On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Bree Noble, who is an entrepreneur, musician, and speaker. Bree is the founder of Women of Substance Radio, an online radio station that promotes quality female artists in all genres. She also launched the Women of Substance Podcast that ranked number four overall on iTunes New and Noteworthy. Bree draws on her extensive experience running her own music business, both as a solo musician and industry professional, to train and mentor other female musicians.   

 

Main Questions Asked:

What do you do 9 to 5, and what is your business made up of? 

Is consulting, coaching, and creating courses how you generate revenue in your business?

Tell us more about your life as a musician.

Is that what you help musicians with most? Finding their voice, what to tell, and how to tell it?

How does someone create a bio that is going to stand out? 

How is marketing a musician different from marketing a business, product, or service that is not the identity of the person selling it? 

Why is marketing hard for musicians, and why don’t they like it?

Tell us more about the Women of Substance radio station. 

How did you grow your audience and what marketing was involved in building the community? 

Talk about the relationships lifecycle that you build with the musicians. 

Are you mainly focusing on musicians who don’t have a record deal or manager? Is it strategic to build your consulting and courses?

 

Key Lessons Learned:

Bree does five podcasts a week, and tries to fit it all in one 8-hour ‘podcasting’ day.

If you don’t figure out how to make money in the music industry, then you are not going to have a career. 

 

Writing a Non-Generic Bio

There are hundreds of thousands of independent female artists, so don’t be generic! You need to find a unique angle. 

When writing your bio, start with your super fans, even if they are your family members, and find out what resonates with them and stands out in your story. 

Most people think that their life isn’t that special, so work with an outsider to write your bio, as they can draw things out that you can’t see. 

 

Marketing and Musicians

Nowadays businesses are becoming more about the identity of the person that sells it. 

Musicians have the mindset that if their music is good, people will listen to it. 

Regardless of how good your music is, the truth is that people aren’t always going to find it. That’s why record labels exist, as they will do all the promotion for you. 

You need to be like a record label and become a promoter for yourself. This often involves building a team around you. 

A lot of musicians feel that the ‘business stuff’ dulls their creativity. If it does, get a team. 

 

Women of Substance Radio Station 

The mission is to make well known and indie artists equal. 

The thing that helps most with marketing is that every artist has their own set of fans. 

Bree leverages the artist’s fans, and has a mailing list of around 4,400.

 

Relationship Lifecycle 

Bree uses platforms that are built for radio, such as Noise Trade and Airplay Direct.

The Woman of Substance shows are planned a few weeks in advance. 

Bree then contacts the artist two weeks before the podcast goes live.

On the day of the show, the artist receives an email telling them they are live, and Bree publicizes the artists on social media and is very specific with hashtags. 

The target market finds Bree so she no longer worries about building it. 

 

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

 

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic 

 

Links to Resources Mentioned

Women of Substance Radio  

Women of Substance Podcast  

Female Entrepreneur Musician  

Interview Connections  

Entrepreneur Support Services 

On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Aaron T. Walker, who is a businessman and life coach who has inspired many through his leadership, mentorship, and consistent pursuit of excellence. After 35 years of entrepreneurship and marriage, Aaron believes experience is a great teacher and has examined and grown from them. In this podcast, Jessica and Aaron discuss winning at home, as well as winning in the office. 

 

Main Questions Asked:

Why did you decide to put 35 years of marriage in your bio?

Talk about coaching a male only mastermind group.

What are some of the most common things that hold men back from growing their businesses and growing personally? 

What do you mean when you say you help men to discover their identity?

 

Key Lessons Learned:

If we make money at the expense of our families, then we have failed. 

When your relationships are strong, your business grows. 

Most men are ‘sprinters’ in business, but Aaron teaches them to be ‘marathon’ runners to stay in the game longer. 

Motivation is an exhaustible resource, but what really works is a well thought out plan. 

 

Fear and Failing 

Fear is what holds men back, as they just don’t want to fail. 

Aaron’s life mantra is that he fears missing an opportunity more than he fears failure. 

Failing is in “not trying” and not necessarily in “not succeeding.” 

 

Identity & Personal Assessment 

Aaron has created a ‘personal assessment’ form where he discovers a person’s identity, including skill sets and abilities. 

Don’t tie your identity into your career, as one day it will be gone and your identity will be as well. 

If you have no relationships, then you have no business. 

When men introduce themselves, the first thing they generally ask is, “What do you do?” Whereas, women often ask if someone is married and if they have children.

