326: High-Impact Strategies for Business Growth

[00:00:00] If you've ever wondered what it's like to get coaching from Brie, then buckle in. This is the episode that you want to tune into. This This episode is jam packed with so much advice that I am giving our girls inside of SHIFT, our high level coaching program that gets you one on one support, tailored advice, a mastermind, all the things.

[00:00:26] It is all about high impact strategies that we can use for business growth. When somebody joins SHIFT, they are at a level where You've got your brand established, and you're making some money, and you are just ready to scale. In order to scale, you have to focus on prioritizing tasks that drive revenue, increase your engagement, and are going to build you a sustainable brand without feeling overwhelmed.

[00:00:55] Because when you're at a level of scaling, you have to make sure you have all of those things in place to avoid a failure. Burnouts and all of the repercussions that come along with that. So I'm going to share actual tips and examples that I walk through with our shift clients, streamlining their efforts to achieve financial consistency across the board.

[00:01:21] So let's dive into it.

[00:01:45] So here's the truth. You've got what it takes. It's your short heads of getting there. Strategies that hide the scenes insights. We're unlocking your potential one episode at a time. So if you're ready to turn your creative hustle into a thriving business, let's get started.

[00:02:07] So jumping straight in the very first thing that we have to make sure we have set in stone in order for us to see growth is we have to be organized. You cannot go into this without being organized. That's, that's just that, that is the, the hard and fast rule of it. And I'm talking organization from everything from having a content calendar, knowing your work schedule, and just.

[00:02:38] being very aware of where your time is going. So that very first thing, having a content calendar, if you have constantly been one that's like planning a week at a time, or just like, let me just get through this month. What am I going to post today? That is not going to get you very far. That is not going to set you up for success.

[00:03:03] That is going to lead to burnout and to frustration and really to getting sucked into that one piece of content and whether or not it works. That's not good for our mindset either because we all know that not every single piece of content works the way that we want it to or doesn't work the way we want it to at that moment in time or on that specific platform.

[00:03:28] And so when we are super hyper focused on just that one thing, and we're not seeing that that is just one piece of this massive content puzzle, it is going to really affect our mindset. So we have to have a content calendar. And I'm going to dive into that a little bit more when I talk about putting our CEO hat on, but this is just like high level.

[00:03:51] You got to be organized. You have to have a content calendar. The second piece of that is having a work schedule or some type of time blocking. In order to scale, you have to know what you're working on at all times. You have to know when am I working and what am I going to be working on? When you are just sitting down at your desk and aren't sure what you're going to be doing, that is going to stall a lot of progress.

[00:04:24] It's going to take you more time to get things done. It's going to make you second guess yourself. It's going to make it hard to know exactly what your strategy is. And so going ahead and figuring out some type of work schedule for yourself is going to make such a huge impact. Because third point of this is you have to treat yourself like a CEO.

[00:04:47] You have to know that your time is valuable, that you are successful, and that you are in control of this business. It is not running you, you are running it. And so all of those things kind of loop together are Some of the common key things that I typically have to help somebody get established whenever they join shift.

[00:05:13] So if you're feeling like, Ooh, I only have one piece of those, or I don't have any of that really set in stone. You're not alone. I have coached. Successful content creators who are making six figures and more and are still missing one of those pieces. I've also coached ones that are brand new and have only made like 5, 000 from their brands who maybe they have a really amazing content calendar, but they're missing a key piece of like having the mindset to treat yourself like a CEO and valuing your own time.

[00:05:47] There's going to be pieces missing for everyone. That's. Why you're listening to this podcast, right? Like if you had every single duck in a row and everything was running perfectly in your business and you were scaling, you probably wouldn't be listening to this podcast. You'd be running a team and you'd be out creating content and doing those CEO tasks and you wouldn't need to be listening to this show necessarily.

[00:06:13] So there's some piece of this that everybody needs to focus on. So we're going to dive into kind of each of those pieces throughout this episode, but the next part I want to talk about is in order to have business growth, part of that high impact strategy is doing extremely well on one or two platforms.

[00:06:38] Notice I didn't say three or four or five. Okay. It can literally just be one and it doesn't matter which platforms they are. Notice I didn't say you have to do extremely well on Instagram or you have to do extremely well with your blog and having page views. It does not matter which platform you are doing really well on.

