Archive 1: 2012-2016

220: Use High Ticket Coaching and Consulting to Scale Your Business with Eric Louviere

January 9, 2017

Eric Louviere is a seasoned business expert with 20 years of entrepreneurial experience. He has built and sold multi-million dollar businesses and now focuses on high-ticket coaching and consulting. Eric specializes in helping speakers, authors, and coaches scale their businesses through targeted marketing strategies, particularly with Facebook ads and lead generation. He is known for his direct approach to business growth and helping entrepreneurs transition from low-ticket to high-ticket offerings.

Eric Louviere from EricLouviere.com and WebVance.com provides coaching and consulting services to authors, speakers, and business owners of all kinds (for example, one of Eric's clients is a local gym.) In years past, he grew tired of the "cash crunches" that resulted from membership site and e-book income and decided to scale up. Listen in to tons of takeaways about:

  • how to avoid spreading yourself too thin
  • how to simplify your marketing with "one problem, one solution" thinking
  • some huge breakthroughs about Facebook and LinkedIn advertising

Quotes:                                                                                                                                   

“Get really focused on the problem and the solution, as they become the focal point. Then everything builds from there.” – Eric Louviere

“Don't see things from your perspective; step into the customer's shoes. You're providing value to the customer, so understand what they truly want.” – Eric Louviere

“Pick one thing, focus on a problem, and solve it completely. The money will come by the truckload.” – Eric Louviere

Takeaways:

00:44 As a business owner, concentrate on only 3-4 core tasks and outsource everything else to maintain quality and reduce stress.

09:24 Put yourself in the customer's shoes and create solutions that genuinely address their most critical needs.

17:20 Focus on solving one specific problem exceptionally well instead of spreading yourself thin across multiple business areas.

19:42 Shift from low-ticket, high-volume products to high-ticket, value-driven services that truly help clients.

24:54 Your business's growth depends on understanding your ideal client's deepest problems and providing transformative solutions.

219: Turn Your Hobby into a Business and Achieve Massive Blogging Success with Katie Hornor

January 6, 2017

Katie Hornor is an international speaker and entrepreneur based in Mexico, where she homeschools five children while running multiple online businesses. She is the founder of BloggingSuccessfully.com and The Blog Connection, a coaching platform dedicated to helping hobby bloggers transform their passion into profitable online ventures. As an author and online business coach, Katie specializes in guiding bloggers through strategies for growing email lists, driving traffic, and creating digital products.

Katie Hornor coaches hobby bloggers to turn their website into a real business. She focuses on your traffic, people, plan, schedule, and hiring.

Hire based on your own weaknesses. For example, hire people to create pinnacle images, Facebook ads, or technical website actions, and give them a 2 to 3 month trial period to test them out.

When improving a blog, Katie looks at the following areas:

  1. Is the website clean and inviting?
  2. Is there an offer, a freebie that people can get in exchange for subscribing? Is it an offer that your audience wants, based on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat research?
  3. Is Google Analytics installed and what demographic reads the blog? Based on this, when are people online so we know what time to post?
  4. Are there any low-hanging product ideas or affiliate programs for this blog?
  5. Does this website get in front of one audience per week? (Blog, Facebook, email.)

Quotes:                                                                                                                                   

“When we move from hobby to business, we're changing that entire mindset where what I do is not about me anymore, it's about how I serve my people.” – Katie Hornor

“Businesses would not be a business without people. And anytime you have people, you have relationships.” – Katie Hornor

“No one needs more spam or junk mail. You need to be a person offering something of value.” – Katie Hornor

Takeaways:

01:47 Shift from hobby blogging to a business requires changing your mindset from just writing to earning income.

07:55 Your website's first five seconds are critical in showing visitors exactly what problem you solve for them.

17:53 Looking at your website and social media statistics is crucial for understanding growth and making smart business choices.

20:16 When hiring team members, use a clear three-month trial period to ensure a good working relationship without hard feelings.

