What Works

I avoided confronting my mindset as a business owner for years. I figured that, if I got the numbers and the strategy right, I could grow my business without worrying about my own personal development or leadership. But the more I looked around, the more I realized that the entrepreneurs who were excelling in ways I wanted to excel thought differently than I did. They approached their systems, customers, and identity in a way that felt unfamiliar. After a good long while and plenty of false starts, I realized that mindset was every bit as important to the success of a business as strategy and numbers. I’ve been hosting the What Works podcast for over 3 years now and I’ve interviewed over 150 small business owners in my quest to find out what’s working—and what’s not—to grow and manage a business today. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege to ask creatives, coaches, tech entrepreneurs, educators, writers, and designers how they approach their businesses. Sure, they’ve given me the nitty-gritty on how things work and why they do things the way they do. But they’ve also given me—and you, our listeners—a front-row seat to how they think. To grow our businesses, the way we think about our businesses needs to grow and evolve, too. Sure, the business owners I’ve interviewed do things very differently. I’ve talked to people who sell high-end services and those who sell accessible physical goods. I’ve talked to people who are building big teams and those who are going it solo. However, I’ve noticed that the most successful among them have a similar mindset about key aspects of their businesses. They think pretty similarly about how they tackle problems and create value. But they didn’t start out thinking that way. Their mindsets have evolved over time. Many have even gone through similar identity crises, mindset shifts, and vision overhauls—all because the way they were thinking about their businesses subtly shifted. These subtle mindset shifts are—as I see it—a key missing piece for many small business owners confused about why their businesses aren’t growing. I wanted a way to document the patterns and changes I saw among our guests here at What Works. So over the last 6 weeks, I wrote a small book called, Subtle: The Small Shifts That Lead To Big Results. Today’s special episode of What Works is one of my favorite chapters from the book: the shift from Special Snowflake to Special Sauce. Be sure to listen if you have a hunch that the idea “only you can do what you do” is holding your business back from greater success. And, if you want to grab a copy of the whole book (including audio version) for yourself, click here! ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * Why speaker, author, and publicist Dana Kaye prefers intentional slow growth in business — and how she manages her company’s growth today * How growing too fast can negatively impact you, your clients, and your business — and, on the contrary, how growing more intentionally can change everything for the better * How Dana uses strategic partnerships to grow her business and serve her clients in an out-of-the-box way * How she collaborates with other service providers to serve clients in an organized and comprehensive way * Why she schedules in lunch dates in person (or on Zoom) every week — and the importance of sending out thank you notes Dana Kaye does things differently. She won’t give you the same run-of-the-mill advice that other publicists will… and that not only helps her company grow, it also helps her clients reach new heights. In this episode of What Works, Dana describes how partnerships lead to smart and intentional growth. She also discusses how important networking and expressing gratitude is for small (and big) business. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Using partnerships to grow your business “The reason I was able to grow my PR company so quickly was because I was bringing something to the table that the publishers weren’t. I was implementing out of the box strategies to promote books where the publishers weren’t.” — Dana Kaye Dana started her book PR business in 2009 at a time when “book sections were dying and newspapers were going under.” How do you help authors stand out when people seemingly aren’t buying books (or maybe not even reading) anymore? That’s precisely the question that Dana asked herself — and realized that the only way to make it work was by thinking outside of the box. One of those ways was partnering with companies that shared something with her clients. For example, her first client Jamie Freveletti wrote international thrillers about an ultramarathon runner. “My first thought was to partner with a running company to sponsor her book trailer.” And that’s exactly what happened — and more. Dana secured a partnership with specialty athletic wear company Sugoi. Not only did they sponsor the book trailer as hoped (they even sent Jamie some of their clothes to wear in it!), they went even further. They included the book in their newsletter and on their website and co-sponsored in-store book tour events. Overall, it was a win-win for both Jaime and Sugoi: they both got in front of a new audience and grew brand awareness for their products. On top of it all? It