The Business of Authority

579 episodes — Page 1 of 12

Ep 327It’s A Wrap

Apr 22, 202411 min

Ep 326April Dunford - Obviously Awesome REPLAY

Do you know how to position your product or service?Talking PointsApril’s backgroundWhy positioning is importantWhat positioning isEmail for lawyersProblems caused by weak positioningHow solos can identify positioning problemsChoosing criteria that ensures clients will be happy in the endPositioning the business itself versus individual offeringsHow publishing a book affected April’s inbound leadsBooks as part of the overall businessQuotable Quotes“There’s branding and there’s positioning. Those two things are totally separate, and in fact, you need to have your positioning sorted out first, before you decide what your branding should be.” –AD“Now I think there’s more of an awareness around positioning.” –AD“Now, I’m booked up 3-4 months in advance, my rates are way higher, I work way less, and my clients are way happier, because I only promise to do this one very narrow thing, but it’s a super valuable thing, and if you’ve got this problem, who else you gonna call?” –AD“If you’re going to make that investment in doing marketing, there should be a call to action in there.” --AD LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Apr 15, 202446 min

Ep 325The Passion Economy with Adam Davidson REPLAY

Why passion alone isn’t enough—we also need rigor and hard work to build a successful Passion Economy business.Rethinking your client base as a very tight, intimate group, because fewer passionate clients beat a lot of indifferent ones.How to get clear on the unique value you bring to your clients—and weave that into your business model (and marketing).When letting go of non-ideal clients is essential and how it changes the dynamics of your work.Why pricing should be a dialogue between you and your client vs. a static thing (and why a “shocking” price may be exactly what you need).Quotables“What do you want to be worried about at 3 in the morning—cause you’re gonna be worried at 3 in the morning if you’re an entrepreneur.”—AD“The passion word should convey: I’m going to put me and the wholeness of me into how I make a living. It’s a strong choice. It’s not a trivial choice.”—AD“The rest of us have to use the tools of scale, use the tools of digital communication…to find our intimate group, to find our tiny village even if they’re thinly spread all over the world.”—AD“You don’t want to be the same. You want to say I do this one thing and I do it really well and 99% of people have zero use for it, but there are people who will love it.”—AD“You want to become THE brand for your micro niche.”—AD“1/3 of your customers…are costing you money...if you actually add up the time and how much you’re making, you’d be way better off doing new customer development—or just sleeping.”—AD“It’s the stuff you’re thinking about when you’re doing the pitch that is often the most valuable. You’re looking at this company, you’re sizing them up, you’re taking in what they’re asking and then you’re really coming up with a big strategic vision…the value you’re adding is often front-loaded in that pitch.”—AD“Price really should reflect a dialogue between you and your customer. That customer is getting unique value from you. What is THAT value?”—AD“What if I doubled my prices tomorrow—what would happen? That probably for most people will provoke a crisis.”—ADLINKSThe Passion EconomyTwitter LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Apr 8, 202453 min

Ep 324In Defense of Repetition

Apr 1, 202431 min

Ep 323Genius Zone vs. Productivity

Why it’s tempting to conflate productivity with working in your genius zone (and how to think about it instead).Finding joy in “brain dead” activities (or anything necessary, but not strictly in your genius zone).The difference between light lift and deep dive genius zone activities.How to handle resistance to entering your genius zone.Why you don’t have to work solo inside your genius zone (aka the magic of co-creating).----And of course, big thanks to Louis Grenier for inspiring this episode. If you hate marketing BS as much as we do, you are going to love his podcast: Everyone Hates Marketers LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Mar 25, 202433 min

Ep 322The Pros And Cons of An Application Process

When you want to use an application process to screen potential clients and group members.The particular challenges applications present (and a few work-arounds).Why conversion rates are much higher when using applications to “gate” your service.How to use an application process to enhance the experience of your ideal clients and buyers. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Mar 18, 202440 min

Ep 321Are You Too Cheap To Trust?

