In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how to monetize your online content.

Whether you have a blog, a website, or buzzing social accounts – how can you take your content and turn it into an income stream?

• It starts by creating quality content that people are actively searching for
• Cultivating an online audience is a lot of work. They say your first 1k followers will be the hardest to get
• Once you have an active audience that looks to you for content, how do you begin to make money?

Voicemail:

“Hey! My name is Kyle, I have a blog FrenchieJourney.com, about French Bulldogs. We have about 113 blog posts up and our blog is making about $500-600/month on affiliate links, but I would love any thoughts from you guys on different ways we can further monetize the site and just take it to a whole other level!”

Let’s Take It To The Next Level

Kyle has already seen great success on his blog, so we’ll outline a few things Kyle is already doing well in case you aren’t at his level yet, and then build on that list with a few things you could do to take things up a notch!

• Create Content People Are Looking For:  This means researching keywords and search terms that are related to what you do or want to talk about. Then, strategically write about the things people are looking for.  It’s all about strategy and planning.
• Affiliate Links – These are custom links that you can use to generate a kickback from a purchase through a retailer like Amazon. You simply place your custom link to a particular product in your blog and when someone clicks on it and purchases the item you get a kickback for the sale.
• Selling Ads – Once you have a certain amount of traffic heading to your website, you can qualify to feature ads on your website. Then you can make a small kickback on the ads that people click and purchase from.  This could be done with programs like Google AdSense, etc.
• Email Marketing and Lead Magnets – There is no better place to reach your audience than inside of their email inbox.  You can gather email addresses by creating a value-packed download on your website and then email them about any other projects or opportunities you have.
• Merchandise/Digital Products – You can branch out and design products that would interest your audience such as, calendars, mugs, t-shirts, etc. With Print-On-Demand options, this can be a no-cost way to generate some income.
• Social Media & Collaborations – Utilize the networks within each social platform and join groups and “packs” to expand your reach and grow a larger audience.  
• YouTube Channel – Repurpose blog content in video format. Find your top-performing blogs and make them into videos.
• Guest Spots on Podcasts – Like social media, connect with the movers and shakers in the niche space and look to discuss your most popular topics to generate interest and opportunities.

Next 3 Steps

There are lots of ways to monetize your online content with a little bit of strategy and a good amount of effort!  If you have a blog or website with lots of valuable content and are looking to make some more money with it, here are a few key steps to take:

1. Review your numbers: See what your traffic looks like, the engagement you’re getting, and make sure you are strategically creating content based on what people are looking for
2. Link it Up: Start building your affiliate opportunities and adding affiliate links and possibly ads to your website to generate income
3. Reach Out:  Connect with others in your field and start collaborating to cross-promote and build a community
4. Digitize & Repurpose:  Create digital products and repurpose your content for other platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook Groups, Email Marketing, etc.

Recommended Resources

• Leave a voicemail for us: www.learnit-doit.com/podcast
• Frenchie Journey

The post How To Monetize A Blog appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In this episode, we dive into how to determine your pricing and the steps you can take to confidently sell your products/services for the pricing you desire.

First things first, pricing is UP TO YOU!

Pricing is an IMPORTANT topic when running your own business. The hard truth of it is: IT’S UP TO YOU!  Right?  There are some helpful formulas that might set you out on the right foot, but ultimately YOU get to choose what makes sense for you and your business and that’s what makes pricing so challenging.

We are super excited today, because not only is this a topic we’ve been wanting to tackle for a while, but we actually received a voicemail question specifically about this challenge!  

It’s our first voicemail segment and we can’t wait.  Since we can’t meet in person for our podcast these days, we’ve decided to start taking your questions as voicemails. That way we can still help you tackle those challenges you’re facing in your day-to-day business life.  So let’s listen to our first voicemail message from Cyrinda….

Voicemail:

“My name is Cyrinda and I’ve been in business for about 3 years. I make handmade luxury, coconut soy wax candles as well as other organic body products. I’ve been doing a lot of custom projects lately where I’ll create signature scents for small businesses. I’ve been struggling with pricing and what I should be charging for these special, custom projects and also what I should charge for wholesale items, as well…”

Where do you start with pricing?

• Local Competitors – Make sure they are actually competitors in the same market
• How do you want to Position Yourself? Quality, Convenience, Price  
• Are you offering Quantity or Quality?

What do you base your pricing off of?

