Blog Talk Radio Tips for Mompreneurs
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I’ve really enjoyed hosting my radio show, The Mom Biz Coach Show, on Blog Talk Radio for the last year or so. I have been approached by many mom entrepreneurs who want me to mentor or coach them on how to start their own shows, so I thought I’d put together a short podcast on one of the hottest topics: how to find and manage guests for your show.
Just click on the link below to hear my advice on the following topics:
How to find guests for your show
How to prep your guests for their appearance on your show
How to engage your guests in conversation during the interview
What to do if you have technical difficulties, or if a guest doesn’t show up
Click below to listen!
Got a Blog Talk Radio Show of your own? Share below your suggestions for newbies or how you handled a particularly challenging interview.
If you are ready to get your show started and would like someone to walk you through it every step of the way, I can help. Just click here to learn about my Podcasting Mentoring Services.
5 Ways to Improve Your Business on a Micro-budget
Guest post by Mike McClure, Partner, Executive Creative Director & Social Media Director for The Yaffe Group
If you’re an entrepreneur or smaller business looking to get more business on a small to miniscule budget, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that with all the free and low cost tools available in the digital and social media world, you can be quite effective without spending a lot of money. The bad news? To make it work, you do need to invest a lot of time sprinkled with inspiration and innovation. Having a personality helps, too.
More good news: many individuals and companies are finding a lot of productive leads and connections through these channels. More bad news: it’s not a quick fix. It’s something you need to commit to and keep at. That doesn’t mean it will take you a year or two to see any results. But, it does mean you can’t just post a brilliant blog or open a Twitter account and expect the new business to start flooding through your doors.
Here’s 5 ways you can start improving your business without seriously hurting your bottom line:
1. Connect, connect, connect.
Use all the social networking tools available to you. Social networking is a great way to connect with people who may need your product or services. Just make sure you don’t start by broadcasting how great you are or trying to sell something. It’s like a cocktail party. Start with small talk; find out where you have common interests and where you can help them with their needs. It’s a good way to get to know someone you’ve never met before. Once they like and know you, they’ll be much more likely to want to do business with you.
I would suggest starting with LinkedIn if you haven’t gotten into any network. It’s the most business oriented site. Here’s a good post on how one business owner used LinkedIn to get a board of directors seat (http://bit.ly/21gfNB). From there, it’s a matter of preference and what type of business you’re in. You may want to start a Facebook fan page or personal page next. Or you may find the immediacy of Twitter is more to your liking. Here’s a good post by Lara Galloway on how she uses Twitter as one of her main new business tools (http://bit.ly/1wTAFo).
2. Answer Questions on LinkedIn
One the best features on LinkedIn is the Q&A section. Why? It gives you a chance to meet people out of your network, help them with a problem they have and display your expertise. Just go to the sections where questions are being asked on subjects that fit your business offerings and your area of expertise.
Here’s just one example of how that’s worked for me. I saw a question from a guy writing a book on social media. He was looking for examples of social media success stories. I told him about a campaign we’d done for one of our clients that had worked well. He liked it, we linked together and over the next 6 months had several conversations through LinkedIn messaging. This fall he was looking for judges for a big Blog Off competition his company was having. I volunteered and became part of an international “Dream Team” panel (http://bit.ly/6xs3XH) Besides the publicity of the contest itself, I will be listed in an upcoming book as one of the world’s top social media people, will be talked about on a Blog Talk Radio show that reaches millions and in video shows by one of Europe’s top providers of online content. Not bad for a small business owner in Detroit.
3. Use Blog Talk Radio
This is a free, easy way to create podcasts for your own enterprise. There are two ways you can use Blog Talk Radio to help your business. One is to sign up at blogtalkradio.com and host your own show. This way you can have your own radio talk show. You can invite guests who will speak on subject matters relevant to your audience or you can invite guests who represent companies you want to do business with. Or you can sometimes just speak on subjects you’re knowledgeable about and make those podcasts available to your potential clients. For an example of doing your own show, you can look at the Mom Biz Coach show. (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mombizcoach)
The second, and easier, way to use Blog Talk Radio is to volunteer your expertise to someone who has a show. Our head of Yaffe Direct, Michael Morin, went on the Chuck Talks Business show and had an hour long interview. It went well and, with Chuck’s permission, we downloaded the podcast and posted it on our Yaffe Tidbits site (http://www.yaffetidbits.com/podcasts/radio/morin_marketing.html). We then edited a 2-minute teaser of some of the best parts of the interview. We emailed the two minute version to a list of prospects along with a link to the full podcast. Within a few weeks we got several inquiries from potential clients who we never would have gotten to talk to otherwise.
