From Taking the Leap from Adoption Journey to Business Growth with Erin Port of Simple Purposeful Living

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Our female founder this week is Erin Port, the founder of Simple Purposeful Living, and one of our masterminders. We highly encourage you to listen to her amazing story so that you can learn from her, and take her story forward with you.

“My family is my personal why.” - Erin Port, Simple Purposeful Living

Erin took her engaged readers as a blogger, and her informed background as a teacher, and created a product that would give her audience value, turning her own personal story into easy-to-apply lessons that people could take and apply to their own lives.

Like most of us, she’s had past businesses and brands that didn't work out, so she knows all about self-doubt. She candidly shares with us the thoughts she had before launching Simple Purposeful Living, and how an encouraging bedtime nudge from her husband lit a fire in her that’s yet to burn out.

It’s moments like that that truly drive her. Her voice glows as she describes her family as her why, how launching the brand and driving to financial success was all meant to fund the adoption of her son, and so much more. It’s clear her heart is in the most beautiful place.

We talk about her humble origins, selling via Amazon, and overcoming those creeping thoughts of imposter syndrome. One of the most inspiring messages to take away from this episode is the impact joining the Mastermind has had on Erin, and how much benefit she saw from implementing the Best Sellers Secret Challenge and Multi-Stream Machine in her business. She believes (and we agree) that sharing ideas with others is one of the best things we can do to learn and grow as entrepreneurs. 

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Marketing Strategies for 2022 to Sell More

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Happy new year! We’re really, really, really excited for the year ahead (knock on wood). We want this to be a very big year for your business, which is why now is the time to make sure you don’t have all our eggs in one basket, and that you’re prepared for anything that 2022 might throw at you.

Learn How To 2022-Proof Your Business With a Sharp Strategic Marketing Plan

The best thing you can do to level up, and take your business further than ever before, is to make sure you have an amazing marketing strategy. But if there’s one thing the last year has taught us about marketing, it’s that you can’t rely on just one stream. Your marketing strategy needs to look more like a spider web than a straight line. 

Any one specific website or platform could go down without warning (remember the Facebook shutdown of 2021?!), or they might change their algorithms (yes, we’re looking at you Instagram) in a way that prevents you from getting the traction you’re used to or rely on for income. It’s time to stop betting it all on social media and focus on POP marketing, instead. 

Don’t just use paid ads. Look at adding organic promotion into the mix, as well. Generate word-of-mouth buzz with the right people, collaborate with others, and start building those partnerships. There are so many ways to get your business in front of customers that don’t involve a spreadsheet, so why settle on just one? Bring a pen and paper for this extra informative episode of The Product Boss podcast to help make your 2022 your best year yet!

Brought to you by the Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge! Commit to making 1 in 5 of your purchases from a small business, whether online or offline. The Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge is a way to make an impact together when (and where) it matters most. Join us and take the pledge today!

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A Reintroduction of Jacqueline Snyder & Minna Khounlo-Sithep of The Product Boss

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We believe it’s good to reintroduce yourself regularly, and often – especially when you’ve grown or evolved since your last introduction. So here we go again: we’re Jacqueline and Minna, nice to meet you!

We kicked off the Product Boss podcast back in January of 2018. We all know a lot has changed since last week, let alone in the last four years. The same certainly applies to us as we’ve written a few new chapters in our own stories. So, we’re dedicating this episode to letting you know who we are, now, and what our journey has been as to how we ended up here.

“Every product boss should think about how their business is going to change and evolve.” - Jacqueline Snyder

We all remember the first day of school; reintroducing yourself can feel weird. But, as you may remember, the more you do it, the easier it becomes! Reintroducing yourself is a great habit to build as it reinforces the story of your brand and product so that everyone knows who you are and what your business is all about.

In a world where connections mean everything, don’t forget that offering a deeper understanding of yourself invites the same from others.

Brought to you by the Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge! Commit to making 1 in 5 of your purchases from a small business, whether online or offline. The Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge is a way to make an impact together when (and where) it matters most. Join us and take the pledge today!

Resources:

  • Product Biz Owners at $250k+ yearly revenue: Are you a product business owner that has built your business to a multi-6 figure to multi-million dollar business? If so, The Product Boss Mastermind has limited spots available open for consideration to applicants $250k and above, apply here.

  • Join the Shop 1 in 5 Small Business Shopping Directory. It’s holiday-ready, too! Get listed now!

  • Consistent content is key to getting more people to see and buy your products. If you want to create great content but you don’t know what to say, or you feel too busy, or you just don’t want to be the face of your brand, no worries—because we’ve got you covered with a year’s worth of consistent content that’s sure to resonate with your audience! If you want to see how easy this can be, visit A Year of Content.

  • Check out and shop from hundreds of small businesses from the Small Business Shopping Directory. It’s the go-to directory to discover, support, and shop small businesses all in one place.