24:15 Building business relationships creates an environment where everyone can grow together.

Resources

218: Passion, Power, Preparation, and Practice: Become a Powerful, Authentic and Captivating Public Speaker with Pam Terry

January 5, 2017

Pam Terry is a public speaking coach and marketing strategist with over 30 years of experience helping professionals improve their communication skills. As the CEO and founder of Now Media, she specializes in helping individuals overcome speaking anxiety and become more confident presenters. Pam offers free resources on her website, including an eBook about preparing presentations and a two-question survey for people struggling with public speaking. She is passionate about teaching speakers how to connect with their audience and provide meaningful value.

Pam Terry from PamTerry.com will help you to become a better speaker who prepares, practices, and gives. She has four pillars for you to build confidence with your speaking engagements:

1. Passion: fuel, make a difference
2. Power: knowledge, topic, audience, speaking skills
3. Preparation: outline, intro, close, objectives
4. Practice: does it fit in the allotted time and do people pay attention

Quotes:                                                                                                                                   

“Public speaking is not about the speaker. It's not about you, it's about the audience.” – Pam Terry

“The more you prepare, the more passionate you are about wanting to get up there. Do that presentation and make a difference with people.” – Pam Terry

“If you don't have an audience, there's no presentation. So it is all about them, and you want it to be meaningful for them.” – Pam Terry

Takeaways:

04:45 Public speaking is about the audience, not the speaker's personal fears.

07:31 Pausing during a presentation can powerfully capture audience attention.

12:23 Videotaping yourself helps identify speaking habits and areas for improvement.

22:56 Prepare presentations with clear objectives for both yourself and your audience.

30:43 Authenticity and believing in your message matter more than being perfectly polished.

217: Facebook Ads: The Secrets to Image Ads, Retargeting, Video Engagement, and Live Streaming with Emily Hirsh

January 4, 2017

Emily Hirsh is a leading Facebook ad manager and sales funnel strategist who has grown her virtual assistant business and consultancy to a multi six-figure enterprise. Starting initially as a virtual assistant, she transitioned into marketing and now runs a business dedicated to helping entrepreneurs streamline their online marketing strategies. She has over five years of experience in the online business world and has successfully launched an online fitness business with her husband. Emily also created a Virtual Assistant Academy and manages a Facebook group with around 600 members.

Emily Hirsh (click to book a free consultation) is a master when it comes to cutting edge Facebook ad techniques. Here's what's working very well for her lately:

1. provide free training on Facebook: post a stock photo with no text on the graphic
2. retarget people on your Facebook page
3. run ads audience engagements on ads or posts (your warm audience)

Emily has also had great success with Facebook live streaming for 15-20 minutes, usually 10 minutes of teaching and 5-10 minutes of a pitch or Q&A. She recommends that you be consistent with your live streaming and stream at the same time of day for five days in a row. Encourage people to share the stream while live, post an announcement about the live stream one hour prior, post to your personal page and even run ads to a lookalike audience based on people who watched your videos.

Quotes:                                                                                                                                   

“If people love seeing you on video and you delivering good content, they're much more likely to then opt in and see what else you have.” – Emily Hirsh

“Your funnel and Facebook ads are the backbone of your business. They form the core of your marketing strategy and are a powerful way to attract clients and generate leads.” – Emily Hirsh

“Somebody has to see something at least seven times before they really take action and buy.” – Emily Hirsh

Takeaways:

07:45 When testing Facebook ads, create separate ad sets for different audiences and images, and allow ads to run for 2-3 days before making changes to let Facebook optimize performance.

11:26 Facebook Live videos work best when they're longer (15-20 minutes), delivering value upfront and then engaging with audience questions.

13:25 Consistency in content delivery - like weekly live streams at the same time - helps build audience expectation and engagement.

19:48 Facebook ad strategies now focus on building warm audiences through video engagement, retargeting, and creating look-alike audiences based on video viewers.

