Shotcallers #27 - October 2021 by Shotcallers

Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs

MotivationandSuccess.com October 2021 FREE

INSIDE THIS MONTH’S ISSUE Marketing Calendar- pg. 3

Welcome to Women’s Small Business Month with this very special issue of SHOTCALLERS! This month, to celebrate women in business, we’ve got a full issue dedicated to 14 of the most powerful female entrepreneurs out there. All of them, and many more, are featured in the new book, “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs,” by Edwina Murphy-Droomer. Edwina and 13 other contributors took the time to talk to me this month about the book and their respective businesses. I can’t tell you how delightful it was to spend my month immersed in the energies of these women, and the lessons I learned are something I’ll forever be grateful for. After you get fired up reading their interviews, we’ve also got some great articles to help you grow your small business, starting with five powerful mobile marketing strategies you need to consider. Then we’ll talk about seven common welcome-email mistakes businesses need to avoid, how content marketing works and why every business needs it. Finally, we’ll also show you some Pinterest statistics that might change your mind about how your company can use this vital social media site. I’m so excited for you to read this issue! Don’t forget to pass it on to a friend or colleague once you’re done. To your business, Dennis M. Postema P.S. Don’t miss an issue of SHOTCALLERS! Sign up for your free subscription

5 Powerful Mobile Marketing Strategies for Your Business - pg. 4 Phenomenal Feminine Entrpreneurs - pg. 7 10 Reasons to Document Your Business Processes - pg. 54 Seven Common Welcome Email Mistakes Businesses Need to Avoid - pg. 57 Social Media Marketing - pg. 60 How Content Marketing Works and Why Every Business Needs It - pg. 66 Fun Facts - pg. 69 Infographic: 2021 Holiday Planning Guide - pg. 70

Marketing Calendar Plan your marketing messages around these upcoming holidays and proclamations.

October

Adopt A Dog Month Breast Cancer Awareness Month Bullying Prevention Month Car Care Month Dental Hygiene Month Domestic Violence Awareness Month Emotional Wellness Month National Pasta Month Oct 11 - Columbus Day (U.S.) Oct 31 - Halloween 1st - International Coffee Day 1st - Homemade Cookies Day 2nd - Non-Violence Day 3rd - Techies Day 4th - Child Health Day 4th - Taco Day 4th - Vodka Day 4th - World Animal Day

5th - Do Something Nice Day 6th - Noodle Day 9th - Beer & Pizza Day 10th - World Mental Health Day 10th - Father-Daughter Day 12th - Savings Day 13th - Stop Bullying Day 14th - Dessert Day 15th - Global Handwashing Day 15th - Boss’s Day 17th - Pasta Day 18th - Chocolate Cupcake Day 20th - Medical Assistants Day 21st - Get to Know Your Customers Day 21st - Back to the Future Day 23rd - Make A Difference Day 26th - Pumpkin Day 28th - Chocolate Day 29th - Frankenstein Day 30th - Candy Corn Day 31st - Knock-Knock Jokes Day

November Adopt A Senior Pet Month Aviation History Month Epilepsy Awareness Month International COPD Month Lung Cancer Awareness Month Military Family Appreciation Month National Adoption Month National Alzheimer’s Disease Month National Diabetes Month Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month November 11 - Veteran’s Day November 25 - Thanksgiving November 26 - Black Friday November 27 - Small Business Saturday

1st - World Vegan Day 1st - Brush Day 2nd - Cookie Monster Day

4th - International Stout Day 4th - Candy Day 5th - American Football Day 6th - Nachos Day 7th - Daylight Saving Time Ends 10th - Marine Corps Birthday 11th - Sundae Day 13th - World Kindness Day 14th - Pickle Day 14th - World Diabetes Day 15th - Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day 16th - Entrepreneur’s Day 16th - Fast Food Day 17th - Take A Hike Day 18th - Mickey Mouse’s Birthday 19th - International Men’s Day 20th - Adoption Day 26th - Cake Day 28th - French Toast Day 30th - Computer Security Day

5 Powerful Mobile Marketing Strategies for Your Business Businesses need to constantly stay on top of the latest and greatest marketing methods. While content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing are all incredibly effective for getting customers, you should also make use of mobile marketing. Tons of consumers now use their smartphones daily and, if you can tap into this market, you could boost your sales significantly.

Since many people are constantly on their phones, you must find ways to promote your business in ways that they’ll see right on their smartphones. Fortunately, there are many effective ways to encourage people to buy from you using their mobile devices. Here are five of the most powerful mobile marketing strategies for your business.

1. Build A MobileFriendly Website

2. Create A Mobile App for Your Brand

Before doing anything else, you need to make sure that your brand website is mobile-friendly. Nowadays, it’s not enough to have a fast and efficient business website that runs well on all computer browsers. You also need to consider how your website looks and works when people are using it on portable devices.

Another powerful way to tap into the growing market of persistent smartphone users is to create a mobile app for your brand. Even if your website is already easy to use via mobile browsers, an app made specifically for your business can offer an even more satisfying customer experience and even help you improve customer retention.

You should take measures to ensure that your website is easy to use via smartphones. You might want to use large text in your content and break it into small paragraphs. You should also make it so the buttons used to browse are large enough for people to press while they’re using a small screen. On top of this, you should make sure that people can easily buy from your business while using a smartphone. Luckily, online shopping cart platforms make it easy to do this. You might also want to enlist the help of a professional web design service to ensure that your website is as mobilefriendly as possible. 5

allow these businesses to show mobile users special sales promotions while also collecting helpful analytics to improve their sales efforts. Making an app isn’t easy without some advanced programming knowledge. However, you don’t need to be a programming whiz to build an app for your brand. Simply plan what kind of features you want your app to include and get in touch with a marketing company or professional app development service to help you. 3. Use SMS Marketing

If you’ve ever used email marketing, you know how effective it can be for keeping your brand in consumers’ minds, promoting your products, and attracting more sales. SMS marketing can be used in many of the same ways you’d use email marketing, the only difference is that the Think of popular examples messages are sent directly such as Amazon Shopping to the SMS inboxes of your subscribers. and the Nike app. These make customers Much like with email more likely to buy from marketing, you’ll need their brands as they’re constantly present on their people to opt-in. You phones. What’s more, they might want to include a form on your website or

allow customers to tick a box when they complete a purchase to allow SMS alerts from your business. Once you build a list of numbers, you can start marketing to them via short and enticing text messages. You might want to send out special coupons or alert consumers to flash sales via SMS marketing. You can also use SMS marketing to collect feedback from customers. It’s also a great way to encourage people to download your app, especially if you do so with the offer of a special discount for their first mobile purchase. 4. Boost Your Social Media Marketing Efforts Social media marketing is incredibly effective for businesses of all sizes. You can reach a huge audience by regularly posting content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, even if you’re already using social media to market your business, you should boost your efforts for smartphone users.

Many consumers idly browse social media apps like Instagram and Twitter in their downtime. As

such, a well-timed social media post about a flash sale or a new product launch can entice them to buy from you. You should also use social media to cross-promote your brand app if you have one. You can even increase your success by using social media platforms that are designed primarily for smartphones. For example, you could use Snapchat and TikTok to post entertaining videos about your products or services. These platforms are growing fast, and you can bring your business to the attention of many new people this way. 5. Offer Instant Support Via Mobile Offering rapid customer support is one of the best ways to increase your sales. In many cases, casual consumers might be considering buying something from your business but want to ask a question first. What’s more, existing customers might have queries or complaints. If you can deal with these requests instantly, you’ll boost your customer acquisition and retention rates. While offering speedy phone support and live

chat features on your website will help, you should also find ways to deliver rapid customer support to mobile users. Many businesses now use WhatsApp to answer questions from customers directly. Other messaging apps like Facebook Messenger can also help. Make sure your customers know how to reach you and make it as easy as possible for smartphone users to get an instant answer. You might also want to consider using your social media channels to offer customer support. If people see you delivering satisfying customer service via Twitter or Facebook, they’re more likely to consider using your business. Mobile marketing can be incredibly helpful for your business. Not only can these methods help you bring in plenty of new customers, but they can also help you keep existing customers and increase repeat purchases. Make sure your business is as accessible as possible to people using any kind of smartphone or portable device and you’ll be set up for continuous success in the future.

One of the most exciting and inspirational benefits of interviewing people for SHOTCALLERS magazine and Motivation and Success TV is that I constantly get to talk to some of the most uplifting and creative people on the planet. This has become especially important for me as the past year or two have brought unique challenges to our ability to connect. Through the monthly interviews I do, I found myself enjoying the same kinds of intimate connections and uplifting conversations as I had before the pandemic.

I spoke with throughout the year was that they were determined to bring positivity to the world, even during the pandemic. Honestly, I knew 2020 would be a hard year to follow, but 2021 has brought me a wealth of new connections that are realigning my understanding of abundance and teaching me about resilience in a way I hadn’t experienced before.

A good part of this is thanks to my close friend Meredith Allan (whom you might remember I remember in 2020, from the very first issue of when study after study SHOTCALLERS), because showed a creeping rise in this year she introduced loneliness—an offshoot me to a woman who I pandemic we hadn’t immediately connected anticipated—I would feel with. Her name is Edwina almost guilty because I Murphy-Droomer, and she spent each day completely just completed a book, fulfilled after making “Phenomenal Feminine yet another important Entrepreneurs.” Once I connection and constantly began to read it, I was tapping into an incredible in awe of the powerful abundance of positivity. message I saw on every page, and I knew that One common thread together, we could really among the entrepreneurs make a substantial impact 7

on the world. What Edwina has done with “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs” is amazing. She’s interviewed women business owners all around the globe who are doing extraordinary things in the world. This book gives us a peek behind the scenes at their journeys and insights into gaining their successes. It’s a powerful interview series that is perfect for any entrepreneurial woman who, in her gut, knows she is meant for more. As I read through this immaculately designed book, I lost myself in a series of life-changing insights into taking control of your prosperity, your freedom, and your future. In today’s world, we’re constantly pulled in different directions, and that can make it difficult for us to isolate our role from day to day. But the minute I saw this book, I knew the one role I was meant to fulfill was to amplify not just the content of the book

but the voices of all the women involved. That’s why this month, I’m turning the SHOTCALLERS issue over to 14 of the phenomenal feminine entrepreneurs featured in Edwina’s book. Now, that’s about enough from me. Let’s kick off this pivotal issue by talking to Edwina!

We’ll start off this month’s special feature with wisdom curator Edwina MurphyDroomer. She is the author of “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs,” the book that brought together all the amazing women we’re highlighting this month. Edwina is an interviewer, vision-building mentor and transformational coach.

Dennis Postema: Tell me about your new book, “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs.” Edwina Murphy-Droomer: The book contains interviews with 20 women all answering the same 20 questions. It wasn’t intentional, but somehow it’s come out as the magic number: 20 questions, 20 women, over 20 days.

my heart and mind for the day ahead. It got me thinking—I wanted to create something similar for my audience. So I did!

The difference is that I wanted to interview women who live in a world that feels a little more relatable. While we look at the people in Oprah’s book with awe and wonder and certainly relish the wisdom they Each woman was asked share, it is not easy to the same questions, which envisage ourselves living allows the reader to get in their shoes. multiple perspectives on any single issue or So the women I chose to concern. It’s a beautiful feature in “Phenomenal way of planting seeds Feminine Entrepreneurs” differently and changing are at varying levels how we see things in our of success on their minds. entrepreneurial journeys and are women who, not Dennis: What made long ago, were standing you decide to gather all exactly where you are these successful women now. together for a book? My intention for the Edwina: The idea came viewer is to think, “If she from my love of Oprah’s can do it, so can I.” book, “The Wisdom of Sundays.” Inside is a Dennis: What role do collection of powerful vision boards play in takeaways from visionaries what you’re doing? like Tony Robbins, Elizabeth Gilbert and Edwina: Vision boards Brené Brown. play a pivotal role both for myself and for my clients. While I am having my But trust me, when I morning coffee, I often started my entrepreneurial pick it up to find a nugget journey, I never imagined of inspiration that fires up becoming a vision-

building mentor. After my first show, “A League of Extraordinary Mothers,” aired in 2018, I heard from the women in my community that their greatest struggles and frustrations lay in having lost their sense of purpose and excitement for life. They had no clear direction for where they were heading, just a vague sense of frustration with where they were and a knowing that they were meant for more.

I knew then how powerfully vision boards, when done right, could fill the gap for these women between where they were and where they wanted to be. To highlight how this works, I use the analogy of planning a wedding. Whether we have been married or not, most people can identify with the feeling of becoming engaged and how, women especially, start dreaming about their perfect day. We plan every detail. We know what we are going to wear, what we will eat, who we want to be surrounded by, what car we’re going to ride in, and the perfect location. We even envisage how we’re going to feel. What we have done is created a

super compelling vision. Some will create a physical vision board, or it might be on Pinterest or simply in a notebook—regardless, what we do is create a vision of our dream day. Once it’s clear, we set about bringing that day to life. The vision unfailingly pulls us up and forward, even when the going gets tough. We put all this effort into that single day. The question then is, why don’t we apply this same passion and dedication to becoming super clear about who we want to be, what we want to do, and what we want to have in the rest of our life? Taking the time to get super clear about the life you want to live is a no-brainer if you want to feel empowered and in control of where you are heading. When I started my entrepreneurial journey, I imagined utilizing my studies in naturopathy and functional nutrition. However, as my journey unfolded, I found that my skills in interviewing, vision building and coaching have pulled me in a completely different direction. I learned from this that you have to be in motion, taking steps

with what you know now before your authentic purpose will reveal itself. What I did know when I started was that I wanted to enliven, embolden and empower other women. What I didn’t know was how I was going to do it. That part has revealed itself over time and continues to evolve the further along my journey I go. Never feeling ready is a sticking point for many entrepreneurs. It is normal to want to know everything with certainty before starting, but sadly that day simply won’t arrive until we dare to take imperfect action. Starting with a clear picture of what the end goal is and knowing WHY you want to achieve it is the perfect next step forward. Helping women with this and providing the support and accountability to make it happen is my zone of genius. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Getting crystal clear about what you want and then combining that with getting the support and accountability you need to stay on track truly is a winning formula.

Dennis: Tell me about Should be richer, thinner, your “why” and why the fitter, prettier. concept of having a WHY Should do this, that, and is so important. the other. Edwina: If we aren’t careful, Should have a bigger we can go through life house, better car, fancier ticking boxes that are clothes. not necessarily right for us! Following the norm, The solution is to get you leave school and go crystal clear why you are on to higher education. doing what you are doing. Choosing a career path at Whether that’s why you 17 or 18, based on your want to lose weight, or marks and what you think change careers, or borrow you want to be. Then, get money to buy a fancier a job, get married, buy car, if you identify what’s a house, etc.—getting driving you, you may see lost in a life dictated by things very differently. a “shoulds list” that you Moving toward pleasure didn’t even write. and away from pain is a compelling WHY—you Add to that the trap of just need to be clear on living reactively rather your definition of pain and than proactively, and we pleasure in relation to your potentially have a recipe choices. for a frustrating and hollow existence. Then For the entrepreneurs in one day, we find the time this space, I challenge you and energy to stick our to articulate clearly why head up above the noise you are doing what you’re and clamor of the world doing. For me, it’s about around us and realize that leaving a legacy for my we don’t even know who kids, financial security for we are anymore, let alone the coming generations, what we want. and living a life that feels purposeful and fills me If we don’t take the with pride. time to stop and think about why we’re doing Dennis: What kind of something, it’s easy to get advice do you have lost on a hamster wheel of for entrepreneurs reactionary living, dictated struggling to find their by the word “should.” “why”? Do you have any quick tips that may help

them? Edwina: I learned a little trick from Dan Graziosi about asking yourself why seven times. It seems to be a magic number for some reason, and it works best if you do it with somebody else. So whether it’s “I want to lose weight” or “I want to start a business” or “I want to make a million dollars”—whatever the “why” is, ask somebody to work with you by asking, “Why do you want that?” seven times. Dennis: Talk to me about the role of vulnerability and creating connections with your audience. Edwina: Vulnerability is a topic that we get to thank Brené Brown for shining a spotlight on. We’ve moved away from the idea that the people that we’re learning from—our teachers, our mentors, our coaches, our guides—have to be perfect in all things, all the time. The very nature of staying connected to our humanity is understanding the role of vulnerability. To strive for perfection is not only paralyzing for the person who’s trying

to achieve it, but it’s inauthentic and creates a barrier between you and those with whom you want to connect. It’s that perfect Instagram wall that we look at and think, “Oh my gosh, her life looks amazing,” but it’s hard to relate. In contrast, those who share the “real” picture create deeper, more authentic connections. Sharing the bumpy ride and the mistakes along the way is helpful to our audience. The shiny is great, but the not-soshiny moments that happen along the way are where the riches lie. When we can share what went wrong for us, how we dealt with it and what we learned from the experience, it inevitably makes others feel less alone and more supported on their journey.