• Hard Costs per product/service
• Hard Costs of running your business
• Your TIME
• How much you need to make to stay in business vs How much you need to make to live a healthy lifestyle

Charge For Your Time

A huge mistake business owners make is not charging for their time. This happens because when we start out we often start with “sweat equity.” This is a great way to start your business without incurring a bunch of debt, however – it can’t last forever. You NEED to charge for your time because your time is valuable and you’ll never be able to grow without doing so. Plus, it’s too easy to start feeling run down and resent your own business if you aren’t getting paid for the time you put into it. It’s also pretty easy to charge TOO LITTLE when you don’t account for the time you spend.

Think about how much do you need to charge for your time so you can live your dream life, hire someone else, utilize software to make your job/life easier, etc.

Example: If you want to make $1000/week and only want to work 25 hours/week, then you need to charge at least $40/hour for your time.

Confidence In Selling Your Price

Once you have an idea of your costs, value, and time to figure out your price you’ll have more confidence in your pricing.

• Do the work to decide your prices and make a price list/sheet for yourself
• Possibly create packages
• Stick to your pricing
• Decide if and when you’ll offer discounts
• Put it on someone else to make it less uncomfortable
• Act like YOUR hourly rate is a hard cost – you wouldn’t mind paying someone else for their time, so treat your prices the same way
• Start where you are comfortable and grow from there

Your Pricing Should Change Over Time

• Start with introductory rates that help you build your confidence
• Note that it’s an early rate when you start out so you can easily raise prices later and avoiding having that bite you in the butt
• Change your pricing as you gain experience and confidence

The way I felt most comfortable raising my prices was:

1. Start by saying here is our “Introductory rate” so it’s clear this is special pricing for early customers
2. Give a heads up to existing clients that prices are changing and act now to save
3. Schedule a pricing review and plan to change pricing on an annual or bi-annual basis
4. Review your numbers regularly to make sure they are actually working for your business

Next 3 Steps:

1. Figure out your hard costs (both per products and as a business)
2. Determine your hourly rate and start charging for your time
3. Create a pricing sheet for yourself based on that info

STICK WITH IT! And feel confident in your sales pricing!

Recommended Resources

• Leave a voicemail HERE
• Learn more about Cyrinda’s Luxury Candles here: https://www.emandro.com/

The post How To Be Confident in Your Pricing appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In this podcast episode, we break down the phrase “fake it ‘till you make it” and talk about the practical uses and the impractical side effects.

Our three main problems with the idea of “faking it till we make it.” 

1. It never ends because there is no quantifiable “making it” period. How do you know when you’ve made it?
2. It breeds the foundation for the Imposter Syndrome. Even if you’ve gained experience, this way of thinking will knock you down into believing that you’re not supposed to be here or that you’re no good at this.  
3. It doesn’t allow you to learn and grow, because you avoid vulnerability.  

We talk about the psychology of what happens to your long-term confidence and growth and what you can do to maintain a healthy confidence level.

“Faking it” breeds a long-term identity crisis. You become obsessed with your external image and you end up putting yourself in a lot of stressful situations.     

We share stories of things that we experienced when we launched a photo portrait studio in 2013 and how “faking it till we made it” affected our business starting out and as we grew.

The Next 3 Steps to keep “fake it until you make it” in check

1. Set a goal for when you’ve “made it”. It can be a monetary amount, a certain number of clients, your number of products sold, or even a time frame. It’s entirely up to you and your business goals. But the point is to set a tangible goal and allow yourself to say you’ve “made it” and can stop “faking it”.
2. Take daily action towards “making it”.  Stop spending time, money, and energy projecting that you’ve made it and just focus on actually doing the things that put you on course to your success.
3. Find other ways to build confidence. You can do things like taking courses, networking with peers, and getting client reviews.

Host Bio –  Rhi and Pete [Rhi-Pete – now you’ll remember] are a wife and husband team who have been in business together for over a decade.  They run a creative media agency [Do Something Different Media] that provides strategy and consulting, video production, website development, photography, graphic design, and content writing for small businesses.  

Recommended Resources

Leave a voicemail for an upcoming podcast: www.learnit-doit.com/podcast

The post The Problem With “Fake It Until You Make It” appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In this episode, we’re talking about resolutions/goals, making a plan, and how to actually achieve those goals! We are well into the new year, and if you are like most people, those lofty goals you set up at the start of the new year have already fallen to the wayside. So let’s dive in, and see what you can do to create better goals and set out to actually achieve them!

Episode Summary

Most of us would love to make a plan to grow, both personally and professionally. But it’s easy to set goals that are too lofty, aren’t really actionable, or are inconsistent in nature. The best way to really achieve new heights is to set small, reasonable goals that you can easily insert into your everyday routine. Turn your goals into daily habits so they really stick and can help create long-lasting, sustainable change in your life.

