors on some things, but I let my drive to do better at work stop me from exercising and doing more for myself. My Dad and I signed up for a boot camp that starts this week and I’m already dying from the intro class that just tested our baseline. Wish me luck over the next eight weeks!

Stop dabbling in new things. Part of a marketer’s job is to know the trends and see what’s working and how, which is why it’s so fun.

But looking back at everything I worked on this year, it's still chasing shiny object syndrome. And while tools change, I KNOW the rules of marketing and if something is legit or not without evening trying it. So I need to stick to what I know and love, which means I’m going deep on what’s already working and what I’ve invested in — which is still Facebook for me, not it’s not dying and Podcasting.

Stop taking responsibility for my client’s decisions and taking action for them. A dear friend and colleague, Deborah Ager, who was on the podcast for Linkedin this fall, wrote in an email that you’ll always run into problems in your business and likely life if you take action for your clients, instead of letting them take action.

I immediately wrote back to her how much I loved to ponder this, which then set me off on a course for how to inspire them to take the action instead of fret over taking the action for them so they actually get results.

If people are paying you 1:1 that’s one thing. But if you’re not doing done-for-you work… you’re handicapping your people to fly with wings clipped.

Stop putting work over fun. You’ll see a theme in this list, but I realized that while I do still have a lot of fun — I do allow work to make more decisions about my actions than I like, in hindsight.

So that means I’m setting harder time boundaries, looking into getting back into watercolor painting, tracking the books I’ve read, taking walks with friends and scheduling a monthly girls night with my friends — those things matter too.

Shut things down faster that isn’t working. Ooh this is a good one. And I bet I’m not the only one that needs this on their stop doing list. I LOVE trying new things. And turning what I want to do personally into something for my business. It’s why I have so many communities around me, because I want to surround myself with others who want to do the same things. But my sense of duty and seeing-things-through sometimes derails me because I hang on for dear life to things that are not taking off.

Like the #girlboss book club. Ugh. This pains me to say it, but I’m shutting it down in 2020.

While I LOVED the books, and I loved reading them, and hundreds of you signed up for the book club. No one participated. Like two people all year in the club actually showed up for the club part. 😂

No one responded to emails about the books when I sent synopsis or questions.

Nada.

Out of hundreds of people, but y’all keep signing up.

Does it mean I won’t do a book club? Of course not. My goal is to read more than 100 books and I’m already at 4.

But I don’t need to turn it into a business thing, even if I know SO many of you love it. It’s not worth the hassle of planning and reading and writing and scheduling if it’s not bringing me immense joy and or community.

Stop staying superficial. Having an online business means people see what you want them to see — or a random curated version when they tune in. I don’t do good with fake-ness.

Of any kind.

So my goal is to be real. honest. more behind the scenes and thoughts and not curated everything.

Also to do more meet ups, more real conversations, more 15-min chats to understand who listens to the podcast, who signs up for things, who is joining my list or attending my retreats and workshops.

I love connecting, and it’s what I’m investing more of.

Stop going to events unless they tie to goals Ooh this one sounded horrible to write out, but I’m being honest.

I love to travel and learn and meet people and rub elbows with big wigs like the rest of us.

But I’m realizing that unless said event, workshop, conference, retreat, etc. has a direct impact on my bottom line either in the people I connect with, the training I receive or the ideas I generate, then I don’t need to do it. It’s such a time and dollar cost that to me, isn’t always worth it.

Stop being so nice. If people describe me they’d say three things: she’s so short, and bubbly and nice.

Goodbye, Mr. nice guy.

If you’ve ever stretched your policies one or two times to be nice.

Or changed what you offer.

Or created something new for someone who didn’t want to pay for what you normally sell…

You know the rule. It 99.9% of the time bites you in the butt.

You’d think I’d know this by my third year of business.

Instead I have a sticky-note on my laptop that says No. More Mr Nice Guy.

Not because I don’t want to help others out and be super accommodating and make sure every single woman I meet can expansively grow their business and make revenue that changes their lives.

But because it usually costs me more.

Time. Stress. Money. Headaches.

And I don’t need that in 2020.

I don’t know about you, but I am THRILLED for 2020 and everything this new decade brings.

Three more things you should know about 2020: -
#1: The podcast is moving to MONDAYS next week.
Woot Woot. I’m excited about talking in your ear on another day — and it also gives me the space to do some more things with our topics inside the Girlboss Club.

#2: We are going to be running live challenges this year that corresponds to the podcast topics within the #GirlBoss Club, so you actually take action on the big things we're talking about. Make sure you join the free club NOW if you aren't already a member.

#3: The podcast is niching down to local marketing.
It’s possible it could change names over this next year — but for now, expect to hear the same amazing marketing techniques, experts and strategy sessions that you love — just with a firm look at how to do them locally like building an email list, getting more clients, traffic, creating content that attracts people and dollars, systems, how to grow, how to launch a product, service or something new, sales and more!

View Details

Can you believe that 2020 is literally around the corner and in six days we’re going to jump into a new year and a new decade?

Now is the time of year where you’re probably going to get tired of hearing about the new you, new choices, brand new start and all those wonderful cliches about January starting.

But to be honest, it’s true. And I love this time of year because it does allow me to wipe the slate clean, start all over, start fresh, and really just take a deep breath, you know, aside from all the things that happened in 2019, even if 2019 was amazing.

There’s something about thinking about what possibilities exist for me in 2020.

So, what I want to walk you through today is how to map out your 2020 marketing plan in a weekend. Actually, probably in a couple of hours, to be honest.

For all my people who aren’t on vacation and are figuring out this weird and funky time between Christmas and New Year’s… it really is a great place for you to kind of hunker down, write out your thoughts and plan for what you want to happen next year.

I want to teach you a simple framework to really get a glance and a quick filter of:

– Where are you going?

– How are you going to get there?

– What are the tasks you need to happen?

– And how do you stay really laser-focused?

If you listened last week to the episode where I talk about “Why Is No One Buying My Stuff” I mentioned at the end, the quote by Brendan Burchard that I heard at the Influencer Conference in San Diego this fall, where he said,

“Your randomness is stealing from your greatness.”

Brendon Burchard

Ah, that was such a dagger to me because, like so many of you, the shiny object syndrome is a real thing. And I can jump around from thing to thing so much.

It’s why I put so much emphasis and believe in the power of focusing and streamlining your efforts because you really are going to see so much more growth that way.

So that’s what this whole system is kind of set up to be.

Now the backstory behind this actually, of how I came to is to teach people this system and walk them through it is because I’ve been doing this all year going through a process with my church.

I’ve been on the vision team with the church since it’s a new church plant of figuring out where are we going, what are we doing?

You know, we don’t want to be just like everybody or the church down the street, right? So what does that look like for us?

It was so interesting because the experience we walked through borrowed so many principles from business and corporate and kind of put them in a new light that I was like, “Oh, I am so adapting this for all of my clients because it’s such a great and simple and different way.”

Now, if you have listened to the podcast for any length of time, you know, last year, I did a whole month of episodes on the #Goal Crushing System, which I still also use; but I love teaching people how to really look at their businesses, and I don’t believe that one method fits all.

So some of you are going to latch on to this and run with it this weekend. And some of you are like, Oh, I kind of wanna go back to the goal crushing one. That’s totally fine.

If you’re actually going to sit down and do this, make sure you have your calendar out because I want you to be able to look back at 2019 and see all the things you worked on.

Make sure you have access to your social media. I want you to have paper and pen where you can write down Yes, I know, we’re so digital, you can type and write really fast.

Okay, if you have an iPad, an Apple Pencil like I do, you can do that as well. But there’s something magical that happens when you put pen to paper or pencil tablet, where you can write it out. It just really makes things stick and kind of come to life for you in a way that doesn’t happen when we’re kind of robotically typing.

Click here to snag my bonus download of my actual worksheets that I took my clients through at my retreat this fall at the beach. Below is a sneak peek of 4 of the 12 sheets inside!

A few pages from inside the 2020 Marketing Planner Workbook you can download by clicking. https://malloryschlabach.com/2020plan For this process to work, we are going to go through three kinds of exercises.

Instructions for drawing this sheet:

If you didn’t grab the worksheets from the download, create three columns on a piece of paper, and then draw five lines across these columns in rows. We’re drawing a pretty chart here.

Evaluate the Backbone of Your Business This is where you’re going to evaluate your visibility, your clarity, the processes you have in your business, the people in your business and the tech. These are all things that are happening more behind the scenes, as opposed to like active marketing things. But they’re going to be really important and helping you figure out how to move your business along so that it can support the growth that you want to have in 2020.

The columns are going to be labeled: what’s going right, what went wrong and what’s missing?

We’re looking at your brand as a whole and asking the questions we usually don’t stop to evaluate on: What’s really working well, or what do you love?

You’re going to ask yourself this about each row, such as “What’s awesome about your visibility?”
And what are you really, really clear on?
What processes are just so streamlined?
Who are the people that are awesome? And when I say people, this came up at the retreat as well, asking, “what exactly do you mean?” It could mean anything from who are the people on your team or it could mean the people who are supporting you, or it could mean people like the actual leads coming in.

(Your answer can be a combination of all three of those, but I want you to take note of the people because that’s going to help you figure out you know, some other things when we get to exercise two and three. * And then lastly, like what’s working really well in your tech, whether that’s a software or a platform or some kind of connection or integration you have working really well?

It’s always really good to just make note of what’s actually working so we don’t change something that was working well.

The middle column is “What’s not working? What’s wrong? Or what is something I really need to make sure happens in 2020?”

Ask yourself these questions for: Where are you not being visible? And what’s not very obvious, or very clear? You’ll know because you’ll answer in your head: “I really need to fix that, or I need to talk about it differently or I need to word different or I need to change my website.”

Whatever it is, figure out what needs to be more clear.

What processes are broken? What’s just not working well because things are falling through the cracks?

What’s wrong with people? Are you attracting the wrong type of people? Do you have someone in your business who’s slowing you down to you need to bring someone new onboard?

And what tech is not working? What do you need to upgrade or change?

For the last column, think about What’s missing? This is where ideas for growth happen based on how you answer the questions for what’s right and what’s wrong for each category, you’ll know exactly what to create, change, add, etc. So this last question is a lot easier to answer because you can see where the gaps are.

You’ve just walked through the first step in the exercise by looking behind the scenes, to see the backbone of your business that makes things run and see how it worked this year. If you don’t have these five things working, it’s going to be really hard to sustain any kind of growth in 2020.

Create Tangible Ideas For What 2020 Should Look Like The next step to map out your 2020 Marketing Plan is to start to put some depth behind what needs to happen next year. We are getting a little bit more focused with each part of this exercise so we can map everything out. But it’s hard to plan your marketing if you don’t see your business holistically and look at the big picture of your business.

Instructions for drawing this sheet:

So if you didn’t grab the worksheet download and are drawing this out as we go, take out a sheet of paper and draw three columns.

In the first column, the left column, I want you to write “Where are you now?”

In the second column, the middle, I want you to write, “Where are you going?”

And in the third column on the right, I want you to write, “How will you get there?”

This is where I want you to brainstorm ideas.

Where Are You Right Now? Now, this is also where your calendar is going to come into play a bit too, because the first column “Where are you now?” you can look back at the chart you just made and write down some of the same answers. This column is just a list of facts.

For example, like, I’ve been in business, X number of years, I have this many clients, I made this much in revenue. This was the most popular product sold. All of those things are actual facts.

Another way to think about this question to ask yourself: “If someone could take a snapshot of your business, what would they see?”

They can see this they can see what’s working and what’s not working. They can see that you went to X amount of networking events, or you traveled to this conference, or you spent X amount of time doing blank, right?

So I want you to look through your calendar, whether it’s paper or digital and write down the things that you did, the things you worked on, what you spent time on, like, just tally it up.

It’s going to be really eye-opening. And I promise you, it’s going to help you get a lot of clarity around what not to do and what to do in 2020.

One thing that might help is to warn you, don’t put judgment on the statements you write. They are neither good nor bad. Just write them all out. That’s the first step.

Where Are You Going? Next, write out, “Where are you going?”

If you are a dreamer, this section is going to be easy because you can envision exactly where to go next.

