The Amy Porterfield Show

Social media changes RAPIDLY and today we are exploring what’s working NOW. My guest today is Dr. Axe, a certified doctor of natural medicine, doctor of chiropractic, and clinical nutritionist. However, he’s not here to discuss health. He’s here because his website attracts more than six million views per month and his Facebook page has more than one million followers. This doctor knows what’s working in social media today more than some of the best social media experts out there today -and that’s saying a lot! Dr. Axe has leveraged what’s trending and his incredibly strategic take on building the backend of his business to grow his company using social media. Everything about this is a home run. Being engaged with your audience is the key to success. Knowing what’s trending in social media, knowing what your audience loves, knowing the latest information in your field are all components to growing your business online. Dr. Axe, however, is actually a minimalist when it comes to his online presence. He doesn’t overwhelm his audience or sweat being everywhere online every day. I find this so refreshing and you will too! When you’re just starting out, it’s all about quality over quantity and I’m giving you the keys to how to grow an engaged audience while focusing on quality. You will learn how Dr. Axe has attracted more than one million Facebook followers, his philosophy on using social media platforms, strategies for niche-interest list-building, how to nurture your current email list, and what to teach in a webinar versus what to sell in your webinar. During our time together, Dr. Axe answers the following questions: What’s the right length for a Facebook Live piece that will really speak to your audience and draw viewers in? Do you know the best tips for how to make partnerships work for you? Can you spot trends and know where to look to find them? Also: Do you know the ratio of how much content you should give to how much you should sell? (This is FASCINATING! There’s an important reason why, too.) There’s also this little thing called the purple cow. Do you have one? I give you all of this and more in this action-packed quick conversation with the king of online business building. I promise you this will not stretch you thin. In fact, these strategies will make you more efficient online. Thereby, freeing up more time for you to focus on your content. AMEN to that!

Do you want to know what Facebook ad retargeting is all about? By the time you finish this episode you will not only have a deeper understanding of what Facebook ad retargeting is, but you will be ready to take the first steps to create your own campaign. Rick Mulready, my good friend and an expert in Facebook advertising strategies, is back and together we are talking all things retargeting. We jump right in, answering your questions about Facebook ad retargeting and how to start leveraging this strategy to get more sales. Your questions also inspired a spirited discussion about the tech side of retargeting, the steps for setting up a campaign, and the ideal cadence for your retargeted ads based on your audience. As our conversation progresses, we go deeper into the different strategies that you can use in your own Facebook ad retargeting campaign. We start with the basics—explaining what in the world this Facebook retargeting IS and when you can (and should) use it. Then, we go into how you can leverage a retargeting campaign and the benefits (more sales) that come from using it. Next, we spend some time talking about how to determine the right audiences for retargeting and the different kinds of audience groups you can create. (The biggest asset of retargeting is that you are able to reach out to a more specific, warmer, unique audience.) I’ll also share my own retargeting experience and tell you a little bit about how I first used retargeting and how I was able to create a smaller scale campaign, build my audience groups, and then leverage those leads to successfully sell something even bigger. Facebook retargeting is an incredible tool. Take advantage of this episode so you can understand and apply these strategies to start your own Facebook ad retargeting campaign now.

Are you gearing up to launch a new course? Or want to hear the secrets to a great launch to bank for the future? Well, today is the big day I have been waiting for. I not only get to debrief my recent course launch with you (the good and the bad), but I also have five new lessons that will help you launch your next course profitably. I am brutally honest when it comes to sharing these types of learnings because I want you to be incredibly prepared for what you’re about to embark on. So here it goes. (Listen in here.) I have a no-holds-barred freebie from my recent launch for you. I’m sharing the final three emails that I sent to my audience as I was preparing to close enrollment. We generated almost $500,000 on just the final day and these emails played a part in the final-push strategy. Get these emails to use as a guideline for your own launch here. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Final 3 Launch Emails Sent Out During Courses That Convert FREE DOWNLOAD I’m a show and tell kind of girl and I want you to understand how these five lessons came about. So, be prepared to hear the nitty-gritty launch details, including my true ad budget, my email strategy, how I messed up on a special bonus opportunity (and what I did to fix it!) and why I had to quickly change-up my launch plan along the way. I also go into detail on the roles of some of my oh-so-important support staff during a launch. I talk about how many full-time employees I have when I’m not launching and then break down my total full-time and part-time team members that I have ready for launch time. Use these five strategies to avoid getting overwhelmed, prepare yourself for any launch big or small, learn how to bounce back from any misstep and most important have a successful and profitable launch.

When you’re starting out in business, I am a big advocate for any and all confidence boosters. I’m talking ways you can get your feet wet so you can say with certainty: I CAN DO THIS. Because you and I both know: You CAN do this. But sometimes you first need that little pat on the butt and boost of self-confidence. Well, today I’ve got your keys to testing out your own launch before you really launch. It’s called Affiliate Marketing. And I’ve got the perfect person to share the tricks and secrets to doing it right. Rachel Luna is an elite business coach who helps her clients gain clarity and confidence. In this action-packed episode I share: The 8 Steps to Successful Affiliate Marketing The 7 Reasons Why Being an Affiliate is a Great Dry Run for Your Own Launch Common Mistakes People Make with Affiliate Marketing Whew! This is a TON of value. I couldn’t wait to record this for you because I know a lot of you feel hesitation around kicking off your own launch. But, I know that affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to get the hands-on experience you need to feel good about your launch. I know this because this is the path I took—affiliate launch first, then my own launches. Check it all out here. So we will start off with those steps to mastering affiliate marketing: Pick Your Products Set Your GBB Goal (good, better, best) Make Key Decisions Set Up Your Backend Run Your Communication Plan (Paid traffic and emails) Create Results through Engagement Communicate and Convert Deliver on Your Word Then, you will want to stay tuned for the real meat of this episode. I show you how affiliate marketing connects to your own launch—and how you can best leverage this approach to get results in your launch. Rachel also shares her new program “Profit without Products.” I love when products are born out of experience and knowing your stuff inside and out. Being an affiliate marketer changed her life. Rachel gives you the roadmap and tools for knowing what steps to take and when you should take them. She even gives you step-by-step instructions for the tech you need to reach your goals, so it won’t be overwhelming and you won’t be on your own. You can get all the details here. EPISODE 115 Learn More about Rachel's "Profit Without Products" LEARN MORE Rachel and I wrap up with the common mistakes some people (not you with the help of this episode!) make with affiliate marketing, including not priming the pump, drive-by posts (a pet peeve of mine!) and the ultimate baddie: poor affiliate etiquette. I also give you a sure-fire tip to being the best partner that your affiliate has ever seen. This advice will make them want to work with you over and over again. It’s all here in your must-have guide to affiliate marketing.

When it comes to creating sales pages, does it ever make you feel like you are back in school muddling through your worst subject (for me, math!)? Today we are back in class, but lucky for me, I’ve got the teacher of the year (and also my dear friend) Melanie Duncan leading the way. Today, you will learn the five elements that MUST be included in all sales pages. These will guide you through creating the right copy, attracting the right audience and most important, converting these leads into sales. Before we get too far, I want to tell you about the incredible freebie I have for you on this. I’m sharing actual screengrabs from my most successful sales pages—a show and tell kind of guide you can use to create your own sales pages. Get that cheat sheet here. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Free Personal Tips: Dissecting the Science of What Makes a Brilliant Sales Page FREE DOWNLOAD Your sales page should showcase the value in your product and take your buyers on a journey. You want every single word and every single image to resonate with your perfect ideal customer. With the five elements Melanie and I lay out for you here, you can create a template that will guide you through the process. Here are some of the questions we are going to dive into: What is the most crucial part of any sales page? Do I know what imagery will compel my audience to buy? What types of testimonials do I need to curate? What are my product’s benefits and features? How long should my sales page be? Remember, you’re not going to create a new sales page in one sitting, but I promise if you take the time to create your template using this formula, you will get outstanding results and never again will feel stuck creating your sales pages. Let’s do this!

The ultimate outcome of a sales page is to sell. We all know this. But, what you’re really doing is coaching your reader to become your client. How? The process for formulating a high-converting sales page is what I’m talking about today. Your job as a coach/ teacher/ mentor is to not only have your customers’ best interest at heart, but to make your reader feel like they can shape a better version of themselves. This special sales page formula starts with four questions that you MUST ask yourself before you start writing your sales page copy. After you ask yourself the four questions, there are then four core points that every sales page must include. In this episode, I crack the code and examine the art of the creating a brilliant sales page by divulging my 4x4 formula for creating results-driven copy every time. I go right into the strategy behind your sales page and what it is about your potential customers that you should always leverage. The best way to dive deeper into your readers’ minds is with the “aha” questions. Now, I refer to these particular questions as “aha” because they are the ones that get right to where your readers’ hearts are. If you know where their hearts are, you can better empower them to take this journey with you. Remember people buy with their hearts not their minds. So, I provide you a roadmap for understanding your potential customers because a sales page is a different kind of conversation—one that is written from the perspective of the heart. The good news is you don’t need to take notes today because I’ve taken the roadmap (the four questions and the four core points) and I’ve put them into a one-page cheat sheet for you. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Free 4x4 Formula for Creating Brilliant Sales Pages FREE DOWNLOAD Start learning about the 4x4 formula that will turn your sales page into the foundation of your potential customers’ lifelong success here.

Do you know the most common legal mistake most entrepreneurs make when starting their first online business? Well, I didn’t either, until now! I recently got to chat with Gena Shingle Jaffe, a ultra-successful lawyer turned entrepreneur who is on a mission to educate and empower entrepreneurs to learn about the incredibly important legal side of online business. Gena spells out in this eye opening discussion the five essential legal documents that every entrepreneur with an online business needs and where these documents should be on your website. Familiarize and empower yourself with these essential insights here. Gena’s inside secrets really create a clear path toward feeling really good about the law and your business. The five essential documents will help you: Understand what you must have signed by every client Know the difference between what contract you need for a client versus what you need from your online course members Protect yourself against someone using your content incorrectly Learn how to protect the content on your website Create a clear plan for your privacy policy—and discover who needs to see it Gena also breaks down the ever-elusive copyright and trademark definitions and what you need to take action on right away to make sure your business is protected. We also share the website address for where you can check to see if you’re infringing on anyone else’s trademark—or (better yet) if the business name is up for grabs! You may never have thought you’d feel knowledgeable on the topic of your business and the law, but believe me after learning these concepts from Gena, you will know how to avoid being caught off-guard. Remember at the end of the day you can’t control everything that happens online. However, if you do nothing else for your business, protect yourself and your business by listening to what’s in this episode. EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Free Guide: Understanding Legal Contracts (and More!) for Entrepreneurs FREE DOWNLOAD

Are you ready to absolutely kill it with Facebook Live? Or…do you find it a little scary to get started? My guest this week is social media expert, Kim Garst. She and I jump right into how you can absolutely increase your profits using Facebook Live. You just have to get over that initial fear that is holding you back from going LIVE on camera. Ahem…I do realize this is harder than it sounds for many. HOWEVER, getting in front of your audience is your golden ticket to connecting with them personally and deepening your relationship with them. And, let me tell you, this correlates to larger profit margins - much, much larger. For Kim, leveraging LIVE video streaming increased her profits by hundreds of thousands of dollars. I want this to be you telling me that this happened for you too! The thing with Facebook Live is that, well, it’s live. And, anything can happen. So remember to relax, be prepared, and bring your personality and everything will be fine. Once you see the metrics from your first Facebook Live broadcast, that will be all the encouragement you need to do another and another and another… Kim shares a huge secret about the free reach of Facebook Live and why Facebook is able to successfully increase your newsfeed presence by 10 times that of a regular post. We also discuss strategies and tips for creating incredibly successful Facebook Live broadcasts, leveraging the extensive reach. We take a deep dive into: What types of content are most useful for Facebook Live Which additional social platforms complement your Facebook Live broadcast Where your focus should be while you’re live How professional or casual you should be The ideal cadence and timing for Facebook Live sessions Where you’ll find the metrics from your broadcast and how to leverage the results How to edit titles, images and posts for your broadcast The best strategies for communicating your upcoming Facebook Live to your lists and groups With these tips, your skill set and confidence will increase. The more Facebook Live broadcasts you do, the better you will become. I have the utmost faith in your ability to kill it! I love that I took the leap into Facebook Live. The organic reach of these videos blows my mind and it is positively affecting my bottom line. Right away after the broadcast you can see the metrics. Get in here and start learning! It truly will have a tremendous effect on your businesses.

