If you’re anything like me...or if you're just human...you have faced your share of challenges and fears in the process of growing your own business. That might not be so bad, if we could all solve those challenges by simply trading stories. But no two people's challenges and fears are alike!The reason our challenges are so unique is because our minds are. Unique, that is. Struggles and fears originate in your brain, and how it processes whatever you're dealing with, from one day to the next.That's why one day you can be flying high, confident and on top of your game, and the next day you're sunk into despair, wondering how you got into this mess and whether it's too late to get out.As I've said before, the real key to every aspect of growing your business is CONFIDENCE. And we all need a little help with confidence sometimes.That's what today's post is all about--getting your head "unstuck," learning how to move forward with purpose even when you're struggling, and using each day to take the action you want.That's why I invited my personal business coach Todd Herman to join me in today's podcast episode. He's a bit of a legend when it comes to performance mentality; big-deal people come to him for help with achieving mastery and improving performance. I'm talking Olympic athletes, corporate billionaires, members of international royalty...plus thousands of online entrepreneurs just like me.Todd is all about action, productivity and results…which is exactly what I need for my business right now. To put it simply, he helps people perform so that their vision and what they do matches up.I have to tell you, this Q&A with Todd is a landmark episode for me. Lots of listeners sent in their questions about improving performance for Todd to answer right here on the show. His answers will blow you away; in fact, even my editor told me that this is the most insightful podcast episode I'd ever done.Honestly, there's just too much great stuff to list in a single blog post, so why don't you click the play button at the top of the post to listen right now? Trust me--this is stuff you're going to want to hear.Also, I'm offering as today's "freebie" a special task-tracker that Todd gave me to use as part of improving my professional performance and guide my daily actions. It's called an Entrepreneurial Scorecard, and it's a simple, one-sheet tool that has been rocking my world ever since I started using it.You can get the Entrepreneurial Scorecard for free by clicking here.EPISODE FREEBIE Click Here to Get the Entrepreneurial Scorecard FREE DOWNLOADNo matter where your business lies within the growth process, Todd's specific, detailed insights are going to help you achieve mastery and gain confidence...every single day you sit down to work.As I mentioned, the Entrepreneurial Scorecard is all about helping your goals gain traction each day. Download this valuable freebie by clicking here. The Entrepreneurial Scorecard is going to help you identify where you are spending time wisely and not so wisely, along with the areas you should be leveraging for maximum return on your effort.EPISODE FREEBIE Click Here to Get the Entrepreneurial Scorecard FREE DOWNLOAD

As a kid, I loved the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book series. It featured a magical and resourceful lady who lived with all her children in an upside down house. When money was tight for Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, she would send all of her kids through the house to find hidden treasures.That story stuck with me from the moment I read it. As a kid, I felt ready for any moment when money came up short—I’d just go on a treasure hunt! Does it surprise you to learn that my perspective hasn’t changed, even now that I’m an adult? What's more, I no longer wait for the “running out of money” moment before I set out on a treasure hunt. Not when I have a five-step treasure map that leads me right to the gold.As an entrepreneur, there are going to be times when cash is tight. It’s natural for you to feel the squeeze when you’re just starting out. Even after your business has liftoff, you might feel strapped from time to time. Or maybe you are looking at investing in some kind of new business tool or business opportunity and you need a little cash before you do so.Running your business means living through cycles of financial growth and…dormancy, shall we say? If that’s where you find yourself now, these hidden money opportunities will definitely speak to you. I’m going to reveal five very specific hidden money opportunities that I’ve used in my own business to bring quicker cash flow.The key to a good treasure hunt is knowing you have gold hiding somewhere. And you do! Let’s go on a treasure hunt together, and find the places where your gold is hiding.Opportunity #1: Finish Your Online Training ProgramOpportunity #2: Do a Mini-Promotion and Make an OfferOpportunity #3: Creating a Four-Part Email Sequence That Leads to an Offer Opportunity #4: Offering Your Services to Your AudienceOpportunity #5: Becoming an Affiliate to Somebody Else’s Program or ProductThree tips for smart affiliate marketing:1. Believe in it.You have to have used the program or product you’re helping to market. You must know that it works, have your own results that you can talk about, and be so excited to sing its praises. You know you’ve made a good affiliate marketing partnership or connection when you tell everybody about it even if you’re not going to get money for it.2. Build a funnel with your affiliate.Webinars, four-part email sequences, and mini trainings all work for this. For example, if you click here, you’ll find an affiliate promotion that I did a training for. I literally walk you through how to use Lead Pages. For B School, I have an entire B School bonus experience: five bonuses you can’t get anywhere else, including the live two-day event, including a special Facebook ads program, including my new webinar program that’s not even out yet. You only get this stuff in B School when you use my affiliate link.3. Read this articleMy good friend, Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income, wrote a post on his blog “Smart Passive Income” called Five Ways to Unbox the Mystery and Increase your Affiliate Income. It’s a really smart strategy for affiliate marketing, especially for those just starting out. Definitely check that out, along with his other great article, How to Stop Hoping and Start Earning.EPISODE FREEBIE Get "A Course Creation Starter's Guide" FREE DOWNLOADMake sure to listen to the entire episode for more tips and personal insights from my experience in hunting out hidden money opportunities.And don't forget to download this week's valuable freebie, "A Course Creation Starter's Guide" for creating your own online training programs. Click here to download it now.

