Author: Nicole Baldinu

In business today, we don’t just sell our product. We sell ourselves. Personal branding, authentic connection with our audience, and sharing the journey is de rigueur for aspiring entrepreneurs.

But where do we draw the line?

It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’ve got a doozy of a question from a listener who’s not sure whether to wear their faith on their sleeve, or keep it behind closed doors. It’s a challenging topic, and one of the most difficult questions we’ve had to answer. That said, it’s crucial to figure out exactly where your values fit into your business and public persona.

As a founder, you’re a crucial part of your own marketing infrastructure. What parts of yourself you share will depend on the value these details add for your audience. Today, we discuss how to decide if your faith (or lack thereof) is something your customers will appreciate, or if it’s best to keep it between you and the almighty. Click Play!

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Podia

Easily sell Online Courses, Memberships, and Digital Downloads to your audience. With more than 10,000 creators on the platform, Podia is the easiest way to earn a living teaching what you know. Create a beautiful storefront in minutes and start selling your digital products. No technical knowledge needed, and no third-party plugins required. Check out podia.com/mba now!

Earth Class Mail

Transform the daily piles of mail, checks, invoices, and correspondence into digital documents.  Earth Class Mail office mail automation is the easiest way to set up a physical business address. Earth Class Mail will process paper mail into digital format, and put it on the on cloud for easy access. Get your first month free at earthclassmail.com/mbamonth

What do your customers want? If you don’t have the answer to that question, you don’t have a business.

It may sound obvious, but entrepreneurs overlook this question way too often. When creating our products and building our businesses, it’s strangely easy to forget about being customer-centered. We fall in love with our own ideas, our own visions, and we forget that success means discovering, defining, and fulfilling customers’ wishes.

Today, we discuss how to keep your eye on the ball of customer desire. By focusing on their problems (instead of your ideas), you can build a foundation of sustainability for your business. We’ll show you how to assess your business for customer-centeredness, and help you figure out exactly what you need to promise (and deliver) to win your audience over.

Remember: it’s not about you. Click Play!

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Today’s Sponsors

Podia

Easily sell Online Courses, Memberships, and Digital Downloads to your audience. With more than 10,000 creators on the platform, Podia is the easiest way to earn a living teaching what you know. Create a beautiful storefront in minutes and start selling your digital products. No technical knowledge needed, and no third-party plugins required. Check out podia.com/mba now!

Earth Class Mail

Transform the daily piles of mail, checks, invoices, and correspondence into digital documents.  Earth Class Mail office mail automation is the easiest way to set up a physical business address. Earth Class Mail will process paper mail into digital format, and put it on the on cloud for easy access. Get your first month free at earthclassmail.com/mbamonth

Business is global, and that comes with incredible advantages. Today’s entrepreneurs can draw talent from all over the world, finding skilled, affordable remote team members wherever they are.

But all that far-flung talent comes with one little drawback: time zones.

Today, we discuss how to navigate the problem of the clock. With employees in Australia, Eastern Europe, Asia, and America, we know how tricky it can be to align everyone’s schedules. Making sure that distant team members can collaborate across time zones is crucial to reaping the benefits of global business.

Fortunately, there are tools, tricks, and strategies for keeping everyone on the same page, even when they’re not in the same part of the world. Managed properly, your business can be a 24-hour machine, running smoothly as your trusted team handles business whatever time of day (or night) it is for you. Click Play!

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Today’s Sponsors

Podia

Easily sell Online Courses, Memberships, and Digital Downloads to your audience. With more than 10,000 creators on the platform, Podia is the easiest way to earn a living teaching what you know. Create a beautiful storefront in minutes and start selling your digital products. No technical knowledge needed, and no third-party plugins required. Check out podia.com/mba now!

Earth Class Mail

Transform the daily piles of mail, checks, invoices, and correspondence into digital documents.  Earth Class Mail office mail automation is the easiest way to set up a physical business address. Earth Class Mail will process paper mail into digital format, and put it on the on cloud for easy access. Get your first month free at earthclassmail.com/mbamonth

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EasyCourse

WebinarNinja

Slack

Basecamp

Twist

World Time Buddy

Refunds: they’re gonna happen. More importantly, offering the option of a refund is critical to earning your audience’s trust. With an entire Internet’s worth of competitors to choose from, today’s customers demand more information — and more guarantees — than ever before.

