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Are you asking AI for ideas and ending up with 87 new things to do — and zero things finished? Using AI without a business decision already made is not saving you time. It is creating more decisions, more overwhelm, and more reasons to stay stuck.

In this episode, you will discover how to flip the way you use AI so it executes your plan instead of replacing it. Here are 5 things that will change how you work with AI starting this week:

✅Why asking AI “what to create” is the exact reason you feel more overwhelmed — not less

✅The one thing you must decide before you open AI — and why skipping this step costs hours

✅How to give AI the right prompt so it stops sending you down rabbit trails

✅The simple workflow that turns one piece of content into 5 places it can live — in minutes

✅How to use AI to improve what you already have instead of building something new

Ready to stop letting AI run your business and start letting it work for you? Grab the 5X Method and the free Business Audit by clicking the link below.

Resources for You 

• 5X Method — Turn one piece of content into 5 pieces of content in 5 minutes  
• Free Business Audit — Assess where your business is and where AI can help you move faster 

Show Notes:

What If AI Is Actually Making Your Business More Complicated?

You can ask AI for 20 podcast ideas, 15 blog posts, 30 social posts, 10 lead magnets, 5 emails, 7 offers, and 15 titles. And suddenly you have 87 new things to do. AI did not save you time. It gave you more decisions.

The real problem is not AI. The problem is using AI without a business decision already made. If you don't know your priority, AI can manufacture endless lists of possibilities. More ideas from AI isn't necessarily productive. Sometimes more ideas are exactly what keeps you stuck.

AI Comes After the Decision — Not Before It

Solopreneurs get stuck because there are too many decisions to make. So let's talk about how to get unstuck.

You need to use AI — but for creating and repurposing, not for deciding. Instead of asking AI for ideas and getting overwhelmed, pick one. Ask for more ideas later. Instead of changing your mind, starting another project, or creating another product — which is what a lot of you do when you already have products you're not selling — decide first. AI comes after your decision. It does not make decisions for you.

I banter back and forth with AI all the time. But it is not going to make my decision. I have to know what my purpose is before I ever start using it.

How Sister Love Saved 24 Business Days

There's a nonprofit called Sister Love that had a one-person digital marketing team. Their content process was taking 6 to 8 hours for every single keyword. They ended up creating a simple workflow using Google Sheets and automation with AI to turn a chosen topic into blog posts, emails, and social content.

This is exactly what I've been teaching for two years with our 5X method — where you take one piece of content and, in about five minutes with AI and the right prompts, turn it into content for five different places. What happened with Sister Love? More than 24 business days of work were saved over a nine-month period. They were creating content that ranked high in organic search.

The important part isn't which AI tool they used. The lesson is that they had a process first. AI wasn't deciding what their business should do. It was helping them execute their defined content strategy.

The Right First Question to Ask AI

The first question you ask AI should not be — what should I create? If that's what you're asking, get back with me. Stop multitasking and listen to this.

Instead, tell it: here's my goal. Here's my audience. Here's the offer I'm supporting. Here's the content I've already created. Here are my constraints. Then ask AI to execute for you. That's exactly what we teach in the 5X method. This reduces the possibility of AI sending you down 14 rabbit trails and 14 hours of wasted work.

You need a system. I developed a system, and now I plug my content into ChatGPT or Claude and it works quickly. No rabbit trails. No overwhelm.

What to Do This Week

Pick one thing. What is the one business goal you are working on this week? Not your goals in general — one specific thing you want to get done. For me right now, I'm about to be out of the office for two weeks and I need all my podcasts done. Six to eight episodes. So that's my one goal. I gave AI the information — it organized everything and got it ready for me, including this episode.

So what is your one goal this week? Maybe it's to sell an offer. Promote a workshop. Finish a sales page. Nurture your email list. Get your podcast episodes published.

Write it down before you open AI. You have to decide what your goal is — not AI.

A Few Specific Examples

Instead of asking AI — give me 30 social media ideas — ask it to turn this week's podcast into 3 specific posts. I tell it whether I want a regular social post or an engagement post, and I have specific guidelines for each one.

Instead of asking — what should I sell? — ask AI how to improve the offer you've already chosen. Give it pieces of your existing content. Ask it to rewrite a paragraph three different ways and then you make the decision.

Instead of — give me five lead magnet ideas — ask AI to turn your existing offer into one useful lead magnet.

The goal isn't maximum output. The goal is less decision fatigue and more productive, revenue-generating content creation output.=

I have two things for you. The 5X method turns one piece of content into five pieces of content in about five minutes — links in the show notes. I also have a business audit that lets you look at what you're doing in your business and where you need help. You don't have to do the whole audit — just flip to the section that's most helpful for your goal this week.

Thanks for spending time with me. Write down that one goal before you open AI — and then let AI help you execute it.

Consistency is the key to growing a successful business, and it starts with creating a daily routine schedule that works for you. Today, I’ll explore how to design your ideal workday, balance your responsibilities, and maintain focus so you can show up for your clients and create solutions that truly resonate.

Whether you’re just starting out or refining your business systems as a solo preneur, this episode will help you set the foundation for long-term success.

You’ll discover:

✅ How to design your ideal daily schedule for work-life balance

✅ Tips for setting clear boundaries, for your followers and your family

✅ Strategies for creating a sustainable working schedule - stop your overwhelm

✅ The importance of including breaks, self-care, and personal time in your routine

Resources Mentioned:

Business Marketing Roadmap

FamilyEbiz Facebook Group

Show Notes:

How to Build a Daily Routine That Actually Works for Your Business

We've done all the work to plan for the year. Now how are you actually going to get it done? Because you need a way to work each and every day — and it's not going to be perfect. Your kids are going to walk in. You're going to have an emergency. That's okay. Today we're talking about two words that make all the difference — routine and schedule.

Routine vs. Schedule — What's the Difference?

A routine is how you plan to go through each day. A schedule is — we're going to do this at 8, then 10, then 11, then 12. Personally, I think we all do better with a routine. A schedule will get you burned out and overwhelmed.

Here's what a routine looks like. Maybe in the mornings you homeschool. In the afternoons you work. In the evenings you spend time as a family. That is a routine. If you have a full-time job and this is a side hustle — you work 8 to 5, come home, take care of your family, and around 8 or 9 at night you work on your business. Or maybe you're a morning person and you get up at 4 or 5 a.m. and work for two hours before your kids wake up. Whatever works for your life — that is your routine.

Consistency Is the Most Important Thing

The number one thing you want to do is build a routine set up for consistency. It is better to post once a week on social media every single week from now to the end of the year than to post five times this week, miss five weeks, then post ten times the following week. People forget who you are.

Let me say that again. Consistency is key. It is better to give a five-minute podcast every week from now to the end of the year than to do a 30-minute podcast today and then wait three months before you do another one. You've got to decide how often you're going to post — and whatever you choose, make sure you can actually be consistent with it.

Three Things to Consider When Building Your Routine

Number one — your day. How are you going to portion out your day between your family, your hobbies, your downtime, your work, your health, and maybe a ministry you're involved in? My Saturdays look very different from Monday through Friday. Sundays are for church, life group, and pouring back into myself. You need to look at a full day and just define in general terms — what's the morning going to look like, the afternoon, the dinner time, the evening?

Number two — your availability. When will you be available during your work hours? Only mornings? Set periods during the week? Maybe it's Tuesday afternoons for your paying members. Maybe you have a calendar tool where people can book time with you. I love a tool called Tiny Cal — it was a one-time fee and it handles all my calendars without me bouncing around between platforms. You need to decide when you're available and put those boundaries into place. And tell people how to contact you — by email, by DM, by tagging you. I tell people if you want me to see a comment on Facebook or Instagram, you have to tag me. Otherwise I won't see it.

Number three — your working hours. How many hours a week are you going to work? 20? 30? 40? I certainly don't want to work 60 because I want the freedom to do other things. Here's my personal daily routine. I wake up without an alarm — my goal is 5 or 5:30, and I'm usually up by 6. Then I have a quiet time — prayer, journaling, Bible reading — usually at least an hour. Then I go for a prayer walk. That takes care of some of my health and my time talking to God. And after that, whenever that time is done, I start working. My day may be at home or at a coffee shop. That is my routine.

Did you notice I included self-care? You have to take care of yourself so you can pour into everyone else. Put the mask on before you help your child.

Build In Balance and Fluidity

Plan your business as thoroughly as possible — goals, milestones, deadlines, targets. But then have some fluidity that will lead to balance. The best business plans are concrete but flexible.

I'm recording this on my son's birthday, and I was talking to him about business. I told him — I've got my whole year planned for 2025, but I've already made some changes from what I planned in November. That's okay. That's flexibility. But I have something to fall back on every single month. Do you?

Do a Monthly Review

I'm doing something I've never done before — a monthly review on the last working day of every month. Here are some of the questions I'm going to ask, and I think you should too.

Am I finding that I'm able to complete my tasks, or have I planned too much? Am I managing my business well? Is the foundation I set at the start of the year working, or does it need to change? What's the most important thing I can work on next month? What's working well in my routine and what's not? Get rid of what isn't working, and double down on what is. What do I need to lose or add?

When you make a habit of tracking and evaluating what you've done, your business can grow. Otherwise you're flying by the seat of your pants. I know, because that's where I've been. I was still making full-time income — but it's better to make it based on actual knowledge and tracking data than just guessing.

Put it on the calendar. Last day of the month, evaluate what happened and prepare for the month ahead.

I'll put a link to Tiny Cal in the show notes — it's one of my favorite new tools for managing my calendar and availability. And if you missed any of the earlier episodes in this planning series, go back and listen — we covered finding your sweet spot and the number one place to get started with your email list. Thanks for spending time with me.

Business growth doesn't always mean adding another product, platform, strategy, or piece of content. Sometimes the smartest move is to stop adding and get clear about what actually fits your strengths, solves a real problem for your audience, and can lead to revenue.

In this episode, you'll discover 3 questions to ask before adding anything new to your business. You'll learn how to spot ideas that are simply creating more work, protect your time, and focus on the opportunities that can actually move your business forward.

In this episode, you'll discover:

✅The 3 questions to ask before adding a new strategy

✅Why more products don't automatically mean more sales

✅How your strengths can point you toward business growth

✅The question that reveals what you're doing just because someone said you should

✅Why knowing your audience's real pain points can change what you sell

✅How to recognize ideas that may look good but won't actually move your business toward revenue

Ready to simplify your business growth? Get the free Marketing Business Roadmap by clicking the link below.

Resources for You 

• Free Business Marketing Roadmap
• Maximize Revenue course

Show Notes:

Your Strength Is a Clue — Not a Command

You might be great at social media, but you don't need to build a social media-driven business. You might love writing, but you might not need to be a blogger. You might be a great teacher, but you don't need to create 15 courses. Your strength is a clue, not a command. Today we're talking about how to use your strengths to actually grow your business.

Nathan Barry and the ConvertKit Story

Nathan Barry didn't start with the business he has today. He began as a designer, then moved into writing books and building an audience. In 2014, he created what many of you know as ConvertKit — or Kit as it's known today. He saw a need among content creators and had the strengths to meet it — design, writing, teaching, audience building — and those strengths shaped the direction of his business.

He describes the journey as moving from freelance web design to iPhone apps, books, courses, email, and eventually Kit.

The lesson isn't build an email software company. The lesson is this — your business can evolve as you discover where your strengths and your audience's needs intersect. Let me repeat that. Your business can evolve as you discover where your strengths are and where your audience needs intersect.

More Is Not the Same as Growth

Don't confuse more with growth. More products do not automatically mean more sales. More content doesn't automatically mean more revenue. Building more products and creating all those things that many of you are making does not bring more sales.

You've got to go back to the basics. And sometimes the best growth move is eliminating something. I've had to get rid of some products because they weren't serving my purpose.

So ask yourself this — what am I doing because someone told me I should? And then ask the better question — what am I doing because it actually works?

Think about your current business and your list of ideas. Pick one thing you've been considering that is not necessary for your current business right now. I don't want you to write not now — I want you to actually set it aside. This is not quitting. This is protecting the business you are actually trying to build. You've got to get rid of the ideas that are not going to bring in revenue.

Where Your Strengths and Your Audience's Pain Points Intersect

What is your strength? What are your people's problems? And where do they intersect? That is the question. If you think something is just good for your audience so they should buy it — that's not going to help. You need to solve their problems. You are a painkiller. You need to kill their pain with your solution.

And if you have not had a real conversation with your audience — texted them, DM'd them, emailed them — about their actual pain points in their own words, then stop this episode right now and go take care of that. If you're guessing at your audience's pain points, you will never build a revenue-generating business.

Three Questions to Ask Before Adding Any Strategy

Before adding another strategy, grab your phone or a piece of paper and answer these three questions.

Is this something I'm naturally good at, or willing to become good at? Nathan Barry may not have been the greatest at creating a software platform from the start — but he was good enough at enough things, and he could build from there.

Does my audience actually want this or need this? They may need it, but if they don't see it as something they want, they're not going to buy it. Stop selling vitamins. Start selling painkillers.

Can this eventually lead to revenue? Is this something that could actually sell, or just something you want to create or think would be good for your audience?

If the answer is no to any one of those questions, pause before adding it. This is what keeps you from building a business that looks impressive but is exhausting to maintain — and probably not making you any money.

Your business should fit your strengths and solve your audience's problem — not require you to become a completely different person.

I have two resources for you. The first is our free Business Marketing Roadmap — the link is in the show notes. The second is my Maximize Revenue course, which is specifically designed to help you identify your strengths and then use them to maximize your revenue based on where your business is and what your weaknesses are. Both links are in the show notes.

You tried the podcast, the membership, the course, and the coaching model — because someone successful was doing each one. Your business feels like a Frankenstein of everyone else's advice. 

The fix is not another strategy. It starts with your entrepreneur strengths.

This episode walks you through 4 questions that reveal exactly what your business model should be built on — so you can stop chasing what works for others and start building something that actually fits you:

✅Why your shiny object syndrome creates a Frankenstein business that does not fit anyone

✅The difference between a business that works for someone else & one that works for you

✅Why evergreen content built around your strengths compounds and grows over time

✅The one thing people already come to you for — and why that is your foundation

✅4 questions that reveal your real business model in under 30 minutes

✅How to identify your strengths and build your next 4 focused weeks around them

Click the link below to grab the free Business Marketing Roadmap and start building from your strengths today.

Resources for You 

• Free Business Marketing Roadmap
• Maximize Revenue course

Show Notes:

What If the Business Model You're Building Doesn't Actually Fit You?

You look around and see someone doing great with podcasting. Someone else has a huge email list. Someone else is selling courses. Someone else is coaching. And you think — maybe I should do that too.

But a successful business is not created by collecting every strategy that works for somebody else. That's called shiny object syndrome. You can't create your system based on what works for everyone else. You need to look at you.

The Frankenstein Business Problem

One entrepreneur says you need a podcast. Another says you need to be on Instagram every day. Someone else says memberships are the thing. Someone else says courses are where the money is. Everyone has their strategy and they want to sell it to you. And all of a sudden, your business is a Frankenstein business made from everybody else's advice.

The problem isn't that those strategies are bad. The problem is they may not match your strengths. And that's what we need to look at.

I have a podcast — you're listening to it. I have memberships. I have a homeschool course that works very well for me. But does that mean it's going to work for everyone? No. You've got to figure out what works for you.

There is no one right business model. Blogging can work. Podcasting can work. YouTube can work. Email marketing, courses, memberships, services, coaching, networking and partnerships — all of it can work. The question isn't which one is best. The question is which one allows you to use your strengths to serve your audience best?

What Are Your Strengths?

For me, email marketing is my number one asset. I personally believe it's one of the most important assets for any online business. But for some people, advertising works. For others, it's something else entirely. You've got to look at your strengths and your season of life.

If you have little kids and you're working at home, you don't have as much time. If you're an empty nester, you have more time. You've got to account for where you actually are — not where someone else is.

Grammar Girl and the Power of Playing to Your Strengths

Mignon Fogarty started Grammar Girl as a simple quick tip podcast about writing. That's it. But eventually it became huge — a massive podcast audience and then an educational business. Her strength wasn't trying to be everything to everyone in the education market. It was taking something she knew well — grammar — and communicating it in a memorable, easily accessible way.

What did she figure out? Evergreen content works. Utility-driven content compounds over time — through SEO, through Pinterest, through YouTube, through a podcast, through a blog. It keeps working over and over.

I have blog posts from 10 years ago that are still getting great traffic. One is about Lucky Charms graphing for St. Patrick's Day. Another is about a Christmas Eve family service. Another is about Bible snack activities for kids. For a long time, some of those didn't even have a call to action. When I kept seeing them at the top of Google Analytics, I finally went back and added one. Every blog post, podcast, YouTube video, or email needs a call to action.

Grammar Girl built a recognizable brand by staying in her lane — language and education. She developed her business around her strengths. And that's the model to follow.

Three Questions to Answer This Week

Stop right now — unless you're driving. Grab a piece of paper or open a note on your phone and answer these three questions.

Number one: people come to me when they need ___. For me in the homeschool market, it's homeschool tips from an experienced mom who already raised her kids — proof is in the pudding. And it's also people who want to give their kids a different kind of education.

Number two: the part of my business I naturally enjoy is ___. For me, it's videos, getting on calls with people, helping moms have that aha moment. I also genuinely enjoy the marketing side of it. What do you enjoy? What could you outsource because it's not your thing?

Number three: the thing I could talk about, teach, create, or solve repeatedly is ___. For me, it's homeschool problems, encouragement, and how to know you're doing enough. I also love talking about marketing — I can spend an hour on a call with someone talking through their marketing system and love every minute of it.

And then — what is one tip you can share in the next four weeks? You don't need to build your whole business model. You just need to start with your raw material.

Your Challenge

Take these answers and run with them for four weeks. Identify the thing people already come to you for. Start there. Repeat one tip over and over for the next four weeks and see what happens. If you don't think you can get started before the end of August, plan it for September. Four weeks. One problem. One tip. Repeat.

I have two resources for you in the show notes. The first is my free Business Marketing Roadmap — it will help you get organized and figure out your next step. The second is my course called Maximize Revenue, which walks you through identifying your strengths and weaknesses and how to use your strengths to actually maximize your revenue. Both links are in the show notes.

What if the reason your sales page is not converting has nothing to do with your offer — and everything to do with one word swap you have not made yet? Conversion in marketing is not about more content, more modules, or more bonuses. It is about helping your audience see who they become when they say yes.

In this episode, you will discover the simple messaging shift that turns browsers into buyers — and why the most successful brands lead with transformation, not information. Here are 5 things that will change how you write every sales page, email, and post from here on out:

✅Why listing features is quietly killing your sales — and what to say instead

✅ONE sentence every product description needs to answer before someone buys

✅The WIIFM shift that makes buyers feel seen before they even click

✅ How to future-pace your followers so they can already feel what life looks like after your product

✅The messaging shift from "I teach" to "you'll finally" that flips the whole conversation

✅What the most loved brands do differently to make people buy

Ready to rewrite one sentence and change how your audience responds to your offer? Grab the one-on-one OR group coaching resources mentioned in this episode by clicking the link below.

Resources for You

• One-on-one coaching with Kerry Beck — personalized help on your product and sales page
• Group coaching programs (two options) — get specific feedback on your offer and messaging
• -Family Ebiz Mastermind
• -Homeschool Blogger University
• Boost — 5-step business system course mentioned as a transformation-messaging example

Show Notes:

Your Audience Doesn't Buy Information — They Buy Transformation

Have you ever been on a sales page that listed 12 modules, 35 videos, worksheets, and bonuses — and you still didn't really care about it? Why? Because information is not motivating. Transformation is motivating.

Today we're talking about how to show your audience the transformation your product will give them.

The WIIFM Radio Station

What happens is creators love talking about their videos, their PDFs, their templates, their bonuses. But customers are tuned into one radio station — WIIFM. What's in it for me? They're thinking, what will this actually do for me?

So instead of saying 12 lessons, say know exactly what to do every week. Instead of saying 50 printable planners, say never wonder what comes next. There's an emotion there and an action that solves their pain point.

I mentioned CD Baby last week — if you didn't hear the whole story, they took a regular shipping confirmation email and turned it into something people shared all over the internet. Instead of saying your order shipped today, they created a brand of delight. Transformation isn't just in your products. It's in every interaction you have with your audience.

The Sentence That Changes Everything

Think about this. My customer starts here — but after working with me, they can finally ___.

Put something down. Don't improve it yet. Just finish the sentence. After working with me, they can finally ___. That is gold. If you can identify that, you have the core of your marketing messaging.

Most websites are describing what is happening today — 80% of the page is about the content, the features, the format. But 80% of your page should be telling people what will happen tomorrow. How will their life be different? How will this solve today's problem?

Ask yourself these questions when you're trying to come up with this messaging. How will they feel? What becomes easier? What disappears? What becomes possible?

Real Examples From My Own Courses

Let me share two of my own examples — and I've had to tweak these several times.

For my Boost course, here's what I wrote. Imagine what your business looks like four weeks from now. What if you opened your laptop Monday morning and actually knew what to do? No second-guessing, no tab hopping between courses, YouTube videos, and Facebook groups hoping someone gives you the answer. Just a clear, confident next step every single day. That's what Boost does for you.

Did I tell them there were four modules? No. I said four weeks from now. Did I list the topics? No. I told them this is what will happen when you put this course into practice.

For Raising Leaders, Not Followers, here's the introduction. What if every homeschool decision you made came from a place of confidence instead of fear? Here's how to get there. Yes, I want to ditch the overwhelm and gain confidence.

That's their number one problem — they've told me over and over. And so the copy asks — what if you made decisions from a place of confidence instead of fear? It's all about what will happen if you take the course and how it will help them.

People Buy Identity Before They Buy Information

Yvon Chouinard built Patagonia not around camping supplies but around a larger transformation and mission. Customers identified with the values and the identity. They wanted to become a part of what the company stood for — keeping the earth clean, giving back, using fair trade practices. People will spend extra money to buy into what he is doing.

People often buy identity before they buy information. What identity is your product helping your audience step into?

The Simple Messaging Shift

Instead of saying my membership includes — say my membership helps you ___. Instead of saying I teach — say you'll finally be able to ___. Instead of me saying I teach leadership education — say you'll finally be able to help your children make wise decisions and think critically. Those are the things they want for their kids. It's simple, it's clear, and it's transformation-based.

Write one sentence. My product helps people ___. No features. No lessons. No numbers. No bonuses. What is the transformation you will help your people experience?

Your audience doesn't want another printable, another checklist, or another course. They want to become someone who is confident, organized, gets clients, grows revenue, and finally feels in control. They want to become something. And the clearer you describe who they become, the easier it is for them to say yes.

If you need help with this, I offer one-on-one coaching where we can work specifically on your product, your sales page, and your transformation messaging. I also have two group coaching programs where you can get that same help in a community setting. Links are in the show notes.

If your product is good but sales are slow, your marketing messaging might be speaking to the wrong thing entirely — and this episode shows you exactly how to fix it.

Let’s be honest when sales are slow, the problem probably isn't what you're selling — it's how you’re talking about it. Buyers aren't looking for features or education. They're looking for someone who understands their pain right now and can make it stop.

Here are 5 things you'll discover in this episode:

✅Why most creators accidentally sell vitamins instead of pain relief — and how to tell the difference

✅A simple "so you can finally" headline formula that creates emotional urgency

✅How to identify your buyer's current frustration — the real one, not the surface one

✅The difference between educational copy and buying copy — and when to use each

✅How emotion drives action, and why your follow-up emails need this shift too

Ready to finally write marketing messaging that makes people feel understood — and motivated to buy?

Grab the coaching and community resources mentioned in this episode by clicking the links below!

Resources for You

• One-on-one coaching — send your sales copy ahead of time for a personalized review and strategy session 
• Family Ebiz Mastermind — monthly group coaching for online business strategy and growth
• Homeschool Blogger University — monthly group coaching for homeschool content creators

Show Notes:

Are You Selling Vitamins or Pain Relief?

Have you ever created something you know your audience needs but hardly make any sales? The problem really isn't your product. It's probably how you're talking about it.

People don't wake up in the morning thinking — I'm going to go get my vitamins. They wake up saying — how can I get rid of this headache? Are you selling vitamins, or are you selling a solution to your people's headache?

Vitamins vs. Pain Relief — What's the Difference?

Most creators describe their product based on how it prevents something. That's a vitamin. Buyers are looking for a solution. They have a hurt today and they want you to solve their problem right now.

Compare these two. This course helps you become organized. That's a vitamin. Stop wondering every morning what you need to work on next. That solves a problem — because a lot of us don't know what we need to do each morning when we sit down to work, or homeschool, or whatever our niche is.

Jason Fried and his team didn't market Basecamp as a project management system. They talked instead about the frustration of dropped calls, messy communications, and totally embarrassing client moments that stop your growth. They sold relief from chaos, not software features. People don't buy software — they buy peace of mind.

Know the Pain Before You Sell Anything

So I want you to stop right now — unless you're driving — and fill in this blank. My customer is frustrated because ___. Don't try to fix it yet. Just identify today's pain.

Some of you think you know the pain, but what are they really frustrated with right now? Customers buy current frustration.

Instead of saying learn better email marketing, say stop wondering why your subscribers never buy. Instead of saying build a healthier homeschool, say stop ending every homeschool day wondering if you accomplished anything. Those are emotional phrases. They create urgency. They speak to where your person actually is right now.

Duolingo didn't build their app around learn grammar. Their mission centered around helping people learn a language they already want to use. They're not selling the mechanics of language learning — they're selling the confidence of speaking a language. People don't buy lessons. They buy confidence.

Two Types of Messaging You Need to Understand

There are two types of messaging. Educational messaging answers the question — what is this? Teaching is good. It builds trust. But it does not build sales on its own.

Buying messaging creates movement. It makes your audience want to click the button and get what you have. You need both — but a lot of you are spending so much time teaching on your sales pages that people feel like they already have enough information. They don't see the transformation. They don't see how your product will actually help them.

Educational marketing messaging says — five ways to organize your homeschool. Buying marketing messaging says — end your homeschool overwhelm by next Monday. One is a tip. The other is a promise with urgency.

So I want you to take one headline — on a product, a sales page, an email, a landing page, wherever — and add this framework to it. So you can finally ___. Don't say I'm going to teach you this. Say so you can finally stop the overwhelm and find peace in your homeschool. Just rewrite the headline. You don't have to rewrite the whole page.

How CD Baby's Shipping Email Became a Legend

Derek Sivers built CD Baby, which shipped CDs for musicians back in the day. They built a hugely successful business. And he decided to have a little fun with the shipping confirmation email. Here's what it said.

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized, contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell across the crowd as he put your CD in the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved bon voyage to your package on this day, Friday, June 6. I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall of customer of the year. We're all exhausted, but can't wait for you to come back.

These words create emotion. And emotion creates action. As I was reading this — and I've read it several times today — I kept thinking, how could I use something like this in my own business to draw people in, give them a good laugh, and build that trust and relationship?

What to Do This Week

Look not at how you're going to teach people, but at the problem you're going to solve. Then find your headline — so you can finally ___. Fill in that transformation.

This kind of writing isn't just about your product. It applies to your follow-up emails too. Emotions create action. Action drives sales.

If you need help with your sales copy, I offer one-on-one coaching where you can send me something ahead of time, I evaluate it, and we talk about the best ways to improve it and define that transformation. Link is in the show notes.

I also offer group coaching through Family eBiz Mastermind and Homeschool Blogger University — we get together once a month and you can bring your sales copy, your headline, or whatever you're working on and get real help.

If you got one thing out of this, would you please share it with a friend or colleague who would benefit? That would mean the world to me. And if you're on YouTube, leave a comment — or leave a five-star review on Spotify or Apple.

You already have everything you need to start making money — it's sitting in a folder on your hard drive right now. Your freebies are not just giveaways. They are digital product ideas waiting to be packaged and priced.

In this episode, you’ll discover how to turn your most popular free downloads into a premium bundle your audience will actually pay for — without creating a single new piece of content. 

Here are 5 things you will walk away knowing:

✅Why scattered freebies do not sell and  and how a bundle changes everything

✅3-step method to identify which of your existing free downloads are already getting attention

✅The bundle formula that adds real value without creating new content

✅ONE missing ingredient that makes people excited to pay for it

✅2 simple storefronts you can use today to start selling — no complicated setup 

Ready to stop sitting on a gold mine? Grab the Business Marketing Roadmap to help you organize your lead magnets and figure out your bundle by clicking the link below.

Resources for You

•Business Marketing Roadmap — to organize your lead magnets and identify bundle opportunities 

•ThriveCart (one-time fee shopping cart, affiliate link + 30-min setup consultation included)

•Boost System — 5-step plan for online business success

Show Notes:

You're Sitting on a Gold Mine — And You Don't Even Know It

Do you have checklists, cheat sheets, notebooking pages, all sorts of free downloads that you spent months or even years creating? You do — but then you're not doing anything with them. You're just throwing them out there as freebies all the time. And eventually you end up with a hard drive full of scattered, underutilized PDF files.

Today we're going to make a paradigm shift. We're going to shift from all these free PDFs to actually selling. You don't need to keep creating new digital products. You just need to take what you already have and curate it together.

What Emily McDermott Did — And What You Can Do Too

Consumers don't want all your scattered files and different lead magnets. They will value something if you curate those together and solve one specific problem from start to finish.

Emily McDermott didn't invent a complex app or write a massive book. She looked at the exact organizational tools and tracker sheets she was already using in her daily workflow — and she bundled them together. She went from making zero sales to $280,000 in passive income. Not from creating something new. From packaging what she already had.

That is the mindset shift we're making today.

Step One: Find Your Top Three Free Downloads

Open your website, Google Drive, Google Analytics, or email marketing platform — wherever you can see your download data — and find your three most popular free downloads from the past year. Don't change them. Don't do anything to them yet. Just know where they are.

Now ask yourself — how could I put these together as a digital package?

If you're a homeschool blogger, you might combine a free daily reading log, a weekly lesson planner, and a history summary sheet. For me, I had a book called Drama Free Mom that wasn't selling well at $15. So I took two or three audio sessions I already had on that same topic and bundled them together. It started selling — because there was more value in it. I did not create any new content.

Let me repeat that. If you're multitasking, come back to me. I did not create new content. Stop creating new content when your old content isn't even selling. Let's figure out why that's not working first. And one reason is that a single PDF just doesn't always sell well. No one wants to pay $15 for a two-page worksheet. But a curated bundle that solves a problem from start to finish? That has value.

My Drama Free Mom Bundle — if you bought each piece individually it's about $45 or $46. I sell the bundle for $25. People see the value immediately.

The Missing Ingredient: An Execution Element

You've got to transform your free information into a paid product that ensures execution. How do they actually put it into practice? That's the missing piece.

Add a visual progress tracker. A goal sheet. A 30-day checklist at the front of the bundle. When people have a structured roadmap that guides them to a finish line, they are more likely to consume it, see transformation, get excited about what you offer, and come back for more. That is what you want.

For my Boost system, I have a five-step plan that tells people exactly what they need to do to see success in their online business. For my $15 bootcamp, I have a roadmap that walks them through five steps to a firm foundation. A roadmap connects the individual pieces and makes the whole bundle feel intentional.

Where to Research Before You Build

Before you put anything together, spend 15 minutes — not two hours — on platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers, Etsy, or Amazon. Look at themed items, see what's selling, see what has high reviews, and look at how other people are building starter bundles. Not to copy them. Not to create something new. Just to see how they're curating and packaging — and then figure out how you could do the same with what you already have.

Two Ways to Start Selling

There are two options. The first is a marketplace engine — platforms like Etsy, Teachers Pay Teachers, or Amazon where the buyers are already there. This is especially powerful if you don't have a lot of traffic yet. You borrow their audience of active buyers, and they handle payment processing, file delivery, and sales tax. You just set it up.

The second is your own direct creator storefront. I personally use ThriveCart — a one-time fee and you have a shopping cart forever with as many products as you want. If you already have a blog, podcast, or social media following, your own storefront gives you full control over the checkout. One-page checkout, one click, they fill it out right there. No clicking through a bunch of buttons. That converts better.

Choose one. Either one handles payment processing, file delivery, and transfers money directly into your account.

You Are Already Sitting on a Gold Mine

Stop making new products or new lead magnets. Stop overcomplicating it. Take your free worksheets, connect them to some kind of progress tracker, and upload the bundle to an automated storefront or your own.

I did this with my Busy Mom's Organizational Toolkit. I already had some organizational tools, so I created a few additional PDFs to help moms use those tools with their kids — getting themselves organized and working on goals together as a family. That bundle sells consistently.

Pull three of your freebies together, see how they connect, and turn them into a bundle or toolkit. You could start making money off content you already created.

If you want to get organized on your lead magnets first, grab the Business Marketing Roadmap in the show notes — you can list your top lead magnets and figure out which ones to bundle or point toward a paid product.

If you use my ThriveCart link, I'll also offer you a 30-minute consultation call to help you get set up — because I learned a lot of lessons the hard way and I'd love to save you from going through the same thing.

If this helped you, would you please share it with someone you collaborate with or someone in business with you? That would mean the world to me. And if you're on YouTube, leave a comment — I'd love to hear what you're going to bundle first.

Every time someone opts in for your freebie and lands on a generic thank you page, you're leaving money on the table.  Did you know that the moment someone enters their name and email is the highest point of engagement they'll ever have with you?

Most creators waste it with a generic thank you page. 

If your list is growing but buyers are scarce, a well-aligned tripwire on your thank you page might be the single highest-leverage fix available to you right now.

This episode breaks down exactly how a well-built tripwire can turn that moment into an instant sale.

Here are 5 things you'll discover in this episode:

✅Why your thank you page is costing you sales the second someone opts in

✅The 3 elements every converting tripwire needs to have in place

✅How alignment between your freebie and your offer affects conversion more than price

✅How pricing, urgency, and alignment work together to turn freebie seekers into buyers

✅The timer mistake that destroys trust — and what to do instead

✅What above-the-fold checkout means and why it matters for mobile 

Ready to stop sending hot traffic to a boring confirmation page and start making instant sales?

Grab the resources mentioned in this episode — links below!

Resources for You

Magic of OTO — step-by-step video course on setting up your first one-time offer and tripwire

Business Marketing Roadmap — monthly planning page to map lead magnets, paid offers, and funnels

Show Notes:

You're Leaving Money on the Table Every Time Someone Signs Up for Your Freebie

Content creators, podcasters, bloggers — we all celebrate when our email list grows. But a massive list of freebie seekers does not pay the bills. Most of you are giving away a free checklist or workbook and then sending people to a generic thank you page. You are missing a massive opportunity.

The exact second that someone puts their name and email in is when they are at their highest point of engagement with you. They have their credit card out. They're on their phone. They're actively looking for a solution to the problem you solve. And you're sending them to a boring confirmation page. You're flushing away hot traffic and potential revenue — and leaving money on the table.

Today we're going to talk about how to fix that.

What Karinda Gosling Did Differently

There's someone called Karinda Gosling. She shifted her approach and moved away from standard passive list building — just keep adding more and more people. Instead, she aggressively maximized immediate revenue through low-ticket offers. She captured that exact moment of initial interest and offered a small premium digital product right then and there.

What happened? Her list started growing with buyers rather than freebie seekers. She used her standard freebie opt-in but in a way that turned cold audience into qualified buyers right away. That's what a tripwire does. And that's what we're talking about today.

What Is a Tripwire — And Is Yours Actually Converting?

A tripwire is a low-cost but high-value product offered immediately on your thank you page after someone opts in to your freebie. I typically price them between $7 and $27 depending on what it is. Never again are you sending people to a generic thank you page. When someone grabs your freebie, you offer them something so they convert from a freebie seeker to a buyer right then and there.

Your lead magnet should be converting at 30 to 40%. That means three to four out of every ten people who land on it should be signing up — if it's solving their problem. From there, you should be converting your tripwire at five to ten percent.

Most tripwires convert terribly. Here's why — either the page looks completely different from what they just signed up for, or the offer doesn't match the freebie at all. For example, if I offer a freebie called Read Aloud Magic and then send people to a trip wire about an ocean unit study, I'm going to have to do a lot of work to connect those two. They're not aligned. But if I offer my Charlotte Mason Toolkit — all about using read aloud books to homeschool — those two go together perfectly.

Don't just throw out some kind of low-ticket offer. Make sure it's aligned with the freebie they just opted in for.

Three Elements Your Tripwire Thank You Page Needs

Number one — structural congruency. Your colors, fonts, and messaging should look similar to the opt-in page. Not exactly the same, but when they land on it they should think — oh yeah, I'm still in the right place. If they signed up on a page with pinks and greens and land on something in black, red, and white, they're clicking away.

Number two — instant acknowledgment. Put something at the very top that says — woohoo, your freebie is on its way to your inbox. Identify immediately that they're in the right place and that you're sending what you promised. If people don't see this, they think there's a glitch and they hit the back button. Then you say — but wait, I have a special offer for you. That's the bridge. Confirmation first, pitch second.

Number three — a no-brainer price. The price should be ridiculously low for the value you're providing. The buyer should not have to ask their spouse or check their bank balance. My Unit Study Toolkit is valued at $50. When I offer it on a one-time offer, I put a $7 price tag on it. People see the value immediately and just grab it. When the price is ultra-simple and directly aligned with the freebie, conversion rates go up — without needing a massive complicated sales funnel.

Urgency Is Non-Negotiable

You must have urgency on your tripwire page. That's why I put a 15-minute timer on mine. We are all chronic procrastinators. If your low-ticket offer is $9 always available, people think — I'll come back and get it later. Spoiler alert — they never come back.

You've got to use a timer that actually works. Not fake scarcity. Not a timer that resets when they refresh the page. When solopreneurs use fake timers or timers that don't work, they destroy customer trust. Use a real timer that syncs with their individual IP address or email sign-up timestamp. When the timer hits zero, the page redirects to retail price — and that's it.

I learned this the hard way. Years ago I had an Apple unit study offer on a thank you page with no timer. No regular sales. I added a real working timer and began having consistent sales from that page. I left money on the table because I didn't have the right setup. Now I do.

Mobile Matters More Than You Think

80% of your readers, listeners, and viewers are looking at your information on mobile. If they have to scroll for two or three minutes to find the purchase link, you've lost them.

Here's what to fix. Put a hyper-specific result headline above the fold — not improve your business, but something like get the exact five-step email template that closed $4,000 in passive sales. Then put your checkout button right under that headline. Don't use a two-step checkout that requires them to click somewhere else, open another page, and remember a bunch of steps. Make it one click. They click the button and fill it out right there. Some of y'all make it so complicated. Go back and look at your checkout system and make sure it is as simple as possible — because if they can't find the button, they're walking away.

The Flow You Need

The user signs up for your freebie — that's the top of the funnel. They land on your thank you page which is your tripwire one-time offer. A countdown timer shows exactly 15 minutes to claim the discount. If they don't buy when the timer hits zero, the page redirects to retail price. Automated, ethical, and completely on autopilot.

Three elements — structural congruency, instant acknowledgment, and a no-brainer price. Add real urgency. Make it mobile-friendly. And let your thank you page fund your business growth.

I have two resources for you in the show notes. The Business Marketing Roadmap has a page that helps you list your lead magnets, your paid offer, and plan it all out month by month. I also have a course called The Magic of One-Time Offers — it shows you step by step with videos how to set up your first tripwire and start making instant money. Links to both are in the show notes.

Quit building a list of freebie seekers. Turn them into immediate buyers.

