June 3, 2024
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June 12, 2024
Business Model Design and Implementation
Build or redesign your independent business model and align your operations to achieve success and sustainability.
This sprint is exclusive to Pollen members.
For forward-looking independents
This sprint is for independents looking to build a new revenue stream or even getting strategic about your business for the first time. You’ll build a business canvas that identifies your strategic goals, priorities, aspirations, and constraints. Together, we’ll evaluate common business models available to independents, and design your value proposition and plan to bring it to life. By the end, you’ll have a completed strategy ready to execute and deliver sustainable growth.
June 3, 2024
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June 12, 2024
Sprint calendar
This sprint is designed to help you make fast progress through guided project work, interactive live sessions, and support from a vetted peer network.
June 3, 2024
Define Your Business Model Needs
Define how the business can support your personal needs and priorities while differentiating itself in the market. Determine the core competency, or 'X factor,' that sets your business apart.
June 5, 2024
Design your Sustainable Business Model
Select a suitable model for your business, articulating the core value proposition and how it fundamentally benefits others. Considering volume, capacity and market value, package your value proposition in a way that is marketable and sustainable.
June 10, 2024
Align Your Marketing, Sales, and Operational Strategies
Clarify your high-level marketing and sales needs to connect with the right people at the right time. Analyze your current operational systems to determine how your procedures and processes should adjust to support the business model.
June 12, 2024
Plan Your Short and Long-term Action Plans
Evaluate your go-forward business map as a whole, considering any contradictions and comparing it to your current business model. Design your short-term and long-term action plans to prepare for the changes you will need to make. Incorporate final strategies for planning a shift (big or small) in your business model.
What you'll take away
- Clear and sustainable business model
- Marketable and differentiated value proposition
- Obvious unfair advantage and unique selling point
- Articulated plan in place for the next 6-12 months that you're excited about
- Defined strategy for your business
Meet your sprint leader
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Apply to join the sprint
This sprint is available as a part of the Pollen membership. If accepted, you can access Austin’s sprint plus full membership benefits.
Apply to join Pollen
1
Get accepted via email
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Complete enrollment to join sprint
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Have a question?
Book a call with our team.Explore more Sprints
Take your consulting business to the next level
Pollen is a vetted membership community for top independent consultants. From urgent obstacles to long term goals, get quality guidance you can count on.
Learn moreAdvance your career, without the 9-5
"Pollen has been invaluable for me. The learnings, the community, the 1:1 introductions, and the skill sets available, are perfect. I’ve been able to create custom teams based on project needs."
Erich - Creative Lead
"I've already gotten a 300% return on my membership through work referrals, and I learn something new every week through the game changing experts and peers."
Evan - Marketing Operations
“Becoming a Pollen member has unlocked more in my business and myself than I could ever imagine.”
Melissa - Marketer, Editor, and Writer
“Pollen has directly resulted in high-quality and well-paying clients. They've made an intentional online space that gives me energy and doesn't bog me down.”
Rachel - Content Strategist
Wudan Yan
Writing and Podcasting
Wudan Yan is an award-winning journalist, podcast producer, and entrepreneur based in Seattle. She is the co-founder and CEO of The Writers' Co-op, a learning academy and online community for freelance creatives.
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Mike Vardy
Productivity
Mike Vardy is a productivity strategist, time management expert, and creator of the popular productivity site Productivityist.com. With over a decade of experience in the field, Mike has helped thousands of people worldwide optimize their productivity, creativity, and focus.
Austin Church
Brand and Business
Austin is a a brand consultant, writer, and freelance coach who helps freelancers get the best clients, make more money, and enjoy their freedom. Austin's goal is to help 1,000,000 freelancers make $100,000.
Kaitlyn Arford
Writing and Pitching
Kaitlyn is an award-winning freelance journalist who writes about pets and the people who love them. In between deadlines she shares resources and opportunities with freelancers. Learn more at kaitlynarford.com.
