The Amy Porterfield Show

A lot of you have asked me if it's a good idea for you to start planning live events. You see the entrepreneurs you admire staging weekend retreats where they get up and set their audience on fire with excitement, education and motivation. Maybe you've even been to one and thought "Hey, I could do that!"

The short answer is Yes! I started planning and participating in live events very early in my business, and while my inexperience made it a little terrifying at first, I couldn't deny the powerful boost it gave me--not just in terms of leads, but also in terms of confidence.

That's why I invited Rich Brooks to join me on the show today. Rich is a small business owner who just happens to be an event-planning powerhouse. I asked Rich to let me pick his brain for the fundamentals of planning a successful live event.

The Who and the Why

If you've ever attended Rich's amazing Agents of Change conference in Portland, Maine, it may surprise you to learn that his live event track record began with a simple lunch meeting.

The purpose of a live event isn't to wow everyone with your multimedia presentations and dynamic speeches. Those are great bells and whistles to add as you gain experience, but the real heart of a live event is to do four things:

• Get your name out there and establish your credibility
• Differentiate yourself from competitors
• Generate leads for business
• Turn a profit

The more you work on your online marketing, the more you start to notice how crowded it is out there. It's getting harder and harder to get noticed in people's social media feed, no matter how valuable your content is. So why not get the edge on your competitors and take your message directly to your audience, face to face?

Yes, it takes more time and effort to plan an event than to post something on Facebook. But, Rich says,

"A live event could be that thing that really separates you and raises you above all of the other people out there in your industry. If you are looking to kind of change up the way you engage with people, a live event may be the perfect thing for you."

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3 Phases of a Live Event: Speakers, Sponsors and Seats

Rich says that all live event planning boils down to these three phases.

• Speakers - Getting people to offer valuable content for your audience
• Sponsors - Getting people to contribute to your audience's experience
• Seats - Getting people to show up in your audience

First Things First - Who Is This For?

Before you start worrying about getting people to show up (we'll talk about that later), spend some time thinking about who you want to show up. The key thing here is quality over quantity. Here's what Rich has to say about it:

"The #1 is that you are putting on an event for people. Who is this audience? What do they look like? Who is your avatar? What kind of information do they want to consume? What are they looking to accomplish? What are they looking to do?"

As in all other forms of marketing, you need to narrow in on your ideal audience member, and design the perfect event for them. I know it's counterintuitive, but being super specific will actually help you attract more people.

Once you know who you're planning this event for, you'll have a firm foundation to build on with the three phases.

Phase 1: Speakers

Phase 2: Sponsors

Click here to download this week's free giveaway.

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Phase 3: Seats

Find out more ways to fill the seats at your live event! Listen to the full episode here.

...And Just One Two More Things

What do I charge?

How much should I promote?

Try to time your more obvious promotions around FOMO-inducing moments in the sales process. Announcing Early Bird discounts, One Day Only specials, "Seats Are Rapidly Selling Out!" messages, etc. are perfect opportunities to jog people's memories that they want to attend.

Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a challenge with your business and wondering,

“How did I get here…again?!”

Nothing feels worse than the suspicion that you’ve been spinning your wheels for the past month. (Or quarter. Or year.) The last thing we want is to get caught in a downward spiral, where we never get to overcome our struggles and rise past a certain level.

But what if that spiral was actually going up, not down?

I spoke with Nathalie Lussier, world-class digital strategist and email building expert, about this problem that confronts all of us: how to understand the recurring patterns in our business.

Not only does she give some sage advice on how to deal with these patterns, but she shows how embracing them can actually help you build your business by narrowing your niche.

We usually think of business strategy as being a line between Point A and Point B…and measure our success by how straight that line is.

But in real life, Nathalie says, the path is more like a spiral staircase. As we make our way up to the next level, we revisit the same issues, challenges and themes over and over again. 

When you come up against circumstances that make you think “How did I get here again?”, flip the way you’re looking at them. Even if it’s the same issue, you’re in a different place with it than you were six months (or even six weeks) ago.

What’s more, each time you revisit that same situation, you learn something a new and deeper lesson about it, which you can then pass on to your target audience. They’re all climbing spiral staircases of their own, and they need your story to help them keep going.

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Narrowing Your Niche Helps You Ask for What You Want

Think about some of your mini-goals for this quarter. Maybe you want to get published in a prominent magazine or website. Maybe you want to speak at someone’s live event, or host an event of your own. Maybe you want to join forces with another business.

These kinds of opportunities don’t usually come knocking—you have to ask for them. Chances are, you’re one of several people asking.

But when you have a clearly defined, highly specific niche, you’re bringing something to the table that will stand out. 

Your niche gives you leverage to show why what you have to say matters, who is going to listen, and how success in that opportunity can be measured. Those are win-wins for you and the person you’re asking.

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Narrowing Your Niche Reconnects You with the Deeper Meaning of Your Business

Take a minute to really search your soul. What are you really passionate about changing in the world? Whom do you feel the most empathy for? Whose troubles do you burn to solve?

Your compassion is a powerful indicator of where your niche really lies. Identify the people whose struggles motivate you the most, and let them become co-creators of your business by defining your work around their needs.

“A lot of times, we get caught up in the logistics and the analytics, what’s the conversation rate, what’s the opt-in rate… Just remember that there’s a human being on the other side of that screen who has their own heartbeat, hopes, dreams and goals. When I’m sending an email, I’m not sending an email to my list—I’m sending an email to all these incredible human beings.”

Next time you find yourself in an all-too-familiar position in your business, don’t lose heart. Look for the opportunities it offers—opportunities that you’d never have seen last time you were in this place. There’s nothing wrong with a spiral if it’s leading you upward.

I started out this year with a fully fleshed-out calendar. I knew exactly what I was going to do, when we were going to promote, when we were not going to promote, when I was going to take vacations, etc. Everything was planned.

Well, as you probably know, things change as the year gets going. As entrepreneurs, the challenge is to be flexible enough to seize good opportunities, but not so flexible that we lose all our momentum.

Now that it's July--where did the time go?--I decided to hit "pause" in the calendar flow and regroup.

I'm going to walk you through a simple, powerful exercise to evaluate where you are right now in your business, what’s working, what’s not working, and what needs to change.

I've also created a downloadable template that helps you chart your progress in this exercise. You can get it by clicking here.

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Ready? Let's get started.

Step #1 - Review Your Week

Write down every single thing you can remember you’ve done in the last seven days. I mean everything--creating content, training, phone calls, reading emails, writing emails. It's crucial to know how you've been spending your time.

Step #2 - Perform a Brain Dump

Think ahead to the next six months, and write down all of the things you need to get done. People to contact, products to create, events to attend, blog posts to write . . . I mean everything. (Warning--don't use this as an opportunity to come up with new ideas! This is just for what you've got in the works right now.)

Step #3 - Identify the Revenue

Now that you've got your list of six months into the future, take a highlighter pen and highlight every item on that list that will produce revenue for you, either directly or indirectly.

Learn more about how you can successfully "regroup." Click here to listen to the full episode.

Step #4 - Identify Misspent Time

Now take another highlighter pen in a different color, go back to the list you made in Step #1, and highlight the tasks that were either a big waste of your time or that you could have delegated but didn't.

Now go back to the Six Month list, take a third highlighter pen, and highlight all of the things that you could either do farther into the future, or that can be leveraged or delegated.

Lots of highlighter action, I know. But this is all about identifying where you should and shouldn't be spending your time.

Step #5 - Color Code Your Calendar

I use Google calendar, which makes it very easy to highlight each entry in a certain color. The point is that to have different colors for different categories--planning a project, upcoming deadlines, content creation, podcasting, being interviewed with someone else, even time off or personal errands (like getting my hair cut).

Once you do this, you can step back and see the big picture of your schedule. Where are your biggest blocks of time being spent? Is that enough, given what you know about your work flow? Are you spending enough of your week doing the things you really love?

After all, isn't that a big part of why we start our own business?

Don't forget to download Amy's template that walks you through this whole exercise, step by step. Click here to get it.

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At this point, it's time to pat yourself on the back, take a walk, breathe deeply.

That's the whole point of this exercise--giving yourself more room to breathe. You now have a bird's-eye view of what your schedule really looks like. You know where you need to focus your time. You know what things you can quit doing or delegate.

Without these moments to regroup, the day-to-day hustle can start to consume you. These regular check-ins with your schedule will put you back in charge of your business.

For busy entrepreneurs, the About page of a website is one of the easiest to put off. You might throw a few vital details up there, like your name (always a good place to start) and your credentials, and promise yourself to fill it out later. Maybe you even go back and try adding some details that paint a fuller picture of you as a person.

But for many, no matter how hard they work on it, their About page just falls flat. It feels fake, like you’re pretending to be someone you’re not. And that makes sense—we’re all taught never to brag about ourselves…so it feels pretty strange to suddenly write a whole page about why your customers should think you’re so great!

That’s why I’m so happy to introduce you to Melissa Cassera. She’s a publicity expert (as well as a screenwriter and an actress), and if you read her own About page, you can see that she is an expert on how to write about yourself in a way that comes out warm, genuine and authentically irresistible.

Why Is An About Page Important?

Melissa compares the About page to the gown a Hollywood actress wears on the “red carpet.” It’s the way to show off both your importance and your individuality at once, impressing people and engaging them at the same time. The About page is where you give people just enough information about you to want to know more.

In other words, you don’t want to give away the whole story on your About page—it’s their intro to all the excitement that awaits if they choose to work with you. For the reader, it should feel like they’ve met you in person, looked you in the eye and shaken your hand.

So how do you convey that feeling in words?

Think About How You Serve the World

Rather than begin by talking about what you do, begin your About page with a line or two about why you do it. This should be the element that guides you through the writing process for your About page. If you get stuck or are wondering if you are including the right kinds of details, ask yourself if what you’ve written paints a picture of the world/society/lifestyle/change that you are trying to build with what you do.

 Show Your Non-Professional Side

Would it surprise you to learn that the part of your About page that really sells you is the part where you talk about something besides work? This, Melissa says, is what really seals the emotional connection with people and allows them to get to know you on a more personal level. Not only that, but this section is what sets you apart from your competition. Nobody else has the same story, the same style, the same lovable quirks and personal motivations that you have.

As Melissa says in her "Better Bio Challenge" blog post,

"Personal details aren’t 'frivolous' — they anchor you in the reader’s mind and showcase the 'person' behind the 'business.' Try to include at least ONE little detail about your passions, guilty pleasures + personal life, in your bio — and you’ll sparkle off the page, every time."

Create an “Action Step”

By now, your audience has fallen head over heels in love with you…so what’s the next step? Where does the relationship go from here? Melissa says this is the moment to offer them a concrete action step. Offer a free opt-in gift, list links to your five most popular blog posts, tell them to contact you to set up a consultation. Whatever your specific action step is, make it simple and immediate for them to make the next move.

Get more of Melissa's suggestions for making your About page actionable. Click here to hear the full interview.

The Bottom Line: What Is Fame For? 

Melissa has a stellar blog post called “Four Questions to Help You Identify What's Not Working in Your Biz...And Make It Better.” In it, she offers this really thought-provoking quotation:

Two weeks ago, in Episode #62, I reviewed the project plan I use for all of my promotions. And if you downloaded the free Project Plan Checklist that I offered, you might have had some questions about the bigger action items on that list.

I'm going to break down some of those bigger items in upcoming episodes. Today, though, I'm going to walk you through some of the details that led to the overwhelming success of this promotion.

This blog post is going to be just a tease for the podcast, for the simple reason we cover a lot of ground in the audio version! If you haven’t listened to this week’s episode yet, I really encourage you to download and enjoy the whole thing.

But for now, here are the basics:

Launch in Review

My recent launch of the Profit Lab was very different from past launches. I took some risks by changing things up and I’ll be honest—I was a little worried. But those risks paid off in a big way. It turned out to be the most successful launch I've ever done, with sales just under a million dollars, and some amazing new insights that will make future launches just as profitable.

Here's what really paid off this time:

Consistent Content

Surveying My Audience

A Targeted Giveaway

Educating My Target Market

Rebranding

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Retargeted Ads

There are so many more details of this launch that I want to share with you, including what worked and what didn’t work so well, especially when it came to running Facebook and Google ads. These details will be immensely helpful alongside this week’s free download.

Last year, one of my most popular podcasts was an interview with John Lee Dumas. But I invited him back this week because I wanted to talk about podcasting again, in a whole new way.

Today, I want to focus on about podcasting for somebody who already has a platform. Maybe you have a business with a blog. Maybe you have an online training program or course that you’re constantly perfecting and promoting from one year to the next. Maybe you are a coach or consultant.

Bottom line, you have something important to say. And maybe you’ve been thinking the podcast thing seems to be growing even bigger, and might be a good way to help your business get bigger, too.

Well, you’re right. It is.

No question, podcasting requires a fair amount of work, especially to get it all set up. But it can also be a huge boost to your business’ visibility, to establishing your brand as a leader, and ultimately to your sales.