28:12 Successful Facebook ads require a holistic approach that connects ad strategy with the entire sales funnel, not just isolated ad campaigns.

216: Interview Connections: Leverage the Power of Interviews (as a Host and Guest) for Increased Traffic to Build Your Business with Jessica Rhodes

January 3, 2017

Jessica Rhodes is the founder and CEO of Interview Connections, a premier guest booking agency for podcasters and guest experts. She started her career as a virtual assistant while wanting to be a stay-at-home mom, and eventually transformed her podcast booking skills into a successful business. Jessica is the author of "Rock the Podcast from Both Sides of the Mic" and hosts her own weekly podcast. She has built a virtual team that helps entrepreneurs get booked on podcasts and helps podcast hosts find quality guests for their shows.

Jessica Rhodes from Interview Connections provides a service that will book you on podcasts (to promote your sites) and get you guests (to fill your podcast with interview content). Jessica appears on four interviews a month, publishes a weekly blog post, podcast episode, and video. She says that in order to be a great podcast guest, you must do the following:

  1. be an expert in something
  2. be a unique guest about that topic
  3. use your own online presence to create content and get book on your end as much as possible

Quotes:                                                                                                                                   

“Charging for your time just doesn't work. They're paying us for all the connections and relationships we've built, the systems that we've created.” – Jessica Rhodes

“With any marketing you do, there is no quick fix. There is no home run in the first month or two.” – Jessica Rhodes

“Your job is to provide value to listeners, it's not to sell what you have to offer. If you give as much valuable information as you can, that will attract people to me.” – Jessica Rhodes

Takeaways:

08:47 Successful business growth requires shifting from hourly work to value-based pricing and clear service offerings.

13:15 Creating consistent, high-quality content across multiple platforms helps attract and retain audience interest.

18:55 Podcast interviews are a long-term marketing strategy that builds connections and authority over time.

23:09 As a podcast guest, focus on providing value to listeners instead of trying to sell your products directly.

27:32 Podcast hosts should make the guest experience easy and treat guests like welcomed dinner guests.

Resources

215: Stop Leadership Malpractice: Discover the New Business Model, Refine Your Process and Get Optimal Employee Performance with Wally Hauck

January 2, 2017

Wally Hauck is a seasoned business consultant with 20 years of experience helping leaders improve their management techniques. He specializes in teaching organizations how to have fearless conversations and optimize employee performance. Wally is the author of the book "Stop the Leadership Malpractice," which explores innovative approaches to leadership and organizational improvement. His work focuses on challenging traditional management models and promoting a more collaborative, process-oriented approach to leadership.

Wally Hauck, author of Stop the Leadership Malpractice: How to Replace the Typical Performance Appraisal, realized that many employers and managers can actually kill their own business by not communicating properly with their employees. If you'd like to provide a better customer experience have self-managing employees, then you need to ask these three questions:

1. What process in the business isn't working?
2. What is the first 15% of that process?
3. What should be done to improve that process?

He shares not only great business advice, but a few case studies and examples along the way.

Quotes:                                                                                                                                   

“When an employee makes a mistake, you need to look beyond the obvious and identify the unseen factors at play—unless they’re doing it intentionally, which is highly unlikely.” – Wally Hauck

“The answers are with the people that are actually doing the work.” – Wally Hauck

“If you're evaluating employees for mistakes they make, we're performing what I call leadership malpractice.” – Wally Hauck

Takeaways:

01:15 Leadership success hinges on having fearless conversations that help employees improve performance without creating fear or blame.

11:39 Most workplace problems stem from broken processes, not employee incompetence, so leaders should investigate system issues first before criticizing workers.

14:08 Effective leadership means partnering with employees to identify and fix root causes, not controlling them through threats or punitive metrics.

16:31 Traditional performance management models that judge employees create distrust and encourage cheating, while collaborative process improvement builds stronger teams.

