Leadpages Alternatives: 2021 Recommendations You’ll Love Even More

Leadpages is one of the premier software tools that many small and large business owners use to view and input various analytics about their target audience. Leadpages gives you the ability to create and test several different landing pages to determine which one brings the best results in terms of website or product engagement and conversions.

If you’ve been struggling to retain a consistent audience for your business or product line, Leadpages can help you solve that problem with simplicity and efficiency. Many business owners use Leadpages simply because it is one of the most comprehensive web development and analytics tracking software options available. 

Why Leadpages?

While Leadpages is one of the leading software platforms that many business owners use to further their endeavors, it’s not the only option out there. One of the things that make Leadpages such an attractive piece of software is the fact that you can create entire webpages and monitor them with very in-depth analytics all in one place. Many software solutions out on the market geared towards small business owners require separate apps or programs to accomplish everything that Leadpages does in one single software application. 

If you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur who wants to boost their online presence, there are several options available to you besides Leadpages. Thanks to developments in technology and the internet at large, there are now several software options that you can choose from when it comes to creating the perfect landing page for your website. 

There are hundreds of software options out there for business owners who need to increase the conversion rate and overall visitor count of their site. In this article, we’re going to list some of the top alternative software options for Leadpages and how you can use them to further your business or branding goals. 

Here is a great article about how you can use Leadpages to boost your overall lead generation and conversion rate. 

Why is lead generation and retention so important? 

If you’re just starting your business, capturing leads is a very important factor that will play a critical role in how successful your business becomes over time. Leads are basically thoroughly vetted customers who have a verifiable interest in your company or product before they even visit your website based on internet browsing behaviors and other related information. Traditionally, lead generation and capturing were exclusive to email marketing and newsletter signups. Thanks to social media and other avenues available on the internet, those days are long over. 

Now, a lot of businesses and service providers use specialized software that is designed to make the entire lead generation and capturing process a lot smoother than in years past. Website elements such as pop-up ads, banners, alerts, and more are used today in order to capture quality leads for products and businesses in various industries. By using a software solution, you can significantly increase the rate at which you obtain leads for your website. Continue reading to find out more about high-quality software alternatives to Leadpages that you can use to further your business. 

This is a great article you can read about why lead generation is so important. 

How to Create Eye-catching Landing Pages 

A high-quality landing page could mean the difference between operating in profit or loss for your business or company. Landing pages are the first step in gaining access to vital information related to how visitors interact with your website and product. By creating a high-quality landing page that attracts potential clients to interact with your business, you’ll be able to retain large amounts of premium leads with very little effort involved. Your landing page should represent your business in the best way possible but if you’re new to internet marketing and sales, achieving that goal can be difficult. 

That’s where the use of an effective landing page and lead generation software can assist you. Landing pages are often called click-through pages also so if you see that term don’t get confused. There are a lot of different ways that you can utilize your landing page and we’re going to cover those more in detail later in this article. In summary, a landing page can serve whatever purpose you want it to which is what makes them such an effective method for lead generation and capture. 

Here is a great article you can read on our site pertaining to landing pages and why you should create one for your website. 

Different Uses for Landing Pages

Landing pages can serve different purposes for businesses depending on their industry and field of expertise. If you do research on your competitors’ websites and notice that they all use the same landing page format, consider customizing your landing page so that it stands out to potential customers or clients.

Landing pages can be used with Facebook ads as well which is a great way to bridge the gap between your social media marketing campaigns and the actual website. By integrating your Facebook ads with your landing page, you can retarget the visitors and remarket the traffic in order to boost your overall sales.

Facebook also has this excellent feature in its ad campaign that will allow the visitor to claim an offer or providing a coupon code. Facebook’s tracking pixel display feature could help entice the user to land on a specific landing page which would help you retain quality leads and potential clients. 

A lot of companies use Landing Pages for things such as:

  • Surveys
  • Webinar/Event Sign-up and registration 
  • Special discount Reminders 
  • Product announcements and more 
  • Account registration 
  • And more! 

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why business owners use landing pages which means that you can do the same and experience the results that you want at the same time. Landing pages aren’t exclusive to your personal business website, you can even use landing pages for your various social media pages.

Before you decide to throw up any landing page, you need to make sure that it’s optimized to increase engagement with your core audience. This will ensure that you receive optimal results from your landing pages without wasting time on multiple designs and call-to-action tests that don’t work. 

The implementation of landing pages on small business websites is surprisingly a very new method that has only been around for less than a decade. The reason so many people use landing pages is that they are a really effective way to essentially put your lead capturing abilities on autopilot. Landing pages provide a way for small business owners to capture high-quality leads that can potentially lead to further sales on a consistent basis. 

Elements of a High-Quality Landing Page 

There are several key elements that you should include in your landing page in order to ensure that visitors engage with your content. While these elements may not be visual, they are integral parts of any landing page that will determine its overall conversion rate and success. Let’s look at some of the most important landing page elements you should include on your website. 

1. Align all of your call-to-action triggers with the right promotion/ad campaign. 

This is one of the most common mistakes the small business owners make when designing their website. A landing page by itself will not bring you the results you want if it’s not connected to the right call-to-action. In order to maximize the results that you see from your landing page, you need to make sure that you connect the original call-to-action to marketing material that is relevant. Too many times, business owners don’t fully understand how digital content strategizing works so they end up linking a landing page to a call-to-action that is unrelated to the initial promotion.

An example of this would be promoting a call-to-action to sign up for a free Skype consultation but instead, the customers are redirected to a page that offers paid photos. Consistency is the best way to retain high-quality leads that may very well bring you tons of business in the future so make sure that all of your content is related when promoting your landing page. 

2. Create an eye-catching headline for your landing page.

SEO is a very important factor when it comes to any successfully converting landing page. Google indexes all websites that are online so by writing an eye-catching headline, you will be able to rank higher within natural search results and other popular engines also. The goal is to attract your website visitors to interact with your landing page so by adding a relatable and well-written headline, that process will become much easier. Just think about your product and how potential customers will relate to your brand or company and a highly converting headline will be easy to come up with. 

3. Make your landing page as simple as possible.

Using complicated menus and tricky webpages can actually discourage your visitors from interacting with your landing page for prolonged periods of time. Use a simple landing page layout that is not too complex but still allows your visitors to easily navigate. This will help you keep visitors on the intended page for longer periods of time without worrying about them straying off and interacting with other pages whilst leaving your initial call-to-action unanswered. Make it simple for your customer to recognize and engage with your landing page by giving them a simple format to follow. 

Read this article on our website to learn more about how you can design the perfect landing page that brings you the conversions and interactions you need. 

The Best Leadpages Alternatives 

Now that we’ve discussed what a landing page is and the vital elements that go into making one that is unique to your business, let’s discuss exactly how you can begin the process of creating a landing page for your website and the tools available for you to use when beginning the process. As stated previously in this guide, Leadpages has been one of the premier software solutions for many years however there are new very viable options emerging in the market. 

In the following section, we’re going to list some of the top alternative software options to Leadpages that you can use to boost your business website’s overall engagement and visibility in addition to lead retention. 

#1 ClickFunnels 

ClickFunnels is probably one of the most popular Leadpages alternatives that many business owners use primarily due to the fact that it is one of the only software options out there that provides a robust feature set that can rival Leadpages in Its capabilities. With ClickFunnels, you can accomplish a variety of tasks related to the creation of your landing page and more general social media marketing tasks. 

ClickFunnels comes standard with very versatile capabilities including:

  • Affiliate marketing tools 
  • WordPress integration
  • Autoresponder email tool 
  • Landing page tools (of course) 
  • Web Hosting 
  • And a lot more! 

ClickFunnels is one of the best LeadPages alternatives because it gives you the ability to create entire sales funnels in one comprehensive application. If you’re interested in performing split ad testing, ClickFunnels gives you the ability to create A/B and sets so that you can monitor which ads perform the best to maximize your results while reducing your overall costs.

For small business owners who are new to online marketing and website creation, ClickFunnels gives you the opportunity to create entire websites and webpages that have integrated landing pages. ClickFunnels also provides in-depth statistic monitoring and analytical tracking including drop off rates and other important information. 

If you’re planning a product launch, podcast, webinar or anything else related to your company and/or business, ClickFunnels makes it easy for you to plan all aspects of your business in one simple tool. You can easily manage your customer relations through the ClickFunnels platform using it’s simple drag and drop operation which is great for small business owners who don’t have an extensive history in the tech field. 

With ClickFunnels, you can create several different types of sales funnels which will help you achieve your business goals in no time. ClickFunnels will enable you to obtain detailed information about your customers related to the amount of time that they spend on a particular webpage in addition to how well they engage with certain elements of your sales funnel and landing page. This is something that you don’t find in many other software options available on the market which is what makes ClickFunnels so unique. 

ClickFunnels also lets you create customized sales and landing pages that are designed to fit the specific needs of your business perfectly. Below, we’re going to take a look at some of the various types of sales funnels that you can effortlessly create with ClickFunnels. 

Product launch Funnel 

This sales funnel is the perfect option for small business owners who are trying to launch a new product to their audience. The product launch funnel will break down your product on four separate pages each of which will serve the purpose of informing, persuading, and directing your customers about how they can purchase your product. 

These four pages are as follows: 

  • How+Wow- the how+wow page will primarily be used to describe the benefits of your product and how it will help make potential customers live much easier. This page will serve a very important role in making sure that your customers understand the main function that your product serves and how it can add potential benefits to their existing life. 
  • Ownership Experience- this page will consist of any testimonials or real product reviews that you’ve been able to collect from your customers. This will allow potential customers to get a real-world perspective of your product separate from any marketing material or promotional ads that you might run. 
  • Transformation Education- this is the core page in which you can provide your potential customers with an in-depth look at how your product works. This page will help your potential customers better understand how to use your product and any other important information that may be related to it. 
  • Offer- this page will be the last page your potential customers see before making their decision on whether or not to buy your product. You need to make sure that your offer page is up to date with all the latest product information and discounts so that your customers know the most important details before making a final purchase decision. 

Best Seller Book Funnel 

The best seller book funnel gives independent authors and writers the ability to create a comprehensive and stunning book marketing funnel that gives you high conversion rates and sales numbers. The best seller book funnel starts promoting your book to potential readers with a video that you can either customize or upload in order to provide your readers with a full description and synopsis of your book’s storyline and plot. You can also add a free video demo to allow potential buyers the opportunity to read a small portion of your book before deciding on a final purchase. 

You can also use ClickFunnels as a way to upsell other books that you may have in your catalog. ClickFunnels provides a dedicated upsell page that you can use to integrate special product offers and book deals that may not be available anywhere else. The best part about it all is that all of this is achieved through using your initial landing page. 

Webinar Funnel 

If you’re an online coach or lifestyle assistant, webinars can be a great way for you to increase the number of loyal students and sign-ups that you get. With ClickFunnels, you can easily make a high-quality webinar funnel which will allow you to retain customers and regular students who will attend your classes so that you can increase your overall sales and conversion ratings. Depending on the type of product that you’re marketing and your target audience, a webinar can be a really good way for you to boost your overall visibility and audience without putting in too much work or money. 

With ClickFunnels, you can gain access to several different resources which will make your webinar and prospect retention much easier to manage. With a ClickFunnels webinar page, your customers will see the following precession of pages:

  • Thank you page
  • Live webinar page 
  • Webinar replay page
  • Sales page
  • And a Webinar registration page

These pages encompass the entire process needed to successfully facilitate a webinar session. You can even go deeper with the ClickFunnels webinar page by seeing which leads actually signed up for and viewed your webinar as opposed to the people who didn’t. While we could go through all of the various types of sales funnel pages that are offered by ClickFunnels, it would take up this entire article.

In total, there are 15 ClickFunnels pages that you can use to help you boost various different areas of your business or company. All of them include comprehensive sales funnels tools which will allow you to maximize your marketing budget and overall reach. If you’ve been looking for a great alternative to Leadpages, ClickFunnels is definitely the best option for you. 

#2 Instapage

While landing pages can bring your business amazing results, they are no easy task to accomplish if you have no prior experience. With Instapage, you can easily manage, create, and monitor high-quality landing pages with the simple use of drag and drop mechanics. Instapage gives you the ability to manage your social media marketing campaigns, email marketing lists, and other aspects of web optimization for your website. Instapage also gives you the ability to integrate up to 20 different marketing tools into the platform all of which you can use to even further customize and manage your landing pages and sales funnels. 

Instapage Squeeze Page 

Instapage features a unique feature known as the “Instapage squeeze page” which essentially grabs email addresses from potential leads by offering them something valuable in return. You can alert your website visitors of important information such as newsletters, whitepapers, case studies, webinar information, or video links in return for their email capture. Instapage splash pages are essentially Instapages version of landing pages which allow you to engage with and persuade your visitors to interact with different parts of your website. 

Instapage Splash Page 

With Instapage splash pages, you can add combinations of videos, texts, music, and other sorts of media related to your product or brand on your landing page. Instapage’s splash page will then instantly redirect your visitors to the homepage of your website or any other page that you specified during the creation of your splash page. With Instapage, you can expedite the entire email capture process with ease and simplicity. Instapage also offers a sales page features which will allow you that you can use to create premium looking landing pages that will help you sell products and merchandise. 

PPC advertising is huge in today’s online marketing industry, oftentimes people will click on a particular ad because it told them that they would receive a certain discount or item however once they reach the site, they are forced to search for the item which can be very frustrating. Instapage makes PPC advertising very easy by automatically linking your ads to the designated webpage that you assign during the initial set-up process. You can even set-up special discount codes that will automatically be applied when the potential customer clicks on your link. 

Instapage Lead Generation System 

Instapage makes it easy for you to generate high-quality leads by seamlessly integrating all of your various social media websites. Without premium leads to go on, it will be very difficult to grow your business in any substantial way. Instapage makes it easy for you to set-up different social media promotions such as creating a tweet for a local meetup that you plan on doing or even adding in annotations to your YouTube videos that you upload. You can use the Instapage lead generation system to help boost your social media postings, podcasts, or practically anything else that you may be interested in.

Instapage gives you access to all of the following features:

  • Responsive mobile landing pages 
  • CRM integration 
  • Marketing Automation 
  • WordPress integration 
  • Email marketing tools 
  • SEO features and capabilities 

Instapage is the perfect solution for any small business owner who is interested in increasing the overall performance of their business marketing campaigns. Instapage is is a great Leadpages alternative for anyone who wants premium online marketing features at a great price. 

#3 Thrive Architect

Thrive Architect is a landing page builder from Thrive Themes. It is very intuitive to use, meaning you do not need any CSS or HTML knowledge to design killer landing pages.

The software’s WYSIWYG editor has all the tools needed to get you moving.  Thrive Architect has a variety of page building options. There are icons, buttons, templates, themes, and other fantastic features that ensure stellar pages. The Architect is also very affordable going at a one time cost of $67.

The platform can also be used to build other pages besides landing pages. You can use it for your webinar, home, or sales pages.  The software has features much like those of Divi builder or Beaver builder, the most popular WordPress page builders.

This landing page builder is perfect for small business owners and entrepreneurs, beginning or in the middle phase of their business-marketing journey. Unlike other lead pages alternatives, Thrive Architect is a WordPress theme builder plugin.

Thrive Architect main features

User interface

The platform’s user interface is full screen, taking over the WordPress dashboard when at work. It is, therefore, pretty easy to view your progress because the WordPress user interface remains in the background. If you need more workspace, all you need to do is to collapse the panel.

From this user interface, you can drag and drop elements from the sidebar or other positions on your page as desired. You can resize your page’s components, by simply clicking and dragging on their boundaries.

The Architect has a handy inline text-editing feature, which eliminates the need of typing into a sidebar first. All you need to do is to click on your pages text area to input words. This impressive feature makes it super easy to preview your work on the go. It also dramatically speeds up your text editing workflow. Many other page builders lack this functionality, which makes Thrive Architect a choice page builder.

There is also an integrated tablet and mobile sized viewport to ensure maximum page building ease. A built-in optional reminder feature is also at hand to remind you to save your work at regular intervals. In case, you change your mind on the revisions made on your pages, a revision manager can roll back the changes.

Options and settings

The platform also has context-sensitive menus. Whenever you click on an element, the settings and options compatible with it will be displayed on the side. This feature will give you a lot of control over the design of your pages. To reveal advanced control options, expand the advanced builder sections. You will find cool features such as padding and margin properties, animation effects, and mobile responsive features among others. If there are elements that distract your mobile user’s site, you can choose to disable from this view to ensure that your pages deliver the best experience to all users.

Page elements

This feature adds rich characteristics to your content and pages. This will assist in bringing in more leads, the building blocks of useful conversions. Some of these valuable elements include;

  • Call to actions
  • Click to Tweet
  • Buttons
  • Content boxes
  • Countdown timers
  • Content reveal
  • Facebook comments
  • Content templates

The Thrive Architect library has a store of 200+ page templates for endless customization options. The templates availed have a strong focus on increasing conversions. Their design flow aims to ensure that your visitors get to complete the action desired. That may include moving along a sales funnel or signing up to an email list. Nonetheless, there are templates with traditional content if you fancy them, with portfolio layouts, under construction, homepage and coming soon pages. The pages are fully customizable through the page builder.

Landing page building on Thrive Architect

To design a landing page, you can use the software’s blank templates or landing page templates. You will use the Launch Thrive Architect button to get started. As mentioned, there are hundreds of pre-designed templates to choose from, and most are ready for publishing with minor tweaks. This is a beneficial quick-start option.

There are nonetheless over 40 landing page designs available, and more are being added by the day. The pages have matching components to create a sameness experience when swapping pages. A landing page set like the Atomic, for instance, has elements such as;

  • Confirmation page
  • Lead generation page
  • Download page
  • 2 step lead generation page
  • Video sales page
  • Webinar streaming page
  •  Webinar registration page
  • Webinar replay page

Through the easy to use page editor, you customize your landing page to fit your brand or style. If you like the customized template, you can save it for future use. If you are looking to build fantastic landing pages at an affordable price, Thrive Architect is a fantastic option. It is cheaper than ClickFunnels or Instapage, and its charges are a one-off payment rather than a hefty monthly fee. 

Here is a great article that you can read about some more Leadpages alternatives on our site changecreator.com. 

Conclusion: What Leadpages Alternative Will You Choose?

All of the platforms and applications mentioned above are some of the best Leadpages alternatives available. If you want to increase the revenue, marketing reach, conversion rate, sales success, or practically anything else related to your business, these are some great tools that you can use to accomplish your goals.

Lead generation, lead retention, and landing pages are very important however they can be difficult for first-time business owners to understand less known deploy. With the help of these applications and platforms listed above, you can significantly increase the efficiency and performance of your landing pages with ease and simplicity even if you have no prior experience with web development or online marketing. 

It’s important to integrate engaging elements onto your landing page so that your visitors will have a reason to interact with your website or business. Landing pages provide a simple way for you to capture email addresses from potential customers and clients without having to put too much work into actually engaging with or persuading your site visitors to sign up for any special offers that you may have. 

If you’re serious about taking your business to the next level, you will need to use one of the landing page software solutions listed in this article because they make the entire process much easier. Adding visually rich content is also very important when creating a landing page because without customers will easily get bored and click off of your website. Use all of the information in this article to help you select the best digital marketing software option for your business so that you can create optimized landing pages that provide you with high conversion rates. 

A high-quality landing page could mean the difference between operating in profit or loss for your business or company which is why it’s so important to have one for your new business or website. Landing pages are the first step in gaining access to vital customer information that could possibly help you optimize your marketing campaigns and material in order to get the best results for your money.

By creating a high-quality landing page that entices potential clients to interact with special offers and discounts on your website, you’ll be able to retain large amounts of premium leads with very little effort involved. Your landing page should represent your business in the best way possible but if you’re new to internet marketing and sales, using one of the applications listed above will be absolutely necessary in order to get the results that you want and expect.  

As long as you take the time to do the proper amount of research, you should have no problem creating a high-quality landing page that will help you retain customers and boost your overall visibility. Take your time to really figure out what your customers want most from your particular product or business and then create digital marketing content surrounding their interest.

A premium landing page combined with a well-designed sales funnels and high-quality multimedia content is what customers across virtually every market are interested in right now. Make sure that your business website or product landing page has that extra edge by using our helpful tips and advice to direct your brand or company in the direction that you want it to go in. 

There are so many different ways that you can create a high-quality landing page that will bring you the type of engagement you need. 

ThriveCart Review 2021: Will This Shopping Cart Tool Work for You?

Have you ever given much thought to your shopping cart platform? 

The truth is most of us rarely stop to think about it.  We integrate a PayPal “Buy Now” button, cross our fingers, and hope it all works out! 

But did you know that your shopping cart integration can drastically impact your business in terms of profits, consumer retargeting and customer experience?

In this write-up, I’m going to review ThriveCart; one of the most popular shopping cart platforms. You’ll get to see how it compares to other options and how it affects your business. 

This won’t be your run-of-the-mill review though, I’ll let you have a personal experience by taking you through the process of creating the product and checkout page, so you can get a “firsthand” encounter with it! 

ThriveCart in a Nutshell 

ThriveCart is a tool that helps you to promote, and receive payments for digital products, physical products, subscriptions, and services. 

But it does a lot more than just receiving payments. 

It’s a brilliant software for designing checkout pages that have high click-to-sales conversions and can dramatically boost your sales with down-sells,  up-sells, and bumps (we’ll see more on this in a bit!) 

One of ThriveCart’s biggest strengths is how clever the team has been in ensuring that the tool integrates with many payment processors, webinar platforms, email marketing software, and any tool that you’ll probably be using with your store. 

Regardless of whether you promote your products on social media or via emails, ThriveCart links to the most used apps, providers and software in those sectors. 

5 ThriveCart Features That Impact Your Business 

Wondering how ThriveCart could impact to your bottom line? 

Here are 5 ways the tool affects your profits and conversions. 

1. One-Click Upsells and Bump Offers 

This feature separates ThriveCart from most of its alternatives as not all shopping carts offer the ability to include bump offers on your checkout page. 

Here’s how it works: 

When a user is on your checkout page and wants to complete the purchase, they’ll see a small box that offers them the option to upgrade their purchase, with just one click. 

This simple addition is proven to boost sales, and it takes just 30 seconds to set it up on the checkout page! 

Another amazing feature of ThriveCart like the bump offers is the ability to include upsells to your sales funnel. When customers go to buy a product, you can automatically direct them to a page that offers an upgrade of that product.  

 

2. Retargeting Customers with Abandoned Carts 

Isn’t it annoying when people come to your website, stock up their cart, and then disappear before sealing up the order? 

ThriveCart provides a feature that enables you to retarget these people by adding them to your email autoresponder. This means they’ll get an automated email from you in a few minutes after cart abandonment. 

The beauty of this is that you can “juice up” the deal and offer free shipping, discounts or just remind them of the abandoned cart. 

3.  Product Affiliate Program 

This one’s my favorite! ThriveCart makes it so easy to set up an affiliate program for your products with just a few clicks. 

And a great thing about this feature is that you can put up unique affiliate arrangements for each product. So the commission rates for each product will differ. 

It even allows you to put up “affiliate guidelines” and automatically adjust commission rates for underperforming affiliates. The whole process is automated, so you may not need to be fully involved in managing the affiliate program. 

4. A/B Testing 

Sometimes simple tweaks like adding testimonials, changing page texts or design elements on your checkout page can increase sales. 

ThriveCart allows you to see the effects of these changes with the “A/B test” feature. You can set up a split-test of two versions of the checkout page and as soon as one has better conversion rates, ThriveCart automatically picks the winner and uses it for all checkouts. 

5.  Countdown Timers 

Introducing scarcity and urgency to your sales process is an excellent way to increase conversions. Most times, consumers need that extra nudge to make a purchase. 

The brand Experian proved this as they experienced a 16% boost in their transaction rates by simply adding urgency to their promotional emails. 

ThriveCart makes it easy to create urgency with the countdown timer. When creating your cart, you can include a timer and as soon as the timer expires, the offer becomes unavailable.  

It also lets you redirect customers to another page or notify them on when the offer will run again. 

ThriveCart Walkthrough 

I promised you a walk through at the start of the post, so here it is! 

This is how to create a checkout page with ThriveCart. I included screenshots so you can get a feel of the experience! 

1. Sign in 

After signing in, you’ll be redirected to your dashboard that shows you a summary of your daily revenue

Here’s how it looks: 

2. Add a Product

To add a new product, scroll to the top of the dashboard and click on this icon: 

 

Next, click the create product button: 

Once you’ve done this, a pop up will come up requesting your product type. You have the option of adding a physical product or digital product. 

Choose the relevant option and click on create a new product: 

The next page you’ll see will show you 4 tabs: Product, Fulfilment, Checkout, and Behavior. 

Click the product tab and several sub-tabs will show up: Pricing, Processors, Bump and Affiliates.  

Each of these sub-tabs are vital to properly identifying your products, let’s see them one by one. The sub-tabs allow you to add or edit your product name, label, status, pricing and checkout page URL.  

Let’s see more on each of the options. 

Pricing 

The pricing tab is where you can add your product price. It also lets you add varying pricing options, like if you want your customers to have the option of paying monthly or yearly. With pricing, you can also set automatic tax calculation and create personalized payment invoices as well. 

Bump 

Remember the bump offer feature I talked about at the start of the article? This is where you can set it up, just simply check it and input your offer details. 

Payment Processors

With this sub-tab, you can choose the processor you want to use.  Click set up processors and pick your choice. 

Affiliate Program

To enable the affiliate program feature, tap on the affiliates sub-tab, input details like commission rates and save. 

3. Put up Fulfillment Preferences

The fulfillment tab is where you can add what will happen immediately a customer purchases your products. There’s just one sub-tab under it tagged “After Purchase”. Click on it and input what you want to happen after a purchase. 

4. Create the Checkout Page 

There are 4 sub-tabs under the checkout tab; Template, Success page, Tracking and Customize. 

Template

The template tab, allows you to pick from 4 different templates: 

  • A tall 

  • One-step Checkout 

  • Embeddable Checkout 

  • Popup Checkout 

Customize 

This is where you can personalize the template you chose and you’ll have a lot of customization options! Some of them include adding testimonials, including a guarantee seal and adding a thumbnail image of your product. 

Success Page 

The success page allows you to personalize what buyers will see after making a purchase. You can add a simple thank you message or video. 

Tracking 

If you’ve got a tracking service you love, you can set it up in this tab. 

5. Create Behavior Actions 

The 5th tab permits you to initiate actions based on visitor behavior. For instance, you can include a buyer in your CRM or automate follow-up emails for customers with abandoned carts. 

Here are some of the trigger actions ThriveCart offers: 

  • Expired Credit Card 

  • Declined payment 

  • Product purchase 

  • Due Payment 

Once you’re done tap save and you’re good to go! 

ThriveCart vs Alternatives 

There are so many shopping cart tools and making the right choice can be a bit confusing so ill point out what makes ThriveCart unique. 

1. More Integrations 

All shopping cart platforms integrate with other tools but ThriveCart offers more options. For instance, ThriveCart integrates with Zapier, which means you can add in almost any tool! 

2. Automatic Tax Collection 

ThriveCart allows you automatically collect sales tax. This is dependent on the customer’s location. Although other cart platforms offer this, they usually do so with third-party tools, which incur an extra cost on monthly payments.

3. Automation 

This is one of ThriveCarts major advantages over its competitors. Few shopping carts offer its kind of automation. A great example is the automatic email autoresponder series addition of customers after a purchase, or retargeting emails to people with abandoned carts. 

These amazing automations set it apart. 

ThriveCart Alternatives 

SamCart 

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SamCart is one of the most popular ThriveCart alternatives and rightly so. It offers similar basic features such as different payment plans, 1-click upsells, checkout template pages, 1-click bump offers, etc. 

However, SamCart’s affiliate program offers different features and pricing. For instance, ThriveCart’s affiliate program provides affiliate tracking IDs but with the SamCart affiliate platform, your affiliates would be unable to track their best traffic sources. 

There is also an increase in price on your SamCart monthly payment if you decide to use the affiliate program.  

ClickFunnels 

Image result for CLICKFUNNEL vs thrivecart

ClickFunnels offers certain features you can find in ThriveCart like 1-click upsells, bump offers and down sells. It also allows you to customize your shopping cart with a drag and drop builder. 

Just like SamCart a major difference between ThriveCart and ClickFunnels is the affiliate platform. To run the affiliate program you’ll need to upgrade in your monthly payment. 

Zaxxa 

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Zaxxa is a great shopping cart with a lot to offer like detailed analytics and tracking and unique customization options that impact on user experience but when compared to ThriveCart it has some major limitations. 

If you are new to the eCommerce world, you may find it a bit difficult to use. Zaxxa also does not support physical products and has less integration options than ThriveCart.  

Common Questions and Answers

Here are some common questions about ThriveCart and I’ve got the answers right here for you! 

Is ThriveCart Worth it? 

Absolutely! For a tool with such amazing features, multiple integrations, and a one-time payment option, it’s worth every dime. 

With that said, ThriveCart isn’t a magic bullet, if your products aren’t what your customers are looking for, it may not help as much. But, if you’ve got the right products for your audience, ThriveCart is designed to help boost your sales. 

Who Is ThriveCart For? 

With so many developers getting in on the “sales funnel” and “shopping cart” game, the options you’ve got are staggering. 

But if you are looking for a professional type shopping cart capable of handling six-figure transactions yearly without a recurring fee and you want to be able to create bump offers, upsell funnels, down-sell funnels and a lot more then ThriveCart is for you. 

What Does ThriveCart Integrate With? 

Just as with most shopping cart platforms ThriveCart integrates with multiple payment processors, email marketing software, and membership software, however, it isn’t limited in integrations like other tools of its kind. 

ThriveCart offers integration with Zapier, which means you can integrate with just about any tool that comes to mind. Here is an excellent resource on ThriveCart integrations. 

Does ThriveCart integrate with WordPress? 

Yes, ThriveCart works excellently with WordPress. You can integrate it in two ways. The first involves creating a ThriveCart order for the page and then hosting it via the ThriveCart server. 

After doing that you can simply link to the page from your website just like you’d do for any other link. When someone clicks the link (most likely on your sales page), they’ll be redirected to your shopping cart. 

The second option and the most popular is to copy the embed code from ThriveCart after creating a shopping cart and then paste it into your WordPress HTML editor. Your shopping cart will then show up on your website page where it was inserted.

Does ThriveCart Integrate with Woocommerce? 

ThriveCart and WooCommerce are two very different types of checkout platforms. WooCommerce is an eCommerce “add-to-cart” system, whilst ThriveCart is a conversion-focused funnel based checkout. Whilst they both process your customer’s orders, they’re both very different types of platforms.

As such, there isn’t a logical ‘integration’ as ThriveCart wouldn’t act a replacement for your WooCommerce checkout because the tool does not support and is not designed for adding items to a cart. ThriveCart is designed for selling a specific product or offer, then using bumps and upsells to maximize the revenue from the customer.

With that said, you can use WooCommerce to ‘host’ your products and the style of your site, the buttons in WooCommerce under each product would link directly to the checkout (you’d set your product to be a 3rd party/affiliate link, then use the cart URL from ThriveCart there).

Finally: Is ThriveCart for You?

Overall, ThriveCart is a powerful tool that will help you boost sales and offer stellar user experience. It offers features beyond the regular shopping cart and lets you integrate with just about any other software. 

If you have questions or comments about your experiences with ThriveCart feel free to comment below! 

Thrive Themes Review 2021: Yay or Nay? Decide Here! (We Actually Tried This!)

When it comes to designing a premium WordPress website, there are several themes that you can choose from. One of the main benefits of using WordPress as your primary CMS platform is the fact that they give you the ability to either import or create your very own custom themes. This gives website owners the ability to customize their UI according to the theme or industry that their particular business is geared towards. There are thousands of free and premium WordPress themes that you can choose from which makes the customization possibilities unlimited. Here is our in-depth Thrive Themes review to help you decide!

Is Thrive Themes right for you?

Thrive Themes is a relatively new yet well-established WordPress developer that offers tons of premium WordPress themes and plugins focused on small business owners who want to create a professional looking website. If you need to increase your engagement or interaction on your website, Thrive Themes is the solution that you need to use. Thrive Themes makes it easy for you to import, edit, and launch unique themes for your site that reflect your core interests and allow you to optimize the process involved in meeting your projected sales goals.

The great thing about Thrive Themes is that you can sign up for a monthly membership which will give you unlimited access to all of their premium WordPress themes and plugins. If you don’t want to go with a monthly subscription for Thrive Themes, you can simply purchase the items you need on an individual basis. Depending on the size of your business and if you plan to expand, this option can save you money in the long run.

Thrive Themes helps you create responsive websites that perform at a professional level. Thrive Themes is the sole creator of many well-known and popular themes such as Squared, Pressive, and Rise just to name a few. These previously mentioned themes had a priority focus on helping business owners obtain conversions on a consistent basis. Thrive Themes are created with meticulous effort and due diligence to ensure that all of their products provide the necessary functionality that they were intended for.

Although the WordPress themes from Thrive Themes cover a range of project types, they’re pretty much all focused on helping you to increase the conversion rates of your website. Therefore, if you’re creating a site with a particular goal in mind, these themes could be a good match for your project.

Shared Features of WordPress and Thrive Themes:

Some of the shared features found in the WordPress themes from Thrive Themes include:

  • website customization options and settings

  • a fully mobile responsive design with click to call buttons

  • a full set of easily generated website demo content

  • a library of shortcodes for inserting useful elements into your content

  • a landing page template for creating full-width content to promote your offers

  • automatic image compression and a focus on lightweight code for increased speed

  • the ability to create custom conversion elements, such as options and calls to action, that can be inserted into your content

Unfortunately, Thrive Themes decided to discontinue their separate line of themes and plugins a while ago and now they only offer one platform by which you can achieve the same goals as you would be able to with their individual theme and plugin options. The new platform will be called the Thrive Visual Theme builder and it will give you intuitive access to tools which will help you edit and organize the very framework of your website. 

Take a look at this article on our site to learn more about different WordPress theme options available.

 

Thrive, Visual Theme Builder

The Thrive Visual Theme builder will give you the ability to change the very inner workings of your website which is vastly different from many theme building and editing tools that are available on the market. Thrive, Visual Theme builder, is not the same as Thrive Architect which is a plugin that allows you to edit content, the Thrive Visual Theme builder is a website editor that gives you full access to the framework of your website so that you can optimize performance and speed. Thrive Theme Builder hasn’t been released yet however when it is released it will be easy yet very comprehensive in terms of the capabilities that you’ll have to edit your website and meet the conversion or engagement goals that you have in mind. Thrive Theme Builder is set to be released soon and we’ll keep you posted about any updated surrounding developments in its slated initial release date. 

Hopefully, when Thrive Theme Builder is released it’ll meet all of the expectations that have been set out by the information which has been released through different media channels and promotional advertisements.

Here is a great article that you can read on our website to learn more about choosing the right theme for your e-commerce site.

Thrive Themes: Plugin Options

Thrive Themes doesn’t only offer premium WordPress themes designed to boost your overall e-commerce sales and conversions, they also offer a wide array of different plugins that you can add to your website in order to increase its performance. Many if not all of the plugin options available through Thrive Themes are solely focused on helping small business owners gain the engagement and sales that they expect.

Thrive Themes has a rather comprehensive catalog of plugins that you can choose from in order to increase the performance of your business overall. 

The Thrive Themes plugins catalog includes the following plugins:

Thrive Ovation

Thrive Ovation helps you organize and collect customer testimonials for your products or services in a very simple and easy way. Customer testimonials play a very important role in persuading your prospective customers to interact with your website or material. Thrive Ovation is an automated system that collects client testimonials and displays them on your site/sales pages for better conversion rates. It’s a wonderful tool to use for business owners who run companies that are largely involved with beauty related products or items that would be boosted in sales with good customer ratings. 

Thrive Headline Optimizer

The Thrive Headline Optimizer helps you create stunning headlines for your website in order to encourage visitors to stay on the site longer and engage with more content elements. Thrive headline optimizer is a favorite plugin with many site owners who pride themselves on creativity and originality. You can submit different versions of your headlines and the Thrive Headline Optimizer will display different headlines to users and conduct an internal study of which one works best all on autopilot. Based on the result, the best performing headline will be displayed on your site for optimal user engagement and conversion rates. On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy, according to ‘The Father of Advertising’, David Ogilvy.

With that in mind, it’s vital that you make sure your blog post titles are optimized to grab the attention of your readers and persuade them to click through to the full article. The Thrive Headline Optimizer plugin was created to help you do just that as part of its ability to find the most effective titles for your content. With the Headline Optimizer, you can choose the content titles you’d like to optimize. You can then enter multiple titles for each article to find the best performer. This optimization plugin will then display the different variations to your visitors, tracking the engagement to find the winner.

Other highlights of Thrive Headline Optimizer include:

  • the ability to enter as many headline variations as needed

  • a bulk editor to set up multiple tests at once

  • an intuitive user interface and easy-to-understand reports

  • WooCommerce compatibility for optimizing e-commerce products

  • the ability to track click-through rates on your blog page, recent posts widget, and other places where article titles are displayed

  • real-time headline optimization: Best-performing headlines are automatically shown to more of your visitors as data is gathered.

If you want to discover which article titles reduce your bounce rate and keep visitors on your site for longer, Thrive Headline Optimizer can definitely help.

Thrive Ultimatum

Thrive Ultimatum is a smart customizable and easy to use the WordPress plugin to display a countdown timer on your site. There are many advantages of displaying a timer on your site. It makes things exciting and inspires viewers to take action before the timer expires. 

Thrive Leads

As the name implies, Thrive Leads is for building mailing lists in a very simple and effective manner. Thrive Leads gives you access to a full package of tools which will help you encourage your site visitors and readers to opt-in to your mailing list. The form can be displayed using different options. For an example: You can opt for a sidebar widget, or pop up opts in form. Moreover, you get the reports to provides you with insights on how your strategy is working with your audience.

Thrive Leads is one of the most powerful lead generation tools for WordPress. Whether you want to grow your email list or persuade your visitors to take some other action, Thrive Leads can help you increase your goal conversion rates. The main focus of Thrive Leads is enabling you to display pop-ups on your website. These pop-ups can contain any type of content, including email option forms, products, text, images, videos, and calls to action. Thanks to the Thrive Leads editor, you get full control over how these forms and pop-ups look. There’s also an A/B testing tool to help you optimize this content.

