Marketing | MentoringU

The Importance of Technology and Automation for Entrepreneurs

by MentoringU | Oct 26, 2018 | Marketing, Productivity, Technology

The Importance of Technology in Small Business…that’s a concept we could spend all week on!

We’re two weeks out from opening the doors to Marketing Content Wizard! This has been a long time coming, and except for a super soft launch last year when I rolled it out briefly and got some awesome feedback (THANK YOU GUYS), this has been a tool I built for myself and my clients. I’ve used this strategy for years because when I first started my business I was on maternity leave from corporate work and not too sure what kind of work life balance I would be going back to. (Check out the whole story in my book Chasing Balance, available on Amazon).

I wanted a way to market my business using only a few hours, once in a while, so I could spend the rest of the time with my new baby and enjoying my maternity leave. Once I went back to work, it was even more important that I could batch my marketing in a weekend and know that the next three months were set to roll on autopilot, building income around the clock, while I did my corporate work during the day.

Sound familiar?

I work with so many women who are juggling a passion project, a side hustle, or are working on launching a dream…all while working a regular job, juggling demanding children and home responsibilities and trying to find a little time left over for themselves. Ladies, let me tell you… it is possible, but you have to be strategic. The same way you plan a birthday party weeks in advance, or plan a vacation, you have to have planned marketing. You have to have a guiding roadmap to get you and your products to a profitable destination. If you are building content and not marketing it…you’re your own worst obstacle to success.

Get out of your own way!

Let me show you how to devote four weekends A YEAR to creating great content and setting your business up for success! I am passionate about this system because I have seen the value. I have seen how sales roll in while I’m on the couch with sick kids, volunteering at the school, out at girls night, or even on vacation! This isn’t a magic, instant solution, but it is a solid strategy that with a few days of intentional work…you can build out your marketing for the entire quarter!

Can you even imagine what that would feel like? Sitting back and relaxing on Thanksgiving day, knowing that your Black Friday promotions are set and have been for weeks? Or knowing that you can enjoy New Year’s Eve, with the comforting knowledge that your Jan 1st motivational challenge will kick off right on time and run on autopilot?

Here are FOUR reasons why you can not wait any longer to invest in Marketing Content Wizard!

REASON NUMBER ONE: You can stop running from solution to solution, guru to guru, one fake promise to the next and finally start seeing results. When you invest in Marketing Content Wizard, you get instant access to everything, you can start using it within the next 30 seconds and start seeing results in as little as one day How’s that for motivation?

REASON NUMBER TWO: Marketing Content Wizard is THE ONLY system that allows you to create 30 days of content in just one day That fills your feed in less than a day. That eliminates the mad, frantic, chaotic rush to find content that makes sense for your marketing. And that makes your marketing on topic and targeted for your audience

REASON NUMBER THREE: Marketing Content Wizard is THE most comprehensive, system out there. Here are just some of the things you get when you decide to invest in Marketing Content Wizard: Video tutorials on how to brainstorm, write, illustrate, and schedule your content Customizable template for your annual plan and monthly marketing content Step by step instructions on how to use productivity strategies to create piles of content in just 8 hours You also get some mind-boggling bonuses (that are frankly worth more than the product itself) Free tools to fill your feed mini-course Graphic Design Batching Strategies Productivity for Procrastinators – Strategies for Success I challenge you to find something that has ALL of these goodies…at this price point…at any price point… but seriously for $47, what are you waiting for?

REASON NUMBER FOUR: One day is all it takes to get started – perfect for procrastinators and those seeking instant gratification. Just $.12 cents per day to go from struggling to fill your feed with engaging marketing to relaxing and watching the Likes, the Love and the Comments roll in on the marketing you had done and posted weeks ahead of time.

When you really think about it, how much is your time worth? Is it worth $.12 cents/day to create 30 days of content at a time and save yourself up to 20 hours per week? Yep, the average small business spends 20 hours or more per week working on marketing! Who has that time?

Within the next few months, you can either save this tiny amount of $.12 cents per day, or you can invest in Marketing Content Wizard. Invest in YOURSELF!

Get the forever solution that…

Fills your feed in less than a day AND eliminates the mad, frantic, chaotic rush to find content that makes sense for your marketing
AND
makes your marketing on topic and targeted for your audience!