Shiny object syndrome isn't just a productivity problem — it's one of the most expensive habits in an entrepreneur's life. Every time you restart, you reset your progress and delay your sales. This episode breaks down exactly why it happens and what to do instead.

Here are 5 things you'll discover in this episode:

✅The hidden cost of constantly starting over — and why it delays income

✅Why being busy doesn't mean you're making progress 

✅How staying focused on one thing creates momentum

✅The reason most entrepreneurs stall (it's not a knowledge problem)

✅A simple 90-day focus strategy you can name today — no planning required

Ready to stop chasing every new idea and start building something that actually compounds?

Grab the free Business Focus Assessment mentioned in this episode — the link is below!

Resources for You:

•Free consulting call — to discuss joining the mastermind when it reopens

•Family Biz Mastermind — accountability, coaching, and strategy for online business owners

Show Notes:

Why Smart Entrepreneurs Lose Focus — And How to Get It Back

Do you ever feel like you're working all day but your business hasn't really moved? You finish one course, then buy another one. You start a funnel, then switch to Pinterest. You start a podcast, then decide YouTube is the answer. You're busy, but you're always starting over.

Today's episode isn't really about focus. It's about why smart entrepreneurs lose focus in the first place — and how to overcome that. Because when you can regain your focus, focus creates momentum.

The Hidden Cost of Starting Over

Many of us — myself included — have shiny object syndrome. We see something, go over there and spend six months on it, then go somewhere else and spend three more months. We can't focus on what really matters. And when we stay on that hamster wheel, we're not building anything.

Here's what's really happening. Most entrepreneurs don't quit — they restart. And every time they restart, that new strategy comes with new learning, new tools, new mistakes, and new delays. Especially the last one — you're just delaying making sales. The problem isn't a lack of effort. It's constantly resetting your progress.

About four or five years ago I was taking Amy Porterfield's Digital Course Academy, and she was talking about how she only sells around three courses at a time. And I thought — why am I trying to sell 25 things? How about focusing on one? That's when I started focusing on leadership education. There are supplemental things that go with it, but that's my course, and my Life Skills Leadership Summit all goes together and focuses on one thing. I'm not restarting all the time.

James Hoffman decided that instead of trying to become an influencer across the coffee niche broadly, he became obsessed with one topic — coffee education. He focused on his YouTube channel, books, and courses around that one thing and eventually became one of the most respected names in the coffee world. He didn't chase every opportunity. He became known for one thing. And that focus created momentum.

Busy Feels Productive — But Motion Isn't Always Progress

Most distractions are productive distractions. Social media pulls you over there and you get something done. Redesigning a website, tweaking your branding, buying another course, researching software — none of those are bad. They're just not today's priority. Motion isn't always progress.

Think about it this way. If you go out in the yard and dig 10 holes three feet deep, you're never going to reach water. If you dig one hole 30 feet deep, everything changes.

Duolingo is a perfect example. They resisted adding lots of flashy features. Instead, they were obsessed with forming one daily habit — practicing language. Tiny improvements to streaks, consistent reminders, daily repetition. That focus helped grow them into one of the world's largest education apps. Their growth came from improving one system repeatedly — not constantly inventing something new.

What one thing in your business are you improving every month, every week, every day? Just being productive doesn't mean you're bringing in revenue.

Focus Builds Compounding Results

Every week you stay focused, you gain experience. Every month, your systems improve. Every launch gets easier. Momentum compounds. But every shiny object resets the clock and you have to start all over — and that is expensive.

Derek Sivers was building CD Baby. He ignored all the opportunities to expand into unrelated businesses. He focused entirely on creating the best possible experience for independent musicians. That focus helped CD Baby become one of the largest distributors for indie artists before he sold the company. His advantage over everyone else was not doing more or creating more things. It was doing less — exceptionally well.

That's what you need to be doing in your business. Your business probably doesn't need another strategy. It needs more weeks spent on the right strategy.

Why Entrepreneurs Actually Stall

Here's where people go wrong — they think they need more information. Another book, another webinar, another course. But what they really need is accountability.

The reason you stall isn't because you don't know enough. Y'all have taken so many courses you can rattle off things I don't even know. The real reason you stall is because no one is helping you keep the main thing the main thing. Sometimes one conversation can save months of wandering down a rabbit hole. Not someone who gives you another 100 ideas — you've already got plenty of those. Someone who helps you decide which of your ideas actually matter and which one will push you forward.

Two Exercises to Do Right Now

First — take 60 seconds. If you're not driving, pause this and write down just one thing. What one project would grow your business the most if you actually finished it? Don't plan it. Don't fix it. Just name it.

Second — for the next 90 days, finish this sentence: I am saying no to ___. Fill in one distraction. Just one. For me, it's been saying no to speaker applications, no to certain promotions. Those things are good and they feel productive — but they're a distraction from what I really need to do right now. What would happen if you spent the next 90 days making one thing — only one thing — better instead of starting something new?

I have something for you. If you want to get on a consulting call to see if the mastermind is a good fit when it opens again, sign up for that as well. I truly believe in this — you've heard so many of my mastermind members seeing great success and growing their businesses because they're in a small group with accountability. I'd love to help you too.

If this helped you or you know someone who's stuck in shiny object syndrome, would you share it with them? That would mean the world to me.

If you've been avoiding email marketing automation because it feels cold or robotic, this episode will change how you think about it completely.  Done right, automation doesn't replace your voice — it makes sure your message reaches the right person at exactly the right moment.

Most content creators avoid automation because they're afraid of losing their voice — but the real problem isn't automation itself, it's lazy automation. This episode will show you a better way.

Here are 4 things you'll discover in this episode:

✅4 simple automations every content creator should have running right now

✅How the right automated emails feel more personal than a broadcast ever could

✅How your business should keep serving people even when life gets in the way

✅3 questions to answer before you build any automation sequence

Ready to let email marketing automation work for your business — without losing your personal touch?

Grab the free consulting call and workshop details & links below.

Resources for You:

• Stop Sending the Same Email to Everyone: An Email Marketing System That Works — July 7th Workshop (members only)
• Free 15-minute consulting call — to see if the July 7th workshop is a good fit for you
• Family Biz Mastermind
• Homeschool Blogger University

Show Notes:

Automation isn't about saving time, it's about serving people better.

Automation is not cold when it's done right and when it's done well. It can actually make your communication more thoughtful, more timely, and more personal. Automation creates better relationships because people hear from you in a way that matches where they are in the buyer's journey.

I'm Kerry Beck with Family EBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses, so they can find freedom in their life to do what they're called to do.

Today, we are talking about automation and freeing up some of that time you have, so that you're not sending individual emails about all of that. A lot of times, I think content creators think that if I put it on automation, it's going to sound like spam, robotic, or it's going to lose my voice and my touch.

But really, bad automation is lazy. Good automation is intentional and responsive.

I mentioned this last time, but I use AWeber as my email service provider. When you get into what they call a workflow, or an automation, you can actually send people down different channels.

You can have a little tree branch. If they said yes, or they clicked, here's the email they get. If they haven't clicked anything, here's the email that they get.

They can get different tags that could start another automation as well. We're going to be talking all about that tomorrow in our workshop, but the goal is not more emails — it's the right emails for the right people.

I don't know if I'm going to say this guy's name right, but Yvon Chouinard built Patagonia. Most of you have heard of this company. He built it around a clear purpose and a long-term relationship with customers, not a transaction mindset.

A lot of you are thinking, I just need to make some sales. That is a transaction. You need to build your business, I personally think, with a relationship mindset.

He believed in doing the right thing and still making money to pay the bills. He wanted less harm to the environment, and he gives away 1% of sales. In 2018, he said they are in business to save our home planet.

Why are you in business? He has a clear message, and I would encourage you to think through that this week. His story is a reminder that when the mission is clear, systems can serve your people without being manipulative.

I know sometimes automation can feel more personal if you do it the right way. Manual emailing, or what I call a broadcast, means sometimes you don't do it till you remember to do it.

I actually, a week ago from when I'm recording this, forgot to send the email out about that weekly podcast, because it wasn't scheduled. Automations can avoid those kinds of problems.

Automation lets you respond to a behavior, to a click, to a sign-up, to a purchase, or to a period of silence. That means the right person gets the right message at the right time, and that feels like you care more about your audience instead of just sending a random blast to everyone.

So what are some simple automations that you could set up? A welcome sequence — a lot of you that I've talked to already have welcome sequences. This helps a new subscriber know who you are and what to expect.

The follow-up after a click. This responds to interest. They were interested, they're a warm audience, so let's follow up with them.

A re-engagement sequence. This checks in with people when they fall quiet. Or a buyer sequence — this helps customers feel seen after their purchase.

Those are just four types of simple automations you can use to build relationships with the people on your list. I would challenge you to pick one of those automations for this week.

I want you to write three bullets: what triggers it, who gets it, and what the goal of it is. Do you have a goal, or are you just making up a bunch of automations, follow-ups, and sequences?

You don't need to build a whole system all over again. You just need to know what the system should do, and once you have an understanding, you can serve your people better.

Now, I do know that life gets in the way, and we have life interruptions, but they should not cancel your business. They may interrupt your consistency, but you should have automations in place so your business continues to run.

A few of them that I think of: it's summertime, people going on vacation. When I go to speak at a conference, my business doesn't shut down because I'm out of town.

This coming week, from when I'm recording this, I'm going to help my mom with her surgery. I will be gone, and who even knows what kind of internet I'm going to have. She was just telling me, "Mom, Kerry, we've got this new fiber thing, but it's supposed to be slow." Anyway.

Life does have interruptions, but your business should not stop just because you have an interruption. Automation keeps serving people even when you're launching, when you're traveling, when you're homeschooling, or simply having a hard week.

That steadiness matters, because that way people grow to know you, to like you, and to trust you. I'm going to go back to Barbara Corcoran's story, and we talked about it in the last episode. If you didn't hear it, it's a phenomenal story — go back and listen to last week's episode.

Her long-term success came from discipline and repeated habits. She did not just get one big break, but she spent time getting to know and build relationships with people.

Time and networking. A lot of people think networking is just going somewhere and passing out a bunch of cards, and you're going to get business. No, networking is work. It takes work to build relationships. It's not net-sitting, it's not net-eating, it is net-working.

And so the lesson we can learn from Barbara Corcoran is repeatable systems create repeatable service. You're continuing to serve them because you have a system in place. Consistency is a form of care.

I want you to think about this: whoever we were just talking about, whichever automation — who is the person that's getting it? Like, "this email is for new subscribers who've downloaded my free guide but haven't joined the next step yet." That's who's in this sequence. You need to know specifically who is in the sequence.

We'll talk all about that tomorrow. I'm going to give you details and everything. In fact, I still have a few free consulting calls available today, and even in the morning before I go live and teach the class at 1 o'clock.

See, when you have clarity, your people are not going to be confused. You're able to serve them, and everything follows because you have made some decisions and have clarity about what this system is all about. You quit speaking to everyone the same way, all at once.

If you're always sending an email to all your active subscribers, you need to rethink that, and start to segment, and start to put some things on automation. The goal is not to send more emails. The goal is to send the right emails to the right people, and automation is just a way that you can do that and scale the emails that you are sending.

So, if you're still on the fence thinking about coming to the July 7th workshop, sign up for a consulting call, and we will do it really quickly. I will be watching for those every hour, and I would love to meet with you.

I'm Kerry Beck with Family Ebiz. We'll talk to you next time.

Getting someone to opt in feels like a win — but if your email follow up stops there, you're leaving the relationship (and the sale) on the table. This episode breaks down exactly what needs to happen after the click to turn interested subscribers into buyers who trust you.

Bloggers, podcasters, and online business owners who have an email list, but aren't seeing consistent sales will find this episode especially practical. Once you understand the buyer's journey your subscribers are on, email follow up stops feeling like a chore and starts feeling like relationship-building.

Here are 5 things you'll discover in this episode:

✅Why the opt-in are just the handshake — not the sale

✅What the gap between interest and income is costing you

✅How to use segmentation as a relationship tool, not just a tech feature

✅3 emails every lead magnet needs after someone says yes

✅Why some buyers take months to say yes — and how follow up keeps them warm

Ready to stop losing subscribers after the opt-in and start building relationships that lead to sales?

Grab the free 15-minute consulting call and workshop details mentioned in this episode — links are in the show notes!

Resources for You:

• Stop Sending the Same Email to Everyone: An Email Marketing System That Works — July 7th Workshop (members only)
• Free 15-minute consulting call — to see if the July 7th workshop is a good fit for you
• Family Biz Mastermind
• Homeschool Blogger University

Show Notes:

A Click Is Not a Conversion — It's the Beginning of a Relationship

A click is not a conversion. A click is the beginning of a relationship. The money really is in the follow-up. And for many solopreneurs, content creators, bloggers, and podcasters, the question is not how do I get more clicks. The question is — what happens after someone says yes once?

The Freebie Is Not the Finish Line

Many online business owners treat the freebie like the finish line. Oh, I got some more people to sign up for my freebie. But that is really just a handshake. The opt-in only tells you someone is interested. It does not mean they are ready to buy, ready to trust you, or even remember why they signed up.

If you stop communicating right after the opt-in, you leave the relationship undeveloped. And you are not going to make any sales.

What is your follow-up system in your business? Do you even have one?

Barbara Corcoran Didn't Wait for Perfect Conditions

Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank made straight D's in high school. She was labeled as a dunce. She had 20 jobs by the time she was 23 years old. She quit her waitressing job and borrowed $1,000 to start the Corcoran Group — now known as one of the largest and best-known real estate brokerages in the business.

How did she do that? By staying visible, persistent, and relationship-focused instead of waiting for perfect conditions. Some of you are waiting for just the right time. Waiting until your course is perfect. She was building relationships when things weren't going perfectly. Her story is a reminder that growth comes from repeated follow-up, not a single event.

Some of my Raising Leaders students joined after a year or two — or more. Some things take time for people to get to the point of saying yes. The timing has to be right. The first yes matters, but it's the follow-up that turns interest into income. Let me say that again. It is follow-up that turns interest into income.

The Gap Between Interest and Income

There is often a huge gap between someone joining your list and someone trusting you enough to buy. That gap is where creators lose people. They assume one email is enough. They send the same email to everyone all the time.

Your job is not just to attract attention. Your job is to keep shaping the relationship after the click. Do you understand the journey your people are going through to buy from you? How does someone go from downloading a lead magnet to two years later becoming a student in your course?

Understanding your buyer's journey is everything.

What to Do This Week

Choose one freebie or one lead magnet and write out the next three emails that you wish existed. After someone opts in, what are the next three emails you will send? Maybe a welcome. Maybe pointing to their pain. Maybe an invitation to a next step.

You don't need to create the full system today. You just need to name the next three touches so the relationship does not go cold.

Segmentation Is a Relationship Tool, Not Just a Tech Tool

Not every subscriber is in the same place. Some are warm, some are cold, some are browsing, some are not ready yet, and some are hot as can be. The creators who get the strongest engagement are speaking different messages to different people on their list. They are not sending identical messages to everyone all the time.

This is where email list segmentation becomes a relationship tool, not just a tech tool. For me, the people who click links in my emails are hotter — so I can send them a different email than the people who haven't opened anything in a week or two. In AWeber, you can actually set up a flowchart — if someone clicks, they get this message. If someone doesn't click, they get that message.

Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir Eat, Pray, Love became a massive success because it spoke to a very specific person in a very specific emotional season — women in uncertainty, women trying to reinvent themselves, women longing for meaning. It resonated because it was not a one-size-fits-all. Are you treating your list like a one-size-fits-all?

Different people need different words after the click.

Consistent Follow-Up Builds Trust Over Time

Follow-up is simply saying — I'm still here. I still understand your problem. You matter even if you didn't buy today. Consistency builds credibility over time, especially for people who are watching quietly before they act. They are thinking it all through. And those are often your best buyers.

Add one line to your next email that invites them to the next step. Something like — if this is the season you're in, reply with the word followup and I'll send you the next resource. Put it in the PS — that gets read a lot. The point is to move one small step beyond the click. Not overhaul your entire funnel. Just one step.

The money really is in the email follow-up. People buy when they feel known and remembered. If you want better results, you need a better post-click experience — not just more traffic.

I'm offering free 15-minute consulting calls to see if my email marketing workshop on July 7th is a good fit for you. We're going to be talking about email follow-up systems, segmentation, automations, and the buyer's journey — all the things that turn clicks into sales. The link to sign up for a call is in the show notes.

If your emails feel like they're going nowhere, email list segmentation might be the one thing standing between you and real results

Sending the same email to everyone on your list could be the exact reason your open rates are low and sales are flat — and email list segmentation is the fix most creators skip.

Bloggers, podcasters, and online business owners who've been frustrated with their email results will find this especially useful. Once you understand who's actually on your list, communication gets easier, engagement goes up, and sales follow naturally.

Here are things you'll discover in this episode:

✅The 4 types of subscribers hiding inside your list right now

✅Why generic emails get ignored — even by people who like you

✅Are you making this email mistake…and how to fix it

✅A simple 1st step to identify your key audience segments (no tech required)

✅Why most creators never implement this — and the real reason you stay stuck

Ready to stop sending one-size-fits-all emails and start getting real results?

Resources for You

• Stop Sending the Same Email to Everyone: An Email Marketing System That Works — July 7th Workshop (members only)
• Free 15-minute consulting call — to see if the July 7th workshop is a good fit for you
• Family Biz Mastermind
• Homeschool Blogger University

Show Notes:

The One Email Mistake That's Costing You Sales

Have you ever sent an email to your list and thought — why is nobody opening this? Why is no one clicking? Why isn't this converting? Raising my hand, I've had those thoughts. What if your email isn't the problem? What if you're sending the right email to the wrong people?

Different people need different conversations. Let me say that again. Different people need different conversations.

Your List Is Not One Audience

Most creators see one email list, one audience, and one message. But the reality is, inside your email list, there is a variety of people. You have brand new subscribers who are still learning who you are. You have regular readers who consume everything you publish. You have buyers who already trust you. You have people who click. And you have people who haven't opened an email in months.

They are not the same people. And yet most of us — content creators, bloggers, podcasters, online businesses — talk to each of them exactly the same way.

Should all of those groups get the same type of communication? Probably not.

Maybe your list isn't ignoring you. Maybe you're just talking to everyone the same way.

What ConvertKit and AWeber Understood

When ConvertKit built their platform, they built it around the idea that creators needed to build deeper relationships with their audience. They added subscriber organization and segmentation tools because creators serve different groups of people. They said — we know your business is personal. It's how you support your family, share your expertise, and serve your community.

AWeber does the same thing. On AWeber, I am so thankful they give me tools to send one email to this group and a different email to that group. I have a homeschool business and a Family eBiz business — two different lists. But within each one, I have all different groups of people, because they're different kinds of people with different needs.

Four Groups That Need Different Conversations

Here are just four groups that exist inside most email lists — and each one needs to be approached differently.

A new subscriber is still learning who you are. They don't know you yet. Do they like you or trust you? You've got to address that. A buyer who's purchased from you in the past already trusts you — you don't have to rebuild the know, like, and trust factor from scratch. A dormant subscriber may not even remember who you are, so you need to approach them completely differently. And a regular reader who consumes everything you publish — they need a different conversation too.

Those are just four. There can be many more depending on your niche and your offers.

Relevance drives engagement. Generic messaging just gets ignored. Even if they open it, they're thinking — this isn't for me. And that's why people unsubscribe — not usually because you've emailed too much, but because the content feels irrelevant, it doesn't match where they are, it doesn't solve their current problem.

I had a woman reach out a couple of weeks ago — she was new to my list, had bought two or three products, and was getting messages from all of them. She told me she was overwhelmed. But she did not want to get off my list. She said — these are things that can help me, but I'm overwhelmed by the emails. That was great feedback. She was a recent buyer getting relevant content — it was just a lot. She didn't unsubscribe. People unsubscribe when the content feels irrelevant, not when it's relevant.

The Skimm Got This Right

The Skimm grew by understanding exactly who their audience was and speaking directly to their needs. They are dedicated to succinctly giving women the information they need to make confident decisions in their lives. Their success came from relevant communication, not generic. They chose a tight niche and spoke specifically to the people inside it.

Do you know who your audience is? And do you have subsets of that audience you need to speak to differently?

I took a Facebook ads seminar a few weeks ago, and they suggested having different sales pages — one for your cold audience, one for your webinar audience, and one for your warm audience. I didn't have time to implement it at that moment, but it's something I'm planning for the next time I launch Raising Leaders. My cold audience coming from Facebook ads or affiliate lead magnets needs me to build that know, like, and trust from scratch. My webinar audience and my warm audience — I don't have to give them as much background. I can dive straight into how it will help them.

Different people need different conversations.

Why Most Creators Never Do This

Most creators know they should organize their lists better. But they never do it. Not because they're lazy, but because they're alone. They spend hours watching tutorials, hours researching, hours trying to piece together advice from different sources — and then they never implement. They get stuck in decision fatigue.

Sometimes a five-minute conversation saves five hours of frustration. I can get on a Zoom call for five minutes with someone who's a peer and solve a problem I'd otherwise spend hours researching. Community matters for solopreneurs.

One of my mastermind members, Chris, was pivoting her business and realized her list didn't include all of her target audience. It took a couple of mastermind meetings and some research to get there. She's like — okay, I'm going to focus on the people that are my target audience and talk specifically to those people. Group coaching often reveals audiences you didn't even realize existed. A lot of members say — just talking it out in our meetings has been totally helpful.

What to Do This Week

Think about your list. What groups are inside it? I don't want you to build anything yet. I don't want you to create tags or segments. Just write down up to five main groups you think exist inside your list. Do you even know who they are? Do you need to go back and look at what types of emails people have been opening or responding to?

Start there. Five groups. Write them down.

Once you understand who those audiences are, communication becomes much more effective and much easier.

We're going to be talking about this exact topic — email list segmentation, tagging, automations, building a buyer's journey — in our Family eBiz Mastermind and Homeschool Blogger University training on July 7th. We'll demonstrate how to build relationships with your buyers, what the buyer's journey looks like as people come in, and we'll have Q&A at the end. You do have to be a current Family eBiz Mastermind member or HBU member to attend.

Family eBiz Mastermind focuses on growing and scaling a business. Homeschool Blogger University is built for homeschool content creators and bloggers to scale their business.

And next week — we're going to talk about what happens when someone clicks, and what some of you are doing wrong after those clicks.

If your email list marketing feels like shouting into the void, the problem probably isn't your subscriber count — and this video shows you exactly what to fix.

Most content creators assume more subscribers = more sales. But what if your next customer is already on your list — and just hasn't heard from you lately? In this episode, we break down the real reason email list marketing stalls, and what you can do about it starting this week.

If you're a solopreneur, homeschool content creator, or online business owner whose email doesn’t convert to buyers,, this one's for you. You'll walk away with a simple mindset shift and a quick action step that could change your results faster than any new lead magnet.

Here are 5 things you'll discover in this episode:  

✅Why your existing subscribers are more valuable than you're treating them

✅The silent killer of email engagement — and how to reverse it

✅What 2 businesses did to build deep loyalty through consistent email

✅The audit you can do in under 10 minutes to see where things went wrong

✅The real reason most solopreneurs stall — and how to get unstuck

Ready to stop chasing new subscribers and start serving the ones you already have?

Resources for You

•Family Biz Mastermind — strategy and business growth community

•Homeschool Blogger University — for homeschool content creators

Show Notes:

Your Next Sale Is Already on Your List

Most content creators think — if I could get more subscribers, I'd have more sales. If I had 5,000 subscribers instead of 500, everything would change. But what if your next sale is already on your list? What if your problem isn't the size of your list? What if your problem is communication?

The issue isn't list size. It's communication.

Sound Familiar?

You're probably in this situation. You're creating content consistently. You're posting on social media, publishing blogs, recording podcasts, building lead magnets. But sales are inconsistent, engagement is low, and emails feel frustrating.

Think about these questions. How many people joined your list in the last year — do you even know? How many have heard from you recently, within the last week or two? How many know what you actually sell? Do you even let them know?

Most creators spend more time finding new subscribers than serving their existing ones. And I have been taught since the beginning of any marketing training I've ever had — it is easier to sell to a current subscriber who knows and likes and trusts you than to go find new cold ones and build that relationship from scratch.

Morning Brew Didn't Win Because of List Size

There's a company called Morning Brew. They started as a simple email newsletter created by college students. Instead of obsessing over massive traffic numbers, they focused on delivering a valuable email that readers wanted to open every day.

Do your followers want to open your email when it shows up? I just got off a coaching call and she said — I'm missing some emails, but when I see yours I make sure I read it because I want to make sure I'm getting all the information I need from you. Isn't that the kind of subscriber you want? And a buyer that keeps buying?

Morning Brew didn't win because they had the biggest list first. They won because people expected and valued the email communication. They knew there would be value in it every time.

Relationships create engagement. Engagement creates opportunities for sales. Let me say that again. Relationships create engagement. Engagement creates opportunities for sales.

The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Your List

If you ignore your existing subscribers, there is a hidden cost. Someone joins your list, they get the freebie, and then — silence. What happens? They forget you. They forget your expertise and they forget your solution. People don't buy from businesses they don't remember.

You've probably gotten on a list five years ago and you don't even remember who they are. Maybe because they did not consistently build a relationship with you.

Here's what I want you to do this week. Open your email platform and look at the last time you emailed consistently — at least weekly, maybe bi-weekly. I don't want you to fix anything today. I just want you to be aware — when was it and how often were you emailing? Are people opening? Are they clicking? Just look.

Why Solopreneurs Stall — It's Not What You Think

Here's something I've noticed working with entrepreneurs for years. They don't have a list problem. They know email works. They know relationships matter and consistency matters. But nothing changes. Why?

Information overload. Too many opinions coming at you in your inbox, on YouTube, in podcasts. Too many experts. Too many strategies. And you are constantly learning — but rarely implementing. We consume all these things and become paralyzed. We don't move forward.

Most solopreneurs don't stall because they don't know enough. They stall because nobody is helping them stay focused on the next right step.

Ben Chestnut started Mailchimp as an alternative to the oversized, expensive email software of the early 2000s. He didn't chase every trend in the market. He focused on one thing — helping small businesses communicate with their customers consistently. That's it. That focus built a company that was acquired by Intuit — the company behind QuickBooks — in 2021. His success wasn't about more information and more marketing strategies. It was about consistent communication.

Trust Drives Sales — Not List Size

Would you rather have 10,000 people who don't really know you or 500 people who trust you? The answer is obvious.

Homeschool moms buy from people they trust. Travelers buy from people they trust. Gardeners, quilters — everyone buys from people they trust. Trust is built through communication, not list size.

Amy Porterfield told a story about a guy who had 250 people on his list and launched for over $10,000 or $20,000. That is not a big list. Yes, you want to grow your list — but you want to grow it with the right people, not just anyone from bundles or events. Do they convert into buyers? Build relationships with people who will eventually buy from you.

Ann Handley has become known for writing emails that feel personal and conversational. She built trust by consistently showing up and communicating like a real person, not a corporation. She writes to one person. People stay connected to people — not corporations, not automated messaging.

Sometimes what feels like a traffic problem is actually a communication problem. And sometimes a five-minute conversation can reveal an issue much faster than five hours of research or piecing together three different podcasts and courses. That's why coaching, accountability, and community matter so much.

I have two groups that help with accountability, coaching, strategy, and business growth. FamilyEbiz Mastermind is for strategy and business growth. Homeschool Blogger University is for homeschool content creators putting it all into practice. Links are in the show notes.

And stay tuned — next week we're going to talk about one of the biggest mistakes content creators make with their email list marketing. You're going to want to hear it.

Struggling to talk about your offer without feeling pushy? This episode reframes selling with confidence as one of the most helpful things you can do for your audience.

Most online business owners believe in what they sell — they just can't bring themselves to say it out loud. This episode walks through why avoiding your offer actually hurts the people you're trying to help, what the difference is between pressure and invitation, and how to talk about your product in a way that feels natural and genuinely serves your audience.

If making an offer feels pushy or uncomfortable, you're not alone — but avoiding it is hurting your audience more than you know. Selling with confidence isn't about pressure; it's about leading people to a solution they actually need.

Online business owners, content creators, and solopreneurs who know they have something valuable to offer but freeze up every time it's time to actually sell it — this one is going to shift something for you.

Why avoiding your offer is actually hurting the people you want to help

✅The difference between pushy promotion and a simple, genuine invitation

✅What people are really buying — and it's not your PDF or your course

✅ONE sentence to write down today that clarifies your offer's transformation

✅How teaching & selling can peacefully coexist in your content

Stop keeping your solution a secret. Grab the free Business Marketing Roadmap below and start planning offers you're proud to share.

Resources for You

• Business Marketing Roadmap (Free Download)
• Scrappy List Building Checklist (Free Download) 

Show Notes:

Most Digital Creators Are Not Afraid of Creating — They're Afraid of Selling

Most online businesses and digital creators are not afraid of creating. They are afraid of selling. And because of that fear, people never hear about the solution that they desperately need. Your audience does not hear about that solution. Today we're talking about how to make selling natural and not awkward.

Why Selling Feels So Uncomfortable

I know for a fact many of you listening find it awkward to offer your product or sell something. You believe in your product, but you hesitate to mention it. You worry — I'm going to sound too pushy. I'm bothering people by sending them an email about something that could help their life. Or you're afraid of rejection.

The reality is — avoiding your offer helps no one. If you avoid telling people about your offer, you're not helping anyone. You have a hobby business. And you're sort of being selfish because you're keeping it back and not letting them know how your offer could help them.

Why do so many of you feel uncomfortable? You're afraid of judgment. You're afraid of rejection. You're afraid people will unsubscribe. Well, if they unsubscribe, they weren't the right people for you anyway.

Most creators connect selling with pressure instead of connecting selling with service. I totally believe that selling is tied to service. If you're a good salesperson, you are listening to what their problem is and then trying to help them find the best solution.

Oprah and the Power of Serving Through Selling

Oprah Winfrey did this phenomenally. She built trust by deeply understanding her audience's transformation — what do they need to have a better life? And she was constantly and consistently offering recommended resources to them. Resources she believed would help them.

If you don't believe your product can help someone, then don't sell it. Go do something else. But when you believe something helps people, sharing it becomes leadership. You become a leader and an authority in that field.

Pushiness vs. Service — What's the Real Difference?

Pushiness is pressure. It is manipulation. If you want to help and serve someone and give them a real answer to their problem, that is an invitation. That is service. That is clarity. And that is leadership.

There's a difference between promotion and invitation. Follow the invitation route. When you do, selling becomes helping people move forward. That's what you want to be about.

Bob Ross freely taught painting techniques on his PBS show The Joy of Painting — from 1983 to 1994 — while also building products and educational resources. Teaching and selling can peacefully coexist and build a business. You just have to understand the balance and show people the transformation they're going to have.

What People Are Actually Buying

People buy confidence, clarity, solutions, and momentum. They're not buying a PDF or a printable. They are buying outcomes. That transformation — that's what you are serving them with.

Dale Carnegie transformed communication training. He made it one of the most enduring educational businesses in history because he focused not on the six-week program, but on the transformation — the change people would have once they went through his course and felt confident speaking in public.

Once you can get one, two, or three students who say — yes, this changed the way I homeschooled, yes, this changed the way I work out, yes, this changed the way I cook — then you begin to serve others by offering them resources that really do help them.

Two Things to Do This Week

First, add one invitation to your next email or piece of content. Something as simple as — if you want help implementing this, here's how I can help. That's it. That is not pressure. That is guidance. That is you walking alongside them in their journey.

Second, write down this sentence and fill it in — my product helps people blank. What is one real transformation people get from buying your product? That could be a $20 ebook or a $200 course. Use that sentence in future promotions.

For me — Raising Leaders, Not Followers helps moms stop the overwhelm in homeschooling because they simplify and have clarity about what to do each and every day. That's it. That's how simple it can be.

Selling is not selfish. If your product truly helps people, hiding it helps no one. Your audience cannot buy a solution they've never heard about.

If this helped you, would you please share it with one person? And grab a copy of my free Business Marketing Roadmap in the show notes — it will help you plan your offers and your sales so you can start making consistent revenue. My Scrappy List Building Checklist is also available there if you want to grow your list at the same time.

If your to-do list is full but your bank account is low, this episode will show you exactly where to focus instead. Most online business owners stay stuck in content creation mode — posting, designing, tweaking — while the revenue-generating tasks get pushed to tomorrow. 

This episode breaks down the difference between creator mode and CEO mode, walks through the 4 areas that actually drive business growth, and gives you a simple weekly planning system you can start using right now.

Solopreneurs and online business owners who are tired of working hard without seeing results will find a clear, practical framework here for shifting their focus toward the tasks that actually move the needle.

✅The difference between creator mode and CEO mode — and which one is costing you money

✅4 things a CEO focuses on that most content creators completely skip

✅Why more content doesn't equal more revenue — and what actually does

✅How to build a Monday revenue-first list that guides your whole week

✅One question to ask yourself every single week that keeps you revenue-focused

Stop spinning your wheels on tasks that feel productive but aren't. Grab the free Business Marketing Roadmap BELOW and get clear on your next 90 days.

Resources for You:

• Business Marketing Roadmap (Free Download)
• Vacation Campaign Toolkit
• The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

Show Notes:

Busy Does Not Mean Profitable — Here's the Difference

Busy in your business does not always mean profitable. Some online businesses and solopreneurs work 12 hours a day and still struggle financially. Others work fewer hours but focus on the right tasks. Today we're talking about working less and being more productive in the right tasks. Busyness does not mean more revenue.

Creator Mode vs. CEO Mode

If you can relate to any of this, you might be spending your time constantly creating content because you think the more content you make, the more money you'll make. Or you're endlessly scrolling for just the right answer. You're always working and there's little revenue.

The reality is revenue usually comes from a few high-impact decisions — not a bunch of content, not just constantly doing more and more.

So where are you? Are you in creator mode or are you in CEO mode? There is a distinct difference between the two.

If you're in creator mode, you are making content, posting content, editing, Canvaing, making images — doing a bunch of stuff. If you are in CEO mode, you are looking at strategies, the right offers to give your audience because you know their problem, and asking — how can I tie those together to make sales and grow my audience?

There are four things the CEO is focused on — strategy, offers, sales, and audience growth. Most content creators stay stuck in creator mode forever. That is a sad fact.

Ali Abdal: From Doctor to Full-Time Entrepreneur

There's a guy named Ali Abdal. He was born in Pakistan, grew up in South Africa, and was a doctor turned entrepreneur. He had a YouTube channel while still working as a medical doctor, making educational and productivity content on the side.

In 2020, everything changed. He was supposed to go to Australia for medical work, but the pandemic shut the borders down. All of a sudden he was unexpectedly unemployed — no job, no backup plan, no certainty about what would come next.

Instead of just waiting it out, he decided to fully focus on his YouTube channel and the online business he had been slowly building. What started as a side hustle suddenly became his full-time focus. Within a year his YouTube channel grew to one million subscribers. His business hit one million dollars in annual revenue. And eventually he left medicine completely.

The thing that looked like a setback — pandemic, border shutdown, unemployment — became the moment that forced him to fully commit to the business he had already been starting. A lot of you are just dabbling. It feels good to make content. But true breakthrough comes when you stop treating your business like a side project and you finally focus on the opportunity in front of you.

How to Know If You're Focusing on the Right Things

Revenue comes from a few key decisions. It does not come from endless Canva graphics, tweaking your fonts, reorganizing your web pages, or getting all those little things done. And it does not come from social media.

What does bring revenue? Clarity. Strategy. Offers. Messaging. Audience targeting.

Are you clear on what you do and who you serve? Do you have an offer that sells? Does your messaging match what transformation your audience actually needs? Are you targeting the right people? Those are the things that build revenue — not more content.

What to Do This Week — And Every Week

I want you to think about one task you could do this week that would actually make money. Not a blog post — because a blog post alone is not going to make you money. Is it an email campaign? Maybe a two-day flash sale. Is it a webinar or masterclass where you plan it this week and do it next week and sell something? Is it a product you've had sitting on the shelf that you haven't really shared? Is it making a lead magnet and growing your list? What about networking — reaching out for a collaboration? Sending emails once or twice a week to build relationships is a great money-making activity.

And remember those four CEO things — strategy, offers, sales, and audience growth.

Starting next Monday, I want you to make a revenue-first list. Write down what money-making task you're going to do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Some will take 10 minutes, like sending an email. Some will take longer. But every single day, do at least one revenue-making task. I was told this about 20 years ago and it has stuck with me — do one revenue-making task every day.

Seth Godin consistently emphasizes focused work instead of chasing endless busy work. Profitable creators don't do everything. They do the right things over and over and over.

The Shift That Changes Everything

True breakthrough in your business comes when you stop treating it like a side hustle and you finally focus on the opportunity in front of you. That sometimes means investing some money. That means having an overall strategy. One of our mastermind students is working on a membership she'll launch middle to end of summer — using a strategy, using a CEO mindset. She shifted from pure content creation to systems, products, and business infrastructure. That's the shift.

You need clarity on how to prioritize tasks that actually move the needle — not just tasks that make you feel busy.

I have a free Business Marketing Roadmap in the show notes. It's not going to show you everything, but it will give you a chance to get clarity on what you're going to do in the next three months. Each page is monthly — you've got your four weeks laid out. Start planning for next month and get clear on your offer and your sales activity.

If this helped you, would you please share it with a friend who is either wanting to start a business or struggling in theirs? Let's help them get going in the right direction.

Most email lists don't need to be replaced — they need to be reconnected with, and this episode shows you exactly how to do it.

If your email list has gone quiet, you're not alone. Inconsistent sending, selling too often, and skipping the relationship-building are the most common reasons lists go cold — and none of them are permanent. This episode walks through a straightforward email re-engagement strategy that any creator or small business owner can use, even if they haven't sent an email in months.

Perfect for online business owners, content creators, and entrepreneurs who already have a list but aren't sure how to bring it back to life — because starting over isn't always the answer.

Here's what's covered in this episode:

✅Why your list went cold — and it's not what you think

✅ONE subject line you can send today to restart the conversation

✅A 3-email re-engagement sequence that rebuilds trust fast

✅Why storytelling beats tips every time with a cold audience

✅How to find out exactly what your readers are struggling with so you never run out of content

Stop starting over and start reconnecting. Grab the free resource below and put this strategy to work this week.

Resources for You

37 Best Subject Lines (Free Download)

Email Writing Secrets eBook

Show Notes:

You Don't Need 10,000 Subscribers — Your List Is Just Asleep

You do not need 10,000 subscribers to make sales. Most of you have the email list that you need. It's just asleep. And instead of reconnecting with the people already on your list, you think you need to start over. Today I'm going to share how you can wake up an inactive email list — or even just a section of it.

I have an email list that has some very highly engaged people, but then I have some very unengaged people. And I'm going to share some of the things I'll be doing in my homeschool niche business to re-engage them before I delete them from my list.

Why Your List Went Cold

So what's really been going on? You stopped emailing consistently, or life got busy, or you ran out of ideas. Or you worried — what if they unsubscribe if I email them? What if they forget who I am? So you just stopped emailing completely.

Silence kills trust faster than imperfect emails. Let me repeat that. Silence kills trust faster than imperfect emails.

Why do lists go cold? Maybe there's no clear purpose — they don't really understand why you're emailing them because you don't have clarity on it yourself. Maybe you're sending random emails that don't tie in to any kind of pain point or target market. Or here's one I used to do on a regular basis — I would only email when I was selling something. People get tired of that. There's no relationship building.

That to me is really the crux of all of it. Are you building relationships with the people on your list? Your email list is not a storage unit. It is a relationship, and you need to tend it well — just like you tend a garden well, just like you tend the hearts of your children.

