As online business owners, we are all searching for the freedom and flexibility this kind of work affords. But some of us choose this option of a ‘portable business’ not just because we want to, but because we have to. Today’s guest, Rae Walaska, is a military wife and stay-at-home mom who developed an incredibly unique niche that leverages her love of event planning – and allows her to work from just about anywhere her husband might be deployed.
Rae is the owner of Murder n’ Mayhem, a company offering murder mystery parties and kids’ adventure hunts. It began in Port Orchard, Washington, where Rae worked in partnership with a local restaurant to host monthly murder mystery dinners. The business then grew to include home parties, corporate events, and even a Murder Mystery Weekend Festival on the waterfront. With each move, Rae builds a local network, and now the company hosts events all over the country, including a mystery scavenger hunt inside Las Vegas’ Excalibur Hotel.
Rae is also the co-founder of She Sells Studios, a joint venture that seeks to build a community of female entrepreneurs. She Sells is on a mission to empower and inspire, providing resources that allow other women to benefit from the lessons Rae and her partner, Jenny, have learned as solopreneurs. Today she empowers us, sharing how she developed such a unique business model, how she builds a network in each new city, and how she leverages goal-setting to facilitate growth.
Key Takeaways
What inspired Rae to choose such a unique niche business
How Rae partners with vendors
How Rae’s business grew organically
The greatest challenge of setting up shop again after a move
Why Rae began a new venture with She Sells Studios
The aim of She Sells Studios
The obstacles Rae has faced as a military spouse and solopreneur
Connect with Rae Walaska
Email rae@murdernmayhem.com
As online business owners, we realize the value in having a website that’s easy to navigate and filled with content that provides value to our potential clients. But how do you know which blog posts are the most popular, or when people are leaving your page? Today’s guest unlocks the mystery of Google Analytics, explaining how to use the information it provides to upgrade your marketing strategy!
Katie Williamsen is the founder of Katie Williamsen Web and Social Media Consulting, LLC. She is on a mission to empower female entrepreneurs, making sure their online tools are working and converting better than ever before. She spent eight years working traditional jobs in the non-profit world and education before being diagnosed with narcolepsy. Katie needed a flexible schedule, and she had always dreamed of being an entrepreneur, so she launched her business in early 2016.
Katie has a master’s degree in interactive media, and she is prepared to share her expertise as a web strategist with you! Listen in as she explains how a novice can use Google Analytics to adjust her marketing strategy and her best advice for boosting your conversion numbers.
Key Takeaways
How Katie’s business grew and evolved
The value of Google Analytics
How a novice can use Google Analytics
How to adjust your marketing strategy based on Google Analytics
Katie’s tips for designing content upgrades
How to upsell your current clients with Google Analytics
Katie’s best advice for boosting conversion numbers
Katie’s keys to success
Resources
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Connect with Katie Williamsen
The Catch 22 of business growth stems from the fact that you need exposure to make it happen, yet it’s tough to afford a PR professional until your business has grown to a certain level. Is there a way to do it yourself? What is the best approach for pitching yourself to local or even national media outlets?
Christina Nicholson spent ten years as a news anchor and reporter, and in that time she received an overwhelming number of pitches from publicists looking to earn exposure for their clients – who were approaching it the wrong way. She transitioned to the field of media relations in 2015, hoping that a traditional work schedule would be more family-friendly, but she quickly grew weary of the pressure to be in the office late and answer email at all hours.
Christina created her own public relations firm in 2015. Media Maven seeks to help small business owners gain exposure via media relations, video production, writing, and blogging. She employs the lessons she learned in broadcasting to land her clients coverage on The Rachel Ray Show as well as local TV in a variety of top ten markets, and in print and digital publications including Newborn Magazine and countless websites and blogs. Today she shares her strategies for selecting clients and developing customized PR packages. Listen to understand the right way to pitch yourself to the media and establish your expertise in a particular market!
Key Takeaways
How Christina landed her first few clients
The PR services Christina offers her clients
How Christina selects her clients
Christina’s process for developing a client package
When small business owners should outsource their PR
The importance of patience and realistic expectations
Resources
Connect with Christina Nicholson
$5 for a 500-word article!? How’s a freelancer supposed to eat?
