Today on the podcast you’re going to hear from Mary Hyatt. Mary is a personal life and business coach who helps people get into the raw side of themselves, fall back in love, and believe in their potential. She believes that every person has the ability to create the life they love and helps her clients to wake up, find their voices, and become fully alive. Creative entrepreneurs, seriously, this one was recorded for you!

We talk about how to stay in a place of inspiration so you can keep putting out valuable content, why you may be in a creative funk, and how to get that creative white space back. Mary also breaks down the bare methods, and we talk about believing in something so it actually happens. We dive into the mythical balance, how you can blend your life, and really what you need to have at the front and center of your mind before you can tackle anything in your business. We are super excited! Seriously, it was such a joy to hear from Mary, and you are going to love this episode.

Well, ya’ll know by now that we are pretty much transparent about everything we learn in our business. We immediately take it and we turn around and teach it because we don’t like to hold back. We are over-sharers by nature. You get the good, bad, and the ugly with us and that’s what we are doing today; over-sharing again. Today, we wanted to dive in deeper about the business roadblocks that we have faced.

At the beginning, we consumed a lot of content from people who we knew and who we trusted, and who we saw were doing big things. One of the important pieces that not everyone talks about are the mistakes that they have made in their business and what held them back and prevented them from making more money, faster. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. We are just human and we make mistakes like everybody else and the thing is, if we could do anything, we want to help you avoid them or at least make them less bumpy, less crazy, less long and drawn out, and help you find the solution quickly. So let’s jump in and get started!

Today on the podcast, we welcome back Katie Hunt of Trade Show Bootcamp. Katie is our very first second-time guest! We met Katie last summer at the Savvy Experience and have been friends ever since. Katie has this depth of knowledge about an entirely different world of wholesale and the stationery industry that we are just not privy to, and she is not holding back! In fact, she doesn’t hold back, ever.

She gives so much insight in this episode; we are talking all about saving for trade shows, how to budget for them so that there are no surprise costs, and the pros and cons of going to a national show versus a smaller local show. We also dive into how to balance retail and wholesale, and how to nurture those relationships after you snag some wholesale clients. We even go into more on how to add value, how to get your customers ordering more, and how to bring them on like they are family and VIPs. There are a lot of ideas in this episode and a lot of action steps, so we can’t wait for you to dive in!

Today, we are talking about all the frigging mistakes we have ever made and mistakes we see you all making when it comes to launching. So, we are just going to call them for what they are and give you the flip side of what you could be doing to correct or prevent them so you can be way more successful than anyone else you have ever met in your life. Does that sound like a plan?

We are excited to talk to you about all these mistakes so that you can really get in the right mindset. Because a lot of it comes down to mindset, more than anything else. Most of the other problems are technical issues that y’all just need to get with someone and figure out. So get comfy, pull out those notepads, and get ready to pack in some strategy to avoid these pesky mistakes.

Today on the podcast, you are meeting one of our favorite people. Courtney Johnston is here from the Rule Breaker’s Club. We love Courtney because she cuts right to the meat, just like we do, so you can be guaranteed that this is an absolutely no-fluff episode. Courtney is the go-to person for all things sales copy and we are so excited for you to hear all the amazing things she has to share about how to create and sell your signature services.

In this episode, we talk about common mistakes that people make on their sales pages, key areas that every single sales page should have, and how to brag about yourself without it being weird or awkward. Courtney even has some tips on how you can make a very sexy sales page super convincing to the people you want to be talking to, without worrying about a really lengthy, long copy. We also dive into how to grab testimonials and what to include in your frequently asked questions, so you can make sure that you are protected and that you are getting the right people buying the stuff that you are selling. This is a meaty one, and we cover each topic in a ton of detail. We also reference even more free valuable content inside this episode, so stay tuned!

Word on the street is, you have some pretty bomb ideas but, for whatever reason, you just keep them in your pocket, you sit on them, you hold onto them, and you don’t launch them. What the heck? What are you waiting for, lady? There is a valuable opportunity there that can earn you some real cash dollar bills for your business. So many of you come to us saying that you have this amazing dreamy idea, but you are frozen, you are stuck, and you are on the fence. A lot of you live in Sitting-on-the-fence-ville, right? But the reality of it all is, it is not comfortable or really beneficial for anyone.

