Creative Warriors

Earning a living is something that most of us have to do. Many people dream of being their own boss but often stay in a job that they don’t love, because they think they have security. Sometimes this works out fine and sometimes that security is ripped out from underneath us. This is why I’m such an advocate of self-employment.    My guest today feels the same way. Fawn Germer is a best-selling author and global leadership speaker. She left a job that she thought was very secure and ended up writing her first book. This book earned her an entire file full of rejection letters. She hung in there and not only got published, but the book became an Oprah book.    Fawn is the author of nine books including the Oprah book Hard Won Wisdom and her new book Coming Back. She has been a keynote speaker for more than 80 Fortune 500 companies and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize four times for her work as an investigative reporter. She has interviewed some of the most accomplished leaders of our time.    We talk about

Is your brand referable? Many brands and businesses ask for referrals, but what if your brand was so distinctive and top of mind that people got excited to talk about it without any incentive? If that’s the case, you have a referable brand. This episode is all about what makes a referable brand and things you can do so that your brand is referable.    Michael Roderick is the CEO of Small Pond Enterprises which helps thoughtful givers become thought leaders by making their brands referable, their messaging memorable, and their ideas unforgettable. Michael is here to share his framework for making your brand referable. He goes into how it’s all about taking A.I.M. or focusing on accessibility, influence, and memory.    We talk about making your brand stand out in an authentic way that is easy to understand and easy to share. We talk about the questions you should ask and important factors that drive referable brands. Michael dives into the language, emotion, simplicity, and structure that can make your brand st

We get it. Last year was a s*%tshow. We are so over it. In order to emerge strong in 2021, we need to not have last year's conversation. Pivoting, the new normal, challenges, virtual......all that. Now we need to have conversations about the right mindset and right strategies to emerge strong. Having been through a couple of crisis', I share a few ideas on how you can emerge strong in 2021

One thing most businesses have in common, especially when it comes to marketing, is they need to get noticed. The attention of followers and potential customers is the key to marketing success. What if you could drastically increase your followers? What if your product or business was at the top of everybody's mind? This recognition would ultimately lead to more sales and business success.    It's actually possible to create legitimate recognition through hype. This is the process of getting more eyeballs on your business by generating and leveraging hype for positive purposes. Hype can be used to create legitimate business success. It can be used to help people. It can also be a catalyst for effecting positive change in your community.    Michael Schein is the author of The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World’s Greatest Propagandists, Self-Promoters, Cult Leaders, Mischief Makers, and Boundary Breakers. He is here today to talk about how recognition and hype can be used for legitim

Join 18,000 subscribers looking to do "business with a soul" and sign up to receive my Self-Employed Nutshell Newsletter! Sign up here!   Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching Support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDx LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Having reviewed hundreds of websites, I can tell you 98% of websites are not. Fill out the simple LINGO Review application and I'll take a look at your website. I'll email you a few suggestions to improve your brand message to attract more of your ideal customers. Fill out the application today and let's get your business speaking the right LINGO! Make sure YOUR voice is heard as a self-employed business owner and add your name to the Voices of the Self-Employed advocacy group! A grassroots movement to protect your rights and

Becoming an entrepreneur is exciting. Most new entrepreneurs and small business people have big dreams and big ideas. This enthusiasm is important when it comes to having the drive and determination to get things off the ground, but it’s also important to keep the fundamentals in mind. Avery Swartz is the author of the best-selling book See You on the Internet: Building Your Small Business with Digital Marketing.   Avery is a digital marketing expert, and her book is all about starting with the fundamentals and using a framework to plan and execute a successful digital marketing strategy for small and large businesses. She’s here today to talk about how her proven framework along with iteration can lead to a successful digital marketing plan before and after launching your small business.    The information in Avery's book is especially relevant for small business owners. We work through the steps in her framework beginning with the first thing you need to do before anything else. Then we talk about the indiv

What do entrepreneurs and comedians have in common? Turns out a lot. From having a strategic mindset to having the determination to keep going, there are so many useful parallels between business and comedy that can benefit entrepreneurs. In my keynote speeches, I often talk about how comedians know how to carve out their niche and attract their ideal audience. Sound familiar?    Today, I talk with Peter McGraw who happens to be an expert on the cross innovation between business and comedy. He introduces us to concepts like architecting a reversal, liminal space, and constraints. There are so many things that good comedians do that entrepreneurs can benefit from. We break it all down in this eye opening episode along with examples and explanations that bring it all home.    Peter McGraw is a behavioral economist who teaches MBAs. He’s a professor of marketing and psychology, and he teaches graduate classes in behavioral economics. He also speaks at Fortune 500 companies and universities around the world. He’s

The last year has been hard on all of us. But, in 2020 we learned that life is valuable, that we are valuable and our time is valuable. I want to help you make this year about realizing your value and how to translate that into your business. Let’s make this year the year you get paid your full value, because of the value of what you do for others, so that you can live life having time for what you value most!

