Category: Tips

A simple system to avoid the content creation time trap

When it comes to creating content, I see soooo many entrepreneurs fall into this time trap.

If you're coming up with new content every single time...hate to tell you this, but you're wasting your valuable time.

Here's a secret for you...creating consistent content that is irresistible to your dream clients shouldn't be a time suck!

I'm so excited to share with you a super simple system that'll make it easy for you to:

have no end of content - all at your finger tips
show up consistently without it taking over your whole life
add value for your dream customers without wasting your valuable time

Thinking this sounds too good to be true? That it must be some weird thing that costs a lot of money? Think again!

All you need is a content bank.

What the heck is a content bank?

A content bank is a database of prewritten/pre-used content that you just keep recycling. The truth is: unless your content is tied to a specific date or trend, it never "goes bad." And repetition is good: firstly, a lot of your audience won't see it the first time around; secondly, with all the content we consume, no one remembers seeing it before or minds seeing it again.

When you are planning your content for the week / 2 weeks / month (whatever the time period you plan for), pull content from your bank. Any new content you create, make sure to add it to the bank to be used again at a later time/date.

Each week, about 75% of my content is recycled from my bank, and 25% is new (which keeps it super fresh and allows me to keep building up my bank).

I keep my bank organized by content themes so that it's easy to find things and so that I can easily keep my content varied and relevant for my audience.

What is Search Marketing? Google ads for business explained.

Marketing is full of buzzwords and all of the shiny new things. It’s all fun and games and awesome ROI if you know what it all means, but if you don’t it’s really just a recipe for overwhelm. We’re going to tackle one of the BIGGEST marketing buzzwords and demystify it: Google Ads – or, Search Engine Marketing.

When a business talks to me about Digital Marketing, they 99% of the time ask about Google Ads. But, when they’re asking, they more often than not…in fact maybe never…actually know what that even is.

Google Ads ARE a very powerful tool for digital marketing. In fact, they have one of the highest conversion rates. So, let’s talk about them and demystify what they are and how to use them effectively.

What exactly is Google Ads?

First things first…Google Ads is actually a whole bunch of things. It’s Display marketing, remarketing, and Search Engine Marketing. Today we’re going to talk about Search Engine Marketing, since that’s normally what people mean when they ask about Google Ads.

Calling it Google Ads is like calling tissues Kleenex, so we are going to call it by its actual name: Search Engine Marketing – often shortened into SEM because BUZZWORDS!!!!

Search Engine Marketing is the PAID placement of text-based ads that are initiated by words and phrases people are searching for on search engines. They are pay-per-click, which means that you only PAY if someone clicks on them.

What’s amazing about them is that, like SEO, only prospects that are ACTIVELY searching for something will come across them. That means that you are reaching people who are already interested in what you are offering.

SEM tends to have one of the lowest costs per conversion among paid tactics. This means that as far as getting your prospect to complete an action – whether a sale or contact or signup – it is one of the most effective and least expensive.

You can do SEM on Yahoo, Bing, or Google. Google is the main one and dominates as the search engine of choice for users. Within Google SEM, you can choose to appear on their search partners, which would give you a bit more reach. We often focus on JUST Google when we are doing SEM campaigns – particularly when we have a more limited budget.

How to use Google Ads effectively

SEM is not the easiest tactic to use. It requires a LOT of management in order to be effective and a comfort in looking regularly at data and statistics. There are a few parts to SEM:

Keyword selection

You need to choose the right keywords for your business and your customer. Think in terms of how prospects and customers actually search for what your service or product is. Think about what language they would use.

You also need to ensure that you are not being too general or people who are not looking for you will see your ad, which can lead to wasted spend or a poor ranking of your ads.

Bid management

For any chosen keyword, there will be a number of brands and companies competing to have their ad shown and to have their ad shown FIRST. You need to decide on how much you want to bid on a keyword.

Copywriting

A well written ad is essential to get users to click on it AND to get the SEM platform to rank you higher. You will want different ads for different groups of keywords so that you can include those keywords in your ad to be more effective.

