What Works

I have a confession to make. This month, I committed to speaking up on Instagram Stories every day. I pledged to share something–not necessarily profound, not necessarily useful or valuable–just something. I didn’t follow through. In fact, as of the time of this recording, I’ve been hiding out for more than a week–not really publicly posting anything anywhere. What had been a consistent effort to creatively share my ideas, reflections, and stories has ground to a halt. Today, we’re talking about all the things that keep us from speaking up–and how we can work through them. This is far from the first time I’ve gone dark on social media. It’s the first thing to go when I start to feel overwhelmed and depressed. I’ve been fighting back a period of depression for over a year now and it’s just gotten to be too much. There is something different about going dark this time, though. So far, it’s only impacted social media. And, frankly, I don’t need to constantly post to social media to run my companies. What’s really different about how I’ve kept speaking up outside of social media is that systems and routines that I’ve put in place to help me maintain a consistent practice of using my voice and sharing my ideas. The What Works Weekly newsletter has still be going out every week. This podcast, of course, has still been produced every week. I’m still showing up to share and lead The What Works Network. My businesses can surviving without social media. They can’t survive without me speaking up. Twelve years into this small business leadership thing and I KNOW that my mental health impacts my ability to share. But it doesn’t have to stop me in my tracks. I can focus on systems that inspire me to share my thoughts and give me direction when I need it. I can commit to a sustainable pace for using my voice and pull back on any extra effort when it gets to be too much–without feeling bad about myself or my capacity. Speaking up for yourself and your business is no joke. Putting your ideas, stories, or information out there can be daunting. Any number of things might be going through your mind: Is this really helpful? Hasn’t this already been said a million times before? What if someone yells at me? Who am I to say this? What if they think I’m weird? Is anyone paying attention at all? What if it goes viral and I get inundated with replies? And it’s not just the head stuff that stops us! Sometimes the challenge is finding our people and speaking directly to them. Sometimes the obstacle is finding a message that makes a connection. Sometimes it’s the logistics or the technology that throw you for a loop. So many things can stand in the way of us speaking up for ourselves and our small businesses. Today, I’ve got 5 stories for you. Each story is from a small business owner who identified a hurdle they had to speaking up and found what worked for them to overcome it. You’ll hear from

In This Episode: * How Rebel Therapist podcast host Annie Schuessler found her voice as a podcaster—and how her show has evolved over time* How she plans her content for her podcast and selects the guests she’ll have on the show* Why she decided to start pitching other podcasts to have her on—and the process she uses to do it* The techniques Annie uses to break through the fear of asking to be on other podcasts The number one way I’ve built my audience might surprise you. It’s NOT through especially useful or creative content. It’s not through some top secret ad targeting strategy. It’s definitely not through social media. It’s not even through this podcast. The number one way I’ve built my audience is by borrowing other people’s audiences. When I had a craft and design blog, I borrowed other people’s audiences by doing extensive write ups on makers I loved—who then enthusiastically shared that write up with their audience. When I started doing more business coaching & education, I guest posted on big name online marketing sites and their readers followed the links back to my site. As time went on, I borrowed audiences by appearing on podcasts and speaking for free. And of course, I borrowed the audience at CreativeLive for years—which is a move I still benefit from to this day. There are other ways to grow an audience—things like search engine optimization, PR, and—of course—advertising. But even at the heart of these tactics is the strategy of borrowing audiences from other sources. Now, even though borrowing audiences is something that I know works for me, I all too often forget to build that work into my plans. During our last What Works Network virtual conference, sales strategist Allison Davis shared that it’s the only way she’s working to grow her audience. Sure, she has some social media presence but her core strategy is borrowing other people’s audiences. Once Allison shared that, it became a hot topic of conversation: how do you borrow someone’s audience? How do you get in touch with the people who have the right audience for you and your work? How do you make the most of these opportunities? Today, we’re answering a bunch of those questions with Annie Schuessler from Rebel Therapist. Annie helps therapists and other healers move their businesses beyond private practice. She has her own podcast—also called Rebel Therapist—and we talk about how hosting her show has helped to use her voice. But we also dive into how Annie has been borrowing other people’s audiences all year long through a podcast tour, a concerted effort to pitch other hosts and appear on other shows. Not only has her tour been successful—but it’s helped create incredible results in her business, like overselling her last Create Your Program group coaching offer. We talk about how Annie finds shows to pitch, the research she does to pitch them, how she tracks her pitching, and how she’s overcome the fear she first felt when getting started on this project. Now, let’s find out what works for Annie Schuessler! What Works Is Brought To You By ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * Why Jessica Williams created #jesspicks, the curated weekly newsletter for sidehustlers who love their day job* How each edition of the newsletter is structured* Why going “all in” has been the key to growing her subscriber list* What her weekly workflow looks like to put the newsletter together* How curating the newsletter has helped her to find her confidence as a writer When you think about someone sharing their message, you think about the writers, the speakers, the artists. You think about people who are creating original work. