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Biz Buddies Episode #10 — The Fallacy of Fear

Fear. It’s what stops most of us from doing the things we most want to do in life. At least some of the time. We’ve all heard the sound bites like “No Fear” and “Feel the fear and do it anyway”. But the subject deserves a bit more exploration than that.

Niamh talks about how from the outside we can look at other, very successful people, and imagine that they approach the big things they do all full of courage and without any fear. But they may have felt the same kinds of fears that we do back when they first started out.

Jen talks about her fear of launching (which she is doing anyway right now! If you want to check out the program that she just launched you can find her Mastering Money Matters program here!) And the fears that come up at different times in life about failing, being called out on failing and all the rest.

Niamh talks about her fears around doing this podcast. This episode was recorded before we actually launched, and Niamh suddenly realized that once the podcast starts, she will have to actually let her list and audience know that she thing new coming out every single week!

Many of the fears that we all have both in business and life are concerned with what other people think. What they think about what we do, what we create, the way we say things, how we look. There maybe an evolutionary basis in social fears in terms of not wanting to get kicked out of the tribe because then I will die. But these days, that is rarely actually the case.

We also talk about privilege, white privilege, our own privilege, and our fears about our voices helping or hurting others who may not as easily access platforms from which to amplify their voices.

Niamh’s free 30-day Ignite Video Challenge is just about to wrap up, but you can still join it and get in on the fun right here!

Let’s explore what is really behind our fears and how those fears relate to our own personal realities.


Want to be the first to learn more about the Biz Buddies group coming soon and our magical retreat in Ireland coming (hopefully) some time 2018? (If we get enough interest we will set it up!) Sign up for notification HERE!

Biz Buddies Episode #9 — Musings on Money

Today Jen and Niamh are talking about Money. Not just any money, but Jen’s Mastering Money Matters Program. This episode was recorded in the midst of Jen doing her very first launch for a special offer for MMM.

While we talk about money, let’s talk about fear of failure, insecurity, and the way imposter syndrome comes up around putting yourself out there to talk about a topic that you don’t have a certification in.

Jen tells the story of being suddenly confronted with massive medical bills when her daughter was diagnosed with Autism in 2010, back before ACA, when she had an individual family insurance policy that had an autism exclusion. This threw her finances into a giant jumbled mess between high, unexpected medical bills and irregular income from self-employment. In the midst of all of this financial confusion and while trying to set up an autism program for her kids, Jen had a medical bill sent to collections, not because she didn’t mean to pay it, just because she got confused. Then she missed a bill and had a late payment, then an overdraft charge. That was when she realized that she had to do something if she was going to get through this without bankrupting her family. What she learned through research, reading, taking courses and eventually talking with other women on her Financial Fluency podcast and working with women in small groups and one-on-one, is what is now in the Mastering Money Matters program.

Niamh also talks about her experience in the program herself, the changes she has made and the effects those changes have made in the past year and a half.

Listening to this episode before Oct 10th? Then you can still check out the free 3-part video series Untangling Your Money Mess. After Oct 10th? Here is the direct link to Jen’s Mastering Money Matters program.
I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

Want to be the first to learn more about the Biz Buddies group coming soon and our magical retreat in Ireland coming (hopefully) some time 2018? (If we get enough interest we will set it up!) Sign up for notification HERE!

Episode #115 Multi-Passionate with Meliss Jakubovic

Ever feel like you have too many ideas for your business? Or too many ideas in general? Some people agonize about needing to pick just one thing to focus on at a time, and act like what they are doing now is what they will be doing long term. The truth is that few people these days stay in the same job or have the same focus for longer than a few years at a time, and having a few different income streams in different areas can help you diversify and stay afloat when things change in your main area of focus.

Meliss Jakubovic knows a lot about this. When I asked her what she does I got the most amazing reply. Her main online business of the moment is Meliss Marketing which runs Facebook ads for coaches, business owners and people who run ecommerce sites. But the way she got into doing Facebook ads was from running her own Health and Lifestyle blog and coaching business. Which she actually still runs on the side. How did she get into Health and Lifestyle blogging and coaching? Well before that she trained in and taught Yoga, something she still also does on the said. But before that she was an Israeli Folk Dancer and also DJed on the side. All of which she STILL does! Oh and did I mention she is also the single mother of two young boys who also dance, do yoga and most of the other stuff right along with Meliss.

Now I tend to think that I’m a pretty busy women with a couple of businesses being run out of my own and caring for special needs kids to boot, but when I heard that Meliss still has a hand in all of these businesses that she ran in the past, I had to ask, do you ever sleep? How do you manage to keep all of these plates spinning? Or balls in the air depending on which metaphor you like best.

Meliss replied that she is very structured with her schedule and sticks to her calendar as best she can. Meliss Marketing is front and center right now, so she tends to spend the bulk of her working day on that. Yoga is part of her own self-care, but the fact that she gets paid to teach yoga classes some evenings and weekends means that her self-care is also an income stream. From what she told me the folk dancing is mainly a hobby, but she does still choreograph for certain shows and while that is going on she prioritizes that until the show is over and then it falls back down the priority list until another show or festival comes up. And the DJing fits in around other things when and if someone wants her to DJ. Oh and did I mention that she has also authored a book along with a companion journal to go along with it?

Because I’ve been struggling with learning how to run Facbook ads myself lately, I asked Meliss to share a few tips to help someone like me (who feels like I have only thrown money away on FB ads up to this point) start to get a handle on how they can really help my business grow. Here are a few of the tips she gave me:

  1. If you don’t have a business page yet, set one up. You need one to run FB ads.
  2. Really make use of the business page real estate. Use a really good profile picture for your business page and use the cover photo to let people know what it is you do and how you can help them.
  3. Plan out your content. Curate the content, give them plenty of value and make sure you aren’t only posting to sell. Facebook exists for engagement first. Being too salesly too soon can turn people off.
  4. However as you plan out your content, plan it around the launches or sales that you want to make throughout the year. Find and create content to logically leads into the services and products you want to sell.

I’ve always loved the idea of planning out my content well ahead of time, but I have honestly never done it outside of planning out content and emails that revolve around a single launch. I love the idea of sitting down and figuring out what I want to share for a couple of months at a time. Meliss even suggests planning around holidays and seasonal events. It may take a bit more time up front, but the payoff in consistency and always having content to post is totally worth the time investment.

You can connect with Meliss Jakubovic via her website at: http://melissmarketing.com/ or on Facebook

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Resources

You can find Meliss’ books Push Positive and My Vision Journal on Amazon.

You can get Meliss’ Top 5 Facebook Ads Tips here and you can get her Finding Your Dream Customer Guide here.

 


#115 Multi-Passionate with Meliss Jakubovic

Meliss Jakubovic is a Facebook Ads Expert and Marketing Specialist. She’s a self-proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur and a hustler full of passion. Her ad agency, Meliss Marketing helps businesses and entrepreneurs put their product or service in front of the right client or customer so they can scale their business strategically and spend time doing what they love to do.

As a single mom of two boys, it is incredibly important for Meliss to use her time efficiently and effectively and that’s why she is determined to get sh*t done for her clients.

Meliss is an extremely hard worker and loves to help people achieve their goals. Problem-solving and resourcefulness are some of her best qualities.