Are you getting the most out of your Facebook ad efforts? As promised in episode 104, my good friend Rick Mulready is back and we are continuing the conversation about Facebook ads. This week we tackle how to make your Facebook ads work for you, how you can leverage Facebook algorithms, and a couple of online advertising fundamentals that cannot be overlooked. Your Questions This Week: If my ad is getting results, can I use the same ad for different launches? Are conversions for Facebook ads lower on weekends? Should I ramp up my ad Facebook ad budget in the days before my webinar? Are Lookalike Audiences on Facebook be effective? I’m not converting leads. What am I doing wrong? Do you have any tips for writing irresistible and compelling ad copy? The insights provided in this episode will immediately help you focus your Facebook ads and scale your audience. To get started, click here. These questions are from entrepreneurs just like you who are in the trenches, building your audience, and are navigating the ins and outs of Facebook advertising. By the way—if you aren’t familiar with Facebook algorithms and how they work—KEEP READING (or better yet: Start listening!). Rick’s knowledge on this topic could dramatically change how you approach your campaigns. For example, can you use the same ad for different launches? Sure. However, there are some guidelines to follow if you do this. Rick gives such an awesome answer that includes being careful about how much time has passed since you last ran the ad. His response is a prime example of how Facebook algorithms can work for or against you. Listen in as Rick shares how to be sure to make these algorithms work for you. I’m not converting leads. What am I doing wrong? There’s no magic answer, which is a little stressful, I know. However, Rick provides a strategy for finding the answer that’s right for your outcome. So, you’ll find hope as he walks you through how to diagnose where your leads are going off-track. Those are just two teaser Q&As, but listen here to hear them all. As we near the end of our episode, Rick and I tackle how to write compelling copy for Facebook ads. Here’s what you will gain from listening in: What you might be focusing on vs. what you should focus on. How to write ad copy to attract your ideal audience. Strategies for learning what your ideal audience member wants to hear from you. I love the takeaways in this episode and I know you will find them extremely advantageous for your business, so let’s get listening!

Three questions for you before we start today: Do you want to grow your business? (Check!) Do you want to leverage more of your day to day? (Check!) Do you want to make your life--personally and professionally--easier? (Check!) Then you need the ultimate tools for your trade. And today I am in my cave of resources to share exactly what I use to scale my business, get maximum output from my team, and streamline so many different areas o of my life. So, what tools do I use? I’m glad you asked! Along with these resources I also provide the pros and cons of using them and the insider hacks that I’ve come to realize along the way. Because these tools will serve your business so well, I’ve created a free cheat sheet of all my FAVORITE tools, links to where you grab them, how they work and those awesome hacks I use to make them work even better. These hacks will save you time, money, and headaches. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Battle-Tested Tools That Will Rock Your Business FREE DOWNLOAD No tool is going to be the end all be all for any project, but you need to find ones that work for you and stick with them. Commit to these and your team will follow suit. I was once that person who kept switching out tools because I would “find something better.” My team finally called me on it and I came up with these battle-tested tools that we use on a daily basis. I can’t wait for you to check them out for yourself!

How can I be an expert if I am brand new at all of this and no one is paying attention—yet? This is a valid, legitimate, understandable concern. My best advice: Get over that doubt as quickly as possible and get moving. Here’s why: We all started somewhere. All the experts you follow and admire today started at the bottom. When I started my business 6 years ago, I was so afraid of so many different things. A big lesson I learned along the way is that you are the expert of your content, your voice and your audience. Don’t think less than that at any moment. In this episode I walk you through the Five Reminders that You Can Be The Expert Inside your Online Course. These reminders are drawn from what I have learned over the last six years. I share my secrets to success because I want you to break through those fears immediately. Before I get into it, I want to tell you about this week’s freebie. Whether you’re a coach, consultant, speaker, freelancer or service provider of ANY kind, owning your own course is a game changer that can have a dramatic effect on your income and impact. Recently I’ve reverse-engineered the biggest lessons I’ve learned from five of my own successful online courses (that have served over 35,000 entrepreneurs while generating $6.4 million in revenue) and I’ve put all those key learnings in a brand new free master class. My LIVE master class is called "How to Confidently Create Your First Profitable Course in 60 Days" and before it’s too late, I want you to grab your virtual seat! Now, back to it— The five reminders will let you know that you’re capable of embarking on this journey and more so that you are ready to take action NOW. Listen in to learn the two areas where you might be holding yourself back when moving forward with building your online business. Also, I give you the tips and strategies you need to assure yourself that you are the expert. You will also learn the qualities that make a great online teacher and the surprise qualities that you think you might need, but don’t. If you are thinking about building a course in the near future—or if you’ve ever felt like a fraud while growing your business— I think you will find these reminders incredibly valuable. This episode is for you if you: Wonder if your “newness” will impact the quality of your class Want to learn more about cultivating your teaching skills Are curious about just how much commitment you need to start a class (the answer may surprise you!) Are nervous about the competition and how to push it away or embrace it These reminders are a great trigger for me every time I start a new course. I hope you find them as valuable as I do. Don’t forget to grab your virtual in my LIVE, Free Master Class, "How to Confidently Create Your First Profitable Course in 60 Days.”

I want you to price your next (or first!) online course with confidence. In your heart of hearts, are you getting paid what you’re worth? Are you hitting the “sweet spot” of pricing perfection? This week I tackle these questions and give you a seven-step pricing strategy so you can determine what you should really charge for your course—and feel whole about the entire process. I am INCREDIBLY passionate about this topic. Creating my own profitable and content-driven online courses has been the key to my success and I want to make it the key to your success too. But first, I have something really exciting to share with you. I have a new master class ready to be unveiled: “How to Confidently Create Your First Profitable Course in 60 Days.” In this master class, I share the secrets I’ve learned from helping 38,000 entrepreneurs, while making more than $6 million in revenue. Grab your spot (it’s free!) Now, back to today’s topic: In your gut, are you charging what you’re worth? I would bet that this is the hardest part to starting your first online course—or even maybe your second or third. Ask yourself these three questions: Are you afraid to ask for what you’re worth? Are you willing to deliver 10x the value of what you’re charging? Does your price point attract the clientele you want? Let’s dig into the seven steps here. One of the first steps I share is surprisingly missed by many entrepreneurs. It is such a crucial part in determining your price and I don’t want you to skip it. Then, we tackle how your product fits into your business. This is key for determining the most attractive price point for what you are offering. I ask you a couple of questions to help you through this step. It can be a tricky road to navigate. Listen here. Next, we talk about the length of time it can take to launch and re-launch your product. Ultimately, I want to help you get solid on how you feel about the price you’ve set. Once you decide on the price point, you’ve got to own it. These seven steps will help you do just that. Own your price. Be confident. And go sell it.

Do you know the detailed story of your perfect ideal customer? I am not just talking demographics or a just few pain points and struggles— I mean the nitty gritty, day in the life kind of stuff. Because my special guest, marketing and branding strategist Jasmine Star, paints such a vivid picture of her avatar, Elle, that I feel like I know her as well as my best friend. I think once you hear about Elle and how Jasmine created her—and how you can create your own story—you will be riveted. That is just ONE of the many brilliant pieces of insight Jasmine drops when she stops by for my latest episode. Other amazing takeaways from my new favorite branding and marketing strategist: Learn the best approach to understanding how your product can help your audience—and ultimately how that will shift your approach to social media. Check out strategies for empowering your potential customers to choose you over your competitors. Your competition isn’t going anywhere, but if you can build trust with your clients and make their life easier, they will stick with you. Discover the keys to writing better copy, creating better emails, and nailing your social media—all with just a few KEY tips. I had the MOST fun creating the episode this week—because I found Jasmine so brutally honest, funny and refreshing. Listen in (and get ready to laugh) as Jasmine explains the 5 key tips for growing your brand. Stay tuned for later in the episode when Jasmine goes into my favorite tip! It’s obvious you want people to love you and your social media, however, you actually WANT to repel some people. It’s so important and in the best interest of your business. She breaks down how to do this with finesse and self-assurance in order to grow your tribe.

I get asked all of the time: Amy, where do I start? And the answer is to start with building your business in Phase One, and progress to Phase Two. This is how to build a business that will endure in the long term, and really fulfill the lifestyle you are looking for. I know this because I can look back and see what worked for my own business, and what I would have changed if I had to do it all again. With Phase One, you focus on how to make money in the here and now. In this phase, you are asking these kinds of questions: What skills and knowledge do you have right now to ensure you can make money quickly? Who’s your avatar? Do you have a solid plan in place to grow your list? What’s your strategy for your blog or posting to social media? In this phase you are sharpening your skills and getting into the trenches with your ideal customer avatar so that you can understand their needs, wants and genuine pain points. This intel is incredibly valuable as you begin to hone in on your own messaging for your business. I’ll walk you through several business models that are perfect for this level. Then with Phase Two, we move into creating a business and life you love. For this, you will ask yourself: What’s my ultimate business model? There needs to be an alignment between what you want to do and what your avatar wants from you: That’s the sweet spot. In many situations, including my own, a business model that offers A LOT of flexibility, consistent revenue and an abundance of opportunity to impact your audience is one that is built on you creating online training programs. Listen in to see how to put all of this into action. I also want to remind you to download my special freebie for today’s episode, called, “Where Should My Support Dollars Go?” One aspect that ANY level should be thinking about is: How do I make the most of my time by hiring support? I want to give you a little cheat sheet to help you hire the right level of support for where you are at in your business. EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Guide: Where Should My Support Dollars Go? FREE DOWNLOAD

Do you have questions about Facebook advertising? That’s a silly question, right? We’ve all got questions! (Why does Facebook have to make it so complicated sometimes?!) This week I have my go-to-resource for all things Facebook ads with us, Rick Mulready. You might remember Rick from previous episodes. He left the corporate world to help entrepreneurs like you optimize your online advertising. I could not be more excited that he’s back with the latest “need to know now!” details to help us optimize our Facebook ads. In addition to answering the questions below in exquisite detail, he is also hosting a FREE workshop on how to create a lead system using Facebook ads. (Scroll to the bottom to learn how to grab your seat.) Here’s a list of the questions we answered on this recent episode: Could you share a case study about Facebook ad spend, list growth and conversions? What do I do if my ads aren’t converting well? How are people getting around the character limit on Facebook ads? Should I use an image or a video? Is there any way to get more insight as to why Facebook rejected my ad? Is what I spend per ad too much? How do I know if my pixels are set up properly and reporting accurately? The pages I want to target are not coming up for me. Am I targeting correctly? The answers from Rick are killer and I don’t want you to miss them. If you want to jump right in, click here. During our chat, Rick shares the case study of a holistic health practitioner who saw an avenue for growth by teaching her way of business to her peers. She created a video campaign and ran with it. Only, she inadvertently made a “mistake” and drove traffic to a site that I would otherwise say is unwise—but it WORKED for her. In making this “mistake” her conversion rate grew to 40%-50%. She spent $3,000 and earned a return of $30,000. You have to listen to Rick’s explanation of why this worked. Rick insists that if you aren’t converting your leads, you must keep it simple and take a look at the top one or two statistics that are most relevant to your outcome. Do you have the right target audience? What is your conversion rate? What is your click through rate? Rick tells you the general cost per conversion that you should strive to spend. He also likes to see a 20% and above conversion rate on a landing page. He explains strategies and actions that you can take to make sure you’re on the right track to achieve this. For those of you dying to know how your competitors are adding more text to their Facebook ad than is allowed, Rick tells you precisely how. We also discuss when it’s best to post a video or an image with your ad. One of my favorite insights was that Facebook’s chat helpline is up and running. You heard me right . . . LIVE FACEBOOK AD CHAT! He explains where to find the live chat session, and he raves about the good results he’s gotten from reaching out. Lastly, Rick talked about targeting and what to do when you can’t find the Facebook Pages you want to target. He shares three sure-fire tips for successful targeting. It may take some detective work at times, but it will pay off. Don’t forget to register for one of Rick’s three, FREE, live webinars (on April 12 and 13) to discover how you can create an automated system that gets leads and sales everyday for your business. EPISODE 104 Register for Rick's Free Webinar Training on Facebook Ads LEARN MORE I’m thrilled to tell you that Rick has agreed to come on more regularly to answer your pressing questions. We know that you need these answers to keep moving forward. Look back for another “Amy and Rick FB Ad Q&A Session” in about six weeks!

Google-ads, targeting, and Facebook-scaling, oh my! We are LUCKY to have e-commerce expert and trainer Steve Chou in my latest episode to keep you in the know of what’s working now in e-commerce. The great thing about this interview is that although we are talking about e-commerce, the insights are applicable across several areas—business coaching, information marketing, growing your email list, webinars, and so much more! Quick story about Steve: He owns the site, mywifequitherjob.com. And she did. They live in the gorgeous (and pricey) Silicon Valley. She wanted to quit her job to have more time with their kiddos, but they had to figure out a way to supplement her $100,000 salary. They started the site and in the first year it became a success. HOW did Steve do that? Steve goes into detail on how he and his wife grew their business by driving traffic to their e-commerce site in this week’s episode. First and foremost determining the best sites for your e-commerce marketing depends on what your value proposition is. What are you looking to market online with e-commerce? If it lends itself to searches; for example, Google shopping converts very well. But you see, if you’re selling something general like T-shirts, Google might not be your best bet. And, you might want to go with the targeted marketing on Facebook for better conversion rates. Other businesses like Steve’s e-commerce wedding site where he sells custom wedding handkerchiefs, use both Facebook and Google ads. He dives into that kind of detail in our chat. Steve and I touched on When Google shopping will work in your favor When using Facebook is ideal What the minimum price point is of something you would want to advertise on Facebook Equally important for you, Steve sees content as the next wave of how to market products and services and I could not agree more. We got into an important discussion on why video will be the next major trend and why you need to know where you should use it. It all comes down to REALLY knowing your audience and who will buy your product. Want to know how to scale your Facebook ads? This is one of the topics Steve and I discuss and I’ve created a free training video for you to dive a little deeper. Whether you’re looking to improve your e-commerce site, build your list, or grow your consulting business, these spot-on Facebook ad scaling tips are for you! EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Free Training Video: Scaling Your Facebook Ads FREE DOWNLOAD Listen to Steve give you more strategies on content, training programs and growing your business via Facebook, Google, Instagram, and Pinterest here.

