Today I’m answering a lot of your business questions that you sent me on Instagram. This advice is gold, and it’s free! Let’s dive in!
In This Episode Allie Discusses:
When it’s time to pivot & when it’s time to keep going in your business
Honing in on what your business should be
Choosing between working and relaxing
Merging work & other parts of your life
Queen content for product based businesses
Aligning your business with your purpose
Why imposter syndrome is a sham
The fear of failure
Increasing sales
Creating passive income
Working in a saturated market
Growing your email list
Working as an introvert
Mentioned in this Episode:
Courses (Use the code PURPOSESHOW for 10% off!)
The Purpose Show Facebook Community
Mom life. We’re surrounded by the message that it’s the tired life. The no-time-for-myself life. The hard life. We’re supposed to get through it. Survive. Cling on by the last little thread. And at the same time, Carpe Diem—enjoy every moment because it’s going to go by so fast. The typical mom culture that sends us all kinds of mixed, typically negative messages. We shouldn’t take care of ourselves; it’s selfish. The more ragged you run yourself, the bigger your badge of honor. But also, ditch your mom bod and work out. Don’t yell. Make more money. Show up. Be better, but not at the expense of time with your kids. I am putting a hard stop to all of this. While being a mom, running a business, and whatever else you might have going on is hard, it is a lot and there’s lots of giving of yourself, the idea that motherhood means living a joyless, nonstop-hustle-with-zero-balance kind of life, where you give and give and give and never take, needs to stop.
I’m on a mission to help you stop counting down the minutes till bedtime (at least most days). Stop the mom guilt and shame game. Stop cleaning up after your kids’ childhood and start being present for it. I want to help you thrive in work, home and life. I believe in John 10:10 that we are called to living an abundant life and I know moms are not excluded from that promise. Join me in conversations about simplicity, some business and life hacks, spirituality and lots of other good stuff that leads to a life of less for the sake of enjoying more in your motherhood. I’m Allie Casazza and this is The Purpose Show.
Hey friend! Welcome back to The Purpose Show podcast, which is currently being recorded from my tub. That’s right. I’m in the nude.
I’ve got candles lit. Incense burning. Bubbles. A cup of tea. The whole shebang. So if this doesn’t make us really, really good friends, I just don’t know what will.
It’s Sunday night. Normally I don’t work at all on the weekends, but I was just really feeling it. I had a bunch of really great questions about business from you all on Instagram and decided to just go ahead and record from here.
I’m all about working from that place of rest. You guys know that’s my vibe. If I can record a podcast with 7 million downloads in the tub, then you can record from anywhere. You can literally do whatever you want and build your business around what you want.
I have a bunch of questions from you all from Instagram. I asked what your questions were about business and got some really, really good stuff. I figured that a podcast would be a better place to answer them all in detail. So, here we are.
I’ve got them pulled up on my laptop. I actually haven’t looked at them. My assistant got them all organized for me and sent them over, so we’re just going to bust through them. I haven’t seen these before, so if I’m stumbling over my words a little bit when I answer it’s because this is authentic and I’m just now seeing them. We’re gonna go through these together.
Question number one: How would you know when the business is draining and it’s time to pivot versus it’s time to not give up and keep going?
This is a great question. This is right off the top of my head because I’ve been there. And I think because we were just recently talking about this in Up and Up Academy, which if you’re not in there, that is my monthly business membership for online business owners who are wanting to grow their businesses. We talk about things like this often.
My answer is that the way you know when the business is draining and it’s time to switch things up and pivot or it’s time to keep going and not give up is to feel into what it is that you think about when you’re holding vision and dreaming for the future that you want.
What I mean by that is, is the business that you have now the business that you really want when you visualize the future? When you’re thinking about the life that you want ideally—the business you want to be running, the money you want to be making, the life you want to be living—is the business that you have now what comes up for you organically when you dream about the future?
If it is then you could just be tired. You could just need a break. You could need to maybe ditch some limiting beliefs that say you have to do your business in a certain way and that way is making you just really friggin’ tired.
Or if it’s not the business that you feel like you have when you are visualizing your ideal future (and by ideal future I just mean when you’re visualizing. When you’re picturing your life and what you really want. If you were creating a vision board right now and you were putting different things on it) is the business that you have now what really makes you feel expanded? Is it what makes you feel really happy and lit up?
