How to make a living while you’re making a difference. A weekly show for independent professionals who want to go from six-figures to seven while increasing their impact on the world.
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Experimenting for Fun and Profit
Why raising your price(s) doesn’t always bring you better clients—and how to keep pushing the envelope to find the right balance.How to raise—or lower—your prices without feeling manipulative or doing a bait and switch with your audience.The value of being vulnerable and asking for input (with the side benefit of getting you deeply wired into your audience).Joining high-end masterminds (or building your own) to solicit peer feedback and ideas. Getting in the regular habit of experimenting to grow your audience and your business faster.Quotables“We make an assumption that the higher price points we have, the better clients we're going to get and that’s not always true.”—RM “If you can't bring yourself to lower your prices back down (when a higher price isn’t working), cut the offer.”—JS“It's dangerous when we assume that the blocks we have in our own head are in the minds of our clients.”—RM“That's why the metaphor is a (product/service) ladder. Cause they can climb up it as you give them success on the lower rungs.”—JS“The only way to know that you’re wired into your audience is to ask them, because otherwise we put our own assumptions on our audience and we could be a hundred percent wrong.”—RM“One of the coolest things about running your own business and thinking of it like a business is that you can do this (experimenting) stuff.”—JS“Consider a mastermind that has other people who've experienced your kind of growth—getting peer comments is hugely helpful.”—RMLinksPickfu.com
Systems Gravitational Pull
Why the more you invest—time, money and processes—in any system the more it starts to limit your thinking.The value of choosing your apps/vendors wisely and then going all in for the future vs. frequent platform switching.Protecting yourself (and your business) if one of your systems goes bad.How to think about changing and communicating systems when you have clients and buyers using them regularly.Quotables“The more code I build up, the more I've invested in any particular system, the more it limits my thinking.”—JS“When my VA of 10 years left…I started to relook at and rethink every single function. Had she not left, I would not have done that.”—RM“I am super choosy about which platforms I'm going to go all in on on them. But man, is it frustrating when something changes out from underneath you.”—JS“The thing that makes some of these apps so wonderful is how comprehensive they are. You just have to ensure that you're protected if something really bad happens.”—RM“When I pick a platform, I just suck it up. And I'm like, okay, the thing's going to evolve and I'm just going to deal with it as it evolves. But also it means that I really learn how to use it…so that I'm really getting my money out of it.”—JS“You can't over-communicate in those situations (where your clients experience your systems changes).”—RM“If we're talking about a gravitational pull of a system and you've got people in the system, there's no silver bullet to making changes.”—JS“If you've got five people in a group and you change your systems, it's probably not a big deal. If you have 500, it is a big deal. All the more reason to pick the systems you want to invest in at the very beginning.”—RM
Kicking Off 2022
The difference between objectives, strategy and tactics—and why the possibility of failure is essential when designing a workable strategy.How to give your tactics the optimal amount of time to assess whether they are working—or not.Making the decision on how you want to impact your ideal audience—and baking it into your plans.How to think about growth so that you’re building a business that plays to your genius zone. Quotables“The strategy should change the most slowly. Your strategy should…have some grit and sticktuitiveness about it, but the tactics are disposable.”—JS“Once you position yourself (then you know what revolution you're going to be leading, who's your ideal client and buyer), then you can start creating a strategy to develop the products and services to monetize what you're trying to do.”—RM“Strategy is a concise high-level approach to achieving the objective by pitting strengths against weaknesses, usually in a surprising way.”—JS“Sometimes we give up on tactics too soon. If we agree that strategy is a non-trivial amount of time, then when it comes to tactics, you have to give it enough time…to prove whether it works or not.”—RM “You are making a bet that this approach is going to work and if you're wrong, then you know it's not going to work.”—JS“Most of us feel actualized when we're helping other people. It's not really about, oh, I want to go to the spa every day…it's about how can I help the people I care most about?”—RM“Whatever the tactic is, you need to give it a reasonable amount of time for how long it's going to take for the tomatoes to start growing.”—JS“By designing the business so that it fits you, you can get to whatever income level it is that you decide you want to go for.”—RMAccidental Creative Episode with Michael Bungay Stanier
Systems, Habits and Creating Time
