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**Bright Entrepreneur Podcast**

Want to build a Personal Brand? Wish you could see the real behind-the-scenes of how someone actual grows a strong personal brand and becomes an Influencer? How does personal branding work? What personal branding strategy actually helps you grow your audience, and what doesnât work? Curious about how to make money as a social media influencer? And why should you want a personal brand at all in the first place? In this podcast, Jamie M Swanson, founder of the StorySession System and leader of the Personal Brand Photography movement, takes you behind the scenes as she pivots from having grown a highly-profitable business brand to growing her own personal brand. Youâll see what works, what doesnât, and hear business tips along the way to help you grow your online business. Sheâll explain her social media strategy, how she leverages her audience to fully support her family and make money online, and sheâll share the behind-the-scenes stuff that youâd normally only hear from your closest friends and colleagues in masterminds or over coffee. Plus, sheâs going to share her statistics and numbers along the way. Sound good? Then Subscribe, Listen, and Leave us a Review letting us know what you think!

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The Belief Shift that Changed Everything in My Business Nov 25, 2020

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Join the Waitlist for the Launch Your First Mastermind Workshop here >>> https://www.launchyourfirstmastermind.com

Interested in the Brighter Together Mastermind? Contact Jamie directly on Instagram @JamieMSwanson

Transcript:

I've been thinking a lot about how my experience of growing a brand new business now is so different from almost 10 years ago when I was starting my very first online business. And it dawned on me just the other day that there is a subtle but powerful belief that I have now. That I didn't have 10 years ago that has made all the difference. And I'm going to share that belief with you today in this episode, So I want to go way back into time and share a story that I think really illustrates the belief that I want to share with you today. So we're going to go back to the 1940s and back then. People did not believe that it was humanly possible to run a mile in under four minutes. They got really close. In fact, I think somebody got to four minutes and one second for a mile, so really close to it.

But for whatever reason, no one was able to get under that. And people. Would talk about how they did not believe that the human body was capable of running any faster than that. They thought we had reached our limit as humans, and that was all there is but in the early 1950s, there was a runner named Roger Bannister who made a goal of his own to run the first mile under four minutes. Now Roger's initial goal was not to run a sub four minute mile. I'm sure he would have been thrilled to do it, but originally he was an Olympic athlete.

In fact, he competed in the 1952 Olympics and he was really disappointed with his results. He didn't place on the podium. I think he might've come close. I believe he took fourth in one of the races he ran, but he was really down about that. And he considered. Quitting running altogether as a competitive thing.

But instead of quitting, Roger changed his focus. He stopped focusing on comparing himself to others and racing against others. And he decided instead to focus on bettering himself and trying to break the four-minute mile. So he enlisted the help of a few friends to run with him during his various attempts. He had two specific people who were very, very fast as well.

And one of them would start the race with him and keep him at a sub four minute mile pace. And then the second one would run the last chunk of the race with him to pay some just for that very last chunk so that he had two fresh people who could run the pace that needed to be run to run under a four minute mile, but who didn't have to do the entire four laps around the track that you need to do to make it the full mile. Finally on May 6th of 1954, Roger was successful. He ran the first mile under four minutes ever with the help of his two friends. Doing exactly what I just explained. Now, the beautiful thing about this was he proved that yes, it was absolutely possible for the human body to do this.

And do you know what happened? This was may of 1954 in June of 1954. That same year, just the next month. John Landry ran the second mile. That was less than four minutes. That was so quick for people to have attempted this for years and years and years and not believed it was possible. But as soon as one person, Roger Bannister proved that it was possible.

Then other people started to do it as well. I truly believe. That all of these new people were able to run less than a four minute mile because now they knew it was possible before then they weren't sure if it was possible, they questioned if anybody on the earth could run a mile that quickly. But once one person showed that it was possible, then they knew that it was.

And they were able to do it as well. And so here's what I want you to take from this today. the first thing, the most important thing is that you need to believe that growing a successful business. Is possible for you. This is the belief that is so different for me today than it was when I was first starting out.

Now, when I was starting my business, about 10 years ago, I knew that some people were successfully making money online. And I knew that it was possible in general, but I didn't know if it was possible for me. I didn't know if I had what it took, but now this time as I've been starting a brand new business, I know for a fact that it's possible.

I know that I can grow a seven figure business because I've done it before. I have the experience that has built the belief that it's possible.

And if you want to grow a successful business, you also need to believe that it's possible. For you. And you can do that in a couple of different ways. So let's look at how Roger did this. So he changed his goal. I want you to note this, he changed his goal from focusing on beating other people and trying to, you know, compare his progress to their progress on the racetrack, to focusing on his own personal goal of hitting a certain.

Number right. For him, it was a four minute mile or less, actually less than four. For you, instead of comparing yourself to what everybody else is doing, you need to focus on, uh, what success looks like for you. Change your focus from what everyone else is doing. Focus in on what you need to do to reach your very specific goal.

So that's the first thing you want to do. And then second, and this is probably the most important part is that you need to surround yourself with others who can help you get there. Roger did not get there alone. Roger had two people pacing him who were literally running. Side-by-side with him during his attempts to help him get to where he wanted to go.

They believed that it was possible and they were willing to help him do whatever it took to reach his goals and with everything that has happened this year now, more than ever, I believe that people need somebody to believe in them. Like those Pacers believed in Roger. People need someone to come around them and encourage them as they work towards their goals as they're training, as they're running and really stretching themselves that can remind them that they can do this, that all they need to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward to reach.

Their goals. They need somebody who can say yes, it is possible. And you can do this. You can do this. And we're here to support you in any way we can. This is why masterminds are so incredibly powerful and. Honestly, I believe they are needed more than ever in today's online business space. And even in the online, offline business space, frankly, I believe people need that connection and they need that support more than they ever had in the past.

Not only do people get to watch the other people in the mastermind as they are building their businesses and growing and showing that it's absolutely possible. To build a business, they actually get to watch the behind the scenes step-by-step process that they're taking to do it.

And so if you're in a mastermind and you're seeing all these people around you doing stuff that, you know, you can do too, and now they're getting better results and they're growing you'll believe that it's possible for yourself as well. So being in a mastermind absolutely builds belief that it's possible and shows you basically how to do it.

Watching other people it's like having your own running Pacers. They're showing you what you need to be doing to continue moving forward as well. They will help you hit your goals and support and encourage you as you move forward as well. Masterminds are just wonderful. Gosh, you guys know I'm passionate about these.

I've talked about them a lot. But I want you to take another thing in mind is Roger didn't need more education. He didn't need more learning. He didn't need to train in a different way. He just needed to continue doing what it was that he was doing. And he needed the support of people around him to keep him on pace and on track, literally.

This might be the same for some of the people in your audience. Some of your customers they've gone through your stuff. They know what they need to do, but now the only thing that's holding them back from hitting their goals and being successful is having people who can surround them and encourage them and support them as they move forward and do what they need to do to hit their goals. they need to watch other people like them moving forward and making it happen. They need to surround themselves with like-minded people with similar values who all want to support each other,

take a moment right now and think about some of your best customers. You know, the ones, they're the ones who have the best success stories or they're the ones who've done, all the things and they're moving forward and they have massive momentum. They are moving in the right direction.

And you know, you can see where they're going. You know, they're only going to continue to grow and you believe in them, you fully believe in them and you know that they are going to reach the goals that they are dreaming of. If this is you and you don't currently have a different way to support them, you may want to consider starting a mastermind. Now, starting a mastermind allows people to grow together. It basically is a place to take all the things they've learned and start implementing them. They can leverage each other's experience. You can support each other in it. And it's really truly a community of people who come together with a common goal that Bolieve, that it's possible and encourage each other and really seeking those dreams instead of competing against each other on the racetrack in the business world, they are banding together to pace each other.

So that they can all reach the goals that they are seeking. If this is something that you're interested in, I'm actually putting together a mini workshop called launch your first mastermind. Now I'm not ready with this yet. It's not done. It's in progress. I'm working on it at the moment, but I do have a waitlist ready to go.

If you are interested in signing up for it. And getting access to that when it's available. Now, this is not going to be a $2,000 course. This is going to be a much lower price point and anybody who's on the wait list will get the lowest price that I have ever going to sell it. So definitely jump on that now.

If you aren't already, and you can get on the waitlist@launchyourfirstmastermind.com. Once it's launched that link will take you directly to the product. So you can definitely use that, even if you're listening to this in the future, long after I've recorded it. So that's number one. If you're interested in launching a mastermind to serve your people, definitely go sign up for that wait list.

But number two, if you're listening to this and you're like, man, I don't have a group like that supporting me. I don't have people around me who have similar goals who can help me take what I've learned and put it into practice and who really truly believe in me. And I want that.

I want that community. I want that support. I want to watch others going after the same dream as I am. Then I'd love to invite you to reach out to me, to talk about potentially joining the brighter together. Mastermind. I'll put my contact details down in the show notes. So you can just use those to reach out to me personally.

And let's just have a little chat about it because here's what I know to be true as I've been restarting my business and I've been building from scratch, being in a mastermind myself. Has been one of the most valuable things that I could be in the support that I've received, saved the encouragement, the validation, just having people around me, cheering for me, especially in the lowest moments who can help take my hand and pull me out of it and remind me that I do have what it takes.

I can do this. And I just need to go one more step further and keep moving forward and keep that momentum building has been invaluable to me. And that's what I want for you. I want you to have that support, but I also want you to be supporting your own people that way. If you feel like a mastermind would be a good fit,

So, like I said, just go down into the show notes, reach out to me. I would love to have a chat to see if it's a good fit. And I'd love for you to get signed up for the waitlist for the launch, your first mastermind workshop, which will be coming out really soon. I'm super close to having it done. Also, if you do sign up for the wait list.

And you have questions about if running a mastermind is really going to be something that works for you. I'd be happy to answer them. There there'll be an opportunity for you to send me a little note after you sign up or a video, which is much better in my book, because then I get to know you a little better and you can ask me any questions you have and if I think this is something that's going to work for you and your niche, so feel free to ask away there. All right. Would that my friends. Just remember we are brighter together and the world needs us now more than ever. So let's go out and make it ð brighter.

