What Works | Small Business Podcast With Tara Mcmullin

The Nitty-Gritty: * Why social media marketing agency founder Andréa Jones doesn’t try to game the social media algorithms to build her audience and, instead, spends a lot more time behind the scenes* How she finds people to connect with, how she starts the conversation, and how she follows up* The process and tool she uses to track her time spent on her behind-the-scenes audience-building* Why creating social media content is still an important part of how she’s building her audience Back in 2010, I was spending a lot of time on Twitter. And, I can remember realizing one day, while working from my dining room table back before I had an office to call my own, that a lot had to be happening behind the scenes. In other words, there was everything I could see happening on Twitter, in emails, on websites, and in teleseminars. And then there were all of the conversations that had to have happened to make that possible. I could see people promoting each other’s programs and services. I could s

A year ago this week, I deleted about 12,000 people off my email list. That meant that my audience shrank by about 80% with the push of a button. GDPR was going into effect and, while I wasn’t caught up in the mass hysteria happening in the digital marketing world around compliance, I did look at the regulations as an opportunity to take a new approach to building an audience for my brand. Quick aside—pro tip: never get caught up in any mass hysteria, especially when it’s about digital marketing. The me of 2018 felt pretty calm and collected about the whole thing—but the me of 2016 or 2017 would have lost my marbles. That email list—and the number attached to it—represented all of the work that I had put into writing, speaking, teaching, and positioning my business over nearly 10 years. But there was a problem… I had become more attached to the number than the people on that list. And that number was holding me back. I viewed every marketing, branding, sales, or product developm

The Nitty-Gritty: * How Kate Northrup started doing less by accident—and why she decided to move forward doing less on purpose* The exercise Kate used to determine the 2 activities that have led to her biggest business wins* How the way Kate asks for and receives help has evolved since she became a mom* The process Kate uses to know what she needs help with so she always has an answer to the question, “What can I help you with?” All this month, we’ve been exploring running our businesses by the numbers. We’ve heard from a bunch of small business owners about how tracking metrics and financials have led to better decision-making and results. But the one number we haven’t tackled yet is… TIME. They say that we all have the same 24 hours as Beyonce to make things happen. But what “they” don’t account for is all the help she has or the way she structures her time to focus on what’s vitally important for her. And the result? We feel shamed into adding more & more to our to-do lists.

Imagine the open rate on the last email you sent to your subscribers. Think about the net profit your business has generated already this year. Consider how many people viewed your last video, clicked on your blog post, or listened to your last podcast episode. Those numbers aren’t just numbers for a lot of us. At best, they can be subtle points of validation that we’re headed in the right direction. At worst, they can be emotional landmines. All this month, we’ve been exploring how metrics, traffic, and financial impact the decisions we make as business owners. These are important conversations because we’re often missing key pieces of information that make decision-making easier. But let’s not pretend that knowing your numbers will make all of your decisions objective or black & white. Every time I peer into my profit & loss statement or check on the click thru rate of an email, I’m confronted with my own expectations and mindset. If I’m not careful about checking t

The Nitty-Gritty: * How Jordan Gill used data and experience to set competitive prices for her business operations firm* Why she focused on serving seasonal service-based businesses and how that impacts the way she delivers her service* The stat she used to figure out a new way to offer her services* What expenses Jordan accounts for in pricing her unusual offer Sometimes the numbers top you in your tracks. It was the summer of 2017. I was on a bonus day of vacation with Sean and Lola because our original flight had gotten canceled. We were on the way to Sean’s grandmother’s lake house and I thought I’d check in on my email quick since I’d be coming back to work a day later than planned. Staring at me from the top of a stack of unopened emails was an email informing me that, soon, 30% of our membership revenue was going to flow toward Apple instead of our bank account. My stomach sank. The still-new community wasn’t even breaking even yet and now we were going to have to give up 30

I know plenty of small business owners who struggle with how to price their products or how much to invest in advertising. I see people question whether they can hire someone to help or whether that conference is in their budget. And at the heart of all of these questions, are the nitty-gritty financial numbers behind all of our businesses. Unfortunately, we often get caught up in the sexier questions and forget to dive into the reports… if we have the reports at all. My business had been making well over $100,000 per year before I finally hired a great bookkeeper who could help me understand what was really going on with our finances. There is absolutely no shame in not having your bookkeeping and financial reporting figured out right now. But today is the day you need to start moving in the right direction if you want to experience more clarity and growth for your business. In this episode, we’re continuing our “what’s working” series. This series features consultants, service provider

The Nitty-Gritty: * Why Madison Wetherill found herself the owner of two small businesses—and how she knew something had to change about the way she was managing them* How Madison came to think of herself as a “busy person” and why that impacted the way she structured her time* What she noticed about the way she was spending her time and how it related to the results she was creating* The way she restructured her priorities and found a new—more productive—set of responsibilities that help her drive revenue I just got home from talking with the new manager of my climbing gym. Wait: don’t fast forward… this isn’t yet another story about how fitness is like business. I was there to talk to him about a job. As in, a job that I am considering taking… Of course, I don’t need this job. It would simply be a way for me to continue learning and sharing my passion for climbing. They’ll pay me; but it literally isn’t about the money. Because, as you can imagine, the numbers don’t add up.