Yeah, maybe you’d give or take a couple of elements of that business or you’ve niched down really far right now because you’re just starting out and you’d like to add in some other things in the future, but pretty much the business that you have now is the same business when you are making your vision board, going into the future, imagining three years from now, five years from now, one year from now.
Then that means that it’s aligned. You’re just tired. You’re just drained and you need to find a way to wake your soul up again as it relates to your business.
But if it’s not that business and you dream of having a business that covers another topic where there’s a different sort of message. If there’s something else you’re dreaming of, something else that feels aligned for you, but it’s not the current business then I would say that means it’s time to pivot.
But I also think that you can find ways to be really lit up, to be really aligned, to be really happy in a business that is not your forever business just to get some money coming in, move the needle forward, and make things happen for yourself. Then use that revenue that you built. Use that business that you built up to pivot and start talking about things you really want to talk about.
You can do whatever you want. The thing about business is that there’s really no right or wrong. There’s just choices, and it’s about what you want to do next.
I hope that answers your question for you. I feel like it’s about what you picture when you visualize the future. Do you feel really expansive and really happy when you’re visualizing that future? What kind of business are you running then? And is that the business that you have now or not?
Question Two: How do I hone in on what my business should be?
Okay. First of all I have to say that asking ‘what my business should be?’ shows that you may be believing that there is a right or wrong business for you.
And while that is true, you’re believing that you’re able to start the wrong business. And I just want to be clear. It is a lot of hard work to start a business. If you’re going to do all of that willingly, you’re probably going to pick something that makes you pretty lit up.
Something that you’re really good at. Something that you’re passionate about. Something that you love talking about. In some way, shape or form, it’s going to be something that you enjoy. No one is making you start a business about something that you disagree with or hate.
Don’t think or believe that there is a wrong business or that you might start the wrong one. If you’re starting a business ask yourself if it is going to be something that’s aligned and that you can pivot and shift as needed as you evolve.
My business has shifted so much over the years and evolved as I have evolved as a person. If you were to go back and read my content from years and years ago, you would see a lot of differences because my business is attached to me. It’s a personal brand, so it has changed as I’ve changed over the years, and it stays aligned with me for the most part.
Aside from that technicality, how to hone in on what your business should be? I’m assuming that you’re a pretty multi-dimensional person. You probably have a lot of different skills, a lot of different passions, a lot of different interests. You probably have a life story that you could imagine turning into a business, a story-based business kind of like mine.
Mine started as a story-based business because mine came out of my life story with my motherhood and being overwhelmed and all that. I feel like you have too many choices.
First of all, I’m going to send you to a freebie that I have. I actually created this and it was supposed to be a mini course but then I thought, “You know what? I’m just going to make it a PDF. I’m gonna put a video with it and I’m going to make it free.”
It’s like a little mini training that should be paid and is not. It’s free. It’s called Get Clear On Your Calling. You can go to alliecasazza.com/calling and download it for free. I would suggest you print it out if possible, but you can fill it out digitally if you prefer.
It will walk you through brain dumping what you’re really good at. Brain dumping what has come from your life story and is that something that you really want to start as a business or not?
What are you interested in? What are you passionate about? What do people come to you for?
I will help you. This is what I’m good at. I will help you get it all out and get clear. You will have clarity by the end of this. I’ve gotten incredible feedback on this.
Go to that link, download it for free, and work through that to get a little bit more clarity on what it is that you should be starting, if you want to start a business but you don’t know what that business “should” be.
Next question: How to decide how my time is spent? I’m torn between relaxing with the husband or working.
Again, this is coming from the belief that there’s a wrong thing to do. It’s not wrong to work on your business instead of relaxing with your husband. I’m going to interject on my own self and argue that you can do both at the same time.
Exhibit A: I’m recording my podcast from the bath right now while Brian is playing a video game with the kids in the other room. I have got candles lit. I’m totally soaking.
I’ve got a mask on my skin, doing my skin care right now. I’m so chill and so relaxed right now. I feel so chill and super happy, even though I’m “working.”
I love my job. I love what I do. I want to be productive. I want to make sure I’m caught up on work before my getaway next week. This feels really, really good and aligned for me, but I am still completely relaxing. I will argue that until I’m blue in the face.
I think that you can mix things together. You can relax with your husband and knock a few things out while you watch a movie together or something.
Getting back to the root of your question, you can do what you want to do. You don’t have to be enslaved to some schedule that someone told you you have to have, or a schedule that you made yourself. If it’s not serving you and you’d way rather be chilling with your husband than working, even though it’s normally a time of the week that you’re working, then change things up.
