When you started your business, it was probably pretty simple to handle everything on your own. You wore all the hats and maybe even wore them most of the time, because it was just you.
As your business expands, things often get more complicated. Now, wearing all the hats means you have no time to have a life! You might find that you're unable to keep up with everything like you once did.
Been there, done that!
Whether you're looking at delegating to other team members or automating a few things to relieve the pressure valve, you're going to need help to advance your company. Here are a few telltale signs that your home business has grown to the point where it needs to be more than just you.
It could be a sign that your home business is growing too big for just you if you find yourself working longer hours than you had planned. This could indicate that you are struggling to meet demand or that you just don't have enough time in the day to do everything that needs to be done. For instance, it can be a hint that you need assistance if you are spending more time handling administrative duties or customer service requests than actively operating the business.
Another sign that your firm is expanding and will need more resources is when you have observed a sustained and significant increase in revenue. Having additional help isn't free. You need to be able to financially sustain the help you're trying to hire. Once the income is there, hiring help can let you focus on other areas of running a successful business while also ensuring that all chores are handled effectively.
If you've already got some help, but still find that you are doing too much work that's outside your zone of genius, it may be a sign that you need more assistance. Although many business owners find this to be a challenging transition, it is crucial for the expansion and success of your home business. Hiring a specialist or a service provider like a VA agency like MyVA.Rocks or a marketing firm like Adtaxi could help with this.
The expectations of your company will rise along with the number of customers. It could be time to consider hiring someone else who can help fulfil demand if you discover that there aren't enough hours in the day to meet all of the demands of your customers. You might require someone to manage customer support or to contribute to further product development, for instance.
Finally, it could be time to make an investment in someone who can help manage this part of your organization if you notice that you are lagging behind on new technology and trends. Hiring a specialist in this area could make the difference between staying ahead or falling behind as staying ahead of the competition is vital for the growth of any firm. Hiring a social media expert, for instance, might help your business stay competitive if you find it difficult to keep up with the most recent developments in online marketing.
It could be a good idea to start thinking about employing extra workers to help operate your home business if any of these symptoms sound familiar. For your company to continue to succeed and keep up with demand, you must ensure that you have enough resources available. The most crucial thing is to choose carefully - but CHOOSE before it's too late. Preventative measures taken now can spare your company a lot of trouble in the future. Find someone with the abilities to support the success of your company by doing your homework!
[Note: I started doing an annual recap back in 2010. You can find previous years here: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 - 2020 got skipped for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the pandemic that shall not be named.]
Here's the TL;DR: last year was hard as hell, so this year, it's all about creating more ease in every possible way. I'm not accepting any more Incubator clients after June, limiting my coaching availability, raising rates on coaching & consulting, and offering more free training throughout the year inside our new community.
Last year's recap was a podcast episode. While it was expedient to do it that way, it left me feeling... well... like I didn't do it "right".
Shoulding all over myself. Not-enoughing it. Cranking it out and then feeling bad about it.
But it is what it is. And it's done. Over. Finished.
Just like 2022.
I almost wrote an apology for the length of this post, but I'm not going to apologize for being real. My best clients read long posts. They want the details because they know the details matter in business and might save them a world of hurt. As a business coach and consultant, I've never apologized for being my own guinea pig. It's how I learn what really works and how to translate that to my clients for their own success - without the painful learning curve.
So yeah, this will probably be long. #NotSorry
While we did okay income-wise, it was a roller coaster of a year.
Just before the year began, we returned to Nashville from Mississippi. Jim accepted a new teaching job, so we sold our house and moved. Rental rates being what they are in Nashville, we signed a 10 month lease, thinking we'd have plenty of time to find a home, put in an offer, and move again before we had to renew.
We thought wrong.
Jim's employment situation ended up being more precarious. Two jobs after we moved back to Nashville, Jim was physically exhausted, emotionally drained, and by January of 2022, decided to take a 6 month sabbatical.
My eldest had also joined us from Michigan. It was his "Hail, Mary pass" - he certainly didn't want to leave Michigan, but he didn't have a place to stay. He found work doing foam insulation and settled in for a while. Having another person in our otherwise empty nest made for some growing pains, but we managed.
