The Online Prosperity Experience

Always put aside an emergency cash fund There is a ton of advice I can give, and have given to coaches, consultants and small business owners. But I think the best advice I can give is this: Always put aside an emergency cash fund equivalent to about two months of earnings. Why? Because there are always ups and downs in the life of a coach, consultant and small business owner, whether you are just starting out, or have been an entrepreneur for years. It doesn’t matter whether you are just doing OK as a coach, consultant and small business owner., or superstar. You will always have an occasional month that doesn’t deliver the money you need to cover the bills. Or maybe one month you have an unexpected expense. Or maybe you are sick and can’t work. You need to have a cash reserve to make up for those months. This is a simple business practice. It’s called cash flow management. Every company, large or small, has to manage its cash flow. You need to create diverse, recurring revenue streams to skyrocket your profitability and ensure your business remains 100% bulletproof even during market downturns, global pandemics and sweeping lockdowns

No pictures of happy, leaping people required. We all know that how your website looks is a key part of getting prospective clients to contact you. However, the combination of what the eye sees and what you read is critical. Your site can look amazing, but if it’s full of spelling and grammar errors people will form unflattering conclusions about the products and services you offer. Proofreading your text is essential. Make sure you get other people to read through it as they are far more likely to spot errors that you’ve missed. In addition to being typo-free, your website copy needs to reflect you and your brand. The tone of voice and vocabulary should be consistent across all your promotional formats, whether in print or online. Your customers need to feel that their experience with you is seamless, no matter where they are seeing your brand. Graphics and user interface design can encourage visitors to your site to visit specific pages or draw attention to important pieces of information. What gets them clicking is a clear Call To Action (CTA). Have your customers’ journey through your website in mind and steer them towards the action you want them to take – like using your contact form or buying online from you. BTW – Before you respond, I do know that images, infographics and videos can add enormous value when done well, and used in the right circumstances. And I do know that adding other elements to a text-only page can give you some SEO brownie points. And I do know that multimedia can be a big draw when promoting your pages through social media. I know that stuff. But even so, I resent having to search far and wide to find a quality writer who has taken the trouble to write a high-quality page. As with that first book without pictures, a well-written text-only web page can stimulate your brain into making all the necessary connections without any extra help. No pictures of happy, leaping people are required.

How marketing changes based on the current level of maturity of your business. Marketing changes as your business grows and develops. In the early stages, your marketing efforts will be focused on outreach and building awareness. As you establish your business and gain more authority, your marketing will shift to inbound strategies like content marketing and SEO. And finally, as you become a well-known and trusted brand, your marketing will focus on outbound strategies like advertising and PR. Let’s talk about how marketing changes based on the current level of maturity of your coaching, consulting or small business. The first thing that’s really important to understand here is that it’s your marketing will change not just based on the maturity of your business, but really on the maturity of the marketing in your business. What I mean by that is you may be in business for 10 years already, but you’ve received all your business from your own network and referrals and so forth. And so that really means that the maturity of your marketing is almost zero because you haven’t done very much in the marketing department. In the early days of your outreach, you should be very focused on getting in front of ideal clients. Want To Advance To The Next Stage In Your Coaching, Consulting or Small Business? This is how the marketing maturity mix should be or how you should allocate your time and focus as your business grows from early to mid-stage, and mid-stage to kind of late and more developed. It’ll shift from outreach to more inbound. If you’re looking for help with your own marketing and advancing to the next stage so you can attract more clients consistently, just reach out to us at Livelong Digital

Successful people ask for help. “Everybody should have a Coach,” says Google CEO Eric Schmidt The definition of a Coach is “someone whose job is to teach and help improve at something” Every successful person in Sports, Politics, Business, Entertainment, Religion and Life has or has had coaches. Cristiano Ronaldo has a coach. Barack Obama has a coach. Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, and Tony Robbins have coaches. Even Buddha had a coach. None of these people got to where they are on their own. They realised early on that they would get more out of themselves if they had the support, advice and accountability of a coach, even multiple coaches. We have all had coaches in life… Who taught you to speak, play football, do maths, or learn a musical instrument? A parent/teacher/instructor. These are all types of coaches who not only taught you something but helped you improve. Yet, since leaving school or graduating from university, how many coaches have you had in your life? At 31, Cristiano Ronaldo still sees the benefit of a coach to continue playing world-class football.At 55, Barack Obama still needed coaches to continue to be the President of the United States until last year.And at 62, Oprah Winfrey still relies on coaches to stay one of the most respected people in the Entertainment industry. It was these coaches that have helped educate, empower, advise, hold accountable and supported them in their successes. Paul Dolan, a behavioural scientist at London School of Economics and the author of the bestselling book Happiness By Design, says: “Just as people have for years been employing personal trainers to help them get fit and lose weight, so too achieving goals can be accelerated by using an advisor or coach to apply similar principles to success in life.” Now, very few of us have the means to employ a team of people. We do, however, have more of a team than we think. Remember “no man is an island”. Rely on your friends and family for support in reaching your goal. “Successful people ask for help” Camille Preston, Fortune Along with your family and friends, there are countless support networks on and offline. If you are learning a new skill, find a course at a local educational institute or online. If your goal is to get fit, look for local classes or a personal trainer. Alternatively, there are countless online exercise videos, free and paid. If you are looking to start your own business, look for a local business person to be a mentor or alternatively find an online mentor or coaching course.

Here are a few ideas to help you go out and win your first consulting client. Your challenge is getting to be visible so that your ideal clients know that you exist — so that they’re then able to hire you. Many coaches, consultants and small business owners have trouble finding their first client. In this podcast, I want to offer you a few ideas to help you go out and win your first coaching or consulting client. Here are 4 ways to get your first consulting client. 1. First-Degree Connections 2. Second-degree Connections 3. Direct Outreach 4. Sell What They Want To Buy When you follow these four steps and work them consistently, you’re going to be able to land that first client much faster and make a lot more progress and feel a lot more momentum in the early days of your business. I wish you great success with this, and as always, feel free to reach out through Livelong Digital where you’ll find many resources to help you grow your consulting business. Whether you’re at the earliest stages or you’ve been a consultant for 10 or 15 years, looking to get to the next level, we have resources for you.