If you feel like you are avoiding work a lot and you keep not wanting to do it, maybe there’s something to dive into there. Why are you avoiding work? Why do you keep preferring to relax versus getting things done if there’s not a decent balance?
For me, I will almost always want to relax. I am very, very driven. I’m very ambitious and I have big vision, but I can only work for a few hours before I completely poop out. It’s just part of my personality.
I don’t know if you guys are familiar with human design, but it makes a lot of sense that that’s the way that my work patterns go. I know who I am. I know where I’m strong and where I’m not. And so I set my business up around that.
I want to encourage you. If there’s something that needs to be looked at, or you’re avoiding work, dive into that so you can adjust your business so that you don’t want to avoid it anymore. If you want to relax with your husband, relax with your husband. If you want to work and you feel guilty, dive into that and look into why you feel guilty.
He’s good. He’s a grown boy. He can take care of himself. Talk to him if you need to talk to him about this, but you’re allowed to choose and you’re allowed to choose one way more than the other. You’re also allowed to intermix them together. I believe you can fully relax while also working.
I believe fully in working from a place of rest. I believe that if I didn’t have that philosophy and figure that out for myself last year my life would be a lot more difficult, a lot more high stress. I would be a worse mom. I’d be feeling like I want to snap and yell way more often because of the pressure to get work done.
Work is work and rest is rest. And when I started to blend those things together, it really brought me a lot of peace. It made my life and balancing my life a lot easier.
Next question: How do you balance business life with mom life if your husband works away from home and your kids are babies?
This is a great question because this is how I started. Quick recap for those of you who don’t know. Brian used to be the “breadwinner” and I was the stay-at-home mom, and he worked a lot.
I’m very grateful for what his job brought us, but it was a crappy situation. He was gone all the time and we could barely make ends meet. It was very difficult.
I started my business from that place. I had four kids under five. I was still breastfeeding and not sleeping well at night because my baby wasn’t a good sleeper. I started my business from that place, so I totally get it.
How do you balance business life with mom life? I’m going to say what I was kind of saying in the last question—mix them together.
When you try to balance and keep all the balls up in the air perfectly juggling them, “My business is going really, really well. My mom life is going really, really well. They’re two separate things and it’s my responsibility to keep them juggling very smoothly with no drops” realize that you’re going to drop all kinds of balls.
And it’s not on you. It may feel like it is. It may even feel like it doesn’t make sense that I’m saying this this way. But I promise you, it’s not on you.
It’s just a part of the process. And the more you can get comfortable with dropping those balls that you feel like you have to juggle perfectly all the time, the better an entrepreneur you’re going to be and the better a mom you’re going to be. I promise you.
I would ditch the word ‘balance’ and replace it with the word ‘harmony’ and bring the two together and play with that energy. The energy of harmony, the energy of things living with other things in your life. Business living with motherhood. Play with that and make it work for you and find your own version of that.
Some examples for me were working on my laptop while sitting on the rug on the floor while the kids watched a show on Netflix. I had some Cheerios and toys out while they’re watching Dora the Explorer. I was literally on the floor in the midst of them because your kids just want to be with you.
I figured out that if my kids, and they were all toddlers and a one-year-old, just want to be with me, then I would be with them. And I would also be productive. I just trained my brain to focus as much as I could in the midst of being a mom, in the midst of kids, in the midst of Cheerios getting spilled, in the midst of sibling bickering.
I figured out a way to make these things mesh because failure was not an option. My only options were to make it or make it, and I made it happen.
I think that when we try to keep things separate, or we look online at other people’s work schedules, work-from-home schedules, homeschool schedules, we need to realize that it works for them because they decided that it works for them. And you have to decide what’s going to work for you.
Being really chill, not having a bunch of rigidity is your choice. I did wake up early for a year because I made that choice. But if that doesn’t work for you, you don’t have to do it.
There is another world where I could have been extremely successful just as fast or faster without waking up at 4:00 AM every day for a year. But that’s what I chose because it was obvious to me. It seemed simple.
It seemed like something that made a lot of sense to me. Like it was going to increase my success and help me get a few hours of work in before Brian went to work. So that’s what I did.
And it worked because I decided it would work. But I could have decided something else and it would have been just fine. Your business success will go where your energy goes.
So stay positive. Decide that you are the boss of your kids and your home and your business. You get to make things work the way that you want to make them work.
