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Learn more about freelancing and owning your business and your time from six-figure freelancer Laura Briggs.
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Now displaying: April, 2017
Apr 27, 2017

We all suffer from insecurities, at times. But when you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a crisis of confidence may stop you from building a successful business. What if you had a coach with a great capacity for compassion who would provide encouragement when you needed it? A coach who would inspire you to “do it anyway” when you were feeling unsure? Who would hold you accountable?

 

Shawn Quintero teaches faith-based entrepreneurs how to create online wealth through blogging, social media, and digital marketing. Through his coaching practice, Shawn seeks to help Christian entrepreneurs create deep, meaningful impact on the world and live a lifestyle of complete freedom. He understands how to overcome self-doubt because he’s lived it. Enduring a childhood filled with abuse and bullying, he struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts. But he was inspired by a history teacher who saw his potential, and Shawn began to overcome his insecurities by growing an online network and surrounding himself with positive influences through the church.

 

Shawn was ready to start his coaching business, but he was self-aware enough to know that he lacked business skills. In order to gain access to the information he needed – without paying the $2,000 application fee – Shawn volunteered to help out with the Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco, and soon he was honing his business acumen and making connections with big names in entrepreneurship. Now Shawn himself is a sought-after speaker and author of the book Online Wealth for the Christian Entrepreneur. Prepare to be motivated as Shawn walks you through his approach to acquiring new clients by providing insane amounts of value up front. Listen and learn strategies to hold yourself accountable and inspire action!

 

Key Takeaways

Shawn’s strategies for growing your client base

  • Build your community and demonstrate value up front
  • Hone your skills
  • Create extraordinary content that displays your expertise

 

Shawn’s approach to securing testimonials

  • Do your best work, even if it’s for free
  • Ask clients to post their greatest insight and next steps

 

Why entrepreneurs often live an ‘unbalanced life’

  • Must be willing to sacrifice to reach goals
  • You can’t build a thriving business in an hour per day

 

Shawn’s best advice for new online business owners

  • Get offline and talk to real people
  • Find out what your target audience is missing and how you can be the solution
  • Surround yourself with people who will help keep you accountable

 

Resources

Lean Startup Co.

Digital Marketer

Social Media Examiner Conference

Udemy

 

Connect with Shawn Quintero

Website

Apr 25, 2017

Tony Robbins once said that we are thrust into action out of inspiration or desperation. And sometimes it’s a little bit of both! Entrepreneurship can be overwhelming, and it isn’t always as easy to stay driven day after day – especially when the end goal seems so far away. Today’s guest shares his story of working through those challenges and developing the grit to continue. 

Winston Henderson is the Chief Visionaire at 5 Years 2 Mastery, an enterprise that seeks to equip and empower others to overcome the limiting beliefs that are holding them back as they work toward their goals, creating the life they’ve always wanted. He was introduced to entrepreneurship by his cousin at the age of 18. After several failed attempts to establish various businesses, Winston studied IT at university – and hated it. But the blessing in disguise was that he also discovered a love of marketing and a renewed interest in business. At 24, Winston spent a year and a half working a traditional job in sales before starting his own home-based hot beverage business.

Though Winston’s venture was doing well enough that he could quit his full-time job, he struggled to develop the necessary discipline to run a successful business on his own. As things fell apart and Winston entered a state of depression, he took a look at his options: He could either go back to a full-time job, or he could dig in and make it work. The birth of his daughter in 2011 motivated him to choose the latter, and Winston has built a business that serves ten countries and brings in a monthly revenue of $130,000.

Inspired to share his systems and help others reach their full potential, Winston has expanded his work, adding Digital and Content Marketing Strategist and Break-Through and Consistency Mentor to his job title. Listen in as he explains how consistent daily activities lead to big wins and how ‘celebrating the process’ keeps you moving forward as you grow into your most powerful self!

 

Key Takeaways

The challenges of entrepreneurship

  • Mental and emotional discipline
  • ‘Dig in and make it work’

 

How Winston shifted his mindset to acquire the necessary discipline

  • Desperation for financial independence
  • Strong, emotionally compelling reason to push through the challenges
  • Pain of regret stronger than pain of developing discipline

 

How Winston selected the products he promotes

  • Saw a demand/need
  • Capitalized on service aligned with that demand

 

Winston’s advice for building a lucrative business

  • Consistency
  • Start small
  • Visualize the end goal
  • Focus on daily activities
  • Refuel by celebrating the process

 

Winston’s secrets to success

  • Faith
  • Figure out what’s holding you back
  • Develop your communication skills

 

Connect with Winston Henderson

Website

 

Apr 20, 2017

With the rise of new online marketing channels, entrepreneurs have the opportunity to connect with potential clients through various audio and video platforms. But what if you hate the sound of your own voice? Or you just don’t have the confidence to really connect with an audience? The voice is a powerful tool, one that entrepreneurs can use to command attention and share their stories with the world.

