ruby marsh, Author at ruby marsh

Small Business

Three Simple Tools to Take the Right Action in Your Small Business

February 14, 2021

When it comes to your small business vision, don’t worry if you don’t have it nailed on January 1st.

Be it February, March or July – you’re never too late to be organised & goal focussed.

Whatever month you’re starting in, we’re going to be:

✔️Intentional and set goals that will move the needle

✔️Be brave over perfect. Your vision isn’t too big, but we need to get started

✔️Decide to be the owner of your success. Grab it. Create boundaries and structures to thrive

Seriously, let’s not have that vision stay as pictures on your vision board above your desk, be pinning furiously at midnight while the kids sleep, or leave them as goals scribbled in a diary ready to action when the Jupiter and Saturn align (might be waiting another 400 years?)

How about we shake it up and make this your best year in business by…

📌 turning that vision into a reality by ensuring you have the “right” goals on the board

📌 arming yourself with a clear structure to successfully go after your goals – let’s make success a given!

📌 learning mindset strategies to reduce fear and enjoy the journey as you achieve the impossible (because let’s face it, business is a rollercoaster sometimes)

Tune in to this 90min power-packed masterclass and download your workbook to play along at home by clicking the button below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD WORKBOOK

Everything in your small business starts with a clear vision.

Not sure what your business vision looks like yet?

Maybe this is the year you pivot your services and attract more dream clients?

Or you could feel like you have a bunch of inspirational images but nothing concrete yet?

Start with a crystal clear vision and everything will flow from there.

Design Your Business Vision is a simple quick-start guide for creatives to help you use your genius and get paid well doing what you love. In the guide you’ll:

✅ Discover your why

✅ Money clarity

✅ Your zone of genius

✅ 3 strategies to choosing the best idea

✅ Refine your idea

✅ Two page quick start plan

by ruby marsh

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Small Business

Creating a humanised marketing strategy without social media as a service-based business

January 14, 2021

2020, it was nothing short of crazy and yet, I can say with confidence that social media contributed greatly to opening new doors and possibilities.

Many of these new doors evolved into some really beautiful experiences both online and offline.

Social media also gifted me new friendships, industry acquaintances and a widening of my “audience” beyond the front yard of Newcastle, Australia.

From the outside, the positives outweigh the negatives? Do you need to read on?

Sorry. Trick question. You should.

Yet, in the back of my mind, I kept thinking about Marie Forleo said in B-School (and now repeated by many others), that social media is “rented land” – as in, you don’t “own” your followers, fans, or audience.

I did B-School back in 2013. Shit, that took a while to sink in.

Fast forward to January 2021, I asked this question of my audience on Instagram:

What if social media went away, what options do I have?

What ensued was an overwhelming response, and relative to anything else I’ve posted in the last year, it went somewhat viral.

Naive me thought the question would fly under the radar amidst the noise (how mistaken!).

It seems I’m surrounded by many curious souls. Keep that curiosity flowing won’t you?

At the end of said post, I promised to dive deeper into some thoughts on how we could navigate the world of marketing our small businesses, without a heavy dependence on social media (primarily Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube).

More specifically…

Where or how would they find out about you if social media wasn’t your only option?

What other options are out there? (online and offline)

How do you grow an audience or following? Or “1000 true fans” if social media isn’t your benchmark.

Before we go down the rabbit hole, let me preface this blog post by saying this is not an anti-social media conversation.

Nor is it a post about detoxing from social media, boundaries, your health, advertising, censorship or why you’re not getting any reach.

We won’t be diving into my thoughts on alternative social media platforms (Telegram, Parler etc) either.

I’d be keeping you well past your bedtime if we touched on all of those things, and personally, I’ve got A LOT to learn there.

First things first, when thinking about alternatives online, it’s important to ask yourself:

Why do I have a social media channel in the first place?

Ultimately, by creating content (educational, inspirational, story etc) for your channel, your goal as a product or service based business is pretty simple:

To take the awareness you’ve created, build relationships through the good old “know, like and trust factor” which turns into conversations, which turns into sales.

Our content establishes who our business is for, what it’s for, authority, the narratives we believe and our values – our positioning. When people choose to follow, there’s a status upgrade they get by being part of your world (thanks Seth Godin).

Of course there’s other reasons to create content, like pure entertainment value (a salve for these dark times perhaps?). However, if you’re here, I imagine that’s not your first priority.

Beyond social media, we have the opportunity to deepen our authority by creating relevant bodies of work that solve a specific problem.

