Creative Freedom with Lisa Robbin Young

In 2007, Consumer Reports did a taste test with McDonald’s coffee and Starbucks. The Consumer Reports Coffee Taste Test showed that McDonald’s plain black coffee edged out Starbucks and other fast food chains and had the best tasting black coffee of them all. Then in 2009, a more informal Starbuck’s taste test was held to look at some of the flavored coffees. This was a bit less scientific, but st...

I have an Incubator client right now that’s working on building their business, and they don’t have a large audience. Between fits of frustration around wanting to go faster and inspired ideas that need execution, we’ve been having conversations around who they serve and how to talk to them to stimulate sales without coming off as sleazy. As nice as it would be to just jump from a great business i...

In our last episode we talked about how to find folks and I intimated a little bit about the need to talk TO them, not AT them. But we didn’t get into specifics of how to do that - what to say, etc. I don’t want to leave you hanging. So, that’s what this episode is all about. This episode will be useful regardless of how well connected you are with this audience. Whether you’re just getting starte...

There was a time in the big bad world of business, where you could pretty much sell anything and people would buy it. You didn’t need to persuade people about the benefits of choosing you because you were the only game in town. They either bought what you were selling or they went without. Period. But buyers are smarter, do more research, and have a LOT more options at their fingertips. It takes m...

Pivot! It was one of the biggest buzzwords of 2020, thanks to the pandemic that shall not be named putting a monkey wrench into EVERYONE’S plans! Not to brag, but I’ve been pivoting since before it was cool. I’ve probably done the pivot 5 or 10 times in my nearly 30 years online. I mean, nothing lasts forever and the only constant is change, right? Last episode I talked about how Taylor Swift pivo...

Here's a question for you today: How does a rock get its own facebook page? The answer? The rock has Raving Fans. People so deeply committed to what it stands for that they want to share it with their audience. Raving Fans are your evangelists. They buy from you, but they also bring with them the support and rapport of new audience members that will get you faster traction and even greater income....

I LOVE me some thrift store shopping! If you have the patience and enjoy treasure hunts, you can come up with some fantastic finds! Why am I talking about thrift stores on a business podcast? Because you can do the same thing with your content! We call it content repurposing, and you can get a lot more mileage from one piece of long-form content if you do it. You can also do some pretty cool thing...

We're back with our first **official** episode of our Season 6 re-launch. Our bonus episode last week gave you the explanation for that. Our earlier episodes of Season 6 laid the groundwork for what we’re talking about today: your content strategy. If you’ve missed those or you need a refresher, you may want to pop back to the beginning of Season 6 to see what you’ve missed. We’ve talked about how...

A "bonus" episode that breaks down how 2021 went. Listen in as I go through a month-by-month breakdown of the highlights of what happened personally and professionally, and end the episode talking about what the changes were making at Creative Freedom HQ that were inspired by 2021's ups and downs.

It's time for season 6, episode 6 of the creative freedom show! This week we'll be focusing on how to build brand awareness as a creative entrepreneur without sacrificing values that are important to you. How do you do that? ✅ Show up ✅ Give people a reason to pay attention ✅ Collaborate with colleagues Catch all the bonus action at creativefreedomshow.com Special thanks to our  Patrons&nb...

A sustainable marketing strategy helps you increase productivity while reducing costs. Adopting a sustainable #marketing strategy helps you improve your brand image and gain a competitive advantage. Though this is true, many entrepreneurs miss out. Why? Burnout. The sad reality for many entrepreneurs. The reason why so many quit or hang up the towel. The reason why creative entrepreneurs can’t con...

The end of Q1 is hot on your heels here in March, so it's a GREAT time to reflect and re-set for the remainder of the year if you've already done your annual planning. OR, you can get your year in gear now and set yourself up to be on track for the rest of 2021. This episode shares 5 tips to help you get your strategic business planning done for the next 12 months - whenever the year begins for yo...

