Strange & Charmed

Entrepreneurial: How My Online Business Survived My Month-Long Hiatus!

Welcome back for another installment of Entrepreneurial, my monthly journal entry chronicling my experience as an entrepreneur, my victories and failures each month, and the lessons learned along the way.

How my online business survived my month-long hiatus!

As some of you may already know, July was a big month for me and my husband because we bought our first home and then moved into it. Thanks to all of you who sent your congratulations and words of encouragement and support on this major life milestone of ours, we truly appreciate it! I know that I am incredibly blessed to run my own business and therefore, I alone am the sole manager of my time, so when my husband and I were preparing for the purchase of our home and the major project which was preparing it for our arrival and then moving into it, we decided that I was going to pull back from my business for a few weeks. Initially, this meant that I was still going to be working but that I would stop doing certain time consuming tasks (like filming for YouTube) in order to spend time on this event which was our #1 priority.

Quickly, however, that plan went out the window when, despite our best attempts to plan and manage the new home situation, unexpected issues and stress took my mind off of my business and kept me preoccupied with a litany of house related obligations. So, as it turns out, I ended up doing little to no work for my business in July, a very scary, but also incredibly necessary choice I had to make. I was of course worried that this would damage my business and my brand. Although I built my business to be a passive income producer in theory, I had never really left it alone to its own devices. So this was a big test for me and how well I had built my business to run without me.

The results of a month away from my work were pretty unexpected. My business still brought in a steady income, not the amount I usually earn each month, but about 1/3^rd of it. Still enough for me to pay my bills and keep my head above water without having to dip into savings, and although with the major expense of the move, having my usual full income would have been great, I was pleased that things were running sustainably without me and that the time away didn’t cause a financial burden. In terms of my following, I was very pleased to see that after a hiatus of 6 weeks on YouTube, my channel was still growing at the same rate it had been and that my views were comparable to the same time frame last year. Even my blog traffic stayed consistent during this time which was great, and my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook following all grew at about the usually rate as well.

So, other than a dip in my income, it doesn’t appear that the month away did any damage to my brand, and I think I have some good solid reasons why!

#1. Having a backlog of high quality content kept my SEO and discoverability consistent so that new followers and customers were still flowing in. If you are a new business that doesn’t have much content built up on their platforms, I wouldn’t recommend taking an extended period of time off, but with hundreds of blog posts and hundreds more YouTube videos in my history means that there is lead generating content available at all times.

#2. Being transparent with my existing audience meant that everyone understood why I was gone and that I would be back! I really think this was a big reason my followers didn’t drop me during my time off and were actually excited for me to get back, because I let them know what was going on, why I was taking time off and when I would be back in business. I received many messages and emails during my time off expressing support and excitement for me and my husband, and sharing anticipation for me to come back with new content.

#3. Using social scheduling tools helped me to push out and promote existing content and products consistently, so that my accounts didn’t go completely dark. Although my Blog and YouTube weren’t being regularly updated, some of my other social feeds were, so my closest followers were still connecting with me and my content while I was gone and new followers were still able to find me, my content and my products!

#4. I regularly checked my email to remain connected and responsive to those who reached out. I’m a true believer that it’s very important to reply to your emails because for me, its a sign of respect that if someone spent the time to message me, I am going to spend the time to reply back, even if its just a short response. Although my email response rate was slower than normal, I did regularly check my email and reply as quickly as I could to customer service inquiries, questions and the outpouring of love I was receiving from my community!

So, that is my recap of July aka that time I took a month off and my business was still okay when I got back! I definitely learned a lot about life and business from the process of buying a home, moving and trying to manage my business in the process, which I will be sharing with you more in future posts and emails, so if you are not already subscribed to my newsletter, sign up here! Don’t forget to let me know how your July went, I can’t wait to catch up with you all over the next few days and weeks as I settle back into my work routines and start defining some new ones!

xoxo,

Productivity

Get Your Productivity Under Control with These Awesome Free Planner Inserts and Downloads!

Hello My Strange & Charmed Ones!