How to Decide What to Focus on to Grow Your Business Nov 21, 2020

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Join the Waitlist for the Launch Your First Mastermind Workshop here >>> https://www.launchyourfirstmastermind.com Sign up for podcast email reminders here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/email Transcript: A couple of days ago, I was talking with somebody who is growing her business and she's in the messy middle and has all sorts of stuff going on and lots of really good things happening in her business at the moment. And so we were talking about how do you know what you should be focused on in order to continue growing? And there's actually a very. Easy way that you can do this, that most people don't know when they're first starting out or they don't do it when they're first starting out. That makes your focus incredibly clear incredibly quickly. And that's what I'm going to share with you today. ð When you're stuck in the messy middle of your business, you have a lot of moving parts and it feels like everything needs your attention. And it can be really hard to now exactly where you need to be focusing. A lot of times the decision to focus on something comes from either what you feel like focusing on or what you think needs to happen. Or it can come in the way of having to put out fires like, Oh my gosh, we need to do this right now because it's broken. So we're just going to go and do it. But there's a better way to decide where your focus needs to be in your business, that bright entrepreneurs now. And that's what I want to share with you today in this episode. And it came out of a wonderful conversation. I had with a quickly growing successful entrepreneur earlier this week. Who was doing all of the things, right. She has her messaging down. She's got her funnel, it's converting, but she didn't know. Okay. What do I focus on next to keep the growth happening? Where should I put my efforts? Should I be testing different ideas? Should I be optimizing what I already have? How do I know what to do next? And so we talked about this and I wanted to share it with you because I think this is something that. I'm going to be straight up honest. It's not fun and sexy at all in any way. This is not the kind of thing that everyone's like, Oh man, I really want to do this. But it is by far one of the most important things you can be doing to grow your business, because it'll show you exactly what you need to be focusing on in your specific business. Now, this is super simple. It comes down to focusing on your numbers. Once you've got everything set up, once you've been running things, when you have the actual data. And you can start looking at what is selling, what is working, what isn't working, and you can start comparing your performance over time. It'll give you. Supreme clarity into what you need to be focusing on in order to continue to grow. So I want to share with you a few of the numbers that you need to be tracking in order to know what you need to be focused on in your business, because if you're crushing it. With audience growth and you're getting tons of followers and tons of email subscribers and whatever it is, but you're not converting them into buyers. Then it's going to be clear that you need to be converting more of those people into buyers and putting your focus on selling. but the reason we need to have numbers is because sometimes we think we're not doing real well, but then when we look at the numbers, it's actually really great. And a perfect example of this was my bright future method workshop launch, which I did a couple of months ago. Because I'm so used to launching to large audiences in the photography space, it felt so much different and so much more defeating to be launching to a much smaller audience. So during the launch, my emotions were telling me, Oh my goodness, this is failing your. Just not doing it right. Your messaging is off all of these things. But then when the launch was over and I actually looked at the numbers, what they told me was pretty dang astounding. The reality was I wasn't getting a lot of sales because my email list of potential buyers was super tiny. I only had 53 people on my email list who didn't already have a version of the course. And so I was literally launching a course to 53 people. I converted over 15% of those on a $1,300 product. Now that is a phenomenal conversion rate. Like that's fantastic for a product that size. So if I had just gone off of how it felt, it would have felt like a huge failure, but because I was looking at the numbers and because I knew that my audience numbers were small, it was easy for me to say, Oh, That wasn't a failure at all. This is actually really resonating with your people. You just need more people to hear about it. You just need to have a larger email list. And it made me feel all sorts of better. I'll be straight up honest because man, so much of what we do is ruled by our emotions. And so when we are tracking the data, when we are looking at the numbers, What we think might actually be doing really poorly, might actually be going far better than we think. Plus it will give you clarity on to where you need to be focusing. So what are some of the numbers that you should be focused on as you are growing your business? So, number one, I am tracking. Audience growth. And this is absolutely so essential. It's super basic. And it's easy for people to focus on that when they're first starting out and then kind of forget about it later on in their business, as they get busier and busier. And focus on different conversion assets or different products or delivery or whatever else. I know that definitely happened to me in my photography business. I grew fast because I focused on growing my list. And then I got distracted by doing all of the things and trying to grow the team. And yeah. Whatever else it came along and my numbers started to drop because I wasn't consistently bringing in new people month after month, I was relying on the momentum that I had to keep carrying me forward. And while it got me a little ways, it definitely started to show that when I shifted my focus away from bringing new qualified leads into my business, it affected the bottom line. And so I don't want you to fall into that trap. So you should be tracking your audience growth. Now this might be your email list. This might be your social media platforms. It's probably all of them, honestly, but you definitely want to be tracking that at the very least on a monthly basis. The second thing that you're going to want to be tracking is your conversion rate. So what percentage of the people going through your launches or your evergreen funnel are buying and you want this percentage to be as high as possible? Obviously, if you're bringing the right people into your business. This rate is going to be significantly higher than if you're bringing in the wrong people. And so if you find that your conversion rates are low and I would say anything below one to 2% is very low above. That is great, but it also depends on the product you're selling the price point and a lot of different things. So giving you exact numbers is kind of a fool's game. So you'll have to look at it. It's best if you actually track your own numbers over time and just continually work on improving them. But looking at your conversion rate can help you see, okay. Am I actually bringing the right people in. And is my messaging resonating with them in a way that's getting them to want to buy and see the value in what it is I'm offering them. So you definitely want to be tracking that over time. Cause if your conversion rate is really low, you're either bringing the wrong people in or your messaging is off or your offer is off. Maybe they don't want what you're giving them. All right. The third thing that I recommend tracking is the average sale amount of the initial purchase they make with you? Now, this is especially important. If you're running an evergreen funnel or you're going to be running paid advertising, because ideally we'd like to be making at least as much money from our ads as we're spending on them. If not several times over that investment. So even if somebody is joining your membership and you're going to have them for however many months, and you know, you're going to be making more income from them in the future, you still want to be tracking what that initial value is. Now, for some of you, if you just sell a single course that has one price, this probably isn't quite as useful. But this is definitely useful for anybody who has multiple pricing options. So if you have like a yearly versus a monthly plan for your membership, or if you're like me and you have a course, but you also have an upsell for something else on the backend, you will see a fluctuating average because. You know, yes. They might just buy it straight up for what the price is, but they may also add something on to help make that bigger. And I love having an upsell on there that makes sense with what they're buying. So for me, back in my photography business, I had the, how to start the photography business course. And that was the, the main thing that they purchased. And if they wanted, at the same time, they purchased that. I also had a legal contract that they could use with their clients to book their clients. And so I would offer that to them at a pretty significant discount if they added it on at the same time that they bought the course. So it was a very logical upsell for them, something they were going to need either way and they could add it on at the point of purchase. If that average sale amount at the time of purchase is a low, you're not going to be able to spend as much money on your ads because you're going to make less money. Right. You know, if you can get that initial purchase amount to be a lot higher than any future payments are all profit. Plus you might actually make money to grow your list and to get more buyers, which is the. Ideal solution when you're paying for ads. So this is why you want to track that number. But the second thing you do want to be tracking is also the lifetime value of your customers. So that's great. We've tracked that first initial purchase, but we also want to know on average, how much does somebody spend if they become a customer now, if you have a membership, this is going to vary from month to month, but you can actually calculate the lifetime value of your clients in your membership, your members. If you have two numbers, number one, you have to know how much they're paying per month. So that's pretty easy. You've got that number. The number two, you need to have your average monthly retention rate. And so all you need to do, and I'm going to get super geeky on you here just for a second. So hang with me, but this is based on a geometric series. If you want to go look up the math yourself, but all you need to do to figure out the lifetime value of one of your members is to take one. Minus the retention rate. So if you have a 90% retention rate, um, one minus 90% is going to be 10% or 0.1, and then you. Take the monthly amount that you charge and divide it by the number you just got. So if you charge $49 a month, you'd now take $49 divided by 0.1. And that's going to tell you the lifetime value of your members, which in this case would be $490. Now this is not going to necessarily reflect reality. A hundred percent of the time, sometimes members will leave sooner. Sometimes they will leave later. You may make changes to your membership that actually increases retention over time, or maybe something crazy like a global pandemic is going to happen. That's going to drop retention over time. But it's going to give you a ballpark number to kind of know how much money you're going to make on average from your members. So it's a super , useful calculation to have. Now, if you don't do a membership or if you also have other products, you might have to go back through your database and look and see, okay, what is the average amount of money I make per. Customer, you may also want to actually see how much you're making per email subscriber the easy way to do that is just add up all the money you've made for a certain time period. And then divide that by the number of email subscribers you have on that list during that time. that's going to give you the amount of money you're making on average per subscriber, which is pretty stinking. Awesome. Because now, you know, if you want to run a Facebook ad to just. Increase your email list through your opt-in and you don't sell anything right away on the backend, you know, on average how much you can spend before you start losing money. Right? So if you, on average, you're making $12 per email subscriber per year. Then, you know, if you're only spending four to $6 for an email subscriber, you're going to double your money in the end. And so this is why this number is really important to know as well. another number that you might want to consider is things like return on ad spend. If you're running ads, there's actually a whole lot of metrics there that you're gonna want to be looking at. , what is your profit margin versus your expenses? So if you're running ads, or if you have an affiliate program where you're going to have to pay a pretty significant amount in either ad spend or commissions to your affiliates, you're going to want to see what your actual profit amount is after you take that out. Now, there are a bajillion different metrics that you can be. Tracking. I know this is not the most fun thing to do. And I also know that there are a ton of other metrics that you could be tracking and you may very well want to be tracking. These are just a few of the main ones that I recommend focusing on. As you are trying to figure out where to go next in your business, because if you're not growing your audience or if you're not converting them well, or if you're not retaining them well, like if you join, if you have a membership and people only stay for like two or three months, then maybe you need to be focusing more on retention and how to keep them engaged in your membership. And so when you're looking at all of these numbers, the beautiful thing is that it can help you get. Real clarity on where you need to focus. Going back to my launch, for example, I only had 53 people going through that launch. I would have had an incredibly stellar launch if I had had a lot more people going through it, even though it felt kind of junky because the numbers were small upfront. The only reason they were small was because my email list at the time was small it's brand new business. Didn't focus on growing a very big email list. And so my results were tiny. So it showed me very clearly that I needed to focus on getting qualified leads. Into my business because frankly, I am making an insane amount of money for every single email subscriber that is on my list. That number is very high in my business. It's multiple hundreds of dollars per email subscriber and that's that's in four months. That's. Insane. And I know I won't be able to keep that long-term most likely because I've been very personal with my people and any time you're personal, you're going to get higher results. So as you scale your business, it's going to be harder and harder to do that for as many people, but it's not impossible. And it's way higher than the $12 per year. I was getting early…

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3 Ways to Add Personalization To Your Business Nov 14, 2020

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VideoAsk Link (affiliate) + Get 10% off using coupon code KesFBt6L >>> https://typeform.grsm.io/videoask9903 Sign up for podcast email reminders here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/email Join the Insider's Telegram Channel Here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/telegram Transcript: Recently, my friend assumed Stu McLaren reached out to me and asked if I'd be willing to contribute a very short little clip, explaining my best marketing tip for 2020 so that he could include it in his 200th episode of the marketing, your business podcast, which should be live right now. If you want to go check it out. But it got me thinking about how everything has changed and how I'm building my business differently this time than I did the first time and how it's so much easier in some ways to build a business today than it was 10 years ago, even though there's just so much more competition now than there's ever been before. But the beautiful thing is there's so many more softwares and marketing techniques and all of these things to make it easier than ever to reach the people you want to reach and connect with them. And my tip was all about how I've been using personalization and building relationships with my prospective clients to get more sales. And I thought I would do a podcast episode on that with you both because it is really powerful, but also because I want to go a lot deeper than I was able to in a little three minute clip. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. And I cannot wait to dive in ð We all know that the internet has changed, how things are sold forever. The whole invention of online businesses and our ability to sell anything to anyone, anywhere in the world. It's utterly incredible. And it's never been easier to start an online business than it is today. when I started 10 years ago, I had to learn all of this crazy WordPress coding from scratch. And, I mean, YouTube, I don't think was even around. So hosting videos was. Almost unheard of and having video on your website and gosh, it was, it was a totally different landscape. It is so much easier now with the softwares and the tools we have available to get something up and running fast. But there's one thing that absolutely has not changed over all of those years. And that is the same today as it was 50 years ago. And that is that people buy from the people that they know. The people that they like and the people that they trust now this phrase gets thrown around a lot and it's really easy to say. Yeah. Yeah, I know. We know, but it's so easy when we're working in the online space, especially as our audience grows and we have to scale our business and we have to scale our messaging and we start. Using marketing techniques that can welcome thousands of people to come and watch us at the same time or to get our emails or whatever it is. Right. We have this mass audience potential that makes us feel a little bit disconnected from who we are really serving in some ways, because we can't have a conversation with each and every one of those people in fact, it's impossible for a single person to have conversations with thousands of people a day. We just literally do not have the time to do that in and of ourselves. However, the more personal touches that we can do means the more trust that we're going to build, which means the more sales that we are going to get, people would rather buy from people. Then random companies, because when we connect, we feel like somebody actually understands us. And when we feel like somebody really understands us, especially when they can show that they understand the problems that we're dealing with. We feel more confident that they actually know the solution as well, when they say they do, because they understand the problem. So we're more likely to buy from them. Plus, I mean, if it comes down to buying from some random person or company that I've never met or have no connection with versus buying from somebody that I know, and I like, of course, I'm going to buy it from the person I know, especially if everything else is similar, I'll probably even buy it from the person I know, like, and trust, even if it's more expensive. Because I know like, and trust them. So this is why things like having a personal brand is really great because it can really help you scale that connection and that trust. And I talked a ton about growing a personal brand in the first season of this podcast. In fact, this podcast was originally named the personal brand journey because it was all about how I was growing my personal brand behind the scenes. So if that's something that's interesting to you definitely go back from the beginning and start listening. Because you're going to get tons of tips on how to do that. But what I have found is that when we can be ourselves, when we can be more casual, more authentic and just more real. People feel like we're more like them. And this is a difference that I've seen from when I started 10 years ago versus now. And even I see this in beginning entrepreneurs versus more established entrepreneurs is that, in the beginning we think we have to be super polished and we need to have this level of perfection or that nobody's going to take us seriously, that it's going to undermine our authority, that it's going to make our expertise seem less. Legitimate. If we don't have the super polished, super high quality brand, and yes, we want to have high quality products. We want to get our people results, but. The trend that I've seen happen is that when it's all so polished and it's all so dry in corporate, it doesn't really connect with people in the same way that more authentic, sometimes less polished things really can. Now I say sometimes because I absolutely think the best is when you can have both the Polish. And the authenticity. So you have a high visual beauty in your set in your stuff, but also still have that high level of authenticity with your people. And a lot of that comes with just being real with them, having. Stuff out there like a podcast or, Instagram stories or whatever it is, Facebook lives, where they can get more of what you're doing real time and it's not super edited. It might still be beautifully lit. And aesthetically pleasing, but it's, it's still very personal and authentic and that that's actually better than if you're trying to do everything super scripted, super polished, and really formal. bright entrepreneurs know that Don is better than perfect and that showing our imperfections. Honestly, it builds connection and trust better than trying to have everything polished and scripted and storyboarded and all of those things. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't have intention in this, but I think so many people at the beginning of growing their business or, you know, even. A few years ago, it feels like this is something that's developed more. But I think a few years ago we saw this in general, even with super successful people that we felt like we had to have this polished quality, because if we didn't, um, we thought that it would make our authority and expertise lessen. It wouldn't be as legitimate. And so people wouldn't buy from us. it's something I'm super passionate about because as I've been growing this new business, personalization has been everything building real relationships with my people has been everything and I would much rather have AC. Smaller audience that I have a real relationship with, or that is absolutely the right fit for me. And then buys a high ticket item. Then having a massive audience that barely connects with me at all that I don't really know on any personal level. I mean, you can't know everybody. I don't know. No, all the photographers who are in my photography business who've ever signed up for my email list. I think we've, we were nearing 126. That was in people on our email list, by the time COVID came and kind of shut all of that down. And I didn't even come close to knowing a fraction of them. Right. But that doesn't mean I couldn't be personal with a handful. So even if you have a massive audience, Even if you have more people than you could ever reach out personally to, uh, I think that this is important to continue doing, even on a small scale for a certain number of people, for the ones that you can connect with on a personal level, you don't have to do it for everybody. You can do it for a small number of people, and that can still be incredibly valuable. So here are three different ways that I personally have an adding personalization into my business. And plan to continue doing that going forward as much as I am able to do that because it's so powerful. number one, I am using video, ask for email opt-ins for this podcast right now. So video ask us this amazing software. It allows you to collect a name and an email address and have conversations via video. With the people who use it. So you can check this out and see exactly how I'm doing it, you can go to the link. That's bright entrepreneur podcast.com/email. It's in the show notes and go to sign up. You'll click a button saying, yes, I want to opt in and you'll enter your name and your email. And then you'll see a little video from me. That allows you to respond. You can actually press a single button and respond either with a voice message or a video, which is what I prefer. So I can get to know you a little more or even a text. you can answer the questions that I ask you and help me get to know you a little bit more personally. And then I get a notification on my phone as soon as that's been sent. once it's been sent, I can actually click reply and send a quick video message back. Now, I, I tend to do this wherever I'm at, within certain limits. Right? So for example, this morning, I got a response from somebody who actually sent me a case study. It's really great for collecting case studies as well. I've been using it for all sorts of things. Actually, video ask is amazing, but I saw that I gotten this response overnight, so I'm literally sitting in bed with a cup of coffee. I have got bad head. My hair is all over the place. It's a little wild I'm bleary-eyed from not having been awake. That long coffee hasn't kicked in and I grabbed the phone and I click record and I send a quick little, thank you, video back, thanking them for sending me that case study and sharing a couple of little things. And then I click send. And off it goes via email to them right away. And it doesn't bother me. Here's the thing it's real like when we can share those real little moments, no matter where we are, what we're doing we're walking down the street or waiting in line at the supermarket, whatever it is, it only takes literally 30 to 60 seconds at most to click that button, record a message and click send, and you can always rerecord it if you don't love it, whatever, but I don't worry about it. I really don't worry about it. And it's so stupid, simple. So right now I have a video set up for people who subscribe to the podcast so that I can send them a little welcome message right away. And so you can actually go and check that out, subscribe to the podcast while you're there. Absolute shameless promotion for sure. And at the moment, I've been able to respond to everybody who subscribes. Now I just set this up recently. And so I haven't been doing it since the very beginning. So if you've been subscribed for a while, I didn't see it. That's why go check it out now, if you want to, but it's been really effective for building relationships. And a lot of the people I have done this with have gone on to either join my course. Or join the mastermind that I've created because we had that personal relationship right from the beginning. And as I scale my business and as the number of subscribers starts to grow in a big way, there's two ways that I can continue using this instead of ditching it all together. One I can take, you know, 10, 15 minutes a day, set it aside and welcome as many people as possible and not worry about trying to reach everyone. I can just do, the most recent number of people and just call it good. There. And not get worried about it, not stress about it or too. I can actually ask other people to welcome others with me because the app allows you to invite team members. And so I could invite alumni from my courses or other people in my mastermind or team members to actually send personalized videos back Without me having to do all of them. And even though it isn't me directly, it would be somebody from my team and it would be a personal, customized response, not an automated response that says their name in it and answers any questions they have. Even though it's not as powerful as if it would have come from me directly. It's still incredibly powerful and people are still blown away by the fact that a real person took the time to send them a welcome video and say, hello and answer any questions that they have. So that's something that. Would not be very expensive to have to hire somebody. Who's just literally there to answer those questions via video and to welcome people that during video cause paying an hourly rate, even if you're doing a hundred people and you're spending one minute on each of them, which is very reasonable because you could do this in 30 seconds, if you wanted to within the app, it's crazy simple. So what's that that's less than two hours. So two hours to, maybe pay what 50 to. Seventy-five dollars for somebody to spend two hours sending quick little welcome videos to all your new email subscribers. That's a pretty worthwhile investment in my book because. The people who feel like they've gotten a personal connection, they buy, they do, they buy, they feel like you genuinely care. It's the start of a relationship. And it's so, so powerful. So you absolutely can scale this. So that's one way is using video asks. Now I use it for email opt-ins. I use it for collecting case studies, answering sales questions. When I have them getting client feedback and all sorts of really fun things, highly recommended. Check it out. The second way that I do, this is on Instagram. Now. I'm not heavily active on Instagram in terms of posting content. I don't have a regular content strategy. I'm not actively trying to promote my Instagram account because honestly, I feel like having a lot of followers, it's just vanity metrics and I don't love Instagram. I talked about that. Oh gosh. At the very beginning of this podcast and season one, I don't remember the exact episode, but originally I thought I would spend a lot of time on Instagram and grow that, but I realized that I love podcasting more. So this is my primary platform, the one that I'm growing this an email. And so I'm not really worried about Instagram at all. That being said, when people do seek me out there and follow me. I do try and send them a quick little voice message via a DM and just thank them for following me and try and get to know them a little bit. And it doesn't take very much time. I love the voice message feature because it's so fast and easy. It's so fast and easy and it builds relationships. I can trace back specific people. Who've joined my course this fall. Because I welcomed them with a voice message when they started following me o…

