Leonie Dawson's Blog, page 24

February 9, 2022

Leonie’s Dec & Jan Review: 2 Months of Holiday + How Much I Made

Possums!

Yay! Welcome back to my monthly tradition where I review my life & business & share behind-the-scenes numbers as well.

I’ll cover:

life blessings & challengeswhat I’ve created in my businesshow much revenue generatedmy goals for next month.

You can read previous monthly reviews here:

April & May June July August September October NovemberWant to list to this as a podcast instead?

Easyyyy babes! Just click play above, or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCast (or wherever else you listen to podcasts!)

My first two month holiday!

I took off December & January as holidays for the first time.

I’m not really a workaholic anyhow – I only ever work about 10 hours a week, and I’ve never really taken many holidays because I like working and it feels sustainable.

Last Christmas, I decided to try taking off a month off over school holidays as an experiment. I had a bonza time – and also found that I had a lot more clarity from doing it.

So I thought I’d try doing it for two months this time and seeing what that was like.

Spoiler alert: I LOVED IT! Ha!

How I prepped my business so I could holiday for two monthsMy two part-time assistants worked through most of Dec & Jan (one only does Customer Service emails, the other is my general VA/Online Business Manager (OBM) who does everything else).We had a 10 day office shutdown over Christmas which both assistants had off.One assistant had more time off, the other covered for her.I stockpiled blog posts & emails so we had content to go out weekly on scheduleI set priorities for my OBM to work on while I was away. I tried to make them as measurable as possible. For example, to prep 10 Business Success Series blog posts for publishing.

Here’s the content schedule we had:

I pre-wrote the blog posts before I went, and then my OBM published & sent to the mailing list each week. We probably could have batch created it even more by having my OBM pre-schedule blog posts & emails, but that’s a level of planning achievement we’ll attain another time. Haha!

How my holidays went:

Holidays were bloody wonderful. We ended up going on TWO holidays (totally unheard of in our homebody world!)

We stayed in an old Queenslander cottage for a week in Maryborough where my parents-in-law live. We spent time with them, went to a wildlife park, wandered around the beautiful parks, marvelled at the old historic architecture and took the kids to the water park. It was godawful hot and the cottage didn’t have airconditioning, but we still enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Then a month later, we stayed in Hervey Bay at an Airbnb with a pool and was only two blocks from the beach. It was THE BEST. The kids spent most of the day giggling in the pool, and we all went swimming together as a family. We raced barefoot after ice cream trucks and peered in rock pools and fed a huge sea turtle and had the quintessential summer beach holiday. It made our hearts so happy.

I think I’m actually really good at holidaying, guys. I think I could get addicted to this!

Visitors!

My Wild Bushman Dad came to stay for a week over Christmas as usual. The girls love their annual “build a gingerbread house with Grandad” tradition. We didn’t do much tourist stuff as Covid cases were skyrocketing, but it was still good to spend time with my Papa Bear.

I also got to see my high school best Dan at last. We haven’t seen each other since we graduated 21 years ago as we’ve both been traipsing about Australia/the world. Dan was like a brother to me and such an important part of my teen years. It was so beautiful to see him, meet his wife & daughter, and for our families to connect together.

Pandemic-y things:After largely living in a Covid-free bubble the last two years, our state government opened our borders and we finally have what everyone else in the world has: Covid everrrrrrywhere. I’m grateful that our state was able to eliminate Covid until we could get vaccinations and reach 90% vaccinated levels. That’s an enormous privilege. And I still wish we could have kept our bubble.I got my booster shot! Heyoo! So excited! My husband had to wait a little longer and got his today.My kids got their first vaccination as soon as Australia opened it for their age group.Our kids’ school holiday was delayed by two weeks so they didn’t return to school during the peak of the Omicron wave.Other things I did on holidays

I fully let myself… go... these holidays. No productivity. No pushing to be anything but lazy. A real summer holiday!

I got addicted to an app called Pocket Styler, a fashion styling app. Fashion is usually not my jam, but it is my eldest kid’s, so we did it together, and it was bloody fun.I played 800 levels of Water Sort Puzzle, another stupid app.I got addicted to Wordle, like the rest of the planet. Smug moment: I haven’t lost once yet!My husband & eldest kid watched the complete set of Harry Potter movies. I tried, but they are still too scary for me. I’m a delicate petal!I watched a lot of Christmas rom coms.Read a lot of trashy books awwwwwww yissssssssssss.We walked a lot, with my kids on bikes and skateboards.I didn’t socialise much outside of my family, but did have a lovely picnic at the river with my kids’ friends.

Best Books I Read

I read 34 books in December & January. Here’s my favourites of them:

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston – surreal, dreamy LGBTQIA+ romanceWhite Tears, Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad – anti-racist education by an Australian journalistThe School by Brandon James Murray – the heartbreaking and tender stories of a classroom by an Australian teacherThe Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood – hot nerdy romanceThe Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory – all her romances are top notch!The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun – scrumptious gay romanceCome Home, Indio by Jim Terry – graphic novel memoir by a Native American cartoonistEverything is an Emergency by Jason Adam Katzenstein – graphic novel memoir by a person with OCD

How much money I made while holidaying in December & January

I made AUD $64,500 in two months while on holidays. Down from our usual monthly average, but still a totally rad income for someone who spent inordinate amounts of time reading trash and lolling about in a pool! Ha!

Where that income came from:E-courses: Approx $26,000 (AUD)Goal Getter planners: $10,000Passive income business: $20,000Shares & Ethical Managed Funds: no increase this month, value went down quite a bit. But that’s fine and to be expected – these are long term investments.Investment property: $4,400Affiliate for Kajabi: $4,000Calm Christmas Planner on Etsy: $100E-course income breakdown:Marketing Without Social Media: USD $4,55440 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course: USD $4,433Work Less, Earn More: USD $3,318Sales Star: USD $2,721Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income: USD $2,30140 Days To A Finished Book: USD $1,349Mini workshop: Behind The Scenes of A Multi-Millionaire’s Finances: USD $255

(Note: E-course breakdown is in USD, total for all e-course income is in AUD).

Bonus Free Money!

I made some freeeee money as well which is always fun. We have Awards credit cards. We do all business and personal spending on them, and pay them off every week before interest is charged (interest is only charged monthly, but I’m risk adverse AF hahaah!). We earn points from the spending which we can use to either get free electronics or homewares, or get cashback. We used the cashback option this time, so got $250 of free money deposited into our accounts. Hooray!

I also use the free Honey app when buying online to get the best deals and coupon codes on purchases. I love using it just for that feature – it’s fairly often it will find a $10-$20 saving for me. On top of that, you can get rewards on your earnings, so I scored a $40 giftcard from them. NOICE.

Blog posts I publishedHow to get booked on podcasts & interviews The Great Annual Workbook Giveaway For Non Profits!How To Set Goals When You Are Pandemic Miserable And Burnt Out (a guest post from my OBM, Zita)My 2021 Business Review & How Much I Earned My Favourite Books of 2021 November 2021 Biz & Life Review

InterviewsFollow Your Curiosity podcast 50 Shades of Gender podcastCurrent list of software I use to run my business:Kajabi for most things in my business:selling through their shopping cartteaching my courses through their learning management systemrunning my affiliate program ActiveCampaign to send all our marketing emails.Optin Monster to create all the pop-ups, reminder windows & lead magnet forms on my website.Calendly to screen interviewers and book in interviews.Xero is my accounting & financial management system.I host my WordPress websites on WPEngine.

