Top Business Podcast • over 4 million downloads • 900+ episodes

The Strategy Hour Podcast

with abagail pumphrey

Recognized by INC and Forbes as one of the best podcasts for entrepreneurs, join our twice-weekly show as we share business strategies, interviews, and actionable advice for building an online business your way.

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Our Episodes

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Embracing the Lifestyle Brand We've Become

Today on the podcast, we’re doing things a little differently. We are going to have an actual conversation about how our business is going to evolve after we were hit with some crazy new perspectives. Spoiler alert! We have an agent now, which is super weird! We brought her on to help us deal with sponsor requests for the podcast and land us some opportunities that really fit and say no to opportunities that don’t. It takes an entirely different set of skills that we simply do not possess, and so we brought her on to give it a try.

So there you have it; we have an agent now! We were having a conversation with her to figure out who to say yes to and who to turn down as sponsors. We were kind of struggling with it because as a business focused on strategies we were thinking more along the lines of software and tools. But turns out, without even knowing it, according to our agent we are actually a lifestyle brand! What?! We had to take a step back and have a serious conversation because a B2B “business” brand is a whole different thing from being a B2B “lifestyle” brand. So stay tuned as we unpack what it means to embrace the lifestyle brand and truly focus on evolving our business to be who we are at the core.

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Finding Your Authentic Voice with Tara Bosler of T. Bosler Writing

Today we are joined by Tara Bosler of T. Bosler Writing. She is a copywriter, y’all, for creatives just like you. We are super excited for you to learn from Tara and we want you to have your ears perked up because there’s a funny noise in this audio that we are not going to cut out and we want you to try to guess what it is before she tells us. Because to me, it doesn’t sound anything like what it actually is. Suspenseful!

Inside this episode, we are talking about how to be authentic in your writing and how to use your conversations with not only your friends, but also your clients, as intel to use on the things that you spit out into the world. We are talking about whether or not it’s okay to be grammatically incorrect and we get into some details about how to hire a copywriter. We know this sounds simple, but Tara breaks it down to make it even better for you inside your business. We can’t wait for you to jump in and start writing some copy, and we are super excited for you to listen to this episode!

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Becoming the Face of Your Business Through Brand Photography with Mallika Malhotra of MikiFoto

Have you been aiming to become the face of your business, but just not sure how exactly to do it? Well, you are in luck! In this episode we have our friend Mallika from MikiFoto with us and that is precisely what she is coming on to share with you guys today. We got to meet Mallika last year at The Savvy Experience and have loved watching as she shifted her business to do more lifestyle branded headshots and photography for small businesses and creative entrepreneurs.

In our chat with Mallika, we jump into the importance of being the face of your business, exactly what you should be doing to find the right photographer for you, how to prepare for your shoot, what to wear, and how to make these photos last longer than three months. We also get into the most important shots you need for your business so that you can take away from this photo session exactly what you need to prosper online. We are super excited for you to listen more, because she’s legit, guys. So get excited!

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Curating A Profitable Lifestyle Brand with Melissa Johnson

We hope you have some pink on, because we have Melissa Johnson of Best Friends for Frosting on the podcast today. This woman is bubbly and sparkly, and she loves all things sugarcoated and confetti covered. Melissa started her blog after realizing the earning potential of the industry, and found herself best-suited to the role of creative director of this lifestyle business. With Melissa, you will get a peek inside a successful lifestyle brand. We’re talking four straight years of making six figures! She doesn’t mess around. She is working on sponsor content, surveying her audience, expanding her team, and we’re talking about all those things in today’s episode.

For those of you who think that a money generating lifestyle blog or brand is out of your reach, we would love for you to sit down and give this one a listen and maybe learn that with some strategy and the right tools, you can actually make it happen.