Before we even get close to a sale.

Contrary to what many online marketers might have you believe (and the list above is just a start) there’s not one magic bullet for this.

It’s long game baby!

Here’s a few places you can create deeper bodies of work online:

Build an email list: Share engaging regular stories and updates, use an opt-in or lead magnet, or link out to a blog post, video or podcast

Host a workshop, webinar or masterclass – solo or in collaboration

Host an online conference to elevate experts in your community (Anyone remember tele-summits?)

Television interview

Produce a film: Whether it be short or long, this creative project could be an opportunity to dive into your story instead of a direct advertising piece. It’s also a great way to bring together experts in your industry to share thoughts on a topic.

Podcasting solo or with guests: You don’t have to do 100 or 300 episodes (but a good year of podcasting will grow your confidence excessively). Your alternative? Create an intentional 12 episode podcast that helps people solve a specific problem. Personally, I believe engaging in rich conversations and this is an art we will lose if we don’t work on it. Podcasting is an opportunity for to.

Articles, interviews or features on other media organisations: when pitching to outlets, make sure you’re looking at outlets that are relevant to your industry and values aligned. Less is more.

To dive deeper into pitching to media outlets online, check out my conversation with PR Queen Odette Barry HERE

Guest blogging: This is something that never really went away, the mediums looking for guest pieces simply became bigger (Think Thrive Global, Huffington Post or Forbes). My prediction – we’ll see a return to more long form blogging this year, and with that probably more guest opportunities too.

Long form videos: Technically, YouTube is a social media platform so my suggestion here would be to host videos on your website through something like Vimeo.

By now, you might be thinking:

So I create this thing right? but without a big list, or social media how will people know about it? How will I grow?

The second opportunity is as powerful as the online world:

Offline

You’ll see some overlap with online ideas mentioned, as many of the opportunities existed in person or in printed mediums before they did online:

Magazine, newspaper, journal articles, interviews or features

Writing a book or short story: Again this could be a collaborative piece, self-published or with a large publishing house. One of my clients recently dipped her toes in the book writing world after she was invited to write a chapter for a multi-authored book

Beyond print, we have in-person marketing tools and there’s two categories that we can put these in:

WE (you and I) – this is about building key relationships. Directly, or indirectly, these might result in leads and lead conversations. This is what you might call “word of mouth” or “referral marketing” but there is an art to it and it’s a long game approach.

These could be inside your industry with peers, or outside your industry with what I would call “nodes” or “mavens”. Mavens have their own communities too, they are trusted, they might own a business themselves or be local personalities. These relationships are usually cultivated in intimate settings or one to one and can take many forms.

ALL (large groups) – this is where you become the organiser and that in itself is becoming a rare skill as we move online or our access changes. This type of marketing is “experiential” and are the things you want to have people talk about for weeks or even years.

Here’s some ways you can be an organiser:

Workshops or masterclasses – again solo or in collaboration

Create a networking event – it doesn’t need to be drinks and bad fluorescent lighting, you could do a breakfast or a bush walk on a regular basis

Curate or be featured in an exhibition

Host a retreat or a weekend away with other business owners

Both of these two – the “we” relationship builder and the “all” organiser were important skills learned through my time with lululemon.

Though many of these things can be done online, I would encourage you to invest some of your time here on a weekly or quarterly basis in the “we” and “all” category.

Ok, by now you’ve probably got some great ideas racing around your head, how do you pick the right thing to focus on?

With any marketing (and I don’t claim to have expert status like Seth), there will be some experimentation involved. Here’s some questions to guide you as you narrow down your ideas:

Ask yourself, where do my dream clients or customers hang out online and offline already?

What online and offline ideas are closely connected to my zone of genius? Or top strengths?

Where would I like to build authority?

Who do I know that might want to collaborate?

You don’t need to go from 0-100 overnight out of fear that your social media home goes away, start with one area and build it up your authority in it slowly. It’s all about those 1000 true fans (Kevin Kelly).

Most of all, exercise creativity and use your nuance.

“True fans require idiosyncrasy. True fans are looking for something peculiar, because if all they wanted was the Top 40 or the regular kind, they could find it more regularly from someone who isn’t you” – Seth Godin

Now, I want to extend this conversation to you – the reader 👇🏻 👇🏻👇🏻

The things I’ve mentioned are not an exhaustive list. Go ahead and share below, anything that’s worked for you whether it be online or offline for your marketing.