The physical and emotional demands of 2022 took their toll on me. It drove home the point that I'm not 20 anymore and my mental and physical health have been low-priority for too long. Having major surgery two years in a row also took a toll on my mental health. By the end of the year I wanted to take a break from EVERYTHING. Even after I took my year-end vacation, I came back to work with a sense of dread. Too much of what I didn't want and too little of what I did want... and I had painted myself into this corner in many ways.
I started 2022 by celebrating my birthday with COVID.
It was, hands down, the worst start to any year. Even the year my ex forgot my birthday I was at least able to go out and be with friends. This year, I was alone, sequestered in my office. Tortuous to an extrovert like me.
The physical demands of the year were steep: I got the final stent out from November's surgery. I had sciatica on and off for the first half of the year that led to back surgery in September. And we packed our home and moved again. This time to Indiana. We had to stay in a hotel room for three weeks before we could move into our home, so we really moved TWICE - once into a storage unit and then a second time into our Indiana residence.
My doctor said I need to be walking more throughout the day - meaning I have to change my work schedule to accommodate my new physical demands. AND I'm in physical therapy as part of my recovery from back surgery (I still have numbness in parts of my foot).
But the emotional demands were even greater.
The added financial and emotional stress of having a partner out of work left me feeling like I was carrying too much for too long. I'm thankful that I'm married to a swell guy who understands the importance of communication. We were able to keep talking throughout a very stressful time, which did help things. That and providing for my son - while he looked for a new job after our move to Indiana - increased my emotional load.
I've pretty much ignored my physical needs for most of my life - mostly putting other folks first to my own detriment. It's a hard habit to break. Now, basically being forced to put so much attention and time into caring for myself was as much of an emotional adjustment as it was a physical one.
The depression and anxiety around being able to work (or not being able to work), hit me hard when I spent 11 days laid up in my bed while I waited for my surgery date. Every movement was excruciating, and I've never cried as much as I did then. I lost 10 pounds because I only ate or drank what was absolutely necessary. By the end, I wasn't even going to the bathroom anymore because there was nothing in me.
To be clear: my family brought me food and drink. I just didn't consume much because everything hurt all the time and I didn't want to make things hurt MORE.
The cherry on top was that the earliest my surgery could be scheduled happened to fall right in the middle of my annual client retreat.
Well, FUCK!
Laying in bed for 11 days gave me plenty of thinking time. About everything we were doing inside my company - and everything I wasn't doing that I wanted to be doing. About how things needed to be different when I got back to work. I remember sharing in one of my mastermind meetings that I was doing so much stuff, but so little of it was what I WANTED to do. It was more about keeping commitments and fulfilling obligations I'd made long ago.
Because the hotel was kind, we were able to re-schedule my client retreat. I'm grateful that people re-arranged their schedules and I LOVE doing this event every year. Still, it took a lot more out of me to ensure that folks who couldn't attend got what they paid for. I don't regret doing it, because I love my clients. It was just harder to make everything work.
Then, I got COVID again for Christmas. It was harder this time. I still have an infrequent cough that leaves me gasping for air every time it strikes.
DAMN, I feel old!
Integrity and honoring commitments are important to me. Maybe a little TOO important!
The older I get, the more important ease becomes. You never know when a pinched nerve could take you out of commission for 11 days! Having a business that fully supports me, regardless of what's happening in my personal life, has to be more important than continuing to honor commitments that don't support my well-being.
I learned the hard way that my company can't yet handle more than that.
Thanks to the Federal EIDL, I made several investments in my business. Some turned out great, while others are still waiting to see a positive Return On Resources.
I expected my messaging work with Dr. Michelle Mazur to be a year-long adventure - because it takes time to roll out new messaging and get it to stick in the mind of your audience. As part of that roll out, we planned to redirect some of our marketing energy to Linked In, to build an audience there. My existing VA was training my new VA to handle the projects that weren't time sensitive. Between the two of them, it looked like we were finally going to get some momentum in our marketing.
