Today on the podcast we welcome Katie Hunt of Tradeshow Bootcamp. Katie is a third-time guest on the show, where she was on previously to talk about wholesale and tradeshows. Katie is a business strategist, a mentor to creative entrepreneurs and has been super helpful for us in the realm of retail and all things product based. Today, Katie brings a new conversation to the table to help all you service-based babes who are wanting to dip your toes into physical products but just don’t know where to start. She is going to talk to us about how service-based businesses, and any business really, can start having a product shop without housing an inventory.

We are going to be breaking down drop shipping, print on demand and the different software and systems that you can set up to get you going as hassle free as possible. Katie will also be giving you a bunch of vital questions that you need to be asking yourself in order to help get yourself ready for your product journey and ensure that you are setting expectations from the get-go. This conversation definitely set fire to our own booties and inspired us to get our own products listed. If introducing products is an idea you’ve been toying with for a while but just don’t know where to start, Katie is here to help us hit the ground running.

Today on the podcast we have our work husband, Parker Stevenson. Parker is our bookkeeper, our CFO, business adviser, our friend, our frienemy and everything in between. You have probably heard us mention Parker throughout this podcast series. He is like the Where’s Waldo of TCC and an absolute hoot. Today, we are revealing the mystery of Parker Stevenson and are going to be talking all about scaling a service-based business. Instead of teaching you sexy bookkeeping things, Parker is actually going to talk about his own business and give you a peek into some of his own business strategies.

Parker went down the same rabbit hole that many entrepreneurs do, where he thought creating a passive online course program was going to be the solution for his business growth and scalability. But in this episode, you’ll learn how they decided it wasn’t going to work for them and why they decided to scale the service side of their business instead. Parker has a wealth of experience and is here to share with you why service-based businesses are severely underrated. If you are a new business owner or in the process of re-thinking your current online business model – this is definitely an episode you won’t want to miss!

On today’s show we’re doing things a little differently and taking you through a process that we believe can make a world of difference in your life! This episode will be all about inventing a new possibility in your life, and you’ll see just what a shift this can make. Abagail tried out this exercise recently and found it super helpful and enlightening, so we could not resist sharing it with our listeners. Full disclaimer though, it might be a bit of bumpy ride because let’s face it, most things that help you grow are not pain free. But we promise you’ll thank us in the end!

Emylee will be going through the guided exercise for the first time during the episode and you can join in with he. We can all get down to the nitty gritty together! A lot of the time we deal with the positive and negative aspects of our lives in repeated patterns of behavior that do not allow for very much progress. The process we will be detailing is simple and straightforward, yet it provides a lot of insight and hope into how small adjustments can change our lives in big ways. So if you’re game, grab your favorite notepad and buckle in, we’re going deep!

So, we have a crazy idea! We’re excited and nervous about it and can’t wait to share with you. We have big dreams this year and yep, you guessed it. We want to take you on our journey to $100k per month. We recently came to the conclusion that making this amount of money every month is realistically quite doable for us at this point. We have formulated some new strategies, broken down more of our goals and in the next few weeks, we’re going to be pushing to make our $100k month a reality.

In this episode, we will be sharing with you how this dream came about and delving into the shifts of our money mindset, our questions and fears and why money is amoral and much like a brick. We want to open up the conversation about money with you and encourage you to examine your own money mindset. So, by the end of this episode, you should feel more comfortable talking about money, dreaming big and feeling less guilty about wanting more money – if that is what you truly want.

We are super excited to welcome our guest on today’s show and know you will love this episode! We talk to Lisa Robbin Young of Ark Entertainment Media about the idea of a six-figure business, something all entrepreneurs have thought about at least once. For many of us, Lisa included, six figures is a bottom line a business needs to reach in order to feel successful. Lisa also talks about how this does not have to be the case. There are in fact some instances where these standards do not apply, but realizing when is the key.

