Today on the podcast we welcome back one of our BFF’s, Jordan Ellis, of Jordandené. Jordan owns a geek chic apparel company where she sells all the nerdy, girly stuff you could ever imagine – all across the country and the world. Jordan also does live events and sells her products online, making almost half of her annual revenue during the three to four-week holiday season! That’s right, ‘tis the season for sales!

So today, we are talking products and how to not miss out on opportunities and stress yourself out when it comes to the crazy holiday season. We discuss everything from the best time to start preparing for the holiday season, lining up your stock, handling Black Friday promotions, roping in assistance and how to get yourself super prepared for this exciting and rewarding time of the year. We want to encourage you to use this episode as your guiding light for the holiday season, whether it’s this year or next. It’s never too late to get prepared so you can win in the realm of product. So let’s jump in and get started!

The cat’s out the bag! We have just started our own new businesses. Two different businesses. Two different industries. And we’re building them completely on our own. Emylee’s latest side-hustle is selling her own hand-painted artworks online and Abbie has started an MLM business with Young Living products. In addition to TCC, we wanted to start something completely on our own and as exciting as it is – truthfully, we’re both a hot mess and are grappling with so many aspects of product-based entrepreneurship that we didn’t even expect as mentors in this field.

Inside this episode, you will find out more about our latest side hustles, why we started them, how we are growing them and the many challenges we are currently facing in this new terrain. If you are a compulsive entrepreneur or are in the same boat of juggling your many business passions, then this is definitely an episode you’ll relate to. So take a listen, find out how we are going about our new ventures and most importantly, know you are NOT alone!

On today’s show, we will be answering our most frequently asked question: “How did you get from point A to point B?” We will be sharing what to do, when to do it and how to do it all in your first two years of business. These steps got us from zero dollars to nearly half a million dollars and we want to give you a step-by-step breakdown of everything we did along the way. Even if your goal is not to make half a million dollars, the strategies we implemented and the lessons we have learned can definitely be applied to any business goal. Whatever your ultimate goal, the strategies and order we did them in are the same.

Inside this episode, we give you a business roadmap and the eight main steps we took to reach our goal. The order of these steps is key and that is exactly why we will be sharing them in detail with you! To give you a little taste, here is how we are going to break it all down. 1) Build Your Foundation, 2) Craft Your Message, 3) Nurture Your Dreamies, 4) Streamline With Systems, 5) See The Big Picture, 6) Create Sustainability, 7) Formulate A Passive Business, 8) Reach Those #Squad Goals. Okay, are you ready? Let’s get started!

Today on the podcast we have Kris Wittenberg of Be Good to People. We fell in love with her brand and the impact it was making on people around the world. The idea for Be Good to People was inspired by a rude experience that Wittenberg had back in the spring of 2008 while running errands at lunch. Kris has long forgotten the exact bad experience but the idea that people need to be better to one another has stuck with her ever since. We have loved hearing her message and getting to the root of how she got started.

Inside this episode, you are going to hear a pretty crazy story all about how a failed business helped Kris follow her passions and her dreams and then how she landed in front of Oprah and Gayle. Like actually hugging and seeing Gayle in-person. That exposure had huge impacts on her business, her confidence and everything Be Good to People stood for. There are a lot of lessons learned here from an entrepreneur who has been in business for a while, so we hope you take away some good nuggets today!

Today on the show we have Carrie McQuaid. If we could describe her in any way, Carrie is truly a kindness spreader. She loves pink, Taylor Swift, confetti, having fun and traveling the world to speak to companies and colleges about the power of kindness and generosity. She is head over heals in love with mason jars, sweet tea and rocking chairs on a front porch. A classic Southern belle at heart. Picture fresh flowers, polka dots and stripes, a day filled with love, laughter and spreading joy to others around — that’s Carrie!

In this episode, Carrie comes with some pretty fantastic ideas for business owners, entrepreneurs and just human beings in general and how we can be nicer people, helping fellow strangers (even in the Target parking lot). She also shares her story of viral kindness success. You might have heard of her on the little Southwest Airlines birthday party that she threw? This is a really upbeat episode and if you have ever wanted to start implementing small acts of kindness in your every day or in your business, Carrie comes full with ideas for you to take away and start implementing right now. So let’s jump in and spread some kindness around like confetti!

Today on the podcast, we have our friend and our mentor, the lovely Mamma Heather Crabtree from The Savvy Community. If you are not familiar with this woman, what rock have you been hiding under? Her Facebook community and her community in general that she has built over the last few years is phenomenal and literally the online space where we first met. Sparkles and all the confetti for that! We talk a bit about the legendary Savvy Community where we met online, and how it’s transitioned over the years.

In this episode, Heather shares with us how she has grown just a couple hundred members to over 13,000 and how that evolved into her bringing on a membership community where she hosts female entrepreneurs from all over the world and helps train and coach them. We also go into the programs she has brought along with her and even how she has been able to walk with her daughter as she has gone through stage four cancer, what it’s like balancing a business and a chronic illness like cancer and how that has affected her as a person and really made her stronger for the better. This is a little bit of a rollercoaster episode, but know that it comes from a good place and we are so excited to have her on.

We get asked so many questions all the time about our launches and how on earth we manage to do so many while keeping it all organized, keeping communication going with our community and just how we get it all done!? There are so many tiny steps that go into launching just about anything. You end up feeling so anxious about it all. Well, babes, we are here to tell you there’s an easier way to launch! We can tell you how to schedule it all and keep on top of what, when and how you are doing the launch.

On today’s episode, we are here to give you an overview of every single step starting at the very beginning. Specifically, we will be talking about what we do before we launch a program so you can adjust this for your own business to make it work for you. We are going to walk you through how we do it and of course, we can’t do it without our little magic tool, our favorite platform - Trello. So make sure you are listening intently to this one as we are about to help you help your business!