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Does Your Business Reflect the Lifestyle You Want? Nov 11, 2020

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Interested in Clarity Coaching? Contact Jamie directly on Instagram @JamieMSwanson Sign up for podcast email reminders here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/email Transcript: Over the last four months as I've been starting a brand new online business, working with entrepreneurs. The question that has been at the top of my mind is am I designing a business that fits the lifestyle that I really. Want to have, because I've been doing this about 10 years now, full time, and I've learned that there's a no magical point later on in your business where things suddenly get easier, where you suddenly have all of this extra time. Sure. Your income is going to continue to grow, but it's so easy for complexity to come in and droves, like as your income grows, your complexity grows. And you get stuck in this messy middle part. And so you have to be so intentional at every stage of your business, whether you're at the beginning in the middle or further along to make a simple business that fits your lifestyle and that doesn't consume everything you have. And so I want to talk today a little bit about my journey in that and what I'm doing to help keep things simple, sustainable. and how I'm building a business that is designed around the exact kind of life that I want to have, even from the very start ð I think there's this myth out there that when you start a new business, you've just got to hustle, hustle, hustle for a few years before you really start getting the momentum that you want and can step back a little bit. And while yes. It is easier to hire a team when you have more income coming in the door, which allows you to scale faster and do less work yourself. You don't have to wait until you can afford to hire a team to create a business. That's really perfect. The lifestyle that you want to have. I actually have found that the simpler, you keep things the faster you are able to grow. And that one of the biggest challenges we have as entrepreneurs is to avoid complexity as much as possible. And it's really easy for complexity to creep in little by little, we started doing one more thing and then one more thing. And then, you know, the next thing we know we've got all of these systems and products and marketing plans and opt-ins, and it's messy. It's messy. That's why we call it the messy middle. And it makes sense, right? Because when we're starting out, we're trying to figure out what exactly do we want to be known for what messaging really sells? What platform is the best platform for us to be on. And we have all these questions in our mind as we are building this new business. And that's not a bad thing. You do have to play at the beginning. You do have to try a bunch of different things and learn from them. But the hard part is that most people don't let go of the things that aren't working fast enough, they build all of this stuff. They create a hundred different opt-ins okay. Maybe not a hundred, but let's say, you know, half a dozen or more opt-ins. I mean, I know some people who had a different often for every single. Podcast episode they've ever created. And while I fully believe in using your podcast and, whatever platform you're on to get leads, I definitely would never recommend that you try a different lead for every single piece of content that you're doing. I mean, it made sense content upgrades is what people would call them, but in the, and what happens is you get this very crazy, messy business and not all of the things that you create. Are really created to help move people into that next level, to turn them from, you know, your free follower into a buyer who actually buys the stuff that you're offering. Some. Opt-ins are going to lead to that more naturally than others. So without going into all the business strategy stuff, my goal has been, as I've been growing this new business, working with bright entrepreneurs is to figure out what is the one thing. That I really want to be known for. And how can I go deep with that? How can I create a business that is so aligned with who I am and my zone of genius. And that is just so easy for me to run and so clear for me to market that that's all I have to do to get up to seven figures and beyond that's really my goal. So I have been using these first few months to play. I spent some time trying to figure out what could I teach entrepreneurs? And I created my bright future method workshop, which has been amazing. I have absolutely loved seeing the transformation that's happening with my students. But it's also really big because it's a high level strategy. There's a lot of work that goes into it. And I've found that that level of strategy really requires mirrors. And what I mean by that is that you need people around you working with you, that you can bounce your ideas off and get feedback from. They can be a mirror to you as you're creating. And you're going through the deep work of strategizing how to run your business effectively with intention and purpose. Now it's been super rewarding. But what I found was that my favorite part was not teaching the course or answering those questions in a Facebook group. My favorite part has been. Working with students directly in our group coaching calls, which I do once a week. And that showed me, the part that really lights me up is working with people on a deeper level, more personally. So it was great because I got more information. I said, wonderful. So what do I do with that? What kind of business models can I do that will make me the money that I need to make, to have the lifestyle that I want to have. And that allows me to work more personally with people and go deep. And if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that I decided to launch a mastermind, the brighter together mastermind. Yeah. And I launched that we are starting actually next week. I'm really excited. We have our first group of people and it's going to be absolutely amazing. I'm so excited about that, but it just is an example of how you have to kind of try stuff and see what you like. And really be very honest with yourself and reflect very honestly with. What is it that you really resonate with? What makes you come alive? And so I've been thinking about all of that. And now here I am just going to share some insight on where I'm at. This is how I'm different from when I first started out, when I first started out, I would have been like, okay, we're going to do that. And we're going to run the course and we're gonna do all these things. And I would just keep adding to it and keep promoting all the things. And I would spread my focus far too thin. So right now, as I'm sitting here saying, okay, we have one more, one and a half more weeks left of going through the bright future method workshop with students. Cause I launched that six and a half weeks ago and it's been awesome. But I don't know when I'm going to launch that again. In fact, I don't know if I'm going to launch that again in the same format. maybe I'll just use that information with the people in the masterminds. Honestly, I'm not sure right now, but what I do know is that I don't want to get crazy, messy, complicated, and I want to focus on one single thing because. It's so much easier to grow when you're focuses on a single thing. Then when you've got even three different things to promote or six different things to promote or whatever it is, even two, even two is a lot. Now it's a little different scenario if one naturally leads to the next. So I absolutely could only. Open up my mastermind to people who've been through my bright future method workshop. And I could use that as my funnel, because then I would promote my bright future method workshop. And then when that was done, it would be a natural time to invite them into my mastermind, which is a higher level group. Now that's great, but I don't want to limit the number of people who may join my mastermind to people who've gone through my course, because you don't have to have gone through the bright future method workshop to really be a good fit for the mastermind. And so, yeah, I'm just, I hope you guys are enjoying me taking you behind the scenes on my thought process, but I want to share because it's so helpful to have these. Thoughts and to really get intentional about what you're doing. And it's so easy to see all of it and just do it because that's what you've already done. It's that consistency principle that, you know, you've set this precedent. So you might as well do it again, but I'm really open to considering not doing it again, even though it's crazy valuable, even though the people in it have been asking me for links and telling me they want to promote it next time I do it. So I haven't, I haven't given it up altogether. Just. Straight honesty. And I debated even sharing this with you because I didn't want you to say, Oh no, it's going to be gone forever. And I didn't get in. And I wanted to, or whatever, I'm not trying to incite panic, but just because it's helpful, doesn't mean. I have to go down that route and we have freedom. And it's the same for you just because you've created these things and you sell these things and they may even be making you money. Doesn't mean you have to continue selling them and promoting them. If it's not the main thing that you want to be doing and focused on. So I've really been trying to be very honest with myself and hold loosely. To all the things that I'm doing, it's never too late for a plot twist in your business. And this very beginning part is lovely because it's allowing me to play and make money while I play and figure out exactly what it is that lights me up the most, because I know. That if I can stay focused and I can find the model that's most aligned with who I am and I'm very relational. I love to help people. I'm one of those social people who ends up sitting on social media accounts, engaging with my friends and helping them. And yeah. Chattering. And I do it naturally while also getting all my work done and it's not heavy for me. It's actually something that gives me life. I need that connection. I love that connection and it lights me up to be able to help others make progress and step forward in their business. If I can bring them a moment of clarity, man, I feel so thrilled and it gives me energy to do the stuff that I'm working on. It really drives me. And so that's why I want to focus on the mastermind model so. As I'm sitting here again, taking you back behind the scenes of my brain, what's going on in there. And I'm thinking about how to keep this simple, because honestly I have six kids. I homeschool, I fully support our family with my business. There's just a lot of, lot of pressure on me. And so I have to keep it simple. I don't want to be working 40 to 60 hours a week to get something going. I ideally would love to be working 20 to 30 hours a week at most, and then be able to spend the rest of that time with my family or out on the trails running or whatever it is. I feel like doing with my friends when we can do that again, more consistently I'd love to do more travel. And so even from the very beginning, I have been doing my best to build a sustainable business and focus only on the actions that really help you get clients. I've been doing a lot of selling, which sounds funny, but you've got to do that at the beginning because that's where you learn your messaging. That's the yeah. Moment of truth. You can talk to people all day long about what they'd like or not like, but you don't get their real objections and the real truth until you ask them to actually pay for something. That's when you get the real objections before then when it's just all conjecture it's I go, yeah, that sounds amazing. I'd love this. I'd love that. But when you ask them to pay, it's like, Oh, But, and then you get the objections and the hesitation, and that's where you learn your messaging. That's where you can really craft your offer and refine it and grow. And so I have been talking with as many people as possible, and you'll hear in the next episode, how I've been getting really personal with people to help grow my business faster. So that's coming, it's really fun, but I've been really focused on what can I do? To sell more effectively to help people more effectively and do it in a way that's aligned with who I am. That's simple. And that's basically, I want one funnel. So all right. Back to my brain, I know I keep going in circles a little bit here, but it's all, so this stuff, this stuff is really close to my heart because a lot of people speak to it, but very few people actually do it. Even a lot of the people who say they do. Find themselves working long hours, much of the time and side note, it's okay to hustle once in a while, as long as you know, that it is a season with a very defined end and that it's a choice you're making in that time. This week, for example, I've been hustling to get an evergreen funnel out for my photography business that I want to try and. You know, I've been putting in long hours because I feel like there's an opportunity for me to make this happen fast and that the timing is perfect for it. I'm not going to go into details on that now, but. I've been hustling because of it. And it was a choice that I made. I said, okay, I will do this. If I can get it done by a certain date. So I'll hustle between now and then, but then when it's done, I can go back to the pace of business that I want to go back to. And so it's only a couple of days and it's a choice, so there's nothing wrong with that. But the beautiful thing is I'm not stuck in that. My business is not holding me hostage. And if that's where you're at. Here's what I've been thinking about and what you can be thinking about in your business so that you can hopefully move beyond this messy middle and get into a much simpler, scalable business model. That's going to be awesome for you and create the life that you really want. So for me, I'm thinking about what's the easiest possible way. For me to get people into my mastermind. What's the shortest route. That's going to take the least amount of time. And my big things right now is that I need to grow my list and I need consistent cashflow. Those are my biggest two things that I'm focusing on. So instead of running my course again, which is very time intensive and only allows me to make a bunch of money in one week, that's a one-time purchase. And I really want this recurring revenue, which I do have in my masterminds if people pick a payment plan so I can get that recurring revenue. Month after month, which is fantastic. That's what I, I really want to have because it's way easier to operate when you have steady cashflow coming in, that you can count on. instead of doing my course, I've been thinking about doing a smaller mini course or a mini workshop, whatever you want to call it, that comes on the front end of everything. Instead of doing a free opt-in, which you can listen to my podcast for free. I'm so glad you're here. I am going to sell a tiny course. That is a no brainer price. It's a impul…