John is a podcasting superhero. His show Entrepreneur on Fire is consistently ranked among iTunes’ top business podcasts—he even got a Best of iTunes recognition within his first year! More impressively, though, he puts out a new episode every day! (As in seven days a week—no weekends off for this guy.) This makes him the perfect person to explain why podcasting is worth it, how he gets it done, and how he manages to stay fired up about it every single week.

Why Should You Podcast?

As entrepreneurs, we are always looking for other avenues to grow our audience. That’s why we use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, that’s why we blog and send emails to our list. The podcasting sphere is just another way to reach more people—a lot more people. iTunes has 525 million active subscribers, and SoundCloud, Stitcher and Spotify are catching up fast.

Podcasters are an obsessive crowd—they are constantly looking for new content to listen to during their commute, while walking their dog, while they’re waiting at the airport…you name it!

That’s the great thing about podcasting—it doesn’t require you to say “no” to something else, the way a lot of content does. In our multi-tasking culture, it’s the perfect way to get your message heard and deliver free, valuable and consistent content to your audience.

But Wait...There's More!

John has some incredible free content for you. If you want to learn about how to find your ideal podcast topic, your ideal podcast listener, how to get your show noticed in the ever-growing podcast arena, and so much more, click here to get into his free podcasting workshop.

You know me--I teach what I know best. And what I know by now, more than anything, is that the key to making a sales plan work is having a proven, foolproof system. 

So today, I'm going to walk you through my project management system, line by line. This is one I've spent hours mapping out with my team. Some of it will be familiar to you, but it's in the little details that you'll find the most value--the tiny things that make your promotion polished, professional and, most importantly, effective.

Another great thing about putting together a promotion with this system is that it sets up your content to be "evergreen"--meaning you can use it over and over again to sell your product and build your business.

There's a lot of content in this post and in the podcast. But don't worry. I've put together a special checklist for you, so that you can put all this information into action right off the bat. No matter what kind of promotion you're planning, this checklist has all the basic steps you need to make sure it launches successfully.

Click here to download it instantly.

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I divide all my promotional planning into three categories:

• The Pre category is everything you do before the cart opens (i.e., your product becomes available for sale).
• The Live category is everything you do when the cart is open.
• The Post category is everything you do after the cart closes.

I've launched promotions in the past that I've had just a few weeks to pull together. As my business has grown, I've had more time to plan and prepare. But here's the thing: it's never enough time! Let me encourage you to always get started on this system earlier than you think. There will always be last-minute tasks that have you scrambling. That scramble will be a lot less stressful, the sooner you get started. (Right now, I'm already starting on this system for a promo set to launch in October!)

Category #1: Pre-Promotion

Category #2: Live Promotion Maintain the New Customers Area

Category #3: Post Promotion Shut Down Ads Redirect Promo Pages to Your Waitlist Remove Promotional Imagery from Website/Social Media Celebrate! 

I’m always ready for a virtual champagne toast by the end of the process. I also send out thank-you notes to everyone who has helped: team members, affiliates, experts, etc.

As humans, we are hardwired to connect emotionally with visual content. Pictures in particular--we process them very quickly--faster than text, video, or audio. Pictures allow us to make a really quick decision about whether we are going to engage with something.

It's no secret that some of the most successful brands in the world owe their popularity to their visual content strategy. Notice I said strategy--in other words, not just any visual content will do.

Fortunately, one of the world's biggest experts in visual social media and content strategy is also a good friend of mine.

You probably know Donna Moritz already as the power behind Socially Sorted, the award-winning blog about using visual content on social media. I know her as my #1 student from the very first Profit Lab course I ever launched. She's also shown up on this site more than once.

But today, Donna is here to school me--and you--in how to set up a visual content strategy that supports your sales and sends your message.

She's also put together an amazing freebie for us--a three-part video series that walks you through the process of creating polished imagery. This is where you'll learn how to use all the tools mentioned in this episode. Trust me--it's a must-have.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get Donna Moritz's Free Guide To Creating Visual Content

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Before she became the renowned expert she is today, Donna learned all the ins and outs of visual content strategy through simple practice. After working in several different businesses--sometimes for others, sometimes for herself--she saw how visual content really created that initial resonance with a target audience that makes them want to learn more.

The main thing with your visual content is to "stop the scroll"--in other words, arrest your audience's attention so that their finger pauses above their mouse or smartphone screen, and they take the time to engage with your message.

The more Donna learned, the more excited she got about the potential of various kinds of visual content. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by the sheer variety of visual content styles out there, don't worry--Donna is here to break it into three basic levels.

These are the really easy-to-create, easy-to-share individual images that would be on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Think funny photos, behind-the-scenes shots, images that incorporate quotes, tips or other short bits of text. They are really a good jumping-off point to lead into a longer message.

2. Step-by-Steps

3. Showpieces

There's so much more to learn about visual content strategy in my interview with Donna, so make sure to listen to the whole episode. Also, click here to get the amazing freebie she designed for us--it's a three-part video series where she walks you through the specifics of how to create images. It's a must-have for anyone who's ready to put their visual content strategy into action.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get Donna Moritz's Free Guide To Creating Visual Content

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When it comes to communicating the value of a product or service, Ray Edwards is a true legend in the industry. I met him way back in my corporate job days when my boss hired him to work his magic on a new sales letter for a product we were launching. That was when I saw the true power that words can have in generating sales and building a business. Since then, I decided to become a devoted student of copywriting, and a student of Ray’s, in particular.

Why Is Persuasion So Important?

In a perfect world, we could just say “Here’s what I have, it’s good, buy it if you want to,” and all the right people who need our product would click Purchase. But the thing is, we’ve all become really smart, and really skeptical.

Ray points out that even Apple isn’t immune to the need for writing sales copy—they’re just so good at how they present it that we don’t realize we’re consuming their copywriting!

Very few of us like thinking about “sales writing.” It makes us think of smarmy used car salesmen, trying to con hardworking people out of their money. Ray is familiar with this aversion to copywriting, and here’s how he explains the way to avoid sounding “sales-y”:

"I think people get confused about persuasion versus manipulation. I like to define the difference this way: persuasion results in you making a buying decision that you will celebrate later; manipulation leads to you making a buying decision that you will regret later.

"The key to guiding your clients toward a decision they will celebrate is—no surprise—knowing your clients really well! You think of the problem that you’re solving, and you write about it from the perspective of the person who has the problem, and you describe their pain. Someone once said that the more accurately you can describe the pain of the person you’re selling to, the more they feel as though you automatically have the solution to the problem.

Whew. Great stuff, huh?

Get even more of Ray's insights on how genuine, emotionally persuasive copy can make selling a breeze. Click here to listen to the whole episode. 

Okay, now let’s get into the nuts and bolts of writing great copy.

Ray has a couple of frameworks that he teaches anyone who is trying to improve their copywriting skills. The first one is called...

The "Pastor" Framework

This one gets its name from the original meaning of the word “pastor”—having to do with being a shepherd. (Kind of an old meaning of the word…look it up.) Not only does this word help you remember the purpose of your business—to help and take care of people with what you sell—but it also just happens to be a handy acronym for setting up the points of your sales page.

P — Problem

A — Amplify

S — Story

T — Testimonial

O — Offer

R — Response

Ask people to take action.

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This last piece of the Pastor framework brings up an important point that should be present in your copy:

Any Decision Is Better Than No Decision

Step #1: The Existing Situation

Step #2: The Dream Solution

Step #3: Discovering the Trusted Guide

Step #4: Presenting the Unique Solution

Step #5: Describe the Features

Step #6: Describe the Benefits

Step #7: The Transformative Offer

Step #8: Present Proof

Step #9: Justify the Value

Step #10: Eliminate Fear and Risk

Step #11: Offer Bonuses

Step #12: Invite a Decision

Make sure to listen to my full podcast interview with Ray Edwards--we covered so much more than I could fit into this blog post! And don't forget to sign up to receive more than 100 templates for writing your own persuasive headlines and emails. This is the stuff that Ray normally offers only to students of his copywriting course, so you're not going to want to miss it!

One of the business guides I return to again and again is the book Great Leads. This book tells you everything you need to understand about communicating with your audience in a way that cultivates the relationship and results in increasing sales.

No matter how many times I've read this book, I'm always blown away by the statistic they open with:

“80% of emotional impact will be determined by the first 20% of the copy.”

Did you know that? Because I sure didn’t!

The first few hundred words of your copy are known as “the lead.” And if those first hundred words are the entryway to a sale, your headline is the front door that every client has to walk through, in order to get to your product.

Of course, what you really want is for them to be stampeding through!

To get this, you need a killer headline for your sales page.

Four Essentials of a Killer Headline

#1: The Rule of One

#2: You need to provoke emotion.

#3: Determine Which Lead to Use

#4 Determine Your Reader's Awareness Level

Creating a Gateway for Your Ideal Customer

As you might remember from earlier episodes, there are a few different ways to determine your target market's awareness level. Go back and listen to Episodes 55 and 56 if you need a refresher.

Or, if you're ready to take a deep dive into the strategies for finding your ideal audience, you can sign up now for the Profit Lab--but hurry! Registration is closing soon, and today is the last day to get a massive "early bird" discount on this course.

Finally, click here to download this week's free guide--it will walk you through each of these four essentials to create a killer sales page headline of your very own.

Last week, I put out an invitation on my Facebook page. I invited you to throw all your questions about online marketing at me! What do you want to know? Where are you stuck? What are you confused about?

Well, the overwhelming majority of the questions people posted on my Facebook page were about--surprise!--Facebook. And the questions showed me that it's time for a major reframing of how we think about Facebook. Most people are just not looking at Facebook in a way that's going to serve them.

And since my mission is to help you get results with your online marketing, including your Facebook marketing, we’ve got to address that...stat!

The Facebook System that Changes Everything!

Larissa asks:

"How do I increase my FB followers? It seems I have hit a plateau. Also, I don’t want to spend copious amounts of money with FB ads…I feel they keep changing the algorithm to line their pockets by making you pay for advertising through them, and no one will see your post." If you feel this way about Facebook ads, then I’m guessing they haven’t been working for you. And believe me, I don't want you using Facebook ads if you're not generating revenue.

This is where we need a reframe. I want to help you see FB as a place where putting in a little bit of money will result in bringing back a lot of money.

The first thing to realize is that Facebook ads cannot work on their own. You have to incorporate them into a social media sales funnel--a system that turns your fans and followers into subscribers to your email list, and turn those names into paying clients. 

I know lots of people who make money every week from Facebook ads, but they aren't just using that ad to send people to their sales page. They're using those ads as part of their sales funnel system. That’s the key to getting the Facebook marketing results you’re looking for.

How to Make Your Business Bloom

Tara asks:

"I would love to see a visual of how your business blossomed. I mean, there are so many things we’d like to do in our business, but how did you prioritize the tasks over the years, and most of all, what makes sense to do what when?" Back in 2010, I’d just quit my corporate job. I didn’t have a product ready to sell yet, so I took some social media consulting clients. By the end of 2011, I looked at my business and thought “Freedom is a joke!” I was a yes machine to 8 bosses, practically chained to my desk but never working on what I really wanted to do. I’d tried to sell a couple of my programs, but they never went anywhere…much like what some of you are feeling!

We all talk a lot about freedom when building our businesses, but there’s not really freedom when you’re not generating revenue!

2012 is when I hit upon the importance of this sales funnel system. With a product to sell and a lead magnet to capture interest, I fell in love with Facebook ads, because I realized how to make them work!

The secret to my business blossoming is all in using this system.

I don’t want you going to bed each night worrying about where the next dollar is going to come from! All that does is squash your creativity and confidence.

Instead, I want you to wake up excited to build your business each day, enjoying the freedom to work on all the projects that help your business grow, and taking time for the rest of your life.

*The masterclass registration has passed but to be sure to stay on the list for future webinars! Subscribe to my list or checkout one of my free cheat sheets here.

In case you haven’t noticed by now, I want you to succeed.

It is genuinely important to me to help you reach that place in your business where you can say, “Yes, I made it; I love my work and I love my life!”

But there is something else that is equally as compelling that I want for you:

I want you to enjoy the journey—the process of making it all happen.

If you’ve been with me for a while you know that I often talk about the kinds of strategies that have worked for me, that I know can work for you too. Things like building your email list early in the game, effective ways of using Facebook to engage with your audience, and the importance of having a marketing plan—knowing what you’re going to do before you set out to do it.

I stand behind all of these things 100%, but there is something else you need to know. Something so critical it can actually make or break your online business dreams.

I'm talking about what you believe regarding your ability to achieve success in your business.

The 3 Beliefs You Must Have to Achieve Success in Your Business

Belief #1 - I believe that one of the biggest strengths in my business is knowing my target market intimately. Knowing how they think, what they need, and what words and emotions they use to express themselves is crucial to my success.

Belief #2 - I believe that I am not alone, shipwrecked on a desert island needing to have all the answers myself. I thrive and my business thrives with a few core mentors that I trust and can turn to again and again.

Belief #3 - I believe I have a great idea (product/service) that will impact people’s lives, and that my idea needs a clear and easy-to-navigate system to generate sales.

Understanding the Three Beliefs

Let’s examine each belief more closely and see what’s important about it.