Overwhelmed in a world with endless channels to promote our business, describe our vision, and connect with other people, it’s hard to know where to start. LinkedIn is not your mother’s LinkedIn anymore - you’ve been thinking about it all wrong! It has evolved into a storytelling platform, the perfect place for personal brand professionals, and a space that is designed to facilitate a deep connection to your personal brand story.   It’s important to not just focus on your job position or title. LinkedIn’s power lies in that it is searchable, but most people are not looking for a CEO or founder. Instead, talk about who you are, who you’re for, and how you make an impact. Use LinkedIn as a way for your ideal audience to get to know you and trust you as the person that will solve their problems and fulfill their needs.   To dive deeper into leveraging LinkedIn as an unparalleled storytelling platform - I’ve brought on writer, speaker, and educator, Marissa Polselli.   Marissa Polselli is a speak

Businesses, big and small, are having to make important decisions and impose rules to keep customers and employees safe as well as follow local laws during the COVID pandemic. While I respect businesses remaining autonomous and paving their own way, often they are inadvertently creating tension between the business and customers. Learn the simple solution to make rules that people will follow.   Join 18,000 subscribers looking to do "business with a soul" and sign up to receive my Self-Employed Nutshell Newsletter! Sign up here!   Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching Support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDx LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Having reviewed hundreds of websites, I can tell you 98% of websites are not. Fill out the simple LINGO Review application and I'll

Is it possible that you have fallen out of love with your business? Have you started to resent the long hours and years of hard work? It’s easy to feel trapped and overwhelmed - you don’t want to give up, and you don’t have to. You just need to invest in your business by adjusting the way you think about it, and also the way you run it.   It’s important to learn how to leverage your brain and manage your mind so that you can turn your company into a scalable asset that can run without you and has value beyond the revenue. Then, whether you choose to keep your business or sell it when you’re ready, it’s a win either way because you have all that freedom as a business owner.   To show you how to take back control of your business and create your future on purpose - I’ve brought on business mindset coach, Debbie King.   Debbie King has a Master’s degree in Leadership from Georgetown University, and more than twenty years of experience as an entrepreneur and a coach. She successfully transforme

A truth in business is often what got us to where we are won't get us to where we want to go. This is going to be particularly important when it comes to customer service. Good customer service isn't good enough anymore. Excellent customer service is better but doesn't separate you from your competition. What will move you forward then? What will make your business stand out and be memorable? Listen in so that you're prepared for the future of customer service.   Join 18,000 subscribers looking to do "business with a soul" and sign up to receive my Self-Employed Nutshell Newsletter! Sign up here!   Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching Support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDx LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Having reviewed hundreds of websites, I can tell you 98% of

No one likes change, but it is inevitable and we must grow and adapt to our every evolving world. Typically, unwillingness to change comes from a fear of learning a new way to do things. For example, adjusting to a smart phone from previous cell phone models took a whole lot of learning; but now they are the most efficient and powerful tool we have. As a business owner, it is absolutely necessary to follow the trends of the generation and, when possible, grow with them instead of trying to catch up.

The definition of creativity is traditionally based in the arts, but if you’re an entrepreneur, you know it takes a creative mind to turn an idea into a business. It’s important not to limit yourself by believing you can only be right-brained or left-brained, as this isn’t always the case. You can be both analytical and artistic, creative and methodical. Creativity is problem solving, it’s making something from nothing and if you have started your own business, you’ve already done just that.   Try to maintain a constant state of learning and curiosity. Exposing yourself to a variety of people and ideas is a great way to stimulate your creativity. Go to conferences and lectures to educate yourself, go to plays and concerts and visit museums to be inspired and find new ways of doing things.   To dive deeper into how to turn an idea into a successful business - I’ve brought on director, photographer, writer, and professor Jeffrey Madoff.   Jeffrey Madoff is the founder and CEO of Madoff Productions

Building a successful brand is about so much more than your product itself. It’s about selling the mood your product creates; the experience, from start to finish. From the moment you enter a website and read the description of a product, to the messaging, the packaging, the vessel - it all needs to have a unified presence. This is how you captivate and inspire your client, through storytelling and connecting them to your product.   When designing all aspects of your brand - product, packaging, social media, etc - it’s important to pull from what inspires you. Your family history, travel, or current surroundings will help influence the vision of your brand. Storytelling through colors, design, fragrance, or sound can connect all of your inspirations and tie everything in your brand together.   To help us better understand how to create a successful and unified brand - I’ve brought on travel and lifestyle expert, and founder of Harlem Candle Company, Teri Johnson.   Teri, a native Texan, decided

We live in world of limitations in business. There are only so many days in a year and hours in a day. Our calendars have limitations and our to-do lists max out. We bounce off the walls of these boundaries like a pinball machine. What if there was another way? A way to think unlimited instead of by the limits that seem to be imposed on us. There is. Have a listen.   Join 18,000 subscribers looking to do "business with a soul" and sign up to receive my Self-Employed Nutshell Newsletter! Sign up here!   Contact Jeffrey - Website Coaching Support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDx LincolnSquare video and please share!  Resources - Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Having reviewed hundreds of websites, I can tell you 98% of websites are not. Fill out the simple LINGO Review application and I'll take a look at your websi