[00:07:02] The key is that you have to be consistent and that platform has to be making you money. If you are on a social media platform and you have a ton of followers, but it is not making you money. Then you're not doing extremely well on that platform, even if you have 100, 000 followers. If you have 100, 000 followers and you're not making 50, 000 a year minimum, you're not doing extremely well on that platform.

[00:07:29] So for business growth, stop spreading yourself so thin, go in and focus on the one that is doing really well for you. And like I said, it doesn't matter what they are. I have helped coach people that. are doing very well with Pinterest, their blog, and their email list, and are barely touching social media, if they're touching it at all.

[00:07:58] And then on the flip side of that, I have people that are killing it on social media who aren't really touching the other things right now. We're going to talk about diversifying in a second, but you have to do well on one before you spread yourself to other platforms. Diversifying is important, but we can't at the beginning spread ourselves so thin to where we don't even know which one's successfully working or not, or going to be making us because our 50 different directions.

[00:08:31] So you have to focus and do really well on one or two platforms. Now from there, you're going to have your base set up and then we'll talk about diversifying. So we don't want to let our content live on only one or two platforms. So the first thing I want you to look at is what are low lift ways to share your content on other platforms.

[00:08:54] Notice I said Low lift, because I don't want you to start to grow and then be like, cool, I'm going to add this thing in and get distracted to where that platform that was doing really well starts to go down a little bit or starts to feel like it's pulling you or draining your energy. So you want to look at low lift ways.

[00:09:13] So let's say for example, your blog posts are doing really well and you're getting traffic. But you know, you need to increase something somewhere. So you're going to go and you're going to focus on growing your email list, and you're going to diversify by grabbing content from that blog post. And you're going to let that guide you into creating a really simple email newsletter.

[00:09:37] That's going to resonate with your audience. That's a low lift way to stay in that theme of whatever the topic was for that blog post and just put a little bit somewhere else. Sprinkle a little bit of that magic somewhere else over to your email list. Sprinkle a little bit of that magic into creating an opt in that is going to grow your email list, right?

[00:09:58] That's a low lift way to expand your reach to your audience. And you can think of a ton of different ways that you can do that, right? If you're already creating short form content and you're putting it out on one platform, are you also putting it out on low lift ways, two or three other platforms? So if you have a short form video off the top of my head, you can put that on Instagram reels, YouTube shorts on Facebook and Pinterest.

[00:10:30] We're not throwing TikTok in there because we all know that's a dumpster fire lately. So, and I'm so sorry to anybody listening who is really in on TikTok. But low lift ways that you can take that one short form video and spread it out further. Low lift, right? Because we're not looking to just like bulk right away.

[00:10:51] Right. So let's, you know, an analogy here could be like, if you're at the gym and you're just getting started, you need to start slow and steady and you need to figure out, cool, I can figure out these weightlifting exercises. I know how to do them. I can keep my form really good and I can tell they're working and I'm building muscle and then.

[00:11:12] As that works really well and you gain confidence, you're making progress. You're like, okay, cool. I'm going to now add in these other exercises and I'm going to give those a try. You're still kind of in that same realm. You may even still be in the same part of the gym, but you're just going to add on a little bit extra and try something new.

[00:11:32] That's what we're talking about here. You're going to do really well on one platform, and then you're going to just add a little bit extra in the other thing about diversifying is looking at what income streams do you have, we want to make sure that we're not putting all of our eggs in one basket.

[00:11:46] There is nothing that makes me more anxious as a coach is someone coming and talking to me. So just so you know, whenever you apply for shift, You have to fill out this form, and that's because I want to make sure that you're in the right spot, that it is the right time for you to join this program, that you're ready, and that you have a few key things in place, because if you're not, then I'm not going to be like, yeah, absolutely.

[00:12:17] Invest this money. Come join us. No, I want to make sure that your time and energy and money is spent well. So, yeah. Whenever you apply, one of the things that I ask you is what are your income streams and what percentage makes up each? Nothing stresses me out more is when somebody comes in and they give me like maybe two income streams Which is fine, but one of them is at like 90%, 90 or even 95 percent of their income is from one income stream.

[00:12:51] That stresses me out. It's great. You went all in. You made your money from there. Amazing. But I get scared. So let's say, for example, you went all in and you're killing it with affiliate links, but you don't have any other money coming in from anywhere else. What if we have another situation like we did in 2020 where we had COVID and companies across the board cut their affiliate programs or slashed their commission rates?

