Live In The Feast

911 - Differentiation, Reputation, and Pivoting From the Top-Down with Peep Laja

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:50:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Peep Laja, founder of Wynter, CXL, and Speero. Peep is a believer in differentiation and disrupting yourself before the competition does it for you.

Sometimes all it takes is stumbling upon a simple market problem without a solution. For Peep, discovering an industry gap led him to launch Wynter. Backed by a true entrepreneurial spirit, Peep became that market solution. Fortunately, his other venture was in a strong spot, so focusing all of his attention on building Wynter was possible. If you take anything from this podcast, it should be this: dual-focus is dangerous.

In this episode, Peep talks about the sometimes intangible aspects of business, when to pivot, how to position yourself so clients actually want to work with you, and how to cut through the clutter and stand out from stiff competitors.

“Differentiation is not a line of copy. It needs to be your actual DNA, what you stand for. And it should be owned by the founder or CEO of the company.” ~ @peeplaja

Main Takeaways

Having a dual-focus is not sustainable. Your company should be working towards one specialty. To help prioritize your day, focus on what moves the needle.
If you lead a conversation with a client’s problem, they’ll immediately get defensive. Instead, approach the conversation with a story or a narrative, then address how your company will fix external problems within that narrative.
Problematic messaging happens when companies act as if they’re the only ones that do website development or social media or branding. Instead, figure out what makes your business unique. For clients to choose you, you must say things other companies aren’t saying.
Always pivot to where the market is changing and constantly focus on what makes your business unique to the people you serve. When you’re smaller, it’s easier and more advantageous to pivot.

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910 - How Specialties Lead to Priceless Referrable Moments with Chase Dimond

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:48:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Chase Dimond, an expert e-commerce email marketer who’s sent more than one billion emails resulting in more than $50 million in email attributable revenue.

As a hustle culture entrepreneur turned efficiency-obsessed first-time dad, Chase chats about his philosophies for success in business and life. One of his earliest success memories is standing out as an all-around soccer player throughout high school and college. Back then, his value came from his versatility. But when he started a marketing agency early in his career, Chase hit a wall. It was only when he decided to specialize in email marketing that the referrals poured in and his business finally grew.

In this episode, Chase talks about how and why he successfully transitioned from jack-of-all-trades to email master, the pivots in business and life that shaped him, and the powerful mindset shift that reinforces his daily decisions.

“By not choosing something and by picking everything, I did nothing. So as soon as I started telling people, ‘Hey, I’m gonna try this email marketing thing, that’s the thing I love, that’s the thing I’m good at’, they were like, ‘Oh, you do email marketing. All those emails I get in my inbox, I get it.’ It started feeling really really tangible. And when people understood what I did, that allowed them to help me. They were able to send me clients, they were able to give me advice, they were able to connect me with people in the industry.” ~ @ecomchasedimond

Main Takeaways

When people understand exactly what you do, they can refer you to leads and ultimately help your business grow.
The transition from doing everything to having a specialty means sometimes you have to say no. And you have to hope that people who only know you as one thing will give you a chance to pivot.
Listening more than you talk can give you an advantage in business and life.
Strive to add value to those around you, rather than add negativity or constantly fighting against those with different opinions.

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909 - Launching a Business, Finding Balance, and Staying Valuable

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:46:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Matt Medeiros, host of the Matt Report podcast and the Director of Podcast Success at Castos. To mark episode 100 of Life in the Feast, Matt will be taking the reins and interviewing Jason about his 10-year “overnight” success story.

Back in 2012, Jason was forced to choose between paying rent and his cable bill. His bed or his business. And even deeper, his passion or his family. At that moment, Jason made the tough decision to end his freelancing career and return to a job for the sake of his then-fiancé. However, when he broached the subject with her, she reminded him that freelancing was his dream. She encouraged him to keep on trucking a little longer.

So that’s exactly what he did. Rather than throw in the towel, Jason re-examined his business, raised his prices, and doubled down on a new niche. He kept grinding and ended up on the other side.

Almost a decade later, Matt talks with Jason about his journey to freelance success, navigating tough life and business decisions, what he’s learned about networking and adding value, and why shutting up served him in unexpected ways.

“Everything that I try to do from the business perspective is to serve the customers, but also see where a trend is headed and try to cater to that in some sort of fashion.” ~ @rezzz

Main Takeaways

Staying a generalist won’t lead you to success. While it’s tempting to say yes to everyone, especially as your business is still launching, focus on figuring out what your niche is and then double down on it.
If you’re struggling to find your niche, go straight to your clients and see what they need help with. Look for trends and determine where your expertise aligns with a common need.
Fill in the gaps of your knowledge and expertise by outsourcing and finding wise mentors whenever possible.
The key to success with clients is learning to listen. Spend more time hearing what their needs are and observing things about their life and business. Listening always pays off.
Start adding free value in the communities you live and influence in. The more people you can help, the easier networking and growing your business will become.

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908 - Understanding Emotional Data and Listening to Your Audience with Adrienne Barnes

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:44:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Adrienne Barnes, a content strategist and audience researcher specializing in the B2B SaaS industry.

Most clients Adrienne works with are terrified of bothering their customers. They hate to be calling and asking and bugging, but the reality is, people want to share their experience with a product. In fact, as we speak, Adrienne’s calendar is fully-booked with customer calls. As Adrienne puts it, thinking your customers don’t want to chat is a self-limiting belief – don’t succumb to it!

In this episode, we bust other audience research myths, unpack how to own our audience by asking the right questions to the right people, and outline the number one question Adrienne asks to uncover golden nuggets and crack a marketing research conundrum.

“A lot of it, if we’re just gonna get real, boils down to shame or embarrassment. People feel like their product didn’t meet the mark, their tool was wrong or bad or whatever the case may be. But that’s not the case at all. The case is, somehow, somewhere along the line, we attracted a poor fit. And I need to know why. What did we do, what was the message we were sending out, the signal we were sending out, that told these people that this was gonna be the tool for them?” ~ @adriennenakohl

Main Takeaways

Sometimes the only way to catch blind spots and stop customer complaints is to sit down and chat with someone who’s actually purchased your product.
The first step is figuring out who to reach out to from your audience. Adrienne typically separates a customer base into three segments – the ideal customer, the average customer, and the unhappy customer.
Third-party researchers are more effective because they’re often better listeners. When you work at a company, you’re more inclined to offer up solutions or otherwise attempt to fix a customer complaint. Refusing to empathize shuts down a conversation almost immediately.
A common research myth is that it takes endless time and money to understand an audience.
In a conversation, ask customers why at least five times. This helps them dig deeper and often leads to golden nuggets about customer experience or ineffective messaging.

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907 - Stacking Power-Ups, Maintaining Focus, and the Art of the Steal with Eric Siu

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:42:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Eric Siu, CEO of Clickflow and digital advertising agency Single Grain. Eric’s recent book, Leveling Up: How to Master the Game of Life, is all about stacking your “power-ups” to achieve something greater.

Eric learned many life lessons from poker – how to guard your emotions when the waves get rocky, understanding where to pick your bets, and never playing beyond your means.

After years of developing a good eye and a clear mind, Eric was leading marketing at a startup when, pressed with a make-or-break moment, he made the right bet and led his company straight to success. Now Eric runs two businesses and uses the power of focus and habitual growth to continue compounding his wins.

In this episode, Eric talks about how maintaining simple habits can transform your business, the power of giving back, and why everyone should steal from time to time.

“I talk about 15 power-ups in the book, but there’s actually a lot more than that in life. Power-ups can be habits, they could be mental models, and there’s a lot of tools. And so the goal in life, one of the things that’s going to help you grow and level-up to your highest potential, is to just go around collecting things and learning and just getting better and better. Getting that one percent better every single day. And part of that involves getting different power-ups.” ~ @ericosiu

Main Takeaways

You can’t be successful trying to do everything all at once. The more you can focus on reaching one destination, the more likely you are to reach it.
Stack great habits on top of one another to “win” the game of life and outperform your competitors.
Even the greats took inspiration from others. “Stealing” a great idea and making it your own will help you move the needle.
Rather than generating leads through cold calls, provide as much free value as you can for others. Find out what people want and give it to them!

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906 - How To Pivot, The Secret to Great SEO, and Why Business Is More Important Than Craft with Tom Hirst

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:40:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Tom Hirst, a longtime freelancer, WordPress developer, mentor, author, and creator. Tom breaks down his outlook on SEO and why landing pages are your best weapon for lead generation.

Like most entrepreneurs, Tom realized at a young age that working for someone else would never fulfill him. Luckily he’s found success as a full-time freelancer and has a few lessons to share about his path to financial freedom. He credits his accomplishments to a focus on business rather than a blind love for coding. And he reminds us that experimentation is key to creating a website that works.

In this episode, Tom talks about his process for driving new and qualified leads, how to discover killer keywords, what most people miss when building a great website, and why there’s more to success than SEO.

“What you’ve got to think is, the person, the prospect, the lead, are coming in and seeing that page, they’re landing on that page, and a lot of the time, they’re not really going off that page. So if you’ve got one page with one specific focus, it doesn’t really matter what the other pages look like, per se.” ~ @tom_hirst

Main Takeaways

A service-specific landing page is the key to generating leads, and many freelancers miss that when caught up in SEO technicalities. SEO is only one piece of the discovery puzzle.
When you pivot, there’s no need to create an entirely new website. Just take your existing site and build out a new landing page that calls out the benefits of your new service.
There’s no exact science to discovering great keywords. Sometimes you just have to experiment with different landing pages that are optimized for different content and keywords.
Always put contact information on the same page as trust signals. This creates a frictionless experience for users. In other words, it doesn’t leave them searching for ways to find you.
You have to focus on the business behind your craft to get ahead.

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905 - Doing Your Research, Communicating ROI, and Innovating Outside Your Niche with Eman Zabi

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:38:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Eman Zabi, launch strategist and conversion copywriter. Eman is the founder of copywriting agency Scribesmith and, more recently, the creator of Terrain, a new course platform that’s shaking up the way people sell and market courses.

In simple terms, Eman describes copywriting as writing words that get people to do stuff.

Eman has successfully built her copywriting business from the ground up, despite family obligations, growing pains, and a few bumps along the way.

Working heavily with course creators, she realized her team has collectively spent $20,000 on bad courses with fabulous marketing. So she decided it was time to change the course business and create a platform of her own.

Enter Terrain. Terrain vets each course and markets the course for creators at no additional cost. Whether you’re a famous name or an industry newbie, your course has the same opportunity for success.

In this episode, Eman talks about the importance of market research, how to re-engage lost leads, and why building a business on word of mouth is terrifying and fantastic.

“We decided that we wanted to create a physical product and we created the conversion kits, pre-sold them, and shipped them out this year. And I think having that kind of space is really important to find new things to do and stay relevant and stay top of mind. But, also, to kind of change the way people think of you. You’re not just a service provider after that, you’re somebody who’s innovating in your industry and innovating in your niche and I think that really helps you get to the point where you're booked out. It helps you get to the point where you’re able to charge rates beyond what you would've imagined when you were just starting out.” ~ @eman_zabi

Main Takeaways

Until you’ve interviewed your audience or done message mining, you haven’t done the proper market research. Don’t put marketing spend behind feelings and hunches about what your audience wants or needs.
When you’re launching a product or writing any sort of persuasive copy, always use the voice of your customer.
A powerful strategy for writing persuasive copy is finding your audience’s biggest pain points and positioning your service as the solution to those problems.
If you’re trying to re-engage lapsed leads, pitch a solution for one of the problems they previously expressed. Adding free value is a great way to secure clients.
Having a word of mouth business is terrifying because it means you can’t track when you will get your next client. Rather than constantly putting energy towards prospecting, innovate in your space and work on building your reputation so prospecting becomes easier.

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904 - Finding Your Niche, Building an Audience, and the Art of Podcasting with Joe Casabona

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:36:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Joe Casabona, podcaster, web developer, and course creator. Joe helps creators launch their own podcasts while also hosting and producing the product development podcast How I Built It.

Joe began as a web developer specializing in WordPress, but he felt it necessary to transition his audience from DIYers to those looking for full service. With encouragement from peers and mentors, Joe found his niche in the podcasting space.

To grow his new audience, Joe offered free consultations. While free sessions may not be lucrative off the bat, Joe gained invaluable information about common creator struggles. He used that information to improve his educational content and market his courses in a way that spoke to creator concerns.

In this episode, Joe talks about everything podcast-related, from picking a topic to getting rid of nerves, to sustaining your show long-term.

“We’re still at the beginning of podcasting. So if you’re worried that, ‘oh, nobody wants to listen to me talk about this’ you're wrong. Just figure out why you want to start a podcast, what’s going to drive you, and record those first few episodes.” ~ @jcasabona

Main Takeaways

Simply presenting a digestible solution to someone’s problem is enough to build an audience, especially if you’ve done your market research and can anticipate your audience's main questions and concerns.
When it comes to podcasting, practice makes perfect. You don’t need perfect sound and perfect video to succeed.
When choosing a topic, think about why you want to start a podcast. Is it to help people? To establish yourself in a field? To explore a topic? Figuring out your why will help you stay the course.
You can always repurpose the content you have on other mediums if you’re running low on episode ideas. Keep a notebook and write down ideas whenever they come to mind.
Oftentimes the most popular episodes aren’t the episodes with big-name guests. Your audience will respond more to people who feel relatable to them.

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903 - Intentional Parenting, Handling Social Media, and Scheduling Me-Time with Rob Roseman

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:34:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Rob Roseman, podcaster and author specializing in all things fatherhood. Rob explores what it means to be a great dad in an era where social media and hustle culture can seep into our home life and impact the family dynamic.

Plenty of podcasts interview CEOs about work ethic, inspiration, creativity, and the secret sauce for success. But how many of those CEOs are fathers struggling with balance and dad-guilt behind the scenes? Most, if not all.

After interviewing plenty of powerful men himself, Rob realized that, at the end of our lives, we think more about our families than we do profit margins and going public. So why aren’t we talking about the struggles of parenting and what success means as a dad?

From feeling less guilty about screen time to scheduling time for ourselves, Rob Roseman walks through a few principles for parenting in a tech-centric and comparison-obsessed culture.

“There’s always more stuff you can do. But you need to write it in your calendar that at this time I’m going for a walk, maybe without my phone, because our brains do need a break. And the payoff is going to be a lot more than you just writing that extra email or doing that little bit extra.” ~ Rob Roseman

Main Takeaways

Self-care as dads is something that’s rarely talked about and can be a struggle. Schedule designated time for yourself throughout the week. Because taking responsibility for your own life and your own sanity will make you a better parent.
Find ways to limit your phone and your social media scrolling. But also remember that you’re not a bad parent if your kids are a bit preoccupied with an iPad. There are worse things for them than screen time.
Model strong behavior for your kids rather than telling them what to do. Watching you take responsibility for your life will encourage kids to do the same. And if you’re telling them to put their phones away or eat their vegetables, but you’re not modeling that behavior, they’ll never listen.
Carve out one-on-one time with each kid, especially if you’ve got multiple. Be intentional with your time with them.
You never know if you’re making the best decision for your kids. Dealing with other people’s pressure is hard, but it’s important to give yourself grace. It’s a tough time to be a parent and we’re all doing the best we can.

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902 - Staying Curious, Capitalizing on Your Network, and Adding Value with Samar Owais

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:32:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Samar Owais, email conversion strategist and copywriter for SaaS and e-commerce brands. Alongside helping brands increase conversations and boost sales through email marketing, Samar developed a course, eCommerce Email Boostcamp, for aspiring email professionals.

When her husband’s office relocated and they made the hard decision to move, Samar suddenly had time to take her freelance business full-time. She dove into online copywriting courses and quickly discovered her passion for email marketing.

Samar attributes her success to an innate curiosity and her vast professional network. A lover of learning, she’s an avid course-taker and leans on her freelance community for new leads and writing wisdom. She also took early advice and became her first client, writing copy and sales materials for her own business early on.

In this episode, Samar talks about easy ways to add value and win over clients, and why curiosity and expanding your network are keys to accelerating growth.

“I’ve always felt that communities can make or break your business. And if you can help somebody, start with that. Because we all know something or someone that we can help.” ~ @samarowais

Main Takeaways

When running an A/B test, ask your audience directly: what made you click on this email? The best research comes straight from the source.
Curiosity is key to expansion. Always ask why things are done a certain way and don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo.
Look to expand your network. Your network will help you find leads, vet clients, and guide you in the right professional direction.
No matter your client or industry, focus on adding value first. Adding value can be anything from sending an article, review, or teardown. The more you can add value, the more you’ll stay top of mind for potential clients.

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901 - Prioritizing Process, Delegating Smart, and Doing What You Love with Austin Church

Jason Resnick — Thu, 20 May 2021 09:30:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Austin Church, brand consultant, writer, and freelance coach. Austin is the founder of brand and marketing studio Balernum. He also runs Freelance Cake, a business growth course for freelancers and consultants. Above all else, Austin believes in the power of process.

Austin realized that his perfectionism and intense drive for quality were leaving him burned out and scrambling for profits. He struggled to delegate and couldn’t find the balance between quality and scale. Eventually, Austin discovered that prioritizing process actually gave him the freedom to do what he loved and grow his business simultaneously.

Austin talks about how to decide what needs to be delegated, why taking 10 minutes to prioritize tasks leads to quick wins, and the mindset shift that defined his career.

“For me, process equals freedom. I want to have more time to spend on the parts of a project that I love, whether it’s for a client or it’s for myself. And by [documenting] some of the essential but non-creatives tasks, action-steps, that sort of thing, I have so much more freedom. I have so much more joy in my work.” ~ @austinlchurch

Main Takeaways

Time equals money and money equals the freedom to walk away from clients that don’t value your skillset. Selling premium services at a premium rate is key to unlocking that freedom.
Standard operating processes (SOPs) are invaluable. If you can automate essential but non-creative tasks and standardize them, you’ll improve the quality of your work because you’ll be free to focus on creating.
SOPs also save time with onboarding new employees. Instead of training new hires, create a training and give them access to it.
There’s often a conflict between quality and profitability. The more time you spend on a project the higher quality it will be, but the less profitable it becomes. SOPs and smart delegation free up time so you can improve quality without sacrificing profit. Delegation also helps prevent burnout.
When deciding which priorities need an SOP, think about the tasks you don’t enjoy, the tasks you aren’t great at, and start there.