Today, we are bringing you something new, unique and kind of awesome. In this episode, you are going to get to hear from alumni of our program, The Strategy Academy, answer questions about their businesses, growth, mindsets and all the amazing things that have happened in their lives and businesses from taking our program earlier this year.

They are all pretty awesome peeps. You are hearing from, not only a service-based person, but a product-based person, a blogger and a podcaster. We are giving you the full enchilada of what’s going on inside their businesses, where they were before and how The Strategy Academy has helped them ramp up. We have formatted it a bit differently today, so each guest’s story is summarized for you to get the most out of their experience with The Strategy Academy. Keep listening to hear more!

Today on the podcast we have Reina Pomeroy. Reina is the founder of Reina and Co. She is a life and business success coach and helps right-brained, heart-centered women be their best selves. We have loved Reina for a long time and have been able to watch Reina’s business grow and prosper. We definitely have a personal connection with her and are excited for you to hear the amazing things we jumped into in this podcast.

We are talking about something that might make some of you cringe, but we really want you to stick around for this one. The unique perspective Reina brings to sales funnels is actually REALLY good. She works with a lot of creatives. She knows how our brains work and created a new method for thinking about bringing our clients, our audience, and our customer on a journey with us. She knows how to set it up in a way that makes sense; where you are profitable and giving away content. We are asking her what she thinks when people say they are worried about giving away too much for free, what comes first, the free content or the paid content, and how to fill the spaces in between. Believe us when we say this episode is jam-packed and you are going to love it.

Today on the podcast we have Madison Sanders, of Madison Sanders Events. Madi has been a wedding planner and designer since 2014 (and also, it just so happens that she and Emylee went to highschool together!). Madison has gone from working for other agencies to building her own business, to even growing her agency where she now has other planners working for her.

Inside today’s episode, we talk about how that entire process worked, what she invested in along the way and how she was able to utilize relationships with vendors to continue to grow her business. We discuss the ins and outs of wedding planning – from managing multiple marketing platforms, to how she gets her clients, communicating with employees and clients, asking for referrals and setting boundaries so that you can look after your own well-being. Even if you are not in the wedding industry, there are so many valuable nuggets in here, for any entrepreneur, in any industry. Take a listen!

Today we are excited to tell you about a workshop coming up next Tuesday, September 12th. We are going to help you create a foolproof plan so you can literally conquer anything. Inside this workshop we are going from step zero to done (and everything in-between). We are going to show you the steps you need to take before you even think about being more productive. On this episode we go through some of the actual steps inside the challenge so you can start to see results right away and know that the stuff that we share and talk about is legit.

We are also taking it a step back in the workshop so we can help you create a good framework going forward. Finally, we will also be sharing a couple of saucy hacks that you can implement to make running your business on the go faster, easier, and more polished. Then, we are moving to “to-do list, done” - crossing them off because they are done. So we are going to talk about how other successful business owners look at their goals and their strategies and how they can work specifically for creatives. So how do you get there? Let’s jump in and take a look.

On today’s episode, we welcome Marissa Pane. Marissa is a life coach for women with depression and anxiety, who works to heal and inspire others. We have both struggled and continue to struggle with mental illness throughout our lives. In this episode, we talk through some of our own personal struggles with mental illness and give you some tactical ways to help you get through it while running your own online business.

We focus on your ‘why’, how to deal with frustrated customers, and how to not have them affect you so emotionally. We also get into journaling, what happiness means, and finding out what is taking away from your joy. Marissa has 15 ways to combat mental illness and today’s episode is about solidarity with women who “get it” and equipping you with actionable steps to improve your well-being, your business and your life! So grab the tissues (or the wine) and take a listen!

Ever wondered, “How do they work together?” Well, this is a question we get asked a lot on the show and the answer may not be as simple as you think! How do we divide tasks? How do our personalities work well together and where do we struggle? How do we deal with stress? Today, we are embarking on a journey of self-discovery – digging into personality types, astrology and just a bit of “woo-woo-ness.”

Knowing how your brain, body and personality work can be an empowering tool to strengthen yourself, your team and your business. So we hope that by the end of this episode you might have learned something about your own self; your characteristics and how they affect the way you make decisions and interact with others in your business. If you are looking to improve your relationship with yourself and with others, then this episode is for you! Take a listen.

Today on the podcast, we have Dr. Beth Brombosz. Beth is an author, copywriter, content creator, and the host of the Blogger to Author Podcast. In 2015, she turned some of her own blog posts into a book titled Yoga for Runners, which is now available on Amazon. Beth’s book has helped her build a platform as an expert in her field. She is passionate about helping fellow bloggers turn their content into books so they can build authority in their niche, share their passion with the world, and earn passive income.

In this episode, you’re going to hear all about that process. From repurposing your content to creating a book, to self-publishing, pricing, layout and sales, Beth really breaks it down into an easy step-by-step process. She self-published her book in just 30 days! She proves that it’s totally doable, with no publishing experience needed. If you’ve never written a book in your life, but are thinking about it, then today’s podcast is for you.

We are coming in with a little light episode today. Actually, it might not be so light with the questions that have been coming in right now. We get a crap ton of questions from you guys all the time, both personal and business related, and usually we have already recorded or written something about it. But sometimes we just get this kind of hodgepodge of questions from you guys that just don’t quite fit into any particular topic.

So today we decided to tackle them in a Q&A format. This isn’t fancy, it isn’t organized, but it is going to answer those burning questions that y’all have for us! We are just going to go down the list and answer your questions, one by one. We are giving the people what they want. As simple as that!