How to use pricing as a tool to niche down your audience.Why engaging clients BEFORE they have the big problem you solve seldom works.Becoming aware of the stories you tell yourself about money—and how they impact your pricing and packaging.Why it’s not unethical to charge top dollar for your services (and one solution if you balk at increasing your profit).The fairness fallacy: why “fair” is an impossible way to set your prices. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Mar 11, 202435 min

Ep 320The Books That Changed Us

How the books you read as a child can help chart the course of your life.The business and leadership books we found at EXACTLY the right time for each of us.Why the right biographies, self-help and inspirational books (and other non-conventional business books) can lead to business break-throughs.How the personal nature of what we get from books can change depending on when we read them.LINKSThe Servant LeaderManaging The Professional Service FirmThe Trusted Advisor Desert Queen The Big LeapThe Simple Path to Wealth Value-Based FeesHow To Measure AnythingBook Yourself SolidGetting Things DoneThe E-Myth RevisitedThe Secret of Selling AnythingThinking In BetsGodel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Mar 4, 202441 min

Ep 319BizDev Systems For Soloists

Why this is not “slimy selling,” but genuinely providing value to the people you want to serve.The role of business development in “whale” B2B models (and how it fuels high-end consulting practices).Using LinkedIn to discover your ideal people and leverage your interactions.A handful of examples using in-person conferences as part of your business development plan.The importance of prioritizing relationships and tracking your business development activity over time. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Feb 26, 202448 min

Ep 318You Hit The Finish Line. Now What?

Getting past the fear of an empty calendar following an intensive project. Hint: having a marketing system you work even when you’re slammed goes a long way.How to turn a wrap-up meeting into additional work, testimonials and/or referrals (and one specific problem this meeting will solve for you).The magic of taking time for yourself to recharge after an intense bout of work—and a few ideas to try out.The post project questions to ask yourself to narrow down your superpower(s) and focus them on even higher-value future work.How small rituals to close out projects can have big emotional and financial payoffs. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Feb 19, 202439 min

Ep 317The 5 Things That Happen Right After You Specialize with David C. Baker

NOTE: Rochelle and I (Jonathan) couldn't record last week. Rather than give you nothing (or a TBOA repeat) to listen to, I decided to dig through the Ditching Hourly archives and find an episode that long time fans of TBOA would be sure to enjoy. Here's the info from the Ditching Hourly site:The “Expertise Expert” himself, David C. Baker, joined me on Ditching Hourly to talk about the five things that happen right after you specialize.SummaryHere is an AI summary of the key points from the episode:The episode is a discussion between Jonathan Stark and David C. Baker about positioning and specialization for consultants and professional services firms.They discuss the importance of niche positioning to stand out, attract ideal clients, see client patterns more clearly, accelerate learning, and always have things to write and talk about.They outline 5 things that happen after narrowing your business focus:You don't instantly become smarter, but your rate of learning accelerates because you start seeing more examples of your niche.Impostor syndrome kicks in because you're making expertise-based claims you didn't make before, but this fear is often unfounded because you were willing to work with those clients previously.You don't have to turn down unrelated work right away during the transition period, though over time, you'll likely feel unsatisfied with off-target projects.You immediately start narrowing your focus even further, fine-tuning your positioning through real-world conversations and testing.Counterintuitively, you'll have way more to write and talk about when focused on a niche than as a generalist.Jonathan and David emphasize that niche positioning is critical before you can effectively differentiate, charge value-based pricing, market yourself, or even decide what content to produce. It brings focus to everything that follows.About David C. Baker“The Leading Authority on Positioning, Reinventing, and Selling Firms in the Creative and Digital Space.”David C. Baker is the author of five books, three of which focus on the central elements of the business of expertise: positioning, financial management, and leadership. David speaks regularly on more than 70 topics relevant to entrepreneurial expertise, from 20 executives to 5,000 live on TV worldwide, and has worked with 900+ firms through his Total Business Review process.David's LinksDavid's WebsiteDavid's book: The Business of ExpertiseDavid's podcast (with Blair Enns)David's article on Specialization LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Feb 12, 202455 min