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to constantly be creating original work and finding something new to say. After all, that’s how we prove how valuable we are, right? But creating original work isn’t the only way to use your voice. Curators use their unique perspective and keen eye for connecting the dots to create value. They build and share their message by surfacing the work of others. They tell stories through the relationships between the pieces they choose to display side by side. I see my role as the host of this podcast as one of a curator. The way we choose the topics we’re going to cover, the conversations we’re going to showcase, and the small business owners we’re going to talk to is all an act of curation. I take a lot of pride in curating this show and thinking through how each theme relates to the next, how each conversation builds on the last, and how each guest is the opportunity to highlight a different story. I also send out a weekly newsletter where, yes, I do write an original little piece as a letter, but I also share a set of links that have caught my eye over the last week or so. It’s an opportunity for me to show my point of view by highlighting ideas and voices that don’t necessarily “make the rounds” in the small business space. By the way, if you don’t get What Works Weekly, can can subscribe by going to explorewhatworks.com/weekly I was inspired to add curation to my communication and marketing strategy by Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger and currently creating & curating at Unemployable. Brian started talking about curation versus creation as a way to share your message and make an impact in the summer of 2019. He said that he had started to elevate the role of editor over writer because while there is a surplus of good writing, there was a poverty of attention. In that way, curation does double duty. It’s not only a way to share your perspective with your audience, it’s a way to do them the service of wading through the sea of original works to deliver what’s important to them. I’m all in on curating. And I think it’s something that most small business owners should consider as a potential way to use their voice and highlight their perspective. So to take things really meta, as I was curating this month’s Speak Up theme, I knew I wanted to include a curator. Jessica Williams came to mind. Jessica is the curator behind #jesspicks, a weekly newsletter for side hustlers. Jessica is herself a side hustler, working during the day at &yet, ★ Support this podcast ★

I started my very first blog back on Xanga in 2003. I might be your internet grandma. I used my Xanga blog to share what I was thinking about my senior year of college and process a lot of the reading that I was doing about my field of study, contemporary and postmodern Christian theology. It was also full of personal updates and the musings of a 21-year-old young woman. Through my Xanga blog, I got to connect with people online. Some were old friends from high school. Others were strangers from the internet. It was exactly the kind of online social interaction that I loved as a hardcore introvert. Back when I was writing my Xanga blog, we were blissfully ignorant of the possibility that the companies that we used to facilitate this kind of online social interaction could conspire to use our data and online activity to manipulate us. All most of us saw was the possibility of a connected online community. I’m Tara McMullin and this is What Works, the show that takes you behind the scenes of how small business owners are building stronger businesses through uncompromising commitment and decisive action. My little Xanga blog didn’t last more than a year. But when I did find my way back to what was now being called social media, it was like rekindling lost love. I fell head over heels for sharing my experiences and opinions while meeting new people and cultivating new relationships online. I happily admit that I spent loads of time on social media connecting with people—and, in the process, connected my way to a large audience and plenty of authority. But then, things started to get a little rocky. I started playing to the audience instead of connecting with people. The updates and emails I shared were less about connecting and more about broadcasting. I stopped writing for one person at a time and started writing for thousands. These relationships that felt so natural and genuine started to feel strained. My interactions started to be less about connection and more about transaction. Over the last few years, I’ve been working on things. I’ve been focused on prioritizing connection again and sharing more naturally again, instead of trying to work the system and grow my audience. And I like it. I’m back to meeting new people, having loads of side conversations, and sharing without some grand plan. That leads me to today’s guest. Suzanne Chadwick is so good at showing up and connecting with people. In fact, she does it every week day morning—a habit we talk about during this conversation. Suz is a bold branding, business, and speaker coach who helps women create businesses that fit their lifestyle. Her coaching helps female entrepreneurs show up in bold ways and share their messages online and on stages. I invited Suz onto the show to talk about how she cultivates the confidence and go-getterness that exudes from the way she speaks up. And I expected to have a conversation about going big—and we did—but my big takeaway from this conversation is in how much she prioritizes the small ways she can connect with people, the little things she does to make people feel seen and included. So I hope you listen for that and consider how that can apply to the way you speak up and show up, too. Now, let’s find out what works for Suz Chadwick! ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * How Tell Me A Story founder Hillary Rea realized that she’d let her message get watered down* Why trying to please people who weren’t really her ideal clients contributed to losing track of her voice* The concrete steps she took to take a stand and show up more completely* What she’s still wrestling with as she deliberately speaks up in more potent and powerful ways To quote the great Lin-Manuel Miranda: If you stand for nothing, what will you fall for? Whether you’re a Hamilfan or not, you get the gist: you have to be clear on your values and what you believe or else you risk getting caught up in what others what you to believe or how they want you to be. This applies in life, in politics, and—of course—in business too. And today, more than ever, people expect businesses and their leaders to speak up, to share what they stand for, to claim what makes them different, and to tell their stories without hesitation or equivocation. So this month, we’re looking at different ways that small business owners take a stand, show up, and speak up. Speaking up is—for sure—one of the things that business owners must do decisively and consistently to build a stronger business. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to shout. You don’t have to plaster social media channels with your messages or barrage your potential customers with emails. It’s more about finding your voice, being willing to show up, and creating a connection with the people you want to reach. Sometimes that happens on a very small and powerful scale—other times, it happens on a much bigger scale. When I talk about “speaking up” here, what I’m not necessarily talking about is growing your audience or building a personal brand. Instead, I’m talking about the system you create that allows you to communicate clearly and effectively with the people who matter most to you. And to go back to that line from Hamilton: it’s about taking a stand so that you don’t fall for all the suggestions of how you “should” be presenting yourself or your message in order to get noticed. The more you understand your own voice and your unique communication style, the more effectively you can design a system for being heard—whether that’s in your marketing, in your team communication, or in your customer communications. So I have 4 stories for you this month: one about speaking with confidence on stage & off, one about podcasting, one about newsletters, and—today’s story—one about taking a stand and its ripple effects on a business. My guest today is Hillary Rea, the founder of Tell Me A Story. Hillary helps entrepreneurs, leaders, and change makers identify that personal narratives that create powerful communication. Now, you might think Hillary had this whole speaking up and taking a stand thing under control. She did, too. In fact, in episode 226, Hillary shared how she’s found the confidence to stand on stage and share vulnerable personal experiences through storytelling. But earlier this year, just after Covid-19 upended her business, Hillary realized she had let herself, her story, and her stand get watered down. She was trying to squeeze into a mold that she assumed other people wa... ★ Support this podcast ★

This is our 300th episode of What Works! To celebrate, What Works host Tara McMullin and top podcasters, Emily Thompson (Being Boss), Elsie Escobar (The Feed, She Podcasts), and Jessica Kupferman (She Podcasts) came together for a live podcast recording. We looked back at 2020 and shared what we’ve learned about ourselves, our shows, and our businesses. Thank you so much for sharing this journey with us over the last 5 years! *** Emily Thompson, host of Being Boss, is a long-time business coach and creative warrior, helping retailers, makers, coaches, and designers develop an online business model and grow their creative business. She is also the founder of Almanac Supply Co., a retail business that makes and curates products that help people connect with nature. Elsie Escobar, co-host of The Feed and She Podcasts, is a die-hard podcast junkie who lives, breathes and works the medium, and has since 2006. She’s worked with hundreds of podcasters, sharing tools for better production, educating them in the fast-moving podcasting space, as well as cultivating a strongly engaged community through The Feed: The Official Libsyn podcast which I both co-host and produce. Jessica Kupferman, co-host of She Podcasts, is a marketing and sales expert with a history of being both the devil’s advocate and the first person to give someone the benefit of the doubt. Along with Elsie, she’s on a mission to grow the number of successful woman-hosted podcasts, thereby giving light and voice to the millions of messages that need to be shared with the world. Tara McMullin, host of What Works, is building stronger small businesses through her podcast and The What Works Network. She’s also the co-founder of YellowHouse.Media, a full-service podcast production agency that helps entrepreneurs create standout podcasts that grow their businesses. ★ Support this podcast ★