Then... MAN DOWN!
My "old" VA found a full time job and transitioned out by the end of the month. The "new" VA I had just brought on to cover low-pressure projects was suddenly thrust into doing EVERYTHING.
So, um, LOTS of... um... pressure.
I should have slowed down, scaled back, and focused on one thing at a time. But I didn't.
I found a VA agency to work with and that sort of helped. My new new VA was learning from my old new VA, which was more like a game of telephone than making meaningful progress. I didn't have the spoons to take the work back onto my plate, and our income wasn't supporting having so many people on the team.
We were able to get the podcast up and running, but not much else. It was at this point when I almost shut everything down and walked away.
If it weren't for my clients, that is. Having those commitments kept us afloat. Even if I was stressed to the max on every other front, working with my clients gave me hope for a better tomorrow.
I made two other investments that still haven't panned out: I hired an agency that guaranteed placements on top podcasts. The original commitment was that they get results for most of their clients within 4 months. That seemed pretty ambitious to me, especially since this was being presented as a beta test offer. But hey, it was guaranteed placement, so I figured the ROI would be worth the investment.
A year later, I'm still waiting for half of those "guaranteed" bookings to materialize.
I also hired a company to direct and film my videos. This was part investment, part experiment. I wanted to get video editing off my plate, so I took a chance to see if someone else could handle it. This company promised to help script, direct, produce, and edit my videos.
I thought this would be a great way to bring video back to Season 7 of our show, but it didn't turn out that way. Sadly, their editor lived in Ukraine and, well, WAR broke out over there, so everything stalled.
I'm no tyrant, so of course I was willing to change our timelines. Besides, this was an experiment. I didn't put all my eggs in this basket. We went ahead with Season 7 as a podcast-only season. We managed to make it through the year, but our results were less than stellar.
By June, the agency director had shifted directions and was focused on short-form content for social (think: tiktok & reels). Short form content is NOT my jam, but I filmed a few pieces of content under his direction. He also promised me access to a course he was teaching to help me learn how to create better short form content.
It is February of 2023 as I write this and I am still waiting for access to the course that was promised last year.
Trying to keep too many balls in the air was a disaster - and resulted in a LOT of dropped balls! This year's focus on ease should help, but it's also an important reminder to me to focus on one thing at a time, since we're not a huge team of people that can tackle eleventy jillion things at once.
By the end of 2022, I was feeling apathetic and "meh" about so much. As I considered every aspect of my business, I recognized I had strayed from my own mantra of "define and achieve success on your own terms".
I was letting other people's terms dictate what was possible for me.
Over the past 7 years, I've focused a lot of resources into supporting our Incubator clients. It became our primary income source, which was never the goal. Combined, our handful of clients have created close to two million dollars in real revenue. Many of these folks started from zero, so that's a major accomplishment we can all be proud of!
I love seeing them make progress toward their dreams, but it's happening at the expense of my own.
As I said, the Incubator was never meant to be my company's primary income source. My original vision for was to be able to fund the program to the level where we had dedicated staff supporting clients on all the admin as well has having a spare coach to pick up some of the coaching hours.
We probably could have hit that goal, were it not for the pandemic of 2020. Too much team instability meant we couldn't get our systems locked in.
You can't grow if you aren't stable.
And we simply didn't have the level of stability, nor the cashflow to do things differently. So while I'm proud of our accomplishments, that old Marilyn Monroe quote keeps playing in my head:
Sometimes good things have to fall apart so that better things can fall together.
I wrestled with the question: Do I want to continue trying to work this model at the expense of the other dreams I want to pursue?
Nope.
But then there's this: I have my own anxiety around not leaving anyone hanging. I don't want to let people down - especially not my clients! I can't just quit what I'm doing and leave them in the lurch!
I love my clients. I love helping them AND I want to see my own dreams take root and grow. Those things shouldn't be mutually exclusive.
I enjoy coaching and consulting, but I have to do it in ways that work for how I'm wired to work.