My quarter one has felt chaotic. I felt scattered. Everything except time to create content was dictating my life. It was time for a new approach to my schedule. I know you feel me here. I needed a die-hard plan to make time for what drives my business forward. I needed a content creation RITUAL. That’s why this episode is so important to share with you, because you will be able to apply my learnings to formulate a content creation ritual that works for you. Last week, we talked about priorities in your business—and life. This week, we are taking it one step further and breaking down how to manage your work time and space, so that you are earth-shatteringly-productive and focused on what matters in your business. First and foremost know this—I am insanely committed to my ritual for content creation, but by no means is it easy. I still struggle with it daily because my mind still thinks I should be doing a million other things. It’s TOUGH. In fact I’m so committed that I have developed my own Tiger Time. That’s right, Tiger Time. This is the part of my day that I fiercely protect (like a tiger and her cub!) in order to give myself the time and space to create my BEST content. The rules are strict, but the rewards are HUGE. It’s been so successful for me that I’ve created a freebie that will walk you through the steps to create your own content creation ritual. So, to take action on what you’ve just learned here, to grab it. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Free Content Creation Ritual Worksheet FREE DOWNLOAD I’ll also clue you in on a few musts for planning out my week—including what helps me prepare for the week ahead, and an old, yet trusty planning tool that I’ve dusted off from the past. It’s all in the latest episode—I hope you enjoy and see this ritual make a real impact on your business!

When my dear friend Michael Hyatt said he was going to come by to join us for our latest episode, I knew it was going to be good, and profound. And in my latest episode, he doesn’t disappoint, ladies and gentlemen... Because he’s talking about the ONE thing we should be focused on in our lives: Our life plan. It’s all tied to his latest book, Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want, which Michael co-authored with Daniel Harkavy. Why, you might ask, is a life plan more important than many areas of your business? Because, as Michael says: “A failure in one area can reverberate and cascade into other areas of our life.” So when you’re overall life plan is off track, then your business is naturally off. According to Michael, when you’re what he calls “drifting,” you’re distracted, overwhelmed and unaware of where you should put your focus. This can create an environment for failure. Michael helps you understand that by getting your priorities in line, so you can be prepared to make the little decisions you need to get the big results you want out of your business, and in life. Because, it’s not the big moves that determine the quality of our output, it’s actually the little actions. In last week’s episode, I explained how I grew my business via incremental steps and not one large move. Michael takes this one step further to help us decide what we should be focusing on in our lives, so that we are prepared and patient enough to conquer those little steps. To get started, he prompts you to ask yourself: How do you want to be remembered? What is most important to you? How do I get from here (wherever that is) to where I want to be? Michael then shares the surprising reality about putting yourself first. (It’s a tough lesson.) The book is packed with great insights, and Michael has a special deal if you buy the book tomorrow (March 11). If you purchase Living Forward by tomorrow, Michael will give you for FREE: A detailed action plan guide The Living Forward quick-start audio training A custom Living Forward adult coloring book To claim your bonus: Visit the following link and follow the prompts http://livingforwardbook.com/#claimbonuses After talking with Michael, I am more empowered than ever to determine a clear destination and make the tough choices I need to make to get me there. So my friends, get ready to be present, be engaged and be fully focused. Get ready for a life of less drifting, and more fulfillment. Go here now to check out this special interview with Michael.

Today's episode is #100 (let's celebrate!)-- and I've got another hot topic I wanted to talk to you all about. This hot topic is focused on a big mistake I see a lot (especially in the first two years of business!) but I rarely talk about. Until now. It begins with deciding on which path you should take for your business: Horizontal OR Vertical? Which is best for your business right now? How do you know if you are on the right path? And which path did I choose from own my business (to see crazy good results)? You can see the answers to these questions and more in my latest podcast episode here. Not only are we talking about such an important topic on today's episode, but I've also got something incredibly exciting to share with you! I often get asked if I do one-on-one coaching and while I don't have the bandwidth to add coaching to my business currently, in honor of my 100th episode I wanted to create something extra special. That's why I'm giving one person the opportunity to get laser coaching from me in person, right here in San Diego, California. If you are the winner, you get to come out to San Diego for the day where I will put you up at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa right near my home. (You're going to love it--it's gorgeous.) Bright and early in the morning, we will meet in person and spend the day taking a deep dive into your entire business. We'll look at everything: your avatar, your messaging, your positioning, your products, programs, offers, list-building funnel, all of it. I will give you my insights, my feedback, and advice to help you take your business to the next level whether it be horizontal or vertical. After we're done and our brains are good and fried, we'll go out to a fun dinner together and celebrate our accomplishments. Sound good?\ I know it’s a big step to put yourself out there with this whole video entry thing. But I really want to encourage you to do so! This opportunity to meet with me and put a laser focus on you and your business could be business-changing and life-changing! I promise I will make it worth your time. I'd also like to take a minute to thank you immensely for following me on my journey of creating this podcast. It truly is one of the most favorite things I do inside my business. It has probably made the biggest impact in my ability to reach bigger audience and connect with you and grow my business overall. Thank you so very much for letting me do what I love. I cannot wait to continue this podcast with more and more episodes about building your business and list building and webinars and all the cool stuff I get to talk about. Here's to the next 100 episodes! And I cannot wait to see what you create in your own business...starting with your videos!

Over the last few years, I've noticed that one of the big reasons my students struggle with list building is that they lack consistent original content in their marketing strategy. It's an easy trap to fall into. After all, creating content takes time, effort and creativity. You might even be thinking "Amy, all my focus is going into creating my product for sale. How am I supposed to come up with fresh original content every week?" Well, good news--this episode is all about helping you create just one piece of amazing content each month. You heard right. Each. Month. When you have that one piece of amazing epic content, you can spin it out into every marketing channel in your toolbox with the overall goal of building your list. Content Comes in Three Stages I think there’s a lot of confusion out there around content. It seems simple, but when I sat down and started mapping what successful content looks like in different contexts, I'll admit that even I got confused! So I checked in with a good friend from my corporate job days. She’s the best at dissecting content and explaining where it shines the brightest. And what she showed me is that there are three main stages of content: Paid Free lead magnet Just plain free (not even for an opt-in) Notice I said "stages." All three of these types of content are related to each other--which means every time you create one kind of content, the other two are super easy to create out of it. Click here to find out how you can use the main themes within your paid product to create epic content that builds your list! Easy Strategies for Getting More Mileage Out of Your Epic Content Now, like I said earlier, the "meat" of the strategy we’re diving into in this episode is getting deliberate about your content creation so you can extend it across all your marketing channels. When you really get intentional with your content (and create it with your email list in mind), you're all to get huge mileage out of one piece. After all, we take our content creation seriously. So why not put a bigger focus on getting it in front of more people while we’re creating it? In this episode, I'm going to walk you through three roadmaps for extending one piece of epic content into every major marketing platform you use. To make it extremely easy for you, I've put together some free worksheets that show how to break up your content into different platforms within each roadmap. Click here to get them now! EPISODE FREEBIE Get Your Free Cheat Sheet: "The List Builders Blitz Campaign" FREE DOWNLOAD To get the most out of today's topic, you'll really want to listen to the whole episode. But I'll outline the roadmaps for you here: Strategy 1: Start by writing an epic blog post that includes an epic upgrade (something your readers can take more action on to get more value). From there, you'll move to emailing your list, creating videos, doing a Periscope, and more. Click here to get all the steps now! Strategy 2: Start by creating an epic podcast episode with an upgrade. Strategy 3: Start by creating an epic video. The End Goal = Your Email List Now, this whole strategy takes a little thought and effort to execute properly. That's why you won’t be using this strategy with every single piece of new content you create. Like I said, I’m suggesting you be selective with this concept and put it to work about once a month. That gives you lots of room to pace each appearance of the content within your various marketing channels (and to repost it at least once) without making it seem like overload. Bottom line, the mindset around your campaign should always be about building your email list by getting people to your freebie. When you're creating core quality content with your email list in mind, it uplevels everywhere that content appears.

You know how much I love battle-tested, ultra-successful online marketing strategies. The only thing I love better is sharing strategies like these with you! It makes me so happy when we get in the trenches together and master the techniques that bring us the results we crave. But this week, we're doing something a little different. I'm in the midst of setting up my List-Builders Lab program right now, and I have to say that I'm really feeling the effect of all the strategies I've learned (and shared with you) over the past year. Let me tell you that the confidence I feel makes a world of difference in the midst of pre-launch craziness. And that got me thinking about how insanely important it is in your business to have your mind right! We don't think about this too much--we're too busy looking for the right tools, the right strategies, the right technology, etc. But if your confidence is struggling even just a bit, no strategy is going to work inside your business the way it should. That's why today's podcast episode is all about lies, lies, lies... And, of course, the truth that we need to replace them. As you likely already know, to win the game of becoming a successful entrepreneur, you’ve got to focus occasionally on what’s going on between your two ears. Today's post is all about the lies that I've personally dealt with! And sometimes, in low moments, I still hear them creeping up on me. But with the help and advice of other friends in the online business world, I know what to tell myself when those lies show up...and that's what I want to pass on to you today. Lie #1: You have to be the best in your market. Lie #2: You have to find the balance between your work and your family and all that comes in between that. Lie #3: Your failures that are adding up are proof that you’re never going to make this work. Lie #4: Every opportunity that comes your way is big, and you can’t miss out on it or you’ll be left behind. Stopping the Lies = Knowing the Truth I know it’s not enough to just tell you what these lies are. You need to know how to flip them around with truth! Once you have the truth, those lies can't hold you back anymore, and you can really start building momentum in your business. Since we're all about truth-telling today, I'll be honest and say that today's episode felt a little bit uncomfortable for me at times. It's not always easy for me to talk about topics that might not feel super good. And I don’t get to say, “Click this, go here, do that,” because we’re not talking about those specific strategies. But I think it’s important to get really honest with ourselves, in order to be sure that those strategies will work. I hope that’s what this episode did for you, and that it redirects and recharges you, so that you start finding out how to create the business you absolutely love.

Today we're diving into a new aspect of Facebook marketing that may very well surprise you! If you've hosted a webinar or an online course, you have probably also created a private Facebook group as a bonus for your clients. In addition to offering extra support and relationship, private Facebook groups are an amazing way to galvanize your clients into a true community. (Always a great thing when it comes to brand loyalty!) But did you know that the community-creating power of private Facebook groups can be a hugely effective sales tool? My guests on the podcast today are Josh and Jill Stanton from Screw the 9 to 5, and they're going to share their secret strategy for using private Facebook groups to warm up your audience for sales. Using Facebook groups in this way is really unique to Josh and Jill--as far as I know, nobody else out there is using this strategy to grow revenue. That's because we usually think of Facebook groups as being an "after the fact" thing. You create the product, people buy it and then they're part of the group. But what Josh and Jill have realized that there's a ton of sales power in making your audience "part of the group" before they ever spend a dime with you! Re-think Your Page Right off the bat, Jill makes a statement that could ruffle the feathers of a lot of online marketers: "Facebook Pages are dead to me." Once you recover from that bombshell, don't rush to the "Delete" button on your page! There's definitely a place for Facebook Pages...even Jill and Josh still use theirs. But what Jill is saying is that the Page setup is really more of a one-way street when it comes to interacting with your audience. For example, when fans comment on your page, their words show up in a sidebar...not exactly a real conversation, is it? Turning Your Brand into a Facebook Family By contrast, a Facebook group lets the "family atmosphere" of your brand really flourish. When you gather the people who have genuine interest in your business into a private setting--one in which they can interact with you as another member (an extra-knowledgeable and authoritative member, of course)--you're able to build a community of affinity and trust around your brand. A community in which you are the go-to source for what your audience wants to know/solve/accomplish. A community that is brought together by the experience of your program, product or service. If you're ready to find out the nuts and bolts of this ingenious Facebook marketing strategy, click here to listen to the whole episode now! ...Oh, and be sure to pay attention for a special bonus topic in my conversation with Josh and Jill: what to do when you realize that you don't really like your business model. (Yes, it's possible to change!)

