HustleandHeart
5 invaluable strategies to grow your leads and email list organically

5 invaluable strategies to grow your leads and email list organically

Building your reputation, Digital marketing

Email list building is an ongoing pursuit that all smart online business owners are committed to. Regardless of how large or small their email list currently is, if you want regular leads and inquiries into your business – and consistent cash flow – then the best time to start building your list was yesterday. The next best time to start is today.

Here are my top five organic (non-paid) list-building strategies that bring me a regular stream of qualified leads into my business. Pick one! Or use all five. Whatever floats your boat.

You might notice that four out of five of the strategies covered involve my favourite type of attract marketing: getting in front of other people’s audiences, in order to grow your own. This is far more effective than growing one by one (via everyone’s favourite nurture marketing strategy, social media marketing). And also far easier than putting on your own attract marketing events. You just need to show up, and bring your talent!

(This article is a companion article to 5 invaluable strategies to get paid to grow your leads and email list.)

1: Online summits

Online summits are not new, but they’re definitely a big deal in 2022-2023. Getting involved in an online summit as a speaker or presenter helps get you in front of new audiences who see you in action, sharing your expertise with useful, valuable, and relevant information that will attract your prospective ideal clients into your business.

Online summits are similar to conferences but online, with a topic theme, and multiple speakers. Mostly they’re free and often have a paid “VIP upgrade”. They can either be delivered live by presenters, or pre-recorded.

If you have a lead magnet, ensure that the topic of your online summit presentation is the same topic, or very similar, to your lead magnet, to make it an easy segue for people to join your list.

I find out about most online summits I’m involved with through Facebook business groups.

2: Joint webinars

A joint webinar is when two or more parties come together to host a online training on a particular topic. If you have a lead magnet, ideally the topic of your joint webinar is the same or very similar to your lead magnet, to make it easy for people to join your list and understand your brand point-of-difference and the value of joining your email list.

A joint webinar is similar to an online summit but smaller, with just two, or a small handful, of parties. Again, a joint webinar enables you to showcase your expertise and be at your best in front of new audiences.

Ideally, you have been hosted and introduced by someone who already has an established engaged audience, where you’re borrowing their authority and credibility to get in front of new people.

3: Online bundles

Online bundles are like a hamper of digital product goodies that people download for an a small fee. This fee paid by customers is typicaly far less than the combined value of the total goods purchased. Contributors may become affiliates of the bundles, thereby making a small amount of money on any purchases that result from their promotions (using their unique affiliate link).

Getting involved in online bundles is super useful for getting your new or existing digital products in front of new audiences. Similar to a lead magnet, your digital product needs to be useful, valuable and relevant to your ideal clients if it’s to work.

This strategy can also be really useful if your digital product is new, has no testimonials, or you want to road test it with customers before you develop it further and/or proactively promote it.

I find out about most online bundles I’m involved with through Facebook business groups.

4: Lead magnet swap

A lead magnet swap is a simple agreement between two parties, where one party promotes the other party’s lead magnet to their email list and links to their landing page, for people to sign up (see an example of one of my landing pages here). After a period of time, typically one month, you swap. In this way, both parties are able to cross-pollinate their email audiences.

For this to work well, ideally the two people share similar business values, audiences, and marketing acumen.

5: Create more content on the same topic as your lead magnet

If you’ve gone to the effort of creating an invaluable lead magnet, don’t forget to promote it! One of the most overlooked ways to promote your lead magnet is simply to create further content on the same topic.

This could be a podcast where you talk on the same topic of as the lead magnet, and then link to the lead magnet signing page, as well as include the lead magnet link in the show notes. It could be a live social media video where you talk on the same topic as the lead magnet, and then invite people to download it. It could be a blog post, where again you talk about the same topic as your lead magnets and embed links within the blog post, as well as a call to action at the end for people to sign up.

There are countless ways to get people onto your email list that don’t involve paid ads or strategies. Once you know that your lead magnet is popular, and it’s reached a certain groundswell, then you may choose to amplify it with ads, but ads should never be your first strategy.

Promoting your lead magnet, and inviting people to join your list, as you promote your paid services, makes smart business sense to ensure that you cultivate and nurture relationships and fill your sales pipeline, while building your reputation, credibility, and authority.

This article is a companion article to 5 invaluable strategies to get paid to grow your leads and email list.

5 invaluable strategies to get paid to grow your leads and email list

5 invaluable strategies to get paid to grow your leads and email list

Building your reputation, Grow your profits

Leads are the lifeblood of every business. Generating a consistent stream of leads and email subscribers is like a daily teeth-brushing hygiene habit – it’s essential, it’s unquestioned, and it needs to be daily for it to work. While the glory days of 2010 are long-gone, when a ‘Subscribe to our email list’ form was enough, growing your email list and attracting new, qualified leads doesn’t need to be impossible, nor expensive.