Take action each day to reach your goal

• Make a plan and commit to it
• Break down your goal into specific, daily actions you can take
• Insert your daily action/habit into your everyday routine

For example, if you want to exercise more, set a small goal to do 20 squats every day. Then tack those squats onto something you already do every day, like brushing your teeth. So now, when you brush your teeth, you’re reminded to do your 20 squats as soon as you finish – or if you’re super talented, simultaneously!

Think about Improving 1% Each Day…

Taking a few minutes each day is totally doable! Whether it’s reading for 5 minutes, taking a 10-minute walk, or doing 20 squats – set these actionable goals that are super-specific and schedule them into your day. These small steps will lead to more and more improvement.

If you can take your goals and turn them into habits, THAT is how you can really create CHANGE in your life. If you think about it, that is what these goals are for, right? We are trying to make a change – and long-lasting change, at that! The best way to create lasting change is by developing a habit, and small daily action is exactly how to get that done!

Lighting the Spark

While 20 squats a day may not get you in the best shape of your life, it’s all about LIGHTING THE SPARK! On days when you are super tired, 20 squats are so easy you’ll still get it done. But on days when you are super motivated and have the time, those 20 squats might turn into 10 push-ups, a short jog, jumping jacks, etc. What started as 20 squats each day has turned into a short exercise circuit that we do daily – all we needed was a spark, and daily action to create the habit!

The Next 3 Steps:

1. Commit to a small, consistent, daily action you can take. Make sure it’s something SO simple that it will only take you 5-10 minutes to complete. Just light that spark!
2. Schedule it – Set the same time every day to do that activity. Maybe it’s when you first wake up at 8:00 am or after you brush your teeth at night. Just pick the time or routine activity to attach it to, so you actually get it done.
3. Show up – Do it EVERY day! “Don’t break the streak!” should be a mantra! And if you do miss a day, it’s OK – life happens. But keep your commitment by following the rule of NEVER missing 2 days in a row.

Host Bio –  Rhi and Pete [Rhi-Pete – now you’ll remember] are a wife and husband team who have been in business together for over a decade.  They run a creative media agency [Do Something Different Media] that provides strategy and consulting, video production, website development, photography, graphic design, and content writing for small businesses.

Recommended Resources:

• Headspace – Sign up for Headspace
• Leave us a voicemail and be on an upcoming podcast – www.learnit-doit.com/podcast
• The Book: Atomic Habits by James Clear

The post The Easy Way To Make A Plan Work appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In this episode, we take a real personal look at our relationship with money, how we can develop a positive relationship, and ultimately break through our current mental barriers.

We kick this episode off by unveiling the new basement studio that we built this winter. 

Episode Summary

We tell our story of our own money journey and how we’ve come from a very disconnected and absent mindset when it came to our feelings and relationship with our bank accounts. Factors like upbringing, values, and personality play a huge role as to why you think, feel and talk about money in the way that you do.

 Think of your relationship with money like you’re dating:

• Are you communicating? i.e. Do you check in to know what’s happening and how each other is feeling?
• Do you have a commitment to each other?
• Do you appreciate each other?

Your mindset plays a huge role in how you will be able to grow to the point of financial success.  You don’t need money before you make a plan for it.

Cut the ties between your identity and how much money you have:

• Your amount of wealth does not change your identity, it changes your circumstances.  
• Your value as a person is not tied to the value of the dollars in your bank account

[From Jen Sincero’s Book] Write money a letter and make a money contract that you’re willing to commit to.

Build and hire a money support system – this is the foundation of your financial success:

• Are you banking with a helpful partner? When is the last time you’ve talked to someone from your bank?
• Do you have an accountant? It’s imperative to have someone that knows your business and can help lower your tax liability and guide you to take advantage of creative tax-savings.
• Do you have a financial planner? They will set you up with a plan for saving, retirement, life insurance, investing, and a budget.
  • This is something you should do before you even “have money”. Don’t wait for years thinking that you don’t make enough, put a plan into action now, even if it’s just a budget.
• Do you have a lawyer? They will help you with setting up wills, trusts, buying property, etc.

Dissolve your money blocks:

• Audit your beliefs and experience with money
  • A good way to do this is to journal it out
• Notice your daily money habits
  • Are you emotionally buying things?
  • Do you spend money as soon as it comes in?
• Read or listen to books/podcasts about money
• Say daily money affirmations
• Decide to break up with and start a new relationship with money

The Next 3 Steps

1. Write a letter to money and air out all of your grievances.  Get it on paper and let it go.
2. Find or develop a money affirmation or mantra that you can say out loud every morning.
3. Look at your current money support system and see what’s missing, or if you need to find people that are more in tune with your needs. 

