Over the last few years, I've noticed that one of the big reasons my students struggle with list building is that they lack consistent original content in their marketing strategy.

It's an easy trap to fall into. After all, creating content takes time, effort and creativity.

You might even be thinking "Amy, all my focus is going into creating my product for sale. How am I supposed to come up with fresh original content every week?"

Well, good news--this episode is all about helping you create just one piece of amazing content each month.

You heard right. Each. Month.

When you have that one piece of amazing epic content, you can spin it out into every marketing channel in your toolbox with the overall goal of building your list.

Content Comes in Three Stages

I think there’s a lot of confusion out there around content. It seems simple, but when I sat down and started mapping what successful content looks like in different contexts, I'll admit that even I got confused!

So I checked in with a good friend from my corporate job days. She’s the best at dissecting content and explaining where it shines the brightest. And what she showed me is that there are three main stages of content:

• Paid
• Free lead magnet
• Just plain free (not even for an opt-in)

Notice I said "stages." All three of these types of content are related to each other--which means every time you create one kind of content, the other two are super easy to create out of it. Click here to find out how you can use the main themes within your paid product to create epic content that builds your list!

Easy Strategies for Getting More Mileage Out of Your Epic Content

Now, like I said earlier, the "meat" of the strategy we’re diving into in this episode is getting deliberate about your content creation so you can extend it across all your marketing channels. When you really get intentional with your content (and create it with your email list in mind), you're all to get huge mileage out of one piece.

After all, we take our content creation seriously. So why not put a bigger focus on getting it in front of more people while we’re creating it?

In this episode, I'm going to walk you through three roadmaps for extending one piece of epic content into every major marketing platform you use.

To make it extremely easy for you, I've put together some free worksheets that show how to break up your content into different platforms within each roadmap. Click here to get them now!

To get the most out of today's topic, you'll really want to listen to the whole episode. But I'll outline the roadmaps for you here:

Strategy 1: Start by writing an epic blog post that includes an epic upgrade (something your readers can take more action on to get more value).

From there, you'll move to emailing your list, creating videos, doing a Periscope, and more. Click here to get all the steps now!

Strategy 2: Start by creating an epic podcast episode with an upgrade.

From the podcast, you'll create a blog post. Not just show notes, but something that brings immense value even to people that may not have heard your podcast. Next you'll email your list, create a video, and more. Click here to get all the steps.

Strategy 3: Start by creating an epic video.

The first thing you'll need to know is how to provide the content upgrade in your video...click here to find out! Next, you'll take the audio from your video to create a podcast, use the audio to create a blog post...the list goes on.

Find out the details on each of these strategies, including what constitutes an "epic" piece of content and what to put in the initial content versus what to put in the freebie, by listening to the whole episode. Click here to listen now!

The End Goal = Your Email List

Now, this whole strategy takes a little thought and effort to execute properly. That's why you won’t be using this strategy with every single piece of new content you create. Like I said, I’m suggesting you be selective with this concept and put it to work about once a month. That gives you lots of room to pace each appearance of the content within your various marketing channels (and to repost it at least once) without making it seem like overload.

Bottom line, the mindset around your campaign should always be about building your email list by getting people to your freebie. When you're creating core quality content with your email list in mind, it uplevels everywhere that content appears.

You know how much I love battle-tested, ultra-successful online marketing strategies. The only thing I love better is sharing strategies like these with you! It makes me so happy when we get in the trenches together and master the techniques that bring us the results we crave.

But this week, we're doing something a little different.

I'm in the midst of setting up my List-Builders Lab program right now, and I have to say that I'm really feeling the effect of all the strategies I've learned (and shared with you) over the past year. Let me tell you that the confidence I feel makes a world of difference in the midst of pre-launch craziness.

And that got me thinking about how insanely important it is in your business to have your mind right!

We don't think about this too much--we're too busy looking for the right tools, the right strategies, the right technology, etc. But if your confidence is struggling even just a bit, no strategy is going to work inside your business the way it should.

That's why today's podcast episode is all about lies, lies, lies...

And, of course, the truth that we need to replace them.

As you likely already know, to win the game of becoming a successful entrepreneur, you’ve got to focus occasionally on what’s going on between your two ears.

