Soulful Mba

Today’s episode is Part 1 of our quick overview of online challenges. An online challenge is a multi-step, user-driven series of activities guided by pre-written content. Challenge creators are usually trying to build their followings, and the challenge itself offers subscribers a tangible, fun, motivating reward for signing up. Online challenges can be run through blogs, Facebook Groups, Instagram, virtually any online medium, but if you’re aiming to build your email list, your challenge should be email-based. A well-crafted challenge can: teach your subscribers to open your emails build rapport and connection with your community highlight your expertise as a teacher or coach prime subscribers to purchase Tune into next week’s office hours episode to hear our favorite strategies for building an impactful challenge!

“Singularity is the source of innovation.” — Carol Sanford Although new entrepreneurs can benefit from initial coaching and mentorship, your value proposition ultimately comes from your unique essence. In this episode, we discuss the work of Carol Sanford and the reason why it is so important to identify your business’s essence. In some ways, essence is related to branding, but your business’s essence is bigger than its brand. As Sanford notes, “Essence is unique to each company, and cannot be made up...It is similar to the uniqueness each child has in a family. Children prosper best when their essence is honored and contributed. Only years later will you know their brand and how they apply it to their work in the world. They will be most successful and creative when their life and work are aligned with their essence. The same is true for business.” So many potential clients reach out to us asking “How can I possibly be successful when there are so many other yoga teachers, health coaches, fill-in-the-blanks,

Being the founders of a software company, we kind of geek out on software tools. In today’s Office Hours episode, we dive into our favorite apps for new online business owners. Project Management: We love Trello best, but Asana is great too. Personal Email, Word Processing, Spreadsheets: G Suite Graphic Design: Canva Online Teaching Platform: Namastream Payment Processor: Stripe Video Editing: iMovie Email Marketing: Convertkit Website/Blog: Squarespace Team Communication: Slack

All of us, to some extent, borrow from others, from the culture around us. Ideas are in the air, and we may appropriate, often without realizing, the phrases and language of the times. We borrow language itself; we did not invent it. We found it, we grew up into it, though we may use it, interpret it, in very individual ways. What is at issue is not the fact of “borrowing” or “imitating,” of being “derivative,” being “influenced,” but what one does with what is borrowed or imitated or derived; how deeply one assimilates it, takes it into oneself, compounds it with one’s own experiences and thoughts and feelings, places it in relation to oneself, and expresses it in a new way, one’s own. — Oliver Sacks Inspired by Austin Kleon’s book, Steal Like an Artist, and the writing of Oliver Sacks, this episode is devoted to the topic of emulation. To what extent should copying or stealing impact our work? We believe that everyone benefits from an incubation period, where we are immersed in the work of others, but that

Gamification involves taking an application or an online community and integrating game mechanics into it to motivate participation, increase engagement, and foster loyalty. In other words, gamification is the process of applying psychological triggers to tech products in order to manipulate the way we behave. We, as humans, are animals who are hardwired to respond to incentives (and disincentives) in certain ways. We should all understand some of these basic triggers so that we can know when (and how) we’re being manipulated. We believe that when you understand the underpinnings of human behavior, and you have the power to build psychological triggers into a technology product, you have an obligation to ensure that you’re wielding that power responsibly. Unfortunately, it seems that many founders take this responsibility for granted. What we’ve tried to do within our own software platform is to ensure that incentives are tied to meaningful accomplishment rather than contrived, artificial rewards. Intentional

If you want to create professional looking videos for your online business, good lighting is mission critical. Lighting is an art form that can seem intimidating when you’re first starting out as an online teacher, but this episode shares some basics to get you started without the stress. When setting up your lighting, you’ll want to keep these three simple goals in mind: Make the featured speaker (you!) look fabulous (i.e., prioritize lighting yourself over your background). Make your setting look welcoming and natural. Eliminate shadows, especially on your face. Here’s a fabulous, inexpensive lighting kit (similar to the one that Jeni uses), as well as a simple DIY tutorial for creating your own!