Other highlights of Thrive Leads include:

  • a drag-and-drop editor for pop-ups and forms

  • advanced performance reporting and analytics tools

  • integration with the most popular email marketing software

  • a large library of pre-built forms, pop-up templates, and content modules

  • a selection of pop-up triggers, including timed, scroll position, and exit intent

  • multiple options form types, including pop-ups, two-step options, in-content forms, screen fillers, content locks, and more.

Thrive Leads is a powerful lead generation tool that compares well to other similar WordPress plugins such as OptinMonster and Bloom.

Thrive Optimize

Thrive Optimize lets you perform A/B split ad testing into your website pages so that you can figure out which advert method and style gets the most interaction. It is a lightweight and conversion-oriented plugin that lets you easily optimize your marketing efforts to save time and money while maximizing the number of conversions and sales that you receive from optimal promotions.

Thrive Comments

Having people leave comments on your WordPress site can help it in ways you can’t even imagine, this can include things like boosted SEO performance amongst a wide range of other beneficial site metrics. Thrive Comments encourages user engagement, helps SEO by adding fresh and relevant content, works as an intuitive form of user reviews/testimonials and so much more. Thrive comments, as the name suggests is a great way to make user commenting engaging and beautiful.

Thrive Cleaver Widgets

Thrive themes is all about conversions, and with the Thrive Cleaver Widgets plugin, you can rapidly and easily boost site conversions with the simple click of a button. As the name also implies, Thrive Cleaver widgets allows you to display different widgets & content based on the category, post type, pages, categories & tag type. This helps distinguish certain pages which get the most interaction on a consistent basis to help increase your website’s overall rank and performance in the search engines. 

Thrive Landing Pages

Thrive Landing Pages helps you create beautiful landing pages that focus on conversion. The Thrive Landing Pages plugin has it all to brilliantly convert your ideas into a reality for better engagement and actions on your sales pages. You can create sales copies, opt-in forms, registration pages and any other kind of landing pages in your site. 

Here is another great article some of the other conversion and sales plugin options available.

How Much Does It Cost? Thrive Themes Pricing

The beautiful and smart products at Thrive Themes can be purchased individually or through membership as a package of all their themes and plugins. The WordPress Themes at Thrive themes start from $49 and the individual Thrive themes plugins start at $39. You might want to use more and more Thrive products as they can really help you improve the performance of your site in different ways. Here, purchasing different products individually might not look like a good idea for you. And you can choose what works best for you. Unlike Elegant Themes, you can buy individual products at Thrive themes. On the other hand, for web design agencies and IT professionals who need access to more than one product, can subscribe to Thrive themes membership plans.

Thrive Themes offer plenty of flexibility when it comes to purchasing their tools. You can purchase the themes and plugins individually, or join the Thrive Membership program to gain access to everything. Even when purchasing an individual product, you can choose from a range of options, depending on how many sites you want to use the product on.

Your Thrive Membership subscription will be billed quarterly or annually, with a discount available to those paying for a year upfront. All membership purchase options cover the use of the themes and plugins on all of the websites you own. There’s also an agency membership plan that allows you to use the Thrive Themes products on your clients’ sites as well.

The Thrive Themes purchase options include: 

  • Individual themes from $49 and plugins from $39.

  • Thrive Membership for individuals: $19 a month paid annually or $30 a month paid quarterly.

  • Thrive Membership for agencies: $49 a month paid annually or $69 a month paid quarterly

All options include access to product updates. Individual products include one year of access to customer support, with the Thrive Membership including unlimited access to support while your subscription is active.

So, a thrive themes membership is what can help you. You can subscribe to the Thrive Themes membership plan at $19/month on the yearly subscription. This allows you to use the Thrive themes & plugins on 25 of your sites. Or you can subscribe to another plan at $49 per month that allows you to use the Thrive themes templates & plugins on 50 of your sites. Currently, there is no Thrive Theme Discount code or coupon, or best price deal other than its membership plan to access the best, conversion-optimized plugins at a nominal price.

This is an excellent article that you can use to learn more about how to choose the right tools that will help you expand your online presence and reach.

 

 

Thrive Architect: In-Depth Look

The thrive theme architect is the page builder from the Thrive themes. It was developed to replace the Thrive content builder and can be used to create conversion-focused pages of your site. The Thrive Architect is a replacement for the Thrive Content builder, the visual editor. This plugin, the Thrive content builders had some limitations that the Thrive Architect removes. It had a simple concept, it helped people with limited HTML & CSS knowledge to create attractive content with a WYSIWYG editor. While the Thrive content builders features were limited, the Thrive Architect has the features like that of the popular WordPress page builders like Beaver builder and the Divi builder.

The page builder by Thrive Themes is easy to use. You can be creative and develop beautiful designs of your own using the intuitive options. So, the thrive Architect is ideal for creating your marketing focused websites too. Moreover, the Thrive architect is affordable. You have to pay a one-time fee of $69 and use it to create any kind of design.

Opening a page template in the Thrive Content Builder interface allows you to click on its elements and items to edit them, with context-sensitive controls instantly appearing in the sidebar once you’ve clicked on an item. As this is a front-end builder, while you’re working you get to see your page as your visitors would, and, because there’s no need to switch browser tabs to see a preview of your work, the design and development process is fast and responsive.

Some of the core benefits of the Thrive Theme Builder include the following:

  • Thrive themes is hands down, the best visual editor for a visually appealing content

  • Comes with conversion focused WordPress themes and landing pages

  • The drag-and-drop editor is pretty easy to use and makes your life easy

  • Lots of various elements you can add to your pages, from testimonial boxes to exit-intent popups

  • Affordable pricing

  • Fast loading WordPress Theme

  • Fully optimized for both SEO and mobile

  • a WYSIWYG WordPress editor interface

  • the ability to create full-width landing pages

  • a library of useful, customizable elements for your pages

  • a large selection of prebuilt marketing-focused pre-designed page templates

  • a custom CSS and HTML support for more control over your designs.

Some of the negatives that come with using Thrive Theme Builder are the following:

  • Thrive Themes is only meant for WordPress CMS websites

  • It’s mostly helpful for new posts and pages, and difficult to modify your old pages with Thrive Architect

  • It takes some time to get used to it

Thrive Content Builder compares well to other leading page builder plugins, such as Beaver Builder and Visual Composer, in terms of functionality and creative possibilities. However, based on its prebuilt page templates and content modules, Thrive Content Builder is more focused on creating marketing content and landing pages. It’s definitely a good tool, but if you want help creating a wider range of website pages Beaver Builder or Divi Builder and their more varied selection of templates may be better options.

Opening a page template in the Thrive Content Builder interface allows you to click on its elements and items to edit them, with context-sensitive controls instantly appearing in the sidebar once you’ve clicked on an item. As this is a front-end builder, while you’re working you get to see your page as your visitors would, and, because there’s no need to switch browser tabs to see a preview of your work, the design and development process is fast and responsive.

This is a great article that you can use to learn more about how using WordPress themes can help boost the performance of your site.

Thrive Themes: Customer Support

As a Thrive Themes customer, you can open support tickets through the private forums, giving you an easy way to search for solutions to issues raised by other users. You can also check the knowledge base for solutions to any problems you may be experiencing. Each product also has its own set of tutorials to help you get the most out of it. The courses are made up of multiple lessons, with some including videos in addition to the written content. If you’re serious about creating an effective website or want to improve your online marketing skills, then joining the Thrive Themes membership program with access to the university content is something to consider. 

In an attempt to differentiate themselves from the competition and add substance to their claims of offering an all-in-one online business toolbox, Thrive Themes offer webinar classrooms and recordings to help you use their tools to grow your business. There are also the Thrive Themes university courses, covering a wide range of topics, from building a conversion-focused website from scratch and creating webinar funnels, to designing persuasive option forms and launching a product or product line.

This is a great article you can read how quality customer support can go a long way.

Thrive Themes: Questions & Answers

Let’s answer some of the most commonly asked questions when it comes to why you should use Thrive Themes for your website and how it can benefit you. 

1. What comes with the Thrive Themes membership and how much does it cost?

It comes with full access to all their WordPress themes and plugins, plus ongoing customer support. Refer to the pricing section above for more.

2. What makes Thrive Themes unique from other WordPress themes?

Thrive themes are generally known as conversion focused WordPress themes which are built to boost your website conversion rates. If getting a theme with higher conversion rates is your concern, then give Thrive themes a try today.

Apart from that, below are the more reasons you should consider Thrive themes over other WordPress themes:

  • Built for mobile and SEO

  • Customize to your own taste with their drag and drop builder

  • Very fast themes (comes with automatic image compression functionality which increases your site loading times)

  • Lots of free updates

  • Access to stunning landing page pre-made templates

3. How many websites can I use my Thrive Themes subscription on?

Thrive themes offers two types of pricing.

  • Thrive membership

  • Agency membership

Thrive membership package is more affordable and lets you install Thrive themes on up to twenty-five of your own sites. While Thrive Agency membership enables you to install their themes on up to fifty of your websites and that of clients’.

4. Is it worth investing in a premium WordPress theme such as Thrive themes if I don’t plan on selling anything?

The primary reason people often choose premium WordPress themes over the free ones is that premium themes are more secure, faster loading and quick customer support.

On the other hand, free theme developers don’t give you any support needed to customize the themes. And most free themes are often prone to hacking due to fewer updates.

Here are more reasons to choose a premium theme over the free ones:

  • Super-fast loading speed

  • Well optimized for both SEO and mobile

  • Fantastic documentation

  • Frequent updates

  • More awesome features

Therefore, if you want a simple and unique design for your blog, going for a premium WordPress theme such as Thrive themes is the best option. 

5. What if I don’t like Thrive Themes after I already finalized my purchase?

If you have problems with Thrive themes or its features after your purchase, you can easily contact their customer support 24/7. However, if you are still not happy with their products, you can get a refund within 30-days of your purchase.

It’s also worth stating that if you’ve paid a yearly subscription for Thrive membership, you’re free to cancel your account anytime, but you won’t get any refund after the 30 days.

 

Thrive Themes: Conclusion

If you’re looking for a suite of tools to help you create well-optimized websites, then your part of the Thrive Themes target audience. Although the individual themes aren’t that impressive on their own when you consider all the themes, plugins, and educational content on offer to

However, you wouldn’t get such a strong focus on conversion rate optimization and the Thrive Themes educational content to support you. If you like the look of any of the individual Thrive Themes products, they are good options. 

However, you’ll get the most from Thrive Themes by joining their membership program and getting access to everything, including the themes, lead generation tools, content builder, and educational content. Thrive, members, the whole of the Thrive Themes portfolio is greater than the sum of its parts. You could probably get similar results with the lower-priced products from Elegant Themes specifically, their Divi theme and its powerful drag-and-drop page builder, split testing tool, and page template library, combined with their Bloom plugin and its option forms.

 If you’re on a budget or you don’t need all the powerful features of a tool such as Thrive Leads, but you’d still like a high-quality theme for your website and a premium lead generation plugin, there are other more affordable options available. The great thing about Thrive Themes is that you can sign up for a monthly membership which will give you unlimited access to all of their premium WordPress themes and plugins. If you don’t want to go with a monthly subscription for Thrive Themes, you can simply purchase the items you need on an individual basis.

 Depending on the size of your business and if you plan to expand, this option can save you money in the long run. One good alternative is the not-quite-as-powerful-as-Thrive-Leads Bloom opt-in form plugin and the impressive Divi theme, which are both available as part of the $89 all product package from Elegant Themes. Divi also has a split testing tool and impressive page builder to rival the Thrive Content Builder plugin.

Read this article to learn even more about how a quality WordPress theme can help your website.

5 Best Contest Apps for 2021: How to Create Social Contests that Succeed

Congratulations, you win! 

Running a social media contest is an excellent way to get people interested in your brand, grow your email list, and engage your audience. After all, everybody loves the chance to win something for free, and they don’t mind giving up some personal information to do so.

But while plenty of brands are seeing serious increases in engagement and fans when using contests, there are also many that have wasted time and money on contests that didn’t bring the results they wanted.

If that situation sounds familiar, don’t panic. There are ways to ensure a greater success rate for your social contest.

Basically, success depends on two things:

First, let’s discuss why you should be using social contests, and then we’ll see which contest apps and best practices you should be using.

How your brand can benefit by running a social media contest 

There are four main benefits to running a social contest:

Grow awareness

If you want to expand your reach and help your target audience discover you, running a contest is the best way to do so. Mainly, this is because of the insane sharing aspect of contests. On average, 54% of people who enter your contest will share it to their friends. However, if you give extra rewards within your contest to those that share, that number shoots up to 99%. 

Engage your audience

When done correctly, a social contest allows you to build a relationship with your audience, encouraging them to engage with your brand online. That’s what the Brazilian soccer club Atlético Mineiro found when they created a sweepstakes contest. In just 11 days, they added 15,000 new Facebook fans and boosted engagement by 50%.

Build you social following and email list

There’s no doubt that social contests help you build followers and increase email subscribers: FOMO comes into play here, encouraging people to follow and subscribe so they don’t miss any future prizes. 

One study found that Instagram accounts who ran contests grew 70% faster in three months than accounts that didn’t. 

That’s exactly how candle brand Diamond Candles built their social following. In just six weeks of using sweepstakes contests, they added 148,000 new Facebook fans and generated 30,000 new leads. 

Get people hooked on your products

When used correctly, social contests can convert leads into customers without any additional effort or money spent. 

For example, when you use a contest to promote a product that you sell, you’re introducing people to something they may not have heard of or tried before. And once they try it, they’ll wonder how they ever lived without it. 

But, while we acknowledge that contests are great for your brand, why do you need a contest app to run one?

Why do you need a contest app?

Put simply, contest apps take the hard work out of preparing, promoting, and finalizing your social media contest. 

For example, let’s say you want to run a hashtag contest. While it’s easy to write up a quick post and tell your followers to use that hashtag, the next steps are tricky. How will you collect all the entries? How will you filter multiple or fake entries? Who decides the winner? How will you promote the contest?

To save a lot of headache, the best contest apps give you the right tools to:

  • Set up your contest with its own landing page
  • Promote your contest across multiple channels
  • Collect and filter contest entries
  • Gather lead information
  • Randomly select a winner
  • Send emails to both the winners and losers

Wondering which are the best contest apps available right now? Let’s find out.

These are the best contest apps you should be using:

1. Wishpond

This is much more than a social contest app, and the extra features that Wishpond provides will make sure your contests run smoothly with other digital marketing efforts.

Wishpond allows you to create a contest that fits your brand’s needs with 13 different types of contest available to choose from, including sweepstakes, photo contests, leaderboard contests, video contests, hashtag contests, Pinterest contests, and more.

This robust tool also allows you to capture and nurture leads, run email campaigns, create flexible landing pages, build website pop-ups, and more. And, after you’ve built whatever your marketing strategy requires, Wishpond provides in-depth reporting and analytics to help you get a clearer view of your success rate.

Best features

  • Includes a complete suite of online marketing tools.
  • Offers 10+ options for social media contests.
  • Provides A/B testing options.
  • Easily integrates with other tools, such as MailChimp, Shopify, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Slack, and more.
  • Includes intuitive lead-capture and nurturing features.
  • Editor for contests, landing pages, and emails is drag-and-drop style.
  • Helps you build mobile-friendly contests.
  • Includes random winner selection.
  • Gives you access to 200+ templates for landing pages, contests, and more.
  • Provides real-time reports.

Pricing

The Starting Out package gives you unlimited landing pages, contests, popups, and user accounts. You’ll also get marketing automation, and a maximum of 1,000 leads. This package starts at $49 per month. 

However, if you want advanced features like A/B testing, custom Javascript, and more leads, you’ll have to go for the next package, which costs $99 per month.

Wishpond is definitely the most robust marketing tool on our list, and its features integrate nicely to run smooth, flexible campaigns across different platforms.

2. Shortstack

Shortstack is another all-in-one tool for social contests, meaning you can create, promote, and collect leads from your social contests all in one place. 

Again, there are lots of features here to explore, and Shortstack is great for larger brands who want it all without the hassle of building their own code. They also give you real-time analytics and lead-capture features. 

Best features

  • Includes other marketing tools that work together for your contests.
  • Gives you the ability to promote your contest across multiple channels.
  • Offers random entry picker for comment-to-enter contests.
  • Provides automated UCG collection.
  • Gives you lead-capture features.
  • Makes design easy with a drag-and-drop editor, or ready-made templates.
  • Provides features to help verify the authenticity of entries.
  • Includes real-time analytics.

Pricing

Shortstack offers a free version, which is great for testing out the platform before using it but definitely isn’t a long-term solution.

At $29 per month, the Starter pack allows you to run five different types of contests, but limits you to just 2,000 entries. If you want up to 10,000 entries, you’ll have to go for the Business plan, which is $99 per month, but you still won’t have access to hashtag contests or whitelabeling. For that, you’ll need the Agency plan, which is $199 per month. 

So, while it is a great tool, Shortstack is definitely in a higher price range than the others on this list.

3. Gleam

Gleam’s claim-to-fame is its advanced verification and entry options. 

First, you get to select what kind of actions people must take to enter your contest, including visiting your Facebook page, creating an account, referring friends, watching a video on YouTube, etc. 

Then, Gleam verifies that users are completing these actions. In fact, they can do so with just one click, without ever leaving the contest page. 

Gleam is also one of the few contest apps that works with platforms like Twitch, Kickstarter, Eventbrite, and SoundCloud.

Best features

  • Offers over 100 integrations with other tools.
  • Track users as they complete actions for your contest.
  • Includes built-in share buttons.
  • Supports over 25 languages.
  • There is a free version available.
  • Gives you the ability to buy apps separately.

Pricing

Gleam is composed of four different apps: Competitions, Rewards, Gallery, and Capture. If you want all four products, pricing starts at $79 per month. However, you can also choose to just buy the products you need. 

For just the Competitions, pricing starts at just $10 per month. That allows you unlimited campaigns and unlimited entries, but only 25 winners and limits on other features. For example, to remove Gleam branding and get access to the majority of the customization and entry options, you’ll need the Business plan, which is $149 per month.

4. Woobox

Woobox is great for complete, 100% customization of your contests. This tool is solely focused on contests, meaning it doesn’t have the same marketing functionality that Wishpond does. However, it offers integrations with over 500 tools, which means the leads you generate with your contests can easily be transferred to another marketing app for lead nurturing. 

Best features

  • 10 different contest options, including giveaways, polls, quizzes, surveys, and more.
  • Random winner picker included.
  • Integrates with over 500 tools.
  • Allows you to run personality quizzes that help you learn about your audience.

Pricing

With the free plan, you’ll get unlimited campaigns but only 100 participants per month are allowed, and you can only use the Facebook Tabs and Winner Picker contest types.

The Standard plan is $32 per month, and gives you unlimited participants and access to all contest types and entry methods. However, you won’t get customization options, multiple users, or Woobox branding removed unless you pay $99 per month for the Advanced package.

5. Heyo

Heyo is known for its simple interface and excellent customer support. They’re also mobile-focused, meaning you won’t be missing out on mobile leads when using this contest app.

Whether you want to do a sweepstakes, photo contest, quiz, or a multi-format contest, Heyo is there for you. They’re great if you want to build up on UGC content, or get your audience to refer a friend.

Again, this tool doesn’t provide other marketing features, so its functionality is somewhat limited compared to Wishpond and others. One nice feature is that, if you’re not confident in designing your own campaign, you can actually have Heyo design a contest for you.

Best features

  • Provides 8 different contest options.
  • Gives you the power to create mobile-friendly contests.
  • Includes a handy drag-and-drop contest builder.
  • Regularly run helpful webinars to help you learn how to do contests.
  • Provides multi-language support.
  • Full-service contest creation is also available.

Pricing

For $25 per month, you’ll get unlimited leads, but only 3 campaigns and up to 50,000 Facebook fans. If you go beyond that, you’ll need to pay $84 per month for the Standard pack, which gives you 15 campaigns and 250,000 Facebook fans, as well as campaign analytics. 

However, you still won’t get voting apps, quizzes, or whitelabeling until you get the Premium plan, which is a bit steep at $199 per month. 

Obviously, it makes more sense to invest in a more robust tool that will help you, not only with contests, but with the work of turning those contest participants into loyal followers and (hopefully) customers.

So, now that we’ve discussed the best contest apps on the marketing, how can you make sure you’re creating a contest that will drive real results?

6 social media best practices you should be following

1. Make your contest goal-oriented

As we talked about at the beginning, social media contests can bring various benefits to your brand. 

However, for your contest to be successful, you’ll need to pick the right goal and stick with it.

Do you want more engagement on social? Do you want to build your email list? Are you trying to grow awareness?

As you set your goals, make sure you can track measurable results. How many new subscribers do you want? What does awareness look like in practical terms? This will help you calculate the success of your contests.

2. Spend time on good design and a catchy headline

Today, plenty of companies are running social contests. To stand out, yours needs to call their attention from the moment they see it.

This is accomplished by two things: good design and an attractive headline.

Design is key when it comes to pretty much everything on social media. The best contest apps we discussed above give you easy design features and ready-made templates that work for people who aren’t designers.

Headlines also need your attention: make sure your conteste headline stands out to your target audience as something that’s appealing to them in particular.

Check out how this group of travel brands teamed up to create an ultimate sweepstakes that appealed to travelers:

The headline was succinct, appealed to travelers, and made it clear exactly what was involved.

3. Avoid iPad contests 

The infamous iPad contest draws in literally everyone. But that’s not necessarily a good thing.

While it might sound counterintuitive, you don’t actually want everyone to participate in your contest. Instead, you want focused, relevant leads because these are the people who are more likely to convert into customers.

So, give your audience what they want. Check out how My Sports Clubs did this with their sweepstakes contest:

The prize, a year of free personal training, appealed to the gym’s core audience, meaning they’d be getting much more valuable leads from this campaign.

4. Give a prize that’s worth the effort of the entry

In other words: the more difficult the entry process is, the more valuable the prize should be.

While it’s good to make sure your forms aren’t too long to get more people to participate, there are times when you want to create a higher barrier to entry. For example, if you want to filter out low-quality leads or content, set your bar higher.

That being said, the prize must be equally high-quality. If you want people to make a video, write a review, invite 5 friends, or take other more complex actions, your prize will have to be more than a reshare or a $5 gift card.

Check out how Canadian camera store Henry’s offered a worthwhile prize for their video contest:

5. Run contests regularly

According to one survey, 55.5% of brands run social media giveaways at least once a month, or as often as several times a week.

If you want to stand up to the competition, you’re going to have to run contests regularly. 

This will also help you build a consistent, engaged following. Your core audience will not only subscribe, but they’ll be more motivated to stick around simply because they don’t want to miss out on your next giveaway.

6. Provide a consolation prize

At the end of your contest, you’ll have plenty of participants who didn’t win the prize. Don’t just leave them hanging. It’s time to strike while the iron is hot and keep them interested in your brand.

That’s where the consolation prize comes in.

Check out how luxury tech accessory brand Native Union did this with their post-contest email: 

Use the best contest apps for the best results with your social contests

Ultimately, the fate of your social media contests lies in your hands. 

If you use the best contest apps available, like the ones we discussed above, you’ll be more likely to see results. Focus on the tools that include other marketing features, and you’ll make sure your new leads don’t slip through the cracks.  

Lastly, you’ll also need to follow the social media contest code of conduct, using the best practices we described above to draw in the right audience and make the best use of the leads you gather.

By following these tips and tricks, you’ll be more likely to get real results from your social media contests.

15 of the Best Podcasts for Entrepreneurs in 2021: Looking Ahead!

Being an entrepreneur is a tough, lonely life at times. We’re the ones who trade nights out with friends or Netflix binge-watching sessions for strategy meetings and business growth development. We often spend a lot of time on the road, and in our travels, so podcasts can be a great way to learn some new business strategies, get inspired, or hear the best hard-fought success stories out there. That’s why I hand-picked 15 of my best podcasts for entrepreneurs for 2018 here.

I love listening to podcasts. Often when I’m knee-deep in editing and formatting, I put on a podcast or two to inspire me while I catch all those typos and missing hyperlinks. It can be a great way to spend a few hours on the road too. You can often catch me listening to a few of my favorite podcasts on a long flight to a conference. The best podcasts make the time go by so much faster, right?

What makes a great podcast for business leaders?

A great podcast for entrepreneurs is defined by a simple principle — are you going to learn something meaningful that you can implement into your life and business strategy? Great podcasts not only entertain, they inform. They provide insights you can’t get anywhere else. When I become addicted to a podcast, it’s usually because the interviews are fresh. And, when the interviewers are curious, I know I’m going to learn something.

I’ve chosen these top podcasts for entrepreneurs with you all in mind. Not only do business owners need motivational and inspirational, we need strategies that we can actually use.

The Best Podcasts Let You In

The greatest podcasts — full stop — are the ones that aren’t afraid to go there. By ‘there’, I mean to let us into the struggles, the failures, the times in the entrepreneurial journey that aren’t so great. I’ve listened to hundreds of podcasts in my own personal journey as an entrepreneur. These are the best business podcasts that I personally bookmark, go back to, and listen again, and again. Some are geared towards the small business owner, some help you with your inner game, some share practical insights and strategies.

Making this list I was reminded of how vital it is to listen to other’s stories of failure and success. We all can’t get to meet the influencers and leaders of our day in real life, so podcasts are a great way to ‘sit at the table’ with these leaders. I love when I learn a new tidbit, strategy or insight from someone that I thought I knew. Podcasts can do all of that. I encourage all of you to take some time this week and just listen. Hey, you just might learn something!

Without any further ado, here are the best podcasts for entrepreneurs in 2018!

1.The Gary Vee Audio Experience

There is no holding back when it comes to the real deal advice, candor, and discussions you get with Gary Vaynerchuk. We’ve been a fan for many years, watching as he continues to grow his media empire.

This podcast is filled with informative strategies and advice from the master of ‘tell it like it is’ entrepreneurial advice. The future is audio, claims Gary Vee and you can tell he puts a lot of time and effort to bring business leaders the information and strategies that we need. You’ll get a mix of relaxed, informative talks as well as the feature where you can ask Gary anything in #AskGaryVee show episodes.

2. The Joe Rogan Experience

Whether you are already a fan of Joe Rogan or not, this is a great podcast. While some might not consider this a typical entrepreneurial podcast, I say this is one of the best around. With topics such that tackle the future of work and life as we know it, Joe Rogan doesn’t shy away from the controversial topics as well.

He also covers topics such as health, fitness, and is a big supporter of the cannabis movement. While this podcast does feature heavy hitters and celebrities, the discussions are frank, honest, and always entertaining.

Watch Joe Rogan interview author, director, and anthropologist Sebastian Junger. They discuss modern society, namely the cutoff existence we all find ourselves in, which can be lead to nation-wide depression. As the future of work changes, these kinds of discussions are so important:

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3. The Tim Ferris Show

With over 300 million downloads, best of iTunes accolades, the Tim Ferris Show isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Tim has interviewed thousands of business leaders as well as celebrities in his own style, full of gritty strategies and business truths.

Covering everything from Blockchain, to the inner game of the entrepreneur, Tim keeps the content fresh, inviting and definitely entertaining. If you are looking to up your business goals, this is a great place to visit and have a listen.

4. The Motivational Millennial Podcast

With a focus on the inner game of the entrepreneur, hosts Ivy LaClair and Blake Brandes speak with a myriad of leaders, from musicians to business leaders all with the goal to discussing our purpose on this planet.

If you need some insights on how to get your mindset geared towards success, this is a great podcast to spend some time with.

5. The Growth Now Movement

If you want to manifest greatness in your life and in your business, the Growth Now Movement podcast is definitely worth your time. With interviews from Fitness Gurus, business leaders, stand-up comedians, this edgy podcast delivers the hustle and strategies social impact leaders like you need to grow your business. Entertaining and educational, this is a podcast you won’t want to miss.

Check out this interview with stand-up comedian, actor, reality tv host, Bert Kreischer on storytelling (and how not to lose your virginity). Did I say this was entertaining?

6. Entrepreneurs on Fire with John Lee Dumas

Seven days a week, host John Lee Dumas releases another entrepreneurial gem, interviewing celebrities, business leaders in this interview-style podcast that has certainly caught fire over the past few years. Interviews with leaders such as Seth Godin, Tony Robbins, Tim Ferris, Barbara Corcoran and more share their strategies for growth, insights into their successes and failures and so much more.

Check out our very own CEO and Founder of Change Creator, Adam Force imparting some truth bombs on the Entrepreneurs on Fire.

7. Leadership and Loyalty with Dov Baron

Dov Baron is a master leader and inspirational speaker. We also featured Dov on our Best Leadership Podcast super list!

Dov is a one-of-a-kind motivational speaker that tells us, not what we want to hear, but what we need to. His frank candor and energy is refreshing and cuts through the noise online. Let’s face it, being a business leader is a tough life and Dov makes nothing sound easy, but what he does do is offer valuable business insights, tough-talking points we need to hear, and motivation in the form of practical tips we all need to implement.

8. Addicted to Success with Joel Brown

Joel Brown is a superhero in the Change Creator world. Not only is he our Issue #3 cover story, we consider him a dear friend and inspiration around here. With the Addicted to Success podcast, you can feel his immense energy, his natural curiosity, and interest in his subjects at every turn.

Joel interviews startup founders, business leaders, small business leaders, founders, motivational speakers, celebrities and more on his podcast. Joel’s interviews continue to be a leading source of motivation and real actionable business strategies along our own entrepreneurial journies here at Change Creator.

One of the insights he shared with us in our exclusive interview with Change Creator, way back when in Issue #3 was the principle of Time vs Energy. We’re all given the same amount of time in each day, it’s how we spend our energy that really matters and one listen to the Addicted to Success podcast shows how much energy and passion Joel puts into his podcasts.

Two of our favorite Addicted to Success podcasts from 2018:

Garrain Jones is a transformational leader and public speaker who is all about breaking through barriers. Here Joel and Garrain talk about living a courageous life, full of passion discussing the power of telling a great story, how that can expand your network and net worth.

Getting your impact story out there is vital if you want to succeed as a purpose-driven entrepreneur and in today’s world, there’s no better way than to actually get on a podcast! If you want to break through the digital noise and not only secure a spot on the top podcasts, but have a podcast that will truly inspire and breakthrough, then listen to this interview which clearly outlines the simple, effective steps you can take to get interviews.

9. Tony Loyd — Social Entrepreneur

The passion for social impact shines through in Tony Loyd’s podcast as he interviews some of the world’s greatest social entrepreneurs with wit, humor, and genuine interest. Listen to some of the most provocative, soul-changing business stories from the front lines of social impact in this podcast that is a definite must-have on our best entrepreneurial podcasts for 2018 list!

Tony Loyd also interviewed our fearless leader, Adam Force as well. Listen to his interview as the two fellow, mission-driven entrepreneurs and podcasters swap stories. How do you make a living doing something meaningful? They discuss Adam’s personal story and early businesses before Change Creator and the transformational journey that Adam had leading up to Change Creator. This interview was done just before Issue #4 and is packed with early insights on what motivated Adam to start and grow Change Creator from the beginning.

10. Perpetual Traffic Podcast

Here’s where we get to the nitty-gritty of marketing and building your business online. Learn tips from the pros on how to lower your ROI costs, delve successfully into the world of Facebook marketing, get more relevant traffic and more. A must for any business leader that wants to grow their online presence and make more money.

The weekly podcast is produced by Digital Marketer and hosted by Keith Krance, Ralph Burns (Dominate Web Media) and Molly Pittman (Digital Marketer). Not only do they share their personal growth hacking insights, they often interview real business owners and discuss the struggles, challenges, and nightmare scenarios they overcame in the world of digital marketing. Learn the secrets of how to create passive income, gain more followers, get more conversions, and organic traffic from real deal experts and business owners.

11. Your Kick-Ass Life Podcast with Andrea Owen

You are going to need to have a kick-ass life if you want to be a kick-ass entrepreneur. Andrea Owen isn’t afraid to dig deep into life, her own experiences, and story to share insights on how to live a kick-ass life. Geared toward the busy, hustler generation, Andrea’s thoughts on everything from the mental game, goal setting to technology are fresh and fun. Tips on things such as social blocking and productivity are helpful, I’ve learned a lot about time management and goal setting on this quirky podcast.

12. The School of Greatness Podcast with Lewis Howes

“You can ride a wave or you can start a wave.”

Former professional football player Lewis Howes is next on my list with The School of Greatness podcast. Not only does he seem to pull out great stories from all of his guests, this podcast is full of actionable advice that we all need to hear.

A great question-asker, Lewis seems to pull the best stories, insights and truth from his guests and it’s a pleasure to listen too. With interviews from professional athletes, the best business minds in the country, influencers and celebrities, there is something for every business owner, no matter how far or how long you’ve been on this journey.

Humble the Poet — A Lewis Howes Exclusive

Lewis Howes interview with spoken word poet, Humble the Poet is a great example of why I love this podcast so much. With sharp candor and fresh insights, Humble the Poet shares how we control our destiny — it is up to all of us to start our own wave and keep going. That’s what I love about this episode, watch here:

[vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=dv5OBNIg-rk”]

 

13. The Smart Passive Income Podcast with Pat Flynn

Passive income is a dream. If you can make money in your sleep, you have a business, if not, you’re still just trading time for money. In this podcast, Pat Flynn breaks down the challenges of earning passive income while providing some proven strategies to earn money online. Here you’ll get into the more tactical information too, like how to write sales copy that works, how to earn more media exposure, and how to run a contest to build your email list. If you want to grow your online business, I strongly encourage you to bookmark this podcast and come back often.

14. Unemployable with Brian Clark

Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger and 7 other companies hosts this podcast where he interviews business leaders and influencers to talk about the challenges and pitfalls of entrepreneurial life. With topics that cover the fundamentals, such as entrepreneurial habits, to insightful interviews from all parts of the business journey, Unemployable is a go-to podcast for any serious business owner. Listen to one of my favorites, about a partnership gone wrong, that worked out so good: Picking Up the Pieces when a Partnership Implodes, with Jordan Harbinger.

15. Change Creator Podcast with Adam Force

This list would not be complete without a shoutout to our very own leader of the Change Creator crew, Adam Force. The Change Creator podcast features the world’s most successful business leaders, marketing and branding professionals, celebrities, and influencers. It’s a great mix of practical insights and storytelling from the front lines.

With interviews and frank discussions from world leaders such as Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus, marketing guru, Seth Godin, motivational superstar, Jay Shetty, just to name a few, the Change Creator podcast is a fresh take on modern business, with a social impact twist.

In the Change Creator podcast, we get to see the intensely curious Adam Force delve deeper into the lives, challenges, and strategies from the most successful leaders on our planet all with the goal of helping others grow their business and their impact.

I have personally listened to most of these interviews, but I do have some favorites, of course. One of my personal favorites is when Adam interviewed social activist, Sonya Renee Taylor to discuss how she grew her business, The Body Is Not An Apology form a poem to a worldwide phenomenon. I also was deeply moved by his exclusive interview with Dr. Muhammad Yunus — Solving Big Social Problems with Small Steps which showcases a personal and professional high for sure.

Some of the other Change Creator podcasts that make it to my top ten list are:

Kelly Campbell

Kelly Campbell: How She Sold Her Second Company and Created a New Meaningful Business She Loves — Adam and Kelly share an honest, lively discussion on how she went from an agency owner to helping agency owners grow their businesses.

Jake Orak Follow-Up

Jake Orak: How do you lean into your social mission to differentiate your business? Here our first cover story, Jake Orak breaks down the real struggles and challenges he went through growing Ethnotek bags. It is a refreshing look into what can really happen when you are on the ground running a social impact business.

Jay Shetty

Jay Shetty: What is Storytelling and What Makes a Good Story? This podcast features the captivating and well-spoken Jay Shetty, an online phenomenon. Here he breaks down the strategies behind his viral videos and what’s led him to this massive success he’s found online.

Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki: Pulling Back the Curtain on Startup Success – Listeners get to sit at the table with one of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet as Adam and Guy dig deep into what it really takes to grow a startup.

Mallika Dutt

How to Use Pop Culture to Tackle Human Rights with Mallika Dutt — This was one of the earlier podcasts but it still holds a special place in my heart as I was introduced to one of the fiercest rabble-rousers out there, Mallika Dutt. As a woman entrepreneur and leader, she shares her strategical approach to rapid growth and starting a movement that saved women’s lives with Breakthrough.

Seth Godin

Seth Godin: What it Takes to be a Great Leader That Impacts the World — You would never know that Adam had mere minutes to prepare for this interview with Seth Godin as their candor and discussion is hyper-focused and right on point. We’re still talking about the insights in this podcast around these parts, as Seth breaks down the role of leadership in these changing, exciting times.

Dov Baron

Dov Baron: How Do You Find Purpose and Build Your Personal Brand — Sometimes a podcast can come into your life and just knock your socks off! That’s what happened to me when I first listened to this exclusive Dov Baron interview full of passion and kick-me-in-the-face truths all entrepreneurs need to hear (even if we don’t want to).

Bustle

And finally to round off my top ten:

Interview with Bryan Goldberg and Kate Ward from Bustle: This is always going to be known as the interview that made me want to join Adam as a partner here at Change Creator. For several months, Adam and I talked and strategized about scaling this media company, but I was super hesitant to jump in and really take it on. Then, he shared this interview. The rest, as they say, is history. Bryan and Kate showed me the possibilities in growing a media company and from that moment on, it’s all I’ve wanted to do with my life. That’s the power of a great interview. Thanks guys!

 

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

What podcasts do successful people listen to?

Successful people surround themselves with inspirational people. They love to listen to podcasts for leaders, such as the Dov Baron podcast, or they like to listen to the popular ones such as The Tim Ferris Show, Masters of Scale, but we would also recommend the Rise Project.

What podcasts do CEOS listen to?

If you want to be the CEO of your company, you need to listen to the podcasts that leaders do. We recommend the Leadership and Loyalty Podcast with Dov Baron, Coaching for Leaders with Dave Stachowiak and Dose of Leadership with Richard Rierson.

How do I start a podcast for my business?

Before you start a podcast, think about what your audience is most interested in and go as niche as possible with your topic. Find smart, niche-related people to talk to and map out your first 10 podcast interviews. Invest in a decent microphone and editor. You can get up and running fairly quickly if you have a plan.

