Written below is a ton of free advice in my latest blog — but in case you don’t have any of those particular questions yourself, on the next call you can ask me YOUR VERY OWN question! It’s Yes Yes Questions, my free, no-strings Live Advice Column.
Have a question about business/life/storytelling/romance/networking/procrastination/ANYTHING? Then either hit reply with it, or — even better — wait join me for the next one!
Want to get some free advice of your own, and sit in live on the next Yes Yes Questions? For dates, details and the secret link to join, pop your details in below or Click HERE.
(also, first you’ll need to download the Zoom app or, for desktop, get the free software at zoom.us. Want a reminder just before, or the phone numbers if you’d rather call in? Pop your details here:
And in the meantime, you can read a review of the last one or listen to it below. The questions asked in that episode:
1. How do I juggle my work/home life, while being someone who works from home?
2. How do I pitch the media to find people who can actually afford my prices?
3. How do I get through all the material of online courses without losing my mind?
4. How do I cope when my clients stop working with me, but I know I could help them if they continued?
5. How do I get comfortable on video?
6. How do I get people to sign up for my list after I do a Facebook Live?
7. How do I get people to engage with my blogs and videos at all?
8. How do I scale as a service-based business if I have to be there to do the work?
9. Should I start a podcast?
10. That’s it. I just hate an un-even numbered list.
Listen here:
Or read here:
1. How do I juggle my work/ home life, while being someone who works from home?
I work from home and find it incredibly difficult to draw a line in my day and allow myself to enjoy my evenings and live in the moment. I am also working at nurturing a romantic relationship and maintaining friendships and family bonds and it is a lot to juggle. Any advice on this topic would be very much appreciated!
(i) Have set working times. In advance, tell yourself what time you are going to start work every day, what time you’ll end work and when you’ll have lunch.
(ii) Listen to Patti Meyer’s podcast episode on this subject: https://bizmagic.co/blogcast/episode08-tips-for-working-from-home
(iii) The biggest game-changer for me:
“If you take time off, you will get more work done, not less”
I learned this from Jonathan “Good Life Project” Fields. If you’re depleted, you will get less done. If you’re well rested, the times you *are working are wayyyyy more productive. So it’s a false economy not to rest or take time off.
Once I started taking dedicated, no-exceptions Sundays off, I started getting a LOT more done, and feeling much more human and happy.
(iv) Resisting work? Sometimes it’s about acknowledging.
As my friend Tonja taught me, sometimes you just need to say to yourself, “Hey, you really don’t want to work right now, do you?”
(v) Are you giving yourself enough time to play? Drawing is very calming for me. I set a timer and draw myself for 5 minutes before I do my self-directed work. And then my brain is satiated and ready to work.
2. How do I pitch the media to find people who can actually afford my prices?
I have an audience but they aren’t yet at a place where they can afford my services. I want to pitch other audiences. Any recommendations on resources / templates for pitching media or other influencers? I have been doing research to find the most relevant people, but don’t want to mess up the actual pitch. I know connection, relevance, and value are key.
(i) Make sure the audience you’re aiming your services at can pay for them — and also are willing to part with the time and money required to do so.
(ii) Make sure you are really clear on the problems that you’re solving.
(iii) Read everything Amanda Berlin writes about pitching. If you go to amandaberlin.com you’ll find a TON of (brilliant) free resources for pitching the media.
3. How do I get through all the material of online courses without losing my mind?
I’m a life coach who’s doing B School because I don’t know how to get the tech stuff going. Looking at it, it all happens so quickly. Do you have any advice on getting through without losing my mind?
(i) Would you like to see my non-affiliate b school review? HERE
(ii) Remember that you have the material for life so you don’t have to do it all at once if it moves too quickly for you.
(iii) Get an accountability partner to keep you on track. Mine and I meet weekly and have for almost 6 years! Just pick a weekly time you can both always make (other than extenuating circumstances) and stick to it.
(iv) You can go back through it again later and likely find people who will go back through with you — just ask in your course’s Facebook/online group.
4. How do I cope when my clients stop working with me, but I know I could help them if they continued?
I’m starting out as an education consultant/coach. I’ve begun working with some clients and one of the things I find challenging is protecting my boundaries of how far my responsibility and my engagement as a coach goes into their lives. I felt a sense of loss when one of my clients had to cut our work short for logistical reasons. I realize I will need a disclaimer and be careful about how I say things because I’m aware I can’t responsible for what happens if someone takes my advice.
(i) MAKE SURE you are covered legally and know EVERYTHING you need to know, so you can do right by the kids. This also applies to those working with privileged grown-ups, but ESPECIALLY for anyone working with either kids or a vulnerable community.
(ii) Put your boundaries into place with clients from the get-go. When clients can contact you and/or receive a response from you, etc. You need have the boundaries in place for yourself
a. Make sure you’re super clear on your boundaries for yourself
(iii) Accept that this might happen! Sit yourself down and acknowledge that sometimes, clients might have to end sooner than you’d like to. It may suck and be hard and this is part of the job.