In this situation with your husband working out of the house and your kids are babies and you have a business, in this situation, what’s ideal? How do you want things to work?
Do you want to be able to sit at a table while your kids eat lunch and knock out some emails while you sit there? Do you want to be able to work during nap time without being exhausted?
Figure out your diet. Figure out how to fuel your body so that you have the energy to not need to nap when the kids are napping. Do you need to hire a sleep trainer to get your baby to sleep through the night so things are just a little bit lighter?
Invest in yourself and invest in your business in that way and do what will make it happen. Do you need to simplify the way you’re running your business? Are you putting too much pressure on yourself that you’ve got to have your emails done this way? That you have to post on social media three times a day and it’s gotta be perfect?
Let that ish go and just be authentic and show up authentically. As you’re holding your kids, as you’re walking to the park with your kids, as you’re putting the baby down, be thinking of content and then go and jot down some ideas and record it the next morning.
Create rhythms authentic to you and your life and you’ll never be feeling like you’re failing because there’s no bar that somebody else set that you’re trying to measure up to. I would encourage you to create harmony between business life and mom life. And that is going to look different for every single person.
Next question: What would queen content look like if you have a product based business?
This is a great question.
First let me just give a quick recap of what queen content is in case you are not an Up and Up Academy member or you’ve never heard me say that. Queen content is your main form of free content that you put out into the world. This is how the world finds you.
This is how people connect with you. This is how you’re attracting and repelling. Attracting the right kind of customers and repelling the people that are just not your people, because you’re not for everybody, right?
For example, my queen content is my podcast. When I record a podcast episode, that content is the queen. Social media content and email content are pulled from that queen content.
I’m repurposing all the time. Instead of writing 7 emails, 50 Instagram posts, 20 Facebook group posts, and recording six podcast episodes, I am just recording the podcast episodes and pulling and repurposing from there for all the other platforms.
The bonus perk of this is that all your content is aligned. You’re not all over the place. You’re not talking about one thing in an email and another thing on your podcast. For the most part, it’s pretty aligned. And then you still have wiggle room.
I still post authentically to Instagram. If I’m launching Your Uncluttered Home and we’re talking about clutter on the podcast, all my content is pulled from my queen content about decluttering that week, but I can still go on Instagram and post about business if I’m feeling inspired to do that.
But I’m working less. My work hours are more intentional and they’re cut down by 50% at least because I’m repurposing content instead of writing everything from scratch. That’s what queen content is.
If you have a product based business, I’m assuming that you still have a message surrounding your product. For example, if you sell essential oil products then your product is essential oils and essential oil products. But your message is about clean wellness.
It’s about taking care of yourself. Caring for your family. Avoiding really high medical bills. Staying well. Taking care of your skin.
Taking care of everything in an organic and homeopathic way is the message. And then, essential oils are the product that you’re leading them to.
So your queen content as a product based business would be the same as my queen content. It’s just whatever format you choose. It could be a YouTube channel. It could be videos embedded to your website.
It could be a podcast. It could be a blog. Your queen content is going to be focused around the message that surrounds the product you’re selling.
Your business is really no different than my business, except that you mail your product to your customer; Mine gets delivered to her via email. But I still have a message surrounding my products. And so can you.
Next question: Is it worth switching my mission for my business from what sells to what actually makes me feel purposeful, and potentially losing what is selling well to instead go after what actually makes me feel like I’m aligned with my purpose?
It sounds like you’re just unaligned with your current business. Listen, you can pivot anytime you want, girl. Don’t wait for me to give you permission. You don’t need it.
I understand that you want it and it’s nerve wracking to change something, especially if what you are currently selling is going well. You can pivot. You can let go of that revenue.
I have found in my own business and in talking to other entrepreneurs that when something is doing really well, but you’re not happy in it and you decide to let it go. When you make that terrifying decision, that terrifying leap, you’re going to make so much more money. Because your energy is so much higher when you pivot and you’re actually feeling aligned with your message and aligned with your product. So you’re going to make more money.
And I can say that confidently because everything is energy, especially in business. But literally everywhere, in everything. Everything is energy.
So if your energy is unaligned, if it’s low and you’re just kind of doing this because of the money. Maybe it’s selling well, maybe you’re making good money now. But imagine the money you would make if you were actually on fire for this product, on fire for this mission, this message, and your energy was all in.