Marie Forleo has been in the online entrepreneurship game for seventeen years. She's appeared on Oprah, been interviewed by Tony Robbins, hung out with Richard Branson. ...and she still doesn’t feel like she’s ever had a “big break.” Yes, really. The whole "big break" thing is a myth, Marie says. And that's not because she doesn't know how it feels to wish for one! She remembers sitting in her studio apartment, staring at the computer screen, fantasizing about the "fairy business godmother" who would sweep in and discover her potential. But the career she's built today--the best-selling books, the hugely popular MarieTV series, the constant stream of success stories from her B School training program who approach her on the street to thank her for changing their lives--didn't come from a single amazing opportunity being dropped into her lap. "What I’ve been able to see now, in hindsight, is there is no single opportunity that anyone else can give you that is more important for your success than the small daily actions you must take every day." Great quote, right? There's more to come. Every question I asked Marie in our interview brought some amazing sound bites--I was scrambling to write them all down! To get a taste of her wisdom in these quotes...listen to the whole episode for Marie's insights on how to overcome perfectionism and self-doubt, the main way to unite your audience into a tribe, and what daily actions you must take to achieve the success you desire! If you want to sign up for Marie's FREE Video Series (You need to watch Video 2 - trust us!), click here to sign up!

Picture this: you wake up one morning with an amazing idea. You do a little research on it and, by the end of the day, feel a growing sense that this idea of yours has real selling potential. Maybe you even ask your audience directly if they'd be interested in this idea, and they give it a resounding "Yes, please!" And then, after all this, you put your great idea into action...and it doesn't sell. Nothing comes of it. When you spend time, effort, and money putting together something for your audience, only to hear crickets when you put it out into the world, it can really crush your confidence, not to mention put a dent in your bottom line. But what if you could take your idea through a proven process that makes sure it's a good fit for you, your business, and for your audience? Now that's a pretty good idea, right? My good friend Pat Flynn has tested many, many great ideas over the course of his online career. And believe it or not, even Pat has had a few ideas that he thought were great end up dead in the water. That's what led to his new book Will It Fly?, which shows entrepreneurs how to test their great ideas for real value. On today's podcast episode, Pat and I are going to walk you through some ideas, insights, and tips to help you learn how to test whether your idea will work for you and your audience. It's a great episode and you're going to want to hear the whole thing--trust me! Pat is one of the hardest working guys out there. But even more impressive than his work ethic is his transparency. If you've visited his site, you've seen that he publishes his monthly revenue reports so that viewers can see real-life proof of how well his ideas work. Success Isn't Overnight As entrepreneurs, we're always talking about launching. Launching is a big part of what we do, but how often do we talk about what happens after you launch? Is your idea actually going to take off? Is it going to fly? Is it going to keep going or is it going to crash? Whether you need permission to really get moving on your latest idea, or if you require some "tough love" in order to let this one go and keep searching for inspiration, Pat's book is going to give you some fundamental tools for entrepreneurial success. EPISODE 95 Click Here to Check Out Pat's New Book "Will It Fly?" LEARN MORE The Three Validation Tests The History Test The Shark Bait Test Want to check out Pat's book, where he dives deep into the content he shared with us? Click here to find out more about his new book, Will It Fly. EPISODE 95 Check Out Pat's New Book "Will It Fly?" LEARN MORE

By now you've probably heard about Periscope, the live streaming social media platform that lets you talk to your fans in real time. It's the fastest growing social media platform of all time! Since Periscope launched in March 2015, it already has 15 million users. And get this: those users upload three years' worth of video content every day. I dabbled with Periscope for a while in 2015, and to be honest, I couldn't figure out if I loved it or hated it. Mostly, I just didn't really understand how to use it to its fullest potential. That's why I was so glad to talk with today's podcast guest. Zack Spuckler is a genuine Periscope ninja, and he has used the platform to do amazing things with his email list. Whether you're an early adopter who is already using Periscope on a daily basis, or a skeptic who wonders if this medium is really going to last long enough to be worth the time it takes to learn it, this episode is one you just can't miss. I'll be the first to admit that my biggest obstacle in using Periscope is the whole "live stream" nature of it. Frankly, it makes me nervous--I like to have a plan, a script, and a lot of chances to correct my mistakes. At the same time, I recognize the real power of livestreaming to break the barriers between you and your audience. They get to come inside your world, and you get to be more personal and engaging with them. It lets your audience see a side of you that really no other social media platform offers. Having said that, there are some do's and don'ts that go a long way toward making Periscope truly effective as a marketing tool. That's where Zach's expertise comes in! In addition to offering tons of pro tips and insider tricks on how to use Periscope to best advantage (and a good estimate on how long it takes to really hit your stride) Zach has created a freebie just for you. It's a worksheet with five simple steps to guide you through your first Periscope broadcast. Click here to get it now! EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Simple Broadcast System Worksheet FREE DOWNLOAD "I sold about $1,200 of the course at a $97 intro price. Then I did it again the next day. We ended up doing about $2,200 in sales with about an hour and a half of Periscopes. We hadn’t sent emails. We didn’t even have a sales page. "Then I launched my Periscope course and really drove people there from Periscope. This will really tell you the power of it: I didn’t have a freebie ready for Periscope. I threw together a lead page that said, “I’m going to make a really cool Periscope freebie. I have no idea what it’s going to be, I just know that you should sign up for it.” We had over 200 people opt in for that and when all was said and done, in the course of the first 30 days and a little beyond that because we had launch, we had sold 60 copies of the course." The Real Power Behind Periscope Zach has tons of tips and tools that will help you create results like these on Periscope. But the real key to Zach's success isn't just the platform--it's the ability it gave him to really hear what his audience wanted. Prior to using Periscope, Zach was facing that constant frustration of creating products that he thought his audience wanted from him, only to have nobody click the "Buy" button when he finally released it. But by engaging with his audience on live video, he could literally count the number of times people asked about something, and know exactly what it was they wanted. "It’s just crazy, the engagement and conversion that you can get with live video. You don’t have to think anymore, you just have to listen. That's what I like about it." If you're ready to really dive into Periscope and find out how to use it, click here to listen to the podcast now. And make sure to download the worksheet created especially for you by Zach himself.

You know how important your list is to your business' growth. If you're measuring your list's health in terms of numbers, it can really get you down sometimes. It's easy to feel like the fate of your business is at a standstill until your list numbers in the thousands (or at least the high hundreds). My guest on the podcast today is going to blow that myth out of the water! Rachel Luna is living proof that you don’t need a gigantic list to gain success. What really matters about your list isn’t the number of names and addresses on it, but the quality of those people in terms of their engagement with you. Rachel’s success story is really a one-two punch. Not only does she show the power of what you can do with a highly engaged list, but she’s also a stellar example of how to do affiliate marketing right. If you’ve thought about doing affiliate marketing but haven’t tried it…or if you’ve gone through it before with mediocre results…Rachel’s story is going to truly inspire you. And you’re also going to love the freebie Rachel created for us this week: it’s called the Confident Affiliate Marketing Starter Guide. You can get it by clicking here! Secrets of an Affiliate Marketing Superstar Last spring, Rachel worked with my business coach Todd Herman and chose to be an affiliate promoter of his 90-Day Year program. As a business/life coach to other entrepreneurs, Rachel is ultra-focused on taking action and setting goals, which made her a perfect fit for this promotion. "Who is this Rachel Luna, and what is her secret?" Finally, I decided to get in touch with her to find out just that. And today she is sharing the secrets of her affiliate marketing success with all of us! Click here to start listening now. You can see why Rachel was blowing us all away with her climbing numbers! This made it all the more devastating when, just one week before the official program kickoff, Rachel’s website got hacked. Everything she had planned for her promotion—blogs, sales pages, bonus materials that she’d created for her audience—was gone. Rachel considered not even doing the promotion. She’d spent hours putting all this together, only to have it wiped out overnight. But after talking with Todd, she decided to keep moving forward and see what happened. "I sent off that first email which I had taken the time to write really well. I was very thoughtful about it. I was very intentional because I wanted to make sure it was something that would resonate with my audience." And oh, did it ever resonate. By Day 1 of the promotion, Rachel had made $10k…almost 75% of her revenue goal. By Day 2, she’d surpassed her goal by $2000. By the time the launch ended, Rachel had made a $53,000 profit, almost four times her goal amount. By the way, this little fish, ended up finishing fourth overall out of all the affiliates promoting the program. Amazing! You Don't Need a Big List to Get Big Results Rachel shares a lot more details of what made her affiliate launch such a staggering success--how much she spent on Facebook ads, how she structured bonuses for her audience, etc.--in the full podcast episode. And of course you'll want to download her amazing freebie, the Confident Affiliate Marketing Starter Guide. EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Confident Affiliate Marketing Starter Guide FREE DOWNLOAD But the biggest takeaway, in my view, was that Rachel didn't let the size of her email list stop her. She could have put off Todd's program until next time it came around, telling herself she was going to wait until her list was bigger. But instead, she took action with what she had, focused on maximizing her strengths, and didn't let setbacks slow her down. "Sometimes, in my experience as a life coach, people aren’t so focused on taking action, they are focused on feeling better. They were happy with mediocre results. I want to have the best, most exciting. I want big."

Let's kick off the New Year with an absolute game changer for your business: Facebook ad targeting. Some of you by now have become really good at this. But if you're still struggling to nail your Facebook ad strategy, or if you're just getting started in this world, this episode is most definitely for you. I work with a lot of business students who are just getting started with Facebook ads or have been dabbling in ads for a while without seeing much success. The number one mistake I see them making is targeting the wrong people. This usually happens for two reasons. Some of my students truly don’t understand who their avatar is. Others...the majority, in fact...know who their avatar is, but they just haven’t dug deep enough to understand them in a way that Facebook ad targeting could make a huge difference for them in their business.Specifically, they haven’t done the research or documented their successes and losses, so they aren’t really sure what’s working. Here's what I always remind them: when you get really good at Facebook ad targeting, there is no doubt you are going to see some major shifts in the impact you have with your audience and a major increase in your revenue streams. That's why I've created a roadmap that will let you know exactly where to focus, along with what needs to be on your radar from the get-go. It's really simple--just the way I like it--and it's set up so that you can keep adding to it as you learn exactly who your audience is and how to get in front of them. Basically, it's the key to unlocking the most valuable resource in your business. I've put a lot into this episode for you, so make sure to listen to the whole podcast to get everything you need to start the new year off successfully! I've also created a great freebie to help you with this plan--the Facebook Ad Targeting Starter Guide. It's a list of ten questions that you MUST be able to answer about your audience in order to fully optimize your Facebook ad targeting. Grab the special guide by clicking below! EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Facebook Ads Targeting Starter Guide FREE DOWNLOAD Like I said, you've really got to listen to the whole episode to get all this great information I've put together for you. But to outline it for you, Facebook ad targeting breaks down into four specific opportunities: Targeting Opportunity #1: Target Your Own Audiences Targeting Opportunity #2: Targeting Your Own Facebook Fans Targeting Opportunity #3: Target Other Facebook Pages Targeting Opportunity #4: Creating Lookalike Audiences Be Patient with Yourself Finally, I have to remind you to be patient with yourself. This isn’t all going to fall into place tomorrow. My goal is to give you a roadmap and a bunch of examples, so you see where you want to go with your Facebook ad targeting and have the skills to get there day by day. In addition to laying out the steps in each targeting opportunity, this podcast episode walks you through using two super-easy research tools that should become second nature to you when you start to dive into Facebook advertising. Click here to listen to the whole thing now. And make sure to download this week's freebie so you can get super-prepared for making the most of your Facebook targeting. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Facebook Ads Targeting Starter Guide FREE DOWNLOAD

Happy 2016, everyone! I am thrilled to ring in the New Year with you. As I’ve mentioned before, I love new beginnings. The clean slate, the opportunity to brainstorm amazing new projects and create strategies and systems around getting them done…it gets my creative juices flowing like nothing else. And the podcasts I have planned for 2016 are no exception! There are some really exciting episodes in store for you. We’ll be focusing on list building and building campaigns in your business so that you can sell more online. We’ll talk a lot about content creation and making sure that you’re getting in front of the right people to make the biggest impact. And we’ll make sure you are creating a business that you love as well as creating online training programs and products that your audience can’t get enough of. But to get us set up for success in all these areas, I’m going to kick off the new year with some advice from my good friend John Lee Dumas. John is a favorite guest to have on this podcast because his brand Entrepreneur on Fire is a stellar example of the kind of success we’re all shooting for. And after hosting over 1200 interviews with successful entrepreneurs, John is definitely an authority on what it takes to achieve online business success. SMART Goals = Surefire Success John said that over the past few years, a pattern emerged in the emails he received from his audience. A lot of people were struggling with online business because they didn’t know how to set and accomplish goals in an effective way. Contrast that with what John saw in the success stories of his Entrepreneur on Fire interviewees: “I’m a big believer there is no silver bullet. It’s all hard work and getting your nose down to the grindstone, for sure. But I step back and ask what is one thing the Amy Porterfield’s and Pat Flynn’s and Michael Stelzner’s of the world all do well. … These people all know how to set and accomplish goals.” So John decided to dedicate 2015 to creating a structure for his audience to take action with setting goals. And now, in 2016, he has an amazing and beautiful product to help them do just that! It’s called the Freedom Journal: Accomplish Your Goals in 100 Days. It’s a hardbound, 300-page physical book that walks you step by step through the process of not only setting a goal but accomplishing it within 100 days. (True story: I have this journal right in front of me, and let me just tell you that simply holding it in your hands is a powerful thing. Something about this beautifully created physical product is inspiring and empowering in a whole new way. Looking at it makes you want to take action. Pretty amazing stuff!) EPISODE 91 Click Here to Check Out The Freedom Journal LEARN MORE Step by Step Guidance for Your 2016 Goals The Freedom Journal starts with John guiding you through setting a SMART goal. You probably already know this acronym: it stands for Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The rest of the journal offers step-by-step guidance and accountability in carrying out your goal one day at a time. In the remainder of this podcast, John and I talk through the process of two different real-life SMART goals. The first one is about John launching Entrepreneur On Fire; the second one is about how I launched Webinars That Convert. After hearing us explain how SMART goals guided our most successful ventures, you’ll have some super actionable example of how you can use the Freedom Journal to accomplish your own goals…did I mention in just 100 days?! Click here to listen to the full episode now!

