Jane Hamill

Increase revenue using content & email marketing.

Podcast

I Have a Book for You & I Could Use Your Help…

I chose this pic because I’m scared to death right now about this book thing-y but I don’t look like it. #winning

We interrupt this blog for an announcement.

I have a book for you.

Actually, I’m writing you a book. Like writing you a letter, but a book instead. Or a book-let. A booklet kinda thing.

A Book for You. I’m Writing You a Book. There, I said it again. I know the grammar is off but I don’t care. And BTW if you really, really care about those things you should prolly just skip my book anyway. Prolly.

OK, this is SCARY. Because now I announced that I’m doing this. And I’m feeling all the feels…

So my book – it’s not going to be War and Peace.

It’s more like a pocket guide to help you with those EVERY.DAY.ENTREPRENEUR experiences. Every darn day.

Like a little pistol you’d strap to your thigh if you were an international spy, it’s a little book(let) you could strap to you thigh to help you through the crazy brain moments.

Honest stories and tips – so you know you’re OK. You’re not doing it wrong, you’re on a journey like the rest of us.

Because Chekov and I agree, this every day living stuff – every day entrepreneuring, if you will – can really get to you.

“Any idiot can face a crisis; it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.” ― Anton Chekhov

So true. Thus, the book/booklet/pocket guide I’m working on.

In this episode, I talk about what it’s REALLY like to run a business every single day. Other people just don’t understand.

I also ask you a favor. So if you’ve ever gotten value from this show, I hope you’ll consider it. 🙂

Listen now:


You can also listen on iTunes and Stitcher Radio

Mentioned in this episode:

About the favor I’m asking you…

How could my book help you?

After you listen to the episode, would you consider answering this question in the comments below? How could my book help you?? I can’t wait to read what you say!

Jane

How Can I Get Sales Without Constantly Launching New Products?

How to get Shopify sales even when you have no new products to offer.

First, I want to invite you to a LIVE class I’m teaching online about creating a content calendar for your business that actually leads people to a purchase.

There’s such POWER in knowing you have a plan for your content. It reduces stress and overwhelm and you get to control of how much you sell and when. And your calendar doesn’t have to be complicated or hard to execute, trust me! If it’s not simple, you probably won’t use it. I know I won’t.

So join me and learn the specific strategy for content that leads to actual cash.

Click here to register for the content calendar class (it’s free) and get my content calendar template.

*All registrants will get my content calendar template to download and use for your business. 🙂

how to create a content calendar that actually leads to sales

Back to today’s podcast…

I recently received this question from one of our members:

“Jane, we do pretty well with sales when we launch a new product for about 2 weeks or so and then things die off. I feel like my team and I are always hustling to release NEW NEW New!! It’s exhausting and I feel like a hamster on a wheel?” 

Launching new products all the time is so exhausting for product-based entrepreneurs. I’d actually call it bone crushing. And product launch after product launch will burn out your audience as well.

So how do you get sales BETWEEN new product launches? What do you do to drive traffic and sales when you don’t have anything new to promote?”

Today’s episode lays it out for you. Have a listen…


You can also listen on iTunes and Stitcher Radio

Mentioned in this episode:

Do you find these episodes helpful?

      • If you do, tell a friend!  I’d really appreciate if you took a moment to leave an honest review on iTunes.

Jane

The Entrepreneurial ‘Crazy Brain’

“Do not be afraid of improving slowly. Be afraid of standing still.”

– Chinese Proverb

Every day, there’s a battle between us and our brains.

I call it the entrepreneurial ‘crazy brain’. It sneaks up on you and makes you second-guess.

And doubt.

And wonder.

And overthink.

When the crazy brain kicks in, which is pretty much every day for me, it’s harder to get things accomplished.

Is it lack of discipline? Fear of failure? Perfectionism? Pure laziness?

Dunno for sure.

A straight-up painful example of ‘crazy brain’ from my own business is this…

I started doing a podcast – only posting to my blog – an entire year before I put it up on iTunes. I called it my ‘fodcast’ – faux podcast.

Why??? What in the actual heck would make it OK in my mind to have a YouTube channel that I was actively using, but be unwilling to put my podcast up on iTunes????

For some reason YouTube seemed easy but posting on iTunes was playing with the big boys. I really don’t know.

Sneaky effing entrepreneurial crazy brain. 

I’m not judging you (or myself) for not doing things we know we’re supposed to do. It happens.

That’s why I have a coach and support — to slap the stupid out of me sometimes.

