Entrepreneur Mindset
6 Ways to Develop Mental Fortitude in Times of Business Adversity
Mental fortitude: the ability to focus on and execute solutions when in the face of uncertainty or adversity. Virtually overnight the world has changed. If you’re anything like me, your best-laid business plans for 2020 have gone right out the window… Marketing messages now seem...
I Wrote 100 Blog Posts. Here’s What I Learned…
Today I published a new blog post and the Google spreadsheet I use to keep track of them informed me that this was the 100th post! I thought it would be a great time to check in to compare where I was a couple of years ago versus where I am now... was all this effort worth it? Were there any wins...
The Four Stages of Freelancing
(And How to Level Up)
There are two types of freelancers: those who proudly call themselves freelancers and those who wouldn't be caught dead using that term and prefer to call themselves entrepreneurs instead (but they're often times still technically freelancers). Because I work with service-based businesses, I've...
5 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read To Mentally Prepare For 2020
It's that time of year when we're ruminating about what we want for our business -- and our lives -- in the new year. Below are five books I recommend over and over again when common stuck points show up in my conversations with clients, colleagues, and friends... There's a little something for...
8 Helpful Strategies For Finding Time To Blog
Finding the time to blog when you're juggling a laundry list of life priorities can be brutal. It's probably the #1 complaint I hear when I talk with people about what holds them back from making progress. Effective time management for bloggers is all about working with a strategy, using a system...
Tripwire Marketing: Earn Trust, Win Clients & Make Passive Income
The "tripwire" is one of those horrible, jargon terms that make even my most hardcore marketing friends cringe. If you're wondering, "What is a tripwire?" let me break it down in real-human-person language: A tripwire is a low-cost offer that's designed to turn a member of your audience into...
How to Stop Wasting Your Precious Time with Tire Kickers
If you're in the business of selling services, you've undoubtedly met your share of tire kickers. You know the ones -- people who have no serious intention of actually hiring you, but they happily engage you in endless back-and-forth emails and initial consultations. Tire kickers don't mean any...
Establishing Professional Boundaries With Your Clients
As a consultant, solopreneur, or creative you know that your most valuable business asset is your time. And yet, one of the biggest challenges of serving clients is keeping our professional boundaries with our clients in check. We THINK that loosening our boundaries creates an amazing client...
How to Define Your Worth as A Freelancer
Guest post by Amy-Lynn Denham, Author & Freelance Business Coach What is your worth as a freelancer? It sounds like a simple enough question, but surprisingly few new freelancers know how to answer it. I've asked this question before, seen eyes light up with ideas then, when it comes time to...
How I Got Unstuck & Reinvented Myself In My 40s
I'm veering off topic for this blog post to share a personal story, but I think it's a subject a lot of entrepreneurs can relate to: being stuck. At a certain stage in our life and career, we may find ourselves in the monotony of routine, dissatisfied, yearning for more, feeling there's got to be...
Finding The Confidence To Get Visible Online
As business owners, we want to attract clients we love and that means getting visible with them online. These are all things we think of when we talk about online visibility: 👉Creating a stunning logo and beautiful website 👉Adding content to our blogs 👉Sharing things on social media 👉Networking...
15 Pieces of Advice for New and Aspiring Solopreneurs
Whether you're an independent freelancer just starting out, or you're dreaming about solopreneurship from your 9-5 job, there's a lot that goes into running a business all on your own. As a solopreneur for over 15 years, I know exactly what it's like to go from a steady paycheck to the...
3 Unconventional Schedule Hacks To Help You Crush Your Goals
If you're like most human-people these days, you feel overwhelmed by having too many things to learn, do, and create. You're busy, but working toward your big-picture goals always plays second fiddle to the day-to-day hustle. My #1 ally in getting things done has been to cultivate my focus and get...
Perfectionism Is Holding You Back—How To Get Over It
I'm obsessed with figuring out the places where we hold ourselves back from getting visible and building the vision-board version of our businesses, and perfectionism is one of the worst culprits of all. We can't build a brand and find our dream clients when we're in thinking mode, learning mode,...
How I Saved Enough Money To Travel & Work
If you run a digital business — meaning if you can work from your laptop and your customers don’t need to see you face-to-face in order to get your work done; and if you don’t have obligations (e.g. family) that require you be present where you are now; there’s nothing stopping you from working...
How I Created A Location Independent Business & What It Taught Me About Marketing
Have you ever dreamt of working from your laptop in some exotic location? Having a location independent business that lets you work from anywhere? Our Instagram heroes make it look so easy and glamorous... frolicking about all over the world from the beaches of Bali to the cafés in Tuscany with...
3 Big Mindset Shifts If Launching Your Business Terrifies You
As a designer, I work with clients during the most FUN and EXCITING stages of launching their businesses: the strategy sessions where we dig soul-deep and the creative process where their ideas become a tangible reality... The "Ohhhhh my god! Squeeeeee! It's real! I'm so excited now!" moments are...
The Marketing Advice You Shouldn’t Take
When it comes to taking marketing advice, my advice is: be aware of phrases like, "you need to" and "you must." They trigger stress and overwhelm and that's not going to help you get out there and get visible. There are exceptions of course, like if your primary way of getting leads is through...
How To Break The Freelance ‘Feast or Famine’ Cycle
Let me just state right up front that "The Shoemaker's Children Have No Shoes" might as well have been my tagline for most of my career. If you don't know the story behind the expression... A shoemaker is really great at what he does, but he's so busy making shoes for other people that he doesn't...
5 Lessons I Learned The Hard Way About Marketing My Service-Based Business Online
I'll get right to it: the biggest marketing mistake I've made as a solopreneur is to not market my business at all. If you're looking to attract clients online, don't be like me. I'm going to share the five biggest lessons I've learned the hard way as I've made strides to up my online marketing...
How I Turned My Insecurity Into A Brand Asset
I believe that deep down inside every entrepreneur there lies some form of insecurity―something about them they're afraid will hurt them in their business if anyone finds out about it. For example, maybe you think... You're too old. You're too inexperienced. Your learning disability is something...
How to Get Out of Learning Mode and Into Action Mode
If you're struggling to make strides in your business, and if you're spending a great deal of time clicking on blog posts, taking courses, signing up to learn this, that, and the other thing but you're not really getting anywhere with it... let's talk about how you can get out of learning mode and...
How To Overcome Your Fears & Get Visible Online
Business owners want to be seen by their dream customers. But getting visible -- I mean really visible -- usually means doing things that make us uncomfortable. Scratch that: terrified? Yes, terrified is a better word. There's a lot of subconscious mumbo-jumbo that goes on when we're running our...
Overwhelmed by Digital Marketing? Go with the Flow!
Marketing a business online is overwhelming. For everyone. Even marketing experts. One thing I want you to know is that you're not failing if you don't always feel on top of things. It's not just all you need to learn and all you need to do, it's that you're learning and doing it on a digital...
The Solopreneur’s Guide to Taking Advice
If you're running a tiny business (and if you're a human-person), from time to time you'll find yourself a bit stuck―yearning for change and growth, or maybe you need to make an important decision, but you're not exactly sure which direction to go. In these situations, it's natural to ask for...
