The Being In Business Podcast: Recent Episodes
Craig Lewis
This is a podcast for all the entrepreneurs who are ready to start building a profitable business without the burnout and hustleIt's time to stop the hustle and start building a profitable business. Welcome to The Being In Business Podcast
Most Online Entrepreneurs Are Winging It
While “winging it” can be fine to get you started with a new business/project/offer, there will come a time when this will no longer work
And this is something I’ve personally experienced.
You only need to take a quick look around at how most Online Entrepreneurs approach their business
You can see the inconsistency
You can feel the desperation
You can tell everything is being created from a place of scarcity
Everything looks uncertain
You can see the incongruency between what they say and what they do
By the time you’ve read this entire newsletter, you will know
- What these 5 guiding principles are
- How to implement them into your business
- Why these principals work so well
Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter, Direct Impact
It's a community of Founders who want to grow their Internet Businesess
Welcome to the Modern Transformation Podcast
This is a shorter episode than usual, but this episode has all the details on the re-brand of this podcast as it's a new introduction
I hope you're as excited as I am about the new direction of this show
Don't forget about Direct Impact
A Weekly Newsletter for Online Entrepreneurs Who Want More Business Growth & Revenue Growth
Get One Email Every Thursday With Strategies, Tactics & Mindset Tips To Grow Your Business
https://thecraiglewis.com/direct-impact-newsletter/
Maybe you’ve heard this before
The only types of people that are creative are those who are artists, painters, or musicians.
I heard this a lot growing up and even throughout most of my life as an adult.
And never really questioned it
It puts everyone else who isn't one of these on the opposite side of the scale
If artists, musicians and painters are creatives, what does that make everyone else, including me?
In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about how to tap into your own unique creativity, despite what you may have heard about being a creative person
I made a mistake
Well, two actually
The first is I wish I had started to create content that built an audience a lot sooner
I have created content for business owners for a long time, but not for the purpose of building an audience - big difference
The second mistake was about 2 weeks ago
I created a landing page and set up everything to start creating an audience of business owners so I could share everything I have learned and experienced over the last 5 years
And it wasn't working
Made a couple of mistakes around the whole set up of this including the email provider, the landing page itself and having it all set up
I probably should have had someone help with it, but I was keen to get something up and running (even if it wasn't)
So I’m relaunching the whole thing, from scratch
In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing what I have found to be the easiest way to gain clarity
Over the last couple of years, the volume of responsibilities within my personal life and business life has increased substantially
When I first started out all I had to think about was making money from the single business I had started
And even though it was an interesting experience for me for so many reasons, I didn't really have to do too much thinking or planning
During the first 12 months or so I would definitely consider myself to have been in survival mode, which is not great for anyone
But when I was in that phase you’re only really thinking about one thing - grow the business, make that next sale
In 2021 I quietly launched a consulting offer
The aim was to work with other service based business owners and help them with what I had learned
Specifically around around offer creation, messaging and positioning + mindset
I knew what I had would work for other businesses
It worked really well for me and wanted to be able to serve others who were stuck trying to figure things out
Messaging and positioning is often overlooked and most end up blending into the noise of everyone else and getting lost
I know because I’ve been in that position in the past and it feels like it’s never ending
I ended up going against my own advice when making investments into myself and/or business
So I came across a couple of posts last week on Instagram that were posted from people who are in sales and marketing
And the reason I’m mentioning that now is because what they posted immediately jumped out at me
Without reading each post word for word, this is essentially what they said
Stop niching down
Be broad in your content creation and who you’re talking to
Appeal to the biggest audience as possible
The bigger the audience the more you will grow your business
So based on what I read last week, is niching down that important?
