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Episode 40: Finding Your Creative Freedom with founder of Dazey LA Dani Nagel

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Dani is a self taught illustrator, graphic designer, and photographer. She  graduated at age 19 with a degree in fashion design, but as lover of both art and fashion she combined these two passions to make a career in apparel graphics.
For the past 6 years she has been designing for many notable companies both freelance and full time. Some of these companies include Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Forever21, Truly Madly Deeply, Mate the Label, Amuse Society, Gypsy Warrior, Show me your Mumu, The Laundry Room, Top Knot Goods, Electric West, Midnight Rider, Not Another Label, Current/Elliott, Macy’s, Pac Sun, Hot Topic, and more.
While all that was great, her true goal was to have full creative freedom with a label of her own. After years of daydream and doubt, she took the leap and created Dazey LA. She draws every tee by hand and does all the photography you see throughout the website and instagram. Check out all her other work at www.daniroxanne.com, @graphicteegirl and @daniroxannephoto!
 


Show Highlights

  • Sometimes “dream jobs” aren’t actually the job you’ve been dreaming of.
  • It’s easy to get bored when you don’t feel challenged.
  • When your creativity is suppressed and micromanaged, it creates this urgency to want to start your own business.
  • Creating boundaries in your creative process can help you stay focused and get clear on what you want to create.
  • Think of what would you want to see as a struggling creator? That’s the kind of content you build to help serve your community.
  • Empowerment begins from within. You must first love yourself before you can truly love the world around you.
  • You don’t have to base your worth on what everyone else thinks. You can be proud of who you are and what you do, without the approval of others.

 

Episode 39: How Creating Every Day Built a Multi-Million Dollar Business, with Founder and CEO of ConvertKit Nathan Barry

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Who is Nathan Barry?

Nathan Barry is the Founder and CEO of ConvertKit, an email marketing tool for creators. Before ConvertKit’s growth took off, he worked on building iPhone apps, writing books, and coding websites. Nathan got his start as a web and software designer, but soon became obsessed with the world of audience building and book publishing. During that time he wrote 3 books (The App Design Handbook, Designing Web Applications, and Authority) and 2 courses (Photoshop for Web Design and Building Profitable Audiences).

In October 2014, Nathan made the decision to walk away from the book and training business and focus full-time on ConvertKit (at the time we had just $1,000/month in revenue and now we have $770,000/month). Since then we’ve grown 300x and have an amazing team, product, and customers. And I feel honored to be apart of the ConvertKit team!

Over the past year, I have learned so much from Nathan. And in this episode we really dive into some big topics like: the importance of asking why and questioning the “normal” ways of doing things, the true gift of a side hustle, the inside look of how Nathan wrote 3 books in 2 years, how working in public, creating every day, and teaching everything you know are a key parts of entrepreneurship, knowing when to shut down or double down, and how to tap into vulnerability and use it as a way to overcome fear and connect with others.

“Challenge yourself to ask “Why?” before you do something just because it’s what has always been done.” – @nathanbarry


Listen above – Direct Download – Subscribe on iTunes

  • Look at goals/achievements like a set amount of work, instead of a set amount of time.
  • Challenge yourself to ask “Why?” before you do something just because it’s what has always been done.
  • Age is only a factor in your success if you let it be.
  • What daily habits can you build that will allow you to accomplish your goals?
  • First create the habits and then your accomplishments from those habits will be a natural byproduct.
  • One of the best ways to build an audience is to work in public and tell your community what you’re working on and why.
  • People trust you when you’re teaching them how to do something they care about.
  • In regards to experts — they don’t teach because they’re experts, they’re experts because they teach.
  • There are times when you should shut down your business or side hustle because it’s just not working.
  • When deciding whether or not to shut down or double down, ask yourself these two questions:
    • Do you still want this as much today as the day you started?
    • Have you given this every possible chance to succeed?
  • Does your effort and actions match your vision and ambition?
  • Use a side hustle to experiment and learn about things that you’re interested in. You don’t have to pressure it into something you don’t want it to be.
  • You can’t truly connect or trust someone unless they’re able to get vulnerable with you.
  • I wanted to be measured based on the quality and quantity of my work, not how much time I spent sitting in a chair at an office.
  • It’s hard to do the same level of meaningful work on the road compared to you in your office in a controlled environment.

W: ConvertKit.com + NathanBarry.com

T: @NathanBarry

YT: @NathanBarry

 

Episode 38: The Emotions of an Entrepreneur, with Business Coach Alisha Byrd

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Who is Alisha Byrd?

Alisha Byrd is a business coach dedicated to helping creative women live their life & create their business on purpose. She’s a self-published author of “The Blogpreneur” and is currently working on her second book, “Living Over Existing.” Alisha is also the creator behind several physical products created to help online business owners organize and build their brands. Through her work, Alisha empowers women to uncover their voice, ditch fear, gain clarity & begin making money doing what they love.

