Category: Feisty Friday

The month of May marks a major milestone in my biz, as I’m celebrating my 10th anniversary. Back then, I was the mom of a soon to be one-year-old who didn’t want to go back to her amazing, but fast-paced job. So I opted out and decided to do things a whole new way. Here are a few things I’ve been reflecting on that have made this all possible.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

• I can’t believe I’ve been in business 10 years, but at the same time there wasn’t another option when I left my full time job. (Well there was, but I wasn’t thrilled about those options.)
• I love the continuous learning aspect of running my own business and in hindsight I even love the bad experiences I’ve had along the way.
• Not having a website is not an excuse for not growing your business. For 8 years I had no website and still made it all work.
• Having a really strong personal network and focusing on delivering really great experiences for my clients has been my main strategy for business growth. Not fancy online tactics or anything fancy. The basics work.
• Your business will never be perfect, don’t wait around for it to get there before getting started.
  When you are the CEO, how you show up in the world is the most important thing in your business. (And newsflash, you’re the CEO whether you realize it or not.)
• Being myself and being genuine in my business is what has gotten me as far as I’ve come. No excuses or apologies.

[Tweet “Dishing up a few things I’ve learned from 10 years in biz. @magspatterson #feistyfriday”]

Links for this Episode:

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

When does too much of a good thing become, well, too much of a good thing? As business owners we’ve got freedom, but we’re also able to do whatever we please which means we can get carried away. That’s why I’m a big fan of of going on a hiatus, where you take a break from things in your business.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

• How my creative and idea hiatus last year came about and the advantages it had for my business.
• What my Fascinate test results say about my need to take a hiatus sometimes because I’m literally drowning in “good” ideas.
• Some ideas of what things to take a hiatus from – especially as we go into the Summer months!
• How your personality and business style can dictate what you should take a hiatus from because sometimes we can be our own worst enemy.
• How ‘too much of a good thing’ applies to your archetype and your business and what to do about it.

[Tweet “How a break may be exactly what you need says @magspatterson #feistyfriday”]

Links for this Episode:

Sign Up to Learn More About the Fascination Advantage System

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

Tough love and straight talk for those of you (um, me included) who rely heavily on Facebook for your business, because if it all goes away overnight, we’re going to have some big ol’ problems. In this bite-sized episode, I break down how to diversify and why building on “rented land” is a problem for the long-term.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

• How finding what I thought was my perfect vacation home relates to running your business on Facebook
• Most of us who have online businesses are very Facebook dependent
• I’m challenging you to get all of your eggs out of the Facebook basket and diversify, and I’ve got some tips for how we can do so
• Use your Facebook ads on Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc. Another platform may surprise you with its results for your business
• If you’re connected on Facebook, connect on other platforms also with the same people
• It’s not a matter of if Facebook will go away, it’s a matter of when it will go away

[Tweet “What if Facebook went away tomorrow? #feistyfriday with @magspatterson”]

Links for this Episode:

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

Business is so much easier when you approach a lot of what you’re doing as a test. The more you test, the more you correct and you’re on the road to success that much faster.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

• It’s so easy to stay paralyzed by fear of failure in your business and not do anything to grow
• Taking the action to fail actually can lead to success
• By failing spectacularly at launching my first group program, I learned how great I am at one on one coaching and why it works best for my business
• Everything we do in our business is like running a lab-it’s all about testing and failing and testing and succeeding
• What may work for one person may not work for another in the exact same business
• Why trying and failing in your business is like poker

[Tweet “It’s all a test. Be prepared to fail. New #feistyfriday from @magspatterson.”]

Links for this Episode:

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

Some truth telling and a true story about my first online course back in the day in today’s episode. Dishing up feisty thoughts on what “they” don’t tell you about running your online business amid the big promises and formulas.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

• When I entered the online world, I actually thought it would be easy to make money online – which we all know isn’t exactly true.
• The people who make millions online are the extreme exception, not the rule!
• When you only have influencers or early adopters, it’s very hard to scale your business; 1:1 work is really the fastest way to a profit.
• The very first something is launched in the software market, it isn’t an immediate success-you need to go through the cycle.
• Don’t be afraid to buck the trend and use what works for you!

[Tweet “Starting an online business – what they didn’t tell you. #feistyfriday”]

Links for this Episode:

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

Feisty Friday and today I’m sharing what I consider a cardinal sin of asking questions in a group setting. Asking basics that you could easily Google doesn’t cast you in the best light, so ask Google first, then your community, next.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

• Going to a community to ask a google-answerable question time after time is a waste of time (and makes you look bad).
• To be a good citizen of an online community, you need to make sure your question is helpful to others, not just all about you.
• If you use Google to teach yourself how to do something and don’t just have surface knowledge, you can just use that for your clients in the future.
• “Google first, community second!”

[Tweet “Don’t be this person in your online communities #feistyfriday with @magspatterson”]

Links for this Episode:

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

It’s the first episode of what I’m calling Feisty Friday where I tackle a trend, issue or question and break it down into practical, actionable steps.  This first one is addressing the focus of personal brands meaning let me talk about ME all the time, make marketing all about ME, and holy crackers, I really don’t give a flying anything about what you’re saying. You sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher and you’re missing the point. To make marketing meaningful, you need to make it about your community and your customers.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

• The focus of marketing has seemed to switch to being all about ‘me’
• What this comes down to is a case of bad storytelling
• The main question that should be answered in your story should be ‘what’s in it for me?’
• There is a simple fix, and I’ll explain it here
• There are many ways to make small changes in your story to help your marketing

[Tweet “News Flash! Personal brand doesn’t mean it’s all about you. Cut out the ME marketing @magspatterson”]

Links for this Episode:

Get the Storytelling Shortcut (Free Guide)

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group