If this doesn’t describe you and you like to think linearly, you’ll want to go line by line down your column and answer where are you going, based on your “where are you now” answer.

So for example, if you said I had X amount of clients in 2019, then where you’re going is that you want to have z amount of clients in 2020, right? You can just literally go line by line and say either where are you going? or what do you want to do differently? or what do you want to do better?

Or where are you going doesn’t have to be a numerical goal It could be: “I’m going to stop going to this,” or “I’m going to only go to these events,” or “I’m going to travel only within 50 miles” or “I’m going to only go networking once a month, as opposed to every day.” You’re going to start to see immediately what you want to do differently in 2020.

So make sure you do the first column first or you’re going to be writing pie in the sky ideas, which are never helpful.

How Will You Get There?

Now for the third column, we’re answering “How will you get there?”

This is where my favorite part is because it’s the strategy piece.

How are you going to do the things in the middle column and make things work? This is also where you look back on your first chart of what’s right, wrong and missing and say, okay, like, how do I fix those things? Like how do i do more? What’s right? How do I fix what’s wrong? And how do I add What’s missing?

I want you to just list everything out. Again, don’t judge yourself. Don’t filter yourself. But really think about How ARE you going to get there? Where exactly do you want to go?

So for example, if I were to say “I have been in business X amount of years and I want to be in business more than 10. Obviously, this is what I want to do forever, like, how am I going to get there?”

Well, to stay in business a long time, I know I’ve got to have consistent action, like actually be doing things and I got to make X amount of money, or continue to make money like that’s just an easy one. That’s not even like a task.

But we’re going to be able to break that down into what you actually do in a second.

Another example is if you wrote: “I want to have X amount of clients, Or I want to have three times the amount of my clients next year,” how DO you get there? What’s the first place you could start?

You could break it down by the amount of things/programs/products/courses, etc. you need to sell and how many it would take, and now we could break that down by quarter or month in the next part and start fleshing out how to market that and when.

Another example is if you want to become a speaker and this year you were asked to speak once, but in 2020 you want to somewhere every month and maybe even get paid?

You probably should write down to apply for speaking things or practice speaking more or meet with people who need events. All of those could be things that fall into that category.

So I want you to go through and look at what you’ve written down for “Where are you going?”, then go across the columns to figure out “If I want to do this thing, then how do I get there? What is it going to take to get there?”

2020 One-Sheet Plan It’s time to take out another sheet of paper. So up to this point, we’re at three sheets of paper if you’re drawing it out as you read. (or you can grab the worksheets here)

Instructions for drawing this sheet:

I want you to create one long row across the whole page on top. Then create a second row and split it into four columns. Then create a third row underneath that’s all the way across (just like row one), and then create the fourth row on the bottom and split that up into four columns as well. (like row 2).

We call this the 1-4-1-4 and it’s going to be your one-page action plan, where at a glance, you can see what the things you’re supposed to be focusing on in 2020. It creates a filter of what you said you want to be focusing on and it helps take away the randomness.

This is why I love this framework so much because it gives so much clarity quickly. Instead of having 900 things to do, like you might feel like you’ve created on your “How do I get here” column, we’re going to actually break it down into when are you going to do them so you can actually figure out what’s feasible to accomplish in 2020.

Okay, so looking at your chart, let’s put labels on it.

Your very top row is going to be your five-plus year row and what’s happening in the next five or more years.
Your second column, the first one that has four blocks is going to be labeled 2-3 years. And what we’ll add here are the things that are probably going to happen in the next two to three years because it’s going to take that long to get really good or to accomplish that thing.
The third row is our second really long one. This one is labeled 1 year. In this row, we are asking: “Overall, what’s the big thing we’re going to focus on for 2020?” This is the thing that we’re consistently going to be working on throughout the entire year.
And then the bottom row becomes your 90-day plan. In this row, we are figuring out what we can only focus on four things each quarter.

To fill in this 2020 One-Page Plan, you need to look back at your “How will I get there” column and go line by line and write how long you think it would take to make this happen?

For example, you’re going to see a big shift for me in my messaging and how I talk about things in 2020 to be really focused on local marketing. Why? One because I know it inside and out and almost every single one of my clients are focusing on their local market. And two because nobody talks about it. Nobody is talking about how to do marketing well in a local market, or how to take online strategies and use them online, or how to take an online business and teach them how to also get local clients.

Nobody talks about this stuff, so you’re going to see my messages start to change in 2020. Because my five-year plus goal is that I want to become well known for local marketing. Well, for me, that’s probably going to be a thing that’s not going to take me 90 days, right? It’s probably not going to take me a year, it’s probably going to be something that’s going to take me a good two, three or more years to really feel like I am well known for local marketing, like that’s going to become my niche, my thing.

So that’s something I’m going to just automatically write a five beside because I know that’s more of like a five-year goal than a 90-day goal.

Go down your whole list like that and itemize off the things here. It doesn’t matter how many you have because you’re going to prioritize it. Once you actually see how many things you wrote down then that’s going to be really obvious of how much you can actually achieve.

You’re going to have at least 12 projects to work on during the quarter, a focus during the whole year that you’re going to be continually working at, and then you’re going to have some big-picture things you’re moving towards — so what’s really going to matter to you and what’s going to move the needle forward?

Once you put a time frame beside each one, you can start to plug it into your 1-4-1-
4.

The reason I love this one-pager is that every single week or month, once you have this filled out, you can look at it and say, “Have I knocked off any of these four things for my 90-day goals?” As you cross them off, you get to add a new one to your bottom row.

And of course, it goes without saying but for each 90-day project, you have to assign someone in charge of it and a deadline. If you are a solopreneur, then you’ll obviously be tackling it all, but if you have a team of freelancers, you can assign them projects too and use the 1-4-1-4 to keep everyone on track.

The magic of this process is that it allows you to think differently about your year than just straight up monetary goals. It really does look at it holistically, but also forces you to really prioritize and focus on what’s going to make a difference in your business, so that you’re not creating these really labor-intensive crazy goals that you’ll never achieve.

Creating Your Marketing Tasks + Plan Now it’s time to start fleshing out the timeline and tasks needed to accomplish what you’ve created on your 1-4-1-4. Here’s my example to walk you through the tactical side:

If I have a goal, like sales goal of I want to have X women in the mastermind, or X people joining the academy every month, or X strategy sessions happening, I know that I can break that down into sales goals by month.

This helps me know what I’m selling and promoting and when. Writing out numbers and how I typically sell into these programs helps me break down whether that means I should do quarterly or monthly or annual launches. Or do I just need to have more sales calls?

Then I can work backward to what I need to do to ramp up to a launch, or what events to attend to find dreamy women entrepreneurs I could talk to in person or on the phone so that I am doing the work that I know works well because of this process to hit the sales goals I’ve outlined I need to hit to reach my goals.

Well, then that becomes my marketing plan for this step because then I know when I should put these things on my calendar.

So to do this for yourself, go down your list and write down the tasks and actual work you have to do to accomplish it.

If I write “I want to become well known for local marketing locally,” then I know that one of my things should probably be to start creating some buzz around local marketing in my own community. So I’m going to do that with workshops.

So one of my things, honestly on my list of to do’s for 2020 is to hold quarterly workshops locally in my market for local business owners, because I can do that. I love the face to face thing. Maybe eventually I’ll bring them online too. But for right now, what’s one tiny segment of my list is to be known locally as a local marketing person.

Another example is you know one thing for me is I just love planning, but the downside is there are so many things that I know I want to get done. And I don’t always do them well. So I know I want to get as much as possible scheduled out and planned…. And if I don’t do it well personally, it’s what I need to hand over to a VA.

By figuring out my tasks and what it will actually take, helps me figure out who to hire in 2020 to do it better.

The other thing you need to do to finish your 2020 Marketing Plan is to make sure to write out the things that happen in your business automatically, like events you’re leading or attending, or workshops, or promotion weeks, vacation, etc. Put it all on a calendar.

For example, I know for my mastermind, I hold two retreats every year in the spring and one in the fall every six months that all my mastermind members get to come to for free. Sometimes, I open up the doors for other women to join us as well.

But I have to plug those into the calendar and figure out when I’m going to start talking about these if I’m going to invite others in or want to have all the spots filled by Mastermind members be the start of each retreat. Other questions I ask to flesh out my tasks are: “What are the big things that I want to do inside my Facebook group, the #GirlBoss club?

Mapping out your marketing plan last like this allows you to not only do the fun stuff that moves you forward but also still accomplish the daily work of being a business owner without forgetting to work ON your business.

View Details

Have you ever asked yourself, even aloud: “Why the heck is nobody buying my stuff? And what can I do about it instead?”

I love this question because it comes up so often with my clients because they are usually asking themselves something like: “What the heck do I do? Do I suck or is my offer horrible? What is going on?”

I know that if one person has asked me, then a million have thought it, so this is the perfect place to tackle it once and for all. Let me first preface where I'm going with this.

It doesn't matter whether you are a product business, a service business, an online business, brick and mortar, or a local business, all of you have probably experienced at some point where you put something out into the world and crickets happened.

What typically happens for most people is that they immediately try to pull it back, or try to erase it from the public’s eye and pretend it didn't happen because we automatically think we did something horribly wrong.

Like we just totally misread the market.

Our natural instinct is to shrink into ourselves and pull back the awesomeness that we JUST thought was so amazing because it didn't go the way we expected the first time or tenth time and we didn't have the result that we really wanted to have.

So automatically, it's horrible.

Does that pattern sound familiar?

First, let me make a promise to you: I promise that the two things we THINK are happening with our business are not actually happening, and what the real problems are instead.

The first thing that we usually think, and I've already mentioned it on here, but we usually think that what we've put out there is just horrible.

It's wrong. It was the wrong idea. It was the wrong thing.

So we automatically kind of start with that.

The second place we usually go if we have the guts to stand behind our offer, is to say to ourselves: “I know it's good. I know it's perfect for my people but something else is off.”

So then we usually go to our price. And we think I just need to totally rethink this price.

Usually we're trying to lower the price to something we think the market will support. It’s never the price!

And can I just normalize those two thoughts first? I just launched the Marketing Magic Academy again for the third time this year over Black Friday and even though I know the statistics of when launches purchases come in, I was STILL freaking out when the middle of the launch was crickets. AND I KNOW THIS STUFF!

Do you want to know what’s actually happening when something flops the first or tenth time around?

The first problem I notice when something doesn’t perform as expected, or hoped, when I look at my own behaviors and get the opportunity with my Mastermind and Academy members to peel back their business and look at their calendar and what they're focusing their time and energy on is:

We are 1,000% never focusing on the right things.

We're never focusing enough on the sales and marketing.

Remember, those are like my fun stepsisters who actually like each other.

Sales and Marketing go together in tandem. They always go side by side, but the majority of us kind of shrink away from both of them.

So many women paying attention right now would give me an amen if they're afraid of either sales and/or marketing, but do just really, really hope if they put something killer out there into the world that people would just automatically buy it. That's what we really often hope a lot of times.

And so when you're 1,000%, not focusing on sales and marketing (which are the two things that are going to actually help you make the money and bring in the revenue), then that's when we default back to we just we're just horrible at it.

Instead, we're just afraid to take the steps that are actually going to grow the business.

So look at what you need to change regarding your sales and marketing first. If someone's not buying your offer, we're going to say it's not your offer right now, we're gonna say it's not your price.

Instead, I want to give you some things to look at for how you're presenting it to the world that may help immediately without you having to create anything new or change anything up really, it's just a habit thing, and some different tasks to focus on instead.

So here are five better habits to create around sales and marketing that will help you sell more:

1. Stop trying to sell everything on social media and actually be social.

Now don't get me wrong, I DO want you to promote your stuff on social and try to sell it. It’s almost impossible to just put something onto the internet and then overnight, you're going to make six figures, yet this is a popular idea that if you put it out there, the money will immediately come.

I think it's slowly dying out, but it still has its grip on us where we just hope and pray that something magical we're just missing that silver bullet. We think we’re just missing that really amazing thing that's going to just take off and go.

And so if we just you know, shout about on social media a little bit more because that's where everybody seems to be making millions. They're like all over social right? Then that's the thing we need to do as well.