[00:13:21] Your income is going to disappear. That's what we don't want to have happen. We're talking about high impact strategies for business growth. So we need to look at diversifying. So not putting all of our eggs in one basket. Overwhelmed with your content biz, tired of doing everything yourself and still not seeing consistent income.

[00:13:44] Friend, it's time to shift shift is my high touch coaching program for bloggers and content creators ready to grow strategically, make more money, and finally find freedom in their business with weekly expert reviews, personalized feedback, and a community of driven creators. Shift gives you the support and tools you need to thrive, and it's a whole lot of fun inside.

[00:14:08] Ready to take your business to the next level? Head to thrivetogether. blogslashshift to apply now. Once you have one working at a hundred percent, you're going to then add another. And you know what the amazing thing is, once you have one working really, really well, it's going to be easier to add another one in.

[00:14:32] So if you know, we stay on that track of affiliates is working super, super well for you. That tells me that you have a really engaged audience. That tells me that they are active, that they are interested, and that it is going to be really easy for us to add something in, whether that is perhaps brand partnerships or maybe selling your own digital product.

[00:14:55] When you're doing really well on that, it tells me that you have a pulse on what your audience needs and wants and what they're going to respond to. So it's going to be easy for us to pitch that to brands and tell them that exact thing. It's going to be easy for us to figure out, cool, these are some of the things that my audience needs.

[00:15:14] Here's a really amazing opt in or digital download that we could create for them that they're going to instantly buy. So it's going to be, that's why we focus really well on one to two platforms, figure out that income stream. And then from there. We figure out awesome what's next. So once one is working at a hundred percent, we're going to add another.

[00:15:36] And then once that one is working really well, we're going to add another and another and another. That is how we scale, but it has to come with everything I've talked about already. It has to come with being organized. It has to come with a content calendar, with a work schedule, with treating yourself like a CEO, with valuing your time.

[00:15:56] The other thing with. Adding in income streams, adding in platforms that I just want to say is don't stretch yourself too thin. You can probably catch that underlying message as I've been talking about this. We have to be smart about growth. We can't stretch ourselves too thin. I think I even said that at the beginning, right?

[00:16:17] We just got to be smart with it. So we don't want to just, you're like, well, Bree, you said one like stresses you out when people come to you. Yes, it does. But typically when I get the most stressed with that is when they've been successful for a while. And I'm like, why are we only why? Why haven't you diversified yet?

[00:16:35] Why are why are we not doing this yet? And usually that's why they're coming to me for coaching is to help them. And I love that. But that's one thing that I'm like, all right. Let's, um, maybe let's add that to like the top of the roadmap, the top of that priority list. So let's see. The next thing that I want to talk about is just what does it look like to put that CEO hat on, right?

[00:16:58] Where you are maybe stepping out of the content creator mode and into CEO of your brand. This is the last piece that I want to talk about. for business growth. In order to do this, there's there's just certain things that you have to do in that CEO mode. And I'm not just talking about like looking at your finances, looking at spreadsheets, accounting, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

[00:17:23] And it's I say, blah, blah, blah. Some of you may really, really love that. I obviously do not. So CEO hat, we need to look ahead. Don't keep your head in the sand and only focus on one day or week at a time. Right. That goes back to the content calendar and even just like income and projections. Right. To really be boss CEO and to start to grow your business and scale at a higher level, you have to be looking ahead.

[00:17:55] The second piece of that is planning your year. I'm not saying you have to have it narrowed down to like this piece of content is going out on this day for every single day of the year. No, but you need to have key pieces in place for your content calendar, for your work schedule, for when you're going on vacation so that way you can plan for it accordingly and know what content is going to happen while you're taking a break.

[00:18:22] For planning and knowing what is going to happen when I get sick, what's going to happen when I get a cold, where's my content going to go? Are things still going to be running smoothly? You have to be able to look at your gear and know the plan. When am I doing a flash sale for my digital product? When am I partnering with a brand and what is the lead up to that look like?

[00:18:47] How do I get my audience really engaged before I push this piece of content? What is this big sale that I'm really going to do a push for, for affiliate marketing and how can I really prep my audience well for that? You see how we have to plan for these big sales. Big key things. Some of it is predictable, like sales or brand partnerships that we know are coming through.