#1 Knowing Your Audience

#2 Finding Your Mentor

#3 Having a System

Why You Need These 3 Beliefs

I said at the beginning that belief is a tricky concept, because it’s not something I can teach you. I can only tell you, and back it up with my story and many others. But at the end of the day, the best proof of a belief is to look at your own situation.

If you don’t have these beliefs, how are things going for you? Is your business on track with your vision? Are your sales what you want them to be?

And if they’re not, isn’t it time to change your beliefs?

I know it isn’t easy at first. It’s scary to change, to risk spending money or time on learning to do things in a new way. Don’t let fear hold you back.

The purpose of belief is to shape the actions we take. And as soon as you begin taking action on these beliefs, you already have them. You will feel the difference inside you—you’ll feel your confidence growing, and your sense of purpose will feel more grounded than ever.

Before long, you’ll also be seeing the difference on the outside—more email subscribers, greater audience engagement, and an increase in sales. I want all of that for you, from the bottom of my heart. I would love to hear your experiences in the comments below. Have you tried a system that has worked well for you? How are you getting to know your audience? Do you have the kind of mentorship you need to succeed? Keep moving forward and know you are not alone!

Don't forget to join me on my FREE, Master Class where I'm revealing the EXACT marketing system I use (and where Facebook fits into it to!) generate multiple sales every single day.

*The master class registration has passed, but be sure to stay on the list for future webinars! Subscribe to my list, or check out one of my free cheat sheets here.

There are two kinds of content in this world: content that attracts and content that sells.

It's easy to spend all your time and effort focusing on the second part. Eyes on the prize, right? And believe me, I want you focused on that end result.

But it's crucial to remember that the end result needs a strong beginning. In other words, you'll never get to that sale if you haven't attracted the people who want to buy your product!

Today is all about the first half of the sales equation.

The more you craft content geared toward your ideal customer, the more sales you'll make. And these won't just be one-time sales. You'll be talking to people who want to buy from you over and over, because they feel connected to you and your product. When you create content that makes them feel understood, that communicates an empathy for their situation and an excitement about helping them with your product, they are going to be watching their inboxes for your emails and jumping up and down each time you launch something new.

These are the people you want to find, right?

So let's talk about how you can reach them.

First, the Good News...

When you know your target market really well, creating content for them becomes incredibly easy. We talked last week about creating a survey that helps you get inside the heads of your target market. Once you're there, you'll be able to instantly rattle off ten things they need...

Which then become the topics of each piece of content you create.

Let me jump ahead really quick to tell you that our free giveaway for this week is a list of inspiration boosters for creating magnetic, empathetic content that your audience can't resist. Click here to get it now.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Free Guide: "15 Content Inspirations To Help You Attract Your Target Market"

FREE DOWNLOAD

What Counts as Content?

Ready for some more good news? Everything you do online is content.

A Facebook post counts as a content piece, whether it's video or words or simply an image. So does a tweet. An email (whether to your whole list or just a segment of it), the text and imagery on your landing page, a free giveaway, a podcast, a thirty-minute webinar...

You get the idea.

We all have our favorite places to post content. Maybe you're Twitter-happy and can post 140-character quips all day long. Or maybe you love doing quick video updates from wherever you happen to find yourself.

So don't worry if you're not the world's most prolific blogger. If you're making your voice heard online, you're creating and posting content, and you are ahead of the game.

Simplify by Diversifying

Okay, so say you have a lot of fun within creating short Facebook videos, but your brain dries up the second you sit down to write a blog. Does that mean you should abandon writing and just rely on Facebook videos to communicate with your audience?

Definitely not. First of all, you're going to miss a huge segment of your potential customers by relying on only one form of content. Second, there are just things that a blog can communicate that videos can't...and vice versa! You don't have to do all kinds of content in equal measure, but if you want to reach as many people as possible, you're going to want to use as many different kinds of content to catch their attention in all the places they might be hanging out.

Fortunately, every idea you come up with for one kind of content can be easily translated into a totally different piece of content. Your videos can be turned into a blog post. Your blog post can be turned into a slide deck. Your slide deck can be turned into a series of Twitter images.

In other words, creating different content pieces just got a lot simpler.

Get more of Amy's insights on creating content, including an interview with social media maven Donna Mortiz. Listen to Episode 56 in full. 

EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Free Guide: "15 Content Inspirations To Help You Attract Your Target Market"

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In the last several weeks, I’ve been getting a product ready for launch. It’s called the Profit Lab…or, if you want the full title,

The Profit Lab: How to Create Marketing Systems In Your Business So That You Can Find Your Target Market, Grow Your Email List and Sell More Products

I launch this product twice a year, and every year, I recreate it so that it stays fresh and valuable, even for people who have gone through it before. I make new videos, I rewrite the worksheets, all that good stuff.

This year, as I’ve been getting this product ready for launch, I wanted to make sure I was truly connecting with my target audience. After you’ve had some success with a product, it’s easy to start coasting on that success, which means you stay the same while your audience continues to grow and change and develop new needs. Not my style. ;-)

To find out more about my target market, I needed to find out:

• Where they are at, in terms of their business goals and growth.
• What they needed from me
• Where they were struggling, not just in their business as a whole but with the versions of the Profit Lab I’d released before.

Knowing all this was going to help me tailor this new version of the Profit Lab into exactly what my target audience desperately needs right now.

So I put together a survey. And the responses knocked my socks off!

The thing is, I knew who my target audience was, but I didn’t really know them the way I thought I did. The survey gave me a chance to understand how they think, what kind of language they use, what keeps them up at night, and why they come to me as opposed to anybody else in the online marketing world.

I learned so much from this experience of surveying my audience that I wanted to share some of those insights with you…how to create a survey that gets you into the minds and hearts of your target audience, so you design, redesign or market your products in direct response to their needs.

The result of this will be that you sell more of your products to them.

And don’t worry if you’re just starting out and your list isn’t that big yet. You can still design a survey that gets you these answers and helps you build your list...and I’ll tell you how.

I've also got a great freebie for you to download this week, which will give you lots more insight on creating a survey, as well as how to use the information it yields. Click here to download it now!

EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Free Guide: "The Product Maximizer: 4 Smart Ways To Sell Products Online"

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First Step: Design Your Questions

Second Step: Get People Engaged

Third Step: Getting Your Survey Out There

The Bottom Line

Sending out a survey is kind of like going on a first date. If you spend the whole evening trying to make sure the other person understands you, you’re probably not going to get to see them again. But if you spend the whole time asking them questions about themselves, you’ll come away with a really good understanding of who they are, and whether you have what they need.

When you’re creating this survey, don’t think so hard about what you’re trying to accomplish in your business. Think about getting to know your target market, and the goals of your business will fall into line.

I hope you’re buckled in, because my guest this week is an online business expert who is renowned for “telling it like it is.” Ramit Sethi is a master communicator who pulls no punches. When it comes to sheer mental confidence, there's no one quite like him in the online marketing world.

As a result, he’s had massive success in developing products that get huge results for his clients. His secret to developing these products is just one of the things we discussed in our interview. Our conversation was a great mix of lessons on mindset and tactical product creation strategies.

You should really listen to the whole interview, because there's way too much to fit into a blog post. But here are some of the highlights:

Redefining a Rich Life

Ramit’s landmark book is called I Will Teach You To Be Rich. But the strategies he teaches in this book and elsewhere aren’t aimed exclusively at people who want to blow $5,000 on a weekend in Vegas (but if that's your jam, Ramit thinks it's great!). Ramit says that the rich life is different for each person. For many of us, a rich life simply means being able to work from home, take our kids to work with us, building a business where money is automated and we can focus more time on the things we love.

In other words, money is an important part of having a rich life, but money is not the whole picture.

No matter how you define a rich life, Ramit says it all comes down to just a few big “wins.” If you get just five or ten of these wins, you don’t have to sweat the small stuff, and you can focus more on the things you really love.

How Fear Will Hold You Back

Ramit talks candidly about the toxic influence of fear, which gets in the way of achieving these big wins. You’d never know it to hear him talk now, but Ramit himself struggled a lot with fear in the early days of starting his online brand.

"I had been writing my blog for about two or three years and I had never made a cent. I didn’t want people to think I started my blog just as a way to make money because that was never the intention.

I was absolutely petrified that people would not buy it or, even worse, that they would call me a sell out. You can see it in the sales copy that I wrote. The way I wrote that sales copy was so cowardly.

I literally said, 'Why should you pay for this? I know you can find a lot of stuff for free.' My self confidence was so low that anyone would buy it that … I literally tried to defend it before they even bought."

But people did buy it. And they thanked Ramit for putting his information out there. What’s more, those buyers ended up opening his emails, joined other courses he offered, and took action on the things he taught them.

"The real people, the people I actually wanted to focus on, were buying and they were delighted to pay."

In other words, Ramit had found his target market. (Want to listen to the entire interview? Click here now!)

"My belief is if I’m not adding multiple failures to that every month then I am probably not trying ambitiously enough. If you go talk to a successful person and ask them to tell you about their failures they ask you if you have all day, because they have 50 things they have had problems with."

FREE DOWNLOAD

To listen to my entire conversation with Ramit, click here now.

Today’s topic is very near and dear to my heart.

We are talking about how to find your calling--what you were put on this earth to do.

Even those of us with jobs we love can sometimes feel unclear on whether we're really making the best use of our talents and utilizing our passions to the fullest. Even I find myself in this place sometimes, wondering if I'm on the right track or if certain decisions or circumstances are causing me to veer off course.

I know there are a lot of you out there who feel this way. You have talent to burn, and dreams of putting your best out into the world. Some of you are hustling hard every day to make those dreams a reality. Others of you haven't found the right opportunity yet, and are maybe working hard at a job that...well, let's just say a job that you don't really love, that doesn't quite fit the size of your aspirations.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, a 9-to-5'er, happy in your work or desperate to get out, my interviewee on the podcast today has a tremendously empowering message about finding your calling no matter where you are, and taking steps toward doing the work that you are built to do.

His name is Jeff Goins, and he just released a fantastic new book called The Art of Work.

Take a minute to look through it by clicking here.

If you order it now, you can also get $250 worth of free bonus material, including exclusive access to Jeff himself, a workbook, extra video features, all kinds of good stuff.

There are lots of books out there about how to find fulfilling work. You've probably read a few of them. Jeff's book really stands alone, though, because he's not delivering his message from a pedestal of wealth or prestige. Instead, he offers beautiful stories of real-life people that have found their calling in a multitude of different ways. He gets into the day-to-day stuff that, if you pay attention, helps you discover what your calling is.

This was such a great interview, you should really just listen to it on the podcast. But I'll give you a few highlights from my talk with Jeff:

What Is a "Calling," Exactly?

Contrary to popular belief, your calling is not the same thing as your passion. Passions change as we mature, learn what really matters to us, and refine our understanding of what kind of impact we want to have on the world.

Calling has more to do with purpose. Jeff says it's not a single moment of sudden understanding; it's more a lifestyle, a constant evolution of understanding what you're here for.

It's Never Too Late

Start Where You Stand

Start thinking about what you love doing, and what you're really good at. Connect with others to get their take on what you're good at. Find people doing the kind of work you admire, take them out to coffee, and ask them how they got there. And learn to be both purposeful and flexible with the things life throws at you. You have to be really intentional, Jeff says, to make the most of whatever is happening right now. This is how life gives you clues as to what you should take action on.

If you are really going to move the direction of your life’s purpose, it may not happen overnight. The internal pivot is the first way to change your job from drudge work to a higher purpose. This is how you first become attuned to what your calling is.

You do have control. You have some control over your situation right now. So as you get an idea of what you might want to do try, use your current situation to practice for what’s to come. I don’t think you will regret it.

Visit The Art of Work to learn more about Jeff's book. And remember, if you order it now, you will get a bunch of bonuses including a freebie from Jeff himself that deals with these mindset shifts we talked about here.

If you've been following this blog (or podcast) for a while, you know we've come a long way since the days when everything about online marketing started and ended with Facebook.

Still, we all know that social media and Facebook in particular remain a BIG part of how we drive traffic to our websites, build community, grow our email lists and turn leads into happy paying customers.

The journey you create for your prospects that takes them from casual social media fans to loyal customers usually starts on social media. Which means you have to constantly be aware of what's changing in the social media world, and tweak your strategy to take advantage of these changes.

Don't worry--that's why I'm here! To help you master these tweaks and make social media your own.

That's why today we are diving into Facebook and video, to learn how the two together can make a big impact in your online marketing success.

In Episodes 50 and 51, we talked about the importance of videos for your business.

And of course you already know that Facebook is important for your business.

But do you know how crucial Facebook WITH Video is for your business right now? Here are some stats that prove it:

• It’s been reported that there are over 1 billion videos viewed on Facebook each day.
• The average Facebook user worldwide watched 75% more video this year compared to last year.
• In the US, that increase in views was actually 94%!
• Brands posted 20,000 more videos on Facebook than they did on YouTube in December 2014.

I can vouch for these stats from my own personal experience--I've been very impressed with the organic reach with any given video I post on Facebook. I've been seeing instant traction when I post a video on my page, much more than a post with a static image. The greatest thing about video is how it takes on a life of its own through sharing.