Avoid saying YES before you know the scope. It’s easy to say YES When the client asks for something – new keyword research, some ad-hoc Google or Social media analysis, an extra workshop for their staff member who was not present on the scheduled one – it usually seems like a reasonable request. After all, they pay the bills and shouldn’t they get the most out of their coach, consultant or small business service provider? When the consultant says YES to a new request, it may feel comfortable and collaborative. The consultant feels like she is doing a good job listening, and the client is happy that his idea was accepted. There is no stress or pregnant pauses. It is the path of the least resistance like water running downhill. Experienced consultants and lawyers will tell you there are many reasons why being overly agreeable can create problems. Here are four of them that I speak about in this podcast: 1. False promise It is easy to say YES in the heat of the moment, then completely forget about it. It is the equivalent to a husband telling his wife “sure, honey”, when he was not listening (and definitely not writing things down). 2. Overpromise It’s a crude graph, but it visualises what all consultants know to be true: “under-promise, and over-deliver”. When the client asks for 100, promise less (red bar) and deliver more (blue bar). Sad, but true. By lowering client expectations, we have a better chance of exceeding. Call it cynical, call it sandbagging, but it works. 3. Waste of time Don’t get me wrong. Clients often give good feedback – especially when explaining the organizational context (read: politics). I have learned something from every client. That said, every client request is not valid. Sometimes, they are a waste of time. Remember: we are paid for our expertise and often paid by the hour. No reason to waste the client’s money, waste our time, or worse – put the project timing at risk. 4. Poor alignment In my mind, this is the greatest danger. If the client keeps bringing up new ideas and ad-hoc requests. . . AND the consultant keeps agreeing to them . . Something is wrong. It is a symptom of a deeper problem: Well, you have to tune in to hear what this is, and that's the reason why most consultants go out of business.

Do you want to grow your business? If so, you should start by listening to what your customers, suppliers and interested parties have to say. Feedback from the people who visit your website can help you make smart decisions about creating content, promoting your products and growing your brand. When you look at how people feel when they visit your business, you can identify your strengths and weaknesses. Use your strengths to keep customer satisfaction soaring and find ways to build on your weaknesses to aid in retention. In this podcast, we take a look at several ways you can use feedback to grow your company. But first, let’s look at some of the most common types of feedback and show you where to gather this valuable data. I read a story about a Boston University professor who asks for student feedback in every class. Most professors might be satisfied with a student evaluation once a semester, but not this professor. Dr. Muhammad Zaman gets feedback daily from his biomedical engineering students. He publishes the results, emails the students to tell them about “any fine-tuning he plans in response to their comments”. This is teaching rigor. As your business grows, you’ll have to gather more feedback to continue expanding. Listening to your audience will naturally draw more users to your site as you accumulate positive written reviews and word-of-mouth praise.

Get crystal clear on your ideal client so you never doubt who it is you should be going after. Any coach, consultant or small business owner who is creating a business that's profitable and enjoyable understands an important truth: You’re not just in the business of coaching or consulting. You’re in the business of marketing. Without marketing — generating conversations with buyers (leads) — you cannot generate revenue. And without revenue, you don’t have a business. But marketing is much deeper than generating conversations with buyers. Generating leads is an important part of your marketing. But unless you build a foundation on which to generate said leads, your leads won’t develop into new business. In this podcast, you’ll learn how to build that foundation. You’ll learn what you should do before you generate leads — so that when you do start your marketing efforts, your leads will develop into new business. Effective lead generation for coaches, consultants and small businesses is built on top of these 5 fundamentals: Identifying your ideal clientCrafting a compelling messageCreating a strategic offerUnderstanding the meaningful sales conversationMapping out your proposal process Once you have these pieces in place, your lead-generation strategy will be 10x more effective. Without these, your lead generation (and business) will sink.

Are you a coach or consultant who is struggling to keep your business afloat during these uncertain times? If so, then this podcast is for you! In it, I'll be sharing 3 simple but powerful strategies that you can use to not only survive but thrive during these tough times. The first strategy is to focus on consistency. No matter what's going on in the world, the one thing you can control is your own consistency. When you show up consistently for your business, you send a powerful message to the Universe that you're serious about your success.The second strategy is to shift your focus from quantity to quality. It's natural to want to attract as many clients as possible during tough times, but the best way is to be the most valuable person in your client's life.The third thing we go into is your health and well-being. Yes, you can do well if you are not feeling well. What strategy resonates with you most? Let me know in the comments below… And if you have some best practices of your own that you’d to add to the list type those in the comments below as well. So, if you’d like our help taking advantage of these challenging times, our Online Prosperity Program is for you. We’ll work hands-on with you to develop a strategic plan and then dive deep and work through your ideal client clarity, strategic messaging, consulting offers, fees and pricing, business model optimisation, and help you to set up your marketing engine and lead generation system to consistently attract ideal clients. Schedule a FREE growth session today to apply for our limited capacity Online Prosperity Program by clicking here.

Your clients raving about you is far more impactful than you raving about yourself. Social proof is a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behaviour in a given situation. The principle of social proof says, "The greater the number of people who find any idea correct, the more the idea will be correct.” Which is more persuasive: A friend recommending you buy their favourite product…Or, an unknown coach, consultant or small business recommending you buy their product? It’s natural to be sceptical about people promoting themselves. But when their customers promote them, it feels more organic, trustworthy, and safe. That’s how social proof works. Social proof is incredibly powerful in business. And testimonials are another example of social proof. By showing praise from former clients who’ve benefited from your service, you show potential clients that your service will benefit them. To get testimonials from your consulting clients, you’ll have to do three things: Do great workAsk for themMake it easy Once you’ve received your testimonials, start using them to market your consulting business: Turn them into case studiesAdd them to your landing pagesAsk those clients for referrals Consulting is a relationship business, and social proof helps you leverage your relationships to win new business. Aim to make every project you complete worthy of a glowing testimonial. The more testimonials you gather, the easier it will be to attract new clients.