My Final Thoughts

And there you have it — 15 killer entrepreneurial podcasts you have to listen to this year and beyond. Listening to podcasts can have a huge effect on your life and on your business. I implore you to take some time and have a listen.

Do you have any awesome entrepreneurial podcasts I haven’t included? Comment below with your top picks and I just might add them to my list.

You might also enjoy:

23 of the Best Leadership Podcasts You’ll Love [New 2019 Picks!!]

Develop a Mind to Thrive: Arianna Huffington (And Why Work / Life Balance is a Myth)

We want this to be the year that you truly thrive! We couldn’t think of a better person to talk about success, how to take care of yourself and your business and what it really means to thrive in 2020 than Arianna Huffington. As we put away 2019 and look forward to a new year, we are challenging you — the change creators—to:

Take a fresh look at your life, your mission, and your health.

We’ve wanted to interview Arianna Huffington since we launched Change Creator magazine. Not only is she one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 most influential women out there, but she embraces the social entrepreneurial spirit of make money, make a difference beautifully.

(This article first appeared in Issue #7 of Change Creator magazine). 

Now with the launch of Thrive Global, Arianna is putting her money, her time and energy where her beliefs are, challenging the status quo of 24/7 workweeks, and burnout. With valuable resources, a global approach, and a fresh perspective on health and wellness Thrive Global is set to permeate our consciousness in 2017.

How to Develop a Mind to Thrive

Today, we see the Arianna Huffington that embraces wellness, that is a staunch advocate for women’s rights, and as someone who challenges the notion of stress, burnout, and the overconfident belief that we can get by on less sleep.

Today, she’s the first to admit that her very definition of success has changed over the years:

“I would say my definition [of success] is less conventional today than it was ten years ago. Now I think the true definition of success should start with: do you feel happy and fulfilled, do you feel like your life has meaning, and are able to spend enough time with the people that you love?”

Even a few short years ago, Arianna defined her life and measured success much differently. We can learn a lot from her experience. How did Arianna’s values change over the years? How did she discover her life’s work? When did she decide to share her hard-fought wisdom with the world? If we want to thrive, we must first understand that there’s more to life than money, power, fame or even doing a job that you love.

A Wake-up Call

If we are going to challenge conventions, we must first look within ourselves and acknowledge that there is a problem worth changing.

“To end the misery that has afflicted the human condition for thousands of years, you have to start with yourself and take responsibility for your inner state at any given moment. That means now.” —Eckhart Tolle

For Arianna, this look at her life came from a broken cheekbone and a nasty gash over her eye, the result of collapse from total, utter exhaustion.

Here she was growing one of the world’s largest and most influential media companies, as co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, she defined her success as power, influence, and wealth.

Waking up in a pool of her own blood did more than wake up her sensibilities; it started a cultural shift. “This isn’t what success feels like,” she thought. So began her search for what she now calls the third metric of success — finding true wisdom.

More Wisdom. Less Burnout.

 

With all the technological advancements we have at our disposal, with so many ways to discover our world, learn about what’s going on, why do we lack true wisdom?

As Arianna says, “We are starved of wisdom.” We are running on empty. In our interview with Arianna, she continues on to say, “Thrive Global is a response to the escalating global epidemic of stress and burnout which is costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year in health-care costs, in high turnover, employee disengagement, and productivity. ”

It’s time to redefine our priorities. If we want to embrace true wisdom in our lives, to discover that source of inspiration within all of us, we need to give back to the well, and that starts with taking care of our health.

In the past few issues of Change Creator magazine, you may have noticed a shift in our consciousness, not only in the type of content we’ve been providing you but also in our deliberate efforts to give you valuable personal health and wellness takeaways.

If you don’t take care of you, how are you going to discover those solutions that are vital to changing your world?

What it Means to Thrive

When asked about the role of money in society today and its impact on human behavior, Arianna explained:

“Right now, our society’s definition of success is still largely about money and power. In fact, success, money, and power have practically become synonymous, and are each used as proxies for the others. This might work in the short-term, but eventually, money and power simply by themselves are like a two-legged stool—you can balance on them for a while, but eventually, you’re going to topple over. And more and more people around the world, at all levels of conventional success, are toppling over.”

As we have seen in Arianna’s personal transformation throughout the years, we must learn to define success more holistically. Systems, corporations, and people are “toppling over” because they haven’t embraced the third metric of success.

We are living in a time of great change, yes, but we must not forget that many of us still define our value based on our pay-check, fame, or even influence over others. We have bought into the myth that even when we don’t define our values by money or power, we are living a balanced life: That if we have a job, a career, or a mission that we love, our life is somehow balanced, and we should, therefore, be happy. This is inherently false.

Are We Unbalanced?

Although our society has begun to evolve the definition of success, we’re still missing the mark. If we look at a scale, where we place work on one side and life on the other, we are—by its very definition opposing both sides. Arianna contends that this definition of success also needs to be reexamined and changed: That life and work balance is a myth. We will never achieve work/life balance because they should never be opposing forces in our lives.

For far too long, we have been an unbalanced society, talking about life and work balance as though they shouldn’t mix well together—that in order to have happiness, you are required to be in a constant struggle for resources, time, and priorities.

How many of us—even those of us who love our work—have thought, “My life is out of balance,” because we’ve spent too much time at work, and neglected the rest of our lives.

We’re here to tell you, this does not have to be the way: Stop struggling. Stop wasting time and energy. Stop hoping that this will be the year you spend more time with your family. What about your work? It doesn’t have to take over your life, even if you love it. Remember, the quality of work is more important than the quantity of work. Let’s stop this dichotomy.

“I definitely don’t believe in balance, for too long, we’ve had this notion of balance that not only doesn’t work but is premised on a myth…

The truth – and the basis for Thrive Global – is that work and life, well-being and productivity, are not on opposite sides — so they don’t need to be balanced. They’re on the same side and rise in tandem. Increase one and you increase the other. So there’s nothing to balance; increasing well-being and the productivity that goes along with it is a win-win, for work and life.”

We need to start approaching our lives, our priorities, and our values as a whole; we are not separate parts. Taking care of who we help us be better at everything we do. Arianna is not alone in this thinking; science backs her up:

“Researchers report decrements in sustained performance as a function of fatigue, especially during and following one or more nights of complete sleep loss, or longer periods of reduced or fragmented sleep. Sleep loss appears to result in reduced reaction time, decreased vigilance, perceptual and cognitive distortions, and changes in effect.” 

(Source: Work & Stress: An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02678378908256939).

These are not just ideological theories; lack of sleep decreases productivity. When we take care of ourselves, we’ll not only feel better, but our work will be better. So the next time you feel like staying up late to work on a project, skipping your morning workout, or not giving yourself a break, consider this: you are making choices, not just for you, but for our world.

Arianna knows more than anyone how important it is to slow down to do your best work. We asked Arianna, what changes she made in her life when she had her wake-up call. She tells us:

“I made a lot of changes, most of which had to do with sleeping more, slowing down, and making time to disconnect and recharge with things like meditation, hiking, taking breaks. And though this meant working less, it also meant working better. I came to realize that being productive isn’t about the quantity of work, but quality. And that’s the basis for my new company Thrive Global. As the science shows, when we prioritize our well-being, our creativity, well-being, and productivity all go up across the board.”

Make Money and a Difference

“A select few disrupters – the social entrepreneurs – develop, build, and scale their solutions in ways that bring about truly revolutionary change” (Huffington, Forward to Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works)

If we want to scale our efforts up a few notches, and be those social disruptors, we must first define our values and know our work will play a vital role in this world. As Arianna says:

“I think social entrepreneurship is incredibly important and will play a vital part in redefining the role of business in the world, which we urgently need to do. Our world is facing multiple crises and government action alone isn’t going to be enough to meet our challenges.”

How do we define and prioritize our values? First, we acknowledge that to build sustainable, long-term companies, we must take care of our personal resources. If an entrepreneur wants to make a living and a difference, what needs to happen? Arianna explains:

“First, it’s about values. Entrepreneurs—and especially, social entrepreneurs—need to define and prioritize their core values, not only in their business but also in their lives. This is important because they need to launch and grow their business in a way so that their personal resources are as sustainable for the long-term as whatever product or service or technology they’re marketing. It’s like what they say when you get on airplanes: Put on your own oxygen mask before helping others.”

Next, we must acknowledge that values can change over time, that the status quo of our society can and will change. Every generation can do things differently. Today, millennials are thinking about their lives differently from previous generations. They aren’t happy to just “find a job,” but also require that job to have meaning or shared values with their lives.

When we understand that the undercurrent of meaning for our lives is changing, we see firsthand the impact of people like Arianna Huffington, who has been advocating these changes in our thinking for many years.

Arianna Huffington, Jennifer Morgan

Our Values are Shifting

As we have seen, our values guide us. They help us make tough choices.

Imagine then that you are faced with having to decide between two new jobs. Both positions appear equal, but one role pays more. Easy choice? Take the job that pays more, right? But what if that job paid more but didn’t align with your values, and the other one did. Do you take the lesser paying role whose values are yours, or do you take the job that pays more?

These decisions are what drive us each day. We could justify taking that bigger pay-check. It’s how our society has chosen to reward our hard work; it is one indicator of success that we’re used to.

Or, we could put our lives where our values live, and seek out work that aligns with who we want to be. The great news: we are changing our values. The better news: we might not have to make these kinds of choices, anymore.

If we align our values, do work we believe in, and take care of our greatest resource—ourselves — the money, the influence, the success will come.

  • 7 out of 10 millennials believe their personal values are shared by the organizations they work for.

  • 56% of millennials have ruled out working for a particular organization because of its values, standards, or conduct.

  • 49% of millennials didn’t work on a project because it went against their personal values or ethics, even if the company they worked for behaved in an ethical manner.

(Source: Deloitte)

Harnessing Technology to Move Forward

Technology has always shaped our lives. It makes the impossible possible and gives us more transparency in our world. This has allowed human empathy to reach further than ever before and now people have a desire to help solve problems around the world.

When we asked Arianna for her thoughts about the role technology has played in the shift towards conscious business, she said:

“Technology is obviously a powerful force in our world today with consequences both good and bad. It’s brought us to an inflection point in history where technology has given us powers that sped up the pace of life and change beyond our capacity to digest it.”

We know that technology is never an inherent problem and it isn’t going away. Why not embrace it? Through technology, we now have a greater sightline into the conditions of humanity.

As Arianna contents, we need to use technology, “to help us serve our best interests… The conscious business will clearly need to harness this technology and innovation to not only come up with new solutions and make them more effective but also to help people integrate them into their lives.”

Arianna Huffington

The Future of Thrive Global

After leaving Huffington Post, we wondered what lessons Arianna learned there that she’s now applying to her work in Thrive Global, and she told us:

“Some things are the same and some things are different. What the companies have in common is a passion, a sense of mission and teams that are incredibly dedicated. But what’s different – what I learned from the launch of HuffPost – is that we’re all more productive when we take the time to recharge.”

The mission of Thrive Global, as Arianna says, is to “change the way we work and live and end the collective delusion that burnout is the necessary price for success. As the latest science shows, our performance actually improves when we make our health and well­being a priority.”

Thrive Global promises to…”revolutionize the way we work and live by ending the burnout epidemic with three key components in their action plan for 2017:

  1. Prioritize the wellbeing of employees: Thrive Global is creating employee wellness programs, training, and workshops that help companies improve recruitment and reduce the wasted health-care costs relating to stress and burnout. Uber, SAP, Accenture

  2. The Media Platform: This is the hub of the Thrive Global brand where you will find inspirational stories from other leaders such as Jeff Bezos, Howard Shultz, Danny Bader, even Ashton Kutcher in which they talk about how they thrive. She explains, “The Thrive Journal is designed to be the global hub for the conversation on productivity and well-being. This features not just the latest science, but also commentary by new role models showing how you can be in the arena and be a successful leader without burning out.”

  3. Commerce: There is both a pop-up store and an e-commerce site with products sourced that will help entrepreneurs reduce stress and improve health in their lives. “And third is our e-commerce platform that offers our curated selection of the best well-being technology, products, and services,” Arianna says.

Thrive Global’s main objective right now is expansion: “Since our stress and burnout epidemic is global, Thrive Global was global from day one of launch. I hope our 2017 will include a great acceleration in the global culture shift that’s already happening to roll back this burnout epidemic.”

It’s up to us, the change creators — those brave souls who look inside themselves, discover a global problem, align our values with our lives, and then use whatever means necessary to disrupt norms around the world. 

As we move forward, let’s continue to thrive.

If we want to improve the conditions of our world, let’s start with improving our lives. Here are some ways we can do that:

Take Micro Steps for Maximum Impact 

What can you do, each month to take better care of yourself? By now, most of us have abandoned our list of “resolutions.” It’s easy to get bogged down by the day-to-day struggles, and commitments. Sure, getting more sleep, becoming more productive, aligning our values — these all sound so good, but how do we get there.

Let’s make this year we make lasting changes. That starts with making small, or as Arianna calls them, “micro-changes” in our lives that will lead to maximum results. And, guess what? We’ve done the planning for you.

Here are 12 little changes you can make in your life each month this year:

12 Months, 12 Small Changes, One Amazing Year: A Guide to Thrive in 2020 (And Beyond)

Inspired by Arianna Huffington & Thrive Global

“Our mission is to change the way we work and live and end the collective delusion that burnout is the necessary price for success. As the latest science shows, our performance actually improves when we make our health and well­being a priority.” 

Forget about the so-called New Year’s resolutions—likely named as such because they usually only last a little into the New Year. We’ve come up with something far better. We’ve created this list of game-changers with you — the change creators– in mind. Because if you want to have maximum impact in this world, change starts with you. 

Here are 12 small things you can do this year to create new and lasting great habits and thrive:

For the first few months of this year, let’s focus on taking care of ourselves, and look inward. If we feel better, and take that time to focus on us this year, we can discover that well of inspiration that resides within us all. 

Month 1

Take a Vitamin D Supplement. 

For many of us, the winter months bring endless cloudy days. This lack of sunlight can cause Vitamin D deficiency which drains our libidos and vitality and can make us seasonally depressed. You’ll need to take four times the usual dose in Winter months. 

Source: Mercola

Month 2

Do a Digital Disconnect. 

This month, go digital-free for one hour per day. Disconnect your smartphones, your televisions, your computer — everything digital. By doing this every day for one month, you should be able to listen to your own inner wisdom and experience deeper connections with those around you. 

If you do this for the month of February, you’ll soon start seeing connections you didn’t notice before because you were too busy staring at that screen. The world is full of wonders; you just have to look up.

Month 3

Do a weekly brain dump. 

Once a week, take 20 minutes to write down everything you want to accomplish for the week ahead. Don’t overthink this; just do it. Simply the act of writing it down will relieve stress and give you more focus for the week ahead. You’re welcome. 

Month 4

Take a self-inventory test. 

Why not take a few minutes to get to know yourself better? There are many free online resources and self-inventory tests available. Find one that catches your interest and try it. 

Recommended: 16 Personalities

Spend 30 minutes or so answering a series of questions on a sliding scale and learn more about your personality. Where does your energy come from? Are you intuitive? Here, you’ll get a lot of free information on who you are. 

Month 5

Meditate.

Meditation isn’t just for seniors or yoga enthusiasts. Many of Steve Jobs’s brilliance came from his meditative moments. Try a deep breathing exercise by focusing on each breath—in and out—right before you sleep or the next time you’re stressed. Start with one minute every day in May and eventually dedicate 15-20 minutes to meditation and being at peace.

Book suggestion: Deep Meditation – Pathway to Personal Freedom

Month 6

Go for a walk. 

By getting out and spending time in nature, you will not only boost your mood, but you will also boost your productivity. This month, make it your micro mission to go for a walk outside once a week. Connect with nature and rejuvenate yourself. 

Source: Change Creator: Why Nature is Essential for Good Business

Month 7

Wake up that heart.

Get in some cardio and feel good about yourself. This month, we want you to get your heart rate pumping. Even a couple of times a week can improve mood and stave off depression. Be sure to set concrete goals. Plan to give your heart a workout at least twice per week for twenty minutes and build up from there. Recruiting a friend to join you for motivation will make it more enjoyable. 

Source: ScienceDirect: Preventative Medicine

Month 8

Go to bed earlier. 

We’re not saying you need to get 8 or 9 hours of sleep right away, but that’s where you should be headed. This month, we want you to turn out the lights and go to bed 15 minutes earlier each night. While you may find that initially, you just lie awake for those first 15 minutes, over time, you will see a change in your sleeping patterns. Eventually, your body will become accustomed to going to sleep earlier, and your health and productivity will benefit from getting the sleep you need.

Let’s challenge ourselves in the final stretch of the year to give back by focusing on productivity, leadership and our missions. 

Month 9

Improve your productivity by ditching the cell phone by your bed. 

Stop trying to answer texts, emails, or just scrolling through Facebook before you go to bed. It will consume your time, and drain you of your sleep. 

Each night, make your sleeping area a no-phone zone. 

Month 10

Master your financial well-being. 

Before you blow the budget on holiday gifts, why not take charge of your financial health this year? Consider how much more of an impact you’ll have when you take care of this aspect of your life. 

  1. Get yourself a plan. 

  2. Not all debt is equal. Pay bad debt before good debt.

  3. Expect the unexpected. Create an emergency fund.

  4. Start saving. Yesterday.

  5. Protect yourself from risk with insurance.

Source & More Information: Thrive Global: 5 Things Everyone Should Know About Financial Well-Being

Month 11

Turn contentious arguments into civil discussions.

Learn about how to fight fairly and without rancor this month: good for the Thanksgiving table, and the boardroom! 

Tips: 

  • Listen carefully

  • Mind your body language

  • Don’t argue to win

  • Be understanding of the other person’s situation

  • Know the facts

  • Work towards beneficial outcomes for all involved

Month 12

Experience art and wonder this month. 

Let beauty and wonder inspire you this month as we conclude 2017. “Museums and galleries remain among the few oases that can deliver what has become increasingly rare in our world,” Arianna writes, so why not spend some time touring your local art gallery or museum this month? Some museums offer free admission on certain days of the week. 

A Final Thought: 

We’d love to hear about your amazing year of micro-steps and big changes! Tell us about the changes you are making in your life. 

Disclaimer: All exercise and supplement recommendations should be discussed and approved by your primary care physician.  

Sleep Your Way to the Top 

Arianna is a dedicated sleep advocate. Her mantra is clear: “Sleep your way to the top.” And it’s more than just a punny catchphrase. She means it: If you want to get to the top of any area of your life, you need to get some sleep. We love this! Not only is she giving us permission to get some (dare we say, much needed) rest, she’s telling us it will get us further ahead in life.

We couldn’t do a feature edition about Arianna if we didn’t talk about sleep. She wrote the book on sleep. The science confirms it: we need to get a better night’s sleep. Gone are the days when we should brag about how little sleep we get, and walk around as working zombies. For you to be your best this year, you got to get some zzz’s.

Here are three quick tips to get you started:

  1. Determine how much sleep you need — Many of us underestimate the amount of actual sleep we need. Usually, that’s between 7-9 hours of actual sleep per night.

  2. Keep a sleep diary. Many of us underestimate the amount of sleep we actually get. How do you feel when you wake up every morning? If you are still groggy, you are not getting enough sleep, even if you’ve been in bed for 8 hours or more.

  3. Great leaders sleep. Give yourself permission to protect your sleep if you want to have maximum impact.

8 Pillars of Content You’ll Need to Start Your Marketing Online

200 million people now use ad blockers. If you haven’t noticed already, the wild, wild west days of digital marketing are gone. That’s why I created this short guide to help you figure out the 8 pillars of content you’ll need to start your marketing. 

You can no longer expect one email to get you tons of leads.

Or think you can just create a landing page and get some sales.

Today’s companies have to do more than just pay for display ads, or invest in some Facebook campaigns. Customers have more choices online and want to buy from brands they know, love and trust.

But how do you create authentic, meaningful relationships with your customers in this digital space?

With compelling content and honest storytelling.

Why use content for your marketing?

I’ve been involved in content marketing and digital strategy exclusively for the past decade and I’ve seen a lot of changes in the past few years. When I started, not many small companies even had websites and if you did, you were ahead of the curve.

The way we use technology has dramatically changed in recent years, as has the access we have to brands. However, the way we make buying decisions has not.  Today’s customer’s don’t make buying decisions with their ‘brains’ (as much as we’d like to believe we do), today’s consumers make buying decisions with their hearts.

Think about the last time you made a purchase online.

Did you know, love, and most importantly ‘trust’ that brand? Was it from a company that you’ve loved for awhile?

If you are struggling to compete with the larger brands online and find those customers that love what you do even more, then a great content marketing strategy is for you.

While content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing, it generates more than three times as many leads (Content Marketing Institute)

Don’t fret, my friends. While some of us live and breath digital content, creating powerful pieces of content marketing doesn’t have to be tough, or costly.

If you only do one thing with your content, make sure you do this: personalize it!

The more personalized and custom your content can be, the stronger bond you’ll grow with your customers. Content is essential to establishing that trust:

82% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content. (Demand Metric, 2014)

Creating custom content for your company doesn’t have to be overwhelming, but you might be asking, where do you start?

All business owners should have a content marketing strategy to make sure they get the most out of their content. Those who have a written content marketing strategy are more likely to find content marketing effective for their businesses, have less content-related stress thanks to knowing what they will do and when they’ll do it, and have a clear idea of what their ROI is. To put it simply, if you don’t have a content marketing strategy, you’re writing in the dark.

What holds most business owners back from writing a content marketing plan is feeling overwhelmed by the thought and not knowing how to go about it. Creating a strategy for your content marketing is not as complicated as it seems. Here are the necessary sections your plan needs to embody:

#1 Reasons for Creating Content

Your content marketing plan should include a short list of reasons why you’re creating content in the first place. It sounds simplistic but you’ll be surprised at how much power and focus you get from taking a few seconds to think about WHY you’re doing something. Whenever you feel low on motivation to work on content marketing, read your list of reasons why it’s so important to your business.

#2 Clarify Your Objectives for Content Marketing

After you know why you’re using content marketing, create a new section in your content marketing plan for objectives. Specifically, what do you want to accomplish with content marketing? Do you want greater brand awareness? More leads? Higher customer retention rates? The goals for your content marketing will determine the direction it takes.

#3 What Makes You Unique?

Also, write down what makes you unique. How will you be different from your competitors in your social media usage? This is similar to determining a unique selling point for your business. In fact, what makes you stand out in the social space may be the same as or close to what your unique selling point is.

#4 Which Platforms Will You Use?

A content marketing strategy should have a section that outlines which platforms you will use to spread your content. Include your objectives and plans for successful engagement for each platform. Because every social media site has its own culture and methods that work, you need to address that for each subsection. Your approach should be catered to each platform and clearly defined so that you can easily find your voice when marketing your content.

#5 Determine How You Will Measure Success

Next, you must write down how you will measure your content marketing success. Determine what metrics you will monitor and how you will collect the necessary data. The metrics you choose as indicators of your content marketing success will be based on your objectives. For example, if you want more leads, a metric to look at is clickthroughs. There are many social media analytics tools available, so research relevant tools and write down which you will use to monitor your content marketing progress.

#6 Target Audience Research

Another crucial section in your content marketing plan is the target audience. Provide a thorough explanation of who your target audience is, what they need, what their pain points are, where they can be found, etc. Writing down the most important information about your target audience will help you consistently deliver the right message with the right approach. A way to make this even easier is to create a persona, so that you’re talking to one person every time you market your content.

8 Pillars of Content for Your Marketing: Here’s Where to Start

That’s why I compiled this ‘starter guide’ for you here. These are the 8 pieces of content I think every social impact business needs to have to grow online and most importantly, to connect with those loyal fans, who will not only love what you do but will tell others about your company too.

1 – About Us Page

If someone wants to quickly get to know your brand, the first place they are going to go is your about us page.

There are many benefits to creating a compelling about us page but one of the main benefits is that people just want to buy from people that they know. If you are a newer brand and you’re trying to compete online with the bigger brands that everybody knows and the bigger stories that everyone knows you’re going to have to have an about us page that really speaks to the worldview and beliefs of your target audience. You are going to have to tell your story in a compelling way!

When we launched our signature program Captivate, we noticed that we suddenly started to get more views on our story page then we had previously. That’s because when people are making a buying decision they need to know more about you. If you’re About Us page doesn’t reflect your mission, beliefs, and values then you need to take a look at a refresh. Of course, it’s important to have your origin or founder story here as well.

You started your mission-driven business for a reason. Tell people why. Tell people about that moment that you knew you couldn’t do anything else but this business. Your customers want to know those details.

An effective About Us page:

  • Tells the story of why you started the business

  • Talks directly to your core customer

  • Shows the impact model and tells your impact story

  • Puts a human face to your business

  • Can also showcase your impact story, have visuals, videos that you don’t want to clutter your homepage

2 – Your Impact Story: Yes, It Matters!

While you might have taken the time to tell your impact story in your about us page, I wanted to highlight this story because it’s so vital to us social impact entrepreneurs, yet many of us really struggle to clarify exactly what our mission is.

Coming up with a mission statement is great. It’s always a great exercise to go through, but I want you to take a step back and consider your personal ‘why’ for starting your company.

Once you’ve tapped into that ‘why’ — the very reason you wake up in the morning, think about the people you serve.

That’s your impact story!

If you are not telling your impact story at every touchpoint online, you are missing out on so many opportunities to grow.

This year, Adam and I went to The Buy Good. Feel Good. Expo in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was a great event to meet our social impact ‘peeps’ and talk directly to the brands we’ve worked with and interviewed, like Christal Earle of Brave Soles.

When we first interviewed Christal, we were immediately drawn to her story, which she tells with such ease and authenticity. Her company started because she wanted to save her adopted daughter’s life in the Dominican Republic. While on a luxury vacation there many years ago, she woke up to the real poverty that she was surrounded by and knew she had to do something about it. That powerful narrative that Christal shares about her ‘why’ for starting Brave Soles is the reason why she’s grown this company so quickly.

When we met up with her in Toronto, she told me that she still gets a kick when people she’s never met before tell her story back to her! Think about that! Her customers and loyal fans are sharing her story with others. That’s the kind of marketing any of us want.

Telling your impact story doesn’t have to be complicated. Think about that personal ‘why’ — the reason you started your company in the first place. Start there. Tell that small part of your story first. See if others can remember that and share it too! The more you tell your story, the more you’ll see what resonates as well. How do you know you’re telling your story enough? You’ll feel like you’re becoming repetitive. That’s when you know you’ve hit that sweet spot.

3 – Videos

Demand for video content increases every day as we become more attached to our electronics. Brands that don’t get themselves out on video are missing out.

Whether you are creating videos for your homepage, to accompany a blog article, or to do some Facebook marketing, videos are a great way to tell your story and talk about your company.

If you haven’t noticed already, videos pop up first in the Google searches. This is not only because YouTube and Google are the same company, but because more of us use videos to make important decisions online, to learn more about a product, or even the impact the company has.

A high-quality video with some serious production value would be nice, but you don’t have to start there. If you are a new company, you can invest in a few key videos that really tell your founder and impact story and start from there.

Of course, video does include things such as Facebook live, which anyone can do. If you are building a community online, going live and sharing some valuable insights, stories, updates about your brand is great too.

4 – Social Media Posts That Speak Directly to Your Audience

A brand today cannot thrive without social media. Whether you want to dominate Instagram or take over Facebook, you are going to have to plan on creating some powerful social media posts that attract the right audience.

We still love our social media. Every minute of the day:

  • Snapchat users share 527,760 photos

  • More than 120 professionals join LinkedIn

  • Users watch 4,146,600 YouTube videos

  • 456,000 tweets are sent on Twitter

  • Instagram users post 46,740 photos

That’s a lot of content creation!

If you want people to share something from your brand, you are going to have to get on social media and you are going to have to figure out those messages that speak directly to them.

Here at Change Creator, we’ve experimented with a lot of messages and memes on Facebook to see what truly resonates with our audience.

Currently, we’ve got a few memes that seem to connect really well with our audience, but we didn’t discover them by accident. For years, we’ve been talking to our audience. Interviewing people over Skype, asking people questions and tracking their responses. We also keep a close eye on who is liking our content, who signs up for our emails, who signs up for our masterclasses. We reach out and talk to as many people as we can, then we find common beliefs, values that thread these conversations.

From there, we can extract those messaging statements that speak directly to our core audience. Right now, you might have seen one of these messages, where we simply ask, “What kind of a difference do you want to make?”

When creating pieces of content for your social media, you want to get inside your audience’s hearts and minds and share content that they’ll want to share as well. Memes, videos, testimonials… these are all great pieces of content to share and promote inside your social media channels.

5 – Get Out There: Be Featured on Others Interviews

People not only want to know your story, but they also want to get to know you, that’s why interviews are so great. As you grow your company, you also need to think about growing your authority online and interviews are an effective way to do that.

If you think that you can’t get featured on interviews, think again. Today, there are more and more niche podcasts out there that are always looking for experts like you. You have a story to share, business lessons to impart, an area of expertise too — you should share it.

While podcast interviews might not naturally come into your email inbox, there are some things that you can do to get featured on other podcasts right away:

  • Tell people you want to be interviewed (yes, this works!)

  • Use HARO (Help a Reporter Out) and answer relevant calls for experts

  • Create compelling content on niche topics

  • Have a ‘want to interview’ me call to action button on your about us page

Getting yourself out there means connecting not only with your audience but other experts in your space too. Immerse yourself in your ‘world’ online. Join Facebook groups that are relevant, ask questions, share your story. Show people that you are the expert and that they will want to know more. The more you can get your story out there, the more people will naturally want to know more!

6 – Failure Stories

I’ve included this valuable piece of content as one every social entrepreneur should consider using in their marketing. Why? Let me explain.

Gone are the days when we just loved brands because they were on television or in a billboard high above the city center. Today’s consumers are inundated with choices. We can either choose a brand that we know or we might discover a new brand — but not so fast. Before we choose to purchase from a new brand, we have to get to know them a little first.

Failure stories are the comfort food of content marketing because we as an audience can’t get enough. Readers have told me over and over again that they love the stories that we tell here at Change Creator, but they really respond to the ‘failure stories’, or stories from us or others that tell what it’s really like on the front lines of your business in the early days. We as audience members can’t get enough — this content is what builds authentic relationships with your audience.

Failure stories lead to breakthrough or transformation stories which everybody loves. A great example of failure stories and transformation stories is any kind of shows such as American Idol or The Voice. The contestants that seem to get the most airplay the most airtime are the ones that are willing to expose the tough times in their lives and the failures they’ve overcome. This draws us in as audience members into their story, and we root for them along the way as we witness their live transformations.

Your brand and your story can be as transformative as any three minutes segment on a reality show if you were willing to expose your ‘teachable’ moments and talk about the lessons that you’ve learned along the way.

One of the quickest ways to build authenticity into your content marketing is to be frank, honest and vulnerable and failure stories are a great way to get there. Failure stories lead to transformational lessons, so don’t be afraid to tell people the times you’ve learned the hard way.

7 –  High-Quality Longform Guides

Curating valuable information is just as important to users today as creating new information. I have clients that make lots of money just helping people make better buying decisions and guides can be a great way to help your customers do that.

In the social impact space, there are so many ‘guides’ and how to articles that you can create to not only help your customers make smarter buying choices but you can also help push the narrative about the causes you champion.

Before you think about the guides you want to create, think about what you want your customers to know. Are you in the vegan fashion space? What about a guide to choosing alternative fabrics? Or a guide to where your clothes come from? There are so many ways you can help guide your consumers to a better purchase, showcase your impact model and build trust. Guides can also be great ‘free gifts’ to help build an email list too!

8 — Personalized Emails

For every $1 spent, email gives back a whopping $38 in ROI and offers the broadest reach (CampaignMonitor) which means if you haven’t already invested in an email strategy, now is the time that you should.

But investing in an email strategy doesn’t mean you have to grow your numbers to tens of thousands… you just have to make sure the right people go to your list. Before you even begin crafting emails, I want you to think about the types of ‘free offers’ you have to get people to that list and answer this question:

Are you giving people what you promised?

If you collect emails with a promise of ‘weekly updates’, then guess what? You better give them weekly updates.

If you collect emails with a promise of the latest news from your industry… you better be updating them on the latest news.

Whatever you promise your audience, make sure you can deliver.

That’s the first step in building that custom content that only you can offer. The next step is crafting those personalized emails that really speak to your customers.

Of course, you can personalize an email with someone’s name, but I want you to think beyond that. I want you to speak to your customers as they were your friends. How can you help them? What are their unique challenges? Fears?

Every person on your email list is a gift.

When crafting your emails, think about how you can help the person you are writing to. Tell stories. Make them smile. Anticipate their needs ahead of your own.

Does this sound like a relationship? Guess what? It is.

Your personal relationship with every member of your audience is important. Emails can be a great way to do that.

Ready to start creating some content? My Final Thoughts

Creating compelling content starts with you. With you sharing your story, talking about your impact and finding those people who will love you and share your story for you. I hope these 8 pillars of content serve you well as you grow your impact business, they sure have helped us a lot around here.

If you are struggling with your marketing, think about the content you are putting out into the world. There are a lot of choices out there. There are brands that are larger, more trusted by consumers but that doesn’t mean you can’t break through, because you can! Think about content that is evergreen, that will last forever so people will always be able to learn from you. Don’t ever underestimate the power strong, timeless content is for marketing. 

Authentic content and storytelling is the fastest, most effective way to grow your business online. These 8 pieces of pillar content are a great place to start, so get crafting!

More amazing resources for you:

 

3 Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid and Fix: Start Seeing Massive Results Today!

In the realm of sales and marketing, a lot of things can go wrong. There are so many touchpoints from cold lead, to buyer which leaves room for a lot of missed and lost sales. From shopping basket slowdowns to Facebook marketing pixels, there are a lot of ways your digital marketing could not be working for you. Here are 3 digital marketing mistakes to avoid and fix that you can work on today to start seeing massive results!

If you’ve been struggling with your marketing (which leads to sales), don’t get too discouraged; it’s not easy. The good news: you don’t have to hire expensive marketing agencies to get started online, to build a more authentic brand presence, and to start selling.

If your advertising efforts aren’t converting as much as you would like, you need to start looking at your branding and business strategy with a more holistic approach, instead of focusing on individual tactics. Taking a step back and looking at your customer journey online is a great way to start. Ask yourself these questions:

  • Where do people find me online?

  • Can someone easily learn more about my company?

  • Is it tough to make a purchase?

Starting with these basic questions, you can begin to see ‘holes’ in your efforts, but there’s so much more you can do. If your marketing isn’t as great as it should be, here are three common digital marketing mistakes to avoid with fixes:

Mistake #1: Your brand isn’t consistent. 

Gone are the days where you can silo your efforts online. Today’s consumers are savvy, will look you up, and expect your brand to be consistent in every touchpoint they can find you. If you’ve pieced together your digital strategy, without considering each channels’ interconnectivity, your marketing efforts won’t be as effective. 

An Omnichannel Approach vs Multichannel Approach

Consumers are now more sophisticated in not only finding you online but investigating your entire digital presence before a purchase. When someone discovers you on Twitter, they will inevitably go to your website, your Facebook page, and investigate your brand many times before they make a purchase.

For many years in the digital marketing space, we assumed that customers had a preferred way to interact with our brands, for example, someone would find you on Facebook, only interact with your Facebook page, maybe join a group. What digital marketers have discovered, is that this is no longer the case — that customers are finding you on Facebook, for example, but quickly Googling you, visiting your website, checking out your Twitter — which is why an omnichannel approach is key.

This omnichannel approach takes on greater significance when it comes to our impact story and brand messages online. Consumers today do not ‘blindly’ purchase, they compare, they research, they read about us pages and online mission statements. They not only want to support you but your impact mission. Make sure your impact and founder story are weaved throughout your marketing to give conscious consumers something to ‘hold onto’ and support.

If your messages, branding, and digital story change from channel to channel, you risk losing trust with your customers. Your brand story must be consistent and clear throughout to build that level of trust and authenticity that modern-day consumers demand.

We might assume that today’s online buyers make quick decisions to buy or not buy, to swipe left, or swipe right but that is only part of the story. If your brand does manage to get someone’s attention, buyers will do a lot more research before making a purchase. Knowing your customer journey’s with your company online is the first step in making sure all of your marketing efforts will pay off.

Are you weaving the same brand messages throughout the many touchpoints they can find you? Is your impact story front and center in all that you do? Do you give people a reason to purchase from your company other than the product (think impact)? If you can do these things effectively, you will be able to break through the digital noise that competes for attention and find more ways to build authentic connections to your customers.

With an omnichannel approach, you are looking at all of your messaging as one entity, vs creating specific content for each channel that may or may not conflict with each other. This includes making sure your visual brand is consistent as well. Use the same brand colors, logo, tagline, description of your company in every digital channel. While your approach to each channel might differ, your brand voice and values should remain the same. This signals to a new customer that you have a trustworthy brand, and consumers want to buy from those brands they trust (and feel like they know).

Mistake #2: You’re spending too much money in the wrong channels.

While Adwords and Facebook marketing has their place, too many companies rely solely on these channels to get buyers when there are more effective ways to get sales.

If you have been sinking money into digital ads and not seeing the results that you would like, it might be time to shift some of those funds to more effective efforts such as SEO and content marketing.

In this Return on Marketing Spend chart, you can see that the most effective way to spend your money is not in Google Adwords, or Facebook marketing but on SEO and content strategy.

Why SEO and content strategy is so effective? 

When we are looking to buy something, where is the first place we go? Google, right? We look up a product, get reviews, see real people testimonials. We find alternatives, then maybe we make a buying decision. Today’s SEO efforts are more than just cramming your content with relevant keywords. A smart content strategy thinks about conversion rate optimizations, as well as building content that attracts the right people to your website, and building the right traffic.

If you are spending a lot of money on less effective channels, it might be time to shift some efforts and funding to SEO and content strategy. We’re not just talking about blogging here, but making sure your website is designed and functioning to take advantage of every lead that comes to your site.

Here are some questions you should ask:

  • Once someone lands on my site, can they easily find my about us page and learn more about my company?

  • Without using ‘search’ on my site, can users find relevant content easily?

  • Do I have a clear call to action on every piece of content?