Ep 316Experimenting for Fun + Profit

When to shake things up by trying an experiment in your business.Why it’s worth challenging your own perceptions and/or the norms of a popular platform.Creating your own “book central” to capture everything you need to help with marketing and sales of your product in one place.One surprising outcome of this experiment (and why it will keep leveraging itself indefinitely).How starting with a niche book can expand your audience well beyond your intended target. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Feb 5, 202458 min

Ep 315Curating Your Learning Habit

When to consider learning from a 1-1 coach vs. a group experience—and how to think about when an investment makes sense.Building your own network of peers—through community participation or seeking out 1-1 relationships.Why guided experimentation works for so many soloists in the expertise space (and how to find those experiences).How to match your learning investments (time and money) with your business stage.Learning from your marketplace, including having regular conversations with your potential clients and buyers. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jan 29, 202447 min

Ep 314Clearing The Decks (To Build Something New)

Why you want to move those “bees in your head” to a Projects List where they don’t interfere with your focus right now.The importance of testing your concept (with yourself) and perhaps others before investing significant build time.Ways to organize the design flow of a time-bound challenge—and why cohorts can be so magical.Using technology short-cuts (like Zapier and ConvertKit)—and the value of testing your automations before you go live.Why documenting the process as you go is an easy move that pays off big if you decide to launch the program again. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jan 22, 202446 min

Ep 313How To Launch Something Different

How to identify your target market and create just enough of a description of the new offering to test it with them.Different ways to construct a “listening tour” for feedback and constructive criticism depending on your idea and your goal.Why you want to prepare a throughline—the compelling story that connects what you’ve been doing to your new thing.The value in embracing imperfection and adopting an experimental mindset. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jan 15, 202443 min

Ep 312How To Name Your Baby

Which is best: using your name or creating a company name for your expertise business (hint: what’s your end game)?How to deal with an unusual, unpronounceable (to your audience) or too-common name.Why your company name matters less than you think (but your URL is gold).Naming your books, products and services and why that’s different than naming your firm.The non-intuitive question to ask yourself when naming each of your babies. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jan 8, 202453 min

Ep 311Kicking Off 2024

Jan 1, 202447 min

Ep 310Is Work Life Balance A Myth?

Dec 11, 202345 min

Ep 309Planning Your Bets For Next Year

How to blend both analytical and feelings-based reviews into your planning (and the key questions to ask yourself before making any final decisions).Translating your bets into systems to lock-and-load your goals into your recurring (daily, weekly, monthly) actions.How adding a paper—yes paper!—calendar to your planning routine might pay off for you.Why you want to choose a theme for the year—and how to think about yours.The most important factor to consider when evaluating multiple bets. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Dec 4, 202351 min

Ep 300Making Better Decisions with Annie Duke

“There are only two things that determine the way your life turns out. Luck and the quality of your decisions. That's it.” Annie DukeWhen we won’t quit a bad idea because we hear a unicorn success story—instead of making the smarter move to invest “our treasure” (talents, time and energy) elsewhere.Why we never have ALL the facts when making decisions (and how luck swings outcomes more than we think).When we have to ignore how much money we’ve “put in the pot” and fold instead (and why pre-bet kill criteria will be your friend).Thinking in bets: how to calculate your expected value from a decision (and why horses are more dangerous than sharks).How soloists can establish truth-seeking groups to get the value of constructive advice (and why this is so critical to high performance).Be sure to stick around to the very end for a lightning round of Q+A on making better decisions.LINKSAnnie Duke | Substack | Website | Quit | Thinking in Bets BIOAnnie loves to dive deep into decision making under uncertainty. Her latest obsession is on the topic of quitting. In particular, she is on a mission to rehabilitate the term and get people to be proud of walking away from things.Annie is an author, speaker, and consultant in the decision-making space, as well as Special Partner focused on Decision Science at First Round Capital Partners, a seed stage venture fund. Annie’s latest book, Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, was released in 2022 from Portfolio, a Penguin Random House imprint. Her previous book, Thinking in Bets, is a national bestseller. As a former professional poker player, she has won more than $4 million in tournament poker. During her career, Annie won a World Series of Poker bracelet and is the only woman to have won the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions and the NBC National Poker Heads-Up Championship. She retired from the game in 2012. Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship to study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.Annie is the co-founder of The Alliance for Decision Education, a non-profit whose mission is to improve lives by empowering students through decision skills education. She is a member of the National Board of After-School All-Stars and the Board of Directors of the Franklin Institute and serves on the board of the Renew Democracy Initiative. LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Oct 2, 202354 min

Ep 299Why ‘Those Who Can’t Do Teach’ is BS

Sep 25, 202342 min

Ep 298Do You Need To Escape Your Business?