It’s been a minute since we last spoke, hasn’t it!?! As some of you may already know, the last month has been absolutely crazy for me because my husband and I bought our first home and moved into it, which was a massive undertaking that left me a little overwhelmed and kept me away from my work (and phone and computer!) to a degree that I never expected. Well, good news! Things are finally starting to settle down for us, although we have much work ahead of us, I do plan to get back into the groove of blogging and working come August and I hope that I can knock it out of the park with some great new content that you’ll enjoy! One thing I didn’t want to forget, however, was your monthly free downloads, so I am stopping by today to give you an update that they are ready for you to download over at The Charmed Shop! I’ve got your August Dashboard, a 30 Strategies to Make You More Productivity task list and of course, some beautiful August calendar tech wallpapers!

I have to admit, it’s been very weird for me not working much or interacting with you for the past month, so I would really appreciate it if you guys sent me some love and inspiration over on Instagram! Feel free to snap a pic of your inserts or wallpapers in use in your life and tag me @MissTrenchcoat so I can be inspired by your creativity.

Thank you all so much for your never ending love and encouragement, it really means so much to me, and thank you to all those who sent me messages and well wishes during my absence! Your kindness is so deeply appreciated!

xoxo,

Productivity

My Essential Oil Productivity Secret Weapon

My Essential Oil Productivity Secret Weapon

It’s no secret that I love and use essential oils on a regular basis to help me manage my mood and my productivity. For some, the topic of essential oils falls into the woo-woo category, it’s not actionable strategy, it isn’t a true productivity tool that can aid you in staying organized or remaining on task. For some, the concept of aromatherapy is on par with inspirational quotes and meditation, and that’s fine. But I’m here to tell you today that I don’t care how woo-woo it seems to use essential oils, I know that the affects of aromatherapy have drastically helped me improve my life and I want to share with you my number one essential oil secret weapon that does help me increase my productivity!

If you are someone who has a hard time waking up in the morning. If you are someone who looses focus throughout the workday or falls into the afternoon slump where you just want to take a nap. THIS SECRET WEAPON IS FOR YOU! Anytime I use it, my mood instantly turns to one of action and empowerment, and it seriously helps me boost my productivity for the day.

Let me tell you a little story!

Back in April, I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at a planner convention in Atlanta. I flew in for the event, met up with a great bunch of girls and we spent the evening before the event dining and having fun. I admittedly enjoyed myself a little too much, stayed up past midnight and had one too many drinks. My friends were slightly concerned that I may not wake up in the morning on time for our event, but I told them I would be there on time, bright eyed and bushy tailed!

The next morning, when my alarm went off at 6am, I immediately grabbed my secret weapon essential oil, sat in silence with it for about ten minutes breathing it in and waking myself up for the day. After that I drank down a bottle of water, got dressed and headed to the event. I was one of the first to arrive and I was on my feet for a solid 8-10 hours that day full of energy, no caffeine required. All the girls thought I was some sort of wonder woman and wanted to know my secret weapon, which I gleefully shared with them. It gave me the energy and focus to push past exhaustion and a hangover to put my best effort into the day ahead.

So, you’re probably wondering, what is this secret weapon? I’ll tell you…

Doterra Elevation Joyful Blend Essential Oil

Let me just take a moment to explain, this isn’t an advertisement or promotional post, I am not being paid to talk about this oil- it’s just seriously a tool in my arsenal that I use to get me up and at em when I need that extra lift. Some people turn to coffee, and I definitely do on a regular basis, but coffee doesn’t always sustain my energy and can leave me feeling even more tired once it’s affects wear off. Some people swear by pills or energy drinks, again, we are talking artificial chemicals or sweeteners and not our bodies own natural resources. When I take a few minutes to sit calmly and breathe in the scent of Doterra Elevation, I am stimulating energy resources inside myself. I’m not adding sugar or chemicals or addictive substances to my body, I’m flipping a switch inside myself that turns on my own juice!

Okay, so you’re probably wondering, what’s inside this Elevation Oil and how do I use it?