(iv) If you want to, find alternative resources for the client while still protecting your boundaries.
5. How do I get comfortable on video?
(i) Tl;dr: consume everything Holly from HollyGStudios.com makes.
My friend Holly worked behind the camera on film and tv and then decided she wanted to help entrepreneurs make videos. That meant she had to be on camera. So she committed to making a video everyday for a month. She just locked herself in her office and filmed herself. Every day. For a month. She said it was awful at first, but after doing it for that long, she got comfortable being on video. When you do this yourself:
(ii) Share the videos with someone for accountability
(iii) Use your smartphone. That actually is usually good enough for any video. Remember that sound is more important than visuals
(iv) How to make homemade tripod using a mason jar and an elastic band:
(v) Don’t forget to sign up to Holly’s list here: HollyGStudios.com
Oh, and look — she’s made a video called “Video Making for Beginners No Fancy Equipment Required.”
6. How do I get people to sign up for my list after I do a Facebook Live?
I have been getting on FB live. I totally enjoy it but struggle with calls to action. I want to promote my small offer or my opt-in. I’ve been saying, “if you like this, download my free guide.” How do I create better calls to action?
(i) Relate your calls to action to pain points
Describe the problem that your free guide solves, then explain that you have a solution (and — gasp — it’s FREE!)
7. How do I get people to engage with my blogs and videos at all?
I do posts and videos, but sometimes — actually, usually — the engagement is not great. How can I figure out what the missing link is?
(i) Are you talking about pain points? If not, make sure you are, so that the people watching KNOW you are for them.
(ii) Make sure you are niching down. I don’t mean “only women with shoulder-length hair who have small white dogs” — more in terms of what the problem you solve is. The more niche you can be with this, the easier it is to engage people.
(iii) Make sure that you are where your people are. If you’re doing FB live — are they actually on Facebook? Or somewhere else?
(iv) Think about your subject lines. Either relate them to pain points or desires, or to something that will intrigue people and make them want to click.
(v) Make sure the question you are asking your audience is something that is specific enough to get engagement. “Any thoughts?” is not.
8. How do I scale as a service-based business if I have to be there to do the work?
Because I swap dollars for hours, I am limited to the amount of clients that I can take on and still give them good quality service. But I need to make more money. What do you do when you want to make more money with your business but you get close to being maxed out with the amount of clients you can take on?
(i) Put your prices up! This is what happens when demand starts to outstrip supply. Here’s a blog by Jenny Shih on how to tell clients you are putting your prices up: https://jennyshih.com/2013/05/steal-this-my-step-b…
(ii) Give current clients plenty of notice
(iii) CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
9. Should I start a podcast?
How do I know if podcasting would be a good path for my audience? I’d like to do it because just writing what I have to say doesn’t express the level of inspiration and love that my audience needs. When people email me, I give audio responses and people love it. There is a way of speaking to my audience that reassures them. Should I start a podcast?
(i) Before you do— before you do ANYTHING — first ask yourself:
“What am I trying to achieve here? What do I want to be different in the world as a result of me writing this?”
(as I talked about in possibly my MOST USEFUL BLOG POST OF ALL TIME, here: www.yesyesmarsha.com/2questions
(ii) If you’re doing it to build audience, know that it can be a lot of work and it can take a few years. It’s definitely the long game.
(iii) If you already have the audience, I have a great transcriber:
https://www.fiverr.com/transexpert (tell her I sent you!) This way you give people the option to listen or read (JUST LIKE I AM IN THIS ENTIRE BLOG POST!!!!)
Other links I mentioned in passing:
http://www.thebrazenbible.com (taught me to be vulnerable online)
https://talkingshrimp.com (teaches me with EVERY email, esp how to write subject lines)
There you go! Also, pressure’s on me now, because I said, “Any thoughts?” is not a good enough question for engagement :/. So how about this: what’s your best advice for work/life balance? Even if you’re not practising it right now, is there something that’s worked for you in the past? Let me know in the comments below.
Want to get some free advice of your own, and sit in live on the next Yes Yes Questions? For dates, details and the secret link to join, pop your details in below or Click HERE.
Thank you so much for reading! If you know someone who REALLY needs to hear the answers to one of the questions above, you can share this blog with them using one of the round buttons below. If it’s on twitter, Facebook or Insta, make sure you tag me — I’m @yesyesmarsha everywhere :)
You rule!
xx (Yes Yes) Marsha
PS Want to ask me a question of your own — and get free coaching on storytelling and how to be unforgettable via email? Join in with Yes Yes Questions and join the Yes Yes Family — it’s free! I’ll also send you my guide on the magic bullet for compelling stories. Just pop your details in below:
Leave A Response