What insights your current behaviors, systems and habits can give you into creating more time.The value of time boxing—limiting the period (and the amount of head space) you’ll devote to a particular thing.Using habit stacking to create efficient ways to complete “must do” tasks.How to use consistent habit tracking—aka streaks—to motivate you to stay on course.When to buy back time—and overcoming your mental blocks that keep you from doing it.Quotables“Checklists or SOPs lift a weight off of you. It's this cognitive weight where…if you just do it in an order—the stuff that's going to happen every day—it gives you more freedom.”—JS“It’s like Steve jobs wearing his black turtleneck and jeans every day. He didn't want to dedicate brain space to something that didn't matter.”—RM“Time boxing helps quite a bit with the good enough slash perfectionism thing. Like the more you work on it, the better it will feel like it's getting therefore it becomes infinite.”—JS“A little trick that I found that works really well—if morning is a good time for you to do detailed work—push your lunch as late as you can.”—RM“I'm all about streaks. It's in my DNA to not want to break a streak.”—JS“We can buy back time by hiring people to do things that we believe must be done. And it's not just about the business. It might be that you hire somebody to mow your lawn or buy your groceries.”—RM“One thing is just to get rid of the things you don't need to do.”—JS“There are people who will think nothing of spending a hundred thousand dollars in their business, but…can't have somebody mow their lawn. ‘I can't spend $10, but I can spend a hundred thousand.’ Sometimes the $10 will give you more value.”—RM
Predictions for 2022
How live events will change (think thoughtful curation vs. large scale impersonal gatherings).The wider presence and impact of women and people of color in the authority space.The trend of personality—how far can authorities go to express their views?How experts and authorities will differentiate their products and services—and more.Quotables“We would have these big live events…with a lot of wasted time, wasted energy and lost opportunities to connect with people. The trend will be that because we will have fewer live events, they matter more.”—RM“I could imagine an increase in these sorts of small, highly-focused off the grid fishing village retreats.”—JS“I believe that more of the new businesses that are growing in the authority space will not only be run by women, but people of color.”—RM“I think it's so much more fun to learn from people who aren't afraid to like make predictions that might not come true.”—JS“It's really about standing up for your values, your vision for where the world goes. You've got a code…a set of beliefs that tie into how you serve clients.”—RM“I think going around and being in people's ear buds on a regular basis creates this asymmetric intimacy.”—JS“We might have products and services at both ends (high touch/high price vs. low touch/low price), but we're not going to have much in the middle.”—RM“The low touch end of the spectrum is all about productizing and packaging up your expertise…it's just so much easier to sell. It's easier to attract leads. It's easier to close deals.”—JS
Selling Results
Why a focus on outcomes naturally changes your sales conversations and how you think about delivery.How becoming the client yourself helps crystallize the importance of outcomes vs. inputs.Changing your mental model away from valuing time spent to the outcomes your clients are seeking.Becoming the Mercedes option where your clients happily pay big premiums for your reliably transformative outcomes.How using an outcomes focus in the sales process also weeds out undesirable clients.Quotables“You change the way that you talk to the client, so that you're finding out more about what is the transformation they want instead of how much work is this going to be for me to execute.”—JS“They (the billers of time) just have to invert their thinking. And it's funny because once you really see it from the other side, it's hard to unsee it.”—RM“I fundamentally believe deep down that the majority of software projects go 2x over the initial estimate because nobody talks at the beginning about what the success metric is.”—JS“It's just all in what you want, what you value and what the person is going to deliver (when you’re hiring a consultant).”—RM“You found someone who you considered to be a Mercedes option—like a premium luxury purchase—and you just believed that it would work and it did work and it didn't need to take a lot of time. In fact, the less time it takes the better.”—JS“There are some clients who really don't want to be challenged. They don't want to have those tough questions asked and those are not good clients.”—RM“It's like finding the mission for the project and then it's all about everybody's on the same mission—you've got something to align everybody around.”—JS“Going from time spent to outcomes is messing with somebody's mental model—it's really hard to imagine that someone will value the outcome only and not care about the inputs.”—RM
Productized Services
