Yeukai Business Show

Latest Episodes:

Episode #162: Matthew Morgan | How to Effectively Market a New Concept Today Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

How do you market and basically build a whole niche around a new concept? Marketing expert and successful entrepreneur Matthew Morgan from Melbourne, Australia, shares his journey in creating, marketing and building his own business around a product that not only gives value to people but also something that will have a lasting effect on their relationships. Matthew is doing extremely well in bringing new ideas to the market and he has shared a few tips on how to model this kind of success into other types of businesses.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Matthew get started with his business? How did he come up with the idea behind Bownd? What had to happen from the moment he conceptualized the idea into making it available in the market? What challenges did Matthew have to overcome throughout the way? Given the chance to start all over again today, knowing what he knows now, what would he do differently?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Matthew’s Journey

Matthew has always been passionate about the process of finding and understanding the audience that he’s trying to talk to and taking fairly complicated things and making them as simple to understand as possible. For Matthew, Twitter is such an important platform since it focuses on current affairs, trending news and things that are happening right now. What enabled him to jump from a corporate life into entrepreneurship was his decision to put some of his ideas out through twitter and getting feedback from his audience before he makes it available in the market. The idea behind Bownd is simply to capture all of the conversations that go on between a couple bring it together into a physical album.

Expert’s Advice

It’s best to consult with people (prospective customers) to see what others think before you jump off and materialize your idea. Matthew and his team utilize a free platform called envision.com where they go to make a prototype application. It’ s important to have a big goal but it’s also important to have an achievable short goal, something that you can achieve quickly.

Challenges

The number one challenge Matthew faced was cash flow. According to him, it’s important that you have a good cash flow plan and that that should run for a long period of time to enable you to focus on building the business. Understanding how to use technology in a new way is a risk but it’s something that’s definitely worth it. Given the chance to start all over again, Matthew would work a little harder to build a bigger group. He would also spend a bit of time finding a couple of other partners or advisers.

Episode #153: Jon Novak | One Business Strategy That Will Boost Your Sales In No Time Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, Jon Novak, a well-known business expert, talks about simple techniques and strategies that all business owners can benefit from, especially those that are just starting out in the industry. Jon shares a few tips on getting more clients and building an excellent business strategy.

Key Questions Asked:

What is Jon’s background and how did he start with his business? What roadblocks did he face and what did he do to overcome them? How does Jon manage his time? What change in mindset has happened when Jon was starting out his business? Knowing what he knows now about business, what would Jon have done differently at the beginning? What would he do more of if he is to start all over again? How does Jon develop an authentic relationship with people?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

The biggest challenge Jon has faced when he was starting out was working with credit. Jon has discovered that starting the day early allows him to get more time to accomplish everything he needed to get done. All entrepreneurs must realize the importance of having an expanding network to leverage your connections and use it to your benefit. Networking can make your sales a lot easier and expedite your growth. Building rapport is necessary for developing an authentic relationship with people, and this includes being yourself and being likable.

Episode #156: Anne-Marie Faiola | Major Start-up Mistakes and Why You Need To Stop Doing Them Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, “Soap Queen” and owner of BrambleBerry, shares her amazing journey of building her own business from scratch and finally getting it to where it is today. Anne-Marie started her soap-making business when she was twenty years old and about eighteen years later, she is now enjoying great success and recognition not only in her products and crafts but also in how she continues to manage her own business despite the challenges she faced earlier on.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Anne-Marie decide to move from being an employee to starting her own business? What’s the danger of quickly launching a business without planning? What sort of other roadblocks did Anne-Marie face and how did she overcome them? How did she overcome the challenge of hiring the right people and managing them? What role did mentorship play in her success as an entrepreneur? How did you go about financing your business and managing your cash flow in the early days? What are the common mistakes that business owners commit today? How can they go back on the right track? What tools do Anne-Marie use to track her time? How does she deal with stress? What was the single most important thing that she implements in her business that has produced returns month after month or year after year? How does Anne-Marie do delegation in a practical level? What specific steps did she take to move past the fear of starting her business? What is Anne-Marie’s greatest achievement in all 18 years of running her business?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Struggles and Solutions

Brambleberry started with Anne-Marie’s desire to help people, coupled with her crafty nature and seeing a need in the marketplace. When you do a small planning budget, it really helps you get realistic about whether or not you can actually build that business and figure out what resources do you need. When you plan, that means you have a goal and you can tell if you’re meeting your goal. Just as most start-up entrepreneurs, Anne-Marie struggled with finances in the beginning. Another struggle she’d had was hiring and firing as well as managing people and at the same time, running a company with integrity.

