This episode is inspired by a 45-second TikTok we stumbled upon about what’s going on in the online business world. We specifically loved the phrase, “We’re at the end of the Girlboss era” because, honestly, we couldn’t agree more! Today, we talk about what the landscape of online business looked like five or six years ago, what it’s looking like in 2022, and why we think there is so much more access and opportunity than ever before. However, it is going to take a shift! We are in a new season, we are in a new world, and people have different expectations.

Let's take it back in time and investigate what the Girlboss Era is, what started it, and why we think it’s on its way out! We take a look at the radical shift required to move forward in business and as a society, the realization required to shift your mindset, and where we really and truly hope the online business world isn’t heading!

The opinions we share in this conversation might make you uncomfortable, and that’s okay! Today’s show addresses one of the patterns we’ve seen emerge among our clients: their goals are amazing, but the path they intend to take to get there keeps them playing small. This week we dive into the top scaling mistakes we see businesses make.

Getting distracted with new ideas is a common mistake we see as a business owner’s success accelerates. It is easy for them to neglect the health of their core mission and chase shiny objects.

We’ll brainstorm with you, regardless of how you intend to move forward, but we do have some hard-earned insights that suggest that staying focused on the skillset you have and knowing your value can lead you to a place where growth becomes potential. You CAN find the time and money freedom you’ve been dreaming of; it’s never too late to get back to your zone of genius, or to change, transition, and pivot to work on what you should be workin

To niche or not to niche? That is the question. This week we’re diving into the hot topic of whether or not to niche, so get your pros and cons lists ready because we’re about to dive into all the details of this tricky decision! Whether you’re a service-based business owner or multi-passionate with a wide variety of offerings, this question can be very difficult to answer, especially since there are benefits and drawbacks to both choices.

Time is our most valuable resource, because it is so limited, and yet is the thing that we see people giving away freely all the time. In today’s episode we’re going to talk about three giant time wasters that are really holding service providers back from working less in their business. It is possible to work less, and it is possible to make more by working less! Feeling frazzled and disconnected are such common experiences that people have started to think this is normal, so they keep doing it. We want you to know that this doesn’t have to be your reality. When we accepted that there are going to be different seasons and phases and iterations of our business, we were able to let go of the pressure of finding perfect solutions to our problems, and find peace in the fact that things are constantly evolving and that’s okay!

If you feel like you don’t have enough time, we’ve got a training course that is just for you. We’re going to teach you how to double your income by working less than 20 hours a week. This is something we’ve perfected, so we are speaking from experience, and trust us when we say this is something you don’t want to miss! Go to bossproject.com/incubator to sign up.

This week we dive into the top missteps we see businesses making when they want to grow. Side effects may include: burnout, overwhelm, stress, shutting down your business, getting a full-time job that you hate, or not reaching the income goals that you say that you want to achieve. We’re here to interrupt that vicious cycle and get a fresh perspective on exactly what’s causing these troublesome symptoms in your business!

Today we want to talk to all of you amazingly talented, creative people, who miss doing the thing they actually started their business for. We know that so many of you are crushing it, you have no problem landing clients, you are super busy, yet you feel like you’ve moved away from the thing that you really love doing. We want to let you know that you can step out of that, you have so much potential to grow into that creative director seat. Often, CEO status feels not totally in alignment for a lot of service-based businesses. Not that you don’t want to run a company of high caliber, but you still want to be delivering on the service, and oftentimes being in the CEO seat means that you don’t get to do that anymore.

We discuss the number one way to grow your list through low-priced, high-value digital products, how to get paid and grow a list of customers rather than subscribers, and how to use the W.A.N.D. Method to figure out exactly what your Pocket Products™ should be. If you haven’t been introduced to Courtney yet, you’re in for a real treat! Tune in, get out your notebook, and grab a fresh cup of coffee, because we’re pretty sure you’ll be ready to hit the ground running after this episode!

Today on the podcast, we have Courtney Chaal. She is a copywriter turned business coach obsessed with making complex concepts (like business models and sales copy) simple and tangible to help regular people achieve big results. She is a big believer in the power of offering a signature service as the best way to start making a full-time income online. And services are the theme for today’s episode. If you have ever thought about offering something you kind of, sort of, maybe know how to do to some people you kind of, maybe, sort of like, then this episode is going to be a really good framework for how to get started. We get into Courtney’s first clients, how she niched down to identify her value proposition, and how you can do the same thing. Courtney shares tips she would give new service providers after they have just landed their first client, and advice on what to do next. We also talk about something we’ve never mentioned on the podcast before: the dad bod level of business, so if you want to find out what that’s all about, make sure you stay tuned.

Today, on the podcast, we welcome Emily Walker. She helps brilliant entrepreneurs turn their big ideas into powerful and profitable courses so they can improve thousands of other people’s lives while building more spaciousness into their own. Having worked with a diverse range of clientele all over the globe, from groundbreaking courses and bestselling authors to seven-figure mindset queens, Emily knows that, sure, you can just dive in and start teaching online, but taking that knowledge and tweaking it into something actionable is not always easy.