In fact, these five strategies that I’m about to share will see you earning income, while also growing your email list and attracting leads into your business. These are tried-and-tested strategies that I’ve utilised, some for 15 years, to ensure that I always have a consistent streams of new leads through my door.

Ads won’t save you

One of the major ways that online business owners build their email lists is through ads. This can be expensive and very complicated. Outsourcing your ads can be great, but it’s a significant, recurring expense, on top of what you’re already spending each month on ads. Learning how to manage your own ads takes time and commitment. So ads are not something I recommend to new business owners.

When we’re advertising for email addresses, we’re interrupting people who are otherwise scrolling on social media, and we don’t necessarily gain somebody’s trust right off the bat. It takes time.

And, it doesn’t solve the problem of trust. Yes, an email funnel and excellent emails can do this, but this takes time, skill and commitment.

Kill me through networking

Ah, networking! What a godawful word. And yes! Of course – before you come for me – businesses are built on relationships. And yes, networking with the right people can be absolutely invaluable, life-affirming, and fun to boot (in the best cases, a tax-deductible holiday).

The problem with networking is it’s hit and miss, yes?

How many times have I walked into a room and immediately known I was in the wrong room? How many times has a business networking event caused me to doubt myself, my choices, my life? (Maybe I’m being melodramatic, but hey? It happens.)

Networking can be expensive, time-consuming, or even impossible, depending on where you live or if you have significant hindrances to getting out.

Online networking includes social media marketing. A lot of owners spend a hell of a lot of time, effort and overthinking posting to social media (or thinking to post to social media). And it’s very, very time-consuming and can be notoriously slow. Again, social media is a slow burn, and better for nurturing relationships than for getting in front of new audiences.

Borrowing other people’s authority

The five strategies I’m going to discuss have advantages that ads, networking and social media don’t – first, they’re appropriate for brand-new businesses. In fact, I used several of these strategies in my early years of business. They were crucial to building my network, email list, and business.

Second, they’re excellent at establishing trust and authority right out of the gate. They primarily work by borrowing other people’s audiences and hence, other people’s authority.

Finally, I don’t expect that every single one of these five strategies will be relevant to use. Instead, I recommend you choose one or two, and commit. Then watch your audience, leads, and email list grow.

Speaking at events

Speaking at events – both paid and unpaid – continues to bring me a steady stream of new leads, while growing my email list. For this, you’re going to need storytelling skills and speaking skills. Being a bonafide expert in your field doesn’t necessarily make you a great speaker.

Speaking skills and stagecraft can be learnt through observation. I love watching the drama of speakers and how they move their bodies around a stage, their body language, and how they use the cadence of their voice to provoke a response.

When the topic of your talk and the topic of your lead magnet are closely related, then it’s easy to segue into pitching your audience for their email address, with far less friction. Of course, you can also sell directly from stage, but generally, a reputable event won’t allow this of its speakers, especially if speakers are paid.

Works best when:

  • You have a memorable lead magnet which you can build your talk around, or a talk you can create a memorable, relevant lead magnet for
  • You have at least one slide with a QR code taking your audience to your lead magnet landing page

Not recommended when:

  • You’re a boring speaker
  • Speaking on stage is your worst nightmare.

Training on other people’s programs

In 2012 or thereabouts, I went to a yoga class with renowned yoga teacher Mark Breadner. As I registered for class, I gave him my elevator pitch, and he immediately asked if I’d like to be a trainer in his yoga teacher training.

Of course, I said yes, though I’d never done it before. This became one of the major methods that I’ve used to grow my leads and email list over the last 11 years.

I would be paid to teach and train in other people’s courses, typically on how to start a business, and how to do your own marketing, as a soloist. And students would come back, several months, or more often years later.

I’m still a teacher and trainer on other people’s courses, and I develop training on behalf of training institutes. This is great for developing and co-creating your methodology. You’re practicing your densely branded language. You’re practicing developing and sharing your opinion and ideas in a memorable, fascinating, interesting way – because boring should be a crime, right?

You need to have a different take on the same old thing if you’re going to be memorable and if these people are going to come back to you. Some people may immediately be ready to buy the next thing from you. And some people will come back years and years later.

Ideally, it’s really useful if the audience has paid (ie: it’s not a free training they’re participating in) and you can deliver your teaching or your training live, rather than pre-recorded.

Works best when:

  • You’re confident
  • You’re good at thinking on your feet
  • You have a niche

Not recommended when:

  • You don’t like teaching
  • You find interacting with your audience really uncomfortable
  • You’re not so interested in how to be compelling, interesting, and memorable

Paid live workshops

Paid live workshops can be a really quick and easy way of validating ideas for a larger course or a larger program that you want to develop. In the process, you’re making money and building your email list, raising your reach and visibility.