Can you believe 2015 is over already? I know, it's a cliche thing to say, but it's true--I feel like the year has just flown by! Maybe you can relate. I know when a year is packed with as many projects, launches, milestones reached and lessons learned as 2015 has been for me, it makes time race by. It's impossible to anticipate the new year without thinking about resolutions. Ugh. I've never been one of those people who respond well to those. Instead of thinking about resolutions, I found myself drifting back to a book that I've read about a hundred times. I'm sure you've heard me talk about it before: ReWork, written by the guys who founded Basecamp. This book was like a manual for success, back when I was first getting started...but it seems to be turning into a tradition that at the end of one year, I review it for fresh inspiration on how to smartly approach the coming year. Call it a New Year's Rejuvenation, if you will. This year, I was going through it looking for how its principles could help build online business. And as usual, ReWork did not disappoint. I was taking so many notes that I had to turn it into a podcast for you. The strategies I'm going over today are all about different ways to approach your work so that... a) you get more done b) everything you do leads you to big results c) you end the day feeling more satisfied with your bottom line In particular, if you want to build a business around creating online training programs and courses, these strategies are going to be really applicable. They'll help you get more done with less time, less money, less resources…you know, the precious things we always seem to be short on. Each of these 7 tips will have to do with one of these three words: Strategy, Saving, and Selling. And I have to tell you, this is a very dense, deep episode--give me a break, it's the final episode of 2015!--so you really should listen to the whole thing. I suggest curling up with the last Christmas cookie, stir a little eggnog into your coffee, and enjoy a final moment of holiday hibernation to brainstorm your 2016 business year. Strategy #1: Embrace your constraints Limited resources force you to do make do with what you’ve got, and that in turn forces you to be creative. Strategy #2: Become a curator It’s the stuff you leave out that matters--in terms of product value and saving yourself valuable time. Find out how--click here to listen now. Strategy #3: Build a more focused product What’s the one most important thing that your product is bringing to the table? Strategy #4: Make decisions often You’ll be amazed how strong your decision-making skills can get when you make it a habit. Strategy #5: Create an offer your audience cannot refuse. One of the best ways to do this is to offer more of you. Strategy #6: Sell your by-product as an upsell or downsell If you offer an upsell or downsell, you can work less! Find out how--click here to listen now. Strategy #7: Make sure your work really matters Nothing really matters if your work doesn’t matter to others…or to you. In the end, your business' value is really all about your business' balance. Adding too little will leave your audience confused and you unsatisfied; adding too much value is just overkill for your audience and way too much stress for you. Get the low-down on each of these tips...find out how they tie in with Strategy, Savings and Selling...and get your business systems aligned for an amazing new year!

I've got a question for you. Ready? What do Apple, Lululemon and Morton's Salt all share in common? Take a minute to ponder each brand. What imagery does it conjure up? More importantly, what feelings do those images create inside you? When I think of Apple products, I think of elegant, simple design and the feeling of effortlessly getting stuff done. Lululemon brings back that sensation of looking amazing when I'm working out (even if my workout itself feels less than amazing). And Morton Salt? I think of my mom's kitchen cupboard, which feels warm and nostalgic and makes me want to go bake cookies. Here's the answer to the quiz: all three of those brands share the power of fascination. Fascination, as my podcast guest Sally Hogshead defines it, means an intense focus. "When you’re fascinated by a person or a brand, you’re completely consumed in that moment. It’s that feeling you have when you’re working on a project and you’re totally in the flow. You feel creative, you feel confident, you feel focused and energized by what you’re doing. Or when you’re out at drinks with a friend—the time flies by, and you seem to be building epiphanies together in your conversation." Click here to listen to the full episode with Sally. For years, Sally's day job was helping big name brands like Nike and BMW find the perfect words to describe themselves. The first half of that search was understanding what they offered to their customer base that nobody else did; the second half was knowing how to capitalize on that uniqueness and capture it in language. At a certain point, Sally realized that nobody had really brought that idea over from products to people. Business owners were all about finding the right words to get customers fascinated with their products, but they weren't finding the right words to help people understand who they are and how they add value. These days, she parlays her understanding of what works in advertising world into a training to help entrepreneurs understand how people perceive them through their communication.

I know that I've talked a lot with you about webinars this year. The fact is that I've been learning a ton about them myself, and every time I learn a new technique or crack the code on a revenue-boosting system, I can't help but pass it on to you! This week, though, I'm doing something a little different. Rather than walk you through a step-by-step system, I'm going to focus with you on one very specific strategy that I learned from Tim Paige, the host of the podcast Conversion Cast and the leader of all LeadPages webinars. Today is all about an engagement strategy that I've just begun applying it to my webinars. I’ll be sure to let you know how it's going, once I really get it off the ground. But I'll be completely honest with you: it's a little awkward, in the beginning. I've done a lot of webinars, and I still am finding my sweet spot. The thing is that Tim, in addition to being a pal, is a true webinar ninja. This man has done 410 webinars to date! (Who knows--he may be up to more, by the time this episode airs.) No joke--his application is pending for the Guinness Book of World Records for most webinars done in a 12-month period. This is a guy who really knows the ins and outs of webinar success. So when he tells me this strategy is worth working through, I believe it! Listen to the full episode to get all the details on this amazing strategy from Tim Paige. You can also check out Tim putting this revolutionary engagement strategy into action--just click here to join his latest webinar. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy and Tim's Engagement Focused Webinar FREE DOWNLOAD We all know how important engagement is for our webinars. There's nothing worse than crafting and delivering a dynamic, informative presentation only to hear crickets during the Q&A. Scratch that--there is one thing worse: delivering your presentation and seeing only a faint dribble of sales by the time you log off for the day. What you're looking for is that special spark that sets fire to your content and gets your audience fired up in response to it. Early on, I wanted to test the idea of taking every opportunity I could throughout the process of presenting a webinar to look over in the questions box and start answering questions live as we went, as long as they were relevant and weren’t off topic. I found in answering questions, not only did I see a 98% stick rate (98% of the people that joined the webinar in the beginning stuck around all the way until the end) but in one split test I also saw a tripled revenue from one webinar to the next." Um...did you get all that? A 98% stick rate and a 300% revenue increase? I'd say this strategy is well worth trying, wouldn't you?So how does this work? If you're like me, you may be already thinking about how taking questions in the middle of your presentation will interrupt your flow. What if the questions make me get ahead of myself? Am I allowed to not answer questions if they aren't on topic? How is this supposed to work with replays and automated webinars? ...And just what is it about this strategy that makes it so incredibly powerful? Listen to the full episode for all the answers--it's a short but intense masterclass on a single technique that is a true webinar game changer. Do you want to see Tim’s webinar engagement strategy in action? Click here to check out his special LeadPages webinar and pay close attention to when and how he asks questions and engages with his audience. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy and Tim's Engagement Focused Webinar FREE DOWNLOAD

As you are building up your business and starting to see some solid success, sooner or later you're going to arrive at a certain point. A point where you, as the founder, brand visionary and chief hustler, cannot do everything alone. This is the moment where you need to hire some people. Not just anyone will do, of course. You need to build out a dream team inside of your business so that you can spend more time in your areas of genius, the areas that you really excel, the areas that you love to spend time in where your skill set is the strongest, so that you can make a bigger impact for your audience and on your bottom line. There is nobody I know who is better at this dream team creation thing than my friend Melanie Duncan. The first thing you should know about Melanie is that she runs a multiple-seven figure empire. In other words, she's an authority on this whole online entrepreneurship thing. The second thing you should know is that the ways she's developed her business are, in large part, the result of her amazing hiring system. She has a process for hiring that is extremely unique--it takes quite a lot of effort and focus, but it's allowed her to find amazing people that are the perfect fit to support her business. And let's be honest, when you love the people you work with, everything seems flow a whole lot better on all fronts. But what's even more to the point is how her hiring system has also changed her perspective on hiring. I’ve seen her go through the transition of hating to hire to absolutely loving the hiring process. And as we all know, loving an IMPORTANT process you used to hate is a cornerstone of achieving the success you want. If you're ready to dive into Melanie's amazing system, click here to listen to the full episode now. Below, I've got the bullet-point version to get you primed for what you're about to learn. Make a Dream Team List Create a Revenue Goal Hire with a Sales Page Hire to Fit Wondering how long the process should take? Cringing at the thought of sifting through resumes? Want to know how to spot a truly stand-out candidate from the crowd? Get all of Melanie's detailed insight on how to hire people for your dream team. Click here to listen to the full episode now!

Over the last few weeks on this podcast, we’ve been doing some intensive tactical trainings. We’ve talked about adding upsells to your sales promotions, adding bonuses, when to add them. We’ve talked about the mindset of list building, and then we’ve gotten really specific about what you need to do to build your list. Today I want to step back a little bit and look at the big picture and look at our team and how we’re running our business and setting things up. I thought there was no one better to do that than my new friend, Dale Partridge. You probably already know Dale, either from Sevenly (the company he founded that became one of the fastest growing social-good startups in history), or from his many keynote speeches and feature interviews on the topic of doing business with integrity, or maybe from his recent book People Over Profits. Dale is a creative leader whose mission is to influence an industry to rethink the models of how we do business today. And I invited him on the show today to help you (and me) learn about how to set a solid foundation for our long-term success. One thing Dale's book really dials into is the importance of recognizing the pivotal moments in our businesses when small decisions could have major impact. Dale went into business for himself at 18 years old...which means that even though he's still a young man, he's old in entrepreneur years. Within that time, he says, his whole mindset around business shifted from making major profits to making a major difference in people's lives. "In the search for purpose and meaning I wanted to create a company that was more than just putting money at the bottom line. It wasn’t until I really shifted my thinking from how to make a million dollars to how to help a million people that really pushed me into business." This is the core of Dale's "people over profits" message . . . and what I really want to stress in today's episode is that it's never too early in your business to think about how you're prioritizing people against your profits. When you're in the early years of building our business, you're all too aware that every interaction in every business relationship matters. You're hyper-focused on bringing real, personal value to your customers with your unique talent and expertise, because you know that it's the key to your success. But Dale points out that greed, dishonesty and customer contempt are not relegated to big corporations . . . that's just when they get caught in a big way. It's super important, he says, to set the foundation of your business integrity in these early years, while you're small, and learn how to self-correct in those moments when it's easy to make small compromises. "I don’t want to be the most successful person that nobody respects or that nobody trusts. And I don’t want to create the biggest company that has great products but people don’t really connect with it." Dale has done some impressive research on the most successful companies (and the ones who fell the hardest) of the past century. According to his research, the companies (and leaders) who really stood the test of time have seven core beliefs in common: People matter. Truth wins. Transparency frees. Authenticity attracts. Quality speaks. Generosity returns. Courage sustains. Listen to the full episode to hear Dale explain more about how these principles show up in online business practice, and how we can train ourselves to build businesses that uphold them. "Whatever your dream is, make sure you crush on it because it’s not about you, it’s about them." In the end, Dale says, our businesses' potential for growth is dependent on the integrity we build into our relationships with clients, vendors and colleagues. It can take real courage to honor a long-term relationship over short-term convenience. But that kind of courage is what creates a brand that really stands the test of time.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! First of all, can I just be a little corny and express my gratitude for all of you? It's hard to believe we're up to 85 episodes of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast . . . and with those episodes have come lots of free weekly giveaways, 17 interviews with the biggest names in online business expertise, 1.6 million audio downloads. Oh, and one very exciting mention on MSNBC as a Top 5 Online Business Podcast! I am truly thankful for each one of you in this little community of go-getter entrepreneurs. Every time you opt in, leave a Facebook comment, write a review of the show or share this podcast with your friends, my heart is genuinely touched. Nothing makes me happier than to know that what I'm sharing is valuable and helpful to you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Whew! Okay, on to business. 1) Masterminding and finding a business coach. EPISODE 85 Sign Up for Amy's Free Masterclass: How to Create a Wildly Profitable Webinar (Even If You Don't Have a List) SIGN UP 2) Finding your marketing vehicle sweet spot. This one is about platform. I’m going to show you what it looks like in my business and how it made such a huge impact. Then I will give you some actions to start investigating this in your business. 3) My partnership. You may or may not know that I actually have a business partner. I’ve never really talked about him much, and I want to share with you how that happened, when it came about, why it came about, and what it looks like in my business (if you’ve ever thought about maybe adding a partner to the mix). This one will be really transparent. I’m going to share things I’ve never shared before, but I think it's time for me to talk about it. Click here to listen now. 4) Affiliate partnerships and my philosophy around affiliates. Again, I’ve talked about this in past episodes but I’m going to put a little more personal slant on it in this week's episode, end give you some tips to build you own affiliate partnership strategy. 5) Consistency. If there is any marketing lesson I need to be even better at and really focus on more and really take seriously, it’s consistency. We’re going to talk about that, what it looks like, and how we can add more of that to our business. As I look back on my past 6 years in business, I feel incredibly thankful for these lessons, as they have shaped my professional and personal life tremendously. EPISODE 85 Sign Up for Amy's Free Masterclass: How to Create a Wildly Profitable Webinar (Even If You Don't Have a List) SIGN UP Don't forget, if you want to learn how to create a five-figure webinar (even if you don't have an email list) you can sign up free for my webinar training. Click here to sign up now. If one of these lessons really resonated with you, I'd love to hear about it! Talk to me on Facebook or Twitter and tell me which one you’re going to focus on. Have a wonderful holiday, everyone. Thank you for being part of our tribe. Mastermind Opportunities: Each of these mentors have offered mastermind opportunities in the past but their masterminds might not be currently accepting new members at the moment. Do some research to learn more about each. James Wedmore's Inner CircleJamie Tardy Jeff Walker Fabienne Fredrickson Victoria Gibson's Breakout Success Mastermind The Shine Academy Natalie MacNeil's Conquer Club Leonie Dawson's Glow Academy

