Today we are here with the lovely Ashley Gartland. Ashley helps passionate creatives and driven entrepreneurs like you, who feel like they’re drowning in to-dos and just want someone to tell them where to focus to make their business work. She teaches them how to stop overcomplicating things and simplify their approach so they can make more money in their business and experience more freedom in their life.

If you haven’t listened to our episode with Rachel Hofstetter, way back in episode 003, do yourself a favor and listen to it BUT listen to this one first. They are interlinked in that they both talk about your approach to press but Ashley breaks down the first steps you need to go through. She gets into all the befores and afters of getting press for your business and she’s helping you get ready to get your business featured.

We are super excited for today’s episode with Becky Mollenkamp. Not only is Becky our friend, but she is a business mentor for women entrepreneurs. She helps them write down all those words that are stuck in their head so they can make some big changes and push forward in their businesses. Becky is also an absolute rock star at landing corporate clients and today we’re lucky enough to be getting the inside scoop from her.

Ever wonder, “How the heck do I, as a creative, get into the inboxes of corporate businesses and land those bigger projects?” Well, today Becky is sharing her tips and tricks with us. She’s also telling us how we can utilize programs like LinkedIn to up our connections, up our chances of getting in front of those people and so much more. If you’re interested in finding out more about this, keep listening to the show.

Today on the podcast we have Ashlyn Carter of Ashlyn Writes. Are you multi-passionate? Well, this boss babe is and she has grown her business as both a copywriter and a calligrapher. She took her background as a corporate agent working with corporate clients and transitioned that into her current business, working with big name clients. We are so excited for you to hear how she’s been able to keep both her knowledge from her corporate days and add that onto her creative passion with calligraphy.

Do you want to have a business that serves two different people? Today we’re going through how to navigate your homepage, how to set up your services, products and offerings, and how to manage your social media and your email list if you’re talking to two different people. If that’s you, keep listening to find out more!

You all know by now that we have built Think Creative Collective on the “free-free-free marry me” model. We talk about it all the time. It is basically built on a foundation of giving a whole bunch of content, knowledge and strategy away for free so we can build a community of addicted and raving fans. People often think that if they give too much away it is going to decrease the number of sales they are ultimately going to get, but we have seen literally the opposite effect. It has only helped us grow our audience and our sales. It has also enabled us to create a community where our audience can be sure to find the answers they need instead of a dead-end, and people really value that.  

So what we want to talk about today is why we decided to use that model and how you can structure your own business to do the same. We also want to go over why it is very important to bust the myths behind giving away content for free. Inside this episode, we will focus on answering all of y’all’s questions surrounding the topic. We’ll give you the inside scoop about the actual effects to our business that this model has created for us so you can be more confident in what you are providing your audience, for free.

We are here for a hot topic today. Today on the podcast, we are talking about why we did NOT decide to close our private Facebook group, which has roughly 12k+ people in it. This is one smokin’ topic, as there are a lot of Facebook groups run by business owners who are similar to us and in our circle that have been closing down left, right, and center.

Today, we want to highlight the fact that we are not going to speak for the people who have decided to close their groups; we are literally just here to talk about why we decided to keep our group open and go over some of the adjustments that we’ve made since that “change” in the Facebook group world. If you want to hear more about how we run our Facebook group and why it works for us, keep listening.

Today on the podcast we are doing Q&A style episode, but can you guess what the theme is? Yeah, that’s right — Facebook! We asked in the group for y’all to send us your questions about Facebook strategy and being successful on the platform. Now that we kinda know a thing or two, we feel that we can answer your questions and make sure you guys are on a good solid foundation and that your Facebook game is strong. We are jumping right in, so keep listening if you would like to know more about Facebook and how to use it as a tool in your business.

In Part I of Our Journey to Facebook Ads, we talked about video, text, and graphic ads. Today, we are talking about all the nitty-gritty’s and diving into the different types of Facebook ads you’ll find inside the Power Editor. We will also be looking at the differences between conversion ads, engagement ads, and click-through ads. Next, we will be investigating the value of the Power Editor and helping you to become a smarter booster.

If you are wanting to start running your own video Facebook ads, we are also going to be sharing the behind the scenes of our $37,000 and $97,000 launch videos, giving you some action strategy tips for getting professional video ads on a small budget, and simply using what you’ve got. Still feeling overwhelmed? We’ve got you covered. Stay tuned to find out more about the free online FB Everything course that is sure to make you kickass at doing these Facebook ads! Take a listen for this, and so much more.

For part one of ‘Our Journey to Facebook Ads’, we are diving into all the creative nooks and crannies of Facebook ads. Here, we look at the specific ads that we’ve run and how they performed to ultimately answer the fundamental question you’re all wondering about: Are Facebook ads worth it? Today, we’re looking at what worked for our campaigns, what types of Facebook ads performed better for us (video or graphic), targeting cold audiences versus establishing warm audiences and tons of tricks and tips to maximize your Facebook ad spend.

We went from knowing zilch about Facebook ads to knowing so much that we had to break this episode into two parts. If you are someone who is easily freaked out by Facebook ads, don’t be, because after this episode, you’ll realize it’s way easier than it seems and it’s worth every darn penny! But before you even start running your ads, let’s take a look at a few of the things you need to establish first.

Today we’re chatting with our friend, fellow unicorn and amazing red-headed beauty, Courtney Foster-Donahue. Courtney is an Atlanta-based four-time entrepreneur and business strategist who specializes in video content creation and Facebook marketing and advertising. Courtney helps entrepreneurs to win using Facebook through her new programme called Facebook Everything.