Sep 18, 202334 min

Ep 297Time Management For Soloists

Sep 11, 202352 min

Ep 296The Hidden Cost Of Delegation

Sep 4, 202340 min

Ep 295The 100-Day Sprint

The magic email to send when you want to get a go/no go on a proposal that’s gone dark (and why triggering FOMO can be exactly the right move).Sending cold outreach that avoids the stench of desperation (and a sample template you can personalize).Why you want to lead with the pointiest point of your spear when you’re pitching.How to intrigue with your ask (hint: a compelling call to action), while still being exquisitely clear on WIIFM for your target.LINKShttps://www.winwithoutpitching.com/magic-email/https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/prospecting-by-email/https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/telephone-intro/Rochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedInTwitter LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Aug 28, 202342 min

Ep 294Creativity Can Get Messy

Aug 21, 202350 min

Ep 293Why Your Pitches Aren’t Landing

Aug 14, 202347 min

Ep 292Perspective Meets Mindset

Aug 7, 202351 min

Ep 291Building A Business Around Your Genius

Talking PointsThe four zones of work and how to continue morphing toward your personal genius zone.How to think about (and master) the upward spiral that is consistently spending more work time in your genius zone.The clues that tell you it’s time to exit the trap of doing work where you’re merely competent or excellent.Embracing the counterintuitive idea that you can do less—and do fewer things—to move ahead faster.Understanding those things that are a drag on your energy vs. a source of fuel.RESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“One of the ways that we sabotage ourselves is we stay in our zone of competence or excellence. We actively push away opportunities to be in our genius zone. It's almost like, who am I to have it this good?”—RM “(The upward spiral) is aspirational. It's not perfectionist. It's like this iterative process, which to me is so much more real than this like magic bullet.”—JS“You do nobody any favors by staying in your zone of excellence or your zone of competence.”—RM“(Your genius) is way bigger than like a business model or something like that. It's almost like a trait, like a superpower or something.”—JS“Your genius zone is about how you contribute to the world by bringing it your best talents.”—RM “The process of honing down…to the extent that I would call it my genius zone, is really just like looking at the stuff that drains me and not doing it anymore.”—JS“Every day that you're alive, you could get a little bit more into your genius zone.”—RM“That feels weird: it's like, wait, do less, do fewer things to get ahead. It's counterintuitive.”—JS LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jul 31, 202344 min

Ep 290Why Wouldn’t You Hire Help?

How it feels when clients have several choices, but don’t trust any of them to bring them reliably to their finish line.The perceived experience and control clients feel from a DIY solution (that they don’t completely trust they’ll get from you).How to make it easier for certain clients to either hire you or drop out earlier in the process.What goes through clients’ heads as they consider spending money for your services/outcomes.Quotables“Once you make that decision and you pick the horse, you're riding that horse to the end.”—JS“Just because you decided to do it yourself doesn't mean that you know what's behind the walls.”—RM“There's no real way for a non-expert to judge the capabilities of an expert.”—JS“You consciously chose this because it was a better perceived experience for you than the level of unknown with hiring somebody to do it.”—RM“All of the decision-making processes that kept us paralyzed turned out in retrospect to have been unfounded.”—JS“Sometimes when you (bring in additional team members), it allows you to make a different promise to your client and make it easier for them to hire you.”—RMRESOURCESJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jul 24, 202348 min