But instead, I want you to take a step back and really first evaluate.

How are you showing up on social media or whatever platform or platforms that you like to be present on?

I always like to say you need to humanize yourself and humanize your brand, right? People can't connect with just a brand, they connect with the person behind the brand and the story behind the brand. So if you are projecting yourself as this cold, sterile brand, where I have this amazing offer all the time, people don't see you and they can't connect with you.

And so what happens is: scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll.

So that's the first step is like, evaluate yourself on social and figure out how do you engage people with your offer in a way that humanizes your brand really well?

2. Obviously tell people how to buy, sign up and register. This one is really, really common. When I do strategy sessions and I do my homework before I hop on the call with you and I kind of go through and stock your stuff and take notes and things.

I almost always write every single time: “You don't talk about how to work with you or how to buy from you anywhere.” This is one huge tweak you could make.

It's just a simple wording and just teaching yourself to get into the habit is to actually tell people how to take that next step with you and what that next step what that next step might be.

So for example, if you're promoting something that's going to start with an opt-in, you need to talk about the opt-in like crazy, you need to talk about it all over the place, you need to tell people, click this link here, or you go to this website right here, or you click the button that's right above me right here. And that's going to let you opt-in. You just type in your name and your email...

You can be really, really explicit in your instructions because people need to know every micro-step to take. We like to think we're really complicated and complex people, but we're so basic! We need so much hand-holding and instruction happening.

So take a look at are you even telling people how they can work with you what you do. What The next step is how do they get started? Where would you recommend? Because again, we all like to kind of have the guide and the expert leading us along whatever it is we're doing.

If you're not the one that's telling them what to do and where to go, then they're just going to think you're cool person, but they're never going to see you as an authority and expert in whatever field you're doing.

This applies if you have a brick and mortar too. You don't have to be a coach or anything, people want to look up to you and do the thing that you recommend. Right? We like to get recommendations. That's why we like text, our friends, we're buying weird Amazon things like do you think this is a good idea? Or has anybody ever done this? Or have you tried this recipe?

We like to be told what to do by others; it affirms that we're making good decisions.

Okay. So help the people in your community know they're making a good decision by telling them Yes, it's really easy. All you have to do is do this, and do this and do this. Or if you want a strategy with me, you're just going to click this link. We're going to schedule right here and then we're going to hop on a 90-minute call you tell them the basic steps.

There's a whole framework kind of around this building that interest your website copy if you ever fall story brand by Donald Miller. It's that Popular, it's like it's so much a thing. So just make sure you're telling people how to work with you.

If you have an in person conversation and you're like, hey, there's this, you know, I know you want to buy socks, there's some socks right there. But you never say like, here's I can ring you out at the end. Like that could be a missed sale. It's that simple. So it's just getting familiar and using the language to tell people, what's the next thing to do.

3. Follow up like it's your job because seriously, it is your job. Have you ever heard the phrase the fortune is in the follow up?

It is so is in the follow up. So much so, that I have spent the last two weeks working on a 365 day follow up system for a big client, because they know how much the fortune is in the follow up and they need a systematic way to make sure they're getting all the touch points in until they close that deal.

So if that puts it in perspective, I've been spending weeks for one client on building automations, creating videos, creating crazy graphics for stuff, scripts for things all because they know the fortunes in the follow-up.

When you think about your own follow-up, what is something that you can do?

What is something that you can actually follow?

Do you follow up more than one time? Most of us follow up once, maybe twice, and then we're like, oh, they didn't really want to talk to us anymore.

That's so not the case!

If you think about yourself, like me, I actually really appreciate all the follow up, even if I keep forgetting to do the thing you keep telling me to do, because I just keep forgetting to the thing you're telling me to do right?

Back to we're really basic people. And so we just need to be reminded over and over again, and don't take it personally, if someone does not immediately respond.

That's why they're saying you need to have up to 50 touch points with people before they actually connect with you as a brand, which is mind-boggling. So make a plan just to follow up with people. Some people just take a lot longer for you to nurture them and that's okay. But if you're not following up, you're probably missing out on 80% of your sales. Not even joking, that's a legit statistic, especially in the sales world. If you hear from the huge sales gurus, 80% of your stuff's going to come after about the seventh follow up and beyond.

So look at your follow up system because no one buys because they just weren't followed up with enough.

Ask for the sale.

This kind of ties back into number two, but you actually have to ask people for the sale.

This one can feel really, really scary if like at the beginning when I talked about sales and marketing are really terrifying. Because if you're not comfortable with sales, you're also probably not comfortable with actually asking for the sale because there's going to be weird energy between how you exchange your gifts and services and products for what you do for their money. And it's gonna feel like an off thing.

So what I want you to do instead is think about how can you ask them?

If you don't ask, they can't say yes, so I want you to brainstorm ways to get really comfortable with asking for the sale.

An example could be: Do you have enough information to make a decision?

Someone who is amazing at asking really, really great follow up questions is Renee Hribar, she's my coach. She's amazing as all things sales. If you suck at sales or terrified of sales, or you have no idea where to start, I'm going to tell you to go follow her right this second. Look at the show notes and click to find her.

But it all starts with asking for the sale. The whole gist of this is really you can't be passive about promoting your business. Which leads me to the fifth one.

Promote, promote, promote, promote, promote, like crazy.

Again, like it's your job because it is, but it's really, really easy to shy away from promoting because we kind of feel like weird and like we're putting ourselves out there and then we annoy ourselves.

So much so that we forget to tell the world about how awesome and all the great things that we're doing because we just like oh, I talked about that yesterday like that feels we're doing it again today.

Can I just give you a few stats really quick to kind of help you fill it in here? Okay, first: If you're on social and you're trying to post stuff, the shelf life will call the shelf life of how fast people are going through things.

For Facebook and Instagram, posts are getting seen between three hours or less. So if you post something, three hours later, nobody's seen it. Nobody! because nobody's going to be scrolling back to look at it again. That's how fast things are moving on those platforms.

LinkedIn is moving way slower. I mean, honestly, you could post something and like four days later, it's still there, which is amazing. That's why people are jumping over to LinkedIn, for that for that world.

But that's how fast it's moving. So if you think about that, in terms of how often you're promoting yourself, if you're putting something out there one time a day, you're getting three hours worth of visibility, and that's it on that thing. And then you're like, well, that did a great job put it out there today.

So I'm not telling you to like over exhaust yourself, but I'm just telling you, you cannot over-promote yourself enough.

The person who wins the game and this marketing visibility world is the person who gets seen the most. Honestly, it's not even the person is the best product, the lowest price, the highest price. The best referrals is the person who gets seen the most, which can be a little bit sobering.

So when you think back on, okay, that last thing you put out there and you're like, ah, nobody's buying from me, the reason they're not buying from you, right? It's not because your stuff sucks, it's actually probably pretty amazing.

Just not enough people know about it, right?

You're invisible, your offer is invisible. You just need to talk about it more, follow up, ask for the sale, be super social.

These are all things that are really easy to do that take just a little bit of a habit and a mindset change, you're gonna have to think about it differently. But now that you're aware of it, I promise you the next thing that you launch or sell or promote is going to be amazing. It really is.

If you even just work on one of these things to start, you're going to see a dramatic result in your sales, your promotion, whatever the thing is your opt in, you're trying to get into grow your email list. It doesn't have to be sales. That's just what I gravitate towards. Because if you don't have sales, you don't have a business. But I digress.

These five things we just talked about today, I am assigning them to you for homework. Yes! I'm assigning you something so you can figure out what can you do differently in your own business.

Pick the one that feels like the easiest to change right now because success loves speed.

So go do it. Go take some massive action to one of these tiny tweaks and I promise you're going to see a huge result.

View Details

What’s the most overlooked market of most online businesses?

Their local market.

That’s why today’s episode was so fun to do with Jessica Skelton, a WordPress website designer who is trying to gain more traction in her local community.

Jessica has never tried to pitch her much-needed services in her local market so this week’s strategy session dives into ideas for how she, as a self-proclaimed introvert, can position herself in a local market, even when she’s always focused on online businesses.

From ideas of how to get her name out in the community to how to use her local network to help her get started, we talk through how to make what she does stand out in a community where most local businesses are used to a traditional agency model and pricing.

We also chat about building relationships with other small business owners in your community and making sure your friends and family are aware of what you do so they can be your biggest allies in finding business.

We talk about:

How Jessica helps clients as a WordPress web designer
What type of clients Jessica typically works with
The problems that clients run into before finding Jessica
Where Jessica finds her clients right now
Jessica’s local market and examining opportunities in her area
Simple ways to create an introduction that shows your expertise without expectations
Building relationships with other small business owners
Positioning yourself in a different way than agencies
Getting people in your community to support you and refer you to others
Educating potential clients about using and converting to WordPress
Showing up to local groups for networking opportunities

About Jessica Skelton:

Hi! I'm Jessica Skelton - WordPress Website Designer and Professional Toddler Wrangler! I live in a rural town Missouri with my soon-to-be husband, two-year-old son, and our big 90-lb lap dog. When I'm not spending time with my family or soaking up sweet seconds of alone time in my car with a coffee, you can find me diving head-first into work, building beautiful, functional, and strategic WordPress websites for my clients!

Connect with Jessica:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | 10-Minute Website Scorecard

Quotes:

“I help female entrepreneurs go from anxious to confident in their online presence.” - Jessica Skelton “You could paint the picture of why you’re different from agencies, which will be a big deal in local markets as well.” - Mallory Schlabach

“When you can show a little tiny sliver of what you can do, it makes people notice and pay attention.” - Mallory Schlabach

Resources: Local Marketing Boss: How Anyone Can Build a Local Client Base

View Details

Felicia is the worst.

She gets in my head, shoots down all my ideas and leaves me feeling horrible every single time.

No, you’re not flashing back to middle school with me.

This is the mean girl in my head.

I’ve had to finally name her so I could tell her to pipe down.

It’s funny how entrepreneurship brings out internal things you never knew were there.

Have you ever dealt with that voice inside your head that has told you that you “can’t” do something? I feel like we’ve all dealt with this at some point in our lives, which is why I HAD to bring on today’s guest, my friend, Joanna Ziemlewski. Joanna is a breakthrough coach that helps people to overcome their limiting beliefs and transform their lives.

So many women I meet run into this tiny seed of doubt in their brains when they create a business, and it holds them back from being truly successful.

On this podcast, we dive into how being an introvert can be an advantage, why you need to take an inventory of your skills and how Joanna helps clients to overcome their imposter syndrome.

If you’ve ever felt the need to change your mindset and rewire your brain so you can up-level your life and business then today’s episode is for you.

We talk about:

How Joanna and Mallory met each other
What Joanna does and how being an introvert is an advantage in business
How to know the difference between imposter syndrome, action problems or skill set problems
Taking an inventory of your skills
How your drive and mindset can help you build the skills you need
What imposter syndrome is
How Joanna helps clients by helping them to identify who they believe they are
How certain events in your childhood creates patterns in your life
Rewiring ourselves to up-level in our lives as we grow and want to do new things
Adjusting your environment to
What clients need to believe to overcome imposter syndrome
Allowing discomfort to work its way through when going after a big goal
Therapeutic and healing ways of releasing energy
Joanna’s rule for failures
How the universe will test you when you want to up-level
How Joanna got started in her business after tragically losing her sister
Healing what’s going on at the root and overcoming your past trauma

About Joanna Ziemlewski:

It’s based on my belief that there is nothing wrong with you. You are whole, you are complete, and we just need to integrate what you forgot back together.

Connect with Joanna:

Website | Instagram | Facebook | How To Transform Self Sabotage So You Can Create A Business You Love Download

View Details

Today’s guest has created the most genius business that every single woman needs. Jennifer Mackey-Mary, is a wardrobe stylist who helps women create easy, stylish wardrobes with her seasonal capsule guides.

I oohed and ahhed about them so much, that I received the Fall one and IT IS TO DIE FOR. You will want to run to her site and snag her yearly membership stat. It has made me feel so amazing about what I’m wearing and gave me a clear focus of what to pick up when I’m shopping.

Now, onto the episode. She has this seasonal digital product that she sells quarterly, and she runs a community and a podcast year-round. Her main question was how to grow what she’s doing better, using some of the strategies she’s already doing, and maybe to try something new.