With over 1.96 billion people around the world on Facebook today, why are so many businesses claiming that Facebook is dead, turning away from Facebook Ads, or not seeing any benefits in them? We are covering everything from Facebook page optimization, your business Facebook page, Facebook ads, to all the tiny tips to get you maximizing your reach and growing your business. On today’s show we are busting the Facebook myths that will help you turn your business around!

Today we have Trena Little on the show, a YouTube queen and Video Content Strategist. She has grown her YouTube channel and audience with video content, and it has really impacted the way that she does business. Not only that, it has also made a big difference in the way that she engages with her people and she is breaking all of that down for us today. Trena has been featured everywhere from The Huffington Post to Modern Entrepreneur, as well as the All Up in Your Lady Business Podcast.

Together, we are talking through all of the major benefits of having your own YouTube channel. Next, we dive into how to get past the overwhelm of creating video content, examples of ways to brainstorm awesome ideas, plus the exact process you should go through for setting up your YouTube channel and posting your video content. We even go over some awesome ways to get your videos to rank on Google. Trena is a powerhouse of information and we are so looking forward to sharing all of her great advice with you.

Today on the podcast we have Jessica Yarbrough, The Mompreneur Coach. Jessica is a successful entrepreneur, marketing strategist, and business coach who helps other women create high-end coaching programs so they can create their own amazing enterprises.

We’re talking about how to shift your mindset to not only own your worth but charge the big bucks for your offers. We dive into talking about the best practices of whether you should charge hourly rates or bundle up your offers in premium, high-end packages. Jessica shares all about how she was able to build her six figure coaching business without fancy funnels, without a large email list, and without spending any money on ads. So you grass-roots people who think that a premium business with premium services and offerings is out of your reach if you’re not putting a whole bunch of money into it, we know you are really going to like this episode!

Today on the podcast, be prepared to laugh a lot because Allison Marshall is a handful. We had a ton of fun interviewing her, as we go back a while. We met up with her for coffee sometime last year and since then, we have partnered up on a few creative projects and it has been really fun to see her and her business grow as she’s transitioned from a full-time wedding photographer into teaching other creative entrepreneurs how to grow a profitable online business. She is here to share her story and the steps that she took to make all of that happen, so if that’s something that you’re wanting to be doing, then this is the episode for you.

Be sure to listen to how Allison transitioned from wedding photography to online sales. We also talk about the things that actually helped her make it happen, like getting people on her list and attracting the right kind of people. She shares her thoughts and processes on being yourself in your brand and things you can create for an opt-in to get people on your list, and also does a quick brainstorm of all the different tactics that she uses and how she is successful at getting people on her list. You can copy and paste those with some freebies that we’re mentioning today! We had a lot of giggles, a lot of passionate yelling and a really good time. Can’t wait for you to get into this one.

As you may or may not know, we had a Five Days to Launch Challenge earlier this June and we ran it literally just for five days, but we did a lot of promotion leading up to it and we wanted to talk to you today about everything that worked, the things we would've changed, how our engagement went throughout and how it's affected our launch so far. While recording this podcast, we’re literally still in the middle of launching, so can't give you final numbers, but we can tell you what we think it did in the beginning. We’re excited to jump in.

We are going to talk all about the challenges of launching and how to use these challenges to launch better, faster, stronger, awesomer, and smarter. We also dive into how to build more engagement, be more valuable, get more people on your list, and have a damn fun time doing it! So if you are ready to have some fun while making some money, then you better not miss this episode.

Today we are chatting with Sagan Morrow, who is a small business strategist, published author, and blogger at SaganMorrow.com. With nearly a decade of experience as a freelance writer/editor/social media manager, Sagan now teaches struggling solopreneurs how to create their own customized, actionable strategies for starting and building their own successful, profitable home-based businesses, without the overwhelm. Sagan is an intersectional feminist with a degree in Rhetoric. She recently launched the Candid Conversations small business podcast with her business partner to share the behind-the-scenes real, raw stories of entrepreneurship, in an effort to inspire and guide others through the uncertain landscape that is being a small business owner.

Sagan and her now business partner launched their podcast in seven days and today we’re going through the steps of how they made that happen, how they figured out the tech, and how they landed a sponsor. We also go over exactly how they got onto iTunes, what kind of hours they put in, and advice that they have for people who are wanting to launch anything in a small amount of time. So if you are ready to get off the fence and get your ideas out into the real world, then you should definitely tune in to today’s episode!

We are here today to congratulate all of you who just came through on the other side of the glorious hill after finishing our free Five Days to Launch Challenge. In this episode, we are going to do a quick recap of what the heck you all learned in the challenge and maybe try to give you one more boost of energy to keep trucking forward. Plus, we are going to give you an invitation to another free challenge for you to learn even more awesome, amazing things for your business.

We have been so impressed by the community that was able to take an idea that they had, turn it into a product, and get it to market in five days. We are briefly going to go over the steps the participants took, so if you missed the challenge and you want to figure out what the heck they did, definitely stay tuned because you can participate in our next one for sure. We are definitely going to do this again because it was an absolute party and, as you know, we will be here again probably in like a week or so giving you a full recap of the challenge and a behind the scenes look from our end. So if this is something that you guys are wanting to incorporate in your own business, you can just copy and paste what we did because we had a blast!