Business

A Funnel or a Straw? Thoughts From Stretch Yourself Challenge

Every year in September, I join Kelly McCausey’s Stretch Yourself Challenge.

It’s a content marketing challenge that helps people reach new heights of both productivity AND satisfaction with their business presence.Every year, I learn more about myself and get better at choosing my goals. Last year, I had a bit of an epiphany about what I had and had not been doing with my content.

As a result, Kelly made a video about why YOU may want to build up long-term content (AKA evergreen content) and what it can do for you when you do. She calls it: Do You Have An Offer Funnel or a Straw?

Do You Have a Funnel or a Straw?
This year’s challenge is coming up! If you want to improve YOUR Content Marketing, and make sure you have a strong, healthy funnel, I urge you to join us for the challenge.

BONUS: Signing up before August 13 will earn you the Early Bird Bonus of a print copy of the Challenge Guide.

2021 Stretch Yourself Challenge

Saying Yes to the Stretch

What scares you when it comes to growing your business?

There are a LOT of things in building and growing an online business (or ANY business for that matter) that will seem big and scary and intimidating at first. Some people never progress beyond a certain point because of it.

I often quote a coach of mine who says: “You can have growth, and you can have comfort. You just can’t have them both at the same time.”

Growth is by its very nature uncomfortable. It causes you to stretch outside of your comfort zone and do the things that are hard and scary. When that happens, your brain may start sending you signals to retreat back into that quiet comfortable place and just forget about it.

Brains will do that. They have a built-in mechanism for protecting you from those scary things, and they’ll stop at nothing to keep you away from “danger,” and in the safe space.

But if you’ve ever done something big and scary and pulled it off, you know that magic can happen when you tackle the hard things. Good stuff is going on out there, just outside your comfort zone.

Don’t get me wrong, having a comfort zone is a good thing. It’s important to have a safe, comfortable place for peace of mind and recharging your batteries.

But sooner or later, if you want something more, something bigger, something NEW, you’ll need to stretch a little. That’s why every year, I join Kelly McCausey’s Stretch Yourself Challenge.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have great big huge results every single time. Heck, some years I haven’t even been a “finisher.” (That just means I haven’t completed the designated requirements to win a prize.) But I always get something valuable from the experience, even without a prize.

Whether it’s a new connection with another entrepreneur, or a new insight into my own personal obstacles, I’ve never been sorry about doing the Challenge – not once. And sometimes, something truly magical happens.

This year has been a tough one.

When it came time to sign up for the challenge this year, I very nearly skipped it. But I decided that my apathy was a good sign that I needed the challenge more than ever.

I started the month feeling pretty “blah” about the whole thing. Of course I jumped into the forum and tried very, very hard to manufacture the excitement I’d need to carry me through a month of stretching, but I was distracted and not all that thrilled.

Then, in a completely unexpected way, and at a completely unexpected time, I had a breakthrough moment – a moment where I got some clarity about what I’ve been doing (and NOT doing) in my business that really took my breath away.

I suddenly just knew I hadn’t really been serving my own needs very well – but on top of that, I hadn’t been making my knowledge and content as accessible to my audience as I could be either. After all, content marketing is about making that content AVAILABLE, right?

I have reasons (excuses?) for why I haven’t done it very well, and I’ve had PLANS for a long time to do it better, but this month I finally got really, really clear on what’s been going on. And that clarity makes it so much easier to tackle the problem head-on.

Suddenly, the challenge got exciting!

I posted about my epiphany in the forum, and had some wonderful feedback about it, including some ❤LOVE❤ from some very dear email subscribers who are also doing the SYC.

So why am I telling you all this?

I want you to know that sometimes, when you start S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G out of your comfort zone, you may be 100% on board and excited…and then your brain starts sending you danger signals.

You may think the universe is telling you that you’re making the wrong choice because it seems like all sorts of bad things start to show up right after you start to shift and grow.

Other times, you may feel like your enthusiasm just isn’t there and you aren’t sure you want to stretch at all, but then you do, and WONDERFUL things happen.

Stretching is like that. It’s unpredictable and often scary. But it can also be exhiliarating and rewarding.

If you’re ready to do a little stretching, a little growing, a little improving – or a LOT of stretching, growing, and improving, I recommend you get the Self Study Version of the Stretch Yourself Challenge.