I’ve run quite a few different paid live workshops at the $97 price point and have immediately had $5000 or $10,000 worth of business off the back end – not because I had some amazing upsell offer ready, but because I gave new people in my audience an experience of my training, my approach, opinions, personality, and they were ready for the next thing.

Despite excellent intentions, over-delivering within the space of a one- or two-hour session isn’t good for your audience, nor your business. When you overwhelm your audience with information and insights, you make it difficult for them to take action.

Instead, it’s more likely they’re bamboozled with detail and stop themselves from starting. A confused, overwhelmed person isn’t an ideal client.

Works best when:

  • You have a clearly defined problem
  • Your price matches the perceived value of solving the defined problem
  • You have a memorable name or a different angle on an old problem
  • You’re already comfortable and familiar with training
  • You’re already comfortable and familiar with key digital aspects such as setting up new web pages, payment buttons, and email funnels

Not recommended when:

  • You’re a people pleaser who’s notorious for over-delivering
  • You feel resentful about selling value at a lower price point

Marketing other people’s businesses

This one is relevant and useful for those with a communications or marketing background. I came into digital marketing from public relations, so I was very used to writing and interviewing people. And when I first started my business in 2008, this was one of the major methods that I used to grow my audience, build my professional reputation, and get leads in through my door, while being paid at the same time.

I started my digital marketing agency in 2008, with a handful of clients who I looked after month in, month out, with website content. I was writing articles (they weren’t called blogs back then) and I’d write a handful of articles every month, for each client.

I identified the experts in each client’s particular sector or niche, and then I would reach out, introduce myself, ask to interview them and write up the interview as an article on my client’s website.

It was a win-win situation. I got paid, and I got marketing content. I didn’t need to do all the research as thoroughly as I otherwise would because I had an expert or three to interview. The expert got to meet me, see what I did, and gain publicity through another business’s website (plus email and socials, when we promoted the articles). In effect, I did them a favour right off the bat.

And the client, of course, got some fabulous experts featured on their website, which also helped them get found on Google. Your client needs to see the value of what you’re doing and be happy. This won’t work if you’re writing fluff or being obviously self-serving.

Ideally, the experts you’re interviewing are in the same niche as you and would benefit from your marketing or communications services (and really, every expert needs marketing/publicity). For this to work well, you want to be great at following up, be interested in other people, and good at building relationships.

Works best when:

  • You’re a marketer or writer, with interviewing skills
  • You’re good at building relationships and following up with people
  • You’re committed to your clients’ best interests and aren’t being self-serving

Not recommended when:

  • You don’t already have marketing clients that you’re creating content for

Writing for publicity

Writing articles for industry publications is something I did a lot more of 12-15 years ago. If you’re a writer, it’s amazing how much easier it’s becoming than in the 1990s, when the public relations industry was more powerful and acted as gatekeeper between business and media.

Because of social media, because of the internet, business and media is becoming closer and we don’t require the gatekeepers of public relations consultants anymore.

So for this method to work, you need writing skills. Of course, you need storytelling skills and it would help if you had trend-spotting skills as well. It’s also good if you know how to pitch the media.

You’re being paid as a writer and you don’t need media releases. Most of the time, you’re simply pitching the journalist with a one-to-one email. And of course, if you’re going to pitch, you need to be good at following up. There is so much following-up required that most business owners tend to underestimate that.

With this strategy, you’re paid to write articles in your niche, talking about your expertise in a kind of a subtle way. This can’t be too obviously self-serving, otherwise, you’ll probably be asked to take out ads. (If you’re being asked to take out ads, it’s a good indication that your pitch is not really newsworthy.)

Works best when:

  • You enjoy writing, storytelling, research and interviewing
  • You enjoy following the news and noticing trends

Not recommended when:

  • You thinking following up is “pushy”
  • You don’t like writing or it takes you too long.

On being memorable

It’s unlikely that all of these five strategies will work for you. Choose one or two strategies that play to your communication strengths and unfair advantage.

Your professional reputation is a major business asset: the word on the street about you, your business, whether or not you’re good or somebody to be avoided, as well as social proof, such as social media testimonials, media appearances, awards, etc.

When you’re borrowing someone else’s audience, you’re borrowing someone else’s authority, so you need to treat that carefully. These strategies are very, very different from advertising. Instead, these are a massive shortcut in gaining the trust of new people.

To find your partners for these strategies – who will employ you, have you talk at their events or conferences, train in their courses or programs – you need to be a good human. Model the behaviour you expect in others. Don’t be flaky. Be true to your word. Respond and follow up. Be grateful and enthusiastic.