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2022: Our Top Advice on How to Make This Your Best Year Yet

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If you’re like us and you’ve lost track of time through the pandemic, now is as good a time as any to reground and reset yourself to have your best year yet. 2021 has been a devastating year in many ways, but in purely business terms, some of you have seen some amazing profits. Either way, it’s time to start thinking about the new year ahead. Human beings need to reset and recalibrate every now and then, so let’s do just that as we step into 2022. 

“Your products might be amazing. Your website might be amazing. Still, the biggest roadblock we see in business owners is a need to level up, themselves.” - Jacqueline Snyder, Host, The Product Boss Podcast

Our top advice for 2022 is to level up… level yourself up! Whatever level you’re at, let’s kick things up a notch. It might seem daunting at first, but – trust us – you’ll look back in 2023 wondering why you didn’t take these steps earlier. Everything you do this next year should be with one thought on your mind: How am I going to take my business to the next level? 

And if that all sounds too lofty or unattainable, let’s focus in on one of the easiest, most tangible things you can actually do to make it a reality: invest. Don’t worry, we’re not asking you to learn about the stock market. We want you to learn how to invest in yourself!

Spending your hard-earned profits on things that you seemingly don’t need to keep the business running is a tricky hurdle to get over, but that’s what investing in yourself takes. Think of the long term benefits involved and their ability to multiple your results. And remember, what you don’t invest back into your business becomes profit that you’ll be taxed on. 

If you’re listening to this, you already understand the value of investing in yourself in terms of time. The next step is simply overcoming the mental hurdle that stops you from spending money on your own development and personal growth. The next step above something like listening to a podcast is enrolling yourself in a course or even more formalized education, then, getting involved with your community or with a mentor, and, finally, joining a Mastermind. We cover all of these steps in further detail in this episode. 

Only a tiny fraction of people ever follow through on their new year’s resolutions to make real changes in their lives. You owe it to yourself to be one of them. Grow your product business to the next level and be the best product boss you can be. We sincerely hope our podcast and perspectives are helping you get there and continue to do so into the new year and beyond.

Brought to you by the Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge! Commit to making 1 in 5 of your purchases from a small business, whether online or offline. The Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge is a way to make an impact together when (and where) it matters most. Join us and take the pledge today!

Resources:

  • Product Biz Owners at $250k+ yearly revenue: Are you a product business owner that has built your business to a multi-6 figure to multi-million dollar business? If so, The Product Boss Mastermind has limited spots available open for consideration to applicants $250k and above, apply here.

  • Join the Shop 1 in 5 Small Business Shopping Directory. It’s holiday-ready, too! Get listed now!

  • Consistent content is key to getting more people to see and buy your products. If you want to create great content but you don’t know what to say, or you feel too busy, or you just don’t want to be the face of your brand, no worries—because we’ve got you covered with a year’s worth of consistent content that’s sure to resonate with your audience! If you want to see how easy this can be, visit A Year of Content.

  • Check out and shop from hundreds of small businesses from the Small Business Shopping Directory. It’s the go-to directory to discover, support, and shop small businesses all in one place.

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From Self-Doubt to Queen of Crowns with Kevlyn Walsh of Festive Gal

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In this episode, we are bringing back Kevlyn Walsh, founder of Festive Gal, who you may remember from episode 155 of our Pivot & Sell series back in May of 2020. We have had the honor of working with Kevlyn, for almost a year now, in our Mastermind program and she is going to share with us where her business is at now (hint: it's multiple six figures!)

“Learn to Take a Win — Then, Keep Winning!” - The Product Boss Podcast

At the start of her journey, Kevlyn was a school teacher who knew she wanted to leave the the education field when her school went on strike in 2019. Since Festive Gal was making about the equivalent of her teacher's salary, she knew it was time to leave her old life behind to become a full-time entrepreneur. Now, Festive Gal brings in multiple six figures!

Kevlyn’s major growth during the pandemic had her worried that her success was a total fluke and that it wouldn't last in 2021.  She was able to strategically implement and lean into some new things which has allowed her business to continue growing and scaling to new levels.

As a result of these actions, Festive Gal brought in even more sales in 2021 than 2020! Thanks to wholesale, Festive Gal is now in 200 stores, and has a permanent showroom space. 

Early on, Kevlyn realized that she needed to clone herself three times to continue to be able to operate the company at its new levels – so that’s what she did. She hired two more people just like herself to take on the workload. Since then, Festive Gal has expanded to a team of eight! 

Continuing an established pattern with our guests, she points to participating in Masterminds, specifically The Product Boss Mastermind,  with likeminded people as a catalyst that helped her handle each new step of her entrepreneurial journey. 

Kevlyn's growth and success of Festive Gal over the past couple of years is an excellent example of how surrounding yourself with fellow product based business owners, who are at the same level as you, can make all the difference in your business journey.

Brought to you by the Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge! Commit to making 1 in 5 of your purchases from a small business, whether online or offline. The Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge is a way to make an impact together when (and where) it matters most. Join us and take the pledge today!