Become Better At Virtual Meetings To Build Long-Lasting Connections and Grow Your Business Do you groan when you think of having yet another virtual meeting? Do you feel burn-out sitting in front of your camera all day? What if virtual meetings didn’t leave you with “Zoom fatigue” — but instead, you left your meetings feeling energised and excited? You don’t have to groan at the thought of another virtual meeting. Using these principles, tactics, and tools, you’ll make your virtual meetings more engaging, more productive — and even more fun. Your action step for this podcast is to ask 4 of these questions during your next virtual meetings — and take notes for it. Above all else, remember this: executives — your clients — are surrounded by “yes-men” and “yes-women.” You’ll position yourself as their trusted advisor by taking the opposite approach. Don’t sugarcoat things and tell them when they’re wrong. They’ll trust you even more because they know they can count on you for more objective advice. How has the pandemic affected your virtual meetings? What have you seen work well for your virtual meetings?

Strategy VS Tactics: How To Determine Your Strategy Do you ever feel like you’re running around in circles in your coaching, consulting or small business? Like everything you’re doing doesn’t really connect — and you aren’t making the progress you want towards your goal to create a profitable and enjoyable business? It can feel like you’re turning around like the Tasmanian Devil (remember those cartoons back in the day?) Believe it or not, many coaches and consultants run their businesses this way. They’re chasing the next shiny object, the latest marketing tool or drinking the social media cool-aid without wondering how it fits into their long-term strategy and goals. And that’s if they have a specific long-term goal in the first place. Your long-term goals and strategy should come first. Your tactics — tools, channels, technology, etc. — come second. By the end of this podcast, you’ll understand the critical difference between strategy and tactics — and determine your own strategy (and tactics) so you can get clear on your next steps to grow your coaching, consulting or small business.

My response to RFPs is a polite “no thank you.” What’s your response to requests for proposals or Tenders? More importantly — what should your response be? Before large companies hire a consulting, coaching or small business for a large-scale project, they’ll often put out a request for proposal (RFP) to receive several proposals and pricing options from different suppliers. In this podcast, I’ll help you navigate the world of requests for proposals, and you’ll learn how to effectively respond to RFPs. In theory, RFPs provide you with an opportunity to win a big project and gain a new client. However, there are many drawbacks you need to be on the lookout for. It’s not rare for the awarding company or organisation to have already chosen a consulting or coaching firm in their mind before they send out the RFP. But government entities and public organisations are usually required to send out RFPs so that they can ‘consider’ all options. The firm they already have in mind might be a consultant who helped create the RFP in the first place. Or it’s a consultant they have worked with before and want to use again. This scenario is more common than you think. As a consultant responding to RFPs, you might find yourself spending many hours working on your proposal only to find that you are helping the client comply with internal procedures. And then, they award the project to your competitor. In reality, your competitor was selected before the awarding company even sent out the RFP. You never stood a chance anyway. It’s for this reason that most consultants should not build their business around RFPs. You don’t have control over the process.You’re competing against others.And often, it’s a rigged game. If you want to build a consulting business that's profitable and enjoyable on your terms, then your response to RFPs should be a polite “no, thank you.” Winning consulting business using effective marketing and sales strategies is almost always a much better approach. You have control over the process. You don’t have to compete against others for the same piece of business. But it does require you to learn and master marketing and sales — the top 2 challenges for coaches and consultants. Let’s dive in.

Create more leverage, earn a higher income, and build a real business. If you’re a freelancer, and you’re already providing advice for your clients (and not just your skills), then you’re 80% of the way to becoming a consultant. You can create more leverage, earn a higher income, and build a real business. However, making the transition is not easy.You’ll have to learn how to price based on the value you create and not just trade your time for money.You’ll have to learn how to market your expertise and attract the interest of your ideal clients instead of relying on networking and referrals.You’ll have to learn how to create (and sell) real offers — not just apply for work on job boards. I teach all of these invaluable skills (and many more) in my consulting programs. I’ve helped hundreds of freelancers build profitable, scalable, and strategic consulting businesses. If you want our personal help to evolve from a freelancer to a consultant and build a thriving consulting business, our Online Prosperity Blueprint is for you. We’ll work hands-on with you to develop a strategic plan and then dive deep and work through your ideal client clarity, strategic messaging, consulting offers, fees, and pricing, business model optimisation, and help you to set up your marketing engine and lead generation system to consistently attract ideal clients. Schedule a FREE growth session today to apply for our limited capacity Online Prosperity Blueprint by clicking here.

If you show interest in the client’s life, they’ll trust you to have their best interests at heart. Ever noticed that other coaches, consultants and service providers make the most impact when they’re friends with their clients? Whether it be insurance reps, financial advisors or sales account managers, stronger ties yield greater results. You see, by spending time with your clients, you get to know them better: their aspirations, motivations and what they truly value. You care about what they care about. As coaches and consultants, we have a unique position to make the lives of those we serve enjoyable. A lot of executives struggle not so much with general business practices or methods, but with their ways: their style or mindset. Some of their behaviours, responses or decisions are detrimental to their organisation, and few of them see this. Coaches help leaders develop greater self-awareness and skilfulness, enhancing relationships and improving operations. But it requires real knowledge and understanding of the client. This in turn helps them create custom products and services which mean more revenue. Being known for caring will ensure you have a business that's profitable and enjoyable.