This week’s episode dives into our favorite finds of 2017, along with a hearty dose of reflection. Listen in to learn why we love the following books, tools, thinkers, and ideas: Best Books: Deep Work, Drop the BallBest Netflix Shows: The Crown, Brojects, Reno My RenoBest Purchases: Madewell High Rise Jeans, Bellicon, Denim Jogger, Jamie Joseph RingsMost Influential People: Austin Kleon, Kelly DielsFavorite Instagram Accounts: @hellofunction, @code_likeagirlBest Decisions: restructuring our team, starting our podcastFavorite Articles: Life is a Video Game—Here are the Cheat Codes, 1,000 True Fans, Zebras Fix What Unicorns BreakBest Podcast Episodes: Sheryl O’Loughlin on Good Life Project, Danielle LaPorte on The Lively ShowBest Conference: Craft + CommerceWords of the Year: Flourish, Implementation Other Mentions: The Royal Family on Instagram

Many online teachers and coaches don’t realize that live-streaming can be a fantastic way to build the foundation for a new online business. If you leverage live-streaming wisely, you don’t have to have a single piece of pre-made content ready prior to taking your business online. So long as you have a basic website or Namastream site up and running, you can start offering live-stream sessions immediately. There are multiple way to leverage live-streaming, but these three are the most common and effective, which is also why we’ve built them into Namastream: One-on-One Private Sessions Collaborative Small Group Sessions Broadcasts  You need far less equipment for a successful live-streamed class that you’d need to create high-quality pre-recorded video content. Whenever you use Skype or go live on Facebook, you just use your webcam, right? Well, it’s exactly the same for live-streaming. As long as you have a built-in camera, you’re good to go live! (With that said, our very favorite live-streaming tool, the

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” — Audre Lorde A flyway is an ecological term that describes a migratory bird route. It’s also the name of an incredibly forward-thinking investment firm founded by Hillary Strobel. We met Hillary at DazzleCon ‘17 and were immediately taken aback by her humility and unique attitude about investing. As a single mother with a background in literature and nonprofit management, Hillary made the bold and unconventional choice to start a social impact investment firm founded on the principle of “patient capital.”We both loved interviewing Hillary and left the conversation deeply inspired and hopeful about the possibility of business to be a vehicle for service. Other Mentions: The Flyways, Wefunder Joy: self-preservationHustle: lifelong learning

In this episode, we discuss some of the differences in pricing online memberships vs. online courses. For memberships, you’ll want to anchor your prices to your local economy. A monthly online yoga membership, for example, should cost roughly the same amount as a single drop-in class in your area. If your students are used to spending more for in-person classes, they’ll be comfortable spending a bit more for online programs, too. Pricing for online courses vary widely in cost, much more so than memberships. Most of our clients price their offerings based on the following two factors: Amount of content: The more you offer, the higher the price tag can be. Demand: A highly specialized package might appeal to a smaller audience and require a lower price point. A more general (but still niched!) offering can skew a bit higher. We recommend that all online courses be priced at least $97 USD. Any product you offer is going to take some serious work to build and hone, and you’ll want to be in a position to recoup

“I’m not at the top of my field, but I’m also a long ways from the bottom.” — Nathan Barry  Establishing yourself as an authority figure in your niche is paramount to sustaining a business and growing a following online. Consistent content creation, be it in the form of a blog, a podcast, or a Facebook Live or YouTube show, is the best way we can think of to become known as an authority within your community. If you’re interested in becoming a blogger or beginning a writing project, a great place to start is Medium. Alternatively, if you want to go all-in, check out the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and challenge yourself to write a full book within a single month. Other Mentions: Sex & Startups, Zebras Fix What Unicorns Break, How to Get Published on the Huffington Post, Seth’s Blog Joy: Why You Should Write DailyHustle: Authority

In our very first installment of Soulful MBA’s Office Hours, we’re going to share our 7-factor framework for pricing your online programs: Location: If you’re aiming to build a global brand online, location won’t be nearly as essential. But if you run a yoga studio in your hometown, or operate a hybrid of in-person and online services, your initial client base will come from your local community. Which means you need to make sure that your prices are appropriate for the people who live within that community. Demand: If you have a product that’s created for a specific audience, you need to take a hard look at how many other people are offering similar products to the same customer base. You also need to weigh how popular your subject is among the folks in your target market. Amount of content: A fully loaded, content-packed 12-week program should be priced very differently from a streamlined 3-week program. Similarly, if you’re hosting a community and can offer members 100 stellar videos, you’ll be able to c

We’re fifty episodes into this project, so we thought it would be fun to share a bit of personal reflection on this whole podcasting adventure so far. Listen in to hear about our most important (and surprising) lessons as new podcasters, discover the one episode that we almost didn’t release, and check out what’s next for the show. Other Mentions: Good Life Project, Voice-only communication enhances empathic accuracy. Joy: Aston HALOHustle: SuperHi: Learn to Code Now