Finally, for these strategies to really shine? You need to be memorable (no biggie). How do we make an impression so that people remember us, come back, look us up, and stalk us on social media?

Be kind. Be human. Be related. Be genuinely interested in other people. Tell your stories like they matter (they do). Own your opinions. Use densely branded language so you become known for your ideas and turns of phrase. Stop speaking jargon. Plain, powerful, specific language never goes out of style.

Enjoy the process of getting paid to build your visibility, grow your reach, and build your email list, far faster and more effectively.

Want to learn how? Join our Guest Speaking Masterclass. 

5 most common mistakes when moving from one-to-one to group

5 most common mistakes when moving from one-to-one to group

Building your reputation, Grow your profits

She didn’t seem embarrassed. But I was mortified. She’d spent $10,000 on video production, $3000 on a whizbang tech set-up, and $1500 on graphic design, but hadn’t sold a single spot in her program.

I’d love to say this conversation was an isolated incident. But it’s not.

When you’re a successful coach, teacher or consultant, it’s common to want to create a group program. Not just common – it’s smart.

There are only so many times you can listen to yourself saying the same thing every single day before you want to take a vow of silence and go to Nepal to plait yak hair.

Selling group programs makes smart business sense. You’re leveraging your time and expertise. You’re honing your process into a methodology. You’re increasing your profits while building your professional reputation. What’s not to love?

After 14 years of supporting countless business owners to move from primarily selling one-to-one services to leveraging their expertise into group work, there are certain mistakes that I see owners making again and again. While it’s fabulous to have accrued experience in one-to-one before launching into group programs, it’s not the same.

Here are the most common mistakes that I see owners make – and what to do instead.

1: Complicating the tech set-up

This one drives me absolutely bonkers: the owner decides to create their first group program, so the very first thing they do is take out a subscription with the most expensive and hip software that the internet cool kids are using.

In order of what to do first, second, third, your tech setup sits about three quarters of the way down your list.

And – this is critical so stop multitasking now and listen to me – your tech set-up doesn’t sell your program nor signify quality, accessibility, or engagement.

I have invested $3500 US on a program that was delivered via Zoom and Google Drive. I’ve supported countless business owners through their first group program launch that was delivered via email, Stripe, Google Drive and Zoom – first-time launches that earned owners $18,000, $30,000 or even $55,000.

Repeat after me: “I will not procrasti-tech. I will not procrasti-tech. I will not procrasti-tech.”

What you need:

  • Your email marketing software: to promote and register people through
  • Either your sales page is hosted on your website, on an e-commerce tool such as Thrivecart (affiliate link) which I use, or on Google Drive
  • Stripe: for taking payments. I have Stripe hooked up to Thrivecart, so my clients and myself only interact with Thrivecart.
  • Perhaps Google Drive, or a password-protected part of your website, to host any training materials
  • Vimeo to host your live call recordings and/or your video tutorials, if you’re going to have them.

2: Overdelivering on time instead of value

When you’re feeling insecure about your premium group program, it’s common to overdeliver with time. Which means endless, unproductive live sessions that begin to irritate and disengage people.

Your well-meaning actions provoke the opposite effect.

If something is cheap, I expect it’ll cost me my time. My IKEA wardrobe might be a great price but I’ll invest an afternoon of frustration, agony, and existential crises as I question the capitalist hamster wheel that convinced me that this wardrobe would solve all my problems, when I should be writing poetry in the woods and gazing at the stars as they emerge one by one amid the immense blackening sky.

If something is premium priced, I expect it will take less of my time to get the transformation I seek. Think: a $200 car wash service that includes a great coffee, wifi, and air-conditioning while I wait (for as little time as possible).

People aren’t paying to hang with you. They’re paying for the transformation you promise – as efficiently as possible.

3: Giving up after the first attempt

This one hurts. In 2013, after a year of running several face-to-face courses around Australia, I launched my first premium online group program while on an extended holiday in France with friends and family.

It was a disaster.

I made so many mistakes that it’s hard to pick the biggest one. Was it ruining a perfectly fabulous holiday with completely unnecessary stress? Was it not adequately preparing and being woefully unsupported? Or was it allowed my ego to stop me from launching another online group program for two more years?

Probably the last one.

Your ego is a liability in business. Get that prick under control. Every “failed” launch is an opportunity to learn invaluable things – but only if you stop your ego from spoiling the party.

4: Not pricing one-to-one in relation to your group program

This one is hugely common, easy to solve, and makes a massive impact once you’ve done so: not figuring out your group pricing in relation to your one-to-one pricing.

When you’re selling one-to-one consulting, coaching, or similar, then moving to group programs, you’ll need to adjust all your pricing.