What Is Stretch Yourself Challenge Exactly?

The SYC is a content marketing challenge that comes with a training manual PACKED with challenges that you get to use to improve your business. And even though it’s a self-study training, you won’t be alone!

You’ll also get access to the private member’s forum, where you can ask questions, get feedback, report your successes, and meet new potential JV partners and collaborators.

Joining will give you the tools and opportunity to examine where exactly in your business you want growth to happen next, and the training to make it a reality.

With the Self-Study Stretch Yourself Challenge, you get to stretch all year long, and it’s made easier with a guide that shows you what to do, and the support you need to keep from retreating back to your comfort zone.

Stretching When It’s NOT Easy

Difficult? Yes! Impossible? No! – handwriting on a napkin with a cup of espresso coffee

This week was the official kick-off of the 10th anniversay of the Stretch Yourself Challenge – a content marketing challenge designed to help you stretch out of your comfort zone and do great big things with your content.

I’ve done this challenge a few times in years past (at least twice, possibly three times, I can’t exactly remember.) As a challenge participant in the past, I wasn’t particularly successful as a Finisher. I won’t make excuses, but there WERE some pretty serious personal crises that happened in the past that interfered with my progress.

So why on earth did I choose to participate THIS year, when I’ll be away on vacation for more than half the challenge period?

Well, for one thing, that makes it a real stretch, doesn’t it?

But it’s not just that. Even though I’m going on vacation, and will be HAPPY to take some time off and spend with loved ones, I have some very real business goals that I want to keep the momentum going on.

Given that my “typical” vacation planning mode is to just shut down all new activity, and get into a what’s-it-going-to-take-to-maintain mindset, this is a big new thing for me. Which of course is the whole POINT of the Stretch Yourself Challenge: to do big new things.

Kelly McCausey, the host of the challenge, likes to pose the question: “What if it were easy?” That’s to get people thinking about what they would love to do in their business if it were easy. What could you accomplish? What would your goals look like if you didn’t have to worry about the tech challenges, and lack of skills, and all of those things that make things hard.

But this one is NOT going to be easy. When you stretch yourself, it’s meant to be a little uncomfortable. There’s a time and a place for a comfort zone, and when you’re looking for growth, that isn’t the time or place.

A very wise woman once told me: “You can have comfort or you can have growth, but you can’t have them both at the same time.”

The Stretch Yourself Challenge is a points-based challenge. In order to be a Finisher, I’ll have to complete at least one of the challenges from the guide, and also get at least 50 points, based on various activities (yes, this blog post is for points.)

Top points earners can win extra prizes, but I’m not even looking toward that. Even though I’m normally a pretty competitive person, I’m sure I won’t be a TOP points earner because of course I won’t be here the entire time. But I do plan to be a FINISHER and that’s going to be a pretty big stretch.

Interested? (I know you are!)

NOTE: Even though the time has passed to join the LIVE Challenge for 2019, you can get the Stretch Yourself Challenge Self-Study Version ANY TIME!

Enjoy and be challenged!

It’s NOT About Resolutions – It’s About Actions

[Email from Tuesday, January 8]

This time of year stirs up lots of talk of change, of goals, and of course, of “resolutions.” I do it too. For one thing, new beginnings are attractive to all of us. We get to leave behind what’s not working and start fresh.

IF we actually do that.

I’m tightening back up on my nutritional habits – not as a “New Year’s Resolution” but because the holidays are over and my relaxed habits of eating and drinking during the chaos of the holiday season don’t serve me well on a regular basis.

That doesn’t mean that I stressed or worried over those relaxed habits while I was doing them. I didn’t. I knew that during the holidays, I would eat a few more carbs; drink a little (or a lot) more alcohol, and not eat enough nutrient-rich vegetables.

But I also knew that it wasn’t my norm, and that I could deal with a brief period of “slipping” and still be fine. The same is true of my work habits.

They definitely got more relaxed during the holidays too. Taking half days off because John was here, getting less done even during my work hours because of distractions, planning trips out of town during days that are normally work days.

Of course, working at home gives me freedom to do those things, but I wouldn’t want to do them ALL the time. I would end up NOT having a business at all if I did that.