Ep 289The Mid-Year Assessment

Why it’s about more than just your revenue/profit lines (even though they are pretty darned important).Another way to look at your revenue growth or lack thereof (hint: it involves what you enjoy doing most).How to decide how well (or not) your strategic and tactical moves are working.A host of tactics to grow your top line revenue and have more fun doing it.Stepping back and looking not just at your business but how well it’s integrating with the rest of your life and vice versa.RESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“There are only two numbers I track on a regular basis. One is newsletter subscribers—and related to that, the open rate.”—JS“My satisfaction rating is just a totally subjective rating of how much fun this has been. And am I enjoying the ride even when it's hard?”—RM“I have a pivot table in my budget projections for my revenue projections that splits out the mix of hard stuff versus easy stuff.”—JS“If it's a tactic and it's been six months, that's a reasonable amount of time to decide it's working or it's not working.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jul 17, 202352 min

Ep 288Riding The AI Wave

The power and potential of AI for authority businesses, even in use cases where pundits insist it will decimate business models.Some of the new tools (that you can use right now) that innovators are developing for experts, authorities and soloists.Why using AI for first drafts may be the immediate best use of AI for experts and authorities.New uses of AI in the authority space: automated transcription, voice replication and first-draft content generation from tweets and hashtags to turning podcasts into book drafts. The potential of AI to leverage your soloist business, including taking tasks you used to pay for or do yourself off your plate entirely.Quotables“It's like this thing you can see on the horizon. And it's like, are you going to paddle out and ride it or just stay on the beach, nice and comfy?”—JS“I don't have to be a tech bro to figure this out…this is achingly simple.”—RM “The power of that (AI) for someone who is trying to lead a revolution or spread a big idea or lead a mission—especially a soloist—it's jaw-dropping.”—JS“It's dangerous to be resistant to new ideas. Doesn't mean you're going to embrace them ever, but just being flat out resistant usually is not a great long-term strategy for your business.”—RM“Let's say that it takes half of your time to do first drafts, and you could increase your productivity by like, say, double. And you could take on twice as many clients working the same amount of time as you currently work.”—JS“This is about getting a first draft. As a writer…your client doesn't care where it came from. What they care about is that it works for their brand or their campaign, or whatever they're hiring you to do.”—RM “It's kind of like I have a first drafter, like an intern type of employee who understands my stuff and can do a good first pass.”—JS“If I can get clients to something that is going to cut the amount of time they spend and increase their profits, hello! I want that at the top of my list for my practice.”—RMRESOURCESJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramLINKShttps://hello.podium.page/blog/convert-your-podcast-to-a-book-with-podbook-by-podiumhttps://thebusinessofauthority.simplecast.com/episodes/seth-godinhttps://www.podcastshownotes.ai/https://www.getmunch.com/https://www.chatcsv.co/https://www.stfo.io/ffbihttps://www.descript.com/https://www.midjourney.com/https://beta.elevenlabs.io/ LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jul 10, 202334 min

Ep 287Knowing When To Quit

How to think about sunk costs—and the cultural and emotional messages around abandoning your “thing”.Evaluating opportunity costs—how to know when it’s time to quit to free up resources for other things.The value of asking for outside input before making large investments—and how to get it.Why setting kill criteria right at the start of your new investments (and not well into the project) may be your best move.The cultural and emotional aspects of quitting that no one talks about, but pretty much everyone experiences.RESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“It’s always easier to see when you think someone else should quit something. It's like, you've been trying to become an actor for 40 years and you've had one walk on part. I think it might be time to quit.”—JS“I'm thinking of something that I dropped and, duh, it didn't work because I didn't do any freaking research to make sure anybody even wanted this thing.”—RM “If you've only got a few chips on the table, it's no big deal. It's just like, eh, this is an experiment, didn't work out. And if you keep doing those, eventually one is gonna be not crickets. One is gonna be take my money.”—JS“The right people will say yes to a call or some kind of an interaction. And if they won't, then it doesn't matter how good your idea is—then you need to spend some time getting these people to want to take your calls...”—RM“If you think quitting is for losers, maybe reframe that in your mind in terms of knowing when to quit.”—JS“Fear is what keeps people in terrible jobs, in terrible relationships, in businesses that don't fit them, in roles that really are bad for them. It's that fear of…but what do I do next?”—RM “The type of goal that you have can make it easier or harder to know what the kill criteria is or are.”—JS“So much is possible, if we allow ourselves not to stick with everything that we start.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jun 26, 202353 min

