Hey Richfriends! Welcome to the first episode of my all new video series – The Nicole Walters Show!
The Nicole Walters Show is my opportunity to tap into my network of entrepreneur friends – all for the benefit of my Richfriends. Guys, the lineup of I have in store for you is nothing short of amazing . And they’re not amazing because they’ve made a billion dollars or get flown around the world to fancypants speaking engagements. They’re amazing because they’re REAL people – everyday entrepreneurs – just like us. Sharing their journey, and the steps along the way. My friends are honest – they’ve had the highest of highs and the lowest lows. And they’re transparent about what it truly means to have a dream and do the work.
In this first episode, I sat down with Nikki Lewis – Food Business Consultant and co-host of the top-rated podcast Biz Underdog to Top Dog.
If Nikki looks familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve seen her on Lifetime’s Supermarket Superstar or heard of her other brand, Mallow Crunchies (or her dessert spot, The Mallow Bar).
Nikki sat down with me to share about her entrepreneurial journey –her obsession with crispy treats – how it all crumbled apart, and how she built it back up! Guys, it’s not easy to bounce back from a tough business call – and Nikki will tell you exactly how she did it!
We’re diving deep and hitting on these topics:
Building momentum with wins in your business
Working on your business versus in your business
The pivot point – walking away from opportunities and closing doors
Rebounding and other lessons learned in the down moments of entrepreneurship
Seriously, this episode is filled with entrepreneurial gems. Nikki touched on so many things that I try to drive home with my Richfriends – things like having multiple income streams, and finding the teachable moments in the difficult times.
Watch it here, and tweet me your biggest takeaway using hashtag #TheNicoleWaltersShow:
When you’re new to the online biz life, nothing’s better than waking up to a ton of new followers! Not only is it confirmation that you’re making an impact – but it’s an opportunity to convert those followers into buyers!
Here’s the thing – to turn followers into buyers, you need a solid follow up strategy. You know, we don’t do business in Facebook Inboxes (where messages get filtered!), or via twitter (who can pitch in 140 characters?).
The easiest, and most professional, way to keep in contact with your audience is email.
Lean in, cause I’m covering the big deets – when to invest in an email marketing solution, which (ultra cost friendly) email marketing tool I love, and why it takes the guesswork out of sending emails.
When do I drop the coin for an ‘official’ email marketing product?
Back in the day (like 2009, ha!) you collected email addresses from your fans and followers, and then you would copy and paste them to a list or somehow save them in your email address book. From there, when you needed to send updates, you’d copy and paste them into the address line in your email. SUPER Old School. Emphasis on Old.
The copy and paste method is cool when you have 10-20 people on your list, but we’re fancypants entrepreneurs building mega tribes, right? We don’t have time for that! Not to mention the list of other issues:
Strangers seeing your email addy.
Who opened what email, and when?
Manually unsubscribing people who don’t realize your awesomeness.
And of course, we all know someone who always hits ‘reply all’ – and no one likes that person. Don’t be that person.
So it comes down to this – if you’re operating a business (no matter the size of your email list), and you plan on growing your brand – you need to invest in an email marketing solution.
Okay, I get it, Nicole – but WHICH email marketing system? And it better not be expensive!
Guys, you know I have you covered on the low business overhead! My two favorites – budget friendly, but value packed email marketing systems are MailChimp and ConvertKit. I’ve tried the fancypants guru favorites InfusionSoft and Aweber. They work – but between the cost, ultra basic templates and the 3-hour tutorial to get the most bang for your buck – they’re so not my style. Especially the cost. Ha!
ConvertKit & MailChimp. That’s easy – but what do they DO?
The real question, is what don’t they do! You can:
Store all the email addresses you collect in a database.
Create different customer lists i.e. Facebook lead list or Instagram lead list.
Deliver emails to the people on your list – this is called a ‘broadcast.’
Delegate your unsubscribe management to your mmail management system.
Find out who actually opened your email and clicked the links to greatness you share!
Ok, so obviously all email management systems do these things – but what bells and whistles make Mailchimp and ConvertKit the hot stuff? Well…
MailChimp
Simple pricing structure (basic level is FREE – my favorite price to pay!)
