First off, thanks for listening! I appreciate you. Our numbers have been growing slowly but steadily.
Season 3 Reflections
This season went in a new direction and was not thematic, but rather a hodgepodge of ideas and concepts from standout people.
My conversations with Jason Bagley on email outreach and Brent Spilkin on funnels and sales strategy drove home the importance of just reaching out. Sales sucks. It’s not fun. But you have to put yourself out there, not be afraid to email, and share that you’re human.
Also, just a side note: if you’re selling something, get back to people quickly. I work hard to keep my family time a priority, but when I’m working, my inquiries take priority. I’ll call right away and often this lead turns into a fruitful relationship, largely due to my response time in comparison to competitors.
Sara Dunn’s episode was like a digital coffee. It was really interesting to listen to her process of discerning a niche, and how she has gone from web developer to SEO specialist for the wedding industry.
Carrie Dils interview resonated with me a lot. Many people look at freelancing and starting a business and think it’s the ideal life. But in reality, it’s not for everyone. Some people need a 9-5 job and structure around them. We explored the balance between being a successful business owner, while also continuing to learn and grow, and what the balance between transparency and confidence looks like.
In Howard Mann’s episode, we discussed how business can be fun if you do it intentionally. It doesn’t have to be drudgery! The real gold came after our interview when he challenged me to 10x my income. At first, this seemed unreasonable. But when I later broke it down and overhauled my services, it has revolutionized my business.
The sheer amount of questions Mario Peshev has answered on Quora and the millions of users this has connected with him is remarkable. His advice on understanding the questions that your audience is asking and doing your research up front connects really well with my past chats with Andy Crestodina and this season’s guest, Joanna Wiebe.
Picking a favorite episode is like picking a favorite child, but I think Joanna Wiebe’s was my favorite. I’ve admired her for a long time, and I love the content that Copyhackers has been sharing. The amount of tools I gained from her advice is tremendous: how to maximize your time, the importance of writing your own copy from the beginning, and how to convert your audience into real business.
Stephanie Hurlbert is another one who I admire, for her volunteer spirit. She has really broken the mold, running her super successful business Binomial, while also giving free help, advice and mentoring through Twitter.
Mandy Menaker’s interview led me to actually utilize Shapr, think LinkedIn meets Tinder for business networking. I’ve already made new connections and met with people because of it!
State of the Podcast:
If you’ve been a listener for a while, you know that Come Alive Creative is my company that produces podcasts for brands and businesses. I’d like to share a few of my goals for the year:
- I want to learn. Audaciously learn. I’m striving to learn more from books, traveling, courses, teaching and finding inspiration in the unexpected.
- I want to put myself out there more. I spoke three to four times last year, and I want to double that number.
- I am going to guest on other people’s podcasts more (You can see a full list of my guest appearances on the about page).
- I’m really curious about exploring the idea of Youtube. It’s not my first inclination, but I should be uncomfortable if I’m trying to grow. It might have a light vlog element to it and talk about running a business. This makes me nervous since things are always changing and evolving, but again: if you’re comfortable, things are too easy.
- Honesty and integrity are really important to me and are core pillars of my business. The more I embrace them, the more clear and simple my work becomes.
Where We Are Going
With our recent launch of Come Alive Academy, a membership learning site to complement our turnkey services, Season 4 is shaping up to focus on best practices for running a successful membership site.
And, we’ve already got a great line up coming together for Season 5!
You guys are great. Let’s keep learning together.
Credits:
Hosted by Jeff Large | JeffLarge.com
Produced and Powered by Come Alive Creative | ComeAliveCreative.com
Music provided by Birocratic | SoundCloud.com/Birocratic
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