The thing is, whether you’re looking to change your health, your weight, your business, or your success, it’s all about your habits. It’s about what you do ALL the time. Not just once a year in January. It’s just that January is a nice starting point for changing habits.

But changing habits means doing things differently – EVERY day. Having something different, means that you have to DO things different. You have to take different ACTIONS. Not just “resolve” to have something different.

It’s about what you DO.

What are you doing differently?

What are you leaving behind?

What are you taking on that’s new?

(You know that if you’re taking on something new, you also have to leave something behind, right? Gotta make room!)

If you want to make 2019 your MOST productive year ever, I have a few ways you can do that.

First, there’s this:

Make 2019 Your Most Productive Year Yet

Your Best Year Yet Super Stack is a hand-curated collection of the exact tools and resources you need to make 2019 your most productive year yet, including:

16 premium ecourses ($2,328.99 value)
4 bestselling ebooks ($212.96 value)
10 goal-setting mind map templates ($30.00 value)
Private support community ($117.00 value)
Exclusive coupon codes for physical planners ($25.00 – $50.00 value).
3 downloadable workbooks ($79.00)
3x months access to Focuster ($87.00)

This is a super bundle from the people who put together the Write, Publish, and Profit Bundle last summer. Now they’ve put together a bundle that will allow you to become a super-productive entrepreneur, with products and resources that cover the following focus areas:

STEP 1: TIME MANAGEMENT
STEP 2: GOAL SETTING
STEP 3: SUCCESS HABITS
STEP 4: MASTER YOUR MINDSET
STEP 5: PLAN YOUR BEST LIFE
STEP 6: LEAD OTHERS
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL – There are BONUSES to accelerate your results – see the page for details.

This is thousands of dollars worth of resources to help you become more focused and productive for one very low price, and it’s ONLY available for a week. Check it out!

Your Best Year Yet

Another way to learn to be more productive and successful is to find people who are successful and productive and get their stories.

You know that I don’t think you can completely copy someone else’s steps to success, but you can certainly learn from them, and apply the parts that fit your business.

Angela Wills is publicly sharing what she did last year to explode her business and have her first 6-figure year. Angela ALREADY had what many would consider a successful business, but she had some milestone breakthroughs last year, and you can find out what they were – for FREE.

Sign up for Angela’s Milestone Year

And finally, it’s no secret that I am a fan of creating content. Content is both WHAT you sell, and HOW you get found by the people you sell to. Learning to do it right, and do it quickly, is crucial.

Which is why I will be recommending Amy’s Content Profit Hacks for the month of January, while it’s on sale. It’s a 90+ page PDF training guide with step-by-step instructions for creating content FAST. It also includes over-the-shoulder videos AND a cheatsheet.

Inside Content Profit Hacks, you will discover the secrets to creating all kinds of content fast in a fraction of the time!

Coupon code: JANUARY10

Content Profit Hacks

And speaking of content, if you did NOT sign up for the 30-Day Info Product Creation Challenge during Blogmas, it’s STILL available on my blog here:

Turn Your Content Into Products – And Doors to Your Business

Let’s start the year with some NEW ACTIONS, shall we?

Much Happiness and Success!

Freestyle Friday [Week-at-a-Glance]

(Freestyle Friday from January 4)

Welcome to your first Freestyle Friday email of 2019. This is your week-at-a-glance summary of everything that’s been going on throughout the week.

Let’s Rock 2019 Together!

As I’ve been mentioning for the last few weeks, my holiday chaos extended past just the regular holiday dates. Yesterday I had to take my Mom to a doctor appointment (I pretty much have to always go with her anymore, because she needs help remembering what’s discussed.) Today, I have an appointment of my own, so I’m out of the office for most of the day.

On Monday, my darling hubby John will FINALLY go back to work. LOL Not that I haven’t enjoyed the extra time with him through the holidays, but I’m ready to get BUSY!

I have some big plans for growing and some changes on the horizon, and I’m excited to start sharing some of that with you.

It will be a gradual reveal, because I’m still working some of that out for myself. Growing always means that something has to be let go, and as I mentioned before, letting go of things can be the hardest thing for me to do. I get attached to the way I do things, so when change is going to happen for me, I often take a long time to think things over and plan, and then once I’m ready it’s like I jump off the cliff.

So yeah, it’s scary. But also very exciting.