You would be going balls to the wall. You would be showing up all the way. You’d be feeling so good. And people would be able to feel that through you and they will be buying. You’ll make more money in the end.
I also want to say it is okay to sell both. Is there a way you could automate what’s selling well right now to give yourself a little bit more cushion as you begin to pivot? Can you automate?
Can you delegate? Can you make it simpler and continue to sell the other thing that people are loving and then pivot at the same time? I don’t know the specifics of the circumstance, but those are options.
Guys, I fully and truly, truly believe that business does not need to be complicated. Like everything else that I teach, I’m all about teaching simplicity and focusing on what really matters.
Let me tell you, if you believe that you need complicated formulas and crazy detailed strategies. You have to do something in the exact order and with certain steps. You have to do it a certain way that somebody else told you you have to do it. It is going to be overwhelmingly difficult for you to make progress and actually move the needle forward in your business.
It does not need to be that way. There is so much that I can teach you to help you release all the overcomplications you’ve brought into running your business and simplify everything so you’re making money and impact with ease.
I can help you shift these limiting beliefs that are coming up for you right now, even if when I say that you’re doubtful or you have resistance coming up.
There’s this brand new—basically it’s a mini course because it’s small, affordable, and crazy packed with information and help—called Business With Ease. I put it together for you because I want to help you really simplify and streamline.
Here’s what this Business with Ease mini course is going to do for you.
First of all, it includes my most requested business training videos and a workbook to help you do the inner work while you go through it.
This is a weekend project, maybe even one day. If you feel like your mindset is off. You don’t really know where to go in your business. You don’t know what to do next. You feel really overwhelmed and you just want to completely bring your mindset, bring your perspective, bring your whole self back to where you feel like you really need to be in running your business, get this course Business with Ease.
You’re going to uncover and overcome self sabotage.
You’re going to specifically identify and change your limiting beliefs that are holding you back in your business.
You’re going to finally say goodbye to the feast-or-famine cycle in your business where you have bursts of revenue and then no revenue.
You’re going to make more money by working less hours.
You’re going to become a content creating machine.
You’re going to get my affirmations for business and success. I use these every morning and I have since I lived in Arkansas and started my company. These are literally the statements that I spoke out every single morning in the beginning of my business that built it into the empire that it is today.
Words are powerful. You are powerful.
You do not need to follow complicated strategies that somebody else says is the only way to do something.
You can do this with ease.
Business should be fun. It should be easy. It should be light.
It should be empowering, not disempowering.
alliecasazza.com/bizwithease. See you guys there! I love you so much! You’ve got this!
Next question: How do you write and share your creations when you are feeling fake? I think I have imposter syndrome.
I feel like imposter syndrome is kind of a sham. To have imposter syndrome, you have to be holding yourself up to this unrealistic measuring stick. Let’s use me as an example because we all know what I do.
If I were to be like, “‘Okay, I have imposter syndrome.” Then that would mean that I am holding myself up to a standard. Oh, I’m Allie Casazza so my house has to constantly be perfect. It has to constantly be uncluttered. I can’t have a single bit of clutter anywhere for one second.
I have to be mindfully shopping. Every single time I look at any app I have to make sure I’m intentional and completely mindful. I have to always do my rhythms.
I can never mess up. I have to have everything set into a habit. I have to wake up early every morning because one time I said I do.
That’s ridiculous. I don’t live that way at all. What I’m doing is living a lifestyle and just like anyone else’s lifestyle, I’m normal.
You don’t expect people who are health coaches to constantly eat kale. You fully expect that sometimes they have pizza. Sometimes they make a mistake, slip up, fall off the wagon a little bit, or do something normal for eff sake.
To have imposter syndrome you have to be holding yourself up to an unrealistic measuring stick. And I don’t hold myself up to unrealistic measuring sticks anymore, because it doesn’t work. It exhausts me. It makes me feel like you said, fake. Like an imposter.
I’m not an imposter. I’m a friggin’ person. I’m very open and authentic. I share the realities of my life all the time. And that is all I need to do is be real and teach and share what’s worked for me.
Now what if my life evolves and I’m no longer in a place where I need to be doing this certain thing anymore? For example, waking up super early and being productive. My life has evolved to where I don’t need to do that anymore.
It doesn’t make sense for me to do it anymore. It doesn’t feel good for me to do that anymore. Am I supposed to rip all that content down? Like, “Oh, I can’t have any episodes about waking up early because I no longer wake up super early and I don’t want to be an imposter.”