Ep 286Deciding To Be The Best In The World

Why navigating the dip (the desert you have to cross to get to Mecca) is so much easier when you have decided to be the best in the world.What does “best in the world” mean for you—and what are you willing to commit to to achieve it?How that decision translates to revenue and picking the right next moves—even (especially) when they’re hard.Choosing where to place your bets when faced with turning point decisions.Why the “glorious quest” nature of some missions allows you to tap into energy you didn’t even know you had to get through obstacles.Quotables“It is sort of a call to arms to be more than mediocre.”—JS“The dip is kind of like the desert that you have to cross to get to Mecca. And on the other side are all the riches you get from doing the hard, dirty, nasty work of the dip.”—RM“If you're spending all of your time doing this thing, you need to have a way to put Cheerios in the bowl.”—JS“You're willing to do it because it's worth it. It's worth it in terms of your emotional connection to the outcome. It's worth it in terms of the transformations you deliver to your ideal people. It's worth it in terms of the business you can build for yourself and the revenue that you can make.”—RM“It's like every decision you make is a bet. There's no guarantee, right? So it's a bet.”—JS“It's not like you only have one chance in your life to do this one big thing. You have multiple, multiple chances.”—RM“It's just going to come back to…focusing down on demand that is so specific that you can reasonably decide to be the best in the world at this very specific thing and then use the excitement of that to carry you through whatever dips you encounter (which you will).”—JS“You're not like the Renaissance person who knows a lot about a few things and a little bit about a lot. You're someone with deep knowledge—and that makes you really valuable.”—RMLINKSThe Dip by Seth GodinRESOURCESJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jun 19, 202348 min

Ep 285The Song Of Significance with Seth Godin

Why right now is the best time ever to make a significant contribution to the change you want to see in your world.The importance of focusing on the smallest viable audience to accomplish significant work.How to transform your work into your art (hint: it includes the story you tell yourself about where you’re going).Why “soft skills” need to be considered as “real skills”—and why they are often far more valuable than skills that can be easily measured.What to tell yourself to push past imposter syndrome.Quotables“It's way more likely that adroit committed, passionate, smart people are going to realize they have more tools than anyone on Earth ever had before.”—SG“What I'm trying to help undo is industrial brainwashing and remind people that significance comes from making a change in the world.”—SG “I've done more than 200 projects in my career. I've never missed a budget and I have never missed a deadline. And the reason is because when I run outta time or I run outta money, I'm done.”—SG“The key to significant work, particularly for the soloist you're talking about, is understanding the power of the smallest viable audience. The goal cannot be the biggest possible audience, ‘cuz that will water down your work and wreck it.”—SG“Part of my contribution is helping people tell themselves a story so they can transform parts of their day from work to art.”—SG“Real skills are honesty, generosity, leadership, connection, charisma, creativity, a sense of humor.”—SG “We have filled our lives with dangerous, ineffective proxies. Things we measure that look like they're gonna give us a hint as to what we're gonna get, but they don't.”—SG“People say how do I get rid of imposter syndrome? And I say you can't. And that's a good thing because feeling like an imposter is a symptom that A, you're not a sociopath, and B, that you're actually doing something difficult. Something important, something that might not work, something you can't prove because you're leading.”—SGLinksThe Song of SignificanceThe Carbon AlmanacRESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jun 12, 202335 min

Ep 284How To Design Guarantees For Your Work + Products

What exactly is a guarantee and why/when does it make sense to offer one?Why you are probably already offering a guarantee even if you haven’t explicitly stated it (and what to do instead).How to develop meaningful guarantees when the client is intimately involved in the outcome.What happens with your client conversations and relationships when you offer a guarantee.How clients are (already) telling you which guarantees they’d value most.Quotables“The thing with guarantees is that you - as a buyer - automatically know they're a good thing.”—JS“One has to kind of punch through the fear of making a guarantee. And it always feels a little bit easier on products to make a guarantee—just give it back.”—RM “I'm sure everybody who's ever billed hourly has eaten hours because they're like, ‘Dang, that took me six hours and I thought it was only going to take me one!’ which is them honoring a guarantee that they never explicitly made.”—JS“If you really listen in your sales conversations, they will tell you what they're worried about…it’s like big old giant neon signs pointing you to a potential guarantee.”—RM“You could address that fear (when they’re afraid of themselves) with something like a red alert guarantee.”—JS“This is what goes through their head: ‘I'm gonna mess this up…I will never be hired again, I'm gonna have to go be a Walmart greeter.’”—RM “For an info product, it makes a lot of sense to just offer an unconditional 100% money back guarantee—if you're unsatisfied for any reason, I'll refund your purchase in full, no questions asked.”—JS“Acknowledging their fear…will make offering guarantees more smooth, because you'll see the ways that you can make it more comfortable for them at no cost to you.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jun 5, 202349 min