I WANT to continue coaching. In fact I want to maybe even do more of it this year, because helping someone find their way is SO satisfying.

I will more than likely be letting go of the services part of my business. That one’s hard. It’s one of those things that I had already scaled back on quite a bit, but I wouldn’t let go of completely.

Partly because it’s always been a source of income that I could use as a “back-up” and partly because I wanted to keep my skills sharp.

But I can keep my skills sharp by working on my own stuff, AND move my business further along at the same time. Holding on to the services part is holding me back. I know that, so it’s time to let it go.

I have considered taking on a few people to teach them how to do what I do, and then referring clients to them, since I do still get requests for that kind of work (mostly through referral, since I haven’t advertised that in a very long time.)

That’s something that I’ve got my planning pad out about, to see what that would look like. If you think that doing book formatting/design is something you’d be interested in doing for clients, let me know. I’ll keep you in mind when I decide what I’m doing about it.

I also plan to do some streamlining of my “regular” courses/workshops, and turn them into Evergreen Self-Study Courses, with optional coaching add-ons. And of course, I want to put out some quality lead magnets that funnel subscribers to those courses. My affiliates will be able to send people to those gifts and then earn commissions when someone buys something after they sign up. (You can get on my affiliate email list below.)

And finally, I am playing around with another idea that I think will be pretty great, but I’m still working out some details there, so stay tuned. That one will have to remain a surprise, at least for now. 🙂

I still currently have a lot of my old product delivery pages on my regular Freestyle Author website, but I plan to get everything moved out of there and into Kartra in the next couple of months or so. I’ve decided that the only thing I’m going to keep on WordPress is my blog.

Again, I DO tend to move slowly when it comes to big changes – until I don’t. Then I will take a big, seemingly sudden plunge. That’s just how I roll. LOL

True story: when I was 24 years old, living in the town I grew up in, divorced and working as an optometric assistant, there were some things going on in my life that just weren’t…satisfactory.

Things were percolating in the back of my brain for quite some time, and then one day, when I was trying to talk a friend’s high-school-aged daughter into joining the military, something just clicked.

I made 4 phone calls to 4 service branch recruiters asking for information to be sent to me in the mail. I heard back from 2. (Air Force and Marines.) I chose the Air Force strictly because their basic training was shorter.

The thing is, that decision LOOKED very sudden to most people. But my mind was seeking change for quite some time before I made that move.

I’ve spent the last year looking for change for my business.

This is the year it’s happening.

Watch me.

Now, let’s get to this week’s highlights and deals.

Here’s what’s on the agenda this week:

Going, Going… – A ONE-DAY sale on a way to make money with super-short fiction.
Business Topics – I have a fun gift for you in the Business Section this week, showing you THREE great ways to plan your products for 2019 using done-for-you content.
Writing/Publishing Topics – Content Hacking is a GOOD thing! I love this one.
*Moneymakers – For those “side hustle” items. If you’re interested in adding other streams of income, you’ll want to check here.
Recommended Affiliate Programs – This is where I will tell you about affiliate programs you can sign up to promote and make money!
Gift Corner – Check This Week’s Freebies.

Thanks for being a subscriber and ENJOY!

Going, Going…

Flash Publishing Profits – Mike Nielsen has put this one on sale until tonight at midnight (no coupon needed.) It will show you how to write flash fiction stories and publish them as individual books. It covers how to structure and write stories as short as 800-1,000 words, and 4 different methods of structuring your stories into a series that makes sense.

Price goes back up after Midnight Tonight.

NOTE: Flash fiction is a great way to make some royalties AND hone your craft at the same time. And as further incentive to get this one right now, you can consider entering your best flash fiction in the Writer’s Digest Short-Short Story Competition (for stories of 1500 words or less.) You can win magazine publication and some pretty great prizes, including up to $3000 in cash. The deadline to enter is January 14, so better get writing!

Business Topics

Coach Glue’s Planner Sale – I’m putting these planners in the business section this week, because I’m going to give you a little bit of a lesson with it on 3 ways you can use these planners for all year product creation and income. You can download your free tutorial below, but remember when you order your planners, use coupon code: 2019 to get your discount.

By the way, there’s a bonus mentioned in the free download too, so check it out and see three ways you can plan a year of products with Coach Glue Planners.