In todays episode I’ll be sharing the top 5 lead generation strategies to grow your business
I’ll also be sharing which 2 of these helped grow my agency and the strategies that I’m currently using for this Podcast
When I first created my first ever online business, I had no real understanding of how to actually get people to come
I'm had no idea about different lead strategies or what they all meant
I would just look at what others were doing and use what I thought would work
I’ve come to realize over the last 5 years, that doing what most other people do is not the best idea
Most people have no idea why they do what they do
When I first started selling services I would spend so much time talking about all the wrong things - things I thought people should know
I even created a full 10 minute presentation going into all the specifics of my offer
But I quickly learned that this was not resonating with people so I stopped doing these things
I stopped talking about my offer
I stopped talking about the name of my offer
I stopped selling the deliverables
I stopped selling all the features within my offer
I stopped all of this stuff
Instead, I used this simple sales hack that changed everything
Over the last 3 years, I’ve had around 30-40 different team members come into my marketing agency and some of my other businesses that I’m involved with
Even this Podcast, the Youtube channel and the active social media channels I have currently have a range of different team members
I’m sharing this with you because over the course of working with so many different team members, I can honestly say I have learned a lot around this area
Some team members have come and gone quite quickly
Others have been with me from the very beginning of my agency back in 2019
During this time, I definitely consider myself to have a decent understanding of when I think the right time to hire someone
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made during these last few years of hiring team members is this
Hiring way too late
I honestly believe that at some point or another, we all need mentorship/coaching from someone who’s a couple of chapters ahead of where we want to be
The funny thing is, it took me until 2020 to invest in my first mentor
Over the last few years, I’ve hired a number of mentors
Some of these have been in the form of group programs, mentorship programs, and also one to one
Some of these have been amazing. I would go as far as to say life changing
Some have not been a great fit
And one particular program was a disaster
So based on my experience of working with coaches and mentors over the last few years, I’m going to share the steps I take to find mentors
Depending on who you ask or speak with you might get a different response to what a high ticket offer
For some people, a high ticket offer can be $1000
For others, this can be $3000-$5000
Others can be $10,000
I also know some individuals start their offers at $100,000
Over the last few years, 2 years, most of the offers I have experience with are within the $10k -$12k
Some others have been in the $5k region too
But for the most part, they have been around $10k
Today, we'll look at how to create your own high ticket offer
In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing my experience of how I unknowingly built a job for myself and not a business that i thought i had
Before we get into today’s episode it’s worth sharing that there’s nothing wrong with creating a job for yourself.
Nor is there anything better to creating a business
The difference is knowing what the difference is and realizing which one you're working towards
For me, I thought I was building a business but was actually creating a job for myself
I just didn't really understand it at the time or see this happening
In today's episode, I’ll be sharing what I believe to be an entrepreneur’s super skill
I can still remember exactly where I was and how I felt
I was sitting in my apartment with my laptop on my lap and feeling really nervous
It was July 2017 and I was about to hit publish on my first blog post on my first ever website for my first ever business
But to get to that point took over two weeks
Two weeks of planning, crafting, and making the whole thing look amazing
It was written perfectly and I made sure to have as many intelligent words as possible in that blog post
In today's episode, we’re going to look at why I believe “failure” can be one of our greatest allies as business owners.
And when used correctly can help propel us forward as it did with myself just a few years ago
Before starting my first ever company over 5 years ago, I would do everything possible not to fail
I don't think any of us like failing at anything, especially when other people can see this failure
And when you think about it, this is the default for most of us growing up
But what if we could use "failure' as fuel for growth?
In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing how I found out that the hustle mentality is toxic
And my own experience of how this showed up in my life not once, but twice
You’ve probably seen or at least know of the hustle culture
It’s the no days off mentality
Or that you pull all nighters only to get up again at 5 am to start the whole thing over the next day
I’ll be totally honest, I fell for this way of doing things when I first started out in 2017
In today's episode, I'll be sharing something that I wish I had done so much earlier in my entrepreneurial journey
I know that if I had started doing this earlier it would have made so many things easier today
It's only now looking back that I can see how important these things are. It's also why I'm sharing this with you today
In today's episode, I’ll be sharing with you how I discovered that entrepreneurship is self development in disguise.
