7-Figure Small

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Is It Time to Start Doing What You Really Want to Do? Apr 13, 2020

Show notes

The world is going through a difficult and traumatic time right now.
Unfortunately, many people's lives are being upended by severe health issues or job loss. Even those of us who have been fortunate enough to avoid sickness or unemployment are dealing with isolation, the upending of our daily routines, and the cascading impact of economic turmoil.
Which means that everyone is dealing with swift and sudden change, and the uncertainty and anxiety that can so easily accompany it.
In this episode, Brian Clark and Jerod Morris confront the current reality we're all facing by opening up about how they are dealing with the upheaval, as well as the lessons from the past they are choosing to draw on for strength about what the future can hold on the other side of trying times.
At the core of this conversation is a simple question: Is it time to start doing what you really want to do?
There is no "right" answer. That will depend on your current mindset and circumstances. But this episode does offer a few simple questions to help guide you toward a meaningful answer.
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And by the way, we meant what we said about reaching out to us. If you feel like you don't have anyone to talk to who will understand what you're going through, and you want to email us and open up about anything your are thinking or feeling, do it: jerod@unemployable.com.

How to Produce Successful Virtual Events Apr 06, 2020

Show notes

Freelancers, solopreneurs, and startup founders are used to operating in virtual environments. Zoom and countless other virtual communication tools are the way we do impactful work without offices or geographic proximity to others.
Now, a big chunk of the business world has gone remote and virtual. Real-life events -- both big and small -- have been canceled out of necessity, and there’s a good chance that the increasing digitalization of business that was already happening means many events will not go back to the “real” world.
That means it’s time to start thinking about how virtual events figure into your business model. Further, how can producing virtual events allow you to provide unique value that results in entirely new business models?
We’re talking to Tara McMullin this week, the founder of What Works -- a podcast and community platform for small business owners. Tara and her team have hosted 11 virtual conferences, at least 8 virtual retreats, and countless mastermind or coworking sessions.
You’ll discover what the most important aspects of creating virtual events involve, plus we get into the nuts and bolts of software and related technology. We also explore what the future may hold with emerging technologies that enhance interaction between virtual event organizers and participants, and collaboration between everyone involved.
To access the show notes and links mentioned in this episode, view the episode page at: http://unemployable.com/podcast/virtual-events
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This episode is brought to you by Freshbooks, easy-to-use cloud accounting software for people just like you. They’re offering a 30-day, unrestricted and no credit card required free trial to listeners of the show. To claim it, just click http://freshbooks.com/unemployable and make sure to enter UNEMPLOYABLE in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section.

What It Takes to Build a Successful Online Community Mar 30, 2020

Show notes

For as long as bits and packets have been buzzing across the Internet, people have been congregating in chat rooms, forums, comment sections, and groups to discuss shared interests, learn new things, and feel a sense of belonging.
And as the Internet has evolved, so too have the technologies for facilitating community. It’s easier, it’s more accessible, and now, it’s more profitable.
At least, it can be, for those who are bold and knowledgeable enough to stand up and lead the conversation that attracts people to an online community in the first place ... and who are also humble enough to devote the time, enthusiasm, and empathy necessary to give people the sense of belonging that keeps them coming back.
This is what Brian Clark and I are working to build inside of the Unemployable Initiative, our online community and educational library for freelancers and solopreneurs, and it’s what Chris Ducker has built for his audience of personal brand builders over at Youpreneur.
Chris is our guest this week on the 7-Figure Small podcast, and we talk about his journey to running a 7-figure small business around helping people become the go-to leader in their industry and, in the process, build a-future proofed business.
We also dive into the impact that community has had on Chris’ business. He shares:
Where his community fits into his overall business model
What it takes to host a community that people are excited to join ... and stick around
What he means by “vibe attracts tribe”
Why the power of online communities will only grow with the way work, technology, and society are currently trending
And much more.
Also, this was truly a podcast recording for the coronavirus everyone-is-at-home age. At one point, Chris had an urgent phone call come in that he had to take, and at another point my 3-year old daughter fell off of an obstacle course that she had built for herself in the living room. So if you hear any awkward cuts, that’s why.
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This episode is brought to you by Freshbooks, easy-to-use cloud accounting software for people like you. Right now they’re offering a 30-day, no credit card required free trial to listeners of the podcast. To claim it, just visit FreshBooks.com/unemployable and make sure to enter UNEMPLOYABLE in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section.

