The Get Paid Podcast: The Stark Reality of Entrepreneurship and Being Your Own Boss

Tony Rulli is the Founder and Head of Advertising at Intentional Spark, an online advertising company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses through digital marketing. Tony is the lead strategist for all paid marketing campaigns, including Facebook ads, Adwords, and retargeting campaigns. He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Management as well as Entrepreneurship and Marketing from Babson College. Tony joins me today to share how he went from working as a financial analyst to starting his career as an online ads strategist and manager. He shares the challenges he faced while building his business, how he hires and vets new contractors and employees, and his strategy for raising his rates while growing his business. He also shares why he offers referral commissions to his contracting team and how it has helped him grow his business while boosting team spirit and morale. "You shouldn't feel uncomfortable with asking - or receiving - a referral fee." - Tony Rulli This Week on the Get Paid Podcast: Tony's first entrepreneurial venture, it's profitability, and why he decided to close the business. How we became competitor friends. How Tony raised his rates with each new client referral without pushback and what he currently charges clients. Tony's average monthly revenue, average annual expenses, and total profit before taxes. The average number of contractors working with Intentional Spark. How Tony sources and vets new contractors and employees. Tony's advice for hiring quality contractors. The biggest challenge Tony has faced while building his business. The impact of taking on the wrong Why Tony offers referral commission opportunities to his contractors - and how he structures it. Overcomingthe fear of requesting referral fees. Resources Mentioned: 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss Vegabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts Fizzle Upwork Connect with Tony Rulli: Intentional Spark Email: Tony@IntentionalSpark.com Sell Your Online Course - on Autopilot! Are you ready to ramp up your online course sales this year? Thinking about using Facebook and Instagram ads to promote your services and online products, but feeling a little overwhelmed? Then you need the 5-Part Ad Formula That Sells Online Courses on Autopilot. This FREE masterclass is based on my proven formula and teaches you how to create 5killerFacebook and Instagram ads that will convert newsfeed browsers into new students for your online course, group program, or mastermind. So…what are you waiting for? Request your free access to The 5 Ads Formula That Sells Online Courses on Autopilot today. Now it's time to GET PAID Thanks for tuning into the Get Paid Podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review. Connect with me on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, visit my website for even more detailed strategies,and be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media. Now, it's time to go get yourself paid.

Adrienne Dorison is the co-owner of Run Like Clockwork, a company designed to help entrepreneurs improve their small business operations and efficiency while increasing profits. Through their workshops, coaching, and consulting services, they help small business owners work efficiently, remove bottlenecks, and build their businesses to - you guessed it - run like clockwork. She is a certified LEAN Six Sigma consultant, SCRUM expert trainer, and has extensive experience in operational efficiency. She has worked with countless business owners - including micro-businesses and Fortune 500 companies - to streamline their systems, simplify their processes, and create strategic growth while cutting costs, saving time, and expanding their profit margins. Adrienne joins me today to explain her role at Run Like Clockwork and her partnership with Mike Michalowicz. She shares how she achieved $120,000 in revenue from a small 20-person workshop and dives deep into the P&L's to share the overall monthly expenses her company accrued to host it. She also shares the marketing strategies they used to attract new leads, why they decided to limit the number of company attendees for each workshop as well as valuable insight on how to train team members to feel comfortable and confident in making decisions for your customers on your company's behalf. "Your team members are going to make mistakes because they are human. That's usually how they are going to learn. If they have a safe space to do that, they are going to be more autonomous - which is exactly what we want." - Adrienne Dorison This Week on the Get Paid Podcast: How Adrienne got started working with Run Like Clockwork. How Run Like Clockwork helps small business owners improve efficiency with their teams, processes, and operational systems. What it means to be the bottleneck of your business and how it impacts your growth. How to identify the bottlenecks in your course creation and marketing process. How to identify if creating an online course is the right decision for your business. The Lean Six Sigma tools and framework. How Adrienne paid off $50,000 in student debt in 6-months. Challenges Adrienne faces as an entrepreneur. Adrienne's partnership with mike Michalowicz. The live and virtual workshops available for small business owners at Run Like Clockwork and why they only serve 25 companies per event. Evaluating the cost vs. revenue for the $120k 20-person workshop. How they attract the most leads for the workshop events. Why Adrienne purposely ramped down her personal brand in 2018. The 'transfer of knowledge' process when training others. The importance of explaining why you make specific decisions to new hires - and documenting them. How to articulate your decisions to your team that were based on your gut instincts. What the business model looked like in her last 7-figure business. Adrienne's perspective on retiring your husband and bringing him into your business. How Adrienne fits creating her own social media promotion into her busy schedule. Resources Mentioned: Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself by Mike Michalowicz SamCart Connect with Adrienne Dorison: Run Like Clockwork LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram This episode is sponsored by… MemberVault MemberVault is an online membership software and hosting tool dedicated to helping passionate and creative entrepreneurs disrupt the ways of relationship marketing - and make more money doing it! More than just an online course hosting platform, you get real insight into how people respond to your content, who your hottest leads are, and who would be the best fit for your higher-end products and services. So stop wondering where to host your online products. Explode your sales and engagement and gain a better understanding of your ROI. Get paid more - and more often! Start your 1-month FREE TRIAL of MemberVault today! Visit ClairePells.com/MemberVault to start your first month absolutely FREE! Now it's time to GET PAID! Thanks for tuning into the Get Paid Podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review. Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, visit my website for even more juicy content, and be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media. Now, it's time to go get yourself paid!

