Every single month we add thousands and thousands of people to our email list, which sounds bananas because when we started getting to the first 10,000 subscribers, it felt unbelievable. It was a lot! So, we want to give you guys a little bit of a vision of what it looks like to grow your email list at a rapid rate in today’s episode. Several of the concepts we are going to cover could be 100% organic. You do not have to utilize paid strategies at all.

Now, some of these things we definitely have put dollars behind, but some of the concepts without paid dollars are the same! There are more ways to grow your email list than you’re perhaps aware of, and we are going to cover our top five today! We might come up with a few others too though, and just throw them in! So tune in and join us for the ride as we get into the best ways that you can keep those subscribers on the up and up!

At the tail end of January, there was a viral blog post that blew our minds, and since then we have been on the hunt to find others who are experiencing similar things. The post was about a guy who had a bad day because he found out that not everyone has an inner monologue, in other words, they do not talk to themselves. We’ve managed to track down a handful of people who swear they do not have that internal voice happening at all. One of these people is Hannah Chester. Hannah never realized there was such a thing as internal monologue until she was diagnosed with ADHD and listened to a podcast about it.

For her, her thoughts are more like a visualization rather than a conversation that takes place within. When she remembers something that needs to be done, she sees a mental picture of it — there is no inner voice that narrates the scenario to her. We invited Dr. Barbara Shabazz to give us a scientific perspective on internal monologue and how that ties into ADHD, and the four of us have a fascinating conversation about how differently each of us experiences and engages with the world. Join us to hear more about this internal monologue from those who do and those who don’t!

Like most of the US population, we are currently obsessed with the new hit show on Netflix Love is Blind! Today we are picking apart why we think this has been a viral sensation that has hit our country, and most importantly, what takeaways there are for your business. It may seem odd that we are comparing a reality show about finding love to business but you will be surprised at the similarities – especially when you look beyond what happens in public view. And if you haven’t watched this show or aren’t caught up, you might want to wait before listening to this episode because there will be spoilers.

Love is Blind came out about two weeks ago but Emylee was late to the party since reality television is not her thing, but after watching the trailer, she was hooked! Let’s be honest though: reality shows are trashy more often than not, and some of us don’t even like admitting that we watch them – it’s a guilty pleasure for many. But they can be a rich source of learning life and business lessons. In this episode, we compare relationships to business and the principles that apply equally to both. Just as the dating stage is required to build trust between two people, so business owners need to find strategies to attract customers and then to establish themselves as trustworthy and relatable. We also talk about the importance of showing up as your true self rather than trying to be who you think others want you to be — all of which we relate to the choices of the contestants in our new favorite show. Let’s jump in!

Today on the show we have Tony Rulli, the co-founder, and CEO of Intentional Spark, an amazing paid advertising consultancy which we are proud to have the service of! He is the lead strategist for all their paid marketing campaigns which include Facebook ads, AdWords, web re-targeting, Instagram – the whole nine yards! As we said before, he is our ad guy, so Intentional Spark runs all the things behind-the-scenes for us which you, our listeners, see all the time!

In this episode, we are diving in and talking about a bit of the mechanics behind how these platforms function regarding sales and building an audience. We’re breaking down and picking Tony’s marketing brain all about the future of Facebook and Instagram, and what the next hot features are that everybody should be paying attention to. We also dabble into a little bit of conspiracy theories and a short clip of some of our favorite shows. So this is a really good smorgasbord but it’s all things nerding out about marketing and it should be really enjoyable. Tony also shares a freebie at the very end all about how you can start getting set up with your Pixel, and a little bit on how to read an ad report, so definitely make sure you’re listening till the end so you can grab that link!

Hey friends! We are back for another profit report. It is time to break down January’s profit, the first profit report of 2020, and we are super excited! If you’re new here and this is the first profit report you’re listening to it might be a little bit different than what you’ve seen floating around online where people do ‘income reports’. We decided last fall to change up the narrative, not only for ourselves and our mentality when we’re talking about business and our own goals but also for the ‘comparisonitis’ that happens. Sometimes when you hear income reports where people list high figures and goals it gets really overwhelming and unattainable, and we can’t really compare that progress or those strategies to our business because we feel like the expectations are so different.

