Today we are unearthing an episode that we recorded at the end of 2022 because it’s important that you hear this. The strategy this client used is still extremely relevant and effective in the current sales climate where leads are a little bit wonky. This is the perfect time to seek improvement opportunities within your sales cycle and work on increasing your close rate.

We walk you through how our client was able to increase her close rate by a whopping 40%, and how you can be just as successful in your own sales process. In this season, focus and refine how things are looking in your business. Evaluate what’s working, what’s not, and use that critical information to make strategic, educated plans as you move forward with your business. Start gathering this data and figure out where you want to place your focus and where your biggest opportunities are right now. Today we’re using particular examples from a previously aired episode to help you learn how to improve your close rate.

Our new Incubator is finally here! It’s always exciting taking on a new cohort, and in this episode, we break down what you can expect from our newly refined Incubator program and how to determine whether it’s right for you. Tuning in, you’ll learn about the type of issues we address (like how to price correctly) and how we help business owners step into their role as CEO by gaining a deeper understanding of the different aspects of their business, and how they impact one another.

We have a list of goodies to share with you today of things we have learned over the last 18 months. We aren’t digging into the archives from years ago. These are definitely things we have learned and implemented more recently, and they are things we know you can benefit from. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, these are tips that you should pay attention to for yourself, and try to figure out how they can work for you!

We are so excited to walk you through some of what we’ve been working on behind the scenes. Today we are going to let you guys filter through our brains about how we got to this point, what is new, and how you can be a part of it. One of the incredible things about running an online business is that we have been able to be part of a lot of the shifts that have happened for the entire industry. We have had to act and react based on many changes and our business has gone through loads of pivots.

In today’s episode, we share what we’ve learned about the business journey, and break down some of the phases, checkpoints, and milestones you’ll experience along the way. Throughout our careers, we’ve had the honor and privilege of working with some pretty phenomenal service-based organizations. And due to the nature of our work, we’ve had the opportunity to observe the inner workings of countless small businesses. In that time, we’ve seen key patterns emerge that we believe anyone can learn from!

Today, we discuss the difference between one-time projects and retainer projects for clients and how you can determine which is right for you. There are many filters through which to run your decision-making process when deciding whether to explore one over the other or have a hybrid between the two. In this episode, we share insight into the questions you should be asking yourself in order to make that call.

What would you do if your business disappeared overnight but your skills and experiences remained? How would you choose your product or service? Would you want to play a similar role? Should you even remain in the same industry? Today on the show we share our answers to all these complicated questions, and more, as we reflect on what we’ve learned from building a business and running it for almost ten years!

In our conversation, we reflect on the current economic climate, what we learned from starting a business during a recession, and what we would want from a second business after building a company based on passion from the ground up. Tune in as we indulge in a conceptual exercise examining what we’ve learned over the past few years and what we would do differently for our next business, and why!

We usually share a free-balling, brain-storming episode around this time of year about what we want the next year to look like. We are so ecstatic (and intimidated) about some of our ideas and we want to document them for you all to hear! This year, we dove into having a hybrid company really heavily but going into 2023, we have to ask ourselves what the right mix is for our team.

We know how stressful it can be to figure out how projects are going to happen and we encourage you to plan for the new year with flexibility. Find the balance between having a plan and being flexible to allow for inevitable changes that you can’t predict. Be prepared that your plan may not happen exactly the way you want it to. Spend your planning time looking at where your leads are coming from and what makes sense for your business based on the leads that you have.

There have been a lot of conversations in our incubator coaching lately about what to do when leads are lower. But that’s only part of the conversation. Today, we want to focus on how to know what’s right when you’re considering different ideas to pursue. When we’re in a rut, we tend to think that it’s time to think far outside of the box. Innovation is amazing when you’re in a season to be able to create something new and it makes sense, but when you need a cash injection, or you want to start the year off with a bang, it’s not necessarily the best time to start with something brand new!

What if, instead, you looked for ways to do the same thing, but in a different room? Could you do the same thing through a different lens? At the end of the day, if you already have systems and processes around the thing that you have been delivering, selling, and pricing, it’s so much easier to stay in that lane. Don't reinvent the wheel! While it might sound counterintuitive, we encourage you not to think outside the box, but to spin it in a different direction. It’s the same thing, just from a different viewpoint!