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Why I ditched out today (and why you should too!) Nov 04, 2020

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Get a bit of custom encouragement from Jamie here >>> http://bebrightandinspired.com

Transcript:

It's been a pretty emotionally draining week for me. And I know that I am not the only one out there who is dealing just with this sense of deep exhaustion between the elections and the stress of the holidays coming up and more and more areas going back into lockdown and just all of the things. It's a really exhausting time for so many people.

So today I just want to do something a little different on the podcast. I want to share a little bit about how I'm dealing with it, but more than anything, I want to encourage you as we move forward through this time. And that's what I'm hoping this podcast will do for you a little bit today.

Okay, confession today. I kind of skipped out on my afternoon. I had a meeting plan. It was one that I had set up, but I had been, I've been in like a day and a half of meetings and it was a really emotionally draining weekend and the sun is shining and it's warm here. Okay. It's warm in November in Northern Minnesota, like the last two weeks had been about 25 degrees.

So below freezing, we had snow on the ground. And the last couple of days, it has been 50 to 60 degrees and sunny outside 50 to 60 degrees or sunny, like that's practically summer for me. I know it's not summer, but pretty dang close for me. And so this afternoon I had just gotten out of a few hours of a zoom meeting and I'm looking at the sun shining and I'm just like wiped out and I'm like, I just want to be outside.

And I had another meeting coming up and I just couldn't do it. I could not do it. I knew that I was going to be pretty worthless in the meeting that I wasn't going to be able to be myself. And I just, I took a personal day, so I canceled my meeting. I just personally didn't have it in me to show up to this.

And actually, I almost even forgot about this podcast episode. Oops, glad I didn't. But I made the decision to reschedule that meeting and then. Really go out and seek this stillness that I had been missing from sitting in front of a screen the last few days and just from kind of a crazy weekend.

And so I grabbed a couple of journals, so I could do some working up there if I wanted to, or just whatever I kind of went without an agenda. And it's about a mile and a half to get up to the top of this cliff where I can sit in the last of the sunlight. And it was so lovely. It's a, it's a big uphill climb it's equivalent to about 75 flights of stairs.

So it's no joke to get up there. It's a decent sized cliff and it's pretty remote. It's really, really lovely. I go up there relatively frequently so that I can just sit and find rest and find stillness. It's a beautiful place for me to get grounded with the earth. Cause it's really. I mean it's stone. It's like huge stone steps and, It's just amazing. It's just this deep place of stillness for me. And I love to sit there and the quiet, I love to listen to the wind. it's really a place for me to go and recharge. And so I went up there, I brought a blanket, I brought some decaf coffee, laid it out and just sat and soaked up. The son ended up having a lovely conversation with a friend and I just felt so much. Better, even within moments of getting up there where I could just breathe, I could just relax.

I could lay my body out on this rock and just feel myself melt into the weight of this rock. And actually even this little chipmunk, I've never had this happen before. It was like, So curious about me and it was like a foot away from me. It kept coming up like really, really close to me, which is not typical here because it's a pretty wild place.

I know sometimes in parks and things at might be a little bit more typical, but this was crazy. I've never had one get that close to me. And I didn't even have food that I was offering it. I don't know what was up, but it was just a lovely opportunity for me to really remember who I am. And what I'm doing.

And, you know, I took some notes about the mastermind that I'm starting and I'm trying to get all of that put together this week. And I've got a big to-do list. Honestly, I didn't honestly have the time to be going up there and doing this, but I knew that if I didn't, I would be pretty worthless and I wouldn't get a whole lot done because I was just so wiped out. So there's two things I want to encourage you with today. Number one, if you are feeling emotionally exhausted or burned out or anxious or any of the things. Take a little bit of time away, even if it's just a few minutes to get outside and breathe, or maybe it's some time to soak in a bathtub or I don't know what it is that brings you stillness and it helps you find peace.

But it's okay to step away for a little bit, even if you have to cancel some meetings and find your center to come back and find that piece, and I really call it stillness, you can call it prayer. You can call it whatever you need to contemplation forest bathing, whatever it is, find the thing that brings you peace and just really reminds you of who you are and let.

Everything in you, that's just start up, get still. And then second reach out to the people who love you and know you and are there to encourage you. It has been a rough few days for me, actually. It's been more than a few days, but it's been rough for me lately. And there have been. Several dear friends of mine.

Who've just been checking in on me. Who've been reaching out, who've been encouraging me and just really believing in me and in what I'm doing. And that means more than I can tell you. It's so wonderful to know that when I'm struggling or feeling down or even just I'm on the right path, but I'm exhausted.

They're there to help. Bring me up, they're there to encourage me and they are there to believe in me. We all need somebody who believes in us. And I believe that we can help bring that gift back into the world, by believing in other people as well. It's part of why I love mastermind so much because a lot of the people who reached out to me this week have been people I've met in masterminds and I'm currently in masterminds with, and it has meant more to me than I can even describe.

I've never felt so supported in my entire life, but if you don't have those people in your life right now, Here's what I would like to do for you, or even if you do, but you could use some encouragement right now. I've actually set up this cool little thing it's called a video ask. And basically I'd love to be able to encourage you.

Personally now, all you need to do is go to be bright and inspired.com. And let me know, how are you doing? Where do you need encouragement in your life? Where are you feeling emotionally drained? Are you struggling in your business? Whatever it is, it'll allow you to leave a message for me, and I will respond to you personally.

With a video

so go to be bright and inspired.com and I'll drop the link into the show notes as well. Leave me a message, either a voice message or a video message, and don't worry. No one sees it, but me.

So don't worry if your hair is all. Whatever, and you don't got makeup on. I don't care. It's totally cool. Um, just go there, leave me a message and I will send you back a video message with a little bit of encouragement and yeah, I just would love to give back in that way and be there for you because we all truly need someone to believe in us.

Because I know how helpful can be, to be reminded of who we are and that we are capable and that somebody out there cares. And even if I don't know you personally right now, I want you to know that I do care and I am so thankful you are listening and it's the least I can do to encourage you and help you move forward.

So be bright and inspired.com. Go leave me a message. And if you're listening to this in the future, and my podcast is exploded and I'm getting like crazy, crazy amounts of this, I'm not going to guarantee that it'll still be working, but right now in November of 2020, I am responding to everyone. So go ahead, go leave a message.

You can always try. I'm going to do my best. I love that service so much and I can't wait to get to know you a little bit better and to send some positivity and brightness your way. All right, my friend, if you haven't already done. So please subscribe to the podcast right now.

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How to Overcome Overwhelm Oct 28, 2020