The support I received from the women in my coaching group and the understanding and care from the women in my audience showed me what generosity truly is. So yes, it was a gift for me. However, it was also a valuable leadership experience for those around me. I role-modeled, albeit inadvertently, that when something turns your world upside down, which happens to all of us, it’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to show up when things aren’t perfect. It’s okay. The lesson: Humans want to connect with humans who are willing to be human. Dennis: How do you define feminine leadership?

standing shoulder to shoulder with people to create a fault-, blame-, guilt-and shame-free environment. It is about being 100% responsible for your choices and for your way of being. It is about being willing to show up and speak up when you can’t control the outcome. And I believe it is about making hard decisions from a place of love, not fear. Dennis: Tell me about your role as a wisdom curator. Edwina: I collect wisdom from people all over the globe via interviews and then exhibit it in one easyto-access location. So, in essence, I curate wisdom. It is the first way that I serve my audience.

My intention is to plant the seeds of possibility into your heart and Edwina: It is about mind—the possibility One of the most letting go of the idea of vulnerable moments in my perfection. I think the old that there is another way, another path, another career happened during paradigm of leadership my very first interview was, “I’m the authority, and version of you waiting to series. It was in 2018, and you do what I say.” Now it’s: live a bigger, bolder, more my eldest sister, Phillipa, “Here’s my suggestion. I’ve beautiful life. died very unexpectedly. I got some ideas, I’ve got Step two of my work had about 2,500 women some experience, here’s supports women to create waiting on me every day what I bring to the table. to show up and deliver What do you think? What a compelling and exciting content, and I chose to be do you feel? What do you vision for their own lives. Getting clear on who they very real with them about need?” want to be, what they what I was going through. want to do and what they Feminine leadership is

want to have.

told the story so well. I felt like it was a blessing and honor. I love the female movement too. It’s great.

do what’s hard now, it’s going to be hard Step three is how to bring forever. Sometimes it’s your vision to life. That’s difficult to pull out your where the coaching pocketbook and pay tens comes in. Most of us are Dennis: How did you get of thousands of dollars. not short on information your company’s revenue I just paid $50,000 and I and knowledge, but the from $0 to almost $20 might invest $150,000 in gap between where we million in just four another program. It seems are and where we want years? hard at first, but you learn to be is filled by having a so much when you hire clear vision and then the Krista: It’s just not giving someone who’s done support and accountability up, honestly. Hiring the what you’re trying to do. to bring your vision to life. right coaches and mentors For example, if you want is also a huge part of it. to learn how to make $1 To find out more I would not be where I million a month, you need about Edwina, visit am had I not invested to hire someone who’s edwinamd.com and in myself over and over making at least that, if not check out her shows on again. It’s funny, I just did more. But you learn what MotivationandSuccess. a post in my inner circle they’ve done wrong—it’s tv. To get your copy of adding up the cost of all like you collapse time “Phenomenal Feminine the coaches that I had frames because they teach Entrepreneurs,” visit hired over about three you all the mistakes not to any online bookseller, years and nine months. It make and what does work. including Amazon and was about $460,000 just Barnes & Noble. within my inner circle that If you’re coachable and I had invested. But we just you’re willing to actually hit the $20 million mark Next is bestselling author in our company and had our best month ever. We Krista Mashore. Krista has been in the top 1% of Realtors were just $2,000 shy of nationwide for 20 years, and $20 million this month was named by Yahoo! Finance during a worldwide as the top digital marketer to pandemic, and it is all due to just never giving look out for in 2021. up, continuing to move Dennis Postema: forward and hiring the What was it like right people to help get to be interviewed there. by Edwina for “Phenomenal Feminine Dennis: What would you Entrepreneurs”? say to people who are hesitant to get a coach? Krista Mashore: She’s great. It was so nice and she Krista: If you don’t

do the work, then you’re great. I think many people give up too soon. I noticed it’s like Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.” You’re three feet from gold. So many people give up right before they’re going to get to that mark. Things take time, but it will work if you just don’t ever stop.

I take them to the funnel, the conversions are much, much stronger.

There’s a term for this. It’s called a “parasocial relationship.” Our brains have been wired to see people on the other side of a screen and start to develop a relationship with them. We feel like we know them. We cheer Dennis: What is your for them, we cry for them one key strategy for and we start to trust marketing to the digital them. Developing that masses? parasocial relationship is Krista: You need to date what marketers or what your community, date any type of professional your clientele. You need to should be doing with their let them get to know you audience, so that when and like you and trust you. they do want to convert them to want to work with My main strategy, both them, the conversions are in real estate and in much easier because the coaching, is utilizing the client on the other end video strategy to put my feels like they know them. content in front of people. Before I even launch Dennis: How did any funnels, which is a you discover this for website or landing page yourself? that you specifically drive traffic to, I spend part of Krista: When I was just my marketing budget on selling real estate, I was putting video content in used to selling a lot of front of my audience so foreclosures. Then the that they can get to know market got better and me, they can start to like I went from selling 169 me, they can learn to trust homes in my best year to me. It positions me as the selling 12 the next year, authority, it starts to break because all my foreclosure down their barriers, and accounts closed. So I went it literally develops a real to a listing presentation to relationship between me get a new client and when and them. That way, when I called later to check in,

they said, “Krista, we loved you, but the last guy called you the foreclosure queen.” And I thought, “Oh my gosh, I am a foreclosure queen. Nobody knows me in this market.” So I started researching what the Fortune 500 companies were doing and realized they utilized something called content marketing. They would take material, add value and get material out there. They would market themselves to people, and that’s how they made it to where they were. So I thought, “That’s what I need to start doing. I need to start getting my content in front of people. Serving, not just selling. Letting them get to know me, adding value, being prolific at times, questioning the norm, getting them to question what they’re doing.” That’s why I did it. I focused on what other professionals, billiondollar companies, were doing. They used video content. If you think about the Kardashians, whether you like them or not, everyone knows the Kardashians. They are masters at creating content and getting it out

there, and now they’re billionaires. So I started creating content in my community, interviewing people, talking about real estate, talking about the community, talking about market-based seller tips and tricks. I also talked about things that were happening in the community and interviewed local professionals and interviewed local restaurants. And I took that content and created ads on Facebook, targeting and retargeting my local audience.

marketing. Then I send them more video content on marketing to nurture them, then I take them to my funnel. Now, when I ask them for their contact information or for them to pull out their credit card to get more information, they’re so much more likely to do it. It’s a strategy that completely fast-tracks the business.

power of the subconscious mind and cybergenetics . There’s so much research about your brain and how your brain works and the neurotransmitters in our brain. It doesn’t know the difference between reality and what we visualize and what we think. So I’ve learned to just completely be a master of my mind.

Mindset is huge. I read Dennis: How does your books on it, I visualize my mindset affect your success, and I believe that business? I can do anything. One Krista: Mindset has been of the things I teach my a huge component of students is to think about my success, and it’s been all the limiting beliefs they something I’ve really had have. What are the things Then, when I launched my to work hard at. I come that you say to yourself coaching company, I used from really, really humble that are holding you back the exact same strategy. beginnings. I haven’t lived from greatness? What we I created a ton of video at home since I was 13. think about turns into our content, put ads behind There was some abuse actions, our thoughts, our it, started targeting and happening in my home, philosophies, our beliefs, retargeting people and so while I have an amazing our habits, our rituals, our making sure that I put relationship with my family routines and our actions. content in front of them now, when I was 13 I Those actions create our that they were interested started running away from life, our success and the in, because research home and found myself results. So we’ve got to shows that the more your in juvenile hall. Then I got be so conscious of what content speaks directly to sent to a group home for we’re saying and we have somebody, the more likely girls for a year and ended to believe that we can do they’re going to convert. up going to a foster home anything. my remaining high school That’s why funnels work years until I was 18. When Dennis: How do you so well, because if I you leave home that manage to be so produce content and young, it kind of messes productive? somebody’s watching, I you up. can tell how much of the Krista: If you ask people video they watched and To maintain the right what their biggest that indicates whether mindset, I read constantly struggles in life are, they’re interested in my about topics like the they will tell you: being

more accountable and productive. If you’ve read books like “Atomic Habits” or “The Slight Edge,” they all talk about how big, huge, massive changes in your life are just the result of small actions. These big, huge, audacious goals are just an accumulation of small activities done over time to create really big things.

they restate what their commitment is for that day.

So last October I started doing something with my students called “skin in the game.” It’s a 15-minute daily accountability call. Students just jump on a call and state two things that they’re going to get done for the day—one for their business and one for their personal lives. One person’s goals might be like, “I commit to doing 10 video text messages, then I commit to working out for 30 minutes, and that’s my intention for the day.”

The reason this works so well is that call is your anchor. Having an anchor, something you do before the habit you’re trying to create, will help solidify that habit. That 15-minute call is your anchor to ensuring that you actually get that thing done.

The next day you show up to the same call for 15 minutes at the same time with the same people, and you say whether you got those goals done. Then you explain what you let get in the way and how you’re going to overcome that today. So you might say something like, “I’m going to change my behavior by doing Y.” Then

It doesn’t have to be the same commitment—it can be a totally different commitment—but the idea behind it is that no matter what, you do everything you can to make sure that those two commitments get done.

The other helpful factor is the personal accountability and the accountability of the group. Nobody wants to go to the group and say, “I didn’t do my thing,” so the results have just been phenomenal. Dennis: What would you say to somebody who’s making excuses about why they can’t start a business? What advice would you give them?

We’ve had our best years ever. There’s no better time than now. There’s so much opportunity and so much room for you to thrive, not just survive. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’re going to keep getting the same results. You can either risk working for yourself, or you can continue to work for somebody else and make them rich because that’s what most people are doing. If you are not working for yourself as an entrepreneur and building your own business, you’re building somebody else’s dreams and life. To find out more about Krista, visit kristamashore. com.

Coming to us live from Berlin, we now have certified high-performance coach Eva Medilek. Eva is a success coach and author whose book takes on the critical topic of allyship. Dennis Postema: What was your experience being interviewed by Edwina?

Eva Medilek: First of all, I love Edwina. Love, love, love her. She’s such a Krista: There’s no better powerful human with so time than right now. We’ve much love and tenderness crushed it during COVID. in her. She’s got that

try to find work, which was very, very difficult. I was panicked. I’d been cleaning teeth literally since I was 16 years old, and so this was a whole new world for me. It was humiliating. Nobody wants to hear that you’re 50 years old and have over 30 years of experience.

But I needed to work because I wanted a certain balance of love and tenderness with power as lifestyle. I wanted to have a well, and I just find a lovely place in Berlin. I wanted to be able to take summers mix in Edwina. Because off and just go away and you can feel her power, have a job that I could but it’s not to the point work anywhere in the where it knocks you off your center. It really brings world, and that meant I needed to get away from you a grounded, lovely dental hygiene and look energy. for work that didn’t require Dennis: Before you were me to go back to school and get another degree. a high-performance coach, you were a dental I came across Robert hygienist. How did that Kiyosaki, the author of the book Rich Dad, Poor transformation come Dad and read some of about? his books and thought, “Oh! Real estate. I could Eva: Before I became do that.” I went to one of a coach, I was happily his seminars and learned working in the rat race, making good money and more about financial education and how to had been at my job for create passive streams over thirty years. Then, of income, then I took in 2011 as the economy a leap of faith. I bet on was still struggling and I myself, even after being was celebrating my 50th birthday, I was downsized. downsized, and I invested in coaches and mentors My salary was cut, my days were cut, and I found and training to become a real estate investor. myself literally at the age of 50 interviewing to

Dennis: And then you went from real estate investor to highperformance coach? Eva: In the beginning of my real estate investing career, I ended up burned out, stressed out and overwhelmed, all of which contributed to a breakdown in my marriage. I was frustrated and discouraged and started to think about giving up. One of my mentors taught me some things I could do to get over my pity party, so to speak. I also leaned heavily on books, hearing other people’s stories. Because your story can be someone else’s survival guide, and everybody has a story, so I found solace in learning how other people overcame those negative voices in their heads, the feeling of giving up. One of the biggest issues we all face is that we don’t get good financial education in school. So we really have to seek out how the rich become rich. At the age of 50, I didn’t have the luxury of 20 or 30 years to figure this out. When you think of having coaches and mentors, you want to collapse that timeline and really learn from their mistakes.

They’ve made them before you and so they’re not going to coach you or guide you into the same mistakes. They’re going to tell you, “This is what I’ve learned, this is where to go, and this is how to do it,” so it was really critical to me that I worked with coaches and mentors so that I had a five-year plan. By year four after implementing my plan, we had a place in Germany, and I was able to go there for months on end without having a J-O-B. At that point, I started becoming a mentor myself and found that there was so much fear for people to make a mistake that they didn’t really trust what the coaches and mentors were saying was true. They didn’t have the courage to make the phone calls and make the offers and find the deals and get capital and financing for the deals. Most people, especially ladies my age, were being held back by that fear. “What if people say no?” “How do I ask for money?” and I remember saying, “You don’t ask for money, you shop the deal. You find the deals and the money will come.” That’s hard to believe when you’re not in that world, because I’d had a problem 17

myself until one of my coaches said, “Stop asking for money! No one’s going to give you money.” People want to invest in the deal—they want the ROI. And so I started coaching in that world, but I realized that people needed more than just to learn how to do it, they needed to get out of their own way so they could do it. Dennis: How do you define high performance? Eva: High performance really boils down to consistency. A lot of people, when they hear the word performance, they think, “Ugh! It sounds like hard work and drive, and I’m already exhausted by the word high performance,” but if we get to the bottom line of what high performance is, it really is succeeding consistently over the longterm while maintaining a healthy, happy life. It’s having success without sacrificing your health, your well-being or your relationships. Dennis: How do you help someone get the courage to be high performance? Eva: Before I even coach people to high

performance, we talk about habits, patterns, beliefs and behaviors, from your early life experience and how it’s sabotaging your success and your relationships now. So I would say number one is to be aware of what you fear. You usually have fear, frustration and fatigue. You’ve got to know if it’s outcome fear, if it’s pain fear, if it’s “what if the grass isn’t greener on the other side?” fear. What exactly is the fear? There are so many fears that people are grappling with that were born out of their early life experiences that they’ve built to protect themselves. So we get to look at that carefully: where that came from, is it really true, and what’s the worst that can happen? Our school system has set us up that if we get a bad grade, we feel like crap. We get punished. If we get a good grade, we get rewarded. If we don’t get a good grade, our parents want to know why we failed, and we feel like crap. Nobody wants to make a mistake because there’s that connotation of “I’m bad, I’ll be punished.” So we do everything we can to avoid that feeling. Instead, I want you to fail faster. Let’s make those

mistakes. Let’s get them out of the way. Let’s get those lessons and let’s do it—and you only can do that through action. Dennis: Are you a visual person? What gets you from point A to B? Eva: I use vision boards. I have mantras that I say and repeat every morning, and I have a morning routine. A morning routine will set you up to win the day. Part of the morning routine is getting my mind right for the day. Or I’ll hire a coach or a mentor to get me from A to B, because I know my limitations and where I need help. I very rarely go it alone, because that just causes a lot of stress and overwhelm and then other areas of my life end up falling apart. I’m a perfectionist and a do-it-all-myself type. I’m very visual and highly focused and have learned how to limit distractions. I have what I call my CPR method: Get clear on what I want, prioritize and be responsible. To get clarity, my husband and I always write down our goals for the business and for our personal life as well. I started visionboarding with another coach just to really get 18

clear and focus because once you’re clear and focused on what you want to create for a certain time of life, it helps you minimize distractions. To prioritize all the goals that I have, I decide what order they need to happen in and what is the priority at the moment.

success that you want to create. If you’re really focused on writing a book, then focus on writing the book. Don’t get squirreled away by something else. Keep your focus clear.

