The Nitty Gritty
- Why Natalie decided to pursue a personal brand under her name — and why she decided to keep The Suitcase Entrepreneur, too.
- What Natalie’s personal brand looks like from the inside out — and why she’s considering a done-for-you offering as part of her services
- What she learned from taking a 3-month sabbatical to figure out her next moves — and how Natalie decided to move back to her native New Zealand
- How Natalie uses an “idea journal” to quickly document new project ideas before committing to them. Plus, a quick look into how she makes decisions for her life and business so that they align with her purpose, vision, and goals.
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Natalie Sisson spent the better part of six years working remotely and traveling around the world. And while many of you likely know her as the Suitcase Entrepreneur, she’s set her bags down to make a home in her native New Zealand (puppy and partner included!).
Although life’s changed quite a bit for her from her working-and-traveling-the-world-days, Natalie’s still teaching business owners how to create a more sustainable and profitable business using smart systems. Her latest feat? Launching the brand new book, The Freedom Plan. Through it’s pages, Natalie teaches entrepreneurs how to reclaim their time, streamline their business, and be more profitable while living your ideal lifestyle and feeling on purpose.
Check out this episode to hear more from Natalie about shifting her work away from the Suitcase Entrepreneur and to her personal brand under her name, why implementing systems can completely change the way you do business, and so much more.
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Using a personal brand to better serve your clients
“I’m helping people create a more streamlined business that gives them freedom. I might say: hey, this is Natalie and this is how I want to help you. But it’s not about me. This is not a blog about following my journey or what I’m doing right now — although there’s an element of that that people want to learn from.” — Natalie Sisson
Even though Natalie works under her name now rather than the Suitcase Entrepreneur, it’s really not about her. “It’s about you and what you can accomplish and how I can help you accomplish that thing,” Natalie says.
The biggest difference between her personal brand and the Suitcase Entrepreneur? Now she teaches people how to implement the systems and tools that she’s used over the years to grow her business. It’s a lot less about Natalie personally and more about how she can serve her clients with what she knows.
Implementing systems and hiring to optimize the work, save time, and spend more time doing what you’re good at
“I’ve noticed that when I’m working I’m expanding my time to fit the work; I can actually do it in a lot less time than I realize because I’ve created good systems and because I’ve created a little virtual team around the world. A lot of the stuff that I do is the strategy and the content creation and the curriculum creation for the programs and offerings that I have.” — Natalie Sisson
Right now, Natalie’s challenging herself to work one single hour a week — just to see if she can based on the systems she has in place. Part of her ability to optimize her work is through developing efficient systems. She also hires out some of the work — but only did so once the systems were strongly in place. Natalie works with a part-time virtual assistant “who knows my systems and business inside and out.” Her V.A. also works on admin tasks and customer service.
Besides her V.A., Natalie also works with a handful of other self-employed creatives. She has a designer/photographer/social media contractor who helps with social media posting and content as well as WordPress design. To round out her team, Natalie works with a sales funnel and Facebook ad strategist and video editor.
Beyond her core team, who are based around the world, she works with other project-based workers including a copywriter, project manager, and videographer.
Using an ideas journal
“Anytime you have what you think is a brilliant idea in the middle of the night or during a creative session or when you’re out running or in nature, pop it into that journal and come back to it a few days later and see whether it still has the legs and the juice and the excitement that you initially had.” — Natalie Sisson
What do you do when you come up with an amazing offering or idea? Do you usually go straight into implement mode and learn as you go? Or do you simmer on it? Natalie does the latter using what she calls an ideas journal. If she has an amazing insight, she writes it down then comes back to it in a day or two to see if the original passion or excitement is still there.
In addition to her ideas journal, Natalie uses a decision matrix to ask herself a number of questions before taking action, including:
- What impact is it going to have?
- What effort is it going to be?
- How profitable is it going to be?
- Does it meet my vision?
“It gives you a really good perspective on what you have going on in your head and in your life,” Natalie says.
Listen to this episode to hear more from Natalie Sisson on the power of growing your business using systems, how to pivot from one business to a personal brand, and how to make decisions that align with your purpose.
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