Lisa has a wealth of experience and expertise we cannot wait to share with you as we discuss different types of entrepreneurial styles and personalities and how they influence the way a business is run. We break down how to start translating those strengths into money and success as well as tactics such as freebies and promotions. We sure are grateful for Lisa’s know-how and know you will be too after this great episode. Get ready and let’s get into it!

Hey ya’ll! Today we wanted to take you back to our most popular episode ever, and it happens to be one from the very beginning where Abbie shares her story and tells you all about her journey before Think Creative Collective was born. Abagail graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in Fine Art in Graphic Design and a minor in Business Administration. Before the launch of TCC, Abbie had an incredible five plus years of business and design experience accelerating companies of all shapes and sizes. Inside this episode she also shares about her time running her free lance design business.

One of the most amazing stories is how, within 30 days of getting the pink slip, she was able to completely replace her corporate income. Wow! Before the inevitable moment came along, Abbie created a website and started blogging five days a week. Eventually she grew her own business and worked day and night to find success. So if you are just starting out in the business world and you haven’t heard her Abbie’s story of how she went from getting laid off in the corporate world to replacing her cushy corporate income within just 30 days, you are in for a treat! So put on those slippers, bust out the coffee and enjoy this throwback episode.

On today’s episode, we welcome our good friend and social media whizz, AllieDanae Walker. AllieDanae owns a Virtual Assistant and Social Media Managing company called of The Social Walker Agency. She works with companies, running their online presence and keeping their social platforms in check. We are actually lucky enough to say we have had first-hand experience with AllieDanae while she has been the VA for The Strategy Hour Podcast! We love AllieDanae and know you will too and we cannot wait to share all her knowledge with our listeners!

What are some of the ways you can apply for a Virtual Assistant position? How do you grow a small, one-person operation into a company with employees and assistants of its own? When looking for VAs, what can companies do to ensure a healthy and successful relationship in this regard? If any of these questions sound faintly familiar or if you just want to get the lowdown on an important aspect of present-day business, then we know this episode is for you. Tune in to hear more!

We are very excited to welcome Shunta Grant as our guest on today’s show. Shunta is the creator of Because of Zoe Designs, host of The Business Life & Joy podcast and business educator teaching entrepreneurs how to build and grow successful businesses that keep customers coming back. Leaving the practice of law for full-time entrepreneurship, Shunta is an ardent advocate for enterprising women who want to take control of their lives by turning their talents and abilities into a satisfying, profitable businesses.

Are you looking to turn your passion into a business? Or looking for new way to energize your company? Shunta is a great example of approaching your goals with purpose and clarity. To say the least, we know our listeners will find her inspiring. Shunta teaches entrepreneurs how to confidently prioritize their life while still putting in the work that is necessary to see tangible and measurable results. No matter what your personal brand or goals are, if you are serious about success, this episode is for you!

In today’s episode, we welcome Mary Shores. Mary is the international bestselling author of Conscious Communications: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Harnessing the Power of Your Words to Change Your Mind, Your Choices, and Your Life. As an author, speaker, entrepreneur and CEO, Mary teaches individuals and businesses to fearlessly create their own realities by using scientific methods and practical personal development.

Have you ever been stuck in a rut, found yourself overwhelmed with problems or drowning in negative self-talk? Well, Mary has a scientifically backed, five-step process to help get you from breakdown to breakthrough and today, she’ll be talking us through it. In this episode, we’ll be talking about the power words have in your life, Mary’s cleanse and clog formula, how to turn a possibility into a probability, make your problems smaller and come out on the bright side of life. If you’ve got some shit in your life, then you’ve got to listen to this episode!

Megan Auman is a designer, metalsmith, educator and entrepreneur who has built a multi-faceted business around her passion for art, commerce and visual content creation. AKA, she rocks Instagram and Pinterest! In addition to running her eponymous jewelry line, you’ll find her on Designing an MBA talking and teaching about the intersection of art and business.