What Doesn't Work When Selling To Executives Company executives fit a different profile than end users. They have different needs, wants, and challenges. They run businesses and organisations;They are focused on return on investment;They are much, much more difficult to reach;They need to know you, like you, trust you — and a need for your services must arise — before they are willing to invest in working with you Selling to executives doesn’t have to be difficult. It just requires a more refined strategy. Forget about fancy funnels and shiny new tools. As long as you focus on… Being specific about the executive you’re selling toCreating messaging that speaks to them (the problems they want to be solved and the results that they want)Systematic outreach to a list of your ideal executive clientsPublishing content that demonstrates your expertise and provides valueHaving meaningful conversations about their wants, needs, and challenges …you’ll have no problem selling your consulting services to executives.

Learn what doesn’t work for selling to executives. Are you a B2B coach, consultant or small business who is selling to company executives? You’ve probably discovered that most marketing and sales advice out there doesn’t help you at all. That’s because most marketing and sales advice you read is aimed toward businesses selling to consumers - the end users of products and services. But, as a coach, consultant or small service provider, your business depends on your ability to sell to these company executives, not consumers. And selling to executives is an entirely different ball game. Unlike B2C selling… You’re selling your expertise, not an off-the-shelf product.You’re selling expensive, custom, high-touch consulting services.What you’re selling requires far more trust — and executives want to see a return on their investment. If your target market is company executives, you’ll need a custom consulting offer delivered with a custom marketing and sales approach. By the end of this podcast series - as we have part 2, you’ll learn what doesn’t work for selling to executives — and most importantly, what DOES work: including specific strategies you can use today to get in front of your ideal senior-level and executive clients. Let’s dive in…

Experts in client development don’t seem to have this same problem. Client development is what you do to develop clients — one of the most important practices of any coaching, consulting or small business. Right now, in the middle of a pandemic, client development can be tough. You need to bring in new business to keep your business running — but a lot of clients have minimised their budgets. In this podcast, you’ll understand how to become an expert in client development — and how to keep your sales pipeline full. Here’s your client development goal: to get 10-20% more leads than you can handle.

None of us can do this alone. We need people to help, support, encourage, and teach us. This is a massive opportunity that few coaches, consultants and small businesses are taking advantage of. By community, I’m talking about those in your market with whom you’ve developed relationships: your past clients, existing clients, colleagues, partners, etc. It also includes the individuals and communities that support you, people who hold you accountable, and will help you grow your business in uncertainty. If you want to go far, go alone. If you want to go further - go together. In times of economic challenges or when there is uncertainty in the marketplace, a lot of organisations start cutting recklessly. The stronger the relationships you have with your clients, the more bonded they will feel to you and your community the less likely they will be to cancel their engagements with you. Join Our Community here:- https://livelongbusinesscommunity.com.au/

Even during market downturns, global pandemics and sweeping lockdowns. There is a lot of talk right now about us being in a recession or the likelihood of us entering one soon. Regardless of when this happens (it’s not a question of IF, but WHEN) there are steps you can take to prepare and prosper as a result. Your coaching or consulting business should be a recession-proof business. Why? Coaching or Consulting businesses are one of the most recession-proof businesses you can build. Unlike most other businesses, consulting businesses… Have minimal costs/overheadDon’t have any inventoryAllow you to be flexible and make changes quickly By the end of this podcast, you’ll learn 6 actionable steps for how to turn your consulting business into a recession-proof business — and be prepared to not only survive a recession but to thrive and grow during it. So, if you’d like our help taking advantage of these challenging times, our customised Clarity Coaching session is for you. We’ll work hands-on with you to develop a strategic plan and then dive deep and work through your ideal client clarity, strategic messaging, consulting offers, fees and pricing, business model optimisation, and help you to set up your marketing engine and lead generation system to consistently attract ideal clients. Schedule a FREE growth session today to apply for our limited capacity Clarity Coaching Session by clicking here.

Do you know how much money you are leaving on the table? If you’re like most coaches, consultants and small business owners, you’re leaving tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands — or even millions of dollars — on the table over the span of your career. Why? Because you lack an effective pricing strategy. Based on the value you’re creating for clients, you’re not capturing the maximum amount of that value for yourself. Here’s the truth about coaching or consulting fees… Most coaches and consultants are undercharging for their services. Especially if you’re still charging hourly or daily rates. In this podcast, we’re going to break down the 4 steps to increasing your coaching or consulting fees.

The use of video has become a necessity to stay connected. Video is intimately attached to everything we do. Especially post the pandemic, it’s how we see our relatives, attend school, meet up with friends, and conduct business meetings, acting as a portal to other people, places, and things. Videos might seem hard at first, but like any new skill, there will be a learning curve until you find your rhythm. In this podcast, we look at a few tips to help you create a video you are proud of. Keep it simpleWrite out a loose script.Make a plan.Apply consistency.Forget about being perfect. With 92% of marketers claiming video played an integral role in their content strategy, it’s safe to say that videos are here to stay. Do you want to learn more about how video marketing can impact your brand? Schedule a time to meet with our team today.

If there is anything that life has taught me, it’s this, Change is inevitable. But it’s not actually about the change itself, but rather what you do with it that impacts you. Amid the global pandemic, many coaches, consultants and business owners began thinking about how their organisations would need to change to support their team's health and safety. That meant altering entire infrastructures and instituting new policies and procedures while still finding a way to press on and adjust to what we call the new normal. This idea really got me thinking about how change operates and functions in our lives, especially in business. Aren’t some of the most wonderful things that happen in life due to unexpected changes? Some might not think so, but for me, it has proven to be true. I didn’t expect to be sitting here, addressing you all from my home office in Melbourne, Australia and yet, it is one of the best changes that could have happened in my life. I’d like to ask you something about how change has impacted your own life, and more importantly, your business. What moment of change forced you to adapt, alter, and create new solutions that ultimately proved to be instrumental in getting you where you are now? So much of the time we are resistant to change and the power it brings, but today I wanted to talk about a few things to help coaches, consultants and small business owners embrace the change that is coming and feel empowered and confident as you move through it to find out what you are to become.

