I first met Lewis Howes back in my days of working with Social Media Examiner. I liked his technique with video interviews, and wrangled up a lot of interviewees for him; he liked my Facebook trainings, and asked me to put together a book. That was not only the beginning of my career in online training courses; it was, as they say in the movies, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

This week, Lewis and I got the chance to reconnect over the topic of "greatness." Sound a little abstract? Let Lewis persuade you otherwise.

Lewis is a true expert in lifestyle entrepreneurship--a business coach with a top-rated podcast, a huge online educational program, earnings in seven figures, and a recognition from President Obama as one of the Top 100 Entrepreneurs in the country under age 30. Truly a great example to all of us working on our online businesses!

And you'd better believe Lewis didn't get to this level by aiming for "good enough."

His recent book School of Greatness is all about the importance of striving for greatness--in our personal lives, our health, our relationships and, of course, in our businesses.

What Does "Greatness" Really Mean?

As entrepreneurs, we're a little obsessed with the idea of "success." The symbols are always changing--this year it might be making a decent profit, next year maybe it's hitting six figures, and the year after that, it could be landing a book deal or paying off your house or...who knows?

This is the danger of becoming too obsessed with success--the target is always moving. Which means we run the risk of never being satisfied, no matter how much we accomplish.

But by focusing our sights on greatness, Lewis says, we're able to experience satisfaction with where we are in our business, and so much more besides.

"Greatness is discovering what your greatest gifts are, your talents, what you were born to do, maximizing those gifts, and impacting the maximum amount of people in the world with those gifts."

8 Principles of Greatness

Lewis' book breaks greatness into eight simple steps:

1. Clarifying Your Vision

Before you set out on your personal quest, you have to clearly see the action steps to make it happen.

2. Embracing Adversity

Challenge and struggle are a natural part of growth.

3. Cultivating a Champion's Mindset

You can't guarantee that you'll win every time, but you can always set yourself up for the opportunity to win.

4. Committing to Hustle

A willingness to do whatever it takes will take you where mere talent can't.

5. Mastering Your Health

Your health (emotional, mental and physical) can either hold you back or drive you forward--which way do you choose?

6. Practicing Positive Habits

Without intentional habits, life turns into a nothing but a series of reactions.

7. Realizing You Can't Achieve Greatness Alone

A powerful, reliable team is the key to building something that’s bigger than yourself.

8. Being of Service to Others

The crowning moment of greatness is giving your gift to the world.

This is just a summary of Lewis' eight principles--you need to hear these in detail! So click here now to listen to the full podcast episode.

Going Deeper

My chat with Lewis did more than just outline what it means to be great. It illuminated some of the finer points that past experience had "muddied up" for me.

For example...

• The word "hustle" gives me a little bit of shudder, because I remember my corporate job days where I was really diving in, giving it my all, but felt like I lost myself. Fortunately, Lewis' definition of hustle doesn't mean prioritizing one aspect of your life at the expense of everything else important.

• Even someone as multi-talented as Lewis feels exhausted and overwhelmed sometimes. Greatness requires a careful check-in system with yourself, to monitor your progress and where you're out of balance.

• Certain aspects of achieving greatness will come easily to you, while other parts of it are going to be harder. Lewis explains how to fine-tune the process by uncovering the deeper roots of where you struggle.

• You'll never accomplish the final point of greatness--being of service to the world--if you don't take care of one important thing first.

There's so much in this interview, I hope you'll take the time to listen to it today. But for now, I want to leave you with one final quote from Lewis that I thought was particularly...well, great:

"The biggest impact we can make is when we become a symbol of inspiration because we follow and chase our dreams. It is our greatest gift to follow our dreams...we are robbing ourselves and others around us when we cop out and don’t chase it out of fear."

It's time for another edition of Ask Amy!

Every now and then, no matter how good your business system is, you reach a moment where everything kind of splinters. I'm having one of those moments this week, trying to reassemble my podcasting setup after moving it into a bigger home studio.

While I'm glad to have this bigger space devoted to my podcast, I don't have the acoustics worked out yet--which means I'm a little bit stalled in terms of production. Little issues like this can really bother me, if I let them!

I'm sure you've experienced this, too. Think with me about an area in your business where you feel stuck because something else has to happen before you move forward. Maybe something’s not working properly and you have to figure it out first. Or maybe you’re just not comfortable moving forward and you’re not sure why.