  • Is my site confusing and tough to navigate through?

  • Is my visual brand consistent throughout my website and social media channels?

If any of these questions are ‘no’, you are not taking advantage of one of the most powerful parts of your marketing — your website. Before you invest more money into other digital channels, make sure your website is effective for not only finding leads but converting those interested ‘views’ into real buys!

Mistake #3: Your ads are not personalized enough.

Many of us assume that putting out the widest net possible, then seeing what ‘sticks’ is the best way to execute our digital marketing strategies. This may have worked in the digital marketing boom a few years ago, but these tactics are ineffective and costly today. 

Knowing who your customer is, their fears, their desires, where they look for information, how they make buying decisions… these are all crucial to your overall marketing strategy. Getting key demographics is a start, but getting to the real motivations of your buyers is even more valuable.

If you haven’t been talking to your customers, now is the time to start. Getting honest feedback will help you personalize and shape those messages that speak directly to their values. 

Last month I had the honor of meeting the General Manager of TOMS, Mark Brasier in Toronto, even got to tour the showroom. There, we not only discussed the evolution of the brand but the evolution of their marketing and messaging.

One of the many things we discussed was how to get honest feedback from your customers. It is so important to not only talk to your customers but to get honest feedback from them as well. That’s the only way you are going to improve your business social and economic profit. Knowing how your customers feel about your brand and others in the market is key. 

62.26% of customers feel happy and excited to respond to a specially tailored message from the retailer (Source: Smart Insights).

That’s why Mark will sometimes go ‘incognito’ into a store that sells TOMS and ask people about his company. From these conversations, you quickly get a view of the health of your company through the lens of your customers and the public. Most people (when faced with an online survey, for example) are going to tell you how much they love your product, your impact — instead, be like Mark and make sure you find a way to get the entire truth. From there, you can make the changes that work for your marketing messaging and personalize the messages to speak directly to your consumers’ values.

Personalization can take many forms. If your brand is too broad, try niching down to a market to a specific sector of your audience, or brand yourself as a subject matter expert. Today’s online audiences don’t necessarily resonate with larger brands, but with the ones that fit them like a glove.

For example, you are starting up a cat photography business and are looking for some marketing tips. Would you rather sign up for a marketing course from Cat Photographers Marketing Academy, or Acme Noname Marketing Group? The answer is simple. People not only gravitate towards niche campaigns, but they buy from them.

Still struggling with marketing? You’re not alone.

Building an audience and finding the right customers isn’t easy. Whether you are just starting or trying to introduce a new product into the market, smart advertising takes time and effort and many of us don’t get it right on the first try.

Getting back to the basics of marketing is always a good idea. Knowing your customers, creating a consistent brand throughout all your touchpoints, and weaving your niche, personalized brand story in all that you do will amplify your marketing efforts tremendously.

Leave your comments below to tell us what digital marketing mistakes you’ve made! We’d love to hear them!

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How to Get the Right Clients with Marketing Funnels (Even as a Solopreneur!)

One of the scariest parts of launching a business of your own is the difficult process of securing a steady stream of loyal customers. For those of us who have grown up working in the corporate world, the clients we worked with were most likely drawn to the name recognition and long-term trajectory that many large businesses and conglomerates can offer. Individual entrepreneurs and small startup businesses, on the other hand, often face the obstacle of attracting clients who have never heard of them or what they have to offer. Here’s how to get the right clients with marketing funnels (even if you are a solopreneur).

Meet Michelle Evans: Marketing Funnel Guru

Michelle L. Evans worked for several years in the corporate world for companies such as Microsoft before launching her own business that focuses on helping coaches, experts, and online business owners attract enormous numbers of clients through implementing automated marketing funnels.

We recently sat down with Michelle to talk a little bit about the challenges she faced in leaving the corporate world and starting her own business venture, along with some recommendations for how marketing funnels can work to help entrepreneurs and new business owners build their client base. Today, Michelle is working with dozens of different clients, helping them take advantage of marketing funnels to grow their business.

Her success, however, didn’t necessarily come easily.

“I wanted my own business,” Michelle tells us, “but I didn’t have a clear vision of what that business would look like…and I felt like I needed to have millions of dollars [to start it up, when] I could barely pay my rent.”

After years of working for Microsoft, she came to understand that performing a bunch of random acts of marketing was not the most efficient strategy to gain clients. Her work with a diversity of clients at her corporate job helped her to understand the importance of having a concrete marketing strategy, and a solid understanding of who she is working with and what the client’s specific problem is.

Once she came to understand her client on a deeper level, she could devise specific strategies to help them solve their marketing problems. “I really wanted to do work that mattered to me,” Michelle relates. The challenge she faced was: “How do I take these skills I have and turn it into a business that actually matters?” After some tense moments at her corporate job, she realized that she had an abundance of relevant experience, skills, and knowledge, but felt trapped in the corporate world. The path towards starting her own business offers some unique insights into what helps and hinders this process of launching out on your own. Instead of spending months or years in planning, she decided to reach out to people who had recently left the corporate world to start a business of their own in order to understand the process of going from a corporate gig to doing your own thing.

This not only offered important insights but also helped her build her confidence. Secondly, she reached out to people in her network to let them know the specific skills she had and what she could offer them. The contacts that she had made through years of working her corporate job at Microsoft essentially allowed her to step right into contracts that more than covered her previous salary. “It made it much easier to make that transition…because I knew that people wanted to hire me,” Michelle mentions.

Once she officially launched her own business and found initial jobs and contracts through her personal network, she started to discover her own niche and passion. “I could do a lot of marketing things, but what I found is that there were certain projects that I loved,” Michelle tells us. She discovered that helping people discover and create a steady client base was not only her passion but also her unique gift.

“Every new business owner struggles at first with having a consistent flow of new sales coming through the door…and I love helping people figure that out because I struggled with that, too.”

You won’t want to miss this: 5 Tips for Gaining Traction in Your Small Business Today!

The Advantages of Working with Individuals

At first, Michelle thought that the competition from bigger agencies offering similar services to what she offered would cause her problems. She quickly discovered, however, that her clients were more than willing to hire individuals over bigger agencies because of the expertise that individuals bring to the table. Her clients mentioned that one of the benefits of working with individuals or smaller businesses is the personal connections that allow them to know exactly what they are getting when they sign on the dotted line. “They want you to come in as an expert, understand the landscape, and execute,” Michelle says of some of her bigger clients.

By hiring an individual expert, this allows them to get ahead of their competition. For entrepreneurs and new business owners, not being afraid to sell your unique skills and expertise is a great way to separate yourself from the vague and often standardized world of agencies. While the people in her network allowed her to get her business off the ground, it was also a limiting factor in the long run. Budgets get cut and projects run out, and she found herself on an income roller coaster.

Creating Marketing Funnels that Gets New Clients

She realized at this stage that “I can’t rely on people to throw me a bone [but rather,] need to get a process in place to bring in a steady stream of clients.” After a disappointing (and expensive) course that she took with a supposed mastermind who essentially recommended cold calling as many people as possible, she realized that what was lacking was a process to engage with her clients.

While cold calling might be a great strategy for extremely charismatic personalities, she went back to the logic of marketing funnels. After putting together a one-page PDF that explained what she had to offer and sending it out to several contacts, she was essentially sold out within three weeks. The process of warming up her audience and inviting them to learn more about what she had to offer set the stage for why her offer was a perfect fit for each specific client. Michelle believes that initially,

“one of the problems with my message was that I was way too broad. I was afraid of missing out on opportunities…and needed to funnel down to marketing funnels.”

Through the marketing funnel business approach that she developed, she realized that not all clients want to hear the same thing. As a business owner, you need to own the process of knowing your audience at a deep level. This gives you ownership of your clientele. Her business offers helpful exercises that help small business owners understand their audience and potential clientele. To help her clients dig deep into the minds of their potential clients, Michelle’s favorite question is: “If you had a magic wand and could make everything perfect, describe to me what this looks and feels like.” The answer to this question almost always leads to their absolute marketing goals. “For the business owner, understanding what is going on in your audience’s mind and…how you can solve what your clients´ problem is…that’s where the magic is,” Michelle believes.

The biggest mistakes people make with marketing funnels…

1. Getting bogged down with technology. One of the biggest mistakes that many people make with marketing funnels, according to Michelle, is that people get too bogged down in choosing the most important technology. While she personally uses Click Funnels, she also says that she allows her clients to choose whatever works best for them. “I’ve seen people struggle with tech,” Michelle tells us, “but [the best strategy is to] choose something that gets you out there and engaged with your clients.”

2. Your funnels are way too big. Another major setback that people encounter when they first start using marketing funnels, is that they start way too big. “If you have never done a funnel, a webinar funnel is not a good one to start with,” Michelle advises. “A webinar takes a lot of time to create. It can bury you. If you start small, funnels are like Legos…you can build one layer and then build another layer on top of it.” Instead of shooting for the moon from the get-go, she advises her clients to start small with simple strategies to help them bring people into their business.

When we see the success others have had with elaborate and complex marketing funnels, temptation to mimic those grandiose strategies inevitably arises. “Not only do we get eager wanting to make money,” Michelle says, “but we see people 10 years into the process and they make it look so easy.” When you’re eventually ready for a webinar, having the basic marketing funnel foundation in place will make it easy to simply plug it into something that is already functioning on your website.

How to create marketing funnels that work.

1. Start with the assets you already have. Michelle also advises that it is best to start with whatever assets you have. Finding the fastest way to get what you have in front of the eyes of potential clients to start testing what works best is much more preferable to a massive, six-month campaign that can leave you drained of energy and resources. As you gain experience and success, you can bring other people onto your team to delegate responsibilities for future marketing tunnel strategies.

2. Start small, get small wins first before expanding. Starting small allows companies to lay the foundation and allows potential clients to learn about them and what they have to offer. Simply rolling things out onto a website and waiting for the money to roll in is a surefire failure. “You need to put in the work to see the results on the other side,” Michelle believes. Often times, pre-launch phases and small freebies on your website are other helpful strategies to lay the foundation for future business growth.

Michelle wisely states that “you have to warm people up before you invite them. You have to invite them in and then set the stage…but once you set the stage, then you can make the offer. …Trying to make that offer without the pre-work is like pushing a boulder up a mountain.”

If you want to know more about how to grow your audience, here are some resources you might like:

17 Quick Tips to Get Audiences to Love You

Understanding Content Strategy for the Social Impact Space

How to Start Creating a Brand that Matters with Mona Amodeo

(This article was originally published in Change Creator magazine, authored by Tobias Roberts.)

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Marketing Overwhelm? We’ve Been There. 3 Tips to Help!

Investing in marketing is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as an entrepreneur. We all know that we have to market, but many of us are flabbergasted at the thought of it.

Marketing Overwhelm?

When it comes to marketing your business, there are not too many out there that hit paydirt right away. Many of us have to dig quite a few holes before we find that sweet spot.

Nowadays, the pressure to be on every social media outlet is huge. And, it would seem that everyone these days is putting out a ton of content every day, not to mention how many people have podcasts, free downloads, masterminds, webinars… it’s a lot.

Today, there are many gurus and experts in online marketing — all with their special sauce, secret tips, and more tactics than you can confidently execute.

Far too often we can get stuck in learning mode, or even testing mode in marketing before we even get to execution. There are as many right ways to implement a marketing plan online as there are stars in the sky. You could spend a lifetime learning the latest SEO trends, polishing up on email marketing, or listening to podcasts on Facebook strategies.

For one month, I want you to do something radical with your business and your marketing plan.

I want you to execute.

I want you to master something (and do it better than your competition).

I want you to tune out all the digital noise, online gurus, and marketing geniuses out there that may or may not have something to contribute.

Your business growth is up to you.

Too many social impact entrepreneurs leave marketing to someone else, in hope that they have the key to their success, but when it comes to our personal mission business, this isn’t just business; it’s personal.

You have taken on the enormous challenge of using business to solve a social problem, to change the way our world works, and to make a social impact on people’s lives. Your marketing takes on greater significance as the fate of the world rests on you accomplishing your mission and getting your message out there.

Be brave. You can do this.

If you are facing marketing overwhelm, no need to worry, here are 3 things you can start today to take control and discover what works best for you and your company.

1. Create a 30-day plan and stick to it.

We all know what a goal without a plan is, right? A wish. Don’t wish for your marketing to improve, or for your message to suddenly go viral. Sorry, not going to happen.

Craft a 30-day plan, that you can confidently execute and go for it. A lot can happen in 30-days if you are willing to do the work and take action. Take for example. The 30 wildly successful, online entrepreneurs that Russel Brunson, CEO of Clickfunnels reached out to for his “One Funnel Away Challenge”. He asked these 2 comma club entrepreneurs a simple question:

You suddenly lose all your money, along with your name and reputation, and only have your marketing know-how left. What would you do, from day 1 to day 30, to save yourself?

In his book 30 Days.com, he gives each of the 30 entrepreneurs’ strategies. And guess what? They are all vastly different. Some find success quickly with Facebook ads, some with partner outreach — the tactics are different, but what remains the same — the plan. Each and every successful marketing entrepreneur makes a plan. 30 days is enough. Make a new plan each day and execute.

Yes, some days are going to look like this (from Rhonda Swan, 3 Weeks to Webinar Launch from the book 30 Days.com):

Day 4: Execution Day

Things are starting to come together! The early stages are the most important…

  • Film YouTube videos (record all video topics).
  • Reach out to people and businesses (ground game).
  • Reach out to potential affiliates through email messenger (online game).

And, you should plan on having some days that look like this (from Stephen Larsen, Mid-Range Info-Product Launch from the book 30 Days.com):

Day 7

I’d rest and reflect today. Smile. Serve. Meditate. Envision my goal as if it had already happened.

How are you going to plan your 30 days? It’s up to you. Make them count, make them matter and execute. For more information on the book 30 day.com, sign up for The One Funnel Away Challenge!

2. Talk to your customers again.

We ask about marketing in almost every interview we do here at Change Creator. From Seth Godin (of course!) to Jay Shetty, we want to know how to get our messages out there.

Of course, there have been many answers, some tactical and some inspirational but one of the common pieces of advice we heard over and over: talk to your customers.

This isn’t something you can gloss over, or get to ‘later’ either.

Talking to your customers and finding out how they really feel about your brand, your product, and your mission is imperative to your success. Find ways to keep the dialogue open and welcome the negative responses. They will push you to grow and think of new ways to serve.

3. Master one social media channel first.

Last year Adam and I went to a digital media event in New York City. There, we listened to a marketing and strategy expert from CNN. In her 20-minute presentation, she outlined the many ‘touchpoints’ and outlets the CNN brand reaches out to in an intense bubble chart.

While the many outlets and reach was impressive, we have to remember that we are not CNN.

It can be tempting to create touchpoints in every new mode of communication and social media we can find, but this just doesn’t work.

Yes, there are tools such as Buffer and Hootsuite that make scheduling social media easy, just putting out posts isn’t really a strategy.

Before you take to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, What’s App, Snapchat, Kik… I could go on, master one social media channel.

How do I decide which social media outlet to ‘master’?

Think about your company and what you do. Who do you do it for? Again, this is why talking to your customers is key.

Where do they ‘hang out’ online the most? What are they there for?

Generally, Instagram is a great way to grow a fashion brand, lifestyle product, or creative company, while Facebook is where people go to distract themselves at work and dream about a new day!

Dig into the social media outlet you think you should target and commit to making this part of your consistent, 30-day plan.

Don’t assume ‘more’ is better either. Consistency is key. Knowing your audience is key and finding those messages that speak directly to them works best for social media.

After 30-days, you can reevaluate your choice and see if you want to expand to another channel, but I encourage you to master one first, especially if you are the only one on the social media marketing team.

Don’t Let Marketing Overwhelm Stop Your Impact

If you are one of the brave, the bold, the social impact entrepreneur, you’ve got a lot to do. Your mission is important and so is your message getting out there. Don’t just assume that your impact and product are enough to get you noticed. You’ll have to market your company at some point if you want to grow.

The good news: there are things you can do today to start. With these three actionable steps, you’ll be ahead of your competition. Keep at it. 

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3 Ways to Implement Honest Marketing into Your Business Today

Have you ever stayed up really late and watched infomercials? You know the ones, the ‘hard sell’ products with three easy payments of 99.99? Yes. Well, we all have. In today’s world, we might not have as many infomercials running, but that doesn’t mean that we are not continually inundated with flashy promises, quick fixes, products that we’ll never need — digital noise. For many social impact leaders, marketing and advertising can seem shady or sleazy, but it doesn’t have to be. Anyone can implement honest marketing into their business!

We all know that we have to tell others about our business, but many of us don’t want to resort to the in-your-face marketing tactics and salezy lines that many seem to be doing. Our impact is our business. We’ve started this business for more than just profit; it’s our passion, our mission, why we get up in morning kind of business.

Yet, when we hold back from telling others about our business, or ‘marketing’ what we do, we hold back from our full potential as an impact entrepreneur. If you want to grow your impact, you’re going to have to grow your business and friends… that means people are going to have to find out about you. And that means you are going to have to advertise.

What does marketing mean for us?

So, now what? For impact entrepreneurs, there can be only one way to push through the digital noise out there and sell our products (and our mission) and that is what we like to call ‘honest marketing’.

What is honest marketing?

Honest marketing is authentic marketing. It’s a way of sharing what you do with those who will value it the most. We all have unique values, desires, and needs — it’s why we started these mission businesses in the first place.

Connecting to those people who most align with our values and who need our products is what honest marketing is all about. We can all strive to be honest, ethical, and honest in our marketing and advertising by showcasing the real value behind our products, our mission. When we build honest, transparent, authentic connections with our audience, we don’t have to ‘hustle hard’ or beg for people to love our product! Doesn’t that sound great?

Here are 3 ways we can implement honest marketing into our business:

1. Tell YOUR unique impact story right from the start.

Don’t be afraid to talk about YOU, yes you, the founder of your impact company. Sharing your story will help you find those people that are going to support your mission and buy your product. Take it from Kelly Belknap, co-founder of Adventurist Backpack Co. who didn’t spend a dime on marketing but found their audience (and got some amazing PR) in the early days of their company:

“We started Adventurist 16 months ago, and have been fortunate enough to grow quickly and have our story/brand featured on the Travel Channel, Forbes, Woman’s Day, Mashable, ABC, Radio Disney, CBS, Fox News, and more, enabling us to provide over 50,000 meals to families in need in our first year. We sell minimalist backpacks that give back. For every backpack sold, we provide 25 meals to families in need across the U.S. We provide the meals through our partnership with national non-profit Feeding America as part of its Enterprise Society.

All of our marketing has been free – whether through social media posts/content, free articles in the press, setting up at events, or through word of mouth from any combination of the first three.

We think that telling the story of how you got inspired to give back through business, as well as why your brand does the things it does, is the most important aspect of a social impact business.

Our advice would be to figure out how to tell your story in the best way possible, so that other people can understand the why and how behind it, and have a reason to share it with others. Since customers expect authentic brands and products, this, of course, means that your story and values have to be authentic as well. But if you have an authentic and interesting story, it’s just about having it heard by the people who care and want to listen.

So our practical marketing example and tip would be to refine your story to the best it can be, authentically, and then spread it via press, social media, e-mail, events, and more. Whether you share it via letters on a page, photos, or word of mouth, this is the ultimate marketing method for social impact business hoping to change the world for the better, with a positive story to share.” You can see their story and impact company here.

2. Build authenticity with ‘real life’ customer reflections of your company.

A great way to build authenticity is to let your customers reflect your company, starting with publishing their photos of your product on social media.

Here’s a simple, yet effective way you can honestly brag about your company (and build a loyal audience too!):

“While most of our product photos come straight from the manufacturer who took great care in making sure their photos exhibit their product in the best possible light, we also allow our customers to upload real world pictures of their orders directly to the product page they ordered from.

This ensures that our future customers won’t make their decisions solely on the alluring marketing photos that come from the manufacturer but instead have a chance to see the product with a more realistic appearance. While the customer photos may not always be as enticing as the manufacturer’s photos, we feel it’s important our customers see the full picture and have the opportunity to share their own results after the order has been delivered.” Jake McKenzie, Content Manager, Auto Accessories Garage.

3. Avoid the social responsibility trap and do what’s right because it’s right, not because it sounds good in your ads.

“Our role as advertisers and marketers of our products to stand with integrity and offer transparency about the products we sell. For businesses to properly support organizations, it needs to be authentic and it needs to be sustainable. We never want social responsibility to be a trend so we need to adequately support our message with thoughtful storytelling, adequate vetting, and accessible information.” Ryan Roff, Owner, CEO, boldSOCKS.com

How are you implementing honest marketing into your company? We’d love to hear from you!

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Keeping Up With Google: The Most Powerful Way to Grow Your Business Online

change creator google

Smart brands have known for some time that investing in organic traffic is the best kind of traffic, but when Google keeps changing the rules, how do you keep up?

It shouldn’t matter how or when Google changes the rules.

If you have a solid business, a solid vision and can communicate that clearly to your customers online, you’ll always be ahead of those who focus on SEO strategies and tactics anyway.

Keeping up with Google…

I have to confess. I am a total SEO nerd.

It wasn’t always like this. I used to be part of the masses that hoped that just writing good content would be enough for Google.

This year (if you don’t know already) Google put out another major update to their algorithm. It was an exciting and scary time for many of my clients.

Most of my clients saw huge shifts in their organic traffic just from this one update. There were not too many sites that were completely immune.

Some saw huge shifts upwards, with a sudden spike up in traffic and a few of my clients saw a sudden drop in traffic too.

Either way, it shook things up.

Google’s mission is clear — they want to provide the highest quality, most authoritative search results for its users and remain the leading search engine provider for many decades.

While SEO nerds like me can really get into the nitty-gritty of tactics and strategies to improve SEO, everything from placement of keywords in titles, to the length of meta descriptions, and schema pro, there’s so much more to know about online organic growth than that.

If you can step away from the tactics and strategies for a moment, and look at Google’s bigger mission and even larger goal for their audiences, you can tap into the most powerful way to grow your own business online.
Google’s Major Shift Towards Authority: What You Need to Know

This year Google had a huge update this summer that was geared towards money, lifestyle, and health websites, but in turn, will soon have an effect on many other genres of websites too (so pay attention).

Why YMYL (Your Money Your Life) Sites First?

In Google’s major shift to giving its users the most authoritative, trustworthy content available online, they decided to start with two major areas of websites to target in this latest major update this summer. We make important consumer and health decisions all the time online and Google wants to provide the most relevant, trusted sites to our inquiries.

Any site that could potentially impact your health, finances or safety of users could be under the YMYL umbrella and would have been impacted by Google’s latest major update.

If you have an e-commerce store for example, that sells health supplements, you would have definitely seen a shift in your organic traffic (good or bad).

Many sites saw a big shift upwards in organic traffic with this update, but what made that happen?

In this discussion on a Google forum, nikant25 provides the best answer to what this update means for the YMYL sites. Let’s discuss these updated requirements of EAT and what Google now looks for on your website.

The new requirements of Google search: Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (EAT)

Expertise: Gone are the times that anyone can publish a bunch of content and call themselves an ‘expert’, especially if they are asking their audience and viewers to buy something, make a health-related decision, or impact an important part of our lives. Expertise seems to be an earned right according to Google with this update, which means, you must have some ‘outsider’ expertise as well. If your only expertise resides within the confines of your website, good luck — you won’t rank as a true web expert and Google will no longer favor you with more traffic.

Authoritativeness: This is almost one step above expertise. Do people and readers view you as an authority on the subject matter of your site? If not, you are going to lose marks in this category.

Trustworthiness: Reputation is now a quality that every business and website owner must have. If your site isn’t giving users a valuable, authentic experience, Google is going to find a way to penalize you. How do you build trust online? If you are selling a product, you must be transparent and clear that you are selling a product, with honest reviews and write-ups. The main author or editor of the site must also have a trustworthy reputation online.

Here are some other things to consider for Google’s new EAT algorithm to work for your website:

Do you have an authoritative and clear ‘about us’ page that tells the reader who you are, why you are an authority in this space, and what your business mission is?

Do every page, blog post, and image serve a clear purpose?

Can you find out information about who you are, what your company does outside of your website?

Is your content high-quality?

Your titles should be descriptive and clearly define what each page, post, topic, or item is for the reader/buyer.

Can your users easily identify and get to know the owner of the website as well as the contributors?

Can you easily find products, product descriptions, and find information on each product in a clear, logical way?

We’re just scratching the surface here but you get the point — Google is working hard to give its users better, higher quality search results.

The Requirements of EAT — Time to Up Our Authenticity

Whether you have an e-commerce website selling ethical clothing, or an affiliate site selling baby products, Google is not going to give anyone traffic unless you are authentic.

The purpose of your website must be clear for the readers and buyers.

Gone are the days of shady SEO tactics, weak backlinks, or publishing reams of weak keyword-stuffed content. (Those days have been gone for a while.)

You don’t have to be an SEO nerd or expert like me to reap the benefits of Google’s new algorithm either. If your business has a clear purpose, is authentic, and its authors continue to build authority and trust, both on the site and outside the website, you are ahead of the game.

What is the Purpose of a Website?

Google has expanded on its definition of the purpose of a website:

“Most pages are created to be helpful for users, thus having a beneficial purpose.”

This purpose has shifted from the previous definition which included, “to entertain” as one of a website’s mandates. With this one shift in terminology, Google is signaling to anyone who has a website that authority online is key. Websites can no longer just ‘be’, they have to have a clear purpose for your audience.

Some of the strategic ways to improve and show Google that your website has a strong purpose is to guide writers through your site logically. Some websites have a ‘start here’ page, but having clear categories, pages, and user flow is key to showing your audience (and Google) your site has a purpose.

The key here is the purpose. How can your website have a clear purpose if your business doesn’t?

In Google’s shift towards EAT, they are forcing businesses and online companies that do not have a clear value proposition or purpose to reevaluate and re-communicate their offerings online. Without clarity and focus, you don’t have a business, and you certainly don’t have an authoritative website.

Before you evaluate your website, first think about your business.

Is your mission clear?

Can you communicate what you do clearly to your customers?

If not, start with that. Your website should be an extension of the authority and mission of your company.

Building Authority Isn’t a One and Done Solution

So now what?

You’re either completely encouraged by this article or you’re saying, ‘oh shit’ that’s why my traffic has dropped lately.

If you find yourself in either camp, I have some advice for you:

Now is not the time to give up.

Authority is an ongoing project for any business. You can’t just pop up some content, put out a few social media posts and call it a day.

Smart businesses use every opportunity to build brand authority and trust.

They tell great stories. They make their customers the heroes of their brand. And they take care of their clients — you know like any business should do, offline or online.

Today’s modern world cannot give up old-fashioned good business sense.

Build a brand, not just a website and you’ll always be ahead of those who don’t.

7 Lessons Learned From Zero-Waste Fashion Entrepreneur Rachel Faller

rachel faller change creator

Think about how much clothing you buy in just one year. What about the clothing that you throw away?

This is just your personal consumption.

Now imagine an entire throw-away industry–that’s the fashion industry that Rachel Faller wants to change with her zero-waste fashion approach.

When she sat down to talk to us here at Change Creator, we thought we’d learn more about the staggering statistics of waste in the clothing industry, but it didn’t take long for us to learn so much more from this passionate social entrepreneur.

1 – Changing the Culture of Disposability

Our society is too quick to buy and throw things away. The clothing industry has an entire culture of quick and cheap or what insiders coin fast-fashion. For decades, this increased level of consumerism, matched with a wasteful industry, has led to devastating consequences for the environment, on the products, and on people’s lives, Faller would argue.

Nobody is coming up with sustainable fashion solutions to address the magnitude of this problem on a global scale, but thanks, in part to social entrepreneurs like her, things are beginning to shift.

How does Faller ensure consumers buy her brand, not just her mission?

In terms of fashion, she recognizes that the consumer is not going to stand behind your brand based on your mission or values alone; you must have a product that people are going to want to buy. Clothes have to look good, be at a price point that makes sense to consumers, and be accessible.

Faller’s approach to creating her zero-waste fashion is to address all of these industry concerns. She’s not just creating social change; she’s running a fashion business. We asked her what some of the challenges were in expanding her zero-waste fashion business, tonlé, and reaching more consumers, and she explained,

“The biggest challenge with ethical fashion today is that it’s just not as accessible.”

There are not enough ethical brands out there to meet the needs of consumers. “The way the industry is currently,” she says, “if you want to invest in ethical fashion, but have a party on Friday night, you probably won’t be able to find anything.”

Time is another factor that deters consumers from investing in ethical clothing as demands for new clothes increases each season with brands such as H&M, and Zara delivering. “What used to take the fashion industry 16 months to produce, from concept to clothing in the marketplace, now takes some brands one month,” Faller says. Consumers are demanding more options, lower prices, with little to no waiting times for the latest fashions, and the big brands are giving them what they want–at all costs.

“If we can get our clothes into those major retailers, then consumers are more likely to purchase our clothes. We don’t just need to get our clothes out there, we need consumers to demand ethical clothing, and we need to make clothes comparable in style and price” Faller argues.

There needs to be a demand for our clothing, but we also need to create that demand for ethical clothing through awareness or consumer protest. “Ultimately, people buy things because they like them. Once people come to our store or our website, if we don’t have merchandise that people will like, they won’t buy from us,” Faller explains.

2 – It’s Not Just About Awareness

An activist from a young age, Faller was exposed to world poverty issues early in life which implanted that inner motivation to make the world a better place.

“I knew what I wanted to contribute to in the world. In some way, these lessons from my travel stayed with me from a young age.”

However, not every volunteer opportunity is a good one. Looking back, it pains her to consider that some of these volunteer trips to help communities may actually have done more harm than good. Her advice: “Be mindful on how you try to change the world. It’s not just about travelling and volunteering abroad. Do your research before you decide to help other communities abroad.”

If you are taking away jobs from locals, for example, you are doing more harm than good in that community. “When vulnerable children, for example, are exposed to the revolving doors of help and volunteers, this can have damaging effects” Faller explains.

Being an agent for change means working within these communities, creating the right opportunities for people and that begins with education. Faller says it best:

“I know things can be different. I know it’s possible, especially if you immerse yourself in the communities that are doing all the work and collaborate with them.”

3 – Collaborating with Communities: A Change Creator Example: Dr. Gavin Armstrong

When Gavin decided to start marketing and selling his Lucky Iron Fish to help address the iron deficiencies in Cambodia, he knew he’d have to learn about the people in that country and work with them if his product was going to sell.

Some of these lessons came the hard way, as you can read about in Issue #6 of Change Creator Magazine. After so much research, working with community groups in Cambodia, Gavin thought he could simply travel around the country selling his Lucky Iron Fish, but this approach didn’t work. It wasn’t until he partnered with some local NGOs that already built trust and lines of communications with these communities that his sales began growing.

The lesson here: Work within–not just for–the communities you are serving. You are not going to solve a social problem and scale your business by creating a new social problem.

That level of trust needed to work within these communities does not happen overnight. Many so-called volunteer organizations do more harm than good. As Change Creators, we need to do our homework. Our solutions cannot tear apart a local economy, but rather, should work with them, building relationships to grow our companies.

4 – Outside of the Mainstream

Faller began to question her role in the fashion industry in college after a trip to Cambodia in 2007 exposed her to local artisan groups calling themselves fair-trade. She saw that there might be another way to pursue fashion and stay true to the core of her beliefs.

“I was hesitant to pursue a career in fashion because even at a young age, I didn’t want to participate in some of the practices in the industry,” she says. She studied textiles and fiber arts, but with more of a fine arts approach, by doing a lot of community artwork and working with a community art center.

Her passion for social justice did not go away, but neither did her love for making clothes. On her first trip to Cambodia, she learned about the fair-trade movement, especially as it related to textile and fashion.

She quickly got about to applying for the coveted Fulbright Scholarship so she could further study and learn from the fair-trade local artisan groups in Cambodia. It was not her intention at the time to start a clothing business, but as she grew to know the women in this local community and work with them to find suitable employment, it occurred to her: If not me, who?

Her intentions, at first, were to help a group of local women start their own ethical clothing company. But as this progressed, she quickly learned she could assist them more by giving them jobs and running the business herself. So, she did.

After returning from the yearlong year of research, she quickly moved on to starting her business. She was determined to take on two major issues: the wasteful clothing industry, and the lack of decent and safe opportunities for women in Cambodia.

5 – The Wasteful Clothing Industry

We asked Rachel about the environmental challenge she took on with her company, addressing the estimated 1 million tons of textile waste that dumped into landfills around the world each year, not to mention the factories that pollute 70% of China’s water.

As Faller says, “Garment factories waste a lot of fabric: minor imperfections, excess stock, and offcuts are all tossed out in the name of efficiency.”

This excessive waste is a major problem: That’s why tonlé has a zero-waste approach.

6 – Differentiating your brand: What makes Tonlé stand out?

Tonlé salvages scraps of material from offcuts that would otherwise be thrown away and repurposes them creatively to make new clothing: Say, a striped dress. They also use smaller scraps of material to make their own fabric yarn which is then weaved into bags, scarves, or even chunky jewellery.

Even after all this repurposing, there are still tiny scraps of fabric left which tonlé uses to create their own paper–leaving zero waste. This zero-waste approach is at the core of the brand, but it’s not Faller’s only focus.

Watch this video that details the process tonlé goes through to ensure zero waste in their clothing manufacturing:

7 – Giving Local Women Opportunities

Another key to Faller’s success and business model is providing a decent, safe working environment to local Cambodian women.

These women, who may have been working in unsafe situations as construction workers, factory workers, or simply unemployed would not have the livelihoods, fair, above-average pay and safe working conditions if it weren’t for tonlé.

Growing her business is not just about selling zero-waste clothing; it’s about changing the communities within Cambodia, one woman at a time.

As tonlé expands, so do opportunities, and that makes Rachel Faller a Change Creator to support.

Listen to our full interview with Rachel Faller

You might also want to check out these other articles…

Turning Your Inner-Activist Into a Business for Good

The greatest social movements in this world not only bring us together, they focus on what we can do as individuals to change something intrinsically wrong with the world. In short, they give us the power and authority — as individuals — to make our world a better place.

When a radical movement can harness each of us to dig deep into our power, it becomes a compelling, sustainable force of good in this world. The activist spirit must go beyond ourselves if we want to make any sort of an impact in this world.

That is why it is so vital to celebrate “The Body Is Not an Apology” — a thriving, global multimedia platform bringing millions of people together, changing the global narrative on body activism, all spearheaded by the incomparable Sonya Renee Taylor.

Investing in Every Body

Last October, the Change Creator team went to the world’s largest social impact funding conference, known as SOCAP conference, in San Francisco, California. As you can imagine, it was an eclectic mix of people from around the world, all there so we could discuss impact + money.

Many themes emerged from that conference — much more than a pure definition of what social impact investing is, what it could be, or how we measure impact. Themes of diversity in investment — or rather, the lack of diversity in investment — was a theme that kept popping up its head throughout the week.

At one of the mini-sessions that I attended, named Money Divas, the panel discussed the lack of support and funding for women-led companies. When the panel opened up questions to the audience, I got to meet the remarkable Sonya, whose commentary on the lack of female funding was:

“If we can accomplish so much with so little, imagine what we could do if someone truly invested in us and our ideas.”

At that moment, I knew I had to get to know this force of nature. At that time, I had yet to get the full backstory but I knew I wanted to invest in that kind of presence, that kind of commitment. The simple idea that we should amplify each other’s success really struck a chord with me.

I have thought about that idea of what impact investing really means. It’s not just enough to say we’re funding ideas that change the world if we are not funding all kinds of people changing the world — women, minorities, indigenous, disabled, trans. All people deserve investment.

(Sonya’s speech at SOCAP.)

A Formula Towards Radical Leadership

I think Sonya would be the first person to tell you that everything that has led her to where she is now is by accident. The formula for her immense success — there is none. Every choice she made, every new endeavor came to her because she was examining what it meant to be human because she was intensely curious, but also because she was also intensely outspoken.

Sonya’s journey to become the radical leader she is today started with a conversation. On tour, with her poetry troupe doing the National Poetry Slam Championship in Tennessee, Sonya first uttered the words that would change the trajectory of her life. She describes this intimate conversation in her book, “The Body Is Not An Apology”:

“We were complicated and honest with each other, and this is how I wound up in a conversation with my teammate Natasha, an early-thirtysomething living with cerebral palsy and fearful she might be pregnant. Natasha told me how her potential pregnancy was most assuredly by a guy who was just an occasional fling. All of life was up in the air for Natasha, but she was abundantly clear that she had no desire to have a baby and not by this person.”

As Sonya will tell you, her nosiness and openness made it easy for her to probe into the details of how her friend got pregnant in the first place.

“Instinctually, I asked Natasha why she had chosen not to use a condom with this casual sexual partner with whom she had no interest in procreating. Neither Natasha nor I knew that my honest question and her honest answer would be the catalyst for a movement. Natasha told me her truth: “My disability makes sex hard already, with positioning and stuff. I just didn’t feel like it was okay to make a big deal about using condoms.”

That is when Sonya, in a way to comfort her distraught friend uttered these words: “Natasha, your body is not an apology. It is not something you give to someone to say, ‘Sorry for my disability.’” Sometimes all you need to do to start something is to speak it into existence. When Sonya heard herself utter those words, something quite special stuck.

“Language has the power to create. As we speak a thing, we are literally allowing it to exist in this world.”

The truth that Sonya comforted her friend with would soon become the mantra by which she lived her life. Those words would stick with Sonya for quite some time. They would not only become a poem, but a Facebook page, then a thriving movement, then a company.

In the early days, Sonya might not have imagined where those words would lead her life, but she could sense she was on to something much larger than herself, which she alludes to in this early performance of the poem as she tells the audience of the Facebook Group they must like and support. “This is the poem that spawned the Facebook page that will spawn the movement. I’m claiming it.”

And, claim it she did.

Watch Sonya perform the poem that started it all in an early performance.

Radical Self Love as the Ultimate Activism

Let’s face it. From the moment we wake up, we are inundated with messages that tell us our bodies are not good enough. These messages are hard to quiet, even if you are Sonya, on the road, touring, performing “The Body Is Not An Apology” to a new audience every night.