We’ve been alluding to all of our secret projects in the works for months now but haven’t yet spilled. We are simply dying to talk about the behind-the-scenes projects we’ve been working on, and you can expect an official announcement before this month’s end! Because we’re so close to announcing it, we thought we’d go ahead and let you in on a few of our secrets.

We’ve been working with clients for seven years now, and the past year has seen a bit of a shift. As you know, we’ve been banging on about refocusing on working with fewer clients and dipping our toes back into the service side of things, and now that we have an accountable team of individuals with their own niche set of superpowers, we can! For the first time ever, we have a team that is not just there to support us in project management or client communication, but on deliverables, and it’s truly expanded the scope of what we can offer.

In this episode, you’ll hear about our evolution over the past seven years and get some insights into what we finally have the bandwidth to offer. If you’re looking to build a stable foundation for years to come and 10x your investment, you’ve come to the right place. We’re here to help you!

The truth of the matter is that the market is shifting. As small business owners, we absolutely have to be paying attention because how this impacts us in the next few years is going to be really important. We all knew things would change after the pandemic, but two years later, we’re seeing the results in unexpected ways.

There just isn’t a recipe anymore. Instead of following predetermined steps to success, we’re all having to figure it out as we go. The strategies that we all once relied on are no longer effective, and we can’t keep doing the same things and expecting to have more reach. Specifically, in the social media space, the strategies that used to bring success are far less effective on the organic side. It’s a gamble.

As a result, businesses across the board are having a much harder time predicting where their attention needs to be, where it makes sense to allocate resources and time, and planning for the future of their business. The conversations we have been having with our clients and peers have confirmed that everyone is having a hard time figuring out where to put their focus, where to commit, and where to go all in. What is it going to take to ride the wave and see growth through this unpredictable time?

Coming your way today is a mix of math and anticipatory mindset work! It’s all through the lens of, “This is what you actually want.” We’re going to lay out the future a little bit for you so that you can start to understand what’s coming and that you can stop stressing about it! We’re seeing hundreds (if not thousands) of people who are constantly apologizing for doing things they don’t want to do. After today, we want you to understand why you shouldn’t be feeling bad about things like not posting consistently on social media, and what you should be putting energy into instead!

Speaking to hundreds of people on a regular basis about their business has given us so much insight into which structures work for which industries. It’s what positions us to advise clients entering the incubator who find themselves at a fork in the road of how to move forward. We want to give you some guidance, and let you know what we would do if we were in your shoes.

None of these options are wrong, it’s all centered around what works best for you, what feels fun, and what facilitates you playing to your strengths. There are plenty of scenarios that work amazingly for some people, and don’t work at all for others. The question to focus on is not what is right, and what gets the greatest return, but what feels attainable for you. If something is not in step with who you are as a person, it’s not going to work!

The ‘work smarter not harder club’ tells you that the only way to work smarter, not harder, is to have a low-priced digital offering, and all of a sudden all your dreams of riches will come true. Fact: the reality is you will actually end up working harder, not smarter! We believe in customizing your approach to your business in order to scale. This is something we talk about in the incubator, and the amount of compliments we get out of the gate is nothing short of impressive. If you’re accepted, you’ll get access to some of our best tradings, to help you to double your income by working twenty hours or less per week.

Our goal is to never make anything ‘one size fits all.' Making these decisions by yourself can be so scary. And if you don’t feel comfortable, and the people in your current circle can’t serve you in that way, it’s time to outsource! When you put too much emphasis on other people’s opinions, you are going to get answers guised with keeping you safe. The Incubator’s goal is to show you the options, and the consequences, and then you get to choose what’s right for you.

Today we’re going to talk about offering too many services and how to transition out of your Cheesecake Factory phase, namely, having way too many items on your menu. In a recent episode, we discussed narrowing down your services, and what it would look like to have conversations with your existing clientele about changing their service or potentially even eliminating their service altogether. Today’s episode is for those of you who are too scared to even consider this option!

Tuning in you’ll hear us tackle how to make this transition and why it doesn’t need to entail massive sacrifices. We realize that everyone has different needs and limitations. So whether you want to make your transition in twelve days or twelve months is completely up to you! In our conversation, we break down how to streamline your packages by asking yourself the right questions and what you should know about clients when creating your offers. We also talk about the immense possibilities that open up from living in your expertise, and what it means to make your life your career. If you can't even imagine reducing the number of options you have available to your clients and want to discover how to overcome your fear, then this episode is for you!