All of today's questions deal with different things, but they all center around this core issue of obstacles holding back the progress of our business.

Let's take a look!

Question #1: How early do you contact affiliates if you want them to work with you to promote your course?

While I'm no expert in affiliate partnerships, I have worked with a small, carefully selected affiliate base over the last few years.

And one of the ways I select them is whether they're prepared enough with their annual business strategy to join me in planning at least three months ahead.

As my free download for this week, I'm doing a mini-training video of my new WordPress affiliate membership site. It's a great solution if you're pulling together all the materials for your affiliates. Not only does it help you get organized, but you can just show it to a programmer and tell them you want “this."

Question #2: Remembering back to the first product you created, what would you tell us now that you wish you would have done differently back then?

I definitely wish I would have spent a little bit more time on developing a concept around my product suite. When you have a really solid product suite, you're able to help people in your niche that are at different phases in it.

Without this, you end up pushing away potential clients to other people. They ask you "What should I do in this phase?" and because you don't have a product around it, you point them elsewhere.

That's fine if it happens just occasionally, but when you get asked this a LOT (like I do with, say, creating online courses), your opportunity bells will start ringing like crazy and it starts to make you think "Why don't I offer a product for that?"

Question #3: What do you do when you see another site steal your content and sell it?

Um...throw something at the monitor? Just kidding. This has happened to me a lot, though. In fact, it happens with every new program I release.

One of the first things I do is remind myself that the "client" who would find my program on a shady site that is clearly not mine and go ahead and buy it is NOT a client I would want to work with. At the end of the day, it’s not about the money, it’s about the quality of people we’re attracting to our businesses.

There is, of course, a lot more I could say about this...and do! Click here to listen to the full podcast to hear all my thoughts on this issue.

Question #4: As an entrepreneur, how do you stay focused on what is at hand and not get distracted with wanting to start new projects, create new things, try a new form of social media? How do you stay focused?

First and foremost, I use Scrum. If you haven't heard of it, it's a system of project management that I explain in detail in Episode #75.

Of course, the success of this system depends on the things you can't get away from. Consistency. Deadlines. Accountability. All things I have varying degrees of success with!

But the biggest lesson I've learned with this is that I don't need to reinvent the wheel. I should model systems or approaches that I see working well for others. I don’t need to try every new tool that comes out. Bottom line, I just need to continue to do what works right for my business.

Like, for instance, my Wordpress membership affiliate site! Click the link below to get the training video now.

Final Thoughts

A lot of times, those feelings of being held back or stuck are rooted in bigger fears or a lack of confidence we have in our business or message.

The truth is that a lot of the time, if I go ahead and move forward anyway, I'll mess it up once, figure out what went wrong, and now know what to do. I'll also have overcome the fear of failure because guess what? I failed and it didn't ruin my life!

I would rather be making those little mistakes along the way but still be moving forward. When you get the confidence to not really care about those little mistakes, you will usually fix them, keep moving forward and BOOM--you are way ahead of yourself, way more than you thought you would be!

It's a fact.  Sometimes people are reluctant to buy from you.

Even when they want your product, even when they’re smitten with your brand, there will be some prospective buyers that seem to have a built-in pause command that holds a their finger poised above the “purchase” button on your website. It's just par for the course when we are doing business online.

There’s nothing wrong with this, until it stands in the way of you making a sale to someone who truly needs what you’re offering.

There is one thing that can overcome this buyers’ reluctance.

The most successful marketers know what it is, and I’m going to share it with you today.

It’s all about adding urgency.

This is something I had to learn for myself, through plenty of trial and error, so I’m thrilled to be able to pass it on to you. It’s going to put you way ahead of your competition.

It starts with recognizing that it’s simply human nature to take our time and stay on the fence as long as we can, until we are pushed one way or the other. That push comes from learning that we must act.

That’s what urgency is: making sure that your audience knows they need to act now.

You want to build urgency into every promotion you create. There are lots of ways to do this, but the best way I’ve found to build it in is with a one-two punch: a combination of bonuses and deadlines.

I'm going to share several of my favorite strategies in this blog post, but this week's free PDF has even more urgency tactics from some of the biggest names in online marketing. Click here to download it now!

Bonuses

Believe it or not, I’ve actually had people buy my programs just for the bonuses! While you definitely want to spend the bulk of your time crafting a great core offer, bonuses can sometimes make or break the offer by pushing people just a little bit further to finally say, “Yes, I want this.”

