thepumpkinplan

In this episode, Poppy of Balloon Charm tells us about how she's fulfilling her entrepreneurial spirit with balloons after retiring from the military. How she's built her portfolio, where she went for training and what has grown her business... we get to hear about it all!

She shares how she felt it was so important to take advantage of the professional development opportunities afforded to her through serving and gives awesome tips for anyone who did or is currently serving.

Then we talk a little bit about how she's utilized The Pumpkin Plan to identify the sweet spot of her business, and we actually end up discovering an even more unique approach that she might be able to lean into!

Poppy is such a treat - I know you'll feel energized after hearing our conversation.

And in the UGlu Hotline we have a question about... UGlu Dashes!

 

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

17hats (get 50% off your 1st year) 

Balloon Suite 

Havin' A Party Wholesale (save 5% with code BRIGHT) 

UGlu by Pro Tapes (save 5% at Havin’ A Party with code BRIGHT) 

Call into the UGlu Hotline to ask a question or leave advice! (262) 221-8514

‬Balloon Boss Mastermind & Summit  

PremiumConwin

 

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@thebrightballoon 

The Bright Balloon on YouTube 

When I first read The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz years ago, it wasn't the right time in my business for it to really "click" for me. But about a year ago I found myself accidentally implementing the practices, which led me to take a more intentional approach with the process... and let me tell you... it had an immediate impact on my business.

So much so that it inspired the Bright Balloon Book Club and my recent certification as a Pumpkin Plan Strategist!

In this bonus episode I'm sharing info about:

• what the Pumpkin Plan Accelerator Course is
• how to get involved
• course assets, lessons & activities
• how to find your business sweet spot
• changes you can expect to see (and feel) from implementing the Pumpkin Plan

And in the UGlu Hotline, we have a question about how to stand out from the competition in your area. There are actually several Pumpkin Plan practices that you can do to improve this, and I share them here in the episode!

 

Thanks to our sponsors!

17hats (50% off your 1st year)  

Havin' A Party Wholesale (save 5% with code BRIGHT) 

Balloon Suite

UGlu by Pro Tapes (save 5% at Havin’ A Party with code BRIGHT) 

BalloonCoach.com  

Call into the UGlu Hotline to ask a question or leave advice! (262) 221-8514‬

 

Resources mentioned:

Business Sweet Spot Quiz 

Pumpkin Plan Accelerator Course 

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Join the book club 

50 Ideas for Email Marketing | Join the Bright Balloon email list 

courses | templates | planner 

@thebrightballoon 

The Bright Balloon on YouTube 

I've never done an episode like this before, but I'm excited to hear your results from joining in! I have a 24-hour sales challenge for you, with 7 strategies that work well for me to generate sales during the slower times.

Strategy #1: check your inbox. This might mean your email inbox or maybe it's your 17hats / CRM system. Look for those jobs where you were communicating with a customer and things kind of fizzled out for one reason or another.

Strategy #2: check your calendar to see what you were working on this time last year. I love doing a calendar audit to steadily keep jobs coming my way and to make sure the annual jobs get rebooked.

Strategy #3: dig for your pumpkins. Yes, I'm talking about the Pumpkin Plan again! In this strategy, I want you to dig through your data to find your top customers so that you can give them your best energy and attention, and be ready and willing to help them with their next event.

Strategy #4: send a newsletter. I'm a big believer in email marketing and feel like I make a sale every time I send a newsletter! It doesn't have to be fancy... in fact, I think the more personal, the better. More on this in a future episode, but I'm almost certain I booked my biggest job ever because of a newsletter.

Strategy #5: send cold emails or DMs. This one is scary for me, but Rachel of How About Balloons gave a lot of great tips on how to do this in Episode 137.

Strategy #6: post on social. And don't forget... post the things that you actually want to sell. We always want to share our most impressive work, but a lot of the time that work was actually pretty difficult to accomplish so it's not always a good idea to encourage more people to book similar jobs with you.

Strategy #7: do some cash and carry options. This is a sales strategy in reverse... first you make the thing, and then you sell it. The idea is that you are making things incredibly convenient for the customer while also using up older inventory items.