Landing pages

Search Engines are all about the end user. They want to make sure that wherever they send a user, that person has a GREAT experience and it was just what they were looking for. Think of it as when you refer a friend to a business or restaurant. You want to have faith in your recommendation!

When a search engine sends someone to a page, if that person has a GREAT user experience, then the Search Engine will rank that page higher and want to send more people there. If they have a bad experience, the opposite happens.

You want to make sure your landing page for an ad has the right keywords on it and is relevant to what the searched keyword and the ad are about.

Testing, measuring, and tweaking

A BIG part of SEM is data and analytics. You need to be on top of always checking your keywords, your ads, and what happens when a user lands on your page to tweak and optimize your campaign.

Make sure you have a measure for conversion – whether that is a purchase made online or a contact made with you to complete a purchase offline. This data can be pulled INTO SEM platforms and can help you hone and tweak your campaign to be more effective. This is also an essential part of measuring your ROI.

What can I expect Google Ads to cost me?

A benchmark cost per click – or per visit to your website from an ad – is $1. It can be more or less depending on the popularity of your keyword. A MINIMUM amount to spend per day is $10. A better amount to start with is $20 per day.

If you choose to hire someone to set up and manage your campaign for you, the cost would start at $200-$300 for set up and $300 per month for management. Some agencies charge upward of $1000 per month for management.

While this definitely can feel high, remember that when used effectively, SEM can have one of the lowest conversion cost since it’s targeting people who are warm leads and already searching for something that you are selling. Because of the cost, I recommend using SEM for targeted and shorter-term campaigns rather than year-round.

3 Questions to turn your passion into a business

So, you’re ready to take your side hustle or your passion full time and you’re trying to figure out how exactly it’s going to make you money. Or maybe you’re currently running a business and are looking to explore new income streams to boost your profit.

When it comes to building a profitable business, deciding what you’re selling is a key piece of the puzzle.

There are so many ways to turn your passions and skill into a business offering.

Today we’re talking all about finding the right business idea for you. This might be a product or a service or a way that you deliver your expertise.

For an example, a fitness coach could do individual sessions, group programs, or multi-session one-on-one packages to name three options. All three of those are different ways to package and sell their skills. They could focus on new moms looking to get fit again or specialize in runners who want to prevent injuries and up their game. Those are two very different businesses and offerings.

If you’re selling hand-crafted pottery, you could sell wholesale through stores, online to individuals, hold your own pop-up shops, or sell at craft fairs. You could sell a particular style or really focus on mugs or tea pots or jewellery. Or maybe you might even want to explore hosting DIY pottery events.

So, upside - There are so many options. Downside – all the options can be a bit overwhelming and knowing exactly where to focus your efforts can be a challenge. We can find ourselves splitting our time and trying to do all the things at once, which generally just leads to not doing any one thing really well.

Our brand stands out when we’re really good at one thing. When we have a specific signature style or service or special way we do something. That’s when people take notice.

Not nailing down our business offering can also mean that we might find ourselves pursuing a business model or style that isn’t a good fit for us and that leaves us feeling unfulfilled or burnt out.

You want to create a business offering that will be something you enjoy doing and that fits with what you want out of your business and in a way that will make you the most profit.

The goal is to be profitable while also being sustainable – after all, profit is not that great if you hate every minute of making it.

There are a few ways to help uncover the perfect business product or service or package for you and your dream customer. I’m going to share one way to do so in this post.

We’re going to cover three key things to consider when trying to come up with your business offering. What we’re looking for is where these three things come together. So, where the overlap is.

If you’re testing some ideas you’re kicking around, then the same thing – you want it to be a checkmark in all three boxes.

Is there a market for it?

This is where our audience research comes in handy – does our dream customer want/need what we’re selling? Does it solve a problem/pain point they are having? Does it make their life better or easier or happier?

Is there a business fit for you?

Will you enjoy doing this day in and day out? Will it help you achieve what success means and looks like to you? Will it allow you to live the lifestyle you want?

Is there profit to be had?

