Rachel Coley, founder of CanDoKiddo.com

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“You handle all the ‘shoulds’ that I can’t get to.”

Rachel founded CanDo Kiddo after giving birth to her first child. Her goal was to help parents play with their babies in a way that was both fun and supported their development. As a pediatric occupational therapist, she knew she was in a unique position to offer help as a professional and also new-mother-to-new-mother.  

When we started working together in May 2017, she had steady monthly revenue from her products, but she was maxing out on the time she had to devote to her marketing strategy, and she knew it was impacting her revenue.

“I just started feeling like the marketing piece was so ever-evolving that I couldn’t stay on top of it and run my business. I knew how important the marketing piece was to increase my revenue. But I just felt like it was this very elusive I’m never going to be good at this because I couldn’t devote the time to be good at it.”

In 12 months, by focusing on her email and social media marketing, Rachel and I were able to increase her average monthly revenue by 65%, and Rachel had record-breaking sales months in 5 of the 12 months we worked together.

“You handle the ‘shoulds’ that I can’t get to. That I know are essential for running my business. That is a just huge burden lifted, to not have that hanging over me as the thing that I’m never going to be able to get to, this really important stuff. But also it pays off in terms of revenue.

“I’ve always been super strategic. But, I think I can try to be strategic in too many areas simultaneously. And so to have you say, ‘Here’s where we are going to focus our strategy’ was so helpful.

“Our project-based work has really moved the needle. We set a target and then you put it on a Trello board or in a spreadsheet. You break it down into manageable pieces. We knock each piece out. And then it’s … done!

“I think the biggest outcome for me was not just the increase in revenue, but a sense of mastery over my business. A sense of being more at peace with my business, and that I’m doing the things that I need to be doing to maximize it.

“It would have been bright and shiny and exciting if I had 10xed my business in 6 months. But I also don’t think that sort of growth would have been as sustainable.

“Deep down, I just trust the growth a little more right now that we can count on it as family income. I don’t think that growth is going to disappear overnight.”

Rachel also launched a new product during our first year of working together.

And one more thing: we did this together while we were both pregnant, and we both gave birth in October 2017, within 3 days of each other! (She to her third baby, a girl, and me to my second son, Morgan.)

“For me there’s also this relief that you’re in the same season of parenting, so it’s OK on days when I think to myself ‘I don’t have my s*** all the way together.’ I don’t even remember what happened in one of our video chats, but maybe I was breastfeeding or I was pumping or something like that and we were still getting work done. I was like, ‘you know, she gets it.’”

After one of our record sales months, she sent me this note:

“Thanks for all you do – love having another record sales month! I splurged on an AWESOME fireman outfit for Rowan. I would have never done that without the growth you’ve helped with in my business. So pat yourself on the back when you see him on Instagram this weekend lookin’ like the happiest kid on the planet. I’m grateful for our work together.”

 

 

Want to hear more about how email strategy can amp up your business? Click to schedule a free breakthrough session with me.

 

Becky Rapinchuk, founder of Clean Mama and Clean Mama Home

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“For three years I was stuck at the same number of subscribers. Within a year, it doubled! I definitely see that as a result of working with you. ”

Becky founded Clean Mama after she found a way to put a weekly cleaning routine in place in her home while working a full-time job (with travel) and being pregnant with her second baby. Once she developed a routine that she could maintain, and she wanted to share it with others. Clean Mama was born. Soon Becky was selling a subscription that taught others how to maintain the same system, plus cute cleaning and organizing products on cleanmamahome.net.

When we started working together, Becky was selling her products, but she didn’t have a system in place to track her progress or to learn from her marketing campaigns so that she’d know where to focus and where to stop spending her time on without feeling like she couldn’t rely on the results.

“I was trying to achieve consistent growth. There were months when my income was down and months when it was up, and I wanted something I could count on. Something I could sustain and something that would grow over time. I wasn’t necessarily looking for exponential growth, but good, consistent growth that I knew would continue the next year and the next year.”

In 14 months, by focusing on her email marketing, Becky and I were able double her number of subscribers to Homekeeping Society.

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“The big change is that I can see the growth path, and I can see change and consistent income growth. ”

 

We also increased revenues from her online store, Clean Mama Home every single month.

“At first I worried that it would be a lot of work for me. And at that point I remember feeling kind of overwhelmed and I didn’t think I could put  in any more time on my end. But it turned out to be less work. You definitely assessed things continually along the way so that I felt comfortable and confident.

“You’ve really helped me figure out how to triage. I realized that not everything has to be done right now. You helped me break it down so that I didn’t feel this urgency and stress about all my projects.

“The big change is just that reassurance, knowing that it’s working, that I can see the growth path, and I can see change and consistent income growth. And also not really not feeling like I’m stuck in one place but my business is moving closer and closer to where I want to be.”

We also worked so that Becky could get more consistent income from her email list, and feel less reliant on social media and search platforms which are always changing.  

“If I hadn’t hired you and I had just kept things going the same, my income probably would have dropped this year. With all the changes with Facebook and Pinterest and Etsy, I wouldn’t have been able to keep up. Because I was relying on that for traffic to get people to buy products.”

 

 

Beth Anne Schwamberger, founder and owner of Brilliant Business Moms

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“I can count on her.”

“She always thinks very intentionally about planning the right content for a given audience. … Great at tweaking/adjusting if things don’t go according to plan. … She measures and tracks everything and it’s amazing how many business owners just throw things against the wall. She is meticulous.”

 

Chanda Jothen, Pinkoatmeal.com, Founder and Owner

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“I’ve taken classes before but this was so much more useful. It’s the best decision I’ve made to invest back into my business.”

This is the first time I’ve hired someone to help me with my email. I was super impressed. I really wanted to give my emails the feeling that were coming from a real person. I wanted people to be able to connect with me. I don’t look at email anymore like, ‘Well, I’ve just got to get something out there.’” I actually know how to send email that helps people connect with me. … I would recommend you to anyone. I felt comfortable because you really helped me learn and I feel like I could actually take what you said and apply it.

“I’ve taken classes before but this was so much more useful. It’s the best decision I’ve made to invest back into my business.”

Stephanie O’Dea, New York Times best-selling author, owner of StephanieODea.com

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“Maggie is compassionate, empathetic, and real. ”

“I have an entrepreneurial brain — which means that it’s pretty much like a ping pong ball when I am brainstorming. I appreciate that Maggie understands that I think best this way, and allows me to brain-dump while still giving me concrete action steps to implement so I continue to move forward.

She is organized, which I appreciate. I like that she immediately sends over a list of action steps that she is going to take and clearly asks for what she needs from me to move forward.”

 

 

 

Ashley Hopwood, architect + designer, founder of Meldrum Design:

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“I knew the types of clients I wanted but had no idea how to catch their attention. ”

“Maggie changed the direction of my company’s growth, forever. She helped develop my mission statement and she built a custom marketing plan just for me. I would have been completely lost without her. She was always available when I got confused or flustered and sometimes she even reached out without me asking!

Since hiring Maggie, I have a clear course of action. I’m no longer overwhelmed by social media marketing. My business is gaining traction every day and have no doubt that her plan will bring in more clients than I ever could have gotten myself.”

 

 

 

Liz Goodgold, Red Fire Branding

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“Maggie gives concrete, actionable advice.”

 

“Maggie gives concrete, actionable advice on social media. For my blog, for example, she focused me on just 4 key areas of branding. That focus has led to more comments, but more importantly, more business! “