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Interested in a Clarity Coaching Day? Send Jamie a DM on Instagram @JamieMSwanson Sign up for podcast email reminders here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/email Join the Insider's Telegram Channel Here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/telegram Transcript: All right, my friend, how are you doing the fact that you decided to listen to this specific episode tells me that maybe right now you are feeling just a little bit or maybe a lot of overwhelm. In your life and you are hoping that you can find some relief and let go of some of the heavy burden that you are carrying. And that's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about a few things that I do to help overcome the overwhelm and move forward with clarity, focus, and energy. it's that time of year when it's really easy to feel incredibly overwhelmed. And this year is especially stressful. Not only is there a global pandemic, just as a reminder as if you could have forgotten, but we've got the elections coming up just around the corner and the holidays come soon after that. And so she feels like everybody and their sister are launching something right now, or really trying to, do what they can to prepare for the holidays. And in some places it's been especially rough because a lockdown has been starting again. In fact, I just talked to somebody tonight who is struggling because they are now in lockdown in their area and they can no longer. Do their brick and mortar store. And so their income has fallen away and that's coming in this fourth quarter when income is usually really high, especially for retail stores. So I want to talk about this because it's really easy when we feel overwhelmed to just want to burn it all down, to go back to working for somebody else to give up and to just throw in the towel or worse yet to just. get burned out and not do what you know you need to do. And self-sabotage really indirectly, but very noticeably. And I want to help you avoid the self-sabotage. I want to help you avoid wanting to burn down your business. And I want to share the one thing that has been helping me in a huge way. As I have been restarting my own business and dealing with the overwhelm as well, because it's definitely been a difficult year for me. So the biggest thing that I have been focusing on that's been helping is when I am working in my business, I'm really paying a lot of attention to the activities and the things that I'm doing that really light me up in a big way and give me energy versus the things that really drain my energy. And I talked about this a little while back, but you know, there's something I want you to remember is that, you know, it is never too late for you to make a plot twist. And the story of your business, you can pivot at any time. Now I know in my old business, it didn't even cross my mind to consider doing things differently. I had a course, I had a membership. I had a challenge that helped me get people enrolled in the course, and it was all working really well. And it never really dawned on me to think, huh, is there something else that I could be doing that was more aligned with my zone of genius? That brought me energy instead of sucking the life out of me that last year, before COVID hit. I spent several months really transitioning away from a launch model and into an evergreen model in part, because launching is risky and I had a. Well, I mean, it was still a good launch, but it was a bad launch compared to what it should have been and ended up being about 30% of what we normally got because Facebook had made a little bit of a change and it threw my whole challenge out of whack. And, basically, without going into all of the details, we spent a ton of money on ads and I'm talking like $45,000. And we knew we could do that pretty comfortably because we had done several launches in the past and knew that if we had a certain number of people signed up, we were likely to make a certain amount of income. Well, because of this Facebook change, which basically made our challenge not work as well. w barely worked at all was super disappointing because Facebook wasn't showing stuff to people in the same way that it had been. We only ended up getting a third of the results that we were expecting to get. Now, thankfully, we still made far more than the 45,000 we spent on ads. But it was really a big pillow and it showed me how much risk is in a launch model. Even when you have things, prepared, even when you've done it several times over, there's always things that can shift. And we hadn't launched four or five months prior because we were only launching a couple of times a year. And so there's just so much risk that you put when. You make the majority of your money in a launch. Honestly, I really love the excitement and the connection that happens when you launch. And I love running challenges because I get to work with so many people. I get to see so many people getting results and it just feels really, really good when you can make a massive impact on your industry and see literally. Thousands of people getting results. It's amazing. And then to have them turn around and buy your product afterwards is just cool. You get to make an impact and you get to make an income. And it's just a beautiful thing. However, I just didn't want to deal with that risk anymore, because that was really a significant blow. Like, well, he lost multiple six figures of income because of that one little change that happened in Facebook. So we decided to move to an evergreen model and my team, and I spent several months switching everything over and changing things up. And honestly, it was really a struggle for me because. There's something about having stress, which sounds terrible. And I really hate that this is how I am, but there's something about having a healthy amount of stuff where you're on a deadline. You've got to get things done, yeah. Act into a corner and you've just got to make magic happen. I, I do my best work. Under those settings as much as I don't love that fact. for example, right now, as I'm building a new business and money is incredibly tight, I'm finding that my best work is coming out because I'm, I've got to do it. Like I have to make this work and I need to make it work fast. Or we need to make some massive life changes right. Despite the fact that I really love launching, and I love the energy and I do some of my most creative and best work with it. We decided to make the switch to evergreen and it wasn't quite the same energy because number one, when you go evergreen, you're not interacting with people one on one in the same way. And I didn't have 5,000 people doing a challenge in my free group all within the same week. And it really. Was a huge drain to my energy. Now I don't regret it. And I actually believe that having a steady stream of income in your business, especially if it's a recurring stream of income is incredibly valuable to help offset those launch, you know, the launch variability and to really bring in a bunch of consistency and remove the anxiety from your business. However, I found that setting up an evergreen funnel and doing all of the assets for it. It did not light me up. It did not excite me in any way. I didn't realize this at the time, but the main reason that it drained me so much was not because of the technology or any of that. It was because my zone of genius is in connecting with people and inspiring them and really. Working with them on a one-on-one basis or a very close, intimate way. I love to connect with my people in real time. I don't want to automate my connection. And so all of those months, when I was working on my evergreen funnel, I was working outside of my zone of genius because I was stuck in the details. I was stuck in the asset creation. I was suck setting up the technology and the funnels and converting everything over from a launch model into an evergreen model. And I was changing up my conversion mechanism at the same time, because what we had done before wasn't working in the same way because of that lovely Facebook change. And so it was just really draining for me. It was incredibly draining for me. I wasn't sure exactly why I didn't love creating the evergreen funnel until this fall, when I've started paying a lot closer attention to the things in my business that light me up and. I really spent a bunch of time trying to figure out what exactly is my zone of genius. What are those things that I do because they bring me energy and that I just do so naturally that I don't even realize I'm doing them. And how can I do more of that in my business and avoid doing the stuff that really is far outside my zone of genius and really brings me. It just drains me. It just takes all of my energy away. And so that I didn't realize that that was why creating this evergreen funnel was so exhausting for me until this fall. So my commitment right now is I am rebuilding this business. has been to be very, very honest with how I'm feeling about what I'm doing. I've tried to be very aware and very curious about what lights me up. What am I really enjoying doing? What leaves me feeling energized and alive. And for me, I almost always feel my best. After I've been directly working with people in small groups. And when I've been working with people one on one, that's why I enjoy doing the clarity coaching days so much. That's why I love doing masterminds. And I am so excited about getting the brighter together, mastermind up and running, which should be happening super soon. And I am so. Like, I'm just so excited about how I'm doing things. And honestly, it's only been what, three and a half months at this point, and I've already kind of done a little bit of a plot twist. Like I haven't given up on the bright future method workshop in any way, shape or form completely, but I don't think that's going to be my main focus. I believe that the masterminds that I am creating and I'm starting with one, but I eventually want to have multiple groups. I believe that this mastermind that I am creating. Is going to be nothing but light and easy for me to run. I know that after every single meeting we have, I am going to be filled with energy and literally energized. I'm not going to be exhausted. I'm not going to dread showing up. And because this is so deeply part of my zone of genius, I know that serving my people and. Really helping them get the growth that they want to have in their business. And being able to work with a small group of people for the next 12 months, at least twice a month is really exciting to me. I know it's going to just bring me so much joy and that when we're working out of our zone of genius, we're going to help other people get their best results as well. So as you are looking at your business and you're looking at all of the things. And, you know, sometimes there are seasons when you're just getting you're done and you know, you just need to get through it. Like, I'll be honest. It is really exhausting to always be worried about cashflow and how can I keep bringing it in more? And how can I bring it in more and say, Oh, do I want to do this? Do I not want to do this? All the questions are exhausting. All of the emotions. Oh my goodness. The emotions that you have when you're starting over or. At any point, really? They never go away, but they seem especially acute when you're starting over ban, they are exhausting. But I want you to know that it's never too late for a pivot. It's never too late for a plot twist in the story of your business. And when you find those things in your business that just light you up. Do more of them. And when you find those things that you feel like you just have to do, cause you just have to do it when you're working out of that sense of obligation and should ask yourself, is there another way. Could I accomplish the exact same things in a different way. So as you're going into the next few months, when overwhelm is very likely to be high, and there's going to be a ton of obligations on your plate, both personal with the holidays. And business with the end of year stuff and just all of the things, Be really mindful as you, you go through it of the things that you're just dreading and of the things that you just love doing. And if you're at the point in your business, this where you don't love doing any of it, because you are just burned out and exhausted. The best thing you can do is to take a few days and step away. If you can take an entire week, that would be even better, but at a minimum four days, step away from your business. Don't worry about it. Don't think about it. Do what you need to do, you know, if you have lessons to teach or something, accord them in advance, but take a few days and step away from your business and just make space and just let your brain. Rest. I mean, literally don't sit and try and figure things out. Don't think, think, think, think, think, go play, do the stuff you love, spend time with your family, whatever it is. And I just did this, this weekend in a mini form. I took two days completely away from my business, which is hard to do when you're starting over and everything is crazy busy. Right. And I mean, completely away, there was no checking email. There was no responding to messages. It was like, Off grid only, not really off grid. I was off the business stuff and just totally, being present and taking time to rest and do the things that I love that really fill me. And it was the best thing I could've done. I came back so energized and I came back so focused and you might need more than a few days, but just know that, you know, you're probably burned out if you don't enjoy everything. And if you really. Go on rest and you make the space and you come back and you still don't love anything. Then it's probably time to ask yourself, what are the kinds of things you might love? What other things could you be doing if you weren't doing this? And don't be afraid to create a business that is perfectly aligned with who you are and what your goals are in life. Because when you do that, It becomes so much easier when your business is created to be perfectly suited to who you are and what your strengths are. It doesn't drain your energy. It's not a burden. It is a. Joy. It gives you energy and you get excited to show up and do the work. And that's what I want for you now, you know, there's always going to be some tasks that you don't love doing, but that's where you start to outsource. That's where you build your team. That's where you hire other people who are lit up by doing that thing to come in and work beside you. I know how hard it is to get out of that messy middle. And I know how hard it is to make space and really breathe. But if you continue to operate out of a sense of obligation and you live in that place of overwhelm for too long, Eventually it is going to catch up to you. It's going to cause massive problems for you, either in your business or your personal life or your health, whatever it is, but that's not why you started your business. You did not start your business because you wanted to live in a constant state of overwhelm. You started a business because you wanted to make an impact. You wanted to do something that you love. You wanted to design a life. That's incredible. So, if you're looking at your business and your life right n…

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5 Biggest Takeaways from my First 90 Days of Building a New Business Oct 21, 2020

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Apply to join the Brighter Together Mastermind and get all the details by clicking here. >>> http://wearebrightertogether.com Have questions about it? Contact Jamie directly on Instagram @JamieMSwanson Sign up for podcast email reminders here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/email Join the Insider's Telegram Channel Here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/telegram Transcript: I'm three and a half months into starting my brand new business and pivoting after COVID made my old business a COVID casualty. And I took some time to really sit down and document what I have learned. In the first 90 days of starting over. And it's not exactly what I thought I would learn. Now, this is kind of a follow up because the very first episode in season three is all about my goal for making a 30 K and 90 days. And so I'm happy to, I've made $31,386 in the first night, 90 days. And it's still continuing to grow, which is. Super exciting, but I want to tell you what I have learned because even more important than the money that has started coming in from starting from scratch, starting at the beginning. Um, yeah. Is the things that I have learned have been so incredibly valid you bowl, so if you find yourself starting over, because you've had to make a big pivot, or if you work with entrepreneurs who are just starting out, I think you're going to find this incredibly valuable so that you can serve them better going forward. I think the biggest surprise to me was how much the emotional journey really affected everything I have done since starting over, when I'm having an anxious day, it is really hard to make good decisions and to do what I know I need to do, because at this point in my business, I've been running an online business for almost 10 years full time. and I know what to expect. I know what to do, but when you're starting from scratch, it's so much more intense, especially if you've gone through something really difficult, like COVID taking out your business like I did, or whatever else it is. It's just incredibly emotional. And I was surprised at how much that affected my ability to do what I needed to do to come and sell from a confident place or whatever it was when I was feeling good and feeling supported, man, I could courage it, but those days when I was really questioning myself and I'm just going through the normal, emotional roller coaster, like when you launch. You know, that first day is really exciting, but then after you put yourself out, there you go through that. vulnerability hangover on day two because you put yourself out there and now you need to see if it's going to work. And it, even though I know that happens and I've known that for years, It felt far more acute this time going through it than it did before. Because number one, things were not proven. Yeah. Like I was trying to prove a con. And so there was a lot more uncertainty as to whether or not people would buy what I had to sell. And it felt a lot more like a Rite of passage. I had to be really careful not to internalize the results. As meaning something about myself. Like I, my brain wanted to say, Oh, this means that you're worth it. This means that you can do it, or you can't do it, or you're going to be a failure. You know, all those stupid things that our brains try and tell us. I had to continually remind myself that whatever the outcome was. It didn't mean anything about who I am a failed launch. They weren't failed. But if, even if I had a failed launch, it didn't mean that I was a failure person or whatever else. And my brain kept trying to give me these messages. And thankfully I'm aware of it. Yeah. But for somebody who's newer. If you're working with new entrepreneurs who are starting something from scratch, be aware of that and really speak to it to that because I could very easily see where somebody could get pulled off and away and give up or never actually launch or sell their thing because they be so afraid of what it might mean about who they are. So definitely you want to normalize the emotional experience that's going on at the beginning. You know, the other thing is that when you're launching something brand new, there's just so much less validation. I launched my course to basically 52 people on an email list. And so 52 people is not a lot of people. So even though my conversion rate, it was very high for a product that was 1299 when I sold it. I sold over 15% of the people who are on my email list into the course, which is a huge percentage. It's still felt very, very low because there just were so many fewer people. I mean, it's launching to 52 people feel so much quieter than launching to 5,200 people. Right. Cause you know, if I had the same conversion rate, I'd have had 100 times more sales than I I had, if it would all hold. And I would have been hearing ping, ping, ping, you know, so many more times than would just 52 people. So even though the conversion percentages look good, you just don't feel it in the same way. And it's not that much more work to launch too 5,200 people as it is to launch to 52 people. So it can be really crushing if you. Don't have the right mindset and don't have people around you to step up and support you through that transition. So that's the first big takeaway is that, um, you really have to pay attention to the emotional experience, have your support in place. And if you are teaching. Beginning entrepreneurs, especially, but really, I think this is always the case, but especially beginner entrepreneurs, you've got to normalize the emotional experience so they know what to expect and they know what's normal because of course it's going to feel. Difficult because they're stretching outside their comfort zones. They're doing something they haven't done before and people need somebody to believe in them. I needed my friends in the mastermind that I'm in to believe in me and remind me of who I was. Um, for those of you who are listening, who are those friends of mine? Thank you. Because it meant more than you can know. Okay. And I knew what I was getting into, so I can only imagine how hard that is for somebody who is brand new. All right. The second big takeaway that I got in the first 90 days was that you absolutely have half to nail the offer and your messaging. Beyond anything else. This is absolutely the most important thing ever. You need to have something that people want and you gotta be able to tell them what it is and why it's important to them so that they will buy. If you've got your messaging nailed, you can fly. I really believe that most people are stuck. Not because they don't have something of value to sell, but because they just don't know how to. Message it, they don't know how to explain to other people what that value is in a way that makes them say, Oh my gosh, I need this. I want this right now and I'm going to go buy it. So you've got to focus in on your messaging and your offer, which leads to me to take away number three, which is sell. Sell, sell your stuff as much as possible. Now, the reason I say that is because your message, the gene becomes more and more clear. The more you actually sell your products, because you're going to hear more of the objections. You're going to hear more, both hesitations. You're going to have conversations with your people that help you see. Oh, you know, this makes sense. Like, I didn't even think of that. So for me, one of the big hesitations, that should be obvious to me. Like I know this, but it just didn't strike me as something that was, that was that important right away was that people are like, well, I've taken all the, are there things, how is it different? And how much time is this going to take? Because I am so swamped in the messy middle that. I don't have a lot of time to put towards this. I'm already doing 20 different things. And so those two things alone, like, of course I know that, but having heard that over and over from people, as I was telling them about my work shop made me say, okay, I definitely need to add this to my messaging because when I overcame those objections, then people are like, Oh yes, I absolutely want to be a part of this. And I did not get that clarity until I was actively selling my workshop. So the more you can sell the clearer, your messaging is going to be the faster you're going to gain momentum and get success. So sell, sell, sell, sell, sell as much as you possibly can. Now. Along those lines, kind of a second bullet point about this is ideally you want to be selling one to one early on. Now. I know you can't scale that. I know that you can't do that forever. However, If you are not having one-to-one conversations and you can, can't sell your stuff to a single person, there is no way you are going to be able to sell it to the masses. You've got to be able to speak to a single person. If I put you in front of your ideal client and you can't get them to buy and they can't see the value in what you're doing, your messaging is way off and. You're not going to suddenly start getting sales. If I magically put you in front of that was end of your ideal people. You've gotta be able to sell to one person before you can sell to the masses. So do that as much as you possibly can. at the very beginning, which leads to my fourth takeaway from the first 90 days of starting a new business, is that relationships and trust is the most important thing. However, when you are building a new audience, you need to get personal. You need to be very. On the front lines, you need to be reaching out to your people, talking with them, finding out what their real struggles are. Like. We can think we know something, but when we talk to them and then we hear the exact language that they are using to explain it, it's going to strengthen our messaging. It's going to help us understand them better. So build those relations, build that trust, get personal. I sent. Gosh, dozens and dozens and dozens of personalized video, voice messages, all the things, and actually reached out personally and had conversations with every single person on my email list and with everybody who I could, that would connect with me via Instagram, via Facebook. I spoke one on one with as many people as possible, not just to sell to them like that. Wasn't like my primary goal, but to get to know them, to really understand them. And then when I was selling and I felt like it was a good fit for them, I absolutely reached out on a personal level and invited them to join me. Wasn't pushy, wasn't manipulative. It was just a gentle invitation with an explanation as to why I thought this thing I was selling was perfect for them. So you absolutely need to get personal. Um, and the other cool thing is when you have that relationship and that respect and trust, you really don't need a sales page. You don't need a fancy webinar with all sorts of psychology in it to convert people. If you have that trust. I ask people coming into my workshop, why they decided to join. And I do this, they have to answer it when they join the Facebook group. And I do this because what it does is it shows me what part of my sales message really resonated with them. So that if my cart is still open, I can actually go and get real time feedback and say, Oh, this person joined because of this. I better talk about it more. And for the first time ever in a launch, because I got so personal with my people, almost every single new person said they joined because of me because of the relationship that they built with me, because they trust me. They believe that I can help them get the results they want. And that was what they said, help them come over, you know, make that decision to come over and actually put money down and by enjoying what I'm doing. And so. I mean, I didn't even have a sales page on the first day and it didn't matter because it was all about the relationship. It was all about the trust that I had built. And so when you are growing a new business and trying to get to know a new audience, you know, at the beginning you can be very personal. No, but as you begin to scale, you need to always keep in mind that you're growing a relationship and building that trust and that those things, Trump. All the tactics that you could ever do it's better than fancy sales copy. It's better than all these psychology tactics for sales and stuff. Yes. Those help. Yes. Those absolutely can work. But when you have a relationship and trust that beats everything that beats everything. I know you've probably heard it a hundred times, but people buy from those, they know. They like, and they trust. And I saw that in a big way in these first 90 days. And as I move forward with building my list, I'm going to be focusing on that and a huge way, as much as I possibly can. I'm going to stay as personal as I can for as long as I can. Until I get my messaging, nailed my offer nailed, and I'm ready to start scaling that connection in a big way. And I think if you look back at season one, I talk a lot about connection. I've been thinking about how to scale connection and trying things for years. So I'm really excited to get all this stuff in line so that I can get to that point. But that's probably another three months down the line in my book, I guess. We'll see. But for now I know that I'm getting really personal on a small scale. Because when you have the right people in your audience, you can make a lot of money without having a massive list, because it is all based on the relationship, having the right offer and having the right people there for it. They really want what you have to offer. All right. The fifth thing, the fifth final takeaway that I'm going to share with you today is that the more aligned you are and you create your business to be with your zone of genius, the easier. Everything becomes. And the beauty of starting over is that I can do it however I want to do it. And when I do it in a way that is aligned with who I am, it just becomes easy. Now I want to be honest. I found myself doing something, namely selling a workshop and teaching a course. and I've always done that. And so that was kind of my default method of making money is to sell a course. So I started selling this course, the bright future method workshop, and it's awesome. And I, I love what it teaches people. I love how it is, is changing the lives of the students who are inside of it. Like literally changing their lives. If you go back to, the last episode right before this one, you can hear about Brian and some of the insights that he had, and yeah. I mean, it's just so beautiful to see how the, his life is changing. His business is changing because of what he's learning. It's super rewarding. But what I realized is that I don't love teaching courses. I'm really tired of teaching, but here I am teaching a course, but what I love, what I love and come alive doing is actually. The coaching calls and the live Q and A's and working with people directly within the workshop itself. When we get on zoom together and we talk about what they're doing and how they're applying it to their business and help them really see how to create a business that's aligned for them. When I'm having that, small group interaction and we're really making super big progress. That's when I light up. And so this has been a beautiful mirror for me because it showed…