Let’s get real. What worked for you before worked for you. And even if you don’t do those things anymore, that content can still help people who are in that place.
I’m tired of hearing about imposter syndrome. I think imposter syndrome is only even a term because we’re all holding ourselves up to this ridiculous measuring stick. And it’s just insane. It’s so not cool.
This isn’t the way that we’re supposed to be running our businesses. We’re supposed to teach and share and make the world a lighter, better place. If the way that we used to live is no longer aligned and that content can still help someone, leave it. If you no longer agree with what you’re saying, come clean about that and be yourself.
The only reason that you can feel like an imposter is if you are holding yourself up to an unrealistic measuring stick. Don’t do that to yourself because you know what? Everyone else is probably doing that to you online. And they don’t get to do that.
That’s a boundary line. They don’t get to say who you are. You say who you are. If you’re holding yourself up to this ridiculous, unrealistic measuring stick, then you’ve lost who you are and that’s why you feel fake.
Listen, drop this imposter syndrome label on yourself. Sa no to that! That is not going on you. Those words will not stick to you. That is not who you are.
You are who you are, so there is no way to be fake. There is no way to be an imposter. Be who you are and write and share your creations from that place.
I can still teach people how to wake up early because I had to do it for a lot of years. And I’m really good at it. I don’t do that anymore at this point in my life.
Am I supposed to just sit on everything that I know that could help somebody have a way simpler lifestyle? Should I not share it because I no longer do that? That’s ridiculous.
I want you to write and share your creations from who you really are and be open about that. Be honest. Be authentic.
But also know that you’re allowed to have boundaries. You don’t have to share every thing with your audience and then have those healthy boundaries and then call it that you’re an imposter because that’s a lie. That’s ridiculous.
Next question: How do you get over the fear of failure?
Look, there is no failure. There is no such thing as failure. Do you hear me, you guys? There is literally no such thing as failure.
I don’t mean this to be a cheesy quote that you throw up on Instagram. Really frigging listen to me, okay? There is no failure.
There are only successes. Everything that happens, everything you do, however the results end up, it is all a success because you needed it to happen. You needed to learn the lesson.
You needed to learn that your audience doesn’t buy this when you sell it like this because it’s not aligned. Success! You learned a lesson. You’re a better entrepreneur.
Let’s use me as an example. I created an ebook. I thought it was going to be my big break. I thought I was going to make literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was so excited.
I poured my soul into that book. I launched it. Total flop. Didn’t even sell enough to pay a utility bill. It was embarrassing. It was terrible.
That wasn’t a failure. That was a success because I learned that that is not what I really want to do. That is not what resonates with my audience.
Thank you, God, that my ebook was not a “success” in the typical sense of the word because my ebook was $5.99. My wisdom, my life’s work is way more valuable than fricking $5.99. How dare anyone buy my life’s work for $5.99? I’m glad it didn’t work. That was a huge success.
My next huge success was when my printed book was a total flop. Also didn’t even sell enough copies to pay a utility bill. It was super embarrassing. It was very difficult.
That success was incredibly difficult to witness. But that book was $9.99 and my life’s work, my wisdom, and my expertise is far more valuable than frigging $9.99. So thank you, God, that the success of this book not going the way I thought it should happened because that led me to courses.
And guess what? That same book is now for sale on Amazon for over a thousand dollars. Somebody is selling a copy of my book and going to make way more than I ever made because my name finally has the value on it that it always had, it’s just the world agrees now. So, that was a huge success for me.
There is no failure. There is only success because you need to learn the lesson. Stop separating things that happen as failures and successes and see them all as little successes that eventually lead to the big success that everyone else agrees is a success.
Next question: I’m in Up and Up Academy, so I get all your best tips and I love it in there. But I feel like I’m needing help selling lately. I just don’t sell enough.
I’m going to challenge you to ask, “Why are you not selling enough?” It’s good that you’re admitting this. You’re like, “Hey, I realize I don’t sell enough.” And obviously you need to sell because you would need to make that money. So, why are you not selling?
First of all, I think maybe there’s something to the fact that you’re separating selling from whatever else you’re doing, which I’m assuming is probably giving away free, valuable content. So what if you stopped seeing it as so separate? What if you stopped separating “I’m giving away free stuff, and then I sell.”
Stop separating it and see every single thing that you do, whether it leads to something that costs nothing or something that costs $2,000, as serving your audience. What if you stopped separating giving away and selling and just see every single thing you do in your business simply as serving your person?
