You want to develop a new product, but how do you know how much to spend on supplies? It can be tricky forecasting for upcoming product drops, especially for products you’ve never sold before. But with the right data, you can make educated estimates about your upcoming products to order supplies and budget with confidence.

In this episode, I’m sharing a sneak peek into one of our monthly coaching calls inside the Proof to Product LABS program. During these calls, I answer pre-submitted member questions about how to run - and grow - a product-based business. In this call, I helped members forecast their spending for project development and budget for upcoming launches - even years in advance.

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Do you feel like social media is a chore? Many people I talk with find Instagram to be draining but know it’s an important part of their sales and marketing so they keep posting and creating content. But what if using Instagram could be a way for you to begin meaningful conversations with your audience?

In this episode, I’m joined by Natasha Samuel, host of The Shine Online Podcast and an Instagram Strategist that helps small businesses shine online. Natasha shares Instagram trends you should pay attention to, how to use video to showcase your products, strategies specifically for product based businesses and why even introverts can create videos with confidence.

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Hey friends! Are you ready to start getting more results from your Pinterest strategy? Then you’ll love this conversation with guest, Kate Ahl. Kate is the owner and CEO of Simple Pin Media, a Pinterest management and marketing agency.

Kate and her team have worked with over 600 Pinterest accounts and consulted with thousands of people about how to best use Pinterest for their business or brand. In this episode, she talks about some of the upcoming trends she’s seeing for Pinterest and how to rethink your Pinterest strategy to inspire and inform pinners.

Kate and I discuss a lot in this episode about the things you need to know about Pinterest including what analytics are important and how to determine when you should outsource your Pinterest strategy.

If after this episode you find yourself wanting to know even more about doing ads on Pinterest, be sure to check out our LABS community. Kate’s colleague at Simple Pin Media, Erin Harding will lead an upcoming training on Pinterest ads for our community very soon!

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Hey friends! How are you feeling about social media these days? Is it lighting you up? Does it leave you feeling heavy? I personally have been on both sides of the pendulum and thought my guest in this episode would be perfect to help you determine if it’s time to outsource social.

I had Andréa Jones of OnlineDrea to walk us through everything we need to know. She explains the pros and cons of hiring a social media agency versus hiring a VA or freelance social strategist. We chat about what you need to know before you hire and how she tests potential hires with paid projects!

We covered a LOT in this episode so you’ll want a pen and paper handy to jot down some notes and if you’re wanting even more from Andréa, I have great news - she’s doing a private live training inside our Labs community. She’ll be doing this training in April so if you want to get your questions answered directly from Andréa, be sure to check that out!

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Hey friends! If you’ve used stock photography, you may have noticed how difficult it can be to find diverse imagery. Enter Dana Kaye of Bouquet Stock Photo.

Visual branding can be a huge factor in who we attract to our business. So how can we use visual branding to be more inclusive?

In this episode, Dana and I dig into the importance of visual branding and why creating meaningful connections with our customers is such an important piece of doing business. She also shares her definition of what makes a value based business.

We all want to see ourselves in the products and services we shop for. This is such an important conversation and there are so many actionable take-aways in this episode!

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Hey friends! Are you utilizing your email list to its full potential? If you aren’t there yet then you’re definitely going to want to tune into this episode with Meera Kothand, email marketing specialist and three-time Amazon best selling author.

This topic is so near and dear to my heart because email marketing is such a powerful tool yet it’s so underutilized by independent brands that sell physical products.

In this episode, Meera and I dig into why your email list is the most valuable platform you have (yes, even more powerful than your favorite social platforms). She talks about how to build your email list with creative lead magnets and strategies for nurturing your audience through a welcome sequence and ongoing, consistent emails.

We also break down some key pointers on how you can get comfortable with selling to your email list so you’ll want to stick around to the end to make sure you hear her advice on this!

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Hey friends! I am really excited to be sharing the conversation I had with Rachel Ngom who is a business and lead generation expert. Rachel has a super interesting backstory where she went from being on food stamps with negative $400 in her checking account to running a multiple six-figure online business.

Rachel shared her entrepreneurial journey and what led her to where she is today. She talks about how she increased her web traffic by 34,000 views per month using Pinterest! She also shares her advice on using content to create a strong customer experience and putting yourself into the mind of your audience.

She and I discuss the importance of mindset work and professional development and why this is incredibly important for business growth. You’ll also hear her tips on tools to use in your Pinterest strategy, what challenges she faced within her own business and why she recommends people use Pinterest as a part of their marketing strategy.

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Hey friends! If you’ve considered joining the Proof to Product LABS community then you’ll enjoy today’s episode. It’s a really fun sneak peek of what we’re doing inside the LABS community as I shared a snippet of a live Coffee Chat we had with our members on the things that they’re trying within their business.

Our Coffee Chat conversations cover a wide range of topics but in this episode, you’ll hear a small segment from our most recent session focused on Instagram Giveaways. I spoke with two business owners who have experience in hosting giveaways, Alison Tsang of Love Through Letterpress and Becca Stevens of Botanical Bright.

These two generously shared their experiences with recent Instagram giveaways. They touched on their goals, the structure they used for the campaigns, technology tools they used to assist and the outcomes they had. We all shared our opinions on the best time to do a giveaway, group giveaways and strategies to incentivize your customers during the purchasing process.

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Hey friends! Today’s episode is focused on 7 ways you can enhance your customer journey. Oftentimes we’re so focused on capturing the sale and everything leading up to it. In reality, your customers’ journey begins the moment that they learn about you.

This means the customer journey could start weeks or months before they ever step foot into your store or open your website to look through your shop. That’s why it’s critical to nail down the customer journey so you can create a tribe of raving fans for your brand. Take a listen, jot down some notes and begin to think about some of these tips and how you can implement them in your business to strengthen your customer’s experience.

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