More tools of the trade here if you find that kind of thing useful!

Goals for February

Life:

Settle back into work routine & get my kids settled back into schoolStart weekly Pilates again (and tea and cake at my favourite cafe afterwards)Finish my Goal Getter Life workbook planning for the yearSchedule school toursGet investment house organised

Business:

Finish my Goal Getter Biz workbook planning for the yearDo a live round launch of a courseComplete a Project 10% on PinterestMostly… get back into the swing of creating again and decide on what I want to do next!It’s a joy to be back!

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.

Love,

FREE GOODIES:

Newsletter with absoloodely everything I create Weekly love letters Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised A library of free treasures

BOOKS:

Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!Calm Christmas Planner Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)

COURSES:

Work Less, Earn More Behind The Scenes of a Multi-Millionaire’s Finances (only $7!)Sales Star Marketing Without Social Media Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income 40 Days To A Finished Book 40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course

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Published on February 09, 2022 20:15

February 1, 2022

Business Success Series #8: How To Use Social Media Strategically To Grow Your Biz

Possum blossoms,

You’re probably thinking right now: WAIT! LEONIE IS TALKING ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA? I THOUGHT THEY DON’T USE IT ANYMORE!

And you would be correct, young grasshopper! I don’t!

I still have some hot goss on what to do if you are using it however – and how to make it more profitable & less time-sucking for you and your business!

Buuuut before we get started: are you up to date with the series so far?

How to Work Out Your Ideal Client Online Networking & Masterminding How to Sell More with Blogging How to Grow a Mailing List Grow Your Biz Using Free Opt-Ins Understanding Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)Booking Podcasts & InterviewsWant to listen to the companion podcast for this post as you read?

Easyyyy babes! Just click play above, or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCast (or wherever else you listen to podcasts!)

First up, transparency!

I don’t use social media within my business (or my personal life) anymore.

I quit. Kicked it to the curb. Social media and I broke up earlier this year, and it was the best thing I’ve ever done.

I developed a course based off my experiences and experiments; Marketing Without Social Media, freed up a significant portion of my own time & my assistant’s and made a return to blogging (one of my faaave things in the whole world).

But! Does this mean YOU shouldn’t use social media in your business? Of course not.

The point of this blog post (and Marketing Without Social Media) is to help you figure out how social media can serve you, and if it doesn’t how you can drop it like a hot potato.

Social media shits me because it catches so many business owners up.

You’re probably in either of two camps. You tell me which one you are:

You’re signing up for every platform in existence and trying to keep up with all of them and it ends up taking all your flipping work day being on there and you’re getting no real work done. And you’re not really sure what you are supposed to be doing on there, so you try to do it all. And you probably aren’t getting the most bang for your buck because you just aren’t getting the important shit done.The whole thing is so fraught with overwhelm that you don’t do anything. Or you have one sad Facebook page that never gets your attention.

So it’s time for a social media intervention. I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to know, what’s going to make the biggest impact on your business and what NOT to do

Social Media Intervention: Do Not Let This Be A Time Suck!

I see FAR TOO MANY business owners end up spending their WHOLE DAYS on social media, thinking that’s what they need to do.

IT IS NOT YOUR JOB OR YOUR BUSINESS TO BE ON SOCIAL MEDIA ALL THE TIME.

Let me say that again so you can let it sink in: IT IS NOT YOUR JOB OR YOUR BUSINESS TO BE ON SOCIAL MEDIA ALL THE TIME.

Have a social media presence, if you want one! But you need to get bloody strategic about it!

You are messing with your business growth if interacting on social media is taking up any more than 5-10% of your work time. (By “messing with your business growth” I mean this: you are losing money. BIG TIME. I am dead serious here hon.)

Ideally it should take you as little time as possible. Your job as CEO of your own business is to be creating the strategy for your business and making sure it is done. Your job is to be brainstorming what needs to be fixed, what needs to be improved and what needs to be done to drive your business forward. Your job is to do the one thing that no one else can do in your business.

So, if your social media is a tool you want to keep using in your business, let’s get started on your very own social media plan. Because you damn well need one to make sure it’s profitable, powerful and minimally time-sucky and crazy-making for you.

Which Social Media Platform Should You Be Using?

There are two points to this:

Use the platform/s that your audience are hanging out on the mostUse social media platform/s that you enjoy creating content for

The biggest mistakes I see are business owners using platforms that are somewhat irrelevant to their business, or platforms that they absolutely hate.

You have options, babes! If you choose to use social media, make it enjoyable and profitable!

Here’s the top seven options, ranked by popularity:

FacebookInstagramTwitterTikTokYouTubePinterestReddit

So how do you figure which one’s to use? Well this is where knowing your target audience comes into play again:

If your business is:

directed at womentarget market likes visualsfoodfitnessphotographyfashionhomewarescraftblogging

I would be looking at using Pinterest and Instagram.

If your business’ target market is males, especially those in the tech industry, Reddit and Twitter could be of use.

If you produce videos or want to make it a part of your marketing plan, YouTube or TikTok are your best bet above any other video services.

How To Be A Social Media Ninja

Coming up with goals, plans + systems

This is what separates the professionals from the businesswannabes. You’re going to have to create your very own social media plan.

You need to be looking at statistics of what’s working for your business, allocating your time or team time to creating content and responding on social media, deciding what is a priority and what is not. You need to automate as much as possible and delegate as much as possible. You need regular systems in place so that social media becomes a small (but powerful) part of your marketing plan, not something that soaks up all your time without maximum results.

By the end of this section, you’ll develop your own social media plan.

Coming up with your ratio and mix of social media content Ideally with your social media profiles, you want to be accomplishing a number of aims:

Attracting new followersStaying in front of people who already know youEducating people on you/your product/your serviceDeveloping a community or fan followingSharing your story, philosophy and offerings so people can decide if you are the right fit for themGetting them on to your mailing listGetting them to purchaseGetting them to become raving advocates of your work

So what kind of things can you share on social media to help you accomplish these aims?

Behind-the-scenes photographs and details of your business (i.e. what you are working on now, what it takes to create your product, works-in-progress, your studio or workspace)Photographs and images of your offerings. You can include purchase information, price and where to buy.Advice, tips or tutorials that your target audience would be interested in.Links to news, articles, blogs or websites that your target audience would be interested in.Quote images created by you/your teamQuote images that are re-shared from other sources.Images of results your programs are gettingTestimonials from past clients (whether words or videos or a mix)Celebrating a client’s results whether with a name or without (i.e. “Just heard that one of my clients is now 30 days cigarette free! That’s such a wonderful and life changing achievement!”)Personal sharings (if you are called)Questions for your readersLinks to past blog articles you’ve written that have proven popular and useful to your target marketLinks to new blog articlesImages of your product out in the world by your clients

It doesn’t have to be EXACTLY on message. If you think your target market will enjoy it, share it! Your target market wants to be both educated AND entertained!

Look at your stats to see what’s working!

There’s a couple of ways for you to monitor what’s working awesomely for your business in social media. Consider looking at what your most social media posts were over the last month and what your audience are engaging with the most. The more popular your posts are, the more they will rank higher in feeds, and more people will see what you post.

Consider automation tools:

There are a number of tools out there on the market that can help you schedule social media updates in advance (often publishing to a number of platforms at the same time) so you (or your team) don’t have to be there all day doing it.

They can also help you plan in advance the right mix of posts for you and make you get strategic about what you are posting!