We want to help you to get into the launch mindset and so we have created the 5 Days to Launch Challenge to arm you with the strategies and the steps you need to get there. We have determined that launching something and launching it well really just comes down to five steps. That’s it. Five steps. You can do one step a day and at the end of five days, you will have launched a product and made actual money. So get ready to jump into your very own launch by signing up for the challenge today!

Today on the show, we have Becca and Jake Berg of Dubsado. We are super excited to have them on! They are a husband and wife team that are the brains, power, and genius behind Dubsado, which is a client management system for creatives. They have built one amazing and beautiful platform for all of those things that you have 75 different logins for, including your contracts, how you get paid, and how you respond back to clients after they book with you. All of those pieces are neatly tied up in one amazing software bow.

In today’s episode, you are going to get a peek behind the curtain. We are walking you through the steps they took to build the software company, from idea to launch, and how they did it while building a family and working full time jobs. They share with us how they have been able to grow and scale their business, and how Becca had to make sure it was her own. They also dive into exactly how they were able to make this awesome idea into an actual product, get it launched, and then how they have been able to scale and grow their team. We are even talking about some inside scoops on how to better perfect your client based business and get paid faster. So we are excited for you to jump in, listen, and learn!

Today, we are chatting about the good old pivot; the pivoting to your passion, the figuring out what the heck you can work on right now to start getting your feet wet. It is all about testing the waters of this whole creative biz ownership thing, making some actual money, and then transitioning to whatever keeps the fire in your soul burning. We want you to dive in to where you are getting paid to do something that you are good at, even if that thing is not what your business is going to be in the next year or two.

So in this episode we are going to dive into starting with your MVP and what that means, and then explain to you kind of how we kept that top of mind in our own creative business journeys. Now, we are not talking about the most valuable player on your baseball team. No, it is your most viable product. What is the thing that you can sell today without having to learn a new skill, without having to go to school or take a class? What can you bring to market right away that you can sell and make money off of? This is exactly the thing that people need to be focusing on instead of other fluff.

Today on the podcast, we have Amy Northard CPA, accountant for creatives. Amy has been a friend of ours for what feels like centuries at this point, and we have known her longer than we have known each other. She is awesome and makes everything sound so simple that you think maybe you could do it yourself, even though you can’t. Amy is so knowledgeable about all things taxes, bookkeeping, making things stress free, and making things easy to understand.

You are going to learn a lot in today’s episode, like what type of business you should be and how to even form it. She also shares her favorite apps, tools, and softwares to keep track of all your numbers. We go over the questions you should ask before you are ready to hire a CPA, things that you guys are forgetting to deduct, and stuff that you actually cannot deduct, that you might have thought you could. We also talk about the icky quarterly taxes and how to make that process super simple for you moving forward so that you are not scared and stressed out come tax season. So just relax, settle in, and give this one a listen.

Alright guys, we are back for another tactical throwback. Today, we are taking it back and sitting down to interview Abagail about all of the lessons she’s learned, the mistakes she’s made, and how the heck she got clients when she was doing one-on-one client work for branding, design, and website business building. So today we are going to give the quick version of what Abbie did before TCC, because not everyone knows that she has not been doing Think Creative Collective forever. We will learn a bit more about what she used to do, and dive into the tactics she used to grow her business.

Prior to TCC, Abagail worked in the corporate design world. After completing her fine arts degree, she went straight out of the gate and started working for big and small businesses alike. She worked with businesses of all shapes and sizes, anywhere from billion dollar, to nonprofit, to educational businesses. She even worked for a startup and then eventually was laid off, which is really where she faced her crossroads and had to make a decision about whether to start her own business or simply look for another job. Abbie was definitely ready for a challenge and decided to pursue her dream of having her own business. So get ready, get your socks on, it’s going to be a good one.