was fun! Curious if you should pursue a partnership? Dana created a sweet quiz you can use to vet any opportunity or idea. Intentionally growing slow “By slowing down and focusing on the types of clients that you want to work with on the projects and services you really want to offer, you’re going to offer a higher level of customer service, be overall better at your job, and I predict be happier and less stressed, which we all want.” — Dana Kaye One of the loudest entrepreneurship stories you hear is on hustling and growing your business fast. “I see a lot of entrepreneurs jumping in and trying to scale really fast,” says Dana. “They see one thing that’s working and try to do it 10x that.” “But more money, more problems,” she adds. “Are you really equipped to deal with those problems?” And the answer is usually no. ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * Why Natalie decided to pursue a personal brand under her name — and why she decided to keep The Suitcase Entrepreneur, too. * What Natalie’s personal brand looks like from the inside out — and why she’s considering a done-for-you offering as part of her services * What she learned from taking a 3-month sabbatical to figure out her next moves — and how Natalie decided to move back to her native New Zealand * How Natalie uses an “idea journal” to quickly document new project ideas before committing to them. Plus, a quick look into how she makes decisions for her life and business so that they align with her purpose, vision, and goals. Natalie Sisson spent the better part of six years working remotely and traveling around the world. And while many of you likely know her as the Suitcase Entrepreneur, she’s set her bags down to make a home in her native New Zealand (puppy and partner included!). Although life’s changed quite a bit for her from her working-and-traveling-the-world-days, Natalie’s still teaching business owners how to create a more sustainable and profitable business using smart systems. Her latest feat? Launching the brand new book, The Freedom Plan. Through it’s pages, Natalie teaches entrepreneurs how to reclaim their time, streamline their business, and be more profitable while living your ideal lifestyle and feeling on purpose. Check out this episode to hear more from Natalie about shifting her work away from the Suitcase Entrepreneur and to her personal brand under her name, why implementing systems can completely change the way you do business, and so much more. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Using a personal brand to better serve your clients “I’m helping people create a more streamlined business that gives them freedom. I might say: hey, this is Natalie and this is how I want to help you. But it’s not about me. This is not a blog about following my journey or what I’m doing right now — although there’s an element of that that people want to learn from.” — Natalie Sisson Even though Natalie works under her name now rather than the Suitcase Entrepreneur, it’s really not about her. “It’s about you and what you can accomplish and how I can help you accomplish that thing,” Natalie says. The biggest difference between her personal brand and the Suitcase Entrepreneur? Now she teaches people how to implement the systems and tools that she’s used over the years to grow her business. It’s a lot less about Natalie personally and more about how she can serve her clients with what she knows. Implementing systems and hiring to optimize the work, save time, and spend more time doing what you’re good at “I’ve noticed that when I’m working I’m expanding my time to fit the work; I can actually do it in a lot less time than I realize because I’ve created good systems and because I’ve created a little virtual team around the world. A lot of the stuff that I do is the strategy and the content creation and the curriculum creation for the programs and offerings that I have.” — Natalie Sisson Right now, Natalie’s challenging herself to work one single hour a week — just to see if she can based on the systems she has in place. Part of her ability to optimize her work is through developing efficient systems. She also hires out some of the work — but only did so once the systems were strongly in place. Natalie works with a part-time virtual assistant “who knows my systems and business inside and out.”  Her V.A. ★ Support this podcast ★

What would 11-star service look like? That’s the question that Brian Chesky asked himself to figure out how he and his team at Airbnb needed support hosts to help everyone involved have an exceptional experience. I first heard this idea of 11-star service during Brian’s interview with Reid Hoffman on the first episode of Masters of Scale. The idea is that you want to create the capacity for these exceptional customer experiences to happen on a regular basis. The more regularly they happen, the more people come back and buy again–and the more they tell their friends. Of course, creating this 11-star service doesn’t just produce business results. It produces human results. Someone who takes the time to create an 11-star service isn’t just concerned with the bottom line, they are truly invested in showing genuine gratitude to the person they’re doing business with. This month at CoCommercial, we’re