Host Bio –  Rhi and Pete [Rhi-Pete – now you’ll remember] are a wife and husband team who have been in business together for over a decade.  They run a creative media agency [Do Something Different Media] that provides strategy and consulting, video production, website development, photography, graphic design, and content writing for small businesses.  

Recommended Resources  

Leave a Voice Mail for the Podcast – www.learnit-doit.com

Rhi + Pete VLOG – www.rhiandpete.com

Jen Sincero – “You’re a Badass at Making Money”

The post How’s Your Relationship With Money? appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

In this quick-win episode, we share our own story of learning the valuable lesson of separating our work life from our home life.  Early on in our career, a mentor told us to be strict about the time spent on our business and the time spent on ourselves.  As simple as it seems, this is extremely hard to accomplish when you’re working to make more money any possible way.  We talk about habits, concepts, and ways that we keep ourselves grounded and make sure that we’re bringing balance to our everyday lives.

Host Bio –  Rhi and Pete [Rhi-Pete – now you’ll remember] are a wife and husband team who have been in business together for over a decade.  They run a creative media agency [Do Something Different Media] that provides strategy and consulting, video production, website development, photography, graphic design, and content writing for small businesses.  

Episode Summary

• It’s okay to work non-traditional hours
• Make sure that you’re not always available for your business/clients
• Schedule your personal chores, hobbies and family activities just like you would business meetings
• If you end up working weekends, or nights, make sure to swap out other times in your week for your personal time
• Create weekly business goals, so that you can actually be mentally present during your personal time and allow yourself the flexibility to take personal time

Quick-Wins

1. Make a schedule for your personal time as well as your business time
2. Don’t make work available everywhere. Separate it physically from you. Commit to your scheduled personal time.
3. Make clear goals.  Weekly goals are extremely helpful to get out of the workaholic mindset.  Once you’ve hit your goals, you can celebrate with personal time.

The post Quick-Win Episode 1: Being Strict About Work & Play appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

Learning how to control your schedule is crucial to being in business for yourself.  Without setting proper processes, boundaries, and expectations, you’ll soon find yourself running in circles and spending most of your day in between productive activities, rather than getting things done and feeling accomplished. This is a lesson we learned (the hard way) when we were running our measuring business.

How We Learned This Lesson The Hard Way

As we described in Episode 0 – Who are Rhi & Pete and What’s this Podcast All About? we started a side business doing carpet estimates for multiple carpet installers who were contracted with a box home improvement store while we were in college.

Every week, we’d be sent the contact information for 20-40 people in the New Hampshire and Northern Massachusetts areas that we had to schedule appointments with for that week.  Our territory included 9 stores that spanned 86 miles at their furthest points. In order to effectively schedule ourselves, we had to account for: 

• The location of the home we were measuring
• Any traffic or construction we might encounter on the way
• What we had to measure and how long that might take 
• Hoping the people we were meeting weren’t running late or not showing up
• Using map books, printed directions and old school GPS devices without real-time traffic updates.  

Needless to say, scheduling all these appointments was quite the cumbersome task.

When we first started, we would simply call each person in our pile of paperwork and ask them when they were available, and put them in our calendar.  We’d write down the list of appointments we’d scheduled in order, print out directions from the internet, hop in the car and hope for the best.

Before long we realized there had to be a better way.  We’d run into traffic, no-shows, incorrect directions, and endless days full of stress, running late, and rescheduling.  Our days were long, stressful, and inefficient and we realized that it was costing us time and money. It was pretty agonizing at first…what had we gotten ourselves into?!

So how did we attempt to fix this problem?  Well, we started by sitting down and outlining all the places where we were running into issues.

Once we outlined our major issues, we decided that if we could improve our ability to estimate how long tasks actually took and improve our customer process, we could get more estimates done in less time, and create days with less stress and more productivity. 

Sound like a dream come true?  Well, it certainly was for us! We went from barely getting 25 estimates done in a week to easily scheduling 50 estimates and working fewer hours…this was like doubling our income without increasing the number of hours we were working!!  It was all about efficiency.

So, let’s take a look at how this could be applied to your business to save you time, decrease your stress, and increase your productivity (and hopefully increase the amount of money you’re making)!

How We Solved This Problem

1. The first thing you need to do [and as we did in our situation] is to define the problematic areas of your scheduling process.

Take a hard look at what processes or routines (if any) you use to schedule yourself.  

• Is it first come first serve for your time slots?  
• Do have dedicated days for certain clients, geographic areas, meetings, or work? 
• How do your personal obligations fit into this schedule? 
• Are there certain tasks or obligations that keep being bumped for “things that come up?”

Consider your answers to all of these questions and try to pinpoint the places that are creating the logjam and stress for you.