How to Survive and Thrive During a Financial Crisis Mar 23, 2020

Show notes

It’s clear now that COVID-19 is having an enormous impact on us all. First and foremost, we’re worried about our health, the health of our loved ones, and for our local community and society in general.
And then we realize the potential impact on our businesses. Not just the direct impact today, but the ripple effect that’s running through the broader economy.
It might have been when the event cancellations started. It might have been when clients
started canceling work that had been promised. It might have been when the government had to shut down many local businesses.
Regardless of when you realized it, we are now in a state of massive change and uncertainty. Can we stop it from being a financial crisis for us?
Given all that’s going on, Spencer Sheinin is here to share some ideas with you. Spencer is an entrepreneur with an accounting background, and that powers his firm Shift Financial Insights and allows him to provide simple accounting and financial insights for businesses like yours and mine.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
• How to figure out your financial “new normal” and get re-stabilized. Or if that’s not possible, a sense of how much time you have to figure out a plan B.
• Some cost savings ideas you might not have already thought about.
• Creative ways to access additional funds to extend your runway.
• When to consider pivots or new strategic initiatives.
• How to shift your business model to further rely on outsourcing options.
• How to rethink your business and your life.
• How to think about the eventual rebound and prepare to thrive in the future.
This episode is brought to you by Freshbooks, easy-to-use cloud accounting software for people like you. Right now they’re offering a 30-day, no credit card required free trial to listeners of the podcast. To claim it, just visit FreshBooks.com/unemployable and make sure to enter UNEMPLOYABLE in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section.

How to Focus and Get More Meaningful Work Done Mar 16, 2020

Show notes

At the beginning of 2020, members of the Unemployable Initiative told us that dealing with distractions was a major challenge for them entering the new year. So we identified one of the foremost experts on the subject and invited him to join us for a guest lecture.
Nir Eyal literally wrote the book on the subject, called Indistractable. He also wrote the book Hooked, about how to build habit-forming products.
In this hour-long session, which is a sample of the regular content that is available to members of the Unemployable Initiative, Nir discusses the intersection of those two books and then provides insight from each that we can all apply to our daily lives.
Among the many topics we cover:
• What does it take to build habit-forming digital products?
• How can we manage the internal triggers that cause us to become distracted?
• What does it mean to “make time for traction”?
• Why are to-do lists the wrong way to manage priorities?
• How can we “reimagine tasks” to help us stay engaged in tasks without the need for external rewards?
• What's the best way to handle email?
• How does the power of precommitments and pacts work? (And why is it essential that this come after the other steps in becoming Indistractable?)
• What are some tips for staying focused on big, long-term projects?
• What can parents to do to help their children become indistractable?
We hope you enjoy the special edition of the 7-Figure Small podcast. To learn more about the Unemployable Initiative, go to unemployable.com/community.

3 Technology Trends That Will Impact Your Business Mar 09, 2020

Show notes

When it comes to 7-Figure Small businesses, it's all about the creative, empathetic human at the center of it all.
But it's the tools that truly allow us to augment ourselves to build powerful businesses without investors or employees. In the next few years, technology is going to change things for small business owners at an astonishing rate.
Yes, we've been hearing about tech such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and the internet of things (IoT) for a while now. But it's not really the individual fields that will sneak up on us -- it's the creative convergence of multiple new technologies that quickly change what "best practices" will look like.
In today's episode, Jerod and I discuss a few of these trends and how they'll interrelate to impact your business:
1. The Privacy Trade-off
Outside of the human element, marketing for a 7-Figure Small business is powered by data, scaled by automation, and optimized by analytics. But at what point are we going too far when it comes to the privacy of our prospects?
A majority of consumers are willing to trade personal data in exchange for personalized and targeted content, products, and other offers. But the moment you go beyond offering more value and cross the line into creepy, you can lose the trust of your audience.
2. The Impact of 5G
You've no doubt heard plenty about 5G -- the fifth generation wireless technology for digital cellular networks that began wide deployment in 2019 and will become mainstream this year.
5G brings three new aspects to the table: bigger channels (to speed up data), lower latency (to be more responsive), and the ability to connect a lot more devices at once (for sensors and smart devices). What that means to you as a marketer and business owner may be more than you think.
3. Marketing Technology Meets AI
One thing we've discussed on several occasions is what will happen when various forms of artificial intelligence is baked into your marketing software, such as tools for email, automation, and landing pages.
We discuss the move to add AI into the landing page and testing platform from Unbounce. This solution is likely more expensive than we'd like, but the point is that soon this will be in all levels of marketing technology, just like automation was once expensive and is now a feature of every email marketing software.