The elevation oil is a blend of floral, sweet and citrus to uplift your mind and produce energy. It’s ingredients include: Lavandin Flower, Lavender Flower, Hawaiian Sandalwood, Tangerine Peel, Melissa Flower, Ylang Ylang Flower, Elemi Resin, Osmanthus Flower, and Lemon Myrtle Leaf essential oils.

I like to use this oil a few different ways.

In the morning when I wake up, I like to sit quietly crossed legged, open the oil and keep it to my nose as I breath deeply in and out for a few moments. I will personally tie this to a gratitude or meditation practice where I am breathing the oil and thinking my positive, calming thoughts for the day at the same time.
During the workday I will either diffuse a few drops of the oil in my office space OR I will rub it onto my wrists so I can keep the scent lingering around me as I work. You could also add a few drops to your favorite hand lotion if you have sensitive skin that is easily irritated by scented oils.

Of course, these aren’t the only ways you can use the oil, but it’s the way I use it on a daily basis. I sincerely love this oil and consider it my number one productivity secret weapon for a reason- it really does help me to naturally elevate my mindset and promote productivity when I’m loosing focus! Definitely give it a try today, here is a link where you can purchase the oil if you are curious! If you use Elevation yourself or would like to recommend any other oils to me, I’d love for you to tell me about it in the comments.

xoxo,

Online Business

5 Reasons Snapchat isn’t Just for Teenagers Anymore

5 Reasons Snapchat isn’t just for teenagers anymore

Are you using Snapchat yet? Although I have had my Snapchat account for a while, it wasn’t until a little earlier this year that I really got into the platform. For a while, I, like everyone else, thought it was just a fad app for teenagers. That is what it seemed like, but now a few years and a bunch of hype later, the platform really seems to be exploding and you’d be surprised that it’s really shaping up to be a valuable entertainment and community building platform for adults and businesses alike. So, today I want to share with you the 5 reasons Snapchat isn’t just for teenagers anymore, and share some of my insights for why this platform is so popular and fun for businesses and adult users as well!

It’s like instant vlogging

Vlogging has seriously grown in popularity in the last few years thanks to YouTubers who took the concept of “follow me around” videos and turned it into it’s own genre of reality tv. But for as long as their has been vlogging, there have also been the struggle of vloggers to produce engaging content about their daily life quickly and easily. A whole sub market of goods has been developing to help people vlog, from selfie sticks to cameras with front facing LCD screens- vlogging is hard work and vloggers are always searching for new technology to make it easier. Well, enter Snapchat! A platform that gives you the ability to quickly capture video and images in real time to share with your following. It’s like the behind the scenes of the behind the scenes and for me personally, that is what I use snapchat for myself. I am not a daily vlogger, but with Snapchat, I can easily share snippets of my daily life with my followers. And more and more, the people I choose to watch on the platform are people who do the same!

Real time updates mean you can promote organically in real time

It terms of running a business, snapchat is also a great way to promote to your audience in real time. One of the most inauthentic parts of running a business and doing promotions is certainly the fact that everything needs to be done “ahead of time.” Promotions are prepackaged, emails are scheduled, posts are queued up. Nothing is left for that organic, in the moment reaction. Unless you use Snapchat! By building a following on Snapchat, you can tap into more organic promotion by sharing things as they happen in real time and optimizing your content for real life events. And since the content on the platform is on a timer, you can do things like run flash sales for a short window of time and by the time the promotion expires, so has your content!

Everyone from celebrities, to entrepreneurs to your favorite brands are using it

I remember back in 2014 when I first signed up for Snapchat myself, and even before that, the joke was that Snapchat was for teenagers to text each other funny/naughty/controversial things without the content being permanently out there for everyone to see or archived in some dark part of the internet to creep back up later and bite you in the butt! But now, it’s a fun platform where not only adults are enjoying and sharing, but we also see a variety of celebrities, entrepreneurs and brands active on the platform as well.

