There is nothing worse than starting your own business online and then running into one of these very common branding issues.
Your brand is not cohesive, it’s all over the place and a mess
Your brand looks just like another business so it doesn’t stand out and your constantly accused of being a copycat brand
Your business name is in use by someone else and now you are in potential legal trouble
People are not sure what you do because your brand doesn’t make logical sense
You can’t get the name you want for your website url or social media handles so you have to choose second rate names that prevent your platforms from gaining followers
You are attracting the wrong people to you who aren’t buying or engaging with you
Imagine doing all that work to start your own brand online but then you have to make significant changes that effectively mean you need to start from scratch.
Or worse, receiving a cease and desist letter from another business who’s branding or trademark you’ve unknowingly infringed upon.
It can be a nightmare scenario and really kill the motivation and momentum you worked so hard to create putting in the time, energy and work to put yourself and your business idea out there online.
I want to help make the branding process easy for you so you get it right the first time or make the necessary changes to your branding now that will remove blocks and potential conflicts in the future.
Module #1 of EMPIRE BUILDING is focused on the topic of Branding and in it I will teach you everything you need to know to solidify a cohesive and reliable brand online.
The EMPIRE BUILDING 6 Week Live Class Experience begins on Monday September 21st with our fist live video class and Q+A scheduled for 7pm EDT.
Each week for 6 weeks I am going to teach you one of the 6 modules of EMPIRE BUILDING live, while I also simultaneously update the content and resources of the class to be current with digital marketing trends and technology.
For the 6 weeks of the class, you will also have access to a private Slack channel for group coaching and support from me.
Although class officially beings on September 21st, if you enroll now, I will also let you into the Slack chat early and start coaching you now, sharing more of the behind the scenes of this launch with you for additional value and support.
Plus you get over $1,000 in additional bonuses for enrolling in the course this round.
The whole experience wraps up the close of October, so if you act now that is 7 weeks of coaching and direct support by me.
Of course, once the live class is wrapped up and our work together is done, you will get lifetime access to EMPIRE BUILDING and a year of email support from me as well.
So, if you want to learn more about this experience, click the button below to check out the full sales page. From there you will be able to enroll!
I can’t wait to work directly with you on your business- I know this is going to be a truly unique and valuable experience for all of us.
To be completely raw with you- I am extremely excited, nervous and slightly terrified to make this announcement!
That’s because today I am doing something I have never done before in my business.
This is something I am often asked about by my customers, and for the past few months has felt like a calling from my heart to show up and serve my community more intentionally and more deeply.
I am finally opening up a live round of my signature online business program, EMPIRE BUILDING for enrollment right now!
For the past 6+ years running my business online, I have always been super intentional about the products, classes and courses I create and offer to you.
That’s because I understand and execute on a much overlooked principle of business: your business can be as simple or as complicated as you make it.
Business can be hustle and grind 24/7 with the help of a team,
Or (if you’re like me) it can be 2-4 hours of solo work a day with systems and automation.
Business does not need to be difficult or complicated- my 6 figure passive income business is proof of that concept.
By keeping things simple and straightforward, I have been able to keep my business running solo and profitable through multiple key milestones.
• My business survived the 120 day mark where 90%+ of businesses fail.
• My business survived the dreaded, 1, 3 and 5 year marks where the majority of small businesses close up shop for good.
• And now, my business has not only survived, but honestly been thriving, during a global pandemic where many businesses have had to significantly pivot or close entirely.
There is nothing inherently unique about me or my business.
The only thing that truly sets my results apart from others is that I approach my business very intentionally so that it plays to my strengths and skills, and I am very deliberate about where I spend my time and energy.
Now is the time for me to spend and invest more of my time and energy into a live round of EMPIRE BUILDING so I can personally teach you my methodologies, strategies and business philosophy so that you too can build your brand and business on a firm foundation online.
If that sounds like something you would like to learn about, I urge you to enroll in this next round of EMPIRE BUILDING NOW!
The 6 Week Live Class Experience is going to begin on Monday September 21st with our fist live video class and Q+A scheduled for 7pm EDT.
Each week for 6 weeks I am going to teach you one of the 6 modules of EMPIRE BUILDING live, while I also simultaneously update the content and resources of the class to be current with digital marketing trends and technology.
For the 6 weeks of the class, you will also have access to a private Slack channel for group coaching and support from me.
Although class officially beings on September 21st, if you want to enroll now, you will get early bird access to the 2 Fast Action bonus’ that expire on Monday September 14th.
Plus you get over $1,000 in additional bonuses for enrolling in the course this round.
AND- if you enroll now, I will also let you into the Slack chat early and start coaching you now, sharing more of the behind the scenes of this launch with you for additional value and support.
The whole experience wraps up the close of October, so if you act now that is 7.5 weeks of coaching and direct support by me.
Of course, once the live class is wrapped up and our work together is done, you will get lifetime access to EMPIRE BUILDING and a year of email support from me as well.
So, if you want to learn more about this experience, click the button below to check out the full sales page. From there you will be able to enroll!
Of course, don’t forget that I do have the FREE Business Training Class ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS THE NEW BLACK on Saturday the 12th @ 2PM EDT, and I am going to talk more about this offer at the end of the class if you want to know more.
Or you can email, comment or DM me with questions!
I can’t wait to work directly with you on your business- I know this is going to be a truly unique and valuable experience for all of us.