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The Not-So-Obvious Thing You Are Missing... Oct 18, 2020

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Apply to join the Brighter Together Mastermind and get all the details by clicking here. >>> http://wearebrightertogether.com Have questions about it? Contact Jamie directly on Instagram @JamieMSwanson Sign up for podcast email reminders here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/email Join the Insider's Telegram Channel Here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/telegram Transcript: Do you ever wonder if something is missing that you're just not seeing something that needs to fall into place for everything to move forward, the way you want it to, or that there's some hole somewhere and you're not sure where it is or what it is. And you know that once. Everything just comes together. [00:00:18] It's all gonna fall into place and things are going to fly forward. Well, I had two of these experiences this week and I wanted to share them with you because in those moments where you suddenly realize something that you didn't even see, and it's just like, Oh, of course. And the unseen becomes obvious. [00:00:44] It can change. Everything. And that's what I'm going to share with you today. this week has been a little bit of an emotional week for me. If I can be completely vulnerable and honest with you, which I always am. But, with launching the masterminds, I never realized how much those meant to me, because it is so, so deeply aligned with who I am. And I feel so incredibly passionate about them because I know what a huge difference being in a mastermind has made to me personally. [00:01:47] I know I never want to be in business without being in a mastermind again, because I have these experiences where I don't know what I don't know or. Somebody sees an obvious opportunity or pitfall that I didn't even notice that changes everything for me. When I see it. And so I wanted to share a little bit about this week for me one, because I know that when you're doing something new and I know there's a lot of you who have pivoted recently because of all this covert stuff. [00:02:22] And there are others of you who maybe didn't pivot, but are still growing and stuck in that messy middle. And you can get really, really hard. To push past the resistance. It can be really hard to get beyond the anxieties and you just, all the normal stuff that comes from growing a business and stepping outside our comfort zones. [00:02:43] But especially as we go closer and closer to the things that are really truly aligned with who we are, it can be especially hard. And I know for me this week I had. an encounter personally, where I reached out to a friend who is very dear to me and we were discussing kind of what I could do with my photography business that I've stepped away from because it's, beautiful asset it's there. [00:03:10]it, I don't want to just see it disappear and go to waste, but I also feel very, very called to step into this. So we were talking about, you know, some different options I could do with that. And just a number of other things and catching up and talking business. And. He said something to me that totally just blew my mind a little bit. [00:03:33] And it was such a beautiful and helpful comment and it kind of seems so obvious looking back on it. But in the moment it was really, it was really insightful to me. Cause I was talking about how I just am not fully aligned with the photography business stuff anymore. [00:03:50] Like my passion is in helping other entrepreneurs who are building online businesses and I love photographers. It's not that I don't love the people. It's just, I haven't been passionate about photography in longer than I'd like to admit. And I've wanted to do a mastermind for over three years. And I'm so excited about that. [00:04:08] I know that's going to really use my gifts in the best possible way. But I was saying that, didn't want to. Do something with that. Now that would end up being a distraction from the thing that I really deeply feel called to focus on, because one of the biggest things you need to do in order to be successful is focus, focus, and not keep trying all sorts of different things. [00:04:28] You should not be throwing spaghetti against the wall. And hoping something sticks. You should have a clear, focused, intentional plan for success. That's how you grow fast. And I know what that is, and I've got that plan, but I was also stressing a little bit because cashflow is tight right now. Like I have this beautiful mastermind idea and I know it's going to take off, but I was just, I'm just sitting here saying, well, what if this isn't enough? And what if he can't get us through, the next couple of months or whatever it is. [00:04:54] And just honestly, I was just having a little anxious freak out and it's. Not something I needed to be freaking out about, but I was, and I mean, it's a legitimate anxiety would starting over. [00:05:07] It's just, it's been stressful. COVID eight through our savings. And so, you know, I don't have that cushion that I had last year at this time to fall back on and it's causes a lot of anxiety and he said something. So why I used to me his name's Nate. , he's amazing. Yeah. He goes, you know, it sounds like right now, lack of cashflow coming in is actually a bigger distraction. [00:05:30] Then anything else would be, and that may be the best thing you can do for getting your new business off the ground faster and making decisions from a really healthy place. Instead of asking your city stress place is just to figure out how to make some fast cash coming in, whether that's what the photography thing or, you know, whatever else. [00:05:50] And it just seems so obvious after he said it. I'm just like, Oh right. Gosh, that makes sense because it would reduce stress. Although if I'm completely honest, I think the anxiety is less about money and more about the fact that I'm launching something that really is close to who I am and the money just amplifies the stress and the anxiety and whatever else. [00:06:12] But it was such an enlightening and helpful comment to have. And I didn't even see it, it was like, Oh, of course, like that's the distraction. That's what I'm missing. And to have him there to be able to point it out. So clearly to me was super invaluable because then it's like, okay, well, if that's the distraction, what can I do to overcome it? [00:06:36] Like what has brought me money over the last three months? How can I do more of that while growing my audience? I mean, I'm going to be honest, I haven't done any email list, building things at all. I have maybe 76 people, I think yesterday when I looked on my email list and my stats are amazing. A third of the people on my email list are buyers. That's amazing. Now I just need more of them. Like, it's very clear that I just need my numbers to go up and I know that I'm attracting the right people and that, they want what I have to offer. [00:07:10] They're getting real transformation. They're already spreading the word about it, but I know what I need to do. I need to grow my audience and I need to make money. So it's pretty clear path moving forward. I know what I need to do to do that, but it just didn't Dawn on me that, Oh, maybe I should take this training that I created. [00:07:28] And get it out in front of more people and start asking them to opt in to get that. And then following up afterwards with it to make some money and do some more sales. Cause I just need more eyeballs. I just need to get in front of more of the right people because I know that what I have works and converts. [00:07:46] And so now it seems really obvious to me and I wish I would have seen it sooner because. It just gave me a lot of clarity on what my next steps need to be just immediately in terms of list building growth and how that'll tie into my income growth as well. But then, Oh my gosh. On Thursday, Thursday, I was doing a Q and a session with my bright future methods students. [00:08:10] And this is part of why I want to do masterminds because I love working with people more one-on-one and we do them via zoom. So it's almost more like a coaching thing than it is just like a Facebook live Q and a. And I want to play this moment for you because this was a moment where. I was talking with one of my students. [00:08:31] His name is Brian. And, it was just this beautiful moment where he had laid out his framework for helping teach volleyball coaches. And it was a great framework with all of these processes and like all of these really valuable things that. [00:08:47] Are basically how he coaches it's his unique method for running his volleyball teams. He's a college volleyball coach and it was awesome, but I noticed something very good, obvious that was missing. And I want to play this little clip for you. It's of that moment, because I think. [00:09:06] You and others like you, who are listening to this podcast, there may be things that you don't even realize you're good at that you don't even see are opportunities in your business that you're missing. And once you see them, Everything starts to fall into place. And this is something that is absolutely central to Brian success. [00:09:31] And I know that as he leans into it, it's only going to make him more and more successful. And I know he's going to get better and better results for his coaches. And so before I say too much, let me play this clip for you. And you can listen to the conversation on your own. So here it is. Can I, can I also, if there's something else out there, Brian, I don't know if I, if this was in your, you coach B framework. I, I missed it. Yeah. Who are naturally really positive. Really? You've got a wonderful, and I told you that the first time I heard your voice. Yeah. Like it was voice Instagram. I'm like you have a great energy. [00:10:14] You are a people person. And I get the sense that who you are as an empower of other people. And that is part of why you lead so well. And you do have these processes and you have all these things to streamline it. But I think, you're and I could be totally wrong. So just like disregard if it's off, you'll know inside, but my guess is that you are doing something because it's who you are that you might not be teaching. [00:10:44] Because you don't even realize the power of it because it's, you're not doing it. You're being it. You are encouraging your people. You are empowering your people. It's not just the systems. It's how you are giving the feedback. It's how you're validated. And I don't know if that's in your methodology or not. [00:11:03] Well, it's, it's what you're describing is true. Like, I think that that's how I am with my players, coaches, et cetera. So I, so the question is, do you address that in your framework? How do you address who I am in my framework? No, no, no, no, no. The, the empowering part, the part, the things you say, the way you encourage the way you Oh, okay. [00:11:26] I see what you're saying. So basically the way that I teach, the way that I coach. Yeah. Like how, Oh yeah, I haven't talked about that, but that's a great point. So that's a great point. I think your secret sauce is not all of these beautiful processes. They're gorgeous. I think the reason you're amazing is because of who you are and you don't even see yet because it's just you being that. [00:11:55] And so here's, here's, here's how you find that. It start to get really intentional about thinking about how do you interact with your players. And we're good. I'm an empower. You're an empower I can tell. And so you'll see some of that later in the course, because you're going to be like, Oh yeah, of course, of course, Maddie is another one. [00:12:13] She's already doing this and empowering our people, but you are a natural leader and you're helping them become lean. Cause you can take a jackass coach and they can take your process and go through it. And they're not going to have a winning team because they don't know how to lead. It's, you know, it's funny, you said that not to toot my own horn, but my, one of my fingers, one of my players asked me the other day was like, can you give us another motivational speak? [00:12:34] It really helped me. It really made me feel good about myself going forward. And I'm like, Oh yeah, sure. I do that. Like, that's I that's what I do. I start every practice with, like I say something I, I inspire, I do what you say. Like I'm really passionate when I, with anything I do. I'm really passionate. And I think that my, my, my players love that. [00:12:48] And my, and coaches that I work with. Love that too, but I, I don't, I never really. Considered like an added as a factor. That's just what I do. So yeah, in your methodology, is it? No, but it should be, it should be exactly what you're teaching. Like this stuff is great and they need this stuff to be effective, but this is not your secret sauce. [00:13:06] Your secret sauce is knowing how to empower people. And of course you don't see it because it's just what you do because that's who you are. So how can you help people become that if they don't naturally have that in them? Wow. That's really good. Okay. So where do I put that? Like, that place is everything. [00:13:27] If you think about it, like that's well, that's my secret sauce. Yeah. Not that's my zone of genius as you call it like that, that's pretty sick. Okay. So I got it. Where it, where does that go? Like, that's good for that. That would be my unique methodology right there. They're like, that's it. No one can touch that except me, I guess. [00:13:44] Right. [00:13:45] part of why I wanted to share this with you. And the story about my own obvious thing that I was missing is that sometimes we are so close. To our business. We are so far on this, that, and the other thing that we miss, the obvious opportunities and the obvious pitfalls. That may be clear to somebody else who has that experience. [00:14:15] I can see from the outside and say, Oh my gosh, this is obvious. I know you, I know your business. this is what you need to be considering, or this is the distraction, or this is your gift. This is where you need to lean. Yeah. And getting those moments of insight. Are some of the most valuable moments of insight you can get, because sometimes those are the pieces you need to get you unstuck and moving forward and really getting the success that you've been dreaming of. [00:14:47] This is part of why being in a mastermind is so, so incredibly valuable. This is part of what I want to bring to you as a bright entrepreneur, who is probably doing really well on your own. And I know most entrepreneurs are super independent and I know we think we can do it all ourselves, but you don't know what you don't know, and you don't know how to get to where you want to go, or you would be there right now. [00:15:16] And what I have found is that it is more valuable for my business alone. Like literally I can point back to all the different places where I have made my money back time and time again, year after year, I've invested, this is my fourth year in stews mastermind. And every single year I can point to at least one common. [00:15:38] And if not multiples that have made me more than the very expensive. Fee that I pay to be…