And no, I'm not talking about highly polished, professionally edited videos. I'm not a video editor and I don't have a big production budget for these. No, the traction I'm getting is with simple, quick videos made mainly on my smartphone and edited with simple software.

Simplicity and ease are the key to making these videos a practical part of your marketing strategy--if they're not easy, you won't do them...and if they're not simple, people won't pay attention to them! Studies have shown that short video across all social media platforms get the most views and engagement. Short and simple is good.

Today, I'm going to highlight some people and companies that take full advantage of this trend in online marketing through short, simple video posts.

I've also made a free cheat sheet for you, with tips for how to post great video to your own Facebook Page. It's called “The 7 Tried and Tested Tips to Increase Your Facebook Engagement with Simple Videos." Download it by clicking here.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Free Cheat Sheet "7 Tried and Tested Tips To Increase Your Facebook Engagement With Simple Videos"

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Great Video Example #1: “3 Tips to Prep Your Yard for Spring” (Lowe's)

Great Video Example #3: "Check Out My Latest Podcast" (Chalene Johnson)

Great Video Example #4: "The Bus Pole" (Lysol)

Great Video Example #5: "Love Your Curls" (Dove)

Make Your Own

Ready to start making your own videos? Instantly download our free cheat sheet “7 Tried and Tested Tips to Increase Your Facebook Engagement Using Simple Videos" to speed your process along...and also learn about some really cool video apps that will give your video a lot of viewer-friendly polish.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Free Cheat Sheet "7 Tried and Tested Tips To Increase Your Facebook Engagement With Simple Videos"

FREE DOWNLOAD

If you have a great Facebook video that you've seen success with, or would like to get feedback about, share it with the community here! Post a link to your video in the comments below, or share the video on my Facebook page.

I have a question for you. What do Seth Godin, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, and Richard Branson all have in common?

If the first thing that comes to mind is that they have millions of followers on social media, you are right about that. That’s definitely true.

But the answer I am looking for is the reason behind their millions of followers on social media. There’s a single strategy they all share, a strategy that drives enormous numbers of people to follow them.

The answer: their brands are big on personality. 

It would actually be truer to say that their personalities are their brands. From their signature look to their unique ways of expressing themselves, these people package their content in a way that sets them apart from anybody else in their niche.

When you have great content, really smart offers, and a foolproof marketing strategy and you are still not getting the traction your brand deserves, what you may be missing is personality.

People respect someone who works really hard. But they love someone whom they feel is real, someone they can connect with. And in a marketplace that’s bursting with hard-working, hustling entrepreneurs, people are more likely to follow their heart than anything else.

What you want is for their heart to lead them to you.

Today’s episode is all about making that authentic connection with your audience by infusing your brand with personality--your personality.

Before I dive in, today’s free download is called “The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Infusing Your Personality In All You Do.” It shows some of the best examples of strategies I am going to highlight for you today. Download it by clicking here.

let’s jump into the various ways that you can start infusing your winning personality into your brand through various kinds of messaging.

Written Content

This applies to blogging, of course, but also to social media updates, email marketing, and anything else your audience might read from you.

It’s a pretty general rule that it’s best to write the way you talk. For some people that comes naturally. For others, it sometimes feels like rocket science.

It can also feel a little bit vulnerable if you want to be taken seriously as a professional. But believe me, it’s always better to sound like you—quirks and all—than to sound like a generic “professional” with nothing unique or charming to make your voice memorable.

If it’s hard for you to write the way you talk, then run your next piece of content by your best friend or spouse, and ask them to tell you honestly if it sounds like you.

Your “About” Page

About Pages can represent over 60% of your website’s total traffic. Sound crazy? It just goes to show that people really want to know who you are. When they click on your About Page, it means they like what they have been reading so far and they want to get to know more about the kind of person you are. Which means you’re more than halfway to getting a new customer!

One person whose About Page helps her stand miles apart from her crowd is publicity expert Melissa Cassera.  Her About Page is so good that I’m including the entire thing in the free PDF that I’ve created for you. Click here to get the download now.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Entrepreneur's Guide to Infusing Personality in All You Do

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I know that feels scary at times. You don’t want to lose potential customers because you say something one way and not another way. When you take risks and really put your personality out there, sometimes it can be a little polarizing. But that’s okay. All you really need to worry about is that

• You are being yourself, and
• You’re creating content that will resonate with your ideal audience.

Don’t forget to download the free PDF I’m offering with this episode. It will show you examples of infusing your personality in your brand. I’ve also included some practical steps on how to use storytelling to infuse your personality into your messaging. Click here to get it now.

Today’s show is #50…that’s right, my 50th episode of the “Online Marketing Made Easy” podcast.

In honor of Episode #50, I’m giving away a prize: a membership into my signature program, The Profit Lab. This program shows how to build business funnels so that you can grow your email list and profit from your leads. Entering to win this free membership is easy—just click here to leave an iTunes review for the “Online Marketing Made Easy” podcast.

For Episode #50, I’m talking all about paid advertising.

And nobody knows this subject better than my good friend Rick Mulready. He actually has a podcast of his own called “The Art of Paid Traffic.”

One of the biggest things Rick does on this podcast is dispel the notion that paid advertisements are a negative thing. People often think you need a big budget to run a paid ad campaign, or lots of time for planning out a strategy. Or they might think they simply shouldn’t have to pay for advertising.

In fact, anyone can engage audiences through paid advertising…and they should!

In order to get started right away with two of the most popular types of paid advertising—Facebook ads and YouTube ads—with a simple cheat sheet that I created with Rick. It’s called “The Anatomy of High-Converting Paid Ads.” Get it by clicking here now.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get "The Anatomy of High-Converting Paid Ads"

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There are three main types of ads that you can and should be using now:

Native ads

Facebook ads

YouTube ads

It’s important to note that if all these strategies are new to you, don’t feel like you have to implement them all at once. It’s much better to explore one of them at a time. Test things out, educate yourself, take notes on what you see around the Internet that appeals to you.

Don't forget to download our free cheat sheet for a fast, simple understanding of how to create these ads yourself!

EPISODE FREEBIE Get "The Anatomy of High-Converting Paid Ads"

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Today’s post reminds me why I love doing this podcast so much. Not only is the material great, but it comes from two of my favorite people—a power couple in the online marketing world.

Their names are Joshua and Jill Stanton and together, they run a business called Screw The Nine To Five where they teach people who are dissatisfied with their day-to-day jobs how to take their skills and transform them into a self-run online business.

Whether you’re well on your way in creating your online business, just getting started, or even simply circling the waters trying to decide whether to get your feet wet, this post is tailor-made for you. It’s all about mining the raw material from which online businesses are built, and crafting it into the cornerstone of your success.

Josh and Jill have been making money online for quite a while, but their spunkily named website came about after they were asked repeatedly how they did it. They decided to start a program specifically for training others to do the same thing they did--a place where they could just send everyone asking their advice.

Ever since, they've been helping people see how they can translate their day job skills into an online job that generates way more income in way less time. In other words, you don't have to learn a brand new skill set in order to start an online business. You simply take what you know and strategically build a business around it.

The "strategic" part is where we can all use Josh and Jill's expertise. Because of course you need to see whether your idea for how to translate your skills to your own business has wings...or not. Odds are it does, but it's not going to be a get-rich-quick situation. However, if you put the passion and hustle and hard work into it, you'll be amazed what you can do online.

I can speak to this personally. Back when I was working my own 9-to-5, I was dreaming of starting my own online business but resigned to the fact that none of my knowledge would translate into the outside world.

All it took was a good friend who reminded me that I worked in marketing...something every online business needs to know how to do well. I was sitting on a gold mine.

You might be, too. Here are the four tests that will help you find out.

Test #1: Udemy.com

Test #2: Amazon.com

Test #3: Google Keyword Tool

Test #4: Facebook Ads

What Next?

If you put your idea through these four tests and find its profitability is validated on all four...well, then, it might just be time start creating a program or product. Even if your idea is validated on just one or two of the tests, I agree with Josh and Jill that it is definitely worth pursuing. You just have to make sure you are actually willing to commit the time and energy to really giving this a good go.

As I said earlier, creating an online business not an overnight thing, by any means. It’s going to take some time. But these tests will also give you insight on where you want to be spending that time, as well as where you want to price your product.

If you want to see these ideas in action, you can join Josh and Jill in an upcoming webinar called the Money Test Webinar. In this free online class, Josh and Jill will walk you through each of the four validation tests, step by step.

You can get the sign-up link by downloading our free guide...which will be very helpful to use in the webinar, I might add.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Free Step-by-Step Guide: "The 4 Profit Validation Tests"

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Here we are, two months into 2015...is it the future yet? On one hand, still no flying cars. On the other, we talk to people directly through screens we hold in our hands! Every now and then, in the middle of a Skype session, I start to feel like I'm on the Jetsons.

This post is all about how to deal with the future happening right now...specifically with regard to Facebook.

We all know that Facebook changes rapidly. It’s changing all the time. Just a few years ago, Facebook engagement looked very different. And maybe you've started to feel frustrated by the changes, or have just given up keeping track of them.

I get where you're coming from, with that. It can be daunting to keep up with Facebook's constant changing of its own rules. But Facebook is still a valuable place for you to gain traction for your business. That's why my mission for you in this post is to help you understand what’s working right now on Facebook, and how to make it work to your advantage.

First, I want to tell you about the free download I have for this week. I've collected 20 different posts from all over Facebook that I've seen capture maximum engagement--not just views, but likes, comments, and shares.

On this free cheat sheet, I explain in a few words just what is so engaging about each post. Download this cheat sheet for free and use these posts as rough guides for creating your own super-engaging Facebook content.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Top 20 "High-Engagement" Facebook Posts

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Are you beginning to understand the roadmap? As you consistently offer high quality, valuable content that captivates your audience and motivates them to engage, through an indirect process you will increase your sales.

12 Suggestions to Improve the Quality of Your Posts & Boost Engagement

1. Get personal. 

2. Focus on the fans that are actually paying attention to you right now.

3. Make sure you ask questions that are going to ignite a true conversation.

4. Try to stick around a little bit, especially after you post a question, even if it’s for ten minutes.

5. Create posts that are relevant to your brand and tell a story.

6. People will share posts that put them in a good light.

7. Create each post as though you are talking to a friend.

8. It is all about the image.

9. Make sure when people share your content from your blog that it looks really good on Facebook.

10. Mix up your content on Facebook.

11. Upload video directly to a Facebook post.

12. You’ve got to check out one of my favorite scheduling tools.

Engagement Truly Matters

When you make an honest effort to understand your audience and you give BIG and share freely, your fans’ trust in you will snowball. Their loyalty to your brand will be obvious by their level of engagement. From there you are golden because you will have built a foundation of extraordinarily useful content and a tribe ready to consume it.

Now I would love to hear from you! What’s working for your business when it comes to Facebook engagement? Please post in the comments below.

Also, don't forget to download the free cheat sheet that I'm offering with this episode. It will make these tips come to life for you.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get the Top 20 "High-Engagement" Facebook Posts

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If you’re anything like me...or if you're just human...you have faced your share of challenges and fears in the process of growing your own business. That might not be so bad, if we could all solve those challenges by simply trading stories. But no two people's challenges and fears are alike!

The reason our challenges are so unique is because our minds are. Unique, that is. Struggles and fears originate in your brain, and how it processes whatever you're dealing with, from one day to the next.

That's why one day you can be flying high, confident and on top of your game, and the next day you're sunk into despair, wondering how you got into this mess and whether it's too late to get out.

As I've said before, the real key to every aspect of growing your business is CONFIDENCE. And we all need a little help with confidence sometimes.

That's what today's post is all about--getting your head "unstuck," learning how to move forward with purpose even when you're struggling, and using each day to take the action you want.

That's why I invited my personal business coach Todd Herman to join me in today's podcast episode. He's a bit of a legend when it comes to performance mentality; big-deal people come to him for help with achieving mastery and improving performance. I'm talking Olympic athletes, corporate billionaires, members of international royalty...plus thousands of online entrepreneurs just like me.

Todd is all about action, productivity and results…which is exactly what I need for my business right now. To put it simply, he helps people perform so that their vision and what they do matches up.

I have to tell you, this Q&A with Todd is a landmark episode for me. Lots of listeners sent in their questions about improving performance for Todd to answer right here on the show. His answers will blow you away; in fact, even my editor told me that this is the most insightful podcast episode I'd ever done.

Honestly, there's just too much great stuff to list in a single blog post, so why don't you click the play button at the top of the post to listen right now? Trust me--this is stuff you're going to want to hear.

Also, I'm offering as today's "freebie" a special task-tracker that Todd gave me to use as part of improving my professional performance and guide my daily actions. It's called an Entrepreneurial Scorecard, and it's a simple, one-sheet tool that has been rocking my world ever since I started using it.

You can get the Entrepreneurial Scorecard for free by clicking here.

EPISODE FREEBIE Click Here to Get the Entrepreneurial Scorecard

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No matter where your business lies within the growth process, Todd's specific, detailed insights are going to help you achieve mastery and gain confidence...every single day you sit down to work.