I hope this episode gives you a little boost in your sales... today! If you close a sale thanks to one of these strategies PLEASE send me a message so that I can celebrate with you!!

(And this week on the UGlu Hotline we get an awesome tip for using UGlu Dashes with your foils - don't miss it!) 

 

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

50% off your 1st year of 17hats 

Balloon Suite 

Havin' A Party Wholesale (save 5% with code BRIGHT) 

UGlu by Pro Tapes (save 5% at Havin’ A Party with code BRIGHT) 

Balloon Boss Summit & BalloonCoach.com  

Call into the UGlu Hotline to ask a question or leave advice! (262) 221-8514‬

Ep. 53 - Set It Up September | Calendar Audit

Email Marketing for a Year | Canva Bundle

50% off your first year of Flodesk 

Ep. 137 - Cold emailing | Rachel of How About Balloons 

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Join the book club 

50 Ideas for Email Marketing | Join the Bright Balloon email list 

courses | templates | planner 

@thebrightballoon 

The Bright Balloon on YouTube 

It seems like it happens every year, right? Some of the goals you've set for yourself at the beginning of the year kind of fade away, either because you've forgotten about them or because you've lost interest in pursuing them. Well I'm here to say that it's OK to reevaluate your goals and shift them as needed!

In this episode, I'm reviewing the 2023 goals I set for myself and sharing how they're going. These original goals included:

• to set better boundaries
• make more by working less
• recycling
• $250,000 in sales

I had set the goal of establishing boundaries because I felt like I was on the brink of burnout. Always answering emails and messages, recording interviews at all hours of different days... I knew something needed changing. And now I'm proud to say that I've fully implemented a better process for scheduling podcast interviews, thanks to (you guessed it) 17hats. 

It's been so crucial to setting those boundaries and has got me thinking about how I can use the online scheduling function for my balloon business, too. 

Another mini-goal within the boundaries goal was to quit my job. And thankfully I was able to accomplish this far earlier than I anticipated. In fact, looking back... I know it gave me the space to make so much progress in my other goals, too.

My next major goal was to make more by working less. Last year I felt like I worked so much, and to be honest I wasn't interested in feeling that way again. The mini-goals included here were actually pretty fun, too!

I've learned how to make money using credit card points, streamline and outsource my Grab & Go Garlands and more. And while I'm feeling good about the start of my credit card journey I'm realizing that I'm far short of my Grab & Go goal. So this episode has been the perfect reminder to get back to those action steps I laid out for myself!

Moving on to my recycling goal... another thing that had me a little burnt out last year was constant content creation for the podcast. I knew I needed to find a way to reuse and reutilize what was already available. Not only to give myself some time back, but also to better serve any newer listeners who may not have heard some of the amazing interviews of past episodes.

This recycling goal includes action steps like scheduling and sharing more on Instagram, utilizing the new blog on thebrightballoon.com website and finding a way to automate turning each podcast into more content. 

Some of these have come easier than others and they're all definitely still a work in progress. In some cases, I've accepted that "done" is better than "perfect" and that has been hugely helpful.

Finally, my $250,000 goal... I think I'm going to make it! After I quit my job, something changed. I'm getting new jobs, I'm getting bigger jobs and I'm now able to put more energy into my "big pumpkins". 

I love, love, LOVE the pumpkin concept by Mike Michalowicz and know that it's made a huge difference for me and my business. That's why I'm absolutely thrilled to say I'll be getting certified to teach and help implement these concepts with you, my listeners!! 

My "pumpkins" keep me on track in remembering my priorities. They give me clarity and focus. And because I've done the work to identify who my ideal clients are, I can now identify one as soon as they hit my inbox. 

I cannot wait for what's ahead with this certification - stay tuned!

That wraps up the progress on my goals, but I always love hearing yours, too! Let me know how things are going for you so far in 2023!

