Grow Your Local Business

Have you ever offered someone your lowest-priced option because you figured they’d never go for the more expensive one?

In this episode, I’m sharing how deciding ahead of time what your clients can afford could be costing you the sale and costing them the result they came to you for. I’m also sharing the time a business owner recently talked me out of a big purchase I was ready to make... and what I want you doing instead.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• Why your clients’ resourcefulness is the first thing you take away when you decide for them
• The one rule I followed after every consult call, no matter how it went
• What to do (and what to stop doing) right after you tell someone your price

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

Most local service providers hear “Black Friday” and tune out because it feels too salesy and too retail. My guest today joined The Localpreneur Academy, skipped straight to the Black Friday bonus training and made $20,000 that weekend.

In this episode, I'm talking with Fernanda Vazquez, an image consultant in Brooklyn, about what she offered, how she prepared and why knowing her ideal client made it work. She also shares how she stands out in a city packed with other stylists and image consultants.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• What Fernanda did in the days before Black Friday so selling felt like serving
• How she stands out in New York City without trying to reach the whole city
• The one thing she says matters more than any strategy you'll find online

Mentioned in this episode:

• Follow Fernanda on Instagram @vazq_fernanda
• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

In this Most Valuable Podcast episode, I want to ask you something… Have you ever skipped a networking event, held back a post or passed on an opportunity because of a local competitor?

In this episode, I’m walking you through the 4 areas where I see local business owners making competitor-based decisions sometimes without even realizing it. And what those decisions are really costing you.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• The 4 areas where competitor-based decisions keep local business owners small
• Why holding back your content to protect your ideas costs more than it protects
• The worst thing that can actually happen when your competitor is in the room

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

Are you waiting on the website, the logo, the professional photos or the business cards before you really start marketing your business?

When you don’t have those things yet, it’s so easy to feel behind... like everyone else has a “real business” except you.

Or like it will be easier to get clients once you have these things.

In this episode, I’m talking to the local business owner who hasn’t set up all the things yet. I’m sharing why you’re allowed to start right now and why starting messy might actually help you build a better business faster than waiting ever could.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• The expensive way local business owners “set up” their business without ever actually marketing it
• What one of my students did when she didn’t have the photos, the branding or even know how to use Canva
• Why starting messy gives you something the perfect setup never will

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

This Most Valuable Podcast episode is a reminder that how you think about getting clients changes everything. If you’ve been waiting for local people to find you, posting inconsistently, or doing a lot of busy behind-the-scenes work without real results… this one’s for you.

Leslie breaks down the mindset shift from hoping to expecting—and what that shift looks like in your day-to-day marketing, energy, and actions.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The difference between passive marketing energy vs. confident, committed action
• Three common ways you show up in your business when you're hoping to get clients (and what to do about it)
• Why your brain resists showing up—and how to override it with belief and strategy

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

In this Most Valuable Podcast episode, you’ll see why social media captions are one of the most powerful tools you have for turning local followers into paying clients and how to make yours work harder for you.

Captions aren’t filler or an after thought. They’re how you get discovered, connect with your most ready-to-buy audience and move people to take action now. And yes, people ARE reading them - I have the data to prove it!

And when you know how to write them, every post becomes an opportunity to bring in your next client.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• How many people actually read your captions and why those are your most ready-to-buy followers
• 5 powerful jobs your captions can do to help you get found, build connection and convert followers into clients
• How to make your captions work for you even if you “don’t know what to say”

Mentioned in this episode:

• Mini Training: The Local Instagram Formula
• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

Being fully booked doesn’t automatically mean you’re making the money you want.

You can have a full calendar, plenty of demand and people ready to hire you… and still feel like you should be making a whole lot more for how busy you are. If that’s where you are in your business right now, there are a couple of things I see causing this over and over again with local service-based business owners.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• The two reasons you can be fully booked and still under-earning
• Why the things filling your calendar matter just as much as how full it is
• What has to change when you’re ready to make more without simply trying to squeeze more clients onto your calendar

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

How many decisions in your business are you making based on what everyone else in your industry is doing?

There are a lot of things local business owners treat like rules simply because “that’s how everyone does it.”

Pricing. Offers. Policies. Marketing. Even what they believe is possible in their city. In this episode, I’m challenging you to question all of it.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• Why the “industry standard” may be one of the biggest things keeping you from becoming the local go-to
• The problem with using what other businesses post, charge, sell, or achieve as evidence for what you should do
• The question I want you asking instead of, “What does everyone else in my industry do?”

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

Most business advice will tell you that before you create a new offer, service or product, you need to do some market research and ask your customers what they want.

I disagree.