❤︎ MAKE AN IMPACT ON THE LIVES OF PEOPLE ALL OVER WITH THE WORLD WITH YOUR GOD GIVEN GIFTS, TALENTS, SKILLS & INTERESTS
❤︎ START AND RUN YOUR OWN ONLINE BUSINESS FROM HOME OR WHEREEVER YOU HAPPEN TO BE
❤︎ USE MULTIPLE MONEY MAKING STREAMS TO EARN A FULL TIME INCOME THAT GIVES YOU FINANCIAL SECURITY EVEN IN TIMES OF CRISIS AND UNCERTAINTY
❤︎ HAVE THE FLEXIBILITY TO WORK WHEN YOU WANT, WHERE YOU WANT, SO YOU HAVE MORE TIME TO SPEND WITH THE PEOPLE AND PLACES YOU LOVE THE MOST
❤︎ EXPERIENCE THE ULTIMATE TIME, LOCATION AND FINANCIAL FREEDOM TO LIVE THE LIFE OF YOUR DREAMS
GOOD! BECAUSE THIS FREE BUSINESS TRAINING CLASS IS PERFECT FOR YOU!
REGISTER BELOW TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT IN MY LATEST BUSINESS TRAINING CLASS
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS THE NEW BLACK
THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD VIA LIVESTREAM ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH @ 2PM EDT
DURING THIS CLASS I AM GOING TO LAY OUT EXACTLY WHAT IT TAKES TO START YOUR OWN BUSINESS AND LIVE THE LIFE OF TIME, LOCATION AND FINANCIAL FREEDOM THAT DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP CAN GIVE YOU.
YOU’LL LEARN:
✔︎ MY SIMPLE FORMULA FOR DIGITAL MARKETING MADE EASY
✔︎ HOW TO ATTRACT YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMERS
✔︎ THE COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT DIGITAL MARKETING THAT CAUSE SO MANY NEW BUSINESSES TO WASTE TONS OF TIME, MONEY AND ENERGY BEFORE ULTIMATELY CLOSING THEIR DOORS FOREVER!
I WANT TO SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE I’VE ACQUIRED THROUGH MY 6+ YEARS OF EXPERIENCE RUNNING MY OWN 6 FIGURE PASSIVE INCOME BUSINESS TO ENSURE YOU KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE YOUR DREAM A REALITY AND HAVE A FOOLPROOF BLUEPRINT TO HELP YOU GET THERE!
REGISTER BELOW TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT AND I’LL SEND YOU EMAIL REMINDERS, A DIRECT LINK TO THE LIVE STREAM AND A FREE WORKBOOK TO HELP YOU MAKE THE MOST OF WHAT YOU LEARN!
I hope you had a wonderful and productive month of August. My month was pretty successfulwith the implementation of my new content schedule that I outlined for you in last months installment of this series. So, I wanted to give you a recap of how the past month has gone for me, the results I’ve seen from just a few weeks of work, and how I really feel like I’ve been embodying the concept of working smarter, not harder through this process.
My New Content Posting Schedule
To give you a recap of my new posting schedule, I am now publishing content every day of the week onto one of my platforms.
MWF I post to Instagram, T/Th I post to my blog, Sat is a YouTube Video and Sun is an email to my list.
So, I’ve been creating a lot of content, but it honestly has been such a breeze for me because I have been implementing some great productivity strategy for time and task management.
Time and Task Management Strategies I’ve been Using
First, in terms of the task management aspect of this, all of my content ideas are preplanned as part of my editorial calendar, so I always know what I am creating for each piece of content. Yes, I have made a few last minute changes to content, but overall, knowing exactly what I am posting on what platform on which day is such a time and energy saver. Even if I am low on time, there is no decision fatigue that I face for my content, I just need to do what I already planned to do- pretty easy!
Another task and time management strategy I have been relying on heavily for the last month is batching my work. When I film videos for youtube, for instance, I film two in one day, which means I only have to film every other week, instead of weekly. I don’t consider filming to be difficult work overall, but batching my filming saves so much time because much of my time on filming days is literally the setup. Doing my hair and makeup, getting my camera equipment set up, getting the dogs settled so I can actually film without background barking. All that takes time and to only have to go through that process every other week is a major time and energy saver. Then of course I also edit and upload my videos together and schedule everything to go live on the proper days which helps me to get ahead on my work.
I also batch other work as well. I always write my blog posts for a week together on the same day, and at this point I am writing for a week ahead so everything is scheduled and ready to go.
The only content I end up posting in real time are my Instagram posts because I can’t autoschedule those. Of course, I do write most of those captions and decide on the photo or video ahead of time to make it all easy for me. I have been using the Apple Notes app on my MacBook/iPhone to organize the elements of my Instagram posts so I have all the pieces on hand when I am ready to publish.
My weekly email as well is always written a few days ahead of time and scheduled. I usually write those on Friday as my last work task for the week which has been working out very well.
Sticking to My Daily Top 3 Tasks
The final time and task management strategy I have been sticking to very well over the past month is the idea of my Top 3. In July with the launch of the 2021 Planner insert collection, I switched my weekly view in my planner to week on one page as opposed to the week on two pages I had been using all year.