4. Buy a Flip Camcorder
You can get a really nice Flip Camcorder for around $125; I’d also pop for the small tripod that’s about $20-25. The Flip is an extremely easy way to shoot, edit and post videos to your site, blog, Facebook fan page, YouTube channel or wherever you can add video to your online presence. Video is a way to really put a face on your business. You can simply set it up on the tripod, point it at yourself and record a video blog. You can also record and post client testimonials. (http://bit.ly/8UXVZ8) It’s also small and portable that you can carry it with you when you go to a conference, meeting, seminar, tweetup or wherever. At these events you can ask people’s opinions on whatever issues you’d like to cover for your clients/potential clients. It takes nothing to plug the Flip into your computer and use the included edit system to string together the comments you like and post that video to one of your sites. All this adds to both your content and your credibility.
5. Blog about potential clients
If you have a blog for your business (if you don’t, start one now), you can meet potential clients simply by asking them if you can interview them for an upcoming blog post. It’s a great way to meet and get to know someone in a non-sales environment (important note: don’t try and sell yourself or company during the interview). Who doesn’t like the idea of someone wanting to interview them for their expert opinion? More often than not, you’ll be able to find someone willing to talk about their business for the free publicity for both their company and themselves.
Even if you don’t get an interview, do research on the company and write a blog post about what they’re doing right as a company. Here’s an example of a post I wrote about Biggby Coffee. (http://bit.ly/6Hferc) After creating it, send the post to them. Even if it doesn’t peak their interest in you, they may link the post to their own site or blog. We still get traffic to our blog from companies that have linked to a post about them from many months ago.
There you have it. Five ideas that should get your business some attention without spending an arm and a leg. I’d say good luck, but it really is just a matter of good hard work.
To learn more about Mike McClure, The Yaffe Group and the great marketing work he does for his clients, visit his site and be sure to follow him on Twitter!
How to Reach Your Target Market
If you’re like many of the work-at-home-moms and mompreneurs I know and coach, you probably got into business for yourself despite your lack of an MBA in marketing. So figuring out how to get people to buy what you sell can be a bit like explaining what galaxies are and where they exist in time and space to an inquisitive seven-year-old.
I don’t have an MBA, either, but I’ve learned a lot from the school of “learning by doing.” Here is the methodology I teach my mom entrepreneurs to use to get more clients and make more money, without spending much of their money or time.
Make Sure Your Niche Is Narrow Enough
Most of the mom entrepreneurs who hire me as their coach are extremely resistant to choosing a narrow niche market. They want to market themselves to “moms” or to “parents” or to “middle-aged women” or “empty-nesters.” It’s always better to be the big fish in a smaller pond (“I coach mompreneurs who have been in business less than five years and are raising small children”) than a tiny fish in a big pond (“I’m a business coach for entrepreneurs.”). Simply put, you can make a much bigger splash in a little pond and get visibility you would be hard-pressed to earn in the big pond.
Identify Your Ideal Client
Once you have a narrow niche, you can focus on the individuals in it. Think of your ideal clients. How old are they? Where do they live? What do they read? What do they spend money on? Where do they shop? Do they buy for themselves or for family members? Do they hold the purse strings? Do they make enough money to afford your product/services? Are they the type people who already value what you have to offer?
Identify Their Top Challenges and Needs
Now, with as specific a person in mind as you can muster, think about their life. What’s good about it? What’s not? What do they keep tolerating? What drives them nuts? What would make their life better, easier, more fun? If you can identify their biggest problems, then you can tailor your products and services to solve them. People want to feel better, be happier, live longer, be healthier, etc. What can you and your business do to help them with this?