Today's post is all about the lies that I've personally dealt with! And sometimes, in low moments, I still hear them creeping up on me.

But with the help and advice of other friends in the online business world, I know what to tell myself when those lies show up...and that's what I want to pass on to you today.

Lie #1: You have to be the best in your market.

Sometimes, when we're just starting out, we feel like we need to be number one, the best, and out on top in our market. That's not always the case. Click here for my take on the all too common lie we tell ourselves, and what the truth really looked like for me, even when it came to getting real with my signature course offering.

Lie #2: You have to find the balance between your work and your family and all that comes in between that.

You might be surprised to hear that I don't believe in balance. While working with Tony Robbins, I learned a very important lesson that I continue to reflect on during different seasons of my business growth. I encourage you to listen to the full episode to hear exactly what balance looks like in my business. I share some powerful takeaways that I've learned recently that you don't want to miss!

Lie #3: Your failures that are adding up are proof that you’re never going to make this work.

Sometimes, when things aren’t working as we’re trying to build our businesses online, we go to a really dark place, where our whole business idea looks like a disaster and we start wondering if we are going to have to go back to the 9-to-5 job. Oh, boy have I been in place where I hated where my business was headed. Listen here, and I'll tell you what I did to make things shift.

Lie #4: Every opportunity that comes your way is big, and you can’t miss out on it or you’ll be left behind.

If you know my story, you know that for the first couple of years, I really struggled, and thought I constantly had to seize every opportunity that came my way, or I might miss my big break. Whether you're a full blown entrepreneur, or still working a corporate job while you transition, there are huge lessons I learned from this mindset. I'll share a few of them here, as well as some sage advice on what might work for you if you struggle in this area.

Stopping the Lies = Knowing the Truth

I know it’s not enough to just tell you what these lies are. You need to know how to flip them around with truth! Once you have the truth, those lies can't hold you back anymore, and you can really start building momentum in your business.

Since we're all about truth-telling today, I'll be honest and say that today's episode felt a little bit uncomfortable for me at times. It's not always easy for me to talk about topics that might not feel super good. And I don’t get to say, “Click this, go here, do that,” because we’re not talking about those specific strategies.

But I think it’s important to get really honest with ourselves, in order to be sure that those strategies will work. I hope that’s what this episode did for you, and that it redirects and recharges you, so that you start finding out how to create the business you absolutely love.

Today we're diving into a new aspect of Facebook marketing that may very well surprise you!

If you've hosted a webinar or an online course, you have probably also created a private Facebook group as a bonus for your clients. In addition to offering extra support and relationship, private Facebook groups are an amazing way to galvanize your clients into a true community. (Always a great thing when it comes to brand loyalty!)

But did you know that the community-creating power of private Facebook groups can be a hugely effective sales tool? 

My guests on the podcast today are Josh and Jill Stanton from Screw the 9 to 5, and they're going to share their secret strategy for using private Facebook groups to warm up your audience for sales.

Using Facebook groups in this way is really unique to Josh and Jill--as far as I know, nobody else out there is using this strategy to grow revenue.

That's because we usually think of Facebook groups as being an "after the fact" thing. You create the product, people buy it and then they're part of the group.

But what Josh and Jill have realized that there's a ton of sales power in making your audience "part of the group" before they ever spend a dime with you!

Re-think Your Page

Right off the bat, Jill makes a statement that could ruffle the feathers of a lot of online marketers:

"Facebook Pages are dead to me."

Once you recover from that bombshell, don't rush to the "Delete" button on your page! There's definitely a place for Facebook Pages...even Jill and Josh still use theirs.

But what Jill is saying is that the Page setup is really more of a one-way street when it comes to interacting with your audience. For example, when fans comment on your page, their words show up in a sidebar...not exactly a real conversation, is it?

Turning Your Brand into a Facebook Family

By contrast, a Facebook group lets the "family atmosphere" of your brand really flourish. When you gather the people who have genuine interest in your business into a private setting--one in which they can interact with you as another member (an extra-knowledgeable and authoritative member, of course)--you're able to build a community of affinity and trust around your brand.

A community in which you are the go-to source for what your audience wants to know/solve/accomplish.