This post introduces a new series designed to help you establish a blueprint for achieving your entrepreneurial dreams. The series covers the three stages of business development. In Stage 1, "Start Up," you'll be testing the waters, requiring grit, hustle, and flexibility. It's a phase of embracing trial and error and focusing on mindset and offering free services to gain experience and build social proof. Stage 2, "Monetization," involves streamlining product offerings and learning to delegate. It's a stage of growth, understanding your sweet spot, and refining your business. In Stage 3, "Expansion," you have financial and creative freedom, but it's important to stay true to your vision and listen to your intuition as new opportunities arise. You can always find yourself circling through these stages on your entrepreneurial journey. For more insights and detailed information on these stages, access the free training series provided in the post. Don't miss the full episode for a deeper dive into the topic.

This episode emphasizes the importance of a blog in developing and maintaining brand loyalty. It discusses how your blog can be a living record of your brand's journey and offers tips for enhancing your blog's effectiveness. It features insights from master blogger Mike Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner. Stelzner shares strategies for choosing content, engaging writers, and tracking traffic. He advocates for sending regular emails to keep readers engaged and highlights the significance of sharing-worthy content. It also delves into the role of copy editors and graphic designers in creating high-quality content. It encourages readers to download a free guide on setting up Open Graph to maximize social media visibility. Finally, the article mentions the annual Social Media Marketing World event and the benefits of attending or accessing session recordings.

Crafting effective email subject lines is crucial for successful online marketing. The podcast discusses various strategies including focusing on benefits, being specific, getting relevant, making it personal, and calling out a problem. The importance of understanding the audience and using informative, location-specific subject lines is emphasized. Personalized subject lines that reference timing, specific events, and trends are also discussed as effective ways to engage the ideal audience.