24:25 Organizations should focus on creating operational values centered on respect, agreement-keeping, and customer service to drive self-management.

214: HootSuite, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Demystified: Share Content, Engage Others, and Network with Social Media Manager Debbie Peck

December 30, 2016

Debbie Peck is a seasoned social media manager and online marketing strategist with over 14 years of experience in internet marketing. She founded Crush Marketing Group and created Social Media Kindergarten, a comprehensive course designed to help entrepreneurs navigate social media effectively. As a certified social media manager and Facebook ads specialist, Debbie focuses on helping coaches, speakers, authors, and thought leaders expand their online presence.

Social Media Manager Debbie Peck from Crush Marketing Group has a two-pronged strategy for getting traffic from social media: share content from scheduled posts, and engage other users actively on a daily consistent basis. She logs into HootSuite once a week to schedule posts to drip out weeks in advance. She also comments, shares, likes, retweets, finds new influencers, and checks her insights regularly. We're talking about 3-5 posts per day on Facebook and 8-10 posts per day on Twitter. You can also contact her directly at debbie@crushmarketinggroup.com.

Quotes:                                                                                                                                   

“Social media is a place where you want to network and create relationships, while at the same time using it as a traffic source for you to distribute and share your content.” – Debbie Peck

“If all you're doing is sell all the time, people just tune out, they don't want to listen to you anymore.” – Debbie Peck

“A single article, blog post, or video can have a significant impact on social media. You don’t need to share the entire piece—just small, valuable snippets that capture attention.” – Debbie Peck

Takeaways:

04:44 Social media for business is fundamentally different from social media for personal entertainment, requiring a strategic approach to networking and content sharing.

11:42 One piece of content can be repurposed into multiple social media posts across different platforms, saving time and maximizing existing materials.

18:56 Choose social media platforms based on where your ideal clients actually spend their time, not just where everyone else is trending.

22:10 Engage with industry influencers by sharing their content, commenting thoughtfully, and building genuine connections without being overly aggressive.

27:50 Outsourcing content creation is possible, but personal engagement should remain a priority for authentic relationship building.

213: Focused Decisions, Learn As You Go, and Help Others with Angel Investor Jason Criddle

December 29, 2016

Jason Criddle is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and founder of the Smarter App Company. He previously served as CEO of Legacy Status Investments for two years and has built a career helping startups and entrepreneurs refine their business strategies. Jason is an author who self-published his own book and later started a publishing company that allows writers to retain their intellectual property. He has consulted for numerous sales and internet companies, gaining extensive experience in marketing and business development.

Jason Criddle from The Smartr App Company (you can contact him directly at info@thesmartrapp.com) says that you should learn as you go, make mistakes, and have failures -- pivot, fail, and snag. Everyone has ideas, but people only succeed through the failures from implementing their ideas.

Instead of being simply self-employed (and recreating the job you were trying to escape), be an entrepreneur. Make focused decisions to reach your goals, have a faith or belief in something, have perseverance, the drive to help others, and role models. Jason can also show you how to become a virtual CEO and get an app in the app store for just $100/month.

Quotes:                                                                                                                                   

“If we're out there branding ourselves, I believe everybody has their own story. Everybody has their own brand. Everybody has their own customer base.” – Jason Criddle

“If someone wants to call themselves an entrepreneur today—if they aspire to earn an income from home—they must embrace failure. Success is built by learning and growing through those setbacks.” – Jason Criddle

“Money is not manifested through saying affirmations in the mirror. That's not the way it works.” – Jason Criddle

Takeaways:

04:14 Every person is their own industry, with a unique story and potential customer base.

16:14 Entrepreneurs must build personal value and credibility before expecting others to trust their business ideas.

22:42 Success comes from following through on projects and learning from failures, not just starting multiple ventures.

27:50 Seek advice from experienced professionals who have actual success, not just motivational speakers.

31:34 Making focused decisions towards a goal matters more than working endless hours or creating motivational content.

