Start Some Shift

Are you a Mom and a business owner? Do you struggle with balance? Do you want to build the type of business that lets you enjoy running a company AND be a great and present Mom? Do you ever feel guilty wondering if you’re doing either well enough? If you answered ‘Yes’, you’ll be pumped about this interview with “Boss Mom” author Dana Malstaff.Every entrepreneur and mother goes through these questions at some point. Today is about helping you recognize you’re not alone and giving you tools and tips to achieve the life and business you desire.

Today we’re going to be talking with legal expert, Jo−Ná Williams on how to protect your business.Our guest founded her practice, J.A. Williams Law and The Artist Empowerment Firm back in 2011. But her desire to build her companies started a lot earlier. I’m going to have her share her story, but basically she had some legal challenges that prompted her to go to law school and ever since she’s been dedicated to helping artists and entrepreneurs protect themselves and their businesses. Some of her clients have written best−selling books, reached the Billboard Top 100, and been nominated for Grammys. And Jo−Ná isn’t unfamiliar with fame herself. She’s been featured in Marie TV, The Vocalist Magazine, Women In Music, ReverbNation, CDBaby and The New York State Bar Association’s Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal.This is why I’m so excited to have her on the show today.She’s going to share:what the biggest legal mistakes most

Today, we’re going to try a little social experiment. Want to participate? Kevin White - President of the International Special Event Society and owner of the experiential design agency XPL - contacted me a few weeks ago and said that he thought I needed to do a show to let people know more about the girl behind Start Some Shift.Well, I asked Kevin if he would do the honours and interview me and he said ‘yes’! In this show, I’ll tell you why I think introverts make better marketers, why Canadians are misunderstood, what scares me and how and why I push through my fears, what the perfect business day consists of and what puts a smile on my face (and much, much more).

Some of the most common questions I get asked on a regular basis revolve around content. “How do I create great stuff to share in social media?”, “How often should I post?”, “Is there a way to connect my content to sales…without being salesy?”Great news…My guests today - Amanda Serfozo & Joseph Rooks of Lexicontent - are going to give you all of the tools, ideas and insider secrets to develop content that connects and moves your audience.

Many entrepreneurs struggle financially. Whether you can’t save money, aren’t earning enough or don't know what a P&L is, my guest Joan Sotkin is here to help. Joan is a prosperity & mindset mentor and speaker. She’s THE expert when it comes to understanding how emotions learned in early childhood can affect a person's earning capacity as an adult. For over 25 years she’s helped entrepreneurs stop struggling financially. And, listen, she knows about struggle. She went from operating a business that was generating the equivalent of $50K / month in today’s dollars to bankruptsy.Not only will she share that story with you, she’s also going to tell you how mindset and emotions have a massive impact on your financial health and what you need to do to - very specifically - with your thoughts and actions so that you can get on the road to prosperity.

So, here’s the thing. Every company has its ups and downs. When things are good, your phone is ringing off the hook and you’re running all of your cheques to the bank. But on the flip side, many businesses also experience a time when those phone calls dry up. They struggle financially and wonder how they’re going to pay their bills. Some even wonder if they’ll survive.Today is about those hard times. I’m going to share 5 strategies you need to know to generate revenue quickly…even if you’re afraid of selling, an introvert or suffer from mindset issues.

"Cold calling. I have yet to meet someone who absolutely loves it. Those two words responsible for more anxiety and cold sweats than “hungry dinosaur” and “disgruntled mailman”.If you’re anything like I was, you would rather pluck your eyelashes out one by one than make a call. But would you believe that I actually learned to love cold calling? AND my calls resulted in $3.5MM in new business opportunities in a $7MM business?In today’s episode, I’m going to share with you:
 how to shift your mindset so you’re eager to call someone you don’t know, how to create a connection and get someone interested in what you’re selling, the 1 sentence that has gotten me an almost 100% success rate, and more!

With so much choice available to consumers today, businesses are finding it harder and harder to stand apart on products or services alone. Smart businesses are injecting their brands with personality. 

Why is personality so important? Because at the core of human nature, people do business with other people they know, like and trust. A strong personality attracts the right kind of customers to your door and repels the wrong ones. Our guest, Kira Hug, is a sought-after copywriter and host of the Bridal Rebellion podcast. And she’s going to reveal how you can hook your customers with great website copy choc’ full of personality and avoid the common mistakes event planners and event suppliers make.

Today’s guest is a totally dynamic and accomplished young woman by the name of Anita Wing Lee. Anita is a transformational life and business coach who is focused on helping millennials land their dream job and learn how to network.By the time she was 23, using the same techniques she talks about in today’s episode, she had traveled to 21 different countries (all the while getting paid). She had landed amazing internships around the world and had chalked up more experiences than most people earn in a lifetime. She’s appeared in The Huffington Post, numerous TV outlets and is an award-winning speaker.I asked her to be on the show so she could help not only students looking to break into the industry, but anyone, at any age, who wants to get their foot in the door either into the event or wedding industry or a dream company.

