Fear Less Business Podcast

What does it really mean to be authentic, to inspire others, to live your purpose? What is the way that only you can have a positive impact on others' lives? And how do you do that while still making a living? Finding your purpose for leading others all comes back to reframing your life story, connecting the dots. -Annie Spano To help us dig into those questions, we're joined this week by Annie Spano, Style Collective founder and CEO. After years of being bullied and harassed by a woman at her corporate job, Annie created Style Collective to be a digital sisterhood where women could instead be inclusive, working together to lift each other up, meet their goals and achieve success. Style Collective is now the largest online platform for education and community dedicated to supporting and empowering female fashion and lifestyle influencers. In this episode, Annie discusses: the qualities of influencers with true staying power how to establish deeper connections that make for loyal followers what she

Running your own business from home by marketing the skills you most enjoy using— with the freedom and flexibility that comes with it. Delegating the tasks you aren't proficient in, don't have the time for, or just plain dislike. Whether you're launching a virtual assistant business or considering hiring a VA to help with your own business, the concept of virtual assistance is very attractive. But what's the most effective way to get this sort of remote work off the ground and generating steady income if you don't already have a roster of potential clients? And where can busy business owners go to find a VA that fits their specific needs and company culture? Abbey Ashley joins us this week to talk all things VA! Abbey is the Founder of The Virtual Savvy, where she helps aspiring virtual assistants launch and grow at-home businesses from scratch. She started her own virtual assistant business in 2013, doubling the salary from her full-time corporate job while working only 20 hours a week... in just 30 da

Maybe you've been blogging since forever and the fire just isn't there anymore. You're ready to close up shop, but hate for the brand you've established and content you've created to fade away into nothing. Maybe you've created a killer app or website. It's fantastic, but you're not so into the whole maintenance and monetization thing. You know that it could be so much more, but what you enjoy is the building. In both cases, you could hire a team to carry on with the day to day necessities. Or, you could position your company for acquisition: selling your business and using the proceeds to move forward and fund your next passion project. This week on the Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast, we're so excited to welcome Eric Nagel of Rust Built, a digital marketing agency that also acquires other businesses and assets (for example, the Type-A Parent Conference and Resourceful Mommy). If you've considered selling your business— or acquiring one— you need to hear Eric discuss: how Eric and his partner

Affiliate marketing is a constant hot topic within the influencer community: people wondering about the best way to start, or those who have already started and are wondering how to do it effectively. Keep an eye on the responses, and you'll nearly always see someone mention how they tried affiliate marketing with Amazon Associates or Commission Junction back in the day, and didn't find it worth their while. That kind of negative thinking stops here. This week on the podcast, we're talking all about affiliate marketing: how to do it well, how to do it effectively, how to do it so that it maximizes the amount of money that you make. First and foremost, it should be a fit for the content you're creating. -Angel Djambazov To give us some guidance on ways content creators can best monetize, we're joined by Angel Djambazov. Angel has spent his professional career in the fields of journalism (as an editor on several newspapers and as founding Editor-in-Chief of Wyoming Homes and Living Magazine) and digital market

If you are in this mindset of  'I don't want to have to sell anything,' you're kind of saying 'I don't want to make any money.' ~Nikki Rausch Uncomfortable with the idea of coming across as "sales-y?" Why? When did the concept of selling take on such a negative connotation? The fact is, if you want people to buy, you're in the business of selling. And when your product or service solves a customer's problem or fulfills a need, that's definitely a positive thing. You're not being pushy; you're helping to make lives easier or better. This week on the Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast, Nikki Rausch joins us to discuss embracing the fact of selling and how to sell successfully and authentically. Founder and CEO of Sales Maven, an organization dedicated to authentic selling, Nikki Rausch has 24+ years of experience in sales and a unique ability to transform the misunderstood process of “selling." She works with entrepreneurs, business owners, and organizations, offering group, one-on-one, and self guide

As the realm of influencer marketing expands and deepens, content creators and brands alike are no longer quite as satisfied with one-off reviews of small ticket items; they are looking to expand and deepen their relationships and campaigns as well. Deeper connections and integrated, longer-term campaigns mean increased value for brands, influencers and readers in terms of exposure, authenticity and education, which generally translates into better compensation. Winning all around! So how can influencers cultivate better relationships with brands, particularly the brands they most align with? For this week's episode of the Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast, we're pleased as punch to sit down and chat with Katie Proctor and Elle Queen of Wellevation HQ about building meaningful, mutually beneficial brand relationships. Wellevation HQ is a niche consulting group that supports influencers and brands in the wellness industry. Along with other services, they act as agents for influencers— allowing busy c

Are we talking contracts again? Yes. Yes we are. You know why? Because contracts are IMPORTANT. They protect you, and they protect your client. They lay out expectations in black and white so there's no confusion later. But, like everything else in the world of influencer marketing, the contracts used for sponsored content are evolving to reflect the changes happening in this space. Thanks to clarifications and consequences relating to FTC disclosures, as well as GDPR regulations, general concerns about data and privacy, and other factors, there's a lot of attention being paid to authenticity, transparency and legality. As it should be. Based on the changes we've seen in our clients' sponsored content contracts through Hashtag Legal, and the questions we've heard asked by influencers, we decided it was time to touch on this topic again. Listen in on this episode of the Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast to learn about: exclusivity: what may be asked for and what that entails intellectual pro