Very few small business owners start out as confident sales people. In fact, selling is quite often a new business owner’s #1 fear. Many avoid selling. Some stumble through it. And still others look to leaders and sales trainers to learn their methods and duplicate their models. In that process, they learn what works… but they often also learn that “what works” doesn’t necessarily work for them. All this month, we’ve been examining sales and selling–asking “what works?” when it comes to asking someone to buy what we’re selling. First, I talked with Autumn Witt Boyd who shared how she realized that she’d taken the trend toward sales automation a little too far–and has since developed a hybrid process that’s high touch without overwhelming her. Then, I talked with Katie Hunt who shared how she had a fabulous new offer launch without spending tons of money on advertising or recruiting an army of affiliates. Last week, I shared my conversation with Kate Strathmann where we both shared our reflections on building less harmful sales systems–systems that are less manipulative, less urgent, and more in line with our values. This week, I’ve got 4 more stories to share with you from small business owners who have intentionally done things their own way when it comes to sales and selling. They’ve found what truly works for them–even if it bucks the prevailing wisdom or would make a bro marketing expert role his or her eyes. Before we get there, though… I wanted to share some questions you can use to examine your own sales process. First, I want to say that I don’t think learning someone else’s sales system is a bad thing. And I don’t think every effective sales system being taught is inherently manipulative or harmful. Even if you plan to find your own version of what works, learning about effective sales systems can help you get creative with the way you do want to go about selling your offers. When it goes wrong is when we don’t take the time to carefully examine and analyze what’s going on in a sales system that we’re learning and, instead, just naively follow the instructions. So these questions–which I formulated from the conversations we’ve had this month–can help you take a closer look at a sales system that you’ve learned or one you’ve created and make sure that it’s creating the experience you want your customers to have. The first question is: Does this sales process mimic the experience I want customers to have after they buy? Both Kate and Autumn talked about how they want to align what was special about the type of experience they offered with the way sales conversations actually went down. For Autumn, that meant incorporating more personalized, human conversations into what had become a really automated experience. For Kate, it meant making sure that the collaborative, co-creative experience she was building also carried over into the content and conversations she was having around her program. Before you decide on what your sales process should look like, ★ Support this podcast ★

This show is called What Works for a reason. Sometimes it’s a declaration: this is what worked for this small business. And often, it’s a question, “What works?” Today’s episode is very much a question, many questions, really: * What works when it comes to selling when you want to avoid manipulative or exploitative practices?* What works when your values conflict with many of the best practices of selling online but you still want people to buy your stuff?* What works when it comes to sales in a business that is actively anti-racist and anti-capitalist? And even more bluntly: Can you even sell things without causing harm or perpetuating harmful systems? My friend Kate Strathmann is the founder of Wanderwell, a bookkeeping and consulting firm that grows thriving businesses while investigating new models for being in business. Recently, Kate took a bit of a detour from how she’s used to building her business, which is 90% referral based and fueled by deep relationship- and community-building. She decided to offer a small group program called the Equitable Business Incubator as a way of exploring anti-capitalist business practices and how they apply to the small businesses we’re building. To fill the program, Kate need to sell differently. Which led her to asking the question: Can you even sell things as a anti-capitalist? While that might not be your specific question, I have a feeling that you too have wondering how you can effectively sell your offers without causing harm, perpetuating harmful systems, or damaging relationships. And that’s why I knew Kate and I needed to explore this topic on the show. This is a conversation about what a kinder, less harmful sales process could look like—and it probably contains more questions than answers. But I’m confident those questions can help you find the answers that are right for you and the sales system that you want to build to make your business stronger. We start out by defining what we’re really talking about when we talk about capitalism and anti-capitalism. Then, Kate shares how the Equitable Business Incubator came to be and how she ended up selling it. And then we dig into what makes many of the sales formulas and best practices being taught today problematic—and how to think differently to create your own alternative practices. Now, let’s take a look at what works for creating less harmful sales systems! What Works Is Brought To You By Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place: * Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand. Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level. ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * How Katie Hunt adapted her largely events-based business in the wake of Covid-19* Why a product she’d been working on since December 2019 was the key to serving her people in the most valuable way* How Katie adjusted the messaging and marketing campaign to reflect the current state of affairs* A complete breakdown of the social media posts and email messages that made her sales campaign a smash when it was time to launch There are a lot of misconceptions about what it takes to launch and sell a new online course or program. Heck, there are a lot of misconceptions about selling in general—but this is just one podcast episode. “Launching”—depending on when and where you started your small business—means many different things. I’ve talked to plenty of people who swear it’s not a launch if you don’t have a Facebook ad funnel. Others will swear it’s not a launch if there isn’t a 3-part video series to warm up your audience. Still others will swear it’s not a launch if you don’t have a list of 15,000 people to blast with 30 different emails. Launching a new online course or program has become so misunderstood and, simultaneously, blown out of proportion, that I often outlaw the use of the word! As my friend Amy Walsh once said, “Launching is for rockets.” Instead of launching, I plan—and talk about—sales campaigns. Today, we’re diving straight into an incredibly successful sales campaign to get the nuts and bolts of what worked. When the economy ground to a halt earlier this year, many small businesses were forced to think fast and make big changes on the fly. At this point, we’re probably all familiar with the local restaurant that figured out an ingenious takeout model or the local clothing store that created virtual shopping appointments or the local yoga studio that started sharing classes, workshops, and meditations online. And while many digital small business owners kept operating business as usual—or as usual as one can operate in a pandemic—there were a few groups that were deeply affected by the shutdowns. Two of those groups were small business owners running in-person events as a component of their otherwise online business and small business owners who depend on trade shows for the majority of their wholesale orders. Today’s guest is Katie Hunt—who is a member of the former group and serves the latter group. Katie is the founder of Proof To Product, which helps creative entrepreneurs run and grow thriving product-based businesses. She works with designers, illustrators, and artists to help them develop in-demand product lines and get them sold in stores all over the world. Not long after the pandemic threw her business and the industry she serves for a major loop, Katie and her team launched Proof To Product Labs to provide a completely digital, ongoing support opportunity for business owners when they needed it most. And that launch was a smash. Katie and I get into all of the nuts and bolts of how she adjusted the offer to meet the moment and how she warmed up her audience before the campaign, as well as the exact mix of emails, podcast ads, and social media content she used to sell the offer when it went live. We also talk about how she sees the sales system evolving in the future and how the offer has been received now that people are using it! Now, ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * How attorney Autumn Witt Boyd discovered that she’d over-automated the sales process for her law firm* The adjustments that she made to get her sales process back on track—and why she chose to put a human touch on it* What steps a potential new clients goes through in Autumn’s hybrid sales system* How her values are reflected in the way her business does sales now We all have a story about a bad salesperson. Ask my husband about buying a car and he’ll tell you about the time he and his ex-wife got trapped in a user car lot when they refused to make an offer on a car that was well over their budget. It’s cliche—but true. If this is the kind of story you think about when you think about sales, it’s no wonder that selling your own products or services would be a challenge. But this is not what your sales system needs to look like to be effective. You can be a kind, generous, and human sales person and be incredibly effective. This month, we’re talking sales. We’re going to get into the human side of sales in a minute or two. But first, I think we need to make an important distinction here: marketing is not sales. Sales is not marketing. Can there be overlap? Sure. Does one often support the other? You bet. But marketing and sales are not the same thing. In fact, an intentional, proven sales system is often one of the missing pieces of a business that almost works—but isn’t quite there. You can’t market your butt off and expect it to just materialize into purchases—you have to sell. So then, what is sales? Sales is the system that presents the offer, answers any questions or objections, and then makes the ask and closes the deal. Sales tends to happen a little more behind the scenes—which is why it’s one of the more misunderstood parts of running a small business. It often happens in an email, on the phone, or even in person. Our goal for this series on sales is to demystify the process and give you a look at what really works when it comes to selling your service, your program, or your product. We’re even going to take a look at sales through a feminist or anti-capitalist lens. To kick things off, I thought it was fitting to talk with a lawyer—another profession known for their sales techniques… about how she moved away from impersonal, automated sales processes and into a more human way of selling—and why that generated better results for her firm. Today, I’m talking with my friend Autumn Witt Boyd, the founder of The AWB Firm, which specializes in helping online business owners protect what they’ve built. Autumn and I talk about why she started tinkering with her sales process in the first place, the speed bumps she experienced along the way, why her sales process ended up too automated, and how she’s taken a more human approach and actually gotten much better results. Now, let’s find out what works for Autumn Witt Boyd! What Works Is Brought To You By Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, ★ Support this podcast ★