Because it’s me against my brain. Every. Single. Day. 

And that’s OK.

Your entrepreneurial mindset is so important and if you sometimes get the crazy brain like I do, I’ve chosen three episodes that will help.

  1. How happy are you with your business? (One of my most successful clients said she listened to this 6 times!!)
  2. How to Do the Work Even When You’re in a Funk and Don’t Want to
  3. My Family and Friends Don’t Support Me in My Business

You can also listen:

Did you like these episodes?

  • If you like the show, please tell a friend! And leave an honest review on iTunes. I’d really appreciate it. ?

Jane

3 Reasons You Don’t Have All the Customers You Want for Your Online Store

3 Reasones Why YouDon't Have Enough Online Sales

“I have a great product and a nice online store but I don’t have enough customers. What am I doing wrong?”

This is probably the top question I get every single week from coaching members and students in my courses. You’re working hard, you’re getting some traffic to your site, but it’s not enough (or not consistent enough) to make you really happy with your results.

And usually, you think the answer is the “right” ads, the “right” collaborations, the “right” new product launch – the “right” something if only you knew what it was…

Before you get to the specific marketing tactics to get more customers, I really want to make sure you understand why you don’t ALREADY have the sales.

What we cover:

  • If you’re confused about your “ideal” customer, I guarantee they’re confused too — and a confused customer doesn’t buy.
  • How to know who your ideal target customer is and what makes someone ideal for your product.
  • You get only 2 seconds on your online store to make it clear what you sell and who it’s for.
  • Trying to please everyone is our default mode, but it’s doomed to fail. Try to please everyone and you’re sure to please no one.
  • Why you need to dig deep and take a risk with your products, your point of view, and the customer you go after.
  • Is it worth the money to do paid advertising (Facebook and Instagram ads) for your online store?

Listen now!


You can also listen on iTunes and Stitcher Radio

Mentioned in this episode:

Are you a fan of the show?

      • If so, please tell a friend! And leave an honest review on iTunes. I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

Jane

Retailer Secrets: 10 Things I Learned in 10 Years of Retail with Kirsten Skoglund

What it's Like to Own a Knitting Store

“Retail Lesson number one — the magic is in being nice.”
Sometimes people are really, truly insane. But you’re in retail, so you stay nice no matter what. No matter what.”

There’s what you think it will be like to own a retail store and then there’s the every day reality. I owned a women’s boutique for 14 years and let me tell ya, it’s not for wusses. It’s more fun than you ever imagined and it’s waaaaayyyyyy harder than you ever imagined.

My guest today tells us what it’s really like to own and operate a boutique. Kirsten Skoglund owned a knitting shop with her sister for 10 years in Minnesota. Like most people who go into retail, she never thought she would. She’s a former HR executive who had a passion for knitting – and a business was launched.

Kirsten is funny, smart, and honest in this interview. She’s also the new accountability coach (woot!woot!) in my Imperfect Action membership. She ROCKS.

Some snippets from the interview:

      • “It can be pretty lonely being a retail store owner because you really don’t have a whole lot of people to talk to. Yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of loneliness with entrepreneurship in general.”
      • “Sometimes people are really, truly insane. But you’re in retail so you stay nice. No matter what. Retail Lesson number one — the magic is in being nice.”
      • “I didn’t have any systems for that (hiring), and I’m kind of embarrassed about that. I was always looking for people who could sell. I would go to the drive through and someone would be really good at selling me a hamburger and I would ask them if they wanted to come work at my store.“
      • Planning became very, very important. I was pulled kicking and screaming to the planning process and really learned to embrace it. If I planned, I could sell more! And it really did help keep all of the craziness out of my brain. Well, not all of it.“

Have a listen…


You can also listen on iTunes and Stitcher Radio

Mentioned in this episode:

Your Turn! Could you vote? A, B, or C?

I’m working on new episodes. What do YOU want from this show? Just leave a comment and LMK your vote.

A: Interviews with entrepreneurs and Jane’s students
B: Interviews with other experts
C: Jane teaching us lessons

Are you a fan of the show?

      • If so, please tell a friend! And leave an honest review on iTunes. I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

Jane

Continued: Two MORE Ugly Truths About Working in the Fashion Industry (part II)

This is part II of my interview with Zoe Hong. If you missed the first episode, you can listen as a podcast or watch the video interview.