Jennifer and I chat about why you should focus on the platforms you show up best on (instead of trying to put your hands in every basket), the importance of repurposing content that you’ve already created and how Jennifer navigates her email list when prepping for launches.

We talk about her opt-in strategies, what marketing strategies and platforms are working for her and what’s not, how she has built a community in her Facebook group and why you need to show people the human side of your business.

We talk about:

What Jennifer does as a wardrobe stylist
Why Jennifer moved her business online after moving across the country
Jennifer’s business model and how she works with clients
How clients find Jennifer online and the top platforms she uses for marketing
Knowing that social media isn’t always in our control
Jennifer’s opt-in strategy
The hardest part of social media for Jennifer
Why you should repurpose content you’ve already created
Not putting pressure on yourself to do all of the things
The process behind Jennifer’s affiliate program
What Jennifer does leading up to a launch
Getting people to commit during busy seasons
Building a community through her capsules
Why there aren’t any clothing deals on Black Friday
How Jennifer manages her email list and why she invested in a nurture sequence
Sharing value and stories to your email list to draw people into the human side of your business

About Jennifer Mackey-Mary:

Jennifer Mackey-Mary is a wardrobe stylist who’s on a mission to make style simple for women at every stage. Over the last 19 years, she’s helped thousands of women ditch their "closets full of nothing to wear" and create easy, stylish wardrobes. Jennifer is passionate about raising confident daughters, watching historical dramas on PBS, and getting every woman in America in a better bra.

Connect with Jennifer:

Quotes:

"I love style as a problem solver. I am not actually obsessed with clothes, I am obsessed with what clothes do for women." - Jennifer Mackey-Mary "In this age of the world going casual, we're cheating ourselves out of the mindset shift that happens when we get dressed with intention." - Jennifer Mackey-Mary "Women need to give themselves a break if they're not good at this - just pay someone who is." - Jennifer Mackey-Mary "I sell best when people connect to me." - Jennifer Mackey-Mary "I'd rather you do something really really really well and blow it out of the water than just doing everything else okay." - Mallory Schlabach About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

How can podcasting change your life?

The better question is how can it not?

While that feels slightly dramatic, today’s guest Angie Trueblood and I could have certainly made the case for it in this epic episode all about how to pitch and get visibility through podcasts.

Angie is a networking and visibility expert who helps entrepreneurs to craft their messages and pitch themselves to podcasts that will get them in front of their ideal audience.

Do you want to reach an even wider audience and get your message in front of more people?

Of course!

Then you’ll want to dive into this episode to hear all about how to find podcasts to pitch, getting clear on who you serve, doing your research and what metrics to look at after being a podcast guest.

Angie dives into everything you want to know about how to get on podcasts, why this is such a powerful marketing tool and how to authentically share what you do while providing value.

We talk about:

What Angie does for her clients and how she got started with this work
Why getting on podcasts is a powerful marketing medium
How much opportunity is available in the podcasting space
Taking your expertise and deciphering how to pitch to individual podcasts
Doing your research to decide if a podcast is worth moving forward on
What people struggle with when pitching themselves
How to find podcasts to be on and getting clear on who you serve
Looking at a combination of metrics to figure out how many engaged listeners they have
Why you should build relationships with podcast hosts you work with
Authentically sharing what you do while providing value
Using a call to action and reminding people to opt-in, join your email list, etc.
Metrics to look for when you’re trying to gage conversions, engagement, social growth or downloads

About Angie Trueblood:

As a networking and visibility expert who fiercely believes in the power of women stepping more fully into their gifts, Angie Trueblood knows that the only 'perfect pitch' is the one that leads with value and focuses on building a genuine connection. Whether she is teaching entrepreneurs how to pitch themselves or working behind the scenes to secure opportunities for them, Angie leverages her super-connector powers to grow businesses and build long-lasting relationships. When she's not working with her clients, she loves exploring Richmond, Virginia's parks and playgrounds with her two kiddos, checking out new restaurants with her hubs, and laughing about motherhood over cocktails with friends.

Connect with Angie:

Go Pitch Yourself Podcast | Facebook | Go Pitch Yourself Group | Instagram | Podcast Pitching Roadmap

Links:

Ep. 5 | Generating Leads through Podcast Interviews with Nikki Rausch

Pretty Links

View Details

Do you have an idea for your business but you just can’t seem to wrap your brain around how you’ll package it up for clients? Does the thought of marketing this new offer make you feel dizzy or uneasy?

Today I am joined by Rachel Bailey, a parenting specialist who helps families to improve their children’s behavior, resilence or confidence.

Rachel has been struggling to determine the best route for creating an online group program for her business so she can stop trading time for dollars in her one to one practice. But with running such a lucrative 1:1 business, her clients mostly want HER, so how do we introduce this group program in a way that makes it a no-brainer?

We dive into educating prospective clients, her current approach to creating content and my advice for including a call to action in her content. We also chat about creating a content bank to build a consistent marketing strategy and I share a few tips for how she can market her online group programs.

We talk about:

How Rachel became a parenting specialist
What Rachel does for clients and in her work
Her pricing structure for clients
Her goal for running groups for clients and moving her business mostly online
How clients find Rachel through word of mouth and speaking events
The power that Rachel sees in the group program
Issues that Rachel runs into
Bringing out the long game philosophy rather than the quick fix mentality
How to teach parents more about their time investments
Rachel’s approach to creating content
Figuring out how to offer her services in an online format
Creating a content bank to pull from to build consistency
Establishing a strong call to action in your content
Running testimonials as a part of your marketing strategy
Mallory’s advice for how Rachel can market her online groups

About Rachel Bailey:

Rachel Bailey is a Parenting Specialist who has been serving families for over a decade. Besides being a mother of two, she also has a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology a certification in Positive Discipline and has been an ADHD Coach, in-home mentor, and psychotherapist. Currently, Rachel provides tools to parents who have tried "all the things" to improve their kids' behavior, resilience, or confidence... but hasn't yet quite found the strategies that last. She is also committed to conquering the guilt and overwhelm that is associated with parenting today.

Connect with Rachel:

Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group | YouTube | Your Parenting Long Game Podcast

Quotes:

"I personally think groups are better. You get the same information but being with a group is incredibly powerful. You feel that you're not alone, you realize that other people are going through what you're going through." - Rachel Bailey "I think the benefit of the group is not only the pricing is lower. But you get to meet these other people and bond with them over something that most parents aren't talking about." - Rachel Bailey "Parents need to start seeing their kids’ behavior differently." - Rachel Bailey "When we shift how we see our kids’ behavior than we can handle it more effectively." - Rachel Bailey "Parents need to change how we treat ourselves." - Rachel Bailey "Teaching is my comfort zone, that's my problem is that marketing is not." - Rachel Bailey "There's something so magical that happens when people get in groups." - Mallory Schlabach About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

Are you running around trying to do all of the things for your business and feel like it's “too early” to hire?

You may be surprised at what delegating just a few tasks could do to help your business grow.

Today I am joined by my friend Amalie Shaffer, an integrator and project manager who helps business owners with systems and setting them up for success when building out a team.

She shares how you can decide which tasks to delegate and how having processes in place will make hiring a breeze!

If you’ve been feeling stuck working in your business instead of on your business, you may want to listen and think about it, it might be time to hire.

We talk about:

Amalie’s transition from the Navy to becoming an entrepreneur
How to know that it's time to start hiring in your business
Breaking down your tasks and categorizing them by your strengths and weaknesses
Understanding what you want to delegate first
Seeing hiring as an investment rather than an expense
Mallory’s first hire and how big of a relief it was for her
Aligning processes with your goals and strategies
Having processes in place to make hiring a smooth transition
Amalie’s recommendations for what to do before hiring
Deciding between who to hire and going with your gut
Mistakes to avoid when hiring for your team
What comes in her Hire Your First Contractor Bundle

About Amalie Shaffer:

After serving for nearly 7 years in the Navy, Amalie Shaffer transitioned to the Navy Reserves. From there, she transitioned right into entrepreneurship with a professional organizing business. After finding online resources to take her business skills digital, Amalie decided to shift gears and offer digital marketing services.

Amalie’s always had a serving heart- she’s offered her time to EMT services, senior dogs, and other forms of volunteerism. So, it made perfect sense to her to serve online entrepreneurs like you with her strategy and organization skills.

Now that she’s been an entrepreneur for several years and a master of chaos for a decade, she can quickly pinpoint the neglected systems and processes that are keeping you from diving into your own blue ocean and fulfilling your purpose.

With Amalie as your Integrator and project manager, you can be confident knowing your businesses will reach uncharted territories and break into new revenue streams with effective and efficient teams.

Connect with Amalie:

Quotes:

"Building plans is something I'm really good at, I have this ability to see the trees and the forest and down to the details." - Amalie Shaffer "If you start to feel like you need to hire someone, it's too late." - Amalie Shaffer "Take your hourly rate and multiply it by the time you spend doing these tasks that you don't like doing. Think about that and think about how much money you could make by delegating those tasks to someone that’s less expensive than what your hourly rate is." - Amalie Shaffer "I always recommend doing a trial." - Amalie Shaffer "At some point, the business owner needs to be looking forward but if you're managing the daily operations you can't look forward." - Amalie Shaffer "I always vouch for new people, everyone needs a yes at some point." - Amalie Shaffer About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

The lie we too often tell ourselves is that we are horrible at numbers.

And then we stick our head in the sand and do nothing but hope our numbers will work out in the end.

Most of us don’t have a business degree, we went into business because of something we love to do or are great at.

So when it comes to figuring out what the jumble of numbers are telling us, it is confusing and scary and we often are afraid of masking the wrong move.

Today’s guest is going to change all that.

Danielle Hayden and I talk about how to make tracking numbers fun and empowering, how to figure out what your KPIs are and how to start some healthy number habits for your business today.

If you’ve been needing to pay more attention to the numbers in your business, you’ll want to take a listen!

We talk about:

Danielle’s background in corporate accounting and why she is so passionate about numbers
Realizing that so many entrepreneurs needed a CFO and deciding to start her firm
Helping entrepreneurs to wrap their head around their numbers and using that to make business decisions
Her advice for those who don’t know where to start with their numbers
The reports that you should be looking at within your accounting system
Being strategic about business expenses that you could help come tax season
Why you need to pay yourself as an entrepreneur
How Danielle works with clients and when they come to her
Examples of client breakthroughs that she’s had

About Danielle Hayden:

Danielle Hayden is a reformed corporate CFO (chief financial officer) who is on a mission to help rule-breaking female entrepreneurs understand their numbers so they can gain the confidence needed to create sustainable profits. After spending 10+ years in the board room as a corporate finance officer, Danielle is now in her sweet spot as the co-owner of Kickstart Accounting, Inc. where she helps business owners with bookkeeping, financial analysis, and education and as the author of the Profit Planner book series. When Danielle isn’t crunching numbers on her clients’ behalf or crafting the next iteration of the Profit Planner, you can find her hanging with her two kids as she inspires them to lead their fullest lives or doing any, and almost every fitness-related activity ranging from Spartan races to pilates.

Connect with Guest:

Resources:
To snag Danielle’s book Foundations for 15% off, use the code:

Her second book released next week on Oct. 31. You can find out how to purchase it here.

View Details

When you think about big businesses such as Apple or Starbucks, you can immediately think about their logo, brand colors and exactly what it looks like.

Why wouldn’t you want that same brand recognition for your own business? Today I am joined by Susie Liberatore, the owner and art director of Visions2images Creative Services. She helps entrepreneurs nail down their digital and print branding to create cohesive branding.

We discuss why branding (like copy) needs to be consistent and repetitive. We also dive into why branding is about what connects with your audience and why you need to stand out to your target audience.

She shares about her creative process, how she works with clients and her favorite part about being a brand strategist.

We talk about:

What Susie does in her business and what she creates for clients
Why your branding needs to be consistent
How Susie’s branding process works with clients
Fine-tuning and bringing the logo and branding guide to life
Standing out and being memorable toward your target audience
Susie’s favorite part about what she does with clients

About Susie Liberatore:

Susie Liberatore is the owner, and art director, of Visions2images Creative Services. She helps established businesses grow their brand awareness by using digital marketing and professional branding techniques. With over ten years of agency and corporate experience, she brings businesses visions to life, while watching their return on investment increase.