Facebook Page Scheduler (this is built right into the Facebook Page)TailwindCanva

The bottomline is; social media will change. It already has, massively. Algorithms change without warning, social medias disappear (MySpace, Bebo, Vine, Periscope) and your content and followers are never truly yours. If you’re using social media I strongly recommend having a mailing list. That way you aways have access to your audience, even if social media crumbles or changes its terms of use.

Focus on building success now. Focus on doing what you can now. Learn as you go along. It’s the only way to do business.

Consider having one of your team take on the role of Social Media Manager for your business, or hiring one on a part time or contract basis (up-levelling to full-time when your business needs it).

What your Social Media Manager can be doing:

Coming up with content in advance to be shared on your social media profilesScheduling it in, or updating in real timeLiking replies on FacebookResponding to any questions (or directing them to email or private messages to be responded to by customer support staff).Dealing with haters

So, unfortunately, this does need to be talked about because it does happen. As you share your work with the world and get more visible, you’ll start to receive more comments from people who aren’t in your target market, and who aren’t being respectful.

I have zero tolerance for haters or people being disrespectful anywhere in life or business – whether it is on social media or on the street. I have a No B.S. policy installed which pretty much means this – one strike and you’re out. I don’t give warnings. I don’t give second chances. I don’t care if you’re a potential customer. If you believe it’s acceptable to be an asshole, that’s how you’ll continue doing business with me. I believe people show you who they are from the beginning, and that someone who is disrespectful will continue to be difficult to work with in the future.

If anyone uses social media to be unkind or disrespectful, their comment is deleted and they are banned immediately. I don’t engage. I don’t try and coach them up to be nice people. I don’t try and change their mind. I just remove them from my space, end of story.

Of course, if it is a customer with a legitimate concern or question, we take care of them. But for all the rest of the ridunkulous nonsense that goes on, it’s an instant delete and ban.

Free Social Media Planning Worksheets!

To make it even easier for you to stay strategic with social media, I made you some free worksheets to help you:

craft your own profitable social media planevaluate which social media platform is the right one for you to usedecide on your content strategydo monthly social media reviews!

(function(d,u,ac){var s=d.createElement('script');s.type='text/javascript';s.src='https://a.omappapi.com/app/js/api.min...

Streamline. Automate. Profit.

If you decide to use social media in your biz, my loving advice to you is to use the worksheets above to figure out exactly how to streamline it.

Automate your content creation, schedule your posts, turn off endless scroll and create your own content before consuming others. Use social media mindfully and pay attention to your stats & traffic.

And if you still feel that social media isn’t for you, then don’t worry babes you’re certainly not alone.

Social media is just one of many tools you can use in your business. If you want to learn other marketing tools (either to replace social media or to complement it), I highly recommend checking out my course Marketing Without Social Media.

No matter what tools you use in your business, make sure you’re using them because they feel right for you.

We’ve got this, babes!

Big love,

FREE GOODIES:

Daily-ish writings Weekly love letters Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised A library of free treasures

BOOKS:

Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!Calm Christmas Planner Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)

COURSES:

Work Less, Earn More Behind The Scenes of a Multi-Millionaire’s Finances in 2021 (only $7!)Sales Star Marketing Without Social Media Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income 40 Days To A Finished Book 40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course

The post Business Success Series #8: How To Use Social Media Strategically To Grow Your Biz appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

View more on Leonie Dawson's website »

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Published on February 01, 2022 16:58

January 24, 2022

Business Success Series #7: Booking Podcasts & Interviews

Lovebugs,

Let’s swan dive into the goodness that is podcasts and interviews!

Buuuut before we get started: are you up to date with the Business Success series so far?

How to Work Out Your Ideal Client Online Networking & Masterminding How to Sell More with Blogging How to Grow a Mailing List Grow Your Biz Using Free Opt-Ins Using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to increase your salesWant to listen to the companion podcast for this post as you read?

Easyyyy babes! Just click play above, or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCast (or wherever else you listen to podcasts!)

[image error]I’m a bit of a fan of podcasts and interviews.

They can definitely help you gain exposure, along with developing your communication skills, refining your message and helping you find your people.

How I book podcast interviews

Last year, I put the call out to my mailing list + social media accounts letting peeps know that if they wanted to interview me for their podcast, show or magazine to email in and my assistant would get them booked.

There were significant pros and cons for this.

The pros: Within two weeks I was booked out for interviews for 10 months in advance!

The cons: The inbox was FLOODED with requests and my assistant was flat out for about 3 weeks getting everyone booked in. We also didn’t implement a screening process nor did we automate our booking system. This meant there were a large number of interviewers that forgot or just didn’t turn up to their interviews, or just weren’t a good fit.

It was an important lesson!

This year, we’ve changed it up entirely so the entire process is streamlined.

We’ve got an ever-growing list of podcasts that I think I’d be a good fit for that my assistant pitches to. We also use a pitch template (that we heavily personalise for each podcast/interview we’re pitching to) and use Calendly to book interviewers into the calendar. Calendly also sends out automated reminders 24 hours & 1 hour before the interview to minimise missed interviews, and we can ask our screening questions through it.

It’s saved us oodles and oodles of time.

How to Succeed At Podcasts & InterviewsTry and get in front of people who are… YOU GUESSED IT! YOUR TARGET MARKET! Because it’s kind of useless talking to people who don’t give a crap about what you’re talking about or would never buy your thing ever. Hang where your audience is.When you’re approaching larger podcasts, make sure you check out their FAQs & submission guidelines. Don’t think you are above them. Don’t think it’s a waste of your time. If you want to play in their territory, you need to play by their rules. Make it easy for the interviewer to say YES! Make it easy for them to think “ERMAGERD THIS IS GOING TO BE SO AWESOME FOR OUR PEOPLE TO LISTEN TO!”Also, if you haven’t listened to their podcast before, listen to an episode or two. Especially other interviews they’ve done. Get an idea of their interview style.Switch yourself ON before you do the call. Place yourself in the position of really connecting with listeners, and helping them in whatever way you can. Be in service to them. It will light you up. And it will light them up too. They will remember your authenticity, heart, advice and generosity more than someone who is just there to tick it off their list.Know BEFORE interviews whether it is going to be an audio interview or a video interview. I don’t even want to tell you how many times I have been caught out, and how many video interviews there are of me with bedhead and a grungy shirt on. Hint: more than zero. #keepcalmandcarryonAsk super nicely beforehand if you can make an upsell/invitation at the end. My advice for podcasts and interviews is to make it a softer option by inviting the audience to get your free opt-in offer. That way they don’t feel sold to, but feel like they are getting a gift from you. This will develop more trust in you through your newsletters and eventually convert to a customer. Instead of just saying “BUY NOW” and 99% of people saying “NOPE” – say “HEY I’D LOVE TO GIVE YOU THIS FREE THANG THAT WILL HELP YOU” and 30% of them saying “OH HEY! THANKS! THAT’S LOVELY! WILL DO!”Want to do more guest blogs and interviews?Ask your mastermind peeps if they want to do tradesiesAdvertise on your website that you are available for interviewsSend out an email to your list saying you’re happy to do interviews on such & such topics (have boundaries + systems in place to deal with an influx of responses if you have a big list)Pitch to your fave podcasts that are relevant to what you do + offerMore interview tips!When you start out, say yes to everything you can. Focus on links back to your website, opt ins and ultimately getting them on your mailing list.As you grow bigger, you can start refining your goals more. You won’t be able to say YES to everyone. You’ll need to start building some parameters around who you want to do podcasts and interviews for.At some point it’s no longer profitable or feasible for you to do podcasts and interviews for brand new websites or ones that have a tiny audience. Instead you will need to concentrate your efforts on opportunities that give you access to more people, focusing especially on those in your target market.