That's why we're phasing out the Incubator and introducing some new ways to work with me. I'm not accepting new Incubator clients after June (if you want in, you better get moving!). Anyone currently in the program can stay until they graduate. We'll phase out the program through attrition.
In order to grow our audience and continue to support our existing folks, I'm rolling out a new workshop each month during the first half of the year. We hosted the Customer Journey Workshop in January and our Build Your Promo Plan Workshop series is next week! March will have our content creation sprint, and quarterly planning. April will see the return of our Cashflow Creator workshop. We'll cycle through these workshops throughout the year and unveil an all-new three day event in fall: Creative Freedom LIVE! It's nothing like our client retreat, which used to fly under this banner, so if you've been around for a while, know that this is an entirely new event, built around the content in my book.
As a Fusion creative, I need to do more than one thing, otherwise I feel stifled. I enjoy teaching business building concepts and I especially enjoy working hands-on with folks to help them get results and clarity NOW. But I have a growing need for the flexibility of short-term commitments, which are also better for how I'm wired to work. That means I'll be offering more short-term coaching and consulting, including one-day/half-day intensives and single sessions.
Giving people a way to work one-on-one with me in a more concentrated way works better for how I'm wired. Plus, my best clients often prefer to work in this way - a 2-hour sprint or a day-long intensive to hammer out a plan and start seeing results before we're even done. They don't have months to consume a course and learn as they go. They need clarity now.
I enjoy being on podcasts, but hosting my own podcast isn't as fun or profitable as I'd hoped. According to our numbers, the "shelf life" of an audio episode doesn't begin to compare to our video show. So, we're bringing it back.
I tabled the video show half way through 2021 because of our move. I wanted to resurrect it in 2022, but our experiment failed and then we were moving AGAIN! Housing uncertainty is NOT a good situation for shooting video!
That said, the numbers don't lie. Video is better for me for a variety of reasons:
Since it looks like we're going to stay in Indiana for a while, I'll have a base of operations to make video production easier. It may mean editing content in-house, but it's worth it to reach more people, have a bigger impact and see our audience growing again.
The plan for our show this year is to split the difference: videos with deeper, richer content, but not as long as the podcast episodes. Instead of going 10-15 minutes, our show will likely run 15-20 minutes and live on both our podcast and video feed. We'll re-assess at the end of the season to see how the numbers shake out.
It seemed like the only thing that was easy last year was my relationship with Jim. Despite the ups and downs of the year, Jim was a steady, loving presence through it all. Where my previous partner would shut down and not communicate, Jim stayed in the room. He was willing to have hard conversations and make tough decisions with me, instead of leaving it all up to me to figure out.
He raised me up and kept believing in me... in us... through all the hard stuff of the past couple of years. Even on his sabbatical, he was consistently showing up in our relationship. THAT is the greatest blessing I've ever experienced.
In fact, one of the hardest things I've been able to do is lean into his love and support. Trusting that he really DOES love me, that he really DOES think the world of me. That he means it when he says "I love you forever. No take backs!" I haven't been able to trust that in the past, and his steady, loving presence is a strength I get to learn to trust.
And I want more.
More supportive, trusting relationships that lift me up, see my potential, and want to see me shine. I'm being more proactive in my outreach - despite how scary it feels sometimes. Last year, I invested in a mastermind group that helped open that door. Our facilitator really gave a damn about us... about me. I could feel that in our conversations. I learned more about what being "coffee worthy" really meant.
This year, I'm amping that up. I'm part of an international networking group for women. I'm actively connecting with more of them on a more consistent basis. Not necessarily to drive more business (although, that's nice), but more so to develop a solid, supportive community around me.
If there's one thing I've learned about myself, it's that I don't "do alone" very well. I get in my head and sometimes get stuck there. But I also don't "do community" the way other people do (hello, neurodivergence!). It takes a lot of effort and energy for me to feel connected or feel like I belong in a group. That's my growing edge.
I'm also curating a community space of my own. For years, we've hosted our Accountability Club on Facebook and our Rising Tide learning library on my website. Neither was fully optimized and both languished a bit because of it. It took time to explore some different options that made sense. For a while, no one wanted to leave Facebook. Now, you can't stop them from jumping ship. After a bit of research, we made the decision to migrate everything to a new platform this year. Migrating and integrating everything takes time, though. Our goal is to have the new Rising Tide/Accountability Club space ready for visitors in Q2.
