As creatives and business people, we need constant and various streams of motivation. This can come from different sources such as magazines, documentaries, museum trips, blogs or one of my favorites, webinars. Last summer I started watching business webinars, and have come across so many different and amazing content creators. Some of these women continue to motivate and inspire me each day, so I consider them my mentors (even though I’ve never met them before!). Today I want to share with you my top four favorite content creators in the order that I found them, and explain what it was that each of them said that changed my business sense. The funny thing is that they all have names that begin with the letter M :)

1 / “Stop telling your audience to leave your website.”

- Mariah Coz, The Passive Income + Webinar Queen- www.femtrepreneur.co

Mariah is where it all started for me. I somehow landed on a website one day as I was randomly exploring the internet that was called Femtrepreneur. This immediately spoke to me because, well, I'm an entrepreneur and I'm a woman. Mariah has a free email course titled “Build a Profitable Blog”, so I signed up for it and was quickly blown away from the very first email when she said to stop taking people away from your website by including ads for other sites and instead put your own ads for your own products on your own website. My head went "boom". Though I never used outside ads on my previous blogs and actually did have my own ad in my sidebar, the reasoning behind it was nowhere near Mariah’s thoughts. Another thing that she said that blew me away was that you can sell online training courses, conduct webinars and teach people things covering any topic that you want. It wasn't the concept of training people as a business that struck me, but more so that I had already trained people virtually/remotely for free. Though the trainings weren’t in topics that interested me, I still had experience with the process. I just never put two and two together. Guys, all of this was realized just from her free content! I cannot tell you how much value Mariah provides. Just check her out because you will be floored. When I say that she is the passive income queen, I mean it. She has various training courses available to take all the time (evergreen content), and people sign up everyday. She also conducts amazing webinars on various topics such as building your email lists, creating online courses, finding your niche, etc. I have purchased from her before and was equally pleased with that content.

2 / “Answer simple questions.”

-Mattie James, The Collaboration + Consistency Queen- www.Mattieologie.com

I was on Facebook one day and happened to come across an ad for a free webinar called “Blog Better” that was listed in a Facebook group that I’m a member of. I decided to sign up because, hey, who couldn't use a few more tips on how to improve their blog? This webinar was conducted by Mattie James and was awesome! Mattie is a style blogger and has collaborated with a multitude of brands successfully. Because of this, she also teaches how to run your blog as the business that it can be, how to be consistent in your blog/biz and in life and how to approach brands for collaborations right down to the exact words that you should use in pitch emails. The thing that she said that stood out to me was that you can think of blog post topics by answering simple questions. Answering simple questions! The simple questions are the things that people want to know the most. No matter how small it may seem to you, someone is out there searching for answers. This can be tested on Google by typing in a few keywords in the search box and seeing what questions people are searching for based on the suggestions that appear. The concept of answering simple questions is also something that can be the foundation of an ECourse or other paid product. Answer a simple question in a blog post, but offer more in depth training/knowledge as a paid product. I have purchased from Mattie and was quite impressed and very pleased with what I received. She is an awesome blogger and business woman.

3 / “No one remembers average. Average is so forgettable.”

- Maya Elious, The Brand Strategy Queen- www.MayaElious.com

The funny thing about the internet is that you can find great content and people just by following a link or hearing a shout out that an amazing person provided on social media. Depending on who the shout out comes from, I’m going to check out the social account or website of their peer pretty much immediately because I trust their judgement. On one of Mariah's webinars last summer, she was doing a blog audit for someone named Maya and she also mentioned her name throughout the webinar. I was thinking to myself, “Who is this Maya chick? She must be about something because Mariah has mentioned her name on various webinars.” A few weeks later as I was watching a webinar that Mattie was conducting, she happened to mention the name Maya as well and said that she was helping her moderate the chat room. I realized soon after that this Maya person was the same one that Mariah was talking about. I had to visit her site and see what she was all about. Maya is a graphic and web designer turned Brand Strategist. One thing that she said that really stuck with me was that no one remembers average. Average is so forgettable. Wow, it's so true especially in this day and age where online businesses and blogs are popping up left and right. You have to think of a different approach to your blog/biz if you want to be and stay relevant. Oh, and a fun fact about Maya is that she is Mattie’s sister! Talk about creative genes!

4 / “Treat your Pinterest boards as an extension of your brand.”

- Melyssa Griffin, The Pinterest Queen- www.TheNectarCollective.com

As I was watching a webinar that Mariah was conducting (yes, ANOTHER Mariah webinar. I don't call her the webinar queen for nothing!), she was collaborating with someone named Melyssa Griffin. The webinar was about ways to grow your audience through Pinterest. Okay hold on...growing your audience through Pinterest? I used to pin things that I wanted to DIY, things that inspired me, recipes, beautiful rooms, etc. I also used to post my own content onto Pinterest linking back to my blog, but I never thought of doing this as a growth strategy. The key thing that Melissa said that really struck me was that you should treat your Pinterest boards as an extension of your brand. This means that the boards that contain pins strictly from your site should have branded/custom cover pages. This is a concept that I had never thought of but it makes perfect sense. It's always great to have various extensions of your brand across social media; it makes it easier to be remembered. Melyssa also teaches that your first board should be dedicated to all of your blog posts. Such a great piece of advice! This is a great way to drive traffic to your site. Example:

So there you have it, my four mentors (that have no clue that I exist, lol!) and the things that they said that changed my business sense. I would love to hear all about your favorite content creators and why you enjoy them so much!

Oh, by the way, I was not compensated to talk about these ladies. I genuinely love what they do and they have made a true impact on my life without even knowing it!

So now for the fun part...how about a free download of all four of these quotes to print out and hang somewhere in your work space to keep you motivated?