I’m much, much choosier now with guest blogs and interviews. I have to be.

Here’s a handy trick: if you’ve reached the point where you can’t take on every interview and podcast request, you can create a library of videos, articles and audio workshops that you can offer in lieu of original content.

[image error]Here are some of the boundaries and guidelines I have in place:If someone wants to interview me, they have to answer our screening questions, which are fairly lengthy and gives my assistant enough information about whether their audience is the right fit for me or not. That way, we don’t have to go back and forth to ask questions.If people don’t answer all the questions or don’t answer them properly, they are an immediate red flag for me. Why? It shows they don’t respect my time. They are usually unprofessional, will have smaller list sizes, be late to interviews and otherwise be a major pain in the ass. People usually show you who they are from the very beginning.There are a million other things I could be doing as CEO of my business. For every YES I say, there is an opportunity cost. If I’ve agreed to use an hour of my time for an audience of 50, I’m saying no to the potential of using my time in a better way to reach 10 times that amountLate cancellations, no-shows or rocking up to the interview 10 minutes late are 100% not okay with me. If that happens, I won’t reschedule the interview. I respect other peep’s time, and I don’t work with nonprofessionals. I was way more laidback about it in the beginning, but after yet another early-wake-up where I’ve forgone much needed mama sleep and rearranged my family’s schedule for an interview where the interviewer hasn’t turned up… well a woman’s gotta have her boundaries.I’m not going to sacrifice my time, energy and family for peeps who aren’t in integrity with doing what they say they will do.

(function(d,u,ac){var s=d.createElement('script');s.type='text/javascript';s.src='https://a.omappapi.com/app/js/api.min...

Booking interviews is a brilliant way to be introduced to a whole new audience!

Any time I’m interviewed, I always end up with new peeps signing up to my mailing list and buying my shiz. Why?

Because listeners of the interview (the interviewer’s audience) are introduced to me & my offerings, and resonate.

It goes both ways too.

When I promote the interview by writing a blog post and adding it to my podcasts page I’m introducing my audience to the interviewer. Mutually beneficial, babes!

It’s time!

Put yourself out there, start pitching podcasts or people in your circle to interview you. Or, start your own podcast!

You’ve got experiences, perceptions and stories no one else has. And only you can tell them.

Big love,

FREE GOODIES:

Daily-ish writings Weekly love letters Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised A library of free treasures

BOOKS:

Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!Calm Christmas Planner Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)

COURSES:

Behind The Scenes of a Multi-Millionaire’s Finances in 2021 (only $7!)Sales Star Marketing Without Social Media Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income 40 Days To A Finished Book 40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course

The post Business Success Series #7: Booking Podcasts & Interviews appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

View more on Leonie Dawson's website »

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Published on January 24, 2022 16:26

January 18, 2022

The Great Annual Goal Getter Workbook Giveaway for Non Profits!

Hey possums,

I am THRILLED it’s that time of year again, where we have the honour of donating the digital Goal Getter Workbooks to Not For Profit and Charity organisations!

Are you a social worker or a part of a non profit organisation?

Does your organisation work with underprivileged or disadvantaged people?

Or do you know someone who is?

We’d love to donate as many copies of the digital LIFE & BIZ Goal Getter Workbooks as you’d like, for using with your clients

We can supply both the digital Life and Business editions – whatever you feel would work for your clients!

Every single year since the beginning of the workbooks, we have been donating them to non profit organisations. I’ve also run a meditation + goal setting retreat at a local safe house which was such a beautiful experience.

Just because the workbooks are now undated doesn’t mean our yearly giveaway will stop! In fact, now you’ll be able to apply whenever you’d like!

Sharing the workbooks is my way of being able to visit even more places, helping raise spirits and creating change in the world.

To Apply:

To apply for free workbooks for your clients, just fill out the form here!

If you’re eligible, there’ll be a link at the end of the form which will take you the checkout page with a 100%-off discount already applied!

Those donated workbooks have been used by over 200,000 (!!!!) souls around the planet who needed them, from organisations that included:schools using them for teenage girlswomen’s shelters in the United Statesindigenous Australian women’s services in Sydney, Australiadisadvantaged women advocacy services in Cambodiaanimal sanctuary in the United Kingdom (used by their board to business plan their charity! Hooray!)aged and elderly services in New Yorkcancer survivors in Englandwomen’s charities in Zimbabwe

The feedback from the organisations has been really, really wonderful.

Every year we hear how much organisations and their clients got out of the workbooks. It’s one of my favourite times of the year to hear how clients felt much more inspired, motivated and empowered after using them, and often requested more workshops to have accountability about following through on their goals over the year!

Some essential admin notes:Please note these are DIGITAL EBOOKS, not printed books. We’ll provide you with PDFs and a licence to print as many as you need. PDFs can be printed out or filled out electronically. You’ll also receive a short guide with instructions/suggestions on how to use the workbooks with clients.You can use them with as many clients as you like – the more the merrier!YES – if you’ve received them in past years, we’d be delighted to continue donating to you!This offer is ONLY for registered non profit organisations. This is not a workbook giveaway free for all. This is not for individuals. This is not for practitioners to giveaway to paying clients. This is only for registered non profit organisations. Please don’t apply unless you are one. Please do not waste my team’s time who could be helping real non profits. If you aren’t sure if you are one or not… you aren’t, so please don’t apply. (I’m sorry if this sounds snarky, but holy dooley we’ve seen some doozy requests over the years!)If you are not a non profit, YOU CAN ORDER YOUR WORKBOOKS HERE.

To apply for free workbooks for your non profit, COMPLETE THE APPLICATION HERE!

I’m SO delighted to work with even more organisations this year to help even more beautiful souls grow, evolve, dream, hope, transform + make their own miracles happen.

Together, we’ll keep changing the world for the better. I totally believed that back when I first started donating the workbooks and I still know it today with my whole heart.

Thank you so much for all the work you do.

Big love,

FREE GOODIES:

Newsletter with absoloodely everything I create Weekly love letters Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised A library of free treasures

BOOKS:

Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!Calm Christmas Planner Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)

COURSES:

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Published on January 18, 2022 16:52

January 9, 2022

How To Set Goals When You Are Pandemic Miserable and Burnt Out

Well well well, what do we have here? One of the assistants has taken over Leonie’s blog! She’s a leeetle nervous about it but she’s started now so no going back. Also she should also stop writing in third person…

Hello hello dearest friends of Leonie!

A few days ago, I (Zita, Leonie’s online business manager, hi!!!) wrote a cheeky little blog post over on my own website talking about the goals I’ve been setting for 2022.

I will admit, I am less goal oriented than Leonie. At any given point Leonie has over 150 goals actively on the go (and fucking SMASHES them by the way, #ProudOBM), meanwhile I am failing the one (1) health goal I’ve set so far which is “eat less cheese, you are lactose intolerant and nearly died over Christmas.”

But I digress.

Leonie read my blog post about goals (literally the most supportive boss ever) and sent our group chat the following message:

You might be wondering what the hell SHMART/SMARTH is and I will get to that in a second dear reader, but when I read Leonie’s request: “Can you write a blog post for my blog about this?” I was like ‘Yeah, sure! Add it to Asana for me and I’ll get it done this week!”

