Welcome to episode 3 of the Free & Fearless podcast where you’ll learn how I made 2020 my best year by taking massive action in the right direction.

The tips I share are absolutely applicable to almost anyone so I believe this episode will inspire you to take action on your goals, make changes and see how the pandemic can be the perfect time for business and personal growth.

Listen to the episode below:

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Show Notes:

• [2:29] Who saw the opportunity 2020 provided
• [5:56] A big mistake I’ve been making for a long time in my business
• [7:49] How I defined my ideal readers and students
• [9:51] My best investments this year
• [11:19] How I was hiding online and what I did about it

Transcript

2020 was probably the saddest year for all of us.

Even if you weren’t directly affected by the pandemic (although that would make you pretty lucky because I think for the first time since I remember, everyone was affected negatively even if indirectly), but – even if you feel like you weren’t – well so much bad stuff was happening all around you that your daily life just wasn’t the same.

Social interaction became limited, there was lockdown in most big countries in the world and everyone was stuck at home, any of your loved ones could actually get the virus at any moment and you yourself needed to be careful not to spread it without knowing.

This is our new normal now and people can be divided into a few groups. 

Those who were so affected that survival became their main thing – and let me say this – if you’re listening to a motivational podcast on business growth like this one – you’re blessed. 

Then there’s the people who lost their job, weren’t motivated to do anything, became antisocial, indulged in all lazy and unhealthy habits possible, and watched the news and complained.

Then, there’s the people who were okay with it and focused on their families, hobbies and work.

Another category includes the entrepreneurs whose businesses were in the right niche or who pivoted strategically so they grew their revenue and reach more than ever.

And last but not least, there’s 1 pretty awesome type of people – the ones who saw the opportunity 2020 provided, with all the stay-at-home time, remote work and education, courses and coaching at your fingertips, and they said, “This is it. This is the year I will invest in myself and build something online.”

So, maybe they took a course and followed all the steps. If they already had a hobby that they knew could be monetized or wanted to do what they did at their regular job but for themselves this time, or maybe they started from scratch and followed their intuition to start a business on a topic they are passionate about serving the audience that needs to hear what they have to say.

Or maybe they read so much about this, whether it’s a blogging business, being an influencer, having a podcast, writing a book or teaching something online, and took the steps necessary to get the business off the ground and started growing their audience, building an email list and getting better at marketing.

If you’re one of these people, congrats girl. You’re amazing. You create even more opportunities and can help other women with the work you do, the value you create in the world and the services or products you provide.

In this episode, I wanna share what I did in 2020 in my business and I believe some of what I say might give you ideas for what step to take next in your journey. 

Maybe there’s something you were investing a lot of time in but it simply didn’t feel right or wasn’t giving you results, or maybe this isn’t the business you had in mind so you want something slightly different but aren’t sure how to go about it.

So let me tell you what I started doing, what I stopped doing and what I completely changed about the way I do business.

1. Niching down

There’s a saying in business I love, it goes like this: If you’re speaking to everyone, you’re speaking to no one.

And now, with so many other women starting businesses this year and serving only their dream clients, it’s more important than ever to niche down.

I had some common fears about this such as maybe that means I’ll lose half of my current audience, or some people will be offended, or I have to change my copy and other elements of my branding all over the place and that will take a lot of effort.

All these were excuses because the fact that I haven’t niched down till now, simply meant I kept making the same mistake and now was the right time to fix it.

So it all began by taking 2 really cool branding courses as that’s 1 of the main aspects of my business I wanted to improve this year. In them, there were so many exercises for finding clarity, finding your brand voice and defining your message and mission statement, knowing who your audience is and speaking only to them, telling my personal brand story in a more authentic way and finding out my brand personality and how I want to be perceived online and offline.

All this together with trying to find out my real ‘why’. Because you know this changes over the years, your vision and goals can also grow together with you and your business, so it’s worth re-defining them every now and then.

And I found out some pretty interesting things such as the fact that I’ve been thinking of serving only women for a long time now, but just didn’t have the guts. 

Luckily, also thanks to other great courses I had enrolled in this year on topics such as email marketing, digital products and business growth and mindset, and finding the perfect new premium WordPress theme for my blog, and wanting to do work that matters, I finally niched down in a couple of ways.

I defined my 4 avatars and they are all female. 