When you look at the hard costs and the time costs – so the amount of time you need to put in – is it the most profitable thing you could offer? The most profitable way you can package your skills and passions and put them up for sale. This is where you need to really evaluate costs and how much time things will take you. You don’t have to be 100% here but you need to have a good idea. So, make some calls or send some emails to get some costs where needed and really think through how long things will take – and add at least 10% to that. The time part is really interesting and important because time is our truly limited resource. We could theoretically get more money, but we can’t magic up more time in our lives or our day.

If you’re still trying to figure out some business ideas for your skills and passion and don’t have any yet, add the word “where” in front of the first question.

So: where is there a market? Where is there a business fit? Where is there profit?

If you’re testing a few ideas, run each one through these questions and one will likely emerge as the winner.

You might have a lot of ideas that do very well in one or two of the areas, but that don’t do great in all three. To be profitable and sustainable, you need to find the magic that happens when you have a “yes” to all three questions.

Get your website found on Google

I want to tell you a quick story. A story that could really be a modern day business fable actually…

It is the story of the business owner who builds a website – spending a ton of time doing it themselves or money to pay an expert to do it for them.

And they launch this beautiful website into the world and….nothing happens.

They wait and wait and wait

And …crickets.

No one goes to the site. And they have no idea why and they wonder whether websites are even needed nowadays.

Well.

First thing – yes you DO need a website. Your website is pretty much the only place you have total 100% control over how your brand is shown to your audience in the digital world. Social media is incredibly important as well. But it’s a different channel with a different use and does not readily or intuitively communicate your full brand and business message in one easy way.

With a website, you can showcase your elevator pitch, who you are, what your services are, and your portfolio all in one place that is designed to do just that.

So yes, you need a website.

But your website also needs an audience.

The mistake so many business owners make is believing that if they build it, their dream clients will come.

But it’s not like a café or store that you might walk by and think “hey that looks like it’s for me!” and walk in. It lives in a digital suburb no one is driving to unless they are trying to get there.

If you want your dream audience to come visit you at your website, you have to tell them about it and get found by them by hanging out where they hang out.

There are a few ways to do this, and they work best in combination.

The first few ones are all related to something you have probably heard of. You might even have said it out loud, but you may still not be 100% on what those letters mean. I’m talking SEO. Search Engine Optimization.

A site that is optimized for search engines, will show up in the search results of google, yahoo, etc. when someone types in the right keywords.

So, if you are looking to attract customers looking to buy high end shoes, you want your website to show up on search engines when people are SEARCHING for high end shoes. A website that does this has great SEO.

There are ways to set up your website so it shows up in search results. First, feel reassured that no BRAND NEW website is going to rank high on search engines RIGHT AWAY. Let that take some pressure off.

Think about it this way: when you refer a café or store or restaurant to a friend, you don’t do it lightly. You first make sure that you’ve checked it out, that you know they are solid and that your friend is going to have a good experience.

Search engines act the same way. They want to make sure they are sending their users somewhere GOOD. Somewhere that meets their needs. Somewhere where high end shoe buyers are going to find high end shoes.

Establishing that relationship with a search engine takes time. Building that credibility takes time. But there are some things you can do to build that credibility faster and to get search engines to take notice! We’re going to talk about five ways to do this.

My 5 tips for getting your website found on Google

Size matters

But in this case bigger isn’t better. It’s worst. So much worst.

Large image files on your website take a long time to load. It may only be 3-5 seconds, but in the digital world that is EONS. Between slow load times and a pull on data for mobile devices, search engines don’t like those large websites. It’s important to make sure all your images and files are optimized for web. This is a bit of a line to walk now as people also have larger screens and you don’t want grainy images showing up for them. There are online tools to help you test you site speed; the best call is to play with image sizes and speed and try to find a balance.

Name your images

If you’re uploading photos and images with filenames like IMG001.jpg you are MISSING OUT BABE!

Search engines don’t see images. They see file names and alt text (or the text that loads in place of an image when it doesn’t load or when someone is using an accessibility device to view your site).