Susie helps businesses grow their brand presence and connect with their target audience. For the last decade, she brings experience as a former art director in the corporate world bringing it to the businesses of the different online platforms.

Her fields of design expertise are branding development and social media marketing. She is the face and voice of Visions2images. Susie is an entrepreneur, she has several businesses and wears many hats for all of them. She has been able to help businesses thrive and grow with her help.

Connect with Susie:

Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook

Quotes:

"Essentially I make everything pretty for people, have it come together and make sure their branding is consistent and on point." - Susie Liberatore"When you talk about branding you have to make sure you have all of the same colors portrayed." - Susie Liberatore"Regardless of if it's $20 your investing or thousands, it doesn't matter at the end of the day - if you have that established, people will invest in you." - Susie Liberatore"I always tell people it's not about you, it's about your audience." - Susie Liberatore"It's okay to say the same thing over and over again about your business because you're going to get bored of it but people need to hear the consistency for the copy of your brand - and it's the same thing with the visual aspect." - Mallory Schlabach"Consistency and repetition feel really boring but they're the pillars of what you do whether it's branding, copy or anything." - Mallory Schlabach About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

LinkedIn was once just a tool for finding jobs in the corporate world. Not anymore!

This social network is quickly becoming a top resource for people to find and connect with amazing leads in their network.

Today’s guest, Deborah Ager, shares how she uses LinkedIn in a non-traditional way to find and connect with clients for her business where she helps people develop business-building books.

If you’ve ever wondered if you’re using LinkedIn to its full potential or if you’re curious about the book writing process, you’ll definitely want to hear this episode!

We talk about:

How Deborah got started with helping clients with their books
Deborah’s typical clients and what she does to help them
How Deborah uses LinkedIn to find clients and connect with them
Learning to interact with people on LinkedIn in a way that grows your business
Being open to experimenting with your online platforms
The process for helping her clients write their books
What mindset barriers her clients overcome
Creating a win-win-win solution for herself, clients and readers
Where clients meet her in the book writing process

About Deborah Ager:

As a 25-time+ book collaborator, Deborah Ager guides clients to create business-building books so they get more speaking engagements and sales and share their message more widely. Her clients like that she has 20+ years of experience in marketing because it helps them bake marketing into the book from the start. She's the founder of the Book Activation Method, her signature program, which combines her experience in book development, content strategy, and marketing.

Connect with Deborah:

Website | LinkedIn | 3 Secrets to Create a Book People Want to Read

Quotes:

"One of the most important things is finding out who you are writing to." - Deborah Ager "It's okay to feel weird. Just go ahead and feel weird. Feel uncomfortable. Feel self-doubt and then just go ahead and do it because each time you do it you're going to feel less strange and after a while, it will start to feel normal." - Deborah Ager "LinkedIn is just not a platform that you can just go on and post something and then never engage with other people, you could do it but then you'll just end up not getting much engagement back." - Deborah Ager "The projects I've worked on help women create secure financial futures." - Deborah Ager "I feel like LinkedIn is such a deep platform." - Deborah Ager "All sales and marketing come out of connections that we create with people, and those connections have to be genuine." - Deborah Ager "This is what I'm doing is helping people achieve that vision of becoming an author." - Deborah Ager About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

You know EXACTLY who your ideal client is, but sometimes you feel like you can’t quite reach them.

If you’ve ever felt like you can’t quite get your message in front of your ideal client then you’ll want to hear the tips shared on this episode.

On today's on-air strategy session, I spoke with Kristin LeAnn, a fine art southern wedding photographer here in North Carolina.

We spoke about her ideal client and why she loves working with southern brides. She shares how she’s used giveaways to lead people into her business and where she’s currently feeling stuck.

I shared a few of my best marketing practices that would help her to uplevel her business including how she could upsell her products, build relationships and partnerships with other local vendors and getting couples to commit to doing a wedding.

We talk about:

How Kristin got into wedding photography
Kristin’s ideal bride
Where she feels the most stuck at in her business
Using competitions to lead people to her business
Building out her pipeline for future weddings
Creating partnerships with other local wedding vendors
Using upselling techniques
How Kristin gets couples to commit to a wedding
How to go above and beyond for other vendors
Mallory’s advice for lead generation

From Kristin:

I'm Kristin LeAnn, a fine art southern wedding photographer based in Raleigh, North Carolina.

I am 30 years old and a native North Carolinian! I am an entrepreneur, artist, photographer, and designer. My obsession with art and everything creative means your session is truly exciting for me (and you!) Each session is personalized and designed with each individual in mind. While I strive to provide amazing portraits you will look back on for years to come, the most important thing is the experience.

My love for photography began when I received my first camera when I was a young child. I was OBSESSED with that blue Fisher-Price camera! My Papa was a huge influencer in my photography. I loved watching slides and looking through photos he took of my Nana. A part of them will live on forever in photographs, which is something I love about photography.

Connect with Kristin:

Website | Wedding Photography Instagram | Newborn Photography Instagram | Personal Instagram

View Details

You know EXACTLY who your ideal client is, but sometimes you feel like you can’t quite reach them.

If you’ve ever felt like you can’t quite get your message in front of your ideal client then you’ll want to hear the tips shared on this episode.

On today's on-air strategy session, I spoke with Kristin LeAnn, a fine art southern wedding photographer here in North Carolina.

We spoke about her ideal client and why she loves working with southern brides. She shares how she’s used giveaways to lead people into her business and where she’s currently feeling stuck.

We talk about:

How Kristin got into wedding photography
Kristin’s ideal bride
Where she feels the most stuck at in her business
Using competitions to lead people to her business
Building out her pipeline for future weddings
Creating partnerships with other local wedding vendors
Using upselling techniques
How Kristin gets couples to commit to a wedding
How to go above and beyond for other vendors
Mallory’s advice for lead generation

From Kristin:

I'm Kristin LeAnn, a fine art southern wedding photographer based in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Connect with Kristin:

Website | Wedding Photography Instagram | Newborn Photography Instagram | Personal Instagram

View Details

You know EXACTLY who your ideal client is, but sometimes you feel like you can’t quite reach them.

If you’ve ever felt like you can’t quite get your message in front of your ideal client then you’ll want to hear the tips shared on this episode.

On today's on-air strategy session, I spoke with Kristin LeAnn, a fine art southern wedding photographer here in North Carolina.

We spoke about her ideal client and why she loves working with southern brides. She shares how she’s used giveaways to lead people into her business and where she’s currently feeling stuck.

We talk about:

How Kristin got into wedding photography
Kristin’s ideal bride
Where she feels the most stuck at in her business
Using competitions to lead people to her business
Building out her pipeline for future weddings
Creating partnerships with other local wedding vendors
Using upselling techniques
How Kristin gets couples to commit to a wedding
How to go above and beyond for other vendors
Mallory’s advice for lead generation

From Kristin:

I'm Kristin LeAnn, a fine art southern wedding photographer based in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Connect with Kristin:

Website | Wedding Photography Instagram | Newborn Photography Instagram | Personal Instagram

View Details

Does someone locally do exactly what you do, or close enough to make you jelly and insecure? Don’t worry. We’re about to do something about that right now. This is part 2 in the Clients In Your Backyard series we’re doing right now on the podcast. Last week we talked about some ideas for how to start thinking locally.

Today we’re going to dive into some of big objections that people face or are afraid of when they think of local marketing.

Before I get started, let me just say if you don’t have a local business or want to reach a local market, this episode absolutely applies to you because let me guess - you too have competitors that you see and run into and probably drive you batty. Keep listening. This should help.

We’ve all run into some people who seem to do the exact thing we do and it irks us.

Not that we think we’re so special that we’re the only person in the world doing something, but because that fear rushes in that someone could possibly be better than us, or take our clients -- or the age-old fear even if we don’t usually talk about it: they’ll like us better.

When I polled the members of my #girlboss Facebook group, this was one of the big challenges a lot of businesses with a local presence face. So let’s talk about it.

Your competition is irrelevant.

Don’t flinch when I say it. It’s true -- even if hard to swallow.

In theory, it sounds so easy. Sure, Mallory -- just forget all about them and carry on.

Well, kinda.

Here’s how to tackle your competition head on and win.

There are two schools of thought, and sometimes we do both when dealing with our competitors.

1) Know what makes you different.

Is it your niche, your process, your framework, your timeline, your deliverables, your quality, your attention to detail -- they cannot be mirroring you, so what makes you different? Knowing this alone will give you buckets of confidence to stop worrying about the others.

2) Know what they’re doing and do it better.

This one is tricky because there is a fine line between following your competition and getting messed up in the head because of it or accidentally copying. Both are dangerous to a growing business.

What I mean by “Know what they’re doing and do it better” is -- how do they typically operate, serve customers, etc. -- and where are there gaps? There is usually so much opportunity to fill the gap and needs that it also makes your competition irrelevant.

3) Stop caring what they do

I recently counseled a client of mine to immediately stop following a main competitor on all channels for 60 days. While it’s good to know what they’re doing -- it’s also healthy to put blinders on if what they’re doing shakes your own confidence.

You know what you’re doing. You are more than qualified. You can get as many or more clients than them. The biggest difference? Time and confidence. Own what you do, and if it takes unfollowing them for 60 days or more, than do it.

4) Collaborate with them

This sounds crazy, but because I know that what you do and how you do is unique to you -- I also know that there is space in most niches for collaboration on projects, events, networking, referrals and so much more.

When you draw the line in the sand and see them as competition and someone to do battle with, it cuts out the collaborative part of doing business that could be even more lucrative than “winning.”

5) Don’t out-do them because you can.

There’s a time and a place for being more advanced and forward-thinking than your competitors. But being the frontrunner also means you teach them how to do what you’re doing well, and it leads to expensive campaigns, advertising venues you don’t want to go to battle in and spending your marketing dollars on things that don’t need spent - if you can avoid it.

Work smarter at how you promote yourself and get in front of clients, but don’t worry about beating them on all platforms at all times -- it creates more work for you than necessary, especially on local marketing, search and advertising.

6) It’s OK to feel sucker punched for a few minutes. Then adjust your crown and get to work.

We ALL and I mean ALL feel that slight flight of panic when we’re introduced to someone who appears to be our competitor or see someone doing that thing we were just planning on launching, or creating, or writing, or recording.

Feel the feeling, acknowledge it’s a fear, decide what to do about it, and then get to work on doing the things that grow your business, whether there’s 100 competitors at your door or one.

You are building an amazing business and can do this. 100%.

How I Work With Clients:

#GirlBoss Mastermind - 1:1 program provides coaching, accountability and proven strategies for helping you double your clients, get known locally and building a business you love.

I’m currently taking new members RIGHT NOW for the Mastermind. Connect with me on LinkedIn and tell me you heard me on the podcast, or let’s talk for 15 minutes about your business and if this is what you need to significantly grow over the next six months at https://malloryschlabach.com/connect

Marketing Strategy Sessions - 60-minute session where we deep dive into the steps to take immediately to find, attract, convert and nurture leads into customers.

Marketing Magic Academy - group experience on how to kick start your marketing even if you have no time, have tried everything and hate marketing that combines DIY lessons on everything you need to launch anything with live laser coaching and group workshops.

View Details

Do you get your customers locally?

Unless you’re a local small business, honestly, most people don't do it at all. But it's the fastest way to really grow and test out your business. And that’s why we’re talking all about how to get clients in your own backyard today.

So before we dive into some strategies to think about when diving into the local pool, I want to give you a few reasons why I love local marketing and growing your business locally so much.

Going local allows you to test the waters and see #1 if your offers are getting any bites #2 - if your messaging is attracting your true ideal clients.

I love to invite the clients that I work with to try this because it forces you to jump into your business with both feet and forces you to take action a whole lot faster than you would if you're like, “Well, let me build this funnel first, and create this opt in and then write the sequence and then do the job. That's about great and well. But if you don't even know IF works and if ONE person is interested, and you might be wasting a whole bunch of time and/or money.