I recorded this mashup almost 10 years ago...long before I left Michigan (or my first husband). But it's pretty appropriate for this year's focus. I was sick that day. But I showed up anyway. And I kept it easy.
Easy, like Sunday morning.
That's my theme for the year, so this song makes perfect sense - and it's a silly video that reminds me of how much fun it was to do this work then. I'm bringing that fun and ease back in every possible way.
Hope to see you on the ride!
The customer experience is the name given to the customers' perceptions and feelings when they interact with a business. This is the total effect of the interactions that they have gone through, from using the website to speaking to the sales agent and receiving the parcel through the door. It is a broad range of things that constitute the customer experience. If your aim is to broaden your customer base or continue to get more of the same type of customer, then you need to focus on the customer experience. Here are a few ways you can enhance your customer experience and gain more customers.
Your Customer's Needs
You need to start putting yourself in your customer's shoes. Instead of viewing your products and services through your own business lens, you need to start viewing your brand as if you were your customer. Are you connecting with your customer? Do you solve a need in your customer's life? What is your understanding of the problems in your customer's life that your products and services are aimed at solving? Have you looked at your competitors and looked at how they position themselves in relation to these points? If you know what your customer's needs are, then you can start mapping out a customer journey with that as your focus point.
Think Deeply About Your Content
The customer experience relies on the content you produce. Content, like social media posts, are able to give you valuable data about how your custom behaves. It can show you which images and key messages resonate the most. The more you know about how your customer connects with your content, the better you will be able to use it for your specific aims. By analyzing the marketing metrics on your content, you will develop a great understanding of the ROI (return on investment) for each marketing channel with a view to focusing on the ones that work best. The idea is to develop better content on all the channels you actually need.
What Value Do You Offer
You need to focus on the value you offer your customers. It is important to remember that for the majority of customers, as high as two-thirds, the customer experience is more important than the price. So instead of trying to produce as much as possible, you should slow down and develop a better experience. You need to consider creating content that connects with your customer emotionally utilizing the value you are supplying. In a way to connect with them. A good brand has the power to elicit an emotional response in a customer by tapping into their desires. At every step along the way, you need to add value; even consider music for waiting room and the materials you use for your packaging. Everything needs to add value.
Conclusion
The customer experience is a way of seducing the customer into using you more often. You need a multipronged approach to dealing with this. If you focus on the customer's needs and the value you are offering their lives and produce high-quality content which highlights these points, you will produce a much better customer experience.
Scaling a business can be an exciting and challenging process. It involves taking a successful business model and replicating it in new markets or with new products. However, before you begin the process of scaling your business, it's important to make sure you have the right things in place.
Scaling a business requires a significant investment of time and money. Before you begin the process, you need to make sure you have a solid financial foundation. This includes having enough cash on hand to fund the expansion, as well as a clear understanding of your revenue and expenses. This will help you to create a realistic budget for scaling and ensure that you have the resources you need to make it happen.
Before you begin scaling, it's important to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. This includes identifying your target market, understanding the needs of your customers, and determining the unique value proposition of your product or service. Having a clear vision will help you to make strategic decisions and stay focused on your goals as you scale.
Scaling a business requires a strong team that can execute your vision. This includes having a dedicated and experienced management team, as well as a skilled workforce. It's also important to have a clear organizational structure in place that can handle the increased workload and responsibilities that come with scaling.
As you scale, your business will need to be able to handle increased demand. This includes having the right systems and processes in place to manage your inventory, fulfill orders, and handle customer service. It's also important to have a reliable IT infrastructure that can support your growing business.
Scaling a business often requires forming strategic partnerships with other companies. This can include partnerships with suppliers, distributors, or other businesses that can help you to expand your reach and increase your revenue. Make sure you choose partners that align with your vision and values and have a clear understanding of what each party is expecting from the partnership.
