Do you have two hands and a willingness to work hard?

Good news! You can make some money.

You have skills and experience that others don’t have. You can use those skills to do work for people to make some money.

Client work is the best place to start and it’s the fastest way to make money in the short term.

Now, you may have heard some horror stories about working with clients, but this doesn’t have to be your future. We’re going to tell you how to avoid all of those headaches right from the beginning.

What you have to say has already been said. Here’s the good news: say it anyway.

It’s a new time, a new place, and a new context. Share your message and don’t hold back.

It takes hearing new information 7 times for us to retain it. That means if someone else has already said it, say it anyway. If you’ve already said it, say it again.

Your voice matters. Context is everything and your unique perspective makes what you have to say new and valuable for someone. More than likely, what you have to say will resonate with MANY people.

If you feel like you have nothing new to say or that other smarter people have said things better than you ever could, listen to this episode.

You did good work and you know your customer or client is happy, but it’s another thing entirely to turn that great experience into an awesome testimonial.

What should you ask? How should you ask? When should you ask?

What if the testimonial they provide isn’t very good?

We answer those questions and also give you exactly what to say to get testimonials that will win you new business.

You’re doing all the right things: providing value up front, helping people, giving them clarity, and building a relationship.

Now you need to make the transition to actually selling something—and it feels awkward.

There’s a reason it feels awkward (but it doesn’t have to).

If you’ve ever edited a video before, you know there are different transition effects you can use between video clips. Most commonly, one clip will cut straight to the next. But you can also use a transition. A transition isn’t instant but rather gradual. It’s not overly long—maybe just a second or two—but it’s enough for the viewer to follow along.

If you say, “Nice to help you, buy my thing,” it’s no wonder you feel awkward. You need a transition. Done right, it can feel natural. It should feel natural!

This topic applies to your conversations as well as your emails and other content.

Today, we primarily talk about making the transition from providing value to selling in your email autoresponders (as a continuation of our sales funnel series).

After recording what you’ll hear as next week’s episode, I shared a thought I had with Ben in the “after show”.

Among a number of things, we talked about a concept Gary Vaynerchuk frequently stresses: self awareness.

I’ve noticed a pattern personally over the years where I will develop my skills until I reach the top 10% in a given field and lose interest shortly after. I then systematize what I’ve built and move on.

It seems the common denominator across everything has been my fondness for systematization and creating processes for things. This proclivity shows itself in programs I’ve made such as Hiring Bootcamp, Value-Based Pricing, and 30 Days to Better Writing, as well as with pursuits like computer repair, web design, and spending 9,000 hours doing hand lettering.

On the topic of self awareness, this line of thinking lead to my recognition that maybe I’m not meant to be “the person doing the thing”, but rather “the person helping someone do their thing”. In other words, the person focused on the “business of business”.

We get into an interesting discussion about supporting our spouses’ entrepreneurial ventures, and overall it was a fun talk.

It’s a more raw and conversational show (since it was originally “after show” banter, after all), but it seemed appropriate to share it on a sabbatical episode as food for thought. At the very least, it may give you some ideas.

We’re continuing our series on sales funnels and picking up where we left off in last week’s episode on lead magnets.

Now that you have a way for people to subscribe to your email list, you need an autoresponder to continue building the relationship with that person.

How do you deliver value automatically? What should you provide first—and in what order? How often should you send? What about broadcasts? We’ll cover all of these and even more questions in today’s show.

On our last two blog posts, we’ve been getting email subscriber conversion rates of 20%–30% on thousands of visitors!

I think we’ve cracked the code and found something that’s working. But it requires being able to make lead magnets FAST. This is a skill you need to build.

We’re going to help you get more email subscribers from the content you work so hard to create!

Listener John Valles wrote in and asked about podcast burnout (UPDATE: he actually illustrated the featured image for this episode!).

“I feel so tired right now. I feel like my head just can’t take anymore learning right now.”

Ever feel that way? Or maybe for you it’s social media. It just feels like too much for you right now. It’s like a firehose of overwhelm.

It might be time for a reset.

You know you should be making more videos.

Spare me the excuses—I’ve heard them all before. (Actually, I’ve made them all myself before, that’s how I know.)

Let’s get right down to it: how can you create more videos consistently?

There’s friction in your setup. There’s friction in your mind. Things are holding you back from something that you know is not only possible but beneficial.

You can make more videos—and you can do it without a bunch of free time, fancy equipment, or needing to buy any new gear.

All you need is a mindset shift, some planning, and a little trick you’ve heard us talk about before: chaining habits.