Then we have to talk about your competency: Do you have the skill level? Do you need to hire coaches? Do you need to To be responsible, I set learn a new skill so that and communicate my you can support what boundaries. If people you’re trying to create as don’t know what you’re well? And what beliefs do creating and what your have? Do you believe boundaries are, they can’t you you can do it, or are support you. That’s where that you a Negative Nelly or a lot of frustration and miscommunication comes Debbie Downer? in relationships and with Dennis: What do your team. you think causes underperformance for Dennis: What would people in their lives? you say determines performance outcome? Eva: Fears. Eva: It really is that CPR frustration, fatigue. and getting clear on what Fears, A lot of it is the burnout outcomes you want. and the overwhelm from It’s also acknowledging not saying “no,” not being whether you’re letting Your success your fears, your fatigue or selfish. on your ability to your frustration get in the depends prioritize without regrets way. When we talk about or guilt. When you’re performance outcomes, saying “yes” to things we really talk about your don’t support your ambition. Your ambition is that and focus at going to drive and change priorities that time, it creates a level your behavior, and the fatigue that creates habits and behaviors that of burnout and overwhelm, you have in place have and that’s when you start to be appropriate for the to underperform.

you can be more in tune Dennis: You just wrote with what’s going on, your first book last learn some of the history January. Can we talk that never got taught in about that a bit? schools, and how that impacts how we show up. Eva: The events of 2020 From that, I was inspired had an impact on the to write the book as well, world globally, and I called “The Intimacy of found myself, in reaction Race.” It really is how to George Floyd’s murder, people of privilege can really wondering: How move past subconscious can I have a bigger impact racism to active allyship. or influence? I noticed It’s very basic. You don’t how people were getting have to protest and criticized on social media, change laws; you start this saying the wrong things, transformation within. like, “All lives matter,” “I love everybody,” and “I don’t see To learn more about Eva, visit her at talkwitheva. color,” not realizing what com and evamedilek.com. that means to people of color when you don’t see color. But also knowing that it was coming from a I’d like to introduce you now to Kirsty Wirth, an educator, place of good intention. I felt that I could support well-meaning people of privilege by creating a safe space to have these conversations and for them to listen and learn, so I put on a live forum called the Allyship Awareness Forum. It was six badass women of color, and we invited everybody who wanted to listen to our experiences and to learn about what we need. Out of that, I started a Facebook group called the Intimacy of Race, where I share resources so 19

integrative health coach and founder of the gut health company, Kultured Wellness. Dennis Postema: What was it like being interviewed by Edwina and being part of the book “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs”?

Kirsty Wirth: It was wonderful. Edwina and I had already done a few interviews and formed a beautiful friendship, so we had so much fun doing the book interview.

Dennis: Why did you originally start Kultured Wellness? Kirsty: I have been unwell with gut issues for the majority of my life, so I normalized very quickly having diarrhea ten times a day and having stomach cramps and low energy and poor sleep. My grandma had it, my mum had it, I had it, my sister had issues, so it’s just like, this is what our family does: we have gut issues. Never once did it enter our minds that we could get it tested or that this didn’t have to be our life. I just put up with it until my son became very unwell after going to Fiji. We were in Fiji and he contracted giardia, which, if anyone’s

had giardia, just the sound of it will make you freak out and be fearful. It’s horrible with cramps and pain … it’s debilitating. So he had giardia, and then he just kept getting it. He would have antibiotics and all of this medication, but his gut issues continued to get worse. Then we noticed at about 18 months a significant change in his learning and development. The trajectory completely changed. By the age of three and a half, he was completely nonverbal, had no communication skills, and wouldn’t look at anyone. He would just lie on the floor and scream all day and night. The classic diagnosis at that point was autism. So we went from having this 12-month-old boy at a surf camp, thinking he’ll be a professional surfer like Kelly Slater, to being told that he will never communicate or go to school or play sports or have a girlfriend. Our whole life came crashing down.

I’m really stubborn and I love research, and I thought, “I’ve got these gut issues and I feel [like] crap. I can’t remember things, and I’m constantly

fatigued and can’t sleep and have rashes all over my body. Is it actually possible that there’s something else?” My husband, who is an emergency nurse, said, “If someone turned up in the emergency room with this chronic yellow diarrhea, we’d go and get them tests. We wouldn’t just diagnose them with some random thing without investigation.”

research project. My son had this transplant and the next day, he started saying “Mum” and looking me in the eye and then would say, “Train.” I had the procedure done, too, and so suddenly, I’m like, “Wow, that’s how you go to the toilet in the morning!”

When I reflect on it, Kultured Wellness is the business I never wanted to have. I was happy in my space in education. I come After loads of investigation, from a long background of education, teaching either we finally found the outdoor education or in appropriate testing and schools or university, and I the appropriate support was happy, cruising along, and discovered my son doing what I like to do. My had Clostridium difficile parents owned a business (C. diff ), and so did I. My when I was growing daughter had significant up, and I remember gut issues as well. constantly saying, “I would never do that. Who would The research was very clear: The toxins from the run a business?” Yet here I am, six years in, running bacteria in your gut leak a business, and I couldn’t into your brain and stop love it more because it’s so brain function, cognition purpose driven. and development. So was our son really autistic, Dennis: What are some or was his brain on fire warning signs that because his gut was on indicate someone fire? We went on this should get checked out grand adventure and connected with a research for gut health? team in Canada who were Kirsty: Your gut doesn’t lie. doing fecal microbial Every single day when you transplants for C. diff. eliminate, you are getting We sold our house, did a the best barometer of fundraiser, and gathered what’s going on within enough resources to fly to Canada and get on this your gut and with your

health. So you need to be checking your stools. If you’re not eliminating at least once a day, then there’s a problem. We need to be eliminating every day, and we want to have nicely formed stools. If that’s not happening, that’s your first warning sign. It’s as simple as that. People often wait until it’s extreme and they’re on the toilet constantly and they’ve got all these problems, but I would investigate if you’ve got three or four days of that happening. You also have overt symptoms: bloating, gas, rashes, constipation or extreme diarrhea.

fearful.”

well.

Gut issues can be more reflected in what’s going on in your mental health rather than in your gut. So you can have an extreme gut issue and not have any typical gut symptoms. That’s a really important piece of information that we need to get our heads around.

Dennis: What would you suggest to somebody who’s dealing with a lot of feelings of anxiety?

Kirsty: The first thing I would suggest is to take out what’s causing the inflammation. Your gut may be on fire and your brain may be on fire, so pull out what’s inflaming Dennis: What types of your body. If we’re all mental health issues? honest with ourselves, we know what it is: it’s the Kirsty: There’s a study of alcohol, it’s the doughnuts, about 40 women who it’s the sugar, it’s the grains, were given a probiotic drink for six weeks and by it’s the processed fast food. So the first thing is the end, all their anxiety just pull back and calm barometers in the test everything down. Don’t go results had completely What is now becoming and find the latest product come down, whereas in very clear, and it’s not or supplement, just pull the control group, they talked about enough, back on things and then hadn’t changed at all. is if you have mental get some sleep. That’s a All that applied was one health issues, you’ve really big one. Turn off the specific bacteria strain in got a gut issue. All that probiotic drink, which screens at night, go to bed the neurotransmitters early, and allow your body was the Lactobacillus necessary for us to be to recover and cool down rhamnosus. We have lots buoyant, resilient, robust, of information about OCD, the inflammation. After including dopamine, that, have some fermented autism, Asperger’s and serotonin, and GABA are foods, get into some bone global developmental all created in the lining of delay being impacted broths, and replenish and our gut. So if our gut is this by gut health. There’s look after your gut by big, red, inflamed mess, eating a diverse amount of some great research on then our brain doesn’t bipolar and schizophrenia, vegetables and fermented get the appropriate foods. depression—there’s neurotransmission and research for pretty much messages to feel joyful. Dennis: What do you all conditions relating to Our brain gets the gut health. And you don’t suggest nutrient-wise message, “Everything is have to have a diagnosed daily for everybody’s gut bad! Be on high alert, be mental health condition— health? stressed, be scared, be you can just feel low, as

Kirsty: Consistently having therapeutic probiotic foods is nonnegotiable. It creates such a wonderful environment in your gut to allow beneficial microbes to grow. It’s like when you have a house and you want your friends to come over, you want them to hang out and feel comfortable, stay for dinner and have a good time. So you set up a nice couch and you give them some water and you just make everything lovely for your crew to come over. It’s the same in your gut. You want those bacteria to be happy and multiply and support you, so you’ve got to create the environment so they stick around, not an environment for worms and parasites and so forth to come in.

Colony-Forming Unit, which is the strength of the probiotics. And you want to choose ones that have got a robust amount of bacteria strains in them that support health—then you know you’re effecting change in the gut. That’s why I developed my Kultured Wellness products because there wasn’t anything available, so I had to create my own. In Australia, everyone’s chugging down kombuchas that are just full of sugar, and there’s no therapeutic benefit from them, and it makes me cross.

To do that, eat fermented foods. Put some in your breakfast, have some in your lunch, have some with your dinner. That is as simple as having a tablespoon of sauerkraut on the side of your dinner, having a bowl of yogurt for breakfast, so forth.

Please enjoy the talk I had with Ana Paula Munoz, a feminine leadership coach and cofounder of Inaura.com.

When it comes to fermented foods, not all are created equal, so you need to choose fermented foods that have got a very high CFU count, or 22

of different subjects that are close to my heart. The topics we covered really speak to the women in my audience who want to create a life driven from vision more than anything. Dennis: What was your journey like, going from architect to a feminine leadership coach?

Ana: It was a big transition. It’s probably one of the bigger transitions I’ve experienced so far. I was in the architecture profession for about 10 years. I got to what I considered the top, working for famed architect Frank Gehry. That To find out more about was my dream job, and I fixing your gut health, visit got there. But something kulturedwellness.com. in my heart was nudging me, telling me there’s

Dennis Postema: What was it like being a part of the book and being interviewed by Edwina? Ana Paula Munoz: It was beautiful, and Edwina’s just a really amazing interviewer. We got to go really deep into feminine leadership, entrepreneurship and a lot

something else. I had to sit down and think about whether architecture was truly aligned for me. I also needed to consider what it was I could create in this world with this life. At the end of the day, following my heart meant connecting with people more intimately in immersive experiences like retreats and workshops, and also supporting people on a deeper level. So instead of designing buildings externally for people, I chose to support others by helping them design their lives.

always influenced my design as well, but it’s a totally different career.

super grind and kill yourself to make yourself, all these different things that are very intense. It takes so much courage I understand the mindset to be able to say, “It’s not and the benefits of about the time invested, endurance, and I feel it’s about your life.” It’s like like that is very valuable being in a relationship. I’ve and it’s important to heard this so many times include that in leadership. from different people, like, But there’s a difference “I’ve already invested five between that and ignoring years into this relationship. that you have a body you We can’t end it now. We need to take care of, and have to fight,” but you that it has functions. In don’t if it’s not working architecture school, which anymore. is very masculine, it was encouraged to do allIt’s devastating, but nighters, and we would. at the same time, it’s We’d stay for multiple days opening up to a whole without much food and world of possibility that just keep on working, keep Dennis: That’s an I couldn’t ignore. If I had, on drawing and designing. awesome experience, my existence would have It was almost like a but was it scary at the become robotic and my competition. same time? life would lose color. That’s not okay. That’s Ana: Oh yeah, it was scary. Dennis: Tell me about just leading to a more Imagine dedicating so masculine and feminine burned-out state. Then much time and resources energy and polarity in we go into the corporate to reaching a level of leadership and creating. world, and there’s experience, expertise and still that expectation quality of work, and then Ana: Coming into the to just produce and suddenly feeling like it body and feeling and produce and produce didn’t fulfill the illusion of allowing for that to without acknowledging what you thought you’d happen is very feminine. humanness and the feel once you got there. I When you’re in a very heart—which is part of also knew in my heart that rigid structure, it’s more the feminine and is really there was something else. distorted masculine important. That’s what There were moments of or hypermasculine. we start bringing in as devastation, but it’s not Societally, there is a we create more balance like I was never connected hypermasculinization in between masculine and to what I’m pursuing now. the world. This includes feminine in the workplace. I’ve always dabbled in ingrained beliefs in terms It also shows up in all these pieces, and that’s of hustle, production, aspects in life. Healthy

feminine and healthy masculine create polarity. Men have feminine and masculine aspects as do the women. However you identify that you have both, within those two, you get to dance with it as your partner.

Dennis: Do you feel you’re better able to live a heart-led life since you left architecture?

Right now, my vision in my personal coaching business is to support people, to design their lives, to truly tap into their hearts’ desires, see the patterns that are holding them back from getting there, and supporting them to get there. The reason I feel so passionate about this is because it opens up your heart to be the creative center of your life, and when you allow that to happen, and you truly allow yourself to listen to your truth coming from the core of your spirit, your essence has a different vibrational quality. There’s a spark that is ignited when you’re fully on purpose and you’re fully aligned. This alignment creates a transmission of your truth.

Ana: Yes, it’s shifted. Our vision, our passion and our purpose continuously shift as we move through life. I feel like that’s something that sometimes holds people back from actually choosing a mission, a vision or a purpose, because it’s so solid. It’s

When I am aligned with my truth and I’m following my purpose and the things that light me up and fill my life with the experience that I’ve chosen, I am aligned and I am transmitting and radiating an essence of belief that people can

When I’m in action mode in my business and creating and setting goals, I am in my masculine. I also get to be in my feminine in certain ways, where my masculine holds the structure of my business, metrics and goals, and that creates a container. Then my feminine gets to come in as this beautiful creative flow, and it brings softness, feeling and intuition. It brings in all these different qualities that have been erased from the traditional workforce.

like they think, “Now I have to be this thing,” and that’s not true. You get to continuously mold this vision, and I definitely have.

truly design the life they want to live. It lights me up to see people doing that and taking action toward it, because it’s not just the visioning, and the hoping—it is becoming the leader of your life, and choosing and taking action. This also involves the masculine components that we’ve been talking about, along with the feminine intuitive slowing down, listening, feeling your body and experiencing. Something that happens when we’re in a very masculine upbringing is we become numb to a lot of sensations. We become numb to feeling our feelings, much less expressing them, and it’s a whole experience to awaken and soften so many parts of us. It’s truly a different experience of life. It takes commitment, and it takes the embodiment of feeling like you’re in your heart and you can live from there. There’s softness and strength, and all these different qualities that you ignite within yourself, so that your vision can materialize. That’s what creativity is, and that’s what I’m most passionate about.

Dennis: Tell me about your website, Inaura. Ana: Inaura.com is an online healing platform. We launched with a beautiful event last month, and we’re starting to open up different sections of the platform. It’s basically intuitive because it connects the seeker, which would be anyone who visits it, to a guide. Guides can be therapists, energy healers, NLP practitioners, movement somatic practitioners—all sorts of modalities. We have about 90 modalities and hundreds of practitioners that get linked with different seekers. There are also a bunch of different offerings like classes, and soon there’ll be workshops, group programs and courses to support you to find your path, because everyone’s path is different.

To find out more about Ana, visit anapaulamunoz. com or check out her website, Inaura.com.

Let’s learn from Dr. Marcy Cole, a holistic psychotherapist, speaker, author, community mobilizer, humanitarian, visionary and wellness educator. Dennis Postema: What was it like to be a part of “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs” and being interviewed by Edwina?

difference between holistic psychotherapy and traditional psychotherapy?

Marcy: Traditional psychotherapy takes a psychodynamic approach, Marcy Cole: I was so which looks back at your honored to be asked life story as if it’s a canvas. because there’s so many Who were your original magnificent women love objects, caretakers, on this planet doing incredible things. So when family, group of origin? What was your experience someone plucks you out in your community, in your of the entire world of school, in your religious possibilities, it’s an honor. affiliation? Traditional psychotherapy posits Edwina herself is such a that we track our selfInaura is based on the beautiful human. My first experience from some of idea that everybody has interaction with her was the things that we picked their own path, and they in my interview where, get to find it through an thank God for technology, up and learned and were told as we grew up. educated experience. we could actually see We provide free content, each other, giving it even Holistic psychotherapy and there’s an intuitive more of a personal feel. I integrates some traditional questionnaire that could feel her presence psychotherapy with supports you to match and wisdom and heart, with different offerings, and what an extraordinary, the idea that we have multifaceted dimensions guides and so on. There’s a powerful visionary she is! of our being. So I’m lot there. You have to visit listening for physical to see more. Dennis: What is the

health. How do we take care of ourselves in terms of nutrition, exercise, stress management? What’s the quality of our sleep? What’s our sexuality and sensuality? Do we have access to that? Are we connected to our bodies? Dennis: So holistic psychotherapy helps your clients connect all the different aspects of their life? Marcy: That’s right. It’s about consciousness. If somebody is literally working around the clock without taking care of themselves, while they might be making money, they’re going to burn out if they’re not taking care of their mind, heart, body, and soul.