Today on the podcast, we have our good friend Steph Crowder from Courage and Clarity
Podcast and Fizzle. If you have not yet seen Fizzle and its amazing membership platform full of
incredible courses for small business owners, you guys should definitely check it out. Steph is
one of our podcasting buddy friends. We meet with Steph and a couple of other ladies, twice a
month and chat all things podcasting, growth tactics, marketing, guest ideas, and all that good
stuff in our podcasting mastermind. She is an incredible human being, and we love her to
pieces. Steph is super knowledgeable, super kind, and we can’t wait for you to learn from her
today.
 

Inside this episode, Steph is giving you a step by step of all the things you need to do to
interview potential customers in order to validate your kick ass business idea. We are also
getting a behind the scenes look of a thriving membership site, and Steph is talking all about
creating amazing customer service in your business and the step-by-step creation process of
creating courses inside of Fizzle. It’s a great episode, we get really in depth especially on that
membership piece and the business idea piece, so we are really excited for you to dive in and
take away some awesome knowledge bombs from Steph.

Today on the podcast, we are taking you all back to the days before TCC even existed. It is kind of crazy but, believe it or not, we both used to run different businesses. Emylee used to be a photographer and she was pretty darn good at it, so we are doing a little interview style throwback with her today. She left a five figure photography business to form TCC and before that, Emylee graduated with a degree in fine art photography, minors in a whole bunch of other areas and kind of went ahead on her own, always carrying that entrepreneurial spirit.

Emylee started her entrepreneurial journey with her very own cupcake business, which turned out to be a big, fat failure, but then she went back to photography and turned it into a business. We are going to talk about what it was like to run a photography business, what it was like to get clients, how to package, how to price, how to just get your business up and running, the gear she used, and so much more.

Today on the podcast, we have Jordan Ellis of Jordandené. Oh my gosh, this girl! She is so awesome. We have known Jordan for what feels like forever, but really it has only been two years. She was the first student ever for both of us, and since then, Jordan has gone on to grow a giant geek-chic business where she sells goods of all different types. She has shirts and aprons and the cutest little kids clothes ever and it just warms our hearts to see how much she has been able to accomplish in just two years, and she shares so much knowledge with us today, all about growing a product-based business online.

She talks to us about the changes that her business has made since she first started on Etsy way back in the day, how she is now on Squarespace, and how that works for her. She also shares the mission behind her business, how she creates an experience for her customers, a unique way for her to have scarcity in a product-based business, how blogging works for her, and all about hiring your first employee. She goes deep and gives some tips for those who are just getting started in the product world as well as those who are wanting to up-level what they already have.

Hello little business babies! We are so excited to chat to you about reaching our first 100K downloads on the podcast in just four short months. We absolutely cannot believe how great you guys have been, and we are so thankful for the amazing support that we have been given. Each and every download, share, and review makes a huge difference to the impact that we are able to have on all of you creative biz bosses out there.

For today’s episode, we are going to be talking about how we got to a 100,000 downloads, the effect that having a podcast has had on our business, our marketing game plan, and some strategies that we think have helped and made a difference. Keep in mind, there is one major caveat to all of what we are going to be talking about today — with podcasting, there really is no one-size-fits-all formula. It is still such a mysterious medium and people are continuously trying to understand how it works and how to interact with it, which makes it really hard to measure. So please keep that in mind as we are sharing some of our experiences, and find out what you can take and apply to your own podcast.

Today on the podcast, we have Kelly Parker Smith of Hello World Paper Co. For those of you who don’t know, Kelly is a retired third grade teacher who started an Etsy shop and has had a booming business ever since. She has over $400,000 in sales on Etsy and even started her own podcast where she talks all about what it’s like to be an Etsy shop owner and run a product-based business. Kelly has been on Etsy for almost a decade, so she knows the ins and outs of why the platform is such a total rock star for product-based businesses.

On today’s episode, Kelly shares with us why she chose Etsy to sell on in the first place and how to build an audience when you are first getting started. She even talks about some pros and cons of Etsy and how some of those cons can actually work in your favor. Kelly lets you know how to stand out in the sea of many Etsy shops and gives some strategies to communicate with your customers outside of Etsy. She also gives some secret tips and tricks to maximize your presence, improve your SEO on Etsy, and get found quicker. So get out your notebook, especially if you are considering hopping over to Etsy, because there is a lot of good stuff in this episode.