The major difference with these inserts is that they are much more focused on prioritizing your top 3 list, which is a strategy I often talk about where you literally list the three things you absolutely need to focus on for the day. The way I work and the way I plan, I don’t normally write down each and every task I have to complete in a day, instead I like to focus on writing down just the things I know are super important, business related or things I just need to stick to. Like if I could only accomplish three things very well today, what would they be? Nothing else matters as much as these three tasks.
So, in order to avoid overwhelm and stay as focused as possible with this new content schedule, as well as my other work for the month, I have been sticking to the top 3 list each day as a place to guide my energy and focus. I try to knock out the top 3 as quickly as possible because I know if I just get those things done, I am golden. I have nothing to worry about, little things can be forgotten but these three must be done.
I’ve also gotten even better at prioritization because of this practice because I do believe prioritization is a skill that you need to develop to understand what is truly important to get done for the day and what just seems urgent.
The Results I’ve Seen
Now, you might not think that posting on a consistent schedule for just a few weeks would have such a noticeable impact so quickly, but I have already been able to see some significant results.
✔︎My subscriptions on Youtube are up 25% from prior month.
✔︎My Instagram follower count is up about 100 and I’m getting more views on my IG Stories than usual.
✔︎I’ve been receiving more replies to my emails.
✔︎ I’ve been receiving much more engagement from my audience across platforms.
✔︎ The Charmed Shop is getting more consistent daily sales.
Honestly, it’s those last three that are the most important to me. I don’t really give too much concern over follower numbers as long as I am growing that’s good. I realize I am in a very privileged position that I already have a sizable audience online. At least my audience and my list are a size I am very proud of and help support my business in a way that I feel good about. The size of my audience, however, is also likely why I have had such great results in such a quick period of time. I’m not building an audience from scratch, I am just re-engaging them with my content across my platforms.
I’m eager to see how my community starts reengaging with me more and more over the coming months, especially on Instagram where I have been so stagnant for so long because I have just not been posting good content there. I know it’s easy for creators, influencers and business owners to blame a platform or an algorithm for why their accounts aren’t growing or engaged, but I know the truth is usually that the account itself is the problem. I know in my example that is true for sure. I took a big break from Instagram (several years…oops) so I have only myself to blame for low engagement. Hopefully, I’ll be able to revive my account through interesting, valuable and eye catching content and prove that it’s not the platform itself that’s the problem.
So, that is how I have been working smarter, not harder in August getting my new content schedule underway. Of course, I look forward to September being more of the same, more content, more engagement, more sales, more of me creating a valuable and popular business that serves my customers and audience well!
I hope you found this post to be informative and enlightening. I would love to know your thoughts on my new content schedule, so please share with me in the comments!
Wishing you a productive and successful month ahead!
In todays video I want to walk you through how I create my business marketing plans. Specifically what I want to show you today is my complete marketing plan for august, the process I follow to create the marketing plan, the tools I use to do so, and what the final outcome looks like.
If you’ve been following closely to my content, you may know that in the month of August I set out a new content schedule for my business. So every single day I am posting content to one or another of my platforms. That includes my Youtube channel, my blog, instagram and my email list as well.
So that is a lot of content to generate, outline and create. But, content is the major marketing strategy that I use to grow my audience, attract my ideal customers and of course sell my products!
Of course, all my plans are kept neatly organized inside my planner, so, lets jump into an overhead view so I can show you the exact tools I am using to create my marketing plans, plus the process I follow to get the end result of all the amazing content like this video that you get to enjoy from me!
First, let’s talk about the planning tools I use for my business marketing process.
It should be no suprise that I use the inserts from the CEO Strategy Planner. Specifically, we are going to be looking at the marketing plan set of inserts.
The first step of my process for creating my marketing plan is to do a content brainstorm.
So using my Content Brainstorm pages, I highlight the month the brainstorm is for, then I fill in the content categories I want to create for. My content categories as you can see are Planning, Business and Energy (which refers to mindset and manifestation content).
Then I will start coming up with content ideas for each category as it pertains to the 5 content outcomes listed down the side of the insert. So the outcomes or subtypes of content are Educate, Entertain, Inspire, Inform and Interact- all content should fit into one of those subtypes no matter what your brand or message is and I think its a best practice to come up with a range of ideas that fit all 5 subtypes in order to grow a steady and engaged following.
So I literally go through these types one by one and start generating ideas.
How can I educate my audience on planning this month? How can I educate them on business this month, and the ideas go in their appropriate box.
Then, once I have lots of ideas generated and filled up this spread, I can start creating the marketing plan itself.
Again, using the monthly Content Planner Insert I select the month, and then fill in the boxes for specific things I have going on in my business.
So, for products, I like to fill in what products I am focused on selling for the month. Now obviously, its great for me to sell all of my products, but I can’t talk about everything everyday, so this helps me focus on perhaps what’s new or what’s on sale or what is timely. For August, I was focused on 2021 Inserts because they were new and timely, and also the CEO strategy planner because I ran a sale on it in August so it would be good for my content this month to be focused on those things.
Next opt-ins I am focused on. Some businesses have only one or a few opt-ins, I have a lot, so I like to list the ones I am focused on promoting in the month here.
Then, campaigns. What organized marketing efforts so I have to execute this month? So, for me, August was all about my new posting schedule and as part of that, also a live weekly email. So, that work was a priority and the campaign I was working on.
Then we get to the Platforms and Content Section of the insert.
So here I list out the platforms I create content for.
