Lisa Robbin Young

[Creative Freedom S6E1]

We are FINALLY back with a new season of Creative Freedom!

It has been a journey to get here, but this season is shaping up to be the best so far. We've also got a new feature this season - music videos! It's something I've been wanting to play with for a while, and I'm still scared out of my mind about doing them. I think it takes the opening to a new level, though, so I'd love to hear YOUR thoughts.

If you've only been listening to the podcast or watching just the video show, you're not getting the full meal dealio. I mean, the topics are usually the same, but we also do things that are unique to each format. We go deeper on the podcast, with more examples than we can squeeze into the video show. But the video show gives us a place to have more fun with the musical elements.

And, I haven't abandoned my writing roots, either! Since our last episode aired, I've added a bunch of posts on the blog - stuff that will never appear in on the show!

Why do I do this to myself? One, I'm a Fusion creative, which means I like to do a lot of different things. But also, we have a pretty diverse audience, and I want to do what I can to reach you where you're at. SO... we do a lot to bring you insights and inspiration in a variety of ways.

I'm also looking at bringing back the live Q&A. I know. I know. I don't recommend that everyone do #AllTheThings - especially not at the start. But as long as it's still fun for me, we're going to keep at it!

We kick off this season with a look at how to build a business that's true to you. You know... a business that keeps you from selling your soul! How do we do that?

T.A.D.A. - An acronym we developed to help you listen to what's really on your heart and bring yourself and your business into alignment (or back into alignment) with what's true for you.

Check out the show to learn more.

Listen To The Podcast

Download Season 6 Episode 1 | iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify 

Podcast Show Notes

Inside this episode, we're talking about:

  • A recap of 2020 (for better or worse)
  • How I make decisions about my business model
  • How T.A.D.A. helps you stay true to yourself
  • Why your body is like a smoke detector (and how to know when it's something serious)
  • Why "If I ain't feelin' it, then I ain't doin' it!" is bad advice.

Mentioned In This Episode

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Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
"Be True To Yourself" is a parody of "Be Good To Yourself", originally recorded by Journey. New lyrics by Lisa Robbin Young.
Theme music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[Creative Freedom S5E10]

Okay, I gotta rant a little.⁠ There's nothing that grates my toast more than the phrase "EPIC CONTENT" (be sure to say it like you're announcing a monster truck rally this Sunday-Sunday-SUNDAYYY!⁠)

In the final regular episode of Season 5, I'm going OFF about how this phrase "create epic content" has become synonymous with "if you can't make something that goes viral, then don't do anything at all" - which is a trap that either keeps you stuck on a hamster wheel of content creation in your creative business or paralyzed by perfectionism to the point of doing nothing at all.⁠

Instead, I'm going to show you an easy way to share engaging, meaningful content with your audience on the regular on any platform. And you don't even have to create it all. In fact, if you want to have a life, you probably shouldn't!⁠

THAT, to me, is what epic content creation is all about!

December is content creation month at Creative Freedom HQ. I'm leading a series of workshops to help you plan AND create your content for 2020. Be sure to sign up for email updates to get advance notice of the next one!⁠

Listen To The Podcast

Download Season 5 Episode 10 | iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify 

Podcast Show Notes

  • 2:45 - a little behind-the-scenes from filming on the new Disney+ show, Encore!
  • 5:32 - How doing a shorter season for my show, instead of a year-round production, allows me to play to my strengths as a Fusion Creative while still creating quality content for my audience.
  • 8:00 How the phrase "EPIC CONTENT" has actually devolved into a notion that keeps creatives stuck in perpetual creation mode.
  • 12:15 The 4 elements of engaging compelling content that you can use in any format at any time.
  • 20:20 The one place where creatives consistently fall down in their content marketing

Mentioned In This Episode

Rising Tide Members

Our Rising Tide Community has moved! If you're already a member, you can login and access your free downloads here.

Not a member yet? It's free! When you register for the Rising Tide, you also get email updates, the FREE learning library, and access to episode transcripts, worksheets, and more!

Sponsors & Credits

Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
Theme music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[Creative Freedom S5E9]

As a creative entrepreneur, you've got LOTS of ideas. How do you keep track of them all? Can they even be managed? How do you decide which ideas to pursue, and which ones to table for later (or even give away to someone else)?