For our measuring business we uncovered that our biggest roadblocks were:

1. We were constantly underestimating the amount of time it took to complete a measurement, travel between point A and B, and stop for lunch/gas, etc.
2. We were assuming that every appointment we made was going to be kept by the customer without any sort of reminder process.
3. We were letting each customer set the day and time when we would come to them, rather than being more efficient and scheduling similar locations in the same time window (kind of like batching our stops together based on location).

2. Second, we brainstormed solutions for each of our roadblocks.  

Problem 1: We realized that it was extremely important for us to be realistic about estimating the amount of time we needed to do our jobs correctly.  In order to do this, we recorded the time each task took us for two weeks of measuring (because each job and destination was different every time) and we used the averages to help us schedule and plan.  This is what we came up with: 

Time spent measuring

• Single Room: 10 minutes
• ½ house: 25 minutes
• Whole House: 45 minutes

Driving Times

We used MapQuest at the time and just added a 15-minute buffer for each stop.  This gave us time to get gas, eat and helped with any traffic we encountered.

2 Hour Window

We gave our customers a 2-hour window on when to expect us.

Having these numbers allowed us to use a formula for scheduling. We’d just plug the numbers in and know exactly how much time we needed and it saved us from guessing or trying to figure it out every single time.

Problem 2: We encountered a lot of no-shows.  Most of the time people just forgot because they too, are bad at making or keeping a schedule.  So to fix this issue, we told each customer that we’d call when we were about 15 minutes away and we made sure to get the phone number of the person that we’d be meeting.  This is twofold — first, a lot of people were meeting us and this 15-minute heads up ensured that they’d have time to still get there if they forgot; second, we weren’t always meeting with the person who we originally scheduled the appointment with.

Problem 3: We’d just start calling the customers as the jobs came in and asked when they’d like us to come. This made for total chaos in our schedule and made for very long and stressful days.  To solve this issue, we batched together when we made our phone calls. We decided since the store’s policy is to call the customers within 48 hours of receiving their paperwork that we’d wait until multiple jobs came in so we could organize them by geographic location, map out our ideal itinerary and begin making calls.  

We also decided that we were going to give the customer two options for the appointment (ie. We’ll be in the area on Monday morning or Wednesday afternoon, do either of those times work for you?).  The majority of the time those time slots did work and that’s the moment when we started making our schedule on our own terms.

Realizing that our clients don’t know our schedule and don’t assume we are always available for them was a big lesson.  We always felt like we needed to accomodate them in order to provide an awesome service, but the truth is, the more efficient we are the better service we can provide.  It’s also so much easier for our clients to choose between two options than to review their entire schedule and toss out their own ideas. We assume that their suggestions are convenient for them, but sometimes they are just as random as you allow your schedule to be when you don’t control it.  Giving a few options shows that you are organized, efficient with your time, and accommodating because you are giving them options.

Improve your process to get more done

Lastly, think about ways in which you can improve your process to control your schedule more.  For us, it meant letting our customers know the window during which we would arrive, and telling them we would call them when we were on our way to their location with an exact time.  It didn’t really take extra time on our end because we were already in the car. What it did do though, is allow some flexibility for us if there was traffic or other unforeseen reasons why our day was running a bit off schedule.  It also meant that our customers knew exactly what to expect, knew that we valued their time, and made our “no show” ratio almost zero!  

Now, if you’re schedule meetings with your clients, no-shows may not be a big issue for you.  But I am sure we have all had meetings cancel last minute, or arrived at a location to find that our client was running behind or no longer had as much time to meet with us as we or they had planned.  This can really mess with your schedule and efficiency. Think about simple ways you can improve or add to your client process in order to improve your efficiency and I am sure you won’t regret it!

Let’s do this!

Now that we’ve outlined a few ways you can audit and improve your processes, habits, and management of your schedule, it’s time to put it into practice.  Take a few of these tips and start implementing them in your business and see how you can start to be more efficient, avoid unnecessary stress, and take control of your schedule!!  

Have you tried any of these methods before?  Have other ideas you want to share? We want to hear what works and doesn’t work for you!  Comment below to share the scheduling challenges or successes you’ve experienced.

The post How to Control your Schedule and Accomplish More Each Week appeared first on Learn It - Do It.

Last fall, we were looking for a jolt of positivity and enthusiasm to zap us out of a funk.  They weren’t dire times [we were actually in the midst of developing and producing LIDI], but we were definitely in the need of a 3rd quarter pick-me-up to help us spring out of bed on those colder mornings and finish strong.

What Prompted Us to Pick up this Book?