Discover the power of email lists for online marketing. Quotes from successful marketers highlight its importance. Tips on building a quality list and engaging with your audience. Maximize your email service provider for business success. Understand your provider and create multiple lead opportunities.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we are going to dive into a new way of goal-setting and business planning.Now if you follow my content, you already know that I am a bit of a fanatic when it comes to planning for the New Year.I love it! I love new beginnings. I love looking back on the year, examining what worked and what did not work and then building something new or improved from there. I am going to cover 3 Lessons from this year that I am taking into the New Year. Some of them were easy lessons to learn, some not so easy.So let’s go ahead and dive in!Lesson #1: If you don’t build in the margin now, you will struggle to find it all year.Margin is all about finding time to breath, to be creative, and taking time away from the computer to recharge. Margin allows you to be better when you return and dive into your big projects. Finding margin is easier said than done and in this episode we are going to talk about ways to make it actually happen! In this lesson I will also share with you how you can use an at-a-glance wall calendar to see the pockets of margin in advance.Lesson #2: Build a team around your core skills.We all know that building a team is crucial for longterm success. In this lesson I suggest a different way to approach your next hiring decision - one that will help you do more of what you love. Building your team is one of the most important steps you may take in the new year - this lesson will help you do it better.Lesson #3: Add some soul to your goal-setting experience.I realized that goals without the "why" are empty promises, meaningless in fact. They can quickly deplete your energy, make you feel unproductive, create massive overwhelm and suck the creativity right out of you. Who wants to feel like that? In 2015, I am changing things up - I am approaching this whole goal-setting thing differently and starting with the WHY.These 3 lessons are exactly why I am so passionate about helping you change your goal-setting experience. I want your new goals to move you forward, invite in new opportunities and make you feel fully alive. In my journey to a more meaningful goal-setting experience, I was introduced to Michael Hyatt’s goal setting philosophy.He also believes in starting with the WHY, getting to the root of what we really want and focusing on what matters most.Right now and for the next week or so, Michael will be releasing a video series on goal-setting - it’s totally free and 100% aligned with creating a more powerful goal-setting experience.I encourage you to check it out! He put a lot of effort and time in this series and it shows. It’s quality stuff.You can check out his free goal setting trainings at www.AmyPorterfield.com/Goals but only for a very short time, so don’t wait to check it out!Key Takeaways:The three lessons I learned this year that you too can apply to your planning process as you get ready for the new year.#1: Build margin into your year IN ADVANCE. Don’t wait to find pockets of time that you can take off - be intentional about this time and protect it with your life.#2: Get strategic about your hiring plans and build a team around your SKILL SETS - find that one person or the people that will accentuate your skill sets and talents.#3: Create goals with more meaning. Specifically, identify the WHY before you set your big goals for the new year. Don’t set any goals that you don’t identify WHY you really want it.

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interview my new friend, Chalene Johnson. Chalene is a world renowned multi-passionate entrepreneur that has built and sold several multimillion dollar health and fitness brands. You might recognize her name from her top selling Beach Body Workout DVD programs. Chalene is currently the founder and CEO of a business and lifestyle coaching company called Team Johnson, where she has taught her personal and business development strategies to hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs. In light of all of this, she has managed to become an Instagram marketing master. The way she uses Instagram to promote her numerous brands is nothing short of amazing. I'm sure you’ll agree after listening to this podcast. In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover: Why it's important to become an "Early Settler" on Instagram now before it inevitably hits critical mass with Facebook's backing. How to move beyond posting the typical photos from your personal life to strategically sharing valuable content that drives leads and sales into your business. Why you should set up a few "Feature Accounts"- sub niche Instagram accounts, and how to chose the theme of these accounts according to your business. You’ll learn how to manage them all with zero overwhelm. How to allow your audience to feature their post on these "Feature Accounts" for greater brand exposure, while you benefit from a steady stream of content you didn't have to create. How to craft interesting and helpful content related to your business in a 15 second video. How to place a click-able links on Instagram that will lead people back to your bio, where you can link to a lead magnet or your website. How to create 15 second video 'call to actions' to drive traffic directly to your offers. Why using video on Instagram, while possibly yielding less engagement apposed to a photo, can establish you as a leading authority faster than a photo post when done right. What Instagram has coming on the horizon in terms of metrics tracking and their very own advertising platform. How to create cool split screen video posts that are part on camera instructional and part B-Roll demonstrations. How to pull in text on screen 'call to action' captions in your mobile phone videos. How to craft effective 'call to actions' to get people to share your post and where to place those CTA's to maximize every square inch of Instagram. How to effectively use hashtags and tags to elevate your brand exposure. How to outsource the entire content creation process. Where to get a third party app that will gauge your marketing against Instagram's posting statistics letting you know exactly when you should post to reach your unique target audience. And so much more! Key Takeaways Establish your roots on Instagram now before it becomes the huge business advertising platform Facebook is developing it to inevitably become. Provide valuable nuggets relative to your business not just journal personal life snapshots. Take advantage of every square inch of the comment section by being very descriptive about your post, including where to find related info and always give a call to action. Create and honor a business theme. Aim to make your Instagram account appear like a magazine spread with helpful "How to" photos and/or videos. Using video will establish your brand authority and position yourself as the 'go to expert' in your niche. Place a click-able link on Instagram that will lead people back to your bio, where you can link to a lead magnet or your website. Change out the click-able link on all of your sub niche accounts to correspond to your current promotions to centralize the direction of your traffic.