As I mentioned, the Entrepreneurial Scorecard is all about helping your goals gain traction each day. Download this valuable freebie by clicking here. The Entrepreneurial Scorecard is going to help you identify where you are spending time wisely and not so wisely, along with the areas you should be leveraging for maximum return on your effort.

EPISODE FREEBIE Click Here to Get the Entrepreneurial Scorecard

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As a kid, I loved the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book series. It featured a magical and resourceful lady who lived with all her children in an upside down house. When money was tight for Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, she would send all of her kids through the house to find hidden treasures.

That story stuck with me from the moment I read it. As a kid, I felt ready for any moment when money came up short—I’d just go on a treasure hunt! Does it surprise you to learn that my perspective hasn’t changed, even now that I’m an adult? What's more, I no longer wait for the “running out of money” moment before I set out on a treasure hunt. Not when I have a five-step treasure map that leads me right to the gold.

As an entrepreneur, there are going to be times when cash is tight. It’s natural for you to feel the squeeze when you’re just starting out. Even after your business has liftoff, you might feel strapped from time to time. Or maybe you are looking at investing in some kind of new business tool or business opportunity and you need a little cash before you do so.

Running your business means living through cycles of financial growth and…dormancy, shall we say? If that’s where you find yourself now, these hidden money opportunities will definitely speak to you. I’m going to reveal five very specific hidden money opportunities that I’ve used in my own business to bring quicker cash flow.

The key to a good treasure hunt is knowing you have gold hiding somewhere. And you do! Let’s go on a treasure hunt together, and find the places where your gold is hiding.

Opportunity #1: Finish Your Online Training Program

Opportunity #2: Do a Mini-Promotion and Make an Offer

Opportunity #3: Creating a Four-Part Email Sequence That Leads to an Offer 

Opportunity #4: Offering Your Services to Your Audience

Opportunity #5: Becoming an Affiliate to Somebody Else’s Program or Product

Three tips for smart affiliate marketing:

1. Believe in it.

You have to have used the program or product you’re helping to market. You must know that it works, have your own results that you can talk about, and be so excited to sing its praises. You know you’ve made a good affiliate marketing partnership or connection when you tell everybody about it even if you’re not going to get money for it.

2. Build a funnel with your affiliate.

Webinars, four-part email sequences, and mini trainings all work for this. For example, if you click here, you’ll find an affiliate promotion that I did a training for. I literally walk you through how to use Lead Pages. For B School, I have an entire B School bonus experience: five bonuses you can’t get anywhere else, including the live two-day event, including a special Facebook ads program, including my new webinar program that’s not even out yet. You only get this stuff in B School when you use my affiliate link.

3. Read this article

My good friend, Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income, wrote a post on his blog “Smart Passive Income” called Five Ways to Unbox the Mystery and Increase your Affiliate Income. It’s a really smart strategy for affiliate marketing, especially for those just starting out. Definitely check that out, along with his other great article, How to Stop Hoping and Start Earning.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get "A Course Creation Starter's Guide"

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Make sure to listen to the entire episode for more tips and personal insights from my experience in hunting out hidden money opportunities.

And don't forget to download this week's valuable freebie, "A Course Creation Starter's Guide" for creating your own online training programs. Click here to download it now.

This post introduces a new series designed to help you establish a blueprint for achieving your entrepreneurial dreams. The series covers the three stages of business development.

In Stage 1, "Start Up," you'll be testing the waters, requiring grit, hustle, and flexibility. It's a phase of embracing trial and error and focusing on mindset and offering free services to gain experience and build social proof.

Stage 2, "Monetization," involves streamlining product offerings and learning to delegate. It's a stage of growth, understanding your sweet spot, and refining your business.

In Stage 3, "Expansion," you have financial and creative freedom, but it's important to stay true to your vision and listen to your intuition as new opportunities arise. You can always find yourself circling through these stages on your entrepreneurial journey. For more insights and detailed information on these stages, access the free training series provided in the post. Don't miss the full episode for a deeper dive into the topic.

This episode emphasizes the importance of a blog in developing and maintaining brand loyalty. It discusses how your blog can be a living record of your brand's journey and offers tips for enhancing your blog's effectiveness. It features insights from master blogger Mike Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner. Stelzner shares strategies for choosing content, engaging writers, and tracking traffic. He advocates for sending regular emails to keep readers engaged and highlights the significance of sharing-worthy content. It also delves into the role of copy editors and graphic designers in creating high-quality content. It encourages readers to download a free guide on setting up Open Graph to maximize social media visibility. Finally, the article mentions the annual Social Media Marketing World event and the benefits of attending or accessing session recordings.

How many times has this happened to you? You’ve spent hours composing the perfect email to showcase your content, you’ve carefully segmented your list to a specific audience, you’ve queued it up to send at the optimal time…and a week later, your analytics reveal a dismal click-to-open rate. Ouch!

It’s frustrating and discouraging, the kind of thing that can make you second-guess everything you know about online marketing. But it could be that the only thing holding back your campaign’s potential is the email subject line.

Get the full story--listen to Podcast Episode 43.

Don’t underestimate the power of this one simple sentence. As I’ve mentioned in the past, email marketing is the most effective means of online marketing. The gateway to that email—the first thing your customers see—is your subject line.

It has to contain hints of everything your email has to offer—the specificity of your product, the authenticity of your brand, the urgency of your offer. It has to convey not only your knowledge and authority, but also your personal empathy for your audience’s needs. Tall order, right?

Fortunately, crafting an enticing subject line is not rocket science. The best subject lines can be broken down into five basic strategies, each built along a simple formula.

Strategy #1: Focus on the Benefit

Strategy #2: Be Specific

Strategy #3: Get Relevant

Strategy #4: Make It Personal

Strategy #5: Call Out a Problem

Don’t forget—you can listen to the entire podcast and get the full details on how to craft subject lines that get your emails opened! Just click here to go to iTunes and choose Episode 43.

In addition, I have even more formulas and examples outlined for you in a cheat sheet I created for this episode. You can download it for free right now by going to amyporterfield.com/43download, or you can text 43download to 38470 and I’ll send it to you right away.

EPISODE FREEBIE Get the 10 Highly Effective, Irresistible Subject Line Formulas

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There’s definitely an art to crafting irresistible email subject lines. And as with any art, practice makes perfect. Try crafting at least five subject lines each day to feel out the different approaches and find what works for you. Then pick the best one to perfect for your email that week.

Daily practice will give you the confidence to not only write your marketing emails faster, but will serve to ground you in the knowledge that you have something valuable to offer the world.

When it comes to online marketing, most people are overlooking their number-one biggest asset.

Social media activity, off-site ads, and all other tricks are a drop in the bucket compared to the power of the email list. You may have heard me say it a million times on this site, but I’ll say it again here: the energy of your business is directly tied to the strength of your email list.

But don’t just take my word for it.

“I have literally built a million dollar business on the strength of my email list. Ninety percent of my income comes from it. Even today, my email list is still my #1 business priority and asset.” (Michael Hyatt)

“Without a doubt, our email list is the best investment we’ve ever made.” (Douglas Karr)

“Email is the most important channel for you to cultivate in your online business.” (Mike Stelzner)

These guys are heavyweights in the online marketing world; each of them has a subscriber list numbering well over 100,000. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that a list in the hundreds, or even thousands, makes your email marketing strategy less important.

No matter what your subscriber numbers are, your email list is one of the most valuable assets you have in the quest to help your business thrive. When you really understand the value of that list, you’ll be more than happy to invest your time, energy and budget to help that list thrive.

In this blog post, I’m going to highlight three foundational strategies for growing your email list. Once you implement these strategies, you’re well on your way to creating smart marketing funnels that will put your list-building efforts on warp speed, as well as lead to increased revenue from each email you send out.

The Main Thing: Quality over Quantity

When my good friend David Siteman Garland (of The Rise to the Top) started out, he had an email subscriber list of just 500 people. In those early days, he did a small product launch and generated $19,800 on the strength of that list.

These days, David’s email list is much larger. What hasn’t changed is the incredible loyalty of those subscribers. Whenever I do any kind of affiliation with David, I’m astonished at the way his list gravitates immediately toward any email he puts out.

It’s all because he started with a focus on list quality.

David never fails to infuse his emails with his authentic personality. He is genuine, super funny, and a little bit quirky…all reasons why his subscribers love him and keep coming back for more.

David is a prime example of my first strategy for growing your email list.

Strategy #1: Build Remarkable Content

Strategy #2: Understand the Opportunities and Limitations of Your Email Service Provider

Strategy #3: Create Multiple Lead Opportunities

This third strategy has two parts to consider:

1) Creating Multiple Lead Magnets

2) Placement of Your Opt-In Form

There are six places where you must create opt-in opportunities for your audience:

#1: A Feature Box

#2: The Sidebar

#3: Inside Your Blog Content

#4: The End of a Blog Post

#5: The Pop-Up Box

#6: Your “About” Page

Key takeaways

Three online marketing strategies to help build your email list:

• Build remarkable, personalized content
• Learn to really use your email service provider
• Create multiple lead opportunities and embed them throughout your site

And always focus on quality, and the quantity will follow.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we are going to dive into a new way of goal-setting and business planning.

Now if you follow my content, you already know that I am a bit of a fanatic when it comes to planning for the New Year.

I love it! I love new beginnings. I love looking back on the year, examining what worked and what did not work and then building something new or improved from there. I am going to cover 3 Lessons from this year that I am taking into the New Year. Some of them were easy lessons to learn, some not so easy.

So let’s go ahead and dive in!

Lesson #1: If you don’t build in the margin now, you will struggle to find it all year.

Margin is all about finding time to breath, to be creative, and taking time away from the computer to recharge. Margin allows you to be better when you return and dive into your big projects. Finding margin is easier said than done and in this episode we are going to talk about ways to make it actually happen! In this lesson I will also share with you how you can use an at-a-glance wall calendar to see the pockets of margin in advance.

Lesson #2: Build a team around your core skills.

We all know that building a team is crucial for longterm success. In this lesson I suggest a different way to approach your next hiring decision - one that will help you do more of what you love. Building your team is one of the most important steps you may take in the new year - this lesson will help you do it better.

Lesson #3: Add some soul to your goal-setting experience.

I realized that goals without the "why" are empty promises, meaningless in fact. They can quickly deplete your energy, make you feel unproductive, create massive overwhelm and suck the creativity right out of you. Who wants to feel like that? In 2015, I am changing things up - I am approaching this whole goal-setting thing differently and starting with the WHY.

These 3 lessons are exactly why I am so passionate about helping you change your goal-setting experience. I want your new goals to move you forward, invite in new opportunities and make you feel fully alive. In my journey to a more meaningful goal-setting experience, I was introduced to Michael Hyatt’s goal setting philosophy.

He also believes in starting with the WHY, getting to the root of what we really want and focusing on what matters most.

Right now and for the next week or so, Michael will be releasing a video series on goal-setting - it’s totally free and 100% aligned with creating a more powerful goal-setting experience.

I encourage you to check it out! He put a lot of effort and time in this series and it shows. It’s quality stuff.

You can check out his free goal setting trainings at www.AmyPorterfield.com/Goals but only for a very short time, so don’t wait to check it out!

Key Takeaways:

The three lessons I learned this year that you too can apply to your planning process as you get ready for the new year.

#1: Build margin into your year IN ADVANCE. Don’t wait to find pockets of time that you can take off - be intentional about this time and protect it with your life.

#2: Get strategic about your hiring plans and build a team around your SKILL SETS - find that one person or the people that will accentuate your skill sets and talents.

#3: Create goals with more meaning. Specifically, identify the WHY before you set your big goals for the new year. Don’t set any goals that you don’t identify WHY you really want it.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interview my new friend, Chalene Johnson.

Chalene is a world renowned multi-passionate entrepreneur that has built and sold several multimillion dollar health and fitness brands. You might recognize her name from her top selling Beach Body Workout DVD programs.

Chalene is currently the founder and CEO of a business and lifestyle coaching company called Team Johnson, where she has taught her personal and business development strategies to hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs. In light of all of this, she has managed to become an Instagram marketing master. The way she uses Instagram to promote her numerous brands is nothing short of amazing. I'm sure you’ll agree after listening to this podcast.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Why it's important to become an "Early Settler" on Instagram now before it inevitably hits critical mass with Facebook's backing.
• How to move beyond posting the typical photos from your personal life to strategically sharing valuable content that drives leads and sales into your business.
• Why you should set up a few "Feature Accounts"- sub niche Instagram accounts, and how to chose the theme of these accounts according to your business. You’ll learn how to manage them all with zero overwhelm.
• How to allow your audience to feature their post on these "Feature Accounts" for greater brand exposure, while you benefit from a steady stream of content you didn't have to create.
• How to craft interesting and helpful content related to your business in a 15 second video.
• How to place a click-able links on Instagram that will lead people back to your bio, where you can link to a lead magnet or your website.
• How to create 15 second video 'call to actions' to drive traffic directly to your offers.
• Why using video on Instagram, while possibly yielding less engagement apposed to a photo, can establish you as a leading authority faster than a photo post when done right.
• What Instagram has coming on the horizon in terms of metrics tracking and their very own advertising platform.
• How to create cool split screen video posts that are part on camera instructional and part B-Roll demonstrations.
• How to pull in text on screen 'call to action' captions in your mobile phone videos.
• How to craft effective 'call to actions' to get people to share your post and where to place those CTA's to maximize every square inch of Instagram.
• How to effectively use hashtags and tags to elevate your brand exposure.
• How to outsource the entire content creation process.
• Where to get a third party app that will gauge your marketing against Instagram's posting statistics letting you know exactly when you should post to reach your unique target audience.
• And so much more!