Mistakes to Avoid

How you do anything is how you do everything so past performance really does show you what the future behavior is. You don’t need to actually have just a single mentor. All business gurus have books, have business channels, doing a podcast, etc so you can immerse yourself in the best minds for literally less. One mistake business owners usually commit during the beginning was going too wide and too deep and too broad. Starting out really targeted and really focused helps you with your inventory and helps you with your planning. The one thing that has produced the most results month after month has been appropriate delegation.

Episode #161: Jane Bromley | The ‘Blueprint for Growth’ and Other Tips on Growing a Business May 11, 2020

Show notes

How can your business stand out from all the rest? This episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast features Jane Bromley who talks about what it takes to grow a company in today’s world. Jane is a well-respected strategy consultant who coined the term “Blueprint for Growth” and showed companies like Hewlett Packard, Vodafone, and Intel how to remove barriers to growth and helped them achieve long-term success.

Key Questions Asked:

What is Honeypot Value Proposition? Other than focusing on the value proposition, what other areas would Jane recommend that business owners focus on if they’re to expand or to grow? In her experience with talking to business owners, how can you get business leaders to get to that point where they inspire the rest of their organizations? Where does Jane see business start-ups go wrong when they attempt to grow your business? What challenges has Jane personally faced? What mindset should business owners have if they are to remain in the business for a long time?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Blueprint For Growth

Honeypot Value Proposition: Most companies think that they are different but in the eyes of the customers, they’re all the same. Value proposition makes them stand out from all other competitors. Businesses should come up with a differentiation so that in the eyes of the customers they add so much value that they significantly remove or reduce a pain that the customer is suffering from. One other key that’s very important for businesses is to make sure that they know where it’s headed. When working with a client, Jane typically starts with what she calls a Blueprint for Growth Bench-marking, which allows people and companies to know exactly where they stand compared to others. It looks at each of the 9 characteristics that drive growth and then it shows them exactly where they stand and what works and where they need to focus on.

Common Mistakes and Challenges

They don’t get clear about what they really want. They don’t get close enough to their customers, therefore they don’t understand the pain of those customers. Most businesses don’t even define their target customers precisely enough, ending up trying to target so many people, but if you try to target everyone, you target no one. Jane’s personal challenge: Taking the step to employ people in different ways, however, there are good ways of doing that now. Other challenges: Being frustrated by ups and downs of businesses.

Perfect Mindset

It’s a journey, enjoying the journey is absolutely the key. Must be customer centric Tracking progress in order to learn

Episode #160: Whitney Corley | Myths and Misconceptions other Business Owners Follow May 08, 2020

Show notes

Are your business practices actually helping you create better results? How do you know exactly if you’re doing the right thing for your business? In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, leather craft designer and business owner, Whitney Corley, debunks some myths and misconceptions she has seen other business owners follow over the years. Whitney is the muscle and brains behind the handmade leather crafts called Corley & Hound, creating a more flexible lifestyle for her and her family while making a living out of sheer talent and passion.

Key Questions Asked:

What prompted Whitney into making a business for herself? What advice would Whitney give to somebody who were in her shoes before she decided to work for herself? What challenges did she face when she finally decided to leave it altogether? How much preparation did she do before she launched into leaving what she does completely? What sort of mindset did Whitney have to adopt when she was making the transition? How did Whitney get her first client? What misconceptions on business start-up that Whitney have come across with? How do business owners get past the negative mental state? What other beliefs does she see among business owners that are actually a misconception? What sort of mindset did Whitney have to have in order to run a successful business? If she were to do business all over again, what would she do differently?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Expert’s Advice

Advice from Whitney: You should start small, you’re ultimately going to end up where you’re supposed to be. And if you’re not able to immediately quit your job right now, just start small, see where it goes from there, eventually it will grow and you’ll be able to stop doing what’s not working for you more and more. Before working full time on her business, Whitney prepared for what she’ll need on the creative side. However, she did not prepare enough for the marketing side of her business. Yeukai advises start-up business owners to take time to find a mentor before you actually launch your business, clarify what steps you need to take and what needs to be done before heading on to do it. Working for yourself definitely takes more responsibility as you have to be responsible for every action that you make. Whitney’s advice for start-up business owners: You have to have total faith in yourself that you can do it, do not listen to anybody else that may have doubts. You must believe that you can do it, and it may not be overnight – it will probably take some time, but do not lose that faith that you will make it.