Whether you're an old school blogger that started monetizing your platform after years of posting, or a new influencer that launched your website with making money in mind, content creators often struggle with monetization strategies (if you have a strategy at all). You may be worried about alienating the audience that took so long to build. You may have trouble getting your audience to convert into customers. You may just have no idea where to begin, or squirm at the idea of making money at all from what started as a labor of love. It's all about finding that balance between monetization and your reader experience, and you never want to sacrifice one for the other. Jenny Guy This week on the Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast, we're excited to talk monetization tips for influencers with Jenny Guy. Jenny has interacted with so many bloggers, working in roles on the brand side as well as on the advertiser and influencer network sides— so you could say she knows monetization from all sides. She now

Turning your part time side hustle, your passion project, into your full time job: that's the dream of every burgeoning entrepreneur, amirite? Here at Businessese, one of our passions is supporting emerging entrepreneurs as they transform those dreams into reality. As inspiration for the transition, this week we're sharing an entrepreneurial success story. Mary Clavieres is the founder of the Hoboken Mom Entrepreneurs Group, an in-real-life networking group that supports local women owned businesses. She made the jump from a full time job in the pharmaceutical industry to running her own product-based business (postpartum mesh underwear— our mom listeners will have a special appreciation for the genius behind this particular product!). Connecting is Mary's superpower, and in the days ahead she will be launching the Transitions Collective, a platform for women entrepreneurs to find support and accountability, both online and off. Listen in on this episode of the Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast to

There's a lot of fear-facing that goes on when you start your own business. It's an immensely scary thing to strike out on your own, without a safety net; to be your own boss and know your success depends on YOU—what you develop, deliver, ship. It's also scary when your business becomes successful to the extent that you can't do it on your own anymore. The idea of hiring your first employee may be a relief, but going from being your own boss to being someone else's boss comes with a new set of fears: can I afford this? How do I know who to hire? And will I ever really trust this stranger with my baby, my business? Hiring is hard. Relinquishing control of every aspect of the business you've built is even harder. We know all about it because we've been there. We knew if we wanted to grow and scale any further, we had to delegate some of the existing workload. And we're happy to report that we went through the hiring process and survived—and we're ready to share what we've learned with you. Tune in to this w

Yes, that's right. We're talking GDPR again. Why? Because it's important. We do not recommend ignoring the new requirements put forth by the General Data Protection Regulation. But also because we've been hearing a lot of questions about the how behind GDPR compliance, and we want to make sure that no one finds themselves non-compliant simply because they were thwarted by the technical how-tos of the process. Since the tech side of website maintenance is not our strongest suit, we've invited the magician that we entrust our own site to: Jill Sessa of Ultimate WP Help. A digital nomad, Jill travels the country while handling website maintenance and support for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs, and in this episode of the Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast she guides us through the technicalities of GDPR implementation— and why businesses should view the process as a positive. It's just simply a matter of having respect for that relationship, and these tech pieces that we're talking about enable yo

As an influencer or online business owner, it can feel like there's a whole lot you "need" to do. You need to be optimizing Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. Pinterest. You need to have a newsletter. Sales funnel. Lead magnet. You need to be posting content constantly. Guest posting. Posting to Medium. Posting to LinkedIn. We would argue that all these "need tos" can be distilled into one REAL need: the need to cultivate a community. After that, the decisions are simple: go where your community is and provide what that community needs. So what does that look like in practice? Here to talk with us this week about cultivating community to grow your business— and the tools that can help you to do that effectively— is Nicole Culver. A former food blogger, Nicole started her own food company, Blissful Eats, in 2011 and grew her company to over 6 figures in revenue using non-traditional methods like Facebook Ads and email marketing. As she had more success, bloggers and influencers came to her asking for help. No

It's amazing to think that 20 years ago, someone graduating with a marketing degree had no experience with social media marketing— because that wasn't a thing yet. Social media as a concept was in its infancy. Today, it's nearly unimaginable to consider a marketing campaign without a social element. In between, there were pioneers— bloggers, vloggers and business owners who embraced social platforms as early adopters and established close knit communities of loyal followers. No bots, no apps, no how-to guides, just growing their business and sphere of influence with lots of conversation and the strength of their own vibrant personalities. This week on the Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast, we are super excited to chat with one of those pioneers. Lisa Lehmann of Lisa Lehmann Designs has been designing and creating handcrafted jewelry for over 16 years, and blogging for 15 years. Her passion for creating spills over into creating her online presence and cultivating her online community, and it shows.