Yes, she knew that she had to live in her own truth of radical body love, but that outside voice telling her that she was not good enough was still there. One day, Sonya came across some an Instagram account of a plus-sized model who had just booked a substantial lingerie client. Here was this beautiful woman, unabashedly flaunting her “juicy thighs” for all to see and admire. Plus, as Sonya recalls, “someone was paying her a lot of money, too.”

That one act of defying the system led Sonya to post her own picture on Facebook, as she encouraged others to share photos where they felt beautiful, too (no matter what the outside world says).

This one act of radical self-love would lead others to do the same. The next morning, Sonya woke up to 30 other brave souls sharing their photos, as the movement was quickly picking up steam. That’s the thing about radical self-love — it can be just as contagious as self-hate. It’s up to us to choose what lane we want to live in.

What does radical self-love have to do with social change, anyway?

So many messages in our world tell us that our bodies are not good enough. That we need constant improvement, that we should be more healthy, more thin, more white — the barrage of negative talk is fast and furious, and consistent. Persistently telling us that we are not the norm so we, therefore, are not worthy.

We live in a system of body-shame indoctrination. Every act of body terrorism has been designed to support the agenda and systems of greed and power in our world. Once you realize that all those messages of not good enough are actually supporting the social constructs of society that keep us pushed down and less than, you start to get a little pissed off (at least you should).

One of the first steps in any successful activist movement is to realize when you are being conditioned, how you are being conditioned, and to get pissed off about the damaging social constructs you have been sold all your life.

If you want to dismantle the systems of the world, you have to understand how they were first constructed. That’s what activism is. This kind of thinking is what should drive your social good business first. It’s not about profit, the right business model, or even finding that unique sales proposition that will make your company unlike any other. It’s about deconstructing the systems in this world of greed and power. That starts with you.

You. Taking back the messages that we are being sold every day and replacing these outside voices with our own inner voice that radically loves us is the first step in transforming the world.

We, as activists, as Change Creators must ask ourselves: Whose agenda is your self-hate? That criticism that you have of yourself — who is benefitting from it? It is not in our best interest to support those agendas.

“Radical self-love is contagious; just as body shame is contagious. We get to decide what it is that we want to spread. If we can radically love ourselves, we can radically love the world.”

Activism by Dismantling the Social Constructs

Sonya wants us to imagine the social constructs we can eliminate if only we radically loved our bodies. Take, for example, the history of racism, as Sonya explains:

“Race as a construct was created as a way to validate the exchange of human bodies as slaves. First, the system wanted to exploit people and get cheap labor. So, the system created a structure that said we could rationalize cheap labor, thus they needed to say that these people were sub-human, which rationalized this horrific structure.”

How quickly the construct of racism is dismantled when we don’t allow others to see any human being as less than. As Sonya’s Facebook group grew, she quickly realized how powerful this idea was. She started a national conversation, not about self-acceptance, or loving your size 16 self, or celebrating your red hair — no, it was always a much larger, much broader conversation. It had to be. As she explains:

“We have internalized those messages of hate, all those messages we’ve received about what bodies are bad and this conversation about radical self-love has to be more than just about accepting our bodies, it has to be a conversation about race. It has to be a conversation about disabilities. It has to be a conversation about fatness. It has to be a conversation about queerness. It has to be a conversation about transnesss. And all of the other ways our bodies exist on this planet.”

As the conversation grew larger, so did the role of TBINAA in the world. Change is a thinking, doing, being process. We have to be in touch with our thoughts intentionally as we create that shift in consciousness. Activism has to start from within.

“We can’t create outside in the world what we have not figured out how to access inside of us first.”

5 Steps to Building a Mission-Driven Company

The steps Sonya took to grow her company were just like the rest of her journey. Yes, she quickly saw that this thing she was doing had merit, had some legs, and could grow, but in a way she could never have imagined it would become what it is today.

Here are the steps that Sonya took to build her business:

Step 1: Build an Authentic Community

If you want to build a lasting movement, you quickly have to realize that you are going to have to get people on board. In the early days of TBINAA, Sonya just shared ideas on the Facebook group. She would curate content every single day that supported that radical self-love that she was out there preaching.

After so many months of connecting with others online and on tour, Sonya had to take another look at her own actions, her own insecurities and fears and do something radical herself.

Yes, sometimes building that authentic community starts with you.

Creating the 30-Day RUHCUS Project

Sometimes, building a movement means doing something completely terrifying and uncomfortable. Eventually, we all have to face what’s really holding us back from living our authentic truth. As leaders of a movement, you have to be willing to be vulnerable at times and to always access yourself — are you out there living what you are encouraging others to do?

When Sonya realized that she still hung onto some body shame about her hair, she decided to take her own radical step. Developing traction alopecia early in life, Sonya had relied on her wigs for over a decade. The scariest thing she thought she could do was be bald in this world because she had been conditioned to believe that she would no longer be beautiful without hair.

In typical Sonya fashion, she didn’t take this step alone. No, she created the first major project of TBINAA — called it a RUHCUS (Radically Unapologetic Healing Challenge for Us). Before she was done her own 30 days, she realized how many people had taken her up and started their own RUHCUS projects.

Sonya lived her work.

She kept touring the country, building her community and soon realized that she would need to find the right people to help keep this thing growing.

Step 2: Find the Right People

When the TBINAA Facebook group reached over 20,000 people, Sonya realized she’d have to start building a team of people to keep it going. She quickly got an intern on board to manage the daily posts, curate the content, and push the vision further. She also found early adapters and volunteers who wanted to help, brought ideas to the table, and could get on board building this out alongside her.

They would ask, “I really love these ideas, can I write something? I want to support this idea; can I start a support group?” For that, Sonya would answer with a resounding “yes.” The business was building itself with the support of its members. She gave people not only the “yes” they needed to get on board and help, but the permission to bring ideas to the table and follow through with them.

As she grew the company, she knew she’d only hire the people that stood alongside her. As she’ll tell you, “It’s easier to teach skills than it is to teach values.”

Step 3: Formalize the Structure and Protect Your Brand Equity

It became apparently clear early on that Sonya would have to formalize the movement to protect the integrity of TBINAA. She did not want to see other brands exploiting this idea of body activism and radical love to sell diet aids or t-shirts. Could you imagine?

Not only did she have to get the right team of writers, supporters, and business developers on board early, she needed money to invest and formalize this growing movement. Yet, as we already touched on early in this article, finding investment as a black woman wasn’t going to be as easy as a trip to Silicon Valley.

Step 4: Monetize the Movement Early

Knowing that she had already built a solid, authentic audience, she thought it would be a radically good idea to get funding through a crowdfunding campaign. Today, looking back, she might do things differently.

The amount of work to raise that first bit of capital — a little over $40,000 — was outrageously difficult, but that was the seed fund she needed to start www.thebodyisnotanapology.com.

That was the first step to monetizing her business and making this movement an established, structured thing.

She had to take ownership of this thing early on. If you don’t own it, somebody else will. It became clear that she needed to create some concrete organizational structure around this movement if she wanted to hold on to it and watch it grow.

Step 5: Grow the Vision of the Company (and Keep Making Money)

After trademarking her company and establishing her ownership of the company, it was time to create some deliberate growth and that takes vision.

At this point, TBINAA had a team, some initial startup funds, and a trademarked idea. Figuring out that monetization model would not be easy. It would take some tweaking to find that sweet spot and to explore ways to support the organic growth that was happening.

Today, their model is a subscription-supported model that provides their supporters (on all levels) to monetarily back the vision and growth of the company. Building out webinars, workshops and products is also an integral part of the business plan as value increases. They also have millions of visitors to their website each year and continue to grow as they continue to build out authentic, relevant content that people cling to.

Building a strong monetization model is so vital when growing your movement if you want to build long-lasting social change. Don’t be afraid to make money early. Money can continue to be the fuel that spreads your message and grows your community — it’s not only okay, but it’s vital to monetize as soon as you can!

How You Can Find Your Inner Activist

As we have seen from Sonya’s success, all great activism starts with the inner journey. All social change begins with radical self-love. Loving ourselves, not just accepting ourselves, can deconstruct the social systems that build oppression.

It sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

If you want to change the world, start with yourself. But, as we have seen, that journey from the social constructs we’ve grown up with to that fiercely powerful, radical self-love is not linear. There will be times when we doubt our greatness, when we transfer that doubt to others, and when we fall flat on our faces.

Recognize that radical self-love is the first step. Do the hard work of looking at your own social constructs. What do you believe? What are your core values? Do the inner work first, before you begin to change the world.

Remember, you can begin today to speak into existence that which you hope to change.

Key Takeaways

Be your own Sonya. Live in your truth. Align your business to your values from the get-go; it’s the only way to build lasting results.

Get early supporters on board to help build your vision. Give them the authority to make decisions, bring ideas to the table, and make it their mission, too.

Monetize your movement if you want to build a sustainable solution. Figure out the business stuff, too; don’t wait to start making money.

Listen to our exclusive interview with Sonya Renee Taylor

 

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6 Ways to Enjoy the Holidays as an Entrepreneur 2018

This time of year can be quite stressful. Not only are we leaving another year behind, but we’re also starting off a new one. As entrepreneurs, it can be tempting to take this time to ‘catch up’ on all those lingering projects we’ve wanted to get done all year, but I would caution you against that.

Over the past few years of owning my own business and now as co-founder here at Change Creator, the end of the year brings its own joys and strains.

Today, I snapped at someone in a work meeting.

I had no patience, no time to discuss stuff, I was annoyingly rushed.

You see, that’s what happens at this time of year for me. I have a million little projects that still need to be done. Add to that the holiday strains and stresses (I have an 8-year old) and you’ve got one cranky person. Every year, I tell myself that I’m going to do my best and find time to just ‘chill’ but every year I give in and do way too much and feel that strain.

So this year, I’m stopping this cycle.

And, I’m going to focus on these 6 ways to enjoy the holidays as an entrepreneur and start 2019 as a more refreshed, positive, all-guns-blazing person on a mission!

1. Take some time to meditate.

Today a trusted colleague told me (again) to meditate. It’s something relatively new to my life but has made such a difference. I swear, 10 minutes of meditation is better than a few drinks to focus and relax you. You can meditate anytime, anywhere as long as you can find your center and focus. I will usually go through meditation spurts, followed by my most productive, happy days, then I’ll let the meditation slide for a few days, followed by my most stressed-out, unproductive days.

There’s a connection here people! Meditate = calm, productive, decisive.

Over the holidays, I encourage you (and me) to take a few minutes every day and meditate. It will keep all those busy schedules, family political discussions, and last-minute trips to the mall in perspective.

2. Delegate your holiday tasks too.

I have to admit. I used to be one of those overachievers during the holidays. I used to make homemade gifts, homemade stocking stuffers, and send out cards. I would schedule and host parties and do the whole nine. Well, I’ve decided that none of these efforts brought me any more joy than what I do now.

Over the past few years, I’ve streamlined my holiday efforts and found joy in what really matters, getting some downtime and eating copious amounts of food with friends and family.

I stopped doing all the cooking and shopping too. This year, I delegate. Everyone wants to be included and it’s not that tough to let people help.

I also do a lot of online shopping.

Just like in business, we can’t to it all on our own. If you are going to enjoy the holidays, you don’t want to be rushed off your feet planning and doing it all on your own. Delegate to friends, family, or just simplify. You’ll thank me for that when you get time to enjoy that third eggnog too!

3. Don’t start anything new from now until the new year.

Okay, folks. Finish whatever you need to this week and then done. Don’t start a new project, don’t try to get a jump on next year’s plans. Take this time to complete something, but stop there.

If you have a free day, that’s okay.

You don’t need to extend any extra effort to tackle those big, new projects. Guess what? It will all be waiting for you when you get back.

4. Unplug for (at least) one day!

I realize not everyone celebrates “Christmas” and that’s okay. But just because you don’t officially celebrate the holidays, doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the one day of the year that most people don’t work.

Unplug for one day. Please.

Don’t check your emails.

Don’t send any emails.

Don’t schedule posts or do some Facebook campaigns.

Unplug and enjoy!

5. Give yourself and your crew a break!

Our employees work really hard for us all year. Please, let’s not be those owners who demand work get done all year round. I’ve worked for many clients that think that Dec. 31 is a perfectly suitable deliverable deadline.

I will never be that employer. Our crew needs time to refresh and relax too.

6. Enjoy yourself.

Have a few drinks. Have a few laughs. Watch some cheesy tv. Make sure you take the time to just enjoy — 2019 is going to be a big year, you need to be ready!

Over 90 Actionable Pieces of Advice from Change Creator Magazine 2018

It’s been one amazing year giving you the best social impact and innovation business leaders in our world. If you are someone who wants to change the world, but just don’t know how to get there, this list of actionable insights and key takeaways from our best content in the magazine app are you for you!

This year we will put out 10 issues of Change Creator magazine. Why 10? Before April 2018, Change Creator magazine was a bi-monthly publication but then we heard from all of you and decided to start publishing it monthly, with more strategies, tips, and mentorship in your pocket each month.

We’ve had the incredible honor of interviewing some of the world’s brightest, most impactful people on the planet and we’re super proud of the exclusive interviews we bring to you.

Without any further ado, here are xx actionable pieces of advice from Change Creator Magazine 2018:

January 2018: Dr. Muhammad Yunus: The Godfather of Social Enterprise [Cover]

We started the year off right with this exclusive interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

“Start with a big vision, solve a big problem, but take small, bite-size steps to get started towards fulfilling that vision.” Dr. Muhammad Yunus

We were so honored to get to talk to Dr. Yunus in this special edition that started our year off right. In this exclusive interview, we asked:

Is it just about providing society with something good?

How is it different from Apple creating useful products or creating jobs?

It is very easy to get bogged down by definitions. Some people are prescriptive, advocating a very narrow definition. We, at Change Creator, have a slightly more inclusive view. For us, if a venture has a social mission at its heart, it qualifies as a social business.

There were a lot of key insights in this special edition that started the year off with a bang. Here are the key actionable takeaways from Dr. Muhammad Yunus himself:

  1. Start with a big vision, solve a big problem, but take small, bite-size steps to get started towards fulfilling that vision.
  2. You must create a new road if you want a new destination. Replace old systems that no longer serve people.
  3. Do not let others frighten you out of the work you believe in.
  4. Break down your fear, take a risk, and allow yourself the ability to fail.
  5. Money is not a solution itself but a vessel through which you can achieve your goal and drive big impact.

January 2018: Bryan Goldberg, Kate Ward: How Bustle Built Their Media Empire [Feature]

We learned a lot about building a huge audience and really tapping into your what your audience wants, not what you think Google will like.

Appeal to organic traffic by pushing out content that will appeal to readers, not Google. Rank will follow, but don’t ignore paid advertising media.

We also learned a lot about hiring the people who are going to drive your business — when Bryan Goldberg wanted to start Bustle, he knew Kate Ward would be his go-to millennial, but she refused — until he persisted.

Here are the key takeaways and action steps from our Bustle feature:

  1. A flooded market isn’t always a red traffic light. Assess what makes your concept different, and flesh that out.
  2. Have a clear objective, ethos, and concept. Then stick to it.
  3. Hire brilliant staff who fit into your target market. Leverage them to appeal to investors.
  4. Make sure you have enough capital to leap onto hot marketing opportunities and product development.
  5. Appeal to organic traffic by pushing out content that will appeal to readers, not Google.
  6. Rank will follow, but don’t ignore paid advertising media.
  7. Find innovative social media marketing trends and act on them ahead of the masses.
  8. Form social partnerships and keep fishing for more influencers.
  9. The instant you have a monthly visitor rate worthy of advertising, find sponsors.

“People told us there is no room,” says Goldberg. “In fact, you’re picking by far the dumbest category to go into. You are going to be annihilated.” Bryan Goldberg, Bustle.

Guide to Social Business: Special Edition

In this special edition, we cover all the key factors of starting, growing, and scaling a social impact company. Think of this as the go-to guide to being an impact entrepreneur! Filled with valuable insights you won’t get anywhere else, we bring you the best tips and advice to help you live the life of your dreams — and save the world.

Some key pieces of actionable advice:

  1. Think outside the box to get things done. Be scrappy! Social businesses often have unconventional and disruptive needs – which means you will also need to do things differently!
  2. Get all the help you need — tell people you are starting a social enterprise and build those strong relationships from the beginning.
  3. Figure out a business model that works for you and your impact goals. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach for everyone.
  4. Start making money as soon as you can so you can amplify your impact.
  5. Use content to build strong, lasting relationships — share and create valuable content!
  6. Start ‘bite-sized’, as Dr. Muhammad Yunus told us. If all goes well and you’ve validated your idea, you can begin to expand your offering and impact.
  7. Think about products with dual-markets as a viable impact model, you can help those in need and conscious consumers in North America too.
  8. Choose a social impact idea that will fire up your life, that matches your unique values.
  9. Before you quit your day job, make sure you validate your social impact idea and know that it’s a viable option wanted in the marketplace.

“Be open-minded and look for opportunities in unlikely places. At least 80 percent of the amazing entrepreneurs Change Creator has interviewed have found their big idea during a unique travel experience.”

<<Change Creator Magazine Goes Monthly!>>

Before we launched out April magazine, Change Creator decided to start going with monthly releases of the magazine. Our goal: to become more of a monthly, mentor-in-your-pocket, bringing you the best advice from both the business world and social impact leaders! Going monthly means even more exclusive insights, interviews, and strategies than ever before!

April 2018: Sonya Renee Taylor: The Business of Activism [Cover]

We saw the powerful example of how a movement became not only a thriving business but an agent for change in our life. How can you start a purpose-based business?

“Recognizing that radical self-love is the first step. Do the hard work of looking at your own social constructs. What do you believe? What are your core values? Do the inner work first, before you begin to change the world.”

Sonya Renee Taylor shows us that we can start a social movement that radically changes and challenges social norms and make it a thriving business.

  1. Be your own Sonya. Live in your truth. Align your business with your values from the get-go; it’s the only way to build lasting results.
  2. Get early supporters on board to help build your vision. Give them the authority to make decisions, bring ideas to the table, and make it their mission, too.
  3. Monetize your movement if you want to build a sustainable solution. Figure out the business stuff, too; don’t wait to start making money.

 

May 2018: The Future of Blockchain [Cover]

In our May edition, we decided to bring you the power and technology of Blockchain, which will have a lot of impact in the future for social good. We went out to San Francisco to get exclusive interviews with some of the pioneers in the Blockchain and social impact space and showed you the vast opportunities that exist.

“By redefining business value in the context of social issues, decentralized technologies like Blockchain can create new social economies that fund social causes, stimulate social innovation, and enable individuals to make a living through social impact.”

June 2018: Seth Godin: Leadership, Innovating Impact [Cover]

Getting to interview Seth Godin for this edition was a thrill — we are big fans of his approach to marketing here at Change Creator.

“Entrepreneurship…is actually the least risky thing you can do…” Seth Godin interview.

We learned a lot in this edition about leadership, marketing, and the future of life as an entrepreneur. Here the key takeaways from our exclusive Seth Godin feature:

  1. Treat your customers morally and with respect.
  2. Throw away the jargon and think simply. Choose and become the change you want to see.
  3. Inspire your staff and buyers to want to do what you want them to do instead of doling out orders or expecting reciprocity.
  4. Treat your buyers with empathy and responsibility. Get to know their values.
  5. Don’t let fear or uncertainty dissuade you. Choose an industry that fills your soul and explores the things that make you nervous.
  6. Learn to find happiness in scary places.
  7. Let culture inform your decisions instead of becoming distracted by complex best practices.
  8. Do one thing every day to push yourself forward.
  9. Start with a small viable market and move on to greater things as you learn.
  10. Find an innovative concept that brings value and changes the world.

July 2018: Sarah Kauss: A $100 Million Company Combatting Plastic Bottles [Cover]

When it comes to social impact, there still seems to be this myth that to be successful means you can’t make a lot of money, and if you do, you have to be a charity and give it all away. With S’well waterbottles, Sarah Kauss takes this falsity and turns it on its head. Yes, you can make $100 million. Yes, you can have a $100 million worth of impact too. Taking on plastic pollution head-on, offering consumers a viable, beautiful option, Kauss is the very definition of social impact entrepreneur.

In this edition, we feature our exclusive interview with this powerhouse and learn how she started this waterbottle + social good empire.

“It might be good to say that I had a complex business plan with detailed financial goals, but I didn’t. I had a basic business plan with this amazing ambition to enhance the drinking experience in the hopes of ridding the world of plastic bottles.” Sarah Kauss, S’well.

Sarah took 30K of her own money to start and scale this business. This is an achievable dream. With determination and a strong desire to change the world and combat plastic pollution, she grew her business and is poised to be the market leader in this space.

Here are the key takeaways and action steps from our Sarah Kauss article:

  1. People need small, achievable actions if they’re to be motivated to create change.
  2. Rapid-fire start-up growth isn’t the only way to broach social entrepreneurship.
  3. Sometimes, slow and steady builds the strongest brand.
  4. Build a network of supporters who will fuel your determination during the first years of your business plan.
  5. Sometimes, preserving your vision is more important than preserving your bank account.
  6. Premium brands take time to take off.
  7. Prepare for growth by hiring people who can manage your mature business from the start.
  8. Social causes require work, not complexity.

July 2018: Jake Orak, Turning Big Challenges into Big Impact [Feature]

Jake Orak is a special friend here at Change Creator. As our first cover story, he set the stage for all future editions of the magazine by showcasing an immensely passionate and successful example of what a social entrepreneur rock star looks like.

Since that cover story, we’ve met up with Jake in person and did this follow up an interview in July. I can honestly say that his passion for his art, his business is as genuine in real life as he comes across on our podcast interviews. But, there’s more to Orak than meets the eye — he’s also a savvy business owner, marketer, and has shared his tough lessons so freely with us here.

“Implementing this new business model has helped us reconnect with the ‘why’ of our business again. It has given us a fresh story and helped us connect with digital marketing more.” Jake Orak.

Here are the key takeaways and action steps from this follow-up interview:

  1. Don’t be afraid to pivot your business. Your plan at the very beginning may not come to be a year or two down the road. There are many variables that go into creating a successful business and none of us can capture all of them. Be nimble and ready to change as the market changes or when you realize your initial idea probably isn’t going to work out.
  2. Pivoting can take longer than expected. Any big change will take longer than your estimate. This goes back to all of the unforeseen and unaccounted for variables.
    Financials are a core competency. While some parts of your financials can be outsourced, you’ll want to keep your finger very close to the pulse of all things financial in your business. Don’t be afraid to periodically dig deeper into the numbers to make sure the final (derived) picture is the real picture.
  3. Create a buffer that preserves cash. Don’t let you cash dwindle to just a few dollars. Create a buffer that doesn’t allow your cash to go below a certain amount. This way, after all expenses are paid, you still have the cash to handle any emergency that may arise.
  4. Don’t settle in and accept the status quo. What everyone else in the industry is doing may not be the most efficient approach. Explore new ideas that break with industry norms.
  5. Take breaks from the business. Completely disconnect and spend more time on “play”. This meant family, friends, and hobbies for Jake. Activities that don’t involve thinking about the business. Ultimately, these breaks made him a better leader and delegator. As well, he’s done his best work ever in the last year and feels more deeply connected with the company mission.

August 2018: Jay Shetty: Mastering Content Impact [Cover]

In August, we introduced the incomparable storyteller, Jay Shetty. With billions of views on YouTube, Shetty is a master at telling a story and his approach is based on science and ancient wisdom.

“We don’t destroy ourselves with burnout. We destroy ourselves by doing things that don’t matter.” Jay Shetty.

From 25K in debt to a social media phenomenon, Shetty took us into his storytelling strategies, let us in on how he started, and most importantly, how we can do that too.

Here are the key takeaways and action steps from our exclusive with Jay Shetty:

  1. Wealth and success are poor bedfellows, so build your brand out of passion and purpose instead.
  2. Solve a billion problems instead of aiming for a billion dollars. The profits will follow.
  3. Selfish content creation cannot compete in an attention economy. Grow to understand your demographic before you try to reach it.
  4. Build a clear concept of your content’s themes and structure. Brand strength and universality will evolve from it naturally.
  5. Create premium content, but live the principles you share. Transformational stories are the foundation of your brand and authenticity, its substance.
  6. Sharing ideas you haven’t given time to evolve is like serving uncooked food.

August 2018: Ryan Foland, The Art of Effective Communication [Feature]

We met master communicator Ryan Foland at a conference last year and were thrilled to include his exclusive interview in this edition of Change Creator magazine. If you’ve ever had to speak in front of an audience, pitch your business or tell your story, this article can help you!

Getting to the most precise message is the heart of his 3-1-3 method, which takes succinct communication to the core. If you can’t communicate your message in 3 sentences, 1 sentence, then 3 words, you need to get to work on that.

Here are the key action steps and takeaways from this article:

  1. Be aware that you are already starting to communicate before you even speak. Your clothes and body language say a lot about you.
  2. The less you say, the more profound you are. Deliver the message in a short, concise way.
  3. Leave room for questions. Allow your audience to get intrigued by your idea and welcome their questions.
  4. Listening is a speaking skill. To be a good speaker, you also need to be an effective listener. Engage people to talk by also asking them the right questions.
  5. When validating an idea, ask what problem you are trying to solve. People only care about how you’re going to solve their problems. Focus on that when selling your idea.

September 2018: Pot. Purpose. Profit. The Social Impact of the Cannabis Movement

The number of jobs that have opened due to cannabis is astounding. Studies show the cannabis industry will have surpassed the number of jobs in our manufacturing industry in only a few years, creating another 300,000 new jobs. It comes as no surprise that with this massive demand, there will be a tremendous amount of work to be done.

Cannabis prohibition has enslaved a powerful resource, creating extreme misconceptions for almost 100 years! Having been underground for decades, cannabis and its many benefits are sadly still unexplored.

We decided to put out this special edition and discuss the social implications and opportunities in this growing field where impact and innovation will be needed the most.

“I stood with a huge number of advocates. My heart began to pound as a sudden weight swept over me. I didn’t really understand the oppression I had experienced until this moment.” Amanda Spriggs, writer.

Learn from people on the front line of this movement how you can get involved, build a business and improve our world.

September 2018: Karson Humiston, Amanda Guerreo, Vangst

As state legislation across the country began to legalize both medical and recreational cannabis, Karson was able to foresee the growth opportunities in the cannabis market. Taking these trends seriously, Vangst was born.

Thus, Karson’s idea of creating a staffing agency and recruiting resource specific to the cannabis industry filled a need in an emerging market that most people continued to avoid because of inaccurate perceptions about the industry.

When we interviewed Vangst, we were not only curious about how they grew their business but how they anticipate the cannabis opportunities to grow in the next few years.

It wasn’t an overnight success, despite how it might appear to the outside observer. Vangst was started on hard work, big goals and the principle of getting the first client in the door, then growing.

“I remember thinking that every day I would wake up and think that today is the day I’m going to get my first client,” Karson mentions.

Here are some big takeaways and action steps from our exclusive interview with Vangst:

  1. Build relationships from the beginning. These relationships will help you in the beginning of your business and for the long-term.
  2. Offer free services to potential clients to get your feet in the door.
  3. Make sure employees’ goals are aligned with the long-term vision of the company.

October 2018: Virgin Unite, Jean Oelwang, Turning Challenges into Opportunities [Cover]

It was such a thrill to get this exclusive interview with the CEO of Virgin Unite, Jean Oelwang. Not only is she a badass leader, but she also gave us a lot of impactful and seriously good insights to help us scale our impact and overcome challenges.

“You will be knocked down many times if your idea is revolutionary enough to change the world.” Jean Oelwang.

Here are the key takeaways and action steps from this cover article with Jean Oelwang:

  1. Build communities, not spreadsheets. Change needs to be about the people you impact upon and who are part of your team.
  2. Join forces with partners who share your values. They will make your journey easier.
  3. Celebrate failure. “You will be knocked down many times if your idea is revolutionary enough to change the world.”
  4. Build your corporate culture around respect. Make your workplace a source of empowerment, learning, and innovation. Train and develop your team to encourage individual growth.
  5. Behave according to your brand’s values and allow your team to find personal fulfillment in their own purpose.
  6. Immerse yourself in the culture you hope to help. You cannot change a nation you’ve never visited.
  7. Infuse your partnerships with your brand’s mission and they will carry you where you want to go.
  8. You don’t need to be the star of your own brand. A leader in the social impact space must know how to serve the community, not lord over it.

October 2018: Virgin Unite, Q and A with Sir Richard Branson [Feature]

We’ve wanted to get Sir Richard Branson in the magazine for quite some time! He’s not only a social innovation rockstar, but he’s also a great person! We sent him a few burning questions and he sat down and gave us his insights in this special Q and A.

One of the questions we asked him was: What advice would you give a mission-driven entrepreneur who wants to change the world today about overcoming the fear of risk?

Here’s his answer:

“Simple — take risks, don’t avoid them.

Those who succeed do so because they dare to take risks, and they’re not too afraid to reach out and ask for help when they lack the skills they require or the advice they need.

If you allow fear of failure to become an obstacle, well then you’ve failed before you even get going.

Entrepreneurship in its very essence is all about taking risks.

You can create your own luck by opening the door to change, progression, and success.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!

October 2018: Art Barter, Not Your Typical Leader [Feature]

If you want to know how to scale a business, the ethical way, this exclusive article with Art Barter, Founder, and CEO of Servant Leadership Institute, is for you. In this article, we take on the myth that successful people in business are ruthless and greedy. It doesn’t have to be that way!

Art Barter proves that the more you can lean into your values, letting those ripple effects change your company, the more your company can scale and grow. It starts with how you approach business and who you hire:

“If you are clear on your values and know who you want to serve, you need to hire people for character first and competency second.” Art Barter.

Here are some key takeaways from this feature article:

  1. Find and follow your own values and principles and be strictly faithful to them,
  2. Empower your employees to live out the mission and goals that you have defined for your business, and
  3. Don’t be afraid to show your heart to both your employees and your customers.

November 2018: Milo Runkle, Mercy for Animals [Cover]

In November, we brought you some really passionate leaders taking on the challenges of animal rights and activism. With our cover story, Milo Runkle, founder of Mercy for Animals, we delved deep into his motivations to launch this passion project, but we also learned how he scaled his company and impact.

“We went from trying to address every issue facing animals to focusing on the one that causes the most suffering for the largest number of animals: factory farming. We had limited time and financial resources and wanted to be as effective as possible.” Milo Runkle, Founder of Mercy for Animals.

When Milo chose a non-profit business model, he became part of a new generation of lean NGOs that refuses to lower its standards. None of Mercy For Animals’ talent, social media outreach, or marketing is scrappy merely because it exists on donations. That’s how good business moves forward and scales with the time.

“We have the power to change the world. Don’t ever forget it. To be born human, at this crucial time in the history of our species, comes with remarkable power and privilege — and immense responsibility: responsibility to lead heart-centered lives that seek to inspire compassion, love, and hope. Each and every one of us has unique powers and skills that can make this world a kinder and a more just place. The actions we take, the words we speak — they create ripples. Together, we can create waves of change.” Milo Runkle, Founder of Mercy for Animals.

Here are some key action steps and takeaways from this exclusive article:

  1. Build a development network of mentors, mentees, and supportive organizations. Go to conferences. Read. Find trusted allies. Then nurture those relationships.
  2. Direct your energy where counts: at policymakers and corporate spenders.
  3. Diversify your revenue stream, but earn your donations by creating real change.
  4. Expose your audience to your cause by telling stories that humanize and move it beyond the abstract.
  5. Narrow, resounding goals achieve far more than broad, impossible ones.
  6. Hire mission-aligned staff and nurture them, particularly if your cause is a traumatic one.
  7. Invest one-on-one time into your key relationships with donors.
  8. Create a data-driven campaign and hone it in an evidence-based way.
  9. If you think of your impact in terms of all the enterprises who are working towards your cause, you’ll be able to identify unmet needs. That cumulative impact will also keep you inspired.
  10. If you’re working in the food space, connect with The Good Food Institute and consider investing in New Crop Capital.

December 2018: Joel Brown and Emile Steenveld, Master Your Mind, Life Changing Adventures in Bali [Cover]

When Joel Brown cobbled together his website, Addicted2Success in 2011, he was just another nine-to-five sales executive with a hunger for his own success. Today, the site is one of the web’s hottest properties, with enough traffic to attract several million-dollar purchase offers. Who needs a million dollars when you have million-dollar dreams, though? And when you want to impact a million lives…

In this exclusive interview with Joel Brown (one of our earlier cover stories) and Emile Steenveld, we take you to Bali — where this team of two are doing some seriously amazing, life-changing things (and having a blast too!).

“You can have all the strategies down, but if your mental game — your mindset — is not en pointe, you’re not moving anywhere.” Joel Brown.

In this final edition of 2018, we wanted to end your year on a high. Getting your mindset right will help propel your success as we prepare for 2019!

Entrepreneurship requires you not only to believe you can succeed but also to align that success with your authentic self. “We teach people how to nurture their sores and their scars that they’ve been hiding or avoiding or pretending not to know. That’s when they can start moving into the strategy with Joel. You can’t go into strategy, you can’t brand yourself, you can’t be really authentic until you accept [your limiting beliefs] first.” Emil knows this lesson. He’s already been here, in the mud, trying to fight his way through his own limiting beliefs, but what does that have to do with branding and corporate objectives? Plenty, it turns out.

If you want to level up your life, your business, your entire existence, this exclusive cover feature is for you.

Here are the key takeaways and action steps from Bali:

  1. Get in touch with your self-limiting beliefs (the persistent complaints, concerns, or critiques that keep you from progress) and find a vision that integrates with your authentic self.
  2. Let your values determine your goals. To identify them, list five or six people you admire and note their key values. Put those that resonate with you on your wall and develop the steps you need to take to action them every single day. Let daily actions transform into habits.
  3. Create a five- or 10-year plan that reflects your ultimate version of yourself in the future. “The key here is that we reverse engineer it, so write out your fifth year or your tenth year, then ask, “What did I have to do in my fourth year to get to the fifth, and the third year to get to the fourth?”
  4. Don’t ignore your personal scars — they will keep you from your entrepreneurial dreams.
    If you’re giving too much, you’ll never have the energy to serve at a higher level. Let your vision determine what you say yes or no to.
  5. Focus on thriving, not surviving. Ask what you can create, not how you can get through.
  6. Measure your achievements by the impact they have, not the money they earn.
    Live with intent.
  7. Begin to action your ambitions even if your vision is not yet perfectly formed. Then, let the feedback you receive help you to refine your goals. Focus on progress, not perfection.
  8. Live in your genius and delegate the rest to those who can master your weaker abilities.

“We need to delegate to elevate. You want to make sure you’re stepping into your genius as much as possible and then delegating the rest.” Emile Steenveld.

Actionable Advice from Change Creator Magazine: Conclusion

We’ve given you a lot of great advice and exclusive insights this past year, but we’re just getting started! There is so much more to Change Creator magazine than we could do in this one roundup article (including more feature articles, interviews, action steps, and more). We cover a lot of topics but the core of all that we do is still the same — good business.

If you want to change the world and harness the power of good business to do so, then Change Creator magazine is for you. Our app is designed to be that mentor in your pocket, where you can get insights and mentorship wherever you go.

Please let us know who else you’d like to see in Change Creator magazine. And, please reach out to us and tell us what you think!

Our final actionable advice for you moving into 2019:

“Don’t be afraid to change the world. Change is possible and only you can serve with your unique values and gifts.”

Get ready for 2019 and subscribe now to Change Creator Magazine with our holiday special for just $1.99/month >>> Click Here to Get Started

How to Make Money in Ecommerce: 7 Tips from the Pros That Really Work

Online markets are still booming with opportunities. There are still billions of dollars to be made in ecommerce, so there’s no surprise that new companies are popping up every day.

If you are struggling to make a go of your ecommerce biz, or really want to see some massive growth this year, here are 7 proven strategies to make more money online.

1. Create a blog that drives traffic.

“One of the hardest parts of growing an ecommerce business is getting enough traffic to your website. Most ecommerce businesses rely on paid ads to generate sales, but this is expensive and cuts into your profit margins. I recommend focusing on an inbound marketing strategy so you can improve your store’s rankings in organic search results. It takes more time than buying ads but the payoff is greater.

An effective inbound marketing campaign starts with an active blog. Every content marketing plan should include an overview of the customer research journey. Defining the customer’s research journey involves thinking about what your prospective customers are looking for, the questions and problems they have, and tailoring your blog content to address their pain points.” Earl Choate, Concrete Camouflage, www.concretecamouflage.com

2. Invest in a good PIM software solution.

Being able to get your products online quickly and efficiently is a vital component to the long-term success of your ecommerce company, especially if you want to play with the big boys. Google loves ecommerce companies that continually share products, as well as offer an easily accessible user interface. PIM (Product Information Management) systems can help with all of that.

“With a PIM system, we can bulk update content, images, meta-data and attributes from our suppliers. Now customers see exactly the right information, and we can use the enhanced data to improve meta titles and descriptions, which are an on-page ranking signal.

Aside from the SEO factors, PIM systems allow internal teams to collaborate easier, translate content if required, change image formats and sizes, and provide an easily accessible user interface.” — Aman Brar | Product Owner -eCommerce, www.printkick.com

3. Use shopping ads from the start.

Getting sales from the get-go is vital to your long-term growth as an ecommerce company. One of the best ways to get sales right away is to set up ads that target your customers from the start.

“I’ve worked with dozens of ecommerce companies, and the #1 thing that has helped them explode in terms of growth is using product-specific paid ads. By this, I mean using Google shopping ads specifically, as well as product-specific remarketing ads.” — Stacy Caprio, www.acceleratedgrowthmarketing.com

4. Get your products on as many channels as possible.

Being in more than one location online is a must if you want to propel your growth.

“Growing an eCommerce company starts with a diversification strategy, backed with clear channels of distribution and legal enforcement.

It may not sound sexy, but it’s absolutely one of the biggest challenges most companies face they begin to grow and expand. Companies first need to focus on optimizing and listing their products on multiple channels (Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Rakuten, etc.)

In addition, they need to have registered trademarks and a good warranty when products are sold through an authorized reseller.

Lastly, they need to have clear distribution agreements with any distributors or retailers specifying where they can and cannot sell their products including anti-diversion language and quality control. This is the best strategy for growing an eCommerce brand!” — Shannon Roddy, Amazon Specialist

5. The more you automate your processes, the faster you’ll grow.

The more you can automate your ecommerce processes, the faster and easier you’ll grow. Setting up systems takes time, but it’s time well spent.