If you’ve ever sifted through the writing opportunities on platforms like Craigslist, Upwork or Indeed, you know it’s a painstaking process – rife with listings that just don’t cut it when it comes to compensation. Today’s guest offers an alternative that will save you a significant amount of time and provide support as you hone your skills.
Amanda Scheibner is a success coach with Contena, a valuable service that delivers quality job opportunities to freelance writers. She has a background in education, having taught English composition and worked in a university writing center. As a Contena coach, she is prepared to push you in terms of organization and examples, helping you refine your pitch and fine-tune your writing. Amanda enjoys traveling, watching baseball, and relaxing with her pups. And she’s always looking for a good book recommendation! Today she explains how the Contena platform functions to provide quality leads to its freelance members, how the site sorts opportunities based on your preferences, and how Contena is different from the other job boards out there!
Key Takeaways
Who can take advantage of Contena as a platform
Why Contena was created
How Contena is different from other platforms
How Contena communicates potential leads to freelancers
The Contena team’s parameters for posting a job opportunity
The value Contena provides for freelancers
What makes a great pitch
The subscription plans Contena offers
The most popular niches on the platform
Qualities necessary for a freelancer to have success with Contena
Amanda’s best advice for aspiring freelance writers
Resources
Connect with Amanda Scheibner
Email: amanda@contena.co
Let’s say you have wisdom to share and a tribe that follows your work. How do you turn that into a thriving business? Today’s guest found a way to monetize her blog and ultimately walk away from her job in higher education to grow an online business and to spend more time with her family.
Amber Temerity is a work-from-home mom with two toddlers who has been blogging for nearly 20 years. In November of 2014, she hit a wall. Her job at a local college kept her away from her young children twelve hours a day and some weekends. Daycare was expensive, and Amber knew that her life needed to change. She launched the frugal living blog, Thrifty Guardian, and within five months she was earning enough to make the online business her full-time gig.
In July of 2016, Amber launched a second website, Embracing Temerity, which utilizes her skills as an efficiency strategist and social media marketing consultant to help business owners develop systems and generate revenue. Today she shares her best tips for budgeting, managing your time, and alleviating ‘mom guilt.’ Listen and learn how to ‘embrace temerity’ and monetize your online business!
Key Takeaways
How Amber monetized her blog
Amber’s top budgeting tips
Amber’s time management advice for parents
Why Amber made the decision to send her kids to daycare twice a week
Amber’s guidance for parents considering a side hustle
The ideal design of a webinar
Connect with Amber Temerity
“Wisdom is sometimes wrapped in an ugly experience.”
Despite knowing what to do, a great many would-be entrepreneurs never take the steps to get started because they are afraid of failure. But what if you could reframe the way you think about failure, and see it not just as an opportunity, but maybe even a necessity?
Today’s guest takes grit to another level, and if setbacks in your business have tempted you to quit, his story will inspire you to play the long game and view mistakes as opportunities for growth. Damion Lupo is a serial entrepreneur, having started 30-plus businesses. His latest venture is Total Control Financial, an Austin-based FinTech that seeks to disrupt Wall Street and empower individuals to take control of their own financial future. He is also the author of five books on finance, investments, and personal growth.
Damion has a history of bold moves, getting his start in real estate by purchasing a rental house with his VISA. Over the next five years, he grew the business to include 150 houses in seven states. He took a $20M hit in 2008, but used the lessons from that epic failure to reinvent himself – and write a book about the road back, Reinvented Life. Today, Damion is a consultant and coach who appears regularly on podcasts and radio shows centered around finances and personal development. Listen in as he shares his personal philosophy of 10X thinking, advice regarding retirement planning, and strategies to help you view setbacks with gratitude.
Key Takeaways
Damion’s advice about going all-in
Why it’s important to play the ‘long game’
Damion’s 10X thinking
The significance of reviewing big picture goals quarterly
How Damion frames failure
Damion’s advice on writing books
Damion’s tips for retirement planning
How to identify a professional financial advisor
The benefits of the eQRP as a retirement vehicle
Damion’s first steps to retirement savings
Resources
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
Connect with Damion Lupo
There is much societal pressure on women to be everything to everyone – the perfect mother, the perfect wife, and the perfect business owner. And many female entrepreneurs profess to have struck that perfect balance between self-care and running a business. But today’s guest is here to share her struggle with the chaos that is her life and assure you that it’s okay not to be perfect.