It gives your community personal access to you in a controlled environment

One of the things I love about Snapchat from a business standpoint is how it gives my audience instant access to me without me feeling like I’m putting too much information out there. My audience can send me snaps and ask me questions very easily through the app and get personal messages back from me that are part of a private conversation between the two of us. It’s easier than email because you are able to send just a short message or quick picture if you please, it’s better than twitter if you want to keep your conversation private, and it’s simpler than Facebook messaging because you don’t have to go through that whole platform to use it! I also like the fact that I can see who has viewed my snaps and who has taken a screenshot of them. It makes the whole process more transparent but also creates a private environment at the same time.

It’s pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it

Snapchat is a relatively easy platform to learn, as it really only allows you to do a few specific things. If you are interested in learning the platform for yourself, I created a whole video demonstration walking you through how to use the app if you are a beginner. Check that out below and make sure to follow me on Snapchat, my username is MissTrenchcoat of course!

So, will you be joining me on Snapchat or have you already joined the platform? I’d love to hear your experience with the app and if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

xoxo,

Photography

Happy 4th of July from the Birthplace of the Nation

Happy 4th of July Friends! Since most people in the United States have today off, I thought instead of my normal blog post, I would share some beautiful images I captured during a visit to Society Hill in Philadelphia. As some of you may know, I do currently reside in the suburbs of Philadelphia, but a few years ago I lived in a studio apartment in Society Hill Philadelphia, one of the most historic neighborhoods in the city filled with cobblestone streets and beautiful brick architecture dating back from the birth of our nation! I hope you enjoy these images of the city I love!

As I said, the Society Hill Headhouse Square area of Philadelphia was once my home and has a very special place in my heart!

My husband proposed to me under this historic building and gathering place in the middle of a snowstorm!

The architecture in this area of the city is a beautiful mix of classical and colonial.

The homes are all beautiful brick, with brick sidewalks on cobblestone tree-lined streets. A haven in this busy city.

On the weekends, horse drawn carriage tours are a regular sight.

As are early American flags!

And our more traditional American Flags are abundant as well!

This breathtaking area of the city is truly Americana at it’s finest.

Blue doors and stunning green ivy,

Paired with unexpected whimsy!

There is certainly nothing better than exploring this sleepy neighborhood of the city,

and taking a moment to let your surroundings take you back to the birth of the nation!

xoxo,

Business

Entrepreneurial: Half Way There!

My Monthly Entrepreneurial Journal for June 2016 — iPhone Case via Amazon

Welcome back for another installment of Entrepreneurial, my monthly journal entry chronicling my experience as an entrepreneur, my victories and failures each month, and the lessons learned along the way.

Half Way There!

It’s official Mid-Year and as an Entrepreneur or fellow business owner, we have a few housekeeping things to get in order! I find that now is the best time to take a moment to reflect on your business, projects and progress so far this year and make any necessary adjustments. In life and in business, I think too few of us try to push on and finish what we have started, even when its not working for us, and it takes a lot of courage to really stop and evaluate your progress to make sure you are still on the right track. For this installment of Entrepreneurial, I want to focus on getting your life and business tidy for the second half of the year!

The Mid-Year To Do List!

The first thing you need to do right now as a business owner is go ahead and perform a Quarterly Business Review. If you forget the process, I have a whole video on the subject you can watch and follow along with your own review here!
Take time to do a massive brain dump! I know you have too much on your mind right now, so give yourself a mental break and do a brain dump. If you aren’t sure of the process, here is a video I made on the subject for you to watch, and here is a link to a freebie in my shop- my Business Incompletion Triggers List! It’s great for helping you unload all those thoughts and plans that are leaving a permanent mark on your brain!
Take time to Refresh and Review your life as well as your business! I recently announced my July free printable task list which is a Mid-Year Refresh and Review with 31 things to do in July to get your life in order and on track now that we are half way through the year. Go through this list and make sure to get yourself reset for the second half of 2016!

My June Highlight Reel!