Put keywords in your file names and use descriptive alt text – not just for the SEO but because, really, it is a much better experience for those who are using accessibility devices.

Instead of IMG001.jpg how about highendredheels.jpg!

Hierarchy! Aka OUTLINE!

Think about all the times you scan text – whether an email, an article, a website. We allll do it! YES you want people to read every last word, but most people are first looking for relevance or something to catch their eye before they dive in and commit time to reading.

Also, breaking up your website like this makes it MORE READABLE – less just one solid block of text. Search engines like this, too.

For these people you want a bit of an outline on your web pages with some hierarchy – meaning that the more important, the closer to a headline something is, the larger it is.

There are even headline TAGS to use in your website – all the way from H1 for the biggest and more important headline to H5 for the sub sub sub sub headings.

Change it up

If you build one or two pages on your website and forget it, search engines are not going to notice you or find your site particularly engaging for its users.

More content means more places for keywords to live.

More content also means more for a reader to see.

Regularly adding content means that you regularly have new and interesting things for people to see.

Now all these things are easy to accomplish if you have a blog or if you have an online store. But if you don’t have a blog and you don’t feel a blog is right for your audience or is a tactic you want to spend time on, then that’s ok too. You can achieve a good amount of relevant content with key web pages – your about page, services page, home page, and key landing pages. You might find you have tools or new freebies to add as you build and promote your business, and those can all live on your website and help give you a boost with search engines.

Tell people about your website

A lot of business owners launch a website, post once about it on social media and then…that’s it! Tell people regularly about it. Whether it’s showcasing new products and linking to your site, sharing new blog posts, adding it to your email signature, reminding people in your email marketing about it, and so on.

The more people go to your website and check it out, the more search engines are going to know people like going to your website. Plus, search engines aside, this is a great way to get your site in front of your dream clients!

Building a website is exciting, a bit exhausting, and a really fantastic step for your business. Once it’s out there in the world, you want to make sure that all your dream clients are seeing it, visiting it, and finding it often. So, make sure to get in front of your dream clients where they are already and especially when they are looking for what it is that you are offering. Don’t be discouraged if immediately you don’t have a ton of people coming by. Like any and all of your marketing, it is something that requires ongoing work to help it shine.

I've created a free SEO checklist that has steps you can take while writing your blog posts and after it's published to improve their chances of getting seen and drawing your ideal customers to your site.

My Top Tools for Running Your Business with Ease

Running a business is so much more than offering the service or product that you offer. That is likely the part you’re really passionate about - the reason you started a business. But – and you’ve probably already figured this out if you’re along your business journey – it’s only one PART of your business.

Running a business is a lot of admin work, book keeping, marketing – all the behind the scenes stuff that actually makes a business a success. Now large businesses have departments and hired staff for all that. There is often a marketing department and a bookkeeping/finance department. There is often at least one office manager or administrative staff keeping things scheduled and on track.

But when you’re the CEO of your own business, you’re likely also the CMO, CFO, and so on. You’re all the things!!

You need tools and systems that help you wear all the hats without the headache.

A time tracking app

If you’re running a service based business, when you’re pricing your services and putting out quotes or estimates, you want to make sure that you’re pricing them right – meaning you want to make sure that the time you’re putting into a project is what you’re getting paid for. This is super hard for many of us, and it’s something that tends to cause a lot of unnecessary stress.

There is actually a psychological phenomenon called the Planning Fallacy where people underestimate how long a task will take them. If you’re working for yourself, this can really mess with your action plans and flow. But it can also mean that you’re not getting paid what you should be getting paid.

To help me solve that business problem and take the stress out of the “how long will this take” question, I use Paymo, a time tracking tool.

I use it to track everything I do and I break the projects down into task types. And then I use that data for future projects so that I know how long a project will take me. I then use that data the next time I am creating a quote or deciding when I am available to take on a project that comes up – or if I even have the availability.

If you’re running a product based business, knowing how long tasks take you is equally important. If your product takes you 20 hours to make and you’re only charging $100 um…you need to know that so you can increase your prices RIGHT NOW.