In this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast I share with you a new experience I’ve just embarked upon and how this experience taught me so much about my business, dealing with the people helping me with my business and more importantly, this experience has taught me a lot about myself.I decided to try something different and create a 3-part video series as a pre-launch for the reopening of my Facebook Marketing Profit Lab video training course.The reason for my new approach was because I felt like it was time that I foster a deeper connection with my audience and share a bit more transparency into my personal life. I wanted to become more personable, because I know that sometimes I can come off as "all business" - (much to my husband's chagrin!)It was time to really peel back the curtain and share intimate details about the beginning struggles of my business, the reason for my choosing Facebook as my traffic and lead generation vehicle and how my mindset and business knowledge, as a whole, has gone through this amazing transformation over the years.I felt the need to share in this way mainly because the exact business metamorphosis I have experienced, is the business metamorphosis I truly wish all who choose to learn from me, are fortunate enough to experience too.Here are 7 tips to creating a 3-part video series 1) Content Flow and Story Structure:2) Video crew or One-Man-Crew:3) Written scripts or off the cuff dialog:4) Location choices for added professionalism:5) Have a keen ear on set during each recording:6) Express your honest opinion about each shot selection:7) Become comfortable in your own skin:So there you have it. I just wanted to share my takeaways from this major video shoot I’ve just experienced. Now that you have this new “behind the scenes” insight into the making of this 3-part video series, I look forward to reading your comments down below after you’ve had the chance to view the video series.

In this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast,  I will be exposing the recent change Facebook made to their algorithm and not only will I explain the reason for this change, I will also give you some tips to help you counteract this change and to increase your brand’s engagement in the News Feed.Although I’m a huge advocate of Facebook’s paid advertising, in this episode, I’m teaching a couple of FREE methods of posting content and reaching more potential customers in the News Feed.Here’s what the recent Facebook algorithm change is all about.They are cracking down on "click bait.” What exactly is click bait?Click bait is when a link is shared in a Facebook post with a title that sparks curiosity but does not really tell people what the article is all about. This essentially teases people to click a link but does not give them all the information so they are not exactly sure what they’re going to find on the other side of that click.Granted, click bait links can be an effective strategy, because people can’t help but click to find out more. And many marketers were finding success in their calls to action; that’s why these types of posts has been flooding the News Feed on Facebook.The challenge is that the click bait strategy is making it hard for users to see content they genuinely want to see and care about. Facebook is viewing click bait as gaming the system to get out into the News Feed. Because Facebook has a viral component built into their Algorithm, these click bait post were gaining a lot of exposure.The more people click on the link, even though they’re not sure if they’re even interested in the content on the other side of that link, the more that post shows up in the News Feed.And that’s why Facebook became concerned with this practice and made this recent change that no longer allows click bait. Your content will be negatively impacted when you use a click bait type of posting strategy.Here’s how to craft your post so that you’re not a victim to this algorithm change and your posts get as much News Feed exposure as possible.Tip #1: Create or Only Share Quality PostsTip #2: Be Specific With the Titles of Your Facebook PostsTip #3: Post a “Preview” of Your Content When Posting on FacebookKey Takeaways Facebook is now paying careful attention to how long people are staying on the webpages your links are clicking through to from a post. Make your content valuable enough to keep the visitor on the webpage and you will boost your engagement on Facebook (for free!). The more descriptive you are with your headlines in your post, the more likely people will genuinely be interested in your content when they actually get to your website. Including a link preview in your post will help you gain more exposure in the New Feed.