A community that is brought together by the experience of your program, product or service.

If you're ready to find out the nuts and bolts of this ingenious Facebook marketing strategy, click here to listen to the whole episode now!

...Oh, and be sure to pay attention for a special bonus topic in my conversation with Josh and Jill: what to do when you realize that you don't really like your business model. (Yes, it's possible to change!)

Marie Forleo has been in the online entrepreneurship game for seventeen years. She's appeared on Oprah, been interviewed by Tony Robbins, hung out with Richard Branson.

...and she still doesn’t feel like she’s ever had a “big break.”

Yes, really.

The whole "big break" thing is a myth, Marie says. And that's not because she doesn't know how it feels to wish for one! She remembers sitting in her studio apartment, staring at the computer screen, fantasizing about the "fairy business godmother" who would sweep in and discover her potential.

But the career she's built today--the best-selling books, the hugely popular MarieTV series, the constant stream of success stories from her B School training program who approach her on the street to thank her for changing their lives--didn't come from a single amazing opportunity being dropped into her lap.

"What I’ve been able to see now, in hindsight, is there is no single opportunity that anyone else can give you that is more important for your success than the small daily actions you must take every day."

Great quote, right? There's more to come. Every question I asked Marie in our interview brought some amazing sound bites--I was scrambling to write them all down! To get a taste of her wisdom in these quotes...listen to the whole episode for Marie's insights on how to overcome perfectionism and self-doubt, the main way to unite your audience into a tribe, and what daily actions you must take to achieve the success you desire!

If you want to sign up for Marie's FREE Video Series (You need to watch Video 2 - trust us!), click here to sign up!

Picture this: you wake up one morning with an amazing idea. You do a little research on it and, by the end of the day, feel a growing sense that this idea of yours has real selling potential. Maybe you even ask your audience directly if they'd be interested in this idea, and they give it a resounding "Yes, please!"

And then, after all this, you put your great idea into action...and it doesn't sell. Nothing comes of it.

When you spend time, effort, and money putting together something for your audience, only to hear crickets when you put it out into the world, it can really crush your confidence, not to mention put a dent in your bottom line.

But what if you could take your idea through a proven process that makes sure it's a good fit for you, your business, and for your audience?

Now that's a pretty good idea, right?

My good friend Pat Flynn has tested many, many great ideas over the course of his online career. And believe it or not, even Pat has had a few ideas that he thought were great end up dead in the water. That's what led to his new book Will It Fly?, which shows entrepreneurs how to test their great ideas for real value.

On today's podcast episode, Pat and I are going to walk you through some ideas, insights, and tips to help you learn how to test whether your idea will work for you and your audience. It's a great episode and you're going to want to hear the whole thing--trust me!

Pat is one of the hardest working guys out there. But even more impressive than his work ethic is his transparency. If you've visited his site, you've seen that he publishes his monthly revenue reports so that viewers can see real-life proof of how well his ideas work.

Success Isn't Overnight

As entrepreneurs, we're always talking about launching. Launching is a big part of what we do, but how often do we talk about what happens after you launch? Is your idea actually going to take off? Is it going to fly? Is it going to keep going or is it going to crash?

Whether you need permission to really get moving on your latest idea, or if you require some "tough love" in order to let this one go and keep searching for inspiration, Pat's book is going to give you some fundamental tools for entrepreneurial success.

The Three Validation Tests

One of the best things Pat's book offers is the three validation tests that show how an idea fits into your life, your strengths, and the overall goal of your business.

The Airport Test

Imagine that it's five years from now. You're at the airpot and you run into someone you haven't seen in the past five years. They ask you "How's life?"

Now imagine you answer "Life is great. It couldn't be better!" What would be happening, five years from now, to make you say that?

Now ask yourself: is the idea you're working on right now contributing to that five-years-from-now goal?

The History Test

This test makes you analyze three or four of the different jobs you've had in the past. You call to mind the position, the environment, the people you worked with, specific memories that are either pleasant or painful.

When you do a review like this, it helps you see what those jobs might have had in common...and why that pattern might be attracting you over and over. Does it point out a skill or a preference that you have? Whether they were good jobs or bad jobs, they have something valuable to tell you about who you are...and that will give you a better understanding of how your idea fits into your skill set.