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Why are Masterminds so Valuable? Oct 14, 2020

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Apply to join the Brighter Together Mastermind and get all the details by clicking here. >>> http://wearebrightertogether.com Have questions about it? Contact Jamie directly on Instagram @JamieMSwanson Sign up for podcast email reminders here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/email Join the Insider's Telegram Channel Here >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/telegram Transcript: Back when I was first starting my business, I heard over and over and over again that I needed to be part of a mastermind and that it was one of the most valuable things I could do if I wanted to grow my business. But at the time I didn't even really know what a mastermind was. And I certainly did not understand why they were so valuable. [00:00:22] Or why they were so expensive, frankly, it was really hard to see the cost of a mastermind, which most of the ones I was looking at were around 25 to $30,000 and really try and justify spending that much money on my business to join this group of people in a mastermind. [00:00:41]So today I'm doing this something a little bit different. I actually went to several of my friends in an impact mastermind, which is the mastermind that I'm a part of that's run by Stu McLaren and ask them why they find being in a mastermind to be so valuable and what they really get out of it. So you're going to hear. [00:01:02] From their own words, what they find valuable about this. Plus after the introduction music, I have got three really fun things that I want to share with you that I'm celebrating today. So let's dive in So this is a really fun episode because this is episode number 100 of the right entrepreneur podcast. It is so exciting to me to be able to bring in a bunch of my friends and closest colleagues and have them share in this hundredth episode, this is a huge milestone for me But also we just crossed the six, 2000 download Mark, which is really exciting for me as well. So I want to just say thank you first and foremost, for subscribing to the podcast for listening to it and for telling your friends about it. It really means a lot. And the final thing that I'm celebrating today is it's my birthday. [00:02:27] I'm 39 years old today. I am so thrilled to be sharing this with you here on the podcast. But let me get to the fun stuff. [00:02:37]I've been dreaming of running a high end mastermind for years, and I've planned on doing that. But coven makes travel a lot harder since so many things are restricted right now, but it finally dawned on me the other day that I could start. Online virtual masterminds right now for a fraction of the cost of what I would normally charge for our high end mastermind, because it's so accessible online. [00:03:04] So I will tell you more about that in the end. I just wanted to mention it now, in case you were interested in joining one, but in the meantime, I have eight minutes, my friends here that are going to share with you exactly why they find a mastermind so valuable the eight people that you hear from today are all part of Stu McLaren's impact mastermind with me, which is a mastermind that I pay to be a part of. So they're kind of my personal peer group. They're close friends. They have helped shape my business and they are some of my greatest encouragers and supporters. [00:03:39] And I am so thankful that they took a few minutes out of their day to share it with you today. [00:03:43] so with that, I'm going to hand over the show to my friends [00:03:47] Scott Paley: Hi, I'm Scott Paley from abstract edge. I'm also the co founder of the nonprofit leadership lab and I'm in a mastermind group, right with Jamie. she in fact is the one who convinced me to join the mastermind group originally. And I've got to say when she first suggested it, I was a little bit skeptical. [00:04:06] I knew that I would benefit from the strategies and the tactics that I would learn from other really smart people in the group. But. It was hard to justify the cost because it was certainly not inexpensive. That said what surprised me now, having been in the mastermind group with Jamie for about three years, is that the biggest benefit that I get from it is as an entrepreneur, there are just so many times where you start feeling overwhelmed, imposter syndrome is, is kicking in full force and you just really need. People who get you, who peak, who understand you, who have context and know the background of your story in a pretty deep way. And when you have those people in your life who can support you through the tough moments, it makes such a big difference, not just emotionally, but from a business perspective, it helps you get through those really challenging times that can kill a business. [00:05:10] And by getting through those, we've had, I had so much success over the last three years, with our membership sites that I definitely. Definitely can look at the mastermind group, and know that that played a huge role in the success that we've had highly recommend being part of a mastermind in one capacity or another. [00:05:32] It makes a huge difference as an entrepreneur. I could not recommend it more highly. [00:05:36]Next you're going to hear from my friend, Rachel Miller, who runs Moolah marketing and teaches people how to grow massive audiences. She's the most brilliant Facebook marketer I have ever met. and fun side note. [00:05:50] She also has six kids like me, so I adore her dearly. Here's Rachel. [00:05:55] Rachel Miller: I love masterminds guys. So often we're so close to our businesses that we don't see. What's literally right in front of us. And I've loved being in a mastermind with Jamie Swanson because she can cut through the bull crap. Seriously, the girl has a gift of seeing clear, helping us see clarity in our own businesses, almost like inspiring or opening up the blinders. [00:06:21] So we can see that the path to what's next, being in a mastermind mind means that you have someone there that you can call when you need help, that you have a friend that's that that's your, your, your sidekick in business and in life. And that you have those tips, that the clarity, the blinder moments that make all of the difference for your business. [00:06:43] If you're interested in a mastermind, I hear Jamie's got one come in and I know it. Yeah. I know. I have blessed been blessed by being in a mastermind with her, and I'm sure you will be as well.. [00:06:55] [00:06:55]Susan Bradley: Hey gang. I'm Susan Bradley. I'm the founder of the social sales girls, where we teach eCommerce store owners, how to get more traffic, grow their sales, and really grow the business that pays them well. And the one that they've been dreaming about, and Jamie asked me to share with you why I think a mastermind is a great place to be when you're growing your business. [00:07:18] And I've actually been a member of a mastermind for. Three years now. So I think that that in itself proves that it's a really valid place to grow your business. You know, over the course of those three years, my business has basically exploded. And I know I can't put my finger on one thing that made that happen. [00:07:39] When I look at the massive change I've made in my business, it's a lot of it is due to being in a room with people who are working on similar goals. They have similar experiences they share openly. And I have learned so much from that. You know, one of the best parts of a mastermind for me is people sharing their ideas. [00:08:01] I get to watch as they implement. And they share their results. And so it really helps me shape the way I grow my business based on what other people have had good luck with. So I really feel that that's a huge part of it. The other thing I love is that I feel like it is a very safe place to get great feedback. [00:08:22] And so rather than going out into the business community as a whole and looking for feedback, I would always go to my mastermind first and ask for feedback on things like sales pages or strategies, or if I have an employee problem. That's where I go first, because I knew that these people are experienced Many of them have had these issues before, and I know that they have my best interest in heart at heart, and they will give me great feedback. So it's a safe place for that. Now the last thing is the relationships that you will develop. Not everybody in the mastermind will be your best friend, but if you give it your all, you will find that you will develop some really good longterm, strong relationships with other people that you trust. [00:09:07] And those relationships may actually even benefit your business down the road. It might be opportunities to partner up. With people who you have that established relationship with. So really if you're considering it, I would completely encourage you to give it a try. I think if you really work at it and you make it a priority, you'll find that it will help your business grow in amazing ways. [00:09:31]Emily Jeffords: Hey there, I'm Emily Jeffords. I'm an artist and I have the honor of teaching and mentoring other artists and running profitable and sustainable creative businesses. And I have enjoyed being in a mastermind more than I ever thought was possible. Cool. I think it is a very safe, special thing to be in a room with the smartest and wisest and clearest people. [00:09:56] But I know people that normalize success, people that support you in your weaknesses and people that can come alongside with all of our unique gifts and talents and all of our unique strengths and really fill in each other's gaps. If I have a question about something abstract or outside of my wheelhouse, someone in the mastermind knows the answer and that's. [00:10:18] One of the most special things. The normalizing success part though, I think is the most precious part about being in a mastermind for me, because when you're with a group of people that, that says it's okay to reach for more and it's okay to strive for excellence and it's okay to reach these levels of success that maybe aren't normal. [00:10:40] That's a beautiful thing, just to have that permission to rise and to reach and to make as big of an impact as you possibly can. That is. So amazing. And Jamie's been a huge part of that. We've had some conversations, just the two of us that have really brought me so much clarity and so much focus. And she has a way of perceiving people so intimately and helping you where you need help in the kindness. [00:11:06] Yeah. Clearest of all ways. I'm so thankful for that. So if you're considering a mastermind. I highly suggest it. I think it's one of the most profitable investments you can make in your business, but more importantly in yourself. [00:11:21] Candace Dagnolo: My name's Candace, Don Yolo, and I'm the CEO and founder of pet boss nation. And I've been in the pet industry since 2006 and I've had a lot of ups and downs and I tried to go it alone in my business for the first five years. And that's when I discovered my first mastermind. See, I've been in a mastermind for over a decade. [00:11:44]I've been in for this one that I'm in with Jamie now is my fourth mastermind. I've been in the very first one. It was amazing because it was. With a group of people who were in the same type of business as mine. And I got to learn so much, so much about business and retail that I didn't know before. And I loved those moments and being that group led me to the next group where I got to see what a bigger opportunity was out there for me and different industries and how I could apply different thoughts. [00:12:16] To my existing business. And through those two masterminds, I was able to sell one of my businesses because of all the things I learned. Then I joined another one, which was amazing. It was a really, really big group, but they put us into small little pods. And I loved that because I got that one on one deep connection, but it was led and facilitated by somebody who, kept us all focused. [00:12:41] And also called us out on our BS, which was awesome because who does that? Often? We're the bosses are of our business and very few people ever call us on our BS. And so that's what a good mastermind leader will do for you too. And then now in impact, I am just loving being with people who are so successful that I just really get to see what's possible. [00:13:04] But also the vulnerability that's there and the connection and friendships and the giving of the community members in the mastermind. You just don't experience anything like that. Really anywhere else in life because our families don't get our businesses. Usually our friends don't get the business and we kind of feel like we're on an Island and we have questions, but we don't feel confident and comfortable sometimes to go into these Facebook groups and ask. [00:13:36] That or we really need advice from the people who've been there before us to give us the right path. So I always invest in masterminds. I have for the last 10 years, it's constantly worth it. I always see the rewards and I encourage you to join a mastermind as soon as possible to get there faster and to stop going it alone. [00:14:00] [00:14:00]Tracy Harris: Hi there. My name is Tracy Harris and I am the car at mums with hustle and I help moms leverage the power of Instagram so that they can make more revenue in their business and ultimately build their dream life for them and their families, whatever that means for them. So being a digital Sayer. [00:14:25] Canberra pretty darn hard. There were lots of highs. There were lots of lows. There are a lot of learning curves. And so for me, investing in a mastermind is just a no brainer. I have, come to realize how important it is to really, because on my circle of influence that, being the people that I choose to surround myself with, I always always make sure that I am learning. [00:14:55] From a mentor, someone that shares the same values as what I have in their life and also in their business and someone that can definitely help light the way for the path that I'm embarking on for myself in terms of, the facilitator, their job, other than being a great mentor to you is also to bring a like minded circle of influence to you within the mastermind group. [00:15:25] And that has been one of the greatest surprises. To me, of being in a mastermind that is, I'm not only learning from the mental themselves, but I am learning from the high quality people that the mentor brings together. People like Jamie, for instance, super powers, 100% lie in the area of encouraging and uplifting others, but also helping us to simplify. [00:15:54]Exactly what we've got going on in our businesses, simplifying offers, simplifying messages, helping to bring about clarity and simple, well buying within the business self. So being able to tap into people like Jamie and into so many of the other peers that I've had the blessing and privilege of getting to know, and also learn from in these masterminds. [00:16:19] Right. It's just absolutely priceless. I have been in a mastermind for about three years now, and I would not change that. it's definitely something that I plan to continue investing in because when I invest in myself, I'm then able to pass that on and just be better in my business. And that helps more people as well. [00:16:44] So yeah, I, 100% recommend being in a mastermind. It's a no brainer. [00:16:50] [00:16:50]Nicholas Wilton: Hi, my name is Nicholas Wilton and I…