Using this as a path out of hourly billing and/or simplifying your sales and marketing while juicing your revenue.Why offering productized services forces you to get really tight on your delivery, messaging and outcomes.How you can use a productized service offering to test drive a more laser-focused positioning for your entire business.We share a host of real life examples you can check out to see how it’s done.Quotables“Productized services are like a path out of hourly billing for people who are used to delivering services by the hour.”—JS“We need to not underestimate the power of making your marketing and selling simpler.”—RM“If you're scared of positioning your overall business in a laser-focused way, you could just have the one (productized service) offering.”—JS“Do not underestimate the power of using emotion to identify that final outcome to the client from your productized service.”—RM“II you're embarrassed by your website, how do you think that might be trickling into your behavior and your actions?”—JS“When you start experimenting with productized services, you might find that it gets you into a higher level problem than you'd been solving.”—RMLinkshttps://jonathanstark.com/examples-of-productized-serviceshttps://www.weekofthewebsite.com/https://worstofalldesign.com/how-it-workshttps://www.eleanormayrhofer.com/ https://sarahmoon.net/ https://www.emilyomier.com/ https://www.aprildunford.com/
Overcoming Set Points and Plateaus
The role of your mindset in breaking through set points and powering past income plateaus.Deciding when it’s time to change your revenue model to provide your business with greater leverage—and larger earnings potential.How to think about and reframe limiting beliefs that keep you from making big leaps in your business.When your past experiences are powering decisions today that don’t serve you or your business growth (and how to re-wire them).Quotables“There's a certain point where you've found all the leverage you're going to find with this model and you need to find a bigger lever.”—JS“I'd like to be a best-selling author. But guess what? If I don't write a book, it's not going to happen.”—RM“One of the things that can be the moment of a huge breakthrough for people is the first time they say no to a client.”—JS“Maybe there's a voice in your head that says you don't deserve any better than this. That this is the best you get.”—RM“Lightning round of three limiting beliefs: I can never call myself an expert if I’m not the world’s greatest; Oh, these are all great ideas, but they won't work; I can't stop coding because then I wouldn't be able to consult.”—JS“There are all these different experiences that impact how we think about money and therefore what we allow ourselves to achieve in our business.”—RM“You can go back and find out what your particular contribution was worth to the client and then try and extrapolate into the future. So when you talk to someone who's similar, you can get better at guesstimating what your contribution might be worth to this kind of a client.”— JS“Once you're past the bootstrap stage and your business is truly launched, then there are certain things that are going to move you faster. You have to believe your business is worth investing in them.”—RM
Book Publishing Listener Q&A
The two main reasons to write a book for your expertise or authority business.The pros and cons of self-publishing vs. seeking out a traditional publisher.Positioning and pricing your self-published book—and whether to sell it on your website and/or amazon.How to find and vet the right editor(s) for your situation.The role of e-books vs. physical books and why you probably want both.Quotables“The two main reasons to write a book for business: there's the 300 page business card and there's the revenue stream… it really helps going into it to know which one you're writing.”—JS“You might make different strategic and tactical decisions depending on whether you want direct or indirect revenue from your book .”—RM“If you want to reach a broader audience, then it does make sense to go through a more traditional publishing channel or at least something closer to that.”—JS“The irony (with traditional publishers) is when you want them, when you need them, they usually don't want you—because they want you to have enough name recognition that you're helping to drive the sales of the book.”—RM“When I published Hourly Billing Is Nuts, since it was so much about pricing, I was like, I want to price this right. And I don't want it to be next to a whole bunch of direct competitors that are cheaper. It'd be like putting myself on Upwork.”—JS “I wanted really good editors because all of my (client) book experiences up to now have been with really top-notch people at big publishing houses and I wanted somebody as good as that for my book.”—RM“I think everybody should write a book—the experience is fabulous. It's so good to have to think that hard about something and have a project that's that big.”—JS“How hard is it to create a physical book on Amazon? It is so freaking easy if you're already doing the e-book on amazon.”—RMRELATED LINKSTim Grahl's interview with Dan PinkThe Authority Code by Rochelle MoultonBlurbReedsy
The Authority Code