Freestyle Planner Brainstorming

Writing/Publishing Topics

Content Profit Hacks from Amy Harrop is a 90+ page PDF training guide with step-by-step instructions for creating content FAST. It also includes over-the-shoulder videos AND a cheatsheet.

I love this one, because it shows how to produce a ton of great content, using mostly free online tools. Some of these I didn’t know about, but am sure happy to learn about. I wrote up a longer email with my review, and since Kartra doesn’t provide an email archive page, I’ve decided to start archiving emails on the blog.

Be sure to use coupon code: JANUARY10

You can read this one here:

How Can One Word Have Almost Opposite Meanings?

Moneymakers

This section is for those things that you may not want to be the full focus of your business, but that can earn you more money by adding them to your income streams. (Some side hustles can eventually BECOME the main focus, so if you find one you love – BONUS!)

This Week:

Speed Profit System– Amanda’s content creation training will show you how to execute and create content for your blogs, books, products, etc. AND how to profit from it with both long-term and quick cash strategies.

Recommended Affiliate Programs

If you want to make money by recommending your favorite products and services to your list, this is where I’ll share some of the programs I personally recommend.

Cindy Bidar – Cindy’s products are an easy sell, and fans of her work buy again and again. She also has a 6-Figure Systems membership, which would mean recurring income! All of that adds up to easy money. If you get her Perpetual Profit Machine training above, you can use that information to set up funnels and put strategic recommendations to Cindy’s products and membership inside. (That’s what I’m doing myself!)

The Laptop Lifestyle Business Club – Once you join the club, you will want to sing the praises, because it really is a great community. And once people join the club, that means recurring commissions for you. Get signed up today and be ready to promote the big launch coming next month.

Join MY Program – With the new year just around the corner, you can look for me to start sending out new affiliate opportunities soon. My affiliate email list is ONLY for affiliate information and links. I don’t email other offers to that list.

NOTE: Do YOU have an affiliate program? If you do, and if you think your products might be a good fit for my audience, be sure to tell me about it. Send me the link to check out your products/services and to join your program. 🙂

Gift Corner

In addition to all of the great products, books, and training that are available for purchase each week, there are also some fabulous freebies out there!

Freestyle Planner Brainstorming – In case you missed it above, this is a free tutorial on how to use Coach Glue planners to schedule your product releases for an entire year. (Details a bonus for buying through my link.)

A Year of Business Plans – If you haven’t checked it out yet, go get Angela’s Digital Marketer’s Business Planner, and while you’re there be sure to watch the video that she just added showing how she created a content plan for a full year.

5 Simple But Powerful List-Building Improvements – This on-demand training from Cindy will show you how to make improvements to your list-building that won’t take a lot of time, but WILL add a lot of money to your bottom line.

Karmic Mastery – Free Training: What it takes to truly change your karma and attract the positive circumstance you want into your life.

Free Soul Realignment Online Training Event – This is the one that will show you the powerful new training that I am currently going through myself. It reveals how to unlock our Divine gifts in order to manifest the human experience we CHOOSE.

Wrap Up & Submission Info

Hope you enjoyed this issue of Freestyle Friday Week-At-A-Glance.

Please always let me know what you like, what you don’t like, and what you want more of. And if you just want to share your thoughts or say hi, please do that as well.

I love to hear from you.

As always…

Much Happiness and Success!

Teresa

How Can One Word Have Almost Opposite Meanings?

(Email from Thursday, January 3)

What do you think of when you hear the word hack? As in business hacks, lifehacks, content hacks…

To be honest, for me it’s one of those words I’ve never liked. I don’t know where my negative reaction to the word first came from, except that there ARE some none-too-pleasant connotations for the word hack.

A computer hacker is usually someone who breaks in illegally.

Hacking can also mean “cutting with unskillful or irregular blows.”

And maybe the biggest one is to call a person a hack when they aren’t very good at what they do. (A mediocre writer is called a hack!)

BUT like lots of words, this one has it’s good side, too. Like this:

Hack (noun): a usually simple and clever tip or technique for accomplishing some familiar task more easily and efficiently.

That sounds pretty positive doesn’t it? Simple and clever; easy and efficient; those are words I can get behind!

Isn’t it funny that hack can mean unskilled or mediocre in one sense, and clever/efficient in another? How ironic!

Content is another one of those words.