I rest my case, hop off my soapbox, and sincerely hope you’ll join me in becoming a Marketing Content Wizard!

Cheers, Traci

Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a 90 Day Plan

by MentoringU | Oct 8, 2018 | Marketing, Productivity, Vision and Goals

It’s October, and while the rest of the world might be dreaming of pumpkin spice lattes and planning their holiday menus…as an entrepreneur, you are likely focused on closing out the year strong. With less than 90 days to go, it’s time to ANALYZE, ASSESS, and ALIGN your actions for the next 90 Days to finish successfully!

That brings me to one of my favorite productivity strategies and tactics…The 90 Day Plan. In 90 days you can accomplish amazing things, profitable things, direction changing things! If this year hasn’t turned out like you wanted, or if the numbers just aren’t hitting the goals you’ve set…it’s not too late! Let’s buckle down and make it happen! Plan your next 90 Days like you would plan a vacation you can’t wait to go on!

In 90 days you can Brainstorm, Plan, and Execute. Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. A lot of the resources that I develop at MentoringU are intended to inspire action and are free for you to use. If getting started is an obstacle for you, try my action planner.

Break Down Your Goals Into Tasks You Can Take Action On

Ready to Take Action? Need help breaking down your goal into tasks you can take instant action on? Give the MentoringU Free Action Planner a try!

Give the Action Planner a Try!

When I first developed the action planner, it really was an effort to help entrepreneurs think through what they needed to do to make a difference in their business. It will help you break down your goals into actionable tasks that you can quickly put into action.

For instance, if you want to build your email list to 5000 people… what are the actions that you take to get there? Your 90-day goal likely would not be ‘build my list to 5000 people.’ That’s not realistic for most entrepreneurs. However if the actions that you’re going to take to get to that final goal of 5000 people on your list include things like – conduct 3 webinars, develop a new lead magnet, and run $200 worth of Facebook ads…those are actionable items that you can put on your to-do list that will eventually help you get to your goal.

The action planner helps you take one goal and break it down into what tasks you need to do to be effective. Every one of those items that we just listed has other actions that need to happen before they become an effective promotion. You’re not just going to hop on to zoom and hold a webinar. You would be holding it to crickets.

You might need to

Develop an outline of what you’re going to teach
Begin building your presentation
Create advertising graphics for social media channels and email
Create advertisements on Facebook and Instagram
Create a marketing email campaign
Hold a trial run of your webinar
Hold your webinar

What this really shows us is that even something as simple as ‘hold a webinar to grow my list’ has multiple steps and actions that will all take time and effort. Using a tool like the MentoringU Action Planner, or even just pen and paper, you can back out things to the lowest common denominator, the smallest task where you start and then begin to put that in play. To-do lists become difficult and we feel like we’re not accomplishing anything because we put big multi-step tasks on our to-do list. We can’t cross off hold a webinar to grow my list until we have done everything else that it takes to lead up to having a webinar, to maintain momentum and motivation, we have to start thinking smaller.

My single-minded, somewhat obsessive focus at MentoringU on the 90-day Plan is really an effort to help you start thinking smaller. If we work on the small tasks we begin to see big results.

Even better, we can identify tasks along the way that we can automate, taking the task off your plate! Right now we are just under 90 days from January 1st. This is the time to start thinking about where you want to start your business in 2019.

What do you need to accomplish in the next 90 days to consider 2018 a success?

Do you need to grow your list
Do you need to develop new content
Are you launching a new product
What is going to make this year a success for you? (And be sure you are defining success in both financial and emotional ways.)

Once you have aligned your goals and know what you will consider a success, let’s back it out and figure out what steps you can take to accomplish that in the next 90 days. If you haven’t already, go ahead and give the free online Action Planner a try. It’s going to prompt you to define a goal and a timeline, and then begin to break that down into actions that need to happen and tasks you need to tackle. When you finish it’s going to summarize all your inputs, and send it to you via email so that you can plug it into either your MentoringU planner or you can plug it into an online calendar like Google Calendar, just be sure to use something that’s going to hold you accountable.

If you need more accountability, or just want to keep on track, come on over to the EntrepreDOERs Facebook group and let us help you. I’ll be challenging you to keep on track and finish strong this year! Whatever method you prefer…just start somewhere!