When I was getting my formal training in traditional psychotherapy, there was nothing in the curriculum that attended to the body and the soul. It was all heady stuff: How do you feel, and what do you think? But it didn’t attend to what’s happening in your body. Let’s take a breath. What do you notice? If you’re racing, if your body’s jittering, anxiety is just a feedback-loop sign that our body says, “Please take a moment. Take a pause. Take a breath. Pay attention to me. This isn’t feeling safe, or I’m not attending to myself.”

is your career today in holistic psychotherapy from your earlier career? Marcy: In the early days of my career, I was in the corporate world, selling in the broadcasting business. When I decided to leave, people thought I was out of my mind, because I was being groomed for management and making a ton of money in my 20s. But I wanted to make a contribution that felt more palpably aligned with who I am. That’s when I went into clinical social work.

Today, the idea of a holistic, integrative model is so much more mainstream, visible, You have a lot of understood, accepted successful people out and sought out. there with a business and Integrative medicine is a title and a bunch of available to us, and a We don’t want to put all letters behind their name holistic methodology of our attention in the money with a whole boatload of psychological well-being is pot. If we’re not giving cash in their bank account. also. any mindful attention to But they are bereft of so our financial health, it’s much joy, and we don’t We need to really learn going to stress us out. want that. We want it all. how to live more from We’re going to end up We want enough to say the neck down. Today depleted. We’re going to our money’s working we have New York Timesend up feeling emotionally for us to take care of bestselling authors talking scattered or mentally responsibilities, but also about nondenominational scattered, not grounded, to create balance, create spirituality principles. not connected and exhalation, create beauty, Neale Donald Walsch is focused. We’re going to create sacred space, create one example. So these feel emotionally probably options and opportunities concepts are much more very, very weighed down and possibilities. accessible to us. Think by fear, doubt, worry. So about our parents and our everything is connected. Dennis: How different grandparents and great-

grandparents. They were generally in survival mode. They weren’t thinking about how they were doing and how they were feeling, and what does their heart desire. They didn’t consider what they thought might be possible for them or what they could contribute to the world. They didn’t have space for that in their lives, but we do.

I came up with this four-stage love formula, literally L-O-V-E. With that, I created the Finding Love Again class, which is a four-week virtual class with live access to me once a week. What’s been liberating and freeing is that I’m teaching it from the perspective of my own personal story as well. Many therapists keep themselves out of the experiential field of Dennis: Tell me a bit exploration with a client. about your Finding Love While there is a time for Again class. boundaries, of course, in this class, I’m bringing in Marcy: As a holistic my own personal story psychotherapist, I’ve talked with universal lessons for about relationships with all of us. lots of people through the years. It’s one dimension Dennis: What is inspiring of our lives that’s so you right now in life? important and sacred. I’ve also had my own Marcy: I just came back personal journey, which from a weekend with a wasn’t very traditional. nomination-based group My parents had a 78-year called the Association epic love affair, and many for Transformational of us grow up thinking Leaders. I was nominated that’s what we want. My years ago, and I didn’t journey took a different even know what I was road. I had a series of getting into. It ended up beautiful relationships, being one of the biggest but my first marriage blessings of my life. It’s a wasn’t my forever. I have group of people who are no unfinished business, all doing something in and I’ve learned from self-development, selfeach relationship, and it’s improvement and human culminated in the most potential, whether that’s extraordinary love of my health and wellness, life now in midlife. music, business or science. This weekend there was a

talk on transformation, and one of the presenters said, “What is transformation really?” We talked about the chrysalis, the caterpillar, the butterfly, then explored how this happens with our own experiences. We talked a lot about transformation requiring acceptance and allowance for nothing staying the same. No emotion is ever final. The truth is, we live, and we’re going to transition one day. There is a finite amount of time we have. So it’s surrender, and then it’s about being open. And then it’s about rebirth. So I’ve been thinking about this idea of transformation. It’s more poignant for me personally since I lost both my parents this year, and there were so many times in my life that I dreaded this. I was a relatively healthy human, but I would have this anticipatory grief that was actually really debilitating in a way, because I couldn’t imagine a time where I could be as joyful when they pass. I couldn’t imagine a time that their loss would not bring me to my knees. But I’ve had a totally

different experience than what I thought grief was going to be. I realized that what’s most meaningful to me is the embodiment. When you embody an experience and you get through to the other side, you’re so inspired by your own experience that you want to just share it with others. Now I feel like I have a bigger space to share for someone going through similar feelings. The combination of them living a long, blessed life, having an epic love affair, and the idea that I could not have been closer to them, there was nothing unsaid, nothing left undone or finished, and the fact that I am a person that believes in the unseen simply leaves me with gratitude. My grief is my gratitude. Honestly, I wouldn’t even call it grief.

That is what’s most inspiring me. This sense of awe. And of course, finding my love. Feeling like there were angelic forces before. It was time for my parents to go this way, and he entered my heart and my life, and it’s just been astounding. So I’m holding that space for everyone, that we can let go of things that either no longer serve us or that are

inevitable, and we can still not only survive but thrive in spite of it and because of it. To find out more about Marcy and her classes, visit drmarcycole.com. saw her and said, “I just want to tell you that I think you’re spectacular and extraordinary, and here’s why.” I shared how I had been inspired and motivated by her Dennis Postema: What was it like being a part of vulnerability and honestly “Phenomenal Feminine sharing from her heart and soul. She really stood out Entrepreneurs” and in a group of hundreds of to be interviewed by women. Edwina?

Up next is a conversation I had with Jaimsyne Blakely. She is a motivational speaker, writer, and soulful life and business coach.

Jaimsyne Blakely: It was amazing. Part of that is because Edwina is one of my dearest friends. We talk almost daily and laugh about the silliest things. Her thoughtfulness about every single part of the book … it’s really a masterpiece. Edwina is providing a breath of fresh, even rare, air. Dennis: How did you first meet Edwina? Jaimsyne: I saw her speak in a group that we participated in. Then I ended up in a leadership program with her. I beelined for her when I

Dennis: Tell me a bit about yourself and what you do. Jaimsyne: I am a soulful life and business coach. I’m a visionary, an outlier, an innovator, an inventor, a creator, an entrepreneur and a soul shifter. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in God, but I was not raised religiously. This has always been something I’ve carried in me, and it has guided all my actions. Death, too, has been something that has marked my life. For most people, it’s a dark,

forbidden subject, or they’ve gone through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s book. It’s something I have experienced deeply and feel very connected to those who have passed. About seven or eight years ago, I lost 31 very dear, close friends and family members over a threeand-a-half-year period. My biological dad died when I was six months old. When I was four years old, my best friend passed away. Death has been in my face, and in my environment, and in my home throughout my life.

from expanding, which is awkward, uncomfortable, and requires risk. We have become so averse as a population to risk because we have heaters and airconditioners, all these things that send signals to our brains that we are not even aware of. It’s important to put yourself in situations where you don’t use your heater or air-conditioning. I’m not talking about suffering in 118 degree weather, but I am talking about not coddling yourself. Not condemning yourself to a life of comfort.

true essential self, whether we are a gelatinous mess or we have 137 legs, or wings, it doesn’t matter because if we know ourselves, if we know our mesothorax, we will never be lost. We will always be in that state of emerging.

We all have intuitive gifts. Some of mine have been that I don’t feel the disconnection between the two worlds. I’m not a channeler, no, but I feel it, I hear it, I sense it. I feel the love. [The dead] dropped a body, but where did that energy go? That energy, I believe, if we, like the trees, if we shared that interconnectedness, then those people are there in energetic form, in spirit form watching over us. That knowing has carried me through my life.

We live in a time when people would like very much to tell us who we are, what to do, how to do it under the guise of being helpful. It is essential that we, like every other thing on this planet, have to struggle. Approach it as the beautiful struggle, the struggle that a caterpillar goes through when it’s got many, many legs. It can travel anywhere. It’s like a massive bus, like an 18-wheeler, then it turns into that gelatinous mess.

I shouldn’t say we’re doing it wrong. That’s not true. For part of the hero’s— or SHEro’s—journey, we are going to be on our own, but if at the end of our lives, we never truly interconnected and our personal development never included the we, we never went beyond I, then you know what? For me, I would have to say I failed.

Dennis: How did you find the courage to pursue this path? Jaimsyne: We have become disassociated

The thing is, and this was profound to me when I understood this, the mesothorax is the center of the butterfly. It never changes. If we find our

Dennis: How important is connectivity to our success? Jaimsyne: If all our selfdevelopment and selfgrowth is only about the individual and not how the individual interconnects with all, then we’re doing it wrong.

If we were meant to be alone and isolated, then we would have been born on different planets. We’re all together here. I think that our science is very young on the ways interconnectivity impacts a human’s body. We know

that hugging can bring blood pressure down. It can heal the heart. Just like trees, and scientists have discovered so many things about trees even over just the last year. But this interconnectedness that trees have under the earth, we can’t see where their roots are connecting, even over very long spaces. And then the fact that trees have heartbeats—that’s something scientists have recently discovered. Those heartbeats change when there’s a perceived danger. These other trees feel that, and it ripples out.

soul adventure, you never know what’s going to happen. You just go where you’re guided to go. You might go on foot. You might go in a car, but you do something every day. Maybe you drive a different way to work, and you get out of the car because something’s calling you. You leave half an hour early, and you take a walk through a neighborhood you’ve never been to before. You take your camera, and you take some photos of things that you love. You have an artistic experience. Dennis: What do you say I get up at 4:00 a.m., to your clients or people which is my favorite time who are afraid to get out to get up. Yet it’s very of their comfort zone? challenging, because I What do you say to also like to be out having encourage that? dinners and enjoying evenings with my friends Jaimsyne: I would never and family. Getting up at even say that, frankly. I 4:00 a.m., I experience a work mostly with men, very different person [that and I talk to them about early], so that’s another risk and adventure. I thing I encourage them to talk to them about soul do. I call it Camp Possible. adventures. I teach When you wake up before them how to take an your brain is on fire, and adventure with their soul, before it’s taken over, and for the specific purpose you’re in your logical brain, of expanding their soul, you’re in this visionary and to do it every day. brain, this creator brain. You cannot just sit at a desk. You have to have It’s this way of living where something to look forward we are in the flow of life … to every day. In creating I like to call it the Buffettthe time for your own Jobs-Oprah experience.

I love Warren Buffett’s advice. He says that he spends a minimum of three hours every day in contemplation. Here’s a man who’s made billions of dollars, who’s one of the most successful investors in history, which is a game of roulette, of chance, of gut instincts, intuition, strategy. It’s a number of things—market watching, research—it requires a very interesting brain. What he’s saying as someone who has gone from essentially very little to a lot is spend time with your inner sanctum and the temple within. We can see the results of that. Dennis: How do you suggest people get more connected with their creativity? Jaimsyne: In order to tap into your creativity and intuition, you need to sit down. Warren Buffett values that so much that he does at least three hours a day. Oprah tells us the same thing. She meditates, and these things just come to her. When she did her show, when she created her network, she said she never had any plan for it or a vision board or anything. She just did it.

That’s what I feel the soul encompasses. It’s our real story, or original story, what we’re really here for. It’s written on our soul, and it’s our job to bring that forth. The way that we bring it forth is by connecting with ourselves deeply and being willing to listen to what our soul desires for our human self to put into action.

Chelsea Clarke: It was awesome. Edwina is fabulous. We had our interview while I was traveling. I was at a hotel, so I was concerned about the Wi-Fi, but it went really well. She’s just lovely, and it’s really cool to get to be a part of it alongside all of those wild women.

focus on my business because I realized that you only get a little bit of time, and every moment I spent working for someone else and making someone else rich, I could be spending on my own business, helping my own family to grow and prosper.

When I finally decided to Dennis: You speak very leave the job force and passionately about make it work and not give To find out more about entrepreneurship versus myself a fallback plan, Jaimsyne, visit jaimsyne. being an employee. everything fell into place. com. Where did that passion come from? Dennis: Talk to me about the importance of Chelsea: Ever since I was a setting an example for Here’s an insightful little, I wanted to make an your son to be a leader income. My first job was and an entrepreneur. conversation with selling pop on the beach. Chelsea Clarke, a content As soon as I was 12 years Chelsea: I grew up in a monetization strategist, old, I had babysitting jobs. single-parent home, and website investor and the founder of HerPaperRoute.co. I went right into working I really looked up to my at a restaurant as soon mom. She hustled so hard Dennis Postema: What as I was 13. I was always before the internet, so she was it like to be in working, and no matter couldn’t just make money “Phenomenal Feminine what day job I had, I online on a blog. So I was Entrepreneurs” and be always had a side hustle. really inspired by her and interviewed by Edwina? how hard she worked, What was more fun was but I also realized that she the side hustle where I was was not in control of her in control of my income. income. We really scraped After university, I was by, and that inspired me working in marketing, had to not have to depend on an office job, and although just an employer. I loved the work and the people that I worked Now that I have my own with, I hated working on child, I just want him to someone else’s terms. I know that anything that hated even just the small he wants to do, there’s a commute I had to do. I way to do it. You want to wanted to stay home and be a YouTube star? Okay.

Here’s a strategy for how we can actually grow a YouTube channel. I just want him to know that any sort of dream he might have really can be done. He’s into all these different creative things now, and it’s really cool to see what he might be able to turn into a business if that’s what he wants to do.

handy little trick that I do is using Google Forms. I have a couple of questions that I ask myself each day. I call it an effort tracker, and it’s just a little checklist of things. If I did it, that gets checked off. I’ll also write a sentence about what didn’t work well or something I want to work on, and hit Submit. No one has to see that. I’m Dennis: What’s your keeping a record of what process for goal setting? I’m doing, and I can look back at it and see if I’m on Chelsea: I like to look at my track to reach my bigger year in quarterly blocks. I goals. That’s my process. don’t like to think too far It’s really simple, and it ahead. I’ll have an idea of doesn’t cost anything. what I want to be doing by next year, but I’m really Dennis: Tell me a bit just making the steps about website investing happen each quarter to and how you got get there. involved in that.

e-commerce sites, things like that, and that’s where my experience was— running online businesses. I went through the International Business Brokers Association and started brokering websites for people. I flipped my own sites and it helped other people learn how to grow, scale and sell their own websites. I launched a marketplace where you can buy an online business or put yours up for sale. We have tons of investors and buyers who come through the site to see what we have in the marketplace.