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Season 9 Teaser

Jason Resnick — Mon, 17 May 2021 14:00:36 +0000

In this post-pandemic time, our world has been flipped on its side, and so we have to adjust our businesses and lives in ways no one had planned on.

I'm super excited to bring on the podcast this season Austin Church, Rob Roseman, Joe Casabona, Eman Zabi, Tom Hirst, Eric Siu, Peep Laja, Samar Owais, Adrienne Barnes, and Chase Dimond to share how they've been adjusting, but most importantly how they've been able to build successful businesses and what made the biggest difference for them to achieve sustainability.

Due to your support in listening to the show, I had the absolute pleasure to hit the 100 episode milestone of this podcast.

To celebrate that, I brought in friend and fellow podcast host, Matt Medeiros to interview me on the show and ask some of the hard-hitting questions that I've never shared anywhere before.

I'm extremely proud to bring to you Season 9 of Live In The Feast.

If you are ready, let's dive in.

Season 9 dropping Wednesday, May 19th, 2021.

811 - SEO, Content Marketing, and Skyscraper Strategies with Alex Panagis

Jason Resnick — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co host is Alex Panagis. Alex is the founder of Scale Math, an SEO marketing agency with a bit of a twist: they are half agency and half marketing training/community.

At just 19, Alex is well ahead of a lot of us in figuring out what he wants out of life. In this episode, we dive into when SEO should be a focus and when you should focus elsewhere. We also talk about why picking a fight and the skyscraper strategies fail for most service-based businesses.

Alex also talks about what to do when starting out with SEO and content marketing strategies, and what to do after you start getting some significant traffic. Alex also talks about how he knew that he wanted an autonomous career, what clients are looking for when they come to a marketing service, and his strategy for validating content marketing and articles.

“People don't work with the best in the business necessarily. They care about you, your story, and what you bring to the table and how much you actually care about their business.” ~ @alexpanagis

Main Takeaways

Content marketing isn’t the best path forward for small companies just starting out. There are better ways to scale up, such as SEO or Facebook ads. Once you have market fit, then you can turn to content marketing.
Clients don’t necessarily care about your stats, but how much you bring to the table and how much you care about their business, especially when they grow to a large scale.
Don’t start your content marketing by heading to Google and figuring out search terms. Write what you know and put yourself in the shoes of the person you’re writing it for.
When you get to the point where you have the resources, focus on being the best in your space. Improve your website, improve your content, and become an authority.

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810 - Putting in the Work and Communicating Your Value with Kim Doyal

Jason Resnick — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Kim Doyal. Kim, formerly known as the WordPress Chick, is an entrepreneur, coach, speaker, podcaster, and content strategist. She is the co-founder of The Content Creator’s Planner and has built her lifestyle business using WordPress and podcasting.

After spending much of her early career in retail, Kim started her first online business in 2008. Her initial idea was to sell ebooks. However, she quickly fell in love with WordPress and started building websites.

In 2013 she launched her podcast, which acted as a coaching platform as well as a way to share her expertise with WordPress. Over time, her business has evolved, and today her Content Creator’s Planner is at the core of what she does.

In this episode, we talk about getting clarity around what you want to do, what lights you up, and how to start doing that work. We also dive into some of the challenges Kim has faced while growing her business through ads, content, and many different projects.

“Everything that I've done that comes from a place of joy (rather than attaching a specific outcome to it) makes me the most money and feels like the least amount of work.” ~ @kimdoyal

Main Takeaways

Showing up and putting in the work will always be the most important thing you can do to facilitate growth. Nothing falls from the sky — you have to work for it and work hard.
A lot of people have ideas for products, but few understand how to clearly communicate the intangible work. Showcase the problem, the solution, and the results.
It’s better to provide your existing customers with better content and more meaningful information, rather than chasing numbers in advertising.

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809 - Bringing Service-Based Businesses Online and Dealing With Change with Gina Horkey

Jason Resnick — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Gina Horkey. Gina specializes in helping people learn hard digital marketing skills to launch their own online service-based businesses.

Gina’s background includes professional writing, online business consulting, and a decade of experience in the financial services industry.

After leaving the corporate world in 2014, Gina started by offering her services online. She eventually pivoted to teaching people what she was learning and all of the things that were working well for her.

Throughout our conversation, Gina talks about how to adjust to the new world of shutdowns and moving online, how to pivot if you’ve lost some of your income due to budget cuts, and lesser-known tactics of using other social media platforms to bolster your online presence.

In this episode, we dive into how the freelancer economy has been changing in recent years and what has changed as a result of the pandemic. We also touch on how to adjust if you’ve lost some income during this time.

“When you're getting started with offering services online you should take a skills inventory of what you know how to do right now. That kind of gets your mind revved up to learn new things.” ~ @Gina_Horkey

Main Takeaways

Offering services online has become more critical than ever, even for non-digital services. Those that don’t adapt to new ways of doing business will be left behind.
You may have to get back out there and do marketing for yourself again. Don’t be afraid to take smaller projects even if it’s not what you’re used to.
Focus on increasing your revenue incrementally instead of in large chunks (E.g. $500 more a month instead of $3,000).
Facebook groups are great places to look for work because they’re tailored by industry and/or niche.
There’s plenty of room in the podcast space and an audience for what you want to talk about. It’s a great way to increase your online presence and find new customers.

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808 - Teaching Online and Embracing Opportunities with Reuven M. Lerner

Jason Resnick — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Reuven Lerner. Reuven teaches Python and data science to companies around the world and has been self-employed since 1995. In addition to his corporate training business, he also offers numerous online courses, as well as a free weekly newsletter read by 16,000 Python developers.

In 1992, Reuven was an undergrad at MIT working at the school newspaper. He essentially stumbled into working on the web when he and his classmates built a website for the newspaper.

Since wide use of the web was so new, he had to learn coding along the way in order to write software to keep their server running. As he continued to learn coding languages, he started doing software development. When he returned to school to complete his Ph.D. he began doing more and more training sessions.

Reuven made proactive changes within his business model to adjust for the COVID-19 pandemic, but rather than see it as a setback, he saw it as an opportunity. We talk about some of those changes and how he plans to move forward post-pandemic.

We also talk about having a skill that the market has a need for and being able to recognize that opportunity and capitalize on it, as well as how to look at opportunities and evaluate them effectively for your business.

“From the business perspective, it's scalable and I can sell many more and I can make much more money. So when, for example, over two months, I basically didn't have any courses in person, I was still able to sell a whole bunch of online courses to individuals around the world, using my platform and even to a few companies that wanted to buy my courses for their groups.” ~ @reuvenmlerner

Main Takeaways

The best way to sell whatever you’re providing is to solve a specific problem. The better you can describe this problem and how you solve it, the more likely you are to get customers.
Learning in person is ideal, but given the state of the world, there are advantages to distance learning in terms of accessibility, scalability and the ability to rewind and reassess topics.
Sometimes B2B and B2C markets are totally distinct. The crossover between marketing to individuals and getting corporate gigs isn’t as pronounced as you might think.
Leveraging your past experiences to create a foundation for your next endeavor is important. There are skills you gain from your hobbies and jobs that can usually transfer from one thing to the next.

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807 - Streamlining Your Business and Trusting the Journey with Erin Flynn

Jason Resnick — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Erin Flynn. Erin currently operates Successfully Simple with Erin Flynn where she helps business owners of all kinds (freelancers, designers, developers, marketers) build and streamline their businesses.

In 2012, after leaving her day job, Erin found herself making websites. After discovering that she could be more profitable by narrowing her focus, she decided to help other business owners do the same. She’s learned the importance of momentum and appreciating the journey.

In this episode, we talk about how she got started building websites, her entry into the entrepreneurial space, the “aha” moment that made her realize she could work less and make more, and how she manages to juggle all the different services she offers while keeping her business afloat.

“Moving forward and understanding what works for you and what is going to make a big impact is critical.” ~ @Erin3Flynn

Main Takeaways

Looking at your business retrospectively and recognizing what got you to where you are today is the best way to figure out how you should move forward and what your strengths are.
Everyone has to hustle and work hard in the beginning, but that work can pay off in the long run. You’ll eventually hit the point where you will see results.
Set expectations immediately, and screen your clients for those that will fit into those expectations. It will make your life a lot easier.
Approach your business like an experiment; once you're done with a client, go back and look at what worked well and what didn’t.

Links and Important Mentions

Stay in Touch

806 - Trusting Your Instincts and Launching Products with Ken Westgaard

Jason Resnick — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Ken Westgaard. Ken is the self-proclaimed Launch Dude and helps coaches and course creators plan and execute their launches without the headaches.

Ken has a ton of wisdom to share about the economic and societal shifts going on right now and how that impacts putting your work out into the world.

Ken started his career as a graphic designer and eventually moved into email marketing. After a customer called him out on some issues, he had to step back and reexamine what truly made him excited to show up every day. He found that excitement in launches and helping clients navigate the ins and outs of getting their products into the world.

As coaches and providers, there are two main roles we occupy for our clients: the psychologist and the cheerleader. Rather than speaking for our clients, Ken believes it’s important to serve as a guide.

In this episode, we talk about how Ken started working for himself, why it’s important to trust your gut, and why it’s important to continue launching, even in times of uncertainty.

“I made the decision that I'm going to trust my gut a little bit more—my intuition. I know that sounds a little bit cheesy, but from that point on, things have been moving at a faster pace. It just feels lighter. It feels easier. It doesn’t feel forced at any point at all.” ~ @kenwestgaard

Main Takeaways

Trusting your gut and intuition is a learned skill that takes work. But in the end, it will have a significant impact on your business decisions.
Just because the world is upside down right now doesn’t mean that people aren’t buying. Many people still have jobs, are still spending money, and still need the products and services you offer.
Being the face of your business is not about you. It’s a disservice to your prospective clients to not sell or share your expertise and knowledge.
When it’s time to launch, you want to press play and go. You don’t want to be bogged down by a bunch of busywork that should have been done before.

Links and Important Mentions

Stay in Touch

805 - Affiliate Marketing and Humanizing Relationships with Miles Beckler

Jason Resnick — Tue, 12 May 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today's co-host is Miles Beckler. Miles is a veteran online entrepreneur with 17 plus years of experience and expertise in digital marketing and affiliate marketing. He started with MySpace back in 2003, then built an agency, and is now working with his wife full-time on their meditation business.

Miles is on a mission to help business owners focus on what matters most by sharing exactly what's working in internet marketing today. There's always money to be made somewhere, but that’s not what drives him; it’s being of service to others. He’s passionate about spirituality and mindfulness, which is what led to Ask-Angels.com - the business that he and his wife run together.

As the economic landscape continues to shift, we’re seeing many new opportunities crop up while other businesses and sectors completely disappear. Flexibility and a willingness to try new things have always been an important part of successful entrepreneurship, but it’s now truer than ever.

In this episode, we dive into feeling awkward about publishing, reflecting on your why, and what that means for you when you get punched in the face. We also talk about where, how, and why Miles got into digital marketing, why affiliate marketing isn’t just links, and how to figure out where to start creating content when you’re the face of your business.

“My first business all came crashing down because I wasn't building relationships, I wasn't being the main point of contact. I was just a middleman and I think that's affiliate marketing done wrong.” ~ @MilesBeckler

Main Takeaways

Affiliate Marketing is a great way to deliver what you need to your high-end clients while still capturing revenue from a segment that isn’t ready to buy your services.
If you’re building an email list, it’s important to remember the relationship you have with those subscribers and humanize them instead of treating them as numbers. When the time is right, they will look to you for expertise and/or recommendations in your specific niche.
Affiliate marketing done right is, “I use this, I love this. It creates these results for me. Let me show you how I use this tool to get these results. And by the way, if you want it, you can just click right here.”
If you’re getting started as the face of your brand, you need to determine your medium (writing, video, audio, etc.) and then be dedicated to creating that content on a regular basis.

Links and Important Mentions

Stay in Touch

804 - Confidence, Solving Problems, and Playing the Long Game with Mark Asquith

Jason Resnick — Tue, 05 May 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Mark Asquith. Mark is the founder of Rebel Based Media and a suite of other companies focused on podcasters. Mark is also a repeat guest from season five.

Self-described as “wandering through life,” Mark found his way to podcasting through many other endeavors. He founded Podcast Websites, which eventually expanded into Rebel Base Media and several sub-brands.

Mark says he’s never felt like an entrepreneur, though he’s run nearly every kind of business you can think of throughout his career. From angel investing and podcasting to coaching and other client services, you name it, he’s done it.

As an expert at leveraging one business to grow others, Mark is fond of saying, “solve one problem, not do one thing”, and it drives everything he does.

In today’s episode, we talk about why playing the long game is so important and how to be patient with the market. We also cover how to figure out the next steps when you have a great idea, and how to have confidence in pursuing it.

“So many people are willing to look just at this surface and say, well, you're doing too much or you're not niching enough, but you've got to trust your vision.” ~ @MrAsquith

Main Takeaways

If you're on the road to becoming an entrepreneur, have the confidence to take on a task and figure out how to do it later. Take a leap of faith and believe that you're smart enough to figure out how to overcome the challenges you’ll face.
There are only three types of tasks: important, interesting, and integral. Important is the stuff you need to get done with your productive time, interesting is what you do to refuel, and integral is maintenance or obligatory tasks. Figuring out which ones fall into which category will help you grow your business.
Have the confidence to say ‘no’ to an idea now so that you can give it a resounding ‘yes’ later. Make sure you deeply understand your industry before putting out what you think will be a winning product.

Links and Important Mentions

Stay in Touch

803 - Day Rates, Attracting the Right Clients, and Building a Business Around Your Life with Sarah Masci

Jason Resnick — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Sarah Masci. Sarah is a designer, entrepreneur, and the founder of Bracken House Branding Co.

Sarah has been in the online business game for 15 years now, and she’s the epitome of building a business around the life she wants.

In the beginning, she experimented with lots of different channels and products, including Etsy and blogging. Since she was DIYing everything—from her website to her ads—others began asking her for help with branding and design. She dabbled in client work as a side hustle for a few years before deciding to go all in.

Sarah currently uses a day-rate billing model, and building her reputation with clients early was important when she decided to make that change.

Knowing her work was solid, clients were excited by the billing mode. And it’s worked out well. Sarah has been doing day rates for two years now and is still going strong.

Sarah has also expanded into creating courses and products that help other designers figure out how to use day rates themselves.

In today’s episode, we talk about the benefits of a day rate model and how it can reduce stress, how to make the transition yourself, and how Sarah started creating courses on the subject as well.

“Get clear on just a few things that you are really good at—something that you’re consistently asked to do and something that gets you out of bed on a Monday morning ready to conquer your day.” ~ @Sarah_Masci

Main Takeaways

The first thing to do before you start offering day rates is knowing what you're going to offer. Don't offer too many things. Instead, offer the things you're really good at—something you can do consistently, and something that excites you.
Testing day rates can be as easy as messaging your client base and asking if it works for them. If you have the reputation, it won't be hard for them to get on board with what you're doing.
To make sure the work is doable within a day, have clients fill out some sort of questionnaire. Make sure to set expectations for communication throughout the day.

Links and Important Mentions

Stay in Touch

802 - Experimenting, Getting Unstuck, and Why You Should Build a Team (Even If You Don’t Want To) with Matt Giovanisci

Jason Resnick — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Matt Giovanisci. Matt is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Money Lab, a website where he writes, podcasts, and chronicles epic experiments about making money online.

Matt is a proud generalist. Over the course of his career, he has worked with clients, created online courses and products, and built multiple businesses. He’s also a musician.

As a kid, he started out as a pool boy. He taught himself how to build websites and created Swim University, which is still his main business today.

One of the recurring themes in Matt’s story is his desire to constantly learn and try new things. This has created lots of twists and turns in his career, but he’s figured out how to make it work for him.

One of the things he does particularly well is documentation. He knows how to show his work, as Seth Godin likes to say, and writes in-depth articles about everything he tries.

In today’s episode, we talk about how to run experiments in your business without losing focus, how to get around the roadblocks holding you back, and why you should build a team, even if you like doing everything yourself.

"If someone tells me I can't, I will. If someone tells me it's impossible, I will do whatever it takes to make it possible." ~ @MattGiovanisci

Main takeaways

Transitioning your focus from one aspect of your business to another comes from your desire to learn and grow. Having a generalist perspective can make this process easier.
If you continue to do everything yourself, you're wasting time that could be spent growing your company. Hiring someone is a great way to force yourself to focus on the things only you can do.
Take new projects one step at a time. If you think you need something, investigate it. Create a hypothesis, try it out, and let that inform your decisions.

Links and important mentions

Stay in touch

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 2 of Season 8

801 - Socializing for Introverts and Organizing Events with Emily Leach

Jason Resnick — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today's co-host is Emily Leach. Emily has been a freelancer for 20 years and organizes many big events, including TEDx Talks and the Freelance Conference.

Emily is a hustler. If she puts her mind to something, she goes out and does it. Most recently, she set out to host her first virtual summit. Freelance Conference (or FreeCon), was created out of a need that Emily was already working to fill through her site, Texas Freelance Association.

In the beginning, she had hundreds of freelancers, but no gigs. Knowing that it would fizzle out quickly if she didn’t do something, she started personally evaluating jobs on Craigslist and other platforms and then hand-matching them to freelancers in her community.

As Emily watched the community grow, and more freelancers find the support they needed, she saw an opportunity to scratch her own itch and create something unique. And thus FreeCon was born.

In today's episode, I talk with Emily about socializing for introverts, how to find solutions by looking at your own skillset, and how to evaluate your business needs without over-committing yourself.

I really want their [freelancers] voice out there. It gives me an opportunity to support the work that you guys are doing and put you in front of other people and engage with what you're talking about and help some other freelance business owners get more reach. ~ @emilyleach

Main takeaways

It's important for freelancers to be able to meet up and support each other through shared ideas and networking. Conferences are a great way to do this.
Figure out how to market your skillset. You may not even realize that you possess a skill that's valuable or needed by someone else. You can become a specialist by looking at what people need.
It's easy to take on a lot of different projects as a freelancer, but once you're over-committed, it can be hard to identify what you should let go. It’s important to evaluate everything you’re doing and figure out what’s important.

Links and important mentions

Stay in touch

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 1 of Season 8

710 - Improving User Research and Asking the Right Question with Michele Ronsen

Jason Resnick — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Michele Ronsen. Michele has been teaching design and user research for more than 20 years, and is the founder of Curiosity Tank, a design and user research firm in San Francisco.

Michele partners with companies and individuals to improve and grow businesses using a data-driven, consumer-centric approach. She’s worked with companies like Slack and Zillow, and she’s a regular instructor at General Assembly.