Myths and Misconceptions

One misconception that Whitney has seen is that starting up a business is really hard. And while it can be hard, what’s really hard is keeping a positive mental state. For those people who get stuck on having a negative state of mind, if you feel like you have worked so hard and you still have not done anything well, it doesn’t mean that you’re a failure, just do the best you can with what time you have. Another misconception that Whitney has come across with is that you don’t have to personalize every order. When it comes to marketing, Whitney has now perfected Etsy’s systems; she has been working on making her product sale-able on Pinterest. Given the chance to start all over again, Whitney would change the way she prepared, she would spend less time creating all of the different little items that she provides, and spend more time marketing instead of creating, or understanding how to market.

Episode #159: Ling Wong | Content Writing Practices that Can Ruin Results For Business Owners May 06, 2020

Show notes

What copy-writing trends do you faithfully follow in your business? Listen to this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast as a copywriting consultant and marketing expert, Ling Wong, talks about the common copy-writing mistakes business owners blindly follow today. With her vast experience in content creation and marketing, Ling shares a few tips that will help business owners get the best result in producing valuable copy for their audience.

Key Questions Asked:

What would Ling say to somebody who wants to do something else but is scared to do leave their job or whatever they’re doing right now? How did she get her initial client? If Ling were to do it all over again knowing what she knows now, what would she do differently? How important is strategy compared to being tactical? What are some of the common mistakes solo entrepreneurs and small business owners make when it comes to copywriting? What is copywriting? Are there any techniques that are useful in adding personality to a copy?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Expert’s Advice

Ling advises start-up business owners to really understand their risk tolerance. She believes that it all comes down to our own level of comfort, therefore we shouldn’t justify cutting the corner and jumping off the cliff if that’s not in our personality in the first place. Yeukai shares some insights as well, saying that in the beginning, we don’t really need our customers and that it is only after corresponding and spending time with them that we narrow down exactly what they need and how are we going to be providing that service. There’s no amount of research and survey that can take the place of actually being there and having a conversation and building relationship with your clients. Given the chance to do it all over again, knowing what she knows now, Ling would be more disciplined and really get clear on her message, her convictions and what she’s really good at; and then implement good discipline and discernment on how to apply this message. Tactics and strategy go hand in hand because tactics without strategy is just busy work. Your strategy also needs to be in alignment of what you set out to be, what you conviction and message is. It is the bridge between what you really want to create and the execution. Regarding tactics, Ling says that it does get hard because there’s always new tactics. And while you can definitely implement all the tactics that’s out there, at some point you just have to be smart about it.

Common Mistakes

The first common mistake business owners do when it comes to creating a copy is they try to look around too much that their copy tends to lack focus. Another mistake Ling sees business owners make when it comes to copywriting is making it less personal and more generic, and blindly following formulas and templates and even copying competitions. Ling’s way of writing copy is all about making a connection and creating resonance with the readers. Two of Ling’s favorite techniques in copywriting and creating content is what she calls, Purposeful Storytelling and Responsible Vulnerability. A lot of people are afraid of offending people on their copy. Ling suggests an exercise and other tips business owners must do to publish a copy that works for them even though it might be offending to some people.

Episode #158: Jody Swift | The Importance of Empowering Business Owners Today May 04, 2020

Show notes

What needs to happen internally when you’re in a transitional phase? Transformational teacher and empowerment expert, Jody Swift, talks with Yeukai about the many aspects of transformation, especially for individuals who are planning on or are in the process of building their own business.