Key Takeaways

• Establish your roots on Instagram now before it becomes the huge business advertising platform Facebook is developing it to inevitably become.
• Provide valuable nuggets relative to your business not just journal personal life snapshots.
• Take advantage of every square inch of the comment section by being very descriptive about your post, including where to find related info and always give a call to action.
• Create and honor a business theme.
• Aim to make your Instagram account appear like a magazine spread with helpful "How to" photos and/or videos.
• Using video will establish your brand authority and position yourself as the 'go to expert' in your niche.
• Place a click-able link on Instagram that will lead people back to your bio, where you can link to a lead magnet or your website.
• Change out the click-able link on all of your sub niche accounts to correspond to your current promotions to centralize the direction of your traffic.

In this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast I share with you a new experience I’ve just embarked upon and how this experience taught me so much about my business, dealing with the people helping me with my business and more importantly, this experience has taught me a lot about myself.

I decided to try something different and create a 3-part video series as a pre-launch for the reopening of my Facebook Marketing Profit Lab video training course.

The reason for my new approach was because I felt like it was time that I foster a deeper connection with my audience and share a bit more transparency into my personal life. I wanted to become more personable, because I know that sometimes I can come off as "all business" - (much to my husband's chagrin!)

It was time to really peel back the curtain and share intimate details about the beginning struggles of my business, the reason for my choosing Facebook as my traffic and lead generation vehicle and how my mindset and business knowledge, as a whole, has gone through this amazing transformation over the years.

I felt the need to share in this way mainly because the exact business metamorphosis I have experienced, is the business metamorphosis I truly wish all who choose to learn from me, are fortunate enough to experience too.

Here are 7 tips to creating a 3-part video series

1) Content Flow and Story Structure:

2) Video crew or One-Man-Crew:

3) Written scripts or off the cuff dialog:

4) Location choices for added professionalism:

5) Have a keen ear on set during each recording:

6) Express your honest opinion about each shot selection:

7) Become comfortable in your own skin:

So there you have it. I just wanted to share my takeaways from this major video shoot I’ve just experienced. Now that you have this new “behind the scenes” insight into the making of this 3-part video series, I look forward to reading your comments down below after you’ve had the chance to view the video series.

In this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast,  I will be exposing the recent change Facebook made to their algorithm and not only will I explain the reason for this change, I will also give you some tips to help you counteract this change and to increase your brand’s engagement in the News Feed.

Although I’m a huge advocate of Facebook’s paid advertising, in this episode, I’m teaching a couple of FREE methods of posting content and reaching more potential customers in the News Feed.

Here’s what the recent Facebook algorithm change is all about.

They are cracking down on "click bait.” What exactly is click bait?

Click bait is when a link is shared in a Facebook post with a title that sparks curiosity but does not really tell people what the article is all about. This essentially teases people to click a link but does not give them all the information so they are not exactly sure what they’re going to find on the other side of that click.

Granted, click bait links can be an effective strategy, because people can’t help but click to find out more. And many marketers were finding success in their calls to action; that’s why these types of posts has been flooding the News Feed on Facebook.

The challenge is that the click bait strategy is making it hard for users to see content they genuinely want to see and care about. Facebook is viewing click bait as gaming the system to get out into the News Feed. Because Facebook has a viral component built into their Algorithm, these click bait post were gaining a lot of exposure.

The more people click on the link, even though they’re not sure if they’re even interested in the content on the other side of that link, the more that post shows up in the News Feed.

And that’s why Facebook became concerned with this practice and made this recent change that no longer allows click bait. Your content will be negatively impacted when you use a click bait type of posting strategy.

Here’s how to craft your post so that you’re not a victim to this algorithm change and your posts get as much News Feed exposure as possible.

Tip #1: Create or Only Share Quality Posts

Tip #2: Be Specific With the Titles of Your Facebook Posts

Tip #3: Post a “Preview” of Your Content When Posting on Facebook

Key Takeaways

• Facebook is now paying careful attention to how long people are staying on the webpages your links are clicking through to from a post.
• Make your content valuable enough to keep the visitor on the webpage and you will boost your engagement on Facebook (for free!).
• The more descriptive you are with your headlines in your post, the more likely people will genuinely be interested in your content when they actually get to your website.
• Including a link preview in your post will help you gain more exposure in the New Feed.

Would you like to know how to spend less time trying to convert your Facebook Profile "Friends" over to "Fans" of your Facebook Page?

Would you like to learn an easy trick to link your Profile and Fan Page together so that your visitors to your Profile would have direct exposure to your Fan Page?

You will learn all of that and more in this weeks Episode of Online Marketing Made Easy - Ask Amy Podcast.

On this episode I answer a question from one of my listeners about how to get your Facebook friends to like your Facebook Page.

This is the question she asked:

 Kathy Sacks: “I have more than 500 friends on my Facebook Profile. Since it would take a long time to get that many “likes” on my Facebook Page, I’d like to get my friends on my Profile to to like my new business Page. Do you have any advice for me?”

Now, the short answer is that there is no foolproof way to move your friends over to your Page. There are a few things you can try and I’ll go over those things with you but I want to encourage you not to spend too much time trying to move your friends over to your Page.

Instead, I would encourage you to spend more time on developing your Page, the content, the engagement, your list-growing strategy, all of that can be done on your Page.

I wouldn't suggest you spend too much time on this strategy although I am going to give you some helpful tips to get you started to make that transition. I understand that if you are growing a Facebook Page you want to build your fan base quickly and it makes sense to start with the friends on your Profile since they seem to have an interest in what you are posting.

Sounds logical, although, it doesn’t happen as though we think it should.

One thing you might want to think about is this: Are those friends that you have on your profile genuinely interested in your business?  Some of them likely are but definitely not all of them are.

To be upfront, some of your Profile friends just aren’t interested in hearing from you about your business. That’s why I just want to caution you, it's likely on your Profile, you have a mix of people that are friends or just want to know you personally and have no interest in what you are doing for business. That's just how it is.

In my experience, moving friends to fans is a slow process that is rarely a raving success. That’s why I don’t want you to spend too much time in this area. However, I will say, it is worth an effort to give it a shot. Do it and then move on to bigger and better things.

I did promise you a few things that you can implement to build your new fan page with your existing friend base from your profile.

1) The first suggestion I have for you is make sure that you link your Profile and your Page.

2) For about two weeks, start a campaign where you are actively promoting your Page on your Profile. 

Use Video to promote your Page to your friends on your Profile

Lure your Profile friends over to your Fan Page by using a "FREE" giveaway

Attract New, Quality Fans with Like Ads (Instead of Focusing on Moving Your Friends Over)

7 Steps to a Facebook Marketing Plan

In my flagship program, Facebook Marketing Profit Lab, I take my students through a seven step process to create a profitable Facebook Marketing Plan. If you want a quick snapshot of all seven steps, you can check out Episode #28 where I dive into each of them with specifics

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interviewed my good friend, Pam Hendrickson. Pam and I go WAY back. She is actually the person who interviewed me for my position with Tony Robbins, and was my first "big boss."

Pam and I have spent many hours working and traveling together. We joke that we spent more time together during certain seasons than we did with our husbands!

Pam worked for Tony Robbins for close to 20 years before going out on her own. Considering her experience with Robbins, she thought launching her first products would be easy, but she was wrong. In spite of the fact that the products were great, she made very few sales.

The turning point for her was when she learned how to give her customers what they want, and in this episode, we dive in deep about how to do that.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• A key success principle for business
• What will cause your business to fail even if you have the best content in the world
• The necessary foundation for great marketing
• Common mistakes when defining a target market
• Tools for understanding your target market
• How to cultivate relationships
• Why technology will never replace face-to-face interactions
• And so much more!

Key Takeaways

• A key to success in business is not being afraid to make mistakes
• Great content alone isn't enough. If it isn't want your customers need and want, it won't be successful.
• The foundation of our marketing comes from understanding who our target audience is, and creating all of products and services based around that.
• Ideal customer exercises are great, but they don't go deep enough. It's important to go beyond who and really dive deep into their pain points.
• Product creation and marketing are easy when you truly understand your audience.
• There are three primary areas to focus on:
• Tactical
• Relationships
• Emotional connection
• Tactical focuses on learning more about your audience. This is an ongoing process. In order to learn this information, you can conduct surveys, look at what your competition does to see what's working for them, and conduct market research using tools such as Keyword Spy and Ispionage.
• Relationships focuses on really getting to know your audience, and enable you to go deeper when it comes to truly understanding them and therefore really knowing how to meet their needs. A great example that Pam gave was that if you went to the gym and someone had you  fill out a survey, they would have a certain level of understanding about your needs. In contrast, if you went to the gym and spent time talking with the person exercising next to you, you would have a much deeper understanding.
• Emotional connection is when you really begin to FEEL what your audience feels. It goes deeper than having an intellectual understanding of their needs, and enables you to basically put yourself in their shoes so that you better understand them on an emotional level. This is the opposite of the tactical side of things because it focuses on feelings rather than facts.

Action Steps

• For a week or two, spend ten minutes per day researching your target market using tools such as Keyword Spy, Eyespionage  and Pew Research.
• To help you build relationships with your audience, pick one or two live events to attend. The goal is to have an opportunity to connect face-to-face with your target audience.
• Set aside 20-30 minutes to get quiet and FEEL the problems and pains of your customers.

A Special Gift from Pam for My Audience

Pam really went the extra mile by creating a special gift just for you, a free video training and report, which you can get here.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interview my good friend, Laura Roeder.

I've had Laura on the podcast before, but I wanted to have her on again, because she is a master in setting up processes and systems to grow your business.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• The difference between a project manager and a VA
• Why your project manager should work only for you, rather than have other clients
• How much you should pay a project manager
• The role of a project manager and what it takes to hire and train one
• A mindset shift that needs to happen before you hire your first project manager
• How you should think about how much you should pay your project manager, and what you should do less of so you an afford to hire help
• The golden ticket when it comes to hiring team members
• Why you don't have to find a project manager who is a perfect fit for your business
• And so much more!

Key Takeaways

• There are a lot of highly skilled, underemployed people out there now, who would love to work as a project manager
• You're in the right place to hire a project manager if you:
• Feel overwhelmed, burned out, or emotionally exhausted
• Have a bunch of ideas and projects you want to tackle but are too busy
• A project manager keeps you organized and helps you to continue moving forward with the things you really want to do
• It's more important for someone to have the ability to learn than it is for them to already know all of the programs you use
• Be willing to take the time to train your project manager and don't just tell them what to do, but why you want it done
• Spend less money on programs and then use that money to pay a project manager
• The main things a project manager should help you do:
• Translate your goals and plans into daily tasks
• Make sure things are being done on time and if they aren't, figure out why
• Ensure not just that the work is done, but that the quality is high

This episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, is the third Ask Amy episode.

This is a new feature that I’ve added to my podcast. As I mentioned in episode 30, every other week I’ll answer your questions about online marketing, Facebook marketing, Facebook ads, webinars and email marketing.

To submit a question, all you need to do is go to amyporterfield.com/askamy and leave me a recorded message. Your question just might be the very next one I choose for the show!

Here’s the summary of the question for this episode:

“In episode 29 you talked about how to hyper-target your audience using Facebook ads, and you specifically talked about retargeting. Can you put retargeting ads in both the newsfeed and the right-hand column and if so, which option works best?”

Key Takeaways

• Retargeting ads use a tracking pixel that you’ve put on your website. You can set the pixel to track for 30, 60, or 90 days.
• Retargeting ads are great because they allow you to target the people that really care about your brand; they help you connect with your website visitors on Facebook.
• You CAN place retargeting ads in both the newsfeed and in the right hand column.
• It’s important to set up your retargeting ads in the Power Editor.
• I have better results with ads placed in the newsfeed, but it’s important to experiment to find out what works best for you.
• Lookalike audiences are very valuable but the results you get back from Facebook can be huge -- as many as a couple of million people. To narrow down the results, when inside of the Power Editor, under the “Audience” tab, you can select age, gender and so on to target even further. In addition to that, you can further refine your targeting by indicating that they need to be a fan of at least one of the Pages you add to the interest section (again, under audience). 

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interview my good friend, copywriting expert, Ray Edwards. Ray and I go way back. I first met him when I was still working for Tony Robbins. At the time we were in need of a killer sales letter for a big product we had just created, and Frank Kern, a master at online marketing, suggested we reach out to Ray.

As it turns out, hiring Ray to write the sales letter was one of the best decisions we ever made because he nailed it. The sales letter Ray wrote converted really well; every time we used it, our sales were through the roof!

Copywriting is something that a lot of my clients have questions about, and I have to admit that it doesn't come naturally to me; I have to really work at it! But it's a super important skill to master because impact and revenue are directly tied your ability to write great copy, so I invited Ray on the show to share his wisdom in this area with all of you. I know you won't be disappointed!