One of the primary ways she does this is by helping people ask better questions. It’s not rocket science. But there is an art to asking the right questions, and setting them up in a way where your customers will answer honestly.

In today’s episode, we talk about how you can apply these principles in your own business. Michele also helps us better understand the fine art of digging deeper in a meaningful and effective way.

In this episode Michele talked about:

The differences between working with solo entrepreneurs and more mature companies with established user experience knowledge.
Figuring out what you want to learn, understanding where you are in the learning process, and applying that knowledge.
The core follow-up phrases she teaches in her The Art Of The Interview class.

"User research to me is part art, part science and part improv. And that improv to me is a lot of acting, getting into that beginner’s mindset, and exploring and mining these areas with that mindset". ~ Michele Ronsen

Main Takeaways

There are two ways to gather information: listening and observation. Listening helps us understand the “why”. Observation helps us understand habits, behaviors, and actions.
Talk to customers and get their feedback. It can be scary to reach out, but it’s worth it.
Don’t shy away from criticism. Even critical feedback can help us understand how we can improve our customer experience.
Be fully present in all of your interactions with people. Be engaged and make observations about things like body language. There is a difference between what people say and what people do, and if you’re distracted during interactions, you might end up missing these nuances.
Practice and get comfortable with essential follow-up phrases.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Curiosity Tank
Curiosity Tank classes - Use promo code FEAST15 for 15% off any class
Curiosity Tank Newsletter
Sales Call Role Play
Michele on LinkedIn

709 - Podcasting, Networking, and Relationship Building with Jason Resnick

Jason Resnick — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, we’re going to do something a little different. Instead of talking to a guest, I want to answer some questions about podcasting and marketing, and share how it’s helped me grow my business.

After publishing 358 episodes across three different shows, as well as appearing as a guest on hundreds of other podcasts, I’ve collected a few skills, tips, and reminders that are helpful if you’re thinking about creating your own podcast.

Podcasting has helped me not only position and grow my business, but build important relationships with other people. I think podcasting is one of the best marketing tools we have as freelancers and small business owners, and my hope is that you’ll realize how powerful it can be for your business as well.

Here are some of the things we’ll cover:

How I got started learning about the full potential of podcasting.
How podcasting can be an incredible way to market your business and gather leads.
How to build relationships and networks from podcast guests that are mutually beneficial.

"I realized the power of the relationships that were built from meeting people on the show. It’s where I met amazing folks that I still talk with today."

Main Takeaways

Marketing is an often underutilized benefit of podcasting. As you continue podcasting, you’ll start generating new leads organically. Because of this, it’s important to be intentional about your subject matter and plan accordingly.
Podcasting is a great way to connect to and build high-quality relationships with people. The more people you meet through podcasting, the bigger your referral network becomes. This creates mutually beneficial relationships with other business owners.
If you own a business, podcasting is the perfect tool to promote growth. Even if it’s a loosely scheduled show, it can be highly beneficial in growing your business.

Important Mentions in this Episode

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 9 of Season 7

708 - Empathy, Client Education, and How To Shift Your Ideal Client As You Grow with Kate Gilbert

Jason Resnick — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Kate Gilbert. Kate is a WordPress expert, an online marketing coach, and has spent the past decade building and supporting custom WordPress websites. In that time, she’s helped launch more than a hundred websites, and teaches website owners how to launch their own websites and maximize their online reach.

Kate’s been a web consultant since 2005 and her ideal client has evolved along the way. Currently, she works with female business owners at a critical stage of growth. Their businesses are big enough that they need some help getting to the next level, but still want to be involved in the process. Kate specializes in partnering with these kinds of founders and business owners.

Kate focuses on personality, more than industry or revenue, to identify her ideal client. And this has given her a lot of confidence in knowing what kind of person will be an ideal fit for her business.

In this episode, we dive into how to shift your ideal client as you evolve, and what that means for existing clients. We also talk about the importance of empathy and being a good listener. Finally, we dive into how to be flexible with your ideal client.

"I realized along the way that it’s more about the personality of the site owner, than it is about the industry that they’re in. A lot of times you can tell the way a project is going to go from that very first discovery phone call, before you even write the proposal."

In this episode Kate talked about:

Who her ideal client is and how she keeps the pulse on that segment of the market.
Why the decision to work for herself was such a big deal in her life, and how it put her on her current path.
How she used post-launch analysis of her clients to define which ones were ideal, and which ones weren’t.

Main Takeaways

Trial and error is a massive part of defining your ideal client. After going through enough clients, you’ll be able to pick out which clients have “red flags” and which ones will be a good fit. It may take time, but it’s the most foolproof way to understand who you want to work with.
Sometimes the most rewarding or impactful work may not be doing the work itself, but empowering others to do things for themselves. Work will always be available, but making a lasting change can be greatly rewarding.
Teaching your clients how to solve their own problems, or inviting them to be a part of the process with you, can not only save you time, but significantly deepen your relationship with your clients.

Important Mentions in this Episode

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 8 of Season 7

707 - Meaningful Automation, Event Marketing, and Validating the Avatar with Paul Sokol

Jason Resnick — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s cohost is Paul Sokol. Paul is a self-proclaimed mad scientist. He’s worked on humanized automation within Infusionsoft, and is also the co-founder of Be Pro, which markets in-person events for businesses, venues, or entertainers.

Paul has spent a lot of time thinking about ideal clients and how to find them with a quick and replicable process. He truly believes that all sales conversations go through the same phases, regardless of what your selling. So if you can identify your audience, you can sell anything, regardless of product or service. And he applies these concepts to events, which is where a lot of his focus is now.

In this episode, we dive into how to capitalize on an opportunity where most think there isn’t one. We chat about the four parts of identifying your ideal client, and we talk about Paul’s exact recipe for validating the avatar.

"There are all sorts of ponds out there and you have to know what fish you’re going for so you can use the right bait and the right lures."

In this episode Paul talked about:

Who his ideal client is and how he got into that segment of the market.
Why many events out there make no money and what they are doing wrong.
The four parts of identifying your ideal client.

Main Takeaways

Events should be treated like any other product or service. You should intentionally design the customer experience, the fulfillment, and how the sales experience is going to work.
In figuring out your ideal client, focus on the demographics of your client, figuring out who they are, figuring out their behaviors, and positioning your message to convey what their life could be like.
If you’ve come up with an avatar, you need to go the extra mile and research (or digitally stalk) these people. Once you’ve done that, it’s critical to put your money where your mouth is and test the advertising to make sure that you are getting the results that you believe should come from your ideal personas.

Important Mentions in this Episode

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 7 of Season 7

706 - Founder Market Fit, Starting With the Negative, and Figuring Out What You Really Want with Adam Clark

Jason Resnick — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Adam Clark. Adam is a fellow podcaster and the founder of Podcast Royale, a company that helps business owners grow their businesses and save time through done-for-you podcast production and marketing.

Adam and I have been friends for years, and Podcast Royale produces this very podcast. We were talking recently about ideal clients and how that relates to “founder market fit”, and we decided to record our conversation and share it with you.

Adam is a self-described serial entrepreneur. Over the last 20 years, he’s started half-a-dozen businesses and gone through just as many different careers. He used to see this as a negative thing — a lack of discipline or self-control. But in recent years, he’s come to see it as a strength.

The most important thing is to figure out what you really want out of life (and business). You won’t make much progress until you’ve taken the time to deeply understand your ultimate goals and desires.

"Most people do what they do because it’s what they’ve always done, or because they’ve been told, or believe, it’s what they’re supposed to do. We rarely take the time to examine our lives and really ask what it is we actually want. Because it’s easier to just keep doing what we’re doing than it is to change — even if that change means a greater level of happiness and freedom in the future."

In this episode Adam talks about:

The importance of finding founder market fit, and not just product market fit.
How your values and ultimate desires should be the foundation of your business, and inform your ideal client.
Giving yourself permission to pursue what truly matters you, even if it's risky.

Main Takeaways

In order to understand your business and your ideal client, you have to know yourself, and what you truly value. And this knowledge only comes from time and experience. Try things, and be willing to fail.
If you’re not sure what you want, or who your idea client should be, start with what you don’t want, or who you don’t want to work with. Sometimes it’s easier to know what you don’t want, than what you do want. And that’s ok.
Give yourself permission to explore, and pursue what feels right to you, even if it goes against traditional business wisdom. It’s better to figure that out early, than to get really good at something you hate doing.

Important Mentions in this Episode

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 6 of Season 7

705 - Exit Interviews, Saying No, and Letting Your Interests Drive Your Business with Kaleigh Moore

Jason Resnick — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Kaleigh Moore. Kaleigh is a freelance writer who specializes in blog content for e-commerce platforms, and the software that integrates with them. She’s also written for Forbes, Ad Week, and Glossy. Kaleigh also co-hosts the Creative Class podcast, and helps run the Creative Class online course with Paul Jarvis, a former co-host of Live In The Feast S03 E04. Definitely give that a listen.

Kaleigh started writing copy as a freelancer about six years ago, and her clients and business have evolved quite a bit since then. As her interests and opportunities shifted, she allowed her business to shift with them. She’s also worked to niche down her business so that she focuses on creating blog content rather than being a generic copy writer.

In 2013, Kaleigh was working as a PR manager for a non-profit and wanted more flexibility in her schedule (and commute!). She gave herself an 18-month window to try out freelancing. If it didn’t work within that time, she committed to going to back to work. That was a huge moment for Kaleigh, and has defined her life and career.

In this episode, we talk about Kaleigh’s business and how her ideal client has evolved over time. We also talk about how to be selective and figure out who you want to work with, and why exit interviews are so important.

"It took me a long time to figure out the clients I should pass on. It’s always a little bit difficult to figure out who’s going to be the best fit for your work style and your personality. So, it was a lot of trial and error for me."

In this episode Kaleigh talked about:

Who her ideal client is and how she got into that segment of the market.
How she stays ahead of the industry and tweaks her business model to get in front of new audiences.
Why she conducts exit interviews and how it’s changed her business.

Main Takeaways

Be mindful of the fact that things are often changing and evolving. It’s your responsibility to evolve with your industry and to stay relevant to the people you’re working for. It helps if you follow your own interests and use that to expand your offerings and audience.
Finding who you want to work with can be a lot of trial and error. Interest and expertise should drive these decisions.
Exit surveys or interviews are invaluable in figuring out what to offer your clients moving forward, and sometimes allows you to expand your services in surprising and delightful ways for your clients.

Important Mentions in this Episode

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 5 of Season 7

704 – What To Look For In A Changing Market, and The Difference Between a Niche and an Ideal Client with Jessica Mehring

Jason Resnick — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Jessica Mehring. Jessica is a marketing communications expert and the CEO of Horizon Peak Consulting, where she helps IT and software companies increase enterprise sales with targeted conversion content. In this episode, we dive into the difference between an ideal client and a niche. We also talk about the emotions and the fears of this iterative process, and the importance of personal conversations and pattern recognition.

Out of college, Jessica started in a corporate marketing position. She did content management, wrote product copy and online merchandising content, banner ads, and essentially anything related to marketing. While corporate life wasn’t her long-term plan, she used her time to immerse herself in marketing. When she went out on her own, she found herself most comfortable working with corporate clients because that’s where she cut her teeth.

Even though Jessica had many established relationships and good clients, she came to a point where clients began to dry up and she was having to defend her pricing against freelancers on other digital platforms. At the prompting of a business coach, she decided to niche down in order to find her true ideal clients, and started making progress in her business.

Successful marketing and sales don’t just happen. To achieve faster customer growth, focus on shortening the sales cycle, and most importantly, build long-term customer relationships. You have to talk to people and put in the work of figuring out your ideal client and your business’ niche in order to succeed.

"In the end, I feel like you have to talk to people. It can’t just be a piece of paper. It can’t be a PowerPoint deck on your computer of your buyer persona. You have to actually talk to people to get to know who they are and what keeps them up at night.”

In this episode Jessica talks about:

The difference between ideal customers and a niche.
How she screens her clients and learns more about them.
What to look for when the market is changing and how to adapt to that change.

Main Takeaways

A niche is a genre of business in which you work. You might have a million ideal customers inside that niche, and those ideal customers might continue to change during the course of operation within your niche.
You can’t rely on data alone. You have to investigate and actually talk to the clients you want to work with. Getting personal and having them open up about their organization will help you deepen the relationship and land them as a client.
Use your instincts and keep an eye out for red flags that show the market is drifting in a different direction. You need to be aware of these issues in order to avoid problems in your business and finances.

Important Mentions in this Episode

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 4 of Season 7

703 - Positioning Yourself For Your Ideal Client, and Nailing Your Messaging with Krista Rae

Jason Resnick — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Krista Rae. Krista is a WordPress developer who helps designers stay designing by turning their designs into fully functional websites. She’s a co-host of the Get Back to Design podcast, and creator of the Simply Profitable Designer Summit.

Krista’s defining moment came when she was in her 20’s. She applied for big job opportunity and got it. When she told her mom the good news, her mom said something she’ll never forget, “Anything you want to make happen, you do.” Krista’s taken that with her through everything she’s done, and it’s had a big impact on her mindset and success.

When Krista first started her business, she was targeting anyone and everyone. She quickly took a step back from design to focus on development, but was still trying to target everyone. After working with a coach, she realized that she most liked working with designers, and her niche was born. The journey wasn’t without it’s challenges but she was able to work through those bumps in the road to create a profitable business around helping designers who aren’t comfortable developing their own designs.

Figuring this out, has helped Krista nail her messaging and positioning, which has helped her stay booked months into the future, and eliminate the feast or famine cycle we’re all familiar with.

In this episode, we dive into some simple questions to ask yourself and your clients as you start figuring out who your ideal client is. We talk about the messaging and positioning exercises that Krista went through, how to get in front of your ideal client, and the bumps in the road while figuring it out.

"It was such a big step forward to being able to create a package that was based on something someone needed rather than trying to make something that would appeal to everybody, which didn’t work at all."

In this episode Krista talked about:

Who Krista’s ideal client is and why.
How she went all-in on her new web development business, and her strategies around positioning those skills.
The pitfalls she faced with her newfound growth and how she overcame them.

Main Takeaways

Curating your offerings allows you to increase your prices and narrow your client base. As soon as you start to hone your skills and get into your niche, you will see a transformation in your business and your revenue.
Niching down brings more opportunity. The big changes can be scary, but if you build it one at a time and keep your “why” in front you, you’ll be able to manage any problems down the road.
Using projects that didn’t go well, constant self-analysis, and capitalizing on the things that worked are the best ways to discover how to refine your offerings and use that positioning to grow your business.

Important Mentions in this Episode

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 3 of Season 7

702 - Creating Flywheels, Asking the Right Questions, and Reverse-Engineering Your Ideal Clients with Nathan Barry

Jason Resnick — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Nathan Barry. Nathan is the founder of ConvertKit. Many of you know ConvertKit as an e-mail marketing platform, but there’s more to the story.

Nathan started his career as a blogger and creator before transitioning into building products. He also wrote several books and built a thriving solo business before launching ConvertKit.

Much of Nathan’s drive came from watching his parents struggle with money when he was growing up. He sees this as a defining moment in his life because he knew from the time he was 12 that he never wanted to have those same struggles.

He learned early on that making money wouldn’t just happen on its own. He had to work for it, and practice, and build the skill of making money. While working his way through college, he began seeing the internet as a way to do something he loved, and make money doing it.

Currently, Nathan is working on his hobby farm (and preparing for a new baby!), as well as continuing to grow ConvertKit and launching new features.

In this episode, we dive into identifying your ideal client, as well as some exercises that Nathan has used to figure out what types of projects and customers to work with. Also, Nathan goes into some questions you can ask that will help you create the life you want, as well as improve conversations throughout your business.

“If you’re earning a lot and I’m earning a little, then it’s because you’ve built skills over time. Just like if you’re incredible at playing this piano piece, it’s because you’ve practiced and you’ve built up to it over years.”

In this episode Nathan talks about:

How he got into the world of digital marketing, and ultimately ConvertKit.
Identifying your ideal client by knowing who they are not.
How to define the ideal employee and the questions you need to ask.

Main Takeaways

Sometimes it’s easier to figure out who you should exclude from your marketing efforts rather than include, as it allows the quality content to rise to the top. When you narrow it down by those criteria, it becomes apparent who you should focus on.
Asking the right questions is critical. Ask questions of yourself and others that will help you figure out what your real goals are.
Ask yourself: if this employee went to work for the competition tomorrow, how upset would I be? This is a great way to determine your ideal employee.

Important Mentions in this Episode

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 2 of Season 7

701 - How Empathy Maps Can Help You Identify and Understand Your Ideal Clients with Jurgen Strauss

Jason Resnick — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Jurgen Strauss. I’ve known Jurgen in several different online communities over the past several years, so it’s an absolute pleasure to finally bring him on the show and have a chat.

Jurgen is the founder and chief innovator of InnovaBiz, which helps coaches and consultants build professional credibility and connection with their ideal clients. He was the perfect candidate to have on the show given everything we’ve talked about and everyone we’ve talked to in the past.

Jurgen got his start in the chemical manufacturing industry. That’s where he cut his teeth in business. When he started coaching and consulting, he realized that just because there were a lot of things he could do, and clients he could take on, that didn’t mean it was the right thing for his business.

From that realization came his passion for understanding and identifying his ideal client. He found that every time he narrowed the focus of his business, the more his business grew. Through a series of bad clients and experiences, he was able to cultivate a variety of tools and strategies that enabled him to identify his true, ideal clients.

Today, Jurgen is still consulting, and is focused on his podcast and podcast training course.

"When you recognize a person that fits your ideal profile and you start to talk to them in their language, you start to talk about their aspirations, about their needs, about their frustrations, then you get this aha moment."

In this episode Jurgen talked about:

The path that lead him to his business of coaching and consulting.
How to use empathy maps, not just to discover and understand your ideal client, but with your current leads as well.
How non-ideal clients can throw the wheels off your business, and everything you’re trying to accomplish.
Why it’s so important to pay attention to the external factors and people that your ideal client is paying attention to.

Main Takeaways

Empathy maps are a great way to figure out who is influencing your ideal client. These questions can help you dig deeper with existing clients as well, opening up a whole new world of services and opportunities.
A non-ideal client can eat up a lot of your time because you’re either trying to learn what they need as you go, or they can be demanding. Both things waste your time and money and can ultimately lead to more referrals of the same type of client.
The external factors that are influencing your clients are what will get them to say yes or no. You can use empathy maps to figure out these channels, and how you can leverage them to better serve your client.