Kevon Cheung
Social Media
Kevon Cheung is an entrepreneur, author, and Build in Public coach. He founded Public Lab to help entrepreneurs cultivate a community around their work. Through actively showing his work-in-progress in public on Twitter, he built a voice and a business with tens of thousands of raving friends and fans.
Jenni Gritters
Mindset and Business
Jenni is a writer and business coach. She was originally trained as a journalist. Now, she coaches small business owners in the creative space, primarily freelancers and soloprenuers. Jenni is obsessed with building sustainable businesses that allow you to be a human first.
Matthew Fenton
Branding
Matthew Fenton has been an independent brand strategy consultant since 1997. He’s served brands like Fidelity Investments, Wrigley and Valvoline, and well as a number of challenger brands and niche leaders. He's also the founder of Winning Solo, where he shares what he’s learned about freelance longevity, balance and success.
Zulie Rane
Content and Blogging
Zulie Rane is a content creator, blogger, vlogger, and cat mom. She helps beginner writers make a living by writing about what they love. Whether it’s nabbing your first client, starting a blog, or finally figuring out SEO, she’s here to help.
Erin Booth
Productivity and Virtual Assistants
Erin is a virtual assistant and VA coach. She has helped over 35,000 students grow their own virtual assistant business through her one-on-one coaching, as well as her online courses. When Erin is not working, you'll find her on the hunt for the world's best cup of coffee.
Jamie Cox
Brand Strategy
Jamie is on a mission to make brands less boring. As a brand strategist and designer, she works with solopreneurs, founders, and entrepreneurs to help them identify their target audiences, size up their competition, and reenergize their businesses.
Dana Miranda
Finance
Dana is a financial educator, writer, author and founder of Healthy Rich, a platform for inclusive, budget-free financial education. She works with financial educators, coaches and advisors who want to question the status quo and have broader conversations about money with clients.
Michelle Jackson
Finance
Michelle is a multi-passionate content creator that creates content across personal finance, the outdoors, online brand building and the romance space. There is a common thread that weaves its way through all of the work that she does; a focus on access, equity and policy.
Natasha Tynes
Journalist
Natasha Tynes is a Jordanian-American author based in Washington, DC. She regularly contributes to several publications and her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Esquire, Aljazeera, among others. She hosts the podcast “Read and Write with Natasha,” where she discusses the art of writing and publishing.
Whitney Popa
Communications
Whitney is a professional communicator with over fifteen years of experience in writing, public relations, influencer marketing, and digital + social media. She has represented Xbox, Nordstrom, and Amazon.
Maya Kosoff
Newsletters
Maya Kosoff is a content strategist, writer and editor based in New York City. In her day job she is the Director of Content for Company Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, and she has freelanced for six years.
Ashley Simpo
Writing and Editing
Ashley is a freelance writer, children's book author and editor. Her work has been published by Essence, Huffington Post, Insider, Shondaland and Parents Magazine, and she has been profiled and featured in Marie Claire, Self, and The New York Times. Ashley has spent the last five years advising and mentoring new writers seeking to establish sustainable careers.
Treyton DeVore
Finance
Treyton is a creative entrepreneur, freelancer, and financial advisor. He was named a Top 100 Financial Advisor by Investopedia and has been featured in Morning Brew, Nerdwallet, and Marketwatch.
Stefan Palios
Entrepreneurship and Marketing
Stefan started freelancing by accident but fell in love with the ability to help multiple clients simultaneously and work independently. Half a decade later, he still maintains a roster of clients and also shares his experiences to help other freelancers build economic autonomy.
Ashley R. Cummings
Content Marketing
Since 2011, Ashley has been on her own as a freelance writer, developing a comprehensive understanding of content marketing, an even stronger command of the language, and a desire to help my clients crush their content marketing goals. Her work has appeared on sites like Insider, LinkedIn, Uber, Shopify, Salesforce, Hashtagpaid, and more.
What's included in the membership?
Pollen is the professional development membership that accelerates your independent career. As a part of your membership, you get access to the curriculum, community, mentors, and tools to help you build a successful and durable independent business.
