Interview
188: Take Inspired Action and Use Boundaries to Create More Freedom with Petra Monaco
Petra Monaco is an author, entrepreneur, and coach who helps women build confidence, take action, and create the life they want. She is known for her book about dreaming, believing, and taking action, and she also runs a blog at PetraMonaco.com where she shares advice on mindset, boundaries, and self-care. Petra has experience as a single parent and has overcome personal challenges, which she now uses to guide others through coaching and online courses.
Petra Monaco from PetraMonaco.com wants to give you more confidence and a bigger vision, so you can push yourself further. She also provides coaching for authors to deal with mindset, accountability, and excuses. She sells a course about how to start an Etsy e-commerce store selling handmade goods.
Quotes:
“Boundaries are a form of self-care, not something that's going to constrict you or make you rigid.” – Petra Monaco
“If something is draining you, ask yourself: Is this really something I need to be doing, should be doing, or even want to be doing?” – Petra Monaco
“You can't change a habit or adapt to a new routine in just a week. It often takes two to three weeks to fully implement.” – Petra Monaco
Takeaways:
01:11 Everyone struggles with confidence and motivation, and it’s normal to have ups and downs.
03:08 Focusing on what you can do in the next 90 days helps keep goals realistic and manageable.
07:43 Building new routines takes time and commitment, and it’s important to decide what matters most.
09:37 Setting boundaries in your schedule is a form of self-care and helps prevent burnout.
20:00 Journaling about your fears can help you understand and challenge what’s holding you back.
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187: Blog Monetization and Inbound Marketing: Build a Library of Content to Gain Trust and Authority with Douglas Karr
Douglas Karr is the founder of the Marketing Technology Blog and the CEO of DK New Media, an agency that helps marketing technology companies with their inbound marketing strategies. He is also the author of "Corporate Blogging for Dummies," where he shares his expertise in the world of corporate blogging and online marketing.
Douglas Karr from The Marketing Tech Blog stops by to talk about monetizing a blog. The game has changed, and search engines now reward quality over quantity.
This means that to build trust and authority, you should spend more time on your content, republishing and update content as needed. Educate your customers early, and inform them about helpful tools or how something in your business was created. Create an editorial calendar with 12 subjects and 4 subtopics to keep your content marketing consistent.
Quotes:
“Everything we do online revolves around authority and trust. You need to establish authority first, and once you earn trust, people will be willing to do business with you.” – Douglas Karr
“If you have exceptional content, you'll consistently attract attention, no matter the source.” – Douglas Karr
“Stop focusing solely on constant production, as it can wear you down and lead to a decline in quality.” – Douglas Karr
Takeaways:
02:31 Good blog content should be updated and improved over time instead of just making new posts all the time.
05:36 Most conversations about your blog now happen on social media, not in blog comments.
08:43 Building trust and authority with your audience is more important than just posting a lot.
14:13 Updating old blog posts with new information can help them rank higher in search results again.
26:37 It’s important to have a clear call to action on your blog so readers know what to do next.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:58 — 30.2MB) | Embed
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186: Six Figure Writing and Virtual Assistant Secrets: How to Start and Scale Your Freelancing Income to Create the Lifestyle You Want with Laura Pennington
Laura Pennington is a former inner-city teacher who transitioned into a successful career as a freelance writer, virtual assistant, and project manager. She is the owner of Six Figure Writing Secrets and Your Way to VA, where she helps others build sustainable freelance businesses from home. Laura is also an author and course creator, offering resources and training for aspiring writers and virtual assistants.
Laura Pennington left her job as a 7th grade teacher to become a freelance writer and virtual assistant. She has advice about getting initial clients, scaling your business, and filling your schedule with nothing but your ideal clients.
1. evaluate your own experiences: you don't need to have been good in the past (office skills, data entry, phone calls)
2. work samples (logos, write a white paper, write blog posts)
3. marketing plan (job boards, contracts)
4. long-term marketing (cold calls, chamber of commerce meetings, trade shows conferences)
Quotes:
“The days of working at the same company for 30 years and retiring with a pension are gone. At this point, we don’t even know if Social Security and Medicare will be there when we retire.” – Laura Pennington
“The way you build your business and the clients you choose to work with play a crucial role in shaping your lifestyle.” – Laura Pennington
“Once someone finds a good freelancer, they have no reason to look elsewhere. Not only will they continue to order from you, but they’ll also refer to their friends.” – Laura Pennington
Takeaways:
04:42 Freelancing can start as a side job and grow into a full-time career if you want it to.