I have three columns listed because its a great business strategy to use 3 different platforms, but if you use less or you use more feel free to adjust as needed.
So I fill in here, Blog, Youtube and IG/IGTV.
My new content schedule has me blogging twice a week, tuesday, thursday, posting one video a week to youtube on saturday and then posting three days a week to instagram , monday wed and friday with one post on wed being an IGTV post. I don’t normally worry about planning out IG stories or the new reels because they are less of a focus for me right now but as always plan what you need to plan do what works for you.
So referring back to the content brainstorm, I will pick out posts topics and decide which content is best suited for a blog post, which a youtube video and which for IG. Then I just listed out my selections for my editorial calendar in each column. I make a little checkbox with my highlighter and I add the date for myself for reference as well, but that is all of my content planned out for the month.
Now in addition to these two steps, I also like to track my content on a Content Tracker Insert. I have one for each platform where I will list out the content title and keep track of what work I have completed for it. this is great for when I am bulking work which I normally always do, it helps to know what steps I have competed and what I have left as I do my work.
Then finally, I will also sometimes, but not always use a Content Outline Insert to organize my ideas. Now, because my work is all done on a computer, I normally write everything out on my computer, but sometimes I just like to see plans for content, especially youtube videos, mapped out. It just makes it easier for me to create an outline sometimes if I can organize my thoughts like this ahead of time.
These outline pages have space for three pieces of content and have a place for title or subject, sate, the key points I want to make, the call to action, any opt in I might be sharing and a place to list out additional media I need to include.
So, one more little piece I would like to show you us how my marketing plans fit in with my overall Monthly Business Plans.
My Q3 Business Plan Insert lists the big picture Focus, Marketing and List Building activities for each month. So, then I have a break down of my Monthly Business Plan for August where I map everything out including my content schedule, important dates and events and the key business tasks I have to complete.
So, that is how I create marketing plans for my business and the tool I use to get the job done, the CEO Strategy Planner.
The final thing I want to drive home with this video before we wrap up is that although I make my plans and set them up and outline content, etc, I am not afraid to change my plans as needed. I might map out all my content for my editorial calendar but later in the month I might switch a post out because I have something more important that has come up for me to say. So I want you to know that just because you make a plan doesn’t mean it can’t be edited, but overall, I think its a great practice to outline your business plans like this and make a solid effort to stick to it.
So many people starting a business right now make plans and when they don’t see immediate results they change the plan and still don’t see results and then they get frustrated that planning doesn’t work. Planning does work but you have to stick to your plan more often than not and above all stick to the same strategies consistently to see results. Just because one of my youtube videos for the month might not get the attention I hope for, doesn’t mean I stop making videos. I don’t ditch the strategy entirely. Progress and results with business planing come from sticking to the right strategies and learning what examples work and don’t work within the frame of the strategy itself.
And thats why I love the CEO Strategy Planner, because its giving you a framework for online business and digital marketing strategy and then you have the flexibility to play with your marketing and test out and try new things. But at the end of the day you know what you are doing and why because have you have a line of sight to your objectives!
So I hope this information has been helpful. If you want to purchase your copy of the CEO Strategy Planner, remember these are strategic business planning inserts and worksheets you print at home from a PDF file you purchase from me. Purchase your copy today and get started making your marketing plans using the same strategies that brought my youtube channel to nearly 100,000 subscribers and close to 10 million views, my Blog to over 1 million page views annually, and my Instagram to over 25k followers.
I hope you had a wonderful and productive month of July. I know I, yet again, took a step back from the blog last month in order to focus more fully on completing and launching my 2021 Planner Insert Collection, but I am back and I have amazing news for you!
Last week, I had a TREMENDOUS BREAK-THRU! And it has to do with my content.
If you’ve been following my Entrepreneurial Journey for the past few years, you may recall that there was once a time (2016 and few years previous) that I had been posting consistently across all my major platforms. I blogged several times a week, posted weekly videos, even updated my Instagram feed multiple times per week. But in 2017 I burnt out, I took a step back and pretty much since that time, I have been struggling to get myself back onto a consisting posting schedule across all my platforms.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying, I would set out with the best of intentions to reignite content on my platforms but for no substantial reason outside of a major mental block, I couldn’t make it work. There was something in my mindset, some limiting belief about what I was capable of and what would be sustainable that ultimately continuously threw me off my content creation schedule.
Over the last few weeks since the launch of my inserts, you may have seen I had been posting 3 videos a week, trying to catch up on essential videos I knew I needed to produce to answer key questions you in my community have been asking me to address, particularly around my inserts. The launch was the optimal time to get that content out to you and I was able to make it happen, of course at the expense of posting to other platforms.
But last week I had a break-thru. During a particularly High Vibe Business Planning Session, I sat down and felt inspired to map out a complete Marketing Plan for all my platforms. Blog, YouTube, IG, and even my email list. And in that moment something major clicked for me. Like the proverbial switch had been flipped and the lights turned on. I had a reasonable content creation schedule sitting in front of me that was populated with content I was actually excited to create.
Now, I’m not going to claim this break-thru was completely sudden. It was definitely the result of some mindset work I have been doing over the past few months to help me get out of that weird funk I had been sitting in because of all the world drama that was emotionally draining me. Particularly, in just the few days before that High Vibe Planning Session, I had done a few excellent journaling and future writing sessions where I believe I unclogged a lot of negative gunk that had accumulated in my mind over the past few years.
