Insights From the Trenches

Innovative yet practical tools, tips and resources derived from a voracious love of learning and over 18 years of working with clients around the world.

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Business Time Defined
We’ve all heard the saying that “work expands to fill the time allotted”. As a business owner, there are different types of time: Work you’re paid for on an hourly... Read More
Is your business scalable?
As you know, there are several types of work: Work you’re paid for on an hourly basis Work you’re paid for on a value basis (totally subjective and a matter... Read More
Choosing a CRM? 12 things to know first
Are you happy with your customer relationship management (CRM)  or email marketing system? One of the things we do is support clients with their CRMs and have become experts in... Read More
Success as a Solopreneur
A neighbor recently learned that I bought a piece of property and am having a house built. She asked “Don’t you work for yourself?” Technically I work for The Martini... Read More
The Power of Referrals
If your clients or customers perceive that you do a great job for/with them, the easiest marketing strategy is one of referrals… …providing either you ask for them or you’re... Read More
How not having an FAQ could cost your business
If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you likely know that I’m an avid gardener and fan of growing as much of my own food as possible.So late last... Read More
One Strategy for Creating a Winning Proposal
Imagine… you’ve been promoting a live event for months, it’s easily got the potential to be a 7-figure few days and on the first morning people show up that you... Read More
The impact of a toxic client
As summer approaches and many people take vacations or otherwise slow down a bit, it’s a great time to review your current clients. We’ve covered how to do a client... Read More
The #1 reason optimization fails
Everywhere we turn these days, we hear more and more about optimizing — our business, our health, our relationships, our tech, etc. I’m a huge fan of optimization and would... Read More
Learn from these 3 epic customer experience fails
I’ve been in research mode… signing up for different membership, subscription and one-off courses to gather data for my upcoming book. Here’s what I’ve experienced from the last three: It... Read More
Overcome Overwhelm: 3 Stages of Business
In our 3 Causes of Overwhelm post recently, we shared that the primary cause of overwhelm is trying to do all things equally and simultaneously while constantly being seduced by... Read More
3 Causes of Overwhelm
Do you find yourself working more than you should for a fraction of the results you’re anticipating?  Running here and there thinking the next webinar, program, self-study course or event... Read More
4 steps for winning back former clients
You likely already know it takes less time, energy and money to keep a client than to get a new one. Nothing new. But what about bringing back, or reactivating,... Read More
Small Business Growth Strategies
We’ve talked about becoming more productive, increasing leverage without overhead and we’ve discussed your Everest Mission during a previous training call and, here, now… Some growth strategies if you’re looking... Read More
Re-engaging Your Email List
Open rates are declining. There are two primary reasons: Your email never makes it to their inboxes. This is a deliverability issue between your email service provider (ESP) – Aweber,... Read More
3 Questions to Ask Before Taking On a New Client/Project
Have you ever had a tough day in the office?  I had one recently and it reminded me of our process:  Before taking on a new project or client, there... Read More
Making Extreme Client Care™ Tangible
You’ve heard the saying “the devil is in the details” — so true, and the same is true of Extreme Client Care™.  It’s the little things that matter, the little... Read More
Quantifying Extreme Client Care™
It's easy to get caught up in the "I'm too busy" or "that's too much work" or "there just aren't enough hours in the day" mantra of business ownership where... Read More