Ep 283Sales Pages 101

Why capturing the pain your ideal buyer is experiencing is the perfect opening for a successful sales page.How to move away from focusing on your “fix” to the emotionally charged decision your buyers are making.The four essential parts of every successful sales page (and how to up the ante once you’ve got those covered).What to do if you don’t have social proof for your new offering just yet.How to think about what you’re selling and why your mindset impacts the success of your sales page.RESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“You want someone to know immediately that you understand them. And by describing their pain…they’re automatically going to be somewhat convinced or beginning to trust that you’ve got a solution to this thing.”—JS“We buy how something is going to make us feel. We don’t buy on logic.”—RM“In the dream section, you want to present the reader with the mirror image of the pain—you want to flip it.”—JS“This (the CTA) should be a big button. It should be in major contrast to all of the copy and the colors around it. Your eye should be drawn to this giant button.”—RM“Social proof: like the smiling faces of people who have just been transformed in the way that you promised above, that that will resonate with the ideal reader of the page.”—JS“If you’ve already got an audience, you’re hitting on their pain, you’ve designed the solution that your kind of people are looking for—the solution matches the pain and their dream—you’re golden.”—RM“If someone is coming to the page ready to buy…in the first five seconds, they know what it is and how to buy.”—JS“If you don’t sell, you’re denying your people the opportunity to be better than they were before they experienced this thing.”—RMLinksBuilding The Perfect Sales Page LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

May 22, 202359 min

Ep 282Tactical Creativity

Why small buckets of time can often be easier to exploit than large swaths of free time.How to think about protecting your creative time for your business while also enjoying the rest of your life.When rethinking large creative projects and parsing them into smaller chunks makes sense.The role of consuming other people’s content in “loading the cannon” of your own creativity.Quotables“Not that swanning around the neighborhood with a full day off is a bad thing, but we're talking about the sort of creative things that you're doing to build your authority business.”—JS“When you have a whole day, you can say ‘Wow, look at all this open space—what can I create today with that?’”—RM “What can I squeeze in between these two appointments?”—JS“We do these soloist expertise businesses so that we can do great work, make huge transformations, make piles of money, and enjoy our lives.”—RM“Writing a podcast outreach pitch where I am reaching out to a podcast host to pitch myself as a guest—half an hour is a perfect amount of time for me to do one of those.”—JS“When I'm invited to guest, especially on a well-known podcast, I'm going to do prep…I will think about how do I want to position this? I don't ever want to go into those cold.”—RM “If you know what they're going to ask you, they're going to put you on the spot. Then it's like, you might as well rise to the occasion.”—JS“Sometimes I'll just look at all the highlights (I’ve collected from other people’s content) and ask…how would this apply to expertise and authority and consulting? Is there an angle I haven't thought about?”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