Welcome back to season 4 of the Get Paid Podcast! After taking a longmaternity leave and hiatus from the show to evaluate what worked, what didn't work, and what changes I needed to make to improve the show - I am excited to finally be back behind the mic. On today's episode, I share why I started this podcast in the first place, why I took an extended break, and why I decided to pick up the mic again. I get real on the challenges and obstacles I faced in my first three seasons, the lessons I learned throughout this journey, and my new mission and goals for the show moving forward. I also share what you can expect from each episode of the Get Paid Podcast and highlight some of my favorite past seasons and episodes. "My goal is to have interesting conversations that you actually benefit from." - Claire Pelletreau This Week on the Get Paid Podcast: My career background and how I help creatives and entrepreneurs excel with Facebook and Instagram ads. Why I decided to start my podcast - and why I stopped. The challenges I faced in my first three seasons and the lessons I learned from them. My new mission and goals for the show. What to expect from each episode. Resources Mentioned: Episode 1: Tara Gentile: Launching, Group Coaching and Beer Episode 12: $4k in the Bank after a $10k Month Episode 16: Mark Butler: The CFO You Can Never Fire Episode 46: Shannon Simmons: The Challenge of Scaling a Service-Based Business Fearless Launching Podcast with Anne Samoilov Lady Business Radio with Jessica Kupferman Fizzle Sell Your Online Course - on Autopilot! Are you ready to ramp up your online course sales this year? Thinking about using Facebook and Instagram ads to promote your services and online products, but feeling a little overwhelmed? Then you need the 5-Part Ad Formula That Sells Online Courses on Autopilot! This FREE masterclass is based on my proven formula and teaches you how to create 5killerFacebook and Instagram ads that will convert newsfeed browsers into new students for your online course, group program, or mastermind. So…what are you waiting for? Request your free access to The 5 Ads Formula That Sells Online Courses on Autopilot today! Now it's time to GET PAID! Thanks for tuning into the Get Paid Podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review. Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, visit my website for even more juicy content, and be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media. Now, it's time to go get yourself paid!

It's the Season Finale of the Get Paid Podcast! I am super excited about this episode – but even more excited about our guest on the show today. She is someone I have followed for about three years – like, to the point of having "stalker-y overtones" and invites to drinks (repeatedly). Unfortunately, we have not been able to have those drinks due to the pesky thousands of miles between us, so to have her on the podcast today is pretty much the next best thing. Ash Ambirge – the spicy writer with a love for explicit language – is the founder of The Middle Finger Project blog. Her insanely successful blog and brand is well-known throughout the blogosphere for its vulgarity, and – impressively enough – this voice has enabled her to grow her online business, using her blog as a conduit – to sell a lot of products and services online. Today, we dive into her story about how she made her blog such a huge success, what she does to market her business, and what she sells on her blog.