 

Tracy Goodwin is the owner of Captivate the Room, a coaching business that teaches clients how to connect their message with their passion – and make an impact with their voice. Her unique approach, the psychology of the voice, allows clients to unravel their voice story and frees them from the barriers that are preventing them from connecting with an audience. Tracy is an expert in voice technique, and she has trained actors, speakers, entrepreneurs, business executives, leaders, and podcasters from all over the world – helping them step into their voice power and speak their truth.

 

Tracy graduated from Baylor University with a BA in Theatre and went on to earn a Master’s in Creative Drama from Texas State. She worked for many years as a professional actor and director but kept running from her true purpose as a voice coach because she couldn’t get past her own story. Tracy grew up in a family where she was not allowed to speak, so she just couldn’t see herself as an expert – despite repeated opportunities to coach voice. When she was put in charge of the voice program at a conservatory, she could no longer deny her gift. Today she shares that gift with you, explaining her coaching process and how she connects with clients. Listen in and let Tracy help you manage your time, capitalize on social networks, and make an impact with your message!

 

Key Takeaways

Why many are terrified to speak their truth

  • Link to past trauma (i.e.: abusive/narcissistic parents, teachers)
  • Your ‘voice story’ shapes your abilities

 

How Tracy’s clients know they need coaching

  • Lack of confidence
  • Dislike the sound of their voice
  • Know they don’t captivate the audience

 

Tracy’s coaching process

  • Obtain audio/video of the client prior to coaching session
  • Listen to identify the issues
  • Understand the client’s ‘voice story’
  • Tackle the biggest problems first
  • Lay in a new layer of muscle memory

 

Tracy’s timeline for achieving results

  • Utilize techniques and exercises that accelerate progress
  • ‘Flip the foundation’ in one month
  • Encourage continued practice for sustainable change

 

How Tracy’s clients are able to improve so quickly

  • As they see results, the confidence is transformative
  • They are inspired to continue as they build on positive results

 

Tracy’s tips for marketing yourself online

  • Capitalize via visibility on social networks
  • As tech evolves, keep learning
  • Ask yourself, “Who are my people? Where are they? How can I serve them?”

 

Tracy’s suggestions re: time management

  • Take on tasks that are in your ‘zone of genius’
  • Outsource duties that are laborious
  • Consider investing in an assistant

 

What makes Tracy the best voice coach in the business

  • She rolls in the psychology of the voice
  • Her ability to teach technique and alter muscle memory through drills

 

Tracy’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs

  • Start before you are ready
  • Don’t wait until everything is perfect
  • Do your research and develop a plan
  • Prepare to learn from your mistakes

 

Resources

Post Planner

 

Connect with Tracy Goodwin

Website 

Apr 18, 2017

One of the greatest challenges new freelancers face is that of securing those first few clients. What if there was a marketplace where you could advertise your expertise to professionals who are looking for someone with your skill set?

 

John Connor is the Founder and CEO of HelpWith.co, a community where people connect and exchange skills via one-on-one learning sessions. The platform currently boasts 2,500-plus users offering 1,800 skills from advanced email marketing to craft beer brewing.

 

Interested in the intersections of community, philosophy, and technology, John has been involved in projects like the Portland Made makers collective and the Chicago Free Skool. His passion for the startup community coupled with his own experience as a freelancer inspired him to create a space that would provide novices with access to clients and veterans with leads for advanced assignments.

 

Listen in as John shares his best tips for creating a killer profile, acquiring endorsements, and avoiding disputes on the platform. Learn how to use your aptitude in the creative and/or professional skills space to add an additional revenue stream to your repertoire – by way of HelpWith!

 

Key Takeaways

The HelpWith onboarding process

  • Sign up with Facebook or LinkedIn
  • Add a bio
  • List your skills
  • Name of skill
  • What you can teach in an hour
  • What qualifies you as an expert

 

The benefits of using the HelpWith platform

  • Discoverability through SEO-optimization
  • Opportunities for collaboration
  • Simple payment process
  • Reputation management via reviews, endorsements

 

John’s tips for making your HelpWith profile stand out

  • Compose a descriptive, clear value proposition
  • Include variations on a singular skill (i.e.: Photoshop, flyer design, web design mockups)

 

How to get hired for the first time on HelpWith

  • Invite people you know to join the platform
  • Ask them to vouge for you via an endorsement
  • Endorsements translate directly into gigs

 

How HelpWith picks up where online courses leave off

  • Many get stuck or lose motivation to finish online courses
  • HelpWith provides one-on-one resource to get you ‘over the hump’
  • Human interaction allows you to actualize new skills

 

How HelpWith helps entrepreneurs adapt to new technologies

  • Freelancers who maintain their knowledge base as digital platforms change are rewarded for staying on the cutting edge
  • Business owners can tap into the power of an expert for quick answers

 

John’s favorite simple trick to get inspired

  • Choose three words you want to embody (i.e.: focused, present)
  • Set a daily alarm on your phone as a reminder
  • Realign yourself by asking, “Who do I want to be today?”

