Making Money

No Brainer Pricing Is Killing Your Business

September 20, 2016 / Making Money / no comments

Are you guilty of no brainer pricing? Or of creating a ‘tripwire’ entry point? (Sidebar, tripwire? What terrible language to be using and teaching about potential clients, who are wonderful people, not entities to be trapped.)  These things are actually working against you. People should be thinking about their purchases. All of them. You don’t want your business filled with a legions of zombie buyers! You want it filled with people who are intelligently and thoughtfully considering their needs, your work, and then voting yes on you. With their dollars. Pricing is positioning and it’s important for your business to tell a clear, cohesive story, not one of entrapment. Watch and learn what you can do to shift your pricing to set yourself up for business growth. I’d love to hear from you — have you had a no brainer … Continue reading

Wood Frequency Business Profile Michelle Mazur

June 15, 2016 / Making Money / one comment

Michelle Mazur, Ph.D. delivers audacious breakthroughs for speakers who want to stand out, be the best in-class in their field and position themselves in a category of one. She is the CEO of Communication Rebel and the author of Speak Up for Your Business. Michelle is on the Wood Frequency and has invited us in for a behind the scenes look at how understanding her Frequency has impacted her business growth. Tell us a bit about your business, how do you primarily make your money? My business is morphing from primarily 1:1 work and group programs. My signature offering is Speak for Impact where I teach business owners, entrepreneurs, and public speakers how to craft a speech that is an asset for their business, attracts speaking gigs and gets them paid what they are worth. It’s a methodology that I’ve … Continue reading

How to Stop being the weakest link in your bu...

June 2, 2016 / Making Money / one comment

In the world of entrepreneurship, it’s easier and easier to go into business for yourself. There’s an online course for just about everything, and an incredible amount of free information if you have the patience to sift through it.  The barriers to having your own business, even if it’s a side hustle, are minimal, and the promises of success are strong. The problem is, you can’t learn your way out of low self-esteem, medium self-confidence, or a belief that you don’t deserve your big dreams.  You can’t take an online course to help you change the way you fundamentally see yourself.   The way you treat yourself, your beliefs about yourself, your potential, your worthiness of success, will become the bottleneck of your business, slowly constricting your path to business growth. The biggest indicator of your business success, is your relationship to yourself.  … Continue reading

Your personal mission is more important than ...

May 2, 2016 / Making Money / no comments

Often when you start a business, you’re really obsessed with what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it.   It’s often how a lot of businesses get started, unfortunately, it’s a very outside-in approach. “I really love to write! I’ll be a writer! I love to coach! I’ll be a coach!” That’s important to think about — you can’t start a business without knowing what you’re going to do and how you’re going to make money.  However there’s a bigger picture here that I see a lot, of especially online business owners forgetting about. They get stuck. Often by the time they come to me to help them untangle all of this, it’s the one piece they’ve forgotten to incorporate into their business. More on what this is in the video below, and how to create … Continue reading

How To Rock Your Intake Calls

March 23, 2016 / Making Money / no comments

If you’re a service based business – it’s likely people want to talk to you before deciding to hire you.  That’s great – someone willing to hop on the phone to talk with you is already invested in you and working together, and yet, I see a lot of business owners struggling to make the turn from helpful person to expert professional, and land the client. Today, my client conversion rate is 85%, but it wasn’t always like that.  In the short video below I walk you through my signature approach to intake calls, laying out exactly what you can do to convert your intake calls to paying clients.  This is the format and process I use for all my calls. Don’t have time to watch the video? Here are the steps you should follow.  At the top of the … Continue reading

{Client Spotlight} Catherine Hummel, Relation...

March 8, 2016 / Making Money / no comments

My clients are rockstars. Entrepreneurial daredevils ready to invest time and energy into their businesses.  They are on fire to grow a business that gives them the financial stability and lifestyle they long for. They are in it for the long haul, but are stuck on what to do right now. They understand there’s no such thing as overnight success seven steps to seven figures. They have all the pieces of a business, but it’s not working together and growing in the way they know it could. They are sick of formulas, group programs and cookie cutter approaches to business growth. They are on their own, deeply personal, custom journey. This brings them to me. What were you struggling with before you hired me? Specificity is good.  Before hiring Ellen I was feel super stuck in my business. I had client flow, but … Continue reading

{Client Spotlight} Danetha Doe, Financial Gro...

