Author: Lisé Kuecker

Today a miracle happened.

18 months of tilling, sowing seeds {literally}, plowing fields and hauling in more literal sh** than I thought possible, led to our farm’s first harvest…

And, the first trip to the Farmer’s Market in historic downtown Abita Springs, LA.

I’m not gonna lie. It felt amazing setting it up, laying out pound after pound of squash in antique baskets, and jars of honeycomb with burlap toppers for clients to peruse.

It felt amazing until I realized we were one of twelve other farms selling squash and zucchini, one of five honey vendors, and one of three people also raising heirloom chickens.

Y’all, the bloodbath of competition even shows up under tents at the farmer’s market {and if you’re questioning me I dare you to show up and meet our nearest egg vendor who was one of the feistiest farmers I’ve ever met}.

Also turns out the farmer’s market isn’t that different than the boutique fitness market.

Nowadays everything from training to yoga, from Pilates to cycling, from boutique boxing to athletic training is a commodity.

It’s available at every gym, neighborhood center, and likely even one garage or pool house in your neighborhood.

Teacher trainings are pouring our more yoga teachers than we have students for, and somedays it feels like every other person I talk to is prepping to open their own version of fitness.

The only problem? The demand for these services isn’t growing nearly as fast as the supply of teachers and studios, thus having the potential to turn our incredibly unique products into the newest commodity on the block.

So how do you explain why you’re priced 20% higher than everyone else in town?

Why you’re yoga is that much better than the free classes at the community center?

Why you’re different than each and every other trainer {and why a weekend certification should be something that scares them}?

Simple.

Refuse to be a commodity.

Own your uniqueness.

Educate your clients on the differences.

And, sell them what your services do, not the services themselves.

Ready to learn more? Head on into to today’s episode of Ready. Aim. Empire., and learn how to remove the commodity label once and for all and share what truly does make you unique.  

With grit + gratitude,

Lisé

When you think of the words “inventory management,” what comes to mind? Maybe things like…

Those t-shirts you can’t keep on your shelves…

UPS, Fedex or anyone else who’s bringing you things to sell…

Anything by Spiritual Gangster, Alo Yoga or Lululemon {cause let’s face it those can be awfully fun}.

But inventory management doesn’t stop with literal physical inventory… in fact that’s on scratching the surface.

Think of blog posts, recipes you’ve emailed out over the years, amazing topics in a private Facebook group, or even the repertoire of your best selling group and private sessions…

All of these are inventory for you to use, re-purpose, and create to draw new clients through your doors and keep old clients coming back for more.

So why do we waste much more time recreating the same stuff over and over again?

I got four words for you: Way. Too. Much. Information.

What if you had a place where all of your past stuff was logged and stored to either reuse or decide you want to come up with a new promotion that hasn’t been done before?

Whether you’re organizing customer support FAQ’s, marketing checklists, social media downloads that drive new email addresses, or your greatest classes ever, it’s time to organize your most important inventory… your intellectual property.

Think about your sales manager {or shoot, even you on a busy day} could take a client from on the fence to sold, by accessing your treasure chest of key levers or a bonus that’s exactly what they needed to say yes because it was easily accessible in a ready to search database.

Now that my friends is powerful.

So I have Jordan Gill, Founder of The Kolada Group, back for a third and final episode this week sharing how we can keep everything all organized and in one place!

Listen into Episode 125 and you’ll learn:

• Everyone has an online business – whether you have a “brick and mortar” or not!
• Why there’s value in repurposing
• More isn’t better…
• Find your profit centers while doing what gets you excited
• Why email isn’t dead
• Jordan explains the Google Doc system she created which she calls the Hub, and the six sections it contains

LINKS:

80/20 Principle by Richard Koch

www.Rev.com

Inventory Management

With grit + gratitude,

Lisé

With social media, there is no middle ground.

You fall into one of two camps:

1.You either see social media as a creative extraordinary thing that you love being a part of

or…

2. You dread every minute that you spend on it

Whatever camp you fall in, you’re always worrying about a few things: making your images really pretty, what the heck to say, and mostly, how do I fit all of this in a reasonable amount of time?

There are friends of mine who have truly built their business on social media, but for most of us, we really can’t just spend all day on Instagram.

We just want to know how we can do social media WITHOUT it taking over your life?

That’s where Jordan comes in.

She has this down to quite a science so you don’t have to keep your phone attached to your hip.

Can we get a hallelujah?

So in Episode 123, you’ll learn:

• What is a social media editorial calendar
• Jordan’s ratio for selling posts frequency compared to other purpose-driven posts
• Why you don’t always have to be creating brand new content
• What context switching is and how it serves your productivity in a better way
• Why people will invest in you if you invest in them first
• The difference between creating images and curating images, and how each are used

LINKS:
Social Media Editorial Calendar

With grit + gratitude,
Lisé

There are a few things you should know about Nancy Castiglioni…

1. She’s Argentinian {and brings a fiery passionate spirit into everything she does from Pilates to travel to motherhood}.
2. She moved to the US when she was 17 without speaking a word of English {and has taken this adventurous Spirit around the world as she’s raised her children and built her career}.
3. Her grandmother escaped Nazi Germany and settled in Argentina {and instilled in her a steady understanding that she could do…and overcome…anything}.
4. She’s equally comfortable in stilettos and suits or pointe shoes {since she’s been dancing since she was 6 and spent her time in boardrooms before moving to the mat}.
5. She started her Instagram feed a year and a half ago because when her daughter asked to set up an account {and now has almost 50K followers watching her daily Pilates and fitness videos}.
6. She’s someone I could spend hours on the phone with {and weeks traveling with} and still find things to talk about because she’s so doggone fabulous.

This is one of the episodes that kept on going long after we actually finished, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to coax Nancy back on with me, but in the meantime, join us as we chat about:

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How it was love at first sight for Nancy when she was introduced to Pilates

• The ways she’s been able to infuse other areas of fitness, like aquatics, with Pilates

• How Nancy adapts the movements she teaches so that her students can perform them at home, with no gym required

• What she learned from her grandparents and their inspirational story

• How she’s built her Instagram following to 50k just by doing what she loves and connecting with others

LINKS:

https://www.instagram.com/nancycastiglioni/

https://www.facebook.com/Nancy-Castiglioni- 1831302593861320

*Nancy mentions that she can be contacted on WhatsApp

With grit + gratitude,

Lisé