Quickbooks: the book keeper of your dreams

Let me share with you one of the most embarrassing things that I have done in my business because of how much I hate bookkeeping admin. I have not billed clients – more than once. I’ve finished the project, they’ve been ready to pay me, and I just ghost them. Like never sent them an invoice and then ignored all their emails and never spoke to them again because I was so embarrassed.

Bookkeeping is one of the most annoying business admin things that we need to do as an entrepreneur. Tracking expenses, remembering which clients have paid and which haven’t, following up with the right ones, billing billable expenses to clients, categorizing everything, reconciling bank accounts and blah blah bleh.

When I work with clients on their businesses, bookkeeping is something that comes up a lot.

I am so excited to tell you that there is a better way. I use Quickbooks. I love Quickbooks. It has taken like 90% of my bookkeeping stress away. It means that I actually DO my bookkeeping, which is an amazing win in and of itself.

Yes, it costs money. I pay about $40 a month. Something to know about me is that I am capital F Frugal. I don’t like spending money on things. I hate subscription products. And I’ll usually put in 8 hours of time finding workarounds on a free product rather than pay. But for me a good bookkeeping software is SO worth it. Plus it saves me money because:

I record my expenses, which means I can report them for tax time
I can track my invoices to ensure I'm getting paid
I no longer pay late fees for being late on my GST

A social media scheduler

When I lead social media workshops or work with clients on their social media strategies, I’m often asked about scheduling. Hey, I get it, you can’t always be at the ready to post on social media. Even when you’ve planned it all out and batch created your content and are good to go - stuff comes up.

There are a whole whack of scheduling tools out there to try out. I use Hootsuite. The free version lets you have three social media profiles connected so you can schedule your posts, tweets, grams, ahead of time. So, you can schedule to your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and so on. If you’re looking to stay on top of your content strategy and put out consistent content, you’ll want to check out HootSuite.

Workflows

This one I’m about to share is a game changer. It’s my absolute favourite tool. It’s actually a system.

It’s not only going to save you a ton of time and make you feel like the most organized on-top-of-all-the-balls CEO ever, but it’s also going to eliminate a lot of human error that can cost you money or lead to things not going as smoothly as they could go.

Workflows.

Workflows are like having a project manager on your team. It’s like having a full time executive administrator making your life easier and watching out for all the small details that you with the millions of things on your plate might miss.

Creating workflows for your business is all about taking those big tasks you do and turning it into a sequence of events. It:

captures all the details and it captures when things need to happen and in what order so that you can stay on track and not forget anything.
anticipates any questions or issues that might come up and acts as a preventative measure.
breaks down big overwhelming tasks into step-by-step action plans.
Plus, if it is a task you do more than once, it saves a ton of time because you don’t need to reinvent the wheel every single time.

One workflow that I teach in my Content Marketing workshops is all about streamlining how you create content. For an example of a super simplified workflow for this...

Looking at the month, fill in any important dates (sales you’re having, holidays, events you’re hosting, “national days”, and so on.)
Using placeholders, map out which content pillars you are sharing when
Map out where your “sell” messages will go
Brainstorm ideas for content for each of the placeholders
Write the content
Find visuals
Proofread
Schedule all your content for the month

You can use workflows for client onboarding, you can use them for when you’re training new staff, you can use them for your monthly book keeping or quarterly business evaluation. Any task that you do somewhat regularly and you want to streamline, you can use a workflow for.

I teach how to use and create workflows in detail and much more fully in the Business Foundations Bootcamp. Plus, in that program, I share a bunch of my workflows so you get full access to project systems you can copy and paste for your business.

3 Super Powerful Ways to Target Audiences with Facebook Ads

The power of audience targeting

The ability for refined and niche targeting is a huge part of what makes Facebook Ads so powerful and what can help to stretch a small budget a long way.

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is trying to reach everyone instead of focusing on a specific target audience.

The thing is, when you try to talk to everyone, you’re effectively talking to no one. Plus, you’re wasting your money. Why try to sell to people who will never be your customer? Or to people who you don’t want to be your customer.

