How to Protect and Grow Your Business in 2025

What's Next....

This is not a political post in the sense of talking about core beliefs, who voted for whom, etc. It’s a post sharing a blueprint for growing your business in the next 4 years with the headwinds that will be heading our way. In my personal finance brand I talk a lot about policy. One of the conversations that I was surprised not to see being had was how a new president’s policy will impact our digital businesses. Instead of getting deep in the weeds about that, that topic would be a podcast, instead I’m sharing what everyone needs to be doing to protect their work starting NOW. Here are 7 action items to get started on immediately and a couple of bonus actions.

Affiliate Disclosure

“In order for me to support this newsletter, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please note: As an Amazon Associate I may earn income from qualifying purchases that you may make if you interact with an Amazon Affiliate link associated with Creators Getting Paid”

Your Work Matters

One of the beautiful things about Creators Getting Paid is its amazing community. Many of you are designing impactful work and spaces that otherwise wouldn’t be served or seen. It is part of my mission to help you sustain this work through growing your income. With that mission in mind I have 7 action items that I will be focusing on personally and am sharing with you as we go into the New Year.

Action Item #1-Aggressively Grow Your Email List(s)

For those of you have received Creators Getting Paid for awhile now, you know that I’ve been talking about growing your email lists for awhile. There are a number of benefits to aggressively growing your list.

• Significantly higher earnings per lead-Every person on your list wears different “hats” in your business eco-system. They can be community members, brand advocates, prospects, guests, etc. Many of the products that I sell almost always happen off my list.

• The opportunity to communicate directly with your community members-I love that I can send out my newsletter or an email and I get responses right away. People will ask questions, agree or disagree with something I said and give me feedback.

• Wean yourself from algorithm dependency-About a month ago, I was talking to my friend Paulette Erato founder of the “Latinas in Podcasting” community and virtual summit. I said something in passing about becoming a social media free brand and she said “I already thought you did that?” Basically, I had divested myself and my brand off of social media to a degree where I’m no longer dependent on it and that was wild for me to consider.

Having an email list will protect the work and business that you’re building. This is your number one action item in 2025. Direct people to your list with helpful tools, short workshops, Q & A’s, etc.

And Send Emails

Seriously, you need to communicate with the amazing people on your list. We’re grown up and expect to be emailed if we shared our email address with you. It’s not a surprise if you send us an email.

Action Item #2-Set Aside a Day for Outbound Pitches

Every person that I know who focuses on a dedicated pitching day at least once a week has more work than they can handle. Period. These creators do not depend on in-bound leads only. Instead, they plant a lot of “business seeds” or leads and in taking this action aren’t just hoping for someone to reach out to them.

This is not the moment to hope for people to support what you’re doing.

Get in front of people so they know that they can work with you. If Justin Moore of Creator Wizard who is a multi-million dollar content creator sends outbound pitches, you can too.

Action Item #3-Be in Community

We need people. To talk to, to laugh with and to share ideas with. This past spring I ran a group coaching/mastermind group that was so helpful to me as well as to the wonderful ladies in the group. Building and growing an online brand is hard work. Doing it without a safe space to connect with other creators makes it even harder to do. You need people. You can start a free mastermind, join The Mint Collective (my group) when the doors open, attend a conference or local meetup. You need people. Why?

• Compliment each other’s work with the work that you do within your brand. For example:

  • Online authors and digital marketers are great collaborations.

  • Online content creators and online legal service experts-great compliments to the work that you’re doing.

  • Personal finance content creators and different platform experts

• Lead generation-The best business leads that I’ve gotten always have come from people that I know. Period.

Action Item #4-Evaluate How You Earn Money

Where are you actually making money in your brand? Are you as clear as you need to be about your business earnings? Build in a system to evaluate what is actually making you money and where you’re spending your efforts. Does it make sense? Do things align with your earnings goals and labor output?

Action Item #5-Double-Down on Your Money Makers

When COVID hit in 2020 I stopped writing romance novels. Could you blame me? I wasn’t feeling very creative at the time. Guess what I’m doing now? Writing romances again. Why? Because romance makes me good money when I’m “in the zone” Why fight it? Why are you fighting doubling down on making money easily in your business and removing what is difficult. You’ll grow your earnings and make your life easier.

Action Item #6-Money Strategies

There are a few things that we need to get real about and that’s our cash flow. Here are few steps that I strongly encourage you to take starting immediately.

• Increase your savings-If that means you also pick up a chill side-hustle (brand ambassador work, event or convention center work) do. Aggressively grow your savings starting now.

  • Review your monthly income, look at your expenses vs. income and make adjustments.

• Get your paperwork in order-Double-check everything and make sure you’re in good standing.

• Set a minimum monthly earnings goal-Exceed that goal. This goes back to the pitching for outbound leads.

• Ask yourself-Who are your big ticketed clients? Will they have money to hire you next year?

• Review your pricing-Do you have tiered pricing built into your business model?

• Diversify your income streams-This one takes time but is so important. Different items will sell depending on where a person is at in their personal journey, time of year or depending on some other random factor that may influence a spending decision. Meet people where they’re at within reason.

  • Free Content-This would be a newsletter, podcast or video content.

  • Low-Ticket Items-These could be e-books, newsletters, a mini-workshop

  • Mid-Priced Items-This could include an in-depth book, longer workshop, a course or conference, coaching

  • High Ticket Items-Courses, conferences, VIP experiences, Coaching, Consulting, Project development

Action Item #7-Sell Your Products

There’s creating products and then there’s actually selling your products. You have to sell what you’ve created. What is the point of creating products that you don’t sell? How to do this?

There are several ways to sell your products.

• Build out a launch sequence

• Create pre/mid or end rolls in your podcast content

• Share links in the description area of your YouTube videos.

• Leverage other people’s platforms (with permission)

• Sell via your emails and newsletters

• Embrace affiliate marketing when it makes sense

Bonus: Pay Attention and Reevaluate Social Media

For my American subscribers, I also want to strongly encourage you to pay attention. There will be a lot of changes as we head into this new administration and they may have a direct impact on the work that you’re doing.

Be vigilant.

I also want to encourage you to reevaluate the role of social media in your business. How are you marketing your brand? Are you on platforms that will suppress your content? How can you market your brand in different ways?

Some Marketing Suggestions

You can start working on these strategies today.

• Start a Podcast

• YouTube Channel

• Be a guest expert in other communities

• Public speaking gigs

  • Participate in a panel

  • Solo speaking gigs

  • Run sessions

  • Host workshops for ERG (Employee Resource Groups)

• Wear branded gear

• Focus on local media

• Collaborate with other creators

• Design unique and memorable content

• Join organizations that will elevate your brand

  • Local or national boards (I’m a Board member of a large local non-profit in Denver)

  • Speaking Organizations

  • Masterminds

• Pitch-Yes, I mentioned this before but I’m going to mention it again.

Earn That Money

No more playing around. I need you to earn income so that you can run self-sufficient brands that don’t rely on someone else to say “yes” to the work that you’re doing. Design, develop and sell products that are unique to the work that you’re doing.

I’m not just encouraging you to do this. I’m also telling myself.

Sending good vibes,

Michelle