Important Mentions in this Episode

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 1 of Season 7

612 - Undercharging, Targeting the Wrong Audience, and What You Should Do About It with Alex McClafferty

Jason Resnick — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 03:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Alex McClafferty. Alex is the co-founder of WP Curve and a CEO coach. Since selling WP Curve to GoDaddy a few years ago, he’s spent a lot of time traveling and spending time with friends and family. But like most entrepreneurs, he wasn’t about to sit still for very long. He started coaching CEOs, and runs a Consultant to CEO program.

Alex co-founded WP Curve, a WordPress support company, in 2013 and learned a lot about pricing right out of the gate. He had initially priced their service at $49/mo, and even at such a low price point, the company was profitable.

GoDaddy acquired WP Curve in 2016, and it couldn’t have been better timing for Alex. Through the lessons he learned with WP Curve, Alex was able to start coaching other CEOs on how to build a productized service much faster than he was able to.

Despite his success, Alex went through a dark period where he thought about ending his life. His defining moment came at a low point when he was sitting on a cliff and making a list of pros and cons - basically a should I stay or should I go scenario. At that moment, he realized that if he left he would leave an emotional mess behind him - so he started getting help and working through all of the things that were making him feel that way in the first place. He says that experience has made him an even better coach because it allows him to see through people, ask the right questions, and get to the heart of the issues at hand.

Today, Alex is traveling, a lot. He’s also spending time getting back to the things he used to enjoy doing before going down the business rabbit hole. He spends a lot of time at the beach and focuses on his health and wellness.

If you’ve ever dreamed of selling your startup and want some advice on how to get there, this episode is for you. I’m excited to share this conversation with you because Alex is one of the most grounded and genuine guys I know.

“The challenge that people run up against is they get into something and they don’t actually know what they want. Or they get to where they think they want to be and realize that’s not what they want.”

In this episode Alex talks about:

Some background into WP Curve and some of the difficulties he ran into scaling the operation.
The pricing forks in the road that many people run into.
How his personal struggles put him on the path to where he is today.
Why growth isn’t always what you’re looking for.

Main Takeaways

Entrepreneurs often undercharge for their product or service.
Products are often sold to the wrong market.
Growth for growth sake shouldn’t always be the goal. You should be looking to build the team and resources that allow you to far exceed what you’re doing today, even if you’re making money year-over-year.
Many people don’t know what they want when they start out, or think they know, only to change their mind. Ask yourself what you want your day-to-day life to look like instead of annual numbers, and work from there.

Important Mentions in this Episode

611 - Creating Results and Building Relationships Through Your Pricing with Mor Cohen

Jason Resnick — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Mor Cohen. Mor is a branding and web designer and teaches people how to build better client relationships. Mor is the founder of FlixFrame, a web design agency for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Mor started out as a graphic designer during the “IPO Golden Era”, so to speak, and did a lot of pitch decks for clients who were trying to raise venture capital. Early on in her career, she realized that her value didn’t come from the number of pages or slides she designed, but in her ability to solve a problem for her clients.

These early insights allowed her to avoid the trap of pricing her services by quantity, and base it instead on the value she was delivering. But that wasn’t the only pricing trap she ran into. Mor found herself in a rut early on because of “how” she talked about pricing. By delaying the budget conversation, she would end up wasting a lot of time in meetings and developing proposals, only to have clients walk away when they couldn’t afford her prices. That realization pushed her to learn more about her clients upfront, and talk about pricing before moving forward.

Mor firmly believes that we’re not just designers or developers or digital marketers, we have to understand business, marketing, social media, SEO, etc. You can’t just put yourself in a corner as one thing and ignore the rest. It doesn’t work like that.

This episode goes deep on how and why you should talk to your clients about pricing. We also get into how confidence plays a critical role in getting clients to trust you and pay your rates.

"This is not about the tools. This is about the whole answer we are giving people. Clients don’t really care what plugins you have on your site. All they need to know is where they want to go and what problems do they have on their end with their own clients that I can help them solve.” ~ Mor Cohen

In this episode Mor talked about:

The “aha” moment that allowed her to pivot to where she is today.
The reason and the why around pricing something that may not take a lot of time to complete.
How clients perceive your pricing, and pitfalls to avoid.

Main Takeaways

Clients don’t care about the tools, tech, or the education. They want a solution. Show them that you can provide that solution and you will be in business.
Not addressing the issue of money (the budget for the project) just wastes everyone’s time.
Pricing has nothing to do with how much time something requires, but the value it delivers and the years of experience wrapped up in that task.
Clients are more willing to pay your price when you show that you have the confidence to complete the task and have expertise in the field. As soon as you start to lose confidence, your client will begin to micromanage and question your pricing.

Important Mentions in this Episode

610 - Knowing Your Audience, Making Mistakes, and Pricing Products vs Services with Jack McDade

Jason Resnick — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Jack McDade. Jack is the founder and creator of Statamic, a CMS that makes building a website better and easier to manage. Jack created Statamic in 2012, and though it started as a side project, it has grown into a platform, community, and profitable company. He’s currently working on version three of the software.

Jack started his career at an agency creating HTML templates and doing other work for large corporations. He slowly started to focus more on CMSs and WordPress development, before going out on his own almost a decade ago.

n this episode, we dive into his approach and strategy on pricing products versus services. We talk about Jack’s pricing mistakes, the pricing parity, and much more around productizing your services.

Jack is also a family man, and we talk about how becoming a father as affected him and his career.

"If you can speak to exactly the person you’re trying to reach, it will give you a totally different experience compared to a broad net where you’re trying to be something to everybody." ~Jack McDade

In this episode Jack talked about:

How he got started in digital products and his path to Statamic.
His strategy for pricing products versus services.
The mistakes he made pricing Statamic and how he dealt with the fallout.

Main Takeaways

Don’t just copy what big tech companies are doing. Figure out how to speak directly to the customers that you have the answers for.
How your customers use the product and how you price your product need to be aligned. If not, customers will be incentivized to circumvent your product, or try to spend less money on it.
If you’re selling a digital product, be prepared to deal with customers in other parts of the world. You need to have a plan for how you will price your product for regions of the world with lower average incomes.

Important Mentions in this Episode

609 - Pricing Your Productized Services and Working with Intention with Brian Casel

Jason Resnick — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Brian Casel. Brian is a designer and full-stack developer, as well as the founder of ProcessKit and Audience Ops. While Brian started as a freelance designer, he has transitioned into a business owner by productizing his own services.

Brian is the founder of multiple productized service businesses, and in recent years has built a few products as well. Rather than ditch all his clients at once, Brian has been intentional about the process. He worked with his best clients to figure out what parts of his business could be transitioned into products, and then built those products on the side until they became self-sustainable.

Over the course of his career, Brian has worked with lots different kinds of clients. He was a generalist for many years. Once he was established, he realized he needed to focus on a specific type of customer, and specific solutions to their problems, rather than doing anything and everything.

During the last couple of years, Brian has also branched out into products (like ProcessKit) and has ideas for more in the future.

In this episode, we dive into how to transition from generalist services to productized services, and find your first client. We talk about pricing strategies during that transition and Brian shares some unexpected and counterintuitive ideas.

“At the end of the day, even though it might feel like your clients are buying you, they’re really buying the end result.” ~ Brian Casel

In this episode Brian talks about:

His background and how he got into building productized service businesses.
His strategies around moving into a productized business and how that can affect your other business.
How he figured out his pricing between all the different markets he was serving.

Main Takeaways

When moving into a productized business, don’t ditch your existing clients. Rather, make moves inside your current business to start working with your ideal clients.
Pricing is a bit of a gut feeling mixed with some testing to see if the market will bear your prices. The busier you become, the more selective you can become toward higher margin projects. You also need to price so that your service is a good value for your target customer.
Always start your productized services where you already have inroads. Breaking into a new market, looking for customers, and establishing yourself as an authority will be easier if you’re operating inside a market you know.

Important Mentions in this Episode

608 - Story Lines, Positioning, and How To Differentiate Your Business with April Dunford

Jason Resnick — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is April Dunford, a positioning consultant and entrepreneur who literally wrote the book on positioning. She’s also an in-demand keynote speaker. While her book, Obviously Awesome, refers to products, most of it can be applied to services, as well — something April talks about in today’s show. She also shares how her loose position affected her trajectory when she first became a consultant.

If you’ve ever searched online for information about positioning your business, you know there is a ton of material available. But what’s often missing are the actionable items and exercises you need to work through in order to actually do it effectively. April noticed this gap in the market and created tools and processes to help businesses better position themselves.

April’s life has turned out to be more free-form than she ever though it would. She received her degree in systems design engineering and lucked into a job at a startup right out of school. She was eventually hired as a technology evangelist, where she learned that she was great at engaging with people and giving presentations. She points to that moment as a turning point in her career.

Currently, April can be found on her book tour and speaking at conferences (more than usual). She’s using the book events and publicity from the book as an interesting experiment in growing leads, since up to this point her business has been mostly referral-based.

In this episode, April and I dive into what makes some businesses fail and others succeed. We also discuss the principles and science behind positioning (like how people’s brains react to seeing something new).

"There’s a good chunk of art involved in positioning, but there’s a good chunk of science here, too. And everyone was just ignoring it on purpose because they didn’t want there to be any science in it." ~ April Dunford

In this episode April talks about:

What positioning is, why it’s important in all aspects of marketing, and what she noticed was missing.
The science of positioning and how you can use it to your advantage.
Why it’s slightly harder to position services versus products.

Main Takeaways

Positioning is the foundation of your marketing. A certain set of criteria pointed at a certain group of people about why you’re the best in the world is the building block for all of your marketing.
Positioning is often a science based on groups of people and their given assumptions about certain markets. You can use people’s assumptions about these markets (competitors, costs, etc.) to differentiate yourself and give yourself an in.
Product positioning is generally easier than services because the differences are more obvious. Figuring out how and why you’re different and which differences people really care about is the best strategy when positioning your service.

Important Mentions in this Episode

607 - Case Studies, Client Research, and How To Create Killer Conversion Copywriting with Joel Klettke

Jason Resnick — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Joel Klettke. Joel is a conversion copywriter and the co-founder of Case Study Buddy. Joel is a sought-after consultant, having worked with companies like Hubspot and WP Engine, among others. Today, Joel is talking with us about his strategies around conversion copywriting.

Joel firmly believes that copywriting is 10 percent writing and 90 percent research. To that end, when he’s working with clients, he engages with their customers in many different ways to learn all he can about them. Doing comprehensive research is the foundation for good conversion copywriting.

Being a relatively new dad has shaped how Joel views the world and his work. Watching his son be curious about everything, and look at things with wonder has reignited his own curiosity and reopened him to ideas in his own work.

Joel is still focused on conversion copywriting, but he’s starting to pull back a bit and dive into Case Study Buddy more and more. He sees it as a blue ocean opportunity and is excited to help clients create this valuable asset for their own companies.

In this episode, we talk about what conversion copywriting is, and what it’s not. We also talk about the five things we try to understand about our customers and how to make that information work for you. We discuss how to interview your customers for a case study, and then use the case studies in all stages of your business to position the value of your services.

“I think a lot of us just zero in on doing the work. And I think there’s a time for that. But I think another reason people don’t act is fear. Fear that they’ll say the wrong thing, fear that they don’t know how to do it."

In this episode Joel talked about:

What conversion copywriting really is.
The five key elements of great conversion copywriting.
Why case studies are your best friend for landing new clients.

Main Takeaways

Conversion copy understands the client so well that it can preempt anxieties and pain points, so you can know what to say and how to say it.
The five elements you need to solve for are: purchase triggers, pain points, anxieties, priorities, and awareness. All successful conversion copy answers these questions.
Case studies are the only piece of content that you can use at every stage of dealing with a client. Whether it’s right away or further into the process, you can use these examples to up sell, close a deal, or simply provide valuable information.

Important Mentions in this Episode

606 - Consulting, Pricing, and Understanding your Clients with Hillary Weiss

Jason Resnick — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s co-host is Hillary Weiss. Hillary is a concept development consultant, speaker, copywriter, and founder of Statement Piece Studio.

Hillary is a fellow New Yorker and she’s always had such a big personality that she felt she was born to be an entrepreneur. She’s passionate about consulting because she loves sitting down with other creative entrepreneurs to help them dig out the exact thing that differentiates them in the market.

Hillary has worked in many different mediums, including having a popular YouTube show. She likes to keep things fun and interesting while still having serious discussions about business, pricing, and development. She’s now in the space of entrepreneur education and finds people get the most value, not when they’re force fed information, but rather when they’re forced to take action and get their hands dirty.

In this episode, we dive into how to create a consulting service and price it so that you’re in demand. We talk about how to lean on your strengths and identify not just the client, but the personality of the client, and how to listen to what people are repeatedly asking for.

We also get into how Hillary chose the prices she did when she started to transition from implementation into consulting. I’m confident you are going to take away a lot from this conversation with Hillary.

"What I think is a sign of a success in any kind of content is that people don’t necessarily have to be prompted to go back and check it. They’re like, oh, I haven’t seen this in a while. Let me go back and check it out."

In this episode Hillary talked about:

Her strategies and techniques for working with clients.
How she prices so that the client understands the value that they are getting from her consultation.
Her business strategies that differentiate her from other “online consultants”.

Main Takeaways

To have a personal brand or to be an outstanding entrepreneur, you need to dig down deep, figure out what fills you with energy, and what makes you unique. These will put you on the path to success.
You can start out undervaluing your product to get people through the door, find out more about your ideal clients, and build a strategy. Then when you have those data points, raise your rates and go after high-ticket clients.
Being available, following up, and responding personally to clients, even if they’re takeaways aren’t your responsibility, is a big differentiator and will bring clients back.

Important Mentions in this Episode

605 - Mindset and How Goals Inform Your Pricing with Vito Peleg

Jason Resnick — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Part of his hands-on training as a business owner was figuring out how to sell something people didn’t want to buy. In this episode, we dive into the mindset of pricing and how powerful that can be, not just for yourself but for your client as well. We also talk about the importance of understanding your clients and the value you provide to them.

Vito stresses the importance of never assuming that what you’re selling is what your clients ultimately want. He also breaks down how you see your ultimate goal, and how to use that information to price your services and products.

"Pricing is a mindset, right? And if you believe that it’s worth something, go ahead and ask for it." ~ Vito Peleg

In this episode Vito talked about:

How his past as a musician lead him to where he is today.
Why a proper mindset effects how much you will charge, how much you can earn, and if you will land clients.
How to frame your financial goals in a way that makes them easy to break down and accomplish.

Main Takeaways

What you believe you are worth is what people will pay you. Your mindset will determine if people will pay you what you want to be making.
Pricing should be contingent on the value you are providing to your client, not just an arbitrary number. Don’t be afraid to raise your rate for a company that values what you’re giving them.
Setting financial goals is simple if you frame your end goal as a per client cost (e.g. 10 one million dollar clients is $10,000,000. But those clients then need the appropriate amount of your time. More money is more time given to them).

Important Mentions in this Episode

604 - LinkedIn, Pricing Strategies, and Why Video is the Medium of the Future with David Kilkelly

Jason Resnick — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 13:20:00 +0000

Today’s guest is David Kilkelly. David is the co-founder of BlinkBack, a creative video production studio that specializes in helping clients create marketing campaigns with video.

David started his career as a university video instructor, and he’s made his way back to education by helping entrepreneurs create content that amplifies their business and message across the web. It’s not easy to leave behind a consistent salary and venture out on your own. But that’s exactly what David did. And it’s a decision he points to as a defining moment in his 30-year career.

Like every entrepreneur, David has constantly refined his approach to pricing. His philosophy has always been to charge as much as necessary to make it worth his time. But following through and executing on this model can be incredibly hard, especially as he’s grown and matured as a creator and business owner.

David has worn many hats in his career, but these days he’s focused on helping entrepreneurs create content for platforms such as LinkedIn. He’s seen a shift in the way we do business online, and believes that video can be extremely useful in building brand loyalty and trust, as well as amplifying the personality of your business.

In this episode, we dive into why video is still on an upward trend, especially on platforms like LinkedIn. We also discuss how video allows you to super charge the connection you have with potential clients, and why pricing is more straightforward and simple that you might think.

"Changing isn’t really difficult when you run your own thing. You can switch and flip and turn and respond to the market. If one thing is not working, you can do something else." ~ David Kilkelly

In this episode David talks about:

Why video is still poised to be the best medium for connecting with clients in the future.
How David determines his pricing and how he communicates those prices to his clients.
Why he is betting on LinkedIn as his social media channel of choice, and how video plays into the success of the platform.

Main Takeaways

Newer generations are growing up with video everywhere, so it’s a natural medium to interact with. This trend will only continue to grow as video becomes more and more the medium of choice.
With video, the behind-the-scenes and planning work can take as long as the filming and editing. Making sure your clients are informed about everything that goes into the service you are providing, is a good way to negotiate.
B2B professionals are the main users of LinkedIn, and it’s far less saturated and “noisy” than Facebook. Your video content can have a much larger impact there than anywhere else.

Important Mentions in this Episode

603 - Developing Client Relationships, Leveling Up Your Pricing, and Getting Better at Business with Chris Do

Jason Resnick — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Chris Do. Chris is a teacher, consultant, designer, and entrepreneur. He’s also the founder of Blind, one of the longest running, single-owner design agencies. Chris also founded The Futur, an education platform with more than 500,000 YouTube subscribers.

Chris started out in advertising, but eventually found his way to design. With Blind, he’s made a career out of helping clients tell better stories through award-winning design. But Chris would be the first one to tell you that craft alone isn’t enough. A key component of pricing — and success in general — is understanding business and marketing, and how to speak to a client’s bottom line.

In today’s episode, Chris talks about how to develop client relationships with research, how to understand what they really need, and how that knowledge can inform your pricing and increase your profits.

"Price the client and not the job." ~ Chris Do

In this episode Chris talked about:

The difference between cost, price and value.
How to align your client’s goals with your pricing.
How to build the kind of client relationships that will support your pricing.

Main Takeaways

Most of the time, clients come up with arbitrary numbers. There is room for negotiation. Don’t be afraid to stand firm on your pricing.
Your price is a reflection of who you are. If you want to increase your pricing, you have to increase the value you bring to the table.
Always be present. You must be able to recognize the moments in life that could be big opportunities.