There is a quote I love from Marianne Williamson that says “God is the water, and you are the faucet.” I think my faucet had been clogged for quite some time and I needed to do the work of removing it from my psyche so that the water could flow again.
And flow it certainly did!
You know, several times over the past few years, I have hit a peak with my mindset after a period of stagnation, and I feel like each time those small break-thrus helped me take more and more steps into alignment. Even though valleys ultimately followed those peaks, right now in this moment I feel an even greater sense of clarity and confidence that I will be able to follow through on this new endeavor because this time it feels like a missing piece has been found. I’m seeing my future vision so much more clearly then I have in a long time. And for the first time in a long time, my content schedule isn’t merely a fill in the blank schedule, it’s actually filled with exciting content ideas.
So, of course I want to share my new content schedule with you! Here is what you can expect:
MONDAY Instagram Post
TUESDAY Blog Post
WEDNESDAY Instagram IGTV Post
THURSDAY Blog Post
FRIDAY Instagram Post
SATURDAY YouTube Video
SUNDAY Email to my list
Yea, that is one heck of a content schedule, right? Daily content from me and I feel very positive about it.
Of course, if you want to make sure you catch all the wonderful content I produce, you are going to want to make sure to do the following:
Next, let me give you a short preview of the types of content you can expect from me moving forward.
Planning & Productivity (of course!)
Online Business Strategy
What I’m reading and book recommendations
Mindset shifts
Metaphysical topics
My success rituals
Inspiration and motivation to live your best life and pursue your dreams
New monthly freebies, downloads and updates to TheCharmedShop.com as well!
There is so much I can’t wait to share with you moving forward! I do hope you will continue with me on this journey and that we can use this opportunity to grow closer together as a community. I would love to hear about what content you would like to see from me and have me integrate into this new content schedule, so don’t hesistate to leave me a comment, send me an email or drop me a DM on Instagram!
Wishing you a productive and successful month ahead!
Today I want to share with you a recent video I made explaining how I built my business website. This is a question I get asked about a lot. What platforms I used, how I built it myself, what plugins for business I use, my hosting company and the package I use. Everything you want to know about my business websites is compiled into this video.
I hope this video helps answer your questions about building your own custom business websites. If you have any questions, I’d be glad to answer them in the comments below!
In about a week my business will be celebrating its sixth year in existence! First of all, I would just like to say how proud I am that it surpassed the dreaded five year mark of failure, wherein a vast majority of businesses close up shop within the first five years. So, I guess we could say I have a good grip on what it takes to run a business online, successfully. Has the road been perfect? Certainly not. I know I have made mistakes along the way and although I don’t like to have regrets, I certainly am aware of business decisions I made that didn’t turn out the way I wanted. All of this experience over the past six years has made me stronger though. From trial and error I know more of what I want from my business and what I am trying to create with it. I’ve also learned a lot about what it takes on a personal and energetic level to establish and remain balanced as a business owner. Managing my time, energy and expectations so that I can achieve my business goals right alongside my personal life goals, and still be moving my life forward in all the areas that matter to me. So, if you would like to know more about some of the insights I’ve gleaned on this topic, this is what I would like to share with you today.
If you are trying to find balance as a small business owner, there are three main objectives you have to learn and make routine priorities in your life:
✔︎ You have to learn to Manage Your Time
✔︎ You have to learn to Focus Your Energy
✔︎ And you have to learn to Balance Your Expectations
Manage Your Time
The first aspect you must learn into order to find balance as a small business owner is to manage your time. This is one of the most practical lessons you must learn because running a business is a different kind of demanding job than other careers. Yes, time management is key for everyone to learn, but when you are running a business and you are both the boss and the employee, the visionary leader and the practical worker, priorities are everywhere and their is always more work to do then you can actually get done.
In order to get really good at time management, I think the best place to start is by getting crystal clear on your priorities and create a system for prioritizing tasks. As you will be doing the difficult task of defining the direction for your business, breaking it down into objectives and project plans, and then executing on the work, knowing what work is the priority is always important.
As a solo business owner, I wear a heck of a lot of hats and I move between a lot of different types of work. So to keep this organized, I like to manage my work time on a themed workday schedule. Every day of the week is earmarked for different types of work so that I can be as efficient as possible when switching between different types of tasks.
I also tend to operate my personal daily schedule based on the concept of the top three list. Meaning, everyday I define my work, but I create priorities from my to do list by highlighting three tasks that are the most important to achieve that day. The prioritization aspect of how I choose my top three is defined based on my personal system of prioritization, but generally speaking, I have predefined what my creative output will be for a week and those items become the most important work to finish, followed by scheduled projects and then general business housekeeping tasks.
Now, to ensure that I establish balance with my time each day, I do also stick to a daily schedule that makes time for me to complete my personal routines and tasks throughout the day along side my work tasks. I like having a defined daily routine for my workday because seeing my tasks laid out on an hourly schedule keeps me motivated to stick to it, as I can clearly see that following such a schedule gives me ample time to achieve my personal and business objectives for a single day.
Focus Your Energy
There is a quote I love that states “where attention goes, energy flows” and that has come to be something of a motto that I live by. For me, I have seen how that statement is completely accurate. When I give my time and attention to to topic, I am sending my energy to it, whether I intend to or not, which is why I find it very important that I use my morning routine to set my mind and focus for the day so that I minimize mental distractions.