So, what we have tried to do is share percentages and profit. We have made it a goal to focus more on profit than big, shiny, sexy revenue, and that goal is continuing into 2020. It feels really good too! So, throughout this episode, we’re going to share percentages of products or expenses in our own business so you can begin to see the weight those things bear on us, and can make easier comparisons with your own business too!

A relevant question recently popped up in our Facebook community, one we felt warranted some unpacking. The question came from someone who wanted to hear from others whose businesses were also past the early stage and now in the season of awkward adolescence. You have made some sales and lined up loyal clients, but you still have higher goals and are eager to learn the next steps. Frankly, you need reliable strategies to get you past this almost-entrepreneur phase ASAP!

We’re in the unique position to offer our advice not only because Boss Project has mastered that stage but because our side hustles are now entering the teenage realm, so we are having to go through all of that again – at this exact moment. But rather than bumming us out, we’re excited about this challenge because it feels familiar now; we’ve been here before and therefore we have a good idea about how to navigate it. Tune in for advice about growing through the awkward teenage phase and running your business like a boss!

It’s probably not much of a long shot to assume many people dream they could meet Oprah in real life. Indeed Abagail spent much of her youth watching the Oprah Winfrey Show as soon as she was old enough. One thing she didn’t realize though was that in all Oprah’s years of her show, she focused so much on everyone else’s story that one rarely heard about her personal life. Oprah protected her personal life for a lot of reasons but Abagail had an opportunity to spend some time with her recently, which sounds unbelievable but it's true!

During her time with Oprah, Abagail learned some really interesting things about how the talk show legend approached habits and intentionality, and the role these played in her huge success. The things Oprah taught Abagail lended huge insight both into her personal life and business, and are tips anybody can take away and apply to themselves. Emylee hadn’t heard much about the trip yet so in this episode, Abagail walks her through some of the exercises around intentionality that Oprah did with her over the weekend to check how they resonate with her. The exercises gave Abagail some new perspectives on things she thought she had a good handle on so make sure you follow along for today’s show.

Life as a successful female entrepreneur can be frazzling with all the different responsibilities you have to take on. Sometimes it can be difficult to know which thing to tackle first! Today on the podcast we have Jessica Korthuis, founder of Sohuis, a marketing and branding education resources company that provides on-demand training for early-stage female entrepreneurs. Jessica is a powerhouse brand strategist marketer, and she has worked with brands like Red Bull, TEDxWomen, Girls Who Code, Stanford University, Bloomingdale’s, and Florida Institute of Technology.

In this episode, we are talking about all the differences between small business ownership and entrepreneurship. We cover marketing tips, feeling the need to do everything and be everywhere, and how to prioritize the stuff that is actually working in your business so you can move forward. Joining this discussion, you’ll hear some top tips for validating your product, how to stop being a perfectionist and take action, and the value of being transparent to build audience trust. There is a lot of mindset-related stuff we are tackling today! Jessica is really in tune with female founders, and the different way intuition works when running a business. So, if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed about what is on your plate and what you have to handle, perfect! This episode will definitely provide some clarity for you.

Oftentimes the people closest to us are the most apprehensive about our business goals and dreams, and this can be isolating. You worry that perhaps you have done the wrong thing as their lack of enthusiasm or support makes you doubt yourself. But have you ever considered that this might be because you going for your dream might remind them that they are stuck? Maybe their skepticism is more about them and how your aspirations make them feel – how it highlights their passivity or the rut they find themselves in. Conversely, it could be your loved ones offer the wrong kind of support or they share their fears around your decisions because they do want you to succeed.

It could be that your spouse is more anxious than you are and that he or she is uncomfortable with you taking risks. As we all know, being an entrepreneur is all about insecurity and unpredictability! In this episode, we share our thoughts about why strangers are often more supportive than our loved ones. We talk about setting boundaries, not giving power to the wrong people, keeping a healthy perspective on the opinions of others, and why it is okay to unfollow people on social media!

Relationships can make all the difference in your business and as many of us have learned, focusing on connections and networking in the right way can take your biz from quiet to booming! Our guest today is Jaclyn Mellone and she helps experts exponentially grow their businesses by becoming an authority in their space. One of the ways that she helps them do this is through authentic relationships. Jaclyn is a coach, strategist, keynote speaker, momma, guac lover and host of the Go-to Gal Podcast! In this episode, she shares how to create strategic relationships and how to utilize them as more than friendships without being weird about it!