Now, it’s important to note that not all bonus offers have urgency attached. Sometimes you’ll create a bonus add-on to your core offer just to sweeten the deal.

Urgency bonuses are the ones that show up later in the promotion. They come in different “flavors. You do not need to do them all. You can mix and match them, based on what feels best for your offer.

1. Timely bonus

During your promotion, you pick a time where for a certain period—say 48 hours—you offer a specific add-on to your program. You email your promo list explaining quickly and thoroughly what the bonus is, why it’s valuable, and what’s in it for them. You paint the picture and tell them on what date and what time the bonus will go away.

When I do a timely bonus, I always email my list at least one more time, usually 24 hours before the bonus is going to end, to let them know that time is running out.

Let me tell you, it works really, really well. When you’ve got a really good, juicy bonus, especially one that addresses a pain point. The main thing here, is to be very clear when it expires.

2. Fast action bonus 

This is a bonus that you give away during a live situation. For me, it’s when I’m live on a webinar that I’m using as part of my promotion. If you attend the webinar and respond to the offer at the end, right then and there, you get the special bonus I’m offering.

I’ve been doing these fast-action bonuses for a long time. But that didn’t stop me from making a big, fat flub during my recent “Webinars That Convert” promo! Click here to listen to the episode where I explain all about it…and how you can make sure to avoid it!

3. The sweeten-the-pot bonus

This kind of bonus doesn’t have a timeline. Everybody who buys your product gets it. But this style of bonus allows you to add something during your promotion…which means you get another reason to email.

Finding really good reasons to email is an essential part of the puzzle in a successful promotion. The more opportunities you have to communicate to your audience, the better shot you have at winning them over…but you have to have a good reason to email! And what better reason is there than offering them something amazing for free?

I usually introduce this bonus four or five days into my promotion. I send out an email saying that I’ve created this special new bonus, explain why it’s great, give them the link and tell them to sign up.

Yes, they could still wait until the very end of your promotion, but having something new on the table immediately creates a sense of urgency.

It also creates some very valuable buzz for your offer, especially if you sprinkle a lot of hints about this new bonus of yours all over social media.

There are a lot more kinds of bonuses that you can create to add urgency to your promotion. Click here to listen to the full episode to learn about more ways to add urgent action opportunities to your offer.

Other Ways to Create Urgency

Early-bird pricing is a favorite of mine. Again, it creates lots of opportunities to email my audience, as I warn them of the approaching change in price.

The main thing with this is to make sure the price increase is compelling enough to create urgency. My programs go up by $100 when my early-bird window closes. I know that sounds like a lot, but that’s the point! If people are on the fence, a $100 price increase is definitely going to push them over.

Cart closing is a natural urgency creator. This is when the time frame ends for all buying opportunities, the last day when people can buy your product/sign up for your program/etc.

The key with this is to be true to your word. It’s really bad form, not to mention bad for your business long-term, to announce cart closing but then make all kinds of exceptions, or keep the cart open longer than you said you would.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the main places to showcase urgency is in your emails. Once I attract people to a webinar, I follow up that webinar with some really strategic email marketing. I work really hard on those emails to craft not just a compelling sales message, but to help my new audience to understand why this program is so valuable and why they need it.

But sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s why I love using the countdown timer.

As you are reading my email, the timer at the very top of the email is actively ticking away. When it comes to human instincts, the only thing strong enough to beat the buyer's resistance is being able to see time running out, second by second!

Finally, there is the “limited spots available” tactic. If you have a more exclusive version of your product (a special edition, a higher tier, etc.), it creates the perfect opportunity to email your list about the short supply of opportunities. Even if they weren't planning to buy in at this level, hearing the words "limited availability" again creates the urgency that you're looking for.

These are my favorite tools to create urgency. You'll learn about so many more when you download my free PDF for this week! Click here to get it now.

In the process of building my business, I’ve made more than my share of mistakes. The silver lining is that I get to pass the wisdom I’ve learned on to you. It’s always easier to do something right when you’ve got someone guiding you past the ways it can go wrong.

However, today’s post is all about something that recently worked really well in my business. It’s something you can apply quickly to your next promotion.

Ready? Let’s talk about upsells!

What Is an Upsell?

First, let’s get our definitions straight.

Say someone buys a program or product from you online. They fill in all the credit card details and finish the transaction completely. They are officially now a member of your program.

