Jim MacLeod has spent his career helping companies design effective and goal-oriented digital experiences. He did it as a freelancer, and he does it today as the VP of Marketing for Digital Experience and Design for EBSCO.  Now he is using that experience and wisdom to turn the traditional curated email newsletter on its head. We don't often think about design as an area ripe with differentiation possibilities for the curated newsletter, and yet Jim is proving that it absolutely can be. In this edition of 7-Figure Small, we dive into Jim's strategy with his Marketing Podcast Recap news ..read more

This week Jerod is joined by Scott Ellis and Wendi McGowan-Ellis, the husband-and-wife team that built one of the most successful hyperlocal websites of all time: Lifestyle Frisco.  And they’re not just 7-Figure Small powerhouses together, they’ve both launched impressive projects on their own as well – Wendi with a productized podcast and strategy service for successful female entrepreneurs, and Scott with a software product for doctors and his own newsletter for online entrepreneurs.  In this conversation, we get the background and lessons learned from these projects. We als ..read more

Kelly Berry is a serial entrepreneur whose list of credentials and accomplishments is impressive: She is the founder of ResourceAbility and Learn Start Grow, a trained and licensed CEO peer group facilitator, and was named Western Wisconsin Businesswoman of the Year in 2018. She’s also a mom of two kids — a role which turned out to be pivotal in convincing her to leave the corporate world to start her own online business for the freedom and flexibility she desired. (Sound familiar?) Kelly is a member of the Unemployable Initiative, our private community for freelancers and entrepreneurs who ..read more

Let's talk about CEX. Last week, Brian Clark and Joe Pulizzi announced that they are joining forces to host a first-of-its-kind event for creators and content entrepreneurs. It's called Creator Economy Expo (CEX), and it will take place May 2-4 at the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. This week on 7-Figure Small, Joe is back. You may recall his last appearance on the show, which included a discussion about his creator coin $TILT that helped spur us in a similar direction, launching $MOVE a couple months later.  In this episode, Joe and Brian share the story of how CEX came to b ..read more

When we think about and discuss the concept of being “unemployable,” it’s easy to conflate that with being alone.  Consider the title of Paul Jarvis’ seminal book on the subject: Company of One. Even the headline on the unemployable homepage right now – "No Investors, No Employees, Big Profits" – can be taken, at a quick glance, to suggest building on your own.  But the reality is that for the vast majority of unemployables, trying to navigate an increasingly complex web of tools, opportunities, and competition is more successfully done together than separately.  Whether it ..read more

We’ve spent a lot of time on the podcast over the last few months discussing the emergence of web 3.0. This includes analyzing the technologies that are enabling web 3.0 and analyzing what they mean for the future of audience building, community building, and the kind of content entrepreneurship and personal enterprise building that so many 7-Figure Small listeners are working toward. This week, Jerod shares some advice that will be useful to anyone involved in web 3.0, whether you’re just dabbling in it for the first time or already down the rabbit hole. In this episode, we present a serie ..read more

We launched the 7-Figure Small podcast last year as a natural evolution of the unemployable concept. The big idea, as stated right there in the podcast description, was to share compelling stories and actionable strategies for creative freelancers and entrepreneurs looking to live the "7-Figure Small" lifestyle. And we’ve done that.  But things in our world have changed quite a bit over the last 18-24 months, and that change has been reflected in the content here on the podcast. Web 3.0 has come hurtling down the tracks like a freight train, seeming to pick up speed every day as the to ..read more

We’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months discussing web 3.0, the emerging and converging technologies that are creating it, and how these trends will impact the strategies and tactics we choose as audience-building entrepreneurs. If you missed any of our recent podcasts episodes on web 3.0, make sure you to dip into the recent archive to get caught up. And if you want to go deeper on the keys to succeeding in the creator economy and web 3.0, go to futurefreedom.com and sign up for Brian Clark’s free email course, where you’ll get his latest thinking on how to build an exceptional b ..read more

What exactly is a “digital nomad?” Here’s one potential definition: Explorer, Traffic & Website Builder, Always Striving to Be & Do Better. Driven by continuous exploration. Personally, professionally, and as a full-time nomad. At home in Canada & the USA but consider myself a citizen of the world. That’s the headline and description from one of our member profiles inside of the Unemployable Initiative — a member who certainly considers herself to be a digital nomad. It’s a concept we’ve discussed here on the 7-Figure Small podcast. And we’ve certainly discussed it over at Futu ..read more

Jack Butcher is proof that new voices can come along and quickly build a 7-figure small business with an online audience. And then also parlay that initial success into the next iteration of their own personal enterprise. Of course, people only see the so-called “overnight success” and not the longer path that made it possible. Like so many others, Jack didn’t just jump into online courses. He paid his dues developing industry expertise, worked one-on-one with clients to test his ideas, and only then did he launch scalable courses that brought him over a million in revenue. And now, thanks ..read more