I have been scouring the internet for weeks to find a couple of kayaks to buy... ...just like every other adventure-loving human who has been denied the usual summer adventures. I checked all of the usual (to me) places: REI, Dicks, Cabela's, LL Bean--even Home Depot...
We’ve had a helluva year here at What Works. We’ve talked to over 100 small business owners, published more than 80 episodes, and tackled 12 different themes this year.
What Works is special because we focus on the people who are making their businesses work every single day.
We believe we all have a lot to learn from each other—and the more honest & transparent we are about how our marketing, operations, tools, product development, or sales processes work, the better chance we all have for success.
On this episode, it’s no different—except, instead of me being the one asking the questions, you are!
The Nitty-Gritty: What inspired Thien-Kim Lam to develop a subscription box and virtual book club for a niche audienceHow she channeled her love of romance books and her experience selling adult toys into the subscription she would have loved to buy herselfHow she's...
Eli Trier organizes community projects for introverts and quiet revolutionaries. Her goal is to raise the level of discourse around a topic, bringing people together and growing audiences in the process.
I was so impressed with Eli’s approach and how it tied into our values and philosophy at What Works… that I hired her to help us with our first community project—coming out in August.
Eli and I talk about why it’s important to her to deep-dive on important questions and involve a diverse set of voices in the discussion. We also get into the nitty-gritty of how Eli’s community projects work, how she plans for them, and how they help her reach both her audience-building and sales goals.
Rachael Kay Albers is a marketer who hates marketing. As the founder and creative director of RKA ink, a branding, web design, and digital marketing studio, Rachael has helped hundreds of small business owners all over the world stand out online without selling their soul or playing the manipulation game.
When not crafting epic, unforgettable brands for her clients, Rachael hosts Awkward Marketing, a business comedy show blending fun-size small business advice with storytelling and sketch comedy, for entrepreneurs who want to create epic, unforgettable brands online.
I asked Kim what’s working when it comes to SEO today—not just from a technical standpoint, but from the perspective of building audiences hungry for the products or services we offer. As part of our “what’s working” series, Kim shares her own experience working with clients and how SEO has helped them build much bigger audiences.
My guest today is Jennifer Johansson, a mixed media artist, living and working in Carbondale, Illinois. Jennifer studied art and education in college, going on to teach high school art and art history for 15 years. About 9 years ago, she was able scale back her teaching to focus more on her art.
In an effort to spool up her art business, Jen started sharing her work on Pinterest. And one day, she noticed a particular pin was sending an outsize amount of traffic to her website. Not only that, it was generating comments and emails from interested people.
But they weren’t so much interested in buying her artwork as they were in learning how to create the art they saw on Pinterest.
Jennifer spotted the opportunity—which was distinctly different than Brigitte’s!—and started to take action.
In this conversation, Jennifer and I talk about the pin that went viral, the decision to build an online course about her unique style of art, and the nitty-gritty of how she created the course. We also chat about how her business has evolved as a result of pursuing this line of business.
My guest today is Val Geisler. Val is an email marketing specialist and the founder of Fix My Churn.
Today, Val is wrapping up a 12-week email marketing program that netted her about $90,000.
But just 6 months ago, this kind of result would have been hard to believe.
A small offer—a 2-hour workshop on the research behind successful email marketing—changed everything.
I talk with Val about how she came up with the seed of her big idea, how she sold the workshop that started it all, and how she developed the 12-week program once she knew it would be a success. We also discuss the mindset behind starting small and why it was key to her accomplishment.
In this episode, you’ll learn how Bonnie Gillespie, the author of Self-Management For Actors, planted a seed before she even started her business. Her bridge job as a show business industry columnist blossomed into an empire that is still rooted in the words she wrote over 20 years ago.
Email by email, article by article, blog post by blog post, book by book, even tweet by tweet, she’s strategically pieced together her body of work.
Bonnie and I talk about how she realized her first book was waiting to be born, the way she used an automated Twitter account to develop a new product, how she stays in dialogue with her audience to fuel the content she publishes, and why she doesn’t buy into guru culture.
Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Jereshia Hawk who got real with me about a similar experience to mine… thinking that more offers would mean more money.
When she realized that just wasn’t happening, she went back to what she knew best, focused on one single offer, and… made bank.
Host of What Works
Tara is a podcaster, small business community leader, strategist, and speaker. She’s been helping small business owners build stronger businesses for over a decade.
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