Are you afraid of change?

Did your first iteration of an offer sell so well that you haven’t had a reason to fix it?

Are there shifts you’d like to make to the offer, but you’re worried if you do it will rock that boat of success you’ve built?

When an offer is successful, making changes to it can be scary.

But not making changes can be even scarier.

Online business trends are constantly changing. As an online business owner, being aware of these shifts is critical. You don’t have to jump on every trend train, but if you want to maintain your share of the market, you also shouldn’t ignore them.

As Team HBA celebrates the third anniversary of the Holistic Business Academy, we’re considering the changes we have and haven’t made. The past three years have been a challenging and rewarding experience for HBA founder and business coach Sarah M. Chappell, and she’s learned a lot. In this episode, she’s sharing her top three business lessons so you can learn from her mistakes.

Save yourself some frustration and tune in so you can learn from these lessons and make the changes that will create the opportunity for momentum in your business.

TIME STAMPS

00:30—Three years of HBA2:20—If it ain’t broke, you can still fix it4:50—Coaching isn’t therapy7:50—Your pricing is a communication

SOURCES

HBP Episode 209: Small Business Degrowth

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Vibes alone won’t create a successful business.

Many online tarot readers, astrologers, and coaches saw a massive revenue increase in 2020 but steady declines since. Even more started new businesses during the boom as the pandemic pushed people online, but are now confused as to why their offers aren’t selling.

Liz Worth is a tarot reader and author who supports professional readers in developing their skills through her online tarot school. Liz joins holistic business coach Sarah M. Chappell on the podcast this week to share how as economic and consumer trends shift, tarot readers and other online service providers must take a close look at their numbers, their online presence, and the “business” side of their business if they want to get clients.

Spirituality and wellness business owners often shy away from marketing and selling. Whether this is due to a fear of being salesy, or a belief that the universe will bring you the people you are meant to work with, your future customers may not even know you exist. And what worked when a large portion of the population was home during shutdown and glued to their phones is not going to work now.

This episode is a state of the union for online spiritual service providers. Tune in to learn what’s working, what’s changed, and what it really takes to run an online business so you can dust off your online presence and get those sales.

TIME STAMPS

1:30—Who is Liz Worth3:30—Managing a business and a life in 202220:00—What it really takes to run a full time tarot business32:00—Investing in and marketing your business

CONNECT WITH LIZ

WebsiteInstagramTikTokTwitterFree Tarot Resources

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Why do you want to grow your business?

Is it because you have a specific revenue goal? A family to support, or dreams to fulfill? Something you’re saving towards, like a house, or debt you’re paying off?

Or is it because you think you have to?

Growth as a loose, undefined concept is everywhere. We’re taught that it’s an economic imperative, and that as business owners, if we’re not growing, we’re dying.

But what happens when growth is causing the problems we’re facing, either collectively in the form of climate change, or personally in the form of health issues and burnout?

What if what we actually need is degrowth?

After finding herself pursuing growth for the sake of growth, holistic business coach Sarah M. Chappell ran right into a nasty surprise: deep burnout. Tune in to hear what Sarah learned about the burnout of scaling, why she’s excited by the idea of economic degrowth, and how it might apply to small business success.

TIME STAMPS

00:30—What is degrowth?3:40—What kind of business models are valued?7:10—Scalability and alienation11:48—The functions of work14:56—How to apply degrowth to small business

SOURCES

Ren Zatopek“Reversing the Freight Train” by Geoff Mann“The Precariat” by Guy Standing“The Precariat and Class Struggle” by Guy StandingHBP Episode 198: Why Holistic BusinessAja Barber

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How do you choose the best day to launch?

Maybe you look at your personal and business calendars, take into consideration the number of days you’ll need to promote, and schedule a launch date that works best for you.

Perhaps you pull a few tarot cards to see the energies headed your way and when you can launch to best harness any lucrative vibes.

This week’s podcast guest, ZamboniFunk, is letting us in on a great launch planning tool: electional astrology, or using astrology to choose auspicious timing.

ZamboniFunk is a professional weirdo. When he isn’t playing bootylicious funk music on the bass, he tells stories about the ongoing dramas of the heavens, with the basic understanding that whatever happens up there happens down here too; as above, so below. Timing is his specialty.

Drawing on his electional astrology practice, Zamboni shares the importance of the “green light” days, that are ideal for launching, and the “red light” days, that may be best used for a long nap. And while the stars and moon have a lot to say about divine timing, Zamboni is also a big believer in personal sovereignty, and wants us to balance both. 

If you use electional astrology to select the best time for your launch, what happens when your gut tells you otherwise? How do you listen to the stars and use divination while also tapping into your personal sovereignty? What if everything in the stars is saying no, but your heart is saying yes?

Tune in to this week’s podcast episode so you can plan your next perfectly timed launch while listening to the stars and maintaining your personal agency. 