One random night, while we were caught mindlessly scrolling on our phones before bed – we happened to see a friend of mine post about You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero on Instagram and I thought, “what the heck? – I’ll give it a read!”

Honesty Alert: Reading You Are A Badass was like drinking a 2 pm Redbull and finishing the day with a slam! It’s a shot of adrenaline to get you past the small roadblocks that you’ve built up in your mind that are currently standing between you and your goals.  Its “No B.S.” attitude is just what you need to wake up from the craziness in your mind and start taking action to live your best life!

Not only did this book completely jazz us up – it actually sparked feverish creative energy that helped us reach our year-end goals and prepare ourselves for the launch of this very website.

Who would get a lot out of this book? 

If you are currently pursuing a goal and you’re feeling “stuck,” this is a great book for you because Jen Sincero paints a comically honest picture of the harsh truths that we all need to hear.  Whatever your reason may be, I bet that the majority of what’s keeping you from the success you’re looking for are roadblocks that are actually quite simple to remove.  Sometimes a slap in the face can help change your perspective and if you feel like you’re ready to understand life from a new perspective, then you absolutely should read this book.  She’s raw, funny, and tells you the things that you need to hear without the sugar-coating. This book is oh-so-human, real, honest and just the kick in the butt you’ve been looking for!

What are our takeaways and how will we apply them?

1. Awareness & Consciousness

When you start getting into self-help books, there is a lot of talk about the “ego,” and if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t think you are the greatest (even though you totally should value yourself that much), it’s hard for you to believe that you have an EGO problem.  

The truth is, the “Ego” is your subconscious that is “driving the bus,” so to speak, when you put your brain on auto-pilot.  It’s the little voice in your head that pulls you down, helps you make terrible decisions that sabotage your goals, or reminds you of a bunch of useless false beliefs you’ve been taught throughout your life at just the right moment to hold you back.  

I love how simply, and realistically, Sincero talks about this concept of the ego.  It’s so important to take a step outside your “self” and realize that you CAN make changes to your life, things aren’t always going to be the way they have been, and everything you’ve been told isn’t necessarily gospel.  If you want something, you can have it…just tell that voice in your head that you’ll take it from here and make it happen!

2. Gratitude: The Gateway Drug to Awesomeness

Appreciating when someone does something for you seems like a simple concept.  Sometimes we say “thank you” without really thinking about it or feeling it. The truth is, when we can really take a minute to truly feel gratitude and appreciate the things and opportunities we have, it puts us on the frequency of receiving more of those awesome things.  When you are in a good mood, you notice more good things coming your way. So when you are having a down moment, take a minute to be present and think about some things that you really appreciate and you’ll find yourself climbing out of that mental hole and pulling yourself into that happy place again!

3. “I Tried” is the Poor Man’s “Kick Butt”

I love that Sincero points out that we as people tend to let ourselves fall short of a goal because we aren’t really willing to do what it takes.  People who are successful push themselves outside of their comfort zone again and again. They achieve their goals and reach the highest levels of success because they simply aren’t willing to let anything get in the way of that.  The truth is, if you want something bad enough, nothing can stop you. So don’t make excuses or allow yourself to fall victim to yourself or outside obstacles. If you REALLY want something, you’ll make it happen!

4. Give Yourself  Permission to be You.

All too often we allow ourselves to settle or be less than our best versions of ourselves because of something someone else says or a silly belief we’ve been holding on to.  The truth is, anything you want to be, do, or have is totally available to you if you can get out of your own way and really believe it’s possible.  You deserve to be the best version of yourself; whatever that means to you.

Link to the book: You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero

Author’s Website: https://jensincero.com/

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Why did we decide to write our first course on “How to Write, Shoot, Edit & Share Videos for your Marketing?”  

The answer is pretty simple.  Professional video is pretty expensive — however, extremely beneficial.  A lot of business owners see the price of video production and immediately dismiss it — completely ignoring how effective it can be for their business.

In addition, every single one of us has the means to create effective video content with the device that is in our pocket right now.  By now, we all know the statistics that video marketing far outweighs plain text and graphics — but still, tons of business owners drag their feet when it comes to creating video content for their marketing.

IN-HOUSE TRAINING

For over a decade now, we’ve been producing professional video content for small businesses.  During this time we’ve also been hired to train marketing teams and employees how to create effective videos.  Most of those companies had us come in and teach the basics of how to produce a video in a four-hour training session.  By the end of the session, our students were able to film and edit a quick video for social sharing on their own.  

Once we knew it would work, we decided that we’d not only teach people how to film a video, but we’d focus on how to write and plan a video.  You’ve never watched a video just for its quality, right? You usually watch it because of its content. So we took our 4-hour, in-person video training outline, and wrote an entire course on how to write, shoot, edit, and share videos for your marketing.

