time to get activated, catalyzed, and just plain excited: interview with Ashley Sinclair

Announcements, Big Thinking, events

Oh boy! Do I have some big news for you?!

In a few short weeks, I’ll be speaking at a fab event hosted by the fab Ashley Sinclair, of Self-Activator. I’ve been watching Sinclair’s business explode for a while. If you dig my vision of a world led by passionate, creative entrepreneurs, her vision is going to rock your socks too.

You can find out more about the event – Profit Catalyst – and how to participate (including a sweet deal from me!) at the end of the post. But please take a minute to read through this brief interview with Sinclair where I dispense with the niceties and cut right to the quick.

You have experience working with large corporations & organizations. Why work with individual entrepreneurs?

Two very important reasons:

  • I love business
  • but I speak entrepreneur.

I come from a family of them. So I’ve been learning the ups and downs, the risks and rewards, of running your own business my whole life long. From tiny cottage businesses to multinational corporations, I’ve seen it all, but I’m most interested in the entrepreneur’s experience.

I want to be on the leading edge of culture and innovation, helping change agents push things forward. I may be biased, but I believe individual entrepreneurs are in this incredible, unique position to do just that – and I love to help them get there.

Well, we certainly have that in common!

You run a BIG business with a highly individual touch. Your tribe feels like they are connected to your personally (and I suspect that they are!). But in order to achieve this big business, you’ve got a team working behind you and supporting you.

Did you build your business with a team in mind? And how would your business be different if you didn’t have a team?

This is such a great question. I built my business with my personal strengths in mind – so yes, I planned on a team from the beginning, even though it was just me for the first 6 months. I know that I’m at my best when I’m leading a group of people, and helping each team member contribute what they are really best at.

I just don’t show up in the biggest way until I’ve got people to lead, so I make sure that I do. My own business would be much smaller in scope if I was still a solopreneur. I’d be much farther removed from my audience, since I’d be focusing solely on automated income streams to maximize my leverage on my own. And I think I’d simply be less creative, because I know that I build things best when working with a team.

You approach business creatively, holistically, and strategically. How do you envision business changing for creative entrepreneurs over the next 5 years? What strengths will be most valued?

I think we’ll continue to see a proliferation of boutique creative industries pop up, as the way we digest content and info matures in the marketplace. I would not be surprised if this proliferation required all entrepreneurs to become branding and positioning experts – I think we’ll see less hangups about that as people get more comfortable with the self-publishing model of sharing free content to attract business.

I believe Individualization will increase in perceived value, big time. Authenticity will be at a premium, because nothing else will get through the noise of the marketplace.

Many start-up entrepreneurs have major difficulty getting past the PROFIT part of business. Their heart & souls are invested in what they’re doing and that’s just hard to price. What is ONE thing you wish entrepreneurs knew about themselves & they’re inherent ability to command a good price for their work?

Oooh, this is so tough to share just one thing. I’m going to with what I think you need to know first:

Pricing has nothing to do with your worth as a person, or the worthiness of the client. It’s not the time to get squeamish, that’s for sure.

If you’re struggling to make a good living, you’re absolutely useless to those outside of yourself.

Price accordingly – the world needs your gifts, and needs you at your best, so you’ve gotta take great care of yourself to begin with by charging well for your work. I mean it – this is non-negotiable for passionate entrepreneurs who want to make a contribution.

Making this higher pricing understandable and desirable to your customers is the art of packaging and positioning. Don’t worry, it’s a skill set, and it can be learned. Hallelujah!

In my experience, coaching crafters and Fortune 500’s alike, I’ve found that if you give the customer the right info to make a great decision about your product, they are more than happy to pay a premium, every time.

Profit Catalyst: You’re Invited!

How’s this sound?
: More play than you’ve had in the entire last year.
: More training than you thought a human could handle in 72 hours, at all levels of the entrepreneur.
: The neuro-rewiring stuff you guys always beg me for.
: The sales-conversion insider strategies that buck all soulless trends.
: PROFIT – leveraging what you’ve got to rake it in.

That’s what Profit Catalyst is all about. And since I’m all about producing the work of your heart & soul whilst making a keen profit, I’m speaking at this outrageous event. Join me, Sinclair (above!), and Charlie Gilkey, of Productive Flourishing, fame to get catalyzed.

Click here to learn more.

PS If you click through my link above and decide to meet up with me at the live event, I’ll gift you one of my Jumpstart packages, a $400 value, to be used between August & September.