If you haven’t heard yet, my husband and I are closing on our first home! It’s a very exciting time for us and I am looking forward to all the changes this summer is going to bring to our life.
I recently announced that I am taking a break from YouTube for the next few weeks to prepare for those major life changes that come with home ownership. If you want to hear more about it- watch this video.
I finally signed up for Edgar! If you haven’t heard about this wonderful content promotion tool, definitely check it out because it’s making my job and my assistant’s job, so much easier!
I’ve changed my planner up a bit and am moving away from my spiral planner that I DIY’d last year and back into a fully discbound system. What can I say? I’m digging the discs. I hope to be able to share the new set up upon my return to YouTube.

Okay, well, that is my update for June! If you are feeling blue about my YouTube break, don’t forget to follow me on SnapChat, my handle there is MissTrenchcoat and I try to snap most days sharing bits of my life and behind the scenes. I’d love for you to follow along with me there for my summer adventures!

xoxo,

Personal Development

Preventing Burnout, Perfecting Emails & Creating Compelling Content!

It’s link roundup time! Check out some of these articles for some personal development, productivity and business inspiration!

Personal Development

Productivity

Business

I hope you enjoyed these articles and if you have any others that you think I would enjoy, please feel free to leave them in the comments below or tweet me the link @MissTrenchcoat!

xoxo,

Filofax

Time for a Mid-Year Refresh & Review! {Freebies!}

Who’s ready for a Mid-Year Refresh & Review? July is right around the corner and with half of the year behind us, it’s the perfect time to take a moment and reflect on everything we have accomplished so far and what we still hope to accomplish before the year ends. So, to help you with this process, my Free monthly task list for July is centered around 31 things you can do to get a fresh start at this mid year mark and get yourself into a positive mindset to tackle everything else left on the to do list for the year! Of course, like always, I also have a new July Dashboard as well, so if you would like to download these freebies for the month of July click here and you can download them from my shop!

Of course, your planner isn’t the only accessory that gets to have all the fun this month, so make sure to check out my new July “Sunnies Out” Tech Wallpapers to give your computer, tablet or smartphone some summer inspired digs for the month! Click here to access my free wallpapers over on my shop as well!

I hope you the first half of 2016 has been good to you, and I wish you the best of luck with your Mid-Year Refresh & Review! If you do download these inserts or wallpapers, make sure to share about them on social media. I love when I see your photos on Instagram sharing how you are using and loving your monthly freebies, so make sure to use #CharmedGTD if you post a picture on Instagram or Twitter, and feel free to tag me @MissTrenchcoat as well so I can see you photos and give them a big heart 😉

xoxo,

Online Business

Empire Building is on Sale!

Empire Building is on Sale!

Are you ready to join Empire Building?

If you didn’t make it to my Free Live Webinar yesterday, you might have missed the news that my Empire Building Online Business Program is currently on sale through the end of the month! If you have been interested in the program, now is the perfect time to invest and get started because although Empire Building is available all year round, I rarely drop the price, but with summer break upon us, I thought this was the perfect time to give you all a little entrepreneurial kick in the butt. If you have been waiting to start your #sidehustle or make real progress on creating your own dream job, I’m here to tell you you’ll regret not starting TODAY! With Empire Building, you get a self-paced online business building program that teaches you everything you need to know to market your brand or business online, whether you want to become a professional blogger, start a serviced based business or even run an online shop! Empire Building is all about giving you the strategies and resources that you need to get your business up and running quickly and PROFITABLY! If this interests you, click here to read the details of the program!

Of course, if you have any questions about what is included in the program or if Empire Building is the right approach for you, please feel free to send me an email and I’ll be more than happy to review your specific situation to see if you are a fit for my program. But if you’re ready to get started, take advantage of my sale pricing before it expires! Can’t wait to work with you inside the program!

xoxo,

Business

How to Find Focus as a Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur

How to Find Focus as a Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur

Today I want to talk to you about finding focus as a multi-passionate entrepreneur because this is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. I do consider myself to be a multi-passionate entrepreneur. I’m someone who enjoys a wide variety of different creative endeavors and strives to fold them all together into my business. Things from writing and blogging to photography or videography and designing. There are so many different things I’m passionate about and I’ve been lucky enough to figure out a way to pull those all together into one business. Now this is also a really important topic to me because within my Empire Building Online Business Program, I work with a lot of business owners who consider themselves to be multi-passionate entrepreneurs as well. They’re either in a stage of business where they’re trying to start their business or they’ve already begun their business and they’re trying to figure out the next step, but because they’re multi-passionate and they have all these great ideas and creative visions, they have a hard time focusing on what they need to work on next. So, this is something that I deal with personally on a day-to-day basis. Not just by myself but with my clients as well. So, today I want to share a strategy that I use and recommend for anyone looking to find focus and who considers themselves to be a creative multi-passionate individual!