In this episode, you will learn the art of knowing when to quit something you love to grow to the next level, the importance of building a strong brand as a beginning entrepreneur, why it’s key to give up control in order to grow, how to view fear as just an emotion, and how to overcome negative thoughts and opinions of others.

“Fear is just an emotion. Just like sadness, happiness, and loneliness. It will come and it will fade away.” – @thealishanicole

 

Listen above – Direct Download – Subscribe on iTunes

  • The more I shared about the vulnerable aspects of running a business, the more people began to engage with me.
  • As an entrepreneur, you feel everything. Every triumph, every failure, every dollar made and lost.
  • It got to the point where I had to choose between my sanity or a paycheck. So I chose myself. I chose my sanity.
  • Branding is more than just a logo and a website. It’s your story, it’s the reason why you do what you do, and it’s the people you serve.
  • When I gave up the need for control, the right choices for my business long term became much clearer.
  • Get strategic about the content you’re creating. Are you creating a hobby or a business?
  • How do you plan to monetize your side project?
  • I don’t want to be another internet coach regurgitating information I read online. I want to experiment, test, and live out different approaches before I ever teach any of it to others.
  • Your brand is your business’s identity to the rest of the world.
  • Once you zero in on your brand and who you want to serve, your website design, coloring, and messaging gets easier to create because you know who you’re creating for.
  • Fear is just an emotion. Just like sadness, happiness, and loneliness. It will come and it will fade away.
  • The people who are talking negatively about you are only doing it because they are too afraid to step out and do something they love for themselves.
  • I became an entrepreneur to have the freedom to chose my own hours and lifestyle. Not to be glued to my computer.

 

W: thealishanicole.com

IG: @thealishanicole

Episode 37: The Power of Vulnerability, with Founder of She Is Light, Elise Hodge

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Who is Elise Hodge?

Hailing from the sunny Gold Coast, Australia, Elise Hodge is the founder of She is Light and the Flourish on Instagram course.

Elise started She is Light on Instagram in late 2015 with a mission is to empower young women to understand their worth and pursue purpose-filled lives. With her background in Public Relations and Media, Elise harnessed the power of Instagram to rapidly grow the She is Light community, attracting young women from around the world. With her expertise in Instagram strategy, it was natural for her create an Instagram course, Flourish on Instagram, to help others use the platform to attract their unique audience too.

Elise believes life is too short not to pursue your passions – it’s this mantra that led her to quit her full-time job in turn for a part-time job and more flexibility, allowing her to work on what she loves! With a whole lot of tenacity and a bit of faith, Elise is working on developing She is Light to be the go-to online community for young women around the world.

In this episode, you will see the value of creating a community for people to feel safe and heard online, how to use tools like social media to really understand and connect with your audience, how to pursue a vulnerable lifestyle, how to use intentional thinking to make move in your careers and life, and the importance of separating the feelings of failure from comparison.

“There’s a movement of people who are striving to be more authentic on the internet. Will you be apart of it?” – @SheIsLight

Listen above – Direct Download – Subscribe on iTunes

  • We were created to be a light to the world and to each other, to lift up, encourage, and make a difference in the world.
  • I had a concept and I ran with it. It wasn’t about figuring every aspect out before starting, it was just about starting.
  • Working with women and having successful relationships can be hard. That’s why female community is so important.
  • Millennials aren’t afraid of pursuing their dreams because they want to do fulfilling work.
  • Use social media to start conversations. Ask questions and leave the door open to hear their thoughts and opinions.
  • There’s a movement of people who are striving to be more authentic on the internet.
  • Thinking about and writing down your thoughts, worries, and dreams might be easy, but sharing them in an open forum online is much scarier.
  • You build trust by being real and honest. People need to know there’s a person behind the business.
  • People are searching for “me too” moments. That’s what it means to share and be authentic – creating “me too” moments.
  • It’s hard to serve people you don’t know and they don’t know you. You have to tear down the walls separating you from everyone else.
  • You don’t need to share everything. The internet is not our counselor, it’s a tool.
  • Dream jobs take years to build.
  • What do you want life to be like in 5 years? How do you want to feel?
  • Nothing is a waste. Every job, every college course, every mistake – they are building your story and your experience to lead you to where you’re suppose to be.
  • When’s the last time you set aside time to think? Just to think? To dream?
  • Nothing happens when you don’t make time for it.
  • What is something you’ve learned in the last year that people continually ask you about that you could teach them?
  • You only have to be a few steps ahead of other people in order to teach them something.
  • Your content isn’t for everyone. Focus on who it’s for and don’t pay attention to who it’s not for.