07:26 Picking the right clients and saying no to bad fits helps avoid burnout and low pay.
12:35 Focusing on repeat clients and steady work makes freelancing more stable.
15:07 Choosing a specialty or niche lets you charge more and stand out from other freelancers.
28:28 Raising your rates over time is important so you don’t get stuck working for too little.
Resources
- Your Way to VA (Website)
- Six Figure Writing Secrets (Website)
- Laura Pennington's Courses on Teachable (Courses)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:12 — 32.2MB) | Embed
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185: The Book Activation Method: Overcome the Fear of Publishing and Create the Perfect Book to Boost Your Business with Deborah Ager
Deborah Ager is the founder of Radiant Media Labs and creator of the Book Activation Method workshop. She is an author who has written and co-edited several books, and she helps experts turn their knowledge into published books to grow their businesses, gain visibility, and attract more clients. Deborah has a background in both marketing and writing, and she uses her experience to guide business owners through the process of planning, writing, and using a book as a business tool.
Deborah Ager from Radiant Media Labs and creator of The Book Activation Method wants you to embrace your fear and use it to move forward. She also wants to get a book out of you in the following steps:
1. master market and idea
2. align with mission: book sales, speaking, which publisher, authority
3. mining your material: blog posts, existing presentations, themes and ideas
4. mark out the tools: find the time/space to write, calendars, Evernote
5. map your mind: get messy with a mindmap
6. brain to book: break to-do list into do-able chunks, word count or time goal, schedule, write or speak
7. marketing
Quotes:
“We’re not fighting fear or trying to eliminate it. Instead, I’d rather embrace it because it’s going to show up no matter what.” – Deborah Ager
“When we're experts around our own topic, it's hard for us to see it with fresh eyes.” – Deborah Ager
“When you share stories, especially case studies, people feel more connected rather than feeling like they’re being sold to.” – Deborah Ager
Takeaways:
02:26 Many people are afraid to start writing a book, but taking small steps every day can help move past that fear.
05:02 Before writing, it’s important to know who your book is for and how it will help your business.
08:31 A book doesn’t have to be long; even a short book can be useful if it shares your main ideas clearly.
10:49 It’s normal to feel nervous as you finish your book, but looking back at your past work can help you feel more confident.
13:04 Using your old blog posts, talks, or presentations can make writing your book easier.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:50 — 23.6MB) | Embed
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184: Time Really is Money: Scale Your Business to $5,000 Per Hour with Rob Slee
Rob Slee is an author, investment banker, mentor, and business owner who specializes in helping entrepreneurs and freelancers increase the value of their time. He wrote the book "Time Really Is Money," which explains how people can scale their businesses and focus on higher-value activities to earn more per hour.
Rob Slee, author of Time Really is Money, wants to help you scale to a:
- $50/hour business (where you are the value proposition)
- $500/hour (where you manage employees)
- $5000/hour (where you only deal with the culture, niches, and business model)
- $50k/hour (changing industries)
- $5m/hour (changing the world)
Quotes:
“Working the hardest and putting in the most hours doesn’t necessarily equate to value—it often just leads to early heart attacks.” – Rob Slee
“The higher you go in the value ladder, the fewer hours you work, but the more value you create.” – Rob Slee
“We all settle at our comfort level, sticking to tasks we know how to do—sometimes better than anyone we could hire. As owners of our time, whether we run a business or manage our own schedules, we tend to fall into familiar routines.” – Rob Slee
Takeaways:
01:53 If you own your time, you should focus on the tasks that create the most value, not just work harder.
04:43 Spend your time on high-value activities and let others handle the lower-value tasks, even if they don’t do them perfectly.
08:24 Build simple systems or checklists for tasks you outsource so you don’t have to keep explaining things.
18:36 Write down how you spend your time for a week to see where you can make changes and focus on higher-value work.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:43 — 22.6MB) | Embed
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183: Scale, Build Your Team, and Outsource Remote Workers with Nathan Hirsch
Nathan Hirsch is a serial entrepreneur and expert in remote hiring and e-commerce. He is the founder and CEO of FreeeUp.com, a platform that connects businesses with reliable remote workers, and the co-founder and CEO of Portlight. Nathan started his entrepreneurial career by selling textbooks in college before building a successful $7 million Amazon drop shipping business.