As a business owner, you’ve got to create a refund policy that makes your customers feel valued and respected. With a strong, customer-friendly refund policy, you put your money where your mouth is, guaranteeing by your actions that the product is one you stand behind.

Remember: offering to take your product back is one of the most powerful ways to sell it!

Today, we discuss 3 key factors a good refund policy should include, with specific details on how to make the policy work. You’ll learn how to craft and (more importantly) communicate your policy to create maximum trust. Click Play!

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Today’s Sponsors

Earth Class Mail

Transform the daily piles of mail, checks, invoices, and correspondence into digital documents.  Earth Class Mail office mail automation is the easiest way to set up a physical business address. Earth Class Mail will process paper mail into digital format, and put it on the on cloud for easy access. Get your first month free at earthclassmail.com/mbamonth

Podia

Easily sell Online Courses, Memberships, and Digital Downloads to your audience. With more than 10,000 creators on the platform, Podia is the easiest way to earn a living teaching what you know. Create a beautiful storefront in minutes and start selling your digital products. No technical knowledge needed, and no third-party plugins required. Check out podia.com/mba now!

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Thrive Themes

Can you do this? Are you entrepreneur material?

You’re not the only one asking. In fact, it’s the “Q” in this week’s Q&A! It’s a big, scary question mark for those who want to break out on their own, but haven’t taken the leap just yet. So what makes someone suited for the entrepreneurial life? What skill sets, talents, and dispositions raise the odds of success?

With 17 years of entrepreneurship behind him, Omar knows a thing or two about what it takes. Having known and helped guide countless independent business people, he’s identified a few key traits (and understandings) that almost every solid entrepreneur has in common.

Best of all, these traits aren’t genetic or gifted by fate. They’re learned habits, tendencies, and abilities that you can choose to cultivate. Whether you’re running a restaurant, a coaching course, a SaaS, or anything else, these are the basic tools that’ll take you wherever you need to go. Click Play!

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Capterra

Still doing things the old way? Improve your productivity with a software upgrade. Find the software that fits you and your business perfectly, from project management to email marketing and more. Join the millions who use Capterra each month to find the right tools for their business. Visit capterra.com/mba, and make 2019 the year for your business.

Earth Class Mail

Transform the daily piles of mail, checks, invoices, and correspondence into digital documents.  Earth Class Mail office mail automation is the easiest way to set up a physical business address. Earth Class Mail will process paper mail into digital format, and put it on the on cloud for easy access. Get your first month free at earthclassmail.com/mbamonth

Yes, we’re recommending Facebook as a business tool. That may come as a shock to longtime listeners, who know what we think of the overrated, underperforming so-called “power” of social media marketing.

Bear with us.

Facebook Groups offer a wonderful opportunity for growth. Not revenue growth, not traffic growth, but the most important growth of all: your growth as an entrepreneur. By leveraging this useful little tool, you can become the entrepreneur you need to be. It’s more than worth your time to devote some effort each week to using social media this way.

With Groups, you can validate ideas, find support, network, and forge seriously valuable relationships with other business people. Today, we discuss what groups to look for, how to get into them, and how to participate in a way that gets you a big ROI. Learn how Facebook can build your credibility in the market. Click Play!

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Today’s Sponsors

Earth Class Mail

Transform the daily piles of mail, checks, invoices, and correspondence into digital documents.  Earth Class Mail office mail automation is the easiest way to set up a physical business address. Earth Class Mail will process paper mail into digital format, and put it on the on cloud for easy access. Get your first month free at earthclassmail.com/mbamonth

HoneyBook

HoneyBook is an all-in-one business management platform for creative small businesses. They make it easy to streamline your process with client and calendar management tools, plus custom branded proposals and contracts. Save hundreds or thousands of hours a year. Get 50% off your first year by using promo code MBA at honeybook.com