Forget about what your competitors are charging. When you introduce a leveraged group program for the first time, your people will be considering your various services and looking at your pricing side-by-side. (Hint: raise your one-to-one price; don’t lower your group program price.)

Most people, in most cases, would rather engage one-to-one services. So, if you’re selling group programs and the price is similar, or the monthly payment plan is similar, then you’ll need to increase your one-to-one pricing accordingly.

Because otherwise? You’ll end up with an influx of new one-to-one clients and few, if any, people in your group program, which defeats the whole purpose, yes?

5: Waiting until it’s perfect

I mean this with all the love and encouragement that I can muster: get your goddamn head out of your arse and stop using arbitrary external cues to beat yourself up with.

“Oh! I’m such a perfectionist!” is like saying “I’m violent against myself and I truss it up to look pretty.”

Please hear this: your flagship group program (or other project you’re currently ‘shoulding’ all over yourself with) has no value until it’s in the hands of paying clients.

[Tweet “Please hear this: your group program (or other project you’re currently ‘shoulding’ all over yourself with) has no value until it’s in the hands of paying clients.”]

You may anticipate how it will be received but you cannot know this until real paying clients give you (informal) feedback.

Business (and life) isn’t a Disney movie. It’s a constant process of iterating, editing and improving. Over and over again. Until you die.

Stop stopping yourself, you gorgeous idiot. Launch the thing already.

What to do now, to get your group program going

Start a business, save the world

Start a business, save the world

Building your reputation, Values-based business

Circa 2005, I boxed up the leftovers from one of my client’s corporate lunch events and dropped it off at an industrial estate near Sydney Airport. Oz Harvest was in its nascency, having started in 2004 by Ronni Kahn, who noticed a huge volume of food going to waste. Since then, it has grown to become Australia’s leading food rescue organisation – a simple idea that satisfies two social goals – reducing waste and feeding the homeless.

Ronni came up with the idea through her work as the owner of an events company, where she saw huge volumes of food going to waste. Ronni’s idea was simple and started small: she took her own surplus food from her events to local charities.

Laws needed changing for Ronni’s idea to really take off – and in 2005, Ronni and a team of pro-bono lawyers were instrumental in helping pass The Civil Liabilities Amendment Act in NSW, to allow potential food donors to give their surplus food to charities without fear of liability.

I’ve been highlighting the work of OzHarvest in my digital marketing courses for years and have witnessed the organisation go from small and Sydney-centric to becoming more widely known, to inspiring other businesses. This is the power of a good idea that needs little explanation – it takes off.

Good news! Using your business to grow your impact to change the trajectory of society is on the up-and-up. It takes time, commitment, and the support of thousands of others.

Hustle and Heart program infographicMy Hustle and Heart impact framework equips and empowers business owners to stop being the town’s best-kept secret and magnify their impact to create real change. There are three pillars to impact: growing your reputation, building thought leadership and investing in your character.

Our first hurdle is compassion fatigue.

The problem of compassion fatigue

Believing that the social cause close to your heart should be self-evident is an attitude that’s sure to end in tears. No, your cause isn’t necessarily my cause, and attempting to bully or shame me into caring is likely to have the opposite effect.

We are all suffering from compassion fatigue, long before the pandemic came along and things have worsened exponentially since. Compassion fatigue – emotional, physical and spiritual exhaustion which results in a diminished ability to empathise or feel compassion for others – most often affects front-line workers (it’s sometimes referred to as secondary traumatic stress) but is also a problem for ordinary people.

When a caring, sensitive person feels emotionally assaulted by the news or constant requests for charity, their guard goes up to protect themselves. If you’ve noticed yourself being short with people, you could be experiencing it too. Opposing sides become more firmly entrenched in their position, with less patience or compassion for the opposing point of view.

This is a real problem, not only for individual wellbeing, but for enacting positive social change because to win the hearts and minds of people and politicians, to change policy, to lobby key stakeholders, to achieve higher vaccination rates, to donate money or time to worthy causes, requires advanced skills in persuasive communication.

Growing your reputation

To communicate powerfully and effectively requires several ingredients and several stages. First, you need to say something worth listening to. To do this requires empathy, emotional intelligence and creativity. Once you’re saying something worth listening to, you need to amplify this by raising your visibility.

Without visibility, you don’t have the opportunity to reach and affect great numbers of people.

Growing your professional reputation, whether you’re an individual or organisation, is critical. This goes beyond producing your own media assets for your own platform, such as whitepapers, blogs, podcasts and videos.

To grow your reputation quickly and powerfully, you need to create purposeful partnerships, build networks, engage public relations, and work with media to help amplify your message to new audiences.