With Facebook Ads, you can find your customers and serve ads just to them. This is really quite possibly single handily the most powerful part of Facebook Ads. You can create highly defined and custom audiences in Facebook Ads so that you can manage who is seeing what ads and when.

There is really no end to the targeting you can do in Facebook Ads.

We are going to share three of our favourite super powerful targeting strategies to use with Facebook Ads.

1. Location Targeting

If you have an event or workshop you are trying to promote, or if you want to build up your local customer base, location targeting is a great tool to use. To take this targeting feature one step further, you can select three criteria for the location of your audience:

Your audience lives in the location you are targeting;
Your audience is visiting the location you are targeting; or
Your audience was recently in the location you are targeting.

The default setting for location targeting is all three. But, if you are a business whose dream customers are tourists to your city or town, then you may only want your ads to be shown to tourists. And if you're running a workshop and trying to build your brand in your community, then you may only want to target residents rather than spending money to get your ads in front of people who won't be around for very long.

2. Life Events Targeting

If you are selling products or services for new parents, for weddings, or to help people celebrate a key milestone in life, then you definitely want to take advantage of the life event targeting feature in Facebook Ads. You can build audiences of people who are at a key milestone and show them ads that tell them why your business is the perfect fit to help them celebrate and rock that life event.

3. Interest Targeting

When we talk marketing, we often talk about three kinds of audiences: those who buy your product or service already, those who never would, and those who don't yet but could be easily sold to. The thing is, don't waste your time or money selling to people who will never be your customer. Frankly, even if you could sell to them, you wouldn't really want to because they aren't your dream customer!

Interest targeting let's us put our money and effort into only getting ads in front of people who will buy or who are likely to buy by building audiences that have interests that our brand and business caters to. If you are a wellness business, target those who are interested in health and wellness. If you are a travel company, target those who like to travel. And so on.

Using these targeting features to create audiences that really align with your Dream Customer will help you serve the right ads to the right people so that you can crush your marketing and business goals.

How to start a business – a guide of things to consider before launching

So many people are starting a freelance business or side hustle of some sort these days, and we get questions almost weekly about how to set a business up, what steps to follow, and what things you need to know. Over the last week alone, we've gone over the basics with three people! So, we thought - it's time to dish the details.

This isn't a post about knowing your audience, marketing to the right people, or putting together an operations budget - more on those details later. This is a post about the legal and logistical things you need to consider and do in order to have a real, live business. What will your business name be? Should you incorporate? Do you need insurance? What is GST? How will people pay you?

There's a lot to consider but we have you covered. Whether you are launching the next big thing or setting up a small side hustle, the answers to your questions and the things you need to consider are in this guide. Download the SMRT Women Quick Start Guide for our basic primer on how to get started.

Caveat - we live in Whitehorse, Yukon so the steps that follow are relevant to our City. However, the basic steps apply anywhere in Canada. I recommend speaking with your local chamber of commerce or City permitting office to make sure you've crossed all of your "T"s and dotted all of your "i"s. This article is not a substitute for legal or financial advice. Please make sure you talk to a lawyer or accountant and talk to Government of Canada, your provincial/territorial business and your local municipal government as needed to make sure you have followed all the appropriate steps.

SMRT POP UPS and SMRT WOMEN makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information in this article and we will not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this information or losses, damages or injuries, arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. The user must verify their own facts.

Tips for Public Speaking For Female Entrepreneurs

Whether you are pitching your idea to an investor, creating a sales video, sharing on a conference panel, or launching a keynote your ability to speak with comfort and confidence about your business or organization is an important skill to have.

In episode 4 of the SMRT Women podcast we sit down with Colette Acheson, local management consultant to talk all things public speaking. Colette is a business owner and non-profit manager several times over. She has honed her public speaking skills in the trenches and in Toastmasters meetings.

Check it all out below.