Important Mentions in this Episode

602 - Generosity, Pay What You Want Pricing, and Lowering the Barrier to Entry with Tom Morkes

Jason Resnick — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Tom Morkes. Tom is an author, consultant, coach, and publisher. He’s written several books, including The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing. He’s worked with successful entrepreneurs, launched authors who have landed on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Best Seller lists, and has done more than a dozen product launches that have generated more than $100,000 in sales in their first 30 days.

While Tom started his career in the military, he always knew he wanted to follow more artistic pursuits at some point in his life. So after five years of service, he transitioned to being an entrepreneur. Starting a business provided him with the ability to make something out of nothing.

While he’s done many different things, he’s currently transitioning away from implementation toward consulting.

In today’s episode, Tom talks about “pay what you want” pricing, and shares the best way to start experimenting with your pricing, other places this model works, and how to align it properly with your goals and desired outcomes. We also chat the actual results he’s seen from selling his own products with this pricing model.

You can learn more about Tom, his services, books, and courses, at his website TomMorkes.com.

"I think pay what you want is a fantastic way to grow your list, instead of just having a free lead magnet." ~ Tom Morkes

In this episode Tom talked about:

How his military career segued into where he is today.
Who his clients are, and how he helps them get to where they want to be.
How you can use a “pay what you want” pricing models to increase your sales and traffic, regardless of industry.

Main Takeaways

It’s ok if it takes some time to start selling your product. It might not take off instantly. You’ll have to work to gain traction.
People will pay for things, even if you offer them for free.
Eliminate your product’s barriers to entry, if possible. Even asking for $1 is a barrier to entry, and getting rid of it could increase results.
Try testing out “pay what you want” pricing on a special day with a low-risk, low-margin product.

Important Mentions in this Episode

601 - Value-based Pricing, Impactful SEO Techniques, and Creating Great Client Relationships with Brendan Hufford

Jason Resnick — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Brendan Hufford. Brendan is a dad, husband, and entrepreneur, and has spent many years trying different things. With a background in education, he spent a decade as a teacher. On the side, he did product reviews for his website and blogs. Somewhere in there he also started a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu company, called OK! Kimonos, which he later sold.

Brendan eventually realized he wasn’t headed in a direction he wanted to go. So he quit his job, sold his businesses, and began devoting more time to his newfound passion: SEO.

He started doing freelance work and landed a day job as an SEO Director at Clique Studios. Through his websites, podcasts, YouTube channels and social media, Brendan has chronicled much of his journey, including his path into the world of SEO.

One thing is certain, Brendan has done it all (multiple times!), and has a lot of insight about entrepreneurship, content creation, and how to create a life worth living.

In this episode, Brendan talks specifically about SEO, pricing, client relationships, and what he’s learned along the way that has had the biggest impact.

You can learn more about Brendan, his services, projects and courses, at his website BrendanHufford.com.

“How do I price so I can get the work done, have enough margin for me, but also bring it back? I don’t want the most money out of them — I want as little money as possible so that the ROI is much bigger.” ~ Brendan Hufford

In this episode Brendan talked about:

How to price your services
How to find information with the highest impact
How to see red flags and avoid stressful client relationships

Full Show Notes and more resources

Main Takeaways

When using value-based pricing, it’s important to look for techniques that require less time but produce more results overall. Getting rich isn’t the goal, but rather, increasing ROI through word of mouth, spread by happy clients.
Joining SEO communities is a great way to find mentors and helpful information from industry professionals and newcomers alike. But make sure to interact and engage with what you’re learning.
Finding clients that are a good fit can’t be overstated. Use a system to qualify new potential clients. No amount of money can make up for the constant stress that comes from incompatible client relationships.

Important Mentions in this Episode

511 - Overcoming Fear, Saying No With Confidence, and Finding your Ideal Client with Adam Pierno

Jason Resnick — Tue, 14 May 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Adam Pierno. Adam is a speaker, author, and marketing strategist who has built a career out of helping people simplify their approach to marketing. He’s most passionate about connecting people to help them accomplish their goals.

Born out of an interest in how people think and make decisions, Adam spends a lot of time thinking about consumer culture and human behavior from both personal and commercial perspectives.

Adam began his career as an art director, and the process of writing creative briefs immediately piqued his interest in how people think. He enjoyed writing the creative briefs and getting to the primary insights of how to truly make a connection. From there, he began reading psychology books and papers, and observing what makes people tick and motivates them.

Adam spends a considerable amount of time trying to help people understand the topics he’s covered in his books. You can find Adam at various speaking engagements throughout the year and listen to his podcast, The Strategy Inside Everything.

"The fear of leaving money on the table is real, but saying no comes with the confidence of knowing that you’ve built a business and you’re doing things right. You’re good enough at what you’re doing to pass on it because something else will come through the door"

In this episode Adam talked about:

Why it’s important to think about human behavior and how it can drive your business forward.
Building and understanding customer personas.
Saying no with confidence.

Main Takeaways

At a basic level, marketing is figuring out the habit of the person that you’re trying to reach and what drives them as it relates to your brand or product.
Build customer personas early on. Write out what your customer looks like and what makes them different. Put a lot of thought into this exercise.
Send out surveys to better understand your customer’s pain points and who they are. It can lead to some pretty big results. But even without drastic changes, that kind of feedback is invaluable.

Important Mentions in this Episode

510 - SEO, Networking, and Niching Down with Josh Garofalo

Jason Resnick — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Josh Garofalo. Josh is a SaaS copywriter and the founder of Sway Copy. If you search Google for “SaaS copywriter”, Josh will show up at the top of the list because he’s built a reputation as being the best. He’s worked with companies such as Hubspot, HotJar, and AWeber to get them more leads and sales.

Josh focuses on customer research, positioning. and copywriting. For developers and designers and consultants like you and me, he’s a fierce supporter of choosing a niche and owning it.

He first got into his niche somewhat by accident when he was working at a startup in 2015. He was doing everything related to marketing and didn’t even realize that copywriting was a specific task from which he could make a living.

Once he stumbled upon the Copy Hackers website, he realized he could focus on one this one piece of the marketing puzzle, and turn it into a career. He started his website on the side and never looked back.

Today, Josh and I talk about how he’s flipped marketing on its head, and has zero strategy other than focusing in on his ideal client when they are about to buy.

"Choosing a niche is not a death sentence. It’s not something you have to do forever and the benefit is that as soon as you establish yourself as an expert in one space, it’s very easy to start moving into adjacent spaces."

In this episode Josh talked about:

How he turned basic networking events and simple conversation into profitable clients.
Why you don’t need to “overthink” and complicate your SEO game.
How to niche down, flip your marketing strategy, and be confident in your positioning and process.

Main Takeaways

People don’t pay a premium for generalists. Once you become a specialist, people will gladly pay you a higher price because you have the knowledge they want.
Start by becoming an expert before you do a lot of marketing. This way you have inherent trust built with your potential clients and they won’t waste time questioning your authority on the subject.
When you become an authority, the people that come to you are already sold on your service. All you need to do is ask questions, research their product, and consult like you’re already part of the team.

Important Mentions in this Episode

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509 - How To Use Marketing Funnels, Discovery Calls and Automations to Get More Sales with Mike Killen

Jason Resnick — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Mike Killen. Mike helps marketers and service-based businesses build marketing funnels and get better at sales. Mike has also written a book called From Single to Scale.

Mike has been in the trenches, successfully building systems and automations and knows what he’s talking about. He’s super passionate about helping people create better funnels and drive more sales.

In this episode, we dive into what a sales funnel is and why it has a bad rap. We also talk about why it’s important to do everything manually, before thinking about automation. Throughout the episode, we touch on the framework behind doing discovery calls and how to ask the tough questions, including the big one (budgets!) in a way that gets your the answers you need.

In this episode Mike talks about:

The real definition of a funnel and why it sometimes gets a bad reputation.
What you’re probably doing wrong when it comes to discovery calls.
Why he’s made a mission out of getting sales training into the hands of children and schools.

Main Takeaways

Sales funnels don’t create customers out of thin air, they just make your current customer attraction method better.
You can’t automate something that you’re not already doing manually — automation only improves current tactics.
Don’t start selling right away on a discovery call. Ask a lot of questions and get a feel for the business you’ll be working with instead of trying to sell them.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Stay in touch

508 - Self-Promotion, Social Media, and Content Marketing with Ilise Benun

Jason Resnick — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Ilise Benun. Ilise is the founder of Marketing Mentor, an agency that helps creative solopreneurs, consultants and owners of small creative businesses find the right clients and avoid the feast or famine cycle.

Ilise started her career in New York, helping people in her network become more organized. She quickly found that disorganization was major part of what kept people from marketing and self-promotion, and she saw an opportunity. Ilise has written seven books, hosts two podcasts, and is adjunct faculty at Maryland Institute College of Art.

In this episode, we dive into how to get clients with bigger budgets as well as how creative professionals, web developers, and web designers can be great at the business side of things.

In this episode Ilise talks about:

How she got started in the marketing world and helping creative freelancers get organized and self-promote.
How to avoid common marketing pitfalls, and do marketing the right way.
How social media fits within your marketing for your business and what you can be doing differently.

Main Takeaways

Once you can identify ideal clients or ideal markets, then it becomes very clear how to reach them.
A LinkedIn profile and smart marketing website (speaking to the clients needs) will enable you to build your marketing foundation.
The expectation of social media is that it’s easy to bring business in. It’s an excellent tool, but you need to asses its value appropriately and use it as such.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Stay in touch

507 - Niching Down, Podcasting, and Shaping your Career with Matt Johnson

Jason Resnick — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Matt Johnson. Matt is founder of Pursuing Results, a zero-hassle podcast system to break into new markets, build strategic relationships, and create authority.

Matt started out in the real estate space and found a great deal of success owning and dominating a specific niche market through podcasting. As a result, he built an agency to help other businesses own and dominate their niche through similar methods.

His agency started as a loose group of freelancers. But, eventually he realized he needed to formalize his agency and identify his ideal customer. Being able to niche down was an important part of gaining traction and focusing his business.

The defining moment in Matt’s journey so far was choosing to move to San Diego for a job opportunity. He directly credits that move, even though he didn’t stay for long, with everything he was able to do afterward with his own business.

Today, Matt is working on transitioning to the next phase of his business by capping the agency work and only taking on a certain number of one-and-done clients. To do this, he’s focusing on building courses and other scalable services.

In this episode, we dive into what business owners without a podcast struggle with most when they start to think about doing one.

In this episode Matt talked about:

The ROI of podcasting and how you can capitalize on it.
The biggest benefit to being a guest on a podcast for your business and the biggest reason why most businesses don’t do it.
How Matt’s personality has allowed him to shape the direction of his career.

Main Takeaways

Fear and mental roadblocks are generally the number one thing keeping people from starting a podcast.
Having guests on or being a guest on another podcast is critical to building deep relationships and earning referrals that move your business forward.
Podcasting is working whether you think it is or not. It’s out there, people are listening and it is doing it’s job even if you might not understand it completely.
Never chase the numbers. Just because your podcast is “big” doesn’t mean that you are maximizing your marketing or connecting with your audience. Dominate your niche instead and become an authority.

Important Mentions in this Episode

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506 - How to get out of presentation mode, master client communication, and price on value with Blair Enns

Jason Resnick — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 03:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Blair Enns. Blair is the founder and CEO of Win Without Pitching, a sales training organization for creative professionals. Blair is also the author of two books, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto and Pricing Creativity.

While most of Blair’s work is centered around sales and teaching people how to sell, he’s an expert in the specific difficulties creative people have with selling.

A defining moment in Blair’s life was when he left the city and moved his young family to a remote mountain village in British Columbia — a nine-hour drive from Vancouver. He left his job at a design firm and started the initial iteration of Win Without Pitching.

Blair pushes himself to lead by example, following the same principles he talks about in his books, and in his consulting practice. He understands that he has a responsibility to sell to his clients the way he would want them to sell to him.

Blair is currently working on a second edition of Pricing Creativity, and has also started working on several new book projects.

"Curiosity is the most valuable asset when it comes to consultative selling or value based pricing. Let go of any presuppositions and just be curious.”

In this episode Blair talked about:

How removing distractions from his life enabled him to build his business the way he wanted to.
Pricing on value, and how to think about pricing in general.
Why you have to master the conversation before you can master selling.

Main Takeaways

It’s hard to have a value conversation with a prospective client if you don’t think in terms of value yourself.
Go into conversations with clients without any presuppositions about what their problems are, what the solution might be, or what the cost of the solution might be.
Creatives have to learn how to have conversations about value, and improve their conversational skills so they can get out of the “presentation business”.

Important Mentions in this Episode

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505 - Simplification, Experimentation, and Connecting With Your Customers with James Rose

Jason Resnick — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is James Rose. James operates Content Snare, which helps digital and creative agencies save time, increase profitability, and provide an awesome experience to their clients by streamlining the content collection process.

Previously, James ran a software and web development company where he quickly figured out the key to success was always having a good process in place for whatever his team was working on.

James started hearing from other agencies that one of their biggest bottlenecks was collecting content from their clients. It seemed like a problem he could fix, and Content Snare was born.

With the mantra of simplification through processes, James has refined his business processes, over time, to help streamline operations and build new relationships. He spends a lot of time experimenting with customer acquisition models and new partnerships.

In this episode James talked about:

Understanding your client without any preconceived notions about what their problem is.
Why he doesn’t use “goals”, in the traditional sense, and how he operates his business instead.
The value of implementation over consumption and analysis.

Main Takeaways

You never know who will be using your product or for what purpose, so be receptive toward people who are using your product in different ways and try to build off the niches in which they operate.
Sales goals are great if you have predictable channels, but if you don’t, work toward enhancing your existing partnerships and searching out new relationships.
If you’ve done your due diligence and think there’s a path that will help grow your business, then go for it. Stop reading about the same topics over and over again, and make a move to apply your knowledge.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Stay in touch

504 - Screening Your Clients and Scaling Your Business with Jared Gold

Jason Resnick — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Jared Gold. Jared is cofounder of Website By Tonight, the easiest, most affordable way to launch a simple and professional website.

Jared started off in web design by doing websites for local practitioners and friends. Over time, he realized he was getting a lot of referrals, and a lightbulb went off as he realized how he could scale his business.

Though he didn’t necessarily think about niching down initially, his main client base was made up of small businesses and solo entrepreneurs, and the sites he worked on ranged from redesigns to greenfield projects.

In order to scale his business, Jared build processes to help him screen clients and make sure they’re a good fit for him and his team. This takes a lot of time. But because his service is so high touch - letting the client be in on the entire design process - he found it a critical piece of ensuring that the clients he works with get what he’s doing and aren’t going to disrupt the process.

Jared has built a solid team to help deliver his unique website design service — one that lets the client help design via screen share.

In this episode Jared talks about:

How he screens clients to make sure they are a good fit for his business
The challenges he faces working directly with clients and letting them in on the design process
How Jared set up a good system for guiding clients to the finish line and how he hopes to improve on it

Main Takeaways

People need to earn the right to work with you as a professional. If they are too demanding or too detailed oriented, it will be harder to deliver the product you promised them.
Set client expectations and boundaries up front. People who work with you need to know what they will be getting and how much access to you they will get.
Put a process in place to help move you projects along swiftly. There are a lot of tools out there that can help your business run smoothly.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Stay in touch

503 - How to Overcome Your Fears and Become an Audio Influencer with Mark Asquith

Jason Resnick — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Mark Asquith. Mark is the co-founder of Rebel Base Media, which creates technology and solutions that help podcasters to find, amplify, and build influence around their unique voice.

Mark has worked a variety of jobs over the years. Self-described as “wandering through life,” he ended up finding his way to podcasting. He eventually founded Podcast Websites, which eventually expanded into Rebel Base Media and several sub-brands.

Though he generally sees himself as a tech founder that just happens to create solutions for podcasters, Mark truly loves connecting like-minded people. In the beginning he was hesitant to share everything he knew on his podcast. But he realized that having an open-source community with a shared knowledge-base was really where he wanted to be professionally.

Today, Mark helps podcasters become true audio influencers through coaching, marketing strategies, and helping them refine their brand. He focuses on connecting people and using trust and loyalty to help his clients consistently grow a fan-base and monetize their podcasts.

“The goal is to turn people into audio influences with the distinction being that, even if you’ve got a small audience, you still have potential.”

In this episode Mark talks about:

How being an audio influencer can help position you as an expert
How you can leverage every episode as a lead magnet
How to get over your fears and launch your show

Main Takeaways

Becoming an audio influencer puts you in a position to take full monetary advantage of your audience. Even if you’re small, sponsors will show up if you have dedicated listeners.
Getting your listeners to channel transfer (engage with non-podcast content) is critical for becoming an audio influencer and building a community around your podcast.
Get over yourself. No one cares how you sound, no one cares if your podcast isn’t perfect. The most important step in building a podcast that people want to listen to is starting it.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Stay in touch

502 - How to Delight and Engage Your Users with Mike Kelly

Jason Resnick — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Mike Kelly. Mike is the co-founder (with his wife, Erin) of MemberVault, a digital home for your best free content, paid offers, memberships, and one-to-one services.

Mike is a builder. From a young age he loved building with wood, Legos, and whatever else he could get his hands on. This passion for creating led him to become an independent developer and host of a (since discontinued) podcast, “The Grumpy Developer.”

The idea for MemberVault stemmed from his wife’s dissatisfaction with the online course tools that were available. Being boxed into the traditional companies and plugins, Mike thought that he could create something better for his wife’s needs.

Three years later, Mike and Erin are still working together on MemberVault, adding new users and features all the time.

Today, MemberVault houses content for their users, giving them tools to convert followers to paying customers without being pushy, impersonal, or formulaic.

“It’s all about getting the eyeballs in, getting them engaged. The more they engage, the more trust they build. The more trust they build, the more willing they are to buy from you.”

In this episode Mike talks about:

How to engage your customers and learn more about who they are and how to get them to the next step to work with you
Figuring out your business’s KPIs and why more leads isn’t always the best solution
What’s wrong with the traditional sales funnel system
Working with your spouse and striking a good balance between work and home life

Main Takeaways

People, if given the option, would rather view all your content, look at your products in depth, and choose which ones to buy instead of being lead step-by-step and put in a “waiting period” before being able to move ahead with the purchase.
Figuring out incentives, rewards, and analyzing your own way of doing things is crucial in getting people to convert.
Sales funnels have become impersonal, formulaic, cold, and pushy. However, building relationships with customers is far more important.
Working with your spouse can be difficult if you don’t have separate ownership areas. Split your responsibilities and let each person own their sector and be the final call on that subject.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Stay in touch

501 - How to elevate and position your business with Rob and Kennedy

Jason Resnick — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Today’s guests (yes, two guests!) are Rob and Kennedy from ResponseSuite, a survey app with built-in marketing features designed to get more of your customers buying more of your products, more often.