Before I talk about how I discovered entrepreneurship is self development in disguise, I want to share this
This is not my quote or something that I came up with
I heard this from someone, but I can’t remember who it was
I know James Clear has a similar phrase and that says pretty much the same thing, but I only knew this after Googling the original phrase to see if I could find out who said
So I can’t credit you - if anyone listing to this heard this, please let me know
You’ve probably heard this a million times about just being yourself and you’ll be able to grow your business by attracting the right audience and clients into your eco-system
On the surface, this does sound like something that would help
But what if this advice is not as helpful as it may first seem
We'll take a look at how this might not be the most helpful advice in today's episode
For those of you new to this podcast or who don’t know this, I’ll provide a little context for this episode
In 2014 I left my full time job of 12 years to head to uni to study sports science
From 2014 -2017 I did my degree and finished with a 1st class hons
During the last year of the degree, things didn't go as planned and it was during this time I promised myself that I’d never again put the path of my future into someone else's hands
By March 2017 I had booked a one way flight to Thailand with my girlfriend, Tia, and sold everything we owned
In todays. episode, I'll share all the key aspects of living like this
Many of you might not know this
Before starting my first company back in 2017 I worked as a Strength and conditioning coach and also studied sports and exercise science while also spending 3 years in a pro sports set up
From around 2009 I began taking my own training more seriously, but I also became fascinated with training programs
All the great strength coaches I was able to spend time around or learn from had one thing in common
And it's this one thing I'm going to share today as I believe it applies to business just as much as it does to training and sport.
In today's episode, I'll share with you the power that client referrals had for my marketing agency when it first started
I'll also show you how you can get more referrals for your business today.
In today’s episode Why I quit my project managers job after 12 years at the age of 28 to go into university as a full time mature student
Some of you listening might know this already, but there are likely a lot of people that don’t
I left school at 15 - there were no requirements to stay on after GCSE’s
I had no idea what I wanted to do at that stage of my life, but I did learn a lot during these years.
In today's episode, I'll be sharing what I discovered when selling products that were priced at $19 and products that were priced at $10,000+
You might be thinking there's a huge difference when it comes to marketing and selling these products when the fees are so different
Maybe there is - maybe there is'nt
In today's episode, I'll be sharing some of my thoughts about selling and why so many entrepreneurs have a hard time selling
I'll also share some mental re-frames around what I believe selling to be and how they have helped me over the last few years, mainly as I've grown as an entrepreneur
In today's episode, I'll be sharing with you my thoughts on masterminds and whether or not you should invest your time/energy/effort into one of these to grow your business
As you're about to discover not all masterminds are created equally. And. more often than not, you might end up with some key takeaways that you might not have expected
Over the last few years I've been fortunate enough to have worked with some very large companies through my marketing agency
We started working with our first 9 figure company back in 2020 and we've now gone on to work with many more
In today's episode, I'll be sharing some of the key takeaways I've learned over the last few years so you can use these in attracting and working with larger clients
In today's episode, I'll share something that was passed on to me by one of my mentors in 2020.
He taught me the power of our own self image and how we'll never outperform the image we hold of ourselves.
So in order to grow your business, we have to change the image we hold of ourselves first
I'll share the technique I have been using to change the image I hold of myself so you can do the same too
In today’s episode, I’m going to share what I believe to be one of the worst things you can possibly say as a business owner
For what it’s worth - I used to say this all the time until I realized just how damaging it was
I believe there are many things we, as entrepreneurs, say to ourselves or our team that hold us back
I say this from personal experience as an entrepreneur who started out hustling and grinding just to get stuff done with no thought as to what kind of impact the self talk was having
In today's episode, I'll be sharing the exact 5 step framework I used to build a multi six figure business
What's interesting is, at the time, I had no idea what steps I was following, or what was working
It's only now looking back that I can put the pieces together and be able to share what this was
In today's episode, I'll be sharing the top 5 things that I have learned since starting my very first business back in 2017.
My intention with sharing these with you today is so that you can learn from my mistakes, but also what worked well for me over the last few years.
Most entrepreneurs have no idea how who their ideal clients and customers are. It's no surprise then, that most business owners fail to make the impact they know they can
In today's episode, we're going to take a deep dive into what you really need to look for in your ideal clients and customers.
Welcome to The Being In Business Podcast!
This is our first ever episode and I'd like to thank you for being here and listening to this episode.
In this first episode, we'll discuss why I've created this podcast
Plus, why I believe that we, as entrepreneurs, might consider stopping with all the hustle mentality and instead start creating a profitable business without the burnout that so many entrepreneurs experience
So, if you're an entrepreneur and ready to discover this new way of building a business, then you might want to stick around.