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Becoming an Instagram Influencer (Even with a Small Following)

Today on the podcast we get to chat with Lauren Taylor of Letter Magazine — and she is such a sweetheart! We have known her for almost a year now, and have been following her and everything she does with her magazine. We are absolutely thrilled to see her growth and all of the amazing accomplishments she has had in such a short time. We dive into the super sexy topic of becoming an Instagram influencer. We get a ton of questions about this from many people wanting to incorporate being an influencer into their brands.

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What You Call Yourself Matters: If You're a Creative Small Business Serving B2B You're Missing This Shift

There’s a problem that we’re seeing in this space and it’s causing people to miss massive opportunities! You’re losing out on revenue and you’re losing out on tapping into familiar industry terms, and so much of this can be solved by simply re-labeling who you are to become well-known to the rest of the world. For years, small business owners, especially those in the creative space, have continued to label themselves as such. “I’m a small business owner”, “I run a small creative business”, “I’m a creative entrepreneur”, we’ve seen these terms run rampant.

But the thing that is missing right now in this space is that you are not utilizing terms that the rest of the world recognizes and already uses and, because of that, you’re missing out on business. If you have previously identified as a creative small business owner, especially those of you who are running a B2B service-based business helping other small businesses, we have an uplevel for you. We can change the game!

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Why Your Business Needs a Brand Strategy with Rachel Green

On the Strategy Hour Podcast today, we are joined by the wonderful and amazing Rachel Green! She is one of the first people we connected with when we were starting out in the online business world and she has been in business for the last seven years, helping hundreds of businesses grow and succeed. As a brand strategist, designer and educator, Rachel has generated over 5 million dollars in sales for her clients and her focus on empowering female business owners is truly inspiring!

In this episode, we are breaking down what a brand strategy is, why it is important to start there and the questions that you need to ask when figuring this all out. Rachel offers some great thoughts to work through in order to help you make sure your story and brand are pushing you forward. She is all about progression, not just pretty branding and logos! We really respect Rachel's perspective on the strategic part of branding and we know you will all find it very useful. So buckle up and let's get into some strategy!

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Rebranding: How to Get What You Want and Communicate with a Designer

Today, we are so excited to have this conversation, mostly because one of our favorite things in the world is to either learn, do something, or unlock a strategy, and then, in two seconds, turn around and start talking about it! We don’t like to let things fester for too long and want our listeners to take a peek behind the curtain as quickly as possible! Some of you might have seen on Emylee’s personal Instagram (@emyleesays) or our stories @bossproject, that she just did a rebrand! It’s so different in an amazing kind of way!

Part of why Abagail loves it is because for the first time in forever, she didn’t do it herself, so it turned out nothing like it would if she had done it. It’s modern, woo, and earthy! For the first time in forever, Emylee was the client, so today, she gives some behind the scenes insights into how her rebranding process went. She talks about how long it took, what she did herself as far as preparation, the relationship she had with her amazing designer, and a whole lot more!

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Brand Marketing vs. Direct Marketing: Why Your Goal on Social Media Should Not be an Immediate Sale with Claire Diaz-Ortiz

Today our guest is Claire Diaz-Ortiz! Claire is an author, renowned speaker, and startup investor. She was an early employee at Twitter and has taken that essential expertise into her work as a consultant and authority on social media and online branding. Her books have been published in 12 countries and won many awards. She has been featured widely in both print and broadcast media. Today we are referring specifically to her latest book, Social Media Success for Every Brand and unpacking some of the lessons she has compiled in its pages.

When we say Claire is a social media genius we really mean it! In our conversation, we unpack the difference between direct marketing and brand marketing and why you should not be targeting an immediate sale on social media platforms. Claire breaks down a few common mistakes made by brands and big businesses on the various social sites we all use and shares some very easy and quick strategies you can start implementing today to get things going!

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Why Your Business Needs to Start with a Brand Strategy with Rachel Green

On the Strategy Hour Podcast today, we are joined by the wonderful and amazing Rachel Green! She is one of the first people we connected with when we were starting out in the online business world. She has been in business for the last seven years, helping hundreds of businesses grow and succeed. As a brand strategist, designer and educator, Rachel has generated over 5 million dollars in sales for her clients and her focus on empowering female business owners is truly inspiring!

