Happy 2016, everyone! I am thrilled to ring in the New Year with you.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love new beginnings. The clean slate, the opportunity to brainstorm amazing new projects and create strategies and systems around getting them done…it gets my creative juices flowing like nothing else.

And the podcasts I have planned for 2016 are no exception! There are some really exciting episodes in store for you. We’ll be focusing on list building and building campaigns in your business so that you can sell more online. We’ll talk a lot about content creation and making sure that you’re getting in front of the right people to make the biggest impact. And we’ll make sure you are creating a business that you love as well as creating online training programs and products that your audience can’t get enough of.

But to get us set up for success in all these areas, I’m going to kick off the new year with some advice from my good friend John Lee Dumas. John is a favorite guest to have on this podcast because his brand Entrepreneur on Fire is a stellar example of the kind of success we’re all shooting for. And after hosting over 1200 interviews with successful entrepreneurs, John is definitely an authority on what it takes to achieve online business success.

SMART Goals = Surefire Success

John said that over the past few years, a pattern emerged in the emails he received from his audience. A lot of people were struggling with online business because they didn’t know how to set and accomplish goals in an effective way.

Contrast that with what John saw in the success stories of his Entrepreneur on Fire interviewees:

“I’m a big believer there is no silver bullet. It’s all hard work and getting your nose down to the grindstone, for sure. But I step back and ask what is one thing the Amy Porterfield’s and Pat Flynn’s and Michael Stelzner’s of the world all do well. … These people all know how to set and accomplish goals.”

So John decided to dedicate 2015 to creating a structure for his audience to take action with setting goals.

And now, in 2016, he has an amazing and beautiful product to help them do just that! It’s called the Freedom Journal: Accomplish Your Goals in 100 Days.

It’s a hardbound, 300-page physical book that walks you step by step through the process of not only setting a goal but accomplishing it within 100 days.

(True story: I have this journal right in front of me, and let me just tell you that simply holding it in your hands is a powerful thing. Something about this beautifully created physical product is inspiring and empowering in a whole new way. Looking at it makes you want to take action. Pretty amazing stuff!)

Step by Step Guidance for Your 2016 Goals

The Freedom Journal starts with John guiding you through setting a SMART goal. You probably already know this acronym: it stands for Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

The rest of the journal offers step-by-step guidance and accountability in carrying out your goal one day at a time.

In the remainder of this podcast, John and I talk through the process of two different real-life SMART goals. The first one is about John launching Entrepreneur On Fire; the second one is about how I launched Webinars That Convert. After hearing us explain how SMART goals guided our most successful ventures, you’ll have some super actionable example of how you can use the Freedom Journal to accomplish your own goals…did I mention in just 100 days?!

Click here to listen to the full episode now!

Can you believe 2015 is over already?

I know, it's a cliche thing to say, but it's true--I feel like the year has just flown by! Maybe you can relate. I know when a year is packed with as many projects, launches, milestones reached and lessons learned as 2015 has been for me, it makes time race by.

It's impossible to anticipate the new year without thinking about resolutions. Ugh. I've never been one of those people who respond well to those.

Instead of thinking about resolutions, I found myself drifting back to a book that I've read about a hundred times. I'm sure you've heard me talk about it before: ReWork, written by the guys who founded Basecamp. This book was like a manual for success, back when I was first getting started...but it seems to be turning into a tradition that at the end of one year, I review it for fresh inspiration on how to smartly approach the coming year.

Call it a New Year's Rejuvenation, if you will.

This year, I was going through it looking for how its principles could help build online business. And as usual, ReWork did not disappoint. I was taking so many notes that I had to turn it into a podcast for you.

The strategies I'm going over today are all about different ways to approach your work so that...

a) you get more done
b) everything you do leads you to big results
c) you end the day feeling more satisfied with your bottom line

In particular, if you want to build a business around creating online training programs and courses, these strategies are going to be really applicable. They'll help you get more done with less time, less money, less resources…you know, the precious things we always seem to be short on.

Each of these 7 tips will have to do with one of these three words: Strategy, Saving, and Selling. And I have to tell you, this is a very dense, deep episode--give me a break, it's the final episode of 2015!--so you really should listen to the whole thing.

I suggest curling up with the last Christmas cookie, stir a little eggnog into your coffee, and enjoy a final moment of holiday hibernation to brainstorm your 2016 business year.