Because the people telling you what they’d “totally buy” aren’t always the people who actually buy and listening to every request can quickly turn a simple business into a confusing mess. In this episode, I’m sharing why I think there’s a better way to decide what you sell... and what it requires you to believe about yourself first.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• The problem with letting your customers tell you what you should sell
• Why the thing your clients think they need may not be the thing that actually gets them the result
• The question I want you asking instead the next time you’re tempted to poll your audience

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

Have you ever looked at how much money your business is bringing in… and immediately discounted it because of how much you’ve spent? Somehow the website, software, marketing, coaching, equipment and support become evidence that you’re not actually doing as well as you thought.

But what if you’re looking at those expenses all wrong? In this episode, we’re talking about the difference between money you’ve spent and what that money has helped you BUILD... and why recognizing what you’ve already learned how to create might be one of the most important things you can do as you grow your business.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• The subtle ways business expenses can make you feel unsuccessful even when your business is actually growing
• Why focusing on what you’ve spent can keep you stuck in a cycle that makes it harder to create MORE
• A different way to evaluate your business expenses and what they’re actually helping you build

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

What if you didn’t have to wait until your business reached some imaginary finish line before you started living the life you’re building it for? In this episode, we’re talking about how to define your version of success, stop postponing the experiences you want and become the person who can hold both a growing business and a fulfilling life.

• How to identify the life you actually want your business to support—not the version of success you think you’re supposed to want
• Why the life you’re waiting for may be more available to you right now than you realize
• How to identify and solve for the beliefs, skills and systems you’ll need to build the life and business you want at the same time

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:
“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

When you’re learning something new in your local business like marketing on social media, selling, creating content, or pitching yourself, it’s easy to feel frustrated and want to quit when the results don’t come fast enough.

This episode unpacks what’s really going on in those moments and the three specific emotions you can lean into to keep going instead of quitting.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• The 3 emotions that keep you consistent and following through, even in the messy middle
• Why your brain defaults to quitting (and how to override it)
• What to do with emotions like frustration, doubt, and comparison

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

If you run a business that can work with people all over, but you're struggling to get clients, this Most Valuable Podcast (MVP) episode is for you!

Just because you can serve people anywhere, it doesn't mean it's the best place to START.

In today's episode, I'm breaking down why focusing locally first can help you get fully booked faster and actually give you the momentum you need to scale.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• Why focusing on your local clientele first gives you instant credibility, connection and clarity in your messaging
• How local referrals, relationships and visibility can fill your calendar faster than trying to market to the masses
• Why focusing on local isn't excluding anyone -- and how clients from other places can still find you

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following
• Ep #105: How Qianlei Built A Fully Booked Acupuncture Practice -- with a 3-month waitlist and 1 Million Instagram Followers

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

I’m bringing this episode back as one of my Most Valuable Podcast (MVP) episodes because it’s one of the most important questions you can ask when you feel stuck:

Do I need to learn a new skill or do I need to implement what I already know?

So many local business owners stay stuck because they lump every problem into “I don’t know what to do.”

But “I don’t know” usually keeps you spinning.

In this episode, I’m helping you troubleshoot what’s really going on when you’re not getting the clients, bookings, followers, consults, sales or the local visibility you want.

Sometimes you truly do have a skillset gap. You need to learn how to position yourself, grow a local audience, create better content or sell.

But sometimes you have an execution gap. You know enough to take the next step, but fear, perfectionism, confusion, comparison or doubt are keeping you from following through.

When you can tell the difference, business gets so much clearer. You stop grabbing random strategies and start solving the actual problem.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• How to diagnose whether your marketing problem is due to missing skillsets or implementation
• Why saying “I don’t know” keeps you stuck and what to ask yourself instead
• What to do when you do know what to do, but you’re not following through — and how to start taking action

Mentioned in this episode:

• Grab the mini training: The Local Instagram Formula
• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following
• Episode #99: How I Grew My Business by 200%

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

In this episode, I’m sharing something that might sound a little shocking: I’ve spent over six figures working with the same coach, in the same mastermind, over and over again. Not because I get new information and content every round. Not because I didn’t “get it” the first time.

But because I keep getting a return from the same process at a deeper and deeper level.

This episode is for the local business owner who is afraid to invest, the one who keeps investing in too many different things, and the one who has already invested in support but knows they haven’t fully applied what’s in front of them yet. I’m sharing how I think about ROI, why I believe constraint creates growth and what changes when you stop looking for the next new strategy and start becoming the kind of business owner who creates a return.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• Why most business owners don’t need more new information — they need to apply, evaluate and master the process they already have.
• How to think about ROI before you invest, including the questions I ask myself before making a high-level investment in my business.
• Why the same process can keep creating results at every level of business, and how investing can become a declaration of who you’re becoming.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

If you’ve ever felt like the hardest part of business isn’t always what to do every day, but it’s believing bigger results are actually possible for you... this episode is for you.