Pick a goal.

Pick a task.

Take action.

Entrepreneurs need a 90 Day Plan to keep us on track and working towards a goal that brings us the desired end result…cash in the bank. When you are a small business or a one man shop, it’s more important that ever to have a plan that keeps you on track. We’ve all been there. If you need help getting started, don’t forget I offer a 30-minute strategy session on me, and we can use it to map out your next 90 days!

Productivity Hacks for Entrepreneurs Short on Time

by MentoringU | Aug 2, 2016 | Marketing, Productivity

Ready to stop wasting time and start making money?

Time…it’s the one commodity we can’t easily buy more of. Now you can delegate, outsource and hire on but that’s not really getting more time. Over the next few months we’re going to talk all things productivity. How to be more productive, of course, but also how to do you get in a productive mindset. How do you figure out what derails your productivity and where do you learn to fix it. How to do we make productivity a back burner habit that supports your efforts easily and without a great amount of forethought?

Productive people don’t have more time in the day, they just make the most of each and every minute. These are skills and strategies that even the smallest business owner can put into place.

Over the next month I’m going to bring you a different productivity hack each day. Use this knowledge like a buffet! Pick what works for you, what you can take action on and put in place and then commit to actually making this a habit. Over time you’ll notice that as you focus on these individual habits, distractions will decrease and hopefully your stress level will too. At the end of the 30 days take stock and see what really made the most difference and be sure to keep those habits front and center moving forward. In September our new Productivity Hacks series will be converted into an e-course with in-depth tutorials on some of the tools I reference. Stay tuned, or head on over to Instagram for daily sneak peeks!

Now taking profile submissions for our EntrepreDOerzine

by MentoringU | Jul 8, 2016 | Blog, Business, Efficient Entrepreneurs, Life Style, Marketing

Ok now I know that is a tongue twister…say it with me nice and slow… Entre – pre- DOer -zine! See that’s not so hard, but I bet you can’t say it 5 times fast (If you try, catch it on video and send it my way :)).

We are launching a digital magazine that will be published quarterly and feature profiles on Entrepreneurs, industry news, and advertising blocks. I am constantly searching for new ways to create benefit for the members in my local networking group, online network of entrepreneurs, and the amazing people I seem to meet each and every day. Everyone has such a unique gift and I have been searching for a way to showcase the amazing variety of skills and services our members represent.

Fast forward and you have the officially announcement…We are launching a digital magazine that will profile 8-12 entrepreneurs each quarter and will be available for you to read and hopefully share with your customer base. The magazine will also be shared with all North Austin Networking Group Members to share with their customer base and promoted aggressively in social media. I hope to provide great profiles of our network of EntrepreDOers and a section for you to advertise and promote any specials or promotions.

This first issue will be a test run, and will be priced accordingly! If you are interested, be sure to submit your profile at http://bit.ly/EntrepreDOerzinesubmission by July 15th. This first series of profiles are offered at no cost! If you are interested in advertising or offering a promotion that will run through the fall, you can do so at early bird rates. (BONUS: If you run an ad now at early-bird rates, we’ll grandfather you in at that rate for a full year). Rate: $250 for full-page ads; $175 for half- page ads; $100 for quarter page ads or less. Payment is due the same date as your ad is placed.

If you’ve been attending meetings, we’ve been talking about this upcoming opportunity and it’s finally here!

What a Landing Page is and Why Entrepreneurs Should Use them

by MentoringU | Mar 13, 2015 | Business, Marketing

Landing pages are entire pages devoted to driving a specific action. In fact, you may already have one on your website so be sure to look! The idea is to capture visitors information so you can continue the conversation with them and promote your business. Have you ever clicked a link on Facebook and ended up on a page that tells you about a specific service, webinar, or offer and prompted you to take an action like “signing up for a newsletter” or “Click here to download?” If you provided your name or email to do so (enabling the company to contact you in the future) then you were on a landing page.

Landing pages offer visitors a chance to focus on one simple action without being overwhelmed by an entire website. They often don’t have a header bar and navigation options, have minimal “pretty” features and consistently drive focus to one objective (Buy, Sell, Sign Up, Etc)

You have one goal with a landing page…GET THEM TO CLICK! (more…)

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