Website investing, it’s cool because there’s something for every budget. I like to I don’t like to take too Chelsea: Website investing call it an option for microbig of a picture because is my favorite thing ever. investing. You don’t have I know that when you’re It’s buying websites, to put a ton of money up starting to plan goals, working on them for a to buy a huge, established there’s a lot to do, and little bit, and then flipping site. You can make a small if you’re looking at the them by reselling them investment of $1000 and whole picture, it can feel for more than you paid. buy a starter site that is really overwhelming. A Before I went out on undermonetized but still lot of people get stuck my own, I worked at a has great content. Then and end up spinning their business brokerage. I you can just add your wheels and not getting was really inspired by the touch to it and grow the anything done because business brokers there, but traffic, get that revenue up they feel like it’s too much. they were really focused and resell it. on selling brick-andI use pen and paper, write mortar businesses. No one It’s a really nice way to get out my goals or have an was really thinking about into investing where you online spreadsheet. Each the online space, digital have more control. Unlike day I see what’s on my list products, ad revenue, stocks, where you put your and cross it off. One really online businesses, blogs, money in and hope for

the best, website investing gives you control of your investment because you and/or your team work on the site, make the content better, recommend products, grow the traffic, earn from digital products, and earn from ad revenue. Then you decide when you want to sell it.

everything. You can start a site from scratch, do keyword research and see what people are talking about, create content and recommend products that serve that audience. Or, you can buy a site that’s already established and build on it. The reason people do that is because an established site already Dennis: Do you just has traffic. It already has come up with a products, revenue, an creative idea and start audience, social followers, researching sites to buy? all that stuff. So you’re not starting from scratch. Chelsea: That’s a great Dennis: How important way to get started. Pick is it to have a digital something you are product to offer? interested in. Any niche can be made profitable, Chelsea: You can use a but whatever niche you product like an want to work in, it should digital e-book or an online course be something you feel as a lead magnet to grow connected to, one you your list, and building either have experience up your email list is so in or you’re willing to important because your research and learn more email list is one of the about. You can make it most important assets in profitable based on your your business. And it’s the experience and how one that you really engaged you are with the only own because we don’t actual content. own our social media. Have a website [and] Certain niches will start collecting emails probably always be by offering some sort of technically profitable, free lead magnet, which like health, wealth and relationships, but you can is anything you’re giving someone in exchange for do any niche that you’re interested in and monetize their email. Build up your list and your communities. it with products you’re interested in because Send a weekly email to there’s an audience for 33

let people know what you have going on. Over time that’s going to grow and you’re going to have people who become your superfans. When you have bigger products to offer, like a full online course, you’ll already have an audience who’s ready to buy from you. You can use free tools like Canva to create an e-book, PDF, a template, a workbook or something like that. You can offer that as a freebie for people who get on your email list. Starting with templates, e-books and workbooks is great. It’s a good way to test the waters. Dennis: What should people keep in mind while they blog to build their website traffic and email list? Chelsea: You want to make sure that all the blog posts are written with great search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. You can write about anything, and you can write however you want, but you should definitely be writing with SEO in mind. The next step is making sure that you’re also always thinking about

monetization. So you’re recommending great products, including links to your digital products and letting people know how they can work with you or buy from you. That’s really important and brings it all together.

easy to get in our own way and come up with a ton of reasons why we shouldn’t, or we can’t, or we’re not good enough or not qualified enough. You have to ignore that voice and focus on what you want to do and just do it anyway. Don’t let anything Dennis: How important stop you. There are so is affiliate marketing? many amazing resources online. You can find the Chelsea: Affiliate answers you’re looking for, marketing is how I earn get support, and find an 80% of my income, and it’s amazing coach that can all passive. I created a blog help you and encourage with Edwina. She is such post a couple years ago you to stay on the right recommending an affiliate track. You don’t have to do a powerhouse and has such a huge vision for this product. I put the link in it on your own. movement. I love to give there and people are still to that, but also to receive To sign up for Chelsea’s buying years later from classes, receive an e-book from that. The community that one blog post, and of women in this group or check out her free that adds up over time. are phenomenal, pun goodies, visit https:// intended. herpaperroute.com. Dennis: What kind of coaching and classes do It also helped me reflect you offer? on what makes a person Join me in welcoming Chelsea: My big, signature Elizabeth de Moraes, a success phenomenal, and to question where I am offer is a coaching group, and media presence coach showing up in a way that but I also have really great and the creator of the Video is phenomenal. entry-level courses and Cam Glam Kit. e-books you can get into if Dennis: Tell me about you’re interested in affiliate Dennis Postema: the elements of your marketing, blog flipping What was it like to be business. and scaling your business interviewed by Edwina Elizabeth: There are three online. and to be part of the main elements in my “Phenomenal Feminine business. One is that we Dennis: What advice Entrepreneurs” book? really want to look at the would you give to vision that you have inside anybody trying to get Elizabeth de Moraes: It of you that you know into business right now? was a fabulous experience. needs to be brought out So exciting to interact Chelsea: Go for it. It’s so into the world. You might 34

have that feeling that you’re supposed to make a big impact in some form or fashion, and you know that you’ve been placed here to do something great. What I do with my clients is look at who they need to be. Who are they being called to become? Let’s visualize that and then look at ways we can bring that forward in a bold way. The next step is to look at how you are showing up. Are you showing up in a magnetic way? I call this your magnetic personal presence, but executive presence resonates with a lot of people. It’s when you’re being seen as the authority. You bring the energy forward that really draws people in. They want to listen to you, and they just want to keep coming back for more. But they also see you as someone who’s trustworthy who they can follow. I help clients consider what the different elements are of that, how they need to show up, and then what energy they bring forward. What type of body language they need to be aware of to stand in that space, as the person they’re meant to be. 35

The third step is the visibility strategy. How are you making yourself visible in a way that is aligned with how you want to communicate? Some people may want to be on camera, others may not. They might rather use their voice and go more toward podcasting. So we’ll look at the different ways that you can be visible—the media, your social media, other people’s social media, other people’s platforms, podcasts, writing your own book or creating your own product. Dennis: What advice can you give for people to get past those inner demons and that selfdoubt we all face? Elizabeth: I love to have my clients create a Badass List. Write down at least 50 elements that make you badass. Go through each decade of your life, so it’s not just all the big accolades and isn’t just about big awards and accomplishments but also about the smaller moments that show how tough you are. You can go from your first memories to the age of 10—what did I do during that time that made me awesome? Or reminded me of who I

could become? Then 11– 20, and so on. Another thing you can do is find a picture of yourself from when you were a little kid that exhibits a spark of who you could become. Find that picture where you’re like, “Yeah, I’m awesome!” Maybe you’re in a superhero costume— whatever it is, find that picture, because that’s your essence. That energy and that person is still inside you, so when you have those inner demons, go back to that. We’re always going to have those inner demons come up. It’s natural. It’s our subconscious trying to protect us from moving to greater things. It wants to keep us safe. When I start having those inner demons speak to me, I read my Badass List out loud. Then I look at this picture of this little kid, and if you don’t have one of yourself, go find one that reminds you of who you were. Or it could be your own kid or your friend’s kid. Then, physically, get into that little kid. Pose like the kid or the superhero. Get into that body, breathe, and then take action. Dennis: What do you

suggest for people when it comes to being on camera or going into a big meeting? Do you have some quick tips to help with confidence?

Don’t try to memorize a script. Know your points like the back of your hand so you can always go back to them, but also be very present. Allow yourself to just be. If you need to calm Elizabeth: One, read your yourself down, if you make Badass List. Next, I have the exhale longer than the one of the most beautiful inhale, that will help you letters that one of my relax more. If you need to coaches wrote to me that bring the energy up, then spoke of what she really inhale longer and then sees in me, so before an also bounce. Do whatever interview or before getting you need to do to get into on camera, I quickly read your body. that. Another thing that you can do is prepare. Dennis: Tell me about Preparation is key. People developing your product say, “I won’t go do that and any advice you have until I have the confidence for others. to go do it.” You develop confidence through doing. Elizabeth: Have you ever had an idea that comes to You have to step out of you in the middle of the your comfort zone for it night, and you figure out to become your comfort everything about how you zone. Preparation will can make it happen, then also help you feel like you in the morning you wake have some structure to up, and you’re like, “What rely on. Prepare certain the heck was I thinking?” talking points that you Those are your millionknow you want to bring dollar ideas. forward that you learned about the situation or Those ideas have come to the surroundings that you for a reason. You are you’re stepping into. For meant to take that step, example, if you are going even if you have no idea to speak to a board of how to make it happen. directors, you’d better You’re meant to make know about the company, it happen because that who you’re speaking with, product, idea or service what their pain points are is meant to come out and how you can help into the world. It also with that. impacts who you become

while making it happen, because you have to grow in the process. You have to learn new things, you have to show up as a different person than you were when you first got the idea, and then what you experience along the way that you wouldn’t have experienced had you not stepped forward into creating the product. About four years ago, I was at a mastermind and our coach asked us if we’d ever thought about creating a product. We were all coaches, so we weren’t thinking about physical products, and I said, “I’ve dabbled with ideas, but never stepped forward into making it happen.” The coach said, “Go into meditation or prayer and figure it out. Just listen. See what might come to you.” So I closed my eyes, focused on my breathing, and prayed. I thought, “What are we making here? Who’s it for? What problem are we going to solve?” At that point, my main focus was video coaching and helping people with their camera confidence and how they were presenting. Now what I do is so much bigger, but that was the main thing at that point. And I was sending

people all over the place, wasting time and energy, for different lights and microphones and we still wouldn’t know if the client got the quality I would recommend, because they weren’t my products. During this prayer, BOOM: the original Video Glam Cam Kit came to mind. The idea came to me and I thought, why not put everything together? Why not create a video media kit that has good lighting that I can literally put my name on—microphones, stability tripods, a selfie stick and a cool bag. I really wanted to create an experience for the receiver of this kit. So it came in a dust bag, just like when you get a luxury bag or a pair of shoes, and then a beautiful box. I wanted this to be an exquisite experience of opening when one received it. And then, of course, empower them to have the right products. A product is a messenger rather than just something that’s going to make you rich. There’s a purpose to it and behind it. The big thing is, if you have that idea, follow through. Go make it happen. It will increase your visibility so 37

that you can make the impact that you desire. Learn more about Elizabeth and get tips for captivating a room at elizabethdemoraes.com.

though you had no idea what your path was and what you wanted to do?

Christa: I graduated from college with a journalism degree, but I started out as a graphic designer for a small cattle organization. I live on a farm in the Now I’d like to introduce middle of Iowa, so I was able to be at home with you to Christa Nichols, a sales conversion copywriter, my kids and just putz away at my projects. When I a messaging expert, and founder of the Written Results realized that was no longer going to be enough for Academy and the Client our family, I knew I had Attraction Crash Course. to try something else. I Dennis Postema: What learned as much as I could was it like being a part about making money from of this book and being home and ended up in the interviewed by Edwina? digital marketing space. Christa Nichols: I love Edwina. Who doesn’t love Edwina? It was such a privilege to be able to help serve her audience. She and I are a lot alike because we both started businesses as women who didn’t necessarily go into life thinking that they would be business owners. So it was a lot of fun to talk about our similar experiences and the unique ways women are able to leverage what they know to help offer training to someone else. Dennis: Let me ask you this—how did you get into business even

I discovered that I had a knack for writing sales copy, and I started writing Facebook ads for an

agency. Eventually, I was getting clients on the side for emails, sales funnels, webinar scripts and things like that. So even though I didn’t plan on becoming a sales copywriter or growing a six-figure agency as a copywriter, it was a really good fit for what I love to do and the talents that I have. Not to say it was easy—it was hard. But I love it, and it was worth taking that risk and finding out what I was capable of.

lead to a sale.

a lot of my own issues around that. Because I’d Dennis: What are some never seen myself in that of the unique challenges role. I never saw myself as and mindset hurdles a business owner. I had that you faced as a to learn to not just accept female entrepreneur? it, but embrace it. I could accept it, but every time Christa: There were a a challenge came up or lot. Growing up, my dad things got hard, I would farmed and my mom shrink back and think, “This was always home with isn’t for me. I can’t do it. I us kids, but she always don’t know how to run a had a side hustle going business.” Until I embraced on. She’s a very creative it and learned to lean into person. She always had the challenges as a sign something going on of growth, I was my own where she was generating worst enemy. Dennis: What is direct income on the side. I saw response copywriting, the way she did that but It really was a matter of for those who don’t was still there every day changing my mindset know? when we got home from around what it took to school, and she was still be a business owner. My Christa: Direct response in the bleachers for all our business didn’t have to copywriting involves activities. I thought, I really look like anyone else’s. writing campaigns that want that too. So I knew It didn’t have to have ask the target audience that idea of having my whatever all the gurus to take an action. It’s not own business interested had. I could design a necessarily always about me, but I didn’t really think business that worked for sales, although sales is I was capable of it. I never me and my family, and it always the end result. took any business classes. didn’t have to be just like I didn’t have any formal everybody else’s. You might be writing a knowledge when it came lead generation campaign to administration or the Dennis: What advice for a business, trying to get financial end of running do you have for people more leads in their funnel, a business. I just knew who want to build their or you might be writing that I loved to write and business within a niche? a campaign to try to get be creative, and if I could If you know people to sign up for a make some money doing Christa: you have expertise in webinar, but the end goal that, great. an area, figure out what is always to nurture target results you can get for audiences toward the When it reached a point someone else and talk clients’ offers and get them where this business was about it everywhere to take some kind of an the income for our whole you go. Show up online. action that will ultimately family, I had to break down

Show up on your social media platforms. Get on podcasts. Do guest blogs. Whatever you need to do to be loud about the result that you can get for someone else. It’s not the service you provide that sells it, it’s the result—the outcome that you can get someone else. Results are where your revenue comes from, and if you can get a result for someone else with a service you provide, then you’ll never go hungry. For that matter, you’ve really got to get clear about who you serve. Who is the ultimate, ideal person that you can get that result for? A message that goes out to everybody only lands on some people. But if it’s tailored to that specific person that you can get the best results for, it’s going to hit and be much more effective.

Dennis: How does one get to the point of being a messaging expert in any industry or in a specific industry? Christa: I always encourage people to not be a generalist. There are so many things that you can write for and about, that if you do everything, you’ll never have the time and

the bandwidth to be able understand and believe to really become an expert in order to take the action in anything. that we want them to take. You’ve got to dial in on I recommend either those things, or you’re just choosing a specific guessing. industry or type of client niche, or specializing in Dennis: What do you a specific type of copy. think is behind a I do sales copy only, campaign that isn’t but I do it for a variety working? of industries. Not every single industry—I have Christa: When a campaign my favorites. But I could isn’t working, when your niche down into financials funnel is not converting, or real estate. There are so when your ads aren’t many different ways that getting the click-throughs, you can niche down. And probably 90% of the time that only helps you get it’s the copy. better at the things you do and get better results for Either the copy isn’t people. reaching the target audience or it’s too far Without a really good ahead of them. When knowledge of the target you are the person inside audience and what they’re the offer all day long, thinking, feeling and every day, you’re so close experiencing, you can’t to it that you forget to meet them where they’re dial it back to where at and then bring them the audience is now. along with you to your They don’t know and clients’ offers. You can’t understand everything make those connections that you do right now. if you don’t know who the audience is and where One of the biggest they’re at right now. mistakes I see entrepreneurs make That was a big surprise is assuming that the for me—the amount of audience understands research and studying more than they really do. how people act, how Then their copy misses they make decisions, the audience because the what they decide to do at entrepreneur is shooting certain points, and what too far out. They have to they need to know and move the target closer

and hit those very basic problems during those first few cold contact-type reach outs. Dennis: One of the things that was most profound to me was realizing that sales funnels are not selling a product or offering a product, they’re leading a person to the next click-through or the next piece of material. Christa: It takes an average of seven exposures before somebody actually will take action on new information. We only get less than two seconds to catch someone’s attention. So it has to be just microbites of attention capture at first. You have to give them one thing you want them to do and just take them to the next step.

The only goal of your ad is to get them to click. That’s it. Then on the page, you get them to give their email. It’s a progression. You don’t have to have them go from A to Z just in one piece of the campaign. That’s why it’s called a campaign, because it’s built to give them that blueprint to go from, “I have no idea who you are and what you can do for me,” to “I can’t live another minute without

the result that this thing that you offer is going to provide for me.”

ad copy, funnels, video scripts, all those things, with all the business building and mindset and Dennis: Tell me a bit coaching support and about your courses. accountability. Christa: I train freelance What would writers to build a business Dennis: say to somebody and generate income as a you is on the fence sales copywriter. The client who about whether to keep attraction crash course working for somebody is my free five-day live or taking the plunge workshop, where we break else into copywriting for down my five secrets for their own business? standing out online and attracting your first or next Christa: As long as your paid writing project. I give insight is helping another them the foundational person’s business grow, it’s tools to be able to speak stealing from the business up about what they that you could have offer, set their rates, think yourself. The only way to about exactly who their truly have the freedom ideal client is, and just your finances and your those foundational things of time is to have your own that really help you get thing. That was something your feet under you as that was very clear to you’re landing your first me. My income ceiling few clients. If you want was only going to go so to figure out whether when I worked inside freelance writing is for you, far someone else’s business the five-day crash course because they were only is a great way to test the going to be willing to pay waters, land your first couple of clients, see what me so much. is out there for you. Whereas if I owned a business and the only Written Results Academy thing that held me back is my online mastermind was the result that I program. It’s a yearlong could get for a client, the training program where potential was unlimited. you learn not only the It was basically just foundations and the limited by the number of frameworks but you go hours I had in a day and deep into the different the amount I wanted to types of projects, like

charge with my rates. To learn more about Christa and her courses, visit christanichols.com.