Curriculum: Expert-led Sprints and Courses on the business side of building an independent career. From Growth Strategy, Brand Strategy, Quarterly Planning, Financial Projections and more. Sprints run on a monthly basis and help you make 6 months worth of progress in 10 days.
Community: Connect with vetted fellow independents through industry groups, community events, forums, and discussions. No spam or self-promotion is allowed.
Mentors: Get guidance and advice from Experts-in-Residence for Pricing, Legal, Brand, Sales, Client Experience and more. Join regular Q&A sessions, learn their frameworks, and get good advice.
Tools: Unlock a pricing database, over $200,000 in discounts to tools, community submitted templates and assets, customizable contracts ($3,000 value), and more.
What’s Pollen’s cancellation and refund policy?
You can cancel anytime, and if you’re not satisfied with your Pollen membership, we’ll honor a full refund within the first 30 days of your purchase.
What are the requirements for membership?
Pollen is a vetted professional development membership for experienced independent operators. Our members have built, scaled, and led companies across many industries and stages. They’ve now gone out on their own to provide consulting, advisory, fractional, and skilled services.
Their expertise focuses on Product, Growth, Marketing, Strategy, Operations, People / HR, Content, Design, or Finance.
Members have previously held senior level roles in their careers, which enables them to go independent. Titles may have included manager, director, senior, VP, department head, or chief level positions.
Now in their independent careers, they’re consultants, advisors, strategists, and business owners. Everyone has had at least a few clients and wants to build something durable — this is not for people who are "just curious" about independence.
The Pollen team reviews every application on an individual basis to determine fit based on experience and the needs of your business.
How much effort does this require?
We know you're busy. We also know that you take your business seriously and are committed to building something durable. Pollen is not a "just add water" solution. We'll go so far to say that all the gimmicks out there promising you instant success are just that — gimmicks. Pollen is here to accelerate your effort, intention, and time spent.
Think of your time in Pollen in 2 ways:
Become more efficient: 1-2 hours spent in Pollen replaces the 5-6 hours you might currently spend searching for the right information, building templates, creating strategies, asking for advice, or correcting mistakes.
Accelerate your progress: When you're in a sprint, expect to spend 2-4 hrs / week working on your business. People say they make 6 months worth of progress in 10 days. Sprints typically last 2 weeks and we recommend participating in 1-2 sprints / quarter.
Pollen is an ecosystem that allows you to get the right information at the right time so you can flex based on your needs. This is more reflective of the reality that your business and time ebbs and flows, and you don't have time for long courses or cohort programs.
Does Pollen offer individualized or group support?
Pollen is a social platform at its core — collective wisdom and multiple perspectives are essential to your success. Sprints, workshops, accountability groups, and the community are built to accelerate your business in a group setting. You can also receive 1:1 attention through regular Q&A sessions with Experts-in-Residence and building relationships within Pollen.
How is this different from other communities?
Pollen is far more than just a community. You get access to a dynamic curriculum, expert mentors, and exclusive tools that are supercharged by the community.
How does Pollen help me make more money?
If you're looking for a "just add water" solution or job marketplace that will hand you leads tomorrow, this isn't for you.
Pollen is for people who are strategically building their businesses to last. We give you the right frameworks, strategies, tools, and support system to help you do so.
Here are a few ways Pollen has unlocked growth for our members:
Building growth plans: Through the Growth Strategy, Brand Strategy, and Strategic Planning sprints, members have set big goals and hit them.
Improved pricing and pitching: Leveraging our pricing database, pricing EIR, pitching templates and sales workshops, some members have increased pricing by 4x and closed bigger clients.
Networking: Your network is your network. People build trusting relationships, work together, and exchange referrals.
New offerings: Members have changed their ICP, provided new offerings, and diversified their revenue streams based on the examples and feedback from Pollen.
Accountability groups: Members participate in support groups that exchange ideas, provide feedback, and make sure you hit your goals.
Are sprints included in the membership?
Yes! Pollen members get access to all the sprints when they're live. We also share recordings of past sprints.
How can I contact the Pollen team?
Get in touch at contact@runpollen.com.