7-Figure Small

Latest Episodes:

How Much of An Audience Do You Need to Succeed? Feb 03, 2020

Show notes

The most common questions we get revolve around audience growth and development -- specifically the growth and development of a minimum viable audience (MVA).
• What is an MVA?
• What are the benefits of developing one?
• What does it take to build one?
• How can you accelerate the process?
• How do you know when you've reached this pivotal threshold? (And is there a certain audience number to target?)
In this edition of 7-Figure Small, Brian Clark and Jerod Morris answer these questions and more about what Brian once called your "unfair business advantage."
The discussion includes the three characteristics your audience needs to have to know you have an MVA, plus an analogy about Brian's gym that will help to illustrate the power of the MVA ... until the analogy falls apart due to the important differences between brick-and-mortar business and building a business online.

Serve Fewer People, Make More Money Jan 27, 2020

Show notes

When you’re starting a new business, it’s tempting to aim too big. Reach millions, and serve hundreds of thousands of customers.
That’s a nice idea, but in reality, often your efforts to reach everyone lead to diluting your message, influence, and impact. Worse, without a clearly defined audience, you may end up reaching very few people at all.
Jeff Goins thought he had to go big, and he succeeded. A few years ago, he launched a bestselling book, generated a million dollars in revenue for the first time, and acquired 17,500 customers for his online courses and programs.
What did he end up with, other than the money? A ton of stress and dissatisfaction.
Part of the problem was that Jeff didn’t really know the people he was serving. Worse, many of them hadn’t arrived at the solution they wanted through the mass education programs that he was selling.
So Jeff made a radical decision -- he would work with only 100 people a year going forward. And he would still maintain his 7-figure revenue, except with higher profit margins due to lower overhead and a lot less stress.
Sound impossible? It’s not at all. In fact, serving a small well-defined group of people delivers more value to those people, and therefore can be more lucrative. And the non-monetary upside includes more influence and impact, and more professional satisfaction.
How many people do you need to work with to create the change (and the revenue) you want to make? Is it 10? 100? 1000? Listen in for guidance that may change the way you think about the people you choose to serve with your business.
Article: https://goinswriter.com/100-person-rule/
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To access the show notes, transcript, and links mentioned in this episode, view the episode page at: http://unemployable.com/podcast/
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.

When Scale is the Opposite of Success Jan 20, 2020

Show notes

When Mike Brcic started his mountain-bike tour company, it was slow going at the beginning.
The first year, his company Sacred Rides had one client. In year two, the startup experienced 100% growth -- two clients.
Fast forward, however, and Sacred Rides became a complicated business doing 7-figures in annual revenue with investors and lots of employees -- operating in over 40 countries.
Fantastic right? From the outside it would seem so, but Mike was far from happy. Very far.
What he found is that pursuing scale for scale’s sake is ultimately deeply unfulfilling. Most of the time it’s an ego’s hungry quest for recognition and validation.
So Mike carefully planned to remove himself from the business, and eventually sold it. He had already started the business that would become Mastermind Adventures, a new but intentionally much smaller business that fulfills his sense of passion and purpose.
Now, Mike is inspired by asking bigger questions:
• If the purpose of an entrepreneur isn’t to scale, then what is it?
• What does it mean to live a good life?
• Can a company remain small (and profitable) forever?
These are the questions that essentially drive the creation of a 7-figure small business. Tune in to hear Mike and I discuss the answers in the context of Mike’s evolving entrepreneurial career.

How the “No Code” Movement Allows for Software Development by Non-Technical Entrepreneurs Jan 13, 2020

Show notes

I can remember the first time I used WordPress in 2005. It was such a joy to move from uploading individual HTML pages to a server via FTP, and simply hitting “publish” to see content go live.
As I entered the premium WordPress market in 2008 as an entrepreneur, the idea was always to empower non-technical writers and other content creators to do more with their websites without code. Eventually, our design framework Genesis became widely accepted as the way to build WordPress sites quicker and easier.
Now, the idea of “no code” software creation is gaining more and more traction. In other words, we now have software that allows us to make all sorts of other software without being a coder.
This empowers creative people to make things that were once impossible -- at least without knowing how to code or hiring a developer. And that means a new generation of entrepreneurs are able to create powerful 7-Figure Small businesses that sell software and software-based services without investors and even employees.
Ben Tossell is a vocal proponent of the “no code” and “without code” movement. His company Makerpad teaches non-technical founders and makers to use the powerful tools that open up an entire new avenue of product creation.
Listen in to hear more about what “no code” can mean for your business. If you’re able to solve an audience problem with a software solution, you could be on your way to creating a product you never imagined you could on your own.
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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 go to FreshBooks.com/unemployable and make sure to enter UNEMPLOYABLE in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section.

Why the Right Audience is the Key to Building Your Perfect Business Jan 08, 2020

Show notes

We're back!
After a short hiatus, we're excited to be in your speakers and headphones again with a new episode of the Unemployable podcast … except that it's no longer called Unemployable. You may have noticed that the podcast now has a new name: 7-Figure Small.
If you were listening last season, you'll be familiar with the concept of 7-Figure Small. The big idea is building a business with significant revenue potential that fits the lifestyle you desire — and doing it all without the stress and added complexity of investors and employees.
In this episode, we review that big idea and then go over the three fundamentals to actually building a 7-Figure Small business: the Who, the What, and the How.
We discuss:
• The reality that content isn't king, but this is
• Why creating huge amounts of content can actually be worse than a waste of time
• The level of patience needed to build a minimum viable audience (and how to speed the process up)
• The folly of mimicking someone else's “how”
Oh, and we have a little fun briefly reminiscing about one of the most inexplicably funny SNL skits of all time.
All of that and more on this week's edition of Unemp– err, 7-Figure Small. 😉