Nathan Hirsch from Freeeup.com has several insights about outsourcing your team in the departments of biz-opp, e-commerce, marketing, and web development. Nathan began his entrepeneurial journey wiht a business that re-sold textbooks, and has since branched out to supplying workers for e-commerce businesses.
Quotes:
“If you can identify businesses that people rely on but that fail to satisfy the end consumer, that’s a great opportunity to step in and create change.” – Nathan Hirsch
“If you're not making your end customer happy, eventually someone else is going to find a way to do it.” – Nathan Hirsch
“I'm all about calculated risk. If this business is doing well, why not pursue it? I can always go back and apply for jobs later.” – Nathan Hirsch
Takeaways:
01:14 Starting a business by solving a problem you see around you can lead to success.
04:58 Making customers happy should be the main focus of any business.
06:21 Doing all the work yourself at first helps you understand your business before hiring others.
13:26 Hiring can take a lot of time, so finding a faster way to get good workers is important.
23:05 Always have training materials ready so you can easily replace team members if needed.
Visit the Freeeup Marketplace Page on Facebook
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:17 — 25.0MB) | Embed
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182: Strategic Social Media Marketing and Paid Traffic with Corinna Essa
Corinna Essa is an internationally recognized expert in social media marketing and the owner of Social Media Worldwide, a company that helps businesses grow their online presence without having to manage the day-to-day work themselves. She is known for her practical approach to social media, focusing on building real connections and providing value before making sales. Corinna is also an author and shares her knowledge through her blog and YouTube channel, both named Social Media Worldwide.
Corinna Essa from Social Media Worldwide wants to help you and your social media marketing efforts. She has a unique strategy when it comes to social media, which involves spending $1000 on an initial ad campaign to a free offer with no call-to-action, to then retarget (cookie) your best prospects and run ads to that already-engaged-audience.
Quotes:
“When everyone starts doing the same thing, then it stops working. Marketers destroy everything, because they overdo things and then it stops working for everyone else who jumped on it a bit too late.” – Corinna Essa
“Getting cold traffic is easy—almost every social network now offers advertising tools. Getting clicks and traffic isn’t the hard part; the real challenge is driving conversions.” – Corinna Essa
“People forget the importance of warm traffic, and they don't take the time to turn cold traffic into warm traffic.” – Corinna Essa
Takeaways:
00:52 Social media works best when you focus on giving value and building trust before trying to sell anything.
04:42 Paid ads should first send people to useful content, not straight to a sales page.
12:33 If you post for free, aim for about 80% helpful content and only 20% promotion.
16:01 Using retargeting lets you show sales ads only to people who already showed interest in your first ad.
21:49 Turning cold traffic into warm traffic takes time and money, but it leads to better results in the long run.
Resources
- Social Media Worldwide (Website)
- Social Media Worldwide (Blog)
- Social Media Worldwide (YouTube)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:58 — 21.9MB) | Embed
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181: Seven Principles for Building a Company Culture That Works: Culture is the Bass with Gerald Leonard
Gerald Leonard, author of The Culture is the Bass, has advice for you on developing a company culture that works. If you're tired of miscommunications and employee turnover, and you want a team that works together, then you'll want to tune in to discover the seven principles you could be missing;
- vision: interest in a goal or dream
- values: actionable items that govern behavior
- buy-in
- stories
- best practices
- environment
- execution
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:10 — 29.4MB) | Embed
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180: ClickFunnels: Done-For-You Product Launches, Lead Capture, and Conversion with Larry Becht
Larry Becht from The Expert Media Group has a lot to say about ClickFunnels, his preferred tool of choice for setting up landing pages and funnels, especially since it now includes "Backpack" for running an affiliate program and "Actionetics" for tracking your visitors. Larry specializes done-for-you website setup and you'll want to hear his thoughts about hiring a professional to setup your pages quickly.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:11 — 24.9MB) | Embed
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179: Strategic Content and Advertising: Increase Social Media Presence with Marty McDonald
Marty McDonald from Bad Rhino Inc. stops by to share some interesting social media marketing strategies that can apply to any business, online or offline. Marty shares some case studies with Victory Beer and Blind Squirrel Apparel and how he's been able to track improvement with his clients while being entertaining with his content and marketing specific calls-to-action.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:28 — 27.9MB) | Embed
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