I am delighted to share a conversation with Jill Stanton today. Jill and her husband Josh are exceptionally authentic throughout the branding on their businesses ScrewU and Screw The Nine To Five, and she really brings that authenticity to this conversation.
Jill and Josh Stanton started their first online business in 2012. They wanted to start a movement, but they didn’t have a lot of direction. They have done everything – blogs, podcasts, a Facebook group, videos, online courses – but they found it was important to trim the fat. It isn’t necessary for Jill and Josh to do all the things. They learned to focus on what they love doing, and go all in.
“We’ve been on this three year journey of figuring out what we do like, and cutting what we don’t, and creating a business that not only serves, but feels good to us.”
If you are interested in screwing the nine-to-five lifestyle, but you don’t know where to start, Jill has some tips. Start by doing a brain dump: figure out what you’re good at, what you’re skilled at, and what you enjoy doing. Identify the things that you are most drawn to and research them. Develop related skills, and try to identify a problem that you can solve.
“When you are first starting out, you don’t know what you don’t know.”
If you are having trouble coming up with something, ask your friends and pay attention to the things that people ask for your advice on. This might shine a light on the skills and knowledge you have that other people don’t.
One thing that Jill and Josh have learned about entrepreneurs is that many of the people building their business in the personal brand space go through a particular progression, and they created a model called Momentum Marketing. The model has five steps:
The Grind – Coming up with an idea, validating the idea, doing research, putting a plan in place, building a website, setting up social media, and creating any other assets that need to be prepared. The Hustle – Build visibility by creating consistent content each week, emailing your list regularly, joining communities, developing an offer, and forming relationships. It’s hard work, but you can’t skip it. The Engine – Creating sales funnels, running webinars, and other things that create consistent, sustainable monthly income. The Traffic – After you’re making a certain amount of revenue, start playing around with paid ads, hiring a team, and focusing on big picture growth. The Profit – You’re supervising launches, taking yourself out of the day-to-day aspects of your business, and focusing on the managerial aspects.Jill and Josh are currently overhauling their ScrewU course program to reflect the five stages of Momentum Marketing. The goal is to cut down on things that are overwhelming and give entrepreneurs only the things they need to focus on at each stage.
A huge aspect of Screw the Nine to Five is its community, which Jill and Josh put a lot of time into building. A lot of entrepreneurs want to create an active community, particularly on Facebook, but it’s not for everyone. Entrepreneurs first need to consider if their business needs an online community. Then they need to put in the work.
“If you’re not willing to show up every day, and really put that time and effort in to building that up, then I don’t even think you should start a community. In fact, I think if you’re not 100% devoted to giving those people your time, especially in the beginning, then you could have even more success showing up in other people’s communities.”
If you show up in a big way, and give more than you get, then you will provide value to the community and people will come to you. Jill manages and automates the posts she makes on social media with Meet Edgar.
If you do have a strong community, then you might be interested in hosting a retreat or live event in the future. Jill believes that, if you’re going to do a live event, you have to be very clear on the purpose of it. “When we had a clear purpose, everything flowed much easier.” Jill urges that you enlist some help, but she also warns that it’s still probably going to exhaust you.
Jill was a lot of fun to talk to. I’m really excited that she shared her tested strategies for starting an online business, building communities and digital marketing with the Bold Life Movement audience.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
If someone is interested in “screwing the nine-to-five” lifestyle, what are first steps that they can take? Inside the Screw community, what are some things that people can expect? What advice would Jill like to give people who want to start a community on Facebook? What are awesome tools that are integral to Screw The Nine To Five? If an entrepreneur is interesting in hosting a retreat or live event, does Jill have any lessons she has learned? Are there steps that Jill and Josh took to get so good at marketing their business?IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
Strategies for screwing the nine-to-five lifestyle How to start an online business using the Momentum Marketing model When it is appropriate to build an online community, and how to start building it Why authenticity is an important aspect of a brand Plus much more…DON’T STOP HERE…
Connect with Jill Stanton: Facebook Group | Instagram | Twitter Screw The Nine To Five ScrewU ADdicted: Lower Your Facebook Ad Spends & Increase Your Conversions