The Essential Photo and Video Tools For Freelancers Aug 16, 2019

Show notes

No matter what type of services you offer as a freelancer, having an arsenal of photo and video tools that can help you create high-quality graphics, images, and media is always a good idea.
Even if you might not need them for client work, you can use these tools for your own marketing and business needs.
Here are a few things you can do with photo and video tools:
• Create quality, visually engaging graphics, videos, and other media on a budget.
• Add value to your services without a ton of expense on your end (e.g., offering to create images for your client’s next social media campaign).
• Build a cohesive brand for yourself without breaking the bank.
Even if you’re not a designer or creatively inclined in that way at all, you can still make beautiful visuals to share with the world. Content creators, designers, and Jack and Janes of All Trades, this one is for you as Brian Clark provides our recommendations for the best photo and video tools for freelancers.
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This episode of Unemployable, and the entire Essential Tools for Freelancers series, is brought to you by FreshBooks — the leading invoicing and accounting software solution preferred by freelancers just like you.
Right now you can try it yourself for 30 days absolutely free, no obligation or credit card required. Simply go to freshbooks.com/unemployable and enter “unemployable” in the “How did you hear about us?” section to get your free trial.

The Human Brand in an Age of Algorithms Aug 14, 2019

Show notes

We’ve talked a lot about curation this season on Unemployable. And with good reason: a curation marketing strategy has proven to be an effective way to build a successful online audience and business in an age of content overload.
But we also know that many of you are wondering just how viable it is for someone who is just now getting started. Aren’t big companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Apple at a major advantage because of their audience and reach? And haven’t many of the best niches already been gobbled up by existing curators?
These are good questions. And as you’ll discover in this episode, the answers to these questions suggest that right now is still a great time to get start with curation marketing; in fact, it’s still early enough for you to experience a first-mover advantage, much like in the early days of blogging, podcasting, and other once-burgeoning strategies that have now reached stages of saturation.
As Brian Clark and Jerod Morris discuss in this episode, there are major benefits to establishing your curation positioning in the market now and building a human brand that will be able to grow and evolve as technology does.

Leverage Powerful and Affordable Software to Build a Community-Based Brand Jul 31, 2019

Show notes

“Don’t build on someone else’s land,” you’ve heard me say many times over the years. Especially with a company with a horrible track record like Facebook.
And for your own website, there’s really no need. With powerful platforms that allow you control as a customer like WordPress and Squarespace, you can build whatever you need.
Frankly, you can’t build a 7-Figure Small business without utilizing powerful technology platforms — it’s a big part of the reason for the growth of so many no-employee, 7-figure businesses. Just think of all the tiny companies that have build niche SaaS offering thanks to Amazon Web Services.
There’s a clear difference between these types of empowering platforms and Facebook. In the former, you’re a customer in a competitive space. With Facebook, you’re the product.
I’ve been building membership communities since 2008, always with custom WordPress solutions. In 2019, there’s no way to build a best-of-breed community-based business with all the bells and whistles from scratch — without it costing hundreds of thousands, that is.
But the answer is still not Facebook. I’ve invited Gina Bianchini, Founder and CEO of community-technology provider Mighty Networks to tell us why she’s creating powerful software for a fair price — and why it’s in the companies interest to play fairly with creators and community organizers.
To access the show notes, transcript, and links mentioned in this episode, view the episode page at: http://unemployable.com/podcast/gina-bianchini-mighty-networks
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The Essential Conference Call Systems For Freelancers Jul 26, 2019

Show notes

Having a conference call system not only makes you look professional, but they tend to make client calls run easier and more efficiently.
Not to mention, if you’re full-on digital-nomad-ing, it may make more sense to run a call through a conference call system if you don’t have the best reception or a limited international phone plan. In addition to that, there are so many added benefits to using a conference call system.
Whether you use them regularly or once in a Super Blood Wolf Moon, it’s never a bad idea to have a go-to conference call system for any situation. So put your phone away, and join Brian Clark in diving into our favorite conference call systems for freelancers.
To access the show notes, transcript, and links mentioned in this episode, view the episode page at: http://unemployable.com/podcast/essential-conference-call-tools-for-freelancers
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This episode of Unemployable, and the entire Essential Tools for Freelancers series, is brought to you by FreshBooks — the leading invoicing and accounting software solution preferred by freelancers just like you.
Right now you can try it yourself for 30 days absolutely free, no obligation or credit card required. Simply go to freshbooks.com/unemployable and enter “unemployable” in the “How did you hear about us?” section to get your free trial.

Why Connection is the New Content Marketing Jul 24, 2019

Show notes

The paradigm for how to build sustainable success online has shifted in some important ways, and a key to building a 7-Figure Small business is understanding these shifts and being prepared to capitalize on them.
One of the biggest shifts is what Brian Clark was alluding to when he stated on a previous episode of Unemployable that “people are still teaching content marketing like it’s 2010.” Listeners keyed in on that quote and have let us know that they want to know more about what Brian meant.
In this episode, Brian explains what he meant by that statement. He also explains that while the fundamentals of content marketing may not have changed, the context absolutely has. And this shift should have an impact on how you approach your strategy to build a 7-Figure Small business.
You’ll learn the important difference between curation and connection; what the “power trinity” is for a 7-Figure Small; and how adopting a mindset of connection will help you not just in building an audience but even in helping you figure out your business model.
This is a loaded episode that is filled with useful insight and context, and it teases where Unemployable is headed moving forward. We hope you’ll listen in. If you have questions or comments, tweet them using the #unemployable hashtag or send us an email. (We give out our email addresses in the episode.)

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