Create Products and Services That Solve Their Problems
Knowing this, you’ll be on your way to creating valuable content in the form of products and services your clients will willingly pay for. You’ve tailored your business solutions to meet their top needs and challenges. This isn’t just marketing—you’re listening to your market, doing market research within your specific niche, and you’re creating solutions to their problems. Your clients will pay for people and things that make their problems go away. With this understanding of your client’s needs, you’re well on the path to creating a great marketing funnel.
Go Where They Are and Share Your Powerful Message
You may be wondering why the title of this post is “How to Reach Your Target Market” when I haven’t talked at all about traditional methods and venues for finding clients. That’s not an oversight; I promise. Now that you’ve customized your offerings and made them solutions to your ideal customer’s problems, you’re ready to reach out and start attracting them to you. I’ve said many times before, “I’d rather attract my clients to me than have to go hunting for them.” Show up/present yourself, your business and your marketing message to them where they are (in the print publications they read, in the blogs to which they subscribe, in the organizations to which they belong). Do so in a way that shows you know who they are, what they need, and that you understand them. Saying: “I help families and children who struggle with chronic problems like headaches, ear infections and dizziness” is much more powerful than “I’m a chiropractor.”
Learning how to reach your target market isn’t rocket science, but there is definitely a strategy involved. Entrepreneurs who truly understand their ideal clients and who learn how to create solutions to their customers’ needs will have little trouble growing their businesses!
Want to get some more suggestions about how to reach your target market? My business coach and mentor, Rhonda Hess, has agreed to join me for a 75-minute teleseminar to share with you some of the same proven strategies she shared with me to rapidly grow my coaching business. If you are an entrepreneur in a services business, this is the information you’ve been looking for to understand how to finally get your clients to come to you! Please join us tomorrow night!
Here are the details:
Title: “When a Niche Is Not Enough–Three Steps to Become Essential to Your Target Market (and Win Raving Fans for Life!
Date: Thursday, October 1
Time: 8pm-9:15pm ET
Where: On your phone and computer (bridgeline details and PowerPoint presentation will be sent to you when you register)
Register: Click here!
You’d be a good fit to my coaching group if…
You signed up for both motherhood and being an entrepreneur (What were you thinking? Ha! You’d be in great company here 
.- You thought you’d be able to work less and be with your family more by working for yourself, but have found quite the opposite to be true.
- You have noticed your competition doing strange, interesting, amazing things and are feeling like your own new ideas are about as interesting as reading “Good Night, Moon” for the 23rd time in a row to your toddler.
- You’re ready to throw in the towel and “get a real job” (like the one you left behind a while ago because it no longer meshed with your values and priorities).
- You have so many great ideas but lack the ability or knowledge of how to get them done.
- You work because you are driven by your passion and purpose.
- You are tired of doing your work for free or very little pay.
- You realize you can’t call it a business if you don’t make a profit at some point.
- You aren’t clear on your target market or how to reach them or how to create solutions to their problems.
- Your heart tells you you’re doing the right thing, but your spouse or your family doesn’t understand why you’re working (and in fact, even resents your work).
If even a couple of these statements remind you of words you’ve heard coming out of your mouth lately, chances are you’re ready for a change. You’ve tried everything you know how to do to be successful, or to get the results you want, but nothing seems to work. That’s okay. We have all been there, and done that.
In fact, all the mom entrepreneurs who are members in my coaching groups have “been there, done that.” Most of the statements above come from comments made by my clients at the beginning of my program.
Here’s what they say once we’ve been working together for a while:
“Lara, you really have a way of saying exactly what I need to hear. I wonder sometimes if you’re somehow reading my mind.”
“I did exactly what you told me to do and I’m getting new customers and new orders from twitter several times a week now!”
“I didn’t realize before I joined this group how lonely I was. It’s so great to have a group of women I can trust and bounce my ideas off of. I love how we trade ideas with each other. It’s like we’re each others’ “Board of Advisors.”
“The most valuable thing I got from our coaching call today is that I’m not alone in feeling like I’m the only one who doesn’t understand this stuff, and the inspiration to stay committed to my goals thanks to everyone’s support!”