Building thought leadership

It’s not enough to have visibility and an audience. Your thought leadership is the difference between developing widespread trust and having limited influence bound by your own community who love you.

Thought leadership is all about credibility. Without credibility, we have very limited trust from others and our impact is stymied.

During various controversies that are amplified on social media, I go looking for influencers’ response. It’s clear that some influencers don’t bother doing further research or background checking before they share a video of “freedom” protests in Sydney and Melbourne that are produced by a neo-Nazi, or don’t think too deeply beyond their own selfish needs before mouthing off about “not wanting to be relatable”, thereby destroying their personal brand, and future wealth, with one self-centred social video.

Many don’t realise that they’re being deliberately co-opted into supporting tangential causes that they may only be vaguely aware of.

A massive online social media community doesn’t make for thought leadership. Thought leadership is different.

To develop your thought leadership so that you can influence the mainstream and have real impact, you need to research widely, develop your empathy so that you’re better able to appreciate the diversity of viewpoints, follow your curiousity, and cultivate your creative thinking. You need an open mind and an open heart.

This process isn’t always fun.

It can be hugely destabilising to examine your own thinking and realise that you are – upon further reflection – wrong. It’s not enjoyable to see how your good intentions may have negatively impacted others. It takes strength of character to change your hard-won opinions and embrace paradoxes and ambiguity. Indeed, appreciating that ambiguity and paradoxes exist is a good start to move away from linear, overly simplistic thinking.

Truth with a capital T has been used to justify violence for millennia. We can do better.

Investing in your character

Much is spoken about leadership and how to cultivate it. It appears everyone is a leader. And while it’s understandable that businesses want to get the most out of their people and equip them with leadership skills that are largely learned on the job, the related subject of character doesn’t get talked about nearly as often.

And yet developing your character is critical, for many reasons, not least of which is our future. For our planet’s survival, we must have leaders who are highly ethical, compassionate and brave enough to choose the unpopular path and then to compassionate persuade their constituents to support this.

The best leaders in times of crisis and upheaval are those who are empathetic and courageous enough to admit, “I don’t know what’s going to happen. But here’s what I think we should try. Come along with me and let’s be open with each other about what’s working and what’s not.”

When everyone else is fortifying their positions of judgment and throwing hurt barbs across the division, it takes real strength of character to try to build a bridge. But if positive social change is to happen, a bridge must be built. Your contribution is needed. Your business can be a force for social change. Together, we create a bright future. There’s still time.

Our flagship Hustle and Heart program is built on our impact framework, comprised of the three key pillars of growing your reputation, building through leadership and investing in your character. Won’t you join us?

Reclaiming Mondays

Reclaiming Mondays

Building your reputation, Business coaching

Sunday afternoon sun lays low in the sky, ushering in what should be a mellow evening hanging out with your favourite people, eating good food by a crackling fire, and feeling sated and satisfied by a weekend well spent.

Except there’s a cold pit in your belly and a hollow buzzing in your head as Monday worries crowd in.

You’re self-employed. Those Sunday night blues should have gone away. But taking the leap to freedom has instead bound you tighter, as you’ve swapping one boss for many, and feel chained to keeping work happening and your clients happy.

What went wrong? Why is this a scenario common? How come the freedom, flexibility, and as-you-like-it lifestyle remains so elusive?

If you approach Mondays with icy anticipation and a yearning for things to be different, it’s time to reclaim them as your own.

And the more radical this idea seems, the more relevant this is to you and, perhaps, the more you need to do it.

Radical acts

After the Industrial Revolution, 80-100 hour work weeks were common. In 1869, eight-hour workdays in the US for government employees were guaranteed, which pressured private-sector workers to push for the same.

In 1926, Henry Ford popularised the 40-hour work week after he discovered through his research that working more yielded only a small increase in productivity that lasted a short period of time. In 1940, the 40-hour work week became US law – in Australia, this happening in 1936 with the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Act.

When self-employed, if you don’t want to work Mondays, you don’t have to. If you want to start the working week on a Tuesday, you can. If Mondays are to commence with a leisurely dog walk by the beach, followed by brunch, then exercise, you can. You don’t want to work school holidays. If you want to take off to the forest to celebrate the eight seasonal festivals of the pagan year, knock yourself out.

It’s your business. It’s your rules. And the more radical this sounds, the more you may need it.

Divorcing time from money

One old idea which has continued to endure, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary that it’s a myth, is that time equals money. In other words, if you want to earn more, you need to work more hours.

Unhooking your hours from your pay is a key step towards earning more. The more you wish to grow, the more charging by the hour makes no sense.

Understanding leverage and creating assets for sale is central. As a professional service provider, consultant or freelancer, that might look like books, courses, memberships, certification, franchising. The busier you become, with more clients wanting more from you, the more urgent this becomes.