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You are Not Alone, My Friend. Join a Mastermind. Oct 11, 2020

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Apply to join the Brighter Together Mastermind and get all the details by clicking here. Have questions about it? Contact Jamie directly on Instagram @JamieMSwanson Sign up for podcast email reminders here Join the Insider's Telegram Channel Here Transcript: Okay, my friend, I'm finally doing this thing that I've been wanting to do for over three years, and I'm a little bit nervous and a whole lot excited to tell you all about it in this episode. But man, I've had so much resistance to recording this just to be straight up honest before we even start. But it's time for me to finally put on my big girl panties and share with you exactly what I'm talking about. [00:00:30] 2020 has been an issue sane really difficult year. If you've been following me for any amount of time, you know, that it completely destroyed my seven figure business. [00:01:09] And that I have had to make a complete pivot in my online business, but not only has that been stressful and all the financial ramifications and everything else that goes with it being hard. It's been really heavy and so many other ways, there's all political stuff going on. there's the illness itself and all the fear surrounding that and all the everything surrounding that. [00:01:34] I mean, that's just huge. And then there's all the other crazy stuff that has been happening. Like, you know, Killer bees and our, what are they called? Murder Hornets. I mean, let's make it more dramatic. Shall we? There's just all of these things. And I'm just so much that is causing this year to be heavy for online. [00:01:54] Everybody. I know, even from my friends whose businesses are doing insanely well, So many of my friends have this low level of anxiety that just doesn't go away. And more and more entrepreneurs I know are feeling tired, burned out and more than anything, just do not have the emotional capacity to do as much as they used to do everything just takes takes longer, takes more effort. [00:02:23] And it's the way that our bodies are coping with everything that we've been facing for the last several months. Now, it's been very hard for me, for sure. And. I have a couple of things that I wanted to share with you today, before I tell you what I'm going to be starting in a little bit that have really helped me to get through this time. [00:02:44] And there things that I want to bring to you in some capacity. So first and foremost, by far without question, the most helpful thing for me in getting through everything that I've been through in this past year has been the people around me who are likeminded and who love me and can support me and remind me of who I am as I'm walking through all of these different times. Being surrounded by people who really get me understand the pressures of having the online business and how COVID has affected it, and really know the value that I bring it to the online marketing space and kinda encourage me to step into that and to keep going, has been so. [00:03:36] So valuable because honestly my family doesn't really understand what I do. A lot of my friends who are outside of the business world have no idea. It's really hard to explain to them one what it is I do in general. Right. Have you experienced that too? Um, but also to the unique pressures that come from fully supporting your family and having to deal with this during COVID. [00:03:58]It's different than if you were just working a full time job in dealing with that right now. For me having like-minded friends who are also running online businesses and have the same level of integrity and similar values as I do has been so, Oh, so inspirational and just really a cornerstone to me. [00:04:21] As I've walked through creating a brand new business. As I walked through trying to save my old business before I threw in the towel and even just having them there too, talk through all of this with when you're making big decisions and you're not sure what to do and the ramifications of your decisions. [00:04:41] So huge having people who can be there for you is so valuable. I didn't need a lot more content during this time. What I needed was support. I needed that emotional support and I needed people, cared for me and understood me to surround me as I moved forward, especially during the times when anxiety would overtake me. [00:05:07] The second thing that really was helpful is that, um, I've been really incredibly focused on creating this new business in a way that is so aligned with who I am and with my zone of genius. Now that's a term that I've learned. I've heard it thrown around before, but I recently read a book called the big leap. And in this book, it really helps you see, what's keeping you internally from going past a certain upper limit. Like you hit a level of success and you just can't seem to get past it. And it talks about all the internal drivers that might be holding you back. But it also talks about finding your zone of genius, not just your zone of excellence, which is the stuff that you're really super good at, but drains your energy, but your zone of genius, which is the stuff that you're so good at that you don't even realize you're good at it because it's just a part of who you are. [00:06:01] It's what you do naturally. It's what brings you energy when you're done and just lights you up. For example, I love doing my clarity coaching days, and even though some of them are quite long and they can be mentally exhausting by the time I get to the end of a clarity coaching day, I am fired up like. [00:06:23] None other, I get so excited and I feel ready to go out and conquer the world. That is part of my zone of genius. Now, when I'm working on funnels and writing emails and doing all the tech stuff that goes behind things and setting up softwares and all those types of things, honestly, I'm really good at it. [00:06:45] I am so dang good at it, but it drains me of energy. It's my zone of excellence. It's my zone of excellence. And the big difference between the two is how it makes me feel when I'm done, how much resistance I have to doing it. how much I enjoy it versus not. And so as I've been moving forward through 2020, and not only dealing with the stress from my business, but all the other stressors that are on me, I have been incredibly focused on trying to design a business that is so fully aligned with me. [00:07:19] That it doesn't drain my energy. That it's actually something that can add to the energy that I have and equip me to go into the world, ready to face whatever is there and be emotionally stronger. I didn't even think that was possible. I realized for the last 10 years, I have almost completely been living in my zone of excellence and not my zone of genius. [00:07:44] Isn't that crazy? I cannot believe it. I love the bright future method workshop that I have created, and that I'm currently teaching to a cohort of students. [00:07:55] I love seeing their transformations, but as I've been doing it, I've noted. That number one, actually, teaching the lessons is heavy for me. Like I have all the content outlined. It's not anything I have to figure out because I've taught it before. I'm rearranging a few parts, but it's basically all there. [00:08:12] I'm just polishing it off and teaching it again. And it's not hard, but I don't feel energized by it. It's like thing where it's like, okay, I'm just going to go do this. And I don't look forward to it. That being said, On Thursdays when we do our live Q and a sessions and we're, it's almost like group coaching because we all come together in zoom and I help people walk through the various parts of this because as Brian was saying, Brian's one of my, students in the bright future method workshop. [00:08:42] He's like, This course is hard because you really have to think and be intentional with your answers and figure out what you need really want. It's not just a quick and easy, you know, do X, Y, and Z, and you'll get the answer. It's something that actually requires you to think about who you are and what you want and what you stand for and how you can help people and answered the questions that you really need to answer. [00:09:06] If you want to have a deep impact on your people and in the way world. But I love that stuff. I love working with them. I love helping them walk through that process. And see the big ahas and see how it's already just two weeks in starting to transform their messaging, starting to get them more engagement and starting to clarify exactly, exactly what they need to be doing to move forward. [00:09:32] And I always leave those live Q and A's sessions totally fired up. I stay on them way too long because I want to help people deeply. And so one of the things that I've noticed is that part of my zone of genius is. Helping people but I really believe that if you want to get out of that messy middle, and if you find yourself exhausted and you don't have time and you just dreading the stuff you have to do, and they're just, you're just, it's, it feels like pushing in your business. [00:10:04] You're probably not working in your zone of genius because the more I'm adding things into my business that really. Helped me live in that zone of genius. The easier it is to do, like I get excited about it. I don't dread it. I don't put it off. Those are the things I do first on my to do list. And so if you want to go, so from, you know, that messy middle and really get to the next level in your business and scale, you've got to get clearly focused on what your zone of joy and an easy thing you can do. [00:10:38] Just kind of, as a quick little side note bonus tip is to start. Feeling how you feel as you're going through your day and making note of it. So intentionally doing a task and asking yourself, how do I feel about this? Does it leave me energized when I'm done? Or am I dreading it? Am I avoiding it? Does it leave me drained? [00:10:59] Because I think so many times we live in our zone of excellence or even just our zone of. Capability. Like it's something we can do. And so we do it because we feel like we have to, Oh my gosh. Operating out of obligation, not awesome. Definitely energy draining. That's going to SAP you and keep you from being able to do what you really need to do. [00:11:21] To get out of that messy middle and really thrive. This is why I said a couple episodes ago that getting out of the messy middle and moving forward, isn't about what you say yes to it's about what you say no to, and going really deep on those things that you say yes to that are in your zone of genius. [00:11:39] That just feel light and easy and give you energy. Okay. So the third thing that has been absolutely. Incredibly helpful is having people around me who can be mirrors for me. Now, when we're talking about the zone of genius, I think it's really hard for us to identify it because we can't see our greatest gifts because they're too close to us. [00:12:04] Like they feel like who we are. We don't value them because they are so easy for us to do that. We just do them naturally and it doesn't feel. Like work. It doesn't feel like something we're actually even intentionally having to do. We just, we do it. It is who we are. It is how we are built. It is what we love to do. [00:12:25] Naturally. It's literally the zone of genius. And so this past week I have spent. A shameful amount of hours, not shameful. I'm not ashamed of it by any means. It was amazing. But I've spent a lot of hours talking one on one with a whole handful of different people, really trying to discern and get clarity because yes, I am so good at helping other people get clarity, but even myself, you know, when I'm walking around, I can't see my face. [00:12:57] You know, like if I want to see what my face looks like, or my hair looks like I need to look in a mirror because it's too close to me. It's too close to my eyes. It's not positioned in a place where I can see because it's part of my body. And the same thing happens in our business. Everybody needs people who can be a mirror for them who can reflect back. [00:13:19] Not only who you are, but who can, you know, like what your greatest gifts are because we take them for granted. We don't even realize that. Not every gosh, that's not a big deal. It's so easy. Like that's not a gift. It's just what I do. . Those are the kinds of things that can really help point you towards your zone of genius. [00:13:38] And sometimes talking with other people. We'll help you see that that's your zone of genius. Not only that, but we need people who can be mirrors for us, who can show us the obvious problems, but also the obvious opportunities that might be right in front of us in our business. Now, a great example of this was last fall. [00:14:01] I had a friend who I was chatting with. She was in the mastermind that I'm a part of. And she gave me one comment. You know, she went into her experience and I, I was talking with her about how I was going to move forward about something. And she goes, huh, I've done this before. She's like, have you considered this? [00:14:21] And I'm not going to go into all the details. Not because I'm holding out, but because it would be way too long to explain all the context, but I'm like, Oh my gosh, Of course, like that's brilliant. And this was something that she had done in her experience and it just made so much sense. They get into practice literally within like two or three days. [00:14:41] And. That weekend I made over $32,000 from a single comment from a friend in a mastermind who saw my situation, who had experience in a similar situation and who was able to say, Oh yeah, just do this. This works great. And. You know, I was considering all these different things and it's not something that was unheard of. [00:15:04] It wasn't like groundbreaking, but it was the perfect thing that I needed to see in that moment. And it was just so close to it and considering so many things that it wasn't obvious to me, and it was obvious to her. And so having people around us as mirrors, who can not only help us see who we are and what we're gifted at, but can see those obvious opportunities and pitfalls. [00:15:26] And our businesses because they've been in a similar situation is absolutely unbelievably valuable because like I said, at the very first episode of season three, the reason that I can grow fast now compared to when I was starting out 10 years ago, basically comes down. To experience, I've got the experience. [00:15:49] So I know what works and what doesn't, I've got that confidence. And when you have a group of people around you who can share their experience so that you don't have to do it yourself and learn the hard way and they can save you steps, they can save you time and heartache, and they can point out the easy, obvious path it's invaluable. [00:16:11] It's invaluable. One comment made me all that money and. It was so incredible to have, especially this past year. So many friends around me and some of them who've been through some really difficult situations who could be mirrored for me, who could help me see what seems so obvious to me now. Didn't seem obvious to me even two weeks ago, isn't that funny? [00:16:35] Like sometimes we need those mirrors and…

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