I achieve this with my morning meditation and journaling practice. After I awaken in the morning, I am in the habit of turning on a meditation and laying in bed, clearing my mind and elevating my personal energy to a state of relaxed bliss. Once I get up out of my meditation and deal with my personal hygiene tasks, I then head to my office where I spend no more than 10 minutes journaling in my High Vibe Bible inserts. On these inserts I have a place to list out my daily gratitude, which again adds to that blissful emotional state. Then, I also have a space to journal my thoughts and plans for the day. Once I am in a positive headspace I find that its much easier for me to create my daily to do list and get excited about the tasks I have to accomplish that day. Going through this daily energetic process even makes me more motivated to undertake tasks that I might normally want to avoid, because instead of approaching them from a place of anxiety or worry, I am approaching them with a mindset of possibility and determination. When I start my day like this, happy and content, I am infinitely more productive, and distractions have a harder time breaking through the energetic boundary I have set for myself.
But, of course, a happy disposition alone isn’t always enough to keep distractions at bay. This is why I do my best to set my work area up to minimize distractions. I am very lucky that right now I don’t have many distractions at home, but I do take steps to ensure I remain focused with my work. I don’t watch tv during the day, I keep my phone on silent and I usually even mute my computer sounds so that email notifications don’t disturb my work. I don’t like to read the news while I’m working because that can often shift my emotional and mental state in a direction I don’t want it to go. But, I do sometimes enjoy listening to music, specifically classical music that keeps me uplifted and productive while I perform certain tasks. Sometimes, depending on the work I am doing, I will even listen to a book on tape. All these actions help me to minimize distractions that might leech my attention and energy away from my work.
Balance Your Expectations
The third and final element of finding balance as a creative business owner is balancing your expectations. On one hand this concept compliments the idea of priorities discussed under managing your time, but it really goes beyond that. Balancing your expectations is more about understanding your limitations and knowing how much you can accomplish realistically. I think a lot of times creative entrepreneurs have such big visions that they try to do too much too soon. They take on a lot of work and then work becomes their entire life, or work drains them to the point of failure and burnout. I know it is a challenge living in the digital age and seeing all the possibilities of how you can build a business and market online, but you need to draw the line at what works for you and what is realistic for you to achieve.
Taking myself for instance. I know that something that works for me is writing, so I write three blog posts a week. I don’t think I could do more than three outside of an occasional extra update and remain as productive as I am, however. Same thing goes with my video creation. I used to make two videos a week, but I burned out of enthusiasm for that after a few years, so now I stick to one. I might see other businesses posting more, or in different ways. I am often asked to start a podcast, but with what time and energy because I am booked up at the moment.
You need to get clear with yourself on the expectations you are setting for yourself and your business to manage your workload on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, as well as to understand the signs of when you need to refill your energy and in what ways to do that. I do a lot of self-care on a daily basis. I have self-care routines starting from the moment I wake up and start meditating, to weekly meal preparations, and even regular quiet time alone. I know the amount of self-care I need to take on in order to properly fill my cup so that each day and week I have the energy to take on my realistic workload. It’s a balance, energy in and energy out. Burnout comes from too much energy out and not enough energy back in.
Well, that is how I balance my energy as a creative business person, focusing on how I manage my time, focus my energy and balance my expectations. This productivity triangle of sorts is the key to how I manage to get so much done, even as a solopreneur. Now, if you would like some additional help on this topic of finding balance as a business owner or entrepreneur, I would also recommend that you check out my CEO Strategy Day Concept and FREE Template. You can read all about it here, but briefly, my CEO Strategy Day Concept is a routine I use to keep myself operating efficiently and ensure my life is balanced without any important items slipping through the cracks. I hope the CEO Strategy Day Template helps you to plan and execute a day for you to get into alignment with your highest self and goals for your best life!
I’d love to hear what you thought of this information, so please do share your feedback and opinions in the comments. I’d also love for you to share any additional tips you use to keep yourself balanced as a creative entrepreneur or business person!
The 6 Business Assets that are More Important than Your Business Plan
One of the most popular questions I get asked whenever I talk about online business building is always about business plans. For one reason or another, the concept of a business plan, what it is, why it’s necessary and how to create your own, always seems to be a primary concern to beginner business owners and/or those who are curious about online business and thinking about starting their own. When you are first getting started creating a business, you have dozens if not hundreds of tasks on your plate all at the same time. If you are lucky, you may have help with your workload, but that still means you have many priorities to balance in order to get your business off the ground. Your business plan is just a document that explains what you are trying to do with our business, which, often times when we are getting started, is a hard concept to define! Until you truly have your business up and running, it doesn’t help you with anything, nor does it legitimize your hard work and effort. For that reason, I think there are way more important items and business assets to tackle before you ever even worry about your business plan. Today, I want to talk about six such items that I think you should have in order as a small business owner before you even worry about writing a business plan!
Website
If you are operating a business of any kind, online or off, having a website is a must. When people hear about your business, products or services, the first thing they are going to do is Google you to find out more about you and unless you have thrown a stake in the ground with your own website and claimed your distinct area of the internet, you are loosing a very powerful opportunity to engage with potential customers and clients. People will search for you online and make many instant decisions over whether or not they want to purchase from or work with your business based on information they find or do not find online. For this reason, putting the necessary time and effort into your website to ensure it provides an accurate and intriguing face to your business is a must!