Krystina Dubrule is the CEO and Founder of Du North Designs, Ltd., a family-oriented fashion and apparel business based in McLennan, Alberta. A social worker by trade, Krystina was laid off just before returning from maternity leave after having her third child. Inspired to start her own business, she began crafting hand-sewn clothing and tutus at her kitchen table and then offering her designs at a local market, but quickly realized that this wasn’t a feasible business plan with three small children in the house. Plan B was to place a wholesale order and host home parties with friends and family, and soon she was getting requests from people she didn’t know – as far as 300km away!
Under Krystina’s guidance, Du North has grown into a network of 3,000-plus distributors in the US and Canada, and the company garners over $1M in sales annually. Balancing the needs of her family with the demands of an online business is a test of her abilities, but Krystina has learned to embrace the chaos and incorporate laughter and fun into the life she has built. Listen in as she shares her strategy for picking the right battles, the truth about work-life balance, and how to make hiring decisions when it’s time to reach out for help.
Key Takeaways
Krystina’s keys to juggling family and business
Why it’s important to be honest about the challenge of balancing self-care and business
Krystina’s tip for staying organized
Krystina’s hiring guidelines
Connect with Krystina Dubrule
Entrepreneurship is a roller coaster ride, with extreme highs and lows. So how do you keep yourself motivated during the rough times? Today’s guests are honest in sharing the despair they have faced as well as the successes – and that was just this week! They are prepared to teach you how to be a creative hustler – embracing the process, increasing your bounce back rate, and living at the intersection of creativity and business.
Steven Picanza and Melissa Rautenberg are the husband-wife team behind The Creative Hustler, a lifestyle brand for creative entrepreneurs, as well as the brand strategy firm Latin & Code. Steven brings his talents as a brand architect, business strategist and creative entrepreneur to these endeavors, as he works to connect people, products, and organizations with their core audience.
The yin to his yang, Melissa has the tactical skills to bring Steven’s vision to life. With an expertise in inbound marketing, SEO, and PPC, her no bullshit approach has built meaningful campaigns across a variety of industries. Today they explain the unifying principles of creative hustlers and how they create balance in their lives. Listen and learn how to shift your mindset to accept that ‘the obstacle is the way.’
Key Takeaways
How ‘The Creative Hustler’ originated
The unifying principles of creative hustlers
Why entrepreneurs have a social responsibility to share the possibilities available in gig economy
The greatest challenges faced by creative hustlers
How to avoid highlight reel syndrome
The importance of mindset
How Melissa and Steven decide if a client is a good fit
How Melissa and Steven work together
How Melissa and Steven stay driven
How Melissa and Steven create balance
Melissa and Steven’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
Resources
The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday
Connect with Melissa & Steven
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur who juggles multiple responsibilities, you know how difficult it can be to carve out the time each day to work on your business. And if your other responsibilities include being a mom, the struggle is even more real. With all the advice out there urging you to schedule the same time each day to move your business forward, what do you do when your days are too unpredictable to create a consistent timetable?
Jewel Eliese is a self-taught creative fiction writer and the mother of two ‘perfect little goofballs.’ She began Write Away, Mommy as a personal blog, a space where she could share her life as well as her fiction. But it didn’t take her long to realize that she wasn’t really a fan of writing about herself. Over time, the blog evolved into a community where women can get inspired to be better writers and mothers.
Beyond the blog, Jewel serves as the first reader for Grimdark Magazine, and she is currently working on a collaboration with Haley Darling to self-publish a collection of short stories. Today Jewel shares her struggle to gain traffic on her site, how she made use of Google to learn the craft, and how she finds the time to write with two kids at home. Listen in and learn how to deal with ‘mom guilt’ and make writing a part of family time!
Key Takeaways
Jewel’s secrets to becoming a better writer
How to overcome the fear of critique
Jewel’s advice for shifting from writing practice to publishing your work
Jewel’s tips for time management as a mom
How Jewel incorporates writing into her family life
Jewel’s suggestions for alleviating ‘mom guilt’
Jewel’s ‘ninja’ writing guidelines
Resources
Connect with Jewel Eliese