Legal terms, Terms and Conditions, client agreement contracts – these are all topics that most business owners and entrepreneurs cringe at. Before you start running for the hills and refusing to listen to today's episode, let me tell you about Gena Shingle Jaffe, the attorney uniquely nicknamed as the "Sparkly Lawyer Extraordinaire." Gena is probably one of the most upbeat attorneys I have ever talked to. Her way of explaining legal terms in an upbeat, no-fear infused, down-to-earth manner is not only easy to understand, but puts you at ease about your legal questions and concerns, and is truly extraordinary. Today, she shares some free interesting legal advice about trademarks and how they differ from copyrights, legal contracts every entrepreneur should have, as well as various legal documents you should have on your website as an entrepreneur. Gena is also very open about her expenses and revenue figures, her near-bankruptcy experience, as well as how she leaped from that scare to building a 6-figure successful business.

Welcome back! I am incredibly excited about today's guest, the "Troop Leader of Love" and founder of League of Adventurous Singles, Kira Sabin. Kira is a life and love coach specifically for singles looking for help navigating the crazy world of dating. She works primarily with female clients – with a few men sprinkled in for a bit of added flavor, and she helps her clients navigate their love life and the dating scene in a rather interesting and unique way. Today, she breaks it down for us, answering all of my uncomfortable questions, including how she gets paid – and how much she has made so far this year. She also allows me to pick her brain a little on the types of mistakes she has made over her 8-year career as a "love coach" and shares a bit of advice for other life coaches and business owners.

This week, I am excited to have the opportunity to interview Dan Norris, co-founder of WP Curve - a service-based company specializing in helping entrepreneurs fix WordPress problems - and the author of "The 7-Day Startup" book. Dan explains his rocky road to success, starting (and failing) several startup businesses throughout the years before collaboratively working to create WP Curve. We talk about the ups and downs in his business journey, suggestions and advice that he received before launching WP Curve, and the many lessons that he feels every aspiring startup business owner should know before starting their business. Dan also shares a little information about his Australia-based craft beer brewing company and how starting this business is very different from developing a successful online startup. He explains his idea of "differentiation," the difference between a startup and a full-fledged business, and provides tips on what he believes new startup business owners should focus on and what they should "forget about."

Finances and budgeting are significant and crucial parts of running a business. I'll admit, it is not my favorite part of being a business owner – but it is too important to ignore. In today's episode, I am joined by Shannon Lee Simmons, finance, and money management coach and founder of New School of Finance based in Canada. She shares her "rags to riches" story with us, her business model, and the services and products that her company offers. We also get down to the nitty-gritty details on her personal and professional finances, discussing how much she charges for each of her products and services as well as her company's net profit last year on each of her courses and services.

Running a business while juggling the crazy, hectic schedules that come along with motherhood can be a challenge – to put it mildly. From rushing kids to soccer practice to rushing to launch a product or service on time, we all often feel stressed, overwhelmed, or simply aren't sure how to do certain things we want to do to scale our businesses. Megan Flatt is a business strategist who works almost exclusively with female entrepreneurs – or more specifically, mom entrepreneurs. She joins me on the show today to share some of her personal experiences with being a Mama CEO, how she helps other mompreneurs, and some of the challenges she has faced head on while launching a new product.

If you are a coach, consultant, thought-leader, or service provider and are wondering how you can ramp up your business over the next six months, then you are in for a treat today. Our high-earning guest today is Russ Ruffino, a business coach who teaches other coaches, consultants, and service providers how to "create the right clients at the right, premium price – anytime." He shares a wealth of information with me on today's episode, including his internal system and method for growing a successful coaching business that consistently generates a 6-figure income on a monthly basis as well as how you can tap into his proven method and see similar results.