Science shows that it’s not the hours you invest that produce fabulous work; it’s the quality of energy you apply to your work. And energy requires many things, starting with a good night’s sleep.

Show me your priorities

There’s an adage, “Show me your calendar and I’ll show you your priorities”, and while this may be simplistic, it does point to something important: if you keep telling yourself and others that something is important to you, but failing to do it, it’s probably not true.

Time to clear the decks, get on the no train, and reprioritise your time so that it reflects your values, beliefs and (real) priorities.

Forget motivation – create structure instead

When I talk to people about being self-employed, the most common response I hear is, “I’d love to start my own business, but I don’t think I could because I’m not very motivated.”

We frequently misunderstand how actions, emotions and outside circumstances work in motivation, instead pressuring our poor addled brains to magic up emotion. It doesn’t work like that.

[Tweet “We frequently misunderstand how actions, emotions and outside circumstances work in motivation, instead pressuring our poor addled brains to magic up emotion. It doesn’t work like that.”]

Let’s pretend there’s a woman named Georgie. Georgie is 45, with young kids, elderly parents, and a husband who works full-time. During Covid, things became far more intense for Georgie and, as a consequence, her business suffered.

Her time is being pulled in many more directions, and she’s required to help her children navigate online learning, provide endless snacks, and act as the intermediary between her elderly mother, her father who was in an aged care home, the home staff, and her siblings. She frequently goes to bed late and wakes early with anxiety. Is it any wonder that her business suffers?

Now let’s paint a different picture: Georgie creates different structures. She has the structure of her children’s school reopening, where they’re now ensconced six hours a day, with an extra hour outside the house, as they take the bus there and back. She has the structure of a new arrangement with her family, whereby another sibling takes responsibility for dealing with the aged care home, and the care of her parents are more evenly distributed amongst her siblings.

She has the structure of a regular night-time routine, whereby she’s winding down at least an hour before she turns the lights out, far earlier than before. She has the structure of regular exercise, which works to lift her mood and give her more energy and emotional regulation.

She has the structure of a clear client onboarding process, which means less time spent communicating with the client, and a better outcome for all parties. She has the structure of better website forms, which means fewer one-to-one emails. She has the structure of a book she’s written, and the structure of a publicist, and the structure of a distribution network, which means that more people are able to reach Georgie and experience her work.

When we focus on creating, and participating in, productive structures, positive emotions are far more likely to result. Stop placing unnecessary and unrealistic expectations on yourself to feel motivated (otherwise known as push motivation) and start focusing on structures instead (pull motivation).

Start a new chapter

If you’ve got the Sunday night blues, and you’re working over-time for a side-gig salary, it’s time. Starts by getting angry. We overthrow oppression (both external and internalised) by refusing to tolerate conditions any longer.

Dismantling the oppression of the industrial revolution continues today, in the information age. Technology has made it far more possible for work to bleed into leisure time. And for self-employed folk, it can seem like a smart move because the more we work, the better our business will be, right? Until the cold pit in your belly becomes a regular Sunday evening routine.

[Tweet “Dismantling the oppression of the industrial revolution continues today, in the information age.”]

Dismantling internalised oppression is not a quick fix. It takes time to evict bad habits, to embrace “selfish” as a compliment, and to steer your business away from hourly gigs towards assets and leverage.

It starts by reclaiming Mondays.

How to become the go-to expert in your field

How to become the go-to expert in your field

Building your reputation

She was a speaker at a conference, where we met. She had been given the most inhospitable speaking spot when most conference delegates were still waking up, or busy making connections over breakfast. She had decades of experience and was accompanied by a few of her long-time clients, who clearly adored her.

When I quietly asked her, she told me she hadn’t been paid for speaking. In fact, she’d had to buy her own conference ticket, and been offered a 10% discount from the ticket price, which was supposed to compensate her for speaking.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. I’ve met several people who’ve dedicated years to their craft while being the town’s best-kept secret. People who’ve invested in extensive qualifications, sometimes PhDs, and have accrued thousands of hours, and spent tens of thousands of dollars, to become experts in their field.

Yet without any recognition, beyond their own small circle of influence, nor access to the opportunities that flows from this.

And, on the flip side, I’ve endured listening to people boasting about their 18 months or three years of experience like it’s a distinction or, worse, lied about the amount of time they’ve accrued focusing on their thing.

Before I became a digital marketer and business coach 13 years ago, I worked in Public Relations, so I always knew the value of reputation.

Especially if you’re a soloist who has no desire to grow a team, building your professional reputation makes smart business sense. Your reputation in business is far more credible and hence, valuable than branding, marketing or advertising. Your reputation in business is a bankable asset.