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Design & Branding Tips for the Non-Designer

In the creative entrepreneur world, there are so many talents and you guys are doing great! But the one thing we’re seeing, and we’ve done the same thing, is that design work sometimes falls a little short. You might be a photographer, fine artist or wedding planner but do not necessarily have the expertise when it comes to your branding — that’s a set of skills entirely on its own. It could be an email header, a social media announcement or an infographic you need to whip up, and it’s not as easy as it looks. Graphic designers are trained to know what works and have a sharp eye to identify off-balance designs, but we regular folk don’t have that same skill.

So, today Emylee gets to direct questions at Abagail who, as you all know, is a kick-ass designer. Wearing her designer hat, she will advise you about representing your brand in the most professional manner even though you lack professional skills. As much as we focus on teaching you guys about increasing profit, the way you show your brand to the world can be a make or break aspect. The bottom line is this: when you use the same styles, colors and fonts consistently, you become recognized as a brand, and that is your goal.

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Top Tips to Be a Better Communicator and Add Humanity to Your Brand with Alexis Teichmiller

This week on the Strategy Hour, we welcome a great friend of ours. Alexis Teichmiller is here on the show for the first time, which is kind of weird and surprising! We have known each other for over 3 years and we are super happy to have her, finally! Alexis is currently in Texas, although Illinois is definitely her home, and she works at ConvertKit where she creates, explores and inspires entrepreneurs through her position as the manager of ConvertKit's affiliate program. She loves building relationships with influential creators and got in the game as an online entrepreneur and blogger herself! So she knows the game and its frustrations. She wants to help bloggers find the right fit at ConvertKit and how they can be more human in the communication and branding!

In this episode, Alexis gives us some great tangible action steps. The script she offers can easily be used to do what she does and we guarantee you will see some great results! We can all improve our communication with all those who are close to us; this means partners, friends, family and those we work with. Alexis also shares two amazing tactics that ConvertKit has adopted as a company which are a bit scary but pretty revolutionary! There are a bunch of cool takeaways for your business, as well as some book and podcast recommendations that we know y'all are going to love! We are so excited to be talking about the human element to business and how you can show up as vulnerable, relatable, real and strong all at the same time!

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Why Creating Community is Crucial for Your Brand and Happiness with Jordan Ellis

Today we are joined by our great friend, Jordan Ellis, from Jordanené Clothing and she is here to talk about the importance of building a community in the success and longevity of your business. Jordan is also speaking at our upcoming event, The Product Powerhouse Summit, which we know you are not going to want to miss! It is going to be incredible with over 25 speakers in 3 days. So go sign up right now, it is free! Today’s chat is kind of like a trailer to that and she will be giving some insight into the idea of creating community in your business’ particular niche and the benefits that can come from this.

Jordan has been around our community since day zero and is part of our ride or die community, the exact thing that she wants to help you build. We will be talking about her journey with this and she even credits the TCC community with helping her learn the importance of connecting with people, her customers and peers! For Jordan, this means her mailing list, repeat customers, getting feedback, and much more. All these great tactics and strategies have helped her grow to where she is now with her product based business and you can even start to apply some of these ideas to your business, no matter if you are service based or are selling products. So come on, let’s get into it!

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How to Run an Effective Photo Shoot For Your Brand

Hey all of you strategists and biz queens! If you haven’t heard yet, we have been going through a big rebrand! All of of our work will now fall under the Boss Project banner. That’s right, TCC is now a thing of the past and we are onto even bigger and better things! Since we have started this process we have been getting so many questions about the new photos we have been taking and sharing sporadically. We have to admit they look amazing and we are so proud of how they have come out. We look pretty good in the them, if we don’t say so ourselves!