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• One of the first things you need to learn if you want to start a business or create a second income stream
• The gene you do NOT need to be born with in order to be a good copywriter
• Why you need to do more than just write great content
• What your value-add content should always have
• How to know if you're giving away too much
• How to create a lot of content in a short period of time
• 4 Rules of Writing

Key Takeaways

• All the emails you send should have a "promotional" element to them
• Every email you send should include a link
• The brain doesn't differentiate between an actual experience, and a vividly imagined experience. Therefore, help your readers vividly imagine doing what you recommend, and the outcome
• Listening to what your audience tells you is the best way to know what questions in the emails you send
• The copy you write needs to be scanable. You can accomplish this by using bolded headers, bullet points, and so on

In this Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast episode, the second Ask Amy segment is introduced, where questions about online marketing, Facebook marketing, Facebook ads, webinars, and email marketing are answered. Listeners can submit questions by leaving a recorded message at amyporterfield.com/askamy.

The featured question in this episode is about the new Facebook Page layout and how to leverage it for maximum impact and exposure on Facebook. Here are the key points discussed:

1. **Stats on the Right:** In the new layout, to the right of the cover photo, you'll find weekly stats, including new Page likes, overall post reach, unread messages, and notifications. Amy suggests tracking these numbers weekly to measure your progress.

2. **Tab Management:** Below the cover photo, there are tabs that function like the old layout's boxes. You can reorder them by clicking "More" and selecting "Manage Tabs." Amy emphasizes that tabs may not convert well unless you use Facebook ads to drive traffic to them.

3. **Scheduled Posts:** If you schedule posts on your Facebook Page, the new layout displays a "Scheduled Posts" notification, showing the number of scheduled posts and the next publication time. This feature makes it easier to manage and edit scheduled posts.

4. **About Section:** Amy advises being strategic with the "About" section, using it to promote lead magnets and important links. However, note that linking to your website may not be an option for local business Pages.

5. **Pages to Watch:** The "Pages to Watch" feature in Insights allows you to monitor other Pages that attract your ideal audience. You can manually add Pages to observe. It's located in the Overview tab of Facebook Page Insights.

6. **Top Posts from Pages You Watch:** After selecting Pages to watch, you can view the most engaging posts from the previous week in the Posts tab of Insights. This feature helps you gain insights and model engaging content strategies from similar Pages.

Amy also mentions that when you add a Page to watch, the admin of that Page is notified but won't know who added it.

This episode is part of the Ask Amy series, where online marketing questions from listeners are addressed. You can submit your questions for consideration in future episodes at amyporterfield.com/askamy.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I dive into launching your programs, your products, your services online. The great thing is that I dove into this extremely important conversation with the pioneer of all online marketing launches, Jeff Walker. Jeff is known for a system he created called The Product Launch Formula and is truly one of the top internet marketing experts and leaders.

He tells a great story of how he got started, and to get the full scoop, you’ll need to listen to the interview because I wouldn’t be able to do his story justice, so for now I’ll just say that before he started his first online business, he had never ran a business before. He had absolutely zero sales training and no marketing skills.

He jokes that he was always the kid that couldn't sell more than one bag of donuts for the Boy Scouts fundraiser every year and that one bag was usually purchased by his parents. So as you can see, sales and marketing didn't necessarily run in his blood from day one.  He was an average guy who made an extraordinary impact on many people's lives and continues to do so through his teachings.  That's why I am honored to have Jeff on the show today.

Before you listen to the interview, I want to share one more thing with you and that is that Jeff just wrote a book called, Launch: An Internet Millionaire's Secret Formula To Sell Almost Anything Online, Build A Business You Love And Live The Life Of Your Dreams, and for a very limited time, you have an opportunity to get the book for free -- you just have to pay for shipping and handling -- and in addition to the free book, he’s throwing in a bunch of free bonuses. To get the free book and bonuses, go to amyporterfield.com/launch.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How I met Jeff and how my life changed as a result of meeting him
• Tony Robbins’ response to the information Jeff shared with him
• Jeff’s failure in the corporate world, and his stint as a stay-at-home dad
• The day Jeff's wife's cry for help shook him to his core
• The amazing story of how Jeff went from being unemployed and desperate to making a million dollars in less than an hour
• Success stories from those who started small and grew big
• How dropping hints can build anticipation before a launch
• The launch that brought Jeff’s wife home
• How Jeff figured out how launches work for many different types of industries
• How to know what your customers need from you
• Jeff's view on your email list
• The decision I personally made that totally changed my business
• And so much more!

Key Takeaways

• Dropping hints about something to come is a great way to build anticipation before a launch
• Successful product launches aren’t magic, but are based on how the mind works, and pull people in
• Done right, people will eagerly anticipate your next move and look forward to everything you do
• There are 3 core sequences in a launch:
• Pre Pre- Launch, when you agitate the market and get people interested
• Pre-Launch, when you build value through videos, blog post, and social media
• Open Cart, when you actually start taking orders
• It’s important to find out what people’s hot buttons are and then create products that meet those needs
• There are three types of launches that part of the Product Launch Formula:
• Seed launches, when you start with no product (and in some cases no list) and you get paid before you even create the product
• Internal launches, where you do a launch just to your list
• JV launches, which are more complex and therefore should not be your first launch
• You must focus on building assets in your business, and the most important asset you can build is your email list

This episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, is extra special because it is the very first edition of the Ask Amy segment that I'm adding to the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast.

Every other week I'm going to be answering your questions all about online marketing, Facebook marketing, Facebook ads, webinars and email marketing. If you've got a question, I likely am going to have an answer for you! All you need to do is go to amyporterfield.com/askamy and leave me a recorded message. Your question just might be the very next one I choose for the show!

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Something I've been struggling with lately
• Why my style hasn't always served my customers
• The push back I've gotten regarding how I teach Facebook marketing
• How overwhelming and scary creating a marketing plan can be when you're first starting your business
• The importance of pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone
• Why you should look at Facebook differently
• And so much more!

Here's the question for this episode:

I just launched my website officially at Easter. I took your advice, I put a Facebook sweepstakes on the right side bar, and the resort I work at allowed me to give out a fantastic package, they're really helping me out and it's going really well. In the first month, I've got about 130-something likes and I just love to see that, but I want to keep the momentum going. I want to know what the next step for me might be, whether it's Facebook ads or whatever you think would be the most efficient thing for me.

Key Takeaways

• Anytime you get new leads from Facebook, it's important to be ready to nurture those leads.
• Follow up with your new leads with a weekly email, with the focus initially being on pure value, instead of selling.
• After 4-6 weeks of pure value, select one opportunity to promote. Send 3-4 emails that talk about this opportunity. Be sure to make those emails about them, rather than about you and your offer.
• Work on sharpening your copywriting skills. This is important even if you plan to hire someone to write them for you in the future.
• If people don't purchase, put them back into a value-add sequence, and when you're ready to promote again, go back to 3-4 emails about an opportunity.
• Use Facebook ads to drive traffic to a lead magnet rather than to a sales page. The goal of ads is to grow your email list. This is how to turn your efforts into profits.
• Even though it's hard to get organic reach on your Page, it's still important to provide good content for the people who see your posts.
• Email is more intimate than Facebook, when you really understand how to use email.
• It's useless to have a big email list if you never use it to promote.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we discussed Facebook ad targeting. However, before delving into that, there are some exciting changes to my podcast that I'd like to share with you.

1. Weekly Episodes: Starting in June, I'll be releasing one episode per week instead of the previous bi-weekly schedule, so get ready for more podcast content.

2. Ask Amy" Segment: I'm introducing a new segment called "Ask Amy," where you can send me your questions on online marketing, Facebook marketing, list building, content creation, webinars, or anything related to the podcast topics. This segment is inspired by my friend, Pat Flynn, who hosts "AskPat." He encouraged me to go for it, and I'm thrilled to bring this interactive feature to the show. You can submit your questions to Ask Amy on my website.

Now, let's get back to our main topic for today: Facebook ad targeting. To explore this topic, I've invited my friend and Facebook advertising expert, Rick Mulready, to join me on the show. Rick is deeply involved in online marketing and helps entrepreneurs and small businesses with their Facebook advertising campaigns. He's actively experimenting with ad campaigns and achieving impressive results.

We've had several fantastic discussions about Facebook ads at Starbucks here in San Diego, and our insights have been so valuable that I wanted to share them with you. In this episode, we cover the following aspects of Facebook ad targeting:

- Valuable Facebook ad targeting options, including Interests, Custom Audiences, and Lookalike Audiences.

- Choosing the right targeting option when you're just starting out.

- Targeting website visitors with Facebook ads.

- Expanding your targeting options if you're struggling to find a sufficiently large and effective audience.

- Determining the optimal audience size for your ads.

- Key ad metrics to monitor to ensure your ads are successful.

Now, let's dive into some more detailed information on how to navigate your Facebook ad targeting using the Power Editor, a robust tool for managing Facebook ads.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I decided to do something a little bit different. I’m currently promoting my signature program, Facebook Marketing Profit Lab. When I create a new program, I always create a free, value-packed training around the promotion. In this case, the training is called, “How to Create an Easy-to-Implement Facebook Marketing Plan that REALLY Works.”

I deliver the training through live webinars, and after the promotion is over in a few weeks, the free live webinar will no longer be available. I have worked SO HARD on this training that I want it to live on beyond my promotion, and I thought that the best way to accomplish that was to present the training in a podcast.

I think you will find it extremely valuable, and at the end of this podcast you will have a really good understanding of how to create a Facebook marketing plan that is focused on both the needs of your business AND the needs of your customers. In addition to that, this plan will actually help you produce leads and revenue on a consistent basis on Facebook.

People have a lot of concerns about Facebook:

• They aren’t sure what they’re doing and they feel stuck
• They are frustrated with their list building strategies; their list is growing painfully slow
• Or, they are just frustrated with Facebook in general, but are still holding out a little hope because they really want Facebook to work for them because they’ve put a lot of effort and in some cases a lot of money into it but just haven’t gotten the results they were hoping for.
• And some people are just looking for a plan so they get see more fans, leads or sales through Facebook.

If you can relate to any of that, this podcast is perfect for you!

Specifically, we covered the following 7 steps that you need to Create a Facebook marketing plan that really works.

1. Create Your Lead Magnet

2. Set Up Your Lead Capture Page

3. Create a “Gotta Have It” Facebook Post and Turn It Into an Ad

4. Only Show Your Ad To Your “Perfect Customer” Target List

6. Always Know In Real-Time If Your Lead Magnet Is Working

7. Create The “5 MUST EMAILS” To Perfectly Position Your Offer

One you have attracted your new lead from your Facebook efforts, it’s time to take things outside of Facebook. Create an email auto responder series to provide even more value to your new lead and when the time is right for you, begin to introduce them to your offer. Email marketing will move your new lead to become a customer.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we talked all about video creation and editing. I know a few of you instantly felt a little anxious when you read those words, because video is not usually at the top of anyone’s “favorite things to do” list - or at least that's the case for me!

I’ve been creating videos ever since I started my online business, but it’s always been a tough thing for me. I don’t particularly like to see myself on video and let’s face it, video is a lot of work - from both the creation and editing sides.

And yet video is very important for online marketers, which is why I invited my friend, Caleb Wojcik to be on the show. Caleb promised me that he would give some tips to make video easier, and he delivered on his promise!

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Caleb's progression from screencast videos to using multiple cameras
• The best type of video to start with
• How your audience determines how polished your videos need to be
• How to make videos using PowerPoint or Keynote
• How to make video editing faster and less painful
• The reason why 60% of the people that Caleb surveyed don't create video
• A trick for finding mistakes in the videos you create
• The benefits of editing backwards
• The sweet spot when it comes to video length
• Why you shouldn't put videos that people will pay to see on YouTube
• Where to host your videos
• And so much more!

Key Takeaways

• If you're nervous about creating videos, screencasts are a great way to start.
• The best screen recording software is Screenflow for Mac and Camtasia for windows.
• It at all possible, when shooting video, sit facing a window.
• If natural light isn't available, position lighting directly in front of you, at a 30-45-degree angle. Light shining directly on you, you'll end up with a shadow from the camera on your face.
• When using your phone to shoot talking head videos, be sure to use a mic, such as Rode Smartlav to improve sound quality.
• DIY videos are fine, especially when they're not being used as part of a paid program. For paid programs, it's better to go pro if possible.

Gear to Check Out

Microphones

• The Rode Smartlav mic
• Heil PR-40
• Blue Microphones

Software

• Screenflow
• Camtasia
• Plural Eyes
• iMovie
• Final Cut Pro X
• Adobe Premiere

Teleprompter 

• ikan teleprompter

Video Hosting

• Wistia
• Vimeo
• Turnstile

DSLR Cameras

• Canon T5i
• Canon Rebel

Digital Audio Recorders

• Tascam
• Zoom H49
• Lavalier

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interviewed my good friend, Chris Ducker. This interview came at a perfect time, because the evening after completing the interview, I got on a plane to the Philippines to speak at Chris' event, Tropical Think Tank.

