#StrategicPlanning

Why I Booked a Branded Photoshoot When I Wasn’t Ready: The 5 Key Elements of a Successful Shoot for Service Business Owners

Why I Booked a Branded Photoshoot When I Wasn’t Ready: The 5 Key Elements of a Successful Shoot for Service Business Owners

Oooo, let me tell you how much I dislike getting my photo taken. I’ve dodged it very cleverly for the longest time…4 years to be exact. So why did I book a proper branded photoshoot a.k.a. a “branded lifestyle photoshoot?” Well, you’ll find out all about it in this post.

But you might be saying, “Hey Maiko, I’ve seen your photos all over the place. What do you mean you’ve been dodging it?”

Did I not just say I’ve been “cleverly” dodging it? I’ve had 2 very casual shoots done by my friends in the past, just so that I didn’t get too nervous & worked up about the whole thing. Then while I was using some of them, I hired photographers to shoot my live events for “candid shots.”

Candid shots are great because I don’t need to pay attention to what the photographers are doing. I let them do their thing & voila! A ton of good photos come out of nowhere. Then I picked a few & threw them up on my website.

These are a couple of clever ways to avoid a proper photoshoot.

But there comes a time when you want to buckle down (more like suck up) and do one.

Take These 5 Solid Steps When You Feel Unappreciated for Providing Valuable Content

Take These 5 Solid Steps When You Feel Unappreciated for Providing Valuable Content

I see you. I see your disappointed, exhausted face after cranking out content after content. For free.

You consider yourself a hardworking and good student of marketing, and you know that getting your business off the ground by just relying on word-of-mouth isn’t sustainable.

So, you tune into podcasts, read up on articles and follow experts on social media to see what they suggest and what they are doing. It won’t take long before you learn it’s all about “giving away the best stuff” and “engage, engage, and engage” long before making an offer.

You roll up your sleeves and start creating content even though the process is scary and uncomfortable. You press on by navigating through fear of judgment, imposter syndrome, the dreaded feeling of how you look on camera…(or how much you hate your own voice). You are a trooper.

But…the problem is…it’s not working. You aren’t getting any traction, let alone inquiries for hiring your business. You wonder, “What am I doing wrong?! I’m grinding myself into the ground by creating content!”

You find yourself feeling resentful. Your brain is fried to the point where it’s crispy. You are on the edge of giving it all up.

The good news - You are here. The bad news - I’m going to tell you that you have been somewhat misinformed. But I won’t just leave you there. I am going to tell you what to do. So, I think that’s still good news.

Just to be clear, the advice of “giving away the best stuff,” and “engage & don’t sell” isn’t wrong. What’s wrong is your understanding of doing that at which stage of your business and for whom. This, in my strong opinion, is not explained well enough by those experts. We’ll get into that in a minute.

Now take a deep breath & stop whining. We have work to do.

Business Continuity Plan 101: The Top 11 Positive & Resilient Moves to Make During Hard Times Based on the 5R’s of Risk Management

Business Continuity Plan 101: The Top 11 Positive & Resilient Moves to Make During Hard Times Based on the 5R’s of Risk Management

“We are more often frightened than hurt;
and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”

— Seneca

9 out of 10 business owners I encounter, their answer to this question is a big, fat “no.” Can you guess what THE question is?

“Do you have a contingency plan in place?” – This is one of my questions that is part of the initial form everyone must fill out when they come through my doors.

Believe it or not, this to me is perfectly understandable considering that the past several years have been somewhat stable (in the US.) But this also calls for a big wake up call. Many of the things you can do to bulletproof your business are incredibly easy to do while things are seemingly normal.

The biggest reason is that you aren’t under pressure. This allows you to do all of the business continuity planning (a.k.a. contingency planning) with ease. This is the reason having a regularly scheduled CEO day on a monthly or quarterly basis is highly recommended so that you get to work “ON” (and not “IN”) your business.

For more about how to conduct one, you can check out this post.

If you are finding this post because your business has been hit by any of these risk factors, do not despair:

● Macro/Micro Economic Factors

● Technology Threats

● Pandemic/Epidemic

● Natural Disaster

● New Competition

● Government Policy/Regulation Changes

This post is not to shame or guilt you about the fact that you may not have a business continuity plan in place. This is about giving you the easy steps you can take right now to have the initial one ready to go.

The One Task These Leading Entrepreneurs Will Not Delegate or Automate: A Quick Guide to Deciding Which Tasks NOT to Delegate or Automate (and What You Can Do Instead to Leverage Your Time.)

The One Task These Leading Entrepreneurs Will Not Delegate or Automate: A Quick Guide to Deciding Which Tasks NOT to Delegate or Automate (and What You Can Do Instead to Leverage Your Time.)

"Delegation & automation" is a hot topic among business owners who are on the hunt to find ways to leverage their resources to grow their businesses without killing themselves in the process. 

The challenge is to do this process right.  Why do I know it's a challenge?  I know this because I get, frankly, underwhelming emails on daily basis as a result of doing this process all wrong.

Getting it wrong is one thing but losing opportunities by doing something else is another matter.  Might as well, don't do anything, right?

Recap: “The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business” – The Secrets to Building a Million-Dollar, One-Person Business Revealed!

Recap: “The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business” – The Secrets to Building a Million-Dollar, One-Person Business Revealed!

There's a new breed of entrepreneurs who are ruthlessly focused on delighting their customers while pursuing their ultimate goal of having freedom and generating 7 figure gross annual revenues without being tied down to managing full-time employees.

 

How do they do it? 

What are their secrets?

What's the catch?

 

How to Show Up Like a True Entrepreneur: Working ON (Not IN) Your Business Made Easy with 5 Growth Drivers

How to Show Up Like a True Entrepreneur: Working ON (Not IN) Your Business Made Easy with 5 Growth Drivers

You, as an entrepreneur, recognize the importance of working ON your business and not IN it.  But, how often do you end up pushing this vital task aside because of your day-to-day (a.k.a. putting-out-fires) hands-on tasks?

“Too often” would be the most common answer to this question.

Let’s face it: We all tend to blame on getting caught up on imminent but unimportant tasks (in the big scheme of things) for not keeping up with our big vision sessions that can act as a leverage to grow your business exponentially. The truth is, that is not the real hold-up. 

What’s standing in our way is not having a robust and sustainable system that we can stick with.

10 Leads in 10 Weeks Challenge: Sales 101 for Creative Entrepreneurs Who Hate Sales

10 Leads in 10 Weeks Challenge: Sales 101 for Creative Entrepreneurs Who Hate Sales

In my previous post, I wrote about how to take the entire December off without feeling guilty (and having battle plan for January) by start planning for it in late summer. The whole point of this idea was to accentuate the importance of understanding what your top three must-accomplish projects are for your business. (You can revisit that post here.)

Now in early September, we only have 10 solid weeks left this year, not including the time after Thanksgiving week. That’s right, just 10 weeks!

How to Take the Entire December Off: A Guilt-Free Method for Service-Based Entrepreneurs

For many, December is sort of a wash in terms of operating a business. When I was in the music business many years ago, getting the last two weeks off in December was a “given,” and I don’t quite recall what I was doing during the first 2 weeks of December other than cleaning out my office and going to holiday parties or hosting one for the label I worked for.  I’m sure those holiday parties did not help in sharpening my memory… Those darn parties…

As an entrepreneur, though, it is incredibly difficult to draw a clear line to be able to say to oneself, “Okay, since no one is really working, I’m turning everything off in December.” In your mind, there is always something to do, and there is always something to fix.