So today we wanted to share some tips and tricks for organizing a great shoot! After this experience we have loads of opinions and ideas to give you. In the past we mostly went pretty DIY with the process with varying degrees of success and have learned many lessons, and this time we applied a bunch of that knowledge! This was the first occasion that we went full professional and the experience was so fluid and we were so prepared! In our discussion we get into these preparations, budgeting, roles, and things to to remember. So let’s get to it!

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Lessons in Name Changes and How to Truly Run a Business That Serves First with Nathan Barry of ConvertKit

We have such a great episode for all of you today, we literally cannot wait to share it! Today on the Strategy Hour we host Nathan Barry from ConvertKit! Now it may come as a bit of surprise he is not actually here to talk about email marketing and funnels and all that good stuff that we all love him for, but rather he is going to explain the big changes that almost happened at ConvertKit this year. We say almost because for those who might not know, ConvertKit, the hugely successful and constantly growing company almost changed their name during the summer and then decided not to. So Nathan is here to give the low down on this experience, how it all transpired and the lessons he and the company took away from it.

There is so much to learn in the episode so grab whatever you need. Maybe even some tissues because it gets a little emotional! We chat about handling audience reactions, moving forward with ConvertKit, difficult conversations, the big lessons, and much more! This conversation is such a true and honest reflection on a difficult and potentially disastrous process and it is not often we all get to have such an inside scoop on a true industry leader. So without much more ado, let’s dive right in!

Woman leaning on back of chair and smiling at camera

meet your host

I don’t believe there’s one right way to build a business.

I’m your host, Abagail Pumphrey. And I’m dedicated to supporting online businesses.

I’m here to help you build business your way: one that supports not only the life you have but the life you want. I’m on a personal mission to help you become financially free.

I’m talking about all the lessons learned as I turned a layoff into a 7-figure online business. I’m here to help you prioritize your life every step of the way, whether you’re creating your first digital product, growing an email list, or scaling an already profitable business.

I want to hear your hot takes, your biggest takeaways, or the genius ideas that pop in your head as you’re listening to the show.

My DMs are always open on Instagram, so head over and introduce yourself so I can get to know you!

DM Me on Instagram

Listener Love

paigeamberbacani
Abagail, thank you SO MUCH for this fresh passion! I can hear the genuine excitement in your voice over what is working well for you right now and what you have overcome in the past! Your resilience is truly contagious and I am so grateful for the knowledge that you freely share!
GoodGood Investing
An amazing podcast! From business strategy and systemization, to motivation and inspiration, The Strategy Hour really does cover it all! We love this podcast to bits!
Genevieve0721
I wanted to reach out and let you know how much I’m enjoying your podcast. It’s truly amazing and I’ve learned so many valuable tips and insights on how to scale a business without burning out. Your content is truly awesome and I appreciate you sharing it with us listeners!
Mezar C
Your podcasts are fantastic! The latest episodes highlighing your journey from graphic design to various marketing roles is truly motivating for aspiring entrepreneuers unsure of their career paths. Awesome content!
Fabi Paolini
Love your podcast, you bring so much value to your listeners. Thank you!
Josuediazv
I really enjoyed the episode that covered the importance of building a highly engaged and motivated team to help company scale and grow. I would highly recommend this podcast to everyone interested in learning practical business strategies to start, scale, and grow a business.
Ashao FreeSky
Super valuable. Abagail provides simple and actionable advice for growing your business. Her episodes are super practical. I love how grounded and down-to-earth she is. You can tell she genuinely cares about helping. I definitely recommend giving the podcast a listen!

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Software & Services We Swear By

Meet Our Partners

The links below are affiliate links. We receive a commission (at no additional cost to you) when you purchase through these links.

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Digital Product Jumpstart

Build your list and grow your revenue at the same time!

I’ve kept these details to myself for far too long. I’m ready to spill everything and give you the exact steps that’ve helped me generate tens of thousands of qualified leads and MILLIONS in low-ticket digital product sales. I won’t just show you what I did, I’ll teach you how you can do it too.

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