Before you take them to the purchase thank-you page that’s when you can offer an upsell. You are giving your new purchaser one more opportunity to buy from you within the same interaction.

Pretty cool, right?

Putting Together Your Upsell Offer

Three vital things to consider when doing upsells:

• What is the best upsell you can offer as it relates to the program you just sold?
• How do you price your upsell?
• The flow of the upsell process.

I’m no expert in upsells. I’ve been in business a while, and just recently started using them.

But the success I’ve experienced has shown me that there’s a certain flow that’s really important to the overall strategy of your upsell.

An Example from My Promotion

In my most recent promotion, Webinars That Convert, I welcomed over 1,000 new members into the program in just under two weeks! That alone was awesome…but even more awesome was the fact that 58% of those new members purchased the upsell I offered! That generated an extra $170k in revenue!

Here’s how I designed that upsell—both the product and the process.

I put together a product that perfectly complemented the program I was selling. In this case, it was a pack of 5 slide deck templates. You need a slide deck for your webinar, and these templates gave purchasers five unique, polished looks for their presentation. They also made the setup process a lot simpler.

I had the template pack price fixed, BUT I offered buyers three different options. They could purchase the pack in one fell swoop, they could split up the purchase into two payments, or they could purchase a “lite” pack of just two templates.

I structured the upsell offer with a great deal of strategy. Here’s how it worked: if someone saw the offer and bought the five decks at full price, they would never see the two-pay offer or the lite version. You wouldn’t see the lite version unless you declined the first two offers. See how it works based on the potential buyer’s behavior? It also allowed me to learn more about the segments of my audience.

I go through a lot more the details of how to create your upsell (with ideas you’re welcome to steal!) and structure your offer in the podcast.  Also, there is ONE THING you do NOT want to do when creating an upsell.  I share the "don't do this" details in my podcast as well.  Click here to listen to it now!

For this week’s free download, I’ve included the actual upsell page I used in this promotion, so you can see exactly what I did and make it your own.

I know it’s only October, but I’m already thinking about how to boost my business in 2016. And one of my biggest goals is to do more video.

Video is a complex issue for a lot of entrepreneurs. You know that it could help you make an amazing connection with your audience. But all the tinkering that goes into it--the lighting, the camera setup, the script--is a surefire way to fry your brain.

Now, you actually may be killing it with video right now. Maybe you have a natural eye for what looks good on camera, you’re a master of improvising quick, witty nuggets of wisdom on the fly, and talking into a lens brings out all the warmth and sparkle of your personality (instead of turning you into a cardboard cutout like…um…some people I know).

If that’s you, my hat is off to you. But if not, maybe you're more like me —you’ve made some videos, it went okay, you know you can do better…but it's easier to just save it for another day. (Or year.)

My good friend James Wedmore dropped by the other day, and we started chatting about video, and before long I had to ask him if we could turn the conversation into a podcast interview. He has so much great stuff to share about why video is important, and how to make it really practical for your business.

James says that learning to connect with his audience on video changed his business and his life.

Our interview was OUTSTANDING video tips and tricks. I want you to listen to the whole thing so you don't miss any of it. I also want you to make sure to access the three-part FREE series he put together just for you on how to make great videos for your business.

Here’s just a tease of what we covered:

Five Video Marketing Mistakes

Shoddy camera work 

You don’t have to be Martin Scorsese or anything, but you do have to avoid those black bars on either side of your video—they’re a huge turnoff to your audience. (Easy fix: record video with your camera or phone held lengthwise, not up-and-down.) Other no-no’s include shaky camera action, bad framing, and fuzzy focus.

(If these no-no’s are already breaking you out in hives, relax. All of these are easy, one-step fixes that James spells out.)

Lighting

Newer cameras and phones can correct for this, but it’s worth it for everyone to learn how to set up quality lighting. The bedroom lamp is just not going to cut it. Nothing makes your video (and your brand) look instantly amateurish like bad DIY lighting. James gives the name of his favorite lighting kit that's cheap and reliable. Click to listen.

Audio

James says stop using your in-camera microphone. Doesn’t matter if you have the fanciest phone or DSLR out there…the onboard microphones will not pick up quality audio and your beautifully shot video will either sound like it’s coming from the bottom of a well OR sound like your grandmother shouting over a long-distance call.