Scaling a business often involves taking on new and unfamiliar challenges. Be prepared to pivot and change direction if something isn't working. Be open to new opportunities and be willing to experiment.
When scaling, you will have to think about marketing in a different way. Your marketing strategy will have to be more targeted and more effective to reach new customers. You might need to consider new channels and different ways of communicating with your target market.
As your business grows, it will become more complex. You will need to be familiar with legal and compliance requirements for your business, and your legal documents should be updated accordingly. You'll need to make sure you are compliant with laws and regulations, and that you have the right insurance in place through somewhere like Tivly to protect your business.
Scaling a business can be a daunting task, but with the right planning and execution, it can be a hugely rewarding experience. By making sure you have the right things in place before you begin, you can increase your chances of success and ensure that your business is well-positioned for growth.
As a business, promotion is essential and that promotion isn’t just confined to the online world and locally. When businesses travel to conferences and events, it’s an opportunity to market the business to a wider market.
Taking full advantage of these occasions is important as a business, whether it’s a new company or it’s existed for decades.
With a new year to tackle as a business, here are some tips to help promote your business on the road at events and conferences.
In order to get your business on the lips of everyone at the conference or event, it’s good to create a buzz. Wherever your stand is placed, it’s all about how you create excitement with your stand. This could be by giving out flyers or being more vocal when it comes to presentations and drawing attention from passersby.
Creating that excitement is something that can do wonders for any business looking to generate customers/clients during these events and conferences.
Any opportunity to promote your brand is going to be useful so make use of this in different ways. From television screens that have a presentation repeated constantly to small vinyl stickers that you can hand out to event guests with your brand on them.
The more noise you can make when it comes to these events the better. It’s certainly useful to make use of any opportunities that you can in order to promote the business further.
Freebies. Who doesn’t love a good freebie? A freebie can go a long way when it comes to convincing someone to buy something from your stand or simply raising awareness of your brand the next time they come across you.
Look at what freebies or samples you can provide to those who are attending the event. A little really does go a long way in converting leads to customers.
To help with garnering interest in your company and for building that all-important client base, consider providing a sign-up form. This is helpful when it comes to collecting data and is the standard for many businesses to use when setting up at a business event or conference.
While paper sign-up forms are easy to do, it might be worth adapting to digital forms to make it easier to process when it comes to collating it all after the event and inputting it into your database.
Most conferences and events nowadays will have their own dedicated feeds on social media. Try to get on these as often as you can and be active with your own social media accounts too. It’s important to show a willingness to support and engage with those who might be attending or watching the event closely from afar.
Promoting your business at events and conferences is an absolute must, so make sure you’re doing it properly.
For a small business, marketing can be the difference between success and failure. However, it's not as simple as it once was. You need to be aware of the different options that you have at your disposal today to get the most out of them. In this article, we'll look at some ideas that you can use right now to market your small business effectively.
Having a website is essential for any business, but especially for a small one. You can use your website to advertise your company and generate leads. You can even put up photos of current projects you are working on so potential clients know what you're capable of doing. If you want to get advanced in the realm of marketing, take a look at HubSpot's blog post about how to create an effective landing page for your company's website.
Social media can be an incredible tool if you know how to use it. In addition to being a great way to connect with clients, social media is also a great way to promote your business and create a community around your brand. You could use Facebook groups or even Snapchat stories, depending on what's best for you. If you share the story behind your business and the values that drive it, people will feel connected with what you're doing on both personal and professional levels.
You could also try sharing images of happy customers wearing their clothes or using their products (like an adorable cat in bed reading an eBook), as well as highlighting features of those same products/services. You may also want to share some fun facts about what makes your company unique or behind the scenes sneak peeks, if one thing stands out about the product its durability then mention that! And finally when promoting new items make sure they're easy for people who visit the page; this means featuring links at least once throughout each post so users don't have trouble finding them later down in the comments section after following links back up top first.
Email marketing can be a great way to build a relationship with your customers and get them to buy things from you. You can use email marketing to promote your business, but also to promote specific products that you have for sale as well. There are many different ways that you can use email marketing, so it's important to think about what kind of messages will work best for your business. Marketing is very beneficial and different forms of marketing will be different for different types of companies, you can use the best marketing automation software for it to be more effective.