Email Works Because Relationships Compound Over Time

ConvertKit grew by focusing heavily on relationships — letting content creators build relationships and consistent communication. Their philosophy centered around helping creators own their audience relationships instead of depending on social media and all the algorithms.

Email works because relationships compound over time. So let me give you an idea for how you could re-engage or find out if people still want to be on your list.

You could send this subject line today. This is the easiest, quickest win you could do this week. Just put — still want to hear from me? That's the subject line. Inside, say yes, keep sending or no thanks. They click one or the other. No — they're off. Yes — they stay on. Simple engagement restarts connection with the people on your list.

A Three-Email Re-Engagement Sequence

Here is a three-email sequence for email re-engagement. This works whether people haven't been opening your emails or you've just got a completely dead list.

Email one — reconnect. Just say hey, it's been a while. Share what's been happening and be very personal. Don't try to sell them anything in email one.

Email two — provide value. Share a lesson, a quick win, a story, maybe a mistake you made. If you can make it around a story, that will tighten your relationship a lot more.

Email three — invite action. Ask them to reply, to click, to download, or to watch something.

Reconnect, provide value, invite action. And here's why it matters — engagement wakes up inbox placement. When they begin to engage with your email, it moves away from the promotions tab and into the primary tab.

Stories Reconnect People Faster Than Tips

James Ultasure from ConvertKit repeatedly rebuilt his audience and business through direct email communication and personal storytelling. His transparency with stories built loyal readers. Stories reconnect people faster than endless tips.

Tips teach — that's nice, you've got three points. But stories connect emotionally. That's why I try to lead with a story in my emails. It could be a personal story about me. It could be a story about a homeschooler. It could be a story about a friend I've been watching struggle in business.

What kinds of stories could you share? A business mistake. A launch flop. A fear. Lessons learned. A mistake in your field. I could talk about my fear of raising my kids to not be productive adults, to not even know what to do. People buy from humans, not content machines. You've got to include stories in what you're actually doing.

And here's a great way to figure out what stories to share. Ask your readers — what are you struggling with right now? Give them three options. If you can make it into a poll, even better — all they do is click a button. You'll see exactly what they're responding to. And those responses give you podcast topics, blog post topics, offers, lead magnets, and story ideas.

Ann Handley built two multi-million dollar businesses through consistent, relationship-driven email writing. Her emails feel conversational and personal. You don't need to write your email like a corporate giant. Write it like you're talking to one person. That is how you build trust and re-engage your people.

Your List Is Not Dead — It Just Needs Reconnection

You do not need to start over. Your list is not dead. It just needs reconnection.

If this helped you, would you please share it with a friend and leave a five-star review? If you're on YouTube, leave a comment and subscribe to our channel.

I also have two free resources for you in the show notes. The first is my 37 Best Subject Lines — it covers the different types of subject lines and how to use them. The second is my Email Writing Secrets ebook, which gives you a full overview of using email to build relationships and make sales. Both links are in the show notes.

Creators who build smaller, faster freebies are quietly growing bigger lists — here's exactly how they do it.

Most creators assume a bigger freebie means more subscribers. But the data — and real experience — says the opposite. This video walks through specific lead magnet examples across multiple niches, explains why simpler formats convert better, and shows you exactly how to create a micro lead magnet from content you already have.

If your email list isn't growing consistently, this is for creators who are done overthinking and ready to build something that actually works — fast, without the overwhelm.

✅Why a one-page checklist outperforms a 47-page e-book every time

✅3 real-world lead magnet examples across different niches

✅1 question to ask yourself before you build anything

✅What formats your audience is most likely to opt in for

✅How to build your micro lead magnet from content you already have

Grab the Scrappy List Building Checklist mentioned in this episode — link in the show notes.

Resources for You

Scrappy List Building Checklist

Show Notes:

You Don't Need a Giant Freebie to Grow Your Email List

One of the biggest mistakes creators make is believing they need some gigantic, complicated freebie before they can grow their email list. So they spend three months writing a 47-page ebook and then barely anyone signs up. Meanwhile, another content creator throws together a one-page checklist in an hour and gets hundreds of subscribers.

Which one are you?

Smaller, faster lead magnets often convert better because they solve one tiny problem immediately.

Bigger Is Usually Slower

Most of you already have blog posts, podcast episodes, videos, or social posts — but your list is not growing consistently. And you think — I need a bigger freebie, a better freebie, something bigger. I need a whole full course before I can promote anything.

These are lies in your head. That is imposter syndrome. Put it away.

The reality is bigger is usually slower. Bigger is usually complicated, and complicated delays action. People don't know what to do because it's so complicated. They are overwhelmed. They need bite-size benefits, bite-size transformations, things that will work — quick wins.

Nobody needs another giant ebook or another 40-minute training or another complicated resource. What they want is a quick win, fast clarity, and immediate help. People are not going to download or sign up for your freebie based on size. They download based on the speed of solution.

Simple Converts Better — Here's Why

There's a man named Justin Welsh. At a time when many creators were building six and seven figure businesses from templates and swipe files, he decided he was going to be known for lightweight digital resources — very simple systems creators could implement quickly. A minimalist approach to internet marketing. He helped grow a large creator business because people wanted practical transformation, not to be overwhelmed with complication.

The simpler the solution feels, the more likely people are to opt in. If you're multitasking, come back to me for that one. The simpler the solution feels, the more likely people are to opt in.

Think about Pablo Picasso and his sketches. He often created rapid sketches and many studies before he ever created a larger work. Those small, quick creations became incredibly valuable on their own. Quick execution often creates momentum more than waiting for perfection. Good is good enough.

Your audience does not need your masterpiece first. They need momentum.

Lead Magnet Examples Across Different Niches

So what do I want you to do right now? Go look at your latest podcast or blog post and ask yourself — what is one quick action someone could take away from this piece of content? Then turn that one action into a checklist, a script, a swipe file, a worksheet — something they could implement this week.

Here are some lead magnet examples to get you thinking.

If you're a fitness trainer, you could create a seven-step launch checklist for fitness trainers. If you're in the gardening niche and people are frustrated because weeds keep taking over, your lead magnet could be — use this simple weed control checklist to stop weeds before they spread. Download the one-page garden weed checklist below. It solves a specific problem, it's a fast solution, and it's easy to implement this week. You're not saying join my garden newsletter. You're saying get the weekly weed control checklist.

If you're in the travel niche, you could create a seven-stop road trip planner template to map your route in 15 minutes. Grab the free road trip planning template below. It solves one immediate pain point — they don't want to waste money and they don't want to waste time. You're not saying subscribe for my travel updates. You're saying get the exact road trip planning template.

If you're overwhelmed planning podcast episodes — which was me a while back — use a five-step episode outline template. It's specific, it's immediate, and it's easy to understand. You're not saying join my newsletter. You're saying get the exact podcast planning checklist.

Other ideas — a checklist like 10 things to do before your kids become a teenager, a character building template, an AI prompts swipe file in your subject area, subject line templates, sales email scripts, a quick start guide like cooking dinner in 30 minutes and what you need to do.

One of Mine — The Scrappy List Building Checklist

Here's one of my own lead magnet examples. My Scrappy List Building Checklist is one page with seven ways to build your list in a scrappy way. You could print it out and put it on the wall. Seven might sound like too many, but you could just pick one and do it this week. On the back end, every person who downloads it gets one email a day for seven days — one email for each idea — giving them a little more information. Simple. Effective.

These work because they reduce friction. People think — I could actually use this today. But when they look at a free lead magnet and think it's going to take six weeks to implement, they say no thank you.

What to Do This Week

Look at one piece of content you've already created. Brainstorm three different micro lead magnets you could make from it. You're not going to make all three — just brainstorm. You can even go to ChatGPT and get some ideas. Then pick one and make it. Simple ideas spread faster than overwhelming systems. Your audience does not need bigger. They need clarity and speed.

Stop waiting to build the perfect freebie. Build the quick solution people can use immediately. That is your micro lead magnet.

I've linked my Scrappy List Building Checklist in the show notes — grab it and see a real example of what a micro lead magnet looks like. It is one of my most popular freebies, and I think it will give you a great idea of what yours could look like too.

Feeling overwhelmed juggling business and family life? You’re not alone—and you don’t have to burn out to succeed. In this episode, I’m sharing simple, real-life strategies on how to avoid burnout for entrepreneurs, especially for moms running a business from home. 

It’s not about doing it all—it’s about doing what matters most, with intention and grace.

You’ll walk away with practical tools to build a sustainable business and still have time for your family and yourself. We’ll talk about:

✅Why chasing balance isn’t the goal—and what to focus on instead

✅Time-blocking tips that fit around your family life

✅How to simplify your to-do list and stop the guilt

✅Ways to involve your family in your business

✅The self-care shifts that help you stay energized and focused

🎧 Ready to stop the hustle and start thriving? 

Post one way to avoid burnout in our FamilyEbiz Group to take your next step!

Resources Mentioned:

FamilyEbiz Community -  Share one way to give yourself grace or take care of yourself.

Show Notes:

Hey everyone, I’m Kerry Beck with FamilyEbiz! Today, we’re diving into a topic that so many work-at-home moms struggle with—burnout.

Balancing family, business, and self-care can be overwhelming. I’ve been there myself, feeling like I just want to drop everything and do nothing. But the reality is, we can’t do it all perfectly—and that’s okay.

Balance doesn’t mean doing everything at the same time. Instead, it’s about making intentional choices.

• Learn to let go of urgency and focus on what’s truly important.
• Understand that different seasons of life require different priorities.
• Give yourself permission to say no to things that aren’t essential.

When I was homeschooling, I had to step back from other commitments. And guess what? That was okay! Saying no to some things allowed me to avoid burnout and stay focused on what mattered most.

• Create a flexible daily rhythm instead of a rigid schedule.
• Set designated work hours that fit around family time.
• Even a small dedicated workspace (like a closet) can make a difference.

• Simplify your to-do list—focus on just three priorities a day.
• Accept that “good is good enough” (your house doesn’t need to be spotless!).
• Let go of guilt when you need to prioritize your business.

For example, I bought a Roomba to vacuum instead of doing it myself. It’s not perfect, but it saves me time and energy!

• Pre-record content, schedule social media, and use email sequences.
• Set admin tasks at the same time each day for efficiency.
• Use a rhythm for chores—laundry on Monday & Thursday, cleaning on Mondays, etc.

• Give kids age-appropriate tasks to help with your business.
• Teach them essential life skills like cleaning and cooking.
• Communicate with your spouse so they can support your goals.

My kids even helped run our business—sometimes better than I did! They knew how to ship products and handle tasks, giving me more time to focus on business.

Self-care isn’t a luxury—it’s a business strategy.

• Get enough sleep—even a 10-minute power nap can recharge you.
• Move your body—go for a walk or take breaks throughout the day.
• Take a quiet coffee break—even 5-10 minutes can reset your mind.
• Journal or read—find a hobby that refreshes you.

I used to take early morning walks before my family woke up. It gave me time to think, pray, and prepare for the day. My mom had a daily tea break—just 10 minutes, but it helped her recharge!

This week, choose one way to give yourself grace or take care of yourself. Small changes can help you be more productive in your business and present for your family.

👉 Want more support? Join our FamilyEbiz Facebook community and connect with fellow small business owners who are streamlining their time, boosting productivity, and growing their businesses!

Thanks for tuning in—see you next time!

Too many ideas, too many half-finished offers, and still no consistent sales — that is not a traffic problem. That is a clarity for business problem. And the good news is, it is completely fixable.

In this episode, we break down exactly what is causing the confusion and what to do about it. Here are 5 things you will walk away with:

✅Why a confused audience never buys — no matter how much content you create

✅How your own lack of clarity is causing no sales

✅The 3-part sweet spot every online business needs

✅How to identify your one main offer and finally stop spinning your wheels

✅A simple website test to see if your audience can even find your solution

✅Why you do not need more products — you just need alignment

Ready to stop overwhelming your audience and start turning your content into consistent sales? Grab your free spot in the 5 Fixes class and find the clarity your business has been missing: familyebiz.com/5fixes

Resources for You

Free Training — What's Missing in Your Online Business? 5 Fixes That Unlock Real Growth - Watch the replay when you sign up here.

Related Episode: How to Prioritize Tasks That Actually Make You Money

Course mentioned: BOOST! Tools to BOOST Your Business to the Next Level

Show Notes:

You Don't Have a Traffic Problem. You Have a Clarity Problem.

You don't have a traffic problem. You don't even have a product problem. You have a clarity problem. You have too many ideas, too many offers, and no consistent sales. Today I'm going to show you what's really going on, and how you can find more clarity that will drive more sales to your business.

What's Really Going On

Here's the reality. You may have multiple offers, or a lot of unfinished ones. You start and you're like, oh, I'm going to go do this, I'm going to go do that — sort of that squirrel in a cage running around. Or you don't have a clear funnel. You're really not even sure what to do daily when you sit down.

What I think is happening is you're piecing together free advice from everywhere. You've tried multiple things. You don't have one clear direction. And your people don't have one clear direction about how they can solve their problems. You don't have clarity in your business, and your audience doesn't either.

A confused mind does not buy. A confused audience means no sales. If you don't even have clarity on what your business is about, how can your audience have clarity about what your solution is?

What Airbnb and Twitter Can Teach You

Brian Chesky struggled early with Airbnb. He iterated through many different ideas and finally gained traction by focusing on something very simple — the stay in someone's home concept. He started learning directly from early users.

I actually remember when Steve and I were in San Francisco right when Airbnb had just started. We were going over to Sausalito for a few days and we booked an apartment through Airbnb. I'd never done anything like that — and at the time it was only available in the San Francisco and Sacramento area. Now it's worldwide. Airbnb didn't grow by adding more. They grew by clarifying the core idea.

Jack Dorsey said early on that Twitter was confusing and unfocused. He simplified it to one function — short updates, 140 characters. That clarity drove the business and made it successful. Clarity made it usable, and usability made it scalable.

What is your core idea? If you have too many options, you overwhelm your buyers. If you don't have a clear next step, they don't know what to do, and they're going to go find someone else. Your audience doesn't need more choices. They need direction.

How I Found My Clarity

The internet often tells you to create more, more, more. I'm telling you to simplify. Several years ago I asked myself — what do I want to be known for? What is it that I think I can help homeschool moms with the most?

And here's what I discovered. I really wanted to be known for leadership education, because I feel like it gives purpose to your homeschool. You're not just checking off boxes or going through the motions. You're raising kids who have character, who can think for themselves, who have tools to learn on their own. So I decided I was going to focus on leadership education from a Christian perspective, with a faith base. And that's what I did.

Everything I do ties back to that one thing. Sometimes it's a lead magnet, sometimes it's small bundles like my Drama Free Mom bundle — which prepares people to get into my main course, Raising Leaders, Not Followers. It all works together because it all points to one thing.

One Main Offer. One Audience. One Direction.

Here are some questions I want you to ask yourself and write down. What is my one main offer right now? Am I speaking to where my audience is today?

That second question is really important. Your solution may be right, but you may need to go back a step to where your audience is before they're ready for it. Meet them where they are first.

In our mastermind group, Janie is in the gardening niche and she's focused on weeds — she's creating a weed course. She has clarity. Jerry Ann is in the quilting industry. She was trying to do all this digital stuff, and she decided — I'm going to make small quilted projects and sell them. That's her one thing. Both of them found their focus, and now they know exactly where they're going.

You don't need more products or more solutions. You just need alignment.

Here's a really good exercise. Get someone who has never been on your website to hop on and try to find the answer to a specific problem. Don't say anything. Just watch. That will give you a lot of insight into whether your clarity is coming through to your audience.

When You Fix Clarity, Everything Changes

You're not broken. You're not failing. You're just slightly off, or you have too much going on and your people can't find the solution. The Bible says without a vision, the people perish. If you don't know where you're going, you're going to miss the target every time.

Find the sweet spot between your audience's pain point, your platform, and who you are serving. Then head toward it and stay focused. One audience, one problem, one solution. When you fix clarity for business, everything changes.

What if you had one simple model that showed you how to turn content into sales? That's exactly what I'm walking through in my free class — What's Missing in Your Online Business: Five Fixes to Unlock Real Growth replay. Sign up here. I would love to see you there.

If this episode helped you, would you please share it with one person? And leave a five-star review or a comment on YouTube — I'll be watching for those.

What if hiding your offer is actually hurting the very people you want to help? Selling is service — and if your product solves a real problem, staying quiet is keeping your audience stuck.

In this episode, we break down the mindset shift that changes everything about how you show up and sell. Here are 5 things you will walk away with:

✅Why hiding your offer is fear, not humility

✅The difference between pushy marketing and REAL service

✅Why free content informs but paid offers transform

✅The 1-sentence addition you can make to any post or email right now

✅How to start believing in your offer enough to actually share it

Ready to stop playing small and start serving at the level your audience deserves? Sign up for the free training on April 22: What Your Business is Missing? 5 Fixes to Unlock Real Growth. It’s exactly what is holding your business back: familyebiz.com/5fixes 

Resources for You

Free Training — "What's Missing? Five Fixes That Unlock Real Growth" : April 22nd Live Class (1:00 PM)

Show Notes:

Hiding Your Offer Is Not Humility — It's Fear

What if not sharing your product with your audience is actually hurting the very people you want to help? You've created something valuable, you believe it works, but you hesitate to talk about it because you're going to ask for money, and you're scared. The online world says don't be salesy. But I'm going to say something different. Hiding your offer is not humility. It's fear.

You Don't Have a Product Problem — You Have a Belief Problem

Here's the reality. You're creating content but not making consistent sales. You're showing up but avoiding the offer. You're learning from 10 different places but nothing feels complete. And you've got this thing going on in your head — who am I to sell this? Who am I to ask for money? What if no one buys?

Some of you have been working on your content for months or even years without seeing results. You believe in your product. But you keep hesitating to sell it, over and over again.

I know what that's like, because I used to not really want to put things out for sale. I just as soon give everything for free and let people enjoy it. But that doesn't work. In the last few years I've really worked on my mindset around that imposter syndrome. And I see other people — people know about their products. Why? Because they share them. They let their audience know they have something for sale.

You don't have a product problem. You have a belief problem about selling.

Selling Is Not Taking — It's Serving

Let's talk about changing our mindset. Selling is not taking. It is serving. If your product truly solves a problem, then when you do not offer it, it keeps your people stuck. Does that make sense? If your product solves their problem and you don't ever tell them about it, they just stay stuck — or they go find someone else to buy that product from.

Pushy marketing is pressure and manipulation. That is not what I'm talking about. Serving is initiation, invitation, and a solution. You are inviting them in to solve their problem. Competent entrepreneurs don't pitch — they lead.

Mel Robbins and the 5-Second Rule

There was a person named Mel Robbins. She struggled financially, she nearly lost everything. She created something just for herself called the 5-Second Rule — it was to help her get through a really hard season. Financial trouble, marriage stress, career problems, panic attacks just getting out of bed.

Initially she shared it for free, but then she realized people needed deeper help. That's when she turned it into a book, into courses, and into speaking. She turned a personal tool into a framework that has helped millions — because she didn't keep it to herself. If she had just kept it to herself, everyone else would have stayed stuck or tried to figure it out on their own.

You need to share your products if they solve a problem.

Free Content Informs. Paid Offers Transform.

People don't just need information. They need transformation — and that's what your paid offer provides. If you're multitasking, come back to me for this one. Free content informs. Paid offers transform.

If you stay in free content mode, your audience stays stuck. They're not going to see transformation. Free advice without a system is why you're not making sales.

James Wedmore started as a YouTuber giving free advice on video tips. He spent years teaching YouTube and video marketing, but he realized his people needed a different type of structure to actually succeed. So he shifted his mindset, saw the gap, and began building paid programs to solve their problems. His business exploded. His audience didn't need more free tips. They needed a proven path, a strategy, and a new mindset — and that is what he taught in his paid courses.

What to Do This Week

I want you to think about this question — and you probably already know the answer. What problem does your product solve? Write that down. Then ask yourself — what happens if your audience doesn't solve that problem?

Let's say you've got a great way to help people lose weight. If they don't solve that problem, it's not just that they don't have a solution. Their health goes down, nothing is working right, maybe their finances are even affected because they're spending money on the wrong things. When they don't solve their problem, other areas of their life hurt too.

So here's what I want you to do. Add one sentence to your next post, or a PS in your next email. Something like — if you want help with this, here's how I can help you go further. That's not pushy. That is serving. That is leadership.

Daymond John from Shark Tank started FUBU — For Us By Us — with a very small amount of money from his mom. He promoted it relentlessly himself. He was not afraid to get that brand out there. Now he's a gazillionaire who helps other people start businesses. He believed in his brand enough to promote it himself. Do you believe in your brand enough?

You're not failing. You're just holding back your solution. And in doing that, you're not serving the people you want to help.

If you want a simple way to know what to say, when to say it, and how to guide people to your offer — come to my free class on April 22nd. It's called What's Missing in Your Business: Five Fixes to Unlock Real Growth. You can sign up at FamilyEbiz.com/5fixes.

Yes, it's a free class. And yes, I will have something paid — because if you want more transformation, you'll be willing to pay for that transformation. If you feel stuck with your sales, if you're not sure how to serve your people, come to this class. We're going to talk about things that can take your business to the next level.

You sit down to work… and suddenly everything feels urgent. If you’ve ever wondered how to prioritize tasks without spinning your wheels all day, this episode will change how you work immediately.

Inside this episode, you’ll learn a simple filter to stop the overwhelm and finally focus on what actually moves your business forward:

✅The 3-question filter that tells you EXACTLY what to work on

✅Why most tasks don’t actually grow your business

✅The difference between busy work and profit-making work

✅How to decide what to do (and what to skip) in seconds

✅A simple shift that creates momentum fast and finish what you start

Grab the resource mentioned in the podcast to start implementing this today.

Resources for You

Scrappy List Building Checklist 

Free Masterclass: What’s Missing – 5 Fixes That Unlock Real Growth 

Show Notes:

You're Not Lazy — You're Just Not Focused. Here's How to Fix That.

It's 9 in the morning. You sit down at your computer ready to work on your online business and then you panic. Should you write a blog post, post on social media, create a freebie, fix your website, email your list? Everything feels important, everything feels urgent. So you scroll Instagram for 30 minutes "researching" and then you feel guilty for wasting the time. Sound familiar?

You're not lazy. You're just not focused. And I'm going to show you how to fix that right now.

Why Nothing Is Working

You don't have clear priorities. You're following advice from 10 different experts and you're all over the place and nothing is working — which never works anyway. You feel busy all day, but at the end of the day you feel like you didn't make any progress whatsoever. You don't have a clear funnel or system to follow.

I used to spend hours deciding what to work on. I'd have 47 tabs open, 12 half-finished projects, and zero finished results. In other words, zero sales. At times I would feel like a failure. But I wasn't failing. I just didn't have the right filter for what mattered.

Not all tasks are created equal. Some tasks and some products make you money. Some tasks and some products make you feel busy. Successful entrepreneurs know the difference. Do you know the difference for your business?

Clarity Comes From Removing, Not Adding

Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 and said the company had way too many products. He cut 70% of Apple's products, focused on four core products, and it saved the company. Clarity comes from removing, not adding.

I had to do the same thing. When I went through Digital Course Academy, one thing she kept saying over and over was focus on one thing and get it right. At the time I was doing different webinars every single month selling different products — some sold well, some didn't. So I decided to stop that and just focus on my course Raising Leaders, Not Followers, and launch it three times a year. I also had two events — the Life Skills Leadership Summit in February and one in the summertime — and they all worked together as parts of my funnel. I got rid of a lot of products in my store so I could focus on what was important to my audience and what solved their problem.

Warren Buffett told his pilot to write down his top 25 goals, circle the top five, and stay far away from all the other 20. Those other 20 — they distract real progress. Most people aren't unfocused. They're just overcommitted with way too much to do.

The Three Question Filter for How to Prioritize Tasks

You just need a simple filter to make wise decisions. When you have clarity, that creates momentum. When you have momentum, that creates confidence and results. Once you know what to work on, you'll actually finish things. Finishing things builds confidence. Confidence leads to taking action, and action leads to sales.

So here is our three question filter that you should ask before every task.

Number one — does this grow my email list? If yes, high priority. If no, move to question two.

Number two — does this nurture my existing list or make an offer? If yes, high priority. If no, move to question three.

Number three — does this directly support question one or two? If yes, medium priority. If no, delete it or delegate it. Get rid of it.

Write these three questions on a sticky note and put it wherever you work — your computer, your laptop, wherever. Before you start any new task, ask those questions and filter through. If it doesn't pass the filter, don't do it. It's that simple. And yes, it works.

Putting the Filter Into Practice

Let me walk you through some examples. Should I write a blog post? Does it have a lead magnet to grow your email list? If yes, do it. If not, skip it.

Should I redesign my website? Does it grow your list or make an offer? No — not today. Do it another time.

Should I post on Instagram? Does it drive people to your lead magnet? Yes, then do it. No, skip it.

The online business world tells you to just be consistent and show up everywhere. And I don't know how people do that — all over social media, emailing, everything. I have a feeling you're so spread thin that you're not making any sales, because that is exhausting and it is not effective.

Stop doing 90% of what you're doing and focus on the 10% that actually makes you money. Every day you should do at least one profit-making task. It may just be sending an email for a collaboration, but one a day. Email list building and email marketing — that is what is going to grow your business. That is what is going to make sales. Everything else is noise.

It's Not Magic. It's Clarity.

Students in the mastermind and Homeschool Blogger University who have implemented this filter say, I finally know what to work on. I'm not paralyzed anymore. I'm actually making progress. It's not magic. It's not rocket science. It's clarity.

Think about it like cleaning your house. If you try to clean the whole house in a day, you get overwhelmed. But when you focus on one part — okay, today I'm getting the bathrooms done, or I'm going to get the kitchen clean — that feeling of completion gives you the energy to keep going. It's the same in business.

One of my mastermind students, Janie, is working on decluttering her house this year. She just does 15 minutes a day, but she has clarity — and she's getting it done. Do you know the high priority task you should be working on today?

Use the three question filter today. I promise it will change how you work.

And if you want to know the complete system — what to focus on after you filter your tasks — I'm offering a free masterclass on April 22nd called What's Missing: Five Fixes That Unlock Real Growth. You can register here

If this helped you, please share it with another blogger, podcaster, or online business owner who's struggling with the same thing. And if you're on YouTube, leave a comment — I would love to know your biggest takeaway. If not, leave a review wherever you're listening.

Your business isn't broken — your target audience research just hasn't kept up. If you've been showing up, creating content, and still not making sales, you're probably just 2 degrees off from where you need to be…and 2 degrees off does not allow you to find profit or success.

In this episode, you'll discover how a tiny messaging shift can turn your stalled business into a thriving one. Here are 5 things you'll walk away with:

✅Why your target audience from 2 years ago is not the same person you're selling to today

✅The 2-degree mistake that's quietly costing you sales (and how to spot it fast)

✅Where to do real research — no guessing, no assuming

✅The 2-steps-back method that shows you exactly where your audience is before they buy

✅How to audit your last 5 pieces of content and rewrite just one headline to get traction today

Ready to stop spinning your wheels and start seeing real results? Grab the free 5 Fixes training and find your 2 degrees: familyebiz.com/5fixes

Resources for You

Free Training — April 22nd Live Class (1:00 PM): "What's Missing? Five Fixes That Unlock Real Growth"

Show Notes:

Are You 2 Degrees Off? Why Your Business Isn't Failing — Your Targeting Is

The 2-Degree Problem

There's a story about a pilot who was just 2 degrees off course when he left New York to go to Los Angeles. 2 degrees! That seems like nothing, right? But by the time he flew all the way across the country, he was landing thousands of miles away from Los Angeles. Those two degrees are like a snowball — you get off target, and you end up in the desert somewhere.

Two degrees doesn't feel like much until it costs you everything. And that's exactly what's happening in your business right now. And it's not your fault.

You're Not Lazy. You're Just Off Target.

You started your business, you believe in what you offer, you're willing to put in the time, you're not lazy — but you're making no sales, or very low sales. And you're starting to wonder, maybe it's you.

That is where most people assume they're failing, but that's not exactly what is happening. I've been there. Several years ago, I would spend months creating content, creating new products, but it was not solving the problem for today, at that time, with my audience. Maybe I made $100 or $200 a month. It's not that I was lazy, and it's not that I wasn't committed. I was just 2 degrees off. And that cost me thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.

Think about Howard Schultz, who built Starbucks. He originally started growing it the wrong way — selling equipment and beans, and it wasn't working. He took a trip to Italy, saw espresso bars focusing on experience and connection, and he came back and shifted Starbucks' model completely. He's still in the coffee business, but instead of focusing on equipment and beans, he started focusing on experience. That small shift turned Starbucks into a global brand. He wasn't failing — he was just a few degrees off in how he positioned his business.

Where are you? Are you positioning your business in the right place?

Your Research Might Be the Problem

Your business isn't failing. Your targeting is just slightly off. But you're saying, I did the research. Here's the thing — if your research is 2 years old or more, you have not done it. Your audience has evolved, even from a year ago. Life is different now. You're selling to them where they were back then, not where they are now, today.

Here's a little tip, a little secret. You need to know where they are to buy your product, and then go two steps backwards. Where are they two steps beforehand? That's those two degrees. You need to know where they are so that you can bring them along and sell your product to them.

Think about MrBeast — his real name is Jimmy Donaldson. When he was around 13, he started making YouTube videos. Random gaming videos, very little traction. Instead of quitting, he studied what people were actually watching. He adjusted his titles, his thumbnails, and his format. Same platform, same creator, but a slight shift in strategy. That recalibration brings him 474 million followers on YouTube and 25 million on X. He didn't need a new niche. He needed alignment with what people were actually wanting right now.

Small shifts create massive results. Think about a little snowball — it's just a little bitty thing, but you start rolling it around the yard to make a snowman, and all of a sudden you've got a big one. You don't need to start over. You don't need a different niche. You need to recalibrate 2 degrees.

How to Find Your 2 Degrees

So how do we do that? Take a quick check on your business. Who was your audience 1 or 2 years ago? Who are they today?

I want you to write down this sentence — or type it into a Google Doc so you actually have it:

Right now, today, 2026, my audience is struggling with ___________.

Don't guess. You need to do real research. Go to places where they buy stuff — Amazon, eBay, Etsy. Talk to your customers and ask them this one question: What's your biggest struggle right now? If you're assuming, if you're not talking to people or looking at what people are buying, then you are making an assumption. You're guessing on your messaging, and you're probably 2 degrees off.

This is fixable, and faster than you think. You are closer than you realize if you just do the research. The right guidance can correct your course in weeks, not years.

Everyone's telling you, oh, just keep going, trust the process — but if you are 2 degrees off and you keep going, you're just going to be lost. You need to stop, recalibrate, and then keep going. That's what nobody's telling you.

Recalibrate, Don't Start Over

Think about what Netflix did. They started as a DVD-by-mail company, doing well during that season. But they saw a shift coming, and they saw streaming was the future. They didn't start over. They recalibrated. Same company, same audience, different alignment with reality. And they went from mailing DVDs to being the global streaming giant.

You don't need a new niche. You don't need a new business. You don't need a new platform. You need a message shift. You just need to align your offer with today's problem, not the two-year-ago problem.

Do This Right Now

Look at your last 5 pieces of content. Do those pieces speak to your current audience and what they need? Do you know their current pain point, or are you assuming it?

If it does not align with today, rewrite one headline or a hook so that you can get their attention for today. I do that with my blog posts sometimes — I'll take an old blog post and rewrite it for today. You need to make it more immediate and specific to who they are right now.

If you've been working hard but not seeing results, you're not broken. You're not in the wrong niche. You're just 2 degrees off, and I can help you find those 2 degrees.

🎉 Join Me for a Free Class!

On April 22nd at 1:00 PM, I'm teaching a free class called What's Missing? Five Fixes That Unlock Real Growth. I'm going to show you exactly where those two degrees are hiding in your business.

👉 Register at familyebiz.com/5fixes

If you have a friend who has a business and they're working hard but not seeing results — it's not them. They need to find their two degrees. Would you share this episode with them?

You have dozens of bookmarks, saved posts, and courses started but not finished. The real problem isn't a lack of information—it's too much information. Without a framework in marketing, learning becomes procrastination disguised as productivity, and you end up following 10 strategies from 10 experts while implementing zero.

This episode reveals why free advice keeps you stuck and gives you the exact framework in marketing that successful entrepreneurs use to escape the trap.

✅Why learning can become procrastination disguised as productivity (and how to stop it)

✅The 3-part framework in marketing that replaces random tactics: one audience, one offer, one system

✅Why free advice rarely gives the full system (and attracts freebie seekers to your business)

✅How to choose ONE marketing strategy for 90 days and ignore everything else

✅Why tips feel exciting but frameworks create actual results

Ready to stop collecting advice and start building momentum? Grab the Business Marketing Roadmap and get invited to the upcoming class on growing your business with a framework in marketing!

Resources for You: 

FREE Business Marketing Roadmap 

Boost! Tools to BOOST Your Business to the Next Level 

Path to Profit VIP Day - Funnels

Simplify Sales: Ultimate 4 Steps System VIP Day  

Upcoming Class: How to Grow Your List with Buyers -for all Mastermind members

Show Notes:

Why Free Advice Is Keeping You Stuck (And What to Do Instead)

Many online business owners, bloggers, podcasters — we all have dozens of bookmarks, saved posts, courses started but not finished. The real problem is not a lack of information. It is too much information. Today I want to talk about why free advice can actually keep you stuck, and how successful entrepreneurs escape that trap.

Learning Can Become Procrastination

Free content is everywhere. Podcasts, YouTube, blog posts, social media. This episode is free for you. It feels productive to learn, but learning can become procrastination disguised as productivity. Think about that.

I am not against learning. I just think we need to be particular about where we are learning, and who we're learning from, and how we're learning. Because we can be following 10 strategies from 10 experts and implement zero. That's what happens a lot of times.

We need to follow one proven system at a time. And then maybe, once that one is starting to get results, you can add on to it some more.

So I want you to think about this — what one marketing strategy are you committed to for the next 90 days? Everything else becomes not now. You can make a list, get a Google Doc, and write all those other ideas down.

For me this year, it's YouTube. About three years ago, it was Facebook ads. I bought a YouTube course and a Facebook ads course, and I just followed what that person did. I'm already seeing an increase in some of my views and comments just from a few little tweaks, and I haven't even done near everything I should be doing yet.

The Problem With Free Advice

Free advice rarely gives you the full system. Each expert shares one piece of the puzzle, and you end up with random tactics and conflicting strategies.

I experienced this firsthand. I had taken a Facebook ads course, and when that person stopped offering support, I went to another guy and spent $350 in a week — and it was a bomb. I still think they had some good things, but I couldn't follow his system because my ads didn't do well following his approach. Then when I got into the YouTube course, every Friday there was a Facebook ads call, and this guy was training exactly the way I had already been taught. Now I know where to get my support, and I'm not conflicting everything.

Here's another thing I've noticed. When you seek out all the free help, you attract freebie seekers. Who you are is what people are attracted to. If you believe free advice is going to get you down the road and start making money, then you're going to attract people that only want free stuff.

You end up doing a little of everything — one expert says focus on Pinterest, another says build funnels, another says YouTube — but you end up mastering nothing. Me too.

That's one reason I am not active on Instagram or TikTok. I don't have the capacity to be active everywhere, and I'm not even going to go learn about it. When I followed Digital Course Academy, one system included webinars, emails, funnels, course creation, promotion, and marketing. One strategy. A bunch of strategies, but they all worked together.

Tips vs. Frameworks

Tips are free. Tips feel exciting. You find one little tip and end up spending three hours on it. But a framework in marketing creates results. That's why I invest in a marketing strategy, learn it, and spend time with it.

Framework thinking means: one audience, one main offer, one primary marketing system.

I've seen it over and over with my coaching students and other people who ask me for help. They love content creation, so they just keep making new things but they don't market it. Or they pick an audience and then jump to another one, and then another one. Pick an audience for this year. Pick one main offer and one primary marketing system.

When I did this, it helped me a lot. I was doing a different webinar every month. When I went through Digital Course Academy, I decided to pick my flagship product — the one I was getting the best traction on — redo it, and now I market it and open it up three times a year. Everything I do is tied together with one topic in the homeschool niche.

The Three Questions That Change Everything

Write this down. Who do you help? What problem do you solve? What offer solves that problem?

Audience. Offer. Marketing. Those three answers become the foundation of every marketing decision.

If you feel like you've been collecting advice instead of building momentum, you are not alone. The real shift happens when you stop searching and start implementing one system.

Where to Go From Here

This is something I teach in a course I created called Boost, and it's also covered in some of our VIP days. I'll put links to those in the show notes if you'd like more information on the funnel, the marketing system, the audience, the main offer, and the marketing system.

I also have a free Business Marketing Roadmap for you. When you sign up for that, you'll also be invited to a class I'll be teaching — it's going to give you a system you can actually use, with a framework, not just a bunch of tips. I'll put the link in the show notes.

If this episode helped you, would you share it with one person who needs to hear it? And if there's a place to leave a review or comment, that would mean the world to me. I am actively working on keeping up with YouTube and Facebook comments — that's actually one of the things I'm focused on from the YouTube course I took in January and February. One marketing strategy for the whole year. Implement it.

Check the show notes for links to the Business Marketing Roadmap, the Boost course, and VIP day information.

Many entrepreneurs believe their online business feels hard because algorithms change or competition is high, but the real reason is they're trying to figure everything out alone. The truth about mentorship for business is that most successful entrepreneurs didn't build alone—they had mentors, communities, and masterminds providing guidance and accountability.

This episode reveals why the try-fail-switch cycle keeps you stuck and how mentorship for business shortens your learning curve from years to months.

✅Why social media's "self-made success" story is a myth (and what successful entrepreneurs actually did)

✅ONE decision you're avoiding right now that's probably the next step your business needs

✅How mentorship for business gives you clarity on your offer, confidence to market, and strategic focus

✅Why isolation delays momentum and guidance changes everything

✅3 places you can get support right now

Ready to stop building alone? Check out the mentorship for business resources mentioned in this episode and find the support that fits where you are!

Resources for You: 

Family Ebiz Facebook Group

Homeschool Blogger Network

Homeschool Blogger University

Family Ebiz Mastermind

Show Notes:

Many entrepreneurs believe business is hard because algorithms change, marketing becomes confusing, competition is so high. Those are the things they say. But the real reason businesses feel defeated and feel hard and difficult is they're trying to figure everything out alone.

The Try, Fail, Switch Trap

Many entrepreneurs operate on trial and error. They try a strategy, they fail, they switch strategies, they repeat this. Try, fail, switch. Try, fail, switch. And it's not doing anything.

This leads you to burnout, to frustration, to wasted time. You're not getting anything done, and you're not even making any money.

Matt Flynn lost his architecture job in 2008 during the recession, and instead of quitting, he started documenting what he was learning about online businesses. His early success came from experimenting publicly — letting those around him see what he was learning from others who had already succeeded. He didn't try to figure it out himself, which is what a lot of solopreneurs — you and me at times — do.

The Myth of the Self-Made Entrepreneur

Social media makes it seem like successful entrepreneurs did it completely alone, by themselves. This is a lie. This is a myth. The truth is, most all of them had and have mentors. They have communities. They are part of masterminds, and behind their success is guidance and accountability.

I personally pay money to be in certain groups so that I can have accountability, but I can also have guidance from people that have gone before me.