You're in luck because this week I'm sharing some useful tools and resources to help you organize your ideas and get clear on what you're going to move on now, and what can wait. You'll be able to end the distractions and stay focused!

Listen To The Podcast

Download Season 5 Episode 9 | iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify 

Podcast Show Notes

  • 4:00 - Five ways you can track and secure all your great ideas, from low-tech to high tech, including a hybrid form that I'm eager to start exploring.
  • 7:43 - The mindset is more important than the mastery. Here's how to put your mindset to work for you with all your ideas.
  • 12:15 - for all you skeptics out there, let's talk about the "name it and claim it" mindset about bringing your ideas to life.
  • 13:30 - The advice I give my clients about taking action on their goals and ideas
  • 15:45 - How to flip the script on the "I'm not worthy" feeling and get clear on which ideas to pursue first with the "idea interview"
  • 19:11 - An example from my own business that illustrates how we decide on new projects and what gets tabled for later.
  • 20:00 - The problem with "High impact, minimal effort" decision making, and how to improve it, with examples from my own business.
  • 22:25 - Like we learned with toasters and light bulbs, sometimes the ideas you get aren't meant for you to pursue or bring to market. Here's why that's actually a great thing.
  • 26:10 - how opportunity costs help keep you focused on what really matters (if you're paying attention).

Mentioned In This Episode

Rising Tide Members

Our Rising Tide Community has moved! If you're already a member, you can login and access your free downloads here.

Not a member yet? It's free! When you register for the Rising Tide, you also get email updates, the FREE learning library, and access to episode transcripts, worksheets, and more!

Sponsors & Credits

Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
Music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[Creative Freedom S5E8]

You've probably heard the phrase "riches in niches" more times than you care to count. As a creative entrepreneur, finding a niche can feel challenging if you don't solve a "problem" or "pain" with your Great Work.

That's why I don't support the idea of looking for a pain to solve, but instead, looking at core values - which are a clearer indicator of why clients buy from you (and keep buying from you for years to come). In this episode, I'm stealin' a process from the manufacturing world to help you hone in on why clients buy from you and how to find more clients just like 'em.

Listen To The Podcast

Download Season 5 Episode 8 | iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify 

Podcast Show Notes

  • 1:34 Why getting super specific in your niche (target market) might be problematic when you're just getting started.
  • 4:35 The Six Sigma tool that helps you find the real reasons why your clients buy from you.
  • 10:00 How to triangulate your best clients through "people types" that match your core values.
  • 11:25 Two questions to ask your potential audience to help narrow your niche and avoid working in an unprofitable market.
  • 14:45 Why paying for ads might not be a good idea with a new niche
  • 19:35 How to test your new niche and how to know if you've picked the wrong one

Mentioned In This Episode

Rising Tide Members

Our Rising Tide Community has moved! If you're already a member, you can login and access your free downloads here.

Not a member yet? It's free! When you register for the Rising Tide, you also get email updates, the FREE learning library, and access to episode transcripts, worksheets, and more!

Sponsors & Credits

Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
Music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[Creative Freedom S5E7]

If you're a heart-centered creative entrepreneur struggling with pricing, there's good news: you don't have to subsist on a survival-level income, and you don't have to price gouge your clients in order to be successful. There's a middle ground that's profitable and sustainable.

Your pricing tells a story, and it's personal. For creative entrepreneurs there is no topic more in need of a mindset shift than pricing. Pricing is more than just materials + time. It's about your pricing mythology, your audience expectations, and other considerations that we'll run through in this episode.

P.S. Tickets for the 2020 Creative Freedom Retreat go on sale soon! We're going to NOLA, baby! Make sure you're on my email list to be one of the first to know more!

Listen To The Podcast

Download Season 5 Episode 7 | iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify 

Podcast Show Notes

  • 2:53 - Why you may need a mindset shift around pricing and high-priced offers
  • 5:10 - Why you probably can't charge less than $100/hr and why $500/hr may be more reasonable.
  • 8:40 - How pricing mythology means a company like Starbucks can charge more than McDonald's
  • 14:00 - How your audience is a factor in pricing.
  • 23:00 - IPA2 is the key to your livelihood in business
  • 25:43 - Another approach to pricing: Mark Silver's Resonant Pricing Exercise

Mentioned In This Episode

Rising Tide Members

Our Rising Tide Community has moved! If you're already a member, you can login and access your free downloads here.