March 8, 2016 / Making Money / no comments

My clients are rockstars. Entrepreneurial daredevils ready to invest time and energy into their businesses.  They are on fire to grow a business that gives them the financial stability and lifestyle they long for. They are in it for the long haul, but are stuck on what to do right now. They understand there’s no such thing as overnight success seven steps to seven figures. They have all the pieces of a business, but it’s not working together and growing in the way they know it could. They are sick of formulas, group programs and cookie cutter approaches to business growth. They are on their own, deeply personal, custom journey. This brings them to me.   What were you struggling with before you hired me? Specificity is good.  I was trying to figure out how to launch my first bookkeeping 101 … Continue reading

{Client Spotlight} Sara Yamtich, Life Coach

March 8, 2016 / Making Money / no comments

My clients are rockstars. Entrepreneurial daredevils ready to invest time and energy into their businesses.  They are on fire to grow a business that gives them the financial stability and lifestyle they long for. They are in it for the long haul, but are stuck on what to do right now. They understand there’s no such thing as overnight success seven steps to seven figures. They have all the pieces of a business, but it’s not working together and growing in the way they know it could. They are sick of formulas, group programs and cookie cutter approaches to business growth. They are on their own, deeply personal, custom journey. This brings them to me. What were you struggling with before you hired me? Specificity is good. Before working together, I was sort of floundering with the whole vague concept of … Continue reading

{Client Spotlight} Emily Belyea, Web Designer

March 1, 2016 / Making Money / no comments

My clients are rockstars. Entrepreneurial daredevils ready to invest time and energy into their businesses.  They are on fire to grow a business that gives them the financial stability and lifestyle they long for. They are in it for the long haul, but are stuck on what to do right now. They understand there’s no such thing as overnight success seven steps to seven figures. They have all the pieces of a business, but it’s not working together and growing in the way they know it could. They are sick of formulas, group programs and cookie cutter approaches to business growth. They are on their own, deeply personal, custom journey. This brings them to me. What were you struggling with before you hired me? Specificity is good. What wasn’t I struggling with? My offerings were unclear, I was attracting and accepting … Continue reading

{Client Spotlight} Jo Gifford, The Dexterous Diva

March 1, 2016 / Making Money / no comments

My clients are rockstars. Entrepreneurial daredevils ready to invest time and energy into their businesses.  They are on fire to grow a business that gives them the financial stability and lifestyle they long for. They are in it for the long haul, but are stuck on what to do right now. They understand there’s no such thing as overnight success seven steps to seven figures. They have all the pieces of a business, but it’s not working together and growing in the way they know it could. They are sick of formulas, group programs and cookie cutter approaches to business growth. They are on their own, deeply personal, custom journey. This brings them to me. What were you struggling with before you hired me? Specificity is good.  I was struggling with clarity around my particular mix of skills and how to … Continue reading

{Client Spotlight} Summer Land, Bestselling A...

March 1, 2016 / Making Money / no comments

My clients are rockstars. Entrepreneurial daredevils ready to invest time and energy into their businesses. 

They are on fire to grow a business that gives them the financial stability and lifestyle they long for. They are in it for the long haul, but are stuck on what to do right now. They understand there’s no such thing as overnight success seven steps to seven figures. They have all the pieces of a business, but it’s not working together and growing in the way they know it could. They are sick of formulas, group programs and cookie cutter approaches to business growth.

They are on their own, deeply personal, custom journey. This brings them to me.

Today we’re talking with Summer Land, bestselling author of the wildly funny and insightful Summerlandish: do as I say not as I did.   She shares in her own words what it was like to work with me, and how her business is forever changed.