These were pretty detailed. Meaning for each, the woman I would target from then on is at a certain stage of her journey, has certain aspirations, is ready to take some steps but needs the right content to help her take action. 

And I know pretty well what each of these journeys look like, together with the challenges, the mental barriers, the inner struggles and the many reasons why the woman feels like giving up or is overwhelmed. 

Because I’ve been there. These 4 avatars are basically who I’ve been in the last decade and who I am now, what I’m struggling with, what my income goal is, what I’m doing wrong, how I’m investing in my growth, and so on.

But I also target ambitious women, modern women, those that want more out of life, who are all about personal growth and interested in starting something online, be it on the side to earn an extra income, or a real business that will provide financial independence.

Once I did that, many of the next decisions in my business, regarding content creation, topics to cover on the blog, which new social media channel to be on, what lead magnets to create, what emails to write – this all became easier as I was now doing it all for the woman that would benefit from it the most.

So if you haven’t niched down in your business yet, if you’re covering so many categories and aren’t sure what your main content and offers should be about, maybe you also need to do something similar.

2. Taking the right courses.

I invested in a business bundle and from there a few courses stood out.

Thanks to them, I learned and did a lot in the right direction, I improved my email marketing, branding, offers, blog design and more, and began following their creators and learning more from them.

Thanks to these awesome women who I now follow on Instagram, know what they are working on, invested in their new programs, and even interview for my blog, I am inspired on a daily basis to show up as the best version myself, to stop hiding and create content that matters.

So, it’s not just about taking courses, we can all do that of course. But it’s about choosing carefully who you want to trust and whose product you want to invest it so it can help you, your business model, and your income goals. 

3. Being aligned with myself.

I fall in love with the word alignment (it’s my word of the year for 2021) and now seek it in everything I do.

The previous 2 points I mentioned play a big role in all this, but also I did a lot of inner work, listened to so many podcasts, read books, followed the right people, and just became more honest with myself and defined what I wasn’t doing right.

I knew I was hiding, I wasn’t creating the best content I could. Many of the things I did on a weekly basis simply weren’t profound, they didn’t provide real value, they weren’t really me and they weren’t the best work I could do.

So, I made changes.

I displayed my personality, qualities, core values and even more pictures of myself everywhere on the blog than ever. I got back on Instagram and started posting often, telling stories, sharing pictures and adding value to the platform.

I wanted to add my voice to my content strategy, to built trust, to attract more of the right people, to connect on a deeper level which can’t really happen though a blog post.

I also started removing elements that felt out of place. That’s one of my paid products, one of my free courses, some of the lead magnets I had been offering up until that point, some categories on the blog which weren’t relevant or really me or aligned with my mission anymore.

The new products and freebies and just any type of content that I’ll create will be aligned with everything though, that’s for sure. And it feels awesome. 

It feels so right to be working on the things that will help me create this beautiful business model focused on only reaching the right women and helping them become fearless in one way or another, by starting a blogging business thanks to all my tutorials and courses, or by encouraging them to take action and follow their dreams in the new year thanks to my podcast or anything else they saw online.

And here’s the final thing.

4. In 2020, I practiced self-care more than ever before. 

I read many books, listened to so many podcast episodes packed with value by women that I can call my mentors now. 

I also started taking better care of my skin, got back to journaling and having morning and evening routines.

Often did less and took breaks, took care of my health, felt like changing my clothing style and some other things, and I actually did it and it felt right. Aligned my online and offline branding with who I am and who I wanna be and felt more inspired than ever.

There was more time in 2020 due to the lack of distractions. Not to mention I stuck to my daily rituals and didn’t really watch the news because it’s only made to cause anxiety.

It’s always the right time to practice self-care. So if you haven’t already, now is a good time to start.

I say no quite often and people call me a person with a strong personality because of that, and someone knowing what they want, and it’s true. But in 2020, I said to more than ever.

Many things had to go from my life so there’s space, clarity and alignment and a few new elements were added as I’m changing direction. 

There are so many other things you can do, decisions you can take, beliefs you can release and habits you can stop doing so you can see growth in any area. That’s what I call massive action.

And one of the most beautiful things about it is that it creates momentum and leads to even more action.

Thanks for tuning in today, and if you enjoyed that episode I’d really appreciate it if you review the show on iTunes so more women like us can hear that and become a bit more fearless today.

Don’t forget to also reach out on Instagram with any question you have. Find me at @letsreachsucces and let’s be friends.