#3 - It speeds up the know, like, trust factor. Being face to face and meeting someone is a huge differentiator you have someone right in front of you looking for your skill set versus searching online and googling and a million results come up and sorting through it for the next six months. When you are in person or in proximity to each other, you AND the potential customer decide in the first conversation if they like you, could they potentially hire you, and should they find out more.

How to get started with finding clients in your own backyard:

Okay, so first one is to collaborate with local businesses that have the same audiences but do different things.

This is exact same thing you would say to someone with an online business, right? Ask yourself questions like:
- Who would you collaborate with?

Who could you do something like a summit with, but locally?
Who could you either connect with or who can connect you to more ideal clients?

So think about local businesses that come to mind where you both serve the same type of audience or there's some kind of crossover, that's a great place to start.

Start connecting in places where can you find your ideal clients.

Ask yourself: Where can I find influencers in my city? Where can I find ideal clients? Those are the two places that I hang out: where influencers are or where my ideal peeps are.

So I either 1) create my own group or 2) go to networking groups where my ideal clients are.

A quote that keeps coming up lately for me that rings true for this episode is:
“Your net worth is your network… which is 100% accurate for local marketing.”

We all know we have friends and acquaintances locally who know everyone. You want to know these people. Become friends of them. Cheer them on. Get on their radar!

*Also, here’s permission for you that it doesn’t and won’t happen overnight, and that’s OK. Making these key connections and relationships takes time -- so know you’re doing it right if you’re building a real relationship.

One thing I know will come up in your heads if you’re introverted and/or hate mingling is: That sounds really really hard. I don’t know where or how to show up at an event with strangers.

First, pick an event you actually want to go to and talk to someone you would like to meet in person, like real life and then just be yourself and talk to people you would want to be friends with.

I think about it like this: I see that woman over there... Would I invite her over to my messy house so we could drink wine out of plastic cups? That's a good filter for me, because if I feel comfortable doing that, then I know she's likely not going to judge me and we both probably have some similar interests -- which are two stumbling blocks we often run into.

I love that I have the freedom and flexibility as an entrepreneur to not only work when and where I want, but with whomever I want to. I get to choose.

And so yeah, if I don't feel like that things are going well, or it's not resonating, or I don't like the person, I don't have to keep having the conversation. It’s OK to not follow up with someone. It’s OK to throw away their business card. Trust your gut.

Meeting people in person locally can be the start of a fruitful and exponentially charged business that skyrockets over time.

Get the word out in print -- either flyers or even consider postcards to your area.

Despite what people would have you believe, mailers are NOT dead.

You still get mail. I still get mail. We both probably look through it -- except for the giant fast food flyers that are 100x bigger than they should be and go straight to trash.

People still open mail and look at it -- so it’s a great visibility piece, especially if you have a local market. You can get super targeted on neighborhoods, zip codes, etc. so that your efforts go a long way. Just know that most print advertising is going to be a visibility game, rather than a great lead gen activity.

Does your inner circle know exactly what you do?

I go over this over and over and over again with all clients across the board who say: I need my clients. I'm like, you should start with your warm list. Does anybody know what you do close to you? Does your husband even know what you do?

Even for myself, there are so many people that likely can’t answer that question as well as I would want them too -- even my best friends cannot tell you what I do! Sopick five friends and ask them: What do you think I do?

So how do you use that locally? Well, you have to legit have people understand what it is you do so when they meet somebody, they can be like, Oh, you need my best friend Mallory or my sister Catherine because she does that exact thing. So that's really easy. It's just like prepping people like, Oh, that's what you think I do. Oh my gosh, this is what I actually do. Or I was helping so and so do this the other day.

Tell a story and it will stick in their mind forever. For example: I help women get more traffic to their website. I had this girl who teaches people to workout who wanted more people to come see her workouts online, so we figured out how to get 10x more people showing up. That will stick more than I am a conversion specialist, or web designer.

Ask for referrals right after getting results. Especially locally, it's even more important because it spreads like wildfire. Once you know one person, they tell somebody then they tell the next three people. And that's I think how I get traction so quickly locally, it's because people talk, everybody knows each other. Even though it's a big town, it's a lot smaller than you think it is.

An easy way to ask for a referral is to say: Don't forget about me or don't keep me a secret or I’m would love to find more people exactly like you... all of those phrases help people be spurred on to help.

It does not ever hurt to ask ever because people forget! We're just so crazy busy in our brains that we can't remember all the things. We may have had the best intentions to shout your name from the rooftop, but if you don't catch us at the exact moment that you have our attention, we're like gone like SQUIRREL!

Make sure you're listed correctly in local directories online. Some directories to make sure your details are showing up right for are: Google My Business, Yahoo local, Bing, Yellow Pages, Yelp, Manta…. And there are probably others that may be unique to your industry.

Go in for free and make sure the most important details are correct so people searching for you locally can find and fall in love with you.

Collect Google reviews for happy clients as well, especially if you have a local presence and you have a local business.

That also helps in search, which we’re basically doing in Google every 18 seconds.

Promote other local businesses!

It's the best way to help organically grow and be seen as an influencer. Find complementary businesses, any local businesses, etc. Supporting other businesses makes the world go round locally, If you can help other people grow, they just feel compelled to help you as well and reach out and it does not hurt you to you know, lend a hand to go promote someone else's business, because they're going to reciprocate it in some shape, form or fashion, and you just never know what's gonna happen.

How I Work With Clients: #GirlBoss Mastermind - 1:1 program provides coaching, accountability and proven strategies for helping you double your clients, get known locally and building a business you love.

Marketing Strategy Sessions - 60-minute session where we deep dive into the steps to take immediately to find, attract, convert and nurture leads into customers.

View Details

Geek alert! What happens when you get two marketers into a room? THIS!

Today’s guest is my friend and fellow marketer Mary Czarnecki -- who has impressive brands behind her name that she’s worked with and taught workshops too (like Johnson and Johnson, Starbucks, and WebMD).

In the show notes below, I've pulled out some nuggets in Q & A format. Enjoy!

Mallory: What’s a huge question people tend to ask you first? Mary: So the thing I really work with people on is helping them get out of that shiny object overwhelm.

So so many times, my first conversation with someone is, Hey, can you tell me about Facebook ads? Or hey, can you tell me how to do my social media? Hey, can you figure you know, someone told me I need an email? Why do I need an email list?

And so the first kind of opening the mind moment, for a lot of business owners I talked to, is that someone has told them to do something, or that they should be doing something that they're coming out of the space of overwhelm, or, you know, kind of a lack of confidence, because they're amazing at what they do, right? They’re confident that they can deliver, whatever it is, they're an expert in. But then all of a sudden, someone has said something to them, or they've read something that's now taken a knock at their kind of expert business owner confidence.

And they think that this tactic, this thing, this one platform or activity, they're missing out on or they should know about, or their competition is going to do and then steal over all their clients.

And so usually my question conversations are starting at the tactical level, but what I love doing is bringing people back their confidence by bringing the conversation up to the strategic level.

Mallory: This is perfect. It sounds like something I heard a few years ago by Val Geisler about just-in-time learning vs just-in-case learning.

When we’re unsure about what the best next move is, as business owners we typically default to learning something new or needing a new shiny tactic to make it all better.

That's what I see a lot with clients, too, is they have all these ideas, muddled in their head. They're trying to consume stuff. But there's nothing to be put in practice because there's just so much learning taking place.

So the new filter becomes “What do you need to know right this minute to do your goals you just talked about for the next 90 days?”

So the new filter becomes “What do you need to know right this minute to do your goals you just talked about for the next 90 days?”

Mallory Schlabach

Mallory: Let’s talk about some must-dos small business owners and entrepreneurs need to focus on for marketing:

Mary: You need a roadmap that really breaks your marketing plan down into a system where you're actually looking at the conversion equation to figure out okay, you know, how am I literally bringing people into my world? How am I engaging them? How am I educating them so that they feel good making a decision to work with me? And then what am I literally offering them so it's, it's creating this kind of connection, nurture and conversion system, but on a level, that's not going to burn you out on a bunch of different route trials, or testing ideas.

Make sure your offers you’re putting out into the world and what you’re selling are actually tapping into their biggest hot button need so that you're not just talking to like, lower-level issues. Too many times we try to solve something that’s only painful enough to whine about -- not painful enough to do anything about it.

Find out what your market wants to buy. So many businesses put products out that they think are going to sell but the only focus group they've consulted is themselves, they haven't actually asked their market what they want and then it flops.

Mallory: Yes, that's such a true thing! When I work with clients, I don't know if it feels really daunting to them to have to ask their audience first or if it makes them feel like they don't have it all together? It feels counterintuitive, but you want to test things and make sure you're not wasting all your money and time.

There is almost more mindset to being an entrepreneur that skill…. Almost!

Mary: One thing that I did not expect from becoming a business transformation and marketing coach was how much mindset work and life coaching. Yeah. So which is actually funny what I actually went and got my health coaching certification specifically to help that because I found so many people just not taking the tactical marketing steps they needed because they had mindset limitations. Right?

Mallory: Exactly. That's why I have a business and life coaching certification as well as that. We think we can keep our personal life and business life separate, but your personal life affects your business, and your business definitely affects your personal life. I completely agree. My sessions with clients almost feel like sometimes therapy sessions sometimes, which I do love. Nobody tells you that as an entrepreneur that a lot of the stuff you’re struggling with is just in your head.

Mallory: What happens when someone feels stuck or like they’ve plateaued in their business?

Mary: I like to talk about the five-part profit formula which is to make more money in business you can:

get more leads or get more people in the door,
you get those people to convert at a higher rate,
you either get more transactions ( so either you need them to either buy more often or buy more stuff from you
you raise your prices
you lower margins by dealing with operational costs

That's it. Like that's how you make money in business, right. And so as a marketer, and a, you know, business transformation strategist, what I'm really focused on is looking at, not so much like, Where have you come from? And like, how do we get more of that, but almost asking the question of like, Okay, this is awesome. This is what you built, this is who you have been serving. Let's look at that as like now is that where you want to go?

If you haven't started planning for your next goal, by the time you hit that one goal, that's where I'm seeing so many people plateau. And so that's the catalyst that a lot of people I think that are coming to me are saying, I worked my little butt off to get to point a, right, I did all the things like all the targeting all the work, and I'm here now. Now I want more growth, I want more time freedom, I want more sanity back in my business, I want more confidence in my marketing. But I'm doing okay, so I did something.

Mallory: Okay, so one thing that you brought up in that exact scenario, that I was thinking too, is that I've seen with my clients, as well as, when you get to that point where you're, you've kind of met that initial goal and you're still hungry for growth, and clearly you want to grow but it can almost feel like you're gonna have to work harder.

And like you don't have any idea how you're going to run any faster or split your time anymore, or who you could even hire to bring on because it's going to turn upside down your profit margins. So that then it can feel like you're stuck all of a sudden, and you don't know what even what to do next.

That's what I look at in my audits as well as the first thing I want to increase is conversions. That is the fastest, right? Conversions and pricing. This is the two fastest ways you can change things up immediately.

Mallory: Where do you start with someone who feels stuck?
Mary: I usually start with the first two, as well, so the leads coming into their business and the conversions. Now, that being said, I don't know any small business or entrepreneur that doesn't want fast cash in their business. And you're right, one of the fastest ways to change your profit in the short term is definitely going to be looking at your pricing and your packaging.

So what I'll do is I'll kind of do like a little cash booster at the beginning, which is literally what selling now like, what if you didn't change any of your marketing, any religion, any anything, except the price of this product, or the way that you're structuring it in the package that you're the offer that you're giving? Is there a way for us to tweak that so we can get you some, you know, fast cash in the door, like a little cash boost?

A lot of times small, incremental changes in price won't affect your conversion rate, but it will massively impact your top-line revenue. Right? So that's kind of the booster that I'll do with people a lot of times right out the door.

But then in terms of really looking at what change can we make that might need a little bit more of a runway, but will also create this foundation for this next growth stage for you is going to be how are they bringing people into their business? Right? What is their lead generation and client acquisition process? And then what are they doing to increase those conversions?

