Elite Expert Insider

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Dorine Rivers about her new book "Brain To Bank" all about helping entrepreneurs create effective business structures, develop strategic plans, identify growth opportunities, and avoid common pitfalls. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to take the first step to starting a business. How to start marketing your business. How to focus on your target market. Quotes: "I think what happens a lot, especially when someone has an idea they're very passionate about is they just start creating the idea. And they don't worry about building a company." (06:14) "You can't be everything to everybody, so who do you wanna be? And it's really, much better to be, a big fish in a small pond. So to choose that niche market is key." (14:12) "I think you have to go to your business asking yourself two things. One, do I wanna run this business for the next 5, 10 or 20 years? or two, do I wanna run it for three to five years and make X amount and

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Neil Mirchandani about what it takes to run a successful event decor company and the challenges that come with it. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to create processes in your business. How to find unique ways to market your business. How to change your mindset to find success. Quotes: "The most important thing is to create processes above anything else, above sales, above trying to do marketing. It's probably the most important thing. And the reason is because if you have no processes in place, chaos is just inevitable." (06:07) "It's actually a challenge for us to market because over time we learn that we're really more in the wholesale business than in the retail business. We can't be out there and really loud about what we're doing based on the number of NDAs, and so over time, we as a team realized that we are really not in the retail business to the end client." (09:54) "But the reality is that I still don't feel li

Melanie Johnson co-owner of Elite Online Publishing, interviews her business partner Jenn Foster about her journey in website development and how they ventured into the publishing industry. Listen Below: Watch Below: Click here to access all of Elite Expert Insider podcasts. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to gain credibility with a website. How to know what kind of website you need. How to promote your book with a website. Quotes: "Especially even just, any business, if you don't have a website, how do they know you're real and you're credible? And where can they go to contact you if they need to contact you?" (06:34) "If you're not a blogger and you don't plan on posting a blog or hiring someone to do your blog, then you don't need a blog post on your website." (10:49) "An author website really is robust and makes it so people can know, and trust you more and wanna know more for your next book or for your services." (14:56) About Jenn Foster: Jenn is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Intern

Jenn Foster owner of Elite Online Publishing, interviews her business partner Melanie Johnson about unveiling the marketing secrets of a Wall Street Journal bestselling author and former Miss Michigan.  What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to find the entrepreneur mindset. How to think outside of the box. How to market your book. Quotes: "It's all about learning skills, they were teaching how to publish a book, how to do digital marketing, which was all new to me. I felt like I was a sponge, just soaking it all up." (08:15) "What is working, what's not working? And really it's trying things. And I wanna talk about speed as well, so you can think about trying things. Or you can just jump in and do them. And sometimes it's the speed that's successful." (11:26) "One thing that will help you to become successful, which I think all entrepreneurs need to do, is make processes. We always ask the question, do we have a process for that? No. Well, we need to make a process, document that, write it down, have step

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Mikelann Valterra about the economy, investment trends, and strategies for managing your money with confidence. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to understand your money personality. How to relieve your financial anxiety. How to create a spending plan. Quotes: "I hate the word budget, because it's so diety sounding. I'm gonna live on leftovers. But a spending plan is a tool that you design to say, okay, where do I want my money to go? What is the life that I most want to live? And then how do I use money to literally create this life?" (07:56) "Part of it is the mechanism of when you know, when you're in a whole stop digging. And how do we set up systems from a cash flow point of view so that you don't add debt, and then once people are stabilized, then we look at a lot of the things that I know everyone has heard about, which is, let's look at the interest rates on the cards." (12:31) "What I think is really interesting

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Michael Buzinski about SEO and growing businesses, with his 20 years of experience building a multi-million dollar creative agency and working with over 750 enterprises and small businesses. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to draw unique traffic to your website. How to narrow down conversion rates. How to build a website. Quotes: "A lot of times in marketing we are attracting the wrong people. So increasing the average revenue per client can come down to something as simple as only talking to the people who are the most profitable for your business, your perfect client, right?" (5:20) "There are literally thousands of questions that Google wants a video for that don't exist. We can show people a hundred questions to ask on their website in frequently asked questions, videos, the whole nine yards. Basically it gives you your content plan for an entire year up to two years." (10:16) "So as long as search engines are alive

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Sabrina Lloyd about how to become an extraordinary leader in all aspects of your life, from family to business and beyond. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to take steps to becoming a leader. How to manage timing and sequence. How to innovate in leadership. Quotes: "You'll see the first thing you need to do is become self-aware. You need to know yourself, and then you need to surround yourself with other great people so that you can learn and allow yourself to be mentored." (04:12) "When you are a woman and you have a child, no one is going to be needed more than you. So timing and sequence matters a tremendous amount. This is why when I meet young people and they're talking about settling down, I'm like no. When you're young you work hard when you have the most energy." (11:14) "I'm here to lead my life and I can't be so concerned about what you are thinking about me in this moment because this is my life and I have to p