Just do it

The only way to get better is to just do it. Practice in front of a mirror, video tape yourself, practice for your friends - but know that no amount of practice except the actual act of speaking in public will be practice to get you more comfortable and more experienced. Welcome and invite any opportunity no matter how small to flex your public speaking muscles. Pick one thing you want to work on - removing your ums and ahs, working with your voice, figuring out how to hold your hands - and focus on it. Take every failure as a learning opportunity.

It’s a whole body project

When you speak your whole body is communicating. Take the time to explore how you stand and gesture with your body to communicate emphasis, but also pay attention to your voice and your jaw. Give them a proper warm up before you ask them to run a marathon.

Embrace the Pause

Take a deep breath before you begin. Slow your body down. Take a deep breath between parts of your speech - give your audience a moment to catch up - to let your words sink in. It feels like a million years up there when all eyes are on you, but it’s a short second for the audience and a welcome one.

It’s always about the audience

What does your audience need to feel and connect with to believe your credibility? Do they want to be entertained? How can you work with voice, presence and posture, language and storytelling to convey that and get the message across. Are you connecting? It’s important to learn to listen and observe as you speak so you can shift and pivot to keep the audience’s attention as you work through your presentation.

Schedule your business for freedom and profits

Ever felt like your business was running you instead of the other way around?

You know - like your working way more hours than you want to doing stuff that doesn't feel that fun sometimes, or like when you just feel like you are a hot mess all over the place.

Yeah - that's a thing.

We've got some help. Check out the video for a quick and dirty scheduling exercise designed to get you thinking about the life you want to live and how you can design your business to give you the freedom you crave. Cause that's part of why you started your own business in the first place no?

Before we forget, here is a FREE downloadable worksheet to walk you through the activity.

4 Tips for Self Promotion

Self-promotion is not a four-letter word

Do you struggle to describe to people exactly what you do? Does the thought of telling others about your accomplishments make you cringe? Do you worry that someone is going to pull back the curtain and reveal you as a fraud at any time?

You are not alone! Many many women struggle to self-promote effectively. It’s like we are allergic to it. So much so that it tops the list of career blocks for women across all industries.

And yet, self-promotion is a critical skill - in landing that great contract, in selling your product, in building a community of champions who are connected to what you do and the impact you are trying to make in the world. We have to be visible for our businesses to succeed. Customers can’t buy what they can’t see.

We've pulled together our four top tips for singing your own praises to promote yourself AND your business:

Notice moments of pride and success. Did a client praise your work? Did you rock that contract? Collect these and save them...Make your own "I've SO got this!" scrapbook for a rainy self-doubt-y day!
Focus on the facts - what are some of the awesome things you accomplished? Did you handle a difficult situation with tact and ease? Did you sell a bunch of your product? Did you help someone achieve their goals?
Share your passion - speak to the why of your business. Do you love helping people feel healthier so they can have their best lives? Do you love feeding people delicious foods that light up their tastebuds? Do you love helping people tell their story through photos?
Frame it in terms of what you did for your client. Were they super lost when it came to healthy eating and why they were so tired all the time, and with just some small manageable tweaks to their diet they are now waking up bright eyed every morning ready to take on life?!

Remember: People want to hear your story. They want to know what you're up to and what it is that energizes you. So tell them! There's no "ick" in owning the facts of what you did, what it achieved, and why you loved doing it!

Plan your Social Media Content like a Boss

This vid is all about one of our FAVOURITE tools when it comes to rocking your content marketing. It's going to help you pump out superstar social media content that's on point and on brand every. single. time.

One of the biggest challenges our small business clients talk to us about is struggling to create content for their blogs, newsletters, and social media channels. It can be incredibly difficult to consistently create content, let alone create quality content that connects with your audience.

In this video, Selene shares a tool that is a serious game changer when it comes to keeping your content flowing, on brand, and on point with your audience. It’s a tool that we use for all of our social media clients. It’s called a content calendar.

Watch the video to learn more about content calendars: what they are, WHY they are so AWESOME, and how to use them to rock YOUR content.

Oh and then download our FREE content calendar template so you can do your own after this mini tutorial.

Category: Tips

What the heck is a content bank?

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Is there profit to be had?

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Download Your Free Content Calendar Template Now

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