Join me as I visit with Sarah Louise, an author, life coach, speaker, healer and light worker. Dennis Postema: What was it like being interviewed by Edwina and being part of “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs”?

of the project, it was a real privilege. I think we’re in the age of Aquarius, which is all about coming together, collaboration, and supporting one another. For me, that book was just completely in alignment with where we are. Dennis: Can you explain how you got into doing weekly enlightenments?

Sarah: Living on planet Earth, we have weather around us, and that weather affects our physical body. So if we go Sarah Louise: It was such outside and it’s raining and a beautiful experience. we don’t have an umbrella, Edwina is this incredible we’re going to get wet. soul who’s really open and If it’s super sunny, we’re super connected, so when going to get sunburned. she asked me to share my We also have what I call experience and be part our cosmic environment, which I feel affects our inner body, so it affects our emotions and our energy. Every week, I sit down and I tune into the planetary energy and see what’s going on. I also have a look at where the planets are aligned and where the stars are aligned and how that’s going to affect our energy. Then, I take the spiritual aspect and that cosmic aspect, and I tune into my human, and I link the two to how we can work to our best ability as humans with whatever

kind of cosmic energy is going to be around. We live in a universal war of polarities, so there’s always a positive and a negative aspect of energy, and I want everybody to really start riding that kind of positive aspect so that we can be happy and evolve regardless of whatever’s happening. Dennis: How did you learn all this and put it all together? Sarah: I [was raised] in quite a bizarre environment. A lot of alcoholism and addiction, so I grew up quite quickly. I also [lived in] a really haunted house, so I was aware of energies. My mother was quite intuitive and psychic and she read cards, so it was the world I grew up in. I went first into massage and beauty, because I wanted to help people feel better, and I had this real desire to help people. After leaving college and doing that, I realized I could make people look really good. I trained as a physical therapist and studied exercise and nutrition, but some of these people, no matter what I did on the outside, weren’t feeling it.

So then I went into neurolinguistic programming (NLP), but it wasn’t everything, so I studied bits of astrology and went into healing and Reiki and crystal therapy. So this is the work I’ve always done, and over my lifetime, I’ve learned to blend it together so that I work with all of it in one particular way.

suggestions would you have for somebody who really needs to work on that vibration?

community and connect. If you’re in lockdown and your community has an online group, join it and do it and show up. Sarah: I talk to people a lot I don’t think there’s ever about how they’re feeling. been a time when it was It’s about feeling good. more important that we You can achieve all of this, come together with likebut if you don’t feel good minded people, that we and your energies are not support each other and right inside, it’s irrelevant. that we’re there for each You can do anything, but other. I run an online it’s never going to be meditation session under Dennis: How do you get enough. So really tune the new moon and the clients to be open to the into how they’re actually full moon, and in the full program? feeling and get them really pandemic, we’ve grown connected. I find we get exponentially, and I think Sarah: I think one of my so consumed with our that’s because we need gifts is that I’m super external world that it’s it. We need connection, authentic. I’m very direct never enough. If we come and it helps us to know and real. So I just say it back to our internal world that it’s okay, we can trust how it is. If somebody’s and we start connecting this process. So reach out coming in and they say, to our motivations, our wherever you can, find “I want to work on my values, our successes, and your community, and get business,” and I say, “Well, what that means to us and involved. we need to be at our we start feeling good, we optimum health and our get it. Dennis: Can we talk a highest vibration, and little about the cards right now, you’re not Dennis: What would that you have on your there …” Because I have you say to anybody website and what those a natural ability to tune who’s struggling mean and how those into where I can see the with depression and work? weaknesses, I go straight loneliness? What kind of there. At first, that can be advice would you give to Sarah: They’re a tool that a bit uncomfortable, but get them into a healing I came up with. I love my as we know, when we shift vibration and opening little tools. I love sprays that, and we feel better, up to that? and crystals. I think we people keep coming back. need those sometimes, As their life gets better, Sarah: I’d say find your those little physical bits people are willing to do community. Because I of guidance. I created the work if they can see a think the separation that’s those cards by tuning in change happening. going on pushes us and and connecting and just isolates us. It doesn’t have thinking, “When we need Dennis: What to be like that. So find your that daily direction, when

we need that daily focus, what do people need?” I wrote them down over a period of time and put them together. Sometimes I look at them and think, “They’re a little bit basic, and they’ve not got these intricate pictures,” but they’re like me. They’re very clear, they’re very direct. If you have a question, you pick a card and you get the answer.

not about that anymore. It’s about how we can serve, how we can help each other. How we can grow together and support each other. That’s coming from a place of love. The vibrations are very different here. It’s not coming from fear. This creates so much flow, and in that flow is abundance. So I think that the way we’re creating relationships now in business is just going to take us all into some really beautiful places.

Dennis: How important have connections, networking and relationships become for business in the last two Dennis: How would you years? help a team to get over that competitive edge Sarah: As we’ve stepped they have and try to into the age of Aquarius, work together to serve it’s all about collaboration the greater good? and coming together, and it’s a completely new way Sarah: I would talk a lot of being. Before that, it about the power of a was all about competition. group being so much You know, I want to be the greater than an individual. best, I want to be a leader I would talk about how, … there was a hierarchy in when you come together, business, and that created how you can see the a lot of separation and a value in how we’re all very lot of resistance in flow. different and how we We went into the new age work differently and how in December of last year when we come together and moved into this new with all those differences, energy. It’s going to take we create this incredible time to really settle, but energy of flow. Helping it’s all about collaboration, people see the value of coming together and others, we’re so much building relationships more powerful because that aren’t “I’m this, you’re the power of the group that, and I’m the boss.” It’s creates so much more

than individuals doing their thing. So I would talk a lot about the energy from coming together and different people’s values and gifts. And the benefits of having all those gifts put onto one table. We’ve all got different gifts, and none are better or worse—they’re just different. And together, all of the gifts—wow. Dennis: You talk about flow—can you explain that? How do we know we’ve tapped into the flow? Sarah: We know when we’re in flow because we feel like life is beautifully drifting down that stream, in comparison to rowing upstream. You know when you’re not in flow because life feels like it’s hard work. And it’s not supposed to. When you’re coming up against things, you’re not in flow, and it’s time to step back and see what’s going on. Some adjustments need to happen. If you’re in flow, life’s feeling good, good things are happening, things are coming to you, it’s easy. Life is supposed to be an incredible adventure, but when we’re not in flow, it feels really hard, and we’re miserable and we’re judgmental and

we’re not in love, we’re in fear. That’s when we’re not in flow.

is a super soul. She is a one-in-a-million type who just truly embraces and loves to make other Discover more about people shine. Out of that, Sarah by visiting she shines even brighter. sarahlouise.live. But to put your own ego aside, to actually do it for the greater good of entrepreneurs, feminine Here we have bestselling women, powerful women author Kim Morrison. Kim is a who are making a breakthrough coach, mentor, difference—that made me fall in love with her even an NLP master practitioner, hypnotherapist and founder more. And this isn’t her first rodeo. She’s done this of Twenty8. a number of times. Dennis Postema: What was it like being a part of Edwina’s book, “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs”? What was it like being interviewed by Edwina? Kim Morrison: Edwina

focuses a lot on self-care and also mentioned essential oils, which is the cornerstone of your business. What would you tell a total beginner about aromatherapy? Kim Morrison: Aromatherapy’s been around for thousands of years. It’s not new. This ancient modality is all about the potent extracts from different plant parts.

There are essentially two parts to aromatherapy: She’s also a coach who There’s the physical understands how to bring element, where you can out the best in you. So the place it on the body, it’s questions she asked in the absorbed by the hair book were profound. They follicle and goes into the made me really think. And bloodstream, and within the fact that she called me three to four hours, it does a phenomenal feminine its magic and is excreted entrepreneur—I’m still by urine, breath and blown away. To work with sweat; and the other way her on this project and is what we call psychosee it come to fruition aromatherapy. This is the has really made me want way the smell affects our to raise the bar, because emotions, and it is the one she’s not only said she’d smell that is very closely do the interviews, then linked to our emotional she turned them into this center. book, these programs, and the ability for other people When we inhale a to be a part of it. She’s beautiful smell, like an extraordinary. She is what essential oil, all those you’d call a phenomenal chemical constituents feminine entrepreneur. travel up the olfactory pathway into the limbic Dennis: I read the part of the brain, and then manifesto for living via the hypothalamus, on your website. It we have a biochemical

physiological reaction. Within seconds, you can feel quite different. You’ll have an instant physical biochemical, emotional response to that based on your memory and the odor association you had. There’s nothing else—apart, maybe, from music—that can move you in such a way as smell.

extracts. Dennis: How does aromatherapy factor into your coaching?

Kim: Essential oils become part of the self-care, selflove rituals of taking care of yourself. Using them daily to keep the focus off having to do something … it makes you feel like Dennis: How did you get you’re doing something into aromatherapy? really nice to fill your emotional love tank, to Kim: I was in Melbourne honor your beautiful body, and I saw these two to respect where you are, women speak onstage right here, right now. It’s about their aromatherapy important to understand company. I sat there that we are all a work looking at them, going, in progress. We are all “I want what they’ve amazing some days, and in got.” They were leaders some moments, we’re not in Australia at that point, so great. We’re all the best/ and I went through their worst versions of ourselves training, got my advanced at times, and we all make diploma in aromatherapy, mistakes, but owning it, and then went on to being responsible and become one of their accountable for those international presenters. mistakes, is actually part of There’s something about the work. aromatherapy … Not many people know all the When you’re tired and magic. People think it’s emotional and you’re a nice smelly thing, but going through a tough when you understand time, of course, things are the psychology and the going to trigger you. I’m language of plants and not about making us into how they’re such an these perfect humans, important part of our but more about honoring evolutionary processes the imperfections and and development, you knowing that we’re all can’t help but fall in love imperfectly perfect, or with these magical potent perfectly imperfect. I think

that’s the beauty of loving oneself, knowing that we are all those things. All parts of ourselves make us so beautiful, so unique, and truly a lovable individual indeed. Dennis: How did you help your clients create a positive space in the midst of a pandemic? Kim: I stepped out of my comfort zone to create a space where people can come together. I think I’m just the conduit for all of their beauty and expressive selves, and I just show up. And I think part of doing that also keeps me accountable in the work. Every one of us has the potential to leave our story behind. To stop being pulled back into the drama and the negativity of those emotions, beliefs, and really focus on what we value, really focus on what is our motivation strategy. And then really work with the two of those to actually create the life that we desire. That’s not to say that you won’t have problems or triggers or people that annoy you in the future, or problems that the world’s facing right now. But it’s never about the event or the people; it’s about how we show up. So it’s

not about the coaching or the meditation or the self-love or the self-care rituals that I teach. It’s who we are when we’re not meditating, taking care of ourselves, or in a good space.

something to my husband that’s inappropriate, but when I see myself doing these things, I ask, “Why did I behave like that? I’m tired. I’m being triggered. It’s not their fault.” Then I have the power to not only forgive myself but also the ability to apologize.

City-to-Melbourne race back in the ’80s. He was the one who inspired me to run, because when I told him how boring it was to watch 40 athletes run around a 400 meter track, he said, “Well, put your money where your mouth The other way to think is and run one.” I thought about it is: If all the world’s I’d much rather run one television cameras were than watch one. His in your house 24/7, would So I created forgiveness biggest message to me you be proud of how you and apology rituals, was, “You gotta remember, would be shown to the because I think those may it’s 90% mental and 10% world? Because often be two things that are part physical.” I’ve taken that when we’re around the of being human. It’s very analogy through the people we love the most, hard to forgive someone rest of my life—10% of we become our worst who’s hurt us and also to how we behave is our enemy. We think, “They forgive ourselves when conscious behaviors and love us, anyway, so I can we haven’t shown up in actions and emotions, but throw a tantrum. I can spit the best light, but also to what’s driving that is 90% out these words that are apologize to those people, of the unconscious mind. quite venomous, because or people you’ve hurt— I know that at the end of but most importantly, to We need coaches and the day, they’re gonna apologize to yourself. mentors, or people love me and they’re not that we look up to, gonna leave.” Dennis: Were there any sometimes. That’s why mentors or coaches that tribal philosophies are so My question is always: If really inspired you to get powerful, because our the world was beaming to where you are? elders have gone through in on you right now, how these times. You may not would you show up? How Kim: Part of being in this have to pay physically would you be? Is that how work is you participate in for a coach, but you can you’d want the world to that work. I’m constantly certainly turn to people see you? being coached. I’ve had you admire. Who is it that mentors, therapists, I’ve you look up to? Could Ultimately, it’s not about spent lots of money on you spend some time other people; it’s about myself in this area. One with them and ask them how you see yourself. I of my greatest mentors questions? “How do you might screw up. I might when I was running was get through tough times? tell my son something a gentleman by the name How do you keep showing negative or I might yell of Cliff Young, who was a up? What makes you tick? and have a meltdown with 68-year-old potato farmer What have you done to my daughter. I might say who won the Auckland get over your mistakes?

What do you do when you fail? How do you be a better version of you in a relationship?” There’s so much we can learn.

the emotions, the stories, the remorse, the anger— all those things come out of that place of fear. The only opposing, beautiful life force is love. When you Then you can look at understand the polarities podcasts. They’re free, and and the importance of there are millions of them experiencing both, then now. I’ve been podcasting you realize that it’s not for eight or nine years, and about never having bad there are so many amazing things happen or never podcasts out there. You feeling anger or going could just pick a topic and through tough times, it’s you’ll find some beautiful about how you show up. answers for free. What tools and resources and inner self-belief do When my husband and I you have to get through went through a really big that? And who do you marriage and financial turn to in those times? crisis, we went to a Because when emotions psychologist who worked are high, intelligence is on spirituality, tapping low. We do not do things an understanding that well when we’re highly we are more than what volatile and emotional. we think we are. She was 90 and French, and I talk Another coach I took on about her in my book, “The was a business coach. Art of Self-Love,” because That is how I grew my she had such a profound business 400% in one impact on us. She once year. The business coach asked, “Danny, do you showed me the things I love this woman?” and he didn’t know I didn’t know. said, “Absolutely.” Then she I think that’s the beauty said, “Kim, do you love this of mentors. It’s not what man?” and I said, “Yes.” And you know you know, it’s she said, “When there is not what you know you love, there is no problem.” don’t know, it’s what you don’t know that you don’t I almost called my book know? What is in that that, because when you unconscious space, that think about it, there’s only part of you that is actually love or fear. Fear causes all the hidden gem, but the sabotaging behaviors, also may be the anchor all the guilt, the tragedies, that’s holding you back?

And my husband’s my coach. My children are my coaches. Human beings are the biggest coaches. It’s amazing how much you can look at things and realize how much learning there is. Find out more about Kim and get in touch with her through her website twenty8.com.

Our next phenomenal feminine entrepreneur is Dr. Izdihar Jamil, a business coach, media expert and a number one international bestselling author eight times over. Dennis Postema: What drew you to the “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs” book project?

Izdihar Jamil: I think it’s just the fact that it involved women coming together. I know it’s kind of cliché, but I’ve always felt the best version that I can be when I’m surrounded by women, especially those who are sharing stories. We cry, we laugh, we just love sharing stories. That’s why we’re the number one people who go to the movies. In my heart, I think if one woman or girl can hear what I have to say and overcome obstacles as a result, it’s all worth it. I’m a hijab-wearing Muslim woman in America. It takes boldness to wear a hijab in America. Women who share stories help people push through the preconceived notions of society and be who they are. That’s the greatest gift.

because it’s so hard. But I thought, “No, I’m here for a purpose. I’m here for a reason. My husband is amazing. He’s taking care of the baby. He’s good. My two other kids are supporting him. I can do this.”

that they have to do … the person who they have to be, the things they have to overcome.