The Shark Bait Test

Imagine you are a contestant on the show Shark Tank, standing in front of the celebrity investors and pitching your idea. Doing this honestly, from your gut, takes away the salesmanship from the exercise, and makes you really speak to why you and your idea are special and why people would be crazy not to get on board with it.

If you know Pat and his content at all, you know that his superpower is taking complex ideas and making them simple and easy to digest. And he brings that gift in full force to today's episode. His tips on how to tackle market research are worth their weight in gold!

Want to check out Pat's book, where he dives deep into the content he shared with us? Click here to find out more about his new book, Will It Fly.

By now you've probably heard about Periscope, the live streaming social media platform that lets you talk to your fans in real time. It's the fastest growing social media platform of all time! Since Periscope launched in March 2015, it already has 15 million users. And get this: those users upload three years' worth of video content every day.

I dabbled with Periscope for a while in 2015, and to be honest, I couldn't figure out if I loved it or hated it. Mostly, I just didn't really understand how to use it to its fullest potential.

That's why I was so glad to talk with today's podcast guest. Zack Spuckler is a genuine Periscope ninja, and he has used the platform to do amazing things with his email list.

Whether you're an early adopter who is already using Periscope on a daily basis, or a skeptic who wonders if this medium is really going to last long enough to be worth the time it takes to learn it, this episode is one you just can't miss.

I'll be the first to admit that my biggest obstacle in using Periscope is the whole "live stream" nature of it. Frankly, it makes me nervous--I like to have a plan, a script, and a lot of chances to correct my mistakes.

At the same time, I recognize the real power of livestreaming to break the barriers between you and your audience. They get to come inside your world, and you get to be more personal and engaging with them. It lets your audience see a side of you that really no other social media platform offers.

Having said that, there are some do's and don'ts that go a long way toward making Periscope truly effective as a marketing tool. That's where Zach's expertise comes in!

In addition to offering tons of pro tips and insider tricks on how to use Periscope to best advantage (and a good estimate on how long it takes to really hit your stride) Zach has created a freebie just for you. It's a worksheet with five simple steps to guide you through your first Periscope broadcast. Click here to get it now!

The Numbers

In Zach's first 30 days on Periscope, he did $10k in sales. (Listen to the podcast if you want to hear my reaction to this unbelievable number.) It's even more amazing when you find out that previous to this, Zach's all-time revenue high had been $1700 in a month.

So he started plugging all his channels into Periscope, to see what kind of results he got.

• Would people convert on a webinar from Periscope? They would.
• Would they convert from a funnel on Periscope? Sure enough.
• Would they sign up for a lead magnet? Yup.
• Would they like him on Facebook? Even that.
• Would they buy $1500 product packages in the midst of a live stream? Yes, indeed, they would.

After a few weeks of this, people were noticing! They were asking Zach how he got these amazing results...so, naturally, he created a Periscope training course and sold it via Periscope.

I'll let Zach tell you what happened:

"I sold about $1,200 of the course at a $97 intro price. Then I did it again the next day. We ended up doing about $2,200 in sales with about an hour and a half of Periscopes. We hadn’t sent emails. We didn’t even have a sales page.

The Real Power Behind Periscope

Zach has tons of tips and tools that will help you create results like these on Periscope. But the real key to Zach's success isn't just the platform--it's the ability it gave him to really hear what his audience wanted.

Prior to using Periscope, Zach was facing that constant frustration of creating products that he thought his audience wanted from him, only to have nobody click the "Buy" button when he finally released it. But by engaging with his audience on live video, he could literally count the number of times people asked about something, and know exactly what it was they wanted.

If you're ready to really dive into Periscope and find out how to use it, click here to listen to the podcast now. And make sure to download the worksheet created especially for you by Zach himself.

You know how important your list is to your business' growth. If you're measuring your list's health in terms of numbers, it can really get you down sometimes. It's easy to feel like the fate of your business is at a standstill until your list numbers in the thousands (or at least the high hundreds).