Another term that I often find thrown around along with business plan is business model. Your business model is the way in which you plan to make money with your business. Remember, until you earn money from your effort, you don’t actually have a business, just a hobby! Your business model is a defined strategy for how money will flow into your business. Until you have your business model worked out and begin earning a steady income from it, there is no reason to even think about a business plan! Until you truly begin earning income from your business, so many factors are up in the air. Spend your time thinking about ways you can earn income and execute on those actions before you worry about your business plan.
Your products and/or services are definitely the most important part of your business! Like I mentioned earlier, if your business isn’t earning revenue, it’s not a business, so ensuring you are creating and offering the right products and services is crucial. Your products and services go hand in hand with your business model. Working to develop not only great products that people are eager for, but also defining the right methods for distribution and production (which are essential elements of your business model) will help you to maximize your revenue and grow your business.
Your business runs on systems. They are the actions or sets of actions you take on a regular basis to perform your business tasks. As a business owner you could have systems for processing payments, systems for paying bills, systems for managing tasks and creating products. Or systems for working with clients! There are a variety of systems that business owners use to manage their day to day workload and keep their business running, and the more deliberate and thought out you can make these systems, the easier your work will be. The most important system that you will want to spend a good deal of time and thought on is your customer service system- those actions you will take to manage customer service inquiries and interact with or troubleshoot issues for your customers and potential customers! Because the success of these systems has a direct impact on your business revenue and growth, this is the first system you should define once you begin making money from your products and services. It will go a long way to helping you develop a customer-centric culture within your organization, and will be your best form of PR!
Perhaps you don’t think of your daily work schedule as an asset for your business, but the truth of the matter is that your time is your ultimate business asset! As a business owner who works solo or even has a team of people working with them, the way you choose to spend your time working on your business is critical to its success. You should first strive to define all the necessary work for your business and then understand which actives and tasks are the highest use of your time and executive function. You will want to do all you can to maximize the time you spend performing duties that actually earn your business revenue and streamline or delegate administrative items that keep the business afloat but don’t earn. If you were to place an hourly rate on your time and an hourly rate on the different activities that need to be accomplished for your business, you want to do higher value work more often!
The online marketplace is saturated with content, there is no doubt about that, but there is a clear trend illustrating that visual content and visual platforms are where businesses get the most bang for their buck! If you have minimal time to produce content, even promotional or marketing content, spend your time wisely and focus on visual mediums and platforms. Places like Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube command the most traffic and attention online, so learning how to optimize your business for these types of platforms will give you a competitive edge. To optimize your business visually, you need to get very clear on your visual branding and start using graphics and styled stock photography to tell your brand story. Sharing visuals of your products or styled images that define your services, help your potential customers connect and engage with your business.
Don’t let the idea of needing a business plan hold you back from moving your business forward, especially in infancy stages. You have more important work to do for getting your business off the ground and writing a business plan before you have clear proof of income and concept for your business is a waste of time. With time your most precious commodity, everything you choose to spend it on should be moving your business forward or growing your revenue! So, know I want to hear from you! When starting your business, what did you consider to be the most important activities you spent your time on? If you are thinking about starting a business, what’s currently holding you back or causing you pause? Let me know in the comments below!
How to Plan a Marketing Campaign for Your Business
Today I want to talk to you about how to plan a marketing campaign. Some of you may already know that within my CEO Strategy Planner, there is an insert dedicated to creating a marketing campaign for your business and that is the process I am going to share with you today. If you already own the CEO Strategy Planner, perfect! You will be able to use your insert to map our your own marketing campaign quickly and easily with the help of this little tutorial. If you don’t already own your own copy of the CEO Strategy Planner and you are someone thinking about or currently trying to manage campaigns, you’re going to want this insert because it really is a tremendous tool to use to streamline and execute your marketing campaigns.
Before we get into the process itself, I just want to introduce you to how I use marketing campaigns and ease your mind a bit if you are someone who is overwhelmed at the idea of planning and executing one for your business. So, a marketing campaign can be any time sensitive promotion for your business, products or services. Think of it like a dedicated period of time where you are going to share marketing materials to attract your audience and create buzz around your products. I think a lot of times business owners just getting started can get overwhelmed with marketing campaigns because they think they need to do all the things in order to execute on a success campaign, but I’d like to reassure you that you can plan a simple, elegant campaign for your business that hits your goal without having to go overboard on content and messaging. In fact, I think simple is best when it comes to creating a successful campaign. I like to err on the side of simple instead of complicated because I’d rather have a simple campaign that I complete than a complicated campaign that overwhelms me and doesn’t get finished.
Now, in order to execute on a marketing campaign, you are going to need at least one online platform that you use to attract and talk to you customers. For me personally, I have a few different platforms that I use. I have my blog, my youtube channel, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and of course my email list. When I am planning a campaign for myself, I might use all of these platforms, but if I’m trying to keep it simple, I like to stick to just a few. At the very least you need one. And there needs to be an active audience on the platform you choose. That’s important. You see, there are two ways to market online. You can pay for ads to send your message to new folks that might not already know you, or you can market for free to the audience you have. The later is what I do and thats the process I am going to show you how to plan right now.