Again, just a little bit of cash outlay will get you a great-quality lapel microphone that connects into your camera or phone. Your audio will get instantly synched, and you’ll be able to talk in your normal tone of voice without worrying that the mic isn’t picking you up.

Don’t Be Boring

A lot of people protest that they can’t do video because they aren’t funny, they aren’t loud, they can’t talk fast, they aren’t an extrovert.

Well, guess what? You don’t have to be any of those things to have an engaging video. As James puts it,

"The opposite of boring doesn’t mean funny."

What you do have to be, James says, is passionate. And…well, just listen to what else he says. You’ll have no reason to doubt your “interestingness” ever again.

Not Doing Video

It’s not a rule that “he or she who has the most video wins.” (In fact, it’s definitely possible to do too much video, especially if you have no strategy.) That said, there are five types of video everyone should be doing in their business.

Learn more about what each of these videos accomplishes, and how you can pull them off seamlessly by signing up to get the free three-part video series James created on how to do videos.

My guest today is a New York Times bestselling author, as well as a speaker, blogger, and recognized expert on the topic of happiness.

A happiness expert? Oh yes, there is such a thing. Gretchen Rubin takes the topic very, very seriously. She put her Yale education to work with the goal of finding out systematic ways that people can cultivate, achieve and maintain happiness in any facet of their lives.

The book that came out of her study, The Happiness Project, took the world by storm. Book clubs adopted it, college professors assigned it, psychiatrists recommended it to their clients. This topic really resonated with everyone who read it. It’s an amazing title and I strongly recommend you give it a read.

Not surprisingly, my talk with Gretchen turned out to be one of my favorite interviews ever. It went in some surprising directions, offered tremendous food for thought, and really hit home for me in terms of how to define success.

Honestly, this interview is so rich that I don’t want to summarize it too much here. You really should listen to the whole thing.

In the meantime, you can download our free giveaway for this week, which Gretchen herself designed. It’s a PDF guide called “Working Better Than Before,” and it’s meant to help you understand your work habits and gain insight into how you can maximize your creativity and productivity. (You can also use it to help your clients!)

If you just can’t wait to find out what Gretchen and I talked about in the interview, I’ll give you a few teaser points of what we covered:

• We live in a world of one-size-fits-all solutions…especially as entrepreneurs. “Do it for 30 days,” “Start small,” “Give yourself a cheat day,” and on and on. If you’ve tried the solution of someone you admire, only to be frustrated by not having it work for you…guess what? Not all strategies work for all people! Gretchen says her research led her to discover that the really important first step in changing our habits is to begin by figuring out what is true for us.

  “If we want to figure out how to change our habits, we have to figure out what’s going on with ourselves and the change has to come from a true understanding of who we are.”

• If there is something you are struggling with, ask yourself if there was a time in the past where you did a better job with this. Was there a time when it came easily to you? What was different? Why was it easy then and it’s not easy now?

  "A lot of times people, due to pressure, feel like they are failing because what all of the experts say should work doesn’t work for them."

• Gretchen points out one of the puzzling things about habits: it’s easy to understand why we find it hard to make a habit of something we don’t want to do, but it’s often just as hard to make a habit of something we love! (And yes, she gives an answer to why this is the case.)

  "The secret is to question all the ways you could think about setting it up so that it would work for you. You can find a way that will allow you to succeed and be the most productive and most creative, the healthiest."

• According to Gretchen’s research, all people fall into one of four types when it comes to how you respond to expectation (your own or someone else’s). Those types are upholders, questioners, obligers, and rebels. Knowing which one you are makes it a lot easier to know what it takes for you to come through on a commitment. (You can take this quiz at Gretchen’s website to find out which type you are.)

  “The secret of adulthood is accepting yourself and expecting more from yourself.”

• The “just accept yourself” message gets frustrating to people who are very progress-oriented. But the people in “grow, grow, grow” mode eventually feel dissatisfied that they can’t ever just be okay with themselves as they are. Gretchen talks about the mindset that allows all of us to strike a happy medium between these two.

  "Research suggests that about 40% of everyday life is shaped by our habits. If we have habits that work for us we are far more likely to happier, healthier, and more productive."

• So how does understanding ourselves and how we form habits contribute to the growth of our business? Gretchen goes over this, too. (Hint: you know how great it is to generate sales on autopilot? It starts with getting your work habits on autopilot.)

  "One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself."

As soon as you can, click here to listen to the full episode. Gretchen’s insights will help you set a foundation that makes every aspect of your business stronger…and makes you a lot happier in it!