Not a negative word, certainly, but it’s not an interesting one either, until you really dig into what it means.

Content is your WRITING.

It’s your books, your emails, your products that you sell, your social media conversations, your short reports, your giveaways, your blog posts, your articles–I could go on and on.

In short: a business doesn’t run without content. And content is what makes your audience love you.

So I call THAT pretty interesting–and exciting!

Content Profit Hacks is a training that Amy Harrop put out a little while back and the simplest way to put it is that it’s a shortcut to creating content.

Or, to borrow from my definition above:

“…a simple and clever tip or technique for accomplishing your content creation tasks more easily and efficiently.”

First let me tell you what Content Profit Hacks IS, and then I’ll tell you what I think about it, and what I found inside it. (AND if you want to pick this one up, I have a coupon code you can use to save $10.)

Coupon code: JANUARY10

Content Profit Hacks is a 90+ page PDF training guide with step-by-step instructions for creating content FAST. It also includes over-the-shoulder videos AND a cheatsheet.

In the training, Amy will show you how to produce a ton of great content on demand that delivers traffic, sales, profits, email subscribers, and more! She’ll show you how to ‘hack’ the content generation system.

She doesn’t hold anything back as she shows you, step-by-step, everything she knows about producing content quickly with a number of (mostly free) online tools.

She includes:

Word Processing and Slide Creation Hacks
Rebrandable Content Hacks
Automated software and tools hacks
And much, much more!

Here’s my take on the training, from the INSIDE:

First, there are some great tips for creating content quickly and easily, including tips for using rebrandable content, such as your PLR or Public Domain items.

What makes this even BETTER than many products on the topic is the list of tools she shares that make things easier.

There’s one (FREE) tool that will allow you to search your content for a keyword, phrase, quote, or topic and quickly extract what you’re looking for.

This is HUGE when it comes to PLR, especially if you have as much as I have. I do my best to sort and categorize mine to make things easy to find, but still end up spending LOTS of time searching for just the right content.

To be honest, I would have paid for this product just to find out about that one tool. But that isn’t all there is.

There’s another tool that allows you to break down all of your content into categorized topics and keywords. This makes further content creation much, much quicker.

One of the first things I have my coaching clients do, when it comes to writing their Business Card Book, or a series of books is to inventory their existing content.

It’s a BIG job for most people, and this just makes it easier.

There’s a lot more too: like ways to format content quickly, ways to “remix” your content to make it new and fresh, and one of my FAVORITE hacks is on page 35-36.

(Hint: Microsoft Word had a feature in it years ago – discontinued in 2010-that would allow you to summarize content. I’ve sorely missed that feature, but Amy has a solution!)

And it’s not just TELLING you about tools, Amy also SHOWS you exactly how to use them, both in the screenshots in the PDF and in the accompanying videos. The cheatsheet gives you a summary of the hacks, along with where in the main guide to find more detail, and a direct link to demo videos.

The more I read through this training, the more I realized how valuable it is, and it’s valuable to ANYONE who creates content in any way. Whether you use your own, or rebrandable content, or a combination of both, like I do.

This is a must have for anyone who creates content:

Publishers
Authors
Bloggers
Online Marketers
Service Providers
And more!

Inside Content Profit Hacks, you will discover the secrets to creating all kinds of content fast in a fraction of the time!

Printables (worksheets, journals, etc)
Short Reports
Blog Posts
One Page style content
Books
And much more!

Content Profit Hacks

Coupon code: JANUARY10

Additional Offers: There are some other offers if you decide to pick up Content Profit Hacks. They are:

1. Public Domain Power Pack ($27) – Software and live quickstart training to easily find thousands of images, written content, and other content you can use for free.

2. Printable Profits Mastermind ($97) – Complete A-Z system for publishing easy books and printables that sell. (I believe this is normally $147, so you can save some money here.)

3. Done-for-You Content Club ($9.99 per month) PLR membership featuring ebooks, blog posts/articles and market research.

I feel like any or all of these items can help by adding value to Content Profit Hacks. They will give you more ideas on how to use content, along with where to get MORE content.

But with or without the extras, Content Profit Hacks is a super helpful training for content creators.

It gets my highest recommendation.

Content Profit Hacks

Coupon code: JANUARY10

Much Happiness and Success!

Teresa