Special offer: Get a 14-day free trial and a one-on-one coaching call with Rob and Kennedy by vising responsesuitedeal.com/feast.

As you’ll hear in this episode, Rob and Kennedy are entertainers who happened to become entrepreneurs. Rob is a master at psychology, body language, and reading people, which resulted in a comedy show where he reads people’s minds. Kennedy comes from a background in magic and hypnosis. Together, they co-founded ResponseSuite and found a way to leverage their unique skill set in the business world.

One thing’s for sure — Rob and Kennedy are passionate about surveys! And that passion came directly from scratching their own itch, as the saying goes.

After years of CSV files, spreadsheets, and separate email lists, Rob and Kennedy decided it was time to find a better solution for segmenting customers, and getting the information they needed. But they weren’t happy with what was on the market at the time, so (as is the case for most entrepreneurial types) they decided to build their own, and ResponseSuite was born.

While their software is designed to help entrepreneurs, it also serves another purpose: it provides a revenue stream that allows them to continue doing what they love: performing.

“It’s so important to qualify leads up front, because all that time we’re spending doing in-between work that is not generating new work or fulfilling existing work, is kind of a waste of time.”

In this episode Rob and Kennedy talk about:

How their background prepared them to build ResponseSuite and what they learned along the way.
How the brain works and how to hack it with surveys.
How their app saves times, gathers more data, and automates important aspects of marketing.
Listening to your customers and using that to innovate and iterate on your product.

Main Takeaways

Surveys are a great way to gather the right kind of data from your customers or target audience.
Having prospects fill out a survey puts their minds into an engaged mode, making them far more likely to purchase or interact with a call-to-action at the end.
The information gleaned from a survey allows product owners to do “mass personalization,” which goes a long way in today’s market.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Stay in touch

410 - Andrew Askins on Burnout, Pivoting, and Creating a Company People Want to Work For

Jason Resnick — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Andrew Askins. Andrew is the founder of Krit, a startup turned app design and development studio that helps other startups turn their ideas into realities.

While still in school at University of South Carolina, Andrew had an opportunity to join an accelerator program for his SaaS app. Though he was able to get it off the ground and attract a few thousand users, he starting burning out.

At the same time, he and his team were consulting with a few companies and it became something they enjoyed enough to go all-in. They started as a catchall digital marketing agency but realized after a couple of years that they needed to niche down and find their true sweet spot - working with startups.

The decision to pivot from startup to consultants was not an easy one. There was a lot of doubt along the way and it took landing a big project to finally feel a little more at ease with the decision.

Though he and his team kept it simple to start with, they’ve evolved both their business and their messaging over time to encompass their target market as well as the strengths of the team.

At the end of the day, Andrew’s goal is to put people first in his business. And a big part of that is creating a transparent business model with clear values.

There’s a lot going for Andrew these days, from brining on the company’s first new hires, to refining their systems and processes, as well as launching a new info product.

In this episode Andrew talks about:

Letting go of a startup he’d spent nearly two years building.
Keeping things simple when you’re starting out.
Understanding the difference between clients who aren’t a good fit and those who just don’t fit with your primary messaging.

Main Takeaways

How you communicate what you do matters. Be sure you are creating the right narrative around your business and value proposition.
To have a successful startup, each part of the business should understand and care about the other parts. Development should care about design, design should care about sales, etc.
Find clients who are equally as invested in you as you are with them. It can make or break a product.

Important Mentions in this Episode

409 - Joe Workman on Finding Your People and Creating What They Need

Jason Resnick — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Joe Workman. Joe is a Rapid Weaver developer and the founder of Weaver’s Space. He also runs the Weaver’s Space Online Conference.

Joe started using Rapid Weaver - a Mac App that lets you create a website on your local computer and then publish directly to your server - in 2006. When he set out to start a real estate business with his friend (Joe is a self-described serial entrepreneur) they built the site on Rapid Weaver. Throughout that project, Joe ended up building several custom stacks (plugins).

Over time, people in the developer community urged Joe to start selling some of his stacks and eventually he started developing full-time. While Joe did do some consulting and client work early on, he ultimately found creating products more rewarding.

Joe has been running his business for more than a decade and has made it a priority to productize and streamline. The ability to replicate his work and automate as much as possible has been a key element to his success as a solo shop owner.

In order to survive the normal ups and downs of entrepreneurship, Joe is working on diversifying his revenue streams and looking for new things to try with his business. He’s also preparing for a new release of Total CMS, one of his main products.

In this episode Joe talks about:

Creating products instead of doing client work.
Helping other freelancers grow and refine their own businesses through community building.
Ensuring you have a safety net to withstand the ebbs and flows of business.
The benefits of being strong and unwavering with your prices.

Main Takeaways

Find your people first. Be part of the conversation and community before trying to create and sell products or services.
Scratching your own itch is a great way to productize the work you’re already doing and is likely to meet the needs of others as well.
Building community and relationships is important even if you aren’t doing client work. In a product-based business you still have to build credibility and a reputation.

Important Mentions in this Episode

408 - Lianna Patch on Making an Impact by Injecting Humor Into Your Copy

Jason Resnick — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Lianna Patch. Lianna is a copy writer, speaker, and the founder of Punchline Copy, a copywriting agency focused on injecting humor into brand copy. Lianna also runs Snap Copy, an on-demand copywriting service.

It took some time for Lianna to find her niche. She’d been writing copy for seven years and was finding herself unhappy with her business. At the same time she was also starting to do stand-up comedy and joined a copywriting mastermind group. She felt the group “gave her permission” to incorporate her improv work with her copywriting and she’s been at it ever since.

Lianna started niching down her market by simply writing the copy for her own website. She didn’t do a bunch of customer interviews or outreach, she just wrote without inhibition (and probably with a few drinks) and let her positioning grow organically from there.

Throughout the life of her business, she’s gone from being mostly retainer-based to project-based, which grew from the types of projects and clients she found herself working with most often. Currently, her business has grown through word of mouth via podcasts and speaking gigs, but she plans to put more marketing systems in place in 2019.

Additionally in 2019, Lianna plans to finalize and release a course she’s working on and doing more to productize her services.

In this episode Lianna talks about:

The parallels between good comedy and good copywriting.
Transitioning between a retainer-based and project-based business models.
Creating a better customer experience by writing copy that shows you understand your client and care about their needs.

Main Takeaways

Creating clear positioning ensures that you target the right kinds of clients and that you don’t spend a lot of time assuaging the concerns of the wrong ones.
Build a revenue model that works for you and that you are comfortable with. Don’t force retainer-based clients if it’s not what’s best for you and your business.
Writing shorter sentences and punctuating them with animated gifs or emojis are an easy way to make your writing more approachable.

Important Mentions in this Episode

407 - Troy Dean on How To Focus Your Marketing and Speak Your Client's Language

Jason Resnick — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Troy Dean. Troy is a podcaster, speaker, father, and the founder of WP Elevation. Through WP Elevation, Troy helps WordPress consultants build and scale their businesses.

A self-proclaimed “horrible passenger,” Troy started his own business because he wanted to be in control of his financial future, though the actual events leading to WP Elevation were a bit erratic.

After wandering a bit aimlessly in his 20s, Troy stumbled into voice-over work and built a website to promote himself. People liked the site and started asking him to build one for them, thus beginning his entrepreneurial journey.

One of Troy’s strengths as a business owner is getting to the heart of what his clients truly need. Over the years he’s developed a framework designed to elicit that information and better understand what’s most important.

Troy now trains other WordPress developers and designers on how to build their business by niching down and getting really good at client communication through his mastermind group and training courses.

Troy is currently working on expanding his audience to other freelancers without abandoning his core audience of WordPress developers, while also putting a big emphasis on live events and testing his training.

In this episode Troy talks about:

The delicate balance between being creative, delivering for clients, and managing the relationship.
Asking clients questions and going deep and wide on the responses.
Creating your value proposition, being bold, and having a unique stance in the market.

Main Takeaways

One of the best value adds you can deliver for clients is to help them better understand what they need, which may not be the same as what they think they want.
Learning to speak your client’s language is an essential way to let them know you are truly listening and have their best interests in mind.
If you don’t niche down and find a market on which to focus, you end up constantly taking broad strokes and trying to please everyone all the time, which never works out well.

Important Mentions in this Episode

406 - Elliot Murphy on Abundance Mindset and Providing Value to Your Clients

Jason Resnick — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Elliot Murphy. Elliot is the founder and CEO of KindlyOps, a DevOps and compliance consultancy for regulated industries. Elliot and his team specialize in GDPR, HIPPA, and FDA requirements and creating compliant infrastructure for clients on Amazon Web Services.

After being laid off from his role as CTO for a healthtech startup, he took his 20 years of business experience and put it toward figuring out how he could start his own business without having to leave his small town of Portland, Maine.

As Elliot was filling out job applications, he realized that many of his skills were portable across industries. After reading a book by Philip Morgan on positioning, he was able to take those skills and start niching down his services.

Due to shifts in the industry and more of the compliance process being out-of-the-box, his team has started looking for the things that cloud services can’t automate, which ended up being the more human parts of the compliance - more consulting than implementing.

Admittedly, Elliot is not great at marketing and sales, but he focuses on the elements he is good at, which is word of mouth. He speaks at conferences and is always looking for companies that are very likely to have a problem that he can solve.

Elliot is currently working on productizing some of his services to help smaller clients, and an open source governance and compliance product.

In this episode Elliot talks about:

How he was able to niche down both his services and his client-base by focusing on an unpleasant part of business.
Having an abundance mindset and how that can help grow your business and improve community engagement.
Firing the biggest client he ever had and the positive affect that had on his employees and his business.

Main Takeaways

Finding a specific problem to solve and being able to articulate that is more valuable than just being able to list off a bunch of skills.
The value proposition is a huge aspect of building a company. If the input and output is the same regardless of the client then you have to focus on which clients find more value in the work being done and target them specifically.
You have to take an active role in filtering out clients that aren’t the right fit for your services, so it’s important to have clear and unambiguous messaging.

Important Mentions in this Episode

405 - John Locke on Pivoting Your Niche and How To Validate A Market For Your Services

Jason Resnick — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 07:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is John Locke. John is the owner of Lockedown Design, an SEO agency in Sacramento, CA focused on SEO for manufacturing companies.

John started his career in blue collar jobs and began doing general web design about seven years ago. In 2017, he started shifting his business toward strictly SEO because he realized search engine rankings were what his clients truly wanted.

In last week’s episode, Matt Medeiros talked about niching into a local market. John has taken the opposite approach. Initially, his business was mostly focused on his local area due to word-of-mouth marketing and local agency relationships. When he moved to focus on SEO, he removed the localization and decided to focus on the global manufacturing industry rather than base his niche on location.

John didn’t arrive at this decision overnight. Throughout his years working with his clients and with agencies, he took note of the trends he was seeing and started experimenting with case studies for the types of clients he wanted to work with. It was by no means a linear process, but eventually it paid off.

Currently, John is focused on content, regularly publishing articles on his blog as well as restructuring his YouTube account weekly videos. Content is an exciting place to experiment - providing value where prospective client’s need it most.

[click_to_tweet tweet=“As long as you pick something that’s in a viable market you should go for it because focusing on a special niche is going to help differentiate you from all the others in your industry.” quote=“As long as you pick something that’s in a viable market you should go for it because focusing on a special niche is going to help differentiate you from all the others in your industry.” theme=“style3”]

In this episode John talks about:

Understanding his client’s true needs and specializing in meeting those needs.
Cutting back on partnerships with agencies so he could have more control over the process.
Building a foundation for his business with monthly retainers.

Main Takeaways

Search engine rankings aren’t everything. If lead quality isn’t good enough, don’t be afraid to pivot or niche down.
Experimenting and testing your niche is an important part of the process. If your original niche doesn’t work out, you can always shift to another.
Learn to trust your gut. Know yourself and what your goals are and make sure your decisions align with those goals.

Important Mentions in this Episode

404 - Matt Medeiros on Community and Finding Niches in Unlikely Places

Jason Resnick — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Matt Medeiros. Matt is the very definition of a “serial maker”. He’s founded so many different businesses and projects over the years, it’s hard to list them all. He started a digital WordPress agency, Slocum Studio, nearly a decade ago. He’s also the host of several podcasts, including Matt Report, and creator of various WordPress plugins. The easiest way to find out everything Matt’s involved in is his personal website Crafted by Matt.

Currently an account executive at Pagely, Matt has been involved in a number of different ventures over the 15 to 20 years he’s been in the digital space.

Growing up in his family’s car sales business, he found himself drawn to the relational side of the business. That, combined with a passion for technology, led him to launching a local digital agency and mentoring business owners in his town.

In fact, one of Matt’s podcasts, We Are Here, is specifically focused on local businesses in the South Coast area of Massachusetts. Keeping his finger on the pulse of his local community has allowed him to develop more meaningful connections, foster opportunities for his agency, and find niches that weren’t obvious from the outside.

As it always does, becoming a parent has influenced his trajectory. After his first child was born and with a second on the way, Matt decided to take on a full-time job with Pagely. The constant ebb and flow of running a business can be stressful even when you’re only responsible for yourself, let alone an entire family. The job at Pagely allowed Matt to create some financial stability, while still doing work he loves. And, he’s been able to balance full-time employment without giving up his side projects and other businesses.

Whether it’s creating content at Pagely, or working on new podcasts and products, Matt is always making something. And that drive to create has only been helped by finding the right niches to focus on.

In this episode Matt talks about:

Niching down your business based on location
The long road to finding work you love and the people you love to work with
Giving back to his community and creating something lasting for his family
Balancing his freelance and consulting work with a full-time job

Main Takeaways

When you make the decision to become a freelancer or a consultant, even if it’s just a side gig, you have to be consistent and keep showing up, keep doing the work.
Don’t compare yourself or your business to others. You don’t always have to have the most flashy product or service to be successful.
Get out and interact with others. Sitting behind a computer all day can start to weigh on you and hold you back from building meaningful relationships.

Important Mentions in this Episode

403 - Chris Bintliff on Filling Gaps in a Niche and Building Marketing Engines That Work

Jason Resnick — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 14:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Chris Bintliff. Chris is the owner of Not Really Rocket Science, an agency focused on helping businesses bridge the gap between sales and marketing. He’s all about helping his clients understand their customers and building a marketing engine that works.

With a background in digital learning, Chris took interest in digital marketing when he realized the huge disconnect between what people felt was important and what was actually important.

Chris spends a lot of his time asking ‘why’ and encouraging his client’s to think about their customers first and then work backward to determine the type of marketing engine that will support their customer base.

There’s a constant tension between our ability to create a clear value proposition and our audience’s ability to hear it. And one of the ways Chris was able to clarify his entire approach was by focusing on one person. It can be really scary to implement, but aiming all of your marketing at one person can create a very clear and compelling message.

Confidence plays a big role in this as well. Chris started out taking $400 gigs because that’s all he could find and he wasn’t confident in his work or his abilities. But he used it as a learning experience, soaking up everything he could, and as his career matured, he was able to refine his skills and client base and find the right niche.

And the refining never stops. Currently, Chris’ business is shifting away from a consultancy to an agency model. He’s also working on courses and other related products.

In this episode Chris talks about:

Getting to the ‘why’ of one’s marketing efforts and tactics
Helping companies find their marketing identity
The importance of not falling back into old marketing habits
The value of marketing automation and relationship-building with clients

Main Takeaways

Keep asking ‘why’ until you get to a business’ true pain points.
You can accelerate niching down by ignoring the noise and focusing on one person.
As the expert in your field, you have to be confident in your abilities. That’s what your clients hired you in the first place. You have to own it.

Important Mentions in this Episode

402 - Sara Dunn on Overcoming the Fear of Specialization

Jason Resnick — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Sara Dunn. Sara is a web developer and founder of 11 Web, a full-service web design agency.

Sara was a guest on Season 2 and since then she’s been intently focused on continuing to specialize her business into a very specific niche. She started six years ago as a WordPress design and development generalist, and now specializes in search engine optimization (SEO) in the wedding industry. She also vlogs about the entire process of specialization on her YouTube channel.

Throughout the process of niching down, she realized there was a lot of fear involved. Fear of turning away potential clients. Fear of leaving money on the table. Fear of making the wrong decisions. And those fears were an obstacle that she had to overcome before she was able to truly find the right niche.

So she started a vlog on YouTube. The public nature of her videos provided accountability and kept her moving forward even when she felt like throwing in the towel.

Finding a sense of direction for herself was one thing, but then came the work of getting the rest of the team on board. It took time, but going deep in a specific vertical gave her and her team the confidence to embrace their expertise and clarify their value proposition.

Currently, the goal is to go deeper in the wedding industry and take on fewer generalist projects. In 2019, Sara hopes to start speaking at wedding-related conferences and growing her reputation that specialized work.

In this episode Sara talks about:

Creating and demonstrating your value proposition
How to take the time necessary to find the right niche before going all-in
Experimenting with your business and marketing tactics
Positioning yourself as an expert and how that adds value to your team and your clients

Main Takeaways

Just because you love what you are doing doesn’t mean you should settle. Keep pushing to find the specialty that’s right for you.
Get content out there that proves your expertise in your niche. This will help bring in leads and keep you true to your chosen niche.
Progress is incremental and transitions should be gradual. Don’t try to change your business overnight.

Important Mentions in this Episode

401 - Josh Doody on Why, When, and How to Niche Your Business

Jason Resnick — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Josh Doody. Josh is a salary negotiation coach. He’s the author of Fearless Salary Negotiation and helps his clients earn what they’re worth with the strategies and tactics he’s created and refined as both an employee and entrepreneur.

Josh started out as an engineer before finding his way to a project management role at a small software company. Part of his job was to help businesses implement performance management software, which directly exposed him to the inner workings of how many companies modeled compensation and paid their employees.

Josh used that experience and knowledge to significantly increase his own salary multiple times. After helping friends and family achieve the same success, Josh decided to write a book and share these tactics with the wider world. That would eventually become the Fearless Salary Negotiation book and course.

Josh found that his experience and expertise were well suited for software developers, so he niched down and began focusing exclusively on coaching and salary negotiation for software developers.