The key takeaway here is that there are many different ways to market your business. You can use some of these ideas or all of them, but you must do something so that potential customers know about your product or service.
I can’t believe 2022 is almost over! During the Creative Freedom Retreat last week, we began planning for 2023, and I think this particular episode is a perfect way to end Season 7 of the Creative Freedom Show and segway into the new year.
I’ve been in the online world for almost 30 years (zoinks!). I've been a business coach for almost 20 years. I've seen a lot, done a lot, and worked with many different clients in that time: direct sellers, solopreneurs, and now creative entrepreneurs. Over time, I put A LOT of content out there. Some of it resonates, some of it doesn’t, and in the process, you’re left carrying this sort of hodgepodge of “stuff.”
At the end of 2021, I got real clear that my message wasn’t landing with my right audience. Being in the online space for so long, I felt challenged to find someone I could trust. Someone who got ME. And most importantly, someone who wasn’t going to snow me (if you know, you know!) but would help me figure out exactly what I wanted my new messaging to be.
For the final episode of Season 7 and 2022, I’m sharing my interview with Dr. Michelle Mazur - where we demystify the process of rolling out and/or pivoting your message to reach YOUR right audience. Bonus: I’m also sharing the messaging guide we created for my business, so you can see how this works.
With a Ph.D. in Communication and 25+ years of experience working with solo service providers to Fortune 50 corporations, Michelle has the cred and experience to take your complex ideas and distill them into a persuasive message that powers your marketing, copy, and sales. She is the Founder/CEO of Communication Rebel, where she helps change-making business owners, entrepreneurs, and speakers become thought leaders by taking a stand with their 3 Word Rebellion. She is also the host of the Rebel Uprising Podcast and author of three books, including 3 WORD REBELLION: Create a one-of-a-kind message that grows your audience into a movement.
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Theme music: “Big Time” by Ikoliks, Artlist.io
Ever been on a bad date? I mean a really bad date? One that was so bad you felt the urge to write a song about it? Have you ever been the subject of a song about a really bad date?
I’ve kissed a few frogs in my day, but none of them warranted the kind of song that Nile Rogers of the famous music group CHIC wrote back in 1981. He went out with a woman and at some point in the evening, she started expecting him to use his celebrity status for her benefit. The nerve!
This young lady may well be the first person to ever be canceled. Seriously. You may not know her name, but that date was so bad that Niles went home and wrote the song “Your Love Is Canceled” He equated cancellation to the way television shows are canceled. They’re just gone… never to be seen or heard from again.
Boycotting and public shaming has been around for a very long time. But thanks in large part to the rise of social media, Cancel Culture has become a popular tool to villainize celebrity types - even folks that are only famous in their industry. And Cancel Culture Vultures are at the heart of that.
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Theme music: “Big Time” by Ikoliks, Artlist.io
If you want to protect your business and make sure that your workplace is kept safe and secure at all times, the actions you take will matter a lot. If you’re not able to keep your workplace secure at all times, you’re going to eventually regret that, and that’s not what you want. So read on now and find out what you can do to avoid security problems in your workplace.
Have Processes That Are Followed Consistently at the End of Each Day
First of all, you should ensure that there’s a process in place that’s followed each and every day at the end of the day when it’s time to shut the building. There should be someone whose responsibility it is to ensure all of the doors and windows are properly locked at the end of the day. It’s the best starting point for workplace security.
Train Employees on Security Matters
Training your employees on matters surrounding security is important because when a security issue does arise, it’s most likely going to be your employees who are dealing with it on the ground level. So ensure your business has strong training strategies in place that you feel cover all of the most important matters when it comes to security in the workplace and things like that.
Put Strong Cybersecurity Safeguards in Place
These days, when it comes to security, you can’t only focus on the physical security issues that are obviously important but also issues around cybersecurity too. You want to make sure that there are strong safeguards in place that are going to make it possible for you to avoid any attacks or attempted hacks that might come your way. Things like firewalls, VPNs and antivirus software are all key.