[Tweet “Your reputation in business is far more credible and hence, valuable than branding, marketing or advertising.”]

The value of being an expert

When you are the go-to expert in your field, opportunities come to you, including free media publicity, speaking and teaching gigs, and a steady stream of inquiries and clients, courtesy of Google. There’s less need to pitch or hustle for a break, and far more ease and flow in your business, which further enables you to do your best work.

You can’t specialise in instrumental jazz, slow cooking, crypto-currency, and a month of Sundays. Defining where you’re going to have an edge is enormously important. 

But so too is knowing how to find, identify, or develop opportunities where your skills, talents and aptitudes will fruit the most; this is part of what we teach in my Hustle & Heart program.

The right environment always beats the right effort, so before you think you’re lacking, first focus on getting into the right environment. It doesn’t matter how good you are if you’re in the wrong environment, hanging out with the wrong people who don’t get it, don’t get you and don’t like you. You’re an expert, not a miracle worker.

Stop being an island

People need people. People in business need people even more. As you’re growing your influence, you need to borrow other people’s audiences through partnerships and collaborations (we also cover this in Hustle & Heart).

Work to your communication strengths – if you like talking, focus on becoming a guest on other people’s podcasts, hosted on other people’s IGTV, or interviewed on other people’s YouTube channels. If you prefer writing, try to get your articles syndicated, contribute guest blogs, or pitch articles to mainstream media.

You can be paid to teach on other people’s paid programs or courses, be interviewed on someone else’s webinar, speak at other people’s events, or contribute towards someone else’s book.

Collaborating, partnering and contributing helps you further hone your skills by focusing on what you do best, and builds your audience by borrowing your collaborator’s audience.

Have a body of work online

Of course, nothing beats warm bodies in a room. But 2020 has highlighted the difference between those who are nimble and those who are stubborn. How are people going to find you and have an experience of you if everything you do is face-to-face?

Yes, your face-to-face work can translate onto the internet, and no it doesn’t need to cost you $10,000 in videography services.

If you’re a writer, you need a blog or a body of articles. If you’re a teacher, you need some videos of yourself teaching. If you deliver services face-to-face, you need a direct-to-camera piece introducing yourself and your business.

If you’re the ‘go to’ expert, people need a body of work that they can easily ‘go to’ online. You can’t rank on Google for a six-page website. We need more.

Be more generous in your marketing and use your website as a hub of your best information and insights, to help people reach you and experience your work. If you sell services, you sell promises, and you build trust by giving away your gold. (“But why will people pay if I’m giving it all away for free?” is the wrong question.)

Say something worth listening to

To be invited to contribute, you need to say something worth listening to.

  • What is the popular discourse in your niche or industry?
  • What do you think about it?
  • What’s missing from the conversation?
  • Where has the conversation not gone far enough, and why is this important?
  • If you disagree from the topical conversation, why? And why should we care?
  • How can we take a different approach to an old problem?
  • How is your industry or sector relevant to the bigger events of the day?
  • In mainstream media, how is your industry or sector represented in the major news story?
  • If it isn’t represented, how could you make what you do relevant?
  • What is likely to happen in the immediate future, what are the repercussions of this on your industry or sector, and why should people care?

Having an opinion is important. Having a well-formed opinion is more important. Having an opinion that you can make relevant to whomever you’re talking to is more important still. And having a well-formed thoughtful opinion that’s contradictory, but not just for the sake of it, and that you’ve got the ovaries to stand behind, means you’re saying something worth listening to.

Do something worth talking about

Don’t underestimate people’s intelligence. We can see through a ruse to gain publicity easier than you may think. Hype isn’t worth talking about. Action is. So put your money where your mouth is and do something worth talking about.

I meet so many business people who are spearheading community-oriented, social change movements, without any acknowledgment or publicity, making things far harder than they need to be. Remember, you’re not an island. There are no prizes for burnout.

To secure publicity, you don’t need a formal media release. Instead, a short, sharp email to a few relevant journalists can result in thousands of dollars of publicity, and help ensure that your impact goes far further.

The media are constantly looking for stories. Do something worth talking about – and don’t forget to tell the media about it.

More money, more impact

Finally, don’t mistake working for love and working for money. This is why Hustle & Heart exists – because both are necessary. More money means more impact, more influence, more choice.

Don’t identify as an expert? But you’ve accrued 10 years or more at your craft, and invested in your education? Then you’re likely an expert. Experts call themselves specialists; other people call them experts.

If you haven’t yet accrued the recognition that your dedication allows, don’t blame yourself. It’s just marketing, branding and Public Relations. And unlike what you do, it’s not that difficult. In fact, it’s getting easier every day.

Want to learn how to create more money and more impact? Then join my flagship program, Hustle & Heart.