 

W: SheIsLight.com

IG: @SheIsLight

 

Episode 36: Living a Digital Nomad Lifestyle with Pro-Blogger and Entrepreneur Yaro Starak

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Yaro Starak is the author of the Blog Profits Blueprint and founder of the Entrepreneurs-Journey.com blog. He began blogging over ten years ago initially as a hobby, however as his income from blogging surpassed $10,000 a month, he decided his future lay in this new publishing medium. Since then Yaro has used his blog as a platform to sell over $2 million dollars in ebooks, online courses and membership sites.

Today Yaro is a mentor to thousands of experts, authors, coaches, consultants, speakers and trainers, teaching how to turn knowledge into a profitable online business. Yaro helps people set up their own “Blog Sales Funnel”, a system that combines blogging with email marketing to build a platform to sell digital training products on autopilot.

Yaro has a proven track record of results, with his “graduate bloggers” going on to make thousands of dollars – some even millions – in such diverse niches as book design, ADHD counseling, acne treatment, BMX bikes, skiing, cars, sports news, speed reading, real estate, television production and fat loss.

In this episode, you will learn  – how to view failures as experiments, the importance of knowing the why behind starting a business, the pros and cons of living a digital nomad lifestyle, how easy it is to travel and work at the same time, and how to say no to opportunities that don’t serve your long term goals.


Listen above – Direct Download – Subscribe on iTunes

  • Don’t think of them as failures, think of them as experiments.
  • It’s hard to grow an audience when you don’t already have an audience.
  • Fall in love with the process of building and creating – it’s easier to take action on your goals if you’re hooked on creating.
  • It’s important to prove to yourself that you can be financially independent from your own business.
  • Turn down opportunities that you think you “should” take to make space for better ones that align with your long term goals.
  • Two simple life giving questions: What do you want to do and why do you want to do it?
  • You choose the path of your business. You solely choose the direction it heads in.
  • If you do good work helping people, it can become the platform for a business.
  • There are two sides to every lifestyle. Before you pursue something, explore the good and bad behind that lifestyle.
  • Build a business around the kind of life you want to live.
  • When your business is sustaining itself, you don’t feel the need to say yes to every opportunities.
  • What do you do? Why do you do it? Who do you do it for? Do the answers to these questions align with who you want to be long term?
  • No one is an island, you need people to grow.

Blog Profits Blueprint – How to earn a living from your blog or online business

 

W: Entrepreneurs-journey.com

IG: @YaroStarak

 

Episode 35: Owning Your Zone of Genius with Business Strategist Shannan Scott

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Who is Shannan Scott?

Shannan Scott is a Canadian girl living life out loud in California who recently broke all the rules of average by quitting her 5+ year corporate career and diving head first into being her own boss — all in the name of living a more intentional & inspired life.

She’s a small business strategist, podcast host, and the founder of the Made For More Collective™ who helps visionary entrepreneurs turn their potential into performance, implement forward motion & bring their big ideas to life — ideas that not only exist in the world, but make it better. Shannan combines her background in event management with her creative spirit & strategic brain to paint the big picture and sail through the small details of purposeful plans & projects in business. Whether that’s campaign or brand specific, she loves nothing more than partnering with her clients to map it out & make it happen.

In this episode, you will learn the importance of identifying your strengths to tap into your zone of genius, how to break through the corporate mindset as a creative entrepreneur, discovering a life of intention and how to live one, and how to take your ideas from concept to completion.

“You were made for more. Refuse to settle for average, if you choose to push on, you will find a life that lights you up.” – @ShannanScott

 


Listen above – Direct Download – Subscribe on iTunes

  • Don’t focus on teaching everyone, just teach the people who are a few steps behind you.
  • It’s so easy to imitate the success of other’s instead of owning your own Zone of Genius.
  • Own your experience in all aspects of life and find a way to integrate that into what you’re creating now. Your past is key to your future.
  • Finding your zone of genius takes digging into your past to find a common thread of interests coupled with identifying your key strengths.
  • Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is vital for you to grow into the person you were born to be.
  • Your story, skills set, strengths, and experience all play into finding your zone of genius.
  • You were made for more. Refuse to settle for average, if you choose to push on, you will find a life that lights you up.
  • It’s not about doing all the things, it’s about identifying and doing the things that matter most.
  • You are in control of everything you choose to feel, do, and act upon.
  • Half finished projects that have full fledged potential but you’re trying to do them all at once will never work.
  • Do your ideas aligns with your goals?
  • There are so many different paths that end up at the same destination. There isn’t always just one way to get to where you want to go.

Do you have a lot of half executed ideas that have full fledged potential? Download Shannan’s Make It Happen Roadmap to take those ideas from 0 to 100! 

W: shannanscott.com

IG: @shannanscott