After spending many months feeling uneasy about the public face of our brand, we’ve made the decision to consciously “embody” the company. We’ve chosen to do this in three ways:   by being very open and honest about our Story by being intentional about our use of Imagery by making decisions from our Values In an era when products and services are increasingly commodified, we believe that embodiment can serve as an antidote. By showcasing our businesses as natural extensions of ourselves, we can bring much-needed authenticity and human connection into the economy. Other Mentions: @hellofunction, Jen Wende, The Four Agreements Joy: Sarah Wilson || first, we make the beast beautifulHustle: Burt’s Buzz

Known for her expertise as a renowned Facebook ads strategist, Amanda Bond gets real with us in this episode about the mindset hurdles she’s had to overcome in order to find success in her business. Amanda has learned to come to terms with her fear of not being “enough” by surrounding herself with people who support her, whether it’s through mindset coaching or within mastermind communities. She’s also learned how to lean into her fears over time and through her daily experience as an entrepreneur. Amanda encourages all of us to view our marketing as expansive (rather than fear-based)… How can we nurture people towards making a better decision for them? How can we create an attractive brand that people are magnetized toward? How can we intuitively find alignment in our businesses? Joy: Brain.fmHustle: Old-school Clipboards Connect with Amanda: The Ad Strategist Facebook Page

After sifting through our own clients’ stories (as well as the experiences of our friends and colleagues in online business), we’ve observed that it takes about eighteen months of consistent daily action in order to create a significant recurring revenue base — what some folks refer to as passive income.  After taking hundreds of our community members through a free 5-Day Challenge last month, where we helped them go from idea to first paying customer, the same question came up over and over… “This was amazing, but what happens next?”  Although asking for the first sale is often the hardest for many of us venturing into entrepreneurship, what happens between day five and day five hundred is what really matters. Consistent daily action sets the stage for predictable recurring revenue. There’s no magic sauce. You need to put in the daily work to see the payoff later.  Because so many of our clients were confused about which specific steps to take to grow their online teaching businesses, we built the Soulful MB

The Internet is chock full of people who are famous for being famous (or famous for teaching other people how to become famous). It’s exhausting.  But we worry that this is more than a mere annoyance. The danger, we fear, is that SO many people with real gifts (and a true calling to teach and serve) are holding themselves back because their lives don’t look like what they see online.  And although we’re in the online business space ourselves, we are constantly impressed with the meaningful work that’s being done daily by our own community online. This is a love letter to our people and a whisper of encouragement to KEEP GOING. Joy: MÛR Lifestyle Hustle: JOBY GorillaPod

So many people in our community share the dream of building an online business, but feel overwhelmed by the process. We’ve taken the entire journey from idea to first customer and distilled it into a free 5-Day Challenge (soulful.mba/5days). While the challenge itself covers the nuts and bolts of creating a digital product, this episode focuses on the reasons why taking your business online is worth considering. Here are some of the major benefits that can come from taking your teaching online: An online offering serves as a de facto insurance policy against your local, brick-and-mortar business or job. If structured properly, your online business can afford you the ability to take a break without significantly cutting into your income. It also gives you much greater geographic freedom. The overhead is extremely low. You have the freedom to take risks and experiment without any real negative implications. The opportunity is big (financially and for impact). The bottom line? It’s smart to build redundancy in

“When perfectionism is driving us, shame is always riding shotgun and fear is the backseat driver.” - Brené Brown‏ In this episode, we discuss the ways that perfectionism holds us back in our businesses. We often see perfectionism used as an excuse for procrastination or as a reason to hold ourselves back once we’ve reached a certain level of success. Here are the 7 perfectionistic tendencies we’ve identified in our own business and with our clients. Listen in to hear how we address each one. You procrastinate until the stars align. You often spend copious amounts of time just to perfect something that just isn't that important. You have an all-or-nothing approach. Inflexibility. You have a very specific manner in which things should be done. Intolerance for mistakes. You are extremely hard on yourself. You focus on the destination, rather than the journey. It’s all about the end result. Your success is never good enough. Joy: Why Brené Brown Says Perfectionism Is a 20-Ton ShieldHustle: Lighting Kit, Ring

In our first time featuring a guest on the podcast, we’re bringing you a raw, unfiltered conversation with Kimra Luna. Know widely in the online business and branding community for her unique and rebellious style, Kimra has built her Freedom Hackers® Mastermind Facebook Group to over 60,000 people and leveraged her personal brand into a 7-figure business. In this episode, we discuss Kimra’s unwavering confidence, her fears, her spirituality, her new identity as a single mom to three young boys, and her role as a female founder. We were impressed by her honesty, her authenticity, and her willingness to boldly follow her intuition in business. Other Mentions: Freedom Hackers, Freedom Hackers® Mastermind Facebook Group, Sacred Mama   Joy: Amazon PrimeHustle: Airtable