 Summer5What were you struggling with before you hired me? Specificity is good.

Before I hired you, I had experienced a year of success as a published author, but began to plateau.
Books sales had slowed down and my Australia/ UK publisher decided not to pursue distribution in the US. I felt stuck, disappointed, yet SO CLOSE to achieving my goal of becoming a best selling author – so close, yet so far. I was struggling to stand out among fellow gen y humor authors and needed help.

What were you hoping to get out of working with me?

I was hoping to get a huge gust of wind in my sails. I also wanted some new ideas. I really love working with a team and being an author can be such an isolating endeavor. I love feeling the energy of bouncing ideas off of someone and you were incredible to do that with! I also wanted to learn how to be more profitable. My focus as an author was more about book sales for bookstores and less about, how I could capitalize on myself.

Did I deliver?

Absolutely. You made me feel hopeful. You also helped me see myself and my book from a different perspective. You helped me figure out what kind of content that I need to be creating and why. You helped me become shareable. You also helped me see all of the various ways that I could earn money as an author.

unnamed (1)What did you like most about the process?

I love that there was a solid amount of preliminary work before we had our conversation. It was nice to do a personal audit on my brand and business efforts so far. Even before we had our Skype conversation, I could see where I was going wrong. However, you were able to break things down and make all of the new ideas look really achievable. (I also liked Skyping with your dog.)

How did our work together impact your confidence/being more YOU in your business?

Seeing as I wrote a memoir and write a personal blog, I was always ME in my business haha, BUT I was able to see how people see me and what I could do to make sure I came across the way that I wanted to. It’s hard to sell yourself without sounding a little up yourself. I had to learn that it’s less about ME and my stories, and more about all of us and our stories.

What were some high impact changes that you made in your business as a result of our working together?

I changed the content that I posted on my social media accounts and blog to be more shareable and relatable. I also began vlogging on YouTube and sending out a weekly newsletter. However, the biggest change was adding a shopping cart to my website so I could sell signed copies of my book! I also began reaching out to fellow bloggers for book reviews, guest posts and cross promotion opportunities.

How did our work together effect book sales?
It took about a month, but book sales definitely picked up! I’m also seeing a steady growth in my online followers. Perhaps the best thing I’m seeing more of – is more mentions on blogs and websites about my book and blog!

How much more money did you earn after working together?
Before working with you, I was only earning the royalties from book sales from my publisher. Since working with you, I’ve now probably doubled my income. I get a much higher profit margin from selling books myself.

Summer Land ChairHow did the Frequency Analysis effect you, your business – how did you like it/what did you like about it?

This was like therapy for me. I loved it because it made me feel like everything was happening as it was supposed to. If anything, it made me relax and remember that life works in cycles and that everything can’t be 100% GO TIME all the time. It helped me realize what type of person I am and how being aware of different life cycles can help me make more rational decisions. It helped me slow down and reflect on what I’ve done, what’s working, what’s not working and where I want to go. This year is about reflection, change and growth for me and I’m embracing it.

Did you create a new killer offering?  How did that go?

Kind of – I did a Buy One Get One Free For A Friend promo so people could show their besties they love them by giving them a copy of my book and that really amped up book sales. It was super profitable since I got the books at wholesale prices.

If you want to read more client success case studies, you can find the entire series here.

Metal Frequency Business Profile: Val Geisler

February 9, 2016 / Making Money / no comments

Val Geisler is a Client Experience and Systems Strategist with a passion for digital entrepreneurs. After over a decade behind the scenes of everything from non-profits to multi-six-figure businesses, Val has the innate ability to think big picture and minute details at the exact same time. While this skill is most often found in soaring bald eagles, Val puts it to work here on the ground with her clients as she crafts truly unique customer experiences that stand out. She’s also a Metal Frequency, and while I regularly use eagles to explain the duality of Metal vision — the innate ability to see the big picture and small details simultaneously, the use of that metaphor in her bio is entirely her own. She’s invited us in for a behind the scenes look at how understanding her Metal Frequency has impacted her … Continue reading