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Valerie Hayes about enhancing your business strategies, and implementing sales productivity.  What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to manage your processes and people. How to have direction and tools to achieve your goals. How to manage your growing business. Quotes: "Most people try to start with processes, and actually you have to start with the people. I come in and I get to know the people, I'm seeing how they're communicating amongst themselves, which is reflective of typically the lack of processes." (4:53) "Identify your one primary lead source and then you put metrics in to track how that lead comes in and what happens to that lead during the sales process. By tracking the lead, you're gonna see where you have holes in your sales process that you can then tweak." (9:52) "Once you get people to operate in their zone of genius, They just naturally increase their own production and naturally are producing work at a high

Melanie Johnson co-owner of Elite Online Publishing, interviews DJ The Money Coach about how he motivates people to gain financial freedom. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to gain financial independence. How to earn $8,333 a month. How to pay off your home in 7-10 years. Quotes: "Here's what the rule of 72 is. You take 72, the amount of interest that you're earning, or most importantly, the amount of interest that you're paying. Let's say it's 12. You divide 12 into 72, you get six. That means that your interest will double against you every six years if you are paying the minimum payment." (7:55) "Understand from a mortgage standpoint, most Americans biggest asset to wealth is their home. And then if they're fortunate, like you and I, they get a small business, now they have a chance for multi-generational wealth." (16:26) "I would sit down with you first and foremost to see which road is best, when is the best time to just pay it off? When is the best time to use credit and get massive business cr

Melanie Johnson co-owner of Elite Online Publishing, interviews Tamara Thomson about how to think through you're content and how it works on different platforms to turn your brand into a success.   What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to plan out your social media strategy. How to choose which platform to optimize. How to repurpose your podcast. Quotes: "What we always suggest is to at least post Monday through Friday once a day, and we always suggest to our clients, post something fun on the weekends, post something that relates to your audience." (11:51) "Our team repurposes the content into profound quotes or statements from the guest or the host. So it's both. So it leverage them as the authority on the show, which then they'll both wanna share it out, not just the host, but also the guest, right? So they're recruiting micro content from quote graphics and imagery as well." (16:21) "If you want to have people that pay attention to the content going out there too. The messaging needs to resinate, you

Melanie Johnson co-owner of Elite Online Publishing, interviews Kristen Anderson about building up your brand and how she got into the business of lingerie. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to find your brands drive. How to build your product in public. How to build a sustainable fashion brand. Quotes: "So 67% of people are plus sized in the US right now as far as statistics go. So it's crazy that we don't cater more to that demographic." (4:23) "The strategy that goes into your marketing is really important, and I think a lot of brands don't necessarily think about that as an important feature. It's about building the right content and dripping it out in the way that makes sense to the audience and tells a story that is compelling as well." (10:09) "I think because apparel has been moving more towards sustainable materials, more sustainable fabrics. We're gonna wake up a little bit and people are gonna realize once they start making that move over that it's really hard to go back to polyester clothi

Melanie Johnson co-owner of Elite Online Publishing, interviews Rachel Richter about how to realign yourself and your brand to achieve innovative success. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to start with alignment. How to identify having misalignment. How to implement alignment change. Quotes: "There are things that we can do that might be a bit misaligned that you might not know about. That is translating into things like unmet business needs. Or, lack of productive engagement." (04:52) "If your intention does not align with the mission then it's really a question of why are you there to begin with? But a lot of times as long as the intention is mutually beneficial to what's being asked, then it's simply a way of plugging in and seeing and understanding." (13:01) "Tech does not transform itself, people do. So neither do organizations. Organizations don't transform themselves, people do. So unless it works for the person, it's not gonna work for the group of people." (19:07) About Rachel Richter: Rach

Melanie Johnson co-owner of Elite Online Publishing, interviews Preston Brown about how using formulas for your business can lead you to success. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to define your company culture. How to find your business capacity. How to live on purpose with purpose. Quotes: "I would say you need to figure out what stage of business you're in and then where you are getting guidance from. The most important thing you can do in business is to find which leader you're listening to,. All of us crave leadership. All of us need mentorship." (7:32) "The formula is literally a filter for solving problems. That's all it is. You take a problem and you drop it into the top of the formula, it filters down and you know exactly what to do. And it's so easy." (15:46) "Recession is the single greatest time on earth because it's when everybody starts complaining and giving feedback. Feedback is what every business needs. If you're in a relationship with a person, what do you need from them? Feedback.