Reed Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, says that no successful company is built alone. He was part of PayPal back in the day, and there was a network of entrepreneurs called the PayPal Mafia. They all ended up starting their own businesses, collaborating, and going on to grow massive companies — including LinkedIn. That network became one of the most powerful entrepreneurial circles in the world.

His phrase: No matter how brilliant your mind, you need a team. Your network is your net worth.

The One Decision You've Been Avoiding

Your business feels hard because you're trying to do what successful people never did — build it alone. So I want you to think about this, and ask yourself today. Even write this down.

What is the one decision you've been avoiding because you're not sure of it?

Maybe it's how to launch your product. How to start a successful email funnel. How to talk about your offer — because some of you, I know, are scared to let people know that you actually sell things. It's a hobby if you're not selling. Maybe it's your social strategy, because let's face it, social media can be overwhelming.

Whatever that one decision is that you are avoiding right now because you're just not sure — write it down. Because that is probably the next step your business actually needs.

What Mentorship for Business Actually Does

If you have guidance, it can shorten the learning curve. Instead of guessing for three years, you can often move forward in months.

In 2021 or 2022, I bought Amy Porterfield's Digital Course Academy. It was $2,000. And you better believe I worked my tail off to get that thing implemented. I bought it in September, I launched in January, because I wanted to make my money back. I didn't try to figure it all out myself. I followed a proven plan. I also joined her mastermind group, where I get training every month and I can get in and get help.

J.K. Rowling was a single mom, struggling financially, writing in isolation, and she faced multiple rejections of her book. Her breakthrough didn't come from staying isolated. It came when someone outside of her finally saw the value in her work and helped bring it to life. That shift — from doing it alone to getting the support she needed — changed everything.

Even the most gifted people need outside validation, guidance, and the opportunity to move forward.

What Happens When You Stop Working Alone

If you stay in isolation, you delay momentum. And we need momentum to be able to grow our business.

Guidance can give you clarity on your offer. In our masterminds, people come and we bounce ideas around and get the clarity we need. Maybe it's getting the confidence to actually market your product. Maybe it's strategic focus — knowing what strategy really works, instead of listening to ten different people and piecemealing it together.

Mara, one of our mastermind members, always says, you just let me talk it out — and we came up with a solution. Daniil would start talking about her problem, and as she talked, she'd go, oh, now I know what to do. Just having the support of people that get what you're doing makes all the difference. A lot of people don't get online business.

When your business stops being lonely and confusing, momentum finally starts.

Where to Get Support

I have places where you can get that support. Family eBiz has a free Facebook group, and Homeschool Blogger Network is a free one as well. But I will say, you get what you pay for.

If you're a homeschooler with an online business, check out Homeschool Blogger University — we've priced it so that even homeschoolers can get in. The other group I have is the Family eBiz Mastermind. Both groups meet at least once a month, and we work together to support each other, with trainings and other support outside of the monthly meetings.

Coming up in a couple of weeks, I'm going to be doing a training on how to grow your list with buyers — not freebie seekers — and turning freebies into customers. I know a lot of y'all need that. It's only available to our mastermind and university members.

If you learned one thing from this episode, would you share it with someone who could use it in their business? And wherever you're listening, please leave a comment or a review — that means the world to me.

Check out the links below to find the right community for where you are in your business journey.

You have website visitors, podcast listeners, and social media likes—but your email list isn't growing. The problem isn't traffic, it's that traffic is just attention while subscribers are commitment. Learning the right approach to building email list growth means avoiding the 3 biggest mistakes creators make that kill conversions.

This episode breaks down why your current building email list strategy isn't working and gives you the exact framework to create "subscriber moments" that turn existing traffic into committed email subscribers who eventually become customers.

✅3 biggest building email list mistakes keeping your traffic from converting

✅Why "join my newsletter" kills list growth (and what to say instead)

✅The "Subscriber Moment" Strategy that pauses content to intentionally invite sign-ups

✅How to turn your most popular content into a lead magnet in minutes…without creating something new

✅3-step framework that makes invitations clear, helpful, and not salesy

Ready to fix your building email list strategy? 

Grab the Scrappy List Building Checklist to get all 7 ideas with exact implementation steps!

Resources for You:

List Building Tool Kit

Scrappy List Building Checklist 

Show Notes:

You have website visitors. People listen to your podcast. Your posts get likes. But nothing is happening on your list. So let's talk about building your email list — because your email list is the number one asset in your online business. It is gold.

Here's the problem. We think traffic is going to grow our list. But traffic is attention — it's just getting people to your website. Subscribers are commitment. Subscribers are the ones that will eventually buy from you. Traffic and subscribers are two very, very different things.

Let's talk about the three biggest mistakes creators make when building their email list, how you can create a subscriber moment in your content, and how to turn your existing content into a lead magnet.

How many of you have been on a website and it just says "Join my newsletter" or "Subscribe for updates"? Who cares? That is nothing. People's inboxes are crammed full every single day. You have to give them a real reason.

Instead of "Join my newsletter," try something specific. Get my five-step checklist for launching your first digital product. Download the podcast planning template. Grab the blog post SEO checklist I use before publishing. Grab my Easter Bible reading plan. Even a simple "Don't Worry" prayer printable — people subscribed for that because it solved a problem.

Benjamin Franklin made Poor Richard's Almanac in 1732. He did not just say, "Hey, subscribe." He gave them a reason — practical wisdom, humor, memorable sayings. And people came back year after year because they knew exactly what value they would be getting. Benjamin Franklin understood something modern creators often forget: people follow consistent value, not just content.

If your audience doesn't know what they're getting when they subscribe, they're not going to join your list. Go back to wherever you're offering your opt-in on your website. What are you offering them?

Many creators actually have a lead magnet but they hide it. It's stuck at the bottom of a blog post, a tiny link in a show note, or they mention it once quickly and move on. If they never see your call to action, nothing happens.

This is where you create a subscriber moment — you pause and intentionally invite people to join your list. In a podcast, it sounds like: "Before we go any further, I created the Scrappy List Building Checklist. You can get it for free — download it in the show notes." That is a real thing I really did. I paused right in the middle and put it there.

In a blog post, right after teaching step one, you say: "Want the full template? Download it here." And you put an actual sign-up form right there in the post — not just a link. That interrupts their scroll because it's not a paragraph and it's not an image. They stop and go, "What is this? My name and email — what are they giving me?" That is a subscriber moment.

I have a lot of students doing this regularly — delaying list growth because they think they need to create the perfect freebie. A 40-page ebook. A full course. A giant toolkit. And all that does is slow things down.

You need to turn your best existing content into a lead magnet. Go back and see which episode got downloaded the most, which blog post has been visited the most in the past month, which social post was the most shared. That tells you what your audience is looking for.

You can take that blog post and offer a checklist. Take your podcast and offer an action worksheet on whatever you're teaching. Take a video and make a step-by-step guide that goes along with it. You've already done the hard work — the blog post, the podcast, the YouTube video. All you need is a little printable that goes with it.

Tim Ferriss, best-selling author of The 4-Hour Work Week — we even had our kids read it during homeschool — does not constantly create brand new content. He expands his most popular ideas into deeper resources. His blog posts about productivity eventually evolved into a full book that sold millions of copies. It wasn't anything new. He doubled down on what people were already responding to.

Don't keep making things new. Take your best lead magnet — it may already exist in something you've already published. You just need to package it differently.

Here's how to create a simple subscriber moment in any piece of content. One: identify the problem you are solving. If planning podcast episodes overwhelms you — that's the problem. Two: offer the shortcut. "I created a simple episode planning template." Three: give a clear next step. "You can download it in the show notes." That's it. Simple, clear, helpful, and not salesy.

Take your last 10 pieces of content — blog posts, podcasts, whatever — and first check: do they have a clear invitation to join your email list? Did you offer a specific benefit or did you just say "hey, join my newsletter"?

Then take your most popular one or two pieces and add a mid-content opt-in. In a podcast, pause and offer the lead magnet right in the middle. In a blog post, scroll down and put an actual sign-up form in the body of the post. This alone can dramatically increase your conversions.

If your list isn't growing, the issue usually isn't traffic. It's one of these three things: no clear reason to subscribe, weak or hidden calls to action, or no lead magnet connected to your content. When you fix these three things, your traffic is going to turn into subscribers. I get new subscribers every single day because I have these things already woven into everything I do.

Grab our free Scrappy List Building Checklist in the show notes. You'll get all seven ideas plus an email walking you through exactly how to implement each one. Review your last few pieces of content, add one subscriber moment, and create one simple lead magnet from your most popular existing content. That's your action step this week.

Do you have a notebook, Google Doc, or phone full of business ideas—new courses, podcasts, lead magnets, social media platforms to try? You have a lot of “starting” and very little “finishing”. 

The issue isn't a lack of ideas, it's a lack of focus long enough to execute. Learning how to finish everything you start means understanding that ideas create possibilities, but execution builds business.

This episode breaks down why creative entrepreneurs struggle with completion and gives you the framework to stop chasing every idea and start finishing what actually generates income.

✅Why the creative brain loves brainstorming and starting but struggles with 3 specific finishing roadblocks

✅The "Idea Parking Lot" strategy that captures every idea without derailing your current focus

✅The 2-question framework for choosing which idea deserves your attention 

✅Why one focused idea multiplies results 

✅The 90-day commitment that turns scattered energy into actual income

Ready to learn how to finish everything you start? 

Grab the Business Audit Workbook and Business Marketing Roadmap to identify what you already have and plan your next 90 days!

Resources Mentioned: 

Business Audit Workbook

Business Marketing Roadmap (90-day planning tool)

Show Notes:

How many of you have a notebook, a Google doc, or a phone note full of business ideas? New course ideas, new podcast ideas, new lead magnets, new social media platforms to try, new business models. You have a lot of starting and very little finishing.

The issue is not a lack of ideas. It is a lack of focus long enough to execute.

Today we're going to talk about the too many ideas trap — why creative entrepreneurs struggle to finish. Ideas build possibilities and they are great, but execution builds business. And if you are struggling with executing, with finishing a project, this episode is for you.

Idea generation is actually a good strength. Creative entrepreneurs naturally notice opportunities. They connect ideas and dots. They see solutions that others miss. This is why many successful bloggers and creators succeed.

But if you don't have structure, what happens? Ideas compete for attention. Energy gets scattered all over the place and projects stall halfway through because you don't make it to the finish line. I know many of you are like this because I have watched you. I have coached you. We have been in mastermind or Homeschool Blogger University meetings. We don't get to the finish.

Creative people love to brainstorm. They love to start something. They love to design and create something. They imagine so many possibilities. That's me. I actually love to create. Sometimes I have a hard time getting to that finish line.

Do you struggle with finishing? With marketing — pulling the trigger and asking someone to buy it? Do you struggle with repeating tasks that sort of get boring after a while? Or staying focused on one thing long enough? If any of those are you, stick with me.

Thomas Edison generated thousands of ideas before successful inventions. Did you know he had a thousand patents? What made him successful was not creativity. It was structured experimentation and focus.

10,000 ways to not make a light bulb. That takes focus and that takes getting to the finish line. He said, "I didn't fail 10,000 times. I found 10,000 ways to not make that light bulb." He reportedly tested thousands of materials before finding the right filament.

He didn't try to invent 50 things at one time. He focused deeply on one problem at a time till he solved it. If you have a thing about finishing, getting to the finish line, or you've failed several times — think about Thomas Edison. Maybe put Thomas Edison on a sticky note: 10,000 ways to not make a light bulb. Maybe that will encourage you as well.

Most entrepreneurs make one of two mistakes. They ignore all the ideas or they chase every idea. Neither one works well.

Let's talk about the idea parking lot. You need to find one place that you will let all your ideas go. It might be the notes app on your phone, a Trello board, a Google doc, or a physical notebook. For me, sometimes a physical notebook is the best thing. This is going to be your idea parking lot.

Every time you get a new idea, you write it down there — and you don't start it immediately. You write it down because you know it's not going to get lost and you can come back to it maybe once a quarter, once a year, and see which ones are best for where you are right now.

You have the confidence that the idea is not going to be lost and you have the freedom to stay focused on whatever it is you are working on right now. Professional creators often keep hundreds of future ideas, but they only work on one, maybe two at a time. I've had to learn this. I still have a tendency to do everything and I've had to go, Kerry, quit working on that — this is what we're focusing on this month. That's it.

Before starting anything new, ask yourself two questions. One: will this idea grow my audience, build authority, or generate revenue? Two: how long will it realistically take? Will it take weeks, months, years?

And I'll use this example — Sara Blakely who made Spanx didn't focus on a gazillion ideas. She focused on one idea. It took her two years to develop that single product and then she launched it. She handled everything herself at first — product design, prototypes, manufacturing calls, marketing, relationship building, all of it. But she was focusing on one idea. She became one of the first women to build a billion-dollar company. If you're floating from one idea to the next, stop it.

Focus is going to multiply your results. Distraction — doing a bunch of things — multiplies a bunch of unfinished projects. Which one are you?

Here's something you can do today. Write down every business idea that is currently pulling your attention — wherever you want, your phone, Google Docs, piece of paper, Trello, whatever. It may be a new course, new podcast, new platform, new lead magnet, new niche.

Then circle one idea that could generate income in the next 90 days. Which one of them are you 90% sure will generate income? If you're not sure, go do a validation call. Then commit to finishing that one project before you start another. I know that's hard for some of you, but this single decision can create more momentum than 10 new ideas.

Creative creators, you're not lacking ideas. You just need focus and finishing habits. Ideas create possibilities. Focus creates progress. Finishing creates income.

Some of you that aren't making any money — that may be where your problem is. You don't finish. Or you start a bunch of lead magnets and you never tie them to a paid product. Whatever this idea is, it needs to generate income. Your business probably doesn't need more ideas, more lead magnets, more strategies, and more platforms. It needs you to have one idea that is finished well.

I have two free resources to help you take the next step.

First, grab the Business Audit Printable. Go through it and look at the things you already have — and then see where you are going forward.

Second, use the Business Marketing Roadmap. This one is planned by the quarter — 90 days. Once you decide what to generate revenue from, you can take that idea and plan your next 90 days. The audit shows you what you already have and what you might be able to use. The roadmap shows you how to move forward. Both are linked in the show notes.

So — what is the one idea that deserves your focus for the next 90 days? Start working on that and ignore everything else for a while. If you're watching this where you can make comments, leave a comment and let me know what that one idea is. I'd love to hear from you.

Most creators hate selling content—not because they hate helping people, but because they think selling feels pushy or slimy. You love serving, teaching, and giving free tips, but when it comes time to ask for money, you hesitate. The truth is, when someone's problem remains unsolved because you didn't offer them a solution, that's not humility—that's hesitation.

Learning how to start selling content means understanding that free content creates awareness, but paid offers create transformation. And when you refuse to sell that transformation, you keep your audience stuck in their pain point.

✅What Marie Forleo discovered about free inspiration & why it wasn't enough to help her audience or yours

✅The simple PS you can add to every email for 4 weeks that makes selling content feel natural instead of pushy

✅How to shift from "feeling pushy" to selling clarity, saved time, confidence, and a proven path

✅Why pressure comes from your doubt (not from selling content)

✅What happens when you truly believe your offer helps

Ready to stop hesitating and start selling content with confidence? Sign up for a 15-minute call to see if Family Ebiz Mastermind is the right fit for taking your business to the next level!

Resources Mentioned:

Family Ebiz Mastermind (15-minute call)

Episode 100: The Quiet Lies Holding You Back From Success: Fix Your Business Owner Mindset

Show Notes:

Moving from Content to Paid Solutions

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so you can find freedom in your life and do the things you've been called to do. Take that trip. Spend more time with your family!

Take time off with your kids and go on a ski trip if it's winter, go to the beach if it's summer. Do the things that freedom allows you to do, and that's what a digital online business is all about.

We've been talking about a topic that I think is near and dear to a lot of you, and that is inconsistent income. You do lots of products, you get likes, you get all these things, but you're not getting sales. They're just crickets.

And today, we're going to talk about moving from content to paid solutions. How do you make this shift without feeling pushy, or slimy, or salesy?

You know, we talk a lot about serving is selling. Y'all are all great at serving, all those free tips, but when it comes time to ask for money, we have a hang-up. Now, some of that is in our mind, and that's something we do need to sort of take care of.

Money is not a bad thing. Making money is not a bad thing. It's the right fit for your audience.

I think that most of y'all hate selling. You feel like it's just pushy and slimy. You love the serving, the teaching, the helping, but when it comes time to sell, you hesitate.

Because you think, well, if my content was good enough, then people would just buy. That is a lie. Go back, and we'll put the episode about lies in our head about our business.

No, that isn't completely true. You have good content, but they aren't buying. If I sell, I'll sound self-promotional. No, again, that's not necessarily true. It's the way that you present it.

You see, someone's problem remains unsolved because you didn't offer them a solution. That's not humility, that's hesitation on your part.

So, let's talk about reasons why creators resist selling. Sometimes you've got tons of tips and zero direction on putting them in the right place. You're teaching what to do, but you never get to how to fully apply that. That would be the paid solution.

You avoid pricing, outcomes, transformation language.

You know, Marie Forleo, who's probably a billionaire of some sort, she built a massive free audience with a TV station, MarieTV. I don't know if you've ever heard, she launches B-School on a regular basis.

She did not jump straight into selling. She built trust first, then clearly invited people into paid solution. Why move them into a paid solution? What she found is free inspiration was not helping them.

People needed structure. Accountability, and results, and that's what you offer them. B-School now generates millions because it's positioned as the next step. Not a pitch.

So let's think about it. Remember, we talked about, awareness content, attention content, and decision content. Free content creates awareness. Paid content creates transformation.

And if your product doesn't offer transformation, then maybe you need to rethink it. We need to give transformation to our people. And when we refuse to sell that transformation, it keeps your audience stuck. They are in that pain point, and you're not helping them at all.

Now, I'm going to share a really simple way that you can sell your product, the transformation, and you can do this for the next 4 weeks. Every email that you send, I want you to put a PS, not links to resources, right?

Something like this. If you want help implementing this instead of figuring it out alone, here's where I help, and then give them the link to where you help. No hype. No countdown. Just direction.

Do your people even know that you have offers? That's one thing I found out. They don't, because they're just reading the free stuff for years. I have to keep sharing different offers than I have.

We also do need to have a mindset shift from sharing tips to offering transformation. You're not selling information. What are you selling?

You're selling clarity, so that they are clear on how to get this done. You're selling them time saved, money saved, you're selling them confidence, a proven path, as well.

I don't know if you've ever read a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear, but he wrote blog posts for years with no paid product. He didn't monetize early, he focused on trust. Consistency and usefulness.

And when he launched his book, it wasn't buy my book, it's, here's a system that changes how you live. Because, one, he knew his people well enough, but two, it's the way that he positioned it, a system that will change how you live.

So, tips answer questions. Are you really answering your group's questions, or the ones you think they have? You need to make sure whatever you're putting out there solves their problem and does answer some of the questions.

Transformation solves an identity-level problem. It's where they are. They need to change in their mindset. What they're thinking about that situation.

It could be weight loss. It could be travel. I don't have enough money to travel with my family. It could be start an online business. It could be something like homeschooling, or parenting, or strong-willed child.

But when you give them transformation, they will go from a problem in that area to a solution that will make their life a lot easier.

Your paid offer should finish what your free content starts, and if it does, selling becomes natural. When I give my master class on, let's say, 4 tips to raising Christian leaders, by the time it's over, I haven't told them how to do it all, I just told them 4 tips. Free content.

But then, I'm like, I know some of y'all really want more information, and I will continue in to whatever my product is, the course that I'm going to sell.

You see, selling like that takes away the pressure. I know some of y'all do not want to sell. You don't want to pressure your people, and I get it.

But that is, like, a clear invitation. It's not constant reminders that are just nagging you. That is giving your person confidence to know, here is a course that's going to solve your problem, and you don't have to figure it all out yourself.

It also will give them direction instead of desperation. When you believe your offer truly helps your audience, invitations are generous, because you truly believe this is going to help, not just something that you're selling them.

The pressure inside your mind comes from your doubt. Not from selling, it's your doubt. You doubt if this is really going to make a difference, and I can tell you that's exactly where I was, oh, 5 or 10 years ago.

I was like, is this really going to make a difference? Well, when I start having people say, this changed the way we homeschool. My kids like their new teacher now. This, that is transformation, and I can boldly, and with all the goodness in my heart, know that I am offering something that can really help those particular families.

So selling isn't about taking. It's about letting people go further so they see some transformation. It's giving them the next step. And respecting their readiness.

Some are going to be ready, some aren't. You know, I give people, it's not like I sell 100% master class, people. But I do sell a fair percentage of them. So, some of them aren't ready. I have people that buy, and they said, I've been watching your stuff for 2 years. They just weren't ready for 2 years. Now they are.

So, your audience doesn't need more free content. They need a clear path forward and permission to say, yes.

Ready to Take Your Business to the Next Level?

I would love to hold your hand a little bit, and one way we do that is through our Family Ebiz Mastermind. You can sign up for a 15-minute call to see if this is a way that you can actually get your business to the next level.

You can get rid of the strategies that don't really work, and especially in this day and age, build trust with your people, and really learn what funnels are, learn how to use emails and that kind of thing through the mastermind. And you can also get help specifically with what you're struggling with.

I would love to get on a 15-minute coaching call and just see if that's a good fit for you. That's it! All you have to do is sign up with the link below.

Hey, I'm Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

Are you pouring your heart into your offer but hearing crickets? The problem isn't your course, membership, or coaching package—it's how you're positioning it. In this episode, we're breaking down positioning strategy examples that help your ideal customer recognize themselves instantly and say "that's for me!"

You'll discover positioning strategy examples that work, including how to speak to the right stage of customer and why trying to help everyone means you help no one.

In this episode, you'll learn:

✅Why your offer might be powerful but your positioning is making you invisible

✅How to identify if you're speaking to beginners, builders, or scalers (and why it matters)

✅The exact positioning strategy examples that turned Canva from rejected startup to billion-dollar business

✅How 1 podcaster used specific positioning to land serious sponsorship revenue in a tiny niche

✅5-minute headline rewrite that makes customers say "that's exactly what I need"

Ready to make your offer impossible to ignore? Grab the free resource mentioned in this episode to start repositioning your offer today!

Resources Mentioned: 

15-Minute Coaching Call to explore the Mastermind

Episode 103: Why Your Messaging Strategy Is Killing Sales…& How to Fix It

Episode 102: How to Create Content That Converts From Free to Paid Sales

Family eBiz Facebook Group

Homeschool Blogger Network Facebook Group

Show Notes:

Your Offer Is Fine—Your Positioning Isn't

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families who aren't making any money in their online business and growing with specific techniques, and we're talking about some of those today. We're in a series about I've got lots of free people, and I don't have any paid people, basically. That's not the actual name of the series, but that is what's going on with a lot of you.

Last week, we talked about rewriting your bio and naming the cost of not acting. I hope you have done that. If you did not hear that episode, we will put a link to that in the show notes.

But I want to just talk about something. I know that you have poured your heart into your offer, whether that's a course, a retreat, a membership, a coaching package, and it's crickets. Often, the offer is fine, but the positioning is off, so your audience can't recognize themselves. They're not… when they read that sales page, they don't see themselves, or they don't see the need for that.

Today, I want you to walk away with the offer to the right people in the right words, so they finally say, that's for me.

So let's talk about positioning, because we've talked about messaging, we've talked about different types of content, attract content, attention content, and decision content. We have links to those other two episodes that we've already done in the show notes. You can go back and listen to that.

Today, let's talk about what is positioning? When you hear the word position, what are you thinking of? Basically, this is it: How you present your offer in the mind of a specific person with a specific problem.

Too often, we're talking about everyone. I gave you that example a couple weeks ago. Well, I just… my audience is homeschoolers. Well, what kind of homeschoolers? People that can say, my audience are Charlotte Mason, literature-based homeschoolers. That's it! And I will just say that they say the tighter your niche, the more you get rich. If you are everyone, you're going to talk to no one.

So, some language that will help you fail, let's say. The examples are too advanced for beginners, they're too basic for builders or scalers in your niche. And your promise is broad, fuzzy, not specific.

Melanie Perkins pitched a very simple idea to some different investors. She wanted to create a design software anyone could use. She was rejected over and over by investors. They could not see the potential. Who needs design? We got, you know, Photoshop and all that stuff. They thought it was just a niche tool.

She stayed committed to her positioning, and eventually Canva now makes design easy for non-designers and for pros. It gives clarity, eventually, that help it explode into… Canva's a multi-billion dollar business for solopreneurs, creators worldwide.

So what is the lesson for us when we look at Canva? Your offer might be powerful, but if the specific person that it's for doesn't get it instantly, I mean, instantly, you know, they've got attention of a gnat when they're online, you're going to be ignored, just like Canva was ignored initially as well. You have got to get their attention, they've got to see it in that first sentence. Actually, the headline is really where you need to start.

So let's talk about different stages. No matter what your niche is, you've got beginners. You have builders, and you have scalers, and they're all… and it may be different words in your niche, but let's just talk about beginners, they're just starting, they're overwhelmed, they just need the basics, the templates, quick wins. I think about homeschoolers, it's their first time. They are totally overwhelmed. They don't have a clue, and they don't want to put their kids in school, but they don't want to… but they don't know what to do, and so they follow the school example.

What's a builder? A builder has some traction in whatever that niche is. They want some systems, some sort of consistency, and they want growth in that area. And it could be in business, it could be in weight loss, it could be in homeschooling.

A scaler? They are getting it, but they want to leverage what they're doing. In business, they have revenue, they have an audience, they want to leverage, and they want a team. They want higher level strategy, no matter what. Higher level strategy.

You see, each of these groups is going to hear your message differently. It will filter through. They're going to put those little lenses on. It will filter differently.

Let's take the business niche. A beginner hears, launch a podcast in 90 days. This sounds exciting, but scary. They want hand-holding. They want simple steps.

A builder hears, launch your podcast in 90 days, and they're like, cool! Alright, launched. I need monetizing. A lot of you are right there when it comes to your online business, and I get it.

A scaler hears and thinks, I need team processes, not launch help. We've already launched this product.

So you need to rethink who is your audience? You cannot talk to all of them. There's a man named Paul Green. He has an industry podcast, and he decided, I am not going to try to help every business owner. So he narrowed it down, get this, lawn care and landscape pros trying to build a sustainable business.

Now, is that specific, or what? Yes! He was very clear. He was not speaking to beginners, and he wasn't speaking to scalers, he was speaking to builders in a specific niche. People who are already mowing lawns, already doing landscape, and they need business advice.

It was perfect. His podcast was perfect. It aligned with this ideal customer. The tighter his position, it turned into a small niche, into some serious sponsorship revenue.

See, it is very dangerous as a business owner to try to help everyone. You just can't do it. When you say, this is for any woman who wants to grow a business. This is for any mom who wants to be a better parent. This is for anyone who wants to lose weight. It is so general that you talk to no one.

You have got to get specific… and I'm gonna tell you right now, when I am trying to get my message across, I actually imagine a real person. And what are their problems? I, in the homeschool niche, I still have friends, young moms right around here that are homeschooling, and I can imagine that person when I'm writing an email or a social post or creating some content to sell.

You see, trying to catch everyone forces you into just generic-type things. More confidence, more growth, more clarity. Instead of, hey, that's me!

So you have got to shift your mindset. It may not make sense, but the narrow… the more narrow that your who is, and that stage is, where they are in your business, the more your people feel seen. And the easier it is to not feel slimy. The tighter the niche, the more you get rich.

So I've got some homework for you. I want you to rewrite your offer. Go look at the headline at the top of your webpage for this, whatever it is you're selling. And I want you to begin using your audience's exact words. That's what I did when I redid my Raising Leaders, Not Followers. I actually talked on Zoom to many people. And I took their exact quotes and put them in that sales page. Use their words and put it in your headline.

I want you to rewrite your headline. That's it, one headline! Go look at your DMs, your survey responses, podcast reviews, YouTube comments, whatever.

And then I want you to think about a before and after. Instead of a 6-week program to gain confidence, I'm sorry, a 6-week program to grow your brand and income, or a 6-week, program to lose weight. You could say, start a faith-based podcast in 6 weeks, even if you're tech-challenged and scared to hit record. That is specific.

You know, that's one thing I don't shy away from in my home school. I mean, people know that I am faith-based, and if they don't like it, they can go somewhere else. That's fine. I'm gonna talk about things from my faith.

So, I want you to take 5 minutes today. I want you to rewrite your headline using exact words that your people already use to describe their problem.

And then you really do need to decide what stage are you… is your customer, not your audience, your customer, what stage are they in? Are they a beginner? Are they a builder? Are they a scaler? That's what's gonna help.

And then for the next 30 days, and I am working on this right now as far as what stage my people are. I want you to think of every piece of content that you put out. I want you to focus on that stage and that stage alone. And you can use examples, metaphors, calls to action that fit that stage only.

And then say no to trying to speak to everyone all the time, in every post, every email, every social. You're not abandoning people. You're giving your primary audience the clarity they need to say, yes, I'm ready for the next step. I'm ready to spend money.

So, your offer may be strong. The real work is making the right person see themselves in it instantly.

You know, I've got other episodes that we have in the show notes for this one that talk about clear messaging, clear positioning, and how that can turn confusion into conversion.

So let's work on this. Feel free in our Family eBiz group, or my Homeschool Blogger group, to write down, put something in there. Let's get some feedback on your headline, and let's get some help from each other.

Some of you, I know, would really like to go deeper with this. You would really like a lot more hand-holding. I don't know if you know this, but I offer 15-minute coaching calls to see if our mastermind is a good fit for you. And I will put a link in the show notes. You can sign up for a time that works well for you.

And this is all about seeing how we could help you serve you, so that you can, if you're a beginner, move to a builder. If you're a builder, we need to get you some consistent income. And let's talk about ways that we can do that through the mastermind.

Hey, thanks for spending time with me. Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

You probably think you just need more traffic to make sales, but often you don't have a traffic problem—you have a messaging strategy problem. People land on your stuff and don't instantly know if it's for them, what problem you solve, or why it matters today. 

Most creators produce tons of helpful content, but without a clear messaging strategy, it's scattered—tips here, hacks there, random encouragement everywhere—and people can't tell what you're about or why they should buy from you.

This episode shows you how to develop a messaging strategy that tightens your message so the same traffic you already have converts better.

✅What Stephanie Gass discovered when she stopped chasing social media trends and built ONE focused messaging strategy around one core problem

✅The 1 question every visitor asks when they land on your website (and how your messaging strategy should answer it in 5 seconds)

✅Why vague phrases like "helping you live your best life" sabotage your messaging strategy and kill sales silently

✅ONE simple bio framework that creates a winning messaging strategy

✅Why a strong messaging strategy includes both the benefit of acting AND the cost of staying stuck

Ready to clarify your messaging strategy and start converting traffic into sales? Rewrite your bio using the framework in this episode and put it everywhere!

Resources Mentioned: 

Family Ebiz Mastermind (15-minute call)

How to Create Content That Converts From Free to Paid Sales

Show Notes:

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family Eviz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so you can find freedom in your life to do what you're called to do.

We are actually in the middle, or just starting a series, about a problem that I have seen over and over, and not just me, but you have told me that. When I took a poll at the end of last year, it was, I am not making sales. They're not consistent sales. It's like, I have people but they're all freebie seekers.

We talked about that. Last week, we talked about your message match. We'll put a link to that podcast episode in the show notes. Today, we're talking about, you don't have a traffic problem. You have a messaging problem. And we're going to go further into that.

Because if you're a solopreneur, a content creator, a blogger, a podcaster, you probably think, I just need more traffic, more traffic!

Often, you don't have that traffic problem. You have a true messaging problem. People land on your stuff and don't instantly know if it's for them or not. They don't know what problem you solve.

Why does this even matter today? We have got to become more clear about what our message is and get that out. And I hope by the end of this episode, you'll know how to tighten up your message so you can use that same traffic and make it convert better.

You see, I believe, and I have seen this over and over, especially with some of my mastermind students, is most creators produce tons of helpful content, but it's scattered. Tips here, hacks there, random encouragement everywhere.

Is that you? Are you just sort of throwing it all out there, plastering it everywhere? You give helpful information. But you do not have a clear through line that will get people to the paid side of your business. They can't tell what you're all about, or why they should follow you, or buy from you as well.

Stephanie Glass actually had this problem. She is a faith-based podcaster. She tried everything on social media, chasing the trends, trying to be generally helpful. You know what happened? Totally exhausted and unclear messaging.

Back in 2018, she sensed God saying, start a podcast. And she listened. So what did she do? She had to start a business podcast. She niched down to help women grow a God-centered business through podcasting.

Her brand snapped into focus. One core problem, one core path. That's it. We're not trying to solve everyone's problem.

Now, I will have to be honest, her traffic did not explode overnight, but her clarity and where she was did turn her listeners in to buyers.

You know, the same thing happened to me. I used to be all about homeschooling. It was… I mean, I had everything, all different seasons of the year, all the different ways to homeschool, and everything. And I realized I was speaking to everyone, but no one.

I had to really narrow it down. And that's when I really started to focus on leadership education, and focusing on my flagship product, Raising Leaders, Not Followers. And that's what I wanted, and I still do, want to be known for. I want them to have a clear message that everything coming in is going to bring them to some aspect of leadership education.

You see, when a visitor lands on your website, they have one thing in mind. They all listen to the same radio station. WIIFM. What's in it for me?

W-I-I-F-M. Or is this for me right now?

They are not thinking, is this generally good? If they do, they're not really interested in buying.

So, here's what I want you to do. Let's start with your bio, your headline. They're going to look at your bio, your headline, your first 5 seconds of an audio, the first line of a blog post.

And think, who is this for? What problem are they trying to solve? These people are so obsessed with trying to figure out, and what… here it is, what results can I get if I keep reading, if I keep listening? Is this person for me? Is she solving my problem?

And what happens is, too often, we have very vague messaging. When we are vague, it kills our sales. We're giving lots of information, but our sales are, like, down in the dumps.

When you say things like, helping you live your best life, what does that mean? I'm encouraging women, or I'm encouraging homeschoolers. Helping small businesses to grow. Helping people lose weight.

That is so general. You're not really telling people what you actually do. Your Instagram or your podcast bio is generic. Your website headline could fit a thousand other course creators. Your episode titles do not have a clear problem or solution.

I actually looked at mine, and I don't know if this is the one that we will actually use. You don't have a traffic problem, you have a messaging problem. That tells us what the problem is, and then we're going to talk about solving it in this episode.

You know what happens when you're vague? People stop checking out your stuff. It's not because you aren't good, but because they can't see themselves and why it matters to them. They don't… like, why should I spend my… there is so much out there. I don't need to spend time with people I can't identify with.

So, again, let's start with your bio. I want you to rewrite your bio, and this is the framework.

I [Whoever] solve [Whatever the problem is] so that they can [the result].

You want to tell who you are, what you do, how you solve their problem, and what result they can expect. Here are a couple examples.

Going back to what she said, I help Christian solopreneurs create podcast-based businesses so they can quit chasing social media and build stable income.

I help [Do what?] so that.

I help busy homeschool moms raise leaders so they can relax and gain confidence to know what they are doing is the best.

I help busy moms start simple blogs so they can share their stories and earn their first $1,000 online.

Those are all more specific. So I would like you to pause and take some time to rewrite your bio.

Just write that one sentence, and then put it in your podcast descriptions, your show notes, your social media bio, your website about me page, right at the top. You need to tell people exactly who you are and how you're going to help them.

Then, the other thing I think you need to do in your messaging is talk to people about what is the cost if they don't act.

People move when they feel both the benefit of acting and a cost of staying stuck. They feel that pain point, and they see that this could help them. This is the transformation that can happen.

So try to come up with one sentence that you can add to your next post, your next email, your episode, whatever it is, that names the cost of inaction, that names the pain that people are stuck in.

Here's one. If you never clarify your message, you'll keep posting more content for fewer and fewer clicks.

Here's another one. This… I used something like this at the end of my master class on leadership. If you keep waiting to invest in your kid's education, you'll be in the same place next year and not moving forward, not giving your kids an elite education.

Here's another one. If you keep waiting to launch your podcast, you'll be in the same place next year, still with ideas in your head, instead of episodes in people's ears.

So I want you to come up with your one-sentence bio, and your one-sentence pain point, and how you're going to help them. And once you get that pain point sentence, you need to put it everywhere for the next 30 days. Something simple, fast, you don't even need tech to do this. You just write in a sentence, alright?

You really don't need more eyes. You need clearer words. Clear messages. Clarity converts the traffic you already have.

A confused mind does not buy. Let me say that again. Clarity converts the traffic you already have.

So do those things. If you got help in this message, this episode at all, would you please share this with a friend and leave us a 5-star review? That will help us get this out to more and more people. And next week, we are going to be talking about your offers, and how you can improve your offer as well.

I'm Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

If likes paid the bills, most of us would be rich by now. You're showing up consistently, people are watching, listening, subscribing—but your sales feel stuck. This isn't a motivation problem, it's a messaging and trust gap. Learning how to create content that converts means understanding the difference between attention content (tips, how-tos, inspiration) and decision content (stories of transformation, clear beliefs, and proof of why your way works).

In this episode, you’ll discover:

✅Why engagement doesn't equal trust (and trust doesn't automatically equal sales)

✅The difference between attention content and decision content that converts

✅Why some of your audience may never be your buyers & why that’s okay

✅3 questions your content that converts must answer

Ready to audit your content and create clearer calls to action? Grab the free Business Marketing Audit Workbook and Business Marketing Roadmap!

Resources Mentioned:

Business Marketing Audit Workbook

Business Marketing Roadmap

Show Notes:

What are some ways to turn your content into actual sales? I think it's really important. But let's be honest, the struggle is real. You are busy creating content, showing up consistently, but your sales feel stuck. You don't have to figure this out alone. We're going to share some ideas that will help.

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses. Today, what I am talking about is a topic that you, my audience, struggle with. You see, we are publishing this in the end of January, and in December, I took a poll. And one of the biggest challenges for a lot of you is this: You have people getting all your freebies, but no one's really buying.

And so we have to figure out, how do we do this? People are watching, but they're not buying. How do we fix that? Well, let's take a step back. Let's just think about this. Engagement does not equal trust, which does not equal sales. Sometimes the wrong people are watching you.

If likes paid the bills, most of us would be rich now, right? You get all sorts of likes on social media. You're showing up, you're being consistent, people are listening, watching, subscribing. But your sales feel stuck. You just have crickets. And you're like, what is wrong?

Let's take a step back and look at this. It's not a motivation on your part. It's a messaging and trust gap. Your message is not matching with them and their need of whatever their problem is, and they don't have any trust in you, because your messaging is mixed up.

You see, likes, listens, comments? That is attention-getting. Sales require confidence, clarity and trust. What's the difference between attention and decision content? Attention content is, that was helpful, thank you. Decision content is, I trust you so much, I'm gonna take the next step with you.

Do you see the difference between attention, getting their attention, and then them making a decision? This is really true. I don't know if y'all have heard of Beatrix Potter, but she's very famous for her illustrations with Peter Rabbit. She became a huge commercial success, but initially, her manuscript was rejected, even though everyone loved her artwork.

So what did she do? She chose to self-publish first, and that proved demand, and it proved credibility. And after she self-published, she didn't even have to go to the publishers. They were coming to her, not the other way around. So what does that have to do with you and your business?

People admired her work. That was getting attention. But publishers didn't trust the business case yet. Trust was built when she had proof, consistency and clarity, not popularity. Just like your audience may like your content, but isn't ready to buy till they see some more proof. Your audience knowing you, who you are, does not mean the same as trusting you with their money, right?