Is Your Website Bringing In As Much Revenue As It Could? Data and analytics can help you make smarter business decisions and get your website running like a well-oiled, money-making machine! What you measure usually gets paid attention to, and what you pay attention to, usually gets better. But are we measuring the right things? Many coaches, consultants and small to medium businesses know it’s wise to track their website analytics. However, if you’ve ever looked at a Google Analytics console, you know that it can be incredibly confusing! With so many different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track, it’s a challenge to know exactly what components are important to track, and how they impact your business’s marketing efforts. At Livelong Digital, we encourage our clients to simplify their marketing whenever possible. The more in the weeds you get with analytics tracking, the less likely you are to: Follow through with continuous tracking.Take actionable steps to respond to your data in a positive, impactful way. Let’s dig into a handful of KPIs that I believe are worthwhile to pay attention to when it comes to your website and blog analytics, and what to do with the information you’re gathering.

As a small business owner, you know that content marketing is a great way to attract new leads and nurture current relationships. But what you may not know is how to use content marketing to positively impact all of your relationships - both current and prospective. In this Podcast, Digital marketing expert and content marketing strategist, Prosper Taruvinga, will show you how to use content marketing to build trust, establish credibility, and create a deeper connection with your clients, customers, and referral sources. You'll learn how to create content that not only educates and informs but also inspires and motivates your audience to take action. And you'll see how content marketing can be used to create relationships that last - ones that are based on trust, respect, and referrals.

In this podcast, we're talking about marketing funnels. You've probably heard of the term before, but what is a marketing funnel, and how can you use one to build a sustainable business? We'll walk you through the basics of what a marketing funnel is and how to create one that will work for your service-based business.We'll also touch on some common touch points that you'll find in a marketing funnel, as well as how to create content that will nurture your leads and move them through your funnel. Focusing on ways to raise awareness, and nurture prospective clients before they express commitment, is the key to expanding your prospective client pool and ultimately increasing revenue. Need help creating a funnel and the content to engage with your clients at the top of your funnel? Schedule a call with us today! Our team would love to walk you through how to raise awareness.

Embrace content collaboration and leverage other audiences Learn how to collaborate with other professionals to scale your content creation. In this podcast, I'll teach you How to identify opportunities to collaborate,how to approach potential collaborators, andhow to negotiate terms that work for both parties. I'll also share some of my own experiences collaborating with other content creators, and offer some tips for making the most of a collaborative relationship. By the end of this podcast, you'll have a better understanding of how to collaborate with other professionals to scale your content creation.

New coaches, consultants and business owners should try to DIY their marketing If you're just getting started as a coach or consultant, you may be wondering if you should do your own marketing or hire someone to do it for you. In this podcast, I explain why I believe that newbie coaches and consultants should do their own marketing, at least at first. It's all about authenticity and learning your target market. I have a big opinion that’s not always a popular one: I viscerally believe that new coaches, consultants and business owners should try to DIY their marketing – at least through their first year. Already, I hear audience members scoffing. I told you – it’s not a popular opinion! There seems to be an overwhelming amount of talks available that insist that new business owners should start outsourcing things that aren’t client-facing, or sales, ASAP. And, as an outsourced digital marketing provider, I totally get it. I see the benefit in outsourcing your marketing, and any number of other tasks in your business. I’m the first person to grab the megaphone to tell overwhelmed and burnt-out business owners to start figuring out what tasks can be outsourced – and to start hiring professionals to handle those services right away. That being said, I think there are huge benefits to new coaches, consultants and small business owners to DIY-ing their marketing. Let’s talk about the top three reasons I think that new business owners should DIY their marketing, and how it could positively impact your business.

Create interactions that drive results. Too often coaches, consultants and small businesses today think about customers in terms of their segment – are they B2B or B2C? But is this really the way forward if we want to create interactions that drive results? Human-to-human marketing (H2H) is the best way to stand out in the competitive market today. Modern marketing can sometimes feel like a big contradiction; people want the latest tech and experiences that marketing automation can create, but they also crave personalisation and human interaction. How are you supposed to meet both these demands? To create strong relationships with your audience it’s vital you remember your audience is human first and a customer second. People want to interact with people.People will engage with real people. Especially when you’re operating within the B2B sector, never forget that companies are made up of humans. Yes, you want to fulfil the business need, but the buying and selling process is human. What is human-to-human marketing? Human-to-human (H2H) marketing is a human-centric approach to marketing. This is the model on which responsible marketing is based. It’s about meeting the customer’s needs while demonstrating that you’re human and trustworthy. Relationships between businesses, customers, and prospects should be based on long-term trust and respect. The benefit of this marketing tactic is clear: it ensures that your marketing strategy delivers the best possible results.

What to Do Alongside Digital Marketing for Faster Results Digital marketing is amazing for many reasons, and as a coach, consultant and small business owner it’s especially useful to you. Building an honest brand with bold content, email and social media marketing strategies helps you to solidify who you are, who you serve, and the incredible value you have to offer. Whether you’re blogging, writing ebooks, building email marketing funnels, or engaging with prospects on social media, content marketing helps you to: Tell your story.Connect with clients who you genuinely want to work with.Immediately add value to the lives of your clients with educational content.Improve your SEO.Solidify your brand.Build your credibility as a coach, consultant or small business owner. As useful as digital marketing is, I in no way think that it’s the only marketing solution. In fact, I think the more you can create a cohesive strategy using multiple marketing methods, the more success you’ll have. And you know what? I firmly believe it’s possible to shake things up without spending a ton of time or money on a strategy. Let’s talk about what you can do to break out of your marketing rut (and take a break from creating content for content's sake).