I figured it would be the usual: I write the skeleton of the blog post and then Leonie comes in, sprinkles some glitter, adds the heart & soul and BAM the skeleton comes to life.

So imagine my surprise, the SHOCK, when I read the task instructions in Asana and the last sentence said “written in full as you, not me.”

Uhhhh I get to write a guest post FOR Leonie Dawson… About GOALS?!…

Pack it all up folks. I have ascended, I am no longer of this mortal realm, I can eat as much cheese as I want because oh my god 2022 isn’t gonna get any better than this.

Truly, I’m living.

But let’s get right into the nitty gritty of it…

hey look! it’s me with Leonie’s undated LIFE Goal Getter Workbook!

It’s time for SHMART goals!

“Zita… What in the ever living ham sandwich is a ‘SHMART goal’?”

Well, let’s bring it back a bit. Perhaps you’ve heard of S.M.A.R.T goals!

S – SpecificM – ManageableA – AttainableR – RealisticT – Timely

It’s an acronym us goal getters and setters use to really help nail down the nitty gritty details of our goals. Setting SMART goals as opposed to say, making a vague New Year’s resolution means those goals are more likely to be achieved. Here, I’ll give you an example that I mentioned in my original blog post!

One of my 2021 goals was: dive with Great White Sharks.

Now if that’s how I left the goal (“this year I’ll go diving with Great Whites”), you can see it has no direction. No plan or structure of any kind.

Buuut if I rework that goal to be a SMART goal, it now sounds like this:

I will go diving with Great White Sharks in November as that’s the best time to see themI’ll go with a research company, so that the dive is sustainable and the money I pay goes towards protecting the sharks & their environmentThe diving package costs $4k, so I’ll put aside $600 per month between January and November to cover travel costs + the cost of the dive (which I’ll book in August)Great White Sharks are my favourite animal, I would love to see them in the wild and contribute to their conservation & protection

You see how much smarter (pun fully intended), that sounds?

Now that I’ve reiterated to myself why I want to go diving with sharks + who I’ll go with (Specific) , how much it’ll cost + my savings plan (Manageable, Attainable & Realistic) and when I’ll go (Timely), the goal seems less like a pipe dream and more like something tangible. Something actually achievable.

Now. I wish at this stage I could insert a nifty little photo of me in a dive cage with a beautiful apex predator looming in the background. I wish I could regale you with tales of teeth and salt and sea air, because the only thing better than Leonie asking me to write a blog about goals would be if they asked me to write about sharks…

But I didn’t go diving with sharks in 2021. Even though it was literally my first goal on the Goal Getter 100 Goals list for 2021, even though I could afford it, even though I had the time.

So I started asking myself: “why DIDN’T I go diving with sharks? and why am I so reluctant to put it on my goals list again in 2022?”

And I realised yes, the goal is specific. Yes it’s manageable, attainable, relevant and timely. But it isn’t healthy.

I have chronic pain (CRPS) & ADHD, and we’re two years into a global pandemic. I spent the majority of 2020 and 2021 dealing with significant burnout while managing a whole host of personal life + health stuff that walloped the shit out of me. Much like a lot of people reading this, I barely have the energy to make it to the fridge to eat delectable, damaging cheese, let alone travel into another state for a week and then maintain a high level of physical activity (#yeugh).

This was my realisation:

For starters, I’d have to get to Adelaide [where the dive company is]. Difficult, when for the majority of the year the borders between South Australia (where the sharks are) and Victoria (where I am) were closed.

But even if they weren’t, how would I get to Adelaide? I can’t drive it on my own with my CRPS, if I fly; no car and limited transport.

And then, even overcoming all of the above, multiple days on a boat? With complete strangers? Diving (exhausting) with apex predators (cool, but also respectfully terrifying)?

So actually, it’s not as attainable or as manageable as I thought. It’s not a healthy goal for me to set right now and it wasn’t a healthy goal for me to set at the start of 2021 either.

And so that’s why I decided to add a ‘H’ to SMART goals.

I felt very clever and called it SMARTH. And then Leonie came up with SHMART and how the hell did I not think of that one?

Look, don’t get me wrong. I will see Great Whites in the wild one day. And you’ll read about it because I will gently bully Leonie into letting me write about it here (I’m kidding, I would never bully my boss).

It’s just not healthy for me right now. I’m too burnt out, too nervous about the pandemic, too under-prepared for the toll it would take on my health.

So does that mean I failed? Should I feel bad that I didn’t achieve it last year and that I’m not even including it in my goals for this year?

Absolutely the fuck not.

We’re not defined by how many goals we did or didn’t achieve EVER, but especially during a traumatising and exhausting global event such as a pandemic.

You’re enough regardless of your achievements. You don’t need to be the Queen of Productivity in order to be worth something. You’re worthy no matter what.

It’s okay if you’re surviving not thriving. It’s okay if thriving isn’t even something you can focus on right now. It’s okay if rest, fallow, recuperate are the only things in your sight.

Because getting through this brutal, devastating experience is taking so much of our energy & patience, which in itself is one hell of an achievement.

My advice? If you wanna set goals, set them and set yourself up for success.

That’s one of the biggest things pain management taught me. That and there’s no such thing as a goal that’s too small.

If you don’t wanna set goals this year? If the idea of planning makes your knees want to suck up your legs so you can’t go anywhere or do anything? Well that’s just valid. So valid.

And if you do want to give goal setting a go this year, check out Leonie’s Goal Getter workbooks (legit they’re frickin’ brilliant, especially for my ADHD brain), use the SHMART goal setting system and go easy on yourself.

Whatever you bring to 2022 is enough. Just like you.

With love from the sharks, cheese and me (your friendly neighbourhood OBM),

FREE GOODIES:

Daily-ish writings Weekly love letters Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised A library of free treasures

BOOKS:

Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!Calm Christmas Planner Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)

COURSES:

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Published on January 09, 2022 18:22

January 5, 2022

Follow Your Curiosity Podcast

Blossoms,

I’m sharing the first interview of 2022 today and HOO BOY are you going to LAHHHHV this one!

Nancy Norbeck of the Follow Your Curiosity podcast had a thrilling conversation all about creativity, life and biz.

Here’s what Nancy had to say about our interview:

When I think of someone who is unstoppably creative, I think of Leonie Dawson, who is my guest today. As you’ll hear, Leonie is an artist, writer, and inveterate experimenter who build a 7-figure business by trying as many things as possible to see what she loved the most, and runs on the philosophy that whoever’s having the most fun wins. We talk about everything from how she encourages creativity with her kids to her decision to leave social media to the fact that it really is okay to decide not only who you want to work with, but who you don’t—and a whole lot more. This is a wide-ranging conversation that offers a lot to chew on for any creative soul or entrepreneur.

Get ready to be inspired as fuck!

Ready to listen?

Click HERE!

Love always,

FREE GOODIES:

Daily-ish writings Weekly love letters Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised A library of free treasures

BOOKS:

Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!Calm Christmas Planner Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)

COURSES:

The post Follow Your Curiosity Podcast appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

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Published on January 05, 2022 15:29

January 2, 2022

2021 Business Review

Dearests,

We’ve had so much fun doing monthly reviews this last year… why don’t I do an annual review of my business to share with you?

Finances

In Australia, our financial year goes from July-June. I haven’t finalised my calendar year figures, and that’s probably a month off at least, so I might as well share financial year results instead!

Mailing list:

We did a big list cleanse this year and our list size dropped from 55,000 to 45,000.