Super easy to set up.
VIDEOS! Their help center has tons of easy to follow videos that SHOW you how to do things.
Dashboard amazingness – it’s so easy to tell how well an email does. You can tell how many people opened it and how many people leave your list – right at login.
Y’all, when I was a newbie, MailChimp stole my heart. I started with them when I had about 109 people on my list (reminder: I had a blog business BEFORE I launched my consulting company). I even stayed with MailChimp for over a year after that. As my list grew, I needed features that served my Richfriends more – features like ‘segmentation,’. Segmentation allows you to send personalized messages to different people on your list based on what they’ve clicked on or emails they’ve loved. Yep, not everyone wants to see all your business all the time. Once I had over 5000 people on my list, I ‘outgrew’ what I wanted from MailChimp…so I graduated to ConvertKit…well sorta.
I heard from industry greats that InfusionSoft was the way to go, so I had my team get on that ASAP (I don’t do tech). I dropped the coin, switched to InfusionSoft, and it was not my thing. Complicated, chock full of awesome features (that I had no idea how to use quickly) and my Richfriends were all waiting to hear from me! I needed a new option, and I needed one fast. 60 days later we found ConvertKit and made the switch.
Guys. Y’all. Richfriends…I’m obsessed.
ConvertKit does everything MailChimp does PLUS segmentation and it’s cheaper!!!!
What does this mean for you, my brilliant Richfriend?
Rich Friend, can I ask you an honest question? (I’m going to assume you said, “Sure, Nicole! Ask away!)
How much money do you have in your savings account?
Yikes! That escalated quickly.
You guys know I love to be all up in your business – but not because I’m nosy. I’m here to help you crush it, and crushing it is all about action – it’s about taking the time to #dothework.
If your heart started pounding when I asked about savings, it probably means one of two things:
You’re not saving money as much as you think you need to or;
You’re not saving money at all.
Don’t get too down on yourself, Rich Friend. According to recent studies, about half of all Americans are saving 5% or less of their income annually. On top of that, another 18% are saving nothing.
What does that mean? It means little to no money in the bank for emergency car or home repairs. It means being financially stuck between a rock and a hard place, should a medical emergency arise. And it also means no fancy yachts.
Chances are, you know you need to save. But there’s a huge difference between knowing that you need to do something, and actually doing it. Saving money can be difficult (trust me, I’ve been there), but once you start cultivating that habit of putting something aside for a rainy day, you’ll be much more at ease and not driven by the urgency of coin when making decisions for your business.
Tight Budget? No Problem.
If you’re feeling like your budget is a little too tight to put away 15% of your earnings every paycheck (or #receipt), I’ve got good news for you – there’s an app for that.
Seriously.
There’s a nifty little app called Acorns, that helps you save while simultaneously creating a stock portfolio. And the best part? You won’t even notice it happening.
Acorns is a mobile app and desktop application that was created to help everyday folks like you and I get a leg up on saving and investing for the future. When you sign up for Acorns, you’re simultaneously creating a savings account and an investment portfolio. Rather than have the money just sit in a traditional savings account and accrue negligible interest, Acorns invests your money into a diversified stock portfolio optimized to help you meet your financial goals.
With Acorns, there are three ways to grow your money:
You can establish reoccurring deposits to transfer money from your bank account of choice to your Acorns portfolio
Invest a lump sum into your Acorns portfolio
Connect your bank account of choice and use their “Round-Ups” feature to grow your portfolio.
With reoccurring deposits, you establish a set amount of money (there’s a $5 minimum) that you’d like to transfer from your bank account to your Acorn, and then select the frequency. You can have reoccurring deposits to your Acorns portfolio daily, weekly, or monthly.
The Lump sum investing option allows you to make a one-time deposit (say, you get a bonus from work) and) put it in your investment portfolio to grow it.
Round-Ups is my favorite, because it takes the coins that round out your debit card transactions to the nearest dollar, and moves them to your Acorn investment account. For example, if you spend $4.37 at Starbucks, $0.63 gets moved to your Acorns portfolio. They essentially round up to the nearest dollar and transfer that amount.