Welcome to the second half of our intensive "refocus on your list" training! I hope you completed the short questionnaire from last week, because this week we're really building off those questions to get where we need to go. If you haven't done it yet, click here to download it and take just 10 minutes to complete it. (It's only 3 questions--super easy.) I promise, it will free you up and cultivate the right mindset to accomplish the goal for today's episode, which is ... For those of you who might be new to the show, lead magnets are any free, valuable giveaway that you offer your audience in exchange for their email address. To create a good lead magnet, of course, you need to know what your tribe wants and needs from you. Having it be a decent trade-off for the email address is just not going to cut it. You want your audience gasping "Wow! I can't believe he/she is giving this away for free!" Let me say this loud and clear: Do not be scared of giving away your best stuff for free. I give away my best information all the time! (I'm doing it right now, as you might have noticed...and I give away even more on the full episode of today's podcast.) It doesn't hurt my bottom line at all, because in my paid products and programs, I dive much deeper and train much more specifically on those topics. If you want to go deeper into today's topic, click here to listen to the full episode. I'm going to teach a three-part strategy to help you build your list. And our goal is not conservative, folks! This strategy is designed to get you 75 new leads per week. I've also created a great free download for you: it's a cheat-sheet with 17 stellar examples of different kinds of lead magnets. Not only does it give some great inspiration for how to model your own giveaways, but it shows you where to place the opt-in boxes on your website for optimal conversion. Get it here. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Free Cheat Sheet: 17 Pro Lead Magnet Examples FREE DOWNLOAD

For the last several podcast episodes, we've been covering all manner of marketing tactics. Creating webinars, building urgency, writing copy. And we've taken a deep soul-searching dive into the personal "why's" and "how's" of online entrepreneurship. This week, we're bringing it all back home. It's time to refocus on the foundation of every successful online business: Your email list. This week and next week, I'm devoting the podcast to some list-building straight talk. And if you're thinking "Come on, Amy--I want the black-belt stuff that will take my business to the next level!" ... then this episode might be especially for you. Here's how you know if you need this episode: If you’ve been working on your business for over a year now and you have less than 4,000 people on your email list If you’re not growing your email list by at least 75 new leads a week If you already have a solid list but it’s not converting into sales or sign-ups If you are struggling with confidence in your business and are feeling "less than" or comparing yourself to everybody If you ever launched anything in your business and your results were lackluster (i.e., you sold only one or two of your products when you thought you were going to sell 100) If you truly love the business you're creating and are passionate about seeing it succeed--in other words, if you're in this for the long haul If you answered yes to any of those things, here's the first thing I want you to do after listening to today's episode. Download the short one-page inquiry that I created just for you. It's going to help you sort through the obstacles that are holding you back from building a healthy, growing list. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Cheat Sheet: "Uncover Your List Building Obstacles" FREE DOWNLOAD Let me say at the outset that, for all my talk about the crucial importance of list-building, I truly understand the difficulty involved. When you're in the beginning days and months of your business, it feels like every opportunity is more important than the simple, daily effort of building your email list. But I learned from the sad experience of my very first product launch just how essential the list really is. Listen to the podcast episode for the full story--it's eye-opening. For now, let's just say that with all the bells and whistles of my program design and the sparkle of my marketing strategy, the promotion totally tanked. The reason? I had a weak email list. I couldn't understand it. I'd been networking with all the right people, even getting invited to speaking engagements and guest blog spots, and I'd spared no effort to create an amazing product. But because I was not actively focused on list building, I wasn't able to build the business that I really wanted. (By the way, when I say “actively” focusing on it, I mean that I would think about my list every day...but it was that horrible “I should be doing this, I’m far behind, I know I need a list" kind of thinking.) Everything else about my business just seemed more important, in those stressful early days. That's why I've created this download for you--to help you think through what is pulling your attention away from the cornerstone of building your business. Once you understand why it's so easy to focus on other things, you'll be able to turn the trend around and start seeing the results you want. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Cheat Sheet: "Uncover Your List Building Obstacles" FREE DOWNLOAD Listen to today's episode first--it will really help you with the mindset around list-building, and allow you to process the questions honestly. And when you're done, drop me a comment to let me know what you're thinking! What is your mindset when it comes to building your list? How are your efforts coming along?

Hey there! I have a fun topic to cover in today's episode: The Online Entrepreneur's Worst Nightmare. (Cue spooky music.) Sorry...I couldn't resist. Blame the post-Halloween sugar overload. The actual topic is how to keep your Facebook account from getting shut down. Now, this is a topic that I know truly does scare some of you...maybe you've received warnings from Facebook about your content, or maybe you know somebody whose account has been shut down. I know how upsetting this can be, not just to the people it occurs to, but to every other online entrepreneur in their community. It's just like that feeling when someone you know gets their house or car broken into. Suddenly it feels like the whole world is out to get you. I don't want you going through your business day freaking out about this. That's why I'm devoting this episode to defusing the scare out of this "nightmare." Seriously...breathe. It's going to be OK. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's 10 Commandments of Protecting Your Facebook Ads Account FREE DOWNLOAD So what is an online entrepreneur to do? Answer: get creative! (Click Here to Listen to the Full Episode!) As you're reading through the list of ten tips about protecting your Facebook ads account, try to adopt an innovator's perspective. Rather than feeling defeated, think about how you can beat Facebook to the punch by creating content that makes all users feel amazing, hopeful, inspired, uplifted. That's a win for everybody--Facebook, your audience, and you. Tip #1: Add a privacy policy to your registration page. Tip #2: Disable all pop-ups on the page where you are sending your ad traffic. Tip #3: Pay attention to your reputation on Web Of Trust. Tip #4: Use the Lead Pages plug in on your WordPress site. Tip #5: Your landing page must accurately reflect what is being promoted in your ad. Tip #6: Be mindful of your ad copy. Tip #7: Create a feel-good story. Tip #8: Stick to your account’s regular activity. Tip #9: Pay attention to your overall activity because it all adds up. Tip #10: Focus on the relationship. Like I said at the beginning, this isn't something to freak out about. I just want you to be informed. Yes, it might take a little time to revamp your approach to ads, but in the long run, it's going to make for much stronger, more effective Facebook advertising for your business.

I first met Lewis Howes back in my days of working with Social Media Examiner. I liked his technique with video interviews, and wrangled up a lot of interviewees for him; he liked my Facebook trainings, and asked me to put together a book. That was not only the beginning of my career in online training courses; it was, as they say in the movies, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. This week, Lewis and I got the chance to reconnect over the topic of "greatness." Sound a little abstract? Let Lewis persuade you otherwise. Lewis is a true expert in lifestyle entrepreneurship--a business coach with a top-rated podcast, a huge online educational program, earnings in seven figures, and a recognition from President Obama as one of the Top 100 Entrepreneurs in the country under age 30. Truly a great example to all of us working on our online businesses! And you'd better believe Lewis didn't get to this level by aiming for "good enough." His recent book School of Greatness is all about the importance of striving for greatness--in our personal lives, our health, our relationships and, of course, in our businesses. What Does "Greatness" Really Mean? As entrepreneurs, we're a little obsessed with the idea of "success." The symbols are always changing--this year it might be making a decent profit, next year maybe it's hitting six figures, and the year after that, it could be landing a book deal or paying off your house or...who knows? This is the danger of becoming too obsessed with success--the target is always moving. Which means we run the risk of never being satisfied, no matter how much we accomplish. But by focusing our sights on greatness, Lewis says, we're able to experience satisfaction with where we are in our business, and so much more besides. "Greatness is discovering what your greatest gifts are, your talents, what you were born to do, maximizing those gifts, and impacting the maximum amount of people in the world with those gifts." 8 Principles of Greatness Lewis' book breaks greatness into eight simple steps: 1. Clarifying Your Vision Before you set out on your personal quest, you have to clearly see the action steps to make it happen. 2. Embracing Adversity Challenge and struggle are a natural part of growth. 3. Cultivating a Champion's Mindset You can't guarantee that you'll win every time, but you can always set yourself up for the opportunity to win. 4. Committing to Hustle A willingness to do whatever it takes will take you where mere talent can't. 5. Mastering Your Health Your health (emotional, mental and physical) can either hold you back or drive you forward--which way do you choose? 6. Practicing Positive Habits Without intentional habits, life turns into a nothing but a series of reactions. 7. Realizing You Can't Achieve Greatness Alone A powerful, reliable team is the key to building something that’s bigger than yourself. 8. Being of Service to Others The crowning moment of greatness is giving your gift to the world. This is just a summary of Lewis' eight principles--you need to hear these in detail! So click here now to listen to the full podcast episode. Going Deeper My chat with Lewis did more than just outline what it means to be great. It illuminated some of the finer points that past experience had "muddied up" for me. There's so much in this interview, I hope you'll take the time to listen to it today. But for now, I want to leave you with one final quote from Lewis that I thought was particularly...well, great: "The biggest impact we can make is when we become a symbol of inspiration because we follow and chase our dreams. It is our greatest gift to follow our dreams...we are robbing ourselves and others around us when we cop out and don’t chase it out of fear."

It's time for another edition of Ask Amy! Every now and then, no matter how good your business system is, you reach a moment where everything kind of splinters. I'm having one of those moments this week, trying to reassemble my podcasting setup after moving it into a bigger home studio. While I'm glad to have this bigger space devoted to my podcast, I don't have the acoustics worked out yet--which means I'm a little bit stalled in terms of production. Little issues like this can really bother me, if I let them! I'm sure you've experienced this, too. Think with me about an area in your business where you feel stuck because something else has to happen before you move forward. Maybe something’s not working properly and you have to figure it out first. Or maybe you’re just not comfortable moving forward and you’re not sure why. All of today's questions deal with different things, but they all center around this core issue of obstacles holding back the progress of our business. Let's take a look! Question #1: How early do you contact affiliates if you want them to work with you to promote your course? Question #2: Remembering back to the first product you created, what would you tell us now that you wish you would have done differently back then? Question #3: What do you do when you see another site steal your content and sell it? Question #4: As an entrepreneur, how do you stay focused on what is at hand and not get distracted with wanting to start new projects, create new things, try a new form of social media? How do you stay focused? Final Thoughts A lot of times, those feelings of being held back or stuck are rooted in bigger fears or a lack of confidence we have in our business or message. The truth is that a lot of the time, if I go ahead and move forward anyway, I'll mess it up once, figure out what went wrong, and now know what to do. I'll also have overcome the fear of failure because guess what? I failed and it didn't ruin my life! I would rather be making those little mistakes along the way but still be moving forward. When you get the confidence to not really care about those little mistakes, you will usually fix them, keep moving forward and BOOM--you are way ahead of yourself, way more than you thought you would be!