“Everytime I hear one of the other members share a story about her success, I get so charged up because I realize I can achieve my own version of success, too! You girls are amazing and are motivating the heck out of me!”
I’m a woman, a wife, a mom to three kids under the age of seven, and I’m a coach and an entrepreneur because I need to work in order to be satisfied and happy. It’s who I am. I’m a straight-shooter, an open and honest communicator, and extremely compassionate while still supporting you to do what you’re committed to, even if it’s hard and a little (or a lot) scary. I’ve learned a lot in my four years of coaching and running a business while raising a family. And I’d love to share everything I know about helping you be successful in the work you do while creating a life you love to live.
Care to join us? I have four openings in one of my mom entrepreneur coaching groups right now. We meet the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month for an hour at Noon ET via my free conference line. The cost is $195/person (with a maximum of five participants per group). Plan to make a six month commitment so you’ll get the full value of the coaching experience.
Call me (519-990-4458), email me at lara (at) mombizcoach (dot) com, or tweet me if you’d like to schedule a 20 minute session to brainstorm an idea and see if we’re a good match for each other.
I hope to be talking to you soon!
Effective Mompreneurs Have Effective Business Plans (and you can, too)
One of the simplest and most effective things I’ve done for my business is to finally sit down and write a business plan. I avoided doing this for three years. I had all sorts of reasons why I didn’t think it was necessary, and I had even more ideas about how hard it would be to do. Silly me.
I can’t wait to interview Melodie Lane, National Marketing Manager from the “One Page Business Plan” Company for my next teleseminar in the WoMEN: What Mom Entrepreneurs Need teleseminar series. This will be the third installment in the WoMEN series, and it will take place next Tuesday, April 28th, at Noon ET on my BlogTalkRadio show.
I had the good fortune of meeting Melodie on twitter (no surprise there!). Here’s a little background on her so you will know where she’s coming from and a picture of her with her four fabulous boys:
Three and a half years ago, Melodie was launching her last business as an independent project manager and attended a local workshop on how to write a “One Page Business Plan.” There she met Jim Horan, founder and CEO of the “One Page Business Plan.” Jim became her first client and dear friend. Today, Melodie is an integral part of the company as the National Marketing Manager. She loves doing this job within the sisterhood of moms and enjoys the opportunities the company provides her to do what she is passionate about-helping people turn their ideas into thriving businesses. She has also built two successful businesses from the ground up and considers herself an entrepreneur at heart. Melodie is a busy, single mom living in Pleasant Hill, CA with her four boys.
The “One Page Business Plan” Company is an international consulting firm with over 450 consultants. They specialize in helping business owners “re-think” their businesses and then help them construct extraordinarily clear and concise strategic business plans-on a single page. The original “One Page Business Plan” book has been an Amazon.com best seller for over 11 years. Their next book, due out this summer, is the “One Page Business Plan for Women in Business.”
Up Next in the WoMEN teleseminar series: Alisa Bowman
This is gonna be so much fun.
As you know by now, I’ve put together a fabulous and FREE teleseminar series for working moms called: “WoMEN: What Mom Entrepreneurs Need.” Our next topic in the series is something every mompreneur I know needs–some advice, tips, and clever ways to get the support we need from our partner or spouse. Running a business and raising a family is not easy, and it’s near impossible if you’ve got a struggle with your partner going on.
I’ve found just the gal to help us figure out how to make this better.
On Tuesday, April 14th at Noon ET, I’m pleased to welcome Alisa Bowman from “Project Happily Ever After” as my guest expert for the teleseminar entitled: “How to Make Your Marriage Work With Your Business.” 
Her approach to marriage, parenthood, career and friendships has been described as “disarmingly honest.” Her fresh take on life includes mentioning what others deem unmentionable. From bikini waxes to second honeymoons, the silent treatment to power struggles (both with 2 year olds and 42 year olds), she is able to masterfully blend the helpful with the hilarious. Alisa speaks at college events and conferences. She has appeared in Better Homes and Gardens, Women’s Health and American Baby. She has also been interviewed on large websites such as Glamour.com, various newspapers and a guest on regional radio and television news shows. Alisa has authored and co-authored or ghosted more than 20 books, including 5 New York Times Best sellers. Alisa currently lives happily ever after (most of the time) with her husband, daughter and dog in Emmaus, PA.