 

 

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

50% off your 1st year of 17hats 

Balloon Suite 

Havin' A Party Wholesale (save 5% with code BRIGHT) 

Balloon Boss Summit & BalloonCoach.com  

Ep. 117 - My 2023 goals 

2023 Bright Balloon Business Planner 

Ep. 132 - I quit my job 

Ep. 121 - Grab & Go Outsourcing 

Ep. 101 - Pumpkin Planning Your Balloon Business 

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Join the book club 

50 Ideas for Email Marketing | Join the Bright Balloon email list  

planner | courses | templates 

@thebrightballoon 

The Bright Balloon on YouTube 

This will be the first year that I've ever had a full marketing strategy going into the year. I just feel like turnover at so many companies has not slowed down since the pandemic, and it's time for me to start taking better care of some of the relationships I have with my best customers.

 

My actual strategy, though, might surprise you!

 

My approach will include:

• Facebook first: posting with purpose
• Email marketing: consistency & pre-scheduling
• Recycle, recycle, recycle
• Big pumpkin energy

 

Facebook first: posting with purpose

With Facebook, I'm realizing that the connections I want to make with other businesses are more likely to happen there than on Instagram. And it's because things are so much more shareable in Facebook.

 

I want to tag the businesses and venues I'm working at and leave call to actions that people can follow to learn more. 

 

That means with Instagram, I'll still be posting some portfolio-type images to my grid, but I'll also be looking into pinned posts, stories and stats more to dictate what gets posted to that platform.

 

Email marketing: consistency & pre-scheduling

With email marketing, I'll be bringing my consistent email approach from the podcast over into my balloon business. Honestly, this has always felt difficult because I don't want every email to be asking for money or talking about a sale.

 

And it's why I've actually created a new resource for you (and me!) that will take care of all the email marketing heavy lifting.

 

I've got a bundle of 24 emails in a Canva template that you can push out to Mailchimp or pull into another email service provider, setting up your email marketing for THE YEAR. The images and coordinating text go along with the seasonal holidays and big events happening around that time. 

 

They are literally ready to copy, paste and hit send!

 

(Listen in to hear an embarrassing story about why I didn't include any placeholder text like "insert customer name here"... I surely wasn't going to set you up for that kind of failure!)

 

Back to my strategy, I'm also going to explore blocks of info in my emails that share upcoming local events and the like, because I know those clicks will tell me what my customers are interested in.

 

Recycle, recycle, recycle

And this takes me to my next big strategy of recycling content. I want to use these email templates as the basis for my social posts. Meaning, I'll be taking the square images from those templates and sharing them out to Facebook and Instagram as well. 

 

I'm also going to reuse the emails year after year! 

 

Big pumpkin energy

Finally, my big pumpkin energy is related to the ideas shared in The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz. This book has changed the way I look at my business and I can't recommend it enough.

 

I want to focus on the clients that I've already got a good relationship with and who hire me for big jobs. I really think this will prevent me from getting all wrapped up in the comparison game that we all fall victim to.

I feel like these strategies and goals fold into one another really effortlessly and it gives me a lot of confidence in making it happen this year! 

 

I'd love to hear your goals and marketing plans for 2023! DM me on Instagram @thebrightballoon or email me: thebrightballoon@gmail.com

 

 

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

email bundle

The Bright Balloon Business Planner 

Havin' A Party Wholesale (save 5% with code BRIGHT) 

Balloon Suite 

Episode 117. My 2023 goals

 

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The LASER Focused Solopreneur 

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@thebrightballoon 

The Bright Balloon on YouTube 

Every business owner who needs to take their life back needs a business that allows them to spend less energy, resources, and money. A business that runs like clockwork gives you freedom and time to focus on your people first. That’s why it’s worth thinking about the steps you can take to have a business that runs like clockwork. Today’s guest is Mike Michalowicz, founder of multiple multi-million dollar businesses and a best-selling author of Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself. The book explains how entrepreneurs can grow their enterprises without sacrificing their sanity. In this episode, Mike talks about having a business that runs like clockwork, systems and productivity. He also talks about the role the queen bee has in your business. Listen in for game-changing concepts that may change the way you run your business.