It's a fact. Sometimes people are reluctant to buy from you. Even when they want your product, even when they’re smitten with your brand, there will be some prospective buyers that seem to have a built-in pause command that holds a their finger poised above the “purchase” button on your website. It's just par for the course when we are doing business online. There’s nothing wrong with this, until it stands in the way of you making a sale to someone who truly needs what you’re offering. There is one thing that can overcome this buyers’ reluctance. The most successful marketers know what it is, and I’m going to share it with you today. It’s all about adding urgency. This is something I had to learn for myself, through plenty of trial and error, so I’m thrilled to be able to pass it on to you. It’s going to put you way ahead of your competition. It starts with recognizing that it’s simply human nature to take our time and stay on the fence as long as we can, until we are pushed one way or the other. That push comes from learning that we must act. That’s what urgency is: making sure that your audience knows they need to act now. You want to build urgency into every promotion you create. There are lots of ways to do this, but the best way I’ve found to build it in is with a one-two punch: a combination of bonuses and deadlines. I'm going to share several of my favorite strategies in this blog post, but this week's free PDF has even more urgency tactics from some of the biggest names in online marketing. Click here to download it now! EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Bonus "How It's Done: Genius Bonus Ideas from 11 of My Favorite Online Marketers FREE DOWNLOAD Bonuses Believe it or not, I’ve actually had people buy my programs just for the bonuses! While you definitely want to spend the bulk of your time crafting a great core offer, bonuses can sometimes make or break the offer by pushing people just a little bit further to finally say, “Yes, I want this.” Now, it’s important to note that not all bonus offers have urgency attached. Sometimes you’ll create a bonus add-on to your core offer just to sweeten the deal. Urgency bonuses are the ones that show up later in the promotion. They come in different “flavors. You do not need to do them all. You can mix and match them, based on what feels best for your offer. 1. Timely bonus 2. Fast action bonus 3. The sweeten-the-pot bonus As I mentioned earlier, one of the main places to showcase urgency is in your emails. Once I attract people to a webinar, I follow up that webinar with some really strategic email marketing. I work really hard on those emails to craft not just a compelling sales message, but to help my new audience to understand why this program is so valuable and why they need it. But sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s why I love using the countdown timer. As you are reading my email, the timer at the very top of the email is actively ticking away. When it comes to human instincts, the only thing strong enough to beat the buyer's resistance is being able to see time running out, second by second! Finally, there is the “limited spots available” tactic. If you have a more exclusive version of your product (a special edition, a higher tier, etc.), it creates the perfect opportunity to email your list about the short supply of opportunities. Even if they weren't planning to buy in at this level, hearing the words "limited availability" again creates the urgency that you're looking for. These are my favorite tools to create urgency. You'll learn about so many more when you download my free PDF for this week! Click here to get it now. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Amy's Bonus "How It's Done: Genius Bonus Ideas from 11 of My Favorite Online Marketers FREE DOWNLOAD

I know it’s only October, but I’m already thinking about how to boost my business in 2016. And one of my biggest goals is to do more video. Video is a complex issue for a lot of entrepreneurs. You know that it could help you make an amazing connection with your audience. But all the tinkering that goes into it--the lighting, the camera setup, the script--is a surefire way to fry your brain. Now, you actually may be killing it with video right now. Maybe you have a natural eye for what looks good on camera, you’re a master of improvising quick, witty nuggets of wisdom on the fly, and talking into a lens brings out all the warmth and sparkle of your personality (instead of turning you into a cardboard cutout like…um…some people I know). If that’s you, my hat is off to you. But if not, maybe you're more like me —you’ve made some videos, it went okay, you know you can do better…but it's easier to just save it for another day. (Or year.) My good friend James Wedmore dropped by the other day, and we started chatting about video, and before long I had to ask him if we could turn the conversation into a podcast interview. He has so much great stuff to share about why video is important, and how to make it really practical for your business. Our interview was OUTSTANDING video tips and tricks. I want you to listen to the whole thing so you don't miss any of it. I also want you to make sure to access the three-part FREE series he put together just for you on how to make great videos for your business. LEARN MORE Here’s just a tease of what we covered: Five Video Marketing Mistakes Shoddy camera work You don’t have to be Martin Scorsese or anything, but you do have to avoid those black bars on either side of your video—they’re a huge turnoff to your audience. (Easy fix: record video with your camera or phone held lengthwise, not up-and-down.) Other no-no’s include shaky camera action, bad framing, and fuzzy focus. (If these no-no’s are already breaking you out in hives, relax. All of these are easy, one-step fixes that James spells out.) Lighting Newer cameras and phones can correct for this, but it’s worth it for everyone to learn how to set up quality lighting. The bedroom lamp is just not going to cut it. Nothing makes your video (and your brand) look instantly amateurish like bad DIY lighting. James gives the name of his favorite lighting kit that's cheap and reliable. Click to listen. Audio James says stop using your in-camera microphone. Doesn’t matter if you have the fanciest phone or DSLR out there…the onboard microphones will not pick up quality audio and your beautifully shot video will either sound like it’s coming from the bottom of a well OR sound like your grandmother shouting over a long-distance call. Again, just a little bit of cash outlay will get you a great-quality lapel microphone that connects into your camera or phone. Your audio will get instantly synched, and you’ll be able to talk in your normal tone of voice without worrying that the mic isn’t picking you up. Don’t Be Boring A lot of people protest that they can’t do video because they aren’t funny, they aren’t loud, they can’t talk fast, they aren’t an extrovert. Well, guess what? You don’t have to be any of those things to have an engaging video. As James puts it, "The opposite of boring doesn’t mean funny." What you do have to be, James says, is passionate. And…well, just listen to what else he says. You’ll have no reason to doubt your “interestingness” ever again. Not Doing Video It’s not a rule that “he or she who has the most video wins.” (In fact, it’s definitely possible to do too much video, especially if you have no strategy.) That said, there are five types of video everyone should be doing in their business. Learn more about what each of these videos accomplishes, and how you can pull them off seamlessly by signing up to get the free three-part video series James created on how to do videos.

My guest today is a New York Times bestselling author, as well as a speaker, blogger, and recognized expert on the topic of happiness. A happiness expert? Oh yes, there is such a thing. Gretchen Rubin takes the topic very, very seriously. She put her Yale education to work with the goal of finding out systematic ways that people can cultivate, achieve and maintain happiness in any facet of their lives. The book that came out of her study, The Happiness Project, took the world by storm. Book clubs adopted it, college professors assigned it, psychiatrists recommended it to their clients. This topic really resonated with everyone who read it. It’s an amazing title and I strongly recommend you give it a read. Not surprisingly, my talk with Gretchen turned out to be one of my favorite interviews ever. It went in some surprising directions, offered tremendous food for thought, and really hit home for me in terms of how to define success. Honestly, this interview is so rich that I don’t want to summarize it too much here. You really should listen to the whole thing. In the meantime, you can download our free giveaway for this week, which Gretchen herself designed. It’s a PDF guide called “Working Better Than Before,” and it’s meant to help you understand your work habits and gain insight into how you can maximize your creativity and productivity. (You can also use it to help your clients!) As soon as you can, click here to listen to the full episode. Gretchen’s insights will help you set a foundation that makes every aspect of your business stronger…and makes you a lot happier in it! And don’t forget to download the freebie for this week, “Working Better Than Before". It helped me a ton (which I talk more about in the podcast) and I know it will do the same for you. EPISODE FREEBIE Get Gretchen's PDF "Working Better Than Before" FREE DOWNLOAD

If you’ve been listening for a while, you've heard me mention the word Scrum. When you hear this word, you do one of two things: Feel your heart surge with pride and joy because, as a fellow Scrummer, you know how amazing this approach is for running a small business. Scratch your head / do a Google word search / roll your eyes because you have no idea what I’m talking about. Listeners in both these camps are going to love today’s episode, because I’m going to talk about this amazing project management method and how it has revolutionized the way I get my business done. To start off, Scrum is not my own made-up word—I got it from a book called Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time. (Sounds pretty good, right?) And basically, the concept of Scrum is just that: managing a team of employees and contractors in the smartest way possible. I used Scrum throughout the process of creating my newest product, “Webinars That Convert.” Basically, I set up a checklist of every single thing that needed to get done on this product—from creation to promotion to sales to management—and my team and I “Scrummed” our way through it! Not coincidentally, it’s the same checklist I used for promoting the Profit Lab last spring. That’s why I’m offering the same giveaway this week—the step-by-step project plan checklist that puts all the chaos of a new product launch into sanity-saving order. This checklist goes hand-in-hand with today’s topic—download it and you’ll be well on your way to Scrumming your first project. Why Scrum? There are the four main ways that Scrum really helps my business reach its productive sweet spot: It increases your team’s speed to completion. My team is able to get through projects so much faster now that we use Scrum. The Scrum approach really pays attention to the work people are getting done and gives them the ownership on that performance. People are empowered to make decisions. This is probably my favorite part of Scrum—it allows us to make sure everything is working smoothly. When it’s not we fix it instantly. How Scrum Works #1: The Project Backlog #2: The Sprint #3: The Sprint Review The bottom line is, if you don’t take the time to communicate well with your team, it will cost you money because they will do it wrong. And Scrum is an amazing way to keep that communication alive. Best of all, the Scrum method gets easier and more efficient every time you use it! It’s kind of intense, it’s all-consuming, but when it’s over, it’s completely done and you’ve got a completed project. Grab the free PDF project backlog (if you haven’t already) and start warming up to Scrum in your business. And let me know how it works for you! EPISODE FREEBIE Get The Project Plan Checklist FREE DOWNLOAD

I know I have talked about copy many times. But can you blame me? It’s a hot topic! Many of you that are growing your business online or have been growing your business for a while now still struggle with copy. Believe me, I get it. I have definitely struggled for years with writing good copy for my business. And when I finally felt like I got that "copy mojo," things started to become easier in every aspect of my business. That's why I'm so excited to bring you my guest today -- Nikki Elledge Brown. Along with being a proud military spouse, a mom, and a former park ranger, she's an amazing communicator and businesswoman. Nikki went from teaching communications at college-level to running a business that broke multiple six figures in under 18 months. (Wow, right?) And the heart of her business is teaching entrepreneurs (like you and me) how to write their own copy, better than ever! Nikki's approach to copy is putting it into "recipes." Sales pages, blog posts, video scripts, About pages...she breaks them all down into specific, doable steps that make copywriting easier than a "just add water" cake mix! Today's show is packed with ridiculously simple recipes for every piece of copy you'll ever have to write, along with a few to help with your mindset around copywriting. Stuff like... How to write with purpose The value of YOUR voice (+ how to use it in your copy) Sales page tips (how to make it easy for people to buy from you) Sample blog post recipe Sample blog VIDEO recipe How to write a great headline in under 10 minutes What to do when you're not sure what to write about How to avoid sharing TMI (too much information) How to master your mindset around copywriting Nikki also put together our freebie today, which is--you guessed it--a "recipe book" of copywriting formulas. Click here to get it now! EPISODE FREEBIE Get Nikki's "A Course About Copy Class Notes" FREE DOWNLOAD As I mentioned, Nikki has built a hugely successful business in an amazingly short amount of time on her way with words. She had over 90 new clients sign up with her in her first two months of business! And in her words, the key to this kind of growth is not just being good at helping others communicate, but being able to communicate her own brand clearly to potential clients. "You are losing money if you aren’t communicating effectively." Find out Nikki's recipes for maximizing your revenue potential with easier-than-ever techniques for communicating with your audience. Her free PDF is about to become your copywriting "Joy of Cooking"--an indispensable guide to everything you'll ever need to write for your business. Click here to get it now!

What a difference a tweak makes! If you've spent any time on this blog (or podcast) in recent weeks, you know how firmly I stake my belief in webinars. Webinars offer a platform that lets you connect with people on an entirely new, personal level you just don’t get with most marketing strategies. And what other marketing strategy can offer the opportunity for consistent on-the-spot revenue? If you’ve done successful webinars in the past and are looking to make even bigger revenue, OR if you’ve never done webinars before or maybe have just dabbled with them in the past, today is going to be quite a pleasant surprise. Starting with this number: $62,000 As the title says, just three little webinar-related tweaks made a $62,000 difference in my bottom line. I knew they'd have an impact, but the size of that number surprised even me. See, I knew there were aspects of my webinar strategy that could use a shot in the arm. I wanted more sales generated from my webinars I wanted more people to show up live during my webinars I wanted to attract a new audience and grow my email list with the webinars. Whenever you want to reach a new goal, you know some parts of your strategy are going to have to change. So I set to work making adjustments, starting with: Tweak #1: The Sales Page This might surprise you, but I always do a sales page for any promotion I put together. Where some people might drive webinar attendees right to their product order form, my style is to give people extra information, especially if they are on the fence. In the past we used to send people directly from the webinar to the sales page to read all about the product and then buy. But over time, we realized I wasn’t getting as many sales on the webinar as I had thought I should. And that's how this simple tweak came about. I still use the sales page, but I'm using it smarter. That single change resulted in instant sales from the very next webinar, as well as a bigger boost of those instant sales. (Click here to listen to the full episode and find out the simple tweak that boosted instant webinar sales!) Tweak #2: More Webinars During Promotion I want to give a shout-out to a member of the mastermind I used to be in. He's the one who suggested this tweak to me. He said if webinars work really well for me, I should be capitalizing on that. This idea--do more of what's already working for you--was so simple, it was revolutionary. In the past, I'd do one webinar for each promotion. But at his suggestion, I stepped up my game. It took a while for this tweak to hit its stride. But once it did, I saw amazing results. Tweak #3: Facebook Ads This is one I learned from my amazing coach, Todd Herman. I found that when I'm running Facebook ads for a webinar promo to a cold audience that probably doesn’t know much about me, that ad needs to look a whole lot different than an ad to a warm audience (my fan base, my own email list, or a retargeting list). Here are some examples: The warm-audience ad The warm-audience ad is more "talky" and personable. It has a lot more of my branding in it, in terms of colors and design. These people already know me and like me, so it plays on that familiarity we have. Compare that to... The cold-audience ad The cold-audience doesn't have a lot of branding to it. The text is short, punchy and blatant: "This is what we have going on, sign up here." Because this audience doesn't know me, I keep it much more generic. Find out more about how to tailor your Facebook ads to different audiences. Click here to listen to the whole episode.