Use ID Badges in the Workplace
Having an ID badge protocol in place will make sure that you can tell who should be in the building, who’s authorized to be there and who isn’t. If you see someone without an ID badge in your workplace, that should tell you that something is not right and that said person shouldn't be in the building. So find a way to create a photo badge system that works for your business.
Know Who is On-Site at All Times
It’s also important to know who’s on-site at all times. You need to know who’s visiting and how many people are in the building. This matters from a safety point of view, but it can also help fi a security issue does occur. You can then look back and see if there was anyone in the building at that time that might have been the source of the problem.
As you can see, there are lots of things that you need to think about if you’re going to fully avoid security issues in your workplace. Workplace security is not something that you can afford to overlook when so many threats exist out there, both in terms of physical harm and the damage caused by cyber crimes.
When marketing your business, you need to be careful of which tactics you use. Certain marketing methods could see you facing a lawsuit or heavy fines. Many people adopt these tactics without even realising that they could be deemed illegal. Below are 7 examples of the marketing mistakes you should be avoiding.
Using images without permission
When using images from third-party sources within your marketing, it’s important to always ask the owner of these images for permission. Images are protected by copyright law - if the owner has not stated that anyone can use their images, you must get permission first, otherwise you could get sued for copyright infringement. Many photographers and artists charge people to use their images, however royalty-free photos and images do exist. These can be worth using if you’re a small business on a tight budget or simply looking for images for blog posts. Make sure that you also credit images when you use them - even if they are royalty-free.
Copying another company’s logo
It’s also important that your logo is original. While it’s okay to take inspiration from competitors’ logos, you should be careful of making your logo look too similar - if this competitor stumbles across your logo, they’re likely to sue. This is particularly the case if the logo you’ve copied is trademarked. With so many companies out there, it is possible to accidentally come up with a near identical logo, in which case you may be able to defend yourself. However, if it’s obvious that you’re aware of the competitor, then you likely won’t be able to get out of the lawsuit.
Stealing written content from other websites
Did you know that written content on other websites is also protected by copyright? Nabbing a few sentences from a competitor’s website could see you facing legal action if the competitor finds out. While you can take inspiration from other websites, it’s important to try to make all written content original. No copying and pasting! Hiring copywriters could be a solution if you don’t have the time to write your own original written content.
Badmouthing your competitors
You should also be careful what you say about competitors in your marketing. Making your competitors look bad could be viewed as defamation. This is a sueable offence and could cost you a lot of money. It’s for this reason that you rarely ever see brands attacking each other (and if they do, it’s usually only ever done humorously or indirectly). In fact, it’s often best not to mention your competitors at all.
Adding recipients unwillingly to your mailing list
When building a mailing list, it’s important that your subscribers willingly sign up. Adding random people to your mailing list is classed as spamming - which is illegal in many countries around the world. Even if you’re certain a customer would value being on your mailing list, you must encourage them to join of their own accord. Make sure that you also provide a link in all your emails that allows people to easily unsubscribe at any time if they no longer want to be on your mailing list.
Posting fake reviews
Creating a fake account and writing a positive review of your company (or a negative review of a competitor) can be tempting. However, it’s actually illegal in many countries if you get caught. Instead, you should always try to acquire reviews naturally. You can of course ask customers to leave reviews. However, it must be the customer who is writing and publishing the review - you cannot write a review on their behalf.
Using false claims in your advertising
Lying in business is generally never a good idea. It’s particularly important to not deceive people with your marketing strategies. False advertising is illegal and some companies have faced huge fines for it. What are some examples of false advertising? Using incorrect stats or studies to back up claims is one common example. Claiming that a service is a certain price and then charging a different figure is another example of false advertising. And there’s also the common false claim that a product can do something that it can’t do (such as claiming a toy is waterproof, when it isn’t). To avoid all these forms of false advertising, it’s important that you only use information about your product that you know is accurate. If you’re unsure of a fact, research it first. Make sure that any studies also come from trusted sources.