My guest on the podcast today is going to blow that myth out of the water! Rachel Luna is living proof that you don’t need a gigantic list to gain success. What really matters about your list isn’t the number of names and addresses on it, but the quality of those people in terms of their engagement with you.

Rachel’s success story is really a one-two punch. Not only does she show the power of what you can do with a highly engaged list, but she’s also a stellar example of how to do affiliate marketing right.

If you’ve thought about doing affiliate marketing but haven’t tried it…or if you’ve gone through it before with mediocre results…Rachel’s story is going to truly inspire you. And you’re also going to love the freebie Rachel created for us this week: it’s called the Confident Affiliate Marketing Starter Guide. You can get it by clicking here!

Secrets of an Affiliate Marketing Superstar

Last spring, Rachel worked with my business coach Todd Herman and chose to be an affiliate promoter of his 90-Day Year program. As a business/life coach to other entrepreneurs, Rachel is ultra-focused on taking action and setting goals, which made her a perfect fit for this promotion.

Her message is all about breaking through negative thoughts and limiting beliefs to achieve the success you want. This promotion really gave her a chance to practice what she preached. Rachel came into Todd's affiliate program with a list just over 5000.

That may sound like a lot, but bear in mind she was working among affiliates who had lists upward of 100k! She was a small fish in a very big pond. Actually, I also happened to be working with Todd as an affiliate for this program, as well.

And as the promotion got going, I started seeing this name I'd never heard before popping up on the leader board. Her numbers were going up at an astonishing rate. Other affiliates were starting to talk about her.

"Who is this Rachel Luna, and what is her secret?" Finally, I decided to get in touch with her to find out just that. And today she is sharing the secrets of her affiliate marketing success with all of us! Click here to start listening now.

The Steps to Affiliate Marketing Success

Rachel had done a few affiliate promotions in the past--by the time she got involved with Todd's 90-Day Year program, she had some solid standards for success in place:

• She had rules to determine which affiliate programs she participates with. Rule #1 is not to promote anything she has not personally used. Rachel knows that to keep her list's trust, she has to limit her promotions to things that she knows will work and that she can offer knowledgeable support around.

• She had a plan. It’s easy to think that because you’re working for someone else, you don’t have to put as much work into your launch. But Rachel really makes her affiliate partner’s business her own. She even created a Facebook group where she shared the details of her own success in using Todd’s program.

• She had a revenue goal. This was Rachel’s fourth ever affiliate promotion, and she’d built up her capability over the previous three times. So this time, her goal was $14,000.

• She set expectations. Right from the beginning, she let her audience know how long she’d be offering this free content from Todd. Doing this created urgency, and it also let anyone who wasn’t interested know that she wasn’t giving up her own brand forever.

• She kept her audience engaged and accountable. Throughout the promotion, Rachel took a proactive approach to her audience. Every time content or a video was released, she would check in with her audience, tell them her takeaways and ask for theirs, keep tabs on whether they were doing their workbook exercise--whatever it took to keep them engaged. In essence, she treated the pre-launch content as if it were the program itself.

  "If you can help them get results right from jump street, they trust you, and it helps them fall in love with the program."

Find out more about how Rachel achieved such amazing affiliate success! Click here to listen now.

Overcoming Your Setbacks

You can see why Rachel was blowing us all away with her climbing numbers! This made it all the more devastating when, just one week before the official program kickoff, Rachel’s website got hacked. Everything she had planned for her promotion—blogs, sales pages, bonus materials that she’d created for her audience—was gone. Rachel considered not even doing the promotion. She’d spent hours putting all this together, only to have it wiped out overnight. But after talking with Todd, she decided to keep moving forward and see what happened.

"I sent off that first email which I had taken the time to write really well. I was very thoughtful about it. I was very intentional because I wanted to make sure it was something that would resonate with my audience."

And oh, did it ever resonate. By Day 1 of the promotion, Rachel had made $10k…almost 75% of her revenue goal. By Day 2, she’d surpassed her goal by $2000. By the time the launch ended, Rachel had made a $53,000 profit, almost four times her goal amount. By the way, this little fish, ended up finishing fourth overall out of all the affiliates promoting the program. Amazing!