We want everyone to be able to use video to help their business grow.  Why? Because we know how valuable it will be for you. There are numerous applications [testimonials, sales, promotions, training, reviews, etc] for video, and most importantly, it allows you to engage with your audience in a way that other media can’t.

CASE STUDY 1

During our Beta-Test group for the course, we sent the course to a friend of ours who is the head of marketing at her company.  Since her company was trying to incorporate more video content into their marketing plans, she asked if she could share the course with her team members, to see if they could learn exactly what they needed in order to make quality video content for the company on their own.  

After taking the course this is what one of her team members had to say.

“This course covers most, if not all, of the information I spent weeks going over in college classes that were very expensive. Pair this material with some practice making your own videos and you will have a recipe for success. – Liam M.”

Just a week after finishing the course, her team member Liam was able to create and fully produce a Team Member Spotlight video with interviews, B-roll, and basic animation that they were able to share socially and on their website blog!

Now the team can produce their own in-house videos for their daily social sharing and they’re seeing their social post engagement grow.  In addition, their C-Suite is very excited to jump into regular video production both in-house and professionally produced. That’s a Win-Win.

CASE STUDY 2

Another member of our Beta-Test group is a self-employed business owner who provides IT consulting for local businesses.  He took the course thinking that he could use it to help train his internal team and save himself some time repeating certain processes over and over.  While taking the course, a client of his needed to know how to set something up on their computer for a new employee. Rather than packing up and heading to their office, he decided to give video content a try!  Using what he learned in this course, he recorded his screen and walked the client through each step of the process and sent it over via email. The client was instantly able to see how to do the process on their own and now will always have that video as a reference when this particular need arises again.  This saves the business owner time and it saves their client money. Another Win-Win!

WHO IS THIS FOR?

Whether you are a self-employed business owner, a small business owner, or you’re in charge of a marketing department — you will benefit from this course.

We’ve broken our entire creative process apart into bite-sized pieces so that you can learn how to come up with ideas and organize your script and plans, all the way to how to edit and upload your video to different sharing platforms.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How to come up with good ideas for video content
• How to write a script
• How to plan your shoot
• What gear you need to be successful
• How to get good shots
• How to load and organize your footage
• How to edit your story
• How to prep your video for sharing

WHAT ARE THE DETAILS?

This course is entirely self-paced, meaning you can go through it as quickly or slowly as you would like.  Once you purchase the course, you will always have access to it, so you are free to take your time with the material and come back to it for reference at any time.

This course is filled with video explanations, written lessons, PDF downloadable worksheets, helpful visuals, and sample videos that peel back the curtain on every step of the video-making process.  By the time you finish the course, you won’t only have learned how to make a video for your marketing, you will have already made your first video!  This is why throughout the course we created DO IT assignments that walk you through each step of the video-making process with examples, visuals, and hands-on worksheets.

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

Our course, “How to Write, Shoot, Edit, and Share Video Content for your Marketing” is available on our website at www.LearnIt-DoIt.com/courses for $499.  This price includes forever-access to the course, and a 20-minute, ideas consult call with us, where we can help you generate video content ideas for your specific business to help you get started on your video making journey!

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Because we don’t want to come off as slimy salespeople, or we are so scared to be shot down, we tend to take the easier route when it comes to asking for money.  I used to always email our quotes over using an old Apple pages template and I’d just cross my fingers, hold my breath and hope something would happen. Generally speaking, it didn’t work too well – yes, I did sell some jobs that way, but most of the time we’d get a response back saying something like, “We’ve decided to go another way.”  Because the idea of selling our services any other way was so uncomfortable, we kept emailing proposals anyways.

It wasn’t until we lost a prospective client, who told us they had emailed our quote to another vendor who said they could do everything we outlined for less, that we realized we were doing this all wrong.  Thinking about all the time and energy I had put into the research and planning of that proposal, just to have someone else swoop in and put a different price tag on it, forced me to get outside of my comfort zone.  Ultimately, I realized that the whole scenario was my fault! I made it so easy for this to happen, and it was all because I was too uncomfortable to sell my services. So, I smartened up and decided I needed to shake things up and change the way I share proposals with my clients.

Now, I know what you’re thinking…

• It takes me so long to make a proposal, I barely have time to send it via email.
• My clients want me to email them the proposal.
• My competitors are emailing their proposals.
• I don’t want to feel like a sleazy salesperson…and my clients can read

Honestly, there are many reasons why emailing proposals seems like the right thing to do.  I used to think that because other vendors who offer similar services email their proposals, I should, too.  My clients are busy and don’t have time to do anything other than read my quick email to decide to hire me. Not to mention, I am busy, too.  It’s much easier for me to hit SEND on an email than to take any more time out of my day for proposals. But the truth is, no matter what your reasons are for emailing proposals, the ultimate goal is to close the deal, and I guarantee you, emailing the proposal is NOT the best way to do that.