Beware of the Overnight Success Story Want to know which digital marketing metrics actually matter (and which ones are just vanity metrics)? In this podcast, I'm going to show you the 3 digital marketing metrics that you should be measuring (and why), as well as the 3 digital marketing metrics that you shouldn't waste your time on. By the end of this podcast, you'll know exactly which digital marketing metrics you should be tracking in order to get real results from your digital marketing efforts. Keep in mind – blogging, podcasting and content creation is a long-term marketing strategy. I know that it’s tempting to look for overnight success results, but you’re better off staying consistent, and watching for positive data trends over time while watching your metrics change. In today’s world, it’s so easy to get caught up in the possibility of having tens of thousands of followers or seeing a blog post go viral. But true success is defined by doing good work, and a successful business blog is defined by putting out valuable content that will resonate with your audience. Continue to focus on doing the good work you’re already doing so much of, and track these KPIs to check that you’re on the right course!

Why Bother? As a coach or consultant, one of the best ways you can serve your audience and grow your business is by creating consistent content. But what's the point of creating content if no one will see it? In this podcast, I'll share with you the three main reasons why you need to be creating consistent content, even if you're just starting out. Blogging, podcasting and content marketing have a lot of benefits. It helps with your site’s SEO, frames you as an expert, gives you space to educate, and gives you content to use when marketing and growing a pipeline of prospects. Those things are all critical. But the truth is that you get to decide what the point of blogging is for your business. Stay focused on your why, and let excellent content fall into place. Let's dig in.

You only really need two productivity tools on your side: batching and scheduling. Being busy as a business owner is glorified, but it's actually a sign of lack of organisation. If you want to be successful, learn to batch your work and schedule your time. This will help you be more productive and organised, and will prevent you from burning out. Dear Internet Explorer, If you're reading this, chances are you're familiar with the feeling of being constantly busy. As a business owner, you wear many hats and are responsible for a lot of different things. It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of running a business and to feel like you have to be busy all the time in order to be successful. But I'm here to tell you that it's okay to slow down. It's okay to take a break. In fact, it might even be good for business. Glorifying being busy sends the message that burnout is acceptable, even desirable. But it's not. Burnout is real and it's detrimental. Stop glorifying being “busy” as a business owner. The goal shouldn’t be to do busy work because as a business owner you have to “wear all the hats.” With time batching and scheduling tools, you can automate many of your processes, freeing up some time to be “busy” with things that matter – like reaching out to prospective clients and completing more income-earning assignments. Letting go of the need to micromanage in-the-moment posting and realising that you’ll work faster if you block out time for specific tasks is life-changing!

Why Engagement Matters If you're a coach, consultant or small business owner, engagement should be a key component of your marketing plan. Why? Because online engagement creates social proof, which can help you attract more clients and grow your business. In this podcast, you'll learn how to respond to comments and build a community around your brand. Putting engagement and content marketing response on the back burner is a mistake because people respond better to you when they see you’re engaging. And that doesn’t just go for the person who initiated the interaction. If 20 people have commented on an article you shared on Facebook and you haven’t liked or replied to any of their comments, the person who is just exploring your page will make note of that. They’ll see that you don’t respond to your following – that you aren’t regularly engaged with them. This doesn’t reflect positively on you or your business. Press play and find out Why People Respond to Engagement

Repeat After Me: I Am My Brand Being yourself sets you apart from the competition. When you're authentic, you build trust with potential clients and create a strong personal brand. In this Podcast, I'll share why it's so important to be yourself in business and how to find your authentic voice. As a coach, consultant or small business owner, there is a temptation to over-professionalise yourself and your business. But that isn’t really what people are looking for in a service provider anymore. Of course, professionalism will always be important. Nobody is going to want to pay someone to help steer their life, health, financial decisions or manage their investments if that someone shows up to their initial meeting in basketball shorts and a ball cap. However, with so many apps on the market today, people will turn to you because of who you are. They’re actively seeking to personally connect with their advisor. If they weren’t, they’d hunt down a chat-bot to sign on with and call it a day. So, what are the benefits of embracing your personality as a professional? And how can you let it shine through your work to attract clients? Press play.

Creating Intentional Content I'm seeing a lot of content marketing panic these days. And it's not helping anyone. If you're a coach, consultant, or small business owner who wants to use content marketing to generate leads, you need to be intentional about the content you create. In this Podcast, I'm sharing why content marketing is important and how you can create content that is relevant and needed by your ideal clients. I'm also sharing one type of content that is guaranteed to produce results. So, let’s ditch the content marketing panic that doesn’t produce results. Instead, let’s get intentional. Press play to learn more!

Why are your competitors blogging? In this podcast, I'm talking about why you should blog if you're a coach, consultant, or small business owner. As a business owner, you always need to be thinking about lead generation and content marketing, and a blog is a great way to do both. A blog gives you a platform to share your expertise and build trust with potential clients, and it also allows you to rank in Google and get found by people who are looking for what you do. If you're not sure where to start, or if you're just looking for some tips on how to blog effectively, be sure to check out this podcast. I’m always here to help. If you have any questions about blogging, or know you want to get started but need help getting the ball rolling, reach out to me! I’d love to hear from you.

Are you Linked in? As a business owner, you know that promotion is key to success. And LinkedIn is a great platform to promote yourself and your business. But how do you get started? In this podcast, we'll show you how to promote yourself on LinkedIn, so you can start generating leads, sales, and thought leadership. I get really excited when I start talking to people about promoting themselves on LinkedIn, and for good reason. Why? While all social media channels are excellent tools to help define your personal brand and promote your professional self, LinkedIn is the godfather platform you need to be using. By maximising your LinkedIn use, you’re effectively building a personal site, blog, professional network, portfolio, list of references, and so much more. LinkedIn’s platform is set up to automatically act as your own professional billboard, which is what you want if you’re going to invest your time and energy into growing your social media presence for professional growth. Unfortunately, LinkedIn is often underused by business professionals who could reap the most rewards from its endless list of benefits. It’s a tough fact to face, but if you’re busy with your job, career, side hustle, or whatever you’re passionately investing your time in, you often don’t have the kind of time required to create the ideal LinkedIn presence. Luckily, I’ve put together a quick list of ways to immediately upgrade your profile from “meh, it exists” to “this business professional is clearly the influencer in their field.”