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6 Key Behaviors of Building a Leadership-Based Company Culture with Marcel Schwantes

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Marcel Schwantes is an international speaker, executive coach, and syndicated columnist attracting more than 1.5 million readers per month to his thought leadership pieces. His work has been featured in Inc., Time, Forbes, Business Insider, Fast Company, CNBC, and more global media outlets.

A Healthy Workplace Culture Starts With Leadership. - Marcel Schwantes, Love In Action

He’s also the host of the wildly-popular podcast Love In Action, born out of Marcel’s belief that strong leadership and company culture start with human empowerment. The truth is, “employee engagement” is a really cold way of saying that you need to care for your employees. When you call it what it truly is – love – you start to see how those behaviors translate into good business outcomes.

He gives us some incredible advice regarding how to grow and scale a small business without ruining the work culture. Surprise! It always comes back to leadership. When you’re hiring based on a shared set of values, rather than hiring as quickly as possible in order to grow, you see that those values actually scale rather well.

We also talk about what sets apart the companies that make Monday-to-Friday drag and those that people love to work for, as well as the six distinct behaviors you can put into place to start seeding a healthy and happy culture.

Brought to you by the Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge! Commit to making 1 in 5 of your purchases from a small business, whether online or offline. The Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge is a way to make an impact together when (and where) it matters most. Join us and take the pledge today!

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Female Founders: Ann Williams of Yearly Co.

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Happy holidays! We’re excited to be re-airing one of our favorite episodes of the Female Founders series to, once again, highlight the amazing work of Ann Williams of Yearly Co. Hear the amazing story of how she went from making jewelry in her garage to running a successful brick-and-mortar shop – just the kind of inspirational story that’s perfect for this time of year.

“When I finally trusted my employees, things got done.” - Ann Williams, Yearly Co.

Ann is someone we’d known for a long time before having her on the podcast. She was famous in our world after starting an amazing business based on a family tradition where her grandfather would gift her grandmother a gold bangle every year that they were married.

Eventually it became clear that they needed a reliable place to buy gold bangles. Different jewelers charged different amounts for products of varying quality. Ann decided she would start making these high-quality bangles herself.

One thing led to another and soon she was bringing on an intern, and then hiring full-time staff. It can be daunting to put people on your payroll, but Ann says it was something she had to learn to be comfortable with because, ultimately, they were better at some jobs than she was. The right choices are always what’s best for the product, the customers, and the business – even if they’re hard to make at first

Her experience has pushed her away from diversifying, as she instead prioritizes the improvement of their current products and serving the niche they now dominate. As Ann says, she learned to “grow forward, not in 10 directions.” Serving loyal customers is always the right choice as opposed to pushing to an expanded audience that may bring with it a diluted interest in your project. 

Brought to you by the Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge! Commit to making 1 in 5 of your purchases from a small business, whether online or offline. The Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge is a way to make an impact together when (and where) it matters most. Join us and take the pledge today!

Resources:

  • Yearlyco.com

  • Yearly on Instagram

  • Product Biz Owners at $250k+ yearly revenue: Are you a product business owner that has built your business to a multi-6 figure to multi-million dollar business? If so, sign up here for our FREE live training, The Proven Path to a Million Dollar Product-Based Business, where we will discuss the 3 stages of business to grow and level up to a profitable million dollar business that works for you. The Product Boss Mastermind has limited spots available that are open for consideration to applicants $250k and above, apply here.

  • Join the Shop 1 in 5 Small Business Shopping Directory. It’s holiday-ready, too! Get listed now!

  • 101+ HOLIDAY CONTENT IDEAS Beyond the Discount is YOUR shortcut to creating a marketing strategy for the 2021 holiday season so that you can create content that successfully resonates with your customers during the busiest season of the year and gets you loyal customers that actually buy from you! The first-ever holiday content marketing plan designed to help you grow your customer base and increase your product sales – without spending a single dollar on ads!

  • Check out and shop from hundreds of small businesses from the Small Business Shopping Directory. It’s the go-to directory to discover, support, and shop small businesses all in one place.

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Your Path to a Million Dollar Product-Based Business and Beyond

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So, you’ve started your business and things are going well. What are the income milestones you should look out for, now? And how can you leverage your success into further growth? In this follow-up to episode #298, “Stages of a Product Business on the Way to $100k,” we tell you exactly how.

How Can You Grow A Multimillion Dollar Business While Living Your Dream Life?

What about salary – when should you expect that to kick in? Have you considered how things like scaling and delegation might evolve on your journey? There are distinct stages in the lifespan of any business and it’s super helpful to know what they are. For example, once you hit the million-dollar stage, you can’t be expected to do it all anymore. And, once you enter the acceleration stage, you shouldn’t be deciding everything yourself any more, either.

This is about stepping into your strengths so that your business can become the best version of itself that it can be. It might seem unimaginable right now, but the goal is to find other people you can rely on so that your business can function without you. This is your path to a million dollar product-based business and beyond.

Brought to you by the Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge! Commit to making 1 in 5 of your purchases from a small business, whether online or offline. The Shop 1 in 5™ Pledge is a way to make an impact together when (and where) it matters most. Join us and take the pledge today!

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