Episode 3 of the Creative Freedom Show! This week we are focused on the top 3 profitable business models for creative entrepreneurs. In this episode we will cover: ✅ Service Based Model ✅ Product-Based Model ✅ Hybrid (Service + Product-Based)

This week on episode 2 of the Creative Freedom Show, the podcast takes a deep-dive look at Katy and Shania Twain to show you how to carve out your own profitable niche in your industry. BOTH of them came from a musical world that was different than the one they ended up in. It required a little patience and courage to make the jump... and it made all the difference.

We kick off this season with a look at how to build a business that's true to you. You know... a business that keeps you from selling your soul! How do we do that? T.A.D.A. - An acronym we developed to help you listen to what's really on your heart and bring yourself and your business into alignment (or back into alignment) with what's true for you. Catch all the bonus action at creativefreedomsho...

This is bonus episode 5 in a series of lessons learned from 25 years as a creative entrepreneur. You're getting 4 big lessons in a single episode. Can ya handle it? President Eisenhower was right: plans are useless, but planning is everything. That said, you can't control the outcome, you can only influence it by what you do and what you choose not to do. Remember, too, that your goal isn't always...

This is bonus episode 4 in a series of lessons learned from 25 years as a creative entrepreneur. No one is coming to save you. You're a business owner, and you need to act like one. If you don't like the way the system works, the only way to change it is from the inside. In this episode, I'll take you behind the scenes in my biggest business failure and share examples from Apple, Denise Duffield-T...

This is bonus episode 3 in a series of lessons learned from 25 years as a creative entrepreneur. Your business is NOT the Field of Dreams. If you built it, ya gotta market it or people ain't coming - or BUYING! At the core, marketing is sharing your message with an interested audience. But what's that message? And where do you find an interested audience? That's what we're looking at in this episo...

I've been teaching this concept for decades now. I started sharing it when I was in direct sales, but it's no less true today for creative entrepreneurs. In a world where there are lots of people doing things similar to you, the truth is that YOU are the competitive advantage your business relies on most. As the face of your company, you were what your audience is buying into every time they make...

This is episode one in a special bonus series I've created to share the most important lessons I've learned over the past 25 years. Yep. I've been an online entrepreneur for over 25 years now - back when the World Wide Web was a new-fangled thing and the Internet itself was a young upstart barely old enough to drink. This episode talks about the single most important lesson I've learned in my 25 y...

I'm going OFF about how the phrase "create epic content" has become synonymous with "if you can't make something that goes viral, then don't do anything at all" - which is a trap that either keeps you stuck on a hamster wheel of content creation in your creative business or paralyzed by perfectionism to the point of doing nothing at all.⁠ ⁠ Instead, I'm going to show you an easy way to share engag...

As a creative, you've got LOTS of ideas. How do you keep track of them all? Can they even be managed? How do you decide which ideas to pursue, and which ones to table for later (or even give away to someone else)?  You're in luck because this week I'm sharing a bunch of tools and resources to help you organize your ideas and get clear on what you're going to move on now, and what can wait. Yo...

You've probably heard the phrase "riches in niches" more times than you care to count. As a creative entrepreneur, finding a niche can feel challenging if you don't solve a "problem" or "pain" with your Great Work. In this episode, I'm stealing a process from the manufacturing world to help you hone in on why clients buy from you and how to find more clients just like them. Catch all the bonus con...

If you're a heart-centered creative entrepreneur struggling with pricing, there's good news: you don't have to subsist on a survival-level income, and you don't have to price-gouge your clients in order to be successful. There's a middle ground that's profitable and sustainable. Your pricing tells a story, and it's personal. For creative entrepreneurs there is no topic more in need of a mindset sh...

Just hearing the word “business model” can conjure up spreadsheets, process diagrams, flow charts, and other stress-inducing imagery. But business models don't have to be stressful. Once you figure out your unique business model, you’ll like how sexy the results are: more money, meaning, and impact . More Raving Fans for your work, more freedom, and more time to focus on what’s truly important to...