 

Resources

‘Getting Started’ Blog Post

Team Treehouse

OpenSesame

Udemy

Coursera

High-Performance Academy

 

Connect with John Connor

HelpWith.co

 

Apr 13, 2017

Many entrepreneurs – especially creatives – suffer from a bad case of Shiny Object Syndrome. We have so many ideas that it can be difficult to complete one project in its entirety before our mind has pulled focus to another.

 

Rita Morales helps business owners and entrepreneurs create and monetize a business they love through one-on-one coaching, custom web design, and mini-courses. Through her company, Rita Morales Brand + Business Design, she assists clients in gaining brand clarity and designing a robust marketing strategy. Rita’s interest in web design began when she was the office manager of a real estate firm, and she was tasked with maintaining the company website. Equipped with new skills like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, she got addicted to learning all things web creation and was soon designing her own. Rita moved to another corporate job but used her lunch hours to lay the foundation for her own venture – until the circumstances were right to escape corporate life and begin her own online business.

 

Today, Rita helps you combat Shiny Object Syndrome, define the branding for your business, and develop marketing strategies that generate results. Learn her techniques for short- and long-term planning, and discover how to harness consistency, accountability and focus on getting things done!

 

Key Takeaways

Rita’s recommendations re: the structure of a workday

  • Consider using the first part of the day to grow your own business
  • Then move on to client tasks in the second portion of your day

 

When to define the branding for your business

  • Should be the first step
  • May evolve over time as your mindset/desires change

 

How to establish your brand

  • Identify your dream clients and their struggles
  • Design your business to serve that specific audience

 

Rita’s best tips to curb Shiny Object Syndrome

  • Finish one thing before you go on to the next
  • Keep your eyes on your own paper
  • Prioritize one or two areas
  • Work with consistency, accountability, and focus
  • Enjoy the results over time

 

Rita’s strategies for long-term planning

  • Plan in three-month intervals
  • Select one area of focus for each month
  • Reverse engineer supports for that month’s focus area

 

How to stand out in a competitive market

  • Create your user profiles and market yourself consistently
  • Determine what you bring to the table that’s different
  • Capitalize on your unique value proposition to connect with clients

 

Rita’s advice for using social platforms to expand your client base

  • Bring value to your own Facebook group and contribute to others’
  • Build and nurture your email marketing list

 

Connect with Rita Morales

Website

Instagram

Facebook

Facebook Group

Apr 11, 2017

So you’re tight on funds and can’t spend a ton of money to promote your business. What if I told you it's possible to generate a six-figure annual income with an advertising budget of under $100 per month?

 

LaShonda Brown is a CMO and Brand Strategist based in Virginia who launched About 90 Marketing to help small businesses accelerate sales and increase their digital footprint. She is adept at using social media tools to help stretch marketing dollars, and she shares that expertise via her new Periscope and YouTube channel ‘The Bootstrap Biz Advice Show’ to educate entrepreneurs. LaShonda’s experience in the world of promotion was born of necessity- her first venture was Transformation Theatre Company, an enterprise she began at the age of 18 with a $500 investment. In just a year and a half, TTC raised over $20k for charity. She is also the Co-Founder and Producer of Life Focus Pictures, a video production company she began with her husband in 2011 that provides engaging video content for clients including municipal communication departments and small businesses.

 

Listen and learn how to expand your client base by leveraging social media and teaching your current customers how to refer your business. No more excuses and no more waiting until you have enough money to start your business. LaShonda motivates you to get your show on the road – today!

 

Key Takeaways

LaShonda’s go-to strategies for generating business

  • Utilize your personal Facebook page
  • Celebrate wins for clients

 

How to kick off your business on limited funds

  • Don’t wait until you have enough money
  • Go for it NOW, while you are inspired
  • Once you’ve generated some income, invest that money in your next venture
  • Leverage sponsorships and donations to decrease expenses

 

How to establish credibility when you’re young

  • People will be as confident in you as you are in yourself
  • Present yourself with assurance and people are unlikely to ask your age
  • Demonstrate value and clients will be even more impressed when they learn your age

 

LaShonda’s advice for juggling multiple responsibilities

  • Start building the foundation of your business while you have the least to lose
  • Gain experience and put resources in place while your business is still a side hustle

 