Let’s Talk About Your Branding. There’s a time for a change. Maybe it’s right now, perhaps it’s in five years. The beautiful thing about branding is that it doesn’t have to stay static or grow stale. Your brand can change as you do, so don’t fear embracing those times when you feel like your business brand no longer matches who you are and what you do. Change isn’t a bad thing, sometimes a new take on your brand can completely rejuvenate your business and your passion for what you do. Business branding. It’s a hot topic now that seems to have about a thousand definitions. Developing your personal brand can feel intimidating if you don’t know where to start (or if you think you know where to start but become overwhelmed with the options). Don’t worry, I’m here to clarify some things and show you how to make branding work for you. Let’s jump in!

You’re Inevitably Going to Lose Leads. If you're a coach, consultant, or small business owner, there's a good chance you have holes in your marketing funnel. In this podcast, I'm going to show you how to find them and how to fix them. First, let's define what a marketing funnel is. A marketing funnel is the process that you take a potential customer through from the time they first hear about you until they become a paying customer. There are a few different ways to look at marketing funnels, but for our purposes, we're going to use the AIDA model. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. The Attention phase is when a potential customer first becomes aware of you and develops interest in your services. The goal of fixing your funnel should not be to convert every single person who enters it. Instead, it should be to provide opportunities for qualified leads to stay in your funnel long enough so that they eventually convert. Ready to start fixing the holes in your funnel? Let’s dig in.

Why do entrepreneurs often forego creating a marketing budget? Coaches, consultants, and small business owners need to think carefully about how they're going to invest their limited resources, and a budget is a helpful way to keep track of where those resources are going. However, many entrepreneurs don't create a budget for their marketing efforts, instead opting to wing it and hope for the best. There are a few reasons why this might be the case. First, marketing can be a complex and overwhelming endeavour, particularly for those who are just starting out. It can be difficult to know where to allocate your resources when you're not sure what's going to work, and what's a waste of time.Second, budgets can be constraining. Do you have a defined marketing budget for your small business?

Difference Between Sales and Marketing If you're in sales or marketing, or if you're a small business owner, it's important to understand the difference between sales and marketing. Many people use the terms interchangeably, but they are two very different things. Sales is the process of convincing someone to buy a product or service, while marketing is the process of creating awareness and interest in a product or service. Marketing is what you do to get people interested in your product or service, and sales is what you do to close the deal. I hope this tip helps you to plan out what you’re going to do with your marketing and where you’re going to invest your time and money to grow your business. Come back in the next episode where I’m going to talk about not having a budget. That’s another common mistake that entrepreneurs make!

Customer Experience is everything today. So many coaches, consultants and small business owners are focused on the changes in marketing and all the new things we have to master and pay attention to. The fact is the most significant driver of change today isn’t the way marketing is changing, it’s the way buying is changing. If the customer is indeed now in charge of their buying journey, and I believe this is true, then the most important marketing element still left in our control is the customer experience (Cx) – the way in which prospects and customers experience every aspect of our business. May I be as bold as to suggest that Customer Experience is everything today? Now, I realise if I’m going to suggest something so far-reaching and universal, I’m also going to have to help you expand your vision of what customer experience is. See, for any business, the customer is experiencing your business long before you are even aware of their need or interest. The question is, have you considered the impact of every marketing decision in this light? Even Google rewards you Many people ask me how to get better rankings on Google, and while I may give more technical answers at times, the simple answer is to create a better customer experience. Google’s objective, when it comes to search is and always has been to reward businesses that create the best, most relevant, and most useful content and make it easy for people to find and consume that content. The only thing that’s changed is Google’s ability to understand what content does just that. Let's explore the customer experience...

What you need is a client generation system. If you have not been lying under a rock, you will notice that a lot of marketing is set on complex automated lead funnels. Go on Facebook, and you’ll likely be hit with ads offering to show you how to make it rain thousands of leads on autopilot. While I’m not opposed to teaching lead generation techniques, I do think there is an issue with just thinking about the lead funnel as a standalone. After all, you don’t just want leads—you want new and returning customers on a consistent basis. What you need is a client generation system. I work with a lot of coaches, independent marketing consultants and service professionals, and most of them simply want to work with about ten of the right clients at any given time. So let’s do some maths. Let’s say you have four clients right now, and you would like to get six more. The typical consultant acquires new clients by attracting a lead that wants to meet and learn about how you might help them. Let’s say one in four of those meetings turns into a client. (That’s terribly low for the approach we teach, but I’ll use it to be conservative.) With the math above it will take you 24 sales meetings to get the additional six clients needed to fill your practice and meet your revenue objectives. So, in building a lead generation and conversion system, there are two primary questions. What does it take to get a consistent flow of appointments andhow can you convert more appointments to clients? Build a system that does that, and you won’t need to worry about all the lever-pulling elements and moving parts in most lead funnels today.

Best Use of Content to Generate a Steady Flow of Leads Are you just creating content for content's sake? If you're constantly churning out blog posts, ebooks, and other pieces of content but not seeing any results, then it's time to take a step back and re-evaluate your strategy. In this podcast, learn why creating content for content's sake is a recipe for disaster, and how you can create content that actually provides value to your audience. If you are tired of hearing you must produce content to compete in your industry today, I have good news and bad news. As content continues to grow in importance in the marketing mix, it must take on an elevated place in your strategy and planning. The use of high-quality, education-based content has become an essential ingredient in creating awareness, building trust, converting leads, serving customers and generating referrals. I’ve said this many times over the last few years, but marketers these days have a lot in common with publishers and it’s time to embrace this reality fully – content is air Now for the good news – you don’t need as much content as you think. The days of pumping out thin blog posts day after day are over. If you are a coach, consultant or small business owner, here’s all you need to do. Consider writing just six blog posts for the rest of this year, but put a month’s worth of blood, sweat, and tears into each one. Deal? Below is the complete system that I talk about in this podcast for turning content into leads. Here’s the system in 3 steps Create a list of just 6 of the most useful content ideas for your ideal customerBuild a lead-generating content upgrade for each pieceStart promoting each piece in advertising and social media That’s it – execute on this over the next six months, and you’ll start generating leads.

