Hey everybody! Today on the show we are giving you a very important lesson, so listen up! We learned this lesson just the same, so the sooner we can get this through to you the better: content creation will not get you more clients. Yes, we said it. We used to blog five times a week sometimes, and saw almost zero increase in clients from it. In this episode we will be breaking down why exactly it just does not work as a strategy and what you should be doing instead. In fact, we are taking it as far as to tell you why you should stop building an online business altogether and instead focus on growing your local reputation, which can take you further, grow you faster and make you more money! This episode is perfect for service-based biz owners, so copywriters, photographers and designers, we are talking to you.

We have to admit that we do love content but if you think that it will land you new clients, you are sadly mistaken. New people will not just magically find you on social media or your blog and want to start paying you money out of nowhere. We hope you can see that this is a ridiculous idea. One issue here is that we see our heroes creating great content and we want to mimic this, but we have to remind ourselves they are serving an established customer base through that content rather than building one from scratch. The clients we are looking for out on the internet are usually waiting on our very own street, we just have to go out and get them!

Joining us today on the podcast is Kali Rogers, the Founder of Blush Online Life Coaching, a life coaching business aimed at female millennials. Kali is here to teach us more about the super do-able, fun and stress-free Pinterest strategies that have boosted their site traffic and sales and grown their clients and customers. The best of all? You don’t need a Pinterest marketing degree to implement them, you can start today! If you have a Pinterest account but have stopped using it for some reason, we hope this episode will inspire you to get back into it, or if you have been utilizing this potentially awesome tool, that you will get what you need to brush up your skills even more.

In the beginning, Kali used Pinterest for personal reasons such as recipes and fashion inspo, until she decided to take a break. At first she didn’t see how Pinterest, a mostly visual medium, would be applicable to Blush, a service-based business. How would she promote a life coaching business through images? When she first started she didn’t have any entrepreneurial skills but realized that she needed to communicate to people that she and her team knew what they were talking about. She resorted to writing as a cheap, safe means of publicity, creating numerous articles for The Huffington Post, including “An Open Letter From Introverts To Everyone Else”, which went completely viral. Many people have a Pinterest account when they first get started in business, but then they get distracted along the line and stop using it on a regular basis. In this episode we are going to show you that, even though it’s an oldie, it’s still a real goodie. So be sure to join us for this awesome conversation!

Word on the street is that you want to do an epic launch! On today’s podcast we’re talking about three things that led to an incredible launch: using affiliates, getting together a street team and of course having a valuable product that everyone wants. But what is a street team? We’re discussing the need for one of those, no matter how big or small your business is, dishing out advice on who you might want to include, the process of asking someone to be on your team and how to communicate effectively with them.

We then give you a breakdown of how we succeeded in pulling off our recent rebranding launch, sharing how we kept our followers and fans engaged with our communications, what we did to promote this change and our business at large. From our first-hand experience with launches, we advise you on using affiliates as an incredibly powerful tool to market your brand, giving you practical tips for recruiting key people who can really boost your business, even if you are only starting off. If you have a launch in the pipeline, are thinking about it, or just want to learn a ton about making valuable connections in business, do not miss out on today’s Strategy Hour Podcast!

Today on the show we welcome Jill Stanton who is the co-founder of Screw the Nine to Five and certified affiliate marketing badass! She and her husband, Josh, have built a massively successful business helping other businesses partner with yet more businesses! Everyone wins and everyone earns! Their mission is to transform unsatisfied employees into dangerously successful entrepreneurs and build skills and resources to help them with their growth, so they can work as much as they want to, wherever they want to!

This is such a hilarious and insightful episode, we know you are going to love every minute of it. We sure did, and by the end of it you will be at least one step closer to doubling your income through affiliate marketing. Jill’s brand of affiliation is not slimy and gross and is so simple to start today, no matter the size of your biz. We all know the bad reputation that these kinds of partnerships can have but this is not that, trust us! Jill is here to help you better serve your audience, stay inclusive and engaging, and make more money doing it!

Hey everybody we are super excited to have our friend Nikki Porcher on the show today! Nikki is the owner and founder of Buy From a Black Woman, which is an online non-profit organization that is bringing awareness and funding to businesses owned by black women! Nikki has had an amazing journey since starting this initiative and she now showcases a large number of black women business owners in her directory, Instagram, and in her shop. A fearless and natural creative, Nikki is so much fun to talk to and we know you are going to love this conversation too! During the episode we hear about this incredible journey that she has been on, starting with a blog, which became a hot Instagram account, then a directory and now a non-profit organization.

She currently gives out grants to black women to start their business and get off the ground, providing a network of support and knowledge to aid them in their pursuits. We have to admit we learned a lot in this conversation and Nikki is so open in sharing with us and we ended this chat just wanting to know more, support more and spread the love! There are so many great businesses in her directory and we should all be buying from them! It is so easy to do a little research, branch out a little further and diversify your world! Nikki is such a great example of turning your passion into something amazing and impactful and to be honest her story really reiterates a lot of what we always say!

Hi guys! Today’s episode is a really big deal. We are busting with excitement to share with you our motivation behind changing a key aspect of our business—the name! When you start a new company, the last thing you think about is changing it. Even though change can be terrifying, we hope that you will be equally as enthusiastic about the new direction we are moving into as we are. We assure you that we will do everything possible to continue serving you to the best of our abilities, and we can almost guarantee that you will love this change as much as we do.

Part of the name changing process involves making our brand more inclusive by collaborating with online entrepreneurs who will be educating you on a wide range of topics. You will not be hearing from only us in future but will be enriched by the knowledge of a plethora of experts in various fields of business. Be sure to tune in today to join in our celebrations and to find out all the cool new things we are going to be offering you.