So let's dive a little deeper into attention content. Attention content are things like tips, how-tos, quick inspiration, entertaining or relatable posts. It's good. It's good information, and we can put stuff out there, and we need attention-getting content.

Decision content is stories of struggle and a solution. Clear beliefs about this situation, or this idea. And what are the boundaries? Explaining why your way works better than anyone else. And then showing what happens after someone says yes. That's that transformation. And if you're not sharing transformation, you're just putting it out there, people don't see themselves needing whatever it is you're giving.

There's a man named James Dyson. As I tell the story, you'll probably remember his name better. He created 5,126 failed prototypes before he produced a vacuum that really worked. Dyson vacuums. Early on, people did not buy because the idea was brand new and so unfamiliar, they're like, why do I need this?

So he did not sell the features of his vacuum, he sold why this method works differently, and how it can help, you know, a housewife that's staying at home and cleaning, or maybe a cleaning service. Once consumers understood the reason why behind that design, trust followed and sales skyrocketed. So, the product didn't change, the story and the explanation did.

What are you doing to sell your item? You don't need to change the product. You don't need to make new products. You need to think about how are you presenting it to your audience. See, people don't buy innovation until they understand why it matters. Your audience needs clarity in making that decision as well. You see, if your content never explains why, people are just entertained. They're not converted. So you have got to explain why they should find. And be very clear about it.

Clarity is probably one of the biggest things. Everyone just sort of throws up on someone on the page, and they can't really understand why they need this. Alright, so that's attention and decision type content. What about likes and listens? They do not signal sales.

Why? People engage with you, but they don't buy. Why? They like you, but they don't see themselves as buyers yet. They don't know what to do next, because you're not clear. They don't feel any urgency. They don't even understand what is a transformation.

The hard truth is this. Some of your audience may never be your buyers. That's okay. Let them unsubscribe. Because clarity is going to attract the right people. Be clear.

Starbucks did not go out and try to appeal to every coffee-drinking person. They focused on an experience and an identity in this coffee shop, and people paid more because of the experience, and they trusted that brand promise that Starbucks was putting out. So, when you speak to everyone, buyers don't hear themselves.

You know, I work with business owners, content creators, and I have a lot of people in the homeschool market, that's just because that's where I started. And if I ask, who's your ideal audience, or customer, let's just say customer. You know what they say? Homeschoolers. I'm like, okay, let's drill down. You've got to narrow it.

I mean, that is so broad. If you don't know specifically how you are helping homeschoolers, you're not going to make any sales. It's just too general. So, for me, y'all heard me talk about my flagship product, Raising Leaders, Not Followers. That is what I'm all about. Let's… I want people that are so overwhelmed, they're stressed out, they don't know if they're doing the right thing.

I want to bring them into my journey and show them the transformation that I had. But then plenty of other moms had, as well, when they started using leadership education. And so, I have to be very clear. I work with those type of people. You've got to get more specific than homeschoolers, or more specific than weight loss, or more specific than copywriting. You've got to get more specific, and be clear about that. So you're not speaking to everyone. Because buyers don't hear themselves. They need to identify with whatever you're saying.

Now, what is the bridge between a free offer and the paid offer? A lot of you put some great free content out there. But let me ask you this. Does your free content point them somewhere? Does it create awareness of a problem that you solve?

Let's be honest, most of you don't. You're just throwing it up, and hoping someone signs up for your email list, and you don't have a funnel. That's a whole other story, but if you don't even have an idea, your free item, I've said this so many times, has got to lead to a paid item as well.

So, your content should answer, when you are putting it out there, these three questions. Why does this matter? Why now? Why should they get it now? And why me? Why should I buy from you?

So, those are some things. Attention content versus decision content. Likes and listens don't equal sales, and you've got to have a bridge between your free to your paid.

Now, I've got some homework for you, and then I've got a resource that I think will help you. First of all, I think you need to take an audit of your content. I actually have a free business audit workbook that you can get, and we'll put that wherever you're listening to it, in the show notes.

But I want you to look at your last 10 posts, or last 10 emails, last 10 episodes, and I want you to label each one of them as one of these. Does it provide value? Does it tell a story? Hopefully a transformation story. Does it offer something?

If you have zero offers in those 10, your last 10 things, you are struggling, and that's the bottleneck. If your offers are vague, that's a bottleneck, too. So at least just audit. We're not going to go do anything, but at least audit. That's number one.

Number two, homework is this. And, I would say for each of those 10 things, put one clear call to action on all of it. Join, download, book a call with me, whatever it happens to be. One very clear call to action. Alright? Don't put 5 call-to-actions in one email. Clarity beats options. A confused mind does not buy, all right?

And if you need some help sort of thinking through as we move forward, our business marketing roadmap might be a good guide for you as well. We'll put that in the show notes as well. As a bonus, maybe you share one personal story this week, a mistake you made, a lesson learned, turning point. I've shared plenty of my mistakes. It took me a while. I had to get rid of that pride. But trust grows faster when people see there's a human behind that website.

They don't buy because they don't care. They don't buy because they're not confident yet. Your job isn't louder marketing. It is clearer leadership. It's clear content, so they know exactly what it is that they need to do.

Hey, if one thing in this episode helped you, would you please share this with another business owner? Someone that creates content, a blogger, a podcaster? I'm sure it will help them as well, especially if they're not making sales. It would mean the world to me, and also, if you would just give us a 5-star review on whatever system you're listening, that would be great. I am Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time..

Most creators try to fix their problems with tactics—content, funnels, platforms. But, your true identity always determines your daily tasks and mindset determines your outcome. This is part two of our identity series where we replace the lies you identified with truth, clarity, and focused action. What if clarity in your business doesn't start with strategy, but with hearing who you are again and what you're called to do?

Just like Sarah Blakely (Spanx) persisted as a problem solver despite rejections, Abraham Lincoln stood for 28 years before becoming president, and Colonel Sanders faced 1,000 rejections at age 65 before starting KFC, your true identity produces peace, discernment, and focused action instead of frantic effort.

✅Why discovering your true identity must happen before you build another product, write another blog post, or create another funnel

✅2 questions that replace "Why isn't this working?" and unlock clarity instead of confusion

✅What happened when a 65-year-old man with $105/month Social Security faced 1,000 rejections … & why his true identity changed everything

✅How Sarah Blakely became the youngest self-made female billionaire without entrepreneurship or fashion experience

✅Why Abraham Lincoln's 28 years of "failure" were actually preparation for his true identity as a leader

Ready to discover your true identity? Grab the Biblical Truths PDF worksheet and listen to the Living Fearless podcast by Jamie Winship!

Resources Mentioned: 

Living Fearless by Jamie Winship (book) 

Biblical Truths PDF Download (with blank worksheet) 

Jamie Winship's Living Fearless Podcast

Switch On Your Brain by Dr. Caroline Leaf 

Episode 100: The Quiet Lies Holding You Back From Success: Fix Your Business Owner Mindset 

Episode 99: How to Take a Break from Work: Why Rest Actually Improves Your Business

Show Notes:

Well, hello everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so you can have freedom to do what you're called to do. Last episode and this episode, we have been talking specifically about your calling. What is your identity in your business?

I don't mean a business identity like a sole proprietorship or your brand. I mean, who are you? And what are you called to do in your business?

You see, last week, we actually talked about identifying some of the quiet lies that you may be believing, the ones that are sort of scrolling around, those reels inside your head, like I'm behind. I miss my chance. I'm not cut out for this. Everyone else gets it but me.

Today, we get to go to the hopeful part of coming up with our identity. And then what happens after you name that lie.

And some of you are like, what does this matter? Kerry, why are you not teaching some marketing strategy, or email marketing, or social media, or whatever, funnels? Because, let me just tell you, your identity comes first. What is going on in your mind determines the outcome. It determines where you are going and what you're doing. Your identity determines, really, some of the things that you choose to do in 2026.

This is being published in January of 2026, and I thought, this is the perfect time for us to get this out there, so that you can sort of wrestle with it this month. What is my identity? Where am I being called to do?

You see, most creators try to fix their problems with tactics. Content, funnels, platforms, this, that, and the other, but identity always determines your behavior. Your mindset determines your outcome.

What if clarity in your business doesn't start with a strategy, but with hearing who you are again, and what you're being called to do, and how you could use that calling to serve your audience that you really want to serve?

You know, I will tell you that this particular episode is going to have a little bit more faith base, and yet I believe that anyone can use it. I am going to share some of my faith, that's just who I am, and I know some of you, you're like, yeah, go for it, and some of you are like, I don't know, Kerry. But I believe that the things that go on in here really do determine your business a lot of times. And for me, since I believe in Jesus Christ, I do go to the Bible.

Actually, there's a verse in the Bible, Revelation 2:17, it says, a new name is given to the one who receives it. And you see, back in the ancient Roman times, the victor was given a little white stone with their name written on it. That was part of their prize. And so it could be that that verse is referring to the name, and that is who you are, and they are the victor, and that is their identity, and I believe God's saying the same thing.

He's going to take out those lies, and He's going to give you a new name, if you will receive it, and then walk in that. So, before you build the next thing, or create the next e-book, or the next blog post or podcast, you need to know who you are and how you're building.

So let's talk about this. A lot of this information comes from a man named Jamie Winship, who has a book called Living Fearless. You'll see that in the show notes, and I really think it's important. He has affected so many people, just in a spiritual manner, but also just in relationships and all sorts of things.

Here's the deal. Too often, we are asking the wrong question, as he says. Most people are asking, why isn't this working in my business? Why am I stuck right here and not being able to make money?

He talks about an identity exchange, and you need to exchange those questions to two new questions. Again, this is faith-based, so I would go to God and say, what do you want me to know about this? God, what do you want me to do about this? Otherwise, you can just think about, what do I need to know? What do I need to do? But I go to God because that's where I get my most encouragement and the best wisdom as well.

Most all creators, content creators, are skilled, you're hardworking, you're disciplined. But you still operate in the negative. I'm late. I am replaceable. I don't really hear from God. And so we need to take a step back and see what can we hear up in our mind.

You know, there is a woman, Sarah Blakely, that I've mentioned before. She is the person who started the Spanx company, and she, before this, sold fax machines door-to-door. She really didn't have any entrepreneurship background. She had no fashion experience.

She had a problem. She's getting ready to go to an event, and she didn't have the right underclothing, and so she basically took some pantyhose and connecting them to some, what do you call those things, where they hold your stomach in and put them together.

Well, it wasn't like that was the answer to everything. She was rejected over and over by manufacturers when she thought this would solve ladies' problems. The lies she could have believed is, I'm not qualified, no one is taking me seriously. Is that how you feel?

That's just like Walt Disney from last week, and Max Lucado, they were rejected over and over and over, and yet they persevered. We will put that episode, episode 100, familyebiz.com/100. We will put that in the show notes, because if you missed it, you really need to start there.

What did Sarah do instead? She believed she was a problem solver, not an outsider trying to get in. She kept pitching her idea over and over, and eventually started Spanx, and became a billion-dollar company, and she became the youngest self-made female billionaire of all times.

Because she was persistent, and she believed in who she was really called to be, not in all the lies around her. Her success did not come from confidence in the outcome. It came from clarity in who she was. She was a problem solver, and she wanted to serve. She was a servant, and so she believed that was who she is, and she kept persisting in it, and ended up building a billion-dollar company.

You need clarity in your identity. So there's step number one.

Next, we need to take those false identities and get rid of them. There is a real danger for you to believe those false identities. Those are things that I've already mentioned. I'm behind everyone else. Well, you know, we all move at our own pace. And some people move slower and some move faster.

I have to work harder to be worthy. That is hustle. We don't need to hustle, hustle, hustle. We just need to do a good job and be consistent in our calling and in our identity.

Well, maybe you believe, if I rest, everything will fall apart. Well, that is not true. And if you go back and listen to two episodes before this, 99, familyebiz.com/99, I talk about how important it is for rest. That's how we started this year, because I took 6 days off during the Christmas holidays, and nothing fell apart. In fact, I even made sales.

So if you're thinking, I can't take a break, you need to definitely go back and listen to episode 99, because that might even give you a rest to take a rest, a break, and reset. What is my real calling? What is my identity?

Because our true identity is going to produce peace, discernment. Focused action instead of frantic effort. And a mindset that you truly can rest, and I believe you should rest, well, a little bit every day. If you're putting in 12 hours a day for this, that is way too much. But I think everyone needs a rest at least once a week. And I give you some ideas how you construct slowly with just 4 hours if you need to. So go back and listen to episode 99.

You know, there's another man that you have all heard of if you're in the United States. He was a president who, before he became president, lost multiple elections, five major elections. He lost the Illinois state legislature, the U.S. Congress, two U.S. Senate races, and a VP nomination.

In business, he failed, too. This is Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, one of our most famous presidents. You see, in 1831, before he became president, he managed a general store, but it failed due to the owner's mismanagement. He lost his job.

Did he quit? No, 2 years later, he was running his own general store with a partner, and they went bankrupt. And for years, he consistently paid off the debt. Was that a failure? No, those were lessons learned. So if something doesn't work right, you need to take those lessons and move forward as well.

You see, he also was criticized through all those losses. His first election loss was 1832. It was 28 years later, in 1860 when he became president. 28 years of failure. Not winning, and probably more business failures as well.

You know, Abraham Lincoln could have believed the lie. I'm a failure. Or the lie, I shouldn't be a leader, I shouldn't lead people, because I can't do it. Did he believe that lie? No.

He believed his role was to stand for what was right, to speak out, and to persist. To stand, speak, and persist. Long before he became president, he was writing, he was reflecting, he was refining the way he thinks. He was preparing himself to become his identity, which is a leader.

He was taking those 28 years to prepare, or God was, to prepare him. It's just like King David from last episode. He is a protector, a worshipper, and a leader. When did he learn those things? When did he become a leader?

He actually was, his identity was a king. Back when he was 10, 12, and 13, he was watching over those sheep. And killing the bears and the lions, protecting them, and writing songs, worshiping, and learning to lead the sheep as well. And yet, it was probably 20-something years later when he actually became king. He was actually on the run, running from King Saul. What a story it all is.

So, we need to realize that sometime in our smallness, or we feel small, that is our preparation. Overnight success takes years to get to.

You don't wait for success to confirm who you are. You act every day from who you are, from your identity, from your calling, and then you let the results catch up. You let the results and the outcome just happen.

So I want to talk about two identity business questions that you can tie in with the lie that you stated last week. That was your homework. So instead of saying, why isn't my audience growing? Why am I struggling financially? Let's flip it over and go, God, what do you want me to know about myself in this season? What do you want me to do next?

Not everything, just what is the next step? I have read many books by a lady named Elizabeth Elliott. Her husband was killed when they were missionaries down in Ecuador, and one of the things I learned was, she goes, you just take the next step, and that's it. And then take the next step.

For me, I want to ask the questions every morning. What do I need to know? What do I need to do today? And that's it. And take it one day at a time. That's it.

Maybe you have low number of downloads. You have slow growth in your business, and your old identity would say, I'm bad at this, and everyone else is better. Maybe don't say everyone, just say others are better at this than me. No, we're going to exchange that negative attitude and identity for the correct one.

And you need to sit, and I would take some quiet time with a journal, and just think about what comes to your mind. For me, that's God talking to me. And He may reveal, for me, you are a teacher. So I keep teaching. Maybe you're a teacher, too. That's what I do, even in the beginning, when I didn't really have much of a list, and I was not making enough sales to live off of. But I continued to do what I knew God had called me to do.

You're a steady builder. Well, again, overnight success takes years. There's a phrase of how that goes, and I couldn't remember it, but it looks like it's overnight success. Like, Max Lucado, maybe you just heard about when he got his first book deal. Well, you didn't hear the 14 rejections. He may look like an overnight success, but he isn't.

So we need to take action on our identity. And when we identify who we are, what we're called to be, your content becomes clearer, your marketing becomes calmer, you're not just pitching things in their face all the time, and your consistency increases, because you know who you are, and you know what you need to do.

There was a man, again, that you've probably all heard of. That started the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. A little bit of a tongue twister right there. But Colonel Sanders did not start as a young man. He started in his mid-60s. That makes me feel good. I'm 66, turning 67 next month!

You see, his restaurant closed when he was 50 or 60, something like that. He was living on Social Security, $105 a month. And he hit the road pitching his fried chicken recipe to all sorts of restaurants. He had hundreds of rejections. I actually read he had 1,000 rejections until he finally got a yes.

Supposedly, he had 1,099 rejections until a Salt Lake City restaurant agreed to use his recipe, and help him start a franchise. The first franchise was in 1952, and he was 65 years old. And you can read more about it, it's sort of fascinating. He floundered around in his 20s, 30s, and 40s, and 50s, and he tried to do different businesses. Can you imagine? For 30 years, he is trying to do something with this chicken recipe.

You see, in 1952, he had his first one, 8 years later. 8 years later, 1964, he had 600 franchises. You see, Sanders didn't quit after a dozen no's. He kept going through hundreds, ultimately a thousand rejections before he got a single restaurant. That's hard.

And for a lot of you, it's a side hustle. You've got an income, so that's good. I wouldn't quit your day job to start doing this. But you can continue. The biggest thing is being consistent. If you work on it once a month or every other month, probably not going to happen. If you work a little bit every week, maybe 2 or 3 evenings a week, or 2 or 3 mornings before you go to work, that can help you.

You see, Colonel Sanders couldn't believe, I'm too old, my window's closed. Instead, he believed, I'm a craftsman with something to offer. And what was the result? One of the most recognizable food brands in the world, Kentucky Fried Chicken. There's a few of them, but pretty much, people know Kentucky Fried Chicken around the world, started by a 65-year-old man. He was persistent. He did not let rejection get in the way.

So, let me just tell you, and hopefully encourage you, you are not behind. You are not too late. You are not waiting to become someone. You're learning to become who you are, and to live from what you already are, from your identity.

So here's your homework for this week. I want you to go back and look at that one lie that's showing up in your business, and if you haven't done that, that would be the first thing. Then I want you to ask the two questions. Again, I do this, I try to do this daily, but you might just want to do it weekly. Set aside 15 minutes on Monday morning, let's say.

What do you want me to know this week? What do you want me to do this week? And just pause. So, I mean, that only takes like 20 seconds for 2 or 3 minutes, and just sit in silence. And then write down the word or the phrase that you received that comes to mind.

And I have done this off and on. You know, I think at the beginning of the week, I had it written down here. I took it upstairs. Something about strength and weakness, because I was sort of feeling weak about things and what was going on, and I just thought, and that just kept coming up all day long. That I was strong through God.

So, you want to find the truth. And you don't want to believe that you're a nobody. That's just not worth it. You need to replace that with the truth.

And if you are a person of faith, I would go find a Bible verse that speaks this truth. I would write it down on an index card. I would put it somewhere that you will see it every day. Your kitchen sink, the bathroom mirror, your car dashboard, somewhere, so that you will say it out loud every single day for at least a month. And then just work on replacing those negative thoughts with truth for at least one month. 30 days can change the way we think.

I think it's Carolyn Leaf, that has a whole book about switch on your brain, and it's all about changing the way you think, and we'll put a link to her book in the show notes as well. Be another good one for you to use. So I would really encourage you to look at her book, but Living Fearless. It's all about exchanging the negative identity for who you really are called to be, and then working towards that identity.

I will also put a link to Jamie's podcast, and those are excellent, and really, listening to those earlier this week or last week made me think, oh, I need to do this with our business group. So that's what made me do it. And then also, I have a PDF download with our biblical truths, and or they're not biblical, well, they are biblical, but they're my personal truths that I wrote down one day. You can read my truths, but there's a blank page in that PDF that you can print out, and then you can actually write your own truth there, and post them somewhere in your house.

Hey, thanks for spending time with me. If you know another online business content creator, podcaster, blogger, I would truly appreciate it if you shared this episode, maybe even last episode. I really think this is where we get hung up. We're so into strategies, and strategies are important. But if we don't believe it here, you can do all the right strategies, and it's not going to work. So this is where I'm really encouraging you to work on in your head in January, and then move forward in tactics and strategies in 2026. Hey, thanks for spending time with me. I am Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

What if the biggest problem holding you back isn't strategy, traffic, or time—it's your business owner mindset and the quiet lies you believe about yourself? You show up online but second-guess every post, compare yourself to others and feel behind, or secretly think "who am I to do this?" This episode is the first of a two-part series that helps you identify the lies shaping your business decisions so you can move forward with clarity, peace, and confidence.

Just like David was a shepherd before he became king, Walt Disney was fired for "lack of imagination," and Max Lucado faced 14 rejections before publishing his first book, your early failures and smallness do not dictate your calling.

✅Why business owner mindset matters more than strategy when you're building an online business

✅What to do with lies business owners believe 

✅How false identities stop you from success, keeping you either striving to prove yourself or shrinking back and hiding

✅What David, Walt Disney, and Max Lucado teach you about how your identity forms before influence expands

Ready to identify the lies affecting your business owner mindset? Grab the Truth Worksheet and Living Fearless by Jamie Winship to start uncovering what's holding you back!

Resources Mentioned:

Living Fearless by Jamie Winship

Truth Worksheet (PDF download)

Show Notes:

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so they can find the freedom in their life to fulfill the calling where they are called to be and serve. And that's really what we're talking about this week and next week.

But let's back up just for a minute and let's talk about who this is for. If you are building a part-time business, these two episodes are for you. If you have not sort of got to the level you want, or you're just still trying to find your footing, or you're not making any money and you're wondering, what in the world am I doing?

The Quiet Lies Holding You Back

What if the biggest problem holding you back in your business isn't strategy or traffic or time? It is the quiet lies you believe up here. The lies you believe about yourself.

You show up online, but you second-guess every post. You compare yourselves to others and feel behind. Haha, that's me sometimes.

You secretly think, who am I to do this? Well, today we're going to look at a few examples, actually 3 examples. We're going to name the kind of lies that business owners believe, and we're going to walk away with a simple exercise to start uncovering them.

In our next episode, we're going to take those lies and we're talking about replacing them with truth and a simple exercise for you to get past those lies and move forward in your business. A lot of this comes from a book that I have read called Living Fearless by Jamie Winship, and it's all about finding our real identity.

A lot of what he has to say is maybe more in a personal way, but I think there is so much truth in what he says that we can apply this as business owners as well.

Common Lies Business Owners Believe

So let's talk about business. You're refreshing the analytics and you are feeling discouraged. You're creating content, but you're wondering if it even matters.

Or maybe you're starting projects, but you stop halfway, you're a little afraid to pull that trigger. You know, this is common and you're not alone.

You're thinking, I'm not consistent enough to succeed. I know a lot of y'all struggle with consistency, but we can overcome that.

Other people are more qualified than me. That's probably true. There are a lot of qualified people, there are a lot more than I am.

But we can overcome that too. That is a lie that you are believing. If I were really called to this, it would be a lot easier.

Oh, no, it wouldn't. Even the successful people have to work hard at it at times.

You see, why do lies matter so much in your own business? Lies shape the way you do many things, what you launch, or you avoid launching at all. Again, you're afraid to pull that little trigger, you're just not sure what's going to happen.

You're not really sure about how to price your offers, and so you just don't do anything whatsoever. Or maybe you're not sure about being bold and showing up, so you just hide and you sort of go through the motions, but you don't really do anything.

You see, there is a framework that Jamie Winship teaches that I think can apply to you. These false identities, these lies that you're believing about yourself in your business, keep you striving and trying to prove yourself or shrinking back.

It just depends on the kind of person, how that affects you. And I still deal with this, you know, I still wonder why, why. But I've learned some ways that I can overcome that, because what happens is, when you start speaking the truth to yourself, you bring clarity to your mind, so you can make wise decisions in your business.

You will find peace within yourself and then be able to move forward, and I think it gives you confidence to be able to act well.

David: Identity Formed in Obscurity

We're gonna look first at a person in the Bible, historical figure. They're all historical figures. Y'all know I'm a person of faith, and so I really like this guy, he's a king, and yet when he was 10 and 13 years old, he was sitting out in the fields watching sheep.

Who would have ever thought he was a king? But you see, his identity, his calling was to eventually become the king of Israel. His name is David.

He was a shepherd. He was unseen, unimpressive, and overlooked by even his dad. His dad overlooked him.

He had no audience to be a king, no title as king, and no public affirmation. You may feel the same way. You may think, I don't really have an audience, I don't really have a public place to do all of this.

Let's listen to his story and see how it plays out. You see, his identity was formed in obscurity, maybe in a small list that you have, you're forming what you need to be successful.

He was called to be a king, and that means he was a leader. He was a worshipper, and he was a protector. He was a protector of sheep from lions and bears, eventually of the men that followed him.

He was a worshipper. He wrote songs out in the fields. No one heard these songs, and eventually he wrote some of the most famous songs in the Bible.

As a leader, he learned responsibility long before he had any recognition. Maybe you are mom and dad, and God is preparing you for those kinds of things in the future, and He's using those skills to prepare you for business.

Or maybe you have a small business. You have a small list, you're like, huh? That is preparing you for your calling and identity in a successful online business.

You see, a small audience season matters. God forms identity before He expands your influence.

Now, David didn't become confident or king after his success. You see, his success revealed who he already was. Who are you right now?

That's what we want to get to. Who are you as a business owner? I know for me, I am a networker, I am an encourager, I'm an educator.

And so those are 3 things that I know in my business I can do well, and then be able to affect the people and hopefully come up with success like that. Who are you, and who are you called to be in your business?

Walt Disney: Fired for Lack of Imagination

Let's look at two current examples. The first one, Walt Disney. Did you know he was fired from the newspaper for lack of imagination?

You know, the people that work at Disneyland are called Imagineers, I think, something like that. They said he didn't have imagination.

His first animation studio went bankrupt. He could have just believed the lie, I'm not creative enough, that's what they told me.

But his identity was, and continued to be, he was a creator, a storyteller, and a visionary. So he stayed aligned with who he believed he was, that storyteller, that visionary, and then look at what's happening.

There's many things he affected, but let's just take a look at Disney movies. Look at the beginning of those movies with a little black and white. Mickey Mouse did not look like that, and they've continued to improve their movies, but very creatively.

And Disneyland, probably one of the first amusement parks ever. I think it probably was. Maybe there were some things in Coney Island or something like that, but he changed the way it all operated.

He started his businesses and really believed in the people that worked for him, and the people that worked for him, he gave them the ability and the leadership to get his customers happy all the time. Did you know they have an allowance that if they see a crying kid, they can go talk to them, go into a store and actually pick out whatever item might help that kid get over his attack or whatever it is as well.

How does this play out for you as a business owner? You see, your early failures or your smallness do not dictate your calling. Walt Disney learned that. He walked in that, even during the time periods when he was not doing well.

Max Lucado: 14 Rejections Before Success

Another person I love is author Max Lucado. You may or may not be familiar with him. He's an American author and pastor.

He has literally reached millions upon millions of readers around the world. He has a great heartfelt storytelling as well, maybe a little bit like Walt Disney, and practical insights that can encourage you in your own life.

But that is not how he started. He pursued writing when he was a missionary in Brazil. He was a pastor down there, he had no platform, no publishing deal, or guarantee of success.

But while he was down there, he would spend his evenings working on manuscripts. He took those early newsletters, those early manuscripts, and mailed them to publishers. Like, paper in a paper envelope, mailed them to publishers.

And you know what? You think, oh, yeah, of course, he got a great deal. No, his first attempt resulted in rejection after rejection after rejection, keep going.

14 times he was rejected. They said no before he ever got a yes, and on the 15th submission, Tyndale House Publishers agreed to publish his first work called On the Anvil. It was released in 1985, and it was a milestone that began a remarkable writing career.

You see, let's take a look at what happened to Max Lucado. Some really good points that you should be applying to your own business.

Persistence despite rejection. He had to go through 14 no's, didn't stop him. You know, when I was in a network marketing business, they kept saying, count your no's instead of your yeses.

It takes sometimes 7, 8, 9 no's, and then you get a yes for $300 or $400. Same with Max Lucado. He simply kept believing his voice mattered, and that was his calling. He believed in his calling, he believed in his identity.

Since his first book was published in 1985, he is one of the most widely published and read authors. Let me say, he's written over 40 adult nonfiction books. This is since 1985.

What is that, 30, 40 years ago, yeah, 40 years ago. He's written dozens of children's books. I have some, and I've read some to my kids and grandkids, devotionals, gift books, Bible studies, over 150 million products are in print, books and devotionals, and translated into dozens of languages around the world.

A global reach. Some of his works still remain on the bestseller list, and he's won multiple industry awards.

What does this say? He did not wait until he had a platform to write. He just kept writing.

That's what I encourage you to do. If you're a blogger, if you're a podcaster, keep producing, keep publishing.

Max Lucado kept producing content while serving in a ministry and taking care of his family. So he did it as a part-time business. That's how you can get started.

And he didn't let rejection define him. He knew his calling, and he persevered to go down the path he felt like he was calling.

His story reminds us that identity, that is who you are before any success, matters more than whatever analytics, metrics, or platform you're looking at.

How to Name the Lies

So how can business owners talk about the lies? How can we name the lies? You've got to name them, and naming them is clarifying.

But let's talk about what is a lie in a business world. It is something like, this always happens, or I never get any sales, or I never this, or I always that, or everyone else gets invited to do this.

That is a lie because it's not true. Lies are accusing who you are inside, they mess with your head, they add shame to you, so you're dealing with shame on top of that lie, and they are very vague and very heavy, sort of pull you down.

What about truths? We need to contrast that with truths, and we're going to talk all about truths next week. But truth is specific.

It is clarifying, not condemning you. It will lead to action, not paralysis. We're gonna talk more about that.

So what sentence do you repeat in your head about something at work? What is it that you are believing? Leave a comment wherever you're listening to this.

What label do you quietly place on yourself or on your business as well? I want you to take a step back. I want you to take a deep breath, seriously, even if you're driving, you can take a deep breath and just say, what lie am I believing about myself as a business owner, content creator, a podcaster, or a blogger?

And if you're a person of faith, ask God what it is. He'll show you. He already knows what it is.

And I would really encourage you to be honest with yourself and write it down. Writing it down is not agreeing that's true. It is exposing it out there, and we can get rid of that thing.

We'll talk next week about replacing our lies with truth and identity. So your homework from now until the next episode is to write down any lie that you are believing about your business and about you and your business.

It might be one or two, it might be three or four. Next week, we'll only choose one, because you just need to start with one. You don't want to get too overwhelmed.

But think about that. And the other thing I would really encourage you to do is grab the book, Living Fearless, by Jamie Winship. The link will be in the notes.

And then I have a truth, it's my truths, but have a little PDF that you can use. It's the things that I have said to myself to replace the lies in my head, but it also comes with a blank worksheet for you to write down the truth, so we will really use that next week, but you can go ahead and grab that and download that as well.

Thank you so much for spending time with me. If any of this resonates with you, would you please share it with one coworker, another person that's in the business world, another blogger or podcaster or content creator? That would mean the world to me.

Hey, thanks so much. I am Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

When was the last time you took a real break from work—like nothing for business, zero work for six whole days? Learning how to take a break from work isn't about losing money or sacrificing growth, it's about protecting your capacity to provide for your family and build your business. This episode shares why rest actually improves your creativity, clarity, relationships, and decision-making.

Henry Ford discovered that shortening the work week to 40 hours increased productivity (not decreased it). Winston Churchill took strategic naps during World War II to have more clarity in his decision making. Rest is essential for better business performance.

• Why learning how to take a break from work improves problem-solving, creativity, and reduces decision fatigue
• 9 scientific benefits of taking a weekly rest day from work
• How to take a break from work one day a week (or start with 4 hours and build up)
• 5 Practical tips to take a break as a busy mom or dad
• Why rested brains make better decisions and rested hearts show up better for family and customers

Ready to protect your rest time? Start small this week—even 4 hours counts as learning how to take a break from work!

Recommended Resources

REST - Take a 1 day break from work every week. You deserve it and you'll have more clarity in your business.

Online marketing has changed forever, and people won't buy from you unless they trust you. Trust marketing is no longer about persuasion—it's about relationship. This episode looks forward to 2026 and the new type of marketing that builds brands people will follow, trust, and buy from repeatedly.

Just like Mr. Rogers built trust through predictability, gentleness, and emotional safety, you can create consistent emotional stability (not hype) that makes your audience feel safe.

✅Why trust marketing matters more than ever in 2026

✅How to share your process, not just your products 

✅3 Step Consistency Formula

✅How to make your marketing human & build trust

✅Your assignment: Choose one trust-building habit to implement in 2026

Ready to build trust with your audience? Grab the Business Marketing Roadmap to plan your monthly offers and content for 2026!

Resources Mentioned:

Business Audit Workbook 

Business Marketing Roadmap

5X Method: Turn 1 Podcast into 5 Money-Making Assets

Show Notes:

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so they can find freedom in their life and do the things that they want to do.

We are finishing up 2025 when this publishes. It will be the last week of December. Think about what you've gone through, look at where you started your year, and then see the growth, hopefully, that your business has made, because we need to be able to share that and see that.

Sometimes we get so down in the trenches that we don't really see the big picture or see the growth that's been going on. So I really want you to think about that, looking back on 2025.

But today, we're going to look forward to 2026 and a new type of marketing that I really believe in. I think online marketing has changed forever.

We need to enter into the world of trust marketing. You know, people buy from someone they know, they like, and they trust. That trust factor is really low right now.

I mean, it could be the economy, it could just be the world and all that's going on, and we don't really need to worry about all the reasons. We need to realize that people aren't gonna buy from us unless they trust us.

So I believe what I want to do today is talk about how you could build a brand that people will follow, they will trust, and buy from repeatedly. It's no longer, marketing is no longer about persuasion. It's about relationship.

Think about Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. You know, he built trust through three things: through predictability, through gentleness, and through emotional safety.

You see, his audience followed him for generations. I mean, I still remember as a kid watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and my kids watching it as well.

We followed him not because of fancy graphics or big budgets, but because he made us feel safe. How do you make your audience feel?

Are you just cramming things down their throat to buy all the time? Or are you building a relationship? It makes me feel really good, because I have some homeschool moms, they're like, oh, when you send an email, Kerry, I read it. I don't read all of my other ones, but I know that you're going to send me something of value.

And I hope that would be true. I had another Mastermind member say, oh, Kerry, your podcast, I'm listening to, this is a Mastermind member who has a successful business and is growing that, and she says, I listen to your podcast every single time. It is so good.

Those are, that means I am building a relationship with people that do know me, they like me, and they trust me. So trust is created through consistent emotional stability, not hype.

If all you're doing is sending offers all the time, that's not going to build trust. And today, I want to talk about 3 ways that you could build trust with your people.

The first one is share your process, not just your products. Now, you do need to share your products. I know a lot of you aren't making any money because people don't even know you have something to sell.

But on the other hand, some people are just product, product, product. That's all I want to do is make sales.

People need to see your process, so here are a few things you could do. Maybe show behind the scenes what's going on. You know, I have taken some pictures of my, when I'm trying to organize my house or clean up the homeschool room or whatever, and it's a disaster.

And I can post those and talk about that, and then my audience can relate to it because their house isn't very clean either. So show things behind the scenes of whatever your niche is.

Share what you're learning. You know, I am learning along with you. I'm always learning something new, and I'm trying to implement that.

In fact, yesterday I was teaching a private Facebook ads group coaching, and we were all going through a course together. And I was sort of honest. I mean, like, I had lots of leads.

From those ads, I was paying like 70 cents a lead, which is really cheap. Most of them are like $2 a lead, but I was paying that, but I wasn't getting the conversions, the sales conversions. I probably could have kept buying ads and, you know, maybe gotten a thousand people on my list.

But that wasn't the whole reason I was running the ads. I wanted to make money, and I wasn't converting as well.

I'm sharing that with you right now. It's a little scary to share something like that, because you see, that ad worked in years past. It was not working this past fall.

And so we need to be honest. Things don't always work right, you know? I tell my homeschool moms, you know what, my kids did not always like homeschooling.

If you're watching or listening to someone that says, oh, my kids love it all the time, that's not true. I just can't imagine that.

So be honest, share what you're learning, and let people see your imperfect humanity, which goes along with sharing some of the mistakes that you make. You can always take those mistakes and twist them around and turn them into a positive as well, or the mistake you made and how you fixed it.

I did that with my Christmas product. I have a bundle, and I talk about crying on the freeway from one Christmas celebration to the next because I put too much stress on myself. And we found a solution, and I share that solution.

Share your process, not just your products. Creators who build in public grow deeper loyalty because people trust what they can actually see, what they can witness.

Number two, show up consistently. If you're not showing up in their inbox at least once a week, I would think that would be a goal in 2026.

I have some people that are like, oh, I only want to send them an email once a month. Well, they're not going to remember who you are.

So weekly email or maybe a bi-weekly if you're there, but get to where by the end of next year you're sending an email. And with AI, it's pretty easy to do it, and if you want some help on doing that, I have a course called the 5X Method, where you can take one podcast and turn it into five money-making assets, and I'll put the link to that in the show notes as well.

So weekly or bi-weekly podcast or content, maybe it's a blog or a podcast, however you get your content out. For me, a podcast is just easier.

So it's weekly email, weekly or bi-weekly blog or podcast, and then a monthly offer. Every month, you need to be making an offer.

I had a girl that's part of my homeschool blogger university, and she came to co-working. We do a once-a-month co-working session, and she was working, this was a month ago, on her 2026 marketing calendar. She says, I'm not always organized.

I need to already know what product am I going to sell each month. So that's important. If you need help with that, I have a free resource called Business Marketing Roadmap.

And you can break things down into months, and it'll give you the different things that you need to prepare for. I don't know if you've heard of Seth Godin.

He has blogged daily for decades. That is over 7,000 days, 7,000 blog posts. You see, his trust isn't built on the perfect blog. It is built on consistency.

How will you be consistent in 2026? Consistency signals reliability, and reliability will build trust in your readers, your followers.

So show them the process and then show up consistently. And then number 3 for us today is make your marketing human.

We have so much automation, it doesn't come off like it's a real person. When you write an email, you ought to be imagining one person like you're writing an email to just that one person.

So what are some ways that you can become human again in your marketing? Tell personal stories. I try to include a personal story in all my emails, even if it's just, hey, I was taking care of my grandkids last week and whatever happened.

Or I have some pictures. Sometimes my two older grand girls like to sew, and so we'll do a sewing project, and I'll put a picture of that in the email. It's nothing, really, it's just I become a human to them.

So tell personal stories, use real conversations. Don't just write as if you're writing to a periodical journal. Lean into being authentic.

Authenticity will build trust. Vulnerability will build trust. Sharing some of, it took me a while, I don't know how many of y'all know my story, but my husband left 9 years ago, and I walked in shame.

I thought the whole world knew me. It took me 4 years before I would share my story, and the first time I shared it was in El Salvador with some of my lady, the moms down there.

That's hard. But you know what? When I've shared that story online, especially with my homeschool moms, pretty much I always have some of them reach out to me afterwards that are struggling in their marriage.

Now, I'm just, y'all know I'm a person of faith. I pray for Steve every single day and believe that we will be reunited someday. And so that's my story, and yet I think God uses that story.

I also share stories of business, so I'm giving you my homeschool mom, Christian group, that kind of story. In business, when I share something that flops, you know, I have had webinars with goose eggs, zero sales, and that's embarrassing.

And yet I learn from those mistakes, and I can move forward. And now I can do things that work. And one thing I'm learning is trust is going to be more important in what I do.

All starting now, I've already been doing some of this, because this last part of making myself more human is sending personal DMs, personal emails, voice notes, whatever.

