We all know that testimonials are a crucial part to a functioning business. Unfortunately, many of us are met with fear and anxiety just from the thought of having to ask clients for testimonials/feedback.

“What if I’m actually not doing a good enough job to warrant a great testimonial?”

Thinking of actually bringing it up to your clients almost makes you want to run away or barf (or both). It can even seem like a super awkward conversation, like you’re saying, “Hey, I know we’ve working together for a while, and I think I’ve been doing a great job, but can you just confirm that by writing a testimonial that will potentially be shared with thousands of people depending on how good it is?”

Okay, so you won’t actually say it that way, but it can seem like it! So today, we’re going to walk you through how you can put this task on autopilot so that you can avoid the testimonial-asking anxiety. Or if you’re just simply the worst at remembering to ask for them, these tips are also for you!

We all aim to shoot for those killer client and customer testimonials, the ones that you’re so so proud to display on every outlet possible. And why wouldn’t you be? 87% of consumers place as much trust in reviews as they would word-to-mouth, and 90% of consumers want to read between 5-10 reviews before gaining trust in a brand.

That places a LOT of pressure on us as creatives to give our people the best experience possible when working with us so that we can have another awesome testimonial to add to the pot. After all, birds of a feather flock together and when you wow one dreamy client, another is bound to follow soon after.

But what if we told you that there’s no need to feel so pressured? That there are actually a ton of simple actions you can take to get raving client testimonials and wow your customers?

It’s been over three years (really, close to four) since we launched The Strategy Hour Podcast. Since then, we’ve made the ranks of Apple’s Top 30 Business Management Podcasts, have been featured in multiple blog posts about business-related podcasts, have had X total downloads on Apple Podcasts alone, and we’re coming up hot on the heels our 500th episode (that’s a lot of freakin’ recording time!).

And while we’re so grateful that our podcast took off the way it did and has influenced thousands of lives and launching it was a blast, in no way has it always been easy. So, today, we’re going to be pulling back the curtain on how we launched our podcast, the challenges we faced, all of the hustle we put in to launch, how we plan and upload new episodes, the whole 9.

If the idea of launching a podcast has been tossing and turning in your brain, our totally candid and honest experience will hopefully help you determine whether this is the right next move in your business journey!

“Do I need a website to use Dubsado?”

“How will I be able to use it for all the things I need to launch my business?”

We get these questions tons. The short answers are no, you absolutely do not need a website in order to make Dubsado work for you. And yes, you will be able to use it for every aspect of your launch and beyond. In fact, Dubsado could actually completely replace your website.

Evenmoreso, although Dubsado is a CRM, it can serve the same purposes as many other softwares, especially for someone who might be new to being in business and doesn’t have the extra income right now to invest in other tools.

So, keep reading if you want to deep dive into all things Dubsado, how to use it if you don’t have a website, how to use it to launch your business, and how to bypass the headache and set it up in just one or two days.

The Instagram algorithm, A.K.A. this seemingly mythical being that’s confusing the heck out of tons of people. You may see it talked about a lot either by Instagram gurus or in Facebook groups, but one piece of information that seems to get left out is what it is and how it even works.

We’re all aware that a few years ago, Instagram stopped showing posts in users’ home feed by chronological order, so now it almost feels more like a popularity contest. (We miss those simpler times!)

Everyone is scrambling around searching for information on how to beat this beast, so we pulled together a list of our top tips for making Instagram’s algorithm your very best friend.

There’s no worse feeling than pouring your heart and soul into a graphic you’ve made in Canva that you’re so proud of, only to see that it ends up blurry and overall just crappy quality when you upload it to your website or social media channels.

You try again to no avail. Still blurry. Still suck-y.

So, why are your Canva images blurry, and what can you do to fix it?

We’re here to walk you through how to make sure your creations look clean and crisp every time (and don’t worry, we tried to limit the language to normal-person speak).

Conversion rates. Analytics. Measuring growth. Lifetime value. There are so many business buzzwords that get thrown around that can feel really intimidating to the average creative business owner.

However, knowing this information is super crucial to your profits, your growth and the decisions you make every single day in your business.

Keeping track of your business’ numbers allows you to make strategic decisions instead of just saying, “Well, I feel like this is going well, so I’m going to keep doing it” or “I feel like this new thing could really help, so I’m going to try it.”

Honestly? We’d rather make business decisions rooted in facts and data instead of basing everything soley of feelings. We love us a good “gut instinct” and we like to back it up with cold hard facts.

Knowing how much weight a product or service is pulling for you or if it’s time to let it go, the rate of growth across all of your channels, and your overall progress is so important in order to plan and set goals realistically in your business, both short and long term.

So how do you find this information (or sexy math as we like to call it)? Where do you begin?

It all starts with your analytics.

Hosting webinars is a super fun way to engage with your audience, pitch your product or service and add amazing value. But there’s also a lot to think about!

It can be both crazy-exciting and super duper scary to host a live webinar. There are probably tons of thoughts and what-ifs floating around in your cute little brain.

“What if I forget what I want to say?”

“What if no one thinks what I’m talking about is interesting?”

“What if…?”

These are totally normal fears to have, especially if you’re someone who was scared to ever even show your face in a video, let alone host a live webinar for a group of people. This is a big step to take in your business, and we applaud you for coming this far.

We’ve hosted countless webinars (literally.. we lost track somewhere around 50), so we’ve picked up a few tips along the way that we’d love to share with you. Stick around for the end because we have a treat that will help you knock your first webinar out of the park!

What do we actually do with information overload? When it comes to making plans for your small business you’ve got ideas and game plans out the wahzoo.

You see a shiny new course from this A-list business strategist and you just have to buy it, or maybe your favorite influencer has just released another free resource, so you rush to download it. Perhaps you’ve spent hours scrolling through Pinterest and saving tons of Pins that look interesting. Or you’ve just finished watching yet another webinar about a new thing you think could help, and you’ve filled a page or two with notes.

Can we get real with you for a second?

All of those countless courses, freebies, saved Pins, and webinar notes don’t mean a darn thing if you aren’t going to actually start doing something with them.

Sure, “knowledge is power”, but we’d like to think you don’t have much power if that knowledge isn’t being applied or even retained because you forget about it the next day when a new shiny squirrel catches your attention.

So, what do you do with a strategy once you’ve learned it besides just letting it sit in your virtual cupboard to collect dust?
These actionable steps will help you to figure out your own actionable steps when wanting to implement a new strategy. And if you have no idea what you even want to implement, stick around for a surprise at the end!