Launch Youniversity

Turning Good Intentions into Reality in Your Career, Business and Life

launching

094: Lauren Gall and Melanie Ammerman of VaVa Virtual Assistants on Why and When Solopreneurs Should Delegate and Invest In Their Businesses

by Leave a Comment

The Launch Youniversity Podcast
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
094: Lauren Gall and Melanie Ammerman of VaVa Virtual Assistants on Why and When Solopreneurs Should Delegate and Invest In Their Businesses
Loading
/

Summary:

For many launchers, what jumpstarts their visions is a problem to be solved, a community that needs caring for, or a desire for independence. No matter the size and scale of your vision — whether you desire to work for a large organization or imagine yourself as a craftsman who makes a difference on a smaller scale — it’s difficult, if not impossible, to make a difference alone.

Today, we hear from Lauren Gall and Melanie Ammerman, cofounders of VaVa Virtual Assistants, a virtual assistance firm that specializes in executive assistants, marketing and creative support for businesses. Together, they share their story about launching their business, what it means to be an owner and operator of a business (or solopreneur), and share telltale signs of when your business needs extra help.

Welcome to episode 94 of the Launch Youniversity Podcast.

Links + Resources:

VaVa Virtual Assistants | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Takeaways:

  • Know when it’s time to ask for help. You might be used to doing everything on your own, but it’s important for you to look for and acknowledge when you need to bring others on to your team to support you. How do you know when you need help? Do you often feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get things done? Do you often feel you’re at the end of your rope in terms of capacity? If so, then it’s time to delegate.
  • Build processes. There will come a time when you’ll need to delegate certain tasks if you want your business to grow. Start taking notes on the things you do repeatedly on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Repeated tasks are often those you can pass along to someone else to do.
  • Stay the course. Launching is hard, but remember what brought you here in the first place. View every challenge as an opportunity to help grow your business.

Thank you for listening to the Launch Youniversity Podcast! If you have a question that you want to be answered on the podcast… ask us here!

088: How To Use Real Time Storytelling To Promote Your Business

by Leave a Comment

The Launch Youniversity Podcast
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
088: How To Use Real Time Storytelling To Promote Your Business
Loading
/

Summary:

Behind every brand is a good story, and how well you tell that story is the difference between gaining influence and customers or stalling your brand’s growth potential. In today’s episode, host, Kevin Jennings, talks with Clark Campbell, founder of Social Lion, a company that provides real-time social media content for brands and live events. Clark shares how brands have the opportunity to start engaging their consumers in a more meaningful, purposeful way with the use of features such as Instagram Stories, Snapchat, and Facebook Live.

Welcome to episode 88 of the Launch Youniversity Podcast.

Links + Resources:

Social Lion

The Launch Loop ebook

The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

Real Time Summit

Three Takeaways:

  • Do your research. Take some time each day to watch the Instagram Stories of brands you admire. How are they telling their stories? What’s working well for them? What captured your attention? This is a learning process — make a list of the things they do well and the things they could change and then start adding these ideas to the way you tell your brand story.
  • Practice your storytelling. Choose a platform feature — whether Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, or Snapchat — and start sharing your story as it’s happening. Give your consumers a behind-the-scenes look about some element of your product or process or keep them in the loop during a live event.
  • Have a plan. Success is planned. If you’re going to be covering a live event, take a look at the activities, breakouts, and keynote speakers and decide whether you’re going to do a Facebook Live stream or snapshots of the day via Instagram or Snapchat. With a plan, you can have more thorough, thoughtful coverage.

Thank you for listening to the Launch Youniversity Podcast! If you have a question that you want to be answered on the podcast… ask us here!

 

071: Customer Experience, Culture and Scaling with Chicken Salad Chick’s Scott Deviney

by Leave a Comment

Chicken Salad Chick on the Launch Youniversity Podcast
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
071: Customer Experience, Culture and Scaling with Chicken Salad Chick's Scott Deviney
Loading
/

Summary:

Welcome to Episode 71 of The Launch Youniversity Podcast. On this episode, Kevin talks with Chicken Salad Chick CEO Scott Deviney. Chicken Salad Chick has grown remarkably under Scott’s leadership, and today he’s sharing his wisdom on culture, customer experience, scaling franchise locations and more. We hope you find Scott’s advice as fascinating and inspiring as we did.