The first thing I want you to do if you are someone who has a lot of different ideas and you’re trying to determine what to work on first is to go ahead and write down all those ideas. Once you’ve written them all down I want you to go one step further and I want you to write down all the tasks and actions you currently have that pertain to that idea or to that product/project you want to create. Whatever this new endeavor is, I want you to write everything out that you already have thought about. All the plans don’t have to be solidified, they don’t have to be things you know you want to do, just ideas you’ve had that pertain to this concept. I want you to get it all out of your head and onto paper so we can sort through it.

Now, while you are writing out this list of ideas and putting together supporting ideas that will go with it, I want you to make sure you pay attention to two things. I want you to be able to identify why it is that you are interested in this project or in this concept specifically, and I want you to identify what your goals are for this project. What is it going to bring to your business? What is it going to do for you? Is this a new revenue opportunity? Is this a new promotional opportunity? How does this fit into your business? You need to be able to identify those two things- why is it something that is interesting to you and how does it fit in your business! These are very important questions that you’re going to want to answer because I cannot tell you the amount of times I have had an idea, rushed into working on it, didn’t ask myself the big-picture questions ahead of time, and by the time all the work was done I looked at the project I was working on and said to myself ‘I don’t actually think that this belongs in my business, I don’t really see where this fits.” It was just something that was exciting and I wanted to act on immediately, but I really didn’t think it through. I didn’t think about it’s place in my business and why it was important to me, so you want to make sure you have those two points clearly outlined for each of the projects that are currently vying for your attention.

The next thing I want you to do is take each one of those projects and rank them based on some very specific criteria. Number one, I want you to rank them based on which idea is the most fully formed. So what idea actually seems like you’ve been able to work through a lot of it already- which of these ideas do you think is the most fully formed and seems like a viable option? Number two, I want you to rank each idea based on which will be the easiest to execute on. Which idea has a quick turnaround time or you know needs the least amount of work? What idea can you get up and running quickly? I want you to go and think about that and rank your ideas based on this criteria as well. Now, the third and final criterial I want you to rank each idea for is how profitable or how easy it would be for you to generate income from this idea. Is this idea a new revenue source or just something promotional? The easier it is to make money from your idea, the higher up the rank it should be!

Once you have your ideas ranked by these three criteria, I want you to start identifying which ones seem to be the best ideas based on how you’ve ranked them. You’ll probably have some on your list that float to the top as good ideas, and then you will have some that fall to the bottom as less practical. Once you have eliminated the less practical ideas, and hopefully your list is down to a few solid contenders, do a gut check and determine which idea feels right for you to work on. Remember, you could theoretically have a page full of great ideas, but the point of this exercise isn’t to deter you from good ideas, rather, the point is to help you choose where to focus your time and energy next. You can always come back to this list and work on the next project once your first idea is complete, but the point is to find a single idea to focus on and complete because we can only do one thing at a time!

If running a focused business that draws on your strengths as a multi-passionate entrepreneur is a priority to you, I want to let you know about my upcoming Free Webinar on My 5 Pillar System for Building a Successful Online Business. I’ll be sharing the strategies I personally use as part of my Empire Building Online Business Program and giving you insights you can use immediately to start building your brand online. PLUS, I’ll be sharing a special limited timed offer for those of you interested in joining me in Empire Building, so you won’t want to miss this event!

Click here to reserve your spot for this informative FREE Live Webinar Training and to also access the replay and downloads! Hope to see you there live!