How to Create the Environment for 7-Figure Small Success Mar 02, 2020

Show notes

We've talked a lot about curation here on the 7-Figure Small podcast. It's a smart, forward-thinking strategy for building an audience, and it is leading to success for many people who do it right.
But it's important to remember that we are not advocating curation for curation's sake. Curation is a means to an end, not the end in an of itself.
And in this week's episode, we lay out of the path for how a strategy of building an email audience through curation is the vessel through which you create the environment that can lead to success in building a 7-figure small business. We discuss what that environment consists of, the steps curation helps you take on your way there, and how to figure it all out by leveraging other people's content.
The end result is the 7-figure small business that fits your goals and lifestyle. This is the path.
Most importantly, we provide a call to action for anyone who is interested in taking the next step putting this strategy to work for themselves. The URL you need to know is nextlevel7.com, which will give you access to a free email course that goes into more detail than we have time for here.
So listen to this week's episode, then take the next steps at Next Level 7. This is how you move methodically toward building the 7-figure small business you've been dreaming about.

Seth Godin on the Future of Marketing [Rebroadcast] Feb 24, 2020

Show notes

[Note: This conversation was originally broadcast in April of 2019.]
If you're paying attention to the world of work, the news is unavoidable. Everyone is bracing for a tech-induced transformation -- and it’s already started.
As a solo or small business person, technology allows you to do things that used to require scores of employees and tons of capital -- and that ability will accelerate with AI. But it’s the human being at the center of it all that will ultimately determine if you succeed or fail.
Today author, entrepreneur, and educator Seth Godin joins us to share his direct experiences with helping people put the “human” first, while still taking advantage of the ever-powerful tools. Get the ratio right, and the sky’s the limit for even the tiniest of ventures.
Here are just a few of the highlights from this episode:
• Is “permission marketing” still the core of what makes marketing work?
• The enduring power of being human and connecting with other humans.
• Why consistency is more powerful (and scalable) than authenticity.
• Why being a better marketer is more about making a conceptual shift than a tactical one.
• What “status roles” are and why understanding this concept is so important for understanding how humans make decisions.
• What Seth means when he says, “Most people prefer the blamelessness of ‘I’m for everyone’ than the responsibility of ‘I’m for someone.’”
• Why automation and AI will not create, but continue, the long-standing trend of technology replacing jobs that don’t require a human touch.
https://unemployable.com/podcast/future-of-marketing/

Freelancers: Build a Network of Advocates that Builds Your Business Feb 17, 2020

Show notes

Freelancers are the epitome of a company of one. That means you must be the self-reliant core that performs your craft while also running a viable business.
And yet any truly vibrant core is surrounded by support. Having high quality people around you leads to a better business and lifestyle.
Some of these people are the ones you rely on to perform tasks that you can’t or shouldn’t. For example, unless you’re a web designer, you shouldn’t be hacking away trying to build your website. The same is true for functions like legal, accounting, and business coaching.
And then there’s the people who send you new clients. These are your advocates, and they can take many forms, ranging from affiliates to those who simply talk you up when you aren’t even aware of it.
The question becomes, how do you attract these people? Is it about hustle and hype, or is it more about playing the long game and developing true relationships?
In this episode, Jay Clouse of Freelance School joins us to talk through ways to attract the people you need to run your business, and the advocates that help you grow it.
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This episode is brought to you by Freshbooks, easy-to-use cloud accounting software for people like you. Right now they’re offering a 30-day, no credit card required free trial to listeners of the podcast. To claim it, just visit FreshBooks.com/unemployable and make sure to enter UNEMPLOYABLE in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section.

The 7 Pillars of the Successful Solo Businessperson Feb 10, 2020

Show notes

You know, we like to say around here that running a solo business doesn’t mean you have to go it alone.
But even with all the technology and your network supporting you, at the center of it all is you. And you need a high degree of self-reliance to make it all work, day after day.
You may have read the classic essay “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson back in high school. It’s not exactly a modern text, despite the multitude of wisdom it contains — and it’s certainly not geared specifically toward the modern entrepreneur.
John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing fame decided to bring that wisdom forward, and put his own decades of entrepreneurial success into it. The result is The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur, a highly useful book organized as a daily devotional with 366 entries, one for each day of the year (including the extra day in leap year 2020).
In this episode, John shares seven of the most important aspects of self-reliance for not only entrepreneurs, but also freelancers and other solo business owners. Join us to understand the fundamental wisdom that can ensure your business remains strong and stable.
Episode page (which includes the 7 pillars handout): https://unemployable.com/podcast/john-jantsch
This episode is brought to you by Freshbooks, easy-to-use cloud accounting software for people like you. Right now they’re offering a 30-day, no credit card required free trial to listeners of the podcast. To claim it, just visit FreshBooks.com/unemployable and make sure to enter UNEMPLOYABLE in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section.

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