You must identify your ideals and things in life you want to accomplish. This includes goals and personal ideals.  

We all have physical, emotional, and financial needs so Aaron offers a detailed plan to find out your needs. 

Work is a tool to provide income but it is not your life. Family and friends are your life.

 

What Do You Want?

Most people don’t actually know what they want and live every day reactively rather than proactively. 

You can’t live on purpose; you need to live intentionally so there is a need to establish goals and dreams. 

Aaron’s discovery questions seem elementary until you try and answer questions such as, “If you were to wake up tomorrow morning and there were no limitations geographically or financially, what would you do with your life?”

A dream is something we think about but a goal has metrics and is measurable. 

A lot of the time we miss opportunities in teaching children to participate in activities that have meaning for our lives. 

 

Steps to a Productive Day 

The third of Aaron’s documents that gives you a chance to practically apply the lessons learned.

This has 30 line items, and is a ‘to do list on steroids’ that maps out your entire day. 

 

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

 

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic 

 

Links to Resources Mentioned

View From the Top (Free documents)

Iron Sharpens Iron

Interview Connections  

Entrepreneur Support Services 

 

This is a special episode of Rhodes to Success as I interview Jim Palmer on his podcast Stick Like Glue Radio about the launch of his new book, DECIDE- The Ultimate Success Trigger. We cover many of the mindset challenges and hurdles that entrepreneurs face and how to overcome them. 

 

Jim Palmer is a marketing and business-building expert, host of Newsletter Guru TV and is the founder and CEO of multiple six-figure businesses including the Dream Business Academy. Jim is known internationally as the Newsletter Guru and Dream Business Coach.

 

Main Questions Asked

-       Why did you decide to write this book?

-       Talk about the experiences you went through early on and the lessons learned.

-       What are people going to learn in this book that they can apply to their journey now?

-       Talk about ‘head trash,’ what it is, and how it holds entrepreneurs back.

-       When and why should we raise our prices?

-       Talk about delegating or staying small.

-       Expand on the lesson ‘good is good enough.’

-       Why do you need to be immune to criticism?

-       How does wealth reward risk and speed?

 

Key Lessons Learned

-       Inspiration is as important as information and education.

-       It’s not just about knowing how to do something but also what the person went through to get where they are.

-       Growth happens when you take action and do things outside your comfort zone.

-       Don’t do what the pros do now. Do what they did when they were where you are now.

 

What Is Covered in ‘DECIDE – The Ultimate Success Trigger’?

-       Head trash.

-       Deciding to survive.

-       How to be authentic.

-       How to invest in yourself.

-       The difference between an entrepreneur and a small business owner.

-       Imposter syndrome.

-       Unwillingness to delegate and get help.

-       The need to be perfect.

 

Head Trash

-       Everybody has head trash. This is all the thoughts, feelings, and how you think. This is often made up of self-limiting beliefs.

-       Head trash affects how people make decisions to invest, go forward and start a business.

-       When we have a fear issue, we tend to make up excuses.

-       At some point you have to stop being an impediment to your own growth and take care of business and do things that successful people do.

 

What Successful People Do

-       Become a speaker, author, create videos, work with a coach, join a mastermind, and do your own live events.

-       Instead of growing your business 1:1 becoming a speaker gives you a chance to grow your business 1:many.

 

Raising Prices

-       This is featured in the ‘Decide To Be Profitable’ chapter.

-       A lot of people struggle with charging fees that they are actually worth.

-       You must be appropriately rewarded for the value that you are deliver to customers and clients.

-       Fees should be based on the value you are delivering rather than on an hourly rate.

-       It’s also not the immediate hourly value but rather the years of learning, training, and experience leading up to that point that you are charging for.

 

Outsourcing

-       There is a point in every business where you start gaining momentum and doing more of what your core services are. At that point it should translate into your high revenue generating activities.

-       Most entrepreneurs think they can do it cheaper, faster, and better than anybody.

 

Good is Good Enough 

-       Perfection is the enemy of progress.

-       If you strive to get everything done to perfection then nothing will get done.

-       Good is good enough doesn’t mean you put out crappy work. It just means you push the ‘go’ button sooner and ‘get it done.’

-       Wealth rewards risk and speed. You just have to start and get better as you go.

 

Criticism

-       Criticism can also be a business crippler as everyone has an opinion and people aren’t shy about sharing theirs (especially on social media.)

-       The only people who aren’t criticized are people who aren’t doing anything.

-       The filter Jim uses is by asking himself, “Do I know this person, trust them and do I value their opinion?” as well as “Is this someone who has earned the right to share this opinion?”