You Don't Need a Big List to Get Big Results

Rachel shares a lot more details of what made her affiliate launch such a staggering success--how much she spent on Facebook ads, how she structured bonuses for her audience, etc.--in the full podcast episode. And of course you'll want to download her amazing freebie, the Confident Affiliate Marketing Starter Guide. 

But the biggest takeaway, in my view, was that Rachel didn't let the size of her email list stop her. She could have put off Todd's program until next time it came around, telling herself she was going to wait until her list was bigger. But instead, she took action with what she had, focused on maximizing her strengths, and didn't let setbacks slow her down.

"Sometimes, in my experience as a life coach, people aren’t so focused on taking action, they are focused on feeling better. They were happy with mediocre results. I want to have the best, most exciting. I want big."

Let's kick off the New Year with an absolute game changer for your business: Facebook ad targeting.

Some of you by now have become really good at this. But if you're still struggling to nail your Facebook ad strategy, or if you're just getting started in this world, this episode is most definitely for you.

I work with a lot of business students who are just getting started with Facebook ads or have been dabbling in ads for a while without seeing much success. The number one mistake I see them making is targeting the wrong people. This usually happens for two reasons.

Some of my students truly don’t understand who their avatar is.

Others...the majority, in fact...know who their avatar is, but they just haven’t dug deep enough to understand them in a way that Facebook ad targeting could make a huge difference for them in their business.Specifically, they haven’t done the research or documented their successes and losses, so they aren’t really sure what’s working.

Here's what I always remind them: when you get really good at Facebook ad targeting, there is no doubt you are going to see some major shifts in the impact you have with your audience and a major increase in your revenue streams.

That's why I've created a roadmap that will let you know exactly where to focus, along with what needs to be on your radar from the get-go. It's really simple--just the way I like it--and it's set up so that you can keep adding to it as you learn exactly who your audience is and how to get in front of them. Basically, it's the key to unlocking the most valuable resource in your business.

I've put a lot into this episode for you, so make sure to listen to the whole podcast to get everything you need to start the new year off successfully!

I've also created a great freebie to help you with this plan--the Facebook Ad Targeting Starter Guide. It's a list of ten questions that you MUST be able to answer about your audience in order to fully optimize your Facebook ad targeting. Grab the special guide by clicking below!

Like I said, you've really got to listen to the whole episode to get all this great information I've put together for you. But to outline it for you, Facebook ad targeting breaks down into four specific opportunities:

Targeting Opportunity #1: Target Your Own Audiences

Say you already have an email list of at least 1,000 people. You can upload that email list to Facebook, Facebook will match your email list with their database and voila! You’ve got a targeting opportunity with your best, fastest-converting leads.

Targeting Opportunity #2: Targeting Your Own Facebook Fans

This list is not as warm as your own email list, but it is still a group of engaged people who are going to pay attention to you. Here’s the huge plus: you will almost always pay less with your Facebook ads when you target your own fan base versus a cold audience. If you ever needed a good reason to focus on building your Facebook fan base, I think this is the #1 best reason to do so.

Targeting Opportunity #3: Target Other Facebook Pages

This is where I want you to put the most time and energy when it comes to research and experimentation. Targeting other Facebook pages is the strategy that allows you the most opportunities.

I've also got a "super tip" to help you find out which pages you should be targeting. Click here to listen to the podcast now!

Targeting Opportunity #4: Creating Lookalike Audiences

A lookalike audience is basically you taking a custom audience that you have and then asking Facebook to find an audience that is really similar to your own audience you have already created

If you want to get a little bit more strategic with that (and I know you do!) you can try a technique called layering. I learned this from my friend James Wedmore, and I've been trying it out in my business lately, too. Click here to learn all about how you can do it!

Be Patient with Yourself

Finally, I have to remind you to be patient with yourself. This isn’t all going to fall into place tomorrow. My goal is to give you a roadmap and a bunch of examples, so you see where you want to go with your Facebook ad targeting and have the skills to get there day by day.

In addition to laying out the steps in each targeting opportunity, this podcast episode walks you through using two super-easy research tools that should become second nature to you when you start to dive into Facebook advertising. Click here to listen to the whole thing now.

And make sure to download this week's freebie so you can get super-prepared for making the most of your Facebook targeting.