Social media:

Don’t use anymore weeeeeeeee hooray!

Podcast:

I recorded 67 podcast episodes in the past year.

Here’s my current all time listens:

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We had over 20,000 on our previous platform before we moved to Anchor.fm, so about 96,000 all up. Not bad for something I put fuck all thought or planning into… or even refuse to name properly. HO HO HO.

Website traffic:

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Most exciting to me is the session duration… I love that people are hanging out so long on my website!

Staff

Years ago I tried having a large team of 20+ people and… I hated it. It was more stressful to manage, less fun & it took too much time away from my family.

I like to keep a super simple, stress-free business now.

Showing off our team uniforms! Ha!

I work about 10 hours a week.

I have two part time assistants:

Customer service: 3-5 hours a week.Online Business Manager: 20 hours a week.

All up, we do about 35 hours a week – less than one full time person! Ha!

Incase you’re wondering what my Online Business Manager’s job entails, I dug out this slide from Work Less, Earn More:

December 20, 2021

Leonie’s Favourite Books of 2021

Precious humans,

It’s my favourite time of year. Not because of that whole Christmas thing, though that’s fine too. This is something better than that. I GET TO TALK ABOUT MY FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR. *AND* IT IS WORKBOOK SEASON!

If you’ve been around these parts for any length of time, you’ll know this is an annual tradition I’ve been doing since 2012. You can find all the yearly book lists here.

As always, this is not a list of the best books published for the year – just the books I read in that year. As they say in High Fidelity, the records are organised autobiographically.

How many books I read in 2021

First up: the big question! How many books did I read this year?

This year I read just over 200 books… up from last year, but nowhere near my 2019 record of 400 books.

WHAT FORMAT I CONSUMED BOOKS IN

80% of the books I read were on Kindle
20% of the books I read were paperbacks

I am definitely leaning back towards reading more on my Kindle, purely for middle aged reasons. I can see the backlit text better, I don’t get hand cramps from holding it and I don’t wake up my husband with rustling pages.

For a change, I didn’t really read any books on audiobook this year, except for re-listening to an old favourite.

RIGHTO! THAT’S ENOUGH PRE-AMBLE!LET’S TALK BEST BOOKS!Non-Fiction

More Than A Woman – Caitlin Moran

One of the best books I’ve ever read. So much so I immediately bought a dozen copies to give to other middle aged women. It is OUR BIBLE. I struggled between wanting to gobble it whole and ration it so it lasted forever. Can not recommend enough.

Love Stories – Trent Dalton

Hands down one of my favourite books of the year. One of my favourite journalists realised he was getting jaded, so he sits in Brisbane city with a typewriter to ask people their love stories. Heartfelt, human, deeply kind.

Women Don’t Owe You Pretty – Florence Given

Adored this book on contemporary intersectional feminism and self love – took lots of notes, and passed my copy onto my assistants too so we could do a wee work book group.

The Pronoun Lowdown – Nevo Zisin

A really cute designed book on pronouns. Hooray!

Remarkable Diaries – DK

I wrote about it here in detail, but I fucking loved this book documenting diaries through the ages.

Atomic Habits – James Clear

Useful tome on habit creation & maintenance. I shared my notes here.

Help Me! – Marianne Power

A cute memoir by a woman who tries out different self help protocols each month. Was inspired to read this because of my own 21 day challenges this year!

Primary School Confidential – Mrs Woog

I love reading books by teachers about school. As a school parent, I like knowing the other side of the story and what it’s really like in classrooms.

From Marathon To Ultra – Jonathan Cairns

This was written by one of my Book e-course students, and I bought it to support him and also as a bit of a joke because HAHAHAHA YEAH AS IF I REALLY NEED TO LEARN HOW TO GO FROM BEING JUST A MARATHON RUNNER TO AN ACTUAL ULTRA MARATHON RUNNER. I am not in the target market for this book at all. Anyway, I read the introduction, got hooked and read it in one night. It was actually really interesting even for an exercise hating hottie like me.

One Life – Tina Tower

My new mate Tina sent me copies of her books and I inhaled this in one night. I love Tina’s brave spirit & strength in creating a life of her own.

From Shitshow to Afterglow – Ariel Meadow Stallings

I’ve read Ariel’s blog for… maybe 15 years?

An excellent book if your life has gone tits up!

22 Things A Woman With Asperger’s Syndrome Needs Her Partner To Know – Rudy Simone

Concise and useful.

This Is Going To Hurt – Dr Adam Kay

Memoir of a doctor working in emergency. Gripping, funny and devastating all at once. Makes me appreciate medical staff even more.

How To Break Up With Your Phone – Catherine Price

Highly, highly, highly recommend.

Digital Minimalism – Cal Newport

Highly, highly, highly recommend. I paired this one with “How to break up with your phone” and they were the perfect duo.

Decluttering

Decluttering at the speed of life – Dana K White

Sane decluttering advice for people who aren’t naturally organised.

Order From Chaos – Jaclyn Paul

Excellent organisation advice for ADHD hoomans. My notes are here.

How To Keep House While Drowning – KC Baker

I love this chick on TikTok. This was a short, compassionate tome on mental health & cleaning.

Creativity

Keep Going – Austin Kleon (re-read because it’s so great!)

Practices on how to keep creating, even when you’ve been doing it for a long while, or even when things are a flaming pile of dogshit.

Tender, Brave Spirit – Tammy Hudgeon

A visually stunning book on creative bravery. Absolutely adored it.

Deep Work – Cal Newport

This year I turned into an epic Cal fangirl. I’ve been studying this book for most of the year, and still haven’t finished with it.

Die Empty – Todd Henry

How to stop doing busy work and do the work you were born to do before you kark it.

Big Magic – Elizabeth Gilbert

I re-listened to the audiobook of Big Magic when I was in a creative slump. It’s solid gold.

Money

Simple Path To Wealth – JL Collins

I liked the relative simplicity of his approach to wealth creation. I follow something similar except instead of index funds, I invest in ethical managed funds.

Playing with FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early)

I fell into FIRE world this year and got obsessed. I love learning from people who have decided to live a financial life less ordinary and work out a way to retire early.

How I Invest My Money – Joshua Brown

How rich people actually invest their money. Completely fascinating.

100 Side Hustles – Chris Guillebeau

I love stories of people building unique businesses in their spare time. This was so inspiring!

Billionaire in Training – Brad Sugars

An interesting read on the process of purchasing businesses to grow then sell again.

Graphic Novels & Memoirs

Spring Rain – graphic memoir by Andy Warner

Touching and intense.

Annie Sullivan & The Trials of Helen Keller.

I bought this as a historical graphic novel for my kid, but decided to give it a go myself just to be able to talk to her about it. Surprisingly touching… the way he illustrates Helen’s world becoming illuminated with words and understanding was just beautiful. My only quibble is it ended too quickly on a kind of bummer event. I wish it had gone through and illustrated Annie and Helen’s life together.

Becoming RBG – Debbie Levy

Being an Australian, I didn’t know much about Ruth Bader Ginsbur. This comic biography was beautiful and such a lovely introduction to an inspiring woman!

Catherine’s War – Julia Billet

Intense and stunning story of a girl living through Nazi Germany.

Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust

Same as above. Intense and beautiful. Read both in one bathtub sitting.

Susan Branch’s trilogy: The Fairy Tale Girl, Martha’s Vineyard and A Fine Romance

I fell HARD into Susan Branch world this year. I wrote about my obsession here.