Not a member yet? It's free! When you register for the Rising Tide, you also get email updates, the FREE learning library, and access to episode transcripts, worksheets, and more!

Sponsors & Credits

Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
Music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[Creative Freedom S5E6]

How ya liking the new website? Have you checked out the virtual card deck or taken the new version of the quiz yet? I haven't done a formal post yet about all the changes. That's coming soon. Right now, I'm coming off the high that is Creative Freedom Live. I got home earlier this week, and it's been fun to unwind and "recover" from such an amazing weekend. More on that later, too!

Today, though, I'm going to do my darndest to make business models approachable and easy to navigate. Just hearing the word “business model” can conjure up spreadsheets, process diagrams, flow charts, and other stress-inducing imagery. But business models don't have to be stressful. 

Once you figure out your unique business model, you’ll like how sexy the results are: more money, meaning, and impact. More Raving Fans for your work, more freedom, and more time to focus on what’s truly important to you. 

The best part? It isn’t hard to figure out. The hard parts are sitting down to DO the work and then staying true to the business model that works for you. If you follow along today, you’ll even have some of that handled, too.

Listen To The Podcast

Download Season 5 Episode 6 iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify 

Podcast Show Notes

  • 4:51 - A true story "cold" calling - and how that model works, but at what cost?
  • 8:28 - 360-degree business design and the business model "equation"
  • 10:20 - questions to ask yourself to help get clarity on the first part of the equation
  • 12:50 - Creatives can't usually "Start with why" like Simon Sinek suggests, but "why" is an important SECOND question
  • 14:00 - Finding the people most likely to say "Yes" to your offers
  • 16:37 - How the second half of the equation falls together more easily
  • 18:35 - The flexibility of the "What" and "How" elements of the equation

Mentioned In This Episode

Rising Tide Members

Our Rising Tide Community has moved! If you're already a member, you can login and access your free downloads here.

Not a member yet? It's free! When you register for the Rising Tide, you also get email updates, the FREE learning library, and access to episode transcripts, worksheets, and more!

Sponsors & Credits

Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
Music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[Creative Freedom S5E5]

While it sounds sexy to "make dolla billz in your sleep," there are three huge misconceptions around creating passive revenue in your business. In this episode you'll go behind the scenes and see how I've set up passive revenue streams in my business, and just how "passive" they really are.

Listen To The Podcast

Download Season 5 Episode 5 | iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify 

Podcast Show Notes

  • 1:00 - What "passive income" really is (and what it's not)
  • 2:06 - Where the easiest forms of leveraged income come from
  • 2:44 - The Artisan Trap that keeps most creatives stuck
  • 5:05 - Why "passive income" isn't really passive… at least, not at first. Plus, other types of active recurring revenue that might be better for you (especially if you're just getting started).
  • 7:00 - Why I never market my largest "passive" income offer - and the bottom line truth of how much passive it really is and how much income it generates
  • 9:01 - The missing ingredient for making passive income more profitable (which isn't passive!)
  • 11:59 - How much time it really takes to create a passive revenue stream
  • 14:20 - The "Field of dreams" problem with passive income creation
  • 15:20 - Elizabeth Gilbert's passive income problems and how she bridged the income gap before "Eat, Pray, Love"
  • 16:00 - How Jay-Z built a billion dollar brand through multiple streams of revenue
  • 17:41 - Why focusing on one thing is important at first, but dangerous as your business grows.
  • 19:09 - The staggeringly small percentage of traffic that sees your work on aggregate sites like Amazon, iTunes, and the like.
  • 21:40 - Considering your "term of depreciation" with passive investment assets.
  • 23:30 - The closest thing to truly passive income.

Mentioned in this episode

Rising Tide Members

Our Rising Tide Community has moved! If you're already a member, you can login and access your free downloads here.

Not a member yet? It's free! When you register for the Rising Tide, you also get email updates, the FREE learning library, and access to episode transcripts, worksheets, and more!