In this episode, we will be looking at how to use Instagram and Pinterest to see a return on investment and grow your email list. We will even be getting some tips on what to do with New York Now, how to plan a holiday marketing strategy and why keeping it simple is key. So hold onto your panties! As a trained and practicing metalsmith, Megan is a great person to help those entrepreneurs who are specifically hand-makers trying to grow a handmade business. So jump in and take a listen!

Today on the podcast we welcome Meet Edgar Founder and CEO, Laura Roeder. Meet Edgar is a social media automation tool that makes sure your social media content gets posted to all the appropriate places. Often we are so afraid to repurpose or repost content more than once. But if you knew that your reach per post is often sitting around 5%, you might start to think a little differently! Meet Edgar helps small businesses and entrepreneurs reuse their best content to bring in a ton of views.

But we are not only talking about social media today; we are talking about how Laura bootstrapped her company, how she has developed a 100% remote team of 30 employees across the US, generated over seven thousand subscribers, is bringing in $4 million in annual revenue and how she has survived all of this with zero sales team. Oh, and all of this was in just three years. Today, we will be diving into all her juicy secrets, discussing the future of social media networks, and why we should be utilizing them while they are still free.

Boss babes, you are in for a treat today. We are doing what we normally do after a launch. We are giving you all the nitty gritty details you won’t hear anywhere else. You are going to hear about ad spend, what we did, what we didn’t do, how much we made, and all of what happened in our most recent launch, which happens to be an affiliate launch for someone else’s course (not even our own program), that we just wrapped up in July 2017. If you have no clue what we’re talking about, go back to some of our older podcasts and give them a listen.

After having so much success with FB Everything, we thought it would be beneficial for our audience to hear how we went about doing an affiliate launch. We spent money on marketing someone else’s program and that’s what we’re going to talk about today, so if you’re even a tiny bit curious, keep listening!

They call her The Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon, and yes, we have her on the show today. Tracey Osborne, CEO of Empowered Fempreneurs, is here! Tracey has had a decade-long career as a Virtual Assistant and grew her business from $15,000 to 6-figures in only two years. During that time she has authored and co-authored three books, her latest being, Becoming A VA.

Inside this episode, we go over the exact systems that Tracey used to get her business off the ground, from the very beginning. We look at how she was able to leave her full-time job in 60 days, start her VA business and get off to the races in no time. We also talk about how Tracey was able to build relationships and eventually build an agency model where she brought on other VA’s inside her own business so she could grow and scale. Keep listening to learn more.

On today’s show we literally take you behind the scenes of the biggest launch of our careers! After two years of hard work and thinking about what we could offer the world that’s really going to change the landscape for creative entrepreneurs, we launched The Strategy Academy. We don’t think you guys realize the amount of excitement that we have to bring you this episode. Not only are we excited because it means the launch is over and we can finally breathe, but we are also excited because it’s the biggest launch of our careers, ever! It also meant a lot of lessons learned, a lot of successful decisions, a few minor tweaks and pivots, and some crazy data and stats that absolutely blew our minds!

A lot of people plateau because they don’t know how to automate and they don’t know how to grow a team. So we took everything a step further in the Strategy Academy and really gave people like a full blown roadmap! The launch took off in June this year and had some unexpected highs, some surprising lows and some exciting turns! Today, we are giving you the launch breakdown 101. The data, the results and the digits — because y’all know we hold nothing back — of our most recent $94,936 Strategy Academy launch. Hear how we did it and how you can do it too!

You guys, today is kind of an incredible day. We are introducing you to our newest creation, The Strategy Academy. It’s our digital baby, the thing that we have been working on literally from day one. We wanted to create this new movement and program and opportunity for small business owners, specifically creative small business owners. The reactions have been amazing, the support, the cheerleading, everything around this program has just made our hearts go super warm and fuzzy.

Today, we’re going to introduce you to the Strategy Academy, we’re going to walk you through what’s inside, why it’s amazing and kind of explain more of the choose your own adventure that we have built inside this program. This will help make those decisions a little easier and really give you some guidance as to what you’re going to get out of the program and why we invested so much time and energy into it.