Here are 7 reasons to STOP emailing your proposals or pricing to potential clients

1. It’s easy to say “No” to a number.

If you are just emailing an estimate over with no dialogue or explanation, then all they are immediately reacting to is the price.  Let’s face it — when you’re expecting to spend a good amount of money on your business, do you feel better hearing an explanation of what needs to be done, or simply a price?  If your potential client is anything like most of us, they are skipping through everything in your proposal to look at the bottom line and making a decision based solely on whether or not they like the price.  Unless your goal is to be the cheapest guy or gal out there, this is never going to work in your favor.

2. You don’t get to explain or tell the whole story.

Part of what your client is paying you for is expertise.  If we’re being honest, I’m sure there are lots of people who can provide the checklist version of the service you are offering.  Sometimes the biggest value you are providing your client is the time and expertise you’ve put into figuring out what they need and putting that into the proposal.  When you email the proposal over, you’re not giving the client any information as to why you’ve recommended the services you’ve outlined, what your version of these services looks like, and why they should trust you with the project. This is a huge part of what could make or break your sale, and it’s not going to happen without your guidance.  If you email your proposal, it’s like sending over the last page of a novel and hoping people understand the value of the whole story.

3. You give away all control to the client.

Remember when you were in school and the teacher would pass around a packet and everyone in the class would flip to the last page before the teacher got through the explanation?  The truth is, nothing has changed. When you email your proposal over, you’re hoping that your client reads through the entire document, but the reality is, you have no control over what they do with it.  You’re essentially relinquishing all of your negotiating leverage to the client and have no idea what they actually looked at, what they skipped over, and what they are thinking or basing their decisions off of.  Sales 101 would tell you that you need to be in control of the situation at all times, even if you make the situation feel like the client is in control.

4. It’s so impersonal.

Sending a proposal in an email means you are just like everyone else.  If the client is getting multiple proposals, you and everyone else are just words on a page.  You don’t get a chance to set yourself apart as THE company or person they should hire. Especially when you’re selling a service, you need to set expectations of what it will be like to work with you and to see if you vibe properly with the client.  It’s extremely important that you get to explain who you are, why you’re different, and how you can help them achieve their goals. Think of this as an opportunity to build a relationship with your client right from the start.

5. They can share the proposal with competitors.

As I said earlier, it’s happened to us.  By building a relationship with your client, you will naturally engender respect with them and the odds of this type of behavior happening will decrease.  Emailing your proposal over means it’s a simple click or two for the client to shop out your ideas and find the lowest bidder. And although you might think it’s unlikely, believe me, this happens a lot.  Because you’ve emailed the proposal over, the potential client thinks of it as just words on a page and most of the time wouldn’t think twice about sharing it to get a better price; even with the best of intentions.

6. You don’t get a chance to handle objections or questions.

This might be one of the most important reasons to stop sending your proposals in an email. As any trained salesman knows, dealing with objections is a huge part of the gig.  It’s your job to handle any questions or concerns and to act as a trusted advisor for your client. Emailing your proposal leaves them totally on their own to figure things out.  And no matter how simple you might think your proposal is to understand, there are ALWAYS questions or comments that potential clients have, and the longer they go unanswered the bigger they become and the more likely they are to ruin your chances of closing the deal.  Picture this: Your proposal arrives in their inbox and although everything looks good, the potential client wonders if you could break out payments differently. A simple question for sure. But their day gets busy, and the next day, too, and now another proposal comes in their inbox and it outlines the payment option they want.  That’s it. You’ve lost the sale and you never even knew how close you were to working with them. Questions left lingering or unanswered can certainly kill the sale.

7. Emailing proposals leads to a way lower closing ratio.

When we redirected our proposal method away from email our closing ratio went through the roof.  We not only closed more projects, but we were able to charge more money for the same services, and we were working with clients who respected us and our work more.  

By simply following our easy proposal strategy, you’ll put yourself in a way better position to close more jobs and make more money!

Now that you know all the reasons why emailing your proposals is hurting your business, it’s time to make some changes.  If you know that this is an area of weakness for yourself, then it’s definitely time to sit down and audit your own process.  Write down your current system and strategy for writing proposals and selling jobs.

If you want to see our proven system for successful proposals, access our FREE Mini-Course here: “How to Present a Proposal.”

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