Because a lot of times people are so focused on the lead generation that they forget about, once you bring people into your, into your world into your office into your restaurant or onto your webpage? Like, what are you doing to actually enhance your conversion rate? And are you giving them options? So on the leads part, you know, we'll talk about everything from social media, you know, selling systems to, you know, even looking at joint ventures, a lot of times people think of joint ventures as oh my gosh, that's going to take so much work, and I'm not gonna get a lot out of it, what I've actually seen it work well for is when you can find a win win.

For people that are already talking to the people you want to talk to, if you can bring the value to the table, there can be less work for you in the lead generation space, which is kind of nice. And then with the conversions, you know, once you've got people into your world, you and I both talked a lot about how do you capture people's contact information. So you can kind of drip on them and nurture them through things like email, or in a Facebook group or on social media with, you know, whether you're using bots or whether you're, you know, personally messaging people, but then also once you're nurturing them, and they're actually at the point of purchase, not just giving them cut and dry offers.

A lot of business owners forget about the upsell and the down-sell, which is something that corporate and big business has mastered and captures a lot of incremental income in that way. And so that's one of the tools that I definitely introduced to people that in the first phase of business, they may just may not have thought of.

Mallory: Can we geek out for just a second? Because I don't think most people actually even track stuff in their business. So can you please indulge me? What are your favorite metrics? What do you recommend your clients track? Because I could geek out on this all day long.

Mary: Yeah, for sure. So yes, I definitely believe in tracking metrics. I feel like a lot of people hide their numbers because they're scared of what they might be. But here's the thing, just like avoiding stepping on a scale of that's a sore point for you, not knowing where you're starting from, it's not going to allow you to have the celebration moments when you do achieve your goals, and see how far you've come. So yeah, in terms of what to track in your business I put people in different buckets.

So if there are people, the starter trackers right there, like just give me the three things I just need three times if that's the case, you know, I'm really looking at how many lead generating activities are you taking in your business every week? So if I'm working with someone like a health coach, or a business coach, or someone that's really needing to get on calls with people to sell their services, how many calls Did you have last week? How many you have this week? How many calls you have booked next week?

But if you're the starter tracker, I just look at what really that sales activity is, for people that don't necessarily have calls in their business. If you're selling something at a boutique or restaurant I like to look at not just the number of customers that are coming in, but look at like the average selling price.

So has your average selling price or average purchase price change over time? So does your average consumer if you're a high volume person, like if you're serving a lot of clients, instead of the coach that maybe just needs a few good high-quality high-ticket clients? If you're serving volume, then it's How has your average selling price tracked over time? Have you changed your marketing tactics? So maybe you're pulling from a pool of people that are going to spend less? Or are you pulling from a pool of people and offering them, you know, a higher value opportunity to work with you? So that's those are two that I would track.

Mallory: Yes! This story was told to me at a retreat one time:
Four strangers who are getting to know each other all get into an airplane. They're flying over these beautiful mountains and this gorgeous scenery and everyone's like, Oh, my gosh! Where are we going?

And the pilot’s like, “I have no idea. But we're making great time!”

That's how I feel we often end up as business owners. If you don't have metrics, you have no idea what’s working and what’s costing you money and time -- which spells death for a business. Anybody who's ever worked with me, you know, I give them a list of the metrics that I would recommend you start tracking right now, based on your goals because you just need to take a pulse check on your business.

So this is good, this is good! I wanted to hear somebody else tell my audience to track their metrics. In episode #005 you can download a master spreadsheet of metrics to track and how to get started.

I feel like it just makes decision making easier which, as entrepreneurs, we talked at the beginning, right, there are so many little micro-decisions you're making all the time, that it's really easy to see why we don't get further along in our business or get a lot more accomplished because we're committing our brainpower to such tiny things that aren’t very important.

Mallory: Mary, what is on the horizon for you? What are you working on kind of what's next for you over the next couple of months?

Mary: In the past six months, I actually launched my first online program. So basically got to download my MBA brand into some videos, templates and swipe files there for business, what I was finding was some people just work at that phase of being ready to work one on one. And whether it was a dog trainer, whether it was a winery, or whether it was the restaurant, the all across all the clients I've ever worked with, there was a few consistent pieces, elements that everyone has to master in their business, as I was able to kind of download BAM your brain on those topics into this program.

It's called the Audience Intelligence Accelerator and it's really the first step, if you're just getting started. And you feel like you haven't gotten into that deep level of understanding with your audience, quote, unquote, nailed your niche.

But like we talked about, it's also for that next level of business owner, that's serious, but the business side of it may have been doing this awhile, but has fallen into that trap of I kind of feel like I'm trying to serve everyone, or I'm not quite sure I'm hitting that deepest pain point. So it gives them a framework and some great swipe files for actually implementing that in their business.

So that I really, really excited about. And then I'm also launching a new group program. So what I found is that sometimes working with people one on one is what they need. But I also part of group programs that I get a huge amount from not just the person who's running it, but also the other members in the group.

Because sometimes I'm at a phase in my business where I know I have a question, but I can't almost even find the words for it. And so being able to tap into the group consciousness and like, be able to use that to articulate and be like, yes, she asked exactly what I was thinking, but I couldn't find that word.

About Mary Czarnecki:
Mary Czarnecki is a Marketing Strategist and Business Transformation Consultant specializing in brand positioning, audience insight development, and sales funnel strategy. After spending nearly two decades helping grow Fortune 500 brands like WebMD and Johnson & Johnson, she's now committed to doing the same for ambitious entrepreneurs and business owners.

When she’s not working, Mary loves spending time with her husband and two boys exploring the outdoors. She’s always up for a hike in the woods or a weekend camping trip! She’s a former Jersey Girl now raising her business and family in Oregon’s Willamette Valley wine country.

3 Things About Mary Czarnecki:

I'm originally a Jersey Girl but have fallen in love with Oregon (however I maintain that the Jersey Shore is MUCH better for body surfing and has WAY better pizza)
I love the outdoors... in college, I was an Outdoor Action Wilderness Leader and led 7-10 day backpacking trips and also spent the summer before senior year sleeping in a tent on an NC barrier island watching wild horses for my senior thesis (man - was I blond by the end of those 4 months!)
Becoming a mom rocked my world! It's more and different than I ever imagined... and although I'll ALWAYS be a mom and would walk across FIRE for my kids, I know now that being a mom isn't ALL that I am... and I'm continuously learning how to be a great mom and true to myself at the same time!

Connect with Mary: Website | Facebook | LinkedIn | Facebook Group | Instagram

View Details

For so many small business owners, it can be tricky to figure out how to figure out exactly what you’re doing best -- which leads to trying to do it all.

The problem with being all things to all people is that until you narrow in on what you’re really good at doing AND what your audience really wants to buy from you, you might be feeling stuck in your business.

On today's on-air strategy session, I dive in with Becky Dempster, a home stylist and founder of Homestead 128 about how she can simplify everything and serve her clients best. This is one of my FAVORITE episodes recently just because of the huge light-bulb moment she has that changes everything.

We talk about nailing down her services, getting laser-focused on the platforms she wants to show up on and how to upsell her services to clients.

If you’ve been feeling like you need to get focused on your services and unique selling point, you’ll want to hear this episode.

We talk about:

How Becky got into her business
What her home styling is like for clients
How clients usually work with Becky
Where she finds clients
Creating products that clients can DIY themselves
Her ideal clients and what they do
Figuring out where she should focus her marketing
The path that clients take before working with Becky
Her email marketing funnels
Auditing and optimizing her Pinterest page
The most popular room that clients get help with
Upselling and converting clients into home styling
Getting focused on one platform

About Becky Dempster:

Becky is a home stylist for people who want a home they love. A space that is beautiful and functions well for everyone.

Through her design plans, easy to use action lists, and home color palettes she’s here to help you create the home you long for – while making it easier than you can imagine.

I’ve got a mudroom makeover that was featured on the blogs of great magazines like Real Simple and Good Housekeeping.

Her fabulous clients have called her a “time-saver” and wish they would have just hired her from the beginning and saved themselves all of the stress and overwhelm. Another said she is the “help I never knew I needed”.

When she’s not styling and creating you can find her chasing kids on their family farm, listening to all the podcasts, and enjoying the beautiful sunset from her front porch.

Connect with Becky:

Website | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest

Quotes:

"That's kind of one of my big missions is to help women that they don't have to wait for the perfect period in their life because there's always going to be a reason to push it off until later." - Becky Dempster "I think rules should be thrown out the window because every home is so different." - Becky Dempster "Starting out, until you have one nailed down. Do the one you're most comfortable with, period." - Mallory Schlabach "If you have such a concentrated focus on the master bedroom, they're going to get paranoid that they need to do something with their master bedroom". - Mallory Schlabach "I don't think you necessarily have to have a community for it right now. I think your commenters and making sure your engaging back on that one platform will almost build that community." - Mallory Schlabach "Allow yourself to get really laser-focused.” - Mallory Schlabach "I always caution people to do paid ads until they've got this funnel piece figured out." - Mallory Schlabach About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

Facebook Groups take a bad rap for being a time-waster… and it totally can be.

But how do you actually use them well as a part of your marketing strategy? When used effectively, Facebook groups can be a great way to help grow your business both online and locally.

On this week’s on-air strategy session, Monique Horb of Organizing Your Chaos and I talk about how to use her growing Facebook group to transition from done-for-you local work.

Monique is a professional organizer who helps clients to declutter and organize their spaces.

She has been trying to figure out how to transition her business and find more clients in the online space. We discuss how she got into her business, her goals for where she wants to take her business next and what her hesitations are around being visible.

If you’ve been wanting to grow your local business and reach more clients on the online space, then this is the episode for you.

We talk about:

How Monique got into organizing
How Monique got started in her business as a professional organizer
What she does for her clients
Monique’s ideal client
What Monique’s goals are for her business
Figuring out how to transition her business
What she currently does for marketing
Monique’s hesitation about being visible
How she finds her clients
Her offboarding process for past clients
Using community questions as a part of her marketing strategy
The importance of welcoming people into her Facebook group
Figuring out how to nurture clients
Monique's process for working with clients
How she can market herself in her group without selling
Using social media as a visibility piece

About Monique Horb:

Monique Horb has a passion for helping women who are busy, tired, and overwhelmed. She does this by organizing homes and paper piles so that women can be more productive, have time and energy to live their purpose, and live the life they want. She loves to say, Life Is Easier Organized!

She began her business, Organizing Your Chaos, after experiencing depression, bankruptcy, adoption, marriage and medical crisis. These things were out of her control, and her home was falling apart. Through twists and turns, she learned that with an organized home she was able to manage.

Monique was raised in southwest Michigan and graduated from Taylor University, a Christian college in Indiana, with a BA in Sociology & Psychology. She met her husband through a friend while working at Spring Hill Camps in Michigan. They have been married for twenty-five years and have six children, two dogs and a cat. Her life experiences have pushed her out of her comfort zone and shaped the business that she created.

She loves to coach women in not only organizing their homes, but organizing their lives. She knows that the simple (yet difficult) act of getting your home organized gives hope to move forward and do what God has created them to d. Hope propels us forward, gives confidence, and allows changes to happen. This changes lives.

When asked, “How do you do it?” she responds, “I get up and get dressed.”

She believes that being willing to take off the mask, ask for help and work hard, alongside a faith in God, has changed her life. She continues to help women change their lives, and shares that we are all better when we are in community together.

Connect with Guest:

Website | Facebook | Facebook Group

Quotes:

"I had to learn really quickly the best way to organize stuff with a lot of people." - Monique Horb"The biggest thing with helping people get organized is to actually declutter." - Monique Horb "If you have a goal and a dream for a space then there's a lot more motivation behind it." - Monique Horb "A lot of people really just want accountability." - Monique Horb"With marketing, it's such an emotional thing. Really it's just about getting to the heart of people and connecting that story with them." - Mallory Schlabach "You should think of marketing as relationship building rather than billboarding." - Mallory Schlabach "I never change my services, I just change how I describe them to my audience." - Mallory Schlabach About Marketing Magic: The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.

View Details

Ever wondered what it may be like to launch a book? How do you get it to bookstores? How do you even get to write a book? Do you self publish or get picked up by a publisher? This week’s guest is my friend, Niki Hardy, author of Breathe Again, a book that teaches you how to live well even when life seems to be falling apart -- that launched THIS WEEK!

