When I was younger, I was a voracious reader. As adult life took over, that pastime sadly suffered. After I graduated college and got done reading all the required textbooks, I realized I missed it. I missed learning. And so, my love for audiobooks emerged. I listened to almost 30 books in 2020 and I'm sharing with you my very favorites. Some were fiction (historical fiction is my jam), but most are geared towards self-development and business. 

1. Untamed by Glennon Doyle

2. Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller

3. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

4. Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty

5. Super Attractor by Gabby Bernstein

6. Atomic Habits by James Clear

7. Stories That Stick by Kendra Hall (I later took her course that was great as well)

8. Superfans by Pat Flynn

9. Profit First by Mike Michalowicz (this completely altered my perspective and approach to money)

10. Braving The Wilderness, Daring Greatly, and Rising Strong by Brene Brown (sorry, I cheated but I loved them all)

Let's chat freebies. Do you have one? How many? Are they working for you?

A freebie may not make you money directly, but it will be the most important resource you create in your business because this is what will "hook" people and get them interested in what actually does make you money. Freebies are also known as list builders or lead magnets. 

You want your lead magnet to be straightforward and simple, something that can provide your audience a quick, immediate win. Freebies commonly take on the form of checklists, templates, or worksheets. Quizzes are another direction you can pursue to obtain leads. They don't offer the value that the other freebies might, but for some reason, everyone loves a good quiz and they typically work extremely well. 

My best performing lead magnet to date has been a free welcome email template. I've also had a lot of success with an entrepreneur-related Harry Potter quiz (yes, I'm a huge HP nerd).

Now, my Harry...

Marketing is all about connecting right? And nothing fosters connection better than stories. They have the ability to get people to relate to what you're saying on an emotional level like no other marketing strategy can. This is where the power in stories lies. 

 Any story can be used to further develop your marketing strategy, from the things that completely change your life to the every day situations we all come across. No matter the kind of story it is, I highly suggest including all the details you can. The details are where connection happens. For instance, if you're recalling a time from your childhood, and you mention the old Coke machine in the corner... that brings with it a whole feeling of nostalgia for so many people. Maybe the Coke machine isn't technically pertinent to the story, but that's something your audience can connect to. This is not to say, however, that your stories shouldn't have a conclusion or point...they absolutely should. A story...

Environment is everything. It impacts how we feel, the way we work, and even how productive we are. I've learned this the hard way: from a series of less than ideal living situations that negatively affected me in many ways, only to make me appreciate my current environment that much more. 

Let me take you back. After graduating from high school, I moved to the Twin Cities to attend a private college. Even though my roommates were amazing, living in such close quarters with 3 other girls in a big city, which has never been my thing anyway, was pretty terrible. Then I transferred schools and moved in with my boyfriend and his parents. He traveled most of the year, so at the time, it didn't make sense to pay on his own place when he was hardly there. Again, his parents were great, but that's no one's ideal situation. Next came a rental that was always meant to be short-term, even though it ended up being longer-term than we had planned. The common denominator with all these...

Mental health. Let's talk about it. I don't actually want to, but I feel like it needs to be done because I know others are feeling what I'm feeling, and I don't want you to feel like you're alone in this.

I don't have mental health issues because I'm an entrepreneur or because I have big aspirations, but they do exacerbate them. I've struggled with anxiety all my life. There was no name for it when I was little, I'd just have seemingly random tantrums for reasons my parents couldn't figure out and I couldn't find words for. I'd get overwhelmed and upset about things others typically wouldn't. It would often manifest as anger and we all just joked it was "that Italian temper." It was anxiety. All along, it was anxiety. 

As I've grown older, and dealt with hardships and trials just as everyone does, depression reared its ugly head. I didn't realize what it was at first because it's not like I was suicidal, but I couldn't sleep at night and then slept all day, I wasn't eating,...

Being an entrepreneur is hard guys. Like, real hard. Actually, just having big dreams in general is hard. It's lonely, and trying, and at some point, will test everything you have in you and then require more. 

Right now, I'm sitting alone at the kitchen table developing marketing strategies for two new clients while my friends are outside grilling and having a bonfire. Do I want to be out there right now with them? Yes. Am I experiencing a little FOMO? Yes. But I know that if I want to live like no one else in the future, I need to do what no one else is willing to do today. That means sacrifice and dedication. But many times, along with sacrifice and dedication come loneliness and struggle. 

It was my life's goal to become National Champion at an Arabian National horse show. As a child, I rode my horse every single day. So much so that the barn owner would suggest maybe I give my horse a day off here and there (haha). I skipped football games on Friday nights and lake...

Even as a kid, I was always responsible with money. I grew up with parents that dealt with finances completely differently, so finding a healthy balance between the two when it came to a relationship with money was challenging. But I was always counting the coins in my piggy bank, keeping track of how much I had and scheming ways I could make more, like the lemonade stand at our garage sale or selling toys I no longer wanted.   

My relationship with money is still a work in progress and I'm no financial advisor, but the following is how I paid off $40,146.11, if we want to get specific, in just 3 years. I had saved up all through college, because I knew come graduation, I'd have some significant loans to pay off and the thought of paying interest makes me want to dig a 6 foot hole right here and now. I had even received multiple academic scholarships and the sad part is, my loans were relatively insignificant compared to what many graduates come out of school...

Email campaigns are a great avenue to utilize in marketing your business, but it's only effective if the campaigns are executed upon several important pillars. They are: 

• a sense of community  
• it reads in a personal voice authentic to you 
• offers value that your audience is looking for
• consistency 

If you're not going to commit and build your email marketing strategy upon these pillars, you might as well save everyone time and just put your own email in the "to" box. 

Fostering a sense of community can be done by getting vulnerable with your audience, using your email platform's specific tags to insert people's first names into the copy, or asking questions and inviting readers to reply.

Using your unique voice throughout the email is very important. This might come at the expense of some professionalism but it's well worth it. Your voice will set you apart from your competitors and make you more memorable to those reading your emails. Phrases that...

This is how it all began. I was 25. I had just gotten passed over for a job I had literally already been doing as a temp and felt a lot of pride in the work I had done so far. I knew a lot of people felt I was too young for the position, too young to be taken seriously and make an impact. So now I wanted to prove everyone wrong.

Fast forward to my very first course launch ever with the business I had started after failing to land that job. Cart opens day 1... no sales. Ok it’s fine, it’s only day 1. Live webinars come and go... no sales. A steady, thrumming panic starts to take over my body. Just under the surface, but it's always there. Doubt seeps in... maybe I was right to get passed over for the job. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this at all. Maybe I should stick to what I’ve been doing. Day 7... I finally confide to my boyfriend that I’m scared I won’t make any sales. My thought process before was if I don’t say anything, it won’t be...

How do you know what words and phrasing you should be using in your content? Let me let you in on a little secret. The language you should be using is the exact language that your audience uses. For instance, if you hear them complaining over and over again about needing help meal planning, or not being able to find the motivation to turn off Netflix and get off the couch, create content that not only revolves around those topics, but uses those exact words. Maybe you create a freebie that is titled "Motivate Yourself To Get Off The Couch in 3 Easy Steps." See? In this way, you don't need to come up with your own content! Your ICA will tell you exactly what they want from you without even knowing it. And by using their actual words, you ensure your content will resonate with them too. You could create the same freebie with the title "How To Exercise in 3 Easy Steps" and even though it might contain the exact same content, chances are it won't get nearly as many clicks in the first...