 

Get the show notes for Having a Business that Runs Like Clockwork with Mike Michalowicz

Click to Tweet: Listening to a fantastic episode on Growth Think Tank featuring #MikeMichalowicz with your host @GeneHammett https://bit.ly/gttMikeMichalowicz

 

#ABusinessthatRunsLikeClockwork #GeneHammettPodcast #GHepisode943 #ProfitFirst #Clockwork #ThePumpkinPlan #FixThisNext

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In this episode I'm looking back on my attempt at the "red x month", and let me tell you... because I wasn't as busy, it gave me some time to really sit down and analyze how I felt about my business and what I wanted it to be.

 

Then I also suddenly realized that instead of a "red x month", I was actually implementing an approach I read about years ago, from one of my favorite authors. It didn't apply to my business at the time, but now I'm so excited to dive into "The Pumpkin Plan" next.

 

Listen in hear about how this experiment went and how you can join me in the next one!

 

 

TIMESTAMPS:

02:55 - How it went and what I learned

09:19 - What it did to my money mindset

16:51 - What I'd change if I did it again

19:37 - An interesting thing that started happening

24:20 - What I realized I was actually doing instead

33:43 - Coupon for your feedback!

 

 

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Show survey & store coupon 

BalloonCoach.com Mastermind 

Havin' A Party Wholesale 

Ep. 51 - Set it up September | Profit First

Ep 80 - Profit First revisited with Elizabeth Fiore

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The LASER Focused Solopreneur 

Support the show / join the book club 

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@thebrightballoon 

Welcome to episode #724 of Six Pixels of Separation.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation - Episode #725 - Host: Mitch Joel. It's hard to grow a business. It's hard to build a business. I wrote about the struggles (and the glory) this past week (The Heart of The Entrepreneur). When I speak to those who are starting up, there is always a book. A secret weapon. I can't tell you how many times, I've heard an entrepreneur or small business owner say: "Have you read Profit First?" The author of that book is Mike Michalowicz, and many people consider him the horse whisperer for startups and small businesses. As we all grapple through this pandemic, Mike's work couldn't be more profound. Over half a million people have read Mike's books (other gems include: Surge, Clockwork, The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur). Mike's mission is clear: "Eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. I have devoted my life to fixing those struggles for you, for myself, and for every entrepreneur I have the privilege to connect with. Successful entrepreneurship is not easy, but it can be a whole lot simpler. That is what I am here to do with you, right now." His latest book is titled, Fix This Next - Make The Vital Change That Will Level Up Your Business. Mike has built and sold many businesses - in good times and in tougher times. Thinking about what’s next for you? Your business? Enjoy the conversation...

• Running time: 56:12.
• Hello from beautiful Montreal.
• Subscribe over at iTunes.
• Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Six Pixels of Separation.
• Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
• or you can connect on LinkedIn.
• ...or on Twitter.
• Here is my conversation with Mike Michalowicz.
• Fix This Next - Make The Vital Change That Will Level Up Your Business.
• Profit First.
• Surge.
• Clockwork.
• The Pumpkin Plan.
• The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.
• Follow Mike on Instagram.
• Follow Mike on Twitter.
• This week's music: David Usher 'St. Lawrence River'.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation - Episode #725 - Host: Mitch Joel.

I was happy to catch up with Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan, and his newest release Clockwork.

By his 35th birthday, Mike had founded and sold two companies - one to private equity and another to a Fortune 500. Today he is running his third multi-million dollar venture, Profit First Professionals. He is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the former business makeover specialist on MSNBC. Over the years, Mike has traveled the globe speaking with thousands of entrepreneurs.

If you've listened to his audio books, you'll be pleased to know that he's just as nice and personable in the "real" world.

Note: I've got him tape (well, digital audio) saying that he'll be back to talk about his next book, Fix This First. We covered that for a couple of minutes at the end of the interview. Stay tuned. And if you have questions for Mike when he returns, send them to me!

Mike's new book, Fix This Next, will be coming out in April.

Mike's Links:

• http://www.mikemichalowicz.com/ 
• https://www.facebook.com/MikeMichalowiczFanPage/ 
• https://twitter.com/MikeMichalowicz 
• https://www.instagram.com/mikemichalowicz/

 

:-)