For Jaclyn, it all starts with an authentic connection and she breaks down exactly what that looks like. We also talk about how this translates into creating more friends in your own space and work environment and how to utilize these to continue to grow your business in the long term. We cover leveraging relationships, creating intimate connections that fill your cup, and how to jumpstart your biz in a big way!

Someone asked us the other day why it is we still work together after all these years and how we have managed to stay afloat as a business partnership. Most biz partnerships end before the five-year mark and it is crazy that we are approaching that milestone very soon! The truth is we do not really know the answer to the question, so we are taking this opportunity to talk it out and share what we think may have helped to keep us going!

Whether it comes down to balancing our friendship with our business goals or simply maturing together in our venture, we are here to lay it all out for you! We have had a few episodes of the podcast that have dealt with this subject in the past, so definitely go back and check those out if you have not listened to them already. There is something very special and magical about our partnership that is hard to explain in words, but we are still going to try!

Balanced Bombshells is a health and lifestyle brand for high performing women and we are very lucky to have the brains behind the business, Laura Charelle, as our guest today! Laura teaches women how to use their hormones to benefit their active and busy lives and she reminds us that hormones are way more than just your period, fertility and your mother's menopause problems! They impact our thoughts, energy levels and you know they can affect your waistline too! Today we are focusing on how your hormones affect your biz and Laura tells us about the increasingly popular idea of cycle syncing, something that has been coming up in our community more and more. It is all about understanding what your body is going through at different stages of your cycle, all month long and finding out which time is the best for different activities.

Better self-knowledge can lead to improved communication, relationships, productivity and help you achieve what you want out of your life! We recommend that you listen to this episode in full and then go back and take notes on a second listen, there is that much good stuff you do not want to miss! Laura gives us loads of information, free resources and enough to get you really inspired and motivated. We have always felt that we are not really qualified to talk about this topic but have been aware of its importance so we are really pumped to get to share all of this with you all!

For those of you that do not know, we used to work directly with clients, Emylee as a photographer, Abagail as a graphic designer and then as a branding and marketing company together! When you work with clients in this way, selling packages and presenting offers there are strategic ways to do this that can improve your results and help you sell for higher price points. 

This is where we started before diving fully into the online education space. In today's show we want to help you get better at this selling process and here's the good news, you don't even need a website to do it! Listen to this episode to get going, growing and making more money and make sure to listen to the end when we drop some info on two great tools we have set up for you and your business!

Hey, Friends! Let’s talk about email, opt-ins, lead magnets, freebies, and everything else you worry about in your efforts to grow your email list. While you can move a business forward without an email list, you will hit a point where your growth slows down quite drastically, so leveraging email as a platform to engage your audience and remind them about your awesome product or service is a smart move. 

In this episode of Strategy Hour, we break down exactly what an opt-in is, the resources you need to set it up, and what kind of value they can bring to your business. We dish out opt-in ideas for a variety of business types and give you the best practices for introducing a new audience member to you, your business, and what you can offer to help solve their problems. Knowing the steps newbies typically go through as they convert from an opt-in to buy-in is super important as it will help you to be intentional in designing the sequence that gets them there. We also tackle the common question of what to do with those who have opted-in but who are not purchasing anything and give you plenty of all-round great advice for optimizing your email.

You may have wondered what kind of revenue our business made over the holiday season, so today we’re giving you all the details about December. So, even though we’re properly settled into 2020 by now, let’s just backtrack a little to the end of 2019 – because there’s still something we can learn there. During this past December, we took time off for family and enjoying the holidays, but we also prepared ourselves for a big launch in January. We recognized making a big profit was not on the cards for this month as we had other plates spinning and purposefully decided to focus on our long-term vision. 

Sometimes it’s okay not to have profit as your biggest priority each month because as your business evolves, different things are required at different times. Sometimes you have to do the groundwork for what is to come and sacrifice the quick short-term cash and by listening to this episode, you will hear that this was what December looked like for us. Still, we talk about the outstanding performance of our Trello for Business course, why we expected a decline in profit from Strategy Academy, how we’ve rediscovered the power of strategic emails, and a whole lot more!