May 15, 202358 min

Ep 281Productivity vs. Creativity For Soloists

Why authority-based businesses require being unproductive at times—and how to give yourself permission to go there.The hidden costs of failing to innovate, especially for soloists.The wide spectrum from productivity to creativity—and deciding where you want to be in any given moment.Pushing through any residual guilt from not being highly productive, all the time.The difference between exploration and expedition—and why exploring (a proxy for creativity) may be challenging for experts.RESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“There are things that you probably need to do for an authority-based business…that require you to be unproductive.”—JS“Creativity is like being delightfully unproductive.”—RM “There's no stopwatch to be like, okay, like how fast did you come up with an idea today?”—JS “You may have this sort of mindset that you need to always be busy. And sometimes that just has to be broken.”—RM“The question immediately comes up like, how do you schedule projects back to back if you're not sure when they're done? And I'm like, why are you scheduling projects back-to-back at all?”—JS“You just have to find a way to shift back and forth between those times where you're really busy and it's relatively quiet.”—RM “There's a thing that I do that looks like I'm doing nothing from the outside. And if you just recognize that that's part of the process, like without that, you're not gonna innovate.”—JS“People resist it (allowing an idea to roll around before it gels) like I can't even tell you because there's so much discomfort in sitting in the not knowing.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

May 8, 202336 min

Ep 280Specialist vs. Generalist

The two ways you can decide to be a specialist or a generalist.A four quadrant approach to choosing where you want to take your business on the generalist to specialist continuum.How to make a generalist skill set work in a hyper-differentiated market place.Why experimenting between the quadrants will lead you to your ideal balance between specializing and generalizing.Quotables“In the etch-a-sketch metaphor there's these two knobs you can dial…one would be who you help and the other is what you do.”—JS“Is there a market for this? And how big is that market?”—RM “The lower left quadrant is a rough place to be because that's the place where you have downward pricing pressure. You're commoditized.”—JS“If you just pick one of these two axes, I think most people know right away which feels better.”—RM“If you really want to be a generalist, I'd say, okay. Stay general in your skills, but pick a vertical, pick who you help.”—JS“This can be an experiment, but even if it doesn't work, what do you learn from that experiment? Well, you learn what you didn't like, so how do you get closer to what you DO want?”—RM “You create a moat around yourself that very few competitors will be able to cross.”—JS“You can think about which quadrant am I in? And is it the right quadrant for me and for my business? “—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

May 1, 202337 min

Ep 279Niching Into Specific vs. Small Targets

Why it’s more important for your target market to be specific than small.What happens when you truly understand your group of target clients and buyers.How to think about the revenue model you might build to serve your targets (and one incredible real-life example).What changes in your business when you get specific about who you’re targeting.How a handful of experts niched successfully into specific—but not small—markets.RESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“It's much more important for your target market to be specific than it is to be small.”—JS“If we can substitute specific for small, maybe it cracks through a psychological barrier to niching.”—RM“It's almost a revelation how much easier everything gets when the group is specific enough that you can understand them.”—JS“We can also look at the other end (from bespoke services), where you can create a system…that meets that (serious need), and you make up for what you lose on price in volume.”—RM“At the beginning to get traction, to establish really solid, predictable cashflow, a great approach is to pick a very specific market that you know inside out and then serve some existing demand.”—JS“You don’t start big—you start specific.”—RM“She can speak with like comical specificity to her target audience about the things that are going through their minds.”—JS“When it (getting specific) works, it’s a thing of beauty.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Apr 24, 202348 min

Ep 278Considering Cold Outreach?

How to think about cold outreach so you can practice (and get comfortable with) doing it on a regular basis.Three situations where you can use a low-key form of cold outreach that is likely to be highly successful.Why knowing exactly who your ideal client is makes cold outreach more effective and faster to leverage.How to make cold situations warm(er) and more comfortable.The surprising results from continuing to follow-up, even beyond your comfort level.Quotables“Imagine an acquisitions editor from a big publisher sent you an email and said, ‘Hey, we'd like to talk about doing a book with you’. That's cold outreach.”—JS“I wouldn't want to spend my whole day doing just cold outreach, but it's really a fun part of building an expertise business.”—RM“They're not trying to take something from you, they are sending a highly relevant message to you for a very specific reason.”—JS“The time that cold outreach makes the most sense is when you have something that's potentially mutually beneficial.”—RM“A great time to do (cold outreach) is when you're inspired by something.”—JS“The tighter you make that ideal client, the easier it is…to know what's gonna light them up.”—RM“The best time to do cold outreach is when you don't need to do it—when it can be organic and serendipitous and genuine.”—JS“The first thing I always try to do is to turn cold to warm.”—RM LINKSRochelle | Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter 

Apr 17, 202354 min

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