We’re diving back into our discussion with Zoe Hong on the 5 Ugly Truths about the Fashion Industry. In part 1 of this podcast, we covered the first 3 Truths about the working in the Fashion Industry, including:

1. What’s the deal with copying in the fashion industry

2. What to do it you don’t look beautiful and “fashion-y” enough

3. How much does creativity play a role in the fashion industry?

In this episode, Zoe touches on the 2 more Truths:

4. Is it really about who you know? And what if you don’t know anyone in the fashion industry

5. We talk a lot about sustainability on the fashion industry but is it really important?

These last two truth bombs are especially valuable and necessary to understand for those wishing to succeed in the fashion or beauty industries. It may not be what everyone wants to hear, but it’s true.

You can listen as a podcast here:

You can also watch the interview as a video here:

 

Truth #4 highlights: The importance of networking and building relationships. Zoe explains that companies are typically more interested in hiring candidates that they know they possess a certain skill set, work ethic, and personality. Additionally, companies often ask and share information on colleagues, friends, interns, etc., simply because it is an easy and more comfortable alternative than doing a blind search for a pattern maker, designer, product development specialist, etc.

Truth #5 highlights: Sustainability and its essential role and place in the fashion industry (and the world). Is it just lip service?  This topic is extremely powerful and relevant, but Zoe explicitly points out, “this is not Green Marketing, this is not Greenwashing, this is not a trend. This is where Fashion is going, this is where Fashion needs to push even further”.

Mentioned in this episode:

Did you like this episode?

  • If you like the show, please tell a friend! And leave an honest review on iTunes. I’d really appreciate it. ?

Jane

About Zoe Hong: After working in the fashion industry for many years, Zoe Hong started teaching at Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2012. She started her YouTube channel in 2015 with a desire to help students who didn’t have access to a top university education. Zoe teaches fashion design process, illustration, and fashion industry best practices, among many other subjects, on her YouTube channel (with over 100K subscribers), as a guest lecturer at schools and arts organizations, and on multiple programs on NBC Universal’s Bluprint (formerly Craftsy).

5 Ugly Truths About Working in the Fashion Industry with Zoe Hong (Part 1)

My special guest today is a breath of fresh air in the fashion industry, Zoe Hong. I came across one of Zoe’s videos on Facebook and immediately loved her.

NOTE: I usually skip fashion stuff in favor of business stuff, but Zoe’s video sucked me in because she’s so dynamic and smart.

Zoe’s YouTube channel has over 185,000 subscribers (!!) and I can see why — she tells it like it is and she makes NO apologies. She’s super smart and today she’s giving us some truths about working in the fashion industry.

For instance…

“How you look matters. You think you’re going to buy anything that’s not pretty? Create a look that’s memorable. Cultivate a particular style. People will have visual cues to remember you.”- Zoe Hong

Zoe doesn’t mince words and I especially love it when she quotes Oscar Wilde.

“Fashion is so ugly we have to change it every six months.”  -Oscar Wilde

Love this. Perhaps because it’s a little too close to the truth???

Check out this week’s interview (part 1 of 2) wither as a podcast or as a video.

You can also listen on iTunes and Stitcher Radio

Watch it here as a video:

What we cover (part 1 of 2):

  1. What’s the deal with copying?
  2. What if I don’t “look the part” of a fashion person?
  3. Creativity is everything in fashion. Or is it?

Mentioned in this episode:

About Zoe Hong: After working in the fashion industry for many years, Zoe Hong started teaching at Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2012. She started her YouTube channel in 2015 with a desire to help students who didn’t have access to a top university education. Zoe teaches fashion design process, illustration, and fashion industry best practices, among many other subjects, on her YouTube channel, as a guest lecturer at schools and arts organizations, and on multiple programs on NBCUniversal’s Bluprint.

Are you a fan of this podcast?

  • If you like the episodes, please tell a friend! And leave an honest review on iTunes. I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

Jane

9 More Website Conversion Tips for Your Online Shop

Today’s episode is Part 2 of tips for website conversion. I am going to give you 9 more strategies to increase your website conversion rate

Someone asked me the other day… “What exactly is a conversion rate?” I’ll explain exactly what conversion rate is, plus 9 more tips to increase your rates and get you sales.

I know you work hard to get people to your website, now let’s get them to buy!

Let’s do it…

You can also listen on iTunes and Stitcher Radio

What we cover:

  • What exactly is a website conversion rate?
  • Review of Website Conversions
  • 9 more tips for building a site that converts to sales

Mentioned in this episode:

Do you like the show? 

  • Leave an honest review on iTunes. I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

Jane

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