If you have ever wanted to create a course, a program, a workshop, a masterclass, a tiny offer, a big offer, it doesn’t matter; this episode is going to give you a lot of great things to think about before you get started! Emily shares her perspective on creating content by doing equal parts what feels fun and good to you while also serving your audience, your clients, or your future students. It’s a blend of both worlds, and Abigail and Emylee certainly walked away from this conversation with a lot of ideas and questions to ask themselves as they refresh some of their own programs, and we know you will too!

Today on the podcast we have Kristin Ostrander from Mommy Income. She is an e-commerce expert who got her start 17 years ago on eBay. She has since transitioned to Amazon where she has been a serial entrepreneur who has learned all the ins and outs of how to run a successful wholesale business selling on the platform. Today she touches on her wholesale bundle system and how she’s helped thousands of students through her online course and podcast.

In this episode, we talk about a product offering, revenue stream, and selling platform that we’ve never talked about on the podcast before: Amazon, and more specifically, selling wholesale bundles on Amazon. Honestly, there was so much information that we did not know. So we really think you guys will get a lot of good ideas from this episode if you’re interested in selling a new product, getting a second stream of revenue up and running or just testing your toes in running a business that might be a little different to what everyone else is doing. Kristin breaks down her strategies in the order that she did stuff really, really well, and has some incredible resources for you guys to keep learning if you want to find out how to sell on Amazon. We’re sure this show will give you a lot of great ideas!

Today on the podcast we have Melissa Fryer. She is a creative artist, who has been in the professional baking industry for sixteen years and she noticed that people needed to find out more information about building their own baking business. But this was not until after she moved to the middle of the desert, had to leave another business behind, and start all over again with the help of Strategy Academy. Melissa is one of our rockstar, OG Strategy Academy students who has truly taken the program to a T of how it was designed. We brought her on to not only get a peek behind the curtain of her business but to follow along with her thought processes and different strategies that she implemented in her business with how she was learning and what she was learning from the program.

You’ll get a good glimpse today behind Melissa’s business that has succeeded and continues to thrive. She has taken pivots and made different decisions and tweaks based on not only what she is learning from our program but by knowing her audience and herself as her life has changed. This is exactly what we designed the program for – your life and not the other way round. So we are going to talk about the Strategy Academy a lot today but you are also going to get so many good tips about memberships, monetizing a Facebook group, how to grow an email list, and how to identify your offer depending on your lifestyle. Learn more about Strategy Academy here.

Today on the show we have Liz Rishel from Within the Grove. For the last five years, Liz has grown her blog and Instagram to become an influencer to watch! We have loved observing her journey since she was a Strategy Academy student who accomplished amazing things and, in this episode, we pick her brain about what she has done to get such phenomenal results.

We’ve often talked about blogging and making money from working with brands and have given our listeners some insights into how this all works, and Liz is here to give us her perspective on the whole thing. She gives us a peek behind the curtain of her growth over the past five years, getting into when it became a full-time job, how many hours she had to put in before it became a viable financial option for her and her family, how she collaborates with brands, her engagement with followers, and creating amazing products in her own home. Be sure to tune in for an episode that might just inspire you to start your next DIY project or finally get that online business of yours off the ground!

Joining us on the show today is returning guest Ward Sandler, the co-founder and CEO of MemberSpace. Ward runs a SaaS company that enables entrepreneurs and organizations to turn any part of their website into members only with just a few clicks. But we are not talking only about MemberSpace in this conversation but a new way to integrate an amazing community to your membership or products using a tool called Circle. While Circle isn’t affiliated with MemberSpace, they work together perfectly — which we love! Ward breaks down the features of Circle and how you can add-on a community to make a great experience for your members and customers.

We did an episode on Patreon and Mighty Networks a while ago (Episode 468), and this is yet another option for those who want to move their community away from social media platforms such as Facebook groups. Ward gives his take on Patreon and Mighty Networks, explaining how the pricing and features differ from MemberSpace and Circle and why he is a huge fan of picking the best tools for every need and then making them fit together seamlessly. Listeners will also get plenty of advice for setting up MemberSpace and Circle and learn how it can transform their membership engagement. Be sure to try it and check it out at bossproject.com/memberspace!

We know our listeners are super smart, and there are tons of cool things you do every day, so maybe the best thing you can do today is to outline your group course! We have been in the teaching space for a while now, and Boss Project has recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. Go us! Interestingly, even though we have taught tons of people over the years, we haven’t shared that much about what we put out into the world. We teach a lot about business and marketing, but we have not really gone into course development that much. This is mostly because this is not everyone’s primary job.

We have, however, noticed an influx of coaches, and actually, the majority of the people in the Creative Template Shop are coaches. While this is surprising, it is also really incredible because people are looking for connection and transformation, and they want someone to guide them in that process. Before we get started, we want to invite you to a party. All you need to do is open the Strategy Hour Podcast up in your favorite podcast app, give us five-star reviews only, and then share these screenshots on Instagram. You can win one of two great prizes, either a free copy of Trello for Business or a whole month free of the Creative Template Shop.