These are three of her books which form an autobiographical trilogy. They are all handwritten, illustrated and painted and just STUNNING. Fuck I love them… reading them and learning about Susan was a massive highlight of my year! She is so inspiring! She is a 74 year old author & illustrator who has been creating since the 1980s and has gathered the most beautifully connected, loyal group of readers she calls “Girlfriends”. I totally want to be her when I grow up!

Manabeshima Island Japan

Oh my word, this was a FEAST for the eyes. Hands down one of my favourite graphic travel memoirs EVER.

Inspired You – Marian Parsons

Gorgeous book on interior design by a multi-passionate creative. I should give you a heads up – there are a few Christianity references in this book. I’m not religious but was happy enough to skip those parts.

Dare To Disappoint – Growing Up In Turkey

Lovely graphic memoir.

Almost American Girl – Robin Ha

Graphic memoir by a Korean born girl who is abruptly transplanted to the USA and struggles to learn English.

Covid Chronicles: A Comic Anthology

I feel like I need to digest the strangeness of the last 20 months by reading comics about it. This was great.

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Quarantine Comix – Rachael Smith

Same as above.

How To Be Ace – A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual

I didn’t know much about the lived experience of asexuality, so this was a useful window for me to begin to understand more.

True Believer – Lucy Bellwood

I got obsessed by Lucy Bellwood this year. You can read about that here. I think I ended up reading her entire catalogue of comics. This was one of my favourites.

This Woman’s Work – Julie Delporte

There’s something about the drawing and design of this book that I find utterly compelling. Ooof, I can barely describe how delicious it is.

Heartstopper series 1, 2, 3, 4 by Alice Osman

Utterly heartwarming comic series about two teen boys falling in love. I GOBBLED these books up. GOBBLED.

Dancing at the Pity Party – Tyler Feder

Poignant memoir about grief and love.

Fiction

The Road Trip – Beth O’Leary

I’m a big ole Beth O’Leary fan – The Flatshare and The Switch are previous favourites of hers. She manages to create visceral images of her characters, and real emotional tension.

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The Soulmate Equation – Christina Lauren

My proudest moment of the year was when I was hanging out at my favourite bookstore that sometimes lets me work there, and a woman came in looking for this exact book. And I had JUST finished reading it that week, and already knew exactly where it was in the store. I’m seriously the best volunteer staff member they’ve ever had. HA!

Anyways, it’s a fucking great book, just like all of their books are!

The Heart Principle – Helen Hoang

Helen is another firm favourite of mine – she writes intensely emotional romance novels featuring people with Autism. HEART!

If you’re looking for some hot Victorian era gay erotica, HOO BOI DO I HAVE YOU COVERED.

Float Plan – Trish Doller

Grief stricken chick decides to sail around the world to try and heal. Beautiful and emotional.

Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall

Alexis Hall is the cutest and the bestest. That is all.

While We Were Dating – Jasmine Guillory

Oh wait, sorry, Jasmine Guillory is ALSO the cutest and the bestest.

My Darling Duke – Stacy Reid

NOICE. GET IN THERE WITH THAT VICTORIAN SMUT.

You and Me On Vacation – Emily Henry

I fucking love this chick’s books. They are always emotional and gripping without giving me the sads.

Beach Read – Emily Henry

As above.

Act Your Age, Eve Brown – Talia Hibbert

How lucky am I that Helen Hoang, Beth O’Leary AND Talia Hibbert all released new books this year!!!

I inhaled them WHOLE. Honestly, the year could have only improved if Tessa Dare had released one too!

Anyways, Talia’s books are hot AF and also include neurodiverse and inclusive characters. They are human and humane and just lovely.

Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (haven’t read the rest of the series yet)

After bingeing Bridgerton on Netflix I started gobbling up the series of books they are based on.

I’ve held off on reading the rest until I can watch more of the series.

Red, White & Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston

Fucking brilliant. I laughed, I burbled with joy, I cried, I felt hope. One of the best romantic fiction books I’ve ever read. It feels wildly contemporary.

Dear Emmie Blue

Emmie Blue is a lonely teenager who sends off a balloon with a letter containing her biggest secret inside, which is later found on a beach in France by a teen boy. And so begins their story…

Kid’s Books

Your Birthday Was The Best

When I read this to my kids, they made me read it over and over and over and over again all in one go until we had memorised the whole thing. We can recite the whole thing without the book now. Delightful and hilarious!

The Magic Finger – Roald Dahl

One of the biggest joys of parenting is being able to read some of my favourite childhood books with my kids.

Five On A Treasure Island – Enid Blyton

Another one of my childhood favourites. More jolly times spent reading it to my kids. WEEEEEE!

Goal Getter Workbooks

And of course, I’m not going to talk about my favourite books of the year & not mention my very own Goal Getter workbooks. I made them for myself first and foremost to help me set my own goals for my life & business over 12 years ago… and am in awe of the fact that over 450,000 people have used them since then too.

Goal Getter Life workbook – set your goals for every area of your life for the upcoming year. Creativity, family, health, adventures, education, finances & more!

Goal Getter Biz workbook – plan out your business for the year ahead including revenue, expenses, marketing, team, philanthropy, work-life boundaries & more.

Goal Getter weekly planner – the companion weekly planner to map out your week’s appointments & goals.

Goal Getter daily to do list – use it daily to help you stay on track with your goals, tasks & healthy habits!

So hope this has given you some book reading inspo!

I love when I hear from you that you’ve stocked up your book piles with my recommendations!

Books have always been one of the most favourite parts of life, and I love that I get to share them with you.

With big book love,

FREE GOODIES:

Daily-ish writings Weekly love letters Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised A library of free treasures

BOOKS:

Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!Calm Christmas Planner Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)

COURSES:

The post Leonie’s Favourite Books of 2021 appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

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Published on December 20, 2021 14:06

December 7, 2021

November 2021 Biz & Life Review

Pooky bears!

Yay! Welcome back to my monthly tradition where I review my life & business & share behind-the-scenes numbers as well.

I’ll cover:

life blessings & challengeswhat I’ve created in my businesshow much revenue generatedmy goals for next month.

You can read previous monthly reviews here:

April & May June July August September OctoberTo start, let’s review the goals I had for November!

LIFE

Have a fucking rad birthday – DONECelebrate the fuck out of my husband’s birthday – DONEGo for 10 walks – DONEKeep my kids chilled out & full of love as we finish up the school year – DONE

BIZ

Launch Work Less, Earn More – DONEBatch content to be used over December & January – DONEHave a bonza income month & prepare for taking time off over Dec & Jan – DONEGet back into a good rhythm with Project 10% again. – IN PROCESS

What happened on the life front!

November is SCORPIOFEST – both me and my husband celebrate our birthdays.

I celebrated my 39th birthday! HOORAY!

Usually for my birthday I go away for a night in a hotel by myself to introvert it up and read books and journal in silence, but I’ve been a bit social deficient, so I thought I should actually celebrate with other humans for a change! I went away for a weekend with three of my girlfriends to my favourite place – Noosa Valley Manor. It was bloody DREAMY and I laughed myself stupid. I talked about all the deets on this podcast episode.

I also had a celebration day with my family, and we went to Montville on a road trip – a sweet little village in the mountains filled with cute boutiques. We had an enormous breakfast at Poet’s Cafe which has the most stunning views. It was such a lovely day!

On my husband’s birthday, we had breakfast at a cafe and spent the afternoon at the beach together. Just lovely!