You see, about a month or two ago, I was recruiting for Family eBiz Mastermind, and I wanted to get, I had a few groups that had some slots open, and I wanted to open that up. And I actually wrote some personal emails to some people that had been on my list for a while, and I mentioned their specific business in it.

And I had one of them I sent, and the very next day she had signed up and said, thank you, your personal email really made me think this is what I need to do, where I need to be. Wow.

That made me realize we have got to build trust, and some of that is being very personal to them. So realize that small creators, when you use genuine personal communication, you often will outsell these huge influencers who just rely on cold automation, because you are building trust.

So what do you need to do? Share your process, not just your product. Show up consistently. And then make your marketing human.

Those are just things you should consider. I would encourage you, this is the last week of December, choose one trust-building habit that you will implement in 2026.

Maybe it is weekly email. Maybe you're not there, but you're going to say by the end of the year I will be sending out weekly emails by the fall.

Maybe it's I'm going to be more personal in my storytelling. And stories sell, by the way, that's a whole other topic, but stories sell. It's how you make them feel.

And really, personal stories can make them feel safe, and they will trust you. Or maybe you're going to show more behind-the-scenes content.

Weekly email, personal storytelling, more behind-the-scenes content, or I am going to plan one monthly offer that serves my audience deeply. It's something I know will help them. I'm not just doing it to try to make some money, although we do need to make money.

This is a business, it's not a hobby. So trust marketing, that's where it's gonna be. That's where it is now.

And it'll be exciting to see how y'all grow that trust factor. So please, if there's a place where you can leave a comment, let me know which one of these things you plan to do in 2026.

I am Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

Goal setting doesn't work unless you take time to reflect on what happened in 2025. Learning how to set business goals that actually happen means looking back at what worked, what didn't, and where you're making the most money—then creating a quarterly system that keeps you focused all year long. By the second week of January, most people have forgotten their goals, but this episode gives you a different approach.

Just like General Dwight D. Eisenhower used his matrix to manage World War II logistics and presidential duties, your business needs the same level of clarity to prioritize what's important over what's just urgent.

✅Learning how to set business goals requires reflection before planning (what worked, what drained you, what brought ROI)

✅3 categories of goals every business needs

✅How to break your year into 90-day sprints with weekly focus tasks

✅Why reviewing strategies quarterly (not yearly) helps you detect successes and failures early

✅Exact planning system using a paper calendar and quarterly reviews that keeps you aligned

Ready to plan your 2026? 

Grab the Free Business Audit Workbook to walk through every section of your business and set goals that stick!

Resources Mentioned:

Business Audit Workbook 

Business Marketing Roadmap

Show Notes:

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so they can find freedom in their life to do what they're called to do.

We are finishing out the year 2025, and last week we talked about data-driven decisions. You don't just guess, you've got to look at your data, and I encourage you to look at that weekly. Not for 2 or 3 hours, but just a quick check-in every week, even just a 15-minute check-in, and to put it on your calendar.

Today, we're going to talk about a 2026 game plan and how we can set some goals that are real goals, not just, you know, sometimes we make goals and then by the second week of January, we forgot what they were. So some goals, and then next week, we are talking about what type of marketing to use in 2026, so I can't wait to share this with you.

Let's talk about your 2026 game plan. How do we set business goals that actually happen?

You see, goal setting doesn't really work unless you take some time to reflect. And I would really encourage you, in the next week or two, to find some time that maybe you can be by yourself, and you can reflect on what has happened in 2025.

I'm going to talk about that in just a minute. But if you don't reflect on what happened in the past, you are just guessing about what you're going to do in 2026.

You know, General Dwight D. Eisenhower developed something called the Eisenhower Matrix. It's a very simple system, it's a square, and you've got urgent and important.

And different things go in different blocks, I'm not going to go explaining it. But the whole idea is, where are you spending your time?

When you are planning and when you're walking through, are you just doing what's urgent, that just pops up all the time? Are you doing things with intention, purpose, the important tasks that you need to do? Because sometimes it's real easy to just go check email.

Well, sometimes that isn't really helping. I would really encourage you that every day you do at least one business-building task. It might be to send an email out to collaborate with someone.

It might be to get some emails written that you're going to send out about a brand new product, but every day, you should do one. Some of these tasks are gonna take 5 minutes, so I'm not saying 2 hours every day, but do something that will grow your business every day.

That is important. That is not urgent. That is important, and sometimes the important things get put on the bottom of the pile.

So Eisenhower used this thinking to manage his World War II logistics and later his presidential duties. He didn't try to do everything, he prioritized everything. Your business needs the same level of clarity.

So let's take a look back at 2025. Again, I would go to the coffee shop, I would get away from your house, from your normal routine, take your laptop so you can look at things, and if you have a planner that you use, you might take that so you can go and look back at what you did.

And take a little audit of 2025. I actually have a resource for you that's about taking a business audit. It's completely free, and we will put that in the show notes for you, and it goes through all the different sections of your business so that you can plan well.

In fact, I will be going through that myself, because I think it's about time that I get ready to go. So what do you want to ask yourself? What worked? What didn't work?

You know, and I will say this, I have learned that some of the things that I love to share with people, I mean, products, they're not really selling that well this year, and I'm having to back out. I've done less webinars, because not that the webinars didn't work, but the products that were connected to it are the ones that people are looking for.

So I had to do some reflection about what was working and what didn't. What drains you?

And if you can get someone to help you do that and pass it off, then all that's great, you know? So whatever is draining you, that thing that you just don't want to do, but you know you need to do. What brought the most return on your investment?

Where are you making the most money? For me, in the homeschool, it's my two events. That is where it's at, and then my flagship product, Raising Leaders, Not Followers.

And so I realized that last December, and I sort of pulled out of some stuff that wasn't really making me money. It was just stuff that was busy work.

What felt aligned in your business with you, and what felt out of line. You can sort of think about that and think through these things, and that's just a quick overview. You can use the business audit to help you dig even deeper, but get by yourself and think about these things and make some wise decisions.

If you give yourself some time to think through it, then you have time to be able to plan and be organized. You know, it is said that businesses that review their strategies every 3 months, so moving into 2026, you're going to make these decisions now for January, and at the end of every quarter, review each one of those.

Now, I've talked about weekly stats, but I'm talking about sort of the big picture. Those weekly stats are the day-to-day things that you need to pay attention to.

But if you look at the whole overall picture of Q1, you will be able to detect successes and failures early, and you can stay aligned and remain agile without waiting till the end of the year. You may be waiting till the end of the year this year, but in 2026, you're not going to.

So this allows you to pivot quickly, both those weekly stats, and then we're going to look at the goals and look at those from a quarterly perspective as well. You see, it's not guesswork, it's a system, and we're going to help you get that system up.

So here are some different categories of goals. You would have revenue goals, visibility goals, and system goals.

What are revenue goals? How much money do you want to make? What percentage of growth do you want this year over last year? Those are revenue.

Visibility. This would be podcast growth, the collaborations and what's working and not, SEO, ads. How are you getting yourself out there? And you have a goal for that.

And then system goals. This is what's our automation system, what templates do I use, what workflows do I use. Every major company, from Apple to Disney, run a formal annual planning cycle.

They know the direction before they start walking. Do you know what direction you're going to be going in 2026 before you even get started?

I've already been thinking through some of these things, and I am making some changes, and where I spend my time is going to be different based on what happened in 2025 and based on where I see marketing going in the future as well. So we need to plan, we need to have goals as well.

Let's talk about 2026. You know, you're not going to necessarily have a public planning time because you're a solopreneur. But you can plan as well.

So weekly, you're going to look at those stats, the engagement and the email opt-ins and the revenue. And then every quarter, we want to look at the goal that you set, and we're going to talk about those in a second.

And that will break your year into 90-day plans, 90 days for each quarter. You can take your big annual goals and then chop them into 90-day sprints. Break those sprints into weekly focus tasks.

Here is how I did this. I like online calendars, and I like paper and pencil, but this was January. Yes, I spilled something here.

Look at all that different stuff I've got. These were even notes about what I wanted to do for the whole year. And every month, I've got these things in here.

There are things that I do every month. On the last Friday of every month, I send an email out for a collaboration that I'm a part of. I can go through right now and pencil all those things in.

I know the dates of my events. I can put those in here. And if I am collaborating with someone, I know those.

But everything that I know right now about 2026, I put on this calendar. And then, let's just go to December. That's what I've been working on.

So then each quarter, I can plan my podcast, I can plan the content, what kind of emails I'm going to write now. And in this Sunday column right there, those are my Family eBiz podcast topics. And then, I don't know if it's in Monday or Tuesday, those are my homeschool, because I publish my Family podcasts, my eBiz podcasts on Mondays, and I publish the homeschool one on Tuesdays.

So that helps me have everything in here. If someone wants to send a sponsor an email, I can look at this calendar and go, oh, I can't do it on that day because I've already committed myself, or, you know, we've got a promotion.

I can launch my flagship product three times a year. I can put that in there. And I do put in, November's sort of crazy, but there's a collaboration that I was a part of.

And then all these different things, if I have appointments with people, my mastermind meetings, everything is on this page. And I keep it in this lovely manila folder. Yes, I am really old school, 2025.

And I just keep it there. It goes in my backpack when I go to take care of my grandkids.

But that is what helps keep me going. I do have another calendar, one of those big dry erase four months calendar, and I keep that right there, because it's color-coded, it's easy for me to see sometimes the big picture of what's going on.

So at the end of every quarter, so this is the end of fourth quarter, you need to be reviewing what just happened and look back at quarter one of January, February, March. What happened then? What worked? What didn't work? And begin to plan for each one of your quarters.

I also have Business Marketing Roadmap, and that is really broken down. I think there's a page in there for monthly.

So you can fill in stuff, but it also has a quarterly page as well, and you can get organized with that and print one out for each quarter. Maybe put it in with your little paper annual calendar.

So then each quarter, I would break down my annual goals. So I would encourage you, you want what is your visibility goal, revenue goal, and a systems goal.

For me, last year, because I haven't set my goals for 2026, I shouldn't. Visibility goal, I was increasing my ads.

Which meant I needed to make more money so I could have an ad budget. And so that was my goal, was to increase my visibility through meta ads.

Revenue goal, I had an amount of money that I wanted to make this year, but then I also broke it down into, like, my different things. How many Raising Leaders did I want to sell this year? How much money did I want to bring in for each of these events?

And sort of look at it from there, so I can have an overall number, but where is it going to come from? And that's what I've worked on.

And then a systems goal. I don't know that I really had a systems goal last year, but I would say automation, just getting some things. Like, one of my goals for this year is funnels.

I have, I teach funnels, I've got some good funnels, but I've got some lead magnets that just sort of sit there. And they don't really take my people on a customer journey to where they can actually buy some products. I'm working a little bit better on that as well.

So set those up, big picture, and then quarter one. What are you going to do in quarter one to meet that goal?

And then at end of quarter one, you can look and say, this worked, this didn't work, and then you will review for quarter two as well, at the end of March. And then you can go through the year as well.

I would love to hear how you plan your 2026. If you are listening to this and you can leave a comment, please leave a comment, let me know what you're thinking. That would be so helpful to me.

And please share this with just one friend, one, maybe a person that you collaborate with as well, a networking opportunity. That would mean the world to me.

Hey, I am Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

Your follower count doesn't pay your bills—conversions do. Stop guessing at what's working in your business and start tracking the marketing metrics that actually matter. This episode wraps up our series on systems by showing you how data-driven decisions (not feelings or spaghetti marketing) help you scale faster and find more freedom.

Just like Sam Walton transformed Walmart in the 1980s by tracking store data daily instead of monthly, you need your own version of hard numbers that show what's actually working in your business.

✅4 marketing metrics that show real growth 

✅Why vanity metrics like follower counts and page views don't indicate success

✅How to create a 2026 dashboard you check weekly (not yearly or quarterly)

✅What Sam Walton knew about fixing mistakes quickly & doubling down on what works

✅3 categories to track weekly

Ready to stop guessing and start scaling? Create your 2026 marketing metrics dashboard this week—it only takes 30 minutes!

Resources Mentioned:

Business Audit Workbook 

Show Notes:

Hi everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so they can find freedom in their life to do what they're called to do.

Today, we're continuing a series on systems and ending up the year and being ready for 2026. Yes, this is December, if you're listening to this later, but December. I want to talk to you about something that a lot of, well, I will say even my students do not take this seriously.

They guess at what's going on in their business. You need to stop guessing, and you need to find the marketing metrics that actually matter.

Let me tell you, your follower count on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok does not pay your bills. Conversions pay your bills.

So we need to not worry about some metrics and be sure we're worrying and paying attention to the important ones. Decisions that are based on data will help you scale that business and find more freedom in your life. Not feelings, not guesses, not throwing spaghetti marketing on the wall and hoping something happens.

You see, back in the 1980s, Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, transformed the data that they were taking in on all the different stores. He began tracking every store's data daily, not monthly.

Now, why would you do it daily? Well, one, he is measuring daily, and if there's a mistake, you can quickly fix it. His competitors were guessing about what was selling.

And so you need to also pay attention. Now, I'm not saying you need to get in and track all your data every single day. We're not a huge retailer, largest retailer in the whole world.

You see, Sam Walton built a system that helped them grow exponentially to where they are the largest retailer in the world. So you need your own version of data, store data. Not guesses, what seems to be working, but hard numbers that show what is working.

This really hit home with me. Once I started running meta ads, I realized I better know my numbers, or I'm going to be losing some money. And I will say this, when I am running ads, I check them every day.

It is something I'm not going to lose money because I'm just guessing at what is going on. I want to know how many people are clicking on there, how many leads am I getting, how many sales am I getting from those ads. I have to know that, or again, it's just throwing ad money on the wall and hoping something sticks.

Let's talk about some different tactics that you can use. You need to track the metrics that show real growth.

What are those metrics? Alright, if you're multitasking, come back here, get a piece of paper, write this down. If you're driving, don't write.

Number one, email opt-ins. This is an indicator of whether you have an audience that's interested in your topic. So you want to see that people are continually opting in.

I was reading something by Josh Coffey, who I follow with ads, and he said your number one job as a business owner is getting new customers every single day. You should be getting email opt-ins every single day, and if not, you need to go back and see what's the problem. Why am I not?

So you need to pay attention to your opt-ins. Now, once they get on your list, the next metric is their engagement.

Number two, list engagement. What's your open rate? What's your click-through rate? Now, that is going to be different from niche to niche or business to business, but if your open rate is less than 10%, that is a problem.

They're not really interested, or you need to warm up your list. Click-through rates, usually I say 1-2% is a good click-through rate. For me, personally, on the open rate, I get an open rate of about, it depends on the email, 30 to 45%, but I was happy a lot at 15-25% when I was working on engagement.

Number three, your conversion rate. What percentage of your subscribers are actually buying something from you? If you're not making sales, you need to go back and rethink your money-making process. What are your strategies to make money?

Number four, what is your revenue per subscriber? That is something that I am going to be working on tracking in 2026. This is the most accurate health metric of your business. How much money are you making for every single one of the subscribers?

You see, you could have a small list and you can still be making money. Back in the day, when YouTube was just starting out, a lot of those people, the small YouTubers, were making money, more than the big YouTubers.

What was happening? See, the smaller ones had high engagement. It wasn't the size of their audience that drove revenue, it was their engagement.

And so you need to go back and look at these. You're looking at your email opt-ins, your list engagement, your conversion percentages, and then how much money are you making for each subscriber that you have. Look at those things and realize that better engagement is going to be bigger numbers, all right?

Number one, you need to track the metrics that matter. Number two, ignore vanity metrics. Ignore them.

What do I mean by that? These are numbers that don't indicate success. They just make you feel good.

Oh, look, how many Instagram likes I got. Look at how many followers I have. Look at how many page views I have, but I don't have any conversions.

Those, you may have a whole lot of high numbers, but if you're not making money off of it, it doesn't really matter. You see, many, go back to the YouTubers, many creators with small but loyal audiences were earning more than all those big creators.

The smaller creators focused on depth, going deep with each person, rather than wide in an inch thick and a mile wide. They wanted to build a relationship so when they had new content, people were just dying to buy whatever it was. So ignore the vanity metrics, pay attention to the metrics that matter.

Number three, create a 2026 dashboard. Commit that every week you will look at these metrics.

Sometimes it's probably only going to take 15 minutes, and if things are growing, that's all you need, you just need to keep doing it. If you're not growing, then you're going to need to go into each one of these and see what you could do to change them.

What should be on that lovely 2026 metric dashboard? What's your traffic like? And that includes different things.

Like, I was in Google Analytics this morning and looking at a brand new blog post that I put out last month about Advent Candles in order, and it was part of a collaboration. I had over, I've had over 2,000 views on that thing.

Now, that's really nice, the vanity metrics. But how many buyers have we gotten from that? And I can track that because I have a lead magnet, and I go to that lead magnet and see how many buyers I got from that.

So, number one, what's your traffic like? Number two, email sign-ups. Number three, conversion rates.

Number four, what's your revenue per offer? If you're running an offer right now, how much money are you bringing in? And then, what is your revenue per subscriber?

You're wanting to look at these metrics and pay attention to them. Again, you don't have to do it every day, but I would really encourage you to just pencil in 30 minutes a week.

You see, businesses that track weekly dashboards, not yearly, that's really nice, or not even quarterly, by the time you've gotten to the end of the quarter, you've had 2 or 3 months of mistakes that you could have fixed. You see, if they are tracking weekly, you're going to scale much faster.

You can correct the mistakes quickly and double down on what works. Think of it like Sam Walton's store-by-store data, daily. Think about it for your content, okay?

He's looking at inventory and sales, and you're looking at content and sales. So I would encourage you to choose these are 3 just general metrics. Again, traffic metric, email metric, and revenue metric.

Those are the three major ones. And make yourself a Google Doc, or whatever doc you like, and just have a doc for every month, and on that doc, you can do the weekly, and write all your numbers in, and track them, and just see how you're doing.

I would love to hear how you're putting this into practice, and if this is helpful to you, would you just share our podcast with one person, one small business owner, content creator, blogger, or podcaster? That would mean the world to me.

Hey, I am Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

If your list only grows when you post, you don't have a system—you have a hobby. Learning how to grow your email list automatically means your business works for you even when you're offline, on vacation, or sleeping. This episode continues our series on automation and systems with 3 specific tactics that turn your email list into a 24/7 growth machine.

Just like Charles Spurgeon multiplied his reach with preaching booklets that circulated without him in the 1800s, your lead magnet should share your message and grow your list while you're babysitting grandkids or baking cookies.

✅Why how to grow your email list matters for expanding your impact and serving more people

✅The high-demand lead magnet strategy that converts better than 12 mediocre freebies

✅How to create a 24/7 welcome tour that nurtures and sells automatically

✅Where to add entry points everywhere so your list grows without you posting

✅Your assignment: Choose 1 lead magnet and create one new entry point today

Ready to grow your list on autopilot? Grab the 25 Lead Magnet Ideas freebie and the Business Marketing Audit to analyze your email system!

Recommended Resources

How to Get Your Next 1000 Subscribers - on sale this week - SAVE 50% with code: NEXT1000

25 Lead Magnet Ideas

Business Marketing Audit

Show Notes:

Well, hello everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family Ebiz, where we help families start online businesses to find freedom in their life, to do the things that are important to them. Today, we're talking about one of my favorite topics, emails.

Some people are a little afraid. If you follow me for any length of time in homeschooling or in family ebiz, you know I send a lot of emails at times. We're going to talk about your email growth game plan, how to grow your list while you sleep, or how to grow your list while you're on vacation.

You see, if your list only grows when you post, you don't have a system, you have a hobby. It is all dependent on you, and you just sort of dabble in it.

You need to get to the point of a system. We're in the middle of a series on automation and systems, and so you need a system.

But why does that matter? And why does list growth matter? One, you will have more of an impact to serve your audience, to help the people that need your help.

Charles Spurgeon is a theologian back in the 1800s. He began publishing preaching booklets that circulated without him. For years, he was multiplying his reach long after writing them, long after he was alive, because he is still having an impact on people based on those preaching booklets.

And so he would preach, and he would leave them wherever he was, wherever he would go and preach at churches, and he could leave a stack of those, and people could get those afterwards. And basically, that's what you need to be doing with your email list.

Y'all probably heard me say it a gazillion times, if you have a good lead magnet that you can offer for free, just like Spurgeon was offering these preaching booklets. Now, he wasn't trying to make money off of that, he was trying to change people's lives, but a good lead magnet works the same way. It shares your message when you're offline.

You know, it's nice to be able... I'm leaving in 2 days to go babysit for 5 days. Now, I will work some, but not like I would at home, because I gotta go drop them off at school, and pick them up, and do this, that, and the other, and so we'll be doing some things, and baking cookies, and all sorts of things, but I won't have as much time.

Will my list still be growing? I surely hope so. Because I have lead magnets out there that work for me even when I'm not online.

So I want to share today 3 tactics that you can use to grow your email list while you sleep. The first one is to create or find your high-demand lead magnet.

What does this look like? First of all, it needs to solve a problem that your audience has. It doesn't solve it like your paid products, but it needs to solve a problem.

This could be a checklist, it could be templates, it could be cheat sheets, it could be printables. Whatever your audience consumes the best. It could be a video, it could be an audio, whatever they consume.

You see, bloggers who use one high-converting freebie, they will grow faster than someone has just 12 mediocre ones. And some of you are like, oh, I gotta get a new lead magnet for this, and a new lead magnet for that. No!

You just need a few lead magnets that convert, meaning people will actually sign up for your free item. If they're not signing up for your free item, then that is not a high-converting freebie. You need to keep stats on that.

We're going to talk about that, I think, next week is our data-driven podcast episode. So, it's really important. If you need ideas on this, I have got a lead magnet for you, believe it or not - 25 lead magnet ideas. And we will be putting the link to it in the show notes, wherever you are listening to this.

So, number one, tactic number one, create a simple, high-converting lead magnet.

Tactic number two. 24-7 welcome tour. Welcome to my world.

Let me make you feel at home. And it's all automatic. For me, with AWeber, it's been called campaigns, now it's called Workflows.

You can see what your email service provider does, I don't know what they call it, but it's something, so when they sign up for that lead magnet, they're going to get a series of emails. And what is in that email funnel?

You need to welcome them. Make sure they got the item that they were asking for. Maybe tell a story, maybe a quick win, and then a soft pitch.

You don't do all of that in one email. You're going to space them out. I highly recommend sending one email a day for 4 or 5 days, something like that, because then they get used to opening your email.

And you want them to get to know you, to like you, and trust you. So you welcome them, and you relate to whatever their problem is. Then you might tell them a story in your niche, and some value content there.

And then a quick win, something they could do that day that they could get a quick win, and then some sort of soft pitch to something that's a paid item. You see, Gillian Perkins has her own business, and her business continued to grow through maternity leave. Why?

Her funnel welcomed, nurtured, and sold automatically. Are you doing that? Most of you will have a welcome, but do you have anything for sale on that welcome?

So, you need a 24-7 welcome tour. That's an email funnel.

Lead magnet, welcome series, and then tactic number 3, add entry points everywhere. What do I mean by entry points? How will people find this lead magnet and sign up, and your list grows, and then you can sell to them?

Well, hopefully everything you put out needs a job, whether it's a blog post, a podcast, no matter what. It needs a call to action. I call it a job, and that's what you're trying to get people for.

So, on your website, you could have your lead magnet there. And blog posts are great places. I mean, every blog post, I think, needs a lead magnet sign up.

It may also have a for sale something, but every blog post and every podcast in the show notes, if you have a podcast, that is another place, that's another entry point. Your social bios are another place on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, wherever. You can offer a lead magnet there.

Pinterest, great place. And not just in your bio, but you can be pinning images of that lead magnet so that it gets out there even more.

You see, a content creator, or an online business that adds 7 opt-in touchpoints to their blog can double your monthly subscription, possibly, in 60 days. But you've got to get it out there. You can't grow a business if you don't get it out there.

So, add entry points everywhere, and those are just a few. You might think of some other places as well.

So, tactic number one, you need a high-converting, simple lead magnet. Tactic number two, 24-7 welcome tour, email funnel. And tactic number 3, add entry points everywhere.

Now, here's what I want you to do. I want you this week to choose one lead magnet and create one entry point today. If you already have a lead magnet, choose your best one that gets the most traffic, and add it one new place.

You know, a few weeks ago, we talked about 10-minute activities. This is a 10-minute activity. You go find, and you could do it in more than one entry point.

Maybe in 10 minutes, you can add it 3 places, I don't know, but put something out there and get that lead magnet, growing your email list so you can eventually grow your sales as well. And like I said, I have my 25 lead magnet ideas, and you're welcome to sign up for that. I also have a business marketing audit, and there's an email section on your email system, and so you can go to that section, and there's several questions that you could answer, and that will help you as well.

We'll put links to the show notes. If you really want to dive into growing your email, and where you're going to get your next 1,000 subscribers, I do have a course, and it's called How to Get Your Next 1,000 Subscribers with Free Methods. So, everything in there, all the strategies, you're not going to buy ads for it, is what I mean.

Now, ads are going to grow your list faster, but you don't have to buy anything. Everything in that course is a free strategy. And if you want to this week, you can use the code NEXT1000, and you can get it for 50% off.

So, that might be something that would be helpful to you. Hey, thanks for spending time with me. It would mean the world to me if you share this with someone that is trying to grow their email list.

Hey, I'm Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

December is going to prove whether your business has systems or not. When life gets busy, things fall through the cracks unless you know how to automate your business. This episode continues our series on systems and automations with three specific strategies that will save your sanity in 2026.

Just like McDonald's built their empire on the Speedy Service System in the 1940s, your business needs repeatable systems that anyone can follow—systems that run WITH you and WITHOUT you.

✅3 methods on how to automate your business onboarding so it feels personal 

✅Why launch kits save you from recreating assets every single time you promote your products

✅The exact content workflows for batching emails, podcasts, and social media

✅How to use templates in Canva and standardized processes like newsrooms do

✅Your assignment: Pick 1 system this week, outline it, and build it so it runs on autopilot

Ready to simplify and scale? 

Grab the Business Marketing Audit—half of it focuses on analyzing your systems for 2026!

Recommended Resources:

5X Method: Turn 1 Podcast into 5 Money-Making Assets in 5 Minutes

SAVE $10 with code NOV10

Business Marketing Audit

Business Marketing Roadmap

Show Notes:

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family Ebiz, where we help families start online businesses so they can find the freedom in their life and do the things they're called to do. For me, that's going to see my grandkids, or going on vacation, and then also being able to volunteer at church and help with kids.

There's all sorts of things I've been able to find freedom. One thing about freedom, during this semester, we just finished last week, I don't work on Wednesdays sometimes till 3 o'clock. And so, I have the freedom to be able to go to church, minister to ladies, minister to the kids, all sorts of things.

That's what I want for you. So hopefully these podcast episodes are helping you get your business online. And today, we are going to talk about freedom.

Time Freedom Formula: How You Can Work Less and Earn More in 2026

We're starting a series, and I really want you to take this time to really prepare for 2026. If you're waiting till January 1st, that is way too late. You should have already been thinking about it, to be honest.

What I see from a lot of people, including some of my Mastermind members and Homeschool Blogger University businesses is they're working non-stop, but revenue doesn't grow. What you need, you don't need more hours. What you need are repeatable systems.

Systems that put things on automation. And that's what this series is all about over the next 3 or 4 weeks.

Systems Give You Freedom

Systems are what gives you the freedom to be able to do things, and things are going on autopilot. If you think about the production of a car, back in the golden age of car building, they would do it just everyone was working on one car. Well, Henry Ford completely changed that and created an assembly line.

Ford didn't work faster or harder. He built a system that worked for him and without him. In the 1920s, auto production skyrocketed because of a standardized workflow.

You need many assembly lines in your business. An email mini assembly line, a social assembly line, a content creation assembly line. You need a system, and each one of them needs to be a lot of it on autopilot.

Do you have that? If not, this episode is for you. And if you're multitasking, come back to me, because I've got 3 tactics that I think can help you put things on autopilot, and put things on repeatable systems.

Tactic One: Identify the Tasks You Should Never Do Daily

The first tactic isn't a system, but I want to tell you, you need to identify the tasks that you should never do daily. You should never do these every single day that you're working.

Formatting your content every day. Scheduling for Pinterest every day. If you're scheduling, why are you doing it every day?

Email tagging, or social tagging. Uploading podcast episodes every day. Those are just a few.

How do you choose these tactics? I've got 3 things you need to look at. Number one, is it repeatable? And is it repeated in your business? If so, those are the ones you need to start with.

Is it low thinking? To where you don't need someone to interpret information or data. And is it a high time cost? In other words, it's a time suck.

Is it repeated? Low thinking? High time cost? If it is, you need a system for it.

I don't know if you've ever read the book, The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss, but he automated his inbox and his customer responses to it, and that saved him tons of time. It freed him to grow his profits rather than push buttons. An email inbox is a great way, great place for you to maybe get started.

It is a time suck for me, and some days I don't even look at email. Isn't that terrible? So, number one, you need to not do tasks that are repeated, that are low thinking and high time costs. And those are ones you need to get on a system.

Tactic Two: Use Automation Tools as Your Digital Employees

Number two, use automation tools as your digital employees. What do I mean? You might use ConvertKit automations, or your email service provider.

I use AWeber automations. I don't send an email for every lead magnet that someone picks up. I don't send an email for everything that someone's bought.

Those are all on automations, whatever your email service provider calls them. You might use Zapier, so that maybe they take an action on your webpage, and Zapier is going to automate. It's going to add them to a list, or whatever.

Let's go back to email service providers, automation. I haven't figured it out, I don't use it, but AWeber actually allows you, if they click on things on your webpage, it can actually start an automation for you. So there's something I know I need to do, I just haven't done it.

Canva templates. Are you creating a new Pinterest image, or a new blog post image, or a new Instagram, whatever. If you're doing it all the time from scratch, stop.

You need templates. I just sat down today. I had 5 blog posts, I think, that I needed to make a vertical pin image and a square pin, because we're in the middle of 30 days.

I had my pin images. Those are the ones I want to look really good, because I get Pinterest traffic from it, and that's one of my high traffic senders.

I have a project. And it's got like 5 or 6 templates, and for each one of them, I can just whip it out. Now, I actually, I got stuck on one of them, and I was reviewing keywords, so I didn't do it, but I could get all 5 of those pins and squares in 30 minutes.

And then it's done, and I am done till sometime in December. Otherwise, I would have spent 2 or 3 hours, 30 minutes on each. Use your templates.

That has saved me time, especially during my own 30 days of thanks, and I create an image, square, and pin for every single one of them. Well, what's the moral of this story? Digital employees don't sleep.

They don't burn out, and they don't ask for vacation. Those automations are working for you 24-7.

So, you need to think of one repeatable task that you need to automate before December 1. That's tactic number two.

Tactic Three: Use AI to Save Time

Tactic number three is, it made me think of this with digital employees, AI. Now, AI is not gonna replace you. You need low-thinking things for AI to do.

But I have started creating my podcast episodes, my outlines, with AI. I tell it what I want to do, the content, and it pops it out, and it actually gives me some of these historical stories, like the Tim Ferriss story and the Henry Ford. That was from AI.

I didn't have to go researching all of that. And so that is a system. I have a prompt that I already have.

I can fill in the title of what I'm going to talk about, the content, and it pops everything in for me in an outline form, which is I prefer speaking from bullets and outlines. You may not. But it's a prompt that's already made, and it has saved me hours and hours of prep time.

For these episodes that I do here and in the Homeschool Coffee Break as well.

It's similar to what I call my 5X method. My 5X method is I record one time, like I'm doing right now. I take that transcript and give it to AI.

And AI gives me 5 titles, it gives me descriptions, and social, and blogs, and everything. Gives me 5 different pieces of content. That's pretty cool.

And I know some of you already have the 5X method, because it came out this past summer, and some of you grabbed it then.

What You Need to Do This Week

So, what do you need to do this week? You need to pick one repetitive task and automate it before December. This is coming out, I think, November 23rd or 24th, so take out Thanksgiving a few days, you've got about 10 days that you could work on this and automate it.

Get it automated, and start saving yourself some time.

If you need help looking at your systems, I have my business marketing audit, and the second half of it is systems, and you can go in there, and that might help you get some ideas on what do I need to automate? What's working, what's not working.

And you can get that, there'll be a link in the show notes as well. Or some of you want to just dive deep, 5X method into AI, you can get that as well, and I'll have a link to the show notes. In fact, in November, you can get it for $10 off.

Isn't that a cool thing? Just use the code NOV10, and you will get $10 off.

Let's Review

So, let's review for a minute. You need to identify the tasks you need to quit doing every day. Quit doing, if it's repeated, low thinking, high time costs. Quit it.

Number two, automate. You need to put things on system. Automation tools are your digital employees.

And number three, AI. Use AI, get it on a system, and start using it over and over again. It'll be on a system. And AI will save you time, depending on what type of content you need to promote.

Hey, thanks for spending time with me. Would you please leave us a 5-star review? That would mean the world to me. And be sure to subscribe to our channel as well. I'm Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.. We'll talk to you next time.

Working nonstop but revenue isn't growing? You don't need more hours—you need repeatable systems that give you time freedom. This episode kicks off a series designed to help you prepare for 2026 by automating the tasks that are stealing your time and freedom.

Just like Henry Ford revolutionized car production with assembly lines, you need mini assembly lines in your business—for email, social media, and content creation—that work on autopilot.

✅Why time freedom comes from systems, not more hours of work

✅3 criteria for identifying tasks you should never do daily 

✅How to use automation tools as your digital employees that work 24/7

✅Why AI can save you hours on content creation without replacing your unique voice

✅1 repeatable task you need to automate before December 1st

Ready to build your systems? 

Grab the Business Marketing Audit to identify what needs to be automated in your business!

Recommended Resources

5X Method: Turn 1 Podcast into 5 Money-Making Assets in 5 Minutes

SAVE $10 with code NOV10

Business Marketing Audit

Show Notes:

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family Ebiz, where we help families start online businesses so they can find the freedom in their life and do the things they're called to do. For me, that's going to see my grandkids, or going on vacation, and then also being able to volunteer at church and help with kids.

There's all sorts of things I've been able to find freedom. One thing about freedom, during this semester, we just finished last week, I don't work on Wednesdays sometimes till 3 o'clock. And so, I have the freedom to be able to go to church, minister to ladies, minister to the kids, all sorts of things.

That's what I want for you. So hopefully these podcast episodes are helping you get your business online. And today, we are going to talk about freedom.

Time Freedom Formula: How You Can Work Less and Earn More in 2026

We're starting a series, and I really want you to take this time to really prepare for 2026. If you're waiting till January 1st, that is way too late. You should have already been thinking about it, to be honest.

What I see from a lot of people, including some of my Mastermind members and Homeschool Blogger University businesses is they're working non-stop, but revenue doesn't grow. What you need, you don't need more hours. What you need are repeatable systems.

Systems that put things on automation. And that's what this series is all about over the next 3 or 4 weeks.

Systems Give You Freedom

Systems are what gives you the freedom to be able to do things, and things are going on autopilot. If you think about the production of a car, back in the golden age of car building, they would do it just everyone was working on one car. Well, Henry Ford completely changed that and created an assembly line.

Ford didn't work faster or harder. He built a system that worked for him and without him. In the 1920s, auto production skyrocketed because of a standardized workflow.

You need many assembly lines in your business. An email mini assembly line, a social assembly line, a content creation assembly line. You need a system, and each one of them needs to be a lot of it on autopilot.

Do you have that? If not, this episode is for you.

Tactic One: Identify the Tasks You Should Never Do Daily

You should never do these every single day that you're working. Formatting your content every day. Scheduling for Pinterest every day. If you're scheduling, why are you doing it every day?

Email tagging, or social tagging. Uploading podcast episodes every day. Those are just a few.

How do you choose these tactics? I've got 3 things you need to look at. Number one, is it repeatable? And is it repeated in your business? If so, those are the ones you need to start with.

Is it low thinking? To where you don't need someone to interpret information or data. And is it a high time cost? In other words, it's a time suck.

Is it repeated? Low thinking? High time cost? If it is, you need a system for it.

I don't know if you've ever read the book, The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss, but he automated his inbox and his customer responses to it, and that saved him tons of time. It freed him to grow his profits rather than push buttons. An email inbox is a great way, great place for you to maybe get started.

It is a time suck for me, and some days I don't even look at email. Isn't that terrible?

Tactic Two: Use Automation Tools as Your Digital Employees

What do I mean? You might use ConvertKit automations, or your email service provider. I use AWeber automations.

I don't send an email for every lead magnet that someone picks up. I don't send an email for everything that someone's bought. Those are all on automations, whatever your email service provider calls them.

You might use Zapier, so that maybe they take an action on your webpage, and Zapier is going to automate. It's going to add them to a list, or whatever.

Let's go back to email service providers, automation. I haven't figured it out, I don't use it, but AWeber actually allows you, if they click on things on your webpage, it can actually start an automation for you. So there's something I know I need to do, I just haven't done it.

Canva templates. Are you creating a new Pinterest image, or a new blog post image, or a new Instagram, whatever. If you're doing it all the time from scratch, stop.

You need templates. I just sat down today. I had 5 blog posts, I think, that I needed to make a vertical pin image and a square pin, because we're in the middle of 30 days.

I have a project. And it's got like 5 or 6 templates, and for each one of them, I can just whip it out. Now, I actually, I got stuck on one of them, and I was reviewing keywords, so I didn't do it, but I could get all 5 of those pins and squares in 30 minutes.

And then it's done, and I am done till sometime in December. Otherwise, I would have spent 2 or 3 hours, 30 minutes on each. Use your templates.

That has saved me time, especially during my own 30 days of thanks, and I create an image, square, and pin for every single one of them. Well, what's the moral of this story? Digital employees don't sleep.

They don't burn out, and they don't ask for vacation. Those automations are working for you 24-7.

So, you need to think of one repeatable task that you need to automate before December 1.

Tactic Three: Use AI to Save Time

AI is not gonna replace you. You need low-thinking things for AI to do.

But I have started creating my podcast episodes, my outlines, with AI. I tell it what I want to do, the content, and it pops it out, and it actually gives me some of these historical stories, like the Tim Ferriss story and the Henry Ford. That was from AI.

I didn't have to go researching all of that. And so that is a system. I have a prompt that I already have.

I can fill in the title of what I'm going to talk about, the content, and it pops everything in for me in an outline form, which is I prefer speaking from bullets and outlines. You may not. But it's a prompt that's already made, and it has saved me hours and hours of prep time.

For these episodes that I do here and in the Homeschool Coffee Break as well.

It's similar to what I call my 5X method. My 5X method is I record one time, like I'm doing right now. I take that transcript and give it to AI.

And AI gives me 5 titles, it gives me descriptions, and social, and blogs, and everything. Gives me 5 different pieces of content. That's pretty cool.

And I know some of you already have the 5X method, because it came out this past summer, and some of you grabbed it then.

What You Need to Do This Week

You need to pick one repetitive task and automate it before December. This is coming out November 23rd or 24th, so take out Thanksgiving a few days, you've got about 10 days that you could work on this and automate it.

Get it automated, and start saving yourself some time.

If you need help looking at your systems, I have my business marketing audit, and the second half of it is systems, and you can go in there, and that might help you get some ideas on what do I need to automate? What's working, what's not working.

And you can get that, there'll be a link in the show notes as well. Or some of you want to just dive deep, 5X method into AI, you can get that as well, and I'll have a link to the show notes. In fact, in November, you can get it for $10 off.