Key Questions Asked:

How does Jody work with business owners today? What would be her advice to business owners to get themselves back on the track? How can business owners engage in becoming aware of themselves? Is there anything that people are doing which they think are having a positive impact yet, in reality, they are not making a good impact at all when it comes to reaching their goals as business owners? How did Jody get her first client? How does she market her business today? How does Jody go about picking the right people to work with?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Jody’s Journey

Jody helps people who are challenged of being two people to figure out their why from the beginning. Once you figure out what your love languages are and what drives you, you can figure out whether or not they are being fulfilled in your workplace. People stay where they are when they are being rewarded in some way. Jody recommends two pieces of literature for business owners to pick up: The ‘5 Love Languages’ by Gary Chapman and ‘The Passion Test’ by Chris Attwood and Janet Attwood. So many times we’re waiting to talk, we’re not actually listening to what somebody has to say… Being able to communicate where we’re at with whomever we’re with makes a big difference in terms of the success of that communication piece.

Becoming Aware

Business owners can get so wrapped up in the how we forget about the initial intention of looking for what they want to get out of the business. When she’s doing goal setting with her clients, Jody suggests that they rid themselves of the burden of the how because it will come if you focus on the end result. Jody markets her business mainly through word of mouth, Facebook and other social media platforms, and sending a newsletter to the people she meets.

Expert’s Advice

Jody believes in the power of attraction. When it comes to people to work with, she is looking for particular personality types – the really open-minded people who see possibility in a number of different things. Jody advises business owners to form their tribe. Get clear on your vision and then form your tribe, find the people who believe in you and who believe in your vision, and the rest will come. Another advice Jody gives to people is to continue to educate yourself on you – not just on business but on you, and how you tick.

Episode #157: Brandon Loures on SEO | Self Implementation vs. Hiring an Expert May 01, 2020

Show notes

Have you ever tried implementing SEO strategies on your own? Or maybe this is the first time hearing about this? Wherever you might be, and whatever your business might be, you have to know about SEO and why hiring an SEO specialist is the best decision you will ever make when it comes to attracting more customers into your website. In this Episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, SEO expert Brandon Loures talks about his struggles and triumphs with SEO and what business owners should do if they want to get started with implementing this strategy.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Brandon get started with SEO? How did he get his very first client? What is the most challenging thing he’s had to face earlier on and how did he deal with it? How did Brandon deal with doubt in those early days? What is the first skill every business owner needs when it comes to implementing SEO strategies? What is the secret to success with SEO? What tools does Brandon use to help him with SEO? What is the role of Social Media when it comes to SEO? Why hire an SEO consultant? Knowing what he knows now, what would Brandon do differently given the chance to start all over again?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Starting Out

When you’re starting a business, you need to have both the relational capital and financial capital. Relational capital may be even more powerful than financial capital. Brandon got his first clients through capitalizing on his network. Brandon found it challenging to transition from working with a team in an agency to working by himself and having to manage his time a lot more efficiently. To get around that, he had to look into his organization and started using tools such as CRMs. First thing business owner needs to understand is the search landscape. Because SEO is all about what people are searching, Brandon recommends that business owners should read books that talk about the beginner’s guide to SEO.

SEO Tools and Secrets

The secret to SEO is having a foundation of good content that covers the main topics of your services on your actual website. One of the tools that Brandon likes to use is HARO or Help A Reporter Out. SEO is not only about what your website says but also what other people say and HARO is a tool that you can use to get media queries. When you’re creating a content for your website, keep the social aspect in mind.

Must-know About SEO

If you don’t have a good understanding of SEO and your goal in your business is to get more visibility, you should go ahead and hire an experienced SEO consultant. Going back to the beginning, Brandon wishes he would have known how important search engine partners are. Given that chance to start again, business to business relationships is something that he would’ve started earlier. Another thing he wished he has done more was read business books that talk about his specific industry. Good SEO consultant would be able to look at your analytics and can help you make decisions like whether or not you should offer a certain service in your area. SEO involves a lot of research that can be valuable for decision making in business.