So, it might seem a little strange that a business growth podcast is doing an episode on nutrition. But to me, the two go hand in hand. I’m a single mom. I run my own business. Am at the gym 6 days a week, run a podcast, write for publications, travel and still have energy to spend time with friends and family. A lot of people ask me where I get my energy from. And I tell them, food is my fuel.But it wasn’t always this way. About 15 years ago I had just moved in with my ex-husband. I began eating what he ate. I gained weight. I was also working a very stressful agency job…and one of my clients was Cadbury. Every day around 3pm, I'd inevitably hit my wall. So, I’d go into my desk and break off a chunk of a dairy milk bar (or one of the other chocolates I had in my fully stocked desk). And, by the time I left for work and did the 1 hour commute back home, I’d be in what could only be described as a fog. I never felt sharp and on point. Then a friend suggested I do a clea

Search engine optimization…3 words that send shivers down people’s spines. Why? Because it seems to require some genius-level knowledge of engines, bots, spiders and other things most people would rather know nothing about. The problem is, we need to know about SEO. Why? 93% of online experiences begin with search and 75% of users won’t bother scrolling past the first page of results. So, if you don’t rank…and rank high…your website doesn't exist. Today’s guest, Gary George of Blazin Media is going to reveal his top actionable tips to skyrocket your Google (and other search engine) rankings.

The toughest part of the sales process is when a prospect counters your amazing pitch with an objection. Maybe you’ve heard, “You’re too expensive” or “I need to run this by my boss” or my personal favourite, “The other event planning company was cheaper”. No matter what they throw at you, my guest, Kendrick Shope, will unveil some of the most powerful techniques you can use to overcome even the toughest sales objections…without being pushy or salesy. Close the sale with style.

Website design is an art as much as it is a science…but you don’t have to be a genius to be successful. If you want to master the strategies that’ll make your site convert visitors into customers, you’ll want to listen to our guest expert, Marie Poulin - a digital strategist who has worked with powerhouses like Marie Forleo and Natalie MacNeil. She’s going to critique 3 event planning websites and tell you what mistakes their making and how you can learn to overcome these pitfalls.

Guest, Paul Lemberg, shares his proven systems for building a high performing sales team for event planners, wedding planners and event suppliers. If you’re looking to grow your business and create sales on demand, you’ll want to listen to this episode. Paul will tell us how to create a winning sales script, rethink the prospecting process, build an effective sales process that ensures profitability & accountability, how to find the right sales people for your team, how to compensate them and train your team so they’re a well-oiled machine.

Do you feel like you’re wasting a lot of your day doing tasks that aren’t productive? Do you wish you could spend less time doing things that don’t matter so you could focus on really growing your business? My guest, Heather Crabtree - creator of the program, Streamline With Systems, will share 10+ tools and techniques that’ll have you running like a well-oiled machine!

If you want to learn how to become a superstar at pitching new business, you’re going to love my guest today. Oren Klaff is the author of Pitch Anything - a book that teaches you the strategies to persuade and engage your audience - and over the past 13 years, he’s used this method to raise more than $400 million. In this episode, he’s going to break down how your prospects really make decisions (and it’s not what you think), how to create presentations that end with a yes and how to elevate your status with a prospect so you’re in control.

Tired of being seen as a commodity? Fed up with working with clients you don’t mesh with? Are you feeling uninspired by your job? Then you’ll want to listen to this episode with guest, Brett Culp. Brett is an award-winning filmmaker whose most recent finished project is Legends of the Knight, a feature-length documentary that has amassed a tribe of raving fans who helped him show his film in over 90 cities across the US, raise over $60K for local charities and secure a distribution deal with Netflix. He’ll share inspiring lessons that will leave you understanding how to stop thinking like a commodity and start building movements.

Odds are you have a website. And, odds are that site is missing one key component that’s costing you customers and sales. Opt In Expert, Nathalie Doremieux, is going to share a simple, low-cost strategy that can exponentially grow your leads and sales and become one of your company’s most valuable assets…building an email list.

In every niche exists tastemakers. These people are amassing powerful followings via Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and host of other social networking sites. With just one recommendation of a product, brand or event, they can alter the purchase decisions of their online community. Lindsay Fultz, influencer marketing expert, will give awesome insight and tips on how to partner with these influencers to get potential customers to choose your brand.

Are you terrified of the idea of walking up to a stranger at a business networking event and starting a conversation? Do you shudder at the thought of having to hold a dialogue about you and what you do? Does ‘closing the sale’ make you die a little inside? Networking expert, Marsha Shandur, will challenge everything you thought you knew about this topic and give you proven tools and ideas to help you rock your next networking event.