I hope you’ll join us for this fun, wise and honest look at how we mom entrepreneurs can get the support we need from our relationships. Here are the details:
What: “Make Your Marriage Work With Your Business” teleseminar, the second teleseminar in the “WoMEN: What Mom Entrepreneurs Need” series, hosted by Lara Galloway, The Mom Biz Coach with Guest Expert Alisa Bowman
When: Tuesday, April 14th, from Noon – 1pm ET
Where: On your computer or your phone via www.blogtalkradio.com/MomBizCoach (click on the link to listen via webcast) or call (347) 838-9199 to listen and ask questions during the live show!
Tell your girlfriends to join you! I promise you’ll find some great nuggets of wisdom, some funny things to laugh about, and a few actions you can take immediately to improve your relationship.
Do you have a question or topic you’d like to hear addressed during the teleseminar by Lara or Alisa? Just leave a comment below.
Ten Ways a Life Coach Can Help Mompreneurs
On today’s Mom Biz Coach Audio Blog, I’m going to answer some questions that I’ve been asked several times by working moms or mothers who are thinking of starting a business. I know how overwhelming it can be to be a fulltime mom and a fulltime entrepreneur.
Most of the mom entrepreneurs I’ve coached spent a lot of time thinking about hiring me before actually doing so. They weren’t exactly sure what life coaching is all about, or what we actually do in a coaching relationship. Some of my clients admitted to feeling embarrassed about hiring a coach to support them, almost like it meant they were a failure at being able to do what they wanted to do in life.
On my radio show today I’m going to tell you exactly what hiring a life coach can do to support your business. If you want to be successful on your own terms, create a business that works even when you don’t, get the buy-in and support you need from your spouse and your family, figure out how to get more clients and make more money without working around the clock, and understand how to spend quality time with your kids (especially while they’re young!), tune in to today’s show. I’ll be addressing these issues and more.
Details for the show: Go to www.blogtalkradio.com/mombizcoach. The Mom Biz Coach Audio Blog airs at 11:30 am ET for 15 minutes. If you can’t make it live, you can listen to the show at your convenience since it will be immediately archived in the “On-Demand” episodes listed on my show page at the above link.
Do you have questions about how a life coach could support you? Are you wondering what a coach actually does? I’d be happy to answer your questions if you leave a comment below.
I’m not a quiet person
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I’m not a quiet person. So when I get quiet, it usually means there’s something going on. Well, I’m excited to say that there is a lot going on right now, and I’ve been quiet (or out of communication) lately because of it. It’s good to finally share some of what I’ve been up to with you again.
The start of every new year brings me renewed energy and a strong focus. Last month I created my Business Plan for 2009, and almost as soon as I wrote down my goals, I took off and got into action to start making them happen. Seeing my goals on paper just sets me on fire and off I go! That’s not to say that I do all this planning and accountability on my own–I can’t say enough about how important my Coach has been for keeping me focused and on track.
I am creating a lot of new offerings for mom entrepreneurs that I can’t wait to share with you. One of the biggies is a new teleseminar series that will give mom entrepreneurs all the advice, tools, resources, mentoring and coaching they need to love their life and business! The other is the formation of Biz/Life Coaching Groups that allow working moms the chance to learn from and share with a community of their peers. It’s a great way to take the edge off the loneliness of being an entrepreneur and to get the support and accountability of other women who really get you and may have already “been there, done that.”
I’ll share more here when I have some of the details finalized. If you just can’t wait to hear more about them, you can email me right now.
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Let’s barter our way out of this recession
Happy New Year, Folks!
The New Year just about squeaked past me unnoticed since I’ve been travelling and visiting with family for the last two weeks. We just arrived home late last night after a sometimes thrilling trip across 750 miles of icy roads. Time spent relaxing, resting, eating, connecting, playing with family and friends caused a bit of a time warp.
One of the first blogs I read today was The Mogul Mom, authored by Heather Allard. I am so inspired by what this mom entrepreneur is doing to help other mom business owners. Heather has created a “Helping Out Directory” of mompreneurs who are willing to barter or trade their products and services in exchange for other products/services they need. What a brilliant idea!