“My best tip to grow an ecommerce business: Automation. Automation. Automation. I can’t say it enough. From accounting to order fulfillment to marketing it’s best to automate everything you can.

For example, automate the sales data from your eCommerce cart to your accounting software. Automate email follow-ups based on customer behavior and profiles. The more you can automate the more you can do with less and free up yourself for high-value business growth activities.” Kelly, Block Island Organics | https://www.blockislandorganics.com

One great way to automate your process is to use a landing page builder tool, such as Shogun or Pagefly — which allows you to quickly create new storefronts, expand your markets quickly and automate the page creation process. 

6. Invest in the right software from the start.

Choosing the right platform for your ecommerce business is a serious decision. Take the time to do your homework first before you commit. Don’t just think about the company you have now, the sales you’ll have during your first few years, but the growth and sales you will have as you grow. Here is a great lesson on choosing the right platform from Brandon Chopp, Digital Manager for iHeartRaves:

Our Shopify stores are grossing $20M annually and we’ve been featured in the Inc. 5000 four years in a row, but growth wasn’t that easy.

Before we launched our e-commerce stores, I wish someone would have told us how important our shopping platform would end up being.

We were originally using Magento and that proved to be a near fatal error. A few years ago, our founder and CEO, Brian Lim, appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank, where he received offers from all five sharks and ended up accepting deals from Mark Cuban and Daymond John. As you can imagine, being featured on a highly viewed television show can attract quite a bit of website traffic.

In the year leading up to the episode’s air date, we purchased thirty servers, simulated load tests, and invested over $200,000 to make sure the site could handle the massive influx of traffic that would be coming our way.

But when the episode aired, the site went down. In the world of e-commerce, uptime means everything! A lot of money was lost that day, and it made what should have been one of the happiest days, one of the worst.

Since we’ve switched over to Shopify, our lives have been made immeasurably easier. We likely would never have had this issue if we had been with Shopify from the beginning.

The moral of the story is to take your time and research every possible option before choosing your shopping platform. It can make or break your company.”

7. Invest in search marketing.

Our final tip to accelerating your ecommerce store growth is to invest in search marketing. We started off this blog talking about creating a blog that drives organic traffic and yes, that is one way to invest in organic, but there are others. Learn all you can about SEO and keyword-specific industry topics that you are in before you launch your shop.

If you are going to be using a platform such as Amazon, you’re going to have to learn how Amazon ranks their products as well, which means you’ll have to do some digging into keywords specific to your industry on Amazon. If you don’t know the first thing about search marketing, don’t panic. There are many industry experts who can provide a comprehensive search marketing strategy specific to your store and industry keywords.

If you are looking to hire an SEO or search marketing expert, here are a few quick tips:

  • Ask about the software tools they use and why (great SEO experts have a variety of tools that can cost thousands of dollars per month)
  • Ask for some case studies and reports
  • Don’t believe the hype! Nobody can guarantee a #1 ranking on Amazon or Google. If someone tells you that, run.
  • Don’t hire anyone that uses black hat strategies — gone are the days of keywords stuffing, and fake backlinking!
  • Get them to discuss metrics and data. What do they track? What will they track for you?

Hiring an SEO expert can be a big win for your ecommerce store if you find the right person or agency. Don’t be fooled into a high retainer monthly with little data, no metrics and fake promises! There are a lot of SEO experts out there that do the hard work of getting your store ranked, and know that although organic traffic might take some time (even a year or more) to generate, the ROI is far higher than continually paying for AdWords.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions: Ecommerce

How much do ecommerce websites make?

It really depends on your product, marketing and niche but on average a new ecommerce company can make around $39,000 in their first month of business and can grow that income from there.

How can I get rich from ecommerce?

1. Create a blog that drives traffic. …
2. Invest in a good PIM software solution. …
3. Use shopping ads from the start. …
4. Get your products on as many channels as possible. …
5. The more you automate your processes, the faster you’ll grow. …
6. Invest in the right software from the start. …
7. Invest in search marketing.
8. Invest in a good landing page builder with analytics to track what’s working, what’s not.

Is ecommerce still profitable today?

Yes, ecommerce is still very profitable if you know what to do right from the start and implement that plan. There is still a lot of growth in these markets as buyers are still shifting from offline purchasers to digital buyers.

How do I start an ecommerce business with little to no money?

1. Find a product you want to sell. Often niche products work best.
2. Build a business plan and model.
3. Build an ecommerce store and website to ‘sell’ your product (minimal cost).
4. Upload your products and start selling.
5. Invest any profits you get right back into the business to start marketing, investing in ads, optimizing your landing pages.

Some Final Thoughts on Ecommerce

There are many ways you can grow your online store, it just takes time, energy and money. There are no shortcuts, but the payouts can be worth it. The market opportunities are still huge, so don’t despair. If you have a killer product and are willing to put some serious effort into your store, the possibilities are endless.

If you want more insights on how to grow a massive ecommerce company, listen to Change Creator’s exclusive interview with Nathan Hirsch who grew his ecommerce business without any outside investment:

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From Epic Shark Tank ‘No’ to Big Funding: How Failure Propelled This Entrepreneur

lori cheek shark tank

Let’s face it. Failure sucks. No matter how many entrepreneurial platitudes out there tell us differently, when you are in the weeds, struggling to get your idea off the ground, it can be tough to see the positive side of big mistakes.

Yet, why do so many really successful people talk about their toughest lessons or their biggest mistakes? Or do they? Well, they do now.

Whether you are in the middle of a big failure story of your own, just starting out, or even on the verge of a big breakthrough, you are going to love these stories from the front lines of entrepreneurship.

Let’s meet Lori Cheek. She shared her toughest lessons with us at Change Creator.

Biggest Lesson Learned:

If you put yourself out there big time, don’t be afraid of the big no’s. There’s always somebody watching when you take big risks. Someone will invest in your idea if it’s good. Don’t let one big no be the end of your vision.

Failure Times Ten Means Risk

I failed in a major way (10 times over) but pivoted. There’s not a week that goes by that someone doesn’t email me that I’ve inspired them in some way by watching my startup evolution. I’m a Shark Tank Vet, a TEDx Speaker and have been featured in Forbes, The NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, The NY Observer, Entrepreneur Mag, Fast Company, Inc Magazine and so much more.

When most people would have quit years ago, I only hustled harder to keep my dream alive! I could be the walking poster child for the age-old phrase, “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.” It wasn’t an easy ride, but I’ve never been happier in my life. A lightbulb moment 9 years ago changed my life forever. I left my $120K a year (60 hour work week) design job and now I own a business that Wired Magazine recently questioned, “Is this the future of online dating?”

I’ve gone from 15 years of helping others build their dreams to a life finally dedicated to building my own. I feel like I’ve given myself an MBA by building this business and if I hadn’t taken this major risk in my life, I never would have been able to ride out this amazing journey.

Her Story

After working in architecture, furniture and design for 15 years, I came up with an idea that lead me into the NYC world of technology and dating. I completely threw away my design career and I’m no longer building structures, I’m now building relationships.

In February of 2008, I was out to dinner with an architectural colleague. He’d spotted an attractive woman at a nearby table and scribbled, “Want to have dinner?” on the back of his business card and slipped it to her as we were leaving the restaurant. He left with a date. I left with an idea.

After over two years of brainstorming how to remove the “business” out of the business card, I launched Cheekd– a deck of ice-breaking dating cards with a unique code that lead the recipient to the privacy protected online dating profile of the mysterious stranger who slipped them the card where the two could start communicating online.

It was like online dating but backward and soon coined as “the next generation of online dating” by The New York Times. But as a trained architect, I really had no idea what it took to build a business. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve failed building my business over the past few years. I’ve learned to welcome the mistakes and even joke that I’ve learned so much from them that I’m going to keep making more of them on purpose. I’ve taken a crash course in building a business and failing has probably been the greatest lesson of all. And here’s where the serious struggles began…

Breaking Free from Corporate

After finishing off my savings from my 15-year career in architecture, I had to get extremely creative to continue funding my business and this is where the financial sacrifices began. I made nearly $75,000 by selling my designer clothes at consignment shops and on eBay, doing focus groups, secret shopping, app testing, dog walking, house sitting, watering plants and by selling my electronics and other odds and ends around my apartment on Craigslist that all went straight back into my business. The biggest chunk of cash came from renting out my West Village Studio in NYC on AirBnB, while I couch surfed for 14 months, nearly got evicted and ultimately lost my lease of 5 years in my gorgeous apartment.

This was to support my idea that I kept pushing through despite the financial setbacks. I had gone from a stable, good living to couch surfing, all the while trying to get investors, build my company and get my idea off the ground. It was one of the toughest times of my life. I made a lot of mistakes which almost cost me my dream.

And finally, after four tumultuous years of building my startup with the wrong partners, lots of bad decisions and some major rookie mistakes, I was determined to find a way to take my business to the next level … and what better way than to apply to ABC’s Shark Tank. In September of 2013, I found myself walking down that scary shark-infested hallway into a stare off with five of the harshest millionaire investors in the world. I’d never been more nervous in my entire life.

When Shark Tank Tanks, Move On…

When I proclaimed I was going to change the population with my reverse engineered online dating business, serial entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, rolled his eyes, called me delusional and immediately snapped,

“I’m out.” Billionaire investor, Kevin O’Leary, demanded that I quit my “hobby” and shoot my business—my passion– like a rabid dog. After getting shot down by all five Sharks, I looked them in the eye and said, “Trust that you’ll all see me again.”

Although those final bold words of mine ended up on the cutting room floor (adding insult to injury), in the 48 hours after the broadcast, Cheekd.com received a record-breaking 100K unique visitors and our inbox filled up with thousands of emails insisting that the “Sharks” were “out of their minds” for not investing.

A little under 50 of those emails were from interested investors. Since the Shark Tank aired in February of 2014, I found the missing links from years before. We’ve raised 5 times the amount I’d sought on the show and I’ve gotten a CTO on board who’s helped facilitate and finance the new face and technology behind the new Cheek’d.

Figuring Out a New Business Model

Previously, with the Cheek’d Version1, users would use a set of clever cards to introduce themselves to individuals they encounter in the offline world who sparked their interest. If the interest was mutual, the card recipients used the card’s unique code to connect easily with the person via a private online profile viewable on the Cheekd website, but the physical cards weren’t really going to work in the online dating world (another tough lesson as I grew my business).

The newly launched Cheekd reimagines online dating with a new app that makes missed connections obsolete. Cheek’d uses a cross-platform low energy Bluetooth technology, which fosters hyper-local engagement. The app connects people in real time, versus virtual time. Connections begin in person; Cheekd helps you take the next step and continue the conversation online.

Cheekd ensures you ‘Never Miss a Connection’; thanks to this new Bluetooth technology, the app works on the train; on a plane… anywhere—You’ll get a notification if someone who meets your criteria is within 30 feet of you. If you’re near a potential spark, Cheekd makes sure you know about it. I would have never embraced this new technology if I hadn’t learned from the failures in the past.

What I Think of My Business Today

Cheekd has been the most powerful thing that’s ever happened to me. Building this business has been an incredible learning experience. I’ve taken a major risk (both financially and mentally) and surrendered my career in architecture & design, but my heart and mind are in this project every waking moment.

I’ve never been more dedicated to anything. Despite the occasional overwhelming stress, it’s been loads of fun. I feel like I’m living the American Dream—I’ve given birth to an invention. I’ve gone from 15 years of helping others build their dreams to a life finally dedicated to building my own. It’s the most rewarding feeling.

How to do the 20-Second Gut Test to Get Your Website Branding Off to a Great Start

Let’s face it. Your website is your calling card online. It can also be your online store, revenue generator, audience builder, lead generator and so much more. When it comes time to give yourself a new look online, where do you start? If you want to create a visual brand that tells your story, there are a few things you can do right now before you even hire developers. What am I talking about? The 20-second Gut Test of course. This is such a great exercise to do first, before the logo, the branding, the style guide, the development — basically before you spend your investment.

What is the 20-second gut test anyway?

In my line of work, I get to see and work on a lot of websites. Some are incredible and really speak to their customers, draw you in, and have amazing useful content. Some are flashy and false and speak to no one. In today’s crowded marketplace, it can be tempting to mimic a popular site, or even worse, just get something (anything) up so you can say you’re online. Yikes!

I would strongly advise against hastily throwing up a website without doing any kind of research or gut test first. Often in branding, our first instincts, our gut will be right all along. That’s why I love the 20-second gut test from Help Spot Design Academy so much. It really simplifies the entire process from the get-go and get’s you working towards your end goal.

How to start your 20-second website gut test.

While the test itself only takes a few seconds, the prep work is going to take a little longer. First, dig into some competitor websites in your industry. Make a list of about 10 sites or so that stand out. You don’t have to evaluate them on any level yet, just make the list. Choose the most popular ones, or just 10 sites that stand out for whatever reason. You aren’t evaluating anything yet, you are just listing them.

Now, I recommend taking another step forward too.

Make a list of 10 sites that you love (in your industry or not).

I think a valuable second step for this gut test is going to be looking at websites that you already love, use, admire — for whatever reason and giving them a gut test too. This can be a great exercise to do at any time in your online journey from time to time as well. Are your visitors not converting as much as you’d like? Has your growth stalled? Looking to make improvements on your website, but don’t know where to start?

This gut check can help you clarify all of those issues.

Too many times those of us who spend our lives online get bogged down the rabbit hole of Google. We can spend countless hours meandering among the world wide web that we forget to take a step back and listen to our gut. There is a reason we react ‘strongly’ to something, even online.

Now, the 20-second gut test begins…

I only recently discovered this little online gem and I have already started using it in my client processes to help people get mental focus on what really matters to them online.

You’re going to need your lists.

Next, you are going to fill out the gut test here: 20-second website gut test scoresheet

The instructions are simple:

What is your gut reaction to each website? In other words, if each site was yours (swapping in your content, logo, branding, etc), how happy would you be with it? Rank each site on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being extremely negative and 5 being extremely positive.” 

Rank each site from 1 -5, with 5 being a really great first ‘gut’ reaction to a website.

Now, comes the hard part.

Evaluating your gut. Moving forward with design.

Now, tally up your scores. What sites stood out to you as extremely positive? Take a deeper dive into the top 2 sites that you really loved. What is it about these sites that drove your fancy? Is it the color scheme? The user design? The content? Write these thoughts down. You’ll need them for the next phase of website development.

What sites were really low on your list? What made them stand out in a negative way?

How would you feel if this was your online presence today?

Now, do a final gut check on your own site if you have one. Does it make it make you happy? Are there things to improve? Does your branding really reflect your company vision?

This is just a place to start. Of course, there will be a time when you want to get something in development, but keep coming back to this gut check. It can save you countless hours by going down a path that just doesn’t jive.

There are lots of tools to help you get online. If you want to get up and running fast, we always recommend Clickfunnels (you can read our full Clickfunnels review here). It can really help you propel your business and you don’t technically even need a website to start promoting things.

[earnist ref=”clickfunnels-gives-you-everyth” id=”33539″]

From Broke College Student to Multi-Million Dollar Business Owner: Nathan Hirsch Interview

man looking over cliff

In this interview with Nathan Hirsch, we cover a lot of topics! If you want to learn how to bootstrap and grow your business and get to the multi-million dollar level, then this podcast is for you.

Who is Nathan Hirsch?

Nathan Hirsch is the Founder and CEO of FreeeUp, a marketplace connecting business owners with the top 1% of freelancers in eCommerce, digital marketing, web development, and much more. Interested in being a client or partner?

Reach out to him anytime. Mention Change Creator and get $1.00 off your first hire’s rate for a lifetime!!! https://calendly.com/freeeup-nathan

He built FreeeUp to address the frustrations I had. FreeeUp receives hundreds of freelancer applicants each week to join the marketplace. Through interviews, they vet the freelancers, take the top 1% (based on skill, attitude and communication), and make them available to our clients quickly whenever they need them. On the backend, they have 24/7 support to make sure people have a good experience. Lastly, they have a no turnover guarantee covering replacement costs if the freelancer ever quits. FreeeUp has been growing rapidly since and is now a leader in this space.

Here’s a breakdown on what you can expect in this Podcast:

  • Learn how Nathan started his dropping shipping Amazon-based business in his college dorm
  • How he grew that business to a multi-million dollar business in just a few years
  • The toughest lessons he learned along the way

“I was on top of the world, I had decided to take a much-needed vacation after a year and a half of my business. I had trained a manager to run my entire operation and trusted this person to do the operations when I was away. The second day of my vacation I get a call from my largest (and almost primary) supplier saying that they no longer wanted to work with me. That same day, my go-to manager quits on me. Oh, and I also found out that I was a victim of identity theft.”

  • Learn how Nathan took his passion for finding good people and created a new freelancer platform that is disrupting the industry called FreeeUp
  • How he grew FreeUp to a multimillion-dollar business (Did we mention he bootstrapped this too?
  • His best advice for the areas of the business you need to invest and hire first. Here is his top 5:
    • Customer Service
    • Bookkeeping
    • Graphic Design
    • Web Development
    • Content Development

Take it from us, this guy knows how to create a business from scratch, make it grow and find the best people to get you there and he’s sharing his insights with us on the podcast. Here’s Nathan in his own words about the start of his journey:

In 2006, I founded my first online venture out of my college dorm room, selling and buying student textbooks. I rapidly scaled my e-commerce business, bootstrapping from a $20 student – cause initiative to a multi-million dollar e-tailer clocking in revenues in excess of $30 million on Amazon across a 6 year period while serving over 10,000 customers.

I have never had a “real job” besides being a high-school Intern at Aaron’s Inc, a large retailer headquartered out of Atlanta, GA and later with Firestone Corporation in 2006 where I successfully handled a whole suite of critical deliverables from exceeding sales targets, leading the District Credit Card Sales process and managing critical customer touch points. The intensive Customer Service Training at Firestone inspired me to incorporate key elements into both Portlight and FreeeUp.”

If you want to scale your business, learn how to hire the right people, this interview is for you.

How to Hire a Great Leader: 4 Things You Must Always Do

When it comes to your business vision, hiring a great leader should be at the top of your list. While many ‘appear’ to be great leaders, we have to dig deeper to find someone that can propel your company to another level. Additionally, it’s important to remember that as you grow your team, great leaders tend to hire other great leaders.

If you want your business to grow, you are going to have to know how to hire a leader. Here are 4 tips on how to hire a great leader:

1. Hire someone who is curious.

Being a leader is more than just having that vision for your company; you have to be curious. One of the ways you can differentiate a great leader, from a manager is how this person connects with people. Do they ask questions? Are they genuinely interested in getting to know their team? Finding out what makes other people tick?

That’s just what Millennial attorney, author of Motivating Millennials, James Goodnow thinks:

“The skills required to be a good leader probably start with vision, integrity, innovation – and the curiosity necessary to look at problems with ‘new eyes,’ which hopefully leads to creative solutions. Along with self-motivation and critical thinking abilities, you also need grit, humor and an unparalleled work ethic in order to truly inspire and motivate others.”

Not only does James believe in ‘daily touchpoints’ with his teams, he makes it his mission to stop relying on texts and emails and actually connect, in-person with everyone on his team.

 

2. Don’t hire yourself.

We get it. You are a leader. You are probably really great at what you do, but if you want to hire a leader, don’t duplicate your strengths; find someone to challenge you.

Wences Garcia, CEO of MarketGoo, a DIY SEO company says it best:

“You want someone who can compliment you, challenge your ideas and collaborate on strategy and projects, not a clone of yourself. Clones can end up being a nightmare (remember Multiplicity?) even if you’re a great leader who possesses a strong skill set.”

3. Hire someone who’ll create change.

Leaders are change agents. If you want to hire the best leaders for your business, you have to be willing to take a risk on someone who’s going to shake things up in your business. This is not the time to hire a worker-bee.

Dr. Ty Belknap, author of Leadership for Introverts says it best:

“Leaders are thought of as many things, but one of the main tasks of a leader is to be a change-agent. Businesses must change at times or risk becoming extinct, and it is up to leaders to show the positive benefits of those changes.

There is one big difference between leaders and managers: Managers enforce change from above, leaders enact change from below. Bring the needed change to those it will affect the most and ask them for tips on how to best enact those changes. This gets the team to feel ownership in the change.”

 

4. Find someone who’ll color outside the lines.

You might think you know your business inside and out, but hiring a great leader means giving someone the freedom to create a more powerful role in your company.

Faizun Kamal. As the CEO/Founder of The Franchise Pros agrees:

“The best leaders that I have worked with have a history of “coloring outside the lines”. They start a job with a specific job description and by the time they leave, they have created an entirely new job for themselves. They willingly take on new responsibilities.

They take on projects that stretch their comfort zones. They are not afraid to fall or fail. Coloring outside the lines that is an inherently entrepreneurial trait and is one of the most common markers of clients who go on to become very successful franchise owners.”

That’s it. Four tips to help you propel your business to new heights by finding the best leaders out there.

This article can be found in full, in Change Creator magazine. Start your free trial today, and get full access to hundreds of exclusive interviews, insights, and business strategies for social impact you won’t get anywhere else.

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Why Storytelling is so Vital to Purpose-Driven Brands

Only 48% of millennials and Gen Z believe that corporations actually behave ethically. This is a significant number because, for the first time in many years, the majority of young people don’t believe that business is a source of good.

They have lost faith in corporations and, let’s face it, in governments to do what’s morally or ethically right. With so many social and global issues facing our world right now, why aren’t more businesses and corporations driving social change?

And, if they are — why don’t we know more about that? With so many social problems around the world, why isn’t business doing more to have a positive impact? And for the businesses that are doing more — why don’t we hear more about them?

The majority of this generation and the younger generations do believe that businesses should be a driver to social change.

There are a lot of businesses doing some serious good in the world. We’ve interviewed many of them!

Where is the disconnect?

Today, businesses are not telling the story of their social impact in a way that connects to their audience. Yes, of course, there are some brands that are killing it when it comes to social impact — Salesforce, Ben and Jerry’s, Costco, just to name a few, but for the most part, social impact is thought of as a campaign idea, not the story that lives and resides within a company.

Although we are inundated with messaging every, single, day — corporations and businesses are not doing a good job at telling their brand stories. Especially when it comes to the story of impact and social good.

We have to do better.

We cannot wait for the big corporations to do good and tell us about it. We have to make social change possible in our own lives and businesses.

Storytelling is the best marketing effort a brand can do. And, if your story is social impact, you must tell that story with all the fervor and excitement this world deserves.

Storytelling vs Marketing

We are constantly bombarded today with marketing. Ads on Facebook, in Messenger, remarketing, pop-ups, click-bait — the whole nine.

Most of us have become quite savvy on when we are getting ‘sold something’, what brands fail to realize today is that this is not the way to build brand equity, an audience, a following or customers.

Maybe brands should spend more time building relationships instead of interrupting our day telling us how great they are all the time.

That’s where storytelling comes in.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of crafting your brand story, I want to share this quote from our good friend Seth Godin (issue 16 of Change Creator cover story).

What is brand storytelling?

First, let’s talk a little about what storytelling is NOT. I think when most people hear about ‘brand story’, they automatically assume that this is a story that is crafted, created, invented even. A compelling brand story is not fiction. It lives in the very real.

Here are some things that brand storytelling is NOT:

It is not fiction.

  • “Storytelling is not inventing a story. In fact, the very reason why your business exists, why you have developed products and services and why you do what you do is filled with stories.” (Source: https://www.i-scoop.eu/using-storytelling-strengthen-brand/)

It is not a one-time campaign or promotion.

  • “Storytelling is not a one-off exercise but a matter of consistency and adapting to evolving human needs, although sometimes specific actions and initiatives can seem to have that one-off dimension. (Source: https://www.i-scoop.eu/using-storytelling-strengthen-brand/)

Something that only exists in the minds of upper management or the marketing team.

  • Something that exists in a bubble or stays in internal documents and upper management. The brand story should live amongst employees and customers.

What do I mean when I talk about your ‘brand story’…

Think about when you first started your business.

What was the problem you were trying to solve? Do you still think about that problem every day or have you been too busy trying to convince others of how great you are?

When I coach brands on how to develop their brand story and how to tell their brand story, they always want to jump ahead in the process.

Many brands forget about the problem they are solving. What problem are you solving? That should be a simple answer. I don’t need to hear about the many benefits of your brand, how great your product is, how valuable it is, the market size — none of that.

When we start to think about ‘brand story’ — I start with the most important factor in your business — What problem are you solving?

But first, a short exercise.

Before we continue in this blog. Let’s stop and think about our businesses.

Jot down the problem you solve in your business.

Now stop there.

Before you craft your brand story, you must be able to clearly identify the problem you are solving — NOT how you are solving it, or the best attributes of your brand, but really, down to the nitty-gritty, what’s the problem?

If you can figure this out, you are one step closer to crafting a brand story that resonates with your audience.

What is the secret to telling a great brand story?

Well, there is no secret really but there are things that every brand needs to do when telling their story. For me and my clients, I really focus on authenticity. Even online, or in a digital platform such as email marketing, authenticity is key to building trust with your customers.

Gone are those old ‘advertising’ days when you just plopped your brand on the television set and told everyone how they had to have you.

Today’s audiences are not only savvier, they are cynical. We can smell a fake ad a mile away, can’t we.

Audiences today are also everywhere. We can find someone to listen to our brand story in a myriad of places. From social media to youtube videos, audiences are connected to brands in more intimate ways.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

At the core of telling a great brand, story is the truth.

The 4 Factors that make a great brand story — Is it T.R.U.E.?

Timely

Relevant

Useful

Entertaining

I would like to add — E — Emotional.

Storytelling is so Vital to Purpose-Driven Brands

Now, I started this blog talking about how vital brand storytelling is for purpose-driven entrepreneurs.

If businesses and corporations no longer have confidence in the next generation that they are doing good in the world, there is a disconnect somewhere. Either this perception is true or brands and companies are not telling their impact story.

I believe that yes, many corporations are not doing enough social good, but the ones that are — they are not telling their story in a way that is resonating with the next generation.

People today are clued into the problems in the world. Between plastic pollution, the environment, social issues — most of us, especially the younger generations, are quite socially aware. What most of us are not aware of is the powerful role businesses and purpose-driven entrepreneurs can have on the world.

I believe that business, as a force for change, can have much more impact than governments, or any social policy will ever have. In today’s world, we cannot sit and wait for others to change things.

Business must play a much bigger role in environmental and social change. Millennials and Generation Z say that the desire to create social change is their top career choice.

Now. Meet Maggie Doyne.

At Change Creator, we take storytelling seriously. We believe that it is our responsibility as media to not only help create new Change Creators but to give those purpose-driven entrepreneurs out there a platform to tell their story.

For example, Maggie Doyne. We interviewed her on the podcast and learned more about her story, then we created this video:

If you are a social impact brand that needs help shaping your story, we can help. 

Further resources:

Deloitte Millennial Survey — https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html

Amazon Prime Day Discounts for Entrepreneurs

The biggest shopping day of the summer is almost here. What are we talking about? Amazon Prime Day 2018 of course.

What do we know about Amazon Prime Day so far?

Well, we know that this year the deals are going to be even better than the past 3 years combined. As this day has become even more popular amongst online shoppers, Amazon is doing everything in their power to make this summer event bigger and better than ever.

While we don’t know the exact date it will fall this year, we are thinking that (based on the past 4 years), it will fall sometime in mid-July. Tuesday, July 10th is a big possibility.

Don’t worry, we’ll keep you posted on upcoming deals, dates, the whole nine so you can save some serious cash to fund your business.

If you haven’t signed up for Amazon Prime yet, now would be good a time!

We’ve got the date! [Update]

Looks like prime day will start Monday, July 16, 2018 this year! Hooray! There will be lots of sales to watch. We’ll keep you updated.

Sounds good, but does Amazon support small business?

Why are we getting all excited about an Amazon event, you may ask. That’s a good question. While Amazon isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, they do support a lot of small business owners too. Many small (and social impact) companies use Amazon as their main distributor. In today’s ecommerce-centric world, there is no doubt that the big guys, like Amazon, are going to get some slack for growth but we still think the deals are worth it.

You all know the struggles of taking a small, or mid-sized business and making it large. Watching your cash flow, finding those deals (especially in the bootstrap days) can mean the difference between survival and success. We want to help!

When is Amazon Prime Day 2018?

While Amazon hasn’t officially announced the actual day yet, we can take a guess and say that it should be around the same time of year that it always has:

The first Prime Day was Wednesday, July 15, 2015.
The second Prime Day was Tuesday, July 12, 2016.
The third Prime Day was a multi-day affair that started late on Monday, July 10, 2017, went through all of Tuesday, July 11, and ended early on Wednesday, July 12.

So, keep this page bookmarked. We’ll let you know as soon as we do!

Our best guess — Prime Day 2018 will likely be Tuesday, July 10, but may encompass Monday, July 9 and Wednesday, July 11 as well.

How to get the best deals on Amazon Prime Day?

The best way to get big deals on Amazon Prime day is to do your research. Amazon will start to send out notices beforehand so you can watch those deals that you have your eye on. Now is the best time of year to get deals on electronics, office supplies, everyday household items, and subscription services like audible (we’re hoping).

What kind of deals can I expect on Prime Day?

Don’t be surprised if you see some seriously significant discounts. After the first year, Amazon has really ramped up the deals. It’s worth waiting for. Of course, all Amazon-branded products like Fire TV, tablets, e-readers, and Echo will be on sale. Some models for savings of 40%!

Not every product on Amazon is discounted though. The best tip I can give you is to know ahead of time what you want to buy and keep checking (and comparing) the prices now so you know if it is a great deal, or not. Some brands use these days to discount products they want to get rid of, with deals that are not any better than a flash sale. So, do your homework. Choose the brands you already know and trust, and watch prices now.

Of course, just because it’s on Amazon doesn’t mean it’s the best price out there!

Some Amazon Prime Day Deals to Start Watching Now!

Here are some deals that you might want to start watching now based on the deals we saw from 2017!

The Best Amazon Prime Day Deals for Business

We’ll be scouring through the deals to make sure your business can flourish. One of the best ways to make more money is to save more money, right? That’s why keeping on top of special deal days, doing your homework, knowing what brands you want to buy — all of these tips make a big difference.

Don’t forget to bookmark this page to keep checking for early deals or deals to watch too!

Amazon Prime Day Printer Deals

  1. Brother MFC-J460DW – Click here to see this LIVE Prime Day deal!
  2. Brother HL-L2300DClick here to save 30% on this live deal!

  3. HP Envy Photo 7155 – Click here – 50% off Live Prime Day deal!

  4. HP Z9L26A Blue Sprocket Portable Photo PrinterClick here to save 23% off! 

  5. Brother MFC-J880DWClick here to see this LIVE Prime Day deal!

  6. Brother MFC-J985DW Click here to see this LIVE Prime Day deal!

  7. Kodak Verite Wireless Color Photo Inkjet Printer – Lightning Deal! Click here to save 41% off!

  8. Canon imageCLASS LBP162dw Monochrome Laser PrinterClick here to save 45% off this printer!

  9. FlashForge 3D Printer Creator Pro – Lightning Deal! Click here to save 22% off!

  10. Dremel Digilab 3D20 3D Printer – Prime Day Deal! Click here to save 58% off!

  11. Monoprice Maker Ultimate 3D Printer – Lightning Deal! Click here to save 30% off this 3D Printer!

Amazon Prime Day Speaker Deals

  1. Echo Dot (2nd Generation)Save 40% this LIVE Prime Day Deal!
  2. Echo (2nd Generation)Click here to save 30% off!
  3. DOSS Touch Wireless Bluetooth V4.0 Portable SpeakerLightning Deal! 20% off!

  4. Edifier R1700BT Bluetooth Bookshelf SpeakersLightning Deal! 24% off!

  5. LENRUE Portable Wireless Bluetooth SpeakerLightning Deal! 20% off!

  6. Soundcore Flare Portable Bluetooth 360° SpeakerLightning Deal – Click here to save 24% off!

  7. JBL LSR305 5″ 2-Way Powered Studio MonitorClick here to save 55% off!

  8. Edifier R2000DB Powered Bluetooth Bookshelf SpeakersLightning Deal! Click here to save 27% off!

  9. VAVA Outdoor Rugged Wireless Portable Speakers Lightning Deal! Click here to save 36% off!

  10. Bose SoundLink Micro Bluetooth speakerClick here to save 30% on this Prime Day Deal!

  11. MOKCAO POWER+ Cordless SpeakerClick here to save 37% on this Prime Day Deal!

  12. ZOLO Halo Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Smart SpeakerLightning Deal! Click here to save 60% off!

Amazon Prime Day Deals by Apple

  1. Apple MMM62LL/A 13.3″ MacBook Air (Early 2015) Laptop – Click here to save $300!

  2. Apple MacBook (Early 2016) 12″ NotebookClick here to save 24% off!

Amazon Prime Day Deals on Books

  1. The Nightingale by Kristen HannahLightning Deal – 50% off

  2. Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark SullivanClick here to save 50% off this Prime Day Deal!

  3. The Tuscan Child by Rhys BowenClick here to save 50% off this Prime Day Deal!

  4. Dining In: Highly Cookable Recipes by Alison RomanLightning Deal! Click here to save $14.69

  5. The Power of Positive Leadership by Jon GordonLightning Deal! Click here to save 46% off!

  6. In the Afterlight by Alexandra BrackenLightning Deal! Click here to save 45% off!

  7. National Geographic Atlas of the World, Tenth EditionLightning Deal – 75% off!

  8. Nikon D3400 For DummiesClick here to save 47% off!

  9. Say You’re Sorry by Melinda LeighClick here to save 54% off!

  10. I Am Watching You – Teresa DriscollClick here to save 31% off!

Amazon Prime Day Laptop Deals

  1. HP HP 745-G3 EliteBook 14″ NotebookLightning Deal! Click here to save 26% off!

  2. Acer Aspire E 15, 15.6″ Full HDClick here to save $50!

  3. ASUS VivoBook F510UA Thin and Lightweight FHD WideView LaptopClick here to see this LIVE Prime Day deal!

  4. Acer Aspire R 15 2-in-1 Laptop Click here to save $50!

  5. Acer Chromebook R 11 ConvertibleClick here to save 33% off this Prime Day Deal!

  6. ASUS TUF Thin & Light Gaming Laptop PCClick here to save $100!

  7. ASUS C302CA-DHM4 Chromebook Flip 12.5-inch Touchscreen Convertible Chromebook Click here to save $100!

  8. ASUS L402WA-EH21 Thin and Light 14” HD LaptopClick here to save 20% off this Prime Day Deal!

  9. ASUS VivoBook S Thin & Light Laptop Click here to save $100!

  10. ASUS FX503VD 15.6” FHD Powerful Gaming LaptopClick here to save 27%!

  11. LG gram Thin and Light LaptopClick here to save 29% off this Prime Day Deal!

  12. Lenovo Miix 630, 12-Inch Windows LaptopClick here to save 30% off!

How a Bootcamp for Entrepeneurs Propelled New Challenges for This Soloproneur

An Entrepreneur Goes to Camp

Lisa Chau is a Ted-Ed lesson creator who has been published over 100 times in Forbes, US News & World Report as well as Huffington Post on TABLES: Technology – Academia – Business – Leadership – Entrepreneurship – Strategy. She was a featured guest on National Public Radio’s Baltimore Midday Talk with Dan Roderick, speaking on millennials and digital strategy. A few years ago, she organized and hosted the “How to Build a Strong Start-Up” conference at Columbia University.

We spoke with Lisa about her experience at this boot camp for entrepreneurs:

What brought you Club Getaway this month?

I was thrilled to be invited to participate in Survive and Thrive’s inaugural boot camp for mission-driven entrepreneurs. My interest in startups kicked into high gear when I worked at the Tuck School of Business at my alma mater, Dartmouth College. There, I met alumnus, Alejandro Crawford, who helps build bottom-up innovation and forge risk-aware strategy. We’ve worked together on many projects since the meeting, including co-teaching an MBA entrepreneurship class at The Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.

More recently, I spent almost two years with Potentis Capital, whose mission is to build socially responsible businesses, as well as generate jobs and economic growth on local and national levels. I worked with portfolio company Watertree Health’s President Shane Power and his team to exceed the organization’s 2016 social responsibility goals by saving cardholders $120 million on prescription costs and donating $1.3 million to nonprofit Make-A-Wish®. Additionally, we raised enough money to fund over 2 million meals for 15 regional food bank partners.

Mission-driven entrepreneurship is integral to what I do, so a boot camp designed just for entrepreneurs is a natural match for me.

What did you find most valuable about your experience?

Although I always advise people to diversify their networks, I enjoyed meeting like-minded entrepreneurs in an extremely supportive environment. The endless hours and unique journey of startup life can be very isolating. It was comforting to be surrounded by others who understand the many challenges of growing a business. We just relate easily.

The Survive and Thrive boot camp offered me a community which I will work to maintain beyond our time at Camp Getaway – In friendship and in business. I’ve already exchanged correspondence with Recurrent Capital Founder and President Ethan Einwohner, whose unbridled enthusiasm led our “Stay Green” team to victory during the branding workshop led by Laney Silverman.

I have a long list of other founders I will email, including Quantum Media Group’s Ari Zoldan, Club Getaway’s David Schreiber, Cewebity’s Jameson Bennett, Fearless Talent’s Francesca Burack, and Motivating the Masses’ Susie Carder. WishPoints’ Grace Lee and I are currently discussing ways we can support one another.

Were you surprised by anything?

I attend a lot of networking events, hackathons and business talks. More than 80% of the time, I never have a problem getting a seat near the front of the room. People usually cluster in the center of the room. When I sauntered into the Boat House for Jesse Itzler’s keynote, the audience had taken up all the seats in the front third of the room. Guests were committed to learning as much as possible over the course of the weekend. The anticipation was palpable even before Jesse took the stage. I loved it. There’s something energizing about being surrounded by sheer ambition. We were ready for a great talk and Jesse delivered – He has an amazing presence, singular journey and sense of humor. He is definitely a different brownie!

The next morning, I was surprised I didn’t fall while walking on one wire between trees in the aerial park! I was sleep-deprived, cold and had a painful pinched nerve in my shoulder. But I had to push through – As Jesse insisted: We need to push past our limits. When you think you’re at your limit, you’re only 40% done. You can do more. Reach into your reserve tank… “It’s where the gold is.”