Planning a Marketing Campaign
Step 1: Name Your Campaign
The first step to creating your marketing campaign is to name it. I know it seems like a little thing but when you are planning out your marketing for the month or quarter you need to have a name or designation to use that clearly refers back to the different campaigns you are running. So make sure you have a clear name to use that is descriptive but simple. A recent campaign I finished was called CEO Strategy Planner Launch– it’s clear what product was being promoted and what type of campaign it was, a launch.
Step 2: Define your objective
For every marketing campaign you need to have a clear objective that you are trying to reach. It could be the number of sales you are trying to make of a product, the amount of money you want to earn, or even the amount of followers you are trying to gain. If I didn’t mention that before, campaigns don’t necessarily have to be able making money, they can be about gaining followers as well. Again, they are just a dedicated period of time where you are focused against marketing your business in some form or another. As an example, for my CEO Strategy Planner Launch campaign, I set a target for the number of units I wanted to sell during the launch period. It’s always good to have objectives defined, but if you feel unsure about where to start with setting them, I recommend trying the good, better, best method where you define what objective would mean you had a good result for your campaign, which would be better, and which objective would be the best case scenario. That way you can start learning how to set expectations for objectives like this.
Step 3: Outline your key messaging
With every campaign and objective there is going to be some key messages that you are trying to share with your audience. This could be information you are trying to share, or it could be a call to action you are trying to get your audience to fulfill. For example, if you were creating a campaign to sell a product, one of your messages might be about the limited time sale price or bonus’ the customer would receive. Another might be the key outcome your audience can expect to receive from purchasing your product, and a final message might be the end time for the promotion. We want to outline these key messages for a reason- so that all the messages we send out, all the posts, videos or emails associated with your campaign hit those few key points that you want to drive home. Knowing these message points going into a campaign makes it much easier to create all the different posts and updates you will end up sharing during the campaign itself.
Step 4: Define the start and end date for the campaign
Again, a simple detail but a very important one. After all, marketing campaigns don’t last forever, so you need to define the time period where the campaign and it’s objective are going to be your top priority. The time period you define for your campaign is going to be up to you and your schedule and the objective you are trying to reach. You could be holding a one day sale in your shop, planning a week long launch event or focusing on increasing your IG following for a month or more! Whatever the time period you think makes sense, define it so you aren’t working on this campaign forever!
Step 5: List out the marketing assets you will need for the campaign
A marketing asset is any digital promotion material that you can use or reuse as needed during your campaign. I break my assets into four categories. First, are Copy meaning text that I might use for blog posts, emails, or social updates. Next, are Photo meaning pictures or graphics I will use. I also use Video assets, pretty self explanatory but any video content I need to produce to go along with the campaign. Finally, I have an Other category where miscellaneous assets might be listed, like sales pages on my website, email landing pages, or opt-ins. Creating this list is important because its like the pre-campaign to do list of all the things you need to create to successfully market your business and meet your objective.
Step 6: Define the metrics you will track during the campaign
So, I’ll be honest, this step is one that I think a lot of business owners miss when they are planning a campaign but it is a crucial element that you can use to not only track the effectiveness of your campaign, but to also learn from to make future campaigns more successful. So, a metric is some factor that you are going to track to understand the success and impact of your campaign. Going back to my example of my CEO Strategy Planner Launch, I used the metrics of Sales, Email Opens and Email Clicks to measure the effectiveness of my campaign. Sales is an obvious metric. I had set a sales goal as my objective so tracking the target sales vs actual sales would be a good indicator of how successful the campaign was. I chose email opens and email clicks as well to gage the engagement of my audience. But I could have chosen from any number of other metrics as well. Video views, clicks on a specific tracked link, etc. If you are just getting started with marketing your business, some of this might be new to you, so take it slow and just strive to understand key factors that you can track to use a metrics for the success of your campaign.
Step 7: Compile a list of all broadcasts
The second full page my campaign builder from the CEO Strategy Planner is dedicated to a Broadcast Tracker. This is essentially a master list of all the messages I will need to send out during a campaign. Again, we are preplanning these messages out so this master list is important. On this list of broadcasts I make sure to track the date the broadcast will go out, you could also list out the time if that is important for your promotion as well. I list out the platform for each message so I know if its a blog post, video, IG Story or post or email, etc. I track the message itself, by providing a brief summary of what the message is about, and finally I track it’s completion with a checkbox. Looking at my CEO Strategy Planner Launch campaign page, I had 14 broadcasts that I made over a period of six days that spanned four different platforms, so that was a lot of communication to not only create, but ensure I was posting on time for my launch. Having a list like this helps me manage my workload going into a campaign and manage my daily expectations because I can see what the most important thing to do for my campaign is each day.
Well, that is exactly how I plan a marketing campaign for my business. I hope this information helps you to create your own marketing campaigns in the future, and of course, if you need a simple, strategic tool to help you make these plans, I highly recommend checking out the CEO Strategy Planner inserts. Not only do you get access to the Campaign Builder and Broadcast Trackers mentioned earlier, but you get a total of 60+ different business planning inserts to help you make a strategic plan for your business. The CEO Strategy Planner covers everything from Brand Vision, Yearly, Quarterly, and Monthly Business Plans, to Marketing, Objectives, and Finances as well. So, get your copy of the CEO Strategy Planner today because this is the ultimate business planning tool with everything your business needs in one bundle!