I love these opportunities to answer your questions directly. And lately, the questions have swirled around a specific theme. (It seems we're all on a very similar wavelength right now!) What's the theme, you ask? How to grow your business to the next level. Whether you're just getting started or have been in business for years, the steps that take you from where you are to where you want to go remain pretty consistent. In other words, we have a lot in common, you and I. Question #1: What is the first thing you do before you start a brand new project? The answer here may surprise you...unless, of course, you've participated in one of my programs in the past couple years. (I kind of can't shut up about it.) It's incredibly simple and incredibly effective cornerstone of every project that makes my process absolutely fly by. I can't live without it. ...and neither should you! Sign up for my free training to own this strategy for yourself! EPISODE FREEBIE Get My Free Training Video: How I Organize My Dropbox Folders for Ultimate Success FREE DOWNLOAD Question #2: What is the biggest struggle in your business right now? Glad you asked. This is something I've been thinking a lot about. It feels like I'm missing something important in my team--some vital role isn't being filled. As a result, it feels like there's a "chokehold" in my business. After much deliberation, I think I've figured out what it is. Question #3: What’s one challenge you have overcome this year? I am really proud of this answer. (And guess what? It involves you.) And in overcoming this challenge, I've learned that it's not always a matter of changing something in order to make the challenge go away. Sometimes it's a matter of changing the way you look at the challenge. Question #4: I've noticed you haven’t been traveling much lately. Why the change? Aren't you observant? It's true--I've scaled way back on the travel commitments. And no, I didn't develop a fear of flying or lose my interest in participating in big events. Instead, it was a shift in my focus, and a commitment to doing even better at the things I do best. Question #5: When you were first starting out did you feel a bit alone in your business? Not at first--I was so relieved to be out of the busy corporate environment, a little isolation was fine. But over time, yes, I felt the need for more company in my solo-preneurship. Feeling alone squashes your creativity...so don't go there! (Click here to listen to the full episode, where I break down my strategy for keeping good company.) EPISODE FREEBIE Get My Free Training Video: How I Organize My Dropbox Folders for Ultimate Success FREE DOWNLOAD

Next time you're networking with a group of entrepreneurs, keep your ears peeled for a certain word floating above the conversation. The word is "mastermind," and it's a concept that is trickling down from the multimillion-dollar start-up set to homegrown entrepreneurs like you and me. If you're not familiar with the term, the term "mastermind" can have a very "Great and Powerful Oz" sound about it. Simply put, a mastermind is a small, very focused group of business owners who meet regularly to sharpen and strengthen their business strategies. One of the biggest advocates around for mastermind groups is Jaime Tardy, founder of EventualMillionaire.com. Jaime is the kind of person anyone would want in their mastermind group--she has razor-sharp focus, unwavering commitment to her goals, an insatiable appetite to learn...and she's also a lot of fun to talk with! Jaime joined me this week to talk all things mastermind, and the takeaway is hugely informative. If you've been thinking about creating or joining a mastermind, or even if this is the first time you've the term, this episode is going to spell out exactly what the benefits are, what kind of mastermind you should be looking for, and how to conduct operations once you get started. Jaime also put together a worksheet for forming your own mastermind, complete with email scripts for contacting potential members. Click here to download it so you can get started right away! EPISODE FREEBIE Get the 6 Easy Steps for Forming a Mastermind FREE DOWNLOAD Should I Pay to Join a Mastermind? "Peer masterminds," as they're sometimes called, have these advantages over paid groups: You have equal say to everyone else in the group--no single person is controlling it. They tend to last longer than paid subscription-based groups. It's easier to form true friendships with others in the mastermind. Should My Mastermind Only Have People from My Niche? Definitely not! Jaime is in a mastermind with a financial advisor, an internet marketer, and a professional sword swallower! What they do have in common is a high regard for systems and processes, and a level of success that they're trying to reach. How Do I Know if My Mastermind Is Working? The same way you know if any relationship is working--if you feel mostly positive effects from being involved with it. There are definitely masterminds that are not a good fit for you, that just don't offer what you're looking to get out of it. Or perhaps it's going great for you, but someone else in the mastermind is routinely late to meetings, participates minimally, or contributes negative energy.In either case, a few meetings is usually all it takes to know that something's not working right. Get Jaime's insights for keeping your mastermind on track! Click here to listen to the full interview now. Commit to Your Own Success It can take one or two tries to find the right group of people for your mastermind. But from my own experience, I can tell you that my entire business changed when I finally locked into the right group. I want you to have the same experience, so if this is something you have been thinking about for a while, commit to yourself: "In 30 days I will have created my own small mastermind of five people." Best of all, forming your mastermind is so incredibly easy if you follow Jaime's step-by-step worksheet. Click here to download it now! EPISODE FREEBIE Get the 6 Easy Steps for Forming a Mastermind FREE DOWNLOAD

If you’ve sought out training to help you build your business, or tracked the success of other entrepreneurs, you have firsthand experience of the power webinars have to not only engage and excite an audience, but to convert them to into paying clients. Maybe you’ve even been one of those people who signed up for a webinar to get a little free education, and ended up making a purchasing decision that you were genuinely excited about! So why does the idea of putting on your own webinar have you quaking in your boots? Let me guess... You don’t mind a little grunt work, but you doubt your ability to string together all that technology. You love the idea of delivering content in a highly personal way to your audience, but you hate the idea of a sales pitch at the end. You’ve got a foolproof concept in mind . . . however, you’re not sure how you’ll pull together an audience since your email list and sales funnel are still a work in progress. Busy entrepreneurs (like you and me) don’t have a SECOND to waste on activities that aren’t directly linked to profit. If you’ve ever tried creating a webinar before, you know that sinking feeling of waiting, as the seconds tick by, for your sales to pick up speed. (Ugh! It’s the worst, isn’t it?) In my experience, I’ve found that four major myths are to blame for a poor conversion rate. I’m going to debunk those myths for you, and show you how to replace them with truly effective practices that will not only reward all your hard work, but have you out of your chair with excitement. Myth #1: Webinars are just a marketing strategy (and not a whole system). Myth # 2: Webinars are a TON of effort and involve too much expensive technology. Myth #3 - I’m fine; I learned about webinars a few years ago. Myth #4 - It’s too late. I already missed the boat on webinars. If you’re reading this post RIGHT NOW, then you’re in a unique position to catch wind of this new strategic approach before anyone else in your niche does, and in doing so, claim your stake in the rich blue ocean ripe with sizeable and scalable profits. So chances are that even if your competitors are already using webinars (the old way), you can gain a competitive advantage by being the FIRST to build a complete webinar funnel based on the proven frameworks, techniques, and strategies that I’m about to share with you. Keep reading . . . now that you know the 4 webinar myths, I've created a DETAILED, free cheat sheet to help you with your first (or next!) webinar . . . My wish for you is to sidestep the countless traps that make most webinars epic disasters, and instead learn how to create a masterpiece. I’ve been doing webinars for over 5 years now and I’ve made MANY mistakes along the way. You don’t need to do the same! I’ve compiled a list of 5 of my biggest webinar mistakes over the years and how to avoid them before your first (or next!) webinar. Click here now to get that list! EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Cheat Sheet: "5 Rookie Webinar Mistakes" (And How To Avoid Them) FREE DOWNLOAD

When I say the word “blogging,” what’s the first emotion you feel? If you’re like many entrepreneurs, it’s probably stress, mixed with a little bit of guilt. Even if you truly love writing, keeping up a blog for your business can be one of the hardest things to get done…if you even get it done at all. Your business might be running full steam ahead, but your blog is lagging months behind! Today’s episode is all about getting your blog back in gear, minus the stress. I’m talking to one of my favorite people in the online marketing world, Darren Rowse, the founder of ProBlogger.net and one of the first people to recognize the potential of blogging for entrepreneurs. He’s going to walk us through the bare necessities of blogging, and show you how to streamline your process so that you gain traffic, convert leads and build community with every post you write. Despite having written an encyclopedia's worth of information about blogging over the past few years, Darren is no stranger to the stress around blogging: “It’s pretty easy to get to a stage where your blog is running you instead of you running your blog.” So why keep blogging at all? Simple—your blog is the cornerstone of your branding foundation. It's the best way to get your name out there, and to help people get to know you. Reinvent the SWOT Test Would you believe that when Darren started ProBlogger, he’d only been an actual pro blogger for less than a year? With so little experience under his belt, he was fearful of being called out for not being a seasoned expert. (I’m sure we can all relate to that!) But rather than let his inexperience hold him back, Darren used this “weakness” to his advantage. He was transparent in his posts about aspects of blogging that he didn’t understand yet or was just learning about. As it turned out, the transparency was a big hit with his audience, and earned him even more followers. “To position myself as someone who was on the journey, maybe a few steps ahead of you but I still haven’t gotten it all together, really resonated well with my audience.” Once you’ve run a SWOT test (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) on your blog, go back and reconsider the weaknesses and threats you found. They can actually be the ideal ways to differentiate yourself in your field. So many people out there position themselves as bulletproof experts, that your audience may find your “inexperience” very refreshing. Become a Title Master Darren leaves no uncertainty about the importance of titles: "The title of your post changes the destiny of your post. …can be the difference between somebody reading it and sharing it and it just sitting in the archives and never being read again." How to Find Readers (Without Google’s Help) The constant changes in how Google ranking works mean that SEO tags and hyperlinks don’t work as well anymore for getting your blog to show up in a keyword search. According to Darren, that doesn’t matter as much as knowing who you’re trying to reach with your blog, and showing up where those readers hang out online. "I am a big believer in adding readers one by one. I don’t think you need to be attracting thousands of readers everyday to your blog. For me it’s really about building a presence in the places that my potential readers are and being useful in those places." Try watching on Twitter for people who use your keywords and respond to them. Be helpful in forums. Join Facebook groups that are on your particular topic and add value to the conversation. What you’re looking for is the opportunity to bring a new reader on who will love your blog and bring their whole network along with them. EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Free Download: "How To Boost Your Blog's Business Potential: ProBlogger's Top Ten Tips To Growing Your Email List and Selling More Online" FREE DOWNLOAD

A lot of you have asked me if it's a good idea for you to start planning live events. You see the entrepreneurs you admire staging weekend retreats where they get up and set their audience on fire with excitement, education and motivation. Maybe you've even been to one and thought "Hey, I could do that!" The short answer is Yes! I started planning and participating in live events very early in my business, and while my inexperience made it a little terrifying at first, I couldn't deny the powerful boost it gave me--not just in terms of leads, but also in terms of confidence. That's why I invited Rich Brooks to join me on the show today. Rich is a small business owner who just happens to be an event-planning powerhouse. I asked Rich to let me pick his brain for the fundamentals of planning a successful live event. The Who and the Why If you've ever attended Rich's amazing Agents of Change conference in Portland, Maine, it may surprise you to learn that his live event track record began with a simple lunch meeting. The purpose of a live event isn't to wow everyone with your multimedia presentations and dynamic speeches. Those are great bells and whistles to add as you gain experience, but the real heart of a live event is to do four things: Get your name out there and establish your credibility Differentiate yourself from competitors Generate leads for business Turn a profit The more you work on your online marketing, the more you start to notice how crowded it is out there. It's getting harder and harder to get noticed in people's social media feed, no matter how valuable your content is. So why not get the edge on your competitors and take your message directly to your audience, face to face? Yes, it takes more time and effort to plan an event than to post something on Facebook. But, Rich says, "A live event could be that thing that really separates you and raises you above all of the other people out there in your industry. If you are looking to kind of change up the way you engage with people, a live event may be the perfect thing for you." EPISODE FREEBIE Get the "7 Mistakes to Avoid When Planning a Live Event" FREE DOWNLOAD 3 Phases of a Live Event: Speakers, Sponsors and Seats Rich says that all live event planning boils down to these three phases. Speakers - Getting people to offer valuable content for your audience Sponsors - Getting people to contribute to your audience's experience Seats - Getting people to show up in your audience First Things First - Who Is This For? Before you start worrying about getting people to show up (we'll talk about that later), spend some time thinking about who you want to show up. The key thing here is quality over quantity. Here's what Rich has to say about it: "The #1 is that you are putting on an event for people. Who is this audience? What do they look like? Who is your avatar? What kind of information do they want to consume? What are they looking to accomplish? What are they looking to do?" As in all other forms of marketing, you need to narrow in on your ideal audience member, and design the perfect event for them. I know it's counterintuitive, but being super specific will actually help you attract more people. Once you know who you're planning this event for, you'll have a firm foundation to build on with the three phases. Phase 1: Speakers Phase 2: Sponsors Click here to download this week's free giveaway. EPISODE FREEBIE Get the "7 Mistakes to Avoid When Planning a Live Event" FREE DOWNLOAD Phase 3: Seats Find out more ways to fill the seats at your live event! Listen to the full episode here. ...And Just One Two More Things What do I charge? How much should I promote? Try to time your more obvious promotions around FOMO-inducing moments in the sales process. Announcing Early Bird discounts, One Day Only specials, "Seats Are Rapidly Selling Out!" messages, etc. are perfect opportunities to jog people's memories that they want to attend.