CONNECT WITH ZAMBONI

Instagram

Website

Patreon

YouTube

TIME STAMPS

8:50 — Timing Your Launches and Rest Periods

23:15 — The Tension Between Agency and Divination

33:30 — Personal Sovereignty

43:40 — How Can We Reclaim Personal Agency?

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Confused about which online education model is actually going to lead to good results for both you and your client?

Maybe you’ve set up a self-study course that you’re excited about, but few of your students are actually completing it. Or maybe you sold a traditional live online course in the past, with lifetime access to material for the customers, but that’s now proving to be a lot of unanticipated and unpaid work to maintain and update for former students.

If you’re struggling with problems like these, it’s likely that you’re using the wrong online education model for the offer that you’re making. The right model makes a huge difference for effective client results, and the wrong model can lead to low sales and unsuccessful outcomes—ouch.

But both of these can be remedied with careful thought about what transformation your offer is providing, and choosing the best educational model to deliver that transformation.

In the latest episode of The Holistic Business Podcast, business coach and strategist Sarah M. Chappell guides you through key questions that will help you choose the right online education model for your business.

Should you have a time-bound program like a live cohort course or group coaching program? An ongoing, subscription-based membership? Or maybe a self-study course with a digital e-book? Listen to the episode to find out, so you can finally sell your offer, teach effectively, and help your customers achieve their goals.

TIME STAMPS

4:26—Why the outcome of your offer is so critical4:54—The first question to ask yourself about your offer5:45—What you need to know before making a digital download6:37—The biggest sign that you should have a membership model9:35—The problem with self-study courses16:15—Breaking out of assumptions about what a membership is

CONNECT

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If you’d like to learn more about online education memberships, sign up for our waitlist to apply for the Membership Accelerator program, our year-long intensive where we help you design (or redesign) and then scale an effective membership that gives great results for your clients without burning you out. We’ll be opening applications in just a few weeks, and if your application is accepted, you’ll be invited to attend a free private training with Sarah where you’ll learn much more about memberships, the math behind running a successful business, and concrete actions you can take to start generating the revenue you’re dreaming of.

Is your membership business making you feel trapped, overwhelmed, and burnt out?

Your membership was supposed to make life easier for you, not harder. But now you’re stuck doing more work than ever, you’re losing customers faster than you can replace them, and your membership is turning out to be unsustainable, unprofitable, and just not what you’d hoped it would be.

Don’t give up yet. If you run a membership that’s running you into the ground, chances are that you’ve fallen into some common traps. And the great news is, you can overcome these traps with some solid planning and restructuring.

In this episode, holistic business coach Sarah M. Chappell outlines the four major reasons why memberships fail. She draws from her extensive experience running memberships and coaching other business owners to membership success to put together a comprehensive roadmap of pitfalls to avoid.

Once you’ve learned how to navigate through these common challenges, you’ll be well on your way to building a membership that provides immense value for your customers AND supports your well-being.

When properly implemented and integrated, your membership has the potential to highlight the best aspects of your expertise while providing consistent recurring revenue that allows you to feel energized about your work, minimize unnecessary labor, and help more customers than ever before.

So before you throw your membership in the trash, listen to this episode to find out why your membership isn’t working, and what you can do to make sure that it helps both you and your customers thrive.

CONNECT

If you’re ready to dive deeper into how to run a membership that works for you and your community, sign up for our waitlist to apply for the Membership Accelerator program, our year-long intensive where we help you design (or redesign) and then scale your membership sustainably, without burning out and without falling into these common traps. We’ll be opening applications in just a few weeks, and if your application is accepted, you’ll be invited to attend a free private training with Sarah where you’ll learn much more about memberships, the math behind running a successful business, and concrete actions you can take to start generating the revenue you’re dreaming of.

TIME STAMPS

3:33—The primary challenges in the membership market4:59—The biggest issue when people create memberships14:25—Why you need a sustainable sales system20:14—How to create a customer retention plan27:36—Why integration into the rest of your business is key

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Are you burnt out from endless private sessions, or worried that clients are going to stop booking in this economic downturn?

Great news: we have a solution for you. Memberships, which are courses, communities, or group coaching programs accessible through a paid subscription, can address your burnout, boost your income, and actually help more people.

Here at the Holistic Business Academy, we know that memberships are a rock solid way to use your unique expertise to serve your community with less work for you and lower prices for your customers. 

So, how do you get started? On this week’s episode of The Holistic Business Podcast, we invited MemberSpace CEO Ward Sandler to share his expertise on how to successfully establish and run your online membership business.

MemberSpace is a software as a service (SaaS) that enables creators to turn any part of their website into members-only with just a few clicks. Their mission is to help entrepreneurs build a sustainable membership business (without coding!) anywhere on the internet. Ward and his cofounder Ryan have helped thousands of people around the world generate tens of millions of dollars from their members since 2015.

In this conversation, holistic business coach Sarah M. Chappell chats with Ward about the foundations of building a membership business model: how to know if you’re ready, what the biggest benefits and pitfalls are, and how to overcome perfectionism when you’re getting started.