How “selling” your work completely changes once you’ve positioned yourself and monetized your expertise.Building your business in “white space” and a new way to think about your big idea (hint: we’re talking revolution).Why your genius zone is a pivotal element of your authority positioning.Rethinking your business and revenue model to more closely match your positioning (and your genius zone).Getting comfortable with publishing—testing your point of view—until you’re ready to start playing on other people’s platforms.Quotables“If you like this show, you're going to love the book.”—JS“What thinking about your big idea as a revolution does for you is it allows you to think bigger than you would otherwise—as in who am I to think this big?”—RM“I just see it as we're fellow travelers, we're on the same mission. We're in the same revolution and I don't care who leads it, as long as someone's doing it.”—JS“It's so important that you discover your genius zone. We started our own businesses—we took a lot of risk. Why shouldn't we be doing what we really love to do?”—RM“Once you flip your mindset from I do rails or I do price consulting to I know how to build rails apps—then you can start disconnecting your expertise from your labor.”—JS“You're going to start with an email list, but then the question becomes, what should you do first in terms of publishing? I like writing and podcasting because they feed each other and they've got long tails.”—RM“Sales conversations are always fun, ‘cause they’re very consultative—it’s like I’m getting to know them.”—JS“Selling authority is three things: it's publishing, it’s developing your authority circle and it's having sales conversations. It's selling without selling.” –RMLink: The Authority Code
Profit Matters
Why profit is the most important measure of how your business is doing—even when profits are not your purpose.The difference between relying on vanity metrics and your bottom line to show you how you’re doing.Measuring impact vs. measuring revenue and what you need to build so they grow in tandem.How to avoid short-term thinking while still keeping your eye on your profit line.The value of reliability in your profit generation—and what that buys you in your business and your ability to make an impact.Quotables“You can’t buy Cheerios with likes on Twitter.”—JS“My concern sometimes with these giant lists is that they don't have this commonality in the audience that is going to help you grow your business.”—RM“You can measure impact. And that's a great thing to measure, but you can't eat it for dinner.”—JS“Once you run the long-term profit numbers, then you can make a wise-for-you investment decision. This is a good idea, a bad idea, or I'm not sure. Maybe I need to test it more.”—RM“I always notice when businesses basically tank because some cost cutter becomes the CEO—like the COO or the CFO becomes the CEO—and they stop investing in innovation.”—JS“You can't cut your way to innovation. You can't cut your way to being the industry leader. It just doesn't work that way.”—RM“If you're going to call yourself a business, then you need to have profits. Even though profits aren't your purpose, they still need to be there.”—JS“Until there's some kind of reliability built into your revenue model, your business is really hard to sustain.”—RM
Leveling Up Your Systems
A new way to think about big projects based on how you work best—and the value of absolute clarity with your plan.What happens when you fall into flow on a big project that needs room to breathe.The unintended consequences of changing your environment.How to find the system(s) that will work for you—and why you don’t need to worry if they look entirely different than what works for someone else.Adopting the mindset of a creator—and aligning it with your daily habits.Quotables“It's as if you're going into battle, but you're going to battle against yourself.”—RM“I felt like I was on this path that I had wanted to be on for so long and I was finally doing it. So it was its own energy source.”—RM“I left this environment where I had lots of uninterrupted time. Switched to an environment where I'm interrupted all the time and didn't recognize or take into consideration the effect that would have on things that I already had in motion.”—JS“I don't want to stop. I want to just keep it, once you get into the zone and get over that resistance, fear, and you're in the zone, it's like a drug.”—JS“Once you have the boundary, you can all work with and around the boundary. But if it's not set, we're not going to work around it.”—RM“The thing that does motivate me is streaks and being able to tick off a check box next to the thing I was supposed to do today.”—JS “We all deserve to be able to carve out a space to produce this kind of work. It goes with the authority space.”—RM“It's a big undertaking and it's not something that you can just imagine is going to work itself out.”—JS
Designing Your Authority Circle