[00:19:08] Some of it is unpredictable, like getting a cold or a kid being homesick, right? But we have to be able to plan. When you can plan, you're going to be able to perform better. better. You're going to be able to hit those milestones more easily. You're going to be able to approach that brand deal or that affiliate sale with so much more preparation and not doing things at the last minute with your prepping your audience with this.

[00:19:38] And planning and looking ahead, a part of it that I am a big fan of that has been something that is just inside of me and to my core, and I think that's true for entrepreneurs in general. But maybe a little bit of self doubt can start to creep in is setting audacious goals. That is, I think, something that pushes us more than anything.

[00:20:07] I think when we step into the role of content creator and this crazy business that we have jumped into with trepidation and with a little bit of like, I don't know, let's just, we're going to kind of see how it goes. goes. I used to hear people say, and this was years and years ago when I first got started, of like, you can't go into it expecting to make money.

[00:20:28] You just have to go into it and have fun. And then the money will come. I'm sorry. That's bullshit. That is garbage. That is not advice that I would ever give to anybody. If you are going to do this, you 1000 percent can be extremely successful when you have the right strategy. So set those audacious goals and The second part that goes along with that is set a strategy for how you're going to reach them.

[00:20:55] You can't just set the goals and move on. You have to know what moves are you making? What is your strategy to hit those goals? When we sit down at the beginning of the year or the end of the year, and we set the goals for 2025, 2026, I want to hit these numbers and I want to do this. And then we just keep doing what we've been doing and nothing changes.

[00:21:21] When nothing changes, nothing is going to change in your business. Nothing is going to grow when you don't change your habits. When you don't change your habit, you're going to get the same results that you are currently getting. When we don't seek outside advice, when we don't learn something new, try a different strategy, we're going to remain where we are.

[00:21:45] And if you're happy where you are, awesome, but I have a feeling that you're ready for some high impact growth. That's why you're listening to this episode. So you have to know what moves you're making and what your strategy is to hit them. So this last part of the CEO hat is what are the gaps? Where are the gaps for you and your business?

[00:22:08] If you are being truly honest with yourself, what are the gaps that you have? Do you need an assistant to take things off your plate that are distracting you? That was one thing I had to take a hard look at this year is where am I getting distracted? Where am I doing things that are taking me outside of my zone of genius that I don't need to be doing?

[00:22:30] Or do you need a coach to help with strategy? I have invested in coaches over and over over the years because there's been key pieces where I got stuck. I didn't know what I didn't know or didn't know how to grow or didn't know. Just if I was wasting my time on a certain thing or making a mistake. So, is a gap that you need a coach to help with strategy.

[00:22:55] Another common gap could be, do you need to just stop for a week and get organized? Do you need to pause the hamster wheel? Do you need to get off the rollercoaster of content creation? Ooh, that would be That would be a cute sticker. Do you need to get off that roller coaster? Stop for a week and get organized.

[00:23:17] Finally start implementing things in Airtable or Asana. Get yourself organized. Create that content calendar. Create that strategy. Stop running a hundred miles an hour, pause, get set up, change some habits. So that way you see success this year. I love this so much. This is literally, these are the type of conversations that I have with the gals inside of shift.

[00:23:46] This is how I help them grow. And sometimes we really do have to have somebody ask us these hard questions and get inside of our business, which is what I absolutely love doing inside of shift, right? Because I, I love this podcast. I love talking to you guys and I love walking you through this and I know that I'm able to have an impact on so many more people by having this podcast.

[00:24:06] But nothing brings me more joy than getting to look at the data, look at the strategy, create a roadmap with you individually, one on one, and then see huge results. See Liz come on the podcast and talk about how her income has doubled every year that she's been working with us inside of shift. See Haley talk about how she is making 1, 000 plus a month from a 7 digital product because she stopped and got help with her strategy.

[00:24:34] So many different huge milestones that have happened because. You were ready for growth, got some help with strategy. And so if that is something that you're ready for, I want you to head to thrive together. blog slash shift. So we can have a conversation and see if it's a good fit for you. I have the show notes for this episode.

[00:24:57] Of course, on our website, you can click the link in the description because all of these pieces that I talked about today are so, so important. And I hope that you Take these to heart. Maybe listen to this episode again and really pause to go through each step piece by piece. You're amazing. You've got this.

[00:25:16] I believe in you. And I'll see you back here soon for a new episode.

[00:25:25] If this episode helped you, help us grow. Leave a review, share it with a friend, and tag us on social media. We can't wait to cheer you on.