Links + Resources:

Chicken Salad Chick

The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni

Elevator Pitch | Minimum words, Maximum results

Free Personal Brand Assessment

DISC Personality Assessment

Three Takeaways:

1. It’s not just about the product, it’s about the people and experience. 

Your product is important, but your product alone won’t keep you in business if your customers have a bad experience. Chicken Salad Chick isn’t successful just because they make great chicken salad (though, they do!). It’s also because they provide fresh food in a clean space with friendly and helpful team members.

2. Business mentors will show up at the right time. 

One of most-asked questions we get at Launch Youniversity is: How do I find a mentor? Mentors are incredibly important on the entrepreneur’s (lonely) journey. Scott’s advice is to stop stressing about when and how. Instead, focus on building genuine relationships with other business owners, entrepreneurs and members of your community. One day you’ll look up and realize you have several mentors in your corner.

3. Sales and growth don’t solve all your problems. 

Scott realized that in order for CSC to reach its full potential, they needed to focus on culture and hiring. To focus on culture and hiring, they needed to slow down on selling franchise locations for a season of time. If there are cracks in the foundation of your business, more sales might lead to more problems. You don’t need to slam on the breaks, but you can tap on them.

037: Life Lessons From Launching An Agency with Blake Howard of Matchstic

by Leave a Comment

Life Lessons From Launching An Agency with Blake Howard of Matchstic
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
037: Life Lessons From Launching An Agency with Blake Howard of Matchstic
Loading
/

Summary:

On today’s episode of the Launch Youniversity Podcast, David is sitting down with Blake Howard. Blake is a passionate entrepreneur and co-founder of Atlanta-based Matchstic, a brand identity firm. Blake is sharing his story on how he got started, how he built a thriving business and the lessons he learned along the way.

Welcome to episode 37 of the Launch Youniversity Podcast.

Links + Resources:

Matchstick

Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team by Alina Wheeler

Creative Mornings

Sid Mashburn on LYP Pt 1

Sid Mashburn Pt 2

Belay Solutions

Three Takeaways:

1. Find Your Genius.
This is something we say as often as we can on the podcast. Find your genius: the place where your talent and passion collide. Blake had a talent for art and a passion for business. This led him to graphic design, which was the first step in ultimately opening up his own branding agency, Matchstic

2. Let Tough Seasons Shape You.
Matchstic was hit hard in the 2008/2009 recession. They lost clients and had to make painful layoffs. They could have let the recession sink them, but they let their hard season refine them. It was in those times where they realized the need to find what they were the absolute best at and focus on it. That’s how they narrowed their focus on branding.

3. Perfect Your Pitch.
Blake told David that Launch Youniversity’s own Jeff Henderson gave him advice years ago on how to prepare and perfect a pitch: Problem, solution and action.

1.     Identify the problem you’re trying to solve

2.     Explain the solution

3.     Invite people to take action

If you’d like Jeff to dedicate a full podcast episode on perfecting your pitch, let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

023: Launching Advice You Can Use with Kenny and Elle Campbell

by Leave a Comment

Launching Advice You Can Use with Kenny and Elle Campbell
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
023: Launching Advice You Can Use with Kenny and Elle Campbell
Loading
/

Summary:

We are so happy to be joined by Kenny and Elle Campbell on today’s podcast. Not only are they the creators of the popular site, Stuff You Can Use, but they’re a major power couple when it comes to launching ideas and businesses. Kenny and Elle personify what we often say on this podcast: Don’t make people want things, make things people want.

Their empathetic and creative minds have led to countless business ideas and side projects and today they’re sharing their perspective on launching with us.

Welcome to episode 23 of the Launch Youniversity Podcast.

Links + Resources:

StuffYouCanUse.org

PHARISEES The Party Game

Elle on Twitter

Kenny on Instagram

Stuff You Can Use on Facebook

Three Takeaways:

1. Give ideas a chance.
Kenny and Elle are really great at doing something most launchers fear: Just put your work out there. Once they understand and imagine, they build a prototype and share it with others. Sometimes it’s validated and sometimes it’s not, but they give their ideas a chance and find what sticks.

2. It’s okay to let things go.
Timing is everything when it comes to launches. Maybe your idea is too early or too late to the marketplace. Maybe it’s the perfect time in the marketplace but not a good time for you in your personal life. Maybe it isn’t timing, it’s just not the idea or business that you’re meant to pursue. When this happens, Kenny tells us that one of the best things you can do is to move on as quickly as possible. The next idea for you to launch is waiting.

3. Ask yourself what you would want.
One of the reasons that Kenny and Elle’s ideas have been so successful is because they design products and services with empathy. They create things that they personally want to use. When you are creating with empathy, there will always be a market for your ideas.