Top image by Candice Saville Photography

Main images by rawpixel.com

by ruby marsh

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Careers

What creative mark are you leaving on the world?

December 15, 2020

Creative ones…today is my 38th birthday.

We also have a significant cosmic event happening, with a new moon and a total solar eclipse occurring in the same window of time.

After looking for some guidance on this unusual occurrence, these words interested me the most when I think about this community…

“where we source our information from is crucial to “right thinking” as we wrap up this year” (source)

We can take these words and apply them on so many levels – business, family, your community.

Particularly during this year, our different priorities, values, narratives and world views have been amplified.

The source of these, wildly varied also – from our parents to the media.

However, I feel a sharpening of the axe is coming.

Whether it be tuning in, or deciding to tune out from sources of information (MSM to instagram to your friends) or simply taking this auspicious New Moon day as a call to strengthen your own internal guidance.

Your own right thinking.

From your heart.

From your centre of power.

In these wild, wild west times, I believe we’re being called to see the situation from all angles, and choose from a centred place.

Less dogmatic, more open-hearted.

Kate Northrup – whose recent book is highly appropriate for 2020 – “Do Less”, spoke about this in a post that caught my attention – you can read it HERE.

After reading this, I too felt called to write about something similar – thank you to those who responded kindly to this post.

More specifically, what does this mean for those of us in businesses?

When we have infinite people telling us their latest hot tip, secrets, hacks or steps to a specific goal in the least possible time with minimal pain?

(Side note: Ironically the one “secret” I don’t see listed in their eBooks very often is: hard work).

As a coach, I’m not saying guidance isn’t needed at certain milestones, rather I’m calling you to listen harder to the story you want to create and the support you need to move you towards it.

As I said in that post – it’s about doing business your way.

Take this time as we roll into the solstice, then the New Year to decide the mark you want to leave.

Scribe it with pride and reverence.

Then choose the tools – the attitude and the map you’ll need to get there.

Let go of anything else that drains your energy.

by ruby marsh

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Careers

How to recognise imposter complex and the beliefs that hold us back from greatness

August 13, 2020

Seth Godin has this wonderful taken on Imposter Syndrome (which I prefer to call complex, because it’s not a medical condition) that might enlighten you a little.

“Imposter Syndrome. It’s rampant. The big reason is that we’re all impostors. You’re not imagining that you’re an impostor, it’s likely that you are one. Everyone who is doing important work is working on something that might not work. And it’s extremely likely that they’re also not the very best qualified person on the planet to be doing that work”

If Seth is correct, and we’re all going to feel it, then why are we unable to let it go?

First, a little story.

2014, the year I was married and moved to Melbourne, was also the year Tara Mohr released her incredible book Playing Big.

As a coach, much of what I support women with, draws parallels with my own journey of leaping out of the world of Architecture and landing in coaching several years later.

Trust me, being able to learn from both your mistakes and successes allows me to help women fast track their business building journey.

As I devoured Playing Big, I immediately saw correlations between my personal experience and what she taught.

The part of Tara’s book that was so pivotal for me, was when she spoke about the key reasons women hold themselves back from Playing Big – one of which being Imposter Complex.

In my work, I’ve come across this and two other core beliefs that hold women back from taking that next leap in their business.

Whether it be simply starting, deciding to double down on the clients that really matter, build an audience or credibility – these beliefs have the potential to stop us in our tracks.

The first is a fear of being exposed – you could call this imposter complex if you’re familiar with that term…you feel afraid, not good enough, or tell yourself “what if they find out?/I don’t know what to say?/I’m not qualified for this”

These thoughts and feelings often lead to polishing and perfecting something, rather than putting it out to get feedback then learning from the feedback.

This stops us from showing up imperfectly on social media and sharing our message, or connecting with our dream customers and understanding their struggles.

So we hide. We choose to invest time and money into the things that we believe help our confidence – a flash website, a photoshoot or to somehow be magically confident on video in order to do our first IGTV.

My belief is, Imposter Complex shows up most powerfully for us when we’re about to do something we’ve never done before – because it feels like a leap into the unknown.

Unfortunately, this nasty little voice is just trying to keep us hiding because evolutionarily speaking, it thinks it’s protecting us – because once upon a time (and not that long ago might I add) we needed to fit in, be liked and protect our place in our community and have security.

In just the last 100 years, women are holding their own, running companies, running countries even, and earning enough to support ourselves.