Sponsors & Credits

Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
Music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[Creative Freedom S5E4]

Sales coach and author, Jeffrey Gitomer, famously said, "Customer satisfaction is worthless... do you want your wife to be satisfied or loyal?"

It's a little crude, but the point is well taken. As a creative entrepreneur, having a loyal following means you've got Raving Fans who love your work, support you financially, and you can make great money doing what you love. If they're not loyal, they'll drop you like a hot rock as soon as someone new hits the scene.

So how do you build customer loyalty?

L.O.V.E.

It's an acronym for the 4 actions that draw your audience closer and help you build meaningful, loyal relationships with them.

Listen To The Podcast

Download Season 5 Episode 4 | iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify 

Podcast Show Notes

  • 2:30 The best way to stimulate the Know, Like, and Trust factor with your audience
  • 7:33 Why your audience will say one thing publicly and do the opposite.
  • 9:11 The simple approach one recording artist used to crowdsource more than one hot-selling record.
  • 13:50 Why I think surveys are a waste of time for creatives.
  • 15:24 An example of how I used my social media "listening station" to create engaging content for my audience.
  • 18:10 How being a "creature of comparison" can be helpful (and hurtful) to your business.
  • 23:34 How one artist created a line of potential buyers for a collage before it was ready for sale.

Mentioned in this episode:

Rising Tide Members

Our Rising Tide Community has moved! If you're already a member, you can login and access your free downloads here.

Not a member yet? It's free! When you register for the Rising Tide, you also get email updates, the FREE learning library, and access to episode transcripts, worksheets, and more!

Sponsors & Credits

Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
Music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[Creative Freedom S5E3]

One of the things that stops creatives from growing their business is a fear that they don’t have the credibility it takes to attract quality clients. Fusion Creatives tend to be “credential collectors” which stops you from bringing your Great Work to the world. This episode shares five things you can do (starting today) to build credibility in your niche, even if you’re just starting out.

Listen to the Podcast

Download Season 5 Episode 3 | iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify 

Podcast Show Notes

  • 2:01  – What a well known “Trust Barometer” tells us about building trust in today’s marketplace
  • 3:38 – How Muhammad Ali, Steve Jobs, and Lady Gaga built credible brands (hint: it’s not sexy!)
  • 9:08 – How I built credibility when I first started in the online world.
  • 11:18 – Questions to ask to get powerful testimonials
  • 14:03 – How to ETHICALLY borrow the credibility of peers and influencers
  • 22:23 – A subtle “underground advertising” technique to get more press coverage

Mentioned in this episode:


Rising Tide Members

Our Rising Tide Community has moved! If you're already a member, you can login and access your free downloads here.

Not a member yet? It's free! When you register for the Rising Tide, you also get email updates, the FREE learning library, and access to episode transcripts, worksheets, and more!

Sponsors & Credits

Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
Music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[Creative Freedom S5E2]

Think you're ready to hire a business coach? Jessica did! She asked what kinds of questions she should ask during a hiring interview.

Not so fast!

Before you plunk down your hard-earned cash, make sure you know what you're getting - and that you're ready to make the investment.

Too many creative entrepreneurs get burned by hiring the wrong person at the wrong time. This episode gives you specifics about the different kinds of business support that exist - including coaching - to help you determine what will serve you best at your current stage of business growth.

Listen to the Podcast

Download Season 5 Episode 2 | iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify 


Podcast Show Notes

  • 02:46 – The differences between coach, teacher, consultant, and mentor
  • 05:55 – How masterminds and accountability partners can be similar (and different from) coaching
  • 8:09 – Other types of business support (VA, OBM, and Incubators)
  • 21:23 – How one coach trained his clients to expect miracles, and ruined his coaching practice
  • 25:42 – Questions and suggestions for your business coach pre-hire interview

Mentioned in this episode:


Rising Tide Members

Our Rising Tide Community has moved! If you're already a member, you can login and access your free downloads here.

Not a member yet? It's free! When you register for the Rising Tide, you also get email updates, the FREE learning library, and access to episode transcripts, worksheets, and more!

Sponsors & Credits

Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
Music: "Welcome to the Show" by Kevin MacLeod. Music and sound effects licensed under Creative Commons 3.0