It may seem small and insignificant, but think of all the times you use your debit card on a weekly basis – lunch at work, groceries, coffee runs, gas…the list goes on. Each time you spend, Acorns scrapes those extra coins and puts them aside – and you won’t even notice they’re gone!
More Than Just Saving
What really sets Acorns apart from other savings solutions is that it’s more than just saving money. Acorn is literally helping you build an investment portfolio. Once you sign up, you’ll be prompted to complete a financial profile that details your employment information, net worth, reason for investing, and time frame to your financial goal. Based on that information, Acorns will make a stock portfolio recommendation ranging from conservative to aggressive. You can choose whichever portfolio best suits your goals.
Guys, this is real deal coin making – happening right now. Some of my Rich Friends have created Acorns accounts with Round-Ups only and saved over $100 in less than 2 months. $100?! Did you realize you had that much spare change rolling around in your account? Me neither!
All you need to get your Acorns account rolling is $5. That’s it guys – 5 bucks. What’s even cooler is that Acorns has a referral program – send your fellow Rich Friends your personalized link, and when they sign up for an account, you each will get $5! You can earn up to $100 in referrals every calendar year (that’s up to 20 Rich Friends and family members). Earn that affiliate coin!
Once you set everything up, just sit back and watch it grow…and breathe a sigh of relief.
Round up transfers don’t happen immediately. Round up amounts need to hit $5 before Acorns can move it from your account – once you reach a number of transactions where the change rounds up to $5 or more, that amount is transferred.
Acorns can only transfer, invest, and round up money from personal accounts – business accounts are not allowed.
When selecting your stock portfolio, Acorns shows projections based on your financial goals to help you decide which portfolio to pursue – but they make no guarantees. It’s just forecasting.
To financially empower the next generation of investors, Acorns is free for students and anyone under the age of 24. For those of us over 24, Acorns fees is really affordable. For accounts valued at under $5,000, there is a $1 monthly maintenance fee deducted from your Acorn. For accounts over $5,000, there’s an annual fee of 0.25%.
Nothing makes me happier than seeing Rich Friends block the broke and denounce doing free. I mean, one of the foundational pieces of The Monetized Life is building a place for people to drop off their money, right? But payments can still be frustrating. How many times did you have to send that same invoice over?
Because I’m all about helping my Rich Friends get their coin, I couldn’t wait to share the news about PayPal.Me – PayPal’s latest and greatest way to automate invoicing and make collecting coin a breeze. With PayPal.Me, all you have to do is send your personalized link and boom! Coin collecting time!
Signing up for your very own PayPal.Me account is super simple and literally takes 10 seconds:
Type your custom URL into the box (I recommend using your name) and click “Grab this Link”
From there you’ll be directed to log in to your PayPal account (you do have one of those, right?)
Once you log in, simply scroll to the bottom, accept the terms and conditions, and activate your PayPal.Me account.
Easy peasy.
PayPal.Me is useful in all types of situations. Suppose that you get asked to write a blog post or product review. Normally, you’d do the work, send an invoice, and wait. And wait some more. Some folks might be ok with waiting, but not my Rich Friends! Receiving payments in a timely manner is critical to small business operations.
That’s where PayPal.Me comes in handy. Instead of creating an invoice and relying on traditional bank transfers, credit card processors, or a paper check, you can just include your PayPal.Me link in your e-mail, text, or other messaging correspondence. Once your link is sent, all the other person has to do is enter the amount, and approve it. The money moves into your account instantly, and you’re able to put more time into your business as a result.
Because your PayPal.Me address is your own personal link, you can use it virtually anywhere! Text it to your friends. E-mail it to your clients. Heck, even place it directly on your website and Facebook business page (please tell me you have one of those) so those coins can roll in!
While PayPal.Me may not be able to solve all your invoicing problems, it can definitely help streamline at least a portion of your payment transfers. Streamlined = more free time. And you guys know I’m all about efficiency and freeing up time. Less time spent on invoicing means more time being put into your business. More time put into your business means what? More coin opportunities.