In today’s episode, I’m talking with my Localpreneur Academy student Maddy Memmer, the owner of Color Chroma in Austin, Texas, a color analysis and personal stying business.

Maddy is a former teacher who has spent the last few years building a business that has grown beyond what she once believed was available to her. In this conversation, we talk about the internal glass ceilings she had to break through, how her background shaped what she thought was realistic, and what it looked like to keep going even when her brain wanted to doubt the process. We also talk about what mindset work really is, why it matters so much in business and how learning to think more powerfully and intentionally helped her create a fully booked business.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The biggest belief shifts Maddy had to make as a former teacher stepping into entrepreneurship
• Why mindset work is about more than “thinking happy thoughts” and how intentional thinking changed how she showed up in her business
• How Maddy learned to keep going through doubt, emotional ups and downs, and the internal glass ceilings

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following
• Follow Maddy on Instagram at color.chroma.atx
• Visit Color Chroma's website

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

In this episode, I’m sharing a special announcement for local business owners who want the second half of 2026 to look completely different from the first.

I’m walking you through:

• The 5 essential skills every fully booked local business owner needs
• Why it’s never a mystery clients aren't coming in when you can bring your marketing back to a process
• Why I’m hosting a mid-year week-long virtual event (Fast Track Week) for the first time ever inside The Localpreneur Academy

FREE WORKSHOP:
Register for The Fully Booked Roadmap on June 22

FAST TRACK WEEK:
Join The Localpreneur Academy now and get your free virtual pass to Fast Track Week happening June 29 - July 3

You invested in the website. The branding. The business cards. The booking software. The supplies. The certifications that help you become excellent at what you do. You’ve spent so much time and money getting your local business ready for clients… but are you investing in the skillsets that actually get you clients?

In this episode, I’m sharing why marketing and selling are not just another business expense. They are the exact skills that make every other investment in your business start paying you back.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• Why getting your business ready for clients isn’t the same as actually getting clients
• The two most important skillsets that make every other investment in your business start paying you back
• How to avoid spending thousands of dollars on business investments that never get seen by locals you want to serve

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

Do you ever catch yourself waiting until you feel ready?

Ready to start. Ready to show up. Ready to sell. Ready to make the move. Ready for life to feel a little more stable before you really go for it.

In today’s episode, I’m talking with my Localpreneur Academy client Brittany Powell, a personal trainer and nutrition coach who built a 6-figure business from her garage without the perfect setup, Instgrammable background, or ideal circumstances.

Brittany shares how shutting down her gym during Covid — what could have felt like her biggest failure — actually opened the door to one of her biggest successes: building her online fitness app, growing a strong community and creating more freedom in both her business and her life. We also talk about why marketing locally first helped her gain traction, what it looked like to move her business into a whole new life chapter and why so much of growth comes from being willing to go before you feel fully ready.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• How Brittany turned the closure of her gym into the beginning of her online business and fitness movement
• Why marketing to women in her local community first helped her build trust, gain traction and get clients fast
• What building her business from her garage — and later from an RV in Colorado — taught her about starting before you feel ready and building a business around your real life

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following
• Follow Brittany on Facebook at Peak Performance Athletics
• Follow Brittany on Instagram at @brittpowellfit

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.

This week’s episode is a little different. I’m sharing a short coaching clip from inside The Localpreneur Academy, where one of my students asked a question so many local business owners have:

When is the best time to host a local event, workshop, or class?

Most people immediately think the answer is about choosing the right day or time based on their demographic or asking their audience what works best for their schedule. And while that advice can be helpful, I gave my students a different way to think about it.

I’m talking about why your event timing may not be the real problem, but instead how to think about creating demand for local workshops and classes, and why people will make time for something they actually want.

Tune into this episode to learn:

• Why deciding timeframes around your audience isn't always the answer
• What you're really selling when you host a workshop and class and why it's the exact reason they would change their plans and make special arrangements to be there
• Why stepping into your authority is key for selling local events

Mentioned in this episode:

• Work with me inside The Localpreneur Academy
• Follow me on Instagram @‌lesliepresnall
• Download my Free Guide: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

If you’re ready to grow your local business and bring in a steady stream of clients, you need to check out The Localpreneur Academy. Click here to join me inside.

Rate, Review & Follow:

“I LOVE listening to the episodes, especially since they’re focused on local businesses and it’s not just generic marketing advice.” If you love the show too, please leave a rating and review. This helps me reach more people just like you who want to reach more local people and create a business they love.