Connect with Sinclair on her website or on Twitter.

The Dare of DIY: Join me at the Etsy Labs on April 19

Announcements, events

I’m beyond excited to tell you that I’ll be leading a workshop at the Etsy labs on April 19 at 7pm EDT.

If you can’t make it to Brooklyn, no problem, you can join me live online. Pretty cool, huh?

My mom’s story, from Etsy’s blog:

When I was a kid, my mom woke up regularly between 3 and 4 a.m. She got up, made coffee, and sat in front of her sewing machine. She sewed and sewed until it was time to make breakfast, ask my brother and me how we slept, and see us off to the bus stop.

Then she would sew more.

My mom had to provide for two children: feeding us, putting a roof over our heads, sending us to countless summer camps. She did it all on the income she brought in with that sewing machine. When faced with a daunting, near impossible task, she didn’t balk.

She simply asked, “Can it be done?” Every day, she answered, “Yes.”

I have built my business on the same question. Constantly asking and reasking, reframing the challenge to move myself and my goals forward. I must thank Mark Frauenfelder, of MAKE magazine, for posing the can-it-be-done question in his book, Made by Hand. He applied it to the almost inexplicable drive to create, to DIY.

When you’re your own boss, it’s up to you to seek out challenges, to do terrifying things, and to get comfortable with failure. Building your business so that it’s sustainable, profitable, and rewarding is the ultimate challenge.

In my Dare of DIY workshop, we’ll discuss what it means to challenge yourself, why we thrive on personal challenge, and how you can dissect your problems and liabilities into challenges that push you forward. Instead of focusing on the difficulties of building a business, attendees will tap into their DIY ethic to create exciting ideas and opportunities for their business by asking: can it be done? There is no right answer or correct methodology, only the unique answers we each have to share.

Attendees will leave the workshop with a fresh approach and positive outlook on their growing businesses. Please join me!

Click here to all the info!

The Story of Telling: Navigating the noteworthiness of you

Business Brainstorm, events

Stay tuned for a special event announcement & giveaway at the end of this post!

Many business owners – yes, me too – have a difficult time defining their own noteworthiness.

When we look at what we do, how we do it, or the story of how we got to where we’re at, all we see is unremarkable. Our day to day tasks, the services we provide, and the manner in which we live seem all seem very normal. Hardly the stuff of press releases or blog posts.

Of course your life seems normal! It’s your life!

The difficult choices you’ve made now seem like no-brainers. The lessons you’ve learned now seem like kids’ stuff. You do what you do with ease, a fair amount of practice, and some innate skill.

I hope, though, that it comes as no surprise that your customers don’t see you that way. They see you as a rock star glamor queen who lives a magical life of goals accomplished & dreams fulfilled.

It’s also worth noting here that they see none of the people you judge yourself against.

This isn’t a matter of trickery or chance. It comes from understanding that you have what others need. After all, that’s the very basis of your business. You provide a service or product that fulfills some need for your customer.

So how do you discover what’s truly noteworthy so that you can engage & delight your customers? How do you communicate your story to your customers in a way that they can relate to?

I asked Bernadette Jiwa, who specializes in helping businesses find their story:

Take a step back, walk in your client’s (or potential customer’s) shoes and anticipate how they are feeling. Then build your story and brand experience around that.

Often, we are so busy thinking like a business owner that we forget to think like a customer! Doh!

When was the last time you looked at your website, business card, or press release from a customer’s perspective? When was the last time you spent some time looking at yourself from the perspective of your best clients?

Get in the mind of one of your best customers and ask yourself:

  • What do I find intriguing?
  • What do I find compelling?
  • What do I aspire to?
  • What resonates with me? Makes me feel like she “gets it?”

Then come back to your business owner mind and ask yourself if you’re really communicating those answers to your customers. If you are finding limited success, it’s quite possible that some people are putting two + two together but that you can help many more people discover your story!

If that still leaves you a bit confused, I’m excited to say that I’ll be hosting a Q&A call with Bernadette Jiwa herself next week, Wednesday, March 23 at 8:30pm Eastern. Click here to register.

We’ll also be giving away TWO of Bernadette’s signature Brand Storming sessions to people who join us LIVE on the call. They’re worth $497 a piece. Yeah, you want that.

If you want a chance to ask real questions about your real story, win a killer Brand Storming session, and just absorb some great information on discovering the story of your business, register for this FREE call now.

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