The Nitty-Gritty: * Why Rita Barry chose to focus on helping clients understand the numbers when it comes to their website traffic* The mistakes small business owners make that prevent them from taking advantage of the information they have* The first step Rita takes with every new client* Why Rita maps the customer journey and how it helps her make recommendations to clients* What Rita looks for when she opens up her clients’ Google Analytics dashboards Let’s cut to the chase: how confident are you in your ability to understand what’s going on with your website traffic? When was the last time you even logged into Google Analytics or your stats dashboard? Do you know where your traffic is coming from and what traffic sources produce the most email subscribers or sales? Do you know what blog posts bring in the most revenue? Do you know what social media platforms actually drive traffic to your website (or just which ones you think drive traffic)? Do you know the process a new customer goes t

The Nitty-Gritty * How Jennifer Johansson started promoting her art on Pinterest* What happened when one of her pins was repinned over 50,000 times—and why it created a spike in traffic but not in sales* How she regrouped and made a decision to create a online course inspired by her viral pin* The process Jennifer used to create her online course and how her course has impacted her art business as a whole Going viral doesn’t always go the way we planned. My dear friend Brigitte Lyons is a media strategist and PR specialist. But back in 2013, she wrote a blog post about… an unrelated topic. This was back before blogging always had to be strategic content marketing. And so, when Brigitte had something to get off her chest, she wrote it down and published it. This blog post started to make the rounds. It even ended up on Reddit and drove crazy amounts of traffic to her website. For more than 2 years, Brigitte’s website traffic was dominated by people coming to read this off-topic blo

When I signed off on my taxes last month, it was the first time in 10 years that I didn’t owe any money to the IRS. In fact, I got a refund. Now, I’d love to tell you that’s because I was much more diligent with my financial planning. And, that is partially true. But the main reason I’m getting a refund is that I personally made a lot less money last year. Not gonna lie: making less money was a big hit to my ego. Worse, I realized how much my personal identity as a provider, a businesswoman, and a leader was tied up in the dollar dollar bills. Let me clarify: I don’t define myself by how much money I make. I don’t think I’m worthless if I’m not rich… What happened is that I had been using money as validation. I equated my ability to do my job with my ability to continue to grow the revenue my company generates. So it wasn’t so much the money itself—but continuing to push the needle on that money that felt tied to my value as an entrepreneur. Taking a deliberate step back to

The Nitty-Gritty: * What happened when Facebook ad strategist Claire Pelletreau returned to her business after an unexpectedly long maternity leave* Why she took a gig subcontracting from another ad strategist* How she found her confidence as a consultant, educator, and strategist again* What went wrong when she launched a product she thought would be a no-brainer* How her offers have evolved to support her business as it matures Last fall, I was hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and I felt the weirdest pain in my right ankle. It felt like I had rolled it, or sprained it, or done something very weird to it. But I hadn’t. I was just hiking along and then felt a shooting pain. I kept hiking—maybe not the smartest thing to do, but that’s what I did—and the pain would come and go. When I got home from the trip, still experiencing some odd pain in my ankle, I decided to take a break from running. First, I took a week off. I tried to run a few miles—no dice. It hurt. Then,

The Nitty-Gritty: * How Brittany Berger came up with the idea for the Work Brighter newsletter* How Work Brighter evolved as she continued to work her day job—and then as she struck out on her own* What her current vision for Work Brighter is and how it informs her growth strategy* Why Brittany chose to think of her company more like a software company than a content company A side business can be your main focus. Mike McDerment founded Freshbooks—a company that now reportedly brings in over $50 million in revenue each year—because he saved over an invoice he was working on for his internet marketing consultancy. But Mike didn’t quit his existing business to start a new one. He started building it on the side. And well before Freshbooks started making, well, really any measurable amount of money per month, he figured out a way to devote 80% of his time to making that company and his solution for small business owners like him a reality. He made the new company his top priority, even t

Even for successful entrepreneurs and small businesses, sometimes things don’t go to plan. The longer you’re in business, the more times you’ll deal with projects that don’t work out, offers that don’t sell, or strategies that take you down the wrong path. In many ways, staying in business over the long haul is a constant exercise in maintaining your heading—and navigating back when you inevitably veer off course. When we launched The What Works Network, I had a vision of small business owners who were frustrated with one-size-fits-all online courses flocking to our platform to work together on making their businesses better. I could see hundreds and then thousands of entrepreneurs sharing their challenges, offering their solutions, and deep diving into complex issues. I imagined leading the charge for more honest, open-minded, and sophisticated exploration of how we do business. That didn’t happen. Despite years of experience and success, my new idea didn’t take off as planned.