Episode #155: Arti Sharma | Effective Digital Marketing Apr 29, 2020

Show notes

Are you eager to begin with digital marketing but don’t know where to start? These three basic skills and other tips from Arti Sharma will surely help you when it comes to getting started with digital marketing. Arti has been in the industry for a while and is producing great results for her clients in Canada. She’s currently helping business owners get better results with the exact strategies that she’s using in her own business.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Arti get started with digital marketing? What is the first skill every business owner must cultivate or to develop in order to succeed in the digital world? What sort of things do they need to have on their website for it to be of value to the people visiting? What us the next aspect of critical skill that business owners need to develop in order to succeed in the digital world? Where should business owners put their focus on if they want to increase their presence and get more clients? What advice would Arti give to business owners?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

First Skill: If you have a budget for a website, then it’s a good place to start, having your online branding intact and having it in a succinct manner is important. There are three things you need to understand if you’re designing your own website: First, as a business owner, your website’s your salesperson and you have to make sure that your website speaks to your audience first, so write down the purpose of your website, write down who is the targeted audience that your website will serve and what kind of information will they take away from here. Finally, you want the brief to identify what are the calls to action you need to have your audience who visits you take. Make sure that your brief is clean and crisp, use some modern buttons as well as colors that resonate with your target audience. The next skill business owners need to know once they have a website is how to focus on and make sure that people are sticking to the website. This is about ongoing content marketing and making sure your website is being found. When you build a website make sure that it is responsive, that it is set up in a way that it switches the design on every mobile device and that it creates a user experience and also ultimately will convert better for you. It is also important to optimize your site for local searches. Arti strongly believes that content is still key and relevant content is all the more important. Another step that Arti finds to be very important is the email marketing. There are so many messages out there, so integrating your marketing message is important, and touching with these techniques or strategies is all the more fruitful for you as a business owner if you can combine those two. If you’re one of those people who are starting out and want to reach more audience fairly quickly, Arti suggests for you to invest in social media and content marketing. Choose one to two that you really know how to work and then do them really well, consistency is important. It’s all about connections and contents today when it comes to digital marketing, so the more you share other people’s content, you tap into other people’s connections equally well. OPC means Other People’s Content plus Other People’s Connections – tapping into that leads to more abundance. Arti advises start-up business owners to seek for a mentor, and if your business and your working capital allow, then hire a business strategist or a business coach early on. Don’t be shy to ask for help.

Episode #154: Amanda C. Watts | Marketing Expert Warns Business Owners Not to Make These Mistakes Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

How do you go from being broke to running a seven-figure business doing what you love? Amanda C. Watts is a marketing authority and has proven herself to be the right expert when it comes to turning one’s passion into a full-time job or even a successful business venture. In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, Amanda answers Yeukai’s questions about the mistakes she often sees business owners do that keep them from achieving their full potential, and how to best avoid them.

Key Questions Asked:

What had to happen mentally in order for Amanda to build a seven-figure business? What advice would Amanda give to someone who wants to actually make things happen but there’s no support from family or anyone around them? What role did mentors play in Amanda’s journey, especially when she was just starting her business? How did she get her first client? What mistakes does Amanda see startup business owners do that stops them before they even get started in making money? How does she go about helping a client find out exactly what they are good at or who they should be working with? Is there anything that business owners do which they think is helping to build their company, yet in actual fact, it’s the opposite? What’s one big tip that Amanda would give to start up business owners? If she were to do it all over again, what would Amanda do differently?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

The first thing Amanda would advice start-up business owners to do is to surround themselves with peers. As for finding her first client, Amanda did not go on to social media and post 20 updates a day. Instead, she went to LinkedIn and sent emails to people who she thinks need her expertise. Two massive problems that new entrepreneurs make: 1) They don’t niche so they don’t become a specialist in something. 2) They charge for their services by the hour. Don’t sell by the hour, package up huge value, work out exactly how much you can help someone, turn it into a package, and work with them for three months or for six months. Almost all of the client Amanda has worked with find that their niche is actually in their story. One thing that she gets her clients to do is to write out their story because there lies some clues as to who you should be helping. Another mistake business owners get stuck on is being very busy being busy. One solution Amanda suggests for this is to outsource. As soon as you can afford it, start investing back into your business and have someone take the grunt work. One big tip that Amanda would give business owners is to “fill yourself up with the information of the experts on YouTube.” And also, “don’t build a business brand, build a personal brand” because it’s the personal brand that people actually buy from. Therefore, it is important to build a personal brand. Another mistake is that a lot of people give up their day job too soon when some people can grow a business while still being in their day job. Amanda advises business owners to not rush to leave their day job, do it safely. And to find someone who has been there and done it and get support from them so you can eliminate mistakes. Amanda gets her clients to ask themselves two questions every day: “What was a win and what was a learning?” (What mistake have they made and what have they learned from that?) Because our power and our success come from our learning and our mistakes, not from where we naturally win.

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