And don’t forget to download the freebie for this week, “Working Better Than Before". It helped me a ton (which I talk more about in the podcast) and I know it will do the same for you.

If you’ve been listening for a while, you've heard me mention the word Scrum. When you hear this word, you do one of two things:

• Feel your heart surge with pride and joy because, as a fellow Scrummer, you know how amazing this approach is for running a small business.

• Scratch your head / do a Google word search / roll your eyes because you have no idea what I’m talking about.

Listeners in both these camps are going to love today’s episode, because I’m going to talk about this amazing project management method and how it has revolutionized the way I get my business done.

To start off, Scrum is not my own made-up word—I got it from a book called Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time. (Sounds pretty good, right?)

And basically, the concept of Scrum is just that: managing a team of employees and contractors in the smartest way possible.

I used Scrum throughout the process of creating my newest product, “Webinars That Convert.” Basically, I set up a checklist of every single thing that needed to get done on this product—from creation to promotion to sales to management—and my team and I “Scrummed” our way through it!

Not coincidentally, it’s the same checklist I used for promoting the Profit Lab last spring. That’s why I’m offering the same giveaway this week—the step-by-step project plan checklist that puts all the chaos of a new product launch into sanity-saving order.

This checklist goes hand-in-hand with today’s topic—download it and you’ll be well on your way to Scrumming your first project.

Why Scrum? 

There are the four main ways that Scrum really helps my business reach its productive sweet spot:

It increases your team’s speed to completion.

• My team is able to get through projects so much faster now that we use Scrum.

It highlights performance. 

• The Scrum approach really pays attention to the work people are getting done and gives them the ownership on that performance.

It creates cross-functional teams. 

• People are empowered to make decisions.

It fosters consistent communication. 

• This is probably my favorite part of Scrum—it allows us to make sure everything is working smoothly. When it’s not we fix it instantly.

Scrum for Small Businesses

The book about Scrum was written with big corporations in mind, so I had to do a little tweaking to make it work for my small business.

For instance, the Scrum team is made up of the product owner, the team, and the Scrum master.

The product owner (that’s me) takes the vision of the project and translates it into a backlog (that’s the project plan checklist I put together).

In a giant company, the product owner would handle the backlog all by herself. But I’m lucky enough to have a small team of awesome employees that can help me develop the backlog. They’re going to see things that I miss and have valuable input. And because it’s a small team, it’s a manageable number of voices contributing to the project vision.

Next, the team develops the product or completes the project envisioned by the product owner. For me, that means delegating tasks to a couple of part-time employees and a slew of awesome contractors.

Finally, there’s the scrum master. That is the project manager. It can be a designated employee on your team, it can be a contractor, or it can even be one of your team who serves as scrum master temporarily for a particular project.

Note: I do not think the project owner should be the scrum master. This is a surefire way to end up burned out. I definitely fell victim to burn-out in the past, whenever I tried to fill both of those roles.

Hiring the role out is going to be better for you and for your team. Yes, you won’t necessarily know what’s going on at every minute of the day with your project, but take it from me: that is a beautiful thing. Do yourself and everyone on your team a favor, and delegate the scrum master role to someone else.

(If the idea of delegating this role to someone else sounds too hard, too expensive, too time-consuming, I get it. Listen to the full episode—I’ll give you some ideas to creatively enlist a scrum master, no matter how big or small your business is.)

How Scrum Works

#1: The Project Backlog

The project owner creates a list of all the tasks you can think of that will go into the project you are putting together.

#2: The Sprint

You decide what you are going to focus on inside the backlog during a small sprint—a week or so of focused work. These small increments save people from getting lost in the weeds. They also keep the product owner on the pulse of what’s happening.

You work as a team on the sprint, with daily scrums—15-minute check-in calls with the team.

#3: The Sprint Review

Once the week is over, you do a sprint review. What worked? What didn’t work? What needs to be tweaked? And then you are off to your next sprint.

These small increments of focused work are the real beauty of scrum. Just look at that project plan checklist I gave you—it would have totally overwhelmed my team if we had looked at the backlog and said everyone should just dive in and get it done!

The Daily Scrum

This daily check-in is the most powerful part of the Scrum method.

It’s me, my VA and my project manager (or scrum master). We never go over 15 minutes (unless we get a little too chatty!).