Apart from all the Birthday Goodness, we’ve been winding down the school year. We’re all a bit exhausted and ready for our 7 week break over summer.

Other things that happened in November:I finished Pema Chodron’s Good Medicine courseMy youngest kid had two dental appointments. I swear I age a decade with every dental appointment.I hosted a group call with my mastermind about retirement plans – when we’ll do it, what it will look like and how we will fund it. It was fascinating!My biggest kid went out with her friends at night by herself for the first time (chaperoned by a friend’s mum). She went to a fashion & photography show, ate donuts & had the raddest time. She is growing so fast. The best part: she decided to wear a button up shirt and one of her Dad’s neckties for her big night out. So freaking cute!I continued weekly private sessions with my Scorpio pilates instructorI got my eyebrows done by my Scorpio brows ladyI had a wee back injury that got taken care of by my Scorpio osteopathClearly… I like Scorpios! HAHAHAHAHA. Maybe that’s how I should interview all service providers in the future. “Are you a Scorpio? YES? YOU’RE IN!”

Best Books I Read In NovemberLove Stories – Trent Dalton. This was one of my favourite books of the year. I just love the concept: Trent feels jaded after a year of pandemic, so he sat on the corner of a city street and asked people their love stories. A stunning and emotional book by one of my favourite journalists. (FYI, he did it here in Queensland while we were in a very lucky Covid-free bubble.)Your Birthday Was The Best – Maggie Hutchings. This picture book is HILARIOUS and addictive… so much so we read it together so many times in one night we can all repeat it verbatim from memory, while cackling away.One Life – Tina Tower. My new mate Tina sent me copies of her books and I read this one in a night. I’m in awe of Tina, her go-getter attitude & her determination to make her own one true, bright life.

What happened on the business front in November!

We had a fairly simple focus in November – we had two launches.

I released my new workshop Work Less, Earn More.We ran a Black Friday Sale.

Will share the income results of that in a second!

Other business odds & sods!One of my two Macbook Air laptops needed to get its keyboard replaced, so I was without it for a week or so. I’m so relieved I have two. I am suuuuper particular about laptops – I only like Macbook Airs from 2012-2014. Everything else gives me RSI. A couple years ago I managed to track down a laptop that had been sitting in a warehouse unopened for a few years and I bought it as a backup. Between the two I have, I am hoping I can keep using them for as long as possible.Did my usual group coaching call for all my e-course students. These are so fun, and I love seeing everyone’s faces and getting to learn about them and their businesses.Ran a big competition for my affiliates, with one of the prizes being… a crystal dildo. BAHAHAHAHAHAHA.Blog posts I wrote in November:49 Inspiring & Interesting Things I’ve Found Online Lately This Frazzled Mum Life & An Anxiety Poster How to use Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) To Increase Your Sales How We Booked Out My Calendar With Podcast InterviewsI also did interviews with a bunch of podcasts:Unblock your Business Align & Attract Smiling Soul Overwhelm is Optional Connected Marketing Writing WombCurrent list of software I use to run my business:Kajabi for most things in my business:selling through their shopping cartteaching my courses through their learning management systemrunning my affiliate program ActiveCampaign to send all our marketing emails.Optin Monster to create all the pop-ups, reminder windows & lead magnet forms on my website.Calendly to screen interviewers and book in interviews.Xero is my accounting & financial management system.I host my WordPress websites on WPEngine.

More tools of the trade here if you find that kind of thing useful!

Current run down of what I offer in my business:

FREE GOODIES:

Daily-ish writings Weekly love letters Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised A library of free treasures

BOOKS:

Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!Calm Christmas Planner Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)

COURSES:

I earned a total of $178,778 this month.

Where that income came from:E-courses: $142,000Passive income business: $12,000Shares & Ethical Managed Funds: increased in value by $12,000 this monthGoal Getter planners: $8,200Investment property: $2,200Affiliate for Kajabi: $2,200Calm Christmas Planner on Etsy: $178E-course income breakdown:Work Less, Earn More: $76,775Sales Star: $20,79540 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course: $14,768Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income: $9,178Black Friday Bundle (a 4 e-course bundle): $7,820Marketing Without Social Media: $6,80240 Days To A Finished Book: $5,900Mini workshop: Behind The Scenes of A Multi-Millionaire’s Finances: $377Breakdown of workbooks:Digital Goal Getter planners: $5,200Printed Goal Getter planners: $3,000 (will be paid in a couple of months)

It’s interesting to me that the digital versions are so popular currently. I think because people know they can use and reuse over and over again each year now. Or maybe people are using their iPads and apps like Goodnotes to fill out PDFs? Or maybe people are hesitant to buy physical products at the moment because of supply chain issues? Not sure!

Where the sales came from:This month I launched Work Less, Earn More for the first time – thus why a high split of the sales going to that! Feedback on it has been really rad so far… so glad it’s out in the world!About $50,000 of my sales came from my Black Friday sale when I marked down 4 of my higher priced e-courses down to half price for 5 days. It went okay – not sure if I’ll do it again next year, or offer something different or not! Stay tuned!I’m no longer on social media for either my business or life, so nada from there! Hooray!the vast majority were, as always, people on my mailing list. It’s why I’ve ALWAYS taught to focus on building a mailing list over social media – you will earn SO much more money from them! Plus you OWN your access to them! If you need to learn how to write emails that sell $$$$, this course of mine is for you.about $13,000 of sales came from my affiliate program which pays you 50% for every enrolment you refer. I love sending this money out… it’s giving money to people who love my work & share about it with others. I’d much rather pay them than Facebook ads! Fuck that nonsense!Goals for December

I’ve decided to take December & January mostly off this year for the first time. I’ve already created a bunch of rad things to share with you during that time, so you’ll still get your regular dose of Leonie.

My goals for the next two months are to:

have a calm, connected Christmasenjoy the fuck out of our trips awayenjoy having my kidliwinks home from schoolhave some mini adventuresfill my well!

Thank you for sharing this journey with me! I’m so grateful!

FREE GOODIES:

Daily-ish writings Weekly love letters Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised A library of free treasures

BOOKS:

Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!Calm Christmas Planner Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)

COURSES:

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Published on December 07, 2021 16:13

December 6, 2021

50 Shades of Gender Podcast

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Baberinos!

Open your ears and your hearts loves, because I have a doozy of an interview to share with you today!

I sat down with Esther Lemmens on the 50 Shades of Gender podcast to talk all things gender, biz, the patriarchy and more.

Esther summarises it best:

Leonie is non-binary. We also talk about honouring the land we inhabit, the freedom that came from adding a ‘they’ pronoun while having a ‘she’ experience, being non-conforming in business, the importance of having open and honest money conversations, knowing who you are inside and standing for what you believe in, kicking the social media habit, and smashing the patriarchy by being more of yourself.

How bloody cool is that?

Ready to listen?

Click HERE to listen!

Love always,

FREE GOODIES:

Daily-ish writings Weekly love letters Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised A library of free treasures

BOOKS:

Goal Getter workbooks for 2022 & beyond!Calm Christmas Planner Salt: a hottttt romance novella (published under my pen name Lola Leigh)

COURSES:

Work Less, Earn More (STARTS NOVEMBER 19th)Behind The Scenes of a Multi-Millionaire’s Finances in 2021 (only $7!)Sales Star Marketing Without Social Media Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income 40 Days To A Finished Book 40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course

The post 50 Shades of Gender Podcast appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.

View more on Leonie Dawson's website »