As business owners, we all have to make choices about our priorities and what we can afford to spend on them. I know that I have a long list of business tasks I’d like to pass off to a VA, but haven’t done it yet for a number of reasons. I would gladly trade my coaching services in return for some VA assistance. I imagine that there are those of you whose businesses are in need of some marketing, web design/maintenance, bookkeeping, organization, etc. Would you be willing to exchange your services to get what you need?
If so, visit Heather’s blog, read about the “Helping Out Directory,” and add your name and information to her growing list. You might find something you need, and you might be able to lend a hand to someone else, all without exchanging a single penny.
Bartering is a great way of doing business when the economy is unstable. A sensible gut reaction to the recession is to tighten the belt and not spend if you can avoid it. But, putting off expenditures (especially investments, which pay you back in time) has its costs, too. You owe it to yourself to get your business needs met, and bartering is a creative way to do just that. Consider what a system of bartering could make possible for you that you currently believe won’t happen given the circumstances.
Have you bartered for goods/services in the past, or are you bartering now? If so, let me know how it’s working for you and what sort of things you’re trading.
Got other creative ideas for meeting business needs in a recession? I’d love to hear them! Please share your comments here and consider subscribing to my blog (upper right hand corner of this page) to follow the responses of others.
The economy stinks, but you still need support
Let’s face it: right now, we’re all taking a look at what we can do without. We’re putting off buying goods and services we don’t really need. We’re reorganizing our budgets in a way to squeeze a little bit more blood from the turnip.
Here are a few things I’m willing to do without for a while:
1) New bedroom furniture. I’ve wanted to replace the hand-me-down college furniture we have (with the exception of our phenomenal walnut and mahogany sleigh bed my dear husband built with his own two hands) for about four years now. Yeah. Well, I guess I can wait a while longer.
2) A really swank pair of black boots and a nice winter coat to go with it. As much as I want them, I don’t need them and can get by with what I have just fine.
3) Travelling some place warm after the thrill of the upcoming holidays wears off and I’m really, really sick of snow and the cold, gray days. I’ll have to make peace with the weather outside and appreciate how much my three little kiddos love it.
4) Much needed home decor and an interior designer to tell me where to put it. A year after moving into our lovely new home, I haven’t hung a single thing on the walls. Would love to brighten them up since I’ll be spending a lot of time in here given #3.
I could go on and on.
I am not resentful about giving these things up. It’s simply a choice I’m making. By saying no to these things, I’m saying yes to several others. I feel very powerful about the choices I’m saying yes to.
But there are a few things I will not choose to live without. These are the things I need to support me beyond the obvious food, clothing and shelter expenses I pay each month. I need to see my friends and family back in the States. I allow the expense to drive there on occasion. (Yippee–gas prices are down, finally!) I pay for an international calling plan that allows me to connect and relate to my faraway friends and family. I will continue to pay for the exercise and yoga classes that help me stay strong and healthy. And I pay for my business coach, who helps me keep my focus, my resolve and allows me to work out the fears I have that could cause my life and my business to take a downturn along with the economy.
Any of the expenses I’m choosing to keep spending could be seen as luxury items by some that could be cut to save money. But I know that, for me, cutting those would cut too close to the bone. Such cuts would weaken me, and I’d have less of a chance to stay strong, healthy, and focused when times are tough (like now).
What are you cutting or choosing to do without?
There are lots of places in most of our budgets that could be made leaner.
However, cutting out the things in your life that support you in being strong, healthy and focused could have a detrimental effect.
For a limited time, I’m offering my coaching services at a minimal fee to those who need some support to get through these tough times. My normal fee for four-hourly sessions per month is $600. I’m offering a once-a-month Focus Call for individuals for $150.
Seriously, aren’t you worth one hour and $150/month? Get someone to support you so you can see the possibilities that are available to you now. I’d love to be that someone!
Please email me directly for more information: lara@mombizcoach.com. Of course, you can learn a bit more about my approach from my website: www.mombizcoach.com.
To your success!
Connect With Me!