While I waited for my turn on the cables, my brain reminded me of the entrepreneur motto: Be comfortable with the uncomfortable.

(At the same time, I was trying to avoid the other motto: Fail fast, fail often.)

How was this conference different from what you’ve experienced before?

When I signed up for the boot camp, I expected lots of panels in the traditional sit and talk format, but surrounded by trees. This was different in that we bonded and learned by engaging in team activities in the air, on land and in the water.

People didn’t just proclaim leadership, they owned it.

During the teamwork and leadership mastermind session, @EnergeticPhD Cynthia McKee and Managing Director at Voyager HQ John Matson volunteered to brave the cold waters of Leonard Pond, not once but twice, to collect balloons. Meanwhile, I stayed dry on land and flexed my mental acuity to solve a riddle before our rival team could beat us.

The scaling and globalization mastermind session was superbly led by mentor Desiree Reid. She observed how participants interacted with one another and provided detailed, insightful feedback on each individual activity rather than simply throwing out generic comments. Then, she connected the activities to relevant overarching business concepts. She was wonderful. With over 20 years of experience launching and growing brands, including work with beauty and health giants such as Revlon, Avon, and Estée Lauder, Desiree has been featured in Essence and Allure magazines as a notable business leader.

What’s next for you?

I just began writing a business book. I will also offer related consultancy services with the mission of empowering executives in the design of their careers to cultivate meaningful connections & opportunities across their lifetimes.

I’d love to find a complementary business development role based in Manhattan that would also broaden my work with startups internationally. I’ve been to Amsterdam twice and the region is particularly interesting because of its rapidly growing entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Lisa Update: June 2018

After speaking at Microsoft in February and leading mentor sessions at South by Southwest in March, Lisa was invited to join Lampix, where intelligent tabletop augmented reality is powered on blockchain with PIX tokens. She manages community and PR within the marketing department headed by Sirius Satellite veteran Gordon Meyer.

As of April, Lisa officially became an advisor for fellow Dartmouth alumna Joan Ai’s startup Prepared Child, which is a social impact vehicle part of the NYU Steinhardt Edtech Incubator as well as the Dartmouth Founders Project and Pledge 1%.

How to Make 5K More a Month Easy: Actual Expert Advice!

Making your first 5K isn’t that easy. It can take a lot of work to build your business to get into the black, but what about your next 5K and beyond. If you are not focused on making money in your business, what are you in it for? Here’s how to make 5K more a month easy (with tips from actual experts!).

“A business without revenue is just a hobby.”

If you want to make 5K, 10K and more, it starts with some strategic thinking. I reached out to several experts with the simple questions: How do you make your first 5K, or how to make an additional 5K per month in your company?

It doesn’t sound like a lot, but getting over those hurdles could mean more cash flow as you build systems that work. If you can make 5K, you make 500K — what are you waiting for?

Here are the 9 tips to make 5K per month:

1. Create a new promotion.

I believe in the value of ‘low-hanging fruit’ — most business owners seem to forget about the audience, clients, customers they’ve already built up. This first piece of advice, from James Pollard shows how easy it can be to ‘find’ an extra 5K by targeting the people who already love you.

“My name is James Pollard and I’m the owner of a marketing consultancy that works specifically with financial advisors over at TheAdvisorCoach.com.

If I had to make an additional $5K per month, I would discount my current offering and send a promotion out to my current list of prospects. Everyone loves a good discount, and if you attach a deadline to the promotion, it gives it the little extra boost it needs to get people to take action.

Another amazing strategy that I’ve used successfully is to send out a “thank you” letter to my current customers, upselling them. I’ve done this via email, but a handwritten note sent directly to them tends to work best.

This is also why it’s important to develop a marketing list – if you ever need “money on demand”, you can create it.”

2. Have no doubt. Make room for money in your life and business.

This next insight comes from someone who has been there. This tip is for anyone who needs to make a few bucks, regardless of what stage we are in business. Let’s face it. We all have to hustle and make shit happen from time to time.

“One of the biggest roadblocks for most people when it comes to making money or making more money is doubt—I’m not good enough, I’m not good at anything, etc.

But really, it’s not that hard. Meaning, getting started is not hard. Paralysis by analysis is real, and far too often we sit and stew to the point of taking no action at all. It’s brutal.

So, do or die, people need to:

1) Ask themselves what they’re good at (we are all at least decent at something).
2) And/or, ask themselves what they enjoy doing (many times, we don’t realize those things can be monetized).
3) Just do something. Somewhere. Anywhere. Find a low barrier/ low-risk opportunity and go.

Personal example:

I was looking for more ways to make money in grad school…I had a full-time job, but it wasn’t enough.

1) I thought I was a decent writer.
2) I enjoyed writing.

I then encountered the roadblock:

“I’m not a writer; I didn’t major in English; I’ve written class projects and a couple blog posts, that’s it.” = “I’m not good enough to get paid to write.”

But, I took the third step and just tried something. I looked to freelance job sites, started bidding on jobs, quickly found there were things I could do to set myself apart from other writers and the rest was history. I outline everything here but happy to provide more details if necessary.

Best of luck! Ryan, Learn more about Rent My Words.

3. Get your partners to sell you and share revenues.

I’m the CEO of Swurveys and my company has faced this exact situation in Q1 of 2018.

In reference to your query on making $5,000 per month at all costs as fast as you can, I can state that we faced this exact issue. My tips are actual items that we took to achieve that goal starting in February and carrying it through March and into April.

Focus on existing and past customers! Push the vast majority of energy to this goal— 80% or more. Go back to them and see if there is additional work you can do for them, if there are other use cases that can use, or if there are other departments that you can work with.

Set goals by everyone on your team towards the goal of revenue. This could be uncomfortable for some on your team, but if things are dire than “all-hands” have to get involved in revenue generation.

See if any of your customers can act as resellers or channel partners. One of our customers was an agency that has a number of clients that make good Swurveys customers and we created a revenue-sharing agreement to have them push to their customers.

I am always looking for other ways for us to generate more (and consistent) revenue. I’d love to see/hear what other scrappy entrepreneurs are doing to achieve this goal in a stressful time in their business.

Sincerely, Zachary Rozga, CEO, Swurveys

Instapage

4. Narrow down your offering.

Find something in your field that is: 1. Really needed, 2. That you are really good at doing, 3. That is really niche. You can’t be everything to everyone.

As Sid below tells us, it’s important to niche down your offering. It could be the key to you hitting the big numbers. Think small, to think big.

“As a marketing consultant to SAAS companies and previously VP of Growth at Thinkific. I hit my 5k in my very first month, after I left my previous role to become an independent consultant, and have been growing ever since.

The key here is to identify one thing that you’re good at, like a service you can provide, and an audience that needs it. Too often, people try to be everything for everyone. I see folks who offer web design, development, SEO, and a host of other things all at once. They also try to appeal to software companies, eCommerce companies, and anyone who has money.

Instead, niche down. I focus specifically on strategy consulting for software companies. I say no to people asking for help with SEO. I say no to eCommerce companies. This way, I brand myself as the go to person in my niche for my specific service. So software companies are willing to pay top dollar to hire me, and they’ll mention me to other similar software companies.”

Cheers, Sid, www.sidbharath.com

5. Figure out the problem, then offer a solution.

Okay. This one might seem a little ‘on the nose’ but how many of us need a reminder that it really is this simple. Figure out a problem, then offer a solution.

If you want to make 5K a month, you don’t necessarily need 100 clients, or customers either. You just need 2 customers that are willing to spend 2.5K each, or one that is willing to spend 5K!

It’s not magic, it’s math. If you want, or need to make 5K, what valuable service can you offer? Target those who can afford your services and don’t settle for anything less than your worth.

“To make $5K/month quickly, I’d recommend using your 9-5 skills and finding high-ticket freelance or coaching clients, so you would only need 1 or 2 to hit the $5K mark. The key is to find those already make 7 or 8 figures a year so they can afford your services, and to position yourself as one who has the answer to problems they didn’t tell you or even were 100% aware they had.”

Stacy Caprio, Accelerated Growth Marketing

6. Need to make money right away? Consult.

While you are building your business or creating new revenue streams, how do you bridge that gap between almost broke and very successful? Those days, weeks, or even months can be rough. If you need to make money right away, there’s always a way.

One of the best ways any entrepreneur can start making money today is through consulting. You might not think you are an expert in anything someone would want to pay for, but if you’ve done something successfully in business, you can be sure someone else could learn from you.

Consulting can take all shapes and sizes. You can consult on almost anything included in a business. Usually, the more niche you get the better. Don’t just call yourself a ‘business consultant’, — yikes! Figure out the niche you can really help people in. Are you good at SEO, or social media strategy? Maybe you can help with pitch deck consulting? Or personal brand storytelling? There are a lot of business owners that need your specific type of help out there!

“Lend your brain to your customer.

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of hiding behind their marketing strategy when they could be having a real impact one-on-one.

Some call it coaching, some call it consulting.

It entails putting yourself in front of the business and selling time with you to help your customer achieve their goals.

These services can be charged at a premium of upwards of $800/month. 6 clients per month, one hour a week with each, will get you to $5K quickly.”

Ina Coveney, BS, MBA, Techie Business Expert, inacoveney.com

7. Diversify your revenue streams.

On top of consulting, you could create new products to sell. Think this is impossible? Well, not really. It’s not as overwhelming to create new products to sell in this digital age.

“My best advice for making $5k in a month would be to diversify your revenue streams. With the plethora of platforms available to creators today, there are multiple ways to do this. One I would suggest would be to create print collateral that aligns with your brand. This could be a lookbook, brand book, cookbook, workbook, journal, calendar, photobook, etc. It could even be a book about your brand story or philosophy. Creating multiple products and printed collateral can be a great way to increase revenue, drive sales, and establish yourself as an expert in your field.”

Chelsea Bennett, Public Relations and Events Coordinator for Lulu.com.

If you are interested in diversifying your revenue stream, services such as Lulu.com is a great way to start. It’s self-publishing print-on-demand platform that makes publishing easy and cost-effective. We have a substantial community of entrepreneurs who use our site to raise awareness, share knowledge, make money and gain credibility.

8. Create your own affiliate program.

One of the ways you can start to make 5K a month is by creating your own affiliate program for your services or products. Think about this. If you offered 30, 40, even 50% of your profits to someone else, just for bringing you solid leads, how fast can you get to your 5K?

Creating an affiliate program should be a no-brainer for all of you with products to sell. Without investing too much legwork into the setup, you can get others to share your products with their friends. Think of this as your ‘warm introduction’ + ‘marketing’ all rolled up into one.

When Sam Parr at The Hustle wanted to seriously ramp up his email list, he used what they called the Ambassador Program to do it, and it worked. Give people who already love your product a chance to get something back!

You can listen to our full interview with Sam Parr here:

9. Create your own seminar.

One of the quickest ways I know to make a few extra bucks a month for your company (and possibly build leads) is to create your own in-person seminar each month. I have seen these in-person training sessions help so many local businesses grow.

Think about who your ideal target audience is, what you could teach them, what would make a great seminar topic. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here people. Do some homework. What seminars have you attended in the past? Which ones are popular? Is there a topic that comes up over and over again?

Figure out something you can either teach or pull local experts in to teach. Any kind of business growth topics always does well. Marketing and social media are also big topics that could fill a room.

How do you make money holding a seminar?

Well, there are a few ways you can make that 5K (or more) just by creating a seminar.

The first way is to charge enough and offer a more in-depth learning seminar that people will pay for. Often companies offer incentives for their marketing teams to educate themselves, so don’t be afraid to try this option. Digital marketing, search marketing, content marketing are all still relatively new topics to cover, so companies will pay to train their employees on these sorts of topics.

Approach One: A Highly Valuable Workshop Seminar

If you go with this approach, you can charge 1000 a ticket or more. Make sure you share really valuable information, book a full day, and offer refreshments and a catered lunch. If you booked 10 people to come to one of these ‘highly valuable’ industry insights sessions, you could make 5K easily after expenses. Plus, you’ll be seen as more of an industry expert.

Approach Two: A Loss Leader Seminar

Another approach I’ve seen work quite well for local business owners is the ‘loss leader’ seminar option. Think about the kind of new clients you want to attract. Are you targeting small business owners? Let’s say, for this example that you are. What do small business owners need to learn about to support their business? Maybe how to write a business blog? Great. That would make a great ‘loss leader’ seminar.

Find a local space that isn’t too expensive, perhaps a local library? Make tickets something anyone can afford and sell out the room You might not make your 5K doing the event, but the leads you’ll get are invaluable.

This kind of approach can work for all kinds of companies. It’s all about your ability to upsell your product. Finding new clients can be tough, but once you’ve given them something of value, you’ll be the first ‘expert’ they reach out to.

Final Comments: Now, go out and make your 5K!

This is just a few ways to make your first, or an additional 5K. Sometimes, it can be hard to get over that ‘hump’ when it comes to positive revenue streams. We can devalue what we do so often that 5K often feels like 5 million!

And, really, that’s the point.

If you can master making 5K, you can master making 500K! It’s all about mindset.

Here at Change Creator, we want to help you get the business you want. We want to help you make more money and save the planet while doing it!

If you have any great money making tips, we’d love to hear them! Comment below!

You can also get some great insider tips in Change Creator magazine. We give you exclusive interviews with some of the leaders in business and social impact. Tips, strategies, insights you won’t find anywhere else.

How To Use Wix – The Ultimate Guide to Creating Stunning Websites

Before the arrival of website building tools, if you needed to design and develop your own website, you had three options available.

1. Learn Web Design & Web Development yourself

2. Hire an experienced web developer to build your website

3. Get a ‘pre-designed’ website on WordPress.

The problem with the first option is that you need lots of time to learn how to build a website. The problem with the second option is it costs a lot of money. The problem with the third option is you don’t have a lot of control about the design of your website.

Sign up for Wix now! It’s FREE!

Website builders solve these problems. The advantage of using a website builder like Wix is that:

  • You can build your own website by yourself without learning to code.
  • You don’t need a big budget to build your website.
  • You have full control and can make your website exactly the way you want it.

 Why Use a Website Builder?

These three reasons are why website builders have taken off in popularity. Wix, the website builder we’re about to learn more about, has more than 110 million users.

In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to use Wix so you too, can build your own website as soon as today!

You’ll learn the different tools and options available, and how to navigate and make sense of the interface, which we admit, can be overwhelming at first sight.

Wix – A Short Review

Wix is a ‘visual’ website builder.

This means that In Wix, you don’t code to build your website. Instead, Wix has a drag-and-drop website editor where you can put elements of your website by clicking and dragging things onto the screen.

For example, if you need to add text, just add a text box to your website and type in some text. Then drag the text box wherever you want.

And just like that, you can add everything from images and videos to blog posts, drop down menus and more. Everything is added by dragging and dropping

This is basically how you build a website on Wix.

Sign up for Wix now! It’s FREE!

But do you know what’s the best part?

Designing and developing your website inside Wix is completely free.

Without paying a single penny, you can create unlimited pages for your website and use any of the features available to build and design your website.

However, hosting your website is not entirely free.

To start, Wix gives you:

  • Access to their 100+ templates
  • A free subdomain ending with ‘.wix.com’
  • 500 mb storage for your website media
  • 500 mb bandwidth for traffic
  • Ability to use all their tools to build your website

This gives you a solid foundation to get started. But if you are serious about creating a website, you’ll need to subscribe to one of their monthly premium plans – most of which are less than the price of a Starbucks coffee.

Know that all premium plans include free hosting, the ability to connect to a dedicated domain name, 500+ mb of storage and 1+ GB bandwidth. Plus, with the unlimited and ecommerce plan, you get the form builder app and site booster app, both which are awesome tools for your website.

And that’s all you need to know as to what Wix is.

Now let’s get to the part you actually came for: how to use Wix to build your website.

Sign up for Wix now! It’s FREE!

How To Use Wix: Getting Started

Before you can use Wix, you need to sign up and create an account. To go to the signup page, click here

There are two ways to sign up on Wix.

The first (and easiest) way is to simply continue with either Facebook or Google. Doing so will log you in without having to fill any signup form.

The other way is to click on the ‘sign up’ button under Log In and fill in the signup form.

Once you’re in, Wix will ask you a few questions regarding what kind of website you want.

It takes less than a minute to answer. But if you don’t want to, you can skip ahead.

Based on your answers, you’ll see two main options to build your website.

Sign up for Wix now! It’s FREE!

a) Let Wix ADI create a website for you: With Wix ADI, you don’t really have to build a website. You just answer a few questions and Wix will build your website for you. After that, it’s just a matter of adding your own text, images and videos and customizing the style, fonts and animations. It’s the fastest and easiest way to build your website.

b) Build your own website in the Wix editor: The Wix editor is the drag-and-drop tool with which you can build your website from scratch. You just have to choose a pre-designed (or blank) template and then customize it however you like with the editor to build your website. Yes, it takes more time but it’s more fun as well.

How To Use Wix: How To Create Your Website With The Wix ADI

If your answers after the sign up suggest you’re inexperienced at building websites, you’ll see the following screen:

Wix will recommend you to create your website with the ‘Wix ADI’. But if you want, you can build your website with the Wix drag-and-drop editor (which we’ll discuss below) by clicking the option on the right side of the screen called ‘Choose a Template’. Feel free to skip to that section if you want.

For now, let’s see how you can build your website with Wix ADI – or rather, how Wix ADI can build it for you!

After you click the ‘Start Now’ button, you’ll be greeted with this screen:

The questions are fairly straightforward:

1. First, Wix will ask you what kind of website you want. Since I told Wix I wanted to build a blog website at the start, it’s giving me suggestions of different blogs I might want to create.

2. Next, Wix will ask you whether you’re going to sell, have subscribers or take bookings or appointments on your website. Check the desired options.

3. Then enter the name of your website.

4. Next, enter the location of your business (if you have a physical address). Otherwise just skip this step.

5. Finally, you’ll see a form where you’ll have to enter details such as your logo, links to your social networks, address, numbers and more. Just enter the details you want and click next.

That’s it.

Sign up for Wix now! It’s FREE!

After you answer these questions, Wix ADI will show you different designs you can choose for your website. Once you choose, the ADI will automatically create your website for you.

You will see that you don’t actually have to build a website – rather, the website has already been constructed and you just have to edit it to make it your own.

Once you’re inside the Wix ADI, this short 3 min video will clearly explain how you can customize your website using the Wix ADI:

How To Use Wix: How To Build Your Website Using The Wix Website Editor

If you’ve chosen to build your website with the Wix editor, you’ll see this screen:

Here, you can choose any template you want for your website. If you don’t have experience designing a website, it’s recommended you select a template.

Take your time to explore the templates. There are lots of them!

And if there’s any part of the template you don’t like, you can always change it.

But if you want to completely design your website from scratch, you can choose a blank template from the list of templates on the left-hand column.

Will give you a blank slate to start from to build your website.

Choosing a template will open up the Wix editor in a separate tab.

To make sure you can easily understand the editor, we’ve divided it into five parts:

1. The Header: This is where you can navigate the menu of Wix’s editor. Here you can choose what page of your site you want to edit, explore the menu options such as ‘Site’, ‘Tools’ and ‘Upgrade’, undo and redo your edits, switch to the mobile version of the site, and print, preview and publish your website.

2. The Site Structure Column: On the left-side of the screen, you’ll find a column that lists the hierarchy of your website. This is an easy way to see what page of your website is located where. If you’re an experienced web developer, here you can also add .js files, web modules and your own Wix media files located in the database cloud.

3. The Hover Menu: This is where the magic happens. If you want to add something to your website, you do it from here. It’s divided into six sections:

  1. Menu & Pages: This is where you control the menu of your site and what pages goes under which menu. You can also change the animation of your pages.
  2. Background: If you want to change the background of your pages, you can do that here. Simple choose an image, video or color of your choice. Or upload your own!
  3. Add: This is the most important menu. Everything that can be added to your website is added from here. Images, text, blog posts, gallery, about me sections, testimonials, sliders, APIs and more!
  4. Add Apps: This is Wix’s version of plugins. If you want to enhance the functionality of your website, you need to add apps like ‘site search’ which let your visitors search your website, ‘form builders’ which let you create forms your users can fill and ‘visitor analyzer’ which tracks how users are engaging with your website. Explore and choose the app you want!
  5. My Uploads: If you’d like to upload your own media to your site, this is where you can do it.
  6. My Blogs: There’s a great chance you’ll be adding a blog to your website. This is where you can write new posts and add blog posts to your website.

4. The Toolbar: Any element you add to your page, this is where you can interact with it. It gives you options to copy, cut and duplicate elements. Moreover, you can also change the size, position and orientation.

5. Wix Code: Wix code lets you add more functionality to your website. Using this console, you can write your own Javascript code or add APIs. This short, two-minute video will better explain what Wix code can do.

Final Thoughts

Till now, Wix is the most impressive website builder we’ve found. Sure, there are others as well that may be just as powerful.

But what makes Wix so different is the highly active developer community behind it.

When you use a website builder, you run into problems. But since Wix has such a big community, you’ll surely find solutions all over the internet. Moreover, Wix also offers additional services as well such as domain registration, SEO analysis, logo creator and more- but that’s another topic for another article.

For now, head over to Wix.com and create your free account to build your very first website.

Hopefully, you’ll have a lot of fun exploring and building on Wix just like we did!

Sign up for Wix now! It’s FREE!

31 Dr. Muhammad Yunus Quotes to Inspire You to Greatness!

We love Dr. Muhammad Yunus around here so much – he really is the Godfather of Social Enterprise. His insights, lessons, and tips are timeless. That’s why we had to share our best Muhammad Yunus quotes with you today!

Get inspired. Get out there and change the world.

On Technology

While technology is important, it’s what we do with it that truly matters.

We prepare our students for jobs and careers, but we don’t teach them to think as individuals about what kind of world they would create.

Our financial institutions have created a worldwide system of apartheid without anyone being horrified by it. If you don’t have collateral, you are not credit worthy. To the banks, you are not accepted on our side of the world. (From, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism.)

Civilization has given us enormous successes: going to the moon, technology. But then this is the civilisation that took us to debt, environmental crisis, every single crisis. We need a civilization where we say goodbye to these things.

Health care can be made more affordable for the poor without requiring major new scientific developments, just the smart application of current technologies. We have seen a $25 incubator and diagnostic instruments that are built tough, cheap, and reusable for the developing world.

Unprecedented technological capabilities combined with unlimited human creativity have given us tremendous power to take on intractable problems like poverty, unemployment, disease, and environmental degradation. Our challenge is to translate this extraordinary potential into meaningful change.

Listen to our exclusive interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner and Issue 13 cover story, Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

Subscribe to this show on  iTunes  |  Stitcher  |  Soundcloud

On Women and Equality

Soon we saw that money going to women brought much more benefit to the family than money going to the men. So we changed our policy and gave a high priority to women. As a result, now 96% of our four million borrowers in Grameen Bank are women.

When a destitute mother starts earning an income, her dreams of success invariably center around her children. A woman’s second priority is the household. She wants to buy utensils, build a stronger roof, or find a bed for herself and her family. A man has an entirely different set of priorities. When a destitute father earns extra income, he focuses more attention on himself. Thus money entering a household through a woman brings more benefits to the family as a whole. (From Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty)

UN studies conducted in more than forty developing countries show that the birth rate falls as women gain equality… I believe income-earning opportunities that empower poor women … will have more impact on curbing population growth that the current system of “encouraging” family planning practices through intimidation tactics. Family planning should be left to the family. (From Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty.)

In Bangladesh, if a woman, even a rich woman, wants to borrow money from a bank, the manager will ask her, ‘Did you discuss this with your husband?’ And if she answers, ‘Yes,’ the manager will say, ‘Is he supportive of your proposal?’ If the answer is still, ‘Yes,’ he will say, ‘Would you please bring your husband along so that we can discuss it with him?’ But no manager would ever ask a prospective male borrower whether he has discussed the idea of a loan. (From Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty.)

On Poverty

Once poverty is gone, we’ll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations. They’ll wonder why poverty continued so long in human society – how a few people could live in luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation, and despair. (From Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism)

People.. were poor not because they were stupid or lazy. They worked all day long, doing complex physical tasks. They were poor because the financial institution in the country did not help them widen their economic base. (From Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty.)

Poverty is unnecessary.

I believe that we can create a poverty-free world because poverty is not created by poor people. It has been created and sustained by the economic and social systems that we have designed for ourselves; the institutions and concepts that make up that system; the policies that we pursue.”

Even today we don’t pay serious attention to the issue of poverty, because the powerful remain relatively untouched by it. Most people distance themselves from the issue by saying that if the poor worked harder, they wouldn’t be poor.” (From, Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty.)

On Social Business

I think, social business is the most logical thing to do. If we had done that, we could reduce all the problems we have.

The current financial crisis makes it very clears that the system that we have isn’t really working, and this is the right time for us to undo things and build them in a new way.

Whenever I see a problem, I immediately go and create a company. That’s what I did all my life.

All people are entrepreneurs, but many don’t have the opportunity to find that out.

All human beings are entrepreneurs. When we were in the caves we were all self-employed . . . finding our food, feeding ourselves. That’s where human history began . . . As civilization came we suppressed it. We became labor because they stamped us, ‘You are labor.’ We forgot that we are entrepreneurs.

I’m encouraging young people to become social business entrepreneurs and contribute to the world, rather than just making money. Making money is no fun. Contributing to and changing the world is a lot more fun.

The challenge I set before anyone who condemns private-sector business is this: If you are a socially conscious person, why don’t you run your business in a way that will help achieve social objectives?

Business money is limitless.

Capitalism has been interpreted as an exclusively profit-centric human engagement. Some have been saying to bring people and planet into the picture. This can be a good change, but it is still not fully operationalized. Are you putting people, planet and profit at the same level?

On Humanity

Human beings are extremely creative and resilient, especially when they are operating within an institutional framework that encourages and supports their actions.

Each of us has much more hidden inside us than we have had a chance to explore. Unless we create an environment that enables us to discover the limits of our potential, we will never know what we have inside of us.

If we can imagine something, there is a good chance that it will happen. If we don’t imagine it, there is almost no chance of it happening. (From A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions.)

To me, the poor are like Bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a six-inch deep flower pot, you get a perfect replica of the tallest tree, but it is only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed you planted; only the soil-base you provided was inadequate. Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong with their seeds. Only society never gave them a base to grow on.

(From Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism)

I try to kind of enlightened my frustration and agony by coming to the conclusion that I may not be useful as an economist but I m still a basic human being.

My greatest challenge has been to change the mindset of people. Mindsets play strange tricks on us. We see things the way our minds have instructed our eyes to see.

Capitalism has been interpreted as an exclusively profit-centric human engagement. Some have been saying to bring people and planet into the picture. This can be a good change, but it is still not fully operationalized. Are you putting people, planet and profit at the same level?

Further read:

The Best Alternatives to Instapage You Have to Know About

Instapage is an awesome tool that helps in the creation of highly optimized and customizable websites. Useful for businesses and individuals, this is one online resource that many have definitely benefited from.

Instapage is a powerful landing page software that provides post-click optimization for all digital and advertising campaigns. With enterprise capabilities, landing page templates, real-time team collaboration, Instablocks™, integration with your marketing automation app, and an easy-to-use builder, Instapage is a great choice for many but what if you are looking for an alternative (maybe one that you’ll love even more).

While Instapage is an excellent choice for many, there are alternatives to Instapage that you might love even more. Here, we’ve rounded out the best Instapage alternatives to get you started:

Hubspot

HubSpot

Hubspot provides a landing page builder as well as a wide array of other services. Thanks to features such as drag-and-drop and for development, creating a webpage on this platform will be as easy as possible. You get a dashboard that provides features such as personalization token and smart content, all of which make it easy for users to show various types of content based on their specific requirements.

Pricing

Hubspot makes the following plans available to customers:

  • The Free Plan, which goes for absolutely no fee
  • The Starter Plan, which goes for $50 a month
  • The Basic Plan, which goes for $200 a month
  • The Professional Plan, which goes for $800 a month
  • The Enterprise Plan, which goes for $2,400 a month

Try Hubspot for a free trial for 30 days! Click here to start! 

Wix

Without a doubt, Wix us one of the most popular cloud-based website development platforms. It serves over a million users all over the world and has been receiving a wide array of accolades in the past few years.

With Wix, it is possible for individuals and small businesses to easily build aesthetically appealing and professional websites that will also not in any way impugn their creativity with coding expertise. Wix is essentially a free service, but it is also possible for users to choose to enhance their experience and output by making a subscription to the premium plans offered by Wix, of which one of them is completely devoted to serving online retailers and e-commerce providers.

The rationale behind the creation of Wix is a pretty simple one; they believe that with the right building software, a developer should be able to create just about anything. With their Editor, Code, or Artificial Design Intelligence Model, it is possible (easy, in fact) for you to build a nice hub for your content, and you can also build just about anything; from a simple profile web page to robust and highly multifaceted retail store.

It is important to know that you don’t especially need to have any technical or coding skills to work on this platform. You just need a few simple modifications and edits, and the drag-and-drop functionality will be able to help you design your ideal website.

The feature that makes Wix really distinct from other popular site builders is the fat that is has a very high level of personalization. All its templates are open, and all you need to do is provide simple branding, customization, and modifications. With all that, you will be able to build your app just as you’ve always imagined it to be. These websites are also flexible and scalable, and they can work in situations of heavy traffic and highly complex.

In addition to all that, Wix is also a fully-feared and mobile-optimized builder that provides all its services for free. In order to grasp the basic operations, all you need to do is create an account and if you’re looking to take advantage of its shopping cart and e-commerce functionalities, just switch to any of its premium plans.

Pricing

Wix makes a wide array of plans available to customers, all of which have varying amounts of features

  • There is the free plan
  • The Connect Domain Plan costs $4.50 a month
  • The Combo Plan costs $8.50 a month
  • The Unlimited Plan costs $12.50 a month
  • The eCommerce Plan costs $16.50 a month
  • The VIP Plan costs $24,50 a month

Pagewiz

Pagewiz was ideally designed or professional marketers, affiliates and business owners who will like to launch their websites from scratch. It helps you to build user-friendly webpages in a matter of minutes, and all pages are also accompanied by A//B testing capability in order to make for automation and conversion maximization.

Pricing

The plans for Pagewiz include:

  • The Basic Plan, which goes for $29 a month
  • The Standard Plan, which goes for $49 a month
  • The Plus Plan, which goes for $99 a month
  • The Pro Plan, which goes for $199 a month

1&1 MyWebsite

1&1 MyWebsite is a website building platform that was created to help serve the needs of freelancers and business that are looking to establish a presence on the online landscape, regardless of their size offer scale. It is an internet product that was developed by 1&1 Internet Ltd.; a long-time provider of web hosting services.

1&1 MyWebsite is an online solution that makes use of ready-made templates and drag-and-drop functionalities to provide users with the ability to make and design websites of their choices within a few clicks. N provides an intuitive and simple site creation experience that will also enhance creativity and ingenuity. All in all, 1&1 MyWebsite will give you the ability to create and launch a fully functional website in no time, complete with all the information and elements that you will need in order to match the website with your business or brand.

1&1 MyWebsite comes with all the features that you will require in order to build your website easily and quickly. A few of its most prominent features include a website editor, a wide array of ready-made templates, and multi-language support (for those who will like to build websites that will deserve purposes over more than one country).

In addition, it also makes marketing tools available, including but not limited to site analytics tools and SEO functionalities. All of these will help you to come up with unique and targeted content and they’ll help improve the ranking of your website. The online platform also includes Email and domain addresses for you as well as 24/7 support.

A few benefits of 1&1 MyWebsite include:

  • Speed and accuracy: Thanks to a wide array of templates, catalogues, and useful tools that have already been loaded on the platform, all you have to do is pick and design your website and in no tie, you’ll be ready to go.
  • Photo editor: An online photo editor gives you the ability to change the properties of photos that are on your site.
  • Multilingual capabilities: If you’ll like for people in far countries and continents to have access to your website as well, 1&1 MyWebsite provides multilingual support as well.
  • Optimized for mobile devices: As opposed to managing a website that can only be accessed with a computer, 1&1 MyWebsite provides websites that are responsive and work on mobile as well.

Pricing

The plans on 1&1 MyWebsite are pretty flexible, and you’ll definitely be able to get one that will work to fit into your business and budget requirements.

  • The Basic Plan costs $0.99 for the first month, then $9.99 per month from then on
  • The Personal Plan goes for $2.99 for the first 2 months, then $6.99 from then on
  • The Plus Plan goes for $9.99 a month for the first 3 months, then $19.99 from then on
  • The Bundled Plan offers the features of the Plus Plan as well as a fully functional ranking coach for search engine optimization and advertising. It goes for $19.99 for the first 12 months, then $29.99 from then on.

Unbounce

Unbounce was created with a simple purpose; helping to create landing pages that will enhance users marketing efforts. Page building experiences have been revolutionized lately, and Unbounce has been a major driving force behind that.

A few of Unbounce’s major features include:

  • The Unbounce Builder: A drag-and-drop builder that provides text replacement and convertables and is also mobile-accessible.
  • Unbounce Convertables: These convertables make it easy for you to target landing page visitors, set custom templates, and integrate with basically anything.
  • Templates: There are over 100 custom templates on Unbounce, and you can either chose one or start building one from scratch by yourself.
  • Conversion Tools: There are unlimited A/B testing tries, lead generation tools, conversion optimization tools, and many more on Unbounce.
  • Unbounce can also be easily integrated with google analytics and Email marketing tools like Hubspot, MailChimp, WordPress, Marketo, and much more.

Pricing

Unbounce provides three packages, and you can make payments on a monthly or annually basis.

  • The Essential Package allows you to create 75 landing pages and 8 convertables for $99 a month
  • The Premium Package charges $199 a month, and you can build 10 landing pages, 16 convertables, and you also get sub-accounts and better conversion rate tools.
  • The Enterprise Package starts at $499 a month and on it, you get all the features of both previous packages as well as a Success Manager and Launch Specialist that will help you to maximize your ROI. This package also provides the opportunity to build over 375 landing pages and at least 40 convertables.

Shopify

Shopify is an award-winning e-commerce retailer. It provides a wide array of features and tools that make it easy for individuals and businesses to build and operate online retail services as well as sell products. Shopify is packed with the right features, it provides tools that are specifically designed for servicing online retail, and its influence is represented by the fact that it is used by well over 120,000 stores all over the world.

The platform has been branded by experts and businesses as one of the best e-commerce solutions available online in this age. The Shopify Advanced version has especially gotten a lot of praise.

Shopify provides a myriad of benefits for people and businesses that will like to set up their online stores. Some of its benefits include:

  • A store that is easy to set up and is very beautiful and responsive. The platform has a long list of professional themes, and you can choose from any one of them in order to provide your store with a corporate look.
  • Shopify will also boost your store. Essentially, you won’t have to worry about any of the technical aspects of running and operating the store. Your servers are updated and secure with the latest software.
  • You also get customer support round the clock
  • Abandoned carts are automatically recovered
  • Easily and  quickly import catalogs (even the largest ones)
  • Shopify Advanced can provide you with been more nifty templates
  • You get a wide array of marketing features and reports that are easy to use
  • You run your payment gateway and control you’re the money coming in.

Features of Shopify

Shopify has many of the features that you’ll need to set up an online store.

  • Fully customizable online store, website — including blog
  • Unlimited bandwidth, product inventory, customer data
  • Sell on new sales channels like Pinterest and Amazon to increase your market potential
  • Accept credit cards instantly with Shopify Payments
  • Save time and moeny with discounted shipping rates
  • Great customer support — 24/7 access

Pricing

Just as it is with just about any other alternative to Instapage, Shopify has various pricing tiers. These are:

  • Shopify Lite, which goes for $9 a month
  • The Basic Shopify Plan, which goes for $29 a month
  • The Shopify Plan, which goes for $79 a month
  • The Advanced Shopify Plan, which goes for $299 a month

Try out Shopify free for 14 days — click here!

10 Minute Funnels vs Clickfunnels: The Battle of the Funnel Marketing Tools 2021!

As you know 10-minute Funnels vs Clickfunnels are funnel building applications and before we jump into comparison lets quickly go through what Funnel builders are actually for…

What are Funnel Builders anyway?

You need a funnel builder if you are looking at “upping your game” on lead generation/Conversion or sales. Funnel builders help you to quickly devise funnels for varied needs… think of opt-in (build mailing list), webinar, membership site, e-commerce (create upsells/down-sells) or even create sales or membership pages.

Funnels are mostly used with paid traffic to test and optimize conversions quickly. They not just let you create awesome funnels but also let you track stats and do split testing. Funnel builders may well be used along with websites or independently…  Some people find the ease of creating web pages so appealing on these funnel creation applications they prefer to develop their whole website on them.

The option of inclusive web hosting and absolutely no hassles to maintain server is particularly appealing. Add to that powerful option of webpage editing it becomes a no-brainer solution.

If you are someone trying to finalize on funnel building software I am sure you would want to know how 10 Minute Funnels compares with Click funnels.

But before we go there how about taking a flashback?

Flashback: A Time Before Online Funnels?!?

There was a time when the term “Funnel” was not so well understood as it is today. The only landing page builder was Optimisepress or you could do it manually. If you didn’t know Optimisepress is a plugin for WordPress websites and is operated from the website backend(Admin Interface). The issue with this method is that you need a domain and a hosting plan first…Then only you can move to building funnels or landing pages. A lot of people are actually using Optimizepress effectively to this day.

Then Leadpages came to the fore. Unlike Optimise press Leadpages is a hosted solution… Where you wouldn’t need domain or hosting of your own to begin using landing pages. The concept of a website editor outside your own website was largely unknown and a welcome feature. Now you could have your website or landing pages online without worrying much about load speed or management of the hosting server.

When Leadpages came in they provided you with a fantastic interface to build leadpages and its functionality was driven to make this a great user experience. However, we have to note that this is the time when understanding what “converts” and the significance of building funnels was still in infancy.

As the time went by the concept of “Sales funnels” began to show up and people realized that they had to build an awesome customer experience through a series of sales pages/order forms/Upsells/Downsells to take the real advantage of unending internet traffic.