7 Non-Negotiable Elements of Every Small Business Website Get these “must-have elements” on your website. Do you know the purpose of your website? Before I can talk about the necessary elements of your website specifically, I need to address the purpose of a website. Gone are the days of your websites just being a glorified digital brochure for your coaching, consulting or small business. A website now has many jobs including : Getting found on Search Engines – The website should be optimised for search to help you get found online.Build trust – Your website is a key element to building trust. Once a prospect arrives at your website, it needs to validate the problems that they are looking to solve. Your website needs to function the way your customers need it to and expect it to.Educate Your Audience – Your website should teach people how to recognise their problems and challenges that are keeping them up at night.Inform – Once a prospect has found you and trusts you, you need to inform them on how you can solve their problems.Nurture – Often people need to come back to your website numerous times before making a purchase. Capture their email address and continue to create valuable content that is relevant to their stage in the customer journey to nurture them through to the sale.Convert – A conversion can be many things from subscribing to a newsletter, to calling you, to making a purchase on your website. Conversion opportunities need to be an element of the design of your homepage to help guide the journey. In today’s world, your customer’s journey starts by researching online. People come to a conclusion on their own whether they are interested in buying from you far before you even realise you are being looked at. You need to make sure you have a presence in these early research stages, and completing each of the jobs above will help you do that. There you have it, my comprehensive list of website must-haves. Today’s assignment: Use this to make an assessment of the missing elements on your homepage right now and create a plan to fix this! Tomorrow we tackle your content plan – it’s how you generate leads today, but don’t worry, I’m going to make it super easy for you! Need more tips on how to grow your business? Check out our entire Guide to Marketing Professional Services.

Refocus your message Matching your message to your ideal client is pretty much everything when it comes to marketing these days. Think about you – you’ve got about five seconds to get and keep someone’s attention, and you can’t waste that precious time with a message that doesn’t connect. A message that connects is one that clearly talks about what your ideal client wants more than anything else in the world – and what is that? They want to solve their problems. In many ways, they will never care about your awesome plan to do XY and Z if you don’t first and foremost let them know that you understand what they really, really want. Hint: Nobody really, really wants what you sell – they want their problems solved – period. So, for today, here’s your assignment. Make a list of the problems you solve for the clients you help the most. If you’re having trouble thinking about your client’s problems, think a bit about the things they tell you. (Some might call it the things they whine about – I would never, but some might.) For example, a lot of my prospective clients might say things like – I just want the phone to ring more. So I don’t sell marketing services or SEO or even consulting – all you need to know about what I do is that I make the phone ring – end of story. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s (episode 4) podcast where we will take the “must-have” elements for every website (Hint: You’re going to want to know the answers to the two questions just above in your assignment.)

The Online Prosperity Experience Prosper Taruvinga’s powerful Digital Marketing Strategies and actionable tactics, that you can use right now have helped more than 50 000 people from over 10 countries to create meaningful businesses that are profitable and enjoyable. Are you looking for more customers? Are you looking to take your business to the next level, develop stronger relationships with your employees, clients or suppliers, improve your finances or get people liking you before you try to sell them something? The Online Prosperity Experience gives you access to Prosper’s proven Online Prosperity Blueprint. This is a 4 Step Marketing Strategy designed to help you accomplish your goals. Whether you’re looking for insight into how to build a bigger business or position yourself as the go-to person in your category, you have access to all the tactics used by celebrities like David Hughes as well as (literally) over 450 small businesses and counting. With an extensive selection of episodes featuring insightful lessons from Prosper, interviews with some of the most successful people in the world and never-before-released audio content from deep within the archives, you’ll find you can learn a great deal while listening during your morning commute or daily workout. As Prosper says, “I am the guy you call when you are tired of thinking small” Get started today by choosing an episode that resonates with where you are right now and enables you to take your business to the next level.

Are you on track to reach your content marketing goals this year? If not, don't worry - you're not alone. In this podcast, we'll share some of the most common content marketing mistakes that can derail your success, and how to avoid them. We'll also give you some actionable tips that you can use to get back on track and reach your goals. So if you're struggling to meet your content marketing goals, this podcast is for you. Together we’ll “Restart, Recharge and Revive” your marketing right now instead of waiting until another year rolls around. You in? If so, just make it a point to come back to The Online Prosperity Experience Podcast and take in the new lesson. I believe there’s still plenty of time to make this year your best year yet and what better time to start than right now.

6 Tips for Creating a Powerful Brand Experience Your customer’s experience with your brand determines the actions they’ll take—whether they’ll become lifelong customers, loyalists or a lost sale. A world-class brand experience, from start to finish, is essential when it comes to accelerating the growth of your brand. What is brand experience? In general terms, brand experience is the overall impression your audience receives when interacting with your brand. The way your brand looks, smells, sounds, tastes and feels plays a role in every experience, whether your audience is interacting with your brand on the web or in person. Every customer touchpoint is an opportunity to create a more meaningful, authentic and consistent brand experience. Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness or perceived value, or you need to increase sales or customer loyalty, it all comes down to creating an effective brand experience for your customers. Creating a compelling brand experience is the most effective way to generate customer loyalty and promote ongoing growth for your brand. Whether you’re actively rebranding or you’re looking to improve your brand experience across several touchpoints, it helps to have a branding partner on your side. Say hello to Livelong Digital! We’ll help you form a positive brand experience for every customer, every time.