WordPress Themes Suck

December 28, 2016

They really suck and let me explain...

I strongly believe that you should use WordPress to run your websites because it's easy to setup, and you can add whatever you want onto it... add a quiz plugin, add an opt-in form plugin... you and your websites can stay on the cutting edge without coding, FTP, or geek stuff...

Plugins make your site "do those extra things"... and THEMES change how your WordPress sites look. Don't like that site design with the black background and 2 sidebars? Click a button and now you get a white background with 1 sidebar...

That's what great about WordPress themes... instantly change the look and feel... so what's my problem with it?

In my experience, 50% of the time, I buy a theme (usually 200 to 300 bucks) because of the demo they show me. It looks great -- I think to myself, I'll change this text, I'll remove this section, this is going to be the best looking site anyone's ever seen...

I buy the theme and set it up... and either I can't even get it to load up the "demo" or it turns out the demo involved some custom coding, custom CSS and custom graphics and there's no way I can match it...

Lance and I recently setup a theme and in order to get it to look as good as the demo, it took us about an hour on Skype (us, both computer geeks), and we had to install 6 additional plugins and set about 20 different settings JUST to get it to that demo mode... nevermind customizing the site...

When WordPress themes are concerned, I feel very "baited and switched" at times and I have to do a ton of customization just to make a landing page look decent...

Do you want to know what "just works" out of the box? Paper Template does.

With Paper Template, you can use any WordPress theme you want (even the default one) and then say... I want JUST this one page to be a landing page (sales letter, opt-in form, thank you download page, etc.) and please leave the rest of my site alone...

Or... set all your pages as Paper Template pages...

It's mobile responsive and is a plain white piece of paper OR you can click a button and give it a more modern look... those fancy fonts, bright colors and full-width web pages... it's all possible using the Paper Template plugin for your WordPress landing pages:

Download the "Paper Template" WordPress Landing Page Plugin

It's great if you want to skip the hassle and headache of "those" WordPress themes where the demo looks great but isn't customizable. Paper Template is the perfect solution for you if you want to create those "money pages" quickly within WordPress.

212: Cross-Channel Advertising: Combine Google Ads, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Remarketing with Rocco Baldassarre

December 28, 2016

Rocco Baldassare is an accomplished digital marketer and entrepreneur who founded Zebra Advertisement, an award-winning digital marketing agency. He has been featured in prominent publications like the Huffington Post, New York Times, and Search Engine Journal. Recognized as the first agency to have a case study featured by Facebook, Rocco has established himself as a leading expert in online advertising strategies.

Rocco Baldassare from Zebra Advertisement has had massive success by creating a landing page with key sellling points, advertising that landing page, remarketing on a different platform (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and guest blogging for third parties such as Entprepreneur Magazine, Search Engine Journal and LinkedIn. He provides account reviews and strategy calls if you're looking to get more from your paid social media traffic.

Quotes:                                                                                                                                   

“Cross-channel advertising is the new frontier in digital marketing—an effective way to advertise online while staying within a limited budget. It doesn’t require a huge financial investment to make an impact.” – Rocco Baldassarre

“The complexity lies in determining what people need to see on your website—the types of ads they encounter, and the sequence in which they are presented during their first, second, and third interactions with your brand.” – Rocco Baldassarre

“If people haven’t bought yet, something is holding them back. We need to identify and resolve that obstacle by providing more information and addressing their concerns.” – Rocco Baldassarre

Takeaways:

02:56 Cross-channel advertising helps businesses appear everywhere, increasing brand recognition and purchase likelihood.

03:50 Customers typically need to see an ad 8-10 times before making a purchase decision.

12:17 Strategic ad placement and continuous optimization are crucial for successful online marketing.

14:01 Remarketing to engaged website visitors (those who stay 60+ seconds) can significantly improve conversion rates.

19:56 Small businesses can start cross-channel advertising with a limited budget and strategic planning.

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