I see my audience as one person. I’m thinking about them. I know her and I know she’s my person. She’s my made-up person that I am imagining that I’m serving.
When I’m writing my emails, when I’m writing my Instagram stories, my posts that I do with stacking texts, and I’m talking to you guys, I am imagining that I’m talking to Jessica because she’s my person. She’s my ideal person and I have to talk directly to her. It makes my content much more compelling and direct.
See your person and stop separating between giving away free stuff and selling paid stuff and see it all as serving. Because selling is serving.
The women that have bought my $450 program, the vibe in that group is so much more engaged. It’s so much more fire and amazing. Such a more positive experience than my free group. There are no words in the human language for me to explain the difference. It’s so amazing.
Selling is serving. When you get them to invest and show up for themselves, you can show up for them back. So stop separating the free stuff and the paid stuff and just see it all as serving. You’re just serving in different ways.
You’re afraid. “Not selling enough” comes from fear. And it’s probably fear of what other people think. So dive into that.
What are you afraid of? What do you think they’re going to think? What would happen if they think those things were happening? If they think those things and those things are true? Dive in and journal through your inner fears.
Next question: How do you homeschool and handle your business too?
Alright, same answer as before. How could you merge these things together and, instead of seeing it as balance and separateness, see it as harmony? How could you bring harmony to homeschool and business? I will also say that ditching the pressure of homeschooling and embracing a very chill unschooling approach has helped me immensely with my kids.
I don’t know how old they are but can you give your kids as much as you can that they can handle on their own? Give them computer games that teach them math, like Prodigy. Give them drawing assignments and tell them to draw a picture of what they learned when you were reading a story aloud to them earlier.
Sit with them and work next to them. Give them something to do and then sit and work on writing your email to your list while they do that. Merge things together.
And then yes, separate some time for you to go and do focused work on your business. But not every single thing that you do in your business has to be done in solitude and quiet without your kids, you know? Merge them together.
Have boundaries around running your business and get that quiet time to focus for a couple hours as often as you can, but know that not every single task has to be done from that place. I also want to introduce the idea to you guys of something that I’ve heard about called “Think Week.” It’s basically a new trend in entrepreneurs.
Think Week. You can make this however you want. It could be “Think Day,” or “Think Afternoon.” Whatever.
But “Think Week” is when you basically go away. Some people go to a hotel. Some people just hole up in their office. Some people go to a coffee shop from 9 -5 every day. And they just focus all in, balls to the wall, on their business.
(I feel like I’ve said “balls to the wall” a lot in this episode. It’s obvious that I’m a boy mom. I have a girl, too, but you know what I mean).
They focus all in on their business. This is one week a month that they are hyper-focused on their business and other things just don’t have as much of a priority.
So, they’re probably not doing all the mom things. They’re probably not homeschooling their kids that week. But the other three weeks they do do those things and then they just kind of maintain their business.
But during “Think Week” they are going all in on their business. Creating content. Knocking tasks out. Really getting things done. Really showing up all the way during that one week a month, so that the other weeks they don’t have to show up as much.
The other weeks you could be just managing social media comments and posting to stories. But during “Think Week” you were creating all your content. Recording podcast episodes. Writing emails to your list. Creating new courses. Whatever it is. So, there’s an idea for you too.
Next question: I’m ready to scale. Please give me all the passive income tips.
Creating a course is an incredible way to create passive income, because you can take what you know. You can take your knowledge about your niche.
Think about all the questions that people ask you all the time. What are the top questions that you always see? Answer them.
What are the top scenarios that you see in your audience all the time or with your clients all the time? Answer them. Give them help with that.
Record this. Record the things that you always see. Make it a course and then you have passive income from people that can’t work with you one-on-one.
Next question: I make earrings. Making earrings is a very saturated market, but I really love and enjoy it. Keep going or change?
Keep going! Are you kidding me? My love, keep going.
There is no saturated market. No, no, no! I’m so tired of this belief. It’s so limiting. Ah! Keep going!
You love it. You make earrings like no one else does. You, your energy, your love for this, the way that you pour love, time, thought, details, and energy into making these earrings is unlike anyone else.
Keep going! You love it. And believe that it’s not saturated. That’s ridiculous.
Everything is saturated. My God, there’s 7 billion people in the world. Everything is saturated. Keep going.