Strategy #1: Embrace your constraints

Limited resources force you to do make do with what you’ve got, and that in turn forces you to be creative.

Strategy #2:  Become a curator

It’s the stuff you leave out that matters--in terms of product value and saving yourself valuable time. Find out how--click here to listen now.

Strategy #3: Build a more focused product

What’s the one most important thing that your product is bringing to the table?

Strategy #4: Make decisions often

You’ll be amazed how strong your decision-making skills can get when you make it a habit.

Strategy #5: Create an offer your audience cannot refuse.

One of the best ways to do this is to offer more of you.

Strategy #6: Sell your by-product as an upsell or downsell

If you offer an upsell or downsell, you can work less! Find out how--click here to listen now.

Strategy #7: Make sure your work really matters

Nothing really matters if your work doesn’t matter to others…or to you.

In the end, your business' value is really all about your business' balance. Adding too little will leave your audience confused and you unsatisfied; adding too much value is just overkill for your audience and way too much stress for you.

Get the low-down on each of these tips...find out how they tie in with Strategy, Savings and Selling...and get your business systems aligned for an amazing new year!

I've got a question for you. Ready?

What do Apple, Lululemon and Morton's Salt all share in common?

Take a minute to ponder each brand. What imagery does it conjure up? More importantly, what feelings do those images create inside you?

When I think of Apple products, I think of elegant, simple design and the feeling of effortlessly getting stuff done. Lululemon brings back that sensation of looking amazing when I'm working out (even if my workout itself feels less than amazing). And Morton Salt? I think of my mom's kitchen cupboard, which feels warm and nostalgic and makes me want to go bake cookies.

Here's the answer to the quiz: all three of those brands share the power of fascination.

Fascination, as my podcast guest Sally Hogshead defines it, means an intense focus.

"When you’re fascinated by a person or a brand, you’re completely consumed in that moment. It’s that feeling you have when you’re working on a project and you’re totally in the flow. You feel creative, you feel confident, you feel focused and energized by what you’re doing. Or when you’re out at drinks with a friend—the time flies by, and you seem to be building epiphanies together in your conversation."

Click here to listen to the full episode with Sally.

For years, Sally's day job was helping big name brands like Nike and BMW find the perfect words to describe themselves. The first half of that search was understanding what they offered to their customer base that nobody else did; the second half was knowing how to capitalize on that uniqueness and capture it in language.

At a certain point, Sally realized that nobody had really brought that idea over from products to people. Business owners were all about finding the right words to get customers fascinated with their products, but they weren't finding the right words to help people understand who they are and how they add value.

These days, she parlays her understanding of what works in advertising world into a training to help entrepreneurs understand how people perceive them through their communication.

So here's a followup question:

What makes YOU fascinating?

And before you mumble "I'm not that fascinating, Amy" I'm going to stop you right there with what Sally told me:

"You don’t learn how to be fascinating; you unlearn boring. You’ve already been fascinating your entire life. It’s just a question of being able to identify what makes you fascinating."

Lucky for you (and me), we don't have to guess what makes us fascinating to your audience. Sally has created a totally unique assessment to help you "unlearn boring." Where most personality quizzes will tell you how you view the world, this one will tell you how other people view you.

And once you know have that information, you can use it to position yourself in a way that makes your audience fall head over heels in love with you.

"When you can identify how other people see you at your best, it becomes really easy for them to see why they should hire you, champion you, promote you. In business, the key—especially if you’re trying to grow a business online—is for you to have a very clear idea of the areas in which you can confidently deliver. And don’t try to be exceptional at the rest."

If you act quickly, you can get Sally's assessment for free! She's made a limited number of these super-valuable freebies available to the Online Marketing Made Easy community, so opt in now to get yours. And make sure to listen to the full podcast episode to get all of Sally's amazing insights on how to find what makes you fascinating.

Important Note: When you get your custom report, be sure to read the words that Sally uses to describe you. She’s one of the world’s most award winning copywriters, and your report is almost like a pre-written piece of marketing about YOU.

This is a free gift to our community, so share away! Post the code on Facebook and Twitter to get a fascinating conversation going. Describe your results and then ask them to share theirs too. Or you can get a group of friends and do your profiles together, and talk about how you apply your advantages in social media.

This can be a fantastic date night with your significant other. You can take the free assessment in about 3 minutes, and then then show each other your Fascination profiles. It’s measuring how other people see you at your BEST. So your results explain a lot about how you fascinate each other!