How to stay motivated

  • Engage in passion projects (creative outlets you love, whether or not they generate profit)
  • Invest in caring for your business’ greatest asset – YOU
  • Don’t monetize every aspect of your life

 

LaShonda’s secrets to growing your client base

  • Invest in relationships with clients (i.e.: go to lunch, happy hour, pedicures)
  • Equip your current customers to refer you using a recommended landing page
  • Establish your accessibility through visibility on social media

 

Why it’s important to find your lane and stay in it

  • LaShonda underestimated how quickly About 90 would grow
  • She was tempted to say ‘yes’ to every project and ended up overextended
  • Creating a workflow to handle a new project costs more $ than it generates
  • Repeat customers are more likely when you do what you’re best at
  • Knowing your skill set helps you make the best use of your time

 

LaShonda’s top tips for entrepreneurs

  • Customers justify decisions emotionally first, then logically
  • If you let your work rob you of your joy, it will also rob you of sales
  • If you are excited about what you do, clients will be too

 

Connect with LaShonda Brown

Website

YouTube Channel

Periscope TV

Apr 6, 2017

Money doesn’t grow on trees… Or does it?

Since childhood, we have been led to believe that it is selfish to ask for money, that it is better to give than to receive. But what if you could change your mindset to recognize that it is okay to receive when you are providing value to clients? What if you could both give AND receive – and flourish?

Tonya Rineer is an innovative Money Mindset Coach who knows firsthand how female entrepreneurs can struggle to determine their value. Through the Profit Party, she seeks to revolutionize the way women think and feel about money and business. Her action-oriented style offers actionable tools to help you control your finances, transform your beliefs about money and dramatically increase your profit potential.

Click and listen to recognize the money blocks you may have and take steps to develop a healthy money mindset. It’s time to allow abundance into your life!

 

Key Takeaways

Common money blocks female entrepreneurs face

  • Feeling inferior
  • Failing to realize our own power and light
  • Comparing ourselves to others
  • Forgetting that we deserve to receive as well as give

 

How to recognize when you are blocking money

  • Negative emotions
  • Word patterns (i.e. I can’t, I’m not smart enough)

 

Why many female entrepreneurs have difficulty charging what they’re worth

  • Women need to feel appreciated and connected
  • Afraid to upset others, we tend to play it safe
  • We fear that success will change the dynamics of our relationships

 

Tonya’s action steps to developing a healthy money mindset

  • Develop an awareness of where you need to grow
  • Design a path that will take you where you want to go
  • Anticipate hurdles and break down those blocks one at a time
  • Cultivate confidence: You deserve to create wealth as long as you are creating value and giving that value away

 

Tonya’s best tip for entrepreneurs

  • Talk it out through role play
  • Practice dealing with client questions and resistance
  • Clear and confident communication puts others at ease and facilitates trust

 

Resources

The Secret Film

 

Connect with Tonya Rineer

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram

Apr 4, 2017

When your phone pings, it can be tough for a freelancer to ignore. Who is it? What do they need? Is it a potential client?

Many of us are addicted to email, and we have a very difficult time maintaining focus on our writing. We may even believe that we are getting more accomplished by multi-tasking. But the truth of the matter is that constantly changing lanes in your brain makes it more difficult to get things done – and it’s mentally taxing.   

Laura is back with a solo podcast as part of her Become a Better Writer series. She shares her best advice about breaking your addiction to email, batching like tasks to increase productivity, and utilizing available tools to eliminate distractions. Listen and learn how to create high-quality content in less time as you maximize your income potential!

 

Key Takeaways

The concept of batching

  • Defined as doing like tasks together
  • Requires organization

The benefits of batching

  • Allows your brain to hit its stride and maintain focus
  • Adds up to ten hours of productivity per week
  • Increases income potential

How to deal with unforeseen circumstances

  • Adjust your schedule as needed
  • Give yourself wiggle room

Pareto’s Principle

  • Work ‘expands’ to fill amount of time to complete
  • We are more likely to adhere to self-imposed deadlines

Laura’s tips to avoid email distractions and minimize time spent in correspondence

  • When you’re in writing mode, turn off your email
  • Schedule time blocks to respond to email (e.g.: Laura spends one hour twice a day)
  • In responses, give clients the next unnecessary step (i.e.: “no need to reply”)
  • Utilize a scheduling tool to avoid unnecessary back-and-forth
  • Employ an auto-responder to let clients know you are unavailable 

The dangers of multi-tasking

  • Generates anxiety
  • Takes 20-30 minutes to regain focus
  • Makes you feel tired
  • Decreases productivity

 

Resources

Deep Work by Cal Newport

Calendly

Acuity Scheduling

Gmail Inbox Pause

Freedom

 

Connect with Laura Pennington

Blog

Twitter

Website

Email info@betterbizacademy.com

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