It doesn’t matter. It’s a limiting belief to say something is saturated. It’s like the pie-in-the-sky belief, like there’s not enough to go around. There is. Keep going! That’s silly.
Next question: What’s the first thing you would recommend to do if you want to grow your email list?
The first thing I would recommend is create the surface scrape of what you teach for free and put that freebie fricking everywhere. And require that they give you their name and email in exchange for the free help.
I have opt-ins literally everywhere. Everywhere. I used to put them in every single podcast episode.
I don’t really anymore because I’m not really at that point where I’m needing to do that. But I have put them in every blog post, every podcast episode before. I have shared them on Instagram all the time.
Create. Let people have a taste of working with you. Give them that for free in exchange for the email and put it everywhere.
I would even share testimonials of my freebie. Everyone’s sharing testimonials for their paid stuff, but nobody’s sharing testimonials for how amazing their free stuff is. It increases people downloading it and going to join your email list by a hundred times, seriously.
Talk about how much people love your free stuff. Talk about how awesome you are. Share that. Be open about it. And then give them something for free in exchange for their email, because their email is very valuable.
Next question: I’m an introvert so I get easily burned out. I love my product, but I just can’t deal with talking to people 24/7.
Okay, this is me. And no one ever believes me. They say, “You’re not an introvert.”
But I am. Just to clarify because this is annoying and I feel like people still don’t understand. Being an introvert has nothing to do with being outgoing. Being an introvert means where you get your energy from.
After this I’m going to bed and it’s 7:00, because I’ve been talking to you guys for almost an hour. So, I am an introvert. I get recharged by being alone. I get very drained from being around others. Extroverts are the opposite. Okay?
If you’re a business owner and you’re an introvert, get some mad boundaries, girl. That’s my advice. Have mad boundaries around your energy. Protect your energy.
Your energy is yours. Your energy is your currency. How you feel, how your energy feels, especially about your business, is literally everything.
You love your product. You love your people. You do. You love them. But you would just get burned out really quickly. Have boundaries around your energy.
When is it a good time in your life, your schedule, and your energy to spend some time talking to your people and then sign off for the day? This is what I do. I’m very good at making it look like I’m on all the time and it’s actually a very, very tiny portion of my day. It’s not even every day.
Use your high energy times to create that content and then drip it out as you’re resting. Or have a virtual assistant drip it out for you while you’re chilling on the couch with your kids. Get really good at boundaries with your time and your energy.
That is pretty much all of them. I had to skip a couple just because they could have been episodes on their own and we’re really going a long time here. But this was so fun.
Thank you guys for submitting questions and even wanting to learn from me. It really means a lot. I love this. This was so good and so fun.
Alright, a couple of things: If you want to learn from me, if you want to grow your business with me, go apply for Up and Up Academy.
This is what I was mentioning earlier. It’s my online business growth membership. If you have an online business, even if it’s a different format from mine and you want to grow, this is the place to be.
It is women. It is togetherness. It is inspiration.
We do live calls every week. There’s an implementation week at the end of the month, which gives you time to go and do that “Think Week” style work mode in your business and apply what we’re learning.
It’s so good in there. It’s such a good community. It’s application only, so go and apply. Go to alliecasazza.com/upandup.
Also, Business With Ease. If you want to work from a place of rest. If you want to have more revenue in your business with less work. If you want to learn how to shift your mindset, to increase your revenue without more hustle, get Business With Ease.
It’s only $197. It really is an incredible, incredible course. Go to alliecasazza.com/bizwithease.
Those are some ways that you can learn from me. I want to help you grow your business. If you’re here and you resonated with this episode, I would love to hang out more with you. I would love to help you really take things to the next level, so go check those things out.
I love you and have an amazing day!
Thanks so much for hanging out with me! In case you didn’t know, there’s actually an exclusive community that’s been created solely for the purpose of continuing discussions around The Purpose Show episodes. It’s designed to get you to actually take action and make the positive changes that we talk about here. I want you to go and be a part of it. To do that, go to alliecasazza.com/facebookgroup.
Thank you so much for tuning in! If you’d like to learn more about me, how I can help you, how you can implement all these things and more into your life to make it simpler, better, and more abundant, head to alliecasazza.com. There are free downloads, online courses, programs, and other resources to help you create the life you really want.
I am always rooting for you, friend! See you next time! I’m Allie Casazza and this is The Purpose Show.
Hey mama! Just a quick note, this post may contain affiliate links.
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