We focus on three words during a daily scrum: done, plan, and problems. Basically it’s me asking “What have you gotten done, what are you planning to get done, and where are you having problems?” As the scrum master reports on this and my VA chimes in with her feedback, we all end up with a total understanding of where the sprint is at.

The same thing happens when we’re doing a sprint review, just in the past tense. And we take notes on every part of the process—what worked and what didn’t work—so that when the next project comes up, we can adjust the backlog as necessary.

What Scrum Reveals 

Along with helping you manage the potential chaos of a big project, Scrum is really helpful for bringing to light the patterns in your work that need…well, that need work.

One of the biggest things the Scrum approach has shown me is that I need to give myself more time in every project I do. More time to plan, more time to create content, more time to brief my team on their tasks…you get the idea.

To be honest, I kind of knew this already in my gut. (I mean, that’s why we feel stressed, right? Because we don’t have enough time to get everything done!) If I feel pressed for time, it’s going to trickle down to my team and they’re not going to have the time they need to do the work I’m assigning them. It’s that simple. But I didn’t realize it until I started implementing Scrum.

The bottom line is, if you don’t take the time to communicate well with your team, it will cost you money because they will do it wrong. And Scrum is an amazing way to keep that communication alive.

Best of all, the Scrum method gets easier and more efficient every time you use it! It’s kind of intense, it’s all-consuming, but when it’s over, it’s completely done and you’ve got a completed project.

Grab the free PDF project backlog (if you haven’t already) and start warming up to Scrum in your business. And let me know how it works for you!

I know I have talked about copy many times. But can you blame me? It’s a hot topic!

Many of you that are growing your business online or have been growing your business for a while now still struggle with copy.

Believe me, I get it. I have definitely struggled for years with writing good copy for my business. And when I finally felt like I got that "copy mojo," things started to become easier in every aspect of my business.

That's why I'm so excited to bring you my guest today -- Nikki Elledge Brown. Along with being a proud military spouse, a mom, and a former park ranger, she's an amazing communicator and businesswoman. Nikki went from teaching communications at college-level to running a business that broke multiple six figures in under 18 months. (Wow, right?)

And the heart of her business is teaching entrepreneurs (like you and me) how to write their own copy, better than ever!

Nikki's approach to copy is putting it into "recipes." Sales pages, blog posts, video scripts, About pages...she breaks them all down into specific, doable steps that make copywriting easier than a "just add water" cake mix!

Today's show is packed with ridiculously simple recipes for every piece of copy you'll ever have to write, along with a few to help with your mindset around copywriting.

Stuff like...

• How to write with purpose
• The value of YOUR voice (+ how to use it in your copy)
• Sales page tips (how to make it easy for people to buy from you)
• Sample blog post recipe
• Sample blog VIDEO recipe
• How to write a great headline in under 10 minutes
• What to do when you're not sure what to write about
• How to avoid sharing TMI (too much information)
• How to master your mindset around copywriting

Nikki also put together our freebie today, which is--you guessed it--a "recipe book" of copywriting formulas. Click here to get it now!

As I mentioned, Nikki has built a hugely successful business in an amazingly short amount of time on her way with words. She had over 90 new clients sign up with her in her first two months of business!

And in her words, the key to this kind of growth is not just being good at helping others communicate, but being able to communicate her own brand clearly to potential clients.

"You are losing money if you aren’t communicating effectively."

Find out Nikki's recipes for maximizing your revenue potential with easier-than-ever techniques for communicating with your audience. Her free PDF is about to become your copywriting "Joy of Cooking"--an indispensable guide to everything you'll ever need to write for your business. Click here to get it now!

What a difference a tweak makes!

If you've spent any time on this blog (or podcast) in recent weeks, you know how firmly I stake my belief in webinars. Webinars offer a platform that lets you connect with people on an entirely new, personal level you just don’t get with most marketing strategies.

And what other marketing strategy can offer the opportunity for consistent on-the-spot revenue?

If you’ve done successful webinars in the past and are looking to make even bigger revenue, OR if you’ve never done webinars before or maybe have just dabbled with them in the past, today is going to be quite a pleasant surprise.

Starting with this number: $62,000

As the title says, just three little webinar-related tweaks made a $62,000 difference in my bottom line. I knew they'd have an impact, but the size of that number surprised even me.

See, I knew there were aspects of my webinar strategy that could use a shot in the arm.