The Nitty-Gritty: * How Racheal Cook scratched her own itch and created a 1-day event without a “grand plan”* Why the CEO Retreat helped her overcome a persistent challenge for her clients* How the event evolved to become a key part of how her business has leveled up over the last year* What Racheal did to overcome her greatest fear about hosting an in-person event “Meet me in Astoria, Oregon. No charge to you. Let’s talk business for 2 days.” That was the invitation I sent out to our business coaching clients about 5 years ago. I legitimately had no idea what I was doing… I just believed that, if I got as many of them as possible in a room together, they could help each other in ways we couldn’t yet imagine. Some drove to my tiny little town on the Oregon coast. Some flew into Portland and made their way two hours west. As they arrived, I knew we were doing the right thing. There was nothing fancy about that first retreat (or most of the ones that came after it). We sat at Ikea de

The Nitty-Gritty: * How a conversation at a networking event planted a seed for Abundance Practice Building founder Allison Puryear* What the first business coaching program Allison led looked like* Why she knew this opportunity was the right thing to pursue* How Abundance Practice Building has grown and evolved since that first group I’d like to introduce you to Shannon Paris. Today, Shannon is our Director of Product for What Works. But when I hired her, I was hiring a community manager. I’d known Shannon for over 10 years. She and I had co-managed a Borders Books and Music until she left to join a company as a visual merchandiser in the fair trade industry. When she was looking for a new gig, I knew she was the right person for the job. But, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take some convincing on her part! Shannon had never been a community manager before. She didn’t know what the job entailed and she wasn’t necessarily steeped in the culture of the internet. What Shannon

The Nitty-Gritty * Why Val Geisler, email marketing specialist and founder of Fix My Churn, used a 2-hour workshop as a test run for a bigger program* How she sold the workshop to her email list and followers* What she did after the workshop to flesh out her 12-week program once she had proof of concept* How she used the success of her workshop to create the initial sales for the program Big results typically start with small wins. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I love sharing parts of my workouts on my Instagram Stories. Sometimes I share a bouldering problem I’m especially proud of. Sometimes I share a new-to-me movement. Sometimes I share a new PR. Last week, I shared a video of a progression of pull-ups I did after a climbing workout. I did 4 wide grip pull-ups, 4 strict pull-ups, 3 neutral grip pull-ups, and 1 measly chin up with minimal rest. Whenever I share things like that, I can count on getting some version of “Oh, I could never do that!” or “How the heck did y

The Nitty-Gritty: * How Bonnie Gillespie started building her content empire before she even started a business* Why a 3-ring binder was all the evidence she needed to know it was time to write her first book* How she used an automated Twitter account to build her audience and produce a new product from repurposed content* And, why Bonnie doesn’t buy into guru culture—despite being a leader thousands of people look to for guidance Writer’s block—most people who write have experienced that crushing feeling of having nothing to say. And if finding new customers, convincing them to buy, and developing new products depends on your ability to produce great content, writer’s block can feel worse than an empty bank account. But what if everything we believe about writer’s block and our business’s dependency on a steady stream of new content is wrong? This month, we’re examining the stories of business owners who have planted a seed, watered it, tended it, and helped it grow. In this episode,

The Nitty-Gritty * Tara shares the story of how the seeds she panted at the beginning of her business journey have grown into The What Works Network* How a small action now can turn into big success for your small business down the line * Why your next big idea will probably come from the small ideas that you are planting today* And a sneak peek at the candid conversations coming up in April Well before he was a New York Times bestselling author, Chris Guillebeau penned an ebook called 279 Days To Overnight Success. In it, he outlined all the hard work he put into becoming a full-time writer over the course of 10 months. The point was simple: fulfilling his dream of becoming a full-time writer didn’t happen because someone tapped him on the shoulder and made him a full-time writer. It didn’t even happen because he got a big media break or a had a viral hit. Chris planted seeds with every blog post he wrote and connection he made. He did the work of raising those seeds into saplings

The Nitty-Gritty * How Janeris Marte transformed her photography business when she went from a jack of all trades to specializing in adoptive families* The simple strategy Janeris uses to connect with prospects* How she designed photography packages that perfectly align with her clients’ unique needs* Why finding her niche not only made it easier to market herself but made it more efficient to run her business, too Could your target market use a clean up? There’s a reason that every marketing class you’ve ever taken or any business coach you’ve ever worked with has asked you to start by defining who your customer is. And that reason is simply that most beginner business owners—and even plenty who should know better—end up trying to be everything to everybody. And, of course they do! It seems like it would be so much easier to make a product that everybody wants to buy. It seems like it would be so much more effective to create marketing that resonates with everyone. But… in the end, w

Imagine you want to get stronger. What do you do? If you’re like me, you’d head to the gym, grab some dumbbells, and start squatting, pressing, and curling as many times as you could until your legs and arms felt like they wanted to fall off. It turns out… more isn’t always more when it comes to the gym. And more isn’t always more when it comes to your business, either. Now, repping it out at the gym isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There’s a time and place for focusing on lifting a weight more times. But it’s not the most efficient way to get stronger. It absolutely blew my mind when I learned that, if I want to get stronger, I should focus on lifting heavier weights just 1-5 times per set. Yes, just 1-5 times. For instance, in 2018, I set a goal of doing 10 unassisted, uninterrupted pull-ups in a row. Before I knew better, I would try to get as many pull-ups as I could every time I was near a bar. Then, I started doing some research. You see, the best way to hit this kin