Isn't that a cool thing? Just use the code NOV10, and you will get $10 off.

Let's Review

You need to identify the tasks you need to quit doing every day. Quit doing, if it's repeated, low thinking, high time costs. Quit it.

Number two, automate. You need to put things on system. Automation tools are your digital employees.

And number three, AI. Use AI, get it on a system, and start using it over and over again. It'll be on a system. And AI will save you time, depending on what type of content you need to promote.

Hey, thanks for spending time with me. Would you please leave us a 5-star review? That would mean the world to me. And be sure to subscribe to our channel as well. I'm Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

Big results don't start big—they start small and consistent. Business visibility isn't built through one viral moment, it's created through repeated, compounding actions that take just minutes each day. If you're juggling a family, working full-time, or homeschooling while building your business, this episode is your roadmap to getting visible without the overwhelm.

In this episode, we're breaking down five 10-minute daily habits that build your business visibility like a snowball rolling downhill—starting small but gaining unstoppable momentum.

• Why consistency beats intensity every single time when building business visibility
• The visibility snowball effect and how it applies to your marketing
• 5 simple habits you can do in 10 minutes that compound into massive reach over time
• How Julia Child and Crystal Payne built visibility through small, faithful actions (not viral moments)
• Which single habit to commit to from now until the end of the year for maximum impact

Ready to build your visibility momentum? 

Grab the Scrappy Marketing Checklist mentioned in this episode to get more details on these visibility-building strategies!

SAVE 60% off Email Marketing Secrets with code: NOV60

SHOW NOTES

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family Ebiz, where we help you start online businesses and find the freedom in your life to do what you're called to do.

We are talking today about something that I know if you're a solopreneur, sometimes you struggle, or maybe this is a side hustle. We are talking about small steps that build momentum, and you could even call this the visibility snowball.

Because I think it's important that we realize people don't just make some big splash in the world one time, and then they just keep going. No, it is like a snowball. You know, you start to roll a snowball, you're gonna make a snowman, it just starts with a teeny tiny, you just grab some, and you roll it around in the grass, and you're getting a little bit more every time.

You see, big results in your business don't start big. They start by rolling something tiny over and over again.

Visibility, that's what we're talking about today. Visibility rarely comes from one viral moment. It comes from repeated compounding actions, and I'm going to talk about 5 things, 5 different habits that you could build, and each one of these are things you could do in 10 minutes a day.

Before we do that, I want to talk about some examples. James Clear, I don't know if you've read the book Atomic Habits, but he talks about how it is important to just improve 1% daily. You don't want to improve 50% and then stop and do nothing.

It's like, you know, people that pin everything on Pinterest for a week, and then they wait 3 months. That's not going to help you. It is better to have tiny actions that are consistent. Those are going to make massive impact in your business.

So, 10 minutes a day isn't impressive at first, but a few months later, you're going to look down the road and go, I'm suddenly visible, even though nothing seemed to be happening in the beginning. It was nothing super sudden, it just happened.

So, if you are dealing with raising a family, if you're juggling a business, maybe you're working full-time and trying to do this, you're working in the margins, some of you are homeschooling. This is the path you need to take. Being a little bit consistent, even 10 minutes a day, can get you further than spend all day Saturday working and then wait 3 months.

Google doesn't even know what you're doing and what you're about if you're inconsistent.

You know, I think about someone else, Julia Child, I like to cook. I have two of her cookbooks sitting right over there. She did not become an overnight success. In fact, it took her 10 years to become an overnight success.

She spent years writing letters, testing recipes, teaching tiny cooking classes, and publishing small newsletters. Her tiny visibility habits created a loyal audience before she ever had a TV show or a hit cookbook as well.

What is our lesson for us? Don't underestimate small, consistent touches with your audience. And I personally believe you should be writing them at least once a week.

In fact, earlier this month, I was teaching a class to my mastermind members, and I gave them a three-sentence template, so that you just fill in the blanks with your niche and whatever it is you want to teach, and it's a quick little email that you could send.

Another person that we got to know in the beginning is Crystal Payne. She is the money-saving mom. In fact, I bought rights to one of her e-books about daughters growing up to have their online business, and I will find a link to that for some of you that might be interested.

You see, again, she started simple. Daily tips, consistently posting. No big viral moment, just steady, faithful publishing. And 10 years later, she has millions of readers, best-selling books, and a best-selling podcast as well.

Her strategy wasn't intensity, it was consistency. So think about this, it's not intensity, it is consistency. It is a visibility snowball.

And so most online businesses, content creators, they stop, they start, they stop, they start, and the algorithms don't even know how to categorize them. Consistency, it builds trust.

People are going to buy from someone that they know, like, and trust. It builds SEO authority, or even Pinterest authority. Repetition. It builds repetition, and people need multiple touches before they buy. It said that they need at least 7 touches before they buy something from you.

Are you emailing enough? Are you reaching out to your audience enough? Seven times is a lot. Now, that means 7 times in one week, although with a launch, you might want to do that, but consistency every day, over weeks and over months as well.

And then visibility is going to compound, and you'll get invited to podcasts. Your list grows, your audience returns automatically, and your content works for you, even when you're offline.

So, I told you I had 5 10-minute visibility habits. I'm going to go through each one of these, and at the end, I want you to think about which one are you going to do from now until the end of the year?

This is publishing middle of November. That gives you about 6 or 7 weeks for you to be consistent over the next till the end of the year. And then, you're starting 2026 off on the right track.

Habit Number One: Refresh One Old Piece of Content

Update a blog post, and I'm going to tell you, it's super simple. I am doing this for a few of my Thanksgiving blog posts, and here's how I'm doing it. I'm taking it, I'm giving it to ChatGPT, giving it some prompts, and then I've got a new blog post. It's already in my voice.

Add a pin, add some internal and external links, and a call to action. Why does this work? Google loves fresh content, and small updates can revive SEO fast.

I do this also in June. I participate in a homeschool 10-day blog post. We produce 10 days of blog posts. That's a lot. And so what I do is I choose a topic that I already have blog posts, and then I freshen those up, maybe with some new examples or something. Fresh images, those types of things.

So, number one, refresh an old piece of content.

Habit Number Two: Engage in Three Places Your Audience Already Hangs Out

Maybe comment on a Facebook group thread, a post in your niche, podcast guest reel, just content somewhere, 3 different places. You can take 10 minutes and just put a timer on when you're doing this.

You have to see, engagement boosts your reach much faster than just posting new content. The algorithms like engagement because they know that you're helping people. Many creators get more traffic from a thoughtful comment than a new post, so think about that.

Just take 10 minutes and engage with your audience wherever they are.

Habit Number Three: Send a Short, Value Email to Your List

Just one tip, one tool, one story. Why does this work? Because it keeps you on top of their mind. It keeps you on top of mind. It builds authority, it drives traffic without creating new content.

And, you know, I do have, for those of you that don't know, have an email writing secrets book, and it is on sale this week for 50% off, so you can get that. And that may give you some tips as well to improve your email writing, your emails that you send out.

And like I said, with our mastermind this month, their template was a three-sentence template. A three-sentence email, you can do this.

Habit Number Four: Repurpose an Old Idea into a New Medium

What do I mean? Take one blog tip and turn it into a reel. Turn it into a pin, a quote card, a short email, just take one thing you've already written, one tip, and then turn it into something else and post it.

Visibility multiplies with more work. So, you take that one idea, and then you're going to recreate it every day for a week, let's say, in different places, and then do it again the next week.

So, repurpose one old idea into a new medium, a new platform.

Habit Number Five: Pitch Yourself for One Micro-Opportunity

What do I mean? Maybe go try to be a guest on another blog. I know tomorrow, the day I'm taping this, tomorrow I have a post going out on Kelly Warner's blog, and so I will get exposure to her audience. Maybe be a guest on a podcast.

Do some sort of collaboration, a roundup of posts. Small pitches can build long-term visibility and return on investment. One, yes, could bring traffic for years. I know that I still get commissions from people that I put something out a long time ago, and so that's pretty cool as well.

So, let's go over these, and I want you to think about what is it that you are going to do. You're going to pick one habit, and you're going to do it every day, or maybe every weekday, till the end of the year.

Number one, refresh one piece of old content. Two, engage in three places where your audience already is. Number three, send a short value email to your list. Now, you may not want to send a short email every single day, but you could work on that and go ahead and schedule them out so that you're getting one at least once a week.

Number four, habit number four, repurpose one old idea into a new medium, and then number five, pitch yourself for one micro opportunity.

You see, visibility doesn't require massive action, just consistent action. So, which one?

If you take 10 minutes a day for the next 30 to 60 days, your visibility snowball will be rolling by 2026.

So, I also, if you want more details on any of these, they're not all lined up the same, but I have a scrappy marketing checklist, and I go into more details on some of these. Not all of them, but some of them. So we'll put links to that in the show notes.

Ready to build your visibility momentum? Grab the Scrappy Marketing Checklist for more visibility-building strategies!

SAVE 60% off Email Marketing Secrets with code: NOV60

Imagine waking up on January 1st feeling ready, not worried. Picture yourself actually enjoying Christmas with your family instead of frantically planning what to post next. That's exactly what happens when you create a promotional plan before the holiday chaos begins.

In this episode, we're breaking down how to plan your business for 2025 so you can have the freedom to be fully present with your loved ones this December.

In this episode, you'll discover:

✅Why planning your promotional plan now means you won't miss the magic of the holidays

✅How to map out your Q1 calendar with monthly promotions, email sequences, and content

✅The budget planning process that aligns your revenue goals with your actual launches

✅What to include in your annual promotional calendar (launches, events, seasonal content, and family time)

✅How time blocking and ideal week planning help you work smarter, not harder

Ready to plan your way to a peaceful holiday season? Grab the Business Marketing Roadmap to get started!

Recommended Resources

Marketing Strategies & Overall Planning: Side Hustle in a Weekend

Boost!

45+ Email Templates - Get Q1 emails scheduled

Want to make money while you're celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas with family?

This episode from the archives originally focused on vacation campaigns, but the strategies work perfectly for the holiday season when you're out of town. Instead of losing momentum during the busiest travel season of the year, you can set up an automated system that keeps your business running and generating revenue.

In this episode, you'll discover:

✅Why every entrepreneur needs a holiday campaign during November and December

✅How to choose profit-producing offers that sell while you're away

✅The secret to staying top-of-mind without checking email on your phone

✅Smart ways to use free content strategically during your time off

✅How to create urgency and scarcity so people buy now (not in January)

Ready to enjoy the holidays guilt-free while your business works for you? Grab the Holiday / Vacation Campaign Tool Kit—it's easy to adapt for your holiday campaign and includes everything you need to set up your automated system before you leave town.

SAVE $110 with code: SMOOTHIE - Good through Friday, November7.

Click here to get your Vacation (Holiday) Campaign Tool Kit

Show Notes:

How to Flip on a Money-Making Holiday Campaign While You're Celebrating

Well, hello everyone. Kerry Beck here with familyebiz.com and today we are talking about how to flip on a money-making campaign while you're celebrating the holidays, which I thought was very appropriate to record here at the beach, right? That's where a lot of us want to go during Thanksgiving and Christmas. We all love the holidays and we want that freedom, but too often we get so bogged down in our daily work that we never really take time off during November and December.

So what I want to talk to you today about is how you can make money while you're celebrating the holidays. Whether that's a week or whether that is, I don't know, a month or two, you can just decide whatever that looks like for you.

You know, most of us are a team of one. Some of us have a virtual assistant or a few people that are helping us but we do not live in corporate land. We do not have vacation days. And so we want to think and go outside that thought that there is no way to earn money unless I am working day to day all the time.

Now I will tell you I just want to bust through that thinking. It does take planning and I believe that you can come back from your holiday to money in your account. That's what it's all about. The freedom for us to have a business that we want.

For me, the freedom is for me like this last weekend when I'm recording this. We had cousin camp and I barely worked on Friday and I am catching up today. But I did not even turn my phone on to look at social media. I was so focused on our grandkids and I wanted to focus on them.

I wanted to have that a good experience. I wanted to grow that relationship with the people that are most important in my life. I wanted to help my girls be able to have a time with just their husbands, some time and some freedom as well. This is what I call a freedom business.

Do you have a freedom business? Are you dreaming of that freedom business? If you are, you are in the right place. We are going to show you how you can set up a holiday campaign, a holiday automation that just works on autopilot.

And this really is the power of email. Now, it does have to be planned ahead of time. If you're working on it during the holidays, that is not the point. All right?

So there are several components and over the next three weeks, if you're listening to the podcast, some of y'all have already bought the whole course and so you'll be getting extra like I think there's going to be five or six videos, but we're going to be talking about the main points.

And here they are. First of all, you need to continue to give away free high value information that builds relationships. That builds that know like and trust factor. And you have to ask for sales.

And I will tell you right now, most of you that have talked to me or have answered questions say, "I am terrible at sales." If you are terrible at sales, you need to work on that because if you're terrible at sales, you're not going to make money. You can't just throw up a website, create 5,000 courses. Some of y'all think if I just keep making more products, I'll make more money.

No, you have got to learn how to sell. Now, this is not a series on serving and selling. You can go back and watch some of my podcasts. In fact, I will list them where you are listening to this. But I truly believe that when you serve your audience, you will make money. You will sell to them. You will find the people that relate to you as well.

So you're going to have to ask for sales in your emails. And then on your next holiday season, all you have to do is make small little tweaks along the way. You will have already done the work.

So it is holiday time. Time to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with family. And you need to be able to go away for a while and still make money. And I have done that myself.

So why do I believe that every entrepreneur needs a holiday campaign? Let's talk about this. What if you came home to Major Moola? I mean like really major moola because you had it all set up correctly.

And what if you stayed top of mind with your list? You didn't just disappear for two weeks or even a week or a long weekend. You stayed top of mind so they knew who you were. You were celebrating with family or maybe you were on the beach in the Bahamas suntanning.

Or maybe if you're in the wintertime, you're on the ski slope skiing. Or maybe you're taking in a show at New York City. I don't know what your type of holiday celebration is, but you think about that and think about being able to actually check those things off your bucket list. That would be awesome.

So this is a holiday sequence that you turn on when you leave and when you come home, you turn it off. All right? You're celebrating, enjoying time with your kids and then you turn that back off when you get back home.

This requires automation. Your business is still working for you at all times. That really is what an online business is all about. Your family wants your undivided attention.

And if you are constantly on your phone. And who wants to type an email on their phone anyway? You will be a better business person if you will take a brain break. That's a whole another topic.

And I was reading in my son's Inc. magazine about a guy who actually takes well he started with just one break from his business and he went away with a journal and that's it. He didn't have his laptop. He didn't have he may have had a book to read as well. That's what you could do during the holidays.

Plus, you could spend time with your family when it's time. Maybe your kids are taking a nap. You can read a book or you can be journaling in the morning, early in the morning or late at night after they go to bed. That means you would still be growing up here as well.

Now, we want to take time off during the holidays, but we do not want to ignore our list because if you ignore your list they will forget you or they will lose that know like and trust factor because they don't even remember who you are. You have got to stay consistent with your list. You must stay in touch with your readers.

Plus, if we do this correctly, you will have a funnel that is reusable. Unless you have a dedicated salesperson. Got a dedicated salesperson? Leave something in the comments. I would love to chat with you as well.

Now, I do need to tell you this is not a flash sale just because you're celebrating the holidays. Sometimes we run a flash sale because we're away and that is a viable option, but that is not what we are talking about. This is something that keeps our business running and instead of deep discounts, we're still going to ask for the full sales price.

All right, so that's sort of why. Now, let's talk about picking that perfect profit producing offer. You've got to figure out what are you going to offer these people while you're gone. So think about it. What would you offer? Leave something in the comments wherever you're listening.

My first thought to you is what do you know for sure will sell? This is not the time to experiment because you're not there to even check on what's going on. This is not the time to launch something because you're not there to launch. You need to find a proven winner. Something you know for certain is going to flip it on and it will make sales.

All right. A few things you might consider are what I would just go through your library of courses. What is it that you have that you know sells on a regular basis? That could be it.

Or another idea would be affiliate products. Find an affiliate product that is available year round. So if you turn this back on next winter, it would still be around and it would be even a bonus if you have an affiliate product that has recurring income because then not only do you make holiday money, you make money the rest of the year.

Now, choose your item, whatever your offer is going to be. Then you need to make some decisions.

How many offers are you going to have? Really, that depends on a few things, two factors. How often have you been emailing them already? And how long is your holiday time off?

If your holiday time off is a long weekend, let's say 5 days, starts on Thursday, comes back on Monday, that's going to look different than a two week holiday. A two week holiday might actually have two or more offers as well. So it really depends.

Remember that you should be emailing your list consistently. And if your list responds to your consistent emails, you could set this up however you like.

So how long will your readers buy now and not in a few weeks? That's another thing to consider. That's another decision. You have got to decide. To get holiday money, you need to include urgency and scarcity. If you don't include both of them in some way, somehow then it's not going to matter.

All right. And then the other thing I think the last thing I want to sort of point on before we close this out is free content. You know, if you've been around me for any time, you need to be sending your people free content. Content on a regular basis. So you are adding value to their life, to their business, to their hobby, to whatever it is you're giving them.

This means you schedule you do a podcast every week or you put out a blog post every week. At a minimum one time a week, you need to be giving something out. And if you post a blog post or you schedule your podcast on whatever your podcast platform is, so we need to realize there is a need for time off during the holidays.

You can come home to money as a one soloreneur. Some of y'all are like, "It's impossible." No, it isn't. And we're going to continue to show you how to do it.

What we talked about today was figuring out that perfect profit producing PPP, perfect producing product. It's four Ps. All right? Or course whatever the offer is. You've got to decide on that. Then you need to know what kind of regular free content you're also going to remind them of and give out in your sequence. That is what your job is right now.

This week, you need to go and decide those things. Now, before I close, I do need you to know that we have a brand new course called Vacation Campaign Toolkit. It will be selling for $97 later this month, but right now you can get it for $27. And I'm going to tell you what it includes.

It actually includes five complete video trainings. If you're listening to the podcast, even what I told you today, you're going to go dive deeper into getting that profit producing product offer. Next week we'll talk about emails and you will get actually we have a podcast. You'll get that plus you'll get a second video training on emails.

Then we'll talk about tech and the tech part is you'll get that in the podcast but then we'll continue to talk about how to monetize every place you can through that whole holiday season and then how do we follow up and review what is going on. So those are our five trainings.

Then you'll also get a three-week calendar. Five days a week it'll tell you day one this is what you do. So for three weeks, over the next three weeks, you could have this holiday campaign completely set up and you'll get a checklist so that you can make sure that you have done everything and you don't have any missing parts, no leaks in that funnel.

You'll get an eight-step worksheet. That's where you're going to be really thinking and answering the questions that we've talked about today. And we'll also give you the PowerPoint slides. I'm not using PowerPoint in this, but some people would like to print them out and take notes along the way.

And then finally, we're going to give you a resource list. These are the best platforms, I believe, to make the campaign go smoothly with as few hitches as possible. So wherever you're listening to this, there should be a link to the holiday campaign toolkit. Go grab it. I would love to work with you.

I may even throw in I'm going to just do this right now. The first three people that sign up for the vacation campaign toolkit in June 2024, that's when we're recording it, will get a free 30 minute coaching call with me. That is worth $50 alone. I charge $100 an hour for coaching.

So for $27, you get the whole toolkit. And if you're one of the first three, you will also get a $50 coaching and we will talk about all of this and how to set this up and what's the best offer for you to make.

Want to enjoy the holidays guilt-free while your business works for you? Grab the Holiday / Vacation Campaign Tool Kit—it's easy to adapt for your holiday campaign and includes everything you need to set up your automated system before you leave town.

SAVE $60 with code: SMOOTHIE - Good through Friday, November 7. Click here to get your Holiday / Vacation Campaign Tool Kit

Thank you so much for spending time with me. I am Kerry Beck with familyebiz.com. We'll talk to you next time.

Daily sales can feel like a dream, but with the right offer and repeatable systems it becomes predictable. This episode walks through the practical steps to build funnels, templates, and accountability that keep revenue coming in every day.

You’ll hear why one signature offer matters, how batching content multiplies your reach, and the simple automations that stop decision fatigue so daily sales keep rolling in.

✅ The #1 mistake entrepreneurs make that kills daily sales (hint: stop trying to sell 50,000 different offers)

✅ How to choose your ONE signature offer that sells consistently (plus examples from Marie Forleo, Amy Porterfield, and Jenna Kutcher)

✅ 4 steps to waking up to sales in your business with simple systems

✅ Why batching content and using repeatable workflows saves massive time while keeping you consistent

✅ How a simple 3-email funnel can start generating regular sales once you drive traffic to it

✅ The role accountability plays in keeping momentum when you're burned out or stuck

Grab the link in the show notes to join the Family eBiz Mastermind and get the support and systems training mentioned in the episode.

Show Notes:

Imagine Waking Up to Sales Notifications

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses, so you can find the freedom in your life to do what you've been called to do. We are continuing on talking about growing our business.

What would it feel like to check your phone or your laptop in the morning and see sales notifications before you even brushed your teeth? Wouldn't that not be awesome?

Most entrepreneurs wake up stressed. Looking at emails, that is the worst thing to look at. Unfinished projects, confusion.

What if instead your systems were working while you sleep? And I have to be really honest. I woke up this morning, and I do check my sales, usually first thing in the morning, and there were sales.

Some of them I was not expecting. I was like, how did that get in there? And then I was like, oh, yeah, that little funnel was working like it was supposed to.

There's a lady named Barbara Corcoran, probably butchered her name. She's a real estate mogul on Shark Tank, and you've probably seen her. I love listening to her.

I learn something from her on a regular basis. She had a small real estate office in New York City. What did she do?

She systematized her small office with checklists and trainings. So that deals would be going through even when she wasn't around. That foundation helped her scale her business to New York City's number one real estate firm.

Wow. One of the biggest cities in the country, and she is the number one real estate mogul there. She often tells people, don't build a business, build a system.

So let's talk about that. How can building a system apply to you as well? Well, it ties back, because imagine your business was running like that.

Predictable, repeatable. It can. You just have to have systems in place.

And you really need to know which systems to put in place. Do you know which systems? What I want to do is share 4, I think four steps, to waking up to sales in your own business with these systems.

First, you need to create or choose your one signature offer that sells. Don't go trying to sell 50,000 different offers. That's your problem, because I have heard so many of you people are, well, I'm going to create new products so I can make some money.

That does not work. Pick one product. And mine is Raising Leaders, Not Followers.

That is gonna be, that is my flagship product. I have other products for sale, they're on my website, but that is my flagship, and most everything that I sell in there helps people get to raising leaders, not followers. So you need to choose that, because too many offers scatter your effort and confuse your customer.

They don't know what's important. So, focus on one thing. Most successful digital entrepreneurs had one clear offer.

I don't know if y'all know who Marie Forleo is, but she started something called B-School, and that is what she's known for. Amy Porterfield, Digital Course Academy, and Jenna Kutcher, her Pinterest course. So they focused on one thing.

So, here's the practical tip. Choose the offer, how do you choose it? The offer that solves your audience's biggest problem, and then refine it until it's repeatable and profitable.

Keep selling it over and over. It's like, oh, I sold it, now I need to go to the next one. No, I launched Raising Leaders, Not Followers, 3 times.

Actually, in 2026, I'm going to do it 4 times. And so, keep doing it over and over and over again. So, pick your signature offer.

Then build some simple systems to sell that signature offer. You need some email funnels. You want to automate your nurturing, your lead nurturing, and your sales conversations.

You want to batch the content, like I am right now recording. I don't know how many episodes I've recorded. I think I will have recorded about 6 episodes today for content, and then I batched it, and it saves me time, I stay consistent by producing content in chunks.

This will also, for some of these episodes, it will turn into a blog post, it turns into a YouTube, it turns into all sorts of things. And so, I record it once, and then I can multiply. And then that repeatable workflows.

We have a workflow. I record it, and then we get a title and a description, and then our social post, our engagement post, our blog post, our email, all on one episode. So, I can batch it, and then we can get it out there to our people, and schedule it out a ways.

So, you want it repeatable, and some other things you might have are templates. Checklists and automations to reduce decision fatigue. One of the things I am working on personally is using AI to actually do some of my posting and scheduling.

It's not going to make a decision on the title and those kinds of things yet, but it will hand me all my information, and then I choose it, and then it will go off and put it in all the places online that I need it to go to. I'm still working on how to do that. I know it is possible.

You see, a small blogger who sets up a simple 3-email funnel with a tripwire can easily start seeing sales on a regular basis. You just keep driving traffic once you set that up and you see that it converts.

So, one signature offer, simple systems, lean on accountability to keep that momentum going. Sometimes we get burned out, sometimes we want to quit, sometimes we just don't know how to make the next step, because we are so stuck in the minutiae of the details. What happens without accountability?

You stall, you second guess, or you quit when it gets tough. With accountability, you keep moving forward, even when motivation dips, even when you don't know what the next step is. As I've shared in recent episodes, I have my mastermind groups, and sometimes those ladies, I love listening to them.

They're like, they start talking, and to ask a question about, here's where I'm stuck, and after about 2 minutes of talking, they're like, oh, this is what I need to, this is what I'm gonna do, and we didn't even give them any suggestions. Getting on with people that get it. Now, a lot of times, we do help them, because I have some that are, like, going on, I'm thinking, what about this?

And they're like, I don't know why I didn't think of that. And so we do, there's a balance. Sometimes it's just talking it out with people that understand it.

It could be, most of the time, it's talking it out, saying something, and someone throws an idea, and then they keep talking, throw an idea, and they keep talking. And that's what accountability and just having that support, that board of advisors for you. Think about a fitness coach.

You are less likely to skip a workout when you know someone is expecting you. Business is the same way. And I believe masterminds accelerate this.

You see, when you are part of a mastermind, you avoid wasting months or years trying to figure it out alone. You have support, people that have already done that. I have seen people that have done a launch, and two months later, they're helping their mastermind friend who's doing their first launch, and they can work together.

Direct benefits is you get feedback, you get clarity a lot faster, you get encouragement, you push through those tough spots, you get shortcuts, you learn what already worked instead of reinventing the wheel. That's one reason I pay Amy Mastermind big bucks to be able to not reinvent the wheel. I might as well just listen to someone who's already done it.

I'm going to follow their system. I took a Facebook ads course, and I was talking to Bethan about it, and she's like, oh, look, you're using the sales page template. I'm like, why should I reinvent it?

You've already got it down the way I need it, and so I'm just going to follow that template right there. And so, it's just not worth it. This is why masterminds accelerate your business.

You don't waste those months trying to figure it out. You get feedback, encouragement, and shortcuts.

There's a lady named Michelle Schroeder-Gardner. She has a business called Making Sense of Cents. The second one is Cents, like money.

Making sense of the money, cents. She built her blog into a $100,000 a month business. How?

She focused on systems, affiliate funnels, and email sequences, and the sales kept coming in because she used a system. She started with a small peer group that helped her keep moving forward in the right direction as well. And this isn't just a dream.

It's what members of our Family eBiz Mastermind are building. Businesses that make money consistently, even while they sleep. And if you're ready to stop the hustle and step into focus, accountability, and systems at work, the doors are open right now.

They'll be closing this week. Get off that little hamster wheel. You don't need to be on it, and if you are, you are probably stuck, and you're probably not making much money.

So, if you have questions about, let me know. If you look in the show notes, you should be able to get the link to be able to sign up. If you do have questions, send me an email or a DM, and I would be happy to chat with you.

We would love for you to join us. We have some great groups, and a few slots are open, so let's fill those slots. Hey, I'm Kerry Beck with Family eBiz.

We'll talk to you next time.

Entrepreneur loneliness is a real challenge for solopreneurs who make decisions, celebrate wins, and face setbacks on their own. This episode explores why isolation happens and simple ways to overcome loneliness and surround yourself with the right support.

You’ll hear how to find encouragement when you want to quit, accountability to keep you consistent & outside perspective to spot blind spots.

✅Why entrepreneur loneliness derails many entrepreneurs and how to stop it

✅How encouragement helps you keep going after failed launches and tech breakdowns

✅Practical accountability habits that lead to consistency and results

✅Quick ways to gain clarity using outside perspectives and small advisory groups

✅Different kinds of accountability groups (free and paid)

Grab the free training mentioned in the episode — 5 Ways to Make More Money Online

Show Notes:

The Reality of Entrepreneur Loneliness

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses, so you can gain freedom in your life to do what you are called to do. Today, we are going to be talking about solopreneur.

Most of you are a solopreneur. Maybe you have a virtual assistant, or maybe someone trades some work with you, but most of you do all your work on your own. I get it, me too.

I do have a virtual assistant, but for the most part, I am here working it out all by myself. You know what happens sometimes? It can sort of be lonely, don't you think?

And I want to talk to you about the loneliness. You make your decisions alone, you feel alone. You celebrate your wins alone, you face your failures alone.

No wonder so many entrepreneurs give up. And that's not the way it should be. That shouldn't be the way it is in life, and it shouldn't be the way it is in business as well.

So I want to talk to you today a little bit about a solution that might be able to help you. Thomas Edison had a lab at Menlo Park. You see, he was not a lone genius.

He actually built a team of about 15 to 20 people. Engineers, thinkers, machinists, all of them that could work together to brainstorm, to test, and refine ideas. You see, most of us don't realize that team is what helped develop the light bulb.

It was not developed by itself, or by only Thomas Edison. It was born in what we would call a team. Do you have a team that you can work with?

Because really, breakthroughs rarely happen alone. They usually happen with a team. And that could be something like a mastermind, it could be something maybe with a coach.

There's all sorts of ways, but today I want to talk to you about a man named Napoleon Hill, and what he coined the word mastermind, meaning we mastermind, we're thinking all together as a group. Why? Because he studied people like Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford.

All of those people did not work on their own. Now, yeah, there are names on everything, and so it sounds like they did it all by themselves, but they did not work alone. They all had peer networks.

And that's a type of mastermind. So what I want to do is talk about how a mastermind can help you, and then some different types of masterminds that you might be able to get.

First of all, when you are in a group, and this isn't necessarily a group of 20, although when we started, when we joined our first mastermind, I think I've told you it cost us $10,000. There are about 20 of us, and each person could bring a partner or someone to come with it, so there are about 40 people in the room, and that was our mastermind.

We were in two different ones for the first 5 years after when we came home from seminary, and we were really building our online business at the time. That's one kind of mastermind. That's not necessarily what I would suggest.

You better be making some money, because you don't want to be losing money on your mastermind. There are free ones where people just get together. I call those more of accountability groups, and I've been in those as well, and usually when I join them, it is for a limited amount of time, and we are all looking at the same goal.

We have paid masterminds that I am still in today. I pay $1,000 a year to Amy Porterfield to be in her coaching group to mastermind. We have meetings where we can get together, and they'll put us in small groups, and we can work through some different issues.

So those are a bunch of different types. How does that help you? You're probably going, I gotta get over there and make some money.

Well, first of all, encouragement when you want to quit. We all experience burnout. It can be so isolating.

You have no boss, no team, no cheerleader. Some of you do, maybe in your family. Hard days are going to come.

A failed launch. Low sales. Tech breakdown. I have experienced every single one of them.

I've had launches with goose eggs, meaning I made zero sales. That's hard. You need someone to be able to bounce that off of, and sort of see how to move forward.

A mastermind group, those members will remind you that you're not alone. I'm thinking of some of my mastermind groups that I've run, and some of them have become quite good friends and support each other in the hard times and the good times. Again, Thomas Edison's Invention Factory.

He surrounded himself with encouragers, collaborators, when most people would have quit at 1,000 tries. You know, he went to 10,000 tries. Takes a lot of perseverance, and I think because he had a group, a mastermind group, that helped him to keep going.

So, encouragement. Number two, accountability, so you follow through. It is so easy to procrastinate or start chasing the shiny object.

When no one's watching, no one can see exactly what you're spending your time about. Mastermind partners provide a little gentle pressure. Hey, you said you're gonna launch on Friday, how's it going?

Can I help you? That would be even better. Accountability leads to consistency.

Consistency leads to results. So, Ben Franklin, back in 1727, was part of the Junto Club. What was that?

These are a group of men that would meet, and they would hold each other accountable, both personally and in their business growth. That was, what, 300 years ago? Maybe more?

So, encouragement when you want to quit, accountability so you follow through, and then three, clarity, because you can't always see your blind spots. I can't. Working alone, you get so stuck in your head, you're just, like, right there, so there, and sometimes just another person coming and looking above it can help you see some of the solutions that you are completely blind to.

I know sometimes we'll be talking in our mastermind groups, and I'm thinking and I say something, I'm like, cool. Why didn't I think of that? It's like things you know, but you just don't always see, because you're in the details sometimes.

Masterminds give you multiple perspectives, often spotting what you can't see. I like to say it's like a board of directors, a board of advisors. Just 5 minutes of an outside perspective can push you through.

You know how one person that I work with, and she's talking about her problem, and then all of a sudden she goes, okay, I think I just figured it out. She just needed someone to listen to her that got it. How many people in your life get it?

How many people get that online life, that online business? So, sometimes just having someone listen to you for 5 minutes, you figure it out yourself, or they may be able to offer some quick perspective, save you a lot of frustration.

You know, I am a part of Amy Porterfield's mastermind. She is a part of her own mastermind group. She has a coach, Michael Hyatt.

So, it doesn't matter what level you are, you need people to hold you accountable, to be able to encourage you, and to help give you clarity. It's really a multiplying effect. Encouragement fuels confidence.

Accountability fuels action, and clarity fuels smart strategies. When you know where you're headed, you can make smart decisions as well. And then all together, you're going to get faster results, less wasted time, and stronger resilience, perseverance.

That's what you need. Encouragement, clarity, and accountability. And some of us know, just give me the strategies.

Well, I can give you lots of strategies. But do you know when to use it? Do you have the clarity of when to do it?

If it doesn't work, do you have people that can encourage you? Or if you're procrastinating or going after the wrong thing, do you have someone that will help you stay focused in where you're supposed to be? This is what I think is so important.

It's where you get unfiltered advice and support. My question to you is, do you have it? Now, I know some of you are in some masterminds, let's say, that are just some people that get together once a week or once a month, and that is great.

Do you have people that have gone before you in those groups to be able to help you move forward? In whatever areas of your business. But I think those are great.

I personally put my money where my mouth is. That's why I pay $1,000 a year to Amy Porterfield to be able to get the support that I need. She has a Q&A every single month for any question that I might have, or she's got regular training.

She has people specialized in different areas of my business. It is well worth every penny that I pay her. Plus, she has a we have a group, a private group, that we can encourage each other, and I've made some good friends as well.

This is important. Oprah Winfrey says she wouldn't be where she is today if she did not have that trusted circle of friends or advisors surrounding her to help her make wise decisions.

If you are tired of building alone, you're craving accountability, or you just need some support, some clarity, ready to step into the next level, to scale, I hope you will join me. We are giving a free training this week, I believe, I think it's Tuesday, I have to check today.

Anyway, it is 5 Ways to Make More Money Online. So I will be going through some strategies, but I'm also, at that time, opening up some slots for our mastermind. We have a few slots open.

I would love for some of you to join me. That would be awesome. But I hope you will at least come to my free training, and it's a masterclass.

You're going to get a lot out of it. And so, you can just find the link in the show notes, and then join me live. Joining me live, you will get an extra little bonus.

I can't remember now. Probably, we're gonna probably give a bonus for getting there early. The 15 minutes before it starts, you get a bonus.

Anyone that shows up, 15 minutes, and then it goes away at that, the hour. So, hey, thanks for spending time with me. I am Kerry Beck with Family eBiz.

Talk to you next time.

Are you busy all day but not moving the needle? In this episode we unpack the power of focus and why concentrating on one growth lever beats chasing every shiny object.

You’ll hear real business stories (Starbucks, Airbnb) and practical steps to pick a 90-day priority that multiplies momentum and revenue.

✅ How “shiny object syndrome” stalls growth & how to fix it

✅ Why one growth lever (not 10) is the fastest path to income

✅ How to set a 90-day priority and break it into daily actions

✅ Simple accountability systems to keep you on track through distractions

✅ How to choose channels, momentum, and launches

Resources Mentioned

Free Class

Show Notes:

The Power of Focus: How to Stop Chasing Shiny Objects and Grow Your Business

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so you can find the freedom that you need to be able to follow your calling, wherever you've been called to do in this life. Thanks for spending time with me.

I have a question that I want to start out with, and this is it. Have you ever sat down at your desk, ready to grow your business, but you find yourself, 3 hours later, scrolling Canva templates, signing up for another free challenge, or researching a tool you know you'll never use?

That is called the shiny object syndrome, and it is one of the major reasons that solopreneurs stay stuck. They don't stay focused on revenue. They don't stay focused on what a real strategy is, a strategy that will actually start your business or scale your business.

Today, what I want to do is talk to you about the power of focus, and I want to start with a story.

It is Howard Schultz of Starbucks. I should have grabbed his book. It's sitting right over there on that bookshelf.

You see, before Starbucks exploded, Schultz focused on one thing. He was creating an Italian espresso bar experience here in the United States. His investors kept pushing him to sell his beans in supermarkets, or to start selling food in his stores, in his cafes. He refused. He focused on one thing, and that was the customer experience.

And that is what scaled Starbucks into a global giant. You see, success comes from focus, not trying to do all the things.

Now, I'm not saying you don't have to do something like, you know, if you're working on a funnel, you're gonna have to do some email and some images and things like that. But many of you start going down... I'm gonna build my list. Oh, I'm gonna make some... oh, I'm gonna create another product, because creating another product will bring me money.

If you're not making money from your current products, why going down those shiny object rows? That's not gonna bring you any money. So you need to take a lesson from Howard Schultz and focus on one thing, one major thing.

And we're going to talk about it at the end. I want you to be able to think: What is that one thing I'm going to focus on in Q4? This episode is published at the 1st of October, and that means it is the beginning of Q4. What are you going to focus on, and how are you going to get there by the end of December?

Let's talk about focus for a second, then we'll come back and see what you decide to do. You see, energy plus time scattered gives you a shallow impact. It is wasted energy. Scattered energy doesn't really do anything.

It's as if you took 1 cup of water, and then you tried to water 10 plants. Are they gonna grow? No, none of them are going to grow. You haven't focused on any of them. You just gave a little bit of time to each one of those little plants, a little bit of water.

And that's what some of you are. You're busy all the time, but you're not moving the needle in your revenue, or you're not moving the needle in your list growth, or whatever it is you're focusing on. There's a lot of motion, but no progress. So there's one of the problems.

Let's go the other side. That same energy could be focused. And if you focus that energy, you will grow deep roots in your business, and you will see real growth in your business. It's as if you take that one cup of water, and you water one plant. That one plant might start growing. It's the same in your business.

Don't go trying to water all the different areas, everything. I'll give you an example. Everyone, it seems like, is talking about Instagram and TikTok. Do I spend time on Instagram or TikTok? No. Do I post once a week? Well, I don't, but Ross does. Once a week, he posts to Instagram at the same time he's posting on Facebook.

My focus is Facebook. Why? And this is really important, why would I choose Facebook over something else? Because when I did a survey a couple years ago, 100% of my homeschool moms, when I said, where do you spend the most time online? Out of everything you do, where do you spend the most time? Facebook. Well, that's why I do.

And now, I'm sure I could grow my business on Instagram and other things, but that's where I focus it. Where do I get the most traffic? Pinterest. Not... I mean, there's lots of ways, out of the social ways. Pinterest, 30% of my traffic comes from Pinterest. So I'm going to focus relationships in Facebook and try to build traffic in Pinterest. I'm not going to worry about all the other things. I do do some other things, but that is where you need to focus.