• I wanted more sales generated from my webinars
• I wanted more people to show up live during my webinars
• I wanted to attract a new audience and grow my email list with the webinars.

Whenever you want to reach a new goal, you know some parts of your strategy are going to have to change.

So I set to work making adjustments, starting with:

Tweak #1: The Sales Page

This might surprise you, but I always do a sales page for any promotion I put together. Where some people might drive webinar attendees right to their product order form, my style is to give people extra information, especially if they are on the fence.

In the past we used to send people directly from the webinar to the sales page to read all about the product and then buy. But over time, we realized I wasn’t getting as many sales on the webinar as I had thought I should.

And that's how this simple tweak came about. I still use the sales page, but I'm using it smarter. That single change resulted in instant sales from the very next webinar, as well as a bigger boost of those instant sales.

(Click here to listen to the full episode and find out the simple tweak that boosted instant webinar sales!)

Tweak #2: More Webinars During Promotion

I want to give a shout-out to a member of the mastermind I used to be in. He's the one who suggested this tweak to me.

He said if webinars work really well for me, I should be capitalizing on that.

This idea--do more of what's already working for you--was so simple, it was revolutionary.

In the past, I'd do one webinar for each promotion. But at his suggestion, I stepped up my game.

It took a while for this tweak to hit its stride. But once it did, I saw amazing results.

Tweak #3: Facebook Ads

This is one I learned from my amazing coach, Todd Herman.

I found that when I'm running Facebook ads for a webinar promo to a cold audience that probably doesn’t know much about me, that ad needs to look a whole lot different than an ad to a warm audience (my fan base, my own email list, or a retargeting list).

Here are some examples:

The warm-audience ad

The warm-audience ad is more "talky" and personable. It has a lot more of my branding in it, in terms of colors and design. These people already know me and like me, so it plays on that familiarity we have.

Compare that to...

The cold-audience ad

The cold-audience doesn't have a lot of branding to it. The text is short, punchy and blatant: "This is what we have going on, sign up here." Because this audience doesn't know me, I keep it much more generic.

Find out more about how to tailor your Facebook ads to different audiences. Click here to listen to the whole episode.

One More Thing

One other huge change I made last year that has been a game-changer in terms of webinar attendance is an email series I call the Pre-Webinar Onboarding Sequence. This series of emails starts the minute you register for a webinar, and it's become an integral part of my brand.

You'll get a lot more info about this email sequence (and how to make it your own) if you sign up for my upcoming free Master Class! You'll also get stories, case studies, and a lot more knowledge about how to make webinars work for your business. Click here to register now!

I love these opportunities to answer your questions directly. And lately, the questions have swirled around a specific theme. (It seems we're all on a very similar wavelength right now!)

What's the theme, you ask?

How to grow your business to the next level. 

Whether you're just getting started or have been in business for years, the steps that take you from where you are to where you want to go remain pretty consistent.

In other words, we have a lot in common, you and I.

Question #1: What is the first thing you do before you start a brand new project?

The answer here may surprise you...unless, of course, you've participated in one of my programs in the past couple years. (I kind of can't shut up about it.) It's incredibly simple and incredibly effective cornerstone of every project that makes my process absolutely fly by. I can't live without it.

...and neither should you! Sign up for my free training to own this strategy for yourself!

Question #2: What is the biggest struggle in your business right now?

Glad you asked. This is something I've been thinking a lot about. It feels like I'm missing something important in my team--some vital role isn't being filled. As a result, it feels like there's a "chokehold" in my business.  After much deliberation, I think I've figured out what it is.

Question #3: What’s one challenge you have overcome this year?

I am really proud of this answer. (And guess what? It involves you.) And in overcoming this challenge, I've learned that it's not always a matter of changing something in order to make the challenge go away. Sometimes it's a matter of changing the way you look at the challenge.

Question #4: I've noticed you haven’t been traveling much lately. Why the change?

Aren't you observant? It's true--I've scaled way back on the travel commitments. And no, I didn't develop a fear of flying or lose my interest in participating in big events. Instead, it was a shift in my focus, and a commitment to doing even better at the things I do best.

Question #5: When you were first starting out did you feel a bit alone in your business?

Not at first--I was so relieved to be out of the busy corporate environment, a little isolation was fine. But over time, yes, I felt the need for more company in my solo-preneurship. Feeling alone squashes your creativity...so don't go there! (Click here to listen to the full episode, where I break down my strategy for keeping good company.)