Niki’s journey to becoming an author was unexpected. After being diagnosed with cancer on the heels of losing both her mom and sister to the C-word, she took to writing about her cancer treatment process on Caring Bridge, which led to a huge following taking inspiration and hope from her honesty and wisdom.

We dive into the nitty-gritty details of what the process to write a book is like, the editing process for her book, figuring out the title and how to approach marketing for a book launch using pre-order bonuses and reaching out to radio, tv, podcasts, and magazines for interviews.

If you’ve ever dreamt about writing a book, you’ll want to hear this episode.

We talk about:

What her book is about
The people that Niki is writing her book for
Sharing her story on Caring Bridge
The process of writing her book
Drilling down to her ideal client
The editing process she had for the book
Trying to figure out the title for the book
Meeting people in an online cancer community that changed her perspective
How to approach marketing a book launch
Doing pre-order bonuses
Reaching out to radio, tv, podcasts and magazines
Building off a lead magnet

About Niki Hardy:

Niki Hardy is a Brit in the USA, a cancer survivor, pastor’s wife, tea drinker and teller of bad jokes. As a speaker and the author she’s all about meeting you when life’s not fair and embracing the reality that with God, life doesn’t have to be pain-free to be full.

A Londoner born and bred, Niki and her family moved to Charlotte, NC, to plant CityChurch Charlotte and when she’s not speaking, writing, or running trails with her Doodles, you can find her with a nice cup of tea, trying to figure out which remote control actually turns the TV on.

Her work has appeared in Christian Today, RELEVANT, Woman to Woman (Premier Radio), ForEveryMom, Living By Design Ministries Newsletter and is a contributing writer for ThriveMoms.

Connect with Niki:

Website | Breathe Again | Instagram

Want a few free chapters of Breathe Again? Text “BREATHEAGAIN” to 66866.

Quotes:

“The reason they are my people is because that’s what I went through.” -Niki Hardy

“We worry that if we're not broad we miss people but actually if I simply wrote for Christian women who have rectal cancer, that's still hundreds of thousands of women unfortunately so it’s not exactly a small niche.” -Niki Hardy

“Writing a book is such a team sport, even with self-published books.” -Niki Hardy

“Trying not to compare my today with someone else's future.” -Niki Hardy

“There are so many different parts involved in writing the book.” -Niki Hardy

“There’s this sweet spot where what they’ve been through overlaps with what other people have been through.” - Niki Hardy

View Details

When you first start your business it can be extremely intimidating trying to figure out how to package your services for your dream clients.

On today’s on-air strategy session, I am chatting with Katie Hoffer, an email marketer who helps business owners to nurture potential customers and express their true personality and brand through their email marketing.

Katie has been struggling with reaching her ideal client and figuring out the best way to package her services to clients. When starting a new venture one of the first steps is to figure out if your market is dying for what you do, or if they need it and you have to educate potential clients on the value of email marketing. We also talk through different business structures she can consider so she can reach larger businesses to be retainer clients and how to balance managing her social media for her business.

If you’re trying to figure out how to package your services to your dream clients, you’ll want to hear this.

We talk about:

What Katie does in her business as an email marketer
Why she decided to niche down from copywriting to email marketing
How Katie typically works with her clients
Where Katie hopes to take her business for the rest of 2019
What kind of clients Katie works with
Figuring out how to educate clients on the value of email marketing
What Katie sees in email marketing and how she does it differently
Nurturing clients through emails
The benefits of using email marketing
How to target businesses for retainers
What Katie does to find her existing clients
Feeling lost on how to find her ideal clients
Balancing and managing social media management for her business
How Katie likes to show up on social media
How to find the latest trends in marketing

From Katie Hoffer:

I create expertly crafted email copywriting (and strategy) for solopreneurs like you looking to turn your list into a powerhouse of superfans.

I started my email marketing business because I wanted freedom from the man. I was tired of getting that dreadful feeling every Sunday night when I should have been enjoying those moments with my family.

Tired of feeling nervous about calling off when I'm sick-- (do they think I'm faking?). Tired of the sideways comments when calling off because the toddler is sick-- (how many call offs until I get fired?)

Sick and tired busting my tail for someone else, with almost nothing to show for it.

I decided to take a risk and go out on my own.

And I know you’re working your tail off too. I know you want to create a comfortable life for yourself and your family. I know you want to be able to love what you do.

Email marketing is a hard-hitting marketing avenue to invest in. And with smart email systems put in place, you're maximizing your time and your energy.

Turn up your business game by collaborating with me on your email marketing plan.

Connect with Katie:

Links:

1000 True Fans: Use Kevin Kelly's Simple Idea to Earn A Living Doing What You Love

BizChix

Quotes:

"I just want to help other entrepreneurs sound like themselves, not sounds so stiff and to be able to genuinely express their personality through their business, so they can connect with their potential clients." - Katie Hoffer "We start by building sequences that bring their customers into them, and nurturing them until their ready to buy." - Katie Hoffer "Whatever you need to do to put those blinders up so that you're not getting sucked into feeling like you're never doing enough on social media." - Mallory Schlabach "I think that was the wrong mindset because more doesn't always mean better." - Katie Hoffer "Your business grows based on the 5 people you hang out with most." - Mallory Schlabach

View Details

You either love or are terrified of Instagram. Ask me how I know.

It is finally time to bring out the big guns on one of so many of y’alls favorite platforms: Instagram.

If you’ve been wanting to nail down your Instagram strategy but are unsure of how to best approach this platform then this is the episode for you.

On this episode, I chat with Sarah Wallace, an Instagram branding expert that helps clients learn how to use Instagram to engage and connect with paying clients.

She shares why you need to get clear on who you’re talking to and what you want to be known for. She also talks about how to use Instagram stories to engage with your followers and the best ways to stay consistent with your strategy. She’s a southern doll and you will adore her simple strategies that are getting her clients big results.

We talk about:

Why Sarah loves Instagram for herself and clients
What Mallory struggles with on her Instagram strategy
How Instagram stories have changed Instagram
Getting clear on what you want to be known for
Understanding who you’re talking to and how you want to be percieved
The importance of using photos of yourself
Using the Instagram feed versus Instagram stories
How to best use Instagram stories to engage with followers
When and how to use an IGTV video
Saving Instagram stories as a highlight
Sarah’s top tip for staying consistent and sane
Batching content and planning ahead
How Sarah plans out her Instagram stories
Getting clear with why you’re on Instagram
How Sarah works with clients currently

About Sarah Wallace:

I teach business owners to build a personal brand online and use Instagram to amplify their message and connect with paying clients.

Connect with Sarah:

Website | Instagram

Links:

Canva

Social Curator

Planoly

Later

Instagram Audits

Quotes:

"You have at your fingertips, a list of relevant people that you would be excited to either work with or collaborate with in just a 2 second search and you have direct access to them with things like stories and direct messages." - Sarah Wallace "At the end of the day, when you're using it for business it's ultimately about growing your business and sales." - Sarah Wallace "Instagram helps you really build a solid foundation for that know, like and trust factor." - Sarah Wallace "The only thing you need to be sure of is that your feed represents who you are." - Sarah Wallace "You can use stories for lots of different things to really connect with your audience: connection content, value content and emotional content." - Sarah Wallace "The number one thing that I hear people struggling with when it comes to Instagram is showing up consistently and not feeling like they are on Instagram all day, everyday." - Sarah Wallace "Remember why you're on Instagram. A lot of us can get really caught up in the amount of followers we have, what others are doing and how our feed looks. At the end of the day, remember your reason." - Sarah Wallace "Just get really clear with why you're on Instagram and just make sure your content aligns with that strategy." - Sarah Wallace

View Details

Wanderlust. Perhaps it’s not a word you would use to describe yourself. At least not until you meet Wendy.

Today on the podcast, I am joined by Wendy Livingston Guth, the founder of Rebel on the Go Travel. Wendy is a travel advisor that helps people plan family trips, weekend getaways, work retreats and more.

Running a business that’s so many people but into the category of their bucket list, it’s crucial that Wendy nail who her ideal client is to keep her travel company sailing. On this episode, we break down exactly what Wendy does, who she does it for and how her work changes people.

We talk about how traveling the world can help you to value your own country even more, what a travel advisor does and how travel advisors work with clients. She shares what her ideal client is and why she loves to help people create memories and build a sense of wanderlust.

We talk about:

What Wendy’s business does
Wendy’s viewpoint on traveling
How she started working in the association world
Why you need an organizer when traveling
What a travel advisor does
The different ways that travel advisors work with clients
Understanding what you want to get out of travel
Wendy’s ideal clients
Heritage travel, work retreats and mother-daughter experiences
Where Wendy wants to travel to
Making travel accessible to everyone
Creating memories and building a sense of wanderlust
Learning to value your country by seeing the world
How people can work with Wendy

About Wendy Livingston Guth:

Wendy Livingston Guth is the founder of Rebel on the Go Travel. She creates memorable travel experiences that create space to breathe, heal, process, and celebrate life’s transitions. With 30+ years of experience, Wendy has planned 1000s of events from Hong Kong to Honolulu, Calgary to Canberra, Barcelona to Buenos Aires, Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. These have included intimate gatherings for as few as 10 people to conferences for as many as 3,500 people.

Rebel on the Go was born in 2016 out of Wendy’s desire to help women shake their personal and professional “whatevers” that are holding them back through adventurous experiences. By combining her extensive experience in both events and travel, she offers both pre-planned group travel experiences and customized private group outings.

Join Wendy in her Facebook group - Rebel on the Go Community at http://bit.ly/JoinRebelontheGo - to shake your “whatevers,” meet an amazing group of women, receive a daily dose of on the go rebellion, and plan your next transformative adventure!

Connect with Wendy:

View Details

Want to know the secret to attract clients to your business? Storytelling. Without it, your dream clients won’t know what you do or how you can serve them.

Whether it's through copy or when you are speaking with a potential client, you should be leading them to your direction through the words you are using.

On today’s on-air strategy session, I am talking to Melody Morris, of Total Energy Healing USA. I chat with her about the importance of setting up a story for clients before you even meet them and figuring out which online platforms to show up on.

If you’ve ever felt unsure or nervous about how you tell your story then this episode will help to give you more clarity on the matter.

We talk about:

What Melody does in her business
Owning your muchness
How Melody works best with her clients
The type of client that Melody serves
How facing hard hurdles brought her to start her business
The clarity Melody is searching for in her business
The process that her clients go through
How clients will know that Melody’s healing process is for them
What clients experience on the inside before reaching out to her
The importance of storytelling to bring your clients to you
Getting out of our heads as a perfectionist
Figuring out which platforms to focus on
Creating warm leads through her other platforms
Taking the pressure off of yourself
Setting a goal with how to show up on social media

About Melody Morris:

I am Melody Morris of Total Energy Healing USA. I am an inspirational speaker and a Shamanic Healer. I help women who have experienced sexual or relationship trauma release it and move forward into the life and relationships they desire and deserve. I have studied multiple energy healing modalities for more than 2 decades, both from scientific and spiritual aspects.

Connect with Melody:

Website | Book An Appointment | Facebook Page | Facebook Group

Quotes:

"I help women really come into their power and get rid of all of the stuff, the negative patterns, the beliefs that aren't true that hold us back." - Melody Morris "We have the ability to do those things, but we have all of these life experiences that cause us to forget that we have that power." - Melody Morris "I now know that was something that was a horrible situation in my life that I was able to find the power in, I was able to find the lesson in, and I was able to rise to a better place in my life because of that experience. And that is what I want to help other women do." - Melody Morris "We're still very much in a society where abuse, rape, manipulation, lies and all of these things are still very much swept under the rug." - Melody Morris "Getting really, really crystal clear on what we do and how we say it is so valuable." - Mallory Schlabach "If you take the pressure off of you that you have to grow and scale, and you just focus on refining your message it might shift your balance where you don't feel real weird about being on social or that you aren't doing enough." - Mallory Schlabach "Eventually you're going to get to the point where you can observe your life instead of wallowing in the mud with it." - Melody Morris

Marketing Magic: Recent Episodes

Mallory Schlabach - Entrepreneur | Marketing + Business Strategist | Mom of