Through lots of experimentation and listening to client feedback, Josh has been able to continually refine and iterate on his content, which improves his organic visibility.

Josh is currently working on growing his business to replace the income of the full-time job he left more than three years ago now. He spends much of his time experimenting with his content and products and working with his coaching clients.

In this episode Josh talks about:

How to use your clients’ language in your own content.
The importance of connecting your offering directly to your customers’ ROI.
Creating content that can stand the test of time and provide ongoing success.

Main Takeaways

Listening to your customers and their feedback is critical to niching down and better positioning.
Giving away high quality content is a great way to build your brand and solidify your credibility in a specific niche.
Create the content that your audience asks you for.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Season 4 - Niching Down

Jason Resnick — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 11:30:00 +0000

Niching down is something you’ve heard talked about on this show way back at the start.

Many people I’ve spoken to have seen the value in niching down, but haven’t found that solution that shows them the way, or at the very least points them in a direction.

There are many fears and questions to be addressed and answered.

Questions like “how do you test the waters while still doing existing client work?”

“How to fill-in the gaps in a niche that’s already occupied?”

“How to build a proper value proposition to explain what you do?”

“How to position yourself as the go-to person in your niche”

“How to get and use the language of your client?”

“How do you expand the niche?”

Each week in Season 4 I’ll bring on a co-host who’s specialized their business and we’ll dive deep on one of these questions.

Each co-host has niched down and has a very specific business model that serves a particular client extremely well.

The episode they come on will be focused on what they’ve been more successful in.

By the end of the season you’ll understand why niching down is beneficial to not just you and your business, but more so for your clients.

You’ll have a comprehensive look at the entire process of niching down and hear actionable strategies that work in today’s market.

Season 4 of Live In The Feast is shaping up to be the best freelancer podcast season you’ve ever heard.

You don’t want to miss it. And so you don’t, head on over to iTunes and Subscribe to Live In The Feast today.

While you are there, why not take 34 seconds and leave a 5-star rating and review on Season 3 or your favorite episode.

By subscribing you’ll be sure to get notified each and every single week of Season 4 when a new episode packed with actionable strategies and tips is dropped.

We’ll be back in a few short weeks with Season 4, and until then, you’ll get a few new episodes in between that you’ll want to catch. I guarantee it!

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👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
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Best of Season 3 - Get out of the comfort zone

Jason Resnick — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 07:40:00 +0000

With Season 3 all wrapped up, I want to this opportunity to thank, Justin, Curtis, Philip, Paul, Carrie, Vincent, Matt, Val, Bridget, Ryan, Avani, and Tom for sharing their experiences, their defining moments, and journeys through their lives.

I truly appreciate you, your time and respect each and every one of you very dearly.

As I listened back on Season 3, listening to the stories and all the defining moments, every single person has their own story to tell and is very unique. But there are some overarching themes that I didn’t see coming when I started this season.

One thing I didn’t see coming was that when I asked what the defining moment in life so far was, regardless if it was getting married, having a child, starting their own business, or a pivot point in their business after the 30-45 minutes of conversation, where they are today and headed towards in the future all circles back to that one moment in time.

Makes sense right? Their defining moment has become their compass, their guiding light, their mission.

I would encourage you to ask yourself “What is your defining moment in life so far?”

For this episode, I want to bring to you some interesting quotes and conversation points from this season about being a bit uncomfortable.

In this episode:

New opportunities won’t open up until you let something go.
Your positioning and confidence wins over clients.
There is always another project around the corner.
Real growth (of yourself and the business) happen when you step outside the box.

Main Takeaways

Be you and that will attract the clients you want to work with.
Accelerate your growth and learning by hiring a coach.
Say “No” when you normally would have said “Yes”

Season 3 of Live In The Feast - Origin Stories

Best of Season 3 - Building Relationships

Jason Resnick — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 03:00:00 +0000

I truly appreciate you, your time and respect each and every one of you very dearly.

Makes sense right? Their defining moment has become their compass, their guiding light, their mission.

I would encourage you to ask yourself “What is your defining moment in life so far?”

For this episode, I want to bring to you some interesting quotes and conversation points from this season about building relationships.

In this episode:

Create long-standing relationships and get a bit uncomfortable.
Work-of-mouth is your biggest marketing strategy.
Human factor - "The Cheers Factor" adds a personal touch to your business.
The real power of relationships happens when you niche down

Main Takeaways

Your business will be built upon those relationships you build.
Growth happens in the mundane tasks.
Go grab your social feed of choice and engage in a conversation each and every day.

Season 3 of Live In The Feast - Origin Stories

312 - Tom McFarlin on Blogging, Balancing Work and Family, and Building a Business that Lasts

Jason Resnick — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Tom McFarlin. Tom is a WordPress developer, blogger, and guitar player. He operates his own business building custom WordPress sites and products and writes the Practical WordPress Development blog.

Tom is from Atlanta (which, incidentally, is where The Walking Dead is filmed). Tom and I happen to be huge fans of the show and it’s one of the first things over which we bonded. Each season, Tom scouts out the places where they filmed the show and then shares his photos online - it’s a fun project.

Tom started blogging back before it was a thing, and grew his audience with consistent, high-quality content (sometimes posting up to five times a week). Beyond writing and teaching, Tom has been doing WordPress consulting, theme development, plugin development, web application development throughout his career.

Part of the journey was learning to lean into his strengths, which, for him, meant focusing on development and partnering with other designers. Tom applied this same process to business, which has lead him to focus on small businesses and entrepreneurs. Being able to work with clients he likes and solve interesting problems, while providing for his family has created a lot of career satisfaction.

Though there has always been a teaching element to Tom’s work, he eventually created a membership site for WordPress developers. He’s currently working on “phase two” of this project.

In this episode Tom talks about:

Growing his audience through consistent blogging.
Finding the sweet spot for his business and career.
Building a business that can sustain itself for the long-term.
How having a supportive partner and family can make all the difference when it comes to pursuing your ideal career.

Main Takeaways

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is to rely on the strengths of others rather than forcing yourself to do things you’re not good at.
Choosing your niche customer isn’t always about the money, it should also be about what you love to do.
Every industry has its highs and lows but it is possible to build a business that can withstand those changes.

Important Mentions in this Episode

311 - Avani Miriyala on Design, Finding Your Niche, and Facing Your Fears

Jason Resnick — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Avani Miriyala. Avani is a UX designer, podcaster, and entrepreneur. She helps people create systems so that they can break through the status quo. Avani runs a design consultancy business and shares her knowledge with others through her podcast.

In 2017 Avani made the decision to leave her full-time job and pursue her consulting business full-time. And it’s turned out to be one of the most defining choices she ever made.

She likes to say that empathy is her superpower. She loves talking to people, getting ideas from user interviews, and getting to know what other people are thinking. This knowledge directly relates to product ideas and the problems she tries to solve.

Though she admits that social comparison is often the enemy, she has used it in the past to support her pursuits. Just knowing that others were out there doing what she wanted to do was enough to help quell her fears and take the leap.

Through the process of niching down, Avani has focused the emerging market of cryptocurrency and become one of the go-to consultants for companies looking to build their sites or digital wallets.

Currently, Avani is focused on growing her own consultancy business, building UX strategies for cryptocurrency businesses, and guiding others along the freelance journey with her Six-Figure Freelancer Roadmap.

In this episode Avani talks about:

How mediocrity and the status quo can lead to a less fulfilling life.
Climbing the corporate ladder and how she realized it wasn’t what she really wanted.
The fear of the unknown and how she moved through it to pursue her dreams anyway.
How niching down positions you as a trusted expert and attracts more clients.

Main Takeaways

Leaving what you know can be like jumping out of a plane and hoping the parachute opens, but at the end of the day, it’s worth it to figure out what you really want.
The power to create the life you want is always in your own hands, even though you sometimes feel it’s not.
When you’re in a transitional period or stuck, talk to other people and learn from their experiences.
You have to bet on yourself. Others won’t take a chance on you if you don’t take one on yourself.

Important Mentions in this Episode

310 - Ryan Carson on Relationships, Motivation, and Mastering Sales

Jason Resnick — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Ryan Carson. He’s a father, entrepreneur, and a developer. He founded Treehouse, an online education platform that aims to makes technology education affordable for all.

After a decade running Treehouse, Ryan seriously considered selling the business. When he tried to let the buyer down easy, the buyer said he intended to “crush” Ryan and his business. This ultimately became a defining moment in his career.

He knew he would do anything to keep his business alive, including outworking and out competing his competition. It revived his fire for the business and pushed him to start learning all the ins and outs of business that he never had time for before.

After teaching himself sales, he found that it wasn’t necessarily complex, just hard. He kept himself motivated by using visualization tactics and learning from the most focused and intense people he could find, such as Jocko Willink.

Ryan has had a lot of wins, but he’s also learned the hard way about burning bridges and the importance of maintaining good relationships.

Today, Ryan spends his time growing Treehouse, and doing his part to bring equality in the workplace by providing technical education to the masses. Improving his physical fitness and being a good father and husband are also huge parts of his life.

In this episode Ryan talks about:

Saying no and trusting your instincts when it comes to big decisions.
How a CEO coach has been essential part of his business and personal growth.
Visualization and how it can help you achieve your goals and, just as important, knowing what to do after you reach them.

Main Takeaways

Take time to digest big decisions. Put your customers first and trust yourself to make the right call.
Push yourself to learn new skills, but don’t do it at the cost of your family or personal life. Be focused and clear when you are working.
Visualize your goals and really see your desired outcome happening.
Don’t burn bridges. You never know what will happen in the future and how valuable those relationships may be.

Important Mentions in this Episode

309 - Bridget Willard on WordPress, Why Twitter is the Best, and Relationship Marketing

Jason Resnick — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Bridget Willard. Bridget is a teacher, marketer, and social media specialist. She’s also the co-founder of the Women Who WP Meetup. Bridget specializes in helping her clients with relationship marketing.

Though Bridget is a teacher by trade, she became a self-taught marketer early on, which lead her down a winding path that eventually brought her to working with WordPress developers.

Bridget’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome made it challenging to take on most jobs, so when she learned about WordPress and Twitter, she felt it was the perfect fit. Twitter opened her world to being able to create real relationships with people online, people she would have never had access to otherwise.

Recently, Bridget’s husband passed away and it reaffirmed for her that people and relationships are what matter most in this life, so she strives to connect people and strengthen those bonds everyday.

As a freelancer and remote worker, she found it was too easy to simply stay inside by herself all of the time, which lead her to co-founding the Women Who WP Meetup. She also began speaking at WordCamps and is very active in the WordPress community.

You can currently find Bridget at Women Who WP meetups, or speaking at a WordCamp near you. And, of course, you can find her on Twitter.

In this episode Bridget talks about:

Changing career paths and taking opportunities as they come.
Creating opportunities by building real relationships with people both in person and online.
How Twitter is a gold mine for listening to customers and building relationships because they tell you what’s important to them through their tweets.
Growing a client base by truly listening to what people need.

Main Takeaways

You can get great opportunities from building relationships with people, but you have to truly care about those people or it doesn’t work.
Automation is an important tool for marketers, but if you have a set it and forget it mentality, there’s a lot you’re going to miss, especially if you’re trying to build relationships.
You can’t measure the things that matter most in life, so sometimes it’s not about engagement or ROI, it’s about people.
Just because you don’t have all of the clients you need or are making the money you need doing the thing you love doesn’t make you a failure. You are only a failure when you quit.

Important Mentions in this Episode

308 - Val Geisler on raising daughters, why you should specialize, and how to provide real value for clients

Jason Resnick — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Val Geisler. Val is a mom, email strategist, writer, and self-described connector. She writes amazing, detailed emails for the world’s biggest brands that turn customers into raving fans.

As a mother of two girls and an entrepreneur, Val spends a lot of time thinking about how to raise her girls in the era of the Internet and how to represent being a working mom.

Val’s degree and background in theater and as a stage manager gave her the tools and skills she needed to work independently and to build her business chops. It also taught her a lot about the value of having a niche skillset.

After getting out of theater, she worked in retail, sales, and as an in-house email marketer. It took having her second daughter to realize what she wanted was to work on her own terms and on her own time and that freelancing was the best way to accomplish that.

Val is currently creating a workshop for people who want to learn more about the technical side of email.

In this episode Val talks about:

How customer experience is about connecting the dots between your brand and your customers.
How being a mom made her realize that we don’t need as much as we think we do and how we can apply that mentality to our marketing.
How being a specialist can help you raise your rates and go deeper with your clients.

Main Takeaways

Your customers are people, not bank accounts. They have needs and wants and need to be nurtured.
We live in a highly automated world and everyone wants to feel a personal connection in some capacity and that’s what we need to bring back to the online experience.
Creating deliverables for your client that they can repurpose and use over and over again adds real value and can open their eyes to more opportunities.
Let your niche work for you. Becoming a specialist allows you to go all-in on a subject and can help you attract the right clients.

Important Mentions in this Episode

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👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
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307 - Matt Inglot on running an agency, finding the right clients, and starting over

Jason Resnick — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Matt Inglot. Matt is a husband, web agency owner, and podcast host. He runs Freelance Transformation and helps other freelancers find higher-paying jobs while also showing them how to reduce the amount of time they work.

Though Matt had always dreamed of building and running a successful web agency, it wasn’t an easy or clear path. He initially started freelancing as a web developer and then built up an agency, only to discover he didn’t want a big business with all of its complexities after all - he wanted the freedom of something smaller.

Though it caused him quite a bit of stress, that realization ultimately led to a lot of personal growth because it forced him to really look at his business and figure out what was working and what wasn’t.

After some soul searching, Matt realized he was okay with being a solo business owner and found a way of working that gave him creative satisfaction and the ability to support his family.

As most freelancers know, being able to simply take a vacation and not be ruled by clients and email is a pretty big deal. It was on his first real vacation, in fact, that he prosed to his wife. This kind of self-care is a regular part of how Matt now operates his business.

Based out of Calgary, Alberta, Matt continues to run his web development agency with a focus on strategy and the ability to maintain the freedom for which he has worked so hard.

In this episode Matt talks about:

How he went from freelancing to pay his rent, to having a full team of developers and an office (and back again).
When he realized that the work he dreamed of doing wasn’t actually the work he wanted to do.
How reinventing his business was mostly about figuring out the right clients to work with.

Main Takeaways

Listen to your intuition when something doesn’t feel right. It’s usually a good indication that you need to course correct.
It’s never too late to fix what’s not working. You just have to be willing to take a step back and figure out what those things are.
Figuring out who the right clients are for your services is a big key to having a successful business.
Building the business you want is different for everyone. It doesn’t need to be big or complex to be successful.

Important Mentions in this Episode

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👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
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306 - Vincent Pugliese on getting out of debt, freedom, and choosing not settle

Jason Resnick — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Vincent Pugliese. Vincent is a dad, husband, photographer, coach, and author. He runs The Freelance Tribe and helps others on their journey to finding success as a freelancer.

In 2007, just before the economic collapse of 2008, Vincent left his job to start his own photography business. In spite of the timing, he was able to get his family out of debt and create a thriving business - eventually reaching the point where he could be selective about his clients and wasn’t living project to project.

Though he barely finished high school, Vincent clawed his way back by going to college and then getting a job with a newspaper as a photographer. At one particular low point, his father told him something that changed his life forever - that he was settling.

That, along with the realization that no matter how hard he worked he would always be held back by traditional employment, led him to jump ship and start his own business.

Vincent focused on building a network rather that focusing solely on money, which gave him long-term stability. He chose to focus on his strengths, and this too helped him attract the ideal clientele.

Today, Vincent and his wife are running the Business of Photography Academy as well as a mastermind community for freelancers. When he’s not shooting weddings and other events, he can be found spending time with his family and homeschooling his three boys.

In this episode Vincent talks about:

His journey from getting in trouble with the law to becoming an award-winning photographer to running a thriving freelance business.
How even after winning awards and reaching a pinnacle in his newspaper photography career, he still found himself struggling to support his family.
Finding your niche and finding the right clients to be your target audience.
How he paid off his debt and raised his prices when other businesses were struggling.

Main Takeaways

Winning awards for your talent does not always equate to making money - especially when done within the constraints of a traditional career path.
The sooner you can become a giver and think about somebody else first and your business second, the sooner your business is actually going to thrive.
When you have little to lose you should be seeking out opportunities to improve your situation.
Freelancing is all about creating and maintaining relationships and connections and helping others.
Success doesn’t happen overnight. It’s about building a strong business over time.

Important Mentions in this Episode

305 - Carrie Dils on being your authentic self, and fearless freelancing

Jason Resnick — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Carrie Dils. Carrie is a freelancer, podcaster, writer, educator, and web developer. She runs a very popular blog where she shares her experiences as a business owner and teaches others how to build their own freelance businesses.

Carrie didn’t start out as a developer. She came to it from a far more traditional business - a local coffee shop.

When Carrie left the corporate world early in her career, she visited a coffee shop that she fell in love with, and decided to recreate the experience in her home town.

After almost a decade working at Starbucks trying to build experience, she realized she wanted nothing to do with owning a coffee shop. Still, she was able to glean a lot of the details of running a business from the experience.

She first realized she was in love with freelancing when a radio station paid her $20/hr to make banner ads. She could work when she wanted, from wherever she wanted, and that was enough to get her hooked.

Despite the loving the freelance life, Carrie often found herself in situations where her clients wanted to hire her. However, it was through taking some of these opportunities that she realized just how much it meant to her to run her own business.

These days, Carrie is building Fearless Freelancer - a program for freelancers who are just starting out. It provides the resources and training to help people create a freelance business they actually enjoy.

In this episode Carrie talks about:

How being yourself and embracing who you are is the way to provide a great experience for clients.
Working in a cube farm and feeling the soul sucking drain from days spent working in an environment that wasn’t challenging her.
Building something for one audience and having another one show up.
Writing an opinionated book that shows the real world of freelancing.

Main Takeaways

Be yourself with your business. Don’t try to be someone you’re not.
Don’t make decisions based on emotional responses, but always check in with how a work situation is making you feel.
Sometimes the people for whom you create something aren’t the ones who actually show up.
The real freelance experience is not like what’s advertised - there are no hacks to a successful freelance business.

Important Mentions in this Episode

304 - Paul Jarvis on keeping things simple, freelancing, and being a business owner

Jason Resnick — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Paul Jarvis. Paul is an author, designer, online course creator, and podcaster. Paul has been a freelancer since the 90’s and, though he has transitioned completely to products, he still keeps everything extremely simple. His newest project is a SaaS called Pico.