I recently got accepted to be a talent speaker, something I’ve been praying to achieve for a year after multiple Edwina, bless her, was rejections. And then I so patient. I gave her a got in, but people don’t heads-up that this was my know all that. It can be reality. When I was done, glamorous, but there is I thought, “Oh my God, I also reality behind it, and did it. Hopefully someone’s the reality behind it is going to hear it and take what makes you the best value from it or [I will] give entrepreneur or the best them some hope and business coach or media light.” expert that you’re willing to be. It takes a lot. It takes Dennis: We always hear everything. the glamor of being an entrepreneur and all the Even with this interview, good things that come Dennis, how many emails with it, but we never have we exchanged to hear about the hard just set up this recording? work or the struggle and Ordinary people are going Dennis: What was it like trying to juggle children to give up because it’s just to be interviewed by and everything else. It’s too much, but this is what Edwina? not always a walk in the it takes. Entrepreneurship park, is it? takes particular Izdihar: What can I say? It characteristics. If you have was fun. It was exciting. Izdihar: I think a lot of these characteristics, you It was also challenging. people have glamorized are going to make it. I I’d just had a baby then. things so much, assuming remember Lady Gaga He was crying in the entrepreneurs just make in her Oscar acceptance background during the money while they sleep. speech saying, “It isn’t interview, my husband The reality is, you don’t about women. It’s about was trying to comfort him, know what that person how many times you the connection dropped did for the last six months, get up after you fail.” … This is the reality of for the last 12 months, for That’s exactly what it, right? I was up all the last 10 years. It’s true entrepreneurship is about. night, and at one point, they make money while I just wanted to give up, they sleep, but the things Dennis: What was it like

for you to make the shift mindset inform how you from computer scientist coach your clients? to an entrepreneur? Izdihar: Absolutely. My Izdihar: My grandma grandma taught me a always told me that she lot of things, and one is loved beautiful things. But that if a woman wants she was a homemaker, and something, there’s my grandpa gave her a nothing that’s going to certain salary or allowance. stop her. I learned about Anything more, she had money management to figure out herself, and indirectly and also she did. She cooked, she about relationships and baked, she sewed, and everything from my she sold stuff. She traveled grandma. on her own money. She bought her own car. She Dennis: How has your bought nice furniture. ethnic background She taught me, in a way, impacted your work? what entrepreneurship is like. She planted that Izdihar: I moved from seed and allowed me to England to America during see what a woman can be. the transition after Trump’s My grandma never had a election . I went to the nine-to-five job, but she grocery store and would figured out how to push get verbally harassed. through her circumstances I’d pick up my kids from and get the things that school and would be she wanted. called a vicious name. I literally had a sheet thr So when I was pregnant own at my doorstep with my first child and for my three-year-old my husband said, “Let’s daughter. My house was start a business,” the seed vandalized, so there were my grandma planted had a lot of scary things. But taken root, and we started going on means doing a business delivering business, and I needed to organic food from the do so in an online world. farm to the customer’s door. That’s how it started, I remember when I first and here I am. had my Facebook Live. I just cried and thought, Dennis: Did the seed “Oh, people are going planted by your to judge me. They’re grandmother’s money going to think this and

that.” Because that’s what happened to me when I moved to America. But there was a moment when I was reading a storybook to my kids. My kids chose the story, I had nothing to do with it. There was a line in that story that felt like God was giving me a message. And I knew everything was going to be okay. That’s what made me move forward. Because who wants to put themselves in a scary, vulnerable, judgmental situation? Dennis: What was the turning point that really helped you break, crush through those glass ceilings? Izdihar: I think there are so many turning points or glass ceilings that struck me. One of the biggest ones was when I was working at Google, sitting in this little cubicle pigeonhole with pictures of my kids around me. I thought, “I just want to be at home with my kids, and I want to make money at my kitchen table.” This is my vision. This is my voice. I want women to be confident and strong in their own voice, and this is what it looks like for me. That is one of the turning

points. It was scary. And there are many other turning points. For example, I used to think that Forbes wouldn’t want to do a story on someone like me. It was a limiting belief. And then an amazing lady said, “What are you talking about, woman? You’re a hot property. Own it.” Within a few weeks of “owning it,” I had a full feature on Forbes. Because there aren’t many hijab-wearing Asian Muslim women out there doing it. Dennis: What kind of advice would you give to somebody who is thinking about giving up on entrepreneurship because they just don’t want to fight it anymore?

Izdihar: I was reading “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman, and he said, “Love is a choice.” It’s the same with entrepreneurship. It’s a choice. Every single day, you’ve got to choose it, or you’re going to let it go. The moment that you choose your commitment, your honor and your work, extraordinary things happen. Magic happens. Miracles happen. So many things happen because people are attracted to

commitment. They’re not attracted to people who pussyfoot around things—they’re attracted to commitment and to people who have a big vision.

woman, or as a father, it’s okay to ask for support. It’s okay to allow others to contribute to you.

I tell myself, “I’m an excellent receiver. I’m an excellent receiver.” I But maybe love receiving help and entrepreneurship is not for support. This morning you, and that’s totally cool. I asked my husband to The moment you honor support me with my baby, yourself, the moment and my kids to support you start to give up me with particular chores. playing small and go for I think the biggest thing is big things, the moment to communicate what you that you start to honor want and allow others to yourself as the prize, as help you and support you. the queen or the king in your kingdom, magic, To discover more about miracles, opportunities Dr. Jamil, visit her website and excellence happen. www.izdiharjamil.com. If you don’t feel entrepreneurship is for you, that’s fantastic. Whatever you feel is, go And now, let’s talk to awardbig. Go be the best in winning public speaker what you do. Meredith Allan. If that

name sounds familiar, it Dennis: What tips or might be because Meredith ideas can you offer other also appeared in the very entrepreneurs to help first issue of SHOTCALLERS! them hit their income Meredith is a consultant who goals while balancing worked with Barbara Walters family life? on “The View,” and also is the host of “The Meredith Show” Izdihar: It’s going to be on Motivation and Success TV. messy, okay? It’s going to be messy. Every master was once a disaster, so don’t worry about being messy. Don’t worry about messing up. Be okay with messy stuff. And also most importantly as a mom, a

Dennis Postema: What do you think it is that makes “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs” and these interviews so special?

There’s no front. It’s a gorgeous window into amazing souls. Edwina didn’t just pick her friends. I believe she picked people who could change others’ lives with their stories.

and this is how I did it.” Dennis: How did you first connect with Edwina?

Meredith: A few years ago, I’d reached a point where I’d been coaching people for years, bringing out the Dennis: What was it like best in them, motivating being interviewed by and inspiring them, and Edwina? I wanted to get a coach for myself. I attended an Meredith: It was really event called “The Zone.” cool. Other people see There were thousands of things you don’t, and she people there, but just a cherished certain parts of handful were onstage in the interview that I didn’t what they called a “success even appreciate. She’s a panel.” At this same event Meredith Allan: I think the masterful interviewer, and was another woman who fact that the interviews we share a passion for had come all the way go deep as well as the going deep. I have no time from Australia. She saw choice of really looking at for surface stuff like talking that success panel, and what motivates people. about the weather—I she was going through It’s so beautiful because want to go deep. I want massive challenges as a it is so different. So many to know what makes you single mom of little ones of these ladies have been tick, and she really went at the time—that was through so many different there. I hope that people Edwina. things—one woman talks who see the series and about her big decision to buy the book or download The following year, she let her hair go gray and the digital copy get a cup and I were both notified what it feels like to just of coffee, put their feet up, that we were the two be authentic and not be and enjoy the windows people that went through covering up. There’s a into people’s souls. In all and had smashing lot of courage that you the interviews, I think she success that got to be can muster through the captured the core of what onstage together. Edwina pages that you don’t motivates people. She only cracked me up when she see everywhere. People tolerates working with said, “You know, this is a who are showing up and people who are willing to big moment, and why saying, “I’m not interested go there. She wouldn’t put don’t we look into some in society’s norms. I define anyone on her show and professional makeup and my joy. I define my beauty.” her series and her book hair?” and I’m like, “Edwina, I find that very refreshing. that hasn’t gone through I didn’t even think about I do believe that that’s the some things but is willing that!” So she involved me difference in this book. to say, “This is what I used in this hilarious adventure

searching among these thousands of women, looking for one with hair experience and one with makeup experience. At lunch, we found two lovely ladies to do our hair and makeup and ran back to the hotel room quickly. They didn’t even have the professional gear, but we were giggling like little girls, we were so excited, and we realized what a big moment it was, because if we could just be a tenth of the inspiration those ladies had been the previous year for others …

Zone event change your career?

Meredith: I went to the event thinking I wanted to hire a coach for myself, and instead, I was completely fascinated by the stories of these women, each with very different experiences, on the success panel. They didn’t necessarily come from privilege, but one of them had an extraordinarily successful career she hated, and all of them pivoted and created online shows. And through the online show, When we were onstage, they literally launched she and I were the only businesses, created raving two new people in the fans who became buyers, community who’d had the and a light bulb went off success we’d had. Yet also for me, because none of that year, we’d both had them had a broadcasting extraordinary adversity. background like mine. She lost her beloved When I realized this, I sister, I lost my father. thought, “I want to invest But we both understood in the same program that when we show up that taught them how raw and real, whether on to launch online shows,” a stage or on an online and ironically, here we are. show, we have the power Today, I partner with and to change lives and support people all over connect with people and the world who launch serve them in big ways, online shows. And it’s a so that’s where the magic lot of work. I thought it is. Today, Edwina and I are would be easy with my the best of friends. She’s background in television, very silly—I don’t know if but it’s a very different she showed up that way beast than just showing for you, but she’s got a up on TV and having a gorgeous sense of humor. huge team backing you, Dennis: How did The writing your words and

fact-checking things. It’s totally different, and the trials and tribulations … it’s become some of the most rewarding and successful work of my life. Dennis: Where do you think you got the inspiration to keep persevering? Meredith: When I look back at my life, I realize that the first woman to inspire me was my mom. I don’t ever remember a time when my mom didn’t work, which was not the norm. By working, my mom showed me from a very young age what was possible. Really, both my parents were amazing. I’ve literally never met anybody who loved me as much as them, and I’ve never seen a bond between parent and child like I’ve been very honored to have throughout my life. The message they both gave me throughout my life was that I could do anything I wanted in life. My dad said to me, very seriously at a young age, “You could be president of the world if you want to.” And I believed him. I ran for student body president, which is where so many of my leadership skills began to kick in.

But they didn’t know that’s what they were doing. I want to say that because there might be a mom at home who’s like, “Really? I could have a full career and my child’s not going to resent me?” Yes. I admired my mother’s career, and when my father had to retire unexpectedly due to his health issues, my mother became the sole breadwinner for a decade, and I think she felt that was an honor. But while I have these cherished memories of my mother, my sister is the total opposite of me. When my mother would wake us by saying, “Gooood moooorning, time for rise and shine!” I loved it, but my sister would curse and throw a shoe at her. My point is, my mother didn’t resent going to work. She woke up happy every day, and so I am thrilled in the same energy every day to get up and be alive and to be able to inspire and motivate people.

Dennis: I’m glad you mentioned authenticity and showing up vulnerable, because that’s a big thing for us and it’s even something you mentioned during

our last interview. What do you think it is that gets you through when you hit your own periods of adversity? Meredith: Giving myself permission to feel the feels. I’ve tried to power through. Initially when I lost my dad, I kept saying, “Why am I not crying? What’s wrong with me?” and someone really wise said, “There’s no perfect way to grieve.” Likewise, there’s no right way to motivate somebody. Everyone is very different. I respond well to lovely energy and clear communication. What motivates me is that there’s something bigger than me. So I know I have to get out of my own way and recognize I’m sad, I miss my dad, but I can’t ruin everybody’s day around me. I have clients to serve, family to be present for. It also helps to be grounded in my philosophy for life, which is pretty simple: You get to be the light. I show up and I want to light up the room. I want to light up your life as your coach. I want to light the fire inside of you and go on a journey with you to figure out what motivates you. Because

as I said, everybody’s very different. I have a client who owns a construction company. She’s in a maledominated industry, but her motivation and her disarming superpower is being a lovebug. She is the most loving, disarming person, so her superpowers are not just being loving but vulnerable, and that motivates me to crack open. I feel like my life is an exploration of all the things that I don’t know. I’ll show up with what I do, but I’m humble enough to know there’s a lot to learn from others, and the greatest gift is just to be the light in somebody else’s darkness. But also, I’m willing to receive the light from others when I feel dim. Edwina and I have this pattern where we don’t hide when things aren’t going well. Because people love you and want to be there for you, and you’re actually being selfish when you hide and you’re not connected with others. To find out more about Meredith, visit her website: themeredithshow.com.

10 Reasons to Document Your Business Processes Documenting business processes might seem like a waste of time. After all, why would you want to write down what you already know? However, there are many benefits to be gained from process mapping that you may not have considered. Indeed, documenting business processes could reveal inefficiencies, improve customer service, and save you money. Here are ten benefits your company could gain from mapping business processes. 1. Identify Redundant Tasks

Documenting business processes can often uncover redundant tasks. For example, you might find that people are completing tasks because “that’s the way it has always been done” or “that’s how I was told to do it.” A typical example of a redundant task would be a report that someone produces that no one ever reads. But process mapping might show that the information in question takes a day to

prepare but is then simply filed away. 2. Remove Duplication of Effort In addition to redundant tasks, process mapping will also uncover duplication of effort. For example, the sales department might be keeping records of prospects and customers. The customer services department has its customer records. And,

much of the primary customer information is also held by the finance department. All of which leads to the same data being captured three times. And the possibility that the three data sets do not match. 3. Highlight the Need for Investment in IT Implementing a centralized CRM (customer relationship management) system could eliminate the

duplication mentioned above. And this is a prime example of how process mapping will help identify where investment in IT could save time and money. Documenting business processes might also highlight applications that need replacing or upgrading.

5. Prepare for Disaster Recovery

If there is a disaster like a flood or fire, records can be lost, computer equipment destroyed, and trading interrupted. And getting operations up and running again fast will be essential for the survival of the business. But, without proper 4. Remove Knowledge process documentation, Gaps disaster recovery will be much more challenging. Often, how to perform You might not know specific tasks exist only what software apps were in one employee’s head. loaded on computers, for So, when that employee example. It may not be leaves the company or known who is responsible is off sick, no one knows for getting systems back how to cover that person’s online. Determining job. Having a complete set the order that business of document processes functions need to be for a role eliminates this brought back online might knowledge gap. Someone also be an issue. new can pick and run with almost any role in the 6. Define Employee’s organization should the Roles and need arise. Responsibilities

A significant benefit of documenting business processes is that you will define employees’ roles and responsibilities clearly. At the end of the process, each employee will have a job description. And you will be able to set expectations and targets for each role. That will give employees guidance on what is expected of them and give you a means of assessing performance. Having well-defined job descriptions will also assist in the recruitment process. 7. Identify Training Needs A process mapping exercise will also help you identify training needs. And, in subsequently training your employees, you will gain better employee engagement and workers better able to do their jobs. So, the

process of documenting your business processes will improve staff morale and increase efficiency. 8. Ensure Adherence to Regulatory and Legal Requirements There are many occasions when a business is required to demonstrate its adherence to legal and regulatory requirements. There might be specific safety standards in your industry, for example. Financial institutions will have practices that must be followed. And you will need to adhere to predefined standards to achieve industry accreditations. Documenting business processes will help ensure that these rules, regulations, and legal requirements are followed. And you will have documentary evidence of adherence to procedures and standards. 9. Provide Insight into the Running of the Business

Documenting business processes is very likely to

unearth some surprises, too. You might find that are some inefficient practices you were unaware of, for example. And you might discover some star employees going the extra mile who deserve some recognition. It is almost impossible for managers and business owners to see everything that goes on in a business. But documenting

able to assess the effect on resources of expanding the business. You will have a head start when you want to invest in a new IT project, and you will be able to manage things like office relocations better. Process mapping is the starting point for preparing for most types of business change. So, if your processes are already well-documented, you will be able to react to change faster and more efficiently.

As the above points demonstrate, there is much to be gained from documenting your business processes. Process mapping can improve efficiency, reduce costs, and prepare your business for change. Yes, the process can take processes and regularly some time when you reviewing those processes are starting with a blank will help you better sheet. But completing understand and manage the process will likely what is happening in your bring immediate rewards. organization. And after that, the maintenance process 10. Prepare for Growth documentation becomes and Change much less of a challenge, but the documentation Having all your business will continue to provide processes will better benefits. prepare you for change. You will, for example, be

7 Common Welcome Email Mistakes Businesses Need to Avoid Among all types of business emails, welcome emails continue to receive the highest open rates. In a recent study, over 80 percent of people opened a welcome email after it arrived in their inbox (1). This is why businesses should seize this valuable opportunity to engage potential customers.

outset, steer clear of the following seven welcome email mistakes. 1. Not Saying Thank You

First, it’s important to get off on the right foot. Thanking subscribers for joining your list is not only good manners, but it also brings a human touch to your email. More Unfortunately, many importantly though, businesses still miss the saying thank you to mark when it comes to subscribers shows you their welcome emails, appreciate their time. It’s which gives competing a small gesture, but many businesses the edge. businesses still forget to To improve your email marketing results from the do it.