What’s an Authority Circle and why you need one.The role of your rat pack, apostles and tribal leaders and how to enlist them in your cause.Earning apostles for your work and connecting with influential tribal leaders.How selling your authority becomes more focused and simple once you clearly identify your circle. How to think about your Authority Circle and enlist them in spreading your vision, even if you’ve always thought of them as competitors.Quotables“It's a wild process, writing a book. It's a marathon for sure.”—JS“The big problem that an authority circle solves is you have somebody else working on your behalf all the time.”—RM“A good friend will bail you out of jail. A great friend will be in jail with you.”—JS“Apostles are the people who are spreading the word on your vision, the revolution you're seeing for the world, because they believe.”—RM“The thing with the apostles that is different than super fans is apostles will occasionally challenge you in a good, polite, constructive way.”—JS“You're looking for a way to take what you know, and apply it to the tribal leader’s specific audience.”—RM“If you're really thinking about making a big cultural change, you better have these apostles and tribal leaders who - at least partially - agree with the mission.”—JS“When you have your authority circle, what you're doing in a very small but important way is that you're connecting; you’re building connective tissue with all these different people and they're going to help you.”—RM
Sales Meeting = Sample Engagement
How to set expectations and boundaries in the initial sales meeting (and why that’s critical to the progression of your project).Why the client isn’t always right or always wrong—and how to adopt a mindset that allows you to keep the outcomes front and center.Finding socially acceptable ways to push back when the client(s) starts leading down a path that doesn’t serve the outcome.Getting to the point where you believe you don’t need this client, this project—and why having a safety net is crucial.Why sales interviews are auditions for the client where you get to be the casting director.Quotables“You've got two different kinds of expertise that are coming together in this sales interview to see if there's a good fit between where you want to go.”—JS“You're teaching them (in the sales meeting) how to think strategically about your area of expertise and how it applies to their business.”—RM“You want to open their eyes to the fact that there's a reason they're calling an expert and it could be that they made a fundamentally bad decision way up front.”—JS“Our job is to hold the vision for the project…When you do that, it gets a lot easier to deal with things that are really more of a personality conflict, or a power play.”—RM“It's about finding socially acceptable ways to say no—to push back. And it's all in their best interest…it's all about the success of the project.”—JS“You have to get to that point where you say okay, if this is not the right fit client, I'm not going to do this.”—RM“These sales interviews—you could think of them as an audition for the client. That's how I look at them, like an audition for the client, which frames it with me in the judge seat.”—JS“Everybody needs a safety net. I promise you the second you truly get to that headspace, your meetings start to change and you get better.”—RM
Guest Highlights From 200 Episodes
The definition of authority and the challenges in building it.How to think about and price different products and services based on how they contribute to your overall business model.The challenges of bringing new ideas to market and developing sustainable habits to keep growing your business.The role of trust in building authority (and your business).Why clients value outcomes above all else.Quotables“The McKinsey trap is you're getting paid X number of dollars at McKinsey, and you realize they're marking you up for X. So you quit McKinsey and go out on your own and you can't even get paid a quarter.”—Seth Godin“I don't worry so much about the revenue from the books. What I look at is how it supports the other things that I do. I'm being paid to do it (webinars) because I'm an expert in this field. And so I have an entire business model that is set on giving away stuff for free and making good money doing it”—Jill Konrath“I only want to release things that seem like they can gain traction quickly without putting a ton of work or doing like paid acquisition for them.”—Paul Jarvis“We do not rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems.”—James Clear“You should see how picky I am about taking on a client. It's crazy…I was just doing the generic thing that all clients look like good clients. But now I do this really specialized thing. And I only take you on if you fit my target perfectly.”—April Dunford“The I, the last factor in the numerator (of the trust equation) stands for intimacy, which is an interesting and unusual word in the business context, but it goes to…do I feel safe and secure sharing things with you?”—Charles Green“You have to bring rigor to it (your passion business). You have to bring discipline. You have to work really hard. Honestly, a lot of it can be less easy because when you're doing something you really care about, it's going to be maybe even harder than doing a job that someone else told you to do.”—Adam Davidson“Having a small child, I said, I cannot take any more unpaid work. I have no more time left in my calendar. So I put a call out for sponsors (of my podcast). I asked, four people to sponsor the show, all four said, yes. And that's the moment when I looked at my husband and I said, so people are paying me money to do a thing.”—Sarah Peck“It really is the outcomes that people want. That's the way it is with all transformations. Inputs don't matter—only outcomes.”—Joe Pine