talking about Gratitude and how it shapes the way we do business. What does authentic, meaningful gratitude look like? How are small business owners showing their customers this gratitude and creating exceptional customer experiences on a regular basis? So we asked a few of our members: what do you do to ensure your customers know you’re grateful? In talking with 5 of these members we noticed a pattern in their responses. Gratitude wasn’t about a thank you gift or note. It wasn’t something that happened once at the end of an engagement. It wasn’t even a bonus surprise that got thrown in as a special value-add. These are the themes being explored in the conversations we’ve been having all month long with our CoCommercial community. These business owners have operationalized gratitude into the very bones of their businesses. It’s how they do business. They are integrating gratitude into every step of the customer experience. From the very beginning, they’re connecting the customer’s experience to the mission of the company. They are making sure that their customer feels like more than a transaction. For them, gratitude is the whole customer experience.  Prefer to read? No problem. Find the entire episode in article form by clicking here. This episode features Lacy Boggs, Nicole Lewis-Keeber, Bonnie Gillespie, Anna Laman, and Kristen Runvik.  ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * How Kristen Runvik is scheduling her life, job, and business to make sure she’s spending her time the way she wants to * How she divides her time to find  balance between her side hustle with her day job * What she does to get the most out of Instagram marketing without letting it consume her * How Kristen takes what she has learned at in-person events online More than 44 million Americans have a side hustle to earn extra money for living expenses, savings, and investments. But having a side hustle doesn’t necessarily mean you have a plan for quitting your job and going full-time with your business. In this week’s episode of What Works, Lagom Body Co founder Kristen Runvik shares with us how she divides her time between life, job, and business, how she finds new customers without spending all of her time marketing, why she has a love/hate relationship with Instagram, and more. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Marketing your business without marketing your life away “I have this notion of being anti-hustle. I don’t want to be working 50 to 60 hours a week. I want to be really intentional about the way I am approaching my business and my work.” — Kristen Runvik Kristen Runvik is a holistic clinical herbalist and the founder of Lagom Body Co. And… she’s also our Member Experience Specialist at CoCommercial. She teaches workshops on holistic seasonal health and creates nature-based skincare products that nourish the skin and spirit. She does all this while going to herbalism school. Some people might think that this is insane. But Kristen approaches things differently. She intentionally creates space for the grounding self-care that makes working full time and growing business on the side possible. She does all this by avoiding the bad habits that are prevalent in the content marketing world and maintaining healthy boundaries. Whether she is working from home, from the coffee shop, or the top of a mountain, she is balancing strategic thinking with the creative process. She sets up operations aspects so that she can keep the product in front of the right people, in a way that is consistent, comfortable, and meaningful. In this way, Kristen can maintain her passion for helping women optimize their health and live their purpose. Using Instagram to drive sales “I have a love/hate relationship with Instagram but I realized when people don’t see my content and they don’t see my stories they’re not clicking over to my profile and then over to my website.” — Kristen Runvik Kristen, like many of us, hates feeling like she has to be on social media 24/7. She experimented with going off of social media to see what would happen.  When retail sales completely dropped off, she realized how much Instagram was sending customers back  to her website. Kristen came back to Instagram in a healthier way, with more intention behind her process. Instagram is now where some of her most engaged customers are coming from. Translating in-person event success to online events “An interesting thing about in person events is that you never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes events are really busy and you make no money and sometimes they’re dead and you still make money. You just never really know is going to happen.” — Kristen Runvik Kristen does a couple of different types of in-person events. She sets up a table and gets face to face with a potential customer at vending events. She also  gets direct engagement with a target audience at curated events that that often include an educational element. While she has love for both, for her, ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * Who is succeeding with email marketing today–and how they think about their email lists differently * How ConvertKit makes it easy to test ideas and create a new product * Why simplicity is winning when it comes to email–and how that means you can spend less time marketing * How ConvertKit bridges the gap between the business just setting out and the more mature business with more sophisticated needs * Plus, a special trial offer–first month free! Despite the annual warnings that email marketing is losing its effectiveness, email continues to be a top sales driver across industries and business models. Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone uses email to drive sales the same way they did 5 years ago or that they’re using the same strategy as the business next door. How are the leading businesses using email marketing in the current environment? Isa Adney, ConvertKit’s resident educator & webinar host, has her finger on the pulse of email marketing today and shares a variety of examples of how business owners are using email marketing to their advantage—without letting consume your every waking hour. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Breaking through the email noise “The real magic to me is the person behind the email and how much they care. Those are the people who cut through the noise.” –Isa Adney Isa shared that the small business owners she sees having the most success with email marketing are those who prioritize serving or teaching over selling or marketing. They’re creators, action-takers, educators, and professionals who really care and make an effort to show that with every email they send. That means the most successful emails are often the simplest. They share a personal thought, helpful idea, or other valuable tidbits. Despite being a fast-growing company, ConvertKit is no exception in prioritizing serving and teaching. In addition to their blog and weekly workshops, ConvertKit offers courses on everything from setting up your first landing page, to building up a consistent process of communicating with your list, to advanced execution of your email marketing strategy. Your email list as more than just a number “Our most successful customers are the people who don’t see their list as a number.” — Isa Adney Isa subscribes to hundreds of newsletters from ConvertKit customers to keep up with trends in email marketing. She’s noticed that the most successful email marketers are those who don’t see each email on their list as a conquest to celebrate but, instead, as people. Because they value the people on their lists as people, these email marketers aren’t just broadcasting. They’re curious about the stories behind the people and they start conversations to find out more. Email marketing strategy can evolve Isa had plenty of examples of small business owners who have leveled up their email marketing execution little by little. Instead of trying to do #allthethings, business owners like Abbey Ashley at The Virtual Savvy, Megan Martin at Megan Martin Creative, and artist Amira Rahim have each evolved their approaches to email marketing as their businesses have matured. Some make use of automation, some use Convertkit’s purchases integration, some grow through opt-in incentives (lead magnets). What they all have in common is finding an email marketing strategy that works for them–whether it’s currently trending or not. Give ConvertKit a try ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * Why Jason Van Orden ultimately left the business he ran for ten years and how taking a sabbatical helped him get to the heart of why he felt so discontent and uninspired * The identity crisis Jason experienced as he shifted from being known as the founder of Internet Business Mastery to being a consultant * How Jason realized that his unique genius comes out when he’s in a room full of people — not teaching online courses without a real-time feedback loop * Plus, a look at Jason’s quick reference guide, a document that reminds him of who he is when he’s at his best Jason Van Orden founded Internet Business Mastery ten years ago — and over the last decade, he successfully grew it into a well-known resource for starting an online business. Yet, as the business boomed, Jason started to feel more and more discontent with his work, especially during the last couple years. Through scaling the business and automating it, Jason lost connection with his creativity and passion. That’s when he decided to take a break and to ultimately start a brand new business from a different angle and doing something completely different. In this week’s episode of What Works, Jason shares what starting a new business looks like after being known for another one — and how he reignited his passion for his work and business. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Curiosity as the antidote to discontent in business “I could see that I hadn’t been following my curiosity anymore, hadn’t been experimenting, hadn’t been trying new things, hadn’t been as interactive and connecting with my audience because I’d been making things more and more hands-off. These were all the little things that were adding up to not providing me the energy that it used to.” — Jason Van Orden After a decade in business, Jason started to feel the inklings of discontent. Where had his creativity gone? Where was the passion? It started to wane so he decided to do something to open himself up to new possibilities. With prompting from his wife, he took a sabbatical from his business. “At first, I thought all I needed was just a sabbatical from my business to figure out how to reinvent the business I already had to be fulfilling for me once again.” But it wasn’t an overnight aha moment or quick change. “I started following my curiosity and it took a good couple years of following that to get to the heart of what needed to change and what the next evolution looked like for me.” After some time, Jason realized that what he needed was much more than a shift within his current business. It was time for something bigger — something different — than that. Ultimately, Jason realized that he was ready to collaborate with other people and with a completely different audience so he decided to shift into business strategy, coaching, workshop facilitating, and mentorship. Uncovering your unique genius “I haven’t made a digital course in a few years now. Everything’s been geared more towards facilitation and the group workshop framework over formula teaching and how-to. That’s where I create my greatest value and find that people enjoy — and benefit from — what I do.” — Jason Van Orden Your unique genius is usually something you find incredibly easy that your clients don’t want to do or can’t do. For example, Jason’s unique genius is solving problems in a creative way that provided results for his clients. As Jason says, it seemed to natural to look at problems in a certain way — a way that would provide the client with a level of confiden... ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * Why Elena and Catherine approached their second pregnancies different from their first — and how that impacts their work at StoryMine * How the cofounders approached their dual pregnancies as an opportunity to implement systems and create a more efficient business model that worked for their ideal way of partnering with clients * How they use content marketing to educate and inform potential clients about their work — and why that’s so helpful for When Elena Rue was pregnant with her first child, she didn’t meet with leads in person once she started showing. “I didn’t want them to assume that’s going to change StoryMine,” she says. Which, of course, it didn’t. Instead, it altered her perspective on running a creative business as a parent — for the better. Now, as Elena and StoryMine’s cofounder Catherine Orr navigate their second pregnancies — this time, together — they’re approaching it as a “positive disruption” to their business and using it as a catalyst for improvements from hiring to operations. Hear all about it in this week’s episode of What Works. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Creating a pregnancy announcement strategy that aligned with their brand (and personal) values “Us feeling like we’re not being authentic goes completely against the work that we do: sharing true stories and the power of how having people talk about what’s actually real and actually true can move people much more than having scripted talking heads talking about why your organization does this great work.” — Catherine Orr Both Catherine and Elena frame their dual pregnancies as a positive disruption to their business. They wanted to share the news with their clients in an authentic way while also ensuring they knew the work would still get done. Knowing there was a limited window before Catherine and Elena went on parental leave also provided an opportunity to plant seeds about their upcoming availability. In terms of their announcement strategy, Catherine and Elena wanted to approach it in a transparent way so that it aligned with how they roll in their business. This time, they started by telling their past and present clients first, then announcing it through their email newsletter. They even made an announcement video, obviously filmed and edited by them, in their StoryMine way. Using their pregnancies as an opportunity to implement necessary systems and hire team members “This time around we aren’t just closing our eyes and crossing our fingers. We’re taking way more control over it and we have the confidence to say that yes we can do this and knowing there’s another side. .” — Elena Rue During the first pregnancy, Elena says they were just “crossing fingers and hoping it works.” In the second pregnancy, especially because Elena and Catherine were pregnant at the same time, they decided to use it as an opportunity to increase operational efficiency. For example, they wanted to work with clients earlier in the process — six to eight months in advance — so that they aren’t in a rush to get the work done. “We really started systematizing the work that we do,” says Catherine. “We have a process and we’ve developed a unique method of the type of story that we do.” In addition to operational improvements, the pair used the experience to hire consistent support rather than project-based contracts. While they still bring on people per project, depending on when and where it’s happening, they really needed someone to thread together everything and strengthen the business backbone. “We’re seizing on this opportunity and this real sense o... ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * Why Sarah decided to offer her online course Bank Boost in a live setting using weekly emails and live Q and A sessions * The values and psychology behind her product pricing and how she markets the live courses in a low-key way without webinars * Why she goes offline for a couple days at a time to work on content — and how that frees up the rest of her time to work with clients and so much more * How she plans to market her live courses in the future * What Sarah’s different streams of income look like Sarah Von Bargen writes and teaches about “the space where money and happiness meet.” In this episode of What Works, Sarah walks us through her decision-making process to transform one of her popular eBooks into an online course and everything else that goes into promoting and running it. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Why take things live? “It’s a values-based thing. It doesn’t feel good to me to take hundreds of dollars from someone and then they don’t use the thing that I sold them. I believe in the work that I do, I believe in my course, and I know that if they did the course, it would be life-changing. But if I can make some tweaks on my end, and help them get to the place that they want to go, why wouldn’t I?” — Sarah Von Bargen Why did Bank Boost go from an eBook to an online class? Well, Sarah wanted to create an opportunity for her audience to not only benefit from the information — but to work through it along with a community of like-minded people going through the same thing. While small business owners might shy away from turning a DIY experience, like working through an eBook, into a live curated one for their customers or clients, Sarah says that it’s not that much extra work. When the course is running live, Sarah spends about 20 minutes engaging and liking posts while her assistant answers questions. When she and her assistant aren’t chiming in, the community members step up to the plate every time. “The community that I’ve worked really hard to create is incredibly supportive,” says Sarah. “If somebody posts something in the Facebook group asking a question, 9 times out of 10, I don’t even need to be the one to weigh in and answer it because everybody is so excited to share their insights and advice.” Marketing live online courses “Because of the price point and because it’s such an easy yes, I do not do any webinars. I know when I’m going launch and the 2-3 weeks leading up to it I write blog posts that touch on the topic of finances. Then I make sure to include at the top that Bank Boost is opening again and to get on the wait list.” — Sarah Von Bargen The Bank Boost online course costs $35. Yep, that’s it. As Sarah declares on the sales page: “That’s less than most impulse purchases at Target. I didn’t want you to go into debt in order to learn how to save money!” Awesome. Because the price is a no-brainer, Sarah skips the webinars. Instead, she focuses on sharing in Instagram Stories, in her free Facebook group, and in her weekly Sunday link round-up.  She also sends emails to her list — and particularly any subscriber who joined by way of a finance opt-in. To promote the course, she also updates her website banners and popups to promote it and her Facebook header. Then, once the course is open, she sents out an email to the waitlist. Listen to this episode to hear more from Sarah Von Bargen on how to promote an online course, pricing your products, and how to make time for content writing. ★ Support this podcast ★

Underneath their ambitious and confident facades, small business owners experience quite a bit of fear. Since our goal is to bring you honest conversations about what it really takes to run a small business, we thought it was high time to talk about the fears we all face on a daily basis. We spoke to 11 small business owners and several themes emerged. These themes were echoed in the conversations we’ve been having about fear all month long with our CoCommercial community. Prefer to read? No problem. Find the entire episode in article form by clicking here. In this episode, we explore the fear of judgment, the fear of visibility, the fear of not being good enough, the fear of not being worthy, and the fear of giving up control. Each entrepreneur we talked to spotted these fears in different scenarios, things like public speaking, pricing their work, or pivoting a business model. But one thing remained constant: Their fears never really subsided.  Instead, they decided to focus on taking action—and enjoying the results—instead of dwelling on the fear itself. Maybe you too share the fears that these small business owners face. Maybe your fear or anxiety is fueled by other concerns. As this episode unfolds, I challenge you to find some awareness of the fear you’re dealing with right now. Where does it come from? How is it impacting your day-to-day actions? How does it affect the way you set goals or make decisions? And… What are you going to do about it? This episode features: Jessica Abel, Lou Blaser, Dr. Michelle Mazur, Stephanie Stiavetti, Mark Maya, Vanessa Ragains, Nat Couropmitree, Tzaddi Gordon, Jeff Tyack, Jennyann Carthern, and Sarah Li Cain. For more honest conversations about growing, running, and managing a small business, become a part of the CoCommercial small business network. ★ Support this podcast ★