Channel your energy into one direction, and you will see your results multiply over and over. Consistency feeds one offer, one funnel, one audience, and you will have stronger growth. So, focus your energy.

Focus also creates momentum. Shiny objects are all out there! That just resets you back to square one! And then you got a new learning curve for every single one of those shiny objects. If you double down on one thing, it will accelerate your progress instead of starting over. Momentum.

So, if you will focus, that will build momentum. Momentum will compound over time, and you will start stacking up results as well.

And I can tell you, let's go back to Pinterest. I've been doing Pinterest, I don't even do it the right way. I am sure I do it all wrong, but we try to be consistent on pinning all the time. I've been doing that for 10 or 15 years. I still have the ugliest pins in the world, and getting rankings somehow, I don't know.

Why did I go, one year I'm gonna do this, now I'm gonna do Instagram, now... no, I just kept doing it, because it kept sending traffic. So the core truth is scattered energy means your business is probably going to get stuck. Focused energy. That's where you're going to see growth and income and impact.

So let's talk about 3 practical ways that you can regain your focus. I want you, and think about this, and if there's a place to leave a comment, leave it wherever you're listening to this.

1. Pick One Growth Lever

One growth lever. Is it list building? Is it one offer that you're going to work on in Q4? Or maybe a launch you're going to launch? One thing.

I was talking in a coaching session last week. She's going to launch something in January, but two of them are like, well, I've got to do these other things in October, November, December. I'm like, no! Focus on that launch.

When I first launched Raising Leaders, when I redid everything back in 2022, I spent October, November, December, and January. My focus was getting Raising Leaders launched. Now, there were lots of little pieces in between, but that is what I focused on for 4 months.

So, pick one growth lever.

2. Set a 90-Day Priority

90-day priorities. What are you gonna have done? What are the main things you need to do with that one growth lever?

It's not whack-a-mole, you know that little game, you get the thing and the moles are always coming up, and every day you're hitting something different? That is not going to do anything for you. You need to look right now at what your goals are at the end of the quarter.

3. Get Accountability to Stay on Track

Because distractions will pop up. Or tech issues, or you get sick, or you have a family emergency. You need to get some kind of accountability, because there will be things. And there's always gonna be shiny objects popping in. So you don't want to go running down those shiny object roads.

There's a man named Brian Chesky from Airbnb. Early on, he and his team focused on one thing. Their first 100 customers.

Now, think about, Airbnb is global. I'm going to El Salvador to see some of the teachers in the school that I helped found back in 2020, and I'll be staying in an Airbnb. This is not a very... this is a poor area of San Salvador, and there's Airbnbs right there, so they are all over the place.

But what did they focus on in the beginning? Their first 100 customers. They hand-delivered key exchanges. So here, we're gonna hand you the key, you go stay at this place. Or, like, I know we stayed at... this is the first year or two, I don't remember, but we stayed in Sausalito. It was founded up there in San Francisco, somewhere area, and that girl was there. She led us into her apartment and gave us the key, told us where everything was, and then left to go stay with a friend. Hand-delivered.

Maybe we were one of the first 100 customers, I don't know. They photographed apartments themselves. They weren't always professional back then. They perfected the process, and their obsessive focus on the first 100 built a foundation for millions. Billions by now.

So... Pick one growth lever. 90-day priorities, and get accountability.

Now, if you're tired of chasing shiny objects and ready to focus on what actually grows your business, I hope you'll join me for my free training, 5 Ways to Make More Money Online. We're going to walk through how to build some systems and sell consistently.

If you're serious about accountability and clarity and momentum, you're going to love what I'm going to share at the end of that masterclass. So, find the link in the show notes. I can't wait for you to join me. If you get there 15 minutes early up until we start, there'll be a free little surprise just for you.

Hey, I'm Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

In this episode, I share my personal story of investing in ads, why traffic isn’t always the problem, and how you can start small without wasting money. You’ll hear practical tips and inspiring real-life stories of businesses that grew with the help of smart advertising strategies.

Here’s what you’ll discover:

✅Why organic reach is shrinking and what to do about it

✅How a simple $10/day ad can bring in new buyers

✅The secrets to testing ads without throwing money away

✅Why meta ads buyers often become your best customers

Recommended Resources:

Facebook Ads Intensive (retail $600) - ON SALE $97 through Oct 5.

BONUS: Mastermind members & HBU members ONLY receive 2 group coaching, specifically on the course.

Not a mastermind or HBU member? No problem, join one of our groups and buy the FB Ads Intensive. You'll get group coaching and feedback on your ads, landing pages, and more.

Homeschool Blogger University:

FamilyEbiz Mastermind

If you cringe at the sales moment, you’re not alone — and this episode will change how you think about selling. We talk through mindset shifts and real tactics so you can close the sale without the icky feeling. Start serving first and asking confidently.

You’ll get simple frameworks you can use in webinars, sales pages, and email sequences so closing feels natural and supportive.

✅The 4P framework: Problem → Promise → Proof → Pitch

✅Why selling = serving (and why it’s ethical to charge for transformation)

✅How to ask for the sale multiple times without being pushy

✅How Mary Kay quit feeling icky about selling and built her billion dollar company & how you can follow her system

✅A 60-second elevator pitch exercise to sharpen your ask

Recommended Resources:

7-Day Webinar Action Plan

VIP Day: The Webinar Sales System: Create, Market & Sell Without the Stress

Show Notes:

How to Close the Sale Without the Icky Feeling

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family Ebiz, where we help you start and scale online businesses to find freedom in your life to do what you've been called to do.

We are talking about closing the sale. Most of you are like, I don't like selling. I love teaching, but I don't like selling. I like getting on an event or teaching. I get to that sales part at the end, and I just cringe up.

You see, the number one reason entrepreneurs struggle to make sales isn't because their product isn't good. And it isn't even necessarily their marketing. It's that 30 seconds when they need to ask for the money. And it's hard.

I've been afraid in the past to let people know that I was selling something on the webinar. I do all this great teaching, and then I just fumble through the sales presentation. I just talk so quickly, let me just get it over, because they don't want to listen to it. Well, not really.

There is a whole mindset shift that you need to make so that you don't have that icky feeling when you get to the close. Or maybe you just didn't share it, because you didn't know if it would really change their life. You had that imposter syndrome. I'm often too worried about charging money, oh! And yet, again, God has helped me get past that, and that's my mindset shift.

By the end of this podcast episode, you will have some practical tools and a mindset shift to take that closing the sale to feel natural. And you won't feel that icky feeling, all right? I'm going to share why webinars have been my secret weapon for closing the sales and being able to scale my business as well.

Now, I do want to start with a story. Dale Carnegie, who wrote the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, he started as a failed farmer and a very unsuccessful salesperson. In the early 20s, his early 20s, he was so afraid of rejection that he would walk right past a potential customer. This is before online, obviously. He is face-to-face sales. He did not want to approach them.

But he had a big breakthrough. What happened? Mindset shift. He realized that selling was about solving their problem. It was not about convincing and trying to talk someone into buying something they didn't need.

That's the stigma of a used car salesman. My dad's a very successful salesman. He's 95 years old, he doesn't sell anymore, but he has often told my kids, you know what? If you could be a good salesman, you can do anything in life. And it's really true, because selling is not trying to get someone to buy something they don't need, or don't want. It is about solving their problem. A lot of it is about listening to them, paying attention to them.

So what is their problem? Do I have something that can help solve that problem? That is a good salesperson. That is when Dale Carnegie had some great breakthrough. He discovered that when he focused on understanding his customers' genuine needs first, that close was just natural. It was a helpful conversation to solve their problem, whatever their need was. It wasn't some interruption, and I gotta push through and go through it quickly. No, he had a mindset shift that shifted from selling to serving.

You've heard me say it a gazillion times. You serve before you sell. And that's what we're going to explore today. Selling is helping. Selling is serving. You're not taking their money, you're solving their problem.

This, again, this is a service mindset. If you truly believe your solution would help people, or... I mean, if someone had a solution for my problem, and let's just say I was trying to lose weight, and they're like, Kerry, I know this is going to work, but I'm not going to tell you, because it would cost you $10. That wouldn't be a very good friend.

If you truly believe your solution helps people, you are not selling. You are being selfish if you don't tell people about it. You are withholding good information from your audience, so serve before selling.

You need to realize, to give yourself permission, it is okay to make a profit. You are in business, you are not in a hobby. Well, some of you are in a hobby. It's ethical to be compensated for the transformation that you provide. You know, if you go to a gym and you hire a coach, you're gonna pay him. Because he's going to help you get a transformation in your life, just like you can help your audience find that transformation.

And this is exactly why, especially in an online business, webinars work so well. They let you demonstrate the value of what you teach and what you know and who you are before you ever ask for the sale. So you serve in a webinar before you sell.

I'm going to show you two different tactics. The first one is called the 4P, problem, promise, proof, pitch.

You are going to clearly look at their pain points and address their problem. You want to use their words. That's why we talk about validating, listening to your audience. So you're going to talk first about the problem. People buy on emotion, and they justify on logic.

Present your... so we're looking at the problem, and then you're going to go, okay, but you know what? Here's a good solution, and that solution is a bridge to that transformation. You want to be specific. This is your promise. Here's what I promise to do. I do this in my, Racing Leaders, Not Followers Masterclasses. By the end of this, you... here's what you will know. And so I show them that desired outcome, and I'm very specific in the transformation. And I focus on that after state, the benefits that they will get, not the features. Hey, you'll get 6 modules, I'll show up 3 times in the 9 weeks for some coaching. No, I'm going to show them that transformation.

So, problem, pain points, promise, what's your solution, how are you going to help them? Proof. This is where you provide evidence that your solution works. If you have client testimonials, use them. If you have case studies, use them. Or, if you don't, but you just have your own results because of the process that you've used, use that as well. Social proof builds confidence in their decision. Every time they hear about another person that has found success, they're like, oh, if that person can do it, oh, if that person saw that, oh! And so, the more you can give them proof, the more confidence and the more trust they have in your solution.

Problem, promise, proof, pitch. Did you see that? There are 3 things to do before you ever sell them anything. And this is a clear, specific offer, and it includes, here are your next steps. And I tell them, hey, you need to go in and click the link in the chat. You'd want to tell them exactly what to do, no friction in the buying process.

This is perfect for a webinar. You have 45 minutes to build trust before you ever pitch them. And you're not asking strangers to buy, you're asking people who have received massive value from whatever it is that you have taught. So... Problem, promise, proof, and pitch.

Next, this is tactic number two. This is IBM's Thomas Watson Sr. He teaches that you need to ask for the sale multiple times, not just one time. In fact, in the early 1900s, he would tell his salespeople, ask for the order 5 times in the presentation. I can... y'all are like, icky, icky, icky.

You know what? If it solves their problem, you need to ask, and that is something... it is said that a person needs to hear a sales pitch 7 times before anything that you want them to move in action, 7 times before they will take action. He's talking about 5 times. So, ask for the sale multiple times. That can be an email. It can be in a webinar, it could be in a Facebook Live. wherever.

So, how do we do this modern-wise, email sequence? First, you could give a direct pitch, then you might handle objections, you can offer different payment plans, you do need to create some sort of urgency and scarcity, and then a final call to action, and maybe send those emails out over a series of several days.

So, in my VIP webinar day, I am going to be giving you templates on how you can do these different emails, and you can just basically fill in the missing information, exactly how you can go into soft asks, like Thomas Watson, IBM man, 5 times. I'm going to show you different ways, so you can do something called a trial close in your webinar presentation.

Alright, number 3, Mary Kay Ash. Mary Kay Cosmetics. She did not like selling. She started her empire in 1963 at age 45 with $5,000, and she felt icky asking for the sales. You notice a little thing. Who was it? Dale Carnegie. He didn't like rejection, but he also was afraid to tell people what he had. Mary Kay, she was terrible at closing the sale because she took the rejection personally.

One thing I learned in network marketing, you need to count your no's. How many people need to say no before you get a yes? And then you just focus on that until... because you know you're going to be getting yesses, say, every 10 times.

Well, Mary Kay's breakthrough came when she developed the feel, felt, found method for handling objections, and this is what she would say. I understand how you feel, and then she would tell it. Others have felt the same way, and maybe tell a story. But here's what they found when they tried it.

Pretty simple way. I just learned about this, and I think I am going to be using it in some of my, upcoming classes that I teach. This approach helped Mary Kay build a billion-dollar company and empowered thousands of women to become successful entrepreneurs.

All right, this validates that emotions, those feelings, and the way they feel, and others felt that way, too. That, we can take that and redirect it into a positive outcome. Making your close, making your pitch, your sale feel more collaborative rather than confrontational.

You can use your sales page to do this in writing, you can use your webinar, you can use your emails. If you want to plan your webinar in 7 days, there's some stuff in there to help you with this. You can get our 7-day webinar action plan.

So, I would encourage you, whatever method you use. Practice your pitch out loud this week. Record yourself giving your pitch. You can practice the feel, felt, and found method with some common objections. Or you can role play with a family member. Time yourself and see if you can clearly communicate what your offer is in 60 seconds. It's an elevator pitch. Now, I wouldn't do that when I first meet someone, but you need to be able to know how to communicate that transformation in 60 seconds or less.

So, 3 historical lessons that we talked about. Dale Carnegie went from selling to serving. Selling is serving. It's not convincing. Two, Watson, persistent pace. Most sales happen after multiple asks. And most people give up after one ask, including some of us. 3. Mary Kay, she handled objections with empathy. Not arguments. How people were feeling.

So, this week, I'm going to challenge you. Reframe every sales conversation, every sales... actually, I would just pick one sales page. And work on that. And go and see if you are offering some sort of empathy, or are you offering the problem, the promise, the proof. Yeah, testimonials, and then the pitch. Look if you offer that in your sales page, or if you just tell a bunch of features.

Think about, how can I help these people make the best decisions for the situation? And your product isn't for everyone. My product, my mastermind isn't for everyone. My VIP day isn't for everyone, although I do think it's for anyone that wants to scale and make consistent income. Events drive sales. Sometimes, that means people do buy from you, and sometimes it doesn't. Both outcomes, you are serving your people.

Remember, people don't buy products or services. They buy a better version of themselves. They buy solutions to their problems. They want to see themselves become a better person, or their kids become a better person, or their family. Your job is not to convince them that what they need is what you're selling. Your job is to help them see that they're capable of a transformation that they are searching for, and you can walk with them and journey with them along the way.

Ready to master the art of selling through serving? Join our VIP webinar day on September 20th. If you want to quit worrying about feeling icky with selling and close the sale with integrity and empathy, I would love to help you, because it has made a difference in our business.

Struggling with feast-or-famine months in your business? In this episode we walk through the “consistency code” — practical systems you can use right now to get to consistent sales without living in constant launch stress.

You’ll leave with simple, actionable tactics you can implement this week to steady your income and reclaim your time.

✅The subscription model secret that's been working since the 17th century (and how to adapt it for your business)

✅How to set up evergreen funnels that sell for you 24/7 (even while you sleep!)

✅How to mix live launches with evergreen offers for steady spikes and long-term sales

✅How webinars drive sales

✅A one-step action to decide if your product is ready for evergreen

Recommended Resources:

7-Day Webinar Action Plan

VIP Day: The Webinar Sales System: Create, Market & Sell Without the Stress

Show Notes:

The Consistency Code - How to Smooth Out Sales in Your Business

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help you start and scale your online business and find freedom in your life. So you can do what you're called to do, what's most important to you, and where you are right now.

We are in the middle of a series on consistent sales. We have covered so many great topics. Today, we're going to be talking about the consistency code. How do we smooth out sales in our business?

Have you ever been on the sales rollercoaster? Oh, yeah, I got a lot of sales. Oh my goodness, there's nothing. And you have incredible months, and then other months you have crickets.

The reality check is volatility comes from relying solely on launches, and you're having to launch something every single month just to make a sustainable amount of income. We need to take a step back and look at some systems that you could put into place and jump off the sales rollercoaster.

We're going to talk about how do you build reliable, predictable sales and no more income whiplash.

This goes all the way back to the 17th century. There were publishers back there that were selling books and periodicals by subscriptions. You would sign up, and every month or quarter, you would be getting a new book, or a new book of the month, I think is what they used to call it.

The modern view of that with physical products, we can talk about something called the Dollar Shave Club. This is where they sort of bring back the razor blade subscription model. And every month, you get some new razor blades at a discounted price.

Another one are all these kid ones that you see all the time, and you can join up, and they get a little activity every month with the supplies in that box. So, a lot of people have gone to subscription boxes.

You can actually look at this, too, from a digital view. I have something called Gigi's Mailbox Club, and that is where you sign up, and every month you get a Bible lesson with... you don't get the supplies, but I give you the verse, the Bible story, the craft, the snack, and some extra things as well. And so that is in a members area.

Another thing that I do, basically, with Family eBiz is we have a mastermind. And so I have businesses like yours that pay me every month, and we meet in small groups, and we help each other out. We brainstorm things that can help. We look for strategies for your specific business, and how you can get to the next level.

The thing about the subscription model is recurring systems create predictability. Let me repeat that. Recurring systems create predictability. You can't rely on one-time launches forever. You will go crazy, and I actually tried to do that.

Every month, I had something new going, and then I decided to take a step back and find a new way. Because it was killing me, coming up with a new webinar every month, and which product, and after a while, they didn't really care. They were just getting on the webinar to get some information, and they weren't really buying.

This is maybe a mindset shift for many of you. You need to make peace with systems. Systems will offer stability. They do not stifle your creativity. In fact, they enable it, because you have a system in place, and you can be creative within that system.

Say goodbye to the launch roulette. That is an emotional rollercoaster. You're worrying whether this month you're gonna have enough money.

Consistent sales free you to focus on what truly matters, and that is serving your audience and creating solutions for their problems. And a membership or a subscription is one way that you can steady out your sales and have more consistent sales.

What is an evergreen funnel? It is an automated system that will sell your offer continuously, day in and day out. You've seen them. You go in, you sign up for something, and then they say, do you want to watch it tonight at 7 or tomorrow at 10 a.m? You click it, and the platform will figure it all out, and it will, at 7 at night, it'll send you an email with that recording, and it looks like it's live.

There is a lady named Gillian Perkins. She built a funnel that earned her $72,000 with a 4-6% conversion from cold traffic. She's an entrepreneur, a podcaster, a content creator, and a homeschooling mom of five.

She teaches these different business strategies so that people can find freedom in their life. Two platforms that she uses: ConvertKit for email and Easy Webinar for webinars. She uses a webinar to steady herself with an evergreen funnel.

Now, I want to have a caveat. You don't just go in and make an evergreen funnel. I personally believe you must launch your product, like a real live launch, three or four times. You've got to tweak it and find out what really works, get that webinar the best it can be so that it converts, and then you can turn it over to an evergreen funnel.

Live launches generate spikes in income and excitement. I just had one, Homeschool Superheroes. Oh my goodness, that group was exciting. We were playing bingo, I was giving away prizes, we had speakers that were phenomenal. That was a spike in sales.

But I can't do that every month. I can barely do it twice a year, but that is a launch, just like I launched my Raising Leaders, Not Followers course as well.

You need to launch something live before you ever put it in Evergreen. When you do this, when you launch live, your webinar is your lead magnet. Events drive sales. Your webinar is your lead magnet. You give it for free, and then you're going to sell something on the end.

But you do need to know your product. You need to refine your product. You need to know how to market that product so it converts. Just because you have it out there doesn't mean it's going to make sales.

Y'all know my coach, Amy Porterfield. This is exactly what she teaches. She believes live launches help perfect your messaging, and then she also teaches how you can take that live launch and turn it into an evergreen product.

She teaches webinars, because they work. They make sales. And if you're afraid of it, just say, okay, I'm gonna do one for 20 minutes, and that's it. It doesn't have to be an hour long.

For Amy, she does not have a lot of products. She sells her DCA course in September, once a year, and then she has an evergreen course, List Builder Society, and that is available all year long. And so that is what smooths it out.

For me, I do launch my Raising Leaders 3 times a year, and then I have backup things. I have some e-books and unit studies and things like that that I will sell that are available at all times.

What do you need to do today? I want you to pick one existing product or a plan product. Decide, is it ready to go evergreen, or do you need one more final live launch to optimize it? If you've never launched it, then you need to launch it.

Once you've launched it 3 or 4 times, you've tweaked it with how the whole funnel works, then you can turn it into evergreen. So, what is that one existing or planned product? And then plan your next step. Either draft your evergreen funnel, or schedule your final live launch.

Both of them need a good, solid webinar. And if you're not sure how to plan a webinar, I have a free tool for you. It is our 7-Day Webinar Action Plan, and you can get that at familyebiz.com/7-day-webinar.

Systems beat sporadic hustle every time. Subscription systems aren't new. They've created income stability for centuries. Let's follow something that's proven. Evergreen funnels automate consistent sales. Live launches can fuel evergreen success, if you do it thoughtfully, and you pay attention to how your marketing is.

So, build your business on a foundation of steady systems, not launch pressure. Your creativity and your bottom line will thank you.

Ready to build a stable webinar that converts? Join me for our VIP Webinar Day where I'll teach you all the moving pieces you need to know. A webinar isn't just teaching, and then at the end go, hey, by the way, I got this. There are so many little components that make the difference between a webinar that converts and one that doesn't.

Many people collect email addresses, but never see sales. This episode lays out three hidden reasons your list isn’t buying and simple fixes to convert leads into customers.

You’ll get practical steps — welcome sequences, messaging changes, and urgency tactics — that you can apply this week.

Discover:

✅3 hidden conversion killers

✅Why your messaging may be falling flat (and the fix that makes sales easier)

✅How to create urgency that motivates action without being pushy or salesy

✅Two simple ways to warm up leads before you ever pitch

✅My exact webinar bonus system that gets leads to buy on the spot

✅The trust gap that keeps your list cold—and how to close it fast

Resources Mentioned:

7-Day Webinar Action Plan

Webinar VIP Day

Show Notes:

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help you start and scale online businesses to find freedom in your life to do what you're called to.

We are in the middle of a series about making consistent sales. Some of y'all just want to make some sales. I get it. We've been talking about problems that we have in our business. I would say problems, I would say challenges, all right?

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help you start and scale online businesses to find freedom in your life to do what you're called to.

We are in the middle of a series about making consistent sales. Some of y'all just want to make some sales. I get it. We've been talking about problems that we have in our business. I would say problems, I would say challenges, all right?

One of the things I hear from y'all over and over are, why are my people not buying? We're going to talk about that and how you can fix it. Three different ways that you can fix it. Because you say, I have an email list, but no sales. I can't convert my leads, email list.

Well, let me tell you, we're going to talk about 3 hidden reasons your leads aren't buying, and some small fixes that can turn that around immediately.

I think I've told this story before about Sarah Blakely. She started Spanx with about $5,000 in her savings. She believed she was solving a real problem. She wasn't hesitated in demonstrating how this worked. In fact, she believed building trust with her future customers was the most important thing to do right now. Not to scale her business, but to build that trust. She would even go into the store bathroom to change, to build trust before scaling.

Spanx hit $4 million in its first year and continues to grow exponentially. So what did she focus on? Focused on trust with her future buyers.

Number one reason people don't buy from you is maybe they don't trust you. There is some trust factor that is missing. Without trust, those leads, that email list, is just gonna stay cautious, and they are not going to buy from you.

This is why I think there are two ways that you can build trust. One is a welcome series or a nurture series, and two are webinars. Webinars give you a chance to teach and give good value to your people before you ever offer them a product, and you also build a relationship with them over time. A welcome email series can do that also.

Do you have a welcome email series? What's in it? It doesn't include things that will build trust. I have to tell you, this is one of my goals in the next few months, is to rewrite some of my welcome series and my funnel, because I feel like I've got something new that I want to work on, but I need to really work on my email welcome series. Because I think there are other ways, many ways, that I could build more trust before I sell.

You see, a welcome series and a webinar, they help you serve your audience with value before you sell to them. It allows you to point out maybe some of their pain points and some solutions before you sell them the best solution.

Reason number two, the value just isn't clear. There is some kind of messaging problem, there's some kind of... they don't get the problem and the solution, or they don't identify and resonate with the problem. So they don't see their need for a solution.

You see, people buy on emotion, they justify on logic. Zig Ziglar used to say that. People buy on emotion, but they justify with logic. They need some emotional context, they need stories to where they can identify themselves, not a bunch of features. Oh, we got 6 modules, they each have 3 videos, you're gonna get these 4 bonuses. They're like, who cares? Give me a story how this is gonna help me.

Thomas Edison, you know, the inventor of electricity, or he sold electricity, he invented the light bulb. He showed the transformative value of that light bulb, because the light bulb was safer than a candle or a kerosene lamp, it was brighter, and it was cleaner than the gas lights they had. So he showed the transformation so people would buy electricity for his light bulb.

Your message should paint... now, get this, if you're multitasking, come back to me. Your messaging should paint a before and after vision that is so clear that they're not going to hesitate. You want to overcome any kind of objection and hesitation.

So, here are some questions to ask yourself. What problem are you solving? What transformation will your buyer receive? And then, is that what they need? Or is your product going to solve that problem? Is that really what they need or want? If they don't want it, you're going to have to back up and do some more emotional showing them the transformation. Because a lot of times, they think they want this, but they really need that. And so we need to make sure there's clear messaging on all of that.

Biggest thing, transformation. Do you have testimonials? If you have testimonials, you need to put them everywhere in your emails, and this is some of the thing I'm speaking to myself. That's what we need to put out there, so that people can see that others are seeing transformation with the products, or with the membership, or whatever it is that you're selling.

Number one reason. Trust is missing, number two, the value isn't clear, and number three, there's no urgency. You see, I believe you can drive action with your future customers when there are some deadlines and bonuses.

Have you ever put off buying something because you just thought you could get it later? Yeah, I even did it when I knew I couldn't get it later. Most of your people aren't buying because there's no urgency whatsoever.

Jennifer Maker had a craft summit several years ago, and I was like, oh, I'll just get that later. And unfortunately, I got it after the super price, and had to buy the early bird price, so I at least saved a little money. But it's because I didn't sense as much urgency as I probably should have. I thought I'll just get it later, and then I put it off too late and had to spend more money.

I'm gonna give you two more real-life examples where urgency makes all the difference. Let's just think, I know you may not be in the United States, but we have a tax filing deadline on April 15th. Millions of Americans know they need to file their taxes by April 15th, but what do they do for months? They procrastinate, and they say a majority of the files come in in the last 48 hours. Or, you're like me, I just file an extension so I can do it in October. I procrastinate there.

Those deadlines make a difference, alright? And without a deadline for your offer, people are just going to delay action, even if they really want your product. Like, I really wanted Jennifer's, but I dilly-dally to rail.

So what can we do? We can use something like a launch, where you have an open date and a close date. I just did Raising Leaders. It opened on a Friday, and it closed the following Friday. So you can do a launch.

The other thing is on a webinar, you can say, this is available right now for the next 24 hours, or I actually, on my webinars, I give them a special bonus if they buy before I finish that class. And for raising leaders, it's a $10 Amazon gift card. Yeah, it's money out of my pocket. They're spending $197 for this course. And if that $10 card will help them, and I explained why I'm giving them that. It's because you could buy a classic book, you could buy a learning toy. I give them specific ways they could use it.

But, it was just a week and a half ago. I had two people. They bought on that course, bought on that webinar, on that masterclass, and I sent them a $10 Amazon card. Or, with the webinar, another thing that you can do is offer a 24-hour bonus. That's a fast action bonus. Hey, you order... if you buy now, you're going to get this bonus that no one else is going to get. So, deadlines are good. They create urgency and some scarcity.

Another one is Disney. Real-life example. They had a vault in the 1980s to the 2000s where you could get VHS, okay, some of y'all may be too young to know what that is, is old videotape, or a DVD movie. They were in the vault. But most families would just go, oh, well, I'll just buy it later. When I need it.

Well, you know what Disney did? They rethink, they changed their mindset, and they changed their customers' mindset. They started putting out special edition movies with bonuses, and it was limited. You can only get this special edition for the next... for this month, let's say. And parents rushed to buy that movie before it returned to the vault, where you couldn't get it anymore. Their sales skyrocketed.

How can that apply to you? You can combine a limited time availability with an added bonus. That's what I do with my launches, with my webinar classes. You can only join Raising Leaders, Not Followers, three times a year, and this is one of those times. I have people in there going, will you open this again this year? I'm like, no, it will be 2026. And really, right now when I'm recording this, this is August, they can't join again until March. So however many months that is, that's a lot of time to wait, if it is something that you're interested in.

Some other things, a replay deadline. Maybe you offer a replay, maybe you don't, only to people that ask, but that replay deadline, this is only available till now, and then it disappears. That replay is what's going to sell it, because it's the webinar that will give good value, build trust, build value, show the value, and yet give a deadline, so they have to get it now.

So those are the three things. Reason one is lack trust. Reason 2, there's a value messaging problem. They don't see the value, and reason three is you have no deadline, no scarcity or urgency.

Without that urgency, even a high-value offer, tons of value, they know they need it. But it'll get ignored because there's no urgency. So deadlines, plus bonuses, and a clear call to action. You've got to tell people exactly what to do. In my emails, I'm like. Click here to sign up now. I tell them, in my sales page, click here, or in my webinar, look at the chat, click that button, I tell them exactly what to do. That is a clear call to action. And that excites your audience.

When you have small, time-sensitive incentive, that can inspire them to action.

So what I want you to do today, or this week, I want you to look at your products, your launches, your email sequences. Pick one. Pick one funnel, maybe, one product. And see how you could launch it in the next month or two. And I would encourage you to use a webinar and a series of email sequences. Webinar plus email sequences do wonders.

And so, look at that funnel, and then how can you add urgency? Where is one place, one way that you could add a deadline, and if you do a webinar, that's real easy. Hey, this is only available for the next week, or two days, or whatever, or add a bonus that is a limited time bonus. What could you add? Leave something in the chat and let me know exactly what you decide. What's that one product, and where are you going to add urgency?

Remember, events drive sales, so test it. Once you get that up, set up a webinar, and have people sign up, and get going on that.

All right, we are teaching, well, two things. I have a 7-day webinar action plan, completely free. It'll help you organize your whole webinar, and even a day in there to actually give the webinar. So, you've got plenty of stuff there. You can go to FamilyEbiz.com/7daywebinar. It's in the show notes, and then I am teaching a VIP day all about webinars. Super excited, because we've been using webinars since 2006, I think. Wow, that's almost 20 years!

But webinars work. They drive sales because they are events. Just think, when you go to a convention, people spend money there because they're at an event, and they're all excited, and they start to see, well, how this can help them. So please join me with the VIP webinar day. I can't wait to share some of the things that have worked, and some of the tweaks that we are making right now. I saw some really cool things that I am going to be putting into practice to get people on that live webinar. And I'll share it with you at the VIP date.

I am Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.

Too many business owners try to sell to everyone — and end up reaching no one. In this episode, we’re breaking down how to identify your marketing to target audiences so you can stop guessing and start connecting with the right buyers.

You’ll discover how narrowing your focus creates clarity in your message, confidence in your sales, and consistent growth in your business. Real stories, simple strategies, and proven steps will guide you in finding the right people who are already waiting for your solution.

✅Why selling to everyone is the fastest way to stall your business

✅Why JCPenney lost billions trying to appeal to everyone (while Target doubled down and thrived)

✅The simple 2-question survey that becomes a goldmine for conversions

✅How to create a customer profile that practically writes your sales pages for you

✅Why webinars are the secret weapon for pre-qualifying your best buyers

✅My exact process for narrowing your niche without losing sales

Recommended Resources:

7-Day Webinar Action Plan

Webinar VIP Day

Show Notes:

Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale their online businesses, giving you strategies so you can be successful and find freedom in your life to do what you're called to do.

This is our second episode in the middle of a series on consistent sales. How do you make consistent sales? Last time we talked about it's not the traffic, it's your sales conversion. Hopefully, if you didn't get that, go back. Some of you do need more traffic, I understand that, but some of you need to rework your sales pages, or your events, or whatever you're using to sell your product.

Today, we're going to talk about stop guessing how to sell, or more importantly, what to sell. I want to help you find the right buyers for your product.

Not everyone is your customer. In fact, the fastest way to fail your business is to try to sell to everyone. We want... well, we don't want to lose anyone. Maybe that person will buy, maybe that person will buy, so I'm going to try to sell my product to everyone.

You see, businesses thrive when they know exactly who their buyers are. They create products, and they market those products just for that segment of the world, of the audiences out there.

Let's talk about how can we narrow our niche. It's been said, the tighter the niche, the more you get rich. The power of narrowing it down. Who is your audience?

Let's take a look back, just 15 years ago, 2010, we had two stores, retail stores. We had Target and JCPenney. In the early 2010s, JCPenney's tried to be everyone, be everything to everyone. They had generic pricing, they had a broad appeal, and you know what happened? Their sales tanked by billions.

On the other hand, Target doubled down, and they found a specific audience. I actually remember these days, because they went from just t-shirts and, like, cheap clothes, sort of, comparable to Walmart. They said, we are going to focus on women, moms, that are style-conscious, but want something that is affordable. And they doubled down on that, and their sales grew.

You see, they knew the power of finding and narrowing their niche. The broad audiences dilute your message, but specific audiences can convert. Target went all in, they brought in lines, they brought in designers, and they also made it affordable. These were people that couldn't just go get designer clothes for $500, but they could pay $35 for it. They really looked, and they knew exactly who their audience was.

This is a mindset shift. We sell to who? This little group, not everyone. People don't buy products. They buy solutions to their problems. If you don't know who your audience is, then you don't know what their problem is.

Who has the problem that you're solving? You have to know who it is so you can position your product as the solution. Instead of asking, how do I sell more? That's what most of you are like, I gotta go make another product, I gotta go make another product. Instead of, how do I sell more? Who am I really selling to?

I had to do this in my homeschool business. I have things that pretty much any homeschooler could use, but I had to really narrow down. One, I narrowed down to the Christian homeschooler market. Two, ones that were overwhelmed and wanted to add more purpose, they wanted to know their kids were going to be okay when they graduated. That's when I began my flagship product of raising leaders, not followers. It is not for everyone. It is not cheap. It's $197. I had to narrow down who that audience is and then show them the transformation.

You've got to listen to your audience. Tip number one, listen first with surveys and replies. When I launched, or before I launched, Raising Leaders, Not Followers, about 3 years ago, I did several things called validation calls. I got on Zoom with people that had done some of my Raising Leaders work before, and I asked them questions and I listened. Then I used their vocabulary when it came time to talk about the transformation. I didn't use mine. I used real, live homeschool moms out there.

Have you done any validation calls? How could you do this? You could start a two-question survey. Super simple. What's your biggest struggle right now with losing weight? With budgeting my money, with getting my kid's attitude in line. What is your biggest struggle? What would solving that mean for you? Those are just two of the questions that I asked.

If you get answers to these questions, that is a goldmine for you to be able to convert your readers, your listeners, your watchers into buyers. You want to use their language, and just let them reply to an email, or set up a quick little Google form.

There's a man named Ryan Levesque. He has the ASK method. He built a multi-million dollar business by starting with quizzes and surveys. He wanted to find out what each group's problem is, and then speak directly to their pain points. That's an advanced way, but segmenting your list.

I have moms that I can pull up that are all into, I need help with attitude. I have some that need help with character. I have some that need help homeschooling. I have some that need help planning and organizing. When I segment them or tag them in AWeber, then I can send them specific emails, specifically to their pain point. That's what Ryan Levesque did.

When you understand their pain point, your webinars and your sales pages practically write themselves. Especially on a webinar. I start out on my webinar first thing after I've said, here we are, and here's what we're gonna do. Quick win. I find whatever their pain point is, and in 5 minutes, I give them a little activity that they can do, that they can get a quick win. If you don't know that activity, then you need to start using it immediately.

Number two tip. Create a simple customer profile. I highly encourage you to know your customer inside out, but for those of you that are just starting, or maybe you're going to go a different avenue. 3 to 5 traits. Don't overcomplicate.

You want to find out who your best buyer is? Some things you might ask: what's their age? What's their family situation, their work situation? What is their biggest frustration or challenge, and what transformation do they want to see in their life, in their work, in their family, wherever?

Henry Ford, who founded the Ford Motor Company, he built the Model T. He did not build it for every family in the United States. Rich people could go buy a Cadillac, or whatever was out there, a Rolls Royce. He didn't build just a car. He built a car for the average American family. They needed something affordable and reliable, and that's what he did. He focused on one clear customer, someone that didn't have maybe as much money as the rich people, and someone that wanted something reliable, and he dominated that market.

You need a clear profile of who your audience is, and that will guide you into what products to create and what messaging you're going to use. You've got to know your customer, and if you don't know that, you need to know that before you ever create products.

Some of y'all are... I got 10 products and I'm not making any money. Pick one of them, figure out who the audience is that this product solves a problem for, what is the problem, and just go all in trying to sell that for the next 2 or 3 months.

I personally love webinars. I call them masterclasses. This is a way we can pre-qualify the buyers. Just think about it. If you go to a webinar, masterclass, whatever you want to call it. And you register, you show up, and you stay to the end. Are you interested, or just sort of, I don't know. Yeah, you're highly interested!

A live event isn't just for selling, it's for filtering your best buyers. I did some webinars in the last couple weeks, and I had people show up. I had people apologize for not being able to stay till the end, can you send me a replay? They were all into this.

Just think, I have a chance to build trust and give value for 30, 45 minutes. Then I can sell them, but I'm not just selling them. I am serving them, and I'm giving them a solution. If I listen to someone to the end, I'm probably interested, like, can you give me some more help? You're not selling, you're serving, and you're helping them.

Webinars or online events help you build trust, but also offer urgency. And you find exactly your right buyers. You get someone on live, they see who you are, they see how you teach. You can pre-qualify who your buyers are just by using a webinar.

I've got a couple exercises for you to do. Number 1, write down your top 3 buyer traits. Write it down right now. When you finish this, write that down. Then think, where are these people hanging out? How can I serve them better?

Some of y'all have told me, no one ever replies. Well, you don't give up. You keep going. When I first looked for some feedback, no one replied. Did I give up? No. I moved from email to DMs on social media. And that's where they work. Maybe get in some groups, and don't sell anything, you are doing research.

Go find where they hang out on YouTube, or Instagram, or social, or do you have some people on your email list that you can actually talk to? You need to get your three buyer traits, go find those people, and find out what their problem is, and how your product can solve your problem.

Remember, don't sell to everyone. Use surveys to listen to your people. Create a simple profile. Use webinars as a buyer filter.

If you are in my Facebook group, share your buyer profile inside the Facebook group. I would love for us to start sharing and see who you could connect with. Maybe someone else has a similar buyer profile, and you could collaborate with them. Tag me when you put that on that Facebook post as well.

Get the 7-Day Webinar Action Plan: You can go to familyebiz.com/7-day-webinar for a step-by-step plan that gives you one page with all seven days, and then some pages that you can fill out the information that you need for that day.

All-Day Webinar Training: In September, I think it's September 20th, whatever that Saturday is, I am going to be doing an all-day training on webinars. Many of you have asked me for help on webinars, or master classes, or workshops, whatever you want to call it. I'm going to show you why it works, how you use it, how to set up your webinar, different kinds of email and follow-up as well. You can go to familyebiz.com/VIP-webinar and go ahead and sign up for it.

I'd love to get to know you. I would love to help you. I would love to help you increase and be able to finish strong in 2025. Get consistent sales.

Hey, I am Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.