This was an exciting trip for me because not only is this my first trip to the Philippines, I also had the opportunity to speak with some some really fantastic people, including Pat Flynn, John Dumas, Greg Hickman and Natalie Sisson, and of course Chris Ducker himself, so it was a lot of fun.

On today’s show, we are talking about the power of virtual support and outsourcing. This is an important topic for me, because I recently learned a valuable lesson, something I did not believe for so long until I finally experienced it personally in my business.

So many successful people I look up to have told me that it is possible to work less and make a bigger impact, which includes bigger profits. That was hard for me to believe because it went against everything I knew about hard work paying off.

However, on episode 23, I talked about how I experienced this very thing in 2013. I tell you this because with the right support, you truly can do less and make more. That’s why I think the topic today is so valuable to anyone building a business online.

I’ve actually had Chris on the show before and so today we are going to dive a bit deeper into this topic. For those of you who do not know Chris, Chris is a serial entrepreneur, virtual staffing expert, blogger, podcaster and author of the new book Virtual Freedom (which is a FANTASTIC book and one I highly recommend.)

In this episode, right from the start, Chris gets personal about a recent experience he had with burnout - and how his burnout did not effect his business AT ALL.

Also, Chris dives into the mindset and mechanics around expanding your team with virtual support. The mindset requires a different way of looking at your business and your role in your business, seeing the value of letting go of some of it, and leveraging it by entrusting certain aspects of it to someone else. The mechanics include specific strategies and tools you can use to maximize your outsourcing experience.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Mindset and the mechanics of expanding your team
• The value of letting go and leveraging
• Chris' burnout, and what he did about it
• The importance of taking care of yourself and switching off regularly
• What entrepreneurs should do with the time they save by outsourcing
• How a virtual team kept Chris' business going in the midst of his burnout
• The importance of entrepreneurs going off the grid from time to time
• What super hero syndrome is, and how to overcome it
• The impact of ego on your business
• What will defeat the benefits of your outsourcing efforts
• How you can make more by working less
• How to counter the feeling that you can do things faster yourself than telling someone else to do it
• The biggest problem when training your virtual staff
• How to throw little curve balls to your VA, and why you should
• Why you need to take care of your team ahead of all else
• Whether you should outsource locally or overseas
• The 3 basic ways Chris communicates with his staff
• The point where a lot of businesses begin to fail and how to avoid it
• And so much more!

When training your virtual staff, the biggest challenge you'll run into is yourself [Tweet This]

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we talk all about Twitter.

Since I am not a Twitter expert, I have invited my friend and mentor, Michael Stelzner, on the show to talk about some very specific strategies he uses to promote his live and online events with Twitter.

Mike would say that he too is not a Twitter expert, but I would disagree because he is doing things on Twitter that are getting some serious results - and he’s been perfecting his Twitter strategy for many, many years, so in my book, he’s a pro.

For those of you who might not know Mike, he is the founder of the best social media site around, Social Media Examiner, which he launched in October of 2009, which has exploded, to say the least. Last year more than 7.5 million people visited the site. He's the author of two books (Launch & Writing White Papers) and is host of the Social Media Marketing Podcast. He also founded the parenting blog MyKidsAdventures.com.

5 Strategic Ways to Promote with Twitter

1. Transactional Tweets

This type of tweet has a psychological component to it. When people have just made a purchase or signed up for a newsletter, they're poised to take action, and are more likely to do the next thing you ask them to do. Therefore, as soon as the transaction is complete, send them to a thank you page, and on the page, add a text link with a request.

For instance, you may have a text link that says something like, "Click here to tweet your excitement about (coming to an event, a course they just purchased, etc.). When they click on the link, have it open up a pre-populated tweet that says something like, "I'm attending/just purchased. . ." Be sure to include a link to the event or item being tweeted about.

2. Verbal Tweets

Podcast listeners are often on the go. They may be listening from the gym, while they're driving, etc, so give them a URL that is easy to remember. Mike directs people to go to SocialMediaExaminer.com/love. I actually stole this idea from Mike, and on occasion in my podcast you'll hear me ask you to go to AmyPorterfield.com/love. If you click on that link, you'll see that it opens up a window with a pre-populated tweet about how much they love my podcast. This is a great way to get your podcast listeners to spread the word about your podcast!

3. Shout-Out Tweets

Shout-out tweets are a great way to give love to someone! An example of how Mike uses this technique is that he lists all of the speakers for his events and asks people to click on the name of their favorite presenter. When they do, again, a pre-populated tweet opens up that says something like, "Hey [name], I'm really looking forward to meeting you at [event]."

4. Affiliate Tweets

Write up 10-15 different tweets that promote your product or event, and put them on a blog page or in an email. All people have to do is add their affiliate link to the tweets you've crafted, and they can then easily be shared. The easier you make things, the more likely people are to share! You can use this same strategy even if you don't have affiliates, but have other offerings that you want your audience to help you promote.

5. Custom Tweets

Social share buttons such as Digg Digg have been around for awhile, but when people use them, they promote only the specific page or post the person is on. But you may not want the person driving traffic to the page they are on, such as on the page with information on hotels for an event that is being promoted.

The solution is to craft custom tweets, and then embed that code on any page. This enables you to include a link to the page you want people to go to, regardless of the page they tweeted from. This also gives great social proof because instead of having several Twitter buttons with smaller tweet counts, when you use the widget, the tweet count is aggregated.

Hashtags

In the final third of the show, Michael dove deep into how to best use Hashtags on Twitter, as well as shared some of his favorite Twitter tools.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I share with you some insight I’ve recently discovered about myself. It’s something that I’ve always known on some level, but I’ve just recently really owned it and started to be actively aware of it. I decided to share it with you, because maybe you can relate.

Here’s the deal. Sometimes my mind is a pretty scary place to live as a result of the stories that I create  about my experiences. When I’m in my head, these stories are completely true and real, but in reality, they are just perceptions.

As an example, in the early years of my business if I promoted something and it didn’t go as well as I thought it should, the story that would play in my mind was that I’m just not as good as my peers, that I didn’t have what it takes to be a success, that I’m in over my head, and that I should have never left Tony Robbins. These stories crushed my confidence!

Now that I’m more aware of these stories, I try to spend as much time as possible in the present moment, where life is actually happening, rather than focusing on these stories that I’ve made up. This approach has helped me quiet fears, doubts, and worries as they pop up as I’m building my business.

I’m sharing this with you because these stories are something we all have to deal with from time to time. Because of that, I invited my good friend and mentor, Marie Forleo, founder of B-School, best selling author and the creator of the award-winning web show MarieTV.com, back to the show as my first repeat guest.

I specifically asked Marie to come on the show to explore these mindset pitfalls, because Marie is not only a marketing pro, she also has a great way of pulling you out of your head and into the present moment where things tend to look very different than they do in our minds.

Marie and I discuss the following three mindset pitfalls that entrepreneur’s tend to face as they’re building their business:

#1: How Do I Deal with the Competition?

#2: How Do I Deal with Criticism in My Business?

#3: How Do I Deal with a Lack of Follow Through?

If you’re struggling with perfectionism, focus more on the actual content, rather than the bells and whistles that are nice to have, but not 100% necessary.

It also helps to get things started, knowing that everything is going to be an iteration. For example, when you initially release a course, it may not be just the way you want it to be, but you can keep making improvements.

This is what Marie did when she first launched B-School, her online school for modern entrepreneurs. B-School has now been out for five years, and has grown into a comprehensive soup to nuts program that changes people’s lives.

This episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast is all about some of the big business lessons I learned last year and that I'm taking with me into this New Year.

I call them lessons, but really they were big wins that just really worked well that you can apply to your own online business.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Why you should create a year-long promotional calendar
• The importance of documenting all planned promotional emails
• How I earn the right to promote my programs
• How to know when to say no to opportunities
• How to do more with less
• My revenue in 2013
• How I optimized my online programs
• What to do if you're just starting out in your business and don't know what to focus on
• The importance of focusing on one big project at a time
• How to create marketing funnels for increased revenue
• My experience (both good and bad) with masterminds
• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we talk all about creating a brand new podcast. My special guest is a recent Best of 2013 iTunes award winner, John Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire. His show is unique in that he broadcasts seven days per week, which takes a crazy commitment!

John has interviewed over 425 people to date and his interviews tell the stories of entrepreneurs who have “made it” in their niche. The stories of his guests are inspiring to say the least and help others out there who are looking to take their own entrepreneurial leap.

I wanted to create this episode at this specific time because at the time of this recording, I’ve been podcasting for almost a full year, and it’s been an extremely rewarding experience.

I LOVE podcasting. It’s opened so many doors for me, introduced me to an entirely new audience, and has allowed me to expand my brand beyond my Facebook trainings.

It’s also given me more confidence in my business and has created opportunities for me that I would not have been given had I not created this show. I highly recommend podcasting to anyone that is looking to expand their brand and take things beyond their blog and website.

This episode is extremely valuable. There are tips for those just thinking about starting a podcast, or just starting out, AND there are some great ideas in there for those that have been podcasting awhile and want to take their show to the next level. So we have something for everyone here!

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How to get started with podcasting
• How John went from having zero online presence to building a six-figure monthly income
• Tips for those questioning whether or not they have what it takes to podcast
• The minimal equipment needed to start a podcast
• Steps needed to produce a podcast
• How podcasts are found in podcast directories
• The importance of great show notes and how to best utilize them
• How to monetize a podcast
• The importance of intros and outros, and how to get them done well
• What aspects of podcasts you can outsource
• And so much more!

In this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we focus on streamlining your business planning for the New Year. We reached out to successful online marketers, including Michael Hyatt, Pat Flynn, Melanie Duncan, Chris Ducker, and Michael Stelzner, to learn how they plan for the coming year.

Goal Setting Tips:

1. Get Specific:

- Reflect on what worked in your business this year.

- Identify what excited you, what customers loved, and what was profitable.

- Prioritize enhancing and optimizing what already works.

- Address what didn't work or needs improvement and what you should stop doing.

2. Stack Your Goals:

- Create big-picture goals and break them down into smaller, achievable mini-goals.

- Focus on one mini-goal each month, eventually reaching the big yearly goal.

- Write down your goals, break them into smaller steps, and tackle them one by one.

Bonus Tip: Be Protective of Your Time:

- Be deliberate about how you spend your time.

- Learn to say no when necessary to protect your focus and achieve your goals.

Goal Setting Sheet:

- Condense your goals onto one page, keeping them simple and concise.

- Include:

1. Revenue projections: Specify how much you plan to earn and where the income will come from.

2. Contributions: Set goals for contributions, such as charity or connecting with customers.

3. My Special Focus: Highlight an area of special focus for the year.

4. Focused Foundation Strategies: Detail specific strategies to achieve your goals, such as content creation or email marketing.

Vision Statement:

- Develop a company vision statement that reflects your goals and aspirations.

- Keep it simple and visible in your workspace to maintain focus.

Comfort Zone and Growth:

- Set your goals slightly beyond your comfort zone to stimulate growth.

- Embrace uncertainty, fear, and a sense of inadequacy as indicators that you're heading in the right direction.

To support your goal setting, a Goal Planning Worksheet is provided for download. This episode features insights and tips from accomplished online marketers to inspire you to take action and set your goals for the upcoming year.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interviewed Natalie Sisson, also known as the Suitcase Enterpreneur.

In 2006, Natalie left her home country of New Zealand and since then has been traveling the world and living out of a suitcase -- all while building a successful online business.

On her blog, Natalie teaches creative ways to run a business from anywhere in the world, using outsourcing, along with online tools and social media.

She's also written a new book about how to create freedom in business and adventure in life.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How Natalie started with nothing but an idea and created a successful and profitable Facebook app
• What caused Natalie to cry herself to sleep at night and how she overcame it
• What it takes to make significant changes in your life business
• How to avoid undermining your progress
• How to know your special sauce and how to use it to your advantage
• How to get good feedback from those who know you well
• The two big things Natalie did to launch her book
• Natalie's 30-day blog challenge
• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, my guest is one of my very favorite people - Pat Flynn.

I know most of you already know Pat, but if you don't, he is a well-known and highly successful online entrepreneur. He is a podcaster, blogger and author and is best known for his transparent leadership style and smart business strategies. He blogs at smartpassiveincome.com and has a podcast by the same name.

Now there are a dozen topics Pat and I could discuss that would be highly valuable if you are growing an online business - but I am going to do something a bit different with this interview.

About a week ago I saw a Facebook post from Pat where he talked about all the hard work and dedication he put into one keynote presentation he recently did for a financial bloggers’ conference called FinCon. The post is inspirational and demonstrates the mindset needed to succeed, and after reading it I had so many questions for him, I decided to invite him onto the show.

 In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• The importance of focusing on one thing at a time
• What Pat told himself in his head in order for his FinCon speech to be successful
• How speaking can help you in other parts of your life and business
• What Pat does to make sure he stays the course
• How Pat sets big goals and priorities
• What Pat told himself to keep from procrastinating
• What you have to do to make goals real
• How fear is a disservice to your audience
• How to grow your confidence
• Tips for finding a mastermind that's right for you
• And so much more!