Tune in to learn how to build a sustainable and profitable membership business that creates consistent recurring revenue at an accessible price for your customers.

TIME STAMPS

7:18—How to know if you’re ready to run a membership

9:30—The key benefit of running a membership

13:03–The biggest membership pitfalls

15:43—Why perfectionism is your enemy

22:41—How the membership model fits into economically challenging times

CONNECT WITH WARD

MemberSpace Resources

MemberSpace’s Twitter

Ward’s Twitter

Listeners get TWO MONTHS FREE with the code “holistic”

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Does your offer suck?

You spent weeks developing a new offer that highlights your areas of expertise. You sat in front of your computer for hours in Canva designing graphics. You made a sales page and changed the link in your bio. You told your followers how excited you were about your new offer, and a couple of your friends even shared your latest post.

And nothing happened.

Your website didn’t crash from an onslaught of incoming sales like you had imagined.

But this offer is amazing! You know it could really help people!

So what do you do now?

Now it’s time to assess. A lack of sales is, in and of itself, feedback. And it’s your job to do the detective work to determine what this feedback is telling you.

Lucky for you, Sarah M. Chappell, business coach and founder of the Holistic Business Academy, is outlining exactly how to do that detective work in this week’s episode. She’s sharing her experience with failed offers, the four primary culprits of low sales, and how to take action after assessing the situation.

Tune in so you can do a little detective work in your own business and actually start selling your offers.

TIME STAMPS

1:36—Lack of Sales as Feedback

2:20—You’re Not Actually Promoting It

5:32—Your Messaging is Ineffective

10:00—Your Audience is Saturated

12:20—Your Offer Sucks

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It’s no secret that great branding is important to your business: it can save you valuable time and energy while quickly and effectively communicating your core values with your audience and boosting your sales.

But what exactly does branding entail? And which parts of branding are actually important to focus on for small businesses?

In this episode, holistic business coach and strategist Sarah M. Chappell chats with Christine Lieu, the expert behind CL Designs and the Brand Party Podcast. Christine is a graphic designer who helps purpose-driven businesses create cohesive branding, web design, and social content to drive impact and sales.

Sarah and Christine discuss why branding is so critical for holistic entrepreneurs, how to use branding to reach your ideal customers, where to begin when starting out with branding assets, how strong branding can create more ease during launches, and the most important aspects of branding to focus on in order to bring your messaging to the surface and make it shine.

Tune in for a fun and information-packed conversation on how to use branding to align your business with your values, attract the right people, and make running your business a whole lot easier.

CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE:

Website: christineldesigns.comBrand Party Podcast: christineldesigns.com/podcastInstagram: @_clieu @brandpartypodcastPinterest: ChristineLDesignsFacebook: ChristineLDesigns

Get instant access to a free Brand Consistency Checklist: https://mailchi.mp/941959d7add5/christineldesignsemailGrab the guide that has helped business owners alike determine what’s most important when you’re just starting to build a brand so you can continue on with what you do best.

Join the FREE Brand Party Challenge!It’s a 5-day online challenge for purpose-driven businesses who are ready to stop being inconsistent and finally build the brand they’re so deserving of! Get access to a branding expert at your fingertips as you discover your core values, color palette, and font pairing to attract quality leads and sales.Join now: christineldesigns.com/brand-party-challenge

TIME STAMPS:

1:18—What is branding and why does it matter?8:09—How to use branding to communicate core values12:54—How to save time during launches with branding and assets17:20—The importance of sales pages and why you should love them23:44—Where to start in approaching branding assets

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Four-day work weeks sound great in theory. Getting to work less and having three-day weekends every week? Who would say no to that?

But as a small business owner, you probably have serious worries about being able to get everything done in a shorter amount of time. What about keeping your clients happy? Can you really make enough money by working four days a week?

We were curious if the model could work in this specific context. So as a small business with these needs ourselves, we decided to conduct a six-week trial of working only Mondays through Thursdays.

At the end of the trial period, the feedback from our team was unanimous: the four-day work week was a resounding success, and we made the policy permanent. Not only were all of us happier and better rested, there wasn’t a single negative impact on the business.

In this episode, Holistic Business Academy founder and business coach Sarah M. Chappell discusses how the Holistic Business Academy was able to make a four-day work week possible for a small and busy three-person team with a significant amount of client-facing work. She covers why we decided to make the change, her biggest worries and what actually ended up happening, the most important takeaways from the shift, and rules and guidelines for cultivating success.

Tune in to learn how you can work less, accomplish just as much as you did before, keep your customers happy, and most importantly, support your well-being with a four-day work week.

TIME STAMPS

1:13—How did we end up with standard five-day work weeks?2:48—Why HBA decided to shift to a four-day work week5:24—Sarah’s biggest concerns and what actually happened14:22—The most important takeaways from the switch16:45—A few rules for deriving the most benefit from a four-day work week20:18—How to set clear expectations for your customers

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