-       There will always be people who don’t resonate with who you are and what you offer. You are not meant to do business with everyone.

 

Wealth Rewards Risk and Speed                           

-       Your business loves speed. When things happen fast there is associated growth.

-        The faster you get things done and put out content the more able you are able to attract people to your business.

 

Three Types of Risk

-       i) Savings account entrepreneur   

-       ii) Stock Market entrepreneur 

-       iii) Casino entrepreneur 

 

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

 

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic 

 

Links to Resources Mentioned

Decide for Success (book)

Dream Biz Academy

Interview Connections 

 

Entrepreneur Support Services

On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Tom Schwab who is the leader of the e-commerce Hub Spot user group and knows how to build and online business with an inbound strategy. Tom led the growth of Goodbye Crutches, a direct to patient private pay e-commerce business from a regional player to national leader in fewer than three years.    

 

Main Questions Asked

-       How did Goodbye Crutches come to be?

-       What was the journey from Goodbye Crutches to inbound marketing?

-       What is inbound marketing?

-       What do you have to say about the relationship that inbound marketing has with content marketing?

-       Why is it so important that your marketing focus on the customers pain points?

-       What do you say to a business owner who is not taking care of a pain point but is offering something that makes life more pleasurable?

-       Talk about your strategy to boost the lifetime value of a customer.

-       How is your company helping e-commerce do more customer nurturing?

-       How do you go from being self-employed to having a salable business?

 

Key Lessons Learned

 

Inbound Marketing

-       Inbound marketing is permission-based marketing. You are basically asking, “How can I be helpful to people who have a question and make it so I’m the thought leader there to answer?” 

-       The difference between permission-based marketing and content marketing is life, “Fishing for Sharks and only using Chum.”  Sure, it will attract them but how do you get them on the hook?

-       Inbound marketing is about listening to the customer and figuring out the tests to improve so you can give the customer more content.

 

The Decision Process

-       70% of the buying decision is made before you contact the company (research via asking friends, referrals, Google etc.)

-       A person will go through the entire sales process and be attracted by great content and offers.

 

Inbound Marketing vs Content Marketing

-       Inbound marketing is a strategy and content marketing is a piece of that strategy.

-       You need content in order to communicate with people (blog, videos, podcast) but still need the engine behind it.

-       Social media is there to amplify your blogs, testimonials, responding to Tweets and LinkedIn.

-       The ‘real’ customer feedback not found in a survey or comment but via looking through your analytics and seeing what people actually do on your site. They may say they love your e-mails but are they actually opening them and driving sales?

 

Podcast Guests

-       When you are a guest on a podcast that is the content.

-       Every piece of content should have a purpose so you need to always have a call to action at the end.

-       If you are on a podcast just to be there then that is content marketing. However, if you drive the audience to a sale then that is an inbound strategy.

 

Focusing on Pain Points

-       Nobody wants your product or service they just want the relief or solution.

-       If you only focus on the product you won’t connect with the customer.

-       You need to identify the ideal buyer persona (the person you want to serve) including the demographics, psychographics. Basically you want to know who they are and what they need from you.

-       Even a pleasure point is a pain point (how can I spend more quality time etc.)

-       Always focus on the reasons not the product.

-       The challenge is making the customer feel the pain point so their urgency to buy.

 

The Lifetime Value of a Customer and Boosting Sales

-       It has never been easier to make a dollar online but it has also never been harder to make a profit.

-       The profit of any company comes with the lifetime value and the brand.

-       Starbucks sells coffee for $4 a cup but the lifetime value of the average customer is around $40K.

-       Getting a customer is just the first step. What can you do to nurture the relationship so they continue to buy and become brand advocates?

-       You need to focus on the lifetime value.

-       It’s much easier to keep a customer and raise the value of them than it is to get a new customer.

 

From Self-employment to Salable Business

-       Put systems in place to allow you to do things without trading dollars for time.

-       Remember, content is king and context is God.

-       Ask, “What could I take that I currently do that I can package together and put a price on and give as an easy download?”

-       Figure out how you can monetize long term and offer things like downloads, courses, and checklists.

-       Making these changes will take you from a self-employed hourly worker to running a business.

 

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

 

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic 

 

Links to Resources Mentioned

Inbound for E Commerce

tom@inboundforecommerce.com

Inbound Movement (Interview Connections offer)

Hub Spot

Goodbye Crutches  

Interview Connections 

Entrepreneur Support Services