2. Including Too Much Information In introductory emails, it’s important not to overwhelm subscribers with too much copy or too many images. Welcome emails should be concise, uncluttered, and easy to understand. Instead of talking about your business too much, focus on how you help customers. But keep it brief to hold people’s attention. According to one study, over half of all marketing emails analyzed contained

300 words or less (2). Another study found that emails with 50 to 125 words typically received the highest response rates of at least 50 percent (3). With people receiving more emails than ever before, it makes sense to keep them short.

If you can, give new subscribers the option to choose which types of content they receive and how often. For example, provide a link to a landing page on your website where users can set their email preferences. 4. Failing to Connect on an Emotional Level

feel something, which matters a lot when there are so many other brands competing for attention. If you can do all three, even better. 5. Asking Too Many Questions

You might be tempted to ask your subscribers “what For subscribers that want are you struggling with?” to learn more about your or “what do you want to business, include a link to If your current welcome hear about next?” but either your About page or emails lack emotional triggers, it’s time for some you should already know another landing page. changes. You need to what problems many of quickly make subscribers your customers are facing. 3. Not Setting feel that your business is Vague questions like these Transparent the right fit for them. There just give the impression Expectations are a few ways to do this: that you don’t understand your audience. In the early stages of Share your values and your relationship with Your welcome email isn’t subscribers, it’s important vision to establish brand compatibility. For example, a customer research tool; to build trust. One of the it’s an introduction to your simplest ways to do this is explain why you started business, a confirmation by disclosing what kinds of your business. of your capabilities, and content you’ll be sending Share your personal story or business journey an opportunity to set in the future, and how your business apart from frequently subscribers will to build empathy. For example, describe how the competition. It’s not hear from you. you overcame any wrong to ask for feedback challenges. from your audience, but Will you be sending one Provide evidence of your your welcome email isn’t email per week? Can competency to increase the best time to do it. Save subscribers expect to consumer confidence. For your questions for further receive special discounts in future emails? Whatever example, state how many down the line. other customers you’ve your plans, being helped in the last month. 6. Not Offering a transparent from the Promotion beginning will encourage In short, make people more people to read understand why you’re Because more people future emails. If there’s the best business to help tend to open welcome any doubt about your them. Each one of the emails, don’t waste the intentions, people might above tactics helps readers opportunity to engage simply unsubscribe.

new subscribers with an offer of some kind. Including a discount code or exclusive offer for new members is a great way to make subscribers feel like they’ve made the right choice. It can also get people talking about your business. 7. our Call-to-Action (CTA) Text Isn’t BenefitsOriented In a welcome email, the fewer CTAs the better; too many can lead to confusion and inaction. However, if you want to improve conversions, every CTA should emphasize the specific

benefits of taking action, whether it’s the text on the button or the text surrounding it. For example, if you’re offering a discount code, avoid button text like “Get your discount here.” How big is the discount? When will the user get the discount? Be specific to add clarity and urgency. For example, “Get my 15 percent discount today” is much better. Using the word “my” also personalizes the offer. The welcome email is one of the most important emails you’ll send to subscribers. Having gained

Get A Free Quote Today! (888) 123-4567 59

someone’s email address, you should seize the opportunity to grab their attention, communicate your brand message, and connect with potential customers on a deeper level. It’s not easy to craft the perfect welcome email; sometimes it requires some trial and error to get it right. However, by avoiding the mistakes outlined here, you should be able to create a more compelling welcome email that stands out from the competition and lays a strong foundation for future email campaigns.

Social Media Marketing The most important thing to remember about social media is that, while most social networks provide all the tools their members need to become content producers, the content produced for these platforms will always be user-generated and submitted by members. Whether the content is text, photos, videos, pins, customer reviews, a blog, a vlog, and/ or links to other noteworthy social networking websites, the content always comes from the user, not from the publisher. The social network provides the platform and all the tools necessary for a piece of content’s distribution, but it remains separate from the actual content if only to ensure the content’s integrity. A company is only as strong as its weakest customer relationship, and social media can help brands reach their customers in highly effective and extremely affordable ways. Businesses should look to social media to help them add interactivity to a website, for brand management, to build fanbases, to engage customers, to collect customer feedback, and encourage social shopping. 60

Add Interactivity to a Website Adding social media to a dull website can turn it into an active, search engine optimization (SEO)friendly site, a highly interactive destination that draws interested users and/or customers who can become active participants in the marketing of the site and company. Adding “Like” buttons makes it easy for users to share content through Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, WeChat, WhatsApp, Pinterest, Discord, and YouTube. On those social sites, businesses can add images, GIFs, videos, music, reviews, etc., that will keep customers interested in the company’s products as well, potentially, attract new customers. A brand’s website can suddenly become a destination to visit and revisit, which will have the added effect of increasing the site’s SEO. Brand and Anti-Brand Management Online brand communities can foster emotional bonds between brands and their customers. Brands can create channels on social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube Snapchat, and LinkedIn, where the brand can interact with their customers in a one-to-one conversation. Wikis and discussion forums are also useful for brands to relay important 61

technical information about their products or the history of their company. Innovation hubs can extend the discussion forum as well as allow users to post ideas they might want the company to explore. Brands can also use content aggregation sites to share all kinds of content, including instructional videos or corporate messages should a social media crisis suddenly flare up.

Anti-brand initiatives usually come into play once a business find itself under attack. Anti-brand websites are easy to set up and are often used as a weapon to organize boycotts or protests. The internet has made it easy for disgruntled consumers to broadcast their messages of complaint far and wide. The internet extension .sucks can be purchased from many internet providers, and it doesn’t take much to get a website online these days. Many current anti-brand websites are catchy, and they poke fun at a targeted company with domain names like Northwest Airlines’ Northworstair.org,

Safeway’s Shameway.com, Coca-Cola’s Killercoke.org, etc. All joking aside, these websites can be highly damaging to a brand, and do fall under protected free speech so are not easy to have removed. With anti-brand websites, the goal is to push a negative opinion of a targeted company, often based on a disgruntled customer or employee’s experience with the brand. These single voices shouldn’t be discounted, because they can reverberate through social media instantly, creating highly negative sentiments that can quickly take on a life of their own as they reverberate powerfully through multiple social media channels. Build Fanbases Whether they’re called fans, friends, followers, pinners, or subscribers, building a community of users will help a business grow its customer base as well as let these customers participate in a conversation about a brand. The best way for brands to encourage

engagement and interaction on social media channels, even highly text-driven ones like Twitter, is to constantly put out quality content that includes images, GIFs, videos, and/or multimedia links within a post. Keeping fans updated on the latest brand events and company developments will keep the brand top of the mind with consumers. Running competitions is also another great way of fostering engagement, but the most important thing is to keep the engagement going, continuously push quality content that is interesting, so fans and customers have reason to return. “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” Words by Jeff Bezos

Engage Customers and Potential Customers Social media has really upped the ante when it comes to customer

engagement because, through these channels, customers can both connect with brands they are interested in as well as join a community of like-minded people who support and empower the brand. What social media has added is the horizontal customer-to-customer engagement that can be an important part of increasing marketing reach, perhaps even making a piece of content go viral. Engagement encourages engagement and brands should use make sharing content as simple as possible. Engagement, however, isn’t just about pushing content onto platforms, it can also be about listening to the customer’s voice. Smart brands listen to what their customers, potential customers, and the customers of their competitors are saying and doing online and then acting on that information appropriately.

Whether the engagement is through tweets, pins, images, videos, games, messages, blogs, PowerPoint presentations,

or even podcasts, engaging on social media allows brands to align their content creation with their company priorities. Social media engagement can both guide the conversation as well as generate buzz for a brand’s new products and/ or solutions. Ultimately, social media engagement lets brands stay connected with their customers, and it fosters a two-way dialogue that should help shape the company’s growth and bottom-line performance. Harvest Customer Feedback Social media is the perfect platform to harvest customer feedback and to learn about customer behavior. Nothing compares to the data measurement capacity of a mobile phone or a tablet, which can track a sale from the ad exposure, followed by the persuasive effect of the advertisement and, finally, to the actual purchase of the product advertised. In some situations, a product can be purchased with a mobile payment app on the phone so every aspect

of the sale, from discovery through to final purchase as well as the product download, was contained within the mobile phone. Mobile analytics can effectively track all the steps to purchase, revealing information like a mobile user’s network, his or her device, and its location. Today’s mobile devices can capture mobile metrics such as link tracking for campaign analysis and page tracking for site analysis. By analyzing the vast amounts of unstructured social media data, businesses can discover important brand and customer trends. Text mining and Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a form of data mining that attempts to find patterns, models, and/or trends in either structured or unstructured data to understand user sentiment. Today, many companies are using social media to listen to and engage with their customers, using it to handle customer complaints, product suggestions, and the overall customer opinions of a company.

Social media is also being used for highly effective competitor analysis. Brands should constantly monitor their social channels, as well as their competitor’s channels. Competitive benchmarks should be set, and information should be gleaned from social media conversations, both about the brand and their competitors. Once social media sentiment has been benchmarked, brands will be able to analyze the ongoing impact of marketing campaigns, allowing them to tweak areas of their marketing spend and budget. All in all, social media has become a great channel for brands to both harvest their customer’s sentiments and gain a real competitive advantage for their products and services. Social Shopping Today’s online shoppers are more socially active than they’ve ever been, 64

and shopping has become a participatory event, with buyers and potential buyers sharing their knowledge about a company’s products and services with the community at large. Since their users were already actively discussing products on their social sites, it only made sense for social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and WeChat to figure out ways to help their users buy the products they discuss. Although it took a little while, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and WeChat have the ability for interested buyers to purchase products directly from brands. Twitter is especially useful for brands who want to quickly move perishable inventory. United and

JetBlue use it to sell last-minute airline seats. The same can be done with hotel rooms, concert and theater tickets, and sporting event tickets. WeChat might be showing the future of social shopping, as they have a created a portal where groups can be set up by brands to showcase the latest product offerings. Small mom and pop shops throughout China use these groups to connect with their customers. Group-buy and flash-sales sites are popular in China, and they use WeChat to clear out inventory. Branded WeChat stores, also known as “Service Accounts”, let buyers purchase products from several large Chinese and US retailers. Today, brands are recognizing the importance of social media by building communities of customers that let these people express their opinions about the brand, both positive and negative.

Many companies are now building online communities directly into their company’s website. Apple’s online store has a built-in community that allows interested buyers to ask questions about products and services. These questions are answered by Apple’s customers, and there are thousands of active conversations going on at one time. It’s part of the Apple ecosystem that entices users and convinces them to pay the “Apple tax”, as it has become known, i.e., the additional price Apple users are willing to pay for a product that differs little to a competitor. This community has become a portal where Apple customers actively answer questions from others, and it is word-of-mouth marketing on steroids. It’s a platform that enhances loyalty and provides a customer service department to Apple that is basically free for them, beyond the charge of hosting their online store. Perhaps it’s not quite social media per se, but it did grow out of communities that had popped up throughout social media 65

before.

cognizant of the threat anti-brand activity presents. The internet Social media managers has presented businesses should be going out of with the ability to reach their way to produce consumers in extremely content that attracts cheap and easy ways, but comments, views, pins, there is a downside to likes, and, above all else this as it can give a loud readerships. However, and reverberating voice social media marketing to jaded customers or becomes exponentially more powerful if users can disgruntled employees. These messages can also be persuaded to create quickly go viral, as humans relevant and original content. A Facebook “like” seem to be highly attuned to negative messages, is nice, but it requires and businesses need to little to no effort for a counter adverse stories user to click on a ‘like’ in the social media world. button. A comment, “A lie can travel halfway however, is considerably around the world while more valuable because the truth is putting on someone has actively its shoes,” is a quote gone through the process of writing down a attributed to many, and comment to recommend today that lie would encircle the globe before or even attack a product the truth even woke up, and these reviews are so it’s imperative that highly important in businesses be ready to a future purchaser’s judgment of the product. counter any negative press once it comes their way. Brands should always be listening for both positive and negative sentiment All in all, social media is about their products, and a powerful platform that social media can be a can amply a brand’s voice, highly inexpensive way to create communities for capture it. customers to promote the brand, and protect it from Social media is the perfect bad actors who might be out to do it harm, as place for both brand and anti-brand management. well as encourage social shopping. Businesses should be

How Content Marketing Works and Why Every Business Needs It

Content marketing involves attracting and keeping customers. Yet not just any old content will do. It must be unique, relevant, and useful to a targeted audience. Content marketing is nothing new. For generations, people have been buying products simply because they received some free information or were given some basic advice on how to solve a problem. Often, consumers just wanted some questions answered, but ended up buying. The content a business provided prompted that sale.

It is only the online part that is relatively new to content marketing strategies. Consumers can search and find answers in an instant, so a business needs to have articles, videos, and other information available online at all times.

People like to buy, but they do not like to be sold to. Content marketing works because it distributes information without pushing a sale. Videos, blog posts, infographics, and social media messages should never directly sell a product. The slow dripping of content subtly encourages a purchase but doesn’t hard sell to the customer.

Content marketing is a long-term commitment. Amateur marketers create a blog article or social media post and expect it to go viral. Unfortunately, attracting the kind of attention hardly ever happens. So, frustration sets in, and the excited, motivated marketer walks away and calls content marketing a failure.

The experienced marketer sticks it out and continues to accumulate content, writing engaging articles and producing entertaining consistently creating content for an extended period can be daunting. Yet, it will be well worth it, as content marketing remains the most powerful way to attract leads and customers. Content marketing is like a salesperson who never takes a day off. Once a video or blog post appears online, it will be there to engage, teach, and sell whenever a prospect clicks on it. It works around the clock, attracting engagement and collecting leads.

However, content marketing only works if it speaks directly to a consumer, and some research is required to create a successful campaign. Find out who is most likely to need a product and provide content that person will

find useful. For example, a company that sells pet health supplements would create and direct content toward pet owners concerned about their dog’s health. A business can significantly boost credibility and brand awareness with content marketing. With consistent, high-quality content, a company can gain visibility and expert status in a particular industry. Consistent exposure through different media channels will create familiarity with a company, and familiarity leads to trust and confidence if done right. A consumer will more likely make a purchase if they know the company will still be around to support the product they buy.

the typical way they consume content. Younger audiences tend to be on social media, so reaching them means posting content on Facebook, Twitter, or even TikTok. Promoting content through email and newsletters tend to produce better results when an older consumer is the objective. Longtime marketers measure content success, and that measurement is crucial. If a particular blog post or video does well, similar content is created. Of course, the failures are forgotten and hopefully not repeated.

Staying focused and being in it for the long haul are the keys to content marketing. While it may seem a bit fruitless in beginning, posting Part of an effective content the useful, entertaining, and marketing strategy is consistent content will determining where your attract new leads and keep target customers are. coming back to Look at the demographics customers buy over and over. of the people likely to buy a product and

October is the tenth month in the Gregorian calendar, received its name from the Latin numeral octo meaning “eight”, because in the original Roman calendar it was the eighth month. October Milestones: • October 1st 1971 - Walt Disney World opened near Orlando, Florida. • October 4th 1957 - The USSR launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth • October 5th, 1962 - The Beatles’ first single, Love Me Do backed with P.S. I Love You, is released in the United Kingdom • October 10th, 1971 - Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopened in Lake Havasu City, Arizona • October 14th 1926 - Winnie the Pooh, by A. A. Milne, was first published. • October 22nd 1966 – The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album: The Supremes A’ Go-Go • October 30th 1938 – Orson Welles broadcast his radio play of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds.

Shotcallers #27 - October 2021

Articles inside

Fun Facts

How Content Marketing Works and Why Every Business Needs It

Reasons to Document Your Business

Seven Common Welcome Email Mistakes Businesses Need to Avoid

Social Media Marketing

Processes

Marketing Calendar

Phenomenal Feminine Entrpreneurs

Your Business

Powerful Mobile Marketing Strategies for