Paul is a big believer in “scratching your own itch” when it comes to products (and even services).

One of his defining moments was when he quit his job as a creative director. His plan was to get another job, but when a number of clients from his previous employer approached him about continuing to work directly with him, his freelance career was born.

This was a pretty big deal because he’d never considered working for himself as an option. I was a scary leap to go from being an employee to running a business. Running a business is about so much more than just “doing the work”. It was a new education in and of itself.

As is the case for a lot of freelancers, self-employment wasn’t without its struggles. A low point for Paul was learning the hard way that clients don’t always do what they say their going to do (e.g. pay you). At one point, a client owed him as much as $30k, most of which he ended up losing permanently.

The lesson, though, is that it’s ok to stop working for crappy clients. Have a contract and a process and if the client isn’t willing to abide by it, then walk away.

The move from client work to products was another unexpected twist in Paul’s career, as it wasn’t something he had necessarily planned on. But as his various courses and apps began to grow, he eventually stepped away from client work completely.

A big part of the appeal of staying small and nimble is the freedom it gives him to work on new things. Whether it’s a new book, SaaS or course, Paul’s projects tend to shift every few months, and it’s what keeps him engaged and excited.

In this episode Paul talks about:

How he picks his projects
Keeping things simple
Starting a business when you don’t know how to run a business
Leaving freelancing for product creation and book writing
Productivity and batching

Main Takeaways

Having a skill-set is great but you have to learn how to run a business skills as well.
Getting clients who need more than one project can help fill your sales funnel without a lot of additional marketing or sales efforts.
Tie your payments to deliverables and not timelines.
Create evergreen content and repurpose it. It can remove a ton of the stress of feeling like you always need to be creating something new.

Important Mentions in this Episode

303 - Philip VanDusen on evolving career paths, identity, and building the work and life you actually want

Jason Resnick — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Philip VanDusen. Philip has more than 20 years of experience in strategic branding, graphic design and product development. He’s the owner of a strategic design and branding consultancy, Verhaal Brand Design (the Dutch word for “story”), and a YouTuber.

Philip started as a fine artist in painting and as a college-level art teacher before moving to NYC where he started designing t-shirts and selling them around the city. After that he essentially fell into the apparel industry and eventually settled into a creative director role.

Email played an significant role in Philip’s career early on when he created his newsletter, Brand Muse. Though, admittedly self-promotional in the beginning, it eventually led to sharing videos on YouTube, which served as content and inbound marketing for his brand and agency.

One of Philip’s defining moments was realizing that not all career paths are linear. Having struggled to make a living as fine artist, he found other ways to support himself (starting an apparel brand, working as a creative director). But he never gave up the painting.

Philip has a lot of projects in the works, including a series on branding for YouTube, a book and training products. You can subscribe to his newsletter to stay on top of everything he’s working on.

In this episode Philip talks about:

How made the move from fine artist to digital designer + creative director
Why posting regularly on YouTube is important and how you can add value for your audience
Why you should start building an email list early
Why letting go of fears is an important part of finding your ideal career path
How he loves seeing his work out in the world and how he designed the #1 selling t-shirt of all time
Flying to Milan on a Leer jet to go shopping

Main Takeaways

Building an email list early can help you reach your target customers and provides an ongoing way to communicate with your audience and get feedback.
Understanding the difference between what a client thinks they want and what they really need to reach their goals.
When you change paths it can sometimes feel like you don’t have permission to go back, but you have to let go of those fears in order to open up the possibilities of what your life and career can be.
It’s dangerous to define yourself by the tools you use. The tools change so quickly that it’s important to identify with underlying creativity than the tool that enables you to execute on that creative motivation.
Let go of how you define yourself and be willing to take risks and try new things.

Important Mentions in this Episode

302 - Family, Priorities, and Writing it Down with Curtis McHale

Jason Resnick — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Today’s guest is Curtis McHale. Curtis is a husband, father, web developer, and business coach (you can find him at curtismchale.ca and SFNDesign.ca).

Currently, Curtis builds membership websites and is a writer and business coach. He helps clients run the business they want, earn what they want, and spend more time with their families. On the development side, he helps his clients achieve those goals through business automation.

Curtis’ favorite quote is: “If you don’t write it down it didn’t happen.” - Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy). This speaks volumes about how he approaches his life and his business. For Curtis, what you write down is what becomes your priority, so it’s important to write things down if you want to make progress toward your goals.

A defining moment in Curtis’ life was realizing he was doing a lot of work but not getting to see his kids as much, even though he was working from home most of the time.

One of the ways he became more effective was by adding constraints to his work. For example, right now he’s only working on iOS - it makes focusing much easier and removes the temptation to get distracted. He likes knowing what he can and can’t do, which allows him to work smarter and truly prioritize what matters to him.

Curtis found his way to coaching after 10 years doing web development and turning it into a six-figure business. At that time, he would talk to friends who would ask how they could improve their business or their income and they’d do 10-minute calls or emails to help them through their roadblocks, which ultimately led to more coaching and less web development.

No journey is without difficulties and Curtis’ story is no exception. One was trying to balance the need to provide for his family and the desire to spend more time with them. Another was accepting that the work he enjoyed the most didn’t always pay as much as other work he could be doing.

In this episode Curtis talks about:

How seeing his own father spend so much time at work drove him to want to create a life where he could actually spend time with his children.
Putting everything into his calendar or a todo list.
How to market in such a way that attracts the right kind of clients.
Adding constraints to his work to enable him to work smarter and more efficiently.
Being straightforward and direct when it comes to coaching his clients.

Main Takeaways

If you don’t write it down, it won’t happen. You have to align your priorities and goals with what you make time for, and the best way to do that is to write it down.
You don’t have quality of time unless you have some quantity of time. You can’t just schedule long vacations and consider that quality time without having some type of existing relationship to build upon.
Plan your week and have your top priorities written down (3-5 of them). Too many people get stuck in productivity porn. Ultimately, tools aren’t the solution because they’re aren’t the problem.
Don’t just do something because it’s what your client says they want. Your job is help them figure out what they really need, whether they know it or not.
Make sure your marketing and positioning is focused around your ideal customers. Marketing isn’t about you - it’s about your customers. Use your marketing to attract the kinds of customers you want to serve.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Analog Productivity (book)
Brusfri (noise cancelling app)
DigitalOcean (server)
CurtisMcHale.ca
SFNDesign.ca
CurtisMcHale.github.io

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For full show notes and resources, head on over here for it all.
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301 - Building relationships, focusing on your strengths, and why you need a therapist with Justin Jackson

Jason Resnick — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Justin Jackson is a husband, dad, product guy, podcaster, and now he’s a SaaS owner (you can check him out at MegaMaker.co and Transistor.fm).

Even after a decade in the software industry, he’s the first one to admit he’s still trying to figure things out. But after interviewing hundreds of people, he realized that their defining moments were often a result of relationships. One of his own defining moments came from meeting a friend who pushed him to do a podcast together. That experienced motivated him to do his own show, which resulted in countless relationships and opportunities.

He also credits getting a therapist as one of the best things he’s ever done. After a really rough year, connecting with a therapist really helped him get back on track and it’s something he recommends everyone do, even you don’t think you need it.

Another milestone for him was when he published Marketing for Developers. It gave him an asset that continues to bring in revenue and allows him to breathe a bit easier when he takes other professional risks.

Justin is currently a new SaaS for podcasters, Transistor.fm. He also publishes a weekly newsletter for independent entrepreneurs and business owners.

In this episode Justin talks about:

How to manage and build your network and relationships
Getting a therapist and taking care of your mental health as an entrepreneur
Finding your strengths and knowing what you should be doing to support them
Doing experiments and getting out of your comfort zone to help build your career or business
Building something you know will support you and your family is a big first step for a business owner

Main Takeaways

Face-to-face conversations and getting out of your bubble are essential for building meaningful relationships, which strengthens your network.
Even if you don’t think you need a therapist, you should get one anyway. The best way to approach therapy is to create a rapport with a therapist before you need one.
Find out what your strengths are and build on them. Use them to help build relationships.
Live the life that you desire. Build your business in a way that allows you to live a life focused on the things that are most important to you. But always remember that this is an iterative process - it doesn’t all come at once.
Try to get 1% better every day.

Important Mentions in this Episode

Drift
Nathan Barry
MegaMaker Club
Marketing for Developers
JustinJackson.ca/newsletter
Transistor.fm

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For full show notes and resources, head on over here for it all.
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Season 3 Trailer

Jason Resnick — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 05:55:00 +0000

Season 3 of Live in the Feast is all about the origin stories, ups and downs and defining moments of some amazingly creative and brilliant entrepreneurs and freelancers, such as Justin Jackson, Curtis McHale, Philip VanDusen, Paul Jarvis, Carrie Dils, Vincent Pugliese, Matt Inglot, Val Geisler, Bridget Willard and more!

Head over to http://liveinthefeast.com to subscribe and never miss an episode.

S02E08-Step by Step Guide to Specialization

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 10:27:00 +0000

There are 4 steps to starting to specialize your business and landing that first specialized client. 1. The 4 Lists of Specialization 2. Learn how to say "no" 3. Vet the niche to see if it really has value 4. Do the research and land that first client

S02E07-How to Close a Deal as a Freelancer

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 10:27:00 +0000

Not closing as many deals as a freelancer? This episode will show you how you can get back on track and close more deals by ...

S02E06-How to specialize your business with Sara-Dunn

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 11:49:20 +0000

Sara learned that being a generalist meant that every time she took on some sort of new task or service, it was slow to figure out and she wasn’t always billing hourly so that burden fell on her to ramp up as fast as possible.

When she took on services or clients that were similar, she had already done all the learning and education. She was in a better position to sell form and market herself because she had experience in it. Completing the work was faster too because she already had some process to work through.

Back in 2015, she sent out an email to her team with the benefits of specializing:

More efficient

Produced better work

Easier to market

Positioned as an expert

Strong negotiating position

And then away they went.

I finally feel like I'm selling something where I can say I have more knowledge than the other person you're talking to. via @sara11d

Sara went through a lot of the struggles and emotions a lot of entrepreneurs go through and very much felt on her own island. But she found that by publishing her journey on YouTube, that there was a community that was also going through the same thing.

Sara now has that position in the market where she can say that she’s really confident in what she does, she’s really good at it, and it’s unlikely that you are going to find someone who’s better at this specific thing. She never felt that as a generalist web designer.

Episode Take Away

If you’ve ever thought about specializing your business or services, what questions did you ask yourself? We dive deep into what Sara did. I would encourage you to download the Freelancer’s Framework which I’ll link up in the show notes. This will help you start the journey by reflecting on your current business. Then as Sara shared in her number piece of advice, ask yourself “what moves can you make and what decision can you make tomorrow that moves you into a more specialist position?”

S02E05-How to increase the number of leads and clients with Brennan Dunn

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 10:26:00 +0000

The takeaway from this show is to look at your services page or your homepage. Are you speaking your language or your clients’ language? Do you have techno-jargon on there or speak to the benefits of your service or solution? You should be able to tell. If not, then tweet me at @rezzz and I’ll take a look and give you a personalized video review.

S02E04-Ruben Gamez How to build a service from the ground up

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 10:27:00 +0000

Ruben Gamez, founder of Bidsketch, has built a business around strategic content marketing and he’s doing it again with DocSketch. Wondering what the ROI of content marketing is? Then this episode will show you how to maximize your efforts and increase the chances for your service to get the most ROI.

Ruben saw a gap in the market when trying to help someone. He filled that gap through particular content around an ideal client to see if it’s something viable. Almost a decade later, Bidsketch is a multi-million dollar company.

Putting a time and cost investment into testing and building content has proven what works and doesn’t work when it comes to converting leads into customers.

Most people want it done for them, rather than do it themselves

As a result of their testing, Ruben found how educated leads were more likely to convert from trial to customer than if he offered the trial right up front.

So they went against the grain of conversion optimization and put a layer of friction in.

In this episode Ruben generously shares how he’s building DocSketch from the ground up and insights into the freelance and consulting space.

We dive deep into:

How to get clients
How to get quality feedback from clients
What you should give away for free
Why positioning is so important in selling your service
The process Ruben does before he builds any product or service

Make your service as close to a no-brainer as possible

Getting clients obviously isn’t just about your skill set, but Ruben points out 2 things that freelancers struggle with most often. But understanding them will make getting clients easier.

The 2 points about your business you should understand are:

How did you get to where you are today?
What are you doing differently than other businesses?

Episode Takeaway
Ruben walks us through 3 steps in the show to help you craft the best content possible to validate an idea for a service, and the second step is to think about what someone may search for before they know that you and your service exist. Think about the problems, issues, questions your ideal client will have before they even know you. Jot down those down. Then, later on, go ahead and write a post about it and see how it works for you.

S02E03-Lee Jackson How to work with agencies as a freelancer

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 11:10:00 +0000

When starting out as a freelancer, even as you build your business and gain experience, often times you are working with agencies. Maybe your goal as a freelancer is to build an agency. Lee Jackson was a freelancer with an agency mindset and comes on to share how he's built his agency but also gives us how freelancers can excel and become rockstars that agencies will want to work with.

S02E00 Marketing For Freelancers

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 12:16:42 +0000

This season is all about marketing yourself as a freelancer that work in today's market. You can't always sit behind client work and then complain about your sales pipeline being dried up. Marketing yourself doesn't have to mean cold calls and knocking on doors. You'll not just hear how to market your freelance business, but walk away with the resources to do it.

S02E02-Chris Ducker Rise of the Youpreneur

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 11:00:00 +0000

A freelancer’s goal is to become future proof. When you control your own destiny, your finances, your own opportunities, that makes you as future proof as you can be. Chris Ducker solves problems for people and built all his businesses with that in mind. When he saw that people were buying him, not his company, he realized that the personal brand business model was a real money maker and genuinely profitable.

S02E01-Chris Marr The Future of Sales and Marketing

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 11:00:00 +0000

If you are struggling with content marketing either for your own business or your clients’ business, then Chris Marr gives 7 ideas for you as well as 7 mistakes to avoid. Let's stop having discussions around content marketing and talk about the consumer buying behavior, science, psychology and how a blog article, podcast, a video grow a business.

S01 E11 - Kai Davis helping freelancers get more clients with outreach

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Tue, 23 May 2017 10:46:25 +0000

Outreach is focused on building and maintaining relationships.

When outreach is done correctly, when it does come time for the pitch, it won’t seem sales-y because it will just be the natural course of the conversation and relationship.

What you’ll learn about in this show:

How to think about the 4th or 5th sale not the first with outreach
Repeatable system for outreach
Difference between cold and warm outreach
How to research for an outreach campaign
How to generate more projects from the first project with a simple email
Does your marketing reflect your most current understanding of your target market?
Your objectives should be in your top, middle, and bottom of your marketing funnel

S01 E10-Gina Horkey - Always be marketing to be successful in freelancing

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Tue, 16 May 2017 09:00:00 +0000

Gina started as a freelance writer and didn’t really even know that was a thing before she did a Google search one day while feeling unfulfilled in her career in personal finance. It’s amazing where this journey has taken her since then.

Gina shares why "always be marketing" is a mantra in her business in order to get clients in her business.

What you’ll learn in the show:

Step by Step pitch process
Math for how much prospecting you need to do
What to focus on during prospecting
Managing clients through batching
Making your clients be awesome by using your service

S01 E09-How To Build Authority Content

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Tue, 09 May 2017 10:33:25 +0000

Did you know that you are an authority in your field and you have already written content that proves it?

Folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Ducker, and Chris Marr have become HUGE authority figures in their field and have people flocking to them for their next piece of content every single week.

In this episode, you will see how your experience and what you do daily will allow you to push that publish button quickly and often so that you produce authority content and become that go-to person your potential clients want to work with.

S01 E08-Want better clients reach out to your network

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 10:16:50 +0000

Think you can’t drink Coke and Pepsi? Or use Snapchat and Instagram? In this episode, you will see how those who do the same work you do are your colleagues and friends. Having a group of trusted colleagues in your network is a HUGE asset to your business in many different ways.

S01 E07-Laura-Elizabeth shares how she creates memorable experiences to get more work

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 09:00:00 +0000

Laura Elizabeth a freelance graphic designer and her passion is helping businesses and individuals tell their stories online.

She’s passionate about client experience and creating it memorable for them. She does this because not only will it help her and her client projects be just that more successful, it also helps in creating a lasting memory in her clients’ head that when they hear a friend, colleague or anyone looking for design services, Laura’s name is front and center.

In our conversation, she talks about a few things to make this happen pretty easily. Especially if you need to get content, assets, or feedback from your clients, you’ll want to listen carefully.

S01 E06-Tools You Need To Set Up Your Sales Team

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 11:49:28 +0000

This episode will dive deep into the tools and other aspects you need to have an effective sales team at work for you, while you are doing the actual client work.

S01 E05-Convert 50% of first projects into second

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 09:00:00 +0000

This process can convert up to 50% of past clients into a second project by using scope creep to create new opportunities.

S01 E04-3 Ways Boost Sales and Get High Quality Referrals

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 09:00:00 +0000

This episode gives you 3 ways to build a referral system in your business so that you can predictably get higher quality leads and better clients into your business by doubling down on what is already working for you.

S01 E03-Lauren Pawell converts 80% of qualified leads into clients

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 09:00:00 +0000

Lauren Pawell from Bixamedia, is taking getting leads and qualified leads at that, to a whole new level. She puts them through a workshop and educates them on her services only to then pitch her services to those clients she wants to work with. In this episode she walks us through her process and how effective this is for her.

S01 E02-How to know if your leads will pay you

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 18:12:19 +0000

The normal concern of you as a freelancer is how to convert a lead into a client, right? Which really boils down to how do you know that the lead will pay your price. In this episode, you’ll learn that when you can really identify with the root cause of your client, maybe even find the most important aspect of their life that’s important to them and be able to echo that back to them. You’ll know that they’ll pay you.

S01 E01-Where does your client come from

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 18:09:34 +0000

The basis for any sustainable business is through high-quality clients. In this episode of Live In The Feast, you are going to learn how to know exactly where that next client is coming from by working through a set of questions called the Freelancer’s Framework.

S01 E00-A Guy Named Fred

Jason Resnick | Freelance Web Developer | Family Guy | Coach | Solopreneur — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 18:06:24 +0000

Today's episode is about a guy named Fred and a bit about his every day life, his hopes and dreams, his struggles, his successes, the reason he became a freelancer and why this podcast is perfect for him.