While this Imposter Complex is likely to be the leftover of thousands of years of being reliant on external opinions of us, today, it means we stop betting on ourselves, and looking to everyone else to determine whether we’re enough.

One of the most powerful things that helps us move through this feeling, is getting really clear on what our greatest strengths and skills are, and capitalising on them.

This is evidence you’re freakin’ fantastic already. You don’t need to wait till you’re Beyonce or Jacinda Ardern to get started – because that train might be a long time coming.

Even when you are in the early days of your business, communicate in the way you know best – if that’s writing then write, if that’s speaking then speak, if it’s drawing then draw.

You can’t just do something once. You need to double down to move through the Imposter Complex.

Ready for the next thought that stops us?

I need to get more qualifications first…

As a forever student myself, study and learning is an important part of who I am and allows me to double down on things I want to teach my clients.

However, as my husband likes to remind me, “I think Tony Robbins dropped out of his NLP class and look where that got him?”. Whether you’re a TR fan or not, the point is, he got out there and started connecting and practicing his craft.

You need not worry, I’m not suggesting you do negligent things, I’m simply questioning whether you can start something now?

What skills could you acquire through on the job experience?

Are you forgetting that you’ve been “designing” or drawing your whole life as a form of therapy or a hobby?

Shouldn’t 20 years of that count for something?

In her book, Tara Mohr shares that she noticed this pattern in very intelligent, capable women, because study was “comfortable” and they believed that clutching that piece of paper would transform their thoughts from fear to certainty. On the other side of the coin, playing bigger right now was extremely uncomfortable.

This one, like our first hiding tactic, is not entirely our fault.

Our schooling model, rote learning (think memorising your times tables) and this expectation that most of us will jump into university or college straight out of high school has us believe that a linear path is the only option.

As you’ll hear from many of the women interviewed on this podcast, many of them have not taken a linear path – but what’s important is questioning what you think you “should” do then choosing from there what is True to You.

This final one is probably the most common one I hear in my work.

I’ve got so many ideas I keep starting and stopping, changing my mind, which makes me doubt I’ve got what it takes…

I’m a big fan of experimentation, projects and testing your ideas.

I think being in creation mode is super healthy for us.

Creating gets us out of that endless cycle of consumption we can get unknowingly trapped in.

But at a certain point, we need to ask ourselves is this creating clarity or having me end up more confused? If you feel like you fall into this trap of stopping and starting or inconsistency often, perhaps it’s time to ask yourself, what am I not clear on?

Am I not clear on who my ideal clients are?

Where my greatest value lies?

Do I need to offer several services or could I offer only a couple of powerful ones?

If you jump back into episode 34, you’ll hear me chat to Kendall Dodson owner of These Golden Daze about how we refined her business, streamlined her focus and amalgamated two businesses into one direction that lit her up the most.

The other clarity question I would ask myself if I was feeling overwhelmed is: Do I have a vision, a plan or some goals in place that I can return to when I feel like I’m drifting off the path? Our brain naturally likes stability and safety, and whatever you can do to create that will help ease this feeling of confusion.

A lack of clarity or direction can be exhausting, as shiny objects and attention stealers send us off in a million different directions. When we choose “a” path, if even for a short time, a sense of purpose is actually energy-giving and we all know energy is needed to grow ideas and dreams.

I would love to know in the comments below, which of these three beliefs do you hold onto the most? And, what’s one action you could take to begin to let go of that belief?

by ruby marsh

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Careers

How to set goals that light you up in 2020

December 29, 2019

Can you believe we are two days out from the end of a decade. Holy crap balls it’s crazy and exciting isn’t it?

Given this momentous occasion and my recent love of reflection, I thought I’d share with you the exact end of year process I did this year.

Typically, I do my end of year review and goal setting on or around New Years Day, but this year, I decided to start this process a little earlier on my birthday. I really recommend doing this if you can squeeze it in before Dec 31st rolls around, as it gives plenty of time for your vision and goals to marinate before you lock them in.

This year we’re shaking it up and trying something different. The thought of a new decade on the way has me ready to reinvigorate my trusty old ways.

I’ve created a three part process which takes you from reflection to zone of genius to your goals. It takes around an hour or so to complete for one area of your life (in this case, I looked at my career and business), however, you may like to do the same for other areas of your life like health & wellbeing and relationships.

To access the questions for this three-step process and follow along at home – click the button below to download your FREE pdf guide.

Just to get one thing straight – This is by no means the ONLY way to set goals, but I wanted to share it because it’s been hugely liberating and fun.