Within 'difficult' is our greatest opportunity for growth and understanding. -Lara Currie How do you handle conflict? Conflict is a fact of life—when everyone is the same and no one is challenged, nothing changes and nobody learns or grows. It's an easy concept to understand, but a more complicated one to put into practice. Many of us see any sort of confrontation as being adversarial, and will do pretty much anything to avoid having those difficult conversations. That's an unhealthy habit for anyone, but particularly for entrepreneurs and small business owners! When the buck stops with you, you need to develop those communication skills to help achieve satisfactory resolutions for all parties. To help us identify and work past our triggers when it comes to conflict and difficult communication, we're joined this week by Lara Currie: coach, speaker, and the author of Difficult Happens. With over 25 years of experience in high conflict positions, she has a unique and intuitive understanding of why people act

Privacy has been a hot topic lately, and with good reason. While Facebook's use of user data has taken center stage, there's another important piece of privacy news influencers and businesses need to know about— and take action on, soon. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect on May 25, 2018, and non-compliance can carry sizable fees: up to 4% of annual global turnover or €20 million. Are you ready? The GDPR is an European Union law that expands protection for an individual’s personal information by: placing more stringent requirements onto companies that possess personal data of EU data subjects giving these data subjects more control over how their personal information is collected, stored, and used. Even if you are not located in the EU or specifically marketing to EU citizens, the GDPR's strict consent requirements have implications for U.S. based businesses. If you collect any sort of personal information through your website— think email addresses, Google Analytics, names on

Do any of these statements apply to you? You tend to be a perfectionist, leading to issues with imposter syndrome or analysis paralysis. You look for "gold stars" from others to gauge successes. You have definite goals for your business, but shy away from setting solid monetary goals— and maybe secretly freak out when those monetary goals are broken down into monthly targets. You're sometimes not sure if your business is sustainable, or if it's a one way ticket to burnout. All of these mindset issues are extremely common in entrepreneurs, who are notoriously driven, ambitious people. But if you factor in balance, sustainability, and just a general comfort level within the chaos as measures of business success, maybe you need to take a step back and invest in yourself— invest in your self— and find the support you need to shift your mindset and go "from burnout to breakthrough." We're so excited to have Queirra Fenderson, the Ambition Coach, as this week's guest to walk us through that process. Queirra is

Just a few episodes ago, we discussed how we are growing and scaling our business. In that episode, we spoke pretty frankly about the failures we've experienced along the way (let's call them "growth opportunities"). While we think it's really important to share and learn from the hardships we all face as business owners, we also think it's crucial to define, share and celebrate the successes. For our 30th episode of the Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast (amazing, our podcast is all grown up!) our producer, Don Jackson, quizzes us about: the origin story for Businessese, and how Hashtag Legal grew out of that our reaction to the unexpected rate of growth of our business what success is for our business how we deal with copycats the pros and cons of a complementary personality in a business partner our advice for those starting their own businesses, or experiencing a new "turn" towards growth Don also shares some food for thought with his definition of business success, Danielle narrows d

Feeling stressed? As an entrepreneur, that question probably seems nonsensical. Of course you feel stressed. Everyone feels stress, it's a normal part of life. And when you're an entrepreneur those stresses multiply like bunny rabbits. What matters is how you deal with those stresses. Stress is cumulative, and over time it can and it will affect your mental, emotional and physical health, not to mention your relationships with those around you. It goes without saying that the health of your business will be impacted, too. That's why this week's episode of the Businessese Influencer Marketing Podcast deals with identifying and managing stress. To help us understand how stress works and what to do about it, we're joined by the amazing Shulamit Ber Levtov (Shula for short). Shulamit is the founder and director of a holistic stress and trauma clinic, Compassionate Support for Stressful Times. In her 17+ years as a professional in the mental health and personal growth field, Shulamit has logged thousands of hou

Launching your own business is a huge leap of faith— in yourself and in your product. It can be scary. With patience, determination, a lot of elbow grease and a bit of luck, that leap pays off, but whoa. The time in the interim can be scary. As your business grows but the hours in a day most decidedly do not, it can become overwhelming. You might make the decision to relinquish some control and grow your team. That can be scary, too. We talk a lot about growing and scaling your business, and we talk a lot about how normal it is to feel scared at every stage. But it's important that you know this: it can also feel amazing. YOU DID THAT. YOU ARE AWESOME. Now it's time to reflect on what scares you, the obstacles you've faced and the things you've accomplished, the opportunities you've missed and the reasons why, your goals for the future of your business and the steps you need to take to get there. Never miss a chance to give yourself a mental high five, to wring lessons from missteps, and to adjust your go

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, the blogging community was much smaller and tightly knit. Blog posts tended to be more freewheeling and personal in nature, and bloggers and readers alike interacted within the comments section of each one. When you wanted to discover new blogs to read and follow, you either clicked on a commenter’s name to learn more about them or you perused a blogger’s prominently displayed blogroll. Things changed quickly as more and more bloggers entered the scene and social media— particularly the explosion that was Facebook!— allowed them to expand their platforms. Some quickly and intuitively learned to evolve and grow, embracing content marketing and turning their blogs into side hustles or full-time businesses. For others that started blogging simply as an unpaid vehicle for sharing thoughts with a like-minded, relatively small community, that evolution was and continues to be a challenge. Confidence comes from knowing you're not alone. -Brandi Riley Facebook groups are an a