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Kirsty Verity about how to make money on Amazon. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to pick a product on Amazon. How to find your target market. How to get your listing to the first page on Amazon. Quotes: "What I say is, number one fall in love with the brand first. Then the products are just the way that you actually, navigate within the brand. And that really helps when one product isn't working out the way that you want it to. Your products are not your children, right? We wanna get rid of them and we wanna easily bring a new product in." (9:33) "When you sell to everybody, you're not selling to anybody. And so that's a real advantage when you just focus on one person and then you can focus on the main benefits of what the product is and not the features." (16:18) "Depending on the product looking at a timeline of between two to three. When you're then fully in profit mode, your spend comes down and your profit is going

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Dre Evans about how investing in multi family real estate will lead to your success.  What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to find a management company. How to get into multifamily real estate. How to use real estate for the tax benefits. Quotes: "There is a strength to managing it yourself. You do learn a lot of the ins and outs of dealing with tenants and having your systems in place that is great and you do keep more cash flow, but then at what expense, and that is your time." (5:29) "People are saying don't buy. But again, depending on your market, you should still buy because it's only gonna go up. It's not like it's gonna go down. That's the thing that people don't realize. Back in the day, if we looked at trends, people would've said that today would've been unachievable." (12:05) "I think that it's just a big mindset shift, and when you have that ability to look at struggles and problems in life and be able to be a pr

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Jeffrey Madoff about helping aspiring creatives overcome fear and doubt to create successful and long-lasting careers on their own terms. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to get over fear. How to define creativity. How to be a good storyteller. Quotes: "One of the most important ways to expose yourself to storytelling is read stories. Read stories that you connect to, and then start asking yourself questions as to what is it that attracts me to this. , is that the hero's journey, which is often what entrepreneurship is, what are the obstacles that you had to over." (4:54) "People don't understand that there's a real process in doing things, and you have to discover your process. How you best work when you best work." (11:31) "I believe the more knowledge points you have, the more little dots that are in the brain, and as those ideas pinball around up there, they create those constellations and meanings and associations th

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Natasha Miller about creating systems and processes to help your business succeed.  What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to utilize a virtual assistant. How to organize your processes. How often you should be reviewing your processes. Quotes: "Really think about the client's experience. But before you think about the client's experience, You have to understand what the client really needs." (6:15) "Once you get your system and process down, and by the way, it's down for a certain amount of time, and then as you scale and grow, you will have to adjust them." (13:02) "I tell my team, I can't afford not to know what pain points you're feeling. . So ours is always being tweaked. I'm a different kind of entrepreneur. I'm a different kind of ceo. I'm very much not micromanagement, and I really very much rely on my team to pull the company forward." (16:56) About Natasha Miller: Natasha Miller isn’t your average CEO. She sits at th

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Sarah Panus about repurposing your content and telling your story.  What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to use storytelling in your brand strategy. How to make your brand relatable. How to map out repurposing your content. Quotes: "I think every good content marketing, storytelling plan needs three things. It needs F, E, D, which is focus, empathy, and data. So these things will help you figure out what it is that you should be talking about." (6:37) "The biggest thing I would say is to humanize the story. So that's the beauty of storytelling versus facts and figures alone." (16:41) "The first thing you wanna do to repurpose content is you wanna map out first all the different channels and or partners that use and share content for your brand. I call that your content ecosystem." (22:26) About Sarah Panus: Sarah Panus helps content marketers use brand storytelling to attract upper-funnel leads that drive lower-funnel result

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview David Dodge about how to get into discount real estate investing to make a long-lasting profit. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to find cash for your investment property. How to become a real estate investor full time. How to find properies to buy. Quotes: "Lesson number one, you make your money when you buy, you get paid when you sell. Lesson number two, is marketing." (05:51) "Real estate investing is buying something and making it pretty, making it nice, fixing it, updating it, and then turning around and selling it for a profit or buying something, often fixing it up, which I like to do in the beginning, and then keeping it and renting it out." (08:51) "At the end of the day, where that cash comes from is irrelevant. It doesn't have to be my cash. It could be a lender's cash. It could be a private lender. It could be a hard money lender. It could be another investor that has cash. It could be another investor that ha

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview James Swanwick about how an alcohol free lifestyle can affect your sleep schedule.  What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How to quit drinking. How to change your mindset. How to get a good nights sleep. Quotes: "We need to rewire the mindset around alcohol. Instead of looking at it as something that we desire and that we worship, we associate it with fun and with celebration or with stress relief, we need to rewire the brain and look at it for what it truly is, which is attractively packaged poison." (4:25) "You're gonna seek comfort by having a couple of drinks each night, but then as soon as you remove that, And now you've got clarity and focus." (12:40) "Studies have shown that if you drink within a few hours of bedtime, then you will have compromised sleep. No question. Because think about it. When you drink alcohol, your body doesn't relax." (15:55) About James Swanwick: James Swanwick is an Australian-American investor, en