This emerging opportunity was cashed in by applications like Clickfunnels or 10-minute funnels… These applications took the aspect of lead generation, conversion/sales to a whole new level. More and more people started to bank upon the accepted wisdom of “what worked” and were eager to experiment.

Fast Forward Today! The World of Online Funnels Awaits!

Now businesses started focussing on the “Funnels that convert” instead of landing pages as an entity. This helped everyone to have a bigger picture and see the entire process of lead gen and conversion as a flow.

This called in for new challenges and expectations rose on what people need to see in there interface and dashboards…Along with what they would be willing to pay!

And that brings us to the comparison of two major players in the Funnel building space:

Clickfunnels vs 10-Minute Funnels: The Comparison

Let’s look at what comes out when these are pitched against each other as a solution to funnel building.

At a high level, a funnel builder like Clickfunnels and 10-minute funnels let you accomplish the same task of building great opt-ins/sales funnels. The difference mainly lies in the interface and what you get with the package.

Both applications essentially provide you the functions of Funnel building with easy options to create and modify funnels and pages, funnel templates, integrate applications like autoresponders and payment systems at the click of a button. You don’t have to touch any codes to accomplish a advanced customization. This helps you to engineer the customer experience at the most granular level.

Pricing — How Do These Compare?

Clickfunnels and 10-minute funnels are competing at the same price point for their primary offer.

You get started at $97: Both are priced at $97 for their basic offer but the packages are different…

Clickfunnels and 10-minute funnels both give you a package that put limits… 20 funnels, 100 pages, and 20,000 visitors.

These limits can be removed if you upgrade your plans which is $297 for Clickfunnels and $197 for 10-minute funnels. However, the upgrade with Clickfunnels gets you the added benefit of using an inbuilt affiliate program or interface through which you may add and track your own affiliates. And also an Autoresponder solution with advanced functionality.

Thus Clickfunnels is a solution to go for if you want to ramp up quickly to a well-rounded business that also utilizes the aspect of affiliate marketing and an inbuilt autoresponder solution.

You also have different trial offers. While you can try a free trial with Clickfunnels for the first 14 days you got to pay $1 to try 10-minute funnels for the same period.

Look and Feel: The Interface Comparison

Clickfunnels has a feel of layered functionality where you can click and learn more about something… While 10-minute funnel provides you with “drag and drop” functionality and almost mimics a process builder. This brings in intuitive process flow orientation and lets you see all your funnel steps as a self-explanatory map. This is a great way to convert your ideas into quick workable funnels.

Clickfunnels does have full funnel visibility but not in process map mode.

Ease of Use

10-minute Funnels was built further on the functionalities Clickfunnels provided. It has redefined the way funnels are created and modified. Imagine just connecting the lines to make or modify a funnel flow. The best part is you can just pick up one of the pre-built marketing funnel campaigns and just modify any of the pages instantly… This is very helpful to creatively formulate the experience you want to provide your audience. It is quick and extremely effective. 

The editor windows of both the applications are significantly different too. While Clickfunnels opens new side windows to edit a page.(Click to go deeper) The 10-minute funnels very interactively highlight all the items that you may edit on a left panel. We can say without any hesitation that 10-minute Funnels provides a much more intuitive way to create and edit funnels.

10 Minute Funnels vs Clickfunnels: Which is Best?

Using a funnel builder software like Clickfunnels or 10-minute funnels you create funnels like a pro. Both are great applications and will significantly reduce the guesswork. Now you can create funnels that really convert… The effort is to make sure you succeed and both the applications.

In the end, what to use… Clickfunnels or 10 minutes funnel is your personal call and you should choose what suits you best… However, there are a couple of aspects that are needed to be highlighted.

  • Clickfunnels is much widely accepted funnel builder and largely dominates the funnel building market. It is seen not just as funnel builder but also a Business Suite that takes care of online business aspects of affiliates and autoresponder (upgrade priced at $297).
  • Clickfunnels is a bit older in the market than 10-minute funnels and has a lot of people who will actually swear by it. While there is no dearth of success stories with either application.
  • Clickfunnels has much longer standing and a much wider customer base. If you are looking at an accepted industry norm Clickfunnels wins the race by a mile.

  • 10 minutes funnel is relatively new and incorporates “intuitive process flow” styled graphical interface that lets drag and drop functionalities. This is a modern approach to building funnels and is much appreciated by progressive businesses who want to use the latest… 10-minute funnels definitely scores on the usability angel and lets you embrace the best practices of funnel building in a very subtle manner.
  • 10 minutes funnel may safely be your best bet if you are trying to focus on “sales funnel space” and clear that you don’t really need a native affiliate or autoresponder solution. (You always have the option to go with third-party options anyways…)
  • You can use the 10 minutes funnel solution without any restrictions for $197 monthly. This means you can build as many funnels or web pages you want. (Without the need of web hosting or maintenance of servers at your end)

Top 5 Moments from the March for Our Lives We Couldn’t Help But Share

Today, as students from all over America and around the world marched, we could not help but share the momentous moments in our history. These young people are showing the true spirit of activism, standing up for their rights for change and doing something about the state of the world they find themselves in.

What started as a group of young survivors from Florida has turned into a national-wide, and worldwide movement to address gun-control laws. Though Washington hosted the main event, more than 800 other marches were held across the world in full support of these students, teachers, parents, and survivors who started the March for Our Lives movement.

Let’s celebrate these amazing, brave, young activists with the 5 best moments from the March for our Lives, March 24, 2018.

1. When Emma Gonzalez stands on stage for 6 minutes, 20 seconds…

When survivor and student Emma Gonzalez decides to stand, in front of a crowd of thousands, silent for exactly 6 minutes and 20 seconds, you can feel the power of this movement.

“Six minutes and about 20 seconds,” she said. “In a little over 6 minutes, 17 of our friends were taken from us, 15 were injured and everyone in the Douglas community was forever altered. Everyone who was there understands. Everyone who has been touched by the cold grip of gun violence understands. For us, long, tearful, chaotic hours in the scorching afternoon sun were spent not knowing. No one understood the extent of what had happened.”

2. When the world decided to join.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you are not enough, that you don’t have a say. Today’s march showed how one, by one, when we decide that change is worth it and band together, we can make a difference. Not only did all the major U. S. cities participate (see below), so did many cities around the world.

March for Our Lives in London

In Montreal

3. When Lady Gaga got involved.

 

We say #BeKind and Channel Kindness! #Marchforourlives #march4ourlives @chnlkindness

A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on

And, other celebs joined in as well…

 

Sending love to you from Oberhausen. @marchforourlives

A post shared by @ harrystyles on

4. When 11-year-old Naomi Walder speaks out for those lives we don’t always think about.

This young girl’s poise and presence literally sends chills down my spine. Not only did she lead a walk out of her elementary school, Naomi stood up and spoke out for all African-American girls and victims the media often ignores. It is so encouraging to know that this is our future.

5. David Hogg’s Push Back to All Politicians

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwpTPkQVJao

“The cold grasp of corruption shackles the District of Columbia” says Hogg as he begins this emotional, impassionated speech. It is time to not only question the status-quo of our government, it is time to change. Hogg shows great presence, poise, and dignity through extreme emotional grief as he confronts the government that, he claims, has put a price on kids’ lives.

“If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking,” says Hogg.

We applaud you young activists, right-fighters, out there making the world a better place.

The Best Law of Attraction Books: Make Shit Happen in Your Life!

Success is no accident in this life.

Whether you like it or not, what you put into this world, you will get out. Yes, there are many factors that determine success, wealth, and health, but what if you could harness the energy of the universe for your life? If you want to attract those things in life like health and wealth, you need to understand “The Law of Attraction.”

Here is a short definition of this universal law:

The law of attraction is the attractive, magnetic power of the Universe that draws similar energies together. It manifests through the power of creation, everywhere and in many ways. Even the law of gravity is part of the law of attraction. This law attracts thoughts, ideas, people, situations, and circumstances.

The law of attraction manifests through your thoughts, by drawing to you thoughts and ideas of a similar kind, people who think like you, and also corresponding situations and circumstances. It is the law and power that brings together people of similar interests, who unite into various groups, such as political groups, sports teams, sports fans, fraternities, etc.

(Source: The Law of Attraction — Meaning and Definitions)

Think about this definition for a second.

It’s All About Energy

This law is all about energy — our energy plus the energy we want to attract in the universe. If you think of this energy as powerful as gravity, you will begin to understand the significance of this law. Manifesting what you want in this world begins with how you think because your thoughts are powerful. Your thoughts lead to your actions in this world.

While there have been many celebrity endorsements of the Law of Attraction, namely Oprah, Will Smith, Jay Z, and Kanye — there have been several skeptics as well. There are many who believe that the universe will continue to do what the universe does, whether or not we have a positive attitude or change our thinking.

Without the action behind our thinking, the law of attraction cannot work. We must not only believe, we must do. That being said, understanding how these energies work is vital to creating a life that is ready for wealth. That’s why these books below are such great starting points.

Start your journey to wealth and prosperity here, with my best Law of Attraction books:

The Secret By Rhonda Byrne

While this might be one of the more mainstream books on The Law of Attraction, it is still worth a quick read through. Based on the popular movie of the same name, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne takes you through the journey the film tries to, only this time in print. Full of inspirational quotes, insights, and testimonials, this is a good place to begin your journey learning about the laws of the universe.

The Secret Law of Attraction: Master the Power of Intention” – Katherine Hurst

 

Still confused about how you can apply the Law of Attraction in your life? You might want to start here with this book by Katherine Hurst that gives you step by step instructions on how to start manifesting more of what you want in this life. Reviews for this book are generally positive and it gets an overall rating of 3.79 stars on Goodreads.

Katherine Hurts has personally helped millions of her followers around the world learn more about the Law of Attraction and knows first-hand the kinds of questions people have. There are plenty of practical exercises you can do in this book as well, so if you want to take your knowledge beyond intellect, here is a good way to start.

The Power Of Intention” – Dr. Wayne Dyer

 

 

Dr. Wayne Dyer is a leading author, speaker, and self-help guru that has helped many people take control of their lives and make changes that matter to them. In this, one of his cornerstone books on intention, he explores a variety of gurus, mentors, and teachers to create his own theories on intention. There are seven types of energy fields, or intention, or attraction that Dyer discusses: creativity, kindness, love, beauty, expansion, abundance, and receptivity.

This is a book that allows you to more fully explore how you can harness these energies for your life. The Power of Intention walks you through the barriers that you are still clinging to, those barriers that are literally blocking powerful energy from your life and existence. One of those energies or the power of intention responds to appreciation, as Dyer explains:

“Meditate on appreciation. Cherish the energy that you share with all living beings now and in the future, and even those who have lived before you. Feel the surge of that life force that allows you to think, sleep, move about, digest, and even meditate. The power of intention responds to your appreciation of it. The life force that’s in your body is key to what you desire.”

The Science of Getting Rich” – Wallace D Wattles

 

 

We’ve talked about this before, that to be wealthy, you have to have a wealth mindset. This is one of the classic Law of Attraction books (mentioned in the Secret movie) that has stuck around for generations because the principles never get old.

Here is a real reader quote:

This book has changed my life. It has inspired ideas and plans in me that I never thought existed. It changed the way I saw the world, and actually worked to draw me nearer to my dreams as a result of the way the world works. I recommend everyone who is inspired to do more in their lives to read this, as it is a life-changing book.

If you want to attract wealth into your life, this is a good book to read as a starting point and guideline. Yes, the wealth discussed in this book is all about money, but that doesn’t mean you cannot use these principles to attract all kind of riches into your life as well. A foundational read, one that shouldn’t be glossed over!

Related post: 4 Life Lessons from the Legacy of Stephen Hawking.

It Works: The Famous Little Red Book That Makes Your Dreams Come True! by R.H. Jarret

 

 

This little book (under 30 pages) was written anonymously in 1926 and still is one of the most popular manifestos around. This is the kind of book you’ll find passed from family member to family member, across generations. The truths revealed inside still ring true.

In less than one hour total reading time, you can begin to make your dreams come true. You’ll be inspired to start writing lists of what you want to accomplish and then taking those ‘ideas’ and making them a reality. The plan set out in this book is simple and effective. I can strongly recommend this to anyone that wants to dream big and make shit happen in their lives! It’s one of my favorites for sure.

E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality

 

 

Time to get experimenting with the Law of Attraction in your own life? Yes. Great. That’s why E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality is on my list. Filled with scientific experiments anyone can do, that take little to no money, and very little time, this book is a lot of fun.

The first of the experiments begin with you asking for a tangible item within a certain time frame. Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? What does this prove? That you can manipulate and control the laws of the universe, that you can literally will what you want into your life. As you begin to prove this to yourself within these experiments, you’ll squeeze that inner critic right out of your life.

Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself. That’s the beauty of this book. You can really criticize what you haven’t experienced for yourself. Out of all the books I recommend on this list, I think this might be the most powerful because you are literally experimenting and testing these theories in your life.

And isn’t that the real power in all of this — you want to change your life, get started.

Reasons Why Manifestations Don’t Work

If, after reading all of these books, your manifestations are not working, it’s time to continue the education. Stop by the I Am a Change Creator group to discuss what could possibly be holding you back. Our community of change creators is there to help you!

One of our dedicated I Am A Change Creator members Jennifer Yense just happens to be a Law of Attraction coach! Yes, you can hire someone to help you manifest more in your life. Watch her video to learn more!

Thank you for reading my best Law of Attraction book picks! Now it’s time to start testing these theories out in your life and getting shit done.

Do you have any selections you’d like to add to the list? Let me know! I’d love to hear from you.

How This Teacher Started a Social Change Business on The Side

This article is brought to you by +Acumen

Not all Change Creators are social entrepreneurs right away.

There are many ways you can get involved and create sustainable change in this world.

Here is the story of Marc Mailhot, a teacher at Montgomery Village Public School in Ontario, Canada, who wanted to create positive social change in his community. And he did it all in his free time after school!

You see, you don’t need to quit your day job to create lasting changes in a community. With some hard work, some good ideas, and a lot of dedication, you can build a successful social good business on the side, too. Actually, this is how many people start so that they can self-fund their work.

Bridging Two Generations

About 10 years ago, Mailhot and a fellow teacher, Lynda Brown, realized that despite advances in technology that were seemingly making communication easier, many students in their class had never talked to the senior citizens who lived next door.

“The age of the front porch, neighborhood barbecue, or block party were becoming relics of the past. We thought that was sad” says Mailhot.

So, he did something about it and created what would become GrandPals — a community initiative that connects generations of students, teachers, seniors, and community members.

That first year, the idea started with a simple action — bring students to the nearby seniors’ center to play games and keep them company. It didn’t take long for Mailhot and his fellow teachers to realize that they could make this activity a part of the student curriculum.

Now, this initiative has become a self-sustaining social enterprise that could possibly scale across Canada and into other countries as well.

“When we think about intergenerational programming, most people think about taking a group of kids to a nursing home and having them play cards and feel good,” Mailhot says. “Or maybe, they’ll meet regularly to bake cookies. GrandPals is at a different level— we’re academically rigorous.”

Storytelling and Community Building Benefits Us All

GrandPals isn’t just social, it’s about changing the community narrative and connecting generations together to learn new things and share ideas. The students go through a project-based curriculum where they can learn about their community, media literacy, technology, and social studies through the work they do with seniors.

The initiative culminates in an intensive research project in which students chronicle the life stories of the seniors they work with and end up with published books that are housed at the local museum.

“It’s so life-changing. It’s an amazing opportunity for everyone.” Alyssa Curry – Student

Most recently, he’s had many family members of older adults contacting him to ask how they can involve their parents or grandparents in the program. They know that social isolation can literally be deadly for senior citizens and they see GrandPals as a great way to keep their relatives engaged in something meaningful.

To help meet these demands, Marc has successfully attracted funding from the Ontario Ministry of Education, Ontario Ministry of Senior Affairs, Rotary Clubs, and The Clorox Company, and will soon be receiving a national education award.

It’s amazing what one teacher can do! He would love to scale this initiative and introduce this into every community in Canada, but his lack of resources has held him back. Applying for all the grants he needed to fund this initiative by himself was exhausting to the point of burnout. He needed to find a real solution if he was going to scale this at all.

Why Building a Revenue Stream Just Made Sense

One of the many benefits of having a for-profit social enterprise is the continuation of the revenue stream. This makes the business self-sustaining and scalable, both of which Mailhot hoped would happen with GrandPals.

One of the resources Mailhot found so helpful was the +Acumen Business Models for Social Enterprise course.

There, he learned how to take earned revenue streams so he could hire a program manager and become self-sustaining. +Acumen is social enterprise platform that helps others through educational initiatives, one of which is their superb online courses.

“Learning about the different business models a social enterprise could have helped me think of new and creative ways to run my business without having to continually ask for money or fill out government grant forms,” Mailhot says.

Looking at his business model in a new light, he soon came to the realization that seniors also want to be customers. He soon developed a new plan to take his curriculum and turn it into a series of eLearning resources that could not only be sold to other schools, but also to seniors who were looking for education on how to use new technologies.

“We want to encourage lifelong learning. Seniors were asking us to teach them skills like how to use Google Docs; it was a meaningful opportunity to create a solution that could fund the programing,” Mailhot says.

Mailhot continues to further his education, taking advantage of programs from +Acumen and others so he can continue to scale his business.

He still has a great deal of market testing to do, but he’s secured a government grant that will help him with some of the pilot testing for an eLearning course, so he’s optimistic about that solution.

“This program stands as a bridge between social workers and educators. We have good data that shows it improves socio-emotional learning for all involved. Empathy levels go up. Students’ and seniors’ perceptions of their ability to make positive change goes up. Now, we just need to find a way to scale it and make it sustainable. The +Acumen course helped point us in the direction of business models that could work.”

Want to get some more business model ideas? Check out these 4 awesome impact models in 4 Impact Business Models You Wish You Thought Of

Do You Hire Skills or Values? Which is Best?

When it comes to your business, there is one factor, more than any other that will determine your success. That factor is the people on your team. The right people can make or break your business.

Depending on the type of business you have, there may or may not be a lot of skilled people that you can access. If you are building out any type of digital asset, or tech solution, there seem to be more and more skilled people these days. But, are skills enough?

Skills are definitely important when hiring the right team, and if you really want to succeed in business, the right team is a must, but are values important too?

Let’s start with skills. How important is it to hire a skilled team?

To start this discussion, let’s examine an answer from Derek Wyszynski, Chief Sales Hacker at ZynBit (2015-present), who answered the question — Which is more important: skills or attitude? Why?

There is a modern business dictum about skills vs attitude – that attitude is so much more important than skill. That great attitude can overcome poor skills…and given the choice between the two…choose the former. I contend that having a positive attitude is actually a “skill” because it’s literally something you have to work on…day after day…in order to get good at it.

According to Derek, having a positive attitude really is a skill. When we are talking about skills, we can’t just be talking about the skills needed to perform the job needed, we must also be talking about those soft skills that make all the difference in a company.

Why are soft skills so important?

Soft skills include things like problem-solving, being able to control your emotions and the ability to stay calm under pressure. In today’s fast-paced business environment, soft skills are becoming increasingly more important. In the startup world, as I can contend, soft skills are almost as important as any other skills, but can’t be the end-all-be-all, of course.

Without a balance of soft and hard skills, you won’t be able to thrive in this new economy. If you want to build a strong team, one that gets you places, you are going to have to find people with a mix of skills. That’s just the way that it is, but what about values?

 

 

In purpose-driven enterprises, we must be able to look beyond just the skills necessary to build our team — what about values?

What about values?

Without an alignment of values in our businesses, we won’t be able to fulfill our mission the way it should be as well. Take, for example, our cover story in our upcoming March issue of Change Creator, Sonya Renee Taylor who built an empire on her activist mantra that yes, The Body Is Not An Apology.

When she was growing her movement, that started as a moment between friends and grew to a worldwide company that continues to grow, she knew she did not only need to hire the right skilled people but that they all had to align to the mission. For Sonya, mission and values would often supersede skills and experience. At the beginning of TBINAA, those early days of the company/mission, values became the thing that would draw the team together, as she told us:

“It’s easier to teach skills then it is to teach values.”

So which is more important, skills or values?

As we have briefly discussed, if you want to build a solid team, you are going to have to hire skills and values, but if you had to choose, what should you do?

In a social impact business, there are times that you are simply going to have to choose values. In those early days, when you might need to pull in volunteer or inexpensive help, you will have to find those who believe in your mission.

Invest in those people too. They might not be able to create the backend of your website in a day, but they should be able to communicate your mission, get others on board. Their energy and excitement in the mission can be a driving force if you can harness that energy.

As your business grows, there are times that you are going to have to hire skills first. You simply can’t teach someone to code in a day. Remember to consider both soft skills and hard skills when assembling your team at this stage.

Ideally, you should not have to choose between skills and values.

Determine now, before you create your business plan, to find those people who not only bring the right mix of skills to the table but share similar values in your business. Most important, make it a priority in your impact company that everyone holds the company mission as you move forward. Keeping that vision in mind, on everyone’s mind is the secret sauce to propelling your impact in any business!

Related content: Why Great Entrepreneurs Are Not Normal.

What Is the One Thing I Can Do to Seem More Confident Around Powerful People?

What Is the One Thing I Can Do to Seem More Confident Around Powerful People?

This is one of the most popular questions we get here at Change Creator. With all the major influencers out there, it can be quite intimidating to start a business, a movement — or both.

A lot of you have told us that you feel you suffer from impostor syndrome.

Impostor syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon, fraud syndrome or the impostor experience) is a concept describing individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. (Definition from Wikepedia.)

Impostor syndrome should never hold you back from making the world a better place, from starting that business that you are deeply passionate about, or from getting out there and starting a movement.

We’ve all had those moments of doubt and insecurities. All of us have been there, but you know what? We all had to start somewhere too.

Let’s face it. Life is an exciting adventure, right? You never have to stop learning if you don’t want to.

If you want to, you can enjoy every bumpy adventure along the way in your journey, including those times when you feel like a full-fledged imposter.

If you don’t want to feel like an amateur (even, if by definition, you are), what is the one thing you can do to seem more confident around powerful people?

The answer is simple:

Be curious.

Curiosity is the one trait that I see in every, single big-time success story.

If you want to mix and mingle with the ‘big wigs’, just be curious. Ask questions! Be genuinely curious in what they are doing instead of rushing in to brag about the work you are doing!

A genuine curiosity will take you far in life. Don’t just take this advice from me, this shit is the real deal. In fact, Dale Carnegie talks about this principle in his classic, powerful book: How to Win Friends and Influence People.

My dad made me read this book when I was 12. Yes, 12. Thanks, dad! I have probably re-read it a dozen times since. It is a true classic. One of the principles Carnegie talks about is the art of conversations (often with super powerful people). His advice is to let them talk more than you talk. People will go away feeling that you really listened to them, that you had an amazing conversation if you just let them talk about what they got going on.

I would add, don’t just listen. Be curious. Ask questions. Ask advice. Don’t be afraid that you will look naive, or underqualified — your genuine curiosity will overcome that anyway.

Let’s face it. We all start somewhere. If you are not where you want to be in life, that’s okay. You can get there. Building solid relationships with others is vital. Sometimes you’ll be in a room with some serious heavy-hitters. You can overcome that feeling of dread, and inadequacy with one genuine moment of curiosity.

So get out there folks! You can do it!

Do Millennials Really Need Companies that Care About Money and Mission?

Do Millennials Really Need Companies that Care About Money and Mission?

The answer to this is really easy — yes they do, at least according to the data.

A recent survey done by American Express, Redefining the C-Suite: Business the Millennial Way, found that for Millennials, it is a priority for businesses to have a double bottom line, meaning profit and impact.

As for the Millennials they interviewed:

  • 68% said they want to make a difference in the world
  • 81% said that a successful business needs to have a genuine purpose
  • 78% employer should match their own values

This isn’t news to us at Change Creator as we have seen plenty of data from our own market research that suggests these numbers are much higher? In today’s political and economic environment, it only makes sense that companies and businesses are doing more than just making a profit.

But what if your company does not align with your values?

But what if the company you work for does not align with your values and you, like so many others decide that this is vital? There are many ways you can begin to implement a social impact model in your company or better yet, why not start your own purpose-driven business?

Before you tell your boss to take your job and shove it, evaluate your situation. That starts with you. I can’t tell you how many people have reached out to us for our mentorship program with a lot of really passionate ideas, but no clear direction on how their values align with their business idea. Before you commit to anything, you are going to have to do the hard work of looking inward and evaluating your values.

What do I need to do before I start my own purpose-driven business?

This is not a question I can answer in one blog, but let’s dig in anyway, shall we? There are a lot of things you can before you take that big leap. We all love a good side hustle, don’t we?

If you are working for a soul-sucking company that does not align with your values, don’t quit (just yet). Take this time to do prepare yourself and your life to take that giant leap. You don’t want to go into any business unprepared.

There are many things you could be doing to get started.

Do a self-inventory.

  • Write down your goals — think big, long-term, and short-term goals.
  • Make a list of all your financials and assets.
  • Make a list of all your resources — think friends, family, time, skills. It all counts.
  • Brainstorm some ideas. What are you passionate about? What do you read about? Start with what drives you, the mission will come.
  • Tell everyone you know what you are doing. Now is really the time to test and validate your idea in the real world, and by that I mean anywhere that isn’t inside your own head.

That’s not a huge list, right? But these things take time. The most important thing to do before you start is to plan. Plan where you want to go, how you want to get there and figure out the resources you’ll need to do it.

If you are struggling with the transition from employee to boss, or just want some help clarifying your social impact business idea, we can help. If you want to talk just stop by here and set something up.

6 Best Boss Bitch Books You’ll Want to Read Today!

What defines a boss bitch? It’s a good thing.

Trust me. If you want to succeed in business, you need to harness that boss bitch attitude. I’m not just writing this for all the ladies out there — although, I love a great woman at the top. I’m writing this for anyone who wants to make things happen. It can be a long road to the top, but these books have you covered.

If you are starting from the bottom, or just want to take your business to the next level, a good book will seriously help you out. Need some inspiration? Pick up a book. Need some serious, kick-ass inspiration, read one of these books?

How can you harness the boss bitch mentality in your business?

The list below is just a start, but I guarantee you will be transformed by these books. Let’s face it. We all have those days in our lives and our business that we need to harness that warrior, boss bitch mentality.

This year, I’ve had a lot of those moments in my own business. You know, those super-tough meetings when you just have to put on your big girl pants and deal with the situation. I can tell you that every time I have one of these meetings, it’s always about money.

What is it about money and a girl in charge that makes people feel that they can take advantage? If you want to be truly successful, you’re going to have to take charge of your life. You are going to have to dig deep and find that mindset of bad boss bitch at times.

I’ve learned how to assert myself as a boss in business, but this didn’t happen overnight. I’ve also had those negotiations where I didn’t assert myself. Agreed to do something I shouldn’t have. Committed to way more than I should have. That’s not the boss bitch mentality, to be sure.

You see, harnessing that boss bitch mentality doesn’t happen overnight. But, you can speed up the process with these books.

So, get out there and make shit happen. Here are my top 7 picks for best boss bitch books that you really have to read:

First Pick: Boss Bitch: A Simple 12-Step Plan to Take Charge of Your Career

 

 

While not specifically about business, I decided to put Nicole Lapin’s book on this list because it’s full of great insights (plus I love the name, obviously).

I started this list with this pick because it’s a great starting point, as the introduction says

“You don’t need dozens or hundreds of employees to be a boss, says financial expert and serial entrepreneur Nicole Lapin. Hell, you don’t even need one. You just need to be confident, savvy, and ready to get out there and make your success happen. You need to find your inner Boss Bitch — your most confident, savvy, ambitious self—and own it.”

Being a boss should start in your own life. How you approach everything matters. This is also a great book for those of you who haven’t quite clarified your direction in life yet. The first section is all about figuring out what career choice is best for you. Although she’s talking about ‘career’, you can take many of the principles to mean ‘business’.

The final two sections of the book get more into the boss bitch mentality and what it takes to lead. If you want to be a leader in your life, this is a great book to start. You can find the latest edition on Amazon here!

Pick Two: You Are a Badass

 

 

The subtitle of this book, “How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” really says it all, doesn’t it? We all have those feelings of doubt with our abilities. We all feel ‘less than’ at times, especially when it comes to business. Those days, weeks, even months that you are building your empire can be soul-sucking.

At Change Creator, many of you have expressed this fear to us — that you feel like you are not good enough, that you are an imposter, that in some way you are lacking. I’m here to tell you that we all feel like that at times, but there are strategies you can do to overcome these fears, starting with picking up a copy of You Are a Badass.

Now, I’m not going to promise you that this book is revolutionary in any way. It’s mainstream, pop, fun, but it will give you a lift and pick me up. It’s an easy read too. It’s a little bit of fluff, mixed with some real-deal truths on how to stop making excuses and how to improve your life. It’s on the list because there is way more good in this little gem, than there is annoying, although the snappy, hip dialogue does get tiring after a while.

Pick Three: #Girlboss

 

 

When Sophia Amoruso was 22 years old, she was broke, living in San Francisco, eating dumpster bagels and working the front desk of an art gallery to buy herself some vintage clothes.

That life would soon be disrupted by a lifetime of ups, downs, and immense success. What started as a good idea to sell vintage clothes online — with proper marketing, became an empire. This is the story of how she got there and what lessons she learned along the way. If you want to start a business that matters, this book is a great inspiration. It’s witty, smart, and sassy just like a #Girlboss book should be.

Pick Four: How to be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life

 

 

I would never have imagined that a YouTube star’s book would make my list of boss bitch books to love, but here we are. Surprisingly, there are a lot of smart, clever gems of inspiration that will really help you harness that bad bitch mentality and be the boss of your own life, including:

  • How to let go of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
  • How to treat niceness like an item on your daily to-do list (and get more done).
  • How to schedule inspiration, not just wait for it to hit you.
  • How to continually challenge yourself to do more.

I’m not saying that this book is a revelation, but it does have a few solid, helpful tips that can lead you to a new way of taking charge of your life and business, so right there it’s totally worth it.

Her vivacious, youthful energy does come through in the book. You can also check her out in her day job here:

Pick Five: The Body Is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

 

 

I can’t give this book enough love. It’s something every human being needs to read. According to Sonya Renee Taylor, radical self-love is the key to a better world. That’s simplifying things quite a bit, but it’s true. The systems of our world are tired and play off of putting the ‘other’ down. Racism, sexism, any ‘ism is due to the fact that we don’t radically love ourselves and see others as ‘less than’.

We met the incomparable Sonya Renee Taylor at the Socap conference in San Francisco last year. Her vivacious spirit oozes out of every page of this book. It really was quite a read. There are plenty of thought-provoking moments throughout this book, which is really designed to make you think and change your perspective in life.

Read this book to learn also how Sonya became the boss bitch in her life and how she created a movement and a business that continues to grow and inspire millions of people every year. What are you waiting for? Get this book here! 

Pick Six: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

 

 

By, now, you should be sensing a pattern.

If you are not feeling more empowered already, this could be the book to get you going. Although this book was written by a dude, I’m adding it the list because it has a clear message that any girl boss needs to know — not to take shit from anyone.

This little gem has become a guiding light to many. I like its message and I think it’s a good place to end this list.

In the end, being a boss bitch is all about finding your power and doing what you know is right. It’s about becoming a better you. It’s about leading with heart and making the world a better place.

Do you have any books to add to the list? Join me at our Facebook Group and get in on the discussion!

What To Do With the Full Scale Collapse of Major Media

Speaking of the full-scale collapse of major media, we thought we’d share this article from our friends at www.activistpost.com which discusses this issue. Want to be more informed? Why are you reading the resources that are in your news feeds? Who is really paying for these conglomerates? Let’s investigate the full-scale collapse of major media and why you need to know about it.

As I indicated in a recent article, the B-team, or even the C-team, is now heading up the national evening news in America. These anchors’ faces and voices (Muir, Glor, and Holt) are not even faint reminders of the so-called Golden Age when father figures like Cronkite and Reasoner fed official truth into the brains of viewers. The new C-team is vague gloss from a paint job on a used car. This is an ominous sign for the news bosses in the upstairs suites. They can’t find adequate hypnotists anymore.

What happened to Major Media?

Many things—among them, the father figures left the fold. They decided to sell real estate or take corporate work in PR. They saw the handwriting on the wall: the networks were fostering a youth movement, seeking younger and prettier talent.

Why?

Because Madison Avenue was convinced the younger viewer demographic was the important one, in terms of consumer buying power. Therefore, on-air news faces had to be younger as well. This sounded right, but it overlooked one vital fact. The young news anchors couldn’t pull off the appropriate level of mind control. They were merely bland robots. Friendly, nice, literate to the point of being able to read copy. (Lester Holt at NBC is a bit older, but he comes across as a corpse someone dug up at a cemetery for a role in a Frankenstein remake.)

There is another gross miscalculation. The commercials, between news segments, are overwhelmingly pharmaceutical. Those drugs aren’t intended for the youth demographic. They’re for the middle-aged and the seniors, who want to toxify themselves for the rest of their lives.

So the commercials are playing to the older crowd, while the faces of the news are supposedly attracting younger viewers. It’s a mess. The news execs and programmers really have no idea what they’re doing.

They’re basically hoping their game somehow lasts until they can retire.

There’s more.

Terrified by “visionary” Ted Turner, who started CNN as a 24/7 cable news outlet in 1980, NBC decided they had to spin off their own cable news channel. This move, on its own, splintered the unitary hypnotic effect of having one anchor deliver one version of the news to one audience. Suddenly, there were several hypnotists on stage, all talking at once. It was a disaster in the making.

Then you had the various financial news channels, and FOX, and the sports channels, and the weather channel, and Bloomberg, and C-SPAN, etc. Plus all the local news outlets.

This fragmentation began to erode the programmed mind of the viewer. If, hoping to retreat to an earlier time, he sought out one face and one voice and one great father figure on ANY of these channels, he came up empty. The archetype was gone.

In a pinch, a viewer on the political right might opt for Bill O’Reilly, and a viewer on the Globalist left might choose Charlie Rose. But they’re both out of the picture now.

Enter, from stage left, the goo-goo behemoth, the CIA-connected Facebook, which, amidst building a tower of likes for infantile posts, is trying to convince its adherents that it IS the Internet and a source of tailored news that is sufficient unto the day. Unanchored news. No single voice or face.

Big media, no more.

Big media, in all its forms, has lost the mind control war.

It has lost it from inside itself.

Into the vacuum have swept the million of voices of independent media. I’ve written about that revolution at length, and won’t recap it here.

Consider the Youth Phenomenon

Instead, consider the Youth Phenomenon. You could peg it at the Beatles’ US invasion of 1964.

Why? Because that was the moment when children began to be entertained by other children. Seriously, deeply, religiously.

Add in the drugs, and other factors, and you had the groundswell of the 1960s.

Stay young forever. Never grow up. Adults are dull dolts.

These children eventually became parents, and their children became parents…and you have the whole generation-to-generation, societal, eternal-youth package. “I want to be young. I want to be happy forever.”

How do you sell these people the news?

You put a nice face on it.

And you lose the hypnosis.

You still have all the lies and cover-ups and diversions and omissions…but the trance element at the core grows weaker over time.

Like the snowfall from a great blizzard, the aftermath shows patches of snow disappearing, piece by piece.

This is happening, and the news titans can do nothing to stop it.

It’s a long-term trend, and it’s called good news.

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALEDEXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

Image credit: Banksy

Article author: Jon Rappoport

Used with permission from https://www.activistpost.com/

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Meet Three of the Best Companies Upcycling and Reusing Waste for Social Good

Want to save the world? Let’s start with reducing waste! Here are three of the best companies upcycling and reusing the valuable resources we have! This may even lead you to start your own social enterprise.

Meet Jared Criscuolo: UpCycling Waste to Create a Better Fertilizer

Site: https://www.upcycleandcompany.com/

Jared Criscuolo wants to turn your poop into fertilizer. In 2012, Jared got sick from polluted water while surfing. The water was contaminated with wastewater and runoff from the city. This is a common occurrence in the USA, and Jared set out to be part of the solution to our waste problems.

 

He started his own fertilizer company, epicycles waste products from other industries to add to the fertilizer, and has tapped into the brewing industry as well. The end product is a 100% safe, dry pellet that is easy to apply. Jared’s goal is to upcycle 3 million pounds of biosolids per year. Most fertilizers involve mining for nutrients, which decimates the land, and they’re shipped around the world, guzzling fossil fuels. Jared’s “future friendly fertilizer” is sourced, made, and sold locally.

To learn more about Jared Criscuolo, visit his Website and follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

Meet Tessa Cook and Saasha Celestial-One: Creators of the OLIO Food Waste App

Everyone is going to love leftovers now with the OLIO Food Waste App. Tessa and Saasha found a way to share leftover food so there’s less food waste!

Saasha-Celestial-One

Saasha Celestial-One, Co-Founder & COO

OLIO is a free app that connects neighbors with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, bread from your baker, or the groceries in your fridge when you go away. For your convenience, OLIO can also be used for non-food household items too.

Got leftovers, but no friends to share them with? There’s an app for that! With OLIO you can list your surplus food and someone can come pick it up from you.

 

About half of all food in the USA is never eaten. This app is out to shrink that number and feed bellies, not bins! Nearly 200,000 people have downloaded the app so far and shared food with their neighbors.

To learn more about the OLIO Food Waste App, visit their Website and follow them on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.

Toast Ale: Craft Beer Made From Wasted Bread

Americans love their bread, but they waste millions of pounds of it each year. Most ends up in landfills where it emits methane: a potent green house gas. Americans also love their beer, so Toast Ale has come up with an innovative solution to make a craft beer from bread that would have otherwise gone to waste!

“We have over 200 soup kitchens in New York City but I don’t think that is enough to use all the bread that New York City Produces.” Madi and Devin of Toast Ale have long been stressed by the scale of wasted food. They just brewed a pilot batch in New York with 300 pounds of rescued bread, and are crowdfunding to bring full-scale production to the US by this summer.

They plan to rescue 10,000 pounds of bread in their first year and brew 150,000 pints of Toast Ale. 100% of the profits will be donated to charities working to end food waste. Toast Ale believes that saving the environment requires throwing a better party than the people destroying it.

To learn more about Toast Ale, visit their Website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram

Support their crowdfunding campaign to bring this beer to the USA: Indiegogo

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